Emotional Strength Research Articles

Cross My Heart

Linked by a series of idiomatic expressions used to describe sadness, loss and love, “Cross My Heart” is a lyric essay delving into the world of journaling bad decisions and broken relationships. A deep and private self appears in diaries; intense curiosity makes resisting the off-limit contents of the confidential accounts difficult for the author. In her search for understanding her place in the life, mind and heart of another, unwanted discoveries ensue. Her father, a constant source of emotional strength and support, offers inadequate advice.

Functions of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in emotion regulation under stress

Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) contributes to regulation of emotion. However, the adaptive response of the vmPFC under acute stress is not understood. We used fMRI to analyse brain activity of people viewing and rating the emotional strength of emotional images after acute social stress. Here, we show that the vmPFC is strongly activated by highly emotional images, indicating its involvement in emotional regulation, and that the midbrain is activated as a main effect of stress during the emotional response. vmPFC activation also exhibits individual differences in behavioural scores reflecting individual reactions to stress. Moreover, functional connectivity between the vmPFC and midbrain under stress reflects stress-induced emotion regulation. Those results suggest that the functions of the network including the vmPFC in emotion regulation is affected by stress depending on the individuals' level of reaction to the stress.

Emotionally savvy employees fail to enact emotional intelligence when ostracized

Emotional intelligence (EI) has been endorsed as a personal asset in navigating social environments. By extoling EI's positive implications for work outcomes, advocators encouraged organizations to integrate EI into selection and training programs. Nevertheless, according to meta-analytical results, the predictive validity of EI for various work outcomes may not be so promising as expected. A possible reason is that high EI individuals may not effectively enact this emotional strength under certain circumstances. However, what influences employee EI-enactment at work remains unclear. Drawing upon whole trait theory, we posit that by workplace ostracism, a salient threat to need for belongingness, may hinder employee EI-enactment and in turn constrain EI's positive impact on service performance. Data collected with a weekly diary design demonstrated that weekly workplace ostracism weakened the relationship between employees' general level of EI and their weekly EI-enactment and reduced the indirect effect of EI on weekly service performance via EI-enactment. By showing that workplace ostracism stretches EI to its limit, we make the first attempt to uncover a boundary condition for employee EI-enactment and offers a valuable insight into when EI fails to make a difference.

Assessment of quality of life among cancer patients in a cancer care center of Mysuru

Background: Cancer is a non-communicable disease causing high mortality and morbidity. Most risk factors of cancer are preventable, but due to lack of awareness, ignorance, poor access to healthcare and changing lifestyle the burden of the disease is rapidly increasing. Cancer causes a lot of financial and emotional distress among the patients and their families. Measures focusing on reducing the financial burden and improving the quality of life (QoL) among cancer survivors is needed. This study was done to assess the quality of life among cancer patients.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Bharat hospital and institute of oncology for a period of 5 months (February 2021 to June 2021). A total of 380 rural women diagnosed with cancer were included in the study. EORTC QLQ-C30 (European organization for research and treatment of cancer QoL questionnaire) was used to assess the quality of life among cancer patients. The data was coded and entered in MS excel and analysed using SPSS version 25. Descriptive statistical analysis was done. The quality of life scoring is done as per the EORTC QLQ-C30 scoring manual.Results: The average functional score (AFS) was 60.14 which indicates most patients have better QoL. The average symptoms score (ASS) was 38.48 which indicated 255 (67.1%) had mild symptomatology/problems and 282 (74%) had a GHS score range of 50-75 which meant the majority had a good QoL.Conclusions: Cancer causes a huge economic burden particularly in those with a low socio-economic background. Interventions and policies should be adopted to make treatment more affordable. The patient should be offered emotional strength and families should be counselled for a better understanding of patients’ emotions.

