Journal articles in academic research and publication

Psychology-Personality

Adult Attachment and the Perception of Emotional Expressions

The journal article on adult attachment and perception of emotional expressions by Chris Faley et. al. centered on the relationship between anxious attachment and the cognitive dynamics behind this emotional phenomenon. More specifically, Faley et. al. hypothesized that there is a significant relationship between attachment orientation and perception of facial expressions of emotion. Proving this main hypothesis, the authors conducted four (4) different methodologies (in effect, four (4) different studies) in discussing and analyzing four hypotheses that ultimately answered the main hypothesis. Overall, the researchers concluded that highly anxious individuals tend to perceive emotional expressions more vigilantly than less anxious individuals. However, this sensitivity to emotional expressions did not translate to their accurate determination of emotional expressions, as highly anxious individuals tend to perceive emotions less accurately than less anxious individuals.

These generalizations about attachment orientation and perceived facial expressions of emotion are collectively generated from the four kinds of studies conducted. Each study utilized a different kind of methodology, different kinds of intervention that explored the potential determinants or factors influential to changes in perception of emotional expressions. Generally, the studies' methodologies involved looking into a movie depicting transitions in emotional expressions, wherein the movie consisted of 100 frames that tracked at each frame specific points of change of emotional expressions. The participants of this online mode of study were asked to determine the "offset" and "onset" points, that is, frames or points in the movie wherein the emotional expression started to change and began to dissipate. In addition to this main methodology, levels of anxiety of each participant were determined by answering specific questions about their personal background (socio-demographic characteristics) and assessment of their close relationships with people (answered through a 40-question online questionnaire).

The first study was conducted using a morph movie, wherein the participant was asked to view the movie, depicting an actor depicting an emotional expression, eventually shifting and ending to a neutral expression. In this study, it was determined that individuals who have been determined to have high anxiety levels are able to determine earlier the offset frame that depicted emotional expression -- that is, the point wherein the actor's emotional expression began to dissipate. The second study yielded the same result, using a reversed method of the first study. In the second study, the morph movie showed the actor assuming a neutral expression, eventually shifting his/her facial expression to that of an emotional one. In this study, highly anxious individuals once again determined the onset point of the facial expression at an earlier time than less anxious individuals.

The third and fourth studies tried to delve into the relationship between attachment orientation and accuracy of perceived emotions, as determined also by the morph movie. The third study, which prompted the individual to stop the movie once s/he has determined the onset point of emotion in the movie, showed that highly anxious individuals tend to be less accurate in their perception of facial expressions of emotion when prompted to do so quickly or immediately. The fourth study accounted for the information provided by the participant. This time, participants were given different versions of the movie, wherein one set had a shorter showtime, while the other version had a longer showtime. The researchers found out that highly anxious individuals who received the greater amount of information about the movie (i.e., longer showtime) accurately determined emotional expressions compared to individuals of the same anxiety level, but with shorter or lesser amount of information about the movie.

This study demonstrated how levels of anxiety in an individual lead to different perceptions of emotional expressions, which proved that indeed, there lies cognitive dynamics in people's assessment of other people's emotions. Moreover, information about the onset and offset of another person's expression/s is also a determinant that influences the accuracy or rightness of the individual' assessment of another's emotional expressions/emotions.

Part 2- Self-Regulation and Personality

In this journal article by R. Baumeister et. al., focus was on the discussion and analysis of extant literature on the issue of self-regulation, and its related concept of ego depletion. In discussing the topic of self-regulation, the authors touched on its most important effect on the individual: ego depletion that occurs after a self-regulating task. The authors identified ego depletion as "general mental fatigue," an event that happens when the individual performs a task that requires him/her to regulate his/her actions and behavior (1776). This task need not be major in nature; in fact, an individual may engage himself/herself in a minor or trivial task but can still experience the effects of ego depletion.

