High Level Of Curiosity Research Articles

On the Relationship Between the Practice of Mindfulness Meditation and Personality—an Exploratory Analysis of the Mediating Role of Mindfulness Skills

Mindfulness meditation (MM) has often been suggested to induce fundamental changes in the way events in life are experienced and dealt with, presumably leading to alterations in personality. However, the relationship between the practice of MM and personality has not been systematically studied. The aim of this study was to explore this relationship and to investigate the mediating role of mindfulness skills. Thirty-five experienced mindfulness meditators (age range, 31–75 years; meditation experience range, 0.25–35 years; mean, ∼13 years) and 35 age-, gender-, and ethnicity-matched controls (age range, 27–63 years) without any meditation experience completed a personality (NEO-FFI) and mindfulness (KIMS) questionnaire. The practice of MM was positively related to openness and extraversion and negatively related to neuroticism and conscientiousness. Thus, the results of the current study associate the practice of MM with higher levels of curiosity and receptivity to new experiences and experience of positive affect and with less proneness toward negative emotions and worrying and a reduced focus on achievements. Furthermore, the mediating role of specific mindfulness skills in the relationship between the practice of MM and personality traits was shown.

Positive Emotion and Health: Going Beyond the Negative.

This study examined the relationships between positive emotions and health. Two positive emotions were considered, hope and curiosity, in conjunction with 3 physician-diagnosed disease outcomes: hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and respiratory tract infections. Medical data were abstracted over a 2-year period from 1,041 patient records from a multispecialty medical practice, and emotions were assessed through a mailed questionnaire. Across 3 disease outcomes, higher levels of hope were associated with a decreased likelihood of having or developing a disease. Higher levels of curiosity were also associated with decreased likelihood of hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Results suggest that positive emotion may play a protective role in the development of disease.

Emotional Responses to Filmed Violence and the Eye Blink Startle Response

The study assessed gender differences in emotional responses to violent film. Both subjective emotional response and eye blink startle magnitude were assessed while 20 men and 20 women viewed a series of five violent film segments and five nature scenes. Participants exhibited higher levels of curiosity, anxiety, disgust, and anger, and lower levels of positive emotion and boredom in response to the violent film segments in comparison with the nature material. Startle response was magnified during the violent film segments, indicating an aversive response. Evidence that men and women responded to the violence differently was demonstrated by men' experiencing greater positive feelings, entertainment, and curiosity in relation to the violent film, whereas women reported more disgust, boredom, anger, and experienced greater startle in relation to the violent scenes portrayed in the film. Future directions for investigating filmed violence are outlined.

CURIOSITY AND UNCERTAINTY IN YOUNG, MIDDLE AGED, AND OLDER ADULTS

Stereotypes about aging suggest that older adults should show decreased levels of curiosity. Sixty individuals, representing young, middle aged, and older adults, participated in a word frequency task measuring epistemic curiosity at varying levels of uncertainty. A measure of general or trait‐like curiosity, the Ontario Test of Intrinsic Motivation, was also administered. Results showed that age level was not significantly related to either epistemic (i.e., situational) curiosity or the more trait‐like curiosity scores. High levels of curiosity were reported by all age levels. A relationship between uncertainty level and curiosity was found in the young adult group only. After completing the word frequency problems, participants were also presented with a list of 160 words and asked to identify words they remembered seeing during the experiment. Correct recognition of target items was related to uncertainty level but not to age level. Explanations for these findings and their implications for stereotypes...

