The Burden of Power: Construing Power as Responsibility (Rather Than as Opportunity) Alters Threat-Challenge Responses

Power usually lowers stress responses. In stressful situations, having high (vs. low) power heightens challenge and lowers threat. Yet, even power-holders may experience threat when becoming aware of the responsibility that accompanies their power. Power-holders can construe (i.e., understand) a high-power position primarily as opportunity to "make things happen" or as responsibility to "take care of things." Power-holders construing power as responsibility (rather than opportunity) may be more likely to experience demands-such as taking care of important decisions under their control-as outweighing their resources, resulting in less challenge and more threat. Four experiments with subjective and cardiovascular threat-challenge indicators support this. Going beyond prior work on structural aspects (e.g., power instability) that induce stress, we show that merely the way how power-holders construe their power can evoke stress. Specifically, we find that power construed as responsibility (vs. opportunity) is more likely to imply a "burden" for the power-holder.

Social Desirability Bias and Prevalence of Sexual HIV Risk Behaviors Among People Who Use Drugs in Baltimore, Maryland: Implications for Identifying Individuals Prone to Underreporting Sexual Risk Behaviors

The role of social desirability bias (SDB) in self-reported HIV risk behaviors continues to be problematic. This study examined whether SDB was associated with self-reported, via audio computer assisted self-interviewing, sexual risk behaviors among people who use drugs. The present study was conducted among 559 participants who reported having a recent sexual partner at their 6-month visit of a longitudinal study. Robust Poisson regression was used to model the association between SDB and five risk behaviors. Analyses were stratified by gender and partner type. Higher scores of SDB were associated with decreased reporting of selling sex and having more than one sexual partner. Higher SDB scores were associated with increased reporting of always using condoms during oral, vaginal, and anal sex. Gender-specific differences were observed. The inclusion of a measure of SDB in data collection, along with other strategies, can be used to both identify and reduce self-report biases.

A Brief Stress Diagnostic Tool: The Short Stress Overload Scale

The Stress Overload Scale (SOS) has demonstrated validity in predicting pathological stress reactions; however, at 30 items, it is lengthy for some clinical applications. Here, two studies tested a 10-item SOS-Short (SOS-S). First, the SOS-S was compared with the SOS in a longitudinal community study ( n = 391), using indices of pathology as criterion measures. Results showed the SOS-S to be equivalent to the SOS in reliability and concurrent and predictive validity, although not quite as sensitive to somatic symptoms. Second, the SOS-S was compared to the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale in a cross-sectional community study ( n = 249), in which symptoms and response biases were also assessed. Results showed both measures to be susceptible to biasing, and the SOS-S to demonstrate superior validity when biases were controlled. The SOS-S appears a viable alternative to the SOS and the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale for assessing stress, and risk for sequelae, across a broad demographic spectrum.

Rethinking Social Desirability Scales: From Impression Management to Interpersonally Oriented Self-Control

Social desirability (specifically, impression management) scales are widely used by researchers and practitioners to screen individuals who bias self-reports in a self-favoring manner. These scales also serve to identify individuals at risk for psychological and health problems. The present review explores the evidence with regard to the ability of these scales to achieve these objectives. In the first part of the review, I present six criteria to evaluate impression management scales and conclude that they are unsatisfactory as measures of response style. Next, I explore what individual differences in impression management scores actually do measure. I compare two approaches: a defensiveness approach, which argues that these scales measure defensiveness that stems from vulnerable self-esteem, and an adjustment approach, which suggests that impression management is associated with personal well-being and interpersonal adjustment. Data from a wide variety of fields including social behavior, affect and well-being, health, and job performance tend to favor the adjustment approach. Finally, I argue that scales measuring impression management should be redefined as measures of interpersonally oriented self-control that identify individuals who demonstrate high levels of self-control, especially in social contexts.

