Browsing by Subject "Emotions"
Now showing 1 - 20 of 22
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item A factored measure of Ellis' irrational belief system with personality and maladjustment correlates(Texas Tech University, 1968-08) Jones, Richard Garner,Not availableItem The affective citizen communication model : how emotions engage citizens with politics through media and discussion(2011-05) Valenzuela, Sebastián; Gil de Zúñiga, Homero; McCombs, Maxwell E.; Stroud, Natalie J.; Jarvis Hardesty, Sharon; Coleman, RenitaThis dissertation seeks to improve our understanding of the process by which emotions enable citizens to learn about public affairs and engage in political activities during electoral campaigns. It advances a theoretical model that incorporates the dynamics of emotions, various forms of media use, interpersonal communication and political involvement. This affective citizen communication model integrates into a single framework the insights of affective intelligence theory (Marcus, Neuman, & MacKuen, 2000) and the work on communication mediation (McLeod et al., 1999, 2001) and its two iterations, cognitive mediation (Eveland, 2001) and citizen communication mediation (Cho et al., 2009; Shah et al., 2005, 2007). More specifically, it suggests that the effects of emotions triggered by political candidates (e.g., enthusiasm, anxiety, anger) on knowledge of the candidates’ stands on issues and on political participation are largely mediated by communication variables, including news media use, political discussion and debate viewing. By positing emotions as an antecedent of both mediated and interpersonal communication, the study extends current research based on affective intelligence theory. At the same time, the study adds emotions to communication mediation processes, which to date have been studied from a mostly cognitive perspective. To test the relationships between the variables identified in the affective citizen communication model, I rely on panel survey data collected for the 2008 and 2004 U.S. presidential elections by the American National Election Studies (ANES) and the National Annenberg Election Surveys (NAES), respectively. Two types of structural equation models are tested, cross sectional (to relate individual differences) and auto-regressive (to relate aggregate change across waves). Results suggest that positive emotions spark media use, whereas negative emotions spark political discussions, and both types of communication behavior influence issue knowledge and participation in campaign activities. Furthermore, the theorized structure is found to perform better than an alternative structure where communication variables cause positive and negative emotions. Thus, results provide strong support for the proposed affective citizen communication model. Refinements to the proposed model, connections with existing theories of political communication, such as agenda setting and partisan selective exposure, and directions for future research are also discussed.Item An empirical study of the relations between leadership, social support networks, task autonomy and emotions in a technical work environment(Texas A&M University, 2006-04-12) Wickliff, Tanya Verniece DugatThe world in which we live is hyper-dynamic with multiple inputs, outputs and expectations. As it relates to the fast pace of corporate America, customers want products and services within a tighter market window, with no defects and for lower costs. Stakeholders insist that managers do more with less human and financial resources yet more aggressive technological and sales goals. These realities translate into a more complex work environment in that the emotional toll of pending economic outcomes act to motivate or paralyze the very engine designed to produce the desired outcomes the employees. The body of work presented in this dissertation directly addresses the empirical relationship between the perceptions of the work context factors of leadership, task autonomy and social support networks with respect to the positive and negative emotions of the employees of the engineering firm that participated in this study. The empirical results from this research indicate that a positive and significant interrelationship does exist among the factors examined in this study. The employees studied included 249 middle to upper level managers of whom 78.7% were men and 21.3% were women. The range of years of experience for the participants varied from new hire to more than 20 years. Homogeneity of Variance tests confirms the validity of comparative analysis for the segmented data population. Multivariate statistics were used to address the four research questions. The strongest correlations occurred for the subgroups of women and non-managers with respect to the relationship of social support networks and positive emotions. Until now, there has been no empirical research linking the social support networks factor directly to emotions.Item Assessing emotional evaluation: a validation study of the reactions to emotions questionnaire(2007-08) Barrow, Amanda Piper, 1980-; Rude, Stephanie SandraThis study describes the development and validation of