Priming as a way of understanding children’s mental representations of the social world

Priming is a well established tool for experimental examination of how mental representations drive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that has been widely used in adult research. Priming is also a well established technique in cognitive development research. Social development research, however, has rarely used priming as a research method despite evidence that this technique is promising for helping researchers untangle causal connections between children’s mental representations and children’s social development outcomes. This paper discusses how priming methods may yield important insights into the role that children’s mental representations of the social world play in children’s social functioning. We begin by discussing the theoretical conceptualization underlying priming and priming methods. We next review evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of priming techniques in child development research. We conclude by suggesting ways in which priming can inform future research in social development using research examining attachment, social-information-processing, gender development, and mood and mental health as examples.     

Relationships Among Social Policy Factors,National Competitiveness,and Happiness

The aim of this study is to construct a causal relationship model explaining the relationships between social policy factors and national competitiveness and national happiness; and to analyse how the former affect the latter as final dependent variables. In doing this, the study employs data for OECD member countries. Research regarding the determinants affecting national competitiveness and people’s happiness has tended to focus mainly on personal or collective characteristics such as age, gender, economic infrastructure, etc. As a result, social policy factors, including welfare budget, unemployment support budget and income inequality, have rarely been addressed in the analysis of determinants affecting national competitiveness or happiness, which is regarded as the final policy aim to be achieved by government. In particular, there has been little academic research utilizing OECD database statistics on social policy indicators. Against this background, this study uses the Structural Equation Modeling approach (SEM) to identify the direct and indirect effects of social policy factors on national competitiveness and happiness, and puts forward policy suggestions for attaining these two great goals of social policy.     

A Bayesian Theory of Sequential Causal Learning and Abstract Transfer

Two key research issues in the field of causal learning are how people acquire causal knowledge when observing data that are presented sequentially, and the level of abstraction at which learning takes place. Does sequential causal learning solely involve the acquisition of specific cause‐effect links, or do learners also acquire knowledge about abstract causal constraints? Recent empirical studies have revealed that experience with one set of causal cues can dramatically alter subsequent learning and performance with entirely different cues, suggesting that learning involves abstract transfer, and such transfer effects involve sequential presentation of distinct sets of causal cues. It has been demonstrated that pre‐training (or even post‐training) can modulate classic causal learning phenomena such as forward and backward blocking. To account for these effects, we propose a Bayesian theory of sequential causal learning. The theory assumes that humans are able to consider and use several alternative causal generative models, each instantiating a different causal integration rule. Model selection is used to decide which integration rule to use in a given learning environment in order to infer causal knowledge from sequential data. Detailed computer simulations demonstrate that humans rely on the abstract characteristics of outcome variables (e.g., binary vs. continuous) to select a causal integration rule, which in turn alters causal learning in a variety of blocking and overshadowing paradigms. When the nature of the outcome variable is ambiguous, humans select the model that yields the best fit with the recent environment, and then apply it to subsequent learning tasks. Based on sequential patterns of cue‐outcome co‐occurrence, the theory can account for a range of phenomena in sequential causal learning, including various blocking effects, primacy effects in some experimental conditions, and apparently abstract transfer of causal knowledge.     

Causal uncertainty as a chronically accessible construct

Causal uncertainty refers to feelings that one may not understand the causes of events. A number of studies have shown that causal uncertainty has significant effects on people's processing of information and on important life outcomes. Weary and Edwards have postulated that causal uncertainty is, in part, a cognitive construct that can vary in its accessibility. This assumption has allowed for a variety of predictions to be made about the causes and consequences of causal uncertainty. However, this accessibility assumption has never been directly tested. To do this, in Study 1 an emotional Stroop procedure was used. Higher causal uncertainty was associated with longer latencies to name the color in which causal uncertainty‐related words were written compared to uncertainty‐irrelevant words. In Study 2, both manipulated and chronic causal uncertainty led to faster times to respond to causal uncertainty‐related stimuli in an attitude accessibility task. Both studies are consistent with the theoretically predicted chronic accessibility of causal uncertainty beliefs. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

