Sharing of emotional memories with a listener: differences between adolescents and emerging adults

Research demonstrated a strong influence of personal narratives on emotions linked to memories. However, few studies considered shared narratives and the role of listener’s behavior, especially in adolescence and emerging adulthood. This paper aims to explore the impact of listening attitude on emotions related to memories in adolescents and emerging adults. A total of 157 participants were asked to choose a memory: in the experimental conditions (Attentive Listening, AL vs. Detached Listening, DL), they narrated it to a listener, in the Control Group, they internally reflected about it. Emotions linked to memory at the first time, to narrative/reflection, and to memory after 15 days were measured, as well as the perception of listener’s behavior. Results showed that participants perceived the differences of the listening, although adolescents perceived less listener’s detached stance. Moreover, among adolescents, positive emotions increased after narrative for both experimental conditions, instead, among emerging adults, only AL condition participants increased their positive emotions. Moreover, adults maintained the positive effects of narrative also after 15 days. Authors discussed the role of an empathic context and the adolescent egocentrism in shared narratives about personal memories.     

Parental Job Experiences and Children's Well-Being: The Case of Two-Parent and Single-Mother Working-Class Families

The aim of this study is to examine how two types of working-class families, two-parent and single-mother, serve as distinct contexts within which the connections between parental employment and child well-being may differ. Data from 50 dual-earner families and 52 employed single-mother families were obtained through in-home interviews. Parents provided assessments of their work experiences and ratings of their psychological well-being, and their school-age children completed questionnaires concerning their psychological well-being. In dual-earner families, results revealed that fathers' positive work experiences were related to daughters' positive evaluations of their internalized well-being. For dual-earner mothers, however, more positive work environments were related to daughters' reports of lower well-being. Finally, single mothers' more positive evaluations of their work environments were linked to sons' reports of greater restraint of aggressive tendencies. Further analyses that attempted to examine the role of parental well-being as a mediator of the relationship between job and child well-being yielded few results. The importance of examining work-family processes as they vary by social context and characteristics of the person is discussed.     

The Many Faces of a Neutral Face: Head Tilt and Perception of Dominance and Emotion

Based on the premise that human head tilt is homologous to animal dominance displays, we hypothesized that when a head is bowed, the face should be perceived as submissive, sad, displaying inferiority emotions (i.e., shame, embarrassment, guilt, humiliation, and respect) and, paradoxically, as contracting the zygomatic major muscle. Conversely, a raised head should be perceived as more dominant and displaying greater superiority emotions (i.e., contempt and pride). We conducted two experiments showing 3-D models of faces to 64 participants. The results confirmed our hypotheses and also showed that a raised head connotes happiness. In addition, we found a significant influence of the actors' sex on participants' perception, such as a bias towards perceiving stronger upward contraction of the mouth in female than male actors when the head is tilted. We discuss these findings within the context of evolution and social behavior.     

Dynamic Change Between Intimate Partner Violence and Contraceptive Use Over Time in Young Adult Men’s and Women’s Relationships

The negative association between intimate partner violence (IPV) and contraceptive use is well established, but much of this research treats the association as static (e.g., similar across all relationships over development or time). Such studies do not account for individual development of sexual and romantic relationship mental, social, and behavioral well-being, which relate to contraceptive use. These studies are also predominantly woman-focused; such work could be complemented by examining men’s associations. The current study examined how associations between sexual and physical IPV and consistent condom and birth control (BC) use changed across up to seven sequential relationships in young adulthood over a five-year period within a nationally representative sample. Results indicated that physical IPV–contraception associations were significant only across earliest or latest relationships. Sexual IPV–contraception associations were significant over more relationships but often changed in valence (negative to positive). There were few significant differences in these associations between men and women. Developmental context (e.g., prior relationship/IPV experience) may be important when considering IPV–contraception associations. In addition, although the IPV–contraception association does not appear to be a unique problem for women, research needs to explore how underlying mechanisms explaining this association may be a result of gendered and nongendered contexts.     

Reducing child aggression through sports intervention: The role of self-control skills and emotions

This study examined how sports intervention may reduce aggressive behaviors in children (Grades 3–6), focusing on the relations between acquisition of self-control skills (SCSs) and aggressive behavior through the mediation of thoughts (i.e., hostility) and emotions (i.e., positive and negative). In a sample of 649 Israeli children, 50% were assigned to an experimental group and the remainder to a waitlisted control group. As hypothesized, children in the experimental group reported significantly larger gains in SCSs and significantly larger decreases in physical aggression, hostile thoughts, and negative emotions. Results of structural equation modeling suggested that SCS gains were linked to changes in hostile thoughts, as mediated by changes in both positive and negative emotions. In addition, changes in hostile thoughts were linked to changes in physical aggression through the mediation of changes in anger. Among girls, changes in SCSs were linked directly to changes in physical aggression (with no indirect effect), whereas among boys, changes in SCSs were linked indirectly to changes in physical aggression, through changes in positive and negative emotions. Findings contribute to understanding of possible mechanisms underlying the associations between children's self-control and aggression, with particular implications for the roles of positive and negative emotions.     

