国外环境心理学研究的新进展

人口过度增长和人类过度消费导致严重的环境危机,直接影响全球可持续发展。环境心理学是20世纪70年代以来在西方社会逐步兴起的一门新学科。当前,环境心理学家应更多与环境政策制定者和政府官员接触和对话,促进正确环境政策的决策和形成。同时环境心理学家应在人的环境知觉、环境压力和生活质量;环境心理学研究中的认知、动机和社会因素;可持续发展行为、生活方式和组织文化等方面加强研究与合作。.     

当代客观化人格测验的技术—— 基于实验的行为评估:维也纳研究小组开发的多种计算机化测验介绍

目前多数人格测验(特别是在中国使用的人格测验)基本上都是人格问卷, 基于实验的行为评估类客观化人格测验应用很少; 而后者近来在德语圈国家中则有复苏的迹象。因此, 本文综述了此类客观测验相对于人格问卷来说所具有的特点和优势, 如, 被试很难在这类客观化人格测验中作伪。本文介绍了维也纳研究小组所做的几个测验, 并讨论了这些测验的心理测量学性质和缺点。最后, 还列举了这些测验的实际应用。     

Reduction of residential consumption of electricity through simple monthly feedback

Feedback has been widely used in efforts to control the consumption of electricity. Previous efforts, however, have used forms of feedback that seem economically impractical. The present study examined the effects of a feasible program of monthly feedback. Forty matched nonvolunteer participants were randomly divided into two groups: a no-contact control group and a monthly feedback group. In an A-B-A design, the data showed a clear decrease in electricity consumption for the feedback group during the feedback phase. The effect was maintained during a 4-mo intervention period. Withdrawal of the feedback was associated with a return to higher levels of electricity consumption.     

Environmental risks: Scientific concepts and social perception

Using the example of air pollution, I criticize a restricted utilitarian view of environmental risks. It is likely that damage to health due to environmental pollution in Western countries is relatively modest in quantitative terms (especially when considering cancer and comparing such damage to the effects of some life-style exposures). However, a strictly quantitative approach, which ranks priorities according to the burden of disease attributable to single causes, is questionable because it does not consider such aspects as inequalities in the distribution of risks. Secondly, the ability of epidemiological research to identify some health effects is limited. Third, the environment has symbolic and aesthetic components that overcome a strict evaluation of damage based on the impairment of human health. It is not acceptable that priorities be set just balancing the burden of disease caused by pollution in the environment against economic constraints. As an example of a computation that inherently includes economic analysis, I refer to the proposal of an estimator of mortality in coal mining, i.e., a rate which puts deaths in the numerator and tons of coal extracted in the denominator. According to this estimator, mortality due to accidents decreased from 1.15 to 0.42 in the period 1950–1970 in the United States, for each million tons of coal extracted. However, considering the steep decline in the workforce in the same period, the traditional mortality rate (deaths over persons-time) actually increased. The proposal of a measure of mortality based on the amount of coal extracted is just one example of the attempts to influence decisions by including an economic element (productivity) in risk assessment. This paper has three purposes: One, to describe empirical research concerning the health effects of environmental pollutants; two, to discuss the scientific principles and methods used in the identification of environmental hazards; and three, to critically discuss some of the ethical principles which are applied in medicine and in the assessment and management of risk.     

Pedestrian jaywalking under facilitating and nonfacilitating conditions

Each year, thousands of pedestrians are killed or injured while crossing streets in the United States. Pedestrians who jaywalk across busy intersections increase their risk of being injured by an automobile. The present series of studies investigated pedestrian jaywalking behaviors under temporal conditions which appeared to control noncompliance and compliance with pedestrian walk signs. An intersection involving three major streets was the target site of the studies. The timing of walk and no-walk light sequences was different in the clockwise and counterclockwise direction and produced differential delays. In three separate studies, significantly more pedestrians jaywalked when walking in the long-delay as opposed to short-delay direction. Traffic planners might use these findings to establish safer pedestrian signal systems.     

Assessing the Clinical Competence of Psychology Students Through Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs): Student and Staff Views

Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) are a well‐known, reliable, and valid assessment method used across the healthcare sector. In the present study, we applied OSCEs in three units within professional postgraduate psychology courses, with the broad aims of identifying staff and student perceptions of the assessment. At the conclusion of each OSCE, staff and students completed a feedback questionnaire that contained both scaled and open‐ended questions. Results suggest that clinical psychology OSCEs can be stressful for students, but are also well regarded. Both staff and students felt that the OSCEs were realistic, valid, and aligned well with professional practice. Students reported differences in the way in which they prepared for the OSCEs compared with a written exam or other form of assessment, while staff noted that models of OSCE development must be flexible, to adequately assess the objectives of individual units. Further, because they can be a costly exercise, OSCEs need to be applied judiciously within the tertiary sector.     

Multilevel Model Prediction

Multilevel models are proven tools in social research for modeling complex, hierarchical systems. In multilevel modeling, statistical inference is based largely on quantification of random variables. This paper distinguishes among three types of random variables in multilevel modeling—model disturbances, random coefficients, and future response outcomes—and provides a unified procedure for predicting them. These predictors are best linear unbiased and are commonly known via the acronym BLUP; they are optimal in the sense of minimizing mean square error and are Bayesian under a diffuse prior. For parameter estimation purposes, a multilevel model can be written as a linear mixed-effects model. In this way, parameters of the many equations can be estimated simultaneously and hence efficiently. For prediction purposes, we show that it is more convenient to retain the multiple equation feature of multilevel models. In this way, the efficient BLUPs are easy to compute and retain their intuitively appealing recursive form. We also derive explicit equations for standard errors of these different types of predictors. Prediction in multilevel modeling is important in a wide range of applications. To demonstrate the applicability of our results, this paper discusses prediction in the context of a study of school effectiveness. This research was supported by a grant from the Graduate School at the University of Wisconsin at Madision and the National Science Foundation, Grant number SES-0436274. We are grateful to Norman Webb at Wisconsin Center for Education Research for making available the data used in the reported application.     

父母心理控制与青少年智能手机成瘾:心理需求网络满足和环境敏感性的作用

本研究探讨了父母心理控制与智能手机成瘾的关系,以湖北省某中学的1320名高中生为被试,采用问卷法考察了心理需求网络满足在父母心理控制和智能手机成瘾关系间的中介效应,以及环境敏感性对这一中介过程的调节效应。结果发现：（1）在控制了手机使用频率后,父母心理控制对智能手机成瘾具有显著正向预测作用;（2）心理需求网络满足在父母心理控制和智能手机成瘾之间起中介作用;（3）中介链条的后半段,即心理需求网络满足和智能手机成瘾的关系受到环境敏感性的调节。具体来说,对于高环境敏感性的人,心理需求网络满足对智能手机成瘾的正向预测作用明显增强。