A Comparative Policy Analysis of Family Preservation Programs in the U.S. and in Taiwan

This study compares a policy response to child maltreatment—family preservation programs—in the U.S. and in Taiwan. The comparison focuses on analyses of policy development, implementation, and evaluation under the historical and social contexts in both countries. In order to prevent and reduce occurrence and recurrence of maltreatment, both the U.S. and Taiwanese governments have targeted high-risk families to provide services with the ideology of preserving family. This study first compares historical and social contexts in both countries. The impacts of economic recession, social movements, social changes, and social values toward child maltreatment are examined. Second, this study analyzes the characteristics of family preservation programs. It focuses on the comparison of target population, eligibility, type of services, and government’s role. Third, this study evaluates the implementations of the programs. Strengths and weaknesses of the programs in both countries are identified. Fourth, effectiveness of the programs is evaluated. Finally, based on these analyses, policy recommendations are provided for both countries to address the weakness in program implementation. Findings from this comparative study make unique contributions to modifying the child welfare services in both U.S. and Taiwan.     

Are “We” Good? A Longitudinal Study of <Emphasis Type="Italic">We</Emphasis>-Talk and Stress Coping in Dual-Earner Couples

We applied the linguistic approach and a longitudinal design to investigate how dual-earner couples address work–family stress and how they reasoned with communal coping to reduce work–family stress. Although previous research indicated that we-talk may be a marker for communal coping, we argued that gender may differ in the psychological meanings of we-talk. We hypothesized that gender moderated the relationships between we-talk and satisfaction in both work and marriage. Thirty-one dual-earner couples were interviewed about how they coped with work–family stress. The data concerning work and marital satisfaction were collected twice, once during the interview and once 2 years later. The results indicated significant interactions between gender and we-talk in regard to both marital and work satisfaction. Specifically, we-talk that was used by wives increased their husbands’ work and marital satisfaction. In contrast, we-talk that was used by husbands decreased their wives’ work satisfaction. Our findings highlighted that the psychological meanings of we-talk were dependent on the talking context. The applications for reducing work–family stress were discussed.     

Effects of product portfolios and recommendation timing in the efficiency of personalized recommendation

Personalized recommendation has important implications in raising online shopping efficiency and increasing product sales. There has been wide interest in finding ways to provide more efficient personalized recommendations. Most existing studies focus on how to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the recommendation algorithms or are more concerned on ways to reduce perceived risks and thus increase consumer satisfaction. Unlike these studies, our study begins from the decision‐making process of consumers, using consumers' two‐stage decision‐making system and preference inconsistency theory as a basis, to reveal the mechanisms involved in consumers' acceptance of recommendations. This paper analyzes the effect of personalized recommendations from two angles, recommendation timing and product portfolio, tries to point out differences in consumer preferences between similar products and related products, and verifies that consumers demand diversity in the recommended content. The study analyzes differences in the acceptance of personalized recommendations between practical products and hedonic products and discovers that recommendations of hedonic products are more effective than that of practical products. Based on the research earlier, the study provides suggestions on how to better plan and operate a personalized recommendation system. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Face likeability mediates the memory-enhancing effect of face attractiveness in young but not older adults

Evidence of effects of face attractiveness on memory is mixed and little is known about the underlying mechanisms of this relationship. Previous work suggests a possible mediating role of affective responding to faces (i.e., face likeability) on the relationship between face attractiveness and memory. Age-related change in social motivation may reduce the relevance of face attractiveness in older adults, with downstream effects on memory. In the present study, 50 young and 51 older participants were presented with face-trait pairs. Faces varied in attractiveness. Participants then completed a face-trait associative recognition memory task and provided likeability ratings for each face. There was a memory-enhancing effect of face attractiveness in young (but not older) participants, which was partially mediated by face likeability. In addition, more attractive and less attractive (compared to moderately attractive) faces were more likely remembered by both young and older participants. This quadratic effect of face attractiveness on memory was not mediated by face likeability. Findings are discussed in the context of motivational influences on memory that vary with age.     

