自传体记忆的开端:最早记忆的诱发与评估

童年期遗忘指人们无法回忆起生命最初几年的事情。最早记忆是童年期遗忘开始消退和自传体记忆发生的标志,诸多研究表明成人的最早记忆一般介于3~4岁间,儿童有更早的最早记忆。最早记忆的诱发方法,包括单一最早记忆法、线索词法、穷举法和生命全程法;最早记忆的评估方法,包括自陈式的记忆现象学问卷测量,以及针对记忆叙述内容的编码分析。未来研究要加强纵向研究,追踪最早记忆随年龄而发生的变化;展开特殊人群的研究;完善测量工具;探究早期记忆保持和遗忘的机制。     

基于事件的前瞻记忆与认知控制

前瞻记忆和认知控制是人类认知能力的重要组成部分。Bugg等人(2013)发现前瞻记忆多重加工模型和双重认知控制理论具有共性。此后,越来越多的研究者关注认知控制在意图执行中和执行完成后的作用。本文对近年来关于前瞻记忆与认知控制的研究进行了梳理,发现认知控制对前瞻记忆的完成起支持作用,但二者也在脑机制层面存在差异。本研究能为未来更深入地探讨前瞻记忆的加工机制及生理基础提供新的视角。     

人格研究中国化之我见

人格是一个人的存在方式。人不是一个纯自然的范畴,而是受社会文化和历史制约的。当今西方人格心理学不是普世的人格心理学,它虽然有多种定义,但其核心是强调个人的独特性。中华文化注重个人所肩负的社会义务、历史责任和道德价值,强调个人要正确处理与他人、与集体、与社会、与自然界的关系,而不是个人的独特性。人格研究中国化就是从中国的实际出发研究中国人的人格,努力创建具有中国特色的人格心理学,更好地为我国的人才培养和社会发展服务。我们在教学中应当引导并支持学生厘清概念,深入中国实际,采用质性和量化相结合的方法开展人格的中国化研究;鼓励师生学以致用,优化人格,成为幸福的进取者。     

Unresolved questions in nudging research: Putting the psychology back in nudging

Nudging interventions are broadly defined as a rearrangement of a choice context that gently suggests a specific choice. Their increasing popularity has attracted attention and discussion from researchers, policy makers, and practitioners alike. After some applications to domains such as health, environmental issues, and retirement savings, the next step in nudging is to understand the psychological boundary conditions when applied to varied domains of daily life. It is yet unclear for example to what extent nudging interventions can be transparent without losing effectiveness, or how permanent the effects are. These unresolved questions may have contributed to heated political and scientific discussions, on for example the ethics of using nudges in the public health domain, due to the missing scientific evidence. Indeed, this popularity may have led to forget how nudging harnesses insights from decades of research in psychology to change people's behavior. The aim of this paper is to shift the focus back to the psychological premises nudges were built upon. It summarizes several outstanding questions that future research in the psychology of nudging should address. Advancing research in nudging will help to improve our understanding of applied nudging interventions and provide clarity to debates such as ethical appropriateness, effectiveness, and public approval.     

Happiness,eudaimonia, and other holy grails: What can job loss teach us about ‘One-size-fits-all’ theories of well-being?

Abstract

Positive psychology has made significant advances in our understanding of well-being, yet agreement about the definition and nature of well-being remains elusive. This study explores the experience of well-being from a bottom-up, naturalistic point of view and compares these inductive notions with existing a priori theories. Using a qualitative-focused case study methodology, this paper explores how everyday people describe well-being in the context of job loss among a sample of 20 workers from the Ottawa, Canada technology sector. Findings support integrated conceptualizations of hedonia and eudaimonia while also potentially identifying new notions of well-being. Identified themes include (a) life evaluation, (b) transitory experiencing, (c) growth and grounding, (d) environmental mastery/stability, (e) mental ill-being/ill-health, and (f) motivational mindsets/conditions. This study shows well-being to be a rich, pluralistic construct which includes the non-dualistic notions of both subjectivity and objectivity as well as encompassing notions related to the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of well-being.     