The evolution and psychology of self-deception

In this article we argue that self-deception evolved to facilitate interpersonal deception by allowing people to avoid the cues to conscious deception that might reveal deceptive intent. Self-deception has two additional advantages: It eliminates the costly cognitive load that is typically associated with deceiving, and it can minimize retribution if the deception is discovered. Beyond its role in specific acts of deception, self-deceptive self-enhancement also allows people to display more confidence than is warranted, which has a host of social advantages. The question then arises of how the self can be both deceiver and deceived. We propose that this is achieved through dissociations of mental processes, including conscious versus unconscious memories, conscious versus unconscious attitudes, and automatic versus controlled processes. Given the variety of methods for deceiving others, it should come as no surprise that self-deception manifests itself in a number of different psychological processes, and we discuss various types of self-deception. We then discuss the interpersonal versus intrapersonal nature of self-deception before considering the levels of consciousness at which the self can be deceived. Finally, we contrast our evolutionary approach to self-deception with current theories and debates in psychology and consider some of the costs associated with self-deception.

Physiological stress responses in defensive individuals: age and sex matter

The association between defensiveness and physiological responses to stress were evaluated in 81 healthy working men and 118 women, aged 20 to 64 years (M=41; SD=11.45). Participants underwent laboratory testing during which they were exposed to interpersonal stressors. Heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), blood pressure (BP), and salivary cortisol were measured. Defensiveness was evaluated using the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. In women, higher defensiveness was associated with greater BP and HR reactivity to stress (p<.05). In older men, lower defensiveness was associated with increased systolic BP reactivity to stress (p<.02), delayed HRV recovery (p<.02), and greater salivary cortisol levels (p<.02). In conclusion, greater defensiveness was associated with increased reactivity to stress in women whereas in older men, lower defensiveness was associated with elevated cardiovascular, autonomic, and endocrine responses to stress.

Predictors and parameters of resilience to loss: toward an individual differences model

Although there is marked variation in how people cope with interpersonal loss, there is growing recognition that most people manage this extremely stressful experience with minimal to no impact on their daily functioning (G. A. Bonanno, 2004). What gives rise to this resilient capacity? In this paper, we provide an operational definition of resilience as a specific trajectory of psychological outcome and describe how the resilient trajectory differs from other trajectories of response to loss. We review recent data on individual differences in resilience to loss, including self-enhancing biases, repressive coping, a priori beliefs, identity continuity and complexity, dismissive attachment, positive emotions, and comfort from positive memories. We integrate these individual differences in a hypothesized model of resilience, focusing on their role in appraisal processes and the use of social resources. We conclude by considering potential cultural constraints on resilience and future research directions.

Personality and electrodermal response lability: an interpretation

Electrodermal response (EDR) lability is a psychophysiological trait reflecting stable individual differences in electrodermal activation as indexed by frequency measures of phasic EDR activity. There is no consistent evidence that EDR lability reflects dispositional or clinical anxiety. However, EDR lability appears to be related to individual differences in the overt expression of emotional and antagonistic impulses. Greater EDR lability is associated with a relatively undemonstrative and agreeable disposition, whereas greater EDR stability is associated with a relatively expressive and antagonistic disposition. The inverse relationship between EDR lability and the expression of emotional and antagonistic impulses suggests that EDR lability may reflect individual differences in the effortful control of such expression. This hypothesis is consistent with cognitive effort interpretations of phasic EDR activity, with evidence of the sensitivity of phasic EDR activity to capacity-demanding tasks, and with evidence of reduced spare capacity among EDR labile individuals under cognitive challenge. Individual differences in effortful self-control may explain the association of greater EDR lability with essential hypertension and greater EDR stability with forms of antisocial behavior.

