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Biomedical subjects

R A Fabes

Publications and source records attributed to R A Fabes.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1994

The relations of children's emotion regulation to their vicarious emotional responses and comforting behaviors.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relations of children's emotional and behavioral regulation (as indexed by heart rate variability and coping styles) to their emotional and prosocial responses to a crying infant. Kindergarten and second-grade children's vicarious emotional responses (e.g., facial reactions and heart rate slope) and comforting behaviors were recorded while children heard a crying infant. The mothers of these children completed a measure designed to assess their children's coping responses when exposed to others in distress. It was found that children who were able to regulate their arousal (as assessed with heart rate variance) and typically responded instrumentally when exposed to others' needy states and conditions were relatively unlikely to become distressed and relatively likely to talk to and comfort the crying infant. Compared to boys, girls were found to be more responsive to the crying infant and were reported to engage in more direct, active coping responses when exposed to others in distress. The results are discussed in relation to research on emotion regulation and coping in interpersonal contexts.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1994

The relations of emotionality and regulation to children's anger-related reactions.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of emotionality (intensity and negative emotion) and regulation (attentional control, mode of coping) to preschoolers' naturally occurring anger reactions. School personnel's ratings of 4-6-year-olds' constructive coping and attentional control were associated with boys' constructive anger reactions whereas their ratings of acting out versus avoidant coping, emotional intensity, and anger intensity generally were correlated with low levels of constructive reactions to anger. Mothers' reports of children's constructive coping and low emotional intensity were associated with children's use of nonabusive language to deal with anger, whereas aggressive coping and negative emotionality were associated with escape behavior when angered. The findings are consistent with the conclusion that individual differences in emotionality and regulatory skills are associated with children's constructive versus nonconstructive anger reactions.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1993

The relations of empathy-related emotions and maternal practices to children's comforting behavior.

Examined are the relations of maternal empathy-related characteristics, maternal child-rearing practices, and children's vicarious emotional responding to kindergarteners' and third graders' comforting of a crying infant. Children who exhibited facial personal distress in reaction to the baby cry were less likely to help than were other children. In addition, children's distressed reactions to a different sympathy stimulus (a film) were positively correlated with their distressed reaction to the baby cry; children's self-reported reactions to the sympathy-inducing film also were related to their comforting behavior. For girls, maternal perspective taking was positively related to amount and quality (tone of voice) of comforting behavior. Moreover, maternal use of problem-solving and discussion when their daughters were distressed or anxious were associated with higher levels of girls' helping whereas maternal comforting/affirming in a distressing context was negatively related to helping. The only relation of maternal variables to comforting for boys was a positive correlation between maternal reinforcement and quality of boys' comforting.

Child↗
PubMed1993

Children's coping in self- and other-relevant contexts.

The purpose of this study was to examine children's coping strategies in situations in which negative events befall the children themselves and contexts in which children observe others in negative situations. Kindergarten and second-grade children and their mothers were interviewed about the children's coping strategies in distressing self- or other-relevant contexts (e.g., when the children themselves were socially rejected or when they observed a peer being rejected). According to both child and maternal reports, children were particularly likely to use instrumental coping strategies when they observed another child's distress; they appeared to prefer distracting and avoidant actions, crying, or support from others when they themselves experienced distress. With age, there also was evidence of a decrease in the use of support-related strategies, and increases in cognitive restructuring, cognitive avoidance, and direct problem-solving. Several sex differences consistent with gender stereotypes also were noted.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1993

The relations of emotionality and regulation to preschoolers' social skills and sociometric status.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of emotionality (intensity and negative emotion) and regulation (coping and attentional regulation) to preschoolers' social skills (as rated by adults) and sociometric status. Teachers' ratings of children's constructive coping and attentional control were positively related to boys' social skills and peer status, whereas negative affect was negatively related. Acting out (vs. avoidant) coping and emotional intensity were negatively related to girls' and boys' social skills and boys' peer status. In addition, mothers' reports of boys' coping by seeking social support and low emotional intensity were associated with boys' positive social functioning, whereas avoidant coping was positively related to girls' rated social skills. The results are discussed in relation to research on emotion regulation and coping with emotion in interpersonal contexts.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1992

Emotional responsivity to others: behavioral correlates and socialization antecedents.

We have proposed that how children deal with emotional arousal in social situations affects the quality of their social interactions. More specifically, we have argued that children who can regulate negative emotions so that they are not overly aroused interact in more adaptive ways. Based on these assumptions, we have started to examine the relations of parental characteristics and practices to children's emotional responding and social behavior. Initial research findings provide partial support for the conclusion that parental encouragement of children's expression of their own sadness, distress, and sympathy, as well as parental practices that teach children ways to deal with negative emotion-eliciting situations and their own negative emotions, are associated with sympathetic emotional responding and with adaptive social behavior. These findings suggest that further examination of the ways in which children learn to manage their emotions in social interactions will serve to augment our understanding of the socialization of social competence.

Child↗
PubMed1992

Young children's coping with interpersonal anger.