the Reactions to Emotions Questionnaire (REQ), a measure that assesses individuals' evaluation of themselves when experiencing various core emotions. A primary aim of the current study was to explore the predictive validity of the REQ; specifically, whether scores on the measure predict recovery time following a distressing event. Participants engaged in a negative mood induction to induce a sense of disappointment or failure. Emotional arousal was assessed with physiological measurements and self-report of mood. Cognitive arousal was measured with a task that compared time to recognize words related to the negative mood induction with time to recognize neutral words. It was hypothesized that individuals who have a relatively accepting stance towards their emotions (as measured by the REQ) will have a quicker return to baseline levels of emotional arousal and will be less cognitively primed following the negative mood induction than individuals who have a more judgmental stance towards their emotions. Analyses indicated that emotional evaluation was not a significant predictor of emotional or cognitive arousal following the negative mood induction. The level of arousal between individuals with either accepting or judgmental emotional evaluations did not differ following the failure manipulation. A separate hypothesis addressed the REQ's construct validity by predicting that scores on the REQ subscales would be moderately correlated with scores on questionnaires assessing ideas related to emotional evaluation. This hypothesis was supported, as the REQ was moderately correlated with measures of constructs such as self-esteem, acceptance of emotional experiences, and emotional expression. It was negatively correlated with measures of guilt, rumination, and suppression of emotions. A secondary focus of the study was the relationship between emotional evaluation, emotion expression, and attachment style. Attachment theory is one conceptualization of the etiology of emotional evaluation and emotion expression style, and a proposed model depicting the relationship between these three constructs is described. First-order correlations and a canonical correlation analysis were conducted between the attachment styles outlined by Bartholomew (1994), tendency to inhibit emotions, and the subscales of the REQ. Results suggested that attachment theory is a useful marker of emotion regulation and emotional evaluation tendencies.Item Assessing the validity of a discrete negative emotions measure and its relationship to psychological outcomes(Texas Tech University, 1999-05) Kerr, Marcel SatskyResearch has investigated the effects of emotional expressiveness on different developmental outcomes. Whereas an abundance of work has examined positive and negative emotional expressiveness (Cassidy, Parke, Butkovsky, & Braungart, 1992; Cooley, 1992; Watson & Clark, 1984), little research has investigated specific negative emotion-negative outcome relationships. That is, few studies have examined how specific negative emotions relate to specific negative psychological outcomes. Before specific negative emotion-negative outcome relationships can be investigated, a valid measure of discrete negative emotional expressiveness is needed. Two studies attempted to create and validate a scale of emotional expressiveness for negative emotions. The initial version of a discrete negative emotions scale (DNES) was constructed in a pilot study. The scale consisted initially of 120 items that assessed twelve discrete negative emotions. Study I attempted to determine the properties of the DNES and began the task of construct validation. Study II described a revision of the DNES, based on the results of Study I and also began the process of assessing criterion validity and establishing internal and test-retest reliability. The results of the studies have implications for understanding the role of negative expressions in development. Acquiring a valid and reliable measure of discrete negative expressiveness should help teachers and counselors explain and understand problematic behaviors that a student is exhibiting, and can help parents understand how the types of emotions they express in the home can affect their child's development. Such a scale may be a valuable research tool in which these negative emotion-negative outcome relationships can be better explored and understood.Item Chihuahua’s missing labor movement : the role of emotions in maquiladora work(2013-12) Márquez, Alejandro Márquez; Dietz, Henry A.The maquiladora industry was established in northern Mexico with the objective of providing employment opportunities to the growing population in the region. However, the terms of employment linked to the global economy limit the organizational capacity of workers to improve their working conditions. These terms shape an emotional habitus among maquiladora workers that prevents mobilization and reinforces a “hard-working” attitude predisposed to tolerate unsatisfactory labor relations concomitant with industrial deregulation. In my investigation, I analyze the emotional habitus of workers through cultural, productive, and political deregulation mechanisms employed in the