scholarly journals COVID-19 Lockdown and Creativity: Exploring the Role of Emotions and Motivation on Creative Activities From the Chinese and German Perspectives

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Hofreiter ◽  
Xiang Zhou ◽  
Min Tang ◽  
Christian H. Werner ◽  
James C. Kaufman
Keyword(s):  
Negative Mood ◽  
Positive Mood ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Common Pattern ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
The Core ◽  
Everyday Activities ◽  
German Cities

For much of 2020, countries around the world fought against the COVID-19 pandemic. Many countries went into lockdown to control the fast spread of the virus. The unusual restrictions and confinement of the lockdown brought about new challenges for people’s everyday lives. With flexibility, adaptability, and problem-solving at the core of its nature, creativity has the potential to help people cope with harsh and uncertain circumstances. Were people more, the same, or less creative in their everyday life during the period of lockdown, and in which ways? What are the emotions and motivations underlying their creative or non-creative behaviors? The current study aims to explore these questions from a cross-cultural perspective. A total of 754 comparable employee samples from three Chinese and three German cities were asked about their moods during the lockdown period, their self-rated level of creativity in daily lives before and during the lockdown, and their motivations behind their creative activities. Significant increases in creativity were observed in all everyday activities in both countries with only two exceptions in the German sample. Despite minor differences, a common pattern was found across cultures: whereas the activating positive mood could directly lead to the increase in creativity in some everyday activities, such a direct Mood-Creativity link was limited in the activating negative mood circumstances. In such circumstances, motivation intervened to enable the link to creativity. It was also found that this indirect effect of motivation between mood and creativity was more pronounced with the German participants.

The Role of Gender and Sensation Seeking in Film Choice

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 97-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Smita C. Banerjee ◽  
Kathryn Greene ◽  
Marina Krcmar ◽  
Zhanna Bagdasarov ◽  
Dovile Ruginyte
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Sensation Seeking ◽  
Negative Mood ◽  
Positive Mood ◽  
The United States ◽  
High Arousal ◽  
Subject Design ◽  
Happy Mood

This study demonstrates the significance of individual difference factors, particularly gender and sensation seeking, in predicting media choice (examined through hypothetical descriptions of films that participants anticipated they would view). This study used a 2 (Positive mood/negative mood) × 2 (High arousal/low arousal) within-subject design with 544 undergraduate students recruited from a large northeastern university in the United States. Results showed that happy films and high arousal films were preferred over sad films and low-arousal films, respectively. In terms of gender differences, female viewers reported a greater preference than male viewers for happy-mood films. Also, male viewers reported a greater preference for high-arousal films compared to female viewers, and female viewers reported a greater preference for low-arousal films compared to male viewers. Finally, high sensation seekers reported a preference for high-arousal films. Implications for research design and importance of exploring media characteristics are discussed.

scholarly journals Obstáculos en la comunicación entre el cerebro y el intestino

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-114
Author(s):  
Sanda Pletikosić Tončić ◽  
Mladenka Tkalčić
Keyword(s):  
Protective Factor ◽  
Short Form ◽  
Negative Mood ◽  
Positive Mood ◽  
Serum Cortisol ◽  
Fecal Calprotectin ◽  
Biological Factors ◽  
Irritable Bowel ◽  
The Impact

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a complex disorder that results from interactions of numerous factors. The biopsychosocial model describes a number of predisposing, precipitating, and perpetuating factors, which contribute to the onset and maintenance of symptoms and consequently to quality of life (QoL) impairment. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of several psychological and biological factors on the physical and mental components of QoL in IBS patients. A total of 46 IBS patients completed a set of questionnaires (Big Five Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory-II, Medical Outcome Study Short-Form 36) and kept a diary of their mood, daily stress, and symptoms over a period of two weeks. Patients' heart rate variability, serum cortisol, and fecal calprotectin levels were also measured. The results of regression analyses showed that depression (β = -.30) and negative mood (β = -.28) predicted physical QoL, while depression (β = -.45) and positive mood (β = .33) significantly predicted mental QoL. The model, which included calprotectin, cortisol, anxiety, depression, and positive and negative mood, explained a total of 47% of variance of physical and 57% of variance of mental QoL. Our results confirm the role of negative affect in IBS QoL impairment. They also indicate that biological factors seem important for physical QoL in IBS patients. The role of positive mood as a protective factor for mental QoL might be significant for psychological interventions with IBS patients.

