Writer's block in a Chinese sample

To assess whether writer's block occurs in languages other than English, a Chinese language translation of Rose's Writer's Block questionnaire was administered to 98 university students in Taiwan. Analysis suggests that writer's block occurs for Chinese students, and, as in English, it is related to premature editing and to a lack of strategies for dealing with complex writing tasks.     

A new Visual Aesthetic Sensitivity Test—IV. Cross-cultural comparisons between a Chinese sample from Singapore and an English sample

The Visual Aesthetic Sensitivity Test was applied to 1097 Chinese Ss in Singapore, and to 784 English students and children, in order to study the possible influence of cultural factors. Little in the way of differences was observed, the Chinese sample actually scoring slightly better than the European sample on a test designed in the European tradition. Difficulty levels of the items were similar for the representatives of the two cultures.     

The structure of traits delineating personality disorder in a Chinese sample

The present study examined the factorial structure of a Chinese language version of the self-report Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology Questionnaire in 581 adults. Four factors were extracted (Emotional Dysregulation, Dissocial, Inhibition, and Compulsivity) that are similar to the factors extracted in the scales' normative clinical and general population samples from North America (factor comparability coefficients range from .88 to .96), supporting the idea that this trait structure is invariant across diverse populations. The internal consistency of the scales (Cronbach's alpha) was satisfactory across age and gender groups with the exception of the Intimacy Problems scale. Possible explanations for the poor internal consistency of the Intimacy Problems scale, such as cultural differences in social factors influencing marital and romantic relationships in Chinese populations, as opposed to other populations are discussed.     

Preliminary analysis of language styles in a sample of schizophrenics

Language use of schizophrenics and normal people was compared by applying the language analysis program, Korean Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count. Participants were asked to write a story about the most emotional experience of their lives on A4 size paper. 28 schizophrenics (M age: 26 yr.) and 32 normal people (M age: 23 yr.) participated. Analysis showed normal people used more words about jobs and achievements and fewer words about sex and food. The schizophrenics used fewer pronouns, personal pronouns, and adverbs than the normal group. Some aspects of clinical mechanism are manifest in language uses.     

Exploring Emotive Verbs in Persian and English Short Stories: A Contrastive Sociopragmatic Approach

Current developments in the areas of discourse analysis and cross-cultural studies have led to an increased interest in the way people of different cultures express their affections on various occasions. Individuals learn how to regulate their emotional reactions according to sociocultural norms of behavior defined by the cultures to which they belong. Accordingly, this article aimed to investigate the linguistic expression of emotions in English and Persian short stories in order to fathom out the impact of culture on the way feelings are expressed cross-culturally. For this purpose, a corpus of eight different English and Persian short stories, four in each language, was selected based on a purposive sampling method. Then, using Devon’s (The origin of emotions, 2006) typology of emotions, different types of emotive verbs were selected as the unit of analysis. Finally, the frequency and percentage values of emotive verb tokens used in these stories were carefully tabulated in terms of types and their respective metalinguistic categories introduced by Wierzbicka (Emotions across languages and cultures: diversity and universals, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999). The results obtained from the analysis of the targeted corpora reflected that English and Persian writers employ different types of emotive verbs in expressing their feelings. Essentially, the findings of the present study may have important implications for language teachers, material developers, and course designers.     

Life‐events and post‐traumatic stress in a sample of English adolescents

The aim of the present study was to investigate the lifetime prevalence of negative life‐events and their association with post‐traumatic stress in English adolescents. Of the 427 adolescents surveyed, 360 (84%) endorsed at least one negative event. Respondents were asked to complete the Impact of Event Scale (IES: Horowitz, Wilner and Alvarez, 1979) for each event that they endorsed. For boys, highest levels of post‐traumatic stress were found in those who had experience of a ‘family member with a drink or drugs problem’, followed by ‘parental separation or divorce’, ‘life threat to family member’, and ‘life‐threat to self ’. For girls, highest levels of post‐traumatic stress were found in those who had experienced ‘attack or physical assault to self ’, followed by ‘family member with drink or drugs problem’, ‘parental separation or divorce’, and ‘life threat to family member’. These data suggest that moderate levels of post‐traumatic stress are present in around one fifth of adolescents who have experienced one of these events and that community levels of post‐traumatic stress in adolescents may be higher than previously thought. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adolescents' evaluative beliefs of failure: explorations in a Chinese Singaporean sample

