Shame in social interaction: Descriptions of experiences of shame by participants with high or low levels of narcissistic traits.

In this study, we investigate how personal experiences about shameful events are described in face-to-face social interaction, and how these stories differ between participants who have either high or low levels of narcissistic personality traits. The dataset consists of 22 dyadic conversations where the participants describe events where they felt ashamed of themselves. We found the narratives to vary in terms of five dimensions. With narcissistic individuals, the default narrative tended to exhibit a cluster of characteristics that gather at one end of these dimensions: (1) weak expressions of shame; (2) located in the story-world; (3) low level of reflexivity as well as; (4) responsibility of the described event; and (5) a general level of description. We discuss the findings in relation to sociological and psychological theories of shame and suggest that individuals with narcissistic personality traits are more inclined to use suppressive conversational practices in their treatment of shame, thus providing a "window" to these interactional practices.

Understanding the impact of sisu on workforce and well-being: A machine learning-based analysis.

This study investigates the construct of sisu, a Finnish attribute representing mental resilience and fortitude when confronted with difficult situations. By leveraging advanced analytical methods and explainable Artificial Intelligence, we gain insights into how sisu factors influence well-being, work efficiency, and overall health. We investigate how the beneficial aspects of sisu contribute significantly to mental and physical health, satisfaction, and professional accomplishments. Conversely, we analyze the harmful sisu and its adverse impacts on the same domains. Our findings, including intriguing trends related to age, educational level, emotional states, and gender, pave the way for developing tailored solutions and initiatives to nurture the beneficial aspects of sisu and curtail the damaging consequences of sisu within professional settings and personal welfare.

Investigation of different ML approaches in classification of emotions induced by acute stress.

Background: Machine learning is becoming a common tool in monitoring emotion. However, methodological studies of the processing pipeline are scarce, especially ones using subjective appraisals as ground truth. New method: A novel protocol was used to induce cognitive load and physical discomfort, and emotional dimensions (arousal, valence, and dominance) were reported after each task. The performance of five common ML models with a versatile set of features (physiological features, task performance data, and personality trait) was compared in binary classification of subjectively assessed emotions. Results: The psychophysiological responses proved the protocol was successful in changing the mental state from baseline, also the cognitive and physical tasks were different. The optimization and performance of ML models used for emotion detection were evaluated. Additionally, methods to account for imbalanced classes were applied and shown to improve the classification performance. Comparison with existing methods: Classification of human emotional states often assumes the states are determined by the stimuli. However, individual appraisals vary. None of the past studies have classified subjective emotional dimensions with a set of features including biosignals, personality and behavior. Conclusion: Our data represent a typical setup in affective computing utilizing psychophysiological monitoring: N is low compared to number of features, inter-individual variability is high, and class imbalance cannot be avoided. Our observations are a) if possible, include features representing physiology, behavior and personality, b) use simple models and limited number of features to improve interpretability, c) address the possible imbalance, d) if the data size allows, use nested cross-validation.

Under the thin skin of narcissus: Facial muscle activity reveals amplified emotional responses to negative social evaluation in individuals with grandiose narcissistic traits.

Individuals with grandiose narcissism exhibit enhanced antagonism and a defensive pattern of discordance between their emotional and physiological reactions to self-threatening evaluations. Although theoretical perspectives link narcissistic defensiveness to negative emotions, empirical evidence linking grandiose narcissism to emotional reactivity remains mixed. The current study used self-reported affect, electrocardiography, and facial electromyography (fEMG) to examine whether people scoring high in grandiose narcissism show amplified physiological and self-reported emotional reactivity to negative social evaluation. Following two challenging cognitive tasks, participants received negative and neutral feedback in a face-to-face evaluation situation. Receiving negative feedback decreased self-reported positive affect and dominance, slowed heart rate, and amplified fEMG activity related to frowning and eye constriction. Although self-reported emotional reactions were unrelated to grandiose narcissism, fEMG activity associated with negative affect was significantly enhanced by grandiose narcissism. In conclusion, individuals with higher levels of grandiose narcissism may not be willing to report overt emotional reactivity to self-threatening feedback, but physiological responses "beneath their thin skin" reveal amplified threat-related facial muscle activity suggestive of a negative emotional state.

A measure for assessment of beneficial and harmful fortitude: development and initial validation of the Sisu Scale.

