Negative Emotional Expressions Research Articles

Guiding student learning in video lectures: Effects of instructors’ emotional expressions and visual cues

In video lectures, instructors often use spontaneous emotional expressions (facial expressions, tone of voice) and visual cues (underlining, circling) to guide students’ attention toward key instructional information. While previous research has confirmed the benefits of visual cues in guiding attention and processing specific information, there’s a notable gap in understanding the role of emotional expression in this context. Moreover, there is a lack of comprehensive exploration regarding the specific design of both behaviors (whether they emphasize the same instructional information) and their effect on students. This study conducted two experiments. Experiment 1 first confirmed the guiding effect of an instructor’s emotional expression on students, establishing the foundation for our research. Additionally, Experiment 1 explored the impact of the consistency/inconsistency of facial expressions and tone of voice, including student motivation, cognitive load, and learning performance. Results revealed the benefits of consistent positive emotional expressions on motivation and transfer performance, and the benefits of consistent negative emotional expressions on retention performance. Furthermore, we found that tone of voice was a key factor in guiding students, while facial expressions were associated with students’ immediate memory. Building upon Experiment 1, Experiment 2 introduced visual cues to investigate the combined impact of these two guiding behaviors on students. Results regarding emotional expressions were replicated, confirming the positive effects of both. Moreover, we found that the irrelevance of visual cues weakened the guiding influence of emotional expression on students, leading to the loss of relevant information. Therefore, we suggest encouraging instructors to convey positive emotions to enhance the learning experience while emphasizing key information through negative emotional expressions accompanied by visual cues. Additionally, minimizing or concealing visual cues whenever possible is advisable when delivering content beyond visual representations.

Family Emotional Expressiveness and Adolescents' Cyberbullying Bystanders: The Mediating Role of Empathy.

The significant influence of family emotional expressiveness (FEE) on adolescents' face-to-face social interactions is well-established. However, there has been limited investigation into potential links between FEE and adolescents' online social behaviors, especially cyberbullying bystander behaviors, which are pivotal in cyberbullying incidents. This study aimed to assess the relative importance of different aspects of FEE (positive FEE vs. negative FEE vs. the Positive-to-Negative ratio) in predicting adolescents' cyberbullying bystander behaviors, and the mediating roles of affective and cognitive empathy in these relationships. A sample of 1,952 adolescents (Mage = 14.18, SD = 1.33) completed questionnaires, including the Family Emotional Expressiveness Questionnaire, Basic Empathy Scale, and Cyberbullying Bystander Behavior Scale. SPSS 26.0 and Mplus 8.3 were used for analysis. (1) Positive FEE exhibited a positive association with protective behavior and a negative association with indifferent behavior. Conversely, negative FEE showed positive associations with reinforcing and indifferent behaviors. However, the Positive-to-Negative ratio did not exhibit significant associations with any of the three bystander behaviors. (2) Negative FEE emerged as relatively more significant than both positive FEE and the Positive-to-Negative ratio in predicting reinforcing and indifferent behaviors. (3) Affective empathy mediated the relationship between positive FEE and reinforcing behavior, while cognitive empathy mediated the relationship between positive FEE and protective and indifferent behaviors. Moreover, cognitive empathy exerted a more influential role than affective empathy in this mediation process. Various aspects of FEE demonstrated distinct relationships with three cyberbullying bystander behaviors, with affective and cognitive empathy playing an important mediating role in the association. This finding holds substantial implications for the development of cyberbullying prevention strategies. Such strategies could target the reduction of negative emotional expression within adolescent families and the cultivation of both cognitive and affective empathy.

Examining emotional belief expressions of advocacy coalitions in Arkansas' gender identity politics

AbstractMany theories and approaches to policy studies have recently begun to question and research how emotions interact with peoples' understanding and behaviors, especially in policy and politics. This paper builds on and contributes to studying emotions in policy and politics via the advocacy coalition framework (ACF). In applying Emotional‐Belief Analysis, this paper examines the legislative testimony on one of the US' first gender‐affirming care (GAC) bans. It shows that those testifying can be organized in competing advocacy coalitions with distinct emotion‐belief expressions in combination with deep core and policy core beliefs. Moreover, expressions of negative emotions and policy core beliefs display significant and the largest effects in explaining coalition affiliation and shared views of the bill banning GAC. The conclusion summarizes the paper's empirical themes with suggestions for incorporating emotions more into the ACF and the broader policy studies field.

