It takes guts to be a rebel! A dynamic coordination account of the relationship between motivational reactivity, social morality, and political ideology.

This study tests two sets of competing hypotheses about the relationship between trait reactivity to positive and negative stimuli (i.e., motivational reactivity), moral stances on social principles (i.e., social morality), and political ideology. The classic view contends that a specific political ideology or social morality results from a specific motivational reactivity pattern, whereas the dynamic coordination account suggests that trait motivational reactivity modulates an individual's political ideology and social morality as a result of the majority political beliefs in their immediate social context. A survey using subjects recruited from a liberal-leaning social context was conducted to test these hypotheses. Results support the dynamic coordination account. Reactivity to negativity (indexed by defensive system activation scores) is associated with the adoption of the dominant social morality and political ideology. Reactivity to positivity (indexed by appetitive system activation scores) is associated with the adoption of nondominant social moral and political stances.

The importance of being animate: Information selection as a function of dynamic human-environment interactions.

This study examined whether the stability of highly relevant animate and inanimate information predicted encoding. Participants (N = 149 young adults) viewed audiovisual media and completed a change detection task of screenshots taken from the viewing session. The screenshots were either left as originally viewed or a factor was altered. The factors were all motivationally (relevant to biological imperatives) and story (relevant to the ongoing narrative) relevant. Half were part of an animal and half were part of other environmental information. This was crossed with whether the information was stable or fleeting in the scene (e.g., a person's clothing vs. their gestures). Changes to animals were more recognized than inanimate information. Changes to fleeting inanimate information were better recognized than changes to stable inanimate information. These findings indicate potential for relevant change in environmental threat and opportunity is adaptively significant and likely to increase attention and encoding across animate and inanimate categories of information.

Smoking Status Matters: A Direct Comparison of Smokers' and Nonsmokers' Psychophysiological and Self-Report Responses to Secondhand Smoke Anti-Tobacco PSAs.

Extensive research demonstrates that exposure to threatening anti-tobacco messages can lead to defensive message processing which reduces message effectiveness. However, research investigating whether this effect is moderated by the smoking status of the message viewer is lacking. In this study, participants (N = 48 smokers and N = 51 non-smokers) viewed and rated secondhand smoke anti-tobacco messages depicting both smoking cues and threat content, or messages depicting neither while heart rate, skin conductance, and facial EMG were recorded. Post viewing, self-reported emotional experience, level of counterarguing, and recognition memory were measured. In support of the LC4MP, there were no differences between smokers and non-smokers' responses for non-threatening messages absent in smoking cues. However, messages that contained both smoking cues and threat content were defensively processed by smokers - but not non-smokers - as indicated by significantly faster heart rate, lower recognition memory and higher self-reported negativity, arousal, and counterarguments. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Music for pain relief during bed bathing of mechanically ventilated patients: A pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Pain is a universal issue and is of particular concern in mechanically ventilated patients, as they require intensive nursing care and multiple invasive procedures, while being unable to communicate verbally. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of music on pain experienced by mechanically ventilated patients during morning bed bathing. METHODS: Of the 60 mechanically ventilated patients enrolled in this single-center pilot study between March 2013 and October 2015, the first 30 received no music and the next 30 the music intervention, during the morning bed bath. The Behavioral Pain Scale (BPS) score was determined during and at the end of the bath then 30, 60, and 120 minutes after the bath. BPS score changes over time were assessed and the proportions of bath times spent with a BPS score ≥5 and with the maximal BPS score were determined. RESULTS: At baseline, no patient had pain (defined as a BPS score <5) and the median BPS score was 3 [IQR, 3;3] in both groups (P = 0.43). After bed bath initiation, 88% of patients experienced pain. The maximum BPS value during the bath was lower in the music group (5 [5;6.7] vs. 7 [5;7]). Proportions of total bath time spent with BPS≥5 and with the maximum BPS were significantly lower in the music group than in the control group (2.0 [0.3;4.0] vs. 10 [4.3;18.0]; P < .0001 and 1.5 [0;3.0] vs. 3.5 [2.0;6.0]; P = .005; respectively). Two hours after the end of the bath, the BPS values had returned to baseline in both groups. CONCLUSION: In our population, music significantly decreased pain intensity and duration during the morning bed bath in mechanically ventilated patients. These results warrant further assessment in a large multicenter randomized controlled trial. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02883959.

