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Attentional Bias of Spatial Location in Viewing Scenes: Evidence from Eye Tracking Research 2012, 35(2): 258-263.  Abstract ( 4648 )   Considering scenes differ from other types of visual stimuli which have been chosen by previous papers in a number of important ways, it is still an open question whether there is an overall attentional bias of horizontal and vertical visual fields in viewing nature scenes. To answer this question, 40 university students(20 female) viewed 40 real-world pictures, allowed free viewing, and monitored eye movements. Our study revealed that there are leftward and upward attentional bias in viewing natural scenes. The present finding plays an essential role in driving, aviation, advertisement and other fields where visual attention is important for safety and efficiency. Related Articles | Metrics

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Enhance or improve? A temporal construal approach 2012, 35(2): 264-269.  Abstract ( 6157 )   References | Related Articles | Metrics

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An ERP Study on The Perceptual Interference Effect GAO WENHUAN 2012, 35(2): 270-275.  Abstract ( 4802 )   The perceptual interference effect is the finding that prior exposures to a more degraded stimulus compromise the identification on a less degraded version of the stimulus later. Up to now, there are two influential theories which explain this effect: competition explanations (Bruner & Potter, 1964; Luo & Snodgrass, 1994; Snodgrass & Hirshman, 1991) and mismatch explanations (Wang & Reinitz, 2001). The prominent P2, P3，N400 and LPC were elicited under the experimental conditions. The amplitude of P2, P3 and LPC were significantly larger in the standard condition than in the incremental condition. The incremental condition elicited a more negative ERP deflection than did the standard condition in the 350～500 ms (N400) time window around the midline centroparietal recording sites. In addition, we found no significant differences in the 350～500 ms (N400) time window among the consecutive blurredness Levels during the incremental condition.The results indicates that perceptual interference occurs at early stages of the incremental condition and it yields an enduring inhibition, during which, the inhibition does not seem to change in magnitude. Therefore, the present results are consistent with the mismatch explanation. In addition, the study results are also consistent with the view that the N400 is sensitive to a lexical process. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Multiple Conflict-Driven Cognitive Control Mechanisms Based on Flanker、Stroop and Simon 2012, 35(2): 276-281.  Abstract ( 6788 )   This study is to investigate the brain mechanism of different types of conflict by using the event-related potential(ERP)technique. In order to investigate this issue, this study integrate different types of conflict （such as Flanker，Stroop，and Simon conflict）.On the one hand, the behavioral responses data showed that: Firstly, all the types of the conflict in all the experiments show the Congruency Effect and the Conflict Adaptation Effects; Secondly, each type of conflict of previous trial in all the experiment only interacts with its own kind of current trial ,but does not interact with other kind of current trial. On the other hand, ERP data of the two experiments show that: with the exception of Flanker conflict in experiment 2, all the conflict types in all the experiments show that the P300 latency,the N450,and the SP component in line with the Congruency Effect.. The data above show that: Firstly, in a variety of types of conflict condition, the human brain can be able to monitor and then solve the conflict at the same time and also achieve successful task performance, and the conflict monitoring theory are still applicable; Secondly, the human brain use local control mechanism to resolve the conflict. To sum up, multiple conflict-driven control mechanisms are based on the conflict-specific manner, these mechanisms are independent, and free from any interference with each other. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Word Meaning And Positon Stroop Effect In Temporal Order Perception 2012, 35(2): 282-286.  Abstract ( 4455 )   This article aims to explore the temporal order perception, whether there is the word meaning and location of the Stroop effect or not. Participants used chinese characters "first - Post " stimulus material to judge the temporal order by the temporal order judgment task. The results indicated that there were main effects of spatial orientation,word meaning and position,SOA and that the significant interaction among spatial orientation and word meaning and position, spatial orientation and SOA, word meaning and position and SOA was significant.The main conclusion is that in human’s brain, there existed word meaning and position Stroop effect which is possibly relative with the proceess system of temporal order perception. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Experimental Study on Semantic Access Model of Second and Third Language’s of Uyghur _ Chinese_ English Trilingual 2012, 35(2): 287-293.  Abstract ( 3797 )   Uyghur is main minority people in Xinjiang of China, a lot of Uyghur master three languages, like Uyghur, Chinese and English. As they learn three languages at different times, different order, and the three language have different characteristics on the lexical，So the link of lexical will be different of other trilingual’s in three languages. This study investigated that the lexicon of three languages how to access semantic systems of Uyghur Chinese_ English trilingual’s. In this study the subjects were 32 Uygur university students of sophomore and junior in Xinjiang Normal University, their first language is Uyghur which is Alphabetic writing, second language is Chinese which is ideographic and proficient level for the subjects, the third language is English which is alphabetic writing and unproficient level for the subjects. We used the cross –language priming lexical decision task. There were three small studies in this study. According to different positions of the stimulus and target word, every small study include three experiments, are L2 priming L1, L3 priming L1, L3 priming L2. In study one there were translation relationship between stimulus word and target word, for example “school——学校”. The study two there were semantically related relationship between stimulus word and target word, for example “deep——浅”. The study three the relationship between stimulus word and target word were target word had similar lexical character with translations word of stimulus, for example “fast——块”. The analysis of reaction time showed that: in study one which was translation relationship between priming and target word significant priming effects was obtained all three experiments，they show that subject’s second and third language word can access semantic system by directly or depend on lexical representation of proficient language; in study two which was semantically related relationship between priming and target word significant priming effects was obtained only in L2 priming L1, not found in L3 priming L1 and L3 priming L2, it shows that subject’s second language word can access semantic system by directly, but their third language can’t. In study three which was target word had similar lexical character with translations word of stimulus, significant priming effects was obtained in L3 priming L1 and L3 priming L2, not found in L2 priming L1, it shows that subject’s third language word can access semantic system depend on first language word and second language word. These results show that for Uyghur – Chinese-English trilingual, their proficient second language can directly access to the semantic system, but their nonproficient third language rely on the first and second language’s lexical representation access to the semantic system. In addition, the study also considered the subject's foreign language’s proficiency and were similar proficient language are the main factors on their foreign language word accessible semantic system. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence Of Different Motives And Material Factors On JOL Shu-Hua SU 2012, 35(2): 294-298.  Abstract ( 3574 )   The influence of different motives (achievement goals and memory self-efficacy) and material factors and the interaction between the variables on judgment of learning are explored in this study. The purpose of the study is to cultivate mastery goal orientation and to raise the level of memory self-efficacy of students, through the analysis of the factors that influence judgment of learning, so as to improve their abilities of judgment of learning, to provide theoretical basis for their education. 