Measuring Avoidance-Related Trait Anger: American and Polish Versions of the Avoidance Motivated Response to Anger Scale (AMRAS)

Anger is often associated with approach motivation, and most self-report scales measuring trait anger tap this approach orientation. However, some research has suggested that individuals occasionally experience anger and respond with avoidance motivation. This suggests that individuals may differ in chronic tendencies toward responding to anger with avoidance. The current research introduces a new self-report instrument, the Avoidance Motivated Response to Anger Scale, designed to assess this trait. We report findings of four studies conducted with American and Polish individuals. The studies provide evidence of the scale’s internal consistency, test–retest reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity

Further examinations of attitudes toward discrete emotions, with a focus on attitudes toward anger

The present research aimed to better understand individual differences in attitudes towards emotions with a focus on anger. We report findings of four studies conducted with American and Polish individuals. Results showed that individuals who have more positive attitudes toward anger are higher in trait anger (Studies 1–4), are more likely to think about getting revenge (Study 1), and expect that getting revenge will make them feel good (Studies 1–2). In addition, these individuals are lower in agreeableness and lower in the tendency to engage in avoidance when angered (Studies 1–4). They score lower in humility (Studies 3–4), lower in secure romantic attachment but higher in anxious and avoidance attachment (Study 3). Finally, they are more likely to believe a wide range of conspiracies (Studies 2–4). Discussion focuses on the implications of these results

Aggressive Motivation: An Introduction and Overview

This article introduces a special issue on Aggressive Motivation. After briefly considering some important concepts and definitions in the psychological study of aggression and aggressive motivation, this article provides short summaries of the 8 contributions to this special issue. These articles focus on contemporary theory and research, and they come from a wide array of theoretical and methodological approaches in biological, developmental, social, personality, and clinical psycholog

Interpersonal Arrogance and the Incentive Salience of Power <i>Versus</i> Affiliation Cues

The arrogance dimension of the circumplex contrasts people who seemingly value power over affiliation (high arrogance) versus those who do not (low arrogance). Following this line of thinking, and building on an incentive salience model of approach motivation, three studies (total N = 284) examined the differential processing of power versus affiliation stimuli in categorization, perception and approach–avoidance paradigms. All studies found interactions of the same type. In study 2, for example, people high in arrogance perceived power stimuli to be larger than affiliation stimuli, but this differential pattern was not evident at low arrogance levels. People high, but not low, in arrogance also approached power stimuli faster than affiliation stimuli in a motor movement task (study 3). The results contribute to a process–based understanding of how interpersonal arrogance functions while linking such differences to the manner in which power versus affiliation cues are perceived and reacted to. Copyright © 2014 European Association of Personality Psychology </jats:p

The balance of power: accretion and feedback in stellar mass black holes

In this review we discuss the population of stellar-mass black holes in our galaxy and beyond, which are the extreme endpoints of massive star evolution. In particular we focus on how we can attempt to balance the available accretion energy with feedback to the environment via radiation, jets and winds, considering also possible contributions to the energy balance from black hole spin and advection. We review quantitatively the methods which are used to estimate these quantities, regardless of the details of the astrophysics close to the black hole. Once these methods have been outlined, we work through an outburst of a black hole X-ray binary system, estimating the flow of mass and energy through the different accretion rates and states. While we focus on feedback from stellar mass black holes in X-ray binary systems, we also consider the applicability of what we have learned to supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei. As an important control sample we also review the coupling between accretion and feedback in neutron stars, and show that it is very similar to that observed in black holes, which strongly constrains how much of the astrophysics of feedback can be unique to black holes.Comment: To be published in Haardt et al. Astrophysical Black Holes. Lecture Notes in Physics. Springer 201

