Corrective emotional experience (CEE) innebär att patienten känslomässigt upplever och erfar nya och mer adaptiva sätt att möta tidigare, olösta konflikter i en trygg relation. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka och tydliggöra vad ”corrective emotional experience” består i och vilka metoder som kan skapa sådana erfarenheter. Vad händer i patienten, vilka interventioner använder terapeuten för att möjliggöra CEE för patienten, samt vilka indikationer finns för dessa interventioner? Som metod för detta examensarbete genomfördes en systematisk litteraturstudie. Via databassökning identifierades 16 kliniska studier om CEE från de senaste 15 åren. Studierna som hade måttlig (3 studier) till svag (13 studier) evidensstyrka utgör bas för analysen. Resultaten visade bl a på att CEE är viktigt för att patienten ska kunna förändra maladapativa mönster och att terapeuten har en avgörande roll i att erbjuda en trygg relation. Vikten av terapeutens förmåga till intersubjektivitet, ”bonding”, att kunna vara en trygg bas samt att anpassa sig efter patientens anknytningsmönster är kunskap som framkommer i denna studie. Slutsatser som kan dras av studien är att CEE är en viktig förändringsmekanism i psykoterapi. Mer forskning omkring CEE behövs dock för att ytterligare påvisa vad som är verksamt och varför, förslagsvis med särskilt fokus på psykoterapeutens uppdrag att bygga relation och allians.

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

Aims: The UK policy documents ‘Valuing people’ (DOH, 2001) and ‘Valuing people now’ (DOH, 2009) presaged a new direction in learning disability services: towards a human-rights model of care with the underlying principles of rights, choice, inclusion, freedom and independence. However, despite such legislative changes, a recent review (DOH, 2008a) candidly described that people with learning disabilities have greater need for healthcare than other people, yet have worse access to the care that they actually need and poorer health outcomes. Whilst some research has explored this from the perspective of people with learning disability (Jones & Donati, 2009; Jones & Parry, 2008) there is significantly less from the perspective of support workers. This research seeks to examine the emotional and psychological experience of support workers in learning disability services. Although research has explored the experience of support workers from the perspectives of ‘stress’ and ‘burnout’, there is a dearth of research in areas such as emotions, sense-making, their constructing of systems, relationships and their underlying motivations. Method: Semi-structured interviews were carried out with seven support workers from three learning disability care homes. Verbatim transcripts of interviews were then analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Results: The analysis produced two superordinate themes, both with two main themes. The superordinate theme ‘Emotional Motivation’ had the main themes ‘Personal Fulfilment and motivation’ and ‘The Emotional Struggle’. The superordinate theme ‘Demands and Coping’ had the main themes ‘Safety and Conflict within Coping’ and ‘Persecution and Protective Positions’. Implications: This research suggests that the support worker role may evoke strong feelings of pleasure but also powerlessness, blame, deficit, injustice, responsibility and anger. Support workers seem to manage these emotions in various ways: such as compensating by striving to be the ‘ideal’ carer, protecting themselves by avoiding and not elaborating on difficulties, and also projecting their difficulties onto others. Problematically, this may reinforce a work culture in which no individual actually takes responsibility for the ongoing difficulties, conflict and struggles. Thus, political and legislative changes may be negated or ineffective unless addressed within the context of this dynamic; namely, the value, emotional and meaning systems within services, i.e. the nature of the relationship between the support worker and resident. Indeed, paid staff are often the only meaningful relationship that people with learning disability have in their lives. Such findings are discussed in light of existing theory, research and practice.

The study investigated the experiences of formal caregivers within a community setting, and the emotional experiences of the individual caregiver. There is insufficient research into the subjective experiences and perceived role of the formal caregiver, as previous studies have concentrated on quantifying the role of the family or informal caregiver. Eleven interviews were conducted with participants from a community-based palliative care institution. The interviews explored areas of interest that surround caregiving, considering both the positive and negative factors that caregivers consider influential within the emotional experience, as well as the role of a formal caregiver. The study investigated the emotional challenges, motivations, support mechanisms and the perceived effectiveness of the coping strategies employed. The data was analysed through thematic content analysis, allowing for the selection of the most salient themes and subthemes, which converged around notions of caregiving and the positive and the negative elements within the caregiving experience of formal caregivers. The data was considered in relation to an interpretative phenomenological perspective, which allowed for the contextualisation and interpretation of the knowledge obtained through the study, and the augmentation of this knowledge with the knowledge already existing in the field of caregiving. The themes were able to provide an understanding of how caregivers construct their role as a formal caregiver, in comparison to the informal caregiver, and their perception of the importance of formal knowledge within caregiving. The themes also provided an understanding of the coping mechanisms and the contextual factors that interrelate with a caregiver’s ability to manage the difficulties within caregiving and their emotional reactions. These findings illustrated that community-based caregiving, although subject to significantly more stressors, also has significant positive aspects that could be fostered to operate as protective mechanisms.

