Higher Levels Of Positive Emotions Research Articles

Disruption Management Interacts with Positive and Negative Emotions in the Classroom: Results from a Simulation-Based Study

The conduct of teachers, especially in handling disruptions, significantly impacts the comfort of students. This research investigates the correlation between preservice teachers’ effectiveness in terms of managing disruptions and the emotions experienced by both engaged and disruptive students. In an experimental simulation, we crafted a classroom scenario wherein preservice teachers engaged in handling severe disruptions over a 10-min period. During the simulation, other preservice teachers assumed the roles of either engaged or disruptive students, following specific behaviour guidelines. Afterwards, the student role players completed questionnaires to gauge their perceptions of positive and negative emotions, as well as to assess the effectiveness of the teacher’s management of disruptions. Notably, interaction effects were observed between preservice teachers’ disruption management strategies and the students’ roles (either engaged or disruptive) on their emotional responses. When preservice teachers effectively managed the classroom during the simulation, those acting as engaged students reported higher levels of positive emotions and fewer negative emotions. In contrast, when classroom management was ineffective, participants portraying disruptive students experienced more positive emotions and fewer negative emotions. The educational implications of these results are considered and discussed.

Secondary school students' appraisal profiles and their relations with academic emotions in mathematics

This study adopted a person-centered method to investigate the latent profiles of students' cognitive appraisals based on control-value theory, providing a picture of their academic emotional landscape. Students' appraisal profiles regarding academic emotions were also compared. The data were collected from 1762 students (50.7 % male; Mage = 13.88, SD = 0.84) in 68 mathematics classrooms across 11 secondary schools in Jiangsu, China. Latent profile analysis identified four patterns based on academic control and value: extrinsic value orientation (4.9 %) and low (13.4 %), medium (41.3 %), and high appraisal profiles (40.4 %). Students in the high appraisal profile showed the highest level of positive emotions and the lowest level of negative emotions, followed by those with the medium appraisal profile. Those in the extrinsic value orientation profile, however, displayed the lowest level of positive emotions and the highest level of negative emotions. The four profiles also showed significant correlations with the students' background characteristics. Educational relevance statementThis study aims to explore possible subgroups of control and value appraisals and their relationships with academic emotions in mathematics classrooms. This study suggests that students in the high appraisal profile (i.e., high academic control and value) tend to report high levels of positive emotions and low levels of negative emotions, followed by students in the medium profile (i.e., medium academic control and value). Additionally, students in the extrinsic value orientation profile (i.e., high extrinsic value but low academic control and intrinsic value) performed worse than the students in other three appraisal profiles both emotionally and academically. Therefore, it is crucial to foster students' competence beliefs and intrinsic value in mathematics to enhance their positive learning experiences.

Modelling the interaction between EFL teachers' personality traits, emotion regulation strategies, and teachers' depression: A structural equation approach

AbstractEmotion regulation strategies can enhance teachers' well‐being and performance by enabling them to cope with the challenges and stressors of teaching. Personality traits, however, may affect teachers' vulnerability to depression and their capacity to regulate their emotions. To investigate how emotion regulation strategies mediated the relationship between EFL teachers' personality traits and depression, we invited 546 Chinese EFL teachers to complete the relevant online questionnaires. The Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) results revealed that teachers' personality traits directly influenced their depression levels, and that their depression levels negatively impacted their emotion regulation strategies. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that positive emotions mediated the relationship between teachers' personality traits and depression, suggesting that teachers with higher levels of positive emotions had lower levels of depression and more effective emotion regulation strategies. The findings implied that fostering positive emotions and emotion regulation strategies can improve teachers' mental health and teaching quality. The study also added to the knowledge of the role of emotion regulation strategies in the interplay between personality traits and depression.

