Culture and perceptions of self—other similarity

In testing possible cultural effects of the use of the self as an habitual reference point to which others are compared, we expected that: (a) individualistic participants (i.e., those who give priority to personal goals) would rate self—other similarity higher when asked “How similar is X to you?” than when asked “How similar are you to X?”, whereas nondirectional similarity judgements (“How similar are these two people?”) would resemble the former directional comparison; (b) collectivistic participants (i.e., those who give priority to in‐group goals) would show a weaker or, possibly, reversed pattern, especially using in‐group comparison others. Neither hypothesis was upheld. However, the individualists perceived the in‐group to be relatively more similar to themselves as compared to the collectivists. This difference cannot be explained by response bias, status asymmetry, or role differentiation. We propose an explanation in terms of the differential relationship between self and other representations for people from collectivist versus individualist cultures.     

When Cognitive Diagnosis Meets Computerized Adaptive Testing: CD-CAT

Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) is a mode of testing which enables more efficient and accurate recovery of one or more latent traits. Traditionally, CAT is built upon Item Response Theory (IRT) models that assume unidimensionality. However, the problem of how to build CAT upon latent class models (LCM) has not been investigated until recently, when Tatsuoka (J. R. Stat. Soc., Ser. C, Appl. Stat. 51:337–350, 2002) and Tatsuoka and Ferguson (J. R. Stat., Ser. B 65:143–157, 2003) established a general theorem on the asymptotically optimal sequential selection of experiments to classify finite, partially ordered sets. Xu, Chang, and Douglas (Paper presented at the annual meeting of National Council on Measurement in Education, Montreal, Canada, 2003) then tested two heuristics in a simulation study based on Tatsuoka’s theoretical work in the context of computerized adaptive testing. One of the heuristics was developed based on Kullback–Leibler information, and the other based on Shannon entropy. In this paper, we showcase the application of the optimal sequential selection methodology in item selection of CAT that is built upon cognitive diagnostic models. Two new heuristics are proposed, and are compared against the randomized item selection method and the two heuristics investigated in Xu et al. (Paper presented at the annual meeting of National Council on Measurement in Education, Montreal, Canada, 2003). Finally, we show the connection between the Kullback–Leibler-information-based approaches and the Shannon-entropy-based approach, as well as the connection between algorithms built upon LCM and those built upon IRT models.     

The Impacts of the HIV/AIDS Pandemic and Socioeconomic Development on the Living Arrangements of Older Persons in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Country-Level Analysis

This study investigates whether socioeconomic development and the HIV/AIDS pandemic are associated with living arrangement patterns in older persons in 23 sub-Saharan African countries. Country-level aggregate data were taken from previous household surveys and information provided by the United Nations, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization. Results showed that 13.5% of older persons (aged 60 years or over) were living with grandchildren but not adult children (i.e., skipped generation households). Countries higher in HIV/AIDS prevalence had more skipped generation households, and also more older persons living with spouse only and fewer older persons living with other relatives. Countries with higher socioeconomic development had fewer older persons living with children younger than 25 years old and more living with spouse only or with other relatives and unrelated persons. The pandemic and socioeconomic development combine to accelerate the breakdown of the extended family structure so that older persons are less and less likely to reside with, and to receive support from, their children.     

Conscientiousness and self-motivation as mutually compensatory predictors of university-level GPA

To help account for variability across studies in the predictive utility of conscientiousness, we proposed that conscientiousness and self-motivation mutually compensate for each other in predicting university-level academic performance. Consistent with this expectation, we found evidence of such mutual moderation in a sample of 377 college undergraduates. First, we found that conscientiousness and self-motivation compensated for each other in predicting university GPA: Students who were either high in conscientiousness or high in self-motivation had better academic performance (GPA) than those who were low in both conscientiousness and self-motivation. Second, these findings were still evident after we controlled for the students’ previous academic performance (high school rank) and academic ability (SAT/ACT). The study of mutually compensatory predictors not only offers the potential of developing better predictive models; it also helps to account for why some “main effect” predictors of university GPA are variable across studies in their degree of predictive utility.     

