Asian social psychology: Looking in and looking out

The present paper examines the role, status and development of Asian social psychology from four perspectives: (i) looking back; (ii) looking in; (iii) looking out; and (iv) looking forward. Looking back elaborates early attempts to 'add Asians' to social psychology and replicate classic social psychological research in Asian contexts. Looking in describes more sophisticated developments in Asian social psychology including the indigenization of theory, methods and measurements. Looking out critically examines the position of Asian social psychology in the international arena and discusses its impact on the discipline more broadly. Finally, looking forward makes some cautious predictions about the future of Asian social psychology in both regional and international spheres.     

Learning by looking: Infants' social looking behavior across the transition from crawling to walking

This study investigated how infants gather information about their environment through looking and how that changes with increases in motor skills. In Experiment 1, 9.5- and 14-month-olds participated in a 10-min free play session with both a stranger and ambiguous toys present. There was a significant developmental progression from passive to active social engagement, as evidenced by younger infants watching others communicate more and older infants making more bids for social interaction. Experiment 2 examined longitudinally the impact of age and walking onset on this progression. The transition to independent walking marked significant changes in how often infants watched others communicate and made active bids for social interaction. Results suggest that infants transition from passive observers as crawlers to active participants in their social environment with the onset of walking.     

Selective social learning in infancy: looking for mechanisms

Although there is mounting evidence that selective social learning begins in infancy, the psychological mechanisms underlying this ability are currently a controversial issue. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether theory of mind abilities and statistical learning skills are related to infants’ selective social learning. Seventy‐seven 18‐month‐olds were first exposed to a reliable or an unreliable speaker and then completed a word learning task, two theory of mind tasks, and a statistical learning task. If domain‐general abilities are linked to selective social learning, then infants who demonstrate superior performance on the statistical learning task should perform better on the selective learning task, that is, should be less likely to learn words from an unreliable speaker. Alternatively, if domain‐specific abilities are involved, then superior performance on theory of mind tasks should be related to selective learning performance. Findings revealed that, as expected, infants were more likely to learn a novel word from a reliable speaker. Importantly, infants who passed a theory of mind task assessing knowledge attribution were significantly less likely to learn a novel word from an unreliable speaker compared to infants who failed this task. No such effect was observed for the other tasks. These results suggest that infants who possess superior social‐cognitive abilities are more apt to reject an unreliable speaker as informant. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/zuuCniHYzqo     

Peer conflict avoidance: associations with loneliness, social anxiety, and social avoidance

Failure to resolve peer conflict is associated with children's reports of loneliness, social anxiety, and social avoidance. Although these relationships are well established, researchers have not examined the association between the avoidance of peer conflict and various adjustment characteristics. The current study examined the association between avoidance of conflict and measures of loneliness, social anxiety, and social avoidance for 59 pupils in Grade 4 (31 boys and 28 girls) and 47 in Grade 8 (22 boys and 25 girls). Volunteers indicated that conflict avoidance based on autonomy, e.g., independence issues, and interpersonal issues, e.g., closeness and cohesion, was associated with scores on loneliness for boys and girls, respectively. Conflict avoidance for emotional and physical well-being and fear of punishment was associated with increased reports of loneliness and social anxiety for children in Grade 4.     

Cold-blooded loneliness: social exclusion leads to lower skin temperatures

Being ostracized or excluded, even briefly and by strangers, is painful and threatens fundamental needs. Recent work by Zhong and Leonardelli (2008) found that excluded individuals perceive the room as cooler and that they desire warmer drinks. A perspective that many rely on in embodiment is the theoretical idea that people use metaphorical associations to understand social exclusion (see Landau, Meier, & Keefer, 2010). We suggest that people feel colder because they are colder. The results strongly support the idea that more complex metaphorical understandings of social relations are scaffolded onto literal changes in bodily temperature: Being excluded in an online ball tossing game leads to lower finger temperatures (Study 1), while the negative affect typically experienced after such social exclusion is alleviated after holding a cup of warm tea (Study 2). The authors discuss further implications for the interaction between body and social relations specifically, and for basic and cognitive systems in general.     

