Perceptions Of Positive Affect Research Articles

Variability inthe expression andperception ofpositive affect inhuman infancy.

Positive emotions play a critical role in guiding human behavior and social interactions. This study examined whether and how genetic variability in the oxytocin system is linked to individual differences in expressing positive affect in human infants. Our results show that genetic variation in CD38 (rs3796863), previously linked to increased release of oxytocin, was associated with higher rates of positive affective displays among a sample of 7-month-old infants, using established parent-report measures. Moreover, infants displaying increased levels of positive affect (smiling and laughter) also showed enhanced brain responses in the right inferior frontal cortex, a brain region previously linked to perception-action coupling, when viewing others smile at them. These findings suggest that, from early in development, genetic variation in the oxytocin system is associated with individual differences in expressed positive affect, which in turn are linked to differences in perceiving positive affect. This helps uncover the neurobiological processes accounting for variability in the expression and perception of positive affect in infancy.

Construction and validation of a short multidisciplinary research performance questionnaire (SMRPQ)

AbstractResearch is often specialized and varies in its nature between disciplines, making it difficult to assess and compare the performance of individual researchers. Specific qualitative and quantitative indicators are usually complex and do not work equally well for different research fields. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to develop an economical questionnaire that is valid across disciplines. We constructed a Short Multidisciplinary Research Performance Questionnaire (SMRPQ), with which researchers can briefly report 11 quantitative and qualitative performance aspects from four areas (research quality, facilitation, transfer/exchange, and reputation) in relation to their peer reference groups (fellow researchers with the same status and discipline). To validate this questionnaire, 557 German researchers from Physics, History, and Psychology fields (53% male, 34% post-docs, and 19% full professors) completed it, and for the purpose of convergent and discriminant validation additionally made assessments regarding specific quantitative and qualitative indicators of research performance as well as affective, cognitive, and behavioural aspects of their research activities (perceptions of positive affect, help-seeking, and procrastination). The results attested reliable measurement, endorsed the postulated structure of the newly developed instrument, and confirmed its invariance across the three disciplines. The SMRPQ and the validation measure were strongly positively correlated, and both demonstrated similar associations with affect, cognition, and behaviour at work. Therefore, it can be considered a valid and economical approach for assessing research performance of individual researchers across different disciplines, especially within nomothetic research (e.g. regarding personal antecedents of successful research).

Positive affect in the family environment protects against relapse in first-episode psychosis

To evaluate the contribution of positive affect in the family environment to relapse in first episode psychosis. 65 service users with a first episode of psychosis were recruited into the current study along with their key relatives. Relatives were interviewed and rated using the Expressed Emotion (EE) measure of warmth, whilst service users completed questionnaires about the positive and negative affects that they perceived from the family environment. Associations between these measures and relapse were examined in a one-year prospective design. Service users were less likely to relapse within 6 and 12-month follow-up periods when their relatives were rated high on EE warmth, or when they perceived more positive affect from the family. The relationships between service users' perceived positive affect and relapse were preserved after controlling for baseline symptoms, substance use and employment status. Service users' perceptions of positive affect and EE ratings of warmth appeared to be stronger predictors of relapse outcome than criticism and other EE variables. Positive family environments may protect against relapse in first episode psychosis. Psychosocial interventions should aim to foster and maintain positive affect in families during the early stages of illness. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms linking positive affect and outcomes for people recovering from psychosis.

Positivity Effects in Older Adults' Perception of Facial Emotion: The Role of Future Time Perspective

We examined age differences in the perception of emotion from facial expressions, testing the impact of future time perspective on positivity effects and emotion complexity. Perception of emotion was assessed in older (n = 111) and younger (n = 127) adults using facial expressions depicting clearly expressed and ambiguous emotions. A more open-ended judgment paradigm was used, and time perspective was experimentally manipulated. Older adults perceived more positive affect in the expressions compared with younger adults. Ambiguity of the expression modulated these age differences, as older adults perceived more positive emotion in ambiguous expressions compared with younger adults. Emotion complexity emerged only in perception of negative expressions, with older adults seeing more mixed affect in the clear expressions than younger adults. Manipulation of future time perspective eliminated age differences in perception of positive affect. Age differences in the perception of emotional expressions showed positivity effects, especially for ambiguous facial expressions. These effects were related to time perspective rather than to age per se. The understanding of the positivity effect in older adults needs to consider the proposed causal role of limited time perspective rather than assuming positivity effects in all older adults.

Is Positive Affect Associated With Survival? A Population-based Study of Elderly Persons

Study results on the association of positive affect with survival are conflicting. This disagreement potentially arises from poor control for health or negative affect and for the various age groups studied. The authors examined if positive affect predicts survival; whether this association is preserved after controlling for negative affect, socioeconomic status, lifestyle, and health; and whether this association varies with age. The study is set within the population-based Rotterdam Study (1997-2007) and included 4,411 participants aged 61 years or older, followed for on average 7.19 (standard deviation = 2.20) years. Positive affect was not consistently associated with survival across all ages. A significant interaction of positive affect with age on survival (P = 0.02) was found. Subsequent age stratification revealed that positive affect independently predicted survival in elderly persons aged <80 years (per affect score, hazard ratio = 0.96, 95% confidence interval: 0.93, 0.99) but not in those aged ≥80 years in fully adjusted models (hazard ratio = 1.00, 95% confidence interval: 0.96, 1.04). In the oldest old, the association was partly explained by differences in baseline health. In conclusion, the results suggest that there may be an association of positive affect with survival in the younger and middle old but not in the oldest old in whom perception of positive affect is more likely to be determined by health.

Superiority of the Left Hemisphere in the Recognition of Emotional Faces

Thirty-two right-handed university students (16 males and 16 females) participated in a choice reaction time study assessing the perception of hemispheric differences in positive (happiness, surprise) and negative (anger, disgust) facial affect. Subjects were exposed to slides of facial expressions in either the left or right visual field, and latency of affect identification was measured by having each subject move a lever forward or backward in a specified direction to indicate the emotion perceived. An analysis of variance with repeated measures over hand used, visual field, and affect across sex of subject revealed significant main effects for visual field, affect and sex of subject. In contrast to prior studies, the emotional faces were perceived faster in the right visual field than in the left visual field. This finding is explained in terms of the more demanding analytical task chosen in contrast to previous research which typically employed a holistic matching or recognition task. The faster perception of positive affect may be attributed to the increased salience of the facial cues present in those faces displaying happiness or surprise. Finally, the faster response of males supports existing data suggesting greater cerebral lateralization in the male brain.

Brain reward circuitry: A case for separate systems

Anatomical, lesion and pharmacological data pertaining to intracranial self-stimulation are reviewed in the context of multiple independent substrates of brain-stimulation reward. Subsystems related to chemosensitive pathways, motor control and mood are identified. Forebrain dopamine pathways are recognized to be important components of two separate subsystems of reward. Nigrostriatal DA neurons are linked to an extrapyramidal circuit with reinforcement derived from response initiation and it is conjectured that the meso-limbic DA pathway is related to the control and perception of positive affect. Other candidate systems include a trigeminal system in the hind brain that may function independently from forebrain substrates of reward.