Top Read

    Published in last 1 year |  In last 2 years |  In last 3 years |  All
    Please wait a minute...
    For Selected: Toggle Thumbnails
    The Relation between Attachment Anxiety and Mental Health among College Students in Dating Relationships: The Mediating and Moderating Role of Dating Relationship Quality
    Journal of Psychological Science    2022, 45 (5): 1092-1098.  
    Abstract3626)            Save
    With college students going into dating relationships, dating partners become their new attachment figures. Attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance are two orthogonal dimensions of adult attachment. Attachment avoidance reflects the degree to which individuals discomfort about intimacy and can make individuals feel that others can’t be trusted and then isolate themselves from others. Attachment anxiety reflects the degree to which individuals worry and ruminate about being rejected or abandoned by their partners and can make individuals feel they can’t deal with distress by themselves and then they rely on others. Both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance relate to mental health negatively, however, attachment anxiety has stronger association with anxiety and depression than attachment avoidance. Since dating relationship quality is a key factor for mental health among college students, the role of dating relationship quality in the relationship between attachment anxiety and mental health will be investigated in this article. It is hypothesized that dating relationship quality plays both mediating and moderating role between attachment anxiety and mental health. On one side, attachment anxiety is a kind of relatively stable personal traits and attachment style is stable with the change of time. Viewed from this angle, the individuals with high attachment anxiety tend to have a low quality of dating relationship, and then have a low level of mental health. On the other side, the quality of dating relationship is not entirely determined by the level of attachment anxiety. In some cases, dating relationships can buffer the insecurity level and promote the security level of individuals with high attachment anxiety. Viewed from this angle, dating relationship quality can buffer the effects of attachment anxiety on mental health. Based on above hypotheses, the role of dating relationship quality between attachment anxiety and mental health was explored with 595 college students who were in dating relationships currently as subjects. Participants finished the measures including Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory, Mental Health Continuum-Short Form, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-13, and The Relationship Assessment Scale. The results showed that dating relationship quality played both mediating and moderating role between attachment anxiety and mental health. On the one hand, attachment anxiety could have negative influence on mental health through influencing dating relationship quality. On the other hand, high quality of dating relationships could buffer the negative effects of attachment anxiety on mental health. To sum up, the mediating and moderating role of dating relationship quality between attachment anxiety and mental health was confirmed. It can also provide intellectual support for improving the effectiveness of mental health education in colleges and universities. However, some limitations were elicited in this research. Longitudinal data should be used in order to confirm the causal relationship of attachment anxiety, dating relationship quality, and mental health; how the partners perceive the relationship quality should be assessed using both the self-reported and other-report data in the future; attachment anxiety as a state should be taken into account according to the distinction of trait attachment and state attachment.
    Related Articles | Metrics | Comments0
    Influencing Factors in the Allocation of Cognitive Control: Rewards and Costs
    Si Shuangqing, Zhou Sihong, Yuan Jiajin, Yang Qian
    Journal of Psychological Science    2024, 47 (2): 258-266.   DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240201
    Abstract1844)      PDF(pc) (1015KB)(1652)       Save
    Cognitive control refers to people’s ability to adaptively employ cognitive resources and adjust cognitive processes in pursuit of goal-directed behavior. Since naturally occurring behavioral situations are constantly changing, people would mobilize their control adaptively. According to the Expected Value of Control (EVC) model, the dynamic adjustment of control can be thought of as value-based decision making, centered on the integration of rewards and costs that can be expected from a control-demanding task. Hence, reward and cost are two key factors jointly modulating people’s motivation and determining the allocation of control. Following this framework but going beyond the EVC model, the current review elucidated the role of various motivation-related factors that can act as rewards or costs in the implementation of cognitive control, and discussed how they collectively adjust cognitive control.
    More specifically, money, juice, or emotional/social stimuli are extrinsic rewards that can drive cognitive control and improve task performance, albeit with a few exceptions. Considering this complexity, other factors can further modulate the beneficial effects (e.g., reward-poor vs. reward-rich task conditions, the congruity of reward and task performance, and individual reward sensitivity). Besides, in contrast to extrinsic rewards that are manipulated externally, intrinsic rewards are highly integrated into control-related tasks. It can be reflected in people’s autonomic engagement with certain tasks and the positive emotions they generated. In this sense, the investigation of the influence of intrinsic rewards on cognitive control is relatively indirect, which can be achieved by adjusting effort levels and positive emotions. Relatedly, individual differences in intrinsic motivation, as reflected by the need for cognition (NFC), are also closely tied to intrinsic rewards in driving control. That is, individuals high in need for cognition are more inclined to be involved in control demanding tasks and to persist in difficult or unprofitable cognitive tasks.
    Meanwhile, due to the presence of cognitive costs associated with exerting cognitive control, individuals typically show a bias toward opting for “low-effort” tasks, while decreasing the subjective value of the expected value. When discussing the impact of costs on cognitive control, it is necessary to consider the trade-off between rewards and costs. Previous studies have demonstrated that this trade-off process may vary among individuals based on their willingness to invest effort and their capacity to exert effort, depending on whether they place a higher value on rewards or costs. Consequently, we have further delineated the control signal intensity to effort levels and introduced the concept of “Subjective Expected Value of Control”, which is determined by the difference between the Subjective Value of Reward and the Subjective Value of Cost. Furthermore, the reward-cost trade-off is inherently dynamic, with individuals adapting their cognitive control with the automaticity of task performance in a given task, or in response to feature transfer across different task situations.
    Nonetheless, some unanswered questions need to be further investigated. Firstly, the mechanism underlying the reward-cost trade-off requires refinement. As individuals persistently allocate control, their instantaneous subjective evaluation of the rewards and costs expected from the current task may change dynamically. Although several theories have introduced dynamic elements to the EVC model in various ways, a fully dynamic representation of the reward-costs trade-off remains a topic of ongoing exploration. Secondly, the subjective trade-off between rewards and costs can be further modulated by additional individual factors closely related to external and internal motivations. Consequently, it is intriguing to explore how individual differences in reward sensitivity, cognitive need, intrinsic motivation, and opportunity costs may dynamically impact subjective evaluation of the rewards and costs of investing cognitive effort.
    Reference | Related Articles | Metrics | Comments0
    The Impact of Academic Performance on Academic Self-efficacy of Primary School Students: The Mediating Role of Academic Stress and Self-esteem and Its Gender Differences
    Li Wenhui, Jiang Feng
    Journal of Psychological Science    2023, 46 (2): 347-354.  
    Abstract1739)      PDF(pc) (1720KB)(2074)       Save
    The stage of primary school is an important period for the development of students' academic self-efficacy. Previous studies of academic self-efficacy were mostly conducted from the perspective of its function and role, and the empirical research on the formation mechanism of academic self-efficacy was few. According to Bandura's self-efficacy theory, the effect factors of self-efficacy include individual success or failure experiences, individual emotion and physiological state. Among them, academic performance is the most direct factor affecting academic self-efficacy , and academic stress as a negative emotional experience will have a negative impact on academic self-efficacy. And, as a self-concept closely related to self-efficacy, self-esteem can also affect academic self-efficacy. In addition, there are gender differences in academic stress and self-esteem in primary school students. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the impact of academic performance on academic self-efficacy in primary school students, as well as the chain mediating effect of academic stress and self-esteem, the moderating effect of gender. This study recruited 404 students (203 boys and 201 girls) from grade 4 to 6 in a primary school. The students' age were from 9 to 12 years, and average age was 10.14 (standard deviation was 1.32 years). All students filled out academic stress questionnaire, academic self-efficacy questionnaire and Rosenbers' self-esteem scale in a quiet classroom. We collected the academic performance of students from the nearest final examinations (Chinese, Math and English). SPSS 20.0 software and Amos 26.0 software were used for Common method biases analysis, correlation analysis, bootstrap mediating effect analysis and multiple group analysis. The results implicated that: (1) Primary school students' academic performance can positively predict academic self-efficacy. In other words, more academic performance of students can cultivate a higher level of academic self-efficacy. Thus, in primary school, we should help students to gain positive experience with high academic performance, which will effectively improve their academic self-efficacy. (2) In the relationship between academic performance and academic self-efficacy, academic stress and self-esteem played a role of chain mediated effect. Specifically, there were a negative mediated effect of academic stress, a positive mediated effect of self-esteem, and a chain mediated effect of self-esteem and academic stress. (3) There were gender differences in the chain mediating effect. In the girls group, there were a partial mediating effect and three mediating paths (the separate mediating effect of academic stress, the separate mediating effect of self-esteem and the chain mediating effect of academic stress and self-esteem); in the boys group, there were a complete mediating effect and two mediating paths (the separate mediating effect of self-esteem and the chain mediating effect of academic stress and self-esteem). This result suggested that we should pay attention to gender differences in the process of improving students' academic self-efficacy.
