人格研究中国化之我见

人格是一个人的存在方式。人不是一个纯自然的范畴,而是受社会文化和历史制约的。当今西方人格心理学不是普世的人格心理学,它虽然有多种定义,但其核心是强调个人的独特性。中华文化注重个人所肩负的社会义务、历史责任和道德价值,强调个人要正确处理与他人、与集体、与社会、与自然界的关系,而不是个人的独特性。人格研究中国化就是从中国的实际出发研究中国人的人格,努力创建具有中国特色的人格心理学,更好地为我国的人才培养和社会发展服务。我们在教学中应当引导并支持学生厘清概念,深入中国实际,采用质性和量化相结合的方法开展人格的中国化研究;鼓励师生学以致用,优化人格,成为幸福的进取者。     

Unresolved questions in nudging research: Putting the psychology back in nudging

Nudging interventions are broadly defined as a rearrangement of a choice context that gently suggests a specific choice. Their increasing popularity has attracted attention and discussion from researchers, policy makers, and practitioners alike. After some applications to domains such as health, environmental issues, and retirement savings, the next step in nudging is to understand the psychological boundary conditions when applied to varied domains of daily life. It is yet unclear for example to what extent nudging interventions can be transparent without losing effectiveness, or how permanent the effects are. These unresolved questions may have contributed to heated political and scientific discussions, on for example the ethics of using nudges in the public health domain, due to the missing scientific evidence. Indeed, this popularity may have led to forget how nudging harnesses insights from decades of research in psychology to change people's behavior. The aim of this paper is to shift the focus back to the psychological premises nudges were built upon. It summarizes several outstanding questions that future research in the psychology of nudging should address. Advancing research in nudging will help to improve our understanding of applied nudging interventions and provide clarity to debates such as ethical appropriateness, effectiveness, and public approval.     

Happiness,eudaimonia, and other holy grails: What can job loss teach us about ‘One-size-fits-all’ theories of well-being?

Abstract

Positive psychology has made significant advances in our understanding of well-being, yet agreement about the definition and nature of well-being remains elusive. This study explores the experience of well-being from a bottom-up, naturalistic point of view and compares these inductive notions with existing a priori theories. Using a qualitative-focused case study methodology, this paper explores how everyday people describe well-being in the context of job loss among a sample of 20 workers from the Ottawa, Canada technology sector. Findings support integrated conceptualizations of hedonia and eudaimonia while also potentially identifying new notions of well-being. Identified themes include (a) life evaluation, (b) transitory experiencing, (c) growth and grounding, (d) environmental mastery/stability, (e) mental ill-being/ill-health, and (f) motivational mindsets/conditions. This study shows well-being to be a rich, pluralistic construct which includes the non-dualistic notions of both subjectivity and objectivity as well as encompassing notions related to the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of well-being.     

Love,passion, and peak experience: A qualitative study on six continents

Abstract

Qualitative inquiry promotes deeper understanding of human experiences that can be reduced and decontextualized when examined solely via quantitative methods. In this study, we interviewed 150 people in 22 countries on six continents, asking them, ‘What do you love?’, ‘What is a great passion in your life?’, and ‘What has been a peak experience in your life?’. Love, passion, and peak experience share definitional and theoretical overlaps. However, they have not been explored simultaneously across cultures using qualitative methods. We utilized a pragmatic, inductive, thematic methodology, and 11 key themes emerged from the data. Other people and learning and growing were the top two themes for all three constructs, and data patterns suggested more variation within than between continents. We suggest that love, passion, and peak experience may promote self-determination and/or psychological complexity via integration with and differentiation from the environment, and suggest directions for future research.     

Quality spaces: Mental and physical

Perceptual-role theories of mental qualities hold that we can discover the nature of a being’s mental qualities by investigating that being’s capacity to make perceptual discriminations. Many advocates of perceptual-role theories hold that the best explanation of these capacities is that mental quality spaces are homomorphic to the spaces of the physical properties that they help to discriminate. This paper disputes this thesis on largely empirical grounds, and offers an alternative. The alternative explains interesting patterns in our perception of color differences and similarities across edges, emphasizing the importance of visual discontinuities. Further, it provides a simple explanation of the intransitivity of indiscriminability. The homomorphism thesis can explain this intransitivity only with the addition of an independently unsupported empirical hypothesis. Also, in contrast to the homomorphism thesis, the alternative view is perfectly consistent with empirical data that suggest (a) that the visual system uses the dynamic allocation of a limited range of responses in order to discriminate a wider range of physical stimuli and (b) that we are much better at detecting changes in relative luminance than changes in absolute luminance. Moreover, it does all this while using a more efficient strategy for encoding sensory information.     

