Temperament and behaviour problems in children: A multilevel analysis of cross-cultural differences

Early temperament attributes have been linked to emerging behaviour problems and significant long-term consequences; however, these relations are rarely examined cross-culturally. The present study addresses this gap, employing multilevel modelling to explain within- and between-culture variances with respect to temperament predicting a spectrum of behaviour problems across 14 nations from the Joint Effort Toddler Temperament Consortium (JETTC). A total of 865 children between 17 and 40 months, with approximately equal age distribution across this developmental period and about equivalent representation of genders, were recruited from 14 nations. Greater negative emotionality was associated with more internalizing problems, whereas higher surgency and effortful control predicted fewer internalizing difficulties. Controlling for age and gender, temperament explained significant within- and between-culture variances in internalizing and externalizing problems (at the broad-band and fine-grained levels), as well as sleep problems. For internalizing difficulties, temperament accounted for more between-culture variance. In contrast, for externalizing difficulties, temperament accounted more for how individuals within the same culture differed from their same-culture counterparts. The within-culture findings suggest universal patterns of temperament-problem relations, informing cultural adaptation of interventions; between-culture findings enhance understanding of the implications of the cultural niche for normative behaviour and adjustment.     

不怕鬼的苏东坡

光明磊落、刚直不阿的苏轼,在北宋嘉佑六年(公元1061年),二十四岁时就任大理评事签书凤翔府判官。他一到任即逢天旱。为顺应民意,他写好祷告天地的祭文,与太守一起斋戒沐浴,十分虔诚地敬告神灵。并派专人登上太白山,于龙湫取回一钵“龙水”。他和太守在庙前对天祈祷,不知是凑巧还是精诚所至,竟然连续三天降下喜雨。然而,还是这个苏轼,一次途中遇到兵卒中邪,在终南山下脱得一丝不挂,口吐狂言,不成体统。随从告诉说这是“冲撞了山神”。苏轼让人给他穿上衣服,他立即撕掉,仍胡言乱语不止。苏轼无奈进入路旁的山神庙祈祷道:“……随行一兵狂发,…     

Attachment experience and cortisol recovery from romantic conflict among young Chinese couples: A dyadic analysis

Using a sample of young adults, the present study investigated how the participants' attachment to romantic partners was related to that with their parents and peers and how this specific attachment experience was associated with their physiological stress response. We examined 121 pairs of young Chinese (N = 242) heterosexual couples (men's age: 22.26 ± 2.40; women's age: 21.62 ± 2.22) and their attachment to parents, peers, and romantic partners as well as their cortisol recovery from romantic conflict. Robust actor–partner interdependence mediation models showed that women's insecure parental and peer attachment was associated with blunted cortisol recovery from romantic stress through their fearful attachment with romantic partners, whereas men's insecure parental and peer attachment was associated with their partners' adaptive cortisol recovery from romantic stress through their fearful romantic attachment. These findings suggested that women's hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal-axis functioning seemed to be more strongly associated with their own and their partners' attachment relationships compared to men.     

A study of system execution of performance appraisal

Dissatisfaction with traditional performance appraisal (PA) has led some organizations to eliminate formal reviews entirely and to substitute alternative methods of performance feedback, while other firms search for ways to improve the formal process. This study attempts to contribute to the ongoing debate about the future of PA by investigating the effects of an understudied aspect of the PA process: how well the PA system is executed by the supervisor. Our results indicate that system execution explains a significant amount of variance in intention to improve over and above a host of variables studied in previous PA studies, and that these effect sizes suggest clear practical significance.     

Social exchange relationships and exchange ideologies of employees and supervisors: A three-way interaction toward employee creativity

This study aims to better understand the effects of social exchange relationships between employees and their organizations (perceived organizational support [POS]), and their leaders (leader–member exchange [LMX]) on their creativity. To this end, we investigated how exchange ideologies of employees and supervisors affect the relationship between POS/LMX and employee creativity using a three-way interaction test. Building on the social exchange theory, the results from our sample of 254 leader–employee dyads indicated that the relationship between POS/LMX and employee creativity is significantly more positive for an employee with strong exchange ideology than for an employee with weak exchange ideology. Moreover, POS and LMX had the strongest positive relationships with creativity when both employees and supervisors had higher levels of exchange ideology. The implications of our results and future research directions are discussed.     

马克思历史理论的新解释——关于望月清司《马克思历史理论的研究》的译者解说

望月清司(Mochizuki Seiji,1929-)的<马克思历史理论的研究>是20世纪人类关于马克思的最好的著作之一.他的"历史理论"是建立在对20世纪60年代日本马克思学界的三座高峰:哲学家广松涉、历史学家大冢久雄、经济学家平田清明的批判和吸收的基础上的,是对这三者的综合和超越.望月"历史理论"的核心概念是"市民社会"、"所有"和"共同体",他对与"所有"相关的概念(Eigentum、Besitz、Aneignung)和"共同体"(Gemeinde、Gemeinwesen、Gemeinschaft)的译法很值得我们借鉴.     

回到马克思哲学本性的基地上探寻哲学发展之路

[编者按]马克思主义哲学在中国无疑有着举足轻重的地位.改革开放三十年来,马克思主义哲学研究大致经历了20世纪80年代的对苏联模式的解构、20世纪90年代的形态多样化建构和21世纪初新范式的深层重构的演进历程.因此,对这一历史时期的马克思主义哲学研究加以回顾和反思,审视其在哲学观建设、基本原理拓展、辩证法再解读、唯物史观的深化以及现实问题的哲学探索等研究中的得失,对今后马克思主义哲学研究至关重要.     

Should subjects be forewarned of the possible psychological consequences of filling out a PTSD questionnaire?

In 1993 Albach investigated the long-term consequences of sexual abuse on psychological health. A group of abused women a a control group of nonabused women were asked to fill in a questionnaire assessing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For ethical reasons, the abused women were warned that filling in the questionnaire might be emotionally stressful. The control group did not receive this warning. The abused women scored higher on the questionnaire than the nonabused women. The warning they received may have influenced their reports. Our experiment investigated this. 101 psychology students were divided into two groups, one who received a warning and a control group who did not. The hypothesis was that people who had been previously warned would score higher on a PTSD questionaire than people who had not. There were, however, no significant differences in mean PTSD scores and no known initial differences between groups.     

The development of children's rule use on the balance scale task

Cognitive development can be characterized by a sequence of increasingly complex rules or strategies for solving problems. Our work focuses on the development of children's proportional reasoning, assessed by the balance scale task using Siegler's (1976, 1981) rule assessment methodology. We studied whether children use rules, whether children of different ages use qualitatively different rules, and whether rules are used consistently. Nonverbal balance scale problems were administered to 805 participants between 5 and 19 years of age. Latent class analyses indicate that children use rules, that children of different ages use different rules, and that both consistent and inconsistent use of rules occurs. A model for the development of reasoning about the balance scale task is proposed. The model is a restricted form of the overlapping waves model (Siegler, 1996) and predicts both discontinuous and gradual transitions between rules.