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20 September 2024, Volume 47 Issue 5 Previous Issue   
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The Impact and Intervention of the Approach-Avoidance Tendencies on the Ensemble Coding of Emotional Facial Expressions in a Crowd Lai Tingting, Zhu Wujing, Lin Zengzhen, Wang Xiaoqin, Jia Lei 2024, 47(5): 1026-1035.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240501 Abstract ( )   PDF (1216KB) ( )   peer review(543KB)   Previous studies have investigated the approach-avoidance response to emotional faces and the processing characteristics of facial emotional ensemble coding as separate entities. However, there is a lack of research that has integrated these two aspects to explore the potential influence of approach-avoidance tendencies, induced by the same set of emotional facial expressions on facial expression ensemble encoding. To address this research gap, we conducted two logically progressive experiments by combining the classic approach-avoidance task with the emotional facial expression ensemble task. The goal was to investigate the potential impact of emotional approach-avoidance tendencies on the ensemble coding of facial emotions. Furthermore, we aimed to explore whether the motivational dimensions of emotional stimuli modulate the ensemble coding of facial emotions from the perspective of motivational orientation theory. The experiment was programmed using Presentation software (Neurobehavioral Systems Inc.) and presented on a 21-inch Dell monitor. Experiment 1 employed a 2 (emotional valence: positive vs negative) × 2 (motivational orientation: approach vs. avoidance) within-subjects design. The dependent variable was the mean error value of face emotion ensemble coding ($\mathrm{ME}=\frac{\sum \text { |test-mean }}{n}$). The positive or negative faces were presented in two ways: approaching and withdrawing. Participants were instructed to perceive the mean emotion of the group faces. They were then asked to use the mouse wheel to adjust the emotion of the test face to match the mean emotion of the group faces. Experiment 2 was simplified based on the results of Experiment 1. The positive faces from the ensemble coding task in Experiment 1 were discarded. A 2 (group: experimental group vs. control group) × 2 (motivational orientation: approach vs. avoidance) two-factor mixed design was used in Experiment 2. This experiment consisted of four phases: an emotional state pre-test, a sentence arrangement task, an emotional state post-test, and a group face ensemble coding task. The “experimental group-control group” design was adopted, and different sentence arrangement tasks were set up before the face emotion ensemble coding task. This was done to test whether implicit emotion regulation strategies could reduce the influence of negative avoidance tendencies on face emotion ensemble coding. The results of Experiment 1 revealed a significant interaction between emotional valence and motivational orientation in the face emotional ensemble coding task (p < .05). Further analysis showed that the error in coding negative faces in the approach condition was significantly higher than in the avoidance condition. Additionally, the average error in ensemble coding for negative faces in the avoidance condition was significantly lower than for positive faces. In Experiment 2, the results showed a significant interaction between group and motivational orientation (p < .01). The simple effect analysis indicated that there was no significant difference in the mean error between the approach and avoidance conditions in the experimental group. However, in the control group, the mean error in the approach condition was significantly higher than in the avoidance condition, which was consistent with the findings in Experiment 1. Moreover, the mean error in approach conditions in the control group was significantly higher than that in the experimental group. In conclusion, this study provides evidence that emotional avoidance tendency has an impact on face emotion ensemble coding, while a cognitive reappraisal strategy can eliminate this effect. It supports the motivational orientation theory and challenges the event coding theory. Furthermore, it highlights the significant influence of the motivational dimension of emotional stimuli on emotion perception. The key conclusions are as follows: (1) Negative avoidance tendencies can affect the ensemble coding of emotional faces and induce perceptual biases. (2) Implicit cognitive reappraisal can reduce negative avoidance tendency and regulate its influence on the ensemble coding of emotional faces. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Psychological Mechanisms of the Exogenous-Cue-Induced Size Illusion: Involuntary Attentional Orienting versus Sensory Contrast Ma Wanting, Xie Jimei, Feng Chengzhi, Feng Wenfeng, Zhao Song 2024, 47(5): 1036-1043.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240502 Abstract ( )   PDF (977KB) ( )   peer review(319KB)   Whether attention can change our subjective perception of stimulus appearance is an everlasting research topic in psychology. In the last two decades, a series of psychophysical studies from the Carrasco lab have shown that involuntary attention triggered by an exogenous visual cue can enhance the perceived brightness of the subsequent visual stimulus. More importantly, several recent studies have found that the exogenous visual cue could also expand the perceived range of the stimulus's boundary, leading to a "size illusion". Accordingly, these studies have consistently suggested that the exogenous cue induces the size illusion also by triggering involuntary attentional orienting. However, it is noteworthy that when the target at the cued location was perceived as being larger than the same-size target at the uncued location in these studies, the cue was unexceptionally smaller than the subsequent target that appeared in the same location. Therefore, the perceptual bias for the size of the cued target may not be entirely due to the involuntary attentional orienting induced by the cue; instead, it may partially result from sensory contrast induced by the temporal and spatial proximity between the small cue and the large target that was cued. Given that salient unilateral auditory stimuli have been shown to be effective at triggering involuntary attentional orienting, Experiment 1 replaced the previous visual cue with an auditory cue (Fig. 1A) to determine whether involuntary attentional orienting contributes to the exogenous-cue-induced size illusion at all under the premise of excluding sensory contrast in size between cue and target. Besides, Experiment 1 also designed a visual-cue task (Fig. 1B) to further clarify the degree to which involuntary attentional orienting (and hence sensory contrast) contributes to the previously reported visual-cue-induced size illusion, which was done by calculating the correlation between the magnitudes of size illusions in the visual-cue and auditory-cue tasks. On each trial of Experiment 1, a spatially nonpredictive cue (i.e., a pure tone in the auditory-cue task, a small dot in the visual-cue task) was presented on the left or right side shortly before the appearance of a pair of red and blue visual disks (targets), with one at the cued location and the other at the uncued location. Meanwhile, the diameter of one disk was fixed at 2.30° (standard stimulus) whereas that of the other disk varied among 1.38°, 1.84°, 2.30°, 2.76° and 3.22° (test stimulus). The task for participants was to indicate the color (red v.s. blue) of the disk that appeared to be larger in size. Experiment 2 was similar to the auditory-cue task in Experiment 1, except that participants were required to indicate the color of the larger disk in half of the blocks and indicate the color of the smaller disk in the other half of the blocks. Experiment 2 aimed to examine whether the auditory-cue-induced size illusion holds true after the cue-related response bias, if any, was fully counterbalanced. Experiment 1 showed that the point of subjective equality (PSE) was significantly smaller when the test target was cued than when it was uncued not only in the visual-cue task but also in the auditory-cue task (Fig. 2B). Furthermore, the size illusion induced by the auditory cue was replicated in Experiment 2 (Fig. 3B). However, the correlation analysis in Experiment 1 showed that there was no significant correlation between the magnitudes of the size illusion in the visual-cue and auditory-cue tasks (Fig. 2C). These novel findings indicate that on the one hand, involuntary attentional orienting can indeed contribute to the exogenous-cue-induced size illusion; on the other hand, the contribution of sensory contrast in size between cue and target is much larger than that of involuntary attentional orienting in the previously reported visual-cue-induced size illusion. Therefore, the current study explicitly reveals for the first time that there are dual psychological mechanisms for the exogenous-cue-induced size illusion. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Social Anxiety Moderates the Process of Social Evaluation Expectations: A Drift-Diffusion Model Perspective Zhang Yifei, Zhao Haichao, Huang Aiyue, Li Xiaoyi, Shu Xin, He Yilin, He Qinghua 2024, 47(5): 1044-1054.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240503 Abstract ( )   PDF (1207KB) ( )   peer review(1647KB)   Social anxiety is a state of excessive worry, nervousness, and anxiety that individuals experience in social situations. Examining the cognitive processes of individuals with varying degrees of social anxiety symptoms can help to further understand the cognitive mechanisms. Individuals with social anxiety tend to have irrational social evaluation expectations. The Violation of Expectation model describes the formation of expectations through two processes: general expectation and situational expectation. Additionally, an individual's mental illness symptoms (e.g. social anxiety) can influence the expectation process. Previous research has focused on the effect of social anxiety on expected evaluation outcomes, which may ignore the dynamic process of situational expectations. To address this issue, this study used the drift-diffusion model (DDM) to analyze the formation process of situational expectations. We not only verified the difference in valence (positive vs. negative), but also further explored the moderating effect of social anxiety. The aforementioned DDM allowed us to examine of the parameters associated with the process of situational expectations, including the starting biases, drift rates, non-decision time, and threshold. A total of 85 participants were included in the analysis and data collection was conducted online through Credamo. Social anxiety levels were measured using the short version of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and Social Phobia Scale, and general social expectation were measured using the adapted General Social Expectations Scale. To explore the formation of situational social evaluation expectations, we first elicited subjects' expectations through a structured interview in which we pretended that eight audiences of similar age were watching. A social evaluation expectation task was then designed in which subjects were asked to anticipate whether the audiences would describe them using some trait adjectives displayed. Pressing F represented yes and J for no. The experiment included two blocks, each containing 40 trials, with breaks set between blocks. In each block, there were 20 trials with positive social-related adjectives and 20 trials with negative social-related adjectives, and the adjectives were not repeated between the two blocks. The DDM model was optimized using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov method. According to a previous study, our research specified a DDM with starting biases and drift rates depending on the experimental conditions (i.e., adjectival valence). Then, we checked the model fit individually using a simulated study. SPSS 22.0 and R-based Jamovi software were used for statistical analysis. First, paired-sample t-tests were used to examine the differences of DDM parameters, accuracy rates, and response time across conditions. Second, correlation analyses were used to reveal the relationships between social anxiety, general social expectation, and DDM parameters. Third, general linear models were used to test the moderating effect of social anxiety on the relationship between general and situational expectations. The results indicated that positive evaluation expectations had higher drift rates and starting point biases than negative evaluation expectations. This suggests that participants were more likely to accumulate evidence confirming positive expectations and had a stronger prior bias toward positive expectations. However, there was no significant difference in the absolute value of the drift rate between positive and negative expectations, indicating that the direction of drift rate matters for the valence difference rather than the rate. Social anxiety and general social expectations significantly influenced the drift rate of positive and negative evaluation expectations. Social anxiety weakened the relationship between general social expectations and drift rate but strengthened the relationship between general social expectations and starting point bias, only in terms of the positive evaluation expectations. This indicates that high social anxiety may impair the formation of positive self-bias in social evaluation expectations, leading to a more negative overall evaluation. This study used the DDM to reveal the process of situational evaluation expectations. The results validated the positive self-bias of social expectation, and examine Violation of Expectation model in the field of social evaluation expectations. The moderating role of social anxiety in the formation of social evaluation expectations was demonstrated from a new perspective. This study provides new perspectives for understanding the process by which social anxiety influences the formation of social expectations. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of Spatiotemporal Perception and Landmarks on Spatial Information in Cognitive Maps Huang Lei, Zhang Junheng, Yu Yingyue, Chao Jingyi, Ji Ming 2024, 47(5): 1055-1068.