4.18.24 Movement Legacies, Reflection, and Review.pptx
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Meta interested an exploration of interest from a positive psych
1. Meta-Interested? An
Exploration of Interest from a
Positive Psychology
Perspective
By: Joe Tinkham
2. State and Trait Interest
â—Ź Physiological Changes
â—‹ Orientation, activation, concentration, approach action
â—Ź Facial and Vocal Expressions
â—‹ Forehead and eye muscle movements
â—‹ Head tilt
â—‹ Speak faster rate and with a greater vocal range
3. State and Trait Interest
â—Ź Serves Adaptive role
â—‹ serves no immediate
adaptive function
â– broaden-and-build -> skills
and knowledge
â—‹ interest enhances learning
motivation and performance
and attention to novel and
unfamiliar things
â—Ź High Trait Interest is
characterized by more frequent,
intense, and longer curiosity
4. Intrinsic Approach Motivation
â—Ź Motivation or desire to
develop diverse knowledge
and skills
â—‹ basically for their own
sake
â—Ź BIS orients people away from
possible harmful stimuli
â—‹ positive correlations
between BIS and anxiety
â—Ź BAS orients people toward
possible enjoyable stimuli
â—‹ curiosity may be similar
with BAS
â—Ź Interest possibly acts against
avoid motives (failure and
anxiety)
5. Biobehavioral Systems - Reticular
Arousal System (RAS)
â—Ź 4 types of conflict that increase arousal in RAS:
â—‹ novelty, complexity, uncertainty, conflict
â—Ź Novel and challenging stimuli co-activate both anxiety and
curiosity
â—‹ low novel intensity -> low curiosity
â—‹ mid novel intensity -> low anxiety and high curiosity
â—‹ high novel intensity -> high anxiety
â—Ź Uncertainty Intensification Hypothesis
â—‹ uncertainty amplifies positive response to positive events
and negative response to negative events
6. Curiosity and Anxiety
â—Ź Individual differences in reticular arousal system (RAS)
sensitivity, cognitive attributions, approach-avoidance
orientations play a key role in interest, but they are also
involved in the expressed of psychopathology
â—Ź Kashdan, Elhai, and Breen (2008) wanted to examine how
individuals with varying levels of social anxiety and trait
curiosity related with approach-avoidance conflicts and risk-
taking behaviors in social situations.
â—‹ The approach-avoidance conflict increased internal
conflict and dysfunction in participants with high levels of
both social anxiety and curiosity
7. Curiosity and Health
People with high trait curiosity--people that experience curiosity
longer, stronger, and more frequently--had greater life meaning,
satisfaction, and engaged in more growth behaviors than
people with low trait curiosity.
â—Ź High curiosity strongly correlates with
â—‹ decreased hypertension
â—‹ longer life
â—‹ less likely to develop degenerative diseases of CNS
â—‹ anxiety was also shown to had moderate negative
correlations with hope and curiosity.
8. Conclusions
â—Ź Research in positive psychology
and interest still growing and still
improving methods
â—‹ State/trait characteristics, RAS,
BAS
â—Ź There is a need to further
research on how state and trait
curiosity develops across a
person's lifetime
â—‹ further research into application
â– education, vocation
psychology
â—Ź May offer protective effects, but it
is still unclear and may be context
dependent
â—‹ e.g. social situations, old age
9. References
Bar-Anan, Y., Wilson, T.D., & Gilbert, D.T. (2009). The feeling of uncertainty intensifies
affective reactions. Emotion, 9 (1), 123-127.
Kashdan, T. B. & Roberts, J. E. (2006). Affective outcomes in superficial and intimate
interactions: Roles of social anxiety and curiosity. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, 140-
167.
Kashdan, T. B , & Steger, M. F. (2007). Curiosity and pathways to well-being and meaning in
life: Traits, states, and everyday behaviors. Motivation and Emotion., 31, 159-173.
Kashdan, T.B., Elhai, J.D., & Breen, W.E. (2008). Social anxiety and disinhibition: An analysis
of curiosity and social rank appraisals, approach-avoidance conflicts, and disruptive
risk- taking behavior. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 22, 925-939.
Michalak, J., Puschel, O., Joormann, J., & Schulte, D. (2006). Implicit motives and explicit
goals: Two distinctive modes of motivational functioning and their relations to
psychopathology. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 13, 81-96.
Richman, L.S., Kubzansky, L., Maseiko, J., Kawachi, I., Choo, P., & Bauer, M. (2005).
Positive emotion and health: Going beyond the negative. Health Psychology, 24(4), 422-429.
Silvia, P.J. (2001). Interest and interests: The psychology of constructive capriciousness. Review
of General Psychology, 5 (3), 270-290.
Silva, P. J. (2008). Interest--The curious emotion. Current Directions in Psychology, 17(1), 57-60.