Value systems among adolescents: Novel method for assessing level of ego‐development

Children's value systems develop through youth and influence attitudes and actions. But there is a lack of appropriate measures for children and adolescents. The objective of this study was to construct and validate a questionnaire that reveals distinct value systems among adolescents, and to evaluate the identified value systems’ relationship to degree of ego‐development and moral development. A quantitative study in a Swedish School with ages 12 through 16 (grades 6 to 9) was performed (N = 204). A set of pattern recognition statistical analyses has been used to identify different profiles of values systems and demonstrate that these systems can be arranged in a hierarchical order similar to other development. Results revealed three value systems in this sample. The identified value systems reflect different degrees of moral and ego‐development among children in the study. Three distinct value systems were identified: the first (n = 9) and the second value systems (n = 35) correspond to pre‐conventional stages, and the third value system (n = 155) corresponds to early conventional stages of ego development. Ego development scoring of test statements to assess stages. The value system was significantly related to moral development in the personal interest and the maintaining norms schemas of the Defining Issues Test (DIT). However, many students did not complete the entire DIT, so those results should be looked at with caution. It appears that this new test (Test for Adolescent Value Systems – TAVS) does relate to an established ego development rating scale.     

Building seven bridges with young asylum seekers living in exile in the UK (Part 2)

This paper is derived from a talk given in November 2016 as the Birkbeck Counselling Association Autumn Talk in collaboration with Psychodynamic Practice. The original talk has been divided into two related papers of which this is the second, concentrating on the effects on young asylum seekers of the political and social situation in which they find themselves when they reach the UK. Both papers explore how, working with young asylum seekers, we can slowly build sturdy and protective connections during and after the developmental years following experiences of sequential violence. This means building links within the internal worlds of these young people between themselves and: (i) different aspects of themselves that emerge after violence and loss; (ii) their peers; (iii) listening adults; (iv) various social influences; (v) cultural influences; (vi) their past, present and future lives; (vii) links with local, national and international communities. Describing further the work that takes place at the Baobab Centre, a ‘transitional therapeutic community’, and using case material to illustrate this, the author raises the challenge of how we might best address the needs of this group of children, adolescents and young adults who objectively have to live for several years of their lives in a situation of ongoing uncertainty that is in fact much more than a young person can bear. As Jo Goldstein a legal specialist, Anna Freud a child psychoanalyst and Al Solnit a paediatrician write, in their trilogy of works, States and State Agencies cannot parent children, and children need involved parenting, (i.e. involved relationships with individual caring adults). Often for children separated from their original families, the parenting role is split between large bureaucracies and foster carers who work with agencies outsourced from the Social Services Departments. Yet this country makes Social Services Departments and the Home Office responsible for decisions about whether or not child asylum seekers might remain in the UK, in fact often without a very deep assessment and hence little knowledge and understanding of their experiences and their developmental needs. Asylum seeking minors usually have to wait for decisions about their safety and protection, and about permanence and continuity, for a much longer period of time than a child can bear.     

发展级联:解释个体纵向发展的新视角

发展级联(developmental cascades)近年来已成为发展心理学追踪研究中一种重要的理论视角。其基本观点是:人的发展过程是一个诸多发展特征不断产生级联效应的过程,某个时间点上个体特征的发展状况会对该特征的后续发展产生影响,并影响其他领域的发展,进而影响到个体的整个发展进程。在发展级联的理论观点基础上形成的相关方法学模型,为探究发展系统中多个因素之间的纵向关联提供了方法学依据与指导。本文介绍了发展级联的相关概念、理论基础、主要观点以及相关的方法学问题,并对其在实证研究中的应用进行了展望。     

