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Moral emotions and their neural correlatesHasttyar Hamshin, Darun January 2020 (has links)
This thesis aims to investigate and present what the most recent research can disclose about moral emotions and their neural correlates. This literature review provides an overview of some frameworks and theories regarding moral emotions and their neural correlates, with a specific focus on positive and negative moral emotions such as compassion, pride, gratitude, guilt, shame, and embarrassment. The theoretical background of moral emotions within cognitive neuroscience has been introduced together with research of the emotional brain and morality to further clarify the main topic of this thesis, moral emotions and their neural correlates. Moral emotions are very crucial in understanding humans’ behavioural adherence to their moral standards. For example, shame is described as the way we relate and perceive ourselves. It is related to how we believe and think other people see us and our incompetence or failure to fulfil the desire to be a good person, e.g. “I think, feel and believe that I am a bad person for lying to someone”. These topics have been discoursed through this thesis showing significant results. There are many neural regions, e.g. medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) which get activated whilst experiencing distinct moral emotions. However, studies have shown that there is no one-to-one correspondence between a specific brain area and a specific emotion, instead, research has suggested there are particular topographical anatomical networks in the brain which get activated when experiencing different emotions. There are few studies in this field; their results should be taken with caution. The field continues to grow, and we can learn more about moral emotions and their neural correlates today and in the future.
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EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMOTIONAL BRAIN TRAINING, STRESS, DEPRESSION, FOOD ADDICTION, AND WEIGHTAdams, Bailey Regina 01 January 2014 (has links)
Obesity is a complex issue; stress, depression, and food addiction, are several psychological conditions that can accompany an obesity diagnosis. Emotional Brain Training (EBT) was evaluated as a new approach to these conditions. Stress, depression, food addiction, and weight were assessed at baseline, after a seven week active intervention, and after a seven week no contact period. The final sample consisted of 26 obese adults. At seven week assessments, EBT participants experienced significant weight loss (p-value = 0.05) and decreased perceived stress (p-value = 0.035). Food addiction also decreased from 50% to 8.3% (or one participant). At fourteen week assessments, EBT participants maintained significant weight loss (p-value = 0.05) and increased perceived stress from the seven week evaluation (p-value = 0.012). The percentage classified as food addicted remained constant at fourteen weeks. This study suggests EBT is an appropriate intervention for weight loss and weight maintenance. In addition, EBT targets a variety of the complex issues surrounding obesity.
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A Novel Approach to Youth Crime Prevention: Mindfulness Meditation Classes in South African Townships / A Novel Approach to Youth Crime Prevention : Mindfulness Meditation Classes in South African TownshipsKneip, Katharina January 2020 (has links)
Children growing up in poor areas with high crime rates are shown to easily get involved in violent actions and criminal gangs. In South Africa, despite considerable efforts to reduce youth delinquency, youth crime rates are still disturbingly high – specifically, in the townships of the Cape Flats. This paper points out an important aspect previously unaddressed by most youth crime prevention: the subconscious roots of youth crime. What if we could develop youth crime prevention programs that manage to impact the subconscious behavioral patterns of youth in high crime areas? This paper proposes a promising and cost-effective approach that has great potential to affect multipe causes of crime: mindfulness meditation. Built upon newest findings in Neuroscience, this paper suggests that mindfulness meditation classes are associated with a reduction in aggressive behavior, a risk factor for youth crime, and an increase in self-efficacy, a protective factor. The impact of mindfulness classes at a high school in Khayelitsha, a poor and violent-stricken township of Cape Town, is analyzed. Self-reported aggression and self-efficacy are measured via a psychometric survey questionnaire created from two well-tested and validated scales. Regression analyses of 384 survey answers provided mixed results. Whilst novice meditators were not associated with higher self-efficacy and lower aggression, long-term meditators performed better in several dimensions of self-efficacy and aggression, yet no significant relationship was found. Further research specifically needs to investigate the moderating effect of age (a proxy for psychological development) on meditation. This study aims to bridge the gap between the outdated paradigms of youth crime prevention and ancient wisdom via ground-breaking new evidence from the field of Neuroscience. This study furthermore hopes to point policy makers toward developing new, integrative and sustainable approaches to youth crime prevention – approaches that give back agency to our youth. / <p>Anders Westholm har inget med betygssättningen att göra annat än i rent formellt hänseende (examinator). Det är han som rapporterar in och skriver under men i sak är det seminarieledaren som har beslutet i sin hand. Statsvetenskapliga institutet har som princip att skilja på handledning och examination vilket innebär att handledaren inte får vara seminarieledare. Seminarieledare och personen som satt betygget var i det här fallet Sven Oskarsson: Sven.Oskarsson@statsvet.uu.se</p>
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