Maternal employment and children's achievement in context: a meta-analysis of four decades of research

This meta-analysis of 68 studies (770 effect sizes) used random effects models to examine whether children's achievement differed depending on whether their mothers were employed. Four achievement outcomes were emphasized: formal tests of achievement and intellectual functioning, grades, and teacher ratings of cognitive competence. When all employment was compared with nonemployment for combined and separate achievement outcomes without moderators, effects were nonsignificant. Small beneficial effects of part-time compared with full-time employment were apparent for all achievement outcomes combined and for each individual achievement outcome. Significant sample-level moderators of the associations between maternal employment and achievement for all outcomes combined included family structure, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status; associations were positive when samples were majority 1-parent families and mixed 1- and 2-parent families, racially/ethnically diverse or international in composition, and not middle-upper class. Analyses of child gender indicated more positive effects for girls. Children's age was a significant moderator for the outcome of intellectual functioning. The identification of sample-level moderators of the relationship between maternal employment and children's achievement highlights the importance of social context in understanding work-family linkages.     

Verbal uncertainty expressions: A critical review of two decades of research

The frequency with which verbal uncertainty expressions are employed suggests that they play an important role in the communication of states of uncertainty and may have an important role in emerging technologies such as Expert Systems. This article critically reviews empirical studies of verbal uncertainty expressions spanning two decades of research between 1967 and 1987 with the principal conclusions that: (1) People are highly internally consistent in their use of verbal uncertainty expressions; (2) No conclusions about between-subject variability are justified principally because (a) there is currently no consensus as to what is to count as consistent or inconsistent use and (b) there are several factors that confound purported analyses of between-subject consistency such as the composition of the stimulus set and the scaling tasks themselves; (3) One study suggests that assessments of the meaning of verbal uncertainty expressions may be conditioned by the prior perceived probabilities of the events they describe. However, other interpretations of this study are open. The review also discusses the more general epistemological question of whether the concept of uncertainty as manifest by verbal uncertainty expressions is really amenable to the unidimensional framework within which empirical studies have been conceived. I am indebted to Dylan Jones (UWIST) for his encouragement and support and to John Fox, (ICRF), Tom Wallsten and David Budescu for comments on earlier drafts. This work was supported, in part, by the Science and Engineering Research Council while the author was a postgraduate student at the Department of Applied Psychology, UWIST (now UWCC School of Psychology).     

The American image of beauty: Media representations of hair color for four decades

The present archival study examined the depiction of women's beauty in our society with respect to hair color, especially blondeness. Raters reliably categorized the hair color of cover models for two women's magazines (Ladies Home Journal and Vogue) and for Playboy magazine centerfolds from the 1950s through the 1980s. These media images from 750 observations were compared among magazines, among decades, and in relation to the proportion of blondes in a normative sample of adult White women. Results revealed that the percentage of blondes in each magazine exceeded the base rate of blondes in the norm group. Blondes were more prevalent in Playboy centerfolds than in the women's magazines. Although temporal patterns varied from magazine to magazine, the average proportion of blondes was lowest in the 1960s and highest in the 1970s. The study's findings have numerous implications for social issues and research regarding the psychology of physical appearance.The authors wish to thank Jill Grant for her assistance in conducting this research.     

When voices get emotional: A corpus of nonverbal vocalizations for research on emotion processing

Nonverbal vocal expressions, such as laughter, sobbing, and screams, are an important source of emotional information in social interactions. However, the investigation of how we process these vocal cues entered the research agenda only recently. Here, we introduce a new corpus of nonverbal vocalizations, which we recorded and submitted to perceptual and acoustic validation. It consists of 121 sounds expressing four positive emotions (achievement/triumph, amusement, sensual pleasure, and relief) and four negative ones (anger, disgust, fear, and sadness), produced by two female and two male speakers. For perceptual validation, a forced choice task was used (n = 20), and ratings were collected for the eight emotions, valence, arousal, and authenticity (n = 20). We provide these data, detailed for each vocalization, for use by the research community. High recognition accuracy was found for all emotions (86 %, on average), and the sounds were reliably rated as communicating the intended expressions. The vocalizations were measured for acoustic cues related to temporal aspects, intensity, fundamental frequency (f0), and voice quality. These cues alone provide sufficient information to discriminate between emotion categories, as indicated by statistical classification procedures; they are also predictors of listeners’ emotion ratings, as indicated by multiple regression analyses. This set of stimuli seems a valuable addition to currently available expression corpora for research on emotion processing. It is suitable for behavioral and neuroscience research and might as well be used in clinical settings for the assessment of neurological and psychiatric patients. The corpus can be downloaded from Supplementary Materials.     

