认知心理学的实用性转向

认知心理学实用性转向的根本涵义在于强调认知对于行动的效用与价值。传统认知心理学视认知系统的主要工作是怎样精确地 “表征” 世界，以便在大脑中建立一个外部世界的心理模型。实用性转向则强调认知系统的主要工作不是 “表征” 或 “反映”，而是指导有机体更有效地行动，认知是有 “效用” 的，它的效用就在于指导有机体适应和改造环境的活动。认知产生于行动、服务于行动，与行动水乳交融。这些理论观点来源于实用主义哲学。詹姆斯、杜威等人的经典实用主义对行动和效果的强调深刻影响了部分认知心理学家，促使他们放弃表征为中心的认知观而转向行动导向的认知观。在作者看来，由于这种转向强调了认知的 “效用”，因而对于认知心理学的健康发展将产生积极影响。     

心理学在社会服务体系中作用的思考——以复原力建设为例

在社会心理服务体系建设中, 心理学到底起着什么样的作用?怎样才能更好地构建全面系统的多主体社会心理服务体系?在社会心理服务体系建设中如何推动心理学自身的发展?这些问题一直受到广大心理学者的关注。以复原力为例, 通过对个体、团队以及社区心理复原力建设路径的理论总结, 加上实践案例, 以期为社会心理服务体系建设提供知识借鉴与参考, 并反思心理学在此过程中的作用与角色。心理学专业研究团队可以通过整合其在社会支持体系中的应用, 推动心理学在社会服务体系中的应用。     

Jealousy at work: The role of rivals’ characteristics

The present study examined rival characteristics that may evoke jealousy in the workplace, differences between men and women in this regard, and the relationship between jealousy responses and intrasexual competitiveness and social comparison orientation. Participants were 426 male and female employees. By means of a questionnaire, participants were presented with a jealousy‐evoking scenario after which jealousy responses to 24 rival characteristics were assessed. Findings showed that a rival's social communal attributes evoked highest levels of jealousy, and that, compared to men, women reported more jealousy in response to a rival's physical attractiveness. Overall, as individuals had higher scores on intrasexual competitiveness and social comparison orientation, they also experienced more jealousy in response to their rival, regardless of his or her characteristics. These findings suggest that those characteristics that are highly valued in employees may backfire when employees perceive co‐workers as rivals.     

Failures to induce implicit evaluations by means of approach–avoid training

Woud, Becker, and Rinck (2008) asked participants to repeatedly push pictures of certain faces away and to pull pictures of other faces towards them using a joystick. Performance in a subsequent affective priming task showed that previously pulled faces evoked more positive implicit evaluations then previously pushed faces. We report five studies in which we failed to find consistent evidence for the effect of approach–avoid training on implicit evaluations. We also failed to reproduce the effect reported by Woud et al. when reanalysing their data. An overall analysis that included our data, the data of Woud et al. and additional data provided by Woud and colleagues also did not reveal a significant effect of approach–avoid training on implicit evaluations. We conclude that the impact of approach–avoid training on implicit evaluations is subject to subtle boundary conditions.     

Divergent effects of healthy ageing on semantic knowledge and control: Evidence from novel comparisons with semantically impaired patients

Effective use of semantic knowledge requires a set of conceptual representations and control processes which ensure that currently relevant aspects of this knowledge are retrieved and selected. It is well-established that levels of semantic knowledge increase across the lifespan. However, the effects of ageing on semantic control processes have not been assessed. I addressed this issue by comparing the performance profiles of young and older people on a verbal comprehension test. Two sets of variables were used to predict accuracy and RT in each group: (1) the psycholinguistic properties of words probed in each trial and (2) the performance on each trial by two groups of semantically impaired neuropsychological patients. Young people demonstrated poor performance for low-frequency and abstract words, suggesting that they had difficulty processing words with intrinsically weak semantic representations. Indeed, performance in this group was strongly predicted by the performance of patients with semantic dementia, who suffer from degradation of semantic knowledge. In contrast, older adults performed poorly on trials where the target semantic relationship was weak and distractor relationships strong – conditions which require high levels of controlled processing. Their performance was not predicted by the performance of semantic dementia patients, but was predicted by the performance of patients with semantic control deficits. These findings indicate that the effects of ageing on semantic cognition are more complex than has previously been assumed. While older people have larger stores of knowledge than young people, they appear to be less skilled at exercising control over the activation of this knowledge.     

SIMPLIFIED HABIT REVERSAL TREATMENT FOR CHRONIC HAIR PULLING IN THREE ADOLESCENTS: A CLINICAL REPLICATION WITH DIRECT OBSERVATION

Three developmentally normal adolescents with chronic hair pulling were treated with a simplified habit reversal procedure consisting of awareness training, competing response training, and social support. Treatment resulted in an immediate reduction to near-zero levels of hair pulling, with one to three booster sessions required to maintain these levels. The results were maintained from 18 to 27 weeks posttreatment, although 1 participant reported difficulty at follow-up. The effectiveness of simplified habit reversal and suggestions for future research are discussed.