Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to L A Sullivan.
138 preschool children created faces with manipulable facial components to represent expressed emotions. Proportions selecting appropriate components varied with emotions so the task was perhaps more cognitively demanding than Ekman and Friesen's facial recognition task.
Schematic drawings of facial expressions were evaluated as a possible assessment tool for research on emotion recognition and interpretation involving young children. A subset of Ekman and Friesen's (1976) Pictures of Facial Affect was used as the standard for comparison. Preschool children (N = 138) were shown drawing and photographs in two context conditions for six emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise). The overall correlation between accuracy for the photographs and drawings was .677. A significant difference was found for the stimulus condition (photographs vs. drawings) but not for the administration condition (label-based vs. context-based). Children were significantly more accurate in interpreting drawings than photographs and tended to be more accurate in identifying facial expressions in the label-based administration condition for both photographs and drawings than in the context-based administration condition.
The issue of consistency, without regard to accuracy, of the facial component of focus (upper/eyebrows, middle/eyes, lower/nose and mouth) when interpreting facial expressions of emotion was examined. Eighty girls (average age, 7 years) chose, from an array of schematic faces, which face best represented various emotional scenarios (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise). The findings indicate that these children were remarkably consistent in facial area of focus. Across six trials for each emotion, children focused on the mouth (lower component) for happiness, sadness, surprise, and disgust, and on the eyebrows (the upper component) for anger and fear.
The contribution of the eyebrow component (eyebrow density and eyebrow position) in interpretation of facial displays of emotions was explored. In Study 1, college students (N = 60) and children (N = 60), ages 6-9 years, listened to vignettes consisting of one or two sentences and selected the facial expression that best matched the vignette. A main effect for eyebrow density as well as interactions for Density x Age and Density x Emotion were found. Also, a main effect for eyebrow position and interactions for Position x Age, Position x Emotion, and Position x Age x Emotion were significant. Study 2 was conducted to better understand whether findings regarding eyebrow position were a function of mistaking the intended emotion portrayed in the vignettes. Using a within-subject design, responses from 60 children, age 6-9 years, were compared for trials when the emotion was designated and when emotion was not designated. A main effect for designation of emotion was not found; however, an interaction effect for Designation x Emotion was significant.
We investigated risk factors in a population-based sample of alcoholic (father) and comparison families with 3-year-old sons. Alcoholic and comparison parents did not differ in socioeconomic status (SES), education, years married, family size, or cognitive functioning. Antisocial behavior and depression were significantly greater in alcoholic parents. High risk children were more impulsive than comparison children, but there were no differences in developmental age, IQ, or behavior problems. A higher percentage of high-risk children were rated in the extreme clinical range for behavior problems than were comparison children. For alcoholic families, mothers' ratings of their children's total behavior problems, externalizing behavior problems, and internalizing behavior problems were predicted by mothers' lifetime alcohol problems, current depression, and family SES. Father variables failed to predict children's behavior problems. Maternal variables were stronger predictors of their 3-year-old sons' problem behaviors than were paternal variables.
Histopathological evaluation of infected tissue is critical in the diagnosis of hepatic candidiasis since cultures are unreliable. Percutaneous techniques are inaccurate because lesions often are small and multifocal, and open biopsy is not always well-tolerated in acutely ill patients. The authors investigated the feasibility of laparoscopically guided biopsy in patients suspected of having hepatic candidiasis. Preliminary results suggest that laparoscopically guided biopsy is highly accurate and less invasive than open biopsy.
The contribution of cognition and affect to evaluations of stereotyped group members was examined. Subjects were American male undergraduates who evaluated a male homosexual or a male heterosexual applicant to a program in elementary education or fine arts. Cognitive measures used to predict evaluations were the discrepancies between stereotype components for the social category and stereotype components for the occupation; affective measures were four dimensions of mood-affect. Results indicated that negative affect predicted evaluations of homosexuals but not heterosexuals. Homosexuals were evaluated less favorably than heterosexuals for both occupations, despite the fact that homosexuals were perceived as less discrepant from occupational members than heterosexuals.
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