The military environment presents an intersection between a setting featuring unavoidable risk and individual risk-taking propensity; prior work suggests risk-takers have positive and negative outcomes here, and messaging about risk-taking in the military is mixed. The current study used social identity theory to examine how self-reported risk propensity related to three identities/outcomes among cadets at the U.S. Military Academy: attributes of an archetypal “Model Soldier” (physical and military excellence), “Model Student” (grade point average, service positions, and behavior), and Military Values (bravery, duty, and resilience). Structural equation modeling demonstrated that risk-taking was positively related to our Model Soldier and Military Values identities but negatively associated with being a Model Student. Additionally, high-risk-taking cadets were viewed by peers and instructors as confident but prone to judgment, self-discipline, and insight difficulties, suggesting overconfidence among risk-takers. Quantified as a difference between confidence and self-discipline, judgment, and insight, overconfidence mediated the relationship between risk-taking and the three identities, suggesting overconfidence drives both positive and negative associations with risk-taking. Military and leadership implications are presented.

A developmental model linking professionalism and character growth is implemented at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (USMA) through its programs and policies. The current study used growth-modeling techniques to examine developmental relationships between metrics of professional development and performance outcomes at USMA and assessed whether race, gender, and athlete status variables moderated the resulting patterns. Data were collected from cadets in the classes of 2017 and 2018, in their first through third years (N = 2,066). Metrics included grade point average (GPA) for the academic, military, and physical programs, and the periodic development review (PDR), a 23-item instrument developed by USMA that evaluates cadets on various professional values, including character attributes. Results indicated that academic and military program GPAs, PDRs, and honor violations were interrelated, with important group differences in GPAs and PDRs by race and between National Collegiate Athletic Association athletes and nonathletes. Models suggested resilience across the corps of cadets from the first to third year; however, group differences favored White and nonathlete cadets in GPAs and PDRs, including self-ratings, even when SAT was accounted for. Implications for junior officer professional development, as well as for professional ratings systems are discussed.

Although hostile expressions of masculinity have robust negative impacts in multiple domains among civilian populations, in the military, masculinity is a rarer target of inquiry and remains a polarizing subject. This article examines hostile and hypermasculine attitudes that prior work suggests may be associated with negative consequences for the social environment and men themselves in a U.S. military educational environment (N = 1,560 freshmen and 499 graduating senior men). Multivariate moderated multiple regressions (MMMR) linked military hypermasculinity facets (Machiavellian desire for status and control; conformity to masculine norms including emotional control, violence tolerance, needing to win, and impersonal sex preference; hostile and benevolent sexism) to performance outcomes including academics, leadership, and fitness; perceptions of peers, leadership, and antibias programming; and behavior. Desire for status, impersonal sex preference, violence tolerance, and benevolent sexism predicted negative performance outcomes. Violence tolerance, emotional control, and hostile sexism were associated with poorer perception of character education and/or anti-bias programming. Needing to win and control were associated with positive performance outcomes. Healthy messaging surrounding emotions, sex, and perception of women may help assuage toxic expressions of masculinity in the military. Contextualized demonstration of the counterproductive aspects of military hypermasculinity might sidestep opposition to altering hegemonic norms.

Perceived gender differences remain salient in occupational settings and biases that arise maintain inequalities. We examined rater behavior of male military cadets to test how hostile sexism impacted occupationally-relevant attributions, namely, perception of peers' physical fitness, social skill, and military demeanor, items from a larger rating system and previously linked to gender bias. Linear mixed models determined how ratings were influenced by raters' own beliefs or performance, ratee performance, and whether these relationships differed by ratee gender (N = 2520 raters and 4154 ratees). Men with sexist beliefs rated women lower on military demeanor and physical fitness. Sexism was further associated with rating women's physical fitness, more so than other men's, according to push-up scores, suggesting sexist men 'keep track' of women's upper body capabilities. Physical fitness scores were positively related to military demeanor rating for women but unrelated to men's score, regardless of rater's sexism. Overall, ratings were associated with different performance characteristics for men vs. women, especially for physical abilities, suggesting a mechanism for expression of gender bias in a field setting.

