Culturally Competent Family Therapy with Latino/Anglo-American Adolescents: Facilitating Identity Formation

On two occasions separated by one year, Chinese adolescents (N = 2,758) responded to instruments measuring their perceived parent-adolescent trust (i.e., paternal trust of the child and the child's trust of the parent) and other dimensions of parent-child relational qualities (satisfaction with parental control, readiness to communicate with the parent, and global satisfaction with the parent-child relationship). Results showed that perceived parent-adolescent trust was concurrently and longitudinally related to other dimensions of parent-child relational qualities. Multiple regression analyses suggest that the relations between perceived parent-adolescent trust and different dimensions of parent-child relational qualities over time were bidirectional in nature. Relative to perceived paternal trust of the adolescent child, adolescent child's trust of their parents exerted a stronger influence on different dimensions of parent-adolescent relational qualities, particularly in the father-adolescent dyad. While the influence of the child's readiness to communicate with the parents on parent-adolescent trust was weak in the father-adolescent dyad, the influence of global satisfaction with the parent-adolescent relationship on parent-adolescent trust was weak in the mother-adolescent dyad. The implications of the present findings on parent education and family therapy are discussed.     

Social networks of family members: Distinctive roles of mothers and fathers

The personal social networks of fathers, mothers, and adolescent children in a sample of intact family triads were examined in order to explore the effect of sex role on parent-adolescent continuities in social orientations. Comparison of father-adolescent and mother-adolescent associations in characteristics of personal networks revealed, overall, that adolescents were more consonant with mothers than with fathers, particularly in the area of kinship relations. Fathers' distinctive associations with adolescents were in the area of friendship relations and concerned affective aspects of relationships. These patterns of association were not dependent on gender of adolescent. Findings are interpreted in terms of the documented role of mothers as “kinkeepers” in family affairs and in terms of emerging work suggesting the salience of interaction with fathers for children's development of sensitivity to affective cues.     

DIMENSIONS OF COMPLIANCE-GAINING SITUATIONS

A seven-factor model of situation perception, including “personal benefits,”“intimacy,”“rights,”“resistance,”“dominance,”“situation apprehension,” and “relational consequences” was proposed. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to test the fit of the model to the data. One sample (N=450) was employed to test a six-factor sub model (excluding relational consequences) and a separate sample (N= 270), employing a different situation, was utilized to test the seven-factor model. The proposed model proved to fit the data well (x²/df ratios of 3.14 and 2.97, respectively) and was superior to alternative models. Future research recommendations were provided.     

亲子关系对青少年冒险行为的影响:有调节的中介模型

为探讨亲子关系对青少年冒险行为的影响机制,采用亲子关系问卷、同伴群体特征问卷及冒险行为问卷对山东省日照市三所普通中学的1275名初一到高三学生进行调查。结果发现：（1）父母支持与亲子冲突、不良同伴交往及冒险行为均呈负相关,亲子冲突与不良同伴交往、冒险行为均呈正相关,不良同伴交往与冒险行为呈正相关;（2）父母支持显著负向预测冒险行为,亲子冲突显著正向预测冒险行为,且两者的预测作用都可以通过不良同伴交往的中介作用实现;（3）在亲子冲突影响冒险行为这一模型中,不良同伴交往起中介作用,且中介的后半路径受性别调节,具体表现为：与女生相比,男生结交不良同伴会参与更多冒险行为。结果提示,不良亲子关系和不良同伴交往都是青少年冒险行为的重要预测因素,且不良亲子关系可以通过影响同伴交往影响青少年冒险行为。此外,在这一过程中,存在性别差异,当亲子冲突较多时,尤其应当关注男孩的同伴交往情况。     

Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills: Parental Outcomes With an ADHD Sample

The goal of the current study was to examine the effect of the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS®), a 14-week parent-assisted friendship-building program for adolescents with ADHD, on parental functioning, quality of the parent-adolescent relationship, and family functioning. Participants included 25 parents of adolescents with ADHD. Families completed PEERS®. Measures of parenting stress, parental efficacy, parent-adolescent communication, parent-adolescent involvement, causal attributions for negative social interactions, and family chaos were completed by parents at pre- and post-treatment. Parents demonstrated statistically significant improvements in parenting stress and parent-adolescent communication and marginally statistically significant improvement in parental efficacy. Parents also demonstrated reliable change in parenting stress, parent-adolescent communication, parent-adolescent involvement, and family chaos. Overall, these findings demonstrate the benefit of PEERS® at improving parental functioning, quality of the parent-adolescent relationship, and family functioning for families of adolescents with ADHD.     

