The somatosensory system concerns the sense of touch. It is sectioned into various kinds of touch, such as the proprioceptive sense, providing information of sense of self and position of limbs, and the cutaneous sense, informing of the modalities of touching or being touched. The cutaneous sense is further divided into discriminative touch and affective touch. Discriminative touch is an exteroceptive sense of touch that responds to stimuli of pressure and vibration, and affective touch is an interoceptive sense of touch that corresponds to e.g. pleasant and painful stimuli, communicating information to the brain through A-delta and C-fibers. Recent studies investigates affective touch to have emotional affect on the subjective experience of touch, affecting subjective wellbeing. The aim of this thesis is to examine the sense of touch and its relevant neural correlates, focusing on affective touch and its role in subjective wellbeing and social relations. A presentation of physiological and neural aspects of touch will be held as well as a description of subjective wellbeing. The conclusion for this thesis is that affective touch appears to activate brain areas of orbitofrontal cortex, frontal polar cortice, prefrontal cortex and insula cortex, which are brain areas processing subjective wellbeing, e.g. evaluating positive and negative effect and processing emotional information and behavior. Examining correlations between affective touch and positive affect, negative affect, oxytocin release, social relations and affiliative behavior shows influence from affective touch on subjective wellbeing. A discussion of the current findings is provided, including directions for future research.

The somatosensory system concerns the sense of touch. It is sectioned into various kinds of touch, such as the proprioceptive sense, providing information of sense of self and position of limbs, and the cutaneous sense, informing of the modalities of touching or being touched. The cutaneous sense is further divided into discriminative touch and affective touch. Discriminative touch is an exteroceptive sense of touch that responds to stimuli of pressure and vibration, and affective touch is an interoceptive sense of touch that corresponds to e.g. pleasant and painful stimuli, communicating information to the brain through A-delta and C-fibers. Recent studies investigates affective touch to have emotional affect on the subjective experience of touch, affecting subjective wellbeing. The aim of this thesis is to examine the sense of touch and its relevant neural correlates, focusing on affective touch and its role in subjective wellbeing and social relations. A presentation of physiological and neural aspects of touch will be held as well as a description of subjective wellbeing. The conclusion for this thesis is that affective touch appears to activate brain areas of orbitofrontal cortex, frontal polar cortice, prefrontal cortex and insula cortex, which are brain areas processing subjective wellbeing, e.g. evaluating positive and negative effect and processing emotional information and behavior. Examining correlations between affective touch and positive affect, negative affect, oxytocin release, social relations and affiliative behavior shows influence from affective touch on subjective wellbeing. A discussion of the current findings is provided, including directions for future research.

Previous findings suggest that gratitude is related to a multitude of benefits, such as improved psychological well-being, decreased psychological distress and more positive social relationships. The interest in gratitude as a research topic for psychological science is relatively new, and as such, there are many aspects of gratitude that need to be studied more. One of these areas is gender differences in trait gratitude. The main purpose of this study was to investigate possible gender differences in trait gratitude and in positive- and negative affect. In addition, a possible relationship between trait gratitude and affect is investigated, as well as cultural differences between Swedish students and international students studying in Sweden. This study was unable to find any differences in trait gratitude, however, a gender difference was found in experienced negative affect and cultural differences were found inboth positive- and negative affect. A positive relationship between trait gratitude and positive affect, as well as a negative relationship between trait gratitude and negative affect, were also found.

Although organizational citizenship behaviors toward individuals (OCB-I) have been studied over decades, the beneficiary side of OCB-I has been understudied. The co-existing and interactive possibility of benefactor OCB-I and beneficiary OCB-I within individuals has been ignored. Therefore, this research adopted a person-centered approach and examined different profiles of benefactor OCB-I and beneficiary OCB-I on the basis of Grant’s (2013) theory. Results from Study 1 data (cross-sectional data) and Study 2 data (multiple waves of data) revealed the three profile groups: vigorous (high benefactor OCB-I and high beneficiary OCB-I), moderate (moderate benefactor OCB-I and moderate beneficiary OCB-I), and passive OCB-I groups (low benefactor OCB-I and low beneficiary OCB-I). Also, the three profiles were significantly differentiated by positive affect, other-oriented empathy, task interdependence, and job satisfaction. Furthermore, the vigorous OCB-I group showed the lowest psychological strain while the passive OCB-I group showed the lowest physical strain. The results offer theoretical implications for Grant’s (2013) theory, OCB-I and employee health research, and equity theory in comparison to conservation of resources theory. In addition, practical implications for enhancing employee health are discussed.

