Journal of Psychological Science

The Effects of Surface Similarity and Presentation Mode on Relational Analogical Reasoning: The Match Effect

Xie Weiye, Liu Yucheng, Cai Lixue, Han Linzhu, Liu Zhiya

2024, 47(4): 770-779. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240401

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Relational analogical reasoning is the process of deriving a relation from one situation (the source) and applying it to another (the target). Based on the theories of the proactive brain (Bar, 2007, 2009), this study tested the influences of surface similarity and presentation mode (simultaneous versus sequential) on analogical relationship mapping. The study further compared the rate of relationship mapping when an identical match for the key object in the source was also present in the target (Experiment 1) and when an identical match was not present (Experiment 2).
The experiments adopted a 2 (presentation mode: simultaneous presentation, sequential presentation) × 2 (surface similarity: high similarity, low similarity) between-subject design. The picture mapping paradigm was a paper-and-pencil test, in which subjects viewed pairs of black-and-white sketches illustrating 30 themes (e.g., hanging an item). One item illustrating a relationship was circled in the source picture (e.g., a hat rack) and participants needed to circle the corresponding item in the target picture (e.g., a doorknob). The perceptual similarity between items in the source and target pictures was manipulated in different experimental conditions. High and low similarity items in the target pictures had the same relationship structure to the circled item in the source picture, but with different degrees of surface similarity. For example, a hat rack in the source image might map onto a bag hook (high similarity) or a doorknob (low similarity) in the target image. As for presentation mode, simultaneous presentation meant that the source picture and the target picture were presented at the top and bottom of a single page, so that participants could easily look back and forth between pictures. Sequential presentation meant that the source picture and the target picture were presented on the front and back sides of a single sheet, so that they could not be viewed at the same time. In Experiment 1, the target pictures always included identical matches for the critical items from the source images (e.g., a hat rack in the source image also appeared in the target image, even though the analogical relationship was to a different object). In Experiment 2, the identical matches were not present: the critical items from the source images were deleted in the target images. The sample sizes for Experiments 1 and 2 were 187 and 183, respectively. The primary dependent measure was the proportion of trials on which items were chosen based on relationship mapping.
Experiment 1 with identical matches found that the participants were more likely to choose items with the same relationship structure in the target pictures in the low-surface-similarity condition. Therefore, low surface similarity was more conducive to relational reasoning than high surface similarity. In contrast, Experiment 2 without identical matches found that the participants were more likely to choose items with the same relationship structure in the target pictures in the high-surface-similarity condition. Therefore, in this experiment, high surface similarity was more conducive to relational reasoning than low surface similarity, contrary to the results of Experiment 1. In both experiments, simultaneous presentation was more conducive to relational reasoning than sequential presentation.
The comparative analysis of the two experiments reveals an effect, which is called the "match effect" in this study. When an identical match for the critical object in the source image was present, low surface similarity promoted relational reasoning. However, when an identical match was absent, high surface similarity promoted relational reasoning. This effect indicates that the presence or absence of an identical match for critical objects across situations is one of the important conditions for stimulating the proactive brain to explore novel relationships. In addition, both experiments found that relational reasoning performance in simultaneous presentation was better than that in sequential presentation, which indicates that relational reasoning process relies on working memory since sequential presentation requires the participants to hold one image in working memory to compare it with the other. The match effect of relational reasoning can inform education. When people are presented with repetitive and similar ideas, their proactive brains are more likely to function and come up with more novel solutions through in-depth thinking.

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The Effects of Variability to the Environment and Expectation of Salient Distractor on the Attentional Capture

Li Hangyu, Yan Qiang, Wei FengLing, Zhu Jun, Li ShouXin

2024, 47(4): 780-787. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240402

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Pursuing relevant objects and avoiding irrelevant ones are fundamental functions of attention. Attention can efficiently be directed toward relevant objects when they have foreknowledge of target-defining features, such as color, orientation, and location. The interference of the distractors could increase when participants are instructed to ignore distractors, which is the attentional “white bear” effect. According to the biased competition theory, objects that match active representations in working memory gain a competitive advantage. Thus, salient distractors matched with working memory representations would capture more attention. The environment variability and expectation of salient distractors influence the activation intensity of representations in working memory. However, the effects of variability to the environment on attentional capture are inconsistent when salient distractors could be expected. These discrepancies may arise from whether the expectation is derived from the external environment or internal memory.
This study employed a traditional additional singleton paradigm to explore the influence of the environment variability and expectation of salient distractors on attentional capture. Participants were required to search a circle among seven squares and then indicate the orientation of the line in the circle. One circle and seven squares were drawn in red or green, and one of the squares as a salient distractor had a different color than the remaining items. In the constant environment condition, the colors of targets and salient distractors were fixed, while in the variable environment condition, the colors of targets and salient distractors were swapped randomly from trial to trial. In experiments 1 and 2, we investigated whether the effects of expectation of external and internal cue-guided salient distractor on attentional capture were influenced by the environment variability, respectively. In the predictable condition, it was the external cue-guided salient distractor when participants knew that the salient distractor would appear on each trial and never be the target during the search task. In contrast, it was the internal cue-guided salient distractor when participants were explicitly informed that the location of a salient distractor would change clockwise in subsequent trials, so that they could predict the location of a salient distractor. In experiment 3, we investigated whether the effect of the predictable internal cue-guided salient distractor on attentional capture was influenced by task load in the constant environment condition. Participants performed a verbal concurrent task during the search task. In the verbal concurrent task, they were required to count backward verbally in decrements of three from a two-digit number (i.e., the high task load condition), and repeatedly articulate a two-digit number (i.e., the low task load condition). To compare the impact of task load on attentional capture in the constant environment, we calculated the load cost as the difference between high and low task load conditions.
The results showed that salient distractors captured attention in both predictable external and internal cue-guided salient distractor conditions. In the predictable condition, the response time was longer in the variable environment condition than in the constant environment condition when salient distractors were guided by external cues. But the response time was not significantly different between the variable and constant environment conditions when salient distractors were guided by internal cues. However, the load cost was larger in the predictable condition compared to the unpredictable condition when salient distractors were guided by internal cue. Taken together, the findings suggest that various environments lead to greater attentional capture when external cue-guided salient distractors are predictable, and high task load leads to greater attentional capture when internal cue-guided salient distractors are predictable. The current study provides a reasonable explanation for the inconsistency of how expected salient distractors capture attention is influenced by the environment variability.

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Does Perceptual Span Vary as A Function of Reading Speed During Skilled Chinese reading?

Zhang Manman, Li Xin, Bian Han, Wang Qiang, Zang Chuanli, Yan Guoli, Bai Xuejun

2024, 47(4): 788-794. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240403

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Previous studies have revealed that perceptual span, mainly the right range of the fixation in parafovea, increases with the development of reading skill (Häikiö et al., 2009; Rayner, 1986; Yan et al., 2018). As foveal lexical processing is highly automatic for high skilled readers, more attention is allocated to parafoveal region, leading to highly efficient parafoveal processing and a larger extent of parafoveal preview compared to less skilled readers (Rayner, 2010). However, whether or not the perceptual span varies as reading speed during skilled reading is controversial. It is argued that individual differences in linguistic processing cause different reading speeds among readers which might be stable or increasing across lifespan (i.e., the nonuniformity view; Sperlich et al., 2016; Reichle et al., 2013). Thus, fast readers would have wider perceptual span than slow readers. In contrast, according to the uniformity assumption (Andrews, 2015), all skilled readers use similar reading processes and only show differences in degrees rather than types (Ashby et al., 2005). Therefore, fast readers would extract useful information from parafovea extending to the same area with slow readers. Research in alphabetic language proved that, during skilled reading, high skilled or fast readers had wider perceptual span than less skilled or slow readers, providing evidence in support of the former claim (Rayner et al., 2010; Veldre & Andrews, 2014).
Unlike alphabetic language, Chinese script is densely packed with no space between words, resulting in deeply parafoveal processing (Li & Pollatsek, 2020; Zang et al., 2019). Notably, there was no differences in relation to the amount of parafoveal preview between fast and slow readers during skilled Chinese reading (Zhang et al., 2020). However, it is unclear whether the two groups obtain parafoveal information from similar preview span or not. Therefore, the current study was to investigate this issue by using moving window paradigm (McConkie & Rayner, 1975). Ninety sentences were created, each of which was displayed in a window size of either full line (FL), the current fixated character (R0), or one character leftwards of the fixation to one (L1R1), two (L1R2), three (L1R3), or four characters (L1R4) the rightwards of the fixation. Twenty-four fast readers and 24 slow readers were selected from a group of 96 participants according to their reading rates during normal sentences reading.
The results on average fixation duration and overall reading rate showed that fast readers obtained parafoveal information from 2~4 characters to the right of the fixation while slow readers only obtained information from 1 character to the right of the fixation. Therefore, in line with previous findings in English reading (Rayner et al., 2010; Veldre & Andrews, 2014), our findings indicate that fast readers obtain parafoveal information from a wider region than slow readers during skilled Chinese reading, supporting the nonuniformity view of perceptual span development as well as the linguistic-proﬁciency hypothesis in the E-Z Reader model (Reichle et al., 2013). Besides, we found that the reading rate of slow readers increased dramatically under a considerable window (larger than one character to the right of the fixation) compared to that in normal reading with no window, indicating that slow readers modulate their eye movement patterns to adapt to the current reading display and are more sensitive to the visual display of the text.

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The Modulation of Working Memory Load on Attention Capture by Audiovisual Stimuli

Yuan Yichen, Yan Han, He Xiang, Yue Zhenzhu

2024, 47(4): 795-802. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240404

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In daily lives, we often receive information from different modalities. Previous studies have found that multisensory stimuli can capture attention more effectively (i.e., multisensory enhancement) compared to unisensory stimuli. In the past decades, researchers have paid increasing attention to multisensory enhancement. However, it remains unclear whether the cognitive load affects the attention capture of multisensory stimuli. Some studies have shown that attention capture by multisensory stimuli is not influenced by the load, while others have demonstrated that attention capture by multisensory stimuli is modulated by the load. By adopting complex face and syllable stimuli, the present study aims to explore whether attention capture by audiovisual stimuli is modulated by the working memory load. Moreover, we are also interested in whether the multisensory enhancement for each modality is affected by the type of working memory load.
In present study, participants were required to perform a working memory task and a gender identification task, while verbal (in Experiment 1) or visual (in Experiment 2) working memory load was manipulated, respectively. Two within-participant variables were used: working memory load (low load vs. high load) and modality (visual, auditory vs. audiovisual). In Experiment 1, two or six numbers were presented at the center of the screen for 1000 ms, and participants were required to remember these numbers and their sequence. Then a visual (a face), auditory (a syllable), or a bimodal audiovisual target was presented for 700 ms, followed by a 1500 ms blank screen. Participants were instructed to judge the gender of the target as quickly and accurately as possible. At the end of each trial, a number in the memory set was presented and participants were asked to report the next number. In Experiment 2, spatial orientations were used in the working memory task instead of visual numbers, that is, participants had to remember the orientation of each line and the locations of the lines. Other experimental settings in Experiment 2 were the same as those in Experiment 1.
For the two experiments, a significant main effect of modality was found. Responses to multisensory targets were significantly faster than those to auditory targets, indicating that bimodal audiovisual stimuli could capture attention more effectively than unisensory stimuli. Our results support that, compared to unisensory auditory stimuli, bimodal audiovisual stimuli are more efficient for attention capture. Moreover, a significant interaction between working memory load and modality was found. That is, the crossmodal benefit was affected both by the working memory load and sensory modality. With the increase of verbal working memory load, the benefit of auditory stimuli from multisensory enhancement increased significantly, while the benefit of visual stimuli from multisensory enhancement remained unchanged. In contrast, with the increase of visual working memory load, the benefit of auditory stimuli from multisensory enhancement remained unchanged, while the benefit of visual stimuli from multisensory enhancement decreased significantly. These results suggest that working memory load affects the attention capture of multisensory stimuli, and the benefits of visual and auditory modalities from multisensory enhancement are modulated by the type of working memory load.

