Gegenstand der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Untersuchung des Einflusses der Angstsensitivität auf die Emotionsverarbeitung und selektive Aufmerksamkeitsprozesse. Anhand des Angstsensitivitätsindex-3 (ASI-3) wurden die Probanden in stark und wenig angstsensitiv eingeteilt. Der Selbstbeurteilungsfragebogen ASI-3 erfasst in welchem Maß die betreffende Person auf typische angstauslösende Stimuli mit Symptomen reagiert (Kemper, et al., 2009). Bei 53 gesunden, freiwilligen Probanden wurde, während der Präsentation von Bildern mit positiven, negativen und neutralen Inhalt, ein EEG (Elektroenzephalogramm) abgeleitet. In Anlehnung an das Paradigma von Schupp und Kollegen (Schupp, et al., 2007) wurde jede Bildkategorie jeweils in einem Durchgang als Target- und gleichzeitig die beiden anderen Kategorien als Non-Target-Bedingung dargeboten. Außerdem wurde ein Durchgang mit der Anweisung „alle gleich beachten“ (PB-Bedingung) durchgeführt. Die Angstsensitivität beeinflusst den Verlauf des EPN (early posterior negative potential). Bei hoch angstsensitiven Probanden zeigt sich ein stärker negativer Verlauf der EPN-Amplitude als bei wenig Angstsensitiven. Diese Aussage gilt für die Darbietung von neutralen und positiven Bildern bei der PB-Bedingung. Bei Probanden mit hoher Angstsensitivität verläuft sowohl bei der Target-Bedingung als auch bei der Non-Target-Bedingung das EPN signifikant negativer, als bei denjenigen mit niedriger Angstsensitivität. Ebenfalls zeigte sich das EPN-Potential während der Target- und Non-Target-Bedingung bei positiven und neutralen Bildern für hoch angstsensitive Probanden signifikant negativer als bei wenig angstsensitiven Probanden. Im LPP (late positive potential) zeigte sich kein Einfluss der Angstsensitivität auf den Verlauf des Potentials. Keine geschlechtsspezifischen Unterschiede konnten im LPP und EPN festgestellt werden. / The subject of this study is an examination of the influence of anxiety sensitivity on the processing of emotions and selective attention processes. In the present study 53 healthy, voluntary participants have been categorized as highly and little anxiety sensitive according to the anxiety sensitivity index 3 (ASI-3) (Kemper, et al., 2009). The self-evaluation questionnaire ASI-3 determines to which degree the test person reacts with symptoms to typical anxiety-causing stimuli. Event-related brain potentials were measured while subjects viewed images with positive, negative and neutral content. Drawing on Schupp et al’s paradigm each category of images has been displayed at one stage as target condition and the 2 others simultaneously as non-target condition (Schupp, et al., 2007). Also, one stage has been conducted with the subjects being instructed to “regard all equally” (PB-condition). Anxiety sensitivity influences the EPN (early posterior negative potential) waveform. Highly anxiety sensitive subjects displayed an increased negativity of the EPN amplitude than little anxiety sensitive ones. This statement can be made both for neutral and positive images under the PB-condition. The amplitude of the EPN is significantly more negative in subjects with high anxiety sensitivity both in target-condition and non-target-condition when compared to subjects with lower anxiety sensitivity. Similarly, the EPN potential for highly anxiety sensitive subjects during target and non-target condition with positive and neutral images was found to be significantly more negative. In LPP (late positive potential) no influence of anxiety sensitivity on the course of potential could be established. No gender-specific differences have been identified in either LPP or EPN.

Doctor of Clinical Neuropsychology/Master of Science / Introduction: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is known to cause detrimental effects to motor function and cognition. The motor effects of the disease in turn impact emotion expression in patients with PD. There is conflicting evidence in research, however, as to whether PD also affects emotion comprehension, and if so, what emotions in particular are affected and across what modalities. This study aimed to investigate the effects of PD on a broad range of skills involved in basic and complex emotion comprehension. Whether these effects extend into other areas associated with emotion processing, such as social cognition and autobiographical memory, was also explored. Methods: Sixteen patients with PD participated in the study along with sixteen control subjects who were matched for age, gender, education level and estimated premorbid intelligence. The PD participants, on average, were in the moderate phase of the disease and taking PD medication, including dopamine. Participants were tested on a range of recognition measures including prototypical and morphed facial expressions with reduced intensity (40 and 80%), emotion prosody, written emotion vignettes, emotional imagery, pictures of emotion, social cognition, and a cued autobiographical memory task. A mood inventory was given, and disease severity and duration were noted. Results: The PD group did not show pervasive deficits in emotion recognition overall. Deficits were demonstrated in prosody recognition, specifically with fearful tones, and in an incongruent prosody task, specifically with angry and neutral tones. The PD group was not able to recognise facial expressions of disgust (mixed intensities) as well as controls, with the result showing a trend toward significance. PD participants were also significantly worse in Theory of Mind (TOM) reasoning but not at another social cognition measure involving recognising social emotions through expressions from the eyes only. There were no differences between the groups across all other tests. Discussion: PD is thought to cause subtle deficits in emotion comprehension which are only elucidated through complex tasks. The effects of PD on complex processing also impact TOM performance, which relies on skills involved in complex emotion recognition. Effects of mood and disease factors on performance were circumscribed. Evidence suggested that the basal ganglia and fronto-striatal connections play a role in emotion comprehension.

