The three components model of empathy proposed by Decety and Jackson (2004) is currently the dominant model of empathy. The three components include: 1) the affective component (Simulation Theory), 2) emotional perspective taking, and 3) emotion regulation (self/other distinction). The purpose of the current study was to examine whether empathic perspective taking is dependent on context and to provide a behavioral basis for a follow-up fMRI study. More specifically, we wanted to know how body contexts (e.g. mood) and situational contexts (e.g. perceived fairness of a partner) affect emotional perspective taking. To examine the interaction between mood and perceived fairness of a partner, a 2 (mood group: neutral vs. negative) × 2 (fairness condition: unfair partner vs. fair partner) between-groups experimental design was employed. Mood induction videos were employed for the mood manipulation and participants played either a fair or unfair preprogrammed partner in a modified ultimatum game. After both manipulations, three measures were used to assess perspective taking and several post-game behavioral measures were also employed. Results were obtained from 73 participants (age: 18-22; female = 46, ~18 in each condition). The results demonstrated that participants in the negative mood had more difficulty empathizing with unfair partners and had a greater desire for revenge against them than participants in a neutral mood in the same unfair situations. Therefore, human empathy is not constant, but varies depending on a variety of contexts. We can now use this paradigm for a future fMRI study to investigate the neural substrates underlying this context dependency with a particular emphasis on the frontopolar cortex and the nucleus accumbens.

The mass media project a thin “ideal” female body type (ideal-body media; IBM) onto young women. Sociocultural theorists propose that, through processes of internalisation and social comparison, IBM-exposure promotes negative body satisfaction and unhealthy eating behaviour. In three experiments, I investigated how IBM-exposure affected restrained eaters. Restrained eaters are women who are trying to lose weight by attempting to restrict their food intake. Previous researchers have found that restrained eaters perceive and process body-related information more readily than others do. The literature surrounding restrained eaters’ IBM-related self-evaluations and food intake is inconsistent. Some researchers have found restrained eaters to report positive self-evaluative effects and others have not. Furthermore, the majority of researchers report that viewing IBM triggers restrained eaters’ eating. However, this effect is not always replicated and this might be because restrained eaters have been identified with different restraint scales. To test this idea, I used two conceptually different dietary restraint scales throughout the current experiments: the concern for dieting subscale of the Restraint Scale (RS-CD) and the Dietary Intent Scale (DIS). Furthermore, because some researchers have argued that participants within previous (non-restraint) studies reported negative IBM-effects because they thought that they were meant to be negatively affected (i.e., demand characteristics), reducing these demands was a focus throughout the current experiments. In Study 1, demand characteristics were minimised by employing implicit outcome measures and by incorporating a two-study pre-text to separate the experimental manipulation from the explicitly measured dependent variables. Under the guise of a hunger and memory study, restrained and unrestrained eaters (N = 107) were required to concentrate on a slideshow of IBM- or Control-images for 2-minutes and complete an associated memory test (i.e., advertent attention). Restrained eaters (RS-CD and DIS) exposed to IBM reported negative effects (e.g., mood). However, IBM-exposure did not trigger their food intake in an unrelated taste test with M&Ms. I interpreted these findings alongside control theory. This is the theory that goal-related negative affect encourages increased goal-performance. I reasoned that paying advertent attention to the IBM caused goal-related negative affect, which triggered goal effort (i.e., dietary restraint). This theory was further tested in Study 2. The same manipulation was used in Study 2 (N = 268), which was touted as a study about participants’ personality and task performance. Here, I aimed to test restrained eaters’ implicit approach and avoidance tendencies toward diet and food stimuli. Therefore, a joystick lexical decision task (LDT) was used instead of a taste test. Restrained eaters’ self-evaluations (e.g., self-esteem) were not significantly affected by being in different experimental conditions. However, restrained eaters (RS-CD) in the IBM-condition avoided high-calorie food words during the LDT significantly faster than other participants did. These results (Studies 1 and 2) differed from previous research. This difference was attributed to the high level of advertent attention participants paid to the IBM in my experiments. Therefore, in Study 3, I manipulated participants’ attention levels. Participants (N = 171) were made to believe that the experimental slideshow and LDT were part of a task performance study. Although participants who were assigned to the Inadvertent- and Advertent-Attention conditions were exposed to the same slideshow (IBM- or Neutral-images), the experimenter did not ask participants in the Inadvertent-condition to focus on the slideshow. After this experimental manipulation, participants completed the joystick LDT. Subsequently, they completed a second unrelated study about personality and the five human senses (e.g., taste, touch, etcetera). All participants were randomly assigned to the taste-condition and completed a taste test. Inconsistent with my previous results, I did not obtain significant self-evaluation or LDT results. Furthermore, restrained eaters (RS-CD) who paid advertent attention to the IBM consumed more food than others consumed during the taste test. In comparison, restrained eaters were buffered from this effect if they had paid inadvertent attention to the IBM-images. When comparing these (nonsignificant and significant) results with previous research, it seems that restrained eaters’ IBM-responses are highly specific to environmental and/or experimental settings. I developed a preliminary theory to predict restrained eaters’ behaviour. This theory takes into account participants’ restraint status, restraint success, IBM-related attention and their eating-related attention.

