Group negotiations are an important aspect of social interactions and can be strongly influenced by familiarity, social motive and power differences between involved parties. A pro-social motive...Show moreGroup negotiations are an important aspect of social interactions and can be strongly influenced by familiarity, social motive and power differences between involved parties. A pro-social motive was associated with more concern for the needs of others. Powerful individuals in the asymmetric power conditions were expected to have more influence on the outcome. Friends were expected to have more integrative results compared with strangers. Additionally, groups that trusted each other were expected to reach higher joint outcomes by openly sharing information. The results of a three-person online negotiation exercise supported a crucial role of trust. Groups that trust each other reached higher joint outcomes for all experimental conditions. The integrative potential of the outcome was not influenced by the groups consisting of friends or strangers. Pro-social motive groups reached more integrative outcome for groups of friends and stranger alike. Furthermore, participants that were given more power had more influence on the outcome of the negotiation. Contradicting our expectations, strangers showed more concern for a fair and considerate negotiation process.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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Previous research investigating the factors that shape a person’s degree of intergroup prejudice has focused primarily on relatively high level ideological and personality traits. In a largely...Show morePrevious research investigating the factors that shape a person’s degree of intergroup prejudice has focused primarily on relatively high level ideological and personality traits. In a largely separate body of work, psychophysiological predispositions towards threat sensitivity have been linked to ideological constructs. The current work integrates these two bodies of work by introducing a novel approach to measure implicit threat sensitivity and (theoretically) linking it to intergroup prejudice. Specifically, it was investigated whether individual differences in cognitively assessed sensitivity to threatening information were associated with a greater degree of implicit bias and explicit prejudice towards a stereotypically threatening minority-group (i.e., Muslims). While results did not support a relationship between threat sensitivity and intergroup prejudice, exploratory data, as well as limitations and implications of the current work, encourage future research.Show less
The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between parental sensitivity and proactive aggression in children four years later, when they were 10-12 years of age. Furthermore, we...Show moreThe purpose of this study was to investigate the association between parental sensitivity and proactive aggression in children four years later, when they were 10-12 years of age. Furthermore, we aimed to explore whether household chaos moderated this association. Based on a sample of 257 Dutch families, the results showed that proactive aggression in children was not predicted by parental sensitivity. Also, the relation between low levels of parental sensitivity and proactive aggression in children was not stronger when children experienced more household chaos in their family situations than children who experienced less household chaos. In some way, it is positive that proactive aggression was not shown by children with unsensitive parents and that household chaos did not moderate this association. Children may be more resilient than expected and the social context of the child may possibly prevent the occurrence of proactive aggression. Individual differences in a child’s perception of the environment might also influence whether the child is showing proactive aggression. Possibly, individual differences in coping with negative environments, such as negative parenting, are important in unraveling the prediction of proactive aggressive behaviour. For further research, we suggest adding the moderating effect of temperament to the model. In this study, unsensitive parenting was not associated with proactive aggression in children. However, other factors, such as harsh parenting, can be investigated in future research to expand our knowledge concerning proactive aggression in children.Show less
This study was one of the first to cross-sectionally research the association between relationship anxiety and avoidance with self-esteem through the different stages of adolescence. The final...Show moreThis study was one of the first to cross-sectionally research the association between relationship anxiety and avoidance with self-esteem through the different stages of adolescence. The final sample consisted of 155 teenagers aged 11 to 21 years old (M = 15.93, SD = 2.98, 53.5% female). The participants were divided into three age groups; early (11-15 years), middle (15-18 years), and late adolescence (18-22 years). Five Ordinary least squares regression analyses were carried out. The results revealed a significant association between relationship anxiety and avoidance with self-esteem. Lastly, the strength of these associations varied throughout adolescence. The results showed that the strength of the relationships between relation anxiety and avoidance over self-esteem was significantly different for middle adolescents compared to late adolescents. This could be caused by normal developmental changes. Future research should focus on bigger sample sizes and maximizing generalization by including participants from different cultures, countries, and socio-economical backgrounds.Show less
