Life Cycle Welfare: Trends and Differences

A cohort analysis of United States General Social Science Survey data since 1972 reveals that the life cycle trend in average happiness is remarkably flat. Throughout the life course, however, whites are typically happier than blacks, and more educated persons are happier than their less educated counterparts. In recent years the black-white differential has narrowed moderately, and – although there is no consistent difference by gender – the happiness of females has declined relative to males. Some psychologists assert that happiness is largely determined by genetic or personality traits, but the persistence of life cycle differences by race and education suggests that external socio-economic circumstances are important influences on happiness.     

An aggression machine v. determinants in reactive aggression revisited

The relations between reactive aggression, situational cues, and emotion regulation were examined by means of the Pulkkinen Aggression Machine (PAM) task. In the PAM, provocation and response were systematically varied under two conditions: the impulsive aggression condition and the controlled aggression condition. In the impulsive condition, no information about the attacker was provided, while in the controlled condition the attackers were specified in terms of sex, age, and physical strength. The task was administered to 109 children aged 8 to 13 years. Boys (n = 61) and girls (n = 48), as well as subgroups of Adjusted (n = 67) and Maladjusted (n = 26) children were compared. The results confirmed earlier findings showing that there is a strong relationship between attack and response intensity. However, this relationship was consistently modified by the effects of situation and personality‐related variables. This meant that, while for the impulsive condition response intensity was closely tied to stimulus intensity, in the controlled condition this effect was modulated by the characteristics of the opponent: the more equal the opponent the stronger the retaliations displayed. The Maladjusted children reacted more intensively in the impulsive condition and to minor provocation in the controlled condition than the Adjusted children. This suggests that the intensity of the elicited aggression in the Maladjusted group was particularly dependent on contextual rather than internal control. Aggr. Behav. 27:430–445, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Thin-Ideal Internalization: Mounting Evidence for a New Risk Factor for Body-Image Disturbance and Eating Pathology

Body-image disturbance and eating disorders are a significant physical and mental health problem in Western countries. We describe emerging work on one newly identified variable that appears to be a potent risk factor for the development of these problems internalization of societal standards of attractiveness. Work conducted independently in our labs over the past decade has included scale development, correlational studies, prospective risk-factor studies, randomized experiments, and randomized prevention trials. Findings collectively suggest that internalization is a causal risk factor for body-image and eating disturbances, and that it appears to operate in conjunction with other established risk factors for these outcomes, including dieting and negative affect. Future research is needed to examine the specific familial, peer, and media influences that promote internalization and to replicate and extend our prospective and experimental studies.     

具体认知和抽象认知与社会文化因素的关系

采用认知测试、查阅人类学资料、现场调查和谈话等多种方法,探讨了我国不同生产方式、不同地区和不同民族４６０名成人的具体认知、抽象认知和认知方式及其与生态文化因素的关系。研究结果基本支持了我们理论上所假设的社会文化因素与具体认知操作、抽象认知操作、认知方式的关系,即狩猎和城市社会的生态环境和生产方式对人施加一种生态压力,增进其个体的具体的和抽象的认知,促使其抽象型认知方式的形成;而在捕鱼、游牧和农耕社会的生态环境和生产方式的作用下,个体倾向于较低水平的具体和抽象认知操作以及具体型的认知方式。紧密的社会结构和强调服从的社会化过程,与其个体较低水平的具体和抽象认知及具体型的认知方式相关联;而松散的社会结构和强调自主性的社会化过程,与较高水平具体和抽象认知操作、抽象型的认知方式相联系。正规教育等现代化因素是促进人认知,特别是抽象认知的有力因素。     

Therapeutic factors in interactional inpatient groups: Results from a Turkish sample

Therapeutic factors in an inpatient group from Turkey are presented. A total of 40 patients were seen over a period of 2 years and each patient was given Yalom's (1983) 60-item therapeutic factor list on discharge. The first four most valued therapeutic factor groups were Catharsis, Existential Factors, Cohesiveness and Hope. There were significant differences in the highly valued factors in different diagnostic groups. Patients with diagnoses of anxiety/somatization and borderline/identity problem preferred factors resembling those in many out-patient studies. The results are discussed in the light of relevant literature.     

小学生的智力因素,非智力因素与学业成绩

许多跨文化研究指出.中国学生学业成绩优异的主要原因,是由于中国学生的非智力因素方面更有利于学习。本项研究主要采用层系回归分析,以智力及一般非智力因素预测学业成绩,其中一般非智力因素再细分为学业性及非学业性部分;受试者为中国153名小学生。结果表明：智力及非智力因素均能预测学业成绩,但以后者的预测力较大,而非智力因素中,学业性部分较非学业性部分更能准确预测学生的学业成绩。     

Argumentation and Interpersonal Justification

There are distinct but legitimate notions of both personal justification and interpersonal justification. Interpersonal justification is definable in terms of personal justification. A connection is established between good argumentation and interpersonal justification.     

Noniterative estimation and the choice of the number of factors in exploratory factor analysis

Based on the usual factor analysis model, this paper investigates the relationship between improper solutions and the number of factors, and discusses the properties of the noniterative estimation method of Ihara and Kano in exploratory factor analysis. The consistency of the Ihara and Kano estimator is shown to hold even for an overestimated number of factors, which provides a theoretical basis for the rare occurrence of improper solutions and for a new method of choosing the number of factors. The comparative study of their estimator and that based on maximum likelihood is carried out by a Monte Carlo experiment.The author would like to express his thanks to Masashi Okamoto and Masamori Ihara for helpful comments and to the editor and referees for critically reading the earlier versions and making many valuable suggestions. He also thanks Shigeo Aki for his comments on physical random numbers.     

FACAIC: Model selection algorithm for the orthogonal factor model using AIC and CAIC

This paper describes the authors' FORTRAN algorithm FACAIC for choosing the number of factors for an orthogonal factor model using Akaike's Information Criterion. FACAIC utilizes the IMSL subroutine OFCOMM.The authors dedicate this algorithm to Professor Hirotugu Akaike in appreciation of his pioneering work on AIC which was originally intended for the factor analysis and other statistical model identification problems.     

Some properties of the correlation matrix of dichotomous guttman items

Both the elements and the eigenvalues of the Pearson correlation matrix of dichotomous Guttman-scalable items can be expressed as simple functions of the number of items if the score distribution is uniform and there is an equal number of items at each difficulty level. Even when these special conditions do not hold, the correlations can often be expressed in a simple form by assuming a particular score distribution.The author thanks Neil Dorans, Bob Mislevy, Ledyard R Tucker, and Howard Wainer for their comments.