If You Can’t Stand the Heat . . . Take Off Your Coat: The Affective State of Groups and the Role of the Facilitator

PsycCRITIQUES ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 55 (46) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alisha Francis
Keyword(s):  
2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Cavazza ◽  
Fred Charles ◽  
Stephen W. Gilroy ◽  
Julie Porteous ◽  
Gabor Aranyi ◽  
...  

The recent development of Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) for Virtual Worlds has resulted in a growing interest in realistic visual feedback. In this paper, we investigate the potential role of Virtual Agents in neurofeedback (NF) systems, which constitute an important paradigm for BCI. We discuss the potential of virtual agents to contribute to the success of NF in the specific context of affective BCI. Throughout the paper, we illustrate our presentation with two fully implemented NF prototypes featuring virtual agents. The first is an interactive narrative in which the user empathises with the feature character; the second, an emotion regulation system in which virtual crowd behaviour becomes a metaphor for arousal, as the user attempts to down-regulate their affective state.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther H. Yesudas ◽  
Tatia M. C. Lee

Vicarious pain is defined as the observation of individuals in pain. There is growing neuroimaging evidence suggesting that the cingulate cortex plays a significant role in self-experienced pain processing. Yet, very few studies have directly tested the distinct functions of the cingulate cortex for vicarious pain. In this review, one EEG and eighteen neuroimaging studies reporting cingulate cortex activity during pain observation were discussed. The data indicate that there is overlapping neural activity in the cingulate cortex during self- and vicarious pain. Such activity may contribute to shared neural pain representations that permit inference of the affective state of individuals in pain, facilitating empathy. However, the exact location of neuronal populations in which activity overlaps or differs for self- and observed pain processing requires further confirmation. This review also discusses evidence suggesting differential functions of the cingulate cortex in cognitive, affective, and motor processing during empathy induction. While affective processing in the cingulate cortex during pain observation has been explored relatively more often, its attention and motor roles remain underresearched. Shedding light on the neural correlates of vicarious pain and corresponding empathy in healthy populations can provide neurobiological markers and intervention targets for empathic deficits found in various clinical disorders.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith A. Bush ◽  
G. Andrew James ◽  
Anthony A. Privratsky ◽  
Kevin P. Fialkowski ◽  
Clinton D. Kilts

AbstractIn this study, we merged methods from engineering control theory, machine learning, and human neuroimaging to critically test the putative role of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) in performance monitoring during an emotion regulation task. Healthy adult participants (n=75) underwent cued-recall of affective image stimuli with concurrent functional magnetic resonance imaging and psychophysiological response recording. During cued-recall, participants engaged in explicit self-regulation of their affective state toward defined affective goals. Established decoding methods measured affect processing from fMRI BOLD signals across the orthogonal affective dimensions of valence and arousal. We independently validated participants’ affective state representations via stimulus-dependent facial electromyography (valence) and electrodermal activity (arousal) responses. We then used the decoded affective signatures to test and compare four computational models of performance monitoring (i.e., error, predicted response outcome, action-value, and conflict) by their relative abilities to explain task-related dACC activation. We found that the dACC most plausibly encodes action-value for both valence and arousal processing. We confirmed that the dACC directly encodes affective arousal and also likely encodes recruitment of attention and regulation resources. Beyond its contribution to parsing the roles of the dACC in emotion regulation, this study introduced a novel analytical framework through which affect processing and regulation may be functionally dissociated, thereby permitting mechanistic analysis of real-world emotion regulation strategies, e.g., distraction and reappraisal, which are widely employed in cognitive behavioral therapy to address clinical deficits in emotion regulation.


1991 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 269-271
Author(s):  
L Staner

SummaryThe case of a woman presenting erotomania in the course of a loss-related depressive state is described. Clinical, biological and therapeutical characteristics highlight the role of mood in certain cases of erotomania and add support to previous accounts of the heterogeneity of this syndrome.


Author(s):  
Belinda L Barton ◽  
Paul F Burke ◽  
David S Waller

Abstract Generic medicines have been available to consumers for ∼40 years, with varying degrees of uptake in different countries. Despite offering equivalent therapeutic qualities, generic medicines still struggle to be accepted by consumers. This study examines the role of a consumer’s affective state and framing effects on the purchase of a branded versus a generic pharmaceutical product. These issues are examined in an experiment, with independent manipulations of consumer anxiety levels and the framing of generic alternatives by the pharmacist. The sample comprised 426 men and women within Australia who completed an online survey with a scenario of purchasing a pharmaceutical after visiting a General Practitioner. Results indicate that those consumers experiencing higher levels of anxiety and where the doctor prescribed the branded medicine are more likely to choose branded medicines over cheaper, generic alternatives. The effect of framing the generic alternative as either ‘generic’ or ‘cheaper’ was not significant.


2019 ◽  
pp. 303-315
Author(s):  
Patrik N. Juslin

This chapter considers the psychological mechanism known as evaluative conditioning. Evaluative conditioning is defined as a process whereby an emotion is evoked by a piece of music just because this stimulus has been paired, repeatedly, with other positive or negative stimuli, which are not necessarily logically connected to the music in any way. It is a special form of classic conditioning that involves the pairing of an initially neutral conditioned stimulus (CS) with an affectively valenced, unconditioned stimulus (US). After the pairing, the CS acquires the ability to arouse the same affective state as the US in the perceiver. The remainder of the chapter discusses the characteristics of evaluative conditioning, the emotions that conditioning might arouse, and the role of conditioning in everyday life.


2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gergana Markova

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between diminished employee well-being and interpersonal deviance. Design/methodology/approach In a survey, 380 employees from 107 organizations were asked about their psychological and social well-beings. Participants reported their experiences of irritation, depression and anxiety for psychological well-being. A modified scale of social well-being captured participants’ scores on social integration and social acceptance. Respondents also self-reported incidents of interpersonal deviance against coworkers. Findings The results demonstrate that only irritation, not depression or anxiety, was positively related to interpersonal deviance. Socially accepting individuals were less likely to engage in deviant acts against their coworkers. Furthermore, respondents scoring high on both neuroticism and depression were reporting more acts of interpersonal deviance. Research limitations/implications Based on these findings, the role of intent in the study of workplace deviance is discussed. Practical implications The findings of this study suggest that diminished well-being can be a catalyst for other negative outcomes in the workplace. Management should be concerned with the affective state of employees as the experiences of one person may translate into experiences for others. Given the complexity of human experiences, decision makers in organizations should consider emotional state and experiences in developing practices for deviance prevention. Attention and intervention initiatives devoted to improving well-being and social health of employees might be more effective than discipline policies. Originality/value Deviant behaviors are often conceptualized as intentional acts. The findings of this research paper provide some evidence that factors other than harmful intend may motivate transgressions against coworkers.


2003 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luc Ciompi

The phenomena of human consciousness and subjectivity are explored from the perspective of affect-logic, a comprehensive meta-theory of the interactions between emotion and cognition based mainly on cognitive and social psychology, psychopathology, Piaget’s genetic epistemology, psychoanalysis, and evolutionary science. According to this theory, overt or covert affective-cognitive interactions are obligatorily present in all mental activity, seemingly “neutral” thinking included. Emotions continually exert numerous effects, both linear and nonlinear, on attention, on memory and on comprehensive thought, or “logic” in a broad sense.They deeply “affect” also consciousness and subjectivity, as showed by the analysis of four crucially involved phenomena, namely (1) attention, (2) abstraction, (3) language, and (4) the prevailing affective state. The conclusion is that neither consciousness nor subjectiovity can be adequately understood without fully considering their emotional aspects.


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