Theory of Mind in Infants and Young Children: A Review

Theory of mind, or mindreading, refers to our uniquely human capacity to infer what is in other people's minds. Recent research suggests that “implicit” elements of this ability can be seen as early as the second year of life, in infants’ spontaneous helping, communicative, and eye‐gaze behaviours. More “explicit” verbally mediated mindreading skills emerge in the preschool period, and these are positively linked to social competence. Research with typically developing children as well as those with autism spectrum disorders suggests that exposure to conversation about mental states promotes theory of mind development.     

Commentary on Three Articles on Self‐practice/Self‐reflection in Cognitive‐Behavioural Therapy

The commentary embraces three valuable contributions to the development of professional practice: (a) engagement with self‐practice/self‐reflection as a professional self‐development: the role of therapist beliefs; (b) spontaneous self‐practice of cognitive‐behavioural therapy (CBT) by aboriginal counsellors during and following CBT training: a retrospective analysis of the facilitating conditions and impact; (c) developing metacompetence in low intensity CBT interventions: evaluating a self‐practice/self‐reflection programme for experienced low intensity CBT practitioners. Each article provides different perspectives of the self‐practice and self‐reflection benefits for efficient therapy and their use as powerful resources in therapeutic training skills in general and CBT in particular. Conclusions of their contributions close the commentary.     

Show them the money? The role of pay,managerial need support,and justice in a self‐determination theory model of intrinsic work motivation

The link between money and motivation has been a debated topic for decades, especially in work organizations. However, field studies investigating the amount of pay in relation to employee motivation is lacking and there have been calls for empirical studies addressing compensation systems and motivation in the work domain. The purpose of this study was to examine outcomes associated with the amount of pay, and perceived distributive and procedural justice regarding pay in relation to those for perceived managerial need support. Participants were 166 bank employees who also reported on their basic psychological need satisfaction and intrinsic work motivation. SEM‐analyses tested a self‐determination theory (SDT) model, with satisfaction of the competence and autonomy needs as an intervening variable. The primary findings were that amount of pay and employees' perceived distributive justice regarding their pay were unrelated to employees' need satisfaction and intrinsic work motivation, but procedural justice regarding pay did affect these variables. However, managerial need support was the most important factor for promoting need satisfaction and intrinsic work motivation both directly, indirectly, and as a moderator in the model. Hence, the results of the present organizational field study support earlier laboratory experiments within the SDT framework showing that monetary rewards did not enhance intrinsic motivation. This seems to have profound implications for organizations concerned about motivating their employees.     

迎接心理学发展的第三波

心理学自冯特始便存在两种类型,自然科学的心理学和人文的心理学.本土心理学依据“一种心智,多种心态”的原则,建构了儒家关系主义理论和自我曼陀罗模型,这种含摄文化的理论解决了冯特以科学方法研究文化的难题.批判实在论和多重哲学典范的结合,奠定了华人本土心理学科学哲学基础,在此基础上,华人本土心理学将迎来心理学发展的第三波.     

判断与决策研究纵观:基于模糊痕迹理论的视角(英文)

模糊痕迹理论是用于解释记忆、判断与决策的综合性理论,该理论的提出和发展主要基于对信息存储、表征、提取和加工过程的研究。本文首先介绍了模糊痕迹理论的基本原则,在此基础上重点讨论了其要义(gist)如何发挥核心作用,使得模糊痕迹理论有别于其他传统的决策模型。该理论将高级直觉与原始冲动性进行了区分,并且预测决策误差来源于判断与决策的各种不同成分,如背景知识、信息表征、提取和加工过程等。模糊痕迹理论不仅可以解释诸如框架效应、合取谬误等传统决策与判断文献中常讨论的误差现象,同时基于该理论的研究还得到了一些与传统决策理论相悖的新发现。此外,对脑与行为如何发育性变化的研究为我们了解成人的认知过程提供了至关重要的新视角,这些对脑与行为的发育性研究和对特殊人群的研究结果也都支持了模糊痕迹理论对要义加工依赖的预测。     

时间距离对于验证性信息加工的影响

研究基于解释水平理论考察时间距离对于验证性信息加工的影响, 即在个体和组织决策情境中, 人们倾向于偏好选择和高估与自身观点和决策相一致的信息, 而不是非一致性信息。通过4个情境决策实验, 研究结果一致表明近期决策会提高信息搜寻和评估中的验证偏差, 而远期决策会降低它们的验证偏差, 知觉到的决策确定性在其中起到部分中介作用(实验1b)。解释水平(实验2)和期许性/可行性表征(实验3)分别在时间距离对验证性信息加工的影响中起到调节作用, 结果依次表明在低解释水平(高可行性-低期许性特征)条件下, 时间距离与验证性信息加工的负相关关系会得到显著增强, 而在高解释水平(高期许性-低可行性特征)条件下, 时间距离与验证性信息加工的负相关关系会得到显著降低。     

儿童发展与电子媒体：基于生态科技微系统理论的视角

电子产品改变了人们社会活动的模式和生活方式,其低龄化使用也不可避免地影响和塑造了儿童的发展。生态系统理论认为儿童的发展源于儿童与周围环境之间不断的交互作用。生态科技微系统理论是在当今电子科技的环境下以生态系统理论为背景框架提出的解释电子媒体对儿童发展影响的理论模型。电子产品作为儿童学习、娱乐、沟通和展示自我的工具,对儿童的认知方式、情感互动方式和参与社会的方式等都会产生一定的影响。这些影响依赖于三个相互独立又关联的因素之间的作用：儿童自身的特点、电子媒体的内容和特点,以及儿童媒体使用的环境。未来的研究可以从研究手段和研究内容上进一步深化以探讨电子产品的使用和儿童发展的关系。     

New job market entrants' future work self,career adaptability and job search outcomes: Examining mediating and moderating models

Based on career construction theory and the model of proactive motivation, the current research examined the mediating and moderating models for the relations among future work self, career adaptability, job search self-efficacy and employment status. A survey study was conducted among Chinese university graduates (N = 270). The results showed that future work self (measured at wave 1) had positive effect on employment status (measured at wave 3), with this relationship partially mediated by career adaptability (measured at wave 1) and job search self-efficacy (measured at wave 2). In addition, the results further revealed that the positive effect of future work self on job search self-efficacy was stronger among the graduates who had a higher level of career adaptability. In support of the hypothesized moderated mediation model, for individuals with a higher level of career adaptability, the indirect effect of future work self on employment status through job search self-efficacy was stronger. These findings carry implications for research on job search behavior, career education and career counseling.     

Social cognitive predictors of well-being in African college students

Lent and Brown's (2006, 2008) social cognitive model of work well-being was tested in two samples of African college students, one from Angola (N = 241) and one from Mozambique (N = 425). Participants completed domain-specific measures of academic self-efficacy, environmental support, goal progress, and satisfaction, along with measures of global positive affect and life satisfaction. Path analyses indicated that the model fit the data well overall, both in the full sample and in separate sub-samples by country and gender. Contrary to expectations, however, self-efficacy predicted academic satisfaction only indirectly, via goal progress; and goal progress predicted life satisfaction only indirectly, via academic satisfaction. The predictors accounted for substantial portions of the variance in both academic domain satisfaction and life satisfaction. Implications for research and practice involving the social cognitive model are considered.