Which Is in Front of Chinese People,Past or Future? The Effect of Language and Culture on Temporal Gestures and Spatial Conceptions of Time

The temporal‐focus hypothesis claims that whether people conceptualize the past or the future as in front of them depends on their cultural attitudes toward time; such conceptualizations can be independent from the space–time metaphors expressed through language. In this paper, we study how Chinese people conceptualize time on the sagittal axis to find out the respective influences of language and culture on mental space–time mappings. An examination of Mandarin speakers' co‐speech gestures shows that some Chinese spontaneously perform past‐in‐front/future‐at‐back (besides future‐in‐front/past‐at‐back) gestures, especially when gestures are accompanying past‐in‐front/future‐at‐back space–time metaphors (Exp. 1). Using a temporal performance task, the study confirms that Chinese can conceptualize the future as behind and the past as in front of them, and that such space–time mappings are affected by the different expressions of Mandarin space–time metaphors (Exp. 2). Additionally, a survey on cultural attitudes toward time shows that Chinese tend to focus slightly more on the future than on the past (Exp. 3). Within the Chinese sample, we did not find evidence for the effect of participants' cultural temporal attitudes on space–time mappings, but a cross‐cultural comparison of space–time mappings between Chinese, Moroccans, and Spaniards provides strong support for the temporal‐focus hypothesis. Furthermore, the results of Exp. 2 are replicated even after controlling for factors such as cultural temporal attitudes and age (Exp. 3), which implies that linguistic sagittal temporal metaphors can indeed influence Mandarin speakers' space–time mappings. The findings not only contribute to a better understanding of Chinese people's sagittal temporal orientation, but also have additional implications for theories on the mental space–time mappings and the relationship between language and thought.     

犹太世俗贵族的兴起与犹太社会的首次希腊化

在希腊化时代最初两百年间,以多比雅家族为代表的犹太世俗贵族迅速崛起.伴随着犹太世俗贵族的兴起,犹太社会迎来了第一次希腊化浪潮.本文通过分析希腊化时期犹太世俗贵族兴起的历史条件以及犹太世俗贵族与世袭祭司贵族的夺权策略,揭示了这个时期犹太世俗贵族对犹太社会希腊化所发挥的作用及其对犹太民族认同造成的影响,并总结了这次希腊化尝试失败的主要原因.     

The Sequential Model of Future-Oriented Coping and Adjustment to University Life: The Role of Attitudes as Further Evidence

The Psychological Record - The objectives of the present study were to develop the University Life Implicit Association Test (IAT) and to explore the role of implicit and explicit attitudes in the...     

Does Standard Deviation Matter? Using “Standard Deviation” to Quantify Security of Multistage Testing

With the advent of web-based technology, online testing is becoming a mainstream mode in large-scale educational assessments. Most online tests are administered continuously in a testing window, which may post test security problems because examinees who take the test earlier may share information with those who take the test later. Researchers have proposed various statistical indices to assess the test security, and one most often used index is the average test-overlap rate, which was further generalized to the item pooling index (Chang & Zhang, 2002, 2003). These indices, however, are all defined as the means (that is, the expected proportion of common items among examinees) and they were originally proposed for computerized adaptive testing (CAT). Recently, multistage testing (MST) has become a popular alternative to CAT. The unique features of MST make it important to report not only the mean, but also the standard deviation (SD) of test overlap rate, as we advocate in this paper. The standard deviation of test overlap rate adds important information to the test security profile, because for the same mean, a large SD reflects that certain groups of examinees share more common items than other groups. In this study, we analytically derived the lower bounds of the SD under MST, with the results under CAT as a benchmark. It is shown that when the mean overlap rate is the same between MST and CAT, the SD of test overlap tends to be larger in MST. A simulation study was conducted to provide empirical evidence. We also compared the security of MST under the single-pool versus the multiple-pool designs; both analytical and simulation studies show that the non-overlapping multiple-pool design will slightly increase the security risk.     

Influence of Culture on Ethical Decision Making in Psychology

This study focused on the influence of American and Chinese cultures on consequentialism orientation in decision-making within the broader context of psychologists’ academic roles and responsibilities. In addition, this study hypothesized that educational level would affect culturally influenced ethical decision making in both cultures. Based on the American Psychological Association Ethics Code, 20 ethical scenarios in 5 domains in psychology were created and used to examine the influence of culturally ethical beliefs on psychologists’ decision making among 181 participants. The results indicated that significant cultural differences in consequentialism orientation differentiated Chinese and American participants and influenced their resolution of ethical issues.     

俄罗斯经济心理学的现状与特征

文章介绍了俄罗斯经济心理学的现状与特征:俄罗斯经济心理学发展的背景、研究机构成立与著作出版的状况、突出对经济意识的研究、具体的经济心理学研究的原则、对经济积极性主体范畴的关注和俄罗斯经济心理学的具体研究方向;文章最后阐述了俄罗斯经济心理学对我们经济心理学发展的启示意义。     

成人依恋对病理性网络使用的影响:社交自我效能感和孤独感的中介作用

为探讨成人依恋影响病理性网络使用(PIU)的内在机制,采用自陈式问卷调查了483名大学生,通过结构方程模型和bootstrap法考察了社交自我效能感和孤独感在成人依恋与PIU关系中的中介作用。结果表明:(1)孤独感在依恋焦虑和依恋回避对PIU的影响中起中介作用;(2)社交自我效能感和孤独感在依恋回避对PIU的影响中起链式中介作用。研究结论:成人依恋通过社交自我效能感和孤独感的中介作用影响PIU,且依恋焦虑和依恋回避两个维度的中介机制有差异。     

Career-specific parental behaviors,career exploration and career adaptability: A three-wave investigation among Chinese undergraduates

The current research examined the effects of career-specific parental behaviors (reported by parents at time 1) on Chinese university students' career exploration (reported by students at time 2) and career adaptability (reported by students at time 3). A survey study was conducted among Chinese university graduates (N = 244) and their parents (N = 244). The results supported a mediation model such that a high level of parental support and a low level of parental interference had beneficial effects on Chinese undergraduates' career exploration, which in turn positively predicted their career adaptability. Lack of parental career engagement had a direct negative effect on career adaptability. Significant interaction effects were also found among these three types of parental behaviors such that at a lower level of lack of parental career engagement, the positive effects of parental support, as well as the negative effects of interference on career exploration were stronger. The corresponding moderated mediation models were also supported. These findings carry implications for research on career construction theory and career counseling practices.     

Some Ethical Concerns About Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Human induced pluripotent stem cells can be obtained from somatic cells, and their derivation does not require destruction of embryos, thus avoiding ethical problems arising from the destruction of human embryos. This type of stem cell may provide an important tool for stem cell therapy, but it also results in some ethical concerns. It is likely that abnormal reprogramming occurs in the induction of human induced pluripotent stem cells, and that the stem cells generate tumors in the process of stem cell therapy. Human induced pluripotent stem cells should not be used to clone human beings, to produce human germ cells, nor to make human embryos. Informed consent should be obtained from patients in stem cell therapy.