Vicarious Shame and Guilt

Participants recalled instances when they felt vicariously ashamed or guilty for another’s wrongdoing and rated their appraisals of the event and resulting motivations. The study tested aspects of social association that uniquely predict vicarious shame and guilt. Results suggest that the experience of vicarious shame and vicarious guilt are distinguishable. Vicarious guilt was predicted by one’s perceived interdependence with the wrongdoer (e.g. high interpersonal interaction), an appraisal of control over the event, and a motivation to repair the other person’s wrongdoing. Vicarious shame was predicted by the relevance of the event to a shared social identity with the wrongdoer, an appraisal of self-image threat, and a motivation to distance from the event. Implications for intergroup behavior and emotion are discussed

A manifestation of all life : intersections of virtue ethics, philosophy of emotion, and philosophy of literature.

This dissertation offers a brief survey of the rise of reason and the tum to the self at the expense of emotion in Western thought. This marginalization of emotion has had deleterious effects on two areas: the cultivation of virtue and the intersubjectivity necessary to sustain human flourishing. Using current research in neuropsychology the dissertation argues that reason and emotion form a dynamic partnership in the process of attaining reliable knowledge. Moreover, the dissertation argues that the emotional experience necessary for the cultivation of virtue, as well as the ability to attend to the emotional lives of others in the service of inter subjectivity, can be augmented by simulating emotional experiences through reading literature. The dissertation is divided into six chapters. Chapter One traces the history of the rise of reason and the tum to the self in the West, arguing that the preeminence of reason has pushed emotion to the irrational margins. Chapter two explores theories of emotion, contending that emotion is best understood as a process initiated by affective appraisal. Chapter Two also argues for an understanding of emotion as a necessary part of the process of knowing. Chapter Three uses an Aristotelian analysis of virtue to argue for the need for emotion in developing virtue and sustaining community. Chapter Four sets down a theory of emotional attending that argues against viewing others as objects or as mirror images of the self. Chapter Five offers an argument about the simulation of emotion and the use of the imagination in reading literature, and why expanding emotional resources is an important goal. Chapter Six provides a practical example of how reading can enrich the fund of emotional experiences upon which one draws to attend to the emotional lives of others through analysis of Richard Russo\u27s, Empire Falls

What Joy from Misery: the Pleasures of Horror

This thesis investigates the allure of narrative genres, such as horror, that have historically been viewed as philosophically (and often morally) problematic owing to their negative content and the painful emotional responses they elicit. It departs from the majority of classical and contemporary solutions to the alleged paradox posed by such genres, in that it does not attempt to render their pleasures explicable by appealing to their fictive status, thematic or ideological meanings or the more comprehensibly-pleasurable meta-responses they inspire. Rather, this account suggests that we choose to consume stories – fictional and factual – that depict violent or distressing situations and evoke discomforting emotions, for the same reason we choose to engage with less obviously conflict-filled narratives. Fictions compel our attention insofar as they resemble potentially salient information, appealing to a set of deeply ingrained and unconscious cognitive biases that prompt us to attend to certain kinds of stimuli. We are capable of finding narrative genres such as horror, tragedy and the ‘misery memoir’ compelling – without, it is important to note, finding their content in any way pleasant – because we are predisposed to find some types of mental effort rewarding. While horror is often criticised – and defended – on the grounds that its pleasures must lie in slaking anti-social appetites, this thesis criticises the model of fiction’s appeal on which such assumptions are based. Instead it suggests that narrative pleasure characteristically resides in intellectual and emotional absorption or stimulation rather than any straightforward fulfilment of our real life desires. In support of this contention, this account incorporates analyses of a number of related topics, examining subjects such as the alleged rationality of the emotions, whether our attraction to non-factual narratives represents an adaptive trait and how fiction-making, criticism and consuming function as cultural practices

