Dissertationen zum Thema „Traits sociaux“

L’objectif de ce mémoire est d’explorer trois différentes techniques pour prédire la toxicité chez les utilisateurs des communautés en ligne. Notre motivation principale est d’aider les modérateurs de ces communautés à concentrer leurs efforts sur les utilisateurs les plus susceptibles d’écrire des messages toxiques, et éviter ainsi de gaspiller du temps et des ressources à surveiller toute la communauté. Nous avons d’abord créé un modèle mathématique capable de prédire les cinq traits de personnalité du modèle OCEAN (Ouverture, Conscienciosité, Extraversion, Agréabilité et Neuroticisme) et les trois traits de la Triade Noire (Narcissisme, Machiavélisme et Psychopathie)d’un utilisateur à partir de son style d’écriture et de son utilisation du vocabulaire. Nos expériences avec ce modèle sur les communautés de Twitter et Reddit ont démontré qu’il existe bien une relation entre la personnalité d’un utilisateur et le niveau de toxicité de ses messages. Particulièrement, nous avons constaté que les utilisateurs avec des valeurs élevées de narcissisme, de machiavélisme et de psychopathie et faibles valeurs de conscienciosité et agréabilité ont plus tendance à écrire des messages toxiques. Dans une deuxième étape, nous appliquons des algorithmes de partitionnement dans l’espace des traits de personnalité et dans l’espace des caractéristiques du langage. Nous avons observé qu’il est possible de détecter des groupes d’utilisateurs potentiellement risqués à surveiller sans avoir besoin de créer un profile pour chaque utilisateur. Finalement, nous avons créé un modèle de régression pour estimer le niveau de toxicité des utilisateurs en fonction de leurs attributs linguistiques. Nous avons observé que les utilisateurs prédits d’avoir les niveaux de toxicité plus élevés par notre régression sont également ceux qui ont des traits de Triade Noire très élevés selon notre modèle de personnalité.
The objective of this study is to explore three different techniques to predict toxicity online community users. Our main motivation is to help the moderators of these communities to focus their efforts on users who are more likely to write toxic messages, and thus avoid wasting time and resources by monitoring the entire community. First, we created a mathematical model capable of predicting the five personality traits of the OCEAN model (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism) and the three traits of the Dark Triad (Narcissism, Machiavellianism and Psychopathy) for auser, based on their writing style and choice of vocabulary. The experiments we performed with this model on users of the Twitter and Reddit communities have shown that there is a relationship between a user’s personality and the level of toxicity of their messages. In particular, we found that users with high values of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy andlow values of conscientiousness and agreeableness were more likely to write toxic messages. For our second technique, we applied clustering algorithms on the predicted personality traits andon the observed language characteristics. This allowed us to show that it is possible to detect clusters of potentially risky users without having to create a profile for each user. Finally, we created a regression model to estimate the level of toxicity of users based on their linguistic attributes alone. We observed that the users predicted to have higher toxicity levels by our regression model are also those who have a very high value of Dark Triad traits according to our personality model.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterised by difficulties with social communication and interaction. A great deal of experimental work has examined the performance of people with ASD on social cognition tasks in laboratory settings, and a number of cognitive models have been postulated to account for observed differences in those with ASD. Meanwhile, clinical reports indicate that people with ASD face a range of difficulties in everyday functioning. However, very little experimental work has tried to elucidate how the postulated cognitive deficits in ASD might translate into difficulties in real-life-type settings, especially in adult populations. A range of novel scenario-based tasks were developed for the present thesis which aimed to provide more sensitive tools than traditional social cognition tasks for identifying the nature and severity of impairments in everyday social functioning. These systematically examined different aspects of social performance, in particular pro-social behaviour, moral judgment and reasoning. The present thesis adopted a trait-based approach to investigate how high versus low levels of autistic traits influenced everyday social functioning. This is in line with the continuum conceptualisation of an autistic spectrum, whereby those with clinical levels of impairment (i.e. diagnosed with ASD) are thought to lie at the extreme end of a normal distribution of autistic traits. Overall, two key findings emerged; firstly, people with high levels of autistic traits tended to be less behaviourally and emotionally responsive to others’ needs. Secondly, people with high levels of autistic traits displayed relatively intact awareness of social and moral norms that underpin everyday situations, but their understanding of these appeared to be more limited. These findings are consistent with the conceptualisation of a continuum of trait severity, whereby those with high levels of autistic traits showed similar difficulties to those seen in people with ASD, although perhaps to a lesser extent. The body of work presented in this thesis has potential clinical implications for the assessment and management of adults with ASD.

Interactions between individuals can range from peaceful cooperation, through mediated contest, to escalated conflict. Understanding such diversity of interactions between individuals requires an understanding of the costs and benefits involved with these behaviours, and the influence of relatedness between interacting individuals. Species in the parasitoid wasp genus Melittobia display social behaviours at both extremes of this spectrum, from the potentially cooperative traits of the ratio of male to female offspring that they produce, and the dispersal of females to new habitats, to the extreme conflict of violent contests between males. In this thesis, I examine a number of aspects of social evolution in Melittobia. First, I consider the pattern of sex allocation – the division of resources between male and female offspring - where local mate competition theory predicts that females will adjust their offspring sex ratio (proportion of males) conditionally, with females laying increasingly female biased sex ratios as the number of other females laying eggs on the same patch increases. In Chapter 2, I show that M. acasta females always lay an extremely female biased sex ratio, and that this may be explained in part by the fact that male Melittobia engage in violent lethal combat in competition for mates. Early emerging males have a competitive advantage and thus there is a limited advantage for later laying females to produce a less female biased sex ratio. However, I also demonstrate that the advantage of early emergence can be reduced when we consider male body size, which is linked to fighting ability, suggesting that the occurrence of this extreme conflict does not fully explain the unusual pattern of sex allocation in Mellitobia. In Chapter 3, I examine whether the level of dispersal varies in response to the extent of local competition for resources, and the relatedness between competitors. I use the species M. australica, which readily produces two distinct female dispersing morphs, to show that the production of dispersing females increases with the competition for resources. I consider the parallels between the evolution of dispersal and of sex ratio. In Chapter 4, I examine male fighting in more detail and explore theory that predicts that when extreme conflict does evolve, the incidence of fighting varies with resource value, number of competitors, and the level of relatedness between males. I show that mating opportunities are sufficiently valuable that male Melittobia will always engage in fighting irrespective of relatedness, that there is no evidence of opponent assessment prior to fighting, and that the intensity of fights increases with the number of competitors. This thesis highlights the importance of considering combinations of social traits and the interactions between them, to understand the evolution of social characters.

Cette thèse a pour but d’aller « à la racine » de la théorie de la valeur sociale (Beauvois & Dubois, 2009) stipulant que les adjectifs de personnalité ont pour fonction d’évaluer les agents sociaux. Nous montrons que les personnes sont évaluées sur ces adjectifs en fonction de l’utilité économique de leurs professions ou des conséquences économiques de leurs comportements, bien indépendamment de leurs qualités psychologiques. Nos travaux ont d’abord permis (études 1 à 4) d’appuyer l’intérêt de dégager trois registres de traits de personnalité (effort, compétence et aisance) qui évaluent trois niveaux distincts d’utilité. Nos études 5 à 8 précisent que la présence ou non d’objectifs économiques détermine le registre le plus utile pour juger la valeur sociale des personnes. L’aisance est décisive si les situations sont imprégnées d’objectifs économiques comme c’est le cas en entreprise. C’est sur ce modèle que les gens jugent par défaut. Dans les contextes où ces objectifs sont nettement absents, l’aisance est moins décisive que les autres registres. Une autre série d’études (9 et 10) montre que la simple connaissance des retombées économiques d’une réussite ou d’un échec, mêmes si ces retombées ne concernent pas directement l’auteur de la performance, a des effets sur la description qu’il fait de lui-même. Enfin, les dernières études (11 à 13) ont montré que les enjeux économiques impactent de nombreux phénomènes psychologiques (estime de soi, perception du caractère figé des traits et motivation scolaire). Finalement, nos travaux mettent en évidence l’intérêt de la prise en compte des objectifs économiques dans l’étude du jugement social
Our aim was to go "at the root" of the theory of social value (Beauvois & Dubois, 2009) stipulating that the adjectives of personality have the function of evaluating social agents. We show that people are evaluated on these adjectives according to the economic utility of their professions or the economic consequences of their behavior, regardless of their psychological qualities. Our work has first allowed (studies 1 to 4) to support the interest of identifying three registers of personality traits (effort, competence and agency) that evaluate three distinct levels of utility. Our studies 5 to 8 specify that the presence or absence of economic objectives determines the most useful register to judge the social value of people. Agency is decisive if the situations are imbued with economic objectives as is the case in company. It is on this model that people judge by default. In contexts where these objectives are clearly absent, agency is less decisive than the other registers. Another series of studies (9 and 10) shows that the mere knowledge of the economic benefits of a success or a failure, even if these effects do not directly concern the author of the performance, has effects on the description that he makes of himself. Finally, the latest studies (11 to 13) have shown that economic issues impact many psychological phenomena (self-esteem, perception of the fixed character of the traits and academic motivation). Finally, this PhD highlights the importance of taking into account economic objectives in the study of social judgment

