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Emotional Content In Autobiographical Memory Through An Attachment Theory Framework, Elizabeth Tsatkin

Honors Scholar Theses

The current study investigates the relationship between individual differences in attachment style and the recall of autobiographical memories. According to attachment theory, affect regulation strategies employed by individuals high in attachment anxiety and high in attachment avoidance are likely to influence how information about the past is recalled. This study examines how attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance relate to the presence of negative emotions in autobiographical memories of upsetting events with important relationship figures (i.e., mother, father, or roommate). Participants included 248 undergraduate students ranging from ages 18-22 that attend a public university in the northeast. As hypothesized, individuals with …

The Role Of Racial Information In Infant Face Processing, Angela Nicole Hayden

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

The present research addressed the development of specialization in face processing in infancy by examining the roles of race and emotion. An other-race face among own-race faces draws adults’ attention to a greater degree than an own-race face among other-race faces due to the “other-race” feature in other-race faces. This feature underlies race-based differences in adults’ face processing. The current studies investigated the development of this mechanism as well as the influence that this mechanism has on emotion processing in infancy.

In Experiment 1, Caucasian 3.5- and 9- month-olds exhibited a preference for a pattern containing an Asian face among …

The Contribution Of Nmda Receptors Within The Central Nucleus Of The Amygdala To The Suppression Of Pain Affect, Catherine Ann Spuz

Wayne State University Dissertations

The amygdala processes stimuli that threaten an individual and organizes the execution of affective behaviors designed to cope with the threat. The prototypical threat to an individual is exposure to a noxious stimulus. The central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) receives nociceptive afferents and exhibits neuronal activation in response to noxious peripheral stimulation. NMDA receptors within CeA mediate this noxious-evoked neural excitation, and previous studies in the laboratory have shown that blockade of CeA NMDA receptors via the antagonist APV elevates the threshold for noxious tail-shock-induced vocalization afterdischarges (VADs), a validated measure of pain affect in the rat. The present …

Training The Forgetting Of Negative Material: The Role Of Active Suppression And The Relation To Stress Reactivity, J. Lemoult, Paula T. Hertel, Jutta Joormann

Psychology Faculty Research

In this study, the authors investigated whether training participants to use cognitive strategies can aid forgetting in depression. Participants diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) and never-depressed participants learned to associate neutral cue words with a positive or negative target word and were then instructed not to think about the negative targets when shown their cues. The authors compared 3 different conditions: an unaided condition, a positive-substitute condition, and a negative-substitute condition. In the substitute conditions, participants were instructed to use new targets to keep from thinking about the original targets. After the trainingphase, participants were instructed to recall all …

Emotion Recognition In Schizotypy, Laura Brown

LSU Master's Theses

Deficits in social cognition are repeatedly found in individuals with schizophrenia. Facial emotion recognition is a major aspect of social cognition in which individuals with schizophrenia show consistent deficits. However, many questions about these deficits remain unanswered including whether they occur in individuals with schizotypy—those at high risk for the disorder that do not manifest full pathology. Examining emotion recognition in schizotypy eliminates many of the confounds associated with schizophrenia research such as medication effects, chronic institutionalization, and generalized cognitive deficits, and allows for the examination of whether emotion recognition deficits reflect vulnerability to schizophrenia. Prior research in this population …

The Influence Of Individual Differences In Emotional Clarity On Sensitivity To Situational Cues, Elizabeth Lauren Foreman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The influence of individual differences in emotional clarity on the use of situational cues in decision making was investigated. Accuracy of situational cues was manipulated in the form of ostensible previous ratings given to participants while viewing pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant pictures. Of importance to this study was whether persons low in emotional clarity would rely more on situational cues, regardless of their accuracy, than would persons high in this trait. Personality was assessed using two scales which measure emotional clarity. Self-monitoring was also examined as a possible moderator of any findings. Contrary to predictions, our findings indicated that individuals …

Empathy And Error Processing, Scott A. Baldwin, Michael J. Larson, Joseph E. Fair, Daniel A. Good

Faculty Publications

Recent research suggests a relationship between empathy and error processing. Error processing is an evaluativecontrol function that can be measured using post-error response time slowing and the error-related negativity (ERN)and post-error positivity (Pe) components of the event-related potential (ERP). Thirty healthy participants completedtwo measures of empathy, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Empathy Quotient (EQ), and a modifiedStroop task. Post-error slowing was associated with increased empathic personal distress on the IRI. ERN amplitudewas related to overall empathy score on the EQ and the fantasy subscale of the IRI. The Pe and measures of empathywere not related. Results remained consistent …

The Influence Of Emotion On Attention : Examining The Processing Of Negative And Positive Emotion Words In The Dot Probe Task, Tina Sutton

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The influence of emotion on attention has been examined more closely in recent years using a variety of paradigms. Öhman (1993) suggested that participants more readily pay attention to negative information than neutral information. The current work was designed to expand upon these findings by examining both negative and positive emotion word processing in a non-clinical population using the dot probe task. Experiments 1a and 1b examined the supraliminal and subliminal processing of negative and positive emotion words presented in separate blocks. The results revealed that participants responded faster to the probe when it appeared in the same location as …

Arab/American Relations And Human Security, Post-9/11: A Political Narrative Inquiry, Charlotte Moats-Gallagher

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

This study explored eighteen women's views and experiences in the arena of Arab/American relations, post-9/11. The study engaged three groups of women: Arab women in Qatar, Arab American women in the U.S., and non-Arab women in the U.S. Qualitative narrative inquiry methodology was used complemented by an innovative use of freewriting to help prepare participants for interviews. Clarke’s (2005a) situational analysis was used to open up and analyze the data. Findings surfaced around the interconnected themes of identity, racism, discrimination and Othering, the role of the media, and how these ultimately influence a collective sense of and experience of human …

Negative Affective Environments Improve Complex Solving Performance, Carola M. Barth, Joachim Funke

Joachim Funke