Browsing by Subject "Emotion"
Now showing 1 - 19 of 19
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Allocation of attention and the encoding of emotional memories.(2011-07) Blank, Michael PatrickEmotional reactivity to visual scenes affects both how we attend to them and how they are remembered, but it is not clear how these attention and memory effects are related. Weapon-focus theories (e.g., Loftus, 1979) suggest that attention is restricted to emotion-provoking parts of scenes, and that such restriction of attention affects the specificity of the memory that is stored. I directly tested whether “weapon-focus-like” restriction of attention predicts subsequent visually-specific memory for emotional scenes by recording eye movements while participants viewed relatively emotional and relatively non-emotional slides during initial encoding. Even though visually-specific memory was equivalent for all types of scenes, different patterns of eye movements predicted subsequent memory for emotional and non-emotional scenes. For emotional scenes only, visually-specific memory was predicted when eye movements were restricted to emotional parts of the scenes during encoding. For non-emotional scenes, visually-specific memory was predicted when more fixations of shorter duration were made, and attention was relatively broadened across the scene during encoding. Experiments 2 and 3 tested whether these patterns of eye movements reflect local or global processing of scenes, but across both experiments, there was no evidence that local and global processing influenced subsequent memory effects. The subsequent memory effects from Experiment 1 were replicated in Experiment 2, but in Experiment 3, a relative broadening of attention – more fixations of shorter duration – predicted subsequent memory for all scenes, a pattern that had only been observed for nonemotional scenes previously. Experiment 4 was conducted to test whether this occurred because emotional reactions to emotional scenes were reduced by having participants simply view each scene, which reduces emotional responses when compared to cases where valence and arousal judgments are made as they were in previous experiments. Experiment 4 replicated the subsequent memory effects from Experiment 3, demonstrating important boundary conditions on the subsequent memory effects established in the first two experiments. These results suggest that qualitatively distinct memory representations may be stored for emotional and non-emotional scenes, but both representations are capable of supporting visually-specific memory.Item Breaking out of the Ghetto: The Theory and Practice of Using Critical Embodied Writing to Build Inclusive Spaces of Identification and Alternative Notions of Progress in Writing Studies(2016-12) Wolf, AnneThe fields of Rhetoric and Writing Studies have neglected to pay attention to the writing and theory of women of color feminist (WOCF) writers. Writing and Rhetorical scholarship has inadvertently promoted a progress narrative that connects progress in the field with capitalist progress and marginalizes non-white, non-capitalist, non-normative ways of knowing. Many WOCF writers have built theory about central concepts within Rhetoric and Writing Studies, and these disciplines stand to benefit greatly, in terms of theory, practice, and pedagogy, from paying attention to the work that has been done by WOCF writers on the following issues: embodiment, affect, memory, identification, and geography. This project builds on the theory of many of these writers by identifying a kind of writing practice I have termed "critical embodied writing".Item Developing interactions between executive function and emotion during adolescence.(2010-10) Cohen, Julia E.Adolescence is reputed to be a time of heightened emotionality and limited impulse control. Furthermore, emotion is frequently cited as the instigator of impulsive actions within this developmental period. That is, adolescents' powerful emotions may disrupt efforts to self-regulate and lead to impulsive actions that do not, in fact, serve the individual's long-term goals. Additionally, poor decision-making during this age range frequently has serious negative consequences. Understanding the cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms underlying the developing relationship between emotion and cognitive control may ultimately help us encourage teens to avoid potentially dangerous decisions and actions. To this end, this dissertation presents four studies aimed at better understanding the influence of emotion on higher-level cognition and self-regulation during adolescence. The first study introduces a task that requires participants to ignore emotional images while exercising inhibitory motor control (a go-nogo task). The second study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore age differences in brain activation during performance of the emotional-distraction go-nogo task introduced in the first study. The third study extends the emotional distraction paradigm to a second form of higher-level cognition by using emotional images as backgrounds in an n-back working memory task. The fourth study examines the influence of early institutional care and BDNF genotype on performance of the emotional-distraction go-nogo task. Together these studies inform us regarding developmental changes in the interface between emotion and cognition during adolescence.Item Discrepancy and evaluation in romantic relationships: testing the emotion in relationships model.