The combination of student Self-Regulation (SR) and the context of Regulatory Teaching (RT), each in varying degree, has recently been demonstrated to have effects on achievement emotions, factors and symptoms of stress, and coping strategies. The aim of the present research study is to verify its possible further effects, on academic behavioral confidence and procrastination. A total of 1193 university students completed validated online questionnaires with regard to specific subjects in their degree program. Using an ex post facto design, multivariate (...) analyses and structural equation modeling (SEM) were carried out in order to test the relationships predicted by the model. SR and RT had a significant joint effect in determining the degree of academic behavioral confidence and of procrastination. Academic behavioral confidence also significantly predicted reasons for procrastinating, and these in turn predicted activities of procrastination. Conclusions are discussed, insisting on the combined weight of the two variables in determining academic behavioral confidence, reasons for procrastinating and activities subject to procrastination, in university students. Implications for guidance and educational support of university students and teachers are analyzed. (shrink)

This chapter reviews the current neuropsychological and physiological evidence linking lateral and orbital prefrontal cortex to human cognition and social interchange in an attempt to provide a summary of much of the work presented in this book and elsewhere. It begins with a review of the findings concerning the role of lateral PFC in executive control of cognition, and then discusses the relevant literature on the contributions of orbital PFC to social and emotional control.

This chapter discusses the role of the orbital prefrontal cortex in behavior, with emphasis on the involvement of the ventromedial prefrontal lobe in emotions and decision making. It focuses on three aspects: the development and application of a laboratory task to measure decision making and related emotional influences; the development of a set of rating scales aimed at characterizing the personality attributes of patients with acquired VMPF dysfunction and decision-making impairments; and studies conducted in patients who have sustained damage to (...) VMPF cortices very early in life, and who manifested lifelong social conduct and decision-making deficits. The main features of the somatic marker framework are summarized. (shrink)

This chapter sets the stage for the rest of the book, presenting anatomical and clinical distinctions that serve as organizational and memory “hooks” for reading many of the other chapters. It discusses how massive damage to the frontal lobes can cause dramatic changes in personality and comportment while keeping sensation, movement, consciousness, and most cognitive faculties. It addresses questions such as: Is there a unitary “frontal lobe syndrome” encompassing all signs and symptoms? Are there regional segregations of function within the (...) frontal lobes? Is it possible to identify a potentially unifying principle of organization which cuts across the heterogeneous specializations attributed to the frontal lobes? (shrink)

The SRL vs. ERL theory has shown that the combination of levels of student self-regulation and regulation from the teaching context produces linear effects on achievement emotions and coping strategies. However, a similar effect on stress factors and symptoms of university students has not yet been demonstrated. The aim of this study was to test this prediction. It was hypothesized that the level of student self-regulation (low/medium/high), in interaction with the level of external regulation from teaching (low/medium/high), would also produce (...) a linear effect on stress factors and symptoms of university students. A total of 527 undergraduate students completed validated questionnaires about self-regulation, regulatory teaching, stress factors and symptoms. Using an ex post facto design by selection, ANOVAs and MANOVAs (3 x 3; 5 x 1; 5 x 2) were carried out. The results confirmed that the level of self-regulation and the level of regulatory teaching jointly determined the level of stress factors and symptoms of university students. Once again, a five-level heuristic of possible combinations was configured to jointly determined university students’ level of academic stress. We concluded that the combination of different levels of student regulation levels and regulation from teaching process jointly determines university students’ level of academic stress. The implications for university students’ emotional health, stress prevention and well-being are established. (shrink)