Goal Orientations and Activation of Approach Versus Avoidance Motivation While Awaiting an Achievement Situation in the Laboratory

Predicting the Learning Avoidance Motivation, Learning Commitment, and Silent Classroom Behavior of Chinese Vocational College Students Caused by Short Video Addiction

As short video addiction has gradually become an emerging Internet behavioral addiction, its negative impacts on the student population have been noticed and cannot be ignored. Based on a literature review, this study referred to the person-process-content framework and drew on the ecosystem theory to define the relationship between short video addiction, learning avoidance motivation, learning commitment, and silent classroom behavior by using structural equation modeling. This study recruited 1000 participants from Chinese vocational colleges to fill out questionnaires. With an effective recovery rate of 94.6%, there were 946 effective study participants comprising 445 males (47%) and 501 females (53%). After it was confirmed that the data passed the reliability and validity tests, structural equation model analysis was carried out. The study results showed that short video addiction was positively correlated with learning avoidance motivation, but negatively correlated with learning commitment; on the other hand, study avoidance motivation was negatively correlated with learning commitment, but positively correlated with silent classroom behavior. Meanwhile, there was a negative correlation between learning commitment and silent classroom behavior. As a result, the negative correlation between short video addiction and learning behavior needs attention from parents and teachers.

It's a Challenge, Not a Threat: Lecturers' Satisfaction During the Covid-19 Summer Semester of 2020

The summer semester had just begun at Austrian and German universities when Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. Thus, in March 2020, all universities closed their campuses, switching to distance learning within the span of about a single day. How did lecturers handle the situation? Were they still able to turn the situation into a positive one? What were the main obstacles with this difficult situation, and where there conditions which helped them to overcome the new challenges? These are research questions of the present survey with a sample of 1,152 lecturers at universities in Austria and Germany. The survey focuses on the lecturers' appraisals of the novel situation as challenging or threatful. These appraisals are important for approaching a situation or shying away from it. However, how well a person adjusts to a novel situation is also influenced by personal and environmental resources which help to overcome the situation. The present survey focused on four possible sources of influence: internal assessments of the situation determining it to be threatening and/or challenging, personal resources, attitudes, and support by the organization. It was investigated to which degree these sources of influence could contribute to the lecturers' satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) with their teaching processes. A multiple regression with three criterion variables describing university lecturers' perceived satisfaction with distance teaching was carried out. Predictor variables were the lecturers' appraisals of challenge and threat, perceived support by the university and sense of belonging to the university, temporal resources, proficiency in using digital technologies, length of teaching experience, and gender. Lecturers were mostly satisfied with their teaching activities. Together with the perception of a low threat potential, challenge appraisals contributed strongest to satisfaction. In comparison, assessments of actual personal resources, skills in the use of digital technologies, teaching experience, and temporal resources were important but contributed less to satisfaction than challenge appraisals. It seems that lecturers were only able to use these resources when the technological resources were available and when the lecturers were confident in their technical abilities.

Maintaining or Losing Intervention-Induced Health-Related Behavior Change. A Mixed Methods Field Study

The aim of this mixed methods field study was to gain a better understanding of how psychological factors can contribute to success in intervention-induced behavior change over time. While it can be difficult to change behavior, the use of interventions means that most participants succeed in change during the intervention. However, it is rare for the immediate change to automatically transform into maintained behavior changes. Most research conducted on health-related behavior change interventions contains quantitative studies that investigate key intervention components on a group level. Hence, to bring more knowledge about maintained intervention-induced behavior change, there is need for a study approach that enhances the understanding of individual participants' experiences during and after the intervention. Therefore, the present study, which was conducted in Sweden, used a mixed methods design (triangulation) consisting of pre-, post-, and follow-up quantitative data (questionnaires and body measurements) and qualitative data (interviews), where the individuals' accounts are used to broaden the understanding of the intervention and the behavior change process. All study participants were enrolled in a volitional (fee-based and non-manipulated) intervention given by certified gyms. The quantitative data collection included 22 participants who completed questionnaires and body measurements before and after the intervention, plus 13 complete body measurements 6 months after the intervention. The qualitative data included pre-interviews with 12 participants and six follow-up-interviews. The questions in both questionnaires and interviews related to expectations, efficacy, motivation, goals, achievements, behavior change, and future. Overall, the results show that levels of expectations, efficacy, and motivation cannot be used in isolation to predict maintained intervention-induced behavior change. To successfully extend and maintain immediate change, it was crucial to experience goal achievement (but not BMI change). Furthermore, enabling talk was salient in the pre-interviews with participants reporting successful immediate (and maintained) change. By contrast, pre-interview disabling talk turned out to be evident in interviews, with participants not responding to follow-up. When the qualitative and quantitative results are summarized and integrated, it appears that subjective goal achievement, combined with enabling self-talk, were crucial factors in successful maintained behavior change.

