Trait-like Tendency Research Articles

Neurocognitive mechanisms of emotion-related impulsivity: The role of arousal.

Prior research suggests that a traitlike tendency to experience impulsivity during states of high emotion is robustly associated with many forms of psychopathology. Several studies tie emotion-related impulsivity to response inhibition deficits, but these studies have not focused on the role of emotion or arousal within subjects. The present study tested whether arousal, measured by pupil dilation, amplifies deficits in response inhibition for those high in emotion-related impulsivity. Participants (N=85) completed a measure of emotion-related impulsivity, underwent a positive mood induction procedure that reduced heterogeneity in mood states, and completed a response inhibition task. Pupil dilation was used to index arousal during the response inhibition task. Generalized linear mixed effect modeling yielded the hypothesized interaction between arousal (pupil dilation) and emotion-related impulsivity in predicting response inhibition performance at the trial level. Emotion-related impulsivity relates to more difficulties with response inhibition during moments of high arousal.

Honesty in psychotherapy: Results of an online survey comparing high vs. low self-concealers

Objectives: This study sought to investigate client dishonesty in psychotherapy through the trait of self-concealment. We hypothesized that comparing low and high self-concealers would yield clinically significant differences in the nature, motives, and perceived consequences of client dishonesty. Method: A total of 572 respondents, self-reported as psychotherapy clients, reported about their experience of being dishonest in therapy via a multi-part online survey. Concealment status was assessed using the Self-Concealment to Therapist Scale, an adaptation of the Self-Concealment Scale. Results: Eighty-four percent of respondents reported having been dishonest about one or more topics in therapy, most often “details of my sex life” and “suicidal thoughts.” High self-concealers reported more relationally oriented motives for dishonesty and acknowledged more negative effects on therapy than low self-concealers. In contrast, low self-concealers were more likely to report that non-disclosure was based on motives of practicality (e.g., managing therapy time), and that they would be willing to disclose if the therapist asked directly. Conclusions: Low and high self-concealers showed distinct patterns of motives, perceived consequences, and attitudes about facilitating disclosure in therapy. This suggests that self-concealment may be an important variable in tailoring treatment to foster greater and more honest disclosure. Clinical or Methodological Significance of this article: This article adds to the burgeoning literature on dishonesty in psychotherapy and presents a novel exploration of how self-concealment can be used to individually tailor treatment to facilitate increased levels of honest disclosure. High levels of self-concealment, or the trait-like tendency to conceal negative or distressing personal information from others, have been associated with deleterious long-term health and interpersonal effects. By exploring clients’ motives for being dishonest, as well as their perception of how it impacted therapy and their self-identified techniques for how therapists can foster more honest, we provide specific clinical recommendations to increase disclosure in psychotherapy.

Frontal brain asymmetry, childhood maltreatment, and low-grade inflammation at midlife

Frontal EEG asymmetry is thought to reflect variations in affective style, such that greater relative right frontal activity at rest predicts enhanced emotional responding to threatening or negative stimuli, and risk of depression and anxiety disorders. A diathesis-stress model has been proposed to explain how this neuro-affective style might predispose to psychopathology, with greater right frontal activity being a vulnerability factor especially under stressful conditions. Less is known about the extent to which greater relative right frontal activity at rest might be associated with or be a diathesis for deleterious physical health outcomes. The present study examined the association between resting frontal EEG asymmetry and systemic, low-grade inflammation and tested the diathesis-stress model by examining whether childhood maltreatment exposure interacts with resting frontal asymmetry in explaining inflammation. Resting EEG, serum inflammatory biomarkers (interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, and fibrinogen) and self-reported psychological measures were available for 314 middle-aged adults (age M=55.3years, SD=11.2, 55.7% female). Analyses supported the diathesis-stress model and revealed that resting frontal EEG asymmetry was significantly associated with inflammation, but only in individuals who had experienced moderate to severe levels of childhood maltreatment. These findings suggest that, in the context of severe adversity, a trait-like tendency towards greater relative right prefrontal activity may predispose to low-grade inflammation, a risk factor for conditions with inflammatory underpinnings such as coronary heart disease.

Holding Others in Contempt: the Moderating Role of Power in the Relationship Between Leaders’ Contempt and their Behavior Vis-à-vis Employees

ABSTRACT:The purpose of the present research was to investigate if and when leaders’ trait-like tendency to experience contempt would result in a lack of constructive attitudes and behaviors towards subordinates and an increase in destructive attitudes and behaviors towards subordinates. Previous research shows that increased power aligns individuals’ behavior with their trait-like tendencies. Accordingly, we hypothesized that leader contempt and power will interact to predict leaders’ people orientation, ethical leadership, dehumanization, and self-serving behavior. Across three studies, we indeed found that contempt was more negatively associated with leaders’ people orientation and ethical leadership, and more positively associated with dehumanization and leaders’ self-serving behavior, when the leader had higher levels of power rather than lower levels of power. These results are discussed in the context of corporate ethical scandals demonstrating leaders’ focus on personal gain to the detriment of the needs of their subordinates.

