Predictors of varying levels of risks posed by fixated individuals to British public figures

Concerning approaches and communications to the Royal Family and other British public figures are relatively numerous. This paper examines over 2000 such cases logged over a three-year period in the United Kingdom. Using police and health data, the paper conducts a series of bivariate and multivariate analyses to demonstrate the predictors of what types of risk are posed by an individual case (e.g., communicate only, approach, security breach). The results showed that (a) the rates of serious mental disorders are higher among this sample than the general population base rate, (b) approachers were significantly more likely than communicators to suffer from serious mental disorders, (c) approachers were significantly more likely than communicators to have a history of substance use and abuse problems, (d) approachers were significantly more likely than communicators to have a history of violent behavior against property and persons, and (e) the motivations of approachers and communicators significantly differ. The paper concludes with a consideration of the implications for threat assessment and management.

The Post-Coronavirus World in the International Tourism Industry: Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior to Safer Destination Choices in the Case of US Outbound Tourism

The tourism industry has been seriously suffering from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis ever since its outbreak. Given this pandemic situation, the major aim of this study is to develop a conceptual framework that clearly explains the US international tourists' post-pandemic travel behaviors by expanding the theory of planned behavior (TPB). By utilizing a quantitative process, the TPB was successfully broadened by incorporating the travelers' perceived knowledge of COVID-19, and it has been deepened by integrating the psychological risk. Our theoretical framework sufficiently accounted for the US tourists' post-pandemic travel intentions for safer international destinations. In addition, the perceived knowledge of COVID-19 contributed to boosting the prediction power for the intentions. The associations among the subjective norm, the attitude, and the intentions are under the significant influence of the tourists' psychological risks regarding international traveling. The comparative criticality of the subjective norm is found. Overall, the findings of this study considerably enhanced our understanding of US overseas tourists' post-pandemic travel decision-making processes and behaviors.

Combat PTSD and Implicit Behavioral Tendencies for Positive Affective Stimuli: A Brief Report

BACKGROUND

Prior cognitive research in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has focused on automatic responses to negative affective stimuli, including attentional facilitation or disengagement and avoidance action tendencies. More recent research suggests PTSD may also relate to differences in reward processing, which has lead to theories of PTSD relating to approach-avoidance imbalances. The current pilot study assessed how combat-PTSD symptoms relate to automatic behavioral tendencies to both positive and negative affective stimuli.

METHOD

Twenty male combat veterans completed the approach-avoidance task (AAT), Clinician Administered PTSD Scale, Beck Depression Inventory-II, and State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-II. During the AAT, subjects pulled (approach) or pushed (avoid) a joystick in response to neutral, happy, disgust, and angry faces based on border color. Bias scores were calculated for each emotion type (avoid-approach response latency differences). Main and interaction effects for psychological symptom severity and emotion type on bias score were assessed using linear mixed models.

RESULTS

There was a significant interaction between PTSD symptoms and emotion type, driven primarily by worse symptoms relating to a greater bias to avoid happy faces. Post hoc tests revealed that veterans with worse PTSD symptoms were slower to approach as well as quicker to avoid happy faces. Neither depressive nor anger symptoms related to avoid or approach tendencies of emotional stimuli.

CONCLUSION

Posttraumatic stress disorder severity was associated with a bias for avoiding positive affective stimuli. These results provide further evidence that PTSD may relate to aberrant processing of positively valenced, or rewarding stimuli. Implicit responses to rewarding stimuli could be an important factor in PTSD pathology and treatment. Specifically, these findings have implications for recent endeavors in using computer-based interventions to influence automatic approach-avoidance tendencies.

Pavlovian discriminative stimulus effects of methamphetamine in male Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica)

Pavlovian drug discrimination (DD) procedures demonstrate that interoceptive drug stimuli may come to control behavior by informing the status of conditional relationships between stimuli and outcomes. This technique may provide insight into processes that contribute to drug-seeking, relapse, and other maladaptive behaviors associated with drug abuse. The purpose of the current research was to establish a model of Pavlovian DD in male Japanese quail. A Pavlovian conditioning procedure was used such that 3.0 mg/kg methamphetamine served as a feature positive stimulus for brief periods of visual access to a female quail and approach behavior was measured. After acquisition training, generalization tests were conducted with cocaine, nicotine, and haloperidol under extinction conditions. SCH 23390 was used to investigate the involvement of the dopamine D1 receptor subtype in the methamphetamine discriminative stimulus. Results showed that cocaine fully substituted for methamphetamine but nicotine only partially substituted for methamphetamine in quail. Haloperidol dose-dependently decreased approach behavior. Pretreatment with SCH 23390 modestly attenuated the methamphetamine discrimination suggesting that the D1 receptor subtype may be involved in the discriminative stimulus effects of methamphetamine. The findings are discussed in relation to drug abuse and associated negative health consequences.

Fetal programming effects of testosterone on the reward system and behavioral approach tendencies in humans

BACKGROUND

Sex differences are present in many neuropsychiatric conditions that affect emotion and approach-avoidance behavior. One potential mechanism underlying such observations is testosterone in early development. Although much is known about the effects of testosterone in adolescence and adulthood, little is known in humans about how testosterone in fetal development influences later neural sensitivity to valenced facial cues and approach-avoidance behavioral tendencies.

METHODS

With functional magnetic resonance imaging we scanned 25 8-11-year-old children while viewing happy, fear, neutral, or scrambled faces. Fetal testosterone (FT) was measured via amniotic fluid sampled between 13 and 20 weeks gestation. Behavioral approach-avoidance tendencies were measured via parental report on the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Rewards questionnaire.

RESULTS

Increasing FT predicted enhanced selectivity for positive compared with negatively valenced facial cues in reward-related regions such as caudate, putamen, and nucleus accumbens but not the amygdala. Statistical mediation analyses showed that increasing FT predicts increased behavioral approach tendencies by biasing caudate, putamen, and nucleus accumbens but not amygdala to be more responsive to positive compared with negatively valenced cues. In contrast, FT was not predictive of behavioral avoidance tendencies, either through direct or neurally mediated paths.

CONCLUSIONS

This work suggests that testosterone in humans acts as a fetal programming mechanism on the reward system and influences behavioral approach tendencies later in life. As a mechanism influencing atypical development, FT might be important across a range of neuropsychiatric conditions that asymmetrically affect the sexes, the reward system, emotion processing, and approach behavior.