道德判断中心理状态和事件因果关系的作用:兼对道德判断双加工过程理论的检验

考察青少年儿童和成人在道德判断中利用心理状态和事件因果关系信息的差异,并验证道德判断双加工过程理论.以道德判断中“行为坏的”程度和“应担负的道德责任程度”作为判断问题类型,共有10～11岁和13～15岁的青少年儿童及大学生各120名,完成道德判断测试任务.结果表明在不同的道德判断问题类型下,事件中他人愿望和信念、因果关系信息的作用模式是不同的,支持道德判断双加工过程理论.10～11岁儿童和13～15岁青少年在判断行为坏的程度时,利用心理状态信息和因果关系信息与成人类似.在判断应担负的道德责任程度时,10～11岁儿童更注重行为结果,并且不能综合应用心理状态信息和事件的因果关系信息.13～15岁青少年的道德判断中心理状态信息和事件因果关系信息的作用与成人的情况类似,但在进行应担负的道德责任程度判断时,还不能融合信念与因果关系信息进行道德判断.研究结果为道德判断双加工过程理论提供了支持,而且表明从儿童青少年到成人,利用心理状态和因果关系信息进行道德判断存在不断发展和成熟的过程.     

Gender differences in subjective well-being, self-esteem and psychosocial functioning in adolescents with symptoms of anxiety and depression: findings from the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study

Derdikman‐Eiron, R., Indredavik, M. S., Bratberg, G. H., Taraldsen, G., Bakken, I. J. & Colton, M. (2011). Gender differences in subjective well‐being, self‐esteem and psychosocial functioning in adolescents with symptoms of anxiety and depression: Findings from the Nord‐Trøndelag health study. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology52, 261–267. Gender differences in the prevalence of symptoms of anxiety and depression during adolescence are well documented. However, little attention has been given to differences in subjective well‐being, self‐esteem and psychosocial functioning between boys and girls with symptoms of anxiety and depression. The aim of this study was to investigate gender differences in the associations between such symptoms and subjective well‐being, self‐esteem, school functioning and social relations in adolescents. Data were taken from a major population‐based Norwegian study, the Nord‐Trøndelag Health study (HUNT), in which 8984 (91% of all invited) adolescents, aged 13–19 years, completed an extensive self‐report questionnaire. Although prevalence rates of symptoms of anxiety and depression were higher in girls than in boys, a significant interaction between gender and symptoms of anxiety and depression was found in respect of each of the following outcome variables: subjective well‐being, self‐esteem, academic problems, frequency of meeting friends and the feeling of not having enough friends. These interactions indicate that the associations between symptoms of anxiety and depression and lower subjective well‐being and self‐esteem, more academic problems in school and lower social functioning were stronger for boys than for girls. Our findings may contribute to an earlier assessment and more efficient treatment of male adolescent anxiety and depression.     

Economic Hardship, Neighborhood Context, and Parenting: Prospective Effects on Mexican�CAmerican Adolescent��s Mental Health

This study examined family and neighborhood influences relevant to low-income status to determine how they combine to predict the parenting behaviors of Mexican-American mothers and fathers. The study also examined the role of parenting as a mediator of these contextual influences on adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Study hypotheses were examined in a diverse sample of Mexican-American families in which 750 mothers and 467 fathers reported on their own levels of parental warmth and harsh parenting. Family economic hardship, neighborhood familism values, and neighborhood risk indicators were all uniquely associated with maternal and paternal warmth, and maternal warmth mediated the effects of these contextual influences on adolescent externalizing symptoms in prospective analyses. Parents' subjective perceptions of neighborhood danger interacted with objective indicators of neighborhood disadvantage to influence maternal and paternal warmth. Neighborhood familism values had unique direct effects on adolescent externalizing symptoms in prospective analyses, after accounting for all other context and parenting effects.     

A state level investigation of the associations among intellectual capital, religiosity and reproductive health

The current study examines the degree to which state intellectual capital, state religiosity and reproductive health form a meaningful nexus of ecological relations. Though the specific magnitude of effects vary across outcomes, results from hierarchical regression analyses were consistent with the hypothesized path model indicating that a state's intellectual capital (as indicated by average state IQ and graduation rates at various levels) has a positive overall effect on state reproductive health statistics, whereas state religiosity generally has a negative impact. Specifically, both IQ and education were positively associated with breastfeeding rates, immunization rates, and rates of mammography screening, and negatively associated with teen fertility rates and infant mortality rates. Additionally, results confirm that education rates partially mediate the influence of IQ onto religiosity, and both education and religiosity partially or fully mediate the relation between IQ and state health (depending on specific outcome measure). The current results are consistent with a growing interdisciplinary literature establishing that individual, state and national well-being is substantially related to general mental ability and its covariates.     

