Although previous research on emotion recognition ability (ERA) has found consistent evidence for a female advantage, the explanation for this sex difference remains incompletely understood. This study compared males and females on four emotion recognition tasks, using a community sample of 379 adults drawn from two regions of the United States (stratified with respect to age, sex, and socioeconomic status). Participants also completed the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS), a measure of trait emotional awareness (EA) thought to primarily reflect individual differences in emotion concept learning. We observed that individual differences in LEAS scores mediated the relationship between sex and ERA; in addition, we observed that ERA distributions were noticeably non-normal, and that—similar to findings with other cognitive performance measures—males had more variability in ERA than females. These results further characterize sex differences in ERA and suggest that these differences may be explained by differences in EA—a trait variable linked primarily to early learning.

Applications in life sciences and information technology require all-optical solutions. In the inevitable race towards miniaturized optical circuits, all-integrated solutions will prevail against bulk setups. Because of its outstanding nonlinear properties, lithium niobate (LiNbO3) emerged as the key platform for integrated optics. In this paper, we discuss the direct femtosecond (fs) laser inscription technique whose flexibility enables the realization of two-and three-dimensional embedded optical waveguides in various optical materials. Linear and nonlinear components for monolithic and hybrid waveguide devices are characterized and their perspectives are reviewed, e. g. couplers, Bragg reflectors, frequency converters, amplitude modulators and gain modules. Finally, we demonstrate a monolithic LiNbO3 waveguide chip that combines a frequency doubling and a modulating unit. (C) 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Age differences in emotion recognition from lexical stimuli and facial expressions were examined in a cross-sectional sample of adults aged 18 to 85 (N = 357). Emotion-specific response biases differed by age: Older adults were disproportionately more likely to incorrectly label lexical stimuli as happiness, sadness, and surprise and to incorrectly label facial stimuli as disgust and fear. After these biases were controlled, findings suggested that older adults were less accurate at identifying emotions than were young adults, but the pattern differed across emotions and task types. The lexical task showed stronger age differences than the facial task, and for lexical stimuli, age groups differed in accuracy for all emotional states except fear. For facial stimuli, in contrast, age groups differed only in accuracy for anger, disgust, fear, and happiness. Implications for age-related changes in different types of emotional processing are discussed.

OBJECTIVE:Previous research has demonstrated a deficit in the ability to recognize emotions in alexithymic individuals. The repressive coping style is thought to preferentially impair the detection of unpleasant compared with pleasant emotions, and the degree of deficit is typically thought to be less severe than in alexithymia. We compared emotion recognition ability in both individuals with alexithymia and those with the repressive coping style.METHODS:Three hundred seventy-nine subjects completed the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale, the Marlowe-Crowne Scale (a measure of repressive defensiveness), the Bendig Short Form of the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, and the Perception of Affect Task. The Perception of Affect Task consists of four 35-item emotion recognition subtasks: matching sentences and words, faces and words, sentences and faces, and faces and photographs of scenes. The stimuli in each subtask consist of seven emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, surprise, and neutral) depicted five times each. Recognition accuracy results were collapsed across subtasks within each emotion category.RESULTS:Highly alexithymic subjects (for all, p<.01) and those with low emotional awareness (for all, p<.001) were consistently less accurate in emotion recognition in all seven categories. Highly defensive subjects (including repressors) were less accurate in the detection of anger, sadness, fear, and happiness (for all, p<.05). Furthermore, scores on the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale accounted for significantly more variance in performance on the Perception of Affect Task than scores on the Marlowe-Crowne Scale (p<.01).CONCLUSIONS:The results indicate that alexithymia and the repressive coping style are each associated with impairments in the recognition of both pleasant and unpleasant emotions and that the two styles of emotional self-regulation differ more in the magnitude than in the quality of these impairments.

The association between alexithymia and sociodemographic variables is not well understood. Previous studies using the current 20-item and previous 26-item versions of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) have shown inconsistent associations with age, sex, socioeconomic status, and years of education. We tested 380 subjects from the community stratified equally across sex, five age groups, and three socioeconomic classes. In addition to the TAS-20, we also administered the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS), a behavioral measure of the ability to be aware of and represent emotions in words, a core component of alexithymia. The TAS-20 and LEAS were each correlated with age, sex, socioeconomic status (SES), and years of education (P < .01) in the same direction and to approximately the same degree. Alexithymia (or low emotional awareness) is associated with older age, male sex, lower SES, and fewer years of education. The TAS-20 and LEAS are only slightly correlated (r = −.19, n = 380, P < .001), but their correlation is largely accounted for by their shared variance with these demographic variables. The convergence of findings with these two quite different measures and the nature of their overlap support the validity of these associations between alexithymia and sociodemographic variables.