社会阶层的心理学研究：社会认知视角

社会阶层是心理学研究的一个新的前沿领域,是指由于经济、政治等多种原因而形成的,在社会层次结构中处于不同地位的群体,这些群体之间存在着客观的社会资源（收入、教育和职业）的差异,以及感知到由此造成的社会地位的差异。基于社会认知视角的社会阶层理论认为,处于同一阶层中的个体,由于共享的经历,形成了相对稳定的认知倾向,低阶层者是情境主义的,高阶层是唯我主义的。大量的实证研究进一步证实,环境所导致的认知倾向差异,使得高低阶层这在感知自我、他人和社会的方式存在显著的不同。而阶层的流动性对个体心理与行为的影响以及本土化的社会阶层心理学研究是需要未来深入探索的研究方向。     

Effects of field-dependency, social class and sex of children between ages 5 and 10.

Development of field-independency has been studied as a function of age (5 to 10), social class, and sex utilizing two groups of 96 subjects each of high and low social class. On the Children's Embedded-figures Test a critical developmental period appears between ages 5 and 8 yr. for all Ss; on the Draw-a-Person such a period appears between ages 5 and 6 for high social class and between ages 6 and 8 for lower social class; scores on both tests were statistically significant as a function of social class at every age beginning at age 6. Sex did not seem to play any significant role. Three main masking factors have been singled out on the Children's Embedded-figures Test. Their differential effects on scores of Ss in the two classes are examined.     

What Invariance Is and How to Test for It

Causal assessment is the problem of establishing whether a relation between (variable) X and (variable) Y is causal. This problem, to be sure, is widespread across the sciences. According to accredited positions in the philosophy of causality and in social science methodology, invariance under intervention provides the most reliable test to decide whether X causes Y. This account of invariance (under intervention) has been criticised, among other reasons, because it makes manipulations on the putative causal factor fundamental for the causal methodology; consequently, the argument goes, the account is ill-suited to those contexts where manipulations are not performed, for instance, the social sciences. The article aims to extend the account of invariance (under intervention), in a way that manipulations on the putative causal factors are not methodologically fundamental, and yet invariance remains key for causal assessment both in experimental and non-experimental contexts.     

Alcohol and human sexual behavior.

Despite the potential clinical significance of the relationship between alcohol consumption and human sexual responsiveness. the subject has received little systematic research attention. Clinical observations have suggested that alcohol abuse can lead to impotency disorders in males and sexual dysfunction in women. Alcohol has been associated with sex offences such as rape and pedophilia, increased sexual activity and extramarital affairs. However, correlation has been confused with cause, and unequivocal evidence of alcohol as the causal agent is lacking. Recent research using penile tumescence and vaginal pressure pulse as measures of sexual arousal has shown a significant negative linear relation between alcohol and sexual responsiveness in both men and women social drinkers. Findings that cognitive rather than pharmacological factors decisively influence alcohol's effects on sexual arousal, together with other psychosocial analyses, dispute the disinhibition hypothesis of alcohol's effects. A social learning analysis of alcohol's influence on sex is proposed.     

An introduction to association rule mining: An application in counseling and help-seeking behavior of adolescents

Association rule mining (ARM) is a technique used to discover relationships among a large set of variables in a data set. It has been applied to a variety of industry settings and disciplines but has, to date, not been widely used in the social sciences, especially in education, counseling, and associated disciplines. This article thus introduces ARM and presents aspects of existing work that will be relevant and useful to researchers practitioners in the social sciences. Definitions and concepts are presented, and examples of ARM applications are highlighted to strengthen these ideas. We also discuss an example from our existing research to show that ARM can be used to investigate help-seeking behavior in a sample of secondary school students in Singapore. We also present some guidelines and recommendations for using ARM.     

From correlates to causes: can quasi-experimental studies and statistical innovations bring us closer to identifying the causes of antisocial behavior?

