Model Of Threat Research Articles

Theoretical, Ethical, and Policy Considerations for Conducting Social–Psychological Interventions to Close Educational Achievement Gaps

AbstractSocial–psychological interventions in education have shown remarkable promise as brief, inexpensive, and powerful methods for improving educational equity and inclusion by helping underperforming students realize their potential. These findings have led to intensive study and replication attempts to understand and close achievement gaps at scale. In the present review, we identify several significant issues this work has raised that bear on the theoretical, ethical, and policy implications of using these interventions to close achievement gaps. Using both classic and contemporary models of threat and performance, we propose a Zone Model of Threat to predict when social–psychological interventions in education may yield positive, null, and negative effects for specific students. From this analysis, we argue from an ethical standpoint that to reduce backfire effects, interventions should be focused on optimizing the salience of psychological threat across students rather than on uniformly reducing it. As a long‐term policy goal, intervention studies should follow a two‐step process, in which students’ individual levels of threat are first diagnosed and then interventions are tailored to the students based on their threat levels. Practical and theoretical implications of the proposed framework are discussed.

Social challenge and threat predict performance and cardiovascular responses during competitive video gaming

Individuals tend to compare themselves with others, and the results of these self-evaluations influence subsequent performance. When individuals perceive an advantage over their rivals (challenge-type response), they achieve higher levels of performance. According to the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat, benefits of favourable appraisals are partly mediated by cardiovascular efficiency, which is increased by challenge and decreased by threat evaluations. In this study, we tested whether the biopsychosocial model can be extended to predict behavioural outcomes in esports. We expected that challenge-type evaluations would increase performance compared to threat-type evaluations. Eighty-two men were assigned to a challenge or threat group and completed three rounds of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – a video game popular in esports. Individuals with the highest scores were awarded cash prizes. Cardiovascular markers of challenge and threat, cognitive appraisals, and game scores were recorded. We manipulated the social challenge and social threat evaluation by informing participants that their performance in the initial round was superior (challenge) or inferior (threat) compared with other gamers. We found that individuals with more gaming experience, believed they were better than other gamers, had higher heart rate and, in turn, achieved higher scores. These effects were related to initial situational appraisal at the baseline and were not boosted by feedback provided during the actual performance. These results are the first to document that social comparisons among gamers are accurate in the prediction of future physiological and behavioural outcomes. Furthermore, these findings emphasize that physiological responses mediate relationships between action-related cognitions and performance.

It's a challenge! Empathizing with sad but not with angry individuals results in cardiovascular reactivity consistent with a challenge motivational state.

The question of what feeling with another person elicits in the empathizing individual has instigated innumerable studies mainly focusing on the affective valence of empathy and the resulting consequences for prosocial behavior (cf. the empathy-altruism debate). The present research may contribute to this long-lasting debate by examining the cardiovascular reactivity of the empathizing individual. To that effect, the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat (Blascovich & Tomaka, 1996) was applied and impedance cardiography was implemented while individuals were instructed to feel with a target person who reacted differently to a need-causing event (with anger vs. sadness). Thereby, it is possible to test whether empathizers process coping-related cues when feeling with a target person in need. Results of one experiment (N = 160 women) revealed that empathizing with a sad (vs. an angry) target results in cardiovascular reactivity consistent with relative challenge-an energy-mobilizing state associated with relatively high resources. These findings suggest that coping-related appraisal processes influence how the empathizing individual reacts in terms of cardiovascular reactivity. This, in turn, provides novel insights regarding the affective-motivational outcomes of empathy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Understanding Police Performance Under Stress: Insights From the Biopsychosocial Model of Challenge and Threat.

We examine when and how police officers may avoid costly errors under stress by leveraging theoretical and empirical work on the biopsychosocial (BPS) model of challenge and threat. According to the BPS model, in motivated performance contexts (e.g., test taking, athletics), the evaluation of situational and task demands in relation to one’s perceived resources available to cope with those demands engenders distinct patterns of peripheral physiological responding. Individuals experience more challenge-like states in which blood circulates more efficiently in the periphery when they evaluate their coping resources as meeting or exceeding the task demands. Conversely, individuals experience more threat-like states in which blood circulates less efficiently in the periphery when they view the situation or task demands as exceeding their coping resources. Patterns of response consistent with challenge and threat states have been shown to predict important performance and decision-making outcomes in stressful contexts, and repeated experiences of threat-like patterns of physiological activity are thought to have detrimental effects on long-term cardiovascular health. To date, however, research has not used the biopsychosocial model to understand police decision-making under stress. Here, we review relevant empirical work from the perspective of the BPS model concerning how minority status and power can shape challenge and threat responding and contribute to decision-making under stress. We then detail a research agenda aimed at improving the translational value of research being conducted within the BPS model for understanding complex performance and decision-making in the real world, including among law enforcement personnel.

