Managerial Stress, Locus of Control, and Job Strain in Taiwan and UK: A Comparative Study

This study investigated managerial stress in Taiwan and UK using the Occupational Stress Indicator-2 (OSI-2) and the Work Locus of Control (WLCS) scale. Results showed that the reliability and validity of the measures used were acceptable and comparable in the two samples. There were similarities as well as differences in managerial stress in the two countries. Recognition and Managerial role were important predictors of strain for the Chinese managers, whereas Relationships, Organizational climate, and Personal responsibility were important predictors of strain for UK managers. There were consistent moderating (vulnerability) effects of internal control for the Taiwanese managers. Results corroborated some previous studies conducted in the West. However, caution was also suggested for generalizing Western-originated concepts and theories across cultural boundaries.     

书法训练对军校大学生的情绪调节

本研究旨在探讨书法训练对军校大学生不良情绪的调节效应.被试为90名男性军校大学生,将其分为毛笔组、钢笔组和对照组三个实验组,毛笔组和钢笔组被试在一个月内按每日30分钟分别进行毛笔书写和钢笔书写训练,对照组完全休息,分别在实验前、中和后作SCL-90症状评量表的评定.结果表明毛笔组组内前后三次SCL-90总分和各因子分均呈明显下降趋势,总分和强迫症、人际关系、偏执、精神状态等四项因子三次间存在显著性差异,而钢笔组和对照组前后三次SCL-90总分和各因子分均无明显变化.书法训练对军校大学生在紧张环境下的不良情绪有较好的调节效果.     

Mothers' affect in the homework context: the importance of staying positive

This research investigated mothers' affect in the context of children's homework. Mothers (N = 109) of children 8 to 12 years old were interviewed daily about their affect while interacting with children, their assistance with children's homework, and children's behavior while completing homework. At this time and 6 months later, children's motivational and emotional functioning was assessed. Although mothers' negative affect was lower than their positive affect, it was elevated on days their assistance with homework was high. This was accounted for by mothers' perceptions of children as helpless on days they provided heightened assistance. Mothers' positive affect in the homework context buffered children's motivational and emotional functioning against mothers' negative affect as well as children's helplessness.     

False recognition across meaning,language, and stimulus format: Conceptual relatedness and the feeling of familiarity

Four experiments examined contributions of conceptual relatedness and feelings of familiarity to false recognition. Participants first studied lists of unrelated items (e.g., table, lock) followed by a recognition test with three types of items: (1) studied items (e.g., table), (2) semantically related lures (e.g., key), and (3) unrelated lures (e.g., cup). Participants falsely recognized more related than unrelated lures when the stimuli were words (Experiment 1A) and pictures (Experiment 1B), when the studied items and related lures differed in language (Experiment 2), and when they differed in perceptual format (Experiment 3). In Experiment 4, an attribution manipulation, designed to make feelings of familiarity nondiagnostic for memory judgments, eliminated the false-recognition effect obtained in Experiment 3. Overall, the study suggests that conceptual relatedness produces false recognition even in the absence of shared perceptual surface features between study and test items, and it does so by generating feelings of familiarity.     

视觉刺激探测的警觉性注意特征初探

采用"预警提示-目标探测"范式,对视觉刺激探测的警觉性注意特征进行初步探索。实验一表明,随着预备到目标刺激的时间间隔(interstimulus interval,ISI)变化,固定位置上探测目标刺激的速度也随之变化,并且对大概率刺激的探测更快,表现出了警觉性注意的稳定性和选择性特征。实验二进一步考察了目标刺激在不同ISI和不同空间位置的情况,除发现与实验一相似的结果以外,被试探测目标刺激的速度随注意视角增大而下降,表现出了警觉性注意的集中性特征。     

词切分对语文学优生与学困生阅读影响的眼动研究

采用EyeLink II眼动仪,以小学二年级语文学优生和学困生为被试,考察词切分对句子阅读的影响.实验设置四种空格呈现条件:正常无空格条件、字间空格条件、词间空格条件和非词空格条件.研究表明:(1)小学二年级学生阅读词间空格文本、字间空格文本和正常无空格文本效果相同.(2)与语文学优生相比,学困生阅读任何条件的句子需要更多的注视时间和注视次数.非词空格呈现条件对学困生的干扰更大,表明学困生更依赖文本的低水平信息.文章最后探讨了汉语阅读的基本信息单元问题.     

Stress induces glucocorticoid-mediated apoptosis of rat Leydig cells in vivo

Stress can disrupt endocrine signalling in the male reproductive axis through high concentrations of glucocorticoids, the hallmark of stress. Our previous work revealed that a stress level of exogenous glucocorticoids could induce apoptosis of rat Leydig cells, which are the primary source of testosterone. The aim of this study was to investigate whether stress can induce apoptosis in rat Leydig cells in vivo and, if so, whether the process is the result of a direct effect of glucocorticoids. In a chronically stressed rat model, serum corticosterone concentration was increased significantly whereas serum testosterone was decreased. The frequency of apoptotic Leydig cells in stressed rats was also increased. Adrenalectomised rats subjected to chronic stress showed an elevated serum testosterone, while the apoptotic frequency of Leydig cells was not increased. It was established that glucocorticoid-induced Leydig cell apoptosis is mediated by glucocorticoid receptors (GRs), which translocate from cytoplasm to nucleus. Adenovirus microRNA-induced downregulation of GR expression in vitro alleviated the corticosterone-induced increase in apoptosis of Leydig cells. These results indicate that the stress-induced increase in corticosterone secretion resulted in apoptosis in rat Leydig cells in vivo, and thereby decreased testosterone synthesis.     

Self-esteem modulates attentional responses to rejection: Evidence from event-related brain potentials

Individuals with low self-esteem have been shown to exhibit an attentional bias for social rejection cues. The present study investigated whether individuals with low self-esteem would demonstrate greater reactivity to rejection-related stimuli during an attention shifting task than was exhibited by those with high self-esteem. Individuals with low self-esteem showed higher amplitude event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to rejection cues than was observed for those with high self-esteem. These results suggest that individuals with low self-esteem allocate more attentional resources to rejection cues than those with high self-esteem. Discussion will focus on the implications of these findings for understanding the connection between low self-esteem and social rejection.     

Self-organized criticality and learning a new coordination task

The purpose of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that a self-organized criticality (SOC) practice condition would have a higher improvement rate in performance outcome than a typical progressive difficulty of practice regimen. The roller ball task was used where participants undergo a phase transition from failure to successful performance after sufficient practice. The findings from two experiments showed that the SOC condition had the fastest rate of improvement and the highest performance success level. The success probability in the SOC practice regime was close to the theoretically predicted value of 50%. It appears that the SOC practice condition - by scaling task difficulty to skill level in a self-controlled adaptive strategy - facilitates the learning of new movement coordination pattern by keeping the participant close to the parameter region of the transition of the movement dynamics.