How does context affect assessments of facial emotion? The role of culture and age

People from Asian cultures are more influenced by context in their visual processing than people from Western cultures. In this study, we examined how these cultural differences in context processing affect how people interpret facial emotions. We found that younger Koreans were more influenced than younger Americans by emotional background pictures when rating the emotion of a central face, especially those younger Koreans with low self-rated stress. In contrast, among older adults, neither Koreans nor Americans showed significant influences of context in their face emotion ratings. These findings suggest that cultural differences in reliance on context to interpret others' emotions depend on perceptual integration processes that decline with age, leading to fewer cultural differences in perception among older adults than among younger adults. Furthermore, when asked to recall the background pictures, younger participants recalled more negative pictures than positive pictures, whereas older participants recalled similar numbers of positive and negative pictures. These age differences in the valence of memory were consistent across culture.     

Neighborhood Physical Environments,Recreational Wellbeing,and Psychological Health

The physical environment in which individuals live has important implications for their access to resources and services. The current study examined the role of several features of neighborhoods, such as perceived walkability and neighborhood appearance, in promoting recreational wellbeing, and resulting in impacts on physical wellbeing, happiness, and life satisfaction of residents. Survey responses (N = 1392) were collected in two distinct geographical areas and, using structural equation modeling, relationships between neighborhood physical environments and resident outcomes were explored. Results indicated perceived walkability (access to services) and neighborhood appearance (upkeep and attractiveness) played a significant role in increasing recreational wellbeing. Also, recreational wellbeing was positively related to individuals’ physical wellbeing. Lastly, physical wellbeing was positively associated with happiness and life satisfaction. Together, these findings suggest community planners could use several practical neighborhood improvements to improve the overall health, happiness, and life satisfaction of their residents.

     

Some Implications of Believing That Happiness Involves the Absence of Pain: Negative Hedonic Beliefs Exacerbate the Effects of Stress on Well-Being

One common belief about happiness, espoused to varying degrees by both researchers and laypeople alike, is that happiness involves a lack of negative hedonic experiences. In the current investigation, we examine whether individual differences in endorsement of this belief, termed negative hedonic belief, moderate the effects of stress on happiness and several indicators of well-being. It was predicted that because stress involves the experience of negative hedonic states, increased stress would be more robustly associated with decreased happiness and well-being among those endorsing negative hedonic beliefs. Results from three studies utilizing both retrospective and prospective research designs generally support this prediction and suggest that endorsing the belief that happiness involves a lack of negative hedonic experiences is associated with more negative outcomes in response to the experience of heightened life stress.     

Redundancy effects in the perception and memory of visual objects

Is visual representation of an object affected by whether surrounding objects are identical to it, different from it, or absent? To address this question, we tested perceptual priming, visual short-term, and long-term memory for objects presented in isolation or with other objects. Experiment 1 used a priming procedure, where the prime display contained a single face, four identical faces, or four different faces. Subjects identified the gender of a subsequent probe face that either matched or mismatched with one of the prime faces. Priming was stronger when the prime was four identical faces than when it was a single face or four different faces. Experiments 2 and 3 asked subjects to encode four different objects presented on four displays. Holding memory load constant, visual memory was better when each of the four displays contained four duplicates of a single object, than when each display contained a single object. These results suggest that an object's perceptual and memory representations are enhanced when presented with identical objects, revealing redundancy effects in visual processing.     

Savoring Helps Most When You Have Little: Interaction Between Savoring the Moment and Uplifts on Positive Affect and Satisfaction with Life

Savoring the moment is a means of generating, prolonging, or intensifying positive emotions while a positive event is occurring. While the occurrence of positive events is integral to savoring the moment, there is a paucity of research examining the interaction of the two. This study examines the longitudinal interaction of savoring the moment and the number of everyday positive events (uplifts) that occur over 2 weeks on measures of positive affect and satisfaction with life. Significant interactions between savoring and uplifts were found, indicating that those participants with low levels of savoring and low numbers of uplifts were at risk, as they experienced low levels of both positive affect and satisfaction with life. The other three groups (high savoring/high uplifts, low savoring/high uplifts, high savoring/low uplifts) had similarly positive outcomes. The findings imply the utility of increasing savoring when individuals experience few positive events.     

Perception and Help-Seeking Intention of Intimate Partner Violence in Later Life: An International Perspective

This study examines whether elderly Koreans recognize a scenario of intimate partner violence as such and whether they would seek help in the given situation of elder mistreatment (EM). Two cohorts of Korean elders (one immigrant and one Korea-based), each numbering 124 participants, were recruited using a quota sampling strategy. The study used a mixed method approach, employing a hypothetical scenario, and patriarchy theory informed the study. Findings revealed low perception of the vignette as EM and low help-seeking intention in both cohorts. Among the immigrant cohort, intention to seek help was greater among respondents who were female, demonstrated lower adherence to traditional values, and perceived the vignette as EM. Among the Korea-based cohort, the only significant factor was recognition of the scenario as EM. Development of culturally competent and geographically specific practice and intervention is urgently needed, particularly among elders who have greater adherence to traditional cultural values.     

Animacy Effect and Language Specificity: Judgment of Unaccusative Verbs by Korean Learners of English as a Foreign Language

This study investigated the tendency of overpassivization of unaccusative verbs by Korean learners of English as a foreign language (FL). Sixty Korean native college students participated in the study, along with 17 English-speaking counterparts serving as a comparison group. Consistent with the findings of previous research, this study found Korean students’ tendency to incorrectly accept passive-voice with inanimate subjects. The results of this study highlighted the role of lexical animacy, the hierarchy of agentivity, and language-specific effects on FL judgment. The findings of this study suggest a robust language-specific L1 effect on L2 acquisition and a greater involvement of cognition in FL use than language input.     

Gratitude,Emotional Intelligence,and Life Satisfaction Among Older Adults: Evidence for a Broaden-and-Build Model or an Amplification Model?

Journal of Happiness Studies - The present study was concerned with how gratitude and facets of emotional intelligence (i.e., self-emotions appraisal, others-emotions appraisal, use of emotion,...