Modalities of Invasive Arterial Pressure Monitoring in Critically Ill Patients: A Prospective Observational Study.

Few studies assessed modalities of invasive arterial pressure monitoring (IAPM). We evaluated effects on measured values of various combinations of transducer level, catheter access site, and patient position. Prospective observational study in consecutive adults admitted to a French intensive care unit in 2009 to 2011 and fulfilling our inclusion criteria. Four combinations (B-E) of transducer level, catheter access site, and patient position were compared with a reference combination (A) (A: patient supine with all catheters in the same plane and a single transducer level (M) for zero point reference (Z) aligned on the phlebostatic axis; B: 45° head-of-bed elevation with M and Z aligned on the phlebostatic axis; C: 45° head-of-bed elevation with M aligned on the catheter access site and Z on the phlebostatic axis; D: 45° head-of-bed elevation with M and Z aligned on the catheter access site; and E: 45° head-of-bed elevation with M aligned on the phlebostatic axis and Z on the catheter access site). We included 103 patients, 68 men and 35 women, with a median age of 69 years (interquartile range [IQR], 56-78); at inclusion, 91 (88.3%) received mechanical ventilation, 45 (43.7%) catecholamines, and 66 (64.1%) sedation. The IAPM access site was femoral in 49 (47.6%) and radial in 54 (52.4%) patients, with 62 of 103 (60.2%) catheters on the right side. Measured absolute mean arterial pressure values were significantly higher with 3 study combinations (C-E) than with the reference combination (A). After adjustment, the differences versus A (median, 83 [IQR, 74-92] mm Hg) remained significant for D (median, 91 [IQR, 85-100] mm Hg, P < 0.001) and E (median, 88 [IQR, 77-99] mm Hg, P < 0.001). The difference versus A was not significant for B (median, 85 [IQR, 76-94] mm Hg, P = 0.21) or C (median, 90 [IQR, 84-100] mm Hg, P = 0.006). Several modalities used for zeroing and/or transducer leveling during IAPM may result in statistically and clinically significant overestimation of measured mean arterial pressure values. For patients in the 45° head-of-bed elevation position, aligning the Z on the phlebostatic axis provides values that are not significantly different from those obtained using the reference supine modality.

Modulating executive functioning: trait motivational reactivity and resting HRV.

This study assessed relationships among individual differences in trait motivational reactivity, executive functioning, and neurovisceral regulation of emotion and attention indexed via resting heart rate variability (rHRV). We derived predictions regarding these relationships according to neurovisceral neural network theory. Because lower rHRV has been suggested as an endophenotype of less adaptive behaviour, low rHRV individuals were predicted to have high aversive and low appetitive trait motivational reactivity, while high rHRV individuals were predicted to have high reactivity in both appetitive and aversive motivational systems. These predictions were supported. Motivational reactivity also was related to executive functioning deficits, although the pattern of results was not in the predicted direction. Results suggest that trait motivational reactivity scores are related to visceral responses proposed in the neurovisceral integration circuit as well as in the modulation of these responses by higher-order cognitive control systems related to executive function.

Mediated substance cues: motivational reactivity and use influence responses to pictures of alcohol.

This study examined how emotional and physiological responses to pictures of alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverages vary as a function of motivational type and alcohol use. The authors used the limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing to guide predictions and the motivational activation measure to measure the reactivity of participants' appetitive and aversive motivational systems. Participants viewed and rated 9 pictures of alcoholic beverages and 9 pictures of nonalcoholic beverages. Facial electromyography data were collected during viewing. Overall results show that heavy users respond both more positively and more negatively to pictures of alcoholic beverages than to pictures of nonalcoholic beverages, whereas light users respond more positively overall and more positively to pictures of alcoholic beverages than to pictures of nonalcohol beverages. In addition, heavy use predictably reverses the response predicted by motivational type.

Individual differences in trait motivational reactivity influence children and adolescents' responses to pictures of taboo products.

