@phdthesis{Baur2016,
  author    = {Baur, Ramona},
  title     = {Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Emotion Processing, and Emotion Regulation in Virtual Reality},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-142064},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is characterized by symptoms of inattentiveness and hyperactivity/impulsivity. Besides, increasing evidence points to ADHD patients showing emotional dysfunctions and concomitant problems in social life. However, systematic research on emotional dysfunctions in ADHD is still rare, and to date most studies lack conceptual differentiation between emotion processing and emotion regulation. The aim of this thesis was to systematically investigate emotion processing and emotion regulation in adult ADHD in a virtual reality paradigm implementing social interaction. Emotional reactions were assessed on experiential, physiological, and behavioral levels. Experiment 1 was conducted to develop a virtual penalty kicking paradigm implying social feedback and to test it in a healthy sample. This paradigm should then be applied in ADHD patients later on. Pleasant and unpleasant trials in this paradigm consisted of hits respectively misses and subsequent feedback from a virtual coach. In neutral trials, participants were teleported to different spots of the virtual stadium. Results indicated increased positive affectivity (higher valence and arousal ratings, higher zygomaticus activations, and higher expression rates of positive emotional behavior) in response to pleasant compared to neutral trials. Reactions to unpleasant trials were contradictory, indicating increased levels of both positive and negative affectivity, compared to neutral trials. Unpleasant vs. neutral trials revealed lower valence ratings, higher arousal ratings, higher zygomaticus activations, slightly lower corrugator activations, and higher expression rates of both positive and negative emotional behavior. The intensity of emotional reactions correlated with experienced presence in the virtual reality. To better understand the impact of hits or misses per se vs. hits or misses with coach feedback healthy participants' emotional reactions, only 50\% of all shots were followed by coach feedback in experiment 2. Neutral trials consisted of shots over the free soccer field which were followed by coach feedback in 50 \% of all trials. Shots and feedback evoked more extreme valence and arousal ratings, higher zygomaticus activations, lower corrugator activations, and higher skin conductance responses than shots alone across emotional conditions. Again, results speak for the induction of positive emotions in pleasant trials whereas the induction of negative emotions in unpleasant trials seems ambiguous. Technical improvements of the virtual reality were reflected in higher presence ratings than in experiment 1. Experiment 3 investigated emotional reactions of adult ADHD patients and healthy controls after emotion processing and response-focused emotion regulation. Participants successively went through an ostensible online ball-tossing game (cyber ball) inducing negative emotions, and an adapted version of the virtual penalty kicking game. Throughout cyber ball, participants were included or ostracized by two other players in different experimental blocks. Participants were instructed to explicitly show, not regulate, or hide their emotions in different experimental blocks. Results provided some evidence for deficient processing of positive emotions in ADHD. Patients reported slightly lower positive affect than controls during cyber ball, gave lower valence ratings than controls in response to pleasant penalty kicking trials, and showed lower zygomaticus activations than controls especially during penalty kicking. Patients in comparison with controls showed slightly increased processing of unpleasant events during cyber ball (higher ratings of negative affect, especially in response to ostracism), but not during penalty kicking. Patients showed lower baseline skin conductance levels than controls, and impaired skin conductance modulations. Compared to controls, patients showed slight over-expression of positive as well as negative emotional behavior. Emotion regulation analyses revealed no major difficulties of ADHD vs. controls in altering their emotional reactions through deliberate response modulation. Moreover, patients reported to habitually apply adaptive emotion regulation strategies even more frequently than controls. The analyses of genetic high-risk vs. low-risk groups for ADHD across the whole sample revealed similar results as analyses for patients vs. controls for zygomaticus modulations during emotion processing, and for modulations of emotional reactions due to emotion regulation. To sum up, the virtual penalty kicking paradigm proved to be successful for the induction of positive, but not negative emotions. The importance of presence in virtual reality for the intensity of induced emotions could be replicated. ADHD patients showed impaired processing of primarily positive emotions. Aberrations in negative emotional responding were less clear and need further investigation. Results point to adult ADHD in comparison to healthy controls suffering from baseline deficits in autonomic arousal and deficits in arousal modulation. Deficits of ADHD in the deliberate application of response-focused emotion regulation could not be found.},
