Vantage perspective during encoding: The effects on phenomenological memory characteristics

The vantage perspective from which a memory is retrieved influences the memory’s emotional impact, intrusiveness, and phenomenological characteristics. This study tested whether similar effects are observed when participants were instructed to imagine the events from a specific perspective. Fifty student participants listened to a verbal report of car-accidents and visualized the scenery from either a field or observer perspective. There were no between-condition differences in emotionality of memories and the number of intrusions, but imagery experienced from a relative observer perspective was rated as less self-relevant. In contrast to earlier studies on memory retrieval, vantage perspective influenced phenomenological memory characteristics of the memory representation such as sensory details, and ratings of vividness and distancing of the memory. However, vantage perspective is most likely not a stable phenomenological characteristic itself. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Can we distinguish an “I” and “ME” during listening?—an event-related EEG study on the processing of first and second person personal and possessive pronouns

Theoretically, stimuli can be related to the self as subject (“I”) or object (“ME”) of experience. This event-related brain potential (ERP) study investigated whether listening to personal and possessive pronouns elicits different modes of self-processing regarding time-course and neural sources. Going beyond previous research, first (1PP) and second person (2PP) pronouns were included to determine the specificity of self-processing. Participants listened passively to German pronouns while the electroencephalogram was recorded. Modulation of ERPs revealed a processing advantage for the 2PP personal pronoun “du” (“you”) already in early time windows. Regarding possessive pronouns, N1 amplitudes indicated increased attention orientation to the 1PP pronoun “mein” (“my”), whereas during later time windows, processing of 1PP and 2PP possessive pronouns did not differ but differed from the third person pronoun “sein” (“his”). ERP source imaging suggests that primary sensory brain regions (auditory cortex), the insula and cortical midline structures are differentially involved into these two processing modes. The results support the idea of distinct self-processing modes (“I” and “ME”) and confirm their dynamic nature. Moreover, they demonstrate that on a neural level neither “I” or “ME” are invariantly tied to the first person, in line with the hypothesis that self-processing is relational and context-dependent.     

Empowering public service workers to face bystander conflict: Enhancing resources through a training intervention

Public service employees work in occupations that are accompanied with high psychosocial risks. Police, firefighters, and paramedics are increasingly being confronted with argumentative, conflicting bystanders that frustrate them in executing their task. We developed a resource‐enhancement intervention and tested its usefulness for securing employees’ effective functioning and well‐being in bystander conflict. In a simulation‐based pre‐test post‐test control group design, paramedics in the intervention condition received training about how to increase their resources in terms of conflict management efficacy, perspective taking, task support, and emotional support. For those in the control condition, no such training was provided. Comparing pre‐ and post‐test measures (n = 81) of the participants in the intervention and control groups, we found evidence that the intervention successfully increased employees’ resources over time. Moreover, we found considerable support for a positive link between these resources and employees’ affective well‐being and job dedication. Thus, our study suggests that a resource‐enhancing intervention can serve as an important means to protect public service employees against the deleterious effects of bystander conflict.

Practitioner points

• A resource‐enhancing intervention can protect public service employees against the deleterious effects of bystander conflict.
• Resources related to dealing with a hindering bystander, as well as resources facilitating the continuation of the primary task, are positively associated with employees’ affective well‐being, job dedication, and job performance.

     

Échelle de temporalité : validation française d’une version courte de la Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI)

Lewin (1951, p. 75) defined time perspective as the “totality of the individual's view of his psychological future and psychological past existing at a given time”. Indeed, time perspective is considered to guide behaviors and participate in the construction of personal identity. The Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) was constructed by Zimbardo and Boyd (1999) to measure the five dimensions of time perspective (Past-Negative, Past-Positive, Present-Hedonistic, Present-Fatalistic and Future scales) and contained fifty-six items. The ZTPI was validated in more than twenty countries, as well in France (Apostolidis and Fieulaine, 2004) and a short version (15-25 items) was also studied in numerous cultural settings like in USA, Australia and various European countries. Nevertheless, the short version of the ZTPI has never been validated in French. The aim of this study is to validate a brief French measure of the ZTPI (Zimbardo and Boyd, 1999) in order to apply it to adults of all ages. Based on the long ZTPI (fifty-four items) validated by Apostolidis and Fieulaine (2004), we tested a version containing fifteen items, the ZTPI-15, among 466 adults (18-98 years). The exploratory analysis revealed a factorial structure representing five factors comprising three items for each scale. The model was tested through a confirmatory factorial analysis, showing that the ZTPI-15 fit indices were satisfactory (χ²/dl = 2.58, RMSEA =.066, CFI = .90, AGFI =.90, RMSR = .067). Internal consistency and test-retest reliability was verified. Correlations between mean scores of the five factors showed relationships. Present-Fatalistic was related to Past-Negative (r =.23) and to Future (r = −.20), whereas a correlation between Past-Negative and Future (r = −.22) was demonstrated. Moreover, Future related to Past-Positive (r =.12). Age was associated to all scales of the ZTPI-15 and the strongest correlation was to Present-Hedonistic (r = −.31). The comparison between 253 young adults (M = 22.5 years) and 160 older adults (M = 73.3 years) showed that the older were less oriented to Past-Negative and Present-Hedonistic but more to Past-Positive, Present-Fatalistic and Future. Furthermore, educational level was correlated to Fatalistic-Present (r = −.28). The validity of the ZTPI-15 was also confirmed with the scores of anxiety and depression and with the Self-Esteem Scale: individuals with high score of anxiety were oriented to Past-Negative (r = .34) and those with high score of depression were oriented to past-Negative (r = .27) and Fatalistic-Present (r = .27). Finally, individuals with low self-esteem were strongly oriented to Past-Negative (r = −.45) and Present-Fatalistic (r = −.27), and individuals with high self-esteem to Future (r = .28).     