Botulinum Toxin Injections for Psychiatric Disorders: A Systematic Review of the Clinical Trial Landscape.

Botulinum toxin type A (BONT-A) has shown promise in improving the mood-related symptoms of psychiatric disorders by targeting muscles linked to the expression of negative emotions. We conducted a systematic review of past and ongoing efficacy trials of BONT-A therapy for psychiatric disorders to identify relevant trends in the field and discuss the refinement of therapeutic techniques. A comprehensive search for published clinical trials using BONT-A injections for psychiatric disorders was performed on 4 May 2023 through OVID databases (MEDLINE, Embase, APA PsycINFO). Unpublished clinical trials were searched through the ClinicalTrials.gov and International Clinical Trial Registry Platform public registries. The risk of bias was assessed using the JBI Critical Appraisal tools for use in systematic reviews. We identified 21 studies (17 published, 4 unpublished clinical trials) involving 471 patients. The studies focused on evaluating the efficacy of BONT-A for major depressive, borderline personality, social anxiety, and bipolar disorders. BONT-A was most commonly injected into the glabellar area, with an average dose ranging between 37.75 U and 44.5 U in published studies and between 32.7 U and 41.3 U in unpublished trials. The results indicated significant symptom reductions across all the studied psychiatric conditions, with mild adverse effects. Thus, BONT-A appears to be safe and well-tolerated for psychiatric disorders of negative affectivity. However, despite the clinical focus, there was a noted shortage of biomarker-related assessments. Future studies should focus on pursuing mechanistic explorations of BONT-A effects at the neurobiological level.

Determinants of social loneliness among older adults in job retirement and the role of emotional expressivity

Objectives The study examined the possibility that a mediating role of positive and negative emotional expressivity may contribute to understanding the associations between social loneliness and its previously identified predictors (i.e. health, age, sex, and social living situation). Method Self-reported assessments were collected from community-dwelling Swedish residents (aged 65 and above) in job retirement. Structural equation modeling with manifest variables was applied to cross-sectional data (N = 601) to analyze two competing models; one main-effect regression model, examining the predictive effect of emotional expressivity (along with health and sociodemographics) on social loneliness, and one mediation model, examining the mediating effect of emotional expressivity (using the bootstrapping technique provided in Mplus). Results The results indicated that the mediation model fit the data considerably better than the main-effect regression model (Δχ2 [Δdf = 8] = 72.69, p < 0.00001), and demonstrated a good fit on its own, with CFI = 0.986 and RMSEA = 0.030. This suggests that emotional expressivity contributes to the understanding of the connection between social loneliness and its previously identified predictors. Conclusion Recognizing the significance of emotional expressivity has the potential to enhance our understanding of loneliness in older adults, both in theory and in practice.

Finding common features in multilingual fake news: a quantitative clustering approach

Abstract Since the Internet is a breeding ground for unconfirmed fake news, its automatic detection and clustering studies have become crucial. Most current studies focus on English texts, and the common features of multilingual fake news are not sufficiently studied. Therefore, this article uses English, Russian, and Chinese as examples and focuses on identifying the common quantitative features of fake news in different languages at the word, sentence, readability, and sentiment levels. These features are then utilized in principal component analysis, K-means clustering, hierarchical clustering, and two-step clustering experiments, which achieved satisfactory results. The common features we proposed play a greater role in achieving automatic cross-lingual clustering than the features proposed in previous studies. Simultaneously, we discovered a trend toward linguistic simplification and economy in fake news. Furthermore, fake news is easier to understand and uses negative emotional expressions in ways that real news does not. Our research provides new reference features for fake news detection tasks and facilitates research into their linguistic characteristics.

