The Trait of Curiosity as a Predictor of Emotional Intelligence

Reduction in the activity of VTA/SNc dopaminergic neurons underlies aging-related decline in novelty seeking

Curiosity, or novelty seeking, is a fundamental mechanism motivating animals to explore and exploit environments to improve survival, and is also positively associated with cognitive, intrapersonal and interpersonal well-being in humans. However, curiosity declines as humans age, and the decline even positively predicts the extent of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease patients. Therefore, determining the underlying mechanism, which is currently unknown, is an urgent task for the present aging society that is growing at an unprecedented rate. This study finds that seeking behaviors for both social and inanimate novelties are compromised in aged mice, suggesting that the aging-related decline in curiosity and novelty-seeking is a biological process. This study further identifies an aging-related reduction in the activity (manifesting as a reduction in spontaneous firing) of dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). Finally, this study establishes that this reduction in activity causally underlies the aging-related decline in novelty-seeking behaviors. This study potentially provides an interventional strategy for maintaining high curiosity in the aged population, i.e., compensating for the reduced activity of VTA/SNc dopaminergic neurons, enabling the aged population to cope more smoothly with the present growing aging society, physically, cognitively and socioeconomically.

Attention to emotion and reliance on feelings in decision-making: Variations on a pleasure principle

Individuals are thought to differ in the extent to which they attend to and value their feelings, as captured by the construct of attention to emotion. The well-being correlates of attention to emotion have been extensively studied, but the decision-making correlates have not been. A three study program of research (total N = 328) sought to examine relationships between stimulus-specific feelings and decisions concerning those stimuli in the context of high levels of within-subject power. Evidence for the pleasure principle was robust, in that individuals placed a virtual self closer to stimuli that they found more pleasant (Study 1) and they wished to re-view such stimuli more frequently (Studies 2 & 3). These relationships, however, were more pronounced at higher levels of attention to emotion. The findings affirm the importance of feelings in decision-making while highlighting ways in which individual differences in attention to emotion operate.

Association between age and intellectual curiosity: the mediating roles of future time perspective and importance of curiosity

This study aimed to examine the underlying mechanism behind the association of age and intellectual curiosity. Previous studies generally showed a negative association between age and intellectual curiosity. To shed light on this association, we hypothesize that older adults become more selective in where they invest their curiosity compared with younger adults. The present study (N = 857) first examined the association between age and intellectual curiosity and then the mediation roles of future time perspective and perceived importance of curiosity in the association. The moderation effect of culture was also included to test the generalizability of this model across European Americans, Chinese Americans, and Hong Kong Chinese. The findings suggested that there was a significant negative association between age and intellectual curiosity, even after controlling for sex, culture, and education level. The moderated serial multiple mediation model demonstrated that the indirect effect of age on curiosity through future time perspective and importance of curiosity was significant across all three cultural groups while age did not have a direct effect on intellectual curiosity. This finding suggested that, as future time becomes more limited with age, curiosity is less valued; hence, curiosity is negatively associated with the advance of age. This study illustrates the importance of future time and perceived importance of curiosity in explaining age-related differences in curiosity and sheds light on the situations in which older adults may be as intellectually curious as younger adults.

A new self-report measure of self-management of type 1 diabetes for adolescents

BACKGROUND

The development of instruments to measure self-management in youth with type 1 diabetes has not kept up with current understanding of the concept.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to report the development and the testing of a new self-report measure to assess the Self-Management of Type 1 Diabetes in Adolescents (SMOD-A).

METHODS

Following a qualitative study, items were identified and reviewed by experts for content validity. A total of 515 adolescents, 13 to 21 years old, participated in a field study by completing the SMOD-A (either once or twice) and additional measures of diabetes-related self-efficacy (Self-Efficacy for Diabetes Scale), quality of life (Diabetes Quality of Life for Youth Questionnaire), self-management (Diabetes Self-Management Profile), and adherence (Self-Care Inventory). Data were collected also on metabolic control (glycosylated hemoglobin [HbA1c]).

RESULTS

The content validity index was .93. Exploratory alpha factor analyses revealed five subscales: Collaboration With Parents, Diabetes Care Activities, Diabetes Problem Solving, Diabetes Communication, and Goals (alpha = .71 to .85). The stability of the SMOD-A ranged from .60 to .88 at 2 weeks (test-retest) to .59 to .85 at 3 months. Correlations of SMOD-A subscales with Self-Efficacy for Diabetes Scale-Diabetes; Diabetes Quality of Life for Youth Questionnaire satisfaction, impact, and worry; Diabetes Self-Management Profile; and Self-Care Inventory were generally significant and in the expected direction. Collaboration with parents and HbA1c values were related significantly and positively (r = .11); all other SMOD-A subscales were related significantly and negatively to HbA1c (r = -.10 to -.26), demonstrating that better self-management is associated somewhat with better metabolic control and supporting construct validity of the new measure.

DISCUSSION

The SMOD-A has been found to be a reliable, stable, and valid measure of SMOD-A.