Affect, personality, and social activity.

Examined relations between social activity and state and trait measures of Positive and Negative Affect. In Study 1, Ss completed scales relevant to 3-factor models of personality and a weekly mood and social activity questionnaire for 13 wks. In Study 2, Ss completed measures of the 5-factor model of personality and a daily mood and social activity survey for 6–7 wks. In within- and between-Ss analyses, socializing correlated significantly with state measures of Positive Affect and with trait measures of Extraversion/Positive Emotionality. These relations were relatively general across various types of positive affect and social events; however, specific types of social events also were differentially related to affect. In contrast, social activity had no consistent association with measures of Negative Affect or the other personality dimensions. The results support a temperamental view of Extraversion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Music-evoked nostalgia: Affect, memory, and personality.

Participants listened to randomly selected excerpts of popular music and rated how nostalgic each song made them feel. Nostalgia was stronger to the extent that a song was autobiographically salient, arousing, familiar, and elicited a greater number of positive, negative, and mixed emotions. These effects were moderated by individual differences (nostalgia proneness, mood state, dimensions of the Affective Neurosciences Personality Scale, and factors of the Big Five Inventory). Nostalgia proneness predicted stronger nostalgic experiences, even after controlling for other individual difference measures. Nostalgia proneness was predicted by the Sadness dimension of the Affective Neurosciences Personality Scale and Neuroticism of the Big Five Inventory. Nostalgia was associated with both joy and sadness, whereas nonnostalgic and nonautobiographical experiences were associated with irritation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive functioning of older people in relation to social and personality variables.

Examined age differences in performance on memory measures and in subjective ratings of memory adequacy in the context of 12 social, personality, adjustment, and lifestyle measures. Ss were 285 men and women (aged 65–93 yrs) of middle- and working-class backgrounds. Cognitive measures included digit span, word recall, and memory and elaborative processing of a prose passage. Multivariate and univariate analyses revealed that a large proportion of the age differences and virtually all of the social-class differences on memory measures could be accounted for by contextual variables. Education; Intellectual activity; and Extroversion, Neuroticism, and Lie scores on the Eysenck Personality Inventory all accounted for more of the variance in memory performance than did age. Self-rated memory adequacy was not correlated with performance, and although the expected finding of lower ratings by older Ss was obtained with the working-class group, the opposite was true for the middle-class group. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vicarious instigation and conditioning of facial expressive and autonomic responses to a model's expressive display of pain.

In 2 experiments, 35 undergraduates participated in the application of a long-interstimulus-interval differential conditioning paradigm with a confederate's videotaped expression of pain serving as the UCS. Facial EMG signals and skin conductance were recorded. Clear evidence of vicarious autonomic instigation and some evidence of facial excitation were obtained in Exp I, but vicarious autonomic and facial muscle conditioning were obtained only for the 50% of the Ss who were aware of the contingency between the CS+ and the model's pain. In Exp II, steps were taken to increase awareness of the contingency, and significant autonomic and facial muscle instigation and conditioning occurred. Both the vicariously instigated and conditioned autonomic responses involved skin conductance increases, but facial responses to the model's pain were different from conditioned facial responses. Autonomic and facial muscle data suggest that Ss were behaving as though they were anticipating shock when the CS+ was displayed to the model, and as though they were in pain when the model was being shocked. Vicariously aroused emotional reactions thus appear to be similar to those that would be elicited if the S were directly anticipating and receiving shock. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive consequences of expressive regulation in older adults.

Previous research has suggested that older and young adults are equally able to regulate their outward expressions of emotion and that the regulation of emotional expression in younger adults results in decreased memory for the emotional stimulus. In the current study, we examined whether older adults show this same memory effect. Older and young adults viewed positive and negative emotional pictures under instructions to view the pictures naturally, enhance their facial expressions, or suppress their facial expressions. Older and young adults showed equivalent outward regulation of expression, but suppressing their emotional expressions led to reduced memory for emotional stimuli only in the young adults. The results suggest that older and young adults are achieving control of their expressions through different mechanisms or strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aptitudes, interests, and personality characteristics of farmers.

A group of 50 farmers were administered the DAT, the Kuder Preference Record, and the MMPI, and scores were related to two criterion measures—the Brayfield-Rothe job satisfaction index and instructor's rankings of on-the-job performance. Their personality test pattern was within the normal range, job satisfaction and job performance were unrelated, but distinctive aptitude and interest test profiles emerged. "Numerical ability and scientific interest were found to be positively and significantly related to performance on the job. Literary interest was negatively but significantly related to job satisfaction. The Depression and Social Introversion-Extroversion scales on the MMPI were negatively but significantly correlated with job satisfaction." 16 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stereotyping of older adults: The role of target facial cues and perceiver characteristics.

