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Mindfulness Training To Enhance Emotion Regulation In A Polarizing Political Context: A Multimethod Investigation, Hadley Rahrig

Theses and Dissertations

The U.S. continues to show an upward trend in political polarization, perceived as a moral divide between liberal and conservative ideological groups. This moralization of political identity has contributed to the escalation of negative emotions (e.g., fear, anger, and hatred) directed towards political outgroup members. Although negative emotions are potent motivators of political intolerance, these emotions are nevertheless subject to regulation. Mindfulness offers a promising yet understudied emotion regulation strategy which may facilitate open receptivity towards opposing partisans. The present randomized controlled trial (RCT) examines the effects of short-term mindfulness training (MT) vs structurally equivalent Cognitive Reappraisal training (CT) on …

Empathic Anger And Personal Anger In Response To Fairness Violations: Relations To Self And Other-Oriented Motivation And Behavior, Athena H. Cairo

Theses and Dissertations

Prosocial behavior research has shown that empathy-elicited compassionate concern often motivates actions performed with an ultimate goal of helping others even at cost to oneself, whereas empathic distress motivates low-cost help with an ultimate goal of helping oneself. Less is known about the motivational outcomes of empathic anger felt when witnessing injustice or harm to others. Though empathic anger predicts third-party compensation and punishment, it is unclear whether this motivation is ultimately self or other-oriented. Three experimental studies examined the empathic anger-altruism hypothesis, that empathic anger evoked when witnessing another being treated unjustly would evoke altruistic motivation to help the …

The Context Of African American Emotion Expression: College Campus Influences, Deon Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Theoretical frameworks suggest that African Americans express emotion in context-specific ways that are unique to their familial socialization experience (Boykin, 1986; Dunbar, Leerkes, Coard, Supple, & Calkins, 2017). However, less is known about how African Americans express emotion across familial and public contexts. The current study was interested in exploring the contextual differences in emotion expression among 188 African American/Black college students from 3 different types of college campuses: predominantly White (i.e., PWI), historically Black (i.e., HBCU), and racially diverse. Data were collected via an online survey in which students reported the school they attend, their emotion expression in the …

Effect Of A 14-Day Mindfulness Intervention On Daily Desire Experiences And Desire Regulation, Nabila Farhin Jahan

Theses and Dissertations

A growing body of research suggests that mindfulness, a receptive attentiveness to one’s present moment experiences, has the potential to adaptively regulate habitual behaviors. No prior study has tested the effect of mindfulness interventions on people’s daily desire experiences to inform the potential for adaptive desire regulation. The present exploratory randomized controlled trial examined the effect of a 14-day smartphone-based mindfulness intervention (versus a coping control intervention) on the frequency, intensity, duration, and enactment of everyday desires in 19 participants. The desire domains included basic need-based desires (i.e., for food, drink, sleep) and secondary desires (e.g., for sex, media, social …

The Role Of Mindfulness In The Regulation Of Behavior Among Those Prone To Negative Urgency, Alexandra M. Martelli

Theses and Dissertations

Negative emotions can be challenging to regulate, and for some individuals can lead to failures of behavior regulation. The present study is an initial effort to explore the role that mindfulness may play in fostering effective behavior regulation among those prone to high negative urgency (NU). Eighty undergraduate students were recruited based on their high or low scores of NU. First, participants completed a self-report measure of mindfulness (Mindful Attention Awareness Scale; MAAS), an Emotional Go/No Go task in an fMRI scanner, and then reported alcohol consumption. Results showed that those with high in NU had low levels of mindfulness …

Synchrony And Concordance: A Multilevel Analysis Of The Effects Of Individual Differences During A Co2 Challenge, Rachel E. Wallace

Theses and Dissertations

Emotion theories posit that emotion systems (e.g., behavior, self-report, physiology) should be related when an emotion is being elicited because this serves an adaptive purpose and allows the individual to respond appropriately to the present situation. Oftentimes, this coherent relationship is not found, and research has hypothesized that the type of analyses used and lack of examination of individual differences could be affecting this relationship. Most studies examine the relationship between emotion systems between-subjects when within-subjects analyses may be more appropriate. The present study examined the relationship between self-reported distress (SUDS) and heart rate, and whether trait differences of anxiety …

To Help Or Not To Help? Assessing The Impact Of Envy And Gratitude On Prosocial Behaviors, Anna Maria C. Behler

Theses and Dissertations

Envy is an other-oriented but negative emotion; no research has examined the influence of envy on prosocial behavior. Study 1 examined whether envy and gratitude would promote or inhibit prosocial behavior. I hypothesized that envy would result in less helping behavior than a neutral condition, whereas gratitude would increase helping behavior. Results supported the hypothesis that envy inhibits prosocial behavior. There was not enough evidence to suggest that gratitude promoted helping.

