Does the current drive to incorporate social and emotional learning (SEL) into the K-12 curriculum represent a positive reform that will lead schools to educate the "whole student" and ultimately boost young people's academic success? Or is it a distracting fad that comes with high opportunity costs? Common sense and considerable…

Badge use has rapidly expanded in recent years and has benefited a variety of applications. However, a large portion of the research has applied a binary "useful" or "not useful" approach to badging. Few studies examine the characteristics of the user and the impact of those characteristics on the effectiveness of the badging…

Surface acting and deep acting with customers are strategies for service performance, but evidence for their effectiveness is limited and mixed. We propose that deep acting is an effective strategy for most employees, whereas surface acting's effect on performance effectiveness depends on employee extraversion. In Study 1, restaurant servers who…

Three UK studies on the relationship between a purpose-built instrument to assess the importance and development of 15 "soft skills" are reported. "Study 1" (N = 444) identified strong latent components underlying these soft skills, such that differences "between-skills" were over-shadowed by differences…

We are delighted to welcome you to the International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends (InPACT) 2017, taking place in Budapest, Hungary, from 29 of April to 1 of May, 2017. Modern psychology offers a large range of scientific fields where it can be applied. The goal of understanding individuals and groups (mental functions and…

Background: This paper presents results from the first wave of a longitudinal study examining the effects of various psychosocial variables on scholastic achievement and behaviour at school. Aims: The main aim is to investigate the nature and strength of the effects of major individual difference dimensions on important outcome variables at school…

This study evaluated the quality of the learning experiences, accommodation and support strategies, and post-school outcomes of 40 students with disabilities who participated in Wisconsin's Youth Apprenticeship (YA) programs. The YA program is a rigorous 2-year school- and work-based learning program for high school juniors and seniors. Currently…