Mimicry and the Judgment of Emotional Facial Expressions

Lipps (1907) presented a model of empathy which had an important influence on later formulations. According to Lipps, individuals tend to mimic an interaction partner's behavior, and this nonverbal mimicry induces—via a feedback process—the corresponding affective state in the observer. The resulting shared affect is believed to foster the understanding of the observed person's self. The present study tested this model in the context of judgments of emotional facial expressions. The results confirm that individuals mimic emotional facial expressions, and that the decoding of facial expressions is accompanied by shared affect. However, no evidence that emotion recognition accuracy or shared affect are mediated by mimicry was found. Yet, voluntary mimicry was found to have some limited influence on observer' s assessment of the observed person's personality. The implications of these results with regard to Lipps' original hypothesis are discussed.     

FACSGen: A Tool to Synthesize Emotional Facial Expressions Through Systematic Manipulation of Facial Action Units

To investigate the perception of emotional facial expressions, researchers rely on shared sets of photos or videos, most often generated by actor portrayals. The drawback of such standardized material is a lack of flexibility and controllability, as it does not allow the systematic parametric manipulation of specific features of facial expressions on the one hand, and of more general properties of the facial identity (age, ethnicity, gender) on the other. To remedy this problem, we developed FACSGen: a novel tool that allows the creation of realistic synthetic 3D facial stimuli, both static and dynamic, based on the Facial Action Coding System. FACSGen provides researchers with total control over facial action units, and corresponding informational cues in 3D synthetic faces. We present four studies validating both the software and the general methodology of systematically generating controlled facial expression patterns for stimulus presentation.     

Assessing the Ability to Recognize Facial and Vocal Expressions of Emotion: Construction and Validation of the Emotion Recognition Index

Despite extensive research on emotional expression, there are few validated tests of individual differences in emotion recognition competence (generally considered as part of nonverbal sensitivity and emotional intelligence). This paper reports the development of a rapid test of emotion recognition ability, the Emotion Recognition Index (ERI), consisting of two subtests: one for facial and one for vocal emotion recognition. The rationale underlying the test’s construction, item selection, and analysis are described and a major validation study with more than 3,500 professional candidates, providing stable norms, is reported. Additional analyses concern differences for gender, age, and education, as well as correlations with cognitive intelligence and personality factors. Moreover, a separate validation study with a student sample reports the correlations of the ERI with some of the major published tests in this area, demonstrating satisfactory construct validity. Correlations between ERI scores and the position of candidates in the organizational hierarchy suggest that recognition competence might be might contribute to predicting career advancement.     

Secrets and Lies: Involuntary Leakage in Deceptive Facial Expressions as a Function of Emotional Intensity

Darwin (1872) hypothesized that some facial muscle actions associated with emotion cannot be consciously inhibited, particularly when the to-be concealed emotion is strong. The present study investigated emotional “leakage” in deceptive facial expressions as a function of emotional intensity. Participants viewed low or high intensity disgusting, sad, frightening, and happy images, responding to each with a 5 s videotaped genuine or deceptive expression. Each 1/30 s frame of the 1,711 expressions (256,650 frames in total) was analyzed for the presence and duration of universal expressions. Results strongly supported the inhibition hypothesis. In general, emotional leakage lasted longer in both the upper and lower face during high-intensity masked, relative to low-intensity, masked expressions. High intensity emotion was more difficult to conceal than low intensity emotion during emotional neutralization, leading to a greater likelihood of emotional leakage in the upper face. The greatest and least amount of emotional leakage occurred during fearful and happiness expressions, respectively. Untrained observers were unable to discriminate real and false expressions above the level of chance.     

Aging and the Effects of Facial and Prosodic Cues on Emotional Intensity Ratings and Memory Reconstructions

Young (M = 23 years) and older (M = 77 years) adults' interpretation and memory for the emotional content of spoken discourse was examined in an experiment using short, videotaped scenes of two young actresses talking to each other about emotionally-laden events. Emotional nonverbal information (prosody or facial expressions) was conveyed at the end of each scene at low, medium, and high intensities. Nonverbal information indicating anger, happiness, or fear, conflicted with the verbal information. Older adults' ability to differentiate levels of emotional intensity was not as strong (for happiness and anger) compared to younger adults. An incidental memory task revealed that older adults, more often than younger adults, reconstruct what people state verbally to coincide with the meaning of the nonverbal content, if the nonverbal content is conveyed through facial expressions. A second experiment with older participants showed that the high level of memory reconstructions favoring the nonverbal interpretation was maintained when the ages of the participants and actresses were matched, and when the nonverbal content was conveyed both through prosody and facial expressions.     

Thoughts on the Body: Past,Present, and Future

Good Days, Bad Days: The Self in Chronic Illness and Time , by Kathy Charmaz. At The Will of The Body: Reflections on Illness , by Arthur W. Frank. The Body: Social Process and Cultural Theory , edited by Mike Featherstone, Mike Hepworth, and Bryan S. Turner.     

