“The Cuscus has White Teeth”: The Verbal Information Pathway to Fear in Non-clinically Anxious Children: No Influence of Ambiguous Information or Trait Anxiety

<p>Twenty-nine non-clinically anxious children, aged 7-10 years old, completed the Fear Beliefs Questionnaire (FBQ; Field & Lawson, 2003) before and after the presentation of verbal ambiguous information about an unknown animal, while 32 similar children matched for trait anxiety did the same after hearing threat information. Behavioural avoidance of the animals was subsequently examined with an adaptation of the Nature Reserve Task (NRT; Field & Storksen-Coulson, 2007). Children also completed a Reduced Evidence of Danger interpretation bias task (Muris, Merckelbach & Damsma, 2000c) for ambiguous stories with generalised anxiety and social anxiety content, prior to the FBQ and NRT. Verbal threat information substantially increased FBQ ratings and NRT distance from the tagged animal, whereas ambiguous information had no effect on these measures other than a subset of children showing an avoidance of the tagged animal in the NRT. Contrary to expectations, level of trait anxiety was not related to interpretation biases, or the effect of ambiguous or threat information. In the threat group, but not the ambiguous group, two bias measures for generalised anxiety stories were associated with relative increase in FBQ ratings for the tagged animal, and a third bias measure for social anxiety stories was associated with NRT score. The associations held when controlling for gender, age, and trait anxiety, including trait anxiety used as a moderator variable. These findings support the view that verbal threat information is sufficient to induce fear of animals in children. Results are inconsistent with the current view that the effects of the verbal information pathway increase as a function of trait anxiety and that ambiguous verbal information can lead to increased fear responding. The evidence for bias – verbal threat associations suggests that future studies should examine their role in the verbal information pathway to fear and anxiety, and clarify the influence of various internalising and externalising psychopathologies beyond trait anxiety.</p>

“The Cuscus has White Teeth”: The Verbal Information Pathway to Fear in Non-clinically Anxious Children: No Influence of Ambiguous Information or Trait Anxiety

<p>Twenty-nine non-clinically anxious children, aged 7-10 years old, completed the Fear Beliefs Questionnaire (FBQ; Field & Lawson, 2003) before and after the presentation of verbal ambiguous information about an unknown animal, while 32 similar children matched for trait anxiety did the same after hearing threat information. Behavioural avoidance of the animals was subsequently examined with an adaptation of the Nature Reserve Task (NRT; Field & Storksen-Coulson, 2007). Children also completed a Reduced Evidence of Danger interpretation bias task (Muris, Merckelbach & Damsma, 2000c) for ambiguous stories with generalised anxiety and social anxiety content, prior to the FBQ and NRT. Verbal threat information substantially increased FBQ ratings and NRT distance from the tagged animal, whereas ambiguous information had no effect on these measures other than a subset of children showing an avoidance of the tagged animal in the NRT. Contrary to expectations, level of trait anxiety was not related to interpretation biases, or the effect of ambiguous or threat information. In the threat group, but not the ambiguous group, two bias measures for generalised anxiety stories were associated with relative increase in FBQ ratings for the tagged animal, and a third bias measure for social anxiety stories was associated with NRT score. The associations held when controlling for gender, age, and trait anxiety, including trait anxiety used as a moderator variable. These findings support the view that verbal threat information is sufficient to induce fear of animals in children. Results are inconsistent with the current view that the effects of the verbal information pathway increase as a function of trait anxiety and that ambiguous verbal information can lead to increased fear responding. The evidence for bias – verbal threat associations suggests that future studies should examine their role in the verbal information pathway to fear and anxiety, and clarify the influence of various internalising and externalising psychopathologies beyond trait anxiety.</p>

The Mere Sight of Loved Ones Does Not Inhibit Psychophysiological Defense Mechanisms When Threatened

Looking at pictures of loved ones, such as one's romantic partner or good friends, has been shown to alleviate the experience of pain and reduce defensive reactions. However, little is known about such modulatory effects on threat and safety learning and the psychophysiological processes involved. Here, we explored the hypothesis that beloved faces serve as implicit safety cues and attenuate the expression of fear responses and/or accelerate extinction learning in a threatening context. Thirty-two participants viewed pictures of their loved ones (romantic partner, parents, and best friend) as well as of unknown individuals within contextual background colors indicating threat-of-shock or safety. Focusing on the extinction of non-reinforced threat associations (no shocks were given), the experiment was repeated on two more test days while the defensive startle-EMG, SCR, and threat ratings were obtained. Results confirmed pronounced defensive responding to instructed threat-of-shock relative to safety context (e.g., threat-enhanced startle reflex and SCR). Moreover, threat-potentiated startle response slowly declined across test days indicating passive extinction learning in the absence of shocks. Importantly, neither a main effect of face category (loved vs. unknown) nor a significant interaction with threat/safety instructions was observed. Thus, a long-term learning history of beneficial relations (e.g., with supportive parents) did not interfere with verbal threat learning and aversive apprehensions.

Police Stop and Frisk and the Impact of Race: A Focal Concerns Theory Approach

The findings of this study outline the racial differences in stop and frisk decisions by Illinois officers in consent searches and those based upon reasonable suspicion within the context of the elements of focal concerns theory. The analysis for this study was performed using propensity score matching (PSM) and allowed the researchers to create a quasi-experimental design to examine the race of the citizen and police decision making. According to our analysis of official Illinois law enforcement data, Black citizens, particularly males, were less likely to give their consent to a stop and frisk search. Black male citizens were also more likely to be stopped and searched due to an assessment of reasonable suspicion by the officer. Elements of focal concerns theory were also factors in pedestrian stops under conditions of consent and reasonable suspicion. Citizens judged as blameworthy were more likely to be stopped and frisked under conditions of consent and reasonable suspicion. The effect of a verbal threat and the officer’s prior knowledge about the citizen had even more significant impacts.

