Masked Emotions: Do Face Mask Patterns and Colors Affect the Recognition of Emotions?

Previous research has shown that face masks restrain the ability to perceive social information and readability of emotions. These studies mostly explored the effect of standard medical, often white masks on emotion recognition. However, in reality, many individuals prefer masks with different styles. We investigated whether the appearance of the mask (pattern-angular vs. curvy and color-black vs. white) affected the recognition of emotional states. Participants were asked to identify the emotions on faces covered by masks with different designs. The presence of masks impeded emotional recognition, dropping the accuracy and confidence and increasing reaction times. There were no main effects of angularity vs. curvature or color on emotion recognition, which suggests that mask design may not impair the recognition beyond the effect of mere mask wearing. Besides, we found relationships between individual difference variables such as mask wearing attitudes, mask design preferences, individual traits and emotional recognition. The majority of participants demonstrated positive attitudes towards mask wearing and preferred non-patterned black and white masks. Preferences for white masks were associated with better emotional recognition of masked faces. In contrast, those with negative attitudes towards masks showed lower performance in emotional recognition for masked faces, preferring patterned more than plain masks, perhaps viewing masks as a fashion item rather than a necessity. Moreover, preferences to wear patterned masks were negatively related to actual wearing masks indoors and perceived risks of COVID.

Importance of Personality Factors in Determining the Psychological Consequences of Infertility: A Systematic Review

Background and purpose The diagnosis of infertility not only involves biological but the psychosocial links have also been established. Individual difference variables, such as personality and temperament have been found playing prominent role in modifying the psychological and biological aspects of infertility. This systematic review aimed to examine evidence-based research on the role of personality traits in determining vulnerability to stress in infertility, understand the gender-based differences, and deliver suggestions for future researches. Method The search for studies relating to the variables was accomplished using various electronic databases. The search was kept limited to a time span of about 20 years, that is, from January 2000 to April 2020. Additional researches were collected from library source and others were retrieved by contacting experts. Studies were selected on the basis of a predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria, and quality of the studies was also taken into account. Results The search of studies through above methods was fruitful in identifying 23 studies including six longitudinal and prospective studies, and 17 cross-sectional studies covering both individual- and model-based personality attributes related findings. The overall quality ratings of the studies ranged from fair to good. Conclusion The review revealed that personality factors such as neuroticism, harm avoidance, and psychoticism are the potential risk factors, whereas optimism has a protective impact in the context of fertility disorders. The long-term impact of personality on infertility needs further exploration. Trait modification interventions during the treatment of infertility were also suggested in the light of previous findings.

Identifying Emergent Leaders in Small Groups in the Language Learning Classroom: An Exploratory Study

Researchers claim that when students work together in small groups in the language classroom, a single student often emerges as a group leader and that teachers should construct groups based on roles adopted by students. This advice is based on the assumptions that leaders emerge and that teachers can identify leaders in their own classrooms. This paper reports on research that empirically tested these assumptions. Students working in small, fixed groups rated their group members based on perceived leadership. The teacher was responsible for identifying the leader in each group. Individual difference variables of English proficiency, extroversion, and English-speaking self-efficacy (SE) were used to predict emergent leadership. In most groups clear leaders emerged, but the teacher accurately identified the leader in only half of the cases. The findings suggest that teachers should regularly vary group membership and be cautious when assigning roles within groups. 語学の授業において、学生が少人数のグループで活動していると、リーダーが一人現れることがしばしばある、ということが研究者により指摘されている。そして教師は学生それぞれの役割に基づいてグループを作るべきであるという提案がなされている。これは、授業において現れるリーダーを教師は特定できるという想定に基づいている。本稿では、これらの想定を実践的に検証した研究について述べる。固定メンバーの小グループで活動を行う学生たちが、自分の考えるリーダーシップに基づいて自分のグループのメンバーを評価した。また、教師も各グループのリーダーを特定した。グループ内で現れるリーダーを予測するために、英語能力、外向性、英語スピーキングの自己効力感、という個人差が使用された。ほとんどのグループで明確なリーダーが現れたが、教師がそのリーダーを正確に特定できたのは、クラス全体の半分にすぎなかった。検証の結果、グループメンバーを定期的に入れ替えるべきである事と、グループ内で役割を決めるときには十分に注意が必要だと言うことが分かった。 Keywords: emergent leaders; group work; pedagogy; TBLT

Temperament, sleep quality, and insomnia severity in university students: Examining the mediating and moderating role of sleep hygiene

