社会距离与分配差距对儿童有利不公平厌恶的影响

选取60名8-10岁儿童,采用迫选式独裁者游戏,考察个体与博弈对象的社会距离以及分配差距对儿童有利不公平厌恶的影响。结果发现：（1）在有利不公平条件下,与博弈对象社会距离越近,儿童对不公平分配提议的拒绝率越高;（2）分配差距越大,儿童对不公平分配提议的拒绝率越高;（3）社会距离和分配差距交互作用显著,在中等分配差距条件下,儿童对不公平分配提议拒绝率的社会距离效应最为明显。结果表明,社会距离和分配差距对儿童有利不公平厌恶有显著影响,在中度分配差距下社会距离具有更加明显的调节作用。     

Exploration of likely engagement with Monetary Contingency Contracts for weight loss: a questionnaire study

Monetary Contingency Contracts (MCCs) are schemes that ask individuals to pledge money that is returned contingent on behaviour change. In relation to weight loss, this study explored likely levels of engagement with MCCs, how much individuals would be willing to pay into an MCC, and how these amounts vary under different contract conditions. Fifty-six individuals with BMI above 25 who were motivated to lose weight were recruited. The majority of participants (87.5%) indicated that they would be willing to engage with weight loss MCCs, but showed more reluctance to subscribe to pair-based MCCs which offered; (a) refunds contingent on the weight loss of a weight loss partner, and (b) ‘all or nothing refunds’ in which no reward is given for any weight loss below the target weight loss goal. This study provides preliminary evidence that individuals motivated to lose weight may be willing to engage with weight loss MCCs. Further research is needed to explore reasons for reluctance to subscribe to MCCs with certain conditions, to inform the design of future experimental studies testing the efficacy of MCCs as part of an intervention for weight loss.     

Goodbye,Daddy: An Autoethnographic Journey Through the Grief and Mourning Process

The purpose of this article is to present an autoethonographic study in how I experienced and communicated parts of the mourning process when my father died at the age of 73. The article highlights the stages of grief experienced during the first year. Autoethnographic means are used chronologically to explore how the loss of a family member impacts the stages of grief that are present and how they overlap. In particular, I highlight the events that carried meaning or provided an outlet to express one of the stages of grief. It is hoped that this article can be used to understand why grieving is not an overnight process, but rather is drawn out through the highs and lows of remembering a loved one.     

Exposure,Loss, and Support Predicting the Dimensions of Posttsunami Trauma

This study examined whether exposure, resource loss, and social support predicted the posttsunami trauma of PTSD, depression, negative affect, and physical health problems of the 2004 tsunami survivors. Four hundred sixteen survivors were interviewed in Tamil Nadu (India) 14 months posttsunami. Loss of life followed by loss of property and disaster exposure positively predicted the dimensions of trauma. Survivors having lower social status and income received less material and informational support than their equally affected counterparts, which furthered stress and distress. The survivors’ trauma can be arrested, minimizing the exposure and tangible resource loss, and improving the delivery of social support.     

The assessment of knowledge and learning in competence spaces: The gain–loss model for dependent skills

The gain–loss model (GaLoM) is a formal model for assessing knowledge and learning. In its original formulation, the GaLoM assumes independence among the skills. Such an assumption is not reasonable in several domains, in which some preliminary knowledge is the foundation for other knowledge. This paper presents an extension of the GaLoM to the case in which the skills are not independent, and the dependence relation among them is described by a well‐graded competence space. The probability of mastering skill s at the pretest is conditional on the presence of all skills on which s depends. The probabilities of gaining or losing skill s when moving from pretest to posttest are conditional on the mastery of s at the pretest, and on the presence at the posttest of all skills on which s depends. Two formulations of the model are presented, in which the learning path is allowed to change from pretest to posttest or not. A simulation study shows that models based on the true competence space obtain a better fit than models based on false competence spaces, and are also characterized by a higher assessment accuracy. An empirical application shows that models based on pedagogically sound assumptions about the dependencies among the skills obtain a better fit than models assuming independence among the skills.     

