Shelley Taylor - US grants

Recent studies have indicated that the probability of death from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest can be reduced by the initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Since the majority of sudden deaths occur in the individual's home, CPR training of family members can be expected to have a significant impact on death due to sudden cardiac events. Preliminary research by the principal investigators, however, suggests that CPR training of family members may produce negative psychological and social outcomes, particularly for patients. Moreover, given such consequences, CPR training with family members may actually precipitate future cardiac events. The purpose of the proposed study is to initiate a multi-center prospective clinical trial that would randomize family members of high-risk cardiac patients into either a standard CPR training group or a CPR training group with structured psychological intervention. A third group of patient/families will receive no interventions (control group). The goals of the project are: to document the impact of family CPR training on mortality due to sudden death events; to determine the response of family members trained in CPR to a potential sudden death event; to determine any psychological risks and/or benefits of these interventions for family members and patients; to determine the degree of CPR skill retention by family members; and to develop an intervention to prevent or offset anxiety, depression and other adverse psychological effects of CPR training on both patients and family members.

Two areas of research are proposed. The first explores the impact of vivid health-relevant prevention-oriented communications on helath attitudes and behavior. It also examines whether or not the impact of vivid messages depends upon such factors as the health spohistication of and/or personal relevance of the communication for the recipient. The second line of work will examine how the ability to set goals and make plans predicts successful coping among several groups of chronically ill or disabled patients, including coronary patients, cancer patients, and possibly institutionalized and non-institutionalized spinal cord patients; and rheumatoid arthritics. The correlates of this kind of future-oriented, goal-oriented coping will be identified and eventually used to construct a parallel set of subsequent interventions with a new group of each of these chronic populations.

The objective of this proposal is to mount a major research program on adjustment to chronic disease. The research will focus on how social support and feelings of control facilitate psychological and health outcomes among chronically ill patients. Three specific research projects are proposed. The first evaluates the effects of a control-restoring intervention (CPR training) on high-risk cardiac patients and their families. Previously, we found that CPR training of family members raised anxiety and depression among patients. The present study, a clinical trial funded by NHLBI, compares a no-treatment control group with two conditions designed to offset these deleterious effects: CPR training with risk factor/warning signs training and CPR training with a social support intervention. The study also identifies family dynamics introduced by the intervention. The results have policy implications concerning whether CPR training for families of high-risk patients reduces mortality, improves responses to potential sudden death events, and does so without undue psychological costs. The second project, funded by NCI, explores social support needs and the use of social support groups among cancer patients (N=650) using interview and questionnaire data. Previous research indicates that cancer patients experience difficulties in social support, yet few turn to social support groups. Male, low-SES, and minority patients are particularly unlikely to do so. This project assesses the type and frequency of psychosocial problems among patients as well as reasons for not joining, dropping out of, or faithfully attending support groups. Part two of this project evaluates a support group format designed to appeal especially to male, working class, and minority cancer patients against a more traditional support group format in an experimental, longitudinal design. The project will also generate guidelines for social support groups that appeal maximally to target populations. The third project explores the implications of failed efforts to exert control, specifically, what happens when patients assume responsibility for medical decisions that ultimately fail? Previous research from cognitive dissonance, reactance and learned helplessness generate contradictory predictions. Using quasi-experimental longitudinal data from patients whose treatments either succeed or fail (kidney transplantation patients, chemotherapy patients), we will build an integrative model of reactions to loss of control. The results also have important implications for the informed consent procedure.