This study tested the effects of individual and group-level characteristics on performance during a mandatory and challenging physical education course at the United States Military Academy (USMA). We focused on attributes related to mental toughness, and examined both self-report and utilized an other-rating scale that measures mental toughness-related characteristics and is important to USMA generally. We examined course scores for 5,581 first-year students over five academic years, accounted for background physical fitness, and determined how mental toughness attributes at the group and individual-level contributed to overall course score and scores on constituent events (e.g. obstacle course, rope climbing). Self-reported optimism, self-reported resilience, and mental toughness items from a peer rating scale, but not self-reported grit, significantly improved course performance. The average score across class section on optimism or the peer rating scale also positively covaried with course score, over and above the individual-level impact of that attribute. Analyses of individual events demonstrated that "group-level character" was important for some events, whereas individual attributes were most important for others. Findings suggested an emergent group character capable of influencing individual physical performance scores. Being a member of a tough group may have comparable effects to individual mental toughness.

Contemporary models of character development emphasize that character is a malleable outcome of individual-context relations. Positive character, or character virtues, vary in relation to specific contextual circumstances requiring the enactment of specific behaviors that are morally appropriate and necessary for positive individual-context relations to occur. The exploration of the features of character virtue development that arise in specific contexts points to the role of educational institutions as key settings wherein character develops, including higher education institutions whose fundamental mission is to train leaders of character. This potential value for understanding how leaders of character are “produced” within such an institution was a key basis of Project Arete, a study of the pathways of character virtue development and leadership traversed by the cadets within the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point. We discuss the theoretical and methodological ideas we have used within Project Arete to shape our assessments of character development and leadership, and focus on issues involved in the design, measurement, and analysis of developmental changes in individuals, context, and individual context relations.

Abstract Organized sports are an important context for promoting character, and the particular values emphasized illuminate how a setting develops or reveals character. The Character in Sport Index (CSI), an observer rating scale of sportsmanship in cadets within the United States Military Academy (USMA; 2 samples, n = 1,926 and 1,798) engaged in intramural sports, measured setting-specific character virtues relevant to USMA. Using 12 items, two factors emerged: positive behaviors (e.g., resilience) and negative behaviors (e.g., argumentativeness). The positive behavior factor was related to grit, self-regulation, academic and military achievement, and an instructor-completed character rating scale. The negative behavior factor related to manipulative traits and number of disciplinary reports. Findings are discussed in regard to sportsmanship and character development within USMA and in other college settings.

This study examined several performance scores of cadets at the United States Military Academy (USMA) and whether these scores formed profiles related to specific character attributes. USMA presupposes that, in order to train commissioned leaders of character, cadet performance and character-building should be closely linked. Prior research from this project provided evidence of a four-factor structure for character at USMA, and we investigated how this factor structure related to interindividual differences in cadet performance. Using cross-sectional data from 1,297 cadets, we conducted latent profile analyses to identify performance profiles associated with the character factors. Results indicated five distinctive performance profiles, uniquely related to specific character factors. We discuss implications for evaluating cadet performance and for the benefits of character-based programming in higher education contexts.

Objective Working memory deficits have been linked experimentally and developmentally with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-related symptoms/impairments. Unfortunately, substantial evidence indicates that extant working memory training programs fail to improve these symptoms/impairments. We hypothesized that this discrepancy may reflect insufficient targeting, such that extant protocols do not adequately engage the specific working memory components linked with the disorder's behavioral/functional impairments. Method The current study describes the development, empirical basis, and initial testing of central executive training (CET) relative to gold-standard behavioral parent training (BPT). Children with ADHD ages 8-13 (M = 10.43, SD = 1.59; 21 girls; 76% Caucasian/non-Hispanic) were treated using BPT (n = 27) or CET (n = 27). Detailed data analytic plans for the pre/post design were preregistered. Primary outcomes included phonological and visuospatial working memory, and secondary outcomes included actigraphy during working memory testing and two distal far-transfer tasks. Multiple feasibility/acceptability measures were included. Results The BPT and CET samples did not differ on any pretreatment characteristics. CET was rated as highly acceptable by children and was equivalent to BPT in terms of feasibility/acceptability as evidenced by parent-reported high satisfaction, low barriers to participation, and large ADHD symptom reductions. CET was superior to BPT for improving working memory (Group × Time d = 1.06) as hypothesized. CET was also superior to BPT for reducing actigraph-measured hyperactivity during visuospatial working memory testing and both distal far-transfer tasks (Group × Time d = 0.74). Conclusions Results provide strong support for continued testing of CET and, if replicated, would support recent hypotheses that next-generation ADHD cognitive training protocols may overcome current limitations via improved targeting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Research about the structure of character has largely assessed purported universal attributes. However, character develops within specific social, cultural and institutional contexts. As part of the first wave of a longitudinal study (Project Arete) of character development among cadets at the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, an institution with a core mission to develop leaders of character, we examined the factor structure of a set of 15 character attributes of specific relevance to the West Point context. Data were derived from self-report surveys (N?=?1,549; 75.6% men) completed in spring 2017. Results of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) identified a 4-factor structure of character: Relational, Commitment, Honor and Machiavellian and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) provided evidence for the validity and measurement equivalence of the factors. We discuss implications for promoting and assessing character within the context of USMA and other institutions seeking to develop leaders of character.