Our study explored evaluative beliefs of failure to see whether positive and negative beliefs of failure are bivariate in nature within three domains of an adolescent's life (academic, social, and athletic) and how such beliefs are differentially linked to the importance of a domain, the frequency of failure in a domain, and the extremity of negative emotions experienced when encountering failure in a domain. A total of 163 Chinese Singaporean students in Secondary 3 and 4 (Grades 9 and 10) from two Singapore schools participated in the study by completing a questionnaire. Results from various analyses converged to demonstrate that evaluative beliefs could be distinguished by both valence (positive and negative) and domain (academic, social, and athletic). The six evaluative beliefs were also distinguished from failure attributions. While there was consensus in what constituted negative beliefs of failure across domains, positive beliefs of failure showed some domain specificity, with unique aspects in particular domains (e.g., the inevitability of failure only in the academic domain). Positive and negative beliefs in the different domains were correlated among themselves, but positive and negative beliefs were uncorrelated within (except for academic) and across domains. Positive and negative beliefs were also differentially linked to domain importance, failure frequency, and extremity of negative emotion. Unexpectedly, domain importance was not linked to negative beliefs but was linked to positive beliefs, while positive and negative beliefs showed domain-specific links with failure frequency. As expected, however, negative beliefs were (positively) linked to extremity of negative emotions while positive beliefs were not linked to such extremity. The conceptual, substantive, and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

Psychometric adaption of the impulsive driver behavior scale in a Chinese sample

Impulsivity plays an important role in aberrant driving behavior and crash involvement. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Impulsive Driver Behavior Scale (IDBS, Bıçaksız & Özkan, 2016a) with a Chinese sample. Two hundred and ninety-nine drivers completed the Chinese version of the Impulsive Driver Behavior Scale, the Driver Behavior Questionnaire, the Big Five Inventory and some social-demographic and traffic violation items. A confirmatory factor analysis indicated that a four-factor solution with 20 items yielded a better fit to the data than other solutions. The reduced IDBS showed good reliability and a stable structure. Drivers’ functional impulsivity was positively correlated with positive driver behavior and some ordinary violations. Meanwhile, the other three dimensions of dysfunctional impulsivity showed negative correlations with positive driver behavior and positive associations with aberrant driving behavior and penalty points and fines. Impulsive driver behavior is also associated with agreeableness and conscientiousness. These results provide evidence supporting the IDBS as a reliable and valuable instrument for measuring driving impulsivity in the Chinese traffic environment.     

Psychometric adaptation of the driving anger expression inventory in a Chinese sample

The purpose of this study was to assess the psychometric properties and the factorial structure of the Driving Anger Expression Inventory (DAX) in a Chinese sample. We also explored the relationships among driving anger expression, general anger expression, and driving outcomes. Three hundred and fifty-eight drivers completed the Chinese version of the DAX, the Anger Expression Scale (AX), the Dula Dangerous Driving Index (DDDI) and a questionnaire about several types of traffic violations. A confirmatory factor analysis of the Chinese DAX yielded a four-factor solution with 20 items. This solution showed the best goodness of fit of the data and acceptable reliability. The validity of the revised DAX was also verified. The aggressive expression forms were positively correlated with dangerous driving behaviors. Using the vehicle to express anger was associated with fines. The aggressive forms were also positively correlated with general anger expression-out and negatively correlated with general anger control. The adaptive expression of anger was positively correlated with anger control but negatively correlated with dangerous driving behaviors, penalty points and fines. Furthermore, young drivers (<30 years old) reported more personal and physical aggressive expressions of anger than other drivers. Gender differences were only found in some age groups. Thus, the revised DAX was confirmed to be a reliable and valuable instrument to measure forms of driving anger expression in traffic environments in China.     

A confirmatory factor analysis of the WISC-III in a clinical sample with cross-validation in the standardization sample.

Maximum likelihood confirmatory factor analysis was applied to the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III; Wechsler, 1991) data of a mixed clinical sample of 318 children. Analyses were designed to determine which of nine hypothesized oblique factor solutions could best explain intelligence as measured by the WISC-III in the clinical sample. Competing latent variable models were identified in previous studies, and results in the clinical sample were cross-validated by testing all models in the WISC-III standardization sample (n = 2200). Findings in both the clinical and standardization samples supported a five-factor model including Verbal Comprehension, Constructional Praxis, Visual Reasoning, Freedom from Distractibility, and Processing Speed factors. The Visual Reasoning factor was defined primarily by Picture Arrangement, whereas Mazes did not appear to improve model fit. Potential opportunities and pitfalls with regard to the interpretation of the proposed Visual Reasoning factor are discussed.     

Factor analysis of MCMI-II and PACL basic personality scales in a college sample

This study examined factor dimensions common to the eight basic personality scales of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II (MCMI-II; Millon, 1987) and Personality Adjective Check List (PACL; Strack, 1987, 1990). Subjects were 140 college students (65 men and 75 women). MCMI-II weighted raw scores (WRS) and WRS corrected for number of items endorsed true by regression were employed for analysis along with PACL T-scores. Principal components analyses with varimax and direct oblimin rotations were carried out separately on the two sets of MCMI-II and PACL scores. MCMI-II and PACL scales measuring the same personalities were usually correlated most highly with each other, although some divergences were noted. WRS yielded three bipolar dimensions and a fourth unipolar method factor that loaded only the five MCMI-II scales that were strongly correlated with number of items endorsed true. Residual scores yielded a more meaningful set of three bipolar dimensions labeled Social Introversion-Extraversion, Emotionality-Restraint, and Social Dominance-Submissiveness, without the method factor, that were very similar to personality dimensions found separately in the two tests. More research is needed to clarify the response bias issue in the MCMI-II and to further explicate similarities and differences between the MCMI-II and the PACL.     

