No description available.

No description available.

In this study, we implement an emotional text-to-speech system for the limited domain of on-line play-by-play baseball game summary. TheChinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) is our target domain. Our goal is that the output synthesized speech is fluent with appropriate emotion. The system first parses the input text and keeps the on-court informations, e.g., the number of runners and which base is occupied, the number of outs, the score of each team, the batter's performance in game. And the system adds additional sentences in the input text. Then, the system outputs neutral synthesized speech from the text with additional sentences inserted, and subsequently converts it to emotional speech. Our approach to speech conversion is to simulate a baseball braodcaster. Specifically, our system learns and uses the prosody from a broadcaster. To learn the prosody, we record two baseball games and analyze the prosodic features of emotional utterances. These observations are used to generate some prosodic rules of emotional conversion. The subjective evaluation is used to study the preference of the subjects about the additional sentences insertion and the emotion conversion in the system.

When an individual experienced that the assumptions are different with the ones when he/she made decisions, and if the actual or imaginational current situations might be better given the information then, a kind of negative emotion named ¡§regret¡¨ emerges. Previous studies found that regret played similar roles in terms of satisfaction, repurchase behavior and intention of complain: regret lowers the satisfaction and repurchase behavior, and indirectly affects the intention of complain through low satisfaction. However, different results are found in the realm of willingness of word-of-mouth communications. Thus, this research combines the work of Zeelenberg & Pieters (2004a) and daily observations for the sake of discussing whether impression management factors causes consumers not to conduct negative word-of-mouth communications albeit regretting their previous decisions ¡V or even carry out positive word-of-mouth communications in extreme cases. The study served scenario design as the main method. Experiment 1 was used in determining the relation between subjects¡¦ word-of-mouth communication behaviorsand their level of regret. The decision category ¡§switch and maintain¡¨ is an indicatorof the subjects¡¦ level of regret. The results indicate that when subjects perceive¡§higher level of regret if experienced¡¨ (i.e. the decision category of switch), theywould possess significantly higher level of effect in word-of-mouth communications then subjects in the other category. The thesis added impression management in experiment 2, they are ¡udependence¡vand¡uself-monitoring¡v, in order to test whether would subjects be affected due to impression management behaviors in terms of the willingness to conduct negative word-of-mouth communications. The results indicate that whether the decision categories or level of experienced regret are served as the measurement of emotions, ¡§level of dependent¡¨ and ¡§level of self-monitoring¡¨ play significant harmonizing roles in communicating negative word-of-mouth information. Significant decrease of such willingness is found in the category of high level of dependent.

No description available.

Depression is a serious mental health concern affecting nearly 20% of the population (Kessler, 2002). A hallmark feature of depression is a prolonged period (i.e., 2 weeks or more) of sad mood. Because of this, recent conceptualizations have described Major Depressive Disorder as a dysfunction of emotion regulation (e.g., Kring & Bachorowski, 1999). However, the nature of this emotion regulation dysfunction in MDD is not well understood. The current study examined whether experimentally manipulating emotion regulation during a stressful task would help depressed individuals more effectively regulate subjective and physiological emotional responses. Although theorists have speculated that depression may potentiate certain emotional states, few empirical studies have been completed. One study found that depressed individuals reacted with significantly greater anger in response to a distressing and frustrating task than non-depressed individuals (Ellis, Fischer & Beevers, 2010). That study suggested that emotion regulation difficulties may contribute to the potentiation of some negative emotions, such as anger, among depressed individuals. Altering the emotion regulation strategies typically used by depressed individuals could therefore attenuate emotional reactivity to stressful experiences. Gross (1998) posits that emotion regulation can occur at two distinct points--either manipulating the input or the output of the emotional process. He refers to these as antecedent-focused (e.g., reappraisal of cognitions) or response-focused (e.g., acceptance of experience) emotion regulation. This theoretical framework provides a model through which to examine strategies to reduce distress and anger in depression. Specifically, the current dissertation examined the differential effects of manipulating an emotional response before generated (reappraisal; antecedent-focused) and after elicited (acceptance; response-focused). Depressed and non-depressed individuals were randomized to an emotion regulation strategy: reappraisal, acceptance or no strategy. They then completed a standardized, distressing task previously shown to potentiate anger (Ellis et al., 2010) and affect physiological responding (Matthews & Stoney, 1988). Subjective (i.e., anger, anxiety) and physiological (i.e., heart rate, galvanic skin response, respiration) emotional responses were collected to determine whether manipulating emotion regulation attenuates emotional reactivity to the distressing task. Results indicated that depressed individuals responded with greater anger, had lower galvanic skin conductance response, and persisted for shorter duration on the task than non-depressed individuals. Results also indicated that instructions to accept emotions increased anger during the task compared to reappraisal or no strategy. However, depression status and emotion regulation strategy did not interact, suggesting the effect of emotion regulation strategy did not differ across depression groups. Further, there were no differences between strategies for task persistence or skin conductance. Results suggest that acceptance is not an effective strategy for the acute reduction of anger. Results also emphasize the importance of anger potentiation and distress intolerance and highlight the need for continued work that identifies more effective strategies for emotion dysregulation in depression. / text

