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För forskning om emotioner och emotionsbehandling är det en spännande tid. Nyare hjärnforskning har öppnat nya möjligheter för förståelsen av hjärnan och emotioner. En ny teori inom psykologisk konstruktionism, som utgår från hjärnforskningen, tvärvetenskapliga studier och bristerna i den dominerande affektteorin, basic emotion, är Theory of constructed emotion (TCE). Ännu finns ingen behandlingsmodell kopplad till TCE men utifrån dess fokus att beskriva hur hjärnan fungerar och emotioner skapas är det ändå intressant att undersöka om dess verksamma mekanismer. Detta är en översiktlig litteraturstudie med syfte att undersöka begreppen; allostas, interoception och emotionell granularitet i sammanhanget psykisk ohälsa och psykologisk behandling av emotionell problematik. Resultatet visar att allostas, kroppsbudgeten, är grunden i vår fysiska och psykiska mående, interoception och hjärnans prediktioner är viktiga för vår förmåga att förstå våra emotioner och emotionell granularitet hjälper oss att konstruera finkorniga emotionskoncept vilket hjälper oss att välja rätt handling vid rätt tillfälle till rätt emotion. Att träna upp interoception och emotionell granularitet hjälper oss att vidmakthålla psykisk hälsa och är bra psykoedukativa inslag i psykologisk behandling. Mer forskning behövs, främst kring hur man kan tillämpa begreppen i psykologisk behandling samt generellt för att bättre kunna integrera ny emotionsforskning med dominerande teorier för en gemensam förståelse för emotioner och psykoterapi. / For research on emotions and emotion processing, it's an exciting time. More recent brain research has opened new possibilities for the understanding of the brain and emotions. A new theory in psychological constructionism, based on brain research, interdisciplinary studies and the shortcomings of the dominant affect theory, basic emotion, is the Theory of constructed emotion (TCE). There is no treatment model linked to TCE yet but based on its focus on describing how the brain works and emotions are created, it is still interesting to investigate whether its active mechanisms. This is a general literature study with the aim of examining the concepts; allostasis, interoception and emotional granularity in the context of mental illness and psychological treatment of emotional problems. The results show that allostasis, the body budget, is the foundation of our physical and mental well-being, interoception and brain predictions are important for our ability to understand our emotions and emotional granularity helps us construct fine-grained emotion concepts that help us choose the right action at the right time to the right emotion. Training interoception and emotional granularity helps us maintain mental health and is a good psychoeducative element in psychological treatment. More research is needed, primarily on how to apply the concepts in psychological treatment and in general to better integrate new emotion research with dominant theories for a common understanding of emotions and psychotherapy.

Master of Science / Food Science Institute, Human Ecology / Koushik Adhikari / The potential health benefits of spices, used as flavor enhancers since ancient times, are being explored more and more by researchers in animal and in vitro models. The application of mood and emotion constructs to understand the consumer psyche is a relatively new area of study in food science. The main objective of our study was to determine if spices (a blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves) that have high antioxidant properties evoke/change emotions in consumers. The carrier food, an extruded apple-based cereal-like product, was selected because cereals are convenient and consumed by many. Three cereal-like products containing 0, 4, or a 5% spice blend were extruded at Kansas State University. Four consumer tests, one day of hedonic and just-about-right evaluations (n= 100), followed by three days of emotion testing were carried out. For the emotion tests, 25 consumers saw the control sample three times, 25 consumers saw the 4% blend sample three times, 25 consumers saw the 5% blend sample three times, and 25 consumers saw all three samples once. In a clinical trial (n=10), total antioxidant capacity and blood glucose levels were determined from two samples (control and the 4% blend). The data were subjected to analysis of variance and principal components analysis to determine significant effects and trends in the data, respectively. ‘Calm’ was the only emotion that was significantly different in all three samples, which decreased over time (pre-consumption to 1-hour post consumption). The emotion ‘Satisfied’ increased significantly in the 5% blend showing that there might have been an effect because of the higher spice content. The PCAs showed that for the 4% and 5% blends, the movement of the consumers was towards emotions such as active, energetic, and enthusiastic. There were no trends for the control. For the clinical trial, the 4% blend was significantly higher (P < 0.05) in total antioxidant capacity than the baseline, although the differences in absolute terms are debatable. Blood glucose levels were not significantly different. Future research needs to be done to better understand how individual emotions affect overall liking and product acceptance.

