My dissertation aims at constructing an environmental ethics theory based on environmental aesthetics in order to advocate and promote environmentally sustainable practices, policies, and lifestyles. I attempt to construct an integrated environmental aesthetics in order to inspire people’s feelings of love towards nature and motivate them to protect it.  In order to achieve this goal, I first examine the philosophical understanding and aesthetic appreciation of nature from philosophical traditions of China, which have an impact on the general public’s attitude towards nature. in chapter one of my dissertation, I point out that nature is viewed as an organic system which is always in a self-generating process of production and reproduction of life. the metaphysical foundation for this perspective of nature is ch’i. Therefore the aesthetic appreciation of nature in China is also the aesthetic appreciation of ch’i. with regard to the concept of ch’i, I focus on the following three questions: (1) what are the objective and aesthetic features of ch’i? (2) How do the Chinese appreciate aesthetic features of ch’i? (3) Why the objective features of ch’i are regarded as the objects of aesthetic appreciation? I argue that the Chinese appreciate the aesthetic features of ch’i by using intellectual intuition and that empathy is the reason why the objective features of ch’i are considered to be aesthetic features. in Chapter 2, I explain in detail the two aesthetic categories for aesthetic appreciation of nature in two major philosophical schools in China: emptiness and creativity. in Chapter 3, I examine the philosophical foundations for aesthetic appreciation of nature in the West. I first investigate the influence of traditional Western philosophy on the perceptions of nature. I argue that traditional Western philosophical thinking doesn’t support aesthetic appreciation of nature. I point out that aesthetic appreciation of nature started from eighteenth century in the West. I examine Kant’s aesthetic categories of beauty and sublime in his appreciation of nature. in contemporary world, I focus on the Allen Carlson’s positive aesthetics and Arnold Berleant’s engagement model to appreciate the beauty of environment. in Chapter 4, I evaluate the theories of aesthetic appreciation of nature in the West and China and attempt to construct an integrated theory of aesthetic appreciation of nature. the key point of this theory is to establish a caring relationship with nature based on aesthetic appreciation of nature and active participation in the beauty of it. This relationship will motivate people to protect nature and also contribute to human happiness.

Les pathologies inflammatoires démyélinisantes primitives du système nerveux central (SNC) sont dominées par deux entités : la sclérose en plaques (SEP) et la neuromyélite optique (NMO). Ces deux pathologies se différencient par : 1. leur phénotype, la NMO se caractérisant par une myélite extensive dans le plan transversal et longitudinal et peu de lésions encéphaliques initiales ; 2. leur sévérité, le pronostic de la NMO étant moins bon que celui de la SEP ; 3. leur mécanisme immunologique, puisque l’immunité humorale domine nettement dans la NMO, cette pathologie répondant peu ou pas aux traitementshabituellement prescrits dans la SEP. Un anticorps sérique (IgG-NMO) a été retrouvé chez les patients atteints de NMO avec une sensibilité de 50-70% et une spécificité de 90-100%. Cet anticorps a pour cible le principal canal hydrique du SNC, l’aquaporine-4 (AQP4), qui se situe principalement sur les pieds astrocytaires jalonnant la barrière hémato-encéphalique. La SEP est relativement familière des neurologues car décrite sur le plan épidémiologique et dans son histoire naturelle depuis plus d’un siècle à travers de larges séries réalisées parfois en population générale. Son approche thérapeutique progresse suite à des essais contrôlés qui s’accumulent depuis maintenant près de 20 ans. Toutefois, la majorité des travaux ont été effectués chez les populations Caucasiennes en raison de sa plus grande fréquence dans ces populations. A l’inverse, la NMO garde encore un relatif mystère à cause de sa relative rareté, l’établissement très récent de critères diagnostiques et une physiopathologie très récemment éclaircie par la découverte de l’IgG-NMO qui a indiscutablement suscité un regain d’intérêt de cette affection. Ainsi, son incidence est quasiment inconnue de même que sa susceptibilité génétique. La progression du handicap de la NMO qu’il soit visuel ou moteur à l’évidence sévère, ne repose toujours pas sur des chiffres précis, la description des lésions neuroradiologiques reste encore très embryonnaire. Enfin, même s’il existe un consensus pour traiter énergiquement les poussées de NMO et les espacer, il n’existe quasiment aucune étude prospective. / Introduction: Aim of the study is to describe épidemiology, phenotype and treatment of demyelinating inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) namely multiple sclerosis (MS) and neuromyelitis optica (NMO) in French West Indies.Epidemiology: MS emerged in the French West Indian (FWI) population with an incidence of 1.27/100 000 (CI 95%: 1.16-1.38) for the period 1992-2007 while incidence of NMO remained stable at 0.19/100,000 (CI 95%: 0.15–0.23). Both migration in Metropolitean France (MF) and decrease of sun exposure were risk factors for MS acquisition in FWI. Phenotype and treatment of NMO: NMO is a very rapidly disabling disease with median times to reach DSS 3, 6 and 8 of one year, 8 years and 22 years respectively. However, treatment by plasma exchanges were shown to reduce sequellae of NMO attacks ; mitoxantrone and rituximab reduced significantly annualized relapse rate (ARR) from 1.7 to 0.29 (p<10-4) and from 1,34 to 0,56 (p=0.0005) respectively, improving dramatically natural course of NMO.Phenotype and treatment of MS: Absence of Migration in MF in MS patients was found to be the strongest independent predictive factor of disability progression to DSS 6 (hazard ratio, 2.59; p=0.0002); beside short time to DSS3 (p=0.005), later age at onset (p=0.005), and multi-symptomatic onset (p=0.03). Treatment of MS by interferon beta-1 had a moderate impact in MS while natalizimab proved to be highly effective by reducing drastically ARR and inflammatory parameters on magnetic resonance imaging. Conclusion: Spectrum of demyelinating inflammatory disorders of CNS has reversed in French West Indies with overrepresentation of MS. Agressive therapy is needed to improve prognosis of NMO. Rapidly increasing of its incidence makes MS a new public health problem in French West Indies.