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Encoding, Consolidation, Retrieval and Intervention of Conditioned Fear Extinction Memory

Huang Yixia, Wang Jinxia, Lei Yi

2024, 47(4): 803-811. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240405

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Exposure interventions based on the principles of extinction are effective methods for the treatment of anxiety disorders, but some patients still have problems such as spontaneous recovery, renewal, and reinstatement of fear. Therefore, how to promote and maintain fear extinction has been the key and difficulty of this field. Fear extinction refers to the formation of a new extinction memory established by presenting the conditioned stimulus (CS) repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus (US). Good extinction learning is manifested not only in successful extinction, but also in retention of learned safety responses during subsequent extinction recall. This suggests that we need to explore the neural basis of extinction memory encoding, consolidation, and retrieval stages separately. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effective intervention methods at each stage on the basis of systematically expounding the neural mechanism of memory extinction, and to provide some guidance for clinical treatment.
The Basolateral amygdala (BLA), infralimbic (IL) region of the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and the Dopamine (DA) system of the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) play distinct roles in the extinction of Pavlovian conditioned fear. (1) Successful extinction coding depends on the formation of "extinction memory neurons" in the BLA and the DA activity caused by anticipation errors. Furthermore, we suggest that the formation of "extinction memory neurons" in the BLA is regulated by DA caused by anticipation errors, but the neural circuit of this regulatory process is currently unclear. (2) The consolidation of extinction memory is mainly dependent on infralimbic-centered neural circuits, including the BLA, hippocampus, and DA system. The BLA mainly transmits the CS+-no US conditioned connection, the hippocampus inputs extinction memory context information, and DA is a key regulator of IL spontaneous activity. (3) The success of retrieval in extinction memory depends on whether the fear circuit or the extinction circuit is activated. There is another case of successful extinction recall: when CS+ is presented alone, it evokes fear memory but is immediately inhibited, that is, the retrieval stopping model, indicating that the individual consciously prevents negative thought intrusion. The two retrieval circuits do not conflict, and the prefrontal cortex is the center that provides inhibition.
According to the neural mechanism of extinction memory, we explore the intervention methods for different stages. Enhancing anticipatory errors during extinction learning and oral administration of DCS before extinction learning can enhance extinction memory encoding. To enhance extinction memory consolidation, neuromodulation, and L-DOPA after extinction learning are considered to be effective approaches. In addition, it can also be combined with proper exercise, and good sleep. In conclusion, although there are some methods of intervening in memory extinction, it is still necessary to explore diverse methods to maximize the optimization of clinical treatment.
The following aspects should be considered in future research. (1) Extinction memory traces weaken over time and are impaired in non-extinction contexts, suggesting that we need to deepen extinction memory traces and promote extinction generalization in the future. (2) Future research needs to continue to expand the neural mechanism of extinction memory at each stage, including enriching the neural mechanism of memory coding, exploring the regulation mechanism of the dopamine system, and the effect of prefrontal activity during sleep on consolidation. (3) Interfering with extinction memory retrieval is a new direction to enhance fear, such as the use of neuromodulation, positive emotion induction, and repetition strategies.

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Lateralization of Brain Function in Task Switching: Evidence Based on tDCS and TMS Technology

Wang Xuan, Zhu Rongjuan, You Xuqun

2024, 47(4): 812-818. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240406

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Task switching is one component of executive function. It refers to the process of switching from one cognitive task to another, emphasizing the ability to flexibly switch between tasks, goals or psychological settings. Because task switching is the most basic daily cognitive activity of human beings, it is of great importance to study its neural mechanisms. In the research on the neural mechanism of task switching, researchers have made some research achievements in the two research fields by using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to explore the lateralization effects of the two hemispheres of the brain.
Firstly, researchers concluded that the frontal lobe is the core brain area of task switching, in which the left hemisphere plays an important role. The main method is to change the tDCS montage. For example, to separate the contribution of left and right DLPFC, researchers put anode in the left DLPFC and cathode in the right OFC for a group, and in the other group, cathode was put in the left DLPFC and anode was put in the right OFC. All participants received tDCS for 15 minutes at 1 mA intensity and the results showed that the left DLPFC receiving anode stimulation could improve the ability of task switching. However, not all experiments obtained similar results. For example, some studies used the elderly as the participants and took the cue paradigm as the switching task. All participants received tDCS for 30 minutes at 1 mA intensity each day with 10 consecutive days. However, it was found that the individual switching cost did not decrease and the performance of task switching did not improve. Therefore, it could not be proved that the left hemisphere of DLPFC is the dominant hemisphere of task switching. It was speculated that the reason for the controversy in these studies may be that tDCS is only an auxiliary tool for cognitive training rather than an independent cognitive regulation tool. As a result, in some studies, the advantages of left DLPFC in task switching cannot be highlighted. In addition, even if the anode tDCS on left DLPFC may improve the performance of task switching independently of training. However, some variables weaken the effect of tDCS, such as aging factors.
Secondly, the left and right hemispheres of the frontal region cooperate to form neural loop movement to support task switching. By changing the tDCS montage, researchers found that the endogenous preparation in the process of task switching needs the main force of the right DLPFC to participate in and inhibit the inappropriate task setting. Meanwhile, the exogenous regulation relies on the left DLPFC to perform a top-down adaptation process. In addition, different task types will affect the neural circuit movement in the right and left hemispheres.
Future studies should be improved in five aspects. First of all, it is of significant to improve the application level of tDCS technology. For example, researchers should pay attention to the effectiveness of tDCS stimulation, experimental ethics and individual differences. Moreover, in addition to the frontal lobe, it is necessary to study other brain regions, such as the parietal lobe. Moreover, other neural regulation technologies such as Transcranial Magnetic Simulation (TMS for short) and biofeedback could be used in future studies, and future studies with functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) combined with online tDCS should be performed to test the asymmetric involvement of right and left hemispheres in task switching. Besides, researchers should explore the mystery of brain function lateralization in task switching from the perspectives of physiological anatomy, molecular genetics, psychiatry, and other disciplines. Last but not least, future studies should take deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning as the guiding ideology.

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Bidirectional Associations Between Friendship Quality, Subjective Well-Being and Loneliness Among Children: A Longitudinal Study

Liu Xu, Liu Yuxiao, Chen Qian, Cao Min, Peng Ji, Zhou Zongkui

2024, 47(4): 819-828. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240407

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The establishment of close friendships begins in childhood and is an important milestone in development. High-quality friendship is an essential force in promoting children's mental health development, which can improve children's subjective well-being and reduce loneliness. According to development contextualism, friendship is an important developmental context for children, which may have a bidirectional association with subjective well-being and loneliness. This bidirectional association has a long-term impact on children's development. To explore children's developmental trajectory, this study employed a longitudinal design spanning three years to examine the bidirectional relationship between children's friendship quality, subjective well-being, and loneliness.
A three-wave longitudinal study with one-year interval was conducted. A total of 212 third and fourth graders (M_age = 8.77 years, SD = .73; 59.4% male) in the central city completed questionnaires concerning friendship quality, subjective well-being, and loneliness. All the measures had good reliability and validity, and there was no serious common method bias. SPSS 25.0 was used to conduct descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. After completing item parceling, we constructed the random intercepts cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) in Mplus 8.3 and employed the full information maximum likelihood estimation (FIML) to deal with missing data. The RI-CLPM allows to separate between-person effects from within-person effects. It was used to investigate whether children with higher friendship quality might subsequently have higher subjective well-being and lower loneliness, and vice versa.
The results of the correlation analysis showed that children's friendship quality was positively associated with subjective well-being, and negatively associated with loneliness, both concurrently and longitudinally (ps < .001). The results of RI-CLPM indicated that, at the between-person level, the random-intercept factor for friendship quality was positively related to that for subjective well-being (r = .55, p < .05), but negatively related to that for loneliness (r = -.74, p < .01). After controlling for between-person stability, the within-person paths showed that the relationship between friendship quality and loneliness was reciprocal. More specifically, initial friendship quality significantly negatively predicted loneliness at Time 2 (β = -.24, 95%CI [-.422, -.053]), which in turn negatively predicted friendship quality at Time 3 (β = -.22, 95%CI [-.426, -.004]). Additionally, loneliness at Time 1 also negatively predicted friendship quality at Time 2 (β = -.26, 95%CI [-.498, -.015]). However, between friendship quality and subjective well-being, subjective well-being at Time 1 can significantly predict friendship quality at Time 2 (β = .34, 95%CI [.059, .620]), whereas cross-lagged paths of the reversed direction were not significant (ps > .05).
This study reveals the bidirectional associations between friendship quality and loneliness at the within-person level by adopting a longitudinal design and constructing the RI-CLPM. This contributes to methodological innovation for the circular effects research orientation emphasized by development contextualism. Furthermore, it suggests that we can simultaneously intervene in both friendship quality and loneliness to construct a positive cycle. Meanwhile, the different relationships between friendship quality, subjective well-being, and loneliness indicate the importance of time in understanding individual development. In general, this study broadens the understanding of the specific connections and dynamic changes between friendship and the development of children's mental health.

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Development of Children's Procedural Fairness and Its Internal Mechanisms

Xu Xiaohui, Xu Min, Zhang Yaohua, Zhang Minghao

2024, 47(4): 829-837. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240408

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In the past decades, researchers payed primary attention to distributive fairness, and they found that children prefer distributive fairness. However, it is unknown that whether children also prefer procedural fairness. Procedural fairness refers to whether the methods, mechanisms, and processes that determine the outcome are fair. Researchers often ask children to use "procedures" to allocate resources, such as spinning a wheel, tossing a coin, rolling a die, rotating an order, etc. These fair procedures share two important characteristics: randomness of outcome and equality of opportunity. Research has found that infants already possess sensitivity of procedural fairness, and children aged 3 to 5 were able to accurately judge whether an allocation procedure is fair and would protest against unfair procedures. As they grow, children demonstrate more mature procedural fairness behavior. However, children are not always able to follow procedural fairness norms to guide their distributive behavior, which refers to cognition-behavior gap. That is, the development of children's procedural behavior lags behind their perception of procedural fairness. For example, it has been found that children aged 4 to 6 prefer unfair procedures that are favorable to themselves. It is not until around 8 years old that children can reject unfair procedures in their favor.
Impartiality Account of Fairness and Fairness as Equal Respect have usually been used to explain the development characteristics of children's procedural fairness. The former theory suggests that fairness functions to signal the fair individual's impartiality to others, aimed to build a good reputation for the divider. It has been found that, as children grow, they become increasingly concerned whether they are impartial and try to build a reputation for pro-sociality within their peer group. For example, children aged 7 to 9 are more likely to allocate resources by flipping a coin than those aged 4 to 6 because they are worried about their reputation being damaged. Impartiality has two forms: first, when children were distributors, they would create inequality that disadvantaged to themselves rather than to peers. Second, children would fairly treat all the members in a distribution in order to avoid partiality to someone. The latter theory emphasizes that children's sense of fairness is rooted in their need for equal respect. The “respect” can be interpreted in two aspects. One means that children have an opportunity to voice on their behalf, and the other means that children are not just concerned about the material rewards, they are concerned about the social meaning of the distributive action. It has been found that as children grow older, they become increasingly sensitive to respect, especially when they are treated unfairly. Compared to Impartiality Account of Fairness, Fairness as Equal Respect is more inclusive. In procedural fairness, equal respect is the core, while impartiality is the extrinsic manifestation.
Future research can start from three aspects. First, to reveal the developmental trajectory of children's procedural fairness and elucidate the dynamic interactive developmental process between children's procedural fairness perceptions and interfering factors, such as selfish motives, social comparison, group identity and social economic status etc. Second, to enhance the theoretical and practical explorations of the synchronicity between the development of children's procedural fairness perceptions and procedural fairness behavior, and to further explore the role of collaborative activities in bridging the cognition-behavior gap. Last but not least, future studies could design triadic interaction contexts to examine the decision-making patterns of the intermediate-positioned individuals. For example, whether they punish the one who gained more and compensate the one who gained less or do nothing. This may help to validate the relative correctness of the theory of Impartiality Account of Fairness and Fairness as Equal Respect.

