@phdthesis{Foerster2013,
  author    = {F{\"o}rster, Georg},
  title     = {Die Rolle von Autonomie und Einfluss bei der Wirkung von Macht auf Handlungsidentifikation},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-103925},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2013},
  abstract  = {Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die Auswirkung von Macht und der damit einhergehenden Autonomie auf die Handlungsidentifikation (Vallacher \& Wegner, 1985). Es wird die These untersucht, dass eigene Handlungen, die als autonom empfunden werden, auf h{\"o}herer Ebene identifiziert werden, d.h. st{\"a}rker in Bezug auf {\"u}bergeordnete Ziele beschrieben werden, als eigene Handlungen, die als fremdbestimmt empfunden werden. Entsprechend sollten Menschen, die sich selbst als m{\"a}chtig und daher auch als autonom wahrnehmen, bez{\"u}glich ihres eigenen Handelns eine h{\"o}here Ebene der Handlungsidentifikation w{\"a}hlen. Studie 1 zeigt mit Hilfe einer modifizierten Version des Behavior Identification Form (BIF; Vallacher \& Wegner, 1989), dass Handlungen, die als selbstgew{\"a}hlt bzw. autonom beschrieben werden, im Vergleich zu Handlungen, die als fremdbestimmt beschrieben werden, h{\"a}ufiger auf einer hohen Ebene der Handlungsidentifikation, also in Bezug auf ihre {\"u}bergeordneten Ziele beschrieben werden, und seltener durch konkretere Beschreibungen des eigentlichen Handlungsprozesses. Studie 2 zeigt ebenfalls mit Hilfe eines modifizierten BIF, dass die Handlungen einer anderen Personen h{\"a}ufiger auf einer niedrigeren Ebene der Handlungsidentifikation beschrieben werden, wenn man diese Handlungen laut ihrer Beschreibung selbst veranlasst hat, als wenn sich diese Person selbst entschieden hat, diese Handlungen auszuf{\"u}hren. Auch dieser Zusammenhang kann durch die Annahme erkl{\"a}rt werden, dass die eigene Einflussnahme eine Einschr{\"a}nkung der Autonomie der Handlungen einer anderen Person ist und diese Verringerung der Autonomie zu einer Verringerung der Ebene der Handlungsidentifikation f{\"u}hrt. Studie 3 zeigt, dass Versuchspersonen nach der Aktivierung des Konzeptes Autonomie durch semantisches Priming sowohl die eigenen Handlungen als auch die einer anderen Person auf h{\"o}herer Ebene der Handlungsidentifikation beschreiben. Studie 4 zeigt, dass m{\"a}nnliche Versuchspersonen, die in einem Rollenspiel eine relativ m{\"a}chtige Position einnehmen, im Vergleich zu m{\"a}nnlichen Versuchspersonen, die eine relativ machtlose Rolle einnehmen, ein erh{\"o}htes Autonomieempfinden berichten und gleichzeitig auch h{\"a}ufiger Handlungen auf einer h{\"o}heren Ebene der Handlungsidentifikation beschreiben. Dabei spielt es auch in dieser Studie keine Rolle, ob es sich um eigene Handlungen handelt oder um die einer anderen Person. F{\"u}r Frauen zeigt sich weder ein erh{\"o}htes Autonomieempfinden in der relativ m{\"a}chtigen Rolle noch eine erh{\"o}hte H{\"a}ufigkeit, mit der die h{\"o}here Ebene der Handlungsidentifikation gew{\"a}hlt wird. In Studie 5 werden korrelative Zusammenh{\"a}nge von Pers{\"o}nlichkeitsvariablen untersucht. Hierbei zeigt sich ein positiver Zusammenhang zwischen selbstberichtetem generalisierten Machtempfinden und der H{\"a}ufigkeit, mit der Handlungen auf h{\"o}herer Ebenen der Handlungsidentifikation beschrieben werden. Dieser Zusammenhang verschwindet, wenn f{\"u}r das selbstberichtete Autonomieempfinden kontrolliert wird. Die Ergebnisse sprechen f{\"u}r einen Zusammenhang zwischen Autonomie und Handlungsidentifikation, welcher auch einen Wirkmechanismus f{\"u}r den Zusammenhang zwischen Macht und Handlungsidentifikation darstellt. Unklar bleibt die Frage, wie genau die Wirkung auf die Identifikation des Handelns anderer zustande kommt. Zudem wird diskutiert, inwiefern, die Interpretation von Macht - als Situation erh{\"o}hter Verantwortung oder gesteigerter Autonomie - zu unterschiedlichen Effekten von Macht auf Handlungsidentifikation f{\"u}hren kann. Zudem wird die Frage untersucht, inwiefern die h{\"o}here Abstraktion von Handlungen auch mit einer h{\"o}heren Abstraktion in anderen Bereichen der Informationsverarbeitung einhergeht. Hierzu wird exemplarisch die Verarbeitung visueller Stimuli untersucht. Die Daten weisen auf einen Zusammenhang zwischen Macht bzw. Autonomie und einer globaleren Verarbeitung visueller Stimuli hin. Der fehlende Zusammenhang zwischen abstrakter Handlungsidentifikation und globaler visueller Verarbeitung deutet jedoch darauf hin, dass es sich hierbei um voneinander unabh{\"a}ngige Wirkmechanismen handelt.},