Enjoyable, anxious, or bored? Investigating Chinese EFL learners’ classroom emotions and their engagement in technology-based EMI classrooms

To explore the intricate connections between Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' classroom emotions (anxiety, boredom and enjoyment) and their engagement within the context of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in technology-based learning environments, four modified and validated questionnaires focusing on assessing emotions, engagement levels, and comfort with technology integration were administered to university EFL learners on the Chinese mainland. A structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was employed to discern the direct and indirect influences of EFL emotions on engagement, considering the mediating effects of EMI and technology comfort. The results indicate that the indirect impact of emotions on learners' academic engagement through technology and EMI as mediators was significant at 95% confidence level. It means that 69% of changes in learners' academic engagement can be explained by interaction among learners’ emotions and their technology and EMI perceptions. These results imply that both technology-enhanced learning and EMI serve as significant mediators in the relationship between emotions and academic engagement. The positive estimates suggest that higher levels of positive emotions may lead to increased academic engagement through these mediated pathways. Our findings may have implications for pedagogical practices, curriculum development, and the design of technology-enhanced language instruction.

Music performance anxiety can be facilitating or debilitating: Emotion accompaniment makes the difference

Music performance anxiety (MPA) is most often defined as a negative experience that is harmful to successful performance, but potential facilitating effects of MPA often are acknowledged. The distinction between facilitating and debilitating effects often is attributed to various cognitive frameworks based on the quantity of anxiety, where smaller amounts may be helpful and larger amounts harmful. The hypothesis underlying the present study holds that the difference between facilitating and debilitating MPA is more a matter of quality than quantity, specifically the qualities associated with the other positive and negative emotions that accompany MPA. A web survey recruited 114 musicians to test for differences in MPA and accompanying emotions by responding to descriptions of four specific musical contexts. Results show that between roughly one-quarter and one-half of the musicians in the study viewed MPA as facilitating, depending on context. Respondents endorsing the facilitating quality of MPA (compared with the debilitating group) showed significantly higher levels of positive emotion accompanied by lower levels of both MPA and negative emotion in three of four contexts. Results are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that emotions accompanying MPA shape the quality of its effect on musical performance.

Субъективные критерии предпочтения профессии и работы в старшем подростковом и юношеском возрасте

Background. The present article addresses the criteria for choosing a profession and work among modern adolescents and young adults in the changing and transient world. It sets the ideals of professions that illusorily seem to be accessible, easy, well-paid, and interesting at the same time. Objective. The present study aims at identifying subjective criteria of the preference for occupation and work in senior adolescents and young adults and their relationship with personality traits, values, user activity, and subjective well-being. Study Participants. 172 subjects, 54 students of 8–11 grades at the age from 13 to 16 and 118 students of Moscow universities at the age from 17 to 23, including 103 males (59.9%) and 69 females (40.1%). Methods. The respondents fill in the scale of subjective criteria for job preference, the Ten Item Personality Measure, the Portrait Values Questionnaire and techniques for assessing subjective well-being and user activity. The answer the questions about the possibility and intention to combine several criteria of career and job choice. Results. The scale of the subjective criteria for job preference is a reliable, factor- and content-valid screening instrument assessing the importance of payment, interest, convenience, prospect, usefulness to others, ease, difficulty, and image in the work. In choosing a profession and job, both high school and college students focus on a wide range of criteria. Conscientiousness is associated with the preference for a well-paid, promising, and challenging work; openness to new experience is associated with the preference for interesting work. Orientation to the values of conformity and tradition is associated with the readiness to choose between different criteria, while the orientation to the values of achievement and power is associated with a wider range of subjective criteria, which the future job should correspond to. A higher level of positive emotions is associated with the preference for many criteria of job selection at the same time. A greater user activity is connected to the desire for easy work. Conclusions. In contemporary adolescents and young adults, a greater subjective well-being and the values of achievement and power are paradoxically associated with an unrealistically wide range of criteria of choosing a profession and job that are simultaneously important to them. This may further lead to some difficulties in searching for the job and disappointments in it.

Effects of aroma enhancement fermentation of Zygosaccharomyces rouxii ZR21 and Debaryomyces hansenii DH06 on the sensory properties and consumer liking of Yongchuan douchi.

