Browsing by Subject "emotion"
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Item Approach-motivated positive affect reduces broadening of attention(2009-05-15) Gable, Philip ArvisResearch has found that positive affect broadens attention. However, the type of positive affect previously manipulated has been low in approach motivation. High approach-motivated positive affect should reduce the breadth of attention, as organisms shut out irrelevant perceptions and cognitions while they approach and attempt to acquire desired objects. Three studies examined the attentional consequences of approach-motivated positive affect states. Consistent with predictions, participants showed less global attentional focus after viewing approach-motivating positive pictures as compared to neutral pictures (Studies 1 and 2). Specifically, Study 1 used approach-motivating pictures of appetitive desserts, while Study 2 used pictures of cute animals. Neutral pictures were of varying neutral objects. Study 3 manipulated both affect and approach motivation. Less global focus was found for participants who viewed the approach-motivating pictures and had the expectancy to obtain the items as compared to other participant groups. The results indicate that high approach-motivated positive affect reduces the breadth of attentional focus, in contrast to the broadening of attentional focus that has been found with low approach-motivated positive affect.Item Blocked and recovered memories of affective, distinctive, and neutral paragraphs(2009-05-15) Corbisier, Barbara LynnHighly affective memories have been thought to be longer lasting and more detailed than other memories, and many experimental results have supported this assertion. The apparent robustness of these memories, however, may result from their high distinctiveness, rather than their emotional content. Two experiments tested free and cued recall for negative affect, distinctive, and neutral paragraphs. Experiment 1 compared neutral and negative affect paragraphs using a blocked and recovered memory technique. Affective paragraphs were remembered significantly better than neutral paragraphs in free recall of paragraph titles, regardless of condition. Details of neutral paragraphs were remembered significantly better than affective paragraphs, regardless of condition. No recovery effect was found. Experiment 2 compared distinctive and neutral paragraphs using the same technique. Free recall of paragraph titles did not differ between paragraph types. Neutral paragraphs were remembered better than distinctive paragraphs in cued recall, regardless of condition. Participants remembered significantly more with cued recall, and significantly more in the forget condition, and distinctive paragraphs were subject to a much greater forgetting effect than neutral paragraphs. It is unclear why a robust forgetting effect, using these stimuli, was not found. Consistent with previous literature, affective stimuli were remembered well, but inconsistently, distinctive stimuli were not. These results provide support for the claim that negative affect memories are more robust than other memories. This may result from their inherent emotional content as opposed to their being distinctive in some way.Item Effects of Personalized Travel Destination Visual Image on Travel Motivation(2012-11-12) Lee, Gwanggyu 1981-This study examines the personalization of shown travel destination visual images using professional photography upon travel motivations, feelings, and purchase intentions of consumers in the online environment. The research design was experimental and used data from a questionnaire via Qualtrics. A pilot test of the instrument was conducted. The final questionnaire contained 25 items. A total of 194 questionnaires were collected and participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups. Each group of 50 participants was exposed to a specific set of travel destination visual images. Further, several hypotheses related to the effects of personalization, professional photography toward travel motivation, emotion, and purchase intention were tested. The results indicated that: (1) travel motivation was affected by both personalization, and professional photography of travel destination visual image; (2) personalization had an influence on positive emotion, but professional photography did not; (3) it was expected that personalization would act as a ?push? factor on travel motivation, and professional photography would influence the ?pull? factor on travel motivation, but these two hypotheses were not supported; (4) travel motivation and emotion positively affected purchase intention, however this was only partially supported. Furthermore, the results of the present study implied that the ?push ? pull? travel motivation theory was considered not entirely separate. Practical recommendations are presented for online tourism marketers to enhance their service.Item Essays on the Impact of Presidential and Media-Based Usage of Anxiety-Producing Rhetoric on Dynamic Issue