An evaluation of in situ training to teach sexual abuse prevention skills to women with mental retardation

The current study evaluated a behavioral skills training (BST) program in combination with in situ training to teach sexual abuse prevention skills to five women with mild to moderate mental retardation. In situ assessments were conducted following BST and in situ training sessions were conducted for those who were unable to demonstrate the skills in the natural setting. The results showed that generalization of the safety skills to the natural setting occurred for three of the five participants following one to two in situ training sessions. One participant required 12 in situ training sessions and three booster training sessions to reach criterion level. Three of four participants assessed 1 month following training maintained the skills. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Alteration of cingulate long-term plasticity and behavioral sensitization to inflammation by environmental enrichment

Exposure to an enriched environment (EE) has been shown to induce cortical plasticity. Considerable amount of research is focused on the effects of EE in the hippocampus; however, effects of EE on other brain regions and the mechanisms involved are not well known. To investigate this, we induced cortical plasticity by placing mice in an EE for one month and measured the effects of EE in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Here, we show that EE enhanced the expression of the plasticity gene, egr-1, in the ACC of EE animals accompanied by enhanced cingulate long-term potentiation (LTP) and decreased cingulate long-term depression (LTD). The increased NMDA receptor NR2B/NR2A subunits current ratio is associated with the plasticity seen in the ACC while total protein levels remain unchanged. Furthermore, behavioral experiments show that these mice exposed to EE demonstrate enhanced responses to acute and long-term inflammation. Our findings suggest that exposure to EE alters physiological properties within the ACC which results in enhanced responses to inflammation.     

Gender and internet consumers' decision-making.

The purpose of this research is to provide managers of shopping websites information regarding consumer purchasing decisions based on the Consumer Styles Inventory (CSI). According to the CSI, one can capture what decision-making styles online shoppers use. Furthermore, this research also discusses the gender differences among online shoppers. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to understand the decision-making styles and discriminant analysis was used to distinguish the differences between female and male shoppers. The result shows that there are differences in purchasing decisions between online female and male Internet users.     

Internet café addiction of Taiwanese adolescents.

With the recent vigorous development, the Internet has become a part of life. And the Internet café has become an emerging industry under this new wave of Internet heat. However, the Internet café has also brought about many unexpected social problems and negative effects on society in Taiwan. For example, Internet café addiction (or pathological use) is a particular phenomenon derived from Internet café in Taiwan. But currently there are just a few scholars who attend to this problem. This study focuses mainly on the phenomenon of Internet café addiction among adolescents in Taiwan, the Internet café patronage behavior, and the cause of this phenomenon. Result of a questionnaire survey indicate that a significant difference exists between male and female adolescent in the following two aspects: "the stay hours for each visit in Internet café" and "Internet café addiction scores." Males' stay hours in Internet café are longer than females', and males also get higher Internet café addiction scores than females. The results also indicate that participants' degree of self-esteem and support from their social network can account for 30% of variance of Internet café addiction. Further, the results also suggest that social support is positively related to Internet café addiction score, whereas a negative relationship between self-esteem and Internet café addiction score is observed.     

Empathic accuracy of intimate partners in violent versus nonviolent relationships

This study compared the empathic accuracy of men and women who had perpetrated physical intimate partner violence with that of partners in nonviolent but distressed and nonviolent and nondistressed relationships. Examined was the empathic accuracy (a) of partners for one another’s thoughts and feelings during a relationship problem discussion in the laboratory, (b) of partners’ empathic accuracy for each other with the empathic accuracy of objective observers who watched the couples’ interactions, and (c) the males’ empathic accuracy for their female partner to their empathic accuracy for female strangers. No significant group differences were found among women’s empathic accuracy, but the data suggest that violent men exhibit poor empathic accuracy when attempting to understand their female partner’s thoughts and feelings.     

Price as a quality or sacrifice cue: Role of goal orientation

Prior research seems to have neglected the factors that influence consumers to use price information as an indicator of quality or sacrifice. Based on the concept of 'goal looms larger', Study 1 in the present research demonstrated that the extent to which consumers use price information as an indicator of quality or sacrifice is a function of consumer goal (promotion focus vs prevention focus). Study 2 demonstrated that extremeness aversion is a function of consumer goal. The extent of extremeness aversion is significantly greater for prevention-focused consumers than for promotion-focused consumers.     

病理性互联网使用与情绪、认知需要的模型构建

通过对1030名大学生进行问卷调查.对大学生的情绪、认知需要与网络成瘾的关系进行了探讨.结果发现:消极情绪对网络成瘾有显著而直接的正向作用.消极情绪对网络成瘾具有最强的预测力;认知需要对网络成瘾有显著而直接的负向作用;消极情绪和积极情绪均可通过认知需要间接地影响网络成瘾;男女生的情绪、认知需要对网络成瘾的影响存在差异.     

教学计划过程中教学专长的专家一新手比较研究

教学专长的研究多出现在教学实施阶段,且很少描绘教师知识及其组织.本研究运用出声思维法对4组专家与新手教师进行了教学计划过程中知识提取量与质的比较研究,研究发现,与新教师相比,专家教师的教学计划过程更周密、审慎,表现出更精致、联系性更强的教学专长.     

诚信人格特质初探

本研究旨在探讨诚信人格特质的结构.利用人格词评定法,通过探索性因素分析得出诚信人格结构包括正性取向:实干重义、诚实信用、公正无欺、忠实可靠;负性取向:自私欺人、钻营世故、多谋寡信、虚伪不实.并通过验证性因素分析检验,结果表明所得的八个因素与诚信人格的结构拟合较好.     

青少年的同伴依恋与其互联网使用的关系

青少年期同伴群体的支持逐渐超过了父母的影响.青少年期同伴依恋在青少年认知、情感、人格以及行为的健康发展和社会适应中起着重要作用,拥有亲密的同伴关系的青少年出现情感问题和行为问题的可能性更小,并拥有更健康的青少年期适应能力.该研究采用同伴依恋量表、互联网服务使用状况量表以及青少年病理性互联网使用量表对405名中学生进行了问卷调查.旨在探讨青少年同伴依恋与其互联网使用之间的关系.结果表明: (1)同伴信任与社交和娱乐服务的使用偏好呈负相关,尽管都没有达到统计显著性; (2)同伴沟通可以正向预测青少年对信息、娱乐和社交服务的使用偏好,且都达到显著性水平;还可以通过互联网娱乐服务使用偏好间接预测PIU; (3)青少年与同伴的疏离程度可以正向预测青少年对社交服务的使用偏好,也可以直接正向预测PIU.