Our individual order of things directs how we think we feel.

ABSTRACTOur work draws upon Foucault's idea that the order of things, defined as the way we categorise our world, matters for how we think about the world and ourselves. Specifically, and drawing upon Pekrun's control-value theory, we focus on the question of whether the way we individually order our world into categories influences how we think about our typically experienced emotions related to these categories. To investigate this phenomenon, we used a globally accessible example, namely, the categorisation of knowledge based on school subjects. In a longitudinal sample of high school students (grades 9-11), we found that judging academic domains as similar led to judging typical emotions related to those domains as more similar than experienced in real life (assessed via real-time assessment of emotions). Our study thus shows that the order of things matters in how we think we feel with respect to those things.

Unraveling the effects of rubrics and exemplars on student writing performance.

Teachers across educational systems struggle to find time to provide quality feedback to their students. Asking students to create their own feedback has been shown to enhance students' performance. In this experimental study, we explored the effects of rubrics and exemplars on writing performance, encouraging students to employ these tools for self-feedback generation. Two hundred six 9th- and 10th-grade students participated. Students were asked to write an essay and revise it based on the information provided to them under four conditions: control, rubrics, exemplars, and combined condition (rubrics and exemplars). After submitting the revised version of their essay, students in experimental conditions were trained on how to use rubrics and/or exemplars. Students were then asked to write another essay and revise it based on the information consistent with their experimental group membership (i.e., control, rubric, exemplars, combined). We found that students in the rubrics condition benefited the most, closely followed by students in the exemplars condition, and then the combined condition. The performance across conditions was somewhat variable for the three performance outcomes. Furthermore, the improvement in the usage of the tools following the training session was the highest for the exemplars condition. We conclude that teachers can encourage students to use both rubrics and exemplars to generate self-feedback and improve performance. This way, teachers' workload can be significantly decreased. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Do positive illusions of control foster happiness?

Positive emotions have been shown to benefit from optimistic perceptions, even if these perceptions are illusory (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). The current research investigated the effects of increases and decreases in illusory control on positive and negative emotions. In two studies we experimentally induced changes in illusory perceptions of control (increase vs. decrease of illusory control) and assessed the extent to which these changes, in turn, influenced participants' emotions. Extending prior research, the results of both studies revealed that whereas illusions of personal control over environmental outcomes mitigated the experience of negative emotions, they did not foster positive emotions. Perceiving a loss of illusory control, however, significantly reduced the experience of positive emotions, but had no effect on negative emotions. Implications for emotion theory and intervention programs are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

How distinctive are morningness and eveningness from the Big Five factors of personality? A meta-analytic investigation.

This study explores relations between measures of individuals' circadian preferences and the Big Five. To this end, we compared a model of circadian preferences that acknowledges morningness (M) and eveningness (E) as separate dimensions to that of a model that places M and E on a single continuum (M-E). Analyses of 620 correlations from 44 independent samples (N = 16,647) revealed weak to modest relations between both dimensions of circadian preferences and the Big Five personality traits. The strongest observed relation was found between Conscientiousness and M (ρ = .37). In the next step, regression analyses revealed that personality traits accounted for between 10.9% and 16.4% of the variance in circadian preferences. Of all the Big Five dimensions, Conscientiousness exhibited the strongest unique relation with M (ß = .32), E (ß = -.26), and M-E (ß = .32). Extraversion and Openness exhibited moderate unique relations with E (ß = .23 and ß = .17, respectively), whereas relations with M (ß = .00 and ß = .04), and M-E (ß = -.05 and ß = -.06) were relatively weak. Neuroticism exhibited a modest unique and negative relation with M (ß = -.16), and Agreeableness was largely unrelated to all circadian preference variables. To determine whether these findings translated into anything of applied significance, we explored relations between circadian preference and academic performance. M and E incremented slightly over the Big Five factors in predicting grade-point average. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

How "situational" is judgment in situational judgment tests?

Whereas situational judgment tests (SJTs) have traditionally been conceptualized as low-fidelity simulations with an emphasis on contextualized situation descriptions and context-dependent knowledge, a recent perspective views SJTs as measures of more general domain (context-independent) knowledge. In the current research, we contrasted these 2 perspectives in 3 studies by removing the situation descriptions (i.e., item stems) from SJTs. Across studies, the traditional contextualized SJT perspective was not supported for between 43% and 71% of the items because it did not make a significant difference whether the situation description was included or not for these items. These results were replicated across construct domains, samples, and response instructions. However, there was initial evidence that judgment in SJTs was more situational when (a) items measured job knowledge and skills and (b) response options denoted context-specific rules of action. Verbal protocol analyses confirmed that high scorers on SJTs without situation descriptions relied upon general rules about the effectiveness of the responses. Implications for SJT theory, research, and design are discussed.

