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The purpose of this article is to garner insight into positive introversion, meaning experiences of introverted behaviour that may be perceived as positive and perform positive functions in one’s life. The subject is Mark Weeks, whose primary research has been in cultural studies and philosophy, particularly focusing on laughter and humour, during a career spent mostly at Nagoya University in Japan.

This case study uses positive autoethnography, a methodology that was co-conceived by Weeks. It includes a 10-question interview.

The authors learn how Weeks has positively embraced his introversion to negotiate challenges in his life, fostering resilience, gratitude and joyful experience. In the process, Weeks foregrounds the importance of solitary laughter and humour in his existential journey.

Introversion is often depicted negatively in the literature. Yet, much introversion is and can be developed as, positive.

The narrative shared here is one of trials, exploration and discovery, offering practical insight for introverts and those interested in understanding introverted behaviour in general.

Positively embracing aspects of introversion can be an important step for introverts in finding a healthy and enjoyable balance between the social and the solitary. Indeed, the same may apply to extraverts who fear being alone. Greater social recognition of valuable experiences within solitude could help to produce more tolerant and adaptable societies.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is an original article, narrated by a contributor to the development of positive autoethnography. It focuses on areas of personal experience that are often marginalized and poorly understood, including positive potentials of introversion and of solitary laughter.

Our study aims to focus on the application of knowledge mapping to provide pedagogically-structured learners' competences.

We conducted an experiment examined the associations between the pedagogical quality of students’ pedagogically-informed knowledge (PIK) maps, class assignment scores and perceptions of PIK mapping’s uses.

The results showed that higher assignment scores were significantly predicted by higher quality PIK maps, ratings for PIK mapping were significantly higher than other mappings, and the learners’ experience of PIK mapping led to a significant change of attitude towards mapping as a learning activity and to a positive opinion of the value of PIK mapping in particular. Interestingly, there was no significant relation between learners’ opinion ratings of the uses of PIK mapping in learning and their assignment scores.

Questions remain on the generalizability of the findings, and on the features of a PIK map which are particularly useful to a learner. This study investigated the value of PIK mapping in the context of a practical class on the building of simple DIY (do-it-yourself) holographic projectors; it may be thought that the applied nature of the topic was more suited to the PIK mapping of learner competences and intended learning outcomes than a more theoretic classroom topic on holography. A future study is planned to address this issue.

The purpose of this opinion piece is to present a case for the potential of positive autoethnography (PosAE) as a new autoethnographic approach.

This work resulted from on-going discussions between the authors as to the practicalities and benefits of associating the qualitative approach of autoethnography with the field of positive psychology.

PosAE is proposed to encourage writers to actively reflect on the importance for themselves, and their readers, of including positive narrative elements, prospective visions and exploratory trajectories in their work.

This research builds on existing research that has included positive psychology in autoethnography. As positive psychology is grounded in empirical research, the authors are suggesting that PosAE is allied to pragmatic autoethnography.

PosAE offers to facilitate positive thought, affect and strategies that could improve well-being. For example, some people struggling with serious health issues, and those helping them, may find it useful for articulating conditions and envisioning, even experiencing, positive change.

With so many lives impacted by mental health issues globally, and with rapidly changing societies struggling to provide stability and purpose, an autoethnography that provides tools such as PERMA (Positive emotions, Engagement, Positive Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishments/Achievements) to communicate the positive seems timely.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time the creation of an autoethnographic approach explicitly linked to positive psychology has been proposed.

ELECTRONICS are moving into the accounting functions of business—fast.

Self‐efficacy has been defined as individuals’ beliefs, thoughts, and feelings about their personal capabilities that affect how they function and, which in turn influence their performance (Bandura 1977). Self beliefs can influence behaviour choices, determine the amount of effort needed and for how long, and encourage thought patterns and emotional behaviours necessary to succeed. It is theorised that students with unrealistic expectations (especially overly optimistic expectations) may have difficulty aligning efforts with desired performance levels and, as a result, perform more poorly. In this study, selfefficacy is operationalised as the difference between actual and predicted examination performance. Prediction errors in the final examination marks (MERR) and prediction error in the overall course grade (GERR) of a second year management accounting course are used as measures of Self‐efficacy. Using regression analysis, the results indicate that the efficacy measures are significant and positively related to course performance. This suggests that students who are more conservative in their expectations of the course results perform better than those who are more optimistic. The findings also showed that student characteristics of previous academic achievements (CGPA) and hours of study per week (HRWK) explained more that 40 per cent of the variations in the self‐efficacy measures. The higher a student’s CGPA, the more conservative or cautious he is in the prediction of his final course performance. The more pessimistic a student is of his final course performance, the lower the number of hours he estimates for studying the course.

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) in the treatment of social anxiety with a 19-year-old man with intellectual disabilities (ID) and autistic spectrum disorders.

The intervention was evaluated using an A-B single case design. An idiosyncratic measure was developed to measure anxiety symptoms on a daily basis. The brief symptom inventory (BSI; Derogatis, 1975) measured symptom patterns across nine psychological dimensions and was administered at initial assessment, pre-intervention and post-intervention.

Visual and statistical analysis of the data showed that anxiety severity dramatically reduced throughout the course of therapy, reaching and maintaining zero and this was statistically significant. Data seemed to show that sudden gains in the reduction of anxiety severity occurred during the relaxation and cognitive phases of intervention. This sudden gain coincided with an increase in daily activities, and exposure to more anxiety provoking events which was also statistically significant. Global anxiety scores, as measured by the BSI, showed a notable reduction at post-treatment.

This paper demonstrates that CBT can bring about meaningful improvements in the treatment of anxiety in people with ID and autism and suggests that further exploration with the wider population is needed.

The authors aimed to explore how involvement in a creative development accelerator impacted participants. In particular, the authors considered the role of suffering in the acceleration process.

The authors conducted an ethnography of a rapid prototyping program in video game development. Data collection included participant observation (162 h before, 186 during and 463 h after the main prototyping), interviews (23 formal and 35 informal) and artifact analysis (presentations, documents, games).

Acceleration led to individual suffering via burnout, lack of sleep, overwork and illness. In turn, participants required varying periods of recovery after participation and diverged in their longer-term reaction to the experience. The authors make two contributions. First, the authors deepen empirical understanding of the embodied impact of participation in an organizational accelerator. Second, the authors develop a theoretical process model of suffering in an accelerator program based on time and initiation.

This paper focused on a single iteration of a program based out of an incubator in the United Kingdom (UK) Suffering was discovered as part of a larger study of the program.

Business and technology accelerators are becoming a popular way to organize work. This research suggests that accelerator structures might lead to unintended and negative participant experiences.

This research challenges the assumption that accelerators always benefit, or at least not hurt, participants. The authors add to the limited attention paid to suffering in organizations. The authors conclude the impact of an accelerator is more complex than usually portrayed.