120 subjects（62 males and 58 females）were tested through RJR paradigm and materials (meaningful and meaningless associated Chinese word –pairs). The results show that: (1) Achievement goal, memory self-efficacy and material factors have prominent influence on judgment of learning. The concrete features are that: The values of judgment of learning with mastery goal orientation is significantly higher than those of performance goal orientation (p<0.001) ; high memory self-efficacy's judgment of learning is significantly higher than those with low memory self-efficacy (p<0.001) ; meaningful word pairs's judgment of learning is significantly higher than those of meaningless words (p<0.001) . The analysis of AMOS structural equation model find that the influence of the elements are different. The elements influence on judgment of learning arranged by the orders from major to minor is material factors, memory self-efficacy, achievement goal. (2) Achievement goal and memory self-efficacy have different interactive influence on judgment of learning. (3) Achievement goal has an indirect influence on judgment of learning through memory self-efficacy. (4) There is a significant correlation between accuracy of judgment of learning and memory performance. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Mechanism of Repetition Blindness Effects: Evidence from Chinese Reduplicated Words Processing 2012, 35(2): 299-303.  Abstract ( 3623 )   This research aims to examine the repetition blindness in processing Chinese reduplicated words in RSVP and to differentiate the accounts of RB about type-token individuation theory and construction theory. 178 participants (96 in Experiment 1 and 82 in Experiment 2 respectively) were asked to give oral report of the word lists which contained repeated words (e.g. Chinese reduplicated words) or non-repeated words in the full-report task and the partial-report task. The full-report task required readers to report all of the words in lists, whatever repeated or non-repeated words. Whereas the partial task asked them just to report the last two words. The duration of each word in list was 128ms in the first experiment and 198ms in the second experiment according to Wang and Zhang (2005). The results showed that (1) When presentation rates was on 128ms per word (in Experiment 1) and 198ms per word (Experiment 2), RB occurred in processing repeated Chinese characters in both the full-report task and the partial-report task. But RB was reduced in the partial-report task compared to the full-report. The construction theory could explain the result. (2) In the full-report task, the correct rate of words report was reduced, no only in repeated stimuli list but also in non-repeated stimuli list in RSVP. The results accorded with the suggestion of the construction theory. These results indicated that it was the construction theory that could give more reasonable explanation of RB. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Spatial Coding Mechanisms of Gaze-Direction Simon Effect 2012, 35(2): 304-308.  Abstract ( 4194 )   As the gaze-direction Simon effect (GSE) showed, although completely irrelevant to the task, direction of gaze influenced reaction times in a spatially selective two-choice discrimination based on eye color. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the spatial coding mechanisms of gaze Simon effect. In Experiment 1, subjects performed a color judgment Simon task with their hands crossed. The result showed that there was no a reversal of the direction of the GSE, thereby suggesting that the GSE operates at a more abstract level of representation of the left and right responses, rather than a hemispheric dominance effect on the basis of a hand-centered frame reference. In Experiment 2, a tone discrimination task was utilized and a regular GSE was found. Combined with the result of Experiment 1, we could speculate that GSE does not occur at the earlier perceptual processing stage. These results provide a strong evidence to support the idea that gaze cue can automatically generate a spatially abstract code. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Diverse Mental Mechanisms of Idiom Comprehension: Different Proofs 2012, 35(2): 309-313.  Abstract ( 4059 )   Mental mechanisms of idiom comprehension, which have been studying for long time in the field of psychology, were proved through linguistics and neuropsychology studies to be very complicated. On the one hand, both subjects’ metaphoric knowledge and idioms’ innate features affect idiom comprehension; on the other hand, neuro studies on the activation of brain areas in idiom processing suggests that syntactic and semantic analyzing played significant roles, inferring that even though idioms are not lexicalized, mental mechanisms of idiom comprehension can not be as unified as one single model. The diversity of idioms themselves lead to the various mental mechanisms of idiom processing. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The effect of the children's guilt emotionon on their prosocial behaviors ZHANG xiaoxian 2012, 35(2): 314-320.  Abstract ( 3924 )   Purpose: Guilt and sad are all negative emotions.Guilt is a self-conscious emotion, and sad is a basic emotion, they are different in many aspects. Jessica et al (2004) suggested that self-conscious emotions serve primarily socialized needs, but the basic emotion clearly serve survival and social fuctions. Negative-state relief model (Cialdini & Fultz, 1990; Cialdini et al., 1987) thought that the individuals’ prosocial behaviors would reduce their negative state. But calson et al(1987) argued that if people were in negative state, they wouldn’t increase their prosocial behaviors when their attention was payed attention to themselves, but when they payed attention to others, they would increase their prosocial behaviors. Jessica et al(2004) suggested if people payed attention to themselves, basic emotions would emerge, for example sad. If people payed attention to others, self-conscious emotions would emerge, for example guilt. So we supposed that guilt emotion could increase individuals’ prosocial behaviors. This study tended to examine the effect of guilt emotion on children’s prosocial behaviors.Study 1, Process and method,This study selected the fifth grade pupils as participants, all the participants were divided into two groups, one is expriment group, the another one is control group. First, the participants were required to accomplish a chinese examination paper, then told them that they were devided into many groups, every group had three participants, but the three participants were not known each other, the score of group would be rated in the class. Second, everyone get his/her score and other members’ scores in their group one by one. The participants were told that his/her score is 30, but the other two members’ scores were 95 ,96. Because of his/ her so bad score, their group’s score is the last one in the class in the emotion group; Then the experiments asked them what were his/her feeling? Why he/she had this feeling? What he/she would plan to do? The experiments wrote down all their answers. Third, all the participants were asked whether they were willing to accomplish a questionnaire in order to collect the materials of other study? And the questionnaire had three parts, the experimenters writed down how many parts the participants promised to do and actually did in the questionnaire. Study 2, process and method were similar to study 1 except the second step, in study 2, the participants were required to write the score of their anticipated score on the examination paper. When the score were feed back to the participants, the participants were told that his/her score is 15 less than their anticipated score in the emotion group, but the other two members’ scores were 95 ,96. Because of his/ her bad score, their group’s score is the last one in the class. Results：(1) the fifth grade students’ prosocial behavior would be increased if the participants feel guilt, when the participants feel sad, their prosocial behaviors wouldn’t be increased. (2) if the fifth grade students pay attention to bad effect of their own behaviors on the group, they would feel guilt, but if they pay attention to their own bad result, they would feel sad. Conclusion: Whether would the negative emotion increase the individuals’ prosocial behaviors, it depends on which the children pay attention to, the self or the others. The innovations: This study select the children as participants, and explore that the different effect of sad and guilt emotion on the prosocial behaviors in the actual situation. The result of this study supported the theoretical model (Jessica et al..,2004). Related Articles | Metrics

