Dimensionality and correlates of problem solving: the use of the Problem Solving Inventory in the Chinese context.

The dimensional structure of the Problem Solving Inventory (PSI) was investigated using data collected from a sample of 499 Chinese university students in teacher training. While the original three-factor model provided poor fit to the data, the revised two-factor model provided more adequate fit but failed to consider a PSI construct tapped in the original PSI formulation. The newly constructed PSI scales based on the present data provided viable alternative scales reflecting constructs of self-efficacy, rational coping and dysfunctional coping. These newly developed problem-solving scales were predictive of indices of psychological adjustment in terms of depression, burnout, and perceived self-efficacy toward helping others. The use of the PSI in the Chinese context is discussed.     

Examining a Gender Stereotype: Menopausal Women1

Two studies evaluated whether there was a subtype of menopausal women and, if so, how it differed from the global gender stereotype. Study 1 had participants generate items associated with women going through menopause, midlife women, and midlife men. Results showed that there is a menopausal women stereotype, and it is mostly negative in content. Moreover, this stereotype differs from the perceptions of women in general. Study 2 examined the effects of the menopausal women stereotype by employing the illusory correlation paradigm (e.g., McConnell, Sherman, & Hamilton, 1994) and found that participants greatly overestimated the number of times that menopausal women and negative moods appeared together. This research highlights the importance of examining stereotype subtypes and subgroups     

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.     

Suicidal ideation,parenting style,and family climate among Hong Kong adolescents

The prevalence of suicidal ideation and its relations with perceived parenting treatment and family climate was examined in 120 Hong Kong students aged 15–19 years. Fifty‐two per cent of the participants reported suicide ideation. Suicide ideation was found to be significantly associated with perceived authoritarian parenting, low parental warmth, high maternal over‐control, negative child‐rearing practices, and a negative family climate. A positive family climate may act as a buffer against developing suicide ideation in adolescents.     

Examination of individual differences in participation in outplacement program activities after a job loss

This study investigated the relationship among age, gender, and race relative to participation in self‐awareness, action‐oriented, and training activities after a job loss. The 156 respondents in this study were part of a larger, longitudinal study that collected data using questionnaires from outplacement program participants at 6 months and at 1 year following a company closing. Main effects were found for gender and for Age × Employment status. Implications of the study for outplacement programs, along with study limitations and future research directions, are discussed.     

Personal Responsibility for Tornado Preparedness: Commitment or Choice?1

A review of the literature reveals that personal responsibility assumed for one's behavior clearly affects behavioral outcomes for a variety of situations, and that personal responsibility is in turn affected by a wide variety of variables. However, limited research has been conducted to determine exactly what personal responsibility fundamentally entails. While duty, moral obligation, choice, and commitment have been suggested as being integral to the concept of responsibility, few investigations have systematically varied more than one of these variables in a single experiment. The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of both choice and commitment on personal responsibility assumed for and behavioral intentions to engage in tornado preparedness. Results indicate that both choice and commitment were required to generate personal responsibility for and subsequent intentions to engage in tornado preparedness. Implications of these results are discussed.     

Reduced right hemisphere activation in severely abused violent offenders during a working memory task: An fMRI study

This study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to address two important gaps in our knowledge of brain functioning and violence: (1) What are the brain correlates of adults in the community who have suffered severe physical abuse early in life and who go on to perpetrate serious violence in adulthood? (2) What characterizes those who experience severe physical abuse but who refrain from serious violence? Four groups of participants recruited from the community (controls, severe physical child abuse only, serious violence only, and severely abused, seriously violent offenders) underwent fMRI while performing a visual/verbal working memory task. Violent offenders who had suffered severe child abuse show reduced right hemisphere functioning, particularly in the right temporal cortex. Abused individuals who refrain from serious violence showed relatively lower left, but higher right, activation of the superior temporal gyrus. Abused individuals, irrespective of violence status, showed reduced cortical activation during the working memory task, especially in the left hemisphere. Brain deficits were independent of IQ, history of head injury, task performance, cognitive strategy, and mental activity during the control task. Findings constitute the first fMRI study of brain dysfunction in violent offenders, and indicate that initial right hemisphere dysfunction, when combined with the effects of severe early physical abuse, predisposes to serious violence but that relatively good right hemisphere functioning protects against violence in physically abused children. Aggr. Behav. 27:111–129, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The functions of freezing in the social interactions of juvenile high‐ and low‐aggressive mice

Selectively bred low‐aggressive mice are frequently observed to freeze on social contact, despite the fact that this behavior was never a direct target of selection. To elucidate this finding, the present research aimed to identify the possible functions freezing may serve in social interactions. It was hypothesized that freezing may modify social interactions through self‐regulatory mechanisms and/or via its modulating effects on the actions of social partners. These hypotheses were evaluated with respect to the sequential changes observed over the course of a 10‐min dyadic test in freezing, social reactivity, and approaches among juvenile (24–30‐day‐old) mice from the NC900 and NC100 high‐ and low‐aggressive lines. Analyses of the patterns of social interactions between subjects and partners revealed two primary results. First, freezing was more than an expression of fear; it also functioned as a regulator of emotional arousal, as suggested by the substantial reduction of reactive behaviors seen in animals that showed high levels of freezing. Second, freezing functioned to facilitate high levels of affiliative social interaction with social partners. The implications of these results for understanding how the differentiation of the NC900 and NC100 occurred within microevolution and development are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 27:463–475, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.