    Related Articles | Metrics | Comments0
    The Influence of Daily Emotional Experiences on Self-Control: The Moderating Role of Conscious Effort
    Journal of Psychological Science    2023, 46 (1): 57-64.  
    Abstract1719)      PDF(pc) (1171KB)(1511)       Save
    Electronics are becoming the most popular entertainment tool for adolescents today, which warnings are issued both nationally and internationally about relying too much on electronic devices. The overuse of electronic devices by college students is intended to obtain rich variety of emotional experiences with minimal effort, and the overuse of electronic devices is a typical manifestation of their lack of self-control. In this context, this paper examines the influence of daily emotional experiences of college students on self-control by two closely related studies and further explores the conditions and mechanisms of this influence. Purpose: The purpose of Study 1 was to understand the current situation of daily emotional experiences of college students, such as the nature and source of daily emotional experiences, the level of conscious effort and the length of time of playing with electronic devices, etc.; In study 2, eligible subjects were chosen the basis of study 1. In addition, self-control variables were added in order to examine the effects of emotional experiences induced by different levels of conscious effort on college students' self-control. Methods: A questionnaire survey and experimental intervention were conducted among 300 college students from freshmen to juniors in Jiangsu province by cluster sampling method. Results: Study 1 found that the difference between positive and negative emotions experienced by college students in daily life was significant, and positive emotions were predominant. At the same time, the sources of emotional stimuli with low conscious effort were significantly more than those with high conscious effort, and the main sources of emotional experiences were not the same for boys and girls: boys' positive and negative emotional experiences were mainly derived from playing games and sports, while girls' were mostly derived from movies and videos, interpersonal relationships, etc. Study 2 found that the method of "conscious effort" successfully induced daily emotional experiences; the main effect of daily emotional experiences on self-control was not significant; conscious effort significantly and positively predicted self-control, and high levels of conscious effort played a positive moderating role in the relationship between daily emotional experiences and self-control. Conclusions: (1) College students' daily emotional experiences differed significantly and were dominated by positive emotional experiences, while the sources of emotional stimuli with low conscious effort were more than those with high conscious effort; (2) College students' daily emotional experiences did not have significant predictive effects on self-control, while conscious effort significantly and positively predicted self-control, and high levels of conscious effort played a moderating role in the relationship between daily emotional experiences and self-control. This research has important theoretical significance and practical value. On the practical level: Inducing emotional experience through conscious efforts not only provides a new path for emotional regulation, but also improves students' self-control behavior, which is more helpful to reduce students' dependence on mobile phones and internet addiction. On the theoretical level: First, the classification of promoting emotional experience, that is, emotional experience induced by conscious efforts or unconscious efforts; The second is to expand and deepen the theoretical model of "unconscious emotion"; Third, it is the first time to prove that "this happiness is different from that happiness", which will directly promote the study of the value field of emotion!
    Related Articles | Metrics | Comments0
    Core symptoms of depression in Chinese adolescents and comparison between different gender and levels of depression: A network analysis approach
    Journal of Psychological Science    2022, 45 (5): 1115-1122.  
    Abstract1712)            Save
    Abstract: Recently, the network theory of mental disorder (NTMD) and the corresponding method of network analysis have been used in the field of depression to illustrate the structure of depression, the core symptoms of depression, and the network changes over time or under intervention conditions. Previous research has provided a host of evidence and specific suggestions for the treatment of depression. Yet, this theory and method have not been used and explored among Chinese people with depression, especially in Chinese adolescents. It has been argued that adolescents are the high-risk group of depression, however, not many studies focus on adolescents’ depression from the perspective of network theory until recently. Notably, existing studies have demonstrated cultural differences in the core symptoms of depression among adolescents. For example, loneliness has been identified as one of the core depressive symptoms in American adolescents, while it has not been found in Indian adolescents. Similarly, fear of failure has been found in Indian adolescents but not in American adolescents. Therefore,it is meaningful to explore the core symptoms of Chinese adolescents under Chinese culture, which may further facilitate better treatment of Chinese adolescents’ depression. Besides, a large amount of literature has reached the consistent conclusion that the female gets a higher depression score than the male, but recent research has found something different. It has point outed that the network global strength is invariant across genders despite network structure varying with genders. But that study has not considered core symptoms. Hence, we planned to explore gender differences in core symptoms, network structure, and global strength of depression among Chinese adolescents to provide more evidence about it. Additionally, among groups with different levels of depression, the mid-depression group namely, those with depression proneness might be ignored by some traditional researchers who only select high-risk depression or major depression adolescents to study and treat. Actually, the mid-depression group is more likely to step into a high-risk depression group, comparing with the non-depression group. Furthermore, according to NTMD, there are differences between the networks of these groups. To address these gaps, the current study examined core symptoms, network structure, and global strength in all three groups. Guided by NTMD, this study used data collected from Chinese adolescents from grade 7 to grade 12 (N=3634, Mage=14.4 years, 50.6% girls) to test the network structure, network global strength, and core symptoms of depression, by using network analysis method and network comparison. The CES-D scale was used to measure depressive symptoms of adolescents. The result showed that the core symptoms of Chinese adolescents were feeling of failure, depressed mood, sadness, and fatigue. And these core symptoms, network structure, and global strength were invariant across genders, but various in three groups. Specifically, the non-depression group’s core symptoms were depressed mood, lack of happiness, incapacity to enjoy life. Besides the three ones listed above, the mid-depression group’s core symptoms include feeling inferior to others. Moreover, the centrality of these core symptoms in the mid-depression group was overall higher than that of the non-depression group. The high-risk depression group’s core symptoms were also a bit different from the others, including a feeling of failure, sadness, incapacity to enjoy life. The network comparison test showed that in the network structure, the mid-depression group was different from the non-depression group but similar to the high-risk group and that in the global strength, the mid-depression group was higher than the non-depression group but lower than the high-risk group. Results in this study give some suggestions for intervention or treatment towards depression. First, as indicated in the study, core symptoms in Chinese adolescents possessed their own cultural meanings. Thus, intervention or treatment towards depression should not only focus on the core symptoms but also consider the cultural meanings behind symptoms. Second, treatment or intervention should concentrate on different core symptoms according to their depression levels, especially, the attention should be paid to the mid-depression group, because they may meet the condition (changed network structure, increased centrality of core symptoms and increased global strength) to develop high-risk depression. One highlight of this study is that it not only explores the core depressive symptoms of Chinese adolescents but also divides adolescents into different levels of depression groups, beyond existing practice that only selects the high-risk group. Furthermore, it throws light on adolescents with depression proneness and adolescents with high-risk depression from the perspective of network theory.
