Fragile promise: The role of justification in promise-breaking

People who consider themselves moral sometimes use self-serving justifications to rationalize their selfish behaviours. Previous studies have tested the role of ambiguity in justifying wrongdoings, but it remains unclear whether ambiguity also plays a role in justifying promise-breaking behaviour and whether heterogeneity exists. To investigate justification in promise-breaking, we introduced a new experimental paradigm called the card-guessing task and used hierarchical cluster analysis to classify participants based on their promise-breaking decisions in unambiguous and ambiguous conditions. Experiment 1 revealed three clusters of solutions: Cluster 1 always kept their promises (i.e., keepers); Cluster 2 only exploited the vague promises and broke their promises in the ambiguous condition (i.e., intermediates); Cluster 3 tended to take advantage of vague promises and broke their promises irrespective of ambiguity (i.e., breakers). Experiment 2 confirmed that participants in the three clusters differed in their norm-abiding preferences and social value orientations. Keepers were more altruistic and had a stronger sense of norm compliance than intermediates and breakers. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that self-serving justifications were more likely to be employed by people who are moderately sensitive to deviation from social norms, which has implications for strategic interventions and policy formulation concerning unethical behaviour.     

卡车驾驶员速度估计研究

用速度知觉测试仪,对251名男性卡车驾驶员在四种实验条件下的速度估计准确性进行了测量。结果发现：安全组卡车驾驶员的速度估计准确性优于事故组卡车驾驶员,两者在低速条件下差异不显著,高速条件下差异显著;事故组卡车驾驶员的高估次数高于安全组卡车驾驶员,低速条件下两者不显著.高速条件下差异显著;事故多发组与安全组卡车驾驶员的速度估计准确性在高速及低速长距离条件下差异显著;速度及距离对速度估计准确性有显著影响,且两者之间存在显著的交互作用;年龄对速度估计准确性无显著影响。     

自尊与人际互动：理论、研究与问题

基于自我确认理论开展的大量研究,有助于理解自尊对人际互动行为的调节作用。然而,研究者对自尊的测量工具不尽相同,筛选实验被试的标准也不尽一致,实验范式忽略了对实际人际互动情境的操纵,单纯采用人际选择反应作为测量自我确认的指标,因而难以形成具有整合性的理论模型。今后的研究有必要在编制合适的测量工具的基础上,将整体自尊与特殊自尊作为两个独立的变量置于整合性实验范式下开展研究,同时采用对人际评价信息的认知判断和对评价者的交往选择的双维指标,以全面揭示整体自尊与特殊自尊对自我确认过程的相对作用及其心理机制。     

Family Socioeconomic Status and Executive Function in Urban Chinese Children: The Effects of Cortisol Reactivity

Journal of Child and Family Studies - We examined hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal stress reactivity as an indicator of differential susceptibility in moderating the links between family...     

探究群体中的个体心灵--群体心理学与极端信仰

网上检索中无意间看到一段话,“不借助于个体心理学,也许不能彻底明白有人为何要杀人如麻;没有群体心理学,则人们永远无法理解,为何仍会有那么多人认为他不但做得正确,并且伟大无比。”这段话一下子把我打动留住了。因为我曾有过一段“认为自己不但做得正确,并且伟大无比”的经历。打开一看,原来是一篇书评,评法国心理学家塞奇·莫斯科维奇的群体心理学著作《群氓的时代》(江苏人民出版社2003年汉译精品新世纪版),于是找到了书并阅读。我曾是一名“法轮功”团体的成员,如果用褒意倾向的语言说,是信念极为坚定的一员,用贬意倾向的语言说,是痴…     