The caregiving relationship under stress: foster carers’ experience of loss of the sense of self

This paper is an account of a piece of research which involved interviewing six foster carers who had ended a placement with a child under the age of five with an early experience of abuse and neglect. The paper describes one of the themes that emerged from the data analysis, the loss of the sense of self in the foster carers, and argues that the experience of attempting to provide care for these children led to internal shifts in the carers that reverberated throughout the network around the child. The paper suggests that knowing about the external reasons for placement breakdown is not enough without taking into account the impact on the internal world of the foster carers and the emotional impact of attempting to provide care for a child who has experienced abuse and neglect.     

Understanding the ‘blind spot’ when children move from foster care into adoption‡

Current social work practice in the UK dictates that when children move from foster care into adoption, the transition takes place within 7 and 14 days, and usually there is no contact between the child and their former carer for several months after the move, if at all. Very little attention or research has been aimed at understanding the rationale for these procedures, or their impact on the children. Joining forces with social work colleagues in a Looked After Children’s team, two child psychotherapists carried out a piece of qualitative research to look at these moves in more detail, and try to tease out how and why these key decisions are made. Analysing data from interviews with foster carers, adopters and social workers, the researchers found that the emotional experience of the child, particularly their experience of losing their foster carer, loses centre stage in people’s minds during this transition, leading to what is described as a ‘blind spot’ across the network. A significant reason for this emerged, in that the children tended to be very compliant both during and after the move and lacking in any obvious distress at losing their former carers, despite having previously been described as passionately attached to them. The research showed that adults across the network, all struggling with intense anxieties of their own, tended to interpret this as evidence that the children were ‘fine’ rather than questioning what might be going on at a deeper level. These research findings are explored in the light of a knowledge base accumulated from a working understanding of attachment and loss in early childhood, and of the psychoanalytical phenomena of individual and organisational defences against loss. Implications for future practice are suggested.     

Parents’ adjustment following the death of their child: Resilience is multidimensional and differs across outcomes examined

We examine whether the previously reported commonness of resilience to significant adversity extends to parents’ death of a child. To examine our research questions, we apply growth mixture models to longitudinal data from 461 parents in the HILDA study who had experienced child loss. The proportion of parents manifesting resilience were 44%, 56%, 21%, 32%, and 16% for life satisfaction, negative affect, positive affect, general health, and physical functioning, respectively. Only 5% were resilient across all five indices, whereas 28% did not show a resilient trajectory across all outcomes. Social connectedness, anticipating comfort when distressed, and everyday role functioning were the strongest predictors of resilient adaptation. Findings underscore that resilience is not a unidimensional construct.Words: 115.     

Explicit and implicit shame aversion predict symptoms of avoidant and borderline personality disorders

Research on the connections between shame and personality disorders (PDs) has focused predominantly on shame proneness. We examined the relationships of shame aversion, or experiencing shame as painful and unbearable, with avoidant and borderline personality disorders. Participants completed self-report measures assessing avoidant and borderline PDs, shame aversion, shame proneness and general experiential avoidance, as well as the recently developed questionnaire-based implicit association test that assessed shame aversion. Self-reported and implicit shame aversion correlated with both PDs, and hierarchical regression models showed that shame aversion incrementally predicted these PDs over and above shame proneness and general experiential avoidance. These findings suggest that individuals who perceive shame as particularly aversive tend to resort to maladaptive behavioral patterns that may impair personality functioning.     

Collective Action Meets Prospect Theory: An Application to Coalition Building in Chile, 1973–75

Expected utility theory explains collective action as an attempt by individuals to maximize their gains. In contrast, my application of prospect theory to collective action suggests that people are motivated to participate in collective action by a fear of loss. These alternative rationalities are considered in the context of the successful cooperative effort of four economic groups in Chile during 1973–75, the first years of the Pinochet military regime. In this case, the logic of prospect theory better captures how actors made decisions about whether or not to engage in collective action. Of the four groups that did join the 1973–75 economic coalition, only one (the mineowners) appears to have maximized its net asset level, as expected utility theory predicts. All four groups seem to have been motivated to cooperate because they found themselves in the domain of losses and expected that cooperation with other, even rival, economic groups might help them recoup their recent losses.