Gender Roles in Immigrant Families: Parenting Views, Practices, and Child Development

Ecological and acculturation frameworks are especially central to understanding the experiences of immigrant populations and to date, current research has yielded new conceptual and methodological tools for documenting the cultural and developmental processes of children and their families. This special issue of 12 articles focuses on immigrant families and the importance of gender along various dimensions: parental roles, parent–child relationships, child outcomes. The collection of articles also represents various innovative methodologies used, including quantitative and qualitative approaches.     

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game-induced seizures: a neglected health problem in Internet addiction.

As the Internet has become rapidly and widely integrated into society, Internet addiction has become a growing psychosocial problem. However, epileptic seizure, another out-of-the-ordinary health problem, is often neglected in this regard. Ten patients who experienced epileptic seizures while playing the newest genre of electronic games -- Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) -- were investigated. Patients were predominantly male young adults, and most of the events were generalized tonic-clonic seizures, myoclonic seizures, and absences. These patients should be categorized into idiopathic generalized epilepsies. Even though photosensitivity was an important factor, behavioral and higher mental activities also seemed to be significant seizure precipitants. Results demonstrated that MMORPG-induced seizures were not analogous to the ordinary video game-induced seizures. Significantly, an epileptic seizure warning did not always appear on the websites of MMORPGs and instructions for the software. While the prevalence of MMORPG-induced seizures remains unknown, it may exceed our expectations and impact our society. Not only for clinical neurologists but also for the primary physicians, educators, sociologists, and global online game publishers, there should be an awareness of this special form of reflex seizures in order to provide an appropriate health warning to MMORPG players.     

Potential, propensity, and categorical realism

I argue that categorical realism, contrary to what most believe today, holds for quantum (and indeed for all) objects and substances. The main argument consists of two steps: (i) the recent experimental verification of the AB effect gives strong empirical evidence for taking quantum potentials as physically real (or substantival), which suggests a change of the data upon which any viable interpretation of quantum theory must rely, and (ii) quantum potentials may be consistently taken as the categorical properties of quantum objects so that categorical realism can be restored.     

Disruption of memory reconsolidation impairs storage of other, non-reactivated memory

Two hypotheses were tested in this study. First, blockade of neural activity by lidocaine immediately following the retrieval of a memory may impair the reconsolidation and subsequent expression of that memory. Second, a non-retrieved memory would not be affected by this lidocaine treatment. Since the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala (BLA) is involved in emotion-related memory, an intra-BLA lidocaine infusion was used immediately after the retrieval of two emotion-related memories, the step-through passive avoidance response (PA) and cocaine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP). Intra-BLA lidocaine infusion immediately after cocaine-induced CPP retrieval diminished CPP magnitude in retests. However, intra-BLA lidocaine infusion alone did not affect cocaine-induced CPP performance. Intra-BLA lidocaine infusion immediately after PA retrieval decreased PA performance in retests. Omission of PA retrieval procedure, intra-BLA lidocaine infusion did not affect subsequent PA performance. Surprisingly, intra-BLA lidocaine infusion immediately following the retrieval of PA or cocaine-induced CPP diminished both PA and cocaine-induced CPP performance in the retests. Finally, Fos-staining results revealed that a number of BLA neurons were activated by the retrieval of both cocaine-induced CPP and PA. We conclude that inactivation of neural activity in BLA immediately following retrieval of a fear or cocaine-conditioned memory can impair subsequent expression of both memories. More importantly, retrieval of a memory does not seem to be an absolute condition for rapidly changing the memory.     

The impact of self‐confidence on the compromise effect

This research reports an investigation into whether the personality aspect of self‐confidence affects the compromise effect. We hypothesize that highly self‐confident people have greater certainty in making decisions and are more attracted to risk‐taking, which makes them less likely to choose the safe or middle option in a large choice set. The three studies involved are conducted using between‐ and within‐subjects experimental designs. Various product categories are used to generalize the findings. Study 1 looks at purchasing decisions and utilizes three scales of self‐confidence, risk preference, and uncertainty; it demonstrates that consumers with high self‐confidence are less likely to choose a compromise option due to high certainty in their decision‐making. Study 2 discovers that people with low self‐confidence are more likely to choose the middle option in a risky condition than in a nonrisky condition. Study 3 decomposes self‐confidence into general and specific self‐confidence, and reveals that people with low general self‐confidence and low specific self‐confidence are more likely to choose the middle option.     

The impact of the opinions of others on variety‐seeking behavior

One reason for consumer variety‐seeking behavior is interpersonal motivation. Building on previous theories, we suggest that the different information types of interpersonal sources influence the variety‐seeking behavior of individuals. Two laboratory experiments are conducted to examine the influence of the opinions of others on such behavior. The results support the author's contention that to derive more enjoyment from a shared product, an individual will make choices congruent with the opinions of others in online information. The managerial implications and study limitations are also discussed.     

翻译不确定性与对意义的否定

一般认为,如果翻译不确定性确实存在,则传统意义概念的合法性就受到威胁,且意义本身的存在就受到质疑。本文作者认为,这个结论能否成立,依赖于能否在不使用直观意义或直观意义概念的前提下,仅用行为主义所允许的资源来说明,用于描述翻译不确定性的不同翻译手册之间确有语义内容上的实质不同。我怀疑奎因的理论能够提供所要求的这个说明。此时,可能翻译不确定性只是行为主义认识论的结果,而不是意义不存在的形而上学的结果。     

Says Who?: Decision-Making and Conflicts among Chinese-Canadian and Mainland Chinese Parents of Young Children

The present study explores the decision-making process and conflicts on infant care issues among Chinese mothers and fathers in Canada and China. The study utilized a mother–father informant approach and analyzed inter-parental agreement on parents’ responses. The participants included 127 families of 1-year old infants (68 Chinese–Canadians, 59 mainland Chinese). The findings revealed that parents used various strategies in making decisions about child issues such as mothers taking the lead, joint (mother–father) decisions, taking the child’s interest into consideration, and seeking advice from extended families and professionals. Differences were found by gender of the parent and by country. The inter-parental agreements for how decisions were made and the types of conflicts that occurred were relatively low.     

The Effect of Induced Positive and Negative Emotion and Openness-to-Feeling in Student’s Consumer Decision Making

How do emotional states affect risk-taking and consumer decisions? Serial experiments were conducted to demonstrate and explain the relationships among emotions, risk-taking, and consumer decisions. Study 1 showed that participants whose emotional condition was negative were more likely to systematically engage in risk-taking behavior than those exhibiting positive emotions, and the emotional effects were moderated by openness to feeling (OF) as a function of individual personality. Studies 2–5 were mainly to examine the effects of emotional conditions on consumer decision. The results of studies 2–5 substantiated our prediction that participants in positive emotional states were less likely to respond to puffer advertising and sales promotion, thus increasing the share of an option that is “average” in all dimensions, and more likely to have a compromise effect than in those in a negative emotional condition. Studies 2–5 also found that the emotional effects were moderated by individuals’ openness to their own feelings. The effects are discussed in relation to the literature on emotions, risk-taking, and consumer decisions.