网络亲子沟通与青少年抑郁的关系:线上社会资本的中介作用及其年龄差异

采用问卷法对武汉市两所中学549名青少年早期和中期的中学生进行调查,探讨网络亲子沟通对青少年抑郁的影响,同时考察线上社会资本在二者之间的中介作用,以及该中介效应的前半路径是否受年龄的调节。结果表明：（1）在控制性别、年龄和线下亲子沟通的条件下,网络亲子沟通负向预测青少年抑郁;（2）线上社会资本在网络亲子沟通与青少年抑郁之间起完全中介作用;（3）线上社会资本的中介作用受到青少年年龄的调节,相比青少年早期阶段,该中介作用在青少年中期阶段更显著。这些结果对于综合解释网络亲子沟通对青少年抑郁的作用路径与机制具有重要意义。     

Stochastic transitivity and the unidimensional control of choice

A concurrent-chains paradigm was used to test three models of preference for schedules of reinforcement. Each model assumes choice to be a monotonic function of values on a single dimension (“simple scalability”). For choices involving variable-interval and fixed-interval schedules, this dimension is assumed to be an harmonic average of the interreinforcement intervals; for choices involving fixedinterval and fixed-ratio schedules, the dimension is the time to reinforcement irrespective of response rate; for choices involving different combinations of rate and duration of reinforcement, the dimension is the rate of “reinforcement-time”, or the product of the two parameters. Each model implies a strong form of transitivity (“functional equivalence”), which held for half the subjects (that half exclusively sensitive to the reinforcement variable specified by the model). An alternative unidimensional model which implies a weaker form of transitivity (“weak binary utility model”) was consistent with the preferences of all subjects. This model states that a single factor controls the direction of preferences but not necessarily the exact choice probability, as simple scalability assumes.     

A neural autopilot theory of habit: Evidence from consumer purchases and social media use

This article applies a two-process “neural autopilot” model to field data. The autopilot model hypothesizes that habitual choice occurs when the reward from a behavior has low numerical “doubt” (i.e., reward prediction errors are small). The model toggles between repeating a previous choice (habit) when doubt is low and making a goal-directed choice when doubt is high. The model has ingredients established in animal learning and cognitive neuroscience and is simple enough to make nonobvious predictions. In two empirical applications, we fit the model to field data on purchases of canned tuna and posting on the Chinese social media site Weibo. This style of modeling is called “structural” because there is a theoretical model of how different variables influence choices by agents (the “structure”), which tightly restricts how hidden variables lead to observed choices. There is empirical support for the model, more strongly for tuna purchases than for Weibo posting, relative to a baseline “reduced-form” model in which current choices are correlated with past choices without a mechanistic (structural) explanation. An interesting set of predictions can also be derived about how consumers react to different kinds of changes in prices and qualities of goods (this is called “counterfactual analysis”).     

亲子关系与青少年心理资本的关系:友谊质量的中介效应与学校联结的调节效应

该研究探讨了亲子关系与青少年心理资本的关系,并提出一个有调节的中介模型,考察友谊质量的中介效应和学校联结对该效应的调节效应。研究采用问卷调查的方式,对732名青少年进行了研究,研究工具包括亲子关系量表、心理资本量表、友谊质量量表、学校联结量表。结果表明：（1）友谊质量在亲子关系与青少年心理资本之间起中介作用,即亲子关系通过友谊质量间接影响青少年的心理资本。（2）亲子关系通过友谊质量对青少年的心理资本的间接效应受学校联结的调节,且这种间接效应在低学校联结的青少年中更显著。本研究验证了家庭系统、同伴系统和学校系统对个人系统（心理资本）的联合作用,对青少年心理资本的提高有一定的指导意义。     

Teaching Theological Reflection Well,Reflecting on Writing as a Theological Practice

Abstract. In order to teach theological reflection well, it is necessary to teach students how to write it well. This paper probes the writing of theological reflection as a rhetorical process and a theological practice by (1) situating theological reflection broadly within a “correlation” model, adapted for theological writers; (2) identifying two “generic” styles of theological reflection papers, the pastoral reflection paper and the systematic reflection paper; (3) following a writer's progress as she writes a one‐page pastoral reflection paper and constructs a working theology in the process of writing it. In conclusion, the correlation‐based “Reflecting on Paper” process provides a pedagogical bridge between the writing and teaching of “pastoral” and “systematic” theological reflection, and exemplifies the dynamic interplay between teaching theological reflection and reflecting on writing as a theological practice.     