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240504 Abstract ( )   PDF (2985KB) ( )   peer review(1006KB)   A cognitive map is a mental representation of space that aids in spatial navigation and includes both spatial and temporal characteristics. Research indicates that individuals utilize temporal intervals to express spatial distances, reflecting spatiotemporal navigation traits. However, cognitive maps exhibit flexibility and distortion. Subjective perception of time, as a human cognitive process, can easily influence cognitive maps, leading to cognitive distortion in spatial information. To provide a comprehensive view of navigation, the attributes of landmarks must also be considered. Previous research has demonstrated that landmarks influence individuals' perception of time. Consequently, we hypothesize that environmental landmarks may interact with spatiotemporal, thereby impacting the processing of spatial information in cognitive maps. This study aims to elucidate the influence of spatiotemporal and landmarks during navigation in order to explore their effects on cognitive maps. The study consisted of two experiments. Experiment 1 aimed to investigate the interaction between spatiotemporal and landmarks in the formation of cognitive maps. The Path Integration Paradigm was employed to assess participants' ability to construct cognitive maps. A total of 34 participants completed the Path Judgment Task and the Sketch Map Task as part of the experiment. The experimental design followed a 2 (spatiotemporal span: 50s wayfinding vs. 100s wayfinding) * 2 (landmarks: landmarks vs. non-landmarks) mixed model, with spatiotemporal span as the between-subjects variable, landmarks as the within-subjects variable, and the results of the path judgment task and the sketch map task as the dependent variables. The results of experiment 1 revealed that in the 100s wayfinding condition, accuracy of distance judgments decreased, while the accuracy of turning angle judgments improved. In the presence of environmental landmarks, individuals tended to overestimate path distance under prolonged perception conditions, while exhibiting minimal errors in the accuracy of spatial information judgment. No effect of spatiotemporal perception on the accuracy of cognitive map making was observed in experiment 1. Experiment 2 provided further insight into the impact of spatiotemporal perception on spatial information in cognitive maps. The experimental setup paralleled that of experiment 1, with 35 subjects recruited to participate. The experiment utilized a 2 (spatiotemporal span: pause vs. non-pause time) * 2 (landmarks: landmarks vs. non-landmarks) mixed model, with spatiotemporal perception as the between-subjects variable, landmarks as the within-subjects variable, and the results of the path judgment task and sketch map task as the dependent variables. The results of experiment 2 indicated that spatial perception did not significantly affect the judgment of turning angles. However, path judgment errors increased with navigation duration, and landmarks interfered with judgment. This study explores the impact of spatiotemporal factors on cognitive map construction after individuals familiarize themselves with new environments. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the impact of spatiotemporal on the processing of spatial information in cognitive maps during navigation. The results unveiled a correlation between spatial information processing and spatiotemporal during the construction of cognitive maps, with individuals utilizing navigation duration as a basis for estimating path distance. The accuracy of path judgments improved with longer spatiotemporal span, while the accuracy of turning angle decreased with longer spatiotemporal spans. Moreover, landmark enhanced spatiotemporal perception, enhancing path judgment accuracy but impeding turning angle judgment accuracy. These findings further indicate that distinct processing mechanisms underlie straight-line and turning processing in spatial information. Straight-line information processing is influenced by spatiotemporal perception modulated by speed perception, whereas turn processing is influenced by temporal perception. The comprehensive spatial information processing and simulation results support the Tolman-Eichenbaum Machine (TEM) model of spatial information in cognitive maps and provide direct evidence for the mechanism of cognitive map construction. The research focuses on the spatiotemporal attributes in constructing cognitive maps and broadens the scope of cognitive map research, thereby aiding researchers to understand human spatial navigation behavior. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Active Forgetting on Negative Emotion and its Cognitive Mechanism Yang Wenjing, Liu Qi, Jia Hui 2024, 47(5): 1069-1079.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240505 Abstract ( )   PDF (1056KB) ( )   peer review(420KB)   Active forgetting is a cognitive process designed to facilitate the loss of certain memories by modifying either the state of the memory itself or the neural pathways leading to it. This process has significant implications for how individuals manage their memories, especially negative ones, which can affect mental health and emotional well-being. Recent research on active forgetting has focused primarily on its effects on individual memory, while few empirical studies have examined how it affects the negative emotion triggered by the negative memory. To fill this gap, the current study used the classic Think/No-Think (TNT) paradigm to investigate the effects of active forgetting on negative emotions and the associated cognitive mechanisms. The research was conducted in two separate experiments. In the first experiment, 43 college students participated as paid volunteers in the TNT paradigm using sixty object-picture pairs. Neutral object pictures were presented as cues, with the paired negative images acting as the targets for suppression. A crucial part of this experiment was examining how active forgetting can be used to mitigate the emotional response to negative stimuli. Before and after the TNT phase, participants rated the pleasantness and arousal elicited by these negative images. The results from this phase of the study provided insightful data on how effectively the TNT paradigm can alter emotional processing. The second experiment extended the investigation to autobiographical memories and involved 53 undergraduate students. The procedure mirrored that of Experiment 1, but the materials were adapted to include personal memories. Similar to Experiment 1, both subjective and objective measures were assessed before and after the TNT phase to evaluate changes in the participants' emotional responses. The results of Experiment 1 revealed a significant suppression-induced forgetting (SIF) effect, consistent with prior studies, suggesting that repeated retrieval inhibition could mitigate forgetting. This effect was observed across five different subjective and objective memory indicators, extending previous research by incorporating various memory indices from both subjective and objective perspectives. Notably, there were significant changes in affective measures of pleasantness and arousal following the TNT phase. Participants reported increased pleasantness and decreased arousal of the materials, indicating that they were capable of actively forgetting negative memories through repeated retrieval inhibition. More importantly, suppression forgetting could reduce the negative affective experiences induced by these negative memories. Experiment 2 aimed to determine if the SIF effect observed in Experiment 1 could extend to self-related autobiographical memories. Similar to the first experiment, the results also showed a SIF effect on the autobiographical memories. Moreover, repeated retrieval suppression also reduced negative emotional responses to these autobiographical memories. Specifically, participants' self-reported pleasantness increased after the TNT phase. Additionally, the self-reported arousal of the materials decreased after the TNT phase. The results suggest that forgetting suppression through repeated retrieval inhibition is effective for personally relevant memories and significantly enhances individuals' emotional pleasantness toward negative autobiographical memories. In summary, this study provides empirical evidence for the role of memory control in emotion regulation. It demonstrates that motivated forgetting reduces individuals' negative emotional responses to negative memories. The process of retrieval inhibition diminishes not only the detail and vividness of the memory, but also the associated negative emotional reactions. While most previous studies have focused on the SIF effect in memory control, this study highlights the importance of memory control in emotion regulation and proposes active forgetting as a potential strategy for managing negative emotions in daily life. Future research is needed to explore the neural mechanisms that facilitate the SIF effect and to determine how these processes can be enhanced or targeted in therapeutic settings. Additionally, studies could investigate the long-term effects of active forgetting on mental health and emotional well-being. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Developmental & Educational Psychology

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The Development of Behavioral Self-Regulation in Preschool: The Roles of Mothers, Peers and Teachers Xie Qingbin, Sun Juanjuan, Wang Yingjie, Li Yan 2024, 47(5): 1080-1087.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240506 Abstract ( )   PDF (708KB) ( )   peer review(388KB)   Behavioral self-regulation is a component of self-regulation, which manifests as the explicit behavior resulting from the collaboration of executive function, language, and movement. It integrates attention focus, working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility abilities. This ability plays a crucial role in the development of preschool children, including internalizing problems, externalizing problems, social skills, and academic achievement. Numerous intervention studies have demonstrated the high plasticity of preschool children's behavioral self-regulation and its sensitivity to the environment. According to the Family Systems Theory, various elements in the ecosystem may influence the development of behavioral self-regulation in preschool children. However, there is a lack of research examining the impact of social relationships on the growth rate of behavioral self-regulation in Chinese children. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of mother-child relationships, peer relationships, and teacher-child relationships on the initial level and growth rate of behavioral self-regulation in preschool children. A total of 120 children from small classes (65 boys and 55 girls) participated in this study and were assessed on behavioral self-regulation annually in April when they were 4, 5, and 6 years old (T1, T2, and T3, respectively). At T1, assessments were conducted for mother-child, teacher-student, and peer relationships. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to estimate the intercept and slope of behavioral self-regulation based on data from the three time points. This analysis aimed to investigate the impact of children's social relationships on the development of behavioral self-regulation. Results indicated a negative correlation between the intercept and slope1 (slope between T1 and T2, r = -.74) as well as slope2 (slope between T2 and T3, r = -.21). Furthermore, hierarchical regression analysis revealed no gender differences in the initial status of behavioral self-regulation. But boys exhibited a faster growth rate than girls between the ages of 4 and 5, while girls showed a faster growth rate than boys between the ages of 5 and 6. Additionally, children with higher levels of maternal education had a higher initial state but a lower growth rate of behavioral self-regulation between the ages of 4 and 5. Interestingly, maternal education no longer affected their children's behavior self-regulation after the age of 5. Although mother-child relationships did not influence children's behavioral self-regulation, teacher-child and peer relationships did have an impact. Specifically, a higher level of intimacy between teachers and children at the age of 4 was associated with a higher initial status of behavioral self-regulation and a lower growth rate between the ages of 5 and 6, but it did not affect the growth rate between the ages of 4 and 5. Moreover, the higher level of peer rejection at the age of 4 were associated with the slower development of behavioral self-regulation between the ages of 4 and 5, but it did not affect the growth rate between the ages of 5 and 6. In children with low maternal education, those who experienced more peer rejection at 4 exhibited faster growth in behavioral self-regulation between the ages of 5 and 6, compared to those who experienced less rejection at 4. These results provided insights into the developmental characteristics of behavioral self-regulation in children aged 4~6 and highlighted the impact of social relationships on children's behavior self-regulation. It confirmed the importance of environmental factors, particularly social relationships, in the development of children's behavioral self-regulation. Furthermore, the findings emphasized the significance of low peer rejection and high teacher-child relationship intimacy in promoting the development of children's behavioral self-regulation. These findings served as a reference for intervention research aimed at enhancing behavioral self-regulation and social skills in early childhood. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Executive Control Training on Language Control of Chinese-English Bilinguals with Different Working Memory Updating Ability Li Ying, Li Lin, Pan Jiabing, Lu Xiaoxiao, Wang Yue 2024, 47(5): 1088-1095.