Emotional interplay and communication with patients diagnosed with schizophrenia was studied in clinical interviews. Fifty-one video recorded interviews were conducted by two psychologists with nine patients. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used in three successive studies. Study I examined the communicative interplay on an overall level, including verbal and nonverbal means of communication. The interviewer’s willingness to explore and pursue the emotional content in the patient’s narrative was found to be important for establishing well functioning communication. In Study II, the stability over time of facial affective expressions in the emotional interplay was evaluated, using EMFACS. For the patients, no substantial changes in the amount of affects were found across all the interview occasions, although for one interviewer, contempt slightly increased. Whereas previous findings found contempt to be the most frequent affect in patients, in the present material disgust was as common, but depended on the interviewer. Study III investigated gaze behaviour and facial affective expressiveness. The objective was to test whether patients reduced their negative facial affectivity during mutual gaze. The patients were found to not reduce their negative facial affectivity during the state of mutual gaze. This finding was independent of both interview occasion and interviewer and implies that the patients might have intended to communicate negative facial affectivity to the interviewer. The research suggests that the emotional interplay is dominated by the negative facial affective expressions of mainly disgust and contempt. It is proposed that these negative affects may be connected to a patient’s low self-esteem, as the self in schizophrenia may be engrained by self-disgusting and self-contemptive affective experiences. The interviewer’s capacity to respond to these negative facial expressions must therefore be considered as important.

Abstract In this survey the authors studied how having a child with Aspergers syndrome affects the parents. The purpose of this survey was getting a glimpse of the parent’s experiences of support from governmental instances as well as from their own network. This survey has been executed from a qualitative point of view. The authors have completed interviews with six parents of children with Aspergers syndrome. The semi structure of the questions gave the authors the possibility to perform more freely and to ask follow up questions to get information. Crises theory and systems theory were the theoretical ground selected for this survey. These theories were chosen out of thoughts that they would help the author’s to find an understanding of the parent’s experiences and reflections. Previous research showed in resemblance to the author’s studies that parents of children with Aspergers syndrome need the support of their relatives and friends. Results of the studies show a lack in the emotional support that the parents want from their family and friends. Previous research as well as the result from this study showed that parents want coordinated assistants from authorities The result also shows that practical support from authorities like school demands a diagnosis on the child. Even though the child has been diagnosed some parents experience a lack of support, especially from school. An example on future research could be a survey how to improve and develop cooperation between different authorities.

<p>This thesis investigates the Day-of-the-week, Month-of-the-year and Quarter-of-the-year effects. Historical data from the S&P 500 index between 1970- 2005 is analyzed. The purpose is to investigate if there is any evidence of increased returns (ROR) pattern related to seasonality during this period. The conclusion is that Wednesdays, December and Quarter 4 have had the highest ROR while Mondays, September and Quarter 3 have had the lowest ROR.</p><p>The empirical analysis found support for the Monday effect that Mondays are the days with the lowest stock returns. An investor would have earned on approximately four times more if you invested on Wednesdays instead of Mondays. Mondays was the only days with a negative ROR. I also found support for the weekend effect that return on Fridays are higher than returns on Mondays. Based on the empirical analysis a mid-of-the-week effect or Wednesday effect is also present.</p><p>No support was found for the January effect that stock prices should be higher in January than in December. What I however clearly could see was a September effect. September is the only month with negative returns. You would have on earned approximately three times as much if you invest in the beginning of December instead of the beginning of September. This leads to that the quarter 3 should be avoided due to a negative historical ROR.</p>

This thesis investigates the Day-of-the-week, Month-of-the-year and Quarter-of-the-year effects. Historical data from the S&amp;P 500 index between 1970- 2005 is analyzed. The purpose is to investigate if there is any evidence of increased returns (ROR) pattern related to seasonality during this period. The conclusion is that Wednesdays, December and Quarter 4 have had the highest ROR while Mondays, September and Quarter 3 have had the lowest ROR. The empirical analysis found support for the Monday effect that Mondays are the days with the lowest stock returns. An investor would have earned on approximately four times more if you invested on Wednesdays instead of Mondays. Mondays was the only days with a negative ROR. I also found support for the weekend effect that return on Fridays are higher than returns on Mondays. Based on the empirical analysis a mid-of-the-week effect or Wednesday effect is also present. No support was found for the January effect that stock prices should be higher in January than in December. What I however clearly could see was a September effect. September is the only month with negative returns. You would have on earned approximately three times as much if you invest in the beginning of December instead of the beginning of September. This leads to that the quarter 3 should be avoided due to a negative historical ROR.