Provision of information has been used as a strategy to relive travel-related anxiety. This study is motivated by the successful attempts for reducing the anxiety. Although, passengers' anxiety about using public transport (PT) has already been discussed, the London Underground passengers' anxiety has rarely been a target of investigation in the academic literature. Anxiety associated with the Underground use is reported to be greater than other PT modes. Although the existing studies discussing PT passengers' anxiety have attempted to provide solutions for anxiety reduction, few endeavours have been made to offer them based on the investigated causality between determinants of anxiety and its arousal. Thus, this study fills the gap by identifying antecedents, and verifying their effects on anxiety about the Underground use. This, in turn, furnishes theoretical grounds for designing content of information with an aim to relieve the anxiety in the circumstance that little data exists, which can be utilised for developing information for the purpose. To achieve the goal, two sets of phases have been engaged. First, a questionnaire (N=81) was conducted to identify anxiety triggers. The results revealed that they were other people's anti-social behaviour, overcrowding, noise, and late-night travel. An expert group interview was carried out to investigate what efforts are made to support passengers in the anxiety inducing situations. Second, examination was performed to understand about the passengers' anxiety based on theoretical knowledge about anxiety, and to determine its antecedents. A research model was formulated including six factors, perceived invulnerability, perceived physical ability, trust in other passengers (informal social control), confidence in the authorities, safety knowledge, and perceived uncontrollability. The effects were assessed through structural equation modelling, using questionnaire data (N=269). The results uncovered that perceived invulnerability, perceived physical ability, and confidence in the authorities have negative indirect effects on anxiety through perceived uncontrollability, and safety knowledge has a negative direct effect on anxiety. The confirmed anxiety buffering effects of the factors will be suggested to be used for developing content of information to help relieve the arousal. The study contributes to knowledge by identifying the determinants of the passengers' anxiety, and testing their effects on anxiety, and to produce theoretical support to create service information environment which helps relieve the anxiety.

This is a multi-article format dissertation that explores emotional and cognitive engagement in higher education classrooms. Student engagement in higher education classrooms has been associated with desired outcomes such as academic achievement, retention, and graduation. Student engagement is a multi-faceted concept, consisting of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive components. A deeper understanding of how these components interact would allow instructors and course designers to facilitate more engaging learning experiences for students. The first article is an extended literature review that investigates the extant empirical research on the relationship between emotional and cognitive engagement, and between emotional engagement and academic outcomes in post-secondary classrooms. I find that this topic has been scantily researched in the past 16 years and conclude that the relationship between emotional and cognitive engagement is cyclical, rather than linear, and is influenced by student control appraisals, value appraisals, achievement goals, and the classroom environment. The second article investigates the longitudinal relationship between emotional and cognitive engagement in university blended learning courses across 2 institutions, with 68 students. Using intensive longitudinal data collection and structural equation modeling, I find that course design and student perception variables have a greater influence on engagement than individual student characteristics and that student multitasking has a strong negative influence on engagement. Students' perceptions of the importance of the activity has a strong positive influence on both cognitive and emotional engagement. An important outcome of engagement is the students' perceptions that they were learning and improving. While emotional and cognitive engagement are highly correlated, the results do not indicate that emotional engagement leads to higher levels of cognitive engagement.

The Marriage and Family Therapy clinic at Utah State University conducted a study called the Relationship Checkup in which couple data was collected in an initial 2-hour session and feedback was provided for them in a follow-up 1-hour session. This checkup included completing self-report surveys, having an in-person interview, as well as couple interactions. The current study was carried out within the context of this broader relationship checkup, focusing on the couple support interactions, in which partners discussed a personal issue they would like to change about themselves. Although a substantial amount of attention has been given to the role of attachment during couple conflict, much less attention has been given to social support processes. Yet the purpose of therapy is not only to diminish disruptive conflict but also to enhance positive relationship processes, making a greater understanding of social support processes crucial to the therapy process. The results of this study indicate that partners with higher levels of avoidant attachment perceived they were receiving and providing less support. This reveals that couple therapists may need to assist these partners in reaching out and providing support. Additionally, results show that for women, discussing a personal issue soothed them physiologically. Therefore, rather than focusing on couple conflict, couples therapists can also build positive relationship interactions through couple social support.

