“I” value competence but “we” value social competence: The moderating role of voters' individualistic and collectivistic orientation in political elections

This investigation distinguishes interpersonally oriented social competence from intrapersonally oriented competence. It examines the influence of voters' individualism and collectivism orientation in affecting the roles of these two dimensions in predicting electoral outcomes. Participants made judgments of personality traits based on inferences from faces of political candidates in the U.S. and Taiwan. Two social outcomes were examined: actual election results and voting support of the participants. With respect to actual electoral success, perceived competence is more important for the candidates in the U.S. than for those in Taiwan, whereas perceived social competence is more important for the candidates in Taiwan than for those in the U.S. With respect to subjective voting support, within cultural findings mirror those found cross-culturally. Competence is valued more among voters who are more individualistic, and social competence is valued more among voters who are more collectivistic. These results highlight important omissions in the social perception/judgment literature.     

The Development of Proportional Reasoning: Effect of Continuous Versus Discrete Quantities

This study examines the development of children's ability to reason about proportions that involve either discrete entities or continuous amounts. Six-, 8- and 10-year olds were presented with a proportional reasoning task in the context of a game involving probability. Although all age groups failed when proportions involved discrete quantities, even the youngest age group showed some success when proportions involved continuous quantities. These findings indicate that quantity type strongly affects children's ability to make judgments of proportion. Children's greater success in judging proportions involving continuous quantities appears to be related to their use of different strategies in the presence of countable versus noncountable entities. In two discrete conditions, children—particularly 8- and 10-year-olds—adopted an erroneous counting strategy, considering the number of target elements but not the relation between target and nontarget elements, either in terms of number or amount. In contrast, in the continuous condition, when it was not possible to count, children may have relied on an early developing ability to code the relative amounts of target and nontarget regions.     

Inter- and intra-group differences in psychological concerns among international students

With data gathered from 47 university counseling centers in the United States, this study addresses both inter- and intra-group differences in symptomatology at intake among international students. In Study 1, symptomatology among international students was explored in comparison to US ethnic groups. In Study 2, intra-group differences in symptomatology among international students were examined. In Study 1, data consisted of 14,421 international, White American, African American, Asian American, and Latina/Latino American counseling center clients who completed the CCAPS-62 at intake. Partially supporting our hypothesis, results indicate significant findings among international students in the social anxiety and academic distress domains of the CCAPS-62. Contrary to our expectations, Asian American students reported significantly greater concerns across many domains when compared to other groups. In Study 2, international students (n = 607) were further divided into five continents of origin: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Europe. Results indicate that in multiple domains, international students from Asia and Africa reported significantly greater concerns than those from Europe, North America, or South America. Implications of findings for university counseling centers and universities at large are discussed.     

“I know you can do this” versus “How can you be so stupid?” Feedback among Chinese and American young adult friends

According to past research, young adults prefer positive feedback from their friends, but emotional reactions to negative feedback are less severe in Korea than in the United States. We extended this past work in several ways: We studied both giving and receiving feedback, recruited Chinese young adults, used realistic scenarios, and employed the situation‐sampling method. Using text‐message‐based vignettes, Study 1 found that both American and Chinese friends used happy emojis when exchanging positive feedback whereas Americans used less positive emojis than did the Chinese when exchanging negative feedback. We then collected actual examples of feedback that people had given to their friends (Study 2a) and showed them to new samples of Chinese and American young adults (Study 2b). This situation‐sampling methodology found that (a) Americans rated negative feedback from both cultures especially negatively, and (b) negative feedback examples from China were rated especially negatively by people in both cultures. That is, although Chinese negative feedback is seemingly more harsh, Chinese young adults do not react as negatively.     

Experimental results of affective valence and arousal to avatar's facial expressions.

The objectives of this study were to propose a method of presenting dynamic facial expressions to experimental subjects, in order to investigate human perception of avatar's facial expressions of different levels of emotional intensity. The investigation concerned how perception varies according to the strength of facial expression, as well as according to an avatar's gender. To accomplish these goals, we generated a male and a female virtual avatar with five levels of intensity of happiness and anger using a morphing technique. We then recruited 16 normal healthy subjects and measured each subject's emotional reaction by scoring affective arousal and valence after showing them the avatar's face. Through this study, we were able to investigate human perceptual characteristics evoked by male and female avatars' graduated facial expressions of happiness and anger. In addition, we were able to identify that a virtual avatar's facial expression could affect human emotion in different ways according to the avatar's gender and the intensity of its facial expressions. However, we could also see that virtual faces have some limitations because they are not real, so subjects recognized the expressions well, but were not influenced to the same extent. Although a virtual avatar has some limitations in conveying its emotion using facial expressions, this study is significant in that it shows that a new potential exists to use or manipulate emotional intensity by controlling a virtual avatar's facial expression linearly using a morphing technique. Therefore, it is predicted that this technique may be used for assessing emotional characteristics of humans, and may be of particular benefit for work with people with emotional disorders through a presentation of dynamic expression of various emotional intensities.     

Differences in brain information transmission between gifted and normal children during scientific hypothesis generation

The purpose of the present study was to investigate differences in neural information transmission between gifted and normal children involved in scientific hypothesis generation. To investigate changes in the amount of information transmission, the children's averaged-cross mutual information (A-CMI) of EEGs was estimated during their generation of scientific hypotheses. We recorded EEG from 25 gifted and 25 age-matched normal children using 16 electrodes on each subject's scalp. To generate hypotheses, the children were asked to observe 20 "quail eggs" that gave rise to questions. After observation, they were asked to generate a scientific hypothesis--a tentative causal explanation for the questions evoked. The results of this study revealed several distinguishing brain activities between gifted and normal children during hypothesis generation. In contrast to normal children, gifted children showed increased A-CMI values between the left temporal and central, between the left temporal and parietal, and between the left central and parietal locations while generating a hypothesis. These results suggested that gifted children more efficiently distribute the cognitive resources essential to cope with hypothesis generation.     

Racial and Religious Convergences and Divergences among Christian Students’ Approaches to Color-Blindness,Color-Cognizance,and Race in Christian Organizations

Drawing on survey data of Christian students (N = 4261) enrolled at 11 colleges that are part of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, we examine color-blindness, different types of color-cognizance, and views on race in Christian organizations. We find significant differences between students of color and White students in color-blindness and color-cognizance but find racial convergence in the importance of racial reconciliation. Net of controls, greater evangelical orthodoxy is associated with color-cognizant views that perceive prejudicial treatment against White people, undercut the experiences of people of color, and is associated with more positive views of Christian organizations’ roles in race relationships. Concurrently, upper year students differ significantly from first years in their racial attitudes and views on race in Christian organizations, suggesting that Christian education may shape racial views positively. Our findings have implications for theorizing how evangelical Christianity and evangelical colleges maintain and challenge color-blindness and White supremacy.