Psychology Commons^™

Exploring The Impact Of Mood States On Motivation To Consume Food And Non-Food Rewards In Individuals With Loss Of Control Eating, Kendall M. Schmidt

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Introduction. Loss of control (LOC) eating episodes are eating episodes in which an individual feels they cannot control what or how much they are eating, regardless of the amount of food consumed. These episodes are associated with significant psychological distress, psychiatric comorbidity, and reduced quality of living. Both negative affect and heightened reward processing of food have been posited as mechanisms that contribute to LOC eating. However, few studies have investigated whether negative affect influences reward processing of food and/or non-food rewards in individuals with LOC eating. Understanding how purported mechanisms of LOC work in conjunction may help to …

The Influence Of Environmental Sounds On Cognition And Mood, Huda Ahmed

Undergraduate Honours Theses

Exposure to nature has evidently been shown to benefit affective states and improve cognitive performance. Due to the predominant focus on the influence of immersive environments on restoration in prior research, the current study aimed to examine the extent to which nature-related benefits are linked to perceptual richness. The study consisted of 204 participants, recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants were randomly assigned to listen to either unaltered nature sounds, unaltered urban sounds, degraded nature sounds, or degraded urban sounds. Participants completed the Auditory N-Back task, self-reported fatigue levels, and provided mood ratings prior to and after listening to the …

Exploring The Role(S) Of Trait Emotional Intelligence & Personality In Help-Seeking Behaviour Among Undergraduate Students, Nikola Cuvalo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Trait emotional intelligence (EI) and the Big Five personality factors represent promising constructs in the individual differences literature that have been investigated in relation to help-seeking behaviour. This quantitative work explores the relationship between individual differences in trait EI, personality, and attitudes toward – as well as future intentions to engage in – help-seeking behaviour among undergraduate students at Western University. Stepwise regression modelling was used to determine which dimensions of personality and trait EI best predicted help-seeking outcomes and whether attitudes toward help-seeking predicted intentions to seek help from university-provided mental health sources. Resultsindicated that several individual facets of …

How Long Do Mood Induction Procedure (Mip) Primes Really Last? Implications For Cognitive Vulnerability Research., Jennifer C P Gillies, David J A Dozois

Psychology Publications

BACKGROUND: Mood Induction Procedures (MIPs) are used widely in research on cognitive vulnerability to depression. Although empirical evidence supports certain MIPs as effective, little research has evaluated whether MIP-induced sad moods are sufficiently persistent. This study aimed to determine (1) how long an MIP-induced mood lasts according to commonly used operational definitions and (2) whether these findings vary according to the type of MIP used.

METHODS: Four-hundred-and-one undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of three commonly used sad MIPs (music, memory, music+memory) or to one of three matched neutral MIPs. Mood was repeatedly measured immediately prior to and following …

Influences On Early Creativity: Examining The Role Of Affect, Movement And Autonomy During Play On Divergent Thinking Skills Of Preschool Children, Taylor S. Boyd

Undergraduate Honours Theses

Play provides children an opportunity to practice cognitive and affective processes which are important in creativity. Studies have found that during play, children who display positive emotions, are physically active and play by themselves tend to demonstrate higher creativity. In the present study, the researcher observed fifteen preschool children to record their independence, affect and physical movement during free play. In addition, one adult from each classroom rated of each child’s general affect. Next, participants completed two versions of an Alternate Uses Task assessing divergent thinking skills: one standard version in which participants verbally indicated multiple uses for an object …

Understanding How To Make Physical Activity Pleasurable, Cassandra L. Ellis

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this dissertation was to understand how specific factors can be manipulated to affect participant’s experience with physical activity (PA). Three studies were conducted. Study 1 was a comprehensive review, examining specific factors and measures that can be used to study the affective experience of PA participants. For Study 2, several focus group interviews were conducted, and a questionnaire distributed to Kinesiology students (n = 113) to determine how music affects PA participants. The qualities of songs provided were analysed. Finally, the purpose of Study 3 was to use the motivational playlist from Study 2 and determine whether …

Does Reflection Mitigate Negative Emotions Following Work Performance Feedback?, Rebecca J. Factor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study examined if reflection could mitigate negative emotion following negative work performance feedback. Initial research has found that reflection is beneficial for learning, but it has seldom been tested if reflection can mitigate negative emotion associated with negative feedback. Participants were tasked with completing open-ended questions based on a workplace training manual, and then received negative work performance feedback. Feedback was presented in either absolute terms, or relative to others’ performance. Afterwards, in one condition, participants completed a reflection activity, while in another condition, participants simply completed a time filler task. Participants’ emotions were then measured. Results indicated that …

Reactions To Negative Feedback: The Role Of Resilience And Implications For Counterproductivity, Kabir N. Daljeet

