The Effects of Zhongyong Thinking Priming on Creative Problem‐Solving

Zhongyong thinking is a common approach adopted by Chinese people to solve problems encountered in life and work. Based on the four modes of zhongyong thinking proposed by Pang (Social Sciences in China, 1, 1980, 75), this study chooses the “neither A nor B” form, which represents the “mean” (中) characteristics of zhongyong thinking, called eclectic thinking, and the “both A and B” form, which reflects the “harmony” (和) feature, called integrated thinking. This study primed eclectic thinking and integrated thinking, respectively, through self‐compiled problem situations, and 150 college students and postgraduates students were the participants. Experiment 1 explored the role of the priming of zhongyong thinking in three classic creative thinking tasks: a divergent thinking test, remote association test, and insight problem‐solving test. Experiment 2 further examined the effect of priming of zhongyong thinking on “market investment problems” with higher ecological validity. The findings show that priming integrated thinking can improve remote associates test performance and promote creative solutions to market investment problems, but there is no significant impact on the scores of divergent thinking test and insight problem‐solving; priming eclectic thinking has no significant impact on any of the subsequent creative tasks. This study shows that integrated thinking primes cognitive processing related to information association and information integration, promoting subsequent creative tasks.     

真之多元论的混合合取难题

真之多元论认为不同的领域有不同的真性质。混合合取的合取支由不同领域的命题所构成,从而具有不同的真性质。多元论需要解释混合合取具有何种真性质。尽管多元论有若干解决办法,如假设逻辑领域特有的真性质、假设合取命题特有的真性质、假设某种普遍的真性质,但都存在一定的问题。混合合取仍旧对多元论构成挑战。另外,强一元论面临辖域问题,即,适真性的范围较窄。相比较而言,弱一元论优于多元论和强一元论。     

The Age and Gender Effect on Four Forms of Peer Victimization among Chinese Children and Adolescents

Applied Research in Quality of Life - This study is the first to examine the effects of age and gender on different forms of peer victimization among local Chinese schoolchildren in Hong Kong. The...     

Emotional Competence as a Mediator of the Relationship Between Internet Addiction and Negative Emotion in Young Adolescents in Hong Kong

Excessive use of the Internet in adolescents has been consistently found associated with multiple health concerns, especially negative emotions, and adversely affected one’s quality of life. While emotional competence is considered an important protective factor for youth development, its role in the relationship between Internet addiction and negative mental health outcomes has not been thoroughly investigated. The present study tested the mediation vs. moderation effects of emotional competence in the relation between Internet addiction and negative emotion in young adolescents based on 404 Hong Kong secondary school students (age = 12.4 ± 0.8 years). The results of structural equation modeling supported the mediation effect of emotional competence, but not its moderation effect. Internet addiction has both a direct influence on adolescents’ negative emotions, and an indirect effect through decreasing emotional competence. In particular, regulation of emotion appeared to be the only emotional competence dimension that mediates the relationship between Internet addiction and negative emotions. The findings suggest the importance of promoting emotional regulation competence to improve the quality of life of adolescents with Internet addiction problems.

     

面孔二态性对学前儿童信任行为的影响——来自人格标签的解释

面孔二态性是指成熟男性和女性经过青春期第二性征的发展后逐步形成了面孔上的性别特征,男性化与女性化是这一维度的两个水平。本研究探索面孔二态性是否会对学龄前儿童信任行为产生影响,并从幼儿对二态性面孔的人格标签角度来解释。实验1修订信任博弈任务（Trust game）,考察学前儿童信任行为是否会因搭档面孔的二态性（男性化和女性化）而不同,经历负性反馈后被试在下轮游戏中信任选择率是否会下降;实验2让学前儿童选择人格形容词来描述不同性别化的面孔,探讨幼儿对不同二态性面孔是否已形成不同的人格标签。结果表明学前儿童对女性化面孔信任选择率最高;在遭遇负性反馈后的下一轮游戏中,幼儿对他人的信任率显著下降;学前儿童认为女性化面孔更具有积极人格,而更多将男性化面孔与消极人格词汇匹配。由此,二态性面孔影响学前儿童的信任行为,在于他们对二态性面孔已形成不同的人格标签。     

叠音姓名对人际知觉和态度的影响

基于刻板印象内容模型,通过三个实验考察了叠音姓名对人际知觉和态度的影响,并检验了性别特征的调节作用。研究结果表明:(1)叠音姓名会让人们觉得评价对象更像儿童,更温暖,但也更缺乏能力。(2)叠音姓名对人际知觉的影响受到姓名性别特征的调节。对于女性化姓名,叠音姓名对温暖和能力知觉的影响会削弱。(3)叠音姓名对人际态度的作用受到工作类型的影响。人们会觉得叠音姓名的人更适合从事服务性的工作,非叠音姓名的人更适合从事技术性的工作。     

