Identity status and perceived parenting style in adolescents living in central South Africa

This study investigated the relationship between black South African adolescents’ identity statuses and their perceived parenting styles. Participants (n = 188; 66% = females) were from central South Africa. They completed the Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status and the Parental Authority Questionnaire in addition to a biographic survey that included questions on their family structures (nuclear, extended, other types). Findings suggest that diffused and achieved identity statuses relate to perceived authoritative and permissive parenting styles respectively. Results bring into question the universality of Western identity development and parenting style theories.     

Sustainable Environmental Development: The Moderating Role of Environmental Identity

This study develops and tests a model of Chinese residents' evaluation of government developmental activities based on identity theory and social exchange theory. The study proposes hypotheses regarding the influences of perceived benefits and environmental identity on residents' satisfaction with the government, the moderating role of environmental identity in the relationship between perceived benefits and satisfaction, and the effect of satisfaction on residents' support intentions. The model is tested with data collected from 474 residents of four cities in China. Results show environmental identity, along with perceived economic and environmental benefits, plays a very important role in residents' satisfaction with the government. The significant moderating role of environmental identity suggests differential effects of perceived benefits on satisfaction are observed based on the level of environmental identity. Satisfaction is found to be important for obtaining residents' support for the government and future environmental development. Implications of the study are discussed.     

廉价的优越感：社会排斥如何影响新奢侈品的消费

本研究从消费者社会需求层面,探讨在中国新奢侈品会给哪些人带来优越感,什么样的产品可以带来优越感,以及为何会带来优越感等问题。本研究使用一个混合设计的实验,结果发现：（1）相比较非社会排斥状态,社会排斥状态增加了消费者的身份消费需求。（2）在产品炫耀性大时,相比较传统大众产品和奢侈品,社会排斥增加了消费者对新奢侈品的购买意愿。而在产品炫耀性小时,社会排斥的影响不显著;（3）社会排斥、产品种类和产品炫耀性三者的交互作用影响消费者购买意愿的中介变量是消费者感知的产品身份价格比。结论表明,相比较传统大众产品和奢侈品,炫耀性新奢侈品以相对低的价格满足了社会排斥消费者的身份消费需求,为他们提供了一个获得优越感的渠道。     

External and internal reality: The impact of the current socio‐economic crisis on the analytic dyad

This paper addresses the impact of the current economic crisis on the psychic functioning of the patient and the analyst, their relationship and collaboration. This intrusion of ‘external reality’ is multidimensional, and thus with multiple meanings. The critical role of the economic factor brings various dimensions of money into play, such as self‐preservation, power as well as aspects of psychosexual development. In addition, the crisis involves symbolic loss of basic ideals such as honesty and social responsibility. Patient and analyst are affected in similar and different ways in their respective roles as well as according to the specific intrapsychic functioning of each. Moreover, unique characteristics of the crisis often create a crisis in the analysis. In order to avoid deformation of the analytic relationship, the analytic dyad must examine and work through the multiple meanings of the crisis as well as the meaning of the impact of the crisis on the analytic relationship for both patient and analyst. This complex transference‐ countertransference interplay poses specific challenges to the analyst. After discussion of these issues, clinical material is presented that demonstrates how they appear in analytic practice today.     

Perceived Utility (not Sympathy) Mediates the Proportion Dominance Effect in Helping Decisions

The proportion dominance effect (PDE) refers to a higher motivation to help when the victims are part of a small (you can help 56 out of 60) rather than a large (you can help 56 out of 560) reference group. In two studies using different experimental paradigms, we investigated possible mediators of the PDE. Study 1 (N = 168) was conducted in three separate steps in order to test each link of the mediator model independently. Students read six vignettes where it was possible to help a fixed number of victims but where the size of the reference group was either small or large. When the reference group was small, helping motivation and perceived utility were higher, whereas sympathy toward the victims and perceived rights were not. A within‐subject mediation analysis showed that perceived utility mediated the PDE. Study 2 (N = 36) presented four versions of a single helping situation in a joint evaluation mode where the size of the reference group became gradually smaller in each version. All participants compared and responded to each version. Helping motivation increased as the reference group became smaller, and this effect was mediated by perceived utility rather than by distress, sympathy, or perceived responsibilities. Our results suggest that unlike, for example, the identifiability and singularity effects, which have been suggested to be mediated by emotional reactions, the PDE is mediated by perceived utility. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Integration of internal and external facial features in 8- to 10-year-old children and adults

Investigation of whole-part and composite effects in 4- to 6-year-old children gave rise to claims that face perception is fully mature within the first decade of life (Crookes & McKone, 2009). However, only internal features were tested, and the role of external features was not addressed, although external features are highly relevant for holistic face perception (Sinha & Poggio, 1996; Axelrod & Yovel, 2010, 2011). In this study, 8- to 10-year-old children and adults performed a same–different matching task with faces and watches. In this task participants attended to either internal or external features. Holistic face perception was tested using a congruency paradigm, in which face and non-face stimuli either agreed or disagreed in both features (congruent contexts) or just in the attended ones (incongruent contexts). In both age groups, pronounced context congruency and inversion effects were found for faces, but not for watches. These findings indicate holistic feature integration for faces. While inversion effects were highly similar in both age groups, context congruency effects were stronger for children. Moreover, children's face matching performance was generally better when attending to external compared to internal features. Adults tended to perform better when attending to internal features. Our results indicate that both adults and 8- to 10-year-old children integrate external and internal facial features into holistic face representations. However, in children's face representations external features are much more relevant. These findings suggest that face perception is holistic but still not adult-like at the end of the first decade of life.     

Initial goals,goal trajectories,and serial argument resolvability: A growth curve analysis

This study examines dyadic patterns of goal pursuit during a serial argument interaction and their associations with perceived argument resolvability. The authors utilize a growth curve framework to highlight how both initial importance and trajectories (i.e., over‐time increases/decreases) of goal importance predicted perceived resolvability. Seventy‐six heterosexual couples discussed a current serial argument and reported their goals at 1‐min increments, using a video‐assisted recall method. Both initial importance and increases in actors' partner‐focused goals were positively associated with perceived resolvability, and increases in a partners' self‐focused goal importance across the course of the interaction were negatively associated with actors' postinteraction resolvability perceptions. Results suggest that partners should attend to both initial goals and trajectories of goal pursuit during argumentative interactions.