Attention(2012-02-14) Olds, Christopher PaulThe intention of the project is to determine whether political elites have to discuss an issue using a specific emotional tone before the public and other political elites consider that issue a problem. Research has not yet demonstrated under what conditions elite rhetorical cues can heighten issue attention. Past studies have suggested that an increase in the absolute intensity of elite issue discussion can heighten perceptions of an issue as a problem. The problem with this notion is that within that absolute issue discussion, elites might simply be repeatedly saying conditions related to an issue are stable. They might also be presenting basic factual background information about an issue, a type of discussion unlikely to capture the interest of many in the political system. There has to be a specific type of cue that elites can offer to compel others in the political system to reconsider their outlook on issue salience. Derived from dual systems theories of emotion, the dissertation predicts that issue discussion that heightens feelings of anxiety increases the likelihood of an altered outlook on issue salience. To evaluate this prediction, time series statistical techniques are employed. The time series models evaluate whether prior change in the level of anxietybased cues by the president and the media predict changes in the level of attention the public offers to that issue. The same types of models evaluate whether this form of issue discussion by the president predicts issue dynamics of the media, and vice-versa. The several issues studied are crime, health care, poverty, and the environment. Information spanning thirty years is collected from presidential papers, general and ideological media newspaper coverage, and multiple public survey organizations. The findings suggest anxiety-based issue discussion does have the potential to guide issue attention. Prior changes in anxiety-based cues do predict future levels of attention the public provides to issues. A positive shift in anxiety cues by elites appears to have the capacity to increase public attention to issues. This increase though appears to be very small and abbreviated, suggesting limited effects. Elites do not appear to influence each other through anxiety cues.Item Perceiving Emotion in Sounds: Does Timbre Play a Role?(2012-02-14) Bowman, CasadyAcoustic features of sound such as pitch, loudness, perceived duration and timbre have been shown to be related to emotion in regard to sound, demonstrating that an important connection between the perceived emotions and their timbres is lacking. This study investigates the relationship between acoustic features of sound and emotion in regard to timbre. In two experiments we investigated whether particular acoustic components of sound can predict timbre, and particular categories of emotion, and how these attributes are related. Two behavioral experiments related perceived emotion ratings with synthetically created sounds and International Affective Digitized Sounds (Bradley & Lang, 2007) sounds. Also, two timbre experiments found acoustic components of synthetically created sounds, and IADS. Regression analyses uncovered some relationships between emotion, timbre, and acoustic features of sound. Results indicate that emotion is perceived differently for synthetic instrumental sounds and IADS. Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients were a strong predictor of perceived emotion of instrumental sounds; however, this was not the case for the IADS. This difference lends itself to the idea that there is a strong relationship between emotion and timbre for instrumental sounds, perhaps in part because of their relationship to speech and the way these different sounds are processed.Item Speaking the unspeakable: emotional expressions of identity within journals(Texas A&M University, 2004-11-15) Horrocks, AubrieCreating a sense of identity is constructed through communicative processes allowing us to participate in interpersonal relationships, and understand who we are. "Much of our emotional life is bound up with the way we narrate experiences..." (Kerby, 1991, p. 48). Because experiences are told from our own perspective, what we tell is significant. It reflects our feelings regarding a situation, and in the telling of the story, we reinterpret the way we understand our life and how we know ourselves. The purpose of this study is to examine the content and structure of the narratives contained within a diary, in order to learn how an individual interprets emotional experiences and constructs identities. It is a unique opportunity to explore how individuals can cope with ambiguity and uncertainty by constructing multiple identities to functionally enact within a variety of environments.Item The experience of . . . suspense: understanding the construct, its antecedents, and its consequences in consumption and acquisition contexts(Texas A&M University, 2005-02-17) Guidry, Julie Anna?Will my flight be cancelled?? ?Will I win the eBay auction?? These