A Test of Evolutionary and Sociocultural Explanations of Reactions to Sexual Harassment

Although the field of evolutionary psychology has been perceived to generate predictions that are untestable, one potentially falsifiable prediction of the evolutionary approach is that women should be less upset by unwanted sexual advances from high than from low status men. Three experiments tested this hypothesis within a workplace and an academic setting. Across the first two experiments, women and men were actually more upset by perceived sexual harassment from higher than lower status members of the other sex. Results of Study 3 suggested that women only showed this difference when there was a power relationship involved. These results conflict with the evolutionary prediction and support a sociocultural explanation of reactions to sexual harassment; that is, that they are influenced by power differentials.     

Biological Sensitivity to Context

ABSTRACT— Conventional views suggest that exaggerated biological reactivity to stress is a harmful vestige of an evolutionary past in which threats to survival were more prevalent and severe. Recent evidence, however, indicates that effects of high reactivity on behavior and health are bivalent rather than univalent in character, exerting both risk-augmenting and risk-protective effects depending on the context. These observations suggest that heightened stress reactivity may reflect increased biological sensitivity to context, with potential for negative health effects under conditions of adversity and for positive effects under conditions of support. From an evolutionary perspective, the developmental plasticity of the stress-response systems, along with their structured, context-dependent effects, suggests that variation in these systems has been adaptively patterned to increase the capacity of children to match their stress-response profiles to anticipated developmental environments. Taken together, these theoretical perspectives generate a novel hypothesis: that there is a curvilinear, U-shaped relation between early exposures to adversity and the development of stress-reactive profiles, with high-reactivity phenotypes disproportionately emerging within both highly stressful and highly protected early social environments.     

Job burnout and job leaving in public school teachers: Implications for stress management

This study addressed the questions of whether selected teacher and organizational variables contributed to (a) significant amounts of variance in teachers' scores on three components of burnout, and (b) teachers' intentions to leave special education teaching. Study participants (N =490) included a sample of respondents to a survey of all of the 1096 special education teachers in Hawaii. Instruments used in this study included the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Porter Need Satisfaction Questionnaire, and the Special Education Teacher Survey. Results of multiple regression analyses indicated that for the burnout components, Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization, relatively large and significant amounts of variance could be accounted for by a set of predictor variables. For the third burnout component, Personal Accomplishment, the variance accounted for by a set of predictor variables was significant but small. Stepwise discriminant function analysis was used to distinguish between teachers who stated they did or did not intend to leave special education teaching. Eight variables were identified as predictors of Intention to leave special education teaching, correctly classifying 73% of teachers into the appropriate Yes-Leaving and No-Leaving groups.This research was conducted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the Doctoral dissertation by the first author.     

当代西方心理学的三种新取向及其比较

当代西方心理学界先后出现了后现代心理学、积极心理学和进化心理学等新的研究取向。这三种取向在对现代主义心理学反思和批判的基础上构建着各自的理论体系和研究视野,并对西方心理学产生了深刻的冲击和影响。本文综述了这三种取向的核心观点和基本特征,论证了它们对当代西方心理学研究的积极影响及存在的问题,主张反思的意义在于超越,不同取向的整合应基于宽容与对话。     

自我欺骗：通过欺骗自己更好地欺骗他人

心理学的研究几乎都把自欺看作一种个体特质, 主要探讨自欺对个体自身的作用。而在进化的理论框架中, 自欺是一种人际交往的策略, 目的是为了更好地欺骗其他个体。由于直接欺骗有可能被对方识破, 个体把自己欺骗之后就可以“诚实地”向对方传递错误信息而不被察觉。这就把自欺定义为人际间而非个体内的概念。本文系统地阐述人际间自欺的概念和思路, 并为之在心理学的研究中提出一套理论假设和研究方法。在理论上, 由于难以区别通过自欺的欺骗和直接的欺骗, 本文提出一系列假设和条件来证明自欺的存在, 这些条件包括欺骗双方的地位高低、道德高低、和人数多寡。因为自欺是用来应付高欺骗探测压力的, 上述条件可以反映被骗对象的欺骗探测能力的高低。在方法上, 本文提出采用两次回忆的方式来展现自欺, 第一次回忆时欺骗动机存在, 个体在诚实的状态下提供较少真实信息, 第二次回忆时欺骗动机消失, 个体可以提供较多真实信息, 通过比较两次回忆内容的差异来验证自欺的存在。这一操作方法突破了个体间自欺因缺乏操作定义而无法进行心理学研究的屏障, 为人们探讨人际间自欺提供了一条可行途径。     