Yongchuan douchi is a well-loved condiment. However, the aroma of rapid Yongchuan douchi is inferior to that of traditional Yongchuan douchi. The objective of this study was to improve the aroma quality of rapid Yongchuan douchi and evaluate the effect of aroma enhancement from the perspective of consumers. The aroma characteristics of samples were analyzed by consumers through flash profile (FP) (n = 15) and rate-all-that-apply (RATA) (n = 75). The results showed improvement in the aroma quality of rapid Yongchuan douchi with the two yeast strains, and consumers could perceive the modification of the aroma characteristics. It shows that the douchi aroma and sour aroma of rapid Yongchuan douchi increased significantly after aroma-enhancing fermentation, while the soy sauce aroma, soybean aroma, and musty aroma decreased. Similar results were obtained from FP and RATA. RATA showed that rapid Yongchuan douchi with aroma-enhancing fermentation aroused higher levels of positive emotions, which may increase the acceptance of consumers to rapid Yongchuan douchi. In summary, the aroma quality and consumer preference of rapid Yongchuan douchi were enhanced. The work provides insights into the quality improvement of rapid Yongchuan douchi from the perspective of consumers.

Growth patterns of ingroup and outgroup prosocial behavior in Colombian and Uruguayan adolescents: Examining gratitude and forgiveness as predictors of change.

The first goal of the current research was to study the short-term developmental patterns of ingroup and outgroup prosocial behavior during the middle adolescence stage among Uruguayan and Colombian adolescents. The second goal was to study the probability of inclusion in each trajectory class arising from gratitude and forgiveness (understood as the absence of negative emotions and the presence of positive emotions toward an aggressor) while controlling for gender and age. The study included two short-term longitudinal samples from two Latin American countries: Colombia (N = 212, M age = 13.82 years, SD = 1.25) and Uruguay (N = 269, M age = 14.02 years, SD = 1.39). The data were collected at three time points within a 3-month interval. The first finding indicated that different patterns in ingroup and outgroup prosocial behavior in adolescents emerged in both Latin American countries. Moreover, two classes-high and low-were identified in the trajectory of ingroup prosocial behavior, while three different classes-high, moderate, and low-were found in the trajectory of outgroup prosocial behavior in both countries. The results indicated that high levels of gratitude increased the probability that Uruguayan adolescents were included in the group of adolescents with high levels of ingroup prosocial behavior. High levels of positive emotions toward an aggressor (a dimension of forgiveness) increased the probability that a Colombian adolescent belonged to the group of adolescents with high levels of ingroup prosociality. Regarding outgroup prosocial behavior, different predictors were also identified between the countries. The results indicated that high levels of gratitude and positive emotions toward an aggressor increased the probability that Uruguayan adolescents were included in the group of adolescents with high or moderate levels of outgroup prosocial behavior. Only positive emotions toward an aggressor increased the probability that Colombian adolescents were included in the group of adolescents with high or moderate levels of outgroup prosocial behavior.

Associations between interpersonal contexts, positive emotions, and related experiences in school students: A systematic review of experience sampling studies.

Studies investigating students' social interactions and related experiences have mostly relied on retrospective methodologies-techniques known to be subject to recall bias that threaten ecological validity. This article is the second part of a systematic review of experience sampling studies on students' social interactions. This article focuses on exploring associations between interpersonal contexts, positive emotions, and related experiences assessed by intensive repeated measurement techniques in naturalistic environments. A systematic literature search was conducted for experience sampling studies between 1996 and 2020. Details of the literature search process and results were reported in the companion (Part I) of the study (Mölsä et al., 2022; Frontiers in Psychology 2022; 13: 844698). Using a narrative synthesis, the associations of interpersonal contexts and positive emotionality in school students were analyzed. Findings suggest that school students experience higher levels of positive emotions during peer, teacher, and family interactions than when they are not being with someone. The overall findings indicate that positive emotionality in children and adolescents is dependent on the characteristics of the interpersonal contexts, although the multilevel associations vary. This review contributes to experience sampling research on students' social interactions. The systematic review concludes with discussion of the main findings, theoretical implications, and an analysis of limitations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Employment and emotional well-being in veterans with mental illness.

