Studies exploring the neural correlates of the emotion regulation strategy called cognitive change (reappraisal) have been thoroughly discussed and synthesized. This is not the case for another emotion regulation strategy called response modulation. The aim of this thesis was to conduct a systematic review on the neural correlates of one specific emotion regulation technique in response modulation, called expressive suppression. Expressive suppression is the inhibition of emotion expressive behavior. Using a systematic search, screening, and selection process, out of the initial 557 articles eight studies were included for data extraction and discussion. The studies exposed participants to negative emotion-inducing stimuli and instructed participants to either suppress their emotional behavior or to watch the stimuli without regulating the emotion. All studies used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Expressive suppression yielded increased activation in frontal and parietal regions, especially in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and bilateral inferior parietal cortex, compared to a non-regulation condition. Results of amygdala activation were inconsistent with different studies showing an increase, decrease, or no difference in activation during expressive suppression versus the non-regulation contrast condition. The thesis ends with a discussion of methodological issues and future directions.

<div> <div> <div> <p>This study investigates the expressive design attributes of souvenir design preferred by tourists by comparing and contrasting preferences and perceptions of tourists from two different cultural groups. The study used a conjoint design to allow respondents to rank their preferences of sampled souvenirs which represents various expressive design attributes of souvenirs. This study uses conjoint analysis to test the relationship between those expressive attributes and tourists’ perceived value and purchase intention. The results showed that the three expressive attributes, namely Makers’ Mark attribute, Iconofetish attribute, and Relational attribute impact American and Chinese tourists perceived values of souvenirs and purchase intentions. The part-worth utility score indicates that comparatively speaking, American tourists prefer souvenirs with a dominant makers’ mark and those that are connected to the local place or local people. On the other hand, Chinese tourists prefer souvenirs with a domestic iconofetish feature. This study highlights the relationship between the four perceived value – perceived functional value, perceived emotional value, perceived social value, and perceived novelty value – and the purchase intention, using Spearman’s correlation. These results contribute to the literature of souvenir design. The culturally based preferences between the US and Chinese tourists allow designers and retailers to create and design souvenirs based on their preferred expressive attributes. </p> </div> </div> </div>

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of small group vocabulary instruction above and beyond whole group, read aloud vocabulary instruction, on second grade students' expressive vocabularies.  This experimental study reflected a between-subjects design as three treatment groups were compared using a pretest, posttest within subjects variable methodology.  A small group instructional intervention was administered to a treatment group in addition to the whole group, read-aloud based vocabulary instruction that the alternative treatment group received.  Data was collected over an eight week intervention period.  Results indicated that small group vocabulary instruction led to greater gains in second grade students' expressive use of target words than did read aloud-based instruction or no instruction (control).  Additionally, students who received small group instruction retained more target word knowledge over time than students who did not receive small group instruction.  Implications for practice and future research are included. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the construct validity of a new test, which purports to measure morphology, entitled Test for Examining Expressive Morphology (TEEM) (Shipley, Stone and Sue, 1983). Additional tests of expressive morphology, the Bankson Language Screening Test (BLST) (Bankson, 1977) and the Test of Language Development-Primary (TOLD-P) (Newcomer and Hammill, 1982) were utilized to determine the association of the TEEM with two highly-researched instruments.

