Inspirerat från ett blogginlägg om funktionen av Two-Factor Theory of Emotion i skräckspel, författat av Chris Pruett (2009), ämnade denna studie undersöka på vilket sätt, om något, kan olika ludiska utmaningar påverka den affektiva tonen i skräckspel. Undersökningen hade 12 deltagare. Baserat på en förundersökning delades deltagarna in i två grupper. Deltagarna fick sedan spela igenom en artefakt som hade två utmaningar, ett logiskt pussel och ett spatialt/reaktionsbaserat plattformshinder. Alla deltagare spelade igenom samma innehåll – men beroende på vilken grupp de tillhörde bytte utmaningarna plats i nivåerna. Under spelningen bar deltagarna ett pulsband och blev observerade, efter sessionen svarade deltagarna på ett formulär. Datan sammanställdes och grupperna jämfördes mot varandra. Framtida forskning kan med fördel utföras med större deltagarantal.

The thesis is a theological enquiry into the nature of human affections (or ‘emotions’), their role in morality and their significance for political relations. The argument builds critically on the work of cognitivist theorists of emotion, such as Martha Nussbaum, who oppose both rationalist disavowals of the reasonableness of emotion and empiricist fascination with physical sensation. Nussbaum holds that emotions’ intentional (object-directed), evaluative quality indicates a cognitive aptitude. Using the language of ‘affection’, the argument shows how this aptitude shapes individuals’ and communities’ interrelation with their diverse systems of valuation, the created, vindicated moral order and creation’s God. Drawing on phenomenological and spiritual approaches, the endurance of affection is accounted for through the connection of memory and affection while virtue is assigned a secondary place as a fragmentary and less reliable contributor to such endurance. Affections emerge as the beginnings of attracted understanding concerning the world as it appears, the world as it is and the world as it will be, recognitions of value which are open to intersubjective discussion and initiate moral reflection and deliberation. Jonathan Edwards’ account of affections is found epistemologically and ethically implausible but his doctrine of excellency is adopted to interpret the nature of affections’ endurance and eschatological participation in the moral order. With particular attention to joy, shame, anger and awe, the intersubjective, affective dimension of political life is then explored through consideration of certain institutions, practices and traditions of modern political societies, ancient Israel and the early church as represented in Luke and Acts. Affective wisdom within institutions of political representation and law are considered in light of secular and Christian political eschatologies. Findings from this discussion then guide a conversation between European ‘constitutional patriotism’ and British conservatism which explores the connection between affections and locality. An account of national identity is given which takes localised affective understanding seriously yet relativises it in light of the transnational affective understandings which stem both from the international political system and from Christian faith. Finally, the role of churches’ affections within modern political society are discussed. Resources from the Lutheran tradition are utilised to examine the political significance of churches’ joyful praise of the crucified, risen Jesus Christ.