The Big-Five, sense of control, mental health and fear of crime as contributory factors to attitudes towards punishment

Low sense of control (SoC), mental health problems and fear of crime (FoC) have separately and previously been linked to the Big-Five personality dimensions, but no study to date has sought to integrate these constructs simultaneously in relation to overall punitiveness. These constructs were assessed in 232 participants using an online survey to examine hypothesised relations between FoC and SoC, poorer mental health, Neuroticism (N), Extraversion (E) and Conscientiousness (C), and any resultant punitiveness. Measures were highly correlated, and an exploratory factor analysis summarised these as ‘instability’ and ‘crime attitude’ dimensions. A structural equation model found that high levels of N and poor mental health, as well as low levels of C, E and SoC were related to a latent variable of ‘distress’, which fed into heightened FoC. High levels of C further influenced FoC, which subsequently had an effect on individuals’ greater punitiveness. The current study supports the previous literature regarding variables that influence FoC and attitudes to punishment, and establishes novel associations involving personality.     

Do academically gifted and nongifted students differ on the Big-Five and adaptive status? Some recent data and conclusions

This study examined a representative sample of academically gifted (N = 374) and non-gifted (N = 428) Israeli high-school students in order to compare these different student populations on the Big-Five and adaptive outcomes. Consistent with prior research, gifted students scored higher than non-gifted peers on Openness to Experience but scored lower on Neuroticism. In addition, gifted students scored lower on state anxiety facets and were not reliably different from their nongifted counterparts on mental distress or subjective well being. Overall, the empirical data are consistent with recent research suggesting that when gifted students are compared with nongifted students on various socio-emotional and personality characteristics, the results are not unfavorable to gifted students.     

Factors associated with perceived helpfulness and use of mental health websites by Australian young adults with a family history of mental illness

Young adults with a family history of mental illness may be vulnerable to develop mental health conditions based on genetic and environmental features. This study aimed to explore factors associated with the use of mental health websites for young adults aged 18–30 years who reported a family history of mental illness. Young adults (n = 469) who reported a family history of mental illness completed an online survey regarding their use of mental health websites, demographic questionnaires and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales. In total, 194 (41%) participants reported using mental health websites, with the majority using these for their own mental well-being (n = 156; 33%). Having a previous history of a mental health condition was associated with mental health website use, along with having a prior history of drug use and having more than one family member diagnosed with a mental illness.     

The need for public policies to promote healthier food consumption: A comment on Wansink and Chandon (2014)

Current approaches to addressing obesity have fallen short. This is largely due to the many environmental forces that undermine people's self-regulatory capacity to be personally responsible for their food choices. Novel insights from the social sciences are needed to inform voluntary, health-promoting actions by companies, institutions, and citizens as well as the design of public health policies. Voluntary interventions that rely on nudges should complement traditional public health strategies such as taxation and restriction of child-targeted marketing in schools. In this commentary, we discuss four food policy issues that would benefit from consumer psychology research: (a) the restriction of food marketing to children, (b) provision of nutrition information through food labels, (c) improving school food environments, and (d) placing limits on portion sizes. Identifying effective solutions for obesity will require approaches that integrate psychological, public health, and legal perspectives and methods.     

Specific and differential prediction of health anxiety by disgust sensitivity and propensity

Current models of health anxiety suggest that fear resulting from false alarms to perceived threats to one's health results in the development of hypochondriasis and related disorders. Disgust has been proposed as an affective response that may function as an etiological and maintenance mechanism in health anxiety. Moreover, the way in which an individual perceives the disgust response (disgust sensitivity) may affect health anxiety, separately from their likelihood of experiencing disgust (disgust propensity). The present study utilized multiple hierarchical regression analysis to investigate the degree to which self-reported disgust sensitivity and disgust propensity differentially predict elevated health anxiety in a sample of 620 non-treatment-seeking undergraduates. Further, this effect is tested in comparison to that of anxiety sensitivity, a construct demonstrated to be strongly related to health anxiety. Analyses indicate that disgust sensitivity, rather than disgust propensity, is primarily responsible for this relation. An additional analysis tested the specificity of disgust sensitivity relative to anxiety sensitivity. Disgust sensitivity was no longer significant after including anxiety sensitivity in the model. Suggestions for further evaluation of this relation are provided. These results suggest that although disgust sensitivity may appear related to health anxiety, this relation may be confounded by anxiety sensitivity.