A Community Psychology View of Environmental Organization Processes

Environmental organizations have a key role in addressing environmental degradation and promoting ecologically and socially sustainable societies. Psychosocial processes underpin their work, however, empirical studies of these processes remain underdeveloped. This paper presents the first stage of a community psychology study involving in-depth interviews with leaders in environmental organizations. Qualitative analysis revealed a framework of five types of psychosocial processes that assist environmental organizations to achieve a range of outcomes, namely: problem analysis; influencing decision-making; inter-organizational relationships; community participation and knowledge transfer. These psychosocial processes were used in substantially different ways depending on the organizations' orientation. Three key orientations towards outcomes were evident: on-ground conservation, developing innovation in specialist areas and transforming wider social institutions. The findings provide a model of the psychosocial processes involved in fostering sustainable futures and exemplify the contribution of community psychology to this critical global issue.     

加工水平对普通话与粤语记忆语言依赖效应的影响

通过两个实验,考察了加工水平对普通话和粤语记忆语言依赖效应的影响。实验1考察了在有意学习中的记忆语言依赖效应。结果表明,测验的语言环境对再认有重要影响。被试在粤语测验环境下对学习过的韩国语词再认反应时短,误报率却低,辨别力强,“记得”反应占优势。实验2考察了无意学习中的记忆语言依赖效应。结果表明,被试在粤语测验环境下,对评定过的韩国语词再认反应时短,误报率却高,辨别力差,但“记得”反应占优势;但在普通话测验环境下,对评定过的韩国语词再认反应时长,误报率却低,辨别力强,“知道”和“猜测”反应增加。整个研究表明,记忆的语言依赖效应在有意学习和无意学习中都存在,但有不同的趋势,表明加工水平是影响普通话和粤语记忆语言依赖效应的重要变量     

Categorical Ontology of Levels and Emergent Complexity: An Introduction

An overview of the following three related papers in this issue presents the Emergence of Highly Complex Systems such as living organisms, man, society and the human mind from the viewpoint of the current Ontological Theory of Levels. The ontology of spacetime structures in the Universe is discussed beginning with the quantum level; then, the striking emergence of the higher levels of reality is examined from a categorical—relational and logical viewpoint. The ontological problems and methodology aspects discussed in the first two papers are followed by a rigorous paper based on Category Theory, Algebraic Topology and Logic that provides a conceptual and mathematical basis for a Categorical Ontology Theory of Levels. The essential links and relationships between the following three papers of this issue are pointed out, and further possible developments are being considered.     

认知复杂性与意识水平:Zelazo理论述评

Zelazo等人提出的认知复杂性和控制理论、意识水平模型认为可在问题解决框架内理解执行功能,且执行功能的变化可根据儿童形成和使用的最大规则复杂性的变化来描述,而规则复杂性的变化可根据儿童意识水平的变化来解释。Zelazo的理论提出后受到不少研究者的关注,但也存在一些问题和不足。     

知觉负载、注意定势与选择性注意

本研究采用Eriksen Flanker（侧抑制）范式,将当前任务区分为高、低知觉负载两种条件．并系统操纵边缘视野干扰项与中央靶子的不同加工层次关系,从而考察注意选择的知觉负载理论。实验一发现,高知觉负载情况下没有任何flanker冲突效应,而低知觉负载情况下既有知觉层次和反应层次的冲突效应,也有一致条件下的促进效应。实验二增加了一致条件试次的比例,从而操纵自上而下的注意定势,发现高、低知觉负载情况下都存在知觉冲突效应和一致条件下的促进效应。这些发现表明,对任务无关信息的加工既受到任务相关信息的知觉负载和剩余加工资源的分配的影响,也受到自上而下注意定势的影响;自下而上和自上而下过程相互作用,共同决定加工资源的分配和注意选择的认知阶段。     

Dispositional happiness and college student GPA: Unpacking a null relation

We examined the mechanisms that underlie the null relation between dispositional happiness and college grade point average (GPA) by testing the hypothesis that dispositional happiness has positive and negative indirect links to GPA that offset each other. The sample consisted of 317 first-year students. Using structural equation modeling, we found that dispositional happiness exerted a positive indirect effect on cumulative GPA via commitment to college (p < .01) and a negative indirect effect on cumulative GPA via satisfaction with peer (student) relationships (p < .05). As predicted, the sum of its indirect effects on cumulative GPA was not significant (p = .22).     

