The bonnie baby: experimentally manipulated temperament affects perceived cuteness and motivation to view infant faces

Attractive individuals are perceived as having various positive personality qualities. Positive personality qualities can in turn increase perceived attractiveness. However, the developmental origins of the link between attractiveness and personality are not understood. This is important because infant attractiveness (‘cuteness’) elicits caregiving from adults, and infant personality (‘temperament’) shapes caregiving behaviour. While research suggests that adults have more positive attitudes towards cuter infants, it is not known whether positive infant temperament can increase the perception of infant cuteness. We investigated the impact of experimentally established infant temperament on adults' perception of cuteness and desire to view individual faces. Ataseline, adults rated the cuteness of, and keypressed to view, images of unfamiliar infants with neutral facial expressions. Training required adults to learn about an infant's ‘temperament’, through repeated pairing of the neutral infant face with positive or negative facial expressions and vocalizations. Adults then re‐rated the original neutral infant faces. Post‐training, there were significant changes from baseline: infants who were mostly happy were perceived as cuter and adults expended greater effort to view them. Infants who were mostly sad were not perceived as cuter and adults expended less effort to view them. Our results suggest that temperament has clear consequences for how adults perceive ‘bonnie’ babies. Perception of infant cuteness is not based on physical facial features alone, and is modifiable through experience.     

Loss and the Organization of Affect

The present studies evaluated the association between positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) following romantic relationship loss experiences, as well as following less stressful romantic relationship situations, given theoretical evidence that the structure of affect may differ following a relationship loss. Across two studies, evidence suggested that the association between NA and PA was more strongly inverse following romantic relationship loss experiences when compared to less stressful relationship experiences. Such findings provide important implications for the study of romantic relationship loss, as well as the treatment of psychopathology following romantic relationship loss.     

Interrogating the Process and Meaning of Intergroup Contact: Contrasting Theoretical Approaches

To address the dearth of research on the process and meaning participants make of intergroup contact in settings of intractable conflict, Israeli, Palestinian and US youth were randomly assigned to conditions of dialogue‐based contact rooted in distinct social psychological theories. Over a 2‐week period, participants completed diaries containing surveys of psychological experience and space for free reflection. US youth reported lower levels of engagement, social identity salience and positive mood relative to Israelis and Palestinians. Qualitative data revealed a pattern of detachment and dissatisfaction among US youth. Compared with participants in a recategorization condition, participants in a mutual differentiation condition of dialogue reported lower levels of self‐consistency and higher levels of intergroup differentiation over time, suggesting the effectiveness of this approach to initiate a process of self‐reflection and intergroup distinctiveness. Palestinian participants in the mutual differentiation condition reported higher levels of empowerment and positive mood throughout contact relative to all other participants, suggesting the effectiveness of this approach to challenge power asymmetries and its positivity for the low‐status group. Results are discussed in terms of innovative methodological approaches to study intergroup processes in contact settings. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mental Health Problems of Displaced War-Affected Adolescents in Northern Uganda: Patterns of Agreement Between Self and Caregiver Assessment

We evaluate caregiver and adolescent concordance on adolescent mental health severity in war-affected Northern Uganda. Data were collected from 628 caregiver-adolescent dyads in two internally displaced persons’ camps. Internalizing and externalizing-type mental health problems were assessed using locally-developed scales. To evaluate concordance, mean caregiver and adolescent scores on each scale were compared using Pearson’s correlation coefficients and within-pair-differences were compared by subtracting caregiver from adolescent responses and using t tests to assess whether these differed from 0. Mental heath problem type and youth/caregiver gender and age were investigated as potential indicators of group differences. Adolescents consistently rated their problems as more severe for internalizing problems and less severe for externalizing problems compared with caregivers. Mothers’ reports exhibited better concordance for internalizing problems while fathers’ and other caregivers’ exhibited better concordance of externalizing problems. Results suggest researchers and program implementers need to be aware of respondent differences when planning studies and services.     

Rejection hurts: The effect of being dumped on subsequent mating efforts

Many of the qualities that people seek in a long-term partner are not directly observable. As a consequence, information gathered through social learning may be important in partner assessment. Here, we tested the hypothesis that finding out potential partners were rejected by their last partner would negatively affect participants' desire to pursue a romantic relationship with them. Results support this hypothesis, and this effect was, as predicted, greater when the target was being evaluated for a potential long-term relationship compared to a sexual relationship. In a more exploratory vein, we tested the effect of the target having rejected their last partner and failing to disclose how their last relationship ended. These scenarios produced intriguing sex differences, such that men's ratings of women fell after learning she had rejected her last partner, but women's ratings of men increased after the same information was introduced. Failing to disclose information about a past relationship was unappealing to both men and women, though particularly so for women.     

