Social Anxiety and Peer Relations in Early Adolescence: Behavioral and Cognitive Factors

This study investigated factors associated with social anxiety during early adolescence using multiple informants, including self and peer perspectives, teacher ratings, and direct observations. Negative social performance expectations, maladaptive coping strategies, and social skill deficits were examined as correlates of social anxiety and mediators linking social anxiety with poor peer relations. Participants were 84 middle school students (47 girls, 37 boys) over-sampled for elevated social anxiety. Analyses revealed correlations linking social anxiety with decreased peer acceptance and increased peer victimization. Path analysis indicated that negative social performance expectations and social withdrawal-disengagement accounted for the association between social anxiety and decreased peer acceptance. Social anxiety, self-directed coping strategies, and social withdrawal-disengagement were each directly linked with increased peer victimization for boys. The results replicate findings based on clinical samples, extend understanding of cognitive, social, and behavioral factors associated with social anxiety in middle school, and provide new information regarding gender differences in the correlates of social anxiety.     

Analogical problem solving

The use of an analogy from a semantically distant domain to guide the problemsolving process was investigated. The representation of analogy in memory and processes involved in the use of analogies were discussed theoretically and explored in five experiments. In Experiment I oral protocols were used to examine the processes involved in solving a problem by analogy. In all experiments subjects who first read a story about a military problem and its solution tended to generate analogous solutions to a medical problem (Duncker's “radiation problem”), provided they were given a hint to use the story to help solve the problem. Transfer frequency was reduced when the problem presented in the military story was substantially disanalogous to the radiation problem, even though the solution illustrated in the story corresponded to an effective radiation solution (Experiment II). Subjects in Experiment III tended to generate analogous solutions to the radiation problem after providing their own solutions to the military problem. Subjects were able to retrieve the story from memory and use it to generate an analogous solution, even when the critical story had been memorized in the context of two distractor stories (Experiment IV). However, when no hint to consider the story was given, frequency of analogous solutions decreased markedly. This decrease in transfer occurred when the story analogy was presented in a recall task along with distractor stories (Experiment IV), when it was presented alone, and when it was presented in between two attempts to solve the problem (Experiment V). Component processes and strategic variations in analogical problem solving were discussed. Issues related to noticing analogies and accessing them in memory were also examined, as was the relationship of analogical reasoning to other cognitive tasks.     

Changes in the prevalence of alpha activity associated with the repetition,performance and magnitude of arithmetical calculations

Summary Changes in prevalence of alpha activity (defined as from 8 to 13 c.p.s.) immediately before and during the solution of twenty arithmetical tasks (multiplications and additions in Hard and Easy categories) by 61 normal subjects, with closed eyes, have been measured above a preset threshold voltage over noise level by a percent time alpha computer. An average prevalence of alpha activity of 64.75% before calculation reduced to an average prevalence of 49.01% during calculations. The prevalence of alpha activity during calculation was significantly increased by repetition of similar arithmetical tasks whereas the prevalence of alpha activity before calculation declined from the beginning to the end of the experiment, thus showing an opposite trend. Prevalence of alpha activity was not related to duration of calculations, but, in contrast, low prevalences of alpha activity during calculation were significantly associated with more numerous errors, particularly in additions. It was found that as the information content of a task increased so the prevalence of alpha activity during its solution declined, especially in additions and Easy multiplications. Calculation times and errors were strongly correlated with information content. These results are evaluated in terms of their possible behavioural significance and of the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying attenuation of alpha activity, although the precise theoretical context in which they should be viewed; whether they should be related to habituation, learning, fatigue or solely calculation, may require further clarification.

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Zusammenfassung Veränderungen in der Dominanz (Prävalenz) der Alpha-Aktivität (als 8–13 c.p.s. definiert) wurden kurz vor und während der Lösung von 20 arithmetischen Aufgaben (Multiplikation und Addition in Leichten und Schweren Serien) bei 61 normalen Personen, welche die Augen geschlossen hielten, studiert. Die Messung wurde bei einer festgesetzten (preset) Schwellenspannung über dem Geräuschniveau mit einem Alpha-Zeit-Computer ausgeführt. Dabei ergab sich eine Reduzierung der Alpha-Aktivität von 64,75% vor dem Rechnen auf 49,01% während des Rechnens. Die Alpha-Dominanz während des Rechnens wurde statistisch durch Wiederholung von ähnlichen Aufgaben erhöht; im Gegensatz dazu ging die Alpha-Dominanz vor dem Rechnen progressiv vom Anfang bis zum Ende des Experiments zurück.Die Alpha-Dominanz hatte keine Beziehung zur Dauer des Rechnens; andererseits waren niedrige Frequenzen von Alpha-Aktivität während des Rechnens mit Häufigkeit von Fehlern, vor allem beim Addieren, verbunden. Wenn sich der Informations-inhalt einer Aufgabe erhöhte, so verminderte sich die Alpha-Dominanz während ihrer Lösung, vor allem beim Addieren und bei leichten Multiplikationen. Sowohl Rechen-Zeit wie Fehler waren stark mit dem Informations-inhalt korreliert.Diese Ergebnisse werden hinsichtlich ihrer möglichen Beziehungen zum psychischen Verhaltens-Zustand (Behaviour) und zu den mit Abschwächung der Alpha-Aktivität verbundenen neuro-physiologischen Prozessen analysiert. Eine Klärung des präzisen theoretischen Zusammenhanges, in dem die Resultate gesehen werden sollten, sowie ihre Beziehungen zu Gewöhnung, Lernen, Ermüdung oder zum Rechnen allein, erfordert weiteres Studium.

