abstract: Broaden and build theory (BBT; Fredrickson, 1998; 2001) postulates that positive emotions expand the scope of one's attention and thought-action repertoires (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005). Within the boundaries of BBT, the undoing hypothesis (Fredrickson, 1998, Fredrickson & Levenson, 1998) argues that positive emotions themselves do not bring forth specific action tendencies or urges; therefore, they do not consequently require an increase in cardiovascular activity to carry out the urge. On the other hand, positive emotions have evolved to subdue the cardiovascular response previously initiated by negative emotions. This dissertation proposes that the real power of positive emotions might be to undo not the effects of negative emotions themselves, however, but simply reduce the arousal itself. This dissertation used minor physiological arousal (e.g., a step-stool task) to simulate the cardiovascular effects of the stress manipulations used in previous tests of the undoing hypothesis by Fredrickson and colleagues. This dissertation asks if positive emotions undo the cardiovascular reactivity of an emotionally neutral stimulus. Positive emotions were induced through one film clip (i.e., a happy film clip) and was compared to a neutral film clip (no emotion elicited). An experimental design measured the effects of arousal induction and film clip on participants' cardiovascular activity. Results indicated that positive emotions had the same effect as no emotions on participants' cardiovascular activity. Implications for theory and research are provided, as well as an assessment of the study's strengths and limitations. Finally, several directions for future research are offered. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Communication Studies 2012

During the last three decades, Mexican drug-trafficking organizations have expanded their operations in North America, while drug-related violence has intensified in different regions in Mexico. Since 2006, more than 100,000 people have died as a result of the constant re-organization of Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs), as well as a national security strategy that aims to reduce their power through direct confrontation. Drug-related violence is affecting the lives and livelihoods of Mexican citizens who get caught between the conflicts, and who are not always accounted for in the official data on victims. Drawing on postcolonial theory, affect theory, the growing field of emotional geographies, and critical studies of trauma, this dissertation examines the effects of drug-related violence on secondary witnesses—that is psychologists, social workers, and journalists—based in the northwest Mexican city of Culiacán, the state capital of Sinaloa. This group represents a small sample of ordinary citizens whose daily work brings them into regular contact with some of the outcomes of violence as it relates to the so-called drug wars and its politics—what some have referred to as necropolitics and narcopolitics. Through the analysis of open-ended interviews, findings show that the secondary witnesses of drug-related violence in Culiacán are experiencing symptoms of Secondary Traumatic Stress. At the same time, they are coping with those effects through individual and collective strategies that result from a long-term social and spatial proximity with the phenomenon. In this sense, drug-related violence is a spatial phenomenon that produces traumatic events where affective and emotional effects are collected and stored as traumatic memories. Those memories are critical to understanding the symptoms of job-related stress affecting the secondary witnesses of drug-related violence, as well as the creation and development of coping strategies. The findings of this research are significant for efforts to improve the mental and emotional health of ordinary citizens who inform and offer care and support to the multiple victims of violence in Mexico.

M.A. / The present study examined the relationship between shyness and self-conscious emotions in terms of attribution style. Participants were administered questionnaires and then categorized into fearful shy, self-conscious shy, undifferentiated shy and non-shy groups. These four groups were then compared in terms of shyness, shame, guilt, embarrassment, and attribution style. Furthermore, the relationships between shame, guilt, and embarrassment and the different attribution styles were examined. The fearful shy, self-conscious shy and undifferentiated shy groups differed from the non-shy group in terms of the attribution styles of context and luck. The fearful shy group was found to score higher than the non-shy group in terms of context, in addition to the fearful shy as well as the self-conscious shy groups scoring higher than the non-shy groups in terms of luck. However no differences were found in terms of ability and effort between the four groups. With regards to experiencing self-conscious emotions, the fearful shy, self-conscious shy, and the undifferentiated shy groups differed from the non-shy group by scoring higher on shame. The fearful shy, self-conscious shy, and the undifferentiated shy groups also scored higher in terms of embarrassment from the non-shy group, with the fearful shy group scoring the highest followed by the self-conscious shy group and then the undifferentiated shy group. Furthermore, the fearful shy and undifferentiated shy differed from one another with the fearful shy group scoring higher in terms of embarrassment. The four groups, however, did not vary in terms of guilt. In terms of the relationship between attribution styles and self-conscious emotions, positive correlations were found between ability and shame and ability and embarrassment. A positive correlation was found between effort and guilt. Positive correlations between luck and shame and luck and embarrassment were also found. Self-conscious emotions were found to be highly correlated with shyness. Attribution styles may play a significant role in terms of an individual experiencing these emotions. Shy individuals may differ from non-shy individuals with regards to the attributions they engage in, causing them to experience self-conscious emotions to a higher extent. This may suggest a cognitive component that may be associated with self-conscious emotions. Therefore, shy individuals may be predisposed to experiencing self-conscious emotions more frequently than non-shy individuals. It is suggested that future research focus on this cognitive component in the experience of self-conscious emotions.

