The beliefs that underlie autonomy-supportive and controlling teaching: A multinational investigation

We investigated the role of three beliefs in predicting teachers’ motivating style toward students—namely, how effective, how normative, and how easy-to-implement autonomy-supportive and controlling teaching were each believed to be. We further examined national collectivism–individualism as a predictor of individual teachers’ motivating style and beliefs about motivating style, as we expected that a collectivistic perspective would tend teachers toward the controlling style and toward positive beliefs about that style. Participants were 815 full-time PreK-12 public school teachers from eight different nations that varied in collectivism–individualism. All three teacher beliefs explained independent and substantial variance in teachers’ self-described motivating styles. Believed effectiveness was a particularly strong predictor of self-described motivating style. Collectivism–individualism predicted which teachers were most likely to self-describe a controlling motivating style, and a mediation analysis showed that teachers in collectivistic nations self-described a controlling style because they believed it to be culturally normative classroom practice. These findings enhance the literature on the antecedents of teachers’ motivating styles by showing that teacher beliefs strongly predict motivating style, and that culture informs one of these beliefs—namely, normalcy.     

Family Functioning and Social Support in Men and Women Diagnosed with Depression in China

Previous research has demonstrated the association between family functioning and depression. This study evaluated family functioning and perceived social support in men and women in Shanghai who had received a diagnosis of a major depressive disorder (N = 100), including sixty-six women and thirty-four men. The relationship between family functioning and social support of outpatients with major depressive disorders was explored using the Chinese Family Assessment Device and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. The scores from all dimensions of family functioning for both men and women indicated that depressed men and women all reported experiencing unhealthy family functioning. The clinical implications of these findings for the developing practice of family therapy in China are discussed.     

A robust vision-based method for staircase detection and localization

A robust vision-based staircase identification method is proposed, which comprises 2D staircase detection and 3D staircase localization. The 2D detector pre-screens the input image, and the 3D localization algorithm continues the task of retrieving geometry of the staircase on the reported region in the image. A novel set of principal component analysis-based Haar-like features are introduced, which extends the classical Haar-like features from local to global domain and are extremely efficient at rejecting non-object regions for the early stages of the cascade, and the Viola–Jones rapid object detection framework is improved to adapt the context of staircase detection, modifications have been made on the scanning scheme, multiple detections integrating scheme and the final detection evaluation metrics. The V-disparity concept is applied to detect the planar regions on the staircase surface and locate 3D planes quickly from disparity maps, and then, the 3D position of staircase is localized robustly. Finally, experiments show the performance of the proposed method.     

Effects of stimulation by three-dimensional natural images on prefrontal cortex and autonomic nerve activity: a comparison with stimulation using two-dimensional images

Empirical evidence suggests that three-dimensional (3D) images of nature promote physiological relaxation in humans by providing more realistic effects compared with two-dimensional (2D) images. However, no studies have evaluated the physiological relaxation effects of nature-derived 3D images on prefrontal cortex and autonomic nerve activity. The present study aimed to clarify the physiological relaxation effects of visual stimulation by 3D flower images on prefrontal cortex and autonomic nerve activity. Nineteen male university students (22.2 ± 0.6 years) were presented with 3D and 2D images of the water lily for 90 s. Prefrontal cortex activity was measured using near-infrared spectroscopy, while autonomic nerve activity was measured using heart rate variability (HRV). Psychological effects were determined using a modified semantic differential method (SD). Compared with visual stimulation by 2D images, that by 3D images resulted in a significant decrease in oxyhemoglobin concentration in the right prefrontal cortex, lower sympathetic activity as calculated by the ratio of the low-frequency to high-frequency HRV component, and a significantly greater realistic feeling as evidenced by higher SD ratings. In conclusion, visual stimulation by realistic 3D floral images promotes physiological relaxation more effectively than the corresponding 2D image.     

Type D personality,but not Type A behavior pattern,is associated with coronary plaque vulnerability

Personality traits are associated with major adverse coronary events (MACE) in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). However, the link between personality traits and intravascular morphology in CAD patients is poorly understood. This study investigated the relationship between personality traits, specifically Type A behavior pattern and Type D personality, and plaque vulnerability. After adjustment for demographic and clinical factors, multivariable regression analysis showed no association between Type A and optical coherence tomography indices. However, Type D personality was independently associated with lipid plaque, thin cap fibroatheroma (TCFA), and fibrous cap thickness. More specifically, negative affectivity of Type D was related to lipid plaque, TCFA and fibrous cap thickness, and social inhibition was associated with plaque rupture. Our results show that Type D personality was associated with plaque vulnerability, independent of clinical factors. Measurement of negative affectivity and social inhibition will increase our understanding of the progressive phase of the plaque vulnerability, which can contribute to the early identification of high risk patients and reduce the incidence of MACE.     

