Linking Adult Attachment Styles to Relationship Satisfaction in Hong Kong and the United States: The Mediating Role of Personal and Structural Commitment

Maintaining a satisfying heterosexual relationship is important to many individuals?? happiness and physical health. Evolutionary theories on the formation of relationships suggest that adult attachment and relationship commitment are universal mechanisms for securing and maintaining such mating relationships. This study sought to understand how these two mechanisms may link to each other and how they in turn contribute to relationship satisfaction with one??s current partner in Hong Kong Chinese and American cultures. Similarities in the model for relationship satisfaction were found among young dating couples in the United States and Hong Kong. Specifically, attachment anxiety was positively linked to structural commitment, whereas attachment avoidance was negatively related to personal commitment. Both dimensions of attachment (anxiety and avoidance) and both components of commitment (personal and structural) were found to predict current relationship satisfaction significantly and equivalently across cultures, with the pathway from attachment avoidance to current relationship satisfaction similarly mediated by personal commitment in both cultural groups. These results were interpreted in terms of a probable universal logic informing the interpersonal dynamics involving attachment and relationship commitment.     

The Modulation of Visual and Task Characteristics of a Writing System on Hemispheric Lateralization in Visual Word Recognition—A Computational Exploration

Through computational modeling, here we examine whether visual and task characteristics of writing systems alone can account for lateralization differences in visual word recognition between different languages without assuming influence from left hemisphere (LH) lateralized language processes. We apply a hemispheric processing model of face recognition to visual word recognition; the model implements a theory of hemispheric asymmetry in perception that posits low spatial frequency biases in the right hemisphere and high spatial frequency (HSF) biases in the LH. We show two factors that can influence lateralization: (a) Visual similarity among words: The more similar the words in the lexicon look visually, the more HSF/LH processing is required to distinguish them, and (b) Requirement to decompose words into graphemes for grapheme‐phoneme mapping: Alphabetic reading (involving grapheme‐phoneme conversion) requires more HSF/LH processing than logographic reading (no grapheme‐phoneme mapping). These factors may explain the difference in lateralization between English and Chinese orthographic processing.     

Relative Income and Marital Happiness Among Urban Chinese Women: The Moderating Role of Personal Commitment

Compared with the rich knowledge in the West, studies of the impact of wives’ relative income on marital quality during the fast socioeconomic change period in urban China have surprisingly fallen far behind. This study attempted to examine the impact of relative income on marital happiness among urban Chinese women. Using an urban Beijing sample of 763 married women, this study found that a woman married to a husband with lower income tended to be less happy with her marriage, but this effect will be countered if there is more love in the sense of a genuine concern about the well-being of the partner and a willing to make sacrifice for him. The results were interpreted from theoretical verification and possible mechanisms linking personal commitment and marital happiness.     

Constructing Confidence Intervals for Effect Size Measures of an Indirect Effect

Confidence intervals for an effect size can provide the information about the magnitude of an effect and its precision as well as the binary decision about the existence of an effect. In this study, the performances of five different methods for constructing confidence intervals for ratio effect size measures of an indirect effect were compared in terms of power, coverage rates, Type I error rates, and widths of confidence intervals. The five methods include the percentile bootstrap method, the bias-corrected and accelerated (BCa) bootstrap method, the delta method, the Fieller method, and the Monte Carlo method. The results were discussed with respect to the adequacy of the distributional assumptions and the nature of ratio quantity. The confidence intervals from the five methods showed similar results for samples of more than 500, whereas, for samples of less than 500, the confidence intervals were sufficiently narrow to convey the information about the population effect sizes only when the effect sizes of regression coefficients defining the indirect effect are large.     

The impact of adopting ethnic or civic conceptions of national belonging for others' treatment

National belonging is often defined in terms of "ethnic" ancestry and "civic" commitment (with the latter typically implying a more inclusive conception of belonging). The authors report three Scottish studies manipulating the prominence of these criteria. In Study 1 (N = 80), a Chinese-heritage target was judged more Scottish (and his criticisms of Scotland better received) when Scotland was defined in civic terms. In Study 2 (N = 40), a similar manipulation in a naturalistic setting showed a civic conception of belonging resulted in more help being given to a Chinese-heritage confederate. Study 3 (N = 71) replicated Study 2 and showed the effect was mediated by judgments of the confederate's Scottishness. These studies emphasize the importance of exploring how ingroup identity is defined.     

