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Frontiers in Psychology 2022People are better at approaching appetitive cues signaling reward and avoiding aversive cues signaling punishment than vice versa. This action bias has previously been...
People are better at approaching appetitive cues signaling reward and avoiding aversive cues signaling punishment than vice versa. This action bias has previously been shown in approach-avoidance tasks involving arm movements in response to appetitive or aversive cues. It is not known whether appetitive or aversive stimuli also bias more distal dexterous actions, such as gripping and slipping, in a similar manner. To test this hypothesis, we designed a novel task involving grip force control (gripping and slipping) to probe gripping-related approach and avoidance behavior. 32 male volunteers, aged 18-40 years, were instructed to either grip () or slip () a grip-force device with their right thumb and index finger at the sight of positive or negative images. In one version of this pincer grip task, participants were responding to graspable objects and in another version of the task they were responding to happy or angry faces. Bayesian repeated measures Analysis of variance revealed extreme evidence for an interaction between response type and cue valence (Bayes factor = 296). Participants were faster to respond in affect-congruent conditions () than in affect-incongruent conditions (). This bias toward faster response times for affect-congruent conditions was present regardless of whether it was a graspable object or a face signaling valence. Since our results mirror the approach and avoidance effects previously observed for arm movements, we conclude that a tendency favoring affectively congruent cue-response mappings is an inherent feature of motor control and thus also includes precision grip.
PubMed: 36329745
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.989495 -
Frontiers in Psychology 2022Tendencies of approach and avoidance seem to be a universal characteristic of humans. Specifically, individuals are faster in avoiding than in approaching negative...
Tendencies of approach and avoidance seem to be a universal characteristic of humans. Specifically, individuals are faster in avoiding than in approaching negative stimuli and they are faster in approaching than in avoiding positive stimuli. The existence of this automatic approach-avoidance bias has been demonstrated in many studies. Furthermore, this bias is thought to play a key role in psychiatric disorders like drug addiction and phobias. However, its mechanisms are far from clear. Theories of embodied cognition postulate that the nature of gestures plays a key role in this process. To shed light on the role of the involved gesture we employed a 2 × 2 factorial design with two types of stimuli. Participants had either to approach positive and avoid negative stimuli (congruent conditions) or to avoid positive stimuli and approach negative stimuli (incongruent conditions). Further, they responded either with a joystick or a button press on a response pad. Participants reacted faster in congruent conditions, i.e., avoiding negative stimuli and approaching positive stimuli, than in incongruent conditions. This replicates the known approach and avoidance bias. However, direct analysis of the button press condition revealed no reaction time advantage for congruent trials compared to incongruent trials. In contrast, in the joystick condition participants were significantly faster performing congruent reactions than incongruent reactions. This interaction, a significant reaction time advantage, when the response is enacted by moving a joystick towards or away from the body provides evidence that approach-avoidance tendencies have a crucial bodily component.
PubMed: 36160565
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.797122 -
Journal of Community Health Oct 2022Previous research has identified three common reasons for healthcare avoidance, cost, complexity, and privacy. This study extends prior work by examining the antecedents...
PURPOSE
Previous research has identified three common reasons for healthcare avoidance, cost, complexity, and privacy. This study extends prior work by examining the antecedents to these barriers and determining the extent to which they contribute to healthcare avoidance in a rural population.
METHODS
A cross-sectional, regional survey of rural residents from Eastern North Carolina was conducted with questions focused on self-perceived health, healthcare utilization, and healthcare avoidance. Bivariate logistic regression was employed to investigate the predictors of cost, complexity, and privacy-related avoidance.
RESULTS
Among 946 respondents, a quarter of the sample (N = 240) had not visited a doctor within the past year. Respondents who were uninsured were almost 6-times more likely to endorse avoiding healthcare due to cost (OR = 5.98) and those who had a chronic illness were 3-times as likely to report cost-related avoidance (OR = 3.01). Complexity-related avoidance was predicted by having a chronic illness (OR = 3.77) and a low perception of healthcare value (OR = 2.80). Lastly, privacy-related avoidance was related to being in fair/poor health (OR = 2.61), having a chronic illness (OR = 2.63), reporting low healthcare value (OR = 2.72), and having an external locus of control (OR = 2.96).
