Does sensitivity to criticism mediate the relationship between theory of mind and academic achievement?

This study adds to the growing research on school outcomes associated with individual differences in preschoolers’ theory of mind skills by considering whether “costs” of theory of mind (e.g., sensitivity to criticism) actually help to foster children’s academic achievement. A group of 60 Italian children was tested during the last year of preschool (Time 1, mean age = 5 years 6 months) and in their first year (Time 2, mean age = 6 years 5 months) and second year (Time 3, mean age = 7 years 5 months) of primary school. Children’s theory of mind, verbal ability, and social skills were evaluated at each time point. In addition, children’s sensitivity to teacher criticism was assessed at Time 2 and teachers’ ratings of children’s academic achievement were gathered at Time 3. Mediation analyses showed that, independent of verbal ability and social skills, sensitivity to criticism at Time 2 mediated the association between theory of mind at Time 1 and academic achievement at Time 3. These findings highlight the importance of investigating the educational consequences of individual differences in preschoolers’ theory of mind.     

Working memory of highly self‐critical men is impaired by failure

Previous studies have shown self‐criticism to be negatively associated with goal progress. In order to investigate factors that may influence this association, the present study examined the interactive impact of performance (failure vs. success) and self‐criticism on working memory (WM). Goal‐directed behavior in the achievement domain was operationalized as comparative performance on two strongly correlated WM span tasks. The effect of negative or positive performance feedback was assessed by presenting a success or a failure experience between the two WM span tasks in order to examine the influence of failure and success on the second WM span task compared with the first/baseline. A male‐only sample was used as a follow‐up to a previous study that has utilized a female‐only sample. Findings revealed self‐criticism to serve as an individual difference factor that influences men's WM functioning in the context of failure. This interactive effect may contribute to diminished goal progress in men.     

批判与建构——荀子社会批判思想研究

旬子的社会批判理论是对现存社会合理性问题理性反思的基础上展开的。他深刻揭露和批判当时社会的弊端,否定现存社会的运行方式,深入分析社会混乱无序的结症,积极探寻超越现实的路径,建构起以等级分明、分工明晰、尚贤使能、礼法兼治为特征,以“群居和一”的“至平”社会为理想的社会发展理论。     

Moral Feedback and Motivation: Revisiting the Undermining Effect

Social psychologists have evidence that evaluative feedback on others’ choices sometimes has unwelcome negative effects on hearers’ motivation. Holroyd’s article (Holroyd J. Ethical Theory Moral Pract 10:267–278, 2007) draws attention to one such result, the undermining effect, that should help to challenge moral philosophers’ complacency about blame and praise. The cause for concern is actually greater than she indicates, both because there are multiple kinds of negative effect on hearer motivation, and because these are not, as she hopes, reliably counteracted by implicit features of praise and blame. The communicative ideal that she articulates does point us in the right direction, but it requires further elaboration. Once it is spelled out, we find that realizing this ideal, in light of the empirical research, requires rethinking the role of verdict-like judgments within moral feedback.

Soul and Psyche: A Critical Assessment

Wayne G. Rollins has been the key organizer of the Psychology and Biblical Studies program unit of the Society of Biblical Literature, where on numerous occasions I have observed the gentle kindness and buoyant enthusiasm with which he has hosted and moderated the meetings. I have also benefitted from personal and professional conversations with him. Consequently, it is an honor, and more than a little daunting, to respond to his book. Rollins has three goals for this volume: to provide a history of the discipline he calls psychological biblical criticism, to define this academic field, and to propose an agenda for this field as applied to biblical exegesis and hermeneutics. Rollins hopes for a rapprochement between the historical and psychological approaches to biblical studies.     

