The influence of emotional awareness and expressiveness on care-giving burden and health complaints in women and men

This study was designed to investigate the role of emotional awareness and expressiveness as influences on the experience of burden and impaired health for women and men maintaining a spouse or relative at home who had been diagnosed as having dementia. One hundred and thirty-one Caucasian care givers, 41 males and 90 females, participated in the study. Multivariate analysis of variance indicated that women scored higher than men on measures of burden, health complaints, and awareness of others' emotions. Regression analysis indicated that self-awareness of emotions interacted with care-giver gender to decrease health complaints for female care givers but increased health complaints for male care givers. Self-awareness of emotions also increased feelings of burden for male care givers in general and for female care givers experiencing low levels of burden. Awareness of others' emotions tended to reduce feelings of burden. Emotional expressiveness did not influence burden or health complaint scores.This research was funded by grants from the Health Research Funds of Quebec, the Quebec Council for Social Research, and the Montreal Alzheimer Society. The authors would like to express their gratitude to Valerie Takeda, Charlene Stamegna, and Helene Fyfe for their work on the project, and to the families, patients, and staff of the various referral agencies for their cooperation with the study.To whom reprint requests should be addressed at Centre for Research in Human Development, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Boulevard West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3G 1M8.     

L'étude de la colère au sein des relations conjugales

A number of studies have investigated marital violence, its definition, expression, and treatment outcome. Few studies, however, have studied anger in marital relationships. The current study evaluates the link between anger and dyadic adjustment. The sample consists of 220 couples from normal and clinical populations. Results suggest that both spouses' anger is closely linked. Measures of anger intensity, the personality traits it reflects, and the anger expressed by a partner explained an important part of his or her marital distress and, to a lesser extent, the distress of the other partner. Theoretical and clinical implications based on these results are discussed.     

Tachistoscopic software for the Macintosh

The emulation of a tachistoscope with a Macintosh microcomputer and Pascal language is presented here. The software described is a complete program for the presentation of textual stimuli on the Macintosh screen and includes the recording of reaction times. The stimulus coordinates on the screen are user defined and variable from trial to trial for specific visual angles. The position of a fixation point on the screen and the distance between the subject and the plane of the screen, as well as the particular screen resolution, are taken into account in computing the visual angle.     

Expectancies for social contingency in 2-month-olds

In a classic report, Murray and Trevarthen (Emotional regulation of interaction between two-month-olds and their mothers. In T. Field & N. Fox (Eds), Social perception in infants (pp. 101–125). Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1985) suggested that 6- to 12-week-olds were sensitive to contingency in maternal stimulation because they became upset during the replay of their mothers’ behavior during an initial period of live interaction over closed circuit TV. However, a number of concerns were raised about the procedure and it was argued that infants may simply have become increasingly fussy over time. To clarify this very important issue, we adopted a three-condition design (live–replay–live) and modified Murray and Trevarthen’s procedure by inserting a seamless shift from the initially live interaction period to a replay period of good maternal behavior. This was followed by a seamless shift back to a subsequent live interaction. Two-month-old smiling and gaze decreased while frowning and mouth closures increased during the replay period relative to the initial live interaction period, replicating Murray and Trevarthen’s results. Fussiness over time did not account for these results because seven of the ten babies increased their positive behaviors and decreased negative behaviors during the second live interaction period, and there was a significant increase in their visual attention to their mothers, thus suggesting a renewed interest in the previously noncontingent partner.     

Global Change: New Challenges for Psychology

Perception of environmental degradation and awareness of environmental hazards came gradually, and was followed by collective action. Global change is different because of its specific features, which raise new issues for action-oriented psychological research. The lack of consensus among scientists, the global nature of the change, and the type of risk are analysed in order to develop an agenda for research. Priority should be given to acquiring a better knowledge of the cognitive process in the face of serious danger with a high margin of uncertainty.