<p>Perceived distance between motivationally significant stimuli andobserver has been shown to affect arousal. To study effects ofperceived motion and distance on affective picture processing, eventrelatedpotentials were recorded in two experiments as neutral andunpleasant pictures were presented with different cues to induceperceptions of changes in spatial distance. The cues were either thetarget picture or independent circles that increased or decreased insize, or the target picture presented in a static small or large size. Inboth experiments, late positive potentials at centroparietal electrodeswere more pronounced, and self-reports more negative, forunpleasant compared to neutral stimuli. The results of theexperiments do not, however, provide evidence that inducedperceptions of motion or distance affect late positive potentials.</p>

Perceived distance between motivationally significant stimuli andobserver has been shown to affect arousal. To study effects ofperceived motion and distance on affective picture processing, eventrelatedpotentials were recorded in two experiments as neutral andunpleasant pictures were presented with different cues to induceperceptions of changes in spatial distance. The cues were either thetarget picture or independent circles that increased or decreased insize, or the target picture presented in a static small or large size. Inboth experiments, late positive potentials at centroparietal electrodeswere more pronounced, and self-reports more negative, forunpleasant compared to neutral stimuli. The results of theexperiments do not, however, provide evidence that inducedperceptions of motion or distance affect late positive potentials.

Standardized Patients (SPs) are lay persons who are employed extensively within health professional education to help teach and assess a range of clinical skills. Individuals trained to take on the physical, historical and emotional aspects of patient stories are integral to the dissemination of collective attitudes, values, and beliefs about what it means to be a competent health professional. As an embodied affective presence literally in front of and often in physical contact with health professionals SPs are a fertile site of knowledge production as well as transformative learning. Their unique contribution is a corollary of both their location as non-clinicians and their pedagogical facility with embodied emotions and affect. SPs in medical education teach about emotion and affect, engage affectively in the presentation of clinical material and as a professionalizing group have developed an educational methodology for facilitating understanding and experience of emotion and affect. In this thesis I examine the field of human simulation and the work of standardized patients (SPs) through critical theoretical perspectives seeking to broaden our understanding of their contributions as a present and future force in health professional education, specifically medical education. Central to my examination is the constitutive role of emotion and affect as they are conceived both within medical education and engaged by standardized patients as media through which different knowledges are produced. My analysis is shaped by poststructuralist feminist writers on emotion, Michel Foucault’s genealogical historical approach, and principally Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s alternative nomadology as theorized in a thousand plateaus (1987). I intend an alternative reading of the advent of SPs in medical education through a process of mapping rhizomatic networks that include acting, emotion, affect, medicine, and the place of women patients and standardized patients in medical arenas. I have located the current study within an ongoing project of embodied ethical practice and nomadic subjectivity within education specific to human simulation and standardized patients.

Standardized Patients (SPs) are lay persons who are employed extensively within health professional education to help teach and assess a range of clinical skills. Individuals trained to take on the physical, historical and emotional aspects of patient stories are integral to the dissemination of collective attitudes, values, and beliefs about what it means to be a competent health professional. As an embodied affective presence literally in front of and often in physical contact with health professionals SPs are a fertile site of knowledge production as well as transformative learning. Their unique contribution is a corollary of both their location as non-clinicians and their pedagogical facility with embodied emotions and affect. SPs in medical education teach about emotion and affect, engage affectively in the presentation of clinical material and as a professionalizing group have developed an educational methodology for facilitating understanding and experience of emotion and affect. In this thesis I examine the field of human simulation and the work of standardized patients (SPs) through critical theoretical perspectives seeking to broaden our understanding of their contributions as a present and future force in health professional education, specifically medical education. Central to my examination is the constitutive role of emotion and affect as they are conceived both within medical education and engaged by standardized patients as media through which different knowledges are produced. My analysis is shaped by poststructuralist feminist writers on emotion, Michel Foucault’s genealogical historical approach, and principally Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s alternative nomadology as theorized in a thousand plateaus (1987). I intend an alternative reading of the advent of SPs in medical education through a process of mapping rhizomatic networks that include acting, emotion, affect, medicine, and the place of women patients and standardized patients in medical arenas. I have located the current study within an ongoing project of embodied ethical practice and nomadic subjectivity within education specific to human simulation and standardized patients.