A Component-Based Architecture for Suspense Modelling

Suspense is a key narrative issue in terms of emotional gratification, influencing directly the way in which the audience experiences a story. Disciplines like psychology, neurology or e-learning study the suspense as the basis of useful techniques for the treatment of mental diseases or improving memory skills and the comprehension. In the field of creativity, it’s an essential cross strategy found in almost any book, film and video-game plots, regardless of technology and genre. With the objective of generating engaging stories, some automatic storytelling systems implement a suspense generation module. These systems are mainly based on narrative theories. However, we observe a lack of aspects from behavioral sciences, involving the study of empathy and emotional effect of scene objects in the audience. Generated plots with an adequate treatment of these features may involve benefits in areas as education and psychology. In this paper, we propose a component-based architectural model that firstly aims to identify and extract all these individual factors of the suspense from a scene; in a second step, the system calculates the level of suspense using a weighted corpus; in the last step, it alters those elements to increase or decrease the original suspense level and reassembles them in a new scene. Further, we discuss the model facing the development challenges and its practical implications.This work has been funded by the Andalusian Government under the University of Cadiz programme for Researching and Innovation in Education. This paper has been partially supported by the projects WHIM 611560 and PROSECCO 600653 funded by the European Commission, Framework Program 7, the ICT theme, and the Future and Emerging Technologies FET program.8 page

EXAMINING THE EFFECTS OF HOPE AND FEAR APPEALS ON COGNITIVE PROCESSING

The potential of hope appeals as persuasive messages relative to other types of emotional appeals is unclear. Hope has been theorized to influence motivation, attitudes, and behaviors in meaningful ways; it is also believed to bias cognition toward goal achievement. Based on appraisal theories and the dual processing paradigm, a conceptual framework for how hope appeals could influence message processing, relative to fear appeals, was proffered. It was predicted that hope appeals would bias recipients, such that they would not pay close attention to the emotional appeal or recommendations that accompanied the appeal in order to maintain their positive mood. Fear appeal recipients were expected to counterargue the emotional appeal, but overestimate the quality of the accompanying recommendations. Emotional appeal type and recommendation quality were expected to interact to influence thought generation. Research questions addressing the influence of emotional appeals on recall were also investigated. A 3(Appeal: hope, fear, or rational) x 2(Recommendation Quality: low or high) x 2 (Source Quality: low or high) independent groups experiment was conducted. Overall, some support for the predictions was found. First, processing of the emotional appeal was examined. Hope appeal recipients generated more supportive thoughts and fewer counterarguments than fear appeal recipients. Processing of recommendations was then examined. Fear appeal recipients generated more supportive thoughts about recommendations than hope appeal recipients. Recommendation quality exerted a strong influence on thought generation. Recall of the recommendations and source was also examined. Hope appeal recipients recalled more recommendations than fear or rational appeal recipients. No interactions between emotional appeal type and recommendation quality emerged for the thought generation or recall measures. Theoretical and applied implications, as well as recommendations for future research, are discussed

The psychological characteristics of performance under pressure in professional Rugby Union referees

This study used qualitative methods to explore the stressors, appraisal mechanism, emotional response, and effective/ineffective coping strategies experienced by elite rugby union referees during pressurized performances. Participants included seven male rugby union referees from the United Kingdom (Mage = 27.85, SD = 4.56) who had been officiating as full-time professionals for between 1 and 16 years (M = 4.85, SD = 5.42). Data revealed that the referees encountered a number of stressors, which were appraised initially as a ‘threat’, and elicited negatively-toned emotions. The referees were able to maintain performance standards under pressure by adopting proactive, problem- and emotion-focused coping strategies which managed effectively the stressors and their emotions. However, the use of avoidance-coping, reactive control, and informal impression management were perceived as ineffective coping strategies, and associated with poor performance and choking. Recommendations are offered to inform the psychological skills training of rugby union referees

Historical appraisal analysis: evaluation of the book in sixteenth-century England