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Traditionally, the teacher body is disregarded in the educational field. This is because of traditional Western ideologies within which hierarchical dichotomies such as mind/body, matter/discourse, and theory/practice are maintained. In this study, I investigate discourse in four Swedish teacher’s manuals on norm-critical pedagogy. Proceeding from postconstructionist and feminist corpomaterialist perspectives, I research how the manuals maintain and/or challenge the traditional ways of knowledge production concerning the teacher. More specifically, I analyse how the manuals address the teacher body and how they challenge and/or reproduce the idea of ‘a bodiless teacher’. Proceeding from Critical Discourse Analysis by Norman Fairclough, postconstructionism, feminist corpomaterialism, and Guattarian and Deleuzian philosophy of affects, I look at the linguistic, discursive, and social practices of the manuals. In addition, I contribute to the discussion from my experiences as a teacher educator and educational material creator in questions related to equality and inclusion.  I argue that the manuals mainly maintain the traditional ways of knowledge production concerning the teacher by depicting the teacher as ‘bodiless’. This is done by disregarding the teacher body and addressing it as static. Nevertheless, the manuals challenge the idea of ‘a bodiless teacher’ in part. This is done by addressing the teacher body as being in composition with time, space, matter, and power (i.e., created in affective forces). Overall, the idea of ‘a bodiless teacher’ is maintained to a larger extent than it is challenged. As I understand discourse as both constituted and constituting, I claim that the manuals take part in the current discourse around the teacher, and adhere to the idea that there is no room for the teacher body and its inevitable parts (such as emotions, feelings, passion) in an educational context.

<p> Although nearly one third of the Canadian population is projected to be over the age of 65 by the year 2030, we know relatively little about how aging affects brain function generally, let alone how aging affects visual perception. The current dissertation was conducted as part of a research programme designed to better characterize how aging affects visual perception. </p> <p> Older persons exhibit a variety of deficits for perception of complex visual forms. The perception of these complex forms-including everyday forms such as faces and objects-is subserved by low-level channels that are selective, or tuned, for the orientation and spatial frequency of luminance-defined contours in the visual scene. The bandwidth of these channels is inversely related to the amount of information that they can pass on to higher visual processes; narrowly-tuned channels are better. Single-cell physiological investigations of primates suggest that visual cortex neurons thought to subserve these channels exhibit broader tuning in senescence. If these channels become broadly-tuned in older aging, this could explain age-related deficits for complex form perception. In Chapters 2 and 3 of the current thesis, I measured the tuning of these channels in otherwise healthy, older humans using psychophysical masking techniques. In Chapters 4 and 5, I measured the average tuning of the neurons thought to underlie these channels in older human adults, physiologically, using electroencephalography (EEG). Despite the aforementioned reports of functional decline in senescent neurons, psychophysical and physiological orientation and spatial frequency tuning did not differ between younger and older adults. One explanation for this discrepancy is that there is a methodological issue in the single-cell primate literature wherein anesthetics interact with senescence to produce seemingly broader neural tuning. Another explanation is that older humans do have otherwise detuned neurons and channels, but are able to tune their neurons and channels by the action of consciousness, attention, or age-related compensatory brain reorganization. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T14:21:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Eliete Neves da Silva.pdf: 338303 bytes, checksum: 798b32445fc040401fe26fc1927b31e8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-03-13 / The goal of this study was the analysis of the existing relationship between two affective dimensions of the subjective well-being, strategies of coping, and sociodemographic factors in workers in the Municipal Department of Education, Science and Technology (SEMECT) in Anápolis (GO). For such, the most stressful events experienced were described in the work context, as well as the coping strategies most often used and the prevailing affects experienced. The sample was composed of 212 government workers engaged in administrative tasks and in teaching, the average age was that of 36,61 with (DP=8,59). The measuring instruments were: Coping Response Inventory and the Scale of Positive and Negative Affects at Work. The descriptive analysis of the estressores told in the scale of coping presents the relationary problems (56.1%) with the highest predominance. The strategies most used were: resolution of problems, logic analysis, and cognitive reevaluation. In what concerns the positive and negative factors, there was the prevalence of positive affects. The results of multiple regression applied to the predictive factors analysis of the positive affects indicated that the ability of positive reevaluation showed itself meaningful in the prediction of the positive affects and reflect the approximation of coping to its cognitive dimension. In reference to the socio-demographic variables (time of service, office function, and supervision) in relation to the coping strategies, only the ability to seek social guidance/support in the time of service dimension showed significance. / Este estudo teve como objetivo a análise das relações existentes entre as dimensões afetivas do bem-estar subjetivo, estratégias de coping e fatores sócio-demográficos em trabalhadores da Secretaria Municipal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia (SEMECT) de Anápolis (GO). Para tal, descreveram-se os tipos de eventos estressantes mais vivenciados no contexto do trabalho, as estratégias de coping mais utilizadas e identificou-se a prevalência dos afetos vivenciados. A amostra foi composta por 212 servidores ocupando funções administrativas e de docência, a idade média foi de 36,61 anos com (DP=8,59). Os instrumentos de medida foram: Coping Response Inventory e Escala de Afetos Positivos e Negativos no Trabalho. A análise descritiva dos estressores relatados na escala de coping apresenta os problemas relacionais (56,1%) com a maior predominância. As estratégias mais utilizadas foram: resolução de problemas, análise lógica e reavaliação cognitiva. No que concerne aos afetos positivos e negativos, houve prevalência dos afetos positivos. Os resultados de regressão múltipla aplicada à análise dos fatores preditivos dos afetos positivos apontaram que a habilidade de reavaliação positiva mostrou-se significativa na predição dos afetos positivos e reflete o coping de aproximação cognitiva. No que se refere às variáveis sócio-demográficas (tempo de serviço, função exercida e cargo de chefia) na relação com estratégias de coping, apenas a habilidade busca de guia/suporte social na dimensão tempo de serviço mostrou-se significativa.

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