Affective Feelings Research Articles

Using the Manga/anime Naruto as Graphic Medicine to Engage Clients in Conversational Model Therapy

Graphic medicine holds promise for overcoming a client’s initial dismissal of psychotherapeutic treatment by improving their agency in their own treatment. Graphic medicine refers to the use of comics or graphic novels to facilitate the mutual understanding of psychotherapeutic processes, and may be potentially used to stimulate enjoyable discussion of a range of different experiences that may traditionally be difficult to discuss due to clients’ shame, vulnerability, fear of retraumatization, and/or the stigma of mental illness. I outline how the Japanese comic (i.e., manga) and animated film (i.e., anime) series Naruto can be used as graphic medicine for conversational model therapy (CMT), stimulating conversations without triggering the distress underlying a client’s coping mechanisms. Various concepts of CMT will be discussed within the conceptual, linguistical, and metaphorical framework already supplied by Naruto. These therapeutic conversations can potentially amplify the client’s feelings of positive affect for the manga/anime, while still relating with the similarities between their own difficulties and the negative affect portrayed by the characters.

Developing a Model of Antecedents to Middle Managers’ Strategic Role Conflict

Strategic role conflict has been identified in the literature as a hindrance, even an impediment, to effective middle-management involvement in strategy. Despite a growing body of theoretical work by scholars on the strategy process, there has been limited empirical research of the antecedents of strategic role conflict. This study explored the effects of middle managers’ demographic characteristics, the nature of their position within the organization, the quality of their relationships with top management, and the extent of dissimilarity of environmental perceptions between the middle manager and their top manager on the middle manager’s experience of strategic role conflict. A large, global manufacturing company based in the United States participated in the study. Survey data was collected from 249 middle managers at four organizational levels within two divisions. Two structural models were tested. Data showed that the more parsimonious model was not supported while the less parsimonious model was supported. Results indicated that key predictors of middle manager’s strategic role conflict were the amount of boundary spanning that middle managers engage in as part of their jobs, the extent of disparity in their perception of the products and factors markets vis-à-vis top management, the frequency of their direct communication with their top manager, the amount of mutual trust between the top middle manager and the top manager, and the amount of disparity in the feelings of mutual affect between the middle manager and his/her top manager.

Pseudo-hyperscanning shows common neural activity during face-to-face communication of affect to be associated with shared affective feelings but not with mere emotion recognition

Current theories in cognitive neuroscience assume that internal simulation, i.e., the reproduction of brain activity underlying another person's inner state and behaviour in the perceiver's brain, plays an important role in understanding others. Here we test the prediction that common neural activity during facial communication of affect leads to interpersonal understanding. Six female senders and 30 male observers (six of which were the senders romantic partners and 24 unknown others) underwent pseudo-hyperscanning fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging). Senders were asked to submerge themselves into emotional situations and to facially express their emotional feelings as they arose to the observer. Observers were uninformed about the sender's task and were asked to watch and feel with the sender. Using between-brain spatial correlation analysis we found that mere emotion recognition was not closely related to the degree to which an observer reproduced the sender's spatial pattern of neural activity in his own brain. However, in runs in which the observer had correctly identified the communicated emotion, between-brain similarity of spatial patterns of neural activity predicted the degree to which the observer experienced a similar emotional feeling as the sender. This effect remained significant when differences between romantic partners and unknown others and sender effects were removed. These findings are in line with previous studies that suggest that facial emotion recognition, at least at a coarse level, might be supported by neural processes that do not rely on internal simulation. Shared affective experiences, on the other hand, might arise from common neural activity between the sender's and the observer's brain, leading to a “shared space of affect” which might be critical for the flow of more subtle affective information between brains.