Challenge and Threat: A Critical Review of the Literature and an Alternative Conceptualization.

In this article, the authors describe a new theory, the Evaluative Space Approach to Challenge and Threat (ESACT). Prompted by the Biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat (BPS: Blascovich and Tomaka, 1996) and the development of the Theory of Challenge and Threat States in Athletes (Jones et al., 2009), recent years have witnessed a considerable increase in research examining challenge and threat in sport. This manuscript provides a critical review of the literature examining challenge and threat in sport, tracing its historical development and some of the current empirical ambiguities. To reconcile some of these ambiguities, and utilizing neurobiological evidence associated with approach and avoidance motivation (c.f. Elliot and Covington, 2001), this paper draws upon the Evaluative Space Model (ESM; Cacioppo et al., 1997) and considers the implications for understanding challenge and threat in sport. For example, rather than see challenge and threat as opposite ends of a single bipolar continuum, the ESM implies that individuals could be (1) challenged, (2) threatened, (3) challenged and threatened, or (4) neither challenged or threatened by a particular stimulus. From this perspective, it could be argued that the appraisal of some sport situations as both challenging and threatening could be advantageous, whereas the current literature seems to imply that the appraisal of stress as a threat is maladaptive for performance. The ESACT provides several testable hypotheses for advancing understanding of challenge and threat (in sport) and we describe a number of measures that can be used to examine these hypotheses. In sum, this paper provides a significant theoretical, empirical, and practical contribution to our understanding of challenge and threat (in sport).

What is threatening about refugees? Identifying different types of threat and their association with emotional responses and attitudes towards refugee migration

AbstractThreat is one of the most important predictors for attitudes towards refugees and migration. The current research addresses the role of different threat types and emotional reactions in the context of refugee migration with a multi‐method approach. Using qualitative (Study 1, N = 202) and quantitative (Studies 2–4, N = 873) methods, we identified six types of threat that majority group members in Germany experience in the face of refugee migration: Concerns about cultural differences (symbolic threat), financial strain (realistic threat), criminal acts (safety threat), conflicts within society (cohesion threat), increasing xenophobia (prejudice threat), and refugee care (altruistic threat). All these threat types elicited negative emotions and were associated with negative attitudes towards refugees and support for restrictive migration policies. Paradoxically, concerns about refugee care predicted support for restrictive migration policies particularly well (altruistic threat paradox), which can be explained by a lack of emotional responses to this type of threat. Based on these findings, we propose a bidirectional model of intergroup threat.

DOES IT HELP SMOKERS IF WE STIGMATIZE THEM? A TEST OF THE STIGMA-INDUCED IDENTITY THREAT MODEL AMONG U.S. AND DANISH SMOKERS.

Research shows that smokers feel stigmatized, but does stigmatizing smokers do more harm than good? The model of stigma-induced identity threat was used to experimentally examine how U.S. and Danish smokers respond to stigma-relevant cues. Heavy smokers (112 Americans, 112 Danes) smoked a cigarette while giving a speech that was either video (stigma-visible condition) or audio recorded (stigma-concealed condition). Smokers high in self-concept reacted to the stigma-visible (as opposed to the stigma-concealed) condition with greater physiological reactivity (b = -2.80, p = .05), cognitive depletion (U.S. smokers, b = -0.06, p = .11), self-exempting beliefs (b = 0.32, p < .001), and less interest in stopping smoking (b = 0.28, p = .02). Thus, stigmatization led smokers toward emotional, cognitive, and attitudinal reactions that might make them less likely to quit. Future research should examine when smokers respond to stigmatization by quitting rather than with resistance or indifference.

Video Games and Stress: How Stress Appraisals and Game Content Affect Cardiovascular and Emotion Outcomes.

