Emotions significantly influence our perceptions and interactions with the environment, yet the impact of our emotional states on judging and responding to others remains underexplored. In this... Show moreEmotions significantly influence our perceptions and interactions with the environment, yet the impact of our emotional states on judging and responding to others remains underexplored. In this thesis, I examined how (romantic) attraction influences our attention (Part I), how we judge others’ intentions (Part II), and whether mimicking another facilitates bond formation (Part III). In two empirical chapters, I demonstrate that people have a strong attentional bias towards visual attractiveness and a tendency to indicate interest in establishing a romantic connection to attractive others. In the subsequent empirical chapter, I show that men are more likely to judge women they find attractive as more sexually aroused. Crucially, in a real-life dating study, I show that men who are attracted to another are more likely to assume mutual interest. Further, I introduce a framework suggesting that people align their actions and emotional states with others to foster romantic relationships. The final empirical chapter suggests that mimicking the attraction cues of others enhances bond formation. Overall, this dissertation sheds light on how attractiveness and attraction affect our attention, our social cognition, and the synchronization of actions and emotions, offering insights into the mechanisms underlying romantic connections. Show less
This dissertation focused on the neural and behavioral mechanisms underlying adolescent learning and mental health in the context of peers and friends. The neuroimaging findings revealed that... Show moreThis dissertation focused on the neural and behavioral mechanisms underlying adolescent learning and mental health in the context of peers and friends. The neuroimaging findings revealed that reward processing for self and peers rely on common reward-related brain regions, whereas a social brain region (TPJ) showed social specificity to observed outcomes for unfamiliar peers compared to friends. Moreover, typically developing adolescents and adolescents with ADHD show neural sensitivity in reward and salience brain regions towards rewards for themselves, friends and peers compared to losses. There were no group differences in neural processing of (vicarious) outcomes between adolescents with and without ADHD, yet a symptom-level approach showed more neural sensitivity for own compared to friends’ losses in individuals with more inattention symptoms. The behavioral findings indicated that adolescents’ learning performance benefitted from observing the choices and outcomes of peers irrespective of the relationship with this peer. The results did not show effects of friendship (quality) and social status on observational and academic learning, but there was a protective effect of friendship quality on internalizing problems. Taken together, these findings highlight adolescence as a period of observational learning opportunities from different types of peers. Adolescence can also serve as a window of opportunity to improve mental health by fostering high-quality friendships. Show less
This thesis generated insights into the neural and affective signatures of connectedness between parents and adolescents and between people in general, which is operationalized by responses to eye... Show moreThis thesis generated insights into the neural and affective signatures of connectedness between parents and adolescents and between people in general, which is operationalized by responses to eye contact and empathy. Overall, our findings show that during adolescence, parents are still highly attuned to their child at the neural and affective level. In addition, adolescents report to feel more connected with their parents than with unknown others, although this was not directly reflected in stronger neural responses. Another interesting finding is that making eye contact for a prolonged period generally enhanced the socio-emotional connection between people, both between parents and adolescents and with unknown others. For individuals with a history of CEM and depressed adolescents eye contact is less socially rewarding, however, and does not seem to foster a stronger connectedness with others. Studying the psychobiological underpinnings of affiliative bonding, including the parent-adolescent bond, brings us a step closer to unraveling how such bonds are established and maintained during adolescence. And even more important: Once we know how these bonds are established, we might be better able to modify and repair these bonds in situations in which they for some reason got disrupted. Show less
Despite decades of research from psychology, anthropology, biology and economics, how social preferences arise and vary across contexts remains an open question. In three empirical chapters, this... Show moreDespite decades of research from psychology, anthropology, biology and economics, how social preferences arise and vary across contexts remains an open question. In three empirical chapters, this dissertation addresses this gap using a variety of economic games and neuroimaging techniques that allow for a tractable modeling of cooperation and competition. Overall, findings suggest that while social preferences are linked to neural structure, they can also adapt to environmental factors as well as beliefs about interaction partners. This doctoral thesis shows that interacting with ingroup or outgroup members, taking decisions publicly or privately, and knowing whether we may interact with others again affect our cooperative behavior. These results highlight the importance of understanding how prosociality may be altered and lay the foundations for policy makers to further those social environments that encourage prosocial behavior. Show less
