Thinking and feeling in the People's Republic of China: testing the generality of the "laws of emotion"

Cognitive theories of emotion assert that emotional reactions to events depend on the manner in which events are interpreted and appraised. From this perspective, the same outcome can produce different emotions. For example, a score of 85% on a test can evoke positive feelings if it is considered a success or negative feelings if it is considered a failure. Among the various appraisal dimensions that have been identified, causal attributions are thought to play a particularly influential role in shaping emotional reactions to various events. For example, success can evoke pride if it is attributed to high ability, gratitude if it is attributed to help from others, relief if it is attributed to a stroke of good fortune, or guilt if it is attained fraudulently or at the expense of others. These cognitive-affective linkages are thought to be universal. In this paper, we report two studies that tested the cross-cultural generality of some of these assumptions. In Study 1, participants from the People's Republic of China were led to succeed or fail on an (alleged) test of their intelligence and creativity. Consistent with previous findings with Western samples, attributions to ability predicted participants' emotional reactions to their test performance, with high ability attributions linked to greater pride following success. In Study 2, we extended these findings with American and Chinese participants, using a different experimental manipulation of success and failure, and a measure of attributions to effort. For both cultural groups, attributions to ability (but not attributions to effort) predicted greater emotional reactions to success. We conclude that attribution-emotion linkages have cross-cultural validity, and that pride is maximized when success is attributed to high ability.     

关于道德唤起与道德行为关系的实验研究

本文通过一个关于测验作弊的实验研究,揭示了道德唤起与道德行为之间存在的一定关系,即不同的道德唤起水平会对道德行为产生一定的影响。通过实验后的个别访谈,我们分析了道德认知、道德情感与道德唤起之间的关系。最后,我们提出了本实验研究的不足之处和可能存在的后续研究。     

Obsessional Beliefs and Symptoms of Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder in a Clinical Sample

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationships among a broad range of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms and obsessional beliefs in a clinical sample of OCD patients. Ninety-nine treatment-seeking adult OCD patients completed the Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire and the Obsessive–Compulsive Inventory-Revised. Hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for comorbid symptoms, suggested that washing was predicted by responsibility/threat estimation beliefs. Checking/doubting was not predicted by any obsessional beliefs. Hoarding was predicted by perfectionism/certainty beliefs. Neutralizing was predicted by responsibility/threat estimation beliefs. Obsessing was predicted by importance/control of thoughts and perfectionism/certainty beliefs. Ordering was predicted by perfectionism/certainty beliefs. A principal components analysis of OCD symptom dimensions and accompanying beliefs yielded two components, accounting for 53% of the variance: one, which was labeled “Fear/Threat,” consisted of importance/control of thoughts, obsessing, responsibility/threat estimation, and washing. The second, which was labeled “Incompleteness/Not Just Right,” consisted of neutralizing, perfectionism/certainty, checking/doubting, and hoarding.     

Information becomes evidence when an explanation can incorporate it into a causal framework

Recognizing information as evidence is central to the development of scientific reasoning. When does information about an event come to be treated as evidence relevant to explaining the event? We asked whether this was increasingly likely to happen when an explanation becomes available that can incorporate both the event and the information into a single causal framework. In three studies, we presented participants with events for which there were two possible and plausible explanations (a baseline and one of two alternative explanations), as well as with two pieces of background information. While all explanations could account for the event, only one alternative explanation (the “target” explanation) could incorporate both the event and the background information into a single causal framework. The results indicated that information is more likely to be seen as evidentially relevant to an event when there is an explanation available that can accommodate both the event and the information into a single casual framework than when such an explanation is lacking. Furthermore, the presence of this information renders the target alternative increasingly plausible. That is, it is the interdependence of explanation or theory and evidence that allows us to realize that some information is likely to be evidential. However, for this to happen, the relation between explanation and information must be made salient, either by explicitly asking about it (as we did in Study 1) or by fleshing out the target explanation (as we did in Study 3).     