Although previous studies have found that video games induce stress, studies have not typically measured all salient indicators of stress responses including stress appraisals, cardiovascular indicators, and emotion outcomes. The current study used the Biopsychosocial Model of Challenge and Threat (Blascovich and Tomaka, 1996) to determine if video games induce a cardiovascular stress response by comparing the effects of threat and challenge appraisals across two types of video games that have shown different cardiovascular outcomes. Participants received challenge or threat appraisal instructions, and played a fighting game (Mortal Kombat) or a puzzle game (Tetris). Study outcomes were heart rate variability, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and positive and negative emotion ratings measured before, during and after gameplay. Results indicated that threat appraisal instructions increased negative emotion ratings and decreased heart rate variability, but not blood pressure, which is an essential marker for cardiovascular stress responses. Increased blood pressure and decreased heart rate variability was associated with fighting game players when compared with the puzzle game players, indicating a cardiovascular stress response; however, fighting game players also reported higher positive emotion ratings. Based on the study findings, video games do not induce stress responses like mental stressors used in previous research, demonstrating that the interactive player experience in video gaming may have more complex effects on stress outcomes. Future research should comprehensively measure biopsychosocial stress indicators and multiple emotional states over time to fully examine the relationship between video games and stress.

Emotion Regulation in the Prisoner's Dilemma: Effects of Reappraisal on Behavioral Measures and Cardiovascular Measures of Challenge and Threat.

The current study examines cooperation and cardiovascular responses in individuals that were defected on by their opponent in the first round of an iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma. In this scenario, participants were either primed with the emotion regulation strategy of reappraisal or no emotion regulation strategy, and their opponent either expressed an amused smile or a polite smile after the results were presented. We found that cooperation behavior decreased in the no emotion regulation group when the opponent expressed an amused smile compared to a polite smile. In the cardiovascular measures, we found significant differences between the emotion regulation conditions using the biopsychosocial (BPS) model of challenge and threat. However, the cardiovascular measures of participants instructed with the reappraisal strategy were only weakly comparable with a threat state of the BPS model, which involves decreased blood flow and perception of greater task demands than resources to cope with those demands. Conversely, the cardiovascular measures of participants without an emotion regulation were only weakly comparable with a challenge state of the BPS model, which involves increased blood flow and perception of having enough or more resources to cope with task demands.

The source model of group threat: Responding to internal and external threats.

We introduce a model of group threat that articulates the opposing effects of intergroup (between-groups) and intragroup (within-group) threat on identity processes and group relations. The source model of group threat argues that the perceived source of a threat is critical in predicting its consequences, such that perceptions of intergroup threat will strengthen (in)group identity processes and relations, whereas perceptions of intragroup threat has the potential to undermine the same. In addition to reviewing the large literature on intergroup threat and a smaller body of unsynthesized work on intragroup threat, we discuss how these processes are captured in representations of monsters (aliens, vampires, and zombies) in popular media and how these ideas can inform interpretation of current political debates, such as those around homegrown terrorism. This model provides a novel summary of the core effects of intergroup and intragroup threat, generating testable hypotheses about the psychological effects of different types of threat. Applying this model will help to make sense of seemingly contradictory findings in the literature, illustrating how appraisal of a threat as originating from an intergroup or intragroup source has the capacity to change the group-based effects of that threat. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Tyrosine intake and cardiovascular responses in a motivated performance situation.

Ingesting the catecholamine precursor tyrosine can prevent decrements in, or improve, cognitive and motor performance in demanding situations. Furthermore, the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat specifies that adrenal medullary catecholamine release plays a central role in the occurrence of a challenge state, which has been linked to better performance under pressure than a threat state. The present study thus examined whether acute tyrosine intake impacts upon challenge and threat states or influences cognitive and motor performance independently. A double-blind randomised crossover design with 49 participants (33 males; µage = 22.5 years, SD = 5.0) was used. Participants ingested tyrosine or placebo (150mg/kg body mass) 60 minutes before performing the N-Back task and a bean-bag throwing task. Cognitive self-reports and cardiovascular data before each task provided indicators of challenge and threat states. There were no significant differences between tyrosine and placebo on the cognitive and cardiovascular challenge and threat variables. Generalised Estimating Equations analyses found that tyrosine was associated with better performance than placebo on the bean-bag throwing task, but not on the N-Back task. A significant interaction effect showed that challenge and threat states were more positively related to performance in the placebo condition than in the tyrosine condition. This suggests that tyrosine may have attenuated the detrimental effect of a threat state. The present study breaks new ground in relating the impact of a dietary supplement to challenge and threat states and finding that tyrosine may in some cases attenuate the negative effects of a threat state.

