Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xiv, 110 p. : ill. Includes bibliographical references (p. 106-110). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Thesis (Ph.D.) in Psychology--University of Maine, 2004. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-165).

Thesis (Ed. D.) University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 3, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

It has been suggested that adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may reflect affective temperaments, which involve mild manic and/or depressive traits as part of one’s personality. Such innate traits are associated with poor attention. Stimulant medications, given for ADHD, can worsen manic symptoms, thereby worsening attentional symptoms paradoxically, by worsening the underlying mood condition that causes poor attention. This study examines the nature of response to stimulant medication in subjects with affective temperament (Cyclothymia, Hyperthymia, Dysthymia). A retrospective cohort study was conducted of 87 subjects from Tufts Medical Center Mood Disorders Program. Subjects were included if they had ever been prescribed stimulant medications. Prior diagnosis of adult ADHD, or not, also was assessed. This sample was assessed using TEMPS-A scale to measure affective temperaments, and the CGI-I scale to assess clinical change in mood/anxiety and attention/cognition. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics and stratification. This study has several limitations. Researchers and subjects were not blinded; all subjects received stimulants, with no non-stimulant control group; and treatment response was assessed retrospectively. Nonetheless, no such data exist in the scientific literature previously, and thus this pilot data adds to our present knowledge. 61% of the sample had an affective temperament (using the strictest definition of 75% or more TEMPS items endorsed). Of these, the most common was cyclothymic (40%) followed by hyperthymic (24%). The main treatment results were that most patients (55%) had no effect on mood/anxiety, but a large number (43%) had worsening mood/anxiety symptoms. 37% had mild or moderate improvement in cognition. Stratified by ADHD diagnosis, stimulant effects were somewhat better with, than without, ADHD diagnosis, for cognition but not for mood/anxiety. In ADHD subjects, 49% had worsening mood and/or anxiety symptoms, while 44% had some improvement in cognition/attention. In non-ADHD subjects, 30% had worsening mood and/or anxiety symptoms, while 30% had some improvement in cognition/attention. In conclusion, we found that most people (61%) treated with amphetamine stimulants identified in a mood specialty clinic were diagnosable with affective temperaments, especially cyclothymia. Amphetamine stimulant worsened mood/anxiety symptoms in about one-half of subjects, and improved cognition symptoms only about one-third subjects. Prior ADHD diagnosis was associated with somewhat improved cognitive, but not mood/anxiety, outcomes. These results suggest that amphetamine stimulant treatment in an affectively ill population may have harmful mood/anxiety effects, and has only partly beneficial cognitive effects.

No description available.

The computing devices with which we interact daily continue to become ever smaller, intelligent, and pervasive. Not only are they becoming more intelligent, but some are developing awareness of a user's affective state. Affective computing—computing that in some way senses, expresses, or modifies affect—is still a field very much in its youth. While progress has been made, the field is still limited by the need for larger sets of diverse, naturalistic, and multimodal data. This work first considers effective strategies for designing psychophysiological studies that permit the assembly of very large samples that cross numerous demographic boundaries, data collection in naturalistic environments, distributed study locations, rapid iterations on study designs, and the simultaneous investigation of multiple research questions. It then explores how commodity hardware and general-purpose software tools can be used to record, represent, store, and disseminate such data. As a realization of these strategies, this work presents a new database from the Emotion in Motion (EiM) study of human psychophysiological response to musical affective stimuli comprising over 23,000 participants and nearly 67,000 psychophysiological responses. Because music presents an excellent tool for the investigation of human response to affective stimuli, this work uses this wealth of data to explore how to design more effective affective computing systems by characterizing the strongest responses to musical stimuli used in EiM. This work identifies and characterizes the strongest of these responses, with a focus on modeling the characteristics of listeners that make them more or less prone to demonstrating strong physiological responses to music stimuli. This dissertation contributes the findings from a number of explorations of the relationships between strong reactions to music and the characteristics and self-reported affect of listeners. It demonstrates not only that such relationships do exist, but takes steps toward automatically predicting whether or not a listener will exhibit such exceptional responses. Second, this work contributes a flexible strategy and functional system for both successfully executing large-scale, distributed studies of psychophysiology and affect; and for synthesizing, managing, and disseminating the data collected through such efforts. Finally, and most importantly, this work presents the EiM database itself. / Doctor of Philosophy / The computing devices with which we interact daily continue to become ever smaller, intelligent, and pervasive. Not only are they becoming more intelligent, but some are developing awareness of a user’s affective state. Affective computing—computing that in some way senses, expresses, or modifies affect—is still a field very much in its youth. While progress has been made, the field is still limited by the need for larger sets of diverse, naturalistic, and multimodal data. This dissertation contributes the findings from a number of explorations of the relationships between strong reactions to music and the characteristics and self-reported affect of listeners. It demonstrates not only that such relationships do exist, but takes steps toward automatically predicting whether or not a listener will exhibit such exceptional responses. Second, this work contributes a flexible strategy and functional system for both successfully executing large-scale, distributed studies of psychophysiology and affect; and for synthesizing, managing, and disseminating the data collected through such efforts. Finally, and most importantly, this work presents the Emotion in Motion (EiM) (a study of human affective/psychophysiological response to musical stimuli) database comprising over 23,000 participants and nearly 67,000 psychophysiological responses.

