The study makes use of theories of emotions to describe and analyze interviewsconducted with eight students who had recently taken part in, or were at the moment,taking part in a doctoral education at the Faculties of Humanities or Social Science atStockholm University. This study is thus a qualitative study focusing on the followingresearch questions: Firstly, how does the Ph.D education influence the studentemotionally. Secondly: do the participants in the doctoral education experienceemotionally intense situations related to contexts interpretable in terms of rites ofpassage. Thirdly: can the student, looking back, rate how the education met theexpectations the student had beforehand.Results regarding the first research question point to that the education as such – astime goes – becomes a part of the student.Results regarding the second research question indicate that doctoral educationmostly, with exceptions, is looked upon as a steady trot towards the dissertation, duringwhich you are made as a researcher.Results regarding the third research question indicate that many of the students hadvery vague ideas of what the the education would be like and thus; they had no clearpicture to measure their education against.

A bottom-up approach to emulating emotions is expounded in this thesis. This is intended to be useful in research where a phenomenon is to be emulated but the nature of it can not easily be defined. This approach not only advocates emulating the underlying mechanisms that are proposed to give rise to emotion in natural agents, but also advocates applying an open-mind as to what the phenomenon actually is. There is evidence to suggest that neuromodulation is inherently responsible for giving rise to emotions in natural agents and that emotions consequently modulate the behaviour of the agent. The functionality provided by neuromodulation, when applied to agents with self-organising biologically plausible neural networks, is isolated and studied. In research efforts such as this the definition should emerge from the evidence rather than postulate that the definition, derived from limited information, is correct and should be implemented. An implementation of a working definition only tells us that the definition can be implemented. It does not tell us whether that working definition is itself correct and matches the phenomenon in the real world. If this model of emotions was assumed to be true and implemented in an agent, there would be a danger of precluding implementations that could offer alternative theories as to the relevance of neuromodulation to emotions. By isolating and studying different mechanisms such as neuromodulation that are thought to give rise to emotions, theories can arise as to what emotions are and the functionality that they provide. The application of this approach concludes with a theory as to how some emotions can operate via the use of neuromodulators. The theory is explained using the concepts of dynamical systems, free-energy and entropy.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2007. / "August 2007." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 54-58). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Texas Christian University, 2008. / Title from dissertation title page (viewed May 7, 2008). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (BA(Hons) (Psychology)) - Faculty of Life and Social Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, 2006. / "July 2006". A thesis is submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Bachelor of Social Science with Honours in Psychology, [Faculty of Life and Social Sciences], Swinburne University of Technology - 2006. Typescript.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Rhode Island, 2007 / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-93).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-91) Also available in print.

Thesis (Honors)--College of William and Mary, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 34-40). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Central Florida, 2008. / Adviser: Kimberly A. Smith-Jentsch. Includes bibliographical references (p. 128-139).