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JSON-to-JSON transformation languages enable the transformation of a JSON document into another JSON document. As JSON is gradually becoming the most used interchange format on the Internet there is a need for transformation languages that can transform the data stored in JSON in order for the data to be used with other systems. The transformation can transform the document structurally, for example by altering the hierarchical structure of the document. The transformation can also transform the document textually, for example by renaming fields or altering values. None of the existing JSON-to-JSON transformation languages have become a standard (Jellife, 2017). This work evaluates the expressive power of the JSON-to-JSON transformation language Jolt. Jolt have recently been adopted by Apache and support have been introduced in some of their products. If a transformation language have expressive power that are at least equal to Nested Relational Algebra this implies that a transformation language can perform many advanced transformations. In this work  a formal model of Jolt is defined, referred to as Jolt0, in order to compare its expressive powers to Nested Relational Algebra. For that purpose, the operations of another formal model called MQuery which have been proven to have equivalent expressive power to Nested Relational Algebra are translated into Jolt0. It is shown that Jolt does not have expressive powers equivalent to Nested Relational Algebra. We further compared the performance of four JSON-to-JSON transformation languages (Jolt, Handlebars, Liquid, and XSLT 3.0) by constructing tests where the different transformation languages executed equivalent transformations. The transformations were evaluated by measuring runtime and memory usage. The study shows that XSLT 3.0 performed worst in all run time and memory usage tests. When transforming large input data XSLT 3.0 performed significantly worse than the other languages. / JSON-till-JSON transformationsspråk möjliggör transformationer från ett JSON-dokument till ett annat JSON-dokument. Eftersom JSON gradvis håller på att bli det mest använda data-utväxlingsformatet på internet så finns det ett behov av transformationsspråk som kan transformera data som är lagrad i JSON formatet för att kunna användas med andra system. Transformationen kan transformera dokumentet strukturellt, till exempel genom att förändra den hierarkiska strukturen på dokumentet. Transformationen kan även transformera dokumentet textuellt, till exempel genom att döpa om fält eller ändra värden. Ingen av de existerande JSON-till-JSON transformationsspråken har blivit en standard (Jellife, 2017). Det här arbetet undersöker uttryckskraften av Jolt vilket är ett JSON-till-JSON transformationsspråk. Jolt har nyligen fått stöd av Apache i några av deras produkter. Om ett transformationsspråk har en uttryckskraft som är ekvivalent med nästlad relationell algebra innebär det att språket kan utföra många avancerade transformationer. I det här arbetet definieras en formell modell av Jolt, kallad Jolt0, för att kunna jämföra dess uttryckskraft med nästlad relationell algebra. Till det syftet så översätts operationerna från en annan formell modell med namnet MQuery som har bevisats ha ekvivalent uttrykskraft med nästlad relationell algebra till Jolt0. Arbetet drar slutsatsen att Jolt inte har uttryckskraft som är ekvivalent med nästlad relationell algebra. Arbetet undersöker också prestandan för de fyra JSON-till-JSON transformationsspråken (Jolt, Handlebars, Liquid och XSLT 3.0) genom att konstruera tester där de olika transformationsspråken exekverar ekvivalenta transformationer. Transformationerna utvärderas baserat på körstids- och minnesanvändningsprestandan. Studien visar att XSLT 3.0 presterar sämst i alla körstids- och minnesanvändningstester. När transformationerna använder sig av stor input data så presterar XSLT 3.0 signifikant sämre än de andra språken.

A limited number of studies have examined mechanisms undergirding interventions that mitigate mental health problems or health-risk behaviors that disproportionately burden sexual minorities. A recent trial of expressive writing and self-affirmation writing found that these brief interventions had salubrious effects on mental health and health-risk behaviors; the present research examines the putative mechanisms underlying these effects. Sexual minority emerging adults (N = 108) completed a brief online expressive writing, self-affirmation writing, or neutral control writing intervention and, at baseline and 3-month follow-up, completed measures of mental health, health-risk behaviors, stress, and self-regulation. Expressive writing yielded improvements in mental health and these effects were mediated by reductions in perceived stress. Self-affirmation caused improvements in health-risk behaviors, thoughneither stress nor self-regulation mediated these effects. This finding provides preliminary novel evidence regarding a mechanism underlying a widely used psychological intervention with documented mental health benefits for sexual minorities and other populations disproportionately affected by stress

