Empirical evidence suggests that complex cognitive processes such as decision-making can be influenced by incidental affect (i.e. emotional states unrelated to the decision), which may have importance implications for furthering our understanding and treatment of mood disorders. Following up on previous behavioral findings suggesting that sad mood leads to biases in social decision-making, the present research first investigated how such biases are implemented in the brain. Nineteen adult participants made decisions that involved accepting or rejecting monetary offers from others in an Ultimatum Game (a well known economic task), while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Prior to each set of decisions, participants watched a short video clip aimed at inducing either sadness or a neutral emotional state. Results indicated that sad participants rejected more "unfair" offers than those in the neutral condition, thereby replicating our previous findings. Neuroimaging analyses revealed that receiving unfair offers while in a sad mood elicited activity in brain areas related to aversive emotional states and somatosensory integration (anterior insula) and to cognitive conflict (anterior cingulate cortex). Sad participants also showed a diminished sensitivity in neural regions associated with reward processing (ventral striatum). Importantly, insular activation uniquely mediated the relationship between sadness and decision bias, demonstrating how subtle mood states can be integrated at the neural level to bias decision-making.In a second study, we assessed to what extent such affect infusion in decision-making may translate to clinical depression, a mood disorder involving chronic sad affect. Fifteen depressed and twenty-three nondepressed individuals made decisions to accept or reject monetary offers from other players in the Ultimatum Game. Like transiently sad, but healthy, individuals, depressed participants reported a more negative emotional reaction to unfair offers. However, unlike sad healthy individuals, they accepted significantly more of these offers than did controls. A positive relationship was observed in the depressed group, but not in controls, between acceptance rates of unfair offers and resting cardiac vagal tone, a physiological index of emotion regulation capacity. These findings suggest distinct biasing processes in depression, which may be related to higher reliance on regulating negative emotion.

This project attempts to understand the role of expectations in cooperative behavior using the interdisciplinary approach of Decision Neuroscience. While cooperation provides the foundation for a successful society, the underlying bio-psycho-social mechanisms remain surprisingly poorly understood. This investigation deconstructs cooperation into the specific behaviors of trust, reciprocation, and norm enforcement using the Trust and Ultimatum Games from behavioral economics and combines formal modeling and functional magnetic resonance imaging to understand the neurocomputational role of expectations in these behaviors. The results indicate that people appear to use context specific shared expectations when making social decisions. These beliefs are malleable and appear to be dynamically updated after an interaction. Emotions such as guilt and anger can be formally operationalized in terms of others' expectations and appear to be processed by a specific neural system involving the anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and supplemental motor cortex. Importantly, these neural signals appear to motivate people to not only behave consistent with these expectations, but also to help others update their beliefs when these expectations are violated. Further, violations of social expectations appear to promote enhanced memory for norm violators. This work demonstrates the neural and computational basis of moral sentiments.

The purpose of this study is to examine how respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is affected across paced breathing, attention, inhibition, and emotion-eliciting tasks and how those relationships may be mediated by emotion regulation strategies in children with different levels of externalizing and internalizing behaviors between the ages of 8 and 12 years. The first aim was to determine whether externalizing and internalizing symptoms during a paced breathing or natural breathing task better predicted RSA levels. The hypothesis was that internalizing and externalizing behaviors would be more predictive of RSA baseline levels when utilizing a paced-breathing method of measuring RSA. The second aim was to determine how RSA levels across an attention, inhibition, sad, and anger task are predicted by internalizing and externalizing symptoms after controlling for baseline RSA levels. There were four hypotheses: (1) as levels of externalizing behaviors increase, levels of baseline RSA would decrease, (2) as levels of internalizing behaviors increase, levels of baseline RSA will decrease, (3) there will be significantly smaller changes in RSA reactivity) as the level of externalizing behaviors increases, and (4) as levels of internalizing symptoms increase, there will be significantly larger changes in RSA levels relative to RSA baseline levels (RSA reactivity).The results showed that externalizing and internalizing behaviors did not predict RSA levels during a paced or natural breathing task. Additionally, there was very little difference in the outcomes when used either a natural or paced breathing method of RSA as a control variable except when predicting RSA levels during a sad emotion-eliciting task. Although RSA levels during three experimental tasks (attention, inhibition, and sad) were not significant, there were moderate effect sizes for externalizing and/or internalizing symptoms predicting various RSA reactivity (i.e., RSA levels after controlling for baseline) across these conditions. One model was significant in predicting the level of variance of RSA reactivity during an anger emotion-eliciting task, with internalizing and hyperactivity/inattention symptoms contributing the most variation in the model. Findings point towards understanding how internalizing and externalizing symptoms may impact an individual's physiological response during a task.

