International Journal of Emotional Education

3 - 16

Authors: Petra Engelmann and Maria Bannert

Emotions have an essential impact on students’ learning outcome. Empirical findings show negative correlations between negative emotions and learning outcome. Negative emotions during learning are quite common and become more frequent over the course of an academic career. Thus, regulating these emotions is important. Existing studies indicate that university students lack the ability to successfully regulate their emotions during learning. However, interventions to foster university students’ inherent emotion regulation during learning are missing. In an attempt to identify interventions, this study investigates the effect of a video-based emotion regulation training for university students on emotion regulation strategies, emotions, and learning outcome. One hundred and sixteen university students either received training in emotion regulation (n = 60) or in workplace design (n = 56) before learning in a computer-based learning environment about probability theory. The emotion regulation training lead to improved emotion regulation (more cognitive reappraisal, less suppression) and less frustration and anxiety, but did not affect learning outcome. The results confirm that university students experience significant emotion regulation difficulties and suggest that they need intensive training in emotional regulation

33 - 49

Authors: John-Tyler Binfet and Jenna Whitehead

A current trend in kindness research is to assess the effect of being kind on participants’ well-being. To do this, participants are asked to complete a series of kind acts and the corresponding impact on their well-being is measured. As participation in school-based interventions can vary, the aim of the current study was to assess the extent of adolescents’ engagement in a kindness intervention and the resultant effect on their well-being. An intervention study was conducted in which 383 sixth through eighth graders planned and completed three kind acts per week for four weeks, with pre- and post-test assessments of well-being administered. Adolescents’ acts of kindness reflected the themes of helping with chores, being respectful, complimenting/ encouraging others, and giving objects or money. No significant differences between control and intervention groups at post-test on any well-being measures were found, after controlling for pre-test scores. However, upon analysis of participants’ engagement in the intervention (intervention uptake), it was determined that half of the participants (n=87) implemented less than 60% of their kindness intervention. Participants were thus clustered into three groups: zero, low, and high implementers. ANCOVAs revealed that high implementers had the lowest self-reported negative affect and highest self-reported kindness to others. Implications for adolescent prosocial development are discussed.

71 - 90

Authors: Saima Eman, Ansab Khalid and Roderick I. Nicolson

‘Emotional reactivity’ (ER) is an important construct in the analysis of individual temperamental differences, and has accounted for significant variance in studies with respect to its definition. Between 1920 and 2015, the meaning of ER has varied from physiology of emotional reactions, to stress, depression, and as a sub-type of empathy. This paper highlights the confusion in the literature about the meaning of ER and raises questions about the current use of the term ER as a valid construct. It clarifies heterogeneity within ER through the creation of a framework to explain different subtypes of ER and suggests new labels designed to help researchers specify the constructs underpinning the term ER.