3~8岁儿童对资源分配中贡献、努力和能力因素的权衡

研究选取3~4岁、5~6岁和7~8岁儿童,考察儿童在分配资源时对贡献、努力和能力因素的权衡,采用资源分配范式和在以上三维度上不同的人物故事情境。结果发现,各年龄儿童均最偏爱平等分配,相比之下,3~4岁儿童倾向分给贡献最大的个体最多的资源,7~8岁儿童则分给最努力的个体更多资源。儿童均较少按能力进行分配。随着年龄发展,儿童对贡献原则赋予的权重逐渐减弱,对个体努力的认可度逐渐增强,显示出儿童分配原则的发展变化。     

Sense of Community in Clubhouse Programs: Member and Staff Concepts

Psychological sense of community within psychosocial rehabilitation clubhouse programs was examined using concept mapping with 18 members and 18 staff from 10 programs. Members identified four concepts: Recovery, social connections, membership, and tasks and roles. Members described hope and healing as aspects of recovery. Members' views on sense of community focused on the rehabilitation and social nature of the program. Staff also identified four concepts: Affiliation and support for members, shared experiences, clubhouse organization, and task and roles. The staff concept of clubhouse organization, which incorporated the ideas of leadership and organization of physical space and the concept of task and roles, was based on ideas of shared responsibility and clubhouse procedures. Staffs' views on sense of community strongly reflected their formal training in clubhouse principles. The relation of these concepts to McMillan and Chavis' theoretical framework for sense of community is discussed and recommendations for practice provided. Sandra E. Herman is now an independent program evaluation consultant. Catherine Ferguson is now an independent consultant on psychosocial programs.     

Trace fear conditioning is enhanced in mice lacking the delta subunit of the GABAA receptor

The delta subunit of the GABA(A) receptor (GABA(A)R) is highly expressed in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. Genetic deletion of this subunit reduces synaptic and extrasynaptic inhibition and decreases sensitivity to neurosteroids. This paper examines the effect of these changes on hippocampus-dependent trace fear conditioning. Compared to controls, delta knockout mice exhibited enhanced acquisition of tone and context fear. Hippocampus-independent delay conditioning was normal in these animals. These results suggest that reduced inhibition in the dentate gyrus facilitates the acquisition of trace fear conditioning. However, the enhancement in trace conditioning was only observed in female knockout mice. The sex-specificity of this effect may be a result of neuroactive steroids. These compounds vary during the estrus cycle, can increase GABAergic inhibition, and have been shown to impair hippocampus-dependent learning. We propose that activation of GABA(A)Rs by neuroactive steroids inhibits learning processes in the hippocampus. Knockouts are immune to this effect because of the reduced neurosteroid sensitivity that accompanies deletion of the delta subunit. Relationships between neurosteroids, hippocampal excitability, and memory are discussed.     

New Factor Structure of the Interpretation of Intrusions Inventory with University Students

The Obsessive Compulsive Cognitions Working Group (OCCWG) created the Interpretation of Intrusions Inventory (III) to measure appraisals (interpretations) of mental intrusions. Validation attempts by the OCCWG suggest that the three appraisal mechanisms hypothesized to comprise the III are better described as a single construct. The underlying factor structure of the III was investigated with university students (n = 307). Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on the theoretically-derived three-factor model and on the empirically-derived one-factor model of the III. Both models failed to adequately fit the data. Thus, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted, which produced a two-factor model consisting of appraisals of Responsibility and Importance/Control of Thoughts. The new factors exhibited good predictive validity, as they predicted the severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms and subtypes of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Context effects and the (mal)adaptive nature of guilt and shame in children

Symptoms of internalization were examined in relation to children's self-reports of three emotions in situations that were either ambiguous or unambiguous as to the child's responsibility for various standard violations. Children ranging in age from 6 to 13 years were drawn from elementary schools (61 boys, 79 girls, mean age = 8.7) and from a community mental health center (23 boys, 18 girls, mean age = 8.5) to which they had been referred for problems related to internalization or externalization. Shame proneness was consistently linked to internalizing symptoms across contexts. Guilt proneness, in response to ambiguous scenarios, was also associated with internalization, whereas pride responses were unrelated to symptoms. Few age- or gender-related differences were found. The results cast doubt on notions that self-conscious emotions, such as guilt, are necessarily adaptive or maladaptive. Systematic research is needed to understand which features of any emotion contribute to children's psychological adjustment.     

