Chinese students in Japan: The mediator and the moderator between their personality and mental health

To clarify the influence of personality traits on the psychological acculturation of Chinese international students in Japan, the present study used three structuring questions: (a) What personality trait makes the students vulnerable to psychological distress? (b) What mediates between personality and psychological distress? (c) What buffers personality from psychological distress? The study examined personality traits (Harm‐Avoidance, HA; and Self‐Directedness, SD; two dimensions of the Temperament and Character Inventory), acculturation attitudes (integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalization), and the mental health (General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)‐30) of 253 Chinese students in Japan (17–30 years of age) using self‐report questionnaires. The hypotheses are: For the Chinese international students in Japan, (a) the individuals with high HA or low SD are more vulnerable to psychological distress; (b) the acculturation strategy mediates between personality (HA/SD) and mental health (GHQ); (c) social support can moderate the effect of personality on acculturation adaptation. The results show that the Chinese international students in Japan had higher GHQ scores compared to normative standards, and marginalization (a less adaptive strategy) was their second most preferred acculturation strategy, next to integration. Individuals with high HA or low SD were more likely to have a marginalization attitude and suffer from more psychological distress. The mediation effect of marginalization and the moderation effect of social support in life (SSL) between HA/SD and GHQ were confirmed. Most of the hypotheses were supported by the results. Explanations of these findings and their implication for acculturation adaptation are discussed.     

“My Family Would Crucify Me!”: The Perceived Influence of Social Pressure on Cross-Cultural and Interfaith Dating and Marriage

The present study examined the perceived influence of parental and social pressure on individuals’ perceptions regarding cross-cultural and interfaith dating and marriage. The questions of interest were: (1) What is the influence of parental attitudes towards interfaith and cross-cultural relationships? (2) How do the participants feel it impacts upon them? And lastly, (3) How do the participants predict they will respond to their children’s choice of such relationships? Fifty-five university students with diverse backgrounds participated in this study. The findings indicate that the majority of the participants were influenced by the social pressure put upon them. Moreover, the participants perceived the previous generation as “racist”. However, interestingly there are signs of a generational attitude shift. Finally, the findings show that over 80 % of the participants did not want to interfere in their children’s partner selection. The remaining 20 % were against interfaith and cross-cultural dating and marriages.     

How Should What Economists Call “Social Values” Be Measured?

Most economists and some philosophers distinguish individual utilities from interpersonal social values. Even if challenges to that conceptual distinction can be met, further philosophically interesting questions arise. I pursue three in this paper, using, as context for the discussion, health economics and its attempt to discern empirically a social welfare function to help guide rationing decisions. (1) To discern these utilities and values in a manner that is morally appropriate if they are to influence rationing decisions, who should be queried? To discern individual health state utilities, persons in precisely those states should be asked (generically, “patients”), but for social values, representatives of the general public should be. (2) To discern social values, what should representatives of the public be asked? They should be asked “person trade-off” (PTO) questions that encompass their own self-interest, not PTO questions that focus only on others. (3) What must public representatives understand before they respond to such questions? Despite the philosophically complex problem of patient adaptation, they should understand (among other things) the health state utilities elicited from actual patients with the conditions at issue.     

Accounting for the effects of accountability

This article reviews the now extensive research literature addressing the impact of accountability on a wide range of social judgments and choices. It focuses on 4 issues: (a) What impact do various accountability ground rules have on thoughts, feelings, and action? (b) Under what conditions will accountability attenuate, have no effect on, or amplify cognitive biases? (c) Does accountability alter how people think or merely what people say they think? and (d) What goals do accountable decision makers seek to achieve? In addition, this review explores the broader implications of accountability research. It highlights the utility of treating thought as a process of internalized dialogue; the importance of documenting social and institutional boundary conditions on putative cognitive biases; and the potential to craft empirical answers to such applied problems as how to structure accountability relationships in organizations.     

