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This thesis explored the effects of social exclusion on the sense of control. We indexed the sense of control using the sense of agency. The sense of agency refers to the feeling of control over our actions and the outcomes of those actions. We experience the sense of agency at an implicit, pre-reflective level. In other words, we routinely make movements that impact some sort of change in the environment, and simply just know that our actions cause an effect. Experimentally, we can measure the sense of agency using the intentional binding effect. Intentional binding is a temporal illusion in which we perceive the time between our voluntary action and the outcome of that action to be shorted compared to when the same effect is caused by an involuntary action. We conducted three experiments. In experiment one, we used an episodic memory recall task to prime participants to feel socially excluded or socially included. In experiment two, we used a different manipulation of social exclusion and social inclusion called Cyberball. We found that in both experiments, intentional binding was significantly reduced following social exclusion compared to social inclusion and baseline. In experiment three, we investigated the pre-reflective sense of agency in eating disorders. Eating disorders are highly associated with chronic social exclusion experiences and an altered sense of control in life. We found that individuals with higher eating disorder symptomatology experience a lower sense of agency, compared to healthy individuals. Overall, this thesis is the first to demonstrate that social exclusion has observable effects on the sense of agency. We were able to triangulate these findings using another social exclusion manipulation as well, strengthening our original findings. Lastly, we showed that a disorder characterized, in part, by social exclusion, reduces the sense of agency / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Yes / Audio recordings of meetings of two community groups in a deprived inner-city area were analysed, using discursive psychological and conversation analytic techniques to explore situated enactments of ‘community’. Participants situated themselves as members; of a geographical community; of an “imagined” community; and, of other constitutive communities. A sense of community was enacted through five interactional strategies: affirming moral codes, ‘defending’ other members, distinguishing insiders from outsiders, enacting empowerment and challenging institutions. Participants regularly employed emotional displays and affirmed moral positions, both to constitute ‘community’ and to take action in it. In so doing they worked up social capital and positioned community concerns in ways more reflective of their own situated values than of criminal law or government policy.

“Longing for Touch” is an investigation of what makes us drawn to tactile interactions. With this project and essay I am focussing on the importance of our haptic sense and draw attention to the experiences we lack, in a world where our experiences are getting digitalized to a greater extent. I am investigating how phenomena such as pleasure and aesthetics are linked together and how they can be used to foster physical interaction. I have a fascination of how we as humans are drawn towards disgust, and I’m interested in the tension these contradicting feelings create. In this essay I present research, that shows disgust both revolts and attracts, and I go over why disgust is an effective tool to capture attention. In the studio, I’m transforming my findings from the research into physical objects. By focusing on aesthetics while playing with elements of disgust – I can create objects we are drawn to touch. / <p>Two images have been removed for copyright reasons. The source information for the images are kept - in order for reader to access the images on their own.</p>