Understanding What’s Good for Us

The ancient question of what a good life consists in is currently the focus of intense debate. There are two aspects to this debate: the first concerns how the concept of a good life is to be understood; the second concerns what kinds of life fall within the extension of this concept. In this paper, I will attend only to the first, conceptual aspect and not to the second, substantive aspect. More precisely, I will address the preliminary, underlying question of how to understand what it is in general for something to be good for someone, from which an understanding of the more particular concept of a good life may be derived.

梁启超心理学思想初探

梁启超是清末著名的思想启蒙大师之一,文化巨擘。尽管他本人没有系统地进行过科学心理学的研究,但在其留给后人的文化遗产中却闪烁着心理学思想的火花。本文初步探讨了梁启超的心理学思想,将其心理学思想总结为神具形生、境由心造的心理本质观,“慧观”和“悟”的认知观,意志自由和立志的志意观,重情轻智的情智观,共通和完满的人格观,并讨论了其心理学思想的意义。．     

The role of personality in adolescent career planning and exploration: A social cognitive perspective

Social cognitive career theory (SCCT) recognises the importance of individual differences and contextual influences in the career decision-making process. In extending the SCCT choice model, this study tested the role of personality, social supports, and the SCCT variables of self-efficacy, outcome expectations and goals in explaining the career readiness actions of career planning and exploration. The authors surveyed 414 Australian high school students in Years 10, 11 and 12. Career exploration was associated with goals and social supports, whereas career planning was associated with self-efficacy, goals, personality and an interaction term for goals and social support that indicated that levels of planning were highest when social support and goals were highest. Implications for parents, teachers and guidance counsellors as well as recommendations for future research directions are discussed.     

Disruptive decisions to leave home: Gender and family differences in expatriation choices

I developed a theoretical model predicting how gender and family status would influence employee willingness to expatriate, international job search behavior, and expatriation decisions and tested the model in a longitudinal investigation. Australian employees comprising 230 females and 401 males with partners and/or children and 208 female and male childless singles were surveyed three times over three years. Employees who had greater personal agency and less family barriers were more willing to expatriate, to search for international jobs, and to eventually leave their home countries. Having a family restricted females’ ability to transform their willingness to expatriate into an international job search to a greater extent than it did males’. In turn, international job search predicted actual expatriation for a job. Overall, the expatriation interests of women with partners and/or children were least realized (most inhibited) in international job search and subsequent expatriation behavior. The interests of childless single employees were most realized. The study challenges current thinking on women’s willingness to expatriate by demonstrating that women are willing to expatriate, but family factors lead to women being less able to transform their willingness into an international job search than men, subsequently flowing on to women expatriating less for work than men.     

微创与开腹手术治疗胆管结石患者生存质量的比较

采用消化病生存质量指数（gastrointestinal quality of life index,GIQLI）前瞻性测定45例微创内引流一期缝合术与42例开腹胆总管探查术治疗肝外胆管结石在术前、术后2,4,8,12周的生存质量值。结果显示微创组较开腹组治疗肝外胆管结石更有利于患者术后恢复和生存质量提高,微创手术患者术后生存质量更好。     

中国区域跨文化心理学理论探索与实证研究

中国区域跨文化心理学是以文化学、社会学、人类学、人文地理学、社会心理学、跨文化心理学等学科理论为基础, 比较研究中国城乡区域、地理区域、历史区域、行政区域、生态区域等文化区域居民的个体心理和群体心理共同性和差异性的学科。采用系列问卷, 在2004年和2009年先后三次对甘肃省河西、河东汉族为主的地级市属各个县市区城乡居民以及蒙拢、湘拢的跨省域居民进行抽样调查。结果表明, 区域文化同一性和差异性以及具体的生态环境、生活方式、经济发展、政治体制、社会结构、教育水平、风俗习惯、风土人情等差异, 是影响区域居民心理健康、性格特质、社会态度、刻板印象等心理机能的重要变量。今后研究将着力进行学科理论完善和省际、县际比较研究, 更好地运用田野工作等方法, 揭示区域文化与心理行为之间的相互关系和作用机制, 形成理论模型, 为建设和谐社会提供理论依据。     

