进化心理学视角下的智力研究

进化心理学和差异心理学是心理学的两个分支。进化心理学认为智力是一种进化的适应。差异心理学中智力是个体差异变量。本文试图整合二者的观点。认为智力既是进化的适应,也是个体差异变量。这将启示进化心理学家去研究更广范围的心理特质,允许智力研究和差异心理学运用进化心理学的理论和概念。本文还介绍了与智力进化相关的热带草原法则和Kanazawa的Savanna—IQ互动假说。     

Predictors of responses to stress among families coping with poverty-related stress

This study tested how poverty-related stress (PRS), psychological distress, and responses to stress predicted future effortful coping and involuntary stress responses one year later. In addition, we explored age, sex, ethnicity, and parental influences on responses to stress over time. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses conducted with 98 low-income families (300 family members: 136 adults, 82 school-aged children, 82 adolescents) revealed that primary control coping, secondary control coping, disengagement, involuntary engagement, and involuntary disengagement each significantly predicted future use of that response. Primary and secondary control coping also predicted less maladaptive future responses to stress, while involuntary responses to stress undermined the development of adaptive responding. Age, sex, and interactions among PRS and prior coping were also found to predict certain responses to stress. In addition, child subgroup analyses demonstrate the importance of parental modeling of coping and involuntary stress responses, and warmth/nurturance and monitoring practices. Results are discussed with regard to the implications for preventive interventions with families in poverty.     

Relative contributions of face and body configurations: perceiving emotional state and motion intention

This study addressed the relative reliance on face and body configurations for different types of emotion-related judgements: emotional state and motion intention. Participants viewed images of people with either emotionally congruent (both angry or fearful) or incongruent (angry/fearful; fearful/angry) faces and bodies. Congruent conditions provided baseline responses. Incongruent conditions revealed relative reliance on face and body information for different judgements. Body configurations influenced motion-intention judgements more than facial configurations: incongruent pairs with angry bodies were more frequently perceived as moving forward than those with fearful bodies; pairs with fearful bodies were more frequently perceived as moving away. In contrast, faces influenced emotional-state judgements more, but bodies moderated ratings of face emotion. Thus, both face and body configurations influence emotion perception, but the type of evaluation required influences their relative contributions. These findings highlight the importance of considering both the face and body as important sources of emotion information.     

African American, White and Latino Fathers’ Activities with their Sons and Daughters in Early Childhood

We examined the activities that low-income, ethnically diverse fathers of sons versus daughters engage in with their children in the preschool years. African American, Latino, and White fathers (N?=?426) from research sites across the United States, were interviewed about their caregiving, play, literacy, and visiting activities when their children were 2?years, 3?years, and preschool age. Fathers of boys engaged more frequently in physical play than fathers of girls, whereas fathers of girls engaged more frequently in literacy activities. Moreover, gendered patterns of father engagement were already evident at the 2-year assessment, suggesting that fathers channel their children toward gender-typed activities well before their children have a clear understanding of gender roles. Ethnic differences were also found in fathers’ activities with children, and child gender moderated ethnic patterns of behavior. For example, Black fathers of sons reported the highest levels of engagement in caregiving, play and visiting activities, and both Latino and African American fathers of sons engaged in more visiting activities compared to White fathers of sons. Fathers’ education and marital status were also associated with fathers’ activities. Married fathers and those with a high school diploma more frequently engaged in literacy activities than unmarried fathers without a diploma; moreover, although Latino fathers engaged less in caregiving activities than African American and White fathers, this difference attenuated after controlling for differences in fathers’ education. The activities children share with their fathers vary by child gender, race/ethnicity, and family circumstances and offer insight into early gendered experiences in the family.     

Can intergroup behaviors be emitted out of self-determined reasons? Testing the role of group norms and behavioral congruence in the internalization of discrimination and parity behaviors

Bringing self-determination theory to understand why intergroup behaviors are emitted, two studies were conducted to investigate how group norms and individuals' congruence with these norms predicted self-determination to pursue two types of intergroup behaviors (parity and discrimination). Experiment 1 (N = 97) manipulated ingroup norms in favor of parity versus of discrimination and assessed the behavior participants displayed (congruent or incongruent with the norm) and their motivations for emitting this behavior. The manipulated norms significantly influenced group members' behaviors. When the ingroup norm was parity, participants whose behavior was congruent with this norm reported more self-determination to emit this behavior. When the ingroup norm was prodiscrimination, participants whose behavior was congruent with this norm were less self-determined. Experiment 2 (N = 139) replicated and extended these findings in a more conflictual intergroup setting. Results are discussed in light of motivational and intergroup theories.     

