Birth cohort changes in Chinese adolescents' mental health

In China, rapid economic growth and increasing social problems constitute two basic characteristics of contemporary social change. During the process of dramatic social change, an emerging question is how adolescents' mental health has changed across birth cohorts. The present paper reviews four studies of crosstemporal meta-analysis conducted by us. By meta-analysis of previous literature, we examined changes in mean scores on mental health measures over time (from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s). It was found that since the early 1990s, Chinese adolescents' mental health deteriorated across birth cohorts, shown in increased scores on the negative indicators of mental health (e.g. mental problems, anxiety, and depression), whereas self-esteem as a positive trait decreased. The dropping trend in Chinese adolescents' mental health could be attributed to social change, especially increasing social problems. Therefore, adequate attention must be paid to potential influences of social change on individuals' psychological development.     

Social Construction and its Development: Liping Yang Interviews Kenneth Gergen

Nanjing University psychologist Liping Yang interviews Kenneth Gergen on the development of social constructionist thought and practice. The conversation treats a variety of issues, including the development of constructionism as a new paradigm, qualitative research, education and other practices informed by constructionism, value loaded science, relativism, and the Taos Institute.     

Predicting school achievement from cognitive and non-cognitive variables in a Chinese sample of elementary school children

The present study had two aims: First, to investigate the joint and specific roles of working memory (WM) and intelligence as predictors of school achievement. And second, to replicate and extend earlier findings (Spinath, Spinath, Harlaar, & Plomin, 2006) on the incremental validity of non-cognitive over cognitive abilities in the prediction of school achievement. The present sample consisted of N = 179 Chinese primary school children in the fourth grade. All measures including working memory (WM), intelligence and motivational items were assessed in class. Teachers provided test scores for the domains of Chinese and Math. We found that WM was a good predictor of school achievement and comparable in predictive power to intelligence. Together, cognitive ability including both WM and intelligence explained 17.8% and 36.4% of the variance in children's Chinese and Math scores, respectively. The relative importance of WM and intelligence varied with school domains with greater predictive power of WM for Math while intelligence explained a greater proportion of the variance in Chinese although the magnitude of this difference was only moderate. Domain-specific motivational constructs contributed only marginally to the prediction of school achievement for both Chinese and Math.     

小学低段汉字识别和听写的发展轨迹：语素意识的预测作用

汉字识别和听写是字词水平上两项重要的读写技能。对127名一年级儿童进行了两年4个时间点的追踪调查,通过测查儿童的一般认知能力、语音意识、正字法意识和语素意识(包括同音语素意识、复合语素意识),探讨影响儿童汉字识别和听写发展的因素。利用潜变量增长模型,结果发现:(1)汉字识别呈线性发展趋势,听写呈先快后慢的非线性发展趋势,二者均存在补偿效应;(2)语素意识显著预测了汉字识别的起始水平和发展速度,但语素意识对听写的起始水平和发展速度均不具有显著的预测作用。研究结果表明儿童入学初始的汉字识别和听写水平并不决定后期的发展速度;语素意识对儿童汉字识别和听写发展的作用不同。     

老化的年龄标识:主观年龄对老年人主观老化体验的影响

为证明年龄对老化的标识作用,研究假设降低被试的主观年龄可减少老年人的主观老化体验。采取实验组控制组前测后测设计,以主观年龄为自变量,分为"等于年代年龄"(控制组)和"小于年代年龄10±5岁"(实验组)两种水平,随机分配至两组的62名老年被试填写《个人老化体验问卷》,评估其主观老化体验。结果显示,实验组在后测中的主观老化体验不仅显著低于本组前测,也显著低于控制组,且这一结果不受被试最初自评的主观年龄影响。原假设得到证明,支持年龄对老化的标识作用。年龄标识对老化意义的简单化建构了世俗的绝对老化观。     

