Curiosity and academic self-concept as psychological constructs are often mentioned in education and psychology. These constructs are elusive in terms of how they are exhibited or portrayed and measured. Despite their elusive nature, they are highly significant to the success or otherwise of learners. Therefore, the current study explored…

Arousing and sustaining young students' curiosity within school environments is an important concern in contemporary education. Our study investigated the triggers of curiosity in elementary classrooms centered around social constructivist discourse, specifically knowledge-building. To this end, we performed longitudinal network analysis on 4166…

The nature of play and an overview of the stages of play in the first 5 years of childhood are discussed. The core features of sensorimotor, functional, and symbolic play are identified. Vignettes describing how play serves a regulatory function punctuate each section. A conceptual framework for the construct of regulation is presented and…

Most negotiations are ill-structured situations, and the ability to identify novel options is likely to be crucial for success. This study, therefore, examined how creativity impacts negotiation processes and outcomes, and how this effect is moderated by positive arousal. The negotiators' creative personality and their state of positive arousal…

Preschool children listened to a children's storybook about an animal character, with reading being terminated prior to, or after, problem resolution. The children's empathic understanding of how the animal character felt was assessed, and they were then asked to draw, with strength of pressure on the page (as evident on attached carbon copies)…

Heart rate (HR) was employed to compare vicarious affective arousal across three groups of children (aged 7.6 - 11, N = 95): Conduct Disordered (CD) elevated on Callous-Unemotional traits ("CD/CU"), CD low on CU traits ("CD-only"), and "typically-developing" controls, matched in age, gender and socioeconomic background. While watching an emotion…

Psychometric properties of Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale were examined. Evidence supported the theoretical notion of an individual difference variable in arousal-seeking. Other evidence, however, suggested that measurement problems continue to hamper research: the total score was moderately reliable, but the subscales were only marginally…

Reports on two studies summarizing recent advances in the study of behavioral dispositions by detailing the activation-arousal framework. Uses the Miller Behavioral Style Scale to measure individual differences in activation/arousal while viewing a negative emotional film segment and media coverage of the explosion of the space shuttle…

The results obtained in a series of investigations with locus of control used as an independent variable provide evidence in support of the results obtained from situationally contrived studies of perceived control. The impact of stressors seems to be diminished in situations in which participants can exercise some degree of control. Likewise,…

In a preliminary study of a single group of suicide attempters, male and female subjects did not differ in temperament characteristics. Data from both sexes indicated that suicide-prone individuals have unpleasant, arousable, and submissive temperaments, with arousability a strong discriminator of suicide attempters relative to the general…

Examines teaching-style preference as a function of individual differences in physiological arousal/stimulation seeking. Reports responses of 29 teachers to the Sensation Seeking Scale, the Two-Flash Threshold, and a questionnarie. Shows low-arousal teachers tended to prefer a "traditional style" and high-arousal teachers tended to…

Notes that 4-month olds who show a low threshold to become distressed and motorically aroused to unfamiliar stimuli are more likely than others to become fearful and subdued during early childhood, while infants who show a high arousal threshold are more likely to become bold and sociable. Considers implications for psychopathology and relation…

Examines the effect of three years of structural therapy on inpatient cases of early childhood autism (ECA). Treatment resulted in the discharge of 12 patients. Results indicate that high stimulation, physically intrusive, gamelike, novelty filled, and developmentally oriented treatment of structural therapy can produce significant improvement in…

A model is proposed that relates the personality dimensions of introversion-extraversion, achievement motivation, and anxiety to efficient cognitive performance. This general information-processing model also accounts for the systematic effects of motivational states on sustained information transfer and some aspects of short-term memory.…

Administered caffeine to males (N=39) who were provoked or not provoked by a partner. Provoked participants attributed their feelings to both the drug and their partner's behavior. Angered subjects were more aversive when thinking they had taken caffeine but reduced their aggression when told the drug was a placebo. (Author/JAC)