Prediction of Needle Sharing Among Injection Drug Users1

The aim of the present study was to identify the psychosocial factors associated with the intention and behavior of not sharing used needles and syringes among 459 intravenous drug users (IDUs). The intention to not share used needles was positively associated with personal normative beliefs and self‐efficacy; it was negatively related to the proportion of injections with lending used needles and borrowing syringes from sexual partners. Borrowing used needles was negatively associated with intention whereas loaning syringes was positively related to a negative HIV test result. These results suggest that it is only when a direct personal exposure to HIV infection is possible (borrowing) that intention not to borrow is highlighted. Moreover, being HIV positive appears to reduce loaning used syringes.     

Team climate,climate strength and team performance. A longitudinal study

We tested the hypothesis that the relationship between team climate and team performance is moderated by climate strength. The study sample was composed of 155 bank branches, and a two‐wave panel design was implemented. We measured four team climate facets (support, innovation, goal achievement and enabling formalization). We obtained two subjective indicators of team performance (ratings provided by team members and by team managers) and a financial indicator of team performance. Seven out of the 12 interaction effects tested were statistically significant and showed the expected sign. When financial team performance was the criterion, only the interaction term was significant. This suggests that only strong climates are related to financial team performance over time.     

道德外语效应的三种机制及与外语水平的关系

道德外语效应(Moral Foreign Language effect)是指人们的道德判断在外语条件下发生改变的现象,自该效应提出以来,其背后的机制一直都是研究的热点。道德外语效应的解释机制主要有审慎加工增强、情绪反应减少和道德规范联结的减弱等。本文对三种影响机制进行了探讨,发现情绪、道德规范和外语水平对道德判断可能会产生影响。同时,本文指出未来可以从自我控制、认知启动效应、消极情绪启动效应及道德规范与外语水平之间的关系进行研究和探讨。     

Religion and unforgivable offenses

ABSTRACT The value of forgiveness is emphasized in many religions, but little is known about how members of distinct religious cultures differ in their views of forgiveness. We hypothesized and found that Jews would agree more than Protestants that certain offenses are unforgivable and that religious commitment would be more negatively correlated with belief in unforgivable offenses among Protestants than among Jews (Studies 1 and 2). Dispositional forgiveness tendencies did not explain these effects (Studies 1 and 2). In Study 3, Jews were more inclined than Protestants to endorse theologically derived reasons for unforgivable offenses (i.e., some offenses are too severe to forgive, only victims have the right to forgive, and forgiveness requires repentance by the perpetrator). Differential endorsement of these reasons for nonforgiveness fully mediated Jew-Protestant differences in forgiveness of a plagiarism offense and a Holocaust offense.     

A prospective study of pressures from parents, peers, and the media on extreme weight change behaviors among adolescent boys and girls

The current study was designed to evaluate the role of sociocultural influences over a 16 month period on strategies to lose weight, extreme weight loss strategies, and strategies to increase muscles among adolescent boys (n=344) and girls (n=246). All participants completed measures of body dissatisfaction, body image importance, strategies to lose weight, extreme weight loss strategies, and strategies to increase muscles. Measures of perceived pressure to lose weight or increase muscles from mother, father, best male friend, best female friend and the media were also evaluated. Data were gathered on three occasions, 8 months apart. The results demonstrated that boys showed a decrease in strategies to lose weight and increase muscles over time, whereas girls showed an increase. Both boys and girls showed an increase in extreme weight loss strategies with girls demonstrating a greater increase than boys. The sociocultural influences generally were perceived by girls to relate to messages to lose weight, whereas for boys they were perceived to relate to increasing muscles. Messages from parents, particularly fathers, were strong predictors of both strategies to lose weight and increase muscles among boys, with the media and best male friend playing a limited role. For girls, the strongest influences were mothers and best female friends, with few influences from fathers or the media. The results of this study are discussed in terms of the importance of the various sociocultural influences in shaping body change strategies among young adolescent boys and girls, and the implications of these findings for intervention programs for adolescents.     

