המעבדה לחקר מוטיבציה ורגש

Background: Research indicates negative emotions can impede learning, but studies on emotion regulation and learning from failure are limited. Aims: This study hypothesized emotional integration (i.e., taking interest in negative emotions), anchored in self-determination theory, predicts the tendency to learn from academic failure, as opposed to emotion dysregulation and suppression that involve less than optimal responses to failure. Sample: Two studies were conducted among college students, measured before and after an exam failure. Study 1 involved 907 students, with 385 reporting failure in the second measurement (mean age = 26.89; SD = 4.02). Study 2 included 484 students, with 147 reporting a specific failure in calculus (mean age = 22.19; SD = 2.56). Method: In the first measurement, participants reported their emotion regulation styles and academic efficacy. In the second measurement, they reported adaptive and maladaptive responses to failure and their tendency to learn from it. Study 2 additionally assessed engagement before and after failure. Results: Study 1 showed that adaptive responses mediated the positive link between emotional integration and learning from failure, whereas suppressive regulation and dysregulation hindered learning through maladaptive responses. Study 2 found that learning from failure mediated the link between emotional integration and engagement, while rumination linked dysregulation to disengagement; suppressive regulation again predicted maladaptive responses. Analyses controlled for initial engagement and academic efficacy. Conclusions: Emotional integration, the tendency to be receptive to negative emotions, may foster learning and engagement after failure by treating emotions as informative and engaging non-judgmentally with the experience of failure.