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The differences between high creative persons and low creative persons in directing forgetting effects. ke zhang Xiu-Min DU 2017, 40(3): 514-519.  Abstract ( )   PDF (386KB) ( )   Numerous studies show that the creativity is related to the attention, memory, language, thinking and other cognitive processes. According to previous researches, there are three different views on the cognitive psychological mechanism of creative performance level during problem solving process. The first view is that the cognitive disinhibition is critical to the creative performance. The second view is that the cognitive inhibition prevents useless information and is beneficial to the creative performance. The third view is the adaptive cognitive inhibition hypothesis, that the attention of the high creative person is not always defocus, but changes according to the creative task and the different stages of problem solving. All the past researches pay attention to the automatic inhibition, which occurs at the unconscious level. Compared with low creative persons, how is the performance of high creative persons at intentional inhibition task remains a question. Considering that directed forgetting paradigm (DF) can explore one’s intentional cognitive inhibition with regard to memory, it is used to investigate the different ability in intentional inhibition between people with different levels of creative performance. This study conducted one experiment involving with 48 college students as its participants. The experiment employed a 2×2×2×2 mixed model design. The four manipulated variables were as follows: (a) for the creative level: high creative performance or low creative performance; (b) for the emotion valence: neutral or negative; (c) for the cue: remember or forget; (d) for the duration time before cue presented: 2s or 5s. In learning stage, 40 words(20 neutral, 20 negative) were presented randomly one by one in 2s or 5s, followed by a cue “remember” or “forget” to ask participants to remember or forget the word. Then participants were asked to do distraction task immediately, that they add two-digit numbers in their heads for 2 minutes. After the distraction task, they were given a recognition test including 40 studied words and 40 new words. All the words presented in the learning stage were judged to be “old”, words not seen were judged to be “new”. The results are as follows: (1) low creative subjects showed obvious directed forgetting effect in neutral words at duration of 2s and 5s, but not in the negative words; (2) High creative subjects showed obvious directed forgetting effect in neutral words at duration of 2s and 5s. But the directed forgetting effect reduced only when the negative words were presented in 5s. when the negative words was presented in 2s, there was obvious directed forgetting effect. These results suggested that compared with the low creative subjects, the high creative ones are better at inhibiting negative information. In summary, we investigate the differences between high creative persons and low creative persons in directing forgetting effects. The results show that persons who get higher score in creative task are better at intentional cognitive inhibition in negative words at shorter time than the ones who get lower score. The result agrees with adaptive cognitive inhibition hypothesis. The current study indicates that high creative persons can focus on wanted information and inhibit unwanted information intentionally. High creative people are more likely to forget information, especially the negative information that they don’t want. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of Facial Cues on determining the focus of attention: Evidence from Eye Movements Hai-Bo YANG Jie Ma 2017, 40(3): 520-526.  Abstract ( )   PDF (480KB) ( )   Previous studies have demonstrated that humans use a variety of facial cues, including gaze direction and nose angle, to perceive the direction in which a crowd is looking. For example, in a study using simple line-drawing faces, Sweeny et al. (2014) argued that the visual system pools information from nose angle and pupil rotations at the group level to determine the focus of attention of a crowd. However, there is currently no consensus as to the relative importance of eyes and nose cues in determining the focus of attention. Furthermore, the relative importance of these cues may differ when perceiving individual faces compared to crowds. The purpose of the first experiment was to determine whether the ensemble perception of the focus of attention of based on more than one face.For investigating the process of perception, Experiment 2 used the eye tracker to explore differences in how the focus of attention is derived when looking at crowd vs individual people. In experiment 1, either an individual face or crowd of faces (two, three or four faces) were presented on a 14-inch Lenovo computer by E-prime 2.0. Ninety-six faces with various pupil rotations and head orientations were constructed by Autodesk Maya 2014 and Photoshop 5.0. Thirty undergraduate students were required to complete an averaging orientation judgement task in which they wereinstructedtoestimate where the individual’s face or crowd’s faces were looking. Experiment 2 was 2 (facial cues: eyes and nose) × 4 (number of faces) within-subject design. Thirty-four participants` eye movements were recorded with an SMI RED eyetracker(22-inch screen, sampling rate=250Hz, resolution=1024 ×768 pixels, refresh rate=60Hz, participants - and - screen distance=57-60cm). The results of experiment 1 showed that the accuracy of using multiple faces of the crowd to estimate the direction of crowd’s attention was significantly higher than that of using an individual’s face (p＜0.05＝, which indicated that observers integrated at least two faces to perceive crowd attention. The results of experiment 2 suggested that the way in which we estimate an individual’s attentional focus is distinct from how we estimate the focus of attention of a crowd. (1) For both individual and crowd of faces, the entry time of noses was significant lower than that of eyes, p＜0.05, (2) The first fixation duration of the noses on individual faces was longer than that of eyes, p＜0.01, whilefor the crowd of faces, there is no significant difference between the first fixation duration on the noses and eyes. (3) The probability of first fixation located on noses was higher than that of eyes in individual faces condition, p＜0.05, yet in two faces or four faces conditions, the probability of first fixation located on eyes was higher than that of noses, p＜0.01. (4) For individual faces, total fixation duration of noses was longer than that of eyes, p＜0.01, whereas for crowd faces, there is no difference between noses and eyes on total fixation duration. When determining the focus of individual’s attention through facial cues, nose is more important than eyes. While under crowd condition, both nose and eyes are equally important. The results indicated that the visual system pools the gazes of faces into an ensemble code based on both eyes and nose, which allows humans to rapidly and efficiently perceive where a crowd is looking. Related Articles | Metrics

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Semantic-constrained or Syntactic-constrained? ------Processing Chinese Bare and Compound Reflexives 2017, 40(3): 527-533.  Abstract ( )   PDF (606KB) ( )   Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Orthographic Neighborhood Size during Chinese Character Identification: An ERP Study 2017, 40(3): 534-539.  Abstract ( )   PDF (475KB) ( )   There is a major concern highlighted in the literature that previous findings in alphabetical language studies regarding the N400 effect of neighborhood size may be confounded by phonological neighborhood size. A major purpose of this study is to resolve this concern. The stroke-based neighborhood size of a Chinese character is defined in this study as the number of characters that can be formed by replacing strokes of the root character. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) elicited by target characters were recorded while participants completed a character-matching task where in a probe character was matched on each trial with its preceding target character. The task was performed to avoid potential P300 contaminations related to immediate responses and/or decisions to the stimuli. Using the delayed character-matching task, we manipulated the number of stroke-based neighbors of the target characters to study Chinese character orthographic neighborhood effects and to explore whether ERPs are influenced by cognitive processing during Chinese character recognition. In this study, characters of the highest frequency in their neighborhood were used as stimuli in order to eliminate the influence of the higher-frequency neighbors. The orthographic neighbors of Chinese characters were defined at stroke level. The neighbors of the characters were created by replacing 1 to 5 random strokes of the root characters depending on the total number of their strokes while keeping their structure and the orientations of their remaining strokes relatively constant. Actual neighbors of each target (selected) character determined by extra group of participants, who received a paper-pencil task in which they wrote the neighbors according to this definition and instructions provided. A total of 140 stimulus characters were then selected from the root characters to form 2 types of stimuli: characters with a large and characters with a small number of stroke-based neighbors which were each identified by at least 2 of the participants during the task. Character frequencies, stroke counts and radical counts were balanced across these types. The results revealed a greater N400-like deflection, a higher N250 and a lower P200 elicited by characters with a large number of neighbors compared with similar characters with a small number, while revealing no significant difference in behavioral performance across the neighborhood sizes. Given that the stroke-based neighborhood is free of a confounding phonological one, one implication of the present N400-like effect is that an N400 effect of neighborhood size can be generated without the confounding influence of the phonological neighborhood. Thus, the finding of the present N400-like effect can resolve the major concern highlighted in the literature, namely, that previous findings regarding the N400 effect of neighborhood size may be confounded by phonological neighborhood size. Furthermore, the N400-like effect of neighborhood size can be interpreted in terms of lateral inhibition within word level in the interactive activation model. The present P200-like effect of neighborhood size likewise suggests that P200 can be generated without the confounding influence of the phonological neighborhood or can be generated by orthographical processing alone. In conclusion, the present results are consistent with the interactive activation model and support the role of orthographical processing in generating both P200 and N400. The N400 may be better further interpreted as reflecting impeded retrieval of the character’s meaning. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Categorization-Individuation Model on Own-Age Effect Xiao-Pei ZHANG Xiping Liu 2017, 40(3): 540-546.  Abstract ( )   PDF (501KB) ( )   This study adopts the standard recognition paradigm, using the face recognition performance, based on categorization-individuation model of face recognition preference, designs 3 experiments to examine the influences of perceptual experience, processing method, and motivation level on own-age effect. The experiment 1 used 2 (group: college students, preschool teachers) x 2 (face age: children, youth) mixed design to examine whether perceptual experience is related to own-age effect. Participants were 60 preschool teachers and college students. Participants were exposed to 32 photographs, which consisted of 16 children photographs and 16 youth photographs(neutral faces and half of them were male). Following this exposure, sixty-four photographs, including 32 new photographs, were presented to the participants during the recognition test. The results indicated that preschool education students recognized youth faces better than children faces. However, for preschool teachers, there was no significant difference in recognizing youth faces and children faces. There was no significant difference in recognizing youth faces between the two groups. This explained that rich perceptual experience in recognizing different-age faces can improve memory performance for different-age faces, which weakened the own-age effect. The experiment 2 used 4 (processing method: categorization processing of children and youth faces, individual processing of children and youth face, individual processing of children face and categorization processing of youth face, categorization processing of children face and individual processing of youth face) x 2 (face age: children, youth) mixed design to investigate the influence of processing method on own-age effect. Participants were 128 undergraduate students. The individual processing required the participants to choose the most attractive parts (eyes, nose or mouth) of the face. Categorization processing required the participants to choose the shape of the face (round, square or oval face). The rest was the same as in experiment 1. The results showed that there is own-age effect in the categorization processing of children faces and individual processing of youth faces.This explained that categorization processing has a negative effect on retrieval performance, while individual processing lead to the improvement on retrieval performance. The experiment 3 used 3 (group: motivated children face, motivated youth face, control group) x 2 (face age: children, youth) mixed design to examine the influence of motivation on own-age effect. Participants were 72 undergraduate students. Participants of the motivated children face group would get 5 points for correctly identifying a child face and 1 point for correctly identifying a youth face. Participants of the motivated youth face group were the opposite. The rest was the same as in experiment 1. The results showed that participants of the motivated youth face group recognized youth faces better than children faces, participants in the control group recognized youth faces better than children faces. There was marginally significant difference in recognizing children faces between the three groups. One sample t test was conducted for the own-age effect size. Result showed that the own-age effect size of the participants of the motivated youth face group was significantly higher than participants in the control group.This explained that motivation effectively improved the retrieval performance. The results showed that by increasing perceptual experience, applying individual processing, and enhancing the motivation of processing the other-age faces can improve the recognition performance of other-age faces, and therefore weakened the own-age effect. This study also suggested that own-age effect and own-race effect abided by categorization-individuation model. Related Articles | Metrics

