New Confucianism and the semantics of individuality. a Luhmannian analysis

This article discusses New Confucian views on individuality and related philosophical problems. Special emphasis is given to the position of Tu Wei‐Ming (Du Weiming), a foremost living New Confucian thinker. It is pointed out that many New Confucian philosophers share a vision of a Confucian ‘ideal’ individuality or selfhood based on social integration – as opposed to a Western type of individuality sometimes portrayed as an individuality by isolation. These patterns of individuality are further examined on the basis of Niklas Luhmann's historical analysis of the semantics of individuality and his categories of ‘individuality by inclusion’ and ‘individuality by exclusion’. Finally, some parallels and differences between Confucian and the Luhmannian viewpoints are pointed out, and a suggestion on how a Luhmannian perspective might contribute to reformulations of New Confucian thought is attempted.     

Is Involvement a Suppressor of the Job Satisfaction–Life Satisfaction Relationship?1

Previous research has demonstrated a considerable correlation between job satisfaction and life satisfaction. In addition, various researchers have hypothesized that job importance (work involvement) should be a moderator of this relationship. However, most empirical tests did not confirm this assumption. We argue that job importance cannot turn out to be a moderator because the subjective importance of work is already part of job–satisfaction judgments, a notion that has been advanced by Locke (1969) as implicit importance weighting. However, a suppressor effect can be predicted because job importance should be correlated with job satisfaction, but not life satisfaction. In a study of recently hired incumbents (N= 811) in a large German electronics company, we distinguished between job involvement and work involvement. We considered the latter, but not the former, being a measure of job importance. Work involvement, but not job involvement, turned out to be a suppressor of the relation between job satisfaction and life satisfaction.     

The Psychometric Costs of Applicants' Faking: Examining Measurement Invariance and Retest Correlations Across Response Conditions

This study examines the stability of the response process and the rank-order of respondents responding to 3 personality scales in 4 different response conditions. Applicants to the University College of Teacher Education Styria (N = 243) completed personality scales as part of their college admission process. Half a year later, they retook the same personality scales in 1 of 3 randomly assigned experimental response conditions: honest, faking-good, or reproduce. Longitudinal means and covariance structure analyses showed that applicants' response processes could be partially reproduced after half a year, and respondents seemed to rely on an honest response behavior as a frame of reference. Additionally, applicants' faking behavior and instructed faking (faking-good) caused differences in the latent retest correlations and consistently affected measurement properties. The varying latent retest correlations indicated that faking can distort respondents' rank-order and thus the fairness of subsequent selection decisions, depending on the kind of faking behavior. Instructed faking (faking-good) even affected weak measurement invariance, whereas applicants' faking behavior did not. Consequently, correlations with personality scales—which can be utilized for predictive validity—may be readily interpreted for applicants. Faking behavior also introduced a uniform bias, implying that the classically observed mean raw score differences may not be readily interpreted.     

Supporting Fourth-Grade Students' Word Identification Using Application Software

A quasi-experimental study examined effects of a 10-week word structure intervention with fourth-grade students. During daily 10–15-minute practice periods, students worked individually with mobile apps focused on specific aspects of word identification. Pre- and post-treatment assessments showed no differences in rate and accuracy of oral reading between groups that did and did not use the apps, with little effect on motivation to read. Some differences were found in level of texts read and in spelling favoring the intervention students. However, practical significance was found in gains in percentile rank scores on standardized vocabulary and comprehension measures.     

Emotional Intelligence and cognitive abilities – associations and sex differences

In order to expand on previous research, this cross-sectional study investigated the relationship between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and cognitive abilities in healthy adults with a special focus on potential sex differences. EI was assessed by means of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso-Emotional-Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), whereas cognitive abilities were investigated using the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS), which measures key aspects of cognitive functioning, i.e. verbal memory, working memory, motor speed, verbal fluency, attention and processing speed, and reasoning and problem solving. 137 subjects (65% female) with a mean age of 38.7 ± 11.8 years were included into the study. While males and females were comparable with regard to EI, men achieved significantly higher BACS composite scores and outperformed women in the BACS subscales motor speed, attention and processing speed, and reasoning and problem solving. Verbal fluency significantly predicted EI, whereas the MSCEIT subscale understanding emotions significantly predicted the BACS composite score. Our findings support previous research and emphasize the relevance of considering cognitive abilities when assessing ability EI in healthy individuals.     

What’s the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Matter</Emphasis> with cognition? A ‘Vygotskian’ perspective on material engagement theory

The cross-disciplinary framework of Material Engagement Theory (MET) has emerged as a novel research program that flexibly spans archeology, anthropology, philosophy, and cognitive science. True to its slogan to ‘take material culture seriously’, “MET wants to change our understanding of what minds are and what they are made of by changing what we know about what things are and what they do for the mind” (Malafouris 2013, 141). By tracing out more clearly the conceptual contours of ‘material engagement,’ and firming up its ontological commitments, the main goal of this article is to help refine Malafouris’ fertile approach. In particular, we argue for a rapprochement between MET and the tradition of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, based on the ‘Vygotskian’ hypothesis of scaffolded and/or distributed cognition.     

Sense of coherence predicts employment outcomes after job loss

This study investigated sense of coherence (SOC) as a potential predictor of employment outcomes of unemployed job seekers. Ninety‐eight unemployed persons were surveyed at 2 measurement points 6 months apart. The findings showed that strong SOC at baseline predicted positive outcomes (reemployment or being a student) 6 months later. SOC evidently is an important personal resource that enhances the chances of escaping unemployment.     

Mind your errors: evidence for a neural mechanism linking growth mind-set to adaptive posterror adjustments

How well people bounce back from mistakes depends on their beliefs about learning and intelligence. For individuals with a growth mind-set, who believe intelligence develops through effort, mistakes are seen as opportunities to learn and improve. For individuals with a fixed mind-set, who believe intelligence is a stable characteristic, mistakes indicate lack of ability. We examined performance-monitoring event-related potentials (ERPs) to probe the neural mechanisms underlying these different reactions to mistakes. Findings revealed that a growth mind-set was associated with enhancement of the error positivity component (Pe), which reflects awareness of and allocation of attention to mistakes. More growth-minded individuals also showed superior accuracy after mistakes compared with individuals endorsing a more fixed mind-set. It is critical to note that Pe amplitude mediated the relationship between mind-set and posterror accuracy. These results suggest that neural mechanisms indexing on-line awareness of and attention to mistakes are intimately involved in growth-minded individuals' ability to rebound from mistakes.