By monitoring ongoing actions and performance outcomes, we are able to detect errors or mismatches between our intentions or predictions. Disturbances in such performance-monitoring processes may... Show moreBy monitoring ongoing actions and performance outcomes, we are able to detect errors or mismatches between our intentions or predictions. Disturbances in such performance-monitoring processes may importantly contribute to impaired adaptive behavior in clinical disorders, such as excessively impulsive behavior in externalizing disorders or excessively rigid or careful behavior in anxiety- and obsessive-compulsive disorders. In daily life, performance monitoring often takes place in a social context, where our actions have consequences not only for ourselves, but also for others. The investigation of (alterations in) such (pro)social performance-monitoring processes may help explain functional and social impairments across a wide range of clinical disorders. In this dissertation, we used various neuroimaging paradigms to examine subclinical and neurochemical influences on performance monitoring when errors had consequences for oneself or others. The studies in this dissertation indicate that neural performance-monitoring correlates are modulated by social, subclinical, and neurochemical factors, including social (responsibility) context, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, ovarian hormones, and pharmacological manipulations of dopamine and oxytocin. These findings have implications for the potential and utility of error-related brain activity as a clinical biomarker or endophenotype, our insight into social symptoms and impairments in obsessive-compulsive disorder, and for our understanding of the neurochemical mechanisms underlying performance monitoring. Show less
In my study I looked for a plausible cognitive theoretical framework for conforming behavior. The Theory of Event Coding (TEC) was the cognitive theory that offered a good basis for building this... Show moreIn my study I looked for a plausible cognitive theoretical framework for conforming behavior. The Theory of Event Coding (TEC) was the cognitive theory that offered a good basis for building this framework. I conducted an experiment using an existing study design adopted from previous studies of conformity adding a non-social condition where participants were confronted not with what they thought were other students’ choices but with random computer choices. According to TEC, a simple confrontation with an alternative behavior would affect reproduction of your own behavior at a later stage. The study results supported my theory. Unfortunately, the results were possibly influenced by Regression to the Mean. So I changed the study design to eliminate the issue. Also I wanted to see if and how conformity was affected by culture: collectivistic versus individualistic. This study was conducted partially in the lab (in the Netherlands and China) and partially online (in the USA and India). The results confirmed my initial hypothesis: the conformity effect did not differ across all experimental groups irrespective of the country or condition suggesting that people are sensitive to intervening events, but the social nature of these intervening events is irrelevant. Show less
In the realm of cognitive science, the quest to understand cognitive control has persisted for decades. Traditional notions of cognitive control have focused on inhibition through the prefrontal... Show moreIn the realm of cognitive science, the quest to understand cognitive control has persisted for decades. Traditional notions of cognitive control have focused on inhibition through the prefrontal cortex, but this dissertation challenges that perspective with a more comprehensive framework: The Metacontrol State Model (MSM). The MSM proposes that cognitive control emerges from the interplay between two opposing systems – one promoting flexibility and the other promoting persistence. These systems interact to shape our cognitive processing styles, thereby influencing our ability to effectively regulate our actions. This dissertation explores questions such as why individuals exhibit differences in cognitive control capacity and how state-related changes and trait-related predispositions impact cognitive control function. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to empirically test the MSM model and shed light on the factors that influence cognitive control. Through a series of experiments, it seeks to understand how altered states of consciousness, achieved through meditation techniques or serotonergic psychedelics, affect the balance between intentional and habitual processes. Additionally, it examines the extent to which individual trait biases serve as trans-diagnostic markers in various psychopathologies. This work comprises a literature review and six empirical articles. By integrating theory and empirical research, this dissertation takes us on a journey into the intricate world of cognitive control, shaping our understanding of how it influences our lives. Show less
Social anxiety is anxiety about negative evaluation and rejection by others. Social anxiety has been long related to reduced eye contact, this feature is seen as a casual and a maintaining factor... Show moreSocial anxiety is anxiety about negative evaluation and rejection by others. Social anxiety has been long related to reduced eye contact, this feature is seen as a casual and a maintaining factor of social anxiety disorder. However, related empirical findings were equivocal. The dissertation sought to address three key questions: (1) Whether social anxiety is featured by gaze avoidance. (2) Under which conditions socially anxious individuals display gaze avoidance. (3) To what extent subjective experience of gaze avoidance corresponds with actual gaze behavior. Using the combination of naturalistic social settings and wearable eye-trackers, the dissertation provides evidence for the relationship between social anxiety and gaze avoidance particularly in naturalistic social situation, and further reveals that the relationship depends on severity of social anxiety symptoms, type of social situation and age group. Besides, gaze anxiety is moderately associated with actual gaze avoidance. Altogether, the dissertation sheds light on the nature of gaze behavior adopted by socially anxious individuals in naturalistic social interactions. Show less
