Twelve child confederates (six male and six female) were trained to be responsive or unresponsive to 48 female college students. Adult women attended more to responsive children and gave more help to responsive than to unresponsive girls. The adults also rated the children as more attractive, likeable, and competent when the children behaved…

Defines affect attunement as a process in which two individuals mutually create, match, and share their affective states. Examines whether adolescents perceive affect attunement in others, and whether this perception is related to gender. Results revealed that adolescents do perceive and discriminate different levels of affect attunement in others…

Studied 72 college students to determine effects of subject sex and situational factors on affective self-disclosure with acquaintances. Feeling, role, and sex of subject were contextual variables influencing expression of feelings. Responding with positive feelings is the optimal situational context for expression of feelings to acquaintances.…

This study explored the effects of the presence of another person on males' and females' experience and expression of emotion. In either the presence or absence of a confederate experimenter, 33 female and 34 male college students were asked to select a teacher and student from their high school and then to give impersonal or personal information…

Examined "sentiment-override" hypothesis that couple members' cognitive/affective reactions to their partners' behaviors are insensitive to communication quality of those behaviors, and that cognitive/affective insensitivity obstructs interventions to improve communication. In 40 couples, found that only males displayed pattern of results…

Late adolescents' (N=277) responses to what differentiated intimate from nonintimate relationships supported Erikson's (1963) view of intimacy as being characterized by openness, sharing, and trust. Minimal differences occurred between the sexes, relative to current dating/relationship status. Unlike Erikson, respondents considered physical/sexual…

Although many modern occupations require employees to express particular types of emotions while doing their jobs, little empirical evidence exists about factors related to emotional behavior on the job. This study investigated the relationship between emotional displays (smiling, greeting, thanking, eye contact) of sales clerks and variables of…

Uses a face-needs model of emotional expressiveness (factors needed to maintain a positive, public self-image) to explain and predict the degree to which an emotion will be expressed or understated. Reports that the preferential hierarchy for disclosing emotions is largely similar regardless of friendship level or gender. (MM)

Examines the influence of socialization figures (parents, friends), emotion type (anger, sadness, physical pain), age, and gender on 66 second-grade and 71 fifth-grade children's reasons for and methods of affect expression. Found that girls reported using verbal means to communicate emotion, whereas boys cited mildly aggressive methods. (MDM)

A 2 (touch-no touch) x 2 (sex of confederate) x 2 (sex of subject) between subjects design tested the affective and evaluative consequences of receiving an interpersonal touch in a Professional/Functional situation. It was found that the affective and evaluative response to touch was uniformly positive for females, who felt affectively more…

Examined the influence of maternal differential behavior and child temperament on sibling relationships. Forty pairs of four-to-nine-year-old siblings and their mothers were observed playing in sibling dyads and mother-children triads in their homes. Mothers provided temperament ratings of their children's activity, emotional intensity, and…

Examines differential preferences in use of and expectations of use of affinity-seeking strategies as a function of participant's sex. Indicates distinct differences between male and female strategies and expectations that an individual of the opposite sex would mirror their own preferences when seeking affinity. Offers two alternative…

Examined emotion regulation decisions and outcome expectations following emotionally expressive behavior in fifth, eighth, and eleventh graders as a function of goals, age, and gender. Found that participants distinguished between vignettes characterized by prosocial versus self-protective goals. Goal type influenced emotional regulation decisions…

Analyzed communication among severely disturbed adolescents, recording interactions from computer-based "conferences" and small group face-to-face sessions, to determine differences in indications of psychological state, interpersonal interest, and expressive style. Content analysis revealed that computer-mediated communication was more, and more…