Psychological Dysfunction in Southeast Asian Refugees as Mediated by Sense of Coherence

Investigated Antonovky's (1979, 1987) construct of sense of coherence (i.e., an individual's belief that the world was comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful) as the internal psychological mechanism mediating the effects of external stressors (generalized resistance deficits) and resources on psychological dysfunction (measured by depression, anxiety, and psychosocial dysfunction) in 2,234 Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, Hmong, and Chinese-Vietnamese refugees. Generalized resistance and deficits significantly predicted sense of coherence as well as psychological dysfunction. The amount of variance accounted for increased significantly when the mediating effect of sense of coherence was tested using a path analysis. Sense of coherence significantly reduced the predictive power of generalized resistance and deficits in the psychological dysfunction models. Results support the hypothesized mediating role of sense of coherence. Thus, interventions aiming to enhance Southeast Asian refugees' functioning may gain in effectiveness by targeting and promoting their sense of coherence.     

Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors May Be More Common and Severe Among People Identifying as a Sexual Minority

Research indicates that people who identify as a sexual minority are at higher risk of numerous negative outcomes, including self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs). The minority stress model proposes that people identifying as a sexual minority are at higher risk of these behaviors due to sexual orientation-specific stressors—however, it does not clarify whether SITBs will be more severe among these individuals. The present study tested whether SITBs are more common and more severe among people identifying as a sexual minority using several metrics, including frequency of SITB engagement, age of onset of SITB, desire to discontinue SITB engagement, and likelihood of future SITBs. Four independent research samples were used to test this model. Results were then combined and tested in an internal meta-analysis. Findings converge to indicate a longer and more severe course of SITB engagement among people identifying as a sexual minority. Future research is needed to replicate these findings and to advance the understanding of why this imbalance in risk and severity might exist, and how it can be prevented.     

Interpersonal choice: The advantage on the left or on the right?

This study explored whether body specificity unconsciously influenced preferences for certain people. Participants were presented pictures of the heads of 2 persons who were described as having the similar personality, profession and family background. They were instructed to choose 1 in each pair as the preferred date, preferred friend, more charismatic boss or as the better national leader. The results showed body specificity had an influence on the selection preference on first impression. Participants tended to choose the character on their dominant‐hand side. This study not only provided the first social psychological evidence for the body‐specificity hypothesis, but also first demonstrated a role for body specificity in impression formation and selection preference.     

A Multilevel Analysis of the Relationship between Shared Leadership and Creativity in Inter‐Organizational Teams

An inter‐organizational team, which consists of diverse members from different organizations to conduct an initiative, has been widely treated as a critical method to improve organizational innovation. This study proposes a multilevel model to test the relationship between shared leadership and creativity at both team‐ and individual level in the context of inter‐organizational teams. Multisource data were collected from 53 inter‐organizational teams. We obtain the following findings: first, shared leadership is positively related to both team creativity and individual creativity via knowledge sharing. Second, task interdependence positively moderates the relationship between shared leadership and knowledge sharing. Third, task interdependence positively moderates the relationship between knowledge sharing and team creativity, but does not moderate the relationship between knowledge sharing and individual creativity. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the findings.     

The Influence of Learning Style on English Learning Achievement Among Undergraduates in Mainland China

Learning style is one of the main factors that determines how students learn English and has a significant influence on students’ learning strategy selection, which further affects their learning outcomes (Ehrman and Oxford in Mod Lang J 74(3):311–327, 1990; Oxford in Language learning styles and strategies: an overview, 2003. http://web.ntpu.edu.tw/~language/workshop/read2.pdf). This study examines the learning style preferences of Chinese university students and whether those preferences influence their English achievements. Four hundred undergraduates from one university in eastern mainland China participated in this study. Data from 329 valid questionnaires were analysed. The results revealed that the Chinese university students preferred the visual learning style the most, followed by the auditory and kinaesthetic styles. However, no learning style preference was found to influence the students’ English proficiency. Cultural reasons are discussed to explain the findings, which contradict those of previous studies of learning style theories and practices. This study recommends that Chinese scholars consider issues of English teaching and learning in China and to adopt appropriate teaching methods to effectively improve English teaching.     

The Insularity of Anglophone Philosophy: Quantitative Analyses

Abstract

We present evidence that mainstream Anglophone philosophy is insular in the sense that participants in this academic tradition tend mostly to cite or interact with other participants in this academic tradition, while having little academic interaction with philosophers writing in other languages. Among our evidence: In a sample of articles from elite Anglophone philosophy journals, 97% of citations are citations of work originally written in English; 96% of members of editorial boards of elite Anglophone philosophy journals are housed in majority-Anglophone countries; and only one of the 100 most-cited recent authors in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy spent most of his career in non-Anglophone countries writing primarily in a language other than English. In contrast, philosophy articles published in elite Chinese-language and Spanish-language journals cite from a range of linguistic traditions, as do non-English-language articles in a convenience sample of established European-language journals. We also find evidence that work in English has more influence on work in other languages than vice versa and that when non-Anglophone philosophers cite recent work outside of their own linguistic tradition it tends to be work in English.     

MELD-SCH: A megastudy of lexical decision in simplified Chinese

Here we report on MELD-SCH (MEgastudy of Lexical Decision in Simplified CHinese), a dataset that contains the lexical decision data of 1,020 one-character, 10,022 two-character, 949 three-character, and 587 four-character simplified Chinese words obtained from 504 native Chinese users. It also includes a number of word-level and character-level variables. Analyses showed that the reliability of the dataset is satisfactory, as indicated by split-half correlations and comparisons with other datasets. Item-based regression showed that both word-level and character-level variables contributed significantly to the reaction times and error rates of lexical decision. Moreover, we discovered a U-shape relationship between word-length and reaction times, which has not been reported in Chinese before. MELD-SCH can facilitate research in Chinese word recognition by providing high quality normative data and information of different linguistic variables. It also encourages researchers to extend their empirical findings, which are mostly based on one-character and two-character words, to words of different lengths.     

当代社区和谐观的质性探索

为探索社区居民及社区骨干的社区和谐观,在13个社区对24名受访者进行深度访谈。立足社区心理学中国化的视角,对27万字访谈文本进行主题分析发现:(1)社区和谐可划分为安定式和谐、融洽式和谐、共赢式和谐三种形态,三者层层递进,分别反映了大众对“不吵不闹”的良好社区秩序、“仁慈友爱”的良好社区氛围和“蓬勃发展”的良好社区局面的理解和期盼;(2)社区和谐的成因包可以从宏观和微观两个角度把握,其结果可以从时程(长期/短期)和场域(全局/局部)两个角度归纳。总之,当代社区和谐观是对中华优秀传统文化的继承,并具有时代的特色。     

Cognitive Complexity in the Remote Association Test - Chinese Version

The remote association test (RAT) has been applied in various fields; however, evidence of construct validity for the original version and subsequent extensions of the RAT remains limited. This study aimed to elucidate the dimensionality and the relationship between item features and item difficulties for the RAT—Chinese Version (RAT-C) using the Rasch model and the linear logistic test model (LLTM). The revised 30-item RAT-C was administered to 475 undergraduates (263 women and 212 men) in 8 universities in Taiwan. Item features (including types of associations among stimulus words, and frequency and concreteness of target words) were recoded. The analysis found that the RAT-C measured a single latent construct, with all 30 items conforming to the Rasch model’s expectation. Furthermore, according to the LLTM analysis, most item features predicted Rasch item difficulty, suggesting that these features can explain why some items were more difficult than others and can be used to create new items with known item difficulty to tailor the difficulty level for different groups of participants in the future.