Although interest in children's stress and coping has increased, little attention has been paid to children's interpersonal coping. During free-play periods, we observed and recorded the causes of preschoolers' (M age = 55.43 months) anger and how they reacted to these provocations (n = 69). Measures of social competence and popularity also were obtained. Preschoolers' coping with interpersonal anger varied in meaningful ways in different contexts and varied for boys and girls. For example, boys tended to vent more than girls, whereas girls tended to actively assert themselves more than boys. Moreover, the findings supported the conclusion that socially competent and popular children coped with anger in ways that were relatively direct and active and in ways that minimized further conflict and damage to social relationships. Results were discussed in light of current research on children's abilities to regulate emotions and social interactions and how these may be related to children's anger-related coping responses.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1992

The relations of maternal practices and characteristics to children's vicarious emotional responsiveness.

This study examined the relations of maternal vicarious emotional responding and child-rearing practices, as well as familial emotional environment, to 5-6 and 8-9-year-old children's vicarious emotional responding. There were some correspondences between mothers' and children's heart rate, facial, and self-reported reactions to a sympathy-inducing film. Maternal sympathy/perspective taking and reinforcement of sympathy/prosocial behavior, as well as negative subordinate emotion in the home, were associated with markers of girls' sympathy; mothers' personal distress (for girls), restrictiveness regarding displays of hurtful negative emotions (particularly for young girls), and negative dominant emotion in the home (for both sexes) were associated with markers of personal distress. Mothers' linking of the film character's experience to children's own experience was associated with children's responsiveness to the film, and mother's verbalizations during the film concerning her own emotional state and role taking were associated with boys' self-reported sympathy.

Arousal↗
PubMed1991

The relations of parental characteristics and practices to children's vicarious emotional responding.

We examined the relation of parental empathy-related characteristics and emotion-related child-rearing practices to third and sixth graders' vicarious emotional responding. Children's heart rate, skin conductance, facial, and self-reported reactions to a sympathy-inducing film were assessed, as were their dispositional sympathy, empathy, and self-monitoring. Parental sympathy was positively related to low levels of personal distress in same-sex children and, for both parents, with sons' dispositional sympathy or empathy. Parental emphasis on problem-focused coping strategies when their sons were anxious was positively correlated with indexes of sons' situational and dispositional sympathy. Same-sex parental restrictiveness in regard to the control of inappropriate, hurtful emotional displays was associated with sons' and daughters' dispositional and situational sympathy, whereas maternal restrictiveness in regard to emotions that are unlikely to hurt others was correlated with nonverbal indexes of personal distress and self reports of low distress. Parental emphasis on control of the child's own negative emotion was associated with children's self-monitoring.

Arousal↗
PubMed1991

Personality and socialization correlates of vicarious emotional responding.

The relations of personality and family characteristics to adults' negative vicarious emotional responses to sympathy and distress films were examined. Ss reported more sympathy and less personal distress and exhibited less skin conductance as well as heart rate deceleration when viewing a sympathy-evoking film. Dispositional emotional intensity and fantasy empathy were associated with greater self-reported emotional responding and higher skin conductance. Dispositional perspective taking and personal distress were positively and negatively correlated, respectively, with reported vicarious responding to the sympathy film when Ss were administered instructions to imagine the emotions of those in the films. Family cohesiveness was associated with reported sympathy and sadness in reaction to the sympathy film, whereas the expression of negative subordinate and positive emotional states in the home of origin was associated with women's reported responsivity.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Mothers' emotional arousal as a moderator in the socialization of children's empathy.

Overall, our findings suggest that the moderating effects of maternal affective arousal in the socialization of children's empathic responding are complex. On the one hand, at low levels of mothers' affective intensity, positive relations were found between children's sad facial reactions and mothers' prosocial suggestions. At the highest levels of affective responding, however, mothers' altruistic responding was significantly and positively related to children's sad facial responses, and mothers' altruism and inductive reasoning was negatively related to children's distressed facial reactions (Table 2). The negative relation of mothers' inductions and altruistic responding to children's facial distress reactions at high levels of mothers' affective responding could be interpreted to mean that these practices are associated with decreases in children's personal distress reactions to distressed peers (that is, with decreases in one's focus on one's own negative feelings). However, the positive relations between mothers' inductions and altruistic responding and children's facial distress reactions at low levels of mothers' emotional responding could support the interpretation of facial distress reactions as vicarious emotional responses. The affective response depicted by the children in the empathy films involved physical distress, so a purely vicarious affective (that is, empathic) response might be expected to be expressed facially as a distressed reaction. Thus, the variability in the results regarding children's facial distress reactions suggests that to interpret them as an index of either empathy or personal distress requires considering the nature of the empathy stimulus and may ultimately require assessing additional criterion variables (for example, examining the relation of facial distress reactions to actual prosocial behavior). Results not found in previous research were that high-intensity parental affect combined with negative control practices was associated with a lessening of children's sympathetic orientations, whereas situational definitions were positively associated with children's facial distress reactions to peer distress. The variability in these findings may be explained, in part, by the interpretation that parental affect may potentiate the impact of the semantic content of parental messages to the child. That is, if the content of the message is inductive, the mother's intense affect may heighten the meaningfulness of the relation between the child's behavior and its consequences for the peer's situation or feelings (unless, of course, the parent overwhelms the child with information).

