Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
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Item Effects of sleep restriction on social contagion of emotional memory(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2024) Giannakopoulos, Konstadena Linda; Co-chairs, Graduate Committee: Cara A. Palmer and Michelle L. MeadeThe amount of sleep that one gets affects their emotional perception, emotional learning and memory, and interactions with others. The current research study examines the effects of sleep restriction on the social contagion of emotional memory. Participants first came to the lab to complete a series of questionnaires to determine eligibility, collect demographics, and to be trained on how to use the sleep watches and sleep diaries for a week of sleep monitoring. Participants completed one week of sleep monitoring using sleep diaries and actigraphy, and then were randomly assigned to either one night of either adequate sleep (8h) or restricted sleep (4h) before returning to the lab. Then, participants learned and recalled a series of emotional images alongside a confederate who recalled both correct and incorrect images. On later individual recall tests, participants were equally likely to incorporate the negative, positive, and neutral images suggested by the confederate, but on recognition tests, social contagion effects were larger for the negative and positive images. Additionally, our findings support a negativity bias in memory on both recall and recognition tests. There was no significant effect of sleep restriction. The results of this study are consistent with source monitoring theories of memory and have important implications for understanding how sleep influences social emotional memory.Item Sleep and savoring: the influence of sleep restriction on positive emotion regulation(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2022) Powell, Suzanna Lee; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Cara A. PalmerAlthough previous research broadly demonstrates that sleep loss leads to reductions in positive affect, relatively few studies examine the impact of sleep loss on low and high arousal positive affective processes, the regulation of positive emotions, or the influence of different sleep stages. The current study sought to build on previous findings that suggest slow wave and rapid eye movement stages of sleep may have distinct influences on affect by examining the effects of sleep restriction on positive affect, reactivity, and regulation (i.e., savoring and dampening). Thirty-four participants (50% female, ages 18-25 years) were included in final analyses. Participants completed a healthy night of sleep (9h time in bed) and a night of sleep restriction (4h time in bed). Sleep was restricted between participants in two ways, early in the night to primarily restrict slow wave sleep and later in the night to primarily restrict rapid eye movement sleep. Following both a night of normal sleep and the night of sleep restriction, participants completed questionnaires to measure positive affect, and a video task which instructed them react normally or to savor while watching positive affect-inducing videos. After each video, participants reported on their feelings of valence, arousal, and high and low arousal positive affect. Savoring and dampening strategies utilized during the task were also reported. Following sleep restriction participants reported diminished high and low arousal positive affect compared to when they were well-rested. Participants also reported less positive reactivity to the videos when they were sleep restricted compared to when they were well-rested after both reacting normally and after savoring. However, participants experienced greater increases in positive affect when savoring compared to when they were instructed to react after sleep restriction. Slow wave sleep loss was related to marginally reduced positive affect compared to loss of rapid eye movement sleep, but no other effects of type of sleep restriction emerged. This study indicates that sleep loss results in diminished high and low arousal positive affect and blunted reactivity to positive stimuli, but that engaging in intentional up-regulation strategies may help buffer the negative effects of sleep loss.Item The positive emotion regulation questionnaire and the assessment of strategy use profiles as predictors of mental health outcomes(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2022) McCullen, Jennifer Renee; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Brandon ScottPast research has shown that experiencing and upregulating positive emotions may be beneficial for youths' well-being (Martin-Krumm, 2018; Young et al., 2019). Further, research with negative ER suggests having a wider range of strategies enhances ER success (Lougheed & Hollenstein, 2012). However, most studies on positive emotion regulation (ER) have focused on savoring strategies and lack youth involvement. I propose that it is not only how many strategies youth use but the pattern of strategies youth use to regulate positive emotions that relate to internalizing problems. The purpose of our study was to examine the factor structure of a novel self-report measure of positive ER strategies in adolescents and their relations to mental health as well as to investigate the number and type of profiles that emerge from youths' use of 13 positive ER strategies and differences in mental health. I recruited a sample of 349 English-speaking 13- 17-year-old youth (50% females; 32% non-binary/other gender; Mage = 15.7) who reported on positive ER strategies, anxiety, depression, difficulties regulating positive emotions, resilience, and trauma. Exploratory factor analysis of the measure indicated 10 factors. Correlations showed greater use of Self-Improvement, Physical Activity, and Positive Thinking were related to more resilience; greater use of Fantasizing and Sensation Seeking were related to more anxiety; and greater use of Sensation Seeking and Relaxation were related to more depression. Conversely, greater use of Sensation Seeking was related to less resilience; greater use of Positive Thinking was related to less anxiety; and greater use of Positive Thinking and Physical activity were related to less depression. Profile analysis revealed a 6-profile model with two unique profiles characterized by either mainly using personal growth strategies more frequently than other strategies (profile 3) or using more frequently sensation seeking and fantasizing