Specific emotions as mediators of the effect of intergroup contact on prejudice: findings across multiple participant and target groups

Emotions are increasingly being recognised as important aspects of prejudice and intergroup behaviour. Specifically, emotional mediators play a key role in the process by which intergroup contact reduces prejudice towards outgroups. However, which particular emotions are most important for prejudice reduction, as well as the consistency and generality of emotion–prejudice relations across different in-group–out-group relations, remain uncertain. To address these issues, in Study 1 we examined six distinct positive and negative emotions as mediators of the contact–prejudice relations using representative samples of U.S. White, Black, and Asian American respondents (N?=?639). Admiration and anger (but not other emotions) were significant mediators of the effects of previous contact on prejudice, consistently across different perceiver and target ethnic groups. Study 2 examined the same relations with student participants and gay men as the out-group. Admiration and disgust mediated the effect of past contact on attitude. The findings confirm that not only negative emotions (anger or disgust, based on the specific types of threat perceived to be posed by an out-group), but also positive, status- and esteem-related emotions (admiration) mediate effects of contact on prejudice, robustly across several different respondent and target groups.     

积极情绪对条件性恐惧泛化的抑制作用

恐惧的过度泛化是焦虑障碍的核心症状之一,表现为患者对与原危险刺激极不相似的安全刺激也产生恐惧反应。本研究采用经典条件恐惧范式,以US主观预期、回溯性恐惧评定、回溯性效价评定和皮电反应作为恐惧反应的指标,通过"最好自我"训练来诱发被试的积极情绪,考察了恐惧习得后的积极情绪对于恐惧泛化的影响。本研究发现,积极情绪能有效地抑制条件性恐惧的泛化,增强被试对安全信号的学习,并对消退后的恐惧重建现象起到预防作用。研究同时显示,恐惧泛化在主观评定指标和生理指标间出现了分离,这表明积极情绪对恐惧泛化的抑制作用是一个综合的过程,可能涉及到不同的作用机制。本研究结果提示可以通过诱发积极情绪,抑制条件性恐惧的泛化,对临床干预有一定的启发意义。     

On Enhancing the Cross‐Cultural Comparability of Likert‐Scale Personality and Value Measures: A Comparison of Common Procedures

This study aims to evaluate a number of procedures that have been proposed to enhance cross‐cultural comparability of personality and value data. A priori procedures (anchoring vignettes and direct measures of response styles (i.e. acquiescence, extremity, midpoint responding, and social desirability), a posteriori procedures focusing on data transformations prior to analysis (ipsatization and item parcelling), and two data modelling procedures (treating data as continuous vs as ordered categories) were compared using data collected from university students in 16 countries. We found that (i) anchoring vignettes showed lack of invariance, so they were not bias‐free; (ii) anchoring vignettes showed higher internal consistencies than raw scores where all other correction procedures, notably ipsatization, showed lower internal consistencies; (iii) in measurement invariance testing, no procedure yielded scalar invariance; anchoring vignettes and item parcelling slightly improved comparability, response style correction did not affect it, and ipsatization resulted in lower comparability; (iv) treating Likert‐scale data as categorical resulted in higher levels of comparability; (v) factor scores of scales extracted from different procedures showed similar correlational patterning; and (vi) response style correction was the only procedure that suggested improvement in external validity of country‐level conscientiousness. We conclude that, although no procedure resolves all comparability issues, anchoring vignettes, parcelling, and treating data as ordered categories seem promising to alleviate incomparability. We advise caution in uncritically applying any of these procedures. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology     

三种意义理论的特点与困难

本文讨论了现代意义理论其中的三种,指出三种意义理论各自的长处,并对各种理论存在的困难进行了分析。本文最后认为,这些意义理论存在的困难,与理论家们片面追求精确性有关。     

Young children reorient by computing layout geometry, not by matching images of the environment

Disoriented animals from ants to humans reorient in accord with the shape of the surrounding surface layout: a behavioral pattern long taken as evidence for sensitivity to layout geometry. Recent computational models suggest, however, that the reorientation process may not depend on geometrical analyses but instead on the matching of brightness contours in 2D images of the environment. Here we test this suggestion by investigating young children's reorientation in enclosed environments. Children reoriented by extremely subtle geometric properties of the 3D layout: bumps and ridges that protruded only slightly off the floor, producing edges with low contrast. Moreover, children failed to reorient by prominent brightness contours in continuous layouts with no distinctive 3D structure. The findings provide evidence that geometric layout representations support children's reorientation.     

