It has long been known that people's varying levels of emotionality lead to different responses in behaviour, but a group of psychologists in America have found an intriguing relationship between smile intensity in yearbook photos and subsequent marital harmony.
Smile intensity and relationship success may be linked
Psychologists have long theorised that people’s varying levels of emotionality lead to different responses in behaviour, thought and physiology both within the person, and with other people. Innately smiley babies, for example, are thought to evoke more positive responses from others, which sets them on a different developmental trajectory than their grumpy peers: how we express emotion shapes the world around us from the day we are born, which can lead to very different outcomes without us really knowing about it.
In 2001, a group of California researchers tested how well this theory stands up to reality by looking at women’s yearbook photos at a top university and comparing the intensity of their positive expression to various outcomes related to their future health, personality and marriages.
They found that there was a strong and convincing relationship: the more intense their yearbook smile was, the more likely these women were to be married by 27 and to rate their marriage in later years as ‘satisfying’. The smiley woman was more likely to be organised, content, nurturing, compassionate and sociable than her poker-faced classmates.
Spot the smilers!
However, this is only a correlation: is it that smiling more gets you your man, or that women who are more successful are as a result more likely to grin about it? It is difficult to tell which direction the effect works in at present, but the evidence for a relationship of some kind is very convincing.
Facial Action Coding System
Some might greet this research with a critical eye. After all, how on earth does one ‘measure’ the intensity of a smile? Were these results just down to arbitrary scores that the researchers gave to each woman? Fortunately not: social psychologists have become very skilled at quantifying the previously unquantifiable, and these researchers were no exception. They used a ‘Facial Action Coding System’ developed about 35 years ago, analyzing two muscle action units (orbicularis oculi and zygomatic major) for each photo. One set of muscles raises the cheeks and causes bagging round the eyes, and the other pulls the corners of the mouth up: both features of an intense and genuine smile which involves both the mouth and the eyes.
They scored the intensity of each muscle unit from 1 to 5, and added them together to make an overall score from 1 to 10. Several photos for each participant were used and averaged, and were double checked by different researchers for reliability. Using this method, new researchers were able to support and add to this evidence.
They used yearbook photos too, but also looked further back in the participants’ histories, analysing photos from childhood through to early adulthood. For both sets of photos, divorce rates were predicted successfully by the degree to which participants smiled: the less intense their smiles, the more likely they were to divorce.
No guarantees
Now, none of the researchers seem to be suggesting that forcing smiles in photos will guarantee you a successful marriage. For one, there are a myriad factors at play in the longevity of a relationship, not least the behaviour and emotionality of your partner and external factors such as stressful life events.
It is not so much about the smile itself than what the smile can evoke and signify: what this research does do is call attention to how much relationships are affected by the emotional well-being and resilience of its component individuals, and how they handle the curve-balls that the universe often throws us. It also offers an intriguing insight into the processes at play behind statistics which suggest that individuals with psychological problems such as depression are less likely to sustain long- term relationships than the rest of the population, and lends support to the work of relationship therapists, whose job it is to encourage the longevity of marriages whilst sustaining the emotional well-being of each partner.
The House Partnership, 15th April 2015
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It's popularly associated with peacefulness, calm, and stress reduction. But there's clear evidence that meditation also improves memory, increases awareness, empathy and compassion. These changes are revealed on brain scans.
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Journalist Phillip Weiss, editor of Mondoweiss, discusses the pressures in modern marriage, especially to do with sex. And how most most studies show, in the US at least, that 25% of married men are unfaithful, and 15% of women.
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New psychology research has used brain scans, EEG, and measured antibody production, to reveal the biological processes that underlie the positive changes that people experience after practicing mindfulness meditation as part of psychological therapy.
A thoughtful piece as always from Stephen Fry, discussing his experience of depression. Fry was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder in 1995 after suffering a nervous breakdown.
Steve Blacknell, 55, used to sneak into the kitchen in the middle of the night to eat in secret. He has been recovering from bulimia for 20 years. At The House, our therapists and counsellors are experienced in helping people overcome issues with food and eating.
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Schema therapy is an integrated psychological therapy, combining elements from a variety of therapies including CBT Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. It aims to challenge and correct some of the deepest maladaptive beliefs that we hold about ourselves and the world.
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By tackling the way we think about ourselves, our bodies, and food, and using this to inform changes in our eating behaviours, CBT provides a powerful method for breaking free from the powerful grip of anxiety, guilt and shame that can control our relationship with food.
In a study that asked 515 people why they entered into sex with someone, 50% of women and 52% of men said that they hoped to trigger a longer relationship.
