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 …

Age-Related Differences In Cognition And Affect At Work : The Impact Of Mindfulness, Sara Michelle Stevens

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The present research examined job-related affective and cognitive processes across ages, and the role of trait mindfulness as a mechanism that influences the strength of these relationships. Specifically, job-related affective well-being, job satisfaction, and fluid intelligence were investigated as they relate to dynamics of aging. Participants on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (N = 174) completed a two-time longitudinal survey separating individual difference tests of trait mindfulness and fluid intelligence at Time 1 from self-report assessments of job satisfaction and job-related affective well-being at Time 2. Overall, the results from this study provide strong evidence that age and mindfulness both play an …

The Role Of Affective Arousal In The Affective State-Performance Goal Level Relationship, Vahe Permzadian

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Given that employee performance goals are major determinants of work motivation and performance, examining the factors that influence goal setting has generated substantial research interest. However, despite decades of work, the relationship between affect and goal setting is not well understood as evidenced by inconsistent findings in this domain. Based on contemporary theory, affect is described along the two dimensions of valence (i.e., the level of pleasantness) and arousal (i.e., the level of activation). Most of the focus has been on the valence dimension of affect, where mood-as-information theory as well as affect-priming theory predict that affective valence influences judgments …

Role Of Stress And Emotion Regulation Profiles In The Relation Between Childhood Stress And Adult Psychopathology Symptoms, Stephanie Emhoff

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Research consistently indicates that harsh parenting and interparental aggression are associated with long-term adjustment problems. However, not all youth exposed to these types of environmental stress go on to develop adverse outcomes. Additional research is needed on factors that increase risk for or protect against adverse psychological outcomes following early environmental stress. The present study examined reactivity profiles, developed from biological, behavioral, and affective responses to stress in young adults, as moderators in the relation between exposure to interparental aggression and/or harsh parenting during childhood and adolescence and psychopathology symptoms in young adults. Latent profile analysis indicated a 2-profile model …

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 …

Coping With Pediatric Cancer: Conversational Methods Utilized By Parents And Children When Dealing With Pediatric Cancer, Chelsi Morgan Walls

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study analyzed how people perceived parents should communicate with their child regarding pediatric cancer treatments. When dealing with pediatric cancer, it is vital that parents and their child communicate about the illness in order to effectively cope with the cancer. Using Uncertainty Management Theory, appraisals, inferences, and illusions, are examined in this study to discover how much affect-management and buffering would be used to manage the illness. Under UMT, the coping mechanisms of affect-management (i.e., religious coping and behavioral disengagement), and buffering (avoidance and child distraction) depend upon how individuals appraise the uncertain situation (positive vs. negative), the inferences …

Effects Of Construal Level On The Reliance On Affect Versus Substance, Ellen O'Malley

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The influence of construal level on judgment and decision-making is often seen in consumer research. However, the effect of construal level on preferences for evaluative inputs rather than final products is less explored. Two experiments were conducted to examine whether construal level affects the degree to which individuals rely on either affective or substantive information when making evaluative judgments; specifically, that abstract construals increase reliance on affective information, whereas concrete construals increase reliance on substantive information. Experiment 1 provided evidence for a relative preference for affective versus substantive information when engaged in abstract and concrete construals, respectively. Experiment 2 replicated …

Affect Identification And Interpersonal Skills: An In-Depth Evaluation Of Social Cognition In Schizophrenia, Griffin Pollock Sutton

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The presence of deficits in various sub-domains of social cognition has been investigated to a degree in individuals with schizophrenia. Some of the most commonly researched and documented deficits have included impairments in the identification of affect portrayed in faces. Research has indicated that the performance of individuals with schizophrenia on such tasks is generally impaired as compared to normal controls. However, some have questioned the generalizability of such findings to real-world situations, as day-to-day interactions generally necessitate a constant, fluid assessment of the thoughts and feelings of others and are rarely, if ever, limited to still images of others. …

Contemplative Practice, Internal Family Systems And Affect Regulation : An Exploratory Study : A Project Based Upon An Independent Investigation, Jessica Jeanne Prodis

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This exploratory study was undertaken to investigate the ways that contemplative practices across varied traditions may aid practitioners in the development of tools for emotional containment and regulation. The Internal Family Systems (IFS) model of psychotherapy (Schwartz, 1995) was used as a theoretical framework for this study. Findings were compared to the ways that affect regulation and containment are conceptualized within the IFS model. Eleven subjects who identified as utilizing contemplative practices from various traditions participated in this study. Interview questions were designed to explore the ways that engagement in a daily contemplative practice for five or more years had …

Feeling Your Way : Affect In Psychotherapy And Creative Writing From The Perspective Of The Client-Writer, Andrea Jean Torres

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This study asked: What do the affective experiences of engaging in psychotherapy and engaging in creative writing have in common, as perceived by the client-writer? The subjective experience of six "client-writers," individuals who selfidentified as both creative writers and current or former psychotherapy clients, were explored to determine whether being in a typical psychotherapy session and in a typical creative writing session involved similar feelings and affective processes. Study findings showed that expressing feelings, accessing the unconscious, making discoveries, exploring and/or learning about oneself, and using creativity were common to both creative writing and psychotherapy; releasing energy, developing insight, identifying …

A Longitudinal Investigation Of The Relationships Amongst Antibody Response To Influenza Vaccination, Affect, And Stress In The Elderly, Joanne Hash-Converse

Psychology

We examined the cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships amongst affect, stress exposure, and antibody (Ab) response to influenza inoculation in a healthy, elderly sample. We explored both efferent (CNS on immune activity) and afferent (immune activity on CNS function) pathways. Negative (NA) and positive (PA) affective states were examined in relation to Ab response, positing that high baseline NA (State, SNA, but not Trait, TNA) would predict reduced Ab response and that PA would predict enhanced response, and that the reduced Ab response in individuals displaying high baseline SNA would associate with decreases in NA. Moderator (for psychogenic and systemic stress) …

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 …