Sex differences in anger-related behaviour: Comparing expectancies to actual behaviour

Expectancies about and the reactions of men and women to a provocation were compared to self- and observer ratings of the actual behaviour in response to the provocation. In Study 1, men and women were provoked by the experimenter during a laboratory task. In Study 2, participants were presented with video clips of the provocation and estimated how a man or a woman would likely react to it. The man was expected to react more aggressively than the woman. In their actual behaviour, however, men were more likely to react with humour or by distancing than were women. The woman was expected to react more submissively than the man, which was inaccurate with respect to both the observer ratings and the self-ratings.     

An assessment of antecedent events influencing noncompliance in an outpatient clinic

Several studies have shown that various factors can influence noncompliance, including task novelty, rate of presentation, and task preference. This study examined the impact of selected antecedent variables on noncompliance in an outpatient clinic setting. In two experiments involving 6 typically developing children, the consequences for noncompliance remained constant. During Experiment 1, demands that included noncontingent access to adult attention were contrasted with the same demands that did not include attention within a multielement design. In Experiment 2, demands were altered by decreasing the difficulty or amount of work or providing access to attention. In both experiments, results indicated idiosyncratic responses to the manipulated variables, with decreases in noncompliance observed following introduction of one or more antecedent variables with 5 of the 6 participants. These results suggested that noncompliance can be reduced via changes in antecedent variables, including adding potential positive reinforcers to the task situation, and that it is possible to probe variables that alter noncompliance in an outpatient clinic setting.     

Racial discrimination by low-prejudiced whites. Facial movements as implicit measures of attitudes related to behavior

We investigated the relationship of implicit racial prejudice to discriminatory behavior. White university students chose the best of three applicants (two were White and one was Black) for a prestigious teaching fellowship. They then completed the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a measure of implicit racial bias. Three weeks later, participants completed a second implicit measure of racial bias by viewing photos of Whites and Blacks while facial electromyography (EMG) was recorded from sites corresponding to the muscles used in smiling and frowning. Analyses revealed that bias in cheek EMG activity was related to the race of the chosen applicant, whereas bias on the IAT was not. Motivations to control prejudiced reactions were not related to EMG activity or the race of the applicant chosen, but were related to IAT bias. The findings indicate that facial EMG can be used as an implicit measure of prejudice related to discrimination.     

Clinical Perspectives on Neurobiological Effects of Psychological Trauma

Physical trauma to the brain has always been known to affect brain functions and subsequent neurobiological development. Research primarily since the early 1990s has shown that psychological trauma can have detrimental effects on brain function that are not only lasting but that may alter patterns of subsequent neurodevelopment, particularly in children although developmental effects may be seen in adults as well. Childhood trauma produces a diverse range of symptoms and defining the brain's response to trauma and the factors that mediate the body's stress response systems is at the forefront of scientific investigation. This paper reviews the current evidence relating psychological trauma to anatomical and functional changes in the brain and discusses the need for accurate diagnosis and treatment to minimize such effects and to recognize their existence in developing treatment programs.     

Workplace harassment from the victim's perspective: a theoretical model and meta-analysis

Although workplace harassment affects the lives of many employees, until recently it has been relatively ignored in the organizational psychology literature. First, the authors introduced an attribution- and reciprocity-based model that explains the link between harassment and its potential causes and consequences. The authors then conducted a meta-analysis to examine the potential antecedents and consequences of workplace harassment. As shown by the meta-analysis, both environmental and individual difference factors potentially contributed to harassment and harassment was negatively related to the well-being of both individual employees and their employing organizations. Furthermore, harassment contributed to the variance in many outcomes, even after controlling for 2 of the most commonly studied occupational stressors, role ambiguity and role conflict.     

The role of infant soothability in the relation between infant negativity and maternal sensitivity

Maternal perceptions of infant soothability moderated the relation between negative infant temperament and maternal sensitivity. Infant negative temperament and maternal sensitivity were significantly positively related when maternal perception of infant soothability was high and significantly negatively related when maternal perception of infant soothability was low.     

Emotion experience and expression across the adult life span: insights from a multimodal assessment study

This investigation represents a multimodal study of age-related differences in experienced and expressed affect and in emotion regulatory skills in a sample of young, middle-aged, and older adults (N=96), testing formulations derived from differential emotions theory. The experimental session consisted of a 10-min anger induction and a 10-min sadness induction using a relived emotion task; participants were also randomly assigned to an inhibition or noninhibition condition. In addition to subjective ratings of emotional experience provided by participants, their facial behavior was coded using an objective facial affect coding system; a content analysis also was applied to the emotion narratives. Separate repeated measures analyses of variance applied to each emotion domain indicated age differences in the co-occurrence of negative emotions and co-occurrence of positive and negative emotions across domains, thus extending the finding of emotion heterogeneity or complexity in emotion experience to facial behavior and verbal narratives. The authors also found that the inhibition condition resulted in a different pattern of results in the older versus middle-aged and younger adults. The intensity and frequency of discrete emotions were similar across age groups, with a few exceptions. Overall, the findings were generally consistent with differential emotions theory.