Examining the role of psychological inflexibility, perspective taking, and empathic concern in generalized prejudice

Cross-cultural adaptation, reliability, and validity of the Chinese version of the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-Management of Child Hearing Loss

OBJECTIVE

The current study aims to translate and cross-culturally adapt the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-Management of Child Hearing Loss (AAQ-MCHL) scale to Chinese caregivers of children with hearing loss (CHL) and verify its psychometric characteristics.

DESIGN

This is a cross-sectional design of psychometric validation study.

STUDY SAMPLE

In total, 135 caregivers of CHL were invited to participate in the study, and complete data from 125 participants were used to analyse internal consistency, test-retest reliability, content validity, structural validity, criterion validity, and the optimal cut-off score of AAQ-MCHL.

RESULTS

Through careful and complete translation and adaptation, the Chinese version of AAQ-MCHL was successfully created. The Chinse version of the AAQ-MCHL had good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, content validity, structural validity, and criterion validity. Our results also showed that poorer speech performance in CHL was a strong predictor of parental psychological inflexibility.

CONCLUSIONS

The Chinese version of the AAQ-MCHL could be used as an outcome indicator to evaluate the psychological inflexibility of caregivers of CHL in mainland China, and we suggest that early interventionists should be aware of signs of elevated psychological inflexibility in caregivers of CHL.

Measurement of psychological inflexibility: an examination of the psychometric properties of the AAQ-3 compared to AAQ-II

Due to the limitations of the existing measurements of experiential avoidance, we would like to check the validity of the improved version of Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II), i.e., Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-3 (AAQ-3), in Chinese content. The present study was aim to examine the construct and validity of the Chinese version of AAQ-3 in college students and provide an initial validation of this instrument to promote future cross-cultural examination of the psychological flexibility. Totally 1,572 college students were invited to complete the Chinese AAQ-3 and the related questionnaires at the same time. After one month, 380 participates were assessed with same questionnaires to examine the test-retest reliability. The results indicated a similar one-factor solution in the Chinese AAQ-3 to the original version by exploratory factor analysis, parallel analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were good. According to the testing of the measurement invariance, the one-factor model was acceptable across gender (Man = 875, Girl = 697). Additionally, Chinese AAQ-3 was significantly negatively correlated with positive mental health (life satisfaction, mindful attention awareness), significantly positively correlated with negative emotions (depression, anxiety, stress), and significantly positively correlated with AAQ-II and Brief Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire (BEAQ). Besides, Chinese AAQ-3 was the strongest predictor of depression, anxiety, stress and life satisfaction compared to the AAQ-II and BEAQ. However, according to the exploratory structural equation model, the Chinese AAQ-3 demonstrated excellent discriminate validity from negative emotions. Overall, the AAQ-3 modified the limitations of the existing measurements of experiential avoidance (i.e., AAQ-II and BEAQ) as it showed better convergent validity with positive mental health indicators, better discriminant validity with negative emotions, and higher incremental validity. Therefore, the Chinese AAQ-3 is a valid measurement tool for assessing the level of experiential avoidance or psychological flexibility in Chinese college students.

Psychiatric and affective predictors of negative racial attitudes

Negative Racial Attitudes (NRA) have been identified as major contributors to discrimination and inequalities. Previous studies of predictors of NRA have focused largely on socioeconomic, socialization, social attitudes, and personality characteristics. Yet, the potential links of psychiatric and affective indicators to NRA have received little scientific inquiry. Three-hundred-and-two participants completed measures of explicit, covert, and implicit NRA, along with indices of psychotic-like experiences (PLEs), mood symptoms, affective processing, social attitudes, and personality characteristics. Explicit and covert NRA were significantly correlated with difficulty identifying and describing feelings, use of suppression to regulate emotion, and the PLEs domains of perceptual abnormalities, bizarre experiences, and persecutory ideation, along with social attitudes and personality characteristics. Implicit NRA was not associated with any indicators. Next, employing hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses, the affective and psychiatric indicators accounted 5.2% and 10.4% of the explicit and covert NRA variance, respectively, controlling for previously identified predictors including demographics, social attitudes, and personality characteristics. Our results point to newly identified predictors of NRA including difficulties identifying and describing emotions, use of suppression to regulate emotions, as well as PLEs, specifically perceptual abnormalities. We discuss the implications of the findings to the development and adaptation of anti-racism interventions.

