Homeownership and Opportunity for People Everywhere VI (HOPE VI) is dramatically changing the face of public housing. The HOPE VI program proposes to replace barracks-style and high rise apartments with a new public housing landscape built on the planning principles of New Urbanism: small-scale developments of single family homes and townhouses with front lawns and porches. Academic and governmental analyses of HOPE VI have used economic, political, and social perspectives to analyze this significant financial investment, radical landscape alteration, and change in residents lives. This dissertation analyzes the process of HOPE VI and its attendant landscapes using a critical humanist perspective focused on the human, emotional dimension of public housing policy. By bringing together geography, psychology, sociology, and philosophy literatures on emotion with geographic literatures on critical humanism and the cultural landscape this dissertation shows that specific emotions such as disgust, fear, shame, and enjoyment permeate, shape, and direct public housing policy and appearance in different places and across time. More specifically, the dissertation shows that 1) disgust, fear, shame, and enjoyment constitute both the political and economic logic essential to HOPE VI and 2) disgust, fear, shame, and enjoyment are articulated through and crystallized in reactions to the public housing landscape its aesthetic and social context. The overall contribution of the project is to first, challenge the binaries that often structure academic and governmental analyses of HOPE VI including rational-emotional, outsiders-residents, creation-implementation, and national-local. In challenging these binaries, the project offers an alternative way to think about and understand HOPE VI and housing policy. And second, the dissertation contributes to the methods literature by exploring how to analyze emotion through discourse analysis and how to ask people about emotions.

Neuroscience research has followed two fairly distinct paths in investigating central neural mechanisms of pain and emotion. Rarely have studies been conducted which intentionally combined painful and emotional stimulation while observing brain function. Theories of emotion and pain processing predict an interaction between pain and emotion such that emotional states may serve to both increase or decrease pain. This increase or decrease may also correspond to different effects on different dimensions of the overall pain experience as defined in pain neuromatrix theory. Theories of emotion begin with emotions as interpretations of bodily states, to more contemporary theories focusing on the functions of emotions. These emotion theories predict neuroanotomic relations between emotion and pain in the brain. Similarly neuromatrix theory predicts an affective dimension of pain experience, which has been defined in terms of pain unpleasantness and secondary affect, emphasizing the role of emotion in pain experience. To further explore the relationship between pain and emotion, in the present study, painful heat stimulation is applied to the face while simultaneously conducting whole brain imaging using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Also personal episodes involving anger, fear, and neutral emotion are recalled during fMRI both with, and without, painful heat stimulation. Similar brain regions are involved in processing pain, anger, and fear, and these responses compare favorably with those in the literature. The results also demonstrate that simultaneous emotional episode recall modulates the patterns of brain activity involved in pain. Anger recall especially seems to increase pain-related activity. The study allows greater understanding about the way that the brain's emotional processing networks for fear and anger affect pain experience and how pain affects the emotional processing network to produce affective experience, such as fear and anger, related to pain. Further application of these procedures to patients with chronic pain can aid understanding of central pathological mechanisms involved.

Agricultural Education has been informed by four major areas including agricultural education (teaching and learning), educational policy, agricultural policy (industry collaboration) and research. Historically agriculture teachers have been removed from the policy process affecting their profession in these four areas (Thompson, 1963). A review of historical literature suggests that only twice have teachers been involved in the policy process. The purpose of this study was to examine the involvement levels of stakeholders in agricultural education across the state of Kentucky. Specifically, examining the emotional appraisal of specific issues in agricultural education and if the emotions of stakeholders influence their involvement in these issues (Sherer, 2005). The researcher found that the involvement level of stakeholders in Kentucky was consistent with the historical research suggesting that stakeholders including teachers are not actively engaged in policy affecting their profession. The researcher also found that stakeholders that appraised a specific issue with a joyous emotion (contentment) became more involved in a local agricultural education program than those apprehensive about the same issues. Recommendations for the profession and specific stakeholder groups have been provided by the researcher to attempt to engage stakeholders in the polices that affect their classroom and profession.

This study examined if levels of self-reported mindfulness and experiential avoidance were associated with subjective and physiological outcomes following exposure to distressing film clips. Participants consisted of 108 college-aged young adults who completed self-report measures assessing levels of mindfulness, experiential avoidance, and negative affect. Several devices designed to monitor physiological activity, specifically sympathetic nervous activation, were also attached to participants. Participants were shown four brief film clips of neutral and unpleasant stimuli while these devices were attached. After each film, subjective distress ratings were gathered every 20 seconds for a period of two minutes to determine extent of emotional recovery. Results showed that, contrary to predictions, self-reported mindfulness was positively correlated with subjective distress following particular emotional film clips. Furthermore, self-reported mindfulness was largely unrelated to changes in physiological activity during the film clips, in addition to subjective and physiological recovery from the films. Although most findings were nonsignificant, this investigation contributes to the existing literature by being the first to include a measure of self-report mindfulness in combination with an array of subjective and physiological instruments to evaluate responses to aversive stimuli.