Dealing with feeling: a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of strategies derived from the process model of emotion regulation

The present meta-analysis investigated the effectiveness of strategies derived from the process model of emotion regulation in modifying emotional outcomes as indexed by experiential, behavioral, and physiological measures. A systematic search of the literature identified 306 experimental comparisons of different emotion regulation (ER) strategies. ER instructions were coded according to a new taxonomy, and meta-analysis was used to evaluate the effectiveness of each strategy across studies. The findings revealed differences in effectiveness between ER processes: Attentional deployment had no effect on emotional outcomes (d(+) = 0.00), response modulation had a small effect (d(+) = 0.16), and cognitive change had a small-to-medium effect (d(+) = 0.36). There were also important within-process differences. We identified 7 types of attentional deployment, 4 types of cognitive change, and 4 types of response modulation, and these distinctions had a substantial influence on effectiveness. Whereas distraction was an effective way to regulate emotions (d(+) = 0.27), concentration was not (d(+) = -0.26). Similarly, suppressing the expression of emotion proved effective (d(+) = 0.32), but suppressing the experience of emotion or suppressing thoughts of the emotion-eliciting event did not (d(+) = -0.04 and -0.12, respectively). Finally, reappraising the emotional response proved less effective (d(+) = 0.23) than reappraising the emotional stimulus (d(+) = 0.36) or using perspective taking (d(+) = 0.45). The review also identified several moderators of strategy effectiveness including factors related to the (a) to-be-regulated emotion, (b) frequency of use and intended purpose of the ER strategy, (c) study design, and (d) study characteristics.     

Moved by words: Affective ratings for a set of 2,266 Spanish words in five discrete emotion categories

The two main theoretical accounts of the human affective space are the dimensional perspective and the discrete-emotion approach. In recent years, several affective norms have been developed from a dimensional perspective, including ratings for valence and arousal. In contrast, the number of published datasets relying on the discrete-emotion approach is much lower. There is a need to fill this gap, considering that discrete emotions have an effect on word processing above and beyond those of valence and arousal. In the present study, we present ratings from 1,380 participants for a set of 2,266 Spanish words in five discrete emotion categories: happiness, anger, fear, disgust, and sadness. This will be the largest dataset published to date containing ratings for discrete emotions. We also present, for the first time, a fine-grained analysis of the distribution of words into the five emotion categories. This analysis reveals that happiness words are the most consistently related to a single, discrete emotion category. In contrast, there is a tendency for many negative words to belong to more than one discrete emotion. The only exception is disgust words, which overlap least with the other negative emotions. Normative valence and arousal data already exist for all of the words included in this corpus. Thus, the present database will allow researchers to design studies to contrast the predictions of the two most influential theoretical perspectives in this field. These studies will undoubtedly contribute to a deeper understanding of the effects of emotion on word processing.     

A preliminary investigation of the relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and posttraumatic stress symptoms

This study examined the relationship between posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms and particular aspects of emotion regulation difficulties among trauma-exposed individuals. Participants were an ethnically diverse sample of 108 undergraduates from an urban university. PTS symptom severity was found to be associated with lack of emotional acceptance, difficulty engaging in goal-directed behavior when upset, impulse-control difficulties, limited access to effective emotion regulation strategies, and lack of emotional clarity. Further, overall difficulties in emotion regulation were associated with PTS symptom severity, controlling for negative affect. Finally, individuals exhibiting PTS symptoms indicative of a PTSD diagnosis reported greater difficulties with emotion regulation than those reporting PTS symptoms at a subthreshold level. The implications of these findings for research and treatment are discussed.     

