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The ability to shift attention toward or away from a threatening stimulus is referred to as attentional control. Many highly anxious individuals have been found to have low attentional control. These individuals tend to focus on threatening stimuli and are often unable to take their attention away from them. If attention to feared stimuli differs for anxious people then this may have implications for exposure therapy, a common therapy used with anxious individuals. The current study investigated the relationship between individual differences in attentional control and the generalization and extinction of fear for stimuli in an experimental setting. More specifically, the study looked at whether individuals grouped in high vs. low self-reported attentional control groups experienced more or less generalization of extinction learning and return of fear. Upon completion of a self-report attentional control measure, participants (N = 48) completed an experiment in which they received aversive shocks. They went through an acquisition phase in which they learned to link a CS with a US. They were then lead through an extinction phase in which the previously learned CS-US association was extinguished by presenting a novel stimuli that resembled the CS in some ways. Fear was measured in terms of fear potentiated startle (FPS) and skin conductance response (SCR) and by a self-report US expectancy ratings. After the extinction phase the participants underwent a test phase in which they saw a second novel stimulus that resembled both the CS from acquisition and the stimulus from the extinction phase. Return of fear was measured at the beginning of the test phase by the same measures (FPS, SCR, and indirectly by rating expectancy). Findings indicated that individual differences do not influence generalization of fear and do not influence return of fear. Individual differences in attentional control were found suggesting acquisition of US expectancy. The findings of the study conclude that there are distinctive differences between attentional control in US expectancy, however there may also be additional processes other than attentional control at play during exposure.

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In recent years, research has predominantly focused on women and their increasing engagement in traditionally male, agentic roles. However, unlike the higher representation of women in traditionally male fields, men remain underrepresented in traditionally female, communal roles, communal professions and in the domestic spheres. This may be due to the stereotypes that surround men: manhood has been found to be precarious, meaning that it is a social, elusive and tenuous state, and a state that needs validation. Men may thus behave according to a norm that reflects how they expect other people expect them to behave. When engaging in activities that do not fit to the stereotypical image of what activities men should engage in, they may experience backlash and threat to their masculinity when engaging in communal activities. The goal of the current study was to examine whether different subjective norms of masculinity influences the aspirations of men. A between-participant experimental study with 136 male students and three conditions was executed. The two experimental conditions received a fictional article about research conducted at the University of Leuven about what the norm of masculinity entails within the participants’ cohort. Specifically, the article either confirmed the traditional norm of masculinity, i.e., that men should be agentic, or challenged this norm by saying that men should be communal. The current study aimed to shed light on different norms of masculinity and how they influence the career and communal aspirations of men and their fear of future backlash or respect from others for engaging in communal activities. We hypothesized that participants in the more communal condition would report lower fear of future backlash than those in the other conditions, as well as participants in the communal condition would report less career aspirations and more communal aspirations. Results showed that, contrary to expectations, participants who were shown a more communal norm had more fear of future backlash than those in the control condition. Additionally, results did not find any differences between condition and how men reported their career and communal aspirations. However, results indicated that student identification moderated the relationship between condition and communal aspirations. Specifically, participants in the traditional norm condition who reported low student identification reported more communal aspirations than participants in the control condition who reported low student identification. Student identification also moderated the relationship between condition and respect from others for engaging in communal activities. Specifically, those in the traditional norm condition who reported high student identification reported more respect than participants in the control condition who reported high student identification. To conclude, this master thesis examined a new way of looking at the precarious nature of manhood, specifically through the subjective norm of masculinity.

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Although women’s participation in typical male-dominated job fields has steadily increased over the last decades, the opposite phenomenon of men participating in typical female-dominated job fields is still barely happening. To better understand this low male influx, in the present research, we examined which factors are keeping men from entering female-dominated jobs. We start from two well-documented differences between typical male versus typical female jobs: agency vs. communion and higher status vs. lower status. We theorize that a job that is presented in a communal or lower status manner, will discourage men to practice that job later on in life. However, when a job is presented in an agentic or higher status manner, we theorize that this will encourage men to practice that job later on in life. Two possible moderators to the hypothesized relationships are also discussed. First, for men with a higher gender identity, the hypothesized effects may be stronger than for men with a lower gender identity. Second, this may also hold true for men who feel their masculinity is more threatened than for men who don’t feel as threatened in their masculinity. Our hypotheses were tested using an online questionnaire that was completed by a sample of 45 male psychology students at the university of Leuven. Using two-way repeated measures ANOVA, results supported the main effect of status: when a higher status was ascribed to a job, men showed more interest towards practicing that job. Next, results also supported the main effect of description, however this went in the opposite direction than we expected: when more communal traits were ascribed to a job, men showed more interest towards practicing that job. Results showed no support for an interaction effect between status and description. Moderator analyses for gender identity and masculinity threat level were run using the Hayes PROCESS © extension. None of the results supported the expected moderator effects. Based on our research, we end by discussing limitations and practical implications of our results. Suggestions for future research are also discussed.