The Effects of Emotional Processing Style on the Transition to University

This study set out to understand how the processing of emotional information differs between individuals, and how these differences impact the outcomes of stressful life transitions such as the transition to university. To investigate this, 53 introductory psychology students at the University of Western Ontario were recruited through SONA to fill out a 97 item Qualtrics survey which measured both emotional processing style and university transition outcomes. While direct ANOVA comparisons did not suggest a clear influence of emotional processing style on university transition factors, correlational analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between the outcome of student burnout and the emotional factor of affect intensity. In addition, emotional processing factors were part of the best predictive models for all four transition outcome variables according to multiple regression analysis.