The affect and decision literature has established that incidental moods affect our decisions and choices. Yet few studies have gathered process data to examine the role of affect on the cognitive processes underlying decision-making. The primary purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the effects of induced moods on the process and outcomes of decisions under risk, using mixed-domain financial problems. In two empirical studies, an eye tracker was used to record decision-makers’ distribution of attention across specific aspects of the decision problems, and transitions in attention. Both studies tested for possible mood congruency effects and mood effects on depth of processing in the decision-making task. In Study 1, viewing of short movie clips was used to induce either happy or sad mood in participants, who then made choices between pairs of mixed-domain options consisting of a probabilistic gain coupled with a probabilistic loss. Data were also gathered in a control condition, where participants were instructed to use an EV-calculation strategy, a prototypical integrative compensatory strategy. In Study 2, instead of movie clips, the mood induction task involved reading a sad or neutral news story. Inclusion of a neutral condition enabled inferences about the specific effect of the induced sad mood condition. Also, the decision task in Study 2 was modified in structure by always pairing a sure option with a mixed-domain risky option. Study 1 results showed significant differences in choices and in attention transitions between the EV-instruction and the induced mood conditions, but no significant differences between the happy and sad induced mood conditions. Participants with induced moods showed relatively more evidence of heuristic strategy use, but analytic strategies remained the modal strategy in all conditions. Importantly, key types of attention transitions were shown to reliably predict the frequency of observed choices consistent with optimal (EV- maximizing) and heuristic strategies. Study 2 found significant effects of problem structure (domain) on choices and distribution of attention. Participants in general had longer fixations and showed more EV-maximizing choices for problem structure 2 (sure loss versus mixed risky option) than for problem structure 1 (sure gain versus mixed risky option) problems. Across both studies, however, the results did not demonstrate any effect of specific induced incidental mood on decision-making. Limitations of the findings and future research directions are discussed.

Multimedia installation combining photography, music and noises, representing the story of the killer and the victim, from their meeting up to death in five main parts.

Depression is a major public health problem. Decades of research have been conducted to create a classification system aligned with the complex phenomenological features of depression. The dominant classification system for depression is the latent paradigm, which conceptualizes observable symptoms of depression as effects of an underlying disorder. There is increasing evidence, however, that the latent model is inadequate to inform the prognosis and treatment of depression. Specifically, evidence is accumulating that symptoms of depression do not necessarily arise due to an underlying condition, but that symptoms occur as a network in which each one is causally related to a previous symptom. This dissertation critically evaluated the underlying assumptions of this “network paradigm,” one of the frameworks which had been proposed as an alternative to the traditional latent paradigm, as an appropriate model for studying depression. The first chapter systematically evaluated empirical depression network studies regarding whether the study design included an examination of the paradigm’s assumptions. In the second chapter, I investigated the relationships among depressive symptoms and determined whether causal relationships among depressive symptoms, a key assumption underlying this paradigm, could be a plausible explanation. The last chapter investigated a central controversy within the network literature regarding consistent findings and measurement error. The first chapter found that the majority of depression network studies published in the literature were not capable of providing empirical support of symptom causal relationships and often neglected to investigate the impact of measurement error. The second chapter estimated a significant relationship between two depressive symptoms - sadness and anhedonia, using an inverse probability treatment-weighted regression estimation approach in the context of longitudinal data. Causal relationships among symptoms, a key assumption underlying the network paradigm, may be a plausible explanation for the depressive symptom relationships. The third chapter found that statistical network models are not robust to measurement error through a series of simulation studies. Measurement error remained a general threat against the network paradigm, and existing network findings should be interpreted with caution. Overall, the network paradigm may be appropriate for study depression, but existing findings should be interpreted with caution. There is a need to explore the fundamental assumptions of paradigms prior to widespread application.

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Perhaps the most important single finding in the field of emotional aging has been that the overall quality of affective experience steadily improves during adulthood and can be maintained into old age. Recent lifespan developmental theories have provided motivation- and experience-based explanations for this phenomenon. These theories suggest that, as individuals grow older, they become increasingly motivated and able to regulate their emotions, which could result in reduced negativity and enhanced positivity. The objective of this paper is to expand existing theories and empirical research on emotional aging by presenting a discrete emotions perspective. To illustrate the usefulness of this approach, we focus on a discussion of the literature examining age differences in anger and sadness. These two negative emotions have typically been subsumed under the singular concept of negative affect. From a discrete emotions perspective, however, they are highly distinct and show multidirectional age differences. We propose that such contrasting age differences in specific negative emotions have important implications for our understanding of long-term patterns of affective well-being across the adult lifespan.

