Turning Points in Professional Commitment Development: The Case of Novice Nurses.

We investigated the development of professional commitment over time and its relation to work experiences of novice nurses. We used a longitudinal mixed-method approach based on weekly reported quantitative commitment scores and qualitative descriptions of experiences. Specifically, we examined turning points in commitment trajectories and analyzed qualitative characteristics of the turning point.

The interacting partner as the immediate environment: Personality, interpersonal dynamics, and bodily synchronization.

Objective: In social interactions, humans tend to naturally synchronize their body movements. We investigated interpersonal synchronization in conversations and examined its relationship with personality differences and post-interaction appraisals.

Method: In a 15-minute semi-structured conversation, 56 previously-unfamiliar dyads introduced themselves, followed by self-disclosing and argumentative conversations.

The u-can-act Platform: A Tool to Study Intra-individual Processes of Early School Leaving and Its Prevention Using Multiple Informants.

We present the u-can-act platform, a tool that we developed to study the individual processes of early school leaving and the preventative actions that mentors take to steer these processes in the right direction. Early school leaving is a significant problem, particularly in vocational education, and can have severe consequences for both the individual and society. However, the prevention of early school leaving is hampered by a mismatch between research and practice: research tends to focus on identifying risk factors using group averages and cross-sectional studies, while practitioners focus on intervening in individual processes.

Micro-level mechanisms of identity development: The role of emotional experiences in commitment development.

Based on Marcia's theory, many researchers consider exploration and commitment as the main processes in identity development. Although some identity theorists have hypothesized that emotional experience may also be an important part of the mechanisms of identity development, empirical research to investigate this claim has been lagging behind. In this study, we shed light on the role of emotional experiences in micro-level commitment dynamics, and compare this to the role of exploration.

Managing Contextual Complexity in an Experiential Learning Course: A Dynamic Systems Approach through the Identification of Turning Points in Students' Emotional Trajectories.

This study adopts a dynamic systems approach to investigate how individuals successfully manage contextual complexity. To that end, we tracked individuals' emotional trajectories during a challenging training course, seeking qualitative changes-turning points-and we tested their relationship with the perceived complexity of the training. The research context was a 5-day higher education course based on process-oriented experiential learning, and the sample consisted of 17 students.