Between-domain relations of students' academic emotions and their judgments of school domain similarity.

With the aim to deepen our understanding of the between-domain relations of academic emotions, a series of three studies was conducted. We theorized that between-domain relations of trait (i.e., habitual) emotions reflected students' judgments of domain similarities, whereas between-domain relations of state (i.e., momentary) emotions did not. This supposition was based on the accessibility model of emotional self-report, according to which individuals' beliefs tend to strongly impact trait, but not state emotions. The aim of Study 1 (interviews; N = 40; 8th and 11th graders) was to gather salient characteristics of academic domains from students' perspective. In Study 2 (N = 1709; 8th and 11th graders) the 13 characteristics identified in Study 1 were assessed along with academic emotions in four different domains (mathematics, physics, German, and English) using a questionnaire-based trait assessment. With respect to the same domains, state emotions were assessed in Study 3 (N = 121; 8th and 11th graders) by employing an experience sampling approach. In line with our initial assumptions, between-domain relations of trait but not state academic emotions reflected between-domain relations of domain characteristics. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

What students think they feel differs from what they really feel--academic self-concept moderates the discrepancy between students' trait and state emotional self-reports.

This study investigated whether there is a discrepancy pertaining to trait and state academic emotions and whether self-concept of ability moderates this discrepancy. A total of 225 secondary school students from two different countries enrolled in grades 8 and 11 (German sample; n = 94) and grade 9 (Swiss sample; n = 131) participated. Students' trait academic emotions of enjoyment, pride, anger, and anxiety in mathematics were assessed with a self-report questionnaire, whereas to assess their state academic emotions experience-sampling method was employed. The results revealed that students' scores on the trait assessment of emotions were generally higher than their scores on the state assessment. Further, as expected, students' academic self-concept in the domain of mathematics was shown to partly explain the discrepancy between scores on trait and state emotions. Our results indicate that there is a belief-driven discrepancy between what students think they feel (trait assessment) and what they really feel (state assessment). Implications with regard to the assessment of self-reported emotions in future studies and practical implications for the school context are discussed.

Morningness-eveningness and educational outcomes: the lark has an advantage over the owl at high school.

BACKGROUND: Chronotype refers to individuals' preference for morning or evening activities. Its two dimensions (morningness and eveningness) are related to a number of academic outcomes. AIMS: The main goal of the study was to investigate the incremental validity of chronotype as a predictor of academic achievement after controlling for a number of traditional predictors. In so doing, a further aim was ongoing validation of a chronotype questionnaire, the Lark-Owl Chronotype Indicator. SAMPLE: The sample comprised 272 students attending 9th and 10th grades at five German high schools. Data was also obtained from 132 parents of these students. METHOD: Students were assessed in class via self-report questionnaires and a standardized cognitive test. Parents filled out a questionnaire at home. The incremental validity of chronotype was investigated using hierarchical linear regression. Validity of the chronotype questionnaire was assessed by correlating student ratings of their chronotype with behavioural data on sleep, food intake, and drug consumption and with parent ratings of chronotype. RESULTS: Eveningness was a significant (negative) predictor of overall grade point average (GPA), math-science GPA, and language GPA, after cognitive ability, conscientiousness, need for cognition, achievement motivation, and gender were held constant. Validity evidence for the chronotype measure was established by significant correlations with parent-ratings and behavioural data. CONCLUSIONS: Results point to the possible discrimination of adolescents with a proclivity towards eveningness at school. Possible explanations for the relationship between chronotype and academic achievement are presented. Implications for educational practice are also discussed.

Effects of differential feedback on students' examination performance.

The effects of feedback on performance and factors associated with it were examined in a large introductory psychology course. The experiment involved college students (N = 464) working on an essay examination under 3 conditions: no feedback, detailed feedback that was perceived by participants to be provided by the course instructor, and detailed feedback that was perceived by participants to be computer generated. Additionally, these conditions were crossed with factors of grade (receiving a numerical grade or not) and praise (receiving a statement of praise or not). The task under consideration was a single-question essay examination administered at the beginning of the course. Detailed feedback on the essay, specific to individual's work, was found to be strongly related to student improvement in essay scores, with the influence of grades and praise being more complex. Generally, receipt of a tentative grade depressed performance, although this effect was ameliorated if accompanied by a statement of praise. Overall, detailed, descriptive feedback was found to be most effective when given alone, unaccompanied by grades or praise. It was also found that the perceived source of the feedback (the computer or the instructor) had little impact on the results. These findings are consistent with the research literature showing that descriptive feedback, which conveys information on how one performs the task and details ways to overcome difficulties, is far more effective than evaluative feedback, which simply informs students about how well they did.