Uppsatsens syfte är att studera hur det filmiska tv-spelet The Last of Us (Naughty Dog, 2013) har designats för att framkalla emotionella responser med hjälp av en normalitetsmodell. Det går ut på att objektivt identifiera intensiva ögonblick som avbryter/förändrar ett normalitetsläge. Detta leder till fokus på tre huvudpunkter för att förstå helhetsdesignen: produktion av emotion i filmsekvenser, produktion av emotion i spelsekvenser och deras samspel. Spelsekvenser visar sig framkalla emotion när fiendekonfrontationer avbryter spelarens trygga utforskande och skapar spänning genom att utsätta spelare för risker under intensiva sammandrabbningar. Filmsekvenser i sin tur använder realistiskt animerade scener för att uppmärksamma ansiktens betydelse under emotionella scener, samt för att etablera protagonistens normalitetssträvanden och den emotionella risk den medför. Avslutningsvis utgör samspel mellan film- och spelsekvenser en balanserad tonöverföring mellan varandra genom att både överraska spelaren i övergångar och genom att förhålla spelarens beteende med protagonistens splittrade normalitetssträvanden.

Emotionally charged stimuli have been reported as efficient distractors during visual search (e.g., Eastwood, Smilek, Merikle, 2001; Hansen & Hansen, 1988; Öhman, 2002; Öhman, Flykt, & Esteves, 2001; Öhman & Soares, 1993). The extensiveness and specificity of the influence of such distractions for attention and performance beyond the context of their presentation were currently investigated. Of interest was whether prior experiences of distraction from such stimuli influence spatial attention during a subsequent visual event. General and location-specific bases of such effects and the role of memory in modulating these were investigated. Over a series of trials, participants performed a target localization task during a prime event involving exposure to an emotionally charged distractor, or only neutral distractors. Subsequently, performance at the same task was measured when only neutral distractors were presented during a probe event. During each event, one of four shapes had to be identified and responded to as a target. Distractor images were presented within each shape outline. Whether or not the shapes were the same or different across the prime and probe event of a trial was manipulated as a test of the role of memory in modulating effects across the events of a trial. Earlier findings of immediate impairments to attention based in exposure to emotionally charged stimuli were replicated. The current study also revealed the occurrence of robust performance impairments during the probe event subsequent to the disruption of attention during the prime event. Evidence was limited in suggesting that the impairments depended on which location the emotional stimulus occupied during the prime event. Strong evidence, however, was observed for global impairments on attention across visual events, conditional on task demands being similar during both. An account of the findings which incorporates memory was suggested, whereby retrieval processes engaged during the probe event support access to the interaction history with emotionally charged stimuli during the prime event. Consistent experience with emotional stimuli requiring no response produced a prominent cognitive refraction period at the time of the probe event, requiring that attention be re-centered to the task. Less consistent experiences produced a briefer refractory period.

In the last two decades, emotion has emerged as an important theme in discussions of design. However, there is no framework to date that encompasses both emotion and information design in a single theory. This dissertation was motivated by a lack of substantive theory that would allow design researchers and educators to model the relationships among information artifacts, audiences, and designers in specific contexts. This demand for work in this area also calls for a reconsideration of the current scholarship of information design by shifting its focus from objects to people, from technical rationality to value-laden human communication, from efficiency to holistic experience and effectiveness. Through examination of existing views about information design and the nature of information, this work advances the idea that information can be better conceptualized as a medium in which designers have the ability to influence situated and value-laden human actions, as well as a medium in which designers can be influenced by situated human actions. This conceptualization of information as twoway mediation between designer and audience allows us to reconsider information design as a meaningful social activity, of which designers are an integral part. This research consists of two parts. First, it proposes a framework called Modes of Wonder that allows designers to model an audience's emotional experience in relation to information artifacts. Through examination of four thematic variations of wonder (wonder, astonishment, amazement, and sublimity), Modes of Wonder provides a meta-language that is able to model one's emotional experience in relation to information artifacts. Furthermore, it may be used by designers in the planning process when solving a design problem, and by educators as a tool for critique. Second, this research presents a Point of View framework, which allows us to describe design strategies used for creating information artifacts. While Modes of Wonder, in Chapter 3, focuses on the relationship between information artifacts and audiences, the Point of View framework in Chapter 4 – which includes person, perspective, mode, and principle as the primary frames – illustrates the relationship between information artifacts and the designer who has created a specific response to a particular design problem. In order to demonstrate how these two frameworks can help us uncover plausible design strategies in a particular context of information ii design, I examine three cases of information artifacts that respond to specific design problems through use of the thematic variations of Point of View and Modes of Wonder as conceptual tools for analysis. This research makes the following contributions: it provides a theoretical framework that models the relationship among information artifacts, audiences, and designers in specific contexts. Specifically, Modes of Wonder allows design researchers and educators to articulate the relationships between information artifacts and audiences. In turn, the Point of View framework provides an approach for modeling design strategies that are often implicitly used by designers to create information artifacts aimed at producing a particular emotional effect for an audience.