居住流动性对心理行为的影响

居住流动性,指某时期个体搬迁的次数或某区域居民搬迁的比率。本文从居住流动性引起社会环境变化入手,综述其心理影响。对儿童/青少年,搬迁中断了成长所需的关键社会环境,影响自我调节、认知能力、情感与群体行为等。对成年人,搬迁使社会环境陌生化、所属群体变换频繁,影响心理健康、人际交往、自我概念和群体认同等。随后,就成年前、后研究的关系、居住流动性对利己行为的影响及国内居住流动性研究的未来方向进行了讨论。     

社会网络视角下的同伴关系与心理健康

近年来, 从社会网络视角考察同伴关系与心理健康的相互作用正成为发展心理学和健康心理学研究的热点。研究者多借助整体网和纵向数据, 通过两种作用机制, 即选择过程(selection process) (强调心理和行为变量对社会网络和同伴关系的影响, 如关系的形成、维持和解除)和影响过程(influence process) (强调社会网络和同伴关系对心理和行为变量的影响), 来分析同伴关系与心理健康协同演进的动态过程。实证研究关注的领域集中在青少年健康风险行为(如吸烟、喝酒、药物滥用)和情绪问题(如抑郁、焦虑、孤独感)。未来研究应该注重拓展社会网络的类型和样本、加强理论建构、增加对积极心理和消极关系的研究, 并有望在互联网领域及社会网络的生物学基础等方面取得进展。     

Managed Care, Catholic Vision, and the Claims of Justice

There are numerous challenges posed to Roman Catholic healthcare institutions by recent developments in health care delivery.Some are practical, involving the acceptable limits of accommodationto and collaboration with secular networks of health care delivery.Others, quite often implicated in the first set, are explicitlytheological. What does it mean to be a distinctively Roman Catholichealth care institution? What are the nature and the scope ofRoman Catholic institutional identity? More broadly, what isthe moral relevance of themes in Roman Catholic social teachingto the provision of health care? This issue of Christian Bioethicsaddresses these questions with a spirited exchange among itsauthors. They offer noticeably different perspectives on thegeneral cogency of Roman Catholic social teaching and differentstrategic recommendations for Roman Catholic institutions tomaintain, or recover, their distinctive presence in health caredelivery.     

Social isolation, psychological health, and protective factors in adolescence

This study investigates the relationships among social isolation, psychological health, and protective factors in adolescents. Feelings of social isolation may influence psychological health in adolescents, but protective factors such as family connectedness, school connectedness, and academic achievement may also play a key role. The sample included 4,746 adolescents from 31 middle and high schools. Participants responded to 221 survey questions regarding peer relationships, psychological health, school connectedness, family relationships, and academic achievement. The findings revealed that social isolation was associated with an increased risk for depressive symptoms, suicide attempts, and low self-esteem. Protective factors influenced associations between social isolation and psychological health. Implications for prevention such as building healthy peer relationships, promoting family connectedness, and developing school-based interventions are discussed.     

Sensitizing Questions: A Method to Facilitate Analyzing the Meaning of an Utterance

Much social science research entails interpreting the meaning of utterances, that is, phrases spoken, written or gestured. But how should researchers interpret the meaning of such utterances? A recent surge of research, informed by dialogism, emphasizes the contextual, social and unfinished nature of meaning. The present article operationalizes dialogism theory into six ‘sensitizing questions’ which can guide analysis. The questions are: (1) What is the context? (2) What is the speaker doing? (3) Who is being addressed? (4) Who is doing the talking? (5) What future is constituted? (6) What are the responses? Each question (and 16 sub-questions) is illustrated by analyzing the potential meanings of a single utterance. The article is a contribution to the development of new forms of ‘method’ for interpretative qualitative research. These methods aid the ‘human instrument’ to become a sensitive, theoretically-informed, and accountable analyst.     

Facebook Infidelity: When Poking Becomes Problematic

Recent research has focused on the Internet and relationships; however, little attention has been given to the specific role of social networking sites in relationship betrayal. Exploring the processes related to discovery of Facebook infidelity behaviors adds another layer to understanding Internet infidelity and highlights the behaviors unique to Facebook infidelity. Stories about cheating (N = 90), taken from the website FacebookCheating.com were analyzed using grounded theory methodology to create a process model of discovery. Researchers sought to answer four questions: (1) What is the experience of nonparticipating partners when their partners have engaged in infidelity behaviors on Facebook? (2) What are the basic social processes that occur when discovering the infidelity behaviors? And, (3) What are the basic psychological processes that occur? (4) What similarities or differences exist between the current research on offline and online infidelity and the process model from the current study? The categories are arranged in a process model, which depicts these processes as well as the emotional experience of the nonparticipating partner. The model highlights important phases through which the nonparticipating partner cycled following the discovery of the infidelity. These include appraising the boundary damage, acting on the appraisal, and making a decision about the relationship. Suggestions for clinical intervention based on this process are provided. Future research implications are also discussed.     

