Attentional inhibition has social-emotional consequences for unfamiliar faces

Visual attention studies often rely on response time measures to show the impact of attentional facilitation and inhibition. Here we extend the investigation of the effects of attention on behavior and show that prior attentional states associated with unfamiliar faces can influence subsequent social-emotional judgments about those faces. Participants were shown pairs of face images and were asked to withhold a response if a transparent stop-signal cue appeared over one of the faces. This served to associate the cued face with an inhibitory state. Later, when asked to make social-emotional choices about these face pairs, participants chose uncued faces more often than cued faces as "more trustworthy" and chose cued faces more often than uncued faces as "less trustworthy." For perceptual choices, there was no effect of how the question was framed (which face is "on a lighter background" vs. "on a darker background"). These results suggest that attentional inhibition can be associated with socially relevant stimuli, such as faces, and can have specific, deleterious effects on social-emotional judgments.

Teacher-student relationships and the link to academic adjustment and emotional well-being in early adolescence

The role of support from teachers on the academic and emotional adjustment of a ethnically and economically diverse sample of adolescents was examined. Analyses were conducted on data from a larger study examining social networks across the transition to junior high school. Participants in the current study included 694 African-American, Hispanic-American and European-American students in grades 6 and 8 from public elementary schools in South Florida. Some of these schools are located in economically distressed areas and some are in middle income areas. Children were interviewed, and information on teacher social support resources, school stressors, risk and academic and emotional adjustment was obtained. Several significant findings emerged from the analyses. First, overall teacher support was a significant predictor of a wide range of academic and emotional adjustment outcomes. Second, teacher support compensated for low peer support on teacher rated behavior problems. Third, teacher support interacted with school stress to predict depressed affect and self esteem. Fourth, teacher support interacted with low ecological risk conditions to predict feelings of loneliness. ^

Maltreatment, psychiatric symptoms and human immunodeficiency virus/sexual transmitted infection risk behavior among youth with alcohol and other drug use problems: A person-centered analysis

Multi-problem youth undergoing treatment for substance use problems are at high behavioral risk for exposure to sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Specific risk factors include childhood adversities such as maltreatment experiences and subsequent forms of psychopathology. The current study used a person-centered analytical approach to examine how childhood maltreatment experiences were related to patterns of psychiatric symptoms and HIV/STI risk behaviors in a sample of adolescents (N = 408) receiving treatment services. Data were collected in face-to-face interviews at two community-based facilities. Descriptive statistics and Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) were used to (a) classify adolescents into groups based on past year psychiatric symptoms, and (b) examine relations between class membership and forms of childhood maltreatment experiences, as well as past year sexual risk behavior (SRB). ^ LPA results indicated significant heterogeneity in psychiatric symptoms among the participants. The three classes generated via the optimal LPA solution included: (a) a low psychiatric symptoms class, (b) a high alcohol symptoms class and (c) a high internalizing symptoms class. Class membership was associated significantly with adolescents’ self-reported scores for childhood sexual abuse and emotional neglect. ANOVAs documented significant differences in mean scores for multiple indices of SRB indices by class membership, demonstrating differential risk for HIV/STI exposure across classes. The two classes characterized by elevated psychiatric symptom profiles and more severe maltreatment histories were at increased behavioral risk for HIV/STI exposure, compared to the low psychiatric symptoms class. The high internalizing symptoms class reported the highest scores for most of the indices of SRB assessed. The heterogeneity of psychiatric symptom patterns documented in the current study has important implications for HIV/STI prevention programs implemented with multi-problem youth. The results highlight complex relations between childhood maltreatment experiences, psychopathology and multiple forms of health risk behavior among adolescents. The results underscore the importance of further integration between substance abuse treatment and HIV/STI risk reduction efforts to improve morbidity and mortality among vulnerable youth. ^

The impact of friends on newly immigrant children's emotional and behavioral adjustment

Immigration disrupts an individual's support network; however, the stresses of the immigration process increase the need for social support. The presence of social support becomes essential for immigrant children and adolescents to cope with these important transitional circumstances. Friends are both sources of social support and models for behavior. Furthermore, friendship networks are known to have a significant influence on youths' functioning. Literature suggests that peer relations become more important in adolescence and friend support is related to child and adolescent well-being. Thus, friend relationships may be particularly important for immigrant youths who experience disruption in their friendship networks during the process of migration to another country. In addition to friendship networks and support, friend characteristics also need to be taken into consideration as important factors for immigrant youth adjustment. My study involved analyses of the effects of friend support and friend problem behaviors on emotional and behavioral functioning for elementary, middle, and high school age newly immigrant children and adolescents. ^ Immigrant children and adolescents (N = 503) were interviewed at schools by interviewers fluent in participants' languages. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analyses revealed that friend support and friend problem behaviors were related to children's self-esteem and externalizing behaviors. In addition, friend problem behavior alone predicted children's psychological symptoms and depression scores. Furthermore, age/grade was found to be a moderator for the relation between friend problem behavior and immigrant youth behavioral adjustment such that compared to elementary and high school cohorts, middle school youths showed more externalizing behaviors when they had friends performing problem behaviors. ^ Results supported the idea that both friend support and friend behavior are related to newly immigrant youths' emotional and behavioral adjustment. This study informs further research and interventions concerning the development of programs to facilitate immigrant youths' adjustment by revealing friendship factors related to their adaptation.^

