The question "what is an emotion?" has been asked often throughout the history of philosophy, but few have come to an agreement about a definition or even how to study the emotions. In this thesis, I attempt to describe the nature and importance of emotions in terms of the way emotions affect one's experience of the world. I begin by analyzing five different theories of emotion: those of the Stoics, Aristotle, Spinoza, William James, and Sartre, which depict a wide range of theories that view emotion in both a positive and a negative sense. From them, I come to general definition of emotion that utilizes the strengths of the historical theories and goes beyond them. Then, I tum to addressing the way emotions affect the way the world is experienced. Using Heidegger, I claim that emotions attune people to the world, so that they notice different aspects of the world in one emotional state than they would in another emotional state. From here, the relationship between emotions and rationality is addressed. I claim that emotions are not irrational or arational, but are important to reason because they function as salience generators. As salience generators, emotions focus the reasoning process, narrowing down the options so that one can reason more quickly and with personal purpose. Finally, it is explained that emotion, though helpful to reason, is not a perfect way of knowing. Emotions are shown to be subjective, but not in a negative sense. They can be misleading at times, but they can still be trusted through three methods: (1) harmony between ways of knowing, (2) intersubjective corroboration, and (3) personal reflection.

The transition from partnership to parenthood can be a time of excitement and rapid change for couples. After the birth of a first child, many couples also experience declines in relationship satisfaction leading to increased risk of relationship dissolution, postpartum depression, and negative child outcomes. Considering the frequency of this transition and the connection between parent relationship quality and health, it is surprising that relatively few intervention programs have focused on preparing couples for this life transition. Hence, I have developed a four week relationship enhancement intervention entitled the Mindful Transition to Parenting Program. This program is based on interpersonal neurobiology, which states that mindfulness training can change brain structures that can lead to increased attunement abilities and sustained improvements in relationship quality. The program focuses on improving mindfulness, empathy, emotionality, and relationship satisfaction for couples expecting their first child. In this research study, I determined the outcomes for couples who participate in this program through mixed methods research with a randomized experimental design. Thirty-three couples were randomly assigned by a coin-toss to either a waitlist control group, or the Mindful Transition to Parenting Program treatment group. Results demonstrated that men in the treatment group significantly improved in relationship satisfaction, negative affect, and mindfulness when compared to the control group. Women had no significant treatment effects, though treatment group women had small effect size improvement in three measures of empathy. The emergent qualitative themes for participants in the program included: (1) positive changes for self, (2) improvements in couple relationship, (3) feeling more prepared for baby, and (4) male involvement. Mixed methods analyses revealed that men in particular benefited from the social support, increased connection with their babies, and more identification with the role of father that the program provided. These are promising results, showing that a brief intervention including mindfulness and skill-based learning can have positive effects on couples in the transition to parenthood. I conclude by discussing clinical implications and future research directions. / Ph. D.

The aim of this thesis was to increase understanding of how rumination, defined as the behaviours and thoughts that focus an individual’s attention on their depressive symptoms and on the implications of these symptoms (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991), affects the relationship between postnatal depressive symptoms and maternal sensitivity. Study 1 examined the impact of self-reported maternal rumination on perceived maternal attunement and mood, and the role of perceived social support and infant temperament in this relationship in a community sample of mothers (N = 203). Rumination mediated the relationship between maternal depressive symptoms and maternal responsiveness when infant negative affect was low but not high. Contrary to predictions, rumination did not mediate the relationship between social support and maternal attunement. Study 2 incorporated a second assessment point approximately six months later with the same sample. Prospective analyses were undertaken to examine the directional relationship between rumination and maternal attunement in the context of depressive symptoms. Unexpectedly, analyses revealed that maternal bonding prospectively predicted rumination at six months, after controlling for rumination at baseline. The converse relationship was not significant. This was contrary to the thesis hypothesis that increased rumination would predict impaired attunement at six months. Partially consistent with the thesis hypotheses, the relationship between rumination and maternal attunement was moderated by depressive symptoms at baseline; such that mothers who were low in depressive symptoms and had lower bonding at baseline reported higher levels of rumination at 6 months. Study 3 also explored the directional relationships between maternal mood, rumination and maternal attunement at a state level in a daily diary study with a community sample of mothers (N = 94) with infants aged between 3 and 14 months. Consistent with the findings of study 2, state maternal bonding at Time 1 predicted both state maternal rumination and state maternal mood at Time 2, and state rumination at Time 2 mediated the relationship between state bonding at Time 1 and state mood at Time 2. In the final study, the causal relationships between an experimentally induced state of ruminative thinking and observed maternal behaviours in a mother-infant interaction task were examined in a sample of dysphoric and non-dysphoric mothers (N = 79) and their infants. The analyses examined change in mother-infant interaction quality from baseline to post rumination induction, and subsequent change following an infant stressor task. Findings revealed a significant reduction in maternal sensitivity and mother-infant dyadic synchrony in the rumination group, but not the control group. For maternal sensitivity, the effect of rumination was exacerbated following the stressor task. Contrary to predictions, this relationship was not moderated by dysphoric symptoms. The findings of this thesis indicate that ruminative thinking directly impairs observed maternal behaviours, but that perceived poorer maternal attunement also increases self-reported ruminative thinking. The significance of these findings for theoretical explanations of rumination in a postnatal context are considered, and the clinical implications for parenting programmes and interventions for both mothers in the community as well as those considered at risk are discussed.