Sisu is a Finnish cultural concept that denotes determination and resoluteness in the face of adversity. We propose that sisu will supplement the English-language based research on mental fortitude traits. Sisu has not been the focus of systematic research until very recently. We created a new questionnaire measuring sisu (the Sisu Scale), sought to validate the sisu construct and its sub-factor structure as postulated in a recent qualitative study. We investigated associations of sisu with other measures of mental fortitude and well-being. More generally we aimed to enrichen the cross-cultural understanding of human experience of overcoming adversity across life's challenges. We describe and validate a questionnaire that effectively measures both beneficial and harmful sisu, each comprising three sub-factors. Beneficial sisu was associated with other measures of fortitude, but less with personality dimensions. We also confirmed the existence of an independent harmful sisu factor. Beneficial sisu was associated with higher well-being and lower depressive symptoms, and harmful sisu with lower well-being and higher levels of general stress, work stress and depressive symptoms. Together the two factors were superior compared to pre-existing measures when predicting well-being-related variables. Results suggest that the new Sisu Scale we developed may provide a valuable addition to research on mental fortitude, resilience and their consequences for well-being.

Grandiosity, vulnerability, and narcissistic fluctuation: Examining reliability, measurement invariance, and construct validity of four brief narcissism measures.

Continued interest in the distinction between grandiose narcissism, vulnerable narcissism and the fluctuation between grandiose and vulnerable states has expanded the repertoire of self-report instruments. The present study examined the psychometric properties of four brief narcissism measures [the Narcissistic Personality Inventory-13 (NPI-13), Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale (HSNS), Super-Brief Pathological Narcissism Inventory (SB-PNI), and the g-FLUX] in a Finnish sample of university students. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the reliability of the NPI-13, g-FLUX, SB-PNI Vulnerability, and two HSNS subfactors (Oversensitivity and Egocentrism). Tests of measurement invariance indicated the NPI-13, SB-PNI Vulnerability, HSNS Oversensitivity, and the g-FLUX perform similarly between males and females and are generally similar between individuals in younger and older age groups. Construct and predictive validity were evaluated by examining relations between narcissism measures and relevant criteria including psychopathology symptoms, self-esteem, well-being, five factor traits, and empathy. Results supported the construct validity of all four measures, while correlational profiles highlighted the convergence between the g-FLUX and measures of both grandiosity and vulnerability. The NPI-13 was most predictive of NPD symptoms, whereas vulnerable narcissism measures were most predictive of psychopathology. Results further establish the psychometric properties of the NPI-13, SB-PNI Vulnerability, HSNS Oversensitivity, Egocentrism, and provide new validation of the g-FLUX.

Evidence for a Behaviourally Measurable Perseverance Trait in Humans.

The aim was to create and study a possible behavioural measure for trait(s) in humans that reflect the ability and motivation to continue an unpleasant behaviour, i.e., behavioural perseverance or persistence (BP). We utilised six different tasks with 54 subjects to measure the possible BP trait(s): cold pressor task, hand grip endurance task, impossible anagram task, impossible verbal reasoning task, thread and needle task, and boring video task. The task performances formed two BP factors. Together, the two-factor solution is responsible for the common variance constituting 37.3% of the total variance in the performances i.e., performance times. Excluding the impossible anagram task, the performance in any given task was better explained by performances in the other tasks (i.e., "trait", η2 range = 0.131-0.253) than by the rank order variable ("depletion", i.e., getting tired from the previous tasks, η2 range = 0-0.096).

Positive affect state is a good predictor of movement and stress: combining data from ESM/EMA, mobile HRV measurements and trait questionnaires.

Personality describes the average behaviour and responses of individuals across situations; but personality traits are often poor predictors of behaviour in specific situations. This is known as the "personality paradox". We evaluated the interrelations between various trait and state variables in participants' everyday lives. As state measures, we used 1) experience sampling methodology (ESM/EMA) to measure perceived affect, stress, and presence of social company; and 2) heart rate variability and 3) real-time movement (accelerometer data) to indicate physiological stress and physical movement. These data were linked with self-report measures of personality and personality-like traits. Trait variables predicted affect states and multiple associations were found: traits neuroticism and rumination decreased positive affect state and increased negative affect state. Positive affect state, in turn, was the strongest predictor of observed movement. Positive affect was also associated with heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV). Negative affect, in turn, was not associated with neither movement, HR or HRV. The study provides evidence on the influence of personality-like traits and social context to affect states, and, in turn, their influence to movement and stress variables.

Type 1 long QT syndrome and psychological stress in a laboratory setting.

Trait-like sensitivity to stress in long QT syndrome patients has been documented previously. In addition, mental stress has been associated with symptomatic status of long QT syndrome. We examined whether the symptomatic type 1 long QT syndrome patients would be more sensitive to mental stress compared to asymptomatic patients and whether there would be differences in task-related physiological stress reactions between type 1 long QT syndrome patients and healthy individuals. The study population consisted of 21 symptomatic and 23 asymptomatic molecularly defined KCNQ1 mutation carriers, their 32 non-carrier relatives and 46 non-related healthy controls, with mean ages of 37, 39, 35 and 23 years, respectively. Electrocardiography was utilised to calculate inter-beat interval and high frequency and low frequency heart rate variability. Blood pressure was measured and mean arterial pressure and pulse pressure were calculated. Stress was induced using three different tasks: mental arithmetic, reaction time and public speech. Stress responses of symptomatic and asymptomatic type 1 long QT syndrome patients were not statistically different in any of the stress tasks. Short-term physiological stress reactivity of symptomatic type 1 long QT syndrome patients appears to be normal and does not enhance the risk assessment of asymptomatic mutation carriers.

