初中生情绪反应、表达及其与攻击行为

运用自编的《中学生情绪评定问卷》和修订的Spielberger《状态——特质愤怒表达问卷》对833名普通中学初中生进行了测试,并用同伴提名的方法把学生分为普通组、身体攻击组和关系攻击组,探讨了初中生情绪反应、表达的特点和攻击行为学生情绪反应、表达的特点。研究结果表明:(1)初中女生报告的恐惧感、悲伤感高于男生,女生报告的愤怒表达也显著高于男生;但在特质愤怒方面,男生报告的特质愤怒水平显著高于女生。在情绪表达与反应的大多数方面不存在显著的年级差异,只在负性情绪表达方面初二女生报告了比初一、初三女生更高的负性情绪表达。(2)被同伴提名为身体攻击学生在状态愤怒、特质愤怒、愤怒表达方面显著高于普通学生,被同伴提名为关系攻击的学生在特质愤怒、愤怒表达方面也显著高于普通学生。攻击行为学生的愤怒情绪系统存在一定的缺陷。     

THE EFFECTS OF OBSERVER PRESENCE ON THE ACTIVITY LEVEL OF FAMILIES1

In the present study, the possibility that the act of observing behavior may result in changes in those behaviors was investigated. An investigation of reactivity is important to the validity of research findings because the result obtained when observers are present may not generalize to situations when observers are absent. The effects of observer presence were assessed with five families, each consisting of a mother and two children, in a laboratory setting designed to resemble a typical family living room, containing a table, couch, chairs, toys, books, and a bathroom and kitchen area. The families were each exposed to a sequence of four 30-minute conditions during which an observer was alternatively physically present or absent from the room. From behind an unobtrusive one-way mirror, family members' locations were recorded every 15 seconds on gridded floor-plan diagrams drawn to the scale of the room. After all data were collected, lines were drawn for each family member connecting the numbers sequentially and a map-reading device was then used to measure the distance covered during each minute of observation. The presence of observers markedly reduced the activity level of all families, with the average reduction approximating 50%. However, more extended observations in natural family settings may reveal that families habituate to observer presence in a relatively short period of time. If so, the solution to the reactivity problem would involve extending the observation sessions. However, if families do not habituate, new forms of data collection might be required to guarantee the validity and generalizability of data collected by obtrusive observers.     

Hypercorrection of high confidence errors: Prior testing both enhances delayed performance and blocks the return of the errors

How people correct their mistakes and sustain those corrections over time is a problem of central interest to education. It might be thought that the erroneous beliefs that people hold with high confidence would be especially difficult to correct. Interestingly, people correct these high confidence errors more easily than low confidence errors, a phenomenon known as the ‘hypercorrection effect’. Unfortunately, though, with a delay in testing there is a tendency for some of these high confidence errors to reemerge – a finding with serious consequences for education. This study investigated the effect of intervening a test immediately after corrective feedback on preventing the return of the errors. It also investigated processing differences between prevention-focused and promotion-focused people. The most educationally important new finding was that testing immediately after corrective feedback not only greatly enhanced memory for the correct answers but also blocked the return of the errors.     

The association between valuing popularity and relational aggression: the moderating effects of actual popularity and physiological reactivity to exclusion

The association between having a reputation for valuing popularity and relational aggression was assessed in a sample of 126 female children and adolescents (mean age = 12.43 years) at a 54-day residential summer camp for girls. Having a reputation for valuing popularity was positively related to relational aggression. This association was moderated by both popularity and physiological reactivity to social exclusion (i.e., respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity [RSAR] and heart rate reactivity [HRR]). Popular girls with a reputation for valuing popularity were at greater risk for engaging in relational aggression when they also exhibited blunted reactivity to social exclusion. Conversely, girls who had a reputation for valuing popularity but were not popular (i.e., the “wannabes”) were at risk for engaging in relational aggression when they exhibited heightened reactivity to exclusion.     

