Valeria Biasi

Measures of Emotional and Motivational Processes Activated by Stress or Comfort Conditions

Under stress conditions, obtained in the field or experimentally induced, changes occur in the nature and intensity of affective processes (emotions, motivations). Symmetrical changes occur under opposite (comfort) conditions. One of the first procedures for determining temporary stress states consists of administering difficult logical tasks (15 minutes), with erroneous or ambiguous feedback and social pressure. For example, some very difficult Raven Matrices were individually assigned to participants. The first two authors later found another procedure equally effective and even more advantageous for certain aspects: the “drawing recollection” of personal stressful experiences. The corresponding comfort treatments are, firstly, a progressive relaxation session in penumbra; or, in the second case, the “drawing recollection” of personal pleasant and positive experiences. To assess the emotional changes, we prepared seven-point bipolar scales centering on the main opposing emotions. As regards motivations, we used a list of nine motivational systems [1]. The whole set of items made up the so-called Self-Appraisal Scales, administered before and after a specific treatment, thereby obtaining a measure through the differences between the two successive assessments. Factor analyses were conducted for selecting the main emotional and motivational factors. Affective reverberations on cognitive processes were also studied and measured.

The aesthetic component in teaching communication

Description of a series of investigations on the relationship between use of films in teaching psychology, emotions triggered, learning and other effects in the learner, with particular reference to the role of the aesthetic components of the process to fruition.

The Effectiveness of a New School-Based Media Literacy Intervention on Adolescents’ Doping Attitudes and Supplements Use

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a media literacy intervention targeting, for the first time, the specific topic of Performance and Appearance Enhancing Substances (PAESs) use in high-school students. Overall, 389 students (52% male) aged between 13 and 19 years (mean = 16.56 year; SD = 1.26) participated to a media literacy intervention (i.e., “intervention group”) while 103 students aged between 14 and 19 year (mean = 16.10 year; SD = 1.38) were considered as the control group (i.e., “control group”). In two separate occasions over the course of six consecutive months, students in both groups filled out a set of questionnaires which included measures of social-cognitive beliefs (i.e., attitudes, subjective norms, intentions) and a self-reported measure of retrospective use of doping (Yes/No) and supplements (Yes/No). Compared to students in the control group (Mean(time1) = 1.96; SD(time1) = 0.85; and Mean(time2) = 2.09; SD(time2) = 0.94), intervention students on average expressed relatively stronger attitudes against doping use over time (Mean(time1) = 2.2; SD(time1) = 0.85; and Mean(time2) = 2.05; SD(time2) = 0.82). Students in the latter group also showed a statistically significant decrease in self-reported supplement use (Use(time1) = 6.7%; Use(time2) = 3.8%; p = 0.05, McNemar Test). Interestingly, albeit marginally significant, students in the control group showed a relative increment in the self-reported use of supplements over time (Use(time1) = 4.9%; Use(time2) = 8.7%; p = 0.22, McNemar Test). Overall, the media literacy intervention investigated in the present study was effective in decreasing adolescent student’s positive attitudes toward doping use and in reducing the use of legal PAES. These findings supported the generalizability and the usefulness of a media literacy approach in the specific field of PAES.

Mal)Adaptive Psychological Functioning of Students Utilizing University Counseling Services

Background: University students confront psychological difficulties that can negatively influence their academic performance. The present study aimed to assess several areas of adaptive and maladaptive psychological functioning among university students who request counseling services. Method: One hundred eighty-four young female students seeking professional psychological help (Counseling seekers) and 185 young female students who have never asked for psychological help (Non-counseling seekers) were asked to complete the Adult Self-Report (ASR) to evaluate both their internalizing and externalizing problems through DSM-oriented scales as well as their adaptive functioning. Results: ANOVA results indicated worse psychological functioning for the students who sought counseling. They reported lower score in ASR Adaptive Functioning Scales (i.e., friends, jobs, family, education), and higher scores in DSM-oriented scales (i.e., Depressive, Anxiety, Somatic, Avoidant Personality, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity symptoms) than the students who never asked psychological help. Furthermore, discriminant analysis successfully discriminated between the two groups of students on the basis of the ASR’s adaptive and DSM-oriented scales. Conclusion: The study findings could be useful to guide university counseling services in their screening activities as well as useful for clinical practice.

Immigrant background and gender differences in primary students' motivations toward studying

ABSTRACT In the study, based on a representative sample of 26,670 Italian fifth-grade students, the authors examine the academic motivational profiles of immigrant and native students, as well as of boys and girls. To reliably estimate mean differences, the measurement invariance of a short version of the Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire was first established across the groups. Boys reported less autonomous motives for studying than girls while first-generation immigrant pupils showed higher levels of intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, and external regulation for studying than natives did. Also, second-generation immigrants had higher levels of academic motivation than natives did, although they were less motivated and reported less autonomous reasons for studying than first generations. While confirming the immigrant paradox in a country with a rapidly increasing level of immigrant students, findings show that second-generation immigrants not only report a lower quantity of motivation than first-generations, but also appear to have a different quality of motivation.

