This study focuses on the role of social support and personal coping resources in relation to mortality among older persons in the Netherlands. Data are from a sample of 2,829 noninstitutionalized people aged between 55 and 85 years who took part in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam in 1992-1995. Social support was operationally defined by structural, functional, and perceived aspects, and...

Exams with numerus clausus are very common in Medicine, Business Administration and Law. They are intended to select a predefined number of academic candidates on the basis of their rank rather than their absolute performance. Various scholars and politicians believe that numerus clausus policies are a vector of academic excellence. We argue, however, that they could have ironic epistemic effec...

The present study aimed at furthering the understanding of the potential effects of e-learner characteristics on e-learner satisfaction in an EFL context. Specifically, it examined the collective impact of computer anxiety, computer-mediated communication (CMC) apprehension, metacognitive self-regulation strategy use, mastery goal orientation, and performance goal orientation on EFL e-learner s...

BACKGROUND Loving-kindness meditation (LKM) is a practice intended to enhance feelings of kindness and compassion for self and others. OBJECTIVES To assess whether participation in a 12-week course of LKM for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with improved positive emotions, decentering, and personal resources. RESEARCH DESIGN In an open-pilot trial, veterans ...

Background Mastery motivation is the driving force behind children's desire to explore the surrounding world and their comprehensive development. However, disease factors may lower a child's motivation and hamper development. The aim of this review is to examine mastery motivation in preschool children with cerebral palsy (CP) and the impact of contextual factors on mastery motivation. Method...

Many opportunities for attaining mastery exist within a typical workflow. By leveraging focus-shifts and providing the user with complete control over the learning process, both critical elements of any “as-you-go” learning method, the HotKeyCoach learning model demonstrates that the production paradox can be overcome by experienced computer users. Training For Mastery After formal training, a ...

A Playful Context Enhances Bilingual and Monolingual Preschoolers’ Mastery Motivation and Private Speech by Jeremy Sawyer Advisor: Anna Stetsenko Children’s private speech (audible self-talk during activity) has been studied primarily as a cognitive tool for thinking, planning and self-regulation. This study investigated whether private speech may also function as a tool for motivation. Vygotsk...

Mastery motivation refers to the intrinsic motivation children have to interact with their environments in order to learn about them. It appears early in life, and has been regarded by many researchers as a key motivator for development. It has also been suggested that young school age children with Down syndrome show lowered motivation to perform tasks. It is important to know if this low moti...

AIM The aim of this study was to examine over a 12-month post-intervention period whether the participation of community-living individuals with mental illness in cognitive behavioral group therapy for recovery of self-esteem (CBGTRS) resulted in improved outcomes. METHODS This was a non-randomized controlled trial. The participants were persons with mental illness who resided in communities ...

Few users ever attain mastery with an application. Mastery, the state of knowing how to work efficiently with an application requires an understanding of the underlying conceptual model of the system. The Active User Paradox is one of the main inhibitors of mastery. In this study, we present HotKeyCoach, a training method designed to insert learning events into the flow of the activity that pro...