Older Adults’ Trait Impressions of Faces Are Sensitive to Subtle Resemblance to Emotions

Younger adults (YA) attribute emotion-related traits to people whose neutral facial structure resembles an emotion (emotion overgeneralization). The fact that older adults (OA) show deficits in accurately labeling basic emotions suggests that they may be relatively insensitive to variations in the emotion resemblance of neutral expression faces that underlie emotion overgeneralization effects. On the other hand, the fact that OA, like YA, show a ‘pop-out’ effect for anger, more quickly locating an angry than a happy face in a neutral array, suggests that both age groups may be equally sensitive to emotion resemblance. We used computer modeling to assess the degree to which neutral faces objectively resembled emotions and assessed whether that resemblance predicted trait impressions. We found that both OA and YA showed anger and surprise overgeneralization in ratings of danger and naiveté, respectively, with no significant differences in the strength of the effects for the two age groups. These findings suggest that well-documented OA deficits on emotion recognition tasks may be more due to processing demands than to an insensitivity to the social affordances of emotion expressions.     

Working couples and class identification

This study examines the class identification patterns of married persons with working spouses. The analysis replicates earlier research demonstrating that the subjective class position of working wives is not determined solely by the husband's occupation but is also influenced by their own position in the labor force. In addition, it is argued that the class identification of men is affected by the wife's work experience. The class positions of individuals within families appears to be affected by both an individual's own occupation as well as that of the spouse.     

Homo colossus and the technological turn‐around

Unceasing technological advance is culturally defined as advantageous, but sociologists need to see it in ecological terms. Duncan's P.O.E.T notation heightens contrast between Ogburn's view of technology as a new environment and Park's attention to technologically extended people. Technologically colossal humans more rapidly exhaust carrying capacity—the maximum load an environment can sustain without undergoing degradation. Load has two dimensions (population, and per capita impacts). Until the industrial revolution reversed the effect, technology enlarged carrying capacity. Now technology enlarges per capita impacts and resource appetites. Homo colossus—man equipped with voracious technology—has reverted to hunting and gathering ("exploration and development") and his machines have become his ecological competitors. The number of people a finite world can support indefinitely is thus decreasing instead of increasing.     

Vietnam as a class war: Myth or reality?

This article reports an extension of the analyses of the fatalities in the Vietnam War presented by Barnett, Stanley, and Shore (1992) as printed in the September‐October 1992 Operations Research. The additional analyses involved an examination of results by Barnett et al. in numeric as well as percentage form and a consideration of how the revised analyses generalize to the population of all American fatalities in Vietnam. These analyses yielded a different conclusion about the role of economic class in the fatalities in the Vietnam War than those drawn by Barnett et al. They suggested that the term class war was not supported by their data analyses. Our analyses indicate that their conclusion is incorrect. The lower class sacrificed considerably more lives than the upper class.     

Very Brief Interventions in College Mental Health

Abstract

Although short encounters account for one-half of college mental health practice, they're often viewed as an unavoidable evil rather than a desired outcome. In order to evaluate client satisfaction with very brief interventions the authors mailed questionaires to 215 clients who had mental health encounters lasting no more than three sessions. Seventy-two percent of respondents were satisfied with their treatment. Thirty-six percent reported that they terminated because they felt they satisfied the conditions of the consultation, as opposed to 16% who left dissatisfied and 29% who left because they were referred elsewhere. A chart review revealed that in 45% of cases the decision to terminate was made unilaterally by the client. These findings suggest that very brief interventions are more often associated with rapid goal achievement than with client dissatisfaction.     

Togetherness—The Health Care Team

Abstract

In order to evaluate the progress of a health service, certain criteria (indices) should be established and monitored. If any health center wishes to compare its situation with others, a valid instrument for measuring morbidity is required, and the criteria must be in conformity with national and/or international standards. This paper details methods of producing health indices from medical diagnoses. It is based on experience in a health service for students. Three systems are offered to cover centers with and without computer facilities: 1) a minimum for student health services; 2) the “minima” requested by the World Health Organization; 3) a classification of conditions of special interest in student health. It is strongly recommended that the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9) of the World Health Organization be accepted as the local and international basis for these diagnostic categories.

“Epidemic Non-A, Non-B Hepatitis in Nepal: Recovery of a Possible Etiologic Agent and Transmission Studies in Marmosets,” MARK A. KANE, et al. An epidemic of non-A, non-B hepatitis occurred in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, during 1981–1982, with approximately 7.6% of households and 1.4% of individuals affected. Cases occurred preponderantly in the 15- to 34-year-old age group (70%), with most cases (75%) occurring in males. A high mortality rate (21%) occurred in pregnant women admitted to the hospital. No single water source was implicated, but epidemic peaks occurred during monsoon rains, and multiple opportunities for enteric transmission existed. One of eight patient stools examined by immune electron microscopy revealed aggregated, antibody-coated, 27-nm viruslike particles when convalescent serum samples were used as sources of antibody. Inoculation of two chimpanzees and four marmosets with a suspension of this stool resulted in elevated liver enzyme activity in three marmosets. Fecal excretion of 27-nm particles during the acute phase of disease (with temporally coincident antigen activity by radioimmunoassay) was observed in one marmoset, which also developed convalescent antibody against the particles in the original inoculum. (Journal of the American Medical Association 1984;252:3140–3145.)

“High-dose Vitamin C Versus Placebo in the Treatment of Patients with Advanced Cancer who Have Had No Prior Chemotherapy; A Randomized Double-Blind Comparison,” CHARLES G. MOERTEL, et al. It has been claimed that high-dose vitamin C is beneficial in the treatment of patients with advanced cancer, especially patients who have had no prior chemotherapy. In a double-blind study 100 patients with advanced colorectal cancer were randomly assigned to treatment with either high-dose vitamin C (10 g daily) or placebo. Overall, these patients were in very good general condition, with minimal symptoms. None had received any previous treatment with cytotoxic drugs. Vitamin C therapy showed no advantage over placebo therapy with regard to either the interval between the beginning of treatment and disease progression or patient survival. Among patients with measurable disease, none had objective improvement. On the basis of this and our previous randomized study, it can be concluded that high-dose vitamin C therapy is not effective against advanced malignant disease regardless of whether the patient has had any prior chemotherapy. (New England Journal of Medicine 1985;312:137–41.)     

The Definition and Treatment of Bulimarexia in College Women — A Pilot Study

Abstract

In this study of college women we defined “bulimarexia” as a cyclical eating disorder characterized by bingeing/purging behaviors and abnormally low self-esteem. Binge-ing was the presenting symptom rather than starvation, as is the case with primary anorexia-nervosa. A new experiential-behavioral approach adapted to a feminist perspective was utilized. Improvements in the experimental group on Body Cathexis scores and on a number of personality dimensions from Cattell's 16 PF questionnaire were found. Binge-ing behavior was eliminated or attenuated in 10 of 12 cases. However, follow-up testing revealed a tendency to drift back to pretest levels attitudinally, indicating that this syndrome is extremely persistent. Results underline the importance of socio-cultural factors in female role-definition and reinforce the view of bulimarexia as related to the struggle to achieve a “perfect” stereotyped female image in which women surrender most of their self-defining power to others.