Reactions to threat and personality: psychometric differentiation of intensity and direction dimensions of human defensive behaviour.
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.
Perkins
Adam M
AM
Department of Psychology, University of Wales Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK. 342095@swansea.ac.uk
Corr
Philip J
PJ
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009949:Orientation; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011594:Psychometrics; D012016:Reference Values; D012737:Sex Factors