History Matters: Effects of Culture‐specific Symbols on Political Attitudes and Intergroup Relations

A theory of the historical anchoring and mobilization of political attitudes is proposed, arguing that culture‐specific symbols, configured by historical charters, are an important resource in defining nationhood and legitimizing public opinion in a way that makes some political attitudes difficult to change. Five studies in New Zealand and Taiwan using diverse methods converged to show that historical events with “charter status” have an additive effect in explaining variance in political attitudes regarding biculturalism in New Zealand and independence in Taiwan even after controlling for the effects of Social Dominance Orientation, Right‐Wing Authoritarianism, relevant social identities, and collective guilt. Field and lab experiments showed that the impact of historical symbols did not depend on the mobilization of social identity (e.g., increasing mean scores and indirect effects), but the historical anchoring of political attitudes in representations was resistant to change. Manipulations of the salience of historical events changed levels of social identification, but did not change mean levels of support for New Zealand biculturalism or Taiwanese independence. Even an intense and immersive pretest/posttest design taking high school students on a national museum tour failed to change attitudes towards biculturalism in New Zealand.     

Identity and Engagement among Political Independents in America

Political behavior among independents has been documented for decades, yet we are left with limited insight into their political engagement. What, if anything, motivates independents to engage in politics? In this study, I apply psychological theories of attitude importance to explain high variation in political‐engagement levels among independents. Using two recent datasets, I find engagement levels are comparable across independents and partisans, yet predictors of their engagement differ substantially. Ideological strength predicts engagement for partisans—but not for independents. Instead, my data show that independents' engagement is best predicted by the importance they place on their independent identity. These data provide evidence that independence is a meaningful political identity and that identity importance is a key to explaining what motivates the independent voter to engage with politics.     

Comparing two career adaptability measures for career construction theory: Relations with boundaryless mindset and protean career attitudes

We examined the constructs underlying the Career Maturity Inventory-Adaptability Form (CMI-C) and the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS). Data from 852 university students indicated that the second-order factors for both scales correlate .43, suggesting that they measure different yet related constructs. All three subscales of the CMI-C correlate most with the “concern” subscale of the CAAS rather than with the corresponding subscale. It appears that the CMI-C is a measure of particular career adaptability for choosing a career whereas the CAAS is a global measure of career adaptability for dealing with all of the tasks of vocational development across the life span. Regression analyses show that the CMI-C does not add to the prediction of boundaryless mindset and protean career attitudes over the CAAS. Relationships between the CMI-C and CAAS with entrepreneurial, professional, and leadership career motivation profiles showed that the CAAS is more strongly related to boundaryless mindset and protean career attitudes, while the CMI-C appears to relate to more traditional (professional and leadership) career motivations.     

群际态度与群际信念:耦合还是分离?

群际态度是人们对于某一群体的喜欢或不喜欢,包括外显群际态度和内隐群际态度,它是一个群体对另一群体正负连续体的评价。群际信念是人们对某一群体特性的刻板印象。以往研究认为,群际态度和群际信念是耦合关系,相互影响,相倚存在。但群际态度和群际信念也存在分离性证据,即存在矛盾性和非统一性。为何形成耦合或者分离,文化定型论、群际态度补偿机制(低地位群体的创造策略、高地位群体的慷慨策略),以及认知差别等都成为调节性平衡点。探讨群际态度和群际信念的分离性关系和作用机制对于干预和消弭群际边界与群际冲突,缓和群际关系具有深远影响,可以支持其独立路径予以针对性干预方案。     

The motivations for Walter Burley’s theory of the proposition

Walter Burley (born c. 1275; died. c. 1344) claims throughout his career that the mind can make a statement (propositio) out of things. Since things include entities that exist outside of the mind, Burley appears to be claiming that the mind can form a statement out of things that exist outside of it. Most scholars of Burley offer a deflationary reading of this claim, arguing that it confuses two distinct but closely related philosophical issues: the nature of propositional content, on the one hand, and the role of facts in a compelling account of truth, on the other. But I argue that Burley means exactly what he says: that the mind can, quite literally, form statements out of things that exist outside of it. In Burley’s account, statements of this sort function as the propositional contents of our thoughts and written or uttered sentences. This account of propositional content is motivated by three more fundamental theses to which Burley is committed: referentialism, compositionality, and a claim about truth-conditionality I call intellectualism.     

父母教育卷入与小学儿童数学焦虑的纵向联系:数学态度的中介作用

为探讨父母教育卷入与学龄期儿童数学焦虑之间的纵向联系及内在作用机制,从山东省聊城市两所普通小学选取1734名三、四年级学生,对其进行为期一年的追踪研究。结果发现：（1）T1父母教育卷入能够显著负向预测T2儿童数学焦虑,但T1儿童数学焦虑对T2父母教育卷入的预测不显著;（2）在同一时间点上,儿童数学态度在父母教育卷入与儿童数学焦虑之间发挥显著中介作用;（3）在不同时间点上,儿童数学态度的中介作用仍然成立,表明儿童数学态度的中介作用具有跨时间的稳定性。该结果强调了父母教育卷入对学龄期儿童数学焦虑变化的重要作用,亦为从父母教育卷入和数学态度角度降低儿童的数学焦虑水平提供了初步有力证据。     

Explaining Own and Others' Behavior in a Controversial Issue: Animal Experimentation

Abstract

The authors investigated how 2 groups with different attitudes toward animal experimentation–researchers who conducted animal experiments and members of animal welfare organizations who protested against animal experiments–made attributions for the behavior of the opposing group. The 2 groups showed an actor-observer effect, mentioning more internal causes for the opponents' behavior and more external causes for their own behavior. Both groups were able to take the other's perspective, resulting in a reversed actor-observer effect. The less involved participants followed the pattern of ratings of the group whose attitudes corresponded to their own. In particular, the participants with a negative attitude toward animal experimentation rated researchers' behavior as more internally caused than did those with a positive attitude. The results illustrated how the participants formed and defended attitudes in a social context.     

不同心理一致感初中生对压力的态度激活研究

该研究采用不同加工任务的间接测量方法,探讨不同心理一致感水平初中生对压力的外显认知倾向和内隐态度激活程度。结果表明:1)初中生较为稳定的积极认识和反应倾向在他们关于压力的外显认知加工中起了更为显著的作用;2)不同加工方式的虚惊率差异表明存在着初中生对压力情境的内隐态度,且这种无意识认知较为消极。     

The dimensional salience solution to the expectancy-value muddle: An extension

The theory of reasoned action (TRA) specifies a set of expectancy-value, belief-based frameworks that underpin attitude (behavioural beliefs × outcome evaluations) and subjective norm (normative beliefs × motivation to comply). Unfortunately, the most common method for analysing these frameworks generates statistically uninterpretable findings, resulting in what has been termed the ‘expectancy-value muddle’. Recently, however, a dimensional salience approach was found to resolve this muddle for the belief-based framework underpinning attitude. An online survey of 262 participants was therefore conducted to determine whether the dimensional salience approach could also be applied to the belief-based framework underpinning subjective norm. Results revealed that motivations to comply were greater for salient, as opposed to non-salient, social referents. The belief-based framework underpinning subjective norm was therefore represented by evaluating normative belief ratings for salient social referents. This modified framework was found to predict subjective norm, although predictions were greater when participants were forced to select five salient social referents rather than being free to select any number of social referents. These findings validate the use of the dimensional salience approach for examining the belief-based frameworks underpinning subjective norm. As such, this approach provides a complete solution to addressing the expectancy-value muddle in the TRA.