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…

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)…

While research continues to link increased math anxiety with reduced working memory, the exact nature of the relationship remains elusive. In addition, research regarding the extent of the impact math anxiety has on working memory is contradictory. This research clarifies the directional nature of math anxiety as it pertains to working memory, and…

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…

Discusses psychophysiological methods in relationship to personality research. The paper is organized in four sections: (l) advantages inherent in the use of psychophysiological measures; (2) psychophysiological constructs particularly well suited to personality research; (3) how to choose a set of psychophysiological measures; and (4) whether or…

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…

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.…

This review highlights consistent patterns in the literature associating positive affect (PA) and physical health. However, it also raises serious conceptual and methodological reservations. Evidence suggests an association of trait PA and lower morbidity and of state and trait PA and decreased symptoms and pain. Trait PA is also associated with…

Reviews studies in which the psychophysiological responses of Type A and B subjects were studied in various contexts. It appears that Type A's manifest greater psychophysiological arousal in solitary as well as interpersonal situations in which there is a moderate external incentive to accomplish something and an intermediate probability of…

Reviewed task-related differences in physiological arousal between Type A and Type B persons and found that differences are less consistent and of a smaller magnitude than what is usually assumed. Furthermore, the median difference in systolic blood pressure between Type A and Type B persons working on tasks was small. (Author/JAC)

Randomly assigned 41 students to 2 twice-weekly groups, which met for 3 hours eight times; 2 marathons, which met continuously for 24 hours; and nontreatment control group. Treatment groups had significant positive changes on 14 of 15 measured personality variables between pre- and post-test, and positive change on all dependent measures between…