This study examined how children and adolescents respond to pictures of products whose use, for them, is socially or legally restricted (e.g., beer, liquor, cigarettes). It was theorized and found that these pictures, referred to as taboo, elicit an automatic motivational activation whose direction and intensity are influenced by age and individual differences in defensive system activation. Results show that 11-12-year-old children demonstrate primarily aversive responses to taboo products, 13-15-year-old children have less aversive responses, and 16-17-year-old children have mixed appetitive and aversive motivational responses. Further, those with high defensive system activation show larger aversive and smaller appetitive responses across the age groups. These results suggest that placing pictures of these products in prevention messages may work for the prevention goal of reduced experimentation and risk in younger children but against the prevention goal for the older children who may be more likely to be exposed to opportunities for experimentation and use.

Individual differences in motivational activation influence responses to pictures of taboo products.

In this article, the authors investigated responses to pictures of products whose use is socially or legally restricted for teens and young adults (e.g., beer, liquor, cigarettes). The authors theorized and found that these pictures are motivationally relevant and therefore elicit automatic activation in the appetitive/approach or aversive/defensive motivational systems, which leads to increased attention, arousal, emotional response, and memory for the risky products. The authors also found that these responses are mediated by individual differences in motivational reactivity. The authors suggest that placing images of these products in prevention messages may work against the prevention goal by increasing appetitive activation and positive emotion in populations more inclined to take risks.

Rethinking theoretical approaches to stigma: a Framework Integrating Normative Influences on Stigma (FINIS).

A resurgence of research and policy efforts on stigma both facilitates and forces a reconsideration of the levels and types of factors that shape reactions to persons with conditions that engender prejudice and discrimination. Focusing on the case of mental illness but drawing from theories and studies of stigma across the social sciences, we propose a framework that brings together theoretical insights from micro, meso and macro level research: Framework Integrating Normative Influences on Stigma (FINIS) starts with Goffman's notion that understanding stigma requires a language of social relationships, but acknowledges that individuals do not come to social interaction devoid of affect and motivation. Further, all social interactions take place in a context in which organizations, media and larger cultures structure normative expectations which create the possibility of marking "difference". Labelling theory, social network theory, the limited capacity model of media influence, the social psychology of prejudice and discrimination, and theories of the welfare state all contribute to an understanding of the complex web of expectations shaping stigma. FINIS offers the potential to build a broad-based scientific foundation based on understanding the effects of stigma on the lives of persons with mental illness, the resources devoted to the organizations and families who care for them, and policies and programs designed to combat stigma. We end by discussing the clear implications this framework holds for stigma reduction, even in the face of conflicting results.

Processing radio PSAs: production pacing, arousing content, and age.

This experiment uses the limited capacity model of mediated message processing (LC3MP) to investigate the effects of production pacing and arousing content in radio public service announcements (PSAs) on the emotional and cognitive responses of college-age and tween (9-12-year-olds) participants. The LC3MP predicts that both arousing content and production pacing should increase emotional arousal, physiological arousal, cognitive effort, and encoding up to the point of cognitive overload after which cognitive effort and encoding should decrease. Results showed that, as expected, arousing content did increase emotional arousal and cognitive effort for both tweens and college students, though the effect was larger for college students. For production pacing, however, the results were less clear cut. First, it was found that for radio PSAs pacing increased arousal for calm messages only. Further, the effects of production pacing on cognitive effort were larger for tweens and were experienced primarily during the first 25 seconds of the message, while college students were less affected by production pacing, and those effects appeared in the last 25 seconds of the messages. Finally, none of the messages in this experiment resulted in cognitive overload - thus both production pacing and arousing content increased memory for both groups of participants.

It's the product: do risky products compel attention and elicit arousal in media users?

This article reports on two studies designed to measure whether the mere presence of a risky product in a mediated message (separate from executional elements of the message) elicits greater attention and arousal in media users. In the first study, participants viewed and rated 30 pictures of risky (alcohol, tobacco, drugs, condoms) and nonrisky (soda, juice, food) products while heart rate and skin conductance were measured. In the second study, participants viewed and rated 30 risky and nonrisky product words while the same measures were recorded. Results showed that the risky pictures and words elicited more emotional and physiological arousal than nonrisky pictures and words. Risky pictures elicited different orienting responses than nonrisky pictures, but there was no difference in orienting for risky and nonrisky words. Both risky pictures and words were remembered better than nonrisky pictures and words. The results of this study suggest that the mere presence of the representation of a risky product (either pictorial or verbal) elicits more arousal and more memory but not more attention in media users.