Psychopathic personality as a distinctive indicator of severity and persistence for child and youth conduct problems

Conduct problems are among the most discussed behavioral problems during childhood and adolescence. Given their heterogeneity, in recent years, researchers on this topic have called for delineation of early-onset conduct problems on the basis of affective, interpersonal and behavioral traits that resemble adult psychopathy. The present study aims to analyze, from both a cross-sectional and longitudinal perspective, whether early psychopathic traits allow identification of a group of individuals defined by severe and persistent behavioral problems. To achieve this goal, data from a sample of 192 children (aged 6 to 11) were analyzed; from this sample, 133 children were followed-up in a new data collection that took place three years later. From the data obtained with the mCPS and CBCL (parents), and APSD and TRF (teachers), we observed that children who showed early psychopathic traits, also showed greater frequency, severity and persistence of conduct problems. These results suggest the need to take into account the role of psychopathic traits (particularly, affective and interpersonal) as risk factors to delimit the most serious and persistent patterns of externalizing behavior.     

The Development and Validation of a Family Wellbeing Index for Hong Kong Chinese Families

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Family wellbeing is studied worldwide. However, there is a dearth of studies on the wellbeing of families in Chinese societies such as Hong Kong, nor is there...     

I Surrender All: Subverting the Cruelty of Capitalist Optimism with Affective Expressions of Worship

This paper explores the experience of an affectively charged healing worship service comprised of mostly working-class parishioners. It suggests that they seek healing from a feeling of being worn out by the precarity of daily life and by their efforts to reach the “American dream.” The ensuing discussion is framed by Lauren Berlant’s (2011) cruel optimism: we are attached to ideals that both define our identities as productive members of a capitalist society and at the same time necessitate our failures at reaching those ideals. The work of relational psychoanalyst Stephen Mitchell is utilized to describe how affective worship builds a co-created relational space of vulnerability and care that subverts this dominant ideal. The paper concludes with Emmanuel Ghent’s suggestion that religious surrender leads to an expansion of the self.     

Differences in Emotional Labor Across Cultures: A Comparison of Chinese and U.S. Service Workers

Purpose

In the global economy, the need for understanding cross-cultural differences and the customer service-related processes involved in emotional labor is evident. The current study attempts to examine this issue by developing and testing hypotheses pertaining to cross-cultural differences between U.S. and Chinese service workers on the levels of display rule perceptions, emotion regulation, and burnout (i.e., emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment, and depersonalization) as well as the relationships among these variables.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data was collected from service workers in the U.S. (n = 280) and China (n = 231). We tested for measurement differences, mean differences, and differences in the relationships among emotional labor variables between the two samples using a variety of analyses.

Findings

It was found that the relatively robust sequence of display rules to surface acting to burnout was observed in a U.S. sample but was not observed in a Chinese sample, with some relationships being significantly weaker in the Chinese sample (e.g., surface acting to burnout dimensions) and others exhibiting relationships with the opposite sign (e.g., display rules were negatively related to surface acting in the Chinese sample).

Implications

The results of this study suggest that many of the relationships among emotional labor variables vary as a function of the cultural context under consideration.

Originality/Value

This is the first study to directly compare emotional labor across samples from Eastern and Western cultures. Additionally, this study begins to answer questions concerning why models of emotional labor generated in a Western culture may not apply in other cultures.     

How Do Artificial Neural Networks Classify Musical Triads? A Case Study in Eluding Bonini's Paradox

How might artificial neural networks (ANNs) inform cognitive science? Often cognitive scientists use ANNs but do not examine their internal structures. In this paper, we use ANNs to explore how cognition might represent musical properties. We train ANNs to classify musical chords, and we interpret network structure to determine what representations ANNs discover and use. We find connection weights between input units and hidden units can be described using Fourier phase spaces, a representation studied in musical set theory. We find the total signal coming through these weighted connection weights is a measure of the similarity between two Fourier structures: the structure of the hidden unit's weights and the structure of the stimulus. This is surprising because neither of these Fourier structures is computed by the hidden unit. We then show how output units use such similarity measures to classify chords. However, we also find different types of units—units that use different activation functions—use this similarity measure very differently. This result, combined with other findings, indicates that while our networks are related to the Fourier analysis of musical sets, they do not perform Fourier analyses of the kind usually described in musical set theory. Our results show Fourier representations of music are not limited to musical set theory. Our results also suggest how cognitive psychologists might explore Fourier representations in musical cognition. Critically, such theoretical and empirical implications require researchers to understand how network structure converts stimuli into responses.     

Customer-Initiated Support and Employees’ Proactive Customer Service Performance: A Multilevel Examination of Proactive Motivation as the Mediator

Drawing on the proactive motivation model and theories of motivation, the current study examined customer-initiated support as an antecedent of employees’ proactive customer service performance (PCSP) and investigated the mediating role of proactive motivations and the moderating role of serving culture. We conducted two multilevel studies to test the proposed hypotheses. In study 1, we collected diary data from 158 nurses across 10 working days, and results showed that the relationship between nurses’ daily experience of customer-initiated support and their PCSP was mediated by self-efficacy, work meaning, and positive affect. In study 2, we collected multilevel multi-source data from 373 nurses nested within 80 units and found that nurses’ experience of customer-initiated support was positively related to their supervisor-rated PCSP via role-breadth self-efficacy and work meaning, but not through positive affect. Further, team-level serving culture strengthened the positive relationship between customer-initiated support and role-breadth self-efficacy. These findings shed light on understanding the effect of customer-initiated support as an external factor on prompting service employees’ proactive behaviors, potential motivational mediators to explain the underlying mechanisms, and potential boundary conditions inside of service organizations to strengthen the positive effects of customer-initiated support.     

睡眠不足对人际交互的影响及其认知神经机制

睡眠不足会对人的认知、情感和人际交互产生诸多影响。这种影响在社会情绪层面表现为个体情绪共情和认知共情的减少,易激惹性与愤怒情绪的增加;在社会行为层面则表现为亲社会行为的减少和攻击行为的增加。在睡眠不足状态下,情绪系统和认知系统功能连接的减弱可能是这些变化的潜在机制。未来应结合生态效度较高的睡眠操作手段,系统考察睡眠不足如何导致各种高级社会情绪的改变,以及这些社会情绪的变化如何导致社会行为的变化。     

自我损耗、情绪动机对冲动决策的影响

以大学生为被试,探讨自我损耗、情绪动机对冲动决策的影响。采用2×2×2的混合实验设计,组内变量为自我损耗,组间变量为情绪动机方向和强度,使用双任务范式操作自我损耗,使用情绪动机图片启动被试的情绪动机,使用延迟折扣任务的指标k值测量冲动决策。结果发现,高趋近动机的k值大于低趋近动机,高回避动机的k值大于低回避动机。结果表明,自我损耗、情绪动机对冲动决策有明显影响。