Rethinking Associations between Distal Factors and Learning: Attachment, Approaches to Learning and the Mediating Role of Academic Emotions

Abstract

The present study belongs to a new strand of research in learning in higher education focusing on distal and emotional factors that contribute to learning. The purpose of the study was to explore the mediating role of academic emotions in the relationship between adult attachment styles and approaches to learning. The sample consists of 527 Greek university students (72 were men and 455 were women) attending a fourth-year full degree program. They completed the following questionnaires: The Experiences in Close Relationships-Relationship Structure Questionnaire, the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire, and the Approaches to Learning and Studying Inventory. Results revealed the mediating role of academic emotions in the relationship between both types of attachment and approaches to learning. Avoidant and anxious individuals seem to keep the same pattern of behavior in their studying as they do in their interpersonal relationships. It is suggested that attachment can function as an innate emotion regulation system that modulates students' emotions. Findings are discussed in the context of recent literature. Future implications for higher education students regarding close relationships are also discussed.

Learning in Adverse Circumstances: Impaired by Learning With Anxiety, Maladaptive Cognitions, and Emotions, but Supported by Self-Concept and Motivation

“…Increased levels of distress and strain may interfere with students’ assessments of a learning situation, with their learning behaviors, their emotions and learning outcomes. One speaks of achievement emotions and of proximal learning factors when describing emotions experienced in learning-related situations ( Pekrun et al, 2007 ; Kamtsios and Karagiannopoulou, 2020 ; Rentzios and Karagiannopoulou, 2021 ). Achievement emotions can be distinguished into pleasant or unpleasant ones ( Putwain et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Achievement emotions may arise from the interaction of stable distal factors like learners’ dispositions and self-assessments ( Luttenberger et al, 2018b ; Rentzios and Karagiannopoulou, 2021 ) with characteristics of a learning situations (like uncertainty of learning circumstances). In this interaction the learners’ appraisal of the controllability of the learning situation and the value of learning outcomes plays an important role for the development of unpleasant or pleasant achievement emotions ( Kamtsios and Karagiannopoulou, 2020 ).…”

“…It is autonomous in the sense that it is experienced as self-determined ( Ryan and Deci, 2000 ; Van Soom and Donche, 2014 ). Furthermore, intrinsic motivation is assumed to be related to deep learning and seeking understanding and personal meaning in learning ( Rentzios and Karagiannopoulou, 2021 ). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can be ordered along a continuum with extrinsic motivation taking different forms.…”

“…In that case, one speaks of identified motivation, i.e., a person knows that a behavior is beneficial toward one’s development and adopts that behavior as one’s own ( Deci and Ryan, 2008 ). Extrinsic motivation is assumed to be related to surface learning approaches like rote learning and with minimizing effort for learning ( Rentzios and Karagiannopoulou, 2021 ).…”

The exploration of a ‘model’ for understanding the contribution of emotion regulation to students learning. The role of academic emotions and sense of coherence

“…Academic emotions in the current study are thought as emotions that university students experience during learning activities. Overall, positive emotions appear to facilitate learning while negative emotions tend to curb students' success (Rentzios & Karagiannopoulou, 2021;Trigwell et al, 2012). Although numerous studies in the past have focused on the effect of negative emotions on learning,-especially the extensive research on test anxiety (Zeidner, 2014), the interest in the role of positive emotions in learning is comparatively recent (Villavicencio & Bernardo, 2013).…”