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Stigma is one factor posited to play a role in the negative physical and mental health sequelae of sexual victimization (e.g., Finkelhor & Browne, 1985). Stigma has been shown to be associated with negative health outcomes across various marginalized populations, including LGBT individuals (e.g., Hatzenbuehler et al., 2014), and difficulties with emotion regulation (DERS) have been shown to be one mechanism through which stigma leads to psychological outcomes (Hatzenbuehler et al., 2009). This study sought to examine if DERS (Gratz & Roemer, 2004) mediated the relation between sexual victimization stigma (Gibson & Leitenberg, 2001) and physical health outcomes of general self-rated health and somatic symptoms (SSS-8; Gierk et al., 2014) in a sample of college students (N=194, 79% female, 81% white) in rural Appalachia with an experience of sexual victimization. Emotion regulation difficulties significantly mediated the relation between stigma and both health outcomes [self-rated health: R2 = .07, F(2,179) = 7.20, p < .01, indirect effect t(179) = -2.64, p < .01, CI = -.011, - .001; somatic symptoms: R2 = .23, F(2,180) = 27.50, p < .000, indirect effect t(180) = 5.41, p < .000, CI = .05, .02]. Results highlight the importance of considering the role of stigma for survivors of sexual violence, as well as suggest a treatment target in increasing emotion regulation skills.

Depth of client experiencing has been associated with positive therapeutic outcomes across theoretical orientations. Experiencing describes a particular mode of cognitive-affective processing in which clients use internal felt experience as the basis for self-examination and the resolution of personally significant issues. Given evidence that eating disorders are associated with particular disruptions of cognitive-affective processing, it is likely that experiencing plays a role in the successful treatment of eating pathology. However, no study to date has examined the relationship between experiencing and outcome in eating disorder treatment. The purposes of the current study were to examine depth of client experiencing during cognitive-behavioral treatment for eating disorders and to investigate the relationship between experiencing and outcome. Regression analyses suggested no significant relationship between depth of experiencing and outcome. However, results indicated that a restricted range of experiencing occurred during the treatment, which may have limited the possibility of detecting a relationship. A number of factors that may have contributed to the restricted range of experiencing in the sample are considered and discussed.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between measures of emotional intelligence after participation in a simulation based leadership development program as applied to a student cohort at a community college. Additionally, this study was conducted to investigate significant differences in emotional intelligence subscales when compared to the categorical variables of age, race, gender, position type, number of years employed, and time. All 300 students in the introductory management classes in the Bachelors of Applied Science business principles classes in the Business program were invited to participate. A total of 201 questionnaires representing 103 individuals were returned, garnering a 67% initial return rate; the total number of useable surveys was 182 representing 91 individuals for a final useable return rate of 60.7%. An analysis of the relationship between the measures of emotional intelligence before and after participating in leadership simulation revealed statistically significant differences after participation in the leadership simulation. There was a significant increase in respondent scores in three of the four subscales after the respondents participated in the Virtual Leader simulation: (a) self-emotion appraisal (SEA), p = .031; (b) others emotion appraisal (OEA), p = .002; and (c) regulation of emotion (ROE), p =.002. The emotional intelligence construct, use of emotion (UOE), p = .061, did not demonstrate statistical significance. A statistical analysis of all combinations and interactions of the categorical variables (age, race, gender, years employed, and position types compared to the value

Technological advances in products and systems have brought emotional design or emotional engineering to the forefront of research. While several measures to assess emotional expression of products have been developed, the source of the emotion rating of a product or system was often unclear. The purpose of this dissertation is to conduct three studies to examine the causes of emotional ratings and to establish if product-specific emotion rating scales are useful for capturing accurate user evaluations. Three studies were conducted using citrus juicers. Juicers were chosen for several reasons: their wide variety of styles, one self-explanatory purpose (to make juice), and the fact that their benign nature is unlikely to harm participants. Study 1 isolated juicers that had unique emotion profiles to use in the Study 2. Participants rated 41 juicers with fourteen product-specific emotions. Participants predominantly used "five" of the fourteen emotions in their juicer ratings. Ten juicers with the highest rating consensus, within these five emotions, were chosen for Study 2. Study 2 determined that anthropomorphic tendencies are predictive of emotional ratings. Extreme Anthropomorphism from the Anthropomorphic Tendency Scale (ATS) was used to test individual differences (Sims et al. 2005;Chin et al., 2005). Individuals with low anthropomorphic tendencies were more critical of the products. Sex differences also were analyzed, and significant interactions were found. Women exhibited different preferences for juicers than me. First impression ratings from Study 1 were validated by first impression ratings from Study 2. Finally, Study 3 measured the impact of product interaction on emotional ratings. Participants used seven juicers to make a minimum of four ounces of juice. Pre and post-interaction ratings were compared to determine the effect of interaction on the emotional appraisal of products. The results confirmed that interaction had an impact on affective ratings. As opposed to experienced users, novice users deviated in their pre-post appraisal, especially on aesthetically boring but highly usable products. Novice users based their entire initial appraisal on aesthetics, while experienced users were influenced by their past experience. Humans rely on past experience to recall likes or dislikes. The findings here suggest that aesthetic appraisal of products (or other environments) will remain influenced by past exposure/experience with those or similar products. Thus, only true novices can remain unbiased by past experience for aesthetic appraisal and capture a true 'first impression'. Also, past experience of users should be assessed when conducting research that relies on emotional appraisal of products. These findings may be especially useful in product development where new designs are based on a golden standard, competition, or go through several iterations of testing. The results may be used to guide human factors professionals to develop measures that more accurately capture affective ratings, and thus create more pleasurable products and systems.