In just over ten years, internet-based technologies revolutionized several aspects of daily human life, including social interactions. Social media sites (SNSs), such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, have dramatically changed the way people keep in touch or make new acquaintances. On the flipside, recent research have highlighted the risk for and inappropriate use of SNSs, which might result in personal discomfort or a mental disorder. For this reason, it is important to understand how these issues develop starting from the diverse contexts and individual features. The main aim of the present Ph.D. project is to identify to which extent the interaction between psychological components, like perceived parental warmth, and genetic susceptibility to the familiar environment can describe the social behavior online and offline. The underlying hypothesis is that sensibility to the familiar context will represent a positive factor, if the person recalls a good perception of parental care, leading to confident psychological mechanisms in adulthood, hence to more optimal neural responses to social stressors in real life, and to the appropriate use of social media. To this aim, three studies have been performed: •Study 1. Analysis of the impact of perceived early social experience on the formation of interactional patterns in adult social interaction in two different countries (Italy and Singapore); •Study 2. Investigation on how the interaction between genetic features of oxytocin receptor gene polymorphisms and perceived early social experience affect the neurophysiological responses to cries; •Study 3. Exploration of the link between adult psychological dimensions related to social behavior and metrics of usage on Instagram platform. The experimental activities have been performed in two different laboratories: as for the Italian samples, questionnaires and genetic information were collected at the Affiliative Behavior and PhysiologyLaboratory in Rovereto; with regards to the Singaporean sample, participants completed the questionnaires, then were tested for genetics, Near InfraRed Spectroscopy (NIRS), Electrocardiogram (ECG) at the Social and Affective Neuroscience set in Nanyang Technological University. One of the purposes of the overall project was the construction of a rich database, which aims to include information about genetic polymorphisms proved to be sensitive to social environment (oxytocin receptor gene rs53576, rs2254298, and serotonin rs25531), recalled parental warmth, main dimensions of adult attachment, neural and physiological responses to social distress, like listening to cries, and behavior on two main social media platforms, such are Facebook and Instagram. This complex design gives the project several strengths, such as the possibility to focus on the contribution of diverse factors within a bio-psycho-i social frame, that is claimed to be the more appropriate by scientific community standard, in order to have a wider and deeper understanding of human behavior. Secondly, results generated from studies based on this database would allow filling the present gap about social media usage and psychological mechanisms, providing a further comparison with offline behavior. Lastly, results might be helpful when implemented in clinical work to understand if and how social media can become a useful mean in clinical work. The temporary fragility of this project is related to the genetic sample size, as a broader sampling would be necessary to have a comparable amount of the different variants and generate more reliable explanations. However, this data collection represents a starting point, as it resents of temporal constraints. Future efforts are necessary to enrich the dataset and to find appropriate methodologies to examine in depth the interaction between all the factors

In just over ten years, internet-based technologies revolutionized several aspects of daily human life, including social interactions. Social media sites (SNSs), such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, have dramatically changed the way people keep in touch or make new acquaintances. On the flipside, recent research have highlighted the risk for and inappropriate use of SNSs, which might result in personal discomfort or a mental disorder. For this reason, it is important to understand how these issues develop starting from the diverse contexts and individual features. The main aim of the present Ph.D. project is to identify to which extent the interaction between psychological components, like perceived parental warmth, and genetic susceptibility to the familiar environment can describe the social behavior online and offline. The underlying hypothesis is that sensibility to the familiar context will represent a positive factor, if the person recalls a good perception of parental care, leading to confident psychological mechanisms in adulthood, hence to more optimal neural responses to social stressors in real life, and to the appropriate use of social media. To this aim, three studies have been performed: •Study 1. Analysis of the impact of perceived early social experience on the formation of interactional patterns in adult social interaction in two different countries (Italy and Singapore); •Study 2. Investigation on how the interaction between genetic features of oxytocin receptor gene polymorphisms and perceived early social experience affect the neurophysiological responses to cries; •Study 3. Exploration of the link between adult psychological dimensions related to social behavior and metrics of usage on Instagram platform. The experimental activities have been performed in two different laboratories: as for the Italian samples, questionnaires and genetic information were collected at the Affiliative Behavior and PhysiologyLaboratory in Rovereto; with regards to the Singaporean sample, participants completed the questionnaires, then were tested for genetics, Near InfraRed Spectroscopy (NIRS), Electrocardiogram (ECG) at the Social and Affective Neuroscience set in Nanyang Technological University. One of the purposes of the overall project was the construction of a rich database, which aims to include information about genetic polymorphisms proved to be sensitive to social environment (oxytocin receptor gene rs53576, rs2254298, and serotonin rs25531), recalled parental warmth, main dimensions of adult attachment, neural and physiological responses to social distress, like listening to cries, and behavior on two main social media platforms, such are Facebook and Instagram. This complex design gives the project several strengths, such as the possibility to focus on the contribution of diverse factors within a bio-psycho-i social frame, that is claimed to be the more appropriate by scientific community standard, in order to have a wider and deeper understanding of human behavior. Secondly, results generated from studies based on this database would allow filling the present gap about social media usage and psychological mechanisms, providing a further comparison with offline behavior. Lastly, results might be helpful when implemented in clinical work to understand if and how social media can become a useful mean in clinical work. The temporary fragility of this project is related to the genetic sample size, as a broader sampling would be necessary to have a comparable amount of the different variants and generate more reliable explanations. However, this data collection represents a starting point, as it resents of temporal constraints. Future efforts are necessary to enrich the dataset and to find appropriate methodologies to examine in depth the interaction between all the factors

Cooperation has shaped the evolution of life on Earth. The ants are the most numerically diverse of the eusocial Hymenoptera, and display wide variation in social complexity. This positions the ants as an ideal taxon in which to study social evolution in a comparative framework. Social evolution theory has generated many hypotheses that are testable in ants, however the lack of comprehensive or complete phylogenies, and the decentralised and scattered nature of trait data, has been an obstacle to these types of study. In this thesis I construct a large species-level, and a complete genus-level, phylogeny of the ants, and draw together a large dataset of social traits from the literature in order to test hypotheses concerning the evolution of social traits in the ants. I find evidence that the earliest ant was large bodied, and lived in small highly related colonies. I show that group size is a significant trait in the evolution of sociality in ants, predicting the probability of a species having polymorphic workers, or of being polyandrous. I also show that the change in these traits is correlated between ancestral nodes on the phylogeny. Furthermore, in the Attini, colony size correlates closely with non-reproductive and reproductive division of labour. Together these results cement group size as a driving force of social evolution in the ants, and this has interesting implications for social evolution in general. Finally, I report the first evidence that intermediate colony sizes, the presence of discrete worker castes and polygyny are associated with increased diversification rates in ants. This thesis provides a valuable tool for the study of comparative hypotheses in the ants in the form of a complete genus-level phylogeny, and offers significant evidence to support several key hypotheses in social evolution. Furthermore, these results generate hypotheses regarding the evolution of social traits for future research.

Face processing is a crucial skill for human interaction. Accordingly, it is supported by a widely distributed fronto-temporo-occipital neural circuit (Haxby et al., 2000). The present work investigates the neural correlates of face expression processing by means of different neuroimaging and electrophysiological techniques. Using fMRI I investigated amygdala responses to basic emotions and activations in face-selective regions in response to social cues detected in faces (Study 1 and Study 2). These studies showed that the amygdala is highly responsive to fear expressions but has also a critical role in appraising socially relevant stimuli and together with the posterior face-selective regions it is sensitive to face distinctiveness as well as social meaning of face features. In Study 3 I demonstrated by means of TMS that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) contains different neural representations for angry and happy expressions linked to lexical knowledge of emotions. Finally, the combined TMS-EEG experiment reported in Study 4 revealed interconnections between activity in the core and the extended system of face processing, and the interactions resulted to be modulated by the type of behavioural task. Taken together the present results help to clarify the role of different regions as part of the face perception system and suggest that the coupling between cortical areas and the coordinated activity of different regions in the distributed network are crucial to recognize the multiplicity of information that faces convey.

