A validational note on the revised Socialization Scale of the California Psychological Inventory

The revised (1987) Socialization Scale of the California Psychological Inventory was studied in a sample of 121 delinquent and nondelinquent males to determine if the revised scale, compared to the original version of the scale (1957), could differentiate among a group of nonoffenders and a comprehensive typology of offenders. Results of an ANOVA and product-moment correlations provided significant and considerable support for the discriminability of the revised So Scale. Obtained results indicate that the revised instrument can differentiate offenders from nonoffenders to about the same, or a greater, degree than the original scale.     

Mother–child disputes as arenas for fostering negotiation skills

Valsiner's concepts of the zone of free movement (ZFM) and the zone of promoted actions (ZPA) were applied to mother-child disputes to study how mothers discharge their role as experts in negotiation. Twenty mothers of 3-5-year-olds each reported 20 disputes, 10 in which the mother was making a request and 10 in which she was refusing her child's request. The disputes were analysed sequentially using four models, preservation, copycat, reward/punishment, and provision of a rationale. The results showed that perseveration and copycat models were more likely to apply when there was negative affect. Mother's re-requests fitted the reward/punishment model whereas mother's refusals better fitted the provision of a rationale model. Information from follow-up interviews supported the notion that requests and refusals are being socialized differently. The results imply that, whereas children's requests and refusals are within the ZFM, only their requests are within the ZPA.     

Early antecedents of emotion differentiation and regulation: Experience tunes the appraisal thresholds of emotional development in infancy

In this review, we synthesize evidence to highlight cognitive appraisal as an important developmental antecedent of individual differences in emotion differentiation and adept emotion regulation. Emotion differentiation is the degree to which emotions are experienced in a nuanced or “granular” way—as specific and separable phenomena. More extensive differentiation is related to positive wellbeing and has emerged as a correlate of emotion regulation skill among adults. We argue that the cognitive appraisal processes that underlie these facets of emotional development are instantiated early in the first year of life and tuned by environmental input and experience. Powerful socializing input in the form of caregivers’ contingent and selective responding to infants’ emotional signals carves and calibrates the infant’s appraisal thresholds for what in their world ought to be noticed, deemed as important or personally meaningful, and responded to (whether and how). These appraisal thresholds are thus unique to the individual child despite the ubiquity of the appraisal process in emotional responding. This appraisal infrastructure, while plastic and continually informed by experience across the lifespan, likely tunes subsequent emotion differentiation, with implications for children’s emotion regulatory choices and skills. We end with recommendations for future research in this area, including the urgent need for developmental emotion science to investigate the diverse sociocultural contexts in which children’s cognitive appraisals, differentiation of emotions, and regulatory responses are being built across childhood.     

The organization of construal networks and functional adaptation

This review examined the association of construal network organizations with functional adaptation and psychological well-being. Recent neuropsychological research supports the presence of distinct construal networks in the brain that organize action at different levels of goals and tasks. Construal networks are sets of connected construals, or mental representations of objects, events, and behaviors. Little attention, however, has been given to how the organization of construal networks promotes functional adaptation. Cognitive processes, construal levels, personal meaning, cultures, and situations influence the configurations of construal networks. The reviewed evidence indicated that construal network organization facilitates functional adaptation and well-being, either though the coherence or fit of the assembled construals with each other or through the mediation of their fit with situations or contexts, like a culture. This review goes beyond previous studies by describing the constructive, creative, and hypothetical aspects of construal organizations and their effects on functional adaptation and psychological well-being.     

Parental socialization of mental health in Chinese American families: What parents say and do,and how youth make meaning

Parental mental health socialization is a process by which parents shape how youth develop and maintain beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors regarding mental health and help-seeking behaviors. Although culture shapes parental mental health socialization, few studies have examined specific parental socialization practices regarding mental health and help-seeking, especially as a culturally anchored process. Using a qualitative approach, this study explores youth-reported parental socialization of mental health within Chinese American families by examining focus group data from 69 Chinese American high school and college students. Findings revealed that youth received parental messages that conveyed culturally anchored conceptualizations of mental health that included stigmatized views of mental illness and perceptions of mental distress as not a legitimate problem. Parents responded to youth distress in culturally consonant ways: by encouraging culturally specific coping methods, dismissing or minimizing distress, or responding with silence. Youth engaged in the active interpretation of parental messages through cultural brokering, bridging the gap between their parents’ messages and mainstream notions of mental health and help-seeking. Overall, our findings point to the significant role of culture in parental mental health socialization in Chinese American families and the need to integrate culturally specific understandings of mental health into future interventions for Asian American youth.     