scholarly journals Urban Adolescence: The Role of Neighbourhood Greenspace in Mental Well-Being

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie A. E. Mueller ◽  
Eirini Flouri
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Urban Adolescents ◽  
Negative Mood ◽  
Antisocial Behaviour ◽  
Positive Mood ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Mental Well Being

Mental health and well-being in adolescence are associated with many short- and long-term outcomes. The evidence suggests that greenspace may play a role in adolescents' mental well-being, but we do not know much about the specifics of this link. In this paper, we investigated the role of other factors in the association. In a cross-sectional study, we investigated the role of neighbourhood greenspace in emotional and behavioural outcomes in 11-year-old urban adolescents participating in the UK Millennium Cohort Study (n = 4,534). We used linear regression models to test for an association of greenspace with self-esteem, happiness, positive mood, negative mood, and antisocial behaviour. We also investigated effect modification/moderation by garden access, physical activity, and perceived area safety. We did not find a main effect of greenspace, but we did find interaction effects. First, in adolescents without a garden, higher levels of greenspace were associated with lower levels of self-esteem and positive mood. Second, in adolescents who reported lower levels of physical activity, higher levels of greenspace were associated with lower levels of negative mood. Third, in adolescents who perceived their areas to be unsafe, higher levels of greenspace were associated with higher levels of antisocial behaviour. Our findings suggest that merely more greenspace in the neighbourhood may not be sufficient to promote the mental well-being of urban adolescents in the UK. However, greenspace does seem to have an influence under certain conditions which should be investigated further in future studies.

scholarly journals Category Theory as Interpretation Law Model in Artificial Intelligence Era

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-47
Author(s):  
Lambrini Seremeti ◽  
◽  
Ioannis Kougias ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Category Theory ◽  
Practical Importance ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Social Activities ◽  
The Core ◽  
Everyday Activities ◽  
Micro Level

Nowadays, artificial intelligence entities operate autonomously and they actively participate in everyday social activities. At a macro-perspective, they play the role of mediator between people and their actions, as components of the fundamental structure of every social activity. At a micro-perspective, they can be considered as fixed critical points whose hypostasis is not subject to established legal framework. A key point is that embedding artificial intelligence entities in everyday activities may maximize legal uncertainty both at the macro and micro-level, as well as at the interim phase, i.e., the switch between the two levels. In this paper, we adapt a well-known concept from Category Theory, namely that of the pushout, in order to approximate the core interpretation legal framework of such activities, by considering each level as an open system. The purpose of using Systems Theory in combination with Category Theory is to introduce a mathematical approach to uniquely interpret complex legal social activities and to show that this novel area of artificially enhanced activities is of prime and practical importance and significance to law and computer science practitioners.

scholarly journals English for European Communication and Tourism: Focus on Pragmatic Competence

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-332
Author(s):  
Agata Klimczak-Pawlak
Keyword(s):  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Actual Usage ◽  
Successful Communication ◽  
Data Driven Approach

Pragmatic competence in L2 English is claimed here to be crucial for successful communication in a variety of communicative contexts across Europe. However, due to language background, cultural and identity differences among users of English, there is a need for reflection and data-driven examination of how the language is used in specific situations. This paper adopts a cross-cultural perspective on the study of the use of English in the European Union with focus on its role in tourism. The role of English as the language of communication in Europe is discussed, followed by a proposal as to the way in which its actual usage can be studied. The data-driven approach to pragmatic behavior is advocated as the basis for the development of pragmatic competence in learners of English with focus on those who wish to engage in tourism.

Dying to Eat

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
American South ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Cultural Perspectives ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Korean Chinese ◽  
The American South

In Dying to Eat: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Food, Death, and the Afterlife, Candi K. Cann examines the role of food in dying, death, bereavement, and the afterlife. The coeditors seek to illuminate on the intersection of food and death in various cultures as well as fill an overlooked scholarly niche. Dying to Eat offers a multi-cultural perspective from contributors examining Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Latin American, European, Middle Eastern and American rituals and customs surrounding death and food. The contributors discuss a wide array of topics, including the role of death in the Islamic Sufi approach to food, the intersection of Buddhism, Catholicism, and Shamanism, as well as the role of casseroles and church cookbooks in the American South. The collection will provide not only food for thought on the subject of death and afterlife, but also theories, methods, recipes, and instructions on how and why food is used in dying, death, mourning, and afterlife rituals and practices in different cultural and religious contexts.

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