Advance visual information, awareness, and anticipation skill

The authors examined 13 skilled, 13 recreational, and 11 novice players' awareness of the advance visual information that they used to judge tennis serve direction. Participants viewed video clips of serve actions under 5 conditions of spatial occlusion. The authors assessed participants' awareness by comparing the different groups' confidence associated with correct and incorrect judgments and by conducting a postexperiment free-recall test. The results indicated that information from the ball toss and the arm + racquet region underpinned players' anticipation skill and that greater expertise was accompained by increasing awareness of the information on which judgments were based. The authors discuss the implications of the present results for researchers' use of confidence ratings to assess awareness in perceptual-judgment tasks.     

Projective drawings for assessing stress among subjects with medical symptoms compatible with sick building syndrome, and validation of a modified version of the Stress Load Index from the Drawing Personality Profile: a pilot study

It was hypothesized that subjects with medical symptoms would show more signs of stress in projective drawings. A Stress Load Index, including five signs of stress in drawings, was evaluated. A questionnaire with an instruction to draw "a person in the rain" was sent to a cohort of 195 subjects, and the drawings were analysed blindly for eight stress items. Men had a higher index than women (p < .05) and drew clouds more often (p < .05). Drawing of clouds was associated with headache (adjOR = 4.28; 95% CI 1.75; 11.68). Drawing of puddles was associated with ocular symptoms (adjOR = 3.22; 95% CI 1.38, 7.50), facial dermal symptoms (adjOR= 2.94; 95% CI 1.28, 6.81), and tiredness (adjOR = 2.44; 95% CI 1.05, 5.67). Drawing of long rain strokes was associated with nasal symptoms (adjOR = 2.28; 95% CI 1.05, 2.06) and headache (adjOR = 3.20; 95% CI 1.28, 8.05). Age and stress load were predictors of sick building syndrome symptoms (p < .05). In conclusion, a nonverbal projective drawing test detected sex differences which represent directions opposite to those with verbal methods. These need empirical assessment.     

Stability of body image concerns among chinese adolescents: nine-month test-retest reliabilities of the Negative Physical Self Scale

This research assessed the stability of specific body image concerns among Chinese adolescents. A sample of 216 boys and 375 girls completed the Negative Physical Self Scale, a 38-item measure of body image concerns developed specifically for use in Chinese samples. Participants returned nine months later to complete the same scale. Bivariate correlation analyses within each sex obtained good test-retest reliabilities (r = .48 to r = .78). Findings indicate that body image concerns of Chinese adolescents, especially those of girls, are relatively stable over a nine-month interval.     

Allowing for correlations between correlations in random-effects meta-analysis of correlation matrices

Practical meta-analysis of correlation matrices generally ignores covariances (and hence correlations) between correlation estimates. The authors consider various methods for allowing for covariances, including generalized least squares, maximum marginal likelihood, and Bayesian approaches, illustrated using a 6-dimensional response in a series of psychological studies concerning prediction of exercise behavior change. Quantities of interest include the overall population mean correlation matrix, the contrast between the mean correlations, the predicted correlation matrix in a new study, and the conflict between the existing studies and a new correlation matrix. The authors conclude that accounting for correlations between correlations is unnecessary when interested in individual correlations but potentially important if concerned with a composite measure involving 2 or more correlations. A simulation study indicates the asymptotic normal assumption appears reasonable. Because of potential instability in the generalized least squares methods, they recommend a model-based approach, either the maximum marginal likelihood approach or a full Bayesian analysis.     

The unbearable likeness of being digital: the persistence of nonverbal social norms in online virtual environments.

Every day, millions of users interact in real-time via avatars in online environments, such as massively-multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). These online environments could potentially be unique research platforms for the social sciences and clinical therapy, but it is crucial to first establish that social behavior and norms in virtual environments are comparable to those in the physical world. In an observational study of Second Life, a virtual community, we collected data from avatars in order to explore whether social norms of gender, interpersonal distance (IPD), and eye gaze transfer into virtual environments even though the modality of movement is entirely different (i.e., via keyboard and mouse as opposed to eyes and legs). Our results showed that established findings of IPD and eye gaze transfer into virtual environments: (1) male-male dyads have larger IPDs than female-female dyads, (2) male-male dyads maintain less eye contact than female-female dyads, and (3) decreases in IPD are compensated with gaze avoidance as predicted by the Equilibrium Theory. We discuss implications for users of online games as well as for social scientists who seek to conduct research in virtual environments.     

Killing the straw man: Dennett and phenomenology

Can phenomenology contribute to the burgeoning science of consciousness? Dennett’s reply would probably be that it very much depends upon the type of phenomenology in question. In my paper I discuss the relation between Dennett’s heterophenomenology and the type of classical philosophical phenomenology that one can find in Husserl, Scheler and Merleau-Ponty. I will in particular be looking at Dennett’s criticism of classical phenomenology. How vulnerable is it to Dennett’s criticism, and how much of a challenge does his own alternative constitute? I will argue that there are some rather marked differences between these two approaches to consciousness, but as I also hope to make clear, Dennett’s own account of where the differences are located is off target and ultimately based on a somewhat flawed conception of what classical phenomenology amounts to.     

国外教师职业倦怠影响因素研究新进展

职业倦怠是服务于助人行业的人们因工作时间过长、工作量过大、工作强度过高所经历的一种疲惫不堪的状态,包括情绪衰竭、去个性化、个人成就感降低三个方面。教师是职业倦怠的高发人群之一,对教师产生许多消极影响,要想缓解教师职业倦怠,就必须研究影响职业倦怠的因素,国外对于教师职业倦怠影响因素的研究得出许多结果,新进的主要有社会比较方式、集体自尊、应付方式、创造性和组织支持等。     

电脑游戏与青少年问题行为、家庭各因素的关系研究

本研究着眼于探讨6、8、10年级的中学生的电脑游戏活动,以及游戏时间、游戏暴力程度、行为问题、父母教养方式、家庭收入等因素的相互作用。结果显示,6年级学生较之8和10年级学生有较少的行为问题。研究也发现,学生玩游戏时间越多,玩游戏的历史越长,具有行为问题的可能性越多。此外,那些游戏暴力指数较高的学生所得到的来自父母的温暖指数较少,有较多的问题行为。在游戏的暴力指数方面,女孩比男孩要低得多。父亲教养方式中的温暖和惩罚因子、母亲教养方式中的温暖、椎绡和惩罚因子可用于预测孩子的问题行为。     

Personality for free: Psychometric properties of a public domain Australian measure of the five‐factor model

Fifty items from Goldberg's International Personality Item Pool were compiled to form a public‐domain measure of personality, the Australian Personality Inventory (API). Data from a random community sample (N = 7615) and a university‐based sample (N = 271) were used to explore psychometric properties of this 50‐item measure of the five‐factor model of personality (FFM). In both samples, internal reliabilities were adequate. In the university‐based sample an appropriate pattern of convergent and divergent relationship was found between scale scores and domain scores from the NEO Five‐Factor Inventory. After adjusting for an apparent response set (mean response across items), exploratory factor analyses clearly retrieved the FFM in both samples. It is provisionally concluded that raw scale scores from the API provide reliable estimates of the FFM, but adjustment for mean response across the 50 items might clarify the five‐factor structure, especially in less educated samples.