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The First Survey to Folk Imagination of Emperor Face in Confucianism 2017, 40(3): 547-552.  Abstract ( )   PDF (464KB) ( )   The face represents an important source of social information in humans, which provides cues to attention, emotion, age, and identity. Past research has shown that sexual dimorphism cues of applicants’ faces and facial attractiveness affect leadership selection: A masculine facial appearance is congruent with masculine-typed leadership roles. Thus, it is extremely significant to examine the face traits about certain character. The purpose of the current study is to investigate the facial image of emperor from the perspective of Confucian culture. In the present study, we chosen a total of 90 participants of college students and adopted 2(Participant Gender: men vs. women)×2(Facial attractiveness: high vs. low) mixed experimental design to inspect the impact of facial attractiveness on the preferences for the face of emperor. Dependent variables were a forced-choice decision for the composite faces and the certainty of decision. These pairs of composite faces were produced by FaceGen Modeller 3.1 and by PhotoShop CS5. Each pair of composite faces was made of two different gender typicality of faces which was produced by the same original facial picture. In the experiment, let participants to choose the faces that are coincident with the images of emperor in their minds. The black fixation was presented firstly on the screen and the time of presentation was 1000ms. Then, certain pair of composite faces was presented on the screen until the participants made their decision. These faces were presented to the participants randomly. For each pair of faces, participants were asked to choose the face which looked more like a emperor. Participants were also instructed to indicate the strength of his decision by choosing from the options ‘slightly more coincident’,‘somewhat more coincident’, ‘more coincident’ and ‘much more coincident’. If the participants recognized the left face as emperor, they were required to choose “1–4”. If the participants recognized the right face as emperor, they were required to choose “5–8”. Trial order and the side of the screen on which any particular image was shown were fully randomized. After viewing and deciding on these portraits the sequence was rerun to rate these faces for masculinity/femininity and warmth. In the experiment, the results revealed that the image of emperor was feminine in one’s mind. (1)When judging these composite faces, one-sample t-tests comparing the strength of coincidence to the emperor’s face in their minds with what would be expected by chance alone(i.e. 3.5) showed that participants judged feminine faces as being more coincident than masculine faces. (2) a 2 × 2 mixed model analysis of variance found a main effect of facial attractiveness: the preference for the emperor’s face was more pronounced for those faces with low attractiveness. Taken together, the present conclusions are as follows:(1) The feminine-looking male face is coincident with the emperor's image in one’s mind. (2) Comparing to the high attractive feminine-looking male face, the low attractive feminine-looking male face is more coincident with the emperor's image in one’s mind. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Review of Eye Movement Research of Deaf Readers 2017, 40(3): 553-558.  Abstract ( )   PDF (286KB) ( )   Reading is an important approach to acquire and access knowledge, and is also an indispensable cognitive activity for individual development. Nowadays, there have been rich achievements in reading for hearing readers, but for deaf readers, their essential issues of reading are not clear. It’s reported that deaf readers have a prevalent difficulty in reading. Levels of illiteracy in deaf populations around the world have been extremely high for decades. Many deaf readers cannot reach the high-level reading skills, and even their reading level lag far behind the hearing peers. Therefore, to explore the cognitive reasons for the poor reading level of deaf readers has become a significant focus in special education and psychology. In order to attempt to explain this universal difficulty in the deaf population, much research has been generated, but there is no general agreement concerning the factors underlying the poor reading performance of deaf readers. Recently, there are some studies use the technique of eye movements to reveal about the cognitive process in reading, that is to say, it have been a new trend for researchers to investigate the written-language processing of deaf readers by the pattern of oculomotor control. This paper systematically reviews the prior researches used eye movements technique on deaf readers in English and Chinese reading. Given that deaf readers don’t have direct auditory access to languages, they access and process language via different sensory channels, visual input. Hence, the studies were focus on the phonological codes and visual attention. The studies about the perceptual span of deaf reader have found that skilled deaf readers have a larger perceptual span, which had provide the evidence for deaf readers’ enhanced attentional allocation to the parafoveal. There were many studies have explore whether the deaf readers have activated the phonological codes during reading, which results have no consistency. Using the gaze-contingent boundary paradigm, the researchers have found neither of the less-skilled and skilled deaf readers processed phonological information in parafoveal vision, that is to say, there is no link for the phonological codes and deaf reading. From prior studies, we can see that during reading less-skilled deaf readers have rely more on contextual cues to boost word processing, further more deaf readers can take use of the sign translation in parafoveal vision, which is an specific code style for deaf. Base on the review of the prior researches, we have put forward some advice for the future: (1) Combined the technique of eye movements and ERPs to explore the cognitive mechanism for the reading difficulty of deaf readers; (2) There are many homophone in Chinese, so it’s necessary to explore the phonological codes of deaf readers during Chinese reading; (3) To investigate the relationship between the visual attention and reading of deaf readers, whether the enhanced attentional allocation to the parafoveal would weaken the foveal processing; (4) Compared the less-skilled and skilled deaf reader’s efficiency for the processing of sign language, which maybe an crucial influence factors for deaf reading. Related Articles | Metrics

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Disentangling the “Gordian Knot” of Action Understanding: Disenchantment of Mirror Neurons CHEN Wei 2017, 40(3): 559-564.  Abstract ( )   PDF (314KB) ( )   It has been said that mirror neurons are “the most hyped concept in neuroscience”. There are two main and robust hypotheses that have been advanced on what might be the functional role of mirror neurons. One suggests that mirror neurons are at the basis of action understanding while the other emphasize that mirror neuron activity mediates imitation. However, as many researchers have recently discussed, the term “action understanding” has not been clearly defined. It has been used to refer to action perception, action recognition and selection. According to the “direct matching hypothesis” designated by Rizzolatti and colleagues, an action is understood when its observation makes the motor system of the observer “resonate”. Thus, when we observe a man biting an apple, the same population of neurons that control the execution of biting will resonate in the observer’s motor areas. A more radical definition for action understanding is a deflationary account proposed by Gallese, “determining why a given act (e.g. grasping a cup) was executed can be equivalent to detecting the goal of the still not executed and impending subsequent act (e.g. bringing the cup to the mouth). ” There are constitutive and causal interpretations of mirror neurons’ role in action understanding, but unfortunately, they are rarely distinguished in the current literatures. To say that neural phenomenon λ constitutes cognitive phenomenon ζ is like saying that λ realizes ζ, but this claim is potentially circular or begging the question in standard philosophical wisdom. The causal relation stands in contrast to the constitution relation. To say that event λ causes event ζ is to say that λ brings about ζ. There are three kinds of causal relations, necessary cause means that λ is necessary to bring about ζ; sufficient cause means that λ is sufficient to bring about ζ; and contributory cause means that λ is neither necessary nor sufficient to bring about ζ, but nevertheless it contributes to bringing about ζ. Recently, a series of empirical evidence supports the idea that mirror neurons are contributory causes of action understanding. In order to clarify how mirror neurons contributory cause action understanding, it is very necessary and to profitably distinguish between movements, motor acts and motor actions from both a conceptual and a neurophysiological points of view. A movement is defined as the displacement of joints or body parts without a specific goal (that can be observed both in everyday activities or can be induced by electrical or magnetic stimulation of the motor area). However, recently a bit of controversy arose over the mirror neuron activation for movement. A motor act directly toward an object or a body and potentially leads to an interaction, which encodes a specific object-directed interaction with a proximal goal (e.g. grasping a chip). Evidence on non-human primates has demonstrated that a motor act is coded by the activation of strictly and broadly congruent mirror neurons. A motor action is defined as a sequence of motor acts directed towards a distal goal (e.g. reaching for a piece of food, grasping it, holding it and bringing it to the mouth). Current work that combines behavioral studies with neuroimaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation in human indicates that mirror neuron activity, in conjunction with the perceptual cues, causes one to recognize and anticipate the completion of a goal-directed action. This shows action understanding is mediated by an inferential system (e.g. STS and mPFC, etc.). Notably, for proponents and opponents of deflationary account, to compromise a compatible approach, like different versions of dual process theories of action understanding, may be a relatively easy choice. On the contrary, direct responding and defending to the challenge from each other must the first important work to do. Related Articles | Metrics

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Tears of Joy-the Dimorphous Expressions of Positive Emotion 2017, 40(3): 565-571.  Abstract ( )   PDF (598KB) ( )   Our daily life is filled with situations like tears of joy. For example, some fans scream frantically in rock concerts as if in horror in the presence of their teen idol, and some people playfully make ugly faces to an infantile baby and express their desire to pinch his or her cheeks. From the percepctive of emotion psychology, what these different situations have in common is that the internal positive experience not only indues positive expressions, but also negative expressions bound with negative emotion logically, which is defined as dimorphous expressions of positive emotion(DEPE; Aragón et al., 2015). This hypothesis has never been discussed and tested systematically before Aragón et al. (2015). The purpose of current paper is to introduce their pioneering researches and elaborate the sturcture and functions of DEPE, based on existing theories and studies of emotion and emotion regulation. First, there are two distinct expressions arising from a single stimulus, a single positive appraisal and a single emotional experience in this dimorphous-expression model that can explain the tears of joy well and is fundamentally different from any other theories, including the consensual process model of emotion generation, the mixed emotion model and the opponent-process theory of emotion. Aragón et al. (2015) proved the reasonability and generality of DEPE model, using questionnaire and experimental methods. Second, the occourence of dimorphous expressions of positive emotion means that individuals might feel overwhelmed with happiness. However, perhaps this intense positive emotion will result in many negative impacts to some extent: (1) In the physical, intense positive emotion may bring trouble to the mild and moderate asthma patients and influence some kinds of physiological indexes related to the clinical diseases; (2) In the psychological level, researcheres have revealed the effect of intense positive emotion on different mental processes, ranging from perception and attention to cogintive control and memory. Consequently, these negative impacts could prevent individuals from making reasonable judgements and then induce non-adaptive behaviors. Third, because of these passive influences induced by intense positive emotion, the regulatory function of DEPE will appear followingly. The mechanism contained in this process is that negative expressions of DEPE would help to down-regulate the uncontrolled positive emotion. Meanwile, the reasons for this approach may be: (1) In theory, researchers seemingly pay less attention to the theme of initiative suppressing positive emotions compared to negative ones; (2) Individuals rarely apply the cognitive reappraisal to positive events within a short time, because this dynamic process might occupy more cognitive resource; (3) Although quickly removing oneself from emotional situations is an effective way in the emotional responses stage, people will not always choose to do so. Obviously, exactly how these emotions are regulated through the expression of a second expression will need to be explored in future research. Finally, this paper discusses the future directions of DEPE. Psychologists should employ new paradigms and techniques of the cognitive neuroscience(e.g., event-related potential, functional magnetic resonance imaging) to investigate the neurophysiological mechanism of DEPE. By doing so, it’s benefical to reveal its unconscious process characteristic and the modality effect of this unique phenomenon as well. What’s more, the limitation in exiting studies help us to recognize the diversity of influencing factors on DEPE, which may be a valuable research field. It should also be noted that the future work could extend to explore its inter-personal function, not just be confined to the intra-personal level. Related Articles | Metrics

