Alcohol Use Disorders (AUDs) generally are understood as disordered behaviors, and recovery from AUDs frequently is regarded in terms of positive and constructive changes in those behaviors. However, a large proportion of recovering individuals describe the experience of recovery from AUDs as consisting of both behavioral and affective changes. The affective changes that characterize recovery have been referred to as constituting “emotional sobriety,” which can be understood as a type of dynamic equilibrium with respect to the variability of the valence and intensity of affective experiences. Here, we describe neuroanatomical and behavioral correlates of emotional sobriety, as well as sex differences, through three independent but complimentary studies. In Study 1, we examined the association between the duration of abstinence (DOA) from alcohol and volumetric measures of the Brain Reward System (BRS) and its subregions, among groups of normal control (NC; n = 60) and AUD participants (n = 60). We found volumetric differences of BRS regions known to be involved in affective processing in association with different DOA. For example, long-term abstainers (greater than five years) exhibited less volume in the cingulate cortex, relative to NCs, and AUD women exhibited higher insular volume than AUD men in association with abstinence. In Study 2, we examined the association between abstinence and differences in affective states. Short-/mid-term abstainers (less than five years) exhibited affective dysregulation, relative to NCs, whereas long-term abstainers exhibited relatively normal affective states. AUD women exhibited higher positive affect than AUD men in association with abstinence. In Study 3, we examined the independent influence of mutual-help organization (MHO) activity upon affective states, over and above the effect observed in association with abstinence. Greater degrees of MHO activity were observed to be associated with increases in measures of positive affect, and sex differences also were detected in this association, with AUD women exhibiting higher positive affect than AUD men. Altogether, the findings of this dissertation indicate that the behavioral and affective changes that characterize recovery from AUDs emerge together in a dynamic, recursive interrelationship that is mediated through discrete corresponding neuroadaptations at the level of the BRS.

The purpose of this study is to investigate and increase the understanding of how the two commercial companies IKEA and SAS and the two aid organizations/nonprofit organizations UNICEF and Save the Children use perceptions of Christmas to produce messages in their Christmas advertising/commercial film. The study also discusses if there may be communicative and pictorial similarities and differences in how these brands constructs messages in commercials, and why it may be that the brands choose to use these messages in commercials based on the recipient possible interpretations. The theories used in this study are promotional culture, framing theory, preferred meaning, semiotics (denotation and connotation), myth and rhetoric (ethos, pathos and logos). The method used to answer the purpose and issues are the qualitative method that uses the theories semiotic and rhetoric to analyze the material. The study's results derived from the qualitative content analyzes of the material (the brands IKEA, SAS, UNICEF and Save the Children Christmas advertising films) show that IKEA message might want to show that they want to help the customer and that they pay attention to the customer needs. And that IKEA also in that message says that the solution and the products for your Christmas preparations are available at IKEA. SAS uses the Christmas tradition and myth of Santa to describe and make sense of a service, and showing that they care about the customer comes in time, even at Christmas when something is important. UNICEF can therefore be interpreted use Christmas as a persuasion method. UNICEF commercials can be seen to be designed to make the receiver more generous and get the feeling that it wants to contribute. Save the Children's message is focused on you should buy "nothing" for Christmas, and why it should be seen as an alternative to other Christmas gifts on the market. Based on this final discussion research shows that it could be possible that the commercial companies (IKEA and SAS) want to appear less “selling” when they are trying to sell their products or services through messages constructed by notions of Christmas, and that they instead try to ensure the customer needs. The study further shows that the help organizations seem more " selling" when trying to sell their products and get people to contribute to their aid activities. As a result of the need to be more commercial. Why the brands have chosen these messages and strategies can finally, as evidenced by the final discussion, come from the fact that the brands want to create the best competitive opportunities in the market, and that the strategies may have been selected by the brands though they might be considered as the most effective.