Feelings Of Enjoyment Research Articles

Predicting the Lifetime Durations of Donors to Charities

ABSTRACT Charitable organisations increasingly attempt to estimate the “lifetime values” of their donors with the intention of segmenting supporters and focusing resources and activities on high lifetime value givers. This paper contributes to the literature on donor lifetime value by presenting the results of an empirical study of the factors that encouraged donors to a certain charity to continue their relationship with the organisation. It emerged that the length of a person's association with the charity was significantly associated with two psychometric traits (involvement with charity giving and “helper's high”), four “exchange” variables (value and frequency of donations, number of charities supported and means of donation), and the strength of a person's inner feelings of enjoyment about being thanked for making a gift. Clear linkages between lifetime duration and the likelihood of an individual naming a charity as a beneficiary of his or her will were identified.

Olfaction and taste: Human perception, physiology and genetics

Drinking wine is a manifestly sensuous experience. Wine stimulates most of our senses; particularly smell (olfaction) and taste, and, to a lesser extent, sight and touch. These sensory inputs interact with the limbic system in our brain which is associated with emotions and memory. Agreeable smells can thus evoke feelings of enjoyment and nostalgia. But how are tastants and aromas detected? Over the past few years a great deal has been learnt about how small tastant and odorant molecules are detected by specific protein receptors located in our mouth and in nasal cavities, respectively. Indeed, we have a vast array of olfactory receptors encoded by a group of genes that represent a significant part of the human genome. Interestingly, many more aroma compounds can be detected and discriminated than can be accounted for by the number of olfactory receptors that are encoded by our genes. Such disparity implies a level of complexity in this system which is not yet fully understood. Sophistication in olfaction is something that winemakers (and drinkers!) have long appreciated, and now scientists are beginning to unravel some of the underlying mysteries. Discovering why some individuals are more receptive to different tastes and smells than others will help wine producers understand variation in consumer preferences between different parts of the world, and possibly capture new opportunities in a changing global marketplace. Given such prospects, this present review offers a timely summary of some key developments in our understanding of odorant and tastant detection. We also consider how genetic components in human olfaction might be utilised to develop a ‘biosensor’ for aroma detection and discrimination.

Correlates of physical activity among middle-aged Finnish male police officers

Few studies exist on adherence to exercise within specific occupational groups. This study aimed at identifying factors explaining leisure-time physical activity among middle-aged Finnish police officers. Middle-aged police officers (n = 103) participated in the study in 1981 and 1996. Frequency of and adherence to leisure-time physical activity and fitness were assessed. The factor 'enjoyment' was the most powerful determinant for both physical activity and fitness, but all the factors studied accounted for only 10% of the variability. Leisure-time physical activity in 1981 correlated significantly with leisure-time physical activity in 1996. The physical activity of the middle-aged police officers can be in part predicted from their physical activity in early adulthood. Enjoyment related to physical activity seems to be important with respect to enhancing adherence. Perhaps, being fit increases the feeling of enjoyment during exercise.

Looking for a Struggle: Exploring the Emotions of a Middle School Reader

The purpose of this case study was to explore a middle school student's emotions in the tutoring context in order to better understand the “struggles” faced by a struggling reader. Through cognitive explanations of emotions, the researcher identified aspects of tutoring that influenced Mitchell's feelings of enjoyment, pride, and success. These included having opportunities to make choices, participating in activities that were personally relevant, working within his instructional level, and having opportunities to experience success. Through social explanations of emotions, the researcher identified aspects of schooling that influenced Mitchell's feelings of struggle. These included feeling frustrated by the social comparisons made at school and feeling alienated from teachers. The researcher concluded that it is possible to create contexts in which struggling readers experience success and begin to redefine themselves.

The role of emotional satisfaction in service encounters

This paper empirically examined the role of emotional satisfaction in service encounters. Specifically, this study seeks to: investigate the relationship between emotional satisfaction and key concepts, such as service quality, customer loyalty, and relationship quality, and clarify the role of emotional satisfaction in predicting customer loyalty and relationship quality. In doing so, this study used the relationship between emotional satisfaction, service quality, customer loyalty, and relationship quality as a context, as well as data from a sample survey of 1,261 Australian retail customers concerning their evaluation of their shopping experiences to address this issue. The results show that service quality is positively associated with emotional satisfaction, which is positively associated with both customer loyalty and relationship quality. Further investigations showed that customers' feelings of enjoyment serve as the best predictor of customer loyalty, while feelings of happiness serve as the best predictor of relationship quality. The findings imply the need for a service firm to strategically leverage on the key antecedents of customer loyalty and relationship quality in its pursuit of customer retention and long‐term profitability.