La thèse se propose d'étudier les esclavages et les traites ibériques des XV-XVIf siècles dans un large espace géographique englobant les côtes ouest-africaines, l'Atlantique portugais et la Méditerranée occidentale. A partir un dépouillement croisé et minutieux des dépôts d'archives portugais et espagnols, mais également sur la base des données quantitatives fournies par la nouvelle version du Transatlantic Slave Database, nous avons reconstruit les circuits négriers à travers l'Atlantique et au sein de la Méditerranée, analysé le système négrier mis en place par les Portugais sur les littoraux africains. Les volumes de la traite atlantique vers l'Europe et vers les Amériques, les réseaux marchands africains et européens sont également décryptés. Un vaste système négrier se met ainsi en place dont les contours perdureront jusqu'à la période des asientos portugais de la fin du XVIe siècle. Son étude permet de jeter un regard nouveau sur la société moderne née de l'expansion
This thesis proposes to study Iberian slavery and slave trade of the XVth and XVIIth centuries in a large geographical space including the west African coasts, the Portuguese Atlantic ocean and the occidental Mediterranean sea. After a minutious cross-examination of Portuguese and Spanish's sources, and also of the quantitative data delivered by the new version of The Transatlantic Slave Database, we have rebuild the slave circuits through the Atlantic and the Mediterranean sea, analysed the slave system settled by the Portuguese on the African shores. The quantification of the Atlantic slave trade to Europe and the Americas, as well as the African and European trade networks have also been decrypted. A huge slave trade system is set up, the outline of which will last until the period of the Portuguese asientos of the late XVIth century. Its study enables to cast a fresh look on the modern society born out of the expansion

Les recherches récentes ont mis en évidence le rôle des processus de catégorisation et de comparaison sociale pour comprendre les similitudes et les différences de genre au niveau du concept de soi. Cette thèse propose un prolongement méthodologique et théorique de ces travaux afin d’en vérifier le bien-fondé et d’évaluer leurs implications éventuelles pour le développement d’une psychologie sociale de la personnalité. Ainsi, nous montrons d’abord qu’il existe des relations significatives entre les différents instruments visant à mesurer le concept de soi, confirmant la validité de ces instruments (étude 1). L’hypothèse d’une interaction « genre X culture » sur le concept de soi est alors examinée dans une étude comparant des étudiants français et coréens. Comme prévu, les résultats montrent que les différences de genre sur le soi, peu importe la mesure du concept de soi utilisée, sont plus importantes en France qu’en Corée du Sud. Les études 3, 4, et 5 cherchent ensuite à vérifier si de telles manifestations de la malléabilité du concept de soi en fonction des contextes peuvent également être obtenues en mesurant les traits de personnalité. Il est démontré qu’il existe des stéréotypes de genre sur les dimensions de la personnalité identifiées dans la théorie de la personnalité en cinq facteurs (étude 3, étude 4) et que le processus d’auto-stéréotypie proposé dans la théorie de l’auto-catégorisation (Turner, 1987) semble effectivement influencer la manifestation de certains traits de personnalité. Les études 4 et 5, en utilisant les paradigmes expérimentaux originaux, contribuent à mettre en évidence les conditions sous lesquelles les individus vont « changer » de personnalité en fonction de la situation. Ces premiers résultats permettent de conclure qu’il existe certains traits de la personnalité qui sont stables et qui ne changent pas selon la situation mais également qui se transforment de manière significative en fonction des interactions sociales et des processus de catégorisation
Recent researches have highlighted the role of categorization and social comparison process in understanding the gender differences and similarities at the level of self-concept. This thesis proposes a methodological and theoretical extension of these works to verify their soundness and assess their possible implications for the development of social psychology of personality. Thus, we first show that there are significant relations between several instruments for the measure self-concept, in confirming the validity of these instruments (study 1). The hypothesis of an interaction “gender X culture” on self-concept is then examined in a study comparing French and Korean students. As expected, the results show that gender differences on self are, no matter what self-concept measures are used, bigger in France than in South Korea. Then the studies 3, 4, and 5 seek to ascertain whether such manifestations of the malleability of the self-concept in different contexts may also be obtained by the measure of the personality traits. It is shown that there are gender stereotypes on certain personality traits of the five-factor model (Study 3 Study 4) and that the self-stereotyping process proposed by the self-categorization theory (Turner, 1987) seems to actually influence the manifestation of personality traits. Studies 4 and 5, using the original experimental paradigms, help to highlight the conditions under which individuals will "change" their personality according to the situation where they find themselves. These results suggest that there exist certain personality traits stable and they do not change according to the situation but there also exist certain traits that vary significantly in accordance with social interaction and self-categorization process

Personality plays an important role in various aspects of our daily life. It is being used in many application scenarios such as i) personalized marketing and advertisement of commercial products, ii) designing personalized ambient environments, iii) personalized avatars in virtual world, and iv) by psychologists to treat various mental and personality disorders. Traditional methods of personality assessment require a long questionnaire to be completed, which is time consuming. On the other hand, several works have been published that seek to acquire various personality traits by analyzing Internet usage statistics. Researchers have used Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and various other websites to collect usage statistics. However, we are still far from a successful outcome. This thesis uses a range of divergent features of Facebook and LinkedIn social networks, both separately and collectively, in order to achieve better results. In this work, the big five personality trait model is used to analyze the five traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The experimental results show that the accuracy of personality detection improves with the use of complementary features of multiple social networks (Facebook and LinkedIn, in our case) for openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism. However, for extroversion we found that the use of only LinkedIn features provides better results than the use of only Facebook features or both Facebook and LinkedIn features.

This research studies undocumented policy practices within UK aid in general and the Department for International Development (DFID) in particular. It focuses on the policy practices or initiatives taken by various actors in influencing and shaping policy in the everyday life of aid bureaucracy. For this purpose, I have chosen as case study the evolution of DFID's Social exclusion (policy) framework within the timeframe of 1997-2010. The research findings identify undocumented initiatives taken by the policy entrepreneurs within aid bureaucracy. These efforts are directed not only towards benefitting the global poor but also at increasing institutional efficacy in delivering aid. Policy entrepreneurs execute these policy practices, also termed policy entrepreneurship, proactively on the political, administrative, and executive levels. Anthropological analysis and methods allow me to look beyond formal policy processes at the undocumented policy practices. Many development professionals, consultants, and office bearers while walking on the tight rope of internal policy and bearing the cross of the highly politicized organizational culture of the DFID, skilfully conveyed advice based on empirical insights to those high up. They transfer their disciplinary knowledge and empirical understandings to the policy makers and political actors in the larger interest of the development industry as well as the poor from recipient countries. On the one hand, from an anthropological perspective, this study broadens our understanding of the classical rational model of decision making within the bureaucracy. On the other hand, in the context of contemporary DFID bureaucracy, it highlights how civil servants resolve the moral-political conflict between their obligations towards the institutions they work with and their solidarity towards issues of human rights and social justice through their activism and policy entrepreneurial spirit.

Social status is commonly established among individuals within groups of animals. Despite this common characteristic of social animals it is still unclear how individuals establish their status. I investigated the relationships between morphology, posture and behaviours with social status in red junglefowl hens. The hens tested were measured (weight, comb length, comb height and tarsus length) and exposed to three different behavioural tests (novel arena, novel object and interaction test). None of the morphological features were associated with social status. However, dominant hens initiated the first encounter in a dyad interaction and performed a higher proportion of aggressive encounters against the opponent. The dominant hens were also the ones displaying more spread tail feathers than the opponent after status being established. Aggressiveness and social status is strongly linked, showing that there is a scope of behaviours to affect the establishment of status.

