Perceived discrimination is associated with poorer health and well‐being outcomes among Pacific peoples in New Zealand

Our study investigated the association between perceived discrimination and outcomes related to health and well‐being for Pacific adults in New Zealand. We examined personal and group discrimination from the 2013 wave of the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (n = 429 women and 196 men). Personal discrimination was associated with poorer health and well‐being outcomes (higher psychological distress and lower self‐esteem, subjective evaluation of health, satisfaction with life and personal well‐being). Group discrimination, in contrast, was associated with poorer well‐being but not health outcomes (lower subjective evaluation of health and personal well‐being). These findings corroborate previous research and highlight the corrosive effect of discrimination towards health and well‐being among Pacific communities in New Zealand.     

人口统计学特征对公共服务动机有什么影响?来自元分析的证据

采用元分析方法探讨人口统计学特征与公共服务动机之间的关系。经筛选, 共纳入138篇492个独立样本(N = 1078442)。结果发现, 性别、年龄、教育程度、组织任期、工作任期、职位等级和收入与公共服务动机之间均呈显著的正相关关系, 且与公共服务动机不同维度之间的关系均存在差异, 婚姻状况与公共服务动机间不存在显著的相关关系。此外, 公共服务动机测量工具、测量时间点和文化背景对部分人口统计学特征与公共服务动机之间的关系有调节作用。研究结果为人口统计学特征如何影响公共服务动机提供了较为精确的估计, 对于发展公共服务动机理论, 激励员工工作积极性, 提高公共部门服务水平都有重要意义。     

社交媒体信任对重大突发公共卫生事件中公众网络谣言自治行为的影响

从社会心理学视角、以社交媒体信任为切入点,基于新冠肺炎疫情,考察公众在重大突发公共卫生事件中网络谣言自治行为的心理机制。采用问卷方法对963名成年居民进行调查。结果表明:(1)公众对官方社交媒体的信任既能直接促进公众的辟谣行为,也能通过增强公众对战胜疫情的信心产生间接影响;(2)公众对官方社交媒体的信任影响公众对自媒体的信任,但自媒体信任不能独立于官媒信任影响辟谣行为。因此,我国社交媒体存在着两个舆论场且官方舆论占主导地位,及时、有效的官方报道不仅能提高公众对战胜疫情的信心,也能促进公众网络谣言自治,进而实现网络谣言治理主体的多元化。     

Examining abuse in online media

While online spaces and media offer unique possibilities for participating in critical and mundane communication, these also introduce several problems in the form of abuse such as trolling, flaming, or other anti‐social behavior. Social and personality psychologists offer a range of explanations for abusive behavior online. Here we distinguish between explanations that treat online abuse as readily known and consequently proceed with examining possible causes of such abuse, and those that treat abuse as a situated act of communication worth examining in its own right. The latter examines how abuse is accomplished, treated, and negotiated in specific online settings. A central advantage of doing so is that the specifics and details of instances of abuse become amenable to examination and consequently allow for identification of in situ means by which abuse maybe challenged. In taking this approach, online abuse is examined for how it is produced and situated in specific social and interactional settings.     

从一个题词想到的

最近,一位名牌大学的毕业生告诉我,他们大学前任党委书记、现任发展委员会主席于去年9月2日慕名参访了某宗教场所,并欣然题词:“弘扬佛法,力创和谐。”他还告诉我,很多宗教网站都报道了这则新闻。后来,我点击了这则新闻,这位发展委员会主席是到一个计划单列市考察工作时慕名参访宗教场所的。他依次参观了新山门牌楼、新鼓楼、各主要殿堂及文物室,对其建筑成就、塑像风格、文物档次及文化建设等十分赞赏。在饶有兴致地听完介绍后,他谈了自己的认识并题词。目前,我国经济、文化领域出现了多元现象,社会环境宽松了,公民的自由度增加了。这当然…     

Sentence processing strategies in healthy seniors with poor comprehension: an fMRI study

We used fMRI to examine patterns of brain recruitment in 22 healthy seniors, half of whom had selective comprehension difficulty for grammatically complex sentences. We found significantly reduced recruitment of left posterolateral temporal [Brodmann area (BA) 22/21] and left inferior frontal (BA 44/6) cortex in poor comprehenders compared to the healthy seniors with good sentence comprehension, cortical regions previously associated with language comprehension and verbal working memory, respectively. The poor comprehenders demonstrated increased activation of left prefrontal (BA 9/46), right dorsal inferior frontal (BA 44/6), and left posterior cingulate (BA 31/23) cortices for the grammatically simpler sentences that they understood. We hypothesize that these brain regions support an alternate, nongrammatical strategy for processing complex configurations of symbolic information. Moreover, these observations emphasize the crucial role of the left perisylvian network for grammatically guided sentence processing in subjects with good comprehension.     

Movement substructures change as a function of practice in children and adults

An experiment is reported in which participants at 6 (n = 20), 9 (n = 20), and 24 years (n = 20) of age either received or did not receive practice on a rapid aiming task using the arm and hand. The purpose of the experiment was to document the changes in movement substructures (in addition to movement time) as a function of practice. After receiving 10 baseline trials, subjects in the practice groups received 30 practice trials followed by 10 retention trials on each of 5 days, while subjects in the no-practice group had only baseline and retention trials. Retention-only trials were divided into primary (reflecting the ballistic controlled part of the movement) and secondary (reflecting corrective movement adjustments) submovements. In addition, jerk (the 3rd derivative of movement displacement) was calculated as an estimate of the smoothness of the movement. Participants increased the primary submovement as a function of practice; however, the increases were substantially larger in the children (25-30%) than in the adults (10%). Participants also decreased jerk as a function of practice and the decreases were greater in children than in adults. The results suggest that with practice the primary submovement is lengthened so that it ends nearer the target, especially in children. Associated with the primary submovement covering a larger percentage of the movement length and time, movements became smoother.     

Diagnosing agoraphobia in the context of panic disorder: examining the effect of DSM-IV criteria on diagnostic decision-making

A diagnostic and statistical manual (DSM)-IV diagnosis of agoraphobia in the context of panic disorder (PD) is based on three nosologically sufficient criteria: (1) avoidance, (2) use of companions, and (3) endurance of situations despite distress. Therefore, an agoraphobia diagnosis can be made across an extremely broad range of cases including when there are no avoidance behaviors (e.g., the patient endures the situation). It was hypothesized that clinicians do not weight these criteria equally and that the DSMs individual, sufficient criteria lead to poor inter-rater reliability. Clinicians (N=48) rated hypothetical patients with symptom profiles emphasizing each of these three criteria. Consistent with expectation, clinicians differentially weighted these criteria. Avoidance was relatively more apt to produce a diagnosis when only one criterion was emphasized in clinical vignettes. Inter-rater reliability was poor in instances when only one sufficient criterion was highlighted. Knowledge concerning DSM criteria resulted in a greater rate of agoraphobia endorsement, but knowledge did not account for the overall pattern of findings.     

Evaluation of behavioral measures of risk taking propensity with inner city adolescents

The current study examined the utility of behavioral measures of risk-taking propensity in the assessment of self-reported real-world risk-taking behaviors using a sample of 51 high-school-aged inner-city adolescents. Results indicated that performance on one behavioral measure, the balloon analogue risk task, accounted for unique variance in self-reported delinquency/safety risk behaviors as well as substance use risk behaviors, above and beyond that provided with demographics and self-report measures of risk-related constructs (i.e., impulsivity and sensation seeking). These results are discussed in relation to the potential utility of using a multimethod assessment approach for better understanding risk-taking vulnerability among adolescents.