Of mice and marbles: Novel perspectives on burying behavior as a screening test for psychiatric illness

Burying forms part of the normal behavioral routine of rodents, although its expression is species-specific. However, it has been suggested that aberrant burying behavior, of which marble-burying (MB) is an example, may represent neophobic and/or compulsive-like behavior. In the present investigation, we assessed MB in an established animal model of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD)—namely, spontaneous stereotypy in the deer mouse—to establish whether high (H) stereotypy is associated with neophobia and/or another compulsive endophenotype, i.e. MB, as compared to nonstereotypical (N) controls. A three-trial, one-zone MB test was performed over three consecutive evenings both before and after chronic treatment with high-dose (50 mg/kg/day) oral escitalopram. Neophobia was measured via the number of marbles buried during the first pre- and posttreatment MB trials, and compulsive-like behavior via the number of marbles buried over all pre- and posttreatment MB trials. The data from the present study support earlier findings that burying is a normal behavioral routine (inherent burying behavior, IBB) that is expressed by all deer mice, irrespective of stereotypical cohort, and is not associated with either neophobia or compulsiveness. Indeed, chronic escitalopram treatment, which is similarly effective in treating clinical anxiety and OCD, as well as in attenuating H behavior, failed to influence IBB. Although 11 % of the animals presented with a unique burying endophenotype (high burying behavior), escitalopram also failed to attenuate said behavior, necessitating further investigation as to its relevance. In conclusion, MB cannot be regarded as a measure of anxiety-like or compulsive behavior in the deer mouse model of OCD.     

The relationship between action anticipation and emotion recognition in athletes of open skill sports

Action anticipation plays an important role in the successful performance of open skill sports, such as ball and combat sports. Evidence has shown that elite athletes of open sports excel in action anticipation. Most studies have targeted ball sports and agreed that information on body mechanics is one of the key determinants for successful action anticipation in open sports. However, less is known about combat sports, and whether facial emotions have an influence on athletes’ action anticipation skill. It has been suggested that the understanding of intention in combat sports relies heavily on emotional context. Based on this suggestion, the present study compared the action anticipation performances of taekwondo athletes, weightlifting athletes, and non-athletes and then correlated these with their performances of emotion recognition. This study primarily found that accurate action anticipation does not necessarily rely on the dynamic information of movement, and that action anticipation performance is correlated with that of emotion recognition in taekwondo athletes, but not in weightlifting athletes. Our results suggest that the recognition of facial emotions plays a role in the action prediction in such combat sports as taekwondo.     

Stimulus–response correspondence effect as a function of temporal overlap between relevant and irrelevant information processing

The stimulus–response correspondence (SRC) effect refers to advantages in performance when stimulus and response correspond in dimensions or features, even if the common features are irrelevant to the task. Previous research indicated that the SRC effect depends on the temporal course of stimulus information processing. The current study investigated how the temporal overlap between relevant and irrelevant stimulus processing influences the SRC effect. In this experiment, the irrelevant stimulus (a previously associated tone) preceded the relevant stimulus (a coloured rectangle). The irrelevant and relevant stimuli onset asynchrony was varied to manipulate the temporal overlap between the irrelevant and relevant stimuli processing. Results indicated that the SRC effect size varied as a quadratic function of the temporal overlap between the relevant stimulus and irrelevant stimulus. This finding extends previous experimental observations that the SRC effect size varies in an increasing or decreasing function with reaction time. The current study demonstrated a quadratic function between effect size and the temporal overlap.     

Social Quality and Happiness—An Analysis of the Survey Data from Three Chinese Cities

Over the last two decades, the focus of happiness research has shifted from the measurement of life quality with an emphasis on material well-being to subjective well-being. This article follows this direction of development, but moves further into social well-being. Utilizing the method of social quality analysis, this study developed an analysis of happiness by looking into the influence of social factors on happiness. The study was established on the basis of empirical data collected from a social quality survey done in Hangzhou, Xiamen, and Shenzhen during 2011–2012. The purpose of this study is to expose the relationships between social quality analysis and happiness studies. The study demonstrates a strong correlation of social quality factors with happiness, although each set of these factors has a different impact on happiness in different factor domains.