The Relationship of Promotion Focus,Need for Cognitive Closure,and Categorical Accessibility in American and Hong Kong Chinese University Students

Categorical accessibility is a cognitive factor that limits the extent of creative conceptual expansion. In the present study, we sought to establish the categorical accessibility norms in five conceptual domains among American and Hong Kong Chinese university students. In addition, we predicted that the tendency to access normatively inaccessible exemplars in a conceptual domain is positively related to the motivation to maximize the likelihood of attaining positive outcomes (promotion focus) and negatively related to the need for cognitive closure. We obtained the predicted relationships among both American and Hong Kong Chinese university students. These findings were discussed in terms of their implications for promoting creativity across cultures.     

Chinese Cultural Collectivism and Work-Related Stress: Implications for Employment Counselors

The influence and damage of work-related stress on employees from different cultures may well be the same, but the form of stressors may not be so. Stress is influenced by cultural and social variables such as values, attitudes, and perceptions. The collectivism-individualism construct was suggested to measure cultural variables and attempt to explain the differences of some social behaviors between Eastern and Western people. Eastern cultures like the Chinese and the Japanese are collectivistic, whereas Western cultures such as the American and Canadian are individualistic. As members of an Asian collectivistic society, Hong Kong Chinese workers tend to interpret and handle work-related stress differently from Westerners, despite the fact that they have been exposed to western business practices. Like Asian Americans, they are often caught between their collectivistic tradition and an increasingly competetive individualistic market place. Employment counselors should take cultural issues into consideration as they provide consultation or counseling services to people who are searching for satisfying work environments.     

全球化背景下的文化排斥反应

全球化导致文化价值观的跨国界传播, 也可能因为侵蚀地方(local)传统文化使人感到恐慌。文化排斥现象就是人们对全球化过程的反应之一, 它是指人们为了使传统文化免遭污染而可能对外来文化表现出的排斥。文化排斥反应出现的前提是双文化启动效应, 即在两种或多种文化共同出现的情境中文化的类别属性被凸显出来。其中, 厌恶性情绪是双文化情境激发出文化排斥反应的中介机制。文化排斥反应具有的边界属性：内群体象征性文化被污染、人们感知到外来文化的入侵性、或存在性动机被唤起、具有较高认知需求、受类别化思维启动、对外来文化认同较低或对内群文化认同较高时, 人们更倾向于对外来文化表现出排斥性反应。未来研究将借鉴文化排斥研究范式探讨更广泛的群际关系问题。     

The Motivational Function of Regulatory Focus in Creativity

The Regulatory Focus Theory maintains that people may focus on achieving positive outcomes (have a promotion focus) or avoiding negative ones (have a prevention focus) when they pursue their goals. Under a promotion focus, people would formulate as many strategies as possible to attain their goal, and hence be fluent in idea generation when they perform a creative task. In contrast, people under a prevention focus would seek to avoid the negative consequences of failing to attain a valued goal, and persist even when the likelihood of success in a creativity situation is small. We tested these predictions in a study, where regulatory focus was measured as an individual differences variable (Part 1) and induced by a goal framing manipulation (Part 2). The results supported our predictions, and suggested that creative accomplishment requires flexible alternation of regulatory foci at the different stages of creative undertakings.     

语言指示对动作效果的影响

問題 有人认为,用语言提示动作任务可以提高动作效果,语言提示的任务不同,其效果也不同。在我们的运动实践中,看到不完全相同的结果,运动员对待运动活动的态度也是影响运动效果的原因。在运动活动中,他人的语言指示对运动效果究竟有何影响?在提高运动动作效果中它是否起主导作用?这是本文要探讨的问题。     

Emotional Intelligence,Social Problem‐Solving Skills,and Psychological Distress: A Study of Chinese Undergraduate Students1

This study examines how emotional intelligence (EI), personality, and social problem‐solving skills were linked to depression and life dissatisfaction in 144 Chinese undergraduate students in Hong Kong. Factor analyses of questionnaire responses yielded 3 separate dimensions of depression (affective, somative, and cognitive). Structural equation modeling showed that EI (self‐emotions appraisal and use of emotion) was linked to somatic and cognitive symptoms of depression, after controlling for personality. Also, social problem solving was linked to psychological distress, and moderated its links with personality and EI. These results underscore the differences among the links between the components of EI and of psychological health, and support the possibility of promoting people's psychological health through EI and social problem‐solving interventions.     

Effects of Novel Conceptual Combination on Creativity

Two experiments revealed that solving novel conceptual combination problems could enhance performance in a subsequent test of creativity. The evidence also showed that the beneficial effects of solving novel conceptual combination problems were mediated in part by the use of novel conceptual combination strategies. However, the positive effect of the novel conceptual combination training on divergent thinking was found only among males, probably because the creativity measure used in the experiment was biased against female participants. These findings were discussed in terms of their theoretical significance and implications for teaching creativity.     

文化与社会赞许反应:社会个人互动的观点

在处理社会赞许反应的文化差异时,常用的两种方法为实验控制和统计控制。我们在本文中提出另一个观点。通过回顾近期的相关文献,我们指出:社会赞许反应的文化差异,反映在不同社会环境中,人们在相应的文化要求下,以不同的自我呈现方式来加强他们追求个人目标的动力。这种社会、文化与个人的对话历程乃研究文化—心理关系的核心课题。用实验或统计方法将因这个历程产生的变量从跨文化数据中剔除后,所得的结果便只有微薄的文化意义了。因此,我们反对将社会赞许反应的文化差异视为跨文化研究的噪音。相反地,我们认为跨文化研究者应认真地分析社会赞许反应的社会文化意义,以社会赞许反应作为一个窗口,管窥社会、文化与行为相生相成的关系。