Perceived emotional intelligence and self-efficacy among Chinese secondary school teachers in Hong Kong

One hundred and fifty-eight secondary school teachers were assessed on their perceived emotional intelligence (Schutte et al., 1998) and general self-efficacy and self-efficacy toward helping others ( Schwarzer, 1993). An item factor analysis yielded four dimensions of perceived emotional intelligence, leading to the construction of four corresponding empirical scales. Teachers scored most highly on positive utilisation and emotional appraisal, followed by empathic sensitivity and positive regulation. Using the four components of perceived emotional intelligence as predictors of self-efficacy beliefs, positive regulation emerged as the significant predictor in predicting general self-efficacy whereas empathic sensitivity emerged as the significant predictor in predicting self-efficacy toward helping others. Implications of the findings for exploring the relationships between various components of perceived emotional intelligence and various specific self-efficacy beliefs for different groups of teachers and the need for further studies using longitudinal data are discussed.     

Exploring self‐esteem of Hong Kong Chinese adults cardiac diseases

Low self‐esteem appears to be both a vulnerability factor for cardiac diseases and a result of cardiac diseases. Thus enhancing self‐esteem might facilitate recovery and/or help to prevent recurrence. Since some evidence suggests that self‐esteem might even serve as an important gauge of cardiac rehabilitation, it is therefore important to know more of the construct of self‐esteem to enable the planning of a more promising rehabilitation process. This paper explores the source and basis of the self‐esteem of Hong Kong Chinese with cardiac diseases. One hundred and fifty‐two adults with cardiac diseases and 146 adults not suffering from any major illness participated in this study. The Adult Source of Self‐Esteem Inventory (ASSEI) (Elovson & Fleming, 1989), open‐ended questions on self‐evaluation, and interviewing were the major procedures used to identify the sources and basis of the self‐esteem of persons with and without cardiac diseases. The subjects' important life aspects were identified through interpreting their responses to open‐ended questions and interviews. Moreover, a structured questionnaire on their subjective perceptions of importance and satisfaction in different life areas was used to identify the relationships between discrete self‐concept variables. Factor analysis of their responses to the 20 ASSEI items revealed four factors, namely, Interpersonal Relationship, Personal Quality, Physical Self, and Personal Achievement. We also examined and compared the means and ranks of the ASSEI items as indicated by the subjects. Content analysis of open‐ended questions further confirmed the self‐esteem domains of persons with cardiac diseases. The discrepancy of ideal‐actual physical abilities was found to be more prominent in the cardiac group. It was also found that family is an important entity to Chinese individuals with cardiac diseases. Implications of the findings to rehabilitation of persons with cardiac diseases were also discussed.     

Sex Differences in Effectiveness of Extended-Release Stimulant Medication among Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

This study examined whether adolescent females with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are differentially responsive than their male counterparts to extended-release stimulant medications. This investigation may bear special importance for an adolescent (as opposed to child) population, because hormonal and metabolism differences between sexes are most likely to emerge at this time. Male (n = 19) and female (n = 16) adolescents, ages 16–19 with ADHD, participated in a randomized, double-blind crossover study evaluating the effectiveness of osmotic-release methylphenidate, extended release amphetamine salts, placebo, and routine limited medication regimen. Medication efficacy was evaluated using ADHD symptom ratings from adolescent self-report and parent report, along with objective measures of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity during driving performance and neuropsychological tasks. Males and females were largely equivalent in impairment, and medication was similarly effective in reducing symptoms. No interactions were found between sex and medication on any measure of effectiveness or side effects. This finding suggests that the efficacy and tolerability of extended-release stimulant medications is equivalent for male and female adolescents with ADHD.     

Precise instructions determine participants’ memory search strategy in judgments of relative order in short lists

Memory often requires knowledge of the order of events. Previous findings about immediate judgments of relative order in short, subspan lists are variable regarding whether participants’ strategy is to search memory in the forward direction, starting from the first list item and progressing toward the end item, or in the backward direction, starting from the end item and progressing toward the start. We asked whether wording of the instructions influences participants’ search direction. Participants studied sequences of three to six consonants, and for an immediate, two-item probe of each list, judged which probe was presented earlier (“earlier” instruction) or later (“later” instruction) on the list. Forward and backward searches were supported for “earlier” and “later” instructions, respectively. Our findings suggest that participants have more than one effective strategy for order judgments in short lists, and that subtle instructional differences can bias memory search in either the forward or backward direction.     