Maternal Emotion Socialization and Child Outcomes among African Americans and European Americans

Mothers’ emotion socialization practices are very important for children’s later outcomes; however, we know very little about how these practices may lead to different outcomes for European American (EA) and African American (AA) children. In the current study, maternal emotion socialization practices were investigated in relation to child emotion-related outcomes in 122 pairs of mothers and preschool-age children, and differences in associations were examined for EA and AA families. Mothers were assessed for their expressions of positive emotion with their child and their responses to their child’s negative emotions, including support of sadness/fear and magnification of anger, when children were 3. Children were assessed for their expression of positive emotion with their mother and their internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors when they were 4. When ethnicity was included as a moderator, results revealed that when AA mothers expressed more positive emotion, their children were also more positive 1 year later. Additionally, as AA mothers provided greater support for their children’s sadness/fear, these children tended to have fewer later internalizing problems. Finally, when AA mothers responded with more magnification of their children’s anger, these children tended to have greater internalizing and externalizing problems 1 year later. These associations were not found for EA families. Results highlighted differential effects based on the type of support provided by mothers and the role that mothers played in encouraging or suppressing their child’s expressions. The overall findings highlight the need to consider maternal emotion socialization from a culturally-informed perspective.     

Maternal Employment and Family Socioeconomic Status: Unique Relations to Maternal Stress,Parenting Beliefs,and Preschoolers’ Adjustment in Taiwanese Families

With the rapid increase in women’s labor force participation in Asia, a greater understanding of the impact of maternal employment on parenting and child development in Asia is much needed. The present study examined the concurrent relations between maternal employment status and family characteristics (e.g., socioeconomic status/SES, family structure) in Taiwanese families, and the unique relations of maternal employment and family SES to maternal stress, parenting beliefs, and preschoolers’ socioemotional adjustment. In a school-based sample of 511 preschoolers (age range?=?4–6 years, 52.9% girls), their mothers, and teachers in Taipei and Taitung, mothers reported their employment status, family characteristics, perceived stress and parenting beliefs. Mothers and teachers rated preschoolers’ adjustment. Results showed that compared to unemployed mothers in Taiwan, employed mothers were more likely to come from families with higher SES and fewer children, and nuclear (vs. extended) families. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized model. Mothers from lower-SES families reported higher stress and higher endorsement of coercive parenting, and lower endorsement of authoritative parenting than mothers from higher-SES families. Controlling for SES, employed mothers endorsed higher coercive parenting than unemployed mothers. Mothers’ endorsement of authoritative parenting was associated with better child adjustment by mothers’ (but not teachers’) reports, whereas maternal stress and coercive parenting were associated with poorer child adjustment (by mothers’ reports only). In sum, maternal employment was intricately associated with family SES in Taiwanese families, and the two contextual factors shape parenting and child adjustment in different processes.     

Self-esteem and hope mediate the relations between social support and post-traumatic stress disorder and growth in adolescents following the Ya’an earthquake

Background and objective: Although posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSD) and posttraumatic growth (PTG) can co-exist, and several theories suggest that social support, self-esteem, and hope can predict both PTSD and PTG, no study to date has examined the combined role of social support, self-esteem, and hope in PTSD and PTG. The present study aimed to simultaneously examine the mediating roles of self-esteem and hope in the relations between social support and PTSD, and between social support and PTG.

Design: This study included 397 adolescents living in Lushan County, China, who were affected by the Ya’an earthquake.

Method: The participants completed the self-report questionnaires at two and a half years after the earthquake. Structural equation models were built to examine the roles of social support, self-esteem, and hope in PTSD and PTG.

Results: Social support directly and negatively predicted PTSD and positively predicted PTG. Moreover, social support negatively predicted PTSD via self-esteem, and positively predicted PTG via hope. In addition, social support positively predicted PTG through multiple mediating paths from self-esteem to hope.

Conclusions: PTSD and PTG had different predictive paths. Specifically, social support reduced PTSD through enhanced self-esteem and promoted PTG through hope, or through the path from self-esteem to hope.     

The Relationship Between the Gender Gap in Subjective Well-Being and Leisure Activities in China

This study explains the observed gender gap in subjective well-being (SWB) in China using heterogeneous marginal utility derived from leisure hours. We find that women in China exhibit higher levels of well-being than men and that there is a conditional unexplained gender gap in SWB ranging between 0.15 and 0.17. This conditional gap can be partly (30–40%) explained by the gender difference in the marginal utility of leisure hours. Meanwhile, we find a strong negative effect of hours spent on housework. These findings are robust to a variety of model specifications and subsamples.