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240507 Abstract ( )   PDF (655KB) ( )   peer review(567KB)   An increasing number of researches have shown that bilinguals have certain advantages in executive control function, which is due to the multilingual language control process to avoid the interference from unexpected languages. However, it is controversial that what cognitive processing is shared between the processes of language control and executive control. To further investigate whether the ability of domain-general executive control can also affect language control of bilinguals and whether individual differences of working memory updating is an important factor of the relationship between bilinguals' language control and their executive control function, the present study focused on the effect of executive control function training on the language control of Chinese-English bilinguals with different working memory updating abilities. Participants were divided into two different experimental groups according to the scores of their working memory updating test. Then, both experimental groups were trained on their executive control function using the Simon task. The executive control function training task was conducted two times with one week apart. A pre-test of language switching task was conducted before training, and a post-test of language switching task was conducted immediately and four months later after the training. Some other homogeneous participants were selected as the control group, which were conducted the same pre-test and post-test of language switching tasks only without the executive control function training. The results showed that: (1)Compared with the control group, there was a significant difference in participants' language switch costs of experimental group between the pre-test and post-test of language switching tasks. After the executive control training, their language switching costs were decreased both in the immediate and in the long-term post-tests. (2) Compared with the participants with high working memory updating ability and control group, those with low working memory updating ability showed a more obvious reduction of language switching costs after executive control function training. However, there was no significant difference on the mixed costs among three groups both in the pre-test and post-test of language switching tasks. (3) Before and after executive control training, switching from L1to L2 was always faster than that from L2 to L1, showing the unbalanced effect of language shift in Chinese-English bilinguals. The whole results indicated that executive control function training has an instant and also a long-term effect of promoting the language control of Chinese-English bilinguals, especially for those with low working memory updating ability. That is, working memory updating ability can mediate the facilitation of executive control function training on bilinguals' language control. Further, there was still the unbalanced effect of language switching after executive control training, suggesting that the transfer effect from executive control function to bilingual language control cannot fully compensate for the role of second language experience to Chinese-English bilinguals. The proficiency of second language directly affected the language switching efficiency. Therefore, bilingual's language control and executive control function have some certain connection or overlap in cognitive mechanism, but the former still has its own cognitive mechanism which is specific to executive control function. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Inspiration or Fixation? Factors Influencing External Cue Effect on Creativity and the Cognitive Mechanism Underlying It Yuan Huan, Li Nan 2024, 47(5): 1096-1102.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240508 Abstract ( )   PDF (334KB) ( )   peer review(378KB)   Providing external cues is one of the common approaches to inspire creative ideation. Though researchers tend to present external cues such as example solutions to enhance creativity, its effect is still on debate. Inspiration or fixation? The effect largely depends on factors such as cue features, form of cues, and timing. However, how do these factors interact with the creative process is still unknown. To explain the cognitive process underlying this effect, we adopted the Search for Ideas in Associative Memory theory (SIAM) and the Cognitive Network Model of Creativity theory (CNM). According to the SIAM theory, idea generation is a repeated search process in associative memory. External cues serve as the search cues that activate problem-relevant knowledge, which further facilitate idea generation. As the CNM model argues, the long-term memory is seen as an associative network and the working memory contains activated knowledge. Both theories contribute to the creative ideation. This paper reviewed the studies of how these factors affecting creative ideation. Moreover, the two theories were used to explain the possible mechanisms underlying these factors' influence. For example, external cue features such as idea novelty and relevance function differently on creativity. Some researchers found that common ideas improved creative ideation, while others suggested that they would induce cognitive fixation and consequently block the generation of new ideas. Cues (e.g., examples) can either be novel or common, which may affect the categories of problem-relevant knowledge that are activated. This may eventually moderate the example effect on creative idea generation. According to the SIAM theory, novel examples being as searching cues may activate remote concepts in associative network which will be further combined into original ideas. However, it must be noted that the activation of associative network may be different in different stages of creative idea generation. When solving the debate on effect of external cue novelty on creativity, the creative ideation stage should be considered. Further understanding of the mechanisms could be facilitated by focusing on experimental paradigm standardization, distinguishing different stages of creative ideation, employing multiple methods such as cognitive neuroscientific method, and stressing the individual differences of recognizing and using cues. To be specific, directions of further research are as follows. (1) Experimental paradigm should be standardized including the external cues features (e.g., idea novelty), the modality of cues, timing and type of creative tasks. (2) Multiple methods should be utilized in order to understand more about the external cue effect on creativity. These methods include observation, interview, neuroscientific methods such as EEG, fMRI, and so on. (3) As creative ideation is a dynamic process, the cognitive processes of different periods may vary in terms of associative network activation. This stage difference should be taken into consideration. (4) As people differ in their creativity, individual differences for understanding and recognizing the external cues may moderate the link between external cues and creativity. An enhanced understanding of how individuals develop their creativity surrounding the use of external cues will lead to a better understanding of creativity development and practice. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect Of Social Comparison and Gain-Loss Interests on Equitable Distribution In 5- to 6-year-olds: The Role of Social Relationship Ding Tianjiao, Zhu Mengyi, Zhang Hui 2024, 47(5): 1103-1112.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240509 Abstract ( )   PDF (1197KB) ( )   peer review(407KB)   Equitable distribution behavior involves the fair allocation of resources, but complexities arise when considering social relationships, social comparison, and gain-loss interests are considered. As distributors, young children do not pursue equity or personal gain-loss alone; rather, they approach distribution with a comprehensive consideration of these elements. This paper examines how children's distributive behavior is affected by these factors in complex allocation situations involving social comparison and gain-loss interests, and how the social relationship to the distributive object affects the role of these factors. Building on the existing literature, we hypothesized that the social relationship between young children and those to whom they are distributed is a crucial factor, leading to different outcomes with different distribution patterns. Children's social comparison involved not only judging whether they were better than others, but also weighing their gains and losses across various distributional scenarios. Moreover, there was an interaction between social comparison and gain-loss interests, the manifestation of which depended on the cost of fairness and the influence of the social relationship with the distribution object. In this study, 3 experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 was a single-factor within-subjects design. We selected 50 children aged 5 to 6. The classic dictator game task was used to explore the characteristics and allocation patterns of children's distribution behaviors under different social relations including close friends and strangers. Children were also asked why they allocated in each condition. Experiment 2 adopted a 2 (the social relationship: close, distant) × 2 (the social comparison: upward social comparison, downward social comparison) × 3 (gain-loss interests: no gain-loss, gain, loss) within three factor mixed-subject design. We selected 80 children and used the coerced choice game tasks to delve into the mechanism of social comparison and gain-loss interests on children's equitable distribution behavior, while also exploring the role of social relationships in this context. The children's choice of an equitable distribution plan was calculated as 1 point, and the children's distributive behavior score was used as the dependent variable. Experiment 3 was analogous to Experiment 2, but increased the gap of gain-loss between the distribution plan. The data were assessed using paired-samples t-test, chi-square test, and analysis of variance. The findings revealed, first, that social relationships played a crucial role, and the influence of social comparison and gain-loss interests on children's distribution choices varied depending on the nature of the social relationships. Children were more likely to choose "I am more than you" when interacting with strangers, while they were more likely to avoid such a choice when with close friends. Second, when the cost of fairness was minimal, there was a significant interplay among gain-loss interests, social comparison and social relationships. In the case of close friends, children showed less concern for status and gain-loss to some extent, in contrast to their behavior toward strangers. When the cost of fairness was high, the interaction among these 3 factors was not significant. In such situations, children tended to prioritize their individual gain-loss interests, and the impact of social relationships diminished. Third, compared to the social comparison aspect of "I am more than you", children may place a higher value on the gain-loss interests aimed at "maximizing their own interests". In conclusion, 5-to-6- year-old children demonstrated a inclination towards fairness, but were also affected by social comparison and their gain-loss interests. The mechanism of these two factors was contingent on the social relationship. Social relationships (distribution object) played a crucial role in children's equitable distribution behavior. This finding not only revealed the prerequisites and the mechanism behind the impact of in-group favoritism on children's equitable distribution behavior, but also added to the literature on how social comparison and gain-loss interests influence children's equitable distribution behaviors. It offers a new perspective for the research on the development of children's fairness behavior. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Reciprocal Relations between Parent - Child Perceived Psychological Aggression and School-Aged Children's Internalizing and Externalizing Problems: A Within-Person Analysis Zhao Xinyu, Hu Xia, Chen Ye, Xing Xiaopei 2024, 47(5): 1113-1124.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240510 Abstract ( )   PDF (2199KB) ( )   peer review(602KB)   Understanding the relations between negative parenting and children's internalizing and externalizing problems is essential for improving children's mental health. From the middle to late elementary school period, as a form of controlling parenting, parental psychological aggression is likely to become increasingly salient in affecting children's behavioval development due to their heightened needs for pursuing autonomy and independence. The conceptual framework of the parent-child transaction posits that parents and children are reciprocally influenced. According to these theories, parental psychological aggression and children's internalizing and externalizing problems may reflect a reciprocal process of mutual influence. Importantly, the increasing needs of autonomy and advances of cognition allow children to question other's perspectives, which may lead to the divergence of parenting perspectives between parents and children. Especially, parents who grew up with traditional concepts on parenting are likely to view their own controlling parenting practices optimistically. In contrast, growing children are greatly influenced by Western views of parenting that emphasize individuality and autonomy, and they tend to view parental controlling behaviors in a much more negative light. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the differences between parent-child perceived psychological aggression to gain a more accurate understanding of how psychological aggression relates to children's behavioral problems. Moreover, developmental theory is typically concerned with within-person variability, and developmental processes are often assumed to occur within, rather than between, individuals. Between-person variance reflects differences in whether children who experience more parental psychological aggression tend to exhibit more behavioral problems compared to children who experience less. Within-person variance reflects whether changes in parental psychological aggression compared to their mean level at one time point could predict changes in children's behavioral problems compared to their mean level at the next time point, and vice versa. The cross-lagged panel model (CLPM), a traditional method for testing effect directions, fails to separate between-person variance from within-person variance. In this regard, the random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) can separate the variance of each variable into stable between-person variation and within-person variation. Therefore, the second aim of this study is to use the RI-CLPM to provide a robust test of within-person associations between psychological aggression and behavioral problems. Finally, the third aim of the study is to examine whether the relation between parental psychological aggression and children's internalizing and externalizing problems differs by parent and child gender based on the within-person analysis. The current study conducted a four-wave (six months apart) longitudinal design based on 534 school-aged children (Mage = 9.84 years; Boys = 49.4%) and their parents. During four waves, parents and children respectively reported parental psychological aggression using the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales, and respectively reported child internalizing and externalizing problems using the Child Behavior Check List and the Youth Self-Report. RI-CLPM and multi-group analyses were used to examine whether the relations between parental psychological aggression and children's internalizing and externalizing problems are reciprocal at the within-person level and whether such within-person relations would vary across parent and child gender, and multi-informant data also allowed us to explore whether the above relations would differ for parent-child-perception. The results of RI-CLPM showed that at the between-person level, the random intercepts of parental psychological aggression and children's internalizing and externalizing problems were significantly correlated. At the within-person level, for parental perception, only the child-driven effects were found for relations between paternal psychological aggression and externalizing problems, and only the parent-driven effects were found for relations between maternal psychological aggression and externalizing problems. Meanwhile, internalizing problems were reciprocally related with paternal rather than maternal psychological aggression. For children's perception, only the parent-driven effects were found for relations between externalizing problems and paternal and maternal psychological aggression, and internalizing problems were reciprocally related with maternal rather than paternal psychological aggression. Finally, no child gender differences were found in the above relations. In conclusion, this study indicates that during the middle and late school-aged period, the reciprocal relations between parental psychological aggression and children's internalizing and externalizing problems differ between the between-person and within-person levels. Furthermore, the strength and direction of the within-person relations differ by reporter, types of behavioral problems and parent gender. In addition, the within-person relations between parental psychological aggression and children's behavioral problems do not vary by child gender. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Unique and Interactive Effects of Trajectories in Executive Function and Teacher-Student Relationship on Academic Self-Efficacy in School-Aged Children Ai Huiling, Zhao Jianshe, Xing Xiaopei 2024, 47(5): 1125-1135.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240511 Abstract ( )   PDF (1007KB) ( )   peer review(447KB)   Academic self-efficacy plays an important role in children's academic success and has obtained considerable attention from educational researchers and practitioners to date. The development of academic self-efficacy is not only the outcomes of temporary experiences but rather stems from a sustained accumulation of mastery experiences. Nevertheless, few studies have adopted a longitudinal dynamic perspective to explore the influencing factors of academic self-efficacy. Particularly, during the school-age years, a critical period for the development of children's self-regulation and changes of teacher-student relationship, self-regulation such as executive function develops rapidly in order to help children to effectively cope with new challenges, and meanwhile enduring positive teacher-student relationship also helps to enhance children's confidence in problem-solving. Given this, focusing on both individual (e.g., executive function) and external relationship (e.g., teacher-student relationship) factors and deeply exploring their unique and interactive effects on academic self-efficacy from a longitudinal perspective was considered important and necessary. Therefore, we conducted a longitudinal study across six months (3 months apart) to examine the initial levels and growth rates of executive function and teacher-student relationship, and their unique and interactive effects on children's academic self-efficacy. A total of 523 children in grades 3 to 5(51% boys, mean age 10.36 years) participated in this study to complete self-report questionnaires. All participants were tested on the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function and Teacher-student relationship questionnaire for three times, and the academic Self-Efficacy Questionnaire fat T3. Data analyses were performed in three steps: (1) Descriptive analyses and repeated measures ANOVA were computed using the SPSS 21.0 to examine gender differences, differences between only children and those with siblings, associations among the measured variables, and initially evaluate the observed changes; (2) An unconditional multivariate linear latent growth model was estimated for the growth trajectories of executive function and teacher-student relationship; (3) The latent moderated structural equation models were used to examine the unique and interactive effects of executive function and teacher-student relationship on academic self-efficacy. The results indicated that: (1) On average, children experienced an increase in executive function and a decrease in relationship with their teachers over six months; (2) Noth the intercepts and slopes of executive function (β= .43, β = .33, ps. < .01) and teacher-student relationship (β= .39, β = .27, ps. < .01) positively predicted subsequent academic self-efficacy; and (3) Noth the intercept and slope of the teacher-student relationship could moderate the relation between the intercept (not the slope) of executive function and subsequent academic self-efficacy(β= .11, β = .13, ps. < .01). Specifically, compared to those children with poor initial levels or a faster rate of decline in teacher-student relationship, the initial level of executive function could be more strongly positively predicted later academic self-efficacy for those children with better initial levels or a slower rate of decline or even an increasing rate in the teacher-student relationship. One implication of this study is to extend the conventional interaction paradigm beyond looking at predictors as static variables. We employ a strategy for exploring the dynamic interplay between trajectories of executive function and the teacher-student relationship on later academic self-efficacy. This approach, in contrast to traditional cross-sectional analysis, captures the intricate and evolving processes involved. With respect to educational practices, the findings highlight the importance of regular evaluations and the value of nurturing high-quality teacher-student relationships and providing continuous executive functioning training to facilitate academic efficacy for children. Furthermore, the longitudinal interaction effect reveals that enhancing the quality of the teacher-student relationship can amplify the association between high levels of executive functioning and high levels of academic self-efficacy. This suggests that teachers' encouragement and support based on children's self-regulation could be beneficial for children's learning efficacy. The present research holds substantive theoretical and practical implications for school education. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Family Socioeconomic Status and Materialistic Values in Adolescence: The Moderation of The Classroom Context of Belief in a Just World Zhang Yaohua, Huang Yunyun, Chang Song, Xu Min, Xin Sufei 2024, 47(5): 1136-1144.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240512 Abstract ( )   PDF (766KB) ( )   peer review(282KB)   Materialistic values have negative effects on the development of psychosocial functioning in adolescents. According to the dual path model, the relationship between family socioeconomic status and materialistic values is ambiguous. On the one hand, socialization agents may transmit the values and norms to adolescents from higher family socioeconomic status, which then increase their tendency toward materialism. On the other hand, resources and privileges shared by higher family socioeconomic status serve as psychological capacity to defend the young family members against the materialism. The dual path model derives two contradictory hypotheses, and the empirical evidence on this topic also shows mixed results. These theoretical hypotheses and empirical findings suggest that there are other mechanisms underlying the relation between family socioeconomic status and materialistic values. Belief in a just world is a personal psychosocial resource that can serve as a coping function and provide a framework of meaning for individuals. Therefore, it is possible that beliefs in a just world may moderate the relation between socioeconomic status and materialistic values. More importantly, adolescents live in a class group. The average classroom beliefs in a just world may have a positive contextual effect to help adolescent students deal with threats and uncertainty, then reduce materialistic value orientation, especially for the students from higher family socioeconomic status. This is because these students have more opportunities to be exposed to the materialistic environments. To investigate the class-level contextual effect of belief in a just world on materialistic values, cross-sectional data were collected via paper-and-pencil questionnaires, with 3763 adolescents (Mage = 13.95, SD = 1.49, 52.22% girls) nested within 103 class from eight junior and senior middle schools. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires. The questionnaires consisted of three parts, including family socioeconomic status, material values scale, general belief in a just world. Data was cleansed and analyzed with SPSS 26.0, and the main model estimations were based on R software. The multilevel confirmatory factor analysis was based on lavaan package, and the multilevel linear mixed model analysis was based on lme4 package. The results suggested that student-level belief in a just world had a negative relationship with materialistic values; class-level beliefs in a just world further showed extra negative relationship with materialistic values beyond the effect of individual beliefs in a just world and exhibited an incremental predictive validity, which is known as contextual effects. The results also demonstrated that there was a heterogeneous relation between family socioeconomic status and materialistic values. Class-level belief in a just world could serve as a contextual moderator. Specifically, there was no significant association between individual-level beliefs in a just world, socioeconomic status and materialistic values among individuals who were exposed to higher levels of class aggregate belief in a just world. However, among individuals who were exposed to lower levels of class aggregate belief in a just world, those who held lower belief in a just world orientated more materialistic values with the increase of family socioeconomic status. On the other hand, the individuals with higher beliefs in a just world showed no significant relationship between their materialism and family socioeconomic status. To conclude, belief in a just world both at the student and class levels have beneficial effects on adolescents' developmental outcomes. The aggregate level of belief in a just world can uniquely decrease the level of students' materialistic values and can buffer the negative impacts of higher family socioeconomic status and lower individual level belief in a just world. The current study extends the dual path model of materialism development. Socialization agents and psychosocial resources may interact with each other to influence the development and maintenance of materialism. The findings also emphasize the role of the niche context in which the climate of the group's belief system influences the development of its members. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Experiences of Online Interpersonal Sexual Objectification and Body Shame in Female College Students: A Moderated Mediation Model Lang Min, Ye Ziqing, Ye Yiduo 2024, 47(5): 1145-1152.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240513 Abstract ( )   PDF (693KB) ( )   peer review(322KB)   With the popularity of online social activities, increasing information on sexual objectification appears in the process of online social activities, which not only speeds up the formation of women's self-objectification, but also increases the level of body shame. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between experiences of online interpersonal sexual objectification and body shame, as well as the mediating role of internalization of beauty ideals and self-objectification and the moderating role of self-compassion. Female college students (N=350) voluntarily participated in this study and completed an online survey. They filled out questionnaires, including demographic questions, the Online Interpersonal Sexual Objectification Experience Scale, the Body Shame Scale, the Internalization of Beauty Ideals Scale, the Chinese Version of Self-Objectification Beliefs, the Behaviors Scale, and the Self-Compassion Scale. The final sample size was 339, after deleting 11 cases with problematic responses. The ages of participants ranged from 18 to 35 years (Mage = 20.29 years, SD = 2.99 years). Data were collected and analyzed with SPSS 22.0. The bias corrected percentile bootstrap method was used to analyze the moderated mediation model. Results showed that the common method variance was not supported in this study. The results indicated that: (1) Experiences of online interpersonal sexual objectification were positively correlated with internalization of beauty ideals, self-objectification and body shame. Internalization of beauty ideals was positively correlated with self-objectification and body shame. Self-objectification was also positively correlated with body shame. Self-compassion was negatively correlated with interpersonal sexual objectification experiences, body shame, internalization of beauty ideals, and self-objectification. (2) Online interpersonal sexual objectification experiences were positively predicted internalization of beauty ideals, β = .40, p < .001; Online interpersonal sexual objectification experiences were also positively associated with self-objectification, β = .13, p < .01, and internalization of beauty ideals was positively linked with self-objectification, β = .45, p<.001, and self-objectification were also positively associated with body shame, β = .29, p < .001. The indirect effect of online interpersonal sexual objectification experiences via internalization of beauty ideals and self-objectification was .05 (95% CI = [ .03, .08]). This result indicated that internalization of beauty ideals and self-objectification mediated the relationship between online interpersonal sexual objectification experiences and body shame. (3) Self-compassion negatively predicted interpersonal of beauty ideals, β = -.20, p<.001, but the interaction of online interpersonal sexual objectification experiences and self-compassion was not significantly predicative of internalization of beauty ideals, β = .00, p > .05. Self-compassion negatively predicted self-objectification, β = -.28, p < .001. But the interaction of interpersonal of beauty ideals and self-compassion was not significantly predicative of self-objectification, β = .00, p > .05; and the interaction of online interpersonal sexual objectification experiences and self-compassion significantly predicted self-objectification, β = -.09, p < .05 (95% CI = [- .17, - .01]), These findings indicated that the relationship between experiences of online interpersonal sexual objectification and body shame via internalization of beauty ideals was not moderated by self-compassion, but the relationship between online experiences of interpersonal sexual objectification and body shame through self-objectification was moderated by self-compassion. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Impact of Perceived Social Mindfulness on Adolescents' Prosocial Behavior Yuan Bo, Liu Yichang, Ku Tingting 2024, 47(5): 1153-1162.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240514 Abstract ( )   PDF (1177KB) ( )   peer review(987KB)   Adolescence is a crucial period of transition to adulthood that significantly shapes the development of prosocial behavior. Research indicates that prosocial behavior is closely linked to academic performance, self-esteem, and empathy. Understanding the factors that influence adolescents' prosocial behavior and fostering its growth is essential to improving their mental health. Previous studies have shown that perceived social mindfulness influences individuals' prosocial behavior, from being "receivers" to "implementers" of social mindfulness. Social interactions are not simply unidirectional; they often involve reciprocal behaviors in which individuals who receive assistance help others in return. However, it remains unclear how perceived social mindfulness in previous interactions influences prosocial behavior toward unfamiliar others in subsequent interactions, a phenomenon known as spillover effects. The context of previous interactions may shape expectations, with individuals behaving in ways anticipated to yield certain reinforcements. Therefore, it is important to investigate whether adolescents' perceived levels of social mindfulness affect their prosocial behavior toward unfamiliar others in subsequent interactions and to explore the psychological mechanisms underlying this process. The current study explored the effects of perceived social mindfulness on prosocial behavior using two experiments, integrating an economic interaction game with cognitive computational modeling, and focusing on adolescents. In Study 1, 90 senior high school students were recruited, with 89 data sets (47 males) were included in the analysis. Participants were divided into two groups based on their perceived social mindfulness levels: 44 in the high perceived social mindfulness group and 45 in the low perceived social mindfulness group. This study used the Social Mindfulness (SoMi) paradigm and the mini-dictator game to investigate whether an individual's perceived level of social kindness in a prior interaction influences their prosocial behavior toward unfamiliar others in subsequent interactions. To validate the findings of Study 1, Study 2 expanded the sample size and used a binary dictator game to explore the impact of perceived social mindfulness on adolescents' prosocial behavior within two contexts of inequity: advantage and disadvantage. A total of 120 high school students were initially selected, with 119 (63 males) completed the study. Participants were also divided into two groups based on their perceived social mindfulness levels: 60 in the high perceived social mindfulness group and 59 in the low perceived social mindfulness group. Results showed that adolescents with high perceived social mindfulness exhibited more equitable altruistic choices in subsequent interactions with unfamiliar others compared to those low in perceived social mindfulness. Computational modeling revealed that high perceived social mindfulness increased the propensity to avert unfairness to advantage, but did not influence aversion to unfairness to disadvantage. These findings advance our understanding of how perceived social mindfulness fosters prosocial behavior and provide valuable insights for promoting such behavior among adolescents. Specifically, the findings offer a foundation for strategies aimed at fostering prosocial behavior in school settings, contributing to the comprehensive, balanced, and healthy development of adolescents and creating a harmonious, positive, and uplifting campus atmosphere. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Higher Social Class Preserve Social Hierarchy: The Impact of Family Social Class on College Students' Job Choices Xie Xiaona, Long Xingyu, Guo Yongyu 2024, 47(5): 1163-1172.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240515 Abstract ( )   PDF (964KB) ( )   peer review(660KB)   At a time when the wealth gap continues to widen, the study of class hierarchy and its influence on job choices has captured the interest of scholars worldwide. This paper delves into the complexities of social class and its impact on job choice, focusing on the importance of individual social and political attitudes. Grounded in the principles of social dominance theory, our investigation examines whether a stronger social dominance orientation—reflected in a preference for hierarchical group relations—steers individuals from higher social classes toward jobs that consolidate their group's status by monopolizing social resources. At the heart of this inquiry is a critical question: Do university students from higher social classes show a propensity for hierarchy-enhancing jobs because of a heightened social dominance orientation? The research categorizes occupations into hierarchy-enhancing and hierarchy-attenuating, based on their effects on social inequality. This classification is important in assessing the relationship between one's social class and occupational choice, and in considering how the attribution of the rich-poor gap might influence this dynamic. Study 1 examines the job preferences among college students from various socioeconomic backgrounds, with a particular focus on the potential mediating role of social dominance orientation. Using a nuanced measure of hierarchical role preference, this phase aims to discern differences in occupational choices while also evaluating the potential influence of occupational status. To this end, a pilot study meticulously screened each pair was meticulously matched in all respects except for their differential impact on social hierarchy. The primary investigation enrolled 265 college students, who were divided into groups based on their perceived job status. The study then measured their preferences for paired job roles, alongside assessments of family social class and social dominance orientation. The findings showed a mediating model in which family social class exerts influence on job preferences through the mediating influence of social dominance orientation. However, the moderating role of occupational status was not supported. This suggests that, regardless of the perceived status of the job, students originating from higher social classes demonstrated a preference for hierarchy-enhancing jobs over hierarchy-attenuating roles. Study 2 delved deeper into the potential moderating effect of attributions for the rich-poor gap on the established relationships. A cohort of 471 participants was asked to write either external or internal determinants of the rich-poor gap. Then, we measured their job choices, social dominance orientation, and family social class. The results illuminated a nuanced dynamic: internal attributions to the rich-poor gap maintain the association between higher family social class and social dominance orientation, leading to a preference for hierarchy-enhancing jobs. In contrast, when the rich-poor gap was attributed to external factors, the influence of family social class on social dominance orientation significantly diminished, thereby altering the job preferences of university students. Synthesizing these findings, a pattern emerges in which students from more affluent families are predisposed to choose jobs that reinforce social hierarchies, mediated by their social dominance orientation. Furthermore, encouraging students to consider external causes of economic disparities can lessen the impact of social dominance orientation among affluent students, suggesting potential shifts in their job choices. The ramifications of these findings are significant, proposing that social stratification is upheld not only through resource distribution but also through the internalized attitudes and beliefs of individuals, especially those from higher social class. The observations concerning the attribution of the rich-poor gap offer prospects for educational and policy interventions that could lead to a more equitable distribution of job choices across social classes, thereby reducing the reinforcement of social inequality. These strategies may be key to diversifying the aspirations of affluent students and disrupting the cyclical nature of societal disparities. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Mechanism of the “Search for and Presence of ” Career Calling Fit on Innovative Behavior Zhou Jie 2024, 47(5): 1173-1183.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240516 Abstract ( )   PDF (1111KB) ( )   peer review(601KB)   Achieving a high degree of scientific and technological self-reliance has become essential in the contemporary international strategic landscape, where scientific and technological innovation is the primary battlefield. Enhancing the innovative behavior of R&D personnel is the foundation of achieving this goal. Consequently, how to stimulate their innovative behavior is an enduring topic of interest among both academics and innovative industry professionals.With the changing demands of people who no longer prioritize material feedback from their work, but instead focus on the meaning of work and the realization of self-value, research on the intricate relationship between career calling and innovative behavior has emerged as a salient topic in the fields of occupational psychology and organizational behavior. The work as a calling theory categorizes the influence of the presence of career calling on work outcomes through living a calling. Nevertheless, this framework does not consider the significant variable of search for career calling, which cannot provide a basis for the correlation between the search for and presence of career calling and innovative behavior. In addition, search for career calling and presence of career calling are two distinct concepts, yet few studies have explored the relationship between them, and the existing research findings are contradictory. Hence, based on the work as a calling theory and conservation of resources theory, this study examines the process and boundary mechanism of the “search for and presence of” career calling fit on innovative behavior. A questionnaire survey is conducted among 985 scientific and technological R&D employees.The polynomial regression and response surface analysis were used.The results show that: (1)Compared with“low search for and low presence of” fit, “high search for and high presence of”fit has a higher level of innovative behavior and living a calling. Compared with “high search for and low presence of” fit, “low search for and high presence of” fit has a stronger impact on innovative behavior and living a calling.Compared with the incongruence in “search for and presence of” fit, the more congruence is, the more it can increase individuals' innovative behavior and living a calling. (2) Living a calling mediates the relationship between “search for and presence of” career calling fit and innovative behavior. (3) At both the high and low levels of perceived inner status, the effects of more congruence in “search for and presence of” career calling rather than incongruence, “high search for and high presence of” fit rather than “low search for and low presence of” fit, and “low search for and high presence of” fit rather than “high search for and low presence of ” fit on living a calling are stronger. This research responds to the scholars'calls for a comprehensive examination of the intricate connection between the “search for and presence of” career calling fit and its influence on work outcomes. It not only adds to the existing literature on the search for career calling, broadens the research framework of work as a calling theory, but also offers new insights for future research on how “search for and presence of” career calling fit affects other work and life outcomes.Moreover, this paper establishes a logical sequence of how “search for and presence of” career calling fit can motivate individuals to live out a calling and consequently promote innovative behavior. It also tests the applicability of the work as a calling theory in the context of Chinese science and technology enterprise context, thereby enriching the research system of the antecedents and outcomes of living a calling. Finally, it provides a more comprehensive research perspective to gain a deeper understanding of when and how “search for and presence of” career calling fit can affect living a calling and foster innovative behavior. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Feedback Valence and Feedback Source on Employee Feedback Adoption : A Study Based on Face Theory Zhao Chen, Qu Beijia, Zhou Jinlai, Lin Chen 2024, 47(5): 1184-1193.