    Related Articles | Metrics | Comments0
    The Influence of Mobile Phone Dependence on the Development of Social Anxiety in Junior High School Students: Longitudinal Mediating Effect of Body Shame
    Zeng Yixin, Zhang Bin, Xiong Sicheng, Long Zhuan, Zhang Anqi, Zeng Chengwei, Liu Jiaxi, Yang Ying
    Journal of Psychological Science    2024, 47 (2): 316-324.   DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240208
    Abstract1502)      PDF(pc) (1023KB)(1739)       Save
    Social anxiety is a common emotional feature in the growth of children and adolescents. It mainly refers to the emotional experience of tension and anxiety when individuals interact with others in real life, which has a certain degree of negative impact on interpersonal skills, personal growth, development potential, and life attitude. In view of the multiplicity of social anxiety and its extensive influence, researchers have paid close attention to it in recent years, and it is particularly important to explore its influencing factors and developmental mechanisms. In particular, indulging in mobile phones may lead to the degradation of individual social skills, which in turn may induce social anxiety and other adaptation problems. At the same time, the propaganda of the ideal body image in media may cause the conflict between the ideal and reality among junior high school students, and deepen the shame of their own bodies. Previous studies have also shown that physical shame may play a mediating role in the relationship between mobile phone dependence and social anxiety.
    However, most literature still uses the traditional analysis method of comparing the change of mean value, which is unable to provide information of the complete development rate of variables, and it is difficult to accurately grasp the dynamic development process among variables. Therefore, this study intends to take junior high school students as the research subjects, using the two indicators of initial level and development rate in the latent growth model, to examine the developmental trend of mobile phone dependence in junior high school students, body shame, and social anxiety from a dynamic perspective, and further explore the internal mechanisms of the three.
    Using the Mobile Phone Dependence Scale, the Body Shame Scale, and the Social Communication Anxiety Scale, 339 junior high school students from two middle schools in Hunan Province were followed for three times in a year. All data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 and Mplus 7.0. The first step is to use SPSS 26.0 for descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. Secondly, using Mplus 7.0 to build an unconditional latent growth model to examine the development trend of each variable, in which the intercept represents the initial state and the slope represents the development rate. The third step is to establish a conditional latent growth model to test whether the development track of social anxiety is directly affected by mobile phone dependence. The fourth step is to construct a structural equation model to explore the relationship between intercept and slope of mobile phone dependence, body shame, and social anxiety.
    The results showed that: (1) Mobile phone dependence, body shame and social anxiety in junior high school students all showed a steady upward trend, and the initial level and development rate of social anxiety were significantly negatively correlated. (2) The initial level and development rate of mobile phone dependence can directly predict the initial level and development rate of social anxiety respectively. (3) The initial level and development rate of body shame played a complete longitudinal mediating role in the mechanism of the influence of mobile phone dependence on the development of social anxiety.
    Based on the longitudinal time course and the latent growth model, this study systematically explored the changing track, characteristics, and dynamic relationship among junior high school students' mobile phone dependence, body shame, and social anxiety, and accurately described the development and possible mechanisms of adolescent social anxiety and its risk factors. The results supported the Social Replacement Hypothesis, the Tripartite Influence Model, and the Cognitive Model of Social Anxiety, which has practical guiding significance for deepening the understanding of junior high school students' social anxiety, establishing effective detection and intervention measures, and promoting the mental health development of junior high school students.
    Reference | Related Articles | Metrics | Comments0
    The relationship between adolescent time attitude and academic procrastination: The mediating role of achievement motivation
    Xiao-Bao Li Lv Houchao
    Journal of Psychological Science    2022, 45 (1): 47-53.  
    Abstract1478)      PDF       Save
    Time attitude refers to thoughts and attitudes toward the past, the present, and the future and may underlie adolescents' decisions and behaviors about school and work. Multiple associations between time-related variables and several educational outcomes have been established previously. However, of these time-related variables, the majority have focused on attitudes and perceptions related to the future, but not to the present or the past. Academic procrastination is the act or tendency to procrastinate in learning activities, which has a great harm to students' academic performance, emotions, and subjective well-being. Recent theory suggests that procrastination is a form of temporal self-regulation failure, representative of high impulsiveness and reflecting a primacy of present self over the needs of the future self. Given the intrinsic temporal nature of procrastination, we expect that individual differences in time attitude are associated with academic procrastination. Achievement motivation is the internal motivation for people to achieve success in the process of completing tasks, including the pursuit of success and the avoidance of failure. Previous studies have found that achievement motivation is associated with time attitudes and academic procrastination. However, few studies use a multi-dimensional approach to examine the relationship between academic procrastination and time attitudes towards past, present and future. And the mechanism of time attitude's influence on academic procrastination is unclear. In the present study, we examined the relationship of time attitudes to academic procrastination, and whether achievement motivation can be a mediator variable between time attitudes and academic procrastination. We hypothesize that individuals with a positive time attitude have a stronger motivation to achieve the goals and thus have less academic procrastination. A total 733 middle and high school students participated in the questionnaire survey on Time Attitude Scale, Achievement Motivation Scale and Academic Procrastination Scale. The sample ages ranged from 12 to 19 years old (15.72 ± 1.26), with 316 boys and 417 girls. All the data was analyzed with the software SPSS 22.0 and Amos21.0. The structural equation model and bootstrap method were used to analyze the relationship between time attitudes and procrastination and the mediating roles of achievement motivation. The results showed that (1) past negative, present negative and future negative were positively correlated with academic procrastination, while past positive, present positive and future positive were negatively correlated with academic procrastination. (2) Past negative, present negative and future negative were negatively correlated with achievement motivation, while past positive, present positive and future positive were positively correlated with achievement motivation. And achievement motivation was negatively correlated with academic procrastination. (3) Achievement motivation partially mediates the relationship between present negative and academic procrastination, and completely mediates the relationship between future positive, future negative and academic procrastination. This study supports the important role of time attitude in adolescents' school-related variables. In addition, intervention programs aimed at improving students' motivation for achievement can effectively prevent adolescents from procrastinating.
    Related Articles | Metrics | Comments0
    The Neural Mechanism of Language Context Influencing Self-bias
    Kong Chao, Liu Huanhuan, Liu Linyan,
    Journal of Psychological Science    2023, 46 (2): 258-265.  
    Abstract1364)      PDF(pc) (1186KB)(1262)       Save
    It is well known that different languages have different impacts on human cognition, emotion, and physiological states. In the context of
    native language, individuals tend to associate positive emotions with themselves, and negative emotions with others. This leads to the self-positive
    and other-negative bias. However, using a foreign language may reduce emotional involvement. We hypothesized that using a foreign language may
    affect the connection between identity (self vs. other) and emotion (positive vs. negative) through reducing emotional involvement. In addition, we
    hypothesized that the ability of language control when they switch between two languages may also affect bilinguals’ connection between identity and
    emotion. Language control refers to the choice of using the target language in a specific situation and inhibiting the interference of non-target language.
    Participants do not need to switch between languages in the monolingual context, which requires less inhibitory processing (global language control
    occurred). In contrast, participants have to switch from one language to another in bilingual context frequently by inhibiting the interference from nontarget
    language (local language control occurred). We hypothesized that connection between identity and emotion occurred automatically under global
    language control, while it required more cognitive resources under local language control. Thus, the automatic process may be weakened in the context
    of mixed language.
    In the current study, bilingual context and monolingual context were designed. The stimuli in each scanning run was either presented in twolanguage
    or in one-language context, corresponding to local and global language control. The variables of language (Chinese vs. English), identity (Self
    vs. Others) and emotional valence (Positive vs. Negative) were manipulated. Identity cues were represented by " 我", " 他", "I" and "He". The data
    of 29 unbalanced bilinguals whose native language was Chinese were collected by fMRI scanner. In each trial, the identity cues were presented first,
    followed by emotional words. The participants were required to determine whether the emotional words were true or pseudoword words (false words
    were generated by replacing radicals or letters of real words), and their reactions were recorded. The DPABI and SPM were then used to preprocess
    the data and do F test. For the brain regions with significant interactions of identity and emotional valence, we extracted the beta value of brain region
    and performed repeated measures ANOVA to compare the activation of different conditions. At the same time, repeated measures ANOVA was also
    performed for the reaction times.