Factors that contribute to accurately perceiving anti-black racism and sexism overlap

Past research demonstrates that prejudice toward women and Black Americans often co-occur in individuals. The present studies examine factors related to accuracy in estimating the co-occurrence, or overlap, of prejudice toward women and Black Americans. Across two studies, criterion overlap percentages were computed using national datasets and separate participant samples estimated prejudice overlap. Results indicate that beliefs about the generalized nature of prejudice can improve accuracy by reducing faulty underestimation of the overlap in anti-Black racism and sexism. In addition to greater displayed accuracy in perceptions of prototypical perpetrators of prejudice (i.e., estimates of White men compared to White women), the present work suggests that accuracy is improved when estimating sexist attitudes from racist attitudes, rather than vice versa. Together, this work documents the accuracy of prejudice overlap perceptions, for the first time, and factors that facilitate accuracy (i.e., perpetrator prototypicality, known prejudicial attitude), with implications for intergroup dynamics research.

A network analysis of psychological flexibility, coping, and stigma in dermatology patients

Introduction

Despite the negative effects of stigma in individuals with skin conditions, interventions to address its effects are rare. This might be in part due to a continued lack of understanding as to how individuals respond to stigma.

Methods

In this study, we employed a step-case analytic method, using traditional regression, moderation, and network analyses, to examine the role of psychological flexibility (PF) with stigmatized experiences, and stigma-related outcomes. We run a cross-sectional study (n = 105 individuals with various skin conditions) and analyzed stigma-related variables. We included variables examining perceived stigmatization (PSQ), anxiety (GAD-7), depression (PHQ-9), well-being (EQ5D5L), and variables stemming from the PF model (CompACT), presented as three coping with stigma responses, namely "open," "aware," and "active.".

Results

Using network analysis, the most influential or central variables that contributed to stigma were generalized anxiety, perceived stigmatization, and valued actions. In relation to PF, being open to the experience of stigma (as opposed to avoidance), keeping a distance from stigmatized thoughts (as opposed to self-stigmatizing), and bringing attention to value-based committed actions (as opposed to passivity) were all found to contribute to less stigmatized experiences.

Discussion

The results indicate that two of the three skills of the PF model ("open" and "active") may be important targets for interventions targeting stigma in people living with skin conditions.

Explicit and implicit weight bias among health care students: a cross-sectional study of 39 Australian universities

Background

Weight bias exhibited by health care students may continue into their future practice, compromising the provision of care that people living with overweight or obesity receive. This highlights the need to comprehensively examine the extent to which weight bias is present among health care students and the factors that may be associated with students' weight bias.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, Australian university students enrolled in health care courses were invited via social media advertisements, snowball and convenience sampling, and by making direct contact with universities to complete an online survey. Students provided demographic information including discipline of study, perceived weight status, and state of residence. Students then completed several measures which assessed their explicit and implicit weight bias, and empathy. Descriptive statistics established the presence of explicit and implicit weight bias, and ANCOVAs, ANOVA, and multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the potential factors associated with students' exhibited weight bias.

Findings

Between March 08, 2022, and March 15, 2022, 900 eligible health care students attending 39 Australian universities participated in the study. Students reported varying levels of explicit and implicit weight bias, with minimal differences between disciplines on most outcome measures. Students who identified as men (vs. women) exhibited higher of both explicit and implicit bias (Beliefs About Obese Persons (BAOP): p = 0.0002, Antifat Attitudes Questionnaire (AFA)-Dislike: p = 0.019, AFA Willpower p < 0.0001, Empathy for Obese Patients: p = 0.0011, Implicit Association Test: p = 0.022), and students who displayed greater (vs. less) empathic concern exhibited lower levels of explicit bias (BAOP, AFA Dislike and Willpower, and Empathy for Obese Patients: p < 0.0001). Having witnessed the enactment of weight stigma sporadically (vs. regularly) by role models was associated with greater attribution of the causes of obesity to willpower (a few times a month vs. daily: p = 0.020, a few times a year vs. daily: p = 0.022), and less time spent with people living with overweight or obesity outside of study was associated with more dislike (a few times a month vs. daily: p = 0.0048, once a month vs. daily: p = 0.0002) and less fear of fat (once a month vs. daily: p = 0.036, and once a month vs. a few times a week: p = 0.0028).