正念训练对康复期精神分裂症患者抑制控制的影响

探究正念训练对康复期精神分裂症患者正念觉知水平和抑制控制能力的影响。选取54名康复期精神分裂症住院患者随机分为正念组和对照组。对照组予以常规康复治疗,正念组在常规康复治疗基础上进行8周正念训练。结果发现：（1）在正念觉知方面,正念组后测得分显著高于前测,对照组前后测得分无显著差异;正念组后测得分显著高于对照组。（2）在抑制控制方面,正念组后测Stroop任务反应时显著低于前测,对照组前后测反应时无显著差异;正念组后测反应时显著低于对照组。结果表明,正念训练有助于提高康复期精神分裂症患者正念觉知水平和改善其抑制控制能力。     

Body dissatisfaction,engagement in body change behaviors and sociocultural influences on body image among Chinese adolescents

Body dissatisfaction and body image disorders are becoming increasingly prevalent in developing non-Western countries such as China, but there is a lack of research examining the sociocultural factors that in other contexts have been associated with these problems. The current study investigated body dissatisfaction, engagement in body change behaviors, and sociocultural pressures on body image, and the relationships between these variables among 517 adolescent males (N = 219) and females (N = 298) in China. Females reported greater body dissatisfaction than males, and males reported using strategies to increase their muscle bulk more often than females. Males reported pressure from a variety of sociocultural sources to increase their muscles or weight, while females reported pressure from the media to lose weight. For males body dissatisfaction was predicted by pressure from peers to increase their muscle bulk, while for females pressure to lose weight from peers, adult relatives, and the media was likely to increase body dissatisfaction. Pressure from the media and adult relatives was also predictive of body change behaviors in both males and females. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research in both Western and non-Western contexts.     

The interference problem for the betting interpretation of degrees of belief

The paper’s target is the historically influential betting interpretation of subjective probabilities due to Ramsey and de Finetti. While there are several classical and well-known objections to this interpretation, the paper focuses on just one fundamental problem: There is a sense in which degrees of belief cannot be interpreted as betting rates. The reasons differ in different cases, but there’s one crucial feature that all these cases have in common: The agent’s degree of belief in a proposition A does not coincide with her degree of belief in a conditional that A would be the case if she were to bet on A, where the belief in this conditional itself is conditioned on the supposition that the agent will have an opportunity to make such a bet. Even though the two degrees of belief sometimes can coincide (they will coincide in those cases when the bet has no expected causal bearings on the proposition A and the opportunity to bet have no evidential bearings on that proposition), it is the latter belief rather than the former that guides the agent’s rational betting behaviour. The reason is that this latter belief takes into consideration potential interferences that bet opportunities and betting itself might create with regard to the proposition to be betted on. It is because of this interference problem that the agent’s degree of belief in A cannot be interpreted as her betting rate for A.     

An Evaluation of Equivalence in Body Dissatisfaction Measurement Across Cultures

We evaluated gender-based and cross-cultural equivalence of the Body Dissatisfaction Scale of the Body Change Inventory in a sample of 4,005 adolescents from 7 cultures that represent diverse body image ideals and response styles. Results of multigroup confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated equivalence of the scale across gender but not across cultures. Follow-up analyses identified small but significant cross-cultural differences in response styles (specifically, acquiescence and middle response option endorsement) as the source of this noninvariance. We recommend use of this scale for gender-based comparisons but caution that researchers should evaluate the presence of response biases before making substantive conclusions about cross-cultural differences in body dissatisfaction.     

Assessment of Personality Organization in Couple Relationships: Factorial Structure of the Inventory of Personality Organization and Incremental Validity Over Neuroticism

Summary: Creative thinking was explored from several approaches to further understanding of the interrelationship of perception, personality, and cognition. College students (N = 45) were administered the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT), the Remote Associates Test (RAT), a questionnaire concerning RAT strategy, and two self-report scales. Field independent subjects were found to be significantly (p < .001) more creative than field dependents. Correlations between the RAT and GEFT and the self-report measures of conformity and creativity, while largely nonsignificant, were in the predicted directions. Results demonstrated that advanced strategy levels and insightful responses were significantly related to high performance on the RAT. Theoretical links between cognitive style and Piagetian concepts were discussed in regard to creative thought. Overall, these findings support the contention that the creative processes should be studied, not as isolated structures, but with relational and multifaceted emphasis.