The Effect of General Creative Personality and Freedom of Task Choice on Adolescents' Social Creativity

This study investigated the effect of general creative personality and freedom of task choice on the social creativity of adolescents. The results indicated, first, that senior high school students scored higher than junior high school students. Second, girls scored higher than boys on originality, fluency, flexibility, appropriateness, and utility with regard to creative social problem‐solving. Third, freedom of task choice and its interaction with creative personality had significant effects on the originality, appropriateness, utility, flexibility, and fluency of social creativity. Adolescents who completed the task voluntarily scored higher on these dimensions than adolescents who completed it reluctantly and, among the voluntary adolescents, those with high and medium creative personality scored higher than those with low creative personality, whereas no such difference was found among the reluctant adolescents. Adolescents were more likely to show social creativity, and their general creative personality was more likely to be brought into effect under the freedom of task choice condition.     

Exceptionalism or Chinamerica: Measuring Religious Change in the Globalizing World Today

Religion is changing fast in this era of globalization. Major global trends include the growth of Muslims, the shrinking percentage of unaffiliated, and the rapid rise of Christianity in global China. By 2030, China is likely to become the largest Christian country in the world while retaining large numbers of Buddhists, Muslims, and folk religious believers. To capture religious changes more accurately, social scientists of religion must sharpen their measurement tools regarding religiosity; pay more attention to the reality of nonalignment among religious identity, belief, and practice; and acknowledge the reality of nonexclusive/multiple religious beliefs, practices, and identities. Scholars must also take responsibility for developing a clear and nuanced definition of religion, abandon exceptionalist thinking, and seek to discover common patterns of religious change across societies. Conceptual and measurement tools at the disposal of social scientists of religion should enable us to perceive and understand the converging changes of religion in China, the United States, and other societies, without ignoring their historical differences and contemporary particularities.     

Coping with Abusive Supervision: the Neutralizing Effects of Perceived Organizational Support and Political Skill on Employees’ Burnout

While research into the antecedents of burnout has steadily grown, the relationship between abusive supervision and burnout remains largely unknown. In addition, we know little about the contingencies under which abusive supervision may be related to employees’ burnout. This study aims to examine the contingency side of the abusive supervision-burnout relationship by addressing the exploratory question of whether perceived organizational support and individual differences in political skill play moderating roles in the abusive supervision-burnout relationship. The present article developed a model and tested it with data from a sample of 248 supervisor–subordinate dyads. We hypothesized and found that (1) Abusive supervision was positively associated with burnout; (2) the positive relationship between abusive supervision and burnout was moderated by the employees’ perceived organizational support in such a way that the relationship was weaker for employees who perceive higher rather than lower organizational support; (3) the positive relationship between abusive supervision and burnout was moderated by the employees’ political skill in such a way that the relationship was weaker for people with high, rather than lower level of political skill.     

Psychometric Properties of the Shortened Chinese Version of the Family Resilience Assessment Scale

Family theory has refocused attention from deficits to family strengths, and interest in family resilience across cultures has become more widespread. However, few instruments were designed for quantitative research on family resilience. The Family Resilience Assessment Scale (FRAS) was designed to measure family resilience and has been administered in Western populations. The aim of this study was to adapt the FRAS for use with Chinese populations and examine its psychometric properties. The study was conducted using a sample of 991 university students in China (62.9 % female, mean age 20, SD = 1.12). First, the scale was translated and modified into Chinese, and good language equivalency was found. Next, confirmatory factor analysis was used to identify the best-fitting model. Results showed that the 3-factor model consisting of 32 items was an adequate fit. The goodness-of-fit index values for the model were χ ²/df = 5.97, CFI = .84, RMSEA = .08, SRMR = .05. Total scale reliability was α = .95. According to these values it can be said that the modified Chinese version of the FRAS was adapted successfully to the Chinese culture. Moreover, researchers and clinicians can use this instrument to assess family strengths when working with individuals in families experiencing adversity.     