Interpretation

Results demonstrate the presence of both explicit and implicit weight bias among Australian health care students. Several characteristics and experiences of students were associated with their weight bias. Validity of the exhibited weight bias should be established in practical interactions with people living with overweight or obesity and novel interventions should be developed to ameliorate weight bias.

Funding

Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship, Australian Government, Department of Education.

Dispositional Mindfulness in Heterosexual and Lesbian/Bisexual Women: Associations with Sexual Prejudice and Internalized Sexual Stigma

This research investigated the effect of dispositional mindfulness on the reduction of sexual prejudice and internalized sexual stigma in heterosexual and lesbian/bisexual women, who still represent a population that is under-represented in the scientific literature. Participants were 203 Italian women, both heterosexual (N = 104, 51.2%) and lesbian/bisexual (N= 99, 48.8%), ranging between 18 and 68 years old. They responded to a questionnaire containing demographic information and measures of dispositional mindfulness, need for cognitive closure, and adherence to traditional gender roles. Dominance analyses were run to test the predictive power of mindfulness' dimensions on internalized sexual stigma and on sexual prejudice over and above the other predictors. Results showed that having a mindful nonjudging attitude toward one's inner experience is associated with less internalized sexual stigma in lesbian and bisexual women. On the contrary, dispositional mindfulness was not associated with heterosexual women's sexual prejudice against gay and lesbian individuals.

Psychological mechanism of acceptance and commitment therapy and rational emotive behavior therapy for treating hoarding: Evidence from randomized controlled trials

Hoarding is a common problem behavior worldwide and is detrimental to the physical and mental health of individuals and groups. Currently, effective interventions for hoarding are cognitive-behavioral therapies, but their post-intervention efficacy is questionable, and the available research does not examine the mediating variables of the effects of interventions on clinical outcomes. Moreover, current research on hoarding has focused on Western countries. Therefore, there is a need to investigate the efficacy of other forms of cognitive behavioral therapy on hoarding as well as other psychological outcomes related to hoarding and mediating variables that contribute to its effectiveness in different cultural contexts. One hundred thirty-nine college students with higher hoarding behaviors were randomly divided into three groups: 45 in the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) group, 47 in the Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) group, and 47 in the control group. They completed the Saving Inventory-Revised (SI-R), Obsessive-Compulsive Symptom Scale (OCSS), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory-Attachment Anxiety Subscale (ECR), Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21), Acceptance and Action Questionnaire II (AAQ-II), and Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (CFQ) before and immediately after the intervention. The results showed that ACT and REBT improved individuals' psychological flexibility, cognitive fusion, acquisition-difficulty discarding, clutter, negative affect (anxiety, depression, stress), attachment anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and difficulty in emotion regulation compared to the control group. In addition, ACT was more effective than REBT in improving psychological flexibility and reducing hoarding, cognitive fusion, depression, stress, and obsessive-compulsive disorder; there were no significant differences between the two in anxiety and emotion regulation difficulties. Furthermore, psychological flexibility is a mediator of the effect of ACT and REBT on some behavioral and psychological outcomes (hoarding, negative affect, attachment anxiety). Limitations were discussed.

The Temporal Dynamics of Emotion Regulation in Subjects With Major Depression and Healthy Control Subjects

BACKGROUND

Emotion regulation (ER) processes help support well-being, but ineffective ER is implicated in several psychiatric disorders. Engaging ER flexibly by going online and offline as needs and capacities shift may be more effective than engaging ER rigidly across time. Here, we sought to observe the neural temporal dynamics of an ER process, reappraisal, during regulation of responses to negative memories in healthy control subjects (n = 33) and subjects with major depressive disorder (n = 36).

METHODS

To track the temporal dynamics of reappraisal neural systems, we used a functional magnetic resonance imaging neural decoding approach. In task 1, subjects explicitly engaged reappraisal on instruction in response to aversive images, and we used this task to develop the decoder for detecting reappraisal. In task 2, subjects experienced negative autobiographical memories from a distant (third person, ER condition) or immersed (first person, control condition) perspective.

RESULTS

The neural decoder, trained to detect reappraisal in task 1, predicted greater reappraisal occurring during the task 2 distance versus immerse trials and was engaged more intensely during memories that were rated as being more negative. Across time, decoder output manifested a temporal dynamic of early engagement followed by disengagement. These results were replicated in an independent subject dataset (n = 59). Relative to healthy control subjects, subjects with major depressive disorder had a comparable initial increase in decoder engagement at the beginning of the trial but an attenuated decrease at the end.

