Coercive controlling behaviors in intimate partner violence in male same-sex relationships:A mixed-methods study

Using mixed methods, we explored the role of coercive controlling behaviors in a high-risk sample of 126 men in violent same-sex relationships. Contrary to a prediction that separate factors of physical violence and coercive control might emerge, a simple principle components analysis supported that male same-sex relationship intimate partner violence (IPV) is essentially unidimensional. Qualitative narratives supported a single latent factor solution of violence, and that coercive controlling behaviors better detect IPV dynamics within the same violent encounters (i.e., weapon use), even when compared to profiles defined by physical violence. Narratives also highlighted gender-different tactics of coercion used, underscoring importance of context-based assessments.     

3D object recognition: Representation and matching

Three-dimensional object recognition entails a number of fundamental problems in computer vision: representation of a 3D object, identification of the object from its image, estimation of its position and orientation, and registration of multiple views of the object for automatic model construction. This paper surveys three of those topics, namely representation, matching, and pose estimation. It also presents an overview of the free-form surface matching problem, and describes COSMOS, our framework for representing and recognizing free-form objects. The COSMOS system recognizes arbitrarily curved 3D rigid objects from a single view using dense surface data. We present both the theoretical aspects and the experimental results of a prototype recognition system based on COSMOS.     

Children's facial and gestural decoding and encoding: Relations between skills and with popularity

This study examined preschool children's decoding and encoding of facial emotions and gestures, interrelationships between these skills, and the relationship between these skills and children's popularity. Subjects were 34 preschoolers (eighteen 4-year-olds, sixteen 5-year-olds), with an equal number of boys and girls. Children's nonverbal skill was measured on four tasks: decoding emotions, decoding gestures, encoding facial emotions, and encoding gestures. Children's popularity was measured by teacher ratings. Analyses revealed the following major findings: (a) There were no age or gender effects on performance on any of the tasks. (b) Children performed better on decoding than encoding tasks, suggesting that nonverbal comprehension precedes production. Also, children appeared better at facial emotion skills than gesture skills. There were significant correlations between decoding and encoding gestures, and between encoding gestures and encoding emotions. (c) Multiple regression analyses indicated that encoding emotions and decoding gestures were marginally predictive of popularity. In addition, when children's scores on the four tasks were combined via z-score transformations, children's aggregate nonverbal skill correlated significantly with peer popularity.Portions of this paper were presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Society, San Diego, CA, June, 1992. We thank the Child Study Center of Wellesley College, Janine Jarrell, Jennifer Mascola, and David Mills for their cooperation, and Carlene Nelson, Mark Runco, and Ed Stearns for statistical support. We also appreciate the valuable suggestions from Robin Akert, Annick Mansfield, the anonymous reviewers, and especially the guest editor.     

The relationship of work stressors, coping and social support to psychological symptoms among female secretarial employees

A conceptual framework is advanced that assumes that psychological symptoms emerge within multiple contexts, such as the workplace, and are influenced by the interplay of individual and situational risk and protective factors over time. This framework was utilized to examine the impact of work and work-family role stressors, coping, and work-related social support on psychological symptoms among 239 female, secretarial employees in the USA, using both cross-sectional and longitudinal structural equation models. Work stressors and avoidance coping were viewed as risk factors, and active coping and social support as protective factors. Work stressors contributed substantially to increased symptoms, primarily through a direct pathway in the cross-sectional model, but also indirectly to both Time 1 and Time 2 symptoms (4 months later) via pathways through active and avoidance coping. In both models, avoidance coping also predicted increased symptoms. Avoidance coping also served to partially mediate the relationship between work stressors and symptoms in the cross-sectional model, but not in the longitudinal model. Active coping was related to fewer psychological symptoms in both models, thereby reducing the negative effect of work stressors on symptoms. Likewise, work-related social support served an indirect protective function by contributing to lower levels of reported work stressors and greater use of active coping. Work stressors but not active coping mediated the relationship between social support and symptoms. Implications for future research and workplace interventions are discussed.