<p>Dagens teknologiska samhälle ställer höga krav på människan, bland annat gällande att processa information. Vid utformning av system tas det numera vanligtvis hänsyn till människa-datorinteraktionen (MDI) för att erhålla en så hög användbarhet som möjligt. Affektiv Informatik, som är ett utvecklat sätt att förhålla sig till MDI, talar för att utveckla system som både kan uppfatta och förmedla emotioner till användaren. Fokus i rapporten är hur ett system kan förmedla emotioner, via dess färgsättning, och därmed påverka användarens emotionella tillstånd. En kvantitativ undersökning har utförts för att ta reda på hur färger kan användas i ett system för att förmedla känslouttryck till användare. Vidare har en jämförelse gjorts mellan undersökningens resultat och tidigare teorier om hur färg påverkar människans emotioner för att ta reda på huruvida de är lämpliga att tillämpa vid gränssnittsdesign. Resultatet pekade på en samständighet med de tidigare teorierna, men med endast en statistisk signifikant skillnad mellan blått och gult gällande behagligheten.</p>

This dissertation focuses on two aspects of expressive affixes: their morphological/typological properties and their semantics. With regard to the former, it shows that the expressive morphology of many languages (including Bantu, West Atlantic, Walman, Sanskrit, English, Romance, Slavic, and others), has the following properties: 1) it is systematically anomalous when compared to plain morphology, or the ordinary processes of word-formation and inflection. From this, it follows that many familiar morphological arguments that adduce the data of expressive morphology ought to be reconsidered; and 2) it is far more pervasive than has been traditionally thought. For example, the Sanskrit preverb, and the Indo-European aspectual prefix/particle generally, are shown to have systematically expressive functions. With respect to the semantics of expressive affixes, it develops a novel multidimensional account, in the sense of Potts (2005, 2007), of Spanish "connotative affixes," which can simultaneously convey descriptive and expressive meaning. It shows that their descriptive meaning is that of a gradable adjective, viewed as a degree relation which includes a measure function, in the sense of Kennedy (1997). The expressive meanings of connotative affixes, and expressives generally, arise as they manipulate the middle coordinate, <b>I</b>, of expressive indices which, it is proposed, is inherently specified on all lexical items and canonically set to "neutral." It introduces a new mechanism, <b>AFF</b>, which is an algebraic operation for manipulating <b>I</b>, and which accounts for the well-known, and seemingly "contradictory," range of meanings that expressive affixes can express. Whereas prior work assumes that expressive affixes are inherently polysemous, this approach derives their many attested meanings and functions (e.g., "small," "young," "bad," deprecation, appreciation, hypocorism, intensification/exactness, and attenuation/approximation, as well as pragmatic effects like illocutionary mitigation) compositionally, from the interactions of their multidimensionality with the meanings of the roots to which they attach.

The reported study investigated temporal agency (i.e., the assignment of cause for temporal shift) in newlyweds’ courtship narratives. Transcripts of courtship narratives generated by each partner of 23 recently married couples (approximately 3 months) participating in the PAIR project (Huston, McHale, & Crouter, 1986) were analyzed for the presence of different linguistic strategies for encoding temporal shift. Statements were coded as “human agency assignments” when they assigned the cause of temporal shift to humans (e.g., we started seeing each other in June); statements that assigned temporal shift to abstract entities such as the events themselves (e.g., the summer started out well for us) or to the relationship (e.g., the relationship started to slow down) were coded as “abstract agency assignments.” The frequency with which narrators mentioned positiveand negative emotions was also coded to explore the possibility that emotional valence mediated agency assignments. The frequency of different agency assignments and emotion words were considered in the context of portions of the courtship accounts that narrators designated as describing “upturns” (episodes that increased the likelihood of marriage) or “downturns” (episodes that decreased marriage likelihood). Results indicated that the frequency of human agency assignments and positive emotion mention were higher in upturn than downturn narrative segments; in contrast, abstract agency assignments and negative emotion mention were more frequent in downturn than upturn segments. Subsequent analyses indicated that positive word mention partially mediated human agency assignments in upturns and that negative word mention partially mediated abstract agency assignments in downturns. These findings are consistent with previous research demonstrating an association between the emotional valence of an event and temporal agency assignment: In general, people assign temporal agency to themselves when describing positive events, but prefer abstract agency assignments for negative events (McGlone & Pfiester, 2009). / text

