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We surveyed 395 Korean middle-aged women and examined how their perceptions of family relationships, gender-role attitudes, and self-esteem were associated with Hwa-Byung (HB; Korean anger syndrome). Our regression analyses revealed that participants who reported worse family relationship problems experienced more HB symptoms. Having profeminist, egalitarian attitudes toward women's gender roles was also associated with more HB symptoms. Self-esteem was not significantly associated with HB. Based on the results, we suggest that what is crucial to understanding HB is not how women evaluate themselves, but rather the level of stress caused by family relationship problems and their perception of women's roles. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The comparative effects of different types of empathic verbal responses were identified through a quantitative, experimental study. In particular, the study explored how reflection and validation interacted with negative emotions among 80 university student participants (29 men, 51 women). Participants were manipulated to experience social exclusion through a game and were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups (control/reflection/validation). Findings indicated varied levels of affects among groups. Both reflection and validation as an empathic verbal response increased sense of belonging, whereas validation increased self-esteem more than reflection did. Moreover, validation was more effective than reflection in lowering both negative mood and aggression toward the people who excluded the participant. Implications and future directions for research and training are discussed., (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.)