  subject      = {Macht},
  language  = {de}
}
@phdthesis{Bakhtiari2015,
  author    = {Bakhtiari, Giti},
  title     = {The Role of Fluency in Oral Approach and Avoidance},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-118666},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {Names of, for instance, children or companies are often chosen very carefully. They should sound and feel good. Therefore, many companies try to choose artificially created names that can easily be pronounced in various languages. A wide range of psychological research has demonstrated that easy processing (high processing fluency) is intrinsically experienced as positive. Due to this positive feeling, easy processing can have profound influences on preferences for names. Topolinski, Maschmann, Pecher, and Winkielman (2014) have introduced a different mechanism that influences the perception of words. Across several experiments they found that words featuring consonantal inward wanderings (inward words) were preferred over words featuring consonantal outward wanderings (outward words). They argued that this was due to the fact that approach and avoidance motivations are activated by articulating inward and outward words, because the pronunciation resembles approach and avoidance behaviors of swallowing and spitting, respectively. They suggested this close link as an underlying mechanism for the so-called in-out effect, but did not test this assumption directly. In the current work, I tested an alternative fluency account of the in-out effect. Specifically, I hypothesized that processing fluency might play a critical role instead of motivational states of approach and avoidance being necessarily activated. In Chapter 1, I introduce the general topic of my dissertation, followed by a detailed introduction of the research area of approach and avoidance motivations in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3, I narrow the topic down to orally induced approach and avoidance motivations, which is the main topic of my dissertation. In Chapter 4, I introduce the research area of ecological influences on psychological processes. This chapter builds the base for the idea that human language might serve as a source of processing fluency in the in-out effect. In the following Chapter 5, I elaborate the research area of processing fluency, for which I examined whether it plays a role in the in-out effect. After an overview of my empirical work in Chapter 6, the empirical part starts with Study 1a and Study 1b (Chapter 7) that aimed to show that two languages (Eng. \& Ger.) in which the in-out effect has originally been found might feature a source of higher processing fluency for inward over outward words. The results showed that higher frequencies of inward dynamics compared to outward dynamics were found in both languages. This can lead to higher pronunciation fluency for inward compared to outward words which might in turn lay the ground for higher preferences found for inward over outward words. In Chapter 8, the assumption that inward compared to outward dynamics might be more efficient to process was tested directly in experiments that examined objective as well as subjective processing fluency of artificially constructed non-words featuring pure inward or outward dynamics. Studies 2a-4b found an objective as well as subjective processing advantage for inward over outward words. In Chapter 9, the causal role of objective and subjective pronunciation fluency in the in-out effect was examined. In Study 5 mediational analyses on item-level and across studies were conducted using objective and subjective fluency as possible mediating variables. In Study 6 mediation analyses were conducted with data on subject- and trial-level from a within-subject design. Overall, the data of the item-based, subject-based and trial-based mediation analyses provide rather mixed results. Therefore, an experimental manipulation of fluency was implemented in the last two studies. In Chapter 10, Study 7 and Study 8 demonstrate that manipulating fluency experimentally does indeed modulate the attitudinal impact of consonantal articulation direction. Articulation ease was induced by letting participants train inward or outward kinematics before the actual evaluation phase. Additionally, the simulation training was intensified