Commentary: Why Do Research on Spirituality and Health, and What Do the Results Mean?

I address two related questions in this article. First, why conduct research on religion/spirituality (R/S) and health? Second, what are the dangers of misinterpreting or misapplying the results from such research? If relationships are found, so what? What is the practical value or clinical relevance of such information? Why should investigators spend time and scarce financial resources to explore such connections? What might health care professionals do differently as a result? How would people live their lives differently in light of such information? Questions like these need solid answers for the field to continue to move forward. Related to the "So what?" question is the issue of how results from research in this area are translated into popular understanding and application. After discussing why conducting research on religion and health is important, I identify a recently published research report that focuses on the relationship between R/S and self-control, an article that received considerable media press coverage. I present the results reported by the authors of this study and then examine a column written about the study that appeared in the New York Times. Finally, I explore what the findings mean, how the media portrayed the findings, and problems that might result depending on how people applied those findings.     

Placing Community Psychology in the Context of the Social, Health and Educational Sciences: Directions for Interdisciplinary Research and Action

Building on Maton, Perkins and Saegert’s framework on inter-disciplinary work related to community psychology, this article addresses two questions about community psychology in the context of the social, health and educational sciences: (1) What can community psychology learn from other disciplines? and (2) What can community psychology uniquely contribute to other disciplines?     

自我建构对口碑两极分化产品偏好的影响及作用机制

口碑两极分化的产品, 指那些被许多消费者评价好的同时又被其他许多消费者评价不好的产品。随着个性化消费时代的到来, 满足个性化需求的产品遭受褒贬不一的口碑越来越普遍。当面临口碑两极分化的产品, 消费者如何认知? 哪些因素会影响消费者对口碑两极分化产品的偏好? 其中间机制与边界条件是什么? 回答这些问题对企业有效开展营销具有重要意义。口碑两极分化会提高消费者的购物风险感知, 引发“冲突”联想, 同时还可能使得消费者对目标产品产生感知独特性。这些特征契合了自我建构理论中独立型自我建构与依存型自我建构个体在独特性需求、冲突解决风格与调节定向方面的行为差异, 因而自我建构是影响口碑两极分化产品偏好的重要前因变量, 且独特性需求、冲突解决风格与调节定向是三条中介路径。购物风险水平、购物任务情境、消费场合公开性以及产品类型是以上中介效应的边界条件。     

A multilevel framework for understanding relationships among traits,states, situations and behaviours

A conceptual and analytic framework for understanding relationships among traits, states, situations, and behaviours is presented. The framework assumes that such relationships can be understood in terms of four questions. (1) What are the relationships between trait and state level constructs, which include psychological states, the situations people experience and behaviour? (2) What are the relationships between psychological states, between states and situations and between states and behaviours? (3) How do such state level relationships vary as a function of trait level individual differences? (4) How do the relationships that are the focus of questions 1, 2, and 3 change across time? This article describes how to use multilevel random coefficient modelling (MRCM) to examine such relationships. The framework can accommodate different definitions of traits and dispositions (Allportian, processing styles, profiles, etc.) and different ways of conceptualising relationships between states and traits (aggregationist, interactionist, etc.). Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Who talks? The social psychology of illness support groups

More Americans try to change their health behaviors through self-help than through all other forms of professionally designed programs. Mutual support groups, involving little or no cost to participants, have a powerful effect on mental and physical health, yet little is known about patterns of support group participation in health care. What kinds of illness experiences prompt patients to seek each other's company? In an effort to observe social comparison processes with real-world relevance, support group participation was measured for 20 disease categories in 4 metropolitan areas (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas) and on 2 on-line forums. Support seeking was highest for diseases viewed as stigmatizing (e.g., AIDS, alcoholism, breast and prostate cancer) and was lowest for less embarrassing but equally devastating disorders, such as heart disease. The authors discuss implications for social comparison theory and its applications in health care.     