The objectives of this mixed-method intervention study were: (1) To examine idiosyncratic profiles of emotions and performance of 3-4 leading handball team players in successful and less successful games and identify their strengths and limitations in emotion-concentration regulation; (2) To develop, implement, and evaluate an intervention program aimed at optimizing the players' emotion-concentration regulation and performance. The participants (n= 4, age= 24,5) consisted of four female elite handball players from the same team. An emotion-performance profiling process was conducted to facilitate objective one. To facilitate objective two, a small group IZOF based short term intervention was developed and implemented. The participants’ emotion-performance profiles are presented. The evaluation of the intervention indicated that the intervention increased the participants’ awareness and knowledge, and stimulated psychological skills development (i.e., emotion regulation and concentration). Methodological issues,future directions, and implications are discussed.

Sentimentalism as an ethical view makes a particular claim about moral judgment: to judge that something is right/wrong is to have a sentiment/emotion of approbation/disapprobation, or some kind of positive/negative feeling, toward that thing. However, several sentimentalists have argued that moral judgments involve not only having a specific kind of feelings or emotional responses, but judging that one would be <em>justified</em> in having that feeling or emotional response. In the literature, some authors have taken up the former position because the empirical data on moral judgment seems to suggest that justification is not a necessary prerequisite for making a moral judgment. Even if this is true, however, I argue that justifying moral judgments is still an important philosophic endeavour, and that developing an empirically constrained account of how a person might go about justifying his feelings/emotional responses as reasons for rendering (normative) moral judgments by using a coherentist method of justification is both plausible and desirable.

The importance of good relationship among parties in the construction industry has been accepted as one of the central issues of an organisation's success. The growing acceptance to the Relational Contracting approaches that representing partnering, supply chain alliances and other types of collaborative working relationships shows how construction organisations are moving forward from the traditional adversarial culture to a more harmonious working environment. However the application of the Relational Contracting Norms in the context of national culture has received relatively little attention in the literature. This study attempts to fill this void by investigating how good relationships develop within construction projects in Malaysia. It also investigates the adaptability of the relational contracting norms in different cultural setting and explores whether similar relational contracting norms emerge in different projects before developing a relationship development model that is applicable to the academic and practitioners. By using qualitative approach, the main data was collected from 36 semi-structured in-depth interviews across four case studies. The results were validated by 20 follow-up interviews with selected respondents, two stages of expert interviews and cross-case analysis. This study found that good relationships within construction projects in the Malaysian construction industry developed from the interplay of twelve structural and relational dimensions that went through three stages of relationship development process in project setting. It highlights the significant importance of the value and emotion-related dimensions in developing good relationships. A relationship development model was produced based on these twelve dimensions (special contract directive, power, performance, trust, commitment, loyalty, personal relationships, emotions, values, social interaction, work inter-dependency and political connection). The research contributes to construction management literature by supporting the Transaction Cost Economics Theory and extends the Relational Contracting Theory. It proposes seven new dimensions that are incorporated in the newly proposed relationship development model. Although the study was conducted in a specific national culture, it is argued that the model is applicable to other context on the basis that spiritual, emotional and human components of the work experience could be learned by other cultures.

This thesis examines the context and practices of emotion management for National workers in International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) through a study of national workers recruited into disaster intervention in India. The research draws on postcolonial theory and problematizes current work exploring the implications of race and intersectionality within emotion management. The data collection strategy involved a narrative-based semi-structured interview process with a view to surfacing social and discursive constructions. The interpretation comprised of three levels of reading that included explication, explanation and exploration based reading using postcolonial and poststructural-feminist theories. Results highlight the dominance of neoliberal practices in INGOs and explain how these practices foreground various colonial continuities in the ways in which INGOs respond to disasters. Neoliberal practices inform and impact on the emotion management of National workers as they create a masculine and instrumental emotion regime where emotions and compassion are seen as dispensable. The colonial continuities on which neoliberalism draws, have an impact on the relationships between National and Expatriate workers. These relationships become ‘emotional encounters’ based on asymmetries that disadvantage the former. This understanding paves the way for proposing changes in contemporary disaster management practices. In this context the emotion management of National workers is a complex performance. These complex performances are linked to the postcolonial concepts of mimicry, sly-civility and hybridity and to the operation of power through desires and subjectivity. Through this context based interpretation, emotion management and theorising can be extended in useful ways. In particular, I go beyond the normative nature of much current theorising. In doing so I am able to consider emotion management as an ‘embodied emotional performance’ that places additional stress on stigmatised identities. This formulation helps break down the binaries that inform our current conceptualisation of emotion management such as emotion work and emotional labour; surface and deep acting; real and fake emotions; felt and expressed emotions. It also blurs the distinction between emotional labour and aesthetic labour. Further, it helps identify different forms of resistance to neoliberal dictates about the role of emotions in organizations. This allows for the recognition that embodied emotional performances enable conformity as well as creative resistance against emotion norms in organizations.

