The structure of “communities” and communications in the new millennium

The three lineages of information,—the genetic, the cultural and artifactual—will increasingly merge their constituent information contents through advances in biotechnology and information technology. This will redefine what constitutes “social” and what constitutes “community.” A community's members communicate with their “significant others” and change their internal information states (and their internal and external behaviors). Under conditions of merging, information exchanges occur across all the three lineages. In this sense, the concept of significant other,—that is, a communicating entity—, is now spread from human communities to encompass also the biological and the artifactual. A seamless merging between the three realms now occurs affecting their respective internal information stores. The resulting image of interactions that now arises is of multiple oceans of communities, operating at different levels, the genetic, the cultural and the artifactual. There are exchanges across the different levels, up and down and sideways, as information is translated from one realm to the other. These dynamics result in changes in the evolutionary characteristics of each lineage and sub‐lineage, including the internal perceptions from within a lineage, namely in the language of evolutionary epistemology, its “meanings” and “hypotheses” on the world. A future sociology must necessarily take into account these factors and incorporate the dynamics of all three realms.     

A Burden to Others: A Common Source of Distress for the Terminally Ill

Recent research into the desire for death among people with terminal illness has begun to recognize the importance of “feeling oneself a burden to others” as a factor in suicidal behaviour. In this study, 69 patients with advanced cancer underwent semi‐structured interviews. The sense of self‐perceived burden was found to be a common experience, reported by 39.1% of participants as a minimal or mild concern and by 38% as a moderate to extreme concern. The sense of burden showed a low correlation with physical symptoms (r = 0.02–0.24) and higher correlations with psychological problems (r = 0.35–0.39) and existential issues (r = 0.45–0.49). Comparisons of participants with high or low levels of self‐perceived burden showed the importance of this factor for overall quality of life. In summary, self‐perceived burden is an important but underestimated dimension of social cognition in the medically ill.     

Mental Representations in Stressful Situations: The Calming and Distressing Effects of Significant Others

According to attachment theory, attachment figures serve a safe haven function in stressful situations by reducing anxiety through physical proximity. The current study tested the effects of cognitive safe haven in adulthood. Thoughts of a significant other who was not physically present were hypothesized to reduce feelings of anxiety in a stressful situation. Participants imagined and described either a significant other or an acquaintance while waiting to take part in a potentially stressful task. An interaction between working models of attachment and experimental condition was found for distress scores. Thinking about a significant other led to lower levels of distress for individuals with a positive model of self, but higher levels of distress for individuals with a negative model of self.     

道德建设三十年概论

回顾中国道德建设30年,其逻辑起点即是关于道德建设的科学定位。社会主义道德建设的战略地位,决定了它必须是推动中国特色社会主义现代化建设的道德建设,必须是促进全面改革和实行对外开放的道德建设,必须是适应社会主义初级阶段的道德建设。在邓小平德治思想的指引下,我国道德建设呈现四大战略创新。一是提出“以德治国”方略。二是实施公民道德建设纲要。三是树立社会主义荣辱观。四是道德建设融入社会主义核心价值体系。2008年,我们夺取了抗震救灾的重大胜利,成功举办了第29届北京奥运会,形成了“抗震救灾精神”与“奥运精神”。这两大精神是社会主义道德建设30年的最新成果。     

互联网对大学生社会性发展的影响

本研究对110名本科大学生的上网情况和他们在对他人的信任感、主观幸福感及社会疏离感三方面的社会性发展进行了测评,结果表明,对互联网的依赖显著影响了大学生的主观幸福感与社会疏离感,上网时间与对网络的依赖程度呈显著正相关。     

Sanctification of life and health: insights from the landmark spirituality and health survey

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between sanctification of life and health. Sanctification is defined as a process through which aspects of life are perceived as having divine character and significance. A latent variable model was created to test the following hypotheses that link sanctification with health: (1) people who attend worship services more often are more likely to develop a sanctified view of life; (2) individuals who develop a sanctified view of life are likely to be more compassionate, (3) people who are more compassionate will provide more emotional support to others, (4) providing more support to others will be associated with a greater sense of meaning in life, and (5) people who have derived a deeper sense of meaning in life will enjoy better health. Data from a new cross-sectional nationwide survey (N?=?2932) provide support for each of these hypotheses.     