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An Investigation of Emotional Characteristics of Temperament in 5831 Students’ from Primary School to College 2017, 40(3): 572-580.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1027KB) ( )   Temperament is a controversial psychological construct and widely used in many fields such as childhood, adult, clinics, health and education. The current theories and its applications of temperament in our country overlooked the emotional aspects of temperament’s psychological characteristics. No measurement tool and no relevant research to emotional characteristics of temperament exist. As a result, we developed the questionnaire on children’s and adolescents’ emotional characteristics of temperament and administered it to children and adolescents in Shanghai. We enriched the connotation of the original “emotional excitability” of temperament, forming the six secondary indexes and named them as emotional characteristics of temperament. The six secondary indexes were as follows: (1) sensitivity of emotional excitability, (2) strength of emotional excitability, (3) generation speed of emotional excitability, (4) changing speed of emotional excitability, (5) controllability of emotional excitability and (6) explicitness of emotional excitability. These indexes were corresponding to the active characteristics of temperament. The connotations of these indexes were mentioned below: (1) Sensitivity of emotional excitability reflected people’s difficulty difference of emotion generation; (2) Strength of emotional excitability reflected people’s strength difference of generated emotions; (3) Generation speed of emotional excitability reflected people’s speed difference of emotion generation; (4) Changing speed of emotional excitability reflected people’s changing speed difference between different emotions or different emotion degrees; (5) Controllability of emotional excitability reflected people’s controllability difference of emotions; (6) Explicitness of emotional excitability reflected people’s explicitness difference of emotions. The questionnaire was administered to 5831 students from Shanghai, including primary school students (fourth-grade and fifth-grade), junior school students, senior high school students and undergraduates (vocational college students and university students). The results showed: (1) The questionnaire meets the criteria of an effective measurement tool and serves as an original investigative tool for affective diathesis of college students. (2) In every schooling stage (primary school, junior school, senior high school and college), emotion generation of females was faster than males. (3) Emotion changing speed of primary school students, junior school students and senior high school students was faster than that of undergraduates; and emotion was more explicit for primary school students, junior school students and senior high school students than for undergraduates. (4) Emotion was more controllable and more explicit for university students than for vocational college students. (5) Emotional excitability of art students were more sensitive, stronger, faster, changing faster and more explicit than those of science students. All in all, temperament is neither good nor bad; the same is the emotional characteristics of temperament. But knowing one’s emotional characteristics of temperament conveniently and accurately can lead us to give more targeted help and build more effective communication with him/her. From this study, we know the emotional characteristics of temperament have stability and development at the same time. In addition, knowing students' emotional characteristics of temperament may also provide useful information for their career choice and future plan. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Negative Emotion on Selective Attention Inhibition and Its Emotion Regulation ——Based on the study of female college students in luteal phase 2017, 40(3): 581-586.  Abstract ( )   PDF (647KB) ( )   Gender stereotype believes that female is more emotional than male. Not only because of the difference of the brain structures between gender, but also due to the hormone secretion. It's easy for female to be negative when they are in luteal phase, because the amygdale which is the center of negative emotion storing will be activated by the progesterone. Moreover, the negative emotion will affect the cognitive activity, so that go against our work-efficiency. There are two points of view for the effect, one suggests that different emotional experience after different emotion regulation is the main cause. The other emphasizes the different consumption in the cognitive resource after different emotion regulation. In this study, using spatial cueing tasks, we explore whether activating the negative emotion of female college students who were in different menstruation phases will make impact on selective attention inhibition. And we use the difference value between the case that the response locations and signal locations are consistent and the case that the two locations are inconsistent to be the inhibiting quantity of selective attention. Furthermore, we use three different emotion regulations to find out the suitable way to regulate their emotion. This study is based on two experiments. In the first experiment, we selected 32 female college students who were in the luteal phase and other 32 who were in the menstrual period to activate their negative emotion and natural emotion separately. Then made a compare the selective attention inhibiting quantity of this four kinds of experiment treatment. The difference value larger , the inhibiting ability worse. In the second experiment, in order to find out the adjustment methods, which is beneficial to the improvement of their negative emotion and the selective attention inhibition ability, we use three different typical emotion regulations that the rumination, distraction and interpersonal emotion regulation as a strategy of emotion regulation to neutralize their emotion. The first two are the emotion regulation that the female tend to be use when they feel down, and interpersonal regulation will let us using empathy to help other and ourselves to neutralize their emotion. Moreover this three ways may help us to enhance our inhibition ability .So we activated negative emotion of other 104 female college students in luteal phase, and used the three kinds of emotion regulation on the adjustment. The result shows that the female collage students in luteal phase has significant higher inhibiting ability than the female collage students in menstrual period. What’s more, three kinds of emotion regulation all can regulate individual emotion and make the select attention inhibition function effectively. So the female will be easy to be negative in luteal phase ant have a lower selective attention inhibition ability. But the rumination, distraction and interpersonal emotion regulation are the effective means to improve our negative emotion and enhance our selective attention inhibition ability. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Relationship among Parental Psychological Control, Child Self-Control and Problem Behaviors: A Mediated Moderation Model 2017, 40(3): 594-599.  Abstract ( )   PDF (434KB) ( )   It has been found that parental psychological control was associated with child problem behaviors. However, not all children who experienced parental psychological control would suffer negative outcomes, indicating that some positive parental behaviors such as parental autonomy support may buffer children from psychological distress. Moreover, previous studies primarily focused on investigating the relationship between parental psychological control and child problem behaviors but rarely explored its mechanism. Available studies have only shown the associations between parenting behaviors and child’s self-control ability, and the associations between child self-control and their emotional and behavioral development. Thus, child’s self-control ability may play a mediating role in associations between parental psychological control and child problem behaviors. Based on Family Systems Theory, The Pressure Buffer Models and General Theory of Crime, the current study aimed to examine the moderating effects of parental autonomy support in the associations between parental psychological control and child externalizing or internalizing problem behaviors and further to explore whether the moderating effects would be mediated by child self-control ability (including inhibitory control and emotional control). Three hundred and forty-three children and their parents from suburb town’s elementary school of Beijing participated in this study. Parental Psychological Control and Autonomy Support Scale (PPCASS), Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) and Youth Self-Report (YSR) were respectively used to assess parental psychological control and autonomy support, child inhibitory control and emotional control, and child problem behaviors. PPCASS and YSR were reported by children in classroom and BRIEF was reported by parents at home. The independent-samples t test, pearson correlation, regression analysis and structural equation model statistical methods were used for data analysis. The result showed: (1) Parents were more likely to use psychological control towards boys than girls. Family socioeconomic status showed significant positive correlations with parental psychological control; (2) Parental psychological control showed significant positive correlations with parental autonomy support, child inhibitory/emotional control, and child internalizing/externalizing problem behaviors. (3) The association between parental psychological control and child internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors were buffered by parental autonomy support. That is, parental psychological control was more strongly associated with child internalizing and externalizing problem behavior in low parental autonomy support than in high parental autonomy support. Additionally, the moderating effects of parental autonomy support between parental psychological control and child internalizing/externalizing problem behaviors were partially mediated by child emotion control, and the moderating effects of parental autonomy support between parental psychological control and child externalizing problem behaviors were partially mediated by child inhibitory control. On the basis of these findings, we concluded that parental autonomy support would moderate the associations between parental psychological aggression and child problem behaviors and further this moderating mechanism was mediated by child self-control. Findings from this study highlight the importance of studying parental negative and positive behavior simultaneously and broaden our understanding of the factors and processes that account for the individual differences in the effects of parental psychological aggression in Chinese families. Related Articles | Metrics

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Adolescents’ Inhibitory Control and Peer Rejection: the Mediating Roles of Physical and Relational Aggression 2017, 40(3): 600-605.  Abstract ( )   PDF (455KB) ( )   Peer rejection refers to the extent to which a person is disliked by their peers. Inhibitory control, is one of key components of executive functions, involving being able to control one’s attention, behavior, thoughts, and/or emotions to override a strong internal predisposition or external lure, and instead do what’s more appropriate or needed. Inhibitory control is a predictor of peer rejection. However, little is known about the mediating mechanisms underlying this relation. According to a heuristic model of social competence proposed by Yeates et al. (2007) and a model in Hay et al.’s (2004) review, children with poor EF are more likely to be socially maladjusted, including being more rejected, because they have specific impairments in social cognition (e.g., theory of mind) and display greater negative social behaviors (e.g., aggression). When applied specifically to inhibitory control, this model suggests that the higher rates of aggression may explain why deficit in inhibitory control is associated with peer rejection. There are physical and relational forms in aggression. The existing studies have well established the negative association between inhibitory control and physical aggression, but the association between inhibitory control and relational aggression is still not clear. Some researchers hold the view that consistent with physical aggression, inhibitory control also negatively predicts relational aggression; whereas others argue that inhibitory control is not related to relational aggression. Moreover, previous researches demonstrated that physical and relational aggression show unique associations with peer rejection. The current study was to explore the mediating roles of physical and relational aggression in the association between inhibitory control and peer rejection, and to compare difference of the mediating effects of physical aggression and relational aggression. One thousand five hundred and eighty-nine adolescents of grade 9 (mean age 15.22 ± 0.36 years old) from 91 classes of 8 junior high schools, were investigated. The inhibition subscale from Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function was administrated to measure inhibitory control through parent-report. Physical aggression and relational aggression were assessed through peer rating, and peer rejection was obtained through peer nomination. All of the measures showed good reliability. The results revealed that (1) significant correlations existed between adolescents’ inhibitory control, physical aggression, relational aggression, peer acceptance and peer rejection; (2) both physical and relational aggression mediated the associations between inhibitory control and peer rejection; and the mediating effect of physical aggression was stronger than that of relational aggression. The present study extends previous studies in two aspects. Firstly, this study provides insight into one possible mechanism underlying the relation between inhibitory control and peer rejection. That is, adolescents’ inhibitory control had indirect effect to peer rejection through physical and relational aggression, supporting previous models proposed by Yeates et al. (2007) and Hay et al.’s (2004). Furthermore, we found a stronger mediating effect of physical aggression than that of relational aggression. Specifically, inhibitory control better predicted physical aggression than relational aggression. One possible explanation is that relational aggression is of highly socially complex nature and relied heavily on the social network. These results emphasize on the important role of social behaviors in association between inhibitory control and peer functioning. Future studies will need to continue to examine other potential mechanisms by longitudinal design. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Construction of Academic Self-Concept:A Review of Studies on The Internal/External Frame of Reference Model Zhen-Xing Li Huan DENG 2017, 40(3): 606-611.  Abstract ( )   PDF (333KB) ( )   The I/EM refers to the process in which a person compares his or her ability in a subject with that in another subject to construct a subject -specific self-concept when evaluating his or her ability in the subject. It investigated theoretically into the effects on the construction of academic self-concept produced by both the intra-individual and inter-individual frames of reference, proving that the construction of students’ academic self-concept is influenced by external (or social) comparison as well as internal comparison of individual’s different subject-specific ability. Since the I/EM has been proposed, many researchers have used different methods to test its cross-culture generalizability widely, such as examining it in only one country or culture, examining the moderating role of country after a meta-analysis of the model was made, making a comparative studies in different countries or cultures using the same instrument and method, all of these studies supported the cross-culture generalizability of the I/EM. However, lots of studies suggested that the construction of academic self-concept of Chinese mainland adolescents had its specificity due to the distinct difference in self-concept and its neural mechanism between western and Chinese mainland adolescents. Therefore, to more critically examine the cross-culture generalizability of the I/EM, we should also focus on the analysis of its regional and ethnical difference when examining it using national big samples. M?ller and Marsh (2013) proposed the dimensional comparison theory (DCT) by means of summarizing the studies of the model, and defined dimensional comparison a process that a single individual compared his or her ability in a domain with his or her ability in another domain. The DCT became another important comparative theory following the social comparison and temporal comparison. Dimensional comparison may produce contrast effects and assimilation effects, dimensional comparison predicts contrast effects when the nature of contrasting domains has a big difference (far comparisons: e.g., the negative effect of verbal achievement on math self-concept), while much weaker negative contrast or even positive assimilation effects may be produced when the nature of contrasting domains have a small difference (near domains: e.g., positive effects of verbal achievement on English self-concept). Although this explanation to certain degree seems to be reasonable, some studies also found that contrast effects could be produced despite of the small difference of the nature of the contrasting domains. More studies are needed to identify the context where the contrast or assimilation effects of dimensional comparison are more likely to occur. As the studies getting further, the researchers gradually found that the I/EM was insufficient construction of academic self-concept, and tried to integrate it with other theories or models in order to explain the construction of academic self-concept more comprehensively. Recently the integration with the big fish little pond effect (BFLPE) was one of the most important study. the I/EM and its integrated models have just investigated the role of dimensional comparison and social comparison in construction of academic self-concept, temporal comparison was ignored. Future studies should strengthen further its integration with temporal comparison, and sort out the role of the three comparison in processes of construction of academic self-concept. There are at least two aspects about the enlightenment for academic self concept research and educational practice: Firstly, strengthening the subject specificity research of academic self-concept and other academic variables; Secondly, teachers and parents should help students to select proper comparison style and frame of reference. Related Articles | Metrics

