Subjective, behavioral, and physiological reactivity to ethnically matched and ethnically mismatched film clips

This study examined whether individuals from 4 major ethnic groups within the United States (African American, Chinese American, European American, and Mexican American) showed greater subjective, behavioral, and physiological responses to emotional film clips (amusement, sadness, and disgust) with actors from their own ethnic group (ethnically matched) compared with actors from the other 3 ethnic groups (ethnically mismatched). Evidence showed greater responsivity to ethnically matched films for African Americans and European Americans, with the largest effect for African Americans. These findings were consistent across both sex and level of cultural identification. Findings of ethnic difference notwithstanding, there were many areas in which ethnic differences were not found (e.g., little or no evidence was found of greater response to ethnically matched films in Chinese-American or Mexican- American participants). These findings indicate that the emotional response system clearly reacts to stimuli of diverse ethnic content; however, the system is also amenable to subtle "tuning" that allows for incrementally enhanced responding to members of one's own ethnic or cultural group.     

Cultural and temperamental variation in emotional response

To examine the relative influence of cultural and temperamental factors on emotional response, we compared the emotional behavior, reports of emotional experience, and autonomic responses of 50 European American (EA) and 48 Chinese American (CA) college-age dating couples during conversations about conflicts in their relationships. EA couples showed more positive and less negative emotional behavior than did CA couples, despite similarities in reports of emotional experience and autonomic reactivity. Group differences in emotional behavior were mediated by cultural (values and practices) but not temperamental factors (neuroticism and extraversion). Collapsing across groups, cultural factors accounted for greater variance in emotional behavior but lesser variance in reports of emotional experience compared with temperamental factors. Together, these findings suggest that the relative influence of cultural and temperamental factors on emotion varies by response component.     

In Search of the Person in the Patient: An Interpersonal Perspective on “Roles in the Psychoanalytic Relationship”: Commentary on Paper by Richard Almond

I am postulating an irreconcilable discrepancy between psychoanalytic metapsychology and praxis. Metapsychology reaches for the abstract, for the general class of which the patient is an ostensible member—said class, somewhat tautologically, demonstrating the validity of the professed metapsychology. Yet, from the Interpersonal view, therapy depends on grasping the highly idiosyncratic way the patient plays out his or her life both in and out of the therapy room. Abstracting the patient concretizes the process and reduces information. As a consequence, the clinical material falls short of utilizing the rich, recursive patterning of the therapist's exchanges with the patient, failing to fully realize the uncanny enmeshment of unconscious gears that so defines the psychoanalytic mystique.     

An Interpersonal Perspective on Dreams: Commentary on Paper by Hazel Ipp

A basic rhythm of breakdown–recovery, with many offshoots and permutations, characterizes aspects of psychic life. This rhythm threads its way through Elkin's, Winnicott's, and Bion's work and plays an important role in the unconscious processing of affects. If this rhythm is damaged or jammed, affect processing goes awry. Dream work helps initiate affect processing, a kind of emotional digestion. If the dream work's rhythm of breakdown–recovery is damaged, one lives in a state of chronic emotional indigestion or starvation. Clinical work, including a child's dream of the World Trade Center disaster, illustrates the discussion.     

Gentile reception of Herzlian zionism, a reconsideration

This paper examines the gentile reception of Herzlian Zionism in its first decade as reflected in the journal Die Welt and in the writings of three supporters of Herzl. Despite defining itself as the party of Autoemancipation, Herzlian Zionists avidly sought to demonstrate gentile concern, thereby cultivating a different kind of philosemitism from that cultivated by the Jewish mainstream. The cases of the missionary Protestant Carl Friedrich Heman, the literary radical Hermann Bahr, and the novelist Bertha von Suttner offer examples of how various misreadings of Herzlian Zionism enabled individuals to enlist as supporters of the movement. Herzl's own receptivity to gentile enthusiasm and his willingness to gloss over points of difference emerges as an effective and probably necessary tactic for a leader committed to propelling Zionism to world prominence. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Loss of Cells—Loss of Self: Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration and Human Emotion

ABSTRACT— Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) is a devastating disease that profoundly changes emotion, self, and personality while initially sparing many aspects of cognitive functioning. This article reviews research that applies methods from basic affective science to obtain a more precise view of FTLD's impact on emotional functioning. This research indicates that simple forms of emotional reactivity are relatively preserved in the early stages of the disease. In contrast, more complex emotional processes, such as those involved with self-conscious emotions (e.g., embarrassment), emotion regulation, and recognizing emotions in others, are severely impaired. FTLD provides rich opportunities for increasing our understanding of the nature of emotion and of the emotional and social brain.     

Positive Emotions Speed Recovery from the Cardiovascular Sequelae of Negative Emotions

Two studies tested the hypothesis that certain positive emotions speed recovery from the cardiovascular sequelae of negative emotions. In Study 1, 60 subjects (Ss) viewed an initial fear-eliciting film, and were randomly assigned to view a secondary film that elicited: (a) contentment; (b) amusement; (c) neutrality; or (d) sadness. Compared to Ss who viewed the neutral and sad secondary films, those who viewed the positive films exhibited more rapid returns to pre-film levels of cardiovascular activation. In Study 2, 72 Ss viewed a film known to elicit sadness. Fifty Ss spontaneously smiled at least once while viewing this film. Compared to Ss who did not smile, those who smiled exhibited more rapid returns to pre-film levels of cardiovascular activation. We discuss these findings in terms of emotion theory and possible health-promoting functions of positive emotions.     

Empathy: a physiological substrate.

The relation between empathy (defined as the ability to perceive accurately how another person is feeling) and physiology was studied in 31 Ss. Ss viewed 15-min martial interactions and used a rating dial to indicate continuously how they thought a designated spouse was feeling. Rating accuracy was determined by comparing Ss' ratings with identical self-ratings obtained previously from the target spouse. Physiological linkage between S and target was determined using bivariate time-series analyses applied to 5 autonomic and somatic measures obtained from the S during the rating task and from the target spouse during the original conversation. Accuracy of rating negative emotion was greatest when S and target evidenced high levels of physiological linkage across time. Accuracy of detecting positive emotion was related to a state of low cardiovascular around in the S, but not to physiological linkage between S and target.     

Personality research and psychophysiology: General considerations

A general discussion of psychophysiological methods in relationship to personality research is presented for the investigator without an extensive knowledge of psychophysiology. The paper is organized in four sections: (a) advantages inherent in the use of psychophysiological measures (e.g., continuous measurement, sensitivity to sublimal responses); (b) psychophysiological constructs that are particularly well suited to personality research (e.g., different kinds of physiological arousal, normal/pathological distinctions, perceptual states); (c) how to choose a set of psychophysiological measures and special considerations involved with their use (e.g., obstrusiveness, context and timing of measurement, costs, and capabilities); and (d) whether or not to “psychophysiologize” personality research. Within each section, illustrative applications of psychophysiology to personality research are described.