Researchers interested in emotion have long struggled with the problem of how to elicit emotional responses in the laboratory. In this article, we summarise five years of work to develop a set of films that reliably elicit each of eight emotional states (amusement, anger, contentment, disgust, fear, neutral, sadness, and surprise). After evaluating over 250 films, we showed selected film clips to an ethnically diverse sample of 494 English-speaking subjects. We then chose the two best films for each of the eight target emotions based on the intensity and discreteness of subjects' responses to each film. We found that our set of 16 films successfully elicited amusement, anger, contentment. disgust, sadness, surprise, a relatively neutral state, and, to a lesser extent, fear. We compare this set of films with another set recently described by Philippot (1993), and indicate that detailed instructions for creating our set of film stimuli will be provided on request.

Emotion elicitation using films

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Substance abuse treatment.

View a collection of videos on Professor Wilson entitled "On the Relation of Science and the Humanities"In his new preface E. O. Wilson reflects on how he came to write this book: how "The Insect Societies" led him to write "Sociobiology," and how the political and religious uproar that engulfed that book persuaded him to write another book that would better explain the relevance of biology to the understanding of human behavior.

On Human Nature

Quantitative genetic research has built a strong case for the importance of genetic factors in many complex behavioral disorders and dimensions in the domains of psychopathology, personality, and cognitive abilities. Quantitative genetics can also provide an empirical guide and a conceptual framework for the application of molecular genetics. The success of molecular genetics in elucidating the genetic basis of behavioral disorders has largely relied on a reductionistic one gene, one disorder (OGOD) approach in which a single gene is necessary and sufficient to develop a disorder. In contrast, a quantitative trait loci (QTL) approach involves the search for multiple genes, each of which is neither necessary nor sufficient for the development of a trait. The OGOD and QTL approaches have both advantages and disadvantages for identifying genes that affect complex human behaviors.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/264/5166/1733.full.pdf

The Genetic Basis of Complex Human Behaviors

Sleep researchers in different disciplines disagree about how fully dreaming can be explained in terms of brain physiology. Debate has focused on whether REM sleep dreaming is qualitatively different from nonREM (NREM) sleep and waking. A review of psychophysiological studies shows clear quantitative differences between REM and NREM mentation and between REM and waking mentation. Recent neuroimaging and neurophysiological studies also differentiate REM, NREM, and waking in features with phenomenological implications. Both evidence and theory suggest that there are isomorphisms between the phenomenology and the physiology of dreams. We present a three-dimensional model with specific examples from normally and abnormally changing conscious states.

/pdf/dreaming-and-the-brain-toward-a-cognitive-neuroscience-of-4pu7cg288c.pdf

Dreaming and the brain: toward a cognitive neuroscience of conscious states

Homosexual male probands with monozygotic cotwins, dizygotic cotwins, or adoptive brothers were recruited using homophile publications. Sexual orientation of relatives was assessed either by asking relatives directly, or when this was impossible, asking the probands. Of the relatives whose sexual orientation could be rated, 52% (29/56) of monozygotic cotwins, 22% (12/54) of dizygotic cotwins, and 11% (6/57) of adoptive brothers were homosexual. Heritabilities were substantial under a wide range of assumptions about the population base rate of homosexuality and ascertainment bias. However, the rate of homosexuality among nontwin biological siblings, as reported by probands, 9.2% (13/142), was significantly lower than would be predicted by a simple genetic hypothesis and other published reports. A proband's self-reported history of childhood gender non-conformity did not predict homosexuality in relatives in any of the three subsamples. Thus, childhood gender nonconformity does not appear to be an indicator of genetic loading for homosexuality. Cotwins from concordant monozygotic pairs were very similar for childhood gender nonconformity.

A genetic study of male sexual orientation.

• Homosexual female probands with monozygotic cotwins, dizygotic cotwins, or adoptive sisters were recruited using homophile publications. Sexual orientation of relatives was assessed either by asking relatives directly, or, when this was impossible, by asking the probands. Of the relatives whose sexual orientation could be confidently rated, 34 (48%) of 71 monozygotic cotwins, six (16%) of 37 dizygotic cotwins, and two (6%) of 35 adoptive sisters were homosexual. Probands also reported 10(14%) nontwin biologic sisters to be homosexual, although those sisters were not contacted to confirm their orientations. Heritabilities were significant using a wide range of assumptions about both the base rate of homosexuality in the population and ascertainment bias. The likelihood that a monozygotic cotwin would also be homosexual was unrelated to measured characteristics of the proband such as self-reported history of childhood gender nonconformity. Concordant monozygotic twins reported similar levels of childhood gender nonconformity.

https://jamanetwork.com/HttpHandlers/ArticlePdfHandler.ashx?journal=psych&articleId=496107&pdfFileName=archpsyc_50_3_007.pdf

Heritable Factors Influence Sexual Orientation in Women

• We recruited 51 predominantly homosexual and 50 predominantly heterosexual men as index subjects for a family study of sexual orientation. The sexual orientation of siblings (115 sisters and 123 brothers) was ascertained in two ways: (1) via interview with the index subjects and (2) via interview of and/or mailed questionnaire to the siblings themselves. Index subjects' knowledge of the sexual orientation of their siblings was, for the most part, quite accurate. Moreover, heterosexual index men had about as many homosexual brothers as would be predicted given national prevalence figures for homosexuality, but homosexual index men had about four times as many homosexual brothers, although in both cases most brothers were heterosexual. There was no significant difference between the index groups in number of homosexual sisters. We conclude that there is a significant familial component to male homosexuality.

Evidence of Familial Nature of Male Homosexuality

Available evidence suggests that male homosexuality is both familial and somewhat heritable and that some cases may be caused by an X-linked gene. However, most studies have recruited subjects in a relatively unsystematic manner, typically via advertisements, and hence suffer from the potential methodological flaw of ascertainment bias due to volunteer self-selection. In the present study we assessed the familiality of male homosexuality using two carefully ascertained samples and attempted to replicate findings consistent with X-linkage in three samples. The percentage of siblings of the probands rated as either homosexual or bisexual, with a high degree of certainty, ranged from 7 to 10% for brothers and 3 to 4% for sisters. These estimates are higher than recent comparable population-based estimates of homosexuality, supporting the importance of familial factors for male homosexuality. Estimates of λs for male homosexuality ranged from 3.0 to 4.0. None of the samples showed a significantly greater proportion of maternal than paternal homosexual uncles or homosexual male maternal first cousins. Although our results differed significantly with those of some prior studies, they do not exclude the possibility of moderate X-linkage for male sexual orientation.

A family history study of male sexual orientation using three independent samples.

The role of dreaming in the assimilation and mastery of new experiences was examined in this study. Previous work had shown that a film of an autopsy can evoke measurable psychologic and physiologic indices of anxiety. Adaptation to the experience was indicated by lower levels of anxiety during a se

Richard C. Pillard

Papers

A genetic study of male sexual orientation.

Heritable Factors Influence Sexual Orientation in Women

Evidence of Familial Nature of Male Homosexuality

A family history study of male sexual orientation using three independent samples.

The effect of dream (stage REM) deprivation on adaptation to stress.