Age-Related Changes and the Attention Network Task: An Examination of Alerting,Orienting, and Executive Function

ABSTRACT

The effects of aging on alerting, orienting, and executive function were examined with the use of the Attention Network Task, which combines the Posner spatial cuing task and the Eriksen flanker task into a single procedure. We found that older adults showed significantly less alerting than young adults in response to a warning cue, although there were no age differences in orienting or executive function once processing speed was taken into account. We suggest that age differences in alerting may depend in part upon the presentation duration or persistence of the warning cue.     

Age- and education-adjusted normative data for the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in older adults age 70–99

The original validation study for the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) suggests a cutoff score of 26; however, this may be too stringent for older adults, particularly for those with less education. Given the rapidly increasing number of older adults and associated risk of dementia, this study aims to provide appropriate age- and education-adjusted norms for the MoCA. Data from 205 participants in an ongoing longevity study were used to derive normative data. Individuals were grouped based on age (70–79, 80–89, 90–99) and education level (≤12 Years, 13–15, ≥16 Years). There were significant differences between age and education groups with younger and more educated participants outperforming their counterparts. Forty-six percent of our sample scored below the suggested cutoff of 26. These normative data may provide a more accurate representation of MoCA performance in older adults for specific age and education stratifications.     

Attentional Capture in Younger and Older Adults

The present study was designed to examine age-related differences in attentional capture. In the first experiment, participants identified targets defined either by an abrupt onset or by color difference. Prior to the presentation of the targets, onset or color cues were presented. It was found that color cues, but not onset cues, captured attention for color targets for both younger and older adults. It was also found, however, that onset and color cues captured attention for onset targets for both age groups. Moreover, while both types of cues yielded equivalent attentional capture effects with the younger adults, onset cues yielded greater effects for the older adults. The second experiment, using only younger adults, replicated the pattern of results found with the younger adults in the first experiment. The findings from these two experiments provide only partial support for the contingent involuntary orienting hypothesis, which suggests that only cues that share critical features with targets will capture attention. Moreover, the results also indicate that there are age-related differences in attentionalcapture.     

The Happiness-Enhancing Activities and Positive Practices Inventory (HAPPI): Development and Validation

Whilst research indicates that happiness-enhancing activities can boost happiness, the measurement of intentional happiness-enhancing activities has thus far been inadequate. This paper describes the development and initial empirical testing of the Happiness-enhancing Activities and Positive Practices Inventory (HAPPI), a self-report inventory designed to measure older adults’ happiness-enhancing activities. An exploratory factor analysis of the HAPPI responses from a population sample of 2,313 older adults identified four factors: self-concordant work, personal recreation and people, spiritual and thought-related, and goal-focused activities. Results demonstrated evidence of reliability, convergent and discriminant validity and support for the predictive utility of the HAPPI. The subscales derived from the factor analysis correlated as expected with measures of subjective well-being and other relevant measures, and showed moderately high subscale intercorrelations and satisfactory internal consistency. The results provide a basis for continuing to develop and clarify the types of intentional activities people engage in. Differences between our results and studies with younger adults are discussed, including possible age-related differences in the types of happiness-enhancing activities engaged in and the potential influence of these activities on happiness. The HAPPI is a relatively brief, easily administered inventory that shows promise as a useful tool for the measurement of happiness-enhancing activities and can be employed to follow cohorts to determine which domains demonstrate the greatest contribution to happiness and other well-being outcomes, which have implications for social policy, education and intervention programmes to enhance well-being.     

Stress in Doctors: A Pilot Study of the University Teaching Hospital,Lusaka, Zambia

This study had the objective of explored the stressful aspects of a doctor's job at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, Zambia. Stress can have a serious effect on the work output of a doctor and on their physical and mental health. The data were collected from 41 doctors at UTH using the Perceived Stress Scale and a stress check list. The results revealed that out of the list of 14 possible stressors, Zambian doctors in this sample identified an average of 7.3 aspects of their job (SD=2.7) as being stressful. Lack of resources to carry out their job, the workload, the low level of reward and the long working hours were most frequently identified as stressors.