Responsibility Attribution For Violence Against Women: A Study Of Chinese Public Service Professionals

This study examined how Chinese public service professionals attributed responsibility to victims and perpetrators of violence against women (VAW). A total of 2,308 Chinese public service professionals in Hong Kong completed questionnaires on attitudes toward women, VAW–related perceptions, and assignment of responsibility to actors in written VAW vignettes. Compared to agency professionals consisting of medical doctors, lawyers, and police officers, communal professionals consisting of psychologists, social workers, and nurses attributed a higher level of responsibility to VAW victims and perpetrators. For both professional groups, attitudes toward women and educational attainment were the most salient predictors of responsibility attribution to VAW victims and perpetrators. Perceived VAW effects on victims were also a robust predictor of responsibility attribution to perpetrators. With regard to group differences, gender was predictive of responsibility attribution for communal but not for agency professionals. Except for perpetrator responsibility attribution for agency professionals, age was also predictive of how professionals assigned responsibility to VAW victims and perpetrators.     

如何理解智能光谱的沟通桥梁作用

首先分析了儿童学业成绩与智能发展的关系,接着援引美国的“光谱计划”（Project Spectrum),解释智能光谱（Multiple Intelligences Spectrum)评量跟传统学业成绩（academic achievement)评量有甚么不同之处,继而说明Gardner是如何理解智能光谱的沟通桥梁作用,最后探讨家校可以如何携手合作,利用智能光谱作为适性教育的工具。     

The information content of panoramic images I: The rotational errors and the similarity of views in rectangular experimental arenas

Animals relocating a target corner in a rectangular space often make rotational errors searching not only at the target corner but also at the diagonally opposite corner. The authors tested whether view-based navigation can explain rotational errors by recording panoramic snapshots at regularly spaced locations in a rectangular box. The authors calculated the global image difference between the image at each location and the image recorded at a target location in 1 of the corners, thus creating a 2-dimensional map of image differences. The authors found the most pronounced minima of image differences at the target corner and the diagonally opposite corner--conditions favoring rotational errors. The authors confirmed these results in virtual reality simulations and showed that the relative salience of different visual cues determines whether image differences are dominated by geometry or by features. The geometry of space is thus implicitly contained in panoramic images and does not require explicit computation by a dedicated module. A testable prediction is that animals making rotational errors in rectangular spaces are guided by remembered views.     

The Disenchantment of Nonsense: Understanding Wittgenstein's Tractatus

This paper aims to argue against the resolute reading, and offer a correct way of reading Wittgenstein's Tractatus. According to the resolute reading, nonsense can neither say nor show anything. The Tractatus does not advance any theory of meaning, nor does it adopt the notion of using signs in contravention of logical syntax. Its sentences, except a few constituting the frame, are all nonsensical. Its aim is merely to liberate nonsense utterers from nonsense. I argue that these points are either not distinctive from standard interpretations or incorrect. Instead, the Tractarian elucidations help to shed light on the nature of language and logic, and introduce the correct method in philosophy. Philosophy deals with philosophical utterances and Tractarian elucidations by pointing out that they are nonsensical. By doing this, one is helped to see that what they appear to be saying is shown by significant propositions saying something else.     

Family Strain and Adolescent Delinquency in Two Chinese Cities,Guangzhou and Hong Kong

Elucidating the conditions in which family strain takes effect in adolescent delinquency is one avenue along which to substantiate general strain theory. These conditions include family relationship and the type of delinquency. In the context of Chinese societies, the conditions also include the differences between socialist, collectivist Mainland China and capitalist, more individualist Hong Kong. We collected survey data from 1,026 secondary school students in Guangzhou in Mainland China, and from 1,116 in Hong Kong, to demonstrate these conditions. The results, which indicate the intimate relationship between parents and adolescents, verify that family strain has a very strong impact on adolescent delinquency. In this connection, family strain comprised parental support as a negative indicator. However, the effect of parental support on adolescent strain was only weakly negative in Guangzhou and even positive in the case of nonworking mothers. The differentials in parental influence between Guangzhou and Hong Kong are attributable to the different family policies and structures in the two cities. On the other hand, family strain exhibited similar effects on two types of delinquency, violence and status offense.     

