Summary: According to a new study, occasional negative moods could help boost a person’s academic success.
Source: Concordia University.
Feeling bad has academic benefits.
For some, the start of December marks the beginning of the most wonderful time of the year. But for most university students, the coming weeks mean final exams, mounting stress and negative moods.
While that doesn’t seem like an ideal combination for great grades, new research from Concordia University in Montreal shows that the occasional bout of bad feelings can actually improve students’ academic success.
A study published in Developmental Psychology by Erin Barker, professor of psychology in Concordia’s Faculty of Arts and Science, shows that students who were mostly happy during their four years of university but who also experienced occasional negative moods had the highest GPAs at the time of graduation.
In contrast, the study also confirmed that students who experienced high levels of negative moods and low levels of positive moods often ended up with the lowest GPAs — a pattern consistent with depressive disorders.
“Students often report feeling overwhelmed and experiencing high levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms,” says Barker, who is also a member of the Centre for Research in Human Development.
“This study shows that we need to teach them strategies to both manage negative emotions and stress in productive ways, and to maintain positive emotional experiences.”
For the study, Barker and her co-authors* worked with 187 first-year students at a large university. The researchers tracked the students throughout their four years of schooling by having them complete questionnaires about recent emotional experiences each year, beginning in the first year and continuing throughout their undergraduate degree.
Negative emotions signal a challenge
“We looked at students’ response patterns to better understand how experiences of positive and negative emotions occurred over time. We then combined average patterns to look how each person varied from their own average and examined different combinations of trait and state affects together,” Barker explains.
“This allowed us to identify the pattern associated with the greatest academic success: those who were happy for the most part, but who also showed bouts of elevated negative moods.”
These findings demonstrate that both negative and positive emotions play a role in our successes.
“We often think that feeling bad is bad for us. But if you’re generally a happy person, negative emotions can be motivating. They can signal to you that there is a challenge that you need to face. Happy people usually have coping resources and support that they draw on to meet that challenge.”
In January, Barker and psychology graduate students Sarah Newcomb-Anjo and Kate Mulvihill will expand on this research by launching a new study focused on life beyond graduation. Their plan: examine patterns of emotional experience and well-being as former students navigate new challenges associated with finding work or entering a post-graduation program.
Funding: This study was co-authored by Carsten Wrosch, professor of psychology in Concordia’s Faculty of Arts and Science, Andrea L. Howard from Carleton University and Nancy L. Galambos from the University of Alberta. The research was funded by a grant awarded to N. Galambos by the the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Source: Cléa Desjardins – Concordia University
Image Source: This NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Abstract for “Tracking affect and academic success across university: Happy students benefit from bouts of negative mood” by Barker, Erin T.; Howard, Andrea L.; Galambos, Nancy L.; and Wrosch, Carsten in Developmental Psychology. Published online November 2016 doi:10.1037/dev0000231
[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]Concordia University. “Negative Mood Can Positively Impact Academic Success .” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 30 November 2016.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/mood-academic-success-5637/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]Concordia University. (2016, November 30). Negative Mood Can Positively Impact Academic Success . NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved November 30, 2016 from https://neurosciencenews.com/mood-academic-success-5637/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]Concordia University. “Negative Mood Can Positively Impact Academic Success .” https://neurosciencenews.com/mood-academic-success-5637/ (accessed November 30, 2016).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]
Abstract
Tracking affect and academic success across university: Happy students benefit from bouts of negative mood
We examined how positive and negative affect covary within individuals over time and how patterns of association between affective traits and states relate to academic success across 4 years of university. Participants were 187 full-time first-year students at a large Canadian university who completed questionnaires about recent affective experiences in 6 waves across 4 years. Grade point average for each year of study was provided by the registrar’s office. Our analysis identified an adaptive pattern characterized by the maintenance of high positive affect (“chronic happiness”) and the cooccurrence of time-limited bouts of negative affect. Our results are consistent with findings showing productive consequences of experiencing positive and negative affect in tandem and the development of emotion regulation capacity across the transition to adulthood.
“Tracking affect and academic success across university: Happy students benefit from bouts of negative mood” by Barker, Erin T.; Howard, Andrea L.; Galambos, Nancy L.; and Wrosch, Carsten in Developmental Psychology. Published online November 2016 doi:10.1037/dev0000231