sector. The cultural tool promotes a new labor philosophy focused on safeguarding employment sources in Mexico; production schemes individualize reward and punitive systems that are installed in constellations of local and international authoritative figures; and the political component prevents legitimate forms of organization through coopted labor unions. As a result, predispositions of workers to mobilize grievances in the maquiladora industry are unlikely. This report seeks to involve the social structures of emotions in discussions concerning political behavior and social movement literature.Item Cognitive Science in technology(2010-12) Cabrera, Victoria Marrujo; Lewis, Kyle, 1961-; Ambler, TonyCognitive Science is an interdisciplinary field that ties together the curricula of liberal arts and technical fields of study. However, it is de-emphasized in technical undergraduate studies such as Engineering. Cognitive Science is essentially the study of the human mind and how humans process information. It is the study of human responses, thinking, and perception. Human behavior and a person’s reaction are undetermined, but it can be better understood. Although human behavior and interaction is a routine part of life, engineers are taught to decipher code and not how to decipher a human’s behavior. Cognitive Science affects all aspects in the work environment. Organizational practices can be improved by understanding common biases and motivational theories in people. Having a cognitive awareness of typical human behavior will help to promote improved communication and positive reactions from people in the workplace. Human behavior is inevitable in any field but more crucial in technical fields especially when there is lack of communication or ambiguous guidelines and definitions. In technical fields, miscommunication or ambiguity can be a matter of life or death. In many situations, miscommunication can drive ambiguity. Although some people are happy with flexible guidelines, others seek to have well defined expectations. How do people react in situations surrounding miscommunication or ambiguity? In both situations, some people create opportunities and others become a hindrance. Processes and procedures can be put in place to alleviate ambiguous situations, but human performance and psychological factors still play a role as well. Human error can result from psychological factors, but the environment can be improved to limit those factors. As with any situation, mishaps are still prone to happen. Although human error is preventable in most cases, it’s never completely unavoidable. Human error continues to be a deep-rooted cause that can lead to negative outcomes. As stated by Alexander Pope, “to err is human…” (Moncur). This paper will explore underlying human behavior in daily activities. By understanding common biases and motivational theories driving human behavior, one can address negative behavior in a technical field in order to create opportunities.Item Crucible of conflict : abortion rights organizing in Texas(2016-12) Stevenson, Amanda Jean; Potter, Joseph E.; Pettit, Elizabeth; Johnson-Hanks, Jennifer; Young, Michael P; Vaz de Melo , Pedro O.S.; Cavanagh, Shannon EThis dissertation uses digital records of a massive online conversation among opponents of an abortion restriction bill in Texas during summer 2013. It describes the geography of the participants, investigates the role of emotions and social ties in shaping engagement, and describes a radical change in the way movement participants talked about their aims. Theoretically, it approaches the investigation of abortion rights organizing from the perspective of both social movement studies and the sociological and demographic study of reproductive health. Methodologically, it employs a hybrid of computational and qualitative techniques to analyze a very large dataset.Item Declarative category learning system(2010-05) Davis, Tyler Harrison; Love, Bradley C.; Maddox, W T.; Neubauer, Raymond; Preston, Alison R.; Schnyer, David M.Categorization is a fundamental process that underlies much of cognition. People form categories that allow them to generalize to and make inferences about novel objects and events. Current accounts of category learning suggest that there are two systems for learning categories, an explicit rule-based system that depends on frontal-striatal loops and working memory, and a procedural system that learns implicitly and depends on the tail of the caudate nucleus and occipital regions. In the present thesis, I propose that an additional declarative category learning system exists that is recruited to learn categories that are associated with multiple conjunctive and explicit, but not strictly rule-based, representations. The basis of the declarative category learning system is then tested in several behavioral and physiological recording experiments. The first issue that is examined in relation to the declarative category learning system is how subjects’ ability to encode stimuli affects their ability to form new flexible conjunctive representations. I provide evidence consistent with the idea that there are two ways to encode stimuli in category