This article opens by noting that positive emotions do not fit existing models of emotions. Consequently, a new model is advanced to describe the form and function of a subset of positive emotions, including joy, interest, contentment, and love. This new model posits that these positive emotions serve to broaden an individual's momentary thought-action repertoire, which in turn has the effect of building that individual's physical, intellectual, and social resources. Empirical evidence to support this broaden-and-build model of positive emotions is reviewed, and implications for emotion regulation and health promotion are discussed. Even though research on emotions has this new perspective are featured. My hope is flourished in recent years, investigations that that this article will unlock scientific curiosity expressly target positive emotions remain few about positive emotions, not only to test the and far between. Any review of the psychologi- ideas presented here, but also to build other new cal literature on emotions will show that models that might illuminate the nature and psychologists have typically favored negative value of positive emotions. Psychology sorely emotions in theory building and hypothesis needs more studies on positive emotions, not testing. In so doing, psychologists have inadver- simply to level the uneven knowledge bases tently marginalized the emotions, such as joy, between negative and positive emotions, but interest, contentment, and love, that share a more critically, to guide applications and pleasant subjective feel. To date, then, psycholo- interventions that might improve individual and gy's knowledge base regarding positive emo- collective functioning, psychological welltions is so thin that satisfying answers to the question "What good are positive emotions?" have yet to be articulated. This is unfortunate. being, and physical health. Experiences of positive emotion are central to Why Have Positive Emotions human nature and contribute richly to the quality of people's lives (Diener & Larsen, Been Marginalized? 1993; Myers & Diener, 1995). But how? In At this point, it might be useful to inspect

he is also an Affiliate Member of the Corporate Renewal initiative (CORE) and a member

The authors argue against a purely behavioral definition of praise as verbal reinforcement in favor of the view that praise may serve to undermine, enhance, or have no effect on children’s intrinsic motivation, depending on a set of conceptual variables. Provided that praise is perceived as sincere, it is particularly beneficial to motivation when it encourages performance attributions to controllable causes, promotes autonomy, enhances competence without an overreliance on social comparisons, and conveys attainable standards and expectations. The motivational consequences of praise also can be moderated by characteristics of the recipient, such as age, gender, and culture. Methodological considerations, such as including appropriate control groups and measuring postfailure outcomes, are stressed, and directions for future research are highlighted. Praise, like penicillin, must not be administered haphazardly. There are rules and cautions that govern the handling of potent medicines— rules about timing and dosage, cautions about possible allergic reactions. There are similar regulations about the administration of emotional medicine. (H. Ginott, 1965, p. 39) On the whole, we as a society seem to believe that praise has

This article develops the hypothesis that intervention strategies that cultivate positive emotions are particularly suited for preventing and treating problems rooted in negative emotions, such as anxiety, depression, aggression, and stressrelated health problems. Fredrickson's (1998) broaden–and–build model of positive emotions provides the foundation for this application. According to this model, the form and function of positive and negative emotions are distinct and complementary. Negative emotions (e.g., fear, anger, and sadness) narrow an individual's momentary thought–action repertoire toward specific actions that served the ancestral function of promoting survival. By contrast, positive emotions (e.g., joy, interest, and contentment) broaden an individual's momentary thought–action repertoire, which in turn can build that individual's enduring personal resources, resources that also served the ancestral function of promoting survival. One implication of the broaden–and–build model is that positive emotions have an undoing effect on negative emotions. By broadening

To Dandelion Kaczmarczyk, who always reminded me about the most important things in life. Acknowledgments There are so many people who supported, encouraged and mentored me while I worked on this dissertation. Most important, I would like to thank my advisor, Risto Miikkulainen. First, for supervising this interdisciplinary research. Second, for teaching me so much about conducting rigorous research and expressing my results with confidence. Third, for being a nice person. I would also like to thank the other members of my committee. Andrew Bernat, for his excellent advice on many occasions; Anthony Petrosino, for directing me to important resources on cognition and learning; Raymond Mooney, for his perspective on machine learning; Bradley Love for his perspective from cognitive psychology; Lowell Bethel, for his encouragement, especially during my early years at UT. Many other people supported me and my work at critical junctures. I want to especially thank Marilla Svinicki for her support during my comprehensive exams, and when I was developing my human subject study. Also, Jim Bednar, for his technical advice on numerous occasions, and Elaine Rich for her understanding of the importance of teaching and learning. Many of the staff in

