Obstacles to Widening Biosample Research

Science and Engineering Ethics - Switzerland has an excellent culture of medical research and is a melting pot for medical experts with international expertise. Nevertheless, as in other countries,...     

基于助推的环保行为干预策略

近年来, “助推”被越来越多地用于气候变化与生态环境治理实践, 成为促进人们环保行为的有效策略。但目前国内基于助推思想的环保行为干预研究和实践探索都还很缺乏。环保行为需要助推的根本原因在于人们在环保领域的决策存在认知局限和动机不足。相应的, 在认知和动机两大视角下主要有7种环保行为助推策略。认知视角的助推策略包括默认选项、框架效应和示范性规范, 动机视角的助推策略旨在激发家国动机、遗产动机、获益动机和自主动机以促进人们的环保行为。助推环保行为在实践中也存在争议, 实践工作者需明确助推环保行为的外部环境与传统社会治理思路的关系, 并掌握选择架构设计的技术要点。     

组织认同对员工创新行为的促进和抑制过程

企业稳定发展的关键之一是员工对组织的高认同感。员工创新是企业创新发展的基石。然而关于组织认同对创新行为影响的研究发现并不一致。规范冲突模型为深入理解二者之间的关系提供了理论视角。根据此模型, 员工组织认同通过不满现状和遵守现状两个相反的路径对创新行为产生促进和抑制的双重影响; 员工规范冲突感知是引发不满现状和遵守现状产生的重要条件; 领导创新期待与创新支持在组织认同对员工创新行为的促进和抑制过程中起到调节作用。     

Gender‐specific factors associated with the suicidal ideation of children in Taiwan: A large‐scale cross‐sectional study

We examined the relationship between suicidal ideation (SI) and the depressed mood, life stress and parenting styles in children. A large‐scale survey was conducted including 5328 children from 65 elementary schools in Taiwan. SI was measured by asking children if any suicidal thoughts had occurred in the previous month. A series of regression models was analysed separately for male and female students. Compared with boys, girls demonstrated a higher proportion of SI. Among boys, SI was significantly associated with a high level of perceived environmental stress (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 2.61), a high degree of depressed mood (aOR = 2.39), authoritative (aOR = 1.72) and authoritarian (aOR = 2.53) parenting styles and two or more life‐stress events (aOR = 1.45). A high level of perceived environmental stress (aOR = 2.09), a high degree of depressed mood (aOR = 2.89) and an authoritarian parenting style (aOR = 1.76) were significantly associated with the SI in girls. Gender‐specific interventions aimed at preventing SI must enhance support systems at school and at home, particularly for students who suffer from a high degree of stress and depressed mood, and are subjected to an authoritarian parenting style.     

Fatigue biases the decoy effect in males but not females

Individuals often need to make critical decisions even when they are in a fatigued state. Mental fatigue may lead to increased susceptibility to distraction and poor information processing but it is unclear exactly how fatigue shapes individuals' decision‐making. We studied how mental fatigue influences sensitivity to contextual information, indexed as decoy bias. Mental fatigue was induced using a multi‐source interference task, and decoy bias was assessed using a gambling task, in 124 young adults. Results showed that mental fatigue increased decoy bias through enhanced perceptual salience of contextual cues, but only in males. The findings provide insight into a gender‐specific relationship between fatigue and poor judgments. This study extends the current literature on links between fatigue and poor decision‐making by documenting a possible mechanism of the association. The results may have practical implications for designing optimal working hours and safeguarding people from suboptimal decisions.     

The Garden of the Heart and Soul: the image,the way,and the meaning

This paper begins with an explanation of the four Chinese characters that represent the project of the Garden of the Heart and Soul. This project was founded to help the psychological development of orphans, as well as to provide psychological relief for the victims of ecological disasters such as earthquakes through the use of Jungian psychology, sandplay therapy, and the psychology of the Heart. Eleven years after its founding, there are 83 work‐stations on mainland China. The authors discuss how the Chinese characters influenced the way they set up their project and the values that guide them. In addition to helping the individuation of the people they work with, their work provides a container for the collective psyche and a connection with the cultural archetypal roots.     

The Facilitative Effects of Ambiguous Figures on Creative Solution

Empirical studies of creativity emphasize the importance of ambiguity advantage in idea generation and creative problem‐solving. This study examined whether ambiguous figures could directly induce a mind‐set that would transfer to the creative problem‐solving. In Experiment 1, we examined whether presentation of ambiguous figures would influence participants' performance in alternative uses tasks, and the results showed that prior exposure to ambiguous figures significantly enhanced participants' performance in the dimension of fluency, flexibility, and originality than those exposed to non‐ambiguous figures; in general uses tasks, there were no significant difference in the reaction time and originality between the ambiguous figure condition and non‐ambiguous figure condition. In Experiment 2, the facilitative effect of ambiguous figures on creative thinking was further examined with creative story generation tasks that demand more mental effort and increased cognitive load. Results showed that creativity of stories generated in ambiguous figure condition was scored significantly higher than those in non‐ambiguous figure condition. The current research extends our understanding of the facilitative effect of ambiguous figures on creative problem‐solving.     

Parent Education for Migrant Mothers of Left‐Behind Children in China: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Although numerous studies have indicated the significance of parental support and parent–child communication in alleviating the adverse effects of parental departure on left‐behind children, researchers have rarely addressed the impact of parent education on migrant parents. On the basis of the results of a pilot randomized controlled trial, the study reported here involved examining the possible outcomes and feasibility of a parent education program for rural‐to‐urban migrant mothers of left‐behind children in China. Informed by an existential–narrative approach to parent education, the program was composed of six 2.5‐hour sessions. The sample included 56 migrant mothers recruited from a social service center in Shenzhen, China, who were randomly assigned to either the immediate group (n = 28, M = 34.82 years, SD = 4.12, aged 23–43) or the waitlist control group (n = 28, M = 34.68 years, SD = 4.53, aged 28–43). The hypotheses of the trial were twofold: that the program would positively affect participants’ parental identity and that it would improve mother–child relationships and parenting practices. The results revealed no significant difference in parental identity between the intervention group and the waitlist control group at the post‐test assessment after ruling out the effects of pretest survey scores. However, significant differences did emerge in parent–child relationships and parenting practices. Overall, the results corroborate the feasibility of examining the current program for migrant mothers in China in a full trial. The findings also offer insights into developing empirically supported parent education programs for migrant parents.     

Unwilling but not unable to control: Ego depletion increases effortful dishonesty with material rewards

Previous studies have found that ego depletion increases dishonesty. However, it remains unclear whether ego depletion makes participants unable to exert self‐control or unwilling to exert self‐control when it increases dishonesty. The present study aimed to clarify this. Based on the process model, ego depletion causes individuals to pay more attention to material rewards and increases the motivation to act on impulse. Therefore, it is possible that ego‐depleted participants are unwilling, rather than unable, to be honest. We conducted two experiments to examine this hypothesis. Results showed that ego depletion increased material‐based dishonesty even when the dishonest behavior was more complicated and effortful than was the honest behavior. However, participants were reluctant to cheat just for convenience, and ego depletion had no apparent effect on convenience‐based dishonesty without any material rewards. The theoretical implications and future directions of these results are discussed.