American consumer culture is often depicted as competitive and based on the acquisition of capital and status through goods or experiences. To date, researchers commonly exclude children from this conversation and therefore fail to wholly assess the impact consumer culture has on one’s choices or behavior. This study adds to a growing body of literature exploring the experiences and agency of children within the broader consumer culture by examining how marginalized children from a lower socioeconomic background use food as a resource for belonging among peers. Observation and interview data collected during designated lunch and snack times at a summer program in Tampa, FL reveal that children co(construct) a reality all their own which allows peers a chance to belong and simultaneously acquire capital. This project contributes to the understanding of the role race, class, and emotions play for children within the American consumer culture, especially regarding food consumption.

Emergency Medical Service (EMS) professionals are consistently exposed to a variety of traumatic events on the job, such as cases that involve the death or injury of a patient, being physically threatened, or encountering a mass casualty incident. Not surprisingly, research has found that such traumatic exposure has major implications, as it has been related to a plethora of negative strain outcomes such as posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms and burnout. However, at this point, research has not empirically examined the mechanisms by which these traumatic events lead to strain. Therefore, this study aims to further investigate these mechanisms by incorporating the role that emotion regulation (i.e., expressive suppression) plays in this process. Further, this study investigates various moderators in this process, including one individual difference factor (i.e., implicit theories about emotion expression) and two contextual factors (i.e., social support and organizational constraints). To test the links in the aforementioned process, a weekly diary study was conducted online with 200 current EMS professionals. Specifically, participants completed a baseline survey (Time 0) that measured trait-level variables and demographics. Then, participants completed 10 weekly diary studies that included measures of exposure to traumatic events, negative affective reactions, expressive suppression, and strain outcomes. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to test the study hypotheses. Results of this study show that within person, traumatic event exposure was related to strain. Further, although traumatic event exposure was not consistently related to expressive suppression, the positive link between expressive suppression and strain was consistent. Additionally, organizational constraints were found to serve as a moderator in the relationship between expressive suppression and strain, such that higher organizational constraints exacerbate this relationship. Overall, these results provide a better understanding of the process that links traumatic event exposure to strain in the EMS profession. This research has implications for organizations, as it examines various factors that may be addressed in order to ensure that EMS professionals are better equipped to deal with these unfortunate exposures. Ultimately, the results of this study will hopefully prove helpful in devising interventions to enhance the wellbeing of EMS professionals in the wake of exposure to traumatic events.

Inspirerat från ett blogginlägg om funktionen av Two-Factor Theory of Emotion i skräckspel, författat av Chris Pruett (2009), ämnade denna studie undersöka på vilket sätt, om något, kan olika ludiska utmaningar påverka den affektiva tonen i skräckspel. Undersökningen hade 12 deltagare. Baserat på en förundersökning delades deltagarna in i två grupper. Deltagarna fick sedan spela igenom en artefakt som hade två utmaningar, ett logiskt pussel och ett spatialt/reaktionsbaserat plattformshinder. Alla deltagare spelade igenom samma innehåll – men beroende på vilken grupp de tillhörde bytte utmaningarna plats i nivåerna. Under spelningen bar deltagarna ett pulsband och blev observerade, efter sessionen svarade deltagarna på ett formulär. Datan sammanställdes och grupperna jämfördes mot varandra. Framtida forskning kan med fördel utföras med större deltagarantal.

Significant symptoms of anxiety in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may arise due to impaired emotion recognition. In light of reports showing ASD-specific developmental changes in amygdala volumes, we expanded a previous study of recognition of music-evoked emotions in ASD versus typical controls (CON). We explicitly compared both behavioral and psychophysiological response to music-evoked emotions of children (ages 8-11) and older adolescents (ages 16-18). A total of 91 participants (42 ASD) listened to segments of instrumental music that had been previously validated to evoke happy, sad, or scary emotional valence. We measured accuracy and reaction time while also collecting skin conductance response. The ASD group demonstrated reduced skin conductance response to the emotional music stimuli overall, compared to controls. The younger child groups, regardless of diagnosis showed greater physiological reactivity to scary stimuli than to the other emotions. Analysis of behavioral data demonstrated an interaction of age group and diagnostic group: for scary music, the older control group was more accurate than the younger control group while the opposite pattern was observed for the ASD group. These data suggest disrupted developmental trajectories for integrating physiological and cognitive cues in ASD. This lack of integration may underlie increased feelings of uncertainty and anxiety that are associated with more difficult and less adaptive decision making in ASD.