负折扣现象:跨期决策中的自我-他人决策差异

负折扣现象作为一种违背时间折扣假定的现象越来越多地引起研究者关注。本文通过两种指标考察了为自己决策和为他人决策在负折扣现象上的差异。实验1运用二择一选择范式考察人们在为自己决策和为他人决策时对于何时发生负性事件的时间偏好。结果发现,相比较于为他人决策,为自己决策时被试更倾向于选择早些发生负性事件,即更容易产生负折扣现象。实验2运用测量时间折扣率的经典范式考察了人们在为自己决策和为他人决策时的时间折扣率。结果发现,为自己决策时比为他人决策时的时间折扣率更小,更容易出现负折扣率。总体结果表明,为自己决策比为他人决策更容易出现负折扣现象。从情绪卷入的角度看,我们推测,为自己决策时由于更多的预期负性情绪卷入,从而导致更容易产生负折扣现象。     

冲突情境中青少年的亲社会意图:预期重要他人观点的影响

青少年在特定情境下的亲社会意图受到重要他人的影响,而预期重要他人观点的影响更为明显。本研究借助假设的冲突情境,考查了327名青少年(男生146人,女生181人)对重要他人的观点的预期及其对亲社会意图的影响。结果发现,青少年的亲社会意图与其预期的重要他人观点的偏离程度随着情境的不同而发生变化,在"个人健康—他人健康"、"个人学业—他人学业"、"人际关系—诚实品质"三种冲突情境中,青少年的行为意图分别与预期的父母、教师、同伴的观点偏离度最小。预期重要他人观点对亲社会意图的影响受到青少年对相应观点认可度的调节,在高认可度水平上,预期重要他人观点正向预测亲社会意图;在低认可度水平上,上述预测作用并未显现。该结果表明不同重要他人对青少年的影响是相对独立的,且受到生活事件领域的制约。     

The effect of shame on anger at others: awareness of the emotion-causing events matters

Numerous studies have found that shame increases individuals’ anger at others. However, according to recent theories about the social function of shame and anger at others, it is possible that shame controls individuals’ anger at others in specific conditions. We replicated previous findings that shame increased individuals’ anger at others’ unfairness, when others were not aware of the individual’s experience of shameful events. We also found for the first time that shame controlled or even decreased individuals’ anger at others’ unfairness, when others were aware of the individual’s experience of shameful events. The results were consistent when shame was induced by either a recall paradigm or an imagination paradigm, and in either the ultimatum game or the dictator game. This suggests that shame strategically controls individuals’ anger at others to demonstrate that they are willing to benefit others, when facing the risk of social exclusion. Our findings highlight the interpersonal function of shame and deepen the understanding of the relationship between shame and anger at others.     

The gap between medical and monetary choices under risk persists in decisions for others

Decisions under risk in the medical domain have been found to systematically diverge from decisions in the monetary domain. When making choices between monetary options, people commonly rely on a decision strategy that trades off outcomes with their probabilities; when making choices between medical options, people tend to neglect probability information. In two experimental studies, we tested to what extent differences between medical and monetary decisions also emerge when the decision outcomes affect another person. Using a risky choice paradigm for medical and monetary decisions, we compared hypothetical decisions that participants made for themselves to decisions for a socially distant other (Study 1) and to recommendations as financial advisor or doctor (Study 2). In addition, we examined people's information search in a condition in which information about payoff distributions had to be learned from experiential sampling. Formal modeling and analyses of search behavior revealed a similarly pronounced gap between medical and monetary decisions in decisions for others as in decisions for oneself. Our results suggest that when making medical decisions, people try to avoid the worst outcome while neglecting its probability—even when the outcomes affect others rather than themselves.