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240517 Abstract ( )   PDF (1316KB) ( )   peer review(847KB)   Negative feedback from managers is often resisted by employees compared to positive feedback. In work situations, the negative feedback given by leaders will upset employees, making them focus on their gaining or losing face rather than whether the feedback itself is reliable. But negative feedback can help employees correct their mistakes and adjust their work status in time, which has an irreplaceable and important role. Therefore, it is important to explore how to provide feedback to employees in an appropriate way. Previous research on facilitating feedback adoption has primarily explored (1) how to accurately and rationally deliver the content of feedback and (2) how to do so by adjusting the order and timing of multiple feedback pushes. However, according to the Face theory in China, as the lowly person in the power relationship, employees instinctively feel nervous and uneasy when they receive negative feedback, and may even see the evaluation as a denial of their abilities. The impact of the gap caused by this hierarchical relationship cannot be resolved by handling the feedback itself. However, few studies have explored how to balance negative feedback from the perspective of feedback sources. We think the AI systems in work situations may help, as studies have found that employees feel less face loss from negative advice given by AI and rarely resist it. Based on the traditional face theory in China, this study establishes a mechanism for the impact of leadership feedback on employee feedback adoption. Study 1 used a situational experiment to simulate a work scenario in which employees receive performance feedback to initially explore the effects of positive and negative feedback from AI systems and human leaders on employee feedback adoption. Study 1 adopts a 2 × 2 between-groups design, with the two variables manipulated being the valence of feedback (positive feedback/negative feedback) and the subject of the feedback (AI system/ human leader), comprising four experimental scenarios. Subjects would randomly fill in one of the four contexts, and the number of pushers was same in all contexts. Two hundred and twenty questionnaires were randomly distributed with the help of Credamo, a widely-used online questionnaire platform in China, and the subjects were required to be working employees. A total of 208 valid questionnaires were returned. The ANOVA results showed a significant interaction effect between feedback valence and feedback source. Relative to AI systems, positive feedback from human leaders yielded a higher willingness to adopt. Negative feedback from AI systems can obtain a higher willingness to adopt relative to human leaders. Study 2 used a situational experiment to simulate a workplace scenario in which employees receive performance feedback to explore in depth the impact of positive and negative feedback from AI systems and human leaders on employee feedback adoption through the mediating mechanism of face. Study 2 targeted 300 questionnaires to current employees through the Seeing Numbers platform, with no crossover between the sample and Study 1. At the time of distribution, the subjects were randomly divided into four groups based on the valence of feedback (positive feedback/negative feedback) and the source of feedback (AI system/ human leader), and 75 questionnaires were distributed to each group, and a total of 287 valid questionnaires were returned in the end. Finally, it was found that when a human leader provided positive feedback, the positive influence on feedback adoption through face gaining was stronger, and when he provided negative feedback, the negative influence on feedback adoption through face loss was stronger. Study 3 was a two-period follow-up experiment with a group of delivery workers. It was designed to explore the mechanism in real work scenarios. A total of 307 valid questionnaires were collected. The results of data analysis showed that the hypotheses were supported, which indicated the high reliability of our study. The findings of this study inspire us to promote cooperation between humans and AI to fully utilize each other's strengths rather than focusing on achieving complete automation (i.e. replacing humans with AI). This study reveals the mechanism of how AI systems and real human leaders work together to improve feedback adoption, which enriches the research in the field of human-computer cooperation and serves as a guide for the proper use of AI systems. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Impact of Oppositional Brand Loyalty on Consumers' Attitude Polarization Luo Ziwei, Zeng Junmei, Guo Yan, Liao Junyun 2024, 47(5): 1194-1203.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240518 Abstract ( )   PDF (943KB) ( )   peer review(445KB)   Oppositional brand loyalty refers to consumers expressing loyalty to their preferred brand by opposing competing brands. Previous literature has mostly focused on the positive effects of oppositional brand loyalty on the preferred brand, with only a few scholars exploring the harm of oppositional brand loyalty to the preferred brand from a moral identity perspective. However, with the rapid development of online brand communities, immoral behavior towards competing brands in oppositional brand loyalty has become increasingly popular. Examples include trash-talking, schadenfreude, and malicious attacks. These oppositional brand loyalty behaviors may not only harm the preferred brand but also easily escalate into group confrontation and even trigger serious social problems. Existing research has pointed out that the aggressive behavior associated with oppositional brand loyalty can strengthen the positive attitudes of brand members, especially those with high brand identification. However, for the broader and larger group of bystanders and casual fans, will their attitudes be positively strengthened by the aggressive behavior of these brand members? Is it possible that their attitudes will become negative instead? Are casual fans considered part of the brand's internal group? Will their positive attitudes be similarly reinforced, like those of core fans, due to their engagement in attacking competing brands? The answers to these questions cannot be obtained from existing research, but it is important for brand managers to effectively manage fans and maintain brand competitive advantage by cultivating or strengthening consumers' oppositional brand loyalty. Therefore, this article integrates relevant theories on oppositional brand loyalty, trait transference, and attitude polarization. It explores the interactive effects of oppositional brand loyalty behaviors and brand users on brand attitude polarization through three experiments and investigates the underlying mechanisms. Experiment 1 adopts a between-subjects design of 2 (oppositional brand loyalty: oppositional brand rejection vs. oppositional brand malice) × 3 (brand users: enthusiastic users vs. utilitarian users vs. potential users). It chooses Real Madrid and Barcelona as experimental scenarios to explore the interactive effects of oppositional brand loyalty and brand user type on consumers' brand attitude polarization. Experiment 2 chooses Huawei and Apple as experimental scenarios to further verify the main effects and to explore the psychological mechanism of consumers' attitude polarization. Experiment 3 adopts a between-subjects design of 2 (oppositional brand loyalty: oppositional brand rejection vs. oppositional brand malice) × 2 (brand users: non-enthusiast vs. enthusiast). It chooses a celebrity as the brand scenario to verify the main effects and mediating mechanism. The results show that the hostile brand malice of brand enthusiasts (enthusiastic fans) would lead to negative polarization of brand attitudes among potential users (bystanders) and utilitarian users (casual fans). Additionally, trait transference plays a mediating role in the negative impact of these fans' behavior on the brand. This study has important theoretical implications. First, it reveals the double-edged sword effect of oppositional brand loyalty, especially its "dark side". Second, based on the trait transference theory, it explains the psychological mechanism by which oppositional brand loyalty leads to the polarization of consumers' brand attitudes. In addition to the above theoretical implications, this study is beneficial for both academia and industry to pay attention to and make good use of the positive effects of oppositional brand loyalty while also being aware of its potential negative consequences. Third, although oppositional brand loyalty can be effective, it also has the potential to create adverse social effects when fans attack others for selfish reasons. Enterprises need to play a proper leadership and should prevent fans from launching malicious attacks and exacerbating brand opposition for their own benefit. At the same time, the negative impact of fan behavior on brand reputation is no less than that of brand behavior, so brand or marketing personnel should have a dialectical view of the role of oppositional brand loyalty in the brand community. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Materialism and Prosocial Behavior: The Moderating Role of Social Context Chen Shasha, Zhao Yufang, Zhang Chao, Shi Yongheng, Nie Peiwen 2024, 47(5): 1204-1212.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240519 Abstract ( )   PDF (762KB) ( )   peer review(746KB)   Materialism, as a self-enhancement value, is in conflict with the prosocial value, which belongs to the self-transcendence values. Increased materialism is often accompanied by a decrease in prosocial behavior. However, the driving force behind materialism can also lead individuals to engage in prosocial behavior. Materialists seek external approval to enhance their self-image. Prosocial behavior, when visualized, has signal value in that it displays positive social qualities to others, thus gaining approval and praise. Consequently, materialists may exhibit prosocial behavior in public context as a means of impression management. This study aims to investigate the moderating role of social context in the relation between materialism and prosocial behavior. To explore the impact of social context on the relationship between materialism and prosocial behavior, three studies were conducted. Study 1 surveyed 489 college students using questionnaires to examine the correlation between materialism and self-reported overt and anonymous prosocial tendencies. Study 2 recruited 163 participants to investigate the causal relationship and observe actual prosocial behavior. Materialism scores were measured using the Materialistic Values Scale, and participants were placed in either public or anonymous setting. The Dictator Game was used to measure prosocial behavior, with fair behavior as the indicator. In Study 3, 148 participants had their materialism levels manipulated using an imagination-based paradigm before being assigned to public or anonymous contexts. The Public Goods Game was used to measure prosocial behavior, with cooperative behavior as the indicator. The findings from Study 1 revealed a negative correlation between materialism and anonymous prosocial tendencies (p < .01) as well as overall prosocial tendencies (p < .05). Furthermore, high materialists exhibited significantly lower anonymous prosocial tendencies compared to low materialists (p < .01). However, no significant correlation was found between materialism and public prosocial tendencies (p > .05), and there was no significant difference between high and low materialism groups in public prosocial tendencies (p > .05). Study 2 indicated that social context moderated the relation between materialism and prosocial behavior. In the anonymous condition, the high materialism group exhibited significantly lower prosocial fair behavior compared to the low materialism group (p < .01). However, in the public condition, the prosocial fair behavior of the high materialism group increased and showed no significant difference with the low materialism group (p > .05). This pattern was further supported by Study 3. In the anonymous condition, the materialistic priming group showed significantly lower prosocial cooperative behavior compared to the control group (p < .01). Nevertheless, in the public condition, the prosocial cooperative behavior of the materialistic priming group increased and became comparable to that of the control group (p > .05). Collectively, three studies provided evidence that highly materialistic individuals exhibited distinct prosocial behaviors in anonymous and public situations. This study adds to the self-serving motivation theory of prosocial behavior by showing that materialists can fulfill their need for positive self-construction through visualized prosocial behavior. In addition, it elucidates the contradictory relation between materialism and prosocial behavior from the perspective of social context, revealing the positive side of materialism. Furthermore, this study offers a breakthrough for materialists to break out of the cycle of "scarcity-materialism-scarcity". References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Leaders' Authoritarian Behaviors Induce Their Loneliness by Reducing Subordinates' Interest to Affiliate With Them Cao Wei, Bai Shuyuan 2024, 47(5): 1213-1223.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240520 Abstract ( )   PDF (1146KB) ( )   peer review(393KB)   Loneliness is an unpleasant psychological state that occurs when the need for interpersonal relationships is not satisfied. Research has shown that loneliness has negative effects on both the physical and mental health of individuals, such as an increased risk of death and a tendency toward depression. Research on loneliness in the workplace has linked loneliness to poor performance, decreased creativity, and poor decision making. A review of the existing literature reveals that research on workplace loneliness has predominantly focused on employees, with limited attention given to the leader loneliness. Sparse research on leader loneliness primarily emphasizes the effects it has on leaders themselves and employees, with a lack of exploration of the antecedents of leader loneliness. The possession of power can heighten others' interest to affiliate with. However, we argue that the manner in which power is wielded also influences others' interest to affiliate with. For instance, authoritarian leadership behaviors, characterized by excessive control over subordinates through the reliance on position power, not only fail to increase others' interest to affiliate with, but actually decrease it. Therefore, this paper proposes that authoritarian leadership behaviors suppress subordinates' affiliation to with leaders, which in turn leads to leader loneliness. Furthermore, we propose that the team power distance climate plays a key role in the relationship between authoritarian leadership behaviors and subordinates' interest to affiliate with leaders. In a high team power distance climate, the negative effect of authoritarian leadership behaviors on subordinates' interest to affiliate with leaders is mitigated, which in turn weakens leader loneliness. We test our hypotheses through a pilot study, two scenario experiments and a field study. First, the initial pilot study suggested the negative effect of authoritarian leadership behaviors on subordinates' affiliate to with leaders and leader loneliness. Second, the results of the first scenario experiment demonstrated that authoritarian leadership behaviors were negatively related with subordinates' interest to affiliate with leaders, and the team power distance climate weakens the negative relationship above. Then, the results of the second scenario experiment further validated the above conclusions, and revealed that authoritarian leadership behaviors increase the leader loneliness by reducing subordinates' interest to affiliate with leaders. Additionally, the team power distance climate moderates the mediating effect of authoritarian leadership behaviors on leader loneliness through subordinates' interest to affiliate with leaders. Finally, the three-wave self-report survey of leaders confirmed the conclusions drawn from the two scenario experiments, thereby increasing the external validity of this paper. This paper makes three theoretical contributions. First, we integrate the literature on authoritarian leadership and loneliness, extending the research on the antecedents of leader loneliness. Second, we focus on the impact of authoritarian behaviors on leaders themselves, contributing to the authoritarian leadership literature. Lastly, we emphasize the situational role of the team power distance climate, exploring the boundaries of the impact of authoritarian leadership behaviors on subordinates' interest to affiliate with leaders. This paper also offers two managerial implications. First, leaders should implement authoritarian leadership behaviors with caution. Second, the negative moderating effect of the team power distance climate suggests that leaders should consider the type of team climate in the leadership process. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Greed and Intertemporal Choice: An Explanation from Construal Level Theory Li Xiaoming, Meng Yuan, Liu Xiaodan 2024, 47(5): 1224-1234.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240521 Abstract ( )   PDF (864KB) ( )   peer review(461KB)   Greed refers to the insatiable tendency and the desire to acquire more. In recent years, researchers have mainly focused on developing measures of dispositional greed and examining the psychological and behavioral outcomes associated with greed. Greed is seen as a double-edged sword for both individual and organizational development. On the one hand, greed is the driving force of socio-economic development. On the other hand, greed can harm the interests of individuals and organizations. Intertemporal decision making involves trade-offs between outcomes that occur at different points in time. In this paper, we examined the relationship between greed and intertemporal choice and revealed the mechanism from a construal-level perspective. We conducted three studies using the self-report method (Study 1 and Study 2) and the experimental method (Study 3). Study 1 (N = 309) tested the correlation between greed and intertemporal choice. Intertemporal choice was measured by individuals' preference in the environmental protection and money choice tasks. Greed was assessed using the Dispositional Greed Scale (DGS). Study 2 (N = 426) measured greed, chronic construal level, and subjective value of delayed options in intertemporal decision making tasks, testing the mediating role of construal level in the relation between greed and intertemporal decision making. Construal level was assessed using the Behavioral Identification Form (BIF). Study 3 (N = 330) used a 3 (construal level: high vs. low vs. control; between-participants) × greed (measured) experimental design to seek further evidence for the construal level mechanism. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions (high-level construal; low-level construal; control). Participants in the high-level construal condition were asked to focus their attention on why they did something, and participants in the low-level construal condition were asked to focus attention on how they did something. We tested whether the effect of greed on intertemporal decision-making was reduced when construal levels were manipulated. As predicted, the results demonstrated that: (1) Greed could significantly predict intertemporal choice (β = .27, p < .001). Participants high in greed were more inclined to choose the smaller-sooner options rather than the larger-later options. (2) Greed was significantly correlated with construal level (r = -.24, p < .001). Participants high in greed preferred the low-level construal. (3) Construal level played a mediating role in the relationship between greed and intertemporal decision-making (indirect effect = - .06, 95%CI= [- .11, - .03]). Greed predicted low construal level, which increased the preference for immediate rewards. (4) Objectively manipulated construal level significantly moderated the relationship between greed and intertemporal choice (ΔR2 = .02). In the control group, greed had a significant negative prediction on the subjective value of the delay option (β = -.40, p < .001). However, as expected, this prediction decreased in the high-level (β = -.24, p < .05) and low-level construal conditions (β = -.10, p = .30). In summary, the current study reveals the underlying mechanism of greed on intertemporal choice. It provides intervention strategies to inhibit the negative impact of greed from the perspective of construal level theory. Greedy people adopt low-level, concrete construal, which leads them to become more short-sighted in intertemporal choices. Improving the construal level could effectively reduce the short-sightedness of greedy people. Our findings help to understand the definition of greed and the cognitive consequences of greed. More importantly, this study provides practical implications for improving the long-term benefits of greedy people. Researchers could incorporate high-level construal cues in the environment to inhibit the short-sighted tendencies of greedy people. Future research could explore other factors that intervene in the intertemporal decision making of greedy people from a cognitive perspective. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Smartphone Anthropomorphism on Self-Expansion via Smartphone: The Moderating Role of Perceived Threat Qiao Lu, Liu Qinxue 2024, 47(5): 1235-1245.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240522 Abstract ( )   PDF (957KB) ( )   peer review(676KB)   The popularity of smartphones is not only changing people's lives, but also their psychological perceptions. Recent studies have adapted the self-expansion theory to understand the impact of the smartphone on individuals' self, namely self-expansion via smartphone (SES), which is interpreted as expanding personal abilities and self-concepts through smartphones (Hoffner et al., 2016; Wu et al., 2023). Most of the existing literature discussed the impacts of people's use of services or applications on self-expansion from the view of smartphones as a tool. However, the intelligent and interactive design of smartphones remind us that smartphones are not only tools to be manipulated by people. They can also actively initiate interaction with people and meet their emotional needs. This might lead people to view their smartphones not as tools but as self-aware beings, and the resultant new human-computer relationship could also expand individuals' self. Hence, the current study examines the causes and mechanisms of SES from a relational perspective. Specifically, we investigate whether there is a significant difference in the level of “self-expansion via smartphone” and “the inclusion of smartphones in the self (ISS)” between people with different levels of smartphone anthropomorphism, and a moderated mediation model is constructed to test the mediating role of ISS between smartphone anthropomorphism and SES, as well as the moderating role of perceived threat in such a mediation model. Moreover, individual differences in anthropomorphism, smartphone addiction tendency, gender, and age were included in the analysis as covariates. In the first study, we developed an 8-item smartphone perceived threat questionnaire. A total of 347 college students were surveyed through the questionnaire method to explore the relations among smartphone anthropomorphism, SES, ISS, and perceived threat. SPSS macro PROCESS was used to test our hypothesis. In the second study, a situational experiment with 157 college students (9 participants who did not answer seriously or guessed the experiment purpose were excluded) was carried out in the 2 (smartphone anthropomorphism: anthropomorphic vs. nonanthropomorphic) × 2 (threat: threat-priming vs. control) group design. Participants were informed that they would be interviewed about smartphones. Firstly, participants were randomly assigned to either a threat-priming or control condition. In the threat-priming condition, participants read a popular science article about the potentially harmful effects of smartphones. Participants in the control condition read about the history of smartphones. Next, participants were randomly assigned to one of two smartphone anthropomorphism conditions, operationalized by displaying an advertising video and asking several questions about smartphones. Specifically, in the anthropomorphic condition, the smartphone incarnates a human in the advertising video, and questions were written with lifelike, agentic phrasing. In the nonanthropomorphic condition, the advertising video showed smartphones' capabilities, and questions were written with relatively neutral phrasing. Finally, participants responded to a series of questionnaires on the dependent, mediated, and control variables. After analysis of variance, we used a moderated mediation model to test whether the relationship between smartphone anthropomorphism (1 = anthropomorphic, 0 = non-anthropomorphic) and SES was mediated by ISS, and whether the indirect effect differed by threat condition (1 = threat priming, 0 = control; model 8 in Hayes, 2013). The results of Study 2 found that, compared to participants in the non-anthropomorphic condition, participants who were induced smartphone anthropomorphism mindset had a higher level of ISS (F(1, 140) = 4. 47, p < .05, η2 = .03) and SES (F(1, 140) =6. 81, p < .05, η2 = .035), Perceived threat moderated the relation between smartphone anthropomorphism and ISS. Smartphone anthropomorphism can increase participants' ISS when the perceived threat was not primed (F(1, 140)=9. 70, p < .01, η2= .07), while this effect did not exist when the perceived threat was primed. The moderated mediation analysis of two studies consistently showed that the relation between smartphone anthropomorphism and SES was fully mediated by ISS. Moreover, a boundary condition existed. That is, perceived threat limited the ability of anthropomorphism to facilitate SES from the pe. Specifically, the correlation between smartphone anthropomorphism and ISS, as well as the indirect effect of ISS, both became weaker as the perceived threat increased. In conclusion, the present study reveals how smartphone anthropomorphism affects self-expansion via smartphone and its underlying mechanism from the perspective of relation. The findings contribute to extending research on smartphone self-expansion and provide new insights into how smartphones serve as an affective technology that helps people develop their identities and selves. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Research on Social Psychological Service in the New Era

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The Impact of Proactive Personality on Online Altruism Behavior in Undergraduates: Mediating Effects of Online Positive Feedback and Meaning in Life Zhang Lu, Wu Yuntena, Jin Tonglin 2024, 47(5): 1246-1253.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240523 Abstract ( )   PDF (693KB) ( )   peer review(722KB)   In recent years, with the development of the internet ecological civilization in China, people pay more attention to the online altruistic behavior. Previous studies have shown that students with proactive personality have positive psychological functions. They tend to seek opportunities to influence the existing environment. To clarify the effect of proactive personality on individual psychological mechanism and online altruistic behavior, this research takes undergraduates as subjects to explore the influence of proactive personality on online altruistic behavior as well as its internal mechanism. The study used a group sampling method. Students from four universities were selected and issued 850 paper-based questionnaires, which included the Proactive Personality Questionnaire, the Online Positive Feedback Scale, the Meaning in Life Scale, and the Online Altruism Behavior Scale. We collected 780 valid paper questionnaires (382 for males and 398 for females). The age range of participants was between 17 and 25 years old (20.28 ± 1.26). In the correlation analysis, the proactive personality was positively correlated with the online positive feedback, presence of meaning, search for meaning and online altruistic behavior separately (p < .01); Online positive feedback was positively correlated with presence of meaning, search for meaning, and online altruism behavior, respectively (p < .01]). The test of mediating effects showed that proactive personality can significantly positively predict online altruistic behavior (β = .15, t = 2.51, p < .05, 95% CI = [.03, .25]), online positive feedback (β = .33, t = 9.54, p < .001, 95% CI = [.26, .40]), presence of meaning (β = .70, t = 26.61, p < .001, 95% CI = [.64, .74]), and search for meaning (β = .56, t= 13.24, p < .001, 95% CI = [.47, .64]). Online positive feedback can significantly positively predict online altruistic behavior (β = .35, t = 9.55, p < .001, 95% CI = [.28, .42]) and presence of meaning (β = .15, t = 4.93, p < .001, 95% CI = [.09, .21]). Presence of meaning can significantly positively predict online altruistic behavior (β = .21, t = 4.04, p < .001, 95% CI = [.11, .30]) and search for meaning (β = .29, t = 5.04, p < .001, 95% CI = [.17, .40]). However, the predictive effect of online positive feedback on search for meaning was not significant (p > .05). The predictive effect of search for meaning on online altruistic behavior was not significant (p > .05). The results revealed that the proactive personality of undergraduates has significant positive effects on online altruistic behavior. In the online environment, students with proactive personality can constantly explore new ways to improve their life and find better ways of doing things. In addition, the positive feedback from others can make individuals feel higher social status and popularity, thus increasing the presence of meaning in life and online altruistic behavior of undergraduates. According to the results, proactive personality can directly affect online altruism behavior in undergraduates, indirectly affect online altruism behavior through presence of meaning in life and online positive feedback. The conclusions of the study have important values to promote online altruism behavior in undergraduates. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Psychological statistics, Psychometrics & Methods