Los seres humanos han desarrollado especialmente su capacidad perceptiva para procesar caras y extraer información de las características faciales. Usando nuestra capacidad conductual para percibir rostros, hacemos atribuciones tales como personalidad, inteligencia o confiabilidad basadas en la apariencia facial que a menudo tienen un fuerte impacto en el comportamiento social en diferentes dominios. Por lo tanto, las caras desempeñan un papel fundamental en nuestras relaciones con otras personas y en nuestras decisiones cotidianas. Con la popularización de Internet, las personas participan en muchos tipos de interacciones virtuales, desde experiencias sociales, como juegos, citas o comunidades, hasta actividades profesionales, como e-commerce, e-learning, e-therapy o e-health. Estas interacciones virtuales manifiestan la necesidad de caras que representen a las personas reales que interactúan en el mundo digital: así surgió el concepto de avatar. Los avatares se utilizan para representar a los usuarios en diferentes escenarios y ámbitos, desde la vida personal hasta situaciones profesionales. En todos estos casos, la aparición del avatar puede tener un efecto no solo en la opinión y percepción de otra persona, sino en la autopercepción, que influye en la actitud y el comportamiento del sujeto. De hecho, los avatares a menudo se emplean para obtener impresiones o emociones a través de expresiones no verbales, y pueden mejorar las interacciones en línea o incluso son útiles para fines educativos o terapéuticos. Por lo tanto, la posibilidad de generar avatares de aspecto realista que provoquen un determinado conjunto de impresiones sociales supone una herramienta muy interesante y novedosa, útil en un amplio abanico de campos. Esta tesis propone un método novedoso para generar caras de aspecto realistas con un perfil social asociado que comprende 15 impresiones diferentes. Para este propósito, se completaron varios objetivos parciales. En primer lugar, las características faciales se extrajeron de una base de datos de caras reales y se agruparon por aspecto de una manera automática y objetiva empleando técnicas de reducción de dimensionalidad y agrupamiento. Esto produjo una taxonomía que permite codificar de manera sistemática y objetiva las caras de acuerdo con los grupos obtenidos previamente. Además, el uso del método propuesto no se limita a las características faciales, y se podría extender su uso para agrupar automáticamente cualquier otro tipo de imágenes por apariencia. En segundo lugar, se encontraron las relaciones existentes entre las diferentes características faciales y las impresiones sociales. Esto ayuda a saber en qué medida una determinada característica facial influye en la percepción de una determinada impresión social, lo que permite centrarse en la característica o características más importantes al diseñar rostros con una percepción social deseada. En tercer lugar, se implementó un método de edición de imágenes para generar una cara totalmente nueva y realista a partir de una definición de rostro utilizando la taxonomía de rasgos faciales antes mencionada. Finalmente, se desarrolló un sistema para generar caras realistas con un perfil de rasgo social asociado, lo cual cumple el objetivo principal de la presente tesis. La principal novedad de este trabajo reside en la capacidad de trabajar con varias dimensiones de rasgos a la vez en caras realistas. Por lo tanto, en contraste con los trabajos anteriores que usan imágenes con ruido, o caras de dibujos animados o sintéticas, el sistema desarrollado en esta tesis permite generar caras de aspecto realista eligiendo los niveles deseados de quince impresiones: Miedo, Enfado, Atractivo, Cara de niño, Disgustado, Dominante, Femenino, Feliz, Masculino, Prototípico, Triste, Sorprendido, Amenazante, Confiable e Inusual. Los prometedores resultados obtenidos permitirán investigar más a fondo cómo modelar l
Humans have specially developed their perceptual capacity to process faces and to extract information from facial features. Using our behavioral capacity to perceive faces, we make attributions such as personality, intelligence or trustworthiness based on facial appearance that often have a strong impact on social behavior in different domains. Therefore, faces play a central role in our relationships with other people and in our everyday decisions. With the popularization of the Internet, people participate in many kinds of virtual interactions, from social experiences, such as games, dating or communities, to professional activities, such as e-commerce, e-learning, e-therapy or e-health. These virtual interactions manifest the need for faces that represent the actual people interacting in the digital world: thus the concept of avatar emerged. Avatars are used to represent users in different scenarios and scopes, from personal life to professional situations. In all these cases, the appearance of the avatar may have an effect not only on other person's opinion and perception but on self-perception, influencing the subject's own attitude and behavior. In fact, avatars are often employed to elicit impressions or emotions through non-verbal expressions, and are able to improve online interactions or even useful for education purposes or therapy. Then, being able to generate realistic looking avatars which elicit a certain set of desired social impressions poses a very interesting and novel tool, useful in a wide range of fields. This thesis proposes a novel method for generating realistic looking faces with an associated social profile comprising 15 different impressions. For this purpose, several partial objectives were accomplished. First, facial features were extracted from a database of real faces and grouped by appearance in an automatic and objective manner employing dimensionality reduction and clustering techniques. This yielded a taxonomy which allows to systematically and objectively codify faces according to the previously obtained clusters. Furthermore, the use of the proposed method is not restricted to facial features, and it should be possible to extend its use to automatically group any other kind of images by appearance. Second, the existing relationships among the different facial features and the social impressions were found. This helps to know how much a certain facial feature influences the perception of a given social impression, allowing to focus on the most important feature or features when designing faces with a sought social perception. Third, an image editing method was implemented to generate a completely new, realistic face from just a face definition using the aforementioned facial feature taxonomy. Finally, a system to generate realistic faces with an associated social trait profile was developed, which fulfills the main objective of the present thesis. The main novelty of this work resides in the ability to work with several trait dimensions at a time on realistic faces. Thus, in contrast with the previous works that use noisy images, or cartoon-like or synthetic faces, the system developed in this thesis allows to generate realistic looking faces choosing the desired levels of fifteen impressions, namely Afraid, Angry, Attractive, Babyface, Disgusted, Dominant, Feminine, Happy, Masculine, Prototypical, Sad, Surprised, Threatening, Trustworthy and Unusual. The promising results obtained in this thesis will allow to further investigate how to model social perception in faces using a completely new approach.
Els sers humans han desenvolupat especialment la seua capacitat perceptiva per a processar cares i extraure informació de les característiques facials. Usant la nostra capacitat conductual per a percebre rostres, fem atribucions com ara personalitat, intel·ligència o confiabilitat basades en l'aparença facial que sovint tenen un fort impacte en el comportament social en diferents dominis. Per tant, les cares exercixen un paper fonamental en les nostres relacions amb altres persones i en les nostres decisions quotidianes. Amb la popularització d'Internet, les persones participen en molts tipus d'inter- accions virtuals, des d'experiències socials, com a jocs, cites o comunitats, fins a activitats professionals, com e-commerce, e-learning, e-therapy o e-health. Estes interaccions virtuals manifesten la necessitat de cares que representen a les persones reals que interactuen en el món digital: així va sorgir el concepte d'avatar. Els avatars s'utilitzen per a representar als usuaris en diferents escenaris i àmbits, des de la vida personal fins a situacions professionals. En tots estos casos, l'aparició de l'avatar pot tindre un efecte no sols en l'opinió i percepció d'una altra persona, sinó en l'autopercepció, que influïx en l'actitud i el comportament del subjecte. De fet, els avatars sovint s'empren per a obtindre impressions o emocions a través d'expressions no verbals, i poden millorar les interaccions en línia o inclús són útils per a fins educatius o terapèutics. Per tant, la possibilitat de generar avatars d'aspecte realista que provoquen un determinat conjunt d'impressions socials planteja una ferramenta molt interessant i nova, útil en un ampla varietat de camps. Esta tesi proposa un mètode nou per a generar cares d'aspecte realistes amb un perfil social associat que comprén 15 impressions diferents. Per a este propòsit, es van completar diversos objectius parcials. En primer lloc, les característiques facials es van extraure d'una base de dades de cares reals i es van agrupar per aspecte d'una manera automàtica i objectiva emprant tècniques de reducció de dimensionalidad i agrupament. Açò va produir una taxonomia que permet codificar de manera sistemàtica i objectiva les cares d'acord amb els grups obtinguts prèviament. A més, l'ús del mètode proposat no es limita a les característiques facials, i es podria estendre el seu ús per a agrupar automàticament qualsevol altre tipus d'imatges per aparença. En segon lloc, es van trobar les relacions existents entre les diferents característiques facials i les impressions socials. Açò ajuda a saber en quina mesura una determinada característica facial influïx en la percepció d'una determinada impressió social, la qual cosa permet centrar-se en la característica o característiques més importants al dissenyar rostres amb una percepció social desitjada. En tercer lloc, es va implementar un mètode d'edició d'imatges per a generar una cara totalment nova i realista a partir d'una definició de rostre utilitzant la taxonomia de trets facials abans mencionada. Finalment, es va desenrotllar un sistema per a generar cares realistes amb un perfil de tret social associat, la qual cosa complix l'objectiu principal de la present tesi. La principal novetat d'este treball residix en la capacitat de treballar amb diverses dimensions de trets al mateix temps en cares realistes. Per tant, en contrast amb els treballs anteriors que usen imatges amb soroll, o cares de dibuixos animats o sintètiques, el sistema desenrotllat en esta tesi permet generar cares d'aspecte realista triant els nivells desitjats de quinze impressions: Por, Enuig, Atractiu, Cara de xiquet, Disgustat, Dominant, Femení, Feliç, Masculí, Prototípic, Trist, Sorprés, Amenaçador, Confiable i Inusual. Els prometedors resultats obtinguts en esta tesi permetran investigar més a fons com modelar la percepció social en les cares utilitzant un enfocament complet
Fuentes Hurtado, FJ. (2018). A system for modeling social traits in realistic faces with artificial intelligence [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/101943
TESIS

In recent years, the automatic analysis of human behaviour has been attracting an increasing amount of attention from researchers because of its important applicative aspects and its intrinsic scientific interest. In many technological fields (pervasive and ubiquitous computing, multimodal interaction, ambient as-sisted living and assisted cognition, computer supported collaborative work, user modelling, automatic visual surveillance, etc.) the awareness is emerging that system can provide better and more appropriate services to people only if they can understand much more of what they presently do about users’ attitudes, preferences, personality, etc., as well as about what people are doing, the activities they have been en-gaged in the past, etc. At the same time, progress on sensors, sensor networking, computer vision, audio analysis and speech recognition are making available the building blocks for the automatic behavioural analysis. Multimodal analysis—the joint consideration of several perceptual channels—is a powerful tool to extract large and varied amounts of information from the acoustical and visual scene and from other sensing devices (e.g., RFIDs, on-body accelerometers, etc.). In this thesis, we consider small group meetings as a challenging example and case study of real life situations in which the multimodal analysis of social signals can be used to extract relevant information about the group and about individuals. In particular, we show how the same type of social signals can be used to reconstruct apparently disparate and diverse aspects of social and individual life ranging from the functional roles played by the participants in a meeting, to static characteristics of individuals (per-sonality traits) and behavioural outcomes (task performance).

