AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF SUFNA GHEYARA JOHN, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Psychology, presented on March 21st, 2014, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: GENETIC AND PARENTAL INFLUENCES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTION RECOGNITION SKILLS IN CHILDREN MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Lisabeth DiLalla The purpose of this study was to examine the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on children's emotion recognition (ER) skills and social difficulties (bullying and victimization). An additional goal was to examine the relation between parent ER skills, child ER skills, and child social difficulties. It was expected that genetic and environmental influences would account for a significant portion of the variance in child ER skills and social difficulties and that child ER skills and social difficulties would share common genetic and environmental influences. Moreover, it was predicted that parent and child ER skills would significantly predict child social difficulties. Finally, it was predicted that child angry and fearful biases in ER abilities would lead to greater social difficulties. 121 children (forming 69 twin pairs) ages 6-10 years and their parents participated in the study. Children and their parents completed an objective measure of ER abilities and subjective measures of child social difficulties. Separate analyses were conducted for child social difficulties by informant (parent or child) and type of difficulty (bullying or victimization). Results from this study suggest that genetic and non-shared environmental influences account for a significant portion of the variance in child ER skills, parent-reported bullying and victimization, and child-reported bullying. Conversely, environmental influences account for a significant portion of the variance in child-reported victimization. Child ER abilities and child-reported bullying shared common genetic influences. Path modeling demonstrated that parent ER skills predicted child ER skills and parent-reported bullying, whereas child ER skills predicted child-reported victimization. Finally, children who demonstrated an angry or fearful bias had greater involvement in bullying and were more victimized. These results underscore the importance of conceptualizing bullying and victimization from a biopsychosocial perspective that incorporates both biological and environmental influences on complex social behavior. Moreover, results in this study varied by informant, suggesting that it is important to gather information from multiple perspectives in order to gain the most comprehensive view of child behavior. Finally, these results suggest that helping children to achieve a more balanced perspective in their emotion recognition abilities may help reduce their involvement in socially maladaptive interactions.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) language repertoire development varies greatly amongst each individual especially in one’s ability to understand emotions. One way to increase language development and further understand emotions is through stimulus equivalence. Theis present study examined the effefficacy of a stimulus equivalence training procedure in bringing the recognition of others’ emotions under multiple contextual control, and also evaluated co-occurring changes in the flexibility of participant responses to common questions requiring emotional recognition that is multiply controlled. The procedures were taken from the Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge Equivalence Module (PEAK-E) to aid in replication both clinically and in research. The results suggest that each of the three participants, all with an autism diagnosis, were able to identify the facial expressions of others when provided with a person and a context (i.e., What face does Person A feel at Location B?). In addition, two of the three participants were able to correctly identify an individual when provided with a context and an emotion (i.e., Who feels Emotion A at Location C?). Results from the flexibility probes throughout the study however indicate that the participants did not demonstrate an increase vin flexible responding following equivalence training. ectiveness of stimulus equivalence under multiple control to promote the emergence of an untrained relation via the PEAK – E Curriculum: Feelings in Context. Three participants diagnosed with autism, between the ages 12 and 17, were directly trained nine relations that established under a specific context a person will make a certain facial expression. Results indicate that all three participants demonstrated mastery in the training condition; however, when tested for equivalence only two of three participants were able to do so.

A growing body of research is targeted towards explaining nicotine's numerous and complex effects on selective attention and other forms of attentional processing. However, when and how nicotine modulates attentional processing in the presence of emotional distractors is not well characterized, though potentially quite important given that, relative to nonsmokers, smokers exhibit higher levels of negative affect-related traits and psychological disorders related to negative affect. In this study, electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to better characterize the effects of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), relative to placebo, on distraction by emotional and smoking-related stimuli across 17 days of abstinence in dependent smokers. It was hypothesized that, relative to placebo, NRT would reduce ERP-indexed distraction (N170) and promote P3b-indexed task-related attention to target digits during a rapidly visual information processing task previously proven to be sensitive to the effects of NRT on attention. It was expected that the effects of valence on N170 to visual distractors and P3b to target digits would be greater in the placebo group than in the NRT group. Results demonstrated that NRT reduced distraction by visual distractors and increased neuroelectric response to target digits relative to placebo patch. Additionally, analyses revealed that the emotional valence of the visual distractors affected P3b response to targets, but did not affect N170-measured distraction during a sustained attention task. Aspects of the effect of NRT and nicotine-abstinence on top-down and bottom-up processes are discussed as possible mechanisms for the effect of nicotine on attention.

