The present study examined the relationship between body image and adolescent girls' activity on the social networking site (SNS) Facebook (FB). Research has shown that elevated Internet "appearance exposure" is positively correlated with increased body image disturbance among adolescent girls, and there is a particularly strong association with FB use. The present study sought to replicate and extend upon these findings by identifying the specific FB features that correlate with body image disturbance in adolescent girls. A total of 103 middle and high school females completed questionnaire measures of total FB use, specific FB feature use, weight dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, thin ideal internalization, appearance comparison, and self-objectification. An appearance exposure score was calculated based on subjects' use of FB photo applications relative to total FB use. Elevated appearance exposure, but not overall FB usage, was significantly correlated with weight dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, thin ideal internalization, and self-objectification. Implications for eating disorder prevention programs and best practices in researching SNSs are discussed.

Many studies, yielding mixed results, have examined whether individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) have skills or deficits in facial emotion recognition (FER). The present studies explored this issue in 2 samples using 3 novel approaches: First, we examined BPD symptoms continuously in a nonclinical sample. Second, we examined the ability of individuals with BPD or elevated BPD symptoms to accurately identify emotions in static faces presented with emotional expressions ranging from neutral to subtle to fully expressed emotion. Third, we parsed accuracy into both correctly identifying an emotion and correctly ruling out an emotion that is not present. In Study 1, the relation between FER and BPD symptoms was examined in a nonclinical sample of undergraduates. In Study 2, individuals with BPD were compared with individuals with current major depression and healthy controls. In the nonclinical sample, BPD symptoms were unrelated to FER. In the clinical sample, we found evidence for enhanced accuracy for subtle and fully expressed facial emotions among individuals with BPD. Specifically, the ability to rule out an emotion when it was in fact not displayed emerged as the source of this increased accuracy. In addition, we did not find evidence of a bias for incorrectly labeling neutral faces as negative emotional expressions in either sample. Our results expand upon existing FER research in BPD that has largely relied on fully expressed emotional stimuli by demonstrating higher accuracy among individuals with BPD for identifying subtle emotional states.

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This study examined if experimentally manipulated invalidation or validation of an emotional experience moderates the relation between five-factor personality characteristics and aggressive behavior. Participants were 69 undergraduates who, after undergoing a sad mood induction, were randomized to receive either a validating or invalidating comment before completing a behavioral measure of aggression. As predicted, experimental condition moderated the relation between personality and aggression such that participants who were average or low in agreeableness and conscientiousness were more aggressive when invalidated than validated, whereas participants who were high in these traits were low in aggression regardless of experimental condition. A three-way interaction emerged such that the two-way interaction between conscientiousness and experimental condition was significant only among participants who were average or high in neuroticism. This study is the first to demonstrate experimentally that big-five personality characteristics commonly linked to trait aggression may only produce aggressive behaviors under certain conditions, namely, invalidation.