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As it can affect they way we think, feel, behave and relate to others, depression can seem like an impossible challenge to work through alone. Fortunately, Counselling Psychologists at The House are brilliantly positioned to be able to tackle these problems with you.
Mindfulness, though it draws influence from ancient Buddhist tradition, is fast becoming an essential part of a range of non-religious psychological therapies and helping people with a wide variety of physical and emotional concerns.
In the current economic climate - when job security is at an all time low - many people are finding that their best course of action when ill is going to work anyway... but what are the costs not only to the economy, but more importantly to our wellbeing?
A man's problems with his wife keep him awake during a whole night. An animation about insomnia, by Marie-Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits, promoting the short story 'Night Thoughts' by Helen Simpson, for Granta magazine's issue on feminism.
CBT is an active, collaborative, solution-focussed form of therapy combining techniques that help us to confront and correct biases and problems in the ways we think and feel; leading us to independently pursue a more fulfilling and successful life.
This powerful film by documentary filmmaker Martin Hampton introduces us to the lives of four people struggling with compulsive hoarding; each vignette more uncomfortable that the last.
Levni Yilmazis is an independent film-maker, artist and publisher. In this short animation he provides a wry how-to guide for breaking up . . . in 64 easy steps!
Social anxiety has been part of Jo's life since childhood. In this painful story she describes its pernicious effect and the vicious cycle between feelings of anxiety and sadness. But the story has a happy ending as Jo eventually discovers therapy.
Stress, at an appropriate level and duration, can be a positive influence in the workplace. However, when stressful influences are poorly managed, they can cause us to feel like we are 'treading water'. How can we use workplace pressure to our advantage?
Professor Mark Williams, co-developer of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, and research fellow at Oxford University, discusses the science behind why mindfulness works, in calming stress and preventing depression from recurring.
Our psychological problems are shaped by our socio-cultural environment. In Korea, what we might refer to as 'problem anger' is known as 'fire sickness' and is seemingly caused by emotional suppression for the good of the collectivist culture
Systemic therapy looks at people not as isolated individuals, but as parts of various relationships and networks (romantic, familial, platonic, professional etc), and deals with the interactions and dynamics of these groups to improve the wellbeing of its members.
A short animation on how OCD feels to Danish artist, Joaquim Nielsen. One in fifty adults experience obsessive-compulsive behavior during their lives. While OCD can be a serious social disabling condition, it has also become a source of inspiration for some artists.
This film by the charity OCD-UK offers insight into the problems that people with OCD face, and how they experience the condition. OCD responds very well to a combination of CBT cognitive behavioral and mindfulness therapies.
CBT has been consistently shown to aid recovery from OCD in over three quarters of people who undertake it by encouraging them to change the way they think through 'cognitive restructuring', and use this to change the way they behave through 'cognitive management'.
A short video from animator Kelly Bailey on what it's like to live with panic and agoraphobia, containing recorded testimony of real people who have struggled with and overcome these fears.
The focus of mindfulness-based therapy is upon recognising and accepting each moment in the present instead of jumping to hasty and often damaging reactions. This is proving to be greatly beneficial to improving our relationships with others.
Professor Paul Salkovskis, a clinical psychologist and director of the Centre for Anxiety Disorders and Trauma, discusses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. And Karen reveals how this form of therapy helped her overcome OCD.
Sleep brings a range of benefits to our minds, physical health, and well-being, and insomnia can be extremely disruptive to our lives and functioning. Insomnia and long term, chronic sleeplessness, can be extremely disruptive to our lives and functioning, so what can we do to tackle it?
Depression is three times more common following a heart attack: as many as one in three survivors qualify for a diagnosis of major depressive disorder. Research is beginning to reveal which parts of CBT Cognitive Behavioural Therapy CBT may be most helpful to these patients.
Cutural and religious rituals and many of the behaviours of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) show striking similarities: washing, checking, repetition... is OCD a manifestation of a deep human need that has spun out of control?
Kadam Morten Clausen, resident teacher at the Kadampa Meditation Centre in New York, discusses how stress is all about our perceptions of others and of the world. Mindfulness practices, as encouraged at The House Partnership, can help you find a path to a life free of stress.
Levni Yilmazis is an independent film-maker, artist and publisher. This is his ironic take on the less-than-helpful advice some people give when you're experiencing depression.
Though it has been proposed that food issues such as extreme dieting, anorexia and bulimia are on the rise and influenced by media pressures, analysis of texts about and by many of history's key figures suggests that these problems have been around for centuries.
A clip from the BBC's Weird Nature series showing how Vervet Monkeys in the Caribbean have taken to stealing cocktails from people on the beach. Studies show that they have the same percentage of teetotal and alcoholic individuals as the human population.
