Digital Commons Network^™

Master's Project: Framing Emotion In The Social Media Posts Of A Regional Sample Of National Park Sites, Sarah T. Raimondi

Rubenstein School Masters Project Publications

Public communication is one of the most important aspects of a natural resource manager’s job, and social media has opened new channels of communication between agencies and their audiences. Not only do most agencies now maintain an overall social media presence, but units within agencies typically create unique social media pages. This is true for the National Park Service (NPS) in the U.S., where over 400 individual parks have a social media presence. Many of these use Facebook for social media communication; Facebook is currently the largest social media platform, with over 2.8 billion monthly users. Drawing from prior research …

The Psychophysical Response To Music In Canines, Maxwell J. Gailey

UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses

The creation of music is well known to be considered “human nature”, but is it possible that music can influence other species? This study focuses on the psychophysical, or emotional and physical, responses of canines in response to musical stimuli. For support, literature including the basics of ear anatomy and sound processing in both canines and humans, the fundamentals of music creation and expression, the impact of music on human neuroscience and emotional conveyance, as well as past research of the impact of music on canine behavior and expression. To expand on this under-researched field, a voluntary survey was created …

Differences In Attentional Processing Of Sexual Stimuli For Men With Varying Degrees Of Sexual Arousal Function, Robert Brandon Wyatt

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Sexual arousal problems remain prevalent for many men despite the availability of medications such as phosphodiesterase type 5 (PED5) inhibitors used to treat sexual dysfunction. Theoretical models that attempt to explain the underlying psychological mechanisms of sexual dysfunction highlight the important role of attention during sexual arousal (e.g., Barlow, 1986; Janssen, Everaerd, Spiering, & Janssen, 2000), but fail to integrate a contemporary understanding of attentional processes (i.e., preattentive and selective; Broadbent, 1958, Driver, 2007; Triesman, 1969) to explain why individuals with and without sexual arousal problems direct their attention toward or away from a given stimuli during sex. Moreover, these …

The Emotional Arcs Of Horror: A Distant Reading Of Stephen King’S Novels, Delaney Woods

UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses

Sentiment analysis, the computational inference of emotion in text through Natural Language Processing, is increasingly used to analyze social and cultural trends. In this thesis, we create narrative time-series and word-shift graphs for each of Stephen King’s novels using the Hedonometer, quantifying the lexical changes responsible for emotional arcs found in each story. Our results suggest King’s work has increasingly shifted in genre from horror to science fiction. The work contributes to a growing science of stories being developed by the Computational Story Lab.

Investigating Predictors Of Hanger In Romantic Partner Pairs, Kira R. Mincar

UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses

The term “hangry, is an adjective used to describe negative mood state and emotional-behavioral changes associated with hunger. No study to date has discretely qualified or quantified hanger. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to assess differences in the perception of hanger based on how it is experienced and expressed in romantic partner pairs. This study also looked for predictors of hanger based on personality differences and level of dietary restraint in terms of cognitive restraint, uncontrolled eating, and emotional eating patterns. 61 romantic partners pairs (122 total participants) completed the survey. Participants and their partners each filled …

Towards A Science Of Human Stories: Using Sentiment Analysis And Emotional Arcs To Understand The Building Blocks Of Complex Social Systems, Andrew James Reagan

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

We can leverage data and complex systems science to better understand society and human nature on a population scale through language --- utilizing tools that include sentiment analysis, machine learning, and data visualization.

Data-driven science and the sociotechnical systems that we use every day are enabling a transformation from hypothesis-driven, reductionist methodology to complex systems sciences.

Namely, the emergence and global adoption of social media has rendered possible the real-time estimation of population-scale sentiment, with profound implications for our understanding of human behavior.

Advances in computing power, natural language processing, and digitization of text now make it possible to study …

Eye-Gaze Behavior And Emotional Accuracy: A Categorical And Dimensional Analysis Of Youth With Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder And Autism Spectrum Disorder, Hannah M. Woodruff

UVM College of Arts and Sciences College Honors Theses

Differences in emotion recognition and dwell time in the eye region of static emotional faces were examined in an all-male sample of children (mean age 10.1 years) with comorbid Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), children with ADHD without ASD, and typically developing children. Correlations between the Attention Problems and Withdrawn/Depressed subscales of the Child Behavior Checklist, dwell time in the eye region of emotional faces, and emotion recognition scores were examined. We hypothesized that the ADHD/ASD group would exhibit less dwell time in the eye region and impaired emotion recognition relative to the ADHD and control groups. …

The Role Of Estrogen In Emotional And Cognitive Processes Integral To Major Depressive Disorder, Kimberly Albert

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Women have greater incidence and prevalence of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) than men during the reproductive life phase when ovarian hormones fluctuate, suggesting that ovarian hormones have a significant role in MDD etiology in women. As the core symptoms of MDD are indicative of alterations in stress responding, emotional processing, and mood regulation, examining the effects of the estrogen on these processes in women may provide a better understanding of the role of estrogen in the sex difference in MDD rates. The general aim of this dissertation was to examine neural, emotional, and attentional processes related to stress response alterations …