CONCLUSIONS

Subjects with major depressive disorder evidenced a more rigid neural dynamic of reappraisal compared with healthy control subjects. Rigid ER may indicate diminished ability to flexibly and effectively regulate emotion.

Do neoliberal values provide a fertile soil for suicidal ideation?

BACKGROUND

Values associated with neoliberal ideologies are blamed for damaging the social fabric. They may also have deleterious effects on suicidal ideation.

OBJECTIVE

We investigated whether neoliberal values were associated with the risk for suicidal ideation through a set of mediating factors (suicide stigma, help-seeking attitudes, perceived stress, and suicide acceptability).

METHODS

A total of 508 (249 female) adults from the U.S. responded to a self-administered questionnaire that contained measures of suicidal ideation, neoliberal values, suicide stigma, help-seeking attitudes, perceived stress, and suicide acceptability. We tested a path model that linked neoliberal values to suicidal ideation through multiple mediators. We tested total versus partial mediation models.

RESULTS

We found empirical evidence for a full mediation of the association of neoliberal values with perceived stress. Neoliberal values were associated with suicide stigma; suicide stigma was associated with negative attitudes towards help-seeking, which, in turn, were associated with high levels of perceived stress. The association of neoliberal values with suicide acceptability was partially mediated. Perceived stress was positively associated with suicide risk directly and indirectly through suicide acceptability.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest that values related to neoliberal ideologies prepare a context that fosters the risk for suicide. For a contextualized understanding of suicidal behavior, more research is needed that explores the role of social, cultural, political, and economic ideologies in the suicidal process.

Does social intolerance vary according to cognitive styles, genetic cognitive capacity, or education?

BACKGROUND

Low education, low cognitive abilities, and certain cognitive styles are suggested to predispose to social intolerance and prejudices. Evidence is, however, restricted by comparatively small samples, neglect of confounding variables and genetic factors, and a narrow focus on a single sort of prejudice. We investigated the relationships of education, polygenic cognitive potential, cognitive performance, and cognitive styles with social intolerance in adulthood over a 15-year follow-up.

METHODS

We used data from the prospective population-based Young Finns Study (n = 960-1679). Social intolerance was evaluated with the Social Intolerance Scale in 1997, 2001, and 2011; cognitive performance with the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery in 2011; cognitive styles in 1997; and socioeconomic factors in 1980 (childhood) and 2011 (adulthood); and polygenic cognitive potential was calculated based on genome-wide association studies.

RESULTS

We found that nonrational thinking, polygenic cognitive potential, cognitive performance, or socioeconomic factors were not related to social intolerance. Regarding cognitive styles, low flexibility (B = -0.759, p < .001), high perseverance (B = 1.245, p < .001), and low persistence (B = -0.329, p < .001) predicted higher social intolerance consistently in the analyses.

DISCUSSION

When developing prejudice-reduction interventions, it should be considered that educational level or cognitive performance may not be crucial for development of social intolerance. Adopting certain cognitive styles may play more important roles in development of social intolerance.

"Leave Britney alone!": parasocial relationships and empathy

The present study examined the relationship between parasocial relationships (PSRs; one-sided relationships with media figures), PSR characteristics, and empathy. We also examined whether people are biased toward those with PSRs, and whether people higher in empathy are less biased. Participants completed a survey that assessed whether they a) had a PSR, b) their satisfaction with, commitment to, and investment in the PSR, c) their degree of parasocial interaction (PSI), d) biases toward people with PSRs, and e) empathy. Results showed that empathy was positively related to self-identifying as having a PSR, commitment to and satisfaction with PSRs, and overall PSI. Results also showed that bias against individuals with PSRs exists, but that individuals higher in empathy are less biased. This research provides new insight into how empathy relates to PSRs and provides evidence of bias toward people with PSRs, as well as a potential way to reduce that bias (empathy).

