Experimental Power for Indirect Effects in Group-randomized Studies with Group-level Mediators

Mediation analyses have provided a critical platform to assess the validity of theories of action across a wide range of disciplines. Despite widespread interest and development in these analyses, literature guiding the design of mediation studies has been largely unavailable. Like studies focused on the detection of a total or main effect, an important design consideration is the statistical power to detect indirect effects if they exist. Understanding the sensitivity to detect indirect effects is exceptionally important because it directly influences the scale of data collection and ultimately governs the types of evidence group-randomized studies can bring to bear on theories of action. However, unlike studies concerned with the detection of total effects, literature has not established power formulas for detecting multilevel indirect effects in group-randomized designs. In this study, we develop closed-form expressions to estimate the variance of and the power to detect indirect effects in group-randomized studies with a group-level mediator using two-level linear models (i.e., 2-2-1 mediation). The results suggest that when carefully planned, group-randomized designs may frequently be well positioned to detect mediation effects with typical sample sizes. The resulting power formulas are implemented in the R package PowerUpR and the PowerUp!-Mediator software (causalevaluation.org).     

权力感对风险决策框架效应的影响

框架效应是指由于对事物描述方式的改变而引起决策者偏好反转的现象。以权力的接近-抑制理论以及模糊痕迹理论为基础,研究探索了权力感对风险决策框架效应的影响及其发生机制。实验一通过回忆法对170名学生被试进行权力操纵,综合运用四种类型的决策情境,研究考察了权力感与框架效应的关系。结果发现,高权力组被试的框架效应显著,低权力组被试者的框架效应不显著。实验二探讨权力感与框架效应的内在机制。结果发现,信息加工深度中介权力感与框架效应之间的关系     

Maintaining Men's Dominance: Negotiating Identity and Power When She Earns More

This article examines the power dynamics in marriages where wives earn substantially more than their husbands based on in-depth interviews with husbands and wives in 30 couples. The results demonstrate how normative gender expectations constrain interactions between spouses and how spouses in these unconventional marriages struggle to construct appropriate gender identities that are more or less consistent with the conventional expectations that men should be breadwinners and women should be homemakers. These data represent an important counterpoint to the growing body of quantitative work that demonstrates that a woman's power diminishes as her income exceeds her husband's by illuminating how men's power is preserved within marriage, even in the absence of their traditional economic dominance.     

Bridging the Gap between Theory and Policy

Two decades ago, Alexander George observed a growing gap between academic theorists and practitioners in the formulation of foreign policy. The significance of the gap has been debated, but trends in the academy, society, and government suggest it is likely to grow.     

Psychotherapy’s Philosophical Values: Insight or Absorption?

According to insight-oriented psychotherapies, the change clients undergo during therapy results from insights gained into the “true” nature of the self, which entail greater self-knowledge and self-understanding. In this paper, I question such claims through a critical examination of the epistemological and metaphysical values underlying such forms of therapy. I claim that such psychotherapeutic practices are engaged in a process that subtly “absorbs” clients into the therapist’s philosophical framework which is characterized by a certain problematic conception of subjectivity, knowledge, and reality. Through mechanisms which are intrinsic to the therapeutic encounter, such as suggestion and power, such therapies construct and reconfigure clients along the lines of socially accepted norms and values. Consequently, insight-oriented psychotherapy results in a deceptive form of social control.     

权力、知识和精神病学主题——福柯的视角

精神病学领域有关权力因素的讨论日渐增多,法国哲学家福柯对权力和知识的含义及其关系进行了讨论,同时也对当代精神病学领域的相关的主题,如精神疾病、精神病院、诊断、治疗等,提出了批判性的思考,指出了其中隐含的权力因素及其历史性、文化性构成,有助于我们重新理解精神病的主题,更加关注人文因素的强大作用     

Sibling differentials in power and memory conformity

How much a person conforms to another person's memory report can depend on the power and credibility of this person, even if these factors are manipulated by the experimenter. The aim of the current study was to establish whether memory conformity is also affected by power in pairs involving natural power differentials, in this case siblings. Pairs of adult siblings were shown 50 photographs of faces and then given a recognition test where one partner had to answer before the other. The findings showed that what one sibling reported affected what the other one reported. Contrary to our expectations, however, there was no significant difference in conformity between the younger and the older sibling. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Synchronicity and moments of meeting

Abstract :  The paper ¹ considers the role of synchronicity in the establishment of meaning in analysis, and links it to the notion of moments of meeting proposed by the Boston Process of Change Study Group. In so doing, the paper proposed to view synchronicity as an element in developmental processes, wherein attributions of meaningfulness are made in relation to patterns of action that do not have intrinsic meaning, but which have evolved in an environment of meaning, thereby bootstrapping the infant into the world of meaning. Jung's paradigmatic example of synchronicity—the scarab beetle event—is examined in this context and the argument is made that the event was primarily meaningful for Jung and carried with it important countertransference implications that Jung did not consider. The paper concludes with some suggestions for further investigation into the relationship between synchronicity and clinical practice.     

社会支配倾向研究述评

社会支配倾向是社会支配理论中的一个概念,它反映了个体期望内群体优于和支配外群体的程度。高社会支配倾向者偏好加大不同群体间的阶层差异,并期望优势群体更多地支配劣势群体;低社会支配倾向者偏好缩小不同群体间的阶层差异以增加社会平等,并期望优势群体更少地支配劣势群体。因此,社会支配倾向会影响社会不平等的程度,并可以被用来解释偏见的形成。性别和群体地位等情境因素会对社会支配倾向产生影响,而且社会支配倾向与个体间的支配也是有关系的