Reconsidering the Evolution of Nonlinguistic Communication: The Case of Laughter

Nonlinguistic communication is typically proposed to convey representational messages, implying that particular signals are associated with specific signaler emotions, intentions, or external referents. However, common signals produced by both nonhuman primates and humans may not exhibit such specificity, with human laughter for example showing significant diversity in both acoustic form and production context. We therefore outline an alternative to the representational approach, arguing that laughter and other nonlinguistic vocalizations are used to influence the affective states of listeners, thereby also affecting their behavior. In the case of laughter, we propose a primary function of accentuating or inducing positive affect in the perceiver in order to promote a more favorable stance toward the laugher. Two simple strategies are identified, namely producing laughter with acoustic features that have an immediate impact on listener arousal, and pairing these sounds with positive affect in the listener to create learned affective responses. Both depend on factors like the listener's current emotional state and past interactions with the vocalizer, with laughers predicted to adjust their sounds accordingly. This approach is used to explain findings from two experimental studies that examined the use of laughter in same-sex and different-sex dyads composed of either friends or strangers, and may be applicable to other forms of nonlinguistic communication.     

The role of social support in the psychological well-being of African American girls who experience dating violence victimization

The goals of this study were to test the relationship between dating violence victimization (i.e., verbal, emotional, and physical abuse) and psychological well-being (i.e., depressive symptomatology, self-esteem, and body image) among 522 African American girls, and to determine whether social support acted as a buffer of negative effects (moderator) or as an intervening factor (mediator) in the relationship between dating violence victimization and psychological well-being. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that dating violence victimization was associated with negative psychological outcomes. Although social support did not moderate this relationship, it served as a mediator of the relationship between dating violence victimization and psychological well-being. Dating violence programs for African American girls should consider how to incorporate family, church, and other networks in the community to foster support, and allow adolescent girls to discuss their abusive experiences in a nonblaming environment. If programs are able to buoy girls who experience dating violence, then they may be able to ameliorate the associated negative psychological sequelae.     

The Dark Side of Authenticity: Feeling “Real” While Gambling Interacts with Enhancement Motives to Predict Problematic Gambling Behavior

Engaging in activities that make people feel authentic or real is typically associated with a host of positive psychological and physiological outcomes (i.e., being authentic serves to increase well-being). In the current study, we tested the idea that authenticity might have a dark side among people engaged in an addictive or risky behavior (gambling). To test this possibility, we assessed gamblers (N = 61) who were betting on the National Hockey League playoff games at a sports bar. As predicted, people who felt authentic when gambling reported behavior associated with problem gambling (high frequency of betting) as well as problematic play (a big monetary loss and a big monetary win). Moreover, such behavior and gambling outcomes were particularly high among people who were motivated to gamble for the purpose of enhancement. The interaction of feeling authentic when betting and gambling for purposes of enhancing positive emotions proved especially troublesome for problematic forms of play. Implications of authenticity as a potential vulnerability factor for sports betting and other types of gambling are discussed.     

Stress, negative social exchange, and health symptoms in university students

Although social support has been studied extensively in terms of its role in the relationship between stress and health, less attention has been devoted to the impact of negative social interactions. In this investigation, the authors examined the unique contributions of positive social support and negative social exchange in the relationship between stress and health symptoms, using data from 206 undergraduates at a large state university. Negative social exchange accounted for more variance in physical health symptoms than did life-event stress, daily hassles, or social support. The relationship between negative social interaction and physical symptoms was not the result of variance shared with psychological well-being. The importance of attending to negative aspects of social interaction among university students in terms of their health and well-being is discussed.     

Negative reciprocity and its relation to anger-like emotions in identity-homogeneous and -heterogeneous groups

Several studies have shown that social identity fosters the provision of public goods and enhances the willingness to reciprocate the cooperative behavior of group members. Nonetheless, the question of how social identity affects negative reciprocity in identity-homogeneous and -heterogeneous groups has only received little attention. Consequently, we seek to fill this gap by examining whether social identity affects individuals’ willingness to sanction deviating group members in a public good context. Moreover, we devote particular attention to the role of anger-like emotions in negative reciprocity. To test our hypotheses, we employ one-shot public good games in a strategy method with punishment opportunity and induced social identity. Our results indicate that members of identity-homogeneous groups are prone to reveal less negative reciprocity than identity-heterogeneous groups when they face contributions smaller than their own. We also find that anger-like emotions much more strongly influence punishment behavior when individuals are matched with members of different identities than in identity-homogenous groups. These findings contribute to an increased understanding of the nature of social identity and its impact on reciprocity, improving economists’ ability to predict behavior while taking emotions into consideration.     