Sleep habits, circadian preference, and school performance in early adolescents

OBJECTIVE This study aimed to cast light on the relationships between sleep habits, perceived sleep problems and school performance in Evening-type (E-type) compared with Morning-type (M-type) early adolescents. METHODS Comparison of questionnaire data of E-type and M-type adolescents random-selected from a large sample of eight-grade adolescents who took part in a national survey of competence in mathematics and science. RESULTS The proportions of sleep problems that were observed to occur more than once per week and the frequency of struggling to fall asleep and/or falling asleep in distinct everyday situations were much higher in E-type than in M-type adolescents. Moreover, E-type adolescents showed more disturbed and poorer sleep during both school and weekend days and reported lower grades in mathematics, science and Italian. CONCLUSIONS E-type adolescents showed a partial recovery of sleep debt during weekend days. This finding suggests that they could improve their school performance if tests and classwork would be scheduled on their most alert school days, namely the post-weekend ones.

The effectiveness of university counselling for improving academic outcomes and well-being

ABSTRACT The work discusses the effectiveness of the counselling treatment to enhance student academic success. The participants were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (66 students who had completed counselling treatment) or a wait-list comparison group (44 students). The Adult Self Report (ASR) by Achenbach and Rescorla [2003. Manual for the ASEBA adult forms & profiles. Burlington, VT: Research Center for Children, Youth, & Families, University of Vermont] and the Outcome Questionnaire 45 (OQ-45) by Lambert and Hill [1994. Assessing psychotherapy outcomes and processes. In A. E. Bergin & S. L. Garfield (Eds.), Handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change (pp. 72–113). New York: John Wiley] were applied before and after the counselling sessions. Data show statistically significant decrease in the ASR clinical scales for both internalising and externalising problems after counselling as well as in the OQ-45 scores for distress symptoms and relationship difficulties. Compared with the control group, the students who received counselling exhibited a significant recovery regarding their progress with their studies.

Investigation on Piero Della Francesca's Frescoes

This investigation focuses on the Legend of the True Cross, Piero della Francescas important series of frescoes (15th century) kept in Arezzo (Italy). We dealt with the expressiveness of the figures according to shapes, colors, and other features. We referred to the phenomenological classification by Arnheim (1949), Metzger (1954, 1966), and Bonaiuto (1965, 1988), who, among expressive qualities and valences, distinguished emotional hues, intentions, functions, causal relations, etc. Ninety adults evaluated affective expressiveness in each of three actual frescoes using an inventory with 46 11-point monopolar scales. Three distinct groups of scales were statistically distinguished: “positive,” “negative,” and “neutral” affects. The peculiarities of each fresco as measured by the scales emerged clearly, underlying the modern legibility of the expressiveness constructed by the artist. Comparisons of the pictorial style of Piero della Francesca with previous and later Renaissance artists and modern artists are described.

Cognitive Strategies, Motivation to Learning, Levels of Wellbeing and Risk of Drop-out: An Empirical Longitudinal Study for Qualifying Ongoing University Guidance Services

Abstract The paper concerns a longitudinal empirical study aiming to establish the relation between certain factors that facilitate (or sometimes hinder) academic achievement such as motivation to study, the cognitive strategies employed and the levels of wellness or distress expressed by indicators like anxiety and depression. It thus aimed to identify the role of these factors on the risk of student drop-out. The study was carried out on a sample of 68 self-selected students enrolled in various degree courses at “Roma Tre” University, who had fully completed the three consecutive surveys geared to investigating their academic experience over a one-year period. The measurement tools used assessed: a) “drop-out intentions” (Hardre & Reeve Scale, 2003); b) “wellness/distress levels”, (Adult Self-Report ASR; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2003); c) cognitive/study strategies (self-regulated knowledge; Manganelli, Alivernini, Mallia & Biasi, 2015); d) motivational aspects (Academic Motivation Scale AMS, validated in Italy by Alivernini and Lucidi (2008). The results show how that the drop-out risk is linked to high levels of depression or distress, poor competence in cognitive strategies adopted, and high levels of “Amotivation” and “External Motivation”. On the basis of the above empirical evidence we propose starting up specific ongoing actions within the university guidance services in order to simultaneously improve wellbeing through emotional support, redefine decisions in the study path in line with personal motivation, and develop adequate cognitive strategies to devise a functional study method.

Homesickness Experience, Distress and Sleep Quality of First-Year University Students Dealing with Academic Environment

Abstract The literature shows that homesickness can have a negative impact on different areas of psychological functioning such as cognitive, emotional, behavioral, physical and social ones. The study, conducted on a sample of first-year university students, aimed to test a model hypothesizing that two distinct dimensions of homesickness, attachment to home and disliking university, could have both direct and indirect effects on their psychological distress and sleep difficulties. Two hundred and seventy-seven first-year students (70.4% Female) living away from home (mean age= 21.3, SD= 2.7) were included in the study and filled out questionnaires assessing homesickness, psychological distress and sleep difficulties. Structural Equation Model (SEM) analysis confirmed that the two homesickness dimensions worked differently since only the one relating to new place adjustment difficulties (i.e. disliking the university) resulted having both direct and indirect effects on students’ sleep difficulties. Although female students reported higher levels of psychological distress compared to males, the multi-group SEM analysis showed that the pattern of multivariate relationships linking the two dimensions of homesickness, psychological distress and sleep difficulties, was invariant across gender. The results of the present study suggest that university counselling and guidance services should quickly screen students experiencing homesickness and offer effective counselling programs focusing on enhancing their capacities to deal with the new academic environment.