(2009-06) Beckes, Lane AlexanderThis paper is a test of Ellen Berscheid's Emotion in Relationships Model (ERM; Berscheid, 1983; Berscheid & Ammazzalorso, 2001). This model is based primarily on the Discrepancy/Evaluation Theory of emotion propsed by George Mandler (1975; 1990a). The ERM predicts that emotion in interpersonal relationships occurs when our relationship partner violates our expectancies and interrupts our behavioral sequences. This expectancy violation leads to arousal. Cognitive evaluation of the situation then either simultaneously or subsequently determines whether the violation is positive or negative based on whether it provides an opportunity to promote the individual's welfare or poses a threat to the individual's welfare. The ERM also expands upon Mandler's ideas by formulating hypotheses related to the infrastructure of the relationship, specifically how interdependent relationship partners are. This paper provides strong evidence for the expectancy - arousal relationship in an experimental paradigm that tests people in intact relationships, using a real time interaction between the participant's and their partners. The ERM is well supported by the data and evidence for a variety of expectancy sources such as the partner's past behavior, social norms, individual differences in attachment history, and relationship interdpendence or behavioral closeness is gleaned and discussed.Item Emotion Regulation and Spatial Memory(2018-04-10) Sewon, OhThe emotion and memory has been studied for a long time, but the emotion was mostly induced before their main memory task and the relationship between emotion regulation and spatial memory was rarely studied. We conducted one hour experiment with university students for last one semester and analyzed using Excel 2016 in the correlation between emotion regulation self-report measures and spatial memory task accuracy. DERS supported our hypothesis weakly but ACS didn’t show the similar flow.Item Food and emotions: Assessing the effects of food behaviors and prior associations on the emotional response to food consumption(2015-05) Osdoba, KatieBecause of the impact diet and food choice have on health, and the role that emotion may play in food choice, a growing research interest in the links between food and emotion has emerged. The research presented in this thesis attempted to further the understanding of the relationships between food and emotion, focusing particularly on the effects of certain food behaviors on mood, and the formation of emotional associations with food. The objective of Part 1 was to determine whether having a choice of meal components (vs. no choice) and/or preparing a meal (vs. someone else preparing) influenced the stress-relieving and mood-boosting effects of food and eating. One hundred eighteen participants completed a laboratory stress task in which they were asked to deliver an impromptu speech and to do complex mental arithmetic. Following the stress task, participants consumed a pasta meal. Participants either chose the components of their pasta meal or not (experimenter chose the components for them), and either prepared it themselves or not (experimenter prepared it for them). Stress (salivary cortisol, heart rate, and blood pressure) and mood (adapted Profile of Mood States) were measured several times throughout the experiment. Not choosing the meal components resulted in greater reductions in anxiety and anger than choosing. Systolic blood pressure was reduced more in the no choice than in the choice condition after the meal. Preparing versus not preparing had little effect on stress and mood measures. Given that people generally have emotional responses to food and eating experiences, the second part of this thesis explored why and how those emotional associations are formed. The main objective of Part 2 was to attempt to induce positive emotional associations with novel foods in the laboratory by conditioning the foods with emotionally positive film clips. The effect of calorie content of foods on formation of emotional associations was also examined, as was the relationship between liking ratings of the novel foods and emotional associations. One hundred participants completed a conditioning procedure in which they ate novel foods (High-Calorie foods or Low-Calorie foods) while viewing film clips (Positive film clips or Neutral film clips) for four consecutive days. Prior to conditioning, they made baseline ratings of explicit (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule) and implicit (Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test) emotional associations and liking (9-point hedonic scale). On the day after the last conditioning session, and also one week later, participants rated explicit and implicit emotional associations and liking again. Positive emotional associations were not successfully induced with novel foods. No differences in