Therapeutic alliance and its relationship to client nonverbal behavior, specifically facial expressions, were examined. Therapist interpretation of the client nonverbal behavior, or affect, influences the therapeutic alliance and process. Based on a sample of clients from a graduate school therapy training facility, results suggest therapist training in facial expressions, and how they relate to client emotion, improve the therapeutic alliance between therapist and client. After a micro-expression training for therapists, clients reported higher life functioning on the Outcome Rating Scale (ORS) and an improved therapeutic alliance on the Session Rating Scale (SRS). Overall, these findings support the benefit of incorporating micro-expression training into therapy instruction.

Many researchers have suggested that facial expressions are universal. However, others hold a more nuanced view: That despite universal similarities, facial expressions are culture-specific. In the current study, facial expressions of an Asian American and an Asian national were studied using scenes from two television dramas from the United States and Japan. Similarities and differences were found between the facial expressions of the two characters. The existence of similarities supports the basic universality of facial expressions, while differences were found which support the perspective that facial expressions are culture-specific. These differences were primarily in the relationships between the intensity levels of the external expressions and the internal experiences of the two people. The findings indicate that even when people share basic facial features, the ways they express their emotions differ according to the cultures in which they grew up. / Department of Speech Communication

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if relationships exist among the constructs of field dependence, simultaneous processing and sequential processing. The interrelationships among these constructs and ability and achievement were also explored. Regression and discriminant analyses, as well as t-tests were used in the statistical treatment of the data.The 56 student subjects, equally divided by sex, were randomly selected from sixth-grade classrooms in a suburban school corporation in central Indiana. The GEFT and the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) were administered. Results from the comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) and the Test of Cognitive Skills (TCS) were obtained from school personnel.Overall, there were higher correlations among individual and among group tests than were found between the two types of tests. The GEFT, whether treated as a continuous or categorical variable, was found to correlate significantly with group-administered tests of ability and achievement. The TCS and the CTBS were also found to be significantly related. Intercorrelations among selected Global Scales of the K-ABC were significant. There were no significant zero-order correlations between the K-ABC processing scales and the TCS. There were significant correlations between the K-ABC Achievement measure and group-administered tests of both ability and achievement. While the Achievement Scale of the K-ABC had a significant positive relationship with the LEFT, results of a t-test revealed no significant difference between the performance of field dependent and field independent subjects on the Achievement Scale. A significant positive relationship was found between the GEFTand the Simultaneous Processing Scale as well as the Mental Processing Composite. However, in a regression analysis the principal component of the linear composite was the Simultaneous Scale.

This study investigated the ability of U.S. counseling psychology and Japanese clinical psychology trainees to recognize facially expressed emotions. Sixty U.S. counseling psychology students and 60 Japanese clinical psychology students viewed photographs of U.S.-Caucasian and Japanese individuals expressing seven basic emotions: anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. Participants completed a survey that assessed their ability to recognize emotions and their intensity ratings of these emotions. Two four-way mixed factors ANOVAs were performed to examine the effects of participant nationality, participant gender, poser nationality, and poser gender on emotion recognition accuracy scores and emotion intensity ratings. A significant three-way interaction effect for participant nationality, poser nationality, and poser gender on accuracy scores was discovered. Two significant interaction effects for intensity ratings involving poser nationality and participant nationality, and poser gender and participant nationality were also found. Results are discussed in light of prior research on emotion recognition and intensity ratings. Implications for counseling psychology and future research investigations are also presented. / Access to thesis permanently restricted to Ball State community only. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Attention biases to trauma-related information contribute to symptom maintenance in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); this phenomenon has been observed through various behavioral studies, although findings from studies using a precise, direct bias task, the dot probe, have been mixed. PTSD neuroimaging studies have indicated atypical function in specific brain regions involved with attention bias; when viewing emotionally-salient cues or engaging in tasks that require attention, individuals with PTSD have demonstrated altered activity in brain regions implicated in cognitive control and attention allocation, including the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and amygdala. However, remarkably few PTSD neuroimaging studies have employed tasks that both measure attentional strategies being engaged and include emotionally-salient information. In the current study of attention biases in highly traumatized African-American adults, a version of the dot probe task that includes stimuli that are both salient (threatening facial expressions) and relevant (photographs of African-American faces) was administered to 19 participants with and without PTSD during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). I hypothesized that: 1) individuals with PTSD would show a significantly greater attention bias to threatening faces than traumatized controls; 2) PTSD symptoms would be associated with a significantly greater attentional bias toward threat expressed in African-American, but not Caucasian, faces; 3) PTSD symptoms would be significantly associated with abnormal activity in the mPFC, dlPFC, and amygdala during presentation of threatening faces. Behavioral data did not provide evidence of attentional biases associated with PTSD. However, increased activation in the dlPFC and regions of the mPFC in response to threat cues was found in individuals with PTSD, relative to traumatized controls without PTSD; this may reflect hyper-engaged cognitive control, attention, and conflict monitoring resources in these individuals. Additionally, viewing threat in same-race, both not other-race, faces was associated with increased activation in the mPFC. These findings have important theoretical and treatment implications, suggesting that PTSD, particularly in those individuals who have experienced chronic or multiple types of trauma, may be characterized less by top-down “deficits” or failures, but by imbalanced neurobiological and cognitive systems that become over-engaged in order to “control” the emotional disruption caused by trauma-related triggers.