Urry, H. L., Van Reekum, C. M., Johnstone, T., Kalin, N. H., Thurow, M. E., Schaefer, H. S., Jackson, C. A., Frye, C. J., Greischar, L. L., Alexander, A. L. and Davidson, R. J. (2006) Amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex are inversely coupled during regulation of negative affect and predict the diurnal pattern of cortisol secretion among older adults. The Journal of Neuroscience , 26 (16). pp. 4415-4425. ISSN 15292401 doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3215-05.2006 Available at http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/4379/

BACKGROUND:Pediatric ADHD is associated with impairments in working memory, but these deficits often go undetected when using clinic-based tests such as digit span backward.AIMS:The current study pilot-tested minor administration/scoring modifications to improve digit span backward's construct and predictive validities in a well-characterized sample of children with ADHD.METHODS AND PROCEDURES:WISC-IV digit span was modified to administer all trials (i.e., ignore discontinue rule) and count digits rather than trials correct. Traditional and modified scores were compared to a battery of criterion working memory (construct validity) and academic achievement tests (predictive validity) for 34 children with ADHD ages 8-13 (M=10.41; 11 girls).OUTCOMES AND RESULTS:Traditional digit span backward scores failed to predict working memory or KTEA-2 achievement (allns). Alternate administration/scoring of digit span backward significantly improved its associations with working memory reordering (r=.58), working memory dual-processing (r=.53), working memory updating (r=.28), and KTEA-2 achievement (r=.49).CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS:Consistent with prior work, these findings urge caution when interpreting digit span performance. Minor test modifications may address test validity concerns, and should be considered in future test revisions. Digit span backward becomes a valid measure of working memory at exactly the point that testing is traditionally discontinued.

The phobic fear response appears to resemble an intense form of normal threat responding that can be induced in a nonthreatening situation. However, normative and phobic fear are rarely contrasted directly, thus the degree to which these two types of fear elicit similar neural and bodily responses is not well understood. To examine biological correlates of normal and phobic fear, 21 snake phobic and 21 nonphobic controls saw videos of slithering snakes, attacking snakes and fish in an event-related fMRI design. Simultaneous eletrodermal, pupillary, and self-reported affective responses were collected. Nonphobic fear activated a network of threat-responsive brain regions and involved pupillary dilation, electrodermal response and self-reported affect selective to the attacking snakes. Phobic fear recruited a large array of brain regions including those active in normal fear plus additional structures and also engendered increased pupil dilation, electrodermal and self-reported responses that were greater to any snake versus fish. Importantly, phobics showed greater between- and within-subject concordance among neural, electrodermal, pupillary, and subjective report measures. These results suggest phobic responses recruit overlapping but more strongly activated and more extensive networks of brain activity as compared to normative fear, and are characterized by greater concordance among neural activation, peripheral physiology and self-report. It is yet unclear whether concordance is unique to psychopathology, or rather simply an indicator of the intense fear seen in the phobic response, but these results underscore the importance of synchrony between brain, body, and cognition during the phobic reaction.

