Typically developing humans innately place subjective value on social information and orient attention to it. This can be shown through eye tracking and pupillometry, a method used to show attentional engagement. Social brain development and social preference is present from infancy, and is thought to rely on a carefully balanced network of neurotransmitters and neural connections. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) presents altered neural systems which cause individuals to perceive and process social information differently, but the neurophysiology of this difference remains unclear. Previous research shows atypical gaze patterns, hyperarousal, and lack of orienting to social stimuli in ASD. Since autism is highly comorbid and shares traits with other neurodevelopmental disorders, it is difficult to distinguish aspects of these social processing differences. This study used a group of 35 neuropsychiatric patients to investigate how individuals with autism process social and non-social scenes. Eye tracking and pupillometry measures were collected while participants observed images of natural scenes with or without a person. Participants with autism did not show a pupillary response to social images and were slower to fixate on the face  region than the other participants. Additionally there were correlations between clinical measures of social functioning and the length of time it took to fixate to faces. The results highlight important distinctions of social processing in autism. This thesis proposes a new perspective of looking at the social deficits present in autism spectrum disorder. It suggests reframing the current discussion from two leading hypotheses to a unified approach and formally considering the limitations of differing types of stimuli.

abstract: Loss aversion manifests as a decision bias in which avoiding losses is preferred over acquiring rewards and can drastically alter an individual’s decision-making by overweighting potential losses relative to gains of equal magnitude. Consequently, individuals may require greater positive compensation to offset potential losses, exhibit contradictory choice preferences, or even avoid the decision entirely; and this behavior may be ascribed to an over-reliance on automatic, unconscious (intuitive) judgments rather than initiating analytic reasoning more capable of objectively evaluating outcomes. Religion (specifically Christianity) is the topic of focus, as preliminary evidence suggests an individual’s intuitive inclinations positively correlate with and predict religious beliefs. Moreover, self-reported religious beliefs significantly differed as a function of inducing either intuitive or reflective mindsets. Therefore, the purpose of this experiment was to test the hypothesis that religious participants will display significantly greater levels of loss aversion than nonreligious participants. This hypothesis extends from a previous study relating large-scale cultural and religious differences with loss aversion. While their results revealed religious orthodoxy strongly influenced loss aversion, the parameters elicited may be less stable as only two lottery questions were asked and religion was determined by cultural demographics. This study used the same design, but with a total of ten lotteries and a more detailed investigation into individual religious factors. While loss aversion coefficients replicated the overall behavioral effect (Median θ = 2.6), independent sample, Mann-Whitney U tests did not yield any significant differences between Christian and Nonreligious participants (p > 0.05); nor did any of the religious factors examined account for a significant amount of variability. This study attempted to add to current knowledge by further conflating the relationship between religiosity and adaptive decision strategies susceptible to errant and inconsistent behavior. While the hypotheses were unsupported, a null finding is still important, and future research re-testing this association or introducing causational designs may prove more fruitful in understanding these complex relationships. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2017

abstract: The attractiveness of a reward depends in part on the delay to its receipt, with more distant rewards generally being valued less than more proximate ones. The rate at which people discount the value of delayed rewards has been associated with a variety of clinically and socially relevant human behaviors. Thus, the accurate measurement of delay discounting rates is crucial to the study of mechanisms underlying behaviors such as risky sex, addiction, and gambling. In delay discounting tasks, participants make choices between two alternatives: one small amount of money delivered immediately versus a large amount of money delivered after a delay. After many choices, the experimental task will converge on an indifference point: the value of the delayed reward that approximates the value of the immediate one. It has been shown that these indifference points are systematically biased by the direction in which one of the alternatives adjusts. This bias is termed a sequencing effect. The present research proposed a reference-dependent model of choice drawn from Prospect Theory to account for the presence of sequencing effects in a delay discounting task. Sensitivity to reference frames and sequencing effects were measured in two computer tasks. Bayesian and frequentist analyses indicated that the reference-dependent model of choice cannot account for sequencing effects. Thus, an alternative, perceptual account of sequencing effects that draws on a Bayesian framework of magnitude estimation is proposed and furnished with some preliminary evidence. Implications for future research in the measurement of delay discounting and sensitivity to reference frames are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2018

Although Chinese and American cultures have been well-studied along dimensions such as collectivist versus individualist orientation, less is known about how culture influences individual economic decision-making. Here we examined cultural influences on decisions involving risk, characterized by unknown outcomes but known underlying probability distributions, versus ambiguity, in which both the outcome and distribution of possible outcomes are unknown. Based on previous research using self-reported survey data, we hypothesized that Chinese decision makers may be more ambiguity-averse than Americans. College students from mainland China (N = 27) and North America (N = 27) performed a standard economic decision-making task, choosing between a certain payoff and a gamble. Gambles varied in the magnitude of the payoff and in the degree of risk (13%, 25%, 38%, 50% or 75% probability of winning) or ambiguity (24%, 50% or 74% probability unknown). Using the proportion of risky and ambiguous gambles accepted, ambiguity and risk aversion coefficients were calculated separately for each participant. Following the main task, participants completed demographic surveys and personality measures including the Big Five Inventory and the Need for Cognitive Closure Scale. We found that variation in risk aversion was explained by personality factors of Neuroticism and Decisiveness, without respect to cultural group. In contrast, after controlling for differences in personality measures, for ambiguity aversion only the effect of cultural group was significant, with Chinese participants showing greater ambiguity aversion than Americans. By assessing individual decision behavior using experimental economic methods, our results provide a more complete picture of the role of culture in economic choices under risk versus ambiguity.

