<p>The role of attention and perceptual resources were studied in a one-back task and a letter-search task, both using the same stimuli. In the letter task, pictures were used as task-irrelevant and distracting emotional stimuli. The emotional processing of the pictures was measured through the Late Positive Potential (LPP), an event-related potential (ERP) recorded with EEG. LPP activity was significantly greater to emotional than neutral stimuli during the one-back task; this shows that emotional stimuli were processed during an easy task (low load). However, LPP activity dropped for all stimuli during the difficult perceptual task (high load). Selective processes of attention are discussed, in relation to Load Theory and the ability to ignore task-irrelevant, but emotionally significant, stimuli.</p>

The aim of this study was to gain a greater understanding of what social workers perceive to be mentally demanding and emotionally challenging work, and which strategies they use to handle it. I chose to interview six social workers, three of them had long experience of social work, and three of them had worked for less than a year. The justification for this choice wasthat I wanted to interview people with different experience of social work over time, to be able to see possible differences in what was perceived as mentally demanding and emotionally challenging work, and how it was handled. The social workers were interviewed with a semi structured interview manual. The results showed that the organization of the social service is not fitted to the work that social workers execute. This means that what is perceived as mentally demanding and emotionally challenging work largely depends on this. Experience of the profession does not necessarily affect what is perceived as mentally demanding and emotionally challenging work. However, longer work experience seems to benefit a social workers choice of strategies. This means that mentally demanding and emotionally challenging work in some cases is better handled by social workers with longer experience of the profession. The organization of the workplace can also affect which coping strategies that are being used, for example is time for reflection during working hours beneficial for the employees.

Procedural content generation is a technique used to produce a wide range of computer-generated content in many industries today, the video game industry in particular. This study focuses on how procedural content generation can be applied to create emotionally interesting non-player characters and through this, generate narrative snippets that can immerse and interest a reader. The main points examined are how to achieve this using a modular approach to personality and behaviour, how well readers can distinguish whether motivations and interactions are generated by a computer or written by a human, and to what degree a reader can be immersed in a computer-generated narrative. Procedural narrative could help to reduce workload on large projects or lower costs, and is an area in which there is much room for further research. To answer these problems, a literature review of existing techniques for the creation of emotionally interesting non-player characters was conducted and used to design and construct a prototype implementation for generating procedural narrative. The output of this narrative was dressed up to match the style of a human text and A/B testing was conducted utilising a survey in order to evaluate and compare responses to the two texts. Ultimately, the results showed very little difference between the perception of the human-written text and the computer-written text, with the only aspects found lacking in the computer-written text being clarity of emotion and foreshadowing.

This study addressed the attributional predispositions and specific attributions for success and failure of seriously emotionally disturbed adolescent males and nondisturbed, regular education adolescent males (hereafter referred to as disturbed students and nondisturbed students, respectively). Specifically the purpose was to determine an attributional predisposition of disturbed students and nondisturbed students. Furthermore, this study sought to ascertain whether disturbed students and nondisturbed students indicated different attributions for success and failure at achievement tasks. The study then examined the congruence between students' attributional predispositions and their actual attributions.

The role of attention and perceptual resources were studied in a one-back task and a letter-search task, both using the same stimuli. In the letter task, pictures were used as task-irrelevant and distracting emotional stimuli. The emotional processing of the pictures was measured through the Late Positive Potential (LPP), an event-related potential (ERP) recorded with EEG. LPP activity was significantly greater to emotional than neutral stimuli during the one-back task; this shows that emotional stimuli were processed during an easy task (low load). However, LPP activity dropped for all stimuli during the difficult perceptual task (high load). Selective processes of attention are discussed, in relation to Load Theory and the ability to ignore task-irrelevant, but emotionally significant, stimuli.