emotional associations between high-calorie and low-calorie foods were observed. A major limitation was that the film clips did not reliably increase participants’ positive mood, which may have contributed to the failure of our conditioning procedure. Liking ratings of the novel foods increased throughout the duration of the study, and were positively associated with positive emotional associations. The research presented in this thesis demonstrates the complexity of the relationships between food and emotions, and sheds light on the many methodological issues to consider when studying these relationships.Item Gratitude as Persuasion: Understanding When and Why Gratitude Expressions Facilitate and Inhibit Compliance(2015-08) Dwyer, Patrick C.Most of the research examining the influence of gratitude expressions on compliance has focused on their benefits, but some empirical and anecdotal evidence suggests that they can both facilitate and inhibit compliance with requests. This dissertation seeks to understand when and why gratitude expressions enhance compliance and also when and why they may lead to diminished compliance. Two online experiments of adult participants tested hypotheses based on self-determination theory and the persuasion knowledge model. Motivation type and persuasion awareness were hypothesized to moderate the influence of gratitude expressions on compliance, and perceptions of sincerity, basic need support, and differences in state motivation were hypothesized to mediate these effects. Results suggest that gratitude expressions increase compliance through affecting perceptions of sincerity and by supporting relatedness needs. However, results also suggest that gratitude expressions do not always enhance compliance, and can sometimes lead to diminished compliance. Motivation type and persuasion awareness were both found to moderate the influence of gratitude expressions on compliance, and these effects were mediated by differences in state motivation. This research broadens our understanding of gratitude in social contexts by showing that expressions of gratitude can not only facilitate compliance with requests, but also sometimes lead to reductions in compliance. It demonstrates when each of these outcomes is more likely to occur, and it also contributes by uncovering some of the psychological dynamics underlying these influences.Item Impulsivity and Risky Decision-Making(2016-05) Young, Nathaniel AThe relationships between emotion, trait impulsivity, sensitivity to reward and punishment and risky decision-making were explored. Twenty-Seven undergraduate psychology students (14 males and 13 females) completed the (negative) Urgency, (lack of) Premeditation, (lack of) Perseverance, Sensation Seeking, and Positive Urgency scale (UPPS+P); the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire (SPSRQ), and the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Afterward the participants performed the Iowa gambling task (IGT). Results showed that dimensions related to negative emotion and rash impulsivity significant factors within the model to predict risky decision-making during the IGTItem The Influence of Acute Stress on the Perception of Robot Emotional Body Language: Implications for Robot Design in Healthcare and Other High-Risk Domains(2017-07) Thimmesch-Gill, ZaneIn coming years, emotionally expressive social robots will permeate many facets of our lives. Yet, although researchers have explored robot design parameters that may facilitate human-robot interaction, remarkably little attention has been paid to the human perceptual and other psychological factors that may impact human ability to engage with robots. In high-risk settings, such as healthcare—where the use of robots is expected to increase markedly—it is paramount to understand the influence of a patient’s stress level, temperament, and attitudes towards robots as negative interactions could harm a patient’s experience and hinder recovery. Using a novel between-subject paradigm, we investigated how the experimental induction of acute physiological and cognitive stress versus low stress influences perception of normed robot emotional body language as conveyed by a physically-present versus virtual reality generated robot. Following high or low stress induction, participants were asked to rate the valence (negative/unhappy to positive/happy) and level of arousal (calm/relaxed to animated/excited) conveyed by poses in five emotional categories: negative valence-high arousal, negative valence-low arousal, neutral, positive valence-low arousal, positive valence-high arousal. Poses from the categories were randomly intermixed and each pose was presented two or three times. Ratings were then correlated with temperament (as assessed by the Adult Temperament Questionnaire), attitudes towards and experience with robots (a new questionnaire that included measures from the Godspeed Scales and Negative Attitudes about Robots Survey), and chronic stress. The acute stress induction especially influenced the evaluation of high arousal poses – both negative and positive – with both valence and arousal rated lower under high than low stress. Repeated presentation impacted perception of low arousal (negative