All smiles perceived equally: Facial expressions trump target characteristics in impression formation

Race, gender, and emotionally expressive facial behavior have been associated with trait inferences in past research. However, it is unclear how interactions among these factors influence trait perceptions. In the current research, we test the roles of targets’ race, gender, and facial expression along with participants’ culture in predicting personality ratings. Caucasian and Asian-American participants rated the big-5 personality traits of either smiling or inexpressive photographs of Caucasian and Asian male and female faces. Ratings of extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness differed significantly across inexpressive targets as a function of race and gender categorization and individual characteristics. Smiling was associated with reduced variation in perceptions of targets’ extraversion and agreeableness relative to ratings made of inexpressive targets. In addition, participant culture generally did not significantly impact trait ratings. Results suggest that emotionally expressive facial behavior reduces the use of information based on race or gender in forming impressions of interpersonally relevant traits.     

Rorschach Comprehensive System data for a sample of 37 nonpatient/nondelinquent adolescents from the United States

This study is composed of 37 American adolescents, ages 15 to 17 years of age, all from the United States. The principal author was the sole examiner. Inclusion criteria are described. Interrater reliability statistics at the response level are presented along with scores for the Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 2003). The results revealed differences from the published norms on variables that reflect poor form quality, fewer popular responses, more attention to detail, more poor human relationship responses, and a more simplistic, affective-free approach to the environment, among others.     

Marriage guidance counselling: I. What clients think will help

Thirty-one first-time attenders for marriage guidance counselling were given a non-schedule standardised interview and a client questionnaire. The main aim was to identify the counselling and counsellor characteristics which clients considered would be most helpful in dealing with their problems. Traditional counselling skills such as the ability to be warm, supportive, understanding and a good listener were seen to be important by most clients. However, the vast majority of clients indicated that it would be helpful to receive the counsellor's opinion about their marriage, their personal problems and marriage in general: this is incompatible with a non-directive approach to counselling. Whilst clients may not know best how they should be helped, counsellors who fail to address their preconceptions risk mutual disappointment and premature termination of counselling.     

The impact of neuroticism upon married bipolar patients

The NEO Personality Inventory was given to 33 married patients with bipolar disorder. Consistent with previous findings, patients with bipolar disorder did not show an abnormal personality profile as a group. Extremely wide variation on all scales indicated that the group profile tells little about individual patients. Trait neuroticism robustly predicted psychiatric symptoms at entry to the study when assessed retrospectively for the two years prior to entry and when averaged over a year of treatment. Neuroticism also negatively predicted the self-confidence of the patients in this sample. The patients identified as outliers on neuroticism form a clinically difficult group for whom the distinction between Axes I and II appears to be less meaningful.     

Fear and Disgust Responding to Heterogeneous Blood-Injection-Injury Stimuli: Distinctions from Anxiety Symptoms

Discrepancies exist in the literature regarding the unique role of disgust in Blood-Injection-Injury (BII) phobia. The present study attempts to clarify the discrepancy using a sample of analogue BII phobics (n = 40) and nonphobics (n = 40) who completed a series of questionnaires and were exposed to blood, mutilation, and injection pictures. The findings revealed that BII phobics reported greater disgust and contamination fears than nonphobics after controlling for anxious symptoms. When rating phobia-relevant pictures, BII phobics responded with greater fear and disgust than nonphobics after controlling for baseline anxiety scores. Furthermore, disgust was the dominant emotional response for BII phobics for the blood and mutilation stimuli. However, no differences were found between fear and disgust within the BII group when rating injection stimuli. The implications of these findings for better understanding the potential unique role of disgust in the etiology, maintenance, and treatment of BII phobia are discussed.

Speed and Rhythm Affect Temporal Structure of Variability in Reaching Poststroke: A Pilot Study

Temporal structure reveals the potential adaptive strategies employed during upper extremity movements. The authors compared the temporal structure of upper extremity joints under 3 different reaching conditions: preferred speed, fast speed, and reaching with rhythmic auditory cues in 10 individuals poststroke. They also investigated the temporal structure of these 3 reaching conditions in 8 healthy controls to aid in the interpretation of the observed patterns in the poststroke cohort. Approximate entropy (ApEn) was used to measure the temporal structure of the upper extremity joints. ApEn was similar between conditions in controls. After stroke, ApEn was significantly higher for shoulder, elbow, and wrist both at fast speed and with rhythmic cues compared with preferred speed. ApEn at index finger was significantly higher only with rhythmic cues compared with preferred speed. The authors propose that practice reaching at faster speed and with rhythmic cues as a component of rehabilitation interventions may enhance adaptability after stroke.     

Counseling in Mexico: History,Current Identity,and Future Trends

A brief history of the development of counseling in Mexico is presented. Counselor preparation, identity, and future trends in the profession are discussed. The origins of counseling in Mexico are associated with the development of similar disciplines concerned with the general improvement of mental health and the treatment of its disorders, namely, disciplines such as medicine and psychology. Historically, the classical cultures of Mesoamerica had specific methods for understanding the human psyche, as did the Indians, Chinese, Babylonians, Egyptians, and Greeks of other cultures. Mexico, like many societies, has historically attempted to explain and understand the essential components of the human condition.     

Repression-sensitization and nonverbal expressiveness

Investigated the relationship of status on Byrne's repression-sensitization dimension to novel measures of nonverbal' expressiveness under stress and nonstress conditions, where subjects' perceptions of the purpose of the dependent measures were varied. Forty subjects were divided into sensitizer and repressor groups on the basis of Repression-Sensitization (R-S) scores. Subjects viewed either an anxiety-producing industrial accident film or a control film. Subjects were then told that the purpose of subsequent testing was either the assessment of creativity or of personality, as measured by a new projective test. The 2 X 2 X 2 factorial design enabled the investigation of predictions based on ego-defensive interpretations of repression-sensitization and Lefcourt's "attitude towards emotionality" view. Although the study failed to provide strong support for either interpretation in full, the data were viewed as reconcilable with Lefcourt's theory where repressors, but not sensitizers, are-concerned.