    The fMRI results showed that in the monolingual L2 context, the left inferior frontal gyrus and the left inferior parietal lobule showed greater
    activation in the other-positive condition and the self-negative condition than that in the self-positive condition and the other-negative condition. In
    bilingual L1 context, the right precuneus exhibited significantly greater activation in self-positive condition than other-positive condition. The response
    times results showed that the reaction of the self-positive condition was faster than that of the other-positive condition in the monolingual L1 and L2
    context, respectively. In the bilingual L2 context, the reaction of the other-negative condition was faster than that of the self-negative condition.
    Based on the findings, we infer that: (1) In the monolingual L2 context, the self-negative and the other-positive bias were in conflict with each
    other because they were not consistent with the self-positive bias. The frontoparietal network was employed to process the conflicts. (2) The precuneus
    activity in the bilingual L1 context may reflect the attribution processes that distinguishing others’ emotions and self-emotion, leading to one of them
    is more sensitive to self. (3) The differences between global and local language control may indicate that bilinguals have more cognitive resources
    to solve the conflicts between identity and emotion in foreign language context (global language control occurred), while in the context of mixed
    language, more cognitive resources are required when processing L2 than L1 (local language control occurred). It seems that participants have extra
    cognitive resources to process the association between identity and emotion when using their native language. Overall, these findings suggest that
    language context induces bilinguals’ language control, which affects their resolution of the conflicts between identity and emotional valence.
    Key words language context, language control, self-bias, emotion, left inferior frontal gyrus, left inferior parietal lobule, right precuneus
    Participants do not need to switch between languages in the monolingual context, which requires less inhibitory processing (global language control occurred). In contrast, participants have to switch from one language to another in bilingual context frequently by inhibiting the interference from nontarget language (local language control occurred). We hypothesized that connection between identity and emotion occurred automatically under global language control, while it required more cognitive resources under local language control. Thus, the automatic process may be weakened in the context of mixed language.
    In the current study, bilingual context and monolingual context were designed. The stimuli in each scanning run was either presented in twolanguage or in one-language context, corresponding to local and global language control. The variables of language (Chinese vs. English), identity (Self vs. Others) and emotional valence (Positive vs. Negative) were manipulated. Identity cues were represented by " 我", " 他", "I" and "He". The data of 29 unbalanced bilinguals whose native language was Chinese were collected by fMRI scanner. In each trial, the identity cues were presented first, followed by emotional words. The participants were required to determine whether the emotional words were true or pseudoword words (false words were generated by replacing radicals or letters of real words), and their reactions were recorded. The DPABI and SPM were then used to preprocess the data and do F test. For the brain regions with significant interactions of identity and emotional valence, we extracted the beta value of brain region and performed repeated measures ANOVA to compare the activation of different conditions. At the same time, repeated measures ANOVA was also performed for the reaction times.
    The fMRI results showed that in the monolingual L2 context, the left inferior frontal gyrus and the left inferior parietal lobule showed greater activation in the other-positive condition and the self-negative condition than that in the self-positive condition and the other-negative condition. In bilingual L1 context, the right precuneus exhibited significantly greater activation in self-positive condition than other-positive condition. The response times results showed that the reaction of the self-positive condition was faster than that of the other-positive condition in the monolingual L1 and L2 context, respectively. In the bilingual L2 context, the reaction of the other-negative condition was faster than that of the self-negative condition.
    Based on the findings, we infer that: (1) In the monolingual L2 context, the self-negative and the other-positive bias were in conflict with each other because they were not consistent with the self-positive bias. The frontoparietal network was employed to process the conflicts. (2) The precuneus activity in the bilingual L1 context may reflect the attribution processes that distinguishing others’ emotions and self-emotion, leading to one of them is more sensitive to self. (3) The differences between global and local language control may indicate that bilinguals have more cognitive resources to solve the conflicts between identity and emotion in foreign language context (global language control occurred), while in the context of mixed language, more cognitive resources are required when processing L2 than L1 (local language control occurred). It seems that participants have extra cognitive resources to process the association between identity and emotion when using their native language. Overall, these findings suggest that language context induces bilinguals’ language control, which affects their resolution of the conflicts between identity and emotional valence.

    Reference | Related Articles | Metrics | Comments0
    The Relationship Between Technoference and Internet Gaming Disorder: The Mediating Role of the Need to Belong and the Moderation Role of Friendship Quality
    zien Ding Liu qinxue
    Journal of Psychological Science    2022, 45 (6): 1383-1389.  
    Abstract1308)            Save
    Over the past few years, Internet gaming addiction has become a major social problem and an important research topic. Internet gaming addiction leads to a range of negative effects on the development of adolescents. Therefore, to develop effective prevention and remediation programs for Internet gaming addiction, the risk factors associated with Internet gaming addiction need to be identified. Technoference is defined as everyday interruptions in interpersonal interactions due to technology devices. It may play an essential role in adolescents' development as a part of a family system. According to the problem-behavior theory, the family system can directly influence the behavior of individuals, and affect the behavior of individuals through the individual system. From the perspective of need satisfaction theory, the need to belong reflects the information in the environment and influences the behavior of people. Accordingly, technoference occurring in the family environment is a piece of essential environmental information that may affect adolescents’ Internet gaming addiction by influencing their need to belong. Therefore, this study attempted to explore the mediating role of the need to belong. Besides, friendship quality may act as a buffer for maladaptive effects. Adolescents that feel isolated from peer relationships prefer to seek self-esteem or reassurance through internet games, so friendship quality may play a moderating role in the relationship between technoference and Internet gaming addiction. The present study constructed a moderated mediation model to examine whether the need to belong mediated the relationship between technoference and adolescent’s Internet gaming addiction, and whether friendship quality moderated this mediation effect. The study recruited 3209 junior high school students to complete Technology Interference in Life Examples Scale, Need to Belong Scale, Friendship Quality Scale, and Internet Gaming Addiction Scale. For data analysis, common method biases were examined at first. Then, correlation analysis was conducted to obtain the relationship between variables among the hypothesized model. All analyses were carried out using SPSS 21.0 and Amos17.0. The results indicated that: (1) The need to belong partially mediated the relationship between technoference and adolescent’s Internet gaming addiction. (2) Friendship quality moderated the relationship between technoference and the need to belong. Specifically, high friendship quality could alleviate the impact of technoference on the need to belong. (3) Friendship quality moderated the relationship between the need to belong and adolescent’s Internet gaming addiction. Specifically, high friendship quality could alleviate the impact of the need to belong to the adolescent’s Internet gaming addiction. The present study advanced our understandings of the underlying mechanism between technoference and adolescent’s Internet gaming addiction. These findings provide a new view, which helps us understand the effect of technoference. The conclusion of the current study was of great importance for the intervention of adolescent’s Internet gaming addiction.
    Related Articles | Metrics | Comments0
    Childhood Emotional Maltreatment and Early Adolescents’ Smartphone Addiction Severity: The Mediating Roles of General and Social Anxiety and the Moderating Role of Family Socioeconomic Status
    Zhou Nan, Zang Ning, Wang Shaofan, Li Zixuan, Chen Ling, Li Beilei, Cao Hongjian
    Journal of Psychological Science    2024, 47 (2): 325-333.   DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240209
    Abstract1296)      PDF(pc) (1218KB)(1370)       Save
    In recent years, researchers have paid increased attention to the developmental sequela of early maltreatment experiences, including addictive behaviors. Emotional abuse and neglect are particularly influential in shaping children’s later socioemotional functioning because, compared to the other types of early maltreatment, they are more pervasive and their consequences are often not immediately observable. Notably, research on the link between emotional maltreatment and early adolescents’ addictive behaviors is limited in its primary focus on the direct associations, leaving the underlying mechanisms underexamined, and in its lack of differentiation between emotional abuse and emotional neglect.