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The Effects of Character Recognition and Vocabulary Knowledge on Reading Comprehension in Early Elementary School Children: The Mediating Role of Reading Fluency

Wen Xintao, Xie Ruibo, Yu Yanling, Xia Yue, Wu Xinchun

2024, 47(4): 838-847. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240409

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Reading is a crucial activity to acquire knowledge. A key aspect of reading comprehension, the ultimate goal of reading, is required for various cognitive skills in children. Among these skills, character recognition and vocabulary knowledge are considered crucial foundations for reading comprehension in the early elementary grades. Character recognition involves obtaining pronunciation and meaning based on the shape of the character, while vocabulary knowledge encompasses vocabulary breadth and depth. Vocabulary breadth emphasizes the quantity of vocabulary mastered, while vocabulary depth emphasizes the quality.
According to the simple reading view, enhanced character recognition and vocabulary breadth skills can improve decoding ability, while enhanced vocabulary depth can lead to improved verbal comprehension. As children gain in fundamental word skills, their reading fluency gradually improves. Reading fluency can be divided into two categories: word reading fluency and sentence silent reading fluency. Word reading fluency demands children to read aloud, and beginner readers can engage in self-monitoring during this process to strengthen the connection between pronunciation and word form. Sentence silent reading fluency can more accurately reflect children's reading process. Examining the roles of the two in Chinese character recognition, vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension can help beginner readers smoothly transition through the beginner stage and improve children's reading process in real-life situations.
Despite the importance of character recognition, vocabulary knowledge, reading comprehension, and reading fluency, existing studies have not fully explored their integrated relations. Therefore, this study aims to systematically examine the role of character recognition, vocabulary breadth, and vocabulary depth in reading comprehension, as well as the mediating role of different levels of reading fluency in children in the early elementary grades.
The study followed 149 first-grade children in elementary school over a one-year period, measuring their character recognition and vocabulary knowledge in the fall semester of Grade 1 (T1), word reading fluency and sentence silent reading fluency in the spring semester of Grade 1 (T2), and reading comprehension in the fall semester of Grade 2 (T3). Control variables such as sex, rapid naming, orthographic awareness, and nonverbal intelligence were also measured at T1. Spearman correlation analysis was used to determine the correlations between the variables. Additionally, a longitudinal mediation model was established to investigate the predictive effect of character recognition and vocabulary knowledge on reading comprehension, as well as the mediating role of word reading fluency and sentence silent reading fluency.
The results revealed several key findings. Firstly, vocabulary depth in first-grade children directly predicted reading comprehension. Secondly, word reading fluency and sentence silent reading fluency mediated the relation between character recognition and reading comprehension. Lastly, sentence silent reading fluency mediated the relation between vocabulary breadth and reading comprehension. These findings suggest that character recognition indirectly influences reading comprehension through reading fluency, and that vocabulary knowledge not only directly predicts reading comprehension but also indirectly affects it through sentence silent reading fluency.
The results shed light on the different mechanisms involved in character recognition, vocabulary breadth, and depth of reading comprehension in children in the early elementary grades. While literacy is essential for reading, vocabulary knowledge is also crucial for successful reading and understanding meaning. This study found that the development of character recognition and vocabulary breadth can effectively enhance reading ability, improving both reading speed and basic meaning comprehension, which in turn influences later reading comprehension performance. Moreover, vocabulary depth directly influences the long-term development of reading comprehension. Therefore, all three aspects are important to children's reading skill development, even in early elementary school. It is essential for the teaching process to emphasize both character recognition and vocabulary knowledge, actively exposing students to new words and providing comprehensive explanations of vocabulary meanings. This approach is crucial for the overall long-term development of children's reading skills.

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The Influence of Dual Filial Piety on the Construction of Adult Identity: A Latent Profile Analysis on the Emerging Adulthood

Bao Guanghua, Wang Wei, Tumaris·Kahar, Xiao Can, Hong Jianzhong

2024, 47(4): 848-854. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240410

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With the development of society, the traditional definition of adulthood is constantly changing. It has become a common phenomenon for young people to delay entering adulthood. Emerging adulthood refers to the period between 18 to 29 years old when individuals are legal adults in terms of physiology and age but not in terms of cultural and social perspectives. The most important feature of this stage is to explore and achieve the adulthood tasks and to make identity construction. Previous theories on the development of individual identity have not discussed the specific tasks of adulthood. However, there are differences in identity construction by individual's understanding and attainment of the adult mark, and which will be affected by social culture. Hence, the current research attempted to explore the potential types and characteristics of adult identity construction by emerging adult groups in China. Parents often play an important role in the development of individuals. Filial piety is the operation principle of the Chinese family relationship, and different types of filial piety may affect children's development differently. Reciprocal filial piety families emphasize equality and respect, which can promote the development of their children's autonomy and independence. Authoritarian filial piety families emphasize children's authority obedience, which will inhibit individual autonomy. Therefore, the current research also attempted to explore the influence of filial piety on the construction of adult identity.
This research used the "person-centered perspective" to explore the potential types and characteristics of the emerging adult group's identity construction towards adulthood, and also examined the influence of dual filial piety on the identity construction of adulthood. This study recruited 1040 participants aged 18~29 in the early stage of adulthood to complete the self-report questionnaire. The survey of this study consists of three parts: the Markers of Adulthood Scale (divided into two parts: Assessment of understanding of adult markers and assessment of whether they are reached), the Dual Filial Piety Scale, and demographic variables (gender, age, education, whether students, work conditions, and family socioeconomic status). In terms of data analysis, Mplus8.0 software was used for confirmatory factor analysis and latent profile analysis, and SPSS18.0 software was used for variance analysis and multiple logistics regression analysis.
The results of the latent profile analysis showed that identity construction towards adulthood of emerging adults was divided into three potential categories: diffused (20.72 %), moratorium (47.80%), and transitional (31.48 %). Individuals from families with higher socioeconomic status and older age were more likely to be distributed in the transitional type. Individuals of reciprocal filial piety were more likely to be distributed in the moratorium type and the transitional type, while the authoritative filial piety was more likely to be distributed in the transitional type, followed by the diffused type, and finally the moratorium type. Specifically, reciprocal filial piety would make individuals' views on markers of adult more complex, and authoritative filial piety may not only promote the construction of adult identity, but also lead to confusion in the construction of adult identity. The results of the research reveal the potential types and characteristics of the adult identity construction of the early adulthood groups and emphasize the importance of family filial piety categories, which provides important enlightenment for helping adolescents make a healthy transition to adulthood.

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Gender Stereotype of Academic Capacity in Primary School and Its Influence on Interest Selection:The Role of Self-Affirmation

Huang Liangjiecheng, Yan Yan, Hu Yinfeng, Sun Hongli, Jiao Lan, Yin Jun

2024, 47(4): 855-862. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240411

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In recent years, the idea of “strong girls and weak boys” has gained attention. For example, an increasing number of girls in primary and secondary schools outperform boys in academic performance. Moreover, the number of female graduate students has been exceeding that of males in the field of higher education in China. Previous studies on gender stereotypes of academic capacity in Western samples have suggested that boys are better than girls. However, the findings of these studies are not consistent with the idea of “strong girls and weak boys” in Chinese education. Few studies have discussed the development of gender stereotypes about academic abilities in the current Chinese education background. Therefore, using a cross-sectional design, this study examined the gender stereotype of academic capacity among primary school students in lower grades (i.e., grades 1 to 3) and its influence on interest selection. We also investigated whether self-affirmation interventions may change interest choice by mitigating the development of gender stereotypes of academic capacity.
Three experiments were conducted. The first experiment aimed to understand the developmental characteristics of gender stereotypes of academic abilities in primary school students. Primary school students were selected and asked to choose characters from a story with “smart” characteristics, by allowing them to choose the sex of their chosen characters. The second experiment included primary school students in an interest selection game, which let them choose the game that needs a “smart” or “hard” trait in order to win. This helped to measure gender stereotype of academic capacity and to investigate the influence of gender stereotype on children's interest choices. The final experiment explored the role of self-affirmation in the development of gender stereotypes of academic capacity and its influence on interest choice.
Our results showed that (1) primary school students in lower grades (first and second grades) hold gender stereotypes of academic ability that girls are smarter than boys. (2) Gender differences in third-grade students exist in the choices of interest—girls are more interested in games that require “smart” traits, with gender stereotypes of their academic ability playing a mediating role. (3) Self-affirmation can effectively weaken the gender stereotypes of academic ability of third-grade boys, thus enhancing their interest in “smart” games.
This study reveals that the belief of “strong girls and weak boys” exists in the lower grades of primary school, which greatly affects the choice of third-grade boys in choosing tasks of interest. Therefore, we suggest that the attempt to change students' beliefs through teaching and activity design interventions should be better implemented before the third grade. The self-affirmation method could be effective by facilitating activities that promote boys' confidence in the academic field and by instilling a “strong boys” belief.

