The exploring psychology blog is the place where I highlight and explore the most fascinating and compelling psychology related news and research.
Whether you are new to psychology, currently studying or thinking about studying psychology, or consider yourself an expert in the field, I very much hope that you find the material featured on the exploring psychology blog interesting.
The Psychology of Fear is the latest addition to the psychology journal article collection. An initiative by the All About Psychology website to make important, insightful and engaging publications freely available.
If you would like to read The Psychology of Fear over at the All About Psychology website, you can do so via the following link.
Whether you're looking for your soul mate or you think you've already found them, you might want to take a closer look at their photographs before you do the whole marriage thing; because according to a study that has just been published in the journal of Motivation and Emotion, smile intensity in photographs predicts divorce later in life.
Abstract
Based on social–functional accounts of emotion, we conducted two studies examining whether the degree to which people smiled in photographs predicts the likelihood of divorce. Along with other theorists, we posited that smiling behavior in photographs is potentially indicative of underlying emotional dispositions that have direct and indirect life consequences. In the first study, we examined participants’ positive expressive behavior in college yearbook photos and in Study 2 we examined a variety of participants’ photos from childhood through early adulthood. In both studies, divorce was predicted by the degree to which subjects smiled in their photos.
(Matthew J. Hertenstein et al, DePauw University).
Be Careful Though!
Before you say "I do" to Mr or Ms smiley watch the following video for some alternative Funky Motown psychology - "Don't let the smile fool ya - Take my advice I'm only try' to school ya"
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I was reading about the various events that will be taking place as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival and one in particular caught my eye. It read:
A dancer performs in total darkness. Points of light illuminate her movements. Is watching dance enough to make you feel like dancing? Take part in this live experiment investigating emotion perception and dance. No dance skills necessary, dancing shoes optional.
Given that I am officially one the worst dancers in the world I was intrigued to find out more. It turns out that this event is based on a research project by Professor Richard Wiseman and Dr Peter Lovat from the University of Hertfordshire, who are working alongside dancer Caroline Duker to investigate how dancers portray emotion. As part of the research design, participants watch a dancer perform the same routine either in full light, or in the dark with small points of light attached to the dancer's body. Participants must then attempt to work out the emotion the dancer is portraying.
In discussing their initial findings Professor Wiseman notes.
In one part of the experiment, participants saw a dancer portray one of four emotions (neutral, joy, sadness, and anger) whilst performing in full light. The results showed that people were 80% correct. The second part of the experiment involved watching videos of the same dance sequences, but this time everyone just saw six light points that were attached to the dancers shoulders, wrists and ankles.
The previous work had shown that people were about 63% accurate when shown 13 points of light. Remarkably, participants in our study were 62% accurate with just six points of light. This suggests that people can recognise emotional movement from just the smallest amount of information. We found no difference between men and woman, or different ages.
Perceptual Importance
Existing studies into the perception of emotion almost exclusively employ a static methodology i.e. still photographs of facial expressions. These fascinating results suggest that dynamic displays of emotion expressed non facially may be just as important and as such warrant further investigation.
In the Mood for Dancing will be taking place at the Edinburgh Science Festival on Thursady April 16th.
I recently made Professor Richard Wiseman the inaugural entrant into The Psychology Light Hall of Fame. The Psychology Light Hall of Fame recognises the work of those individuals who make the study and teaching of psychology accessible, fascinating and thoroughly entertaining.
Click Here to find out more about Professor Wiseman. (scroll down towards bottom of page).
The Universal Joy of Dance
I Taught This Guy All His Moves
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I've had a passionate interest in psychology for over 20 years. I began studying psychology in 1990, and I've been teaching psychology in some capacity or another since 1998.
I have a first class honors degree in psychology and a Masters in Occupational psychology from the University of Sheffield (UK). For a number of years, I was a lecturer in psychology at the University of Huddersfield (UK).
I have built four websites around my teaching and research interests.
