Studies exploring facial emotion recognition (FER) abilities in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) samples have yielded inconsistent results despite the widely-accepted finding that an impairment in emotion recognition is a core component of ASD. The current study aimed to determine if an FER task featuring both unfamiliar and familiar faces would highlight additional group differences between ASD children and typically developing (TD) children. We tested the two groups of 4- to 8-year-olds on this revised task, and also compared their resting-state brain activity using electroencephalogram (EEG) measurements. As hypothesized, the TD group had significantly higher overall emotion recognition percent scores. In addition, there was a significant interaction effect of group by familiarity, with the ASD group recognizing emotional expressions significantly better in familiar faces than in unfamiliar ones. This finding may be related to the preference of children with autism for people and situations which they are accustomed to. TD children did not demonstrate this pattern, as their recognition scores were approximately the same for familiar faces and unfamiliar ones. No significant group differences existed for EEG alpha power or EEG alpha asymmetry in frontal, central, temporal, parietal, or occipital brain regions. Also, neither of these EEG measurements were strongly correlated with the group FER performances. Further evidence is needed to assess the association between neurophysiological measurements and behavioral symptoms of ASD. The behavioral results of this study provide preliminary evidence that an FER task featuring both familiar and unfamiliar expressions produces a more optimal assessment of emotion recognition ability. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Mental-state and emotion understanding are important constructs for successful interpretation of behaviour and interaction with others. While false-belief understanding has been the main focus of investigations into children�s mentalising over the past 30 years, we now have tasks available that allow assessment of a broader range and more advanced set of mentalising skills amongst older age groups of typically developing young people (Baron-Cohen, Jolliffe, Mortimore, & Robertson, 1997a; Baron-Cohen, O�Riordan, Stone, Jones, & Plaisted, 1999; Happé, 1994). A recent trend has seen a shift away from investigating when children attain these skills towards examining individual differences in their performance. This has included consideration of both the factors that contribute to (Carlson & Moses, 2001; Hughes & Dunn, 1997; Meins et al., 2002; Milligan, Astington, & Dack, 2007; Ruffman, Slade, & Crowe, 2002), and the factors that are influenced by (Astington & Jenkins, 2000; Cassidy, Werner, Rourke, Zubernis, & Balaraman, 2003; Diesendruck & Ben-Eliyahu, Repacholi, Slaughter, Pritchard, & Gibbs, 2003) individual differences in mental-state understanding. One of the interesting questions in this area is what are the subsequent benefits or harm that individual differences in mentalising and emotion skills hold for children�s social competence? The current study investigates young people�s growing socioemotional understanding and how it is related to their social abilities, both prosocial and antisocial. The aims were to provide information on the relations amongst advanced mental-state skills, to investigate how these skills were related to emotion understanding, and, further, to investigate how socioemotional skills were related to social competence. The current study also extended the literature by addressing these aims amongst older children. Two studies were conducted, involving children (4- to 7-years) seen on four occasions in a three-year longitudinal study, and adolescents (13- to 17-years) in a cross-sectional study. There were a number of key findings. Individual differences in children�s advanced mental-state understanding are relatively stable across time, and the relations which they show with emotion skills are more consistent when examining tasks that shared skill sets. Language plays an important mediating role in the relation between socioemotional skills, although this influence appears to decrease with age. Mental-state and emotion understanding are both important for children and adolescents� social competence. It seems that greater socioemotional abilities influence prosocial behaviours, and poorer socioemotional abilities influence antisocial behaviours. Overall, the current study provides evidence that socioemotional skills are overlapping but distinct constructs, that they show varied interactions in social settings, and that future investigations of how children come to understand and interact with others will be best served by careful consideration of appropriate measures and by including multiple aspects of children�s social cognition.