consumption and product acquisition situations would trigger the experience of . . . suspense. Suspense is defined as the overall anticipatory arousal associated with the hope and/or fear felt by a consumer assessing the likelihood of occurrence of an important and imminent consumption or acquisition event. If one views a potential outcome as causing pleasure (an approach appraisal), hope will be felt, while if one views a potential outcome as causing pain (an avoidance appraisal), fear will be felt. Other variables expected to indirectly impact suspense are frequency of probability change, degree of probability change and anticipation time. The conceptual model in this dissertation also proposes that people have an attitude toward the anticipation period and identifies four resolution emotions, satisfaction, disappointment, relief, and anguish, which may occur once the outcome is known. Further, attitude toward anticipation period and the resolution emotions are expected to affect attitude toward overall experience. Three studies were conducted. The objective of Studies 1 and 2 was to develop scales yielding reliable scores of hope, fear, and suspense. Fifty words related to hope, fear, and suspense were generated. In Study 1, 553 participants rated the words on the evaluative and activity dimensions using 18 semantic differential scale items. O-technique factor analysis was used to analyze the data in Study 1. In Study 2, 354 participants read one of three suspenseful stories, then indicated their hope, fear, and suspense. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used in Study 2. Study 3 consisted of an experiment in which 241 participants read a suspenseful house-buying scenario, then indicated their hope, fear, and suspense. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data in Study 3. Results supported the conceptualization of suspense: both hope and fear had a positive effect on suspense. Additionally, approach appraisal had a positive effect on hope, and avoidance appraisal had a positive effect on fear. The moderating effect of frequency of probability change was not supported. However, frequency of probability change did have a positive effect on both hope and fear.Item The impact of a noise stressor on capsaicin-induced primary and secondary hyperalgesia(Texas A&M University, 2004-09-30) Grimes, Jeffrey ScottIn searching for new human pain models that more closely resemble clinical pain states, the capsaicin pain model has emerged as a viable model for both inflammatory and neuropathic pain states. A principal benefit of the capsaicin model is that it allows study of two different pain processes, primary and secondary hyperalgesia. Primary hyperalgesia is characterized by spontaneous pain and both heat and mechanical hyperalgesia. In addition, it is likely the result of activation and sensitization of both peripheral and central nociceptors. In contrast, secondary hyperalgesia is characterized by only mechanical hyperalgesia and is caused by the sensitization of central nociceptive neurons. Previous research utilizing the capsaicin pain model has primarily focused on the neural properties with little focus on the impact of affective states on capsaicin-related pain processes. The present study examined the impact of a noise stressor on both primary and secondary hyperalgesia. Results indicated that the effects of the noise stressor impacted secondary hyperalgesia, but not primary hyperalgesia.Item The Role of Boredom in the Pursuit of Negative Experience(2014-04-28) Bench, Shane WMotivational hedonism holds that the ultimate goal of behavior is to maximize pleasure and avoid pain. This investigation was meant to explore if a negative experience would be chosen over a more positive experience, and what might motivate this behavior. It was predicted that boredom would motivate a desire for novelty, resulting in anti-hedonic behaviors. Participants viewed a series of images (to induce boredom) and then chose the second set of images they would view, with one of the options being hedonically negative. Participants that reported a higher degree of boredom were more likely to choose the negative image set. Manipulated boredom was found to indirectly predict choice of image set through the effect on desire for novelty. Those placed in a high state of boredom, reported a stronger desire for novelty, which resulted in a higher probability of selecting the negative image set. When given options to choose a better or worse affective state from current, participants that experienced higher levels of state boredom, were more likely to choose a worse experience. In the final study, preference for an anti-hedonic option was found to play an important role in choice, such that, participants that liked the negative image set were less likely to make a choice motivated by a desire for novelty. These findings reveal that people will make anti-hedonic choices when their current state evokes boredom.Item The Roles of Emotion, Morality, and Political Affiliation in Predicting Retaliation