The relations of generative concern and generative action to personality traits,satisfaction/happiness with life,and ego development

This research examined the relations that generative concern and generative action have to personality traits, satisfaction/happiness with life, and ego development. Generative concern is a general personality tendency or interest in caring for younger and anticipated individuals, while generative action addresses actual physical behaviors that promote the well-being of future generations. Two samples (79 and 152 adults) were employed. Generative concern scores were significantly related to scores for extraversion, openness, emotional stability (non-neuroticism), and agreeableness as well as to two agentic traits (achievement, dominance) and two communal traits (affiliation, nurturance). Generative action was significantly related to extraversion and openness. Generative concern but not generative action was found, as predicted, to be positively related to one's life satisfaction/happiness. Further, one's level of ego development determined, in part, the relation that generative concern had to satisfaction/happiness with life. Given that a subject scored high in ego development, his or her level of satisfaction/happiness varied as a function of generative concern such that those who scored low on generative concern were significantly less satisfied/happy than those that scored high on generative concern. The results are discussed within the context of the recently proposed theory of generativity.     

On the continuing utility of argument in a postmodern world

In this essay we contend that traditional theories of argument are consonant with and enrich the project of postmodernity. Reading postmodernity as a rhetoric underscores how the process of discursively resolving conflicts is occasionally threatened by politically motivated efforts to misuse the methods of argument; it alerts us to the egregious acts that are and can be performed in the name of, but not because of, rationality. Postmodernity is thus an attempt by a new generation of theorists to recast and draw attention to perennial philosophical problems in the context of contemporary political difficulties.     

Determinants of human performance on concurrent schedules.

Six experiments, each with 5 human adults, were conducted to investigate the determinants of human performance on multiple concurrent variable-interval schedules. A two-key procedure was employed in which subjects' key presses produced points exchangeable for money. Variables manipulated across experiments were (a) changeover delay (Experiments 2, 4, and 6), (b) ordinal cues related to scheduled reinforcement frequencies (Experiments 3 and 4), and (c) instructions describing the ordinal relations between schedule-correlated stimuli and scheduled reinforcement frequency (Experiments 5 and 6). The performances of only 13 of the 30 subjects could be described by the generalized matching equation and were within a range of values typical of those reported in the animal literature. Eight subjects showed indifference, 9 undermatched, 7 approximated matching, 3 overmatched, and a further 3 responded exclusively to the richer component of the concurrent schedules. These differing modes of responding were closely related to the different types of performance rules reported by subjects in postexperimental questionnaires. The results are in good agreement with those from studies of human performance on single schedules, suggesting that rule-governed behavior, in interaction with contingencies, may be an important determinant of human choice.     

Reaction times of younger and older men: effects of compound samples and a prechoice signal on delayed matching-to-sample performances.

Five younger (18 to 23 yrs) and five older (65 to 73 yrs) men were exposed to a series of immediate and delayed (0 to 15 seconds) matching-to-sample problems. Presentation of the pairs of delayed comparison stimuli was either signaled or unsignaled, and the sample contained either 1, 2, or 3 elements, one of which appeared as the positive stimulus. During initial sessions, unlimited time was available to respond. Subsequently, correct responses were reinforced only if they occurred within a specified time limit. A general finding was slower responding with increased delay and with increased number of sample elements. These effects were reduced when the comparison stimuli were signaled and when time limits were in effect. Errors increased as a function of the manipulations of sample complexity and time limits, but did not change systematically when the delay between sample and comparison stimuli was varied. Although the younger men generally responded more quickly than the older ones, men of both ages showed increased speeds when limits were placed on response time, and these changes were maintained when the temporal contingencies were removed.     

CONCEPTIONS OF SELF/NO-SELF AND MODES OF CONNECTION Comparative Soteriological Structures in Classical Chinese Thought

This essay examines the ways that the terms “self” and “no‐self” can illuminate the views of classical Chinese thinkers, particularly Confucians such as Confucius, Mencius, and Xunzi, and the Daoist thinker Zhuangzi. In particular, the use of the term “no‐self ” to describe Zhuangzi's position is defended. The concepts of self and no‐self are analyzed in relation to other terms within the thinkers' “concept clusters”—specifically temporality, nature, and social roles—and suggestions are given for constructing typologies that sort out the range of meanings of self and no‐self based on the characteristics of the relations among terms within the concept clusters. The essay focuses on the way that the Confucians and Zhuangzi use concepts of self and no‐self, respectively, as soteriological strategies that aim at making connections with larger systems or wholes, and it concludes that different connections are emphasized by the Confucians and Zhuangzi precisely because the various connections are made possible and sustained by different conceptions of self, temporality, nature, and social roles.     

The change in perceived motor competence and motor task values during elementary school: A longitudinal cohort study

Participation in motor activities is essential for social interaction and life satisfaction in children. Self‐perceptions and task values have a central position in why children do or do not participate in (motor) activities. Investigating developmental changes in motor self‐perceptions and motor task values in elementary school children would provide vital information about their participation in motor activities. We therefore examined the change in, and associations between, self‐perceptions and task values of fine motor competence, ball competence, and athletic competence in 292 children from kindergarten to grade 4. We also investigated differences between boys and girls, and between children with motor problems and typically developing children. Results indicated that self‐perceptions and task values are domain specific and differ between boys and girls, but not between children with motor problems and typically developing children. Self‐perceptions were not associated with task values. Educators should address specific self‐perceptions to enhance participation into the corresponding motor activities in children between kindergarten and grade 4, and differences in self‐perceptions and task values between boys and girls should be taken into account.     

Developmental changes in the embodied self of spatial perspective taking

Spatial perspective taking consists of mental self‐rotation and other cognitive information processing. Mental self‐rotation is a process of rotating an embodied representational self through mental simulation of the sensorimotor mechanisms underlying actual self‐movement. It was predicted that physical development would affect the operation of the representational self. One hundred and twenty‐five individuals aged 5–80 years (57 children, 35 students, and 33 elderly people) executed a video game task of spatial perspective taking in three conditions of sensorimotor activation: A restrained, stable, and unstable condition. In the linear function formulas considering the degree of rotation and response times, the gradient represented the theoretical speed of mental self‐rotation and the intercept represented other cognitive processing. A significant interaction was found between age group and condition on the gradients, indicating that the response times in the unstable condition were faster than in the other conditions for the children, the restrained condition was slower than the other conditions for the students, while no difference was found for the elderly adults. The results suggest that the influence of sensorimotor activation on the embodied representational self depends on developmental changes in physical control.     

独立型与依赖型自我：Markus等的自我结构研究

Markus认为不同的文化系统即个人主义与集体主义的文化将对应不同的自我结构：独立型自我和依赖型自我,而不同的自我结构可以解释预测个体在情绪、认知、动机等方面的差异。Markus等人的研究结果引人注目,同时也受到了相当多的质疑和批判。该文系统综述了这方面的情况。     

自我与有意遗忘现象

将自我参照效应的实验范式与字表方式的有意遗忘范式相结合,探讨有意遗忘在自我参照与他人参照条件下的异同。结果表明,在有意遗忘的研究范式下,自我参照加工和他人参照加工的回忆量之间不存在显著差异;但是自我参照条件下出现了有意遗忘现象,而他人参照加工条件下没有表现出有意遗忘现象。这表明,自我参照加工的材料,区辨性很高,因而有意遗忘的指导语激发的抑制作用对它有效,从而出现了遗忘现象。