What factors influence emotional communication during adolescence?

Some teens talk freely about their feelings. 🔊 Others avoid doing so, even with the people closest to them. 🔇

What factors influence emotional communication during adolescence?

This study by Hare and colleagues examines the relationship between adolescents’ perceptions of maternal acceptance and changes in emotional disclosure over time, highlighting the role of supportive parent–child relationships in emotional development.

To learn more about this topic, check out this paper by Hare and colleagues (2011)📑: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10964-010-9586-6

Thank you to former research assistant Astra Yang for putting together this post!

What factors determine how something is interpreted?

Not all laughter feels the same. Sometimes it’s warm and inviting. 😀 Other times, it feels sharp or mean. 🙁 It’s not just what’s heard, it’s how it’s understood. 🧠

People rely on nonverbal (“show, don’t tell”) cues to infer someone’s feelings and intentions. However, people often understand these signals in very different ways.

So, what factors determine how something is interpreted?

To learn more about this topic, check out this paper by Martinelli and colleagues (2019)📑: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811918319384?via%3Dihub

Thank you to research assistant Astra Yang for putting together this post!

What Would You Do?

How well can you read nonverbal cues? Nonverbal cues, such as facial expressions and tone of voice, are extremely important for understanding social situations and interpreting the emotions of others. In this video, we’re going to put your emotion recognition skills to the test! Think: what would you do? 🤔 Tell us what you think the answers are in the comments below!

Thanks to former research assistant Olivia Merulla for creating this fantastic video, and to lab members Victoria Cassel, Daniel Nault, Kyla Campbell, and Maria Fernanda Trigo Adami for their acting skills!

#nonverbalcues #psychology #understandingemotions #research #whatwouldyoudo

Pitches and pitfalls

The tone of voice we use says a lot, but not everyone hears it the same way 🗣️ 🎧

As teens start spending more time with peers during adolescence, picking up on emotional cues in others' tone of voice becomes crucial. 👥 For youth with anxiety or depression, these signals can be harder to recognize.

That’s exactly what Morningstar et al. (2019) explored: How are internalizing symptoms like anxiety and depression linked to youth’s ability to recognize emotions in each other’s voices?

To learn more, check out the full paper here 📝 : https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28820619/

Thank you to former DSEC member Jay Burns for this post!

Let’s spill the psychology tea!

Let’s spill the psychology tea! ☕️ Have you ever heard that participating in research is pointless, or that research labs are cold and unwelcoming? You’re not alone! These are some common misconceptions surrounding psychological research. Check out this post as we discuss the truths behind these research myths using examples from the DSEC Lab!

Thank you to research assistants Polly Clayton and Rushmeet Singh for putting together this myth-busting post. 🧑🔬 If you’re intrigued by the idea of participating in psychology studies, head to our website to see how you or an adolescent you know can get involved!

https://www.michelemorningstar.com/dseclab/participate

#mythbusting #psychologyresearch #science #developmentalpsychology

DSEC Lab tour

Have you ever wondered what it looks like inside the DSEC Lab? Join former research assistant Diana Romano as she takes a tour of the lab and talks about 5 different benefits of being an RA! These benefits include research skill development, building relationships, and academic and career advancements. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg! Watch this video to learn how else being an RA can benefit you! 🙌

Watch this video here.

Did you know? (Episode 3)

Curious about how screens can impact youth’s emotional development? A study by Uhls et al. (2014) provides some insight into this question. In this experiment, a group of 6th graders attended a 5-day camp with no screen access 🏕️, while the control group continued with their usual daily activities. The emotion recognition skills of youth in both groups were measured before and after this 5-day period. They found that the youth that spent time in the no-screens summer camp showed bigger improvements in their emotion recognition skills compared to the control group.

Thank you to research assistant Yaein Kim for putting together this post!

Neurotransmitters

Have you ever wondered about the brain 🧠, and how our neurons are able to communicate? The secret is neurotransmitters 🤫. Neurotransmitters are chemical signals that allow neurons to “talk to each other”. This communication system helps our brains process information. Watch this video created by research assistant Alessia Cataudella to learn about different types of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. Alessia explains the basic purposes of these neurotransmitters, and why they’re important for our brains and bodies to function properly!

Watch this video here.

Developing empathy

Let’s talk about empathy! Empathy is a crucial skill needed for interpersonal communication and forming connections. 👯‍♀️ Have you ever wondered how certain factors impact our empathy? Studying these factors can help us to answer other important questions. For example, are girls really more empathic than boys? 🤔

Schwenk et al. decided to investigate this question to see how age, gender, and intelligence play a role in children’s cognitive and emotional empathy. Swipe through this post to see how they measured empathy and what they found! Thank you to RA Julia Guo for putting together this informative post.

Acoustic characteristics of speech (Video)

Here at the DSEC Lab, part of our research includes collecting auditory data and analyzing the acoustic characteristics of speech. 🗣️ You’re probably wondering, why do we care about speech data? Our speech contains important information known as acoustic nonverbal cues, which includes pitch, intensity, and speech rate. Join directed lab student Sophie Ye as she defines pitch, explains different scenarios when our pitch may vary, and provides a demonstration of the software we use to analyze pitch in speech. 🎤

Watch this video here.

