Too exhausted to remember: Ego depletion undermines subsequent event‐based prospective memory

Past research has consistently found that people are likely to do worse on high‐level cognitive tasks after exerting self‐control on previous actions. However, little has been unraveled about to what extent ego depletion affects subsequent prospective memory. Drawing upon the self‐control strength model and the relationship between self‐control resources and executive control, this study proposes that the initial actions of self‐control may undermine subsequent event‐based prospective memory (EBPM). Ego depletion was manipulated through watching a video requiring visual attention (Experiment 1) or completing an incongruent Stroop task (Experiment 2). Participants were then tested on EBPM embedded in an ongoing task. As predicted, the results showed that after ruling out possible intervening variables (e.g. mood, focal and nonfocal cues, and characteristics of ongoing task and ego depletion task), participants in the high‐depletion condition performed significantly worse on EBPM than those in the low‐depletion condition. The results suggested that the effect of ego depletion on EBPM was mainly due to an impaired prospective component rather than to a retrospective component.     

The Influence of Leader’s Spiritual Values of Servant Leadership on Employee Motivational Autonomy and Eudaemonic Well-Being

This research examined the role of leader’s spiritual values in terms of the “servant leadership” in the process of promoting employee’s autonomous motivation and eudaemonic well-being. Sample consists of 265 Chinese supervisor-subordinate dyads recruited from a variety of industries in Taiwan. Spiritual values perceived by the subordinates, as well as the discrepancy between leader-subordinate perceptions, but not the leader’s self-perceptions of spiritual values, were found to contribute significantly beyond transactional leadership in predicting subordinate motivational autonomy and eudaemonic well-being, and subordinate autonomous motivations fully mediates the relationship between spiritual values and eudaemonic well-being.     

the impacts of self-control and social bonds on juvenile delinquency in a national sample of midadolescents

This study examines the effects of self-control and social bonds on delinquent behavior in a nationally representative sample. It is proposed that both self-control and social bonds affect delinquency and that the effects of these factors interact with each other. These hypotheses were tested in a regression model controlling for race, gender, delinquent association, and illegitimate opportunity. As predicted, low self-control is positively related to juvenile delinquency while social bonds are negatively related to delinquency. Some of the interaction terms between self-control and social bonds significantly impact delinquency, suggesting that the effects of self-control and social control are interdependent.     

Brief Sensation Seeking Scale for Chinese – Cultural adaptation and psychometric assessment

International behavioral research requires instruments that are not culturally-biased to assess sensation seeking. In this study we described a culturally adapted version of the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale for Chinese (BSSS-C) and its psychometric characteristics. The adapted scale was assessed using an adult sample (n = 238) with diverse educational and residential backgrounds. The BSSS-C (Cronbach alpha = 0.90) was correlated with the original Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (r = 0.85, p < 0.01) and fitted the four-factor model well (CFI = 0.98, SRMR = 0.03). The scale scores significantly predicted intention to and actual engagement in a number of health risk behaviors, including alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, and sexual risk behaviors. In conclusion, the BSSS-C has adequate reliability and validity, supporting its utility in China and potential in other developing countries.     

A study of the greater male variability hypothesis in creative thinking in Mainland China: Male superiority exists

This study tested the greater male variability hypothesis in creative thinking with a Chinese student sample in Mainland China. The Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP) was administered to 627 Chinese adolescent boys (n = 332) and girls (n = 295). Results using the boy/girl variance ratio (VR) generally supported the hypothesis that boys have greater variability than girls in creativity test performance. However, results using the boy/girl ratios from different regions of the creativity score distribution revealed a pattern of male superiority. While boys significantly outnumbered girls in the higher extremes, girls tended to outnumber boys in the central region and the lower extremes. Results from an analysis of the means lent further support to the findings of male superiority. Plausible explanations for greater male variability and male superiority in Mainland China are proposed. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Facial expressions can inhibit the activation of gender stereotypes

ABSTRACT

Using faces as the priming stimuli, the present study explored the influence of facial expressions on the activation of gender stereotypes using a lexical decision paradigm. Experiment 1 explored the activation of gender stereotypes when the facial primes contained only gender information. The results showed that gender stereotypes were activated. In Experiment 2, the facial primes contained both gender category and expression information. The results indicated that gender stereotypes were not activated. Experiment 3 required the participants to make emotion, gender, or impression decisions concerning the facial primes before the lexical decision task. The results showed that gender stereotypes were not activated in emotion and impression decisions conditions, whereas stereotypes were activated in gender decisions condition. These finding suggest that facial expressions can inhibit automatic activation of gender stereotypes, unless the perceivers perform gender categorization processing to prime faces intentionally.     

Is behavioral pro-sociality game-specific? Pro-social preference and expectations of pro-sociality

We observed the behaviors of the same people across five games – two prisoner’s dilemma games, a trust game (in which the subject took on the role of both truster and trustee), a dictator game, and a faith game – any pair of which was separated by an interval of several months to reduce potential carry-over effects, and found strong consistency in behaviors among these games. We also found consistency between the expectations of other players’ behaviors and the player’s own behavior across games. We further found that the consistent behavioral pro-sociality observed across different games was related to the general measures of pro-social value orientation and perceiving the game situations. These findings suggest that individual and cultural differences in game behaviors can reflect both the ways in which people perceive game situations and their general social preferences.     

Evaluating Structural Equation Models for Categorical Outcomes: A New Test Statistic and a Practical Challenge of Interpretation

This research is concerned with two topics in assessing model fit for categorical data analysis. The first topic involves the application of a limited-information overall test, introduced in the item response theory literature, to structural equation modeling (SEM) of categorical outcome variables. Most popular SEM test statistics assess how well the model reproduces estimated polychoric correlations. In contrast, limited-information test statistics assess how well the underlying categorical data are reproduced. Here, the recently introduced C₂ statistic of Cai and Monroe (2014) is applied. The second topic concerns how the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) fit index can be affected by the number of categories in the outcome variable. This relationship creates challenges for interpreting RMSEA. While the two topics initially appear unrelated, they may conveniently be studied in tandem since RMSEA is based on an overall test statistic, such as C₂. The results are illustrated with an empirical application to data from a large-scale educational survey.     

Prevalence and associated factors of poly‐victimization in Chinese adolescents

Multiple types of victimization or poly‐victimization (PV) can occur simultaneously during childhood, resulting in outcomes that are detrimental and difficult to reverse. Very few studies have focused on PV in Chinese adolescents. The present study is based on information collected from a stratified cluster sample of 1,561 females and 1,594 males aged 12–18 years living in Shandong Province, China. A self‐administered questionnaire was used to assess background information, the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire was used to measure the extent of victimization and PV, the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders was used to measure anxiety levels, and a Depression Self‐rating Scale for Children was used to ascertain depression. A majority of the study sample (66.2%) had experienced at least one form of victimization over the past year. Prevalence of PV was 16.9%, and was significantly higher among males (21.1%) than females (12.5%). Younger ages, one‐child families, and lower socioeconomic status were positively associated with PV. Logistic regression analysis indicated that smoking, alcohol consumption, exposure to pornography, and anxiety‐ and depression‐like symptoms were risk factors of PV. Results of this study highlight the need for further exploration of factors related to the PV of Chinese adolescents.