Relations Between Dispositional Expressivity and Physiological Changes During Acute Positive and Negative Affect

The aim of the present study is to examine the relations between emotional expressivity measured by Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire and physiological response in situations where positive and negative affects were induced. On 65 participants four physiological parameters, including finger pulse amplitude, heart rate, skin conductance level and amplitude of skin conductance response were measured. In situations in which negative affect was induced, individuals higher in negative expressivity showed higher skin conductance level, higher amplitude of skin conductance response and higher heart rate compared to individuals low on negative expressivity, whereas finger pulse amplitude did not differ between these two groups. The same results were obtained even when controlling for five factor personality traits and recorded participants’ facial expression. In situation where a positive affect was induced, no differences in sympathetic responses between participants high and low in positive expressivity have been found. The results are explained in the context of Coactivation theory and possible consequences of the results on health outcomes are discussed

Five-factor Personality Dimensions and 3 Healthrelated Personality Constructs as Predictors of Health

Aim To examine how 5-factor personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness) and 3 higher-order health-related personality constructs (negative experience, optimistic control, and passivity) are related to self-reports of subjective health outcomes (positive and negative mood, physical symptoms, and general health concern) and objective health conditions (chronic illnesses, serious illnesses, and physical injuries). Methods The study was carried out on a sample of 822 healthy volunteers (438 women and 384 men, from 18 to 84 years). Data were analyzed by hierarchical regression analyses for measures of subjective health outcomes used as criterion variables and binary logistic regression analyses for objective health conditions used as criterion variables. Results Three health-related personality constructs significantly predicted all subjective health measures above and beyond 5-factor personality dimensions. Out of the 5-factor personality dimensions, neuroticism was most consistently related to worse subjective health outcomes, while out of 3 health-related personality constructs, negative experience was related to worse and optimistic control to better subjective health outcomes. When objective health conditions were taken into account as criterion variables, both sets of variables were relatively weak predictors. Only 5-factor personality traits as a group of variables significantly predicted chronic illnesses (χ2 5 = 15.06; P = 0.012; Nagelkerke R2 = 0.032). Only neuroticism significantly predicted the presence of chronic illnesses (odds ratio [OR], 1.091; 95.0% confidence interval [CI], 1.040-1.144), whereas only optimistic control was related to more frequent physical injuries caused by accidents (OR, 1.285; 95.0% CI, 1.002- 1.648). Conclusion Five-factor personality traits and 3 healthrelated personality constructs may be useful factors in a multidisciplinary approach to understanding personalityhealth relationship

GUEST EDITORS\u27 NOTE

The thematic issue of Psychological Topics is devoted to the relationship between personality and social behaviour, two broad and important areas of psychology that have been developed relatively independently of each other for decades. Within the last decade, this situation has changed, and it became clear that these two domains are intertwined in different ways. This issue covers contemporary empirical contributions that aim to understand various personality traits and processes and their effects on social outcomes. Specifically, the articles deal with the question of how a person\u27s characteristics drive and shape social behaviours, such as social dominance, social trust, mating preferences, jealousy, loneliness, habits surrounding alcohol consumption, functional altruism, and relationship satisfaction. The articles presented in this issue come from different methodological and theoretical perspectives and show the richness, complexity and diversity of this area of research. We hope that this issue will allow readers a valuable insight into the current research and give them new ideas for future research within the field. Although the process of editing a journal can be sometimes demanding, we enjoyed it because it was a stimulating, challenging and rewarding experience. In the end, we would like to express our gratitude to all the authors for their willingness to contribute and devote their knowledge, expertise and time as well as to the reviewers for their comments in improving the quality of the articles. Many thanks to the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board for their help in the technical preparations of the articles

GUEST EDITORS\u27 NOTE

The thematic issue of Psychological Topics is devoted to the relationship between personality and social behaviour, two broad and important areas of psychology that have been developed relatively independently of each other for decades. Within the last decade, this situation has changed, and it became clear that these two domains are intertwined in different ways. This issue covers contemporary empirical contributions that aim to understand various personality traits and processes and their effects on social outcomes. Specifically, the articles deal with the question of how a person\u27s characteristics drive and shape social behaviours, such as social dominance, social trust, mating preferences, jealousy, loneliness, habits surrounding alcohol consumption, functional altruism, and relationship satisfaction. The articles presented in this issue come from different methodological and theoretical perspectives and show the richness, complexity and diversity of this area of research. We hope that this issue will allow readers a valuable insight into the current research and give them new ideas for future research within the field. Although the process of editing a journal can be sometimes demanding, we enjoyed it because it was a stimulating, challenging and rewarding experience. In the end, we would like to express our gratitude to all the authors for their willingness to contribute and devote their knowledge, expertise and time as well as to the reviewers for their comments in improving the quality of the articles. Many thanks to the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board for their help in the technical preparations of the articles