This thesis tested an appraisal, coping and adaptation model of job insecurity and organisational change with a sample of police officers. The model integrated key aspects of Lazarus' (1991a, 1999) cognitive-motivational-relational theory of emotion (personal coping resources, appraisal questions, emotion, coping and adaptation outcomes) with the ten job characteristics (opportunity for control, opportunity for skill use, externally generated goals, variety, environmental clarity, availability of money, physical security, opportunity for interpersonal contact, valued social position and supportive supervision) from Warr's (1987, 1999) vitamin model. The ten job characteristics were viewed as valued aspects of the environment that may potentially be lost or threatened during organisational crisis or change. The service within which the police officers worked underwent a large scale organisational restructuring from late 2001 to July 2002. Three research studies were conducted for this thesis. The first study developed a psychometrically sound, 40-item job characteristics scale, based on the ten dimensions of Warr's vitamin model. This scale assessed participants' worries about changes to aspects in their work environment. The development of this scale met a need within the job insecurity literature for a theoretically-derived measure of valued job features, and enabled the investigation of the appraisal, coping and adaptation model. This measure was included in the questionnaire for the cross-sectional and longitudinal studies that formed the second and third major research projects of this thesis. The main aim of the second study was to test a proposed model of appraisal, emotion, coping and adaptation following the experience of organisational change. The model proposed that person variables and personal coping resources (e.g., personal control and coping self-efficacy) would have indirect associations with the adaptational outcomes of Psychological Distress, Life Satisfaction and Job Withdrawal Behaviour. The personal coping resources were proposed to have indirect relationships with coping strategies through job characteristics, appraisal and emotion as well as direct associations with levels of distress, Life Satisfaction and Job Withdrawal Behaviour. The ten job characteristics were expected to have a direct relationship with Psychological Distress, and indirect associations with the three adaptational outcomes through appraisal, emotion and coping. Primary and secondary appraisal was proposed to precede and directly influence emotion. In turn, emotions were expected to directly relate to the coping strategies that were used, with coping strategies mediating the association between emotion and the three adaptational outcomes. An additional focus of this study was to determine whether there were mean differences for males and females on the variables examined. The second study was conducted in November 2002, three months after the restructuring. Two thousand two hundred and eighteen police officers were invited to participate in the study, with a total sample of 303 police officers responding. The antecedent variables (personal resources, job characteristics, perception of global job insecurity, appraisal components, feelings, coping strategies) and the indicators of employee adjustment (Psychological Distress, Life Satisfaction and Job Withdrawal Behaviour) were collected via a self-report questionnaire. Collateral data were also obtained from a friend, spouse/partner or work colleague of the police officer for the dependent variables of Psychological Distress and Life Satisfaction. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were applied to investigate the aims of this study. Some support for a partial mediating model was obtained, mainly with the work specific adaptational outcomes of Psychological Distress and Job Withdrawal Behaviour. The antecedent variables in the model explained a substantial amount of variance for each of the adaptation outcomes. Notably, the antecedents of the model to uniquely account for variance in Life Satisfaction, a non-work contextual outcome, were person variables and personal coping resources. The third research study used a two-wave longitudinal panel design. The principle aim of this study was to test the proposed model of appraisal, coping and adaptation, longitudinally. Specifically, the aim was to examine whether initial levels, and changes in levels over time in aspects of the proposed model predicted later levels, and changes across time in the adaptational outcomes of Psychological Distress, Life Satisfaction and Job Withdrawal Behaviour. The study was conducted in April and May, four to five months after the T1 data had been collected, and seven months after the restructuring. A total of 158 police officers responded from the 303 that participated in Study 2. Difference scores were calculated to examine change across time within hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Three longitudinal regression models (Basic, Change-in-Outcome and Change/Change) were examined to test for robust effects. The model explained considerably more variance in Psychological Distress across all three longitudinal models tested, compared to Life Satisfaction and Job Withdrawal Behaviour. Generally the work related antecedents (T1) had no or minimal association with change in Life Satisfaction. However, change in physical safety was associated with change in Life Satisfaction across the two points in time. Some robust associations were found for emotion coping strategies with Psychological Distress; personal control with Life Satisfaction; and negative feelings with Job Withdrawal Behaviour. The findings from the three studies are discussed with reference to Lazarus' (1991a, 1999) cognitive-motivational-relational theory and Warr's (1987, 1999) vitamin model. The findings from the cross-sectional and longitudinal research studies support partial mediating relationships among the antecedents with the adaptational outcomes. There is debate within the job insecurity literature as to whether potential loss of job features should be included in the definition and operationalisation of this construct. Based on the results of the research, it is recommended that the definition and operationalisation of job insecurity include potential loss of job features and potential loss of the job. The model tested accounted for more variance in the work specific outcomes of Psychological Distress and Job Withdrawal Behaviour than Life Satisfaction. Thus, the organisational restructuring appeared to have a greater association with work-specific outcomes rather than non-work outcomes. Some limitations of the research are noted. For example, the small sample size limited the ability to use latent variable model testing procedures. Second, the conclusions from the research studies are applicable to a police service organisation and thus may be limited in their application to employees in other organisations. Third, the model focused quite heavily on the individual within the organisation, examining personal resources and characteristics. Nonetheless, this research has contributed to the literature in several ways by: (a) developing a theoretically founded measure of valued job characteristics, (b) demonstrating the importance of evaluating changes to these features of the work environment and the potential loss of the job during organisational instability, and (c) testing an appraisal, coping and adaptation model that shows much promise for use within organisations undergoing crisis or change. This newly developed and tested model appears especially useful in understanding the impact of organisation changes on work related outcomes.

