Exploring gender differences in infant motor development related to parent’s promotion of play

This study explored how parents’ promotion of play may impact gender differences in motor development of six-nine month old infants. Twenty-nine infants between six-nine months of age and their primary caregivers took part in assessments of anthropometry, motor development, video observations of play and a qualitative interview. Results revealed females had significantly higher scores for fine motor skills and significantly higher incidence of touching toys in an individual play scenario compared to males. Males had a higher intensity level of play during both play scenarios. Qualitative explorations found that parents perceived other adults such as surrounding family and friends to promote gender differences but not themselves; however, parents’ verbal interactions with infants did appear to differ by gender. Parents of males more frequently made statements to promote gross motor skills while parents of females more frequently made statements to promote fine motor skills. While biological influences are suggested to play a role on gender differences of motor development early in life, environmental explanations related to socialization, gender-differentiated expectations and experiences amplify these differences to a greater degree than may have been previously considered during this time period.     

Mindful social inferences: Decentering decreases hostile attributions

While research indicates that mindfulness can benefit individual well-being, less is known about its potential impact in the interpersonal domain. In the current research, we examined whether a central element of mindfulness—decentering—decreases hostile attributions in ambiguous social situations. We hypothesized that decentering from experiences—observing and considering them as mental events that arise and disappear—hampers the development of hostile attributions. A series of three laboratory studies, two of which were high-powered and pre-registered, demonstrated that decentering decreases hostile attribution in response to ambiguous social scenarios as compared to immersion instructions, and as compared to baseline. Additionally, the results suggest that decentering may be particularly beneficial in reducing hostile attribution bias among participants high in trait rumination. The current findings provide initial insights into the effect of decentering on the development of hostile attribution bias, and the association between mindfulness and interpersonal responses more generally.     

Patterns in perceived crash risk among male and female drivers with and without substantial cycling experience

Perceived risk of crashes is generally higher in female than in male cyclists. No study has assessed whether these gender differences only apply to riding bicycles. Using an online risk assessment task and survey, this study (a) tested the hypothesis that compared to men, women perceive higher risks, irrespective of traffic mode and (b) explored gender differences in the predictors of perceived risk. Data were analysed from 595 driver licence holders in Australia: 444 who cycled regularly, termed ‘cyclists’ from here on (31% women) and 151 regular drivers who did not (63% women), who are referred to as ‘drivers’. Cyclists in their role as cyclists and drivers in their role as drivers (traffic role) were instructed to imagine being in a specified traffic scenario and to assess crash likelihood. Each of 6 traffic scenarios was presented twice but differing in configuration: a violating car and a violating bicycle. A mixed ANOVA, with rated probability of a crash as the dependent variable, gender and traffic role as grouping factors, and configuration as the repeated measure, resulted in a main effect of configuration, showing that both drivers and cyclists perceived higher levels of risk of violating cars than of violating bicycles (η_p2 = 0.34). The interaction of traffic role and configuration showed this difference to be smaller for drivers than for cyclists (η_p2 = 0.18). This suggests that drivers are aware of the car’s high injury potential in crashes with cyclists. The main effect of gender showed that irrespective of traffic role, women perceived higher risk than men, which supported the hypothesis that gender differences are not limited to cycling (η_p2 = 0.03). The main effect of traffic role was not significant.For the predictors of perceived risk, ANOVA showed main effects for traffic role and gender, with small effect sizes (from η_p2 = 0.02 to η_p2 = 0.03). Cyclists were more confident, less inattentive and more in favour of stricter laws. Women felt less skilled and were more concerned about risks. None of the interactions between gender and traffic role were significant, which lent further support to the hypothesis that gender differences were a general rather than a cycling specific characteristic. Thus, perceived risk does not differ between women who regularly cycle and those who do not. These findings may inform interventions about the role of perceived risk in the uptake of cycling.     