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Abusive Supervision and Workplace Procrastination: The Chain Mediating Role of Shame and Stress Overload

Peng Kaiqi, Li Zijun, Wang Rong

2024, 47(4): 863-870. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240412

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With the increasingly compact pace of production, the accumulation of multitasks as well as high pressure working environments require employees to hold high levels of time management ability. Workplace procrastination refers to the phenomenon that, employees deliberately put off work-related action during formal working hours by engaging in non-work-related cognition or behavior. It deserves academic attention. Previous studies have shown that workplace procrastination is not only detrimental to the career development of employees, but also poses risks for organizational profits. Therefore, it is particularly necessary to investigate the formation mechanism of workplace procrastination. Based on the Appraisal Theories of Emotion and the Conservation of Resources Theory, we expected that abusive supervision would first activate self-conscious emotions of employees (i.e., shame), and then increased stress perception, and exerted influences on their workplace behaviors. Specifically, we built a chain mediation model with shame emotion and perception of stress overload as mediators, to explore the relation between abusive supervision and employees' workplace procrastination.
A total of 421 full-time employees were recruited to participate in a three-wave survey (with one week in between). In the first wave, participants were required to rate the frequency of perceived abusive supervision and provide their demographic information. In the second wave, participants reported their levels of shame emotion and perception of stress overload. Finally, in the third wave, participants rated their levels of workplace procrastination. The final valid matched sample consisted of 308 employees.
After controlling the demographic variables, data was analyzed by using SPSS 28.0 and Amos 24.0. The results indicated a significantly positive correlation between abusive supervision and employees' workplace procrastination. More importantly, abusive supervision could influence employees' workplace procrastination indirectly through the following three paths: (a) The focal relation was mediated by employees' shame emotion; (b) The focal relation was mediated by employees' perception of stress overload; and (c) Both shame emotion and perception of stress overload played a chain meditation role in the process of abusive supervision influencing employees' workplace procrastination.
This study made several contributions. First, we linked supervisors' abusive behaviors with subordinates' procrastination behaviors in an integrated model. This study enriches the literature about the consequences of leadership styles as well as the antecedents of workplace procrastination. Second, taking both employees' shame emotion and perception of stress overload perception into consideration, we built a chain mediation model to clarify the underlying mechanism between abusive supervision and workplace procrastination. Specifically, destructive leadership styles, such as abusive supervision, are likely to activate employees' negative emotions, and consequently influence employees' cognition and behavior. Our findings also provide several implications for practice. For example, organizations should take actions to reduce the risks of abusive supervision on workplace procrastination, such as intervening employees' negative emotions, and decreasing perceived stress levels of the focal employee who is abused by the supervisor and feel shamed accordingly. However, future research is needed to explore the boundary conditions of the above chain relations (e.g., personalities and job characteristics) and to consider other potential mediators (e.g., work-related rumination) to deepen our understandings about the relation between leadership styles and workplace procrastination.

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Why do Individuals under Job Burnout Prefer Experiential Consumption

Lu Yutao, Zhou Wenhui, Wang Xia, Xing Cai

2024, 47(4): 871-878. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240413

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With the development of the "996" overtime work culture and the aggravation of work pressure in the society, job burnout has become increasingly common. Job burnout is harmful to employees at the individual level and to companies at the organizational level. Previous research has shown that consumption is one of the most critical and frequently used ways for individuals to alleviate the negative effects of their lives and enhance their well-being. People who experience stress or conflict at work often want to "rest" in consumption. As one of the most common consumption patterns, experiential consumption has been proven in numerous studies to improve their self-identity and bring higher life satisfaction and subjective well-being to consumers. Therefore, we believe that, compared with material consumption, individuals in a state of job burnout are more likely to choose experiential products or services that enhance life satisfaction and well-being. The goal of this research is to examine whether job burnout leads to experiential consumption preferences and to further explore the underlying mechanism.
Based on the Conservation of Resource Theory (COR), we propose that the need for recovery may be an important underlying mechanism for job burnout individuals' preference for experiential consumption. Through four studies, we systematically examined the effects of job burnout on consumers' preferences for experiential consumption and its underlying mechanism.
Studies 1 and 2 explored the effects of job burnout on consumption type preferences. Study 1 (N=200) used a questionnaire to examine the correlation between job burnout and consumption preferences. The questionnaire included the Job Burnout Scale, the Experiential Buying Tendency Scale, the MacArthur Scale of Subjective, and demographic information. Study 2 (N=198) manipulated job burnout to examine the causal link between job burnout and consumption preferences. Participants were asked to read a passage of textual material related to the definition of job burnout and then to visualize an experience of job burnout of their own. Afterward, participants answered three questions to reinforce the priming effect. Next, participants completed a consumption decision task by reading a passage of textual material about the concepts and examples of experiential and material consumption, and then thought about a material and an experiential consumption and to make a choice. Finally, participants completed the manipulation check and filled in their demographic information.
Study 3 (N=300) further explored the mediating role of need for recovery between job burnout and consumption preference. Study 3 used the same job burnout manipulation as Study 2, with a different consumption decision task followed the manipulation. The consumption decision task consisted of informing participants that they received an additional reward of ¥100 to thank them for their cooperation, and providing them with six products of which the participants were allowed to choose, and subsequently to price the product using the PWYW ("Pay What You Want") approach, which ranged from $80 to $100. Participants' need for recovery was measured after completing the consumption decision task. Finally, manipulation tests and demographic information remained. Study 4 (N=200) manipulated job burnout and consumption type to measure the recovery experience that different consumption types bring to individuals job burnout.
The main findings are: (1)Individuals in a state of job burnout prefer experiential consumption; (2)The need for recovery mediates the relation between job burnout and preference for experiential consumption; (3) Experiential consumption can be a more restorative experience for individuals under job burnout than material consumption, as participants reported better recovery experiences after induction of experiential consumption. In summary, resource recovery is an important mechanism for individuals' preference for experiential consumption when they are in a state of job burnout.
This study has important theoretical contributions and practical implications, confirming that individuals in a state of job burnout prefer experiential consumption and the need for recovery mediates the relation between job burnout and experiential consumption preferences, which provides references for companies to improve marketing strategies.

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Does Authoritarian Leadership always Inhibit Employee Innovative Performance? The Joint Effect of Environmental Dynamics and Supervisor-Subordinate Guanxi

Sun Jianqun, Li Rui, Tian Xiaoming, Tian Qi

2024, 47(4): 879-886. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240414

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From the beginning of the industrial revolution, innovation has been a key source of competitive advantage. With the increasing external competition faced by firms in today's business world, innovation has become imperative for most organizations. In the previous studies, scholars have studied the antecedents of individual innovative performance, with leadership being a key factor among these antecedents. Authoritarian leadership (AL) is the most prominent and most representative of the Chinese leadership tradition. It is also an important element of triad model of paternalistic leadership. However, it is surprising that there is no consistent research finding about the effect of authoritarian leadership on employee innovative performance. The purposes of the present study are twofold. First, we examine the moderating role of environmental dynamics in the relationship between authoritarian leadership and employee innovative performance. Second, we test the moderating role of supervisor-subordinate guanxi in the interaction between authoritarian leadership and environmental dynamics in predicting employee innovative performance.
Empirical data were obtained from 686 employees and their supervisors and finally 501 matched dyads were available. Data were collected from multiple sources to avoid the common method bias. Specifically, employees were asked to rate authoritarian leadership, supervisor-subordinate guanxi, and environmental dynamics. The formal leaders were asked to evaluate employee innovative performance. Correlation Analysis, Confirmative Factor Analysis, Hierarchical Regression Modeling were applied to test our hypotheses. The results indicated that: (1)Environmental dynamics negative moderated the relationship between authoritarian leadership and innovative performance, such that high environmental dynamics changed the positive impact of authoritarian leadership on innovative performance; (2)Environmental dynamics and supervisor-subordinate guanxi jointly moderated the authoritarian leadership and innovative performance relationship in such a way that this relationship was the most negatively pronounced when both environmental dynamics and supervisor-subordinate guanxi were high.
This study makes several meaningful contributions to the growing literatures on authoritarian leadership and employee innovative performance. First, this study found that authoritarian leadership does not always inhibit employee innovation performance. Intuitively, authoritarian leadership should inhibit the innovative behavior of employees. However, as shown in this study, in a stable external environment, the inhibitory effect of authoritarian leadership on employee innovation performance is alleviated. Second, the effectiveness of authoritarian leadership needs to consider multiple effective conditions. The existing research on the boundary conditions of authoritarian leadership pays less attention to the organization's environment and interpersonal interaction factors, while the research that considers multiple boundary conditions at the same time is even rarer. The results of this study have found two new boundaries for the relationship between authoritarian leadership and employee innovation performance. Finally, the relevant research results of this study will enrich and expand the development of the research context of the transactional model of stress. Our study also has important practical implications. This study suggested that supervisors' authoritarian behaviors should depend on the environment, the higher level of dynamism in the environment, the worse innovative performance under the influence of authoritarian leadership. Meanwhile, supervisors need to be aware that the supervisor-subordinate guanxi has not only an instrumental effect, but also an emotional effect.

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Psychological Entitlement and Unethical Pro-Supervisor Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model

Chen Ge, Liang Yongyi, Fan Yan, Hong Ermei, Wang Tongyao

2024, 47(4): 887-894. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240415

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The relation between supervisors and subordinates is one of the most important ones at work. Subordinates may consciously engage in unethical behaviors to help their supervisors. For example, subordinates conceal negative information that damages the supervisor's reputation and/or exaggerate the supervisor's work performance to support their supervisors. In view of the potential harm of unethical pro-supervisor behavior to organizations, scholars have called for in-depth exploration of the antecedents and mechanisms of unethical pro-supervisor behavior. Existing research points out that factors, such as the leader bottom-line mentality, subordinate leadership identification, and transformational leadership, have significant impacts on subordinates' unethical pro-supervisor behavior. This stream of research sheds light on the antecedents of unethical pro-supervisor behavior pertaining to supervisors' characteristics and the relation between the supervisors and their subordinates, while ignoring the potential effects of subordinates' individual characteristics in predicting unethical pro-supervisor behavior. It also does not answer the question of “whether and how subordinates' individual characteristics can influence unethical pro-supervisor behavior”.
Drawn upon the social cognition theory and the trait activation theory, the present research explores the mechanism and boundary condition of psychological entitlement on unethical pro-supervisor behavior. We invited 254 on-the-job master students to participate in the survey, who come from different industries such as finance, manufacturing, sales, and education. To reduce common method variance, we conducted two waves of survey with one month-interval. At Time 1, participants were asked to rate the psychological entitlement, leader humor, career self-interest, social desirability, and demographics. At Time 2, participants were asked to rate moral disengagement and unethical pro-supervisor behavior. Two hundred and twenty-five participants completed the two waves of survey with a response rate of 88.6%. Among the participants, 42.9% were male; 70.5% were aged between 26~30; 80.3% have obtained college degree; 56.2% have worked on the current job at least three years; 63.4% and 14.3% were working in state-owned companies and private companies, respectively. The results show that psychological entitlement has a significant and positive impact on moral disengagement, and moral disengagement mediates the effect of psychological entitlement on unethical pro-supervisor behavior. Leader humor not only strengthens the positive relationship between psychological entitlement and moral disengagement, but also strengthens the indirect effects of psychological entitlement on unethical pro-supervisor behavior through moral disengagement. That is, the mediating effect of psychological entitlement on unethical pro-supervisor behavior through moral disengagement is stronger when leader humor is higher rather than lower.
We made several contributions to the literature. First, our research responds to the calls for exploring the antecedents and mechanisms of unethical pro-supervisor behavior from an actor-centric perspective. Second, we found that psychological entitlement is one of the important antecedents of the unethical pro-supervisor behavior, highlighting the dark side of psychological entitlement in the workplace and extending the literature on psychological entitlement. Third, by exploring the moderating role of leader humor, our research not only adds to the boundary conditions of the psychological entitlement, but also enlarges the understanding of the “double-edged sword effect” of leader humor.