This study aims to explore the emotional dimension through letters from three immigrants that left Sweden 1887, 1892 and 1901. The questions asked were the following: 1) which emotions are expressed in relation to the Swedish society, 2) which emotions are expressed to the American society and 3) what are the main differences between the emotions of Swedish and American society? With the use of Martha Nussbaum’s theory of emotion, Hugo Nordlands discontinuity perspective and Barbara Rosenwein’s emotional communities as theoretical framework, the results show that homesickness, nostalgia and concern are the prominent emotions in relation to Swedish society. They are related to the emotional objects of family, friends and the letter-writer’s place of origin. Hope and affinity are the prominent emotions in relation to American society, related to the emotional objects of friends, holiday seasons and language. The emotional differences between the Swedish society and the American society are individual, and constitutes from the letter-writers identification with, and adaption to, the American society in addition to their actions, future hopes and dreams.

This dissertation examines the claim that, unlike utilitarianism and deontology, virtue ethics ascribes a positive role to emotions in moral evaluation by taking them as the constituents of moral goodness and moral value. I wish to identify the limit and scope of this claim and to show what kind of emotion theory is suitable for explaining the essential features of virtue ethics. To do so, I defend some kind of cognitivism, the cognitive-affective theory of emotion, as the most suitable theory for virtue ethics. I argue that the moral significance that virtue ethicists assign to emotions can only be explained by such a holistic and non-reductionist account of emotions. In order to demonstrate how the virtue ethicists&rsquo / positive treatment of emotions with respect to moral evaluations works in theory, I have looked at Aristotle&rsquo / s theory of emotions and ethics, paying special attention to his notion of the &lsquo / mean relative to us.&rsquo / We shall see that the &lsquo / mean relative to us,&rsquo / which entails the existence of suitable emotions being felt by the moral agent, is justified on the basis of such an idea. The other main purpose of this dissertation is to examine whether Kant&rsquo / s ethics is compatible with virtue ethics. My interpretation is that Kant&rsquo / s position on emotions oscillates between the negative and the instrumentalist view, while Aristotle&rsquo / s view is moralist. I will argue that even the most celebrated Kantian feeling of respect does not fall under the moralist position. Although Kant recognizes emotions as morally relevant in the determination of duties of virtue, the kind of roles he assigns to them are merely aesthetic, instrumental, or ornamental and regulative, all of which are secondary to pure practical reason. But, in virtue ethics, emotions and feelings play actual causative roles. They can both influence and be influenced from reason in the determination of virtuous actions / they are therefore both causally active and morally valuable in moral actions.

In this thesis, we aim at modeling some aspects of the functional role of emotions on an autonomous embodied agent. We begin by describing our robotic prototype, Cherry--a robot with the task of being a tour guide and an office assistant for the Computer Science Department at the University of Central Florida. Cherry did not have a formal emotion representation of internal states, but did have the ability to express emotions through her multimodal interface. The thesis presents the results of a survey we performed via our social informatics approach where we found that: (1) the idea of having emotions in a robot was warmly accepted by Cherry's users, and (2) the intended users were pleased with our initial interface design and functionalities. Guided by these results, we transferred our previous code to a human-height and more robust robot--Petra, the PeopleBot™--where we began to build a formal emotion mechanism and representation for internal states to correspond to the external expressions of Cherry's interface. We describe our overall three-layered architecture, and propose the design of the sensory motor level (the first layer of the three-layered architecture) inspired by the Multilevel Process Theory of Emotion on one hand, and hybrid robotic architecture on the other hand. The sensory-motor level receives and processes incoming stimuli with fuzzy logic and produces emotion-like states without any further willful planning or learning. We will discuss how Petra has been equipped with sonar and vision for obstacle avoidance as well as vision for face recognition, which are used when she roams around the hallway to engage in social interactions with humans. We hope that the sensory motor level in Petra could serve as a foundation for further works in modeling the three-layered architecture of the Emotion State Generator.