Emotional Intelligence and Organizational Commitment Among Private Club Board and Committee Volunteer Leaders: A Pilot Study

This pilot study explored the relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational commitment among provate club board and committee volunteer members. The top three items, ranked by mean scores, of each of three EI dimensions -- IN, OUT, and RELATIONSHIPS wer discussed. A sample of 57 volunteer leaders furhter was split into high EI and low EI groups based on respndents' overall EO median score. Statistical differences between high and low EI groups in three aspects of organizational commitment - affective, continuance, and normative commitment - wer present. 4 t-test results showed that the difference between high and low EI groups in affective commitment among private club volunteer leaders was statistcally significant at p <.05.

Maltreatment, Psychiatric Symptoms and Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Sexual Transmitted Infection Risk Behavior Among Youth with Alcohol and Other Drug Use Problems: A Person-Centered Analysis

Multi-problem youth undergoing treatment for substance use problems are at high behavioral risk for exposure to sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Specific risk factors include childhood adversities such as maltreatment experiences and subsequent forms of psychopathology. The current study used a person-centered analytical approach to examine how childhood maltreatment experiences were related to patterns of psychiatric symptoms and HIV/STI risk behaviors in a sample of adolescents (N = 408) receiving treatment services. Data were collected in face-to-face interviews at two community-based facilities. Descriptive statistics and Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) were used to (a) classify adolescents into groups based on past year psychiatric symptoms, and (b) examine relations between class membership and forms of childhood maltreatment experiences, as well as past year sexual risk behavior (SRB). LPA results indicated significant heterogeneity in psychiatric symptoms among the participants. The three classes generated via the optimal LPA solution included: (a) a low psychiatric symptoms class, (b) a high alcohol symptoms class and (c) a high internalizing symptoms class. Class membership was associated significantly with adolescents’ self-reported scores for childhood sexual abuse and emotional neglect. ANOVAs documented significant differences in mean scores for multiple indices of SRB indices by class membership, demonstrating differential risk for HIV/STI exposure across classes. The two classes characterized by elevated psychiatric symptom profiles and more severe maltreatment histories were at increased behavioral risk for HIV/STI exposure, compared to the low psychiatric symptoms class. The high internalizing symptoms class reported the highest scores for most of the indices of SRB assessed. The heterogeneity of psychiatric symptom patterns documented in the current study has important implications for HIV/STI prevention programs implemented with multi-problem youth. The results highlight complex relations between childhood maltreatment experiences, psychopathology and multiple forms of health risk behavior among adolescents. The results underscore the importance of further integration between substance abuse treatment and HIV/STI risk reduction efforts to improve morbidity and mortality among vulnerable youth.

Emotional Intelligence and Leadership in Organization: A Meta-analytic Test of Process Mechanisms

The present study – employing psychometric meta-analysis of 92 independent studies with sample sizes ranging from 26 to 322 leaders – examined the relationship between EI and leadership effectiveness. Overall, the results supported a linkage between leader EI and effectiveness that was moderate in nature (ρ = .25). In addition, the positive manifold of the effect sizes presented in this study, ranging from .10 to .44, indicate that emotional intelligence has meaningful relations with myriad leadership outcomes including effectiveness, transformational leadership, LMX, follower job satisfaction, and others. Furthermore, this paper examined potential process mechanisms that may account for the EI-leadership effectiveness relationship and showed that both transformational leadership and LMX partially mediate this relationship. However, while the predictive validities of EI were moderate in nature, path analysis and hierarchical regression suggests that EI contributes less than or equal to 1% of explained variance in leadership effectiveness once personality and intelligence are accounted for.