Risk and Religion: Toward a Theology of Risk Taking

Historically the concept of risk is rooted in Renaissance lifestyles, in which autonomous agents such as sailors, warriors, and tradesmen ventured upon dangerous enterprises. Thus, the concept of risk inseparably combines objective reality (nature) and social construction (culture): Risk = Danger + Venture. Mathematical probability theory was constructed in this social climate in order to provide a quantitative risk assessment in the face of indeterminate futures. Thus we have the famous formula: Risk = Probability (of events) × the Size (of future harms). Because the concept of harm is always observer relative, however, risk assessment cannot be purely quantitative. This leads to the question, What are the general conditions under which risks can be accepted? There is, after all, a difference between incurring a risk and bearing the costs of risks selected for by other agencies. Against this background, contours of a theology of risk emerge. If God creates a self‐organizing world of relatively autonomous agents, and if self‐organization is favored by cooperative networks of autopoietic processes, then the theological hypothesis of a risk‐taking God is at least initially plausible. Moreover, according to the Christian idea of incarnation, God is not only taking a risk but is also bearing the risks implied by the openness of creation. I thus argue for a twofold divine kenosis—in creation as well as in redemption. I discuss some objections to this view, including the serious counterargument that risk taking on behalf of others remains, even for God, a morally dubious task. What are the conditions under which the notion of a risk‐taking God can be affirmed without leaving us with the picture of God as an arbitrary, cosmic tyrant? And what are the practical implications for the ways in which human agents of faith, hope, and love can learn to cope with the risks of everyday life and of political decisions?     

Personality as Risk and Resilience in Physical Health

ABSTRACT— Research on the association between personality characteristics and subsequent physical health has produced several consistent findings and identified other tentative relationships. Chronic anger/hostility and neuroticism/negative affectivity are the best established personality risk factors for poor health. Optimism, social dominance, and other traits also appear to influence risk. Several mechanisms have been identified as possibly underlying these effects, but few have been evaluated definitively. Future research may be well served by incorporation of concepts and methods from current personality research.     

Developmental theories of parental contributors to antisocial behavior

In view of the increased interest in a developmental approach to psychopathology, and mounting evidence of the importance of parent-child interactions in the etiology of early antisocial behavior, the following questions were posed for this review. What theories of parent-child relationships and family management techniques are available? How developmental are they, how specific and transactional are they relative to parent and child behaviors involved? And how well do they cover the period in which antisocial behavior develops? Six theories have some developmental features but the attachment theories (by L. A. Sroufe, B. Egeland, and M. T. Greenberg) and two social learning theories (by G. R. Patterson and J. Martin) are most clearly developmental. They postulate reciprocal interactions of parent and child, and transformations in the form of normative changes in the child or changes in family processes. The social learning theories of Patterson and Martin are most specific, microanalytic in fact, as to the interaction processes involved, and the attachment theories at least specify kinds of behavior involved and also do not rely on traits or types of influence as their units of analysis. Conceptualization is most weak and overly general between late infancy and the preschool years. This gap makes it difficult to link attachment and social learning theories, both of which have driven a large number of studies. A bridging theory is offered to link the two sets of theories in the critical period involved.     

Social control, health risk taking, and psychological distress among the elderly

Most research on older adults' social networks has focused on the support-providing function of social relationships. Little gerontological research has addressed social control, or the role of social bonds in regulating deviant or risky behavior. Drawing on sociological theory, this study examined the hypothesis that social control discourages risky health practices while provoking psychological distress. Structured interviews conducted with 162 community-residing older adults assessed social control (direct attempts by other to influence participants' health practices and the existence of significant role obligations to others), health risk taking (medication misuse, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, and the overall level of unsound health practices), psychological functioning (depression, loneliness, and self-esteem), and interpersonal satisfaction (satisfaction with friends and family members). Analyses revealed little support for the hypothesis. Social control was only weakly related to participants' health practices and, contrary to expectation, was generally related to less psychological distress and to greater interpersonal satisfaction. Implications for social control theory and for further research are addressed.     

Romantic relationships: do socially anxious individuals benefit?

Psychological health and interpersonal functioning mutually influence each other. Social anxiety has a pervasive effect on interpersonal functioning, resulting in smaller social networks, increased likelihood of being single or divorced, and less intimacy in relationships. However, little is known about how relationships affect socially anxious individuals in return. We utilized a structured interview to assess how romantic relationships were perceived as influencing three aspects of psychological health (well-being, social anxiety and comfort in social situations) and whether these patterns differed as a function of social anxiety in an undergraduate sample. The perceived importance of several reasons for these effects, including those that could be characterized as both protective and harmful, was also assessed. Relationships were perceived as having contributed positively in each domain. However, when positive and negative reasons were examined separately, socially anxious individuals reported benefiting more from the positive reasons and being harmed more by negative reasons. Further, social anxiety was associated with endorsing certain reasons as important.