Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Trait and State Academic Emotions: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

I wonder what learning styles sceptics would make of 'trait emotions'. This topic came up today as I reacted to what I felt was an odd definition of 'emotion' as 'mental states that arise spontaneously'. It was explained to me that this definition, and the corresponding account of 'academic emotions', arises from trait emotions, which are based on the idea that "people differ from one another in terms of where they stand on a set of basic trait dimensions that persist over time and across situations." So, for example, a person might reliably become nervous before a test. They are related as similar to the 'big five' character traits: "openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism." See also Driscoll and Powell, States, Traits and Dispositions.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Dec 22, 2024 05:34 a.m.

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