Compounds,confounds, and models in developmental information processing: A reply to Trabasso and Foellinger

A point by point examination of Trabasso and Foellinger's paper shows their criticisms of my 1970 work to be based on errors of fact (regarding the data I reported) and errors of method (regarding proper procedures for model evaluation). Factual errors are refuted by summarizing crucial data reported in 1970 but ignored by my critics. Errors of method are refuted by contrasting my $\text{CSVI}\text{BE}$ model and data with Trabasso and Foellinger's model and data in the light of the scientific epistemology of model evaluation. The issues of “general” versus “local” models, their “empirical scope,” “number of empirical parameters,” and “simplifying assumptions” are examined. Five ways of evaluating models are distinguished, and in all five my 1970 model is shown to be superior to that of Trabasso and Foellinger. The 1970 data (in light of the controls built into the CSVI task) and new unreported data exhibiting developmental step functions confirm the model of a developmental growth of M (mental energy, working memory), which occurs concurrently with and independently from the growth of executive/control structures. Executive growth alone cannot explain the obtained results.     

The components of latency of response in two models for auditory detection with deadlines

Two models are described for the case of auditory detection with response time deadlines. These are the “timing” model, modified from Luce and Green (1972), and the “interval of uncertainty” (IU) model, modified from the “counting” model of McGill (1967). The two models are expressed in the form of additive component latencies, including a component which varies inversely with probability of response and a component for a longer response on the “nondeadline” response condition. An experiment is described, incorporating deadlines on both s and n trials separately, and the additive component latencies of the models are calculated. The “interval of uncertainty” model is seen to represent the data better than the “timing” model, even though different versions of the latter model are considered. Parameters are then fitted to give a representation of the IU model. The data from one subject of another study not employing deadlines can also be fitted to the model, and an interesting problem then arises concerning the exact locus of the speed-accuracy tradeoff. It is concluded that the IU model needs extending if it is to describe the data without the use of a component of latency which varies inversely with response probability.     

Reinflating the semantic approach

The semantic, or model‐theoretic, approach to theories has recently come under criticism on two fronts: (i) it is claimed that it cannot account for the wide diversity of models employed in scientific practice—a claim which has led some to propose a “deflationary” account of models; (ii) it is further contended that the sense of “model” used by the approach differs from that given in model theory. Our aim in the present work is to articulate a possible response to these claims, drawing on recent developments within the semantic approach itself. Thus, the first is answered by utilizing the notion of a “partial structure”, first introduced in this context by da Costa and French in 1990. The second claim is undermined by consideration of van Fraassen's understanding of “model” which corresponds well with that evinced by modem mathematicians. This latter discussion, in particular, has an impact on the continuing debate regarding the relative merits of the semantic and syntactic views and the developments presented here can be taken to provide further support to the former.     

Learning on a response continuum: Comparison of a linear change and a functional learning model

Two reinforcement schedules were used to compare the predictive validity of a linear change model with a functional learning model. In one schedule, termed “convergent,” the linear change model predicts convergence to the optimum response, while in the other, termed “divergent,” this model predicts that a subject's response will not converge. The functional learning model predicts convergence in both cases. Another factor that was varied was presence or absence of random error or “noise” in the relationship between response and outcome. In the “noiseless” condition, in which no noise is added, a subject could discover the optimum response by chance, so that some subjects could appear to have converged fortuitously. In the “noisy” conditions such chance apparent convergence could not occur.The results did not unequivocally favor either model. While the linear change model's prediction of nonconvergence in the divergent conditions (particularly the “noisy” divergent condition) was not sustained, there was a clear difference in speed of convergence, counter to the prediction inferred from the functional learning model. Evidence that at least some subjects were utilizing a functional learning strategy was adduced from the fact that subjects were able to “map out” the relation between response and outcome quite accurately in a follow-up task. Almost all subjects in the “noisy” conditions had evidently “learned” a strong linear relation, with slope closely matching the veridical one.The data were consistent with a hybrid model assuming a “hierarchy of cognitive strategies” in which more complex strategies (e.g., functional learning) are utilized only when the simpler ones (e.g., a linear change strategy) fail to solve the problem.     