Running in fear: an investigation into the dimensional account of emotion in discriminating emotional expressions

Emotion can be conceptualized by the dimensional account of emotion with the dimensions of valence and arousal. There is little discussion of the difference in discriminability across the dimensions. The present study hypothesized that any pair of emotional expressions differing in the polarity of both valence and arousal dimensions would be easier to distinguish than a pair differing in only one dimension. The results indicate that the difference in the dimensions did not affect participants’ reaction time. Most pairs of emotional expressions, except those involving fear, were similarly discriminative. Reaction times to pairs with a fearful expression were faster than to those without. The fast reaction time to fearful facial expressions underscores the survival value of emotions.     

Psychotherapy for the treatment of depression: a comprehensive review of controlled outcome research

Previous quantitative reviews of research on the efficacy of psychotherapy for depression have included only a subset of the available research or limited their focus to a single outcome measure. The present review offers a more comprehensive quantitative integration of this literature. Using studies that compared psychotherapy with either no treatment or another form of treatment, this article assesses (a) the overall effectiveness of psychotherapy for depressed clients, (b) its effectiveness relative to pharmacotherapy, and (c) the clinical significance of treatment outcomes. Findings from the review confirm that depressed clients benefit substantially from psychotherapy, and these gains appear comparable to those observed with pharmacotherapy. Initial analysis suggested some differences in the efficacy of various types of treatment; however, once the influence of investigator allegiance was removed, there remained no evidence for the relative superiority of any 1 approach. In view of these results, the focus of future research should be less on differentiating among psychotherapies for depression than on identifying the factors responsible for improvement.     

A standardized set of 3-D objects for virtual reality research and applications

The use of immersive virtual reality as a research tool is rapidly increasing in numerous scientific disciplines. By combining ecological validity with strict experimental control, immersive virtual reality provides the potential to develop and test scientific theories in rich environments that closely resemble everyday settings. This article introduces the first standardized database of colored three-dimensional (3-D) objects that can be used in virtual reality and augmented reality research and applications. The 147 objects have been normed for name agreement, image agreement, familiarity, visual complexity, and corresponding lexical characteristics of the modal object names. The availability of standardized 3-D objects for virtual reality research is important, because reaching valid theoretical conclusions hinges critically on the use of well-controlled experimental stimuli. Sharing standardized 3-D objects across different virtual reality labs will allow for science to move forward more quickly.     

The effects of a modeling film on social isolation in preschool children: A methodological investigation

Children in a Headstart program N=113) were assessed on two occasions using a naturalistic observation system and peer sociometric measures. Thirtytwo children were selected by O'Connor's (1969, 1972) convergent criteria of teacher rankings and being below 15% peer interaction frequency. Half of the children saw an experimental modeling film designed to teach children how to initiate entry into peer groups and half of the children saw a control film. The present investigation included methodological elements left uncontrolled in previous investigations. Results indicated no significant multivariate Fratios for treatment main effects, sociometric main effects, or treatment by sociometric interactions. This failure to replicate previous results with the O'Connor film raises serious methodological criticisms of previous work with socially withdrawn children.The author wishes to acknowledge the help of Jonni Gonso, Brian Rasmussen, and Phil Schuler in carrying out the data collection for this study. Thanks are also due for the invitation to do the research and the patience shown by the staff of Headstart, Bloomington, Indiana.     

A correction for recruitment bias in norms derived from meta-analysis

Normative comparisons are an integral component of neuropsychological test interpretation and provide the basis for an inference of abnormal function and impairment. In order to remedy a deficit of normative standards for a large number of neuropsychology tests, Mitrushina, Boone, Razani, and D'Elia (2005) used the meta-analysis of studies that incorporated normal volunteers to create a type of normative standard for many tests in neuropsychology that were not adequately normed in the past. The present study examined this method by contrasting meta-analysis norms of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R; Wechsler, 1981) with its published quota norms. The study examined 12 experimental studies of the WAIS-R that included normal, control volunteers (N = 2,147). These were combined by meta-analysis, and the summary scores were compared. The meta-analysis revealed a significant sampling bias with studies recruiting more White and higher educated respondents than indicated by the U.S. Census. This bias was successfully corrected using Monte Carlo simulation and adjustments for quota sampling. The corrections could be applied to all meta-analysis norms currently in use and bring them in line with the U.S. Census demographics.     