Workplace violence towards resident doctors in Indian teaching hospitals: A quantitative survey

Violence at work is becoming an alarming phenomenon worldwide affecting the millions of health care workers. This study was conducted to assess the violence towards Resident doctors in Indian teaching hospitals. Google forms questionnaire was developed and circulated electronically to resident doctors working in India. Data were collected and managed using the Google forms electronic tool. Vast majority (86%) of respondents reported having experienced violence with no difference among two genders. Prevalence of violence was maximum (35.5%) in general surgery. Verbal threat and abuse was the commonest (∼94%) form of violence. Mostly these acts of violence happened in Emergency/Trauma room. The most common reasons for violence in hospital were patient's death. Over 94% residents accepted that they had never received any training to deal with work place violence. Majority (80%) of the respondents favoured better communication, strict Laws and strengthening of security measures in hospital to prevent WPV. Workplace violence prevention should be addressed aggressively and comprehensively in health care. A workplace violence prevention program should be a required component of all health care organizations.

Verbal threat learning does not spare loved ones

Significant others provide individuals with a sense of safety and security. However, the mechanisms that underlie attachment-induced safety are hardly understood. Recent research has shown beneficial effects when viewing pictures of the romantic partner, leading to reduced pain experience and defensive responding. Building upon this, we examined the inhibitory capacity of loved face pictures on fear learning in an instructed threat paradigm. Pictures of loved familiar or unknown individuals served as signals for either threat of electric shocks or safety, while a broad set of psychophysiological measures was recorded. We assumed that a long-term learning history of beneficial relations interferes with social threat learning. Nevertheless, results yielded a typical pattern of physiological defense activation towards threat cues, regardless of whether threat was signaled by an unknown or a loved face. These findings call into question the notion that pictures of loved individuals are shielded against becoming threat cues, with implications for attachment and trauma research.

Emotional and receptive-axiological aspects of the speech act of threat in everyday conflict communication in Russian

The article analyses the emotive aspect of the production and perception of the speech act of threat and the specificity of the perception of this act by a modern native speaker of Rus­sian. The act of threat is an instrument of influence exerted on the listener. Its effectiveness depends on the strength of the negative emotions of anxiety, fear, etc. initiated in the listener. At the same time, the production of threatening statements is often associated with the speak­er's emotional state, which in some cases can serve as a catalyst for imperative influence. The speech act of threat, being an element of conflict discourse, contradicts the traditional princi­ples of productive communication and the legal norms of any developed state. In everyday communication, a verbal threat can be regarded as a way of implementing communicative intentions that are completely justified from the socio-ethical point of view. For a modern Russian speaker, threat is not a communicative taboo and can be deliberately used in conflict situations related to the protection of human dignity, life, social values, etc.

Workplace Violence and Neurosurgical Practice: Insights From the Council of State Neurosurgical Societies Workplace Violence Survey

INTRODUCTION Workplace violence is a challenge that exists in neurosurgical practice. The emotional and intense nature of neurosurgical diseases is a risk factor for workplace violence which can manifest in many ways including verbal threats, physical assault, stalking, and other unwelcome confrontations. The scope of this issue in current neurosurgical practice is understudied. METHODS A 26-item questionnaire assessing the experience of workplace violence was disseminated by the Council of State Neurosurgical Societies (CSNS) to neurosurgeon members of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons between August and December 2018. Descriptive statistics and fisher's exact tests were used to analyze responses. RESULTS Respondents (N = 107) were predominately male (87%), and most had >20 yr of practice experience (63%). Most respondents practiced in urban (85%) and academic (60%) settings. Almost half of respondents (46%) reported fear of becoming a victim of workplace violence. 44% of respondents reported having received a verbal threat from a patient in the last 2 yr, and 41% reported receiving a verbal threat from a patient's family or friend. Stalking incidents (9%) and physical assault (3%) were also reported. Female neurosurgeons were more likely to receive verbal threats from patients (P = .04). As a direct result of perceived threat, 10% of respondents obtained a gun and/or a concealed weapon permit, which was more common among neurosurgeons in non-academic practice. Among those who experienced workplace violence, 47% accessed supportive resources on their own. CONCLUSION Workplace violence is a growing concern in neurosurgical practice. Our survey found that the perceived fear of violence was high (46%), with 40% of respondents feeling less safe in the workplace today than when they began practice. These issues disproportionately impacted female neurosurgeons. The results of this survey indicate a need for more study and better educational resources to combat this issue.

Can Threat Information Bias Fear Learning? Some Tentative Results and Methodological Considerations

Whereas it is widely recognized that both verbal threat information and stimulus pairings can install strong and persistent fear, few studies have addressed the interaction between these two pathways of fear. According to the expectancy bias of Davey (1992, 1997), verbal information can install expectancy biases for aversive events that can result in facilitated fear learning through stimulus pairings and can delay extinction of fear. However, these predictions of the expectancy bias account have not been explored fully. Following up on two earlier studies (Field & Storksen-Coulson, 2007; Ugland, Dyson, & Field, 2013), we investigated the impact of prior threat information on fear acquisition, extinction and reinstatement. To this aim, participants received instructions about four unfamiliar animals, two of which that were described as dangerous whereas the other two were described as harmless. One animal of each pair was subsequently paired with an electric stimulus. Our results indicated that threat information resulted in stronger fear responses prior to fear conditioning and in delayed extinction of fear. However, these effects of instructions were not very pronounced and not found on all measures of fear. We discuss several methodological and procedural considerations that may modulate the effects of (verbally installed) expectancy biases.