Life Satisfaction and Incumbent Voting: Examining the Mediating Effect of Trust in Government

Journal of Happiness Studies - An emerging body of evidence suggests a causal relationship between wellbeing and incumbent voting. However, the evidence is primarily founded upon established...     

The cognitive underpinnings of emerging mathematical skills: Executive functioning,patterns, numeracy,and arithmetic

Background: Exposure to mathematical pattern tasks is often deemed important for developing children's algebraic thinking skills. Yet, there is a dearth of evidence on the cognitive underpinnings of pattern tasks and how early competencies on these tasks are related to later development. Aims: We examined the domain‐specific and domain‐general determinants of performances on pattern tasks by using (a) a standardized test of numerical and arithmetic proficiency and (b) measures of executive functioning, respectively. Sample: Participants were 163 6‐year‐olds enrolled in primary schools that typically serve families from low to middle socioeconomic backgrounds. Method: Children were administered a battery of executive functioning (inhibitory, switching, updating), numerical and arithmetic proficiency (the Numerical Operations task from the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test‐II), and three types of pattern tasks. Results: Contrary to findings from the adult literature, we found all the executive functioning measures coalesced into two factors: updating and an inhibition/switch factor. Only the updating factor predicted performances on the pattern tasks. Although performance on the pattern tasks were correlated with numerical and arithmetic proficiency, findings from structural equation modelling showed that there were no direct or independent relationships between them. Conclusions: The findings suggest that the bivariate relationships between pattern, numeracy, and arithmetic tasks are likely due to their shared demands on updating resources. Unlike older children, these findings suggest that for 6‐year‐olds, better numerical and arithmetic proficiency, without accompanying advantages in updating capacities, will no more likely lead to better performance on the pattern tasks.     

Evaluating Six Common Stereotypes About Older Workers with Meta‐Analytical Data

This study evaluates the cumulated empirical evidence on 6 common age stereotypes. These stereotypes suggest that older workers are: (a) less motivated, (b) generally less willing to participate in training and career development, (c) more resistant and less willing to change, (d) less trusting, (e) less healthy, and (f) more vulnerable to work‐family imbalance. The meta‐analysis included 418 empirical studies (N= 208,204) and examined the relationships of age to 39 variables representing the content domain of age stereotypes. The only stereotype consistent with empirical evidence is that older workers are less willing to participate in training and career development activities. The paper concludes with implications for future theory development and management practice.     

Dissociating effects of subclinical anxiety and depression on cognitive control

Even at subclinical levels, anxiety and depression are associated with impaired cognitive control. It is unclear, though, to what extent these deficits reflect a common underlying dysfunction. Using a non-affective hybrid masked prime-Simon task, we obtained several measures of within- and between- trial inhibitory behavioral control in 80 young, healthy volunteers, together with measures of their anxiety and depression levels. Neither depression nor anxiety affected low-level within-trial control, or any of the between-trial control measures. However, increased levels of depression, but not of anxiety, were associated with impaired high-level within-trial control (increased Simon effect). Results indicate that depression, but not anxiety, impairs voluntary online response-control mechanisms independent of affective content.     

Relationship between respiratory mortality and self-perceptions of aging

Although there is growing evidence that psychological factors affect an individual's susceptibility to respiratory illnesses, psychological predictors of respiratory mortality have received little attention. This study investigated whether an age-specific psychological factor, older individuals’ beliefs about their own aging, predicted the likelihood of their dying from respiratory causes (ICD-9: 460–519). The sample was composed of 620 individuals, aged 50–87 years at baseline, who participated in a longitudinal study with six waves. Our research found that individuals with higher baseline positive self-perceptions of aging were significantly less likely to die of respiratory causes over the next 23 years, after controlling for age, functional health, gender, loneliness, marital status, self-rated health, and socioeconomic status (hazard ratio?=?0.695; p?<?0.005). This is the first study to link individual beliefs about aging to cause-specific mortality. Future research is warranted to further elucidate the relationship between self-perceptions of aging and resistance to respiratory mortality.     

Narcissism and punitiveness in a non-ego-threatening condition

Punitiveness of overt and covert narcissists was examined in a non-ego-threatening condition. In judging fictitious criminal cases, high scorers in overt narcissism were as punitive as low scorers; this result was independent of crime severity. For covert narcissism, however, high scorers were more punitive toward a serious crime and more lenient toward a mild crime, when compared to low scorers. This study provides pioneering data on narcissists’ punitive judgments in the absence of ego threat, which has been overlooked by previous research. The findings not only support the theoretical distinction between the overt and covert subtypes of narcissism, but also help clarify the meaning of punishment to narcissists.     

Non-Violent Survival Strategies in the Face of Intimate Partner Violence and Economic Discrimination

Intimate partner violence (IPV) theory often locates violence equitably between women and men. Women, however, sustain greater degrees of injury than men and often use violence as a measure of protection rather than as an act of aggression. Yet measures of protection must be viewed in multiple contexts. In this case, the context is poverty, which reveals that violence by women in response to IPV is not the only way that women deal with the violence in their lives. This article explicates four strategies that battered women in poverty deploy in their protective trajectory and highlight alternative resistance strategies women use to overcome multiple structural barriers.     

“Faith Maturity Scale” for Chinese: A Revision and Construct Validation

Using a large sample of Chinese Christians (n = 2,196), we examined the internal structure, reliability, and validity of the Faith Maturity Scale (FMS). Despite its being developed in North America, and for a mainline Protestant population, the FMS was shown to have validity among non-Western, non-mainline Protestants. There is convergent validity with self-reported religious practices and a belief measure of religiosity. Our analyses also confirmed good construct validity with the Big Five personality dimensions, social axioms, attributional style, and quality of life. FMS remained associated with religious practices and high quality of life after personality was statistically controlled. Findings supported that the Chinese version of the FMS assesses the same theoretical construct as does the original scale and that the distinction between the vertical and horizontal dimensions of faith maturity is meaningful.