The current study examined relations between temperamental reactivity at 6 months and social competence in first grade, including if emotion regulation at 54 months played a role as mediator and/or moderator between temperamental reactivity and social competence in first grade. Previous studies have shown that children who are high on temperamental reactivity early on will have poorer social competence in the future (Houck, 1999). This study explored how emotion regulation might mediate this relationship as well as how emotion regulation may serve as a protective factor (e.g., moderator) for those with higher temperamental reactivity. Important background characteristics of child gender and ethnicity, mother's education, and income-to-needs ratio were controlled for. Results indicated that temperamental reactivity at 6 months did not play a significant role in social competence in first grade, nor on emotion regulation at 54 months. Emotion regulation at 54 months was also found to be neither a mediator nor a moderator between this relationship between temperamental reactivity and social competence. The only significant relationship that was found was that between emotion regulation at 54 months and social competence in first grade, which aligns with previous research. / Graduation date: 2013

published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

School bullying has become an international source of concern. The media has captured the attention of the public with coverage of incidents such as the Columbine massacre. On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked through their school, shooting particular students they found. One victim asked why they were doing it. They said it was a dream come true and “payback” for being ostracized by their peers (Kalish & Kimmel, 2010). Until such devastations acted out in schools, bullying was considered a rite of passage. For the most part, parents and faculty did little to prevent it. In recent years psychological research studies have confirmed that bullying can be detrimental to the emotional, physical, and mental health of developing adolescents. This program evaluation was completed to determine whether or not the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports bully prevention intervention implemented at an elementary school in Kentucky was effective by creating a more positive school climate, increasing the amount of bystander participation during bullying incidents and decreasing the number of times students felt they had been treated disrespectfully. Analyses indicated the intervention was unsuccessful. Student ratings were very positive prior to the implementation of the intervention and were similarly positive after the intervention that been implemented. Data provided by the school indicated there was not a bullying problem within the school prior to implementing the intervention.

Mental-state and emotion understanding are important constructs for successful interpretation of behaviour and interaction with others. While false-belief understanding has been the main focus of investigations into children�s mentalising over the past 30 years, we now have tasks available that allow assessment of a broader range and more advanced set of mentalising skills amongst older age groups of typically developing young people (Baron-Cohen, Jolliffe, Mortimore, & Robertson, 1997a; Baron-Cohen, O�Riordan, Stone, Jones, & Plaisted, 1999; Happé, 1994). A recent trend has seen a shift away from investigating when children attain these skills towards examining individual differences in their performance. This has included consideration of both the factors that contribute to (Carlson & Moses, 2001; Hughes & Dunn, 1997; Meins et al., 2002; Milligan, Astington, & Dack, 2007; Ruffman, Slade, & Crowe, 2002), and the factors that are influenced by (Astington & Jenkins, 2000; Cassidy, Werner, Rourke, Zubernis, & Balaraman, 2003; Diesendruck & Ben-Eliyahu, Repacholi, Slaughter, Pritchard, & Gibbs, 2003) individual differences in mental-state understanding. One of the interesting questions in this area is what are the subsequent benefits or harm that individual differences in mentalising and emotion skills hold for children�s social competence? The current study investigates young people�s growing socioemotional understanding and how it is related to their social abilities, both prosocial and antisocial. The aims were to provide information on the relations amongst advanced mental-state skills, to investigate how these skills were related to emotion understanding, and, further, to investigate how socioemotional skills were related to social competence. The current study also extended the literature by addressing these aims amongst older children. Two studies were conducted, involving children (4- to 7-years) seen on four occasions in a three-year longitudinal study, and adolescents (13- to 17-years) in a cross-sectional study. There were a number of key findings. Individual differences in children�s advanced mental-state understanding are relatively stable across time, and the relations which they show with emotion skills are more consistent when examining tasks that shared skill sets. Language plays an important mediating role in the relation between socioemotional skills, although this influence appears to decrease with age. Mental-state and emotion understanding are both important for children and adolescents� social competence. It seems that greater socioemotional abilities influence prosocial behaviours, and poorer socioemotional abilities influence antisocial behaviours. Overall, the current study provides evidence that socioemotional skills are overlapping but distinct constructs, that they show varied interactions in social settings, and that future investigations of how children come to understand and interact with others will be best served by careful consideration of appropriate measures and by including multiple aspects of children�s social cognition.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-91).

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Canterbury, 2008. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-73). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.A.)--Missouri State University, 2008. / "May 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-103). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--CSULA-UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 52-58).