Attributional Style and Engagement/Disengagement Responses in the Chinese Workforce

Internal attribution for bad events, along with stable and global attributions, has been regarded as a component of pessimism, a precursor of negative work outcomes. Most evidence in support of this conceptualisation has come from research conducted in individualist cultures. We questioned if internal attribution has the same pessimistic implication in a collectivist culture. Findings from two studies conducted on Chinese employees supported our expectations that the stability and globality dimensions (but not the internality dimension) would predict disengagement responses (such as quitting and being neglectful at work) and lack of engagement responses (such as voicing suggestions and being loyal to the organisation). A reconceptualisation of pessimism in the workplace is therefore necessary. A dimensional, rather than a composite, scoring method is proposed for maintaining the predictive and construct validities of attributional style as an indicator of pessimism.     

Nest box entrance hole size can influence nest site selection and nest defence behaviour in Japanese tits

Animal Cognition - Birds have the ability to assess the risk of predation in their environment and adjust their antipredation strategies based on this risk information. However, whether nest site...     

Social Values and Relationships with Parents among American College Women of Chinese and European Descent

This study compared social values and relationships with parents among American college women of Chinese and European descent. Chinese-American women scored higher on a measure of practicality and pragmatism (mastery), hierarchy, and traditionality. The Euro-American women showed a greater interest in voluntary prosocial behaviour and philanthropy. Both groups of women reported having a sense of self, autonomous of their parents. Within the Chinese-American group, ethnic identification and religion, but not generation, moderated scores on a measure of traditionality of outlook regarding issues of law and order and social equality. We discuss the implications of our findings for recent debates in cross-cultural psychology, including the growing challenge to the individualism-collectivism dimension.     

Distractors of low activation can produce negative priming

In two experiments, we examined negative priming produced by distractors of low activation. A hybrid methodology was adopted to incorporate a study phase in which stimuli repetitively served as a target or a distractor, and a test phase in which the relationship in prime-probe couplets was manipulated. A critical manipulation was the presence or absence of novel stimuli in the test phase to alter the list context. The results showed that prime distractors of low activation produced negative priming when the test phase did not include novel items, which provided an optimal retrieval context. Prime distractors of high activation reliably led to negative priming when the list context contained novel items, but the effect varied when the list context did not include novel items. Theoretical implications are discussed.     

Review and reflections on 40 years of family therapy development in Taiwan

Although the systemic approach is considered to fit Chinese culture, the development of family therapy in Taiwan is recent, starting in 1969, and growing as a treatment modality in Taiwan for the past two decades. To examine this development, this article reviewed 127 locally published family therapy studies published during the years 1969–2009. Content analysis was used to examine these articles and the results clearly showed an increase in the amount of publications during this period. The focus of the studies also shifted from theoretical issues to practical concerns. An analysis of 15 of these articles, which were case reports, suggested a preference for local common practice, for example, a focus on therapist manoeuvres rather than the clients' perspectives, which might have hindered the development of successful practice. The availability of only certain forms of training might also have contributed to the clinical focus of family therapy in Taiwan. The article suggests that greater interest in the therapy process in future will enhance local practitioners' clinical efficacy.     

青少年时间态度与学业拖延的关系：成就动机的中介作用

采用青少年时间态度量表、成就动机量表和学业拖延问卷,对 733名中学生进行调查,旨在探究时间态度与学业拖延的关系,揭示成就动机在时间态度与学业拖延之间的中介作用机制。结果发现（1）过去消极、现在消极和未来消极与学业拖延呈显著正相关,过去积极、现在积极和未来积极与学业拖延呈显著负相关。（2）过去消极、现在消极和未来消极与成就动机呈显著负相关,过去积极、现在积极和未来积极与成就动机呈显著正相关;成就动机与学业拖延呈显著负相关。（3）成就动机在现在消极与学业拖延之间起部分中介作用,在未来积极、未来消极与学业拖延之间起完全中介作用。     

An essentialism perspective on intercultural processes

Essentialist theories are the beliefs that there are immutable essences underlying observed differences between social groups (e.g. racial group, cultural group). This paper reviews the intergroup dynamics and intrapersonal processes associated with essentialism. It also explores the interplay between the two. By explicating the intricate relationship between these psychological processes, the current paper aims to advance our understanding of intergroup relations and identify their implications for the study of multiculturalism. We posit that although the commonly observed negative intergroup outcomes, such as prejudices and biases, can be the byproducts of basic cognitive processes associated with essentialist theories, the social power dynamics in a given society also play important roles in shaping the relationships between essentialism and intergroup outcomes. We then discuss the implications of this understanding to our increasingly multicultural world.     

Inhibition of return lasts longer at repeatedly stimulated locations than at novel locations

Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to the fact that it takes longer for people to attend to recently examined locations than to novel locations. It has been argued that a single mechanism governs both IOR and negative priming (NP). If this is true, IOR and NP should share similar characteristics. Since NP depends on the use of repeated stimuli, in this study the dependence of IOR on repeated stimuli was explored. Experiments 1A—1D showed that, at longer cue-to-target-onset asynchrony (CTOA) intervals (613 and 906 msec), IOR could be observed only at repeatedly stimulated locations. However, IOR was observed when CTOA was short (253 msec) regardless of stimulus repetition. Experiments 2 and 3 replicated Experiments 1A—1D with a within-subjects design. The important role of memory representations in IOR is proposed.     

幼儿元认知"乐观主义现象"研究述评

儿童元认知发展是当代发展心理学研究的热点领域之一,其中儿童对自身能力的认识与评估又是研究者很感兴趣的课题。大量研究表明,与年长儿童和成人相比,年幼儿童特别是学龄前儿童往往对自己的能力和在各种任务中的成绩作出不切实际的高估,这种高估具有跨领域的一致性,并且具有内在固执性,即通常不受过去失败经验的影响。这就是所谓幼儿元认知“乐观主义现象”。本文对这一领域的相关研究进行整体回顾与分析,并在此基础上尝试对这一现象产生的原因及影响因素作出解释和说明。     

混合模式调查下的测量不变性：跨文化视角

混合模式调查收集数据的有效性需以模式间测量等同为前提.以往调查模式间的测量等同研究尚未考虑文化因素的影响.本研究通过两个自我创新能力评价量表,基于中美两国数据,运用多组确认性因子分析法考察了将由网络调查和纸笔调查构成的混合调查模式应用于自我能力和行为评估时的测量等同问题.结果在美国的样本中发现创新能力评价量表在两种调查模式下具有测量不变性,而在中国的样本中只发现强因子测量不变性,提示混合模式调查下测量不等同的出现是调查模式和文化因素共同导致的结果.我们认为,集体主义文化扩大与强化了纸笔调查和网络调查之间的匿名感知差异,进而受访者可能在网络调查中呈现出“满意决策”作答行为或在线下的调查中呈现出“社会称许性作答行为”,从而增加了出现测量不等同的可能性.