of Workplace Incivility between Democrats and Republicans(2012-10-19) Pesonen, Amanda DanielleThe present study examines differences in political perspectives and moral identity as facilitators of retaliation of workplace incivility. It is proposed that following uncivil treatment, emotional appraisals of uncivil treatment will influence targets' retaliatory behavior; individuals who feel angry or demoralized after being treated uncivilly will be more likely to retaliate than individuals who do not negatively appraise incivility. In addition, political affiliation and moral identity are posited as moderators of the relationship between experiencing incivility and emotionally appraising the experience, as well as the relationship between emotional appraisal and retaliation. This study utilized a sample of 355 participants who completed an online survey regarding their experiences with incivility three weeks before and one week after the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Results indicate that Democrats most frequently retaliated against Republicans at high levels of received incivility from Republicans, yet Republicans engaged in the most retaliatory incivility against Democrats at low levels of incivility from Democrats. Furthermore, internalization buffered the likelihood of retaliation, while symbolization enhanced it. In three-way interactions predicting retaliatory incivility, low internalization and high symbolization Democrats most frequently retaliated against Republicans; unexpectedly, high symbolization Democrats also most frequently retaliated against Democrats. Predicting emotional appraisals from received incivility, symbolization enhanced relationships between incivility and appraisals. High internalization Republicans reported the greatest increase in anger when treated uncivilly by Democrats. Predicting retaliation from appraisals, Republicans retaliated against Democrats most frequently when angered or demoralized, but Democrats did not report retaliating against Republicans. Additionally, high symbolization Republicans reported retaliating against other Republicans when angered or demoralized. Results were not completely aligned with past theory and research, but they generally indicate that morality plays a large role in the prediction of emotional appraisals and retaliation in response to uncivil treatment. Furthermore, morality seems to be a more important predictor of retaliation than social identity processes. Finally, it is clear that emotions relate to the receipt and retaliation of incivility, and future research should clarify these relationships. This study contributes to the literature by examining how social issues that are seemingly unrelated to the workplace can negatively affect interpersonal interactions at work.Item Toward an Understanding of the Emotion-modulated Startle Eyeblink Reflex: The Case of Anger(2012-07-16) Peterson, CarlyThe emotion hypothesis of startle eyeblink modification posits that potentiated eyeblinks are observed in response to fear/disgust (aversive) pictures and eyeblink inhibition occurs in response to pleasant (appetitive) pictures due to the degree to which the stimuli match with the aversive startle probe. Stimuli high in arousal elicit exaggerated responses. Four studies sought to investigate the effect of angering pictures on the startle eyeblink response. Three potential hypotheses were posed: 1) given anger's high levels of arousal and negativity, eyeblinks will be potentiated like those to fear/disgust pictures; 2) given anger's arousing and appetitive qualities, eyeblinks will be inhibited like those to pleasant pictures; 3) anger's arousal, negativity, and approach qualities will balance each other out causing eyeblinks resembling those in response to neutral pictures. Study 1 supported the third hypothesis in that eyeblinks to angering and neutral pictures did not differ, despite angering pictures being rated higher on arousal and anger and lower in valence. These results replicated in Study 2 with a different set of angering pictures. Also, Study 2 demonstrated that dysphoric participants exhibited potentiated eyeblinks during angering pictures much like eyeblinks during fear/disgust stimuli, whereas non-dysphoric participants did not. Ratings of pictures on arousal, valence, and anger did not differ between groups. Constructive patriotism related to inhibited eyeblinks during angering pictures. Study 3 found that dysphoric participants rated angering pictures higher in fear than did non-dysophoric participants, suggesting that the potentiated eyeblinks observed in Study 2 were a result of greater perceived fear. Study 4 again showed that eyeblinks during angering and neutral pictures did not differ, and that constructive patriotism related to inhibited eyeblinks. Taken together, results are consistent with the third hypothesis and suggest that angering stimuli elicit eyeblinks much like those to neutral stimuli due to the competing influences of arousal, valence, and motivation on the startle eyeblink reflex.