    Based on the addiction compensation theory, this study sought to examine the links between early emotional abuse and emotional neglect and early adolescents’ smartphone addiction severity using data from a sample of 844, 7th graders from H province, China. This study also tested the mediating roles of general and social anxiety given that they may exhibit differential roles in explaining how early emotional maltreatment may elevate the risk of early adolescents’ smartphone addiction. Specifically, early emotional abuse and emotional neglect may contribute to the formation of individuals’ shame-based cognitive-emotional scheme, which results in individuals’ habitual hiding from others and ultimately leads to social anxiety. Further, family socioeconomic status (SES) may also factor into the associations among early emotional abuse and emotional neglect, general and social anxiety, and early adolescents’ smartphone addiction. On the one hand, early adolescents from low SES families have limited resources that are unfavorable for development and thus the negative impact of early emotional abuse and neglect, such as anxious symptoms, would be stronger than those from high SES families. On the other hand, the lack of social support in family settings with low SES also may diminish adolescents’ resilience to cope with the consequences of early emotional maltreatment. Thus, the moderating role of family SES was examined in this study.
    The present path models revealed that early adolescents’ social anxiety only mediated the positive associations between early emotional abuse and their smartphone addiction severity. Moreover, the mediating effect of social anxiety was only present in early adolescents from families with high SES. These results delineated how early emotional abuse and emotional neglect may uniquely relate to early adolescents’ smartphone addiction via their associations with general and social anxiety. The incorporation of social anxiety beyond the general anxiety highlighted the importance of differentiating the two types of anxiety as well as documenting their respective roles. Further, the results also point to the necessity of moving beyond the average population to further explore the potential heterogeneity in the currently examined associations across different subgroups. The findings provide insights for future trauma-informed interventions that aim to reduce the incidence of early adolescents’ smartphone addiction. Specifically, for early adolescents with early emotional abuse and neglect experiences, practitioners should attend to their potential anxious symptoms. Moreover, for early adolescents from high SES families carrying the burdens of early emotional maltreatment, special attention is needed because of their potential social anxiety issues.
    Reference | Related Articles | Metrics | Comments0
    The Influence of Social Exclusion on The Visual Working Memory Capacity
    Journal of Psychological Science    2023, 46 (1): 11-18.  
    Abstract1288)      PDF(pc) (879KB)(1116)       Save
    Present study explores the influence of social exclusion on the visual working memory capacity (WMC) of nonsocial and social stimuli. A cyberball game was used to manipulate social exclusion. Nonsense shapes (NS) in study 1 were adopted as nonsocial stimuli, while biology motion (BM) in study 2a and human faces in study 2b were adopted as social stimuli. In study 1, 49 participants were asked to remember 1 - 4 NS. The results showed that socially excluded participants had a lower WMC than the socially accepted group. In Experiment 2a and 2b, 44 and 54 participants were asked to remember 1-5 BM and 1 - 4 human faces showing three different emotions (angry, happy, neutral). The results demonstrated that socially excluded participants had a larger WMC than the compared group in BM and three types of emotional face. The results of study 1 and 2 suggested social exclusion would exert an influence on individual's visual WMC, but the direction of this effect may be inconsistent due to the different attributes of the stimuli, when the stimulus is non-social stimuli unrelated to belonging need, social exclusion would reduce the individual's visual WMC. When the stimulus is social stimuli associated with the belonging need (neutral & emotional), the visual WMC of the individual would increase.
    Related Articles | Metrics | Comments0
    Moderation Analyses of Two Frequently-Used Types of Categorical Variable
    Jie Fang Zhong-Lin WEN
    Journal of Psychological Science    2022, 45 (3): 702-709.  
    Abstract1275)      PDF       Save
    Moderation analysis is frequently applied to the studies of psychology and other social science disciplines. Empirical researchers working on experiments as well as questionnaire surveys are often interested in moderation effect because it can help explain how the direction and strength of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables will change. Given that the categorical variable is frequently encountered in social science researches, how to analyze moderation models with the categorical variable becomes a noteworthy issue. In the present study, we consider two scenarios: one is in a questionnaire survey, known as a cross-sectional or between-participant design; the other is in a longitudinal study at two time-points, or a two-condition experiment with the within-participant design. A procedure is proposed and recommended to analyze the moderation effect when the data is collected from the between-participant design and independent variable or moderator is a categorical variable. The first step is to examine whether the moderation effect is statistically significant by testing R2 change with and without the moderation term. If the moderation effect is not significantly different from zero, stop the moderation analysis. In the second step, the omnibus test is used to examine whether the k-1 simple slopes are zero, where k is the number of the categories. If the omnibus effect is not statistically significant, stop the moderation analysis. In the third step, the pairwise test is used to determine which of the k-1 simple slope is statistically significant. There are two pairwise test methods, namely the pick-a-point approach and Johnson-Neyman (J-N) approach. An example is given to illustrate how to conduct the proposed procedure by using SPSS macro PROCESS software. When the data is collected from the two-condition within-participant design, we may presume that every participant is assigned to both experimental treatments (X), and the dependent variable (Y) is observed under each condition. According to the general data input format (such as in SPSS), there is no X variable, and Y have two columns of values. So the above moderation analysis procedure is not suitable for this design. Then, another procedure is proposed and recommended for such kind of data to analyze the moderation effect, in which the only X is a categorical variable. The first step is to regress the difference in the repeated measured dependent variable Y2-Y1 on moderator Z. If the regression coefficient is not statistically significantly different from zero, stop the moderation analysis. In the second step, a simple slope test is conducted by the pick-a-point approach or Johnson-Neyman (J-N) approach. A second example is given to illustrate how to conduct the proposed procedure by using SPSS macro MEMORE software. Directions for future studies on categorical moderation are discussed at the end of the paper. The above methods and steps could be expended to more complicated moderation models, such as the moderated mediation model with a multi-categorical independent variable or moderator, the additive moderator model, and the multiplicative moderator model.
    Related Articles | Metrics | Comments0
    The Relationship between Social Rejection and College Student Depression: Moderating Role of Wechat Parent-Adolescent Communication and Mediating Role of Emotional Awareness
    Journal of Psychological Science    2022, 45 (5): 1159-1165.  
    Abstract1275)            Save
    Social rejection is regarded as a common phenomenon that has a great influence on the physical and mental health of people. Some studies shown that, as a group with a high incidence of social rejection, college students tended to fall into a strong sense of loneliness, depression, anxious, intense psychological pain and other negative emotions. In addition, according to the Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection Theory, people usually require positive responses from significant others, such as support, care, and acceptance. On the contrary, if an individual perceives the indifference, neglect or rejection of significant others, it may lead to negative emotions and psychological problems. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the negative effects of social rejection on college students. Researchers also suggested that social rejection may cause one’s depression. but the mechanism between them needs to be further studied. According to the Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection Theory's Personality Subtheory, social rejection could weaken the ability of dealing with emotional stress and emotional regulation. So, negative worldview, negative self-esteem, negative self-adequacy are important elements in the social-cognition or mental representations of rejected persons. The negative mental representations may further increase their risk of depression. Therefore, emotional awareness is an important mediating variable. Furthermore, considering the parent-adolescent communication through WeChat may promote interpersonal relationship, we believe that it is necessary to explore the impact of social rejection. Meanwhile, we strive to provide theoretical support for the prevention and intervention of college students’ social rejection and to reduce the negative effects from such aspect. For above reasons, the study aimed to investigate the association between social rejection and depression, as well as the mediating effect of emotional awareness and the moderating effect of parent-adolescent communication through WeChat. The questionnaire consists of four parts, including the Social Rejection Subscale Questionnaire for the Youth Self Report protocol, the Emotional Awareness Questionnaire, the Parent-adolescent communication Scale, and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). 431 college students were selected as samples, of which 154 were male and 277 were female, with an average age of 19.88(SD =1.52). Data was collected and analyzed with SPSS 19.0, and the bias-corrected percentile Bootstrap method was used to examine the mediating effect of emotional awareness and the moderating effect of parent-adolescent communication through WeChat. The results indicated that: (1) After controlling for gender and age, social rejection was positively correlated with depression, while negatively correlated with emotional awareness and parent-adolescent communication through WeChat; whereas both emotional awareness and parent-adolescent communication through WeChat were negatively correlated with depression. (2) Social rejection is not only directly related to the depression, also indirectly affected the depression through the mediating effect of emotional awareness. (3) The direct effect of social rejection on depression was moderated by parent-adolescent communication through WeChat, and the effect was more obvious among college students who enjoy high-frequency parent-adolescent communication through WeChat. In summary, a moderated mediation model of emotional awareness and parent-adolescent communication through WeChat was constructed to reveal the underlying mechanism between social rejection and depression in study, which can contribute to a better understanding of the way and the time that social rejection increases the risk of depression. Furthermore, it suggested that early intervention concerning diminishing the negative effects of social rejection may start with increasing the individual’s emotional awareness and parent-adolescent communication through WeChat.