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Predictive Processing under Enactive: From a Standpoint of Dynamical Systems Liu Linshu, Ye Haosheng 2024, 47(5): 1254-1261.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240524 Abstract ( )   PDF (621KB) ( )   peer review(230KB)   The recent decade has witnessed an explosive development of the family of predictive mind theories stemmed from Karl Friston's Free Energy Principle (FEP), a family in which there exist two main streams: the Predictive Coding theory (PC) defended by Jacob Hohwy and the Predictive Processing theory (PP) advocated by Andy Clark. The former holds a standpoint of the brain which Hohwy deemed as the only source and center of cognition, and the latter emphasize the viability of the whole organism defined by Clark as the only goal and criteria of mind. We attempt to make a deep dive into the theoretical substrate of the predictive mind and build a bridge between PP and enactivism with the bricks of (basic) dynamical system theories. This work has revealed that PP in essential is a representative theory of systemic dynamics, and has not indeed appointed the brain, the brain-body, or the brain-body-environment as the only bearer of its basic architecture whose only mission is to minimize prediction error. Prediction Error Minimization (PEM) via the coupling of generative model and generative process by implementing active inference can happen at multiple spatial and temporal scales, the expression of which include the morphology, action tendency and gross neural architecture of adaptive organisms. This nature of PP is determined by FEP, which, although in itself stems from theoretical neural science researches by Friston and his colleagues, attempts to play a role of Hamilton's principle of minimal action in cognitive science by presenting a basic dynamical rule of all life and mind aimed at fighting against the random fluctuation and second law of Thermodynamics to preserve their own integration and distinction. With the conceptual framework of FEP and dynamical system theories, predictive processing and PEM can happen at any scale where there exist two circular causal loops, and a dynamical coupling between an agent and its environment can viably endure. It is this coupling that enact the agency and adaptive activities, separating the agent and its environment in an inferential sense but integrating them existentially. Thus, it is not the viable organism that seeks to minimize prediction error by engaging the environment but the homeostatic system as a whole that entail the endurance of the viable relationship between the constituents of the system. This systemic standpoint has a deep resonance with enactivism, which viewed cognition as an emergent phenomenon from activities of life in niche. The three core concepts of PP, respectively PEM, generative model and active inference has an elegantly clear correspondence with the three main groups of enactivism, that is, autopoiesis enactivism, sensorimotor enactivism and radical enactivism. For autopoiesis enactivism, sense-making can be translated into the attunement of the dynamical system with the quantitative measurement of PEM, and it is the systemic dynamics rather than organism dynamics that determine the prescriptive rules which guarantee the strong continuity of life and mind. For sensorimotor enactivism, it is the SMCs that characterize the phenomenology of perceptual experience and the SMCs knowledge in essential is the grasp of the if-then relationship between the exploratory activities and the resulting perception, and ultimately comes from the coupling of generative model and generative process. For radical enactivism, content of higher-level cognitive phenomenon comes from engaging the designer environment, namely the cultural framework embodied as the abundant material symbolic environment self-generated and self-reproduced. All in all, enactive PP holds a standpoint of the dynamical systems, emphasizes the whole system over organism or agent, model over representation, designer environment over objective environment, and has a prospect of clarifying the source of sense of cognition, the phenomenology of perceptual experience and the dynamics of the mind. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Clinical Psychology & Consulting

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The Latest Model Developments of the Relational Frame Theory: From MDML to HDML Wang Shujuan, Chen Jing, Zhu Zhuohong 2024, 47(5): 1262-1270.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240525 Abstract ( )   PDF (607KB) ( )   peer review(203KB)   The Relational Frame Theory (RFT) is a contemporary theory of language and cognition based on behavioral analysis, proposed by American psychologists Hayes and colleagues in 1985. RFT refers to a class of responses that involve relationships between stimuli that are clearly defined and controlled within a context as Arbitrary Applicable Relational Responses (AARR), which is the fundamental process of RFT. This article reviews early RFT research and systematically discusses the latest developments in RFT theory, including the multidimensional multilevel model (MDML) and the hyper-dimensional multilevel model (HDML) developed in recent years. Early RFT research often focused on the"demonstration research". That is, the early RFT research involved demonstrations of predicted entailment and transformation effects. Frameworks are either demonstrated or they are not. However, the key to RFT lies in the functional response units that involve associations rather than individual stimuli. In other words, once a relational frame is established as an operant response, operant contingencies will influence the associated response units. To further develop the demonstration research stage discussed earlier, Researchers developed the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP). The IRAP is a computer-based task that combines the Implicit Association Test (IAT) with the Relational Evaluation Procedure (REP). Its purpose is to measure the strength or occurrence probability of natural language relations by eliciting responses from participants under time pressure . However, due to its close connection with the IAT, subsequent research quickly focused on implicit attitudes and cognition, thereby reducing attention to the RFT or AARR itself. Therefore, researchers advocate returning to the initial focus of RFT research and striving to analyze the formation of relational frames. This led to the development of the MDML and HDML. The MDML framework identifies four dimensions of RFT analysis and five levels of relational development. The four dimensions are relational consistency, relational complexity, derived relations, and flexibility. The five levels of relational development are mutual entailing relational framing, relational networking, relating relations, and relating relational networking. MDML conceptualizes and studies the 20 intersections between the four dimensions of relational analysis and the five levels of development to understand and study the dynamics of AARR in laboratory and natural environments. HDML shifts the focus from individual frames to relational interactive networks and establishes a new concept analysis unit called ROE-M, representing relationship, orientation, evocation, and motivation aspects within RFT. Orientation in HDML refers to the extent to which a stimulus event is noticed or "stands out" in a broader context. Evocation refers to whether the noticed stimulus or event is liked, disliked, or relatively neutral, and the degree to which the stimulus event is considered approachable or avoidable. Motivation represents the intensity of motivational factors that interact with orientation and/or evocation and is dynamically related. ROE-M emphasizes the functional features of contexts and provides a concise and precise analysis of the impact of language skills on any contextual variable of human behavior, while always emphasizing the highly dynamic and complex nature of human psychological events. Explanations of behavior based on the inseparable characteristics of ROE-M extends beyond the reinforcement process and even beyond traditional RFT explanations. The RFT and its subsequent developments in the MDML and HDML frameworks aim to provide an accurate, concise, and functional analysis framework for describing verbal behavior and to provide a unified analytic framework for psychological events or issues. The Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), based on the development of the RFT, has been empirically validated in international and domestic clinical psychological interventions. However, there is still limited introduction and exploration of the RFT and its latest developments among Chinese scholars. We hope that Chinese scholars can systematically validate this theory within the Chinese cultural context and explore the cultural adaptability of the RFT in different settings and populations, thus fully realizing its practical value. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Theories & History of Psychology

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Neuro-Determinism: Core Propositions, Logical Fallacies, and Theoretical Corrections LI Lili 2024, 47(5): 1271-1279.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240526 Abstract ( )   PDF (437KB) ( )   peer review(246KB)   Neuro-determinism views the brain and neural activities as the cause of individual mental nature, behavior, and sociality, denies human free will, and attempts to explain, predict, and control the human mind by observing and altering brain neural activity. Neuro-determinism has three core propositions. First, the cause of behavior is not consciousness, there is a neural activity prior to consciousness, which is the real cause of behavior, and free will is just an illusion. Second, the psychological and social attributes of human beings can be explained by finding the corresponding brain nerves and their structures, which are responsible for all our psychological, behavioral and social attributes. Third, the cause of psychological or mental abnormality lies in the abnormal structure and function of brain nerves. By questioning and disproving the rationality of these three propositions, one will see the logic fallacies of neurological determinism and its possible dangers. However, the three connotations of neuro-determinism all have substantial logical errors. First, the experimental evidence of neurological determinism to deny free will not only has the methodological problems of experimental research, but also shows a narrow understanding of consciousness. The errors and omissions of the experimental argument by which neurological determinism negates free will reproduces the methodological dilemma of experimental research that “The researcher's observation and experimental design process itself determine its experimental results”. At the same time, consciousness is not the additional initiator of action intention. The reflection of the action intention is consciousness, and the action intention itself is also consciousness. You cannot take the reflection of action intention as the only consciousness and give up free will as an illusion because of its delay. Second, the neural components of consciousness cannot be equated with the causes of consciousness, and mirror neurons (systems) are not the “DNA” of psychology. The belief that neurons in the brain have innate roles and functions and are the cause of individual psychological, behavioral, and social attributes, which clearly overlooks three facts. The specificity of human brain neuron function is based on more primitive and lower order function. Function is innate, but the content of function is environmental and cultural. The plasticity of neurons and the nervous system determines that learning and experience can affect the function and structure of the brain and determines the extent to which the acquired individual's abilities are developed and realized. At last, the biological view of healing the mind by repairing the brain ignores that the brain is a meaning processing system that integrates the information from the internal and external world. Repairing the brain cannot heal the mind. Accepting neuro-determinism will lead to a series of practical dangers. Denying free will may hinder humanity's comprehensive understanding of its own mental issues, erode human subjectivity, and bring ethical issues of technological innovation. Considering mirror neurons (systems) as the neural basis of human psychological behavior and social attributes, and thus endowing them with excessive value, will lead to the revival of the “brain small person hypothesis”, while neglecting to explore the species and individual developmental characteristics of neural mechanisms. If a person accepts that he does not have free will, he is more likely to become an idle person, reducing prosocial behavior. The comprehensive infiltration of neuro-determinism into various fields will bring ethical controversies such as subjectivity and the right to life. It is necessary to reflect on the dangers posed by new technological advances. In summary, the following theoretical revisions have been made to neuro-determinism. From the perspective of the relationship between the brain and consciousness, free will is the result of the development of the brain as a biological organization. A reasonable and more constructive way to ask questions should be how the brain, as a biological organization, operates to create consciousness and free will in individuals who possess it. Psychological and behavioral symptoms are the result of processing and resolving pathological conflicts, and they must be resolved by the same psychological processing mechanism. Compared to neuro-determinism, a stance of compatibility theory is more appropriate, that is, determinism and libertarianism are not either here or there, and in the material world of the evolved biological brain, both views can exist simultaneously. References | Related Articles | Metrics