University students commonly experience sleep problems which have implications for daily functioning and academic achievement. For this reason, research is needed to identify modifiable individual difference variables that may contribute to better sleep in this population. Temperament and sleep hygiene may be two such factors. As part of a larger study, 167 university students (61.7% female) completed online questionnaires that inquired about temperament (the Adult Temperament Questionnaire; ATQ), sleep hygiene behavior (the Sleep Hygiene Index; SHI), global sleep quality (the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; PSQI), and insomnia severity (the Insomnia Severity Index; ISI). Correlations amongst the included measures were in the predicted direction: effortful control was negatively associated with the SHI composite, PSQI global scores, and ISI scores; extraversion was negatively related to PSQI global scores; and negative affect was positively associated with the SHI composite and ISI scores. In addition, the SHI composite mediated the association between effortful control and the PSQI global scores as well as the association between negative affect and PSQI global scores; similar patterns of mediation were found when considering ISI scores, although the direct effects differed. That is, negative affect was directly associated with ISI scores but not PSQI global scores. These findings suggest that interventions designed enhance effortful control, reduce negative affect, and improve sleep hygiene may contribute to better global sleep quality and decrease insomnia in university students.

A Neurocomputational Theory of Nightmares: The role of formal properties of nightmare images

Study Objectives To test and extend Levin & Nielsen’s (2007) Affective Network Dysfunction (AND) model with nightmare disorder (ND) image characteristics, and then to implement the extension as a computational simulation, the Disturbed Dreaming Model (DDM). Methods We used AnyLogic V7.2 to computationally implement an extended AND model incorporating quantitative effects of image characteristics including valence, dominance, and arousal. We explored the DDM parameter space by varying parameters, running approximately one million runs, each for one month of model time, varying pathway bifurcation thresholds, image characteristics, and individual-difference variables to quantitively evaluate their combinatory effects on nightmare symptomology. Results The DDM shows that the AND model extended with pathway bifurcations and image properties is computationally coherent. Varying levels of image properties we found that when nightmare images exhibit lower dominance and arousal levels, the ND agent will choose to sleep but then has a traumatic nightmare, whereas, when images exhibit greater than average dominance and arousal levels, the nightmares trigger sleep-avoidant behavior, but lower overall nightmare distress at the price of exacerbating nightmare effects during waking hours. Conclusions Computational simulation of nightmare symptomology within the AND framework suggests that nightmare image properties significantly influence nightmare symptomology. Computational models for sleep and dream studies are powerful tools for testing quantitative effects of variables affecting nightmare symptomology and confirms the value of extending the Levin & Nielsen AND model of disturbed dreaming/ND.

Sexual Satisfaction in LGB Relationships

Sexual satisfaction plays an important role in the mental, physical, emotional, and relational lives of all individuals of all sexual orientations. However, the study of sexual satisfaction among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals has been hampered by a number of conceptual and methodological shortcomings. Research on sexual satisfaction has largely been conducted among individuals in mixed-gender relationships, thereby developing and utilizing measures that are heteronormative, penis–vagina focused, and centered on monogamy. Although conceptualizations and operationalizations of sexual satisfaction in the lives of LGB individuals have been imperfect, some key findings related to this construct can be drawn from the literature. Sexual satisfaction is directly related to relationship satisfaction and quality of communication, and inversely related to homonegativity. It varies by relationship arrangements, commitment levels, living arrangements, individual difference variables (such as age, socioeconomic status, and religious affiliation), and sexual orientation. Research on sexual satisfaction can continue to grow by searching for core elements of sexual satisfaction that might be stable across all orientations, incorporating insights from both quantitative and qualitative methods, and being mindful of traditionally excluded populations, such as individuals who are lesbian, gay, or bisexual.

Contracting COVID-19: A Longitudinal Investigation of the Impact of Beliefs and Knowledge

Recent work has found that an individual’s beliefs and personal characteristics can impact perceptions of and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Certain individuals—such as those who are politically conservative, endorse conspiracy theories, or who believe the threat of COVID-19 to be exaggerated—are less likely to engage in such preventative behaviors as social distancing. The current research aims to address whether these individual difference variables not only affect people’s subjective and behavioral reactions to the pandemic, but also whether they actually impact individuals’ likelihood of contracting COVID-19. In the early months of the pandemic, U.S. participants responded to a variety of individual difference measures as well as questions specific to COVID-19 and the pandemic itself. Four months later, 2,120 of these participants responded with whether they had contracted COVID-19. Nearly all of our included individual difference measures significantly predicted whether a person reported believing they had contracted COVID-19 as well as whether they had actually tested positive for the virus in this four-month period. Additional analyses revealed that all of these relationships were primarily mediated by whether participants held accurate knowledge about COVID-19. These findings offer useful insights for developing more effective interventions aimed at slowing the spread of both COVID-19 and future diseases. Moreover, some findings offer critical tests of the validity of such theoretical frameworks as those concerning conspiratorial ideation and disgust sensitivity within a real-world context.