This dissertation addresses the central research question--How does context matter for men's experiences of gender, sexuality, and race? --by analyzing interviews with 66 trans men, female to male transgender people, in the U.S. West, Midwest, and Southeast. This project contributes to four areas in the sociology of gender and sexuality: understandings of transgender people, regional variations in masculinity, inclusion of trans men in the study of men and masculinity, and understudied queer spaces. The first part of the analysis shows how being a man is a lifelong process of negotiating the expectations of different contexts in light of the gendered self and offers a conceptual framework for the subsequent analytic chapters, which focus on the different ways that context operates in the lives of trans men. The first of these chapters spotlights how emotional control, in this case appropriate emotion in particular contexts, is a hallmark of contemporary masculinities across spaces and a central way of marking distinctions between men and women and among men. The final two substantive chapters focus on how different spatial and institutional contexts affect trans men's fears and experiences of violence. The first centers on exploring the spatial distribution of fears of transphobic violence. This illustrates another aspect of context, how the ideas about who and what inhabit particular contexts shape men's actions in those settings. The second chapter shows how these fears and actual violence in particular institutional contexts act as powerful forms of social control that reproduce various forms of inequality. It illustrates how the structural arrangements of institutions are key contextual features that influence behavior and the reproduction of social inequality in ways that potentially reach outside of their institutional contexts. Finally, the dissertation concludes by returning to the research question and discussing the implications of this research on sociological understandings of inequality, the field of men and masculinities, and transgender politics.

Self-evaluation is mood state dependent. A transient decrease in positive self-evaluation bias may co-occur with sad mood. In clinical depression this decrease is lasting and exaggerated. The act of self-evaluation engages frontal lobe mechanisms of emotion regulation, but it remains unclear how these constraints on cognition become pathological in depression. The goal of the current research is to characterize the neural mechanisms of mood-cognition interaction in self-evaluative decision-making. In four studies, dense array electroencephalography (256 dEEG) was recorded as participants performed a self-appraisal task. Analysis of the event-related potential was closely aligned with psychometric methodology. Findings elaborate on network models of neural self-regulation and depression pathology. Characterization of frontal lobe mechanisms in this context provides insight into the neural basis of adaptive and dysfunctional social behavior.

Background HIV has developed to a global pandemic and millions of people are living with HIV or AIDS today. People living with HIV still face stigmatization and discrimination in their lives. Aim The aim of this study was to describe people´s experiences of living with HIV. Method A method to contribute to evidence-based nursing based on analysis of qualitative research was used in this study to deepen understanding. Ten articles were analysed. Results Three themes were identified: ”Manage a new life situation”, ”An emotionally turbulent living” and ” Not be treated than others” with subthemes. People living with HIV used many different strategies to handle their new life situation, for example church, to tell or not tell about their HIV-status and isolate themselves from others. Their new life situation was turbulent due to many emotions including fear for the death, shame, guilt and loneliness. Lack of knowledge contributed to the fact that health care staff offended people living with HIV by distancing themselves from these persons, using excessive precautions, breach of confidentiality and categorized them with stereotypes linked to HIV. Conclusion People with HIV experience many types of discrimination and stigmatization like denied care and health care staff keeping away from them. This leads to unwillingness among people with HIV to seek care and seems to create double suffering for them. In order to overlook their prejudices and work for good nursing, nurses need to develop their knowledge about HIV and be aware about their prejudices and treat everybody the same regardless of diagnosis.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Com um dos objetivos de conceituar e descrever as estratégias emocionais de persuasão publicitárias, levantei bibliografia da área e publicidades contidas no meio revista brasileiro. Depois, busquei analisar se os temas mais abordados e os meios de persuasão adotados são reflexos dos valores, crenças e comportamentos da cultura hipermoderna, segundo descrição dos autores escolhidos na fundamentação teórica. Fiz um levantamento dos anúncios que remetiam a um cuidado de si veiculados nas revistas Veja, Playboy e Marie Claire em 2005 e identifiquei dois tipos de estratégias emocionais. O que foi mais utilizado fomenta o hedonismo imaginativo e busca persuadir com diferentes apelos regressivos de gratificação do consumidor. A outra estratégia, também bem utilizada, com mensagens sutis, foi a repressiva. Neste caso, busca-se motivar a compra a partir da ilusão de inclusão social, com discursos que indicam como se deve ser, sentir e agir, em sua maior parte, também infantis. Outros objetivos desta pesquisa foram analisar os possíveis efeitos às subjetividades contemporâneas do conteúdo das mensagens dos anúncios divulgados nas revistas de maior circulação no Brasil. Por último, apresento algumas sugestões de criação publicitária em que se fomente o laço social, e o respeito à alteridade e ao ecossistema. / Searching to conceptuate and describe the emotional strategies of publicity persuasions, I raised related bibliography and publicity samples found in the Brazilian magazines medium. Afterwards, I analyzed if the most approached themes and the persuasion means employed are reflexes of values, beliefs and behavior of hypermodern culture, as described by authors, quoted in theoretical foundation. I raised advertising referring to self care published in magazines such as Veja, Playboy and Marie Claire, in 2005. I identified two kinds of emotional strategies. The most used fomented imaginative hedonism, fetching persuasion with different regressive appeals of consumer gratification. The second strategy, well used on the whole, with subtle messages, was the repressive one. In this case, purchase motivation is sought after the illusion of social inclusion that recommend how someone must be, feel and act, and with grossly childish arguments. Others subjects of this research were analyzing the possible effects on contemporary subjectivities, from the contents of messages originated on advertisements published in Brazilian magazines of greater circulation. Finally, I introduce some suggestions of publicity creation, where social ties, respect towards the alterity and the ecosystem are fomented.