论进化心理学的“心理机制”

“心理机制”是进化心理学的核心概念。对这一概念的理解直接影响着对整个进化心理学理论的理解。该文尝试从心理学其它相关学科的角度,对这一概念的性质进行充分的解读与分析,同时也指出进化心理学“心理机制”理论之明显误区,并在此基础上对进化心理学价值之所在给予充分的彰显。     

Adaptations to Ovulation

ABSTRACT— In socially monogamous species in which males heavily invest in offspring, there arises an inevitable genetic conflict between partners over whether investing males become biological fathers of their partners' offspring. Humans are such a species. The ovulatory-shift hypothesis proposes that changes in women's mate preferences and sexual interests across the cycle are footprints of this conflict. When fertile (mid-cycle), women find masculine bodily and behavioral features particularly sexy and report increased attraction to men other than current partners. Men are more vigilant of partners when the latter are fertile, which may reflect evolved counteradaptations. This adaptationist hypothesis has already generated several fruitful research programs, but many questions remain.     

童年压力及死亡威胁启动对择偶要求的影响

本实验从生命史理论出发, 研究童年期环境压力如何与当前环境中的压力线索相互作用并影响个体对异性的择偶要求。被试为70名大学本科生, 其中一部分被试被分配到死亡威胁启动组, 他们阅读一篇描述近期国内暴力犯罪及死亡率上升的新闻报道, 另一部分被试被分配到控制组, 他们阅读一篇描述一个人花了很长时间寻找遗失钱包的文章。被试自我报告对异性的理想择偶要求及其童年压力。控制了性别及恋爱状态后, 多元回归分析表明：童年压力与启动条件仅在身体吸引力的理想标准上有显著交互作用。其中, 低童年压力组在死亡威胁启动下对异性身体吸引力的理想标准显著高于控制条件, 而高童年压力组在死亡威胁启动下对异性身体吸引力的理想要求则显著低于控制条件。此外, 启动条件在异性做“好父母”的择偶标准上有显著主效应, 死亡威胁启动下的被试对异性做好父母的择偶标准高于控制组被试。而在对资源的择偶标准上既不存在童年压力和死亡威胁启动的主效应, 也不存在交互作用。研究说明童年压力与当前环境压力会影响个体对异性的择偶要求, 但对不同择偶要求的影响作用不同。     

Is Disgust Prepared? A Preliminary Examination in Young Children

Children may be prepared to associate adult disgust reactions with adult disgust elicitors. To test this, three-year olds (and adults) were presented with two images and an emotive vocalization. The images and vocalizations included stimuli adults found disgusting, fear-provoking, and sad. On one set of trials, the main dependent variable (DV) was time spent looking at each image and on a second set of repeat trials the DV was knowledge of image-sound matches. Fear and disgust vocalizations were both more effective at orienting a child's attention to adult fear and disgust images, than sad vocalizations. Parental disgust sensitivity was associated with this effect, moderated by explicit matching knowledge. Matching knowledge was poor in children and good in adults. These data suggest that in children, fear and disgust vocalizations may both promote attention to stimuli that adults find disgusting and/or fear-provoking, suggesting that “preparedness” may not be wholly emotion-specific.     