卢梭论文明与道德——重温《论科学与艺术》

《论科学与艺术》包含了卢梭许多后来思想著述的萌芽,它讨论的是科学艺术的"近代复兴"与道德的"社会风俗"的关系。卢梭仅将科学艺术视作文明,并把它们与道德对立起来,认为近代文明失去了本原的道德精神实质。但所有的成熟文明都包含有物质文明、政治文明和精神文明三个方面,道德也是文明的产物,同时也是文明的价值和规范的基础。卢梭没有意识到,否定文明也就等于否定了道德。但卢梭文中对科学艺术的批判反思,对道德乃至宗教救赎精神的推崇,赋予其思想一种特殊的吸引力与启示意义。时代发展到今天,科学的进展和艺术的普及已经发展到了卢梭难以想象的程度,科技的兴盛固然带来了普遍的福利,却也走近了这样一个门槛:高新技术给人类带来无数方便与好处,人类的控物能力不断大幅提高;与此相比较,人类的道德自控能力若没有相应的提高,科技的发展可能带来难以预测但却可能改变人类文明命运的后果。这种不平衡无疑会是人类文明一个持久的基本矛盾。     

心理健康服务的文化胜任力：理论取向与实践策略

心理健康服务的文化胜任力随着欧美对多元文化群体的重视而逐渐发展起来。该领域存在两种不同的理论取向及相应的实践策略。内容取向关注静态的、结构化的文化胜任力; 过程取向则关注动态的、非结构化的文化胜任力。两种取向的异同体现了文化胜任力的研究和实践中对文化特异性和普遍性因素的平衡。在此基础上, 本文最后讨论了如何参考国外经验, 立足中国现实问题和加强社会心理服务体系建设的大背景, 来发展中国的文化胜任力。     

Effect of Acute Psychological Stress on Motion-in-Depth Perception: An Event-Related Potential Study

The present study explored the intrinsic event-related potential (ERP) features of the effects of acute psychological stress on the processing of motion-in-depth perception using a dual-task paradigm. After a mental arithmetic task was used to induce acute psychological stress, a collision task was used to evaluate motion-in-depth perception. The error value and average amplitude of late slow waves (SW) were significantly larger for the earlier colliding spheres’ than for the later colliding spheres. The P1 peak latency in the left occipital region was significantly shorter than that of the right occipital region in the motion-in-depth perception task. Compared to the control condition, the estimated value of residual time-to-collision and error value were significantly reduced, and the N1 peak amplitude and the SW averaged amplitude were significantly increased in the stress condition. Longer motion-in-depth time improved discrimination accuracy and decreased the investment of cognitive resources. Acute psychological stress increased behavioral performance and enhanced attention resources on the motion-in-depth perception task together with greater investment of cognitive resources.     

孔子与亚里士多德的朋友观之比较

Before and during the times of Confucius and Aristotle, the concept of friendship had very different implications. This paper compares Confucius’ with Aristotle’s thoughts on friendship from two perspectives: xin 信 (fidelity, faithfulness) and le 乐 (joy). The Analects emphasizes the xin as the basis of friendship. Aristotle holds that there are three kinds of friends and corresponding to them are three types of friendship. In the friendship for the sake of pleasure, there is no xin; in the legal form of friendship for the sake of utility, xin is guaranteed by law; and in the moral form of friendship for the sake of utility, xin is guaranteed by morality; in the friendship for the sake of virtue, xin is an indispensable part. Both thinkers believe friends can bring joy to human life. According to Confucius, it is the joy of rendao 仁道 (benevolence), whereas for Aristotle, it is the joy of Reason. There are many commonalities and differences between the two. The commonalities reveal some inner links between Confucian rendao and Aristotelian Reason. It seems that the differences between rendao and Reason are the differences between moral reason and logical reason. The comparative study is helpful for us to understand the two masters’ ethics, politics and philosophy. Translated from Lunlixue Yanjiu 伦理学研究 (Research in Ethics), 2006, (1): 47–52     

小学生的品德不良行为及其心理与行为适应问题研究

运用测量法和问卷法,以某市357名小学生为对象,探讨了小学生的品德不良行为及其心理问题与行为适应性问题,并揭示了它们之间相互的关系。结果发现:小学生的品行不良、心理健康问题和行为适应问题都存在显著的年级差异,并受学习成绩的显著影响:成绩差的学生在这些问题上最严重;且品行不良和学习问题存在显著的性别差异;小学生的品德不良水平与许多心理问题之间存在显著相关;五年级是一个转折点:在品德不良行为和许多心理问题中都是高峰,随后开始下降。