Heavy drinking puts college students at risk for academic failure, alcohol use disorders, and even death. Although several interventions have proven moderately successful, overall rates of collegiate heavy drinking and consequences have significantly increased since 1998, as interventions may not adequately address underlying reasons for drinking. Research has consistently shown that college students who drink primarily to regulate emotions (i.e., internal drinking motives) are heavier drinkers, experience more consequences, and are likely to continue drinking heavily after college. Further, internal drinking motives are indicative of emotion dysregulation and associated personality traits. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is empirically supported and includes a group-based component designed to teach concrete behavioral emotion regulation, mindfulness, and distress tolerance skills. DBT skills training alone has been shown to reduce substance abuse and binge eating and is a promising, but untested, strategy for reducing collegiate alcohol abuse. The aims of the current study were threefold: (a) examine the efficacy of a DBT-based emotion regulation skills training (ERST) as an intervention for college student drinking, (b) examine theoretically-informed mechanisms of change (i.e., changes in mindfulness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance), and (c) examine intervention moderators (i.e., gender, readiness to change, and internal drinking motives). After completing pre-test measures, college students reporting two or more heavy drinking episodes during the past month were randomly assigned to an ERST or assessment-only control (AO) condition. ERST participants completed a single 3-hour group session of ERST within 7 days of completing pre-intervention measures and all participants completed two additional assessments. The current study found that ERST participants showed significantly greater reductions in heavy drinking and alcohol-related consequences relative to AO control participants. Contrary to hypotheses, intervention participation did not increase hypothesized mechanisms of change (i.e., mindfulness, emotion regulation, or distress tolerance) although emotion regulation and distress tolerance moderated intervention efficacy. Finally, ERST participation appeared to serve as a protective factor against heavy drinking and consequences for internally motivated drinkers. Overall findings provide preliminary support for the feasibility of ERST as a new intervention for reducing problematic drinking by college students and suggest future directions for mechanisms of change and moderation hypotheses. / text

One of the most challenging aspects of being a parent is managing the many emotions that are aroused in the context of caring for a child. This dissertation explores the relationships among self-compassion, affective distress, parenting self-efficacy, and negative parenting behaviors in a sample of mothers of preschool-aged children (n = 139). Participants completed several self-report measures on-line including the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (PSOC), and the Parenting Scale (PS). Higher levels of self-compassion were associated with fewer negative parenting behaviors and higher levels of parenting satisfaction. Initial data analyses revealed the relationship between self-compassion and negative parenting behaviors was partially mediated by affective distress and parenting self-efficacy. However, when lax and overreactive parenting behaviors were examined separately, only overreactive parenting behaviors were significantly related to self-compassion. Self-efficacy---but not negative affect---continued to partially mediate this relationship. The results of the study suggest that self-compassion, as a way of being and as a strategy of emotion regulation, is an asset when facing the challenges and emotional tide of parenting. Limitations of the study and future areas of research are discussed. / text

Defense lawyers are portrayed as performing non-emotional work and their education does not train them for the social dimensions of handling clients and present in court. Despite this general picture of the legal profession, studies show that the work performed by lawyers comprises comprehensive emotion work. This study is based on ten semi-structured interviews and complementary observations of court hearings with criminal defense lawyers with variation in sex, age and work experiences. The main findings show that lawyers submit to the legal emotional regime characterized by a distance to emotions in court, but that the preparation for such a presentation requires substantial emotion work with the client before and after the court hearing. Client contact can be seen as a guided tour through the legal process undertaken by the lawyer with a focus on three aspects: (1) to dampen distress, (2) to prepare, produce and represent the client's expressions of emotion in court, and (3) to turn the everyday narrative of the event into legal codes, and vice versa. Empathy stands out an important tool in the emotion work performed by lawyers. Furthermore, the performance of objectivity is constructed socially through emotion work via the concept of professionalism. / Emotioner i domstol

Section A provides a review of the emotional and experiential avoidance literature with a focus on determining the proximal psychological factors that might lead individuals to avoid experiencing feelings. This section highlights the importance of beliefs, judgements and appraisals about the acceptability of negative emotions, as well as fears about the physical, psychological and social consequences of tolerating internal distress as potential drivers of emotional avoidance. Section B describes the development of a new scale to identify and measure beliefs about experiencing difficult emotions. The paper gives a background and rationale for the study and outlines the methodology that was utilised to construct and psychometrically evaluate the Beliefs about Difficult Feelings Scale (BDFS). 304 participants completed the scale online along with related measures. The six clusters of beliefs that emerged from a factor analysis of 90 pilot items include Catastrophic Beliefs, Emotions are Useful, Negative Evaluation from Others, Emotions are Exhausting/Frustrating, Emotions are Transient and Emotions are Pointless. The psychometric properties of the final 29-item BDFS are promising. The new measure demonstrated good internal consistency, test-retest reliability and construct validity, however further psychometric evaluation is needed on new samples to verify these preliminary findings