An Analysis of Santiago’s Character in Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea : A Saga of Indomitable Human Spirit

This article explores the epic story of an old fisherman and his experience at the sea that portrays the physical and emotional strength of a man called Santiago and will analyse his motivation to reclaim his lost reputation and dignity of not catching a fish for 84 days. Santiago confronted each day with poise and dignity for many days without catching a fish and was made fun of by many fishermen. He was called unlucky (salao) by the fellow fishermen. Hemingway illustrates the daring resolution of the old man through this tale. The story deals with the vital issues of mortality, hope, despair, and determination, where an old fisherman fights back against a huge fish to reclaim his honour and dignity. Ernest Hemingway rejoices over this heroic man who goes through life’s challenges alone with fierce courage and tenacity, exhibiting what Hemingway views as an indestructible spirit of man at its best. In addition, Hemingway reminds us about the human spirit and the importance of human dignity in our everyday struggle for survival. Hemingway compels us to acknowledge courage, tenacity, skill, expertise, and strength through this story. He recalls a tale of valour, daring, and heroism, of one man's struggle against his own doubts and about his success and failure, and his ultimate triumph. The novel brings forth man’s understanding of his own mortality and his power to overcome it. The objective of this study is to analyse the character of Santiago, based on the structural elements,using qualitative research.The primary data of the research is The Old Man and the Sea and the secondary data of the research are the other materials related to the study. The result of the study shows following conclusion.Based on the research the character of Santiago’s struggle displays the aptitude of the indomitable spirit of man that endures suffering and adversity in order to succeed. The story illustrates Santiago’s adventure and resolution, hardship and perseverance.

On the processing of optimal performances: Studying arousal evoked by being correct and fast.

IntroductionResponses are optimal when they are accurate and fast. The present experiment investigated whether optimal responses evoke physiological arousal and whether performance affects the processing and evaluation of subsequent emotional material.MethodsParticipants performed a response‐choice task, where feedback was a colored square reflecting performance quality or a face whose expression (happy or angry) did not indicate any aspect of performance. In the occurrence of an emotional stimulus, participants had to express a judgment about the emotional strength. The experiment focused on differences in the electrodermal and brain electrophysiological activities evoked by optimal (correct‐fast) and suboptimal (correct‐slow) responses, along with modulations on the processing and interpretation of facial emotions.ResultsThe results showed that, compared to correct responses, incorrect responses elicited an augmented phasic skin conductance response (SCR) and enhanced response‐locked event‐related potentials. Importantly, among correct responses, the SCR and the correct‐related negativity (CRN) were larger for correct‐fast than correct‐slow responses. Performance also affected the processing of faces, irrespective of the emotion, but it did not change the subjective interpretation. The EPN evoked by angry and happy faces was less negative after optimal than suboptimal responses.ConclusionThese results indicate that the monitoring system is sensitive to detect correct‐fast responses, resulting in a state of physiological arousal that might guide the reinforcement of optimal performances.

“A Thousand Minute Circumstances”: Frankenstein, Westworld and Feminist Revolution

ABSTRACT Westworld, the HBO series created and written by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, is an indirect adaptation of Frankenstein that centers on two heroines, Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and Maeve (Thandie Newton), android “hosts” who struggle and suffer at the hands of their corporate handlers and of the “guests” who pay to visit a world without consequences. As an innovative feminist extension of Shelley’s Frankenstein, Westworld levels an implied critique against the patriarchal, self-aggrandizing attitudes of Victor Frankenstein and of modern science, which seek to probe and dominate when they should nurture and respect. As such, Westworld valorizes a filial sphere in which creators devote themselves to the emotional well-being of their creations, in which familial ties engender healthy, fully actualized individuals, and in which these individuals develop the emotional strength and circumspection necessary to seek positive social change.

RPEA A Música na Minha Escola de Sonho: Dando Voz aos Alunos das Escolas da Região Autónoma da Madeira

This essay replicates the research “The School I Would Like” conducted by The Guardian in 2001, in the United Kingdom, in which students were asked what their ideal school would be like. In this context, the study was adapted to the reality of Madeira and to the domain of music, having heard 1 177 students (8-12 years old) from 54 schools, about what would be “Music in your Dream School”. The purpose was, therefore, to listen to the students, with a view totheir involvement in the definition / construction of a school with a better musical education. To collect the students’ opinions, they were asked for a small literary composition on the theme “The dream school they would like to have”,where they should try to answer the question. “How would the music classes at that school be?” The 2 464 proposals were grouped into 4 categories. 1. “Forgotten spaces”; 2. “Learning / Knowing”; 3. “Emotional strength” and 4. “Flexible contexts”. In terms of results, issues related to content and how to learn received 39% of the proposals; The material, technological resources and the time of the disciplines and intervals 29% of the proposals; School spaces, sports and outdoor spaces received 25% of the proposals; Emotional issues received 7% of the proposals. We conclude that, in addition to the proposals being pertinent and many of them applicable, it is very important to listen to students, in view of a more appealing and motivating school.

