TY - JOUR
T1 - Trait absorption predicts enhanced face emotion intensity discrimination among military recruits
AU - Marquardt, Craig A.
AU - Hitz, Andrea C.
AU - Hill, Jessica E.
AU - Erbes, Christopher R.
AU - Polusny, Melissa A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the US; foreign copyright protection may apply.
PY - 2023/8
Y1 - 2023/8
N2 - Accurate emotion perception is an indicator of current psychosocial functioning. Past studies have reported variable relationships between impaired emotion identification, maladaptive personality traits, and psychopathology. We examined associations between discrimination performance and trait negative emotionality, positive emotionality, constraint, and absorption using the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire. New military soldiers (n = 548) viewed perceptually similar face pairs and picked the face with greater emotional intensity. Emotional intensity differences were small (10%, 20%, 30%, or 40%). Among the most ambiguous conditions (10%, 20%, 30%), absorption predicted higher accuracy. Negative emotionality predicted lower accuracy irrespective of percent difficulty. Furthermore, absorption predicted longer engagement during the 10% condition. Constraint predicted longer engagement regardless of the difficulty condition. Trait absorption accuracy effects were specific for sad, angry, and fearful faces, while negative emotionality accuracy effects were specific for sad faces. The findings highlight absorption as an underappreciated domain for explaining motivational engagement with faces and negative emotionality as a transdiagnostic predictor of impaired emotion perception.
AB - Accurate emotion perception is an indicator of current psychosocial functioning. Past studies have reported variable relationships between impaired emotion identification, maladaptive personality traits, and psychopathology. We examined associations between discrimination performance and trait negative emotionality, positive emotionality, constraint, and absorption using the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire. New military soldiers (n = 548) viewed perceptually similar face pairs and picked the face with greater emotional intensity. Emotional intensity differences were small (10%, 20%, 30%, or 40%). Among the most ambiguous conditions (10%, 20%, 30%), absorption predicted higher accuracy. Negative emotionality predicted lower accuracy irrespective of percent difficulty. Furthermore, absorption predicted longer engagement during the 10% condition. Constraint predicted longer engagement regardless of the difficulty condition. Trait absorption accuracy effects were specific for sad, angry, and fearful faces, while negative emotionality accuracy effects were specific for sad faces. The findings highlight absorption as an underappreciated domain for explaining motivational engagement with faces and negative emotionality as a transdiagnostic predictor of impaired emotion perception.
KW - Absorption
KW - Emotionality
KW - Face perception
KW - Military
KW - Personality
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U2 - 10.1007/s11031-023-10014-5
DO - 10.1007/s11031-023-10014-5
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85151559251
SN - 0146-7239
VL - 47
SP - 627
EP - 637
JO - Motivation and Emotion
JF - Motivation and Emotion
IS - 4
ER -