Ballroom dancers exhibit a dispositional need for arousal and elevated cerebral cortical activity during preferred melodic recall

Background Although the association of human temperament and preference has been studied previously, few investigations have examined cerebral cortical activation to assess brain dynamics associated with the motivation to engage in performance. The present study adopted a personality and cognitive neuroscience approach to investigate if participation in ballroom dancing is associated with sensation-seeking temperament and elevated cerebral cortical arousal during freely chosen musical recall. Methods Preferred tempo, indicated by tapping speed during melodic recall, and a measure of fundamental disposition or temperament were assessed in 70 ballroom dancers and 71 nondancers. All participants completed a trait personality inventory (i.e., the Chen Huichang 60 Temperaments Inventory) to determine four primary types: choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic and melancholic. Participants separately recalled their favorite musical piece and tapped to it with their index finger for 40 beats using a computer keyboard. A subset of 59 participants (29 ballroom dancers and 30 nondancers) also repeated the same tapping task while electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded. Results The results revealed that the dancers were more extraverted, indicative of a heightened need for arousal, exhibited a preference for faster musical tempo, and exhibited elevated EEG beta power during the musical recall task relative to nondancers. Paradoxically, dancers also showed elevated introversion (i.e., melancholic score) relative to nondancers, which can be resolved by consideration of interactional personality theory if one assumes reasonably that dance performance environment is perceived in a stimulating manner. Conclusion The results are generally consistent with arousal theory, and suggest that ballroom dancers seek elevated stimulation and, thereby, choose to engage with active and energetic rhythmic auditory stimulation, thus providing the nervous system with the requisite stimulation for desired arousal. These results also suggest an underlying predisposition for engagement in ballroom dance and support the gravitational hypothesis, which propose that personality traits and perception lead to the motivation to engage in specific forms of human performance.

Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Youths’ Emotions: The Appraisal, Valence, Arousal Model

Increased scientific understanding explains why transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) youth report more mental health concerns than their cisgender peers. However, the emotional processes of TGNC youth have not been assessed beyond mental health diagnoses. Our aim in this study was to investigate how TGNC youth understand, experience, and label their emotional experiences. We conduced a two-tiered qualitative analysis of 20 predominantly White TGNC youths, ages 7–18 years, resulting in the creation of the appraisal, valence, arousal theory of emotions. Within the theory, emotions are categorized in four quadrants: Reflective/Unpleasant, Anticipatory/Unpleasant, Reflective/Pleasant, and Anticipatory/Pleasant. Results indicated that the majority of TGNC youths’ emotions were located in the Reflective/Unpleasant and Reflective/Pleasant quadrants. The current study highlights TGNC youths’ appraisal of emotions and the potential impact on youths’ cognitive and emotional processes. Interventions should attend to pleasant and unpleasant aspects of emotions while also focusing on youths’ understanding of the context of their emotions.

Incorporating Job Demand Variability Into Job Demands Theory: A Meta-Analysis

A rich history of research on job demands suggests that employees’ demands at work are related to their strain and engagement. This research often considers job demands to be fixed and stable over the course of workers’ experiences, despite the existing research showing that some employees experience high levels of job demands one day and low levels the next. We seek to extend research on job demands by introducing the idea that different employees experience different levels of job demand variability (i.e., variability in job demands over workers’ daily experiences). Relying on arousal theory, we posit that job demand variability moderates the between-person effects of overall job demand levels on employee strain and engagement. To test our theory, we conduct a meta-analytic path analysis of the existing experience sampling methodology research on challenge and hindrance job demands. Results show that the between-person effects of challenge (on strain and engagement) and hindrance demands (on engagement only) are stronger in studies where those demands have higher levels of daily within-person variability. Unexpectedly, the relationship between hindrance demands and strain was similarly strong across lower and higher degrees of variability. Our study suggests a need for more nuanced theory that explains how job demand variability plays a role in employee outcomes. Further, we conducted a simulation study to validate our methodology, offering utility to the broader management literature applying meta-analysis to study within-person variability. We discuss theoretical and practical implications as well as several directions for theory in this new line of reasoning.