心理弹性儿童的压力/逆境认知

心理弹性儿童是如何看待其曾经历的或正在经历的严重压力/逆境的?解读这一问题或可促进对聚焦于儿童自身的心理弹性机制的探查。为考察心理弹性儿童压力/逆境认知特点,利用Visual FoxPro 8.0平台自编计算机程序和故事测验法,分别从压力/逆境的敏感程度、觉知到的压力/逆境严重程度、觉知到的压力/逆境影响持久程度和觉知到的压力/逆境可应对程度四个方面对心理弹性组儿童和缺乏心理弹性组儿童进行测量。结果发现:(1)心理弹性儿童的压力/逆境敏感程度高于缺乏心理弹性儿童,表现为前者在压力/逆境指标回忆量、压力/逆境再认敏感性指标和模糊情境下压力/逆境偏向性上的得分均比后者高,而且,前者的压力/逆境指标再认击中平均反应时比后者短,反应标准亦比后者宽松。(2)心理弹性儿童在觉知到的压力/逆境严重程度、影响持久程度和可应对程度上两亚类实验任务(你认为主人公如何看?和若你是主人公如何看?)上的得分与反应时,除设身处地的压力/逆境影响持久程度认知外,其余与缺乏心理弹性儿童之间差异均不显著,提示,心理弹性儿童所觉知到的严重压力/逆境影响远没有缺乏心理弹性儿童所认为的更为持久。文章探讨了儿童更为敏感的压力/逆境觉知和相对而言认为严...     

Cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation of the right Wernicke's area improves comprehension in subacute stroke patients

Previous studies have shown the appearance of right-sided language-related brain activity in right-handed patients after a stroke. Non-invasive brain stimulation such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) have been shown to modulate excitability in the brain. Moreover, rTMS and tDCS have been found to improve naming in non-fluent post-stroke aphasic patients. Here, we investigated the effect of tDCS on the comprehension of aphasic patients with subacute stroke. We hypothesized that tDCS applied to the left superior temporal gyrus (Wernicke’s area) or the right Wernicke’s area might be associated with recovery of comprehension ability in aphasic patients with subacute stroke. Participants included right-handed subacute stroke patients with global aphasia due to ischemic infarct of the left M1 or M2 middle cerebral artery. Patients were randomly divided into three groups: patients who received anodal tDCS applied to the left superior temporal gyrus, patients who received cathodal tDCS applied to the right superior temporal gyrus, and patients who received sham tDCS. All patients received conventional speech and language therapy during each period of tDCS application. The Korean-Western Aphasia Battery (K-WAB) was used to assess all patients before and after tDCS sessions. After intervention, all patients had significant improvements in aphasia quotients, spontaneous speech, and auditory verbal comprehension. However, auditory verbal comprehension improved significantly more in patients treated with a cathode, as compared to patients in the other groups. These results are consistent with the role of Wernicke’s area in language comprehension and the therapeutic effect that cathodal tDCS has on aphasia patients with subacute stroke, suggesting that tDCS may be an adjuvant treatment approach for aphasia rehabilitation therapy in patients in an early stage of stroke.     

驳《告别中医中药》

张功耀<告别中医中药>,在<医学与哲学>2006年第4期刊出前后,许多网站以"废除中医中药"为主题词,大肆传播,已是满城风雨.     

Too powerless to speak up: Effects of social rejection on sense of power and employee voice

Enabling and amplifying the voice of employees creates opportunities for organizational improvement. Prior research has shown that employees' sense of power has impact on their voice behavior. As such, when would employees feel too powerless to speak up in the workplace? The current study investigates the indirect effect of social rejection (via sense of power) on employee voice. We use conservation of resources theory to explain this relationship. Experimental data from two studies demonstrate that participants reminded of social rejection (vs. acceptance) exhibit a lower sense of power. Specifically, we observe that social rejection diminishes a person's sense of power, and that social acceptance does not enhance this sense. That is, social rejection has an indirect effect on employee voice through sense of power. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings with regard to social rejection, sense of power, and workplace voice behavior.