The disengagement of attentive resources from task-irrelevant cues to sexual and emotional infidelity

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Personality and Individual Differences. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2008 Elsevier B.V.The present study tests two predictions derived from the evolutionary view of jealousy. (1) For men the disengagement of attentive resources from task-irrelevant cues to sexual infidelity is more difficult than from neutral or emotional infidelity cues. Conversely, for women the disengagement of attentive resources from task-irrelevant cues to emotional infidelity is more difficult than from neutral or sexual infidelity cues. (2) These difficulties are especially pronounced in participants currently involved in a committed romantic relationship. In each trial either an affectively neutral, an emotional infidelity or sexual infidelity distractor was simultaneously presented with a target sentence. The last trial was followed by a recall test for the targets and distractors. The results confirmed both predictions. Implications and limitations of the present study are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided

The intentional object of romantic jealousy

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Evolution and Human Behavior. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2008 Elsevier B.V.Three studies tested the hypothesis derived from evolutionary psychological considerations of sex differences in the intentional object of romantic jealousy. In Studies 1 and 3, participants had to indicate in a forced choice whether their jealousy would be primarily directed towards the partner or the rival. In Study 2, participants rated separately the extent to which their jealousy would be primarily aimed at the partner and the rival. In Studies 1 and 2, the participants' answers referred to either a mate's actual emotional or sexual infidelity; in Study 3 they referred to suspected infidelity. As predicted, in each study, significantly more women than men reported that their jealousy would be primarily directed at the rival. Also, as predicted, these sex differences were especially pronounced when confronted with the adaptively primary infidelity type (i. e., male emotional and female sexual infidelity, respectively). Finally, Study 3 additionally showed that these sex differences are moderated by the participants' current relationship status and their own unfaithfulness. Limitations and implications of the findings are discussed.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaf

Surprise and schema strength

The official published version can be accessed through the link below.Through 4 experiments, the author investigated the effects of stimuli discrepant with schemas of varying strength on 3 components of surprise: the interruption of ongoing activities (indexed by response time increase), the focusing of attention on the schema-discrepant event (indexed by memory performance), and the feeling of surprise (indexed by self-reports). Response times were consistently found to increase with schema strength. This effect was attributed to the increasing difficulty of schema revision. In contrast, memory for the schema-discrepant event was not affected by schema strength, supporting the hypothesis that schema-discrepant stimuli are stored in memory with a distinct tag. Finally, self-reports of surprise intensity varied with schema strength only if they were made immediately after the surprising event without any intervening questions, suggesting that self-reports of surprise are highly susceptible to memory distortions

Verläufe von Traumafolgen bei ehemaligen politisch Inhaftierten der DDR: Ein 15-Jahres-Follow-up

Zusammenfassung: Hintergrund: In einer Mitte der 1990er Jahre untersuchten Stichprobe ehemaliger politisch Inhaftierter der DDR wurden im 15-Jahres-Follow-up die Veränderungen der Diagnose- und Symptomprävalenzen der posttraumatischen Belastungsstörung (PTBS) sowie anderer psychischer Störungen untersucht. Zudem wurden die durch Kliniker erhobenen Diagnosenverläufe mit den retrospektiven subjektiven Einschätzungen der Studienteilnehmer verglichen. Methode: Dreiundneunzig ehemals politisch inhaftierte Personen nahmen an der Folgestudie teil (85% Wiederteilnahme), ihr mittleres Alter betrug 64Jahre. Diagnosen und Symptome wurden mittels strukturierter klinischer Interviews sowie Fragebögen erfasst. Die retrospektiven subjektiven Verlaufseinschätzungen der Teilnehmer wurden mittels eines PTBS-Symptomindex basierend auf 4Symptomgruppen (Intrusionen, Vermeidung, Numbing, Hyperarousal) errechnet. Ergebnisse: Eine aktuelle PTBS lag bei 33% vor (1997: 29%). Nur ca. in der Hälfte der Fälle lag diese schon 1994 vor, bei der anderen Hälfte handelt es sich um neu-inzidente bzw. remittierte Fälle. Nächsthäufige Diagnosen waren Major-Depression, Episode (26%), Panik (mit oder ohne Agoraphobie: 24%) sowie somatoforme Störungen (19%). Im PTBS-Symptomprofil nahmen Intrusionen, Flashbacks bzw. Entfremdungsgefühl im Zeitverlauf ab, Reizbarkeit und Schreckreaktionen hingegen zu. Die subjektive Selbsteinschätzung der PTBS-Symptomverläufe durch die Studienteilnehmer ergab im Vergleich mit den Diagnostikern häufiger ein resilientes ("nie PTBS") oder verzögertes und seltener ein remittiertes Verlaufsmuster. Schlussfolgerung: Die Ergebnisse sprechen für eine traumabezogene Langzeitmorbidität, die allerdings instabiler ist als bisher angenomme

Facial expressions in response to a highly surprising event exceeding the field of vision: a test of Darwin's theory of surprise

Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.According to the affect program theory of facial displays, the evolutionary core of the human emotion system consists of a small set of discrete emotion mechanisms that comprise motor programs for emotion-specific facial displays. However, research on surprise has found that surprising events often fail to elicit the associated facial expression (widened eyes, raised eyebrows, mouth opening). The present study tested a refined Darwinian account of the facial expression of surprise, according to which surprising events cause widened eyes and raised eyebrows if they exceed the field of vision, as these facial changes increase the visual field and facilitate visual search. To test this hypothesis, we staged a surprising event that engulfed the field of vision: When the participants left the laboratory, they unexpectedly found themselves in a new room, a small chamber with bold green walls and a red office chair. In addition, to explore the role of social context for the expression of surprise, in two of three experimental conditions, a stranger or a friend they had brought to the experiment was sitting on the chair. The results provided no support for the Darwinian account of the facial expression of surprise. A complete expression of surprise was observed in 5% of the participants, and the individual components of the expression were shown only by a minority, regardless of social context. These findings reinforce doubts about the adequacy of affect program theory for the case of surprise

How willing are you to accept sexual requests from slightly unattractive to exceptionally attractive imagined requestors?

This is the post print version of the article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below.In their classic study of differences in mating strategies (Clark & Hatfield, 1989), men and women demonstrated a striking difference in interest in casual sex. The current study examined the role of requestor physical attractiveness (slightly unattractive, moderately attractive and exceptionally attractive) on men's and women's willingness to accept three different requests (go out, come to apartment, go to bed) in a questionnaire study. We tested two hypotheses, using a sample of 427 men and 443 women from three countries. Hypothesis 1 states that men, relative to women, will demonstrate a greater willingness to accept the “come to apartment” and “go to bed” requests but not the “go out” request for all three levels of requestor attractiveness. This hypothesis reflects Clark and Hatfield's (1989) main findings. Hypothesis 2 states that the physical attractiveness of a potential partner will have a greater effect on women's than on men's willingness to accept all three requests, and particularly for the explicit request for casual sex. The results partially supported Hypothesis 1 and fully supported Hypothesis 2. The discussion highlights limitations of the current research and presents directions for future research