In the meta-analysis conducted, Baumeister et. al. discussed the different experiments and studies conducted in discerning when self-regulation becomes the path towards increased ego depletion. More importantly, these literature look into the reasons why ego depletion happens -- why, after the conduct of a self-regulating task, people experience a natural tendency to commit actions and behavior completely devoid of any self-regulation or -control.

Examples of literature cited include the study on financial management, wherein participants were asked to keep track of their spending by keeping a diary of their expenses. The experiment was successful in that the said money management task yielded the desired effect, which is for participants to improve "substantially in regulating their use of money" (1783). Validating this finding was a follow-up exam on the participants, wherein they performed better on laboratory tests on self-regulation, as evidenced by the visual tracking performance of the participants after the money management task.

Similarly, another explicit example of ego depletion after a self-regulating activity is embodied in the alcohol drinking experiment, wherein a reverse outcome emerged from the participants' behavior and actions after being asked to regulate their alcohol drinking, since after the beer taste test, a driving contest will follow, wherein the best (safest) driver will win the said task. Interestingly, the study showed that individuals who were asked to regulate their drinking experienced more ego depletion, and drank more than those participants who were not asked to control their alcohol drinking.

These examples of self-regulating experiments demonstrate that indeed, individuals performed better in self-regulating tasks when they are not prompted to control or regulate their actions. These findings from Baumeister's meta-analysis of extant literature about self-regulation brought into light the paradox in understanding self-regulation: self-regulating tasks become possible only when individuals do not control or regulate their actions/behavior. As explicated by the authors, self-regulation is actually more effective when individuals practice in this task, as illustrated in the money management task, wherein participants' immersion to the task led them to become skilled in it, therefore making them better performers in the money management task.

Part 3- Relationship Between Length of Acquaintance and Consensus and Self-Other Agreement in Judgments of Personality

Biesanz et al.'s study on the relationship between judgments of personality and self-other agreements looks into the quantitative dimensions involved in assessing this kind of relationship. This study attempted to provide basis on how personalities are determined and reinforced not only by the individual, but also from the individual's closest acquaintances as well (which also included the individual's parent/s). The main hypothesis of the study, which was composed of two parts, is that there is a significant relationship between judgments of personality and self-other agreements of the participant and his/her acquaintances.

In the first study conducted, parents and long-term acquaintances of the participant were involved and considered participants in the study as well. In the study conducted, wherein participants were asked to assess their relationships with their acquaintances, using "acquaintance ratings" as basis for their assessment (124). Three analyses were provided in the generation of results from this experimental study. The first analysis conducted demonstrated how parent-acquaintance consensus was assessed as increasing as length of acquaintance increased over time, as compared to self-other consensus. The second analysis showed the significance of this finding, wherein both self-other and parent-acquaintance consensuses were not established significantly with length of acquaintance. The third analysis applied the weighted-average model (WAM) introduced in the study, wherein it was found that as length of acquaintance increases, consensus for self-other and parent-acquaintance relations also increases. Through the WAM model, earlier findings on relationships between the main variables were validated and scientifically determined.

The second study was conducted similarly, although the design factored in the equation two short-term acquaintances, in addition to the long-term acquaintances of the participants. This design was implemented in order to take into account the differences that might emerge between short- and long-term acquaintances, using the same basis of trait ratings used in the first study design. For this design, it was found out that long-term acquaintances tend to have similar assessments of the participant's personality with the participants' parents than their short-term acquaintances. Apart from this finding, it was also interestingly found out that from the WAM model, stereotype accuracy has an inverse relationship with length of acquaintance, wherein increased length of acquaintance leads to low levels of stereotype accuracy. However, as this relationship was carefully streamlined, controlling for length of acquaintance, it emerged that there is a direct relationship between length of acquaintance and stereotype accuracy. This means that for both parent-acquaintance and self-other consensus, it was observed that increased length of acquaintance leads to high stereotype accuracy.