This study examined maternal predictors of children's facial expressions of emotion in mother-child interactions. Ninety-four mothers and their 14- to 27-month old toddlers were observed during a 20-minute interaction. Results demonstrated that two different components of maternal sensitivity, supportive behavior and child-oriented motivation, predicted more facial expressions of joy and sadness and less flat affect in children. Maternal autonomy granting, a third component of maternal sensitivity, predicted more facial expressions of anger in children. This study also examined relations between macrosocial variables (i.e., maternal well-being and demographic factors) and children's facial expressions of emotion and how maternal sensitivity mediated such relations. High maternal education was directly related to fewer facial expressions of sadness and anger, high SES was related to more facial expressions of joy, and both greater marital satisfaction and social support were related to more facial expressions of anger. It was also shown that supportive behavior mediated associations between: maternal depressive symptoms and both low joy and high flat affect, marital satisfaction and low flat affect, maternal education and high joy, and family income and high joy. Child-oriented motivation mediated associations between maternal depressive symptoms and both high flat affect and low sadness. Findings suggest that it is important to consider multiple measures of maternal sensitivity and the broader macrosocial context in which the parent-child relationship is embedded when examining children's facial expressions of emotion in mother-child interactions.

Mastering Emotions: The Emotional Politics of Slavery explores how the emotions and affective norms of the Antebellum South were conditioned upon and constructed through the institution of slavery. Though slavery is a subject wrought with emotion, there has been no focus in recent historical scholarship on the affective dimensions of slavery. Studies in the history of emotion have also largely ignored slavery. My intervention in these fields reveals the ways that both slaveholders and slaves wielded fear, trust, jealousy, and affection in their interactions with one another. The project also sheds light on how the emotional norms of societies are learned and policed, manipulated and enforced. I argue that the emotions of slaveholders and slaves alike were irrevocably shaped by slavery. The daily negotiations and contestations that occurred between slaveholders and slaves through and about feelings, in conjunction with larger debates about race, freedom, and emotional norms, form the backbone of what I call the emotional politics of slavery. Mastering Emotions examines how the affective norms of slavery were taught, how emotional transgressions were punished, and the long-term impacts of those emotional norms on the affective landscape of the post-Reconstruction South. To gain insight into the emotional lives and affective experiences of enslaved people of color I use a variety of primary sources such as slave narratives, letters, and court testimony. Steeped in the mode of sentimentalism, which encouraged people to reflect upon and articulate their feelings, slaveholders revealed how they felt about their slaves, and how they believed their slaves felt, in diaries, wills, and even records of slave sales and manumissions. Studying the affective terrain of the Antebellum South provides fresh insight into the politics of slavery, revealing how those in bondage used feelings to resist slavery, and how the planter class employed emotions to enforce the institution. This project also contributes to the burgeoning field of affective history by complicating understandings of how emotions are constructed in relation to power, and how power operates in affective relations.

Background: 250 children develops cancer in Sweden every year and 75 percent of these children survives. History show that the treatment for cancer has improve. Every child has at least one parent who is affected and who is associated with suffering during the child's cancer diagnosis. Aim :The aim was to illuminate parents' experiences of living with a child with cancer diagnosis. Method: A literature-based study. Qualitative content analysis of 10 qualitative articles. Results: The results are presented in four main themes: "The feeling of powerlessness", "The need of support", "Lives ups and downs" and "Changed life". Conclusion: The results show that parents of a child with cancer diagnosis describe many different emotions and a changed life. The parents feel powerless and have need of support in various forms. Parents get a new life to adapt to and see life and every day as unique.

Not available / text

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Clinical Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Psychology / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Psychology / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

This dissertation analyzes the everyday work experiences of hospice, a type of end-of-life care. The following chapters integrate micro-sociological perspectives with meso- and macro- level explanations of organizational behavior to account for workers' performances of emotional labor, care-related identities, constraints on their daily work, and ultimately hospice workers' strong commitment to their jobs and the hospice philosophy. Using a mixed methodological approach, I argue that hospice workers engage in emotional labor, but that instead of feeling dissonance or alienation, hospice workers develop a positive identity around their work. Their identities and work experiences are still constrained by institutional forces, however. Hospice workers' experiences highlight two tensions in the administration of caring labor: keeping commitment during times of organizational change and balancing the needs of the self with the needs of the care recipient. The main contributions of this work include new understandings of the relationships between identity, emotions, and work; a novel combination of theories that better explain care workers' behaviors and constraints on their action; and, a refined approach to thinking about emotional labor.