The present research examined the connections between temperament, students’ domain- and course-specific motivational appraisals, and performance, in two studies. Study 1 explored the relationships between temperamental sensitivities, motivational appraisals, and task achievement among secondary students in the domain of mathematics, using Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling for the analyses. Study 2 was conducted longitudinally among upper-secondary students during a course in four key school subjects. Subject interest was included alongside the temperamental sensitivities as a predictor of course-specific motivation and course grades, (...) and the data were analysed with Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. Previous achievement was controlled in both studies. The findings showed temperamental sensitivities to be differentially linked with motivational appraisals. Punishment sensitivity in Study 1, and interindividual reward sensitivity in Study 2 were found to have an effect on psychological strain. In both studies, interest and effort were predicted by intraindividual reward sensitivity. In Study 2, subject interest was a consistent predictor of higher course interest and lower strain. In both studies, connections were found between strain and lower performance. The findings suggest individual characteristics may predispose students to certain motivational experiences, and contribute to educational outcomes, in both domain and course contexts and across subject content. (shrink)

Introduction: Placebo and nocebo effects are positive and negative health outcomes that can be elicited by the psychosocial context. They can be mediated by expectations, and may emerge in somatic symptoms even when people are aware of these effects. Interindividual differences could impact placebo and nocebo responding, but findings are inconsistent.Methods: The current work examined expectation as a mediator of the association between verbal placebo and nocebo suggestions and histamine-induced itch across three experimental studies. Moreover, we examined whether interindividual differences, (...) body ignorance) modulated: the direct association between VSs and itch, and the indirect, expectation-mediated association between VSs and itch. Positive VSs were compared to neutral instructions or negative VSs in an open-label or closed-label context using PROCESS. First, mediation of VSs effects on itch by expectations was tested. Next, moderation by individual traits was explored using conditional process analyses.Results: The effects of VSs on itch were significantly mediated by expectation in Study 1 and in the open-label contexts of Studies 2 and 3. Ignorance of bodily signals marginally moderated the direct effects of VSs on itch when closed-label suggestions were given: at low levels of body ignorance, effects of positive and negative VSs were stronger. Moreover, moderated mediation was observed in the open-label groups of Studies 2 and 3: The expectation-mediated effects of VSs on itch were stronger when BAS drive was lower.Conclusion: Overall, the effects of VSs on itch were mediated by expectations in the open-label, but not the closed-label context. Moreover, the current work suggests that placebo and nocebo effects may be moderated by ignorance of bodily signals and the BAS. There was limited evidence that other interindividual differences modulated placebo and nocebo responding in itch. (shrink)

This article examines whether a functionalist approach to emotion classification is a research program that can feasibly be implemented in an experimental environment. I suggest that this is a promise perhaps impossible to keep. The crux of the argument is that if functional taxonomy is to go the full distance and shape experimental conditions to the new boundaries, then stimuli/experimental manipulations must be selected based on functional principles. But this seems implausible or even impossible. I conclude that emotion taxonomy, and (...) thus the metastructure of emotion theory, is both constrained and determined by human emotional feelings, and suggest that feelings have a special epistemological status in emotion research. (shrink)

In this concluding piece, we identify and discuss various aspects of convergence and, to a lesser degree, divergence in the ideas expressed in the contributions to this special section. These contributions emphatically illustrate that approach–avoidance motivation is integral to the scientific study of emotion. It is our hope that the articles herein will facilitate cross-talk among researchers and research traditions, and will lead to a more thorough understanding of the role of approach–avoidance motivation in emotion.