| dc.description.abstract | In recent years, several theoretical accounts of the emotional experience commonly called “being moved” have been developed. One such account, kama muta theory argues that being moved constitutes a distinct positive emotion that is elicited by the appraisal of a sudden intensification of a communal sharing relationship. The current thesis addresses the nature of being moved and whether kama muta theory provides a more accurate account than its alternatives. A previous study in which participants rated various items continuously while watching videos was replicated and extended on with the principal difference that cross-correlations this time were measured within participants and then averaged across participants (rather than the other way around). The sample consisted of 457 native English speakers over the age of 18 from the USA. It was predicted that being moved would (i) co-occur with social closeness, positive affect, bodily warmth, and goosebump, (ii) co-occur with appraised closeness to a greater extent than with appraised morality, (iii) co-occur with positive affect to a greater extent than with negative affect, and (iv) co-occur with bodily warmth to a greater extent than with goosebumps. All predictions except the one regarding the difference between co-occurrence with appraisals of closeness and appraisals of morality were supported. The thesis concludes that, as predicted by kama muta theory, the affective state often called “being moved” is best understood as constituting a positive emotion and does not have negative affect as a necessary ingredient. Regarding appraisals, it is concluded that the current results cannot resolve whether kama muta theory is right that being moved is elicited by the appraisal of a sudden intensification of a communal sharing relationship over and above appraisals of morality. Some directions for how this issue may be resolved is proposed. The research was done in collaboration between the author and supervisor Prof. Thomas Schubert with helpful comments from members of the Kama Muta Lab at the Institute of Psychology and was a contribution to the Being moved-project at the research group for social psychology. | eng |