Transition of Adolescent Political Action Orientations to Voting Behavior in Early Adulthood in View of a Social-Cognitive Action Theory Model of Personality

The political activity and voting behavior of 136 young German adults in 1994 were predicted by their political action orientations measured 7 years before. Respondents belonging to cohorts born in 1971, 1972, and 1973 were surveyed in 1987, 1988, and 1994. The questionnaires measured variables relevant to the social-cognitive action theory model of personality: self-concept of political competence, beliefs about political locus of control, political knowledge, trust in politics, satisfaction with politics, and political activity in everyday life. The results are interpreted with respect to the correlative and absolute stability versus plasticity of the variables from 1987 to 1994, as well as the predictive value of the action theory personality variables for political activities and for voting behavior measured 7 years later. Longitudinal results indicate a high predictive value of self-concept of political competence and political knowledge for political activity and voting in early adulthood. Because only these two personality variables showed relatively high positional stability coefficients from adolescence to early adulthood, the discussion refers to the necessity of early developmental interventions to prevent extreme types of politically uninterested and passive adults. Therefore, the social-cognitive action theory personality model of political participation is extended to a social-cognitive action theory personality model of political socialization in the life span.     

中学生对同伴群体和家庭影响力的判断

本研究采用情境故事判断、社会关系网络问卷和访谈法对495名中学生进行了问卷调查,对32名中学生进行了群体访谈,结果表明:1.在“告发同伴错误行为”、同伴中流行的“暗语”、穿同伴中流行服装和听同伴中流行的音乐四个情境中,从初一到高二的青少年学生存在着从接受父母影响向接受同伴群体影响的转变趋势.各情境中,从初二到高一年级是从接受父母影响向接受同伴影响的一个敏感的转变时期.2.随着年龄增长,青少年学生对如何处理社会关系的判断表现出一种水平的演进,起先是在服从权威的水平上,然后逐渐向回避不良后果水平转变,第三种水平表现为工具性地处理社会关系,最后达到协调社会关系的水平.3.同伴交往较多的青少年,大多表现出外倾、人缘好、心地善良、乐于助人等积极的个性特征,表明同伴交往与青少年学生的个性发展有重要的相互影响作用.     

The growth of gossip: Socialization of relational aggression from adolescence to emerging adulthood

The extant literature suggests that relational aggression appears in early childhood, and gradually increases throughout adolescence. However, very little research has examined the growth of relational aggression from adolescence to emerging adulthood. In addition, research generally examines socializing factors of relational aggression, such as parenting, peers, siblings, or media in isolation. Accordingly, the aim of the current study was to examine these socializing factors conjunctively as predictors of the growth of relational aggression over time. Participants consisted of 500 adolescents who completed several questionnaires over a 7-year period (between ages 14–20 on average). Results revealed that the vast majority of individuals (88%) showed low levels of relational aggression that decreased over time. Conversely, a small proportion of individuals (12%) had high, increasing levels of relational aggression between adolescence and emerging adulthood. High levels of maternal psychological control, sibling hostility, and relational aggression in the media at the initial time point all predicted being in the high and increasing group.     

Thinking about the Needy, Justice, and International Organizations

This article has three main parts, Section 2 considers the nature and extent to which individuals who are well-off have a moral obligation to aid the worlds needy. Drawing on a pluralistic approach to morality, which includes consequentialist, virtue-based, and deontological elements, it is contended that most who are well-off should do much more than they do to aid the needy, and that they are open to serious moral criticism if they simply ignore the needy. Part one also focuses on the United States, and illustrates both how incredibly wealthy the U.S. is and some of the spending habits of its citizens; however, its considerations apply to the well-off generally. Section 3 considers whether justice provides reasons for helping the needy. Noting that justice in an extremely complex notion, it discusses numerous considerations relevant to justices scope and implications, including an extended Rawlsian conception of justice, an absolute conception, a comparative conception, the distinction between natural and social justice, and various elements of common-sense morality. Section 2 also distinguishes between agent-relative justice-based reasons, which are relevant to whether we act justly, and agent-neutral justice-based reasons, which are relevant to whether we have reasons of justicefor acting. Correspondingly, it argues that even if one can ignore the needy without acting unjustly, as philosophers like Robert Nozick and Jan Narveson contend, there may be powerful reasons of justicefor addressing their plight. Section 4 briefly address the responsibilities of international organizations like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and World Trade Organization (WTO). Drawing on Section 2, it is suggested that in addition to standard reasons to act justlytowards needy members of the worlds community, there will be reasons of justicefor such organizations to aid the needy in both present, and future, generations. The article concludes by contending that the well-off in countries like the U.S. have reason to view international organizations like the World Bank, IMF, and WTO as their agents, and to seek to insure that they alleviate misfortunes amongst the worlds needy.     

多面体的一面:第二语言学习的社会化过程

第二语言学习过程是社会互动情景中的言语活动,"热"的社会化过程是第二语言学习过程的有机组成部分;形成第二语言情景下的文化心理参照系认知能力和文化适应能力是第二语言的言语能力重要内容;第二语言学习过程中的言语变异现象部分源于学习者的社会心理结构特征。