Emotional Timeline

"Understanding the Emotional Timeline Following Terrorist Acts"

Tuesday, March 25, 2014 | 12:30-1:30 p.m. 
Crest Room, 4th floor,, Idaho Commons

Presenter: Traci Craig - Associate Professor, Department of Psychology and Communication Studies



Abstract
The Boston Marathon Bombings of Monday, April 15, 2013, resulted in a quick succession of events with heavy media coverage. Media coverage of events that are framed as terrorism likely creates a unique emotional trajectory. A survey was distributed asking individuals for their recollection of their emotional and behavioral responses at three points in time marked by media headlines. The results explore the ways in which affective and behavioral responses upon encountering news of the bombing, impacted emotional responses when the suspects were identified, and then again when authorities took the life of one suspect and detained and charged the other.


Biography
Traci Craig graduated from Purdue University in 2002 with a Ph.D. in social psychology and joined the University of Idaho faculty in the same year. She is currently serving as chair of the Department of Psychology and Communication Studies as well as an Administrative Fellow for the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences. Her research interests focus on issues of language and decision-making, gender and diversity, and group dynamics. Today’s presentation reflects some of her newer work, undertaken with Dr. Annette Folwell in Communication Studies, examining the timeline of affect following terrorist acts.