Date of Defense

4-19-2024

Date of Graduation

8-2024

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Scott Gaynor

Second Advisor

Hayley Brown

Abstract

The current study investigated the impact of psychological traits on emotional reactions in the face of challenges. The study employed tasks designed to induce negative psychological states, such as a Learned Helplessness (LH) task (Hooper & McHugh, 2013) and the difficult Compound Remote Associate (CRA) task (Bowden & Jung-Beeman, 2003). A correlational study was conducted using a within-subjects design. All participants were given initially the same questionnaires measuring the following predictor variables: Grit, Need for Cognition (NFC), Psychological Flexibility (PF), Trait Cognitive Fusion (CF), and Emotional Stability. Participants then engaged in the LH and CRA tasks followed by completing outcome questionnaires measuring State Cognitive Fusion and positive and negative Affect. Participant recruitment occurred among Western Michigan University students, resulting in a sample of fifty-two participants (N = 52) with a mean age of 22.33, and comprised of 23.08% male, 73.08% female, and 3.85% nonbinary. Data analysis involved computing composite scores, Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficients, and linear regressions to explore relationships between the predictor and outcome variables. Results indicated that PF was the best predictor of overall affect following the LH (β = 0.421, p = 0.021) and the CRA (β = .416, p = .033) tasks, suggesting that higher PF was associated with increased Affect following a failure and a difficult experience. Trait CF (β = 0.361, p = 0.041) was the best predictor of State CF following the LH task, suggesting that the more fusion they typically experience, the more fusion they experience in the moment following a failure experience. Lastly, NFC emerged as the best predictor of State CF (β = -.309, p = .029) post-CRA task and as a significant predictor of affect following the CRA task (β = .272, p = .049), implying that the more one enjoys difficult or challenging tasks, the less their affect and cognitive fusion are impacted following a difficult task.

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Honors Thesis-Open Access

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