Interaction dynamics of social support expressions predict future support-seeking behaviors in online support groups

Maintaining the sustainability of online support groups (OSGs) presents a significant challenge. Integrating the literature on interaction dynamics and supportive communication, this study investigated how interaction dynamics in supportive communication foster long-term support-seeking behaviors that are crucial to sustaining continuous support exchanges in OSGs. Using a large-scale dataset of 48,868 posts and 468,243 comments over ten years from an OSG, this study examined how reciprocity and compensation of emotional and informational support, signaled by emotional expressions and analytical expressions, predicted a poster's future support-seeking behaviors in the OSG. Results showed that a poster's future support-seeking behaviors were positively associated with receiving (a) reciprocity of analytical expressions and (b) compensation of negative emotional expressions with positive emotional expressions in their past posts. However, reciprocity of negative emotional expressions was negatively associated with a poster's future support-seeking behaviors. This study emphasizes social support as an ongoing interactive process and its importance in motivating support-seeking behaviors and fostering a thriving OSG.

The Relationship between Emotional Recognition and Psychopathic Trait

The ability to recognize and understand emotions plays a fundamental role in human social interaction and is essential for effective communication and interpersonal relationships. Psychopathy, a personality disorder characterized by persistent antisocial behavior and impaired empathy, holds significant relevance in understanding criminal behavior, societal impact, and the implications of psychopathic traits on social functioning. In the intricate interplay between psychopathic traits and emotion recognition, prior research has highlighted the profound role of emotional processing in an individual's social functioning and development, alongside the considerable impact of psychopathic traits on these facets of life. To develop further into this complex relationship, this paper synthesizes existing research findings while elucidating current research gaps. These studies collectively revealed the diminished accuracy and efficiency in the emotional processing capabilities of high psychopathic individuals, as well as the emergence of atypical automatic emotional responses and subjective selection of emotional information in their interactions with emotional stimuli. Additionally, this review emphasizes the critical role played by primary psychopathic traits in shaping abnormal attention patterns, particularly the tendency of highly psychopathic individuals to divert their attention away from crucial emotion-carrying cues, such as the eyes of facial stimuli, especially when confronted with negative emotional expressions. The present review also recognizes certain limitations, mainly arising from sample size, self-report assessments, and the lack of comparison between clinical and nonclinical populations with high psychopathic traits. To address these constraints and further enrich people’s comprehension, future research should focus on conducting longitudinal studies within high-risk populations.

The role of maternal emotional expressivity in maternal marital satisfaction and adolescents' depressive symptoms among Chinese families: Moderated by family socioeconomic status

The present study aims to investigate the complex interplay among three family factors: maternal marital satisfaction, maternal emotional expressivity, and family socioeconomic status, and their impact on adolescent depression in Chinese families. A total of 542 Chinese adolescents and their mothers from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds completed the survey. The data revealed that higher maternal marital satisfaction correlated with more positive emotional expressivity and less negative emotional expressivity. Both types of maternal emotional expressivity were associated with depressive symptoms in adolescents. Moreover, both maternal positive and negative emotional expressivity mediated the relationship between maternal marital satisfaction and adolescents’ depressive symptoms. Notably, the mediating role of maternal negative expressivity was only evident when the family’s socioeconomic status was moderate to high. These findings underscore the important role played by maternal emotional expressivity and family socioeconomic status in the dyadic processes between the marital relationship of mothers and the emotional well-being of adolescents in Chinese families. The present study also indicates potential targets for parenting interventions aimed at promoting the mental health of adolescents.

양육스트레스를 겪는 어머니의 부정적 정서 감소를 위한 통합적 접근 상담에 관한 사례연구

Objectives This study was conducted to examine a case of using an integrated counseling theory to reduce the negative emotions of mothers experiencing parenting stress.&#x0D; Methods One participant experiencing parenting stress underwent nine counseling sessions over two months and one follow-up session six months later. The counseling was conducted using person-centered and cognitive-behavioral counseling techniques. The counselor maintained a person-centered and cognitive-behavioral attitude, utilized coaching and advice in the areas related to parenting methods.&#x0D; Results The participant reported difficulties with emotional regulation when her child behaved differently from what she considered as common sense, as well as difficulties in raising two children alone due to her husband's busy work schedule. Positive changes were observed regarding these issues after the counseling sessions. Upon examining the changes in pre- and post-counseling assessments on the reduction of parenting stress, it was found that the scores of the parenting stress inventory significantly decreased from previously elevated levels to within the normal range. Positive changes were also observed in the expression of negative emotions and the presence of irrational thoughts, as assessed through sentence completion tests.&#x0D; Conclusions The participant reported that there was no aggression towards her children even after the end of the counseling period until the follow-up session, indicating a significant positive change. Additionally, she reported trying new things for herself, which suggests that the intervention had a positive impact on her life beyond just reducing negative emotions related to parenting stress.&#x0D;

Expression and co-regulation of negative emotion in 18-month-olds at increased likelihood for autism with diverse developmental outcomes.