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Avatar and Online Initial Interpersonal Trust 2017, 40(3): 612-617.  Abstract ( )   PDF (285KB) ( )   Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Social Networking Sites Usage on Envy: The Mediating Role of Upward Social Comparison and The Moderating Role of Self-esteem Yongxin Zhang Zong-Kui ZHOU 2017, 40(3): 618-624.  Abstract ( )   PDF (560KB) ( )   Envy is a common and unpleasant emotion experience for most people regardless of culture, which can arise when we compare unfavorably with others who are better than us (Smith & Kim, 2007). Since Internet and social networking sites become an integrated part of modern life and play a important role in the lives of nearly 40% of the world’s population, one of the question under debate is whether social networking sites usage contribute to users’ well-being (Gosling & Mason, 2015; Huang, 2010; Kross et al., 2013; Manago, Taylor, & Greenfield, 2012; Valenzuela, Park, & Kee, 2009). However, the newest research revealed envy may be one of the crux?of?the?matter. When social networking sites usage triggered feeling of envy, people would be depressing, life dissatisfaction, and low well-being (Tandoc, Ferrucci, & Duffy, 2015; Verduyn et al., 2015). Envy threatens people’s well-being online and offline (Krasnova, Wenninger, Widjaja, & Buxmann, 2013; Smith & Kim, 2007). It is necessary to explore factors that influence envy and the mechanism whereby such factor influence envy on social networking sites. Based on social comparison theory, the present study constructed a moderated mediation model to investigate whether upward social comparison mediated the relationship between social networking sites usage and envy, and whether self-esteem moderated this mediation effect. By convenient sampling, totally 630 college students (277 boys and 353 girls) who have used social networking sites for more than three months were recruited to participate in this study. They completed Facebook intensity scale, upward social comparison scale, Rosenberg self-esteem scale, and Facebook envy scale. The results indicated that: (1) Social networking sites usage significantly positively predicted envy, and upward social comparison significantly positively predicted envy. (2) Upward social comparison played a partial mediating role between social networking sites usage and envy. (3) Self-esteem moderated the second path of the mediated effect of upward social comparison, and it means the indirect association between social networking sites usage and envy varied as a function of self-esteem. To be more specifically, the relationship between upward social comparison and envy was much stronger for college students with low self-esteem relative to those with high self-esteem. Therefore, both mediating and moderating effects existed in the association between social networking sites usage and envy. These findings revealed the mechanism for the formation of envy on social networking sites among college students. The present study not only revealed how social networking sites usage influenced envy, but also revealed when this effect was stronger. These findings had significant theoretical and reference values and would contribute to reduce people’s envy on social networking sites. Firstly, it is beneficial to reduce the upward social comparison happened on social networking sites. Secondly, it is important to help college students to improve the level of self-esteem, and adequately reduce envy on social networking sites. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Time on memory for Detecting Concealed Information of Crime Details 2017, 40(3): 625-631.  Abstract ( )   PDF (575KB) ( )   Psychophysiological detection of deception has garnered increasing attention in both research and applied settings. Deception detection using autonomic responses has been studied for nearly a century. The Concealed Information Test (CIT) is one of the polygraph techniques. In the CIT, question items are chosen so that an examinee with no knowledge about the crime would not be able to discriminate between crime-relevant and irrelevant items. This study aimed to examine the influence of testing time for detecting crime details, and the skin conductance response activity (SCR) was registered by 16-channel polygraph. Meanwhile, this study also examined whether the testing time had influence on distinguishing the guilty group and the informed innocent group. 68 university students participated the study. They were randomly divided into 2 groups: ’guilty’, who committed the mock-crime; ’informed innocent’, who were exposed the mock-crime relevant details by reading newspaper. Half of the participants in the each group needed to do the test immediately, another were tested in 1 week later. All participants needed to have the recognition memory test after CIT. The CIT was consist of central problems (which were the core details of the mock-crime) and peripheral problems (which were the environment details of the mock-crime). The results showed that: (1) for the change of skin conductance response activity, the SCR change of central problems was significant greater than those of peripheral problems, and the SCR change in the immediate test was significant greater than that in the delayed test. There was a significant interaction between the type of test and the type of participant, When the test immediately, there was no significance between the guilty group and the informed innocent group, but when the test delayed, the SCR change of the ‘informed innocent’ group was smaller than those of the guilty group; (2) as for the recognition rate, the recognition accuracy of central problems was higher than those of peripheral problems, the recognition accuracy in the immediate test was higher than that in the delayed test. There was a significant interaction between the type of test and the type of participant, there was no significant difference between the guilty group and the informed innocent group in the immediate test, but in the delayed test, the recognition accuracy of the guilty group was significant higher than those of the informed innocent group for the peripheral problems; (3) the detection rate in the immediate test was larger than that in the delayed test, the interaction of the type of test and the type of participant was also significant, there was no significant difference between immediate test and delayed test of the guilty group, but the detection rate in the delayed test was lower than that in the immediate test for the informed innocent group. The present findings suggested that it was easier to detect ‘guilty’ and ‘informed innocent’ in the delayed test, and the detection rate declined in the delayed test, but it also helped to reduce the danger of detecting the ‘informed innocent’ as ‘guilty’. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of Different Types of Intergroup Threat on Collective Self-esteem: The mediating effect of two kinds of emotions 2017, 40(3): 632-637.  Abstract ( )   PDF (417KB) ( )   A large number of studies seek out intergroup threat could conduct different emotions. Previous studies resulted in the inconsistent conclusions concerning the influence of the intergroup threat on the collective self-esteem. In some studies intergroup threat could promote collective self-esteem, but in other researches the reduction effect appeared. Moreover, there were salient relations among intergroup threat, emotion and intergroup attitude. Therefore we suggested that emotion could result in the inconsistent conclusions concerning the influence of the intergroup threat on the collective self-esteem. Four paragraphs selected from news primed the participants’ feeling of the intergroup threat, which contained one condition among low realistic threat, high realistic threat, low symbolic threat or high symbolic threat information. 87 participants were randomly located into four groups. Firstly, they were requires to read one kind of the news and then they were asked to describe which kinds of emotion were aroused after reading the news. Finally they finished the questionnaires of collective self-esteem. We used independent t text with the feeling of threat. The result showed that a significant effect on the feeling of threat: people in the high threat groups had the stronger threaten feeling than in those low threat groups. The arousing emotions in threat groups were also significantly stronger than the control group. More specifically, anger in the high realistic threat group was stronger than the low realistic threat group and high symbolic threat group. But comparatively , inferiority in the high symbolic threat group were stronger than the other three. In brief, different kinds of emotions were aroused in different types of threat. In order to evaluate the meditating effect on the intergroup threat types and the collective self-esteem, mediation analysis was used. The findings showed that anger fully mediated the change on the collective self-esteem under different intergroup threats and interiority also significantly mediated. In particular, realistic threat aroused the stronger anger, and the stronger anger was related to the higher collective self-esteem. While on the contrary, symbolic threat aroused the stronger inferiority and inferiority was related to the lower collective self-esteem. Different intergroup threats conducted the different emotions. Realistic threat could arouse strong anger and symbolic threat could arouse strong inferiority. Furthermore, anger could fully mediate the influence of the collective self-esteem under different intergroup threats and anger could partially mediate. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Impact of Different Intensity Positive Life Events on Affective and Behavior Reaction of Individual: Testing and Integration of Multiple Models 2017, 40(3): 638-644.  Abstract ( )   PDF (461KB) ( )   Positive life events bring the cheerful affection to people, which is beneficial for people's physical and mental health. It is generally believed that more positive events are better. But studies have inconsistent conclusions: more positive events were worse when these events had different affective intensities (Seta, Haire, & Seta, 2008). This study adopts the method of experimental research, through a series of experiments to discuss how the different characteristics of positive life events affect individual process, and try to reveal the influencing mechanism and rule of positive life events on college students. This study applied the experimental paradigm from Seta, Haire, & Seta (2008), the experimental materials for Chinese college students' positive life events. 144 college students participated in three experiments. First of all, the 10 groups of experimental materials were selected from questionnaire survey on Chinese college students who experienced positive life events. Subjects rated the positive life events from - 10 (very negative) to + 10 (very positive), the high positive event was rated at + 6.5 or so, low positive event was rated at + 3.5 or so. Then, in the normal experiments, the participants were told that the experimenter was interested in their reactions to different events (one highly positive event condition and a mixed condition that contained two events—a highly positive and a mildly positive one). They were then given materials that contained the experimental manipulations. In the mixed condition, the order of the positive stimuli was counterbalanced using a Latin-Square design. After reading the information, participants were asked how positive thinking about the event(s) made them feel on a 101-point scale where 0 represented ‘‘not at all’’ and 100 represented ‘‘extremely positive’’. And participants were asked to make a choice between two events which one is prefer to experience in life. The results found that the processing of different positive life events is a discriminant model of processing in general. Experiment 1 found that participants had a more intense positive affective reaction when they were exposed to a highly positive life experience rather than exposed to two positive events（a highly positive and a mildly positive life event）, which supports averaging effect. There were no significant order effects. Experiment 2, when positive life events in mixed condition had different affection intensity, if these events were different type, the processing of life events emerged the averaging effect; while these life events belong to the same type, the summation effect will appear. Experiment 3 found that the processing conformed to the hypothesis of peak-end rule if these events of mixed condition had obvious temporal sequence. Finally, according to the results of this study, the author attempts to explain by the multiple-processing hypothesis of life events——in which individuals’ processing may be averaging or summation according to the different attribution of positive life events. Related Articles | Metrics