Thesis advisor: John P. Christianson / The perception of others as safe or threatening informs how we respond to others in a social setting. These social affective behaviors require the detection of sensory stimuli and the appraisal of others’ affective states to orchestrate adaptive behavioral responses. This process is also informed by one’s own internal state and environment. The neural circuitry underlying this behavior consists of a wide network of brain regions that communicate to execute social behaviors. However, the neural mechanisms mediating social affective behavior require further investigation. Therefore, the objective of this dissertation is to add detail to our understanding of the specific brain circuits involved in social affective behavior. The insula is a key node within this circuitry, necessary for approach and avoidance behaviors in a social affective preference (SAP) test where adult rats prefer interactions with stressed juveniles but avoid interactions with stressed adults. Here, I investigated the roles of a basolateral amygdala projections to the insula and insular projections to the PL in SAP testing and present evidence indicating the necessity of both these tracts to social affective behaviors. The results described here along with the reviewed literature support a potential amygdalar-insular-prefrontal circuit responsible for detecting social valence, integrating external stimuli with internal states, and selecting and executing context-appropriate social affective behaviors. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Psychology and Neuroscience.

La notion de première impression est fréquemment utilisée dans la socio-psychologie mais elle n'a pas été fortement exploitée dans le marketing. Même si cette notion apparait souvent dans le monde du commerce, il n’est pas toujours facile de la mesurer. La comparaison de deux méthodes de mesure nous permet d’affirmer d’une part, que sur un nouveau produit, la première impression est formée dans les 10 premières secondes, et d’autre part, qu’elle apporte sur ce produit une perception minimale. Le processus d’expérimentation a été réalisé sur de nouvelles voitures en voie de commercialisation au Vietnam. Les résultats obtenus sont convergents et cette thèse montre bien les intérêts mais aussi les limites de concept psychologique. / The concept of first impression is frequently used in social psychology, but it hasn’t been forcefully exploited in Marketing. Even though this notion appears daily in the business world, it is not always easily measured. The comparison of two methods allows us to affirm that the first impression of the new products is formed during the first 10 seconds and then, it provides us minimal perception of product. The process of the experiment was seriously carried out among new cars being commercialized in Vietnam. The results are convergent and this thesis shows not only the interests but also the limits of this psychological concept. / Khái niệm về ấn tượng ban đầu thường xuyên được sử dụng trong tâm sinh lý xã hội nhưng vẫn chưa thật sự được khai thác mạnh mẽ trong Marketing. Ngay cả khi ấn tượng ban đầu xuất hiện hàng ngày trong thế giới thương mại, nhưng thật không dễ để đo lường được nó. Một sự so sánh về hai phương pháp đo lường cho phép chúng ta khẳng định rằng ấn tượng ban đầu về sản phẩm mới được hình thành ngay từ 10 giây đầu tiên và đã mang đến cho chúng ta một nhận thức tối thiểu về sản phẩm. Việc xây dựng tiến trình thực nghiệm đã được thực hiện một cách nghiêm túc trên những chiếc xe ô tô mới đang trên đường được thương mại hóa tại Việt Nam. Những kết quả đạt được là hội tụ và cuốn luận án cũng đã chỉ rõ những lợi ích cũng như giới hạn từ khái niệm tâm sinh lý này.

Introduction: Dyspnea on exertion (DOE) is a common symptom experienced by 40% of healthy obese women. Dyspnea has at least two dimensions: a sensory (intensity) and an affective dimension. The affective dimension was measured in this study by unpleasantness and negative emotions (i.e., depression, anxiety, frustration, anger, and fear) related to DOE, measured as rating of perceived breathlessness (RPB). Purpose: To examine whether RPB during exercise was associated with unpleasantness and negative emotions and the relative exercise intensity and to examine whether 12-week exercise training can reduce unpleasantness and negative emotions related to breathlessness in healthy obese women. Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted from data collected from an interventional study. Volunteers underwent body measurements, underwater weighing, pulmonary function testing, and a constant-load cycle test (60 watts). RPB, unpleasantness, and negative emotions related to DOE were obtained. Results: There was a positive relationship (n = 74) between RPB and unpleasantness (r = .61) and RPB and anxiety (r = .50). There was a relationship (n = 52) between unpleasantness and %VO₂max, r = .28 as well as %HRmax r = .38; anxiety and %HRmax, r = .28 (p < .05). Unpleasantness and anxiety were different between groups (n=55). Unpleasantness was higher in the +DOE group (M = 3.91, SD = 2.29) than the–DOE group (M = 1.37, SD = 2.01), t(53) = 4.27, p = < .0001; Anxiety was higher in the +DOE group (M = 2.76, SD = 2.99) than in–DOE group (M = 0.72, SD = 1.23), t(41.95) = 3.45, p = < .001. Within group analysis (n = 13) showed that participants in +DOE experienced a decrease in unpleasantness after 12-week exercise training (p = .013; paired t test). There was a main effect of exercise on unpleasantness (p = .0307) and a group x training interaction (p = .0285) indicating that persons with DOE prior to the exercise intervention experienced less unpleasantness after the intervention. Conclusion: Unpleasantness and anxiety have been identified as the most common symptoms associated with RPB. Healthy obese women who engage in physical activity may experience higher rates of unpleasantness and anxiety based on their relative intensity of exercise. In addition, women with DOE who experience unpleasantness as an associated symptom could possibly decrease the level of unpleasantness if they engage in an exercise-training program.