Managing negative emotion can be challenging for autistic individuals and their families from a young age. Parents help young children manage negative emotions by responding in comforting or supportive ways. Not much research has examined how negative emotions and parent responses to negative emotions are different in very young autistic children. This study used videotapes of 18-month-old toddlers and parents at home. We examined how much and how intensely toddlers expressed negative emotion in everyday situations, and how parents responded. Participants were younger siblings of autistic children, and we compared three groups-children that (1) later received an autism diagnosis; (2) had language delays but not autism; and (3) had no delays or autism. We found that autistic toddlers' negative emotion was more likely to be intense and to continue once it started compared with children without delays or autism. Language-delayed toddlers also showed some, but not all these differences. Parents responded similarly to negative emotions in all groups. When parents used strategies to help, it reduced the chances of the negative emotions continuing, although it may have been less helpful for autistic toddlers. This study shows that autistic children may express more intense and long-lasting negative emotions from an early age. It also shows that parents of autistic children are very responsive to their children's negative emotions, but these responses may not be as helpful to autistic children. While more research is needed, this study helps us understand how autistic toddlers may express and experience emotions differently.

Dear Leader!: A Look at (In)directness in Online Complaints in China

The rise of e-government services has led to an increase in citizens interacting with the government online. However, not much about the nature of citizen complaints on such administrative platforms is known. The few previous studies have shown that due to politeness considerations, Chinese communication is often indirect in power-asymmetrical settings. This study examines citizen complaint posts on an online e-service platform in China, exploring the linguistic directness and politeness of those posts. Using a qualitative method, 300 citizen complaint posts were analyzed, with the findings revealing that: a) traditional markers of politeness were not extensively used in the opening and closing of complaint posts despite their inherently face-threatening nature; b) citizens communicated directly with the government, expressing a high level of directness in complaint posts; c) despite finding (b), complaint components were not in general perceived as impolite. The paper argues that Chinese communication is not always indirect, particularly in online situations where there is a power imbalance. In such cases, citizens sporadically use traditional politeness markers such as politeness strategies, specific types of speech act components, and avoidance of expressions of negative emotions. Interestingly, the study found that citizens focused more on avoiding Component B (i.e. dissatisfaction/disapproval) in complaints and formalizing complaint components, rather than relying on traditional politeness strategies to express politeness. In this online administrative context, direct citizen-to-government (C2G) communication is transaction-oriented and instrumental in nature. This paper provides some insight into Chinese pragmatics and practical guidelines for citizens to make successful and efficient complaints in an online administrative context.

Etch the Emotional Life: Mother-Child Emotion Socialization from Age 3 to 6 Years.

Emotion socialization is conceptualized as a relational process, yet children's role in socializing parents' emotions is rarely considered. This study explored longitudinal patterns of mother-child emotion socialization from early to middle childhood. Participants were 349 children (51% boys, 49% girls) and their mothers from the southeastern United States. Children were 79.4% White, 12% Black or African American, and 8.3% multi-racial or other; 6.3% were Hispanic/Latino. Mother-child dyads completed an etch-a-sketch task when children were 3, 4, and 6 years old. At each time, mothers' and children's expression, coaching, and dismissing of positive and negative emotions were observed. Hierarchical Linear Modeling analyses identified developmental trajectories and within-dyad associations of emotion coaching and dismissing with emotion expression. Over time, expression of positive emotions decreased and expression of negative emotions showed no change for both mothers and children. Mothers decreased in coaching children's positive emotions and showed no change in coaching children's negative emotions. Children increased in coaching mothers' positive emotions and showed no change in coaching mothers' negative emotions over time. Both mothers and children decreased in dismissing emotions over time. Within dyads, mothers' increases in coaching and in dismissing related to children's increased expression. Children's increases in coaching related to mothers' increased expression. Findings highlight complexity and dynamics of emotion socialization processes over time.

Does Age Buffer or Exacerbate the Impact of Sadness and Anger on Romantic Relationships?