The model of threat of national security

The model of threat of national security

A Comparison of Game-Theoretic Models for Parallel Trade

Within the EU Single Market for medicines, differences in drug prices, regulations, and transaction costs may create, under suitable conditions, arbitrage opportunities well before patent expiration, giving an incentive to the occurrence of parallel trade. When this is permitted, parallel traders may obtain a profit from buying drugs in a country where prices are lower, then re-selling them in a country where prices are higher. This phenomenon may cause inefficiencies from a global welfare perspective, and reduce the manufacturers’ incentive to invest in Research and Development (R &amp; D). Given this framework, in this paper, we investigate the efficiency (expressed in terms of the price of anarchy) of the subgame-perfect Nash equilibria associated with five dynamic noncooperative game-theoretic models for the parallel trade of pharmaceuticals. We also compare such models with regard to the manufacturer’s incentive to invest in R &amp; D. More specifically, first we find in closed form the optimal value of the global welfare of two countries, which is obtained by solving a suitable quadratic optimization problem modeling the decision-making process of a global planner. Then, we use such a result to evaluate and compare the prices of anarchy of five games modeling the interaction between a manufacturer in the first country and a potential parallel trader in the second country. The first three games refer, respectively, to the cases of no parallel trade threat, parallel trade threat, and parallel trade occurrence at equilibrium. Then, we investigate two modifications of the third game, in which its transfer payment from the potential parallel trader to the manufacturer is, respectively, removed/determined by Nash bargaining. For completeness, we also consider a decision-theoretic model of no parallel trade threat. For what concerns the incentive for the manufacturer to invest in R &amp; D, the results of our numerical comparison show that the decision-theoretic model of no parallel trade threat is always the one with the highest incentive, whereas the two game-theoretic models of parallel trade threat/occurrence that do not include the transfer payment provide typically the lowest incentives. Moreover, the latter two models have the highest prices of anarchy (i.e., their equilibria have the lowest efficiencies). From a policy-making perspective, improvements are obtained if suitable countermeasures are taken to help the manufacturer recover from the costs of R &amp; D, such as the inclusion of a transfer payment in the model.

An Entity Theory of Intelligence Predicts Higher Cortisol Levels When High School Grades Are Declining.

Grades often decline during the high school transition, creating stress. The present research integrates the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat with the implicit theories model to understand who shows maladaptive stress responses. A diary study measured declines in grades in the first few months of high school: salivary cortisol (N=360 students, N=3,045 observations) and daily stress appraisals (N=499 students, N=3,854 observations). Students who reported an entity theory of intelligence (i.e., the belief that intelligence is fixed) showed higher cortisol when grades were declining. Moreover, daily academic stressors showed a different lingering effect on the next day's cortisol for those with different implicit theories. Findings support a process model through which beliefs affect biological stress responses during difficult adolescent transitions.

Heart Rate Variability Moderates Challenge and Threat Reactivity to Sexism Among Women in STEM

Abstract. Using a biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat, we tested resting heart rate variability (HRV) as a moderator of physiological reactivity after experiencing sexism. Women science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors participated in a mock interview in which the male interviewer made a sexist or neutral comment. Resting HRV moderated physiological stress reactivity among women in the sexism condition, but not control, indicating lower resting HRV predicted greater physiological threat than challenge and higher resting HRV predicted greater physiological challenge than threat during the interview. These findings support the emotion regulation properties of HRV as applied to a biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat. Higher resting HRV may be adaptive for women experiencing sexism in male-dominated contexts like STEM.

Сybernetic model of the advanced persisten threat

Широкомасштабное применение сложных кибератак типа APT относительно критической инфраструктуры стало мощным стимулом для развития методов проактивной киберзащиты. Характерным для APTs является сложный набор взаимосвязанных по времени и пространству действий злоумышленника. Отдельно действия могут не вызывать подозрений; целевая акция атаки в киберсегменте объекта-жертвы готовится длительное время (от нескольких месяцев до года и более); совокупность действий злоумышленника – это цепочка тактик, выполнение которых позволяет достичь цели атаки. Средства реализации тактик – разнообразны. Набор тактик и их сущность остаются постоянными. Большинство известных моделей APT атак представлены в виде вербального описания этапов APT и их смыслового содержания. Недостаток таких моделей – невозможность прямого применения в SIEM-за отсутствия общей основы для алгоритмизации действий в рамках этапов атаки. В основе другой группы моделей разные математические конструкции, позволяющие представить масштабные действия злоумышленника в виде одного сложного математического процесса. Как правило, такие модели сложно связывать с технологическими процессами мониторинга событий в реальном времени. С позиций автоматизации процессов обнаружения атак в первую очередь стоит задача разработки таких моделей APT, которые позволяют алгоритмизировать процесс формирования индикаторов безопасности на основе аргументированной корреляции событий по времени и пространству. Статья посвящена разработке новой модели APT на основе кибернетического подхода. Сущность подхода – относительно компьютеров организации-жертвы злоумышленник регулярно выполняет действия из цикла управления. Это позволяет представить APT атаку в виде траектории поведения управляемой (кибернетической) системы. В рамках модели поведение кибернетической системы злоумышленника была представлено через математическое описание информационных процессов управления и итеративную взаимосвязь между смежными фазами (состояниями) кибернетической системы. Такой подход позволяет в рамках иерархической структуры модели: вербальным этапам атаки поставить в соответствие набор фаз кибернетической системы злоумышленника; каждой фазе поставить в соответствие элементарные события в киберсегменте организации-жертвы, которые могут определяться сенсорами безопасности. Модель позволяет представить каждую атаку в виде набора взаимосвязанных характеристик элементарных событий на узлах компьютерной сети. Такой набор (шаблон APT) может быть применен в рамках автоматизированного детектирования атаки средствами SIEM в системах проактивной киберзащиты.

