The Roles of Shared Stereotypes and Shared Processing Goals on Mock Jury Decision Making

Some research on creativity has linked higher levels of neuroticism with greater creative achievement, whereas existential psychology sees the neurotic as incapable of channeling anxiety through creativity. The current research examines how levels of neuroticism affect individuals' creative responses in coping with existential threats. Drawing from terror management theory and creativity research, this research conceptualizes creative endeavors as a means to ameliorate existential anxiety that possesses varying degrees of appeal to different individuals. All three experiments found an interaction between levels of neuroticism and mortality salience in determining levels of creative interest, with neuroticism either measured or primed. Specifically, mortality salience is less likely to boost creative interest among more neurotic individuals.     

Neural responses to meaningless pseudosigns: evidence for sign-based phonetic processing in superior temporal cortex

To identify neural regions that automatically respond to linguistically structured, but meaningless manual gestures, 14 deaf native users of American Sign Language (ASL) and 14 hearing non-signers passively viewed pseudosigns (possible but non-existent ASL signs) and non-iconic ASL signs, in addition to a fixation baseline. For the contrast between pseudosigns and baseline, greater activation was observed in left posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS), but not in left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 44/45), for deaf signers compared to hearing non-signers, based on VOI analyses. We hypothesize that left STS is more engaged for signers because this region becomes tuned to human body movements that conform the phonological constraints of sign language. For deaf signers, the contrast between pseudosigns and known ASL signs revealed increased activation for pseudosigns in left posterior superior temporal gyrus (STG) and in left inferior frontal cortex, but no regions were found to be more engaged for known signs than for pseudosigns. This contrast revealed no significant differences in activation for hearing non-signers. We hypothesize that left STG is involved in recognizing linguistic phonetic units within a dynamic visual or auditory signal, such that less familiar structural combinations produce increased neural activation in this region for both pseudosigns and pseudowords.     

大学生心理传统性及现代性、人格特质与双元孝道的关系

为了考察心理传统性及现代性、特质移情、权威主义人格与双元孝道之间的关系,426名大学生完成了心理传统性与现代性量表、特质移情量表、权威主义人格量表、孝道信念量表。结果显示：1）心理现代性、特质移情对互惠性孝道直接效应和间接效应显著,特质移情在心理现代性与互惠性孝道之间起部分中介的作用;2）心理传统性、权威主义人格对权威性孝道直接的效应及间接效应显著,权威主义人格在心理传统性与权威性孝道之间起部分中介的作用。     

现代价值理念的影响与作用 ——兼论康德“人是目的”等思想

现代社会亟须现代价值理念的引导,现代价值理念必须具备两个要素:第一,要体现现代社会的核心价值或根本价值;第二,是各主要观念的统一体.两者的一致构成现代价值理念.从社会民主政治范畴来看,现代价值理念起着构建基本结构、制度和公平正义的奠基性作用,它是体现和实施公平正义的前提条件.现代价值理念既然揭示了人的内在价值,就必然与人的生存、发展有血肉联系,换言之,现代价值理念也高扬了人的价值和生命意义.     

When team members’ values differ: The moderating role of team leadership

Integrating theory and research on values, diversity, situational strength, and team leadership, we proposed that team leadership moderates the effects of values diversity on team conflict. In a longitudinal survey study of national service teams, we found significant, but opposite, moderating effects of task-focused and person-focused leadership. As predicted, task-focused leadership attenuated the diversity–conflict relationship, while person-focused leadership exacerbated the diversity–conflict relationship. More specifically, task-focused leadership decreased the relationship between work ethic diversity and team conflict. Person-focused leadership increased the relationship between traditionalism diversity and team conflict. Team conflict mediated the effects of the interactions of leadership and values diversity on team effectiveness.     

Multiple trajectories of depressive symptoms in middle and late life: racial/ethnic variations

This research aims to identify distinct courses of depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older Americans and to ascertain how these courses vary by race/ethnicity. Data came from the 1995-2006 Health and Retirement Study which involved a national sample of 17,196 Americans over 50 years of age with up to six repeated observations. Depressive symptoms were measured by an abbreviated version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale. Semiparametric group based mixture models (Proc Traj) were used for data analysis. Six major trajectories were identified: (a) minimal depressive symptoms (15.9%), (b) low depressive symptoms (36.3%), (c) moderate and stable depressive symptoms (29.2%), (d) high but decreasing depressive symptoms (6.6%), (e) moderate but increasing depressive symptoms (8.3%), and (f) persistently high depressive symptoms (3.6%). Adjustment of time-varying covariates (e.g., income and health conditions) resulted in a similar set of distinct trajectories. Relative to White Americans, Black and Hispanic Americans were significantly more likely to be in trajectories of more elevated depressive symptoms. In addition, they were more likely to experience increasing and decreasing depressive symptoms. Racial and ethnic variations in trajectory groups were partially mediated by SES, marital status, and health conditions, particularly when both interpersonal and intrapersonal differences in these variables were taken into account.     

Validity of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4 (PDQ-4+) among mentally ill prison inmates in Singapore

We examined the validity of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire--4+ (PDQ-4+) as a screening instrument for personality disorders among mentally ill prison inmates in Singapore. A total of 313 prison inmates completed the PDQ-4+ and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Disorders (SCID-II). The subjects were 303 (96.8%) males and 10 (3.2%) females with a mean (SD) age of 40.7 (8.8) years. Kappa agreement between PDQ-4+ and SCID-II for the presence at least one personality disorder was moderate with high sensitivity and low specificity. For specific personality disorders and clusters, we found that the PDQ-4+ diagnosed more subjects as having each of the personality disorders than SCID-II with high negative predictive values. The area under the curve indicated moderate discriminatory capabilities. Our results suggest that the PDQ-4+ could be used as a potential screening instrument for personality disorders in prison inmates.     

阿奎那灵魂学说的立场与方法

阿奎那的灵魂学说虽然从理性辩护主义的立场,调和了亚里士多德关于"灵魂是肉体的形式和现实性"的定义和古代教父关于"灵魂是不朽的精神实体"的论断,但它并非一个将哲学和神学无原则地掺和在一起的理论体系,而是通过意义辨析的方法对前人思想做出了创造性发展。在此过程中,基督教信仰赋予了他的学说以许多独特的内容和积极的影响。     

内含子microRNAs:基因敲除技术的新挑战——以现代生命科学中的认识论为视角

内含子microRNA,的发现,不仅为基因组中大量的内含子提供了存在的理由,也有助于人类进一步了解内含子的生物学功能.同时,内含子microRNAs对传统的基因敲除技术提出了新的挑战.分于生物学实践促进了人们对生命现象的认识,对理论认识的深入又促进了科学实践.在现代生物技术发展的历程中,人们见证了鲜活的马克思主义哲学认识论.