Humans have always been exposed to different kinds of threats. These threats have the ability to influence group behaviour and can have an effect on individual or collective welfare. While evidence...Show moreHumans have always been exposed to different kinds of threats. These threats have the ability to influence group behaviour and can have an effect on individual or collective welfare. While evidence suggests that threat exposure can increase cooperation and collective action, there is also evidence that suggests that threats actually break down cooperation. Furthermore, peer punishment is generally seen as a method to maintain cooperation, though usually at the cost of wasted resources. The effects of a shared threat on social decision-making in groups and the impact of peer punishment will be examined in order to test whether the presence of a common threat renders the use of peer punishment obsolete. Individuals (N = 180) in groups of three were exposed to the threat of electric shocks. Heart rate and skin conductance were continuously measured while participants decided how much to contribute to a public good. Half of the participating groups also got the opportunity to deduct resources from another participant during feedback phases.Show less
Previous research has shown that parental verbal expressions of positive and negative information contribute to the development of fear responses in their child using a variety of indices, but...Show morePrevious research has shown that parental verbal expressions of positive and negative information contribute to the development of fear responses in their child using a variety of indices, but research on the effect of parental verbal expressions on physiological indices of fear is limited. The current study aims to investigate whether threat or safety information presented by parents about a stranger affects the heart rate of the children when interacting with those strangers. Additionally, in the light of earlier evidence that has shown a moderating effect on the influence of verbal threat information on physiological changes, the role of child trait social anxiety has been explored as a possible moderator. A sample of 38 10-to-14-year-old children and their primary caregivers have participated in the current study. Parents gave their child verbal threat or safety information about two strangers that the child had to interact with during social tasks: social performance, watching back their performance, and social interaction. Heart rate was continuously recorded during these social tasks. Child trait social anxiety was measured through the child's report on the social anxiety subscale of the SCARED questionnaire. Results showed that parental verbal expressions of threat versus safety did not have a significant effect on the heart rate of the child. Furthermore, no significant moderation of this effect by child trait social anxiety was found. Conclusively, the results of the current experimental design are not in line with the expected outcome and, therefore, possible explanations and the need for further research have been highlighted.Show less
Social rejection is conceptualized as a threat to survival, yet the physiological mechanisms at work during social rejection have not received much attention. Prior research has shown a link...Show moreSocial rejection is conceptualized as a threat to survival, yet the physiological mechanisms at work during social rejection have not received much attention. Prior research has shown a link between heart rate changes and social rejection and the possible correlation of self-esteem levels to heart rate changes. Here we examined the effect of positive and negative peer feedback on heart rate changes of participants. Fifty participants (mean age = 20.4) took part in the newly developed social evaluation through feedback (SELF)- paradigm where they predicted, then received social evaluative feedback from four peers who differed in their probability of giving social acceptance versus rejection feedback. We hypothesized that social rejection would result in a transient slowing of heart rate and that this effect would be more prominent with unexpected social rejection. We also expected to find a significant difference in heart rate changes towards each different peer. Moreover, we expected self-esteem to influence heart rate reactions to feedback. As predicted, results revealed a more pronounced deceleration of heart rate during unexpected rejection, though this effect was also found with unexpected social acceptance. Difference in heart rate in response to feedback from each different peers was found, namely a transient slowing of heart rate for negative feedback from Peer 1 and positive feedback from Peer 4. Moreover, levels of self-esteem did not explain a significant amount of variance in heart rate changes. Future research should focus on a larger and more diverse sample size in order to confirm the current findings. This study added to current literature by again confirming a brake in heart rate during unexpected social rejection and by finding new results in heart rate during unexpected social acceptance from a more negative peer.Show less
Background - The Generalised Unsafety Theory of Stress, a novel stress explanation, considers the stress response as a default mode of the body, which is always active independently from stressors...Show moreBackground - The Generalised Unsafety Theory of Stress, a novel stress explanation, considers the stress response as a default mode of the body, which is always active independently from stressors unless it is inhibited based on perceiving safety. GUTS suggests there are compromised domains where stress is chronically released despite a lack of clear stressors, and the organism is unable to inhibit the stress mechanism mostly because of perceiving generalised unsafety around. One of these compromised domains is believed to be urban environments as they cannot provide sufficient signs of safety, and they mainly consist property of strangers. Natural environments in contrast are believed to provide signs of safety and therefore decrease stress levels. Using meta-analysis, this current research aimed to find and summarize evidence from existing studies reporting that urban environments are associated with increased levels of stress, Method - In total, 12 studies, collected from Web of Science database, were included in six meta-analyses conducted on heart rate variability (high frequency, low frequency/high frequency), saliva cortisol, blood pressure (systolic and diastolic), and heart rate data of healthy adult participants during and after exposure to urban and natural environments. Results - Statistically significant increased heart rate was found after a walk in the urban environment (g = 0.37, 95% CI: 0.20; 0.50, p <0.0001). High frequency heart rate variability was significantly lower after an urban walk(unknown baseline balance group: g = -0.33, 95% CI: -0.55; -0.11; baseline balanced: g = -2.52, 95% CI: -3.25; -1.78). Low frequency heart rate variability was significantly higher during the urban walk (unknown baseline balance group: g = 0.33, 95% CI: 0.49; 1.80; baseline balanced: g = 2.52, 95% CI: 1.78; 3.26). Subgroup analyses and funnel plots for heart rate variability showed a possible small-study effect in the baseline balanced groups. Blood pressure and cortisol measurements showed no significant effect and were ambiguous because of high heterogeneity and small number of included studies. Conclusions - Heart rate variability and heart rate measures indicated a higher stress level in urban than in natural environments providing an example of prolonged stress without stressors, explainable by GUTS. For blood pressure and cortisol no such evidence was provided. However, the results should be carefully interpreted because of high between-study heterogeneity and other limitations of these studies. Further research into stress measurements and effects of natural and urban environment on stress are required to provide reliable evidence.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