The International Affective Picture System (IAPS) was developed in an attempt to provide a standardised tool to elicit and measure emotions for research purposes. The IAPS is unique, in that it is completely pictorially based. An emotional response is stimulated by the pictures, which are then used to measure the emotional response. This has obvious benefits in South Africa. The overall aim of this study was to conduct a cross-cultural exploration of the IAPS, with a sample of South African university students, in order to come to an initial understanding of the measure’s performance within the South African context. A quantitative methodology was used, in order to reach the research aim and objectives. The overall research approach was exploratory and descriptive in nature and the actual data gathering consisted of a single measurement instance. The procedure for this study was based on that used by the developers of the IAPS to norm the instrument. Convenience sampling was used, resulting in a total sample of 169 participants, 31 male, and 136 female. For analysis purposes, participants were grouped according to a race and language combination, thus operationalising ethnicity. This resulted in four primary ethnic groupings. In summary, it was found that a large number of items seem to travel well in terms of equivalence. The correlations achieved and affective space plot are consistent with that outlined in the IAPS instruction manual, and are similar to international studies using the same procedure. However, when items were examined in greater detail, statistically significant differences raised concerns about the level of equivalence and suggested that not all items travel equally well. Similarly, although many items were statistically similar between the South African ethnic groups, differences were also found on specific items.

The study was designed to examine the hypothesis that psychopathy is associated with an affective deficit. Subjects were 42 incarcerated offenders divided into nonpsychopathic and psychopathic groups based on their scores on the Hare Revised Psychopathy Checklist (Hare, 1991). Facial expressions, central and peripheral physiological activity, and subjective ratings of affective valence and arousal were measured during exposure to a series of slides and film clips designed to elicit either positive or negative affective states. The results indicate that psychopaths do not differ from criminal controls in their affective self-report, autonomic nervous system response, or observed facial expressions to emotional stimuli. However, with respect to cerebral asymmetry, psychopaths failed to show relative right frontal activation during exposure to the disgust film. This result is discussed in relation to recent attempts to explain psychopathy in terms of lateralized cerebral dysfunction. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

In a scientific study of dream content, artificial intelligence has been utilized to automatically score dream content. An initial attempt focused on scoring for emotional tone of dream reports. The contribution of this thesis demonstrates methods by which accuracy of such a system can be improved beyond text-mining. It was hypothesized that data extraction based on psychological processes will provide significant information that would produce an accurate model. In our first article, the significance of words expressed in dream reports, along with their associated words was explored. Extraction and inclusion of these associations provided detailed information that improved automatic scoring of positive and negative affect even though these associations exhibited skewed distribution. The second article demonstrated how normalization of the data was possible and how it could result in a more accurate model. Our last article was able to demonstrate that the model can differentiate between male and female dreams.