as opposed to other strategies available to them (profile 4). ANOVA results revealed significant differences in depression among profiles. These findings demonstrate adolescents utilize a wide range of emotion regulation strategies to maintain and upregulate positive emotions. Further, certain positive ER profiles may indicate protective (high personal growth only) or risk (high sensation seeking and fantasizing) for experiencing depressive symptoms.Item Childhood depressive disorder symptoms: relations with two physiological indices of emotion regulation(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2019) Armstrong, Eleanor Jane; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Brandon ScottTheoretical models of depression postulate that one's ability to regulate emotions may be a core factor in the development of depressive disorder symptoms. The present study aimed to understand how physiological measures of emotion regulation are related to depressive disorder symptoms among a community sample of 7-10 year-old children. Specifically, we sought to investigate how resting heart rate variability and the change in heart rate variability from a resting baseline to a stressor are related to child- and-caregiver- reported depressive symptomology. The children's physiological measures (i.e., heartbeat patterns, respiration) used to calculate high-frequency heart rate variability for each task were collected as the child sat quietly (3 minutes), watched a relaxing Coral Reef video (3 minutes), traced a star pattern while looking in a mirror (3 minutes), and played Hungry, Hungry Hippos on an iPad (3 minutes). In addition, children and their primary caregivers completed a series of questionnaires about the child and family demographics and child's depressive disorder symptoms. We conducted bivariate correlations, paired samples t-tests, multiple regression analyses (controlling for age, gender, and mean respiration rate at baseline) to examine the relations between both resting heart rate variability and change in heart rate variability in response to a stressor or positive task and child- and caregiver-reported depressive disorder symptoms. We found a significant relation between the child-reported depressive disorders and the change in HRV from resting baseline (traditional and video) to the stress task. However, we did not find that gender moderated this relation, nor did we find any significant relations between the resting baseline (traditional and video) and child-or-caregiver-reported depressive symptoms. Finally, not associations were found between and the change in HRV from resting baseline (video) or the Mirror Star Tracer task Baseline to the Hungry Hungry Hippo task and child-or-caregiver-reported depressive symptoms. Future research should consider the nature of the task demands relative to arousal and also the diversity and size of the sample. Our findings demonstrated a unique pattern in HRV change from resting baseline (traditional and video) to a stress task that allow for new questions to be asked and a foundation for further research.Item Surgency: a holistic model(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2017) Canen, Mara June; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Rebecca BrookerPrevious examinations of the temperamental trait surgency have largely focused on single facets of the global construct rather than attempting to identify how- or if- individual facets truly converge to comprise a global trait. The current project tested a holistic model of surgency based on temperament theory (Rothbart & Derryberry, 1981) that used a multi-trait multimethod approach to integrate multiple domains of regulation and reacitivity. Four models were tested that included measures of physiological regulation, behavioral regulation, emotion regulation, and parent-reported temperament. A single model emerged that accounted for biological, behavioral, affective, and parent-reported, domains of surgency in 3.5 year old children. This model comprised high levels of positive affect, fidgeting, impulsivity, and RSA suppression loading onto a single latent factor of high surgency. This work contributes to the temperament literature by providing initial evidence for a holistic composite of surgency during early childhood that is consistent with classic temperament definitions of surgency.Item The evocative effect of children's physiologocial stress reactivity on intrusive parenting(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2017) Najjar, Reema; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Rebecca BrookerSelf-regulatory processes, such as effortful control, are important facets of development for children's long term adjustment. Effortful control is known to be influenced by biological processes that enable regulatory function. Specifically, better biological regulation is associated with better effortful control. The direction of environmental effects, however, is less clear. Although theoretical perspectives support the possibility that parent-child influences are bidirectional, studies of self-regulation -- both physiological regulation and effortful control -- have almost exclusively focused on a parent-to-child direction of effects. Almost no research has investigated the influence of children's physiological and behavioral regulation on parenting behaviors. My thesis explored one process by which physiological regulation, indexed through measures of neuroendocrine reactivity, and behavioral regulation, indexed as effortful control, may evoke intrusive behaviors in parents. I hypothesized that greater cortisol reactivity would predict lower levels of effortful control, which would subsequently predict greater intrusive parenting. I tested my hypothesis in a sample of preschool-aged children and their parents, capitalizing on a critical period for the development of self-regulation. Results indicate that cortisol reactivity did not work through effortful control to predict parent intrusiveness. However, effortful control did moderate the association between child cortisol reactivity and parent intrusiveness. Specifically, when children were high in effortful control, greater cortisol reactivity predicted greater intrusive parenting. This work sheds light the importance of considering bidirectional effects in the development of self-regulation in early childhood.Item Beyond rational judgment : a test of the affect heuristic hypothesis(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2002) Richmond, Aaron Sargent