Altruism↗
PubMed1989

Sympathy and personal distress: development, gender differences, and interrelations of indexes.

In summary, in our multimethod research concerning vicariously induced emotion, we have obtained several patterns of importance. First, we have obtained modest differences in facial and self-report indexes of emotion, nearly all indicating greater responsivity by females. Moreover, some of the data suggest that this gender difference increases with age. Second, we have found that facial indexes of negative emotion are stronger for younger than older persons and that older children's self-reports of emotion are somewhat more consistent with the context than are those of young children. Finally, although we have not obtained strong or consistent relations among our physiological, self-report, and facial indexes of emotion, those that have been obtained suggest a positive relation among indexes, one that appears to be stronger for younger than older persons (especially girls). Further research confirming these patterns of findings is needed; nonetheless, the preliminary data can be viewed as indicating that a multimethod approach to studying empathy is useful for increasing our understanding of empathy, sympathy, and personal distress reactions and their development.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1989

Relation of sympathy and personal distress to prosocial behavior: a multimethod study.

Assessed sympathy and personal distress with facial and physiological indexes (heart rate) as well as self-report indexes and examined the relations of these various indexes to prosocial behavior for children and adults in an easy escape condition. Heart rate deceleration during exposure to the needy others was associated with increased willingness to help. In addition, adults' reports of sympathy, as well as facial sadness and concerned attention, were positively related to their intention to assist. For children, there was some indication that report of positive affect and facial distress were negatively related to prosocial intentions and behavior, whereas facial concern was positively related to the indexes of prosocial behavior. These findings are interpreted as providing additional, convergent support for the notion that sympathy and personal distress are differentially related to prosocial behavior.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

The role of sympathy and altruistic personality traits in helping: a reexamination.

The purposes of this study were (a) to examine the role of social evaluative concerns in the self-report of sympathy and in the relation of sympathy to helping; and (b) to determine the role of "altruistic personality" traits and situationally induced vicarious emotional responses in the intention to help. Dispositional and situational self-reports of sympathy and other vicarious emotional reactions were obtained for persons who also were given the opportunity to assist a needy other. Moreover, dispositional measures of concern with social evaluation and an altruistic orientation were obtained, and a bogus pipeline manipulation was instituted for half the study participants. Both dispositional and situational self-reported sympathy were positively related to helping, as were other personality indices viewed as reflecting altruistic characteristics. The relations for the dispositional indices of sympathy were not due solely to social evaluative concerns or to other egoistic concerns. The effects on intended helping of dispositional sympathy, perspective taking, and the tendency to ascribe responsibility for others to the self appeared to be both direct and mediated by situational sympathetic responding. Finally, situational sadness did not mediate the effects of sympathetic responsiveness.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Introversion-extraversion and dimensions of olfactory perception.

A possible relationship between odor perception and introversion-extraversion was explored. 195 subjects completed Eysenck's Introversion-Extraversion Scale and rated strength, familiarity, and pleasantness of four odors. Zero-order correlations were examined and the data were factor analyzed. The introversion-extraversion items formed a factor separate from three olfactory factors.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Contextual judgments of quality of life and adolescent cognitive development.

This research explored the relationship between adolescents' level of cognitive reasoning and their contextual judgments of the factors affecting quality of life. In comparison to adolescents at relatively lower levels of cognitive development, it was predicted that those who have achieved higher levels of cognitive reasoning would be: (1) more likely to identify social and interpersonal aspects of life as factors related to quality of life and (2) less likely to identify self issues. Subjects were 443 tenth-grade students from four Michigan school districts. The students were administered the Reasoning Level Test (RLT) and also asked to identify the aspects of their lives that they felt were the most and least satisfying at the moment. A median split was performed and each student was assigned to either a high or low cognitive-level group based upon his/her RLT score. The findings supported the above predictions, but more so in regard to negative than positive factors. The findings are also in line with cognitive-developmental theories of adolescence and indicate that cognitive structures and the specific nature of the factors perceived to influence one's life may mediate contextual judgments of these factors.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Effects of material rewards on inkblot perception and organization.

To explore further the potential relationship between material rewards and developmental regression, this research examined the effects of material rewards on perceptual organization as measured by Holtzman inkblot responses. Forty introductory psychology students (20 males and 20 females) were assigned to either a reward or nonreward group initially matched on sex and IQ. Reward subjects had lower scores on form definiteness, form appropriateness, integration, human, movement, color, and shading; faster response time; and higher scores on location and on pathognomic verbalization. Although reward/nonreward differences reached significance only for form definiteness, form appropriateness, shading, and response time, the differences on all 10 Holtzman Inkblot Technique variables that are sensitive to developmental change were in the predicted direction of a lower level of functioning under reward.

Cognition↗