Psychological maltreatment predicts decreases in social wellbeing through resilience in college students: A conditional process approach of positive emotions

Although mental wellbeing has received increasing interest from researchers and practitioners, few have focused on social wellbeing. Understanding the factors of young adults’ social wellbeing has become essential in providing mental health services to foster their social adjustment and functioning. The present study investigated the mediating role of resilience in the association between psychological maltreatment and social wellbeing, as well as the moderating role of positive emotions on the mediating effect of resilience in this relationship among Turkish college students. Participants included 381 college students from a state university, ranging in age from 18 to 41 years (67% female; M = 20.81, SD = 3.50). Results from structural equation modeling revealed that psychological maltreatment had a significant predictive effect on resilience and social wellbeing. Resilience also significantly mitigated the adverse impact of psychological maltreatment on young people’s social wellbeing. Further results showed that positive emotions had a buffering effect on the association of psychological maltreatment with resilience and social wellbeing, as well as moderated the effect of resilience on social wellbeing. These findings indicated the mechanism of psychological maltreatment affecting mental health, which had important empirical and theoretical value for improving the strength of resilience and positive emotions and fostering social wellbeing.

Quantifying the impact of COVID-19 on the individuals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional descriptive study of the posttraumatic growth.

This study seeks to explore the effect of the COVID‐19 outbreak pandemic on the posttraumatic growth among Saudi individuals and also to assess the effect of demographic variables on the PTG. A descriptive design was applied to detect the level of PTG and to determine the differences in PTG due to demographic variables. A randomized sample consisting of 365 participants was chosen; the participants’ ages ranged between 20 and 60. The study sample was divided into subgroups according to demographic variables. The posttraumatic growth scale (PTG‐21) applied online to the study sample. The results indicated that there were high levels of improved personal relationships, increased emotional strength and resilience, greater spiritual connection, and a heightened sense of gratitude toward life among Saudis, while there were low levels of the new opportunities and the total score of posttraumatic growth. The results also found that there are significant statistical differences in the PTG due to demographic variables except academic degree has not no effect in PTG. The findings highlighting the importance of the psychological service centers, to help who suffer from the negative effects of COVID‐19 pandemic outbreak symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and obsessive compulsive.

Universal Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Strength and Risk Screening: Relative Predictive Validity for Students’ Subjective Well-Being in Schools

The national social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) screening in South Korean schools focuses on identifying and intervening with students at risk for SEB concerns, with little attention paid to students’ SEB strength. This study aimed to examine (a) the technical adequacy of the Social Emotional Health Survey—Primary (SEHS-P), Youth Internalizing Problem Screener (YIPS), and Youth Externalizing Problem Screener (YEPS), (b) the relations of the YIPS and YEPS to students’ subjective well-being (SWB) in schools, and (c) the incremental predictive utility of the SEHS-P for students’ SWB in schools. Confirmatory factor and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted using a sample of 790 fourth–sixth grade students in South Korea. Results supported the factor structures and reliability of the screeners and indicated that the SEHS-P explained significant additional variance in school-specific SWB beyond that accounted for by the YIPS and YEPS. Implications for future research and practice are discussed. Impact Statement This study adds empirical support to international research on dual-factor models, suggesting the need to attend to both SEB strength and risk to promote well-being among youth. Results support the inclusion of a SEB strength screener in the current deficit-oriented screening in South Korea to gather more well-rounded data to inform prevention and intervention efforts.

Perspective taking effects are modulated by the valence of stimuli

Previously we found perspective taking (PT) influenced affect ratings of negative pictures more than neutral pictures. The current follow-up experiments extend that research to explore effects of perspective taking with positive valence pictures. We used stimuli consisting of neutral, happy and sad pictures. Stimuli were presented either mixed within blocks (Experiment 1) or separated by emotion (neutrals + happy/sad) into two separate blocks (Experiment 2). Participants rated (from 1‐ to 7 based on emotional strength) stimuli from different perspectives (sensitive/tough/their own, i.e., “me”). Emotional strength rating was a dependent variable. A significant interaction between valence and PT was found in both experiments. The difference between adopting sensitive and tough perspectives toward sadness was larger than toward the neutral condition, replicating our results from the previous study. The same difference (sensitive-tough) was larger toward the happiness condition than toward the neutral one (this was a trend in Experiment 1 and was significant in Experiment 2) and toward the sadness condition than toward the happy one. These results suggest that PT effects on emotional ratings are modulated by valence of stimuli.