New geographies of commemoration

This article identifies new geographies of commemoration. These draw on non-representational perspectives that foreground the experiential aspects of commemorative sites and events, drawing these together with methodologies alive to the subtle but excessive feelings that arise in such settings. It argues that one aim of commemoration – to reinforce the contours of national identity – is disrupted by a focus on the experiential world because of the unpredictable and excessive nature of sensory and affective feelings. New research in geographies of commemoration also draws together different temporalities, holding the potential to unsettle and complicate national narratives.

AS CONDIÇÕES DA INFRAESTRUTURA ESCOLAR, CORPO DOCENTE E RELAÇÕES DE GÊNERO NA ESCOLA DE ENSINO FUNDAMENTAL: UM ESTUDO DESCRITIVO EM ITAPETINGA, BA

O artigo reúne parte dos resultados da pesquisa descritiva que investigou relações de gênero em uma escola municipal de ensino fundamental, Itapetinga, BA, com foco no emprego de preconceitos e discriminação de gênero entre alunos e professor-alunos e a influência das condições e organização da infraestrutura escolar na aprendizagem escolar, observando as estratégias utilizadas pela escola (ou não) para ensinar a formação de valores coletivos, cidadania e melhoria das relações entre alunos no cotidiano escolar. O significado e sentido de prática educativa bem sucedida, nos quais buscamos apoio, encontram-se ancorados nas ideias de Arendt (1997), educação e emancipação de Adorno (1995), relações de gênero, corpo e processo pedagógico em Louro (1997, 2000), Carvalho (2016, 2012) e outros. Com base nos teóricos, compreendemos práticas educativas bem sucedidas aquelas que, além de gerar aprendizagem positiva, formação da cidadania e condição humana, possibilitam a melhoria das relações entre alunos (as) e professor-aluno(a), ampliando sentimentos afetivos e valores éticos, que potencializam relações interpessoais na escola. Neste texto, apresentamos um recorte teórico e resultados alcançados com informantes e de ações sobre gênero e intersecção raça e etnia. Esses resultados apontam que, quando a escola se preocupa com a melhoria das condições do ambiente escolar, como lugar de encontros prazerosos, saudável e a criação de estratégias para formação de valores e cidadania de seus alunos, tornando-os mais alegres, afetivos(as), potencializa as relações de interação, sociabilidades, respeito à diferença, convivência com a diversidade, responsabilidade com a vida e igualdade na escola, contudo, precisa ainda caminhar nesta direção.

Does Cardiorespiratory Fitness Buffer Stress Reactivity and Stress Recovery in Police Officers? A Real-Life Study.

High levels of cardiorespiratory fitness have the potential to buffer against physical and mental health impairments, which can result from exposure to occupational stress. Police officers are especially at risk of high psychosocial stress; therefore, effective intervention strategies are warranted. Given this background, the purpose of the present study was to examine whether police officers with different levels of cardiorespiratory fitness differ with regard to their (a) physiological stress reactivity during acute real-life stress situations, and (b) physiological recovery related to acute and chronic work stress. In total, 201 police officers took part in this study (M = 38.6 years, SD = 10.1, 35.8% females). Officers were contacted eight times on a smartphone during their workday, and asked to report their current level of positive and negative affect, as well as feelings of stress and anger. Physiological stress responses and recovery (heart rate variability) were assessed using Movisens EcgMove3 devices. The Åstrand bicycle ergometer test was used to assess participants' cardiorespiratory fitness. Chronic work stress was assessed using the effort-reward imbalance model and the job strain model. Multilevel modeling was used to test buffering effects of cardiorespiratory fitness on physiological stress reactivity. Linear regression was applied to test stress-buffering effects of cardiorespiratory fitness on physiological recovery. Results showed lowered physiological stress reactivity to acute work stress in officers with higher levels of cardiorespiratory fitness. However, these results were not consistent, with no effects occurring for feelings of anger, positive affect, and negative affect. Chronic work stress (effort-reward imbalance) was related to lower physiological recovery. Cardiorespiratory fitness was positively related to physiological recovery. Data did not support interactions between work stress and cardiorespiratory fitness on physiological recovery. To some extent, cardiorespiratory fitness seems to have the potential to buffer stress reactivity in police officers in acute stress situations. Therefore, we encourage promoting fitness programs which aim to enhance cardiorespiratory fitness in stressful occupations such as law enforcement. Improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness might further enhance physiological recovery from chronic work stress, which is thought to improve cardiovascular health.