Background: Kahneman and Tversky (1974, 1979 & 1992) argue that individuals are bound to numerous behavioral biases that may lead to the emergence of different irrational behaviors. This is often observed with even a higher degree among participants of financial and stock markets as agents such as investors are frequently exposed to significant level of risk and uncertainty (Kahneman, 2013; Kahneman, Knetsch & Thaler, 1991; Kahneman & Tversky, 1974, 1979, 1992). Also, empirical studies indicate that a significant level of herding exists among investors when they are exposed to a high degree of risk and uncertainty such as those in financial crises (Galariotis, Rong & Spyrou, 2014; Litimi, 2017; Hott, 2009). Purpose: the main purpose of this thesis is to explore if the loss aversion bias has a significant causal impact on forming herding behavior among young Swedish retail investors. Method: an online analytical questionnaire including eight questions has been conducted to collect primary data, with 77 Swedish retail investors under the age of 35 participating in the study. Furthermore, a multiple regression analysis has been implemented to analyze and interpret the data. Conclusion: it can be concluded that there is not a significant correlation between the degree of loss aversion and the degree of herding behavior within the sample group of young Swedish retail investors. Hence, loss aversion bias cannot be considered as one of the major contributors of herding within the target population.

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / A teoria da busca por emprego prediz que indivÃduos mais avessos ao risco possuem salÃrios de reserva menores que indivÃduos menos avessos ao risco e, por conseguinte, teriam uma menor probabilidade em estarem desempregados (PISSARIDES, 1974; NACHMAN, 1975; LIPPMAN e McCALL, 1976). EvidÃncias empÃricas para esta hipÃtese, no entanto, sÃo bastante escassas nos mercados de trabalho de paÃses desenvolvidos e praticamente inexistente em paÃses com mercados caracterizados por um alto grau de informalidade. Este trabalho tem por objetivo averiguar esta teoria neste Ãltimo contexto, e mais especificamente para o mercado de Fortaleza-CE (Brasil), utilizando para isso uma base de dados que contÃm informaÃÃes de mercado de trabalho, juntamente com indicadores de comportamento de risco dos indivÃduos. A partir desta base de dados, classificaram-se os indivÃduos quanto à aversÃo ao risco, realizaram-se estimativas de probabilidade de desemprego a partir de modelos Logit, e encontraram-se resultados condizentes com a teoria, principalmente quando se compara indivÃduos nesta condiÃÃo com aqueles no mercado informal. / The job search theory predicts that more risk averse individuals have lower wages than less risk-averse individuals booking and therefore would be less likely to be unemployed (PISSARIDES, 1974; NACHMAN, 1975; LIPPMAN and McCALL, 1976). Empirical evidence for this hypothesis, however, are quite scarce in labor in developed and practically nonexistent in countries with markets characterized by a high degree of informality country markets. This paper aims to investigate this theory in the latter context, and more specifically for the market of Fortaleza, CE (Brazil), using for this purpose a database containing information of the labor market, along with indicators of risk behavior of individuals . From this database, classified themselves as individuals to risk aversion, there were estimates of the probability of unemployment from logit models, and met results consistent with the theory, especially when comparing individuals with this condition those in the informal market.

O hipotálamo modula comportamentos relacionados à motivação, recompensa e punição através de projeções para a área tegmental ventral (VTA), o núcleo dorsal da rafe (DR) e o núcleo tegmental rostromedial (RMTg). Nesse estudo, investigamos através de métodos de rastreamento retrógrado as entradas hipotalâmicas da VTA, do DR e do RMTg e, se neurônios hipotalâmicos individuais inervam mais do que uma dessas regiões. Também determinamos uma possível assinatura GABAérgica ou glutamatérgica das aferências hipotalâmicas, através de rastreamento retrógrado combinado com métodos de hibridação in situ. Observamos que VTA, DR e RMTg recebem um padrão bastante semelhante de entradas hipotalâmicas originando de neurônios de projeção glutamatérgicas e GABAérgicas, a maioria deles (> 90%) inervando somente um desses três alvos. Nossos achados indicam que entradas hipotalâmicas são importantes fontes de sinais homeostáticos para a VTA, o DR e o RMTg. Eles exibem um alto grau de heterogeneidade que permite de excitar ou inibir as três estruturas de forma independente ou em conjunto. / The hypothalamus modulates behaviors related to motivation, reward and punishment via projections to the ventral tegmental area (VTA), dorsal raphe nucleus (DR), and rostromedial tegmental nucleus (RMTg). In this study we investigated by retrograde tracing methods hypothalamic inputs to the VTA, DR, and RMTg, and whether individual hypothalamic neurons project to more than one of these structures. We also determined a possible GABAergic or glutamatergic phenotype of hypothalamic afferents, by combining retrograde tracing with in situ hybridization methods. We found that VTA, DR, and RMTg receive a very similar set of hypothalamic afferents originating from glutamatergic and GABAergic hypothalamic projection neurons, the majority of them (> 90%) only innervating one of these structures. Our findings indicate that hypothalamic inputs are important sources of homeostatic signals for the VTA, DR, and RMTg. They exhibit a high degree of heterogeneity which permits to activate or inhibit the three structures either independently or jointly.

