人格、社会支持与老年人需要的关系

本研究采用老年人需要问卷、艾森克人格问卷和领悟社会支持量表对天津市270名社区低龄老年人的需要及其满足度进行了调查,并采用相关、回归和路径分析的方法,考察人格、社会支持与老年人心理需要满足度的关系。研究结果显示:多数老年人的经济、人际、亲情、保健、尊重、认知、价值等需要得到了较好的满足;来自家人、朋友及他人的社会支持对老年人各种需要的满足度均有显著的正向预测作用;外向性人格对老年人的需要满足度有显著的正向预测作用,其影响以直接作用为主;神经质人格对老年人的需要满足度有显著的负向预测作用,其影响以社会支持为中介。     

Attentional modulation of perceptual comparison for feature binding

We investigated the neural correlates of attentional modulation in the perceptual comparison process for detecting feature-binding changes in an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment. Participants performed a variant of a cued change detection task. They viewed a memory array, a spatial retro-cue, and later a probe array. Their task was to judge whether the cued item had changed between the two arrays. Change type was manipulated to be a color-location binding or a color feature change. The retro-cue onset time in the retention interval was manipulated to be early or late. As a consequence of strong inter-item competition, we found strong prefrontal activation for late cues when contrasting the binding-change with the color-change condition. In contrast, we observed a comparable behavioral and neural effect between the two types of change detection when retro-cue was presented early. More importantly, we demonstrated a significant inter-regional correlation between the prefrontal and parietal regions in both binding- and color-change conditions for late cues. In addition, extensive prefrontal-parietal-visual functional connectivity was showed for detecting binding changes in the late-cueing condition. These results support the critical role in prefrontal-parietal-visual functional coupling for resolving strong inter-item competition during the comparison process in the binding-change condition. We provide direct evidence that attention modulates neural activity associated with perceptual comparison, biasing competition in favour of the task-relevant information in order to detect binding changes.     

奖励和惩罚在注意控制过程中的优化和分离：眼动研究

通过两个眼动实验考察金钱奖励和惩罚引起的动机对个体在不同空间线索条件下注意控制加工的影响。实验1采用朝向/反向眼跳范式, 被试通过内源性线索提供心理准备的情况下做出简单的朝向眼跳以及需要抑制优势反应的反向眼跳。结果发现, 相比无奖惩条件, 奖励条件下朝向眼跳任务的正确率更高, 惩罚条件下反向眼跳任务的正确率更高; 两种眼跳任务中有奖惩条件下的眼跳峰速度均比无奖惩条件高。实验2采用Go/No-go任务, 进一步探讨了由副中央凹加工外源性边缘线索从而不能提供充分心理准备的情况下奖励和惩罚对注意控制的影响。结果发现, 奖励条件下Go反应的眼跳潜伏期更短, 惩罚条件下No-go反应正确率更高, 眼跳峰速度在两种条件下均比无奖惩条件高。以上结果表明, 奖励和惩罚均能够促进个体的注意控制, 但二者的加工过程是分离的, 奖励能够改善趋近行为, 惩罚则能够显著促进抑制控制行为, 且奖励和惩罚在注意控制加工过程中具有不同的作用模式, 奖励能够更早唤醒注意控制系统从而更快地促进行为的发生与执行, 惩罚则能够通过调节注意资源促进以目标为导向的行为中对优势反应的抑制。     

Maternal Employment and Family Socioeconomic Status: Unique Relations to Maternal Stress,Parenting Beliefs,and Preschoolers’ Adjustment in Taiwanese Families

With the rapid increase in women’s labor force participation in Asia, a greater understanding of the impact of maternal employment on parenting and child development in Asia is much needed. The present study examined the concurrent relations between maternal employment status and family characteristics (e.g., socioeconomic status/SES, family structure) in Taiwanese families, and the unique relations of maternal employment and family SES to maternal stress, parenting beliefs, and preschoolers’ socioemotional adjustment. In a school-based sample of 511 preschoolers (age range?=?4–6 years, 52.9% girls), their mothers, and teachers in Taipei and Taitung, mothers reported their employment status, family characteristics, perceived stress and parenting beliefs. Mothers and teachers rated preschoolers’ adjustment. Results showed that compared to unemployed mothers in Taiwan, employed mothers were more likely to come from families with higher SES and fewer children, and nuclear (vs. extended) families. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized model. Mothers from lower-SES families reported higher stress and higher endorsement of coercive parenting, and lower endorsement of authoritative parenting than mothers from higher-SES families. Controlling for SES, employed mothers endorsed higher coercive parenting than unemployed mothers. Mothers’ endorsement of authoritative parenting was associated with better child adjustment by mothers’ (but not teachers’) reports, whereas maternal stress and coercive parenting were associated with poorer child adjustment (by mothers’ reports only). In sum, maternal employment was intricately associated with family SES in Taiwanese families, and the two contextual factors shape parenting and child adjustment in different processes.     