The purpose of this study is to examine group differences between employed and unemployed Veterans with mental illnesses utilizing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) emotion toolbox factors including negative affect, psychological well-being, stress, and social relationships. Data was collected from three samples from 2018 to 2020. The first sample (Sample 1) is 156 Veterans with mental illness from Amazon MTurk; the second sample (Sample 2), recruited from a higher education institution, is 232 veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder(PTSD) symptoms; and the final sample (Sample 3), recruited from a higher education institution, is 129 Veterans with disabilities, including psychiatric disabilities. Independent-samples t-tests were carried out to test our objectives. Sample 1 results revealed that employed Veterans with mental illnesses had lower levels of depression and stress and higher levels of positive emotion, life satisfaction, meaning in life, and social relationships compared to unemployed Veterans. Sample 2 results revealed that employed Veterans with PTDS symptoms had lower levels of stress and higher levels of positive emotion and lower levels of stress compared to unemployed Veterans with PTSD symptoms. Sample 3 results revealed that employed Veterans with disabilities including psychiatric disabilities had lower levels of depression and higher levels of positive emotion and social relationships. Our findings are consistent with the previous research documenting that employment plays a central role in optimal psychological and physical health in both civilians and veterans.

Virtual reality’s impact on destination visit intentions and the moderating role of amateur photography

FinalidadEsta investigación analizó los efectos de las experiencias de realidad virtual (VREs) y las emociones en las intenciones de visita a destinos vacacionales aplicando el modelo estímulo-organismo-respuesta (S-O-R). También examinó el papel de la fotografía amateur como moderador en la relación entre las VREs, las emociones y las intenciones de visita.Diseño/metodología/enfoqueLos datos primarios se recogieron mediante una encuesta con cuestionario estructurado administrado en la India, y se utilizó la modelización de ecuaciones estructurales (SEM) para examinar las relaciones entre las variables. La encuesta principal fue precedida de un estudio piloto. Se aplicó la técnica PLS-SEM para medir el efecto moderador de la fotografía amateur.ResultadosCuando las personas poseen un alto nivel de emociones positivas en la etapa previa al viaje con participación en VRE, sus intenciones de visitar destinos son más fuertes. La fotografía amateur moderó las relaciones entre la interactividad del usuario, las experiencias memorables, las imágenes mentales y las intenciones de visita. No se encontró ningún efecto moderador significativo entre las experiencias emocionales y las intenciones de visita.Originalidad/valorEsta investigación tiene el valor de hacer varias contribuciones potenciales a las aplicaciones turísticas de la realidad virtual. Es el primer estudio que utiliza y pone a prueba el marco estímulo-organismo-respuesta (S-O-R) para analizar el comportamiento de los turistas desde la perspectiva de las emociones generadas por las aplicaciones de RV. El análisis se centra en el mercado turístico de la India, poco explorado en el contexto de la RV y desde la perspectiva de un país en desarrollo. La investigación hace hincapié en el uso de la RV como herramienta para comprender el comportamiento de los turistas, en lugar de centrarse únicamente en las intenciones de visita. Las conclusiones aportan valiosas ideas sobre la importancia de la RV en el turismo. Los conocimientos generados contribuirán a comprender el impacto de las experiencias de RV en las emociones y las intenciones de visita, así como el efecto moderador de la fotografía amateur. Se presentan implicaciones prácticas para los responsables de marketing de los destinos turísticos a la hora de desarrollar estrategias de marketing eficaces que potencien las emociones de los turistas y motiven las intenciones de visita.

Art engagement and psychological well-being among community-dwelling older adults in Japan: an observational cross-sectional study

ObjectivesArt engagement, which includes individual art activities and museum and gallery visits, potentially contributes to improving psychological well-being. However, there is insufficient evidence of its effects on the older population, and few reports are from Asia, including Japan. This study examined the association between art engagement and psychological well-being among older adults in Japan. Study designAn observational cross-sectional study design was used. MethodsCommunity-dwelling older adults aged ≥60 years were recruited from the visitors to public facilities (including community centres, sports centres and cultural centres) in Aichi, Japan, in 2022, and completed questionnaires. The psychological well-being assessment included five domains according to Seligman's PERMA framework: Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationship, Meaning and Accomplishment. Regarding art engagement, the frequencies of active art engagement (e.g. activities by individuals and participation in groups, such as music and painting) and receptive art engagement (e.g. visiting museums, galleries and the theatres) were assessed. ResultsA total of 522 participants were included in the analysis (mean age = 74.1 years; 78.0% females). Results from the multivariable linear regression analysis, which adjusted for demographic and socio-economic factors, revealed that higher frequencies of active art engagement were significantly associated with higher scores in all five PERMA domain scores. Higher frequencies of receptive art engagement were significantly associated with higher levels of Positive emotion, Engagement and Meaning domain scores, but were only marginally associated with the Accomplishment domain and were not associated with the Relationships domain. ConclusionsThis study indicates that art engagement has the potential to enhance psychological well-being among older adults. National and local government strategies to increase accessibility to art and cultural activities for older adults are recommended.

