Thinking styles,self‐esteem,and extracurricular experiences

This study had two objectives. The first was to examine the relationship between thinking styles and self‐esteem. The second objective was to investigate the relationship of the participants' extracurricular experiences to both thinking styles and self‐esteem. Seven‐hundred and ninety‐four university students from Hong Kong participated in the study. Participants responded to the Thinking Styles Inventory (Sternberg & Wagner, 1992) and the Self‐Esteem Inventory (Adult Form, Coopersmith, 1981) as well as to a questionnaire designed to elicit both personal and situational characteristics. It was found that thinking styles and self‐esteem are statistically related. Meanwhile, both thinking styles and self‐esteem are statistically related to the participants' extracurricular experiences. Implications of these findings for teachers are discussed.     

Unpacking Cultural Variations in Peak-Experiences: Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Early Childhood Recollection Between Hong Kong and Brazil

In this cross-cultural study, 115 Hong Kong Chinese and 117 Brazilian college students described a childhood peak-experience (occurring before the age of 14) and provided a self-rating on its enduring impact. Among various categories of peak-experiences, both Hong Kong Chinese and Brazilians reported interpersonal joy most frequently; the second most frequently reported category was external achievement for the Hong Kong sample and developmental landmark for the Brazilian sample. Compared with Brazilians’ narratives, those of Hong Kong Chinese were more social-focused, involving greater number of other people, but less specific. These characteristics of autobiographical memory, i.e., memory focus (self vs. social), memory specificity (specific vs. general), and the number of other people involved, significantly mediated the relation between culture and interpersonal joy. The present findings have extended research on peak-experiences to cross-cultural contexts and incorporated measures of autobiographical memory to unpack cultural variations in these two collectivist societies.     

Rowed to recovery: the use of phonological and orthographic information in reading Chinese and English

To examine how readers of Chinese and English take advantage of orthographic and phonological features in reading, the authors investigated the effects of spelling errors on reading text in Chinese and English using the error disruption paradigm of M. Daneman and E. Reingold (1993). Skilled readers in China and the United States read passages in their native language that contained occasional spelling errors. Results showed that under some circumstances very early phonological activation can be identified in English, but no evidence for early phonology was found in Chinese. In both languages, homophone errors showed a benefit in measures of later processing, suggesting that phonology helps readers recover from the disruptive effects of errors. These results suggest that skilled readers take advantage of the special features of particular orthographies but that these orthographic effects may be most pronounced in the early stages of lexical access.     

Knowledge and economic growth—creativity,learning and knowledge utilization

The purpose of this study is to discuss the dynamic interdependence of knowledge and economic growth. We show that the traditional economics, which treats knowledge as parameters and is mainly developed within linearized, stable and static frameworks can hardly explain the modern economic complexity. We argue that it is necessary to treat creativity, learning and knowledge utilization as endogenous dynamic processes of social and economic evolution. To handle with the complicated dynamic interdependence of wealth and knowledge accumulation, we need to apply genuine nonlinear dynamic theory. In particular, we discuss possible benefits of government's intervention in education and science to the society when the social and economic evolution is characterized of nonlinearity, instability and multi‐equilibria.     

Chaotic attractors in the therapeutic system 1

Because little research had been done on the presence and role of latent communication in the context of team‐conducted family therapy, the writers set out to monitor unconscious responses generated under these conditions. Specifically, they investigated an ongoing family treatment situation conducted according to the “reflecting team model.” One team of therapists handles the actual treatment session, while the other observes from behind a one‐way mirror. During the course of a session, the second team makes suggestions to the treatment team either by telephone or by calling the therapists out of the treatment room.

As the project developed, the writers found that the unconscious responses of both family and treatment teams indicated a process at work beyond the conscious intentions of the participants. That is, the therapeutic enterprise was functioning as a dynamical system, whose increasing complexity suggested a self organizing principle at work. This paper traces the development of the system's movement toward greater complexity, identifies the specific interventions that indicate this process, describes how all participants demonstrated a high degree of resonance and synchronization with this overarching‐self organizing pattern. This paper serves to alert therapists to the role of unconscious communication within the therapeutic system and postulates that the generation of form within psychotherapy follows many of the same self organizing processes found in other human and non human systems.     

Trait emotional intelligence profiles of students from different university faculties

This study investigated the trait emotional intelligence (trait EI or trait emotional self‐efficacy) profiles of 512 students from five university faculties: technical studies, natural sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. Using the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, it was hypothesised that (a) social sciences would score higher than technical studies in Emotionality, (b) arts would score higher than technical studies in Emotionality, (c) arts would score lower than technical studies in Self‐control, and (d) there would be an interaction between gender and faculty, whereby female students would score higher than male students within the social sciences only. Several other exploratory comparisons were also performed. Results supported hypotheses (a), (b), and (d), but not hypothesis (c), although the differences were in the predicted direction.     

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.