Highlighting the Challenges When Conducting Cross‐National Studies: Use of Transcultural Theory

Insufficient exploration of multicultural social justice competence in research methodology and procedures may contribute to lingering clinical problems for diverse populations. Using transcultural theory to evaluate the effectiveness of cross‐national research, the authors examined the various cross‐national methodological challenges during the research design, analysis, and interpretation stages. Recommendations focus on expanding the Multicultural Social Justice Counseling Competencies (Ratts, Singh, Nassar‐McMillan, Butler, & McCullough, 2015 ) to prepare researchers with enhanced skills to explore issues involving diverse populations.     

Creating inclusive identity narratives through participatory action research

This paper describes the process and outcomes of Voices, a participatory action research project aimed to disrupt divisive ethnic identity narratives among youth living amidst protracted ethnic conflict. The project took place in the Garo Hills region of Northeast India, a site of protracted ethnic conflict. Moving away from crisis‐based approaches, this paper explores the conflict transformative potential of participatory action research, specifically its effectiveness in facilitating civic engagement across ethnic lines. The findings indicate that young people's involvement in the project afforded them an opportunity to engage with local community concerns outside of polarized ethnic identity narratives. This involvement facilitated three critical outcomes: engagement in social critique, reconfiguration of a more inclusive researcher identity, and adoption of a language of possibility. Based on these findings, it is argued that opportunities for critical community engagement could interrupt divisive ethnic identity narratives and provide turning points for youth to reimagine inclusive social identities.     

Stances on Assisted Suicide by Health and Social Care Professionals Working With Older Persons in Switzerland

This qualitative study investigated the personal and professional stances of 40 health and social care professionals confronted with assisted suicide of older persons living in nursing homes or supported by social welfare or home care and support services in French-speaking Switzerland. Requests of assisted suicide triggered questions with regard to the professional mission, the quality of accompaniment, values, and ethical principles. Four types of stances emerged from the analysis performed according to the principles of the grounded theory: favorable in principle, professional compromise, personal compromise, and opposed in principle. Each stance results from the combination of several dimensions: personal or professional concordance or compatibility with assisted suicide; implication in, and impact of, the process; appreciation of the process; and satisfaction with the resources at disposal. The differentiated stances adopted by professionals depend largely on their way of interpreting their mission, deontology, and the relationship to the older person.     

Modeling the Instructional Effectiveness of Responsible Conduct of Research Education: A Meta-Analytic Path-Analysis

Predictive modeling in education draws on data from past courses to forecast the effectiveness of future courses. The present effort sought to identify such a model of instructional effectiveness in scientific ethics. Drawing on data from 235 courses in the responsible conduct of research (RCR), structural equation modeling techniques were used to test a predictive model of RCR course effectiveness. Fit statistics indicated the model fit the data well, with the instructional characteristics included in the model explaining approximately 85% of the variance in RCR instructional effectiveness. Implications for using the model to develop and improve future RCR courses are discussed.     

Encouraging Bystanders to Promote Positive Parenting and Prevent Child Maltreatment in Retail Settings: Results of an Exploratory Qualitative Study

Community-level bystander approaches with media campaigns have successfully reduced sexual violence, but these programs have not been developed for child maltreatment prevention. This study informs the development of such programs in retail settings. Data were collected using focus groups with parents (n = 29) and surveys with child abuse experts (n = 10). Participants were asked how retail environments and employees could support parents during shopping excursions and what employees should do if they witnessed a concerning interaction. Participants highlighted (a) the need for in-depth training of employees to engage with parents and children to promote positive interactions and intervene in concerning situations; (b) the importance of the built environment (i.e., physical design and layout) to reduce stress and establish positive social norms through store-wide messaging; and (c) the role of parents in establishing expectations and actively including children in shopping. Future research should test approaches to training and engaging retail employees as supportive bystanders.