The menstrual cycle is a complex biological process that occurs approximately monthly over the span of a woman‘s reproductive age. In recent years, it has attracted researchers attention in...Show moreThe menstrual cycle is a complex biological process that occurs approximately monthly over the span of a woman‘s reproductive age. In recent years, it has attracted researchers attention in relation to many aspects, such as cognitive processes and mood. However, most research on the topic is relatively recent, findings are inconsistent and much is still to be further investigated. The current study seeks to find out whether the menstrual cycle influences response inhibition and mood. We hypothesized that when women are in the second half of their menstrual cycle (luteal phase, approximately 2 weeks prior to menstruation), they would respond faster and more accurately to cognitive tasks (better response inhibition) and report worse mood than those who were in the first part of their menstrual cycle (menses to ovulation). We recruited 60 healthy, naturally cycling women with an average cycle length (21-35 days), aged 18-35 years. To assess response inhibition, they performed the Flanker task and the Go/NoGo task and to assess mood symptoms, the DASS-21, SPANE and BITe questionnaires were used. Additionally, participants answered questionnaires about their menstrual cycle and demographic factors. The experiment was conducted online using PsyToolkit and used a between-subjects design, with each particant tested once. We found no statistically significant main effect of cycle phase on response inhibition or mood. We therefore concluded that the menstrual cycle does not appear to influence response inhibition or mood significantly.Show less
Social anxiety disorder has an early onset (median age at thirteen years) and runs in families. An important pathway for acquiring fear is via verbal expression. Therefore, the aim of this study...Show moreSocial anxiety disorder has an early onset (median age at thirteen years) and runs in families. An important pathway for acquiring fear is via verbal expression. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of parental verbal information of threat/anxiety on the fear beliefs of their children and tried to determine whether the parental social anxiety levels moderated the effect of the parental verbal expression on the fear beliefs of children. A community sample of children (N = 68) between 11 and 13 years visited the lab with one of their parents. The parents were instructed to verbally give threat/anxiety information about one stranger (judge) and safety information about the other stranger to their children. After the manipulation, the children were asked to do a social performance for each stranger which was a presentation about confidence and shyness. After the performance the children were asked about their fear beliefs. A significant effect was found of the parental verbal expressions of threat/anxiety (vs. safety) on the fear beliefs of the children. The fear beliefs of children were higher about the stranger when threat/anxiety information was given than when safety information was given. This effect was independent from the parental social anxiety levels. This study provides insight to the effect of parental verbal information on the fear beliefs of their children. It can be implicated that parents have an important role in verbally conveying fear to children.Show less
Transmission of parental verbal negative (versus positive) information regarding social situations might cause fear acquisition of social encounters noticeable in children’s avoidance of strangers....Show moreTransmission of parental verbal negative (versus positive) information regarding social situations might cause fear acquisition of social encounters noticeable in children’s avoidance of strangers. The present study investigated the influence of parental verbal negative (versus positive) information about strangers on a child’s avoidance of strangers in late childhood/adolescence years (10-13 years old). In addition, the moderating role of parental trait social anxiety on children’s behavior towards a stranger was explored. Parents were presented with standardized negative or positive information about two strangers, which they transferred to their child (N=72, M= 11.56 years; 39 girls). Following the manipulation, children performed three social tasks twice (social performance, watching performance back, and social interaction), with each of the strangers. In addition, parents reported their own social anxiety symptoms in a questionnaire. Findings revealed that parental verbal negative (versus positive) information did not make children more avoidant towards the stranger. Parental social anxiety did not moderate the effect of verbal information on child stranger avoidance, and parental social anxiety levels did not predict children’s overall avoidant behavior to the strangers. In conclusion, the findings reveal no effect of parental verbal expressions on a child’s avoidance to strangers and highlight the importance of further research on this topic, to acquire more knowledge on the environmental influences in the development of SAD.Show less
Background: Parents’ verbal transmission of information is shown to have an influence on children’s anxiety, which could be moderated by an attentional bias. This study investigated the link...Show moreBackground: Parents’ verbal transmission of information is shown to have an influence on children’s anxiety, which could be moderated by an attentional bias. This study investigated the link between parents’ verbal information transmission about a stranger and the children’s self-focused attention in the context of social anxiety and explored possible moderation of this effect by the children’s fear of being negatively evaluated. Methods: 75 9-to-14-year-old children visited a lab to perform a task, i.e. speaking in front of two strangers sequentially and a live screen on which they were projected. The parents’ verbal manipulation made one of the strangers seem safe and one of the strangers a threat to their evaluation and the looks to the live screen were measured between conditions. The children also filled out questionnaires on the Fear of Negative Child evaluation Results: Our analyses showed no significant result for the effect of parents’ verbal transmission of information on the children’s self-focused attention. Our analyses also showed no significant result for the fear of being negatively evaluated as a moderating factor. Conclusion: No significant effects were found for either the effect of parents’ verbal information on the children’s self-focused attention nor the moderating effects of the fear of being negatively evaluated. We hypothesize that this could be because parents’ verbal information may not be enough to create anxiety in the children or that our sample consisted of more confident children than average, because of a selection bias.Show less
