Strategic Manoeuvring by Dissociation in Corporate Crisis Communication: The Case of the 2017 United Airlines’ Passenger Dragging-Off Incident

Argumentation - Within the research framework of pragma-dialectics, this study analysed and assessed strategic manoeuvring by dissociation in corporate crisis communication, exemplified by the 2017...     

Validation of the Chinese Version of the Body Image Acceptance and Action Questionnaire and the Mediating Role of Body Image Flexibility in the Relationship Between Body Dissatisfaction and Psychological Distress

The psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Body Image Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (C-BI-AAQ) and its short form (C-BI-AAQ-5) were examined with a sample of Chinese undergraduates (n = 1,068, 52.6% female). The factor structure, measurement reliability, measurement invariance across gender, and latent gender mean difference of the two scales were explored. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the factor structure of the C-BI-AAQ and the C-BI-AAQ-5. The original one-factor structure was replicated for both the C-BI-AAQ and the C-BI-AAQ-5. Both the C-BI-AAQ and C-BI-AAQ-5 showed good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity (e.g., relationship patterns in the expected directions with theoretically similar psychological flexibility, and with theoretically dissimilar body dissatisfaction, and psychological distress). The C-BI-AAQ-5 was shown to be equivalent to the C-BI-AAQ. Furthermore, strict measurement invariance across gender was confirmed for both the C-BI-AAQ and C-BI-AAQ-5, and latent mean difference tests showed that men had higher levels of body image flexibility than women. Thus, both the C-BI-AAQ and C-BI-AAQ-5 appear to be psychometrically sound instruments for use in the Chinese young adult population. In addition, body image flexibility measured by both the C-BI-AAQ and the C-BI-AAQ-5 fully mediated the relationship between body dissatisfaction and psychological distress.     

Pinyin and English Invented Spelling in Chinese-Speaking Students Who Speak English as a Second Language

This study examined pinyin (the official phonetic system that transcribes the lexical tones and pronunciation of Chinese characters) invented spelling and English invented spelling in 72 Mandarin-speaking 6th graders who learned English as their second language. The pinyin invented spelling task measured segmental-level awareness including syllable and phoneme awareness, and suprasegmental-level awareness including lexical tones and tone sandhi in Chinese Mandarin. The English invented spelling task manipulated segmental-level awareness including syllable awareness and phoneme awareness, and suprasegmental-level awareness including word stress. This pinyin task outperformed a traditional phonological awareness task that only measured segmental-level awareness and may have optimal utility to measure unique phonological and linguistic features in Chinese reading. The pinyin invented spelling uniquely explained variance in Chinese conventional spelling and word reading in both languages. The English invented spelling uniquely explained variance in conventional spelling and word reading in both languages. Our findings appear to support the role of phonological activation in Chinese reading. Our experimental linguistic manipulations altered the phonological awareness item difficulties.     

The Impact of L2 English Learners' Belief about an Interlocutor's English Proficiency on L2 Phonetic Accommodation

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - The current study investigates the influence of L2 English learners’ belief about their interlocutor’s English proficiency on phonetic...     

Where to sleep next? Evidence for spatial memory associated with sleeping sites in Skywalker gibbons (Hoolock tianxing)

Animal Cognition - Finding suitable sleeping sites is highly advantageous but challenging for wild animals. While suitable sleeping sites provide protection against predators and enhance sleep...     

儿童歧视知觉模型述评

Brown和Bigler提出了儿童歧视知觉模型,分析了歧视知觉的三个影响因素:认知因素、情景因素和个体差异因素,每个因素都包含了多个影响儿童歧视知觉的子因素。该模型展示了这些因素影响儿童歧视知觉的机制。完善该模型需要探讨其与信息加工理论、发展群际理论、主观群体动力学模型的兼容性。歧视知觉的类型需要进一步细化,因此在综合主观群体动力学模型和发展模型的基础上提出了歧视知觉的分类方案。未来研究还要进一步探讨情绪、文化以及年龄因素对儿童歧视知觉的影响,并探讨该模型对歧视干预的意义。     

初中生喜爱之动漫的暴力内容分析

为了更为深入地了解当前流行于青少年群体的动漫中存在的暴力内容的特点,本研究通过提名法选取了初中生最为喜爱的三部动漫影片,并采用质性的内容分析法对其暴力特点进行了分析,结果发现初中生最喜爱的三部动漫影片均为涉及较多暴力场景的动漫,且这些影片中的暴力特点主要表现为施暴者多为有魅力的英雄人物;暴力是正义的、非现实性的和缺乏幽默感的;对暴力场景进行较多的特写且较少出现血腥场景;很少描述受害者的痛苦和对受害者的态度;暴力往往会造成较大的身体伤害,但很少对施暴者进行惩罚。     

父母教养方式对羞怯的作用机制

以752名大学生为被试,考察了父母教养方式与羞怯的关系以及社会支持在其中的中介作用和应对方式在其中的调节作用。结果发现：（1）母亲惩罚严厉和父亲过度保护对羞怯有显著的正向作用,父亲情感温暖对羞怯有显著的负向作用;（2）在母亲惩罚严厉和父亲情感温暖对羞怯的作用中,社会支持起着中介作用;（3）父亲过度保护对羞怯的正向作用受到幻想的调节。     

Cognitive control and attentional functions

Cognitive control is essential to flexible, goal-directed behavior under uncertainty, yet its underlying mechanisms are not clearly understood. Because attentional functions are known to allocate mental resources and prioritize the information to be processed, we propose that the attentional functions of alerting, orienting, and executive control and the interactions among them contribute to cognitive control in the service of uncertainty reduction. To test this hypothesis, we examined the relationship between cognitive control and attentional functions. We used the Majority Function Task (MFT) to manipulate uncertainty in order to evoke cognitive control along with the Revised Attention Network Test (ANT-R) to measure the efficiency and the interactions of attentional functions. A backwards, stepwise regression model revealed that performance on the MFT could be significantly predicted by attentional functions and their interactions as measured by the ANT-R. These results provide preliminary support for our theory that the attentional functions are involved in the implementation of cognitive control as required to reduce uncertainty, though further investigation is needed.     

Health Is Associated With Antiparasite Behavior and Fear of Disease-Relevant Animals in Humans

Evolutionary arms races between humans and parasites resulted in a set of behavioral adaptations that serve as parasite-avoidance mechanisms. We investigated associations among reported health of the respondent, antiparasite behavior, and sensitivity to disgust and fear of disease-relevant and irrelevant animals. Ninety-seven participants (15–19 years old) rated their fear and disgust at 25 colorful pictures of disease-relevant and disease-irrelevant invertebrates. Consistent with previous work, we found that participants reported greater fear and disgust of disease-relevant invertebrates relative to disease-irrelevant invertebrates. Better perceived health correlated with lower fear of disease-relevant invertebrates. Sensitivity to disgust correlated with reported antiparasite behaviors. Contrary to expectations, we found a positive correlation between antiparasite behavior and reported health, which suggests that antiparasite behavior influences perceived health (but not vice versa), and we found that males perform more antiparasite behaviors than females. These results support the idea that disgust and fear of disease-relevant objects are adaptive emotions that prevent contact with contagious objects, especially in individuals with low perceived health.