Terror management among Chinese: Worldview defence and intergroup bias in resource allocation

Management of terror of death and its subsequent reactions has been held to be universal. However, with only a few exceptions empirical efforts have so far been focused on people from North American and European countries. Would Eastern philosophical traditions render differential management of the terror of death? The present research aimed at testing the generality of terror management in Hong Kong Chinese samples. Across four studies, we found robust and consistent mortality salience effects, which attest to the generality of terror management. As in previous studies, compared to control participants, mortality salient participants displayed a stronger ingroup bias in person evaluation (Studies 1, 3). Additionally, we found a robust mortality salience effect on intergroup bias in resource allocation (Studies 2A, 2B, 3), which has not been examined in previous terror management research.     

Are three-sample tasks less sensitive than two-sample tasks? Memory effects in the testing of taste discrimination

In order to provide insights into why discrimination protocols with three stimuli sometimes tend to be less sensitive than protocols with two stimuli, two experiments were conducted. In these experiments, the relative effects of memory decay and memory interference were investigated. Both experiments involved purified water and/or solutions of low NaCl concentration. In Experiment 1, three protocols were compared: the traditional same-different test (Protocol 1), the same protocol with a rinse between the two samples (Protocol 2), and Protocol 2 with an added time delay between the first sample and the intermediate rinse (Protocol 3.) The decrease in measured d' values as time delay increased indicated that memory decay might be a factor for tests with three stimuli, such as the triangle method, rendering it less sensitive than tests with two stimuli, such as the same-different method. In Experiment 2, four protocols were compared: the traditional same-different test, the two-rinse same-different test, the triangle test, and what will be called duo same-different test. The experimental design allowed the individual consideration of memory decay and interference effects. From this last experiment, the substantial effect of memory interference was uncovered. Further experimentation will be necessary to estimate the exact relative effects of memory interference and memory decay.     

Parent-Child Interactions in Relation to Critical and Emotionally Overinvolved Expressed Emotion (EE): Is EE a Proxy for Behavior?

Expressed emotion measures, encompassing dimensions of criticism (CRIT), and emotional overinvolvement (EOI) are increasingly being used to assess the parent-child relationship in child clinical populations, despite the lack of studies assessing their validity. We examined the correspondence between CRIT, EOI, and parent-child interactions as observed by neutral coders in a sample of 252 clinic-referred children and adolescents, ages 7-17 years. We found support for the validity of the CRIT code, with high critical parents showing more antagonism, negativity, disgust, harshness, and less responsiveness, compared to parents who scored in the low or borderline ranges. In contrast, none of the observed behaviors were found to correspond with parental EOI, suggesting either that this construct lacks validity with juvenile samples or that behaviors that correspond to EOI are difficult to observe. We conclude that high parental CRIT can be used as an index of problematic parent-child interactions.     

Children's use of geometric information in mapping tasks

Accumulating evidence, particularly from research using the disorientation technique, demonstrates early sensitivity to geometric properties of space. However, it is not known whether children can use geometric cues to interpret a map. The current study examined how 3- to 6-year-olds use geometric features of layouts in solving mapping tasks. Children were asked to identify a target location in a layout shaped as an isosceles triangle by using information provided in a picture of that layout. Performance depended on whether the shape was presented explicitly or needed to be inferred. Younger participants performed better when the triangle was formed by continuous connected lines than when it was formed by separate objects. Performance also depended on the type of geometric cues available. Children found it easier to establish mapping for targets located in the unique corner of the triangle than for targets located in equal-sized corners. Overall, the findings reveal both a remarkable early ability to use geometric information in mapping and limits in this ability.     

Examining the State-Trait Anxiety Relationship: A Behavioural Genetic Approach

State and trait anxiety define different aspects of anxiety, and may represent environmentally and genetically mediated components of this phenotype. Furthermore their relationship, where trait anxiety is expressed through levels of state anxiety under threatening circumstances, may represent a process of interplay between a genetic vulnerability factor and an environmental stressor. To test these hypotheses, we explored genetic and environmental influences on measures of state and trait anxiety in a sample of 1058 twins (521 males and 537 females) aged 8–16. The results were consistent with these hypotheses. State anxiety is largely influenced by environmental factors in males and females whereas trait anxiety shows moderate genetic effects and substantial non-shared environment effects. Their association was accounted for by non-shared environmental effects, with modest genetic and shared environmental inputs. The implications of these results for vulnerability mechanisms involving stress reactivity on anxiety are discussed.     

