80 research outputs found
Atypical emotional anticipation in high-functioning autism
"Background: Understanding and anticipating othersâ mental or emotional states relies on the processing of social
cues, such as dynamic facial expressions. Individuals with high-functioning autism (HFA) may process these cues
differently from individuals with typical development (TD) and purportedly use a âmechanisticâ rather than a
âmentalisticâ approach, involving rule- and contingency-based interpretations of the stimuli. The study primarily
aimed at examining whether the judgments of facial expressions made by individuals with TD and HFA would be
similarly affected by the immediately preceding dynamic perceptual history of that face. A second aim was to
explore possible differences in the mechanisms underpinning the perceptual judgments in the two groups.
Methods: Twenty-two adults with HFA and with TD, matched for age, gender and IQ, were tested in three
experiments in which dynamic, âecologically validâ offsets of happy and angry facial expressions were presented.
Participants evaluated the expression depicted in the last frame of the video clip by using a 5-point scale ranging
from slightly angry via neutral to slightly happy. Specific experimental manipulations prior to the final facial
expression of the video clip allowed examining contributions of bottom-up mechanisms (sequential contrast/
context effects and representational momentum) and a top-down mechanism (emotional anticipation) to
distortions in the perception of the final expression.
Results: In experiment 1, the two groups showed a very similar perceptual bias for the final expression of joy-to-neutral
and anger-to-neutral videos (overshoot bias). In experiment 2, a change in the actorâs identity during the clip removed
the bias in the TD group, but not in the HFA group. In experiment 3, neutral-to-joy/anger-to-neutral sequences generated
an undershoot bias (opposite to the overshoot) in the TD group, whereas no bias was observed in the HFA group.
Conclusions: We argue that in TD individuals the perceptual judgments of otherâs facial expressions were underpinned
by an automatic emotional anticipation mechanism. In contrast, HFA individuals were primarily influenced by visual
features, most notably the contrast between the start and end expressions, or pattern extrapolation. We critically discuss
the proposition that automatic emotional anticipation may be induced by motor simulation of the perceived dynamic
facial expressions and discuss its implications for autism.
Self-concept consistency and short-term stability in eight cultures
Self-concept consistency and short-term stability were investigated in the United States, Australia, Mexico, Venezuela, Philippines, Malaysia, China, and Japan. Evidence for substantial cross-role consistency and reliable within-individual variability in trait self-perceptions were found in each culture. Participants in all cultures exhibited short-term stability in their self-reported traits within roles and moderately stable if-then patterns of trait self-perceptions. Cultural differences, which primarily involved Japan, were partially accounted for by cultural differences in dialecticism, but not self-construals or cultural tightness. In all cultures, satisfaction of needs in various roles partially accounted for within-individual variability in self-reported traits. The results provide support for integrating trait and cultural psychology perspectives, as well as structure and process approaches, in the study of self-concepts across cultures
Relating Self-Concept Consistency to Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being in Eight Cultures
Western theories suggest that self-concept consistency is important for well-being, but cultural psychologists have proposed that this relationship may be weaker in collectivistic or dialectical cultures. Hypotheses regarding the ability of self-concept (cross-role) consistency and short-term stability to predict hedonic and eudaimonic well-being across cultures were tested. College students in the United States, Australia, Mexico, Venezuela, the Philippines, Malaysia, China, and Japan rated their traits in various roles at test and retest and completed measures of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. In all cultures, cross-role consistency and short-term stability were inversely associated with negative affect, an aspect of hedonic well-being, and positively associated with Big Five Emotional Stability. In contrast, cross-role consistency and short-term stability were related to eudaimonic well-being more reliably in individualistic cultures than in collectivistic cultures, although the results in China only partially conformed to this pattern. We concluded that cross-role variability and short-term instability of self-concepts have a significant temperamental or affective basis, and this temperamental basis is a cultural universal. In addition, cultural psychology predictions of a weaker relationship between self-concept consistency and well-being in collectivistic cultures, as compared with individualistic cultures, were largely supported for eudaimonic well-being
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