Expressions of sadness and anger during a romantic relationship conflict can have distinct impacts on partners’ feelings of closeness and perceptions of conflict resolution. For example, previous research with younger couples suggests that expressions of sadness can help partners feel closer to one another, while expressions of anger tend to harm closeness and short-term conflict resolution. However, research has not considered whether older couples differ in their responses to sadness and anger expression during conflict, despite different theories of aging which suggest that older adults may be better or worse at regulating negative emotion in their relationships than younger adults. The current study (N = 280 dating and married couples, 30-88 years old) tested whether age buffers or exacerbates the effects of observed emotional expression (sadness or anger) on partners’ perceptions of closeness and conflict resolution. Contrary to the pre-registered hypotheses derived from theories of aging and emotion, no significant age differences in partners’ responses to sadness or anger expressions emerged. Expressions of sadness were also not significantly related to perceptions of closeness or conflict resolution. However, consistent with previous research, expressions of anger negatively related to both partners’ perceptions of closeness and conflict resolution. The present findings extend previous research by testing whether expressions of sadness and anger have distinct impacts at multiple stages of the lifespan. Additionally, the non-significant age differences contribute to a growing literature which identifies contexts where age differences in responses to negative emotional expression may be less likely to emerge.

Maternal autistic traits and anxiety in children with typical development in Chinese families: a moderated mediation model of mothers' negative emotional expressions and child gender.

Prior studies have focused on the effects of maternal autistic traits on children with autism, but little attention has been paid to the effects of maternal autistic traits on typically developing children, while the mechanisms of the effects are not clear. Given that, a moderated mediation model was conducted to examine the association between maternal autistic traits and typically developing children's anxiety and the underlying mechanisms. Participants were 648 mother-child dyads in which these children had no autistic siblings. Mothers reported their autistic traits and negative emotional expressions in the family and children's anxiety. The results indicated that children's anxiety was predicted by maternal autistic traits. Mediating analysis revealed that mothers' negative emotional expressions partially mediated the association between their autistic traits and children's anxiety. The findings also indicated that child gender moderated the relationship between maternal emotional expressions and children's anxiety. Specifically, anxiety in girls was more strongly predicted by negative emotional expressions from their mothers than in boys. These results have important theoretical and practical implications for reducing the adverse effect of maternal autistic traits on children's anxiety, especially for girls. The present study also reveals that maternal negative emotional expression is an important mechanism. Causal conclusions cannot be drawn based on cross-sectional research design, so it is necessary to conduct longitudinal studies in the future.

Supportive Teacher Responses to Students’ Emotional Expression Moderate the Association Between Children’s Maladaptive Emotion Regulation and Aggression

As the core adult figures in the classroom, teachers guide children’s emotion socialization. We examined if teachers’ supportive and unsupportive responses to children’s emotions moderate the link between children’s maladaptive emotion regulation strategy use and aggression. Three hundred and ninety-eight 4th and 5th grade students (49% girls) and 22 classroom teachers participated in the study. Student report was used to assess maladaptive emotion regulation strategy use and perceptions about teacher’s supportive and unsupportive responses to student expression of intense or negative emotions. Teachers rated students’ aggression. We found that supportive teacher responses to student emotional expression moderated the positive association between student maladaptive emotion regulation strategy use and aggression. When students perceived high levels of supportive teacher responses to their emotional expression (i.e., 1 standard deviation above the mean), there appeared to be no association between maladaptive strategy use and aggression. Our findings indicate that supportive teacher responses to student emotional expression might play a protective role against aggression, especially for children who display ineffective emotion regulation skills. We discuss implications for teacher practices of supporting and responding to students’ emotion regulation, school psychologists’ teacher support through direct and indirect services, and school-wide discipline practices and classroom management. Impact Statement We found that supportive teacher responses to student emotional expression moderated the positive association between student maladaptive emotion regulation strategy use and aggression. Supportive teacher responses to student emotional expression might play a protective role against aggression, especially for children who display ineffective emotion regulation skills. Promoting children’s social and emotional development should involve plans to provide systematic support for teachers to develop knowledge of how to scaffold development of their students’ healthy emotion regulation.