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The Effect of Consumers' Mind-Set on Channel Migration Intention

Chen Jie, Fan Wenjian, Zhu Jiawei

2024, 47(4): 895-901. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240416

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With the development of mobile internet technology and multiple channels available for consumers, the study of consumers' channel migration intention has become a hot topic in the field of consumer behavior. Past studies on the antecedents of consumers' channel migration intention were mainly conducted within the framework of channel attributes, product classification, consumer characteristics, and demographics. However, the effect of consumers' mind-set on channel migration intention remains unclear. Since consumers' maximizing/satisficing mind-set is a main influence factor of decision-making among consumers, it is of great significance to investigate the causal relationship between maximizing/satisficing mind-set and channel migration intention, as well as its boundary and psychological mechanisms.
According to prior literature, consumers' mind-sets can be stimulated to engage in maximizing or satisficing by contextual factors. For consumers with maximizing mind-set, they intend to achieve the best outcome while making decisions by searching and comparing more options. After searching online, they may migrate to the offline channel to expand their option set and purchase here. In contrast, consumers with satisficing mind-set may decide to purchase when they encounter an option they may accept. They may feel that the online channel they used to search for information is enough to meet their purchasing need, for which they are not likely to migrate to offline channel for consumption. With this in mind, we predict that consumers with maximizing mind-set will have higher channel migration intention than those with satisficing mind-set. Moreover, previous research found that consumers with maximizing or satisficing mind-set don't vary in the importance they place on desirability, but the latter are less likely to sacrifice feasibility when pursuing the same goal than the former. Therefore, under the circumstance of low feasibility, compared to consumers with satisficing mind-set, those with maximizing mind-set may have lower cognitive lock-in because they have a lower preference for minimizing their cost, and then, they have higher channel migration intention. Under the circumstance of high feasibility, consumers with maximizing or satisficing mind-set do not vary by their preference for minimizing their cost and are not different in cognitive lock-in and channel migrant intention. Viewed collectively, we predict that cognitive lock-in mediates the moderate effect of feasibility on the influence of consumers' mind-set on channel migration intention.
Three experiments were conducted to test the assumptions. Experiment 1 was designed to provide preliminary evidence for the effect of consumer mind-set on channel migration intention. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions (maximizing vs. satisficing) in a between-subject design. Then, they rated their channel migration intention. The results showed that participants with maximizing mind-set had higher channel migration intention than those with satisficing mind-set. Experiment 2 used 2 (consumer mind-set: maximizing vs. satisficing) × 2 (feasibility: high vs. low) between-subject design to test the moderating role of feasibility. After being randomly assigned to the high or low feasibility condition, we used the same method to manipulate consumers' mind-set and measure channel migration intention as in experiment 1. The result showed that consumers' mind-set affected channel migration intention under low feasibility condition but not high feasibility condition. Experiment 3 aimed to explore the mediating role of cognitive lock-in in that moderating effect above, and it was the same as experiment 2 with two exceptions. First, we utilized a new method to manipulate consumers' mind-set to address the question of generalizability in experiment 1 and 2. Second, participants rated their cognitive lock-in after rating their channel migration intention. The results showed the same moderated mediation effect as expected.

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The Different Effects of Eudaimonic and Hedonic Motives on Spiritual Well-Being

Xu Wentao, Zhang Kaili, Wang Fengyan

2024, 47(4): 902-909. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240417

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Why did Yan Hui enjoy his life while being poor? Where did happiness come from? Since the Northern Song Dynasty, the reason why Confucius and Yan Hui could be so satisfied has been a widely concerned Confucian case. From its source and specific content, this happiness comes from the pursuit of Confucian “Tao”, which is reflected in three aspects: the joy of keeping the Tao, the joy of learning the Tao and the joy of practicing the Tao. From the perspective of positive psychology, happiness is not only different from the sense of pleasure and satisfaction that is generated once the material life is satisfied, but is also different from the sense of value and control experienced after self-realization. It is embodied as a spiritual well-being that goes deep into the spiritual level of life and forgets both things and me.
Different from western spiritual well-being, which attaches importance to religious experience, Chinese spiritual well-being is deeply influenced by traditional culture, especially Confucian tradition. It is mostly produced in individual self-cultivation and life practice, full of the color of moral and emotional joy. In ancient times, Hui could keep his mind on ren for three months without lapse. Today, many contemporary Chinese feel great spiritual well-being on the road of practicing the core socialist values and striving to realize the Chinese dream of great rejuvenation. In addition to the “three pleasures for those who benefit” such as moral pleasure, the Confucian tradition also emphasizes the need to avoid the “three pleasures for those who lose” of indulgence in pleasure, leisure and entertainment and excessive banquets, and holds that gentlemen should “eat simple and live in peace”. These discussions and viewpoints suggest that the life goal of self moral cultivation or the pursuit of virtue can help people obtain spiritual happiness, and the relaxed life of blindly seeking pleasure may damage people's spiritual prosperity.
In order to explore the relationship between eudaimonic and hedonic motives and spiritual well-being, and to investigate the mediating role of self-transcendence and self-alienation, 691 subjects were measured by Hedonic and Eudaimonic Motives for the Activities Scale, the Spiritual Index of Well-being, and the Adult Self-Transcendence Inventory. The results showed that: (1) Eudaimonic motive significantly positively predicted people's spiritual well-being, in which self-transcendence and self-alienation played different mediating roles. (2) Hedonic motive negatively predicted people's spiritual well-being, in which self-alienation played an intermediary role. These results suggest that the motivation of pursuing virtue contributes to people's positive self-development and spiritual well-being, while the hedonic life goal is related to self-alienation and lack of spiritual well-being. If you want to obtain the positive self-efficacy and sense of life significance of life, you need to appropriately restrain your hedonic motivation, and strengthen the life goal of pursuing virtue and positive self-development.

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The Influence of Different Types of Power and Status on Advice-Taking

Duan Jinyun, Wu Jueyu, Xu Tingting, Liang Fenghua

2024, 47(4): 910-917. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240418

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Power and status are two prevalent bases of social hierarchy. Power and status share important similarities but also differ from each other. Power means the extent to which an individual can control others' outcomes by granting or withholding socially valued resources. Status refers to the extent to which an individual is respected, admired, and highly regarded in the eyes of others. Previous empirical studies on how power and status influence individuals' motives and behaviors have primarily focused on individuals with power and/or status. Scant studies have explored how the other party responded to individuals who have power and/or status, especially in the field of advice-taking area. This study attempts to explore how advisors' power and status influence the advice recipients' following powerful and/or high-status people's advice and the underlying mechanism.
Drawing from the literature on social hierarchy and interpersonal judgments, we propose that power and status have distinct effects on advice recipients' advice-taking. Four experiments were designed to test the hypotheses. Based on the scenario method, Study 1 separately examined the effects of high power and high status on advice-taking compared with the control group. Study 2 combined power and status into four conditions, that are, high power and high status, high power and low status, low power and high status, and low power and low status, to explore how advisors with different kinds of power and status influence acceptors' advice-taking by using scenario-based power/status manipulation and a preference decision-making task. Study 2 also explored whether the perceived competence and warmth of the advice providers mediated the relationship between the advisor's power and status with advice recipients' advice-taking. Based on Study 2, Study 3 further explored the effects of power/status on advice-taking and the mediating role of perceived competence and warmth by using social occupation-based power/status manipulation and a perceptual decision-making task. In study 4, a large sample was used to verify the results of the previous three studies based on social occupational power/status manipulation and the preference decision-making task.
The results showed that advisors who have higher power or status can promote advice recipients' advice-taking behavior. The positive relationship between power and advice-taking is contingent on the status of the advisor. When the status of the advisor is high, power is positively correlated with advice recipients' advice-taking; when the status is low, the positive relationship between power and advice-taking is weakened or even disappeared. Perception of the advisor's competence mediates the relationship between the position of the advisor's power/status and the recipients' advice-taking behavior, while the perception of warmth does not have a consistent mediating effect on the relationship.
To conclude, the power and status position of the advisor positively predict advice recipients' advice-taking. The positive relationship between advisors' power and the acceptor's advice-taking is moderated by the advisor's status. That is, when the status of the advisor is high, the relationship is positive; when the status is low, the relationship is weakened or even disappeared. And the relationship between the power/status of the advisor and the acceptor's advice-taking is mediated by the perception of the advisor's competence.

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Just Make it Simple: The Influential Factors, Consequences and Theoretical Mechanisms of Voluntary Simplicity

Li Bin, Zhu Qin, Zhang Kaidi, Yan Renhao, Feng Kai

2024, 47(4): 918-925. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240419

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Voluntary simplicity is a lifestyle in which individuals attain inner abundance and fulfillment in the process of simplifying their external lives, as to give up the possession and satisfaction of physical materials. Instead of living under stress, growing numbers of young people highly value life quality and turn to voluntary simplicity that allows for a better qualitative life. Particularly during the Covid-19 epidemic, consumers' lifestyles and consumption patterns have shifted, with increased acceptance of online purchases and reduced material needs in response to the risk of outings. Voluntary simplicity has emerged as an important lifestyle, and to explore the definition, influences, consequences and theoretical mechanisms of this lifestyle, this review is arranged as follows.
First, we clarified the definition of voluntary simplicity from the perspectives of behavior and values, despite differences, scholars tend to acknowledge this lifestyle as a balance between individual's internal and external growth. Then distinguished this lifestyle from similar concepts. The main difference between voluntary simplicity and green consumption lies in the quantity of consumption, whereas the difference between voluntary simplicity and minimalism emphasizes on the nature of consumption.
Second, influential factors of voluntary simplicity were profiled from aspects like internal factors and external factors. In terms of internal factors, consumers who shift their lifestyles may be motivated by different personal values, such as altruism and green consumption values. Besides, individuals may also choose voluntary simplicity driven by materialism as well as religious beliefs. As for the external factors, negative emotions such as stress and anxiety resulting from consumption may drive individuals away from the consumption world. The outbreak of Covid-19 epidemic has somewhat reduced individuals' consumption desire, which also provides a specific time context for the emergence of voluntary simplicity. Besides, the effects of voluntary simplicity on the environment and individuals were also compiled. Voluntary simplifiers highly value the ecological consequences of their purchases, and emphasize on self-sufficiency and moderate consumption, which have a positive impact on environmental sustainability. The higher the degree of voluntary simplicity consumers have, the less ecological consequences of their consumption behavior and the more friendly to environmental sustainability. Voluntary simplicity is also related to higher life satisfaction and subjective well-being, yet the causal relationship is still subject to further explanations. Voluntary simplicity may promote well-being, and the experience of well-being may also contribute to the willingness of voluntary simplicity. Nevertheless, voluntary simplicity could bring about some negative effects, such as dissatisfaction and unhappiness due to reduced consumption. Moreover, the boundary conditions between voluntary simplicity's positive and negative effects remain to be revealed by further studies.
Finally, theories such as the Needs Theory, the Self-determination Theory, and the Theory of Planned Behavior provide insights into the psychological mechanisms of why individuals shift to the lifestyle of voluntary simplicity. However, the current study overlooked personality which could be a more reliable predictor; future studies should consider exploring the motivations of voluntary simplicity from the perspective of personality traits. Furthermore, present study focuses more on the attitudinal and behavioral aspects of the mechanisms of voluntary simplicity, future research should delve deeper into its cognitive neural mechanisms.