This thesis examines questions related to the prevalence of anxiety symptomatology and disorders in older adults, and compares two brief low-threshold psychological interventions (blended... Show moreThis thesis examines questions related to the prevalence of anxiety symptomatology and disorders in older adults, and compares two brief low-threshold psychological interventions (blended Acceptance and Commitment Therapy versus face-to-face Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) for older adults with anxiety symptoms in primary care. Show less
Patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD) are 'extremely shy': they are afraid of a negative evaluation by others and avoid social situations as much as possible, with negative influence on... Show morePatients with social anxiety disorder (SAD) are 'extremely shy': they are afraid of a negative evaluation by others and avoid social situations as much as possible, with negative influence on their lives. It is therefore important to gain insight in the factors that make children and adolescents vulnerable to develop SAD.SAD often runs in families: being ‘genetically close’ to a patient with SAD substantially increases the risk to develop the disorder. The studies summarized in this thesis aim to broaden our knowledge of this genetic vulnerability to SAD, by focusing on neurobiological endophenotypes as measured with structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging. We used data from the unique Leiden Family Lab study on Social Anxiety Disorder and demonstrated that several structural and functional brain alterations were genetically linked to the disorder. These results offer novel insights in the neurobiological pathways leading to SAD, and provide clues for prevention and intervention. Show less
Adolescence, defined as the transition phase between childhood and adulthood, is a time of many physical, cognitive and social-emotional changes. It is a natural time of exploring, thrill seeking,... Show moreAdolescence, defined as the transition phase between childhood and adulthood, is a time of many physical, cognitive and social-emotional changes. It is a natural time of exploring, thrill seeking, and for eventually setting long-term goals and aspirations. One of the most prominent findings is that adolescents take more risks than children or adults. The focus of this thesis is on adolescent risk taking behavior. The goal is to identify individual difference factors that are related to risk taking behavior and assess how these variables change over development. Adolescence is associated with major changes in hormonal levels, brain function and social environment. In this thesis it is tested how changes in pubertal development, brain function and social environment together influence real life risk taking. The studies in this thesis show that neural responses to rewards in the striatum are elevated during adolescence. This response is influenced by chronological age, pubertal development, personality and the social context. Importantly, the striatum response to rewards is related to real life risk taking behavior and therefore has functional relevance. The results of this thesis provide vital insight in the complex relationship between reward processing and real life risk taking behavior. Show less
I theorized that if redressing inequality becomes a way for dominant group members (i.e., Whites) to boost their group‘s moral standing (i.e., as fair and just), resistance to increased equality... Show moreI theorized that if redressing inequality becomes a way for dominant group members (i.e., Whites) to boost their group‘s moral standing (i.e., as fair and just), resistance to increased equality among these group members might decrease, thereby increasing opportunities for social change. Thus, I examined the effect of morality framing—i.e., presenting social equality as a moral ideal versus a moral obligation—on Whites‘ responses to social inequality. In Chapter 2 it is demonstrated that exposure to the moral ideal (vs. obligation) frame elicits more positive intergroup attitudes among Whites. In Chapter 3 it is established that giving a speech about equality as a moral ideal (rather than as a moral obligation), elicits cardiovascular (CV) reactivity and speech rates among Whites that are consistent with less relative threat and vigilance. However, studies in Chapter 4 show that during contact with a Black confederate, prior exposure to the moral ideal (vs. obligation) frame elicits CV reactivity among Whites consistent with greater relative threat. CV reactivity was reliably predicted by more positive intergroup attitudes, and thus, heightened threat during intergroup contact can indicate the psychological cost of caring. These findings can inform policy and interventions aimed at increasing commitment toward equality. Show less
The thesis explains the fundamental difference between unipolar and bipolar measurement scales for psychological characteristics. We explore the use of correspondence analysis (CA), a technique... Show moreThe thesis explains the fundamental difference between unipolar and bipolar measurement scales for psychological characteristics. We explore the use of correspondence analysis (CA), a technique that is similar to principal component analysis and is available in SAS and SPSS, to select items that together form a bipolar scale. CA estimates both item locations and subject locations and is a useful tool in the psychometric evaluation of bipolar measurement scales. Additionally we present a new methodology (OCM) to estimate item response functions of single-peaked items with a model-free approach. Show less
