<p>  </p> <p>Personality pathology has been consistently linked with negative relationship outcomes, though little work has focused on interpersonal dynamics that might explain the association between the two. In the current study, we used Actor Partner Interdependence Modeling (APIM) with self-reported personality features from the Personality Inventory for the DSM-4+ for individuals in committed romantic relationships. Scores on the personality disorder scales were used to predict self-reported change in positive and negative affect across a conflict resolution task as well as variability in affective valance and arousal during the conflict resolution task as coded by third-party raters. In general, both positive and negative affect increased after the conflict resolution task as compared to before. Variability in emotional arousal appeared largely unrelated to PD features. The most consistent finding across models was that change in internal affect and variability in expressed affect was most related to men’s PD features but not women’s, with some exceptions. Taken together, results suggest that couples are likely to exhibit greater variability in affect during conflict in couples in which a male partner is high in PD features. </p>

This diploma thesis deals with various possible ways in which the formalized expression of emotions that is characteristic of the melodramatic mode can be reinterpreted in the context of experimental cinema, with the work of the director Werner Schroeter being used as a main (but not exclusive) example. The main argument is based on two interrelated ideas. First, the melodramatic mode as a genre-bending category offers a wide repertory of stylistic features designed to express extreme emotional states or situations which can be encompassed by the term "melodramatic excess". This type of excess manifests itself most visibly in moments of intense passion when the plot breaks down and freezes in a static or symbolic arrangement, either through close-up or tableau vivant. All attention is thereby focused on the heroes' gestures and poses which express their emotional state face to face with an intense situation for which they cannot yet find an adequate response. Second, certain experimental films manage to transform the melodramatic excess through "expressive and performative operations" with filmic space, time and bodies, turning the exterior representation of emotions into the immanent expression of affects. In this case, affect is understood as a certain variation of emotions which demonstrates the...