This dissertation is a study of the evaluation of the book in the English Renaissance. The purpose of the study is to find out what a good book was like in sixteenth-century England, what personal and societal attitudes were held towards books and literature, and how these attitudes were expressed linguistically. While some of these attitudes have been studied previously, the focus has been limited according to genre. The anxieties related to translating ancient classics and the necessity of vernacularizing medical texts have received some attention. Yet, no previous linguistic analyses of these attitudes have been conducted, and linguistic analyses of evaluative language in general have been rare in historical materials. The material for this study consists of a self-built 70,000-word corpus of English Renaissance translator’s paratexts. The corpus consists of 30 dedications and 41 prefaces, collected from the full range of available topics and genres. I analyze the evaluative language within the corpus texts using the Appraisal Framework, a discourse semantic tool for the categorization and analysis of evaluative language. This study shows that the early modern English book was appraised largely for its internal and external value: the distinction it has among others of its type and its usefulness to its reader. The original author of the work is subjected to succinct positive appraisals of their character, while the translator is appraised with more complex structures expressing both positive and negative attitudes related to their capacity and tenacity. The topic of the main text has a heavy influence on the appraisals. While the paratexts to classical translations focus on negative appraisals following textual conventions, the paratexts to more utilitarian texts opt for more positively toned appraisal profiles. Medical texts are presented more positively, and geographical and navigational works circumvent the traditional positive author appraisal to benefit other targets. In addition to advancing the understanding of early modern English book culture, this study contributes to the knowledge of evaluative language as a discourse semantic phenomenon, and expands its study to earlier historical periods.Tämä tutkielma käsittelee arvottavaa kieltä ja kirjoihin kohdistuvia asenteita 1500-luvun Englannissa. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää, millaisia kirjoja arvostettiin renessanssiajan Englannissa, millaisia asenteita kirjoihin kohdistui, ja miten näitä asenteita ilmaistiin kielellisin keinoin. Jotkut varhaismodernin Englannin kirjoihin kohdistuvista asenteista tunnetaan varsin hyvin. Erityisesti antiikin kreikkalaisten ja roomalaisten tekstien sekä retoriikan vaikutus kirjoihin liittyvään diskurssiin on varsin hyvin tunnettu. Samoin lääketieteellisten tekstien kääntämiseen kohdistuvia asenteita on tutkittu viime vuosina. Nämä tutkimukset eivät kuitenkaan ole kielitieteellisiä tai keskity arvottavaan kieleen. Kielitieteellinen tutkimus arvottavasta kielestä historiallisissa konteksteissa on ylipäätään vielä varsin vähäistä. Tutkimuksen materiaalina toimii 70 000 sanan korpus englantilaisten kääntäjien parateksteistä. Korpus koostuu 30 omistuskirjoituksesta ja 41 esipuheesta. Korpuksen paratekstejä ei ole rajattu päätekstin genren tai aiheen mukaan, vaan niitä on koottu kaikista genreistä. Arvottavan kielen analyysi tapahtuu käyttäen Appraisal-teoriaa, joka on arvottavan kielen luokitteluun analyysiin kehitetty diskurssisemanttinen metodologia. Tutkimus osoittaa, että varhaismoderniin englantilaiseen kirjaan kohdistuvat arvotukset perustuivat pääsääntöisesti kirjan sisäiseen arvoon tai sen arvoon kontekstissaan: kirjan erikoislaatuisuuteen ja hyödyllisyyteen. Kirjoittajaa arvotettiin käyttäen yksinkertaista, positiivista kieltä, joka kohdistui tämän soveliaisuuteen, kun taas kääntäjää arvotettiin monimutkaisilla ilmauksilla, joilla kommunikoitiin samanaikaisesti positiivisia ja negatiivisia asenteita. Kääntäjän kompetenssi kiistetään, mutta tämän sitkeyttä kehutaan. Päätekstin sisältö vaikuttaa arvottavaan kieleen ja kirjaan kohdistuviin asenteisiin. Antiikin klassisten tekstien käännökset noudattavat nöyryysdiskurssia, kun taas käyttö- ja tietokirjallisuuden parateksteissä arvottava kieli on tyypillisesti positiivisempaa. Tutkimuksellani tuotan tietoa varhaismodernin englannin kielen kirjallisesta kulttuurista ja arvottavan kielen toimintamekanismeista sekä laajennan arvottavan kielen tutkimusta aiemmille aikakausille

Conversations about Death that are Provoked by Literature

How do teachers have conversations about death with young children? In this paper, I focus specifically on how teachers might support unplanned conversations that were provoked by children’s literature. In analyzing a series of events in which such conversations occurred, I argue that to do so required going against three conventions in literacy education: close reading, staying on task, and appropriate school talk. I then speak to how teacher educators might prepare teachers for these unexpected but important digressions

Uncovering the myth of learning to read Chinese characters: phonetic, semantic, and orthographic strategies used by Chinese as foreign language learners

Oral Session - 6A: Lexical modeling: no. 6A.3Chinese is considered to be one of the most challenging orthographies to be learned by non-native speakers, in particular, the character. Chinese character is the basic reading unit that converges sound, form and meaning. The predominant type of Chinese character is semantic-phonetic compound that is composed of phonetic and semantic radicals, giving the clues of the sound and meaning, respectively. Over the last two decades, psycholinguistic research has made significant progress in specifying the roles of phonetic and semantic radicals in character processing among native Chinese speakers …postprin