  subject      = {Aufmerksamkeitsdefizit-Syndrom},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Schmidts2021,
  author    = {Schmidts, Constantin},
  title     = {Affective regulation of cognitive conflict},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-21989},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-219897},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {Kognitive Kontrolle beschreibt Prozesse die n{\"o}tig sind um zielgerichtetes Handeln im Angesicht von internen oder externen Widerst{\"a}nden zu erm{\"o}glichen. Wenn wir aus eigenen St{\"u}cken oder inspiriert durch unsere Umwelt Handlungen vorbereiten die unseren aktuellen Zielen entgegen stehen, kommt es zu Konflikten. Solche Konflikte k{\"o}nnen sich auf nachfolgendes Erleben und Verhalten auswirken. Aversive Konsequenzen von Konflikt k{\"o}nnten in einem Konflikt{\"u}berwachungsmodul registriert werden, welches anschließend Aufmerksamkeits{\"a}nderungen und Handlungstendenzen zur Reduzierung dieses negativen Affektes in Gang setzt. Wenn das der Fall w{\"a}re, k{\"o}nnten die vielfach beobachteten Verhaltensanpassungen an kognitiven Konflikt ein Ausdruck von Emotionsregulation sein. Ein theoretischer Eckpfeiler der gegenw{\"a}rtigen Forschung zur Emotionsregulation ist das Prozessmodell der Emotionsregulation, das aus den Regulationsstrategien Situationsauswahl, Situationsmodifikation, Aufmerksamkeitslenkung, kognitiven Ver{\"a}nderungen und Reaktionsmodulation besteht. Unter der Annahme, dass Konfliktanpassung und Affektregulation auf gemeinsamen Mechanismen fußen, habe ich aus dem Prozessmodell der Emotionsregulation Vorhersagen zur kognitiven Kontrolle abgeleitet und diese in elf Experimenten getestet (N = 509). Die Versuchsteilnehmer zeigten Situationsauswahl in Bezug auf Konflikte, allerdings nur dann, wenn sie ausdr{\"u}cklich auf Handlungs- und Ergebniskontingenzen hingewiesen wurden (Experimente 1 bis 3). Ich fand Anzeichen f{\"u}r einen Mechanismus, der der Situationsmodifikation {\"a}hnelt, aber keine Hinweise auf eine Beteiligung von Affekt (Experimente 4 bis 10). Eine {\"A}nderung der Konfliktbewertung hatte keinen Einfluss auf das Ausmaß der Konfliktadaptation (Experiment 11). Insgesamt gab es Hinweise auf eine explizite Aversivit{\"a}t kognitiver Konflikte, jedoch weniger auf implizite Aversivit{\"a}t, was darauf hindeutet, dass Konflikte vor allem dann Affektregulationsprozesse ausl{\"o}sen, wenn Menschen explizit Affektregulationsziele vor Augen haben.},
  subject      = {Affekt},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Wenzel2019,
  author    = {Wenzel, Martina},
  title     = {Aufmerksamkeitsprozesse und Emotionsregulationsmechanismen in der bipolaren St{\"o}rung},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-18963},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-189638},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {Neben Stimmungsschwankungen leiden viele bipolare Patienten unter kognitiven Beeintr{\"a}chtigungen. Dies ist von hoher Relevanz, da neuropsychologische Defizite zur Aufrechterhaltung der bipolaren St{\"o}rung beitragen k{\"o}nnen. Unsere Studie widmete sich zum einen der Untersuchung verzerrter Aufmerksamkeitsprozesse als auch der Erfassung dysfunktionaler Emotionsregulationsstrategien in der bipolaren St{\"o}rung. Da es uns besonders interessierte, ob diese dysfunktionalen Prozesse im euthymen Intervall bestehen bleiben, rekrutierten wir akut depressive als auch euthyme bipolare Patienten. Weiterhin untersuchten wir, ob der Aspekt der pr{\"a}dominanten Polarit{\"a}t einen Einfluss auf die Informationsverarbeitung und Emotionsregulation haben k{\"o}nnte. Zur Erfassung selektiver Aufmerksamkeitsprozesse verwendeten wir eine Dot-Probe-Aufgabe. In der vorliegenden Arbeit konnte gezeigt werden, dass bei den akut depressiven bipolaren Patienten deutliche Defizite im Reaktionsverm{\"o}gen vorlagen. Bei den euthymen Patienten mit manischer Polarit{\"a}t fand sich {\"u}berraschenderweise ein Bias weg von positiven Stimuli, was m{\"o}glicherweise als Schutzmechanismus vor potentiellen Triggern einer