The joy of thinking as the key to success? The importance of Need for Cognition for subjective experience and achievement in academic studies

Need for Cognition (NFC) describes interindividual differences in the enjoyment of and engagement in cognitively demanding tasks. Previous research examined primarily relations of NFC to cognitive and performance-related variables. The current study investigated the relevance of NFC for affective indicators of study-related success. Additionally, we tested the mediating role of regulative variables, that is, self-control capacity, strategies of emotion regulation, and coping behavior. The sample consisted of teacher students (N = 167), a group that has been shown to experience increased stress levels already in their studies. NFC was associated with almost all regulative variables. Concerning study success, higher NFC went along with better study performance and increased self-evaluated efficacy. NFC predicted subjective accomplishment via some regulative variables. Future studies should examine also students of different subjects and try to figure out why only some subjective indicators of success were associated with NFC in the current sample.