Repression: finding our way in the maze of concepts

Repression is associated in the literature with terms such as non-expression, emotional control, rationality, anti-emotionality, defensiveness and restraint. Whether these terms are synonymous with repression, indicate a variation, or are essentially different from repression is uncertain. To clarify this obscured view on repression, this paper indicates the similarities and differences between these concepts. Repression is the general term that is used to describe the tendency to inhibit the experience and the expression of negative feelings or unpleasant cognitions in order to prevent one's positive self-image from being threatened ('repressive coping style'). The terms self-deception versus other-deception, and socially related versus personally related repression refer to what is considered to be different aspects of repression. Defensiveness is a broader concept that includes both anxious defensiveness and repression; the essential difference is whether negative emotions are reported or not. Concepts that are sometimes associated with repression, but which are conceptually different, are also discussed in this paper: The act of suppression, 'repressed memories,' habitual suppression, concealment, type C coping pattern, type D personality, denial, alexithymia and blunting. Consequences for research: (1) When summarizing findings reported in the literature, it is essential to determine which concepts the findings represent. This is rarely made explicit, and failure to do so may lead to drawing the wrong conclusions (2) It is advisable to use scales based on different aspects of repression (3) Whether empirical findings substantiate the similarities and differences between concepts described in this paper will need to be shown.

Assessing defense structure in school-age children using the Response Evaluation Measure-71-Youth version (REM-Y-71)

This study used the Response Evaluation Measure-Youth (REM-Y-71), a self-report measure of 21 defense reactions, among school-age children. Participants were elementary and middle school students (n = 290; grades 3-8; age range: 8-15; mean = 11.73). Factor analysis revealed a 2-factor defense structure consistent with structure among high school and adult samples. The composite REM-Y defense scores for each factor were significant predictors of social desirability, using the Children's Defensiveness Scale (CDS); anxiety, using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC); and psychosocial functioning. This study represents the first cross-sectional empirical analysis of overall defense structure and use among children and early adolescents.

Repressive coping style and autonomic reactions to two experimental stressors in healthy men and women

Autonomic and affective responses to two different stress tasks were measured in 45 males and 74 females, categorized as repressive, true low-anxious, true high-anxious, and defensive high-anxious. Electrodermal activity (EDA) was used as a measure of sympathetic activity and the high frequency (HF) spectral component of heart rate variability as a measure of parasympathetic activity. Contrary to our predictions, reactivity of repressors did not differ from the reactivity of true low-anxious participants. The results draw attention to previous inconsistent findings within the literature on repressive coping style and autonomic nervous system dysregulation. It is suggested that future research could benefit from the use of more consistent operationalizations of the repressive coping construct and from comparing alternative measures of repressive coping within the same study.

Elevated blood pressure and self-reported symptom complaints, daily hassles, and defensiveness

The association between elevated blood pressure and low rates of self-reported problems has been hypothesized to be mediated by defensiveness. In a population screening study in which 1,120 women and 903 men between 20 and 55 years of age participated, multiple resting home blood pressure measurements were performed and questionnaires were administered measuring symptom complaints, daily hassles, and defensiveness. In women, after control for potential confounders, a low number of self-reported symptoms was associated with elevated blood pressure. However, this effect was not mediated by defensiveness, although repressive defensiveness predicted independently elevated blood pressure in women. In men, no significant associations were obtained. Furthermore, no relations emerged between daily hassles and elevated blood pressure. In conclusion, although defensiveness was more prevalent among women with elevated blood pressure, it does not provide a good explanation for the low rates of self-reported symptoms found in these women.

Effects of appraisal and coping on the neuroendocrine response to extreme stress

Although many people are exposed to extreme stress, only some of them develop psychobiological disturbances that can lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other posttrauma psychopathology. This paper examines the effects of different types of appraisal and coping to find clues to how individuals differ in their neuroendocrine responses to extreme stress. It proposes a conceptual model for components of the adult response to stressors. Threat appraisal and defensive coping may play crucial roles in determining the neuroendocrine response to trauma with potential mental health consequences, particularly PTSD.

The Two Components of Social Desirability and their Relations to Resting Frontal Brain Asymmetry

Abstract. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationships between resting frontal hemispheric asymmetry (FHA) in the low α band (8-10.25 Hz) and the two components of socially desirable responding, i.e., self-deceptive enhancement (SDE) and impression management (IM), in an opposite-sex encounter. In addition, Big Five facets, self-reports of emotion, and spontaneous eye blink rate (BR), a noninvasive indicator of functional dopamine activity, were assessed. SDE as well as IM were related to relatively greater right-than-left activity in the low α band (i.e., relative left frontal activation; LFA) and to self-reported positive affect (PA), but only SDE was related to BR. We hypothesized that two independent types of motivational approach tendencies underlie individual differences in FHA and PA: affiliative motivation represented by IM and agentic incentive motivation represented by SDE. Whereas the relationship between SDE and PA was mediated by BR, the relationship between SDE and FHA was not.

