Change in role perception, role conflict, and psychological health of working mothers

A model of the interrelationship among Change in Role Perception, Role Conflict, and Psychological Health of working mothers is introduced. The model posits that Change in Role Perception after the birth of children influences Psychological Health directly or indirectly through Role Conflict. The model was tested with a sample of 192 employed mothers (aged 26-45 years) with at least one child under 11 years of age and who lived in either Melbourne or Canberra, Australia. As expected, scores on Role Conflict predicted all four measures of Psychological Health (Anxiety, Self-esteem, Uptight, and Worn Out). Change in scores on Role Perception predicted Self-esteem and Worn Out. Geographic location predicted scores for Uptight and Worn Out and Occupational Type predicted scores for Worn Out, perhaps due to perceived social support. There are theoretical reasons for maintaining the model's structure. Refinement of methodology, measurement of Change in Role Perception, and possible adoption of a longitudinal approach is recommended. It is concluded that measuring experienced role conflict and change in role perception should be taken into account in any consideration of women's psychological health.     

Observing emotion in infants: facial expression,body behavior,and rater judgments of responses to an expectancy-violating event

Eleven-month-old European-American, Japanese, and Chinese infants (ns = 23, 21, and 15, respectively) were videotaped during baseline and stimulus episodes of a covert toy-switch procedure. Infants looked longer at the object during the expectancy-violating event (stimulus episode) but did not produce more surprise-related facial expressions. American and Japanese infants produced more bodily stilling during stimulus than baseline, and American infants also produced more facial sobering. Naive raters viewing both episodes could correctly identify the expectancy-violating event. Rater judgments of surprise were significantly related to infants' bodily stilling and facial sobering. Judgments of interest were related to cessation of fussing. Thus, observer judgments of infant emotions can be systematically related to behaviors other than prototypic emotional facial expressions.     

Kombination von Settings und Verfahren in der Psychotherapie

Literature research and own clinical experiences confirm the significance of a combined use of settings and methods in the area of inpatient and outpatient psychotherapy. For inpatient treatment, the combined use of methods, such as individual psychotherapy, group therapy, creative therapies, and sport, are an essential part of the treatment. In outpatient treatment, the regulations of the German insurance do not permit such combinations. Nevertheless, they occur and are often proactively initiated by the patients. The various combined use of psychotherapy and psychotropics is very well studied, but also the combination of settings, i.e. supplementary inpatient treatment, day treatment, and outpatient treatment have to be considered. While administering their therapies, psychotherapists should keep in mind possibly concurrently ongoing treatments as well as former therapies and their effects on the patients. With the exception of combinations with psychotropic treatment, there exist almost no empirical data in this important field.     

On the categorization of aphasic typologies: the SOAP (a test of syntactic complexity)

This paper presents a new measure of syntactic comprehension abilities in brain-damaged populations known as the SOAP (Subject-relative, Object-relative, Active, and Passive), along with data supporting its sensitivity and specificity. This assessment tool examines comprehension of sentences (matched for length) of four syntactic construction types: active, passive, subject-relative, and object-relative. Data are presented that indicate that the SOAP provides a sensitive and reliable differentiation of aphasia subgroups. The SOAP's sensitivity in differentiating broad behavioral (anterior/posterior-lesioned) groups is compared to the auditory comprehension component of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE), supporting its sensitivity differentiating between anterior- and posterior-lesioned groups. It is argued that this tool can be an important accompaniment to standard aphasia assessment batteries in more sensitively defining syntactic comprehension deficits.     

Expresiones faciales de la emoción

RESUMEN

En este trabajo Ekman y Oster sintetizan los estudios acerca de las expresiones faciales de la emoción. Comienzan presentando los datos observados y las cuestiones pendientes de los estudios transculturale s y evolutivos, centrándose a continuación en el repaso de las mediciones faciales llevadas a cabo desde diversas perspectivas, en las cuestiones relativas a la exactitud de la información proporcionada por la expresión y en los trabajos sobre retroalimentación facial. La última parte se reserva a la exposición del control neural y correlatos autónomos de la expresión facial, cerrando su síntesis con una visión prometedora de las aportaciones de investigaciones futuras en este campo a otras áreas de la psicología y citando varios hallazgos que muestran cómo el estudio de la expresión facial puede ayudar a entender algunos de los aspectos prácticos de la interacción social.