In light of its role in maintaining psychological equanimity, we proposed that nostalgia—a self-relevant, social, and predominantly positive emotion—regulates avoidance and approach motivation. We advanced a model in which (a) avoidance motivation triggers nostalgia and (b) nostalgia, in turn, increases approach motivation. As a result, nostalgia counteracts the negative impact of avoidance mot...

In Suffering and Virtue1, I examine defend the idea that suffering plays vital roles in a good life, contrary to prevailing wisdom is (always or typically) detrimental happiness well-being. book, whilst careful acknowledge obvious fact many cases deleterious happiness, propose it can, nevertheless, have both intrinsic instrumental value. argue forms of can themselves constitute virtuous motives...

People in the United States are gaining weight at a rate higher than in the past. Because the eating habits people develop in college are similar to the eating habits people will have for the rest of their lives it is imperative that researchers understand more about why people gain weight in college. The purpose of the proposed survey-based study was to explore the relationship between perceiv...

Summary: My dissertation is a collection of work in health economics and household finance. In the first chapter, I study how healthcare providers alter the quantity and quality of care they deliver after limitations are placed on how much they can charge uninsured patients. In the second chapter, I examine trends and potential explanations for the extreme variation that exists among list price...

Psychiatry lags behind other medical fields in the diagnosis and classification of disorders. While other medical specialties came up with reasonably cohesive nomenclature and organization, mental disorders remain in apparent disarray. The proposed classification model approaches psychiatric disorders using the logic that guided the classification of medical diseases. Brain is not one organ and...

What is a “mental illness”? What is an “illness”? What does the description and classification of “mental illnesses” actually involve, and is the description of “new” mental illnesses description of actually existing entities, or the creation of them? “solastalgia” is a neologism, invented by the Australian environmental philosopher glenn Albrecht, to give greater meaning and clarity to psychol...

This study examined the role of specific pattern coloring, such as coloring books for adults, on conceptual, behavioral and physiological measures of anxiety. Undergraduate female students (n = 8) had ECG electrodes and a respiration belt attached and completed the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) at five time points; at baseline, after an initial autobiographical anxiety induction, followi...