Perfectionism, and Cognitions, Affect, Self-esteem, and Physiological Reactions in a Performance Situation

The current paper describes the results of an experiment in which 200 students who varied in levels of trait perfectionism performed a laboratory task and then were assessed in terms of levels of state affect, state self-esteem, and state automatic thoughts. Independent variables included task difficulty (high versus moderate level of difficulty) and performance feedback independent of their actual level of performance (positive or negative). Analyses also examined objective levels of performance (i.e., the number of errors on the task) and initial confidence in performance. Analyses showed that the experience of state automatic thoughts involving perfectionism was associated with negative automatic thoughts, negative affective reactions, and lower state self-esteem. Analyses of changes in mood and self-esteem showed generally that participants high in socially prescribed perfectionism had increased levels of dysphoria and anxiety and lower levels of state self-esteem following the experience of negative performance feedback or after having a relatively poor performance. Analyses of the physiological measures found increased systolic blood pressure among self-oriented perfectionists who had poorer performance and among socially prescribed perfectionists who had received negative feedback about their performance. The results for heart-rate changes yielded a less clear pattern, though there was evidence that participants with high socially prescribed perfectionism had increased heart rate if they received negative feedback and were relatively low in confidence. Collectively, these findings illustrate that how perfectionists react in challenging situations varies as a function of actual performance, performance feedback, and feelings of personal efficacy.

Development of eye-movement control

Cognitive control of behavior continues to improve through adolescence in parallel with important brain maturational processes including synaptic pruning and myelination, which allow for efficient neuronal computations and the functional integration of widely distributed circuitries supporting top-down control of behavior. This is also a time when psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and mood disorders, emerge reflecting a particularly vulnerability to impairments in development during adolescence. Oculomotor studies provide a unique neuroscientific approach to make precise associations between cognitive control and brain circuitry during development that can inform us of impaired systems in psychopathology. In this review, we first describe the development of pursuit, fixation, and visually-guided saccadic eye movements, which collectively indicate early maturation of basic sensorimotor processes supporting reflexive, exogenously-driven eye movements. We then describe the literature on the development of the cognitive control of eye movements as reflected in the ability to inhibit a prepotent eye movement in the antisaccade task, as well as making an eye movement guided by on-line spatial information in working memory in the oculomotor delayed response task. Results indicate that the ability to make eye movements in a voluntary fashion driven by endogenous plans shows a protracted development into adolescence. Characterizing the transition through adolescence to adult-level cognitive control of behavior can inform models aimed at understanding the neurodevelopmental basis of psychiatric disorders.     

Trait impulsiveness and executive function in healthy young adults

Performance-based neuropsychological tests are often used to assess planning and impulse control, but the extent to which these measures reflect trait impulsiveness or specific dimensions of trait impulsiveness is not clear. This study used the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 (BIS-11; [Patton, J. H., Stanford, M. S., & Barratt, E. S. (1995). Factor structure of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 51, 768–774.]) to examine the relationship between various dimensions of trait impulsiveness and performance on several executive function tests in healthy young adults. Total BIS-11 scores correlated with performance on measures of planning and impulse control. Higher non-planning impulsiveness scores, which indicate poorer self-control and lower cognitive complexity, correlated most strongly with performance on a maze test that measures planning and impulse control (r = .58). These results provide support for the convergent validity of pencil-and-paper maze-based measures of planning and impulse control.     

不同类型的知觉刺激对语言理解的影响

采用知觉负载范式探讨知觉刺激对语言理解的影响。实验1考察被试在加工听觉概念和视觉概念时的表征形式。实验2进一步探讨在同一通道内部,形状概念和视觉概念的表征形式。实验1发现,在进行语言理解时,如果存在听知觉负荷,加工语言中的听觉信息时会变慢。如果存在视知觉负荷,加工语言中的视觉信息时错误率会增加。实验2发现,在涉及视觉信息的语言理解中,颜色知觉负荷产生了广泛的影响,而形状知觉负荷没有表现出这种效应。总的实验结果表明,不同类型的知觉刺激对语言理解产生了不同的影响。语言理解中存在着模态化和非模态化两种不同的加工模式。     

浅析信息接受者认知调节在组织沟通中的作用

组织沟通是实现组织目标的基础,组织沟通效果受沟通要素、组织结构、个人因素以及组织文化和社会环境等众多因素的影响,而信息接受者的认知调节作用在沟通过程中起重要作用,决定着沟通有效的程度。本文旨在为今后研究沟通效果的改善策略提供依据。