The mechanisms accounting for how negative mood, intolerance of uncertainty (IU), and low problem-solving confidence (PSC) increase worrying are poorly understood. One possibility is that these variables result in a detailed, analytical, and cognitively demanding form of information processing, known as systematic processing. This thesis examines whether worry promoters (negative mood, IU, and low PSC) increase an individual's likelihood of deploying systematic processing. Furthermore, the impact of these variables on threat perception and coping beliefs – factors affecting both worry and systematic processing – is explored. Six studies were conducted. The first five utilised experimental manipulations of mood, IU and PSC, whilst the sixth used questionnaires. Systematic processing deployment was indexed by sufficiency threshold measures (confidence that processing goals are satisfactorily accomplished) and a questionnaire. Participants induced into a negative mood had raised sufficiency thresholds; they were more likely to deploy systematic processing High IU and low PSC manipulations did not cause an increase in the likelihood of using systematic processing, but these variables correlated with an increased likelihood of deploying systematic processing Only negative mood correlated with increased threat perception when regression analyses were conducted controlling for each of the worry promoters All three worry promoters correlated with decreased threat coping beliefs A small negative correlation was found between worry and systematic processing PSC showed some construct overlap with systematic processing Consequently, negative mood states may encourage individuals to systematically process threats that they perceive. But worry is also defined by IU and low PSC, factors which diminish self-efficacy appraisals in the form of coping beliefs. These low coping beliefs may serve to dissuade the individual from typically deploying cognitively demanding systematic processing. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the role of systematic processing as a mechanism of perseverative worry.

I argue that emotion is an ontologically emergent and sui generis. I argue that emotion meets both of two individually necessary and jointly sufficient conditions for ontological emergence. These are, (i) that emotion necessarily has constituent parts to which it cannot be reduced, and (ii) that emotion has a causal effect on its constituent parts (i.e. emotion demonstrates downward causation). I argue that emotion is partly cognitive, partly constituted by feelings and partly perceptual. 1) I argue that both the type and the intensity of an emotion supervene on cognitive factors. But emotion cannot be reduced to cognition because emotions are paradigmatically valenced and cognitions are not. 2) I argue that the phenomenal properties of emotion are determined by bodily feelings, thus emotion necessarily requires feelings. But emotion cannot be reduced to feelings because emotion has rational properties not held by bodily feelings. 3) I argue that the intentional objects of emotion are perceptual objects, and hence emotion necessarily requires perception. But emotion cannot be reduced to perception because emotion has second orders (as evidenced by metaemotion) and perception does not. Thus emotion meets the first necessary condition for ontological emergence; emotion has constituent parts to which it cannot be reduced. I go on to argue that emotion has a causal effect on its 4) cognitive, 5) feeling, and 6) perceptual parts, both as a faculty and at the level of the individual emotion. Emotion meets the two individually necessary and jointly sufficient conditions for ontological emergence: (i) emotion has composite parts to which it cannot be reduced, and (ii) emotion has a causal effect on its composite parts. Thus emotion is ontologically emergent. Being ontologically emergent, emotion is sui generis.

