Adolescents' Political Socialization in Changing Contexts: An International Study in the Spirit of Nevitt Sanford

The recently completed IEA Civic Education Study collected data from 140,000 adolescent students in a total of 29 countries. A recent examination of the work of Nevitt Sanford shows that many aspects of the IEA Civic Education Study are parallel to methods and conclusions of his research from the 1950s through the 1970s and partake in the spirit of his work as well as extending it. These parallels include the use of a contextualized approach in the study of adolescents' socialization and the value of studying groups with extreme response patterns.     

Irrational Wanting and Subrational Liking: How Rudimentary Motivational and Affective Processes Shape Preferences and Choices

People's wanting and liking reactions reflect not only high-level beliefs, but also the operation of rudimentary biopsychological processes. Previous studies suggest that the following wanting and liking processes may be relevant to political behavior: irrational wanting (where wanting is triggered by activation of the brain dopamine system and becomes dissociated from liking); unconscious liking and wanting (where evaluative judgments and behavior are modified without awareness of the eliciting affective stimuli or of the underlying affective response); and fluency-based liking (where preferences are influenced by the ease of stimulus processing). This review suggests how conceptual and methodological tools from affective neuroscience and psychophysiology can refine our understanding of basic affective and motivational processes that shape political attitudes and choices.     

Motivational and Emotional Consequences of Self-Engagement: Voting in the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election

The role played by self-engagement in the prediction and consequences of goal-directed behavior was examined. Components of the Triangle Model of Responsibility were measured 4 days prior to the 2000 U.S. presidential election, and reported voting and reactions to the election were measured the day after the election. In support of the model, engagement in voting was highest when the guidelines for voting were perceived as clear, when the individual perceived personal control over voting, when the individual perceived voting as relevant to his or her role as a citizen, and when who won the election was important to the individual. Engagement in voting was strongly related to reports of actually voting in the election, and completely mediated the relationship between the other predictors and reported voting. Engagement was also related to a variety of behavioral activities (e.g., watching the presidential and vice-presidential debates, staying up late to watch the election results) indicative of investment in the election. Finally, being engaged in the act of voting prior to the election was strongly related to being in a heightened state of uncertainty and anxiety as a function of not knowing the outcome of the election. The importance of self-engagement in predicting behavior and emotional consequences to behavior is discussed.     

Why Response-Dependence Theories of Morality are False

Many response-dependence theorists equate moral truth with the generation of some affective psychological response: what makes this action wrong, as opposed to right, is that it would cause (or merit) affective response of type R (perhaps under ideal conditions). Since our affective nature is purely contingent, and not necessarily shared by all rational creatures (or even by all humans), response-dependence threatens to lead to relativism. In this paper, I will argue that emotional responses and moral features do not align in the way predicted by the response-dependence theorist who wishes to tie morality to emotional affect. I further argue that since response-dependence accounts that tie morality to any sort of affect (be it an emotion, a desire, a desire to desire, or so on) cannot explain the objectivity and universality of morality; and since we do not need a psychological response to play a truth-constituting role in morality in order to explain the normativity or content of morality, we should reject such response-dependence accounts.     

Kashmiri women's perceptions of their emotional and psychological needs,and access to counselling

This paper explores the meaning of mental illness for Kashmiri women, the issues that cause them distress, their coping mechanisms, and their perceptions and understanding of counselling. Interviews were used to compare the experiences and attitudes of two groups of Kashmiri women: those born in Britain and those who had been brought up in Kashmir and had settled in Britain as adults. It was found that Kashmiri women in this study had a clear understanding of mental illness, with little difference in beliefs between those born and raised in the UK and those brought up in Kashmir. In both groups the majority of those who were not aware of formal counselling still wanted to talk to a professional about their emotional distress. The majority of UK born women, and a smaller proportion of Kashmiri born women, were aware of counselling. Most women associated it with talking to someone about one's feelings, about problems in one's heart, in one's mind, and as a means of support when experiencing distress. The implications of these findings for practice are discussed.     