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Why Feel Powerless to Breastfeeding?The Theory of Planned Behavior Perspective on Psycho-Social Factors Influencing Breastfeeding

Wu Lin, Li Xiaoxin, Guo Pengyue, Yang Jing

2024, 47(4): 926-932. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240420

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The promotion of breastfeeding intention and extension of breastfeeding duration are the current problems which should be addressed in the field of mother-infant in China. Despite the benefits of breast-milk and being willing to breastfeed, the vast majority of mothers feel powerless in the actual feeding process. Psycho-social factors are the key factors that make them feel powerless about breastfeeding. So far, psycho-social factors have been found to play a significant role in breastfeeding behavior.
The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is often used to discuss the relationship between psycho-social factors and breastfeeding behavior. The classic TPB breastfeeding model is still insufficient in predicting as most previous studies have only examined the influence of one or some of these factors on breastfeeding behavior. The extended breastfeeding TPB model has the potential to improve the effectiveness of TPB constructs to understand breastfeeding behavior. Nevertheless, there remains a lack of in-depth discussion and analysis in theory. Empirical studies on the psycho-social factors that influence breastfeeding behavior, based on the TPB, have been reviewed. According to the behavioral characteristics of breastfeeding, psycho-social factors such as affective attitudes, instrumental attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, self-efficacy, moral norms, breastfeeding knowledge, and self-identity that are based on TPB of breastfeeding can effectively explain the breastfeeding intention and duration of mothers.
Regarding the attitudes towards breastfeeding, affective attitudes are significantly more effective than instrumental attitudes in explaining breastfeeding intentions, while instrumental attitudes are ineffective in predicting the duration of breastfeeding. As for the breastfeeding subjective norms, the norms inherited from elderly women in the family and hospital midwives can make difference to the intention of breastfeeding. In spite of this, only the norms inherited from elderly women in the family can play a significant role in predicting the duration of breastfeeding. While perceived behavioral control of breastfeeding can predict breastfeeding intention, its predictive role for breastfeeding duration varies across studies. The self-efficacy of breastfeeding exerts a significant positive effect on the intention and duration of breastfeeding, which supports new mothers in overcoming the difficulties when feeding their children. Breastfeeding moral norms, knowledge, and self-identification can all explain mothers' breastfeeding intentions and duration. These factors are even more predictive than attitudes as reported by some previous studies.
Future research should improve the theoretical model of breastfeeding TPB and conduct more localized prediction and intervention studies of breastfeeding. First, it is still not clear whether each influencing factor plays a unique role in the extended TPB model, or whether there is any association between these influencing factors. Thus, the integration and verification of the extended TPB model of breastfeeding is an important direction of further research. Second, “powdered milk”, “the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law”, “Generations nurturing” and other breastfeeding-related subjects in the context of Chinese culture shall be included in the research on breastfeeding TPB. Last, in the future intervention study, both doctors and midwives are supposed to enhance the positive effect of the intervention with breastfeeding by increasing their efforts to promote self-interested belief and active choice.

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An Analysis of the Concept of Cultural Attachment

Li Yaning, Yang Yisheng, Xin Ziqiang, Liang Li, Wang Pai

2024, 47(4): 933-939. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240421

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This paper reviews extant findings regarding the development of cultural attachment. We explore the concept of cultural attachment. Cultural attachment is the affective bond between individuals and their culture. Its dimensions include positive cultural evaluation, individual-culture affectivity, and direct participation in cultural activities. In addition, we explore the relationship between cultural attachment and four other relevant concepts: general attachment, cultural identity, cultural confidence, and acculturation.
Cultural attachment differs from general attachment. Cultural attachment objects include concrete groups and multiple abstract world outlooks that are culturally based. Individuals can construct multicultural attachment from a single cultural attachment state. The connection between cultural attachment and general attachment is that both of them can create a sense of security.
There are three differences between cultural attachment and cultural identity. First, cultural attachment forms through interactions and cooperation within a group. In contrast, cultural identity is formed by comparing different groups. Second, cultural symbols elicit individuals' “safe behavior” in cultural attachment, while they activate individuals' knowledge systems in cultural identity. Finally, cultural attachment usually plays a role after separation, death, and other similar situations, while cultural identity is activated irrespective of the situation. The connection between cultural attachment and cultural identity is that cultural identity is the cognitive basis of cultural attachment.
There are four differences between cultural attachment and cultural confidence. First, the emotional component of cultural attachment includes different valences of emotion. However, cultural confidence refers exclusively to positive emotions. Second, cultural attachment includes cognitive, emotional, and behavioral factors, while cultural confidence comprises an individual's overall view of culture. Third, cultural attachment involves unconscious individual-cultural affective bonding. In contrast, cultural confidence is a conscious and rational process. Fourth, the formation process of cultural attachment stems from intragroup interactions, while cultural confidence includes exchange and mutual learning between two or more different cultural groups. Cultural attachment and cultural confidence are related to and generated through cultural identity. Furthermore, they have positive emotional components and serve as cultural resources to alleviate negative emotions.
Cultural attachment and acculturation are mutually reinforcing. In the early stages of cross-cultural contact, a secure attachment to the culture of one's home country can increase the willingness to contact other cultural groups. In comparison, acculturated individuals also form attachments to other cultures. This process establishes a beneficial cycle of cultural attachment and acculturation. However, cultural attachment and acculturation have different concerns. Cultural attachment emphasizes process, while acculturation emphasizes results.
Therefore, this paper offers a unique perspective by clarifying the concepts of cultural attachment. Furthermore, it expands the differences and connections between cultural attachment and other relevant concepts of general attachment, cultural identity, cultural confidence, and acculturation. This paper could help to ensure the independent status of cultural attachment studies. In addition, it provides an essential theoretical basis for the development of subsequent cultural attachment studies. Future research should focus on the development of indigenous measurement tools of cultural attachment, explore the mechanisms of cultural attachment by combining the social identity theory and the attachment theory, and expand the social value of cultural attachment.

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Self-Esteem and Problematic Mobile Phone Use Among Middle School Students: Mediation of Social Anxiety and Escapism Motivation

Jiang Shuyang, Liu Rude, Feng Mao, Hong Wei, Jin Fangkai

2024, 47(4): 940-946. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240422

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Problematic mobile phone use refers to a constellation of addiction-related symptoms, such as craving, dependence, tolerance and withdrawal. Previous studies have demonstrated that problematic mobile phone use may lead to a variety of harmful consequences, including academic failures, sleep disturbances, depression symptoms, and low life satisfaction. These studies emphasize the urgent need to prevent problematic mobile phone use, especially for school students. Studies have indicated that 10.5% of adolescents are problematic mobile phone users and 20.5% are potential problematic users. Thus, the current study aims to explore potential predictors and underlying mechanisms of problematic mobile phone use to promote students' physical and psychological well-being.
Researchers have consistently provided evidence indicating that high self-esteem may be related to lower levels of problematic mobile phone use. However, little is known about the psychological mechanism underlying this relation. Drawn from the Sociometer Theory and the cognitive-behavioral model, dysfunctional self-schemata (e.g., low self-esteem) may contribute to negative emotions during social interactions (e.g., social anxiety), which lead to negative coping strategies (e.g., escapism motivation), and further increase the potential risk of using mobile phone problematically. Therefore, social anxiety and escapism motivation may be plausible explanations for the association between self-esteem and problematic mobile phone use.
The present study investigated the relationship between self-esteem and problematic mobile phone use among Chinese adolescent students, and explored the mediating effects of social anxiety and escapism motivation. Using the relevant questionnaires, 438 middle school students (203 boys, 231 girls) were recruited for the study. All the participants have finished the questionnaires to report their status of self-esteem, social anxiety, escapism motivation and problematic mobile phone use. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations coefficients between the main variables were calculated using SPSS 23.0 software. To test the hypotheses, we used PROCESS macro to calculate the 95% confidence intervals with 5000 resamples. The main conclusions were drawn as follows: (1) Correlation analysis showed that students' self-esteem was negatively correlated with social anxiety, escapism motivation, and problematic mobile phone use. (2) Regression analysis revealed that self-esteem was negatively associated with problematic mobile phone use. (3) Mediation analysis revealed that self-esteem was negatively associated with students' problematic mobile phone use not only through the direct path, but also through the indirect path of social anxiety and escapism motivation, as well as the chain mediating path between social anxiety and escapism motivation.
The findings of the present study contributed to the previous studies by highlighting the crucial role of self-esteem and demonstrating the process of positive reinforcement in the etiology of problematic use. These results can also provide practical guidelines for protecting adolescents from addicting to mobile phone. For instance, school prevention programs can include specific activities to enhance students' self-evaluation and improve their social skills to deal with complex social situations. For example, more communication skills and perspective-taking training may be helpful to reduce social anxiety and build up better interpersonal relationships. When students have practical strategies to cope with daily life challenges, they are less likely to resort to mobile phones for distraction, which can help them alleviate their distress.

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Development of a Cognitive Diagnostic Model with Ability Covariate and Its Applications

Song Lihong, Hu Haiyang, Wang Wenyi, Ding Shuliang, Yuan Siyu

2024, 47(4): 947-958. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240423

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The item response theory (IRT) is an important model to estimate the ability parameters, and the cognitive diagnosis model (CDM) is a vital model to diagnose the cognitive structure of the examinees. Because test item responses contain the information about the ability parameters and the knowledge states and their relationship, how to fully utilize the information to further enhance the accuracy of the knowledge states, becomes very important for helping to decrease the number of tests and test lengths.
Considering the strong relationship between higher-order DINA (HO-DINA) model and two-parameter logistic model (2PLM), this new statistical measurement model was proposed by regarding the general ability as higher-order ability and estimated by Markov Chain Monte Carlo. In the estimation of ability, the knowledge states are considered as response patterns in establishing the relationship between the ability and knowledge states. Five attributes were considered in the study. Test consists of two parts of items, one is fitted by 2PLM and the other is fitted by the DINA model. The simulation study examined the performance of the new model with four model parameter distributions and five different test lengths, and compared it with the DINA model and 2PLM respectively. In the analysis of Examination for the Certificate of Proficiency in English (ECPE) test data, the absolute fit indices, -2LL, AIC, BIC and DIC were provided as an example to evaluate the model-data fit.
The results show that: (a) The new proposed model in this study can obtain the ability parameters and cognitive structure parameters of the examinees in one test, and it has a good recovery for the estimation of attribute patterns, item parameters, and ability parameters. In particular, the accuracy of ability parameters has been greatly improved, and the MCMC algorithm is feasible; (b) The longer the CDM-based test length is, the higher the correct classification rate of knowledge state is, and the same is true for the ability estimation based on 2PLM; (c) Compared with lognormal distribution, the error of ability estimation is slightly smaller when the item discriminations followed from uniform distribution. When the slip parameters and the guessing parameters are small, the correct classification rate for attributes or attribute patterns are higher. In addition, the analysis of the ECPE data shows that the estimation accuracy of the new model is reasonable and has practical implications.
Because there is always a relationship between the levels of ability and the mastery of knowledge, the ability of estimation enriched in test items fitting by an item response theory model can provide information for the classification of knowledge state, and item only fitting the CDM can also indirectly provide the information to improve the precision of ability estimation. In addition, it does not need calibrate the attribute vector for all test items and not require all items fitted two models at the same time. The new model uses a general or high-order ability as bridge between item response theory and cognitive diagnostic models, utilizing information from different test items to improve the accuracy of abilities and knowledge, tates estimation.

