Digital Commons Network^™

Affectionate Facsimiles, Julio C. Williams

Theses and Dissertations

The paintings in Affectionate Facsimiles are journeys into the expansiveness of color and memory via the accumulation of gestural action. Sporadic freneticism is used to archive desire and time and their relationship to identity. Thin and translucent layers are built up in bursts of intensity as palimpsests of intentioned labor.

Effects And Mechanisms Of Smartphone-Based Mindfulness Training On Emotional Experience, Polina Beloborodova

Theses and Dissertations

Emotional well-being is an important component of mental and physical health that includes both positive emotions and an absence of emotional symptoms (e.g., depressive- and anxiety-related). In this study, we examine psychological mechanisms that help to explain the effects of an digital mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) on emotional states. We conducted a randomized controlled trial wherein undergraduate student participants vulnerable to decreased positive and increased negative affect received a 2-week smartphone-based MBI or a structurally equivalent coping control intervention. Emotional experience, including depressive feelings, anxiety, and happiness, as well as subjective social well-being, including loneliness and felt connection to others, was …

Charter For Smarter Hats: How Team Charters Dynamically Improve Trust And Emotions In Human-Agent Teams, Dan Manh Nguyen

Theses and Dissertations

Although human-agent teams have received significant attention from both practitioners and researchers in recent years, human attitudes and emotions towards agents present collaborative barriers that reduce effective teaming. Borrowing from literature on traditional human team interventions, this study examines how team charters may be leveraged to set up better trust relationships and emotional states over time, and how these key emergent states influence both objective performance scores and subjective performance ratings. Using data from 43 individuals who participated in a search-and-rescue simulation with four agent teammates, discontinuous growth modeling was used to examine differences in trust and upsetness over time …

Understanding The Impact Of Adverse Childhood Experiences On Borderline Features And Deliberate Self-Harm Behaviors Among College Students: The Mediating Roles Of Emotion Regulation And Interpersonal Functioning, Sydney Mari Levine

Theses and Dissertations

Research has established ACEs as significant predictors of deliberate self-harm (DSH) in both clinical and community populations. Further, adults meeting criteria for borderline personality disorder (BPD) are nearly 14 times more likely to report childhood adversity. No previous studies have examined the critical roles of emotion regulation and interpersonal functioning as mediating mechanisms in these relations. Thus, the current study explored the mechanism by which ACEs affect borderline personality features (BPF) or deliberate self-harm through emotion regulation and interpersonal functioning in a sample of emerging adult college students. Participants (N = 2,255, M age = 19.25) included college students from …

"We Say No More:" The Role Of Bodily Trauma And Hybrid Spaces In The March For Our Lives Movement, Haeley Van Der Werf

Theses and Dissertations

The youth-led March For Our Lives is founded on the idea of young people forced into advocacy by unthinkable tragedy. The movement exists in a digital age where the lines between the physical and digital have become increasingly blurred. By using the work of scholars such as Manuel Castells and Henry Jenkins as a foundation to analyze this movement, we can gain a deeper understanding of why MFOL has succeeded and failed in the ways that it has. These noted digital activism academics will be used to explore how collective anger is expressed and created through the use of personal …

Using Motivation To Assess Affective States Of Captive Red Kangaroos (Macropus Rufus) In Response To Visitor Presence And Crowd Size In A Walk-Through Zoo Exhibit, Julia King

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates how visitor presence influences affective states of captive red kangaroos housed in a walk-through zoo exhibit by using motivation to consume a food reward in desired vs undesired locations and with/without an additional challenge feeder as a proxy for affective state, while considering individual variation and personality.

Emotion, Sensory Processing, And Prosody In Neurotypical And Autistic Young Adults, Annika Henderson

Theses and Dissertations

There is a paucity of research regarding autistic adults, yet as autistic individuals grow to adulthood, they are often met with several barriers because of their differences from the neurotypical (NT) population. Given the demands of adult social interaction, some of the social difficulties experienced by autistic adults are likely related to emotion processing and prosody function. With sensory processing differences added as a diagnostic criterion for autism within the last decade, an investigation into its relationship with emotional processing, another marked difficulty for this population, is warranted. There are logical connections between sensory processing, emotion, and prosody, such that …

Emotional Intelligence And Teachers’ Performance In The Classroom In Cairo, Egypt, Wessam Refat

