Anxiety interferes with executive control of attention (ECA), especially in the context of emotional information. Previous research suggests that temperamental differences in self-regulation might modulate these effects. The present research examined the association between trait anxiety and temperamental self-regulation on ECA processes, in the context of positive and threatening distractors in a sample of primary school children. We designed a computerized Emotional letter discrimination task that required both inhibitory and set shifting processes. Emotional faces distractors were displayed one at a time during a primary letter discrimination task. To assess inhibition, our task contained compatible trials (the target letter was flanked by distractor letter that had the same identity as the target) and incompatible trials (the target letter was flanked by distractor letter that had the opposite identity). The results showed that higher levels of anxiety were associated with increased reaction times to discriminate target letters during incompatible trials in the presence of happy distractors. In addition, lower levels of temperamental self-regulation were related to increased reaction times in the presence of angry distractors during incompatible trials. These findings provide empirical evidence for an association between increased child anxiety and lower self-regulation on the executive control of attention in the context of emotional distracting information.
"Lie acceptability is defined as an attitude toward lying that can vary along a continuum, from considering that lying is completely unacceptable, to a most lenient view upon deception. The present research focused on identifying factors associated with individual differences in lie acceptability in a sample of Romanian adolescents (N =167, 14-19 years). We investigated associations between variables with a preliminary documented theoretical and/or empirical association with lie acceptability (callous-unemotional traits or social desirability), along with exploratory age-specific measures of somatization. Our results revealed that male adolescents who displayed high callousness, uncaring, or somatization tended to view lying as more acceptable. Social desirability did not predict lie acceptability above and beyond these individual predictors. The implications of these findings for attempts to reduce problematic deceptive behavior in adolescence are discussed."
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