The current study aims to explore the potential mediating role of emotional experiences and expression during conflictual situations in marital relationships. Past studies have documented a strong relationship between attachment dimensions and/or styles and relationship satisfaction. It was also shown that negative emotions and dysfunctional and destructive expression of emotions have detrimental effect on marital functioning. The current study aims to empirically tie these two areas of research by exploring the mediating role of emotional experience and expression in the relationship between attachment dimensions (i.e., attachment anxiety and avoidance) and marital adjustment of couples using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM, Kashy &amp / Kenny, 2000). It was expected that attachment dimensions of wives and husbands would predict the experience of three negative emotions, namely, anger, sadness, and guilt and destructive expression of these emotions, and in turn, these emotions would predict both partners&rsquo / marital dissatisfaction. Initially, two pilot studies using both qualitative and quantitative methods were conducted to see whether there were culture-specific ways of emotional experience and expression in Turkish cultural context. The findings confirmed the reliability and validity of the three separate emotional experiences scales assessing anger, sadness, and guilt. Based on the findings of the initial studies, the main study involving a sample of 167 married couples who were in the early years of their marriages was conducted. Couples separately completed multiple measures of adult attachment and experience and expression of emotions, and marital quality. Mediating effects of emotional experience and expression in the relationship between the attachment dimensions and marital adjustment were tested utilizing a series of path analyses using the APIM analyses. The results revealed that attachment avoidance, rather than attachment anxiety, of both wives and husbands was the strongest predictor of own and partners&rsquo / marital adjustment in the conflictual situations. In terms of emotional experience, wives&rsquo / regret and husbands&rsquo / anger were the marker mediating emotions. Regarding anger expression, wives&rsquo / and husbands&rsquo / distributive aggression styles mediated the relationship between attachment dimensions and marital adjustment. Analyses on sadness expression yielded only one significant actor mediation effect suggesting that avoidant husbands used more solitude/negative behavior, and this in turn, decreased their marital adjustment. However, guilt expression styles of wives and husbands did not mediate the relationship between attachment dimensions and marital adjustment of both partners. The current study extended the previous studies by providing evidence on the influence of the each partner&rsquo / s attachment orientation on the emotional experience and expression during marital conflict and marital adjustment of both spouses. The implications of the study for theory, practice, and future research were discussed.

Bakgrund: Sedan 1975 när abortlagen i Sverige trädde i kraft, har kvinnor själva haft möjlighet att avgöra om deras graviditet ska avbrytas innan den 18:e graviditetsveckan. I dagens sjukvård tenderar personalen att se mer till det fysiska vilket gör att kvinnors tankar och känslor förbises. Behovet av kunskap om kvinnors känslomässiga upplevelser av abort är därför betydelsefullt att belysa. Syfte: Syftet var att belysa unga kvinnors känslomässiga upplevelser i samband med abort. Metod: Studien utformades som en allmän litteraturstudie där nio artiklar samlades in och analyserades. Resultat: Ur analysen framkom tre kategorier vilka var Känslomässiga upplevelser i samband med beslutet, Känslomässiga upplevelser i samband med ingreppet och Känslomässiga upplevelser efter aborten. Kategorierna tar upp både positiva och negativa känslor som berör abortupplevelsen. Diskussion: Tre centrala fynd diskuterades utifrån de tre resultatkategorierna. Dessa fynd belyser kvinnornas oro och rädsla i samband med beslutstagandet, kvinnornas känsla av lättnad de upplever direkt efter aborten och känslan av upprördhet och ledsamhet som kan finnas hos kvinnorna flera år efter aborten. Slutsats: Då abortupplevelsen är individuell, är det viktigt att sjuksköterskan ser till hela kvinnans upplevelse, både det fysiska, psykiska och känslomässiga.

480 000 children in Sweden have parents who live apart. We asked ourselves what a divorce is to a child emotinally and how the child copes with the divorce. We performed qualitative interviews with four different adults who grew up with divorced parents to find some answers. Our study shows that the divorce often make the child feel guilty over not being sufficient for one or both parents. In the long run, both parents usually feel better after the divorce which seems to have a positive effect with the childs emotional side, also how the parents themselves dealt with the divorce. We found a connection between how the informants described their parents way of coping with the divorce with their own. The amount of influence the informants had over deciscions regarding themselves and their own situation seemed to be decisive for a favorable way of coping. / Nära häften av alla äktenskap i Sverige slutar i skilsmässa och 480 000 barn lever med särboendes föräldrar. Vi ställde oss frågande till vad en skilsmässa kan innebär känslomässigt för ett barn, hur ett barn hanterar föräldrarnas skilsmässa och vilka faktorer som bidrar till barnets hanteringsstrategi. För att finna svar på våra frågor genomfördes fyra kvalitativa intervjuer med fyra vuxna skilsmässobarn. Studiens resultat tyder på att skilsmässan kan ge känslor av skuld över att inte räcka till för en eller båda föräldrarna, men också harmoni. Föräldrarna mår vanligtvis bättre efter skilsmässan i långa loppet vilket tycks ha en positiv inverkan på barnets känsloliv. Föräldrarnas hanteringsstrategi tycktes också ha en avgörande roll för barnet. Vi fann tydliga samband mellan hur informanterna beskrev sina föräldrars sätt att hantera skilsmässan och deras egen hanteringsstrategi. Mängden inflytande informanterna hade över beslut rörande dem själva och livssituation tycktes också vara avgörande för en gynnsam hanteringsförmåga.