Chinese Children's Moral Evaluation of Lies and Truths-Roles of Context and Parental Individualism-Collectivism Tendencies

The present study examined Chinese children's moral evaluations of truths and lies about one's own pro-social acts. Children ages 7, 9, and 11 were read vignettes in which a protagonist performs a good deed and is asked about it by a teacher, either in front of the class or in private. In response, the protagonist either tells a modest lie, which is highly valued by the Chinese culture, or tells an immodest truth, which violates the Chinese cultural norms about modesty. Children were asked to identify whether the protagonist's statement was the truth or a lie, and to evaluate how 'good' or 'bad' the statement was. Chinese children rated modest lies more positively than immodest truths, with this effect becoming more pronounced with age. Rural Chinese children and those with at least one nonprofessional parent rated immodest truths less positively when they were told in public rather than in private. Furthermore, Chinese children of parents with high collectivism scores valued modest lies more than did children of parents with low collectivism scores. These findings suggest that both macro- and micro-cultural factors contribute significantly to children's moral understanding of truth and lie telling.     

Promoting positive body image among university students: A collaborative pilot study

The purpose of the present study was to pilot a prevention program designed to promote positive body image among university students. Thirty-seven undergraduate students from three Canadian universities were recruited to participate in the study. They were selected from a pool of students enrolled in a peer health education program facilitated by the university-based health promotion staff. Borrowing from the tenets of the non-specific vulnerability stressor model and the disease-specific social cognitive theory, the intervention focused on media literacy, self-esteem enhancement strategies, stress management skills and ways to recognize healthy versus unhealthy relationships. Separate ANOVAs revealed that participants reported significant improvements in body satisfaction and reductions in the internalization of media stereotypes between the baseline and post-program period. The program received a favorable response from the participating students, who appreciated the face-to-face format of the intervention, and from the university staff who expressed interest in embedding the strategies into their routine peer mentoring training activities. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Using diffusion models to understand clinical disorders

Sequential sampling models provide an alternative to traditional analyses of reaction times and accuracy in two-choice tasks. These models are reviewed with particular focus on the diffusion model (Ratcliff, 1978) and how its application can aid research on clinical disorders. The advantages of a diffusion model analysis over traditional comparisons are shown through simulations and a simple lexical decision experiment. Application of the diffusion model to a clinically relevant topic is demonstrated through an analysis of data from nonclinical participants with high- and low-trait anxiety in a recognition memory task. The model showed that after committing an error, participants with high-trait anxiety responded more cautiously by increasing their boundary separation, whereas participants with low-trait anxiety did not. The article concludes with suggestions for ways to improve and broaden the application of these models to studies of clinical disorders.     

The Dimensions of Politics Perceptions and Their Organizational and Individual Predictors1

This study addresses limitations of prior research on politics by first addressing the multidimensionality of politics perceptions through assessing the confirmatory fit of 1-, 3-, and 5-factor models. Secondly, the study examines the relative effects of organizational and personal characteristics on politics perceptions, as well as their interactions. Results indicate that 5 underlying dimensions of polities perceptions demonstrate the best fit to the data, and that these dimensions are differentially influenced by organizational and individual-level factors and their interactions. Implications of the results are discussed.     

Preschool Children's Emotional Expressions with Peers: The Roles of Gender and Emotion Socialization

This study examined whether mothers and fathers reported using different emotion socialization strategies and whether these differences were related to preschoolers' gender and emotional expressiveness during peer play. Ninety percent of the children were Caucasian, 6% were Asian-American, and 4% were Mexican-American. The positive expressive behavior of 82 preschoolers participating in two conflict eliciting situations with two same gender peers were coded. The scores for the two sessions were averaged. All of the mothers and 63 of the fathers were administered three emotion socialization questionnaires. Results revealed that girls expressed more positive emotion than boys. In addition, mothers and fathers also reported using different emotion socialization practices and, in some cases, this was dependent upon their child's gender. The findings also showed that mothers' and fathers' reports of emotion socialization practices were differentially related to children's emotionally expressive behavior during peer play. In addition, fathers' emotion socialization practices accounted for unique variance in children's emotionally expressive behavior over and above that explained by the maternal emotion socialization variables. These findings highlight the importance of mothers' and fathers' emotion socialization practices for preschoolers' emotional competence in emotionally challenging situations with peers.     

Presidential Address: Team Science Across Disciplines: Advancing CBT Research and Practice on Hoarding

This presidential address focuses on the recent history of research and practice on hoarding disorder (HD) as a potential model for coordinating interdisciplinary teams of professionals within and outside mental health fields to advance scientific efforts to understand and resolve mental health problems. To identify, assess, and intervene with clients who have HD, psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, and other service professionals are needed, including those in public health, housing, medicine, aging and protective services, fire, safety, and animal protection. Research findings and practice methods developed by many of my colleagues highlight the various skills of these diverse disciplines and fields. Of particular interest are multimethod assessments and CBT interventions that span individual, group, and family treatments, delivered in the office, at home and via the web by mental health and other professionals, as well as peers. Outcomes are positive, but there remains much work to do to improve understanding and intervention outcomes.     

Hiding effort to gain a competitive advantage: Evidence from China

Previous studies with Western populations have shown that adolescents' tendency to downplay their academic effort is affected by two kinds of motives: ability‐related motives (e.g., to appear competent) and social approval motives (e.g., to be popular). In this research, we test for the presence of additional competition‐related motives in China, a culture placing strong emphasis on academic competition. Study 1 (N = 150) showed that, in response to a scenario in which a hard‐working high‐school junior hid effort from classmates, the most highly endorsed explanation was “to influence others to work less hard to maintain a competitive advantage.” Study 2 (N = 174) revealed that competition‐related explanations were endorsed relatively more often when the speaker and audience had similar academic rankings. This tendency was most evident when both speaker and audience were top performers, and when this was the case, participants' desire to demonstrate superiority over others was a positive predictor of endorsement of competition‐related motives. Study 3 (N = 137) verified that competition‐related motives were more strongly endorsed among Chinese participants than U.S. participants. These results suggest that at least in cultures that emphasize academic competition and in contexts where competition is salient, hiding effort is often about attempting to gain strategic advantage.     

Accuracy of Reported Community Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder

To compare community diagnoses of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) reported by parents to consensus diagnoses made using standardized tools plus clinical observation. 87 participants (85% male, average age 7.4 years), with reported community diagnosis of ASD were evaluated using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule) (ADOS-2), Differential Ability Scale (DAS-II), and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS-II). Detailed developmental and medical history was obtained from all participants. Diagnosis was based on clinical consensus of at least two expert clinicians, using test results, clinical observations, and parent report. 23% of participants with a reported community diagnosis of ASD were classified as non-spectrum based on our consensus diagnosis. ASD and non-spectrum participants did not differ on age at evaluation and age of first community diagnosis. Non-verbal IQ scores and Adaptive Behavior Composite scores were significantly higher in the non-spectrum group compared to the ASD group (104.5?±?21.7 vs. 80.1?±?21.6, p?<?.01; 71.1?±?15 versus 79.5?±?17.6, p?<?.05, respectively). Participants enrolled with community diagnosis of PDD-NOS were significantly more likely to be classified as non-spectrum on the study consensus diagnosis than Participants with Autism or Asperger (36% versus 9.5%, Odds Ratio?=?5.4, p?<?.05). This study shows suboptimal agreement between community diagnoses of ASD and consensus diagnosis using standardized instruments. These findings are based on limited data, and should be further studied, taking into consideration the influence of DSM 5 diagnostic criteria on ASD prevalence.