RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PSYCHOLOGY WITHIN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

The state of psychology in China at the present time is discussed in the context of trends, continuities, and discontinuities in development of the discipline over the last 60 years. The work of psychologists was severely disrupted between 1966 and 1976 by the activities of the ‘gang of four’. Although there is in effect a lost generation of psychologists, teaching and research have been vigorously re-established in the colleges and universities. In the Institute of Psychology, which forms part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 90 psychologists are carrying out research primarily in developmental psychology, perception, physiological and pathological psychology, and psychological theories and systems. The Chinese Psychological. Society resumed activities in 1977, and Acta Psychologica Sinica reappeared in 1979 with a circulation of 10,000 copies. Psychology in China is international in its perspective, and Chinese psychologists have welcomed many recent opportunities to establish contacts with colleagues in other countries.     

Working with animals: Implications for employees’ compassion,awe, prosocial behavior,and task performance

Human-animal work represents a collaboration between humans and animals to achieve work goals, and is common in the domains of healthcare, therapy, entertainment, and education. Although the scope and types of human-animal work is diversifying and increasing, organizational scholars have yet to explore its impacts on employees. Drawing from the models of compassion and mind perception theories, we first develop a theoretical model pertaining to the development of compassion as a result of human-animal work. In a study with zookeepers (Study 1), we find that human-animal work evokes the emotion of compassion, which in turn is positively associated with employee prosocial behavior and task performance. These mediated effects are moderated by how employees perceive animals—employees are more likely to experience compassion, and in turn, become more prosocial and work better when they generally perceive animals to be able to experience emotions and bodily sensations. Furthermore, two follow-up studies (i.e., Studies 2 and 3) with employees who engage in human-animal work in Hong Kong and the United States reveal that working with animals evokes awe in addition to compassion, and provides insight into their resultant impact on prosocial behavior and task performance. We end by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of this work.     

Book Review

Book reviewed in this article:
Colleen Ward, Stephen Bochner and Adrian Furnham (eds.), The Psychology of Culture Shock , second edition     

Reflection for learning in doctoral training: writing groups,academic writing proficiency and reflective practice

This literature review highlights the benefits of participating in a doctoral writing group, with specific emphasis on how these learning communities foster reflective practice skills development. In particular, this review proposes that the process of continuous peer feedback and discussion benefits students by helping them verbalise their internal reflective thinking, fostering reflective practice skills development through various authentic learning experiences. Consequently, this review highlights the importance of establishing and supporting doctoral writing groups to further develop doctoral students’ personal epistemology, growth and professional practice.     

What’s the 411? Assessing the Feasibility of Providing African American Adolescents with HIV/AIDS Prevention Education in a Faith-Based Setting

This study examines African American faith based leaders’ attitudes and beliefs about providing HIV prevention education and services to adolescents. Using a convenience sample, we identified priority adolescent health issues, attitudes about abstinence messages, and willingness to provide and participate in HIV prevention. Leaders identified drugs, gangs, alcohol, sex, and pregnancy as priority health issues affecting youth in their institutions. Leaders’ strongly preferred to emphasize abstinence messages. Although leaders were willing to provide youth with health education, they were not willing to discuss specific behaviors associated with HIV transmission. African American churches provide a venue to reach African American youth; however, there are limitations to relying on faith-based HIV prevention services. HIV prevention education should continue to be supplemented via parents, schools, and public health agencies.

Avoiding Anxiety,Being in Denial,or Simply Stroking Self‐Esteem: Why Self‐Positivity?

This article studies the presence, resilience, and direction of the self‐positivity bias under various conditions to examine the role of self‐esteem maintenance as an important antecedent for the bias. Experiment 1 manipulates the perceptions of the uncontrollability of cancer and presence of base‐rate information as independent variables that together eliminate the self‐positivity bias in perceptions of the risk of cancer. Experiment 2 shows the same effects using 4 life events that differ in terms of valence and perceived controllability; that is, base‐rate information affects self‐estimates for uncontrollable life events, reducing the self‐positivity bias, but does not affect self‐estimates for controllable events. Experiment 3 shows that these effects only apply to optimistic individuals who fail to incorporate base‐rate information into their self‐perceptions for controllable events. In contrast, pessimists use base rates to update their self‐estimates irrespective of the controllability of the event. Overall, the pattern suggests that self‐positivity is attenuated in conditions that implicate self‐esteem. Implications for health care marketing are discussed.     

Reach/Grasp Times with Lateral Reach Obstructions

When moving to grasp an object having adjacent obstacles that limit the space available for placing the fingers, the time for the reach/grasp is dependent on the distance of reaching and the space available for finger placement. Here we model the time taken in terms of these variables and develop mathematical models for the reach and grasp phases of the task and the location of obstacles. Data show that the movement to the target may be made under visual control and that, when the obstacles are close to the target object, a visually-controlled movement is made that is modeled by a modified form of Fitts' law. The time for the two components of the reach/grasp appear to be independent and linearly additive.     

Leader-member exchange and member performance: a new look at individual-level negative feedback-seeking behavior and team-level empowerment climate

From a basis in social exchange theory, the authors investigated whether, and how, negative feedback-seeking behavior and a team empowerment climate affect the relationship between leader-member exchange (LMX) and member performance. Results showed that subordinates' negative feedback-seeking behavior mediated the relationship between LMX and both objective and subjective in-role performance. In addition, the level of a team's empowerment climate was positively related to subordinates' own sense of empowerment, which in turn negatively moderated the effects of LMX on negative feedback-seeking behavior.     

An experimental investigation of the impact of biological and psychological causal explanations on anxious and depressed patients' perception of a person with panic disorder

It is often suggested that biological accounts of the cause of mental health problems are beneficial in health education initiatives. However, an alternative view is that the idea of a diseased brain may result in stigma and therapeutic pessimism in sufferers, professionals and the public with implications for the perception of unpredictability and risk. Anxious and depressed patients (n=49) were randomly allocated to three experimental conditions. Prior to watching a video of a person suffering from panic disorder, participants were told either that research indicated that panic was caused by biological factors, by psychological factors or the cause was unclear (control condition). Those in the biological condition were significantly more pessimistic about the patient's prospects for recovery and rated risks as higher compared to those in the psychological condition. The results call into question the widely accepted practice of promoting biological/disease explanations of mental health problems.