Individual differences in coping with criticism of one's physical appearance among Taiwanese students

When someone is criticized for some failure or deficiency, he or she is faced with a dilemma about whether or how to respond. To date, most research on responses to criticism has adopted a communication approach and has focused on general social complaints. The present study instead adopted the perspective of stress and coping and aimed to delineate possible responses to criticism pertaining to one's physical appearance. We investigated the efficacy of three coping styles, namely acceptance, avoidance, and retaliation in explaining emotional reactions towards such criticism, and we additionally controlled for personality characteristics, in particular assertion and harmony beliefs. A sample of Taiwanese university students (N = 300) was surveyed for their coping styles and psychological outcomes, and personality traits were examined as possible predictors of response options. We found that (1) acceptance, retaliation, and avoidance were three broad coping styles in this problematic social situation; (2) the individual trait of assertion was negatively related to the use of avoidance, while harmony beliefs were positively related to acceptance and avoidance, but negatively related to retaliation; and (3) the use of acceptance and avoidance were positively related to positive emotions, whereas retaliation was positively related to negative emotions. Males tended to use more acceptance. Implications of these findings were discussed in relation to existing studies of communication, stress and coping. Possible influences of the Chinese collectivist culture on people's responses to criticism were also delineated, such as valuing interpersonal harmony and face-work in social situations.     

The Ethics and Politics of Religious Ethics, 1973–2023

This essay addresses the questions, “what good is religious ethics for?” and “what justification exists for the field?” in three steps. First, it canvases how religious ethicists have offered reasons for carrying out work in the field to identify an Anti-Reductive Paradigm that is guided by an Egalitarian Imperative. That imperative functions as a thin, minimal morality of inclusivity and equal respect that guides work in the field. Second, the essay considers the field's ends. Here the focus shifts from values that shape the field's methods to values that can describe the field's purposes. That shift requires us to think in terms of a thick rather than a thin morality, one with substantive rather than procedural virtues in mind. The essay offers a constructive, substantive proposal under the rubric of Critical Humanism. Critical Humanism justifies the study of religious ethics as an enterprise that can expand the moral imagination through its encounter with difference. It is shaped by four values: post-critical reasoning, social criticism, cross-cultural fluency, and environmental responsibility. Third, the essay brings the two parts of the argument together by explaining how to connect such purposes to the thin morality of inclusivity and equal respect. One upshot of the essay is to have us think not only about values, but also about power as it pertains to scholarship in the guild; hence the attention to the ethics and politics of religious ethics.     

Book Reviews

James Campbell, Understanding John Dewey: Nature and Cooperative Intelligence
Charlene Haddock Seigfried, Pragmatism and Feminism: Reweaving the Social Fabric     

Arguing about the ethics of past actions: An analysis of a taped conversation about a taped conversation

In the face of widespread cynicism as regards the possibilities for reasoned and reasonable adjudication of ethical differences in the postmodern age, this essay proposes a dialogic, reconstructive rhetoric as a vehicle for jointly arguing about the ethics of past actions, and looks to the friendship circle as a model arena for the playing out of such a rhetoric. Analyzed by way of illustration is a conversation among four good friends about the ethics of another, surreptitiously taped, conversation between two of those friends.The author wishes to thank Barbie Zeltzer and Micheal Krippondorf, both of Temple University, fot thier comments. Abridged versions of this paper were presented at the Iowa Conference on Narrative in the Human Sciences,1990 and at the England Symposium in Narratives in the Social Sciences. Commentaries at these conferences were also very useful.     

Self‐criticism and self‐reassurance as mediators between mental health attitudes and symptoms: Attitudes toward mental health problems in Japanese workers

Japanese workers suffer high rates of mental health symptoms, recognised recently by the Japanese government, which has enacted workplace well‐being initiatives. One reason for poor mental health concerns negative attitudes about mental health problems such as shame, which may be mediated by self‐reassurance and self‐criticism. This study aimed to evaluate shame‐based attitudes toward mental health problems and explore the relationship between mental health attitudes, self‐criticism, self‐reassurance, and mental health symptoms. Japanese workers (n = 131) completed three measures: attitudes toward mental health problems, mental health symptoms, and self‐criticism/reassurance. A high proportion of workers reported negative attitudes about mental health problems. There were strong relationships between mental health attitudes, mental health symptoms, self‐criticism, and self‐reassurance. Path analyses revealed that the total and indirect effects (through self‐criticism and self‐reassurance) of mental health attitudes on mental health were larger than the direct effect alone. Hated‐self and family reflected shame were identified as predictors for mental health symptoms. The findings suggest the importance of self‐criticism and self‐reassurance in mental health and mental health attitudes. Implications for help‐seeking behaviours also are discussed. Interventions aimed at reducing self‐criticism and enhancing self‐reassurance are recommended to improve mental health attitudes and increase help‐seeking in Japanese workers.