Longitudinal, epidemiological studies have identified robust risk factors for youth antisocial behavior, including harsh and coercive discipline, maltreatment, smoking during pregnancy, divorce, teen parenthood, peer deviance, parental psychopathology, and social disadvantage. Nevertheless, because this literature is largely based on observational studies, it remains unclear whether these risk factors have truly causal effects. Identifying causal risk factors for antisocial behavior would be informative for intervention efforts and for studies that test whether individuals are differentially susceptible to risk exposures. In this article, we identify the challenges to causal inference posed by observational studies and describe quasi-experimental methods and statistical innovations that may move researchers beyond discussions of risk factors to allow for stronger causal inference. We then review studies that used these methods, and we evaluate whether robust risk factors identified from observational studies are likely to play a causal role in the emergence and development of youth antisocial behavior. There is evidence of causal effects for most of the risk factors we review. However, these effects are typically smaller than those reported in observational studies, suggesting that familial confounding, social selection, and misidentification might also explain some of the association between risk exposures and antisocial behavior. For some risk factors (e.g., smoking during pregnancy, parent alcohol problems), the evidence is weak that they have environmentally mediated effects on youth antisocial behavior. We discuss the implications of these findings for intervention efforts to reduce antisocial behavior and for basic research on the etiology and course of antisocial behavior.     

低家庭社会阶层大学生为何更容易社交焦虑？——心理社会资源和拒绝敏感性的多重中介作用

在阶层的社会认知理论和备用容量模型框架下,探讨心理社会资源、拒绝敏感性在家庭社会阶层与大学生社交焦虑间的多重中介作用。选取1400名在校大学生为被试,采用与积极心理变量结果相关度最高的乐观、控制感、自尊和外向性四种人格特质问卷作为心理社会资源的测量工具,同时施测了MacArthur主观社会阶层量表、拒绝敏感性问卷、Liebowitz社交焦虑量表,还收集了被试的父母亲职业、受教育程度及月收入水平等客观家庭社会阶层指标。Bootstrap中介效应检验结果表明,家庭社会阶层显著负向预测大学生社交焦虑,心理社会资源水平、拒绝敏感性在二者间起到中介作用,同时家庭社会阶层还顺序性地通过先影响心理社会资源、再影响拒绝敏感性这一链式路径对社交焦虑产生影响。因此为了预防和干预低阶层大学生社交焦虑,未来可以考虑提升心理社会资源水平和降低拒绝威胁敏感性两种途径。     

低家庭社会阶层大学生为何更容易社交焦虑？——心理社会资源和拒绝敏感性的多重中介作用

在阶层的社会认知理论和备用容量模型框架下,探讨心理社会资源、拒绝敏感性在家庭社会阶层与大学生社交焦虑间的多重中介作用。选取1400名在校大学生为被试,采用与积极心理变量结果相关度最高的乐观、控制感、自尊和外向性四种人格特质问卷作为心理社会资源的测量工具,同时施测了MacArthur主观社会阶层量表、拒绝敏感性问卷、Liebowitz社交焦虑量表,还收集了被试的父母亲职业、受教育程度及月收入水平等客观家庭社会阶层指标。Bootstrap中介效应检验结果表明,家庭社会阶层显著负向预测大学生社交焦虑,心理社会资源水平、拒绝敏感性在二者间起到中介作用,同时家庭社会阶层还顺序性地通过先影响心理社会资源、再影响拒绝敏感性这一链式路径对社交焦虑产生影响。因此为了预防和干预低阶层大学生社交焦虑,未来可以考虑提升心理社会资源水平和降低拒绝威胁敏感性两种途径。     

催化剂模型:媒体暴力真的可以预测社会暴力?

