A study of emotions in requirements engineering.

Proceedings of: 3rd World Summit on the Knowledge Society (WKKS 2010), September 22-24, 2010, Corfu (Greece)Requirements engineering (RE) is a crucial activity in software development projects. This phase in the software development cycle is knowledge intensive, and thus, human capital intensive. From the human point of view, emotions play an important role in behavior and can even act as behavioral motivators. Thus, if we consider that RE represents a set of knowledge-intensive tasks, which include acceptance and negotiation activities, then the emotional factor represents a key element in these issues. However, the emotional factor in RE has not received the attention it deserves. This paper aims to integrate the stakeholder’s emotions into the requirement process, proposing to catalogue them like any other factor in the process such as clarity or stability. Results show that high arousal and low pleasure levels are predictors of high versioning requirements.Publicad

Predicting emotions and meta-emotions at the movies

Audiences are attracted to dramas and horror movies even though negative and ambivalent emotions are likely to be experienced. Research into the seemingly paradoxical enjoyment of this kind of media entertainment has typically focused on gender- and genre-specific needs and viewing motivations. Extending this line of research, the authors focus the role of the need for affect as a more general, gender- and genre-independent predictor of individual differences in the experience of emotions and meta-emotions (i.e., evaluative thoughts and feelings about one’s emotions). The article discusses a field study of moviegoers who attended the regular screening of a drama or a horror film. Results support the assumption that individuals high in need for affect experience higher levels of negative and ambivalent emotions and evaluate their emotions more positively on the level of meta-emotions. Controlling for the Big Five personality factors does not alter these effects. The results are discussed within an extended meta-emotion framework

Customer emotions in service failure and recovery encounters

Emotions play a significant role in the workplace, and considerable attention has been given to the study of employee emotions. Customers also play a central function in organizations, but much less is known about customer emotions. This chapter reviews the growing literature on customer emotions in employee–customer interfaces with a focus on service failure and recovery encounters, where emotions are heightened. It highlights emerging themes and key findings, addresses the measurement, modeling, and management of customer emotions, and identifies future research streams. Attention is given to emotional contagion, relationships between affective and cognitive processes, customer anger, customer rage, and individual differences

Recognising social and non-social emotions in self and others: A study of autism

Studies of emotion processing in autism have produced mixed results, with fewer studies observing autism-specific deficits than might be imagined. In the current study, 21 individuals with autism and 21 age- and ability-matched, learning disabled comparison participants were tested for their ability to (a) recognise, in others, expressions of “social” emotions (e.g., embarrassment) and “non-social” emotions (e.g., happiness) and; (b) report their own previous experiences of each of these emotions. In line with predictions, amongst both groups of participants, social emotions were more difficult to recognise and report than non-social emotions. Also amongst both groups, the ability to report social emotion-experience was significantly associated with the ability to recognise social emotions in others, independent of age and verbal ability. However, contrary to predictions, there were no group differences in the levels or patterns of performance amongst participants with autism and comparison participants. In light of previous research, these results suggest either that emotion-processing is not as specifically impaired in autism as is traditionally thought to be the case, or that individuals with autism are implementing compensatory strategies to succeed on experimental tasks in the absence of emotion-processing competence