Eating disorders remain a phenomenon that escapes full comprehension, resulting in frustration for those who suffer from the disorders, their families, and their therapists. It is becoming increasingly necessary to describe the mechanism by which eating disorders develop, in order to effectively treat and prevent these disorders. The aim of this study was to illuminate factors that contributed to the development of eating disorders within the individual contexts of the lives of the participants, as well as how those factors interacted in context to culminate in the development of an eating disorder. This qualitative study was conducted from an interpretive perspective. The findings show how individual contextual factors interact to produce a marked fear of gaining weight, which is driven by fear of negative evaluation, and that the eating disorder behaviour serves specific functions that are related to coping with stress within the lives of the participants. / Psychology / M. Sc. (Psychology with specialisation in Research Consultation)

Vårt syfte är att analysera researrangörers reklam utifrån emotionsbaserad marknadsföring för att se hur de arbetar med att uttrycka emotioner. Vi arbetar med en abduktiv ansats för att angripa det problem uppsatsen behandlar. Vi gör detta genom en kvalitativ metod där vi får en helhetsbild, som leder till djupare förståelse av ämnet. Vi använder oss av både primär- och sekundärdata i uppsatsen. Efter denna undersökning har vi kommit fram till att researrangörernas fokus ligger på emotionstypen glädje, som uttrycks genom trevliga och glada modeller. Samt genom vackra och stämningsfyllda bilder i researrangörernas marknadsföringen, genom kataloger och TV-reklam.

Couple distress is common and associated with mental and physical health difficulties. Adult attachment insecurity has been associated with couple distress, but the mechanisms of this association need further investigation. This study investigated whether self-compassion and partner compassion mediated this association. 342 individuals and 75 couples completed an online questionnaire assessing attachment anxiety and avoidance, self- and partner compassion, and relationship quality and satisfaction. Partner compassion mediated the association between attachment avoidance and relationship quality and satisfaction. Self-compassion did not emerge as a direct mediator, but mediated between attachment insecurity and relationship measures through partner compassion. Self-compassion and partner compassion might play a role in relationship functioning. Interventions aiming to enhance compassion might be helpful in reducing couple distress.

Objective: The overall aim of this study was to investigate whether maternal emotion recognition of infant faces in a facial morphing task differed by maternal attachment style, and if this was moderated by a secure attachment prime, such that it would ameliorate the effects of maternal attachment insecurity. Method: 87 mothers of children aged 0-18 months completed measures of global and mother-specific trait attachment, post-natal depression, mood and state attachment alongside 2 sessions of an emotion recognition task. This task was made up of short movies created from photographs of infant faces, changing from neutral to either happy or sad. It was designed to assess sensitivity (accuracy of responses and intensity of emotion required to recognize the emotion) to changes in emotions expressed in the faces of infants. Participants also underwent a prime manipulation that was either attachment-based (experimental group) or neutral (control group). Results: There were no significant effects for global attachment scores (i.e., avoidant, anxious). However, there was a significant interaction effect of condition x maternal avoidant attachment for accuracy of recognition of happy infant faces. Explication of this interaction yielded an unexpected finding: participants reporting avoidant attachment relationships with their own mothers were less accurate in recognizing happy infant faces following the attachment prime than participants with maternal avoidant attachment in the control condition. Conclusions: Future research directions suggest ways to improve strength of effects and variability in attachment insecurity. Clinical implications of the study center on the preliminary evidence presented that supports carefully selected and executed interventions for mothers with attachment problems.