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The research on the Development of 3-7- year-old children’s different types of Transitive Inference 2012, 35(2): 321-327.  Abstract ( 3129 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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A Study of Adolescents’ Development of Autonomy-connectedness and its Relation with Social Adaptation Fang LU 2012, 35(2): 328-333.  Abstract ( 4295 )   Adolescence is a special period in which great changes take place in individuals’ physical body, cognition, emotion and behaviors. Autonomy and connectedness have long been recognized the most remarkable changing characteristics during this period. Thus the pursuit for autonomy and connectedness becomes one of the most crucial aspects among adolescents’ psycho-social development. This study tested the development of autonomy, connectedness and adolescents’ social adaptation with a sample of 424 middle school students. Three scales which were used here to measure these developments are Adolescents’ Autonomy Scale, Social Connectedness Scale and Middle School Students’ Social Adaptation Scale. The results: (1) Cluster analysis showed that there are three different types, including high selfgovernance-connectedness, low autonomy-connectedness and individuality, all of which have their own distinguishing features. Type I is called high selfgovernance-connectedness (high SG-C), which has high level of behavioral autonomy and social connectedness, with moderate cognitive autonomy and lowest emotional autonomy. Type II can be called low autonomy-connectedness (low A-C), with the lowest level in behavioral autonomy, cognitive autonomy and connectedness. 113 adolescents belong to this type. The third type is properly called individuation (I), the number of which is 134. Adolescents of this type have more independent ideas and judgment standards, their cognitive and emotional autonomy are the highest among the three. (2) There is significant gender and grade difference in adolescents’ development of autonomy and connectedness, in which the development of low autonomy-connectedness is an upside down ‘V’ shape, the developmental trend of high selfgovernance -connectedness is from high to low, and the number of individuality increases with age. In the gender difference of three clusters, the distribution proportion of boys in three clusters is comparatively balanced, while that of girls showed great difference, with nearly half of girls being classified as high A/C. (3) The result of multivariate analysis of variance showed great difference in social adaptation and academic achievement among the three clusters. Adolescents with high selfgovernance- connectedness are the most ideal that maintain the best academic achievements and social adaptation. Students with low autonomy-connectedness are the worst in both academic achievements and social adaptation. These indicate the different influence of various combination of autonomy and connectedness may have on adolescents’ developmental outcomes. The results of present study suggest adolescents should be raised in an atmosphere which both support autonomy and maintain interpersonal connectedness. Since the demanding and understanding for autonomy and connectedness vary with countries and cultures, more cross- cultural studies could be held so that adolescents’ autonomy and connectedness could be further analyzed and compared. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Educational Intervention Experiment of Undergraduates’ Self-image of Morality Rehearsal Fang-Gui TANG CEN Guo-Zhen 2012, 35(2): 334-339.  Abstract ( 4231 )   The purpose of the research is to explore the validity of the procedure and the mechanism of self-image of morality rehearsal (SIMR) and the effect of the SIMR on self-image of morality (SIM) and moral behavior self-management (MBSM). With between-subject design, four groups of undergraduates at a university in China were at random subjected to four intervening experiments, including no treatment, model learning, empathy training and SIMR. The no treatment group was subjected to normal teaching，the model learning group was subjected to traditional model learning, the empathy training group, which was provided by Li Liao, has good validity for advancing the ability of adolescent’s empathy, and the SIMR group, which was developed by the researcher, was composed of three processes, including generating, selfhood, and emotional experience of moral image. Four teachers were picked out randomly to give instruction, too. The pretest and posttest were carried out for all the four intervening experiments that were implemented eight weeks and composed of four units. There were two weeks and six lessons for one unit. Using the scales of the SIM and the MBSM as instruments, we carried out the pretest and posttest with an interval of two months. SIM was measured by using ten 5-point items and the scale including Self Scale and Behavior Scale, which all referred sensitivity, emotion, value, vividness and operation, and the higher the mark, the better SIM of the subject. Unification between Moral Cognition and Behavior (UMCB) Scale, which was composed of thirty 7-point items, was used to assess the MBSM. UMCB is an operational concept which could imply the level for MBSM. The higher mark in UMCB, the subject was more apt to conform to the commands of the society. UMCB Scale and SIM Scale were developed and validated by the researcher. The statistics analysis show that there is no significant difference between the SIM and the MBSM of every two groups at the pretest (F=2.34, p> .05; F=2.55, p> .05) and the SIM and the MBSM at the pretest and posttest for the controlled group respectively (t= .543, p> .05; t=1.304, p> .05). The T test shows that there is significant difference between the pretest and posttest for the MBSM of model learning, empathy training and SIMR (t=6.935, p< .01; t=5.898, p< .01; t=9.803, p< .01), and for the SIM of model learning and SIMR (t=4.744, p< .01; t=5.874, p< .01). The F test shows that there is significant difference between the SIM and the MBSM of four groups at the posttest (F=6.67, p< .01; F=9.71, p< .01). The scores of the SIM and the MBSM are the highest at the SIMR group. There is significant difference between the SIM of the SIMR group and the controlled group, the model learning group, and the empathy training group (p< .01; p< .05; p< .01). The SIM of the model learning group was significantly higher than of the controlled group (p< .01). The differences of every comparison group are significant for the MBSM (ps< .01) except the comparison group between the model learning and the empathy training (p> .05). The experimental results show that Self-image of Morality Rehearsal has a significant role in SIM and MBSM. The SIMR is an effective method of model learning. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effects of Early Experience on Children's Mental Development 2012, 35(2): 346-351.  Abstract ( 4730 )   Early experience involved prenatal environment, physical condition at birth, family rearing and preschool experience. All of these factors have important and long-term effects on children’s lifelong development. Behavior researches proposed that early years are the foundational stage for the full range of human competencies, recent studies in neuroscience also demonstrated that early experiences influence the development of neural circuits which mediate cognitive, linguistic, emotional, and social capacities. Recently, western developed countries not only actively formulated early educational policies, but also organized national large-scale longitudinal studies. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Statistics Canada and Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC), and National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) all sponsored national studies to explore the significant influence of early experience on children's developmental outcomes, and found consistently that birth period, the first three years after birth and preschool years are the key stages for children’s cognitive and social development, furthermore, these studies also suggested that there are different effects of early experience on different aspects of children’s outcomes. By summarized above significant findings of these large-scale studies, the article mainly introduced the role of maternal depression and health behavior, birth weight and perinatal disease, maternal employment and fathers’ parenting behaviors, child's age at first entry to center care, child-care quality and type on children’s cognitive abilities, academic achievements, psychosocial adjustment, behavior problems and their trajectories. The results showed that the risk of child behavior problems increased with the mother having anxious emotion, substance use, or domestic violence. Some results of studies concerning the role of parenting, and found the long-term impact of early maternal employment on children's cognitive and behavioral outcomes, but the effects are moderated by family socio-economic status, children’s race and gender, etc. In addition, recent studies demonstrated that parenting sensitivity is an important factor on children’s cognitive and academic development, and emphasized the importance of understanding the unique contributions of fathers’ parenting to children’s development. At last, the article summarized the studies on the effects of preschool experience vary by intensity, duration of exposure and the quality on children from different backgrounds. The main results showed that preschool experiences are associated with higher reading and mathematics skills at school entry, but also with higher levels of behavior problems, however, it is needed to analyze the different effects of different preschool arrangements by considering the moderating effects of individual and family characteristics, including child’s gender, race, parenting education level and family social economic status, etc. In China, previous studies on early parenting and education are facing with some challenges, such as the sample size is limited, the researchers don’t intend to provide answers to the policy makers, and lack of the effective cooperation, etc. So it is suggested that in the future, designing and implementing cooperative and multidisciplinary study with national sample and based on China’s specific situations are emergently needed. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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A Cross-Cultural Comparison about the Predictive Effectiveness of School Educational Resources on the Students’ Mathematical Literacy 2012, 35(2): 352-357.  Abstract ( 3767 )   The relationship between school educational resources and students’ literacy has long been focused in educational and psychological research. With restrictions of statistical analysis techniques, most of the studies overlooked the hierarchical characteristics of data and thus conclusions obtained from different levels of data analysis varied. Besides, previous researches were mainly concentrated on certain nations or regions, lacking of an international comparative perspective. The program for international student assessment (PISA) with national representative samples, strict evaluation standards and comparable observed variables provides highly reliable data. Based on the PISA 2006 data, the present study investigated the effect of school educational resources on the mathematical literacy from a perspective of international comparison. The result of this research can offer some valuable implications including establishing educational quality evaluation system and paying close attention to the validity of educational investment for our country. This research focused on data of Hong Kong–China, Japan, Finland and the United States from PISA 2006 database. The school educational resources consist of 11 variables, i.e. school size, class size and school type, the index of availability of computers, the overall ratio of computers available for instruction to school size, the proportion of computers connected to the internet, the student-teacher ratio, the proportion of fully certified teachers, the proportion of teachers with an International Standard Classification of Education( ISCED) 5A qualification, the index on teacher shortage, the quality of school’s educational resources. The hierarchical linear model realized by SAS 9.0 was employed to analyze the data. The results indicated that mathematical literacy scores of students in Finland, Hong Kong and Japan are higher than the average of OECD countries (498), while that of American is the lowest in four countries (regions) and also lower than the OECD average. School size, student-teacher ratio had demonstrated significantly positive effects on the students’ mathematical literacy in Hong Kong–China: literacy score will improve by 12.59 points with each additional unit of student-teacher ratio. In Japan, school size, class size, school type and the proportion of teachers with ISCED 5A had significantly positive effects on mathematical literacy, while the ratio of computers available for instructi Related Articles | Metrics