Corona Concerts: The Effect of Virtual Concert Characteristics on Social Connection and Kama Muta

The popularity of virtual concerts increased as a result of the social distancing requirements of the coronavirus pandemic. We aimed to examine how the characteristics of virtual concerts and the characteristics of the participants influenced their experiences of social connection and kama muta (often labeled “being moved”). We hypothesized that concert liveness and the salience of the coronavirus would influence social connection and kama muta. We collected survey responses on a variety of concert and personal characteristics from 307 participants from 13 countries across 4 continents. We operationalized social connection as a combination of feelings and behaviors and kama muta was measured using the short kama muta scale (Zickfeld et al., 2019). We found that (1) social connection and kama muta were related and predicted by empathic concern, (2) live concerts produced more social connection, but not kama muta, than pre-recorded concerts, and (3) the salience of the coronavirus during concerts predicted kama muta and this effect was completely mediated by social connection. Exploratory analyses also examined the influence of social and physical presence, motivations for concert attendance, and predictors of donations. This research contributes to the understanding of how people can connect socially and emotionally in virtual environments.

Anger, Fear, and Sadness: How Emotions Could Help Us End a Pandemic of Racism

Racism, recently referred to as another kind of pandemic, affects the health and safety of diverse individuals within the United States and around the world. Emotions are a powerful and integral aspect of the experience of racism; however, within the field of behavior analysis, we have been hesitant to acknowledge emotion or explore how it relates to behavior and behavioral contingencies. As a result, the scope of our understanding of emotion is limited. To better understand the current experience and perception of practitioners in the field of behavior analysis, as they relate to emotion and racism, a brief survey was conducted. Findings indicated that although many may be comfortable discussing emotion and displaying emotions for themselves and others, this was not the case for everyone. Further, many were uncomfortable discussing racism. Although participants believed that emotions of racism are important and should be addressed by the field of behavior analysis, they think the field has not done enough work in this area. The results of the study lead to several recommendations, including additional antiracism research and the acknowledgment of emotional experience, as well as for how individuals can better understand, and maybe reduce, the negative emotions associated with oppression.

Sustaining Personal Activism: Behavior Analysts as Antiracist Accomplices

One pervasive social issue that has received little attention within the behavior-analytic community is racism and the systemic oppression of Black, Indigenous, and non-Black people of color. The present article offers guidance and examples of how each of us as behavior analysts might build individualized self-management behavior change plans that support initiating and sustaining socially significant antiracism work as we move from allies to accomplices within our own sphere of influence. This article introduces the concept of self-managed antiracism behavior change plans that (a) operationally define antiracist action using measurable outcomes and strategies for data collection on specific antiracist and support actions, (b) provide choices to improve engagement and reduce barriers to adherence, and (c) use effective behavioral interventions to alter the availability of discriminative stimuli or reduce their influence, and increase the availability of reinforcers that are compatible with the goal of the behavior change plan for increasing antiracism behavior and dismantling structures perpetuating racial inequities.

Psychological Flexibility With Prejudices Increases Empathy and Decreases Distress Among Adolescents: A Spanish Validation of the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-Stigma

Empathy is an emotional response that may facilitate prosocial behavior and inhibit aggression by increasing empathic concern for others. But the vicarious experience of other’s feelings may also turn into personal distress when the person has poor regulation skills and holds stigmatizing beliefs. In thinking about the processes that may trigger the experience of personal distress or empathic concern, research on the influence of psychological flexibility and inflexibility on stigma is showing promising results. Both processes are assessed with the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire–Stigma (AAQ-S). The current study sought to carry out a validity study of a Spanish version of the AAQ-S with a sample of adolescents aged 11–17 years. The study included an expanded test of its predictive validity with measures at three times to evaluate the role of psychological flexibility and inflexibility as risk or protective variables for the development of personal distress and/or empathic concern in the stigmatizer. Statistical analyses confirmed a two-correlated-factor solution, the adequate reliability of both factors, and their construct and predictive validity in the expected direction. The stigmatizer’s inflexible reaction to their stigmatizing thoughts predicted the occurrence of personal distress, whereas the stigmatizer’s flexible reaction to their stigmatizing thoughts predicted the occurrence of empathic concern for others. These findings confirm the importance of considering the role of regulatory skills in the experience of empathic concern or personal distress in the presence of stigmatizing thoughts, with possible implications for the promotion of prosocial behavior and the reduction of aggressive behavior among adolescents.