Contemporary emotion research typically takes the phenomenon of emotion to be exhausted by a class of mental events that are intentional, conscious, and related to certain sorts of behaviour. Moreover, other affective phenomena, such as moods, are also considered to be relatively short-term, episodic, or occurrent states of the subject undergoing them. Emotions, and other putative emotional phenomena that common-sense takes as long-lasting, non-episodic, or dispositional are things that both philosophers and scientists sometimes recognise, but that are relatively neglected in comparison to emotional episodes. This thesis aims at showing that this neglect is unjustified. I will argue that there is a class of entities, 'sentiments'—broadly characterised as dispositions to undergo emotional episodes—that (1) are irreducible to emotional episodes or collections thereof and (2) have properties that make them a suitable target of study by the emotion researcher. In the first chapter, I argue that an analysis of caring (and related phenomena, such as love) as a pattern of emotional episodes, while more plausible than alternative, non-emotional accounts, faces a number of counterexamples that motivate the search for an account of caring as related in a certain way to emotions but as irreducible to them. I argue that a dispositional account, according to which dispositions are conceived as distinct from their manifestations, is an account for which a strong case can be made. The second chapter is dedicated to defending a modest form of realism about dispositions in general and psychological dispositions in particular. According to realism, dispositions are genuine properties that, although perhaps reducible to non-dispositional properties, cannot be re-described in terms of events (including behaviour) only. In the third chapter, I show in what ways emotional dispositions (or sentiments) can positively contribute to the explanation of the occurrence (or non-occurrence) of emotional episodes. In the fourth chapter, I argue that caring, understood as a species of sentiment, is not to be construed as a mere disposition to produce certain events; rather, we should allow that certain dispositions are genuinely mental or psychological. Assuming realism about the mental, I argue that some dispositions are mental in a way that others (such as fragility) are not. I suggest that being intentional is the property that makes psychological dispositions genuinely mental. I end the chapter by drawing a connection between caring and the notion of character. On my view, caring is at least a necessary ingredient of certain character traits, in particular the virtues. In chapter five, I tackle a recent form of empirically informed scepticism about character and argue, on the basis of general considerations about psychological dispositions, that the sceptic’s case is not as strong as she makes out. Finally, in chapter six, I argue that at least certain forms of sentiment, for example romantic love, can be genuinely supported by reasons, thereby suggesting a way they can contribute to the value of our lives. Overall, the aim of this thesis is to establish the respectability of sentiments in a sophisticated account of the mind.

Are there aspects of affect that can be generalized across different languages? Are there consistent patterns of associations between self-reported affect and personality across groups speaking different languages? In the present dissertation, I explore these two questions in five different language samples. Studies of current self-reported affect in English suggest that Russell's (1980), Thayer's (1989), Larsen and Diener's (1992), and Watson and Tellegen's (1985) models of affect variables can be integrated and summarized by a two-dimensional space defined by Pleasant vs Unpleasant and Activated vs Deactivated axes. To assess the cross-language generalizability of this integrated structure, data on translations of the English affect scales (N for Spanish = 233, N for Chinese = 487, N for Japanese = 450, N for Korean = 365) were compared with the structure in English ON = 535). Systematic and random errors were controlled through multi-format measurements (Green, Goldman, & Salovey, 1993) and structural equation modeling. Individual measurement models as defined in English received support in all five languages, although revisions of these scales in non-English samples provided an even closer approximation to the two-dimensional structure in English. In all five languages, the two dimensions explained most, but not all, of the reliable variance in other affect variables (mean = 88%). The four structural models fit comfortably within the integrated two-dimensional space. In fact, the variables fell at different angles on the integrated space, suggesting a new circumplex structure. In prior studies conducted in English, the personality traits of Neuroticism and Extraversion were most predictive of affect and they aligned with the Pleasant Activated and Unpleasant Activated states. To clarify and extend the previous findings, participants in all five samples also completed NEO FFI (Costa & McCrae, 1992), a measure for the Five Factor Model of personality (FFM). Again, Neuroticism and Extraversion were most predictive of affect, accounting for, on average, 10% of the variance. The remaining three factors of the FFM contributed, on average, 2%. In all five languages, the FFM dimensions did not align with the two predicted affective dimensions. Rather, they fell all around the upper half of the twodimensional space. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