The Temporality of Emotion: Constructing Past Emotions

Symbolic interactionists have developed a rich literature on emotion that has advanced our understanding of the socially constructed nature of emotions and has provided a wealth of understanding about emotions and emotional life. Left unexplored, however, has been the temporal nature of emotion. Similarly, interactionists' renewed interest in time and temporality has not focused on emotion. In this article I describe the implicit leads in these two literatures that need to be pulled together to make the linkage clear. Drawing on the work defining emotions as social objects and on George Herbert Mead's theory of the past, I describe how emotional pasts are used as foundations for situated actions. I also explain how we use the emotional pasts in four areas: the individual level, individuals in interaction, collective behavior, and the social structural level. This linkage provides insights for understanding how we use emotional pasts when we construct and enact behavior. I argue that emotional pasts are important tools used in the interpretation and construction of present emotions, to situate selves and others, and to construct the social order.     

To pay or to apologize? On the psychology of dealing with unfair offers in a dictator game

Prior research has largely failed to focus on how transgressors can promote trust when having made unfair offers in bargaining. I investigated in the context of receiving an unfair offer in a dictator game when financial compensations and when apologies are most effective in motivating trust behavior by the violated party. I hypothesized that when losses were allocated, the violated party would be motivated to show more trust behavior towards the transgressor when a financial compensation (resulting again in equal final outcomes) relative to an apology was delivered, whereas when gains were allocated, apologies would be more effective in promoting trust behavior than a financial compensation. Results from a laboratory study indeed supported this prediction as such demonstrating the importance of how allocation decisions are framed (i.e., loss or gain) in testing the effectiveness of trust repair strategies (financial compensations vs. apologies).     

Cry Babies and Pollyannas: Infants Can Detect Unjustified Emotional Reactions

Infants are attuned to emotional facial and vocal expressions, reacting most prominently when they are exposed to negative expressions. However, it remains unknown if infants can detect whether a person's emotions are justifiable given a particular context. The focus of the current paper was to examine whether infants react the same way to unjustified (e.g., distress following a positive experience) and justified (e.g., distress following a negative experience) emotional reactions. Infants aged 15 and 18 months were shown an actor experiencing negative and positive experiences, with one group exposed to an actor whose emotional reactions were consistently unjustified (i.e., did not match the event), while the other saw an actor whose emotional reactions were justified (i.e., always matched the event). Infants' looking times and empathic reactions were examined. Only 18‐month‐olds detected the mismatching facial expressions: Those in the unjustified group showed more hypothesis testing (i.e., checking) across events than the justified group. Older infants in the justified group also showed more concerned reactions to negative expressions than those in the unjustified group. The present findings indicate that infants implicitly understand how the emotional valence of experiences is linked to subsequent emotional expressions.     

Income inequality, race, and child well-being: an aggregate analysis in the 50 United States

Interest in income inequality as a predictor of health has exploded since the mid-1990s. Recent analyses suggest, however, that the effect of income inequality on population health is not robust to a control for the racial composition of the population. That observation raises two interpretational questions. First, does income inequality have an independent effect on population health? Second, what does the effect of racial composition on population health mean? We use data from the Urban Institute's Assessing the New Federalism project and the Kids Count Databook to evaluate the aggregate effects of income inequality on diverse measures of child well-being (e.g., infant mortality, high school drop-out rates) in the 50 U.S. states. We replicate the finding that, net of the racial/ethnic composition of the population, the effects of income inequality are not significant. Moreover, the effects of racial composition on child well-being appear to be compositional (i.e., they reflect the less positive outcomes observed among racial/ethnic minorities) rather than contextual (i.e., representing the independent influence of social context). Whereas cross-level effects are still possible, our results cast doubt on the health relevance of these aggregate characteristics of the population.     

The Effect of Social Presence on the Facial and Verbal Expression of Emotion and the Interrelationships Among Emotion Components

Women were videotaped while they spoke about a positive and a negative experience either in the presence of an experimenter or alone. They gave self-reports of their emotional experience, and the videotapes were rated for facial and verbal expression of emotion. Participants spoke less about their emotions when the experimenter (E) was present. When E was present, during positive disclosures they smiled more, but in negative disclosures they showed less negative and more positive expression. Facial behavior was only related to experienced emotion during positive disclosure when alone. Verbal behavior was related to experienced emotion for positive and negative disclosures when alone. These results show that verbal and nonverbal behaviors, and their relationship with emotional experience, depend on the type of emotion, the nature of the emotional event, and the social context.     

