The Confusion of Fear and Surprise: A Developmental Study of the Perceptual-Attentional Limitation Hypothesis Using Eye Movements

The goal of the present study was to test the Perceptual-Attentional Limitation Hypothesis in children and adults by manipulating the distinctiveness between expressions and recording eye movements. Children 3–5 and 9–11 years old as well as adults were presented pairs of expressions and required to identify a target emotion. Children 3–5 years old were less accurate than those 9–11 years old and adults. All children viewed pictures longer than adults but did not spend more time attending to the relevant cues. For all participants, accuracy for the recognition of fear was lower than for surprise when the distinctive cue was in the brow only. They also took longer and spent more time in both the mouth and brow zones than when a cue was in the mouth or both areas. Adults and children 9–11 years old made more comparisons between the expressions when fear comprised a single distinctive cue in the brow than when the distinctive cue was in the mouth only or when both cues were present. Children 3–5 years old made more comparisons for brow only than both. The results of the present study extend on the Perceptual-Attentional Limitation Hypothesis showing an importance of both decoder and stimuli, and an interaction between decoder and stimuli characteristics.     

Children’s social cognition about proactive aggression

In this study, 6- and 9-year-old children (N = 258) observed two instances of proactive aggression (one relational and the other direct aggression) that were committed by members of a group toward out-group members. Participants were either members of the group or independent observers. Analyses of participants’ social cognition about the aggressor and the aggression (cause of aggression, moral judgment of aggression, attitudes toward the aggressor, and exclusion of the aggressor) indicated that, overall, group members were more positive toward aggressors than were independent observers. Although intergroup competition was perceived to be the cause of the aggression, participants disapproved of both types of aggression (especially direct aggression), disapproval increased with age, and girls disapproved of relational aggression more than did boys. Group members’ social cognition about the aggressor and the aggression comprised a coherent cognitive process for both types of aggression, but the observers’ process was simpler and differed by aggression type.     

Antecedents and Civic Consequences of Choosing Real versus Ersatz Social Activities

Social capital (Coleman, 1990 Coleman, J. S. 1990. Foundations of social theory, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.  [Google Scholar]), democracy's wellspring (Putnam, 1993 Putnam, R. D. 1993. Making democracy work: Civic traditions in modern Italy, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.  [Google Scholar]; Tocqueville, 1835 Tocqueville, A. 1835. Democracy in America, Edited by: Mansfield, H. C. and Winthrop, D. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.  [Google Scholar]/2000), must now accrue within a social fabric that has been changed by the ubiquitous adoption of technologies such as television and the Internet. Three studies (N = 313) of college students supported a theory of ersatz social behavior, which proposed that: a) the use of technological (replacement/ersatz) alternatives to real social interaction may be less conducive to the skill building and opinion formation that foster social capital; b) ersatz activities involve fewer costs (effort, risk of rejection) than real interactions; and c) ersatz alternatives are regularly chosen, even though real interaction is ostensibly preferred. The results provide increased understanding of when and how mediated interaction can be detrimental to social capital formation.     

Transportation Across Media: Repeated Exposure to Print and Film

“Transportation into a narrative world” is a state of immersion into a story (Green & Brock, 2000 Green, M. C. and Brock, T. C. 2000. The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(5): 701–721. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Transportation entails imagery, emotional response, and attentional focus. Two studies investigated whether transportation was affected by the medium of story presentation, especially when the narrative was experienced for a second time (e.g., watching the movie version of a previously read story). Study 1 (N = 88) showed that people who read a novel before viewing the film version were more transported into the film compared to nonreaders. In Study 2 (N = 71) participants came to the lab on two separate occasions to either read a passage or watch a movie clip. Reading followed by watching provided the greatest transportation. Furthermore, high need for cognition individuals were more transported when reading, whereas low need for cognition individuals were more transported when watching a narrative.     

Persistence of Belief Change in the Face of Deception: The Effect of Factual Stories Revealed to Be False

Readers typically respond with anger and derogation when they discover that an author has engaged in intentional deception (representing a false story as true). Does this negative response to the author also cause individuals to correct beliefs that may have been changed by the discredited story? In this experiment (N = 160), the alleged truth status of a narrative was manipulated. In one condition, the narrative was presented as fictional (a socially accepted form of untruth). The remaining three conditions initially presented the story as factual. Participants in two of these conditions were informed after reading the story that it was inaccurate due to a) accidental error or b) intentional deception. The story changed attitudes from a no-story control in all conditions. Although readers derogated a deceptive author, they did not correct their attitudes even in the intentional and accidental error conditions. A measure of the parts of the story that the participants rejected (false note circling), suggests that participants were motivated to correct for inaccuracies, but were not able to do so effectively.     