Theses and Dissertations

Effective teachers continue to be in demand in the workforce. Schools and universities need professional teachers who show passion for their jobs and high work performance. This research will investigate the association among teachers’ age, gender, tenure, emotional intelligence (EI) scores, perception of emotional intelligence application in classroom, and perception of any potential impact on their prior year’s self-reported annual teaching evaluations in Madinaty National School in Egypt. For this study, the researcher will utilize mixed methods for data collection based on concurrent design (Creswell, 2014; Kummar, 2014). For additional data collection of teachers’ perspectives on emotional intelligence (EI), the …

Uncovering The Layers Of Compassion: A Study In The Cultural Implications Of An Emotion, Suzan Jespersen

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a study of compassion in American society and how it is conveyed in volunteerism based on ethnographic research conducted at a non-profit organization. I challenge the idea that compassion is a universal and instinctive emotion. Instead, I focus on the relationship between emotions, society, and power.

The Effect Of Emotional Intensity, Arousal, And Valence On Online Video Ad Sharing, Chang Won Choi

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the effect of emotional factors, such as pleasure, arousal, and intensity, on online video ad sharing. Previous studies found that the emotions evoked by online video ads could influence consumers’ ad sharing intentions. However, it remains uncertain which emotional factors trigger ad sharing behavior. Some researchers argue that positive or high-arousal emotions (e.g., excitement) exert greater influence on ad sharing than negative or low-arousal emotions (e.g., sadness). However, these studies do not explain why video ads that evoke low-arousal or unpleasant emotions are also widely shared on social media. Based on the theory of social sharing of …

Moderating Effects Of Parental Feeding Practices And Emotional Eating On Dietary Intake Among Overweight African American Adolescents, Mary Quattlebaum

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effects of parental feeding practices and adolescent emotional eating (EE) on dietary outcomes among overweight African American adolescents. Based on Family Systems Theory, it was hypothesized that parental feeding practices, such as parental monitoring and responsibility, would buffer the effects of EE on poor dietary quality, whereas practices such as concern about a child’s weight, restriction, and pressure-to-eat would exacerbate this relationship. Adolescents (N = 127; Mage = 12.83 ۫.74; MBMI % = 96.61 ± 4.14) provided baseline data from the Families Improving Together (FIT) for a Weight Loss trial and an ancillary study. Dietary outcomes …

Cognitive Biases In Perfectionism: Attention Bias And Memory Bias For Perfectionism-Relevant And Negative Stimuli, Elizabeth Mary Marsh

Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests there are biases that affect cognitive processes such as attention and memory in affective disorders (Everaert et al., 2020; Grant et al., 2020) and traits associated with these disorders, such as perfectionism (Besser et al., 2008; Howell et al., 2016; Tonta et al., 2019). However, very limited research exists on the relationship between attention and memory bias in perfectionism. The aim of the current study was to examine to what extent cognitive biases exist and how they are related in perfectionism. I combined a dot probe task to measure attention bias with a recognition task to measure memory …

Water Bearer, Whitney Harris

Theses and Dissertations

My work explores fantasy and mythological archetypes. The exhibition features works on paper depicting mermaids, and a fountain featuring two figures submerged in water, one spitting into the other's mouth. I use black ink and glazes to create variegated surfaces. In these works, I reimagine ideas about power and intimacy.

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 …

Impact Of Acetylcholine On Internal Pathways To Basal Amygdala Pyramidal Neurons, Tyler Daniel Anderson-Sieg

Theses and Dissertations

The basolateral nuclear complex of the amygdala (BNC) – consisting of the lateral (LA), basolateral (BL), and basomedial nuclei (BM) – detects salient environmental stimuli (cue-detection) and motivates appropriate behavioral responses to their implied meaning (cue-guided behavior) via a precise pattern of internal circuitry. Glutamatergic signals representing environmental stimuli enter the LA and split into parallel streams that activate pyramidal neurons (PNs) in the anterior and posterior BL (BLa and BLp), which putatively mediate negative and positive emotions, respectively. The BL is the most densely innervated target of the cholinergic basal forebrain (CBF) and ACh transients (phasic ACh) in cortex …

Facilitating Multiple Cue Use Eliminates Age Differences In Episodic Metamemory For Emotional Words, Ethan Flurry