Evolution, stress, and sensitive periods: the influence of unpredictability in early versus late childhood on sex and risky behavior

According to a recent evolutionary life history model of development proposed by Ellis, Figueredo, Brumbach, and Schlomer (2009), growing up in harsh versus unpredictable environments should have unique effects on life history strategies in adulthood. Using data from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation, we tested how harshness and unpredictability experienced in early childhood (age 0-5) versus in later childhood (age 6-16) uniquely predicted sexual and risky behavior at age 23. Findings showed that the strongest predictor of both sexual and risky behavior was an unpredictable environment between ages 0 and 5. Individuals exposed to more unpredictable, rapidly changing environments during the first 5 years of life displayed a faster life history strategy at age 23 by having more sexual partners, engaging in more aggressive and delinquent behaviors, and being more likely to be associated with criminal activities. In contrast, exposure to either harsh environments or experiencing unpredictability in later childhood (age 6-16) was, for the most part, not significantly related to these outcomes at age 23. Viewed together, these findings show that unpredictable rather than merely harsh childhood environments exert unique effects on risky behavior later in life consistent with a faster life history strategy. The findings also suggest that there is a developmentally sensitive period for assessing environmental unpredictability during the first 5 years of life.     

Effects of early bilingualism on learning phonological regularities in a new language

Drawing on structural sensitivity theory, the current study investigated monolingual and bilingual children's ability to learn how phonemes combine to form acceptable syllables in a new language. A total of 186 monolingual and bilingual kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders in Taiwan participated in the study. Bilingual children, regardless of whether they actively used a second language at home or simply had exposure to it, showed an advantage over their monolingual peers in learning the phonological patterns in the new language. The study provides empirical support for structural sensitivity theory and calls for the need to reconceptualize the effects of early bilingualism.     

Effects of a rival's perceived motives on constructive competition within organizations: A competitive dynamics perspective

Previous work on constructive competition has focused on competitors' motives and strategies; however, competition is an interactive process that is affected by both the competitor and the rival. Based on the competitive dynamics perspective and attribution theory, this study examines the impact of a perceived rival's motives on the constructiveness of competition. The results of a survey of 521 employees from 25 companies in the banking and insurance industry in Taiwan revealed that the perceptions of rivals' motives significantly affected the constructiveness of competition. By introducing the perspective of rival analysis to individual‐level competition, the present study provides a more comprehensive understanding of constructive competition within organizations.     

Sister’s Caregiving Experience to a Sibling with Cerebral Palsy- the Impact to Daughter-Mother Relationships

This paper uses a phenomenological method to examine Taiwanese women’s care giving experiences of their brothers or sisters with Cerebral Palsy and how they negotiated daughter-mother relationships when care giving for a sibling with CP. Drawing on stories shared by six women from the northern and the middle part of Taiwan who were recruited via social service agencies and snowball sampling, the results of this study suggest that these sisters internalized the cultural norm of Shan-Shia (superior-subordinate) but also appealed for support from fathers or brothers to transform their mothers’ outdated notions about ways of caring for their sibling with CP and to protect their sibling with CP from mothers’ negligent and abusive behaviors. Greater attention must be given to the promotion of a more equitable sharing of caring tasks by men and women in the family.     

HIV Risk among Pregnant Teenagers with a History of Interpersonal Violence

This study examined the relationship among interpersonal violence, depressive symptoms, and HIV risk behaviors among pregnant teenagers. A sample of 116 pregnant teenagers was recruited in Rhode Island. Multivariate logistic regressions tested whether or not the relationship between history of interpersonal violence and HIV risk remained after controlling for age and education. Participants reported a young age of sexual debut and low rates of condom use. Multivariate logistic regressions indicate a significant relationship between interpersonal violence and HIV risk but not in degree of depression symptoms and HIV risk. Pregnant teenagers with a history of interpersonal violence could benefit from interventions that address HIV risk.     

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.