Blue-Eyed Men Prefer Blue-Eyed Women: The Role of Life History Strategies and Sociosexuality

Previous research (Laeng et al., 2007) conducted on Norwegian samples showed that blue-eyed men rate blue-eyed women as more attractive, while brown-eyed men and all the women show no differences in attractiveness assessments with respect to eye colour. Correspondingly, positive assortative mating was found for blue, but not brown eyes, and it most often occurred in blue-eyed men. We aimed to replicate this blue-like-blue effect in the Croatian population, which differs in the ratio of eye colour phenotypes (blue eye colour is the most prevalent in Norway while brown is the most prevalent in Croatia). Additionally, we examined whether this effect is moderated by life history strategies and sociosexuality. Our hypothesis was that the effect would be larger in those blue-eyed men who exert a slower life history strategy and who are sociosexually restrictive. One hundred and twenty-eight participants assessed the attractiveness of blue-eyed and brown-eyed models, whose eye colours were experimentally manipulated in such a way that participants were shown models with natural or artificially changed eye colours. The blue-like-blue effect was replicated in the context of preferences, although it was smaller than in the original study. However, unlike the original study, in a sample of 138 participants no assortative pairing by eye colour was found between participants and their romantic partners. Finally, the hypothesis about the moderation was supported for life history strategies, but not for sociosexuality. In addition to the rationale for the blue-like-blue effect based on the paternity uncertainty account, which was offered by the authors of the original study, we discussed other accounts of this phenomenon

Happy Face Superiority Effect in Change Detection Paradigm

The aim of the present study was to investigate which affective component guides cognitive processing of emotional facial expressions. According to the threat hypothesis, processing of angry faces is prioritized by the human cognitive system, because rapid detection of threat has a large adaptive value. The negativity hypothesis presumes that distressing emotional experiences of other people attract attention, regardless of whether they represent danger or not. The emotionality hypothesis proposes that positive emotional facial expressions can capture attention as effective as negative ones, while the happy face superiority hypothesis predicts that happy faces are prioritized. In the present study, which was conducted on 24 participants, change detection paradigm was used, because that procedure enables insight into the later stage of information processing. The results obtained show that happy facial expressions are heavily prioritized by the human cognitive system. In explanation of these results, that clearly support the happy face superiority hypothesis, we propose that angry expressions are initially prioritized by our cognitive system, because we benefit from early detection of potential threat in the environment, but in later cognitive processing, happy expressions are given the priority, because smiling is a valuable mechanism for forming and maintaining cooperative relationships. Besides the theoretical relevance, the present study is also valuable methodologically, because we demonstrated that change detection paradigm can be efficiently used for the research of emotional facial expressions processing

Blue-Eyed Men Prefer Blue-Eyed Women: The Role of Life History Strategies and Sociosexuality

Previous research (Laeng et al., 2007) conducted on Norwegian samples showed that blue-eyed men rate blue-eyed women as more attractive, while brown-eyed men and all the women show no differences in attractiveness assessments with respect to eye colour. Correspondingly, positive assortative mating was found for blue, but not brown eyes, and it most often occurred in blue-eyed men. We aimed to replicate this blue-like-blue effect in the Croatian population, which differs in the ratio of eye colour phenotypes (blue eye colour is the most prevalent in Norway while brown is the most prevalent in Croatia). Additionally, we examined whether this effect is moderated by life history strategies and sociosexuality. Our hypothesis was that the effect would be larger in those blue-eyed men who exert a slower life history strategy and who are sociosexually restrictive. One hundred and twenty-eight participants assessed the attractiveness of blue-eyed and brown-eyed models, whose eye colours were experimentally manipulated in such a way that participants were shown models with natural or artificially changed eye colours. The blue-like-blue effect was replicated in the context of preferences, although it was smaller than in the original study. However, unlike the original study, in a sample of 138 participants no assortative pairing by eye colour was found between participants and their romantic partners. Finally, the hypothesis about the moderation was supported for life history strategies, but not for sociosexuality. In addition to the rationale for the blue-like-blue effect based on the paternity uncertainty account, which was offered by the authors of the original study, we discussed other accounts of this phenomenon

Burnout in dispositional context: the role of personality traits, social support and coping styles

Big five personality traits, social support and coping styles were examined as predictors of three dimensions of burnout on the sample of 214 nurses using hierarchical regression analyses. Personality traits were included into the first step of the analyses, three sources of social support (co-workers, family and friends support) in the second, and in the third step three coping styles (problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping and avoidance coping). The results show that out of five personality traits neuroticism positively predicted exhaustion, while agreeableness negatively predicted reduced professional efficacy. Regarding three sources of social support, only co-worker support negatively predicted exhaustion as well as reduced professional efficacy. Regarding coping styles examined, only avoidance coping positively predicted depersonalization. The results obtained were explained by several mechanisms through which personality variables may exert their effects on burnout