Finally! How time lapse in Nobel Prize reception affects emotionality in the Nobel Prize banquet speeches

We have a limited understanding of the role emotions play in academia, as exploring emotions consistently and comparably is challenging due to the powerful influence of contextual factors. However, we have identified an interesting setting to empirically investigate the emotional response in academia by examining Nobel Prize winners. Scientists who aspire to earn a Nobel Prize are under pressure from their environment if they have not yet received the Prize. While there are various indicators that suggest the Nobel Prize is forthcoming, the question of “when” weighs heavily on the minds of leading candidates. Consequently, waiting for the Nobel Prize is emotionally taxing. We therefore hypothesize that Nobel laureates who have experienced a prolonged wait for the award would feel a stronger sense of relief upon receiving it. We are interested in measuring their level of emotionality after receiving the Nobel Prize by analyzing their banquet speeches using linguistic content analysis. Banquet speeches provide a consistent and controlled setting to compare emotionality across scientists and over time, as we can measure the same responses to the same recognition under the same circumstances. We expect that waiting longer for the Nobel Prize will increase the positive emotionality of Nobelists’ speeches. The waiting time is determined by calculating the years since the Nobel Prize-winning work was performed. By conducting this time-lapse study, we find a robust positive correlation between waiting time and positive emotions in Nobel Prize banquet speeches. We conclude that scientists who waited longer for the Nobel Prize reported higher levels of positive emotions during their speeches.

Everyday engineering: The effects of transformative experience in middle school engineering

AbstractBackgroundPromoting engagement and motivation in early engineering experiences is important for fostering interest and retention in engineering. One method that has been effective for doing so is facilitating transformative experiences (TEs), which occurs when students apply academic content to everyday experience. Our goal was to explore the effectiveness of an intervention to encourage TE, positive emotions, and interest in middle school engineering courses in two differentially resourced schools.Purpose/HypothesisWe explored the effectiveness of using the video software Flipgrid as a supplement to a TE intervention to impact TE, emotions, and interest. In addition, we sought to model a theorized predictive relationship between TE, emotions, and interest.Design/MethodTwo hundred seventy‐four engineering students across two middle schools with differing levels of resources participated. A cluster‐randomized pretest–posttest survey design was used to explore the variables of interest. ANOVA and SEM were implemented to investigate the research questions and hypotheses.ResultsWe found mixed results, with the intervention facilitating significantly more TEs and maintaining high levels of positive emotions in a school with access to fewer resources. Furthermore, in alignment with hypotheses about interest development (Renninger and Su, Oxford handbook of human motivation 2012; pp. 167–187), the results showed that initial positive and negative emotions predicted initial interest and post‐TE. However, only post‐positive emotions and post‐TE predicted post‐interest. Negative emotions after the intervention did not predict post‐intervention interest.ConclusionsThe findings have theoretical implications for interest development and practical implications for targeted interventions in early engineering education, especially for schools with access to fewer resources.