    Related Articles | Metrics | Comments0
    The Effect of Mindfulness on Academic Procrastination of College Students in Online Learning Environments: Resilience and Self-Control as Chain Mediator
    Journal of Psychological Science    2022, 45 (6): 1450-1457.  
    Abstract1256)            Save
    Academic procrastination has been proven to be harmful to many aspects of college students’ academic and personal lives. Thus, several studies attempt to determine effective interventions in academic procrastination. In recent years, mindfulness has been found to effectively reduce college students’ academic procrastination. Although online learning has become a very convenient way of studying, students need a high level of self-management in online learning environments because they have more freedom in such set-up. As a result, mindfulness, as an individual difference characteristic of students, may have an important impact on learning efficiency in online learning environments. However, as far as we know, there are few researches on this issue. Therefore, the present research attempts to explore the impact of mindfulness on academic procrastination of college students in online learning environments, and considers resilience and self-control as two potential mediators. Previous research has found that mindfulness can improve resilience, which can help students adjust their negative emotions and cognition, reduce their fear of failure, and thus make them less likely to avoid problems with academic procrastination. Moreover, mindfulness has been found to associated with self-control. According to the limited-resources model of self-control, the self-control resources that individuals have are limited. Nevertheless, mindfulness can ease the depletion of resources in self-control. Self-control is also a strong and persistent predictor of procrastination. As a result, resilience and self-control may play significant roles in the relationship between mindfulness and academic procrastination. On the basis of this reasoning, we establish the multiple mediating model of resilience and self-control between mindfulness and academic procrastination. To prove this model, this research collected self-reported data using online questionnaires from 157 students in 28 colleges in China. Data were collected in stages with three different questionnaires in a month. The first questionnaire measured mindfulness, the second questionnaire measured resilience, and the last questionnaire measured self-control and academic procrastination. We used Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Aitken Procrastination Inventory (API), Resilience Scale (RS) and Self-Control Scale (SCS) to measure mindfulness, academic procrastination, resilience and self-control of college students, respectively. The statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS 24.0. Results show that: (1) A significant negative correlation exists between mindfulness and academic procrastination in online learning environments. (2) A significant positive correlation exists between resilience and self-control. Resilience and self-control are negatively correlated with academic procrastination. (3) Resilience and self-control have a chain mediating effect between mindfulness and academic procrastination. Thus, mindfulness can affect academic procrastination through the full mediating effect of resilience or self-control alone, and it can also affect academic procrastination through a chain mediating effect of resilience and self-control. These findings enrich the research on the mechanism of the influence of mindfulness on academic procrastination in online learning environments. They also deepen our understanding of mindfulness, so as to promote the development of mindfulness and enable people to improve their lives through mindfulness. From a practical perspective, the present research provides an valuable insight into how to reduce students’ academic procrastination in online learning environments, which is helpful in the improvement and further development of online learning.
    Related Articles | Metrics | Comments0
    THE INFLUENCE OF POSITIVE EMOJIS ON CONSUMERS’ PURCHASE INTENTION
    Wang Yaqin, Liu Zishuang, Jiang Jiang
    Journal of Psychological Science    2023, 46 (2): 435-442.  
    Abstract1230)      PDF(pc) (1442KB)(1175)       Save
    With the development of social networks, emojis have become an important tool for people’s daily communication. Sometimes it is difficult for us to express emotions to each other through words. Emojis can solve the “double blind” embarrassment of cross-screen interaction. Now that emojis are not limited to social communication, they have also begun to be widely used in the product marketing field. Two experiments are designed in this research to investigate whether positive emojis can promote consumers’ purchase intentions and explore the mediator effect of involvement and moderator effect of product type. Before the formal study, a pre-survey on the usage trend of emojis had been done. The survey showed that more than 90% of consumers use emojis more frequently. Most of them show a positive attitude and a high evaluation of the use of positive emojis in product design, and think that positive emojis are more suitable for FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods), not luxury goods, such as specific performance in the three categories of food and beverage, daily necessities and clothing. But positive emojis are not applicable to electronic products, luxury goods and other valuables. Study 1 attaches positive emojis to products to explore the influence of positive emojis on purchase intention in product design. This study used a single-factor inter-subject design. In this study, 202 subjects were recruited, 15 subjects who did not answer seriously were excluded, 47 subjects were excluded from group manipulation of independent variables, and 140 subjects remained, which was divided into three groups: positive emoji group (n = 39), blank control group (n = 61) and pattern group (n = 40). It was found that positive emojis in the design of products increased consumers’ involvement, and thus increased their purchase intention, compared with blank controls and patterns (Mpositive emoji group = 4.78, SDpositive emoji group = 1.42; Mpattern group = 3.76, SDpattern group = 1.27; Mcontrol group = 3.09, SDcontrol group = 1.17; F(2,136) = 22.30, p < 0.001, η2p = 0.25). On the basis of Study 1, Study 2 added the moderating variable——product type (hedonic/utilitarian) to further explore whether there are boundary conditions for the influence of positive emojis on consumers’ purchase intention. Slightly different from Study 1, Study 2 used positive emojis in product advertisements and divided the products into hedonic products and utilitarian products to explore the effect of positive emojis on purchase intention in different product types. This study adopted a 2×2 inter-subject design. 212 subjects were assigned randomly to one of four conditions: positive emoji-hedonic (n = 52), positive emoji-utilitarian (n = 54), non-emoji-hedonic (n = 53), non-emoji-utilitarian (n = 53). Studies have shown that positive emojis can further increase consumers’ intention to purchase hedonic products, while when the products are utilitarian, the presence or absence of positive emojis has a relatively small effect on consumers’ purchase intentions (t(210) = 6.40, p < 0.001, d = 0.13). Examining the model of moderated mediating effect, it was found that the process of positive emojis influencing the purchase intention through the involvement is moderated by the product type, and there was a moderated mediating model. Through two experiments, this study revealed that under two marketing methods, product design(Study 1) and advertising(Study 2), positive emojis have a positive impact on consumers’ purchase intention, and positive emojis further improve consumers’ purchase intention by increasing their involvement. And positive emojis are more likely to increase consumers’ purchase intention to hedonistic products than utilitarian ones.