The Interplay Between Suicide Risk, Cognitive Vulnerability, Subjective Happiness and Depression Among Students

The present study assessed the association among risk and resilience factors (hopelessness, depression, subjective happiness) that contribute to suicidal behaviors in Italian youth. The sample consisted of 253 Italian high school adolescents (mean age = 18.09, SD = 0.57; 137 males; 116 females) who were administered a demographic questionnaire, the Suicide History Self-Rating Screening Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory II, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, the Attitude Toward Self-Revised Scale, and the Subjective Happiness Scale. Depressive symptoms were positively associated with cognitive vulnerabilities (trait-like tendencies to interpret information in a negative and distorted way when encountering a perceived stressful event) and negatively associated with subjective happiness. Participants with an elevated suicide risk also reported increased depressive symptoms, more cognitive vulnerabilities, and less subjective happiness. Moreover, depressive symptoms significantly mediated the relation between subjective happiness and suicide risk. The findings suggest that in order to prevent suicidal behavior in adolescents, clinicians should consider both risk and protective factors, particularly those that strengthen competencies and build self-esteem. Schools should employ a more positive approach that promotes resilience and enhances protective factors to reduce depressive symptoms and suicidality among youth.

Neuronal correlates of social decision making are influenced by social value orientation-an fMRI study.

Our decisions often have consequences for other people. Hence, self-interest and other-regarding motives are traded off in many daily-life situations. Interindividually, people differ in their tendency to behave prosocial. These differences are captured by the concept of social value orientation (SVO), which assumes stable, trait-like tendencies to act selfish or prosocial. This study investigates group differences in prosocial decision making and addresses the question of whether prosocial individuals act intuitively and selfish individuals instead need to control egoistic impulses to behave prosocially. We address this question via the interpretation of neuronal and behavioral indicators. In the present fMRI-study participants were grouped into prosocial- and selfish participants. They made decisions in multiple modified Dictator-Games (DG) that addressed self- and other-regarding motives to a varying extent (self gain, non-costly social gain, mutual gain, costly social gain). Selfish participants reacted faster than prosocial participants in all conditions, except for decisions in the non-costly social condition, in which selfish participants displayed the longest decision times. In the total sample we found enhanced neural activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC/BA 9) during decisions that resulted in non-costly social benefits. These areas have been implicated in cognitive control processes and deliberative value integration. Decisively, these effects were stronger in the group of selfish individuals. We believe that selfish individuals require more explicit and deliberative processing during prosocial decisions. Our results are compatible with the assumption that prosocial decisions in prosocials are more intuitive, whereas they demand more active reflection in selfish individuals.

A four-culture study of self-enhancement and adjustment using the social relations model: Do alternative conceptualizations and indices make a difference?

In the self-enhancement literature, 2 major controversies remain--whether self-enhancement is a cultural universal and whether it is healthy or maladaptive. Use of the social relations model (SRM; Kenny, 1994) might facilitate resolution of these controversies. We applied the SRM with a round-robin design in both friend and family contexts in 4 diverse cultures: the United States (n = 399), Mexico (n = 413), Venezuela (n = 290), and China (n = 222). Results obtained with social comparison, self-insight, and SRM conceptualizations and indices of self-enhancement were compared for both agentic traits (i.e., egoistic bias) and communal traits (i.e., moralistic bias). Conclusions regarding cultural differences in the prevalence of self-enhancement vs. self-effacement tendencies, and the relationship between self-enhancement and adjustment, varied depending on the index of self-enhancement used. For example, consistent with cultural psychology perspectives, Chinese showed a greater tendency to self-efface than self-enhance using social comparison and self-insight indices, particularly on communal traits in the friend context. However, no cultural differences were observed when perceiver and target effects were controlled using the SRM indices. In all cultures, self-enhancement indices were moderately consistent across friend and family contexts, suggesting traitlike tendencies. To a similar extent in all 4 cultures, self-enhancement tendencies, as measured by the SRM indices, were moderately related to self-rated adjustment, but unrelated, or less so, to observer-rated adjustment.