and positive) and neutral poses, with increases in perceived valence and arousal for later presentations. There were also effects of robot type specifically for positively-valenced emotions, such that these poses were rated as more positive for the physically-present than virtually-instantiated robot. Temperament was found to relate to emotional robot body language. Trait positive affect was associated with higher valence ratings for positive and neutral poses. Trait negative affect was correlated with higher arousal ratings for negative valence-low arousal poses. Subcategories within the robot attitudes questionnaire were correlated with emotional robot poses and temperament. To our knowledge this dissertation is the first exploration of the effects of acute and chronic stress on human perception of robot emotional body language, with implications for robot design, both physical and virtual. Given the largely parallel findings that we observed for the poses presented by the physically-present versus virtually-instantiated robot, it is proposed that the use of virtual reality may provide a viable "sandbox" tool for more efficiently and thoroughly experimenting with possible robot designs, and variants in their emotional expressiveness. Broader psychological, physiological, and other factors that designers should consider as they create robots for high-risk applications are also discussed.Item The measure of affective decision making: Modulatory circuitry as interface between emotion and decision(2019-12) Therior, WindyDecision making is influenced by modulatory processes that enable coordinated responses to environmental and emotional contexts. The measurement of modulatory processes is typically performed via biophysical metrics which carry only partial information on the unobserved processes. We provide an alternative, data-driven, methodology for the targeted measurement of the impact of modulatory processes on decisions. We apply directed dimensionality reduction to a large set of biometric measures including galvanic skin response, heart rate, pupilometry, facial emotion, and electroencephalography, to extract information predictive of human behavior in a standard two-alternative forced-choice decision making paradigm. Using a pre-existing model of decisions in this domain (i.e., the drift diffusion model) affords the ability to specify how the inferred modulatory process informs interpretable decision parameters. We validate this method with model comparisons together with cross validation. This method can be adapted to arbitrary decision domains to investigate how emotional state interacts with decision processes. We find an unexpected correlation between decision parameters, drift rate and decision threshold, when using this latent state extraction procedure not otherwise found when investigating behavioral responses alone. We interpret the correlation in parameters as evidence of their being both influenced by a common upstream modulatory process. We then systematically relax the constraints of the drift diffusion model and performed logistic regression to extract within trial weights on external information. We found that confidence acts as an internal representation of information reliability and adapts integration time to offset conditions of low information gain. Taken together, these findings support the interpretation that emotional state modulates decision making processes.Item Mixing business with pleasure: the impact of blended relationships on emotion work in organizations.(2011-03) Fitzpatrick-Timm, Stacy LynnThe current study examined status-different blended relationships in the workplace. Relational Framing Theory was applied as a means of understanding the two primary functions of workplace blended relationships. Two hundred and twenty-four subjects, employed both full and part time, were asked to complete an online survey about their experience and management of emotional stress during a conflict with a superior. Results indicated that employees maintained four types of blended relationships in the workplace. Furthermore, intensity of emotional stress experienced during conflict and the preferred emotion work strategy in response to this stress was dependent upon the type of blended relationship maintained. This study provides insight into how employees view their blended relationships and how work and social functions of workplace relationships are managed.Item More than a feeling: emotional value alters visual perception.