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A Comparative Study of the Impact on Self-construal and the Perception of Mongolian and Han 2017, 40(3): 645-650.  Abstract ( )   PDF (336KB) ( )   Self-construal has been a core topic of psychology, in recent years, the research on self-construal is received widespread attention in cross-cultural psychology. In addition to the study of cultural differences on self-construal, the researchers have increasingly keen to study the relationship between self-construal and individual’s psychological processes and behavior. It has been found that there is a typical cultural difference in self-construal which can also influence individual’s perceptual features. Previous studies mainly focused on cross-cultural comparative study between European-American individuals and East Asia individuals, while the comparative study of another ethnic is less. This research takes Mongolians as participants for the first time, and uses the self-construal scale (SCS) to investigate the features of Mongolian and the Han college students’ self-construal under different cultural backgrounds, through behavioral experiments to study the effect of Han and Mongolian college students’ self-construal on their perception, and then through cultural priming paradigm to further explore the perceptual characteristics , it makes a tentative research on the relationship among the culture - self - cognition (perception). The results showed that, first of all, there is a significant difference between Mongolian and the Han college students’ self-construal. In the Han and Inner Mongolian college students’ self-construal, there are more interdependent than independent self-construal. In the Mongolian college students’ self-construal, there are more independent than interdependent self-construal. And then, the differences between Mongolian and the Han college students’ self-construal lead to the differences of their perception. In the Navon’s letter discrimination task, the Han and the Inner Mongolian college students are faster in the global level than the local level, While the Outer Mongolian college students are faster in the local level than the global level. The last but not least, the cultural priming study shows that the all participants performed better in the local level than the global level on letter discrimination task under independent self-construal priming; while under interdependent self-construal priming, the participants performed better in the global level than the local level on letter discrimination task. Therefore, the following conclusions can be drawn: Inner Mongolian and the Han college students prone to hold interdependent self-construal, Outer Mongolian college students prone to hold independent self-construal, cultural diversity and cultural integration have an impact on self-construal. Furthermore, the behavioral studies show that different types of self-construal have an effect on individuals’ perceptual cognition. The Han and Inner Mongolian college students hold a global cognition, while Mongolian college students hold a local cognition. The last in the condition of cultural priming, the immediate changes of self-construal lead to changes in perceptual processing, indicating that the changes in the perception caused by the changes of self-construal under cultural priming effects. Totally the academic framework of culture - self - cognition (perception) has been suit for Mongolian college students. Related Articles | Metrics

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Differential Mode of Association in Chinese Interpersonal Affection : Evidence from Extrinsic Affective Simon Task(EAST) xiao-jing YUAN 2017, 40(3): 651-656.  Abstract ( )   PDF (371KB) ( )   Abstract Interpersonal affection was a valuable topic and bring to increasingly researched in the past few years. This study discussed the influence of Differential Mode of Association(DMA) showed in interpersonal affection. Previous study used IAT(Implicit Association Test) to study the affection differences between the self and others by pairwise comparison, but this kind of research can not compared multiple kinds of objects at the same time. De Houwer developed the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task(EAST)as single task to remedy these defection. EAST can measured implicit attitude at different objects at the same time, based on the difference reaction time between incompatible discrimination and compatible discrimination as the indicator, EAST measured implicit attitude indirectly by measuring the automatic association between concept words and attributive words. With randomly sampled 36 undergraduate students as subjects, completed the EAST under four kinds of interpersonal relationships conditions, which were the self, the relatives, the acquaintances and the strangers to confirm if interpersonal relationships associating themselves with affection in a DMA pattern. Experiment processed as follows: the self nouns, the relatives nouns, the acquaintances nouns and the strangers nouns were presented on the colored trials, whereas five positive and five negative adjectives were presented on the white trials. The nouns were either presented in a green or blue color. All participants were instructed to classify these words by pressing the good key or bad key depending on the meaning or color of the presented word, they were told that, if the word was white, then the meaning of the word was important. All participants were instructed to pressing the good key for white word with a positive meaning and to pressing the bad key for white word with a negative meaning. If the word was colored, they were instructed to pressing the good or bad key on the basis of the color of the word. By analyzed the results of the test trials on which colored words were presented. The results indicated that: (1)people were prone to associating themselves, the relatives with positive affection and associating strangers with negative affection, but not significant bias affection in acquaintances . (2) Interpersonal affection showed a DMA pattern in connection strength. This study suggested that influenced by Chinese culture, Chinese people showed a interdependent relationalism in individuals cognitive schema, those people close to the self in psychological distance have more closely connect to the positive affection, and those away form the self in psychological distance have more closely connect to the negative affection. People in different interpersonal distances within the DMA affects the extent of organization and processing of relevant information, result in differences in interpersonal affection. Related Articles | Metrics

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Personality Traits and Subjective Well-being in Chinese University Students: The Mediated Effect of Confucian Psychological Assets 2017, 40(3): 657-663.  Abstract ( )   PDF (713KB) ( )   McCrae and Costa (1999) distinguished between “basic tendencies” and “characteristic adaptations” in five-factor theory of personality. The five personality traits are basic tendencies, whereas habits, attitudes, interests, skills, beliefs, goals, expectations, relationships and plans are characteristic adaptation. Confucian Psychological Assets refer to those qualities that Confucianism values highly. According to adaptation characteristic, psychological assets fall into this category. A large body of literatures show that personality traits are closely connected with subjective well-being, including life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect. Work is needed that examines the relationship among personality traits, Confucian Psychological Assets, and subjective well-being. The purpose of the present study is to investigate: (1) the differential associations of personality traits and Confucian Psychological Assets in university students; (2) whether Confucian Psychological Assets are correlated with subjective well-being; (3) whether students’ Confucian Psychological Assets mediate the relationship between personality traits and subjective well-being. Participants were 308 students from university freshmen (mean age = 18.77 years, 209 females) recruited from Beijing. They were surveyed with questionnaires, including Big Five Inventory (John & Srivastava, 1999), Confucian Psychological Assets questionnaire (Li, Zhang, & Wang, 2012), Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985), and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988). The present study conducted exploratory factor analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis, and Sobel tests. Because all data were gathered from the same source at the same time, the extent of method variance were examined in the study. During the procedure of Harman’s one factor test, results of an exploratory factor analysis offered some indication that common method variance was not a serious problem in this study. The main findings were as follows: (1) in terms of personality traits and Confucian Psychological assets, extraversion was significantly positively correlated with advocating virtue and loving people; agreeableness with the eight dimensions; conscientiousness with the six dimensions except service for people and great assiduity; neuroticism with learning, loving people, and laboring; and openness with empathy and service for people. (2) Except empathy, the other seven dimensions of Confucian Psychological Assets were significantly correlated with life satisfaction; all the eight dimensions with positive affect; empathy, service for people, loving people, and labor with negative affect; and the eight dimensions positively with a composite of subjective well-being. (3)The association between personality and subjective well-being was partly mediated by loving people, service for people, advocating virtue, and learning. Specifically, agreeableness was associated with subjective well-being through advocating virtue, learning, service for people, and loving people; conscientiousness through advocating virtue, learning, and loving people; and neuroticism and openness through loving people. In conclusion, among university students, Confucian Psychological Assets are not only connected with personality traits and subjective well-being, including life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect, but also mediate the effect of personality traits on subjective well-being. This study explored several questions about Confucian Psychological Assets through empirical methods, which is an innovative attempt to managerial wisdom of “the Analects of Confucius”. It has important implications for promoting the integration of Chinese traditional and western psychology, constructing psychology with Chinese characteristics, and internationalizing Chinese psychology. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of Individual Regulatory Focus and Partner Regulatory Focus on Goal Pursuit 2017, 40(3): 664-669.  Abstract ( )   PDF (384KB) ( )   Goal is an important source of motivation. Many factors can influence the process of goal pursuit. Researches showed that individual regulatory focus has important influences on goal pursuit. Previous researches had found that, both promotion focus and prevention focus contain motivations to achieve goals. For instance, people with promotion focus may try their best searching for help and resources to make a decision, they can always have more than one choice because they are open to the information that may be useful to goal pursuit, and people with prevention focus may take tactics that can avoid the risk in decision-making. However, literatures revealed that during the course of goal pursuit, individuals would benefit more from promotion focus than from prevention focus. Significant others can be another factor that can influence goal pursuit. Previous researches showed that the regulatory focus could influence people’s relationship and interaction with others. On the other hand, the perceived similarity with others can improve the quality of interpersonal relationship, furthermore, people are more likely to pursuit goals that their significant others like. Thus, the perceived similarity with partner might be an important factor that influences the pursuit of a goal, which means the similarity could be the possible mechanism underlying the relation. This study attempted to explore how individual regulatory focus and partner regulatory focus interplay to influence the goal pursuit process, as well as the possible mediating role of perceived similarity. A total of 170 college students completed General Regulatory Focus Measures, then they were randomly allocated into one of the two groups (partner promotion focus group, and partner prevention focus group), finally they finished the decision-making tasks and goal pursuit questionnaire, as well as the perceived similarity scale. The hierarchical regression showed that, the interaction between individual promotion focus and companion promotion focus can significantly positively predict partner’s value, help-seeking intention, and the level of task motivation. Simple slope tests further indicated that, participants’ goal pursuit would benefit from promotion focus among participants with a high promotion focus partner rather than among participants with a low promotion focus partner. Furthermore, the mediating effect analysis showed that the interaction of partner and individual promotion focus and help-seeking intention, partner’s value can be partially mediated by perceived similarity; however, the perceived regulatory similarity can not mediate the relationship between the interaction of partner and individual promotion focus and the motivation level. In general, individual regulatory focus and partner regulatory focus interact to influence the process of goal pursuit. Partner’s regulatory focus can moderate the relationship between personal regulatory focus and goal pursuit, the positive effect of promotion focus mainly appears among participants with a high promotion focus partner, but not among participants with a low promotion focus partner; furthermore, the interaction of partner promotion focus and individual promotion focus on goal pursuit is partially mediated by perceived similarity. Related Articles | Metrics