The Effects of Onset and Offset Responsibility on Affects and Helping Judgments1

Attributional studies of helping have examined perceivers affective responses and helping intentions as a function of responsibility (controllability) for the onset of a problem. This study extended the analysis to a responsibility for the solution (offset) of a problem and examined how the cause of both the onset and the offset of a problem determined perceivers' affective responses and helping intentions. One hundred and eighty subjects participated in the study. The subjects read one of three stories regarding the target person's behavior at the onset of falling behind in school (“sick” vs. “effort” vs. “no effort”) and reported their perceptions of the cause of the problem, affective responses, and helping intentions. Then they read one of three stories regarding the target person's behavior for the offset of the problem (“sick” vs. “effort” vs. “no effort”:' and responded again to the previously administered scales. Results indicated (a) that the final responses were strongly determined by the offset information. and (b) that sickness at the time of the onset led to negative affect and less helping intention when the offset information was “no effort.” The latter effect is discussed within the context of the moral judgment. Furthermore, structural equation analyses for the responses after the offset information revealed (a) that Weiner's “attribution-emotion-helping” model was applicable. and (b) that the effect of the effort perception on the helping intention was mediated by anger and pity.     

Stochastic λ-calculi: An extended abstract

It is shown how the operators in the “graph model” for λ-calculus (which can function as a programming language for Recursive Function Theory) can be expanded to allow for “random combinators”. The result then is a model for a new language for random algorithms.     

亲子沟通问题与青少年社会适应的关系

从北京市一所普通中学、济南市一所重点中学选取887名初一至高三学生为被试,采取匿名的方式让被试报告与父母之间存在的沟通问题,以及自己的社会适应情况,以此探讨亲子沟通问题与青少年社会适应的关系.结果发现:(1)总体上,青少年报告的亲子沟通问题并不是很多.在9项亲子沟通问题中,排在第一位的问题是行为约束,排在最后一位的问题是缺乏信任.除高二和高三学生外,男女生,以及初一到高一学生的情况基本与总体相似;(2)男生报告的缺乏分享明显多于女生,而在9个方面的亲子沟通问题均存在明显的年级差异,且随年级升高呈现倒U型发展趋势,在缺乏分享方面,初二学生的得分最高,而其余8个方面均为初三的学生得分最高;(3)所有亲子沟通问题均与青少年的自尊呈显著负相关,与抑郁、社交焦虑和问题行为呈显著正相关;(4)亲子沟通问题的不同方面可以预测不同方面的青少年社会适应,但对自尊和抑郁的预测作用超过对社交焦虑和问题行为的预测作用.     

Distributional Models of Category Concepts Based on Names of Category Members

Cognitive scientists have long used distributional semantic representations of categories. The predominant approach uses distributional representations of category-denoting nouns, such as “city” for the category city. We propose a novel scheme that represents categories as prototypes over representations of names of its members, such as “Barcelona,” “Mumbai,” and “Wuhan” for the category city. This name-based representation empirically outperforms the noun-based representation on two experiments (modeling human judgments of category relatedness and predicting category membership) with particular improvements for ambiguous nouns. We discuss the model complexity of both classes of models and argue that the name-based model has superior explanatory potential with regard to concept acquisition.     

亲子关系与青少年冒险行为的关系:一个有调节的中介模型

该研究探讨了亲子关系与青少年冒险行为的关系,并提出一个有调节的中介模型,考察自控力的中介效应和不良同伴交往对该效应的调节效应。对1263名青少年采用问卷调查,研究工具包括关系网络问卷、中学生自我控制能力量表、同伴群体特征问卷、青少年冒险行为问卷。结果表明：（1）自控力在亲子关系与青少年冒险行为之间起中介作用,即亲子关系通过自控力间接影响青少年的冒险行为。（2）亲子关系通过自控力的间接效应受到不良同伴交往的调节,交往较多的不良同伴使低自控力青少年的冒险行为增多。因此,自控力在亲子关系与冒险行为之间存在中介效应,且该效应受到不良同伴交往的调节。