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Access Type
WSU Access
Date of Award
January 2021
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Christopher J. Trentacosta
Abstract
This thesis reviewed the literature on frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) and included eight hypotheses about its role in emotion regulation processes. The review began by briefly sketching and connecting the recent histories of studies of emotion regulation and affective neuroscience. A technical description of electroencephalography (EEG) and FAA was provided, followed by an overview of 40 years of empirical studies of FAA and a discussion of three conceptual models purporting to explain these findings. Three gaps in the literature were described, which informed aims addressed by an analysis of a longitudinal study of mother-child dyads. First, the ambiguous relationship between resting state FAA and FAA during tasks and their status as constructs was examined. FAA during the two conditions was moderately correlated, and the two were not differentiable by associations with temperament. Second, maternal depressive symptoms and general distress during pregnancy were tested as predictors of FAA in preschool children with maternal sensitivity as a mediator. Maternal depressive symptoms did predict FAA while general distress did not, and maternal sensitivity was not a significant mediator. Third, FAA was examined in relation to concurrent problem behaviors and also as a moderator of the association between cumulative risk and emotionally dysregulated behaviors. FAA did not predict any problem behaviors and did not function as a moderator. Results suggest that FAA is highly context dependent and EEG child protocols examining emotion regulation should be optimized for ease and efficiency so that dysregulated children are more likely to complete the protocol.
Recommended Citation
Mulligan, Daniel J., "The Role Of Eeg Frontal Alpha Asymmetry In Child Emotion Regulation Processes" (2021). Wayne State University Theses. 891.
https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_theses/891