This qualitative focus groups analysis examines the harmful effects of violent video games on emotions and behavior by comparing violent video game player's responses to that of non-violent video game players of the same age group. Research on the effects of video games has been done since the 70s, yet more research is needed to better understand the potentially harmful emotional and behavioral effects of playing violent games, especially from the gamers' perspectives. This thesis presents a qualitative analysis of data obtained from focus group sessions among undergraduate college students. Results of the analysis supports the presence as well as absence of violent video game effects, according to violent and non-violent video gamers' personal experiences and in their own words.

Depression and apathy are two of the most common psychiatric symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD) with prevalence estimates at higher rates than in medical populations with similar levels of disability. Several studies have provided evidence to suggest that apathy and depression are independent clinical phenomena that may differentially affect cognition. Recent research suggests that apathy may account for cognitive deficits over and above that of depression, especially in the domain of executive functioning. However, few studies have examined the independent influence of depression and apathy on cognitive abilities in patients diagnosed with PD using sensitive measures of specific cognitive domains. In addition, many have used measures of apathy and/or depression with symptom overlap, which may not adequately measure symptoms unique to the target construct. The purpose of this study was to examine the independent influences of symptoms of depression and apathy on memory and executive functioning in patients diagnosed with PD using severity scales specifically designed to provide greater discrimination between symptoms. Depression severity was assessed using items that do not overlap with apathy symptoms or with somatic symptoms of PD itself. Apathy was measured using a scale previously shown to have little overlap with depressive symptoms. Results revealed that apathy, but not depression, was significantly associated with executive functioning. In contrast, immediate memory was significantly associated with both apathy and depression. However, apathy accounted for added variance in memory scores when controlling for depression with marginal significance. When controlling for age, although less clear, these patterns remained. Differentiation of apathy and depression and understanding their independent effects on cognitive functioning have several implications both for clinical intervention and for scientific investigation. Apathy not only has a negative impact on cognitive functioning, but also on daily functioning and caregiver burden/distress. Secondly, it has been associated with increased mortality as it may interfere with medication compliance. If appropriately identified, preliminary research suggests that symptoms of apathy may be medically treated independently of depressive symptoms. Distinguishing apathy and depression has robust implications for the advancement of psychological science, patient care, and for enhancing quality of life in patients and caregivers.

Narcissists typically present themselves in self-enhancing ways to gain validation (through positive social appraisals) of grandiose, yet uncertain self-views. Using e-mail, Studies 1 and 2 investigated several intra- and interpersonal variables that may influence narcissists� self-presentational behaviour. University students rated themselves on self domains requiring either external validation (e.g., attractiveness) or internal validation (e.g., morality), after being randomly assigned to be either accountable or non-accountable to an evaluative audience for their self-ratings (Study 1), to present their self-ratings to either a single or multiple person evaluative audience (Study 2), and to expect to present their self-ratings to either a high or low status evaluative audience (Studies 1 and 2). Results suggested that when degree of external self-worth contingency (Crocker & Wolfe, 2001) was high, narcissists were insensitive to strategic self-presentational requirements, presenting themselves in a typically self-enhancing manner on external domains when accountable and when presenting to a multiple person audience. Non-narcissists showed more contextual sensitivity when degree of external self-worth contingency was high, and were more modest when these social contextual variables were present. Participants in Study 3 were given bogus positive or negative personality feedback on either their moral virtue or competitive spirit. Narcissists reported greater anger after receiving negative feedback, while also responding to negative feedback with inflated self-presentations. A key finding was that the combination of a high degree of self-worth contingency and negative feedback resulted in increases in self-reported depression and drops in state self-esteem in narcissists. Results suggest that narcissists are chronically vigilant for self-enhancement opportunities, but may be insensitive to social constraints and norms in their efforts to construct their grandiose identities. Narcissists are especially vigilant for self-enhancement opportunities on contingent domains, yet when negative feedback is received in these domains where self-worth is staked, depression and lowered self-esteem may result.