With an estimated prevalence of ~1%, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is relatively common. Whilst accepted as a neurodevelopmental disorder, currently the diagnosis of autism is based on the observation of characteristic behaviour: deficits in language, communication and social skills in addition to unusual or restricted interests. Research in the condition has been approached with psychological and physiological methodology however a full understanding of the underlying neuropathology of autism is still unclear. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) has been employed to study face processing in ASD with varied results. The processing of other types of social cues has been far less extensively explored and similarly, whilst there have been some reports of aberrant neural responsiveness to emotion in ASD, this component of social cognition requires further study. In particular, it is unclear whether there is a specific deficit in processing faces in ASD or rather a global deficit in emotion processing which is present across stimulus types, sensory domains and emotions. In this study basic emotion labelling using a range of stimulus types has been investigated within the same ASD cohort. In comparison to a control group, deficits were apparent in the ASD group when processing emotion in face, whole body and voice stimuli. This indicates a global emotion processing deficit in ASD that cannot be fully accounted for by deficits in basic face processing alone. Processing neutral and emotional faces and static whole body images was subsequently investigated using fMRI. When neutral faces, neutral bodies, fearful faces and fearful bodies were contrasted with fixation baseline, both groups broadly recruited the expected network of brain regions. When the emotional condition was contrasted with the neutral condition for each stimulus type significant between groups differences were apparent. The bilateral inferior parietal lobe responded significantly differently in response to facial emotion and the right supplementary motor area and superior temporal sulcus region was differentially activated in response to emotion in body stimuli. Findings reported here suggest that there are wide ranging social deficits in ASD which relate to the processing of a variety of social cues. fMRI evidence suggests that these deficits have a neural basis, in which elements of the social brain, including regions associated with mirror neuron function, activate in an atypical manner in ASD.

Introduction: Experiences of negative parenting and childhood abuse can have adverse consequences for the child‟s development particularly in relation to the ability to regulate emotions effectively. There has been extensive research in this area and attachment theory is pivotal. Problems in regulating emotions can involve not being able to recognise, label or manage internal and external states of mind and behaviour. Therefore research has shown that problems in emotion regulation skills due to negative parental and/or abusive experiences can result in long-term psychosocial problems such as depression. Research has suggested that adults with adverse childhood experiences exhibit risky behaviours as a means of managing their emotions such as self-harming, dangerous sexual encounters and substance misuse. Although research has shown that there is an association between these factors no real understanding of the pathways and the potential mediating roles these factors play has been investigated with people presenting with suicidal behaviour, which could be argued as the ultimate form of managing emotions and therefore the internal and external self. Therefore this study aims to answer the following question: Does childhood abuse and dysfunctional emotion regulation mediate the relationship between parental bonding and suicidal behaviour. Method: This study involved sixty participants from a suicidal behaviour sample presenting at an Accident and Emergency department aged between 18 - 65. Measures assessing childhood abuse, emotion regulation, parental bonding, suicidal intent, risk of repeating suicidal behaviour, depression and anxiety were completed. Results: Childhood emotional abuse was found to significantly mediate the relationship between low parental care and risk of repeating suicidal behaviour. A lack of external functional emotion regulation strategies was also found to mediate the relationship between parental care and risk of repeating suicidal behaviour. Finally, a lack of internal functional emotion regulation strategies was found to mediate the relationship between childhood physical abuse and risk of repeating suicidal behaviour. Conclusion: Preliminary findings of this study suggest that childhood emotional abuse and dysfunctional emotion regulation play a crucial role in further understanding those who engage in and are at risk of repeating suicidal behaviour. Therefore, emotions and emotion regulation within a developmental framework are important when considering long-term adult psychosocial functioning.

Several studies have reported a strong bias in both human and non-human species for cradling their infants to the left side of the body. Most studies suggest that the main reason this phenomenon is the predominance of the right hemisphere of the brain for the processing of emotions and its transference, through brain laterality, to the left side of the body. Many other variables, including handedness, footedness, stress and depression have also been found to have some effect on cradling side. However, no study has been published for an Arab population. Given the strong religious and cultural belief of most Arabs that only the right hand should be used for most daily tasks, this study investigated the affect on cradling side of this habit, in addition to the factors named above. 369 Saudi citizens took part in this study. 234 lived in Saudi Arabia and 135 had lived in the UK for five or more years. 267 were women and 102 were men. Each answered a questionnaire which asked about their ‘preferred’ cradling side and then the 102 men were videotaped spontaneously cradling a real infant and an infant-like doll. Unfortunately, only the male sample could be videotaped due to restrictions on filming females in Saudi Arabia. The results confirmed those of previous studies by showing a very strong bias to leftside cradling. No difference was found between males and females in cradling a doll, or between the Saudi-based sample and the UK-based sample but the bias was significantly reduced in men. Apart from the influence of gender, the factors that reduced the cradling bias for a real infant were found to be lack of experience of parenthood, depression, stress and greater age of the infant. In cradling a doll, the most influential variables were handedness, footedness and depression. Further work is required on Arab samples, especially in examining spontaneous cradling by women and its relation to depression and stress. A mother’s mental state is known to affect the health of the infant and cradling side could be a useful filter for neonatal women who might require psychiatric treatment. Further research could also shed light on gender differences in the processing of emotion.