Civic engagement in relation to outcome expectations among African American young adults

The present study examined civic engagement—volunteering and political activism—among 129 African American young adults from an urban community. The proposed model considered factors that motivate young adults to participate in civic activities as well as barriers that might inhibit involvement. Drawing upon social cognitive theory, this study highlighted the role of two related, but independent, types of civic attitudes: community and individual outcome expectations (OEs) as Bandura defines them. Results indicated that perceptions of neighborhood conditions are linked to community OEs, whereas previous involvement in political actions is linked to individual OEs. Analyses also revealed that community and individual OEs are differentially associated with young adults' intentions to engage in future civic activities. Study findings contribute to an area of research that has received limited investigation and are discussed in terms of developing strategies to support civic engagement among African American young adults in urban settings.     

A critical review of the “enculturation hypothesis”: the effects of human rearing on great ape social cognition

Numerous investigators have argued that early ontogenetic immersion in sociocultural environments facilitates cognitive developmental change in human-reared great apes more characteristic of Homo sapiens than of their own species. Such revamping of core, species-typical psychological systems might be manifest, according to this argument, in the emergence of mental representational competencies, a set of social cognitive skills theoretically consigned to humans alone. Human-reared great apes capacity to engage in true imitation, in which both the means and ends of demonstrated actions are reproduced with fairly high rates of fidelity, and laboratory great apes failure to do so, has frequently been interpreted as reflecting an emergent understanding of intentionality in the former. Although this epigenetic model of the effects of enculturation on social cognitive systems may be well-founded and theoretically justified in the biological literature, alternative models stressing behavioral as opposed to representational change have been largely overlooked. Here I review some of the controversy surrounding enculturation in great apes, and present an alternative nonmentalistic version of the enculturation hypothesis that can also account for enhanced imitative performance on object-oriented problem-solving tasks in human-reared animals.     

The development of academic competence among adolescents who bully and who are bullied

Using data from the first three waves (Grades 5, 6, and 7) of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development, this study assessed if being a bully or being a victim accounts for an adolescent's academic competence, if selected contextual and individual variables impact an adolescent's academic competence, and if such impact differs in relation to an adolescent's bullying status. The results of random coefficient hierarchical regression analyses indicated that being a bully predicted lower grades across time, and that being a bully was more detrimental for girls than for boys. Being a bully and being a victim negatively predicted self-perceived academic competence, but these predictive effects did not change over time or differ by sex. Teacher support positively predicted grades and greater parent support and teacher support independently predicted higher self-perceive academic competence. Greater educational expectations and school engagement independently predicted higher self-reported grades, while these two predictors positively interacted in explaining self-perceived academic competence. Unexpectedly, peer support negatively predicted self-reported grades for victims, and negatively predicted self-perceived academic competence for bullies. We discuss the importance of addressing the issue of academic competence in bullying interventions, as well as the utility of capitalizing on developmental assets in promoting academic competence among adolescents who bully and who are bullied.     

人类积极发展的资源模型——积极青少年发展研究的一个重要取向和领域

积极青少年发展观(Positive Youth Development Perspective,PYD)自20世纪90年代出现以来迅速推动了发展心理学知识的创新与应用,其中发展资源框架(The Developmental Assets Framework)是研究者进行深入探讨与应用研究的一个重要模型.发展资源是指一系列能够有效促进所有青少年获得健康发展结果的相关经验、关系、技能和价值观,本文在这一概念的基础上介绍了发展资源模型的结构、构建与发展基础以及基于该模型的重要假设及实证研究,并在综述研究的基础上探讨了资源模型的未来研究方向.     

When I think of you, I feel more confident about me: The relational self and self-confidence

Although much research has demonstrated the existence of relationship specific relational selves, the effects of those selves on feelings about the overall self-concept are unknown. The current research proposed that level of relational interdependent self-construal moderates the relationship between the activation of close relationship partners and self-confidence. The first study examined self-construal as a naturally occurring personality variable, whereas the second study manipulated self-construal. Both studies supported the hypothesis that those greater in relational interdependence experience greater self-confidence when close others are salient whereas those lower in relational interdependence experience lower self-confidence. The implications of the findings and linkages to past research are discussed.     

Enhancing Justice?

This article focuses on the follow question: Are human enhancement technologies likely to be justice impairing or justice promoting? We argue that human enhancement technologies may not be inherently just or unjust, but when situated within obtaining social contexts they are likely to exacerbate rather than alleviate social injustices.     

The Dynamics of General Developmental Mechanisms: From Piaget and Vygotsky to Dynamic Systems Models

Dynamic systems theory conceives of development as a self-organizational process. Both complexity and order emerge as a product of elementary principles of interaction between components involved in the developmental process. This article presents a dynamic systems model based on a general dual developmental mechanism, adapted from Piaget and Vygotsky. The mechanism consists of a conservative force, further strengthening the already-consolidated level, and a progressive force, consolidating internal contents and procedures at more advanced levels. It is argued that this dual mechanism constitutes one of the few basic laws of learning and change, and is comparable to the laws of effect and of contiguity. Simulation studies suggest that this dual mechanism explains self-organization in developmental paths, including the emergence of discrete jumps from one equilibrium level to another, S-shaped growth, and the occurrence of co-existing levels.