This master's thesis addresses the problem of moods and attunements in Heidegger's famous conceptualization which falls into the 1st half of 20th century and which he introduced in his phenomenology, understood as fundamental ontology. This thesis follows "being attuned" in terms of its essential characteristics and with the emphasis on its full meaning, in terms of existential analytics of man as Dasein. The objective of this thesis is to show, in which sense is "being attuned" grasped as the essential way of being of the Dasein in the midst of beings as a whole, and how is this "being attuned", as this essential way of being, made manifest, or how it may manifest itself to us the possibilities and limits of the Dasein understood as "being here" (Da-sein). In terms of particular moods and attunements, the thesis follows mainly the motif of fear and anxiety and is seeking to create an understanding of profound boredom as the fundamental attunement of the Dasein and its connectedness with the temporal character of the essence of the Dasein. Key words: Dasein, attunement, anxiety, fear, boredom Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Experiences of attunement, a deeply felt and embodied state of consciousness that results from tuning in to oneself, others, events, energies, and the environment, are the basis for realization of innate human capacities for connection and growth (Kossak, 2015). In an educational context, the process of 'tuning in' fosters the development of relationally based and embodied knowledge (Blades and Bester, 2013; Lutzker, 2014). Though rarely referenced and never studied comprehensively in counselor education, attunement contributes to the development of relational qualities and creativity necessary to provide effective counseling services (Duffey, Haberstroh, and Trepal, 2009; Kossak, 2015). Based on a synthesis of knowledge from diverse fields, this study was an exploration of attunement in counselor education involving several forms of measurement and the expressive arts as vehicles through which to foster attuned states. The researcher explored attunement as it occurred among master's level counselors-in-training engaging in improvisational group drumming, an intervention that has been shown to promote attunement (e.g., Kossak, 2008a). Perceptual, behavioral, and physiological measures were used to identify an occurrence of attunement. Audio and video data were used to contextualize the overall drumming experience and the process of 'tuning in' that led to attuned states. Findings from this study increase understanding of the phenomenon of attunement in the context of improvisational group drumming. Results shed light on how relational qualities and creativity develop and may promote more relational-responsive pedagogical practices in counselor education. Ultimately, results may contribute to the development of counselors with greater capacities for relating to diverse clients, responding to the complexities of their work, and creating meaningful change within their communities and society at large. / Ph. D.