Effective group work with delinquents in Hong Kong

The principle of matching services to needs suggests that group work would be most effective when it targets those most in need of the services--delinquents with low involvement with the family and high involvement with friends. Less time with the family indicates a greater need for conventional social control, while more time with friends may entail a greater need for learning social skills in order to resist delinquent peer influences. To address these needs, developmental group work is appropriate for delinquents identified by social workers. The effectiveness of services tend to be contingent upon the delinquents' relationship with family and friends. To test this hypothesis, the present study collected data from 190 delinquents in Hong Kong. It was found that developmental group activities were beneficial to delinquents who spent less time with family and/or more time with friends. For delinquents in general, developmental group activities were helpful in diminishing delinquency. Moreover, the help was significantly greater for delinquents who spent more time with friends.     

False belief and language comprehension in Cantonese-speaking children

The current research compared two accounts of the relation between language and false belief in children, namely that (a) language is generally related to false belief because both require secondary representation in a social-interactional context and that (b) specific language structures that explicitly code metarepresentation contribute uniquely to the language-false belief relation. In three studies, attempts were made to correlate Cantonese-speaking children's false belief with their general language comprehension and understanding of certain structures that explicitly express metarepresentational knowledge. Results showed that these structures failed to predict false belief after age, nonverbal intelligence, and general language comprehension were considered. In contrast, general language remained predictive of false belief after controlling for age, nonverbal intelligence, and language structures. The current findings are more consistent with a general language account than a language structure account.     

Test of the technology acceptance model for a Web-based information system in a Hong Kong Chinese sample

The modified technology acceptance model was used to predict actual Blackboard usage (a web-based information system) in a sample of 57 Hong Kong student teachers whose mean age was 27.8 yr. (SD = 6.9). While the general form of the model was supported, Application-specific Self-efficacy was a more powerful predictor of system use than Behavioural Intention as predicted by the theory of reasoned action. Thus in this cultural and educational context, it has been shown that the model does not fully mediate the effect of Self-efficacy on System Use. Also, users' Enjoyment exerted considerable influence on the component variables of Usefulness and Ease of Use and on Application-specific Self-efficacy, thus indirectly influencing system usage. Consequently, efforts to gain students' acceptance and, therefore, use of information systems such as Blackboard must pay adequate attention to users' Self-efficacy and motivational variables such as Enjoyment.     

Indigenous measures of personality assessment in Asian countries: a review

This article reviews attempts to develop multidimensional personality measures in Asia and their applications in clinical assessment. Indigenous personality assessment measures in India, Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and Taiwan are examined. These early attempts have not yielded a comprehensive personality measure that integrates a theoretical framework and an empirical program of validation. The Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI) is cited as an example to illustrate the process of developing an indigenous measure that meets the testing standards of established assessment instruments. On the basis of the research findings from the CPAI, the authors discuss the relevance of indigenous measures in clinical assessment in native cultures as well as in informing mainstream personality assessment.     

Recent development of cognitive and neuropsychological assessment in Asian countries

There is a growing trend of research in neuropsychological assessment in Asia: The mean number of published studies increased from 1.8 in the 1980s to 16.0 in 2 recent years. About 40% of the studies reviewed concerned test development or adaptation, with the latter greatly outnumbering the former. To facilitate the test selection for clinical use, 36 clinical measures were evaluated based on some statistical criteria. The results showed that only 8 neuropsychological tests (5 Chinese, 2 Korean, and 1 Japanese) met the criteria. Given that Asian and Western populations differ on certain cognitive processes, future development of neuropsychological assessment measures in Asia should move from the adaptation of Western tests toward the construction of original tests with better ecological validity.