The long-term objectives of this proposal are to explore how people adapt cognitively and emotionally to life-threatening illnesses and their treatments; to examine how patients adjust when they choose to undergo a treatment for life-threatening disease that ultimately fails; and to chart how multiply-failed treatment efforts effect the psychological adjustment of patients suffering from life-threatening disease. The proposal details a set of longitudinal interview studies with breast cancer patients, renal transplantation patients, and advanced cancer patients. The first study, with breast cancer patients, arises in response to California's recent mandate that diagnosed breast cancer patients be given detailed information concerning surgical options. Our interview study will assess if this enforced choice is stressful for women who do not want to be involved in the process, and if so, in what ways and for how long. We will also examine how breast cancer patients adjust to successful or failed treatment outcomes, depending upon whether or not they wanted and obtained an active role in the treatment decision-making process. One hundred newly-diagnosed Stage I and II breast cancer patients will be assessed for: their desire to participate actively in their surgical choice, their perceptions as to whether or not they participated actively in their surgical choice, and their adjustment to illness once it has been determined whether the cancer is in remission or not. In a second study involving renal transplantation patients, we will examine how patients react to successful versus failed outcomes of the transplant as a function of their perceived choice in the decision-making process. In the third study with Stage II cancer patients, we examine reactions to multiple failed efforts at control by comparing patients who have undergone either one or two cancer treatments and sustained recurrences. Study Four is the longitudinal counterpart to Study Three and follows Stage II cancer patients through several unsuccessful treatments. The ultimate goal of the research is to develop a theoretical model of reactions to unsuccessful efforts at control by integrating systematically predictions from cognitive dissonance theory, learned helplessness theory, reactance theory, and cognitive adaptation. In addition, the understanding of the effects of choice and participatory decision- making that these studies will provide will have implications for how and when to involve patient actively in treatment decisions and for informed consent procedures, especially in circumstances in which treatment failure is likely.

The long-term objectives of this proposal are to explore the tole of social comparison processes in coping with victimizing events; to identify the frequency and determinants of self-enhancing downward comparisons; to identify some of the benefits and liabilities of downward comparison as a coping process; to examine the interrelationships between psychological control and social comparison; and to identify the characteristics of victims who do and do not use social comparison processes to enhance their self-esteem. An interrelated program of experimental and field research is designed to address these issues. The first two studies whether upward and downward social comparisons are associated with the perceived controllability and uncontrollability, respectively, of a threatening event. Study One is a laboratory investigation examining this issue experimentally, and Study Two is a field investigation regarding how individuals cope with the impending Southern California earthquake, depending upon whether they perceive that they can control their risk or not. Study Three is a quasi-experimental investigation with members of cancer support groups, to explore biases in the perception of help-seeking. It addresses why individuals see their own help-seeking positively but others' help-seeking as a sign of weakness. Study Four is an interview investigation with cancer patients exploring social comparison processes. It examines how some individuals are able to use downward social comparisons to bolster self-esteem, whereas other are upset by these same kinds of comparisons. Study Five is a laboratory experimental investigation to address some potential liabilities of downward comparison. Specifically, the study examines the relationship between downward comparison as a strategy of self-evaluation and derogation of outgroups. This integrated program of research should help establish the role of social comparison, especially downward social comparison, in the coping process and identify potential psychological liabilities as well.

The overall objective of this study is to explore psychosocial processes as possible cofactors in the development of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in an at-risk population. The specific objectives are: 1) to understand how individuals appraise, respond emotionally to and cope with the risk of developing AIDS, 2) to determine if particular psychological responses to the risk of AIDS are associated with the practice of AIDS risk-reducing behaviors, 3) to determine if particular psychological responses to the risk of AIDS are associated with changes in the immune system (rapid reductions in helper/inducer T cell levels, and altered immune response to the AIDS virus) and increased likelihood of developing AIDS and 4) to determine if exposure to stressful life situations and particular psychological responses to these situations, are associated with immune changes and increased likelihood of developing AIDS. Fifteen hundred healthy homosexual men are now participating in the Multi-Center AIDS Cooperative Study (MACS). These men are examined every six months for signs and symptoms of AIDS and the AIDS-Related Complex (ARC), seropositivity for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), specimen collection and assay of T cell sub-populations, and the gathering of data on potential cofactors in the development of AIDS. The proposed study will add the questionnaire assessment of psychosocial factors (appraisal and response to AIDS risk, other life stress, affect, social support, personal resources) to the examination every six months. A sub-sample of two hundred subjects will participate in a psychological assessment interview at each MACS examination to assess more fully emotional responses and coping strategies used in relation to the AIDS risk and other stressful situations. Intensive immunological assessments will be conducted on this sub-sample. Data analyses will determine whether psychological factors predict the practice of risk-reducing behaviors in HIV seropositive and seronegative subjects. In HIV seropositive individuals, data analyses will determine whether psychosocial factors, in conjunction with other possible cofactors, predict changes in immune response over time and the development of ARC and AIDS.

