Reactions to threat and personality: Psychometric differentiation of intensity and direction dimensions of human defensive behaviour

Perkins, Adam M. and Corr, Philip J. (2006) Reactions to threat and personality: Psychometric differentiation of intensity and direction dimensions of human defensive behaviour. Behavioural Brain Research, 169 (1). pp. 21-28.

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

Gray and McNaughton [Gray JA, McNaughton N. The neuropsychology of anxiety. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2000] predict that fear is associated with orientation away from threat whereas anxiety is associated with orientation towards threat; this first dimension of ‘defensive direction’ is independent of a second dimension of ‘defensive intensity’. Defensive reactions were measured using a threat scenario questionnaire developed by Blanchard et al. [Blanchard DC, Hynd AL, Minke KA, Minemoto T, Blanchard RJ. Human defensive behaviours to threat scenarios show parallels to fear- and anxiety-related defence patterns of non-human mammals. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2001;25:761–70] who found that responses paralleled the defensive reactions of rodents faced with real threats. In a sample of 141 participants we replicated Blanchard et al.'s findings as well as confirming the Gray and McNaughton hypotheses. As predicted, trait anxiety was associated with a tendency to orientate towards threat. In addition, the personality trait of psychoticism (tough-mindedness) was related to defensive intensity with low scorers on psychoticism being more sensitive to threat in general and high scorers being more threat insensitive. A well-established personality measure of general punishment sensitivity, namely the Carver and White [Carver CS, White TL. Behavioural inhibition, behavioural activation, and affective responses to impending reward and punishment: the BIS/BAS scales. J Pers Soc Psychol 1994;67:319–33] BIS scale, was positively correlated with both defensive intensity and direction. These data indicate that the threat scenario questionnaire has some validity as a measure of human reactions to threat.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Social Work and Psychology (former - to 2012) Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User:	Nicole Ranaweera
Date Deposited:	30 Nov 2010 11:21
Last Modified:	06 Sep 2023 12:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/15793
DOI:	10.1016/j.bbr.2005.11.027

Actions (login required)

View Item