In recent years, the automatic analysis of human behaviour has been attracting an increasing amount of attention from researchers because of its important applicative aspects and its intrinsic scientific interest. In many technological fields (pervasive and ubiquitous computing, multimodal interaction, ambient as-sisted living and assisted cognition, computer supported collaborative work, user modelling, automatic visual surveillance, etc.) the awareness is emerging that system can provide better and more appropriate services to people only if they can understand much more of what they presently do about users’ attitudes, preferences, personality, etc., as well as about what people are doing, the activities they have been en-gaged in the past, etc. At the same time, progress on sensors, sensor networking, computer vision, audio analysis and speech recognition are making available the building blocks for the automatic behavioural analysis. Multimodal analysis—the joint consideration of several perceptual channels—is a powerful tool to extract large and varied amounts of information from the acoustical and visual scene and from other sensing devices (e.g., RFIDs, on-body accelerometers, etc.). In this thesis, we consider small group meetings as a challenging example and case study of real life situations in which the multimodal analysis of social signals can be used to extract relevant information about the group and about individuals. In particular, we show how the same type of social signals can be used to reconstruct apparently disparate and diverse aspects of social and individual life ranging from the functional roles played by the participants in a meeting, to static characteristics of individuals (per-sonality traits) and behavioural outcomes (task performance).

Reproductive success of males is strongly influenced by their investment in costly sexually selected traits. Fitness returns, however, are often context-dependent and vary with demographic parameters such as sex ratio and population density. Under conditions of environmental variability, the ability to modulate reproductive decisions on the social context is highly beneficial. As a result, phenotypic plasticity of sexually selected traits is widespread. The aim of my study was threefold. Firstly, I worked to expand our current knowledge on phenotypic plasticity in sexually selected traits both empirically, through a test of the effect of female availability on male mating effort in the nursery web spider, and theoretically, through a literature review on the subject of strategic adjustments of ejaculate quality. Secondly, I evaluated costs and benefits of the anticipatory upregulation of sperm production observed in male guppies as a response to perceived mating opportunities. Finally, I investigated how post-copulatory processes may shape male mate choice. The two species used in my study, the guppy, Poecilia reticulata, and the nursery web spider, Pisaura mirabilis, are particularly suited to investigate phenotypic plasticity of sexually selected traits because they both express costly reproductive traits and they experience environmental fluctuations in socio-sexual factors. When I explored the effect of female availability on male investment in pre- and post-copulatory traits, I found that P. mirabilis males do not respond to variation in this parameter. While males do not reduce their mating effort per partner as mating opportunities increase, they may respond instead by increasing their total reproductive budget. The literature review focusing on plasticity of ejaculate quality, besides showing the diversity of traits subject to adjustment and of stimuli triggering the response, highlighted the difficulty of estimating the fitness consequences of ejaculate plasticity because of the complexity of patterns of co-variation with other reproductive and non-reproductive traits. The experiments investigating costs and benefits of anticipatory ejaculate adjustments showed that the costs of plasticity are minor in guppies, as compared to the costs of phenotype. Furthermore, the trade-off between sperm production and pre-copulatory traits (courtship rate) appears to be stronger than the trade-off between sperm number and quality. Finally, my experiments on post-copulatory processes demonstrated a first male sperm precedence and an advantage of previous partners against novel ones in multiply mated female guppies. These findings brought an important contribution to the understanding of phenomena of male mate choice, such as mate choice copying, audience effect and Coolidge effect. In conclusion, the results of my study demonstrate how trade-offs between pre- and post-copulatory traits have crucial effects on costs and benefits of phenotypic plasticity in reproductive traits, highlighting the importance to adopt an integrative approach and to consider multiple traits and their interaction when studying sexual selection. My results also stress the need for a careful evaluation of episodes of post-copulatory selection when interpreting plasticity of both pre- and post-copulatory investment.
Il successo riproduttivo dei maschi è fortemente influenzato dal loro investimento in costosi tratti sottoposti a selezione sessuale. Tuttavia, i vantaggi in termini di fitness di tale investimento sono spesso condizione-dipendenti e variano al variare di parametri demografici quali la sex ratio e la densità di popolazione. In ambienti variabili, l’abilità di adattare le decisioni riproduttive al contesto sociale è altamente vantaggioso. Ne risulta che i tratti selezionati sessualmente sono frequentemente caratterizzati da plasticità fenotipica. L’obiettivo del mio studio era articolato in tre parti. In primo luogo, ho lavorato per espandere l’attuale conoscenza nel campo della plasticità fenotipica di tratti sottoposti a selezione sessuale, sia tramite un approccio sperimentale, testando l’effetto della disponibilità di femmine sullo sforzo riproduttivo di maschi di Pisaura mirabilis, sia tramite un approccio teorico, cioè raccogliendo la letteratura disponibile sul tema degli aggiustamenti strategici della qualità dell’eiaculato. In secondo luogo, ho valutato costi e benefici dell’aumento di produzione spermatica osservato nei maschi di guppy come risposta alla percezione di opportunità di accoppiamento. Infine, ho indagato l’effetto di processi post-copulatori su fenomeni legati alla scelta del partner. Le due specie utilizzate nel mio studio, il guppy, Poecilia reticulata, e il ragno P. mirabilis, sono particolarmente adatti per studiare la plasticità fenotipica di tratti sotto selezione sessuale in quanto entrambi esprimono costosi tratti riproduttivi e subiscono fluttuazioni del loro ambiente socio-sessuale. Lo studio degli effetti della disponibilità di femmine sull’investimento maschile in tratti pre- e post-copulatori ha rivelato che i maschi di P. mirabilis non rispondono a variazioni in questo parametro. Nonostante essi non riducano l’investimento riproduttivo allocato al partner all’aumentare delle opportunità di accoppiarsi, potrebbero invece rispondere aumentando il proprio budget riproduttivo totale. L’esame della letteratura sulla plasticità della qualità dell’eiaculato, oltre a mostrare la varietà dei tratti soggetti ad aggiustamenti e dei fattori di stimolo, ha evidenziato la difficoltà di stimare le conseguenze per la fitness di questo tipo di risposte, a causa della complessità dei pattern di interdipendenza con tratti riproduttivi e non. Gli esperimenti che hanno indagato costi e benefici degli aggiustamenti strategici dell’eiaculato hanno mostrato che in guppy i costi della plasticità sono ridotti, se confrontati con i costi del fenotipo. Inoltre, il trade-off tra produzione spermatica e tratti pre-copulatori (il tasso di corteggiamento) sembra essere più marcato di quello tra numero e qualità degli spermi. Infine, i miei esperimenti sui processi post-copulatori in femmine poliandriche hanno evidenziato una precedenza spermatica del primo maschio e un vantaggio dei partner precedenti rispetto a quelli nuovi. Queste scoperte portano un importante contributo alla comprensione di fenomeni osservati nel contesto della scelta maschile del partner, quali la copia della scelta, l’effetto audience e l’effetto Coolidge. In conclusione, i risultati del mio studio mostrano come i trade-off tra tratti pre- e post-copulatori abbiano importanti effetti sui costi e i benefici della plasticità fenotipica di tratti riproduttivi, evidenziando l’importanza di adottare un approccio integrativo e di considerare vari tratti e la loro interazione nello studio della selezione sessuale. I miei risultati sottolineano anche la necessità di un’attenta valutazione di episodi di selezione post-copulatoria durante l’interpretazione di casi di plasticità nell’investimento sia pre- e che post-copulatorio.

Women are a particularly vulnerable group when it comes to victimization while intoxicated. Personality traits and characteristics have been shown to have an impact on alcohol consumption. Previous research regarding the Big Five Personality Traits indicates higher drinking levels if a person scores high within “Extraversion” and “Neuroticism”, or scores low within the traits of “Agreeableness” and “Conscientiousness”. Concerning women, “Openness” seems to be the only personality related to alcohol consumption, but previous research is scarce. The main focus of previous research has been on the Big Five Personality Traits, people in general and alcohol consumption. Our focus was Swedish women, age range 18-50 years. We proposed that personality traits could affect alcohol consumption and because of the lack of research we specifically wanted to examine women. The results showed that personality traits have an impact on women’s alcohol consumption. In conclusion, women tend to drink more alcohol if they score high on “Extraversion” and “Neuroticism”, and, if they scored low on “Agreeableness” and “Conscientiousness”. This could mean that personality traits serves as risk factors for alcohol consumption. “Openness” and alcohol consumption showed no association. Future research should investigate how other factors combined with personality traits might affect alcohol consumption.
Kvinnor är en extra utsatt grupp när det kommer till viktimisering i samband med alkoholkonsumtion. Fortsättningsvis, vissa personlighetsdrag och karaktärsdrag har visats påverka alkoholkonsumtion. Tidigare forskning gällande Big-Five-teorin och dess personlighetsdrag indikerar vanligtvis högre nivåer av alkoholkonsumtion om en person skattar högre inom dragen “Utåtriktning” och “Känslomässig instabilitet”, eller skattar lägre inom dragen “Vänlighet” och “Målmedvetenhet”. Gällande kvinnor, draget “Öppenhet” verkar vara det enda som är kopplat till alkoholkonsumtion, men tidigare forskning är begränsad. Huvudfokuset inom tidigare forskning har varit på Big-Five-teorin, människor överlag och alkoholkonsumtion, vi ville därmed specifikt undersöka kvinnliga vanor. Vårt fokus har legat på svenska kvinnor i åldrarna 18- 50 år. Vi menade att personlighetsdrag kunde ha en påverkan på alkoholkonsumtion och ville undersöka specifikt kvinnor vad gäller detta då befintlig forskning ansågs bristfällig. Resultatet visade att olika personlighetsdrag påverkar alkoholkonsumtionen hos kvinnor. Sammanfattningsvis, kvinnor tenderar att dricka mer alkohol om de skattar högt inom “Utåtriktning” och “Känslomässig instabilitet”, och om de skattar lågt inom “Vänlighet” och “Målmedvetenhet”, vilket skulle kunna innebära att olika personlighetsdrag fungerar som riskfaktorer för alkoholkonsumtion. Dock visade “Öppenhet” inte på något samband med alkoholkonsumtion. Framtida forskning bör undersöka hur eventuellt andra faktorer kombinerat med personlighetsdrag kan ha en effekt på alkoholkonsumtion.