abstract: ABSTRACT What does it mean to feel an emotion? The nature of emotional experience has often been described in terms overall conscious experience, termed affect. However, even within affective research there are multiple contradicting theories about the nature and structure of affect. I propose that these contradictions are due to methodological issues in the empirical research examining these underlying dimensions. Furthermore, I propose that subjective emotional experience should be examined separately from overall affect. The current study attempts to address past methodological issues by focusing solely on emotional experiences, developing a comprehensive list of emotion items, and including a broad range of emotional experiences. In Study 1, participants were asked to recall an emotional experience and then report their experience of 76 different emotions during that experience. A factor analysis of the emotion ratings revealed a 5-factor categorical structure with categories of Joy, Anger, Sadness, Fear, and Shame/Jealousy. In Study 2, the 76 emotion words from Study 1 were compared in a semantic space derived from a large collection of text samples in an attempt to compare to the results of Study 1. A semantic space derived from a broad range of texts would reflect relationships of emotional concepts. Study 2 revealed a 1-factor structure, drastically different from the structure in Study 1. The implications from Study 2, however, are limited because of the limited range of literature that was used to create the semantic space in which the words were compared. Overall, the results from these studies suggest that subjective emotional experience should be treated as categorical. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2014

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Com um dos objetivos de conceituar e descrever as estratégias emocionais de persuasão publicitárias, levantei bibliografia da área e publicidades contidas no meio revista brasileiro. Depois, busquei analisar se os temas mais abordados e os meios de persuasão adotados são reflexos dos valores, crenças e comportamentos da cultura hipermoderna, segundo descrição dos autores escolhidos na fundamentação teórica. Fiz um levantamento dos anúncios que remetiam a um cuidado de si veiculados nas revistas Veja, Playboy e Marie Claire em 2005 e identifiquei dois tipos de estratégias emocionais. O que foi mais utilizado fomenta o hedonismo imaginativo e busca persuadir com diferentes apelos regressivos de gratificação do consumidor. A outra estratégia, também bem utilizada, com mensagens sutis, foi a repressiva. Neste caso, busca-se motivar a compra a partir da ilusão de inclusão social, com discursos que indicam como se deve ser, sentir e agir, em sua maior parte, também infantis. Outros objetivos desta pesquisa foram analisar os possíveis efeitos às subjetividades contemporâneas do conteúdo das mensagens dos anúncios divulgados nas revistas de maior circulação no Brasil. Por último, apresento algumas sugestões de criação publicitária em que se fomente o laço social, e o respeito à alteridade e ao ecossistema. / Searching to conceptuate and describe the emotional strategies of publicity persuasions, I raised related bibliography and publicity samples found in the Brazilian magazines medium. Afterwards, I analyzed if the most approached themes and the persuasion means employed are reflexes of values, beliefs and behavior of hypermodern culture, as described by authors, quoted in theoretical foundation. I raised advertising referring to self care published in magazines such as Veja, Playboy and Marie Claire, in 2005. I identified two kinds of emotional strategies. The most used fomented imaginative hedonism, fetching persuasion with different regressive appeals of consumer gratification. The second strategy, well used on the whole, with subtle messages, was the repressive one. In this case, purchase motivation is sought after the illusion of social inclusion that recommend how someone must be, feel and act, and with grossly childish arguments. Others subjects of this research were analyzing the possible effects on contemporary subjectivities, from the contents of messages originated on advertisements published in Brazilian magazines of greater circulation. Finally, I introduce some suggestions of publicity creation, where social ties, respect towards the alterity and the ecosystem are fomented.

abstract: The legal system relies heavily on the contribution of forensic psychologists. These psychologists give opinions on a defendant’s ability to stand trial, their legal sanity at the time of the crime, their future dangerousness, and their competency to be executed. However, we know little about what extrinsic factors bias these experts. I assessed the influence of gruesome photographs on forensic psychologists’ evaluations of competency and legal sanity. Previous research has demonstrated that these photographs influence lay judgments of guilt. I predicted that gruesome color photographs (versus the same photographs in black-and-white or a textual description of the photographs) would influence forensic psychologists to judge the defendant competent and sane (decisions that might ultimately lead to punishment). I also predicted that this effect would be greater for sanity judgments than for competency judgments. I asked laypeople to make the same decisions in order to compare expert and lay judgments. I predicted that impact of photograph type seen in experts would be greater in the lay sample. No differences in judgments of competence, sanity, or mental illness emerged as a function of the type of visual information, for either expert or lay participants. Experts relied on competency evidence to make competency judgments and insanity evidence to make insanity judgments. In contrast, lay people relied on various types of evidence to make their ultimate judgments. This research suggests that people making competency and sanity judgments might not be biased by gruesome photographs. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2018