Physiological responses to affiliation during conversation: Comparing neurotypical males and males with Asperger syndrome.

We examined the emotional and psychophysiological underpinnings of social interaction in the context of autism spectrum disorder, more specifically, involving participants diagnosed with Asperger syndrome (AS). We recorded participants' autonomic nervous system (ANS) activation (electrodermal activity, heart rate, and heart rate variability) and facial muscle activation during conversations in two different types of male dyads: (1) ten dyads where one participant has been diagnosed with AS (AS/NT dyads) and (2) nine dyads where both participants are neurotypical (NT/NT dyads). Afterwards, three independent raters assessed continuously each participant's affiliative and dominant behaviors during the first and last 10 minutes of the conversations. The relationship between the assessed data and ANS responses was examined. We found that, in the NT/NT dyads, a high level of affiliation displayed by the conversational partner calms down the participant when they are actively dominating the interaction. In contrast, when the participants themselves expressed affiliation, their psychophysiological responses indicated increase in arousal, which suggests that the giving of affiliation is physiologically "hard work." The affiliation-related ANS responses were similar in those NT participants whose conversational partner had AS, while some differences in facial muscle activation did occur in comparison to NT/NT dyads. In the AS participants, in contrast, a high level of affiliation provided by the conversational partner was associated with increase in arousal, suggesting heightened alertness and stress. As for their own affiliative behavior, the AS participants exhibited similar indicators of alertness and stress as the NT participants, but only when their own level of dominance was low. Our results increase understanding of how individuals with AS experience social interaction at the physiological level, and how this experience differs from that in NT individuals. Moreover, our results confirm and further specify our earlier results, where we proposed that affiliation involves the type of "sharing of the burden" that also reverberates in the participants' bodies.

Empathy, Challenge, and Psychophysiological Activation in Therapist-Client Interaction.

Two central dimensions in psychotherapeutic work are a therapist's empathy with clients and challenging their judgments. We investigated how they influence psychophysiological responses in the participants. Data were from psychodynamic therapy sessions, 24 sessions from 5 dyads, from which 694 therapist's interventions were coded. Heart rate and electrodermal activity (EDA) of the participants were used to index emotional arousal. Facial muscle activity (electromyography) was used to index positive and negative emotional facial expressions. Electrophysiological data were analyzed in two time frames: (a) during the therapists' interventions and (b) across the whole psychotherapy session. Both empathy and challenge had an effect on psychophysiological responses in the participants. Therapists' empathy decreased clients' and increased their own EDA across the session. Therapists' challenge increased their own EDA in response to the interventions, but not across the sessions. Clients, on the other hand, did not respond to challenges during interventions, but challenges tended to increase EDA across a session. Furthermore, there was an interaction effect between empathy and challenge. Heart rate decreased and positive facial expressions increased in sessions where empathy and challenge were coupled, i.e., the amount of both empathy and challenge was either high or low. This suggests that these two variables work together. The results highlight the therapeutic functions and interrelation of empathy and challenge, and in line with the dyadic system theory by Beebe and Lachmann (2002), the systemic linkage between interactional expression and individual regulation of emotion.

The role of personality in dyadic interaction: A psychophysiological study.

Psychophysiological activity was recorded during development discussions of 44 manager-subordinate pairs to examine the effects of the Big Five personality traits Extraversion and Conscientiousness, and personality similarity during dyadic social interaction. Facial electromyography and frontal electroencephalography (EEG) asymmetry were collected continuously during the 30-min discussions. Different actor and partner effects and Actor×Partner interactions were observed. Matching levels of Extraversion led to higher periocular muscle activity, indicating positive valence emotional expressions. The results are discussed considering similarity attraction theories.

Intragroup Emotions: Physiological Linkage and Social Presence.

We investigated how technologically mediating two different components of emotion-communicative expression and physiological state-to group members affects physiological linkage and self-reported feelings in a small group during video viewing. In different conditions the availability of second screen text chat (communicative expression) and visualization of group level physiological heart rates and their dyadic linkage (physiology) was varied. Within this four person group two participants formed a physically co-located dyad and the other two were individually situated in two separate rooms. We found that text chat always increased heart rate synchrony but HR visualization only with non-co-located dyads. We also found that physiological linkage was strongly connected to self-reported social presence. The results encourage further exploration of the possibilities of sharing group member's physiological components of emotion by technological means to enhance mediated communication and strengthen social presence.