Objet délaissé et relativement méconnu par le champ scientifique, le tract est relégué, le plus souvent, à un simple outil « d'illustration » des luttes politiques, qu’il s’agisse de campagnes électorales ou de mouvements sociaux. Avec leurs définitions multiples, ouvrant autant de perspectives d’analyse (historique, sociologique, linguistique), les feuilles éphémères n’ont jamais été interrogées du point de vue de leur matérialité, de leur contexte de fabrication et de diffusion encore moins de celui de la multiplicité des usages. L’objectif de cette thèse est de questionner le tract en tant que « technologie militante » au sein d’une mobilisation sociale particulière, celle dite « anti-CPE » de 2006 qui, par son caractère débouchant sur une crise politique d’abord latente, puis de plus en plus « ouverte », se présente comme un cadre idéal pour analyser tant la matérialité de l'objet que ses différents emplois et les principales pratiques militantes qui y sont reliées
As it a neglected and relatively unknown object of the scientific fields, the leaflet is most often relegated to a simple tool for illustating political struggles, wether they be electoral campaigns or social movements. With their multiple definitions, which open as many perspectives for analysis (historical, sociological, linguistic analysis), ephemeral leaflets have never been questionned from the viewpoint of their materiality, of their manufacturing and dissemination, and even less from that of the multiplicity of their uses. The aim of this thesis is to question the leaflet as a « activist technology » within a particular socia mobilization, the one called « against-CPE » of 2006. This movement, by their character leading to a « political crisis », first latent, then more and more open, presents itself as an ideal framework for analysing the materiality of this object, as well as its different uses and the main activist pratices which are related to it
Oggetto abbandonato e poco conosciuto dalla communità, il volantino é sovente ridotto a semplice mezzo di illustrazione delle lotte politiche, che si tratti di campagne elettorali o di mobilitazioni sociali. Con le loro molteplici definizioni, che aprono altrettante prospettive (storica, sociologica, linguistica), i volantini non sono stati interrogati dal punto di vista della loro materialità, del contesto nel quale sono fabbricati e distibuiti, tantomeno della plularità dei loro usi. L’obiettivo di questa tesi é di studiare il volantino come una « technologia militante » in un contesto particulare, il movimento « anti-CPE » del 2006, che, caratterizzandosi per il suo aspetto di « crisi politica » prima latente, poi sempre più aperta, appare come un quadro ideale per analizzarne la materialità, gli usi e le principali pratiche militanti che ad esso sono legate

L'avenir de la communication est perçu comme étant quasiment exclusivement constitué de nœuds mobiles évoluant dans un réseau mobile. Dans ce contexte, différentes approches contribuent continuellement à l'amélioration directe ou indirecte des délais d'acheminement des informations échangées entre les utilisateurs, dont :- l'analyse des traces;- l'évaluation des performances ;- les services de localisation;- le routage. Nous décrivons chacun de ses thèmes et proposons des solutions faisant évoluer l'état de l'art. Celles-ci prennent appui sur des méthodes et outils tels que :- les Réseaux de Petri, pour l'analyse des traces ;- les modèles de mobilité, pour l'évaluation des performances;- l'introduction du social dans les services de localisation;- la mise en place d'une nouvelle métrique pour le routage. Nous montrons comment ces solutions concourent de façon complémentaire les unes avec les autres, à améliorer l'expérience de l'utilisateur.

Millions of selfies are posted on social media every day. Past research has attempted to explain this behavior, though inconsistent results have necessitated further investigation. The present study broadened the scope of selfie research by using electronic survey methods in a sample of active social media users to examine the relationships between narcissism, extraversion, purpose in life, prevalence of posting, and two novel constructs: number of selfie drafts taken before final selection, and immediacy of posting after taking a selfie. Higher prevalence was significantly related to greater number of drafts and belief that selfies facilitate self-expression and self-discovery. Greater number of drafts was also associated with lower feelings of purpose, greater immediacy, and younger age. These findings, together with an absence of strong links between selfies and narcissism or extraversion, suggest that selfie sharing is more nuanced than previous studies have shown. The present data’s correlational nature precludes causal inference, but informs future research on selfies and human behavior on social media.

This quantitative study compared the following concepts between heterosexual men and gay men: (a) self-esteem, (b) body image, (c) social support, and (d) narcissism traits. The same survey was given to 50 males, 26 of the males identified themselves as heterosexual while 24 identified themselves as gay. The findings reveal that out of the four concepts, only body investment was significantly related to participant's sexual orientation. Gay males in this study invested more on their body when compared to their heterosexual counterparts, while there was no significant relationship between selfesteem, body image, and social support for either sexual orientation.

The higher occurrence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and sub-threshold autistic traits in males, relative to females, has been consistently documented in the literature (e.g., Fombonne 2003, 2005). In addition to potential biogenetic mechanisms, there is some evidence suggesting that differences in the behavioral manifestation of ASD symptoms and co-occurring psychopathology may play a role in the differential prevalence of ASD in males and females (e.g., Holtmann, Bolte, and Poustka, 2007; Lai et al., 2011; Solomon, Miller, Taylor, Hinshaw, and Carter, 2012). In this two-phase study, we sought to examine potential gender differences in the relationship between behaviorally defined ASD traits and observable social impairment and co-occurring psychopathology, in a non-clinical sample of young adults. It was hypothesized that gender would moderate the relationship between ASD traits and observed social impairment and co-occurring psychopathology, such that ASD traits would be related to greater levels of observed social impairment for males, and that ASD traits would be related to greater levels of co-occurring psychopathology for females. In Phase I, 1039 undergraduate students participated in an online survey on general psychopathology and ASD traits. From this sample, a subgroup (n = 79) completed Phase II, an in-lab study that included a clinical interview and behavioral observation. ASD traits were not predictive of observed social impairment over and above the effects of social anxiety in this sample, regardless of gender. Although males and females in the sample did not differ on severity of ASD traits, when controlling for the effect of social anxiety, females were rated as more socially competent than males. ASD traits more strongly predicted screening positive for mood disorders in females than in males. Implications regarding ASD traits, as related to social impairment and co-occurring psychopathology in females are discussed.
Ph. D.

Psychological assessment relies on accurate and forthright reporting to determine valid clinical presentations. However, it has long been recognized that examinees may be motivated to present a "better picture" through Positive Impression Management (PIM). Within the PIM domain, two distinct motivations (i.e., defensiveness and social desirability) emerge that have not been clearly differentiated in empirical literature. This thesis addressed the research gap for detecting PIM distortion of personality pathology, utilizing the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5). In this investigation, 106 psychiatric inpatients were recruited from the adult Co-Occurring Disorders and Trauma Programs at University Behavioral Health. Using a mixed within- and between-subjects design, participants engaged in simulation via scenarios to be considered for a highly valued rehabilitation program (defensiveness) or employment (social desirability). As expected, inpatients showed elevated levels of problematic personality traits when reporting genuinely, but suppressed them under PIM conditions. These findings highlight that the PID-5, like all multiscale inventories, is highly vulnerable to intentional PIM distortion. Interestingly, respondents in the social desirability condition generally engaged in more total denial than those in the defensiveness condition. Empirically- and theoretically-based validity scales were developed to identify simulators and differentiate between conditions. Besides PIM, higher levels of experienced stigma were associated with more personality pathology, particularly the domain of Detachment. In addition, ancillary analyses showed strong convergence of the PID-5 with its hierarchical trait model to the DSM-IV categorical model. Continued research to detect PIM distortion, and more importantly to differentiate between PIM motivations, is essential for accurate clinical assessment of personality disorder traits and effective treatment planning.