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Detta examensarbete har gått ut på att utforska designbegreppet emotionell design i teori och praktik för att undersöka och exemplifiera hur emotionell design kan användas som ett strategiskt verktyg i syfte att förlänga produkters livslängd, och därmed dämpa konsumtionstakten av ekologiskt hållbarhetsmässiga skäl. Konsumtion är en vital del av den globala ekonomin, men med den höga konsumtionstakt vi idag håller så förbrukas jordens resurser i snabbare takt än de hinner återskapas. Många produkter ersätts långt innan deras tekniska livslängd är slut, vilket bidrar till växande avfallsmängder och överkonsumtion. Information har inhämtats genom teoretiska och kvalitativa studier, och två produktförslag som ska demonstrera hur emotionell design kan tillämpas i praktiken presenteras. Rapporten behandlar mervärdesskapande faktorer hos produkter, vilka har möjligheten att främja uppkomsten av emotionella band mellan användare och produkt, samt exemplifierar hur dessa faktorer kan se ut och verka i olika produkter. Rapporten behandlar även kort orsaker till förtida ersättande av produkter för att ge ledtrådar till vilka mekanismer som kan påverka användares beslut i ersättandeprocessen. Examensarbetet har även bidragit med ny kunskap inom emotionell design, i form av ytterligare identifierade mervärdesskapande faktorer, vilken kan vara till gagn för andra designers. / This thesis has focused on exploring the concept of emotionally durable design in theory and practice to investigate and exemplify how emotionally durable design can be used as a strategic tool in order to prolong product lifetime, and thus slow down the rapid consumption rate for ecological sustainability reasons. Consumption is a vital part of the global economy, but with the rapid consumption rate we maintain today, the earth’s resources are consumed at a faster pace than they have time to recreate. Many products are replaced long before their technical lifetime has come to an end, which contributes to growing waste volumes and overconsumption. Information has been gathered through theoretical and qualitative studies, and two product proposals that demonstrate how emotionally durable design can be applied in practice are presented. The report processes value-adding factors in products, which have the potential to promote the emergence of emotional bonds between user and product, and exemplifies how these factors can look like and work in different products. The report also briefly addresses the causes of early replacement of products to provide clues as to what mechanisms may influence users’decisions in the replacement process. The thesis has also contributed new knowledge in emotionally durable design, in the form of additional identified value-adding factors, which may be of benefit to other designers.

This study explores the process by which emotionally disturbed children attach to a new therapist during the first stage of art therapy. Observations center on the ability of artistic metaphor and visual communication to illuminate attachment strategy. Research, in case study format, focuses on two students at the Kayne Eras Center Non Public School. Participants were a 15 year old African American boy and an 8 year old African American girl. Data, consisting of detailed process notes and art products, was analyzed through the application of three research questions; 1. How does artistic metaphor inform the understanding of a child’s inner world, particularly in regard to attachment? 2. Is there a variance between information gleaned from a single, initial art piece, opposed to a body of work, created over time, in regards to attachment? 3. Are attachment strategies conveyed visually, (through art) in the same way they are conveyed verbally or behaviorally? This study found that content of artistic metaphor correlates to existing literature on attachment strategy, thereby substantiating potential for undirected art products to act as assessments of attachment. Additional information was observed concerning subcategories of attachment strategy, trigger patterns of approach and retreat response, internal working models and general coping skills. The congruence of visual, verbal and behavioral communication was found to be dependent on stress levels and the directive structure of therapy. Visual communications frequently served to illuminate internal emotional states. Overall communicative patterns, regarding attachment, were observed in relation to self-protective strategies.

