Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Relational Thriving In Context: Examining The Roles Of Gratitude, Affectionate Touch, And Positive Affective Variability In Health And Well-Being, Alicia Rochelle Starkey

Dissertations and Theses

Social connection is important to one's health and longevity. However, not only do people need others to survive, we need others to thrive. Researchers call for deeper examination of the functions and processes through which our social partners help us to prosper and thrive, such as through increased physical health and well-being. Over three studies, I examined phenomena theorized to contribute to long-term thriving including positive emotions (i.e., gratitude and positive affect fluctuation), responsive support, affectionate touch, and physical health (i.e., sleep) within the context of nursing work (Study 1) and military relationships (Study 2 & 3). Study 1 provides …

Gratitude Reception And Physical Health: Examining The Mediating Role Of Satisfaction With Patient Care In A Sample Of Acute Care Nurses, Alicia R. Starkey, Cynthia D. Mohr, David M. Cadiz, Robert R. Sinclair

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Literature examining well-being benefits of gratitude experiences is currently thriving in psychological science. However, evidence of the physical health benefits of gratitude remains limited. Research and theory in affective science suggests an indirect relationship between gratitude and physical health. This study examines how receiving expressions of gratitude predicts physical health outcomes in a sample of acute care nurses over time. Registered nurses (N = 146) practicing in Oregon completed weekly surveys over 12 consecutive weeks describing their positive and negative events, health, and work-related experiences. Multilevel mediation models revealed that being thanked more often at work was positively related to …

Affect Perception In Computer Mediated Communication, Rachel E. Townsend, Chris Allen

Student Research Symposium

The perception of affect influences the subjective perception of an individual’s environment (Isbell & Burns, n.d.). Accurate affect perception leads to increased resilience and positive coping mechanisms when faced with daily life stressors (Robinson, 2012). Communication technologies have revolutionized the ways in which individuals connect to one another professionally and socially (Walther, 1996). This study investigated accurate affect perception in computer mediated communication (CMC) from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Communication research posit several theories to accommodate the ways in which we communicate using CMC (J. B. Walther, 1996). Personality research has documented the correlation between the traits extraversion and neuroticism with …

A Study Of Age And Sex-Related Differences In The Perception Of Emotional Stimuli, Nancy Mellor Canizio

Dissertations and Theses

In a tachistoscopic perception task, adult males in the Fels Research Institute's longitudinal population (Kagan and Moss, 1960) were found to have a higher recognition threshold for pictures depicting dependency scenes than adult females. The female subjects had a higher recognition threshold for aggressive scenes than the males.

The present study was designed to further compare male and female perception of dependent and aggressive stimuli by including a developmental component to test if the perceptual differences vary with age. A benign or neutral stimulus category was added to aid in determining direction of any resulting differences: i.e., heightened perception or …