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Does Subordinate Creative Deviance Evoke Supervisor Undermining？The Roles of Perceived Threat to Hierarchy and Authoritarianism Wu-Yang CHEN Yu-Shuai CHEN Jian PENG 2017, 40(3): 670-677.  Abstract ( )   PDF (779KB) ( )   In organizational research, scholars concerned excessively with the overt, radical actions like abusive supervision, yet covert, incremental actions like supervisor undermining received far less research attention. Supervisor undermining refers to the behavior intended to hinder, over time, a subordinate’s ability to establish and maintain positive interpersonal relationships, work-related success, and favorable reputation. It can take a range of forms and may vary in the manner in which it damages a relationship or a reputation. For example, undermining may take the form of direct actions, such as intentionally spreading rumors about a person, rejecting someone absolutely, or scorning someone's ideas. In addition, undermining may also be accomplished through withholding, such as withholding some information or failing to defend someone. Empirical research has suggested that supervisor undermining may cause negative influence to organizations as well as employees. Therefore, many scholars have made a call for developing richer antecedent models of supervisor undermining To date, existing research suggested envy, relationship conflict, moral disengagement, and bottom-line mentality can evoke supervisor undermining, few have considered the importance role of subordinates’ behaviors in shaping supervisor undermining. To address this issue, this study aims to investigate the effects of subordinates’ creative deviance on supervisor undermining as long as its mediating mechanism and boundary condition. Specifically, we focused on testing the mediating role of hierarchy threat and the moderating role of authoritarianism. A field study was adopted to test hypotheses. Based on a sample 125 dyads of subordinates and their supervisors in China, we got four conclusions by using a series of regression analysis: 1) subordinates’ creative deviance was positively related to supervisor undermining. 2) such relationship was partially mediated by supervisor perceived hierarchy threat. 3) supervisors’ authoritarianism moderated the relationship between creative deviance and hierarchy threat, such that this relationship was only significant when supervisors’ authoritarianism was high. Our findings offer several important theoretical and practical implications. First, our research extends previous studies on the antecedents of supervisor undermining by examining the relationship between creative deviance and supervisor undermining, addressing the call “to develop richer antecedent models of mistreatment”. Second, through exploring the mediating role of hierarchy threat, this study advanced our understanding regarding the underlying mechanism that transmits the predictive effects of creative deviance to supervisor undermining. Third, we further test the moderating effect of authoritarianism, which reveal unique boundary conditions for creative deviance to influence hierarchy threat. This can contribute to our knowledge about when creative deviance may evoke supervisor undermining. Beyond the theoretical implications already highlighted, there are a number of practical strategies that employees and organizations can use to deal with supervisor undermining. On the one hand, subordinates are encouraged to put forward innovative ideas in the way which supervisors can be accepted readily. On the other hand, organizations can renew supervisors’ ideology, eliminate the notion of be promoted according to status, build the notion of equality of status of supervisors and subordinates to fit today’ radical change. Finally, limitations and directions for future research are discussed. Related Articles | Metrics

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Passive Use of Social Network Site and Subjective Well-being: Mediating Effect Analysis 2017, 40(3): 678-684.  Abstract ( )   PDF (561KB) ( )   Social network sites (SNSs) have integrated into people’s daily life. The impacts of social network site use have received much attention from relevant scholars. Previous studies mainly focused on active use of social network site such as self-presentation or self-disclosure. They found that self-presentation and self-disclosure contribute to increases in social capital, self-esteem and life satisfaction, as well as decreases in loneliness. However, social network site also makes it easier for individuals to obtain others’ information. Many people passively use social network site for content consumption without disclosing information. Studies revealed that passive use of social network site had negative effect on emotional well-being and life satisfaction which are two key factors of subjective well-being. However, less is known about the underlying mechanism that passive use of social network site influences subjective well-being. According to social comparison theory and existing studies, upward social comparison may be a vital factor playing mediating roles in the association between passive use of social network site and subjective well-being. In addition to the mediating effect of upward social comparison in passive use of social network site and subjective well-being, there might exist chain mediation of upward social comparison and affects in the association between passive use of social network site and life satisfaction. To investigate the relationships among passive use of social network site, upward social comparison, passive affect, negative affect and life satisfaction, a survey research method was conducted in which scales for passive use of social network site, upward social comparison, positive and negative affect as well as life satisfaction were administered to 1168 undergraduate students. Data were collected and analyzed with SPSS 17.0 and Amos 20.0. The results indicated: (1) Passive use of social network site was positively associated with upward social comparison and negative affect, and negatively associated with positive affect and life satisfaction; upward social comparison on social network site was positively related to negative affect and negatively related to positive affect and life satisfaction; positive affect was positively related to life satisfaction and negative affect was negatively related to life satisfaction. (2) Passive use of social network site had no significant direct effect on positive affect, negative affect and life satisfaction, but it could predict them through the mediating effects of upward social comparison. (3) Passive use of social network site could also predict life satisfaction through two chain mediating effects: through the chain mediating role of upward social comparison and positive affect; through the chain mediating role of upward social comparison and negative affect. These findings highlights the mediation of upward social comparison in the association between passive use of social network site and subjective well-being, as well as the chain mediating effects of upward social comparison and affects. They may contribute to a better understanding of what the effect of passive use of social network site on subjective well-being is and how passive use of social network site influences subjective well-being. Besides, the present study can offer some useful suggestions for protecting and promoting subjective well-being in the Internet age. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Psychological Empowerment on Job Satisfaction of Principals in Rural School：The Mediating Role of Professional Identity and the Moderation Role of Emotion Intelligence Zheng-Qing ZHENG 2017, 40(3): 685-691.  Abstract ( )   PDF (534KB) ( )   At present, the education in rural areal is the keystone and difficulty of the reform of education. Researchers are gradually paying more and more attention to the education in rural areal (Teng, 2010). However, previous studies have shown that the education in rural areal is still at a lower level compared with that in urban area (Wang, 2010). As we all know, school principals are the soul of schools, the ensurance for schools’ development and innovation. Studies have shown that job satisfaction of principals has important effect on school’s development (Hayes et al, 2015). So, it is important to find “what” could influence the job satisfaction of principals, and find “how” it influence the job satisfaction of principals in rural school. The aim of this study is to investigate the factors affecting job satisfaction of principals in rural school and the potential mechanisms of these factors. Empowerment represents a crucial theoretical framework and value orientation for community psychology, public health, social work and other disciplines (Gutierrez,1990; Rappaport, 1987). For community psychology, empowerment is an active process where individuals, organizations and communities can act to shape the environments they inhabit, to gain control of their lives and to work for social justice. Researches have shown that psychological empowerment could predict job satisfaction of principals in rural school positively, but seldom research have studied the mechanism between psychological empowerment and job satisfaction of principals in rural school. The present study constructed a moderated mediation model to examine the effect of psychological empowerment, professional identity and intelligence emotion on job satisfaction of principals in rural school. Specifically, the present study examined whether psychological empowerment would indirectly related to job satisfaction of principals in rural school through professional identify, and whether the mediation was moderated by intelligence emotion. It was necessary to explore the mechanism of the effect of psychological empowerment on job satisfaction of principals in rural school, and the results could help improving the job satisfaction of principals in rural school. At present, the education in rural areal is the keystone and difficulty of the reform of education. Researchers are gradually paying more and more attention to the education in rural areal (Teng, 2010). However, previous studies have shown that the education in rural areal is still at a lower level compared with that in urban area (Wang, 2010). As we all know, school principals are the soul of schools, the ensurance for schools’ development and innovation. Studies have shown that job satisfaction of principals has important effect on school’s development (Hayes et al, 2015). So, it is important to find “what” could influence the job satisfaction of principals, and find “how” it influence the job satisfaction of principals in rural school. The aim of this study is to investigate the factors affecting job satisfaction of principals in rural school and the potential mechanisms of these factors. Empowerment represents a crucial theoretical framework and value orientation for community psychology, public health, social work and other disciplines (Gutierrez,1990; Rappaport, 1987). For community psychology, empowerment is an active process where individuals, organizations and communities can act to shape the environments they inhabit, to gain control of their lives and to work for social justice. Researches have shown that psychological empowerment could predict job satisfaction of principals in rural school positively, but seldom research has studied the mechanism between psychological empowerment and job satisfaction of principals in rural school. The present study constructed a moderated mediation model to examine the effect of psychological empowerment, professional identity and intelligence emotion on job satisfaction of principals in rural school. Specifically, the present study examined whether psychological empowerment would indirectly related to job satisfaction of principals in rural school through professional identify, and whether the mediation was moderated by intelligence emotion. It was necessary to explore the mechanism of the effect of psychological empowerment on job satisfaction of principals in rural school, and the results could help improving the job satisfaction of principals in rural school. To explore the mechanism between psychological empowerment and job satisfaction of principals in rural school, a sample of 269 principals in rural area (M=40.12 years, SD=8.01) was recruited in the study to complete psychological empowerment scale, professional identity scale, emotion intelligence scale and job satisfaction scale. The results indicated that: (1) Professional identity mediated the effect of psychological empowerment on job satisfaction of principals in rural school. Psychological empowerment could directly influence job satisfaction of principals in rural school, as well as through influenced professional identity, ultimately influenced job satisfaction of principals in rural school.(2) Emotion intelligence moderated the effect of professional identity on job satisfaction of principals in rural school. Professional identity and emotion intelligence played a moderated mediation effect between psychological empowerment and job satisfaction of principals in rural school. Related Articles | Metrics

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Comparative Analysis on Multiple Mediating Effects of Ethical Leadership on Employee’s Voice 2017, 40(3): 692-698.  Abstract ( )   PDF (557KB) ( )   Abstract Given the severe environment with intense competition and unpredictable technology changes, an increasing number of organizations realize that employees should be encouraged to voice. To address this issue, we built a multiple-mediation model on employees’ voice behavior. We examined the mediation role of voice-efficacy, psychological safety and supervisor- subordinate guanxi in the relationship between ethical leadership and employees’ voice behavior. Moreover, we compared the strength of their mediation effects to explore the mediating effect in the same interpretation logic. 300 employee questionnaires and 60 leadership questionnaires were distributed to the 18 companies located in Zhejiang Province, 281 employees(response rate was 93.67%) and 55supervisors(response rate was 91.67%) returned the questionnaires. After screening out the problematic cases, the final sample consists of 244 employees and 51 supervisors. In the sample of employees, 47.95% were male, 52.05% were female; 45.90% participants ranged from 25-30 years old, 57.79% employees working in 6 years. In addition, in the sample of supervisors, 65.8% were male, 34.2% were female; 42.5% participants ranged from 35-40 years old, 49.2% employees working in 10-15 years. To examine the distinctiveness of the study variables, we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis by using AMOS 17.0. We also employed SEM to test the multiple mediating effects. Finally, we compared the strength of their mediating effects by Mplus 7.0. In general, this study proposed and tested a multiple mediation model in which ethical leadership influences employees’ voice behavior, with voice-efficacy, psychological safety and supervisor-subordinate guanxi as mediators. The results showed that ethical leadership can influence employee’s voice behavior through the parallel multiple mediating effects; further, the mediating effect of voice-efficacy and psychological safety are significantly larger than that of supervisor- subordinate, and the mediating effect of voice-efficacy is significantly larger than that of psychological safety. Our findings contribute to employees’ voice behavior literature. Most studies have focused on the single mediation process underlying the relationship between ethical leadership and voice behavior and lack a unified research framework, which hinders the transverse comparison of mediating effects and limits the promotion and practical value of the research results. In order to make up for the inadequacy of current research, this research adopts comparative sociological research paradigm, and use three mediating variables about voice-efficacy, psychological safety and supervisor-subordinate guanxi to build comparative analysis on multiple mediating effects in impact of ethical leadership on employee’s voice and make up for the inadequacy of current research theoretically. In terms of practical implications, firstly, organization leaders should provide adequate resources for employees and promote employees’ positive emotions, which will significantly improve employees’ voice-efficacy. Secondly, it’s necessary to cultivate an open culture environment, which will enhance employees’ psychological safety significantly. Finally, although the mediating effect of supervisor-subordinate guanxi between ethical leadership and voice behavior is less than voice-efficacy and psychological safety, the role of supervisor-subordinate guanxi cannot be underestimated. Managers can also develop and strengthen their relationship with employees through gift exchanging, mutual caring , interpersonal interaction and so on. Related Articles | Metrics