Orientation: Emotions at work have been considered as an important facet of employees’ work life. However, research regarding the investigation of the emotion experiences at work per se has been lacking. Research Purpose: The general objective of this study is to critically investigate what emotion events are experienced and how these events are appraised for them to result in specific emotions. Motivation for the study: Currently a lack of research regarding emotion experiences as a process exists. Research design, approach and method: To investigate emotion experiences as a process a Qualitative study was conducted among one hundred (n=100) professional mining employees using The Critical Incident Technique Approach. Main findings: 84% of the participants experienced negative emotion events and a mere 14% of participants experienced positive emotion events at work. Negative emotion events were appraised as negative and participants indicated not having control or power over the events, yet adaption was possible. Negative emotions included: anger, disgust and sadness. Positive emotion events were appraised as positive even though the participants reported not having control or power over the situation. Participant did report being able to live with the consequences. Positive emotions provoked included joy, pleasure and pride. Practical/managerial implications: When the emotion experiences of employees are investigated as a process, better understanding of emotions will be gained which will enable the implementation of the most appropriate interventions to fulfil individual needs and reaching organisational goals. Contribution/value-adding: Existing research on the emotion experience as a process has been lacking especially in the South African context. This study will thus contribute to research regarding the investigation of the emotion experience as a process and not mere independent components. / MA (Industrial Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

Orientation: Emotions at work have been considered as an important facet of employees’ work life. However, research regarding the investigation of the emotion experiences at work per se has been lacking. Research Purpose: The general objective of this study is to critically investigate what emotion events are experienced and how these events are appraised for them to result in specific emotions. Motivation for the study: Currently a lack of research regarding emotion experiences as a process exists. Research design, approach and method: To investigate emotion experiences as a process a Qualitative study was conducted among one hundred (n=100) professional mining employees using The Critical Incident Technique Approach. Main findings: 84% of the participants experienced negative emotion events and a mere 14% of participants experienced positive emotion events at work. Negative emotion events were appraised as negative and participants indicated not having control or power over the events, yet adaption was possible. Negative emotions included: anger, disgust and sadness. Positive emotion events were appraised as positive even though the participants reported not having control or power over the situation. Participant did report being able to live with the consequences. Positive emotions provoked included joy, pleasure and pride. Practical/managerial implications: When the emotion experiences of employees are investigated as a process, better understanding of emotions will be gained which will enable the implementation of the most appropriate interventions to fulfil individual needs and reaching organisational goals. Contribution/value-adding: Existing research on the emotion experience as a process has been lacking especially in the South African context. This study will thus contribute to research regarding the investigation of the emotion experience as a process and not mere independent components. / MA (Industrial Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

Purpose of the study was to illustrate how emotional competence can be important for leadership and to explore the possibility of improving emotion perception ability after training. Participants in this study were 40 managers, divided into control and experimental group, within public administration. The participants implemented a data-based emotion perception test, which were done twice at every occasion, with intervention consisting of information or education between test- and retest. The result showed a clear improvement after intervention, in which no difference was found between control and experimental group, which has been discussed on the basis of the likelihood of a training effect occurred between test-retest. Conclusions about emotional competence or leadership ability could not be drawn from the results of the emotion perception test. The possibility of development of emotion perception ability is however worthy of consideration in the planning of leadership training as well as in the recruitment of managers. / Studiens syfte var att belysa hur emotionell kompetens kan ha betydelse för ledarskapet samt att undersöka möjligheten till förbättring av emotionsperceptionsförmågan efter utbildning. Deltagarna i denna studie var 40 chefer, fördelade i kontroll- och experimentgrupp, inom offentlig förvaltning. Deltagarna genomförde ett databaserat emotionsperceptionstest, som gjordes två gånger vid varje tillfälle, med intervention bestående av information eller utbildning mellan före- och eftertest. Resultatet visade en tydlig förbättring efter intervention, där ingen skillnad fanns mellan kontroll- och experimentgrupp, vilket har diskuterats utifrån sannolikheten att en träningseffekt uppstått mellan före- och eftertest. Slutsatser om emotionell kompetens eller ledarskapsförmåga kunde inte göras utifrån resultatet av emotionsperceptionstestet. Möjligheten till utveckling av emotionsperceptionsförmågan är dock värd att beakta vid planering av ledarskapsutbildningar samt vid rekrytering av chefer.