Changes in peripheral social partners and loneliness over time: the moderating role of interdependence

We examined the relationships between age, changes in the number of peripheral partners, and changes in loneliness over 2 years among 365 Hong Kong Chinese aged 18-91 years. We also tested the moderating role of interdependent self-construal in the relationships. Results showed that the well-documented negative association between age and number of peripheral partners over time was only significant for individuals with low and medium interdependence but not for those with high interdependence. Moreover, only older and middle-aged adults high in interdependence benefitted from having more peripheral social partners by showing decreased loneliness in the 2-year interval.     

Gender differences in predicting loneliness from social network characteristics

In two studies we examined gender differences in predicting loneliness from measures of social network structure and a measure of perceived social support. The results showed that social network characteristics, especially density, were consistently better predictors of perceived loneliness for men than for women. Study 1 used the traditional measure of network density in which the number of relationships among network members was determined. Study 2 used a newly developed index of density that assessed the extent of closeness of relationships between pairs of network members. Uniformly, male subjects with more highly interconnected, cohesive sets of friends reported themselves to be less lonely, whereas density had little relation to loneliness in female subjects. These results are discussed as possibly indicating that men and women use different standards in evaluating whether they are lonely. It is suggested that men may use more group-oriented criteria in evaluating loneliness, whereas women focus more on the qualities of dyadic relationships.     

Thinking outside the cortex: social motivation in the evolution and development of language

Alteration of the organization of social and motivational neuroanatomical circuitry must have been an essential step in the evolution of human language. Development of vocal communication across species, particularly birdsong, and new research on the neural organization and evolution of social and motivational circuitry, together suggest that human language is the result of an obligatory link of a powerful cortico-striatal learning system, and subcortical socio-motivational circuitry.     

Investigating looking and social looking measures as an index of infant violation of expectation

Accumulated looking time has been widely used to index violation of expectation (VoE) response in young infants. But there is controversy concerning the validity of this measure, with some interpreting infant looking behaviour in terms of perceptual preferences (Cohen & Marks, 2002 ; Haith, 1998 ). The current study aimed to compare the use of looking time with a recently used measure of social looking (Walden et al., 2007 ) in distinguishing between 6‐month‐old infants’ response to novelty/familiarity and a condition in which the object was covertly switched for a different object. Following habituation, infants showed more social looking in response to the object‐switch condition than the novel object change, whereas the more commonly used accumulated looking time measure did not distinguish between the two, showing an increase for both. Thus, social looking is a more valid measure of infant VoE than looking time.     

How self-enhancers adapt well to loss: the mediational role of loneliness and social functioning

Objective: The tendency toward unrealistically optimistic self-serving biases, known as trait self-enhancement, has been associated with both adaptive benefits and negative social consequences. This study explored these potential benefits and costs in the context of conjugal bereavement. Method: The study included 94 individuals who had experienced the death of a spouse 1.5–3.0 years prior. The sample (62 female, 32 male) ranged in age from 37 to 60 (M = 51.45, SD = 6.08). To examine benefits, we used relatively objective measures of overall adjustment: structured clinical interviews and ratings from participants’ close friends and relatives. To examine social adjustment, we examined friends’/relatives’ ratings of the quality of social interactions and the possible mediating roles of perceived loneliness and friend/relative ratings. Results: Trait self-enhancement was uniformly associated with positive adjustment: relatively lower symptom totals, and friend/relative ratings of both overall better adjustment and better social adjustment. Self-enhancers’ low loneliness was found to mediate reduced symptoms. Also, friends’/relatives’ ratings of social functioning appeared to mediate self-enhancers’ reduced loneliness. Conclusions: These findings provide further empirical data to challenge the longstanding assumption that inaccurate self-perception is inherently maladaptive. Authentic benefits may result from mistaken perceptions of oneself by influencing the experience of loneliness and how one is seen by close friends/relatives. Self-enhancement may be an adaptation that provides clinically relevant advantages.     