关于儿童道德情绪判断的研究进展

该阐释了道德情绪的基本概念,论述了关于儿童道德情绪判断的近期研究结论及其影响因素。3～10岁儿童的道德情绪判断经历了一个从不高兴到高兴再到不高兴的发展过程,这一进程受到儿童的内在社会认知能力(儿童能否理解愿望是一种主观的心理特性、考虑道德因素的能力、观点采择能力,对犯过人格特质的理解等)及其所处的外在情境因素(所面临情境或事件的性质、情境的不一致性等)的影响。最后,作对该领域的研究趋向做出了展望。     

Gross情绪调节过程与策略研究述评

Gross提出情绪调节产生于情绪发生的过程之中。在情绪发生过程中的情绪调节主要有选择情景、修正情景、注意分配、认知改变、反应调整等五个方面。选择情景、修正情景、注意分配、认知改变是在情绪反应趋势形成之前进行,属于先行关注情绪调节;反应调整是在情绪反应趋势形成之后进行,属于反应关注情绪调节。在情绪调节过程中,有两种普遍的具体策略：认知重评与表达抑制。这两种不同情绪调节策略对情感、认知与社会行为产生不同的影响。     

An examination of the relationships among emotion management,interpersonal hassles,and depressive symptomatology

This study extended previous research by testing three models predicting depressive symptoms from emotion management (EM) and interpersonal hassles in a sample with a wide range of depression scores. Adults (n = 218) from sources including a depression internet site completed measures of interpersonal hassles, depression, and three aspects of EM (attention to, clarity of, and repair of emotions). Regression analyses supported a model in which lower clarity and repair scores and greater frequency of interpersonal hassles each contributed directly to depression scores. While lower attention to emotions was associated with fewer interpersonal hassles, it did not correlate significantly with depression scores. Moderation analyses did not support a model of EM components acting on depression by buffering effects of interpersonal hassles. A model of depression and hassles predicting EM difficulties was also considered; when both hassles and depression scores were entered to predict EM, only depressive symptoms uniquely predicted clarity and repair.     

Development of anti‐immigrant attitudes in adolescence: The role of parents,peers, intergroup friendships,and empathy

Ethnic and racial intergroup attitudes are assumed to develop due to the influence of socialization contexts. However, there is still little longitudinal evidence supporting this claim. We also know little about the relative importance of socialization contexts, the possible interplay between them as well as about the conditions and mechanisms that might underlie socialization effects. This longitudinal study of adolescents (N = 517) examined the effects of parents and peers’ anti‐immigrant attitudes as well as intergroup friendships on relative changes in adolescents’ anti‐immigrant prejudice, controlling for the effects of socioeconomic background. It also examined whether the effects of parents or peers would depend on adolescents’ intergroup friendships. In addition, it explored whether the effects of parents, peers, and intergroup friendships would be mediated or moderated by adolescents’ empathy. Results showed significant effects of parents, peers, intergroup friendships, and socioeconomic background on changes in youth attitudes, highlighting the role of parental prejudice. They also showed adolescents with immigrant friends to be less affected by parents and peers’ prejudice than youth without immigrant friends. In addition, results showed the effects of parents, peers, and intergroup friendships to be mediated by adolescents’ empathic concern. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Behavioural responses to facial and postural expressions of emotion: An interpersonal circumplex approach

While the recognition of emotional expressions has been extensively studied, the behavioural response to these expressions has not. In the interpersonal circumplex, behaviour is defined in terms of communion and agency. In this study, we examined behavioural responses to both facial and postural expressions of emotion. We presented 101 Romanian students with facial and postural stimuli involving individuals (‘targets’) expressing happiness, sadness, anger, or fear. Using an interpersonal grid, participants simultaneously indicated how communal (i.e., quarrelsome or agreeable) and agentic (i.e., dominant or submissive) they would be towards people displaying these expressions. Participants were agreeable‐dominant towards targets showing happy facial expressions and primarily quarrelsome towards targets with angry or fearful facial expressions. Responses to targets showing sad facial expressions were neutral on both dimensions of interpersonal behaviour. Postural versus facial expressions of happiness and anger elicited similar behavioural responses. Participants responded in a quarrelsome‐submissive way to fearful postural expressions and in an agreeable way to sad postural expressions. Behavioural responses to the various facial expressions were largely comparable to those previously observed in Dutch students. Observed differences may be explained from participants’ cultural background. Responses to the postural expressions largely matched responses to the facial expressions.