M.A. (Counselling Psychology) / Gray proposed two psycho-neurobiological systems, namely the behavioural approach system (BAS) and the behavioural inhibition system (BIS) which are respectively related to positive affectivity and negative affectivity. The literature does not currently indicate any specific positive emotional traits related to the BAS scale with certainty, although happiness, elation and hope have been suggested as possibilities. Curiosity, empathy and hope were chosen as positive emotional traits to study in relation to the BAS, as these positive emotional traits can each be related to the three factors of the BAS, namely drive, fun seeking and reward responsiveness. Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory explains that each emotion evokes a thought-action tendency and when positive emotions are experienced, the types of possible behavioural responses are broadened. It is expected that this broadened response repertoire should be detected in the behavioural approach system, which is responsible for organising behaviour in response to stimuli that signal rewards or no punishment. Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory is thus a useful framework to utilise in the conceptualisation of the study. The purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which curiosity, empathy and hope act as predictors for the variance in the BAS. The sample consisted of 130 first year mathematics students at the University of Johannesburg. Psychometric instruments utilised for the study included Carver and White’s BIS/BAS scales, the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory (CEI), the short form of the Empathy Quotient (EQ-short) and the Adult Dispositional Hope Scale. A standard multiple regression was conducted to investigate the nature of the relationships between the BAS and curiosity, empathy and hope. The results indicate the total variance in the BAS levels explained by curiosity, empathy and hope simultaneously was 16.8 percent. Hope made the largest unique contribution by accounting for 6.8 percent of the variance in the total BAS scores while curiosity also made a statistically significant contribution by accounting for 3.2 percent of the variance in the total BAS scores. Empathy did not make a statistically significant unique contribution to the variance in the total BAS scores. Future studies of this nature should consider a larger sample size. The prefrontal cortex was identified as a neural counterpart that might be related to Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, but future research could explore this further.

1 Military Hospital offers health service to employees of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), South African Army (SAA), South African Air Force (SAAF), South African Navy (SAN), and the South African Military Health Services (SAHMS). Most of the SANDF employees who suffer Thoracic Spinal Cord Injuries (TSCI) are injured during their term of service in the SANDF. Individuals with spinal cord injury experience challenges related to work, family, finances, loss of independence and societal attitudinal barriers (Crewe&Krause, 2002). Some individuals adjust well to these challenges and are able to move forward in a functional and productive manner (Livneh&Antonak, 1997; 1994). This research investigated how certain thoracic spinal cord injured (TSCI) individuals managed to adjust to their rehabilitation process. The research focused on the contribution of positive emotions to the rehabilitation process. Positive psychology focuses attention on the sources of psychological wellness, such as positive emotions and positive experience. It also focuses on individual differences in human strengths and virtues, positive institutions and what makes life worth living (Lyubomirsky&Abbe, 2005). The current study aimed to investigate how fortigenic qualities contribute to positive rehabilitation experiences for individuals with thoracic spinal cord injury. A qualitative design using in-depth, face-to-face, semi-structured interviews was selected to explore the rehabilitation experiences of TSCI individuals. One of the basic tenets of qualitative research is the existence of multiple realities. An individual’s reality is derived from factors such as age, sex, class, ethnicity, abilities and disabilities and the way in which these factors affect life experiences (Hammersley&Atkinson, 1998). A sample of 3 respondents was selected. The respondents were members of the South African National Defence Force. The respondents were males aged between 25 and 40 years old who had been living with disability for two to three years. The TSCI individuals were interviewed to gain a better understanding of their rehabilitation experiences. The ideas that emerged from this research interview conversations were analysed through the use of an interpretive thematic analysis The findings indicate that positive emotional states facilitated positive behavioral practices such as taking initiative and adapting and coping with the challenges that come with the disability. The study demonstrated that participants’ repertoire of positive emotions acts as a remedy for negative emotions. Thus, positive emotional states were shown to influence behavioral repertoires and impact on motivation to improve the self. These factors lead to a drive to rehabilitation. Positive qualities such as gratitude, humour, optimism and resilience impacted on the ways in which the respondents created meaning about life events. This resulted in broader behavioural repertoires that led to more explorative and adaptive behaviours. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Psychology / unrestricted