Anticipated feelings and support for public mega projects: Hosting the Olympic Games

When facing complex decisions, individuals often employ heuristics, relying on affective feelings rather than systematically evaluating decisional pros and cons. If this heuristic misguides the personal decisions, the consequences may be unfortunate for the individuals but not harmful to the wider society. This is not the case, however, for decisions with a public policy impact, such as the approval of public mega projects, which can result in inefficient government spending. This study thus examines the formation and interplay of cognitive versus affective decision components in the context of these projects. More specifically, using population-representative survey data from 11 European countries and the US, the authors provide evidence for three major findings: First, context-specific orientations play a more decisive role for individuals’ affective feelings than their general orientations. Second, affective feelings exert a strong influence on their support for public mega projects. Third, although effortful processing filters the influence of affective feelings on decisions, the filtering mechanism is rather ineffective.

The Effects of Perceptions of Organizational Structure on Job Involvement, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Commitment Among Indian Police Officers

Successful police organizations rely on involved, satisfied, and committed workers. The concepts of job involvement (i.e., connection with the job), job satisfaction (i.e., affective feeling toward the job), and organizational commitment (i.e., bond with the employing organization) have been shown to significantly affect intentions and behaviors of employees. The current study used multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis on survey results from a sample of 827 Indian police officers to explore how perceptions of work environment factors affect officers’ job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Organizational support, formalization (i.e., level of codified written rules and guidelines), promotional opportunities, institutional communication (i.e., salient work information is transmitted), and input into decision-making (i.e., having a voice in the process) significantly influenced the job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of Indian police officers. Specifically, in the multivariate analysis, perceptions of formalization and instrumental communication had a positive relationship with job involvement; perceptions of organizational support, promotional opportunities, instrumental communication, and input into decision-making had positive associations with job satisfaction; and perceptions of organizational support, formalization, promotional opportunities, instrumental communication, and input into decision-making had positive relationships with organizational commitment.

The impact of automatic evaluation on mood: an awareness-dependent effect

ABSTRACT How do affective feelings arise? Most theories consider that affective feelings result from the appraisals of an event, these appraisals being the consequences of automatic evaluations processes that can occur pre-consciously. However, studies testing this hypothesis have provided divergent results. We hypothesised that the discrepancy could be due to the visibility of the affective stimuli. We conducted two studies in which we manipulated this factor. Moreover, to exclude a possible explanation of these effects in terms of semantic priming or of experimental demand, we measured participants’ facial expressions with EMG in addition to self-report measures (BMIS). The two studies showed that repeated brief exposure to visible positive stimuli (words, Experiment 1 - pictures, Experiment 2) led to more positive feelings than exposure to negative stimuli. In contrast, when the stimuli were masked, the reversed pattern of results was observed. Results on facial EMG indicate similar effects. Consistent with the automatic evaluation hypothesis, the results suggest that assimilative effects of affective stimuli on affective feelings can be observed after a repeated brief presentation of primes, provided that the stimuli are visible. The contrast effects observed when stimuli were masked appear reliable but remain in need for further theoretical explanation.