The dominance behavioral system and manic temperament: Motivation for dominance, self-perceptions of power, and socially dominant behaviors

The dominance behavioral system has been conceptualized as a biologically based system comprising motivation to achieve social power and self-perceptions of power. Biological, behavioral, and social correlates of dominance motivation and self-perceived power have been related to a range of psychopathological tendencies. Preliminary evidence suggests that mania and risk for mania (manic temperament) relate to the dominance system. Four studies examine whether manic temperament, measured with the Hypomanic Personality Scale (HPS), is related to elevations in dominance motivation, self-perceptions of power, and engagement in socially dominant behavior across multiple measures. In Study 1, the HPS correlated with measures of dominance motivation and the pursuit of extrinsically-oriented ambitions for fame and wealth among 454 undergraduates. In Study 2, the HPS correlated with perceptions of power and extrinsically-oriented lifetime ambitions among 780 undergraduates. In Study 3, the HPS was related to trait-like tendencies to experience hubristic (dominance-related) pride, as well as dominance motivation and pursuit of extrinsically-oriented ambitions. In Study 4, we developed the Socially Dominant Behavior Scale to capture behaviors reflecting high power. The scale correlated highly with the HPS among 514 undergraduates. The studies rely on self-ratings of manic temperament and dominance constructs, and findings have not yet been generalized to a clinical sample. Taken together, results support the hypothesis that manic temperament is related to a focus on achieving social dominance, ambitions related to achieving social recognition, perceptions of having achieved power, tendencies to experience dominance-related pride, and engagement in social behaviors consistent with this elevated sense of power.

Assessing socially desirable responding and its impact on self-report measures among sexual offenders

It is often assumed that offenders employ socially desirable responding when completing self-report questionnaires, thereby invalidating such measures. The aim of this study is to examine the extent that sexual offenders employ socially desirable responding and the impact that socially desirable responding, as measured by the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding-6 (BIDR: 6, Paulhus, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 598–609, 1984), has on self-report measures. The sample comprised 1730 adult males, all convicted and serving a sentence for a sexual offence. The entire sample had completed a set of self-report measures used to identify treatment needs, and examine progress in treatment. The results indicate that the extent of socially desirable responding is smaller than assumed, and its impact on a number of self-report measures is lower than expected. Furthermore, lower levels of risk of sexual re-offending were significantly associated with higher scores on the impression management subscale. We suggest that impression management should be viewed as more of a trait-like tendency rather than a validity check, and the use of this scale in determining whether or not to interpret other self-report instruments should be questioned. The present study also indicates that self-report questionnaires used with forensic populations may be accurate and valid. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Measuring social anxiety related interpersonal constraint with the flexible iterated prisoner's dilemma

Data from self-report and observational studies make it clear that problematic social anxiety confers interpersonal constraint that may contribute to the interpersonal dysfunction reported by individuals with social anxiety disorder. Direct observation of interpersonal behavior in established relationships is rare and difficult to obtain for practical reasons. We tested a flexible iterated prisoner's dilemma computer task to examine whether it might capture interpersonal constraint related to social anxiety. Our first study suggested that, at least for men, the task directly captures social anxiety's constraint on responses to friendly giving. Our second study more strongly supported the assertion that the task directly assesses interpersonal constraint. The data support a model in which social anxiety directly confers trait-like tendencies toward interpersonal constraint and indirectly constrains behavior in specific interactions. These studies provide further evidence that constrained responses to positive social behaviors are characteristic of people with problematic social anxiety and may be particularly important to dysfunctions in the close relationships of these individuals.

Authentic and hubristic pride: Differential relations to aspects of goal regulation, affect, and self-control

This study examines the relationships of trait-like tendencies towards authentic and hubristic pride ( Tracy & Robins, 2004) with goal-regulation tendencies, affective tendencies, and impulsive traits. Undergraduates ( n = 936) completed the 14-item measure of authentic and hubristic pride ( Tracy & Robins, 2007b) and a battery of other self-report measures. The two types of pride correlated with distinct profiles of goal-regulation tendencies, affective tendencies, and self-control. Authentic pride correlated with measures of self-control, whereas hubristic pride was related to measures of impulsivity and aggression. Overall, the differential pattern of correlations fits with a model in which authentic pride is tied to adaptive achievement and goal engagement, whereas hubristic pride is tied to extrinsic values of public recognition and social dominance.

Worry and use of coping strategies among older and younger adults

Eighty four adults over age 64 were compared with 110 college students on two measures of worry and on their methods of coping with worry. Results indicated that there were no differences in overall worry between the two groups, as measured by the Worry Scale for Older Adults—Revised, but on the individual subscales of health, family concerns, and world issues older adults expressed significantly more worries than younger adults. On the Penn State Worry Questionnaire, which measures a general, trait-like tendency to worry, younger adults reported significantly more worry than did the older adults. Younger adults also utilized a greater number of coping strategies in an effort to control worry. These results support the notion that older adults report relatively low levels of worrying when compared with the younger population. Explanations for these differences are discussed along with implications for the function of worry across the life span.