The long-term objectives of this proposal are to explore how people adapt cognitively and emotionally to life-threatening illnesses and their treatments; to examine how patients adjust when they choose to undergo a treatment for life-threatening disease that ultimately fails; and to chart how multiply-failed treatment efforts effect the psychological adjustment of patients suffering from life-threatening disease. The proposal details a set of longitudinal interview studies with breast cancer patients, renal transplantation patients, and advanced cancer patients. The first study, with breast cancer patients, arises in response to California's recent mandate that diagnosed breast cancer patients be given detailed information concerning surgical options. Our interview study will assess if this enforced choice is stressful for women who do not want to be involved in the process, and if so, in what ways and for how long. We will also examine how breast cancer patients adjust to successful or failed treatment outcomes, depending upon whether or not they wanted and obtained an active role in the treatment decision-making process. One hundred newly-diagnosed Stage I and II breast cancer patients will be assessed for: their desire to participate actively in their surgical choice, their perceptions as to whether or not they participated actively in their surgical choice, and their adjustment to illness once it has been determined whether the cancer is in remission or not. In a second study involving renal transplantation patients, we will examine how patients react to successful versus failed outcomes of the transplant as a function of their perceived choice in the decision-making process. In the third study with Stage II cancer patients, we examine reactions to multiple failed efforts at control by comparing patients who have undergone either one or two cancer treatments and sustained recurrences. Study Four is the longitudinal counterpart to Study Three and follows Stage II cancer patients through several unsuccessful treatments. The ultimate goal of the research is to develop a theoretical model of reactions to unsuccessful efforts at control by integrating systematically predictions from cognitive dissonance theory, learned helplessness theory, reactance theory, and cognitive adaptation. In addition, the understanding of the effects of choice and participatory decision- making that these studies will provide will have implications for how and when to involve patient actively in treatment decisions and for informed consent procedures, especially in circumstances in which treatment failure is likely.

This research explores the self-regulatory functions of mental simulation, that is the mental rehearsal of real or hypothetical events. The work distingushes between outcome simulations, which involve rehearsal of successful completion of a goal, and process simulations, which involve the rehearsal of the specific steps required to achieve a goal. Previous research suggests that both types of simulations may beneficially affect performance, but that process simulations enhance planning, leading people to make progress on meeting their goals; outcome simulations sometimes enhance motivation and perceived self-efficacy without affecting goal-directed activity. A program of nine experimental studies examines the self-regulatory effects of outcome and process simulations on goal-directed activity and identifies the conditions when process versus outcome simulations successfully facilitate progress toward an educational goal. These studies also examine the relation of mental simulation to the planning fallacy, namely people's overly optimistic estimates of the amount of time and effort it will take to achieve a goal; it is hypothesized that increasing realism may occur at the expense of reduced motivation, task enjoyment, and, paradoxically, longer time to task completion. The research examines the self-regulatory effects of negative simulations, arguing that when such simulations are performed briefly or with otherwise positive simulations, they may benefit goal-directed activity, but that continued rehearsal of negative simulations may bring about a partial self-fulfilling prophecy. The significance of the proposed research lies in its capacity to elucidate the importance of mental simulation as a cognitive underpinning of educational interventions to improve school performance and study skills. This program of research addresses the question of how people achieve their goals by investigating the effects of mental rehearsal (simulation) on goal achievement. A series of experiments compar es the effects of outcome simulations, in which people rehearse the successful achievement of a personal goal, and process simulations, in which people mentally rehearse the steps they will need to go through in order to achieve their goal. It is hypothesized that outcome simulations may "hype" people, making them feel motivated and excited without necessarily producing effective action toward their goals. In contrast, process simulations enhance planning, and, consequently, help people begin goal-directed activity earlier, ultimately achieving more successful performance. This research also examines the effect of mental simulation on the planning fallacy, namely the commonly-reported tendency for people to be overly optimistic about how quickly and easily they can achieve personal goals, and it tests the hypothesis that outcome simulations may exacerbate the planning fallacy, whereas process simulations may reduce it. Finally, the research explores the benefits and liabilities of negative mental simulations, namely imagining how one's efforts may go awry in the process of trying to achieve a goal. All of the studies will be conducted in educational settings which examine the impact of simulations on student achievement. Hence, this program of research is highly relevant to the 'education' component of the Human Capital research agenda. Since the results of the educational investigations translate directly to the work environment, it also has considerable relevance to the 'workplace' component. Finally, it bears directly on the 'disadvantage' component inasmuch as much of the work will focus on students who are the first in their families to go to college, an intrisically talented population that is heavily minority, poor, and at high risk for dropping out of college. The goal of the research is to develop an understanding of mental simulation techniques that can improve school performance and improve cognitive skills, especially among high-risk students.

