How Chinese people infer helpers' ambiguous intentions: Helper effort and interpersonal relationships

Previous researchers have tried to understand in what situations people feel gratitude and indebtedness in response to other people helping them, and have found that benefit value, helper effort, helper obligation, and helper intention were all important. However, helper intentions are not always clear. We gave Chinese participants helping vignettes and tested how they inferred helpers' ambiguous intentions. Study 1 found that helper effort significantly influenced how they infer intentions, but benefit value and helper obligation did not. Study 2 replicated the effect of helper effort and found that more effort led participants to infer that the helper was more motivated by utilitarian interests. Study 3 focused on what type of relationship the helper had with the participants, and found that closeness led participants to infer more benevolent intentions and less utilitarian intentions.     

Turning a Blind Eye: A Study of Peer Reporting in a Business School Setting

This article examines student peer reporting by extending the findings from the business ethics and higher education literature. In the conceptual model we propose that reflective moral attentiveness, subjective knowledge of the code of ethics, and academic dishonesty beliefs antecede ethical judgment of peer reporting, which impacts intentions to report peers’ unethical behavior. The relationships are tested using structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that moral attentiveness significantly influences ethical judgment, which in turn affects intention. The relationship between beliefs about academic dishonesty and ethical judgment is partially supported. Based on these results, suggestions for higher education institutions are provided.     

Perception and Help-Seeking Intention of Intimate Partner Violence in Later Life: An International Perspective

This study examines whether elderly Koreans recognize a scenario of intimate partner violence as such and whether they would seek help in the given situation of elder mistreatment (EM). Two cohorts of Korean elders (one immigrant and one Korea-based), each numbering 124 participants, were recruited using a quota sampling strategy. The study used a mixed method approach, employing a hypothetical scenario, and patriarchy theory informed the study. Findings revealed low perception of the vignette as EM and low help-seeking intention in both cohorts. Among the immigrant cohort, intention to seek help was greater among respondents who were female, demonstrated lower adherence to traditional values, and perceived the vignette as EM. Among the Korea-based cohort, the only significant factor was recognition of the scenario as EM. Development of culturally competent and geographically specific practice and intervention is urgently needed, particularly among elders who have greater adherence to traditional cultural values.     

Who am I? The relationship between self‐concept uncertainty and materialism

It is well accepted that materialism may result in a number of negative consequences, hence the importance of improving its understanding. In this paper, we propose that materialism negatively relates to self‐concept uncertainty. Uncertainty about oneself is aversive and those feeling uncertain may use the possession of material objects as a way to reduce the uncertainty. Inasmuch as material objects can serve as concrete signs of self‐worth, self‐concept uncertainty can therefore relate to more materialism. Over two studies, one in Australia and the other in the US, with a total of 390 participants, our research demonstrates that lower clarity about one's self‐concept associates with higher levels of materialism. While this result holds for both genders, this relationship is considerably stronger for women compared to men. We also find that lower self‐concept clarity relates to higher compulsive buying. We further demonstrate that materialism relates to higher positive moods during shopping, and also relates to higher negative moods after shopping, more notably negative moods towards what was purchased. This effect is significant even when controlling for general affective states.     

A Cognitive Anatomy of Political Trust and Respective Bases: Evidence from a Two‐City Survey in China

Building on contemporary research on social cognition and psychology, trust, political representation and accountability, and candidate evaluation, this article proposes to decompose political trust into two cognitively distinct but related components for examination: competence versus intention evaluations. This article further argues that people's evaluations of their government's competence and intention in governance can have distinct bases due to the varying accessibility of pertinent information. Using valid instruments from a unique sampling survey in two Chinese cities in 2005, this article tests the validity of this cognitive scheme. Empirical evidence shows that (1) the surveyed Chinese urban residents effectively differentiated between their central government's competence and intention in governance: on average, they had a quite positive assessment of the central government's intention to serve its people, despite their relatively pessimistic views of its competence to deliver good governance; (2) the Chinese urbanites did consult different sources of information and heuristics when evaluating their central government's competence and intention, respectively.     