A hemispheric asymmetry for the unconscious perception of emotion

Previous research has demonstrated that hemispheric asymmetries for conscious visual perception do not lead to asymmetries for unconscious visual perception. These studies utilized emotionally neutral items as stimuli. The current research utilized both emotionally negative and neutral stimuli to assess hemispheric differences for conscious and unconscious visual perception. Conscious perception was measured using a subjective measure of awareness reported by participants on each trial. Unconscious perception was measured by an "exclusion task," a form of word-stem-completion task. Consistent with predictions, negative stimuli were consciously perceived most often when presented to the right hemisphere. Negative stimuli presented to the right hemisphere showed no evidence of unconscious perception, suggesting that the hemispheric asymmetry for the conscious perception of negative information occurs at the expense of unconscious perception.     

Recognizing emotions in spoken language: A validated set of Portuguese sentences and pseudosentences for research on emotional prosody

A set of semantically neutral sentences and derived pseudosentences was produced by two native European Portuguese speakers varying emotional prosody in order to portray anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise, and neutrality. Accuracy rates and reaction times in a forced-choice identification of these emotions as well as intensity judgments were collected from 80 participants, and a database was constructed with the utterances reaching satisfactory accuracy (190 sentences and 178 pseudosentences). High accuracy (mean correct of 75% for sentences and 71% for pseudosentences), rapid recognition, and high-intensity judgments were obtained for all the portrayed emotional qualities. Sentences and pseudosentences elicited similar accuracy and intensity rates, but participants responded to pseudosentences faster than they did to sentences. This database is a useful tool for research on emotional prosody, including cross-language studies and studies involving Portuguese-speaking participants, and it may be useful for clinical purposes in the assessment of brain-damaged patients. The database is available for download from http://brm.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

Prolegomenon to the structure of emotion: Gleanings from neuropsychology

Abstract

This article presents a model of the structure of emotion developed primarily from a consideration of neuropsychological evidence and behavioural data which have bearing on neuropsychological theories. Valence is first considered and highlighted as a defining characteristic of emotion. Next, the use of facial behaviour and autonomic nervous system patterns as defining characteristics of discrete emotions is questioned on empirical and conceptual grounds. The regulation of emotion is considered and proposed to affect the very structure of emotion itself. If there is an invariant pattern of biological activity across different instantiations of the same emotion, it is likely to be found in higher-order associative networks of central nervous system activity, the very same networks that subserve goal-directed behaviour and other cognitive functions. Drawing upon evolutionary considerations, it is argued that what is basic about emotion are the dimensions of approach and withdrawal. The nature of the linkage between such action tendencies and emotion is discussed.     

Seven sins in the study of emotion: correctives from affective neuroscience

This brief commentary highlights seven sins in the study of emotion that are explicitly treated in contemporary affective neuroscience. These sins are (1) Affect and cognition are subserved by separate and independent neural circuits; (2) Affect is subcortical; (3) Emotions are in the head; (4) Emotions can be studied from a purely psychological perspective; (5) Emotions are similar in structure across age and species; (6) Specific emotions are instantiated in discrete locations in the brain; and (7) Emotions are conscious feeling states. Each of these is briefly discussed and evidence from affective neuroscience that bears on these sins is noted. The articles in this Special Issue underscore the vitality of research in affective neuroscience and illustrate how some of these sins can be addressed and rectified using concepts and methods from affective neuroscience.     

A preliminary investigation of sex differences in associations between emotion regulation difficulties and higher-order cognitive abilities

The present study sought to clarify the cognitive correlates of emotion regulation difficulties (ERD). Further, because prior evidence suggests sex differences in emotion regulation, sex was examined as a moderator of associations between cognitive abilities and ERD. Participants (N = 154) completed self-report measures of ERD, and were administered neuropsychological tests assessing crystallized and fluid intelligence, as well as various components of executive functioning. Bivariate correlations and results from regression analyses suggested sex-dependent associations among cognitive processes and ERD. For men, inhibition of dominant response tendencies was associated with lower ERD, whereas for women, a host of executive abilities (e.g., greater inhibition, cognitive flexibility, semantic processing, abstract reasoning) were associated with greater ERD. Implications for the neurocognitive conceptualization of emotion dysregulation will be discussed.