By law, physical education (PE) teachers must provide direct service to children with disabilities in the least restrictive environment, which, whenever feasible, is a regular PE class. Traditionally, the adapted physical education (APE) specialist was responsible for teaching students with severe disabilities and the PE teacher was responsible for teaching students with mild disabilities. Today, however, many students with disabilities must be taught in a regular PE setting minimizing the need for the APE specialist. Now PE teachers are having to teach all students with disabilities, but some teacher preparation programs are not providing preservice teachers with opportunities to work with these students before their student teaching experience. A qualitative study was conducted to investigate preservice PE teachers' in-class experiences teaching students with emotional/ behavioral disorders (EBD) in a general education setting. Multiple interviews and observations were conducted with four preservice teachers throughout the span of their student teaching experience to examine their thoughts, feelings, and concerns about teaching students with EBD as well as examining their interactions with these students. The participants indicated that in order to feel more qualified to teach students with EBD, they needed more experience. Further, they struggled with issues of inclusion while they encountered a gamut of emotions throughout their experiences. These findings point to the need to enhance preservice PE teachers' experiences with more related fieldwork. / Ph. D.

Despite increasing interest in the interface between emotion word processing and bilingualism, the representation of valence during emotion word processing in the bilingual brain remains unclear. In the present study, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to investigate the neural correlates of written emotion words in a first (L1) and a second (L2) language. Native English (16) and native Chinese (16) bilingual participants rated emotion words in their first and second language while we recorded their brain activity. Our results show distinct neural processing patterns between L1 and L2, with the former eliciting increased overall activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPF) during an emotional rating task. Our results suggest increased neural activity in the left hemisphere for positive words and the right hemisphere for negative words during L1 processing. Intriguingly, we observed the opposite pattern during L2 processing. Emotion condition elicited a statistically significant difference in ratings and response times across groups. Implications for research on bilingualism and emotion are discussed.

<p> Background: There is strong evidence to suggest that emotional distress, particularly depression, is common in patients with heart failure (HF). Caregivers of patients with HF play a pivotal role in improving HF patient outcomes; however, these caregivers are at risk for caregiver burden and emotional distress. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to explore potential relationships among patient and caregiver emotional status, uncertainty and caregiver appraisal. For the purposes of this study, emotional distress is defined as the presence of symptoms of anxiety or depression. Methods: Using a longitudinal exploratory design, 48 HF patient-caregiver pairs were recruited. Patients and caregivers completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Scale (MUIS) and caregivers also completed the Caregiver Reaction Assessment at baseline, 2 months and 4 months. Results: Patients had advanced HF symptoms and were older than caregivers (mean age 72.6 years, 54% male versus mean age 58.4 years, 54% female). The majority of caregivers were spouses (58%) but many were adult children (42%). There were significant relationships between: a) HF patient and caregiver uncertainty, and b) caregiver emotional distress and caregiver burden. There were no significant relationships between: a) patient and caregiver symptoms of anxiety and depression, b) emotional distress and uncertainty, or c) patient emotional distress and caregiver burden. Over time, there was a trend for a decrease in: a) patient symptoms of depression, b) caregiver symptoms of anxiety, and c) patient and caregiver uncertainty. Conclusions: Contrary to findings in other studies, there was no significant relationship between symptoms of anxiety and depression in patients and their primary caregivers. There was no relationship between emotional distress and uncertainty; however, this is one of the first studies using the MUIS in HF patients and caregivers and further research with this tool is needed. Finally, this study supports findings from other studies suggesting a strong relationship between caregiver emotional distress and caregiver burden. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p> Challenges to the diagnostic accuracy of standardized tests of language can make the utility of these measures on their own, problematic. Consequently, this research program uses tools of conversational analysis to study the speech of preschoolers and young adults.</p> <p> In the first of three studies we examine, from a purely data-driven approach, how conversational measures relate to one another and compare with WPPSI-III expressive and receptive vocabulary scores in assessing preschoolers' language. Mean length of utterance (MLU) was found to be the only conversation measure strongly related to WPPSI-III language scores. However, other conversation measures constituted reasonably stable factors that may have utility for children's language assessment.</p> <p> The second study uses the same sample of children to investigate what features of language best predict behavioural and emotional problems and whether conversation measures provide better prediction of these symptoms than standardized scores. Results indicated that conversation measures of language significantly improved prediction of Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL C-TRF) DSM-oriented and syndrome scales beyond that accounted for by WPPSI GLC scores.</p> <p> Finally, the third study uses conversational analysis to study the role of disfluencies in the speech of young adults with and without autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) to determine whether these features of speech serve listener or speaker-oriented functions. Individuals with ASD were observed to produce fewer filled pause words (ums and uhs) and revisions than controls, but more silent pauses. Filled-pause words, therefore, appear to be listener-oriented features of speech.</p> <p> Taken together, findings of this program of research highlight the importance of using conversational analysis as an alternative or in addition to standardized tests of language as well as inform what specific measures of language are best suited for this purpose.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)