Negative academic emotions, critical thinking, and achievement: A mediational analysis

College

College of Liberal Arts

Department/Unit

Psychology

Document Type

Archival Material/Manuscript

Publication Date

2010

Abstract

The study tested the control-value theory's (Pekrun, Goetz, Titz, & Perry, 2002; Pekrun, 2006) assumptions regarding the cognitive-motivational effects of emotions on achievement. Specifically, the link between critical thinking and achievement was examined in 220 engineering students. The Academic Emotions Questionnaire (Pekrun, Goetz, & Frenzel, 2005) was used to assess how specific negative academic emotions mediated the effect of critical thinking (a self-regulated learning strategy) on achievement (GPA). Results showed that critical thinking was positively associated with achievement, but negative emotions (anger, anxiety, shame, boredom, and hopelessness) were negatively correlated with achievement. Anxiety and hopelessness were found to completely mediate the relationship between critical thinking and academic achievement. The results suggest that when students engage in critical thinking, their cognitive resources are used appropriately for the task to be completed, making them less anxious and less hopeless, thereby increasing their achievement. Thus, being able to regulate one's own critical thinking would enable the students to experience lower level of negative emotions, resulting to higher academic achievement.

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Disciplines

Educational Psychology | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Note

Undated: Publication/creation date supplied

Keywords

Critical thinking; Academic achievement; Students—Psychology

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