Human Nature and Moral Cultivation in the Guodian 郭店 Text of the Xing Zi Ming Chu 性自命出 (Nature Derives from Mandate)

The debate over whether human nature is good or bad and how this is related to self-cultivation was central in the minds of traditional Chinese thinkers. This essay analyzes the interrelationship between the key concepts of xing 性 (human nature), qing 情 (human emotions/feelings), and xin 心 (heart-mind) in the Guodian text of the Xing Zi Ming Chu 性自命出 (Nature Derives from Mandate) discovered in 1993 in Hubei province. The intellectual engagements evident in this Guodian text emerge as more syncretic and dynamic than those that can be found in the discourse of any single tradition, such as Gaozi, Mencius, or Xunzi. Its thesis on human nature and moral cultivation reveals the existence of a possibly more diverse intellectual discourse from which the different foci of philosophical debate represented by later thinkers developed.     

Non‐linear structural equation models with correlated continuous and discrete data

Structural equation models (SEMs) have been widely applied to examine interrelationships among latent and observed variables in social and psychological research. Motivated by the fact that correlated discrete variables are frequently encountered in practical applications, a non‐linear SEM that accommodates covariates, and mixed continuous, ordered, and unordered categorical variables is proposed. Maximum likelihood methods for estimation and model comparison are discussed. One real‐life data set about cardiovascular disease is used to illustrate the methodologies.     

Preschoolers’ nonsymbolic arithmetic with large sets: Is addition more accurate than subtraction?

Adult and developing humans share with other animals analog magnitude representations of number that support nonsymbolic arithmetic with large sets. This experiment tested the hypothesis that such representations may be more accurate for addition than for subtraction in children as young as 3½ years of age. In these tasks, the experimenter hid two equal sets of cookies, visibly added to or subtracted from the sets, and then asked 3½-year-olds which set had more cookies. Initial set size was either large (7 or 9) or very large (18 or 30), and the final sets differed by either a high proportion (ratio of 1:2) or a low proportion (difference of 1 cookie). Children’s addition performance exceeded chance, as well as their subtraction performance, across set sizes and proportions, whereas subtraction performance did not exceed chance. Arithmetic performance was also independent of counting ability. Addition performance was remarkably accurate when ratios between outcomes were close to 1, in contrast to previous findings. Interpretations for the asymmetry between addition and subtraction are discussed with respect to the nature of representations for nonsymbolic arithmetic with large sets.     

The coordination of compensatory tracking and anticipatory timing tasks

Two experiments investigated the presence of a coordination factor in a task consisting of compensatory tracking and anticipatory timing components. The task (Intercept task) resembles a computer game in which a rocket must be aimed and fired to shoot an incoming missile. The studies were designed to determine if a coordinating ability exists above and beyond the abilities needed to perform the component tasks alone. We also investigated the nature of coordination abilities through correlations with other types of coordination tasks and measures of intelligence. Is coordination a general cognitive ability that contributes to performance in a wide range of coordination tasks, or is coordination ability task specific? Multiple regression analyses indicated the existence of a coordination ability in the Intercept task. This coordination ability, however, was shown to be unrelated to the coordination of visual and linguistic processing and to psychometric measures of intelligence as assessed by the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). Coordination of visual and linguistic processing correlated with a component of the ASVAB measuring perceptual speed. We conclude that, although the ability to integrate separate components of a complex task draws on a coordination ability, this ability is domain specific and thus varies depending on the nature of the component tasks.     

Sensitivity to event timing in regular and irregular sequences: Influences of musical skill

In two experiments, the performance of listeners with different amounts of musical training (high skill, low skill) was examined in a two-alternative forced choice time-detection task involving simple five-cycle acoustic sequences. In each of a series of trials, all listeners determined which of two pattern cycles contained a small time change. Sequence context was also varied (regular vs. irregular timing). In Experiment 1, in which context was manipulated as a between-subjects variable, high-skill listeners performed significantly better than low-skill listeners only with regular patterns. In Experiment 2, in which context was manipulated as a within-subjects variable, the only significant source of variance was pattern context: All listeners were better at detecting time changes in regular than in irregular patterns. The results are considered in light of several hypotheses, including the expectancy/contrast model (Jones & Boltz, 1989).