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The model of Organizational Frustration (Spector, 1978) suggests that individuals are more likely to engage in counterproductive work behaviour (CWB) after having had a negative experience at work due to the negative emotions brought on by such an experience. The King and Rothstein (2010) model of resilience suggests that the degree to which an individual self-regulates after an adverse workplace experience influences how they subsequently behave. Using vignettes, participants were told they received either positive or negative feedback regarding their job performance and were asked to fill out measures of resilience and intentions to engage in CWB. In a sample …

Does Anyone Really Like Horror Movies? Personality And Automatic Affective Reactions To Frightening Films, Michael E. Battista

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

I sought to explain why many people willingly expose themselves to apparently unpleasant media, such as horror movies. Participants (N = 133) completed a modified version of the Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP; Payne et al., 2005), which assessed initial affective reactions to screenshots from movies that were either frightening or neutral. The time between exposure to the screenshots and assessment of affect was either short (100 ms) or long (1000 ms). Explicit attitudes about the movies and about the horror genre were also assessed, in addition to the following personality variables: The Big Five, Machiavellianism (from the Supernumerary Personality …

Selective Attention To Threat Versus Reward: Meta-Analysis And Neural-Network Modeling Of The Dot-Probe Task., Paul A Frewen, David J A Dozois, Marc F Joanisse, Richard W J Neufeld

Psychology Publications

Two decades of research conducted to date has examined selective visual attention to threat and reward stimuli as a function of individual differences in anxiety using the dot-probe task. The present study tests a connectionist neural-network model of meta-analytic and key individual-study results derived from this literature. Attentional bias for threatening and reward-related stimuli is accounted for by connectionist model implementation of the following clinical psychology and affective neuroscience principles: 1) affective learning and temperament, 2) state and trait anxiety, 3) intensity appraisal, 4) affective chronometry, 5) attentional control, and 6) selective attention training. Theoretical implications for the study of …

Neuroimaging Studies Of Psychological Interventions For Mood And Anxiety Disorders: Empirical And Methodological Review., Paul A Frewen, David J A Dozois, Ruth A Lanius

Psychology Publications

This article reviews the methods and results of published neuroimaging studies of the effects of structured psychological interventions for mood and anxiety disorders. The results are consistent with neural models of improved affective- and self-regulation, as evidenced by psychotherapeutic modulation of brain metabolic activity within the dorsolateral, ventrolateral, and medial prefrontal cortices, the anterior cingulate, the posterior cingulate/precuneus, and the insular cortices. Specific recommendations for future studies are outlined, and the clinical and theoretical significance of this research is discussed.

The Validity Of The Brief Version Of The Fear Of Negative Evaluation Scale., Kerry A Collins, Henny A Westra, David J A Dozois, Sherry H Stewart

Psychology Publications

The Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale [FNE; J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 33 (1969) 448] is a commonly used measure of social anxiety. A brief version of the scale (FNEB) is available for convenient administration. Despite being widely advocated for use, the psychometric properties of the FNEB have not been evaluated with clinically anxious samples. The present study addressed the reliability and validity of the FNEB in a clinical sample of individuals with either social phobia (n = 82) or panic disorder (n = 99) presenting for treatment. Factor analysis supported the construct validity of the FNEB. The validity of the …

Normative Data On Cognitive Measures Of Depression., David J A Dozois, Roger Covin, Jay K Brinker

Psychology Publications

The assessment of cognition and cognitive change is important for case conceptualization, monitoring the efficacy of specific interventions, and evaluating treatment outcome in cognitive-behavioral therapy. Unfortunately, a paucity of normative data exists on cognitive measures used for psychotherapy outcome research in depression, and little information is available to guide a practitioner's understanding of the magnitude and clinical significance of a patient's cognitive change. This article presents normative data on 6 self-report instruments that assess negative and positive automatic thoughts, hopelessness, cognitive biases and errors, and dysfunctional attitudes. Normative data were derived from studies published from the date of inception of …

A Longitudinal Investigation Of Information Processing And Cognitive Organization In Clinical Depression: Stability Of Schematic Interconnectedness., D J Dozois, K S Dobson

Psychology Publications

This study longitudinally investigated information processing and cognitive organization in clinical depression. The main hypothesis was that individuals whose depression had remitted would show a significant cognitive shift on information processing (e.g., deactivation of negative processing) but not on cognitive organizational tasks, Forty-five individuals with clinical depression completed 2 information processing and 2 cognitive organizational tasks at initial assessment. At 6-month follow-up, the sample (23 remitted, 22 stable depressed) was readministered the tasks. As expected, information processing shifted significantly in individuals who had improved symptomatically, whereas negative cognitive organizational indices remained stable. The implications of these results are discussed as …