Experimental analysis of preschool playmate preferences as a function of smiles and sex

Differential emotions theory (DET) (The face of emotion. Appleton‐Century‐Crofts: East Norwalk, CT, 1971) posits that the smile functions in part to communicate and/or reflect social affiliation and plays an important role in children's social development. While children's positive emotion expressions have received attention from peer relations researchers in observational studies and within correlational designs, there is almost no experimental evidence for the impact of the smile. Building on existing studies, the present study examined DET predictions within an experimental design. More specifically, we examined the impact smiles have on lower‐income preschool children's nominations for preferred playmates. Both boys and girls tended to nominate unfamiliar playmates who smiled. Additionally, some evidence suggested that preference for smiling playmates seemed more critical to girls' than boys' social functioning. Unlike among boys, teachers rated girls who exhibited a greater preference for smiling playmates as higher in social competence. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Associations between mothers' sensitivity to their infants' internal states and children's later understanding of mind and emotion

This study investigated associations between mother–infant interactions and children's subsequent understanding of mind and emotion. Mothers' tendency to comment on their infants' internal world and their general sensitivity to their infants' internal states were measured through coded play interactions at 10 months. The latter measurement included ratings on four aspects of maternal behaviour: mindful facilitation, joint attention commenting, pacing, and affect catching. In contrast to mothers' internal state language, these behaviours did not tap mothers' explicit linguistic representation of their infants' mental states. At 54 months, children's understanding of mind and emotion was measured through a range of false‐belief tasks and an emotion‐understanding task. Multivariate analysis revealed direct positive links between mothers' sensitivity to their infants' internal states and children's later understanding of mind. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

大学生的自立人格与现实问题解决

为了探讨大学生的自立人格能否影响其现实问题解决的质量,对个人/人际高低分组的共30名大学生进行了现实问题解决访谈,结果发现:个人/人际自立高分组被试在访谈中解决个人/人际问题的质量显著高于低分组。为了探索自立人格与现实问题解决能力的关系,使用《青少年学生自立人格量表》和《大学生日常问题解决能力调查问卷》对101名有效被试进行了调查,结果发现:自立人格的多个维度都与日常问题解决能力的维度有显著相关,自立人格的多个相关维度是日常问题解决相关能力的有效预测变量。两个研究的结果支持了研究假设:自立人格利于个体对现实生活问题的解决;自立人格包含或涉及个体解决现实问题的能力因素。此外,自立人格影响现实生活问题解决的具体特点和机制还值得进一步研究。     

不同延迟条件下语音词的重复效应

采用连续再认范式, 考察了不同延迟条件下, 汉语口语词的重复效应。结果发现, 立即重复产生了最大的反应时的易化, 随着延迟的增加, 易化作用逐渐减小甚至消失。在ERP上, 与首次呈现相比, 重复呈现的词会诱发广泛分布的更正的波形; 并且随着延迟的增加, 重复效应出现的时间越来越晚：立即重复条件从200ms左右开始, 间隔一个词重复条件从300ms左右开始, 间隔8~10个词时, 重复效应从400ms左右开始。三种条件下的重复效应分别反映了对再次呈现的词的声学语音特征加工的易化、语义加工的易化和情景信息的提取。     

非语言情境中时间加工与空间距离加工的关系

时间加工与空间距离加工的关系主要有两种, 一种是在空距离–空时距以及动物的研究中, 时间加工影响空间距离加工, 空间距离加工影响时间加工, 两者相互影响, 存在对称的干扰, 这种关系与注意和记忆有关。另一种是在实距离–实时距中, 空间距离加工影响时间加工, 而时间加工不受空间距离加工的影响, 时间加工和空间距离加工之间具有不对称的干扰。时空关系的不对称与隐喻理论、人们的感知运动经验和时空信息的显著性有关。神经机制上, 右顶叶皮质、侧顶内区、左顶叶皮质、小脑、前额等参与时间加工和空间距离加工, 但两种加工涉及到的神经机制也有部分差异。未来可以从时间加工的分段性、不同条件下时间加工和空间距离加工的心理机制以及脑机制进行研究。     

