The Polish adaptation of the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ): Psychometric properties,age and gender differences and convergence between the questionnaire and the observational data

The main aim of the study was to determine the psychometric properties of the version of the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ) adapted to Polish culture. Since temperament in toddlers was being observed in a laboratory, an external validity of the ECBQ was also provided. Kagan’s observational paradigm was used to test 215 18-month-old children. Their parents completed the ECBQ twice, when the children were 26 and 30 months old. The results showed good internal consistency and confirmed the longitudinal stability of the scale. The same three-factor solution was found in the structure of the scale as in the original American study. The convergence between the observational and parent report data supported the ECBQ’s external validity. Similarities in the structure of the scale observed between the Polish and American data are discussed from a cross-cultural perspective. The usefulness of the Polish ECBQ and the limitations of the obtained results are discussed.     

Regulatory Focus in Materialists and Its Consequences for Their Well-Being

Journal of Happiness Studies - The article concentrates on regulatory focus (promotion and prevention) as a factor involved in the relationships between materialism and well-being alongside two...     

The Face of the Chameleon: The Experience of Facial Mimicry for the Mimicker and the Mimickee

This research addressed three questions concerning facial mimicry: (a) Does the relationship between mimicry and liking characterize all facial expressions, or is it limited to specific expressions? (b) Is the relationship between facial mimicry and liking symmetrical for the mimicker and the mimickee? (c) Does conscious mimicry have consequences for emotion recognition? A paradigm is introduced in which participants interact over a computer setup with a confederate whose prerecorded facial displays of emotion are synchronized with participants’ behavior to create the illusion of social interaction. In Experiment 1, the confederate did or did not mimic participants’ facial displays of various subsets of basic emotions. Mimicry promoted greater liking for the confederate regardless of which emotions were mimicked. Experiment 2 reversed these roles: participants were instructed to mimic or not to mimic the confederate’s facial displays. Mimicry did not affect liking for the confederate but it did impair emotion recognition.     

Belastungen von Bachelor- und Diplom-Studierenden

Background

The restructuring of the European educational system in line with the Bologna process forms a source of complaints in German universities because of the rigid structure of the curricula and higher pressure to perform. By comparison of students in the former diploma system with students in the bachelor master system during the period of restructuring it was analyzed if the changes in the educational system affect psychological distress in a negative way.

Methods

The analysis of 535 datasets from the psychotherapeutic outpatient department for students of the university Göttingen in the years between 2006 and 2010 was carried out to clarify if students in the bachelor master system suffered more from severe psychological distress than students of the former German diploma system. Dependent variables are a questionnaire comprising current problems and the global severity index (GSI) from the symptom checklist (SCL)-90-R. The confounding factors resulting from course of study and stud -time in the period of the restructuring have been controlled.

Results

The bachelor master students who sought help were not generally suffering from more psychological distress than diploma students. However, in comparison to students from the former diploma system they suffered more from psychological distress and problems resulting from the study situation and organization in the first semesters.

Conclusions

Psychotherapeutic university outpatient departments have to be aware of the changing demand. The study organization has to be changed to be more student friendly, especially in the beginning. An adequate infrastructure for psychotherapeutic university outpatients has to be provided.     

The education of attention as explanation of variability of practice effects: learning the final approach phase in a flight simulator

The present study reports two experiments in which a total of 20 participants without prior flight experience practiced the final approach phase in a fixed-base simulator. All participants received self-controlled concurrent feedback during 180 practice trials. Experiment 1 shows that participants learn more quickly under variable practice conditions than under constant practice conditions. This finding is attributed to the education of attention to the more useful informational variables: Variability of practice reduces the usefulness of initially used informational variables, which leads to a quicker change in variable use, and hence to a larger improvement in performance. In the practice phase of Experiment 2 variability was selectively applied to some experimental factors but not to others. Participants tended to converge toward the variables that were useful in the specific conditions that they encountered during practice. This indicates that an explanation for variability of practice effects in terms of the education of attention is a useful alternative to traditional explanations based on the notion of the generalized motor program and to explanations based on the notions of noise and local minima.     

How shared preferences in music create bonds between people: values as the missing link

How can shared music preferences create social bonds between people? A process model is developed in which music preferences as value-expressive attitudes create social bonds via conveyed value similarity. The musical bonding model links two research streams: (a) music preferences as indicators of similarity in value orientations and (b) similarity in value orientations leading to social attraction. Two laboratory experiments and one dyadic field study demonstrated that music can create interpersonal bonds between young people because music preferences can be cues for similar or dissimilar value orientations, with similarity in values then contributing to social attraction. One study tested and ruled out an alternative explanation (via personality similarity), illuminating the differential impact of perceived value similarity versus personality similarity on social attraction. Value similarity is the missing link in explaining the musical bonding phenomenon, which seems to hold for Western and non-Western samples and in experimental and natural settings.     

Prototetyka St. Lesniewskiego

Streszczenie Prototetyka St. Len'ewskiego jest uogólnieniem dwuwartociowego rachunku zda. Wystpuj w niej obok terminów tego rachunku funktory (zarówno stae jak i zmienne) tych wszystkich kategorii semantycznych, jakie mog by zdefiniowane, gdy punktem wyjcia jest kategor a zda.W pracy zreferowane s trzy systemy prototetyki. Terminem pierwotnym dwu z nich jest implikacja, terminem pierwotnym systemu trzeciego jest równowano. Systemy o terminie pierwotnym implikacji róni s. reguami wnioskowania. W jednym z nich obowizuje regua weryfikacji, w drugim regua ekstensjonalnoci. Pierwsza z tych regu jest uogólnieniem nastpujcej reguy rachunku zda, wzbogaconego o terminy 0 i 1:Wyraenie jest tez systemu, gdy tezami systemu s oba wyraenia powstae z przez podstawienie za pewn jego zmienn symboli 0 i 1.W myl reguy ekstensjonalnoci tezami systemu s prawa ekstensjonalnoci, sformuowane dla funktorów dowolnych kategorii semantycznych wac-wych prototetyce.W pracy podaj dowody równowanoci trzech systemów prototetyki i dowód ich zupenoci.Znaczna cz wyników Leniewskiego, zreferowanych w pracy, nie bya dotd opublikowana. Opracowujc te wyniki opieraem si na notatkach z wykadów Leniewskiego, spisanych przez jego uczniów. Oryginalne notatki Leniewskiego ulegy zniszczeniu w czasie powstania warszawskiego.