臨床上我們觀察到：自閉症患者在社會互動上有明顯障礙。因此，我們企圖在這個大問題下，以社會互動中最主要的訊息來源—臉部表情為出發點，探討自閉症者所知覺的世界中，他們如何處理臉部表情所展現的情緒訊息及社會意義。 根據文獻回顧，我們知道：臉孔辨識歷程與一般物體辨識歷程不盡相同而有其特性。相較於一般物體，臉孔辨識更需依賴對輪廓構型訊息的有效掌握。因此，本研究企圖回答以下問題：「自閉症患者在辨識他人臉部表情上是否有所缺陷」？如果是的話，（1）「自閉症患者在辨識他人臉部表情上的缺陷係因臉孔辨識的機制上有所缺陷嗎」？還是（2）「自閉症患者在辨識他人臉部表情上的缺陷是因從他人臉部表情讀取情緒訊息上有所困難」？本研究試圖以人臉辨識與表情辨識的差異性，並改良過去研究在方法學上的爭議以回答這兩個問題。 實驗一「人臉辨識」作業以立即比對作業與延宕配對作業，檢驗自閉症組、發展遲緩組、一般兒童組及成人組其在物體與臉孔之倒立效果。研究結果顯示：除了自閉症組外，三組受試者在人臉辨識的作業表現上，都有相當穩定的臉孔倒立效果，自閉症組的臉孔倒立效果顯著地較其它三組小，而在物體辨識上與常人無異，此與「中樞連貫缺陷」假設相符應：自閉症患者在高層次知覺的困難在於他們無法從環境中將訊息加以整合，擅於以局部特徵來理解，並認為這是使他們產生較小的臉孔倒立效果之因。實驗一顯示：自閉症患者的確「在辨識他人臉部表情上有所困難」，卻「並非因其在臉孔辨識的機制上有所缺陷」。 因此，我們第二個研究問題即是：「自閉症患者在辨識他人臉部表情上的缺陷是因從他人臉部表情讀取情緒訊息上有所困難嗎」？因此，實驗二以同一組臉孔刺激材料，以人臉辨識與情緒辨識作業，以探討自閉症組、一般兒童組與發展遲緩組的作業表現。從實驗二所得到的結果也支持這樣的看法。在實驗二的「人臉辨識」作業中，要求受試者對目標人臉進行辨識時，三組受試者所受到的「臉部表情干擾效果」並無顯著差異。但在實驗二的「表情辨識」作業中，當要求受試者對目標情緒進行辨識時便發現：自閉症組在辨識臉部表情上的缺陷，極大部分是發生在辨識不同人的表情變化情境下。而之所以自閉症患者在辨識同一人的表情相同與否表現較佳，依據「中樞連貫缺陷」假設的看法則認為，自閉症患者使用他們擅長以局部特徵瞭解整體的能力克服在他們在處理作業上的困難。此外，實驗二對兩作業表現的比較結果亦支持：大腦對於辨識人臉以及辨識情緒顯示是由不同的系統進行處理。 因此從本研究的兩個實驗，我們可以清楚地回答：自閉症患者在辨識他人臉部表情上的困難確實非因臉孔辨識的機制上有所缺陷而是從他人臉部表情讀取並理解情緒訊息上有所困難，尤其是發生在辨識不同人的表情變化情境下。而之所以自閉症患者在辨識同一人的表情表現較佳，是因為自閉症患者使用其擅長以局部特徵瞭解整體的能力克服在他們在處理作業上的困難。而自閉症患者在這些作業中的種種行為表現，都可以運用「中樞連貫缺陷」假設得到不錯的解釋。

Previous research indicates that young adults (aged 18-30) tend to exhibit a negativity bias such that they enhance processing of negative emotional stimuli compared to neutral stimuli. Because of age-differences in emotion regulatory goals, older adults (aged 60+) often exhibit enhanced processing for positive rather than for negative stimuli a positivity effect. I examined age-related differences in processing emotional facial expressions using event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by task-relevant emotional (i.e., angry, sad, happy) and neutral face images and concurrent task-irrelevant central and peripheral probes. The results indicate that young and older have similarities and differences in their processing of emotional expressions. Both groups exhibit enhanced processing of all emotional facial expressions. This suggests that there is neither a negativity bias nor positivity effect in processing task-relevant emotional facial expressions. Instead, both young and older adults enhance processing of all emotional expressions compared to neutral expressions and therefore exhibit an emotional bias. Young and older adults differ in how the emotional faces affect processing of concurrent stimuli. Emotion enhanced processing of concurrent stimuli presented in other areas of the visual field only for the young adults.

Thesis (M.(Augmentative and Alternative Communication))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Summary in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: p. 239-266.

Thesis (Ph.D.). / Written for the Dept. of Neurology and Neurosurgery. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/07/24). Includes bibliographical references.