Gli esseri umani sono animali sociali. Altruismo e comportamenti cooperativi migliorano le relazioni tra conspecifici aiutando nel contempo la sopravvivenza della specie. In questo quadro, l'empatia e lo spazio interpersonale (IPS) sono due fattori cruciali per le interazioni tra conspecifici. Da un lato, gli individui con capacità empatiche migliori avranno relazioni durature e una predisposizione per cooperazione e comportamenti altruistici che sono abilità fondamentali per gli animali sociali. Dall’altro, lo sviluppo di tratti di personalità disfunzionali può ostacolare questi processi, portando ad una compromissione delle relazioni. Recentemente, le neuroscienze cognitive hanno dimostrato che l'empatia, lo spazio sociale e la psicopatia sembrano condividere, almeno in parte, una rete neurale comune. Lo scopo generale del presente lavoro è di investigare la relazione tra questi costrutti, indagando come personalità e tratti psicopatici nella popolazione generale modulano lo spazio interpersonale e le abilità empatiche. Inoltre, questo contributo presenta un'esplorazione degli effetti di lesioni cerebrali sulla cognizione sociale, sull’empatia e sullo spazio sociale. In particolare, lo Studio 1 indaga in una grande popolazione non clinica (N = 309), la relazione tra Teoria della Mente, empatia, tratti di personalità psicopatici e disadattivi. I risultati mostrano un’associazione tra empatia, psicopatia e tratti della personalità, evidenziando la relazione tra dimensioni diverse della psicopatia e tratti della personalità disadattivi (in particolare quelli legati a disinibizione, impulsività e aggressività), e tra questi ultimi e e la teoria della mente. Dati i risultati dello Studio 1, lo Studio 2 esplora ulteriormente la relazione tra abilità empatiche, personalità e tratti psicopatici, prendendo in considerazione la loro influenza sullo spazio sociale. Questo studio mette in luce il ruolo di impulsività e aggressività, insieme alle caratteristiche psicopatiche e alla dimensione cognitiva dell’empatia, nel plasmare lo spazio sociale. In particolare, è fornita una prima prova che l'IPS sia principalmente influenzato dalla disinibizione e dalla capacità di assumere il punto di vista degli altri. Entrambi questi fattori sono associati ad una riduzione dell’IPS. Infine, lo Studio 3 ha lo scopo di esplorare come danni cerebrali che causano una sindrome frontale associata a sindrome disesecutiva, influenzino l'IPS e l'empatia, alla luce del fatto che la disregolazione comportamentale è stata proposta come determinante cruciale dei cambiamenti dello spazio interpersonale. Lo Studio 3 valuta anche possibili collegamenti tra IPS ed empatia, dati i loro comuni substrati neurali. I risultati non mostrano un’alterazione dello spazio sociale nei pazienti con disfunzioni del comportamento, rispetto ai controlli neurologicamente sani. Tuttavia, l'esplorazione della performance di ciascun paziente evidenzia la presenza di due profili diversi: un quadro caratterizzato da sintomatologia positiva comporta una riduzione dell'estensione IPS, mentre un profilo caratterizzato da sintomi negativi sembra allargare l'IPS. Infine, lo Studio 3 rivela una compromissione selettiva dell'empatia affettiva nei pazienti con danni cerebrali. In conclusione, il presente progetto di ricerca offre nuove evidenze sulle complesse relazioni tra tratti di personalità, psicopatia e dimensioni (cognitiva e affettiva) dell’empatia, e come queste incidono sulla regolazione dell'IPS in individui sani. Questa evidenza estende la comprensione attuale delle condizioni psicopatologiche caratterizzate da mancanza di empatia e disregolazione comportamentale. Inoltre, l'ultimo studio sui pazienti cerebrolesi suggerisce che la distanza interpersonale e la dimensione affettiva dell’empatia possono essere influenzati, in modo non lineare, da danni cerebrali che provocano contemporaneamente disfunzioni comportamentali.
Human beings are social animals. It is important for our species to engage in healthy and fruitful relationships. Altruism and cooperative behaviors help us to improve these bonding relationships and are helpful for the survival of the species. In this framework, empathy and interpersonal space (IPS) are two crucial factors for social interactions. On the one hand, individuals with better empathic abilities will have lasting relationships and a predisposition for cooperativeness and altruistic behaviors that are fundamental skills to develop in large groups. On the other hand, the development of maladaptive or dysfunctional personality traits can hinder these processes, leading to impairment in relationships. Evidence from cognitive neuroscience demonstrate that empathy, social space, and psychopathy seem to rely – at least partially – on a common neural network, in turn being intrinsically linked and potentially influencing each other. The general aim of the present work is to disentangle the relationship between these constructs, investigating how personality and psychopathic traits in the general population shape and modulate interpersonal space and empathic abilities. Furthermore, this contribution presents an exploration of the effects of brain damage on social cognition, emotional response, and social space. In particular, Study 1, investigates the relationship between mentalizing abilities, empathy, psychopathic and maladaptive personality traits in a large (N=309) healthy population. Results show the relation between empathic abilities, personality traits and psychopathy, highlighting the relationship between primary and secondary psychopathic dimensions and maladaptive personality traits (specifically those related to disinhibition, impulsivity, and aggression), and between the latter and social sensitivity (as assessed by a complex emotions recognition task). Given the results of Study 1, Study 2 further explores the relationship between empathic abilities, personality, and psychopathic traits, taking into consideration their influence of IPS extension. This study sheds light on the role of impulsivity, aggressivity, along with psychopathic features and cognitive empathy in shaping social space. In particular, I provide a first novel evidence that IPS is primarily influenced by disinhibition and the ability to assume the others point of view (i.e., perspective taking ability). Both of these factors are associated with a shorter comfort distance. Finally, Study 3 is aimed at exploring how brain damages causing frontal behavioral symptoms affect IPS and empathy, in light of the fact that behavioral dysregulation has been proposed as a crucial determinant of interpersonal space changes. Study 3 also takes into account possible links between IPS and empathy, given their common neural substrates. The results do not confirm that IPS size is altered in patients with frontal behavioral dysfunctions, as compared to neurologically healthy controls. However, the exploration of the performance on an individual base highlights the presence of two different profiles: a portray of positive symptomatology entails a reduction of IPS extension, while a profile characterized by negative symptoms seem to enlarge IPS. Finally, Study 3 reveals a selective impairment of affective empathy in brain-damaged patients. In conclusion, the present research project offers novel insights on the complex relations between psychopathic and personality traits, the cognitive and affect sides of empathy, and their impact on the regulation of the IPS size in healthy individuals. This evidence extends current understanding of psychopathological conditions characterized by lack of empathy and behavioral dysregulation. Additionally, the last study on brain-damaged patients suggests that the interpersonal distance and the affective side of empathy may be affected, in a non-linear way, by brain damages concurrently causing behavioral dysfunctions.

The current study examined the relationship between psychopathic personality traits and various forms of deception. Through the use of the Elemental Psychopathy Assessment to measure psychopathy, and several different assessment tools to measure deception, including the Multidimensional Deception Inventory (MDI), the relationship between psychopathic personality traits and deception was examined. Using an undergraduate sample of 261 participants at a large research university in the Southeastern United States, the relationship between the aforementioned constructs was explored. Results indicated that the overarching personality traits of Antagonism and Disinhibition were positively related to multiple dimensions of lying behavior. Frequency of lies told, Duping Delight (lies told for enjoyment), and lies told for personal gain/impression management and to avoid disclosing pertinent information were positively related to both Antagonism and Disinhibition. Results point to the need for future study in this area, as limited previous research has looked at the overlap between psychopathic personality traits and deception.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the leadership traits of the school health coordinators (SHCs) for the state of Tennessee and to determine if self-perceptions of the SHC leadership traits coincide with supervisor and colleague perceptions of SHC leadership traits. The health challenges facing young Americans today are different from those of past decades and child health is a major federal and state policy platform. SHCs work at the nexus of 2 highly regulated and political entities: healthcare and education. Thus, it is critical for SHCs to possess strong leadership traits to navigate through the issues and politics that are inherent in this challenging career. By obtaining information regarding the leadership traits of current SHCs, this research provides insight into best practices and continuing education for current and future leaders. The study population consisted of all SHCs, superintendents, principals, and Healthy School Council members in the state of Tennessee, totaling approximately 3,900. Thirty-nine districts out of 221 provided full responses where the SHC, at least one supervisor, and at least 1 colleague responded to the Leadership Traits Questionnaire (LTQ). Permission to use the LTQ was granted by Peter Northouse, the developer of the questionnaire (Appendix A). Findings indicated that SHC self-reported perceptions of the leadership traits were significantly higher than colleagues' perceptions of the SHCs leadership traits. There were no significant differences between SHCs' perceptions and supervisors' perceptions of the SHC leadership traits. Lastly, within the SHC group only there were no significant differences in the perceptions of self-reported leadership traits between city and county SHCs, years of experience, or number of memberships in professional organizations.

