Psychometric Properties of the Revised Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS-R) in Chinese Adolescents

The Revised Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS-R) was developed to assess Internet addiction in Chinese populations, but its psychometric properties in adolescents have not been examined. This study aimed to evaluate the factor structure and psychometric properties of CIAS-R in Hong Kong Chinese adolescents. 860 Grade 7 to 13 students (38 % boys) completed the CIAS-R, the Young’s Internet Addiction Test (IAT), and the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for Children and Adolescents (HoNOSCA) in a survey. The prevalence of Internet addiction as assessed by CIAS-R was 18 %. High internal consistency and inter-item correlations were reported for the CIAS-R. Results from the confirmatory factor analysis suggested a four-factor structure of Compulsive Use and Withdrawal, Tolerance, Interpersonal and Health-related Problems, and Time Management Problems. Moreover, results of hierarchical multiple regression supported the incremental validity of the CIAS-R to predict mental health outcomes beyond the effects of demographic differences and self-reported time spent online. The CIAS is a reliable and valid measure of internet addiction problems in Hong Kong adolescents. Future study is warranted to validate the cutoffs of the CIAS-R for identification of adolescents with Internet use problems who may have mental health needs.     

Career adaptability and perceived overqualification: Testing a dual-path model among Chinese human resource management professionals

Based on career construction theory, the current research examined the relationship between career adaptability and perceived overqualification among a sample of Chinese human resource management professionals (N = 220). The results of a survey study showed that career adaptability predicted perceived overqualification through a dual-path model: On the one hand, career adaptability positively predicted employees' perceived delegation, which had a subsequent negative effect on perceived overqualification. At the same time, career adaptability also positively predicted career anchor in challenge, which in turn positively predicted overqualification. This dual-path mediation model provides a novel perspective to understand the mechanisms through which career adaptability affects perceived overqualification, and demonstrates the coexistence of opposite effects in this process. In addition, the results also showed that the effects of perceived delegation and career anchor in challenge on perceived overqualification were stronger among employees with a higher (vs. lower) level of organizational tenure. These findings carry implications for both career development theories and organizational management practices.     

Newborn preference for a new face vs. a previously seen communicative or motionless face

Newborn infants prefer to look at a new face compared to a known face (still-face). This effect does not happen with the mother-face. The newborns could be attracted by the mother-face because, unlike the still-face, it confirms an expectation of communication.Fifty newborns were video-recorded. Sixteen of them were recruited in the final sample: nine were exposed to a communicative face and seven to a still-face. All the 16 newborns were successively exposed to two preference-tasks where a new face was compared with the known face.Only newborns previously exposed to a still-face preferred to look at a new face instead of the known face. The results suggest that the newborns are able to build a dynamic representation of faces.     

An item response theory analysis of the Impulsive Behaviors Checklist for Adolescents

This study used item response theory (IRT) to examine the Impulsive Behaviors Checklist for Adolescents (IBCL-A) among 6,276 (67.7% girls) Chinese secondary school students. The IBCL-A included 15 maladaptive impulsive behaviors adapted from the Revised Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines. The authors obtained the severity and discrimination parameters for each item in the IBCL-A, examined differential item functioning across gender and age groups, and tested reliability and concurrent validity of the IBCL-A IRT-scaled score. Most items in the IBCL-A were the most accurate in assessing moderate to high levels of impulsivity and discriminated well among adolescents with varied levels of impulsivity. Differential item functioning emerged in several items across gender. The IRT-scaled score showed good construct validity and incremental predictive validity. Findings demonstrate the sound psychometric properties of the IBCL-A and support the clinical utility of this scale.     

