Conference spaces as emotional sites for becoming campus sustainability leaders

This paper applies a feminist political ecology approach to ask: How do sustainability in higher education (SHE) conference events co-produce the subjectivities and expertise of campus sustainability professionals (CSPs) emotionally? Specifically, how do SHE conference spaces cultivate particular embodied practices and discourses in CSPs who are meant to translate at times irreconcilable practices and discourses in their daily campus-based work? Through multi-event ethnography and autoethnography of SHE events and comparisons with academic conferences more broadly in my role as a teacher-scholar-activist, I analyze how CSPs encounter and challenge ‘green’ knowledge claims emotionally. Vignettes from a sample of conference spaces demonstrate that SHE events provoke a confusion of conflicting emotions, all while promoting products, services and solutions to ‘fix’ the distressing emotions they provoke. Furthermore, the emergence of informal and formal wellness discourses and performances at SHE conferences re-directs CSPs away from critical questions of power toward self-centered, technocratic and technophilic solutions. A politics of failure can challenge audit culture, the bullshitization of sustainability work and neoliberal tropes of professionalism and self-improvement. Such a politics compliments ongoing efforts to center justice-oriented work in sustainability.     

Exploring the interactions between modal options,destination access,and travel mood

A good understanding of subjectively experienced well-being in daily travel is critical for the design and evaluation of transportation policies and programs. Numerous studies have examined the relationship between how we travel and how we feel during travel. However, people’s travel mood is not only determined by their trip characteristics but also their potential mobility—the capacity of being mobile. Using the data collected via a smartphone application in Minneapolis-St. Paul area, we measure potential mobility in two aspects—modal options and destination access and reveal that people in households with better access to cars and alternative transportation modes are, all else equal, more likely to report more positive moods and fewer negative moods during travel. In addition, people living in neighborhoods with greater access to destinations are less likely to feel stress when traveling. We also find that associations between mode and mood are moderated by modal options and destination access. These findings confirm the importance of explicitly considering modal options and destination access in policy debates and planning initiatives addressing transportation and well-being. In doing so, they demonstrate the relevance of Sen’s Capabilities Approach to transportation planning.     

The socialization of emotion by parents: Following Saarni’s legacy

Abstract

In 1985, Carolyn Saarni and Michael Lewis published the landmark book, The Socialization of Emotions. In launching the focused study of emotion socialization, then guiding the field with her insights and observations for more than 3 decades, Saarni fostered the current vibrancy of the study of parents’ emotion socialization. In this paper, I begin by summarizing Saarni’s perspective on emotion socialization by parents. I then illustrate how her work has influenced, and continues to inform, many aspects of emotion socialization research by myself and others, as well as our understanding of the intricate and nuanced exchanges between children, parents and culture that serve to foster the emotional development of children. Emotion socialization is at once ubiquitous and subtly complex, and our deepening insights into its many forms and faces are themselves a tribute to Saarni’s ongoing legacy to the field.     

Stigma consciousness modulates cortisol reactivity to social stress in women

The aim of the current study was to examine whether stigma consciousness shapes cortisol responses to social stress among women in the laboratory. Undergraduate women (N = 45) completed background measures and then participated in a public speaking task, with assessments of cortisol prior to the stressor as well as 20 and 40 minutes post stressor onset. Results from multilevel models revealed that women higher in stigma consciousness evidenced blunted cortisol reactivity following social stress across the study session compared to women lower in stigma consciousness. This interaction was robust to adjustment for a number of covariates, including demographic (e.g., age), physiological (e.g., menstrual cycle), and psychological (e.g., depressive symptomatology) factors. Potential explanations for observed cortisol patterns are discussed, including hyporeactivity of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis and elevated anticipatory stress. In conclusion, implications for health disparities research are considered.     