in Study 8 in order to examine whether a stronger modulation of the in-out effect could be found. Training outward words led to an attenuation and, after more extensive training, even to a reversal of the in-out effect, whereas training inward words led to an enhancement of the in-out effect. This hints at my overall hypothesis that the explicit preferences of inward and outward words are, at least partially, driven by processing fluency. Almost all studies of my dissertation, except for one analysis of the item-based mediation study, speak in favor of the hypothesis that inward words compared to outward words are objectively and subjectively easier to articulate. This possibly contributes partially to a higher preference of inward over outward words. The results are discussed in Chapter 11 with respect to processing fluency and to the role of language as an ecological factor. Finally, future research ideas are elaborated.},
  subject      = {Sozialpsychologie},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Krishna2018,
  author    = {Krishna, Anand},
  title     = {Regulatory Focus Theory and Information Processing - A Series of Exploratory Studies},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-163365},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {Regulatory focus (RF) theory (Higgins, 1997) states that individuals follow different strategic concerns when focusing on gains (promotion) rather than losses (prevention). Applying the Reflective-Impulsive Model (RIM, Strack \& Deutsch, 2004), this dissertation investigates RF's influence on basic information processing, specifically semantic processing (Study 1), semantic (Study 2) and affective (Study 3) associative priming, and basic reflective operations (Studies 4-7). Study 1 showed no effect of RF on pre-activation of RF-related semantic concepts in a lexical decision task (LDT). Study 2 indicated that primes fitting a promotion focus improve performance in a LDT for chronically promotion-focused individuals, but not chronically prevention-focused individuals. However, the latter performed better when targets fit their focus. Stronger affect and arousal after processing valent words fitting an RF may explain this pattern. Study 3 showed some evidence for stronger priming effects for negative primes in a bona-fide pipeline task (Fazio et al., 1995) for chronically prevention-focused participants, while also providing evidence that situational prevention focus insulates individuals from misattributing the valence of simple primes. Studies 4-7 showed that a strong chronic prevention focus leads to greater negation effects for valent primes in an Affect Misattribution Procedure (Payne et al., 2005), especially when it fits the situation. Furthermore, Study 6 showed that these effects result from stronger weighting of negated valence rather than greater ease in negation. Study 7 showed that the increased negation effect is independent of time pressure. Broad implications are discussed, including how RF effects on basic processing may explain higher-order RF effects.},
  subject      = {Motivation},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{AlvarezLoeblich2018,
  author    = {Alvarez Loeblich, Paul Sebastian},
  title     = {Not Here, Not Now!
 - Situational Appropriateness, Negative Affect and the Experience of (Remote) Embarrassment. A Process Model.},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-161354},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {Fremdsch{\"a}men or Fremdscham, a negative emotion which arises while observing someone behave inappropriately, comes to fame after the turn of the millennium in german speaking countries. There, they name it literally „other's shame" and it becomes obvious that this emotion happens most commonly while watching TV: reality shows, talent shows and bad comedies. The word even makes it to the dictionaries starting 2009, as its use increases unstoppably in everyday language, starting to get used in more and more situations, seemingly as a synonym of embarrassing or shameful. Still, a look in the emotional research on the subject returns exactly zero results as of 2011, leaving open the question as of what this emotion might be, and what it is not. The present wort aims at explaining not only the phenomenon of Fremdsch{\"a}men, but also the Emotion behind it - Embarrassment -, at a process level.},
  subject      = {Sozialpsychologie},
  language  = {en}
}