香港中学生人格特质的性别差异及其发展性分析

本文报告了新近发展的跨文化（中国人）个性测量表－青少年版（CPAI-A）对香港中学生人格特征的性别差异评估结果。CPAI-A是在CPAI-2（成人版）基础上发展而来的。研究发现性别是影响香港中学生人格特质的关键因素,并且性别差异在不同年龄组之间存在明显的延续性和发展性趋势。结合对已有研究的比较分析,文章从发展角度讨论了人格特质的性别差异特性在青少年不同年龄组之间的情形。文章还基于CPAI-2中国人常模的数据,比较分析了青少年与成人之间人格特征性别差异的特点。文章最后认为性别差异特征是体现人格特质在青少年期的不同年龄阶段,以及从青少年到成人阶段的发展性与稳定性的重要内容     

The relation between language and cognition in 3- to 9-year-olds: the acquisition of grammatical gender in French

The French language has a grammatical gender system in which all nouns are assigned either a masculine or a feminine gender. Nouns provide two types of gender cues that can potentially guide gender attribution: morphophonological cues carried by endings and semantic cues (natural gender). The first goal of this study was to describe the acquisition of the probabilistic system based on phonological oppositions on word endings by French-speaking children. The second goal was to explore the extent to which this system affects categorization. In the study, 3- to 9-year-olds assigned gender categorization to invented nouns whose endings were typically masculine, typically feminine, or neutral. Two response conditions were used. In the determiner condition, children indicated the gender class by orally providing the determiner un or une marked for gender. In the picture condition, responses were given by pointing to the picture of a Martian-like female or male person that would be best called by each spoken pseudoword. Results indicated that as young as 3 years, children associated the determiner corresponding to the ending bias at greater than chance levels. Ending-consistent performance increased from 3 to 9 years of age. Moreover, from 4 years of age onward, sensitivity to endings affected categorization. Starting at that age, pictures were selected according to endings at greater than chance levels. This effect also increased with age. The discussion deals with the mechanisms of language acquisition and the relation between language and cognition.     

Working with and ‘seeing through’ the sexual transference in the psychotherapy of an adolescent boy

This paper explores the challenges and developmental opportunities of working with the sexual transference in psychotherapy with adolescents. Psychoanalytic contributions investigating the nature of adolescent sexuality and the developmental move from a narcissistic organisation to a capacity to form intimate relationships are reviewed, and the question of what happens when there is a lack of containment in infancy is addressed. The way in which unintegrated sexual impulses and phantasies can invade the therapeutic relationship is further discussed through the account of the weekly psychotherapy of a 16-year-old boy who formed a powerful sexual transference to his female therapist. The paper highlights how working through the sexual transference enabled this young man to face his developmental paralysis and begin to use the therapy as an opportunity for psychic growth.     

The Relationships of Teacher Ethnic Discrimination,Ethnic Identification,and Host National Identification to School Misconduct of Turkish and Moroccan Immigrant Adolescents in Belgium

We focus on school misconduct and how ethnic teacher discrimination, ethnic identification, and host national identification are associated with school misconduct of male and female immigrant adolescents. Additionally, we verify the moderating role of ethnic identification and host national identification. The results show that discrimination and host national identification are related with the school deviance of immigrant adolescents. The relationship between discrimination and school deviance differs for male and female adolescents. Ethnic identification and host national identification only moderate the relationship of ethnic teacher discrimination and school delinquency for girls who experienced ethnic teacher discrimination on a frequent basis.     

Neural responses to morphological, syntactic, and semantic properties of single words: an fMRI study

Dissociations in the recognition of specific classes of words have been documented in brain-injured populations. These include deficits in the recognition and production of morphologically complex words as well as impairments specific to particular syntactic classes such as verbs. However, functional imaging evidence for distinctions among the neural systems underlying these dissociations has been inconclusive. We explored the neural systems involved in processing different word classes in a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging study, contrasting four groups of words co-varying morphological complexity (simple, monomorphemic words vs complex derived or inflected words) and syntactic class (verbs vs nouns/adjectives). Subtraction of word from letter string processing showed activation in left frontal and temporal lobe regions consistent with prior studies of visual word processing. No differences were observed for morphologically complex and simple words, despite adequate power to detect stimulus specific effects. A region of posterior left middle temporal gyrus showed significantly increased activation for verbs. Post hoc analyses showed that this elevated activation could also be related to semantic properties of the stimulus items (verbs have stronger action associations than nouns, and action association is correlated with activation). Results suggest that semantic as well as syntactic factors should be considered when assessing the neural systems involved in single word comprehension.     

Indigenous measures of personality assessment in Asian countries: a review

This article reviews attempts to develop multidimensional personality measures in Asia and their applications in clinical assessment. Indigenous personality assessment measures in India, Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and Taiwan are examined. These early attempts have not yielded a comprehensive personality measure that integrates a theoretical framework and an empirical program of validation. The Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI) is cited as an example to illustrate the process of developing an indigenous measure that meets the testing standards of established assessment instruments. On the basis of the research findings from the CPAI, the authors discuss the relevance of indigenous measures in clinical assessment in native cultures as well as in informing mainstream personality assessment.     

Use of the MMPI-2 with Asian populations

Psychological tests developed in the United States are being widely adapted into other languages and cultures around the world. This article examines the generalizability and utility of personality assessment instruments across cultures and addresses methodological issues related to using personality questionnaires in countries different from the one in which they were developed. This article specifically highlights the application of objective psychological tests in Asia with special emphasis on the most widely used and internationally adapted personality instrument, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory--2 (MMPI-2). Effective strategies for translating, adapting, and standardizing questionnaires in languages and cultures different from their country of origin are reviewed. The history of several successful adaptations of the original MMPI and MMPI-2 is surveyed to illustrate the extensive research base for the test in Asia. Current research is summarized, and recommendations for future research are provided.     

Psychological assessment in Asia: introduction to the special section

Psychological assessment with Asians is an important topic not only for psychologists from Asian countries but also for psychologists in multicultural societies with large populations of ethnic Asians. There is a dearth of information in the English language literature on psychological assessment for Asians. This special section is organized to review various forms of psychological assessment in Asia. The objectives of the special section are to inform test users and researchers of the issues related to cross-cultural validity of psychological assessment in Asia and to introduce examples of adapted and indigenously developed instruments that are culturally appropriate.     

Neural correlates of rumination in depression

Rumination, or recursive self-focused thinking, has important implications for understanding the development and maintenance of depressive episodes. Rumination is associated with the worsening of negative mood states, greater affective responding to negative material, and increased access to negative memories. The present study was designed to use fMRI to examine neural aspects of rumination in depressed and healthy control individuals. We used a rumination induction task to assess differences in patterns of neural activation during ruminative self-focus as compared with a concrete distraction condition and with a novel abstract distraction condition in 14 participants who were diagnosed with major depressive disorder and 14 healthy control participants. Depressed participants exhibited increased activation in the orbitofrontal cortex, subgenual anterior cingulate, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex as compared with healthy controls during rumination versus concrete distraction. Neural activity during rumination versus abstract distraction was greater for depressed than for control participants in the amygdala, rostral anterior cingulate/medial prefrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, and parahippocampus. These findings indicate that ruminative self-focus is associated with enhanced recruitment of limbic and medial and dorsolateral prefrontal regions in depression. Supplemental materials for this article may be downloaded from http://cabn.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.