Creating the mood for humor: arousal level priming in humor advertising

Purpose Surprise has been recognized as a key process in humor. Past studies have seldom tested elements that could increase the surprise in humor advertising, subsequently increasing perceived humor and positive ad outcomes. The purpose of this paper was to test the effects of priming a lower arousal baseline before humor ad exposure. It proposed that this would generate greater humor ad surprise because of contrast effects, leading to greater perceived humor and positive ad effects. Design/methodology/approach Three experiments tested the effects of arousal and valence of primes on humor ads. Attention, perceived humor and ad effectiveness of the humor ads were measured. Findings Evidence of lower (vs higher) arousal primes leading to greater humor ad evaluations was found across three experiments. Felt arousal of the ad mediated the relationship between the prime conditions and perceived humor. Originality/value No study has focused on context effects of the unique process of humor ads. This study advanced the arousal theory of incongruity-resolution humor and further emphasized the role of surprise. The findings implicate that the surroundings of the humor ad could increase its effectiveness.

More Is Less: Only Moderate Polarized Online Product Reviews can Affect Sales

It is widely proved that positive online word-of-mouth (WOM) can boost sales and negative online WOM harm sales. Then will more positivity or negativity of messages in online product reviews text have greater impact on product sales? This research attempts to tackle this ignored research question. The answer is counter-intuitive: it depends on how positive or negative they are! The results of a two-way fixed-effects panel data analysis based on the data about tablet market in Amazon and a novel sentiment analysis technique demonstrate that the most and least polarized online product reviews actually have no effect on sales and only moderate positive / negative reviews can affect sales. Such effects can be explained by the optimal arousal theory and attribution theory. Inspired by the findings, three strategies for user-generated content (UGC) management are proposed.

Electrophysiology of Human Personality

In this section an overview on evoked brain potentials will be introduced, same as the bases of electrophysiology of the brain. The main research findings on evoked potentials and other psychological variables such as cognition, emotion, motivation and personality will be presented. The emphasis will be given to the relationship between evoked brain potentials and personality operationalized by previously presented two personality theories: Eysenck's and Strelau's theory. Even though it is possible to expect, based on arousal theory, that introverts who had higher sensory reactivity on physical stimuli of moderate intensity and higher levels of cortical arousal than extraverts, would also show higher P300-amplitudes in both modalities, audio and visual, due to other significant variables (i.e. task type, other psychological and physiological characteristics of subjects, etc.) some other results could be expected. Therefore, all complexity about the relationship between evoked brain potentials and human personality and relevant research methodology will be presented here.

Biologically Based Personality Theories

In this section, the theoretical background of applied personality theory in presented empirical research will be introduced. Biological bases of personality are thoroughly explored within well-known Eysenck's dimensional personality theory (1967). The main postulations of this theory will be presented with the special accent on biological bases of personality, i.e. extraversion and neuroticism. This will bring light on understanding the arousal theory and Brebner-Cooper's model of extraversion. In addition, Strelau's temperament theory (1983) will be presented, regarding its theoretical postulations, main temperament dimensions and its explanation within the frame of understanding the Central Nervous System functioning.

Varieties of Cognition-Arousal Theory

Three main versions of cognition-arousal theory are distinguished depending on how they interpret the theory’s basic postulate, that an emotion is a function of cognition and arousal: objectivist causal theories, attributional theories, and fusion theories. The objectivist causal and attributional theories each comprise a causal-functional and a part-whole version, and the fusion theory subsumes in particular a categorization and a perceptual integration version. In addition, the attributional version of cognition-arousal theory can be reinterpreted as a theory of emotion self-ascription. Although arousal may in fact not be necessary for emotions, a modified cognition-feeling theory that replaces arousal with intrinsically affective feelings, seems still viable. Arguments are presented why the objectivist causal-functional version of this theory should be preferred.