The 48-item Negative Physical Self Scale (NPSS; Chen, Jackson, & Huang, 2006) was created to assess general and specific physical appearance concerns relevant to Chinese cultural contexts. The NPSS can be administered to adolescents and/or adults and is free to use in any setting. In this chapter, we discuss the development of the NPSS and then summarize research evaluating its psychometrics. Specifically, the NPSS been found to have a five-factor structure comprising concerns with fatness, stature, facial appearance, and general appearance within exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses that is invariant across samples of mainland Chinese women and men. Furthermore, specific NPSS dimensions have internal consistency reliability, test-retest reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity and predictive validity support. Subsequently, this chapter presents the NPSS items in their entirety, instructions for administration, the item response scale, and the scoring procedure. Finally, we provide logistics of use - including permissions, copyright, and contact information - for readers.

Past research has shown that older adults’ neutral facial expressions can accumulate visible traces of the emotions that they have experienced most frequently in their lives (Adams et al., 2016; Malatesta et al., 1987). But what factors determine the emotions that a person habitually experiences? Moreover, what other factors influence or modulate changes to the appearance of the face over time? In this chapter, we examine how overlapping social, emotional, and motivational forces can shape an individual’s emotional experiences, self-presentation, and other aspects of their life and behavior, and discuss how this can in turn lead to changes in the appearance of the face. We review how factors such as culture, social group memberships, and stereotypes determine how these three forces may affect a given individual and the appearance of their face as they age; we furthermore explore how the appearance of the face can remain consistent over time.