<p>This dissertation identifies 5 mayor demands regarding the role of the emotions in Aristotelian virtue theories and examines how well some contemporary psychological views of the emotions deal with these issues. The discussion of the role of emotion in Aristotelian virtue theory draws on Aristotle's texts and the works of Terence Irwin, Nancy Sherman, Martha Nussbaum, John Cooper, Rosalind Hursthouse and Arash Abizadeh. The discussion of the contemporary psychological views of the emotions is based on the work of Paul Griffiths in What Emotions Really Are, and focuses on his division of the study of emotion into affect programs and higher cognitive emotions. </p><p>The dissertation is divided in three chapters. The first chapter discusses Aristotelian definitions of emotion and outlines the following demands that psychological theories of emotion should be able to explain: (1) plausibility, (2) psychological harmony, (3) motivational support, (4) perception of moral salience and (5) training. The second chapter explains the psychological views that Griffiths focuses on, the affect program theory and the higher cognitive view, and highlights the areas relevant to the Aristotelian demands. The third chapter compares the contemporary theories of emotion discussed with Aristotelian views of emotion by taking the Aristotelian demands outlined in the first chapter and examining how the contemporary theories handle these issues. I conclude that the contemporary views do not adequately meet the Aristotelian demands and need to pay more attention to the Aristotelian view of emotion to achieve a more complete view. I argue that how a theory distinguishes between basic and higher cognitive emotions impacts the compatibility with Aristotelian notions of emotion and how it can meet its demands.</p> / Dissertation

In an organization, coworkers are the people who have the most contact with a worker besides his or her supervisor. Past empirical evidence of social support in workplace research has focused on supervisor while support from coworkers is often discussed with social support and organization citizenship behaviors (OCBs). Based on Affective Event Theory (AET), this study extends previous research of coworker support by focusing on the personal emotion, reaction and opinion. The main points of this study include: What are the different types of coworker support and nonsupport behaviors? How do these coworker behaviors influence the workers¡¦ personal emotions? How do workers response to them? This qualitative study uses the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) to collect coworker behaviors as incidents, define criteria and analyze. This study finds that coworker support can predict the workers¡¦ emotion, reaction and opinion. Coworker support will help to enhance the displays of positive emotion, reaction and opinion of workers. In addition, people in positive emotion are more likely to response and think positively. They will keep interacting with others, dedicate to their job and identify themselves to their organizations. From a standpoint of practical management, in order to enhance organization performance, managers should improve organization environment to facilitate coworker support.

This study used a 3 (positive vs. neutral vs. negative) ¡Ñ 2 (VCD story vs. written story) ¡Ñ2 (male vs. female) experimental design to estimate the effects of information input and emotion on fifth grader¡¦s memory recall and comprehension performance. Six classes of fifth graders were selected from two public elementary schools in Kaohsiung city and were randomly assigned to one of the experimental conditions explored whether the participants recall different amounts of information and correctly recall the information for VCD story and written story of different emotional orientation (positive, neutral, and negative). Students were randomly assigned to six experimental conditions by class. The data collected from the participants were analyzed statistically with a one-way ANOVA and a three-way MANOVA. According to the result of one-way ANOVA, there were no significant differences in Chinese language exam among the six classes: this result indicated that the reading ability among these six classes is equal. According to the result of three-way MANOVA, there was no significant interaction between information input, emotion and gender was found. With regard to the free recall test, the interaction between emotion and gender is significant on main idea recall. The simple main effects of emotion at male is significant, the students who received the positive or negative emotional input had a better performance on main idea recall. The simple main effects of gender at positive emotion is significant, boys had a better performance on main idea recall than girls. The main effect of information input is significant on main idea recall, and student who read a written story had a IX better performance on main idea recall. The main effect of emotion was significant on the total recall, the idea unit recall, and the main idea recall; students who received the positive or negative emotional input had a better performance on the total recall, the idea unit recall, and the main idea recall. With regard to the comprehension test, the main effect of information was not significant on the percent correct of the whole comprehension test. However, the main effect of emotion was significant on the percent correct of literal and critical comprehension; moreover, students receiving the positive or negative emotional information had a better performance on the percent correct of literal and critical comprehension. In conclusion, written story can help children to recall the main idea of a story better: furthermore, the information with positive or negative emotion can improve students¡¦ memory recall and comprehension. Therefore, teachers and parents should choose information on input appropriately. Also, they should choose teaching material with more emotional stimulus in order to improve students¡¦ memory and comprehension.

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