learning, either as a conjunction of individual parts or as holistic images. Forming part-based representations is found to be especially critical for forming new conjunctive representations for exceptions in brief single session experiments. A second question is how emotional processes interact with the declarative category learning system. Numerous lines of evidence suggest that emotional processes strongly affect learning and behavior. In a study using skin conductance, I find that anticipatory emotions (i.e., emotions present before a behavioral response) show a pattern consistent with orienting attention to behaviorally significant or potentially novel events. A final fMRI project ties together hypotheses about anticipatory emotions and encoding to their neural basis and provides a test of the predicted mapping of the declarative category learning system to the brain. By relating quantitative predictions from SUSTAIN, a model that shares relationships to the medial temporal lobes (MTL) and declarative category learning system, to fMRI data, I find clusters in an MTL-midbrain-PFC network that show patterns of activation consistent with recognizing exception items and updating these representations in response to error or surprise.Item Development and validation of a new instrument for the measurement of transient mood states: the facial analogue mood scale (FAMS)(Texas Tech University, 1996-08) Killgore, William D.This investigation concems the measurement of a specific type of feeling state. The domain of interest is limited to hedonically valenced (i.e., pleasant to unpleasant) feeling states that are of low intensity, generally out of focal attention, and relatively diffuse in nature. These feeling states are typically pervasive in that they are likely to have subtle effects on cognitive, attentional, and motivational processes. In addition, the feeling states of interest are longer lasting than typical emotional episodes, although they are expected to evidence fluctuations in response to affectively relevant environmental events. Thus, the proposed domain of interest is best classified under the heading of mood.Item Emotionality, memory, and aging: assessing evaluative memory with imaginal story sequences(Texas Tech University, 1983-12) Yoder, Carol YvonneNot availableItem The evolution of disgust : theoretical and empirical explorations(2014-12) Al-Shawaf, Laith; Buss, David M.This dissertation consists of four manuscripts on the emotion of disgust, all of which are published or in press. These papers report studies linking the emotion of disgust with areas of psychology to which it has seldom been connected. Paper 1 reports findings linking disgust with stress and satiation, providing support for an a priori hypothesis generated on the basis of a cost-benefit analysis of how these inputs should affect disease avoidance behavior. Paper 2 reports the first findings linking disgust with mating strategy, two important areas of psychology that have theoretical relevance for one another but whose connection has yet to be explored. Paper 3 presents the first solid empirical evidence that disgust sensitivity predicts food neophobia. This work also found a theoretically interesting, but unpredicted, connection between food neophobia and mating strategy. Paper 4 pans back, presenting a broader evolutionary framework on the emotions and providing a variety of novel empirical hypotheses for both disgust and sexual arousal. The dissertation then concludes by presenting important questions for future research and describing experiments currently underway to answer questions emerging from this line of research. As a whole, this dissertation and research program aim to a) build bridges between disgust and other domains of psychology such as stress and human mating, b) make methodological contributions to research on disgust, and c) present an evolutionary framework that carries conceptual and empirical implications for disgust and for a broad array of other emotions.Item Factors related to the emotional responses of rural school-aged children who have asthma(2014-05) Walker, Veronica Garcia; Horner, Sharon D.Asthma is a complex, chronic disorder of the airways that is characterized by underlying inflammation, airflow obstruction, and bronchial hyperresponsiveness. Asthma symptoms can be frightening and can have an effect on the emotional functioning Quality of Life (QOL) of school-aged children who have asthma. The purpose of this exploratory, descriptive, cross-sectional, correlational study was to explore the influence of factors identified in the literature on school-aged children’s emotional responses to asthma. Guiding this study was a theoretical model that proposed that the impact of chronic illness severity on QOL is potentially mediated by both resource and barrier factors. The population of interest was 85 school-aged children (ages 6-12) and parents of children who have asthma that were recruited from participants already enrolled in year 4 of the Asthma in Central Texas (ACT) study (R01NR007770, Sharon D. Horner, P.I.) at The University of Texas at Austin. Significant inverse correlations were found between asthma related child