The role of social support and self-esteem in the relationship between shyness and loneliness

This study aimed at examining the role of social support and self-esteem in the relationship between shyness and loneliness. The sample consisted of 399 college students, ranging in age from 18 to 30. Cheek and Buss shyness scale, multi-dimensional scale of perceived social support, Rosenberg self-esteem scale and emotional and social loneliness scale were used for data collection. Structural equation modeling showed partial mediation effects of social support and self-esteem between shyness and loneliness. Furthermore, a multi-group analysis found that shy male college students tend to have a more negative self-evaluation compared to their female counterparts. The results are discussed in terms of the conceptional context.     

On Enigmas and Oracles: looking back to the future

The Turing Day was held at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 28 June 2002.     

Economic deprivation,experiential deprivation and social loneliness in unemployed and employed youth

One hundred and forty‐eight youth were allocated to one of four occupational sub‐groups: 47 unemployed with no access to paid work; 32 unemployed with access to some paid work; 30 unemployed with access to regular paid work; and 39 full‐time employed. All participants were assessed for levels of Economic Deprivation, Experiential Deprivation, Social Loneliness and Psychological Distress. Results indicated that Economic Deprivation and Experiential Deprivation varied according to occupational status, with those full‐time employed having the least deprivation and those not attached to the work‐force experiencing the most. Levels of deprivation were related to levels of Psychological Distress. Social Loneliness also varied across the occupational groupings. The unemployed with access to regular paid work experienced the least Social Loneliness; the unemployed with no paid work experienced the most. Lastly, both Economic and Experiential Deprivation were able to predict Psychological Distress; only Experiential Deprivation was able to predict Social Loneliness. Results are discussed in the context of Jahoda's ( 1982 ) deprivation model and Weiss's ( 1973 , 1974 ) social loneliness model. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Friendship quality,social preference,proximity prestige,and self-perceived social competence: Interactive influences on children's loneliness

The purpose of this study was to test an integrative model in which peer relations at different levels of social complexity (friendship quality, social preference, and proximity prestige) are associated with children's loneliness, with children's self-perceived social competence acting as a mediator of these associations. A middle childhood sample of 509 Chinese children (233 girls and 276 boys; 3rd to 6th grade) completed a battery of sociometric and self-report questionnaires. Bootstrap analysis showed that self-perceived social competence mediated the relations between each peer variable and loneliness. In the integrative model tested with SEM, the mediating effect of self-perceived social competence in the relation between friendship quality and loneliness and between social preference and loneliness remained significant. However, self-perceived social competence no longer mediated the association between proximity prestige and loneliness, when considering the simultaneous influences of the three peer variables (friendship quality, social preference, and proximity prestige). The whole model accounted for 56% of the variance in loneliness. These findings suggest that self-perceived social competence played an important role in children's loneliness, that the quality and the quantity of direct peer relations (friendship quality, social preference, and part of proximity prestige) were associated with loneliness, and that indirect friends had a relatively lower but significant influence on children's loneliness. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for preventing children's loneliness.     

Online communication and social well‐being: how playing World of Warcraft affects players' social competence and loneliness

This study was designed to examine the effects of playing the online game World of Warcraft (WoW) on adolescents' social competence and loneliness, and to investigate the underlying mechanisms of the Internet‐affected social compensation hypothesis. The hypothesis states that being online affects adolescents' social competence as a result of a variety of communication partners and identity experiments online. A survey was conducted among 790 high school students. There appeared to be no direct effect between playing WoW and adolescents' social competence and loneliness. We did find an indirect effect via variety of communication partners. Adolescents who play WoW vary more in their communication partners, leading to an increase of social competence and a decrease of loneliness.