The Effect of Social and Situational Factors on the Intended Response to Aggression Among Adolescents

ABSTRACT

In this study, I explored intended response to aggression among adolescents. I drew hypotheses from social identity theory, cost/benefit considerations, and social information processing model. I asked 217 Jewish and Muslim male adolescents in this study to assess their intended use of aggression in 12 hypothetical conflict situations (vignettes), in which I manipulated the opponent's religion, gender, acquaintance, and severity of aggression. I mainly found that male adolescents respond to aggression by same-religion opponents more moderately than to cross-religion aggression; their response is more moderate to cross-gender aggression than to same-gender aggression; response is more moderate to the aggression of familiar opponents than to that of unfamiliar ones; and response is less severe toward moderate than toward severe aggression.     

What Does God Know? Supernatural Agents’ Access to Socially Strategic and Non‐Strategic Information

Current evolutionary and cognitive theories of religion posit that supernatural agent concepts emerge from cognitive systems such as theory of mind and social cognition. Some argue that these concepts evolved to maintain social order by minimizing antisocial behavior. If these theories are correct, then people should process information about supernatural agents' socially strategic knowledge more quickly than non-strategic knowledge. Furthermore, agents' knowledge of immoral and uncooperative social behaviors should be especially accessible to people. To examine these hypotheses, we measured response-times to questions about the knowledge attributed to four different agents--God, Santa Claus, a fictional surveillance government, and omniscient but non-interfering aliens--that vary in their omniscience, moral concern, ability to punish, and how supernatural they are. As anticipated, participants respond more quickly to questions about agents' socially strategic knowledge than non-strategic knowledge, but only when agents are able to punish.     

An Extension of SIC Predictions to the Wiener Coactive Model

The survivor interaction contrasts (SIC) is a powerful measure for distinguishing among candidate models of human information processing. One class of models to which SIC analysis can apply are the coactive, or channel summation, models of human information processing. In general, parametric forms of coactive models assume that responses are made based on the first passage time across a fixed threshold of a sum of stochastic processes. Previous work has shown that the SIC for a coactive model based on the sum of Poisson processes has a distinctive down-up-down form, with an early negative region that is smaller than the later positive region. In this note, we demonstrate that a coactive process based on the sum of two Wiener processes has the same SIC form.     

影响控制感剥夺的因素及其后果

控制感是指人们相信自己的选择和行为与相应的结果存在一致性的一种认知状态,对人的身心健康都有重要影响。控制感剥夺之后,人会产生不适症状（如习得性无助和抑郁）。例如,长期剥夺控制感会引起习得性无助,甚至导致抑郁。影响控制感的因素包括社会环境、个性气质、生理基础,甚至可能受到基因的调控作用。深入理解控制感剥夺背后的心理机制能增进对人们自身心理特点的了解,有助于预防或干预一些心理疾病的产生。     

College students' search for sexual health information from their best friends: An application of the theory of motivated information management

Guided by the theory of motivated information management, this study investigated the extent to which Singaporean college students' sexual health information‐seeking behaviour could be accounted for by their anxiety of uncertainty discrepancy, their perceived outcomes of information seeking and their perceived confidence in seeking and coping with sexual health information acquired from their best friends. Taking into account that issue relevance may play a role in individuals' health decision‐making, this study also examined the effect of perceived vulnerability on respondents' sexual health information‐seeking behaviour. An online survey was conducted with 202 undergraduate students at a university in Singapore. Respondents were asked to report the frequency with which they sought four types of sexual health information from their best friends: unwanted pregnancy, abortion, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections. Survey data showed that respondents' uncertainty discrepancy was positively associated with their anxiety. Anxiety had negative effects on efficacy and outcome expectancy. Outcome expectancy was positively associated with efficacy. Both efficacy and perceived vulnerability accounted for a significant amount of variance in respondents' sexual health information‐seeking behaviour. Findings from this study contribute to a better understanding of young adults' sexual health information behaviour in a Singapore context.     

城镇化进程中离乡农民心理健康特点调查及心理素质、相对剥夺感的影响机制

为探讨城镇化进程中离乡农民的心理健康特点以及心理素质、相对剥夺感对其的影响,通过量表对1339名城乡居民进行调查。结果发现:离乡与留乡农民在幸福感、拥有生命意义感、感知控制感、心理素质方面显著低于城镇居民,在状态焦虑方面显著高于城镇居民; 离乡农民在抑郁上显著高于城镇居民,在感知控制感上显著高于留乡农民,在心理素质上显著低于留乡农民; 留乡农民在相对剥夺感上显著高于城镇居民; 离乡农民的幸福感、拥有生命意义感、感知控制感态与相对剥夺感呈显著负相关,与心理素质呈显著正相关; 离乡农民的抑郁、状态焦虑与相对剥夺感呈显著正相关,与心理素质呈显著负相关; 离乡农民的相对剥夺感与心理素质之间呈显著负相关。心理素质除了可以直接预测心理健康各项指标,还可以通过相对剥夺感的中介作用,间接预测幸福感、抑郁及状态焦虑。提升心理素质和降低相对剥夺感是离乡农民心理健康服务的重要切入点。     

The impact of pressured information management on boys' and girls' psychological functioning

This study involving 463 adolescents examined the impact of pressured information management with mothers on boys' and girls' subsequent psychological functioning. This novel concept of pressured information management involved both pressured secrecy and disclosure and was defined as the degree to which adolescents feel they have no choice but to engage in these strategies. While pressured secrecy was especially aversive for girls, yielding associations with both depression and anxiety, it was related to stress only in boys. Pressured disclosure was less detrimental, and in fact, had a positive influence on girls' anxiety over time. Alternate models for these effects were considered but not supported by the data. Together, these findings highlight the importance of considering teens' reasons for engaging in different information management strategies and suggest adolescents who feel they have no choice but to keep secrets or disclose information to mothers may experience psychological consequences that are gender-specific.     

Observed Variability and Values Matter: Toward a Better Understanding of Information Search and Decisions from Experience

The search for different options before making a consequential choice is a central aspect of many important decisions, such as mate selection or purchasing a house. Despite its importance, surprisingly little is known about how search and choice are affected by the observed and objective properties of the decision problem. Here, we analyze the effects of two key properties in a binary choice task: the options' observed and objective values, and the variability of payoffs. First, in a large public data set of a binary choice task, we investigate how the observed value and variability relate to decision‐makers' efforts and preferences during search. Furthermore, we test how these properties influence the chance of correctly identifying the objectively maximizing option, and how they affect choice. Second, we designed a novel experiment to systematically analyze the role of the objective difference between the options. We find that a larger objective difference between options increases the chance for correctly identifying the maximizing option, but it does not affect behavior during search and choice. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.