Despite the long history of psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES), relatively little is known about the mechanisms that cause and maintain this condition. Emerging research evidence suggests that patients with PNES might have difficulties in regulating their emotions. However, much remains to be learned about the nature of these difficulties and the emotional responses of individuals with PNES. The present study aimed to gain a detailed understanding of emotion regulation processes in patients with PNES, by examining differences between PNES patients and a healthy control group with regards to intensity of emotional reactions, understanding of one’s emotional experience, beliefs about emotions and control of emotional expression. A cross-sectional design was used to compare the PNES group (n=56) and the healthy control group (n=88) on a range of self-report measures. Participants with a diagnosis of PNES reported significantly poorer understanding of their emotions, more negative beliefs about emotions and more control of emotional expression than participants in the control group. Whilst intensity of emotions did not discriminate between the groups, poor understanding and negative beliefs about emotions were found to be significant predictors of PNES, even after controlling for age, education level and emotional distress. Furthermore, the presence of some emotion regulation difficulties was associated with self reported seizure severity. This study provides some evidence supporting emotion regulation difficulties in PNES population, particularly with regards to poor understanding of emotions and negative beliefs about feelings. These findings need to be replicated in future research before definite conclusions can be drawn. The need for tailored psychological therapies addressing specific emotion regulation difficulties is highlighted.

Objectives: To examine the association between traumatic brain injury (TBI) in delinquent youth and facial emotion recognition (FER) abilities, offending, behavioural difficulties, aggression, empathic sadness and parenting. Participants & Setting: Forty-eight delinquent youth, aged 14 to 19 years, recruited from Youth Offending Teams and Targeted Youth Support. Main Measures: A cross sectional case-control design compared individuals in a TBI versus a non-TBI group on a forced-choice, FER paradigm assessing recognition accuracy to six basic emotions. Self-reported measures of TBI, behavioural difficulties, experience of parenting, reactive and proactive aggression, and empathic sadness. Results: History of TBI was reported by 68.7% of the sample, with 94% including a loss of consciousness. No significant differences were found between TBI and non-TBI groups on FER accuracy. Participants in the TBI group self-reported significantly higher proactive and reactive aggression and lower levels of parental supervision as compared to the non-TBI group. Tendency to incorrectly give ‘anger’ as a response on the FER task was strongly positively associated with proactive and reactive aggression. Conclusions: Future research requires larger samples recruited across settings to further investigate the association between FER abilities and TBI in this population. Findings highlight the need for TBI to be appropriately assessed and managed in delinquent youth, and highlights important aggression differences.

Many cognitive resources contribute towards the appraisal of stressors. Of these, self-efficacy (SE) is widely acknowledged to play a significant role in protecting adolescents from the effects of stress (Bandura, 1997). This study investigated that relationship through the use of a quasi-experimental methodology (Cook & Campbell, 1979) utilising an untreated Control group of 44 adolescent, female participants and an Experimental group of 70 additional participants, all of whom were volunteers drawn from the Sixth Form of a single participating school. The members of both participant groups took part in two rounds of testing, between which the members of the Experimental group were exposed to a significant academic stressor (one or more public A-level examinations). During both test phases, all participants completed the 10- item Perceived Stress Scale self-report (Cohen & Williamson, 1988), the Examination Self-Efficacy Scale instrument (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995) and a bespoke Implicit Association Test (Greenwald et al., 1998) designed to measure implicit stressor appraisal. Significant trends were identified by means of ANCOVA, correlation and regression analyses, and the resulting data were interpreted in terms of a dual process model of stress (Compas, 2004). Results not only concurred with those of previous studies (e.g. Betoret, 2006; Vaezi & Fallah, 2011) by demonstrating a strongly negative correlation between acute academic stress and academic SE, but provided new evidence to suggest that the ‘protective’ effect of SE occurs via a buffering mechanism at the level of preconscious stressor appraisals (Bargh, 1990), which limits the effect of acute stress exposure on preconscious stressor appraisals (e.g. Luecken & Appelhans, 2005).