Self-Accomplishment Through Running*

Self transformation as a personal and shared social experience is shown to be achievable through distance running. Ethnographic materials, extensive interviews, and questionnaire results obtained over a two-year period show how distance running becomes a meaningful activity that is central to a runner's daily routine as well as a progressive personal identity. The researchers examine the motives and felt self-accomplishments for a wide range of runners, e.g., “joggers” to “marathoners” to “world-class” competitors, and then show how each is informed by other realms of meaning, especially the work and the family contexts. The place of running in the context of broader social changes which promote the enhancement of physical well-being is shown, as are the runners' concerns that the unique running experience may be coopted by organizational and bureaucratic demands.     

Laughter in Conversation: Features of Occurrence and Acoustic Structure

Although human laughter mainly occurs in social contexts, most studies have dealt with laughter evoked by media. In our study, we investigated conversational laughter. Our results show that laughter is much more frequent than has been described previously by self-report studies. Contrary to the common view that laughter is elicited by external stimuli, participants frequently laughed after their own verbal utterances. We thus suggest that laughter in conversation may primarily serve to regulate the flow of interaction and to mitigate the meaning of the preceding utterance. Conversational laughter bouts consisted of a smaller number of laughter elements and had longer interval durations than laughter bouts elicited by media. These parameters also varied with conversational context. The high intraindividual variability in the acoustic parameters of laughter, which greatly exceeded the parameter variability between subjects, may thus be a result of the laughter context.     

French connections: the networking strategies of French highly skilled migrants in London

Although the migration studies literature often takes social networks for granted, these social ties are not spontaneous but require effort and nurturing. There has been insufficient research on the actual process of networking, especially among highly skilled migrants. Our understanding of why and how migrants form networks with particular characteristics is still poor. In this article, we argue that it is necessary to consider both the structure and content of networks – the nature of the relationships as well as the flow of resources within various social ties. Drawing on qualitative data from a study of highly skilled French migrants in London's business and financial sector, we use a microanalysis of network‐making processes. In the context of London as a dynamic and highly competitive financial centre, we examine the importance of opportunities, skills and shared interests in building new social relationships from scratch. In addition, we also assess how mobility and proximity, virtual communication and co‐presence impact on geographically dispersed networks and why some long distance relationships endure while others fade over time. By bringing together classic literature on professional networking and wider discussions on how relationships are managed across time and space, our work contributes to a fuller understanding of why and how highly skilled migrants form networks with particular characteristics.     

The Reinvention of Liveability in Public Places: Interaction Mapping Analysis of Central Nottingham’s Improved Walkability

The reinvention of liveability in public places and its integration with social, environmental, cultural, and economic factors of living can be analyzed in detail in urban studies. This is studied in particular here through evaluation of different factors of quality of life and well-being in urban environments, one of which is the convention for encouraging social experience based on the socioeconomic and socioenvironmental values of the public place. This study will also discuss the relation between quality social environments and the socioeconomic values of public places, and how by enhancing the liveability of a place we can increase public expenditure and sociality of a place. Through interaction mapping analysis, and based on both human geography and urban studies, the study evaluates the implications of spatial change (i.e., temporary uses of a place) and walkability on maximizing the potential of a place and its immediate context. This comparison study then elaborates on socioeconomic benefits of walkability for liveability of public places.     

Effective relationship-based practice: A theoretical exploration

This paper looks at the importance of a relationship-based approach within social work. It explores past writings on the social worker-client relationship, why the relationship was seen to be central to effectiveness and good practice, and why this perspective fell out of favour. It revisits the importance of a relationship-based approach, within a psychosocial perspective, in relation to eight areas of practice. These include the assessment task and process; relationship difficulties; people who are vulnerable or reliant on others for their well-being; situations that require practitioners to be able to hold and contain anxiety; the relationship as a foundation for capacity building, empowerment and developing people's potential; and in relation to disadvantaged and marginalised sectors of the population, how social workers can use the 'front-line' knowledge they have gained through the relationships they have created in political ways--to bear witness and report on 'social ills' as they impact on the lives of service users. A final section looks briefly at how the service user-social worker relationship is perceived and described in the Benchmarking Statement, National Occupational Standards and the General Social Care Council's Rules and Requirements and their implications in terms of the new social work degree.