The influence of postural emotion cues on implicit trait judgements

Perceptions of others’ traits (e.g., trustworthiness or dominance) are influenced by the emotion displayed on their face. For instance, the same individual appears more trustworthy when they express happiness than when they express anger. This overextension of emotional expressions has been shown with facial expression but whether this phenomenon also occurs when viewing postural expressions was unknown. We sought to examine how expressive behaviour of the body would influence judgements of traits and how sensitivity to this cue develops. In the context of a storybook, adults (N?=?35) and children (5 to 8 years old; N?=?60) selected one of two partners to help face a challenge. The challenges required either a trustworthy or dominant partner. Participants chose between a partner with an emotional (happy/angry) face and neutral body or one with a neutral face and emotional body. As predicted, happy facial expressions were preferred over neutral ones when selecting a trustworthy partner and angry postural expressions were preferred over neutral ones when selecting a dominant partner. Children’s performance was not adult-like on most tasks. The results demonstrate that emotional postural expressions can also influence judgments of others’ traits, but that postural influence on trait judgments develops throughout childhood.

     

Taiwanese members' report of verbal interactions and their relations to demographic variables in the group counseling process

The purpose was to examine differences in verbal interactions during the group counseling process and the relationship between perceived verbal interactions and members' demographic variables. 42 participants were recruited and randomly assigned to one of four counseling groups. Based on the Hill Interaction Matrix, Quadrant 4 verbal interactions, consisting of Speculative and Confrontative verbal behaviors in Personal and Relationship levels, were perceived significantly more often at the closing stage than at the initial stage. Furthermore, the perceived verbal interactions were related to the demographic variables of sex, educational level, and group experience, but not acquaintanceship. The findings suggested that the higher ratings of perceived Speculative and Confrontative verbal behaviors and the lower ratings of Assertive and Silence verbal interactions must be interpreted cautiously from a cross-cultural perspective, especially in Asian cultures.     

Urban district identity as a common ingroup identity: The different role of ingroup prototypicality for minority and majority groups

In this paper, we examined how identification with urban districts as a common ingroup identity and perceived ingroup prototypicality influence the attitudes of residents toward other ethnic groups in their neighborhood. The overall conclusion of two field studies (N = 214 and N = 98) is that for majority‐group members, there may be a positive relation between identification with an overarching identity and outgroup attitudes but only when they perceive their ingroup as low in prototypicality for the overarching group (Study 1 and 2). Conversely, for minority‐group members, there may be a positive relation between identification and outgroup attitudes but only when they perceive their ingroup as high in prototypicality for the overarching group (Study 2). Outgroup prototypicality did not moderate the relation between identification and outgroup attitudes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

THE CONSTANCY OF STRUCTURE OF PERCEIVED PARENTAL REARING STYLE IN GREEK AND SPANISH SUBJECTS AS COMPARED WITH THE DUTCH

To be able to contribute to the cross-cultural study of child-rearing practices and psychopathology, this study sought to examine the cross-national generalizability of parental rearing constructs by analyzing self-report data on the EMBU, an instrument designed to assess memories of one's parents' rearing behavior. Of the four primary factors identified originally with Dutch individuals, namely Rejection, Emotional Warmth, Overprotection and Favoring Subject, the first three were replicated in a similar form in a Greek and a Spanish sample of normal research volunteers. Other properties of the factors, their corresponding scales, and the items constituting the scales were such that it would be warranted to carry out mean scale level or pattern comparisons between subjects from the respective countries on the three constructs evidencing cross-national constancy. Scale-level factor analysis of these constructs produced identical two- factor compositions (CARE and PROTECTION) across the Greek, the Spanish and the Dutch samples which further supported this conclusion.     

Evaluative language,cognitive effort and attitude change

The present article deals with the effects of the use of evaluatively biased language on attitudes, and with the role of cognitive effort. We tested whether active information processing — formulating arguments on the basis of evaluatively biased language — was a necessary condition for attitude change. Results of the present study support the prediction that using evaluative language can infuence attitudes, but that these effects depend on the amount of cognitive effort.