open access
2020-04-25T00:00:00Z
Objective: Poor emotion regulation in early development has been related to negative child outcomes and is expected to be influenced by interactions with primary caregivers. This study examines the...Show moreObjective: Poor emotion regulation in early development has been related to negative child outcomes and is expected to be influenced by interactions with primary caregivers. This study examines the relation between infant emotion regulation and maternal self-regulation. Method: The sample consisted of 132 infant-mother dyads. Maternal emotion regulation (ER) problems and executive functioning (EF) problems were assessed during pregnancy by means of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale and the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function—Adult version. At six months of age, infant’s behavioral and physiological stress responses were observed during the Still Face Paradigm (SFP). Results: In response to the still face, infants showed an increase in heart rate and negative affect, and a decrease in positive affect and gaze. Infants of mothers with more ER problems showed more reactivity on heart rate, and arching and squirming. During the still face, infant self-soothing behavior increased. In response to the reunion positive affect, gaze, self-soothing behavior and negative affect increased, while arching and squirming behavior decreased. Infants of mothers with more ER problems, but few EF problems, showed less gaze during the still face, and higher levels of negative affect in general. Conclusion: This study underlines that a mother’s capacities to self-regulate influence the infant’s stress system and the emotional development of their infant. Helping mothers to enhance their own ER capacities could possibly decrease the risk for future psychopathology for their infants.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
open access
2019-07-19T00:00:00Z
Problems with emotion regulation in childhood are related to negative child outcomes later in life, such as behavior problems. Because parents play an essential role by assisting their infant to...Show moreProblems with emotion regulation in childhood are related to negative child outcomes later in life, such as behavior problems. Because parents play an essential role by assisting their infant to develop the ability to regulate their emotions, the purpose of this study was to gain deeper understanding of the relation between maternal behavior and infants’ behavioral and physiological emotional reactivity and emotion regulation. 66 mother-infant dyads participated in two stress paradigms: the still-face paradigm was conducted at 6 months of age and the child was exposed to the robot paradigm at 12 months of age. During the stress paradigms infants’ behavioral reactivity, self-soothing behavior, heart rate and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were examined. Maternal sensitivity and maternal intrusiveness were observed during a free play task at the 6-month appointment. Overall, the infants showed behavioral and physiological arousal and regulation during stress. Although no effect of maternal intrusiveness was found, the 6-month-old infants of mothers judged as more sensitive showed more emotional reactivity, indicated by a greater increase in negative affect and heart rate than infants of less sensitive mothers. These infants also showed more physiological regulation, indicated by a greater decrease in RSA during stress than infants of less sensitive mothers. The stability of emotional reactivity and emotion regulation between 6 and 12 months was low: only the difference in RSA from stress to recovery was modestly stable. It is concluded that maternal behavior has an effect on the development of infants’ emotional reactivity and emotion regulation Future studies should further investigate the environmental characteristics influencing the development of emotion regulation in children using longitudinal designs.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
open access
2018-07-01T00:00:00Z
The aim of the present study was to examine the concept of social defeat in a human sample. Relationships between an ethnic minority position, implicit and explicit self-esteem, heart rate, skin...Show moreThe aim of the present study was to examine the concept of social defeat in a human sample. Relationships between an ethnic minority position, implicit and explicit self-esteem, heart rate, skin conductance, and social support were examined. In addition, the relationship between self-reported behavioral problems on the one hand, and self-esteem and physiology on the other hand was explored. The sample consisted of 56 male adolescents 12-18 years of age, who were divided, based on self-report behavioral problems into a high and low risk group. The implicit association task and the Rosenberg self-esteem scale were used to measure self-esteem. Measures of heart rate and skin conductance were collected during an affective research paradigm. There were no relationships between an ethnic minority position and any of the behavioral measures. Individuals reporting a significant degree of behavioral problems had lower explicit self-esteem. Average heart rate was found to be related to internalizing behavior in a low-risk group regardless of SES, self-esteem or social support. Social support did diminish the effect of average heart rate on externalizing behavior in the low-risk group. In conclusion, no clear picture of the social defeat concept is revealed by this study, more research is required.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
open access
2018-01-01T00:00:00Z
The aim of the present study was to examine infant emotion regulation, expressed in autonomic nervous system-reactivity, during the Still-Face Paradigm (SFP). In addition, the effect of maternal...Show moreThe aim of the present study was to examine infant emotion regulation, expressed in autonomic nervous system-reactivity, during the Still-Face Paradigm (SFP). In addition, the effect of maternal risk status on children’s emotional and behavioural development was examined. The sample consisted of 51 mothers and their 6-month-old infants. Measures of heart rate, pre-ejection period (PEP), skin conductance level (SCL), and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were collected during baseline and during the SFP episodes. Infant behavioural responses were coded as well. The SFP was able to elicit sympathetic and parasympathetic activity. In response to the still-face an increase in sympathetic activity was found, but only by SCL and heart rate, not by PEP. In addition, the still-face elicited an inhibition of the parasympathetic nervous system, the RSA decreased and the heart rate increased. In the transition from still-face to reunion, an effect of risk status was found on the pattern of heart rate and SCL. Infants from the high-risk group showed more sympathetic activity, indicating more stress and less emotion regulation. Overall, the SFP is able to elicit physiological features of emotion regulation and is able to indicate early differences in the autonomic nervous system activity in response to stress. Future studies should replicate these findings and should further investigate the role of maternal risk status.Show less