Who took the "x" out of expectancy-value theory? A psychological mystery, a substantive-methodological synergy, and a cross-national generalization

Expectancy-value theory (EVT) is a dominant theory of human motivation. Historically, the Expectancy × Value interaction, in which motivation is high only if both expectancy and value are high, was central to EVT. However, the Expectancy × Value interaction mysteriously disappeared from published research more than 25 years ago. Using large representative samples of 15-year-olds (N = 398,750) from 57 diverse countries, we attempted to solve this mystery by testing Expectancy × Value interactions using latent-variable models with interactions. Expectancy (science self-concept), value (enjoyment of science), and the Expectancy × Value interaction all had statistically significant positive effects on both engagement in science activities and intentions of pursuing scientific careers; these results were similar for the total sample and for nearly all of the 57 countries considered separately. This study, apparently the strongest cross-national test of EVT ever undertaken, supports the generalizability of EVT predictions--including the "lost" Expectancy × Value interaction.     

齐风和韵——谈《韶》乐及齐国宫廷乐舞的音乐特点

《韶》乐来源于帝的《九招》,经过不断的发展,齐《韶》成为春秋时期齐国音乐文化发展水平的杰出代表,孔子的"尽善尽美"更是对齐《韶》的高度赞誉。齐《韶》作为齐国宫廷乐舞的重要组成部分,其场面宏大、优美典雅、刚毅庄重、欢快愉悦、情深意切、感人至深和音乐跌宕起伏,也成为齐国宫廷乐舞的音乐特点。     

大学生人际关系困扰与依恋的自我-他人工作模型的关系

采用人际关系综合诊断量表、一般依恋问卷调查了725名大学生人际关系困扰的现状及其与依恋的自我-他人工作模型间的关系。结果发现:(1)大学生人际困扰的总体水平较低;(2)依恋的自我-他人工作模型与大学生人际困扰各维度及总均分间相关显著,自我工作模型与人际困扰的相关显著高于他人工作模型与人际困扰的相关;(3)依恋的自我工作模型能显著预测人际困扰的各维度及总均分,他人工作模型则仅能预测交谈交流困扰。结论:依恋的自我-他人工作模型与大学生人际困扰间存在显著相关,依恋的自我工作模型可显著预测大学生人际困扰。     

Cultural difference in maladaptive functions of perfectionistic self‐presentation

Perfectionistic self‐presentation (PSP), which describes an expressive aspect of perfectionism in the interpersonal domain, is a defensive form of perfectionism that has been relatively understudied. Although existing evidence obtained from Western societies has consistently shown maladaptive functions of PSP, the question of whether these patterns are universal remains unanswered. The current research explored the potential moderating effect of culture by evaluating whether the negative influence of PSP is weaker in Asian societies that encourage the use of defensive interpersonal strategies than in Western societies. Two studies recruiting Chinese and North American participants were conducted. In Study 1 (n = 302), the results showed that the relation between PSP and personal mastery was positive among Chinese participants and was negative among North American participants. In contrast, a positive relation between PSP and perceived constraints was observed in both cultures. Study 2 (n = 295) replicated the findings obtained in Study 1. In addition, the findings showed that the relation between PSP and self‐esteem, but not that between PSP and depression, was moderated by participants’ cultural backgrounds. Taken together, these results indicate both universal and culturally specific patterns regarding the influence of PSP, suggesting that PSP is a complex construct.     

阻断内侧前额叶皮质TrkB受体对大鼠认知和海马BDNF表达的影响

脑源性神经营养因子(brain-derived neurotrophic factor, BDNF)广泛参与了个体学习和记忆等认知功能, 通过与其酪氨酸激酶受体(tyrosine kinase, TrkB)特异性结合, 实现其多种神经生化功能。本研究观察了TrkB受体阻断剂ANA-12的慢性内侧前额叶皮质(medial prefrontal cortex, mPFC)注射对大鼠旷场行为、Morris水迷宫空间学习和逆反学习的影响。研究结果表明, mPFC的慢性BDNF阻断显著降低了大鼠在逆反学习测试中的逃离潜伏期和运动距离即增强了大鼠的逆反学习能力, 但不影响其旷场行为和水迷宫空间学习能力。同时, 慢性阻断mPFC-TrkB受体也并未导致大鼠海马BDNF蛋白含量的显著改变。这些结果提示, 对于大鼠的Morris水迷宫空间学习和逆反学习, mPFC-BDNF主要在逆反学习调节中发挥重要作用。这对于进一步探索海马和mPFC在调节个体认知功能中各自的作用及其潜在的相互关系提供了有力的证据和支持。