Many social processes influence the amount, quality, and availability of support from an individual's social network. Trait influences are characteristics of the individual that generalize across relationships and affect how much support is received and perceived on average from other people. Social influences comprise characteristics of the individual's social network. They are relationship specific and account for the variability in supportiveness among an individual's providers. Recent studies have taken a multilevel approach to studying social support in order to partition the variance in sets of relationship-specific support measures into trait and social components. These studies have also used multivariate generalizability (G) theory to examine the correlations between social support and other constructs, such as negative mood, at the trait and social level. These multilevel studies have begun to clarify the relative contributions of trait and social influences on social support, but much is yet to be learned about the nature and measurement of social support's trait and social components. One set of aims within this project was to identify characteristics of support recipients and characteristics of support providers that were related to the reception and perception of social support. Another set of aims focused on validating the measurement strategies used by G theory researchers and understanding how the trait and social components of support and mood derived from relationship-specific measures relate to traditional measures of these constructs. My final set of aims involved the application of multilevel analyses of social support and negative mood to three existing theories in the social support literature--the buffering hypothesis, the matching hypothesis, and the platinum rule. The participants in this study comprised two samples--one group of 755 undergraduate psychology students, and one group of 430 community members from across the United States. Participants completed measures of their personality traits, recent depressive symptoms, recent experiences of life adversity and perceived control over life adversity. They also reported on three close relationships including support from those relationships, satisfaction with those relationships, and mood experienced when interacting with those three people. Several multilevel analyses were used in the study. Univariate G theory analyses were used to quantify the relative variance in support, mood, and relationship satisfaction attributable to trait and social influences. Multivariate G theory analyses were used to estimate the links between these variables at the trait and social levels of analysis. Mixed effects models were used to identify trait and relationship-specific constructs that that might partly constitute the trait and social influences on social support. Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to evaluate the validity of several constructs employed in previous multilevel studies on social support. Finally, mixed effects and multivariate G theory analyses were used to test the buffering hypothesis, the matching hypothesis, and the platinum rule. Consistent with previous multilevel studies of social support, recipients who received more support, on average, from their social networks also reported more negative mood when interacting with their providers. After taking those average tendencies into account, the amount of support received from an individual support provider was not associated with negative mood experienced when with that provider. The investigation of the trait influences on social support showed that recipients who were younger, more extraverted, and more open to new experiences tended to receive more social support. Women tended to receive more support than men. With respect to social influences, romantic partners tended to provide the most support whereas friends and siblings provided significantly less support on average. Women tended to provide more support than men. The validity assessment showed that the social component of support availability was only modestly distinct from the social component of generic relationship satisfaction. The trait component of support availability showed good discriminant validity from relationship satisfaction and good convergent validity with global support availability. The trait component of relationship-specific mood showed moderate convergent validity with general mood. The buffering and matching hypotheses were not supported by my findings. The platinum rule was supported at the trait level in that recipients who reported greater support adequacy, on average, tended to report more positive mood and less negative mood. The platinum rule was also supported at the social level in that recipients tended to report experiencing the most positive mood and least negative mood when interacting with individual providers who tended to supply the most adequate support.

The purpose of this study was to examine the potential moderating effects of CU traits on the relationship between self-reported social intelligence and aggression in a community sample of boys and girls (ages 14-18). Four subtypes of aggression were measured: reactive overt, reactive relational, proactive overt, and proactive relational. Results indicated that there was not a significant association between social intelligence and any of the aggression subtypes. Neither CU traits nor empathy moderated the association between social intelligence and any of the four subtypes of aggression. Supplementary analyses were conducted to investigate whether level and type of aggression was related to levels of social intelligence and CU traits (or an interaction between the two). Results indicated that at high levels of CU traits, youth exhibited significantly higher levels of proactive overt and reactive overt aggression (t(113.06) than at low levels of CU traits.

Loneliness and social isolation can have a serious impact on one’s mental health, leading to increased stress, lower self-esteem, panic attacks, and drug or alcohol addictions. Older adults and international students are disproportionately affected by loneliness. This thesis investigates Socialoscope, a smartphone app that passively detects loneliness in smartphone users based on the user’s day-to-day social interactions, communication and smartphone activity sensed by the smartphone’s built-in sensors. Statistical analysis is used to determine smartphone features most correlated with loneliness. A previously established relationship between loneliness and personality type is explored. The most correlated features are used to synthesize machine learning classifiers that infer loneliness levels from smartphone sensor features with an accuracy of 90%. These classifiers can be used to make the Socialoscope an intelligent loneliness sensing Android app. The results show that, of the five Big-Five Personality Traits, emotional stability and extraversion personality traits are strongly correlated with the sensor features such as number of messages, number of outgoing calls, number of late night browser searches, number of long incoming or outgoing calls and number of auto-joined trusted Wi-Fi SSIDs. Moreover, the classifier accuracy while classifying loneliness levels is significantly improved to 98% by taking these personality traits into consideration. Socialoscope can be integrated into the healthcare system as an early warning indicator of patients requiring intervention or utilized for personal self-reflection.

Thesis (M.A.) -- Central Connecticut State University, 2009.
Thesis advisor: Carol S. Austad. "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Health Psychology." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 50-53). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Technology has a great impact on our everyday lives; computers, smart devices, sensors and digital technology in general, try to communicate with us to accomplish some task. Each step of the communication however, requires understanding of the future behavioral utterance, deciding on what is the circumstance and the social context, and finally predicting the individual’s needs. Even if computers are so deeply involved in our daily lives, they lack basic social skills that would allow for natural communication. We believe automatic personality recognition will provide computers with an essential social notion, improving the quality of services, such as in intelligent tutoring systems or information retrieval systems among many other uses. Over the past few years, researcher in social computing have shown that personality trait recognition from nonverbal behavior is feasible, yet, the accuracy rate never exceeds a certain level, due to a phenomenon called within-person variability. This means that individuals may vary their behavioral manifestation according to the situational context in which they are in. In this thesis, we propose a shift from the traditional personality trait theory, to an approach which incorporates the personality fluctuations. This new perspective defines personality as dynamic episodes, the so called personality states, which relate to situational factors. Based on this property, we define the notion of social situations and propose a fully data-driven approach based on the Topic Modeling theory. The active situational characteristics that emerge from the model are interpreted according to their interrelation to the personality states fluctuations. We also present an automatic framework based on topic modeling, which handles dynamic spatio-temporal patterns of behavior and aims to predict the semantic meaning of the situational patterns, in meaningful situations, without the need of expert annotators.

Notre travail a pour objectif de montrer que l'explication causale et l'attribution de traits sont les mecanismes permettant d'expliquer differents patrons d'influence obtenus par une minorite intragroupe contrenormative. Nous nous sommes appuye sur les recherches inscrivant l'influence dans les rapports intergroupes, guides par des processus identitaires et categoriels, ou la minorite est decrite et evaluee a l'aide de traits (mugny et perez, 1986; perez et mugny, 1993), et sur les predictions du modele genetique (moscovici, 1972, 1979; doms et moscovici, 1984) qui envisage les processus d'influence dans la perspective du modele de la covariation (kelley, 1967). Les recherches sur la psychologisation, (papastamou, 1980; papastamou et mugny, 1983; mugny, kaiser et papastamou, 1983; papastamou, 1987; papastamou, 1993) nous ont aussi guidees dans la formulation de notre hypothese. Les apports recents dans le champ de l'attribution ont permis de situer notre problematique dans le cadre des theories de l'attribution en meme temps que dans celui de l'influence et de poser l'hypothese generale suivante : en distinguant le processus d'attribution de traits contribuant a l'elaboration de l'image de la source, et le processus d'explication causale (hilton, smith et kim, 1995), nous postulons qu'ils peuvent intervenir conjointement dans une situation minoritaire intragroupe contrenormative dans le cadre d'une tache d'opinion, et qu'ils ont, l'un et l'autre, un impact sur les niveaux direct et/ou indirect de l'influence. Les resultats confirment l'impact du lieu d'explication sur l'influence et indiquent que les explications causales modifient le lien qui unit l'image de la source a l'influence. Ils confirment les liens de l'image de la source avec l'influence ainsi que ceux entre les explications et l'influence. Ces deux processus semblent donc etre a l'oeuvre conjointement dans une situation d'influence minoritaire.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2006.
Title from title page screen, viewed on April 22, 2007. Dissertation Committee: Mark Swerdlik, Matthew Hesson-McInnis (co-chairs), Adena Meyers, Kathryn Hoff, Raymond Redick. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-113) and abstract. Also available in print.

Abstract Childhood development has always been a major topic when studying psychology and biology. This makes sense because the brain develops from the time a child is conceived to the time that child has reached around the age of twenty-seven. Doctors, psychologists, and sociologists look at numerous things when studying childhood development. However, how common is it for researchers to study how the fine and performing arts affect childhood development? Sociologists tend to be extremely open and mindful of all aspects of things such as culture, sexuality, religion, and even age. By taking a sociological standpoint when studying the arts and studying childhood development, society is able to make connections between the two that leads to better understanding of a child's development socially, mentally, and academically.

Psychopathic personality is associated with a myriad of social and behavioral problems including violence, criminal activity, and overall failure to conform to social standards. In this study, psychopathic and antisocial personality traits are measured in a sample of college students via self-report surveys using questions derived from Hare's Psychopathic Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; 1991). Reliability and factor analyses were used to validate the inventory and create factor-based indices that were used to predict antisocial behavioral outcomes including violence, seeking revenge on persecutors, and suicidal ideation, in addition to other analogous and deviant behaviors. Findings showed a relationship between personality and behavior indicating that characteristics of one's personality may aid in the prediction and prevention of deviant behaviors. Implications for public policy, including the identification of traits that may be related to the propensity for such behaviors, are reviewed in the context of school shootings such as the incident at Columbine High School.