Psychology in the Arab World: Past, Present, and Future

In this article, we present a broad-based view of psychology in the Arab countries. We begin by casting light on the relevant contributions by ancient Arab scholars in the Middle Ages. Given that systematic scientific investigation of this legacy has been minuscule, we argue that in the future, scholars seeking to provide a more balanced and comprehensive history of Arab psychology should reanalyze these works. We point out that in the early decades of the modern twentieth century, Western psychology was introduced in the Arab countries, especially in Egypt—the gateway through which such psychology was introduced and practiced. By the early 1960s, a number of universities had been established in some Arab countries, and Egyptian academicians, including psychologists, were invited to perform teaching, research, and administration tasks. Their legacy was a discipline bearing most of the strengths and weaknesses of Egyptian psychology, although in spite of such commonalties, there exist also some interesting differences characterizing psychology in the various Arab countries. The final section of the article summarizes some key aspects endemic to psychology in the Arab countries.     

Emotional Transactions in the Paris Subway: Combining Naturalistic Videotaping,Objective Facial Coding and Sequential Analysis in the Study of Nonverbal Emotional Behavior

We report on what, to our knowledge, represents the first study of nonverbal emotional behavior in crowded public places combining naturalistic videotaping of situated activity, objective coding of facial movement, and sequential analysis of behavior. In the first part of the study we argue that passengers do not lose emotional sensitivity to physical contact as density (passengers per square meter) increases, which indicates that physical contact is experienced as a territorial intrusion regardless of crowdedness. In the second part of the study, we suggest that passengers resolve the emotions due to intrusive physical contacts through two interactional strategies involving facial movements usually interpreted as “expressions of emotions.” Since proxemic violations seem to represent a pervasive emotion elicitor, the protocol can be extended to other means of transportation and replicated in other locations. We conclude that the methodology provides an effective tool for theory-building in the study of nonverbal emotional behavior.     

Past,Present, and Future: Editorial on Virtual Reality Applications to Human Services

Abstract

“Virtual Reality” interventions in human services may include 360° video, augmented reality, mixed reality, and fully immersive 3-dimensional virtual reality simulations. A variety of applications have been evaluated in various fields of study, including medicine, social work, psychology, and human performance training. Currently, the state of research of VR interventions in human services has primarily focused on efficacy and effectiveness research, with few studies evaluating “scaling up” or implementation of VR interventions in larger populations. Unfortunately, the state of efficacy and effectiveness studies of VR interventions still remains weak with some applications due to smaller sample sizes, lack of randomized control trials, and a gap in reporting key intervention qualities, dosage, and outcomes. With new developments in combining artificial intelligence with VR, realism and the potential for human interaction with computer generated simulations may boost presence and immersion within these applications. This editorial provides an overview of the state of virtual reality applications in human service provision, potential gaps to be addressed by research in the future, and the development of AI based interactive sequences that may boost use presence.     

Clinical Treatment of Substance Abusers: Past, Present and Future

With an estimated 9?% of the population in the United States having a substance use disorder, it is a rare social worker that has not encountered a substance abuser or a family member of one in his or her clinical practice. This article provides a brief history of social workers?? role in the treatment of substance abusing clients, an overview of the current, evidence-based treatment approaches and some of the issues that will be impacting this field in the future. A case study is used to illustrate some of the dynamics of substance abusing individuals, the impact on the family and effective treatment approaches.     

Gambling and the Reasoned Action Model: Predicting Past Behavior,Intentions, and Future Behavior

Gambling is a serious concern for society because it is highly addictive and is associated with a myriad of negative outcomes. The current study applied the Reasoned Action Model (RAM) to understand and predict gambling intentions and behavior. Although prior studies have taken a reasoned action approach to understand gambling, no prior study has fully applied the RAM or used the RAM to predict future gambling. Across two studies the RAM was used to predict intentions to gamble, past gambling behavior, and future gambling behavior. In study 1 the model significantly predicted intentions and past behavior in both a college student and Amazon Mechanical Turk sample. In study 2 the model predicted future gambling behavior, measured 2 weeks after initial measurement of the RAM constructs. This study stands as the first to show the utility of the RAM in predicting future gambling behavior. Across both studies, attitudes and perceived normative pressure were the strongest predictors of intentions to gamble. These findings provide increased understanding of gambling and inform the development of gambling interventions based on the RAM.     

Research on Women in Policing: A Look at the Past,Present and Future

There are more women employed by police agencies today than ever before. Their role and workplace experiences have changed significantly from the time that they were first employed as police matrons in the late 1800s‐early 1900s. This article covers the history of women in policing. It provides an overview of past and contemporary research focused on female police officers. A trend found in the contemporary research reveals that there are many similarities among male and female police officers. This trend is interesting as policing has traditionally been a male dominated profession in the United States.     

Career Development of Women of Color and White Women: Assumptions,Conceptualization, and Interventions From an Ecological Perspective

Current career counseling practices are based on certain assumptions about clients and their career development, and these assumptions implicitly reflect male, western European experiences and worldviews. These assumptions may not reflect the general life priorities and specific role commitments of many women of color and White women. An ecological perspective on career counseling is proposed to conceptualize the dynamic interaction between the person and the environment. This perspective holds promise for assisting career counselors in their work with women of color and White women.     

巴以冲突一周年:回顾与展望

发生于去年9月底的巴以流血冲突,至今已一年多了.它一开始是自发的,但很快就被双方的政治层加以利用,演化成谈判桌上斗争的一种延续,无论是巴勒斯坦还是以色列,都想把武力和反武力的较量作为提高谈判要价的筹码.从发展看,通过起义突破<奥斯陆协议>条条框框的羁绊,在谈判中另辟蹊径,尽可能让美国敦促以色列做出让步,起码不过分地让以色列"牵着鼻子走",是阿拉法特意欲实现的战略目标之一.