Defining emotions

Take a moment to think about how you would define what “emotions” are. 🤔 If you found this difficult, don’t worry: you’re not alone. Even researchers disagree about the definition of ‘emotion’! Today, we’ll tell you about two competing theories in the field of emotion research: Basic Emotion Theory and Constructivist Emotion Theory. Swipe through this post to learn more about each theory, how they compare, and the criticisms that people have.

Thank you to research assistant Léa Francoeur and directed lab student Sach Grewal for making this informative post!

What parts of the brain process social and emotional information?

Have you ever wondered what parts of the brain process social and emotional information? 🧠 Join research assistant Olivia Merulla as she talks about a few brain regions that are involved in doing this. Specifically, she teaches us how the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and the amygdala contribute to understanding others’ social intent or emotional states! These brain regions are involved in super cool and important processes such as mentalizing (i.e., understanding other people’s thoughts, beliefs, and emotions), self-reflection, and emotion regulation! 🤯 Olivia also explains the superior temporal sulcus (STS), the insula, and the roles they play. You’ll learn how each region acts as a puzzle piece that works together with other regions to make sense of social and emotional cues in our social worlds. 🧩

Check out this video here.

The FACS

Here at the DSEC Lab, we study emotional development in adolescence. One of the ways we do this is through examining the facial expressions people use to communicate emotional intent. Curious about how researchers are able to measure facial expressions? Check out this post by research assistant Selena Gabrielli that explores the Facial Action Coding System (FACS). The FACS uses facial action units to measure the characteristics of someone’s emotional expression. This helps researchers put numbers to participants’ facial expressions!

Psychology terms made easy: prototypicality of facial expressions (Video)

Welcome back to another instalment of Psychology Terms Made Easy 🙌! Have you ever thought about what it means for a facial expression to be prototypical? When we talk about prototypicality in facial expressions, we’re referring to typical facial characteristics and muscle movements that are commonly seen in stereotyped representations of emotions. Take happiness, for example 😁. Close your eyes and imagine someone feeling happy. Did you imagine them smiling 😊, or squinting their eyes 👀? These are typical facial characteristics used when expressing happiness!

Watch this video created by former Directed Lab student Paige Stockley to learn more about prototypicality!

The Visual Cliff

#ThrowBackThursday: let’s throw it back to a classic experiment in developmental psychology! The visual cliff experiment was conducted in 1995 by Campos and colleagues to explore how infants 👶 interpret others’ emotional expressions. In this experiment, infants were placed on a special table that was designed to give the illusion of a visual cliff. The infants’ mother was on the other side of the “cliff”, expressing either a happy face 😁 or a fearful face 😨. Do you think any of the infants crossed the cliff?

Swipe through this post to see how the infants interpreted their mothers’ nonverbal cues! Thank you to research assistant Jacqueline Satok for creating this informative TBT post!

Encode vs Decode (Video)

Have you ever heard the terms “encode” and “decode”? Join Honours thesis student, Keren Katz, as she explains the meaning of these words in the context of emotional expression. 😄😢😡 In this video, you’ll learn the definitions of encoding and decoding, the differences between these processes, and why they’re thought to be important for forming healthy relationships!

Check out this video here.

Intro to fMRI research: the basics (Video)

Curious about fMRI research? 🧠 Join former research assistant Mia Schubert as she explores fMRI basics. In this video🎬, you’ll learn all about key terms, why researchers choose to use fMRI in their research, and MRI safety. (Psst! fMRI stands for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and is a type of neuroimaging method we can use to understand the brain’s activation patterns!)

Check out this video here.

Brain regions associated with nonverbal cues (Video)

Have you ever wondered about the brain regions that are associated with producing and understanding facial expressions? 🧠 If so, you’ve come to the right place! Check out this video to become experts on these regions of the brain. You’ll learn about the motor cortex, the occipital face area, and much more!

Thank you to research assistants Olivia Merulla and Sarah Wong for making this fun stop-motion video! Check it out here.

Psychology in the media: Inside Out 2 (video)

Have you seen Inside Out 2? In this movie, Riley must learn how to navigate being a teenager and the new emotions that come with that. Fun fact - this movie accurately represents psychological research on emotions! Inside Out 2 does a great job of portraying some of the cognitive and emotional changes that happen during the teenage years, such as the development of anxiety and embarrassment. ☹️😳 Thank you to Honours thesis student Zoe Halpern for creating this video that showcases how psychological research is represented in mass media 🎬

#psychologyresearch #emotionresearch #insideout2 #psychologyinthemedia #QueensUniversity

Psychology terms made easy: reward sensitivity

Psychology terms made easy! 🙌 Our topic today is reward sensitivity. Reward sensitivity refers to how strongly you respond to or seek out rewards. Individuals can have high or low reward sensitivity, which in turn guides their behaviour. Did you know that different age groups have different levels of reward sensitivity? Learn all about it in this informative post created by former research assistant Kieran Bodnar!

How has your decision-making changed as you’ve aged? Let us know in the comments below! 👇

#research #rewardsensitivity #QueensUniversity #psychology #science