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Negative priming Effect in Piaget-like tasks in “infra-logic” domain 2012, 35(2): 358-363.  Abstract ( 4229 )   This study aimed to examine whether children working on infra-domain conservation tasks successfully involved cognitive inhibition process. Subjects were two groups of 11 years old children, and all of them passed standard Piaget conservation- of – weight tasks and conservation-of –liquid tasks. Experimental 1 observed a negative priming effect in Piaget-like conservation-of-weight tasks, which was 138.06ms. Experimental 2 also observed a negative priming effect in Piaget-like conservation-of-liquid tasks, which was 67.ms. These results showed that solving Piaget-like task in “infra-logic” domain did required a cognitive inhibition process. Related Articles | Metrics

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Effects of Success and Failure Feedbacks on University Students’ Core Self-Evaluations: Moderating Effect of Value of Task and Extraversion 2012, 35(2): 364-368.  Abstract ( 4238 )   In the present study, 247 university students were randomly assigned to any one of experimental groups in a 2 (Feedback Type: success, failure) × 2 (Value of Task: important, not important) × 2 (Extraversion: introversion, extraversion) between groups designed experiment to test how success and failure feedback affect individual’s core self-evaluations (CSE), and explore whether value of task and extraversion moderates the influence. Results showed that: (1) significant main effects of types of feedback, value of task, extraversion, and interactive effect of the three on the change of CSE were all found significant. (2) Interactive effect of types of feedback and value of task on the change of CSE was found significant. Simple main effect showed that change of CSE in subjects executing important task was higher than those executing non-important task in the condition of failure feedback, but no significance in the condition of success feedback.（3）Interactive effect of types of feedback and extraversion on the change of CSE was found significant. Simple main effect revealed that change of CSE in introvert subjects was higher than extrovert subjects in the condition of failure feedback, but no significance in the condition of success feedback. (4) In the condition of failure feedback, task of value interacted with extraversion to influence the change of CSE, but this interactive effect was not significant in the condition of success feedback. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Developmental Characteristics of the Tujia and Miao, Dong, Tibetan High School Students’ Academic Self and the Countermeasures cheng GUO 2012, 35(2): 369-375.  Abstract ( 3665 )   Academic self-concept refers to a set of stable perception, experience and evaluation that an individual has about his or her academic development in academic achievement situation ( Guo cheng, He Xiaoyan , 2006). It is an important index to predict one’s academic achievement and a sensitive factor to predict one’s personality wholeness, thus, an effective education should promote the formation and development of one’s positive academic self concept. However, present research on adolescents’ academic self-concept is weak and the participants concerned are Chinese Han majority from economic development area. The studies on ethnic minority from southwest China are rare. Hence, the current study was conducted to assess the characteristic of academic self-concept among four minorities so as to provide evidence for educating and cultivating students’ academic self-concept in southwest China. The study made use of the Academic Self-Concept Questionnaire, which was developed by professor Guo cheng and was later revised by Zhao Xiaoyun, as a measure of students’ academic self-concept. A total of 452 high school students participated in this study; all of them are ethnic minority of Tujia, Miao, Dong and Tibetan in Southwest China. Results showed that: (1) the development level of minorities’ academic self concept was in the middle, and no significant difference among the four ethic group was found. But in the academic achievement value dimension, the mean score in Tibetan students was significant lower than that in Tujia, Miao, Dong students. (2) In total academic self-concept, gender differences were not significant among four minorities. However, In the academic ability perception dimension, gender differences closed to significant (p = 0.059, p = 0.051, p = 0.084), the boys in Tujia, Dong and Tibetan ethnic minority had a higher mean score than girls, with a significant difference. In the academic behavior self-control dimension, boys had a higher mean score than girls in Tujia ethnic minority, with a significant difference（p < 0.05）. In the academic achievement value dimension, girls had a higher mean score than boys in Miao ethnic minority, with a significant difference（p < 0.05）.（3）Grade differences were significant only in Tibetan students（p < 0.05）, but in the academic achievement value dimension，students of grade three had a lower mean score than students of grade one（p < 0.05） and grade two（p < 0.01）in Miao ethnic minority , with a significant difference（p < 0.05）. In the academic ability perception dimension, students of grade one had a higher mean score than students of grade two（p < 0.01）in Dong ethnic minority. In the academic emotion experience and academic ability perception dimension, students of grade two had a higher mean score than students of grade one and three in Tibetan students. (4) urban-rural difference was significant in Tujia students and Dong students; students from rural areas had a higher mean score than students from urban areas, with a significant difference. However, no significant urban-rural difference was found between Miao and Tibetan students. On the basis of the above results, this study provide suggestions concerning education as follows: (1) great attention should be attached in the cultivation of high school students’ positive academic self concept in ethnic minority arrears in southwest China; (2) education department concerned should strength pertinence on ethnic difference when implement education on ethnic minority. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Mediating Role of Adolescents' Consumption Values between Family Financial Education and Consumer Decision-making Styles Jun ZHANG 2012, 35(2): 376-383.  Abstract ( 4864 )   Abstract There has been an increasing interest in consumers’ consumption values and decision-making styles, which are important indicators of consumers’ socialization degree. Adolescent are in the key stage of consumer socialization and they have the consumption ability and potential to a certain extent. So much more attention should be paid on their consumption behavior. Previous studies indicated that family financial education was likely to affect consumers’ consumption values and decision-making styles and consumption values might also influence consumers’ decision-making styles. Therefore adolescents’ consumption values were speculated to play a mediating role between family financial education and consumer decision-making styles. In this study, 377 adolescents were invited to complete a booklet containing Revised Consumer Styles Inventory (Zhang, 2009), Adolescents’ Consumption Values (Sun, Zheng, 2007) and Family Financial Education Questionnaire (Shi, 2008). Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS 15.0 and Amos 5.0. The results indicated that adolescents’ frugality conscious based consumption values positively predicted rational price conscious and quality conscious decision-making styles. Fad conscious based consumption values positively predicted irrational consciousness, hedonic consciousness and quality conscious, and predicted price conscious negatively. Seeking connections in high places consumption values negatively predicted irrational consciousness and price conscious. Parents’ indulgence and complaint educations positively predicted fad conscious based consumption values and seeking connections in high places consumption and negatively predicted frugality conscious based consumption values. Parents’ induction and intervention positively predicted frugality conscious based consumption. Parents’ intervention predicted irrational decision-making styles positively. Inductive education predicted quality conscious positively and irrational consciousness negatively. Parents’ indulgence positively predicted irrational consciousness, hedonic consciousness and quality conscious, and negatively predicted price conscious. The results indicated that positive parental style advanced rational decision-making styles through desirable consumption values . Negative parental style advanced irrational decision-making styles through undesirable consumption values , and reduced rational decision-making styles by reducing desirable consumption values . The results also indicated that parents played a much more negative role in adolescents’ consumption socialization. So, as one of the most important socialization agents of adolescents, parents should increase their financial education frequency and intensity. Our conclusions: adolescents’ consumption values mediated between family financial education and consumer decision-making styles. The results confirmed the hypothesis and enriched the consumer socialization theory. Related Articles | Metrics

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Relation between social disinterest and peer preference among grade 4-8 students: a cross-lagged analysis 2012, 35(2): 384-390.  Abstract ( 3971 )   Abstract: Social withdrawal is a broad construct with meaningful concrete indexes that featuring with shyness, behavioral inhibition, isolation, rejection, social reticence, passivity and peer neglect.. There are many subtypes under this big umbrella of social withdrawal. Social disinterest is a special subtype which refers to no particular interest in social interaction and expected to spend more time alone. They refrain from social interaction just because no strong motivation to join in the group and no strong motivation to averse to peer activities. The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between social disinterest and peer preference through a one year longitudinal study and to explore the possible causality by using cross-lagged analysis. The data was collected in September 2009 (Time1) and May 2010 (Time2). The procedure was the same at 2 times. 787 students in grade 4~8 were investigated by peer nomination and Revised Class Play (RCP). The results indicated that: (1) peer preference was negatively associated with social disinterest (r=-.43 at Time 1 and -.46 at Time 2, ps<.01); (2) both peer preference and social disinterest were highly stable within one year (r=.67 and .66 on peer preference and social disinterest, ps<.01). Repeated measure revealed that there was a significant three-way interaction between time, gender and grade (F（2, 782）=4.77, p<.01). Within 1 year, boys’ level of social disinterest in primary school was declined and girls’ was increased while boys’ level of social disinterest in junior high school was increased and girls’ was declined. (3) Cross-lagged analysis indicated that relation between social disinterest and peer preference was reciprocal on the whole. But gender differences were also found. For boys, Time1 social disinterest could predicted Time2 peer preference(β= -.14，p<.01) after controlling Time1 peer preference. However, Time1 peer preference could not predicted Time2 social disinterest (β= -.02, p>.05) after controlling Time1 social disinterest. For girls, an opposite pattern was found. Time1 social disinterest could not predicted Time2 peer preference (β=.05, p>.05) but Time1 peer preference could predicted Time2 social disinterest (β= -.23, p<.01) after controlling the Time1 stability. Therefore, the possible causality was different for boys and girls. The results may help us understand developmental relation of children’s social disinterest and peer preference in Chinese culture and some reasons for this gender-specific pattern were discussed. Related Articles | Metrics