This thesis examines the appeal to ordinary language as a distinctive methodological feature in the later philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the work of J. L. Austin. This appeal situates our language and concepts within the broader forms of life in which we use them, and seeks to ‘disenchant’ idealizations that extract our language and concepts from this broader context. A disenchanted philosophy recognizes our forms of life as manifestations of attunement: a shared common ground of understanding and behaviour that cannot itself be further explained or justified. By working through the consequences of seeing our forms of life as ultimately ungrounded in this way, the thesis illuminates the underlying importance of play to shared practices like language. The first two chapters consider the appeal to ordinary language as it features in the work of Austin and Wittgenstein, respectively. By placing each author in turn in dialogue with Jacques Derrida, the thesis draws out the importance of seeing our attunement as ungrounded, and the difficulty of doing so. Austin’s appeal to a ‘total context’ betrays the sort of idealization Austin himself opposes, whereas Wittgenstein and Derrida must remain self-reflexively vigilant in order to avoid the same pitfall. Chapter Three explores connections between the appeal to ordinary language and Martin Heidegger’s analysis of ‘average everydayness’ in Being and Time. Heidegger takes average everydayness to be a mark of inauthenticity. However, in acknowledging the ungroundedness of attunement, the appeal to ordinary language manifests a turn similar to Heidegger’s appeal to authenticity. Furthermore, Wittgenstein’s use of conceptual ‘pictures’ also allows him to avoid some of the confusions in Heidegger’s work. Chapter Four considers the nature of our ungrounded attunement, and argues that we both discover and create this attunement through play, which is unregulated activity that itself gives rise to regularity.

Extensive interdisciplinary common factor research has identified the therapeutic relationship as a consistent factor influencing therapeutic outcomes. We use Polyvagal and Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) theories to guide an examination of the physiological mechanisms at work in the therapeutic relationship. Both Polyvagal and IPNB theories provide understandings about how humans are neurophysiologically wired for social connection. Each points to a sense of safety as being essential for meaningful connection to occur and clarifies that physiological attunement is an observable indicator of interpersonal connection. In this study, we use these theories to guide an examination of therapist physiological influence on clients in couple therapy, using continuous in-session data collection of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) for 22 heterosexual married couples and their therapist. Data were modeled in a multi-level path analytic framework to account for within-individual and within-couple effects. Results indicated that therapist RSA does not significantly predict lagged client RSA. A discussion of potential limitations, suggestions for therapists and recommendations for future study is included.

This thesis for PhD by Publication presents artworks and writing that propose and create ‘other worlds’. Many of the artworks and writing engage scientific concepts, both historical and contemporary, however it is the phenomenological aspects of these ideas that are engaged. The research mostly deals with the infinitesimal and the distant, neuroscience, astrophysics and sometimes both. It also deals with boundaries as porous and indefinite thresholds, a reoccurring concept in my research. The artworks are mainly participatory as it is my aim to develop a strategy for ‘inhabitation’. I introduce three forms of intuition as methodologies with which to engage with phenomena outside of our human sensorium. They are as follows: Firstly, structural intuition by means of Martin Kemp, a sensory and haptic understanding of the world that affords insights into more abstract or elusive materials or ways of being. Secondly, intuition as method by means of Henri Bergson, a form of ‘looking from within’ that attempts to engage the with beings or phenomena that lie outside of our sensory system and abstract or intellectual domain. I expand on Bergon’s method via Gilles Delueze’s heterogeneous field and Elizabeth Grosz’s further development of this method. And thirdly I also include panpsychism as a form of ‘being with’ the non-human or phenomenon by means of William James, David Chalmers, Karen Barad and Christof Koch. This is not to prove panpsychism as a reality but to understand it as a tool to build a bridge between human and other beings, things, atmospheres with which we share our world and beyond. In the conclusion I briefly address the ‘non-human turn’ as an expansion of our understanding of sentience in things, beings and atmospheres. I have proposed these forms of intuition to draw attention to the methodologies I use when working with ideas that lie outside of my expertise. These methods also apply to research that does not have scientific origins. These methods form a framework for process and production of artworks when engaging with the abstract, invisible or elusive. The main body of the research in this PhD by publication is presented in the forms of artworks and articles. The artworks The Fragmented Orchestra (Grant, Matthias, 6 Ryan, 2008), Ghost (Grant, 2011) and Plasticity (Grant, Matthias, Kin, Ryan, 2011) have at their core research on models of firing neurons with particular reference to Eugene Izhikevich’s work on spike timing dependent plasticity. I also draw from Henri Bergson’s work on memory and Gilles Deleuze’s work on fields. Other research presented includes artworks and papers relating more to astrophysical concepts at their core are Soft Moon, (Grant. 2010), Soft Moon: Exploring Matter and Mutability in Narratives and Histories of the Earth-Moon System, (Grant, 2013) Fathom, (Grant, Matthias, 2013) and newer works. These works reference Bergson once more, the physicist Lee Smolin, writer Italo Calvino and Stanislaw Lem, and others. Here I integrate art, science, science-fiction, and philosophy alongside the writing of architect Juhani Pallasmaa. This document describes my aim to inhabit other worlds (often from the histories of science) by engaging overlapping methodologies of intuition and practice in which I attempt to engage directly with the abstract, the unfathomable, the distant, or the miniscule. I have developed this strategy to allow me to create artworks and writing that externalize these aims and that allow others, participants and readers, to encounter and engage in these other worlds too. This interdisciplinary and rhizomatic strategy synthesizes ideas into new forms with which we can inhabit the uninhabitable.

