Job-seeking and job-acquisition in high school students

We surveyed 225 Year 9 and 10 students at T1 regarding their attitude, social norms, control, experience, plans and intentions to find a part-time job while at school. Of these, 149 did not have a job and were surveyed again four months later about their job-seeking and job outcomes (104 responded at T2). Job-seeking intentions at T1 were associated with past experience, plans and beliefs that getting a job was the right thing to do. Job-seeking at T2 was associated with beliefs about the value of job-seeking. Job interviews attended were related to job-seeking, and job offers were related to interviews attended. Students with higher job-seeking intentions and behaviours differed on most variables from students with lower intentions and behaviours. Students need to be aware of the relationship between job-seeking, interviews and offers, and be provided with strategies that increase their interviews and assist to manage unsuccessful job attempts.     

Why We Care Whether Our Beliefs Are True: An Answer to Stephen Stich?

Do we really care whether our beliefs are true? Stephen Stich gives us a very surprising but challenging answer: Once we find out what it means for a belief to be true, the answer to the above question is “a consistently negative” one. He argues that there is neither intrinsic nor instrumental value in having true beliefs. However, his argument is based on some very dubious reasons. For instance, one of his reasons is that if we value true beliefs intrinsically, we will leave out a huge space of mental states that have no truth values but would vastly increase their user’s power or happiness or biological fitness. But this is false because we can value different things intrinsically at the same time. He is even less successful in arguing against instrumental value in having true beliefs. He admits that he does not establish a knockdown argument against the value of having true beliefs, but he insists that the burden of argument be surely on those who maintain that there is value in having true beliefs. To meet his challenge, we have shown that there is cognitive intrinsic value in holding true beliefs and that generally, true beliefs are more conducive to our survival than false beliefs. If we completely depend on our false beliefs to achieve our goals, we will act like a blind cat who can only catch a mouse by chance.     

双向背景信息外部锚问题决策的眼动特征

采用正反双向背景信息日常生活外部锚问题,选取64名大学生,运用眼动技术,考察锚值及双向信息对外部锚问题决策的影响。结果发现：高、低锚组锚定效应指数均在0.76以上,且不存在显著差异。回答锚值比较问题时,从锚值向反向信息的眼跳次数和注视时间显著多于向正向信息的眼跳次数和注视时间。回答估计值问题时,从估计值问题向锚值的眼跳次数和注视时间显著多于向双向信息的眼跳次数和注视时间。研究表明,外部锚引起程度较高的锚定效应。反向信息在问题理解及决策中得到更多关注。锚值在回答锚值比较及估计值问题阶段均对决策产生显著影响。支持了选择通达和信息加工负性偏向观点。     

行为决策中的忽略偏差：心理机制与影响因素

忽略偏差是指在由忽略所导致的损失与由行为所导致的同等的或者更少的损失之间, 个体更容易接受忽略所导致的损失。个体在日常行为决策的各种领域, 特别是在公共政策制定中均会出现忽略偏差。目前忽略偏差的心理机制主要有损失规避和标准理论两种。忽略偏差的影响因素主要包括保护性价值观、选择结果的信息知悉度、负性情绪、社会角色和文化价值观念等。未来的研究则需要从忽略偏差的产生根源, 与决策规避中其他偏差的关系, 群体决策中忽略偏差的影响以及忽略偏差的应用研究领域, 特别是公共管理与公共政策领域等方面进行深入的研究。     

Emotional expressions of moral value

In “Moral Luck” Bernard Williams describes a lorry driver who, through no fault of his own, runs over a child, and feels “agent-regret.” I believe that the driver’s feeling is moral since the thought associated with this feeling is a negative moral evaluation of his action. I demonstrate that his action is not morally inadequate with respect his moral obligations. However, I show that his negative evaluation is nevertheless justified since he acted in way that does not live up to his moral values. I then use this distinctive negative moral evaluation to distinguish agent-regret from guilt and mere regret.

