Environmental education and socioresponsive engineering

A recent initiative at Muffakham Jah College of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad, India, has resulted in setting up a program called Centre for Environment Studies and Socioresponsive Engineering which seeks to involve undergraduate students in studying and solving environmental problems in and around the city of Hyderabad, India. Two pilot projects have been undertaken — one focusing on design and construction of an eco-friendly house, The Natural House, and another directed at improving environmental and general living conditions in a slum area. The paper describes our attempts and experience of motivating our students to take interest in such projects. In an interesting development we invited a member of a student-faculty team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) that is doing a project in Nepal on safe drinking water. We report in our paper how the presentation by the guest from M.I.T. served as a catalyst for generating interest among civil and mechanical engineering students in our own projects. The paper includes contributions from one of our students and the M.I.T. staff member, reporting on their experiences related to the slum development project. We also discuss the Natural House project and its international and educational significance as a means of inculcating sensitivity and interest in nature among engineering students. We propose a pledge for engineers similar to the Hippocratic Oath for medical professionals.     

基于认知视角探讨环境不确定性对领导有效性的影响机制

基于管理认知视角,系统深入地探讨了环境不确定性情境对领导有效性的影响机制。具体地,通过质性和量化方法相结合,首先基于意义建构理论(Sense-Making Theory)探寻领导者对于环境不确定情境的感知和解读过程;其次从管理认知视角探讨环境不确定性如何通过高层领导者的管理认知影响战略选择进而作用于领导有效性的过程和路径;最后基于权变思想探讨环境不确定性、组织文化、组织类型情境如何共同作用于领导有效性。研究结果在理论上将克服过去领导情境理论研究不足,打通微观和宏观的视角昭示环境不确定性情境对领导有效性的影响过程和作用路径,揭示其背后深层作用机理。实践方面将为领导者如何有效应对不确定性以及具体领导实践提供重要依据。     

Predictors of multiple concurrent and multiple sexual partnerships among male and female youth aged 18–24 in South Africa

This study aimed to determine predictors of multiple concurrent and multiple sexual partnerships among South African male and female youth. Data were from a cross-sectional population-based household survey of 3 123 youths aged 18 to 24 years from four South African provinces (males = 53.6%, blacks = 97.8%). Results from a sub-sample of being sexually active in the past 12 months (n = 1787) indicate that 5.3% (7.1% in males and 3.1% in females) youth participants had multiple concurrent sexual partners, and 38.8% (50.1% in males and 25.8% in females) had had two or more sexual partners in the past 12 months. Among females, multiple concurrent partnerships were only predicted by lower social network resources. Predictors of multiple sexual partnerships (two or more sexual partners in the past 12 months) among males included high HIV risk perception, never been tested for HIV and hazardous or harmful alcohol use. By contrast, among females, high peer pressure, lower education and ever having taken drugs predicted involvement with multiple sexual partners. Multi-level health promotion interventions are indicated for sexual behaviour change among South African youth.     

国外环境心理学研究新进展

环境心理学产生于20世纪五六十年代的美国。它反对传统心理学简单的刺激—反应因果论,提出以整体、生态的观点来研究人与环境的交互关系,即人创造环境、赋予环境意义,而环境又鼓励、限制和塑造人的活动和经验,并且校正过去心理学研究过于疏忽环境的观点。强调人类主动处理以及塑造环境的能力,而并非只是被动的接受环境的刺激。本文以环境心理学的基本内容、研究特点、理论观点为线索,介绍国外环境心理学最新进展。     

Synchronous and time-lagged effects between occupational self-efficacy and objective and subjective career success: Findings from a four-wave and 9-year longitudinal study

We integrated research on the dimensionality of career success into social-cognitive career theory and explored the positive feedback loop between occupational self-efficacy and objective and subjective career success over time (self-efficacy → objective success → subjective success → self-efficacy). Furthermore, we theoretically accounted for synchronous and time-lagged effects, as well as indirect reciprocity between the variables. We tested the proposed model by means of longitudinal structural equation modeling in a 9-year four-wave panel design, by applying a model comparison approach and indirect effect analyses (N = 608 professionals). The findings supported the proposed positive feedback loop between occupational self-efficacy and career success. Supporting our time-based reasoning, the findings showed that unfolding effects between occupational self-efficacy and objective career success take more time (i.e., time-lagged or over time) than unfolding effects between objective and subjective career success, as well as between subjective career success and occupational self-efficacy (i.e., synchronous or concurrently). Indirect effects of past on future occupational self-efficacy via objective and subjective career success were significant, providing support for an indirect reciprocity model. Results are discussed with respect to extensions of social-cognitive career theory and occupational self-efficacy development over time.     

The relationship between the objective identification threshold and priming effects does not provide a definitive boundary between conscious and unconscious perceptual processes

The Objective Threshold/Strategic Model (OT/S) proposes that strong, qualitative inferences of unconscious perception can be made if the relationship between perceptual sensitivity (typically priming effects) and stimulus visibility is nonlinear and nonmonotonic. The model proposes a nadir in priming effects at the objective identification threshold (identification d′ = 0). These predictions were tested with masked semantic priming and repetition priming of a lexical decision task. The visibility of the prime stimuli was systematically varied above and below the objective identification threshold. The obtained relationship between prime visibility and priming facilitation was nonlinear, but the results failed to confirm a nadir in priming effects at the objective identification threshold. We conclude that the objective identification threshold does not necessarily indicate the point where presumably unconscious priming effects might be inhibited by conscious cognitive processes.     

Long-term cognitive dynamics of fluent reading development

Most theories of reading development assume a shift from slow sequential subword decoding to automatic processing of orthographic word forms. We hypothesized that this shift should be reflected in a concomitant shift in reading-related cognitive functions. The current study investigated the cognitive dynamics underlying reading development in a large school sample ranging from beginning to experienced readers. The results showed that phonological awareness (PA) and rapid automatized naming (RAN) contributed substantially to reading fluency over all six primary school grades. However, the relationship between PA and word (but not pseudoword) reading fluency decreased as a function of reading experience, whereas the relationship between RAN and word reading fluency increased gradually. Moreover, this cognitive shift was most pronounced for high-frequency words. The results seem to point to the development of one (and only one) reading network for all types of words in which processing load or type of processing depends on word familiarity and amount of reading experience.     

论“敬畏自然”的正当性

\"敬畏自然\"是人类对自然及其规律产生的一种包含着各种心理成分在内的、复杂的、形上的终极体验。当代人类社会需要\"敬畏自然\"。\"敬畏自然\"的正当性可以从定义澄清、科学祛魅、道德养成三个层面加以证明。科学认知、哲学反思和审美体验是当代人获得\"敬畏自然\"体验的三种主要途径。倡导\"敬畏自然\"有助于环境道德水平的提升,推动环保事业的发展。