The psychophysics of chasing: A case study in the perception of animacy

Psychologists have long been captivated by the perception of animacy – the fact that even simple moving shapes may appear to engage in animate, intentional, and goal-directed movements. Here we report several new types of studies of a particularly salient form of perceived animacy: chasing, in which one shape (the ‘wolf’) pursues another shape (‘the sheep’). We first demonstrate two new cues to perceived chasing – chasing subtlety (the degree to which the wolf deviates from perfectly ‘heat-seeking’ pursuit) and directionality (whether and how the shapes ‘face’ each other). We then use these cues to show how it is possible to assess the objective accuracy of such percepts, and to distinguish the immediate perception of chasing from those more subtle (but nevertheless real) types of ‘stalking’ that cannot be readily perceived. We also report several methodological advances. Previous studies of the perception of animacy have faced two major challenges: (a) it is difficult to measure perceived animacy with quantitative precision; and (b) task demands make it difficult to distinguish perception from higher-level inferences about animacy. We show how these challenges can be met, at least in our case study of perceived chasing, via tasks based on dynamic visual search (the Find-the-Chase task) and a new type of interactive display (the Don’t-Get-Caught! task).     

A Survey of Management Educators’ Perceptions of Unethical Faculty Behavior

To help academic associations in management develop, refine, and implement a code of ethics, we conducted a survey of management educators’ perception of the ethicality of 142 specific behaviors in teaching, research, and service. The results of the survey could be used to inform ethics committees of these associations regarding the level of acceptability of such conduct. The potential value of our study for the Academy of Management or similar management associations lie in our (1) systematically involving the members in building support for the code of ethics, (2) assessing members’ ethical judgments on both cross-sectional and longitudinal bases so as to identify areas needing particular attention in ethical training, (3) providing an extensive list of specific examples of questionable and potentially unethical behaviors so as to make it easier to implement the code, and (4) providing a template survey document for potential use in involving more stakeholder groups in the development of codes of ethics.

Body Surveillance Predicts Men’s and Women’s Perceived Loneliness: A Serial Mediation Model

Previous research on self-objectification mainly focuses on its influences on intrapersonal psychological distress whereas our study examined whether self-objectification would influence interpersonal distress (i.e., loneliness) and its corresponding mechanisms in a sample of American women and men recruited with MTurk. Participants’ self-objectification was indexed by their level of body surveillance, and we proposed that body surveillance would increase women’s and men’s tendency to experience shame about their body and decrease their general self-esteem, which would in turn predict their level of loneliness. A total of 373 Americans (235 women; Mdn_age?=?33 years-old, range?=?18–77) participated in the present study, and the results provided support for the proposed theoretical model. Specifically, we found that body surveillance positively predicted people’s body shame, and body shame negatively predicted self-esteem, which in turn predicted people’s loneliness. Moreover, this mediational model was not different between men and women. These results expand the scope of investigation by incorporating male samples, and they suggest that in addition to intrapersonal consequences, self-objectification can also influence people’s interpersonal well-being. Implications were discussed.

     

时代精神与马克思主义法学

马克思主义的一个核心特性是历史的、实践的唯物主义,即客观真实地反映时代的精神,反映人类历史发展的本质.认识世界和改造世界的前提是实事求是,实事求是是马克思主义活的灵魂.在当今研究马克思主义的法学原理,特别是研究马克思主义法学的中国化道路,我认为必须克服教条主义,应该把时代精神对于马克思主义法学的新要求体现出来,不是照搬马克思和其他马克思主义经典理论家的本本,而是要把握他们关于法学理论的活的灵魂,师马克思主义之所以法.     

心理韧性、孤独感、自我效能感预测老年人主观幸福感的优势分析

心理韧性、孤独感、自我效能感都会影响老年人的主观幸福感,但三者影响程度的相对大小尚不清楚。为考察其影响力的大小,本研究采用了优势分析的方法。选取心理韧性量表、UCLA孤独量表、一般自我效能感量表分别测量老年人的心理韧性、孤独感、自我效能感,主观幸福感量表、费城老年中心信心量表测量老年人主观幸福感。优势分析结果表明,孤独感对老年人主观幸福感的预测力大于心理韧性与自我效能感;心理韧性的预测力大于自我效能感。本研究提示减少孤独感是提升老年人主观幸福感的重要途径,而老年人的心理韧性和自我效能感对提升老年人主观幸福感有一定的作用。