Date of Award

8-2003

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Program

Psychology

Department

Psychology

Major Professor

Frick, Paul

Abstract

There is evidence to suggest that an impaired ability to process distressing and threatening emotional stimuli may result in a callous-unemotional (CU) and thrill-andadventure- seeking (TAS) personality. In this study we examined emotional processing in fifty community children, each with one parent, using the emotional pictures dot-probe task, which is a computerized task measuring attention to emotional pictures in the form of a facilitation score. The relationship between emotional processing, CU traits, and TAS were examined to determine whether individuals high on CU traits would also be more TAS, and show a lack of facilitation to emotional pictures. The results generally did not support study hypotheses; however, post-hoc analyses comparing children based on ethnicity found that Caucasian and minority children with CU traits show different and often opposite affective responses to emotional pictures, as well as different behavioral correlates to these traits.

Rights

The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.

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