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Relationships among Interpersonal Competence, Academic Achievement and Developmental Contexts of Junior High School Students 2012, 35(2): 391-395.  Abstract ( 6678 )   Abstract: Interpersonal competence is a major part of one’s social competence which is based on one’s cognition and emotion and aimed at one’s goal fulfillment and emotion satisfaction or improvement of one’s interpersonal relationship and get manifested as effective and appropriate interpersonal behaviors in various social circumstances. As one social competence, interpersonal competence is the important driving force for one’s successful socialization and adaptation to the society, while academic achievement is the core indicator of one’s learning ability and school environment adaptability. These two are the key aspects of teenager’s individual development and also significant for them to get adapted to the society in the future. For junior high school students, adaptability in various aspects gets developed in different degrees in the double developmental contexts of family and school and gets manifested as division of interpersonal competence and difference in academic achievement. Thus, a systematic study of the junior high school students’ interpersonal competence and academic achievement has its theoretical and realistic significance for the improvement of the future social development. Based on the questionnaire survey which included EMBU-Chinese Version, Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire-Chinese Version (ICQ-R) and a questionnaire of the teacher-student relationship of junior high school students and peer nomination from 586 junior high school students ranging from grade one to grade three, this study established and validated a theoretical model through a structural equation model and explored the interactive relationship model of junior high school students’ interpersonal competence, their academic achievement and the developmental contexts of these two factors. The results showed: (1) The junior high school students of grade two had better interpersonal competence (F=3.458, p=.032) and girl students were better at handling interpersonal problems than boy students (F=7.617, p=.006). The academic achievement of the students who had better interpersonal competence was better than those whose interpersonal competence was not so good; the interpersonal competence and the academic achievement of the popular students were much better than those who were not popular (F＝9.564, p=.001). (2) Good parenting could greatly improve junior high school students' interpersonal competence and this competence was helpful for the development of teacher-student relationship and peer relationship; good parent-child relationship, teacher-student relationship and peer relationship would greatly improve junior high school students' academic proficiency. (3) The structural equation model indicated that junior high school students' interpersonal competence was directly influenced by their family parenting contexts and exerted influence on the school interpersonal contexts. The two context systems influenced students' academic achievements directly or indirectly. The individuals got their social and academic development in the systemic interaction between them and their developmental contexts. Finally, we arrived at the conclusion: For teenagers, the interpersonal competence of individuals was much more influenced by their family parenting contexts while the academic achievement was much more influenced by their school contexts. The various individual development areas brought about indirect and invisible relevance and interaction through the same contexts; the social development and non-social development of individuals relied on the direct interaction between them and the contexts and were influenced by the interactive effect of different context. The further research needs to be carried out in the future. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Changes of Students’ stressors and coping styles from high school to college: a longitudinal study 2012, 35(2): 396-400.  Abstract ( 3764 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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The effect of social identity on extreme group behavior: Examination of mediators and moderators 2012, 35(2): 401-407.  Abstract ( 3737 )   Why can some people make extraordinary sacrifices for the ingroup? For instance, many sacrificed their lives for their country during wars and saving others’ lives in peace time, while terrorists took their own lives for their faith such as the act of attacking on the World Trade towers. We propose that social identity plays an important role in such sacrifices. In the present study, we aimed to examine the effect of identification with ingroup on willingness to sacrifice one’s life for the ingroup and its members. Furthermore, we investigated the psychological mechanisms underlying this effect by investigating the mediating role of positive affects toward the ingroup and denial of possible harm by ingroup as well as the moderating role of belief of invulnerability of oneself and the group in the context of Chinese cultural background. The present research employed a questionnaire survey using four well established scales and one purposely designed scale with 467 university students from three colleges of Shanghai. The measured variables were identification with ingroup, positive affects toward ingroup, denial of possible harm by ingroup, willingness to sacrifice life for ingroup and belief of invulnerability of oneself and ingroup. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the above measures were from 0.706 to 0.904, indicating satisfactory measurement reliabilities. Results of confirmatory factor analysis also suggested satisfactory discriminant validity of the measurement. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and moderated mediation analysis were employed to test the hypotheses. In line with our predictions, the findings show supporting evidence for our hypotheses. First, identification with ingroup predicted willingness to sacrifice one’s own life for the group. Second, both positive affects toward the ingroup and denial of possible harm by ingroup fully mediated the effect of identification with ingroup on willingness to sacrifice, while positive affects were more strongly associated with willingness to sacrifice for ingroup. Furthermore, positive affects partially moderated the effect of identification with ingroup on denial. Third, belief of invulnerability of oneself and ingroup moderated the effect of positive feelings on willingness to sacrifice. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Mechanism of the Influence of Social Support, Loneliness, and Self-esteem on Subjective Well-being 2012, 35(2): 408-411.  Abstract ( 5528 )   To explore the relationships among social support, loneliness, self-esteem and subjective well-being, 389 college students was asked to complete the social support rating scale, the emotional and social loneliness scale, the self-esteem scale and the satisfaction with life scale. The result showed that (1) significant correlation was found between social support, loneliness, self-esteem and subjective well-being. (2) Path analysis showed a full mediation effect of loneliness and self-esteem between subjective well-being. And a significant path from social support through self-esteem and loneliness to life satisfaction suggested more complicated relations among the variables. These findings play a significant role in college students’ psychological health education. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Research on the major factors of invoking the situational interest of the PE study 2012, 35(2): 412-417.  Abstract ( 3986 )   Choosing the middle school students in shanghai as the testees, the research revised the reliability and validity materials of PESIS of the Chinese version, and proposed a model of the situational interest, so as to measure the different factor’s influence to the situational interest. Through the test and analyze the situational interest during the testees’ learning, the major factors and the interactive relations between the different dimensions was discovered. The results of the researches showed that the PESIS of the Chinese version had the stable reliability and better validity, the six factors construct is eligible, which can predict the total variance well; the correlation and the regression analysis showed that the instant enjoyment was the major factor to invoke the PE situational interest, on the other side, too high novelty and challenge of the learning content will diseased the situational interest. Related Articles | Metrics

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The relationship between adult attachment and work performance and moderate effect of gender in the Chinese employee 2012, 35(2): 418-423.  Abstract ( 4410 )   The present study explored the moderate effect of gender in the relationship between the adult attachment and work performance in the Chinese employees. The Experiences in Close Relationships Scale (ECR), The Adult Attachment Relationship Questionnaire (RQ) and the Work Performance Scale investigated 110 employees. The results showed that: 1) the preoccupied participants have lower scores at contextual performance than secured participants and scared participants; 2) the attachment-anxious people’s scores were positively with task performance and contextual performance; 3) The attachment anxiety can predict contextual performance positively; Furthermore, 4) Gender has moderate effect between two dimensions of adult attachment and job performance. Related Articles | Metrics

