Inter- and intra-group variability in perceptions of behavior among Asian Americans and European Americans

Between-group and within-group differences in perceptions of behavior were examined among 74 Asian Americans and 111 European Americans. Participants rated videotaped interactions of Asian American mothers and daughters. Asian Americans, and a more homogeneous sample of Chinese Americans, perceived less maternal control and more reciprocity than did European Americans. Intra-cultural variations in perceptions were also evident, as within-group analyses revealed differences in perceptions based on the generational status of Asian Americans and the degree of multicultural experience of European Americans. Overall, findings suggest that perceptions of behavior are shaped as much by within-group differences in familiarity and experience with the target culture as by between-group differences in ethnicity. Implications for theories of child socialization, multicultural counseling, and observational research are discussed.     

Measurement of agency, communion, and emotional vulnerability with the Personal Attributes Questionnaire

Factor analytic studies of the 24-item Personal Attributes Questionnaire (Spence & Helmreich, 1978) have reported inconsistent results, and a previous confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated inadequate fit for factors corresponding to Masculinity, Femininity, and Masculinity-Femininity scales. In this research, we used CFA in a college sample (N = 382) to evaluate the 3-factor model, and we revised scales by eliminating 6 misspecified items. The revised model fit well in another college sample (N = 230). We renamed the revised scales Agency, Communion, and Emotional Vulnerability. In relation to Five-factor theory, Emotional Vulnerability and Communion correlated well with Neuroticism and Agreeableness, respectively, and Agency had moderate correlations with Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness. Psychometric results in the context of current theory suggest that Agency (Masculinity) may not be a fully adequate measure of the agency construct.     

Depression, anxiety, and resting frontal EEG asymmetry: a meta-analytic review

Emotion-related disturbances, such as depression and anxiety, have been linked to relative right-sided resting frontal electroencephalograph (EEG) asymmetry among adults and infants of afflicted mothers. However, a somewhat inconsistent pattern of findings has emerged. A meta-analysis was undertaken to (a) evaluate the magnitude of effects across EEG studies of resting frontal asymmetry and depression, anxiety, and comorbid depression and anxiety and (b) determine whether certain moderator variables could help reconcile inconsistent findings. Moderate effects of similar magnitude were obtained for the depression and anxiety studies, whereas a smaller effect emerged for comorbid studies. Three moderating variables predicted effect sizes: (a) Shorter EEG recording periods were associated with larger effects among adults, (b) different operationalizations of depression yielded effects of marginally different magnitudes, and (c) younger infant samples showed larger effects than older ones. The current data support a link between resting frontal EEG asymmetry and depression and anxiety and provide a partial account of inconsistent findings across studies.     

Stochastic approaches to understanding dissociations in inflectional morphology

Computer modelling research has undermined the view that double dissociations in behaviour are sufficient to infer separability in the cognitive mechanisms underlying those behaviours. However, all these models employ multi-modal representational schemes, where functional specialisation of processing emerges from the training process. Targeted lesioning of different regions of functional specialisation leads to varied but predictable deficits in model performance. We argue that multi-modal representational schemes are not a necessary condition for the observation of double dissociations in an information processing system that shares resources across multiple tasks. Using a uni-modal representational system, we demonstrate that double dissociations may also result from stochastic processes. Lesioning experiments on a single-route, uni-modal connectionist model of regular and irregular noun and verb morphology confirm and extend earlier work demonstrating that selective impairment across tasks can result from damage to a distributed information processing system. A systematic investigation of the degree to which performance deteriorates across different inflectional classes reveals that simple and double dissociations can occur in this single-route, uni-modal model. An important prediction of the model is that double dissociations between regular and irregular inflection, resulting from stochastic processes should be extremely rare. However, they are particularly likely to occur when the researcher uses test batteries consisting of a small number of items. Given that cognitive neuropsychologists rarely provide details about the distribution of performance in a disordered population, it is concluded that a stochastic interpretation of double dissociations may have wider applicability than is normally supposed.     

Confucius's Aesthetic Concept of Noble Man: Beyond Moralism

The prevailing interpretation of ren (humanness) in the Analects is ethical. One consequence of this interpretation is the one-dimensional image of the Confucian junzi (noble man) as a rigid moralist, a fastidious observer of li (ritual). But there are numerous passages in the Analects that resist such a one-sided representation of the junzi, especially Confucius's remarks related to the (Book of) Songs and music. My basic thesis is that Confucius's concept of junji is aesthetic. This is implied by his notion of junji ru (noble scholar) as opposed to xiaoren ru (common scholar). The noble man is one awakened to the beauty of humanness. It is because of this awareness that he ‘sets his mind on the Way, depends on virtue, relies on ren and enjoys the arts.’ Confucius included the Songs and music in his curriculum precisely for the purpose of cultivating in his pupils this aesthetic sensibility.     

Novel labels support 10-month-olds’ attention to novel objects

What is the source of the mutual exclusivity bias whereby infants map novel labels onto novel objects? In an intermodal preferential looking task, we found that novel labels support 10-month-olds’ attention to a novel object over a familiar object. In contrast, familiar labels and a neutral phrase gradually reduced attention to a novel object. Markman (1989, 1990) argued that infants must recall the name of a familiar object to exclude it as the referent of a novel label. We argue that 10-month-olds’ attention is guided by the novelty of objects and labels rather than knowledge of the names for familiar objects. Mutual exclusivity, as a language-specific bias, might emerge from a more general constraint on attention and learning.     

Approach/Positive Anticipation,Frustration/Anger,and Overt Aggression in Childhood

ABSTRACT We examined mothers' ratings of children's affective and behavioral aspects of approach tendencies and links with overt aggressive behavior problems while considering the genetic etiology of these processes. Approach/positive anticipation (AP), frustration/anger (FA), and overt aggression in 4–9‐year‐olds were assessed using mothers' reports in a diverse national sample (n=992) and a sample of same‐sex twins (n=195 pairs). AP and FA were positively correlated with each other and with overt aggression (r from .2 to .5), and these associations were very similar for boys and girls. AP and FA provided overlapping as well as independent statistical prediction of aggression. AP statistical prediction of aggression was substantially mediated by FA, an effect that was accounted for by underlying genetic and nonshared environmental influences.     

Relationship between a history of consistent maternal employment and depression in young adults

Research on the correlates of maternal employment has yielded inconsistent results. In this study, 79 male and 120 female undergraduates with mothers who had been employed from the students' infancy through their adolescence scored higher on the Beck Depression Inventory-II than those whose mothers had not been employed. This relationship between children's depressive symptoms and mothers' employment history was not evident among young adults whose mothers' employment was perceived to be financially unnecessary.     

Motivation for weight loss affects recall from autobiographical memory in dieters

Two studies examined the connection between motivation for weight loss and autobiographical memory by comparing characteristics of autobiographical memories between dieters and non-dieters. Study 1 involved 29 normal/overweight dieters and 48 non-dieters, and Study 2 involved 18 obese dieters and 18 normal weight non-dieters. Memories recalled in response to dieting-related cue words were rated as more central to the person's identity and life story and contained more body- or weight-related elements for the dieters than the non-dieters. No differences between dieters and non-dieters were found on memories recalled in response to neutral cue words. The findings are discussed in relation to the notions of the working self (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000) and current concerns (Klinger, 1978).