    Related Articles | Metrics | Comments0
    The Influence of Preview on Contextual Predictability Effects during Reading
    Zhao Sainan, Li Lin, Zhang Lijuan, Wang Jingxin
    Journal of Psychological Science    2023, 46 (4): 770-778.   DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20230401
    Abstract1148)      PDF(pc) (1514KB)(975)       Save
    Most previous research have found contextual predictability effects eliminated in invalid preview which indicates contextual predictability effects depend on valid preview (like normal reading). The researchers manipulated invalid preview conditions by presenting various kinds of words or nonwords that were different from target words in parafoveal vision. It has been well established that invalid preview can cause various costs that may overwrite the contextual predictability effects. However, it is still hard to tell which is the cause of the elimination of contextual predictability effects in invalid preview conditions: the cost caused by invalid preview, or the absence of valid preview. Solving this problem is crucial to understand how the top-bottom predictability is influenced by bottom-top preview information. The present research investigated this effect with incremental paradigm by manipulating parafovea without preview information.
    EyeLink 1000 Plus eye-tracker recorded participants' (40 participants in experiment 1 and 44 participants in experiment 2) right-eye gaze when they read the sentences that contained target words. Sentences were displayed in Song font in black-on-gray text on a 24-inch ASUS LCD monitor (1920×1080 pixels) with each character subtended approximately 0.9 degrees of visual angle. Experiment 1 was a 2(contextual predictability: high, low)×2(preview type: normal, none)within subjects design. Stimuli were 164 sets of Chinese sentences containing two interchangeable target words that were of either high or low contextual predictability. There was no preview information before directly fixed word in none preview condition, which was different from normal reading pattern and may influence the results. The aim of experiment 2 was to further verify and extend the findings from experiment 1 in a more normal reading form. In order to create a normal reading pattern with minimal interference for vocabulary processing, experiment 2 used meaningless and simple ※ as invalid preview. It was a 2 (contextual predictability: high, low) × 2(preview type: normal, ※) within subjects design.
    The results showed clear effects of preview type in both experiments with shorter reading times and word skipping rate for normal preview condition, in line with findings from previous studies. It also replicated robust and reliable contextual predictability effects on eye movement time measures (first fixation duration, gaze duration, total reading time) in both experiment 1 and experiment 2, which were contributed to longer fixation durations for high predictability words than low predictability words. More importantly, the current results showed no interaction between contextual predictability and preview types on any measures in both experiment 1 and experiment 2. It suggested that the contextual predictability effects with none preview and ※ preview were similar to normal preview. The results of Bayes analyses also provided strong evidence for the additive models.
    The key point of present study is the interaction between contextual predictability and preview type. The robust addictive effects suggest the elimination of contextual predictability effects in invalid previews is not due to the lack of valid preview but the overwrite of the invalid preview costs. Therefore, this research indicates contextual predictability influences word processing independently rather than depending on the valid preview information.
    Reference | Related Articles | Metrics | Comments0
    The weight of morality: the weight-morality embodiment effect and the modulation effect of the metaphorical association
    Journal of Psychological Science    2023, 46 (1): 42-49.  
    Abstract1135)      PDF(pc) (936KB)(653)       Save
    Previous studies of embodiment effects have suggested that these effects are directly induced by sensory-motor experience. However, this explanation overemphasizes the influence of body states and ignores modulation from any kind of cognitive factors, which limits the explanation of the boundary conditions and mediators of embodiment effects. One of the most well-known embodiment effects is caused by the sensation of weight. Many studies have found that the experience of weight can subconsciously impact complex cognitive activities. This study investigated the influence of weight experience on the processing of moral concept, that is the “weight-morality” embodiment effect, and especially focused on the modulation effect of the metaphorical association. A joint-classification response task was used to test the embodiment effect. The classification task included two blocks, and 80 trials in each block tested one joint-classification condition (i.e. "heavy-moral, light-immoral" vs. "light-moral, heavy-immoral" condition). In each trial, followed the fixation was a Chinese two-character word with moral or immoral valence, presented up to 3 seconds in the center of the monitor. Two identical computer mouse devices with different weights (70g vs. 200g) were used for participants to experience weight sensation and to classify the words, with the devices placed in their left and right hand respectively. Participants were required to accurately classify the moral words presented in the monitor as quickly as possible, clicking the light or the heavy mouse according to the instruction. There were breaks in each condition for the participants to exchange the mouse devices between their two hands and rest their arms. Event-related potential (ERP) data were collected and we focused on the late positive component (LPC), which has been found that the motivationally salient congruent trials elicit significantly larger LPC than do incongruent trials. In Experiment 1 (24 participants), the weight-morality embodiment effect was explored in the default metaphorical association condition (i.e., heavy-moral, light-immoral). In Experiment 2 (22 participants), the moral metaphor on the vertical dimension was activated before the task. Since it has been demonstrated that there were moral-up/immoral-down as well as light-up/heavy-down associations, the metaphorical association between weight sensation and moral concept might be changed into “light-up-moral /heavy-down-immoral”. By such manipulation, the modulation effect of the metaphorical association on the “weight-morality” embodiment was investigated. The results in Experiment 1 showed that the response time (RT) in the "heavy-moral, light-immoral" condition was significantly shorter, accompanied by a larger LPC than that in the "light-moral, heavy-immoral" condition. In Experiment 2, on account that the moral metaphor on vertical dimension was activated, the results showed a reversed pattern in relation to Experiment 1. Specifically, we found that the RT in the "light-moral, heavy-immoral" condition was significantly shorter than that in the "heavy-moral, light-immoral" condition, which was also accompanied by a larger LPC. Combined evidence in the two experiments indicated that the “weight-morality” embodiment effect was influenced by the metaphorical association. The larger LPC in the conditions congruent with the activated “weight-morality” association indicated that compared with the incongruent conditions, the “weight-morality” metaphorical association in the congruent condition was more salient and had a higher arousal level, which might promote the categorization response. In conclusion, results in this study indicated that the experience of weight could facilitate the processing of moral concepts, benefited from the metaphorical association of weight-morality, which guides and moderates the embodiment effect. This study suggested that the performance of the embodiment effects depends not only on the sensory-motor experience but also on the metaphorical associations primed in the embodiment process.
    Related Articles | Metrics | Comments0
    Parental Responses to Negative Emotions and the Potential Risk of Personality Disorder in Adolescence
    Wenjuan Zhang
    Journal of Psychological Science    2023, 46 (3): 586-593.  
    Abstract1115)      PDF(pc) (868KB)(1278)       Save
    For a long time, clinicians and researchers have opposed giving children and adolescents a personality disorder diagnosis. However, a burgeoning number of empirical evidence made it clear that personality disorders occurred in childhood and adolescence. There are a large body of research supporting the important role of family influences on the development of particular type of personality disorder, especially the relationships between family emotional environment and borderline personality disorders. But it is inappropriate to evaluate adolescents’ personality from the perspective of categorical model of personality disorders, which may increase the stigmatization and impede the development of personality. Dimensional perspective of personality disorders in DSM-5 Section III (Negative Affectivity, Detachment, Antagonism, Disinhibition, and Psychoticism) is considered a better approach to define personality disorders in childhood and adolescence. Because it helps us understand adolescents’ maladaptive personality traits from a developmental psychopathology perspective and connects personality development during childhood and adolescence with adult personality disorders, other than labeling them personality disorder categories. Thus, the present study seeks to evaluate adolescents’ pathological personality traits from the perspective of dimensional model of personality disorders. We aimed to explore the profiles of adolescents’ pathological personality traits and its associations with parents' responses to negative emotions. First, we identified maladaptive personality profiles of adolescents based on 25 pathological personality traits in the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5). Then we further tested the group differences of parental responses to negative emotions on adolescents’ maladaptive personality profiles. Last, we examined the interactions between parental non-supportive and supportive reactions to negative emotions on the development of adolescents’ pathological personality traits. The study was conducted in six middle schools in mainland China. Seven hundred and one adolescents were recruited in this sample. Due to a large number of missing data (> 10%) or suspected random responding, 59 participants were excluded from analyses. The final sample (642 adolescents) comprised the following distribution: 53.6% male, 46.4% female; grade 7 (41%), grade 8 (46%), and grade 10 (13%). The school principals and head teachers coordinated the assessment procedure. All the participants were informed that participation in this study was voluntary and their answers were confidential. Researchers went to each classroom to make the instructions consistent and clear. The Personality Inventory for DSM-5 and Parental Responses to Adolescents’ Negative Emotions Scale were conducted by paper and pencil during regular daily classes in each classroom with 40-60 students. It took about 35-50 minutes to finish the whole questionnaires. We provided free lectures about personality development in adolescence as a reward. The results demonstrated that: (1) three profiles of adolescents’ pathological personality traits were identified: low-risk (25%; low scores across the 25 low-order pathological traits), median-risk (49.1%; median scores across the 23 low-order pathological traits, with the exception of Impulsivity and Rigid Perfectionism), and high-risk (24.9%; high scores across the 25 low-order pathological traits). (2) Adolescents in the three personality disorder risk profiles demonstrated significantly different on all the parental reactions to negative emotions. Specifically, parental warmth/responsiveness and punishment to negative emotions showed significantly different across the three profiles. However, parental expressive encouragement showed non-significant between low-risk and median-risk profiles, whereas parental minimization showed non-significant between median-risk and high-risk profiles. (3) The moderating effect of parental supportive reactions on the relationship between parental non-supportive reactions and adolescents’ pathological personality traits was significant. When parents' supportive response modes were relatively high, the negative path effects were weakened.