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed investigations address the question, "What is a mentally healthy person?" and contrast the predictions of two theoretical traditions: the positive illusions tradition, which proposes that mildly positive self-enhancing illusions foster mental health, social functioning, and protective biological responses to stress, versus the viewpoint that self-enhancement reflects an enduring personality profile marked by self-deceptive neuroticism, a negative impact on social relationships, and greater autonomic responses to stress. We hypothesize that the adaptiveness of self-enhancement depends on whether it is private or manifest in public accountable circumstances; on mode of self-enhancement (direct or indirect); and on sociocultural norms. The main study enrolls 160 participants, approximately half of whom are Asian-American and half of whom are of European-American origin and includes: assessments of mental and physical health; an interview about functioning in life domains related to mental health; and sympathetic (SNS), hypothalamic-pituitary adrenocortical (HPA) axis, and cytokine responses to a series of laboratory stress challenges. The data set also includes peer evaluations and evaluations by friends on each participant. A follow-up component on the main study will provide assessments of the longer-term impact of self-enhancement on psychological functioning, perceptions by others, and health. Questionnaires and protocol analyses of the interviews will enable tests of hypotheses concerning direct versus indirect self-enhancement and the interplay of coping with biological responses to stress. A second study manipulates direct and indirect self-affirmation and examines the impact on psychological and biological stress responses. Given the cultural diversity of the sample, the proposed analyses examine cultural differences in predictors and parameters of mental health and their relation to biological and health measures as well. The overall goal of the research is to provide an integrative understanding of how mental health, social relations, and biological responses to stress are interrelated and whether those interrelations extend across cultures. [unreadable] [unreadable]

This research explores differences in how men and women react to stress, with the goal of identifying how women's responses to stress may be health-protective. In a series of experimental investigations, men and women are asked to complete stressful tasks in the laboratory (such as giving a public speech and doing arithmetic in their heads). Physiological and neuroendocrine responses to stress, memory for stress-related material, anxiety, and affiliative/social responses to the stress are then examined. The main interest is in oxytocin, in conjunction with estrogen, which may account for the fact that women are substantially more likely to turn to others in response to stress, and which may, in turn, account for the fact that their physiological and neuroendocrine responses to stress are downregulated (i.e., lessened in comparison with men's). These studies are important because they will help to identify responses to stress that are psychologically and physiologically protective and may point to interventions to improve both men's and women's responses to stress. These studies will be the first to examine the potential role of oxytocin and its enhancement by estrogen in accounting for women's greater social responses to stress and lesser physiological costs in response to stress.