EXPLORING THE LITERARY TRANSLATOR’S WORK-RELATED HAPPINESS: THE CASE STUDY OF SLOVAKIA

Abstract:In compliance with Translator Studies and its accompanying sociological turn the translator’s work-related happiness is beginning to attract the attention of scholars after having been largely sidestepped in empirical translation studies (TS) research. Although it could be objected that the issue of happiness offers ground only for speculative philosophy, it became a subject of research in the humanities and more recently also in TS. As much as culture dictates that literary translation is an elegant avocation, the harsh reality in Slovakia is that it can be considered as a form of activism in the context of being scandalously underpaid when compared to other translation segments. This paper aims to determine the perception of work-related happiness in Slovak literary translators based on Veenhoven’s (2015) concept of happiness and seeks the greatest sources of their satisfaction at work. The second part of the paper attempts to identify the literary translators’ affective feelings, using the IWP Affect Questionnaire. The results of this study shed fresh light on the psychological and emotional facets of the literary translator’s persona using a triangulation of insights from psychology, identity studies and TS. A quantitative enquiry into the selected translator habitus offers research stimuli for comparison with other literary translators’ nationalities as well as other translation segments.

What are the psychosocial consequences when fear of falling starts or ends? Evidence from an asymmetric fixed effects analysis based on longitudinal data from the general population.

The purpose of this study was to identify whether the onset and the end of fear of falling (FOF) are associated with psychosocial consequences (in terms of depressive symptoms, loneliness, social isolation, autonomy, and subjective well-being). Longitudinal data for this study were taken from the nationally representative German Ageing Survey which included community-dwelling individuals ≥40 years (wave 5 and wave 6). Psychosocial outcome measures were assessed using widely established and well-validated scales. The presence of FOF was used as the main explanatory variable. It was adjusted for age, family status, labor force participation, self-rated health, physical functioning, as well as the number of chronic conditions. Linear fixed effects regressions revealed that FOF was associated with adverse psychosocial outcomes (increased depressive symptoms, lower life satisfaction, lower positive affect, higher negative affect, and lower perceived autonomy). Asymmetric fixed effects regressions analysis showed that the onset of FOF was associated with reduced life satisfaction as well as reduced autonomy, whereas the end of FOF was associated with reduced depressive symptoms, decreased loneliness scores, as well as decreased negative affect. The study findings suggest that future studies should analyze the consequences of FOF differently (onset and end of FOF) which has practical important implications. More specifically, while strategies to avoid the onset of FOF may help to maintain satisfaction with life and autonomy, strategies to end FOF may contribute to avoid increased loneliness, feelings of negative affect, as well as increased depressive symptoms. J Am Geriatr Soc 68:-, 2020.

Unbinding the Maternal Body in Lucy Hutchinson’s Order and Disorder

This article addresses Lucy Hutchinson’s Order and Disorder, an epic, twenty-canto retelling of Genesis. Scholars have often considered Hutchinson’s poem an inferior version of Paradise Lost insofar as it does not transgress biblical narrative. Attending to the poem’s portrayal of childbearing in relation to seventeenth-century birthing prayers and affect theory, this article demonstrates how Hutchinson’s figuration of the body belies any notion of her poem as “Christian cliché.” The article argues that the political value of Order and Disorder stems not from Hutchinson’s depiction of motherhood as a prototype of self-possessed, liberal political agency, but from her account of affective feeling as unbinding woman from any fixed position or category. Finally, the article shows how Hutchinson’s depiction of childbearing, as an ongoing process rather than a teleological event, parallels her understanding of both poetry and providence.

Measuring Tourist Satisfaction with Nautical Destinations: The Effects of Image, Loyalty, and Past Destination Choice

This article aims to analyze factors determining tourist satisfaction with nautical destinations. To this aim, survey data were collected from 255 nautical tourists visiting Cape Verde and an ordinal logit model was used. Data analysis confirms that tourists' satisfaction increases with the diversity and quality of the nautical and cultural offer, and the security offered by the destination, in line with previous research. As novelty, the affective feelings towards the nautical destination were also found as an important antecedent of nautical tourists' satisfaction conformation. The study also confirms that tourists who had been in the archipelago previously do experience a higher level of satisfaction compared with nonrepeaters. Lastly, the fact of visiting other competing nautical destinations influences the level of satisfaction of the nautical tourists in Cape Verde, although not all previously visited destinations have the same impact. This suggests that strategies for nautical tourism development should be more attentive to establish long-lasting relationships and networking structures with some key competitors, and segment their marketing plans according to tourists' past destination choice. The results are of great importance for several destinations seeking to utilize the promotion of nautical activities as a key driver for tourism competitiveness and positioning improvement.

