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Master
OA Policy
English

The curiosity catch. An exploratory transdiagnostic approach to understanding how different facets of curiosity relate to mental health dimensions

Contributors

Poggia, Floriana

Directors

Stussi, Yoann; Sander, David

Number of pages

88

Master program title

Maitrise universitaire en psychologie

Defense date

2025-09-03

Abstract

Curiosity is an intrinsic desire to acquire new knowledge and experiences driving exploratory behavior and it appears to play an ambivalent role in relation to mental health. This may be partly due to the diversity of assessment measures employed across the literature. To gain a more holistic understanding of which aspects of curiosity may support or hinder mental health, we investigated the interplay between its multiple facets - using the Five-Dimensional Curiosity Scale Revised (5DCR) - and common aversive mental conditions, including anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive behaviors, and cyberaddiction. Adopting a transdiagnostic perspective, we first conducted an exploratory factor analysis to identify core dimensions underlying these conditions. In a second step, we performed a network analysis including the extracted factors and the curiosity subscales. Results revealed that different facets of curiosity were differentially related to mental health outcomes. Particularly, stress tolerance emerged as a central facet, showing the strongest associations with anxiety-depression, compulsive behavior, and problematic media use, and partially acting as a bridge between those dimensions and other facets of curiosity. Additionally, thrill-seeking - through its link to impulsivity - was identified as potentially unfavorable, particularly in its relation to problematic media use. The remaining curiosity facets showed weaker or no direct associations with mental health factors. The study suggests that the ability to tolerate the stress caused by a lack of information and channeling thrill-seeking into constructive activities seem to be key conditions for curiosity to foster learning and growth, rather than to be associated with aversive mental states.

UNIGE affiliation entities

UNIGE research groups

Citation (ISO format)

POGGIA, Floriana. The curiosity catch. An exploratory transdiagnostic approach to understanding how different facets of curiosity relate to mental health dimensions. Master, 2025.

Main files (1)

Master thesis

Identifiers

  • PID : unige:188652
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Technical informations

Creation

07/09/2025 13:18:33

First validation

04/11/2025 12:32:53

Update

10/11/2026 13:53:18

Status update

10/11/2026 13:53:18

Last indexation

10/11/2026 14:06:12
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