Item response theory analysis of intimate-partner violence in a community sample

The Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2; Straus, Hamby, Boney-McCoy, & Sugarman, 1996) is a widely used measure of physical, psychological, and sexual aggression as well as injury and negotiation between partners. In this study, we analyzed male-to-female and female-to-male physical aggression using data from 453 community couples. We used item-response theory (IRT) to assess the range and precision of physical aggression severity in the past year, as evaluated by the CTS2. Our analyses support a single dimension of physical aggression with quantitative, rather than qualitative, differentiation between minor and severe physical aggression items. Surprisingly, test information curves revealed that male perpetration and victimization items provided as much or more information as their counterpart female victimization and perpetration items over the same range of aggression severity. Finally, the data suggests that CTS2 items best assessed moderate-to-severe levels of physical aggression in the previous 12 months. However, virtually no information was assessed by male or female reports of perpetration or victimization items below or around the mean of aggression (i.e., theta; θ = 0). Suggestions for improved item coverage and implications for the assessment of aggression are discussed.     

An interpersonal analysis of Rorschach aggression variables in a normal sample

This study investigated the relationship between Rorschach aggression variables and a self-report measure of interpersonal control and aggression (Structural Analysis of Social Behavior), rated for best and worst states, with 50 college students using forward stepwise regression analyses. Aggressive Movement (AG) was related to the report of self-attack for the best state ratings. The following findings were significant for the worst state ratings. AG was related to viewing the other as reacting as if attacked but the self as acting more affiliatively to the other. Aggressive Past (AgPast) was related to reacting to the other more submissively. A combined Aggressive Potential (AgPot)/Aggressive Content (AgC) variable was related to viewing the other as reacting less submissively and acting more dominantly. AgC was related to viewing the other as reacting less submissively. Methodological limitations are discussed, including potential problems regarding social desirability for the self-report aggression measure.     

An experimental examination of social contexts and the use of power in a Chinese sample

Researchers have considered power as a largely corrupting force in organizations. In the present experiment, the authors used the theory of cooperation and competition to investigate the effects of social context on power use in a sample of Chinese participants. The present results support the reasoning that high power compared to low power provides the capacity to assist employees and that cooperative, but not competitive, goals facilitate the motivation of managers to use their power to support employees and to develop managerial conclusions that employees are capable and appreciative. These results suggest limitations to traditional organizational power theories that assume a competitive context between the powerful and those subject to power. Cooperative goals appear to be an important basis for developing the positive face of power in organizations in China and perhaps in other cultures as well.     

Factors associated with intentions for colorectal cancer screenings in a Chinese sample

This study investigated factors associated with intention to screen for colorectal cancer among Chinese people age 40 yr. and older. In-depth individual interviews were conducted. Participants were recruited from urban middle-class communities in Taichung, Taiwan through homogeneous, criterion, and snowball sampling strategies (N=32). Immersion and crystallization techniques were used in data analysis. Member check was used to ensure data quality. Analysis showed that factors related to intentions to have fecal occult blood tests were influenced by the inconvenience (61%) and the unpleasant screening procedure (29%), while participants' gastrointestinal symptoms or family history (32%) and physicians' recommendation or patients' self-health conditions (25%) were more important to intentions for a flexible sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy screening. This study suggests tailoring strategies and messages to encourage use of various screening. Unique cultural issues, such as avoidance of facing problems (28%), embarrassment (23%), or lack of acceptance of preventive behaviors (16%), were also discussed with recommendations provided.     

The different effects of personality on prosocial and aggressive driving behaviour in a Chinese sample

Dangerous driving behaviours, as a direct cause of accidents and death, are the focus of considerable research attention. However, unlike unsafe driving behaviours, few studies have explored safe driving behaviours and their effects on road traffic. This study aims to verify the Chinese version of the Prosocial and Aggressive Driving Inventory (PADI) and then investigate the relationship between personality and aggressive/prosocial driving behaviours. A total of 303 licensed drivers were recruited, and they voluntarily and anonymously completed the PADI, the Driving Behaviours Questionnaire (DBQ), and personality scales (anger, sensation-seeking and altruism). The results of this research confirmed the reliability and validity of the Chinese PADI. Most importantly, it was found that different relationships between different personalities and aggressive/prosocial driving behaviours. Specifically, individuals with high altruism exhibited more prosocial driving behaviours, while individuals with high sensation seeking presented more aggressive driving behaviours. The importance of these findings lies in two main potential implications: developing an effective measurement of prosocial driving behaviours in China and providing favourable evidence to guide drivers toward more prosocial driving behaviours.