Mediational role of values in linking personality traits to political orientation

Two studies use the Five Factor Model of traits and Schwartz's (1992 ) theory of basic personal values to assess the mediational role of values in linking traits to voting choice and left-right ideology. Both left- and right-wing voters showed distinctive traits and values that were congruent with their ideologies. Structural equation modelling supported a hypothesized full mediation model. Individuals' traits of openness, conscientiousness and agreeableness explained significant variance in the politically relevant values of security and universalism, and these self-reported values, in turn, explained the voters' political orientations. These findings held across age (adolescents and adults) and were corroborated using both cross-sectional and longitudinal data.     

基层党政领导干部对创造力人才特点的隐认知

该研究对48名基层领导干部的访谈和631名基层领导干部的问卷调查,通过访谈初步研究了基层领导干部的隐创造力概念,并在访谈基础上,通过因素分析等方法,编制了中国基层党政领导干部创造力人才特点量表。研究发现,中国基层领导干部对于创造力的理解更侧重于解决实际问题而非“无中生有”。在他们看来,创造力就是如何将现有的资源加以整合利用,在既定条件的约束下,用独特的方法来解决公共服务过程中面临的各种新老问题,并取得成效。中国基层领导干部的创造力人才特点包含工作灵活、激励带动：掌握新技术、敢于突破、善于学习5个维度,各维度之间有一定相关。     

Recovering a Probabilistic Knowledge Structure by Constraining its Parameter Space

In the Basic Local Independence Model (BLIM) of Doignon and Falmagne (Knowledge Spaces, Springer, Berlin, 1999), the probabilistic relationship between the latent knowledge states and the observable response patterns is established by the introduction of a pair of parameters for each of the problems: a lucky guess probability and a careless error probability. In estimating the parameters of the BLIM with an empirical data set, it is desirable that such probabilities remain reasonably small. A special case of the BLIM is proposed where the parameter space of such probabilities is constrained. A simulation study shows that the constrained BLIM is more effective than the unconstrained one, in recovering a probabilistic knowledge structure.     

中文读写能力及其相关因素研究

使用5点量表,本研究在北京地区调查了2187名小学一、三、五年级儿童的中文读写能力及其相关因素。因素分析抽取了8个因素：书面语意义理解、基本知觉能力、书写技能、家庭阅读背景、动作技能、口语能力、朗读和听写、书面表达。对上述因素进行多元逐步回归分析发现,各种读写能力内部相关显著。基本知觉能力、口语能力、家庭阅读背景和动作技能分别对中文读写能力的不同成分有显著解释作用。这个结果对于理解阅读能力发展及其与家庭阅读背景、口语、基本知觉一动作能力之间的关系,以及阅读障碍的内在机制具有重要的理论意义。     

Les profils recherchés et rejetés par des recruteurs professionnels en France

This research explores the expectations of recruiters in terms of what they think are prerequisite qualifications of applicants at different job levels. The professional recruiters (N=384) practicing in France, read a job profile (managers or blue-collar workers) and subsequently indicated the five most advisable and inadvisable characteristics for performance on the job. The results confirm our hypothesis and are evidence of a strong prevalence of personality traits in recruiters’ choices. Moreover, the profiles of the « ideal » and « unacceptable » personality mentioned by the recruiters differ according to the job level. Finally, for the management level as well as for the blue-collar worker level, the « ideal » profile is not a simple reversal of the « unacceptable » profile, each profile implies specific personality traits.     

The Variety of Lattice Effect Algebras Generated by MV-algebras and the Horizontal Sum of Two 3-element Chains

It has been recently shown [4] that the lattice effect algebras can be treated as a subvariety of the variety of so-called basic algebras. The open problem whether all subdirectly irreducible distributive lattice effect algebras are just subdirectly irreducible MV-chains and the horizontal sum of two 3-element chains is in the paper transferred into a more tractable one. We prove that modulo distributive lattice effect algebras, the variety generated by MV-algebras and is definable by three simple identities and the problem now is to check if these identities are satisfied by all distributive lattice effect algebras or not. Presented by Daniele Mundici     

There's something about obesity: culture, contagion, rationality, and children's responses to drinks "created" by obese children

Theories of the development of obesity stereotypes cannot easily explain the stigma associated with being obese. Evidence that important similarities exist between the symptoms of obesity and contagious illnesses, young children have "theories" of illnesses, and obesity stereotypes are among the earliest that children develop led to the hypothesis that children would find beverages purportedly created by obese children less tasteful and more memorable than beverages created by average weight children. After assignment to two story conditions in which a child became ill after eating an unfamiliar food, Caucasian-American and Chinese 7- and 10-year-olds sampled identically flavored "obese-created" and "average-created" beverages. Taste ratings were lower, ratings of the chances of feeling sick were higher, and memory was superior for obese-created drinks than for average-created drinks, particularly when the character in the story contracted a contagious illness and memory was scored for "gist." Finally, children often created the false memory that the story character was an obese beverage creator. The roles of contagion and magical beliefs are discussed, as are the rationality of children's responses and the relevance of the findings for theories of obesity stereotypes.     

ON EXPLICATING THE CONCEPT THE POWER OF AN ARITHMETICAL THEORY

In this paper I discuss possible ways of measuring the power of arithmetical theories, and the possiblity of making an explication in Carnap’s sense of this concept. Chaitin formulates several suggestions how to construct measures, and these suggestions are reviewed together with some new and old critical arguments. I also briefly review a measure I have designed together with some shortcomings of this measure. The conclusion of the paper is that it is not possible to formulate an explication of the concept.     

The relation between essentialist beliefs and evolutionary reasoning

Historians of science have pointed to essentialist beliefs about species as major impediments to the discovery of natural selection. The present study investigated whether such beliefs are impediments to learning this concept as well. Participants (43 children aged 4–9 and 34 adults) were asked to judge the variability of various behavioral and anatomical properties across different members of the same species. Adults who accepted within-species variation—both actual and potential—were significantly more likely to demonstrate a selection-based understanding of evolution than adults who denied within-species variation. The latter demonstrated an alternative, incorrect understanding of evolution and produced response patterns that were both quantitatively and qualitatively similar to those produced by preschool-aged children. Overall, it is argued that psychological essentialism, although a useful bias for drawing species-wide inductions, leads individuals to devalue within-species variation and, consequently, to fail to understand natural selection.     

罗杰斯与老子的人性观比较研究

西方人本主义理论的代表人物罗杰斯与道家的创始人老子的理论对人性的观点有很多相似之处,这种相似的人性观主要表现在他们对人的基本动机的理解之上,这两个基本动机分别为实现倾向性和复归倾向性。该文通过比较这两种基本动机,探讨罗杰斯与老子的人性观的相似点与不同点。