社会人格取向的成人依恋研究

国外有关成人依恋的研究大致可以分为两大类：发展临床取向和社会人格取向,文章简要概述了两种取向的差异,并重点从社会人格取向的角度介绍了有关成人依恋的内部工作模型表征的社会认知研究和情绪调节策略的依恋类型差异的研究,以及成人依恋对亲密人际关系中目标信念、沟通和自我表露、归因和冲突解决、支持寻求和照顾行为等的影响研究。最后展望了该领域未来研究的趋势和方向。     

成人参与学习的动机研究

本文通过编制成人参与学习的动机量表,对我国成人参与学习活动的动机取向及其相关因素进行分析。发现成人参与学习主要有求知兴趣、职业发展、服务社会、外界期望四个动机取向类型;动机取向与年龄、教育程度、从事职业、收人等因素均存在相关。     

成人依恋、情绪调节与主观幸福感:重新评价和表达抑制的中介作用

通过对1163名大学生被试进行成人依恋关系、情绪调节策略的使用以及主观幸福感的测查,该研究从情绪调节这一新的视角,深入探讨了成人依恋对主观幸福感产生影响的可能机制。结果发现:重新评价策略的使用在依恋安全对主观幸福感影响中具有重要的中介作用;依恋回避直接影响个体的主观幸福感;表达抑制对主观幸福感影响不显著。这些结果表明重新评价策略的使用是成人依恋关系影响个体主观幸福感的一个重要途径。     

三校大学生竞争／合作策略取向的特点及影响因素

为研究大学生竞争／合作策略取向的特点及影响因素,采用”合作与竞争策略标度”量表对144名大学生进行测查,并从能力变量、期望变量及背景变量进一步研究其影响因素。结果表明大学生竞争策略均分值普遍显著高于合作策略均分值,提示学生更崇尚竞争策略;女生的竞争策略均分值明显高于男生分值,表现出策略取向的性别差异。通过相关分析和多元逐步回归分析,表明学习能力、总体能力与父母期望对学生的竞争策略取向有一定的预测性,而性别和母亲受教育程度可部分预测学生合作策略取向。     

中国籍留学生跨文化适应与生涯适应的关系:职业探索的中介作用

采用跨文化适应取向量表、职业探索行为量表、生涯适应力量表,对141名有海外留学经历的中国籍留学生进行了调查,探讨海外留学经历对其生涯发展的影响路径。结果显示:(1)无论采取国民取向还是族裔取向的跨文化适应策略,留学经历均显著正向影响中国留学生的职业探索行为和生涯适应力。(2)职业探索行为对其生涯适应力有很强的预测作用,并中介了跨文化适应行为对生涯适应力的影响:其中对国民倾向适应策略起到了全部中介作用;对族裔倾向适应策略则起到了部分中介作用。     

两难对策中价值取向对群体合作行为的影响

采用实验室方法,通过两难对策任务的情景模拟,研究群体成员的价值取向对群体合作行为的影响。62名被试参加了实验。结果发现：（1）群体合作行为受到群体成员价值取向的影响,合作型成员会产生更多的群体合作行为;（2）群体的合作行为也受到合作者对策策略的影响,对应策略将导致最多的群体合作行为;（3）两者的交互作用对群体的合作行为具有影响,但不显著。     

控制还是适应:次级控制研究的两种取向

次级控制是人在控制动机受威胁时的一种应对策略,它最初被定义为个体试图适应世界,顺应形势的过程.该概念在发展中被赋予了不同的解释,产生了所谓控制取向与适应取向的分歧.这两种取向在次级控制与首要控制的关系,次级控制与控制感的关系,以及次级控制的跨文化一致性问题上存在着分歧.近年来补偿性控制模型与健康领域的次级控制研究分别在概念上和功能上提供了整合两取向的可能性.未来研究应致力于进一步整合两取向的定义,扩展其研究的视野,并通过更多地使用实验法,来加强对其影响因素的研究.     

不同生活取向学生的应对策略与自我概念

对515名初中生进行生活取向、应对策略和自我概念调查,探讨不同生活取向者的应对策略和自我概念特征,以及不同类型中应对策略与自我概念的关系.分析结果发现,在不同生活取向类型中乐观主义者占优势;不同生活取向者间的应对策略和自我概念存在显著差异;不同生活取向类型中积极应对与自我概念有密切关系,消极应对与自我概念相关不显著.     