中国老乡心理效应的理论探索与实证研究

老乡心理的本质是祖籍族群认同。中国人的老乡心理表现在离开家乡到外地后对家乡的怀念、对家乡人的依恋、对家乡方言的认同、老乡之间的相互帮助行为乃至老乡之间的组织行为。研究发现, 老乡心理效应由语言认同、文化认同、情感认同、习俗认同、地域认同等成分组成, 必备条件由中心因素和外围因素构成, 中心因素包括离家在外、地缘切近、文化趋同和相互扶持。采用群体参照效应的研究范式, 考察在本地和外地上学的大学生对老乡的参照效应, 发现被试在外地时, 参照本省(市)人加工的回忆成绩显著优于其他参照条件, 对本省(市)人表现出参照效应; 被试在本地时, 各参照条件下回忆成绩没有差异。老乡心理是形成区域心理性格的基础, 也是区域文化差异与人格差异相互作用的重要标志。老乡心理是民族认同、国家认同的心理基础。老乡认同的核心是社会文化认同, 社会文化认同以语言认同为内核。     

Is ‘object-centred neglect’ a homogeneous entity?

The nature of object-centred (allocentric) neglect and the possibility of dissociating it from egocentric (subject-centred) forms of neglect are controversial. Originally, allocentric neglect was described by  and  in patients who reproduced all the elements of a multi-object scene, but left unfinished the left side of one or more of them. More recently, however, Karnath, Mandler, and Clavagnier (2011) have claimed that the severity of allocentric neglect worsens when a complex ‘object’ shifts from an ipsilesional to a contralesional egocentric position. On the basis of these and of other clinical data, showing that allocentric and egocentric neglect are strongly associated, they have questioned the possibility of dissociating these two forms of neglect, suggesting that egocentric and allocentric neglect constitute different manifestations of the same disturbed system. Since these statements were inconsistent with the clinical findings which had prompted the construct of object-centred neglect, we checked in a group of right brain-damaged patients, who had copied the original multi-object scene, if the degree of neglect for the left side of figures varied as a function of their position on the horizontal axis. Furthermore, we reviewed all papers where copies of other multi-object scenes had been reported. Results of both studies failed to confirm the assumption of a relationship between spatial location of the stimulus and severity of object-centred neglect. This discrepancy between our data and those obtained by Karnath et al. (2011) could be due to the characteristics of stimuli and of procedures used to evaluate ‘object-centred’ neglect. If the stimulus is complex and the task requires its thorough exploration, the spatial location of the stimulus will influence the severity of ‘object-centred neglect’. If, on the contrary, the stimulus is simple and can be identified with few eye fixations, the spatial location of the stimulus should not influence the severity of ‘object-centred neglect’. In any case, our data confirm the possibility of dissociating allocentric from egocentric neglect.     

Personal Identity in College and the Work Context: Developmental Trajectories and Psychosocial Functioning

Personal identity formation represents a core developmental challenge for adolescents and young adults. Because much of the identity literature focuses on college students, it is necessary to conduct a detailed inquiry into the ways in which specific commitment and exploration processes develop over time for college students and for employed individuals. Two samples (456 college students and 318 employed individuals) were used to identify identity status trajectories over time and to examine external correlates of these trajectories (i.e. depressive symptoms, self‐esteem, identity centrality, community integration, and sense of adulthood). Similar identity trajectories emerged in both college students and employed individuals. Four of these trajectories corresponded to Marcia's identity statuses. In addition, apart from the ‘classical’ or troubled diffusion trajectory, a carefree diffusion trajectory was also obtained. Whereas individuals on an identity‐achieved pathway fared best in terms of the outcome measures, individuals in the troubled diffusion trajectory fared worst in terms of self‐esteem, depressive symptoms, and community integration over time. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Themes of Self‐Regulation and Self‐Exploration in the Life Stories of Religious American Conservatives and Liberals

A sample of 128 highly religious (Christian) midlife American adults completed a series of attitudinal and personality trait measures and narrated 12 important autobiographical scenes in their life stories. Individuals high on self‐reported political conservatism tended to accentuate the theme of self‐regulation in their life stories, repeatedly describing important autobiographical scenes wherein they struggled to control, discipline, manage, restrain, protect, or preserve the self. By contrast, individuals high on political liberalism tended to emphasize the theme of self‐exploration, telling stories about expanding, discovering, articulating, or fulfilling the self. Demographics and dispositional traits (especially openness to experience) showed significant associations with conservatism‐liberalism, as well, but these variables did not mitigate the robust relationship between life‐narrative themes and political orientation. The results are discussed in terms of a broadened understanding of personality that conceives of dispositional traits and narrative identity as comprising distinct layers and complementary features of psychological individuality, both implicated in political lives.