Loneliness is associated with a greater self-reference effect in episodic memory when compared against a close friend

Loneliness describes a negative experience associated with perceived social disconnection. Despite the clear links between loneliness and mental and physical health, relatively little is known about how loneliness affects cognition. In this study, we tested the effect of loneliness on cognitive distance between the self and others, using a task in which participants completed a surprise memory task for adjectives implicitly encoded in relation to the self, a close friend or a celebrity. We assessed item memory sensitivity, metacognitive sensitivity, metacognitive efficiency and source memory for positive and negative words. In addition, participants reported their trait loneliness and depression. Results revealed an overall self-referential advantage compared with both friend and celebrity encoded items. Likewise, a friend-referential advantage was identified compared to celebrity-encoded items. Individuals who experienced more loneliness showed a greater self-referential bias in comparison to words encoded in relation to a close friend, and a smaller friend-referential bias in comparison to words encoded in relation to celebrity. These findings suggest that loneliness is reflected in a greater cognitive distance between the self and close friends in relation to memory biases. The results have important implications for understanding the social contextual effects on memory and the cognitive ramifications of loneliness.     

Beliefs and inferences—a test of a rational-emotive hypothesis: 3. On expectations about enjoying a party

Ninety-six subjects were asked to imagine that they were going to a party. They were further asked to imagine (a) that they adhered to a rational or an irrational belief; (b) that they had jilted or been jilted by a partner with whom they were having an intimate relationship; and (c) that they knew or did not know other friends who would be going to the party. Whilst in role, subjects were asked to make inferences about various aspects of their enjoyment of the party. The results supported the hypothesis that holding an irrational belief leads to more negatively distorted inferences than holding a rational belief, and that having been jilted by a partner would have a similar effect. There was only limited support for the hypothesis that the second two independent variables would have a moderating or amplifying effect on the negativity of inferences through interaction with the belief variable. The implications of these findings for counselling are discussed, especially with respect to challenging irrational beliefs.     

Gender differences in patterns of spatial ability, environmental cognition, and math and English achievement in late adolescence

Relationships were explored among three measures of spatial ability--the Embedded Figures Test (EFT), the Mental Rotations Test (MRT), and the Differential Aptitude Spatial Relations subtest (DAT)--an environmental cognition task (MAP), American College Testing (ACT) math and English achievement, and gender in a sample of 282 undergraduates. Variance attributable to gender among the spatial tasks ranged from 0.5% in the EFT to 12% in the MRT. Gender accounted for only 1% of the variance in the MAP task. Gender differences were noted in regression analyses; women's math and English achievement scores were both predictive of spatial ability, while for men, only math achievement was predictive of spatial ability. The results were interpreted as substantiating sex role socialization theory of cognitive abilities.     

Lessons learned from using shadowing as a qualitative research technique in Education

While shadowing is known in disciplines such as Organizational Studies, there is little reference to shadowing as a qualitative research technique in Education or other social science fields. This paper explores shadowing in the research literature and my experience collecting data using shadowing. Using my researcher journal and reflections, I present five lessons learned as a qualitative shadowing researcher in Education: shadowing is difficult, tiring and time consuming; shadowing is high stakes emotionally for the participants; participants have control during data collection, researchers have control with the results; shadowing researchers must manage relationships with the participants; and ethics in shadowing can be murky and researchers must make continuous ethical judgements while in the field.     

Gender Differences in the Organization of Guilt and Shame

Lewis [(1971) Shame in Guilt in Neurosis, New York: International Universities Press] argues that guilt and shame represent distinct modes of perceiving and experiencing information about the self that are congruent with gender-linked differences in socialization. We tested predictions from Lewis' model that shame-proneness in adult White females (n = 102), but guilt-proneness in adult White males (n = 99), would account for a substantial proportion of the variance in measures assessing their characteristic use of defense mechanisms and endorsement of gender roles. Certain results confirmed Lewis' broader claim that guilt for men, but shame for women, were predominant modes of organizing information about the self. Other results did not support certain specific predictions made by Lewis or they provided only equivocal support (e.g., in men, the joint positive relationship of guilt-proneness to communal orientations but its negative relationship to externalization). Similar discrepant findings emerged for females' construal of guilt, which also related positively to internalization. Although shame-proneness did emerge as the principal emotion variable for females, it was linked to both internalization and externalization. Lewis' model is reconsidered in light of recent empirical findings and the need to conduct more on-line investigations of transgression-emotion induction-emotion reduction cycles.