The role of motion and intensity in deaf children’s recognition of real human facial expressions of emotion

There is substantial evidence to suggest that deafness is associated with delays in emotion understanding, which has been attributed to delays in language acquisition and opportunities to converse. However, studies addressing the ability to recognise facial expressions of emotion have produced equivocal findings. The two experiments presented here attempt to clarify emotion recognition in deaf children by considering two aspects: the role of motion and the role of intensity in deaf children’s emotion recognition. In Study 1, 26 deaf children were compared to 26 age-matched hearing controls on a computerised facial emotion recognition task involving static and dynamic expressions of 6 emotions. Eighteen of the deaf and 18 age-matched hearing controls additionally took part in Study 2, involving the presentation of the same 6 emotions at varying intensities. Study 1 showed that deaf children’s emotion recognition was better in the dynamic rather than static condition, whereas the hearing children showed no difference in performance between the two conditions. In Study 2, the deaf children performed no differently from the hearing controls, showing improved recognition rates with increasing rates of intensity. With the exception of disgust, no differences in individual emotions were found. These findings highlight the importance of using ecologically valid stimuli to assess emotion recognition.     

A pawn by any other name? Social information processing as a function of psychopathic traits

Past research has linked psychopathic traits with the ability to manipulate others, either through deception or violence. Recent observations in corporate settings suggest that enhanced interpersonal assessments might underlie this process, giving psychopathic individuals the ability to detect useful and/or vulnerable victims. To test this hypothesis, a non-forensic sample of males participated in a social memory experiment involving the recognition of faces and recalling the biographical details of artificially created characters differing in their relative career success and emotional vulnerability. High-psychopathy participants had near-perfect recognition for sad, unsuccessful female characters, but impaired memory for other characters. The findings suggest that psychopathic personality is associated with “predatory memory” even in the absence of overt criminality.     

Attentional training of the appetitive motivation system: Effects on sensation seeking preferences and reward-based behavior

Motivation is seen to guide selective attention in favor of motivation-consistent stimuli. However, such links may be bi-directional in nature, such that selective attention processes may also bias and determine one’s motivational state. In the present study, we examined the latter direction of influence by randomly assigning participants to one of two conditions designed to train selective attention either toward or away from rewarding word stimuli. The effects of this manipulation were examined in terms of approach-related intentions, emotional state, and reward-reactive behavior. It was found that the selective attention manipulation influenced preferences and behavior, but not conscious emotional state. Findings are discussed in relation to implications for motivation, cognition, and emotion.

Short-term mood repair through art-making: Positive emotion is more effective than venting

We examined two mechanisms by which creating visual art may serve as a form of short-term mood repair. After viewing a film that induced a negatively valenced mood, participants were given a self-report affect grid that assessed mood valence and arousal. Participants then engaged in one of three tasks: creating a drawing expressing their current mood (venting), creating a drawing depicting something happy (positive emotion), or scanning a sheet for specific symbols (distraction control). Mood valence and arousal were then reassessed. Arousal remained unchanged after the interventions in all conditions. Valence became more positive in all three conditions, but the greatest improvement occurred after the positive emotion intervention. Valence improved no more after venting than after the control task. Results show that in the short-term, attending to and venting one’s negative feelings through art-making is a less effective means of improving mood than is turning away from a negative mood to something more positive. These findings are consistent with research on the beneficial effects of positive emotions and cast doubt on the often assumed view that artists improve their well being by expressing suffering.     

Separation anxiety in first-time mothers: infant behavioral reactivity and maternal parenting self-efficacy as contributors

This short-term longitudinal study examined the contribution of infant behavioral reactivity and maternal parenting self-efficacy to first-time mothers’ (total n = 32) separation anxiety. Infants’ behavioral reactivity indexed by gaze and facial affect were observed in the conditions of routine play and maternal still face at 3 months. Mothers reported their self-perceived parenting efficacy at 3 months and separation anxiety at 6 months. Results revealed that infants’ frequent gazing at their mother, greater negative affect, and less positive affect observed during the still face, but not during the routine play, contributed to heightened maternal separation anxiety. In addition to a direct link between low maternal parenting self-efficacy and high maternal separation anxiety, maternal parenting self-efficacy buffered against the impact of infant negative reactivity on maternal separation anxiety. The role of infant reactivity and maternal self-efficacy in parenting was discussed.