中央执行负荷对成人估算策略运用的影响

随机选取128名大学生为被试, 运用选择/无选法研究范式, 考察了不同中央执行负荷对估算策略运用的影响。结果发现：(1)中央执行负荷不影响策略分布; (2)策略运用条件、中央执行负荷影响策略执行。主次一致任务, 负荷对策略执行反应时的影响随负荷强度增大而增大, 对策略执行精确度影响不大; 而对主次不一致任务, 低负荷对策略执行反应时及精确度影响都不明显; (3)策略运用条件、中央执行负荷影响策略选择。负荷强度对策略选择反应时起重要作用, 只有当次级任务负荷高时, 干扰作用才明显; (4)成人的策略选择适应性受负荷强度的影响。无负荷条件下个体策略适应性更好。     

算术策略运用能力的年龄差异：元认知监测与算术知识的作用

采用选择/无选法,以估算与精确心算为研究任务,考察了元认知监测与算术知识影响个体算术计算策略选择与执行的年龄相关差异。129名不同年龄儿童与成人被试参加实验。结果发现：（1）算术知识对儿童及成人的估算复杂策略有促进作用,并对提升他们心算策略运用的速度和减少错误有作用;（2）元认知监测显著影响儿童的估算策略选择,能够促进使用最佳策略;（3）算术知识在估算及心算策略执行的年龄差异方面起完全中介作用,元认知监测则在估算策略选择的年龄发展中起部分中介作用;（4）算术知识对元认知监测在估算及心算策略执行上的作用起完全中介作用,而对估算的策略选择则不存在中介作用,这表明元认知监测在估算策略选择上具有举足轻重的地位。     

Primary and Secondary Control Over Age-Related Changes in Physical Appearance

Beliefs about appearance-related changes due to aging were used to test the effects of perceived control and secondary control (acceptance) in a sample of 412 young, early-middle-age, and late-middle-age college-educated adults. Mean difference in aging-related appearance control and hypotheses regarding the adaptiveness of primary and secondary control were examined. Primary control over aging-related appearance was lower in older adults and secondary control was higher. In addition, the results indicated support for the Primacy/Back-Up Model that primary perceived control is important at all levels of actual control. Those with stronger beliefs in their primary control were less distressed. Secondary control served a back-up function in that it was related to less distress only for those who had medium or lower beliefs in primary control. The implications of these findings, that primary control may be advantageous even in low-control circumstances, are discussed.     

Consequences of customer powerlessness: Secondary control

• This research investigated the consequences of powerlessness when consumers experience service failure with a company that has high‐exit barriers. The specific consequences investigated were three types of secondary control, which are grudge‐holding, avoidance (predictive avoidance), and retaliation desire. These secondary control coping strategies highlight consumers' ability to control their personal behaviors and thoughts, even when they cannot completely control the outcomes of a situation. A qualitative study, followed by a scenario‐based survey and structural equation model, suggest that the primary direct consequences of powerlessness in commercial relationships are grudge‐holding and predictive avoidance, and that both predictive avoidance and a desire to retaliate are further consequences of grudge‐holding. The results of this research underscore the importance of understanding the role of powerlessness and its consequences in consumer–firm relationships.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Aging and prejudice: Diminished regulation of automatic race bias among older adults

A popular view holds that older adults are more prejudiced than younger adults because they grew up in a less tolerant era. An alternative view proposes that aging corresponds with stronger prejudice among older adults because they have reduced capacity to inhibit biased associations that come to mind automatically. To independently assess these possibilities, we modeled the processes underlying implicit racial attitudes in samples of teenagers through people in their nineties. Results indicated that older adults showed greater implicit bias because they were less able to regulate the automatic associations they possessed, not because of holding stronger associations in the first place. These findings suggest that age-related increases in racial biases, even those that are implicit, may be due to self-regulatory failure of older adults, rather than to cohort effects.     

Age-related changes in grip force and dynamics of hand movement

The authors investigated whether older adults (n = 16; mean age = 65 years) increased grip force to compensate for load force fluctuations during up and down movements more than young adults did (n = 16; mean age = 24 years) and whether older and young adults exhibited similar adaptation of grip force to alterations in friction associated with changes in object surface texture. As previously reported, older adults used a higher level of grip force than young adults during static holding. Increased grip force was observed in the older group during movement. The increase was appropriate to the lower coefficient of friction estimated for the older group. In both groups, grip force was greater with a smooth than with a rough surface (the latter having the higher coefficient of friction) during static holding and during movement. Moreover, grip force modulation was equally well synchronized with load force fluctuation during movement in the two groups. The authors concluded that changes in organization of grip force with age are well adapted to change in hand-object interface properties. Elevated grip force in older adults does not necessarily signify a fundamental change in synchronizing grip force modulation with load force fluctuation.     

Perceived Control’s Influence on Wellbeing in Residential Care Versus Community Dwelling Older Adults

As people age and their control capacity presumably declines, it is argued that the influence of acceptance (or secondary perceived control) increases to help maintain normative levels of wellbeing. While previous studies have typically investigated the relationship between perceived control and global estimates of life satisfaction in community samples, the present study compared the link between perceived control and eight key domains of satisfaction in 101 older adults (65+ years) living in the community and 101 older adults (65+ years) living in residential aged-care. The findings supported the theory that stability in satisfaction and primary perceived control may, in part, be facilitated by a growing acceptance of what cannot be changed. Despite assumptions that old age is associated with lower primary control, particularly when living in an aged-care facility, the data did not indicate that primary perceived control was suppressed as a result of living in residential age-care. The results did indicate, however, that primary and secondary perceived control may predict satisfaction with comparable strength under low-control conditions, and that acceptance takes more of a prime position in low control situations in later life.     