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Evolution in Research Topics on Empathy: Evidence from Bibliometrics zhiqiang yan Yanjie SU 2017, 40(3): 699-707.  Abstract ( )   PDF (3252KB) ( )   A large body of research shows that people with higher empathic abilities are more skilled in dealing with interpersonal relationship and more willing to behave prosocially. Although literature related to empathy accumulates annually, there are still few studies that provide a macro-level description of this field. A traditional review or meta-analysis can only focus on a narrow topic and covers probably no more than 100 papers, and these methodologies are insufficient when faced with tens of thousands of papers, but bibliometrics can do the task. Bibliometrics exploits information of papers (e.g., author, keyword, journal, year) to describe a research field at macro-level, to picture the evolution of its research topics, and to predict future research focus. The current study used the method of bibliometrics and a tool for social network analysis to illustrate the evolution of research on empathy from 1996 to 2015, and furthermore, explored future research focus. Papers collected from Web of Science Core Collection, PsycArticles, Psychology and Behavior Science Collection, China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database, VIP Journal Integration Platform, and Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform are used as reference data. We used “Empathy” as the key word and retrieved the reference data published between 1996 and 2015. The search yielded 12684 publications in English and 1199 publications in Chinese, among which 9073 in English and 1178 in Chinese met our inclusion criteria that the reference data needed to specify author\keyword\journal\year information. We extracted information from the reference data with Python, analyzed the information with VOSviewer and presented the information with Gephi. The preliminary results show that in the past two decades, the field of empathy research has been developing very rapidly and the annual increase in the number of publications followed Moore's law. The data suggest an eruption in research published in Chinese from 2008 as well as one in English from 2004; empathy research has seen its focus shifting from personality traits, attitudes and emotion to social cognition. This field of research now focuses more on social neuro-cognition and emphasizes multidisciplinary collaboration, which is quite likely due to the development of scientific technology. We also found that many methods were used in empathy research, such as fMRI\Eye tracking and so on, with fMRI being the most used. This clearly evidences that technology drives science. Based on the data and link prediction theory, we could speculate that: (1) future research on empathy will focus on social cognition, such as influence of empathy and executive function on pro-social behavior, paying more attention to the third variable problem; (2) to further the popular in-group and out-group research in recent years, the next step is to address social interactions among people of different races/ethnicities; and (3) researcher will try to investigate questions on the neural-mechanism of empathy and its application to neuroplasticity, and try to tell us that people’s empathic abilities can be changed. The current study used the method of bibliometrics and a tool for social network analysis to illustrate the evolution of research on empathy from 1996 to 2015, and furthermore, explored future research focus. Papers collected from Web of Science Core Collection, PsycArticles, Psychology and Behavior Science Collection, China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database, VIP Journal Integration Platform, and Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform are used as reference data. We used “Empathy” as the key word and retrieved the reference data published between 1996 and 2015. The search yielded 12684 publications in English and 1199 publications in Chinese, among which 9073 in English and 1178 in Chinese met our inclusion criteria that the reference data needed to specify author\keyword\journal\year information. We extracted information from the reference data with Python (Version 3.4.3), analyzed the information with VOSviewer (Version 1.6.4) and presented the information with Gephi (Version 0.8.2). The preliminary results show that in the past two decades, the field of empathy research has been developing very rapidly and the annual increase in the number of publications followed Moore's law. The data suggest an eruption in research published in Chinese from 2008 as well as one in English from 2004; empathy research has seen its focus shifting from personality traits and communication\attitudes to emotion and social cognition. This field of research now focuses more on social neuro-cognition (neural-mechanisms of empathy) and emphasizes multidisciplinary collaboration, which is quite likely due to the development of scientific technology. We also found that many methods were used in empathy research, such as fMRI\MEG\PET\ERP\Eye tracking and so on, with fMRI being the most used. This clearly evidences that technology drives science. Based on the data and link prediction theory, we could speculate that: (1) future research on empathy will focus on social cognition, such as influence of empathy and executive function on pro-social behavior, paying more attention to the third variable problem; (2) to further the popular in-group and out-group research in recent years, the next step is to address social interactions among people of different races/ethnicities; and (3) researcher will try to investigate questions on the neural-mechanism of empathy and its application to neuroplasticity, and try to tell us that people’s empathic abilities can be changed. Related Articles | Metrics

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Work-life Supports from family in the Idea of Work-life Balance：Concept, Dimension and Function Xiao-Lan FEI 2017, 40(3): 708-713.  Abstract ( )   PDF (790KB) ( )   It is important to understand the relationship between work and life and to help the adults balance their work and life. In past years, researchers kept focusing on the interaction between work roles and family roles. Recent years, more and more researchers have appealed to going beyond traditional work-family balance, and examining the relationship between work and life. While coping with the diversity needs from work domain and life domains, work-life support from family (WLSF) has been considered to be a crucial resource. Based on the previous literature, this paper extended the concept of WLSF from the life domain perspective. WLSF refers to a series of acts conducted by family members, which can help individuals take the various responsibilities in work domain and life domains. WLSF is a system of work support, family support, personal development support and relationship support. Specifically, work support is to help individuals fulfill the responsibilities better in work domain, and family support is to help individuals fulfill the responsibilities better in home domain, and development support is to help individuals achieve recovery, growth and development, and relationship support is to help individuals maintain a good relationship with significant others (such as lovers, friends, neighbors).WLSF facilitates to fulfill multiple responsibilities better in work and non-work domain, and helps to maintain work-life balance. The effect of WLSF can be achieved by within domain and cross domain. On the one hand, WLSF helps individuals better fulfill their duties in family domain. And WLSF has a positive impact on the family roles performance, such as family time commitment, couples attachment relationships, marital satisfaction and parental identity satisfaction, which is the within domain effect. On the other hand, WLSF also has a positive impact on the performance of the work domain (such as work engagement, work performance and work satisfaction), personal development and social relations, which is the cross domain effect. However, the positive effect of WLSF does not always work effectively. Some boundary conditions may affect the positive effect of WLSF, such as sex and work/occupational similarity. Based on above review, some future research directions were given. Specifically, this paper gave a new dimension of WLSF, future research could examine the dimensional of WLSF and develop appropriate measurements. Then, the previous research paid more attention to positive effects on work domain, family domain and work-family interface, future research could explore positive effects on self-development, social relationships and work-life balance. Future research could expand the research of WLSF boundary conditions and explore the crossover effect of WLSF . Finally, Chinese depend on WLSF and Intergenerational family support exist everywhere, which are different from western, future research can carry out WLSF research under the Chinese cultural background. Related Articles | Metrics

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Corruption in Organizations 2017, 40(3): 714-720.  Abstract ( )   PDF (306KB) ( )   As an increasing number of corporate scandals are exposed, corruption in organizations is a frontier and challenging issue in the field of management and organization research. The aim of this article is to organize and summarize existing empirical and theoretical work on corruption in organizations from a dynamic and multi-level perspective. Corruption in organizations is defined as “the misuse of authority for personal, subunit and/or organizational gain’’. Corruption is both a dynamic process as well as the outcome of that dynamic process. There are multi-level factors that influence corruption at individual or organizational level as an outcome. The causes of corruption at individual level include personal factors such as Machiavellianism, social dominance orientation, locus of control and values, and organizational factors such as ethical climate and organizational structure. The causes of corruption at organizational level include organizational cultures, organizational procedures, organizational characteristics such as leaders’ social network, firm size and firm ownership, and environmental factors such as market competition, government intervention, welfare socialism and political constrains. This is followed by explanations of corruption as a dynamic process. The article elaborates four process models of corruption in organizations: normalization of corruption, moral disengagement model, social identity model, and emotion-evoked corruption model. The normalization of corruption model argues that three processes by which corruption becomes embedded in the organization: (a) institutionalization, where an initial corrupt decision or act becomes embedded in structures and then routinized; (b) rationalization, where corrupt individuals use self-serving ideologies to justify and legitimate corruption; and (c) socialization, where newcomers are taught to accept and engage in corruption practices. Moral disengagement model suggests that moral disengagement initiates corruption by both easing and expediting individual unethical decision-making that advances organizational interests, and facilitates organizational corruption through dampening individuals’ ethical awareness, and finally results in the perpetuation of corruption in organizations. Social identity model explains how divergent norms, pressure and opportunity lead to the spread and growth of corruption in organizations. Corruption grows in organizations when norms of groups change because of positive intergroup distinctiveness, and when employees feel pressured by organizational performance and try to ward off identity threats through committing corruption, and when managers fail to sanction corrupt acts and change the prototype of the group. The emotion-evoked corruption model focuses on the effect of moral emotions on both the initial response of a target individual and the spread of corruption to non-targeted individuals through emotional contagion. For both processes the model explains how self-directed moral emotions (guilt, shame, embarrassment, and pride) facilitate the spread of corruption, and how other-directed moral emotions (anger and contempt) do not. The paper ends with three directions for future research. First of all, it is necessary to explore other factors influencing corruption such as interpersonal influence and types of corruption and the moderation across multi-level. Secondly, future scholars should conduct empirical research on corruption at group level. Thirdly, researchers should continue to develop corruption theories that better account for the intuitive and affective processes and phenomena in China. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Research of Reviewable CD-CAT 2017, 40(3): 721-727.  Abstract ( )   PDF (696KB) ( )   Combining cognitive diagnosis with computerized adaptive testing, cognitive diagnostic computerized adaptive testing (CD-CAT) aims to more efficiently and accurately diagnose examinees’ mastery status of a group of discretely defined skills, or attributes than paper & pencil tests. While it is a natural thing for examinees to review their answers and possibly change them in paper and pencil-based tests, the same thing is less common to happen in CD-CAT since it could deteriorate the measurement efficiency. The absence of review opportunities on operational CD-CAT creates a dilemma for test developers as examinees need to review and change answers during the test in order to achieve more accurate estimates of their true ability. Item Pocket(Han, 2013) is a method of reviewable computerized adaptive testing(RCAT). This method provides test takers with Item Pocket(IP) into which they can place items for later review and response change. Test takers can skip answering items by putting them in the IP. but the shortcoming of IP is that the capacity is not easy to control, if the capacity is too large that will results a comparatively large estimation error. Based on IP method, the study proposes a new IP method called modified IP(MIP), employing a new scoring method in IP. Compared with IP, stocking (1997) design cause greater restrictions for examinee behavior. In stocking design I, examinees are instructed in advance that they will be permitted to revise answers to fixed number of items, under stocking design II, the testing is divided into separately sections and examinees are informed in advance of testing that they will be permitted to revise answers to items only within a section. The advantage of design II is that it simultaneously restricts examinee control over the actual item presented because revised responses from previous sections influence the section of items in subsequent sections. CD-CAT is a further development of the CAT, but they are very different in some ways. In order to verify the above methods in Reviewable CD-CAT(RCD-CAT), two Monte Carlo simulation studies with different experimental conditions were conducted here, the interim and final states of knowledge were estimated using the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) method, a group of 5,000 examinees were simulated for this study, and the tests were then created from an item pool of 300 items. These experimental conditions were cognitive diagnosis model(DINA and R-RUM), the number of attributes(5 and 7), item selection strategies(KL, PWKL, HKL and MPWKL), and the fixed test length CD-CAT (10 and 20 items respectively) . Monte Carlo simulation results show that: (1) When using the DINA model, MIP and IP methods had very similar classification accuracy , however, while using R-RUM model MIP method had higher classification accuracy than IP method. Furthermore, both MIP and IP had low classification accuracy than traditional CD-CAT; (2) Stocking design had a higher classification accuracy than the other methods in all simulations, and stocking design II was slightly better than the stocking design I. In a word, RCD-CAT is more consistent with traditional examination habits, in addition, it can also improve classification accuracy. This study will help to provide theory and method support for future research and practical application. Related Articles | Metrics