学前儿童抑制控制的发展趋势及其对言语理解和数学认知的预测作用

以长春市某幼儿园的122名3~6岁幼儿为被试,采用2(测试任务:无嵌套规则白天黑夜任务,有嵌套规则的白天黑夜任务)×2(测试时间:间隔9个月的第一次测试和第二次测试)×4(年龄分组:3.00~3.75岁组,3.76~4.50岁组,4.51~5.25岁组,5.26~6.00岁组)的三因素混合设计,来分析不同复杂程度的抑制控制在学前阶段的发展趋势,并在控制幼儿年龄和工作记忆水平后,分析不同复杂程度抑制控制对言语理解和数学认知的独立预测作用。结果发现:(1)对3~6岁儿童来说,有嵌套规则的白天黑夜任务的难度水平要显著高于无嵌套规则的白天黑夜任务;(2)较简单的抑制控制(无嵌套规则的白天黑夜任务)在学前阶段的发展速度先快后慢,但较复杂的抑制控制(有嵌套规则的白天黑夜任务)在3~6岁期间持续快速发展;(3)独立于年龄和工作记忆,较复杂的抑制控制能够显著预测幼儿的数学认知和言语理解,但较简单的抑制控制对言语理解和数学认知的预测作用不显著。根据上述结果,在描述学前儿童抑制控制发展趋势时要注意任务难度的设定,而且难度适当的抑制控制任务成绩更能预测幼儿的言语理解和数学认知。     

网络游戏动机的种类、影响及其作用机制

从动机的角度理解网络游戏日益受到研究者的关注。网络游戏动机的研究主要包括：(1)网络游戏动机的种类。在诸多游戏动机中, 乐趣是研究者最为关注的, 其次包括沉醉、社交、逃避、好奇和竞争等。(2)网络游戏动机的影响因素, 包括人格和网络游戏中的社会和个人互动等。(3)动机对网络游戏意向和行为的影响, 这些动机包括乐趣、社交和成就等。(4)网络游戏动机的影响机制, 包括网络游戏动机的中介作用、网络游戏动机与网络游戏行为意向之间的中介变量和调节变量。未来的研究应当关注网络游戏动机种类的分化与整合, 重视从发展心理学、动机的形成和发展过程以及情绪的角度来探讨网络游戏的动机。     

民族认同在民族间态度中的积极作用

社会认同理论提出后,民族认同与民族间态度的关系受到社会心理学家的关注。社会认同理论认为群体认同是群体间态度的基础,过分的民族认同容易产生消极的民族间态度。而发展取向研究认为民族认同与积极的民族间态度的具有正向关系,研究者通过一系列的研究发现,发展成熟的民族认同与积极的民族间态度具有正相关的关系。     

类推理的发展序列与年龄特点

类推理主要涉及类别层级包含关系的理解和判断。使用修订的类包含、替代包含和二元律任务,以162名二至五年级儿童为被试,利用Raseh模型分析方法,旨在揭示儿童逻辑包含能力的发展序列。此外,探讨了儿童类推理发展的年龄特点。结果表明：1）类推理发展中儿童最先掌握类包含推理,其次是替代包含,最后是二元律推理;2）三、四、五年级儿童已能解决多数类包含任务,其成绩显著优于二年级儿童。四、五年级儿童能解决多数替代包含任务,其成绩均显著优于二年级儿童;3）二元律任务对二至五年级儿童来讲均比较困难。     

RESPONSIBILITY AND DISABILITY

Abstract: This essay explores the boundaries of the moral community—the collection of agents eligible for moral responsibility—by focusing on those just inside it and those just outside it. In particular, it contrasts mild mental retardation with psychopathy, specifically among adults. For those who work with and know them, adults with mild mental retardation are thought to be obvious members of the moral community (albeit not full-fledged members). For those who work with and theorize about adult psychopaths, by contrast, they are not members of the moral community (albeit not in such a full-fledged fashion as the insane). Both psychopaths and adults with MMR have a disability, and the essay is interested in how disability sometimes exempts one from the moral community and sometimes doesn't. It will be through two associated puzzles that we will eventually come to see the complicated tripartite relation between disability, responsibility, and moral community.     

Positive attributional style,life events and their effect on children's mood: Prospective study

The present study extended previous research into the role of cognitive style in predicting depressive symptoms in children by examining positive attributional style for positive events in a prospective manner, with a focus on the influence of prior life experience. A non‐clinical sample of 102 children (aged 10–12 years) was recruited. Participants completed self‐report measures of depression, attributional style, stressful life events, and positive life events on two occasions (approximately 6 months apart). Positive attributional style for positive events moderated the relationship between negative life events and follow‐up depressive symptoms. Number of positive events did not significantly moderate the negative life events–depression symptoms relationship although there was a trend in the expected direction. Positive attributional style for positive events appeared to act as both a mediator and moderator in the positive events–depression symptoms relationship. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.