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Overview, Common Pathways Model, Administrative structureLink to PMBC Members and Contact InfoUpcoming and past Lectures, Workshops, Journal Clubs, etc.Pilot research and other PMBC research projects, PMBC publicationsReviews of assessment tools, Consultation, Equipment referralsClinical Scholars Program, Workshops, Lectures, Summer InstituteMeasurement Resources . . .Request consult on Biological, Psychosocial, Health Behavior, or Sleep research		 Low socioeconomic status (SES) has a profound influence on physical health throughout life with
relations found between both disease outcomes and risk factors for disease, e.g., higher blood
pressure, lower rates of physical activity (Adler et al., 1994; Anderson & Armstead, 1995; Chen,
Matthews & Boyce, 2002).  Recently, there has been some attention directed at the role of threat
appraisals in this association.  Specifically, it has been shown that low SES young adults interpret
ambiguous video scenarios more negatively than their high SES counterparts (Chen, Langer,
Raphaelson, & Matthews, 2004).  Furthermore, this increased threat appraisal has been found to
partially mediate the relationship between SES and reactivity suggesting a potential role of
interpretation of life events in physical disease outcomes.

The current study will extend this prior work by examining whether differences in SES differences
are associated with a perceptual sensitivity to threatening information.  Specifically, we theorize
that one way that individuals perceive threat from others is via the perception of negative emotion,
e.g., anger, in the faces of those that they are interacting with. It is plausible then, that the
individuals low in SES have a greater sensitivity to detecting threat in the faces of others.
Similarly, they may be less sensitive to positive information carried on in the face.

It is also unclear whether childhood experiences associated with growing up in a lower SES
family and neighborhood are responsible for sensitivity to threat, or whether this sensitivity is the
result of currently perceiving oneself to be of lower status.
We will therefore assess SES in two ways:
.
1) actual family SES measured through self-report questionnaires, as well as
2) manipulated SES.

Finally, since previous studies have shown that both state affect as well as personality
dispositions influence perception of faces, we will monitor those characteristics as well since it
is plausible that manipulating SES perceptions will influence mood and, similarly, that there may
be stable dispositional differences between those high and low SES.

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  7/12/2007  la/tc

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