Exploring the expressive abilities of overspunnen woollen-based knits . This project focused on the influence of over-spun woollen yarns in knitted material and the overall material quality. The use of over-twisted yarns focuses on the reactionary design and explores the colour rituals and patterns of the Igbo tribe in Nigeria. This exploration of heritage opened up new patterns and expressive material development methods with a regenerative alternative to fossil fuel-based elastics. The exploration was focused on the transformative possibilities of knitted textile tubes that interact with elasticity activated by the body. Furthermore, it is defined through technical knits and sensitivity to poetic aesthetics. This artistic and poetic expression is researched using colour and patterns. The colours used are based on the original colours utilized in Uli, a practice of body painting. The texture is inspired by the concept of ritual pollution, which is closely linked to the earth. The patterns are developed through drawings on the body employed in the Nigerian practice of Uli and then translated into jacquard knits. Close attention is paid to in conveying dynamics and movement by utilizing opaque and non-opaque areas, focusing on elastic and non-elastic properties. The results show a great range in conveying adaptive colour, textures, and interactive patterns for the body through woollen-based elastic yarns. This project showcases the great potential and encourages rethinking of elastic materials.

<p>  </p> <p>Romantic breakups are a relatively common life event for college students, with as many as 98% of young adults reporting having experienced a breakup at any point in their past (Mirsu-Paun & Oliver, 2017). Although the events are common, breakups have been associated with several adverse outcomes, including loneliness and social isolation (Field et al., 2009; Larson & Sbarra, 2015), onset of major depressive disorder (Monroe et al., 1999), increased anxious and depressive symptoms (Samios et al., 2014), and suicidal ideation (Mirsu-Paun & Oliver, 2017). A common source of support for students experiencing adverse outcomes from a breakup has historically been university counseling centers, which have reported continued increases in the demand for counseling services (Xiao et al., 2017). Indeed, a clear need exists for interventions to support students experiencing a breakup, especially interventions that are low-resource and easy to implement in a variety of ways.</p> <p>One such low-resource intervention is the use of expressive writing interventions, such as the kind frequently used by Pennebaker (2017). An extensive body of literature exists supporting the use of expressive writing interventions as an effective means to reduce an array of possible adverse outcomes, including physical health problems and anxious and depressive symptoms (see Collison, 2016; or Reinhold et al., 2018 for a review). However, researchers have also found inconsistent support for the use of expressive writing interventions, including meta-analytic findings showing no long-term benefits from engaging in expressive writing (Collison, 2016; Reinhold et al., 2018).</p> <p>One area of the expressive writing literature that may explain the inconsistent findings is the use of targeted writing prompts, or writing instructions that target specific components of an individual’s experience, or encourage them to interpret a stressful event in a new way (Lichtenthal & Cruess, 2010; Ullrich & Lutgendorf, 2003). An example of this is Facchin et al. (2014), who found a benefit finding writing prompt led to a greater decrease in distress than a more “standard” expressive writing prompt in a study of adolescents’ adjustment to a new school.</p> <p>In the present study, I examined the extent to which expressive writing conditions impacted college students’ reports of breakup distress, suicidal ideation, intrusive thoughts, and perceived gains compared to a control writing condition. Additionally, I examined the extent to which targeted expressive writing conditions reduced breakup distress differentially compared to a standard emotional expression writing condition.</p> <p>Using an experimental design, I randomly assigned 73 college students to one of 4 expressive writing conditions. Participants in each condition completed pretest measures and completed 15-minute expressive writing tasks on 3 consecutive days, followed by completing posttest measures. I analyzed the data using a series of ANCOVAs, and I conducted four paired-samples t-tests to assess any differences that existed regardless of expressive writing condition.</p> <p>No significant differences emerged among the four expressive writing conditions, and the two targeted expressive writing conditions were not statistically different from the standard expressive writing condition. Paired-samples t-tests revealed significant decreases in breakup distress and intrusive thoughts, as well as a significant increase in perceived gains. The results may support the use of expressive writing interventions in attempting to reduce breakup distress in college students experiencing romantic breakups. The results did not support the differential impact of writing condition, suggesting that the act of writing itself may be more important than the specific writing prompt individuals respond to. The findings could possibly aid clinicians in college counseling centers in treating individuals presenting for services following a breakup, as well as providing outreach programs to students, or providing expressive writing activities as self-guided, self-help resources. </p>