Levels of number knowledge during early childhood

Researchers have long disagreed about whether number concepts are essentially continuous (unchanging) or discontinuous over development. Among those who take the discontinuity position, there is disagreement about how development proceeds. The current study addressed these questions with new quantitative analyses of children’s incorrect responses on the Give-N task. Using data from 280 children, ages 2 to 4 years, this study showed that most wrong answers were simply guesses, not counting or estimation errors. Their mean was unrelated to the target number, and they were lower-bounded by the numbers children actually knew. In addition, children learned the number-word meanings one at a time and in order; they treated the number words as mutually exclusive; and once they figured out the cardinal principle of counting, they generalized this principle to the rest of their count list. Findings support the ‘discontinuity’ account of number development in general and the ‘knower-levels’ account in particular.     

Moments That Matter? On the Complexity of Using Triggers Based on Skin Conductance to Sample Arousing Events Within an Experience Sampling Framework

To sample situations that are psychologically arousing in daily life, we implemented an experience sampling strategy in which 82 Dutch young adults (M_age = 20.73) were triggered based on random time intervals and based on physiological skin conductance scores across a period of 5 days. When triggered, participants had to fill in short surveys on affect, situational characteristics and event characteristics on their smartphone. We found theoretically expected relationships between the skin conductance signal on the one hand and self-reported arousal and positive energy (e.g. energetic and enthusiastic) on the other hand, although effect sizes were small. Unexpectedly, none of the negative affective scales (i.e. irritation, anxiety, and negative valence) were predicted by skin conductance levels. Despite the (partial) validity of the signal, a simple algorithm that triggered the survey based on relative increases of skin conductance levels produced counterintuitive results due to a dependence between level and slope. Additional exploratory analyses highlighted other skin conductance signal characteristics (i.e. autocorrelation, number of peaks, and change points) that might be worth examining when designing future algorithms to sample arousing moments. Overall, our experiences highlight not only the promise but also the complexity of real-time measurement of physiological processes in daily life. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology     

Hormonal,anthropometrical, and behavioral correlates of physical aggression in !Kung San men of Namibia

Differences in physical aggression among 114 male !Kung San (bushmen) from Namibia were investigated with regard to sex hormone levels, body dimensions, consumption of alcohol, and degree of acculturation. Subjects were classified from injuries resulting from prior conflicts with mutual physical aggression between the opponents as either violent or nonviolent. The comparison of mean sex hormone values (total serum testosterone, T_ser; serum 5α-dihydrotestosterone, DHT; serum estradiol 17β, E₂; “free,” non-SHBG-bound salivary testosterone, T_sal) and hormone ratios (T_sal/T_ser; DHT/T_ser) did not yield any significant differences between the violent and nonviolent group. However, correlation coefficients of sex hormone levels with the frequency of violent behavior within the group of physically aggressive San men were significantly positive for DHT, T_sal, and T_sal/T_ser (P < .05) while T_ser, E₂, and DHT/T_ser showed only weak positive correlations. Moreover, the violent men exhibit higher mean values in certain measures of physical robustness which may point to a possible pathway of indirect androgen action on human aggression. When the probands were classified according to their drinking habits, usually abstinent men had shown significantly less violent behavior in the past than men who habitually consume alcohol.     

How is physiological arousal related to self-reported measures of emotional intensity and valence of events and their autobiographical memories?

Research suggests that emotionally intense experiences that elicit higher-than-average physiological arousal responses lead to particularly durable and detailed autobiographical memories. Yet, the lack of objective measures of physiological arousal while events unfold in everyday life makes it hard to corroborate this lab finding. Also, it is uncertain how well arousal maps onto self-reports of the phenomenological characteristics of autobiographical events and memories. Here, we examined how physiological measures of arousal, taken while everyday life events develop, correlate with self-reports. Our results showed that physiological arousal during an event not only was related to self-evaluations of its assessed physical reaction —at the time of report—, but also predicted evaluations of physical reaction, positivity, and importance of their memories one week after. Further analyses revealed that, while arousal affected evaluations of emotional intensity of events and memories, this relationship was moderated by participants’ level of awareness about their own emotional processes.