    Related Articles | Metrics | Comments0
    Temporal Emotion Asymmetry and its Relationship with Moral Judgment and Value Evaluation
    Xie Ruyue, Jin Lei, Hao Haiping, Du Gang, Li Xiaobao, Lyu Houchao
    Journal of Psychological Science    2023, 46 (3): 530-537.  
    Abstract1112)      PDF(pc) (327KB)(1121)       Save
    Abstract: Mental time travel refers to the faculty that allows humans to mentally project themselves backward in time to relive or forward to pre-live events. Mentally reliving past events is also known as episodic memory in the literature. Mentally reliving future events is also known as episodic future thinking. Previous studies have found that past and future mental time travels share phenomenological characteristics and activate similar brain parts. Other studies have found differences between them, with individuals leaning more towards the future. Of particular relevance to the phenomenon of future bias are studies that have examined temporal emotion asymmetry. Temporal emotion asymmetry refers to people experiencing greater affect when thinking about the future than the affect they experience when thinking about the past. This is true for both positively and negatively valenced events. Emotion differences between past and future thinking are robust and emerge early in development. Previous studies found that temporal emotion asymmetry appears to be present in children from at least 6 years onward, and once established the size of the temporal emotion asymmetry effect did not vary by age or scenario. This article explains the temporal emotion asymmetry from the perspectives of mental simulation and psychological distance. First, the difference between future and past mental simulation may be an important factor affecting the temporal emotions asymmetry. Mental simulation refers to how an individual projects himself onto different events, spaces, or hypothetical reality, a human-specific ability. Compared to simulating past events, people who simulate future events are typically based primarily on focal aspects of events to the neglect of more peripheral event features or aspects of the event context that might moderate affective impact, and this can systematically lead to overestimations of the affective impact of events in the future. Second, one reason people are more emotionally oriented to the future is that the future is psychologically closer to the past. The reduction of psychological distance leads to an increase in the intensity of emotional experience. TEA can influence temporal value asymmetry and temporal asymmetries in moral judgment. (1) Temporal value asymmetry refers to people’s tendency to value future experiences more than equivalent experiences in the equidistant past. For example, Individuals believe they should be paid more for doing the same job a month later than when they did a job a month ago. The reason why they make these asymmetrical valuations is that contemplating future events produces greater affect than does contemplate past events. (2) Logically, an unethical behavior performed yesterday should also be unethical if performed tomorrow. However, previous studies suggest that the timing of a transgression has a systematic effect on people’s beliefs about its moral acceptability. Future transgressions are judged to be more deliberate, less moral, and more worthy of punishment than equivalent transgressions in the past (we will label these temporal asymmetries in moral judgment). Because people’s emotional reactions tend to be more extreme for future events than for past events, such emotional reactions often guide moral intuitions, and judgments of moral behavior may be more extreme in prospect than in retrospect. Future research directions include (1) Temporal emotion asymmetry under different temporal orientations. Temporal orientation, also known as temporal focus, refers to the degree to which people pay attention to the past, present, and future, as well as the tendency to produce emotional and behavioral responses to these time zones; (2) Considering the temporal emotion asymmetry of depressed groups; (3) Exploring the differences in temporal emotion asymmetry from different perspectives.
    Related Articles | Metrics | Comments0
    Effect of Daily rhythm on Cognitive Functions
    Peng Yudi, Xie Tian, Ma Ning
    Journal of Psychological Science    2023, 46 (2): 282-290.  
    Abstract1109)      PDF(pc) (764KB)(1007)       Save
    Besides the physiological state, circadian variations have also been found in subjective feelings and neurobehavioral functions crucial for the execution of our daily tasks. However, few studies investigated the effect of daily rhythm based on Chinese native groups, and whether there is a discrepancy in the daily fluctuations of different cognitive functions remains unknown. To reveal effect of daily rhythms on performance in Chinese individuals comprehensively, the present study measured the changes of physiological state (body temperature, cardiac activity and arterial pressure), subjective feelings (self-report sleepiness) and objective performances (vigilance, inhibition control, working memory) in Chinese adults every two hours during a day (9:00-21:00) under laboratory control. To be specific, a single factor (time of day: 9:00,11:00.13:00,15:00,17:00,21:00) within-subject design was employed in the current study, and a total of 27 healthy young adults (11 males, 16 females) were selected as our subjects according to rigorous criteria. At each time point, we firstly used KSS and a seven-point Likert Scale to measure the participants’ subjective sleepiness and mood, respectively. Then, participants were tested on a psychomotor vigilance task, a go/no go task and two working memory tasks under different cognitive loads (one-back and two-back) sequentially. Additionally, participants’ oral temperature, heart rate and arterial pressure were measured as indicators of their physiological state every hour throughout the experiment. In general, the results revealed that participants were at their highest level of cognitive performance in the morning (09:00–11:00), but there was a post-noon dip at 13:00–15:00, suggesting beneficial effect as a short nap on performance. Performance improves again during the evening (17:00–21:00), which is in line with previous research. Moreover, in this study, differences in daily variations have also been found not only between self-assessments and objective measurements but also in the performance of different neurobehavioral functions. Specifically, while the participants showed a stable performance of vigilance during daytime, there was an obvious fluctuation in their self-report sleepiness in the afternoon. At 15:00, subjective sleepiness reached its highest level in the daytime, whereas the objective performance of neurobehavioral functions (vigilance, inhibition control, and working memory) had improved. At 17:00, associated with diminished subjective sleepiness, vigilance and working memory performance were relatively optimal at that time, but the execution in the go/no go task decreased and reached its lowest level, reflecting that inhibition control is worst in the evening independent of other executive functions. Moreover, while the performance of inhibition control improved at 19:00, the performance of vigilance and working memory showed a post-dinner dip at the same time, suggesting a non-optimal time for study and examinations specific to Chinese individuals. Additionally, when the participants performed the working memory tasks under different memory loads, their performance also demonstrated different daily variations at 9:00-13:00. This discrepancy suggests that the impact of daily rhythms on the same neurobehavior function may vary under different cognitive loads and further research is needed to understanding the underlying neural mechanism. Taken together, the present study shows that daily rhythm modifies our subjective feelings and basic neurobehavior functions (attention, inhibition control and working memory) differently, which may explain oscillations in the performance of different tasks during the day. The findings provide valuable insights into planning daily schedules, optimizing working arrangements, and ensuring safety based on human rhythm, providing preliminary evidence for illuminating the relationship between daily rhythms and behavioral performance in the future.
    Related Articles | Metrics | Comments0