Love,passion, and peak experience: A qualitative study on six continents

Abstract

Qualitative inquiry promotes deeper understanding of human experiences that can be reduced and decontextualized when examined solely via quantitative methods. In this study, we interviewed 150 people in 22 countries on six continents, asking them, ‘What do you love?’, ‘What is a great passion in your life?’, and ‘What has been a peak experience in your life?’. Love, passion, and peak experience share definitional and theoretical overlaps. However, they have not been explored simultaneously across cultures using qualitative methods. We utilized a pragmatic, inductive, thematic methodology, and 11 key themes emerged from the data. Other people and learning and growing were the top two themes for all three constructs, and data patterns suggested more variation within than between continents. We suggest that love, passion, and peak experience may promote self-determination and/or psychological complexity via integration with and differentiation from the environment, and suggest directions for future research.     

Concurrent deployment of visual attention and response selection bottleneck in a dual-task: Electrophysiological and behavioural evidence

Visual attention and response selection are limited in capacity. Here, we investigated whether visual attention requires the same bottleneck mechanism as response selection in a dual-task of the psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm. The dual-task consisted of an auditory two-choice discrimination Task 1 and a conjunction search Task 2, which were presented at variable temporal intervals (stimulus onset asynchrony, SOA). In conjunction search, visual attention is required to select items and to bind their features resulting in a serial search process around the items in the search display (i.e., set size). We measured the reaction time of the visual search task (RT2) and the N2pc, an event-related potential (ERP), which reflects lateralized visual attention processes. If the response selection processes in Task 1 influence the visual attention processes in Task 2, N2pc latency and amplitude would be delayed and attenuated at short SOA compared to long SOA. The results, however, showed that latency and amplitude were independent of SOA, indicating that visual attention was concurrently deployed to response selection. Moreover, the RT2 analysis revealed an underadditive interaction of SOA and set size. We concluded that visual attention does not require the same bottleneck mechanism as response selection in dual-tasks.     

Highlighting the Challenges When Conducting Cross‐National Studies: Use of Transcultural Theory

Insufficient exploration of multicultural social justice competence in research methodology and procedures may contribute to lingering clinical problems for diverse populations. Using transcultural theory to evaluate the effectiveness of cross‐national research, the authors examined the various cross‐national methodological challenges during the research design, analysis, and interpretation stages. Recommendations focus on expanding the Multicultural Social Justice Counseling Competencies (Ratts, Singh, Nassar‐McMillan, Butler, & McCullough, 2015 ) to prepare researchers with enhanced skills to explore issues involving diverse populations.     

Creating inclusive identity narratives through participatory action research

This paper describes the process and outcomes of Voices, a participatory action research project aimed to disrupt divisive ethnic identity narratives among youth living amidst protracted ethnic conflict. The project took place in the Garo Hills region of Northeast India, a site of protracted ethnic conflict. Moving away from crisis‐based approaches, this paper explores the conflict transformative potential of participatory action research, specifically its effectiveness in facilitating civic engagement across ethnic lines. The findings indicate that young people's involvement in the project afforded them an opportunity to engage with local community concerns outside of polarized ethnic identity narratives. This involvement facilitated three critical outcomes: engagement in social critique, reconfiguration of a more inclusive researcher identity, and adoption of a language of possibility. Based on these findings, it is argued that opportunities for critical community engagement could interrupt divisive ethnic identity narratives and provide turning points for youth to reimagine inclusive social identities.     

Stances on Assisted Suicide by Health and Social Care Professionals Working With Older Persons in Switzerland

This qualitative study investigated the personal and professional stances of 40 health and social care professionals confronted with assisted suicide of older persons living in nursing homes or supported by social welfare or home care and support services in French-speaking Switzerland. Requests of assisted suicide triggered questions with regard to the professional mission, the quality of accompaniment, values, and ethical principles. Four types of stances emerged from the analysis performed according to the principles of the grounded theory: favorable in principle, professional compromise, personal compromise, and opposed in principle. Each stance results from the combination of several dimensions: personal or professional concordance or compatibility with assisted suicide; implication in, and impact of, the process; appreciation of the process; and satisfaction with the resources at disposal. The differentiated stances adopted by professionals depend largely on their way of interpreting their mission, deontology, and the relationship to the older person.