困境中的社区"参与式民主"——基层政府信任与居民参与社区社会政策的困境之思

本研究通过对南京市若干城乡社区的调查与解析,发现由于基层政府信任与居民参与社区社会政策之间存在着矛盾和冲突的困境,使当前充分实现社区"参与式民主"似乎还比较理想化.因此,本研究尝试对形成基层政府信任与居民参与社区政策之间内在矛盾和冲突的深层原因进行反思,期望可以为社区"参与式民主"从虚幻的民主景象走向民主的真实图景提供一些可行性的数据支持和建议.     

幼儿幽默感结构和发展特点

采用开放式问卷、个案观察和理论推导相结合的方法,自编3～5岁幼儿幽默感教师评定问卷,通过因素分析研究3～5岁幼儿幽默感的结构.结果表明:3～5岁幼儿幽默感包括幽默理解、幽默应对和幽默创造三个维度;所编制的3～5岁幼儿幽默感教师评定问卷具有较高的信度和效度;3～5岁幼儿幽默感随年龄增长逐渐上升,且存在显著的性别差异.     

外显竞争态度对内隐竞争与合作的影响

通过《竞争态度量表（中国版）》进行测验,选取良性竞争态度和过度竞争态度大学生各60名作为被试。采用偏好判断与再认测验相结合的实验范式,操纵三种不同的加工类型,考察两组被试对竞争动词、合作动词两类刺激的内隐与外显记忆贡献。结果显示：1）过度竞争态度者和良性竞争态度者都具有很强的内隐竞争性;2）过度竞争态度者比良性竞争态度者具有更强的内隐竞争性;3）良性竞争态度者比过度竞争态度者具有更强的内隐合作性。     

婚姻关系中的情绪表达和情绪表达冲突

探讨了婚姻关系中自尊、情绪表达、情绪表达冲突与婚姻满意度之间的关系。186名被试完成了自尊、情绪表达、情绪表达冲突与婚姻满意度问卷。结果发现：低自尊导致了高情绪表达冲突,且高情绪表达冲突不利于伴侣的情绪表达和婚姻满意度;自尊通过情绪表达和情绪表达冲突影响婚姻满意度;男性的情绪表达冲突高于女性,且自尊通过情绪表达冲突影响婚姻满意度的间接效应在男性中更为明显。     

Effectiveness of a moral and benevolent leader: Probing the interactions of the dimensions of paternalistic leadership

Paternalistic leadership has three dimensions: authoritarianism, benevolence and morality. Although it is important to understand how these dimensions interact to impact leadership effectiveness, previous studies have failed to identify consistent interaction effects of these dimensions, probably because of the high intercorrelations among the three dimensions. By manipulating the three dimensions independently in an experimental study ( N  = 265 Taiwanese employees), we found that: (i) benevolence and morality increased subordinates' deference to supervisor and work motivation, although authoritarianism was unrelated to these outcomes; and (ii) benevolence and morality interacted to affect the same employee outcomes. Specifically, benevolent and moral leaders elicited more favourable employee outcomes than leaders exhibiting other leadership styles.     

A mixed-effects expectancy-valence model for the Iowa gambling task

The Iowa gambling task (IGT; Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Anderson, 1994) was developed to simulate real-life decision making under uncertainty. The task has been widely used to examine possible neurocognitive deficits in normal and clinical populations. Busemeyer and Stout (2002) proposed the expectancy-valence (EV) model to explicitly account for individual participants’ repeated choices in the IGT. Parameters of the EV model presumably measure different psychological processes that underlie performance on the task, and their values may be used to differentiate individuals across different populations. In the present article, the EV model is extended to include both fixed effects and subject-specific random effects. The mixed-effects EV model fits the nested structure of observations in the IGT naturally and provides a unified procedure for parameter estimation and comparisons among groups of populations. We illustrate the utility of the mixed-effects approach with an analysis of gender differences using a real data set. A simulation study was conducted to verify the advantages of this approach.