国内研究者熟知的一般攻击模型认为,媒体暴力与社会暴力之间存在"因果关系"。2008年,Ferguson针锋相对地提出了催化剂模型,认为媒体暴力与社会暴力之间是"零因果"的关系,媒体暴力只是扮演着犯罪行为的文体催化剂,而不是犯罪行为的触发器。首先,介绍了催化剂模型的理论观点和近年来相关的支持性实证研究;其次,分析了催化剂模型对一般攻击模型所持观点的种种质疑;最后,总结了该领域的研究困境和未来研究的方向。     

Exploring the Relationship of Religiosity,Religious Support,and Social Support Among African American Women in a Physical Activity Intervention Program

Religious belief has been linked to a variety of positive mental and physical health outcomes. This exploratory study will address the relationship between religious involvement and social connectedness among African American women. Results from a physical activity intervention research project (N = 465) found that total religious support and social support were significantly negatively correlated with total religiosity, while total general social support was significantly positively correlated with total religious support. Overall, the study indicates that more research is needed on ways to encourage interaction between the positive dimensions of both religiosity and social support to bring about healthy behaviors.     

Which One Triggers the Other? Technological or Social Innovation

The term innovation has sometimes been used as a synonym for technological innovation until the concept of social innovation attracted academic attention. Since then, these two types of innovation have been investigated individually. It can be claimed that, despite the great importance of social innovation studies, technological innovation studies received more attention. In addition, there are limited studies that have examined technological and social innovation together. The aim of this study was to examine the causal relationship between technological and social innovations. The impact of entrepreneurial characteristics on social innovation was also analyzed. This study was based on a comprehensive field study including 767 university students from 10 universities from different regions of Turkey. Regression analyses and structural equation modeling confirmed that social and technological innovation were related to one another, and both were correlated with a particular constellation of personal characteristics.     

Good intentions gone awry? Effects of weight-related social control on health and well-being

A negative body image has been associated with a variety of negative health and well-being outcomes. Social pressures from others, in the form of weight-related social control, may serve to exacerbate this effect, especially for college-aged women. Undergraduate students (N = 399) completed a variety of questionnaires assessing weight-related social control, well-being, and diet and exercise behaviors. The results suggest that weight is associated with a variety of negative health and well-being outcomes and particularly for women, weight-related social control is also associated with these negative effects. In addition, men of higher body mass indexes (BMIs) or higher self-perceived weight did not experience negative health and well-being outcomes to the same degree that overweight women did. Parents in particular seem to instigate weight-related social control to change students’ diet and exercise behaviors. These results help clarify the effects of weight-related social control in a college population, where weight may be especially important.     

四卡问题的视角效应发生机制：领域一般性还是领域特殊性？

视角效应（Perspective Effects)是指四卡问题解决中,当被试从不同的角度对条件规则进行检验时,其选择偏向会在卡片p,q和-p,q之间发生稳定变化的现象。视角效应对四卡问题的解决有重要影响,但其存在条件及发生机制仍存在争议。本研究通过3个实验,探讨四卡问题中的视角效应。实验1和实验2采用混合实验设计,结果表明,转换社会契约、因果规则的四卡问题中,发现视角效应,抽象规则中,提供反例比提供充分必要条件更有利于产生视角效应。实验3在不同视角下研究四卡问题与条件推理的关系。结果表明,四卡问题与条件推理之间不具有逻辑一致性,产生分离现象。总之,视角效应在抽象规则和特定规则中均存在,而提供反例更有利于视角效应的产生。领域一般性或领域特殊性均不能有效解释视角效应的产生,两种机制的综合调节为解释视角效应提供新的角度。     

Nietzsche and the origin of the idea of modernism

This paper combines a phenomenological account of the types of causal transaction found in social reality with a critique of two theories, one structuralist and one Marxist, that contravene it. Part I argues that there are three types of causal transaction in social life in addition to physical causal transactions: people bringing about states of affairs by acting, states of affairs bringing about actions by inducing responses, and entities and states of affairs bringing about what makes sense to people to do by making certain factors determine this. It is also contended that social formations and structures cause actions and other social formations/structures only by way of participating in these types of transaction. The conditions under which this occurs are discussed. Part II criticizes Peter Blau's account of structural effects and Jean‐Paul Sartre's version of a materialist theory of history, two theories that either advocate or require causal transactions between social structures/ formations which do not reduce to transactions of the types described in Part I. The paper concludes by suggesting that social entities that make actions possible do not thereby cause them.