emotional functioning QOL and each of the following variables: asthma severity, r = -.30, p < .01; child internalizing behaviors, r = -.26, p < .05, and child externalizing behaviors, r = -.43, p < .001. Significant inverse relationships were found between caregiver emotional functioning QOL and each of the following variables: asthma severity, r = -.39, p < .001; child internalizing behaviors, r = -.22, p < .05 and child externalizing behaviors, r = -.25, p < .05. Multiple regression analysis revealed that asthma severity and child externalizing problems accounted for 26% of the variance in child emotional functioning QOL. No moderators or mediators were identified. Findings from this study imply that externalizing problem behaviors of school-aged children may be a predictor of their negative feelings about their asthma. Nursing educators should consider including the emotional impact of asthma on children in nursing curriculums as this may ultimately influence health care providers to more skillfully address this important issue in both assessment and intervention settings.Item Hungry for Respect: The Moderating Roles of Status and Justice Orientation on Relationships between Interpersonal Justice and Emotions(2013-07-31) Stoverink, Adam CAffective reactions to unfair treatment date back to the earliest work on organizational justice. Seminal research on inequity identifies anger and guilt as primary responses to judgments of low justice. More recently, interpersonal justice has been linked to emotions such as anger and hostility. In fact, interpersonal justice is arguably the most emotionally charged of all the justice types. Yet, despite the strong theoretical support and empirical evidence linking interpersonal justice to negative emotions, we are unsure whether dignity and respect from a supervisor may also influence positive emotions. Justice scholars have also begun to investigate the moderating influence of status on to the effects of interpersonal justice. It has been suggested, and empirically demonstrated, that people of lower objective status (hierarchical position, race) react more strongly to fairness relative to those higher in status. However, we do not yet know how the effects of interpersonal justice may be moderated by employees? perceptions of personal status, workgroup status, or supervisor status. Furthermore, scholars have yet to examine the moderating influence of status on emotional reactions to interpersonal justice. In this dissertation, I answer recent calls for further investigation into the relationships between interpersonal justice and emotions and between interpersonal justice and status. Specifically, I draw from affective events theory and self-enhancement theory to develop a model of interpersonal justice, status, and emotions. In this model, I hypothesize a mediating effect of emotions on the relationships between interpersonal justice and a number of distal attitudes and behaviors. I further predict a moderating influence of justice orientation and three types of status?personal (self) status, workgroup status, and supervisor status?on the interpersonal justice to emotions relationships. A sample of 427 university-based military cadets provided partial support for my model. As expected, interpersonal justice predicted a number of important distal outcomes indirectly through both positive and negative emotions. Personal status, supervisor status, and justice orientation moderated several of the relationships between interpersonal justice and emotions. Implications for practice and theory are discussed.Item Increasing parental awareness of children's feelings in families of disabled children(Texas Tech University, 1979-08) Murphy, Cassie L.Tha purpose of the present study was to assess the effectivanass of a videotape developed for viewing by parents of disabled children. Tha program was designed to provide information which would increase parents': (a) parcaption of children's concerns and feelings, (b) ability to identify children's feelings, (c) acceptance of children's feelings, (d) awareness of negative feelings about having a disabled sibling, and (a) factual information. Tan married couples who ware parents of a disabled child and had at least one other child in the home ware shown a videotape. Siblings of Disabled Children. Major emphasis was placed on tha concerns and feelings of the nondisabled siblings. Comparisons ware made with a control group of ten couples who were given no treatment. One weak prior to and one week following training, subjects completed a series of paper and pencil measures on tha specified variables. Results indicated that parents who had viewed the videotape, relative to the control group, had increased their awareness about possible negative feelings their nondisabled children might have toward a disabled sibling. No significant changes occurred among tha four remaining variables. Discussion cantered around the need for more refined measurement techniques to assess changes in parents' perception of children's feelings, and tha need for alternate research designs utilizing a larger sample and the videotape in conjunction with other delivery modes.Item Managing academic