Background: During the past 5 decades, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has been used, and appreciated for its beneficial effects, by millions of women in their menopause. As treatment for climacteric symptoms, estrogen is outstanding, and effects on hot flushes, vaginal dryness, and insomnia have been widely documented. The increased risks of venous thrombosis and breast cancer, however, restrict the use of estrogen. Estrogen treatment in women with a remaining uterus includes a progestin, added to protect the endometrium from hyperplasia and malignancies. The long-standing clinical impression, that progestin addition negatively influences mood, has been discussed in previous studies. Mood deterioration is, however, not mortal, although mood is important to the wellbeing and daily functioning of women treated with hormones. Studies of the mental side effects of HRT add to our understanding of steroid effects in the brain. Aims and methods: In our studies, we aimed to establish to what extent negative side effects cause women to discontinue HRT, and find out which drug compounds lead to mood deterioration. The questions asked were whether the type and dose of progestin and the estrogen dose during the progestin addition influence the mood and physical symptoms during sequential HRT. Compliance with HRT and reasons for discontinuing the therapy were evaluated in a retrospective longitudinal follow-up study. Treatment effects were studied in three randomized, double-blind, cross-over trials. During continuous estrogen treatment, effects of sequential addition of a progestin were studied by comparing two different progestins, medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) andnorethisterone acetate (NETA), comparing different doses of the same progestin, MPA, and comparing two doses of estrogen during addition of the same dose of MPA. The main outcome measure was the daily rating on mood and physical symptoms kept by the participants throughout the studies. The clinical trials were carried out at three gynecological centers in northern Sweden. Results and conclusions: Besides fear of cancer and a wish to determine whether climacteric symptoms had meanwhile disappeared, negative side effects was the most common reason or discontinuing HRT. Tension in the breasts, weight gain, a depressed mood, abdominal bloating, and irritability were the most important side effects seen both in women who continued HRT and in women who had discontinued the therapy. In our clinical trials, we showed that addition of a progestin to estrogen treatment induces cyclic mood swings characterized by tension, irritability, and depression, as well as increased breast tension, bloatedness, and hot flushes. Women with a history of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) appeared to be more sensitive to the progestin addition and responded with lower mood scores compared with women without previous PMS. In our studies, MPA provoked depressed mood to a lesser extent than did NETA. Surprisingly, the higher dose of MPA (20 mg) enhanced the mood, compared with 10 mg, when added to estrogen treatment. In women continuously treated with 3 mg estradiol, mood and physical symptoms worsened during the progestin addition, as compared with treatment with 2 mg estradiol. The negative side effects seen during sequential HRT have much in common with symptoms seen in the premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), which is a psychoneuroendocrine disorder with psychiatric expression. Explanations for treatment effects on mood are likely to be found in drug interactions with neurotransmitter systems of the brain. / <p>Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 2003</p> / digitalisering@umu

Exposure to sexual assault results in ongoing harms for women. After an assault, some women engage higher levels of externalizing behaviors, such as drinking problems and drug use, and others experience higher levels of internalizing dysfunction, such as clinical anxiety and clinical depression. In a longitudinal sample of 1929 freshman college women assessed across three time points, I found the following. Pre-assault negative urgency (the tendency to act rashly when distressed) interacted with assault exposure to predict increased subsequent drinking and initiation of drug use. Pre-assault trait anxiety/depression interacted with assault exposure to predict increased subsequent clinical anxiety and depression. There was also the surprising finding that the interaction between assault and trait anxiety/ depression was a protective factor against drinking and drug use. Finally, mean levels of trait negative urgency were significantly higher after an assault, though the same was not true for trait anxiety/depression. Women with different personalities tend to experience different forms of post-assault distress. These results support the development of targeted treatment protocols for trauma specific to personality types.

