Assessment of learning outcomes and evaluation of teaching methods are necessary in order to ensure that students are learning the lessons that faculty believe they are conveying. Quantitative data on the effectiveness of various pedagogical methods allows faculty to make adjustments to classes over time. Regular assessment of student learning…

Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, the aims were (a) to obtain, describe, and compare different solutions of three, five, and six first-order factors raised in the previous literature about the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI); (b) analyze the number and nature of the second-order factors; (c) test which model best reproduces…

Four experiments were conducted to assess the roles of politeness and humor in the asymmetry of affect observed in verbal irony production. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants rated different replies (ironic, literal, or "no response") made to hypothetical scenarios for their politeness and humor, respectively. Participants in Experiment 3 were…

The influence of personality and childhood abuse on suicidal behaviors and psychopathy was examined among female prisoners. Scores on the affective/interpersonal component (Factor 1; F1) and the antisocial deviance (Factor 2; F2) component of psychopathy were obtained from the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (R. D. Hare, 1991). Suicide attempt and…

Reading comprehension plays a key role in academic success in today's classrooms. Literature Circles (LCs), a learner-centered collaborative reading activity, brings together the ideas of cooperative learning, independent reading, and reader response theory to enhance students' reading comprehension as well as their motivation toward learning…

Research suggests that voluntary activity accounts for 40% of individual happiness and can be purposefully manipulated to make meaningful changes in one's reported level of happiness (Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, & Schkade, 2005a; Tkach & Lyubomirsky, 2006). The current study explored the utility of a school-based positive psychology psychoeducation…

Recognizing recent criticisms concerning the cross-cultural generalizability of self-determination theory (SDT), the authors tested the SDT view that high school students in collectivistically oriented South Korea benefit from classroom experiences of autonomy support and psychological need satisfaction. In Study 1, experiences of autonomy,…

This paper reports findings from a two-year multi-site, multi-method naturalistic research project on the use of multimedia case instruction to prepare teachers for teaching students with emotional/behavioral disorders. Participants were 251 teacher education students across five universities. Independent variables included testing condition (pre…

A central theme of Mandler's theory of emotion is that the interruption of a cognitive activity sets the stage for emotion. Mandler's theory is particularly applicable to mathematical problem-solving experiences. Mandler's linking of emotion to perception also makes emotion during problem solving an excellent candidate to be modeled with…

Humanity has enough knowledge and resources to respond effectively to the environmental and related global crises, and large international coalitions of scientists and religious leaders urge humanity to immediately and dramatically change our relationship with nature. Although many individuals express agreement with these recommendations, the…

A review of studies on attitudinal change shows that the majority reflect that simulation does affect attitudes. (Author/KM)

In recent years, the relationship between moods and thoughts has been the focus of much theorizing and some empirical work. A study was undertaken to examine the intraindividual relationship between negative affect and negative thoughts using a Box-Jenkins time series analysis. College students (N=33) completed a measure of negative mood and…

The most general explanation of the impact of positive and negative affect on prosocial behavior has been based on the notion that prosocial responses are self-reinforcing. Accordingly, people who are feeling good are inclined to help others in order to maintain their pleasant affect, whereas those who are feeling badly are likely to help in order…

This document defines suffering as the affective aspect of the pain experience while the cognitive aspect of the pain experience is the sensation of pain. It considers personal suffering, which mean's one's own suffering, and not the suffering of other people. It notes that a particular interpretation of suffering may be formulated in any number…

This paper describes the Self-Evaluation Maintenance (SEM) model of social behavior which consists of three variables: the psychological closeness of another, the relative performance of that other, and the relevance of the performance dimension to one's self-definition. The SEM model is described as involving two processes, the reflection process…