Teachers’ Beliefs : Kompetensi Emosional dan Sosialisasi Emosi pada Anak Usia Dini

Teachers' beliefs about emotions can provide an overview of how teachers support the development of emotional competence in early childhood positively. This study aimed to investigate preschool teachers’ beliefs about emotional competence and emotion socialization. A sample of 194 preschool teachers from 22 Kindergartens completed the Teachers' Emotion Beliefs Scale (TEBS) and open questionnaires. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques and thematic analysis. The research results showed that 67% of teachers had developmentally appropriate beliefs, while 33% of teachers had beliefs that were not appropriate to children's emotional development. The developmentally appropriate belief explains the importance of the teacher's role in facilitating children's emotional competence. On the other hand, unappropriateness is explained by teachers' beliefs regarding children's expressions of negative emotions (such as sadness and anger), which according to teachers, young children do not need to express these emotions. Furthermore, the results of the open-ended questionnaire showed several teacher limitations regarding conceptual understanding of children's emotional competence, as well as in using appropriate strategies for emotional socialization (especially in helping children manage negative emotions). The way teachers socialize emotions is based on their beliefs regarding children's emotional competence.

Acceptability Study of Emotional Expressions of In-Vehicle Virtual Assistant

Abstract We analyzed the differences in drivers’ preferences for emotional expressions from an in-vehicle virtual assistant based on data collected from 823 respondents in five countries categorized into three different cultural settings: collectivism (Korea, China and Brazil), individualism (USA) and a mixture of both (Russia). To quantify the degree of acceptance, we used a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree) on four emotion types categorized based on Thayer’s two-dimensional emotion model. Analysis revealed that respondents in all five countries preferred emotion type 1 (pleased, happy, excited) and emotion type 4 (calm, peaceful, relaxed), that is, positive emotions under Thayer’s two-dimensional emotion model expressions, and they showed low acceptance for emotion type 2 (nervous, angry, annoying) and emotion type 3 (sad, bored, sleepy), negative emotional expressions. In a cross-cultural comparative analysis, Brazil and China ranked highest in both positive emotion types (1 and 4), and Korea ranked highest in negative emotion types.

The effect of negative emotion processing on spatial navigation: an experimental study using virtual reality.

Finding one's way in unfamiliar environments is an essential ability. When navigating, people are overwhelmed with an enormous amount of information. However, some information might be more relevant than others. Despite the mounting knowledge about the mechanisms underlying orientational skills, and the notable effects of facial emotions on human behavior, little is known about emotions' effects on spatial navigation. Hereby, this study aimed to explore how exposure to others' negative emotional facial expressions affects wayfinding performances. Moreover, gender differences that characterize both processes were considered. Fifty-five participants (31 females) entered twice in three realistic virtual reality environments: the first time, to encode a route to find an object and then to recall the learned path to reach the same object again. In between the two explorations of the virtual environment, participants were asked to undergo a gender categorization task during which they were exposed to sixty faces showing either neutral, fearful, or angry expressions. Results showed a significant interaction between emotions, time, and gender. In particular, the exposition to fearful faces, but not angry and neutral ones, decreased males' wayfinding performances (i.e., travel times and distance travelled), while females' performances were unaffected. Possible explanations for such gender and emotional dissimilarities are discussed.

When crying turns to hitting: Examining maternal responses to negative affect

Physical aggression in toddlerhood is empirically linked to anger and often conceptualized as a byproduct of frustration and related negative affect. Further, parenting is the major environmental construct implicated in the development of aggressive behaviors. Given parents’ role as “external regulators,” parents’ responses to their toddlers’ negative affect may serve to escalate or de-escalate their toddlers’ affective experience, thereby impacting the likelihood of subsequent aggression. In the present study, we examined whether parents’ negative affect, harsh, soothing, and distracting responses to their toddlers’ negative affect mediated the relation between toddlers’ negative affect and their aggressive behavior in brief conflict episodes. During a laboratory visit, a community sample of 69 mother-toddler dyads was observed in a structured interaction task. We found that child negative affect is associated with subsequent aggressive behavior by way of maternal harsh responses to negative affect. Negative emotional expression, soothing, and distraction neither facilitated or hindered children’s escalation from negative affect to aggression. Our findings support a dyadic intervention in which patterns of coercive parent-child interactions are targets for prevention and intervention of toddler aggression.