(2012-05) McMenamin, Brenton W.Objects with emotional or motivational value are thought to benefit from facilitated perceptual processing. However, previous studies that have combined emotional variables with perceptual tests generally have relied on stimuli with well-established emotional value (e.g., expressive and neutral faces), ensuring that the manipulation of emotional value was accompanied by a change in perceptual content. This dissertation contains a set of experiments that combine an aversive conditioning paradigm with tests of perceptual detection and discrimination, so the perceptual characteristics of the emotional and non-emotional stimuli can be controlled and counterbalanced. Moreover, the stimulus space is designed to allow the effects of emotional value and emotional ambiguity to be deconfounded. Behavioral results indicate that perceptual detection and discrimination abilities are improved for stimuli with emotional value, however the effect has a delayed onset and only appears in the second half of the experiment. Emotional value is associated with a decreased amplitude for early visually-evoked ERPs (P1 window), and sLORETA source-estimation suggests that this P1 amplitude reduction is caused by increased activity in orbitofrontal cortex and ventromedial PFC. The P1 effect occurs in the first half of the experiment, but not the second, suggesting that it may be a reinforcement learning signal used to drive perceptual reorganization. The final experiment explores whether conditioning-induced changes to target detection would generalize to novel stimuli and how the categorical structure of the stimulus space can impact the effects of emotion.Item N-back Performance with Trauma-Relevant Visual Distractors: Associations with Posttraumatic Stress Symptomatology(2018-09) Marquardt, CraigResponses to psychological trauma can range widely from resiliency to psychiatric disability. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one possible outcome following trauma composed of specific symptoms such as intrusive re-experiencing of trauma reminders, avoidance of trauma-related cues, dysphoric mood, and hyperarousal. The existence of PTSD-related cognitive impairments is well documented, but the contributory factors behind these effects are less understood. Questions about cognitive functioning are relevant for recently returning military service members who commonly report past neurological sequelae consistent with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) from explosive blasts. There is interest in using laboratory paradigms to tease apart the relative effects of PTSD and mTBI. The attentional control theory proposes misallocations of attentional resources are responsible for cognitive alterations among individuals with anxiety-related disorders. Elevated anxiety may lead to perceptual engagement with task-irrelevant threat, which would require goal-directed attentional resources to inhibit and shift back towards primary task goals. In this way, task effectiveness can be maintained at the cost of inefficiently slowed responding. A cross-sectional sample of veterans from Operations Enduring/Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) were recruited (n = 128) to complete a sequential-letter N-back task superimposed over task-irrelevant neutral images or affectively aversive combat scenes. Consistent with the attentional control theory, individuals with elevated symptoms of PTSD were more inefficient while task efficacy was largely preserved. Response time (RT) variability indices assessing the relative prominence of goal-directed decisional processes failed to produce associations with PTSD. Instead, inefficient cognition was best explained by general psychopathology effects and prolonged engagement with threat by non-decisional mental processes. Event-related potentials (ERPs) to the onset of the task stimuli supported the RT findings. Specific alterations in early engagement with stimulus-driven attentional processing were observed among individuals with elevated PTSD symptomatology. Two-step temporal-spatial decompositions of the ERPs did not reveal any PTSD effects specific to an identified central spatial component. Instead, effects of PTSD were best explained as alterations in perceptual processing most clearly observed within neural activity at a posterior spatial component. Effects of mTBI were isolated to the behavioral indices and resulted in more rather than less efficient engagement with the task. Several key aspects of the attentional control theory were not supported by the results. Alterations in goal-directed attentional systems may not be strictly necessary to produce PTSD-related cognitive inefficiencies. Study findings have implications for alternative models of PTSD using dimensional symptom severity scores.Item A Post-Intentional Phenomenological Exploration of Educator Emotional Efficacy (E³)(2023) VonGrey, GeriResearch indicates that 40% to 50% of new teachers leave the educational field within their first five years of service (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2014; Education Minnesota, 2021a, 2021b; Liuzzi, 2021). Teachers are experiencing exhaustion, compassion fatigue, and often symptoms of burnout (Shen et al., 2015). These risk factors can manifest themselves in a wide variety of ways, including; a diminished sense of hope, decreased compassion and empathy, adverse changes in work performance, feelings of bitterness towards their job, and a loss of emotional regulation ( Gozali-Lee & Connell, 2019; Hagaman & Casey, 2018; Kyriacou, 2010; Sparks & Malkus, 2011; Domitrovich et al., 2016). The research urges us to pay attention. Many teachers are exhausted and are living on the edge of these realities, and as a result, are simply not thriving. The deteriorating mental and physical health of teachers negatively impacts teachers, but it also erodes the assets that those teachers bring into their