大学生自信发展特点的研究

本研究选取931名大学生为被试,采用自编“大学生自信问卷”?考察了大学生自信的年龄特点、性别差异及学校类型差异。结果表明：大学生自信总水平差异显著,除社交自信外,整体自信、学业自信和身体自信均存在极显著性别差异,男生高于女生;大学生在整体、学业和身体自信及其分维度上存在显著年级差异：一、四年级显著高于二、三年级,其中三年级自信度明显低于其它年级;学业、社交、身体自信及其分维度存在显著学校类型差异,非重点大学学生显著高于重点大学学生;年级和学校类型在身体自信、整体自信、学业自信、社交自信及其某些层面上存在显著交互作用;性别和学校类型在身体自信某分维度的交互作用达显著水平。     

Not all cultural values are created equal: Cultural change in China reexamined through Google books

Given its major transformations in recent decades, China has figured prominently in research on cultural change. Previous research converges in showing a general trend towards individualism in contemporary China while noting that rising individualism tends to coexist with enduring collectivism. To further understand this, we tested whether perceived traditional importance of cultural values would modulate the trajectory of cultural change reflected in word usage frequencies in published books. We re‐analysed Google's Chinese corpus since 1980 based on a broad sample of words associated with individualism–collectivism. We replicated the pattern of rising individualism and declining collectivism among words of modest and low perceived traditional importance. Most important, however, collectivistic words of high perceived traditional importance increased in usage frequencies with time, thus departing from the general trend towards individualism. Overall, our research underscores the role of core culture in cultural maintenance during times of rapid cultural change.     

再认记忆测验中抑郁个体的心境一致性记忆研究

采用Ｊａｃｏｂｙ的加工分离程序,对再从记忆测验中外显记忆成分与内隐记忆成分的贡献进行分离,考察了抑郁个体的内隐记忆和外显记忆是否具有心境一致性记忆倾向。结果表明：抑郁个体的外显记忆具有心境一致性倾向,而内隐记忆不存在心境一致性倾向,表明心境一致性记忆需要精细加工机制的参与。另外发现,抑郁个体存在外显记忆缺损而没有出现内隐记忆缺损。最后就一些有待进一步研究的方面进行了讨论。     

基督徒祷告过程中人神依恋关系的质性探索

采用质性研究方法探索基督徒祷告过程中人神依恋关系的形成与发展。研究者以“局外人”身份, 采用逐步暴露方式进入研究现场开展客位研究。运用强度抽样方式和综合式抽样策略, 抽取14名(男女各7名)正式受洗(受洗时间从2年到32年不等)的基督徒作为样本, 通过深度访谈收集资料; 运用扎根理论对收集到的资料依次进行初步分析、类属分析和理论建构; 运用参与者检验法、非参与者检验法对研究结果进行效度检验。研究得出以下结论：祷告是基督徒以“信靠”作为承诺, 向上帝袒露心迹, 提出心理诉求, 进而与上帝建立亲密关系的沟通方式和重要渠道, 它提供了人神依恋系统被激活的情境。“信靠”是基督徒通过祷告与上帝之间形成和发展人神依恋关系的前提条件和关键因素; 人神亲密度的增加又反过来促进人对于神的信靠程度。现实生活的困难为基督徒祷告提供了刺激源, 并推动人神依恋关系不断向前发展。基督徒的祷告经历了三个阶段, 由Ⅰ期向Ⅲ期水平渐次提升, 最终形成“以上帝为中心”的困难应对图式。在此过程中, 随着“上帝”的观念越来越深地植入基督徒的自我, 有关“上帝”的心理表征不断得到强化, 相反, 有关“自我”的心理表征渐次弱化, 最终进入某种“无我”的状态。     

Is Happy Facial Expression Identified by the Left or Right Hemisphere？

1IntroductionCorrectly identifying other people′s facial ex-pressions of emotions is important to human socialinteraction in all societies.Many studies suggestthat the identification of facial expressions in par-ticular and perceptual processing of emotional infor-mation is carried out mainly by the right hemi-sphere of the brain[1￣7].Damage to the righthemisphere generally produces more significant im-pairment in recognition of all facial expressions ofemotion than damage to the left hemisp…