一般流体智力研究中工作记忆与注意的关系

随着对一般流体智力的研究逐步深入,研究者们认为了解工作记忆与注意的相互关系是解决一般流体智力与前二者结构关系的关键。由于工作记忆系统中中央执行器的功能尚不明确,注意控制能力与工作记忆的关系难以确定。研究者中存在两种不同的观点：一种认为两者之间存在着密切的互动,另一种则认为两者就是同功同构的一个认知成分。     

The Relationship of Cognitive Development to Age, When Education and Intelligence Are Controlled For

In this study 165 volunteers aged 18–87 were recruited from educational, employment, church, and social organizations and administered 3 paper-and-pencil instruments: the Quick Test, a measure of verbal–perceptual intelligence; the Scale of Intellectual Development, a Perry measure of cognitive development; and an inventory of life experiences. Age was found to be negatively related to cognitive development, as was extent of participation in community or church activities, whereas intelligence and education were positively so related. Less dualistic thinking and more relativistic thinking were related to higher educational achievement. Nevertheless, dualistic thinking was found to increase among older age groups, even with intelligence and education controlled for.     

Stereotypes and beliefs about different ethnic groups in Spain. A study with Spanish and Latin American children living in Madrid

96 Spanish and Latin American children from 3 grades in Madrid reported their knowledge of positive and negative stereotypes regarding Spaniards, Gypsies, Latin American and Chinese people. Their personal beliefs about these four ethnic groups were also assessed. Stereotypes about Spaniards were perceived as overwhelmingly positive and least negatively while stereotypes about Gypsies were rarely positive and often negative. Spanish children attributed more positive and fewer negative stereotypes to Chinese immigrants than Latin American children did. Older children reported more positive stereotypes about Gypsies than younger children and older Spanish children reported fewer positive stereotypes for their own group than their younger counterparts. Older children's personal beliefs about Gypsies were less consistent with negative stereotypes than younger children's. Older children also showed greater discrepancy of their personal beliefs with positive stereotypes of Spaniards than younger children did. Findings are discussed within the context of socio-cognitive approaches.     

Goal conflict and facilitation as predictors of work–family satisfaction and engagement

In a study of working adults (N = 131; Mean age = 43.52 yrs; 62 males) in Germany and Finland, the mean level of goal facilitation was found to be significantly higher than that of goal interference. Hence, many individuals seem to be rather successful in constructing a personal goal system that is functional in terms of supportive links. As hypothesized, goal conflict and facilitation were associated with work-related outcomes, especially with work satisfaction. The associations with family-related outcomes were less pronounced when the focus was exclusively on either supportive or interfering goal relationships. However, when the intraindividual relation between goal conflict and goal support was taken into account, we found that the relative dominance of facilitation was clearly positively associated with both work-related and family-related indicators of positive functioning.     

Prestige in interest activity assessment

Prestige has been demonstrated to be a component in interest assessment [Tracey, T. J. G. (1997). The structure of interests and self-efficacy expectations: An expanded examination of the spherical model of interests. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 44, 32-43; Tracey, T. J. G. (2002). Personal Globe Inventory: Measurement of the spherical model of interests and competence beliefs [Monograph]. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 60, 113-172; Tracey, T. J. G., & Rounds, J. (1996a). The spherical representation of vocational interests. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 48, 3-41]. However, the content of prestige and thus its meaning in activity and competency preferences has not been clarified, nor has it been differentiated from alternative explanations such as sex-typing. A vector fitting procedure was utilized from theoretical and empirical approaches with samples of college students who rated each activity item from the Personal Globe Inventory (PGI; [Tracey, T. J. G. (2002). Personal Globe Inventory: Measurement of the spherical model of interests and competence beliefs [Monograph]. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 60, 113-172]) for the following content: prestige, effort required, skill required, competition involved, and female and male sex-typing. These content ratings were matched with the theoretical structure of the PGI scales in the first sample (N = 124) and the empirical structure of the PGI items in a second sample (N = 267). Across both approaches, the PGI prestige dimension was highly related to ratings for prestige, effort, skill, effort and skill, and competition, but unrelated to sex-typing. These results support the inclusion of prestige in interest activity assessment and also assist in its interpretation.     

Can ingroup affirmation relieve outgroup derogation?

Intergroup hostilities are an important social concern in multicultural societies and the global community. Individuals with dispositionally high Personal Need for Structure (PNS) are particularly inclined toward outgroup derogation [Schaller, M., Boyd, C., Yohannes, J., O’Brien, M. (1995). The prejudiced personality revisited: Personal need for structure and formation of erroneous group stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 544-555]. The present research demonstrates that ingroup affirmation can eliminate high PNS individuals’ tendency toward outgroup derogation. Spontaneous (Study 1) and experimentally manipulated affirmations (Study 2) of consensual, positive ingroups eliminated the high PNS tendency to derogate outgroup targets. Study 3 experimentally manipulated the two key elements that are presumably bolstered by ingroup affirmations—self-certainty and self-worth—independent of the group context. The high PNS tendency to derogate outgroups was relieved only in the combined certainty and worth affirmation condition, just as it had been relieved in Study 2 by the ingroup affirmation. Results suggest a paradoxical strategy for relieving derogation of outgroups by affirming ingroups.     

What really matters

What really matters fundamentally in survival? That question—the one on which I focus—is not about what should matter or about metaphysics. Rather, it is a factual question the answer to which can be determined, if at all, only empirically. I argue that the answer to it is that in the case of many people it is not one’s own persistence, but continuing in ways that may involve one’s own cessation that really matters fundamentally in survival. Call this the surprising result. What are we to make of it? According to several philosophers, not much. I argue that these philosophers are wrong. What best explains the surprising result is that in the case of many people one’s special concern for oneself in the future is not fundamental, but derived. I explain what this means. Finally I explain why the task of explaining empirically what matters fundamentally in survival is in some ways more like a meditative quest than a traditional inquiry in western philosophy or social science and, as such, is best answered not by psychologists, but by philosophers.     

The roles of emotion management and perspective taking in individuals’ conflict management styles and disposition to forgive

This study aimed to link two fields of research: conflict management and forgiveness. Adult participants (n = 122) and a validating sample of significant others (n = 122) completed measures of disposition to forgive, conflict style, emotion management, and perspective taking; and multi-dimensional models of their relationships were tested. Disposition to forgive was most consistently associated with problem solving and yielding conflict styles. Greater perspective taking was associated with greater forgiveness, and greater problem solving and yielding conflict styles, as well as with lesser fighting style; and perspective taking fully or partially mediated the relationship between ability to repair emotions and dispositions to forgive and problem solve during conflict. Significant other reports confirmed most of the findings based on self-report.     

Romantic love: What’s emotional intelligence (EI) got to do with it?

The study examined the role of EI in romantic love among newlywed couples. In addition, we set out to assess to what degree outcomes depend on the specific EI measure employed, i.e., maximal performance (ability-based) vs. typical performance (self-report). In the dyadic design implemented in this research, 100 young heterosexual married couples independently completed the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso emotional intelligence test (MSCEIT), the Schutte self-report inventory (SSRI), and a vocabulary subtest of the MILTA group intelligence battery. EI, assessed via an ability and a self-report measure, showed significant ‘actor effects’, but failed to show significant ‘partner effects’, thus only partially supporting the hypothesis that EI predicts romantic love. Whereas ability-based and self-report measures show the same pattern of relationship with romantic love in dyadic assessments, the magnitudes of outcome relationships as well as the correlations of EI with verbal ability are measure-dependent. Marital partners were not correlated on EI, thus providing little evidence for assortative mating for EI.