This study is designed to investigate the relationships among affective and cognitive personal qualities leading to psychological resilience among natural disaster survivors. The main assumption of this study is that positive personal qualities might be associated with better psychological adjustment. The study aimed at testing a hypothesized theoretical model accounting for resilience with regard to personal qualities. The sample for this study was composed of individuals who were exposed to earthquakes that occurred in 1999 in Marmara region of Western Turkey. The study hypothesized that the dispositional cognitive and affective constructs (hope, optimism, life satisfaction, self esteem and positive affect) play vital roles in pathways to psychological resilience. Initially hypothesized model based on cognitive-behavioral theoretical foundations was proposed and tested. The cognitive behavior approach holds the idea that thoughts are the determinants of functional and dysfunctional emotions and behaviors. In the model, global self esteem serve as an underlying mechanism that helps to human operate well on the environment. The positive influence of global self esteem can be observed in cognitive process and affective domain in individuals. Simultaneously a person develops an optimistic worldview based on the global self esteem. Self esteem leads a person to construe positive cognitive constructs influencing the general world of view positively and utilize those cognitive. Since thinking patterns influence the affective side of the person, if the person utilizes positive cognitive constructs while interpreting life events, he or she is likely to experience more positive feelings and to be satisfied with life at the same time The hypothesized model was trimmed. Dispositional hope (pathways and agentic thinking), optimism, positive affect, life satisfaction and self-esteem were regarded as independent latent variables while three factors of psychological resilience were valued as the latent dependent variables. Finally, a structural model was suggested to account for the pathways leading to resilience among the Turkish disaster survivors. According to the model, self esteem, dispositional hope and optimism have indirect effect on resilience components via positive affect and life satisfaction. For purposes, the Ego Resilience Scale was adapted into Turkish. Exploratory factor analysis yielded three-factor solution for Turkish disaster survivors and the resilience factors were labeled as Personal Strengths Relating Recovery / Positive Self-Appraisals and Openness to New Experience. The results revealed that the Ego Resiliency Scale is a validated and reliable measure of psychological resilience among Turkish disaster survivors.

Social media has grown in importance as an advertising communication tool, and companies take advantages of this by using social media marketing to meet their marketing objectives. The research context in this study is chosen to be the social media Facebook, mainly since it is the biggest and most used social media in Sweden but also since Facebook offers companies many different commercial options. We detected a research gap, since there is a lack of theory on Facebook’s customized advertisements on a more specific context that is felt urge to buy impulsively. We could also identify a research gap since there is no study investigating how positive affect and felt urge to buy impulsively are affected by different characteristics in Umeå, Sweden or in the Facebook context among Umeå members. The purpose with this study is to investigate the effects of ad characteristics, personal consumption characteristics, and situational characteristics on positive affect and felt urge to buy impulsively. The characteristics consist of nine constructs; felt urge to buy impulsively, positive affect, promotional effect, atmospheric effect, impulse buying tendency, hedonic consumption, customized advertisement, time availability and money availability. To fulfill the purpose of this thesis, we conducted a quantitative study. In the quantitative study we conducted a web-based self-selected survey. The link to the survey was posted in four different Facebook groups and on our own Facebook pages. The link the survey was also distributed by flyers to randomly targeted people at Umeå University and Umeå center. By conducting a survey we were able to detect effects between the variables. When analyzing the results using regression analysis we concluded there are eight supported hypothesizes. The first multiple regression analysis showed that promotional effect, atmospheric effect, hedonic consumption tendency, customized advertisement and time availability had a significant positive effect on positive affect. In the second multiple regression analysis we concluded that hedonic consumption tendency and customized advertisement had a significant positive effect on felt urge to buy impulsively. The last regression analysis showed that positive affect had a significant positive effect on felt urge to buy impulsively. From the result we could confirm some of previous study’s findings and also contribute with new findings. We also suggest practical recommendations for companies using Facebook as an advertising channel, and how they can improve the advertising to make a good impression on the consumers.

The relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and psychological well–being has been empirically and theoretically elaborated. This suggests that highly emotional intelligent individuals are likely to experience higher psychological well–being if compared to individuals with lower EI (Gallagher & Vella–Brodrick, 2008; Mikolajczak, Nelis, Hansenne, & Quoidbach, 2008; Mavroveli, Petrides, Rieffe, & Baker,2007; Schutte, Malouff, Thorsteinsson, Bhullar, & Rooke, 2007; Zeidner, Matthews, & Roberts, 2009). On the other hand, the role of gender has been found to be influential as well as contradictory in both EI and psychological well–being. Gender has been shown to differentially influence both emotional intelligence and psychological well–being (Castro–Schilo & Kee, 2010; McIntryre, 2010; Schutte, Malouf, Simunek, McKenly & Holland, 2002;Thomsen, Mehlesen, Viidik, Sommerlund & Zachariae, 2005). Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the role of gender as moderator in the relationship between emotional intelligence and aspects of psychological well–being (positive affect, negative affect and satisfaction with life). EI was measured with the Emotional Intelligence Scale (Schutte et al., 1998) while psychological well–being was measured with the Satisfaction With Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffen (1985) and the Affectometer 2 (Kamman & Flett, 1983). A cross–sectional survey design based on the study by Williams, Wissing, Rothmann and Temane (2009) was implemented after informed consent had been obtained. A sample of 459 participants consisting of both males (n= 59.5%) and females (n=32.9%) with an average age between 25 to 44 years. A 2–step hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to determine, in the first place, the influence of EI on psychological well–being, followed by the interaction between gender and EI. The findings indicate that gender moderated only the relationship between EI and negative affect. The influence of EI on the two dependent variables, namely positive affect and satisfaction with life, was not moderated by gender. The conclusion is thus made that gender’s role as a moderator between EI and psychological well–being is evaluated only between EI’s ability to reduce the perception and experience of negative components on one’s life. Limitations of the study include the use of a cross–sectional design that lacks continuous monitoring of variables across time. The use of self–report measures indicating only subjective self–report by the participants themselves without other triangulating or collateral information is another limitation. As well as the lack of control for other moderator variables such as age, urban–rural context, and educational attainment that may play a role, but have not been taken into account. Future research can investigate other possible predicting variables (e.g. interpersonal relationships, social skills, coping and social support) on gender as moderator. These predicting variables can possibly explain additional variance in psychological well–being. The outcomes of the moderating role of gender in the relationship between EI and psychological well–being can be investigated by means of alternative measures that would explore the different levels of functioning along the mental health continuum for males and females alike. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Clinical Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

The relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and psychological well–being has been empirically and theoretically elaborated. This suggests that highly emotional intelligent individuals are likely to experience higher psychological well–being if compared to individuals with lower EI (Gallagher & Vella–Brodrick, 2008; Mikolajczak, Nelis, Hansenne, & Quoidbach, 2008; Mavroveli, Petrides, Rieffe, & Baker,2007; Schutte, Malouff, Thorsteinsson, Bhullar, & Rooke, 2007; Zeidner, Matthews, & Roberts, 2009). On the other hand, the role of gender has been found to be influential as well as contradictory in both EI and psychological well–being. Gender has been shown to differentially influence both emotional intelligence and psychological well–being (Castro–Schilo & Kee, 2010; McIntryre, 2010; Schutte, Malouf, Simunek, McKenly & Holland, 2002;Thomsen, Mehlesen, Viidik, Sommerlund & Zachariae, 2005). Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the role of gender as moderator in the relationship between emotional intelligence and aspects of psychological well–being (positive affect, negative affect and satisfaction with life). EI was measured with the Emotional Intelligence Scale (Schutte et al., 1998) while psychological well–being was measured with the Satisfaction With Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffen (1985) and the Affectometer 2 (Kamman & Flett, 1983). A cross–sectional survey design based on the study by Williams, Wissing, Rothmann and Temane (2009) was implemented after informed consent had been obtained. A sample of 459 participants consisting of both males (n= 59.5%) and females (n=32.9%) with an average age between 25 to 44 years. A 2–step hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to determine, in the first place, the influence of EI on psychological well–being, followed by the interaction between gender and EI. The findings indicate that gender moderated only the relationship between EI and negative affect. The influence of EI on the two dependent variables, namely positive affect and satisfaction with life, was not moderated by gender. The conclusion is thus made that gender’s role as a moderator between EI and psychological well–being is evaluated only between EI’s ability to reduce the perception and experience of negative components on one’s life. Limitations of the study include the use of a cross–sectional design that lacks continuous monitoring of variables across time. The use of self–report measures indicating only subjective self–report by the participants themselves without other triangulating or collateral information is another limitation. As well as the lack of control for other moderator variables such as age, urban–rural context, and educational attainment that may play a role, but have not been taken into account. Future research can investigate other possible predicting variables (e.g. interpersonal relationships, social skills, coping and social support) on gender as moderator. These predicting variables can possibly explain additional variance in psychological well–being. The outcomes of the moderating role of gender in the relationship between EI and psychological well–being can be investigated by means of alternative measures that would explore the different levels of functioning along the mental health continuum for males and females alike. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Clinical Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

This study aimed to examine the association between specific maternal characteristics (i.e., parents&rsquo / personality, depression, anxiety, affective state, and coping strategies) and childhood ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and Conduct Disorder (CD) symptoms in children with and without the diagnosis of ADHD. Method: Data was obtained from 231 subjects including mothers of 77 children who were just diagnosed by Child Mental Health Departments of Hacettepe University or IMGE Child Mental Health Center and 154 children without any psychiatric diagnosis, who were receiving education from Nebahat Keskin Elementary School. Among 154 non-diagnosed subjects the ones who match best with the 77 ADHD group participants were chosen, considering ages of the children, income of the family, and education of the mother. Results and Discussion: (1) Psychometric Characteristics of the TBFI and CARSS were examined. The internal consistency coefficients of the TBFI varied from .51 (for Agreeableness) to .75 (for Neuroticism) and all subscales of CARSS had moderate to high degree of internal consistencies ranging from .65 (Conduct Disorder) to .92. (e.g., Attention Deficit). Additionally, concurrent validity of TBFI and criterion validity of CARSS were studied. Results revealed that TBFI had sufficient internal consistency and validity, and also revealed that CARSS was a highly reliable and valid measure, successfully differentiating the diagnosed group from the non-diagnosed group on each subscale. (2) Group differences on maternal characteristics were examined. Compared to non-diagnosed children, children with ADHD had mothers with higher Depression symptoms, higher Negative Affect, higher Neuroticism, lower Positive Affect. (3) Regression analyses, which were conducted separately for each group and the whole group, revealed that different maternal characteristics were associated with symptoms of diagnosed and non-diagnosed children. In general while symptom levels of children, who have ADHD diagnosis, was associated with higher maternal Negative and lower Positive Affect and higher Depression and Anxiety symptoms, and lower Extraversion scores / symptom level of Comparison children was associated more with Conscientiousness. These differences were explained by means of the fit between maternal characteristics and vulnerability, lower tolerance, lower adaptation, and compensation skills of children with ADHD (when compared to Comparison group). Results addressed the importance of maternal factors regarding its association with presence, and the severity of ADHD and comorbid symptoms of children.