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Measurement of Mixed Emotions:Models, Methods and Perspectives

Sun Wujun, Jiang Yuan, Fang Ping

2024, 47(4): 959-965. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240424

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Mixed emotions are the simultaneous experience of both positive and negative emotion, which are important components of individual emotional complexity and have great significance to individual mental health and goal pursuit. Since mixed emotions are more complex in subjective experience and objective reaction, the same type of reaction often includes two or more basic emotional components at the same time, it is not only necessary to evaluate the states of multiple basic emotions, but also to present the pattern and characteristics of the co-occurrence of these basic emotions.
According to the Component Process Model, the generation of emotion involves multiple systems such as cognition, autonomic nervous system, motor system and motivation system. The generation of mixed emotions requires more complex operations of the above systems, including multiple cognitive evaluations and brain activation, autonomic nervous system activity characteristics different from pure emotions, contradictory external manifestations, and mixed and multiple subjective experiences. Based on different theoretical assumptions and measurement needs, three models, including univariate, bivariate and multivariate models, are gradually formed. Specific methods based on three measurement models are different, which to some extent leads to low consistency and comparability among research results. Therefore, it is necessary to sort out the commonly used measurement methods in the study of mixed emotions, summarize their applicable conditions, advantages and disadvantages, and hope to provide some reference for the future study of mixed emotions.
Among the methods to measure the subjective experience of mixed emotions based on the three measurement models, the mixed emotion scales, including the Trait Mixed Emotions Scale and the State Mixed Emotions Scale, provide a simple, direct and convenient measurement method and tool for measuring the subjective experience of mixed emotions. The mixed emotion index obtained by bivariate scale measurement and minimum calculation method is determined by the values of positive and negative emotion components together, which is more flexible in practical application. By dynamically monitoring the two emotional components, the keystroke method reflects how the participants' mixed emotional experience changes over time. Graphic methods, including AES and ESG, provide the intensity of individuals' emotional experience at different points in time. Among the methods to measure the objective response of mixed emotions, frontal-parietal network measurement provides a valuable single index for the neural network measurement of mixed emotions. The measurement of simultaneous activation of positive and negative emotional regions of the brain provides a bivariate indicator of neural responses to mixed emotions. Physiological arousal measures are based on the multivariable model that reflects mixed emotions by detecting changes in the response of effectors such as the heart, blood vessels, skin, and respiratory. The mixed expression method measures the external expression of mixed emotions by means of electromyography, or video recording and observer coding.
Future studies on mixed emotion measurement should focus on perfecting the theoretical basis of mixed emotion measurement, improving the specificity of objective response measurement index, establishing an evaluation system adaptive to the complexity of mixed emotional system, and focusing on measuring the temporal relationship between positive and negative components of mixed emotions.

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Affect Spin and Aggressive Behavior in Colleague Students: The Moderation of Emotional Regulation Strategies

Zhang Shanshan, Li Yalin, Li Tianlu, Li Yuru, Ju Rui, Liu Ting

2024, 47(4): 966-972. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240425

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Affect has been widely recognized as a primary cause of aggressive behavior. However, our understandings of affective variability on aggression remains incomplete. Although many studies have examined how aggressive behavior is linked to affective instability, such research has largely focused on between-individual differences in affect and not on the within-individual fluctuations in affective states. In recent years, empirical studies on affect variability have found substantive individual differences in the extent to which people's affective experiences vary over time. Consequently, the fluctuation of affect variability has a significant influence on individuals' mental health. From this developing line research, the concept of affect spin has emerged. It is defined as the circular standard deviation of responses and represents how much a person moves between different trajectory constructs within the core affect space. Hence, affect spin reflects purely qualitative changes of the affect state. However, the directionality of the relationship between affect spin and aggressive behavior is unclear. Therefore, this study investigated the impact of affect spin on aggressive behavior, and the moderating role of emotion regulation strategies.
A phased tracking test methodology was adopted in our study. First, we used the emotion regulation scale to measure the participants' cognitive reappraisal and expression suppression strategies. The sample consisted of 189 Chinese undergraduates, who completed the emotion regulation scale during the recruitment stage. One week later, we used experience sampling method (ESM) to collect individuals' affective experience by utilizing 12 affective terms that were scheduled to be assessed three times a day for 14 consecutive days, following which we computed individual affect variability, namely affect spin. The following week participants completed the aggressive behavior scale to assess their aggressive behaviors. By the end of the study, a total of 139 participants completed all the assessments. All procedures were conducted online via a free App.
The results showed that affect spin did not have significant impact on aggressive behavior, However the relation between affect spin and aggressive behavior showed a positive correlation trend. Meanwhile, cognitive reappraisal had a negative predictive effect on aggressive behavior, while the effect of expression suppression was not significant. The most important result was that cognitive reappraisal played a moderating role in the effect of affect spin on aggressive behavior. Specifically, for individuals with low cognitive reappraisal, the higher their affect spin, the more their aggressive behavior revealed itself. As for individuals with high cognitive reappraisal, the effect was not significant.
This study provides evidence for the superiority of cognitive reappraisal in alleviating aggressive behavior, and the impact of affect spin on aggressive behavior. It reveals that adaptive emotion regulation strategies that enhance individuals' understanding or change their cognition of affective stimuli may be an effective way to reduce external aggressive behavior. At the same time, the finding regarding the moderating effect of cognitive reappraisal also provides practical guidance for the aggressive behavior intervention of high affect spin. For example, individuals with low cognitive reappraisal can reduce their aggressive behavior by participating in intervention programs that help them cope with negative affective experience.

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Social Norms and Quit-Smoking Action Plans among Chinese Smokers: The Mediating Role of Quit-Smoking Intention and the Moderating Role of Relationship-Oriented Trait

Chen Haide, Zhang Yuhan, Zhao Boqiang, Yao Jingjing, Li Weijian

2024, 47(4): 973-980. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240426

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The quit-smoking action plans, which refer to smokers' specific plans for successfully quitting smoking, include setting up quitting goals and preparing to quit smoking. It may be one of the potent predictors for successful smoking cessation. Previous studies have shown that the quit-smoking action plans would be predicted by social norms. Ulteriorly, researchers have distinguished subjective norms into smoking norms and quit-smoking norms which impact quit-smoking differently. However, little is known about the influence of the different roles of different social norms on quit-smoking action plans as well as their potential psychosocial mechanisms.
This study is devoted to investigating the influence of social norms on quit-smoking action plans, and exploring their influence mechanisms. According to the Rubicon Model and the Integrated Change Model, social norms may influence the quit-smoking action plans by influencing the quit-smoking intention. Additionally, numerous studies have shown that individual social behavior is often affected by relationship-oriented trait and the Social Identity Model of Recovery proposed that the connection between smokers and smokers or non-smokers, as well as the smokers' social connection trait, will affect the smokers' quit-smoking behavior.
Given these, the present study aims to examine (a) the relationship between social norms and quit-smoking action plans, (b) the role of different social norms on quit-smoking intention and quit-smoking action plans, (c) the mediating effects of quit-smoking intention on the relationship between social norms and quit-smoking action plans, and (d) the moderating effects of the relationship-oriented trait among the social norms, the quit-smoking intention, and the quit-smoking action plans.
A sample of 694 Chinese regular cigarette smokers was recruited to complete several self-report questionnaires, including the Quit-Smoking Action Plans Scale, the Perceived Smoking Social Norms Scale, the Perceived Quit-Smoking Social Norms Scale, the Quit-Smoking Intention Scale, and the Relationship-Oriented Trait Scale. This study employed SPSS 23 and AMOS 23 for data analysis. Partial correlation analyses (to control nicotine dependence) were conducted to examine the relationships among the quit-smoking action plans, the smoking norms, the quit-smoking norms, the quit-smoking intention, and the relationship-oriented trait. Then, the mediation model and moderated mediation model, which controlled for the fore-mentioned variables, were examined by using AMOS 23. The results showed that: (1) The quit-smoking action plans were significantly negatively related to the smoking norms, the quit-smoking norms, the quit-smoking intention, and the relationship-oriented trait. (2) The smoking norms and the quit-smoking norms had different effects on the quit-smoking intention and the quit-smoking action plans. (3) The relationship between the social norms and the quit-smoking action plans was fully mediated by the quit-smoking intention. (4) The moderated effect of the relationship-oriented trait on the relationship between the smoking norms and the quit-smoking intention was significant.
This study contributed not only to the theory of smoking cessation, but also to the practice of tobacco control in China. Theoretically, the results are in line with the hypothesis of the Social Identity Model of Recovery, supporting the viewpoint that the social connection with smokers or non-smokers may have different effects on smokers' quit-smoking intention and action. Furthermore, the results complement the explanation of the Rubicon Model and the I-Change Model to the quit-smoking action plans. Practically, according to the results of this study, it is necessary to guide smokers to strengthen their social connections with quit-smoking groups or non-smokers. Future studies should use multiple methods and construct diverse models to explore the underlying causes.

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Cyberbullying Victimization and Depression among College Students: The Moderating Roles of Psychological Capital and Peer Support

Zhou Li, Wang Hongxia, Geng Jingyu, Lei Li

2024, 47(4): 981-989. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240427

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This study sought to explore the moderating roles of psychological capital and peer support in the association between cyberbullying victimization and depression. The widespread usage of mobile technology and social media has added the concerns of the adverse effects of cyberbullying on victims' physical and mental health, especially among college students. In recent years, cyberbullying victimization has become a serious social and public issue worldwide. Previous studies have reported that cyberbullying victimization is closely related to mental health problems, particularly depression. Although cyberbullying victimization is significantly and positively related to college students' depression, not all college students experience higher levels of depression when faced with cyberbullying. That is, there may be important moderating factors that buffer the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and depression. According to the extension of the general strain theory, the current study aims to explore whether resource factors, including psychological capital and peer support, can simultaneously weaken the association between cyberbullying victimization and depression among college students.
A total of 837 college students (281 males and 556 females) with an average age of 19.66 years (SD=1.75 years ) were recruited to complete an online questionnaire regarding cyberbullying victimization, depression, psychological capital, and peer support. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations were computed to analyze the relationships among cyberbullying victimization, psychological capital, peer support, and depression. Besides, the moderating effects of psychological capital and peer support were tested via model 3 of the PROCESS macro.
The results showed that college students who experienced more cyberbullying victimization were more likely to report higher levels of depression (β = .34, p < .001). College students who experienced cyberbullying victimization but had lower levels of psychological capital were more likely to be depressed (β = .37, p < .001) than those with higher levels of psychological capital (β = .22, p < .001). Furthermore, higher levels of cyberbullying victimization significantly predicted increases in college students' depression when their psychological capital and peer support were both low (β = .34, p < .001), or one was low (β = .24, p < .001; β = .27, p < .01). In contrast, this effect became non-significant when college students' psychological capital and peer support were both high (β = -.1, p >.05).
The possible explanation is that low psychological capital is a strong predictor of depression. Additionally, college students with low level of psychological capital tend to interpret cyberbullying victimization more negatively and make negative attributions for such encounter. Therefore, when exposed to cyberbullying victimization, college students with low levels of psychological capital are more likely to be depressed, regardless of whether they have high or low levels of peer support. For college students with high psychological capital and high peer support, they have both sufficient internal resources and external support when exposed to cyberbullying victimization, thus they are less likely to be depressed. Therefore, when the psychological capital and peer support of college students are both high, the adverse effect of cyberbullying victimization on depression is no longer significant. These findings further suggest that, while a high level of psychological capital or social capital alone is not enough to help individuals to cope with adverse experiences, and high levels of both psychological capital and peer support can counteract the negative consequences of cyberbullying victimization. Thus, interventions that increase psychological capital and peer support simultaneously should be designed to alleviate depression associated with cyberbullying victimization among college students.

