Students' achievement in individualistic, competitive and cooperative settings and their emotive perceptions for each setting

The aim of present study is to experimentally assess students' achievement in different social settings. Research also intended to explore students' emotive perceptions during different experimental conditions. - Experimental Study [Randomized Group Design]. Islamabad, Pakistan 2006-2007. After detailed literature review, it was hypothesized that a cooperative setting is more effective than interpersonal competition and individualistic effort in yielding successful completion of task. It was also hypothesized that subjects working in cooperative setting experience positive emotive perceptions about their work setting as compared to students working in competitive and individualistic settings. The sample of present research consisted of 90 students taken from private school. Their age, education, socioeconomic level, birth order, and type of school were held constant. Equal number of boys [n=45] and girls [n-45] were randomly assigned to all three experimental conditions. A game situation was constructed to manipulate three types of social settings, that is, individualistic, competitive, and cooperative. Post experimental questionnaire was administered to determine the students' emotive perceptions during each of the experimental social settings. F test was applied to assess the mean difference of students' performance in three social settings. Means were also tabulated on the post experimental questionnaire to determine the students' emotive perceptions during each of the experimental social settings. Results revealed maximum goal achievement for subjects who were randomly placed in cooperative conditions as compared to those assigned in competitive and individualistic situations. Findings also revealed emotive perceptual differences among subjects of all three experimental groups. Subjects of cooperative setting reported more ositive emotions of shared intimacy, better communication and division of labor. On the other hand, subjects performed incompetitive situation shared feelings of frustration, aggression, oppositional interaction and concealing information. Finally, subjects of individualistic condition endorsed feelings of depression, loneliness, worthlessness, stress coping, and alienation. Students can achieve their goals more effectively when working in a cooperative environment as compared to individual efforts. Cooperative settings are also associated with healthy and positive psychological feelings and emotions

Relationship between affect intensity and personality traits among university students

The main objective of the present research -was to determine and understand relationship between Affect Intensity [AI] and personality traits. Keeping in view the literature review it was hypothesized that Extraversion, Agreeableness, Openness/ Intellect, and Conscientiousness would be positively correlated with Positive Affect Intensity and Emotional Stability would be negatively correlated with Negative Affect Intensity among ' students. It was also hypothesized that women would score high on Affect Intensity Measure as compared to men. Sample of 120 participants was taken comprising of equal number of men [n=60] and women [n=60], ranging in age from 18-25 years, and were students of B.Sc and M.Sc. from Bahria University [n=40], Air University [n=35], Islamic International University [n=25], Islamabad and Arid Agriculture University [n=20], Rawalpindi. Affect Intensity Measure [Larsen, 1984] to measure Affect Intensity and Mini Marker Personality Inventory [Saucier, 1994] were used to assess different personality traits like, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Openness/Intellect, Emotional Stability, and Conscientiousness, English versions of both ' measures were used. Alpha reliability coefficients were established to determine the psychometric properties of the two scales. Correlational analysis and Regression analysis was applied to determine the relationship between the variables, and t-test was employed to explore the gender differences. Results/findings indicates that Extraversion [r = .27, p<.01], Agreeableness [r = .29, p<, 01], Openness/Intellect [r = .30, p<.01], and Emotional stability [r = .29, p<.01] are positivelyrelated with Positive Affect Intensity whereas Conscientiousness has insignificant relationship with Positive Affect Intensity. Furthermore, Extroversion [r = -.27, p<.01] is found to he negatively related with Negative Affect intensity whereas insignificant relationship of Agreeableness, Openness/Intellect, Emotional stability and Conscientiousness with Negative Affect intensity is revealed. Regression analysis showed that Extroversion [B = .09, S.E = .05, beta = .17, t =1.97, p < .05] and Emotional Stability [B = .12, S.E = .04, beta = -23, t = 71, p < .01] significantly predicts Positive Affect Intensity, while Extraversion [B = -.22, S.E -.06, beta =-.35, t = -3.81, p < .05] and Emotional Stability [B = -.11, S.E = .05, beta =-.19, t = -2.06, p < .05] has significant negative prediction towards Negative. Affect Intensity. The findings of the present research suggest that Affect Intensity does have significant relationship with personality traits. For Positive and Negative Affect Intensity it can be concluded that Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Openness/Intellect are the major correlating traits. However, Extraversion and Emotional Stability significantly predicts Positive Affect Intensity whereas these traits do not predict Negative Affect Intensity. Gender differences on the Affect Intensity measure revealed that women's scores were significantly high on this construct