Study 2 examined how envy and gratitude affected prosocial behavior when participants were given the choice to help or harm others. I hypothesized that experiencing envy would result in …

Pathways Linking Sleep Timing To Obesity In Midlife Women, Dana R. Schreiber

Theses and Dissertations

Midlife women are vulnerable to developing obesity. Both sleep timing and negative emotion are risk factors, yet limited research has explored their role on weight outcomes in this population. The current investigation explored the association of sleep timing (i.e., mean sleep time, sleep time variability) and obesity (i.e., BMI, waist circumference) in midlife women, considering emotional pathways (i.e., depressive symptoms, anger) that might mediate this association. PROCESS parallel mediation models assessed direct and indirect pathways. In follow-up analyses, sleep duration was explored as an indirect pathway linking sleep timing to obesity. Results demonstrated that sleep timing does not directly predict …

Dispositional Mindfulness As A Moderator Of Electrocortical And Behavioral Responses To Affective Social Stimuli, Jordan T. Quaglia

Theses and Dissertations

Numerous studies have linked dispositional mindfulness to enhanced emotion regulation. The present research examined dispositional mindfulness as a predictor of emotion regulation in social affective contexts. Participants completed passive viewing and Emotional Go/No-Go tasks involving social affective stimuli (happy, neutral, and fearful facial expressions). Event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral responses were examined to discern whether dispositional mindfulness predicted differential neural and behavioral responses indexing attention to, awareness of, and inhibitory control over automatic responses to affective social stimuli. Dispositional mindfulness predicted larger (more negative) N100, N200 and No-Go N200 amplitudes during the Emotional Go/No-Go task, but was not associated with …

Associations Between Binge Eating And Executive Functioning Among Young Women, Nichole Kelly

Theses and Dissertations

Binge eating is a pervasive disordered eating behavior associated with numerous psychological and physical comorbidities. Preliminary research indicates that emotion regulation difficulties, behavioral impulsivity, and executive dysfunction may contribute to the onset and/or maintenance of these behaviors. However, few studies have utilized neuropsychological measures to examine this link, and the assessment of behavioral and cognitive emotion regulation strategies are limited in scope. The purpose of the current study was to gain a deeper understanding of the emotional, behavioral and cognitive processes associated with binge eating behavior. Greater clarity regarding how these factors relate to binge eating is critical to the …

Emotional Labor And Nursing Students: An Investigation Of Nursing Students' Emotion Work, Ann Caldwell Smolen-Hetzel

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined emotional labor as a potential source of stress for nursing students, as nursing students' performance of emotional labor may impact their working lives in important ways. Participants were 107 undergraduate and graduate nursing students enrolled in a large southeastern university who completed the Discrete EmotionsEmotional Labor Scale (DEELS; Glomb & Tews, 20041, the Student Nurse Stress Index (SNSI; Jones & Johnston, 1999), the Job Descriptive Index (JDI; Balzer et al., 20001, and the Job in General (JIG; Balzer et al., 2000) scales. Two sub-samples of nursing students were identified, one of which held a registered nurse license …

The Predictive Relationship Of Inhibitory Control, Emotion Regulation, Moral Emotions, And Life Stressors On Behavior Problems In School-Aged Children Of Incarcerated Mothers, Geraldine M. Lotze

Theses and Dissertations

Children whose mothers go to prison are at high risk for poor outcomes of many kinds,including externalizing behaviors, internalizing disorders, school dropout, and eventual criminal activity. Inhibitory control, moral emotions, emotion regulation, and stressful life events were examined as predictors of externalizing and internalizing behaviors in children of incarcerated mothers. Participants were 50 children age 6 to 12 years (M = 9.77 y, SD = 1.54) with mothers currently in prison who attended a faith-based recreational summer camp. Inhibitory control was not impaired in these children, showing that their brains were functioning appropriately in this area of executive functioning. Inhibitory …

Social Emotional Development In School: The Anatomy Of One School's Role In Adolescent Female Development, Tanya Elizabeth Forneris

Theses and Dissertations

Social and emotional learning enables individuals to recognize and manage emotions, develop caring and concern for others, make responsible decisions, establish and maintain positive relationships, handle challenging situations effectively, achieve academically, and lead a healthy lifestyle. Research has shown that competent young people who are socially and emotionally competent are more likely to succeed both academically and personally and have strong personal and interpersonal skills. The purpose of this study was to examine one school's process in helping its students develop both socially and emotionally. For this study social-emotional learning was examined using the individual competencies and guidelines for schools …

Children's Coping With Peer Rejection Experiences: The Regulating Role Of Emotion, Kimberly L. Goodman

Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this investigation was to examine the role of emotions as predictors of children's coping responses to peer rejection experiences. This study also explored how children's emotional experience and coping behaviors were related to gender, peer socialization (i.e., receiving prosocial acts by peers and previous victimization experiences), and indices of psychopathology. Children ages 7-12 (N=53) completed questionnaires to assess emotional and coping responses to hypothetical peer rejection scenarios, symptoms of depression and anxiety, and peer experiences. Overall, findings suggested that emotion-related factors (emotion states and more stable "emotional tendencies" such as psychological symptoms) and social context (i.e., …

Gender And Forgiveness In Early Married Couples, Andrea J. Lerner

Theses and Dissertations

Ninety-five studies that addressed the possibility of gender differences in forgiveness literature are reviewed. Gender differences were examined with respect to predictor variables and outcome variables. Participants were 314 couples from the community who had been married less than one year. Participants filled out questionnaires. Males were more forgiving and were more committed to the marriage. However, females were more successful at granting forgiveness. In addition, females were more religious and reported more symptoms of depression, anxiety, and hostility. Four structural equation models were tested in order to test for gender differences. Structural models including the latent variables of martial …