CONCLUSIONS
Among avoidant individuals, those with a chronic illness, who could benefit most from continuity of healthcare, are 3-times more likely to avoid healthcare due to cost, complexity, and privacy. The perceived value of healthcare is also associated with complexity- and privacy-related healthcare avoidance. Utilizing alternative methods of healthcare delivery, such as telemedicine and free or reduced cost mobile health clinics, could improve continuity of medical care for rural residents.
Topics: Adult; Chronic Disease; Cross-Sectional Studies; Health Services Accessibility; Humans; North Carolina; Patient Acceptance of Health Care; Rural Population
PubMed: 35675005
DOI: 10.1007/s10900-022-01106-3 -
Behavioural Pharmacology Apr 2019Individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder avoid trauma-related stimuli and exhibit blunted hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis response at the time of trauma. Our... (Review)
Review
Individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder avoid trauma-related stimuli and exhibit blunted hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis response at the time of trauma. Our laboratory uses predator odor (i.e. bobcat urine) stress to divide adult Wistar rats into groups that exhibit high (avoiders) or low (nonavoiders) avoidance of a predator odor-paired context, modeling the fact that not all humans exposed to traumatic events develop psychiatric conditions. Male avoiders exhibit lower body weight gain after stress, as well as extinction-resistant avoidance that persists after a second stress exposure. These animals also show attenuated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis response to predator odor that predicts subsequent avoidance of the odor-paired context. Avoiders exhibit unique brain activation profiles relative to nonavoiders and controls (as measured by Fos immunoreactivity), and higher corticotropin-releasing factor levels in multiple brain regions. Furthermore, avoider rats exhibit escalated and compulsive-like alcohol self-administration after traumatic stress. Here, we review the predator odor avoidance model of post-traumatic stress disorder and its utility for tracking behavior and measuring biological outcomes predicted by avoidance. The major strengths of this model are (i) etiological validity with exposure to a single intense stressor, (ii) established approach distinguishing individual differences in stress reactivity, and (iii) robust behavioral and biological phenotypes during and after trauma.
Topics: Animals; Avoidance Learning; Brain; Conditioning, Operant; Disease Models, Animal; Humans; Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System; Male; Odorants; Pituitary-Adrenal System; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic; Stress, Psychological
PubMed: 30640179
DOI: 10.1097/FBP.0000000000000460 -
Health Systems and Reform Jan 2022We explore how the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with avoidance of, and challenges with, antenatal, childbirth and postpartum care among women in Kiambu and Nairobi...
We explore how the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with avoidance of, and challenges with, antenatal, childbirth and postpartum care among women in Kiambu and Nairobi counties, Kenya; and whether this was associated with a report of declined trust in the health system due to the pandemic. Women who delivered between March and November 2020 were invited to participate in a phone survey about their care experiences (n = 1122 respondents). We explored associations between reduced trust and care avoidance, delays and challenges with healthcare seeking, using logistic regression models adjusted for women's characteristics. Approximately half of respondents said their trust in the health care system had declined due to COVID-19 (52.7%, n = 591). Declined trust was associated with higher likelihood of reporting barriers accessing antenatal care (aOR 1.59 [95% CI 1.24, 2.05]), avoiding care for oneself (aOR 2.26 [95% CI 1.59, 3.22]) and for one's infant (aOR 1.77 [95% CI 1.11, 2.83]), and of feeling unsafe accessing care (aOR 1.52 [95% CI 1.19, 1.93]). Since March 2020, emergency services, routine care and immunizations were avoided most often. Primary reported reasons for avoiding care and challenges accessing care were financial barriers and problems accessing the facility. Declined trust in the health care system due to COVID-19 may have affected health care-seeking for women and their children in Kenya, which could have important implications for their health and well-being. Programs and policies should consider targeted special "catch-up" strategies that include trust-building messages and actions for women who deliver during emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Topics: Infant; Child; Female; Pregnancy; Humans; Kenya; Pandemics; Trust; COVID-19; Prenatal Care
PubMed: 36534179
DOI: 10.1080/23288604.2022.2156043 -
BMC Oral Health Nov 2021The treatment of acute pain is part of everyday dental practice. Often, these symptoms result from years of patients' inadequate or missing dental routines and lead to a...
