Dispositional optimism as a correlate of decision-making styles in adolescence

Despite the numerous psychological areas in which optimism has been studied, including career planning, only a small amount of research has been done to investigate the relationship between optimism and decision-making styles. Consequently, we have investigated the role of dispositional optimism as a correlate of different decision-making styles, in particular, positive for effective styles and negative for ineffective ones (doubtfulness, procrastination, and delegation). Data were gathered through questionnaires administered to 803 Italian adolescents in their last 2 years of high schools with different fields of study, each at the beginning stages of planning for their professional future. A paper questionnaire was completed containing measures of dispositional optimism and career-related decision styles, during a vocational guidance intervention conducted at school. Data were analyzed using stepwise multiple regression. Results supported the proposed model by showing optimism to be a strong correlate of decision-making styles, thereby offering important intervention guidelines aimed at modifying unrealistically negative expectations regarding their future and helping students learn adaptive decision-making skills

Volitional exaggeration of body size through fundamental and formant frequency modulation in humans

Several mammalian species scale their voice fundamental frequency (F0) and formant frequencies in competitive and mating contexts, reducing vocal tract and laryngeal allometry thereby exaggerating apparent body size. Although humans’ rare capacity to volitionally modulate these same frequencies is thought to subserve articulated speech, the potential function of voice frequency modulation in human nonverbal communication remains largely unexplored. Here, the voices of 167 men and women from Canada, Cuba, and Poland were recorded in a baseline condition and while volitionally imitating a physically small and large body size. Modulation of F0, formant spacing (∆F), and apparent vocal tract length (VTL) were measured using Praat. Our results indicate that men and women spontaneously and systemically increased VTL and decreased F0 to imitate a large body size, and reduced VTL and increased F0 to imitate small size. These voice modulations did not differ substantially across cultures, indicating potentially universal sound-size correspondences or anatomical and biomechanical constraints on voice modulation. In each culture, men generally modulated their voices (particularly formants) more than did women. This latter finding could help to explain sexual dimorphism in F0 and formants that is currently unaccounted for by sexual dimorphism in human vocal anatomy and body size

Theory (DeMiT): A New Model for the Analysis of Deceptive Communication

Abstract: Deceptive communication has been recently studied by many scholars, both in naturalistic studies in the field and in experimental research programs carried out in the laboratory, but this scientific domain remains devoid of a viable theory. These theoretical perspectives risk creating a sort of “mythology ” about deception as a separate communicative domain, characterized by distinct and specific verbal and nonverbal features. The present chapter intends to overcome this deception mythology and offer a viable model which can explicate the main characteristics of deceptive communication and the local management of the deceptive message in its different expressions. The framework in which we move is the miscommunication as a chance theory (MaCHT) proposed by Anolli. According to the theory herein followed, deception is a kind of miscommunication and a chance in communication terms, since deceptive miscommunication greatly enhances the degrees of freedom available to the communicator. Within this perspective we mean to propose a new model, called the Deceptive Miscommunication Theory (DeMiT). The main theoretical points of this model will be sketched out in the present chapter