Testing prospect theory in students’ performance

This paper tests the existence of ‘reference dependence’ and ‘loss aversion’ in students’ academic performance. Accordingly, achieving a worse than expected academic performance would have a much stronger effect on students’ (dis)satisfaction than obtaining a better than expected grade. Although loss aversion is a well-established finding, some authors have demonstrated that it can be moderated – diminished, to be precise–. Within this line of research, we also examine whether the students’ emotional response (satisfaction/dissatisfaction) to their performance can be moderated by different musical stimuli. We design an experiment through which we test loss aversion in students’ performance with three conditions: ‘classical music’, ‘heavy music’ and ‘no music’. The empirical application supports the reference-dependence and loss aversion hypotheses (significant at p < 0.05), and the musical stimuli do have an influence on the students’ state of satisfaction with the grades (at p < 0.05). Analyzing students’ perceptions is vital to find the way they process information. Particularly, knowing the elements that can favour not only the academic performance of students but also their attitude towards certain results is fundamental. This study demonstrates that musical stimuli can modify the perceptions of a certain academic result: the effects of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ surprises are higher or lower, not only in function of the size of these surprises, but also according to the musical stimulus received.

Differences between the personal, social and emotional profiles of teaching and computer engineering professionals and students

The evidence suggests that emotional intelligence and personality traits are important qualities that workers need in order to successfully exercise a profession. This article assumes that the main purpose of universities is to promote employment by providing an education that facilitates the acquisition of abilities, skills, competencies and values. In this study, the emotional intelligence and personality profiles of two groups of Spanish students studying degrees in two different academic disciplines – computer engineering and teacher training – were analysed and compared. In addition, the skills forming part of the emotional intelligence and personality traits required by professionals (computer engineers and teachers) in their work were studied, and the profiles obtained for the students were compared with those identified by the professionals in each field. Results revealed significant differences between the profiles of the two groups of students, with the teacher training students scoring higher on interpersonal skills; differences were also found between professionals and students for most competencies, with professionals in both fields demanding more competencies that those evidenced by graduates. The implications of these results for the incorporation of generic social, emotional and personal competencies into the university curriculum are discussed.