U.K. consumers' perceived risk of buying products from emerging economies: A moderated mediation model

Although considerable research has been conducted on consumer attitude towards foreign products, most of these studies focus on the attitude of products from Western developed countries. Our study intends to investigate the effects of consumers' national identification and culture sensitivity on their perceived risk of buying products from Eastern developing countries. Especially, this study advances the literature by identifying the mediation effect of consumer ethnocentrism and the moderating effect of consumer value consciousness. Taking China and India as focal emerging economies, the consumer survey (n = 308) in the United Kingdom produced the following results. First, U.K. consumers' national identification is positively related to their perceived risk of buying Eastern products through consumer ethnocentrism, whereas their cultural sensitivity has a negative relationship. Second, the effect of consumer ethnocentrism on the perceived risk of buying Eastern products is moderated by consumer value consciousness. Third, value consciousness also attenuates the indirect relationships between national identification or cultural sensitivity and perceived risk via consumer ethnocentrism.     

The effect of relational benefits in loyalty programmes: Evidence from Chinese milk formula customer clubs

Although the value of relational benefits has been recognised in customer relationship management, the impact of these benefits on loyalty behaviours is yet to be investigated in the context of loyalty clubs. Little is known why some loyalty programmes outperform others. By using both qualitative and quantitative research approaches, this research developed and estimated a conceptual model that describes the interaction of key relational benefits and their contributions to customer loyalty in a set of milk formula customer clubs in China. Data were collected from 300 Chinese infant milk formula buyers, including both customer club members and nonmembers. This study confirms that the customer‐confidence benefits and identity‐related benefits precede other loyalty rewards and strengthen other loyalty incentives in a loyalty programme. The economic benefits and information‐sharing benefits play a mediating role and contribute directly to customer loyalty. The findings of this research help better understand the mechanism behind loyalty behaviours in customer clubs.     

Theory‐of‐Mind development and early sibling relationships after the birth of a sibling: Parental discipline matters

This study investigated relations among children's Theory‐of‐Mind (ToM) development, early sibling interactions, and parental discipline strategies during the transition to siblinghood. Using a sample of firstborn children and their parents (N = 208), we assessed children's ToM before the birth of a sibling and 12 months after the birth, and sibling interactions (i.e., positive engagement and antagonism) and parental discipline strategies (i.e., child‐centred and parent‐centred discipline) at 4 and 8 months in the first year of siblinghood. Structural equation modelling analyses revealed that children's ToM before the birth of the sibling predicted children's positive engagement with the infant sibling, whereas children's antagonistic behaviours towards the infant sibling negatively predicted children's ToM at 12 months, but only when mothers used low levels of child‐centred discipline. These findings emphasize the role of parents in the development of young children's social‐cognitive understanding in the context of early sibling interactions.

Highlights

• This study investigated relations among firstborns' Theory‐of‐Mind (ToM), early sibling relationships, and parental discipline during the first year of siblinghood.
• Multigroup analyses showed that ToM predicted higher sibling positive engagement, and early sibling antagonism predicted poorer ToM when mothers used low child‐centred discipline.
• Parental discipline plays an important role in the development of young children's social understanding and sibling relationships as early as the first year of siblinghood.

     

An Evaluation of the Word Triad Method for Monitoring Spelling Progress

Although spelling skill progress has typically been studied within the context of students' responses to written story starters (Deno, Marsten, & Mirkin, 1982; Fuchs & Fuchs, 2011; Hosp, Hosp, & Howell, 2007; Shinn & Shinn, 2002), there has been little research conducted within a curriculum-based measurement framework that has studied spelling progress monitoring on a weekly basis throughout an entire school year. The authors evaluated spelling progress using word triads, defined as a group of 3 words (with the same number of letters) that have a similar phonetic or morphological structure. Successful spelling of word triads as the unit of analysis has the potential to be more useful diagnostically to teachers than successful spelling of single words as the unit of analysis. An alternating series of three 15-word spelling tests were administered weekly to 10 third- and fourth-grade classrooms in the same school district throughout the school year for 8 rounds (1 round = 3 weeks of different but phonetically and/or morphologically similar word lists). Results indicate steady progress throughout the school year in the correct spelling of word triads (despite teacher reporting of no explicit spelling instruction in classrooms using in the words employed in the study). Correlations between the number of correctly spelled word triads with standard scores from a group-administered communication arts test were significant and comparable to alternate spelling test scoring methods. The authors conclude with limitations of the study and implications for practitioners.