Fitness- and appearance-related self-conscious emotions and sport experiences: A prospective longitudinal investigation among adolescent girls

Despite well-documented benefits of sport participation for adolescents, girls are less likely to initiate participation and more likely to disengage from sport, compared to boys. Due to the highly evaluative and social nature of the sport context, girls’ emotional experiences around their body’s abilities, function, and fitness are important – yet understudied – predictors of sport participation. The objectives of this longitudinal study were to describe changes in fitness-related and appearance-related self-conscious emotions (i.e., guilt, shame, authentic pride, hubristic pride) and sport experiences (i.e., sport commitment, enjoyment, anxiety) over time, and examine whether between- and within-person differences in these emotions predict sport experiences during adolescence. A sample of 518 girls involved in organized sport completed questionnaires once a year over a three-year period. Results from multilevel models reveal detrimental changes in emotions, sport commitment and enjoyment over time. Further, fitness-related emotions remain significant predictors of sport experiences above and beyond appearance-related emotions thus highlighting the importance of fitness-related emotions in predicting sport experiences. Examining both between and within-person effects is novel in elucidating the predictive capacity of fitness-related emotions as they explain differences between girls – as well as variations in girls’ sport experiences over time.     

Prosocial behaviour mediates the relation between empathy and aggression in primary school children

ABSTRACT

The negative association between empathy and aggression has been widely investigated in the literature. However, the role of potential mediators and the extent to which their effects are gender-specific have been given considerably less attention. The present cross-sectional study was therefore aimed at examining the direct and indirect relations between empathy (differentiated into perspective taking and empathic concern), prosocial behaviour and aggression in a sample of 240 primary school children between 8 and 12 years of age. The results showed that perspective taking and empathic concern had indirect (rather than direct) negative effects on aggression by enhancing prosocial behaviour. These indirect paths applied equally well to boys and girls, although significant gender differences were observed in empathic concern, prosocial behaviour and aggression. Possible explanations and differences with previous studies are discussed.     

Leadership perceptions,gender, and dominant personality: The role of normality evaluations

Individuals with dominant personality tend to be perceived as leaders, but theory suggests the dominance advantage for leadership might depend upon gender. Role congruity theory (Eagly & Karau, 2002) holds that gender role-incongruence (i.e., dominant personality traits among women) can be a liability, which we propose produces a dominance-gender interaction effect on leadership perceptions. We extend this theory by proposing and testing a novel conceptual mediator of the role congruity effect—perceived normality. Results show dominance predicts perceived transformational leadership, but only for men. This role congruity interaction effect is then explained by perceived normality (mediated moderation). The conditional indirect effect of dominance on leadership through perceived normality is positive for men, but negative for women—consistent with role congruity theory.     

Anger arousal,deindividuation, and aggression

We tested the notion that angered persons' aggression would be increased through a process of excitation transfer when they are deindividuated, but that individuated subjects would be most aggressive in circumstances under which they could use the information that they had ingested an arousing drug as a pretext for their aggression. Sixty-two male undergraduates participated under either deindividuated or individuated conditions, ingested either 350 mg of caffeine or a placebo, were informed that they had either taken a stimulant or a nonarousing drug, and were all angered by a confederate. According to prediction, when deindividuated and aroused by caffeine the amount of noxious stimulation subjects delivered to the provocateur was greater if they believed that the drug they had taken was nonarousing than if they thought it was a stimulant; in contrast, individuated subjects' aggression was greater when aroused subjects believed the drug was a stimulant. The results are discussed in terms of excitation transfer and the effect of aggression inhibition on the use of information about one's arousal.     

领导领域中归因理论的研究述评

领导领域中的归因研究对于把握领导过程、组织绩效评估以及领导成员关系等问题均具有重要的理论与实际意义。文章回顾了自领导归因理论提出以后,领导归因领域中包括有关模型构建、验证与发展、内隐归因在内的相关研究;同时,对归因偏差、归因风格、领导成员关系、人格特质、领导类型、情绪、文化及相关人口学变量等因素与领导归因的关系研究进行了系统梳理;最后,分析、总结了该领域以往研究的不足及今后的研究趋势     

Culture and Causal Cognition

East Asian and American causal reasoning differs significantly. East Asians understand behavior in terms of complex interactions between dispositions of the person or other object and contextual factors, whereas Americans often view social behavior primarily as the direct unfolding of dispositions. These culturally differing causal theories seem to be rooted in more pervasive, culture-specific mentalities in East Asia and the West. The Western mentality is analytic, focusing attention on the object, categorizing it by reference to its attributes, and ascribing causality based on rules about it. The East Asian mentality is holistic, focusing attention on the field in which the object is located and ascribing causality by reference to the relationship between the object and the field.