The effects of aging on selectivity and control in short-term recall

The ability to control encoding and retrieval processing strategically is critical for the efficient use of memory. We examined the ability of younger and older adults to selectively remember words on the basis of their arbitrary point values by using a technique developed by Watkins and Bloom (1999). In the first three experiments, younger subjects recalled more words than did older subjects, but an independent index of recall selectivity showed that older subjects were apparently more successful in selecting higher valued words. However, a fourth experiment showed that this superior selectivity on the part of older adults was attributable to their greater proportional reliance on primary memory recall. Overall, the data suggest that although older adults recall fewer words than do younger adults, they exert as much control over some aspects of encoding.     

Age-Related Changes in Grip Force and Dynamics of Hand Movement

The authors investigated whether older adults (n = 16; mean age = 65 years) increased grip force to compensate for load force fluctuations during up and down movements more than young adults did (n = 16; mean age = 24 years) and whether older and young adults exhibited similar adaptation of grip force to alterations in friction associated with changes in object surface texture. As previously reported, older adults used a higher level of grip force than young adults during static holding. Increased grip force was observed in the older group during movement. The increase was appropriate to the lower coefficient of friction estimated for the older group. In both groups, grip force was greater with a smooth than with a rough surface (the latter having the higher coefficient of friction) during static holding and during movement. Moreover, grip force modulation was equally well synchronized with load force fluctuation during movement in the two groups. The authors concluded that changes in organization of grip force with age are well adapted to change in hand-object interface properties. Elevated grip force in older adults does not necessarily signify a fundamental change in synchronizing grip force modulation with load force fluctuation.     

The relationship between executive function and fine motor control in young and older adults

The present study examined the relationship between executive function (EF) and fine motor control in young and older healthy adults. Participants completed 3 measures of executive function; a spatial working memory (SWM) task, the Stockings of Cambridge task (planning), and the Intra-Dimensional Extra-Dimensional Set-Shift task (set-shifting). Fine motor control was assessed using 3 subtests of the Purdue Pegboard (unimanual, bimanual, sequencing). For the younger adults, there were no significant correlations between measures of EF and fine motor control. For the older adults, all EFs significantly correlated with all measures of fine motor control. Three separate regressions examined whether planning, SWM and set-shifting independently predicted unimanual, bimanual, and sequencing scores for the older adults. Planning was the primary predictor of performance on all three Purdue subtests. A multiple-groups mediation model examined whether planning predicted fine motor control scores independent of participants’ age, suggesting that preservation of planning ability may support fine motor control in older adults. Planning remained a significant predictor of unimanual performance in the older age group, but not bimanual or sequencing performance. The findings are discussed in terms of compensation theory, whereby planning is a key compensatory resource for fine motor control in older adults.     

The effects of mothers' past infant-holding preferences on their adult children's face processing lateralisation

Face processing development is negatively affected when infants have not been exposed to faces for some time because of congenital cataract blocking all vision (Le Grand, Mondloch, Maurer, & Brent, 2001). It is not clear, however, whether more subtle differences in face exposure may also have an influence. The present study looked at the effect of the mother's preferred side of holding an infant, on her adult child's face processing lateralisation. Adults with a mother who had a left-arm preference for holding infants were compared with adults with a mother who had a right-arm holding preference. All participants were right-handed and had been exclusively bottle-fed during infancy. The participants were presented with two chimeric faces tests, one involving emotion and the other one gender. The left-arm held individuals showed a normal left-bias on the chimeric face tests, whereas the right-arm held individuals a significantly decreased left-bias. The results might suggest that reduced exposure to high quality emotional information on faces in infancy results in diminished right-hemisphere lateralisation for face processing.     

Word learning does not end at fast-mapping: evolution of verb meanings through reorganization of an entire semantic domain

This paper explores the process through which children sort out the relations among verbs belonging to the same semantic domain. Using a set of Chinese verbs denoting a range of action events that are labeled by carrying or holding in English as a test case, we looked at how Chinese-speaking 3-, 5-, and 7-year-olds and adults apply 13 different verbs to a range of carrying/holding events. We asked how children learning Chinese originally divide and label the semantic space in this domain, how they discover the boundaries between different words, and how the meanings of verbs in the domain as a whole evolve toward the representations of adults. We also addressed the question of what factors make verb meaning acquisition easy or hard. Results showed that the pattern of children’s verb use is largely different from that of adults and that it takes a long time for children to be able to use all verbs in this domain in the way adults do. We also found that children start to use broad-covering and frequent verbs the earliest, but use of these verbs tends to converge on adult use more slowly because children could not use these verbs as adults did until they had identified boundaries between these verbs and other near-synonyms with more specific meanings. This research highlights the importance of systematic investigation of words that belong to the same domain as a whole, examining how word meanings in a domain develop as parts of a connected system, instead of examining each word on its own: learning the meaning of a verb invites restructuring of the meanings of related, neighboring verbs.