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Personality Research in work setting: Problems and Future Research Directions 2012, 35(2): 424-429.  Abstract ( 4859 )   Personality research has broadly influenced organizational behavior, plentiful meta-analysis have reflected that personality traits could be predictors both of individual behavior，group behavior and organizational behavior in all. But the application of personality research in organizations is criticized because of small validities and faking action in tests. Future research would focus on more broad traits and their applicability based on indigenous research , and on personality processes research under a dynamic organizational setting. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Mental Framework of Responsibility: An Everyday-Experience Approach Study KUANG ZhiHua 2012, 35(2): 430-435.  Abstract ( 3749 )   Responsibility is a social and cultural phenomenon, as well as a mental and behavioral phenomenon. To analysis and enquire the psychological law of responsibility, from the viewpoint of social psychology, is of profound theoretical and practical significance. In this paper, based on an everyday-experience approach, both methods consisted of theoretical analysis and interview study with 207 participators are used to analysis the mental framework of responsibility, and several other issues related to responsibility situations. The results are: (1) Responsibility is a social phenomenon experienced continually by people in everyday life. (2) The kind of responsibility situation recalled by interviewer is different in private and professional life: the former focuses interrelation, whereas the latter focuses performing duty. (3) In professional life, the causation of the situation tends to be attributed to other people; but in private life, it used to be attributed to oneself. (4) The judgment of responsibility situation depends upon if the results of the situation fit one’s expectation. (5) The mental factors of responsibility consist of 20 primary elements, such as causation of the situation, self-efficacy, the sense of achievement, inner motive, and so on. (6) The mental framework of responsibility is made up of responsibility cognition, responsibility emotion and responsibility conduct, which forms a one-way operating pattern. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Neural Mechanisms Underlying Empathy for Pain 2012, 35(2): 436-440.  Abstract ( 4883 )   References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Unidimensional Item Factor Analysis: A Comparison of Categorical Confirmation Factor Analysis and Item Response Theory 2012, 35(2): 441-445.  Abstract ( 4530 )   The factor analysis models and estimation methods for continuous (i.e., interval or ratio scale) data are not appropriate for item-level data that are categorical in nature. The authors provide a brief review and synthesis of the item factor analysis estimation literature for categorical data (e.g., 0-1 type response scales). Popular categorical item factor analysis models and estimation methods found in the structural equation modeling and item response theory literatures are presented. Two Monte Carlo simulation studies are conducted and revealed: (1) Similar parameter estimates have been obtained from the SEM and IRT parameterizations. Even with a small sample and the IRT estimates converted to SEM parameters, the MWLSc, and MML/EM results are strikingly similar. But in small sample size and long test, WLSc did not obtain the convergence parameter estimations, although in short test, WLSc estimates have been obtained, the estimates are consistently more discrepant than those produced by the other estimation techniques. (2) The precise of the estimators enhances as the quantity of the sample increases. (3) The precise of item factor load and of item difficulty parameter is influenced by the test length. (4) The precise of item factor load and of item discrimination parameter is influenced by the size of the whole factor load (discrimination). (5) The distribution of the threshold of test item affects the precise of the parameter estimate, and item discrimination is the most sensitive parameter to the threshold. (6) In whole, the precise of item parameter estimate in SEM framework is higher than that in IRT framework. Both structural equation modeling (SEM) and item response theory (IRT) can be used for factor analysis of dichotomous item responses. In this case, the measurement models of both approaches are formally equivalent. They were refined within and across different disciplines, and make complementary contributions to central measurement problems encountered in almost all empirical social science research fields. The authors conclude with considerations for categorical item factor analysis and give some advice for applied researchers. Related Articles | Metrics

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Anchor Parameter Drift Test in Equating a Large-scale Examination in China Tie-Chuan LIU 2012, 35(2): 446-451.  Abstract ( 3803 )   In large-scale examination, common items or anchors are frequently embedded in different test forms for equating. Non-Equivalent Anchor Test design (NEAT) requires not only the anchors’ representation in contents but also functioning equivalently across test forms. As a result of affecting by irrelavent factors, some anchors’ parameter may change substantially in different administrations. Goldstein (1983) named this phenomenon item parameter drift (IPD). Drifted anchors may cause systematic error in equating (Huiqin, Rogers, & Vukmirovic, 2008), but until now few studies have addressed this issue in China. In the present paper, several different approaches of detecting drifted items and minimizing their effect on equating were outlined first. Then, two kinds of popular methods for Differential Item Functioning (DIF) detection, which are MH test and logistic regression, were utilized to examine anchors in equating two test forms from a large-scale examination in China. MH method was done using DIFAS 4.0 and logistic regression was done using R. For controlling Type I Error, ETS’s classification criteria and pseudo R-squareds were also considered when performing MH test and logistic regression. Two test forms data were fit and equated by Three-Parameter Logistic Model (3PLM) after deleting the drifted anchors. Item parameter estimation under 3PLM was performed using BILOG-MG. Factor analysis suggested that 3PLM can be used to fit two test forms. The results showed: (1) Twenty-two anchors detected for parameter drift. Both anchors’ difficulty parameter and discrimination parameter could drift across different test forms. (2) Twenty-one of all drifted anchors fit 3PLM well in the old test form, but sixteen of them misfit in the new test form. (3) Equating results with Mean/Square method before and after the deletion of drifted anchors was very different. Therefore, the inclusion of drifted anchors in equating may cause systematic error. Examination of anchors’ parameter drift should be treated as one necessary process in equating different test forms. Such method could also be utilized to longitudinal psychological study for maintaining comparability across timeline. Limitation of the present paper and further research suggestions on anchor parameter drift were given at the end of this paper. For example, comparison of detecting methods and social and cultural causes of anchors’ parameter drift may be examined in future. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Study of the Impact of the Structure of Item Bank on On-Line Raw Item Attributes Identification Accuracy 2012, 35(2): 452-456.  Abstract ( 3510 )   Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment is based on the incidence Q-matrix (Tatsuoka, 2009). The entries of Q-matrix indicate which skills and knowledge are involved in the solution of each item. In real situations, whether the items have or have not been identified attributes before its construction, it will cost a lot of money, require more efforts to identify attributes through specialists according the special procedure and yet can’t completely assume the correctness due to the subjectivity. On-line item attributes identification is a new field and study of the impact of item bank hasn’t been found in the literature. So this study is concerned with the impact of item bank on on-line item attributes identification in cognitive diagnostic computerized adaptive testing (CD-CAT), especially when the item bank doesn’t include the whole reachability matrix. The study describes the impact of knowledge states’ equivalent classes on the item attributes vectors’ equivalent classes. Some of those are called the discriminate item attributes vector when the item attributes vectors’ equivalent classes only include one item attributes vector; the others are called indiscriminate item attributes vector. Moreover, the study introduces Marginal Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MMLE) for on-line item attributes identification, which integrates the uncertainty of estimate knowledge states in the procedure of identification.To explore whether the accurary of discriminate item attributes vectors is better than that of indiscriminate item attributes vectors, and whether the columns of reduced Q matrix except the columns of reachability matrix can provide the reasonable accurary of attributes identification. Considering six attributes under the unstructured condition, two simulation experiments are conducted using deterministic inputs，noisy “and” gate model (DINA). The simulation results show that log odds ratios are almost all above zero. It indicates that the correct classification rates (the proportion of times a item is correctly classified on a attributes vector) of the discriminate item attributes vector is significantly better than indiscriminate item attributes vector. The more number of the items in reduced Q matrix except the whole reachability matrix counld compensate the insufficient item bank to some extent. It also demonstrates that the reachability matrix is important for item bank designed for cognitive diagnostic computerized adaptive testing. Other areas of applications of the reachability matrix , including test construction and test equating, are worth further consideration. Related Articles | Metrics

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Affect Misattribution Procedure in the measurement of implicit attitudes Na REN 2012, 35(2): 457-461.  Abstract ( 4379 )   Affect Misattribution Procedure is a new implicit research method of social cognition which is built on the foundation of projection. In the typical AMP, a trial is made of four parts, a evaluative prime image, a blank screen, a target Chinese pictograph image and a pattern mask consisting of black and white “noise” which appears until the participant responded. The prime, the blank and the target are presented about 75~125ms. The duration of prime pictures, target words or picture and the stimulus onset asynchrony only influences the effect of AMP slightly. There are three fundamental assumptions of AMP. The first one is when people see beautiful or nice things, positive emotion would emerge in their mind, on the contrary negative emotion would come into being. Secondly, these emotion will be expressed in their behavior, that is to say it can be measured. Thirdly, people can not realize that their emotion influences their judgement. A researcher investigated the internal mechanism of AMP, and his experiments substantiated that AMP process was made of 3 parts: the activation of emotion, the attribution, and the guess. After the prime picture, the emotion of subjects is activated firstly. But subjects would then attribute the emotion to the target picture, if their emotion has been activated. If the emotion is not activated or the motion is inhibited, they would guess. The superiority of affect misattribution procedure includes high reliability, nice validity, ease of use, and large effect size. The highlighted feature of AMP is the resistance to warnings, even in the very explicit salient warning condition subjects can not correct their attempts. They still misattribute their emotion to the target pictures instead of prime pictures. AMP has the property of relativity, in other words it needs a contrast object. But researchers can use AMP to study single attitude object, using a neutral object as a basic line, such as numbers, grey quadrates and so on. Comparing with implicit association test, AMP has some shortages in the researches of specific impression to some attitude targets. For example, it can estimate the valence of the attitude objects, but it can not ascertain the attitude content, such as the property of the attitude objects. But now researchers developed new amendments of AMP, and these methods supplied these gaps. Such as adding context factor in the typical AMP, requiring participants judge the prime stimulus directly, using four points measuring scale instead of “good” or “bad” judgement were new evolutions of affect misattribution procedure. And in the recent researches, the new variant of AMP is semantic misattribution procedure, which is well worth researchers paying close attention to. And these variants will make more researchers use AMP to explore the implicit attitude to genders, races, political candidates, alcohol, cigarettes, romantic relations and so on. The other advantages and disadvantages are discussed. Related Articles | Metrics