Transcultural Adaptation of the Following Affective States Test (FAST) for the Brazilian Context

Abstract Individuals differ in their tendency to follow or ignore feelings as a source of information to guide behavior, and it is relevant to examine these particularities. This study presents an assessment of the psychometric properties of the transcultural adaptation of the Following Affective States Test (FAST) for the Brazilian context. After translation and back translation, the adapted version was applied among adult volunteers (n=302), both sexes (208 women, 68.9%), aged between 18 and 61 years old (M=28.6; SD=9.4) along with the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the Brazilian version presented appropriate goodness of fit for the four-factor model (GFI=0.92; CFI=0.83; RMSEA=0.07) with appropriate internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha=0.60-0.72). Statistically significant positive correlations were found between the FAST and positive/negative affects (PANAS) and emotion regulation strategies (ERQ). The adapted version of the FAST presented promising indicators concerning validity and reliability evidence for the Brazilian context.

Plastic frontal pole cortex structure related to individual persistence for goal achievement

Persistent goal-directed behaviours result in achievements in many fields. However, the underlying neural mechanisms of persistence and the methods that enhance the neuroplasticity underlying persistence, remain unclear. We here demonstrate that the structural properties of the frontal pole cortex (FPC) before tasks contain information that can classify Achievers and Non-achievers (goal-directed persistence) participating in three tasks that differ in time scale (hours to months) and task domains (cognitive, language, and motor learning). We also found that most Achievers exhibit experience-dependent neuroplastic changes in the FPC after completing language and motor learning tasks. Moreover, we confirmed that a coaching strategy that used subgoals modified goal-directed persistence and increased the likelihood of becoming an Achiever. Notably, we discovered that neuroplastic changes in the FPC were facilitated by the subgoal strategy, suggesting that goal-striving, using effective coaching, optimizes the FPC for goal persistence.

Hosoda et al. study the neurobiological underpinnings of goal pursuit and persistence. They use MRI data and identify areas in the frontal pole cortex that could predict performance on various tasks. They also show that coaching results in neuroplastic remodeling that increases the likelihood of goal persistence.

Influences Of Different Dimensions Of Academic Self-Concept On Students' Cardiac Recovery After Giving A Stressful Presentation

Purpose

Giving a presentation in a seminar is a strenuous academic situation. To meet such a challenge adequately, individuals not only have to activate their mental and physical resources, but they also have to disengage from the task and recover once the challenge has been met. How students experience these situations depends in part on how they recover from the stress, and this has putative impact on their longer-term academic well-being.

Methods

In a sample of 68 university students, the present study investigated the impact of four dimensions of students’ academic self-concept on how efficiently students recovered after a challenging presentation in a university seminar. Recovery was assessed using psychophysiological measures; heart rate and heart rate variability were investigated. Higher levels of students’ social self-concept (self-concept depending on social comparison) were linked to poorer recovery from the challenge, whereas higher levels of absolute self-concept (independent of external criteria) were associated with more efficient recovery.

Results

The findings suggest that a focus on one’s own abilities (ie, internal performance standard) is linked to more adaptive patterns of responses to challenging situations, while the focus on social comparisons seems to hamper adaptive coping with academic stress.

Conclusion

These findings have consequences not only for learning and instruction but also for students’ health and well-being.