Defense mechanisms and physiological reactivity to stress

The relation between the use of defense mechanisms and autonomic nervous system reactivity, under conditions of laboratory stress, was studied in 78 men and women. Both diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and skin conductance level (SCL) were monitored during exposure to ten stress tasks; concurrently, the use of three defense mechanisms was assessed by coding Thematic Apperception Test stories. Autonomic reactivity was found to be related to defenses; the nature of that relation differed across the defenses. DBP, typically found to be associated with cognitive work, was higher in those individuals who used more Identification, a defense that requires greater cognitive activity. The use of Projection, on the other hand, was associated with lower DBP. In addition, the use of Identification showed a tendency to be associated with lower SCL.

Cardiovascular correlates of emotional expression and suppression: do content and gender context matter?

Three studies examined cardiovascular (CV) responses during emotional expression with empathically responsive strangers. Study 1 demonstrated that self-relevant emotional expression fostered CV reactivity consistent with challenge. Study 2 manipulated content of discussion by assigning participants to 1 of 4 conditions: emotional, nonemotional, emotional suppression, nonemotional suppression. In same-sex dyads. emotional expression elicited CV challenge reactivity whereas emotional suppression evoked CV threat reactivity, both compared with appropriate control groups. In opposite-sex dyads, however, emotional expression engendered CV threat. Because same- and opposite-sex disclosures differed, Study 3 controlled the content of emotional expression while manipulating gender context. Results confirmed findings from the first 2 studies, indicating that both context and content of emotional expression influenced CV effects. Findings are discussed within a theoretical challenge and threat perspective.

Repressive and defensive coping during fear and anger

In this study, the relationship between repressive and defensive coping styles and somatovisceral responses as well as emotion self-reports were investigated in 2 situational contexts conceived to induce fear and anger. Anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory; L. Laux, P. Glanzmann, P. Schaffner, and C. D. Spielberger, 1981) x Defensiveness (Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale; D. P. Crowne and D. Marlowe, 1960) x Emotion (fear, anger) moderated regression analyses revealed that compared with baseline during fear, defensiveness was related to a decrease in heart rate variability. Also during fear, repressive-defensive copers had lower self-reports of negative affect but showed higher behavioral negative affect (m. corrugator reactivity) than other participants. During anger, defensiveness was positively related to both diastolic blood pressure reactivity and m. zygomaticus reactivity. Additional analyses showed that emotional responses of repressive-defensive copers were strongly moderated by the situational context.

Defensiveness and individual response stereotypy in asthma

OBJECTIVE

Previous literature has shown that the psychological trait of defensiveness is related to elevated sympathetic reactivity to stress and to several cardiac risk factors. The aim of this study was to examine whether these previous findings on defensiveness extend to an asthmatic population.

METHODS

Defensiveness was measured by the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale using a quartile split: high (upper 25%) and low (bottom 75%). Twenty-two defensive and 66 nondefensive participants with asthma were exposed to laboratory tasks (initial baseline rest period, reaction time task, and a shop accident film).

RESULTS

During the tasks there was evidence of lower skin conductance levels and greater respiratory sinus arrhythmia amplitudes among defensive patients with asthma. After exposure to the tasks, defensive patients with asthma showed a decline on spirometry test measures compared with nondefensive asthmatic patients, who displayed an increase.

CONCLUSIONS

These data confirm individual response stereotypy and suggest that defensiveness may be characterized by sympathetic hypoarousal and parasympathetic hyperarousal among patients with asthma. Future studies are needed to determine whether defensiveness is a risk factor for stress-induced bronchoconstriction.