Autobiographical memory specificity and emotional disorder

The authors review research showing that when recalling autobiographical events, many emotionally disturbed patients summarize categories of events rather than retrieving a single episode. The mechanisms underlying such overgeneral memory are examined, with a focus on M. A. Conway and C. W. Pleydell-Pearce's (2000) hierarchical search model of personal event retrieval. An elaboration of this model is proposed to account for overgeneral memory, focusing on how memory search can be affected by (a) capture and rumination processes, when mnemonic information used in retrieval activates ruminative thinking; (b) functional avoidance, when episodic material threatens to cause affective disturbance; and (c) impairment in executive capacity and control that limits an individual's ability to remain focused on retrieval in the face of distraction.     

Motivating the academic mind: High-level construal of academic goals enhances goal meaningfulness,motivation, and self-concordance

How one thinks about or conceptualizes a goal has important consequences for the motivational features of goal pursuit. Two experiments tested the hypothesis, inspired by work on meaning in life, action identification theory, and expectancy-value theory, that high-level construal of an academic goal should enhance motivation to pursue that goal. In each experiment, we manipulated high-level versus low-level construal of an academic goal and assessed several variables related to the goal: the perceived meaningfulness of the goal, motivation to pursue the goal, and goal self-concordance. Supporting the hypothesis, individuals who thought about their academic goal in a high-level manner viewed their goal as more meaningful, reported being more motivated to pursue the goal, and reported the goal to be more self-concordant. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

Estimating the Mental Health Effects of Social Isolation

It is frequently hypothesized that feelings of social isolation are detrimental for an individual’s mental health, however standard statistical models cannot estimate this effect due to reverse causality between the independent and dependent variables. In this paper we present endogeneity-corrected estimates of the mental health consequences of isolation (based on self-assessed loneliness scores) using Australian panel data. The central identification strategy comes from a natural source of variation where some people within our sample are required by work or study commitments to move home. This relocation may break individuals’ social ties, resulting in significantly higher reported feelings of loneliness and consequently may lower mental health scores. The method gives results that are significant, robust and pass a battery of diagnostic tests. Estimates indicate that feelings of isolation have large negative consequences for psychological well-being, and that the effects are larger for women and older people. The results suggest that at current levels, a 10 % reduction applied to all individuals would reduce annual expenditure on mental illness in Australia by approximately $3B AUD, or around $150 AUD per person.     

Validation of the Five-Factor Model Personality Disorder Prototype Counts with the Personality Assessment Inventory

Five-factor model (FFM) personality disorder (PD) prototype scores drawn from the revised NEO-Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) have demonstrated strong convergent validity with clinical measures of PD (Miller in Journal of Personality, 80, 1565–1591, 2012). However, an examination of the relations between the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey 1991), which is widely used in personality assessment research, and the FFM PD prototype “count” method, has not been conducted. The present study examines the convergent validity of the FFM borderline, antisocial, and psychopathy prototype counts with the Borderline Features (BOR) and Antisocial Features (ANT) full scales and subscales from the PAI. Furthermore, the BOR and ANT scales are correlated with all 30 NEO-PI-3 facets to empirically evaluate the rationally-selected facet scales used in the borderline, antisocial, and psychopathy PD counts. Five hundred thirty-five undergraduate students completed both the NEO-PI-3 and the PAI. The PD counts demonstrated strong convergent and discriminant validity with the PAI clinical scales. Facet-level analyses generally supported the structure of the PD count formulas, and the exceptions align with previous evidence that the Competence, Dutifulness, and Self-Discipline facets (from the Conscientiousness domain of the FFM) associate strongly with the BOR scale.     

Using motivation regulations in a person-centered approach to examine the link between social physique anxiety in physical education and physical activity-related outcomes in adolescents

ObjectivesThis study explored how social physique anxiety (SPA) combined with different patterns of motivation regulations might facilitate versus deter effort and enjoyment in physical education (PE) and leisure-time physical activity.DesignCross-sectional survey.MethodsHigh school students (N = 298; M_age = 15.72, SD_age = 1.24 years) completed an in-class survey including SPA in PE, motivation regulations for PE, enjoyment and effort in PE and leisure-time physical activity.ResultsFour profiles of students were identified in cluster analysis based on autonomous motivation, introjected regulation, external regulation and SPA. Profile one (“high diverse motivation”; n = 84) reflected relatively high motivation across all regulations and average SPA. Profile two (“moderate autonomous motivation”; n = 92) included those with average scores on autonomous motivation and relatively low scores on introjected and external regulation and SPA. Profile three (“moderate diverse motivation and anxious”; n = 59) had relatively high SPA combined with average motivation regulations. Profile four (“externally controlled and anxious”; n = 63) also had relatively high SPA but relatively low autonomous motivation and introjected regulation and relatively high external regulation. MANOVA results showed that “externally controlled and anxious” students reported the lowest physical activity behavior and enjoyment in PE. Conversely, the “moderate diverse motivation and anxious” students have physical activity experiences that do not differ from the two profiles that exhibited lower SPA.ConclusionsHigher feelings of SPA in PE appear linked with lower levels of enjoyment and effort in PE and leisure-time physical activity outside of school only when coupled with higher external regulation. This finding helps explain inconsistent associations between SPA and physical activity outcomes.