Associations between sociocultural pressures to be thin, body distress, and eating disorder symptomatology among Chilean adolescent girls

This study explored the relationships between perceived sociocultural pressure to fulfill the thin beauty ideal, body distress, and the presence of eating disorder symptoms. Participants were 437 Chilean adolescent girls from Arica, northern Chile, aged 13-18. Results showed significant associations between perceived pressure from social agents to be thin and the presence of disrupted eating attitudes and behavior. The perceived influence of advertising, verbal messages and social situations related to eating and dieting emerged as the strongest predictors of eating disorders symptoms. Influence of advertising was also the strongest predictor of body image distress. Age differences emerged in perceived sociocultural pressure to be thin, with older participants reporting higher sociocultural pressure to fulfill the slender beauty ideal. This paper provides information about body distress and associated disturbances, a phenomenon which has seldom been studied in non-Western countries, but which has important health implications.     

小学教育专业大学生总体幸福感与应对方式的关系研究

目的探讨大学生应对方式与主观幸福感的关系。方法用《总体幸福感量表》和《简易应对方式问卷》对小学教育专业大学生进行问卷调查,并用spss17.0进行数据整理和相关分析。结果积极应对与总体幸福感的3个维度存在显著性差异(p<0.05);消极应对与总体幸福感的4个维度存在显著性差异(p<0.05),应对方式对幸福感的回归效应显著。结论应对方式是影响大学生幸福感的重要心理因素。     

Normative data on a battery of neuropsychological tests in the Han Chinese population

In order to develop normative data of a battery of neuropsychological tests in the mainland Chinese population, we examined the performance of 15 neuropsychological tests in 465 healthy subjects (231 males and 234 females) in a population‐based cohort study. The years of education were ranged between 1 and 23 years, and ages were ranged between 16 and 75 years old. The 15 neuropsychological tests cover five domains of neurocognitive functions including attention and speed of information processing, memory and learning, verbal function, visual constructive abilities, and executive function. We also assessed the effects of gender, age, educational attainment on the performance of these neuropsychological tests. The results showed that, as expected, educational attainment and age are the two main factors affecting performance in these tests. Educational attainment has the strongest predictive effect on all tests, while the majority of tests selected in this study are also affected by age at examination to varying degrees. The presented normative data will be useful for future studies in related clinical research, and be of value in transcultural neuropsychological studies.     

Young children's use of statistical sampling evidence to infer the subjectivity of preferences

A crucial task in social interaction involves understanding subjective mental states. Here we report two experiments with toddlers exploring whether they can use statistical evidence to infer the subjective nature of preferences. We found that 2-year-olds were likely to interpret another person’s nonrandom sampling behavior as a cue for a preference different from their own. When there was no alternative in the population or if the sampling was random, 2-year-olds did not ascribe a preference and persisted in their initial beliefs that the person would share their own preference. We found similar but weaker patterns of responses in 16-month-olds. These results suggest that the ability to infer the subjectivity of preferences based on sampling information begins to emerge between 16 months and 2 years. Our findings provide some of the first evidence that from early in development, young children can use statistical evidence to make rational inferences about the social world.     

Chinese children's evaluations of white lies: weighing the consequences for recipients

This research examined how Chinese children make moral judgments about lie telling and truth telling when facing a “white lie” or “politeness” dilemma in which telling a blunt truth is likely to hurt the feelings of another. We examined the possibility that the judgments of participants (7-11 years of age, N = 240) would differ as a function of the social context in which communication takes place. The expected social consequences were manipulated systematically in two studies. In Study 1, participants rated truth telling more negatively and rated lie telling more positively in a public situation where telling a blunt truth is especially likely to have negative social consequences. In Study 2, participants rated truth telling more positively and rated lie telling more negatively in a situation where accurate information is likely to be helpful for the recipient to achieve future success. Both studies showed that with increased age, children’s evaluations became significantly influenced by the social context, with the strongest effects being seen among the 11-year-olds. These results suggest that Chinese children learn to take anticipated social consequences into account when making moral judgments about the appropriateness of telling a blunt truth versus lying to protect the feelings of another.     