This qualitative research project explored the experiences of nurse educators who sought to assess aspects, which could be related to facilitation of emotional competence, in nursing students. Focus groups were conducted in three different educational institutions, offering a Bachelor of nursing degree. Each of the participants had a teaching and assessment role within the school of nursing. The contributions of the nurse educators and their interactions were audio taped, transcribed and then later, analysed using thematic and focus group analysis practices.From the analysis of the experiences of the nurse educators, four predominant themes arose which capture the areas of importance to the participants. Student nurses can develop emotional competence by critically reflecting during classroom and clinical experiences. Continuous consideration must be made within each practicing area of nursing, of the environmental and relational challenges which inhibit or facilitate nurse's ability to practice with emotional competence. Educators and practicing nurses, who work alongside students, must uphold the expectation that emotional competence is a requisite ability and provide opportunities to foster emotional growth and skills to resolve conflict within the culture of nursing.A common view shared by the educators was that the profession of nursing needs to have a clear understanding of what constitutes emotional competence. Strategies to realistically incorporate emotional competence into the educational curriculum and competency based assessment opportunities within nursing education are required.Suggestions are presented from which undergraduate nursing education can facilitate development of emotional competence with those students working toward becoming a registered nurse. Emotional competence is suggested as an essential learning outcome in the movement toward transformative nursing education and a collaborative nursing profession.

This thesis examines the relations among emotions and musical features and their changes with time, based on the assertion that there exist underlying, culturally specific, quantifiable rules which govern these relations. I designed, programmed and tested a computer controlled Two-Dimensional Emotion Space (2DES) which administered and controlled all aspects of the experimental work. The 2DES instrument consisted of two bipolar emotional response (ER) dimensions: valence (happiness-sadness) and arousal (activeness-sleepiness). The instrument had a test-retest reliability exceeding 0.83 (p &gt 0.01, N = 28) when words and pictures of facial expressions were used as the test stimuli. Construct validity was quantified (r &lt 0.84, p &gt 0.01). The 2DES was developed to collect continuous responses to recordings of four movements of music (N = 67) chosen to elicit responses in all quadrants of the 2DES: &quotMorning&quot from Peer Gynt, Adagio from Rodrigo???s Concierto de Aranjuez (Aranjuez), Dvorak???s Slavonic Dance Op 42, No. 1 and Pizzicato Polka by Strauss. Test-retest reliability was 0.74 (p &gt 0.001, N = 14). Five salient and objectively quantifiable features of the musical signal (MFs) were scaled and used for time series analysis of the stimuli: melodic pitch, tempo, loudness, frequency spectrum centroid (timbral sharpness) and texture (number of different instruments playing). A quantitative analysis consisted of: (1) first order differencing to remove trends, (2) determination of suitable, lagged MFs to keep as regressors via stepwise regression, and (3) regression of each ER onto selected MFs with first order autoregressive adjustment for serial correlation. Regression coefficients indicated that first order differenced (???) loudness and ???tempo had the largest correlations with ???arousal across all pieces, and ???melodic pitch correlated with ???valence for Aranjuez (p &gt 0.01 for all coefficients). The models were able to explain up to 73% of mean response variance. Additional variation was explained qualitatively as being due to interruptions, interactions and collinearity: The minor key and dissonances in a tonal context moved valence toward the negative direction; Short duration and perfect cadences moved valence in the positive direction. The 2DES measure and serial correlation adjusted regression models were, together, shown to be powerful tools for understanding relations among musical features and emotional response.

Western museums are public institutions, open and accessible to all sectors of the population they serve. Increasingly, they are becoming more accountable to the governments that fund them, and criteria such as visitation figures are being used to assess their viability. In order to ensure their survival in the current climate of economic rationalism, museums need to maintain their audiences and attract an even broader demographic. To do this, they need to ensure that visitors feel comfortable, welcome and secure inside their spaces. They also need to give visitors clear entry points for engaging with and valuing the objects and knowledge on display in exhibitions. This thesis maps a grammar of three-dimensional space with a strong focus on the interpersonal metafunction. Building on the social semiotic tools developed by Halliday (1978, 1985a), Halliday and Hasan (1976), Martin (1992) and Matthiessen (1995), it identifies two interpersonal resources for organising space: Binding and Bonding. Binding is the main focus of the thesis. It theorises the way people�s emotions can be affected by the organisation of three-dimensional space. Essentially, it explores the affectual disposition that exists between a person and the space that person occupies by focussing on how a space can be organised to make an occupant feel secure or insecure. Binding is complemented by Bonding. Bonding is concerned with the way the occupants of a space are positioned interpersonally to create solidarity. In cultural institutions like museums and galleries, Bonding is concerned with making visitors feel welcome and as though they belong, not just to the building and the physical environment, but to a community of like-minded people. Such feelings of belonging are also crucial to the long-term survival of the museum. Finally, in order to present a metafunctionally diversified grammar of space, the thesis moves beyond interpersonal meanings. It concludes by exploring the ways textual and ideational meanings can be organised in three-dimensional space.