Affective Consequences (affective + consequence)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Impaired fear conditioning but enhanced seizure sensitivity in rats given repeated experience of withdrawal from alcohol

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, Issue 12 2001
D. N. Stephens
Abstract Repeated experience of withdrawal from chronic alcohol treatment increases sensitivity to seizures. It has been argued by analogy that negative affective consequences of withdrawal also sensitize, but repeated experience of withdrawal from another sedative-hypnotic drug, diazepam, results in amelioration of withdrawal anxiety and aversiveness. We tested whether giving rats repeated experience of withdrawal from alcohol altered their ability to acquire a conditioned emotional response (CER). Male Hooded Lister rats were fed a nutritionally complete liquid diet as their only food source. Different groups received control diet, or diet containing 7% ethanol. Rats receiving ethanol diet were fed for either 24 days (Single withdrawal, SWD), or 30 days, with two periods of 3 days, starting at day 11, and 21, in which they received control diet (Repeated withdrawal, RWD). All rats were fed lab chow at the end of their liquid diet feeding period. Starting 12 days after the final withdrawal, groups of Control, SWD and RWD rats were given pentylenetetrazole (PTZ; 30 mg/kg, i.p.) three times a week, and scored for seizures. The occurrence of two successive Stage 5 seizures was taken as the criterion for full PTZ kindling. Other groups of control, SWD and RWD rats were trained to operate levers to obtain food, and were then exposed, in a fully counterbalanced design, to light and tone stimuli which predicted unavoidable footshock (CS+), or which had no consequences (CS,). Rats consumed approximately 17.5 g/kg/day of ethanol, resulting in blood alcohol levels of approximately 100 mg/dL. Repeated administration of PTZ resulted in increasing seizure scores. RWD rats achieved kindling criterion faster than either Control or SWD rats. No differences were seen in the groups in flinch threshold to footshock (0.3 mA). At a shock intensity of 0.35 mA, Control, but not RWD or SWD rats showed significant suppression to the CS+ CS, presentation did not affect response rates. The three groups differed in their response to pairing the CS+ with increasing shock levels, the Controls remaining more sensitive to the CS+. SWD rats showed significant suppression of lever pressing during CS+ presentations only at 0.45 and 0.5 mA, and RWD rats only at 0.5 mA. Giving rats repeated experience of withdrawal from chronic ethanol results in increased sensitivity to PTZ kindling, but reduces their ability to acquire a CER. Withdrawal kindling of sensitivity to anxiogenic events does not seem to occur under circumstances which give rise to kindling of seizure sensitivity. [source]


The affective consequences of social comparison as related to professional burnout and social comparison orientation

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2001
Bram P. Buunk
In a study among sociotherapists, the affective consequences of social comparison were examined and related to professional burnout and to individual differences in social comparison orientation. Participants were confronted with a bogus interview with an upward versus a downward comparison target. Upward comparison generated more positive and less negative affect than did downward comparison. Increasing levels of burnout were accompanied by less positive affect in response to upward comparison. Moreover, the higher the level of burnout, the more negative affect a description of a downward comparison target evoked, but only among individuals high in social comparison orientation. Finally, the higher the level of burnout, the higher the identification with the downward target, and the lower the identification with the upward target. However, this last effect did occur only among those low in social comparison orientation. Those high in social comparison orientation kept identifying with the upward target, even when they were high in burnout. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


The Importance of Affective Beliefs and Attitudes in the Theory of Planned Behavior: Predicting Intention to Increase Physical Activity,

JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 9 2005
David P. French
Standard theory of planned behavior (TPB) questions to elicit salient behavioral beliefs may elicit instrumental consequences of behavior, and overlook affective consequences. Two hundred thirteen English adults (35 to 75 years of age) completed a questionnaire that contained closed measures of TPB constructs, and open-ended questions that asked not only about advantages and disadvantages, but also what respondents would like or enjoy and dislike or hate about being more physically active. Beliefs elicited by affective questions were associated more strongly with a closed affective attitude scale. Beliefs elicited by instrumental questions were associated more strongly with a closed instrumental attitude scale. Closed measures of the standard TPB variables explained 48% of the variance in intention to increase physical activity, while affective attitude explained an additional 11% of the variance. Applications of the TPB should consider affective and not just instrumental determinants of behavior. [source]


The Emotional Costs of Parents' Conditional Regard: A Self-Determination Theory Analysis

JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 1 2004
Avi Assor
Parents' use of conditional regard as a socializing practice was hypothesized to predict their children's introjected internalization (indexed by a sense of internal compulsion), resentment toward parents, and ill-being. In Study 1, involving three generations, mothers' reports of their parents' having used conditional regard to promote academic achievement predicted (a) the mothers' poor well-being and controlling parenting attitudes, and (b) their collge-aged daughters' viewing them as having used conditional regard, thus showing both negative affective consequences from and intergenerational transmission of conditional regard. Study 2 expanded on the first by using four domains, including both genders, and examining mediating processes. College students' perceptions of their mothers' and fathers' having used conditional regard in four domains (emotion control, prosocial, academic, sport) were found to relate to introjected internalization, behavioral enactment, fluctuations in self-esteem, perceived parental disapproval, and resentment of parents. Introjection mediated the link from conditional regard to behavioral enactment. The results suggest that use of conditional regard as a socializing practice can promote enactment of the desired behaviors but does so with significant affective costs. [source]


Neuroticism and Social Comparison Orientation as Moderators of Affective Responses to Social Comparison at Work

JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 5 2001
Bram P. Buunk
In a study among 72 nurses, the affective consequences of social comparison were examined and related to neuroticism (N) and to social comparison orientation (SCO). Participants were confronted with a bogus interview with an upward versus a downward comparison target. Positive affect and identification were higher, and negative affect was lower, in the upward than in the downward comparison condition. Independent of their SCO, the higher individuals were in N, the less they identified with the upward comparison target, the more they identified with the downward comparison target, and the less positive affect they showed following confrontation with the upward comparison target. In contrast, independent of their level of N, the higher individuals were in SCO, the more negative affect they showed following confrontation with the downward comparison target. The effects on negative affect stayed the same when controlling for positive affect, and the effects on positive affect stayed the same when controlling for negative affect. These effects were also obtained when perceived direction was used as a predictor instead of the experimentally manipulated direction. It is concluded that, although N and SCO are correlated, these variables seem to have independent and distinct effects upon the responses to social comparison information. [source]


Cognitive mechanisms underlying the emotional effects of bias modification

APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2010
Laura Hoppitt
In this study we assessed the cognitive mechanisms underlying the affective consequences of modifying emotional processing biases. During ,active' training participants selected either threatening or non-threatening meanings of emotionally ambiguous words, in contrast to ,passive' conditions in which participants read unambiguous words with equivalent valenced meanings. Both methods enhanced access to training-congruent primed emotional meanings, as assessed in a lexical decision task, although neither method displayed evidence of an induced interpretive bias as it is usually understood. However, consistent with previous research, the methods differed in their emotional consequences: Active training had greater effects on anxiety while viewing an accident video than did passive exposure. We interpret these results to suggest that both forms of training enhance priming of a valenced category, but only active conditions induce an implicit production rule to generate and/or select emotional meanings, and that it is this latter process that is critical to the modification of emotionality. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]