Suchergebnisse

Individual differences are a fundamental component of psychology, but these differences are often treated as "noise" or "errors" in variable-oriented statistical analyses. Currently, there is a small but emerging body of research using the person-oriented approach. In this paper a brief theoretical and methodological overview of the person-oriented approach is given. A person-oriented approach is often preferable where the main theoretical and analytical unit is a pattern of operating factors, rather than individual variables. In order to illustrate the relevance of this approach to research in educational psychology several representative statistical methods are outlined, two of which employ a person-oriented approach (latent class analysis/ latent profile analysis, configural frequency analysis/ prediction configural frequency analysis) and one that combines person and variable-oriented approaches. Examples of data analyses are used to demonstrate that variable and person-oriented approaches provide the researcher with different information that can be complementary.
Key words: configural frequency analysis, educational psychology, individual differences, latent class analysis, person-oriented approach.

The amygdala is essential for processing emotions, including the processing of aversive faces. The aim of this multimethodological study was to relate the amygdala reactivity of students (N = 88) toward teachers' fearful and angry faces, to students' relationship with their teachers. Furthermore, students' neural responses during the perception of teachers' faces were tested as predictors of test anxiety (controlling for neuroticism as a potential trait anxiety effect). Multiple regression analysis revealed that students reporting high‐quality teacher–student relationships showed stronger amygdala activity toward fearful faces, which was related to worry. Furthermore, students with high levels of neuroticism tended to perceive their teachers as motivators and showed higher amygdala activity toward angry faces, which was related to the measures of emotionality.