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“Indicators of Saliency” in Analysis of Psychobiographical Data 2012, 35(2): 462-466.  Abstract ( )   Choosing a subject to think and write about is the first step in any psychobiographical study, then the process of working with data rises front and center. Usually, data must be various enough and sufficiently psychologically oriented to proceed. However, when there are so many sources about subject’s life history that you can work, how to strike psychological pay dirt in too much biographical data is a key issue of psychobiographical study. To effectively solve this problem, Irving Alexander suggested that if the biographical material related to the following pointers, these data will be selected and analyzed as the object for its unusual prominence and psychological importance. The first indicator is frequency, which infers to any repeated communications, themes, scene, events, happenings, means-end sequences, relationship patterns, conflicts, obsessions, and so on. Anyway, this indicator can perform with many forms. Primacy is another indicator of psychological saliency, what comes first appeared in the text and occasionally tells us more than anything else, or tells us something uniquely. This pointer applies most usefully to autobiography. The third is emphasis, the fact seems obvious enough: when our subjects italicize some happening, we ought to mark it as salient. In other words, something deliberately is italicized in some way or stressed the unique nature in effort by the subject, we should take attention to those data, which assume the form of over-, under- and misplaced emphasis. A fourth is isolation, that is material jarringly stands out from surrounding context and thus seems not to fit at all. Next one is uniqueness, some material that is marked by the subject as unprecedented or somehow especially singular. The task of us is to restore the link between the isolated fragment and the web of unconscious ideas for the material is stand, to uncover the deep meaning. A sixth is incompletion, which is in evidence when a subject starts a story and then stops in the middle, or changes the subject, or in whatever way fails to see a thought through to its conclusion. When a subject begins a story but neglects to finish it, in effect trailing off without adding necessary details, a kind of avoidance to reach conclusion, and so on, all those can be put into this indicator. Error, distortion and omission might also signify the presence of psychological salient material, especially the error description of memory or distortion of the real events or ignored the key details, so error and distortions can assume infinite forms. Omission means just what it sounds like it would. Besides incompletion, omissions can also function as total or partial lacunae-an absence if expectable content. The final one is negation, refers to the suspiciously emphatic sometimes also incongruous “no”-especially when “no” is said in the absence of any question. It is also include strenuous disavowal especially in the absence of any positive assertion to the contrary, in the sense of “protesting too much” any given psychological or biographical or psychological fact. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Review on Conception, Measurement and Empirical Researches of Ethnic Identity 2012, 35(2): 467-471.  Abstract ( )   Ethnic identity has become a hot issue, because it is of great significance to individual mental health as well as national unity and harmony. The concept of ethnic identity, the relationships between ethnic identity and its related concepts were analyzed according to the widening trend of the concept. On the basis of describing the multi-dimensional measurement of ethnic identity, MEIM, MEIM-R and EIS scales were compared. From the empirical point of view, the relevant and latest researches in which ethnic identity were used as the moderator or mediator were summarized. In future, the basic ways to deepen ethnic identity study include uniformizing pivotal terminologies, making research methods more precise and levels of assessment more comprehensive. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The relationship between the junior students’ family social status and career choice motivation under global financial crisis: The mediating effect of social dominance orientation 2012, 35(2): 472-476.  Abstract ( )   The issue of college students' employment is always a hot topic in China and beyond. The global financial crisis since 2008 has made the things worse. However, it is not infrequent that, in order to seek a better job, some of them even prefer not to get employed. Therefore, it is theoretical significance and practical important to explore the career choice motivation of college students as well as its influencing factors. Some researchers found that college students’ career values and motivation were influenced by their family background; meanwhile, other researches indicated that the differences in social status often led to the discrepancies of social dominance orientation, which in turn, affected individuals’ career choice. Based on these findings, the aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between college students’ family social status and their career choice motivation under global financial crisis, and to examine the mediating role of social dominance orientation between the two. We hypothesized that college students’ family social status affected their career choice motivation, and their social dominance orientation played a mediating role in the relationship between the two. The present study tested the hypotheses using the method of questionnaire survey. A total of 504 undergraduates from five universities participated in this survey. The questionnaires used in the study were: subjective family social status measure, career choice motivation measure, and social dominance orientation scale. Correlation analysis showed that: (1) Family social status was significantly positively related to intrinsic career choice motivation (r =.097, p<.05). (2) Family social status was significantly positively related to social dominance orientation (r =.119, p <.01). A regression analysis showed that family social status predicted intrinsic career choice motivation (beta =.097, p<.05) and social dominance orientation (beta=.119, p<.01), in the first and second step. Social dominance orientation acted as a mediator between family social status and intrinsic career choice motivation (Z=-2.05, p=.040 in Sobel test), when social dominance orientation entered in the third step. However, the results also showed that extrinsic career choice motivation had no significant correlation with either family social status or social dominance orientation. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings from the study were discussed. It was argued that family social status not only predicted intrinsic career choice motivation directly, but also produced a compensatory negative effect on intrinsic career choice motivation through social dominance orientation. It suggests, based on the findings, that both the family background and the personality factors affected by it should be considered in college students’ employment guidance. Related Articles | Metrics

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The memory impairment in schizophrenia 2012, 35(2): 477-480.  Abstract ( )   Abstract□□Purposes This paper aims at exploring explicit memory and implicit memory impairment in schizophrenia, and making comparisons among patients with different subtypes of schizophrenia in this aspect. Method Fifty-nine patients with schizophrenia and forty normal controls were tested in word perceptual driven experiment, word concept driven experiment, image perceptual driven experiment, image concept driven experiment separately by the method of revised process dissociation procedure，and compared the difference between their explicit memory and implicit memory. At the same time, the patients were divided into two subtypes by the positive and negative symptoms of scale (PANSS), and then compared the change of explicit memory and implicit memory between the two subtypes. In the experiment, there were three sessions, study and test, and an interruption task between study and test. Then calculated the R and A by the method of revised process dissociation procedure, and made comparisons with these data. Results These subjects were tested in the word perceptual driven experiment, word concept driven experiment, image perceptual driven experiment, image concept driven experiment separately, so we could know better explicit memory and implicit memory impairment in patients from different processing mechanism. And it also had a good improvement in accuracy for using the method of revised process dissociation procedure. From this, we learned not only the change of explicit memory, but also implicit memory in schizophrenia, and then we could deepen the further understanding of the cognitive impairment in schizophrenia. the results were as follows: (1)In word concept driven experiment, image perceptual driven experiment, image concept driven experiment, explicit memory results in normal controls were higher than patients, the difference reached statistical significance（P<.01）,in word perceptual driven experiment, the results did not differ remarkably（P>0.05）.In word concept driven experiment and image concept driven experiment, the implicit memory results in normal controls were higher than patients, the difference reached statistical significance（P<.05）,in word perceptual driven experiment and image perceptual driven experiment, the results did not differ remarkably（P>0.05）(2)In the four experimental types, explicit memory results in patients with positive symptoms were higher than those with negative symptoms, the difference reached statistical significance（P<.05;P<.01）but in implicit memory, the results did not differ remarkably（P>0.05）.(3)There were no distinct correlations between positive symptoms and explicit memory results in the four experiments. There existed significant inverse correlations between negative symptoms and explicit memory results in the four experiments. There were no distinct correlations between positive, negative symptom and implicit memory in the four experiments. Conclusions The function of implicit memory in schizophrenia was relatively complete, but explicit memory impairment was prominent, especially in patients with negative symptoms. Key words□□Schizophrenia, explicit memory, implicit memory Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of Emotion Regulation on the Relations between daily life event and Daily Emotion 2012, 35(2): 481-486.  Abstract ( )   In this 14-day experience-sampling study, daily measures of emotion and life events were construct on a sample of 154 college students. The study investigated the emotion features of college students, the emotional reaction to life events occurred in everyday life, and the moderator role of emotion regulation, using Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM).The results showed that positive emotions were more normative than negative emotions in college students who experienced much more emotion in weekends; in the between-person level both kind of life events can predict emotion, however, daily positive emotion was unaffected by an increase in that day's negative events; The positive relationship between negative events and negative emotion was stronger for those high on expression suppression. Related Articles | Metrics