Theses and Dissertations

Older adults' ability to make accurate metamemory judgments indicates that aging spares metamemory (Eakin & Hertzog, 2006; 2012a; but see Souchay et al., 2006). However, age differences in metamemory accuracy for emotional information, particularly lists of positive and neutral words, indicate potential age-related impairment of metamemory (Tauber & Dunlosky, 2012; Flurry & Eakin, manuscript in preparation). These age differences may be explained by potential cue overshadowing effects (Price & Yates, 1993) in which older adults primarily used the salient cue, emotional valence, and overlooked additional cues that were diagnostic of memory. We hypothesized that age differences in metamemory for emotional …

Physiological Arousal, Emotion, And Word Retrieval In Aphasia: Effects And Relationships, Angela Lynne Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

People with aphasia are known to have poor word retrieval abilities in communicative tasks. It has also been reported that they have lower, non-optimal levels of physiological arousal, which may cause lower attention levels therefore contributing to poor performance on linguistic tasks. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between physiological arousal and word retrieval in adults with aphasia and neurotypical adults when presented with emotional stimuli within a confrontational naming task. Participants included 6 people with aphasia and 15 neurotypical controls. All participants completed a confrontational naming task within 3 emotional conditions (neutral, positive, negative) and …

How Many Ways Can You Vocalize Emotion? Introducing An Audio Corpus Of Acted Emotion, Logan Ricks Kowallis

Theses and Dissertations

Emotion recognition from facial expressions has been thoroughly explored and explained through decades of research, but emotion recognition from vocal expressions has yet to be fully explained. This project builds on previous experimental approaches to create a large audio corpus of acted vocal emotion. With a large enough sample size, both in number of speakers and number of recordings per speaker, new hypotheses can be explored for differentiating emotions. Recordings from 131 subjects were collected and made available in an online corpus under a Creative Commons license. Thirteen acoustic features from 120 subjects were used as dependent variables in a …

Estimating Affective States In Virtual Reality Environments Using The Electroencephalogram, Meghan R. Kumar

Theses and Dissertations

Recent interest in high-performance virtual reality (VR) headsets has motivated research efforts to increase the user's sense of immersion via feedback of physiological measures. This work presents the use of electroencephalographic (EEG) measurements during observation of immersive VR videos to estimate the user's affective state. The EEG of 30 participants were recorded as each passively viewed a series of one minute immersive VR video clips and subjectively rated their level of valence, arousal, dominance, and liking. Correlates between EEG spectral bands and the subjective ratings were analyzed to identify statistically significant frequencies and electrode locations across participants. Model feasibility and …

Formulating A Crowd State Prediction Problem For Application To Crowd Control, Brooks A. Butler

Theses and Dissertations

This project considers a new application of crowd control, namely, keeping the public safe during large scale demonstrations. This problem is difficult for a variety of reasons, including limited access to informative sensing and effective actuation mechanisms, as well as limited understanding of crowd psychology and dynamics. This project takes a first step towards solving this problem by formulating a crowd state prediction problem in consideration of recent work involving crowd behavior identification, crowd movement modeling, and crowd psychology modeling. We build a non-linear crowd behavior model incorporating components of personality modeling, human emotion modeling, group opinion dynamics, and group …

We All Feel Feelings, Ben Ohene

Theses and Dissertations

Consisting of three illustrated books, We All Feel Feelings is designed as a vehicle for the discussion of emotional and mental health with young boys. These books will help foster a mindset of openness and acceptance through different methods of displaying and understanding emotions.

Effect Of Positive And Negative Emotion On Naming Accuracy In Adults With Aphasia, Courtney Paige Nielsen

Theses and Dissertations

This is a preliminary study investigating the effects of emotion on a confrontational naming task in people with aphasia (PWA). Previous research investigating the effects of emotion on various language tasks in PWA has produced mixed findings with some suggesting a facilitative effect and others an inhibitory effect. Participants included 9 adults with aphasia as the result of a stroke, resulting in the presence of word-finding deficits (i.e., anomia). Participants named images in positive, negative, and neutral conditions. Responses were scored as either correct or incorrect; incorrect responses were coded further to illustrate individual error patterns. The majority of participants …

Exploring Teacher Beliefs Of Adolescent Developmental Needs Through Positive Student Comments Of Their Teachers, Elizabeth Bowers Hinchcliff

Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to qualitatively examine the intersection between teachers' practical reasoning and beliefs, adolescent developmental needs, and positive teacher-student relationships. Positive comments about middle school teachers were gathered anonymously from middle school students (grades 6-8; ages 11-14) and coded according to four developmental domains: physical, social, emotional, and physical. Chi square analysis was used to determine statistical significance of which domains students alluded to most often when describing their teachers. The six middle school teachers who were mentioned most frequently in the student comments participated in semi-structured, open-ended interviews in which they were asked about the developmental needs of …

Cognitive Demands Of Mothers Of Young Children In The Presence Of Emotional Distraction, Michelle Duersch

Theses and Dissertations

Stress and parenting often go hand in hand, with high physical and emotional demands from children often coupled with pressures and responsibilities adults bear from work, school, and other involvements outside the home. Parents often prioritize their children's needs above their own physical, emotional, and social needs. While current literature addresses stress in mothers, it has yet to understand under what circumstances her children may modify her stress levels and whether her stress response, in turn, affects cognition. This study seeks to investigate the impact of such a taxing environment on mothers' stress and cognition using a challenging mnemonic discrimination …

Mediation Among Maladaptive Perfectionism, Maladaptive Emotion Regulation, And Distress, Jennifer L. Woodrum

Theses and Dissertations

Perfectionism is a personality trait characterized by high standards for performance (Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990) and a striving for flawlessness (Flett & Hewitt, 2002). Maladaptive perfectionism, which has to do with self-critical thoughts (Dunkley, Zuroff, & Blankstein, 2003) and feelings of falling short of high standards (Slaney, Rice, & Ashby, 2002), is often associated with maladaptive strategies of emotion regulation (Aldea & Rice, 2006; Dunkley et al., 2003; Rudolph, Flett, & Hewitt, 2007). Additionally, research has shown that general use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies mediates the relation between maladaptive perfectionism and distress (Aldea & Rice, 2006; Di …

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 …

Is Endorsement Of Fear Of Happiness Associated With Behavioral Aversion To Reward?, Amanda Collins

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research suggests that some individuals have negative views about happiness and may actively avoid positivity due to associating it with previous negative experiences. The Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT) is a paradigm that examines approach and avoidance tendencies. However, the AAT has previously never been used to examine motivational tendencies in individuals who fear happiness. In this study, we used the AAT to examine if individuals who fear happiness respond aversively in the face of prospective positivity. Results revealed that the difference between the duration of pulling the joystick for both stimuli is negatively related to fear of happiness (FHS) such …

Cannabis-Using Youth Demonstrated Blunted Rostral Anterior Cingulate Cortex Activation, But Normal Functional Connectivity, During An Emotional Go/No-Go Task, Kristin Elizabeth Maple

Theses and Dissertations

Cannabis use has been associated with deficits in self-regulation, including inhibitory control. Cannabis users have previously exhibited both structural and functional deficits in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), a region involved in self-regulation of emotional response and inhibitory control. The present study aimed to examine whether abstinent cannabis users demonstrated abnormal functional activation and connectivity of the bilateral rACC during an emotional inhibitory processing task, and whether gender moderated these relationships. The study also aimed to examine whether bilateral rACC activation and connectivity in cannabis users was related to perceived stress. It was hypothesized that cannabis users would exhibit …

An Anatomical Basis Of The Differential Cholinergic Modulation Of Valence-Specific Pyramidal Neurons In The Basolateral Amygdala, Nguyen Vu

Theses and Dissertations

Emotion is a crucial component of the decision-making process. The amygdala, known as the “orchestrator” of the emotion circuit, associates emotional valence with incoming sensory stimuli and thus contributes to decision- making. Within the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala (BLA), spatially segregated and genetically distinct pyramidal neurons (PNs) have been identified based on their correspondence to distinct behavioral stimuli. These PNs project to several brain regions mediating different aspects of the emotional spectrum.

For example, BLA PNs projecting to prelimbic (PL) and infralimbic (IL) cortex are involved in fear acquisition and fear extinction, respectively. However, the mechanism by which these …

Emotional Reverberations, Kirsten Heteji

Theses and Dissertations

Projecting psychological mindscapes onto domestic objects allows for an emotive and bodily connection to the domestic realm. Body, for me, is the clay and how it holds touch and softness indexically recording the actions of making in the final forms. Pushing, pulling and pinching clay evokes sensations that connect the maker’s body as well as the observer of the work to participate. I shift expectations by experimenting between the hard and softness of bodily material like clay, giving it emotional fragility in how it contrasts the original structure it imitates. I think about creating objects and the arrangement them of …