Reasoning Ability in Young Children

The astrological assumption of personality differences among individuals born under different sun signs was investigated. Significant differences were obtained between sun sign groups on four of the 18 scales of the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) as follows: Communality, Socialization, Flexibility, and Femininity. The overall pattern of results based on F ratios, multiple comparisons between means, and estimates of strength of association was interpreted as showing no meaningful relationships between sun sign and scores on Communality, Socialization, and Flexibility. Adopting even the most conservative standards of inference, however, all of the test statistics employed indicated a powerful effect on the Femininity scale. Implications for future research were discussed.     

国外关于进化心理学的研究

进化心理学是近年在西方心理学中出现的一种新的研究取向,目前仍没有一个明确的概念和系统的理论。其基本主张是：过去是理解心理机制的关键;功能分析是理解心理机制的主要途径;心理机制是在解决问题的过程中演化形成的模块性是心理机制整体组织的特性;人的行为是心理机制和环境互动作用的结果。进化心理学从诞生之日起,就引起了各种各样的争议,赞成者认为：①心理学会成为更多的达尔文主义的理论建构;②进化心理学将使心理学走向统一;③进化心理学向传统社会科学提出了挑战。反对者认为：①进化心理学是一种不成熟的科学;②进化心理学是一种貌似科学的研究取向。     

Are animacy effects in episodic memory independent of encoding instructions?

The adaptive view of human memory [Nairne, J. S. 2010. Adaptive memory: Evolutionary constraints on remembering. In B. H. Ross (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 53 pp. 1–32). Burlington: Academic Press; Nairne, J. S., & Pandeirada, J. N. S. 2010a. Adaptive memory: Ancestral priorities and the mnemonic value of survival processing. Cognitive Psychology, 61, 1–22, 2010b; Memory functions. In The Corsini encyclopedia of psychology and behavioral science, (Vol 3, 4th ed. pp. 977–979). Hokoben, NJ: John Wiley & Sons] assumes that animates (e.g., baby, rabbit presented as words or pictures) are better remembered than inanimates (e.g., bottle, mountain) because animates are more important for fitness than inanimates. In four studies, we investigated whether the animacy effect in episodic memory (i.e., the better remembering of animates over inanimates) is independent of encoding instructions. Using both a factorial (Studies 1 and 3) and a multiple regression approach (Study 2), three studies tested whether certain contexts drive people to attend to inanimate more than to animate things (or the reverse), and therefore lead to differential animacy effects. The findings showed that animacy effects on recall performance were observed in the grassland-survival scenario used by Nairne, Thompson, and Pandeirada (2007. Adaptive memory: Survival processing enhances retention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 33, 263–273) (Studies 1–3), when words were rated for their pleasantness (Study 2), and in explicit learning (Study 3). In the non-survival scenario of moving to a foreign land (Studies 1–2), animacy effects on recall rates were not reliable in Study 1, but were significant in Study 2, whereas these effects were reliable in the non-survival scenario of planning a trip as a tour guide (Study 3). A final (control) study (Study 4) was conducted to test specifically whether animacy effects are related to the more organised nature of animates than inanimates. Overall, the findings suggest that animacy effects are robust since they do not vary across different sets of encoding instructions (e.g., encoding for survival, preparing a trip and pleasantness).     

进化心理学取向与当代心理学

进化心理学以进化论为理论基础,用适应的观点来解释人类的心理机制及其行为方式。本文通过阐明进化心理学的产生背景,重点论述了进化心理学的思维方式及其与心理学主要学科分支的联系,并指出了进化心理学对当代心理学发展的影响。     

当代心理学发展的一种新取向--进化心理学

进化心理学是近年在西方心理学中出现的一种新的研究取向,目前仍没有一个明确的概念和系统的理论。其基本主张是：过去是理解心理机制的关键;功能分析是理解心理机制的主要途径;心理机制是在解决问题的过程中演化形成的;模块性是心理机制整体组织的特性;人的行为是心理机制和环境互动作用的结果。进化心理学的发展既有意义同时也存在局限。其意义是：其发展与当代科学发展趋势相一致;它的研究促进了对人性和心理的进一步思考。局限是：具有遗传决定论的倾向;方法论存在一定的缺陷,忽视了文化对进化的意义等等。