This dissertation investigated the conditions under which the individual upward mobility of mem-bers of low status groups is likely to succeed and when it is likely to meet resistance. In addition,... Show moreThis dissertation investigated the conditions under which the individual upward mobility of mem-bers of low status groups is likely to succeed and when it is likely to meet resistance. In addition, it examines how upwardly mobile individuals can create such beneficial conditions. The results presented in this dissertation show support from fellow members of the low status group to be a key resource. Such ingroup support enables members of low status groups to persevere in the pursuit of individual upward mobility, even in the face of opposition from the high status outgroup. The results indicate that ingroup support is given to individuals the more they are perceived to represent the ingroup with their upward mobility. Moreover, the extent to which upwardly mobile individuals are perceived as representatives depends on how they associate with the low status ingroup. The results also show that the degree to which upwardly mobile individuals display their association with the low status group affects whether they meet resistance from the outgroup. While the high status outgroup is concerned about behavioral displays, it is less concerned with affective identification of upwardly mobile individuals of low status groups with their group. Explanations of these effects are offered. Show less
Managing diversity is an important issue on the agenda of policy makers, managers, and researchers. Past research has shown that diversity can enhance, but also disrupt team functioning. In this... Show moreManaging diversity is an important issue on the agenda of policy makers, managers, and researchers. Past research has shown that diversity can enhance, but also disrupt team functioning. In this dissertation, I attempt to more thoroughly understand this paradox by examining when and why diversity can enhance versus inhibit team learning and performance. These studies are grounded in the faultline perspective, which focuses on the demographic alignment of diversity attributes in a group. In addition, a typology and instrument for measuring team learning types was developed based on the topics that teams can learn about: task, process, and social learning. The relationship between faultlines and these types of team learning was examined. The results of this dissertation indicate that faultlines are not necessarily bad for team learning and performance, as is often assumed. For instance, faultlines had healthy effects on team learning when team members knew each other well and when the team had a constructive error culture. On the other hand, faultlines disrupted team learning and performance when team members perceived subgroups in their team. The results of this dissertation have important implications for future research and for the management of diversity in organizations. Show less
Early dementias are difficult to distinguish from normal age-related memory decline. In the preclinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease, brain functions are already changing... Show moreEarly dementias are difficult to distinguish from normal age-related memory decline. In the preclinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease, brain functions are already changing, but this is not directly visible from the outside. Many research is aimed at discovering early disease markers. However, research using EEG registration during conventional eyes closed conditions revealed little additional information. The yield of EEG research can be improved by probing the weakest spot, which, in case of dementia, is memory. Karin van der Hiele introduced memory tests during EEG registration and found that early abnormalities in brain functioning can then be observed in Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease. An interesting finding came to light: the EEG in dementia displays a lot of muscle activity which is normally filtered out. However, the researchers decided not to throw this activity away but to measure it. Interestingly, they found that the amount of muscle activity was related to cognition and to the number of depressive complaints. It may pay to keep an open mind regarding the nature of the parameter to be measured. Show less
The present thesis deal with the diagnostic boundaries between hypochondriasis and obsessive compulsive disorder and between hypochondriasis and another somatoform disorder called non-cardiac chest... Show moreThe present thesis deal with the diagnostic boundaries between hypochondriasis and obsessive compulsive disorder and between hypochondriasis and another somatoform disorder called non-cardiac chest pain. These studies showed that hypochondriasis and both other disorders are valid disorders based on diagnosis-specific symptoms. Furthermore, in the thesis the first randomized controlled trial comparing the efficacy of cognitive behavioural therapy, and a double-blind SSRI (paroxetine) and pill-placebo is described. The short term effects (4 months) and the long term (5 years) of both treatments were compared to each other and to the placebo. It can be concluded that both are effective treatments for hypochondriasis compared to the placebo in the short term, but the significant differences between both active treatments in ameliorating hypochondriacal symptoms disappears during the follow-up, although CBT is more effective in ameliorating comorbid depressive and psychoneurotic symptoms during the follow-up period than the placebo. Furthermore, CBT results in less use of additional psychological or medical help during the follow-up. Finally, the psychometric properties of the first clinician-administered semi-structured interview, the hypochondriasis Y-BOCS, were described. This interview seemed reliable and valid addition to the assessment arsenal measuring hypochondriacal symptoms. Show less