BACKGROUND
The treatment of acute pain is part of everyday dental practice. Often, these symptoms result from years of patients' inadequate or missing dental routines and lead to a reduction in the quality of life or health of the patients and to high costs for the health care system. Despite the enormous advantages of modern dentistry, many patients avoid going to the dentist. Therefore, the study aimed to determine the reasons and behaviours that cause patients to avoid visits to the dentist.
METHODS
We conducted semi-structured interviews with patients who had an above-average DMFT index and had been going to the dentist only irregularly for years. The sample participants were recruited from the northern German region of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. 20 individual interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and coded. We used a qualitative framework approach to code the transcripts in order to establish a consensus among the researchers. Ultimately, through discussions and reviews of the attributes and meaning of the topics, a typology could be established.
RESULTS
A typology of patients who avoid the dentist was developed. Four independent characteristic patterns of dentist avoidance could be developed: avoiding the dentist due to "distance" (type A; includes subtype A1 "avoiding the dentist due to negligence" and subtype A2 "dental avoidance due to neutralization"), "disappointment" (type B), "shame" (type C), and "fear" (type D). Using the typology as a generalised tool to determine the minimum and maximum contrasts, it was possible to capture the diversity and multidimensionality of the reasons and behaviours for avoidance. All patients had negative dental experiences, which had led to different avoidance patterns and strategies.
CONCLUSIONS
The identified avoidance characteristics represent a spectrum of patients from Northern Germany who avoid going to the dentist. This is the first comprehensive study in Germany representing avoidance behaviour of dentist patients in the form of a typology. The results suggest that dentistry also needs qualitative research to better understand patient characteristics and provide direct access to patients who avoid regular dental visits. Thus, the results make a potentially fundamental contribution to the improvement of dental care and enrich its understanding.
Topics: Delivery of Health Care; Dental Care; Germany; Humans; Qualitative Research; Quality of Life
PubMed: 34743719
DOI: 10.1186/s12903-021-01933-1 -
Children and Youth Services Review Apr 2023Adolescent substance use (SU) is associated with risky sex behavior and sexually transmitted infections and is a risk factor for subsequent risky sex decisions. Based on...
Adolescent substance use (SU) is associated with risky sex behavior and sexually transmitted infections and is a risk factor for subsequent risky sex decisions. Based on a sample of 1,580 youth in residential SU treatment, this study investigated how a static factor (race) and two dynamic personal factors (risk-taking, assertiveness) contributed to adolescents' perceived ability to avoid high-risk SU and sex behavior (avoidance self-efficacy). Results showed that race correlated with risk-taking and assertiveness, with White youth reporting higher ratings of assertiveness and risk-taking. Self-reported assertiveness and risk-taking also predicted SU and risky sex avoidance. This study underscores the importance of race and personal factors in relation to adolescents' confidence in avoiding high-risk situations.
PubMed: 36844888
DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.106846 -
BMC Public Health Jan 2023Avoiding deemed necessary healthcare needs may worsen prognosis and treatment options, and damage people's ability to perform their roles in society. Our study...
BACKGROUND
Avoiding deemed necessary healthcare needs may worsen prognosis and treatment options, and damage people's ability to perform their roles in society. Our study investigates why people avoid healthcare services in an upper-middle-income country, Türkiye.
METHODS
We apply TurkStat's 2012 Health Survey Data that includes a comprehensive health and social-demographic information of 28,055 survey participants who were 15 + aged. We use bivariate probit model to analyze the avoidance behavior in inpatient level in accordance with outpatient level because of the observed significant correlation between people's avoidance behavior under tertiary and lower level health care.
