Search

Based on the control-value theory, this study examined connections between the perceived in-class degree of cooperation and academic performance mediated through the students’ negative and positive emotions in physical education. Students (N = 620, 55.5% girls; Mage = 13.01, SD = 2.10) reported on their perceptions of the degree of cooperation and the negative (shame, hopelessness, anxiety, boredom) and positive (confidence, pride, enjoyment, calmness) emotions in physical education classes. Academic performance was obtained from their school’s administrators. Results from the multiple lineal regression analyses, considering the in-class degree of cooperation and the negative and positive emotions as predictor variables, showed a significantly positive link between the in-class degree of cooperation and the dependent variable academic performance, and between positive emotions and academic performance. These findings elucidate the impact of cooperative learning contexts and emotions on academic performance. Educational implications and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer bullying is a phenomenon that occurs in every country in which it has been studied. It produces clear negative effects in the victims: changes in emotional behaviour and affective disorders. Social concerns raised by the violence in social contexts have led to numerous interventions. This study was intended to determine the effectiveness of cooperative learning techniques to reduce the frequency of bullying behaviours and aggression in the classroom. In order to evaluate peer harassment behaviour, we designed the instrument “Scale of frequency of school bullying between peers: the aggressor perspective”, measuring three factors: 1) direct verbal and physical aggression, 2) aggression of social exclusion, and 3) indirect physical aggression. Our results support the hypothesis that an intervention based on cooperative learning techniques reduces the frequency of aggression, especially that of social exclusion. The roads that, no doubt, enable this change are several: personal contact, more equal status opportunities, information on the “other group” and increased empathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The categorical definition of obsessive-compulsive disorder, and exclusive focus on thoughts and behaviors, have constrained the study and treatment of its symptoms. The present study's aim was to search for relationships among emotional processing dimensions, five major personality dimensions, and self-perceived obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The participants were 100 college students, and the questionnaires used were a selection of images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), the Self-assessment Manikin (SAM), the Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (DOCS), and the NEO-FFI. We found differences in emotional processing dimensions between participants with high and low DOCS scores, grouped according to sex (d =.56); and evidence that the neuroticism and agreeableness dimensions predict self-perceived obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Emotional processing dimensions and personality are considered useful to comprehending obsessive-compulsive symptoms, which lends support to dimensional models of OC symptomatology, as well as planning and developing psychological interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the context of the transition from junior-to-senior sport, this study aims in first place to explore differences in young Spanish elite soccer players based on the importance given to getting different achievements in their future (including sport, studies and private life) and, in second place, to explore differences among those players in levels of passion, motivation and basic psychological need. 478 elite youth soccer filled out a questionnaire based on the presented theoretical models. A cluster analysis shows a sport oriented group (N = 98) only interested in becoming a professional, a life spheres balance group (N = 288) characterized by balancing the importance of achievements in the sport sphere, as well as in education and a private life and a group (N = 91) only interested in private life achievements. The life spheres balance group shows higher levels of harmonious passion (η2 = .06, F(2, 475) = 9.990, p < .001) than the players of the other groups. The life spheres balance group shows higher levels of autonomous motivation (η2 = .10, F(2, 475) = 13.597, p < .001), autonomy (η2 = .07, F(2, 475) = 6.592, p < .01) and relatedness satisfaction (η2 = .07, F(2, 475) = 5.603, p < .01) than the sport oriented group as well as lower levels of amotivation (η2 = .04, F(2, 475) = 6.665, p < .01) than the private life oriented group. This study suggests players who perceive equal future importance in their life spheres appear to be more resourceful than the other two groups regarding athletes' internal resources, such as passion and motivation, to cope with the transition to professional soccer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]