The INTEGRAL Galactic bulge monitoring program: the first 1.5 years

The Galactic bulge region is a rich host of variable high-energy point sources. Since 2005, February 17 we are monitoring the source activity in this region about every three days with INTEGRAL. Thanks to the large field of view, the imaging capabilities and the sensitivity at hard X-rays, we are able to present for the first time a detailed homogeneous (hard) X-ray view of a sample of 76 sources in the Galactic bulge region. We describe the successful monitoring program and show the first results for a period of about one and a half year. We focus on the short (hour), medium (month) and long-term (year) variability in the 20-60 keV and 60-150 keV bands. When available, we discuss the simultaneous observations in the 3-10 keV and 10-25 keV bands. Per visibility season we detect 32/33 sources in the 20-60 keV band and 8/9 sources in the 60-150 keV band. On average, we find per visibility season one active bright (>~100 mCrab, 20-60 keV) black-hole candidate X-ray transient and three active weaker (<~25 mCrab, 20-60 keV) neutron star X-ray transients. Most of the time a clear anti-correlation can be seen between the soft and hard X-ray emission in some of the X-ray bursters. Hard X-ray flares or outbursts in X-ray bursters, which have a duration of the order of weeks, are accompanied by soft X-ray drops. On the other hand, hard X-ray drops can be accompanied by soft X-ray flares/outbursts. We found a number of new sources, IGR J17354-3255, IGR 17453-2853, IGR J17454-2703, IGR J17456-2901b, IGR J17536-2339, and IGR J17541-2252. We report here on some of the high-energy properties of these sources. The high-energy light curves of all the sources in the field of view, and the high-energy images of the region, are made available through the WWW at http://isdc.unige.ch/Science/BULGE/.Comment: 27 pages, 42 figures, accepted for publication in A&A. Abstract abridged. Tables 3,4,6,7 appear at the end. Images have been compressed and are reduced in quality; original PostScript images can be retrieved from http://isdc.unige.ch/~kuulkers/bulge

For which side the bell tolls: The laterality of approach-avoidance associative networks

The two hemispheres of the brain appear to play different roles in emotion and/or motivation. A great deal of previous research has examined the valence hypothesis (left hemisphere = positive; right = negative), but an increasing body of work has supported the motivational hypothesis (left hemisphere = approach; right = avoidance) as an alternative. The present investigation (N = 117) sought to provide novel support for the latter perspective. Left versus right hemispheres were briefly activated by neutral lateralized auditory primes. Subsequently, participants categorized approach versus avoidance words as quickly and accurately as possible. Performance in the task revealed that approach-related thoughts were more accessible following left-hemispheric activation, whereas avoidance-related thoughts were more accessible following right-hemispheric activation. The present results are the first to examine such lateralized differences in accessible motivational thoughts, which may underlie more “downstream” manifestations of approach and avoidance motivation such as judgments, decision making, and behavior

Protocol for project MIME: Motivation, inflammation, and Mood in Emerging Adults

Background: Atypical inflammatory biology is gaining evidence as a risk factor for mood psychopathology; however, little work has attempted to integrate inflammation into extant psychosocial frameworks of risk. Recent work using secondary data analysis has investigated the possibility of an immunocognitive model of mood disorders, in which cognitive vulnerabilities (i.e., rumination on positive or negative affect) increase the effect that arousal-related characteristics (e.g., reward sensitivity) have on inflammatory biology in ways that may confer risk for depression and hypo/mania symptoms. Project MIME (Motivation, Inflammation, and Mood in Emerging Adults) was designed to test this model in the context of a novel, reward-salient stressor (the Anger Incentive Delay Task, AIDT). Methods: This NIMH-funded study will result in a dataset of approximately 100 college undergraduates from a large university in Pennsylvania, United States of America. Eligible participants are recruited from an online screener, have to be 18–22 years old, fluent in English, and successfully answer several items designed to test whether participants randomly answer questions on the screener. Eligible participants are invited to an in-person visit in which they completed the AIDT, blood draws pre- and 50 minutes post-AIDT, and self-report questionnaires. Participants also complete a set of online questionnaires two weeks after the in-person visit. Discussion: Consistent with calls from the NIH director, this study seeks to diversify the tools used in stress research by validating a novel reward-salient stressor (in contrast to the field's reliance on social stressors) with respect to affective and immunological stress reactivity. In addition to this methodological goal, Project MIME is the first study specifically designed to test the immunocognitive model of mood psychopathology. Given the integration of several malleable treatment targets (approach behavior, emotion regulation, inflammation) into this model, results from this study could inform comprehensive, flexible intervention strategies for mood disorder prevention and treatment