     

Prevalence and correlates of ICD-11 adjustment disorder: Findings from the Zurich Adjustment Disorder Study

Background/Objective: The 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) will provide a new definition of adjustment disorder (AjD). The aim of the present study is to report on prevalence and correlates of ICD-11 AjD in a high-risk sample. Method: Three hundred thirty persons who had lost their job involuntarily were sampled by local job centres. The Munich Composite International Diagnostic Interview was administered with a new AjD module. Associations between AjD and correlates were investigated with logistic regression analyses. Results: 27.3% of the participants reported the AjD core symptom pattern. 13.8% men and 17.2% women met diagnostic guidelines of ICD-11 AjD. Prevalence increased with age and exposure to multiple stressors. The AjD core symptom pattern was associated with various sociodemographic correlates (e. g., lower financial household budget), whereas the full ICD-11 diagnosis including the exclusion algorithm was not. Regarding work-related factors, AjD occurred with a lower probability if the last job position had higher responsibilities and more general confidence for the future. Conclusions: ICD-11 AjD has a high prevalence among persons who lost their jobs involuntarily. Healthcare professionals should be aware of this problem. Research to investigate the ICD-11 AjD concept in the general populations and other subpopulations is needed.     

工作满意度的个人取向研究综述

文章回顾了工作满意度的个人取向研究。首先详细阐述了个人取向研究下的个人情绪情感、人格及性别与工作满意度的研究成果。接着探讨了这些研究结果对实践的指导作用。最后对工作满意度的个人取向研究进行了评价和总结。     

Red shirt color has no effect on winning in European Soccer: Reanalysis of Attrill et al. (2008) of the English premier league and six additional European leagues

Attrill et al. (2008) conducted a far-reaching study in elite English soccer demonstrating in archival research that from 1946 to 2003 seasons, teams wearing red uniforms were more likely to win championships than teams in other uniform colors, won more at home and had a higher average league position (relative to cross-city rivals). Their study was one of only very few that extended the color-in-context theory (Elliot & maier, 2007) to team, ball-oriented long-duration sports. The current investigation returns to the red superiority hypothesis in professional soccer due to weaknesses in the original evidence for this hypothesis. We conducted two studies testing the red superiority hypothesis in professional soccer. In Study 1a, we first reanalyzed the original data and tested the strength of evidence in favor of the red superiority hypothesis. We then updated the English premier league data (1992–2018) and tested uniform color effects on game outcomes. In Study 2, we attempted to broaden the scope of Study 1 and increase statistical power by testing the red superiority effect during the last 20 years of six major European Soccer leagues (NOS Portugal, German Bundesliga, Dutch Eredivisie, Spanish la Liga, French Ligue 1, and the Italian Serie A). All three tests challenge the validity of the original findings and fail to detect uniform color effects at home play in professional soccer. In light of the current findings and a growing body of research in the field we call into question overall color effects in this athletic context.     

The effects of self-focused attention, performance demand, and dispositional sexual self-consciousness on sexual arousal of sexually functional and dysfunctional men

Sexually functional (N=26) and sexually dysfunctional heterosexual men with psychogenic erectile disorder (N=23) viewed two sexually explicit videos. Performance demand was manipulated through verbal instruction that a substantial genital response was to be expected from the videos. Self-focused attention was manipulated by introducing a camera pointed at the participant. Dispositional self-consciousness was assessed by questionnaire. Performance demand was found to independently inhibit the genital response. No main effect of self-focus was found. Self-focus inhibited genital response in men scoring high on general and sexual self-consciousness traits, whereas it enhanced penile tumescence in low self-conscious men. Inhibition effects were found in both volunteers and patients. No interaction effects of performance demand and self-focus were found. Subjective sexual arousal in sexually functional men was highest in the self-focus condition. In sexually dysfunctional men, subjective sexual response proved dependent on locus of attention as well as presentation order.     

Sorting out what's in a word from what's not: Evaluating Clark's Semantic Features Acquisition theory

The Semantic Features Acquisition theory of semantic development which is due to E. Clark (e.g., 1973b) is reviewed and evaluated against the recent experimental literature, with special reference to the acquisition of English antonyms. The review critically examines the three major ontogenetic principles of Clark's theory in light of numerous recent findings, many of which are at variance in some major way with predictions from the theory. In many instances, new data are available which call into question previous findings. A recurrent problem has been that children's comprehension task performance is confounded with their response biases which are specific to the linguistic and nonlinguistic contexts in which the lexical terms are presented. Methodological implications are discussed, with recommendations for employing the logic of converging operations.     

Champions of innovation: A moderated mediation model of job crafting and discretionary effort

IntroductionResearch on the behavioral antecedents of employee championing behavior lacks scholarly investigation. The current study aims to fill this gap by studying behavioral interventions as the antecedents of championing behavior.ObjectiveThe current study has proposed and tested a moderated mediation model that states that perceived opportunity to craft cultivates championing behavior among employees. This relation is mediated by job crafting, whereas employee willingness to exert extra effort invigorates this relationship.MethodThe current study is based on survey-based data collected in three-time lags from employees working in the IT sector organizations.ResultsThe results supported the proposed model leading to the revelation that perceived opportunity to craft enhances championing behavior among employees through job crafting, and employee discretionary efforts moderate this indirect relationship.ConclusionThe results prove that behavioral interventions play a significant role in predicting championing behavior, whereas discretionary effort acts as a boundary condition. The results of the current study offer several theoretical and practical insights, but it also has a few limitations. This study opens several future research avenues that are discussed in the end.