Effects of Gender and Appearance Comparisons on Associations Between Media-Based Appearance Pressure and Disordered Eating: Testing a Moderated Mediation Model

Sex Roles - Appearance pressure from mass media and appearance social comparisons have been implicated in theory and research on disordered eating. However, mediating effects of upward and downward...     

The mediation effect of student self-efficacy between teaching approaches and science achievement: findings from 2011 TIMSS US data

Over the past two decades, researchers consistently demonstrated the importance of science teaching approaches and student self-efficacy in influencing their science achievement. These findings have become the foundation of science education reform. However, empirical supports of these relationships are limited to direct relationships and small-scale studies. Therefore, little is known about the mechanism of how teaching approaches and student self-efficacy affect student achievement. In order to fill these gaps, this study used a multilevel structural equation modeling approach to analyze the direct and indirect relationships between teaching approaches, student self-efficacy, and science achievement by using the data of US eighth grade students in the 2011 TIMSS assessment. The results indicated that none of the teaching approaches identified in this study were directly associated with student science achievement, but significant mediation effect was found between generic teaching and student science achievement through student self-efficacy. Implications of these results for US educational system and reform were discussed.

     

消极身体意象对青少年的负面影响

消极身体意象是青少年健康成长所面临的重要问题之一。了解消极身体意象对青少年的危害以及其形成的影响因素, 对于青少年群体身心健康发展具有重要意义。消极身体意象对青少年的负面影响主要包括自我概念、情绪体验、体重控制策略、饮食失调和社会生活五个方面; 并且青少年消极身体意象形成的影响因素主要有生物因素(BMI)、社会文化因素(父母、同伴和大众媒体)和心理因素(人格因素、认知方式)。未来可从以下几个方面进一步深入研究：(1) 基于生物-心理-社会模型的视角完善青少年身体意象发展的理论模型; (2) 考察社交媒体等新兴因素的作用; (3) 阐明青少年在加工身体相关信息时的认知特点; (4) 推进中国青少年消极身体意象本土化研究。     

Configural biases and reversible figures: evidence of multilevel grouping effects

Four experiments sought to identify the processes underlying 2 classes of grouping effects that are readily produced with a hierarchical figure type known as ambiguous triangles. Previous work has shown that aligning small equilateral triangles in particular configurations can both facilitate and interfere with observers' ability to report the pointing direction of the individual triangles. We determined that selectively adapting the observer to low-frequency gratings of the same orientation as the aligned triangles markedly altered the interfering and facilitative effects of the global configuration only when an accuracy measure of performance was used. When a response latency measure was used, no effect of the same adaptation condition was found. Results are discussed in terms of multiple levels of grouping effects in the visual system and the differential sensitivity of these levels to basic neural adaptation.     

Recognizing faces defined by texture gradients

Texture gradients can reveal surface orientation in a manner similar to shape from shading, and therefore provide an important cue for object recognition. In this study, we tested whether a complex 3-D object, such as a face, can be identified from texture gradients alone. The stimuli were laser-scanned faces for which the texture element was a fractal-noise pattern mapped onto the 3-D surface. An eight-alternative forced choice task was used in which participants matched a face defined by texture gradients to one of eight faces defined by shape from shading (Experiment 1) or by texture gradients (Experiment 2). On average, participants scored 24% and 18%, respectively, above chance in these experiments. Although this performance was much poorer than the performance based entirely on shape-from-shading stimuli (Experiment 3), the results suggest that texture gradient information may be used to recover surface geometry of complex objects.     

百般谏诤皆为民--晏婴在《晏子春秋》中的谏诤形象

晏婴以极忠尽谏闻名,而其劝谏的主要内容便是要齐君效法古之贤君爱民、重民,体现出中国传统文化中的民本思想.本文以《晏子春秋》为据,描述晏婴的谏诤形象和高超的进谏艺术与技巧.     

Omnibus hypothesis testing in dominance-based ordinal multiple regression

Often quantitative data in the social sciences have only ordinal justification. Problems of interpretation can arise when least squares multiple regression (LSMR) is used with ordinal data. Two ordinal alternatives are discussed, dominance-based ordinal multiple regression (DOMR) and proportional odds multiple regression. The Q2 statistic is introduced for testing the omnibus null hypothesis in DOMR. A simulation study is discussed that examines the actual Type I error rate and power of Q2 in comparison to the LSMR omnibus F test under normality and non-normality. Results suggest that Q2 has favorable sampling properties as long as the sample size-to-predictors ratio is not too small, and Q2 can be a good alternative to the omnibus F test when the response variable is non-normal.     

The Parents Matter! Program Interventions: Content and the Facilitation Process

The Parents Matter! Program (PMP) has developed three interventions for parents of 4th and 5th grade African-American children (9–12 years old). The overarching goal of all three interventions is to provide parents with knowledge, skills, and support for enhancing their efforts to raise healthy children. The interventions are: (1) Enhanced Communication and Parenting (five 2 -hour sessions), (2) Brief Communication and Parenting (single 2 -hour session), and (3) General Health (single 2 -hour session). This article discusses the development of these interventions, presents an overview of the content of each intervention, and discusses issues related to the facilitation/presentation of these interventions.