Chronic Stereotype Threat Is Associated With Mathematical Achievement on Representative Sample of Secondary Schoolgirls: The Role of Gender Identification, Working Memory, and Intellectual Helplessness.

Stereotype threat affects performance in many different groups across many different domains. Despite a large body of experimental research on situational stereotype threat, little attention has been paid to the consequences of repeated experience of stereotype threat. Using structural equation modeling on data from a representative sample of girls from secondary schools, the current research examined the relations of chronic stereotype threat with mathematical achievement, and effectiveness of working memory functions. Moving beyond past theory, this study examined a new mechanism by which chronic stereotype threat decreases school achievement – namely intellectual helplessness. We assumed that repeated experience of stereotype threat works as intellectual helplessness training. After the phase of cognitive mobilization, cognitive exhaustion appears, because the individual has no gain from intense cognitive effort. Corroborating previous research on acute stereotype threat, we demonstrated that chronic stereotype threat is negatively associated with mathematical achievement. Additionally, it was also associated with lower effectiveness of working memory functions, which seems to show depletion of working memory as an effect of chronic stereotype threat. The results also demonstrated that both mediational paths from chronic stereotype threat to mathematical achievement: through working memory depletion and through intellectual helplessness were significant but only for girls that were highly identified with their gender group. In sum, we extended a well-established model of acute stereotype threat to its chronic version and suggested a new mechanism of chronic stereotype threat, which involves intellectual helplessness. Implications for stereotype threat theory and educational practice are discussed.

The Unexpected Relationship Between Retrieval Demands and Memory Performance When Older Adults Are Faced With Age-Related Stereotypes.

In two studies, we examined the effects of age-related stereotype threat on eyewitness memory using the misinformation paradigm to (a) examine stereotype threat in the context of a more ecologically valid memory task and (b) to determine the relationship between task difficulty and susceptibility to stereotype threat. After watching a video that depicted a crime, older and younger adult participants were presented with a written synopsis in which information consistent or inconsistent with the original event was presented. Half of the participants were then presented with information designed to activate negative stereotypes about aging. Finally, participants completed a memory test. In Study 1, when participants were instructed to report information from either the video or the synopsis to complete the final memory test, older adults under high stereotype threat were less accurate than those under low threat. In Study 2, when participants were required to engage in more controlled processes at retrieval and respond with only video information, older adults under stereotype threat performed as well or better than those under low threat. The results are consistent with the Regulatory Focus Model of Stereotype Threat.

Author Reply: Arousal Reappraisal as an Affect Regulation Strategy.

The biopsychosocial (BPS) model of challenge and threat posits that resource and demand appraisals interact in situations of acute stress to determine affective responses, and concomitant physiological responses, motivation, and decisions/behaviors. Regulatory approaches that alter appraisals to regulate challenge and threat affective states have the potential to facilitate coping. This reply clarifies the conceptualization of one such regulatory approach, arousal (or stress) reappraisal, and suggests avenues for future research. However, it is important to note that arousal reappraisal (or any brief psychological intervention) is not a "silver bullet" for improving stress outcomes, nor should this strategy be expected to positively impact all individuals. More work is needed to better elucidate how psychological and biological stress processes interact to shape health.

Comment: Well-Being Can Improve Health by Shaping Stress Appraisals

In this brief comment, we bring together two articles that appear in this special section. Jamieson et al. provide an overview of the biopsychosocial model of threat and challenge and suggest that stress-related arousal can be reappraised as a coping resource to facilitate challenge appraisals. Hernandez et al. review evidence for the link between well-being and health. We see a connection between these seemingly unrelated reviews: Well-being may improve health in part by shaping appraisals of stressors’ demands and appraisals of coping resources.