This 2-part study used photograph-age and photograph-stereotype sorting tasks to examine the role of target facial cues in stereotyping of older persons. As predicted, young, middle-aged, and older participants associated photographs of those who looked older and those with a neutral facial expression with fewer positive stereotypes than other photographs. Participants also selected fewer positive stereotypes for photographs of women than of men, except when the photographs showed old-old (80 years and over) men. Participant age affected stereotyping only of the photographs of old-old persons, with older participants selecting fewer positive stereotypes for those photographs than middle-aged and young participants. These results establish the importance of facial cues in the age stereotyping process and suggest age boundaries for positive stereotypes of men and women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affect bursts: Dynamic patterns of facial expression.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 11(4) of Emotion (see record 2011-18271-001). There were several errors in Table 1, and in Table 4 spaces were omitted from the rows between data for anger, fear, sadness, joy, and relief. All versions of this article have been corrected, and the corrections to Table 1 are provided in the erratum.] Affect bursts consist of spontaneous and short emotional expressions in which facial, vocal, and gestural components are highly synchronized. Although the vocal characteristics have been examined in several recent studies, the facial modality remains largely unexplored. This study investigated the facial correlates of affect bursts that expressed five different emotions: anger, fear, sadness, joy, and relief. Detailed analysis of 59 facial actions with the Facial Action Coding System revealed a reasonable degree of emotion differentiation for individual action units (AUs). However, less convergence was shown for specific AU combinations for a limited number of prototypes. Moreover, expression of facial actions peaked in a cumulative-sequential fashion with significant differences in their sequential appearance between emotions. When testing for the classification of facial expressions within a dimensional approach, facial actions differed significantly as a function of the valence and arousal level of the five emotions, thereby allowing further distinction between joy and relief. The findings cast doubt on the existence of fixed patterns of facial responses for each emotion, resulting in unique facial prototypes. Rather, the results suggest that each emotion can be portrayed by several different expressions that share multiple facial actions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anger arousal and personality characteristics.

Examined personality differences (California Psychological Inventory) between 150 undergraduates manifesting varying degrees of anger arousal as measured by the Anger Self-Report (ASR) and the Novaco Anger Inventory (AI). MANOVA revealed that high-anger-arousal Ss scored lower on socialization (ASR) self-control, tolerance, psychological-mindedness, and flexibility (AI); low-anger-arousal Ss scored lower on self-acceptance (AI) and higher on responsibility, socialization, and good impression (ASR). (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of recognition of emotions: Children's reliance on situational and facial expressive cues.

Examined the influence of nondiscrepance and discrepance between situational and expressive cues on children's emotion recognition. Videotaped episodes in which actors portrayed emotions were presented to 96 4–8 yr old girls. When cues were nondiscrepant, Ss were better at all ages in recognizing happiness, fear, sadness, anger, and disgust than shame and contempt. This was interpreted as reflecting differences in complexity of emotions. When cues were discrepant, Ss preferred cues depicting the most recognizable emotion—that is, cues of simple emotions in preference to cues of complex emotions, and emotional cues in preference to neutral cues. Contrary to expectations, Ss did not rely on more salient cues in preference to less salient cues. Ss' responses to questions regarding the perceived cues reflected a developmental trend from noticing only 1 type of cue to considering both situational and expressive cues. This is interpreted as reflecting a development from centration to decentration. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Autonomic, subjective, and expressive responses to emotional films in older and younger Chinese Americans and European Americans.

Previously, the authors found that during idiosyncratic emotional events (relived emotions, discussions about marital conflict), older European American adults demonstrated smaller changes in cardiovascular responding than their younger counterparts (R. W. Levenson, L. L. Carstensen, W. V. Friesen, & P. Ekman, 1991; R. W. Levenson, L. L. Carstensen, & J. M. Gortman, 1994). This study examined whether such differences held when the emotional events were standardized, and whether they extend to another cultural group. Forty-eight old (70–85 years) and 48 young (20–34 years) European Americans and Chinese Americans viewed sad and amusing film clips in the laboratory while their cardiovascular, subjective (online and retrospective), and behavioral responses were measured. Consistent with previous findings, older participants evidenced smaller changes in cardiovascular responding than did younger participants during the film clips. Consistent with earlier reports, old and young participants did not differ in most subjective and behavioral responses to the films. No cultural differences were found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Residential environment and self-directedness among older people.

Research on the environmental psychology of later life has produced data and theoretical advances that have been incorporated into the design of nursing homes and housing, neighborhood planning, housing policy, and housing-related services for older people. The applications of knowledge have been particularly useful in compensating for behaviors impaired by the physical illnesses that become more prevalent with aging. Some research has also documented environmental transactions made with the intent of choosing, creating, or shaping environments that increase need fulfillment. These 2 directions of the transactions between the older person and the environment have been characterized as environmental docility and environmental proactivity. The need for more research on promoting opportunities for proactivity in an attempt to raise environmental quality is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group psychotherapy with older adults: The value of an expressive approach.