Bakgrund: Emotionellt instabilt personlighetssyndrom (EIPS) formas oftast under tonåren och har en symtombild som innebära instabila relationer, förvrängd självbild och impulsivitet som kan innebära självskadehandlingar och självmord eller försök till detta. På grund av sitt syndrom kan patientgruppen vara i behov av sjukvård inom den somatiska såväl som den psykiatriska vården. Patientgruppen får ofta i samband med sjukvård utstå negativa uttryck från vårdpersonal, vilket kan leda till ett försämrat mående hos patientgruppen.  Syfte: Studiens syfte var att belysa erfarenheter av mötet med vårdpersonal hos patienter med EIPS.  Metod: Den genomförda studien är en kvalitativ litteraturstudie. I litteraturstudiens resultat inkluderades nio kvalitativa studier funna i databaserna Pubmed och Cinahl. Studierna kvalitetsgranskades enligt en bedömningsmall med kvalitativ inriktning av Olsson och Sörensen samt analyserades enligt Fribergs femstegsmodell. Resultat: Efter analys utformades två kategorier (att känna sig bekräftad och att få sin värdighet kränkt) och fem subkategorier (att bli sedd och hörd, att känna förtroende, att uppleva diskriminering, att inte bli tagen på allvar och att uppleva svek). Resultatet visar att patienter med EIPS hade erfarenheter av fördomar mot sin diagnos, diskriminering samt att inte bli tagen på allvar i möten med vården. Det rådde delade meningar hos patientgruppen vad gäller att känna sig bekräftad. Konklusion: Ett behov av att öka förståelsen för patienter med EIPS samt bättre strategier för vårdpersonalens bemötande identifierades, för att förbättra det vårdande mötet. Tidvattenmodellen anses kunna vara ett bra alternativ att arbeta efter i samband med vård av patientgruppen. / Background: Emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD) usually debuts in adolescence and is characterized by symptoms involving unstable relationships, distorted self-image and impulsivity. Such symptoms can lead to acts of self-harming and suicide or suicide attempts. Due to the syndrome, the patients are often in need of medical care, within the somatic, as well as the psychiatric care. The patients often have to endure negative expressions from the health care professionals, which can lead to worsened mental health among the patients.  Aim: The aim of this study was to illuminate experiences among patients with EUPD in the meeting with health care professionals.  Methods: This study was a qualitative literature study based on nine articles found in Pubmed and Cinahl. All articles were quality-examined using an assessment with a qualitative focus, formed by Olsson and Sörensen. The articles were analyzed inspired by Fribergs five-step model. Results: Based on the analysis, two categories (to feel acknowledge and to have one’s dignity violated) and five subcategories (to be seen and heard, to feel trusted, to experience discrimination, not to be taken seriously and to experience betrayal) were formed. The results show that patients with EUPD had experiences of prejudice against their diagnosis, discrimination and not being taken seriously by the health care professionals. There were divided opinions among the patients of feeling acknowledge as an individual. Conclusion: These findings indicate a need for increasing the understanding for the patients as well as better treatment strategies to improve the patients experiences when seeking care. The tidal model is a strategi considered to be a good alternative to use for improving the health care for patients with EUPD.

Socio-culturally diverse students with disabilities are underrepresented in gifted and talented programs. This study investigated the differences in educators' referral and placement decisions based on a students' disability label, socio-economic status (SES), and ethnicity. Two hundred and eighty five educators' (classroom teachers, school counselors, school psychologists, and school social workers) across a Florida school district participated in the study. Educators' were randomly assigned to treatment and control case vignettes that described a student with emotional/behavioral disabled (EBD) and gifted characteristics. Treatment case vignettes explicitly stated the students' disability label, socio-economic status, and ethnicity. Control case vignettes described of the student examined and did not mention the disability label, ethnicity, or socio-economic status of the student. After reading the case vignette, participants responded to a two-item questionnaire that explained their referral and placement decisions of the student described in the vignette. Participants responses to the two item questionnaire were indicated by selecting one of six choices: strongly agree, slightly agree, agree, disagree, slightly disagree, and strongly disagree. Reponses were the dependent variables being measured. A three-way factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to measure the differences in educators' referral and placement decisions based on a student's disability label, socio-economic status, and ethnicity. Results indicate educators' awareness of a students' disability label, socio-economic status, and ethnicity influence referral decisions. Implications are discussed and recommendations for future research are made.