Semantic and affective representations of valence: Prediction of autonomic and facial responses from feelings-focused and knowledge-focused self-reports.

The term valence can refer to either the affective response (e.g., "I feel bad") or the semantic knowledge about a stimulus (e.g., "car accidents are bad"). Accordingly, the content of self-reports can be more "experience-near" and proxy to the mental state of affective feelings, or, alternatively, involve nonexperiential semantic knowledge. In this work we compared three experimental protocol instructions: feelings-focused self-reports that encourage participants to report their feelings (but not knowledge); knowledge-focused self-reports that encourage participants to report about semantic knowledge (and not feelings); and "feelings-naïve", in which participants were asked to report their feelings but are not explicitly presented with the distinction between feelings and knowledge. We compared the ability of the three types of self-report data to predict facial electromyography, heart rate, and electrodermal changes in response to affective stimuli. The relationship between self-reports and both physiological signal intensity and signal discriminability were examined. The results showed a consistent advantage for feelings-focused over knowledge-focused instructions in prediction of physiological response with feelings-naïve instructions falling in between. The results support the theoretical distinction between affective and semantic representations of valence and the validity of feelings-focused and knowledge-focused self-report instructions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The impact of urban façade quality on affective feelings

PurposeMuch of the current literature on streetscape design emphasizes a need for well-articulated edge conditions to enhance pedestrian-orientation and the reason appears to lie in evolutionary biology: humans have a psychological preference for wall-hugging due to a well-established trait in other species: thigmotaxis.Design/methodology/approachThis study seeks to explore the relationship between urban facades and affective feelings through an empirical study, which asks: how do people perceive edge conditions in urban environments? Through a study of affect relative to edge conditions, greater insight can be generated as to the human experience in the built environment. We conducted a laboratory experiment with 76 subjects who each viewed 40 images of urban facades and rated each based on their emotional reaction.FindingsEach subject also completed two validated individual trait difference measures. We found that those images depicting thigmotaxic facades were more highly rated than other facades.Originality/valueHigh quality edge environment resulted in people feeling more pleasant than low quality edges.

Suspicion and/as Radical (Care)

Bourgeoning technological advances in biomedicine profoundly animate modern biopolitical understandings of risk and protection and related ways of knowing, offering, and seeking care. But what might it mean to embody protection by means of suspicion toward these very medicotechnological deployments of care? What can suspicion toward biomedical and technological forms of care teach us about histories of risk, medicine, and the imperative to care in the postcolonial world? This article wrestles with these questions. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Barbados between 2015 and 2018, it embraces care’s historically antithetical meanings to examine the caring work of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine and Afro-Barbadians’ hesitancy toward it. Looking closer at care, the impetus to care, and the consequences of refusing that care, it gestures toward the risks and potentialities of not-doing and the affective feelings of suspicion that exist for Afro-Barbadian parents who have refused the care of the HPV vaccine for their adolescent children amid an epidemic of cervical cancer in the developing world.

Feeling excited or taking a bath: Do distinct pathways underlie the positive affect-health link in the U.S. and Japan?