Investors have been shown to be driven by emotional and psychological factors. This contradicts classical financial theories, for example the Efficient Market hypothesis which states that all investors act rationally. Behavioural Finance is an area of study which describes various psychological factors which may result in irrational investor behaviour. The primary question of the study is: which factors do operating people in the financial sector consider themselves to be influenced by? The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors which affect the process of creating forecasts or making financial decisions. The study examines in addition if there is a correlation between length of investor experience and overconfidence in forecasting accuracy and investment decision making. The study includes both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The study has a basis of survey data which has been supplemented with interviews to obtain further explanation of the results. The result showed that the factors being studied had varying degrees of influence on forecasting accuracy and investment decision making. It was further found through the survey undertaken that there is a moderate correlation between length of investor experience and overconfidence. This correlation was contradicted however by interview data, in which all interview participants proposed that overconfidence decreases the more experienced an investor or analyst is. It was argued by interviewees that increased experience affords an individual more realistic insight into their own abilities. / Investerare har påvisats drivas av emotionella och psykologiska faktorer vilket motsäger klassiska finansiella teorier som den Effektiva Marknadshypotesen vilket menar att alla investerare agerar rationellt. Finansiell Psykologi är således ett område som beskriver olika psykologiska faktorer som resulterar i att investerare agerar irrationellt. Tidigare forskning har visat att olika faktorer har påverkan inom finansbranschen och för att undersöka detta på den svenska marknaden skapades denna problemformulering: Vilka faktorer anser sig verksamma inom finansbranschen påverkas av? Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka faktorer som bland annat påverkar processen att skapa aktieprognoser eller fatta finansiella beslut. Därtill ska det undersökas om det finns korrelation mellan antal år som verksam och Övertro på egna förmågan att göra korrekta prognoser eller fatta finansiella beslut. Studien innefattar en metodtriangulering vilket innebär att det både skett tillämpning av en kvantitativ och kvalitativ metod. Studien har haft en utgångspunkt i en surveyundersökning som genomfört för att sedan kompletterats med intervjuer för att få vidare förklaring till de resultat som undersökningen gav samt ge ytterligare synvinklar och kommentarer kring ämnet. Resultatet visade att de undersökta faktorerna i olika hög grad har påverkan. Det visade sig även via surveyundersökningen att det fanns ett moderat samband mellan antal år som verksam och Övertro. Samtliga intervjuade personer hade däremot en motsägande åsikt, de ansåg att Övertro minskar med antal år som verksam och hävdade att den erfarenhet man får på vägen får en som individ att bli mer realistiskt kring sin egen förmåga.

Bipolar disorder is a psychiatric illness characterized by recurrent fluctuations in mood and increased risk of suicide. Twin and family studies have identified the highly heritable nature of the disorder, but the limitations of the current DNA-centric paradigm underscore the need for a new perspective to gain a clearer understanding of its basis. This project investigates various facets of bipolar disorder from an epigenetic standpoint. We used mass spectrometry-based mapping of individual DNA modification differences of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene. Moreover, the epigenetic basis of suicidal behaviour in bipolar disorder was investigated using DNA methylation microarrays. We also used a newly-developed enrichment technique, mTAG, to interrogate chromosome-wide DNA modification profiles using tiling microarrays in post-mortem brains of bipolar disease patients and controls. Findings from these experiments highlight observable features of epigenomes of patients affected with mood disorders, and may further the understanding of the molecular origin of psychiatric diseases.

Background/Aims: Temperament and mood swings are promising indicators for the characterization of mood spectrum vulnerability. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between affective temperament and mood swings in bipolar disorder. We explored these clinical features retrospectively. Methods: Patients who met the criteria for bipolar I disorder were enrolled in the study. Exclusion criteria were partial remittance and a full affective or psychotic episode. Data concerning illness and family history, mood swings (semistructured interview for mood swings) and depression (Beck, Depression Inventory) were obtained. We examined premorbid temperament with the validated German version Temps-M of the original version Temps-A. Patients with and without mood swings were compared with respect to the dominant temperament. Results: Out of 20 bipolar patients, 6 subjects reported mood swings prior to the onset of affective disorder. Subjects with mood swings prior to the onset of bipolar disorder significantly correlated with a positive family history of affective disorders. Concerning cyclothymic and irritable temperament, bipolar affective patients with mood swings had higher scores. No differences were found between males and females. Conclusion: Our findings go in line with previous results that mood swings, as represented by the cyclothymic temperament, are present prior to the first onset of bipolar disorder in a subset of patients. These traits may represent vulnerability markers and could presumably be used to identify individuals at high risk for developing bipolar disorder in order to prevent this illness. Further studies are indicated to clarify the correlation with genetic risk factors.

Bipolar disorder is a psychiatric illness characterized by recurrent fluctuations in mood and increased risk of suicide. Twin and family studies have identified the highly heritable nature of the disorder, but the limitations of the current DNA-centric paradigm underscore the need for a new perspective to gain a clearer understanding of its basis. This project investigates various facets of bipolar disorder from an epigenetic standpoint. We used mass spectrometry-based mapping of individual DNA modification differences of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene. Moreover, the epigenetic basis of suicidal behaviour in bipolar disorder was investigated using DNA methylation microarrays. We also used a newly-developed enrichment technique, mTAG, to interrogate chromosome-wide DNA modification profiles using tiling microarrays in post-mortem brains of bipolar disease patients and controls. Findings from these experiments highlight observable features of epigenomes of patients affected with mood disorders, and may further the understanding of the molecular origin of psychiatric diseases.