RESULTS
The findings show that 2.6% of 15 + aged population avoided deemed necessary hospital services. Furthermore, we found that high cost (31%), organizational factors (21%) and fear (12%) are prominent reasons of avoiding tertiary care. Thereafter, in our bivariate probit model findings, we figure out that being covered by social security schemes decreases the probability of avoiding both outpatient and inpatient health services by 6.9%. Moreover, being female, living in rural area, having lower income increase the chance of being avoider in both stages of healthcare.
CONCLUSION
We conclude that social inequalities are the main underlying determinants of the avoiding behavior.
Topics: Aged; Female; Humans; Male; Delivery of Health Care; Fear; Health Facilities; Health Services; Health Status; Patient Acceptance of Health Care
PubMed: 36721134
DOI: 10.1186/s12889-023-15135-7 -
Scientific Reports Jun 2023Habitat selection by animals is a complex, dynamic process that can vary across spatial and temporal scales. Understanding habitat selection is a vital component of...
Habitat selection by animals is a complex, dynamic process that can vary across spatial and temporal scales. Understanding habitat selection is a vital component of managing endangered species. Ocelots (Leopardus pardalis), a medium-sized endangered felid, overlap in their northern range with bobcats (Lynx rufus) and coyotes (Canis latrans), with all three species sharing similar space and resource use. As the potential for competition between these three carnivores is high, understanding differences in habitat use and the effect of these potential competitors on habitat selection of ocelots is essential to conservation. Our objective was to compare habitat selection between species and examine if ocelots avoided areas used by competitors at broad and fine scales. We captured and collared 8 ocelots, 13 bobcats, and 5 coyotes on the East Foundation's El Sauz Ranch and the Yturria San Francisco Ranch in South Texas, USA from 2017 to 2021. We compared 2nd (position of home range) and 3rd (use within the home range) order selection across species and examined whether ocelots avoided areas categorized as high probability of use by bobcats and coyotes across both orders of selection. We found a preference for heterogeneous landscapes by bobcats and coyotes while ocelots were strongly tied to woody cover across both orders. At the 2nd order, ocelots selected areas with higher probability of use by bobcats and showed no response to higher probability of use by coyotes, suggesting ocelots did not avoid either species. However, at the 3rd order, ocelots avoided areas used by coyotes. Ocelots selected for areas of use by bobcats at the 2nd order and 3rd order. Results suggest that at the broader scale, placement of the home range is not affected by the presence of sympatric carnivores, however, at a finer scale, ocelots are avoiding coyotes but not bobcats. Our study emphasizes the importance of woody and herbaceous cover at the broad scale and dense vegetation at the finer scale to sustain ocelots. In addition, we show differing patterns of interspecific avoidance by ocelots across species and scales.
Topics: Animals; Felidae; Coyotes; Carnivora; Ecosystem; Lynx
PubMed: 37264027
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-35271-9 -
Psychological Science Jul 2023Avoiding activities posing bodily threat is adaptive. However, spreading of avoidance to safe activities may cause functional disability in people with chronic pain. We...
Avoiding activities posing bodily threat is adaptive. However, spreading of avoidance to safe activities may cause functional disability in people with chronic pain. We investigated whether costly pain-related avoidance would generalize from one activity to another on the basis of real-life categorical knowledge in 40 pain-free people (30 female; mean age = 25 years; university students and public of Maastricht, The Netherlands). In a computer task, participants moved a joystick to complete activities from two categories (gardening and cleaning). During activities from the avoidance category, pain could be avoided at the cost of task efficiency by deviating from a short, pain-associated joystick movement. Activities from the safe category were never painful. Subsequently, we tested generalization of avoidance to novel pain-free activities from both categories. Participants generalized avoidance to novel activities from the avoidance category despite the novel activities not being paired with pain and despite avoidance costs, suggesting that costly (pain-related) avoidance generalizes from one activity to another on the basis of category knowledge and can thus be wide reaching, creating detrimental consequences.
Topics: Humans; Female; Adult; Fear; Chronic Pain; Generalization, Psychological; Movement; Netherlands
PubMed: 37254955
DOI: 10.1177/09567976231170878