Street play, wellbeing and mental health from childhood into adulthood

IntroductionThere is growing interest in the role of children’s play in supporting children’s mental health. Children’s opportunitities for play vary according to the space available to them for play, with more adventurous play happening outdoors (Dodd et al., 2021). The area close to children’s home, such as the street outside their home, can provide an important play space but, with increasing traffic, there has been a decrease in the use of local streets for play over the past generation or two. At the same time we have seen significant increases in children’s mental health problems.ObjectivesOur objectives were: 1) to examine how trends in street play have changed over time; 2) to examine how children’s self-reported wellbeing is associated with their use of streets for play; 3) to examine how adult mental health is associated with their childhood street play experiences.MethodsWorking in collaboration with Save the Children and Play England, we surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1000 children and young people aged 6-16 years, 1000 adults aged 18+ and 1000 parents of children aged 6-16 years about children’s play in their local area and their memories of play during their own childhood. All participants also completed measures of wellbeing (children) or mental health (adults). Participants were recruited from Great Britian.ResultsWe found striking differences in the use of streets and local areas for play. For example, across all adults, 62% told us that they regularly played out in their street or area close to home as a child. In contrast 27% of children told us that they regularly play out now. By breaking down the proportion of participants who said they regularly played in their street or local area by their age group, their is a clear decline in outdoor street play over the past 70 years. We asked children about their wellbeing using the Stirling Children’s Wellbeing Scale. Children who said that they regularly played out in their street had higher levels of positive emotion but this was only true for children under 13 years. Adults who told us that they regularly played out in their street or area close to their home as a child had better mental health as adults (lower scores on the K6). Similarly, adults who told us that there was freedom for children to go and explore in the neighbourhood they lived in as a child had better mental health as adults.ConclusionsTaken together these findings suggest that being able to play in the street or area close to home is linked to wellbeing during childhood and early adolescence and further, that having these expriences during childhood may be beneficial for mental health into adulthood. This indicates that when considering how to support the development of good mental health we should keep in mind the importance of children’s opportunities for play and the role that access to their local enviornment plays in supporting play.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Because I'm happy - positive affect and its predictive value for future disease activity in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases: a retrospective cohort study.

While the detrimental impact of negative emotions on the clinical course of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and quality of life has been extensively investigated, evidence for a potential impact of positive emotions is scarce. We aim to analyse contributing factors of positive affect and their predictive value for disease course in IBD patients. In this retrospective cohort study, epidemiological, psychosocial and IBD disease characteristics of Swiss IBD cohort study patients were analysed longitudinally. Epidemiological, psychosocial and disease characteristics were extracted from the database of the Swiss IBD cohort study. Participants' positive emotions were assessed cross-sectionally with the seven-item Marburg questionnaire (range 1-6) addressing positive affect in different aspects of daily life. Predictors of positive emotions were identified by linear regression. The quantitative longitudinal impact of positive emotions on the further disease course was analysed using a multivariable Cox proportional hazards model. Among 702 IBD patients, those reporting more positive emotions were found to have significantly less intense medical treatment, less pain and fewer depressive symptoms (p < 0.05). A higher percentage of variability in positive emotions was explained by pain (36%) and depressive symptoms (13%) than by epidemiological characteristics (0.3%), or characteristics of IBD and its treatment (2.4%). Patients with higher levels of positive emotions (score > 3.5) experienced longer flare-free survival, also after adjusting for confounders (adjusted hazard ratio: 0.39, p < 0.05). The absence of pain and depressive symptoms were the strongest drivers for high positive affect. Higher scores of positive affect were associated with longer disease-free survival in IBD patients.

The Relationship between Creativity and Attitudes toward Intergroup Conflicts

ABSTRACTThe maintenance and escalation of intergroup conflicts have been explained by negative emotions and attitudes toward outgroup members. Considering that creative cognition entails the ability to generate diverse and new ideas, we sought to investigate whether creativity may contribute to overcoming negative emotions and attitudes associated with intergroup conflicts. Therefore, we examined whether individual differences in creativity predict conflict‐related emotions and attitudes in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. To that end, we recruited Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs who identify themselves as Palestinian and administered the Torrance task of divergent thinking to assess the levels of originality and flexibility of participants. We also measured outgroup‐targeted emotions and attitudes toward the conflict. Results indicate that participants who demonstrate higher levels of original thinking, on average, reported higher levels of positive emotions toward outgroup members and were more supportive of conciliatory attitudes toward the conflict. Moreover, these associations were more evident among Israelis than among Palestinians. Finally, a mediation analysis demonstrated that originality predicts conciliatory attitudes through an increase in positive emotions and a decrease in negative emotions toward outgroup members. This relationship was not moderated by nationality. These findings suggest that interventions based on creativity training may be beneficial to encourage reconciliation.

Affective-motivational effects of performance feedback in computer-based assessment: Does error message complexity matter?

