Increased facial width‐to‐height ratio and perceived dominance in the faces of the UK's leading business leaders

The relative proportion of the internal features of a face (the facial width‐to‐height ratio, FWH) has been shown to be related to individual differences in behaviour in males, specifically competitiveness and aggressiveness. In this study, we show that the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of the leading UK businesses have greater FWHs than age‐ and sex‐matched controls. We demonstrate that perceivers, naive as to the nature of the stimuli, rate the faces of CEOs as higher in dominance or success, and that ratings of dominance or success are themselves correlated with the FWH ratio. We find no association with other inferred traits such as trustworthiness, attraction or aggression. The latter is surprising given previous research demonstrating a link between FWH and ratings of aggression. We speculate that the core association may be between FWH and drive for dominance or power, but this can be interpreted as aggression only in particular circumstances (e.g., when the stimuli are comprised of faces of young, as opposed to middle‐aged, men).     

A Review of Sam Harris’s Free Will

The Psychological Record -     

Difficulties adjusting to post-discharge life following a spinal cord injury: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 individuals who had experienced a traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI), focusing on the participants' lived experience of SCI. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and were analysed for recurrent themes using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Here, we present three inter-related recurrent themes all concerning difficulties in adjusting to home life following hospital discharge: "loss of camaraderie", "lack of post-discharge care" and "other people's reactions to spinal cord injury". Participants reported that the camaraderie they formed with fellow patients during their rehabilitative stay in hospital generated feelings of security and community. This was discussed in stark contrast to the isolation and loneliness that they subsequently experienced post-hospital discharge. A perceived lack of physical, practical and psychological support coupled with negative and stigmatising reactions of the wider community served to make adjustment to home life post-SCI particularly difficult for the participants. The findings are discussed in relation to extant SCI literature, and recommendations for future health care of individuals with SCI are made.     

Richard Clarke Cabot, M.D., a unitarian critique

This article is written to correct a historical impression about Richard C. Cabot, one of the founders of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). Contrary to the popular understanding that he was a typical Unitarian, the author posits that even though Cabot may have been a typical liberal, in his theology, he was an atypical Unitarian. This article places Cabot in his family and historical contexts, his involvement in CPE, and comments on his theology, noting how this differed from the prevailing Unitarian theology of his day.     

Affirming the self to promote agreement with another: lowering a psychological barrier to conflict resolution

Two studies investigated the capacity of a self-affirmation intervention to lower a psychological barrier to conflict resolution. Study 1 used a role-play scenario in which a student negotiated with a professor for greater rewards for work on a collaborative project. A self-affirmation manipulation, in which participants focused on an important personal value, significantly reduced their tendency to derogate a concession offered by the professor relative to one that had not been offered. Study 2 replicated this effect and showed that the phenomenon did not depend on the self-affirmed participant's experience of a heightened sense of deservingness or a tendency to make positive attributions about the professor. Distraction and explicit mood enhancement were also ruled out as mediators of the self-affirmation effect, which appears to stem from motivational rather than explicit cognitive processes.     

Assessing the predictive validity of cultural intelligence over time

The study examines four core components of cultural intelligence (CQ) - Behavioral, Motivational, Cognitive and Meta-cognitive - as predictors of cross-cultural adaptation problems in a longitudinal study of international students in New Zealand and tests the hypothesis that Motivational CQ predicts better psychological and sociocultural outcomes over time. One hundred and four students completed measures of CQ during a pre-term orientation program and assessments of adaptation problems approximately three months later. In line with the hypothesis, bi-variate correlations indicated that Motivational CQ was related to fewer psychological symptoms (r = −.30, p < .01) and sociocultural adaptation problems (r = −.27, p < .01). However, hierarchical regression analysis, controlling for age, gender, length of residence abroad and region of origin, revealed that while Motivational CQ was a significant (negative) predictor (ß = −.36, p < .01) of psychological symptoms, the overall amount of variance explained (14.6%) in the model was not significant. In contrast, region of origin (ß = .37, p < .01) was the only significant predictor of sociocultural adaptation problems with international students from Western countries reporting fewer difficulties than those from other regions. The results are discussed in relation to contemporary theories of motivation along with recommendations for future research.     

Different signals of personality and health from the two sides of the face

Previous studies demonstrate that people with different personality traits have different-looking faces. We investigated whether personality and health information are differently signalled by the two hemifaces. Using composite images created from women with high and low scores on health and personality dimensions, we investigated discrimination accuracy with original and mirrored hemifaces. By comparing discrimination accuracy for particular types of hemiface, we address issues regarding both the location of information signals and how these signals are conveyed. From the hemiface stimuli, participants could accurately identify three of the Big Five traits, along with health. We found differences in which hemiface could be more accurately identified, depending on the expressed trait. Emotional stability and health were more accurately discriminated from the right hemiface, while extraversion showed higher accuracy from the left hemiface. We found evidence for differences between hemifaces related to both directional asymmetries and to other information content. Finally, our results also address ongoing debate about which side of the face is more attractive, as we found attractiveness differences between hemifaces depended upon the personality trait most clearly expressed.     

Mechanisms underlying skilled anticipation and recognition in a dynamic and temporally constrained domain

We examined the mechanisms underlying skilled anticipation and recognition in a dynamic, interactive, and temporally constrained domain. Skilled and less-skilled participants viewed dynamic film stimuli, anticipated event outcome, and provided immediate retrospective verbal reports. Previously viewed and novel sequences were then presented in film or point-light display format. Participants made recognition judgements and again gave retrospective verbal reports on their thought processes. Skilled participants demonstrated superior anticipation accuracy and were more sensitive in distinguishing previously seen from novel stimuli than less-skilled participants. Skilled participants utilised more complex memory representations than less-skilled individuals, as indicated by references in their retrospective reports to more evaluation and prediction statements. The representations activated during anticipation were more complex than those for recognition judgements in both groups. Findings are discussed with reference to long-term working memory theory.     

Reducing implicit prejudice: Matching approach/avoidance strategies to contextual valence and regulatory focus

Two general strategies for reducing prejudice are to approach equality and to avoid prejudice. The current research investigated the importance of matching two factors, contextual valence and regulatory focus, on the efficacy of these two strategies in reducing implicit prejudice. The findings demonstrate that although an approach strategy is more effective in decreasing prejudice on the Implicit Association Test in a positive rather than a negative context, an avoidance strategy is more effective in decreasing prejudice in a negative rather than a positive context (Study 1). In addition, the results show that although an approach strategy is more effective in decreasing prejudice when a promotion rather than a prevention focus is primed, an avoidance strategy is more effective in reducing prejudice when a prevention rather than a promotion focus is primed (Study 2). The implications of these findings for current interventions aimed at decreasing implicit prejudice are discussed.