Influence of self‐esteem,locus of control,and organizational climate on psychological empowerment in a sample of Chinese teachers

This study examined the effects of locus of control, self‐esteem, and organizational climate on psychological empowerment in a sample of Chinese teachers. Participants were 1,272 Chinese teachers (460 men and 821 women) residing in six provinces in China. Results indicated that self‐esteem was a positive predictor of psychological empowerment. Several dimensions of organizational climate, namely professional communication, decision‐making, appraisal and recognition, supportive leadership, and professional growth, were also positive predictors of teachers’ psychological empowerment. Locus of control, although related to psychological empowerment, had no predictive effects when other factors related to empowerment were considered.     

Transfer of Reactive Inhibition

A serious challenge to Hull’s (1943) theory of reminiscence and intertrial-interval effects is posed by the current contention that reactive inhibition (I_R) must be task-specific since it does not seem to transfer from one task to another. This notion was examined within the framework of a practice-rest paradigm in which three control groups were given 20 1-min trials on a principal task with intertrial intervals of 0, 5, and 70 sec, respectively, while two experimental groups practiced alternately on the principal task and a secondary task known to produce evidence for I_R. The two secondary tasks varied in their similarities to the principal task. Additional control groups were used to assess the magnitude of habit transfer effects. The total sample consisted of 70 males and 70 females whose modal age was 18 yr. With habit transfer effects controlled, results showed clearly that work effects transferred from the alternate tasks to the main task without regard for differences in similarity. Thus, the task-specificity hypothesis was not supported.     

Noninvasive Brain Stimulation over the M1 Enhances Bimanual Force Control Ability: A Randomized Double-Blind Sham-Controlled Study

Well-coordinated bimanual force control is common in daily life. We investigated the effects of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the primary motor cortex on bimanual force control. Under a cross-over study, young adults (n = 19; female = 6, male = 13) completed three bimanual force control tasks at 5%, 25%, and 50% of bimanual maximum voluntary force (BMVF) before and after real or sham tDCS. Real tDCS enhanced accuracy at all BMVF, reduced variability at 5% BMVF, and increased coordination at 5% BMVF. Real tDCS improved force control at 5% and 25% BMVF, and especially increased bimanual coordination at 5% BMVF. These findings might have implications for establishing interventions for patients with hand force control deficits.     

华严风光

奈良大佛日本奈良的东大寺是南都七大寺之一 ,它是日本华严宗的总本山。奈良时期是总国分寺。这座寺院是受圣武天皇的敕愿 ,作为镇护国家的道场创建的。东大寺的大佛也称奈良大佛 ,是一件国宝级的文物。这尊大佛在大佛殿创建后两度被烧毁。特别是1 1 80年源平之乱中 ,大佛殿全毁 ,大佛头部被烧落 ,身体部分半溶化。东大寺老僧重源费尽千辛万苦 ,将寺院修复。三百八十七年后的 1 576年 ,在足利末期的战乱中 ,大佛殿又被焚烧 ,大佛遭到毁灭性的损坏。大佛长期裸露在庭院里。江户时期 (1 60 3— 1 867)的公庆法师与大佛朝夕相处 ,立志修复大佛…     

Trajectory of Adolescent Obesity: Exploring the Impact of Prenatal to Childhood Experiences

This study examined longitudinal associations of prenatal exposures as well as childhood familial experiences with obesity status from ages 10 to 18. Hierarchical generalized linear modeling was applied to examine 5,156 adolescents from the child sample of the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Higher maternal weight, maternal smoking during pregnancy, lower maternal education, and lack of infant breastfeeding were contributors to elevated adolescent obesity risk in early adolescence. However, maternal age, high birth weight of child, and maternal annual income exhibited long-lasting impact on obesity risk over time throughout adolescence. Additionally, childhood familial experiences were significantly related to risk of adolescent obesity. Appropriate use of family rules in the home and parental engagement in children’s daily activities lowered adolescent obesity risk, but excessive television viewing heightened adolescent obesity risk. Implementation of consistent family rules and parental engagement may benefit adolescents at risk for obesity.     

The devil wears Prada: Advertisements of luxury brands evoke feelings of social exclusion

Luxury goods symbolically represent social segregation and exclusion, thereby communicating superiority, exclusivity and distance. In three experiments, we tested the hypothesis that exposure to luxury advertisements in Chinese samples activates mental representations similar to those of social exclusion. Participants were more likely to perceive being rejected by models in the luxury advertisements than models in the non‐luxury advertisements. Moreover, exposure to luxury advertisements increased participants' expectations of being rejected in a subsequent ambiguous social interaction. Finally, looking at luxury advertisements resulted in decreased life satisfaction, and this effect was more pronounced for participants with high rejection sensitivity than those with low rejection sensitivity. Overall, the results suggest that luxury advertisements evoke feelings of social exclusion in Chinese.     

Motivational cues: The role of perceived senders' self‐control ability in raters' deception judgements

Previous studies have found that senders' personal traits may be used by others to make judgements about the senders' truthfulness. Two studies were conducted to examine whether perceived self‐control ability has an effect on deception judgement. Perceived self‐control was hypothesized to act as a motivational cue that participants would use to assess the sender's motivation to lie, which in turn would influence their deception judgement. Results revealed that when participants assessed the sender as having higher self‐control ability, they would consider the sender to be less motivated to lie in daily life (Study 1), and judge the sender more truthful in a text‐based deception judgement task (Study 2). However, the effect of perceived self‐control ability disappeared in a video‐based task (Study 2), likely due to the multitude of various cues available in audio‐visual stimuli. The theoretical and applied implications of the results are discussed.     

Dyadic Nexus Fighting Two‐Front Battles: A Study of the Microlevel Process of the Official‐Religion‐State Relationship in China

This article provides a microlevel perspective of the interacting dynamics between religion and the Chinese state, demonstrating how religious leaders and local officials negotiate with each other pragmatically, continually withstanding pressure from hardline religious masses and state bureaucracy. This perspective, constructed using qualitative data on the True Jesus Church, also helps to answer a critical empirical question left open in scholarly discussions: When and how does the state regulative power on religion come to the fore in the economic reform emphasizing pragmatic religion‐state cooperation? The findings show how religious leaders and local officials have become pragmatic, cooperating to form a dyadic nexus that tackles regular affairs in a practical way, though it may run the risk of fracture when lay members and bureaucratic superiors pressure leaders and officials, respectively, to take hardline positions. The leaders and officials have continually fought two‐front battles while shuttling between negotiations with their nexus partner and aligning with their hardline sources of pressure. This study may shed light on future research of the Chinese religion‐state relationship in general by illustrating a microlevel, integrative, dynamic approach.     

Bayesian Inferences of Latent Class Models with an Unknown Number of Classes

This paper focuses on analyzing data collected in situations where investigators use multiple discrete indicators as surrogates, for example, a set of questionnaires. A very flexible latent class model is used for analysis. We propose a Bayesian framework to perform the joint estimation of the number of latent classes and model parameters. The proposed approach applies the reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo to analyze finite mixtures of multivariate multinomial distributions. In the paper, we also develop a procedure for the unique labeling of the classes. We have carried out a detailed sensitivity analysis for various hyperparameter specifications, which leads us to make standard default recommendations for the choice of priors. The usefulness of the proposed method is demonstrated through computer simulations and a study on subtypes of schizophrenia using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).