The role of structural prediction in rapid syntactic analysis

A number of recent electrophysiological studies of sentence processing have shown that a subclass of syntactic violations elicits very rapid ERP responses, occurring within around 200 ms of the onset of the violation. Such findings raise the question of how it is possible to diagnose violations so quickly. This paper suggests that very rapid diagnosis of errors is possible specifically in situations where the diagnosis problem is tightly constrained by specific expectations generated before the critical word is presented. In an event-related potentials (ERP) study of visual sentence reading participants encountered violations of a word order constraint (...Max's of...) that has elicited early ERP responses in previous studies. Across conditions the illicit sequence was held constant, while sentence context was used to manipulate the expectation for a noun following the possessor Max's, by manipulating the possibility of ellipsis of the head noun. Results showed that the anterior negativity elicited by the word category violation was attenuated when the availability of ellipsis reduced the expectation for a noun in the position of the offending preposition of, with divergence between conditions starting around 200 ms after the onset of the violation. This suggests a role for structural expectations in accounting for very fast syntactic diagnosis processes.     

Going home: the complex effects of reunification on internalizing problems among children in foster care

When children in foster care are reunified with their families of origin they encounter changes that may influence their well-being in both positive and negative ways. We examined the effects of reunification among 218 children in foster care to test an integrative model of the effects of reunification using structural equation modeling. We hypothesized that reunification would exert indirect effects on subsequent child adjustment via changes in adverse life events, perceived social isolation, and mental health service utilization. Results indicated no direct effect of reunification on subsequent internalizing problems, but reunification was related to increased adverse life events that, in turn, were related to elevated symptoms. Second, reunification was negatively associated with mental health service use. Finally, reunification was associated with decreased child perceptions of social isolation. In summary, reunification with biological parents is associated with multiple environmental changes, with most but not all effects indicating negative consequences.     

Dragon talk: providing pastoral care for Chinese immigrants

This article describes how cultures and pastoral care education processes can be barriers between the patient, the pastoral caregiver, and the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) student. By providing sketches of interviews with Chinese patients, the author tries to explain why the attempt to unveil Chinese patients' feelings and needs through conversation can be a frustrating experience. Moreover, the author argues that the pedagogy of pastoral care education ought to be more culturally sensitive in regard to the diverse cultural backgrounds of both patients and CPE students.     

Suicidal ideation and attempts in Norwegian police

Studies on suicide among police show inconsistent results, thereby contributing to considerable speculation regarding why police officers commit suicide. The present paper is the first nationwide study on suicidal ideation and attempts among police. 3,272 Norwegian police completed Paykel's Suicidal Feelings in the General Population questionnaire. Lifetime prevalence of specific questionnaire items ranged from 24% for the feeling that life was not worth living, 6.4% for having seriously considered suicide, and 0.7% for attempted suicide. Independent predictors of serious suicidal ideation were marital status, subjective health complaints, reality weakness, anxiety, and depression. Serious suicidal ideation was mainly attributed to personal and family problems.     

Dieting behavior in Norwegian adolescents

In a sample of Norwegian adolescents (n = 1117) 27, 4% of the girls and 9% of the boys reported that they were dieting. Using multiple regression analyses, we were able to predict 50% of girls dieting behavior and 24% of boys dieting behavior. Psychological concerns relating to weight and eating (WEC) as well as perceptions of feeling fatter than others were the only significant predictors of dieting in girls, whilst dieting in boys could also be predicted by their Body Mass Index. Dieting girls who scored high on the Weight and Eating Concerns Inventory were found to suffer constipation and binge eating attacks more often than other dieting girls. This was taken as an indication that these girls were at risk of developing an eating disorder.