bims-chumac 2023-07-30 papers

Issue of 2023–07–30
four papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society

Evol Psychol. 2023 Jul-Sep;21(3):21(3): 14747049231185782

Women's Romantic Jealousy Predicts Risky Appearance Enhancement Effort.

Steven Arnocky, Megan MacKinnon, Sadie Clarke, Grant McPherson, Emily Kapitanchuk.

Human appearance enhancement effort has recently been considered from an evolutionary perspective as an adaptive and sexually dimorphic strategy for effective female intrasexual and intersexual competition. Most writing and research on the topic to date has focused on appearance enhancement as a means of mate attraction, with relatively less research examining its role in mate retention. The present study considered whether romantic jealousy, as a negative emotion experienced in response to perceived threat to a desired relationship, predicts costly and/or risky appearance enhancement independent of the closely related emotion of envy. In a sample of 189 undergraduate women, results showed that romantic jealousy and dispositional envy were positively correlated with one another. Results further demonstrated that romantic jealousy predicted women's positive attitude toward cosmetic surgery, willingness to use a one-week free tanning membership, willingness to use a risky diet pill, and intent on spending a greater proportion of their income on appearance enhancement, but not intended use of facial cosmetics. Results held independent of participants' dispositional envy, suggesting that romantic jealousy is a unique predictor of women's efforts at enhancing their physical appearance, which could extend into costly and physically risky mate retention efforts.

Keywords: appearance enhancement effort; attitude toward cosmetic surgery; benefit provisioning mate retention; dieting; female competition; mate retention; romantic jealousy; women's jealousy; women's mate retention

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/14747049231185782

Behav Modif. 2023 Jul 26. 1454455231186586

Improving Romantic Relationship Functioning Among Young Men With First-Episode Psychosis: Impact of a Novel Group Intervention.

Briana Cloutier, Tania Lecomte, Felix Diotte, Justin Lamontagne, Amal Abdel-Baki, Jean-Gabriel Daneault, Marie Eve Gélineau Rabbath, Alexandre de Connor, Cécile Perrine.

Previous research has highlighted many of the challenges faced by individuals with psychosis in romantic relationships. The present study aimed to evaluate the impact of a novel group intervention for men with first-episode psychosis (FEP) on dating success, romantic and sexual functioning, self-esteem, self-stigma, mentalizing skills, and symptomatology, while using a repeated single-case experimental design and comparing results across two treatment modalities (i.e., in-person or online). Twenty-seven participants from five treatment sites completed a 12-week group intervention. Qualitative data was also collected to assess participants' subjective experiences with the program. In both modalities, significant improvements were observed for romantic functioning, mentalizing skills, and symptomatology, with effect sizes ranging from small to large. Several participants also attended more dates and entered committed relationships after the intervention. Most participants were satisfied with the program and many felt that they had learned new skills and gained confidence in dating. Future research should replicate these findings in larger and more inclusive samples.

Keywords: group intervention; psychosis; romantic relationships; sexuality; videoconferencing

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/01454455231186586

Children (Basel). 2023 Jul 23. pii: 1270. [Epub ahead of print]10(7):

A Psycho-Dynamically Oriented Reflection on Early Sexual Relationships in Pre-Adolescents.

Luca Cerniglia, Silvia Cimino.

Pre-adolescence is generally considered a period of change during which sexual energy remains latent before gradually beginning to express itself in adolescence and later in life [...].

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/children10071270

Ann Plast Surg. 2023 08 01. 91(2): 287-293

Real Face Analysis of Masculinity-Femininity, Facial Ratios, and Attractiveness.

Dillan F Villavisanis, Jessica D Blum, Latham Liou, Daniel Y Cho, Jordan W Swanson, Scott P Bartlett, Jesse A Taylor.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have evaluated the influence of facial features in determining male and female sex using prototypical renderings or artificially altered faces in relatively small sample sizes. Using a large set of human photographs and raters, this study hypothesized that certain anatomic facial ratios are associated with perceptions of masculinity/femininity, can interact to predict sex, and are associated with ratings of attractiveness differently in males and females.
METHODS: Ratings of masculinity-femininity and binary self-identification (male or female) were compared with facial anatomic ratios from 827 frontal facial photographs. Ratios were used to characterize facial feature relativity, where higher ratio scores indicated relatively more facial feature representation.
RESULTS: Femininity was associated with prominent middle third ratio, nose length, lip vermillion height, eye height, and eye width ratios; masculinity was associated with prominence of the upper and lower facial thirds, nose width, chin height, and philtrum height ratios (all P < 0.01). Subgroup analysis demonstrated many of these relationships persisted when evaluating masculinity in females and femininity in males. Misgendering in males was associated with greater middle third ratio and upper lip ratio, whereas misgendering in females was associated with increased nose width ratio.
CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates associations of femininity with increased horizontal middle third representation, and masculinity was associated with increased upper and lower horizontal representation. These facial ratios interact to predict male and female sex, which could have implications for optimizing facial feminization/masculinization outcomes and building algorithms for artificial intelligence analysis of faces.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/SAP.0000000000003616