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Action Tendencies (action + tendency)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Psychology	71%

Selected Abstracts

Retraining automatic action-tendencies to approach alcohol in hazardous drinkers

ADDICTION, Issue 2 2010
Reinout W. Wiers
ABSTRACT Aims The main aim of this study was to test whether automatic action-tendencies to approach alcohol can be modified, and whether this affects drinking behaviour. Design and participants Forty-two hazardous drinkers were assigned randomly to a condition in which they were implicitly trained to avoid or to approach alcohol, using a training variety of the alcohol Approach Avoidance Test (AAT). Participants pushed or pulled a joystick in response to picture-format (landscape or portrait). The pictures depicted alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks. Participants in the avoid-alcohol condition pushed most alcoholic and pulled most non-alcoholic drinks. For participants in the approach-alcohol condition these contingencies were reversed. After the implicit training, participants performed a taste test, including beers and soft drinks. Automatic action tendencies at post-test were assessed with the AAT, including both trained and untrained pictures, and with a different test (Implicit Association Test, IAT). We further tested effects on subjective craving. Results Action tendencies for alcohol changed in accordance with training condition, with the largest effects in the clinically relevant avoid-alcohol condition. These effects occurred outside subjective awareness and generalized to new pictures in the AAT and to an entirely different test using words, rather than pictures (IAT). In relatively heavy drinking participants who demonstrated changed action tendencies in accordance with their training condition, effects were found on drinking behaviour, with participants in the approach-alcohol condition drinking more alcohol than participants in the avoid-alcohol condition. No effect was found on subjective craving. Conclusions Retraining automatic processes may help to regain control over addictive impulses, which points to new treatment possibilities. [source]

Unconditional respect for persons and the prediction of intergroup action tendencies

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 5 2009
Mansur Lalljee
Unconditional respect for persons is an orientation that rests on the assumption that all people have intrinsic worth and deserve respect simply by their being human. This paper reports three cross-sectional studies concerning unconditional respect in intergroup relations in three very different contexts. In all three studies, unconditional respect was positively related to positive action tendencies, and negatively related to negative action tendencies, toward other groups. Regression analyses showed that respect was a significant predictor of negative action tendencies even when attitude to the other group, social dominance orientation, empathy, and the quality and quantity of intergroup contact were statistically controlled. Moderation analyses showed that respect was particularly important under conditions of high threat. The implications of unconditional respect for intergroup relations are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Emotional reactions to harmful intergroup behavior

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2006
Ernestine H. Gordijn
In this paper, we examined reactions to situations in which, although one is not personally involved, one could see oneself connected to either the perpetrators or the victims of unfair behavior. We manipulated participants' similarity and measured their identification to either one of two groups which participants later learned was the victim or the perpetrator of harmful behavior. As predicted, making salient similarities to the victims lead participants to: 1) appraise the perpetrator's behavior as more unfair; 2) experience more anger; and 3) be more likely to take action against it and less prone to show support for it as a function of their level of identification with their salient ingroup. In sharp contrast, focusing participants' attention on their similarities to the perpetrators reversed this pattern of findings: Compared to high identifiers, low identifiers appraised the behavior as more unfair than high identifiers, which made them feel angry (and guilty) and less likely to show support for the perpetrator's behavior. The data also provide strong support for a mediational model in which appraisal of the situation colors the emotional reaction which in turn orients action tendencies. We discuss the implications of our findings for the issue of group-based emotions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Modulation of spinal reflexes by aversive and sexually appetitive stimuli

PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, Issue 2 2003
Stephanie Both
Abstract In this study, modulation of spinal tendinous (T) reflexes by sexual stimulation was investigated. T reflexes are augmented in states of appetitive and defensive action and modified by differences in arousal intensity. Reflexes were expected to be facilitated by both pleasant (sexual) and unpleasant (anxiety) stimuli. Subjects were exposed to a sexual, an anxiety-inducing, a sexually threatening, and a neutral film excerpt. Genital arousal, emotional experience, subjective action tendencies, and T reflexes were monitored. Self-report and genital data confirmed the affective states as intended. T reflex amplitude significantly increased during viewing of emotionally arousing film excerpts as compared with a neutral film excerpt. T reflexes were facilitated by the sex stimulus to the same extent as by the anxiety and sexual threat stimuli. The results support the view of sexual arousal as an emotional state, generating sex-specific autonomic and general somatic motor system responses, which prepare the organism for action. [source]

Objective countertransference: do patients' interpersonal impacts generalize across therapists?

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY (AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THEORY & PRACTICE), Issue 1 2003
Anton Hafkenscheid
Objective countertransference refers to the constricted feelings, attitudes and reactions of a therapist, that are induced primarily by the patient's maladaptive behaviour and that are generalizable to other therapists (and to other significant others in the patient's life). In interpersonal theory and therapy, the equivalent of objective countertransference is the impact message concept. Impact messages refer to the cognitions, emotions and action tendencies evoked in the therapist by a particular patient's interpersonal pressures. This paper tests the interpersonal hypothesis that interpersonal impact generalizes across therapists (and by extension across interpersonal relationships). Generalizability of impact messages across therapists was determined for different combinations of therapist pairs, independently rating a total of 131 psychiatric outpatients with the IMI-C (Impact Message Inventory, revised circumplex version). It was found that impact messages were most clearly generalizable across therapists for the Dominance (D) category, followed by the Hostile,Dominant (HD) and Hostile,Submissive (HS) categories. In contrast, the other five categories of impact messages turned out to be poorly generalizable across therapists. Impact messages within the Dominance (D) category were also strikingly stable over a period of time of 12 months or longer. Some possible causes of the limited generalizability of most impact message categories are discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]