This study investigated the associations between emotion recognition ability and autistic traits in a sample of non-clinical young adults. Two hundred and forty nine individuals took part in an emotion recognition test, which assessed recognition of 12 emotions portrayed by actors. Emotion portrayals were presented as short video clips, both with and without sound, and as sound only. Autistic traits were assessed using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (ASQ) questionnaire. Results showed that men had higher ASQ scores than women, and some sex differences in emotion recognition were also observed. The main finding was that autistic traits were correlated with several measures of emotion recognition. More specifically, ASQ-scores were negatively correlated with recognition of fear and with recognition of ambiguous stimuli.

Personlighetsdragen openness och extraversion respektive situationsfaktorerna variation, intensitet, samt frekvens och deras påverkan på emotionsregleringsstrategierna reappraisal samt suppression skiljer sig inom yrkesgrupperna vård respektive handel. Åtta regressions-analyser med data från sammanlagt 178 anställda visade att (1) inom vården har extraversion, openness, samt frekvens betydelse för reappraisal, och intensiteten påverkar suppression, och (2) för handel visade sig openness och situationen som helhet ha betydelse för suppression, medan inga samband kunde påvisas för reappraisal. Skillnaderna tyder på att det finns ett behov av fortsatt forskning inom emotionsreglering, inriktad på skillnader mellan olika yrkesgrupper. / Personality traits openness and extraversion, and situational factors variation, intensity and frequency respectively influence emotion regulation techniques reappraisal and suppression differently within the professions of human service and service/sales. Eight regression analyses with data from a total of 178 employees showed that (1) within human service, extraversion, openness, and frequency are important to reappraisal whereas intensity plays a role for suppression. (2) Within service/sales none of the variables influenced reappraisal, and only openness and the situation “as a whole” played a role for suppression. The results indicate a need for more scientific research regarding differences in predictions of emotion regulation between occupations.

För att undersöka resursallokering av processresurser vid informations-bearbetning av hotstimuli har ett ”Dual Task” experiment utförts med spindelrädda försöksdeltagare. Uppgiften bestod av att respondera på olika probe-stimuli som exponerades, direkt på bilder av olika djur (däribland spindlar), med olika tidsintervall. Latens och träffsäkerhet mättes, för ett mått på prestation, och EKG användes för att kontrollera att spindel-bilderna faktiskt utlöste rädsloresponser. Resultaten visar att större processresurser allokerades till spindelbilderna jämfört med alla de övriga bildkategorierna, men att denna differentiering inte verkar ske innan en kognitivt kontrollerad bearbetning och utvärdering av stimulus ägt rum. När uppgiften krävde mer resurser minskade de fysiologiska responserna, vilket indikerar att en variation i den kognitiva belastningen kan modifiera rädsloresponsen.

This dissertation examines the relation between emotional functioning and meaning making in bereavement. Emotional functioning (i.e., awareness, expression, and regulation of emotions) has been traditionally considered crucial in grief coping (Pennebaker, 1990; Raphael, 1983). At the same time, bereaved people who were able to find a meaning in their loss experience were found to show better adjustment and were less likely to develop grief complications than those who did not find a meaning (Davis, Wortman, Lehman, & Silver, 2000; Tolstikova, Fleming, & Chartier, 2005). The present research aimed to build a more inclusive model of grief coping by examining the interplay of emotional functioning and meaning making in grief in the same sample of people. The emotionally focused approach to human functioning developed by L. Greenberg (Greenberg, 2004) forms the theoretical foundation for the study. This approach proposes that emotional arousal, awareness, expression, and regulation provide grounds for meaning construction and eventually help to assimilate a shattering event. Following Greenbergs conceptualization (Greenberg, Auszura, & Herrmann, 2007), the first set of studies of the present dissertation examined productive and unproductive emotional functioning in grief. Three hundred and fifteen bereaved people were recruited through the online bereavement support websites to help develop and validate the Productive-Unproductive Emotional Processing in Grief questionnaire (PUG). The PUG scores were further used to predict meaning making in grief. It was shown that bereaved individuals who were engaged in productive emotional processing of grief and demonstrated good emotional regulation were more capable of making sense of their loss six months later.<p> The data for the first set of studies were collected via the Internet. While the Internet method of data collection has been previously used in grief research, its validity and reliability had not been assessed. Thus, Study 4 of the present dissertation reviewed the use of the Internet in bereavement research and examined the reliability and validity of online data collection. The demographic characteristics and grief scores of the Internet participants were compared to those completed by traditional paper-and-pencil method. The study demonstrated that the online survey results were comparable to the traditional paper-and-pencil survey method.