A test of the quasi-circumplex structure of human values

Schwartz’s value system (SVS) has been widely used in different disciplines (e.g., psychology, management, and marketing). Although the value structure seems to be validated when data are analyzed through multidimensional scaling, we show that the quasi-circumplex structure of human values is not supported when confirmatory analysis approaches (e.g., CIRCUM and constrained confirmatory factor analysis) are used. Based on two samples of French and Swiss respondents, confirmatory tests of SVS provide little support for its quasi-circumplex structure, mainly due to problems of construct and discriminant validity resulting from multicollinearity between value types.     

The effects of differential training procedures on linked perceptual class formation

When the stimuli in one perceptual class (A') become related to the stimuli in another perceptual class (B'), the two are functioning as a single linked perceptual class. A common linked perceptual class would be the sounds of a person's voice (class A') and the pictures of that person (class B'). Such classes are ubiquitous in real world settings. We describe the effects of a variety of training procedures on the formation of these classes. The results could account for the development of naturally occurring linked perceptual classes. Two perceptual classes (A' and B') were formed in Experiment 1. The endpoints of the A' class were called anchor (Aa) and boundary (Ab) stimuli. Likewise, the anchor and boundary stimuli in the B' class were represented as Ba and Bb. In Experiment 2, the A' and B' classes were linked by the establishment of one of four cross-class conditional discriminations: Aa-->Ba, Aa-->Bb, Ab-->Ba, or Ab-->Bb. Results were greatest after Aa-->Bb training, intermediate after Aa-->Ba and Ab-->Ba training, and lowest after Ab-->Bb training. Class formation was influenced by the interaction of the anchor/boundary values and the sample/comparison functions of the stimuli used in training. Experiment 3 determined whether class formation was influenced by different sets of two cross-class conditional discriminations: Aa-->Ba and Ab-->Bb, or Aa-->Bb and Ab-->Ba. Both conditions produced equivalent results. Similarities were attributable to the use of anchor stimuli as samples and boundary stimuli as comparisons in each training condition. Finally, the results afterjoint Aa-->Ba and Ab-->Bb training were much greater than those produced by summing the results of Aa-->Ba training alone and Ab-->Bb training alone. This same synergy was not observed after joint Aa-->Bb and Ab-->Ba training or either alone.     

The effects of context extinction on US signal value

Two experiments with rats examined the effects of context extinction on responding to the signal value of an unconditioned stimulus (US). In Experiment 1, US signal value was first trained when a single food pellet signaled the delivery of three additional pellets. After training, rats received either context extinction (CE) or home cage (HC) exposure before testing US signal value by single food pellet presentations. Results showed responding was significantly reduced in Group CE compared to Group HC. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 and showed that exposure to a different context did not reduce responding to the signal value of a US. The results complement research by Kehoe et al. [Kehoe, E. J., Weidemann, G., & Dartnall, S. (2004). Apparatus exposure produces profound declines in conditioned nictitating-membrane responses to discrete conditioned stimuli by the rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 30, 259–270.] and have key implications for prominent theories of conditioning.     

共享心理模型的前因变量研究：群体合成特征的视角

以192个被试组成64个三人团队,通过计算机完成团队合成任务,从群体合成特征的视角出发探讨共享心理模型的前因变量。结果表明:团队成员的价值取向合成特征和初始心理模型合成特征对于共享心理模型的形成具有显著的主效应;群体合成特征与合作任务的信息分布特征形成了显著的交互效应,表明共享心理模型的形成存在潜在的信息分布依存性。最后对研究结果在共享心理模型理论研究上的意义和进一步研究的方向进行了讨论。     

以社会主义核心价值体系引领当代社会思潮

从核心意识形态对民众意识的重要引导作用看,社会主义核心价值体系对当代社会思潮具有重要的引领价值,即用核心价值体系塑造人们的信仰、理想、道德观念,调动大众的主体积极性、主动性,使其成为社会主义核心价值体系的思想上的认同者,行动上的践行者。