Even initial unit test performance of PSI students is superior to that of students in a traditional course, under controlled conditions.

Journal of Clinical PsychologyVolume 25, Issue 1 p. 42-44 Studies of Psychopathology Psychological correlates of smoking Ronald E. Walker, Ronald E. Walker Loyola University, ChicagoSearch for more papers by this authorRobert C. Nicolay, Robert C. Nicolay Loyola University, ChicagoSearch for more papers by this authorRita Kluczny, Rita Kluczny Loyola University, ChicagoSearch for more papers by this authorRobert G. Riedel, Robert G. Riedel Barat CollegeSearch for more papers by this author Ronald E. Walker, Ronald E. Walker Loyola University, ChicagoSearch for more papers by this authorRobert C. Nicolay, Robert C. Nicolay Loyola University, ChicagoSearch for more papers by this authorRita Kluczny, Rita Kluczny Loyola University, ChicagoSearch for more papers by this authorRobert G. Riedel, Robert G. Riedel Barat CollegeSearch for more papers by this author First published: January 1969 https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-4679(196901)25:1<42::AID-JCLP2270250111>3.0.CO;2-5Citations: 11AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. References 1 Allport, G. W. and Allport, F. H. The A-S Reaction on Study Manual. Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin, 1939. Google Scholar 2 Allport, G. W., Vernon, P. E. and Lindzey, G. Study of Values Manual. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1960. Google Scholar 3 Cattell, R. B. and Krug, S. Personality factor profile peculiar to the student smoker. J. counsel. Psychol., 1967, 14, 116–121. 10.1037/h0024417 Web of Science®Google Scholar 4 Hathaway, S. R. and McKinley, J. C. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Manual. ( Rev. ed.) New York: Psychological Corporation, 1951. Google Scholar 5 Heath, C. W. Differences between smokers and nonsmokers. AMA Arch. intern. Med., 1958, 101, 377–388. 10.1001/archinte.1958.00260140209031 CASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar Cited by J. D. Matarazzo and G. Saslow. Psychological and related characteristics of smokers and nonsmokers. Psychol. Bull., 1960, 57, 493–513. 10.1037/h0040828 CASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar 6 Kuder, G. F. Kuder Preference Record Manual. Chicago: Science Research Associates, 1960. Web of Science®Google Scholar 7 Matarazzo, J. D. and Saslow, G. Psychological and related characteristics of smokers and nonsmokers. Psychol. Bull., 1960, 57, 493–513. 10.1037/h0040828 CASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar 8 McArthur, C., Waldron, E. and Dickinson, J. The psychology of smoking. J. abnorm. soc. Psychol., 1958, 56, 267–275. 10.1037/h0047967 CASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar 9 Mooney, R. L. and Gordon, L. V. The Mooney Problem Check Lists Manual. New York: Psychological Corporation, 1950. Google Scholar 10 Nicolay, R. C., Walker, R. E. and Riedel, R. G. Anxiety as a correlate of personal problems. Psychol. Rep., 1966, 19, 53–54. 10.2466/pr0.1966.19.1.53 CASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar 11 Raven, J. C. Standard Progressive Matrices Manual. London: H. K. Lewis, 1956. Google Scholar 12 Schubert, D. S. P. Personality implications of cigarette smoking among college students. J. consult. Psychol., 1959, 23, 376. 10.1037/h0046440 Web of Science®Google Scholar 13 Smith, W., Powell, E. K. and Ross, S. Manifest anxiety and food aversions. J. abnorm. soc. Psychol., 1955, 19, 101–104. 10.1037/h0049253 Google Scholar 14 Stewart, L. and Livson, N. Smoking and rebelliousness: A longitudinal study from childhood to maturity. J. consult. Psychol., 1966, 30, 225–229. 10.1037/h0023371 CASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar 15 Straits, B. C. and Sechrest, L. Further support of some findings about the characteristics of smokers and nonsmokers. J. consult. Psychol., 1963, 27, 282. 10.1037/h0044522 CASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar 16 Walker, R. E. and Nicolay, R. C. A reexamination of anxiety. Unpublished manuscript, Loyola University, Chicago, 1963. Google Scholar Citing Literature Volume25, Issue1January 1969Pages 42-44 ReferencesRelatedInformation