儿童绘画表现性发展的研究进展

自Goodman提出美的3个性质(表现性、充实性、结构性)以来,发展心理学家们兴起了根据儿童绘画的表现性来探讨儿童认知发展的热潮。该回顾了儿童绘画表现性的发展研究进展,以及对儿童绘画认知的模型探讨。     

How does anybody live in this strange place? A reply to Samantha Vice

Abstract

Samantha Vice has argued that ‘white’ South Africans are so tainted by the history of racial oppression in their country that they are incapable of attaining a great degree of moral virtue. She recommends that they should live in humility and political silence. There are a number of flaws in her argument. First, none of the characteristics of ‘white’ South Africans that she says provides the basis for these conclusions can distinguish (almost) all ‘white’ South Africans from (almost) all ‘black’ South Africans. Second, because it is not only ‘white’ South Africans but everybody in the world who either perpetrates serious injustice or is tainted by others’ perpetration of it, her argument, if sound, would imply that nobody is capable of great virtue and that everybody ought to be politically silent. Finally, her recommendation that ‘white’ South Africans should be politically silent is a very dangerous one.     

Effects of a coactor's prediction on latencies to predict and indentify stimuli

On each of 300 trials E's confederate (C) verbalized which of two stimuli would occur; then S made a prediction. Following each presentation, S and C pulled a trigger to identify the stimulus. Two latencies were measured: the interval between C's and S's prediction (prediction time), and the interval between stimulus presentation and S's identification response (choice RT). Prediction times were significantly shorter when S's prediction agreed rather than disagreed with C's prediction, when S's preceding prediction was correct rather than incorrect, and when S was female rather than male. Choice RT was influenced by distributions of C's stimulus predictions and C's prediction outcomes in directions supporting an expectancy model.     

Action and language: Contextual action theory in counselling

Contextual action theory is presented as a conceptual framework useful for grounding the recent work in counselling and career development called Life Design. Based on the premise of the goal-directed nature of human action, this approach has links to language in theories of naive action and attribution, and theory of mind. Contextual action theory has an associated research method that has been used to generate a range of research studies that have described actions and projects in the career development and counselling domains. The link that contextual action theory provides between research and practice allows the identification of five tasks for the counselling practitioner informed by this approach.     

Career and work attitudes of blue-collar workers,and the impact of a natural disaster chance event on the relationships between intention to quit and actual quit behaviour

Despite being part of a highly visible and important occupational group, blue-collar workers have, to date, been under-represented in careers research. We explore the relevance and applicability of new career concepts to blue-collar employees, specifically, bus drivers. Based on a survey of 112 bus drivers, we test a model specifying the relationship between career attitude, perceived organizational support, psychological contract, and job satisfaction, as well as intention to quit. Employing a two-phase data collection process, we also test relationships between intentions and actual quit behaviour. Our results support the validity of career theories for blue-collar workers but with notable exceptions, such as lack of relationships between protean career and intention to quit. Contrary to intention-behaviour theory we find that actual quit behaviour was not related to intention to quit, which we attribute to a significant external chance event, a devastating earthquake, which took place during the study period. In addition, we identify relationships that appear to be unique to blue-collar workers.     

The arc of the rope swing: humour,poetry, and spirituality in Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White

This essay analyzes the classic American children’s novel, Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White, which tells of a sophisticated spider’s rescue of a piglet who is being prepared for slaughter. The ‘arc of the rope swing' refers to a rope swing enjoyed by children in the novel; it is also a metaphor for the way White holds opposing forces in tension. Most noteworthy is the tension between poetic language and humour in the novel; White uses both to convey a sense of ultimate goodness and trust-in-being. Poetic language sets a contemplative tone (‘poetic pauses’) and conveys spiritual themes, including delight, wonder at the beauty of the natural world, ‘divine discontent’ (yearning), memento mori, sorrow and hope. In contrast, White’s ‘gracious humour’ is fast-paced and entertaining; it keeps the novel from being too preachy or solemn. His humour includes 1) wordplay (including the juxtaposition of incongruous words and images; dramatic irony; and puns ), 2) comedic characters (Wilbur as lovable buffoon, Charlotte as incisive wisdom figure) and 3) satire (scorn for human gullibility, arrogance and poor treatment of animals). White sharply satirises human arrogance and demonstrates the value of humility (embodied in Charlotte and Wilbur). The article also contains brief summaries of Charlotte's Web and of White's biography, and it concludes with a substantial set of “talking points” for discussing the novel’s spiritual themes with children.     

Situation Awareness: Its proficiency amongst older and younger drivers,and its usefulness for perceiving hazards

The two studies reported here sought to measure and compare the Situation Awareness (SA) of younger and older driver groups whilst driving (Study 1), and watching video footage of actual car journeys (Study 2). In both studies this was achieved by recording a participant’s commentary on what s/he felt was of relevance to the driving task. The narratives produced were analysed by computer software that could abstract main concepts and calculate scores indicative of Situation Awareness. In Study 2, these scores were related to others for hazard perception proficiency (also derived from participant commentaries). It was found that the older drivers matched and often exceeded the younger drivers when their SA scores were compared individually, but not when assessed as a group. However, the younger drivers out-performed their older counterparts in hazard perception ability, and this was shown to be related to their Situation Awareness score. When the results from participants who undertook both studies were compared, it was found that Situation Awareness performance was significantly higher when commenting on video footage (Study 2) than whilst actually driving (Study 1).     

The role of traffic law enforcements in the relationship between cultural variables and traffic fatality rates across some countries of the world

The aims of the present study were to investigate whether cultural variables are related to law enforcements as well as traffic fatality rates and to examine the role of law enforcements of five risk factors for road safety (i.e., national speed law, national drink-driving law, national motorcycle helmet law, national seat-belt law, and national child restraint law) in the relationship between cultural variables and traffic fatality rates across countries of the world. The aggregated data of the study included Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Schwartz’s value dimensions, law enforcements of five risk factors for road safety, gross national income per capita, and traffic fatality rates for 97 countries of the world. The results showed that most of the cultural variables were associated with law enforcements of five risk factors for road safety and traffic fatality rates of countries. By bootstrapping, among Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, it was found that the indirect effects of long-term orientation (LTO) on fatality rates (FR) through speed, helmet, and child restraint enforcements were significant, separately. Among Schwartz’s value dimensions, the indirect effects of embeddedness on fatality rates through speed and child restraint enforcements were significant, separately. Intellectual autonomy had also significant indirect effects on fatality rates via speed and child restraint enforcements, separately. Finally, it was found that the indirect effects of affective autonomy on fatality rates through speed and helmet enforcements were significant, separately.