Frontline employees’ innovative service behavior as key to customer loyalty:insights into FLEs’ resource gain spiral

Many service firms require frontline service employees (FLEs) to follow routines and standardized operating procedures during the service encounter, to deliver consistently high service standards. However, to create superior, pleasurable experiences for customers, featuring both helpful services and novel approaches to meeting their needs, firms in various sectors also have begun to encourage FLEs to engage in more innovative service behaviors. This study therefore investigates a new and complementary route to customer loyalty, beyond the conventional service-profit chain, that moves through FLEs' innovative service behavior. Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study introduces a resource gain spiral at the service encounter, which runs from FLEs' emotional job engagement to innovative service behavior, and then leads to customer delight and finally customer loyalty. In accordance with COR theory, the proposed model also includes factors that might hinder (customer aggression, underemployment) or foster (colleague support, supervisor support) FLEs' resource gain spiral. A multilevel analysis of a large-scale, dyadic data set that contains responses from both FLEs and customers in multiple industries strongly supports the proposed resource gain spiral as a complementary route to customer loyalty. The positive emotional job engagement-innovative service behavior relationship is undermined by customer aggression and underemployment, as hypothesized. Surprisingly though, and contrary to the hypotheses, colleague and supervisor support do not seem to foster FLEs' resource gain spiral. Instead, colleague support weakens the engagement-innovative service behavior relationship, and supervisor support does not affect it. These results indicate that if FLEs can solicit resources from other sources, they may not need to invest as many of their individual resources. In particular, colleague support even appears to serve as a substitute for FLEs' individual resource investments in the resource gain spiral.

Effects of Prenatal and Early Postnatal Exposure to Aversive Stimuli on Fearfulness and Exploratory Behavior in Bobwhite Qauil Neonates (Colinus virginianus)

Neophobia, the fear of novelty, is a behavioral trait found across a number of animal species, including humans. Neophobic individuals perceive novel environments and stimuli to have aversive properties, and exhibit fearful behaviors when presented with non-familiar situations. The present study examined how early life exposure to aversive novel stimuli could reduce neophobia in bobwhite quail chicks. Experiment 1 exposed chicks to a novel auditory tone previously shown to be aversive to naïve chicks (Suarez, 2012) for 24 hours immediately after hatching, then subsequently tested them in the presence of the tone within a novel maze task. Postnatally exposed chicks demonstrated decreased fearfulness compared to naïve chicks, and behaved more similarly to chicks tested in the presence of a known attractive auditory stimulus (a bobwhite maternal assembly call vocalization). Experiment 2 exposed chicks to the novel auditory tone for 24 hours prenatally, then subsequently tested them within a novel maze task. Prenatally exposed chicks showed decreased fearfulness to a similar degree as those postnatally exposed, revealing that both prenatal and postnatal exposure methods are capable of decreasing fear of auditory stimuli. Experiment 3 exposed chicks to a novel visual stimulus for 24 hours postnatally, then subsequently tested them within a novel emergence box / T-maze apparatus. Chicks exposed to the visual stimulus showed decreased fearfulness compared to naïve chicks, thereby demonstrating the utility of this method across sense modalities. Experiment 4 assessed whether early postnatal exposure to one novel stimulus could generalize and serve to decrease fear of novelty when chicks were tested in the presence of markedly different stimuli. By combining the methods of Experiments 1 and 3, this experiment revealed that chicks exposed to one type of stimulus (auditory or visual) demonstrated decreased fear when subsequently tested in the presence of the opposite type of novel stimulus. These results suggest that experience with novel stimuli can moderate the extent to which neophobia will develop during early development.

Movies and the Enchanted Mind : Emotional Comprehension and Spiritual Meaning Making Among Young Adults in Contemporary Sweden

The outcome of an empirical audience study in Sweden including questionnaires, focus groups and ten in-depth individual interviews discussing favorite films supports claims about viewers as active and playful (cf. Frampton 2006, Hoover 2006, Plantinga 2009). The soft side of mediatization processes is illustrated showing young adults experiencing enchantment through films (Jerslev 2006, Partridge 2008, Klinger 2008, Oliver & Hartmann 2010). The outcome is in line with a growing number of empirical case studies which support conclusions that both thinking and behavior are affected by film watching (Marsh 2007, Suckfüll 2010, Oliver & Hartmann 2010, Axelson 2014). The results of the interviews exploring specific scenes of idiosyncratic relevance support theories about fiction films as important sources for moral and spiritual reflection (Partridge 2004, Zillman 2005, Lynch 2007, Plantinga 2009).  The concept thick viewing is proposed for capturing these moments of film experience when profound and enchanted emotional interpretations take place.