Social support is a resource that allows people to live healthier and more productive lives; it becomes especially important in times of rapid change. Change creates stress with which people need to cope, and they often turn to others for advice, information, and understanding. Social support has long been known to promote psychological health and to protect against the adverse health effects of stress. Yet, in conceptualizing social support, researchers have inadvertently adopted a Western definition that emphasizes explicit efforts to extract or provide help or comfort. The proposed research builds on several preliminary studies showing that Asians and Asian-Americans are significantly less likely than European-Americans to seek such explicit social support for coping with stress, because their social relations may be disrupted by so doing. Using multiple methodologies, such as survey and physiological measures, the proposed studies will examine the use of explicit versus implicit social support (which we define as drawing on the awareness and/or company of supportive others without explicitly requesting or receiving support vis-a-vis a specific stressful event) and explore cultural differences in their use and physiological/psychological impact on managing stress. The intellectual merit of the proposed research stems from its ability to 1) broaden our conceptual understanding of social support by exploring the stress-reducing benefits of implicit as well as explicit social support and 2) broaden our understanding of cultural differences in how social support is extracted, experienced, and utilized to reduce adverse physiological and emotional responses to stress. The broader impact of the work stems from its challenge to existing Western conceptualizations of social support and its potential to enlighten the social support experiences of currently under-represented populations. As such, it has the ability to inform social support interventions with multicultural populations.

This project focuses on the impact of vulnerability on decision-making. The developing theoretical model predicts that people in vulnerable circumstances (such as concern over terrorist action, financial need, illness) will make decisions in the domain in which they are vulnerable that show several attributes: a preference for action to alter the status-quo to a more beneficial position; a sensitivity to the potential benefits of decision options (more than is true for less vulnerable others); and equivalent sensitivity to the
costs of decision options (relative to those lower in vulnerability).

This research is exploratory and high risk, because it flies in the face of established conventions regarding decision-making under risky conditions and because it proposes to examine decision-making in at-risk populations. Whether the ideas will merit more extensive grant support can be determined easily through the proposed initial studies.

The intellectual significance of the research and its broader impact both derive from the implications for understanding the decision-making processes of vulnerable people and the policies that affect them. For example, when vulnerability to the threat of terrorism is high, people may support what may be risky foreign policies when they believe those policies will have benefits that may reduce vulnerability. When
people with health disorders experience a high level of symptoms, they may seek out experimental, even unproven treatments that hold out the lure of benefits, even as they appreciate the substantial costs that may also be entailed. People with few financial resources may be especially susceptible to financial pitches and policies that emphasize good outcomes, leading low income people to be vulnerable to financial schemes that promise high returns in the context of high risk. All of these are significant social and fiscal issues that affect the lives of all people, especially those who are most vulnerable.

DHB - Biopsychosocial Bases of Social Responses to Threat
Shelley E. Taylor, Teresa Seeman, and Alison Moore
University of California, Los Angeles

In threatening times, people seek positive social contacts, because relationships provide protection to maintain personal safety and that of offspring. This "tend-and-befriend" account of social responses to stress is the basis for our work. Our previous research has found that oxytocin is implicated in social responses to stress, especially in women. The present work, tests the idea that oxytocin acts as a social thermostat that is responsive to adequacy of social relations, which prompts people to seek social contact if relationships fall below an adequate level, and which reduces biological and psychological stress responses, once positive social contacts are reestablished. Vasopressin, a hormone very similar to oxytocin, has been tied to male social behavior under stress in animal studies, and so the research also includes men to test whether vasopressin and/or oxytocin modulate men's responses to stress.
One-hundred-eighty healthy young adults will be recruited for a study of social responses to stress. Through questionnaires and a daily diary, satisfaction with social contacts will be measured to see whether gaps in social relationships are associated with elevated oxytocin. Participants then complete stressful tasks in the laboratory in the presence of a supportive audience, a hostile audience, or no audience. Heart rate, blood pressure, and cortisol are assessed at multiple times during the stress protocol. Oxytocin will be related to information about relationships and to biological stress responses during the stress tasks. This research represents the first test of a biosocial process proposed to underlie human social responses to threats and the stress-reducing effects of social contact.