Several studies found that recollection improves up to 10 minutes after exploring a novel environment, but recognition does not. This is because recollection is hippocampus-dependent, and...Show moreSeveral studies found that recollection improves up to 10 minutes after exploring a novel environment, but recognition does not. This is because recollection is hippocampus-dependent, and recognition is hippocampus-independent. A novelty signal releases dopamine in the hippocampus. The increase in dopamine can last up to 10 minutes after exploring a new environment and thus also improves recollection up to 10 minutes. This master thesis study aimed to examine the differences of age and sex regarding the effects of novelty on memory performance, distinguishing between recollection and recognition. This cross-sectional study was conducted in NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam. After excluding participants who did not meet the selection criteria, the sample size was 426, of which 224 men and 202 women. The age range of the participants was between 8 and 77 years old (M = 24.5, SD = 16.8). Age 8 to 11 were considered children in this study, age 12 to 20 were considered adolescents, age 21 to 64 were considered adults, and age 65 and over were considered seniors. The participants explored a virtual environment with several landmarks on the computer twice, of which the second exploration was either a familiar or a novel environment compared to the first exploration. In addition, the participants filled in questionnaires and performed tasks, such as a word-learning task. This task was used to measure recollection and recognition. A significant effect was found between age groups and memory performance. In both the recollection and recognition test, adolescents and adults performed better than children. However, no significant effect was found between the other age groups on memory performance. In addition, no significant main effects of novelty and sex, and no interaction effects on memory performance were found. These results could be helpful to develop a treatment or intervention to combat disease- and age-related memory decline. However, further research is recommended, including all experimental factors in the analyses and equal numbers of participants in the age and sex groups.Show less
Objectives: Some of the domains in which more experienced practitioners have been shown to outperform their less experienced colleagues relate to interpersonal skills, that can be measured by...Show moreObjectives: Some of the domains in which more experienced practitioners have been shown to outperform their less experienced colleagues relate to interpersonal skills, that can be measured by performance-based measure called Facilitative Interpersonal Skills (FIS). FIS has been identified as a strong predictor of treatment outcome, yet it is not known whether the FIS score is dependent on therapeutic experience. The present study tested the impact of clinical experience on FIS task performance by examining the influence of experience on FIS total score and the eight domains. Method: A total of 46 clinical psychology master’s students and 94 licensed cognitive-behavioural therapists participated in FIS assessment and provided information on their prior clinical experience. To test the hypotheses the multi-level growth model for repeated measures was employed. Results: Experienced therapists, on average, scored higher on FIS assessment than master’s students. The analyses of individual FIS domains revealed that the therapists performed significantly better on the 5 out of 8 FIS domains. Conclusions: Results were consistent with the hypothesis that the FIS assessment is dependent on one’s level of experience. The results imply that interpersonal skills can be modified through training or over the course of a therapeutic career. Conceptual and practical considerations of the findings are discussed.Show less
Intellectual deficits have been known as a core feature of bipolar disorder for decades and are hypothesized to be responsible for the unfavorable psychosocial outcome and high unemployment rates....Show moreIntellectual deficits have been known as a core feature of bipolar disorder for decades and are hypothesized to be responsible for the unfavorable psychosocial outcome and high unemployment rates. Those alterations seem to be permanent and are present not only during active- but also during euthymic phases. The focus of this study was on investigating a possible link between mood symptoms, assessed through the clinician-rated questionnaire YMRS and the self-rated QIDS, and the IQ together with cognitive abilities in four different domains. Measured was the performance of 50 recently diagnosed patients participating in the BINCO-study. Furthermore, the focus was on observing differences in scoring between different symptomatic states and the two types of disorder. The impact of confounders, including the intake of antipsychotic medication, benzodiazepines, and the educational level, were considered. While no significant association between depressive symptoms and the subscale-derived IQ could be detected, a quadratic relation was found between manic symptoms and SDIQ score, pointing towards lower scoring in patients with subclinical symptoms and higher performance in patients with mild to moderate symptoms. The QIDS-score significantly impacted the performance in the sub-scale „information”, which provides the verbal comprehension index. The YMRS- score again showed a curvilinear association with the same subtest. The intake of antipsychotic medication seemed to show the greatest confounding effect on the dependent variable. Further research is needed to elucidate the effect of manic symptoms on IQ and verbal comprehension, as well as the role of antipsychotic medication. Also, larger sample sizes would determine the actual impact of each mood phase on the IQ.Show less