A case study approach to support needs following the death of a loved one

Abstract

The loss of a close relational partner, whether a family member, friend, spouse, or romantic partner, is one of the most difficult, and at the same time predictable, situations that individuals can experience. Although the grieving process is very individual, one's support network can either facilitate or hinder the coping process. This article utilizes a case study approach to consider the ways that one's social network provides emotional and instrumental support following the death of a close relational partner. A 21-year-old female whose fiance was killed in a traffic accident participated in three separate interviews at 4, 9, and 16 months after the accident. Interpretive analyses support the assertion that, as individuals progress through the various phases of bereavement, their needs for specific forms of social support change, as do their perceptions of what is helpful and unhelpful.     

Recovery opportunities,work–home conflict,and emotional exhaustion among hematologists and oncologists in private practice

Hematologists and oncologists in private practice play a central role in the care provided for cancer patients. The present study analyzes stress and relaxation aspects in the work of hematologists and oncologists in private practice in Germany in relation to emotional exhaustion, as a core dimension of burnout syndrome. The study focuses on the opportunities for internal recovery using breaks and time out during the working day, the frequency of working on weekends and on vacation, and the physician’s work–home and home–work conflict. Postulated associations between the constructs were analyzed using a structural equation model. If work leads to conflicts in private life (work–home conflict), it is associated with greater emotional exhaustion. Working frequently at the weekend is associated with greater work–home conflict and indirectly with greater emotional exhaustion. By contrast, the availability of opportunities to relax and recover during the working day is associated with less work–home conflict and indirectly with less emotional exhaustion. These results underline the importance of internal recovery opportunities during the working day and a successful interplay between working and private life for the health of outpatient hematologists and oncologists.     

Cognitive and emotional demands of black humour processing: the role of intelligence,aggressiveness and mood

Humour processing is a complex information-processing task that is dependent on cognitive and emotional aspects which presumably influence frame-shifting and conceptual blending, mental operations that underlie humour processing. The aim of the current study was to find distinctive groups of subjects with respect to black humour processing, intellectual capacities, mood disturbance and aggressiveness. A total of 156 adults rated black humour cartoons and conducted measurements of verbal and nonverbal intelligence, mood disturbance and aggressiveness. Cluster analysis yields three groups comprising following properties: (1) moderate black humour preference and moderate comprehension; average nonverbal and verbal intelligence; low mood disturbance and moderate aggressiveness; (2) low black humour preference and moderate comprehension; average nonverbal and verbal intelligence, high mood disturbance and high aggressiveness; and (3) high black humour preference and high comprehension; high nonverbal and verbal intelligence; no mood disturbance and low aggressiveness. Age and gender do not differ significantly, differences in education level can be found. Black humour preference and comprehension are positively associated with higher verbal and nonverbal intelligence as well as higher levels of education. Emotional instability and higher aggressiveness apparently lead to decreased levels of pleasure when dealing with black humour. These results support the hypothesis that humour processing involves cognitive as well as affective components and suggest that these variables influence the execution of frame-shifting and conceptual blending in the course of humour processing.     

Clinicians' Observations of Family Interactions in the Reunification Process: The Parent Child Checklist

The present article employed a sample of 365 families of children in foster care to conduct a validation test of a newly developed instrument, the Parent Child Checklist (PCC). The PCC is a 54-item direct observation measure assessing parent–child interactions in the context of a family session. The PCC was developed to support the effective implementation of an evidence-based intervention, Parent Management Training-Oregon model, in the Kansas child welfare system. The PCC was designed to capture two scales of child behavior (prosocial and problem behavior) and five parenting domains (encouragement, positive involvement, problem solving, communication skill, and effective discipline). A combination of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was used in this first stage validation of the checklist. Results indicated the PCC scales obtained adequate internal consistency and interrater reliability. The confirmatory factor analysis supported 6 of the 7 expected scale domains; however, a two-factor solution was better - supported among the discipline items, labeled as effective and ineffective discipline. Test–retest reliability ranged from 0.45 to 0.80 across child behavior and parenting domains with alpha levels ranging from 0.65 to 0.88. A behavioral observation rating scale for clinicians that is reliable and feasible to implement can represent a significant improvement to practice-as-usual.     

Children's emotions and coping with interpersonal stress as correlates of social competence

Identifying correlates of children's emotional reactions and coping can provide information about developmental processes and identify useful strategies for improving children's adaptation to stress. We investigated associations of social competence with children's responses to standardised, controllable interpersonal stressors. The stressors included bullying, arguing with a parent, and not being picked for a team sport. We expected greater competence to be associated with certain coping responses, and expected that coping would be better explained by also considering emotional reactions. Children (N = 230, Grades 3 to 7) reacted to three videotaped stressors, and children and parents completed questionnaires. Children rated as more competent used active and challenge coping strategies, such as problem solving and support seeking, more than other children, and they also responded with more sadness. Children's competence was associated with fear, but only in bivariate correlations, and was not associated with angry responses. In a structural equation model, emotions were associated with more coping responses, and the emotional reaction of sadness accounted for the link between children's social competence and adaptive (i.e., challenge) coping. Findings suggest that competent children use more adaptive coping, and this is accounted for by their greater feelings of sadness when dealing with controllable interpersonal stressors.