This thesis investigates how particular psychological motivations operate in different social and physical contexts. Through a series of four papers, it both extends and empirically tests some of the theoretical claims made by motivated identity construction theory (MICT, Vignoles, 2011), which proposes that people construct their identities in ways to maximise or maintain the satisfaction of identity motives for self-esteem, continuity, distinctiveness, belonging, efficacy, and meaning. Although these identity motives been found to influence identity construction at individual, relational and collective levels of self-representation (e.g. Vignoles, Regalia, Manzi, Golledge, & Scabini, 2006), Paper 1 extends this by showing not only that identification with novel groups tracks the satisfaction of identity motives over time, but also, crucially, that different motives are related to identification with different types of groups. MICT further proposes that each of the motives can be satisfied in various ways, and that particular contexts promote and emphasise certain ways over others. Paper 2 extends this theorising to the belonging motive, showing that there are different ways that people can gain feelings of belonging from their group memberships, and that this depends on the type of groups involved. Paper 3 examines the effects of the built environment on the belonging motive, showing that physical features within flats that encourage the use of common areas increase the frequency with which flatmates coincidently meet each other. This increases their feelings of belonging associated with the group, leading, in turn, to increases in well-being. Paper 4 focuses on the distinctiveness motive and, using a large cross-cultural dataset, finds support for MICT's claims that the way the distinctiveness motive is satisfied varies according to the level of urbanisation in an individual's surrounding environment, in addition to their cultural context. The importance of incorporating social and physical contexts into psychological theories is discussed.

The thesis explores the impacts of being exposed to hate material online, so called cyberhate, using social psychological theories of group identity as a framework to explore victimisation experiences when targeted directly or witnessing others from the same identity group being targeted, known as indirect victimisation. Three papers examine these impacts with two commonly stigmatised groups; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people (LGB&T) and Muslims. Paper 1 reports the results from two online surveys about the nature of cyberhate experienced by these two groups. Results indicate it is a common and frequent problem occurring over a range of internet platforms and mediums and there are a number of negative emotional reactions and behavioural intentions similar to those reported by Intergroup Emotions Theory after group identity challenges. Paper 2 uses qualitative interviews with victims of cyberhate to gain a detailed understanding of the impacts of being victimised. Participants indicated that there is a level of resilience to being targeted as bad behaviour is expected online, but being exposed to hateful material causes many to take avoidance action, avoiding certain parts of the internet. Paper 3 presents the results of an innovative experimental study exposing members of the stigmatised groups and a control to hate material. Those viewing group specific hate material felt angrier than when just viewing generally unpleasant material. The current research finds that being targeted online has similar negative impacts to offline hate crime, both to those who are targeted directly but also those who are indirectly victimised.

Vicarious pain refers to the processes and experiences that arise from observations of other people in pain. Due to the interpersonal and multi-modal nature of these processes, research into the field is highly relevant for a number of key concepts in social cognitive neuroscience, such as empathy, multi-sensory processing and social cognition. The dominant approach in the field has been to focus on normative samples with little focus being given to inter-individual differences. The discovery of a subsample of the population who report conscious experiences of pain when observing it, so called 'mirror-pain responders', presents a significant opportunity for developing our understanding of the neural processes and characteristics associated with vicarious pain. The present thesis aims to extend understanding of this group who appear to lie on an extreme end of a spectrum of vicarious pain perception. Although past research has highlighted this group and made some attempts to identify their prevalence, few formal attempts have been made to stringently discover the prevalence and identify the characteristics of their qualitative experience. As such, ARTICLE I developed a questionnaire, named the Vicarious Pain Questionnaire (VPQ), which characterises mirror-pain responders based on their subjective experiences of pain. The results showed a surprisingly high prevalence rate for the condition, ~30%. In addition through the use of a cluster analysis, the VPQ identified subgroups within mirror-pain responders, which included a group who experienced sensory and localised mirror-pain, and a group that experienced affective and generalised mirror-pain. ARTICLE I and ARTICLE II both aimed at assessing the neural basis for the experiences and successfully highlighted the role of hyperactivity in vicarious somatosensory processing, through the use of electrophysiological (EEG) neuro-markers for somatosensory processing (mu rhythm) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activation in the somatosensory cortex during pain observation. Additionally, these articles highlighted the role of self-other processing regions through the use of voxel-based morphometry (VBM) which revealed reduced grey-matter volume in the right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ), and psycho-physiological interactions (PPI) of fMRI processing which revealed connectivity networks between pain matrix regions and self-other processing regions (rTPJ and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC)). Characteristics of the mirror-pain were further assessed in ARTICLE III which in a battery of behavioural and physiological tests were administered to mirror-pain responders and controls. This study showed abnormal autonomic nervous system processing for Affective/General mirror-pain responders and confirmed the link between the condition and questionnaire measures of empathy. Finally, ARTICLE IV failed to provide a causal link between self-other processing regions (rTPJ) and somatosensory activation in response to pain observations through the use of theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in non-responders. This calls into question the direct causality of neural mechanisms associated with self-other theories of mirror-pain. This thesis demonstrates the importance of studying inter-individual differences in vicarious pain by reporting a set questionnaire and neuroimaging results which contribute to debates in the field and raises questions for future research. This work, its implications, and contributions to the wider literature are reviewed in the DISCUSSION chapter.