Young Korean athletes' goal orientation and sources of enjoyment.

Feeling of enjoyment plays a critical role in sport participation and adherence. The purposes of this study were to (a) identify specific sources of enjoyment in the context of Korean youth sport and (b) examine the conceptual link between goal orientation and the sources of enjoyment in youth sport. A total of 334 middle school athletes (244 boys, 90 girls; ages 12 to 18 years), representing 17 schools in Seoul, participated. They responded to the Korean version of the Task and Ego Orientation Questionnaire in Sport and an open-ended item designed to identify sources of enjoyment. Content analysis of the responses resulted in nine enjoyment categories, including winning and competition, social recognition and rewards, health and fitness, and perceived competence. Chi squared analyses provided initial evidence for the conceptual link between goal orientation and sources of enjoyment. The athletes scoring high on task orientation more frequently reported self-referenced sources of enjoyment, e.g., health and fitness, psychological benefit, while the athletes high on ego orientation more frequently identified social recognition and rewards as their enjoyment sources. These results were discussed within the frame of goal orientation theory and cross-cultural perspectives.

Research on Importance and Interest: Implications for Curriculum Development and Future Research

Research has found that interest is related to attention, deeper processing, the use of effortful strategies, feelings of enjoyment, and learning. However, some strategies for creating interest in text materials may interfere with the learning of important information. In this paper, I describe results of a study that used qualitative verbal report measures to identify text characteristics that are most positively and most negatively associated with interest, as well as quantitative measures to investigate how those characteristics are related to learning. Results have implications for curriculum development by contributing to our understanding of how writers of informational text can make important information interesting. The paper concludes with suggestions for pedagogical practice and for future research that may further our understanding of interest and how it might be enhanced in classrooms.

Towards an understanding of flow and other positive experience phenomena within outdoor and adventurous activities

In considering what draws people to become involved in adventurous activities, studies on flow suggest that people are motivated to participate because of the intrinsic feelings of enjoyment, well-being and personal competence that they experience. This paper explores the positive experience phenomena termed peak experience, peak performance and flow. Similar and distinctive characteristics are identified, and factors influencing the ability to experience such peak moments are considered. A state of flow, which appears to hold the most relevance for adventurous activities, is explored in greater detail and considered in the light of The Adventure Experience Paradigm. Csikszentmihalyi's flow models are outlined and examined with particular reference to perceived levels of challenge and skill. It is suggested that an insight into the nature and characteristics of such optimal experiences can contribute to our understanding of why adventurous activities are intrinsically motivating. Such an understanding can assist practitioners in enhancing the learning experiences and opportunities for development of each individual participant.

Reciprocal Relationships Between Attitude Toward Mathematics and Achievement in Mathematics

ABSTRACT Mathematics educators have done little to investigate the reciprocal relationship between attitude toward mathematics and achievement in mathematics. In this study, the reciprocal relationship was modeled after LISREL, using data from a Dominican national evaluation of high school mathematics (N = 1,044). Three data sets that were used to examine a hypothesized causal model demonstrated relatively good results on model-data-fit. Major findings from the model included: (a) A reciprocal relationship existed between every attitudinal measure and mathematics achievement, (b) The feeling of enjoyment, not the feeling of difficulty, directly affected mathematics achievement, (c) The feeling of difficulty functioned via the feeling of enjoyment to affect mathematics achievement, (d) The perception of mathematics as important was independent of other attitudinal measures. The findings suggest that the reciprocal or interactive nature between attitude toward mathematics and achievement in mathematics can substantially modify their casual relationship. A unilateral relationship is likely to overestimate the causal effect between attitude toward mathematics and achievement in mathematics.

The effect of d-amphetamine and ephedrine on smoking attitude and behavior

Using a double blind, randomized, latin square design, 17 light smokers and 6 heavy smokers were given three times per day doses of placebo, 5 mg amphetamine sulfate, 7.5 mg amphetamine sulfate, 25 mg ephedrine hydrochloride or 50 mg ephedrine hydrochloride. Compared to placebo, active drug produced a statistically significant drop in feeling of addiction to cigarettes (p = 0.022). Ephedrine was reported to be more effective than amphetamine (p = 0.046). Subjects reported similar changes in feeling of enjoyment of smoking. Active drug produced a statistically significant drop in the actual amount of tobacco smoked in heavy smokers (p = 0.028), but not in light smokers. Only two smokers were able to quit completely during the experiment, and one of those people resumed smoking after she stopped taking medication. Possible explanations of these findings are discussed.