Recent investigations have suggested that the use of emotion-avoidance or emotion- suppression strategies to cope with anxiety contributes to the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders, and that substituting these strategies with emotional acceptance can lead to effective symptom reduction. We wished to consider whether attempts to suppress the negative emotions associated with exposure therapy would serve to impede emotional processing and symptom reduction, and conversely, whether acceptance of these emotions would augment treatment efficacy. Fifty-nine participants displaying marked claustrophobic fear were assigned to receive 30 minutes of exposure (enclosure in a small chamber) while receiving, A) instructions to accept and allow the experience of unpleasant emotions (ACC), B) instructions to control and suppress the experience of unpleasant emotions (SUP), or C) no instructions regarding emotion regulation (exposure only; EO). Outcome assessments were conducted prior to treatment, immediately following treatment, and at one-month follow-up, and included fear and heart rate reactivity in response to a behavioral approach test. We predicted that ACC participants would display greater reductions in claustrophobic fear than EO participants, and that EO participants would in turn display greater reductions in claustrophobic fear than SUP participants. These hypotheses were not supported. In addition, a detailed analysis of treatment process data was conducted. Peak fear ratings, claustrophobic threat expectancies, self-efficacy, and acceptance of anxiety were collected over the course of the treatment session, and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to produce individual growth curves for these variables. Three hypotheses were formulated: 1) ACC participants would display a more rapid improvement in these measures than SUP and EO participants, 2) threat expectancies, self-efficacy and anxiety would mediate reductions in fear over the course of treatment, and 3) mediational pathways would be moderated by treatment condition. Though no support was found for our first process hypothesis, treatment specific mediation was found. Among ACC participants, self-efficacy and suffocation expectancies mediated the session-fear relationship, and among EO participants, entrapment expectancies mediated this relationship. Among SUP participants, no significant mediators were identified. / text

Despite adolescence and emerging adulthood being a time of peak physical ability, it is marked by a dramatic increase in morbidity and mortality, primarily driven by poor behavioral and emotional control (Dahl, 2004). Multiple lines of recent research are now focusing on how maturation of decision-making impacts risk-taking, and more specifically, what role emotion regulation plays (Weinberger et al., 2005; Steinberg, 2007). Rather than avoiding risk factors, a call is made for strength and skills-based approaches to risk-taking interventions. The purpose of the current exploratory study was to assess the efficacy of an experiential learning (EL) intervention designed to increase participants’ emotion regulation skills and decrease risk-taking. Twenty-eight emerging adults participated; 15 were assigned to the experimental group and presented with two separate sessions on emotional regulation and risk-taking using EL methodology (low and high element activities). The control group’s 13 participants were presented with two separate powerpoint lectures on emotion regulation and risk-taking. Participants’ difficulty with emotion regulation and risk-taking were assessed prior to the first session, between sessions, and one week following the second session. Qualitative interviews assessed participants’ understanding of how emotions and risk-taking are connected and process measures assessed the emotional impact of the intervention activities. While hypotheses were not confirmed, results revealed a significant decline in difficulty with emotion regulation across time for all participants. Unexpectedly, however, there were no significant differences between the groups on emotional regulation and the group x time interaction was also not significant. Additionally, risk-taking significantly increased across time. The control group reported more risk-taking across the three time periods than the experimental group. The time x group interaction approached significance [F(2,56) =2.68, p =.07], showing consistent increases for the control group but relatively low levels for the experimental group. Qualitative data revealed that participants had clear notions of how emotions drive risk-taking, how the thrill of risk- taking can be used to displace negative feelings, and how one’s need to connect to others can lead to risk-taking. Experimental group participants demonstrated a shift from global thinking about emotions and risk-taking to more specific thoughts about emotional awareness as a key skill. / text

This research investigates the role of emotion in the persuasion process by establishing a novel relationship between emotion and construal level. Built on cognitive appraisal theories, this research proposes that the certainty appraisal components of emotions exert a direct influence on an individual’s representation of information at a high versus low construal level. The findings indicate that individuals primed to feel emotion low on certainty appraisals construe behaviors or events at a high level and estimate uncertain events as more likely to happen, while those primed to feel emotion high on certainty appraisals characterize behavior or events at a low level and evaluate uncertain events as less likely to occur (Study 1 & Study 2). Further, such a fit (vs. nonfit) between an individual’s emotional state and the construal level at which product benefits in an advertising message are represented lead to a more favorable evaluation of the message and product (Study 3). The findings from this dissertation study also illustrate that uncertainty-related emotion eliciting a high-level construal mindset leads to a cognitive shift toward relying more on nonalignable attribute differences and a greater preference for the nonalignable-better brand although individuals usually rely more on alignable attribute differences and favor the alignable-better brand (Study 4). Accordingly, these outcomes occur because the certainty appraisal components of emotions influence mental construal levels. / text

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of self-compassion, self-criticism and brooding as mediators between insecure attachment and depression in a multimediational model. Additional aims were to investigate whether self-compassion and self-criticism were independent predictors of depression and whether self compassion could protect against depression through reducing self-criticism and brooding. Three hundred and fifty six participants selected through convenience sampling completed measures of attachment, self-criticism, self-compassion, brooding and depression as part of an online survey. Multiple regression showed self-criticism and self-compassion independently predicted depression. Multimediational analysis found that the relationship between anxious attachment and depression was fully mediated by self-criticism, brooding and self compassion. The relationship between avoidant attachment and depression was partially mediated by hated self-criticism and brooding. Hated self-criticism and brooding partially mediated between self-compassion and depression. This study linked the related areas of self-compassion and attachment, the findings add to evidence supporting the potential value of compassion-focused therapies and further clinical and theoretical implications are discussed.