The broader impact of the work stems from its multidisciplinary approach to understanding why people seek social contact in times of stress and why those contacts have such clear benefits for psychological adjustment and health. There currently exists a profound gender gap in stress studies, with men substantially. Thus, the broader impact of the work also stems from its exploration of sex differences in social responses to threat and their biological underpinnings. Previous work by the researchers on this "tend-and-befriend" approach to stress has not only influenced current directions in stress research, but has also made its way into the public consciousness through hundreds of media portrayals that detail the significant benefits of social contacts under stress.

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Psychosocial processes are implicated in health decisions and in mental and physical health outcomes across the lifespan. However, little research has explored their origins in genetic, early environment, and neurocognitive processes in conjunction with these consequences. The proposed research examines genetic, SES, and family environment origins of psychosocial resources/risk factors and the neural mechanisms (ACC, amygdala, hypothalamus, RFC) that link them to poor health behaviors and psychological and biological (cardiovascular, HPA axis, proinflammatory cytokine) stress responses. Young adults (N= 120) complete assessments of early environment and psychosocial resources/risk factors and are genotyped for genes related to the serotonin and dopamine systems. In a neuroimaging sub-study, half the sample completes tasks previously demonstrated to evoke ACC, amygdala, and PFC responses to threatening tasks. All participants participate in the Trier Social Stress Task (TSST), during which cardiovascular responses, cortisol, and proinflammatory cytokines (IL-6 and sTNF-RII) are assessed. We test predictions that 1) Psychosocial resources/risk factors derive, in part, from individual differences in genes related to dopaminergic and serontonergic functioning, from an early family environment, and from their interaction; 2) Psychosocial resources (optimism, mastery, self-esteem, social support) are evident at the neural level in lower dACC, amygdala, and hypothalamic responses to threat and greater PFC responses to threats; 3) Poor health decisions and psychosocial risk factors (e.g., negative emotionality, low SES, early adverse environment) are evident at the neural level in higher dACC, amygdala, and hypothalamic, and lower PFC responses to threat; and 4) Deficits in psychosocial resources will be associated with poor health decisions through pathways implicating genetic differences, early environment, and neural differences in responsivity to threat-related stimuli as predictors, and enhanced biological/psychological responses to stress as consequences. Evidence in support of these hypotheses will provide an integrated assessment of the early environment, genetic, and neural mechanisms that underlie health decision making and mental and physical health outcomes. As such, the research brings a lifespan approach to an integration of genetics, psychoneuroimmunology, health psychology, and social neuroscience. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]

Although public interest in genes and genotyping is increasing, much of the public discourse on genetics centers on the simplistic notion that there is a clear gene that can be directly linked to specific psychological or behavioral tendencies (e.g. ?The Shyness Gene?). This simplistic understanding of the role of genes can be particularly problematic when it is associated with group differences, such as cultural and racial differences, as such a view can lead to thinking that many observed psychological and behavioral differences are innate and fixed. The influence of genes on the shaping of everyday behaviors is far from simple and how social and cultural factors impact the behavioral expression of genes is still largely unknown. The present research examines how culture might influence the way in which particular genes lead to specific patterns of behaviors. Previous research has found that there are large differences in how people rely on social support to cope with their stress. That is, European Americans tend to seek social support more explicitly and directly than Asians/Asian Americans, who prefer more indirect and implicit social support. Previous research has also found that particular genes (e.g., serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism) can influence psychological predispositions (e.g., how strongly a person reacts to stress). Building on these findings, this research examines whether people with the same genetic predisposition actually behave in largely different manners, if they are exposed to different cultural norms and expectations. The research will thus investigate whether and how culture might diversify the psychological and behavioral expression of genes. More specifically, the present research will examine: 1) how specific genes are linked to psychological proneness to stress reactivity and social affiliation; 2) how culture interacts with these specific genes to produce the culturally divergent ways in which people use social support; and 3) how the culturally specific patterns of social support behavior of Asians change as they acculturate to the U.S. The studies will combine genetic analysis with multiple psychological methods, such as large survey design, lab experiment, and daily diary.