本研究旨在比較不同背景和臨床因素的乳癌患者其因應策略、正向情緒和心理症狀的差異情形。本研究除了關注個體所採取的因應策略與情緒的關聯性；另一方面，研究者認為患者的情緒亦可能影響其因應策略之選擇，因此因應策略與情緒間的變化關係，亦為本研究目的之一。 本研究採立意取樣，並以中部某一教學醫學乳房中心初診斷之乳癌患者共計113位為研究對象，蒐集患者之｢基本資料表｣、｢短版因應策略量表｣、｢醫院版焦慮-憂鬱量表｣和｢情緒平衡量尺｣，並以術後3個月和6個月進行追蹤研究。 資料處理以相關分析、t考驗、單因子變異數分析及階層迴歸分析等統計方法為主。由於本研究擬以Brief COPE作為臺灣乳癌病患因應壓力之測量工具，因此將採用探索性因素分析(Exploratory Factor Analysis；EFA)，探討此量表在初診斷乳癌患者身上的因素結構。 依據本研究問題與假設，主要發現摘述如下: 一、本研究以主成分分析法抽取Brief COPE量表因素，並以斜交轉軸進行因素轉軸，依據陡坡圖和平行分析結果抽取三個因素。此三因素的解釋總變異量為62.1%。研究者將因素I命名為｢趨近因應｣；因素II命名為｢情緒性因應｣和因素III命名為｢逃避因應｣。 二、教育程度、收入和有無職業與正向情緒呈正相關；現有小孩人數和年齡與正向情緒呈負相關；年齡和副作用與憂鬱具有正向關係，教育程度則與憂鬱呈負相關;副作用與焦慮呈正相關。有無結婚、有無職業、教育程度、收入、乳房重建與趨近因應呈正相關，期數和年齡則和趨近因應有顯著負相關；有無職業和情緒性因應呈正相關。 三、乳癌患者於術後3、6個月最常採用的因應策略為趨近因應，其次為情緒性因應，最少採用逃避因應。 四、焦慮對逃避和趨近因應有獨特的預測力，即焦慮程度愈高會愈使用逃避和趨近因應策略；憂鬱則對趨近因應有獨特的預測力，憂鬱程度愈高者，其趨近因應的使用愈少；在因應策略的部分，只有趨近因應可顯著預測正向情緒；正向情緒在趨近因應和焦慮的關係中並無法形成部份或完全中介之角色。 最後，根據研究結果與限制提出若干具體建議，以供臨床工作者及未來研究之相關人員參考。 / The purpose of this study is to explore the differences of coping strategies, positive affect and psychological symptoms among newly-diagnosed breast cancer patients in different sociodemographic backgrounds. Research has found that coping strategies predict psychological outcomes; however, a few studies have also reported that psychological symptoms could predict the use of coping strategies. Therefore, the relationship between coping strategies and psychological symptoms was the first aim of the current study. One-hundred and thirteen participants were recruited by purposive sampling. The data were draw from newly-diagnosed breast cancer patients in a breast center unit at a hospital in central of Taiwan. Demographic and clinical data were gathered at the first time point, and the Brief Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced scale (Brief COPE), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Positive Affect subscale of Affect Balance, and side effect checklists were gathered 2 times during the first 3- and 6-month after discharge respectively. Pearson product-moment correlation, t-test, one-way ANOVA, post Scheffe test and hierarchical regression analysis were applied. In an attempt to confirm the factor structure of the Brief COPE, the Exploratory Factor Analyses (EFA) were performed before those analyses. The major findings of the current study were as follows： 1.Using principal components factor analysis with oblique rotation, scree plot and parallel analyses revealed three factors for the Brief COPE were the best factor structure of the current sample: (1) approach coping, (2) emotional coping, and (3) avoidance coping. These 3 factors accounted for 62.1% of the total variance of the data. 2.Education, income and employment status were significantly correlated with positive affect. Number of kids and age were found to be inversely correlated with positive affect. Age and side effects were positively correlated with depression. Side effects were found to be correlated with anxiety. Marital status, employment status, cancer stage, education, income, age, breast reconstruction surgery were found to be correlated with approach coping. Meanwhile stage and age were found to be negatively correlated with emotional coping. 3.Approach coping was the most commonly used coping strategies, while avoidance coping was the least commonly used coping strategies. 4.Anxiety could reliably predict the use of avoidance and approach coping. High anxiety level predicted more use of avoidance and approach coping, whereas depression predicted the use of approach coping, high depressive mood predicted less use of approach coping. Approach coping predicted higher positive affect, but positive affect was fail to be the mediator between approach coping and anxiety. Implications for these results were discussed. The results can also serve as a helpful reference for healthcare professionals.