扁鹊取意“病却”考

扁鹊是中国医学史上的一个重要名人。人们对扁鹊的认识多来源于《史记·扁鹊传》,篇中撰写的主人公有实有虚,即扁鹊可以指称具体的某一位医生,亦可泛称众良医。在汉画像石中,扁鹊形象奇特,人面鹊身,是一个抽象化的人物。解读两种文献材料,扁鹊应该为古代良医之公名,而非确指某个固定的人。扁鹊一名的内涵,因声求义,扁鹊与“病却”古音相似,此名当取义于“病却”,以此寓神医之德,寄托病人的心愿。把神医命名为“病却”既合人们的愿望,又合古人命名的法则。     

Five-Factor Model personality traits,materialism, and excessive buying: A mediational analysis

Previous research has shown consistent relationships between the Five-Factor Model personality traits, materialism and excessive buying. However, little is known about the channels of influence through personality traits and materialism leading to excessive buying. Therefore, the main objective of this current study is to examine whether materialism is a mediating variable in the relationship between the Five-Factor Model and excessive buying. The results of the path analysis using a sample of 667 women generally confirm the suitability of materialism as a vehicle for the effects of Big-Five personality traits on excessive buying. Specifically, neuroticism exerts both positive direct and indirect influences on excessive buying. Moreover, materialism mediates the influence of extraversion, openness, and agreeableness on excessive buying. Whereas extraversion shows a positive association with materialism, openness and agreeableness present negative relations with materialism which, in turn, is associated with higher excessive buying propensity. Conscientiousness is the only exception to the mediating model, and presents a direct and negative relation with excessive buying. Generally speaking, the finding that five factors effects are mediated by materialism increases the probability that preventive and interventive efforts aimed at reducing materialistic values effectively influence the associated risk for excessive buying originating from certain personality traits.     

婴儿动作理解的研究回顾与展望

婴儿对他人动作意图的正确推理是一种重要的社会认知能力,有利于婴儿根据他人意图来调整自己的行为以适应更好的社会互动.婴儿的这种能力作为一种重要的社会认知根源,对自身的社会反应、心理理论以及语言理解都有重要的影响.但是婴儿是如何获得这种能力的呢?经验论认为是学习的结果,但目的论则认为是婴儿与生俱来的一种能力.两种理论都获得了一些实证支持,目前还没有一致结论.这类研究对具身认知、身心关系的探讨有一定启发作用.     

The role of negative urgency impulsivity and financial management practices in compulsive buying

Previous research has shown that negative urgency impulsivity is associated with compulsive buying even after controlling for depression. The aim of the present study was to replicate this finding and to examine if financial management practices mediated this relationship. A community sample of 162 participants (34 male and 128 female), aged between 18 and 82 years, completed online self‐report questionnaire measures. As expected, results revealed (1) significant positive associations between compulsive buying and both negative urgency impulsivity (NUI) and psychological distress; and (2) a significant negative association between compulsive buying and financial management practices. We also found that after controlling for psychological distress (3) NUI was still significantly correlated with compulsive buying, and (4) financial management practices partially mediated the relationship between NUI and financial management practices. Our findings are consistent with an extension of the theory that compulsive buying is motivated by relieving negative mood states, positing both negative affect‐driven impulsivity and psychological distress as important factors in understanding compulsive buying. These findings also support current cognitive‐behavioural interventions for the treatment of compulsive buying that target psychological distress, NUI, and financial management practices.     

Predicting parental sunscreen use: Disentangling the role of action planning in the intention–behavior relationship

Structural equation modeling was used to examine antecedents of parental sunscreen use (N = 436) in a longitudinal design. The influence of a volitional planning cognition was assessed in several path models, investigating potential mediation and moderation of the intention–behavior relationship. Premotivational and motivational variables accounted for 55.1% of the variance in intention to use sunscreen. Intention emerged as the most powerful predictor of behavior, followed by action planning and self-efficacy expectations, together explaining 35.4% of parental sunscreen use after five months. Strong support was found for both mediating and moderating influences of action planning on the intention–behavior relationship. Action planning also partially mediated the impact of self-efficacy on behavior. The results support theoretical considerations to add postintentional cognitions to current health behavior models. Although action planning is an important component in the transition from intention to behavior, the impact of intention and of other premotivational and motivational variables should not be overlooked when developing health educational interventions.