Background: This thesis reflects upon a heuristic study of a Storytelling Programme which took place in a KS3 Pupil Referral Unit. Previous experiences in the field, as a community storyteller, revealed the power of stories to calm and engage young people. In my community work I had seen that storytelling particularly engaged those considered ‘hard to reach.’ This research was designed to explore the storytelling process further with the aim of understanding more about the impact of the process and to understand the key components as identified by the young people themselves. Methodology: A heuristic research methodology was adopted within this study. The Storytelling Programme was delivered to twelve young people at a Pupil Referral Unit in the North West of England. Five of these participants were interviewed along with their teacher, and their reflections were integrated with my own to create a crystallized understanding of the storytelling process, whilst also remaining true to the unique experiences of each participant. Findings: Heuristic analysis of the Storytelling Programme revealed that young participants developed new personal narratives that reflected new ways of being and thinking. Change was demonstrated by the young people expressing a more positive sense of self. A striking finding, echoed by all participants, was the significance of the relationship in facilitating the therapeutic change process. Discussion: Whilst some of the changes could be linked to particular stories, the participants could not articulate whether their increased sense of well-being came from the stories or more generally from the programme or my ‘way of being’ (Rogers, 1980). It appears that stories and the therapeutic relationship intertwine within the storytelling process to create opportunities for therapeutic change. The findings of this study suggest that story is a particularly useful indirect medium to engage ‘hard to reach’ young people who have disorganised attachment styles. Storytelling offers the opportunity to place the intersubjective relationship as central, fostering an implicitly nurturing and co-regulating dyad that can offer reparation as well as the opportunities for catharsis and the development of emotional literacy through the processing of the story material. Conclusion: It appears that storytelling intertwines the interpersonal relationship with the stories to create a process which is both interpersonal and intrapersonal. The storytelling process appears to facilitate dyadic co-regulation, which may be an essential first step in the therapeutic change process. Once in a state of calm the young people could connect to the story stimuli and develop new ways of being and thinking. Whilst stories appear to promote changes at both the relational and semantic level, the findings from this study suggest that the implicit relational changes had primacy in facilitating significant therapeutic change.

Syftet med studien är att studera pedagogers olika förhållningssätt gentemot barn och hur barn i sin tur kan agera utifrån hur de blir be bemötta av pedagoger i förskolan. Problemställningen i studien är att barn kan bli påverkade av pedagogers förhållningssätt och som kan leda till svårighet i barns kommunikation och relationer till andra individer. Metoden utgår från observationer och intervjuer där två pedagoger förhåller sig olika till barnen. Resultatet av studien visar hur pedagogernas olika förhållningssätt påverkar barnen i deras relation till andra individer.Textens fokus utgår från relationen mellan pedagog och barn samt barn och barn med teoretisk utgångspunkt i relationell pedagogik. Relationell pedagogik innebär att det är kommunikationen och mötet mellan individer som är centralt i utveckling av kunskap och färdigheter. Centrala begrepp i studien är attunement, relationskompetens, relationsnät, omsorgsetik och edu-care. Studien är ingen guide till hur den ”rätta och goda ” pedagogen förväntas vara utan för att påvisa hur pedagogers olika förhållningssätt kan påverka barns relation och kommunikation med varandra.