This paper explores the trajectory of amyloid accumulation onset in the brain relative to cognitive decline to potentially improve secondary prevention efforts of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This was...Show moreThis paper explores the trajectory of amyloid accumulation onset in the brain relative to cognitive decline to potentially improve secondary prevention efforts of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This was accomplished by attempting a replication of the study "Spatiotemporal distribution of β-amyloid in Alzheimer's disease is the result of heterogeneous carrying capacities" (Whittington et al., 2018) using data obtained from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database. Results showed that Whittington’s model of the temporal evolution of the in vivo PET β-amyloid signal over time (i.e. using the four parameters: the tracer nonspecific binding (NS), the exponential uninhibited growth rate (r), the time of half-maximal β -amyloid concentration (T50) and the carrying capacity (K)), and the derived “estimated time since disease onset” could be used to model β-amyloid accumulation trajectory. Additionally, by studying the relationship between the trajectory of amyloid accumulation and cognitive decline, the results showed that amyloid accumulation in the brain does precede cognitive decline and can be modeled to predict cognitive deterioration. Thus, it was concluded that “estimated time since disease onset” does serve as a possible effective predictive diagnostic tool of cognitive impairments and AD pathology. Additionally, this study emphasizes the need for future research on the mechanisms by which amyloid accumulation influences cognitive impairments.Show less
Studying the relationship between empathy and anxiety is important, since previous research shows that different kinds of empathy, cognitive and affective, could predict anxiety in adolescents....Show moreStudying the relationship between empathy and anxiety is important, since previous research shows that different kinds of empathy, cognitive and affective, could predict anxiety in adolescents. Cognitive emotion regulation (CER) could be of importance in this relationship, since it is related to both constructs. This is why this study investigates the relationships between empathy, anxiety and CER in adolescents. A group of 99 adolescents aged 9-19 filled in several questionnaires. The Empathy Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index to measure affective- and cognitive empathy, the StateTrait Anxiety Inventory to measure anxiety and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire to measure CER. The results showed: 1) Affective empathy was found to be a predictor for anxiety, 2) Cognitive empathy was found to not be a predictor for anxiety, 3) CER was found to not moderate the found relationship between affective empathy and anxiety. In conclusion, the found results regarding the influence of affective empathy on anxiety will prove useful in anxiety treatment. There is more understanding about how affective empathy could influence anxiety treatment, and therefore it can be taken into account when treating anxious individuals. Further research is required on the possible influence of cognitive empathy and CER. This might improve treating anxiety even further.Show less
As inertia lacks a comprehensive definition, this thesis aids the formulation of a singular yet widely applicable definition. This is accomplished by examining the feasibility of definitions...Show moreAs inertia lacks a comprehensive definition, this thesis aids the formulation of a singular yet widely applicable definition. This is accomplished by examining the feasibility of definitions obtained through the scientific literature (a top-down approach) and laypeople (a bottom-up approach). A single definition for inertia proves to be elusive due to inertia’s many different uses, interpretations, and overlap with other constructs. For this reason, several distinguishing features were identified to differentiate inertia. In addition, a dichotomy between inertia as a behaviour and tendency was proposed to reconcile contradictions within the literature. Nevertheless, a classical definition with clear boundaries proved to be problematic. Therefore, a bottom-up approach examined through a prototype analysis whether inertia may have a prototype structure. In this case, inertia is best explained through many distinct, yet overlapping concepts instead of a few boundary conditions. In Study 1, participants freely generated features of financial decision-making. In Study 2, the resultant features were adapted to financial inertia and were tested for their representativeness. These preliminary analyses indicated that inertia might indeed have a prototype structure as numerous features were considered central to inertia. While these inferences are somewhat tentative until inertia’s prototype structure is fully confirmed in subsequent tests, there are indications that the dichotomy following from the top-down approach may mirror patterns in the most centrally rated features from the bottom-up approach.Show less