Managing Strong Emotions: Nurses’ Recognition and Responses to Personal Emotions When Approaching Parents With Cancer and Their Dependent Children

Care for sick parents and their dependent children (<18 years) has become a pertinent issue in health care. Nurses play an important role in caring for parents with cancer as well as their children. By utilizing a constructivist grounded theory approach, the aim of this study was to expand the research-based knowledge of nurses' experiences of personal emotions in this research field and to develop a subsequent explanatory theory extending the existing concept of emotional labor. Interviews with 12 nurses were conducted and analyzed. The nurses experienced this area of work as particularly emotionally challenging and attempted to manage personal emotions through regulating and processing strategies. Through this process, they sought for emotional strength by balancing their private lives and work lives to manage work-related emotions. An increased awareness of emotional labor may strengthen nurses' emotional competence in nursing.

Sequence-to-Sequence Emotional Voice Conversion With Strength Control

This paper proposes an improved emotional voice conversion (EVC) method with emotional strength and duration controllability. EVC methods without duration mapping generate emotional speech with identical duration to that of the neutral input speech. In reality, even the same sentences would have different speeds and rhythms depending on the emotions. To solve this, the proposed method adopts a sequence-to-sequence network with an attention module that enables the network to learn attention in the neutral input sequence should be focused on which part of the emotional output sequence. Besides, to capture the multi-attribute aspects of emotional variations, an emotion encoder is designed for transforming acoustic features into emotion embedding vectors. By aggregating the emotion embedding vectors for each emotion, a representative vector for the target emotion is obtained and weighted to reflect emotion strength. By introducing a speaker encoder, the proposed method can preserve speaker identity even after the emotion conversion. Objective and subjective evaluation results confirm that the proposed method is superior to other previous works. Especially, in emotion strength control, we achieve in getting successful results.

MANAGEME OF RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR PERSONS WITH PHYSICAL DISABILITIES

A balance between activity and rest is essential for human health. Recreation is especially relevant for the disabled, who want to regain their physical, spiritual and emotional strength, and at the same time spend their free time meaningfully. Recreation improves not only physical capacity, motor skills, but also the self-esteem of the disabled, the ability to communicate and cooperate, promotes motivation to participate in various activities. People with disabilities still face a lack of information about recreational activities and their accessibility, which may be related to a lack of motivation to participate in physical activities and low levels of physical activity. The relevance of the research is also determined by the lack of research related to the management of recreation and leisure of the disabled in Lithuania. Those who want to solve the problems of the quality of leisure time in the social system today especially lack qualified knowledge and research. It is expected that the research of this work will at least partially reveal whether the recreation and leisure of the disabled in Lithuania is sufficiently well organized and accessible to persons with physical disabilities. The situation in Lithuania in terms of recreation for the disabled has not been sufficiently studied, therefore this work will help to assess the current situation and provide guidelines for the further development of recreation for the disabled. Objective: To evaluate the usefulness of recreational activities for people with physical disabilities, the possibilities of their organization and implementation. Tasks: to define the accessibility and organization of health promotion in recreational activities for persons with physical disabilities; to reveal the possible influence of economic-financial, informational, physical and psychosocial environmental factors on the participation of the disabled in recreational activities for the purposes of health promotion; to discuss the leisure needs and possibilities of satisfaction of persons with mobility impairments. Methods: analysis, systematization and interpretation of scientific literature.

Burning issue in healthcare: Burnout among nurses in a tertiary care hospital

Burnout at work develops as consequence of prolonged stress which causes exhaustion of physical or emotional strength or motivation. Concepts of burnout and stress has been the researchers focus for several years. These concepts are extremely important to the employees in other industries and nursing in specific. Little research has investigated regarding burnout in healthcare professionals. The study aimed to assess burnout level among nurses in a tertiary care hospital and to compare the level of burnout among nurses working in different departments.Maslach Burnout Inventory- Survey tool was used to measure burnout among nurses from various wards.Nurses showed moderate levels of Emotional Exhaustion, higher levels of Depersonalization and personal Accomplishment. Married nurses with more personal responsibilities experienced higher levels of Emotional Exhaustion and unmarried nurses showed high levels of depersonalization.The findings suggest that burnout is an important problem for nurses. Indian nurses show different patterns of burnout from nurses working in developed countries, this can be due to cultural and work environment differences.It is essential to address life-work balance, coping mechanism and stress management to reduce the burden of burnout.