Analysis of patterns in time and configuration (APT&C) is a measurement and analysis paradigm that bridges qualitative and quantitative research methods. APT allows analysis of temporal events (both joint and sequential occurrences), whereas APC permits investigation of structural relations or configurations. Temporal patterns can be quantified in APT, resulting in probability estimates of their occurrence. Structural relations in APC are characterized by properties that are measured quantitatively, such as: passive dependence, independence, hierarchical order, complexity, strongness, vulnerability, and wholeness. APT&C is based on theories from mathematics and general systems theory. Three empirical studies which have used APT&C are described in this article: 1) academic learning time of mildly handicapped students in elementary school learning environments; 2) patterns of mode errors in humancomputer interaction with graphical interfaces in modern software; and 3) structural configurations for supporting student autonomy in a Montessori classroom. The value of APT&C is that results can be directly related to practice. Through APT&C we have new ways of conducting educational research in order to shed light on practices that result in the outcomes we seek. The Dilemma: Qualitative vs. Quantitative Methodologies

Research has established that intrinsic motivation has a positive effect on learning and academic achievement. In order to investigate the phenomenon of intrinsic motivation in technologysupported learning environments, this paper investigates the factors deemed to support individual student intrinsic motivation in online discussions. A research model is presented based on research into motivation, and the specific areas of self-determination and curiosity provide a framework for the model. Mean scores for both online discussions and face-to-face discussions were compared using a twotailed t-test for the six constructs of perceived competence, perceived challenge, feedback, perceived choice, perceived interest, and perceived curiosity. Results from the study showed that online discussions provided significantly stronger mean ratings (t=3.2) for perceived choice than did face-to face-discussions, while online discussions gave somewhat significantly stronger mean scores for perceived competence (t=1.84) than similar face-to-face discussions. Feedback obtained identical mean scores for both online and face-to-face discussions, as did perceived interest, while the slightly higher differences in the online situation were not significant for perceived challenge (t=0.96) or perceived curiosity (t=1.19).

Wikipedia is a reliable encyclopedia with over seven million articles in several languages all contributed and maintained by volunteers. To learn more about what drives people to devote their time and expertise to building and maintaining this remarkable resource, surveys with Likert-scaled items measuring different types of motivations were completed by 115 Wikipedia administrators. The survey also included comments and openended questions that were used to check the validity of the Likert-scaled items and allow participants to express their reasons for being a Wikipedian. The Likert-scaled items showed that Wikipedia administrators are largely driven by motivations to learn and create. The comments and open-ended questions indicated that altruism — the desire to create a public repository for all knowledge — is one of the most important factors.

Abstract—The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of attribution on Mechanics (Statics & Dynamics) self-efficacy and the relationships among goal setting, self-efficacy, and Mechanics achievement in Department of Mechanical Engineering students. 345 freshmen in a Technology University were used as participants in this two-year longitudinal study. Results show that the beneficial attributers possessed higher self-efficacy than individuals with less beneficial attribution. Further, it was shown that Mechanical Engineering students with higher self-efficacy achieved better proficiency level during the consecutive Mechanics proficiency test every half-year. Meanwhile, those with higher self-efficacy are likely to set higher goal level for the subsequent tests, and those with higher goal setting have performed better than those with lower goal setting. Together findings in this study show that the effective way to improve Mechanics performance in Mechanical Engineering students might lie in how to militate the beneficial attribution manners and increase the self-efficacy as well as set higher and reasonable goal level. Keywords—attribution, Mechanics achievement (Statics & Dynamics), goal setting, self-efficacy.

Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour The purpose of this study was to explore whether, in naturalistic physical education classes, the relation between teachers ’ early expectations and students ’ later perceived competence was moderated by the extent to which the motivational climate created by the teachers was autonomy supportive. Using a 1-year longitudinal design, data were obtained from 421 students and 22 teachers from 10 French junior high schools. Multilevel analyses revealed that (a) teachers ’ early expectations were related to students ’ later perceived competence, particularly when these expectations were positive, and (b) this relation was stronger when the classroom motivational climate was low in autonomy support. Implications for future research and educational practices are discussed.