Physical self-concept and disturbed eating attitudes and behaviors in French athlete and non-athlete adolescent girls: direct and indirect relations

This study aims to investigate the direct and indirect associations between physical self-subdomains, physical self-worth, global self-worth, and disturbed eating attitudes and behaviors among French non-elite athlete and non-athlete adolescent girls. A sample of adolescent girls including 50 ballet dancers, 41 basketball players, and 47 non-athletes was used in this study. Data obtained from the ballet dancer and basketball player subsamples revealed significant, sample-specific as well as common, direct relations between global and physical self-perceptions and disturbed eating attitudes and behaviors, as well as significant indirect relations (via global self-worth and physical self-worth) between specific physical self-perceptions and disturbed eating attitudes and behaviors. In contrast, no association was found between global and physical self-perceptions in the sample of non-athlete adolescent girls.     

疼痛的心理学研究

心理学对疼痛的研究已经进行了几十年,成果颇丰。众多的研究已经证实了疼痛与基本心理过程之间的相互关系,包括注意、情绪、动机和记忆。除了基本心理过程外,社会因素也能够调节疼痛,如社会排斥、信仰、音乐、虚拟情境、金钱和权利等。已有疼痛研究中的疼痛测量方法过于主观,并且疼痛调节因素在临床中缺乏实践价值。当前疼痛研究呈现与具身思潮相结合的趋势,未来应更加重视发掘调节疼痛的社会因素。     

The relationship between need for closure and memory for schema-related information among younger and older adults

Two studies were conducted to examine the relationships among need for closure (NFC) and schematic information processing in younger and older adults. The results show increased NFC to be associated with less schematic processing (i.e., less memory for schema-consistent items, and more memory for schema-irrelevant items, out of all items memorized correctly), among older than younger adults. The findings of the studies are interpreted as demonstrating the age-associated deficit in information processing consistent with the level of NFC. Moreover, the results indicate that positive mood may play a role in facilitating information processing consistent with the level of NFC among older and younger adults. Finally, we present a framework for predicting when older adults will and will not effectively use schematic processing, considered a compensatory strategy for decline in cognitive abilities.     

Chinese consumer ethnocentrism: A field experiment

Consumer ethnocentrism presents barriers for internationalising organisations. In China, evidence of a resurgent nationalism partly fuelled by rapid economic growth portends a shift in consumption away from foreign towards domestic products. On the other hand, rising consumer demand for branded and luxury products cannot be fully met domestically. However, much of the available evidence on Chinese consumer ethnocentrism is anecdotal and is based on attitudinal surveys that, as accurate measures of actual purchasing behaviour, suffer from certain methodological issues. In response, we report an experiment that measures the ethnocentrism of 447 Chinese consumers as their incentive‐compatible choices between foreign and domestic products in a field setting. Our findings show little effect of foreign origin on subjects' choices that were only weakly related with attitudinal measures including the commonly used consumer ethnocentric tendencies scale (CETSCALE). Our results question the existence of ethnocentric consumer behaviour in China and the use of CETSCALE to gauge it generally. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing potential effects of daily cross-domain usage of information and communication technologies

ABSTRACT

A within-person diary research design with 39 full-time workers was used to examine the effects of daily cross-domain usage of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on job-related performance and stress in both workplace and home domains. Segmentation preference effects on links between cross-domain ICT usage and both job performance and job stress were also analyzed. A positive association was found for the first relationship in mixed home-workplace contexts, and a negative association for the second in home contexts only. A stronger segmentation preference effect on the negative relationship between cross-domain ICT usage and job stress was found for integrators (employees who integrate work and home domains) compared to separators (employees who separate work/non-work activities). Our findings suggest that daily cross-domain ICT usage can enhance job performance and reduce job stress, with a moderating effect of segmentation preference on the link between cross-domain ICT usage and job stress.