Exploring associations between violent discipline and aggressive behavior in children ages 4-5 in The Republic of Nicaragua: A secondary data analysis of the 2011 Demographic and Health Survey

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Seeking To Understand, Aspiring to Teach: Exploring How Life Shapes Emotional and Personal Development in Global Health Leaders

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Verbal emotional memory in children and adolescents with temporal lobe epilepsy: A first study

International audience

Sexuality in the media and emotional well-being among lesbian, gay, & bisexual adolescents

LGB teens’ feelings, desires, and physical attractions run contrary to the heteronormative standards of American society. As such, LGB youth often experience feelings of sadness and dejection that can lead to depression and suicidal tendencies (Russell & Joyner, 2001). Evaluating the factors that could possibly influence the emotional well-being of LGB youth would be an important undertaking given the hindrances LGB adolescents face during sexual socialization. The purpose of this dissertation was to study the portrayal of sexuality in media popular with LGB adolescents and to assess the relationship between media exposure and emotional well-being among LGB teens. In particular, this dissertation distinguished between mainstream media and gay- and lesbian-oriented (GLO) media. GLO media were defined as any media outlet specifically designed, produced, and marketed for gay and lesbian audiences. Two studies were conducted to serve as the initial investigation in a program of research that will be designed to better understand the role of media in the lives of LGB individuals. The first study of this dissertation was a content analysis of the television programs, films, songs, and magazines most popular with LGB teens as determined by self-reports of media consumption in a survey of media use. A total of 96 media vehicles composed the content analysis sample, including 48 television programs, 22 films, 25 musical artists, and 6 magazines. Using a coding scheme that was adapted from previous media sex research, Study 1 measured the frequency of sexual instances as well as the type, nature, and source characteristics for each sexual instance. Results of the content analysis suggest that heterosexuality reigns supreme in mainstream media. When LGB sexuality is depicted in mainstream media, it is often sanitized. LGB sexual talk is rarely sexual; rather it is primarily about the social or cultural components of being lesbian, gay, or bisexual. LGB sexual behavior is also rare in mainstream media, which tend to depict LGB individuals as non-sexually as possible. LGB sexuality in mainstream media exists, but is more about proclaiming LGB identity than actually living it. GLO media depicted LGB sexuality more frequently than mainstream media did. GLO media often depict LGB sexuality in a more realistic manner. LGB sexual talk is about LGB identity, as well as the relational and sexual aspects of being a sexual minority. LGB sexual behavior is commonplace in GLO media, depicting LGB individuals as sexual beings. LGB sexuality in GLO media is prevalent and relatively authentic. The second study was a survey that assessed the relationship between media exposure (both mainstream media and GLO media) and LGB teens’ emotional well-being, considering self-discrepancy as an important mediating variable in that relationship. Study 2 also considered age, sex, and sexual identity commitment as possible moderating variables in the relationship between media exposure and emotional well-being. In Study 2, emotional well-being was defined as lower levels of dejection-related emotions. LGB adolescents (N = 573) completed a questionnaire that was used to investigate the relationships between media exposure and emotional well-being. Results of the survey indicated that mainstream media exposure was not significantly associated with dejection-related emotions. In contrast, GLO media exposure was negatively related to feelings of dejection even when controlling for age, sex, race, perceived social support, school climate, religiosity, geographical location, sexuality of peers, and motivation for viewing LGB inclusive media content. Neither age nor sex moderated the relationships between media exposure variables and dejection, but sexual identity commitment did act as a moderator in the relationship between GLO media exposure and dejection. The negative relationship between GLO media exposure and dejection was stronger for participants lower in sexual identity commitment than for participants higher in sexual identity commitment. In addition, the magnitude of discrepancies between the actual self and the ideal self mediated the relationship between GLO media exposure and dejection for LGB adolescents low in sexual identity commitment. However, self-discrepancy did not mediate the relationship between GLO media exposure and dejection for LGB teens highly committed to their sexual identities. Results of both the content analysis and the survey are discussed in terms of implications for theory and method. Practical implications of this dissertation’s findings are also discussed, as well as directions for future research.

Prosocial behavior and self-concept of Spanish students of Compulsory Secondary Education

This study analyzed the relationship between prosocial behavior and self-concept dimensions in a sample of 2022 Spanish students (51.1% males) of Compulsory Secondary Education. The prosocial behavior was measured with the Prosocial Behavior scale of the Teenage Inventory of Social Skills (TISS) and the self-concept was measured with the Self-Description Questionnaire-II (SDQ-II). Logistic regression analyses revealed that prosocial behavior is a positive and significant statistically predictor of high scores on the following self-concept dimensions: physical ability, parent relations, same-sex relations, opposite-sex relations, verbal, school, trustworthiness, and self-esteem. Those results were found in males, females and every Compulsory Secondary education year. However, prosocial behavior is not a significant statistically predictor of high scores on physical appearance, math, and emotional stability.