The Application of Behavioral Family Therapy to Chinese Aggressive Children

Behavioral Family Therapy (BFT) generally targets four typical disruptive behaviors among children ages from 2 to 7 years: noncompliance, aggression, tantrums, and negative talk. This study tests the effect of BFT on 20 Chinese aggressive children (16 boys and 4 girls) who were assigned to a BFT group or a control group. The results showed that the children's level of aggression in the BFT group reduced significantly compared to that of the control group, and the gains were maintained at a 6-month follow-up. These findings support the use of BFT as a treatment modality for Chinese aggressive children.     

Plans Are More Helpful When One Perseveres: The Moderating Role of Persistence in the Relationship Between Implementation Intentions and Goal Progress

Two studies investigated whether one dimension of action–state orientation, namely, persistence-volatility, would moderate the effect of implementation intentions on goal progress. Results from Study 1 indicated that spontaneous implementation intentions predicted goal progress 2 weeks later only among participants who scored high on persistence. In Study 2, participants were randomly allocated to an implementation intentions group and a control group. Results indicated that persistence was positively associated with goal progress among participants in the implementation intentions group but not among those in the control group. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings were discussed.     

Knowledge and economic growth—creativity,learning and knowledge utilization

The purpose of this study is to discuss the dynamic interdependence of knowledge and economic growth. We show that the traditional economics, which treats knowledge as parameters and is mainly developed within linearized, stable and static frameworks can hardly explain the modern economic complexity. We argue that it is necessary to treat creativity, learning and knowledge utilization as endogenous dynamic processes of social and economic evolution. To handle with the complicated dynamic interdependence of wealth and knowledge accumulation, we need to apply genuine nonlinear dynamic theory. In particular, we discuss possible benefits of government's intervention in education and science to the society when the social and economic evolution is characterized of nonlinearity, instability and multi‐equilibria.     

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.     

Situational differences in dialectical emotions: Boundary conditions in a cultural comparison of North Americans and East Asians

Past research generally suggests that East Asians tolerate opposing feelings or dialectical emotions more than North Americans. We tested the idea that North Americans would have fewer opposing emotions than East Asians in positive, but not in negative or mixed situations. Forty-seven European American, 40 Chinese, and 121 Japanese students reported the emotions that a protagonist of standardised positive, negative, and mixed situations would feel. Emotions were coded into three valence categories: pleasant, unpleasant, and neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant. As predicted, cultural differences in opposing emotion associations were found in positive situations only. Moreover, East Asians reported more neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant feelings, especially in mixed situations, possibly reflecting a deferral of valence appraisal due to expected change.     

Diagnostics of Robust Growth Curve Modeling Using Student's t Distribution

Growth curve models with different types of distributions of random effects and of intraindividual measurement errors for robust analysis are compared. After demonstrating the influence of distribution specification on parameter estimation, 3 methods for diagnosing the distributions for both random effects and intraindividual measurement errors are proposed and evaluated. The methods include (a) distribution checking based on individual growth curve analysis; (b) distribution comparison based on Deviance Information Criterion, and (c) post hoc checking of degrees of freedom estimates for t distributions. The performance of the methods is compared through simulation studies. When the sample size is reasonably large, the method of post hoc checking of degrees of freedom estimates works best. A web interface is developed to ease the use of the 3 methods. Application of the 3 methods is illustrated through growth curve analysis of mathematical ability development using data on the Peabody Individual Achievement Test Mathematics assessment from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 Cohort (Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, 2005).     

Aggregating and Testing Intra-Individual Correlations: Methods and Comparisons

From a longitudinal study, we have repeatedly measured data from multiple individuals at multiple occasions. For each individual, the relation between 2 variables can be measured by the Pearson’s correlation. The question is how to aggregate the multiple correlations and conduct statistical inference on the aggregated intra-individual correlation. Several methods are proposed to aggregate and test intra-individual correlations: (a) a meta-analysis method based on Fisher’s Z transformed correlations, (b) a meta-analysis method based on the Pearson’s correlations, and (c) a multilevel modeling method using data standardized within each individual. The performance of the methods after bias corrections was compared using simulations with considering factors including numbers of individuals, numbers of time points, population effect sizes, and their distribution forms (homogeneous vs heterogeneous). The results from the simulation studies show that estimation biases were found using the meta-analytic methods and suggestions on when and how to correct biases were provided based on the simulation results. Furthermore, the performance of the 3 methods after necessary bias corrections was found to be comparable and reasonably good, indicating that all 3 methods worked for aggregating and testing intra-individual correlations. An empirical daily diary data set was then used to illustrate the applications of the 3 methods. The assumptions, advantages and disadvantages, and possible extensions of the 3 methods were discussed.     

Modeling Nonlinear Change via Latent Change and Latent Acceleration Frameworks: Examining Velocity and Acceleration of Growth Trajectories

A general equadion is presented, covering all arbitrary values for the true population splits, for obtaining the true population phi, given observed cell frequencies for a selected sample, and true population splits. A nongeneral solution is also offered, based on the use of the G Index. Demonstrations with hypothetical data are given.     

Minority goals for interaction with the majority: Seeking distance from the majority and the effect of rejection on identification

Four studies investigated the conditions under which minority group members respond to group‐based discrimination with increased identification with their group. We propose that minorities' interaction goals should serve as a moderator: seeking distance from the majority might keep minority identification alive in the face of perceived discrimination. These predictions were tested correlationally in Study 1 among Chinese immigrants in Australia (sample 1a) and children of rural migrant workers in a Chinese city (sample 1b). In Studies 2 and 3, perceived discrimination was manipulated among Romanian immigrants in France and Polish immigrants in Scotland. In Study 4, both minority goals and perceived discrimination were manipulated among a sample of international students in Australia. Results showed that only for those who were inclined to seek distance from the majority, minority group identification increased when discrimination was high compared with low. Discussion focuses on the way that seeking distance might be an important strategy for coping with discrimination. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of attentional control on stimulus processing is category specific in Stroop tasks

It is still unclear how attentional control influences stimulus processing. We investigated this issue in four Stroop task experiments utilizing a pretest–training–posttest design. Subjects were given extensive training on the Stroop task using typical incongruent Stroop trials. The rates of color naming and word reading, which reflect the efficiency of stimulus processing, were assessed in pretest and posttest. The difference in rates between posttests and pretests reflects the influence of attentional control, acquired during the training phase, on stimulus processing. In Experiment 1, members of color category were used in the training phase; in Experiment 2, members of color category were used, but not in the training phase; in Experiment 3, they were neither in the color category nor were they used in the training. The results consistently showed that the suppression of word reading and the enhancement of color naming were developed in the training phases and they were not due to general training of color-naming task without conflict but to color-naming training with Stroop conflict (Experiment 4). More importantly, both suppression and enhancement affected the members of color category regardless of whether they were trained or not. The present findings suggest that the influence of attentional control on stimulus processing is category specific. We discuss the implications of the present results in terms of existing research on the locus of attentional control in Stroop tasks.