Health beliefs,optimism, and health‐related decisions: A study with Hong Kong Chinese

T he Health Belief Model (HBM; Rosenstock, 1966) is the most widely used psychological theory of health‐related behaviours but its applicability to non‐Western, especially Asian, populations has not been systematically studied. The main objective of the current study was to examine the effects of components of the HBM and dispositional optimism on preventive intention in two separate samples of 220 Hong Kong Chinese adults and 340 Hong Kong Chinese adolescents. Two HBM variables, benefits and barriers, were experimentally manipulated for an imaginary flu outbreak and a hypothetical vaccine. Optimism in the two samples was assessed using the Chinese revised Life Orientation Test (Lai et al., 1998). Participants indicated their intention to take the hypothetical vaccine after reading information for each of the treatment combinations defined by the two HBM variables. The order of the presentation of each of the six treatment conditions was counterbalanced. Results of ANOVA showed that the effects of the two HBM variables were similar in the two groups. Higher benefits and lower barriers were associated with stronger behavioural intention to take the vaccine. The two HBM variables interacted significantly in the adolescent but not the adult sample. Among the adolescents, the difference in intention scores between low and high barriers became larger when the benefits of taking the vaccine increased. In addition, optimism had significant effect on preventive intention only among the adolescents. These findings suggest that age may be an important factor moderating the effects of HBM components as well as optimism on preventive intention in Hong Kong Chinese. Implications of these findings to future research among Chinese were discussed.     

Anxiety and burnout in female collegiate ice hockey and soccer athletes

The purpose of this study was to assess whether athletes who perceived their scores on trait anxiety to be debilitative to performance also experienced higher burnout scores. 84 NCAA Division I female ice hockey and soccer athletes, ages 18 to 23 years, volunteered. Participants were given a trait version of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 with an added direction scale to collect general perceptions of anxiety. They also completed the Burnout Inventory for Athletes. A one-way multivariate analysis of variance for group anxiety yielded an overall significant effect, with the Facilitative group (n = 40) reporting a lower mean burnout score. Mean intensity of cognitive anxiety was significantly higher for the Debilitative group (n = 44), while mean self-confidence intensity was significantly higher for the Facilitative group.     

"做中学"科学教育对幼儿情绪能力发展的影响

本文旨在探讨"做中学"科学教育方法对儿童情绪能力发展的影响.研究采用访谈法和问卷法,对象是幼儿家长和老师.问卷调查使用自编儿童情绪能力发展他评问卷,包括教师、对幼儿情绪不同维度的指标进行评分.实验采用2×3设计.实验组60名.问卷用spss10.0统计处理,结果表明实验组儿童情绪能力发展优于对照组参加"做中学"实验活动时间越长,情绪能力发展越好.     

Information entropy and the variability of space-time movement error

The authors investigated the effects of movement time and movement distance on the information entropy and variability of spatial and temporal error in a discrete aiming movement. In Experiment 1, the authors held movement distance (100 mm) constant and manipulated 11 movement times (300-800 ms) of 8 participants. In Experiment 2, the authors tested 6 movement distances at 2 given movement times (15-60 mm at 300 ms; 40-240 mm at 800 ms) in 8 participants. The variability and entropy for spatial error increased with average movement velocity, whereas the variability and entropy for temporal error decreased as a function of average movement velocity. The common variance between variable error and entropy averaged about 84% and 72% for spatial and temporal errors, respectively, suggesting that the probabilistic approach of entropy reveals features that are not present in the standard deviation index of variability. The findings provide further evidence that information entropy may be a useful single-index representation of variability in the movement speed-accuracy relation.     

Memory belief is weak

Recently there has been extensive debate over whether “belief is weak”, viz, whether the epistemic standard for belief is lower than for assertion or knowledge. While most current studies focus on notions such as “ordinary belief” and “outright belief”, this paper purports to advance this debate by investigating a specific type of belief; memory belief. It is argued that (outright) beliefs formed on the basis of episodic memories are “weak” due to two forms of “entitlement inequality”. My key argument is thus twofold. First, by rejecting the epistemic theory of memory, I argue that one can be entitled to belief but not to knowledge. Second, by scrutinising a recent defence of the belief norm of assertion, it will be demonstrated that belief is weaker than assertion, as long as we expect one to match words with deeds.