Sensorimotor synchronization with adaptively timed sequences

Most studies of human sensorimotor synchronization require participants to coordinate actions with computer-controlled event sequences that are unresponsive to their behavior. In the present research, the computer was programmed to carry out phase and/or period correction in response to asynchronies between taps and tones, and thereby to modulate adaptively the timing of the auditory sequence that human participants were synchronizing with, as a human partner might do. In five experiments the computer's error correction parameters were varied over a wide range, including "uncooperative" settings that a human synchronization partner could not (or would not normally) adopt. Musically trained participants were able to maintain synchrony in all these situations, but their behavior varied systematically as a function of the computer's parameter settings. Computer simulations were conducted to infer the human participants' error correction parameters from statistical properties of their behavior (means, standard deviations, auto- and cross-correlations). The results suggest that participants maintained a fixed gain of phase correction as long as the computer was cooperative, but changed their error correction strategies adaptively when faced with an uncooperative computer.     

The Fictionalist’s Attitude Problem

According to John Mackie, moral talk is representational (the realists go that bit right) but its metaphysical presuppositions are wildly implausible (the non-cognitivists got that bit right). This is the basis of Mackie’s now famous error theory: that moral judgments are cognitively meaningful but systematically false. Of course, Mackie went on to recommend various substantive moral judgments, and, in the light of his error theory, that has seemed odd to a lot of folk. Richard Joyce has argued that Mackie’s approach can be vindicated by a fictionalist account of moral discourse. And Mark Kalderon has argued that moral fictionalism is attractive quite independently of Mackie’s error-theory. Kalderon argues that the Frege–Geach problem shows that we need moral propositions, but that a fictionalist can and should embrace propositional content together with a non-cognitivist account of acceptance of a moral proposition. Indeed, it is clear that any fictionalist is going to have to postulate more than one kind of acceptance attitude. We argue that this double-approach to acceptance generates a new problem – a descendent of Frege–Geach – which we call the acceptance–transfer problem. Although we develop the problem in the context of Kalderon’s version of non-cognitivist fictionalism, we show that it is not the non-cognitivist aspect of Kalderon’s account that generates the problem. A closely related problem surfaces for the more typical variants of fictionalism according to which accepting a moral proposition is believing some closely related non-moral proposition. Fictionalists of both stripes thus have an attitude problem.

Is compassion for others stress buffering? Consequences of compassion and social support for physiological reactivity to stress

The present study examined the role of compassion for others and social support in physiological stress reactivity. In this experiment, participants who had previously completed an online assessment of compassion experienced a social stress task in front of either two supportive or neutral evaluators, while their blood pressure, cortisol, high frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV), and liking for the evaluators were monitored. Participants’ compassion for others interacted with social support condition to buffer their physiological reactivity to stress. When provided with social support during the task, higher trait compassion was associated with lower blood pressure reactivity, lower cortisol reactivity, and higher HF-HRV reactivity. Higher compassion was also associated with greater liking for the supportive evaluators. These relationships were not observed for participants in the neutral condition, regardless of their trait compassion. Compassion for others may increase our ability to receive social support, which may lead to more adaptive profiles of stress reactivity.     

Comparing emotional reactivity and regulation in infants born ELGA and VLGA

Emotional reactivity and regulation behaviors were compared in infants born extremely low gestational age (ELGA) and very low gestational age (VLGA) during the still-face procedure. Infants born ELGA demonstrated greater emotional reactivity and displayed less frequent gaze avoidance, more frequent gestures, and more self-comforting behaviors.     

Methodological problems in the use of participant observers

A multiple baseline design across observed students and teachers was used to investigate the relationship between observations by participant observers and changes in the behavior of those observed ("observee" reactivity) and the observers (observer-mediator reactivity). Two teachers recorded consecutively the appropriate student verbalizations of four students and two teachers recorded the inappropriate student verbalizations of four students. Independent observers simultaneously recorded student verbalizations (appropriate and inappropriate) as well as teacher behaviors (positive, negative, and instruction) throughout all phases of the study. The results substantiated the prediction of "observee" reactivity and observer-mediator reactivity in one of four classrooms. The results of the present study suggest that in some instances, observations by participant observers may result in changes in the behavior of those being observed ("observee" reactivity) and/or the observers (observer-mediator reactivity).