Feeling good is linked to better health in Western contexts. Recent studies show, however, that the affect-health link is not consistent across cultures. We suggest two reasons for such inconsistency. The first follows from research showing that North American (vs. East Asian) cultures tend to value high arousal positive (HAP) states, for example, excited, more than low arousal positive (LAP) states, for example, calm. The second is one we propose for the first time. Positive affective experience is manifest in internal feelings but also in affective practices, such as taking a bath (a highly valued affective experience in Japan) or a fitness workout (a highly valued affective experience in the United States). We hypothesized that the HAP feelings/practices-health link would be stronger in the United States versus Japan, and the LAP feelings/practices-health link would be stronger in Japan versus the United States. Using survey samples from the United States (N = 640) and Japan (N = 382), we examined how health outcomes are shaped by positive affective feelings and practices varying in arousal. In a first set of analyses, HAP feelings predicted better physical and biological health in the United States but not in Japan. No cultural differences were consistently found for the effect of LAP feelings on health. In addition, engaging in HAP practices predicted better physical and biological health in the United States whereas engaging in LAP practices predicted better physical health in Japan but not in the United States. These findings suggest that the pathways underlying the culture-health link are culturally variable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Leaving Something for the Imagination: The Effect of Visual Concealment on Preferences

When advertising products to consumers, firms sometimes conceal key aspects in an effort to arouse consumer curiosity. This research investigates when and how visual concealment tactics may benefit or hurt aesthetic product evaluations. The authors propose that when consumers are only able to view a portion of an aesthetic product, assessments of its appeal will be influenced by two interrelated mechanisms: curiosity to see the item completed and inferences about the item’s fully disclosed appearance. The authors show that heightened curiosity triggers feelings of positive affect that are transferred to the product itself, a process that may inflate preferences and choice likelihoods for products beyond what would occur if the full image were known. This transference effect, however, has an important boundary: it works only when initial consumer inferences about the appeal of the product are positive or emotionally congruent with the positive affect triggered by curiosity. The key implication is that, ironically, the products likely to benefit most from concealment tactics are those that have the least to hide. The authors provide evidence for these effects and the underlying mechanism using six experiments that manipulate concealment in a variety of task settings.

Affective Feelings and Perceived Exertion During a 10-km Time Trial and Head-to-Head Running Race.

To verify the affective feelings (AFs) and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) responses during a 10-km competitive head-to-head (HTH) running race and compare them with a time-trial (TT) running race. Fourteen male runners completed 2 × 10-km runs (TT and HTH) on different days. Speed, RPE, and AF were measured every 400m. For pacing analysis, races were divided into the following 4 stages: first 400m (F400), 401-5000m (M1), 5001-9600m (M2), and the last 400m (final sprint). Improvement of performance was observed (39:32 [02:41]min:s vs 40:28 [02:55]min:s; P = .03; effect size = -0.32) in HTH compared with TT. There were no differences in either pacing strategy or RPE between conditions. AFs were higher during the HTH, being different in M2 compared with TT (2.09 [1.81] vs 0.22 [2.25]; P = .02; effect size = 0.84). AFs are directly influenced by the presence of opponents during an HTH race, and a more positive AF could be involved in the dissociation between RPE and running speed and, consequently, the overall race performance.

The perception of time is dynamically interlocked with the facial muscle activity

Time perception relies on the motor system. Involves core brain regions of this system, including those associated with feelings generated from sensorimotor states. Perceptual timing is also distorted when movement occurs during timing tasks, possibly by interfering with sensorimotor afferent feedback. However, it is unknown if the perception of time is an active process associated with specific patterns of muscle activity. We explored this idea based on the phenomenon of electromyographic gradients, which consists of the dynamic increase of muscle activity during cognitive tasks that require sustained attention, a critical function in perceptual timing. We aimed to determine whether facial muscle dynamic activity indexes the subjective representation of time. We asked participants to judge stimuli durations (varying in familiarity) while we monitored the time course of the activity of the zygomaticus-major and corrugator-supercilii muscles, both associated with cognitive and affective feelings. The dynamic electromyographic activity in corrugator-supercilii over time reflected objective time and this relationship predicted subjective judgments of duration. Furthermore, the zygomaticus-major muscle signaled the bias that familiarity introduces in duration judgments. This suggests that subjective duration could be an embodiment process based in motor information changing over time and their associated feelings.