classrooms, including; their emotional availability, empathy, hope, presence, self-efficacy, and resilience, all of which contribute to their asset-based strengths (Levine, 2013; Maslach & Leiter, 2005, 2007, 2016; McCarthy et al., 2010; Pines, 1993; Platsidou & Agaliotis, 2017; Shen et al., 2015). Palmer (2007) states, “we must enter, not evade, the tangles of teaching so we can understand them better and negotiate them with more grace, not only to guard our spirits but also to serve our students well” (p. 2). This research project uses a post-intentional phenomenology (PIP) methodology to investigate how the phenomenon of Educator Emotional Efficacy (E³) is produced and provoked in the lived experiences of teachers. E³ is rooted in the belief that an educator can develop the abilities and skill sets needed to constructively respond to the full range of emotions they experience, both positive and challenging emotions, and have the necessary skills to react to these emotions in a way that is aligned with their values and beliefs. Ideally, the development of E³ can work to minimize the negative consequences that can lead to burnout. Therefore, this study explores how teachers' development and awareness of E³ might positively impact teacher identity and their holistic health. More specifically, the phenomenon of educator emotional efficacy (E³) is shaped by the constructs of empathy, mindfulness, hope, and self-compassion and how they might serve to diminish the three manifestations of teacher burnout, which include emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of self-efficacy (Maslach & Leiter, 2005, 2007, 2016).Item Psychophysiological and fMRI investigations of tobacco cue reactivity.(2010-06) Engelmann, Jeffrey MichaelDevelopment of new smoking-cessation therapies may be facilitated by identifying the neural basis of smoking-related emotional responses. In this dissertation, the affective consequences of cigarette smoking and abstinence were modeled in rats and humans using a potentiated-startle paradigm. In rats, repeated daily nicotine injections resulted in increased startle amplitude 2 h after nicotine exposure, which is consistent with the emergence of an anxiety-like withdrawal episode. In humans, startle responses to tobacco, pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant cues were measured in nonsmokers, nonabstinent smokers, and smokers who were 24 h into a 48 h abstinence period. Startle amplitude was potentiated during unpleasant cues in nonsmokers and abstinent smokers, but not in nonabstinent smokers, which suggests that smoking a cigarette reduced anxiety. Event-related brain potentials also suggested that abstinent smokers were more emotionally reactive than nonsmokers and nonabstinent smokers to both tobacco cues and unpleasant cues. An additional, functional magnetic resonance imaging study found that that two brain regions, the dorsal striatum and the anterior cingulate cortex, were involved in the expression of abstinent smokers' emotional responses to tobacco and unpleasant cues. These results suggest negative affect may be important in maintaining cigarette smoking and that the potentiated startle paradigm is an ideal model for preclinical and clinical studies of smoking-related emotional responses.Item The relationship between emotional intelligence and emotional labor and its effect on job burnout in Korean Organizations(2010-02) Lee, HyuneungIn this study, it was investigated whether emotional consonance mediates the trait emotional intelligence (EI)-emotional labor relationship and whether emotional consonance moderates the ability EI-emotional labor relationship and the emotional labor-job burnout relationship. A survey questionnaire was administered to 600 employees from 22 subsidiaries of a Korean conglomerate, and 401 surveys were returned, resulting in a 66.8% response rate. In the process of data screening, three outliers were eliminated, leaving 398 cases in the sample. It was found that trait EI was positively related to emotional consonance, and emotional consonance was negatively related to surface acting and positively related to deep acting. Also, emotional consonance mediated the relationship between trait EI and surface/deep acting. Ability EI had a negative relationship with surface acting and a positive relationship with deep acting though the relationships were weak. Emotional consonance did not moderate the ability EI-emotional labor relationship but explained most of the variance of surface/deep acting. Though surface acting was positively and deep acting was negatively related to emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, ability EI had a larger effect on both dimensions of job burnout. While surface acting did not have a significant effect on personal accomplishment, deep acting had a positive effect on personal accomplishment. Finally, though emotional consonance did not moderate the relationships between surface/deep acting and emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, emotional consonance moderated the relationships between surface/deep acting and personal accomplishmentItem The role of culture in the link between emotional suppression and well-being.