Bridging the fields of psychology, biology, and anthropology, this program of research aims to create a new interdisciplinary theoretical framework for understanding cross-cultural and cross-ethnic behavioral variation. This program of research, an international collaboration between researchers in the United States and the Republic of Korea, will also foster opportunities for researchers and students to be exposed to and trained in theoretical and technical approaches in the different disciplines. Finally, this program of research will contribute to a scientific pool of knowledge that can be utilized in educating the public regarding the role of genes in the determination of human behaviors and promoting a more sophisticated understanding of group differences.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Older adults are disproportionately vulnerable to a wide range of dubious financial schemes, although the reasons for their vulnerability are not clear. We propose six studies that use experimental and neuroimaging methodologies to explore the social and neural bases of this vulnerability. We examine age differences in trust and the ability to use cues of untrustworthiness to decode facial expressions (Study 1);identify patterns of neural activity underlying these age differences (Study 2);evaluate whether older adults evaluate financial messages that vary in credibility more positively than younger adults (Study 3);determine whether faces perceived to be trustworthy enhance receptivity to low credibility investment messages (Study 4);address whether older adults show impaired ability to detect deceit (Study 5);and identify the neural underpinnings of age-related differences in the ability to detect deceit (Study 6). In addition, all of the studies examine how dispositional trust, loneliness, social contact, cognitive functioning, time frame, and financial literacy affect perceptions of trust, deceit, financial messages, and their neural underpinnings. Taken together, the studies explore how: social isolation;declines in older adults'ability to decode deceit and recognize cues of untrustworthiness;an inappropriately high trust of strangers;age differences in emotion regulation processes (less frequent experience of negative emotion and more frequent experience of positive emotion);and age differences in the functioning of brain regions related to the processing of negative stimuli, especially the amygdala, prefrontal cortex, insula, and superior temporal sulcus (STS) are related to vulnerability to financial scams. The financial health of older adults is critically important for their mental and physical health. The ability to identify precisely why older adults demonstrate vulnerability to financial scams will be helpful in pinpointing policies that may be developed to reduce this vulnerability. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The financial health of older adults is critically related to their physical and mental health needs, as a financial shock can be a precipitating factor for poor health outcomes, including coronary heart disease, functional decline, and mortality. Further, financial reversals at older ages have significant implications for the wider society;as such people are likely to become more reliant on governmental health and financial support programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Consequently, the public health implications of older adults'vulnerability to financial fraud are manifold.

Dr. Heejung Kim and colleagues (University of California, Santa Barbara) investigate the role of culture, as a form of social environment, in the behavioral expression of genes. Specifically, in this research, they examines the dynamic interplay of socio-cultural and genetic factors, and their effects on socio-emotional processes such as emotional support seeking, emotion regulation, and emotional attention, in order to understand the psychological and biological mechanisms underlying emotional responses. The proposal will focus on the oxytocin receptor polymorphism (OXTR), a genetic locus thought to be associated with socio-emotional sensitivity, and its role in social behavior in East Asian and U.S. cultural contexts. The researchers examine whether OXTR variants, as well as experimentally manipulated oxytocin levels, are related to the ability to accurately detect others' mental and emotional states, and whether this ability is related to the tendency of individuals to engage in culturally appropriate social behaviors.

Most conversations about the role of genes typically center on the idea that a gene is linked to a particular behavior. In the context of cultural, racial, gender, or other group differences, this simplistic understanding about the role of genes can lead to thinking that group differences are fixed or immutable. The model of gene-culture interaction advanced in this research provides a more sophisticated perspective by specifying the pathway by which socio-cultural factors can shape the behavioral outcomes of genetic predispositions. Identifying the psychological and biological mechanisms of gene-culture interaction will advance the public understanding of the complex but fascinating interaction between "nature" and "nurture" that produces diversity in human behavior. The work will also support the training and education of students.