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Recent terrorist events (e.g., London, Madrid, and Bombay train bombings), as well as the attacks on September 11, 2001, have highlighted the impact casualties can have on domestic audiences. These incidents led to major foreign policy shifts, massive security expenditures, and the removal of an incumbent government (i.e., Spain). Yet, when we compare the number of those killed in terrorist events to those killed in militarized disputes, there are more negative public responses to casualties of terrorism than to militarized disputes. My dissertation examines this “over reaction” by comparing reactions to different casualty contexts. The comparison of casualties across different hostility contexts is a unique contribution to the field. I posit a model in which the characteristics of the casualty event generate emotional reactions. The emotional response affects the way information about the event is processed by individuals, and alters individual’s support of aggressive/non-aggressive foreign policies. Furthermore, my model proposes that different types of negative emotions have different impacts on the process, as well as on the preferences for distinct foreign policies. I expect that different casualty characteristics such as the hostility context (terrorism and militarized disputes) and the characteristics of the targets (number killed and their identity) influence the specific negative emotions experienced by individuals. Thus, variations in these characteristics should alter public preferences for foreign policies. I use a multi-method approach to test my theoretical propositions. First, I utilize experimental methods that introduce different scenarios to the participants. Each scenario varies the casualty characteristics, and measures individual preferences for foreign policies. Second, I compiled a daily event data set that contains both terrorism and militarized dispute casualty statistics and public reaction data for Israel in 1969. This period provides wide variations along the independent variables. My results support the idea that casualty characteristics play a pivotal role in emotional responses to these events as well as in how individuals respond to casualty events. This work is unique in that it examined the role of the number of casualties in conjunction with the context in which they occur and who those casualties are.

Previous studies of emotion issues most focus on customer interaction and individual emotion, few studies focus on the interaction between supervisors and subordinates. Some findings also showed the Chinese supervisors would categorize their subordinates into ¡§insiders¡¨ and ¡§outsiders¡¨. Therefore, this search aimed at the emotion behavior and reaction between supervisors, insiders and outsiders. The findings of this search showed the Chinese supervisors tend to have more positive emotion behavior to ¡§insiders¡¨. Even they have negative behaviors to ¡§insiders¡¨, they will show more consideration. In the other way, ¡§insiders¡¨ always not worry about supervisors¡¦ negative behaviors even they will clarify some facts to supervisors, but ¡§outsiders¡¨ always use the evade way to confront supervisors¡¦ negative behaviors.

Creating a sense of identity is constructed through communicative processes allowing us to participate in interpersonal relationships, and understand who we are. "Much of our emotional life is bound up with the way we narrate experiences..." (Kerby, 1991, p. 48). Because experiences are told from our own perspective, what we tell is significant. It reflects our feelings regarding a situation, and in the telling of the story, we reinterpret the way we understand our life and how we know ourselves. The purpose of this study is to examine the content and structure of the narratives contained within a diary, in order to learn how an individual interprets emotional experiences and constructs identities. It is a unique opportunity to explore how individuals can cope with ambiguity and uncertainty by constructing multiple identities to functionally enact within a variety of environments.

Over the past 20 years, our understanding of emotional processes has grown rapidly. Within the study of emotion, a key area of interest has been how individuals succeed or fail in regulating emotional responses. Although still in its early development, researchers in this field have made progress in identifying the neurological, psychological, and social processes that underlie emotion regulation and dysregulation. Despite these advances, relatively few of these insights have been considered in light of the highly emotional terrain of couple distress. In the present study, one hundred and eight cohabiting couples rated themselves and their partner on key emotion regulation variables (e.g., the tendency to lose control of one??s emotions and the ability to restore emotional control and equilibrium). Analyses using the Actor- Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) showed strong links between these variables and individuals?? experience of intimacy and distress in their relationship. Results suggest that there are multiple avenues through which emotion regulation impacts a given individual??s relationship functioning; these include: (1) the individual??s self perceived capacity for emotion regulation, (2) their partner??s self-perceived capacity for emotion regulation, (3) the individual??s perception of their partner??s capacity for emotion regulation, and (4) the partner??s perception of the individual??s emotion regulation abilities.

Uniting literary analysis, theories of affect from the sciences and humanities, and an archival-based account of Tudor history, this project examines how literature reflects and constructs the emotional dynamics of life in the Renaissance courtly sphere—with hopes of showing why emotionality, as a primary mode through which historical subjects embody and engage their world, should be adopted as a fundamental lens of social and textual analysis. Spanning the 16th Century, chapters on John Skelton and Henrician satire, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Sir Philip Sidney and Elizabethan pageantry, and the Essex circle demonstrate how the dynamics of disgust, envy, frustration, and dread guide literary production in the early modern court. By aligning Renaissance discourses of emotion with current trends in empirical and theoretical research, the study provides a new context for an "affective" analysis of literature. / text