Factors Contributing to Effectiveness of Black Bear Transplants

One hundred seventy transplants of 112 black bears (Ursus americanus) in Glacier National Park during 1967-77 were evaluated to identify factors that contributed to transplant success. Distance, number of ridges, elevation gain, and physiographic barriers between the trapping and release sites were highly correlated with the success of transplants. Differences in the importance of distance and elevation gain between males and females and between inexperienced and experienced bears were identified. Adult transients may make up a substantial portion of the nuisance bear population. J. WILDL. MANAGE. 45(1):102-110 Glacier National Park, Montana, is inhabited by approximately 500 black bears (unpubl. rep., Glacier Natl. Park, 1978). Habitat use patterns of bears often reflect the distribution of available food, and the search for food is the ultimate reason behind many of their movements. Bears may travel through human-use areas simply as a result of their proclivity to wander and their high level of curiosity (Jonkel and Cowan 1971, Beeman and Pelton 1976, Bacon 1980), or they may be attracted into human-use areas by food made available by people (Barnes and Bray 1967, Sauer et al. 1969, Pelton 1972, Piekielek and Burton 1975, Beeman and Pelton 1976, Lindzey et al. 1976, Harms 1980). In an effort to obtain food, some bears learn to damage property or to threaten or injure people. If a destructive behavior pattern is reinforced by a food reward, the bear is likely to repeat it (Stokes 1970:1156, Scott 1972:103-105). The increase in Glacier's annual visitation from 67,200 in 1945 to 1,660,000 in 1977 increased the potential for conflicts between black bears and people. Bear management implemented to resolve these conflicts involved both preventive and responsive measures. Preventive management included a program of visitor education and a concerted, sustained effort to make visitors' food unavailable to bears. Despite this effort, however, some unnatural food sources continued to exist, as when bearproof garbage cans were overfilled, when sightseers offered food to bears grazing at the roadside, or when campers failed to store their food securely or dispose of garbage properly. Responsive management involved transplanting or killing bears that exhibited nuisance behavior. Transplants of black bears in other regions of the United States have had various degrees of success. Erickson and Petrides (1964:60) stated that troublesome bears can be transplanted without great likelihood of their return. In contrast, Barnes and Bray (1967:116), Harger (1967), Sauer et al. (1969), Payne (1975), Piekielek and Burton (1975), Beeman and Pelton (1976:90), and Alt et al. (1977) observed that bears have a definite tendency to return to the capture site, and that the likelihood that a bear would return was related to the distance it was transplanted. Although Beeman and Pelton (1976:92) stated that rough topography and dense vegetation may have hindered long movements of bears in the Great Smoky Mountains, no study has quantitatively considered topographic features in relation to transplant success. The purpose of my study was to evaluate the relationships of quantitative charac102 J. Wildl. Manage. 45(1):1981 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.127 on Wed, 12 Oct 2016 04:32:34 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms BLACK BEAR TRANSPLANTS McArthur 103 teristics of transplants and of transplanted bears to the effectiveness of transplanting as a procedure in black bear management. I am grateful to C. Martinka for valuable advice and encouragement, and to E. Garton, D. Graber, M. Meagher, C. Meslow, and J. Peek for their thoughtful and constructive reviews of the manu-

Seasonal changes in aggression, hunger, and curiosity in ranch mink

Aggression, hunger, and curiosity of ranch mink (Mustela vison) were examined. The animals were divided into socialized animals (those visually isolated at 1 year of age) and unsocialized animals (those visually isolated at 10 weeks of age).Aggression was measured by placing two mink in a special cage and measuring the time until a fight or confrontation occurred. The effects of 0, 24, and 48 hours of food deprivation were measured in summer, fall, and winter. The number of trips made by each mink up a vertical cage to get food was used as an indicator of hunger. Levels of curiosity were determined by measuring the speed and pattern of exploration of a novel open-field situation. The breeding behaviors of experienced and inexperienced male mink were compared.Aggression in mink consisted of at least two offensive threats and, as in other animals, fighting was ritualized to a great extent. All young mink showed some adult aggressive patterns by 20 weeks of age. Aggression in males reached a peak at breeding season (March) and declined throughout the summer and fall, to a low point in November. Socialized males had lower aggressive levels than unsocialized males. Aggression in female mink reached a peak after the breeding season and declined to a low in winter. These cycles were likely caused by gonadal hormones in males and hormones from the corpora lutea in females.Both consumption and storage of food must be considered in determining hunger in mink. Hunger varied inversely with environmental temperature, reaching a peak in the winter and a low point in the summer. Immature animals had lower hunger drives than adult animals. Changes in body weights of mink centered around the breeding season.Curiosity decreased from summer to fall as did aggression. Unsocialized males had higher levels of curiosity than socialized males and females. Immature mink showed incomplete exploratory behavior and had lower curiosity scores than adult animals.