The study investigated how distinctions in perception might affect emotional responding to a change in an affordance. There is evidence that Europeans tend to perceive salient objects in the foreground, while East Asians tend to perceive holistically. Due to sensitivity to focal objects, European Americans (EA) were hypothesized to respond negatively with increased HR variance on perceiving loss of connection when playing Cyberball. EA would also feel sadness more intensely, in terms of decreased heart rate and increased RSA, at an earlier time during a sad clip. Chinese Americans (CA) were predicted to show no difference in affect from controls. ECG, fEMG, respiration and self-report data were acquired from 51 subjects (38 EA, 13 CA, 25 male, mean age 21.1) in a between-subjects design. 26 subjects (19 EA, 6 CA) received 2 out of 48 balls tossed and the controls received 10. 88% in the experimental condition reported a negative emotion (e.g. anger). Control subjects reported mainly neutral affect. ANOVA analyses revealed HR variance had an interaction effect (time x condition, p=0.009) and RSA had a main effect (condition, p=0.033). Both experimental groups had increased heart rate variance and increased RSA. Facial coding revealed EA expressed more negative emotion. CA in the experimental condition showed correlation across measures: HR variance, RSA and respiration, suggesting automatic regulation to perceiving loss contained its expression. Most subjects reported feeling sad during the clip. fEMG of the corrugator muscle revealed EA activated higher peak intensity 5.5 seconds earlier than CA (increased 1.571 vs 0.844). EA also had decreased HR and increased RSA, a sign of withdrawal in sadness, earlier. Evidence suggests exposure to loss had stronger effect on EA to increase their arousal and sensitivity thereafter. / M.S. / The study investigated how differences in perceiving a change in social connection might affect emotional responses. There is evidence that Europeans tend to perceive salient objects in the foreground, while East Asians tend to perceive holistically. Due to sensitivity to focal objects, European Americans (EA) were hypothesized to respond negatively with increased heart rate variance on perceiving loss of connection when playing Cyberball, a ball-tossing video game. EA would also feel sadness more intensely, in terms of decreased heart rate and increased vagal activation, at an earlier time during a sad clip. Chinese Americans (CA) were predicted to show no difference in affect from controls. ECG, fEMG, respiration and self-report data were acquired from 51 subjects (38 EA, 13 CA, 25 male, mean age 21.1) in a between-subjects design. 26 subjects (19 EA, 6 CA) received 2 out of 48 balls tossed and the controls received 10. 88% in the experimental condition reported a negative emotion (e.g. anger). Control subjects reported mainly neutral affect. Unexpectedly, both experimental groups had increased heart rate variance. CA in the experimental condition showed correlation across physiological measures: heart rate variance, vagal activation and respiration, suggesting automatic regulation to perceiving loss during Cyberball. These correlations were not observed in the EA, but as predicted, EA in the experimental condition had decreased heart rate and increased vagal activation, a sign of withdrawal in sadness, earlier during a sad clip. Evidence suggests exposure to loss had stronger effect on EA to increase their arousal and sensitivity thereafter.

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Research suggests that depressive symptoms and financial stress are both associated with increased levels of cigarette smoking, yet not every individual who experiences depressive symptoms or financial stress smokes. The primary purpose of this study was to examine whether positive and negative religious coping moderated the influence of depressive symptoms and financial stress on current (past 30-day) cigarette smoking over and above the contributions of demographic covariates and nonreligious problem- and emotion-focused coping. Participants were drawn from a larger study comprised of a convenience sample of 1,120 post-secondary vocational/technical school students enrolled in programs such as welding, air-conditioning, and vocational nursing at two different two-year public colleges in Texas. These students are training to work in blue-collar occupations, which have higher smoking rates compared to white-collar occupations. Negative binomial regression analysis was used to test the study hypotheses. Depressive symptoms and financial stress increased the likelihood of smoking for female students, whereas financial stress decreased the likelihood of smoking for male students. Positive religious coping decreased the likelihood of smoking for females only. Consistent with religious coping theory and as expected, negative religious coping moderated the depressive symptoms-smoking relationship such that negative religious coping exacerbated the impact of depressive symptoms on cigarette smoking among females. Positive religious coping also moderated the depressive symptoms-cigarette smoking relationship for females. Contrary to expectations, positive religious coping exacerbated the likelihood of cigarette smoking among females with high levels of depressive symptoms. Negative religious coping moderated the financial stress-cigarette smoking relationship such that males who reported low financial stress and high levels of negative religious coping had the highest likelihood of smoking in the past month. For females, religious coping was associated with current cigarette use, but did not moderate the association between financial stress and smoking. Even after controlling for demographic covariates and nonreligious coping, positive and negative religious coping influenced the smoking behaviors of vocational students experiencing depressive symptoms and financial stress, and these outcomes varied by gender. Study limitations, implications, and suggestions for future directions in research are discussed. / text

Sadness in literature has often been thematically interpreted as an indication of literary originality. Notions of solitude, silence, and alienation contribute to the idea that melancholy benefits the introspective work of the artist. But it is also possible to explore sadness as a more complex literary phenomenon, one that expands the dimensions of affect and influences possibilities of aesthetic and ethical renovation that gesture beyond the usual themes of melancholy and solitude. Sadness thus does not come to be conceived as merely an aspect of mourning, but as a structure of loss that is intrinsic to our concept of the world's composition and insufficiencies. The energies that surround the experience of sadness measure the degree to winch many writers have been able to develop their sense of unhappiness into a way of charting the difficulties and transformative power of their own labours. As well, sadness in literature can be seen as illuminating a loss that writers generate in order to achieve through their art the possibility of aesthetic and even social reparation.