Reducing Implicit Racial Preferences: I. A Comparative Investigation of 17 Interventions Calvin K. Lai, Maddalena Marini, Steven A. Lehr, Carlo Cerruti, Jiyun-Elizabeth L. Shin, Jennifer A. Joy-Gaba, Arnold K. Ho, Bethany A. Teachman, Sean P. Wojcik, Spassena P. Koleva, Rebecca S. Frazier, Larisa Heiphetz, Eva E. Chen, Rhiannon N. Turner, Jonathan Haidt, Selin Kesebir, Carlee Beth Hawkins, Hillary S. Schaefer, Sandro Rubichi, Giuseppe Sartori, Christopher M. Dial, N. Sriram, Mahzarin R. Banaji, and Brian A. Nosek Online First Publication, March 24, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0036260

Many methods for reducing implicit prejudice have been identified, but little is known about their relative effectiveness. We held a research contest to experimentally compare interventions for reducing the expression of implicit racial prejudice. Teams submitted 17 interventions that were tested an average of 3.70 times each in 4 studies (total N = 17,021), with rules for revising interventions between studies. Eight of 17 interventions were effective at reducing implicit preferences for Whites compared with Blacks, particularly ones that provided experience with counterstereotypical exemplars, used evaluative conditioning methods, and provided strategies to override biases. The other 9 interventions were ineffective, particularly ones that engaged participants with others' perspectives, asked participants to consider egalitarian values, or induced a positive emotion. The most potent interventions were ones that invoked high self-involvement or linked Black people with positivity and White people with negativity. No intervention consistently reduced explicit racial preferences. Furthermore, intervention effectiveness only weakly extended to implicit preferences for Asians and Hispanics.

Although much is known about the pathology of Bacillus thuringiensis against invertebrates, current understanding of its natural ecology is limited. This study evaluated the biodiversity of B.thuringiensis in relation to its interaction with plants. Phylogenetic relationships between 44 reference and field-collected strains, determined using 16S rRNA and gyrB gene sequences, revealed a high degree of variability, similar to that found in databases. An Arabidopsis thaliana in vitro inoculation model was developed to screen the ability of B.thuringiensis to colonise roots. Significant colonisation differences up to 91-fold were observed between strains, and correlation between strain phylogeny and colonisation was found. The genetics and biochemistry of auxin production; presence of the gene encoding indole pyruvate decarboxylase; and the abilities of Bt strains to swarm, grow in rich/minimal media and affect root growth differed between the strains, but only auxin production correlated significantly with ability to colonise roots. Co-inoculation with Burkholderia phytofirmans PsJN or Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 produced no effect on B.thuringiensis colonisation levels, regardless of the co-inoculant. Similarly, root colonisation of A.thaliana mutants impaired in plant defences was not significantly higher compared with controls. This is the first systematic and phylogenetic evaluation of B.thuringiensis interaction with plants.

Recent studies have shown that the presence of a caring relational partner can attenuate neural responses to threat. Here we report reanalyzed data from Coan, Schaefer, and Davidson (2006), investigating the role of relational mutuality in the neural response to threat. Mutuality reflects the degree to which couple members show mutual interest in the sharing of internal feelings, thoughts, aspirations, and joys – a vital form of responsiveness in attachment relationships. We predicted that wives who were high (versus low) in perceived mutuality, and who attended the study session with their husbands, would show reduced neural threat reactivity in response to mild electric shocks. We also explored whether this effect would depend on physical contact (hand-holding). As predicted, we observed that higher mutuality scores corresponded with decreased neural threat responding in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and supplementary motor cortex. These effects were independent of hand-holding condition. These findings suggest that higher perceived mutuality corresponds with decreased self-regulatory effort and attenuated preparatory motor activity in response to threat cues, even in the absence of direct physical contact with social resources.

Previous research indicates that drug motivational systems are instantiated in structures that process information related to incentive, motivational drive, memorial, motor/habit, craving, and cognitive control processing. The present research tests the hypothesis that activity in such systems will be powerfully affected by the combination of drug anticipation and drug withdrawal. Event-related fMRI was used to examine activation in response to a preinfusion warning cue in two experimental sessions that manipulated withdrawal status. Significant cue-induced effects were seen in the caudate, ventral anterior nucleus of the thalamus, the insula, subcallosal gyrus, nucleus accumbens, and anterior cingulate. These results suggest that withdrawal and nicotine anticipation produce (1) different motor preparatory and inhibitory response processing and (2) different craving related processing.