Examines the value of a nonstructured, expressive approach (NEA) to group therapy with older adults, which stemmed from the authors' work with outpatients (aged 62–89 yrs). Experience during 10 mo with the NEA group revealed expected as well as unexpected group dynamics and issues. Therapists should recognize older individuals' abilities to define their own perspective on the phase of life through which they are passing, even when these definitions are contrary to technique- or theory-based expectations. The NEA stresses the importance of maintaining flexibility to identify normal and desirable coping mechanisms, defenses, and age-related personality changes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Destination memory impairment in older people.

Older adults are assumed to have poor destination memory—knowing to whom they tell particular information—and anecdotes about them repeating stories to the same people are cited as informal evidence for this claim. Experiment 1 assessed young and older adults' destination memory by having participants tell facts (e.g., “A dime has 118 ridges around its edge”) to pictures of famous people (e.g., Oprah Winfrey). Surprise recognition memory tests, which also assessed confidence, revealed that older adults, compared to young adults, were disproportionately impaired on destination memory relative to spared memory for the individual components (i.e., facts, faces) of the episode. Older adults also were more confident that they had not told a fact to a particular person when they actually had (i.e., a miss); this presumably causes them to repeat information more often than young adults. When the direction of information transfer was reversed in Experiment 2, such that the famous people shared information with the participants (i.e., a source memory experiment), age-related memory differences disappeared. In contrast to the destination memory experiment, older adults in the source memory experiment were more confident than young adults that someone had shared a fact with them when a different person actually had shared the fact (i.e., a false alarm). Overall, accuracy and confidence jointly influence age-related changes to destination memory, a fundamental component of successful communication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Playing with pets and longevity among older people.

Models of the relations between contact with pets and better health are examined in an archival prospective study using data derived from the longitudinal study initiated by Terman in 1921 (current N?=?343 men, 300 women) . In survival analyses of documented longevity, playing with pets in 1977 (M age?=?67 years) was not associated with mortality risk through 1991 for the total sample nor for those who were unmarried or those who were less satisfied with their human relationships. Playing with pets was not associated with health-prone attributes or healthy behaviors such as personality, social ties, education, and smoking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attraction, personality, and prejudice: Liking none of the people most of the time.

Unfavorable evaluations of others reflect both specific prejudice and generalized negativity. Study 1 examined self-reported norms and personal endorsement of prejudices to various social groups. Study 2 used judgments of overweight persons to examine links among prejudice, personality, and prosocial motives. Study 3 examined negative evaluations and social distancing during interpersonal interaction. Study 4 observed the translation of negative evaluations into overt discrimination. Study 5 experimentally manipulated the behavior of the target and observed its interactive effects with weight, personality, and prosocial motives. Results suggest that prejudice can emerge from otherwise unprejudiced persons when situations permit justification. Patterns in negative evaluations are linked distinctively to (a) the Big Five dimension of Agreeableness, (b) proximal social cognition and motives, and (c) discrimination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multiple personality: Fantasy proneness, demand characteristics, and indirect communication.

An etiology is proposed for multiple personality disorder (MPD) without recourse to dissociated early trauma. MPD may be generated by the interaction of specific cognitive abilities associated with extreme hypnotic susceptibility and fantasy proneness with therapist demand characteristics associated with a belief in the early traumatic origins of MPD. The patient's capacity for segmented, absorbed consciousness; highly uncritical vivid fantasy; and relative secretiveness about fantasy experience matches the therapist's expectations of a mistrustful patient concealing shameful early trauma in colorful dissociated reenactments. The necessity to earn trust pulls for credulity; the expectation of concealment pulls for probing suggestive therapeutic techniques. Dramatic representation of apparent early abuse is conceptualized as an indirect commentary on the patient's current therapeutic experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in psychotherapy with older people.

Examines sex-related differences in late-middle and old age that influence the initiation, process, and goals of psychotherapy with older patients. These differences include demographic characteristics, responses to health problems and physical changes, psychiatric symptoms and diagnoses, and strengths. Possible barriers to these therapeutic goals and implications of historical shifts in sex roles in society are discussed. (68 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Values, personality, physical characteristics, and refractive error

A questionnaire containing: (a) a questionnaire of physical characteristics associated with psychosomatic symptoms, (b) questions to determine the presence of myopia or hypermetropia but not the amount of error, (c) a shortened version of the Gough Adjective Check List, and (d) the Heist and Yonge Omnibus Personality Inventory were administered to 782 introductory psychology students attending Washington State University. This group consisted of 297 self-identified myopes (117 males, 180 females), 439 emmetropes (207 males, 232 females), and 46 hypermetropes (15 males, 31 females). Results indicated that myopes and nonmyopes differed from one another with respect to their value systems, personality, and physical characteristics as assessed by the components of the questionnaire. Differences in these characteristics were consistently found by all assessment techniques to exist most often between myopes and hypermetropes and between emmetropes and hypermetropes rather than between myopes and emmetropes. In general myopes exhibited a personality pattern of introversion, whereas hypermetropes maintained a pattern described as extroverted.