Attention during Visual Preference Tasks: Relation to Caregiving and Face Recognition

This research examined how caregiver experience (female primary caregiver or distributed caregiving with mom and dad) influenced 10‐, 14‐, and 16‐month‐olds’ visual preferences and attention toward internal facial features of female–male face pairs, and how these behaviors related to novelty preferences in a face recognition task and speed and accuracy on a visual search task. In the visual preference task, infants visually preferred male faces, regardless of caregiver experience. Despite similarities in visual preferences, infants’ attention toward females and males’ internal facial features was related for infants with distributed caregiving only. Infants’ performance across face processing tasks most often correlated for those with female primary caregivers. Results further our understanding of how infants with female primary caregivers display specialized processing of female faces, and how infants with distributed caregiving show similarities in their attention to female and male facial features.     

Pension reforms and gender: The case of Sweden

This article analyzes the effects of pension reform for men and women by comparing the outcomes in the system after reform to the outcomes under the prior system. The authors also study the incentive effects on labor supply. The size of the labor force, however, is also influenced by the rules for retirement, social insurance programs (e.g., sickness insurance and unemployment insurance), collective bargaining agreements, and seniority rules. Using a simulation model, the authors compare women's pension benefits and contributions to those of men in the new Swedish system and in the old. The analysis includes simulating the wage and employment histories of representative men and women and the pension benefits these are likely to generate under the old and new rules. After showing the results of this model, the authors describe and discuss the supplementary pension systems, that is, the negotiated collective agreement schemes and different pathways to retirement. Based on empirical evidence from Swedish and Latin America simulated data, the final section of the article discusses gender impact of pension rules and how to design pension, systems to ensure adequate pension benefits for both women and men.     

Do People Agree on How Positive Emotions Are Expressed? A Survey of Four Emotions and Five Modalities Across 11 Cultures

Journal of Nonverbal Behavior - While much is known about how negative emotions are expressed in different modalities, our understanding of the nonverbal expressions of positive emotions remains...     

How can cooperation between rehabilitation professionals in rehabilitation planning be improved? A qualitative study from the employer's perspective

Research shows that there are often problems with cooperation between rehabilitation professionals within vocational rehabilitation. The aim of this study was to describe employers' experiences of how cooperation between different rehabilitation professionals can be improved in a vocational rehabilitation planning process. Ten employers who had sent their employees to vocational rehabilitation at a rehabilitation centre in the north of Sweden during 2000 and 2001 participated in the study. Qualitative interviews were performed and analysed by thematic content analysis. The employers' cooperation with clients could be improved by a focus on clients' needs and participation in the rehabilitation process. The employers cooperation with Social Insurance companies could be improved by, 1) early prevention and intervention, 2) knowledge of each other's roles, responsibilities and opportunities and 3) priority making. The employers' cooperation with rehabilitation professionals could be improved by, 1) early identification of rehabilitation needs and goals and early rehabilitation and, 2) increased focus on own responsibilities from each part in the process.     

Emotional Experience as a Function of Social Context: The Role of the Other

Inconsistencies in previous findings concerning the relationship between emotion and social context are likely to reflect the multi-dimensionality of the sociality construct. In the present study we focused on the role of the other person by manipulating two aspects of this role: co-experience of the event and expression of emotion. We predicted that another's co-experience and expression would affect emotional responses and that the direction of these effects would depend upon the manipulated emotion and how the role of the other person is appraised. Participants read vignettes eliciting four different emotions: happiness, sadness, anxiety, and anger. As well as an alone condition, there were four conditions in which a friend was present, either co-experiencing the event or merely observing it, and either expressing emotions consistent with the event or not showing any emotion. There were significant effects of co-experience in the case of anger situations, and of expression in the case of happiness and sadness situations. Social appraisal also appeared to influence emotional response. We discuss different processes that might be responsible for these results.     

Differing Domains of Actual Sibling Conflict Discussions and Associations with Conflict Styles and Relationship Quality

Four types of sibling conflict were identified in actual adolescent sibling discussions: equality and fairness, invasion of the personal domain, intrinsic harm, and relationships. Older [M = 14.97, standard deviation (SD) = 1.69 years] and younger siblings (M = 12.20, SD = 1.90 years) from 144 dyads discussed conflicts during a semi‐structured conflict task. Trained observers coded the topics discussed, and separate observers rated their conflict styles, whereas siblings rated their relationship quality. The proportion of conflicts of each domain differed by dyadic gender composition. Equality and fairness conflicts (and invasion of the personal domain conflicts for sister–sister pairs) were discussed the most frequently whereas intrinsic harm conflicts were associated with destructive conflict styles. Siblings' discussions of conflicts involving intrinsic harm were associated with older siblings' reports of negative relationship quality. The associations between these conflict topics and negative relationship quality were mediated by the siblings discussing the conflicts in destructive ways.