身份凸显性：启动自我的开关

当意识到自己特定的身份时, 个人往往在这个身份的框架内来感知周围的世界。身份凸显性指特定身份在社会情境中启动的可能性。相关研究者分别从人格, 自我归类和社会建构的角度来认识身份凸显性, 它与自我概念整合存在紧密关系。身份凸显性的影响因素主要包括：身份承诺水平, 情绪, 群体规模和地位, 以及情境中相关线索的优势水平。另外, 阐述了几个抑制或干扰身份凸显性的策略：去类别化、再类别化和次类别化。未来研究需关注不同水平身份如何相互作用, 自我概念整合, 从社会构建的角度探索抑制或干扰身份凸显性的策略, 以及跨文化研究。     

The dominance of fear over hope in the life of individuals and collectives

We address the question why fear dominates hope in the life of individuals and collectives on the basis of the accumulated knowledge in the psychology, neurology and sociology of emotions. This knowledge suggests that fear, as primary emotion, is grounded in the experienced present and based on the memorized past, processed both consciously and unconsciously, causes freezing and conservatism, and sometimes leads to pre‐emptive aggression. Hope, in contrast, as a secondary emotion, involves cognitive activity, which requires anticipation and the search for new ideas and thus is based on complex processes of creativity and flexibility. Therefore, hope is often preceded and inhibited by spontaneous, automatically activated and faster fear. Fear and hope can each become a collective emotional orientation, and as such organize society's views and direct its actions. Societies involved in intractable conflict are dominated by a collective fear orientation. This orientation is functional for society's coping with the stressful and demanding situation—but it may serve as a psychological obstacle to any peace process, once it starts. The case of the collective fear orientation in the Jewish Israeli society is presented as an example. The article ends with a presentation of a particular approach, suggesting that individuals and collectives can overcome their fear with much determination, and establish an orientation of hope which allows change in situations dominated by fear. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Broadcasting of violence on Spanish television: a quantitative panorama

A quantitative analysis of broadcasted violence by the main television (TV) channels transmitting for Madrid (Spain) was carried out using a novel method that randomly selects fragments of delimited duration from TV broadcasts. The device selects acts of aggression shown in those TV extracts, and classifies them according to their type. There was a high incidence of aggressive acts, especially physical (particularly leading to death), in TV fiction: films, serials and promos. The device also allowed examination of the prominence of aggression in children's programs, as well as showing minimal variation in the number of aggressive acts over screened time intervals. The pattern of the collected data suggests that the broadcasting of violence on TV emphasizes the conflicting elements of social reality, reproducing it in fiction, news reports and children's shows. Aggr. Behav. 32:137–145. 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION,HEALING, AND ALTRUISM: INTRODUCTION TO THE SYMPOSIUM

This essay introduces the five articles that follow, whose aim is to show how altruism emerges out of spiritual transformation and is integral to healing process in four kinds of ritual healing systems—popular, folk, an indigenous religious healing tradition, and complementary and alternative medicine represented by consciousness transformation movements. In this introduction I situate these largely marginalized religious and spiritual practices within the context of the religion‐science discourse, which has focused for the most part on the relationship between the established, mainstream religions and the dominant biomedical system. Antecedents of two of these types of religious practices, Spiritism and consciousness transformation movements, were part of the development of the psychological sciences in the nineteenth century but lost ground in the twentieth. Despite discrimination and persistent negative attitudes on the part of the established religions and biomedicine, these healing traditions have not only survived through the twentieth century but appear to have gained both followers and interest in the twenty‐first. In future decades, at least for complementary and alternative medical practices and perhaps also for spirit healing centers, there may be a reversal in status through greater acceptance of their unique combination of scientific and religious perspectives.