On Chinese Modernization from a Macro-Historical Perspective

From a macro-historical perspective, the distinctive characteristics, substantive content, and world significance of Chinese modernization lie in that it is not a replica of foreign models of modernization, but rather a uniquely Chinese path to modernization that takes Marxism as its guide and adheres to the principle of socialism with Chinese characteristics, creating a new model for human civilization. The premise of Chinese modernization is that the Chinese nation achieved independence and stood up in the world landscape of “the East being subordinate to the West.” It is a modernization based on the reality that the Chinese nation has grown prosperous and become strong in the innovative practice of reform and opening up. It is a modernization with the historical mission of creating a new model for human civilization in upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics. Chinese modernization is a new path to build a modernized society that promotes allround social progress and well-rounded human development.     

Will it be me? Identity,concern and perspective

Self-reflexive or egocentric concern has been taken to present a serious problem for reductionist and eliminativist metaphysical accounts of personal identity. Philosophers have tended to respond in one of three ways: by continuing the search for a metaphysical account of identity that (prudentially if not morally) justifies egocentric concern; by accepting that egocentric concern can hold between persons who are not numerically identical; or by advocating the abandonment of egocentric concern altogether. All these approaches, however, distinguish between metaphysical ‘facts’ and affective responses to them. Exploring a well-known example from Bernard Williams, I argue that egocentric concern presents itself as irreducibly first-personal and as making its own set of numerical personal identity claims on the phenomenal level. Williams' example also points to the need to complicate the first/third person schema by factoring in a further distinction between present-tense and implicitly atemporal perspectives on the self. Once this move is made, we can see that the identity claims figured in first-person present-tense experience and those arrived at through metaphysical deliberation need to be distinguished. We should resist the temptation to privilege one perspective over the other in all instances, or to collapse them into a unitary account of selfhood.     

Perspectives on prediction: Does third-person imagery improve task completion estimates?

People typically underestimate the time necessary to complete their tasks. According to the planning fallacy model of optimistic time predictions, this underestimation occurs because people focus on developing a specific plan for the current task and neglect the implications of past failures to meet similar deadlines. We extend the classic planning fallacy model by proposing that a phenomenal quality of mental imagery – the visual perspective that is adopted – may moderate the optimistic prediction bias. Consistent with this proposal, participants in four studies predicted longer completion times, and thus were less prone to bias, when they imagined an upcoming task from the third-person rather than first-person perspective. Third-person imagery reduced people’s focus on optimistic plans, increased their focus on potential obstacles, and decreased the impact of task-relevant motives on prediction. The findings suggest that third-person imagery helps individuals generate more realistic predictions by reducing cognitive and motivational processes that typically contribute to bias.     

A three city comparison of the public's knowledge and attitudes about AIDS

A survey of knowledge, beliefs and attitudes about AIDS was administered simultaneously in San Francisco, New York and London to a total of 399 persons. The aim was to investigate how such knowledge and attitudes may he influenced by social and cultural contexts, as well as by disease epidemiology. Across all samples of the general public (excluding risk group members) in the three cities, general fear of AIDS and anti-gay attitudes were significantly negatively correlated with knowledge about AIDS. In the London sample, general fear of AIDS and anti-gay attitudes were significantly and positively associated with both sexual and general health behavior change. Only sexual behavior change, however, was significantly correlated with general fear of AIDS and anti-gay variables for the New York sample. Neither of these variables was significantly associated with behavior change of any kind in the San Francisco sample. We accounted for these inter-city differences by proposing a four-stage model of public response to an epidemic over time. Our data support the need for specific programs aimed at the general public that take into account sociocultural and AIDS epidemiologic differences across different sociocultural contexts.     

Personality and life satisfaction in China: The birth order effect under the influence of national policy

Individuals’ development is a multilayered affair. The influence of family relationship on personality, such as  and  focusing on birth order, is subject to influence from other social systems in which the families are situated. The current research examined the relation of birth order to personality and life satisfaction in China, where only children have become the majority because of national policy. Across two studies with both between-family data (N = 1468) and within-family data (N = 171), onlyborns and laterborns surpassed firstborns on openness to experience. In addition, only-child participants were more satisfied with their own lives than were sibling participants, especially laterborns. The results offer new insights into the dynamic relations between ecology and personality.