Quality of Life of Head and Neck Cancer Patients: Psychosocial Perspective using Mixed Method Approach.

Objectives:Head and neck cancers are one of the most visible cancers permanently damaging appearances and affecting some of the very basic life functions of the patients. With advances in medical care and multidisciplinary team interventions, such changes can be managed and patient’s quality of life (QOL) be improved. Thus, it is important to understand the QOL concerns of the patients. The objective of the study was to examine QOL concerns of the patients with head and neck cancer.Materials and Methods:A sample of 100 adult cancer patients was selected from NCT of Delhi using non-probability sampling design. Data were collected through European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QOL Questionnaires 30 (EORTC QLQ30) and EORTC QLQ Head and Neck specific 35 inventories which was supplemented with qualitative data obtained through semi-structured interviews. Interdependence of the variables and their impact on QOL of patients was studied using co-relational analyses.Results:Patients with head and neck cancer experienced major changes in their speech, appearances, eating pattern, daily routine, and work efficiency. Emotional functioning of the patients was poorest, followed by social functioning, role functioning, physical functioning, and cognitive functioning. Education had significant positive correlation with global QOL (0.382**, P < 0.01).Conclusion:QOL of head and neck cancer patients was poor. Emotional functioning of the patients was worst affected as patients had high emotional concerns. The study recommends psycho-educational intervention programs to help patients cope up better with the disease and improve their QOL. Patients’ support group and peer counseling would give emotional strength to the patients as few patients derived positive experience out of the disease episode.

Psychobiosocial states in competitive badminton: Similarities and differences between juniors, adolescents and adults

Emotions affect the way elite athletes respond during competitive play. Elite athletes who identify and regulate emotions can increase their consistency and optimize high quality play. This cross-sectional study examined the extent to which psychobiosocial states of elite badminton players vary by age. Ninety-one elite badminton players in three age groups (lower juniors, upper juniors, and adults) rated their post-play perceptions on eight components of psychobiosocial states (Bortoli, et al., 2008) for both their best and worst performance during the tournament. Descriptive statistics assessed the relative strength of emotions on each item and an analysis of variance examined differences between the three groups. Age differences were found in the perception of the psychobiosocial states in competitive badminton matches in terms of most identified states and intensity. The findings inform coaches’ understanding athlete's individual zone of optimal function (IZOF) and can help them cope with psychobiosocial states during matches.

Digital Empirical Research of Influencing Factors of Musical Emotion Classification Based on Pleasure-Arousal Musical Emotion Fuzzy Model

In recent years, with the further breakthrough of artificial intelligence theory and technology, as well as the further expansion of the Internet scale, the recognition of human emotions and the necessity for satisfying human psychological needs in future artificial intelligence technology development tendencies have been highlighted, in addition to physical task accomplishment. Musical emotion classification is an important research topic in artificial intelligence. The key premise of realizing music emotion classification is to construct a musical emotion model that conforms to the characteristics of music emotion recognition. Currently, three types of music emotion classification models are available: discrete category, continuous dimensional, and music emotion-specific models. The pleasure-arousal music emotion fuzzy model, which includes a wide range of emotions compared with other models, is selected as the emotional classification system in this study to investigate the influencing factor for musical emotion classification. Two representative emotional attributes, i.e., speed and strength, are used as variables. Based on test experiments involving music and non-music majors combined with questionnaire results, the relationship between music properties and emotional changes under the pleasure-arousal model is revealed quantitatively.

‘I’m good’: Examining the internalization of the strong Black woman archetype

ABSTRACT The Strong Black Woman (SBW) archetype incorporates the fusion of strength, independence, resilience, caretaking, and invulnerability which informs behavior and self-perception. Rooted in the enslavement of Africans, the characterization of Black women as innately strong supported the justification of their mistreatment while the embodiment of such characteristics was necessary for personal and communal survival. Moreover, this archetype lends itself to obligatory manifestations of strength and suppression of emotions while simultaneously rejecting vulnerability and dependence upon others. Black women who internalize the SBW narrative often suffer quietly, as they work to meet the expectations of their families, professional arenas, and larger social environments. Using Social identity theory, this article examines the manifestation of the archetype across three social contexts and positions the role of social workers within the context of two grand Challenges to Social Work.