Objectives: This study sought to determine whether a computerised cognitive bias modification programme could be effective within a waiting-room setting for parents accompanying their children to CAMHS appointments. The primary objectives were to determine whether detectable changes to participants' emotion recognition could be observed in this setting, and whether this approach would be acceptable to the population. Secondary measures investigated whether the programme would lead to changes in participants' affect or changes in parents' appraisals of difficulties with children. Methods: A computerised emotion recognition training task was delivered to all participants during four weekly sessions. Participants in the experimental condition (n=17) received feedback aiming to shift their detection of positive facial emotions, while those in the control condition (n=14) received feedback which was not designed to elicit any shift in emotion detection. Results: Positive shifts in emotion recognition were observed in the experimental group, although no changes were observed in secondary measures in either control or experimental groups. Qualitative data indicated that the programme was acceptable and appropriately constructed. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that cognitive bias modification is possible within a waiting-room setting, although the extent to which this can lead to clinically significant improvements in mood or relationships remains uncertain. This work has implications for emotion recognition interventions for clinical populations known to present with negative emotional biases (e.g. anxiety and depression) and represents an important first research step towards developing interventions to improve parent-child relationships.

Objectives: There is evidence that childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with increased risk of offending and violent crime. This study aimed to explore associations between TBI in a group of delinquent and vulnerable young people (VYP) at risk of offending, and facial emotion recognition (FER) abilities, inhibition control (Stop-IT) and self-reported reactive-proactive aggression (RPQ). Methods: There were two studies. The first study used a cross sectional between group design to compare 45 VYP (with and without TBI) and a control group of 59 students on FER task measuring emotion recognition accuracy of six basic emotions. The second study examined differences between TBI and non-TBI groups in the VYP sample (N=21) on a Stop-IT task, FER accuracy and self-reported reactive-proactive aggression. Results: A history of TBI was reported by 60% of the VYP group (48.9% with loss of consciousness [LoC]), whereas 30% of the control group reported a history of TBI (25.4% with LoC). The VYP group (with and without TBI) demonstrated a similar pattern of reduced overall FER accuracy that was significantly different to the control group. Compared to the control group, The VYP groups (with and without TBI) were less accurate on recognising anger, disgust, sadness and surprise, but not happy and fear. There were no significant differences between the TBI- and non-TBI groups. The second study did not find any significant differences between the TBI and non-TBI groups on overall FER accuracy, Stop-IT performance, and RPQ scores. There were also no significant associations between these measures. Conclusions: Future research requires larger samples that enable investigating the association between different severity of TBI, FER and inhibition control ability. Better and more youth-friendly measures are also needed.

Background: Despite evidence that caring for a spouse or partner with dementia may continue over a number of years, our understanding of how the carer’s experience unfolds over time is still in its infancy. In addition, the emotional experience of spousal dementia carers has been incompletely understood in research and clinical practice with a predominant focus upon negative emotional consequences. There is a need to contextualise the emotional experience of carers within a framework that enables understanding of positive aspects of the care experience. Objective: This thesis is in two parts. Part one uses systematic review to critically evaluate evidence from published longitudinal studies that assess the impact of care transition (caring for spouse at home and placed spouse in care home) on the well-being of spousal dementia carers. Part two is an empirical study examining emotion regulation and positive growth in spouses who care for their partner with a diagnosis of dementia. Methods: Systematic review of longitudinal studies that assess the impact of care transition on spousal carer well-being. The empirical study comprised a cross-sectional design comparing positive growth and emotion regulation in three carer groups (caring for spouse at home, placed spouse in care home or experienced death of spouse). 183 carers were recruited through a postal survey which comprised the following self-report measures: Post Traumatic Growth Inventory; Basic Emotions Scale; and Regulation of Emotions Questionnaire. Systematic Review Results: Despite poorer psychological and physical well-being over time compared with non-carers, symptoms of depression, perceived burden and stress are stable over time for those who continue to care for their spouse at home. Mixed results are obtained for carer well-being when examining transition to permanent placement in care home and impede definitive conclusions. Empirical Study Results: Spousal carers report more frequent feelings of fear and frustration compared to other basic emotions. Gender and care transition impact upon the experience and regulation of emotion and positive growth. Internalising emotion regulation strategies (for example, rumination) are associated with greater fear and frustration, sadness and guilt while strategies comprising social support seeking are associated with feelings of happiness in carers. Spouses report positive growth since taking on the role of carer and this is predicted in part by social support seeking emotion regulation strategies but not by experience of emotions. Conclusions: Spousal carers are not a homogenous group. Further research on the experience of spousal dementia carers is required. This should include the development of tools and methods tailored to capture emotion regulation. The concept of positive growth following stressful events (for example, becoming a carer) may have potential for presenting an enriched understanding of the emotional consequences of the carer experience over time.