Manie interpretiert werden kann. Um zu testen, ob sich bipolare Patienten in den Emotionsregulationsstrategien von gesunden Kontrollpersonen unterscheiden, wurden zwei verschiedene Frageb{\"o}gen eingesetzt. In der Auswertung zeigte sich, dass nicht nur akut depressive Patienten, sondern auch remittierte Patienten zu dysfunktionalen Emotionsregulationsstrategien neigten und dass die euthymen Probanden mit depressiver bzw. manischer Polarit{\"a}t in unterschiedlichen Emotionsregulationsstrategien von gesunden Probanden abwichen. Zusammenfassend l{\"a}sst sich festhalten, dass Defizite in der selektiven Aufmerksamkeit und in der Emotionsregulation nicht nur in der akuten Krankheitsphase, sondern auch im „gesunden Intervall" vorhanden sind. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus liefert die Studie erste Hinweise darauf, dass sich Patienten mit depressiver und manischer Polarit{\"a}t in der Informationsverarbeitung emotionaler Stimuli als auch in Emotionsregulationsstrategien unterscheiden.},
  subject      = {Manisch-depressive Krankheit},
  language  = {de}
}
@phdthesis{Goesswein2014,
  author    = {G{\"o}ßwein, Hannah},
  title     = {Der Einfluss von ADHS-Symptomatik auf Emotionsregulation durch Aufmerksamkeitslenkung - eine EEG Studie},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-112328},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {Die Aufmerksamkeitslenkung ist ein wichtiges und h{\"a}ufig eingesetztes Mittel zur Emotionsregulation im Alltag. Indem man den Blick vom emotionalen Fokus einer Situation ablenkt, lassen sich Emotionen effektiv reduzieren. Zum einen war das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit, bereits vorhandene Ergebnisse zum Einfluss emotionaler Bildstimuli auf die Early Posterior Negativity (EPN) und das Late Positive Potential (LPP) zu replizieren und weitere Beweise f{\"u}r den Einfluss der Aufmerksamkeitslenkung auf diese beiden Potentiale zu finden. Der Hauptfokus lag zudem darauf, zu untersuchen, ob in Abh{\"a}ngigkeit von subklinischer ADHS-Symptomatik die Emotionsregulation durch Aufmerksamkeitslenkung beeintr{\"a}chtigt ist. Als Stichprobe wurden 53 Erwachsene zwischen 18 und 40 Jahren herangezogen. Ihnen wurden 80 positive, 80 negative und 40 neutrale Bilder aus dem International Affective Picture System (Lang et al., 1999) und einer Studie von Schienle und Kollegen (2001) pr{\"a}sentiert - entweder mit der Anweisung, einen emotionalen Punkt oder einen neutralen Bildteil zu betrachten. W{\"a}hrend der Pr{\"a}sentation erfolgte die Aufzeichnung der EEG Daten. Wir konnten weitere Belege erbringen, dass sowohl die EPN wie auch das LPP sensitive Marker f{\"u}r die fr{\"u}he selektive Aufmerksamkeit und gesteigerte Verarbeitung emotionaler Bildreize sind. Auch f{\"u}r den Einfluss der Aufmerksamkeitslenkung auf das LPP konnte ein weiterer Beleg erbracht werden. Außerdem fanden sich Hinweise auf eine verschlechterte F{\"a}higkeit zur Emotionsregulation bei negativen Bildreizen in Abh{\"a}ngigkeit von steigender AHDS Symptomatik .},
  subject      = {Aufmerksamkeits-Defizit-Syndrom},
  language  = {de}
}
@phdthesis{Haspert2023,
  author    = {Haspert, Valentina},
  title     = {Improving acute pain management with emotion regulation strategies: A comparison of acceptance, distraction, and reappraisal},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-29866},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-298666},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2023},
  abstract  = {Pain conditions and chronic pain disorders are among the leading reasons for seeking medical help and immensely burden patients and the healthcare system. Therefore, research on the underlying mechanisms of pain processing and modulation is necessary and warranted. One crucial part of this pain research includes identifying resilience factors that protect from chronic pain development and enhance its treatment. The ability to use emotion regulation strategies has been suggested to serve as a resilience factor, facilitating pain regulation and management. Acceptance has been discussed as a promising pain regulation strategy, but results in this domain have been mixed so far. Moreover, the allocation of acceptance in Gross's (1998) process model of emotion regulation has been under debate. Thus, comparing acceptance with the already established strategies of distraction and reappraisal could provide insights into underlying mechanisms. This dissertation project consisted of three successive experimental studies which aimed to investigate these strategies by applying different modalities of individually adjusted pain stimuli of varying durations. In the first study (N = 29), we introduced a within-subjects design where participants were asked to either accept (acceptance condition) or react to the short heat pain stimuli (10 s) without using any pain regulation strategies (control condition). In the second study (N = 36), we extended the design of study 1 by additionally applying brief, electrical pain stimuli (20 ms) and including the new experimental condition distraction, where participants should distract themselves from the pain experience by imagining a neutral situation. In the third study (N = 121), all three strategies, acceptance, distraction, and reappraisal were compared with each other and additionally with a neutral control condition in a mixed design. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three strategy groups, including a control condition and a strategy condition. All participants received short heat pain stimuli of 10 s, alternating with tonic heat pain stimuli of 3 minutes. In the reappraisal condition, participants were instructed to imagine the pain having a positive outcome or valence. The self-reported pain intensity, unpleasantness, and regulation ratings were measured in all studies. We further recorded the autonomic measures heart rate and skin conductance continuously and assessed the habitual emotion regulation styles and pain-related trait factors via questionnaires. Results revealed that the strategies acceptance, distraction, and reappraisal significantly reduced the self-reported electrical and heat pain stimulation with both durations compared to a neutral control condition. Additionally, regulatory efforts with acceptance in study 2 and with all strategies in study 3 were reflected by a decreased skin conductance level compared to the control condition. However, there were no significant differences between the strategies for any of the assessed variables. These findings implicate similar mechanisms underlying all three strategies, which led to the proposition of an extended process model of emotion regulation. We identified another sequence in the emotion-generative process and suggest that acceptance can flexibly affect at least four sequences in the process. Correlation analyses further indicated that the emotion regulation style did not affect regulatory success, suggesting that pain regulation strategies can be learned effectively irrespective of habitual tendencies. Moreover, we found indications that trait factors such as optimism and resilience facilitated pain regulation, especially with acceptance. Conclusively, we propose that acceptance could be flexibly used by adapting to different circumstances. The habitual use of acceptance could therefore be considered a resilience factor. Thus, acceptance appears to be a promising and versatile strategy to prevent the development of and improve the treatment of various chronic pain disorders. Future studies should further examine factors and circumstances that support effective pain regulation with acceptance.},
  subject      = {Schmerzforschung},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Tupak2013,
  author    = {Tupak, Sara},
  title     = {Modulators of Prefrontal Fear Network Function: An Integrative View},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-85673},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2013},
  abstract  = {Regulating our immediate feelings, needs, and urges is a task that we are faced with every day in our lives. The effective regulation of our emotions enables us to adapt to society, to deal with our environment, and to achieve long-term goals. Deficient emotion regulation, in contrast, is a common characteristic of many psychiatric and neurological conditions. Particularly anxiety disorders and subclinical states of increased anxiety are characterized by a range of behavioral, autonomic, and neural alterations impeding the efficient down-regulation of acute fear. Established fear network models propose a downstream prefrontal-amygdala circuit for the control of fear reactions but recent research has shown that there are a range of factors acting on this network. The specific prefrontal cortical networks involved in effective regulation and potential mediators and modulators are still a subject of ongoing research in both the animal and human model. The present research focused on the particular role of different prefrontal cortical regions during the processing of fear-relevant stimuli in healthy subjects. It is based on four studies, three of them investigating a different potential modulator of prefrontal top-down function and one directly challenging prefrontal regulatory processes. Summarizing the results of all four studies, it was shown that prefrontal functioning is linked to individual differences in state anxiety, autonomic flexibility, and genetic predisposition. The T risk allele of the neuropeptide S receptor