The impact of computer-based performance feedback on students’ affective-motivational state may be very different, depending on the positive or negative direction of the feedback message and its specific content. This experiment investigated whether more elaborated error messages improve students’ affective-motivational response to negative (i.e., corrective) feedback. We systematically varied the presence and complexity of corrective feedback messages (1 × 4 between-subjects design) and analyzed the effects of the provided feedback on students’ emotions, task-related perceived usefulness, and expectancy-value beliefs. University students (N = 439) worked on a low-stakes test with 12 constructed-response geometry tasks. They received either no feedback or different complexities of immediate corrective feedback after incorrect responses (i.e., Knowledge of Results [KR], Knowledge of Correct Response [KCR], or Elaborated Feedback [EF]), paired with immediate confirmatory KCR feedback after correct responses (i.e., confirming their response). Our data showed that students’ task-level performance moderated the emotional impact of feedback (i.e., beneficial effects after correct responses; detrimental effects after incorrect responses). Students’ performance further moderated several feedback effects on students’ expectancy-value beliefs. Regarding error message complexity, we found that students reported higher levels of positive emotions after receiving EF or KCR compared to KR, while only EF decreased students' level of negative emotions compared to KR and increased students' task-related perceived usefulness compared to all other groups. Overall, our results suggest that performance feedback is likely to improve students’ affective-motivational state when the feedback confirms a correct response. Moreover, when reporting an error, EF (or KCR messages) were more beneficial to affective-motivational outcomes than simple KR notifications.

GRATITUDE DURING THE COVID CRISIS - TO WHOM AND FOR WHAT THE BULGARIANS ARE GRATEFUL

Gratitude influences the establishing, maintaining and deepening of interpersonal relationships and readiness to provide support in crisis situations. Еxperiencing and expressing gratitude is оften associated with high levels of positive emotions, resilience, life satisfaction, optimism, empathy and&nbsp; prosocial behavior. Оn the other hand lack of gratitude is associated with depression and high levels of stress. At the beginning of the Covid crisis in April 2020, a non-representative sample poll was conducted through an online survey, involving 200 people between the ages of 18 and 65. The aim is to conduct a qualitative reasearch on the gratitude subject and the person of gratitude during the emergency. With content analysis, the collected answers for the subject of gratitude are grouped into categories - Health, Communicating with loved ones, Work, What you have, Other people's actions, Slow living, New opportunities, Nothing, Protection from God. Answers revealing the person of gratitude are grouped into categories - Family and friends, Institutions, Medical practitioners, People outside the immediate circle, Employer, God/Fate, Myself, None, Pet. The hypothesis that during a crisis people also notice the positive in life (relationships, material and non-material resources), feel gratitude and tend to value relationships highly has been confirmed. Programs and activities, developing gratitude as an attitude or character strength, would enhance positive and protective effect during crisis situations and beyond.

Dreamers' evaluation of the emotional valence of their day-to-day dreams is indicative of some mood regulation function.

Dreams may contribute to psychological adaptation by aiding in mood regulation. One way it could be achieved is through a desensitization process whereby negative events are replayed within the dream under lower conditions of negative emotionality. Evidence of this theory is supported by the tendency of dreamers to evaluate their emotions felt in their dreams more positively compared to an independent judge (i.e., positivity bias). Additionally, it has been observed that while dream emotions are typically more negative than pre-sleep emotions, morning emotions are more positive, suggesting that emotional regulation occurs overnight and may help improve mood in the morning. The present study aimed to examine the relationships between pre-sleep, dream, and morning mood and the potential desensitization function of remembered dreams as indicated by their effects on morning mood and stress.Methodology: Participants (N = 188; Mean age = 19.2, SD = 3.0) recorded their dreams (N = 345 dreams) and self-reported their stress and mood at bedtime, during their dream retrospectively, and upon waking. A judge also evaluated the subjects’ dream moods. Subjects’ positivity bias was defined as the difference between the subjects and the judge’s evaluation of the positive emotions in the dream.Results: A MANOVA revealed that subjects perceived a higher level of positive emotions in their dreams compared to a judge. Multi-group path analysis revealed that some relationships between pre-sleep, dream, and morning emotions and stress differed in positive and negative dream nights. In both groups, the strongest predictors of morning mood and stress were pre-sleep mood and stress, respectively. The second strongest predictor of positive morning mood was the subjects’ dream positivity bias.Conclusion: Results provide some support for the association of dreaming in mood regulation attributable to REM sleep. They also highlight that pathways implicated in mood regulation may be distinct from stress regulation.