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Career Development in Contextual Constraints: Testing and Extending the Psychology of Working Theory

Wang Danni, Hou ZhiJin, Zhang Rui, Zhu Jiajia, Jia Yin, Guo Xiaoluan

2024, 47(4): 990-997. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240428

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As one of the most influential theories in the career field in recent years, the Psychology of Working Theory has evoked a considerable amount of empirical research. PWT emphasized the role of contextual constraints (e.g., social status, marginalization, economic constraints) on individuals' career development, criticizing the biased premise of most career theories and studies that people have the freedom and autonomy to make career decisions. PWT regarded decent work as a vital precursor of people's work fulfillment and well-being and proposed that contextual constraints would influence people's gaining decent work through two internal factors, including work volition and career adaptability. The effects of contextual constraints on internal factors and decent work were moderated by proactive personality, critical consciousness, social support, and economic conditions. Many studies supported the mediation hypothesis about work volition. However, the mediating hypothesis of career adaptability was relatively ignored. In addition, few PWT studies concerned or supported the moderating hypotheses. Wang and her colleagues (2019) tested the mediating effect of work volition between subjective social status (SSS) and decent work and the moderating effects of social support and proactive personality in the framework of PWT for Chinese employees. However, they did not include career adaptability into the model, which made it unable to know the unique effects of each of the two mediators, and neither did they find the buffering effects of social support and proactive personality.
This study thus tested the mediating effects of work volition and career adaptability in the relation between SSS and decent work, and further explored the moderation of self-control. The ability to pursue goals (e.g. self-control) was important to overcome the contextual constraints and to obtain decent work, but such factors were neglected in PWT and its empirical studies. The meaning of work was added as an outcome variable since the sense of meaninglessness has been more and more salient in Chinese people's life (Xu, 2016) and we would like to know whether the PWT model could explain the individual differences in the meaning of work. The latent moderate structural equations (Klein & Moosbrugger, 2000) with a large sample of Chinese working people (n = 606) were applied to testified the hypotheses.
The results supported the mediation hypotheses. SSS positively predicted decent work through work volition and career adaptability and decent work positively predicted work satisfaction and meaning of work with more than 60% of the variances explained. Self-control moderated the relationship between SSS and work volition. However, the moderating effect was contradictory to our expectation. For people with low self-control, SSS had a weaker effect on work volition. In other words, people who had high SSS (i.e. low contextual constraint) will benefit more from self-control. Our study and previous studies with Chinese samples (Wang et al., 2019) both suggested that internal resources, such as proactive personality and self-control, cannot buffer the negative effects of contextual constraints and were of limited benefit for people with high contextual constraints. That means, if we want to help people who are in disadvantaged social groups with their career development and mental health, more support and patience would be needed. If people want to overcome the contextual constraints and obtain decent work, they need to make more efforts than people with privileges do. Whether and how the accumulation of resources would break the vicious cycle is what can be investigated in future research.

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Perceived Severity of the Epidemic and Depression: A Joint Moderated Mediation Model

Gao Fengqiang, Han Ting, Sang Mohan, Zhan Yanru, Han Lei

2024, 47(4): 998-1007. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240429

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Major public health emergencies pose significant threats to the public's physical and mental health, such as depression. However, little is known about the underlying mechanism in the relationship between the perceived severity of the COVID-19 epidemic and depression. According to the transactional theory of stress and coping, it is necessary to explore the influencing factors and mechanism of the relationship between cognition of stress events (perceived severity of the COVID-19 epidemic) and depression. The level of cyberchondria in people during the COVID-19 epidemic was higher than that during the nonepidemic period. Individuals with cyberchondria have a negative cognitive bias, and negative cognition can positively predict depression. In addition, according to the stress-cognitive vulnerability model of response styles, rumination may interact with stressful events or daily disturbances to exacerbate depression, and there are significant gender differences in rumination. The reason women have higher levels of depression than men may be that women tend to ruminate as a way of coping than men. Therefore, this study attempted to explore the relationship between the perceived severity of the COVID-19 epidemic and depression, the mediating role of cyberchondria, and the joint moderating role of rumination and gender.
In this study, the perceived severity of the COVID-19 epidemic (predictor variable), cyberchondria (mediator variable), rumination (moderator variable), gender (moderator variable), and depression (outcome variable) were used to develop a joint moderated mediation model. The convenience sampling method was adopted, and questionnaires were distributed via the Wenjuanxing platform, which provides functions equivalent to the Amazon Mechanical Turk. The Data were collected from 503 participants during the severe epidemic period in China (January 24 to February 22, 2020). The participants' average age of 22.94 ± 5.68 years. The evaluation tools used included the Perceived Severity of the COVID-19 Epidemic Questionnaire, the depression subscale of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, the Cyberchondria Scale, and the Ruminative Responses Scale.
The path analysis results showed that the higher the perceived severity of the COVID-19 epidemic was, the higher the individual's depression level. Cyberchondria mediated the relationship between the perceived severity of the COVID-19 epidemic and depression. Individuals with higher perceived severity of the COVID-19 epidemic were more likely to develop cyberchondria, thus increasing their depression level. Rumination moderated the relationship between the perceived severity of the COVID-19 epidemic and depression and moderated the relationship between cyberchondria and depression. A high level of rumination increased the predictive effects of the perceived severity of the COVID-19 epidemic on depression and cyberchondria on depression. However, when the rumination level was low, the predictive effect of the perceived severity of the COVID-19 epidemic on depression was weakened, and cyberchondria had no significant effect on depression prediction. Rumination and gender jointly moderated the relationship between the perceived severity of the COVID-19 epidemic and depression. There was no significant difference in the predictive effect of the perceived severity of the COVID-19 epidemic on depression in women with high rumination compared with that in women with low rumination. The predictive effect of the perceived severity of the COVID-19 epidemic on depression in men with high rumination was greater than that in men with low rumination.
The results showed that the perceived severity of the COVID-19 epidemic affected depression through cyberchondria, and rumination and gender played a joint moderating role. This study reveals the influencing mechanism of the perceived severity of the COVID-19 epidemic on depression and provides a research basis and insight for reducing the impact of the epidemic on individuals' depression.

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Social Trauma and Suicidal Ideation among College Students: The Roles of Psychache and Optimism

Jin Tonglin, Wu Yuntena, Zhang Lu, Liu Zhenhui, Li Xin, Jiang Yongzhi

2024, 47(4): 1008-1015. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240430

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Suicide has become a serious problem for college students in recent years. According to previous researches, the rate of suicide in Chinese college students is about 2% to 24%. Based on the strain theory of suicide, social trauma is crucial in causing suicidal ideation. Moreover, the three-factor model of suicide theory regards psychache as a potential suicidal factor. In addition, some researches find that optimism can decrease college students' suicidal ideation. However, there is limited research focusing on the relations among social trauma, psychache, optimism, and suicidal ideation. To sum up, the purposes of the present study is to construct a moderated mediation model to examine the mediating role of psychache and the moderating role of optimism in the relation between social trauma and suicidal ideation among college students.
A total of 550 college students were selected, with 270 males and 280 females. The average age was 19.21-year-old. The questionnaires included the Social Trauma Questionnaire, the Suicidal Ideation Scale, the Psychache Scale, and the Optimism Questionnaire. Data were collected and analyzed with Spss 24.0 and Mplus 7.4, and the bias-corrected percentile bootstrap method was used to analyze the roles of psychache and optimism in the relation between social trauma and college students' suicidal ideation. A single method-factor approach was used to test the common method variance. Results showed that this study had an in-existent common method variance. The correlation results show that social trauma, psychache, and suicidal ideation were positively correlated with each other, while optimism, psychache, and suicidal ideation were negatively correlated with each other.
The structural equation model results showed that: (1) The data fits the theoretical model well (χ²/df = 3.53, CFI = .92, TLI = .90, GFI = .93, RMSEA = .07). (2) Social trauma had a significant direct effect on suicidal ideation of college students(β = .15, p < .001); Social trauma had a significant direct effect on psychache of college students(β = .41, p < .001); Psychache had a significant direct on suicidal ideation of college students(β = .35, p < .001); Optimism had a significant direct effect on suicidal ideation of college students(β = -.21, p < .001); Optimism had a significant direct effect on psychache of college students(β = -.35, p < .001). The interaction of social trauma and optimism had a significant direct effect on suicidal ideation and psychache of college students(β = -.20, p < .001; β = -.32, p < .001); The interaction of psychache and optimism had a significant direct effect on suicidal ideation of college students (β = -.20, p < .001). (3) Social trauma had a significant indirect effect on suicidal ideation through psychache of college students, and its confidence interval of 95% is [.07, .23]. (4) Under the low optimism level, there was a positive relation among social trauma and suicidal ideation, psychache and suicidal ideation, or social trauma and psychache of college students. However, there was a non-significant relation among them under the high optimism level.
It is concluded that in the structural equation model of social trauma on suicidal ideation of college students, psychache plays a partial mediating role and optimism moderates their relations. These findings suggest some measures of prevention and treatment for college students' suicidal ideation should be taken. On the one hand, it is important to protect college students from the harm of social trauma, school should strengthen their life education. On the other hand, it is also crucial to promote college students' mental health level, school and family should teach them to build stronger interpersonal relationships and appropriate distress coping strategies.

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The Evolution and Implications of Positive Youth Development

Shen Lei, Zhang Yunrui, Chen Ning, Liu Wei

2024, 47(4): 1016-1023. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240431

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Positive Youth Development (PYD) is an integrative developmental theory that incorporates problem awareness, empirical evidence, and practical applications. PYD spans the entire developmental process, emphasizing the value of youth development from theoretical methods and principles to practical application. This study reviews the formation, background, and theoretical development of PYD, tracing its evolution from an ecological-situational orientation to a historical-cultural orientation over the past 30 years. Emphasizing the dialectical unity of history and logic, the study focuses on the philosophical and theoretical values of youth development mechanisms and practical approaches for promoting youth development. Drawing on historical context and practical experiences in China, this study explores the rich connotations and multiple implications of PYD.
The PYD paradigm represents a significant theoretical shift in the field of youth development, reshaping research and practice, and advancing global study and policy processes. PYD moves beyond the "problem perspective" and "deficit model" by focusing on the strengths and potential of youth. It emphasizes the reciprocal interaction between the individual and the context, recognizing the dynamic interactions fundamental to youth development. As a comprehensive and systematic development theory, the core of PYD lies in the positive transformation of youth epistemology and the profound understanding of development mechanisms.
The evolution of PYD from an ecological-situational orientation to a historical-cultural orientation expands our understanding of promoting positive youth development, research methods, and practical exploration. The core theoretical foundation of PYD's historical and cultural orientation is the relational developmental system (RDS), which integrates, expands, and deepens various developmental theories from ecological-situational orientations, such as ecological systems theory and developmental contextualism. RDS, as a cutting-edge theoretical framework in contemporary developmental science, emphasizes the complex dynamic mechanisms of various factors, spanning relationships from the micro-level of physiology, psychology, and behavior to the macro-level of society, culture, and history. It extends the research perspective of PYD to explore dynamic changes in the youth development process.
In recent years, PYD research has extended to different regions and countries, focusing on youths in low- and middle-income countries, and revealing diverse developmental patterns. The integration of social and cultural factors has enhanced our understanding of PYD, providing a theoretical foundation and empirical evidence for promoting youth development programs and prevention work worldwide. Thus, the fundamental positive transformation in youth epistemology formed by PYD has multiple implications for exploring ways to study and promote positive development, tapping into youth potential, and formulating and implementing education policies in China.
A comprehensive PYD research system has been established in Western countries. Based on the evolution and research experience of PYD worldwide, future PYD research should focus on cultural attributes and social realities in China, promoting the development and improvement of theoretical and applied systems of PYD. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate interdisciplinary research methods to systematically understand and effectively promote PYD development. Future research should consider the current status of youth development in China to integrate PYD into policies and practices, mobilize social resources, adopt a positive perspective toward youth, and promote their comprehensive and healthy growth.

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