(2008-12) Su, Jenny Chen-YiThe current dissertation explores how culture influences emotion regulation by examining the ways in which self-construal (independent vs. interdependent) relates to the frequency and consequences of ego- and other-focused emotional suppression. A series of hypotheses were tested using a cross-cultural comparison of Singaporean and U.S. American participants (Study 1) and by priming self-construal (Study 2). Results show that Singaporeans suppressed other-focused emotions more frequently than U.S. Americans. Mediation analyses indicate that the effect of country on the frequency of other-focused emotional suppression operated partially through self-construal. Furthermore, self-construal orientation was found to moderate the effects of both ego- and other-focused emotional suppression on psychological and interpersonal adjustment. Results from Study 1 indicate that suppression of other-focused emotions is deleterious to the psychological well-being of Singaporeans with a less salient independent self but not to the psychological well-being of Singaporeans with a more salient independent self. Moreover, Singaporeans with a more salient independent self reported lower psychological well-being as the frequency of ego-focused emotional suppression increased. The latter result was replicated in Study 2, with priming of independent and interdependent self-construal in a sample of U.S. undergraduate students. These findings are interpreted within a cultural psychological framework, and implications involving mental health and cross-cultural communication are discussed.Item Sharing the Load - Offloading Processing and Improving Emotion Classification for the SoftBank Robot Pepper""(2021-04) Savela, ShawnPepper is a humanoid robot created by SoftBank Robotics that was designed and built with the purpose of being used for robot-human interaction. There is an application interface that allows development of custom interactive programs as well as a number of built-in applications that can be extended and used when creating other custom programs for the robot. Among the pre-installed applications are applications that will classify a person's emotion and mood using data from several data points including facial characteristics and vocal pitch and tone. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic many people have been wearing face masks in both public and private areas. Detecting emotions based on facial recognition and voice tone analysis may not be as accurate when a person is wearing a mask. An alternative method that can be used to classify emotion is to analyze the actual words that are spoken by a person. However, this feature is not currently available on Pepper. In this study we describe a software solution that will allow Pepper to perform sentiment classification based on spoken words using a neural network. We will describe the testing procedure that was used to interview participants by Pepper and compare the F1 score of each classification method with each other. Pepper was able to be programmed to use a neural network for emotion classification. A total of 32 participants were interviewed, with the NLP spoken-word analysis classification achieving an averaged F1 score of .2860 as compared to the built-in software average F1 scores of .2362 from the mood application, .1986 from the vocal tone and pitch application, and .0811 from the facial characteristics application.Item When worldviews collide: the role of emotion in reactions to symbolic threats.(2011-08) Hunt, Corrie ValentineUntil recently, intergroup relations research has undervalued the role of emotion. This dissertation examines how people's emotional reactions to challenges to their cherished values--symbolic threats--shape social attitudes. I argue that people respond with distinct emotions depending on whether the symbolic threat comes from within their ingroup or from outsiders, and that these emotions explain why those who feel that their cultural values are threatened are less accepting and tolerant of outsiders. Using a survey, Study 1 showed that when participants believed that Muslims rejected core American values, they felt angry at and less sympathy toward Muslim immigrants, and in turn, opposed granting civil rights to Muslim immigrants. Participants who believed that Americans, in general, disagreed on the importance of different values felt less proud to be American and held more negative attitudes toward Americans. Study 2 showed a similar pattern of results with a different outgroup. Participants--particularly those high in authoritarianism--felt disgusted and angry with, as well as less proud of, gays and lesbians. Negative emotions explained why high authoritarians who perceived gays as a symbolic threat expressed intolerant attitudes toward gays and lesbians. Using an experimental manipulation of symbolic threat, Study 3 partially replicated the findings from Study 1. High threat from Muslim immigrants led to anger at Muslim immigrants, which in turn, predicted more negative attitudes toward Muslim immigrants. High threat from within the American ingroup made people--especially authoritarians--less proud of Americans, which predicted more negative attitudes toward the ingroup.