NEO-CONFUCIANISM, SAGEHOOD AND THE RELIGIOUS DIMENSION

The figure of the sage (sheng/sheng jen) ^a has occupied a position of paramount importance in the Confucian tradition. Such sages in classical Confucianism were culture heroes and kings, each a paradigm of virtue and model for emulation. There is a sense, however, in which these sages were remote and distant; most were far removed in time. The virtues of such sages also seem strangely removed from the capabilities of the vast majority of persons. Mencius can express the optimistic stance that anyone is capable of becoming a Yao^b or Shun^c,1 but it seems far more accurate to describe this as an ideal rather than a practical goal of cultivation and learning.     

MEASURING SOCIAL-COMMUNICATIVE ANXIETY: SOCIAL DESIRABILITY AND THE FAKABILITY OF SCALE RESPONSES

Three studies are reported that examine the social desirability and fakability (transparency) of a number of self-report measures of social-communicative anxiety. Results indicate that social desirability, assessed as a personality dimension, is generally unrelated to measures of social and communicative anxiety. However, virtually all measures of the anxiety were transparently fakable. When asked to portray themselves positively, subjects consistently responded as low-anxious; when asked to look undesirable, subjects completed the measures to suggest high anxiety.     

UMaps: A Person—Environment Approach to Helping Students Make Critical Choices

UMaps organize campus opportunities into meaningful subenvironments, making options more attractive and accessible to students in order to increase their participation.     

Am “I” more important than “we”? Couples’ word use in instant messages

Recent studies have identified robust associations between the types of words that people use and their psychological health. This study investigated whether couples’ word use in their daily instant messages (IMs) is linked to the quality and stability of their relationships. Sixty‐eight dating couples in the United States submitted 10 days of IM conversations with each other, which were analyzed with a linguistic word count program. Six months later, couples indicated whether they were still dating. Pronoun use and emotion word use both were associated with relationship satisfaction and stability. These findings extend previous research showing that the frequencies of certain words that people use are associated with the quality of their social relationships.