and personal life in graduate studies : an interactive qualitative analysis of graduate student persistence and transformation(2011-08) Winston, Rachel Anne; Roueche, John E.; Northcutt, Norvell; McClenney, Kay; McCombs, Maxwell; Butler, Jess; Reddick, Richard; McCoy, DannyThis study examines the impact of academic and personal life on graduate student persistence and transformation. Of particular interest are the relationships, emotions, and life management skills required throughout the graduate experience and how socialization, emotional intelligence, and advising aid students through their academic program. With an average of seven to eight years required to complete a doctoral program, life happens. Students enter and leave relationships, children are born, family members have emergencies, health issues arise, and emotional growth takes place. Therefore, students transform not only academically, but in many ways. These are intertwined as evidenced by the data-derived system representation. The importance of understanding the interconnected links in graduate experience spans academic, social, economic, and societal spheres. Each year hundreds of thousands of students enter graduate school. However, for doctoral students, there is an enormous gap between acceptance and completion. After seven years, approximately 50 percent complete their program and after ten years the rate climbs to only 57 percent (Council of Graduate Schools, 2010). This study offers a systemic representation and a four-stage model of graduate student development, incorporating student-identified factors: Faculty Impact, Life Management, Relationships, Playing the Game, Growth/Transformation, Emotions, and Reward/Purpose. Stage I: Orientation and Socialization Stage II: Adjustment and Transition Stage III: Navigation and Transformation Stage IV: Completion and Advancement The results, presented as a systems-based model, along with analysis, may be used to support faculty, advisors, and administrators in creating better advising, orientation, evaluation, and support systems. Departmental policies may be improved to identify at-risk students, provide mentorship opportunities, or obtain continual feedback to understand the underlying factors that may stop students from progressing. This research might also help identify students during the application/admission process. The methodological framework used to create the system produced in this study is Interactive Qualitative Analysis (Northcutt & McCoy, 2004), a methodology that provides the quantitative rigor of algorithmically generated data analysis, combined with the qualitative descriptiveness of interviews, in order to provide insights into the drivers of graduate school persistence. This methodology uses a systematic, protocol-driven research procedure to construct a unified, descriptive diagram to illustrate the phenomenon.Item Neuromarketing : an essential tool in the future of advertising and brand development(2016-05) Hilderbrand, Miranda L; Eastin, Matthew S; Cicchirillo, Vincent JThis research is designed to explore the future role of neuromarketing in advertising and brand development. To understand its necessity, the research will begin with an in-depth review on what is meant by advertising and branding. Once there is an understanding of these industries, the research will look at the field of neuromarketing – a history of the industry, an explanation of the common research methods that it employs, and an understanding of how neuromarketing can assist in advertising research and brand development. To gain knowledge on the potential future of neuromarketing, a qualitative study was done through a series of in-depth interviews with professionals who have practical uses for neuromarketing in their respective fields. This research is concluded with a summary the current state of neuromarketing, and a discussion on what needs to be done as the industry moves forward.Item Pathos and policy: the power of emotions in shaping perceptions of international relations(Texas A&M University, 2006-10-30) Skorick, J MarkCurrent approaches to foreign policy decision making and international conflict have ignored the role of emotions as variables influencing foreign policy choices. However, a growing area of political research suggests that emotions are of critical importance to many aspects of political life. Predominant foreign policy decision making models currently attend to either rational calculations or ??????cold?????? cognitive processes and heuristics. These models provide little theoretical space for propositions about how enduring and intense emotions such as hatred and fear influence perceptions and interpretations of interstate conflict. In this paper we propose a model which addresses this deficiency in foreign policy decision making research. A theory of emotions is introduced and integrated into the existing research on foreign policy decision making. Hypotheses pertaining to the influence of negative emotions on information processing and choice in international relations are derived from the model and tested in a multimethod setting. Findings are reported and discussed within the framework of