Measuring Chinese psychological well-being with Western developed instruments

We explored the possibility of applying 4 psychological scales developed and commonly used in the West to Chinese culture. The participants, 273 Chinese and 302 Americans, completed measures of self-esteem (Self-Esteem Scale; Rosenberg, 1965), depression (Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale; Radloff, 1977), social support (Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support; Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1988), and suicidal ideation (Scale for Suicide Ideation; Beck, Kovacs, & Weissman, 1979). All scales were found to be reliable and valid cross culturally. Comparative analyses suggest that gender differences on all 4 scales are smaller among the Chinese than the Americans. Americans were more likely to score higher on the socially desirable scales (self-esteem and social support) and lower on the socially undesirable scale (suicidal ideation). However, no cultural differences were found in this study on the measure of depression. Results suggest that, with a few considerations or potential modifications, the current measures could be used in Chinese culture.     

Wanting,having, and satisfaction: examining the role of desire discrepancies in satisfaction with income

In 3 studies, the authors tested the predictors of income satisfaction, examining whether discrepanc between the things people have and the things they desire predict satisfaction. Study 1 manipulated the desirability of items that can be purchased with participants' income, and showed that their satisfaction with that income depended on the desirability of these items. Study 2 demonstrated that whether people's income enabled them to purchase the things they desired influenced their satisfaction with income. Study 3 found that the effect of comparisons with a person's past on income satisfaction is completely mediated by one's desires; and the effect of social comparison on income satisfaction is partially mediated by desires. Thus, desires play a pivotal role in determining people's satisfaction with income.     

Very happy people

A sample of 222 undergraduates was screened for high happiness using multiple confirming assessment filters. We compared the upper 10% of consistently very happy people with average and very unhappy people. The very happy people were highly social, and had stronger romantic and other social relationships than less happy groups. They were more extraverted, more agreeable, and less neurotic, and scored lower on several psychopathology scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Compared with the less happy groups, the happiest respondents did not exercise significantly more, participate in religious activities significantly more, or experience more objectively defined good events. No variable was sufficient for happiness, but good social relations were necessary. Members of the happiest group experienced positive, but not ecstatic, feelings most of the time, and they reported occasional negative moods. This suggests that very happy people do have a functioning emotion system that can react appropriately to life events.     

Commentary: A Patient's Perspective on Predictive Testing for Alzheimer Disease

Commentary

Commentary: A Patient's Perspective on Predictive Testing for Alzheimer Disease     

Victim and perpetrator accounts of interpersonal transgressions: self-serving or relationship-serving biases?

Two studies investigated perpetrator and victim biases in reported transgressions. Study 1 showed that in nonromantic relationships, perpetrators were more likely than victims to emphasize details that minimized their transgressions, whereas victims were more likely to exaggerate the severity of the event. Study 2 examined these perspective-related differences in romantic relationships and their relationship to forgiveness. Although victims were less likely than perpetrators to include features that minimized the event, they were no more likely to include features that magnified the event; individuals in highly satisfying relationships were less likely to exhibit self-serving biases than were individuals in less satisfying relationships. The data also were consistent with a causal sequence in which positive relationship quality led to more benign interpretations of a transgression, which in turn, promoted forgiveness.     

Perceptions of ADHD in China and the United States: a preliminary study

College students (n = 226) and teachers (n = 328) in the United States and China completed a 55-item questionnaire examining perceptions of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the two countries. Although a factor analysis yielded somewhat similar structures for the construct of ADHD, many differences emerged as well, with Chinese participants somewhat more attuned to hyperactivity than inattention. Furthermore, presented with a list of potential perceptions of ADHD, there were significant differences by culture in agreement with most of those statements. Thus, it appears that the concept of ADHD may be similar between the cultures, but the many differences warrant further exploration before ADHD is considered to be equivalent in the two countries.     

Most People are Pretty Happy,but There is Cultural Variation: The Inughuit,The Amish,and The Maasai

Diener and Diener (1996; Psychological Science 7: 181–185) suggested that most people are happy, and offered support for this claim from surveys in industrialized societies. We extend their findings to include people who lead materially simple lives and live in cultures far removed from those of typical survey respondents. We found that the Kenyan Maasai, the United States Amish, and the Greenlandic Inughuit, all reported positive levels of life satisfaction, domain satisfaction, and affect balance (more frequent positive emotions than negative ones). Across satisfaction and affect measures, including methods in addition to global self-reports, our 358 respondents from these cultures were one average, positive on all 54 scales, and significantly above neutral on 53 of them. Across all measures and samples 84% of participants scored above neutral. However, nobody was perfectly happy and satisfied, and the groups reported unique configurations of satisfaction and affect. Although all three groups were high in satisfaction with so cial domains, the Amish reported lower satisfaction with self-related domains, and the Maasai and Inughuit were relatively lower in satisfaction with material domains. All three groups reported frequent positive emotions, but only the Maasai reported frequent feelings of pride. Thus, the fact that most people tend to be moderately happy does not mean that they are ecstatic, or that there is no variation across cultures in happiness.     

A prototype analysis of forgiveness

Many definitions of forgiveness currently exist in the literature. The current research adds to this discussion by utilizing a prototype approach to examine lay conceptions of forgiveness. A prototype approach involves categorizing objects or events in terms of their similarity to a good example, whereas a classical approach requires that there are essential elements that must be present. In Study 1, participants listed the features of forgiveness. Study 2 obtained centrality ratings for these features. In Studies 3 and 4, central features were found to be more salient in memory than peripheral features. Study 5 showed that feature centrality influenced participants' ratings of victims involved in hypothetical transgressions. Thus, the two criteria for demonstrating prototype structure (that participants find it meaningful to judge features in terms of their centrality and that centrality affects cognition) were met.