Investigating the Relationship between University Students' Psychological Flexibility and College Self-Efficacy

For many, college is a period of transition, marked with acute stress, threats to success, and decreases in self-efficacy. For certain groups of students, the risk of these poor outcomes is elevated. In this study, 348 students from a large residential university in the western United States were surveyed to understand the role of psychological flexibility and inflexibility on self-efficacy and the potential moderating impact of year in college and underrepresented racial minority (URM) status. Results indicated that students who are psychologically flexible reported greater college self-efficacy, whereas students who are psychologically inflexible reported lower college self-efficacy. The impact of psychological inflexibility on self-efficacy was moderated by URM status and year in school; psychological inflexibility had a stronger impact on URM students' self-efficacy than non-minority students, and psychological inflexibility had a greater effect on college students starting college as opposed to students who had been enrolled for multiple years.

Can Behavior Analysis Help Us Understand and Reduce Racism? A review of the Current Literature

Despite ongoing efforts to eradicate racism, it persists globally, negatively affecting education, mental health, community relations, and economic development. Every behavior analyst can, and should, contribute to the reduction of racism in some way. Unfortunately, little behavior-analytic research exists to guide us. This article proposes ways that members of our scientific community can learn about racism from a behavioral perspective, extend experimental analyses of prejudice, and intervene to reduce racism in varied settings. It describes both traditional behavior-analytic and functional-contextualist accounts of racism and summarizes the small amount of related empirical and applied research. The review suggests that combining traditional behavior-analytic methods with acceptance and commitment training techniques may attenuate racism more effectively. The article ends with a call to collaborate around this globally important issue-and to do more to reduce racism.

Negative views of out-groups and emotion regulation strategies: Evidence for an association with the tendency to suppress emotion expression, but not with cognitive reappraisal or emotion dysregulation

Emotions influence attitudes and appraisals toward out-groups, including prejudice. We hypothesized that individuals who successfully regulate emotions will express more positive attitudes toward out-groups. We conducted an online study of associations between emotion regulation and attitudes toward out-groups in a Finnish population-based sample (N = 320). As hypothesized, expressive suppression was associated with decreased acceptance toward out-groups, but contrary to our hypothesis, cognitive reappraisal was not associated with increased acceptance. In exploratory analyses, we found that individuals with more cognitive reappraisal (vs. expressive suppression) had a higher acceptance of out-groups, and that emotion regulation may not influence attitudes toward all out-groups equally. In conclusion, we present novel results indicating that habitual emotion regulation strategies are differently associated with attitudes toward a broad array of out-groups, and that the sociocultural aspects of emotion regulation toward out-group attitudes may play a role.

The Impact of Mindfulness and Perspective-Taking on Implicit Associations Toward the Elderly: a Relational Frame Theory Account

Perspective-taking interventions have been shown to improve attitudes toward social outgroups. In contrast, similar interventions have produced opposite effects (i.e., enhanced negativity) in the context of attitudes toward elderly groups. The current study investigated whether a brief perspective-taking intervention enhanced with mindfulness would be associated with less negativity than perspective-taking alone. One hundred five participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions which comprised of an active or control perspective-taking component and an active or control mindfulness component. Participants were then administered an Implicit Associated Test to assess implicit biases toward the elderly. Results supported previous findings in that the condition in which perspective-taking was active but mindfulness was inactive was associated with greater negative implicit bias toward the elderly; however, some of this negativity decreased in the active perspective-taking and active mindfulness condition. The current findings and other mixed effects that have emerged from perspective-taking interventions are discussed from a Relational Frame Theory perspective.

Experiential avoidance, empathy, and anger-related attitudesin antisocial personality disorder

BACKGROUND/AIM

In prevailing opinion, a strong relation exists between lack of empathy and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). However, recent data fail to wholly clarify this relation, especially in consideration of empathy dimensions. In this study our aim was to address ASPD and social functionality from a contextual behavioral science viewpoint.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The present study was conducted with a sample of 34 individuals with ASPD and 32 healthy individuals as the control group. The participants were assessed with a sociodemographic form, Structured Clinical Interviews for DSM I and II (SCID-I and SCID-II), Social Functioning Scale (SFS), Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II for measuring experiential avoidance, Interpersonal Reactivity Index for measuring empathy dimensions, and the State-Trait Anger Scale for anger-related attitudes.

RESULTS

Experiential avoidance, dysfunctional anger regulation patterns, and lack of perspective-taking levels were higher in the ASPD group than in the control group. Experiential avoidance and perspective-taking processes were related with social functioning in ASPD.

CONCLUSION

These findings may provide initial data for understanding ASPD clinical features and related social interaction problems. Further relations between scales and social functionality also analyzed and discussed.