Ordet ironi definieras som ett yttrande där "betydelsen är motsatsen till orden". Denna rapport är en fortsatt studie på Peder Palmérs studie Vad är ironiskt tal: att hitta de auditiva ledtrådarna (2013). Materialet som ligger till grund för denna uppföljande studie består av inspelningar av tre olika talare med fem olika meningar i fem olika sinnesstämningar; glädje, ilska, allvar, ironi och sarkasm. Trettio män och kvinnor i åldern 18-60 år har lyssnat på dessa meningar och kategoriserat dem utifrån tolkad sinnesstämning. Till detta användes avsedd blankett. Författarna har uppmätt grundton och intensitet som har jämförts mellan de olika sinnesstämningarna. Grundton har också jämförts mellan de tre talarna. Dessa jämförelser ligger till grund för en analys som kan ge information om betydelsen av dessa akustiska parametrar, liksom andra faktorer såsom kontext, vid identifiering av olika stämningar. Syftet är att undersöka om de sinnesstämningar som testpersonerna oftast förväxlar är mest lika ur ett akustiskt perspektiv, och att hitta ett eventuellt samband mellan grundton, intensitet och testpersonernas perceptuella tolkning. Det insamlade materialet analyserades utifrån aktuella frågeställningar. Studiens resultat påvisar att det är svårt att enbart utifrån akustiska parametrar tolka sinnesstämning. Grundtonsfrekvens och intensitet förefaller ha en viss betydelse när det kommer till förväxlingar mellan ironi och andra sinnesstämningar. Inga skillnader påvisas mellan mäns och kvinnors förmåga att identifiera ironi och sarkasm enbart utifrån akustiska parametrar. / The word irony is defined as an utterance where the meaning is the opposite of the words. This report is a continuing study of Peder Palmér's study What is ironic speech: to find the auditory clues (2013). The basis for this follow-up study consists of recordings with three different talkers with five sentences in five different moods: happiness, anger, seriousness, irony and sarcasm. Thirty men and women aged 18 to 60 years have been listening to the sentences and categorized them based on interpreted mood. The authors have measured fundamental frequency and intensity, and used these measurements as a basis to elucidate the perception of irony and the ability to perceive mood based on changes in fundamental frequency and intensity. The fundamental frequency has also been compared between the three talkers. An acoustic comparison between the different moods forms the basis for the analysis, which can provide information about the importance of acoustic parameters, as well as other factors such as context, when identifying different moods. The aim is to examine whether the moods that are most similar from an acoustic perspective are the ones that the test subjects most often fail to distinguish. The results show that it is difficult to solely from acoustic parameters interpret mood. Fundamental frequency and intensity appear to be of some importance when confusing irony with other moods. No differences were found between men and women's ability to detect irony and sarcasm based solely on acoustic parameters.

Postpartum Depression (PPD) affects approximately 15% of Canadian mothers. PPD can have negative and enduring consequences for women and their relationships with their partners and children. Women who have suffered from PPD are 50% more likely to experience depression following delivery of another child. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) was developed to prevent relapse in recurrent depression. MBCT has been reported to be effective in the treatment of both depression and anxiety among at risk samples from the general and clinical populations. It is not clear whether the approach is a safe and acceptable preventive option to deliver to pregnant women who are at risk for developing PPD. Objectives: The aim of my study was to explore the safety, acceptability, and effectiveness of MBCT for pregnant women who experienced difficult mood after a previous childbirth. Method: I used a mixed methods design and recruited 5 participants from the Victoria community. Participants were at least 18 years of age, native English speakers, pregnant and had experienced difficult mood for at least two consecutive weeks within the first year following the previous delivery of a healthy infant. All participants completed the slightly modified 8-week MBCT program. I administered self-report, quantitative measures at baseline (T1), before and immediately after each group, and postintervention (T2). I collected qualitative data as weekly field notes, through a semi-structured focus group one week following completion of the program, and as comments participants provided on the self-report WC-DM measure. Findings: Quantitative findings suggest program safety; speak to the acceptability of the program; and suggest that MBCT was effective in significantly decreasing anxiety symptomology, decreasing self-reported worry about difficult mood, and increasing wellbeing for pregnant women with a history of difficult postpartum mood. Field notes, focus group data, and comments participants provided on the self-report WC-DM measure contribute to and explain quantitative findings and support MBCT as a safe, acceptable, and effective approach for this population. / Graduate / 0519 / katya@uvic.ca