The associations between attachment representations of adopted young adults and their experiential and physiological arousal to infant crying were examined. Attachment representations were assessed with the Attachment Script Assessment (ASA), and the young adults listened to infant cries, during which ratings of cry perception were collected and physiological reactivity was measured. Secure adoptees showed a well-integrated response to infant distress: heart-rate increases and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) withdrawal were coupled with heightened perception of urgency in these individuals. In insecure adoptees RSA withdrawal was absent, and a combination of lowered perceived urgency and heightened sympathetic arousal was found, reflecting a deactivating style of emotional reactivity. Overall, our findings support the idea that internal working models of attachment explain individual differences in the way attachment-related information is processed.

Background and objectives
Emotion can be seen as the organizing process that coordinates response systems to deal effectively with challenges and opportunities. Synchronous change in subjective and physiological reactivity is regarded as an indication of this organizing process. Synchrony is expected to increase with the intensity of emotional stimuli. Conversely, adaptive emotional functioning could be indicated by progressive synchrony upon increasing demands, and the magnitude of synchrony could be an indication of progress during therapy.
Methods
We examined whether synchronous change in subjective and physiological reactivity over repeated exposures increased from watching a flight video through simulated flight to actual flight, and whether the magnitude of synchronous change predicted favourable short- and long-term treatment outcome within a group of 77 aviophobic participants during CBT.
Results
Results did not show a relationship between the intensity of the phobic stimuli and the magnitude of synchronous change in subjective and physiological reactivity. Moreover, synchronous change across both response systems did not predict treatment outcome.
Limitations
By design this study had no control group. Additional treatment or life events between end of treatment and 3-year follow-up were not assessed.
Conclusion
The results provide only weak support for the functionalistic view that successful treatment of anxiety disorders is indicated by synchronous change in reactivity across emotional response systems. The relationship between these systems is likely to be affected by many intervening variables including higher order cognitive processes.

Background
There are large individual differences in dealing with everyday social stress. Therefore, we investigated the association of social inhibition (and its facets) with the emotional and physiological responses to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST).
Methods
Undergraduate students (N = 312) completed the 15-item Social Inhibition Questionnaire (SIQ15) and participated in the TSST, while emotional and cardiovascular stress responses were recorded. We examined the effect of social inhibition across time with repeated-measures ANCOVAs.
Findings
During social stress (and recovery), social inhibition was associated with increased negative mood reactivity (especially the behavioral inhibition facet) and heightened sympathetic activation (especially the social withdrawal and interpersonal sensitivity). Physiological stress reactivity seems to be mostly α-adrenergic in women, and also β-adrenergic in men.
Conclusions
Emotional and physiological stress responses are associated with individual differences in social inhibition. This warrants more research on mechanisms that underlie the relations between social inhibition, stress and health.