O núcleo tegmental rostromedial (RMTg) é uma estrutura relé GABAérgica entre a habênula lateral (LHb) e a área tegmental ventral (VTA), que também recebe projeções diretas da LHb. Para detalhar a topografia das projeções da LHb para o RMTg e VTA, injeções de um traçador anterógrado foram depositadas na LHb. A origem das projeções da LHb para o RMTg e VTA foi confirmada com injeções de um traçador retrógrado, no RMTg ou VTA. Além disso, comparamos a posição topográfica dos neurônios marcados no RMTg após injeções na VTA, com os axônios marcados, vindas da LHb. Nossos dados revelaram que as projeções da LHb estão organizadas de maneira topográfica, com projeções para o RMTg, se originando da LHb lateral e as projeções para a VTA da LHb medial. No RMTg, axônios oriundos da LHb foram observados pertos de neurônios que se projetam para a VTA, formando aposições com esses neurônios. Os resultados indicam que as projeções da LHb para o RMTg e VTA originam-se de diferentes regiões da LHb e provam a existência de uma via bisináptica que conecta a LHb com a VTA via o RMTg. / The rostromedial segmental nucleus (RMTg) is a GABAergic relay between the lateral habenula (LHb) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA), which also receives direct projections from the LHB. To detail the topography of LHb projections to the RMTg and VTA, injections of an anterograde tracer were made into the LHb. The origin of LHb projections to the RMTg and VTA was then confirmed by injections of a retrograde tracer into the RMTg or VTA. Additionally, we compared the topographic position of RMTg neurons labeled from injections in the VTA with that of axons labeled from the LHb. Our data revealed that LHb projections are organized in a topographic manner, with projections to the RMTg emerging from the lateral LHb and those to the VTA arising from the medial LHb. In the RMTg, LHb axons were found in register with VTA projecting neurons and were frequently apposed to the latter. Our findings indicate that LHb inputs to the RMTg and VTA arise from different divisions of the LHb and provide evidence for a disynaptic pathway that links the LHb to the VTA via the RMTg.

Submitted by Júlia Fonseca (julia.f.fonseca@gmail.com) on 2013-06-24T17:08:45Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Julia Fonseca.pdf: 901363 bytes, checksum: 4df97de4c5783eb1e3f3acea7c9e8e25 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2013-06-27T12:57:48Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Julia Fonseca.pdf: 901363 bytes, checksum: 4df97de4c5783eb1e3f3acea7c9e8e25 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-06-27T12:58:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Julia Fonseca.pdf: 901363 bytes, checksum: 4df97de4c5783eb1e3f3acea7c9e8e25 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-06-17 / We investigate the eff ect of aggregate uncertainty shocks on real variables. More speci fically, we introduce a shock in the volatility of productivity in an RBC model with long-run volatility risk and preferences that exhibit generalised disappointment aversion. We find that, when combined with a negative productivity shock, a volatility shock leads to further decline in real variables, such as output, consumption, hours worked and investment. For instance, out of the 2% decrease in output as a result of both shocks, we attribute 0.25% to the e ffect of an increase in volatility. We also fi nd that this e ffect is the same as the one obtained in a model with Epstein-Zin- Weil preferences, but higher than that of a model with expected utility. Moreover, GDA preferences yield superior asset pricing results, when compared to both Epstein-Zin-Weil preferences and expected utility.

TITLE: Aversive feelings of therapists to clients and ways of dealing with them AUTHOR: Bc. Simona Kozlová DEPARTMENT: Department of psychology SUPERVISOR: PhDr. David Heider, PhD. ABSTRACT: The aim of this thesis is to gain insight aversive feelings experienced by therapists to the clients. Determine the causal characteristics of aversive feeling and their processing. The task is to examine whether there are links between the detected phenomena. The method of data collection, are interviews with a group of psychotherapists. When analyzing the responses I used qualitative methodology, specifically the Strauss and Corbin's grounded theory. The work is divided into theoretical part and empirical part. The theoretical part describes aspects affecting the therapeutic process, as well as forms of aversive feelings and their possible consequences on the therapeutic relationship. In the empirical part are presented and interpreted data obtained from interviews, which are analyzed. The main results include: aversive feelings experienced by the therapists include helplessness, frustration, anger, and frustration, exhaustion, disgust, fear and threats, abuse and failure. Aversive feelings occur depending on situational and personal characteristics of therapists and clients. A significant factor that contributes to...