Perceiver threat in social interactions with stigmatized others

The extent to which stigmatized interaction partners engender perceivers' threat reactions (i.e., stigma-threat hypothesis) was examined. Experiments 1 and 2 included the manipulation of stigma using facial birthmarks. Experiment 3 included manipulations of race and socioeconomic status. Threat responses were measured physiologically, behaviorally, and subjectively. Perceivers interacting with stigmatized partners exhibited cardiovascular reactivity consistent with threat and poorer performance compared with participants interacting with nonstigmatized partners, who exhibited challenge reactivity. In Experiment 3, intergroup contact moderated physiological reactivity such that participants who reported more contact with Black persons exhibited less physiological threat when interacting with them. These results support the stigma-threat hypothesis and suggest the utility of a biopsychosocial approach to the study of stigma and related constructs.

Emotional reactivity, defensiveness, and ambulatory cardiovascular response at work

OBJECTIVE

To examine whether individual differences in dispositional emotional reactivity (ER), denoting a proneness to sustained emotional arousal in the face of stressful events, are associated with tension arousal and cardiovascular (CV) response at work, and whether this association is modified by defensive coping.

METHOD

Eighty-two male normotensive industrial workers participated in the study. ER was measured by the Emotional Reactivity Scale (Melamed, 1994). Defensive coping was identified by high scores on the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Ambulatory blood pressure (BP) was recorded concurrently with tension feelings during a typical workday.

RESULTS

ER was positively associated with systolic BP (p = .04) and diastolic BP (p = .0009) response at work, whereas defensiveness was negatively associated with both systolic BP (p = .0001) and diastolic BP (p = .04) response. This was true even after controlling for several potent determinants of ambulatory BP. No interactive effect was found between ER and defensiveness on BP response at work. High emotional reactives (ERS) had a higher proportion of tension reports during work than low ERS (p < .0001); this also applied to low defensive compared to high defensive individuals (p < .0001). ER and defensiveness interacted to affect baseline (clinic) diastolic BP. The lowest values were observed in true low (nondefensive) emotional reactives (ERS). Defensive/low ERS (repressors) had elevated BP, similar to the high (nondefensive)/ERS. Defensive/ high ERS had an intermediate BP level.

CONCLUSIONS

Both high ER and low defensiveness were independently shown to be effective in identifying persons who might display recurrent tension arousal and pressure responses at work as well as high baseline BP values. When considering both baseline and ambulatory BP values, nondefensive/high ERS appear to be at greatest CV risk.

Styles of inhibiting emotional expression: distinguishing repressive coping from impression management

Although repressors' avoidant coping style seems genuinely defensive, an alternative hypothesis is that repressors are actually distress-prone impression managers who provide "socially desirable" verbal reports. To establish discriminant validity, 30 repressors and 30 self-identified impression managers participated in a timed phrase-completion task. Half of the subjects were encouraged to be emotionally expressive and half to be restrained. Repressors were highly defensive regardless of the social demand, and impression managers only managed to match the repressors' level of distancing during the first segment of the inhibitive condition. Repressors were as physiologically reactive when they made defensive claims as they were when they made more negative disclosures to others. Moreover, when confronted, only the repressors denied that their heart rate elevations might be related to their emotional responses. These findings suggest that repressors' limited emotional expression is more determined by defenses against awareness of affect than by self-presentational concerns.

Effects of vocalization on cardiovascular and electrodermal responses during mental arithmetic

This study assessed the contribution of vocalization to autonomic responses during mental arithmetic. Specifically this study compared the autonomic responses of subjects during aloud and silent phases of repeated mental arithmetic tasks. The results were consistent for both tasks. As expected, heart rate and skin conductance responses were elevated during the aloud phases. Preejection period and cardiac output reactions, however, were greater during the silent phases. Furthermore, stroke volume declined during the aloud phases, but was maintained near resting levels during the silent phases. There were no phase effects for systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, or total peripheral resistance. The pattern of autonomic responses between aloud and silent phases of mental arithmetic suggest that the relationship between vocalization and autonomic response is not unidirectional but varies depending on the physiological parameter under investigation.