Previous studies show that recovering alcoholics exhibit deficits in perceiving facial affect. The present study investigates whether these deficits are present prior to the onset of alcoholism. Participants with a family history of alcoholism (FHP) and participants without such a family history (FHN) selected the emotion label they felt most closely corresponded with stimuli viewed on a computer screen. Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Survey was also completed. The data revealed a relationship between family history of alcoholism and the perception of facial expressions. Additionally, FHP participants were higher in sensation seeking compared to FHN participants and high sensation seekers were less accurate in categorizing fearful expressions. Disinhibition and boredom susceptibility were identified as the traits driving the effect between sensation seeking and fear categorization accuracy. An account of how these traits may be associated with both decreased fear perception and a greater risk for alcoholism is discussed, and future research directions suggested.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.112324 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Averill, Farah. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Psychology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002714073, proquestno: AAIMR51362, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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