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Advances in the Relationship of Positive Emotion and Health 2012, 35(2): 487-493.  Abstract ( )   Recent progress in the field of health psychology and positive psychology has evidenced an increasing number of studies examining the relationship between positive emotions and health. This review brought together studies that have examined how positive emotions are related with health status. Health is defined in terms of three aspects: physical health, mental health, and social adaptation. Existing findings consistently support the notion that positive emotions are positively related with these three aspects of health. First, positive emotions can decrease the risking rate of infectious diseases, enhance recovery from various diseases and decrease mortality. Second, positive emotions trigger adaptive appraisal of negative life events, and help individuals buffer against stressful situations; consequently positive emotions can prevent or relief individuals from experiencing psychological disorders, such as depression. Last but not least, there is a bidirectional relationship between higher levels of positive emotions and higher levels of social connections and social support. It has been suggested that positive emotions achieve these desirable outcomes because they help individuals build lasting resources and increase individuals’ flexibility when dealing with various challenges. Consequently, individuals with more positive emotions become more adaptive in stressful encounters. Two models, the Main (Direct) Effect Model and the Stress-Buffering Model, have been proposed to explain both the direct and indirect effects of positive emotions on individuals’ well-being. The Main Effect Model suggests that positive emotions have direct impact on endogenous opioids, automatic nervous system and HPA, social connection and health practice, which in turn influence individuals’ immune system and cardiovascular activity. As a result, differences in levels positive emotions lead to differences in individuals’ health status. The Stress-Buffering Model is built upon the Main Effect Model. The major distinct between these two models is that the Stress-Buffering Model takes into account when do positive emotions influence health status, and it emphasizes the role of stress in the relationship between positive emotions and health. Future studies are needed to address both theoretical and methodological issues that have not been fully answered by existing studies. First, future studies may implement more ecologically valid and rigorous methods (e.g., EMA) to generate more convincing findings; second, the strengths of positive emotions and its relation with individuals’ well-being need to be considered; third, the two existing models may be improved by considering social and psychological factors as mediators between positive emotions and well-being. Related Articles | Metrics

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Positive Psychology applied to the Group Counseling on the Drug Abstainers 2012, 35(2): 494-497.  Abstract ( )   Positive psychology is the scientific study of positive experiences, positive individual traits and positive institutions that facilitate their development. Psychological intervention is applied in the health of the drug abstainers in recent days to help them quit drugs. This study focused on the positive strength of the drug abstainers. We tried applying positive psychology to the intervention of the abstainers. We designed a series of courses and activities for them. A sample of 28 subjects(2 of them quitted because of their sickness during the study) from the drug rehabilitation center was selected to participate in the study. 13 of them were in the experimental group and 13 in the control group. They completed the Affect Scale and the Life Orientation Test(LOT). The experimental group took part in the Group counseling for 4 months, 4 courses per month. The 16 courses included the topic of family love, thanksgiving, positive communication, optimism, confidence and hope etc. The control group did not have any course. Before the intervention, there was no significant difference between the two groups. The results showed that the score of the Affect Scale and the LOT of the experimental group were both significantly higher after the group counseling. In the interview, the subjects of the experimental group agreed that they benefited from the group activities. For example, one participant began to write to his son after our group activities and even sent a birthday card to the son. Another participant who used to reject his mother agreed to meet her and they had a warm talk. He began to understand and accept his mother. The subjects also felt comfortable and safe during the activities. In conclusion, group counseling based on the positive psychology can help to raise the positive strength such as positive affect and optimism of the drug abstainers. Group counseling is an effective way in the psychological intervention of the drug abstainers. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Locus of Control on Hindsight Bias in Mock Judges’ Decision-making 2012, 35(2): 498-502.  Abstract ( )   The experiment adopted the between-subjects design with twain factors—locus of control (internal locus of control and external locus of control) and debiasing group (hindsight bias group, alternative group and instructing group). 90 senior undergraduates majoring in Law were selected by the Rotter’s internal—external locus of control scale, averaging 45 internal locus of control type and 45 external locus of control type. The study aimed at investigating the difference of hindsight bias in mock judges’ decision-making with homemade questionaries of two different legal cases. The participants made the legal decision in two law cases respectively. The experiment results showed that the hindsight bias also existed in mock judges’ decision-making, and different locus of control was the influencing factor which led to the difference of hindsight bias in mock judges’ decision-making. Composed to mock judges with external locus of control, more mock judges with internal locus of control made the legal decision to judge the fault of the defendants’ actions in two legal cases, which caused greater hindsight bias appeared. Meanwhile, in a certain extent, because of the admonition from the experimenter and interrupting participants anchoring from the outcome knowledge that was the special instruction, as well as considering the alternative results and analyzing their negative influence on the parties could reduce the hindsight bias of the mock judges in legal decision-making effectively. Debiasing strategies and locus of control affected hindsight bias significantly in the first and second legal cases, however, in both legal cases, the interaction between strategies and locus of control was not prominent. Applying which debiasing strategy was more effective pointing to the internal or external locus of control, there was a tendency, but no significant difference, which might attribute that the limited number of subjects could not reflect the integral effect of debiasing strategies on the different locus of control. That would need further experimental studies to prove in the future. The locus of control and debiasing strategies had their significant influence on hindsight bias in mock judges’ decision-making. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Research Trend of Germany Educational Psychology in the Past Ten Years: From the Perspective of Educational Realistic Situation 2012, 35(2): 503-511.  Abstract ( )   The Research Trend of Germany Educational Psychology in the Past Ten Years: From the Perspective of Educational Realistic Situation Abstract According to the Science Citation Index and Social Science Index, the psychology research in the United States, Britain, and German rank the top three in the world. However, few reviews about educational psychology in German can be found in Chinese psychology literature. At an age of globalization, it is necessary to understand the educational psychology in German, a place of which great contribution has been attributed to international psychology. Educational psychology had emerged relatively earlier than other subjects as a branch of psychology and its birth can be marked by the start publication of Journal of Educational Psychology in Jan 15th, 1899, by Ferdinand Kemsies. To explore the research trends of educational psychology in German and provide some guidance for educational psychology in China, the present study analyzed articles published between 2000 and 2010 on three German journals (i.e., Zeitschrift für P?dagogische Psychologie, Psychologie in Erziehung und Unterricht, and Zeitschrift für Entwicklungspsychologie und P?dagogische Psychologie) which are indexed by SSCI, PsychINFO, and PsyJOURNALS. On the basis of educational situation model recognized widely by Germany educational psychologists, the research topic in Germany educational psychology can be divided into four aspects, including learner, educator and instructor, media, and environment. And the aspect of learner plays the center role in the whole field. Germany educational psychologists propose that research methods should be determined by specific research task, with experimental method, semi-experimental method, and correlational research as the main parts and along with other methods (e.g. Practice and Behavior research method and qualitative research method). The research characteristics in Germany educational psychology can be summarized as the following aspects: First, it emphasizes the important role of realistic educational situation. Second, it focuses on learners’ psychology. Third, it mainly applies quantitative research methods combined with others as auxiliary methods. Fourth, it pays attention to the educational guidance derived from empirical research. In future studies, Germany educational psychologists will value the effects of outside school environment on students, attach importance to issues relevant both to learners and instructors, and pay attention to multimedia technology, integration research and international cooperation, et al. Related Articles | Metrics