Culture and the Structure of Affect: A Bifactor Modeling Approach

This paper tested the impact of culture on the basic structure of affect. It examined positive affect and negative affect at three levels of activation in the U.S. and China. It used a well-suited tool, the bifactor model, to separate the common variance shared by all types of affect from the variance unique to each. The findings indicate that the structure of affect is different cross-culturally. In the U.S., the most fundamental dimension is defined by moderate activation of positive affect and negative affect, which is the largely bipolar dimension of pleasure-displeasure, whereas in China, it is defined by moderate activation of positive affect only, which is pleasure. In both cultures, negative affect across levels of activation forms another important dimension. Beyond these basic dimensions, secondary dimensions are also identified in both cultures: high activation positive affect, low activation positive affect, and low activation negative affect. They form relatively weak unique factors, independent of the two basic dimensions, suggesting that they are largely mixtures of the basic dimensions.     

Socioeconomic Adaptation of Post-1991 Eastern European Immigrants in the USA

Very little is known about new Eastern European immigrants in the USA, despite the rapid growth of this immigrant population. In particular, their socioeconomic adaptation to American life has not been systematically studied. Extending previous research on post-1965 immigration to the USA, this study examines the socioeconomic adaptation of post-1991 Eastern European immigrants by focusing on their educational attainment, occupational status, and income. We test our hypotheses using data from the pooled 2006–2010 American Community Surveys and ordinary least squares regression and logistic regression. The results show that new Eastern European immigrants tend to be highly educated and professional, but their income is surprisingly low. The results of regression models indicate that the individual characteristics of immigrants largely explain their socioeconomic adaptation. In addition, such conditions in the countries of origin as gross domestic product and political and personal freedom also influence their socioeconomic performance to some extent. The implications of findings are discussed.     

男女大学生对两性嗓音源记忆的差异性研究

该项研究以两字中文词为记忆材料,以男女两种嗓音为记忆源,对20名被试进行记忆源检测.结果表明男女被试总源判断能力差异不显著;男女被试对单项源的辨别能力差异显著,表现为男性被试对男声词的辨别强于女声词,女性被试对女声词的辨别强于男声词;另外,新旧项目再认能力d'值男女被试差异不显著.     

厌恶情绪与自杀行为的关系

自杀导致人类死亡的人数与日俱增,然而自杀的心理机制却并不清楚。最近研究发现,厌恶情绪是导致自杀的主要情绪因素,个体因为自身厌恶而走向自杀。厌恶情绪是一种对自己和他人排泄物等反感的基本情绪,促进个体远离毒性和疾病,从而产生“免疫行为”。许多心理问题来自于对周围人或事物的厌恶,有自杀行为的个体对自身极其厌恶,说明他们的厌恶情绪出现了问题。如同躯体免疫攻击自身一样,自身厌恶是自杀意念的关键因素,早年创伤是其根源,生活压力和精神疾病也参与厌恶诱发自杀意念。厌恶诱发自杀意念的神经基础与HPA轴和五羟色胺系统有关。未来研究可利用神经影像和电生理等神经科学技术,检验自杀行为的神经机制,探讨厌恶情绪影响自杀行为的心理和神经机制。     

互依性与团队协作

互依性是指团队成员在完成作业的过程中相互依赖的程度,分为作业互依性和产出互依性两大类。该文全面的阐述了互依性的概念、分类和测量方法,并重点介绍了20世纪90年代以后有关互依性在团队协作领域中的研究结果。总结发现,两类互依性与很多团队变量均有显著相关,特别是团队的结果变量。在对结果变量的影响上,两类互依性存在交互作用,或互依性与其他变量存在交互作用。文章最后提出了目前研究的局限性,以及未来的研究展望     

句子理解过程中词类加工的功能性质

句法优先理论假设词类加工功能上优先于语义、动词论元结构和话语信息加工。来自德语和法语的证据显示, 词类违反阻断语义整合和动词论元结构加工, 因而词类优先于语义和动词论元结构。关于词类加工在功能上是否优先于话语信息加工, 尚无来自任何语言的证据。汉语证据尽管显示词类并不优先于语义, 但未充分讨论任务因素的影响。将来研究有必要使用ERP技术和违反范式, 从语义整合、动词论元结构加工和话语水平加工等多个层面, 同时操纵词类的正确性和非句法因素, 考察句法特性上与德语和法语不同的语言, 如汉语和韩语。这方面研究将有助于洞察一个语言的语言学特性如何制约或调整词类加工的功能性质。