gene, a recently suggested candidate gene for pathologically elevated anxiety, for instance, was associated with decreased prefrontal cortex activation to particularly fear-relevant stimuli. Furthermore, the way of processing has been found to crucially determine if regulatory processes are engaged at all and it was shown that anxious individuals display generally reduced prefrontal activation but may engage in regulatory processes earlier than non-anxious subjects. However, active manipulation of prefrontal functioning in healthy subjects did not lead to the typical behavioral and neural patterns observed in anxiety disorder patients suggesting that other subcortical or prefrontal structures can compensate for an activation loss in one specific region. Taken together, the current studies support prevailing theories of the central role of the prefrontal cortex for regulatory processes in response to fear-eliciting stimuli but point out that there are a range of both individual differences and peculiarities in experimental design that impact on or may even mask potential effects in neuroimaging research on fear regulation.},
  subject      = {Neurogenetik},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Kiesel2018,
  author    = {Kiesel, Elisabeth},
  title     = {Pr{\"a}frontale Aktivierungsmuster bei der Emotionsregulationsstrategie der Aufmerksamkeitslenkung - eine kombinierte EKP - fNIRS - Studie -},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-163146},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {Vorherige Studien beschreiben bei der Aufmerksamkeitslenkung pr{\"a}frontale Aktivierungen im rechten DLPFC und DMPFC. Diese Studie wollte untersuchen, ob die Aufmerksamkeitslenkung durch Richten des Fokus auf nicht -emotionale Bildinhalte innerhalb eines Stimulus zu pr{\"a}frontalen Effekten f{\"u}hrt. Dazu wurde eine kombinierte Messung aus EEG, fNIRS und emotionalem Arousal erhoben. Die Bedingungen beinhalteten entweder das passive Bildbetrachten oder die Aufmerksamkeitslenkung. Das EEG wurde als Kontrollbedingung erhoben, um zu replizieren, dass die Aufmerksamkeitslenkung auf nicht -emotionale Bildinhalte zu einer Reduktion des LPP und des emotionalen Arousals f{\"u}hrt. In dieser Studie konnte sowohl ein reduziertes LPP als ein geringeres emotionales Arousal bei der Aufmerksamkeitslenkung beschrieben werden. In der fNIRS zeigten sich jedoch weder ein signifikanter Emotions- noch ein signifikanter Regulationseffekt, sodass keine Aktivierungen pr{\"a}frontal bei der Aufmerksamkeitslenkung beschrieben werden konnte. Es sind somit weiterf{\"u}hrende Studien zur Aufmerksamkeitslenkung notwendig, ob die Aufmerksamkeitslenkung zu pr{\"a}frontalen Aktivierungen f{\"u}hrt, und ob diese mit der fNIRS abgebildet werden k{\"o}nnen.},
  subject      = {Emotionsregulation},
  language  = {de}
}
@article{Yan2022,
  author    = {Yan, Zhe},
  title     = {"I tried to control my emotions": nursing home care workers' experiences of emotional labor in China},
  series = {Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology},
  volume    = {37},
  journal   = {Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology},
  number    = {1},
  doi       = {10.1007/s10823-022-09452-4},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-324295},
  pages     = {1-22},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Despite dramatic expansions in the Chinese nursing home sector in meeting the increasing care needs of a rapidly aging population, direct care work in China remains largely devalued and socially unrecognized. Consequently, scant attention has been given to the caregiving experiences of direct care workers (DCWs) in Chinese nursing homes. In particular, given the relational nature of care work, there is little knowledge as to how Chinese DCWs manage emotions and inner feelings through their emotional labor. This article examines the emotional labor of Chinese DCWs through ethnographic data collected with 20 DCWs in one nursing home located in an urban setting in central China. Data were analyzed using conventional content analysis and constant comparison. Participants' accounts of sustaining a caring self, preserving professional identity, and hoping for reciprocity revealed implicit meanings about the often-conflicting nature of emotional labor and the nonreciprocal elements of care work under constrained working conditions. Importantly, the moral-cultural notion of bao (报 norm of reciprocity) was found to be central among DCWs in navigating strained resources and suggested their agency in meaning-construction. However, their constructed moral buffers may be insufficient if emotional labor continues to be made invisible by care organizations.},
  subject      = {Gerontologie},
  language  = {en}
}