existing empirical research on process-oriented models of foreign policy decision making.Item Principled abstention : a theory of emotions and nonvoting in U.S. presidential elections(2012-08) Vandenbroek, Lance Matthew; Valentino, Nicholas A.; Shaw, Daron R., 1966-; Jessee, Stephen A.; Luskin, Robert C.; Philpot, Tasha S.More than a half-century of behavioral political science has shaped the dominant view of American nonvoters in terms of their engagement and resource deficits. While nonvoters on average are indeed less educated, poorer, younger and less politically engaged, other scholarship suggests that many of them actively abstain due to disaffection with the political system. My dissertation aims to reconcile these disparate explanations for nonvoting, and to better understand those nonvoters whose resources and political attention should suffice to vote. Drawing upon recent work in psychology, I advance a theory that disgust with politics causes many to abstain, irrespective of resources. These disgusted individuals feel the political system has violated deeply held interpersonal and moral norms, and believe participation will be ineffective to mitigate its affronts. As a result, these individuals withdraw from politics both in terms of voting and gathering additional information. I label this behavior “principled abstention.” To test my hypotheses, I employ observational data, including original question batteries on the 2008 and 2010 Cooperative Congressional Election Studies, and a series of laboratory and nationally representative experiments.Item Relationships between sleepiness and emotion experience: an experimental investigation of the role of subjective sleepiness in the generation of positive and negative emotions(Texas Tech University, 2004-05) Janiczek-Woodson, Shelley ReneeProblems obtaining quality sleep have been shown to be common. For example, according to a recent survey conducted by the National Sleep Foundation (National Sleep Foundation, 2002), 58% of respondents experience symptoms of insomnia a few nights a week or more. Moreover, sleep difficulties can result in daytime sleepiness, which has been shown to negatively affect a broad range of abilities and states, one of which is mood (e.g., Bonnet, 1994). While the relationship between sleep and mood is well-studied, the relationship between sleepiness and normal mood among healthy individuals experiencing normal sleeping conditions is not well understood by sleep science. Thus, affective researchers tend to substantiate their affective related notions about sleep from studies of non-healthy participants or participants experiencing extreme sleeping conditions. Recognizing that both sleepiness and emotions play an important role in the daily experiences of humans, the current study investigated the role of subjective sleepiness in the everyday emotion experience of healthy individuals under normal sleeping conditions. It was hypothesized that subjective sleep appraisals would contribute to appraisals of emotion experience independent of an individual's gender, mood, or the personality dimensions of Neuroticism and Extraversion. An experimental design was employed in which emotional arousal was introduced into the context of a participant's current mood through the use of an experimental task. After exposure to either the experimental or control condition of the task, participants were asked to rate their current emotion experience. Participants in each condition were then classified into groups according to level of subjective sleepiness as measured by the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Visual Analogue Scale of Alertness, and reported number of hours slept each night. Level of sleepiness was found to affect emotion dimensions, Hostility, Anxiety, Depression, and Contentment. Further, sleepiness explained differences in emotional responses that were not explained by gender, personality, or mood. And while results could not be explained by gender differences alone, it was notable that men reacted to task completion with more hostility than did women, and women reported higher levels of contentment than did men after performing the unsolvable task. The study is important because it represents the first experimental demonstration to date of the effect of sleepiness on emotion experience in a healthy population. It highlights the importance of healthy sleep for a healthy emotional life, as findings suggest that sleepiness reduces an individual's tolerance for frustration and receptivity for positive emotional experiences. The current study extends the literature on sleepiness and mood in the following ways: (1) In contrast to much of the sleep literature, the distinction between emotion and mood is recognized; (2) the study draws from both sleep science and affective science in a way that has the potential to make a contribution to both; (3) the study recognizes the importance of positive emotions; and (4) the study was conceived with an eye toward practical applications, particularly those most relevant to a therapeutic situation. Results are discussed in the context of their relevance to improving the well-being of psychotherapy clients.