The extent to which motivational mechanisms contribute to reward seeking processes is crucial to our understanding of certain abnormal behaviours, including addiction. Pavlovian conditioning endows reward-associated stimuli with the ability to modulate goal-directed actions for that same reward (Pavlovian-to-Instrumental transfer; PIT). Learning and motivational theories attempt to describe the processes by which stimuli in the environment acquire incentive properties, attract attention and drive reward-seeking behaviours and bear many resemblances, but there are also important differences. This thesis uses a general PIT model in humans to further our understanding of these discrepancies and investigates the effect mood has on these processes. Firstly, altering the value of the reward affected the rigor of instrumental performance, but the same changes in outcome value did not affect the expectancy of, attention to, or emotional reactivity to the cues suggesting that in Pavlovian learning, apart from the nature of outcomes, the value of outcomes is encoded such that changes in outcome value prevent transfer of a Pavlovian cue's incentive properties to alter goal-directed action. Secondly, the further papers assess the extent to which mood modulates this same action. When under negative mood a general reduction in motivation, driven by an attenuated sensitivity to the reward was observed, as well as a dissociation between aversive and appetitive outcomes. The remaining study explored whether mood altered Pavlovian learning and revealed that those under state negative mood take longer to express their knowledge explicitly and that those under positive mood showed altered attention and emotional responses towards the same stimuli. The approach used in this thesis shows the merits of both motivational and learning theories, and further demonstrates the link between mood and motivation. Additionally, a dissociation between punishment and reward prediction when under negative mood was demonstrated and builds upon this important distinction.

Thèse--Méd.--Reims, 1973. N°: N° 46. / Bibliogr. ff. I-XXI.

Different ways to measure human affective and deceptive reactions to stimulus have been developed. One method is a multimodal approach using web camera, thermal imaging camera and physiological sensors data to extract different features in the human face (verbal and non-verbal behavior) such as breathing rate, heart rate, face temperature, skin conductance, eye tracking, language analysis and facial expressions among others. Human subjects from different ages and ethnicity were exposed to two different experiments were they watched videos (affection recognition) and others answered an interview session (deception recognition). With the data collected from videos (thermal and visual), different regions of interest (ROI) of the face were selected as well as the whole picture. The ROI were determined based on the most sensitive parts of the face where larger changes of temperature or other physiological features are recorded. It was also analyzed the language (written and spoken) in order to obtain the verbal modalities. The data has been compared among the subjects to determine whether the deceptive and affective reactions of a person can be predicted using multimodal approach. From the multiple data obtained, a characterization of reactions is proposed when subjects are exposed to different stimulus, positive or negative, as well as deceptive behavior and later on recognize if the person is happy, sad, nervous, anxious, telling the truth, lying etc. Using the multimodal approach we were able to predict automatically, with higher accuracy than the baseline, affective and deceptive states of a person. In the affective state recognition, the classifier software differentiated affective state versus neutral state with 92.85% accuracy. Then it differentiated Positive State, Negative State and Neutral State with 57.14% accuracy. Additionally, it differentiated Positive State versus Negative State with 73.21% accuracy. Finally, the classifier was able to predict Deceptive State (people lying) and Non Deceptive State (people telling the truth) with 72.72% accuracy.