Self-affirmation and affective forecasting: Affirmation reduces the anticipated impact of negative events

When forecasting how they will feel in the future, people overestimate the impact that imagined negative events will have on their affective states, partly because they underestimate their own psychological resiliency. Because self-affirmation enhances resiliency, two studies examined whether self-affirmation prior to forecasting reduces the extremity of affective forecasts. Participants in self-affirmation conditions completed a values scale or wrote an essay asserting their most important value, whereas participants in the no-affirmation condition asserted a relatively unimportant value. Participants then predicted their affective reactions to a negative or positive imagined event. In both studies, self-affirmation reduced the unpleasant affect expected to result from a negative event, but had no impact on affective forecasts for a positive event. This pattern was mediated by participants’ cognitive appraisals of the imagined event, but not by differential focus on that event. Results are consistent with self-affirmation activating or enhancing psychological resiliency to counteract immune neglect during affective forecasting of a negative event.     

Counselling psychology in New Zealand

This article offers a brief overview of the history of counselling psychology in New Zealand. It describes current postgraduate study options and registration pathways as well as the institutions and organisations that provide legislative and professional membership and support to counselling psychologists in New Zealand. Data collected from a national survey in 2014 provide insight into the demographics of the profession in New Zealand, the theoretical frameworks that are utilised and employment opportunities that exist for counselling psychologists. The article also highlights the uniqueness of a cultural and contextual approach that aligns itself with New Zealand’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi/te Tiriti o Waitangi which is based on the principles of partnership, participation and protection. It concludes with the challenges the profession face as a new scope of practice. These challenges include establishing a professional identity in the mental health delivery system in New Zealand and responding to an ever increasing multicultural society.     

Linked proximal and distal changes in the reaching behavior of 5- to 12-month-old human infants grasping objects of different sizes

This study evaluates age-related proximal and distal changes in reaching organization for objects of different sizes. To this end, eight objects ranging from 2 to 9 cm diam. were presented to 23 infants ages 5 to 12 months. Proximal control was determined by the relative frequencies of bimanual reaching for large and small objects. Distal control was assessed by hand opening and orientation with respect to an object, and by the proportion of the object being included within hand opening at touch. Five-month-old infants tended to reach bimanually regardless of object size. Starting at 7 to 8 months, infants tended to reach for large objects bimanually more often than for small ones. Only at 11 to 12 months did reaching closely reflect the object’s diameter. The frequency of thumb-index finger angle opening during the approach phase also increased after 7 to 8 months of age, as well as the adjustment of the angle to the object diameter and the proportion of the object within hand opening at touch. Proximal and distal changes appeared coupled at 5 to 6 months, when the few subjects showing evidence of some proximal adjustments to object size were also those who exhibited some distal adjustments. After they started to appear, however, proximal and distal adjustments seemed to be independent, as revealed by the lack of correlation of proximal and distal changes between 7 and 12 months.     

数学等值概念获得的过渡性学习者认知发展的实验研究

就数学等值概念获得而言,一般地,过渡性学习者在解决简单问题作业时趋向于使用一种正确策略,而当题目较难时则使用几种不同的错误策略。经过针对性的指导（或输入适当信息）后极易掌握此概念,表现为使用一种正确且充分的策略。同时,“言语一手势失匹配”可能不是过渡性学习者的必然的认知特征。     

应聘者印象管理研究述评

应聘者的印象管理行为在求职面试情境中是一种普遍现象,其目的旨在赢得面试考官的良好评价。应聘者印象管理行为包括有3类策略：获得性策略、保护性策略及非言语策略;同时,对应聘者印象管理行为的测量也要从印象管理策略的测量和印象管理风格的测量两个方面入手。另外,在整合已有文献的基础上,还从面试情境与应聘者印象管理行为、应聘者个性特质与印象管理策略使用、应聘者印象管理行为与面试结果及招聘者对应聘者印象管理识别等4个方面综述了应聘者印象管理研究的发展现状,并指出了现有研究存在的问题及未来研究的方向     

A seven year follow-up of treating rumination with dietary satiation

”Fred“, a man with profound mental retardation who was 24 years old at the beginning of this study, was referred for treatment of rumination. A number of minimally restrictive interventions, including administration of Zantac, extra fluids, and delivery of peanut butter after meals, had been used without success. In April of 1989 Fred began a satiation diet with ad libitum access to starchy foods or to fruits and vegetables, in addition to his regular meals. His baseline weight was 82 pounds and he ruminated during 58% of 10 s intervals measured during 20 min post-meal observations. During the first month of the satiation diet, Fred's ruminating declined to 6% of measured intervals, he consumed a mean of 163 fluid ounces of extra food per day, and his weight increased to 90 pounds. After 4 months' treatment, Fred's ruminating had declined to zero, his food consumption had stabilized at approximately 65 extra ounces of food per day, and his weight had stabilized at about 120 pounds. Starting in August 1990, in an effort to minimize weight gain, extra food was limited to 50% of Fred's ad libitum food consumption (averaged over the previous 6 weeks). Fred's weight gradually declined to about 100 pounds with zero rumination over the next two years. In August 1992 Fred's ruminating accelerated to 17% of intervals and he was again offered ad libitum food access. Over the next 7 months, rumination declined to zero and his weight increased slightly to about 105 pounds. This study shows that rumination that had not responded to less restrictive procedures was suppressed for 7 years via dietary satiation. Although dietary satiation is not without some risk, Fred has suffered no adverse effects from the procedure, other than gaining approximately one-third of his baseline weight. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

揭秘经济管理中的行为异象：心理账户理论的应用启示

2017年Richard H. Thaler获得诺贝尔经济学奖, 其重要的研究贡献之一是催生并发展了心理账户理论。心理账户理论被广泛用于解释经济管理中的行为异象。文章以消费决策、金融管理决策两大领域的应用研究为外在逻辑, 以心理账户的设立、运算和关闭过程的特点为内在逻辑, 重点探讨了消费决策中的“标签效应”、“预算效应”、“价格幻觉”、“解耦效应”和“效用偏差”; 金融管理决策中的“粘蝇纸效应”、“薪酬感知之谜”、“税收-投资之谜”、“会计信息披露之谜”和“处置效应”十大行为异象。文章进一步提出未来可能的两个研究方向, 一是通过眼动技术和认知神经科学方法揭示心理账户影响行为决策的内在过程及神经机制; 二是将心理账户理论应用于“以小拨大”的行为助推, 助力政府公共管理和企业管理决策。