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A New Method of Data Analysis for fMRI Studies in Naturalistic Situation: Inter-Subject Correlation and Its Application 2017, 40(3): 728-733.  Abstract ( )   PDF (294KB) ( )   In this paper, we reviewed a new data-driven analysis method, which can be used in the naturalistic paradigms: Inter-Subject correlation (ISC). ISC is a simple approach to analysis functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data collected under naturalistic stimuli because this method doesn’t require a hypothesis about time course based on the task. Most neuroimaging studies like fMRI are trying to investigate the complex functions of human brain using the simple static stimuli. While in this highly controlled and simplistic experimental situation, the human brain may not process information just as exactly in a natural situation. Because of lacking ecological validity in traditional neuroimaging studies, there is an increasing trend in studying the human brain function under dynamic, continuous stimuli in order to be closer to normal everyday life than in conventional, controlled paradigms. But this kind of data can’t be analyzed by a hypothesis-driven analysis method like general linear model (GLM), because of the reason that GLM requires a reference time course of task (hemodynamic response function, HRF), this reference time course is defined as the expected time course of the BOLD signal (blood oxygenation level dependent) after the onset of a stimulus. Thus, approaches providing a more general flexibility are needed as alternative and complementary tools in analyzing fMRI data collected in a more natural situation or task. The basic hypothesis of ISC is that there would be a highly inter-subject synchronization cortical activity in related brain areas when individuals all are exposed in the same situation or doing the same task. By calculating correlation coefficient of time course based on the voxels in the same space location across subjects, the extent of shared processing across subjects can be estimated. Combining with other technics like reverse-correlation or others, ISC could be an appropriate way to investigate the relation between structures and functions of human brain. The validity of this non-parametric method has been proven to be suitable in natural situation against stimulus-model based analysis. The difference between ISC and conventional fMRI data analysis methods is that the former circumvents the need to specify a prior model for the neural processed in an given brain area, instead of which ISC compares the temporal response patterns across subjects in response to the identical stimulation (e.g. free viewing of movie or listening of conversation). Because of it's free-natural paradigm, which makes it more convenient to expand fMRI study into children or special groups, even non-human subjects. This novel exploratory method for fMRI data can be combined with other signal statistic analysis method (e.g. discrete wavelet transform) in order to investigate the data collected more deeply. In our daily life, cognitive processes (e.g. reading a book, engaging in conversation) unfold mostly over relatively long time scales. ISC makes it easier to investigate these large-scale cognitive processes like in real life. This review provides the theory and method, validity and the advantages of ISC in the research of brain imaging. By introducing the latest and significant findings of ISC’s application in neurobiology of cognitive, ISC was proposed as the growing trend toward cognitive neuroscience for more realistic and natural studies. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Relationships between Victimization in Children and Their Response to Acute Social Stress 2017, 40(3): 734-740.  Abstract ( )   PDF (453KB) ( )   Chronic stress has been consistently documented to engender persistent changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity to stress. As a chronic social stressor, bullying victimization is associated with dysregulation of the HPA axis that is typically assessed by salivary cortisol levels. However, the relationship between victimization and cortisol responses is still inconsistent in existing literatures, which have demonstrated that school bullying victimization can both induce persistent elevation of cortisol concentration as hypercortisolism hypothesis suggested or be related to the attenuated cortisol responses as suggested by hypocortisolism hypothesis. Except for the mixed relation between victimization and cortisol responses, little is known about the cortisol responses to stress in the sample of younger children who may experience shorter times periods of being bullied compared with adolescents and adults. As Miller and his colleagues (2007) suggested, the HPA axis tends to exhibit first hyper- and later hypoactivity in response to chronic stressors during the lasting stress process. The present study hypothesized that children who experienced shorter term of bullying victimization would exhibit an elevated cortisol response to the stressor compared to nonbullied children. Specifically, this experiment explored whether cortisol concentration and subjective stress response to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) differed between bullied and nonbullied children. A total of 52 children (M = 10.83 years, SD = 0.60 years, 31 bullied children) were selected from 573 students after parent and children consent were obtained. Two phases were included in the experiment. In the first phase, 573 children completed the self-reported questionnaire of victimization. In the second phase, the selected children completed the modified TSST in which they prepared and delivered a free speech followed by a mental arithmetic. During the TSST, six saliva samples and information on subjective stress for each child were collected. The present study conducted repeated-measures analyses of variance (ANOVAs) mainly on their data using SPSS 22.0. The results indicated that the modified Trier Social Stress Test elicited a subjective stressful response and a curve cortisol response in both bullied and nonbullied children. The cortisol levels over the course of TSST were higher in bullied children relative to nonbullied, especially after the stress task removal. However, there were no significant differences in subjective stress response to the TSST between bullied and nonbullied children. In conclusion, the present study suggested that bullying victimization can promote dysregulation of the HPA axis by exaggerated cortisol responses (hypercortisolism) to the standardized laboratory TSST. The results among Chinese children supported the hypothesis that the activity of HPA axis when coped with the chronic stress may undergo a transition from hyper- to hypoactivity in response to stressors. Related Articles | Metrics

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A Study of Stroop Interference Effect and Gender Difference for Individuals with High and Low Trauma 2017, 40(3): 741-745.  Abstract ( )   PDF (461KB) ( )   PTSD patients showed a stress response and attention bias, which also showed a certain bias to the traumatic events and similar events. Also, the cognitive function of the individual with post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) was damaged to a certain degree. Past research at home and abroad paid more attention on the compare between PTSD individuals with normal people, and few study was involved with the Stroop interference effect in individuals with trauma. In the study, we will study the cognition function of trauma participants by classic Stroop paradigm, and explore whether there is distinct difference on the Stroop effect for different stimulus between high and low trauma participants. The gender difference also exists in the Stroop research, and many researches at home and abroad show that the gender is a factor that influences the Stroop effect. In addition, the probability of developing into trauma is higher in female participants than male participants. So, the study will investigate whether there is gender difference on the Stroop effect in trauma participants. The Stroop task have two types: one is congruent task that the color is concurs with the meaning of the word; the other is inconsistent task that the color is incongruent with the meaning of the word. The experiments chosen four Chinese characters including 红，黄，绿and 蓝. Every Chinese character have four color including red, yellow, green and blue. The present study investigates how different Stroop task and gender affect the cognition interference for participants with high/low posttraumatic stress disorder. A 3 (trauma level: high trauma group, low trauma group) × 2 (gender: male, female) × 2 (task type: congruent task, in congruent task) mixed experiment design was carried out. Sixty-five participants selected from 3853 university students took part in the experiment; the students who reported at least one traumatic event experienced in the past through LIET-S (Life Incidence of Traumatic Events-Student Form, LIET-S) questionnaire, at the same time, whose scores on the PCL-C（PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version）questionnaire exceed and equal to 50 were labeled high trauma participants, and the students whose scores on the PCL-C questionnaire were below 50 were labeled as low trauma participants. The results shows: The stroop-interference between the two groups were significant, the high trauma group detected word color more slowly than the low; The two types of stimulus conditions between the two groups were significant, the color—word congruent were more slowly than incongruent; The stroop-interference in high trauma subjects were significant, the male detected word color more slowly than the female; We find the significant interaction in groups ? sex and stimulus type ? sex. We found that the Stroop effect of subjects with high trauma of the cognitive interference was greater than that of the low trauma group; the Stroop effect of the consistent task was greater than that of the inconsistent task. The results showed that women with high trauma were more likely to be affected by cognitive interference, and the type of Stroop task also had some effect on trauma participants. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Application of Computerized Psychology Intervention in Substance Addiction 2017, 40(3): 746-752.  Abstract ( )   PDF (307KB) ( )   Abstract: The computerized psychology intervention is a primarily self-guided intervention program, which is executed by means of a prescriptive online program operated via the computer and used by addicts（Litvin, Abrantes, & Brown,2013）. The intervention programs are based on the face-to-face intervention theories and principles. The most commonly reported interventions are computerized cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), motivational enhancement therapy (MET), and contingency management (CM) among the interventions. All these interventions are effective in substance addicts, but there also exist some unresolved questions. Most computerized CBT only evaluate if it is effective or not in substance addicts, but not the acquisition of cognitive skills（Ritterband, Andersson, Christensen, Carlbring, & Cuijpers ,2006）. The computerized MET is easily acceptable for substance addicts, it emphasis more on one’s own role in the process of the intervention. The purpose of MET is to inspire the individual’s innate motivation to withdrawal, but substance addicts always lack innate motivation, so it makes MET more commonly used combining with other therapies, and hard to be an independent treatment program（Ondersma, Svikis, Thacker, Beatty&Lockhart,2014）. The computerized CM always associated with reward, which makes it cost higher and greatly restricts it’s implementation. To solve this problem, researchers used deposit contract in traditional CM intervention, researchers can still try to use this method in computerized CM（Dallery, Glenn, & Raiff,2007;Dallery & Raiff,2011）. The researchers evaluate the effectiveness of computerized psychology intervention for addiction on the basis of measured or self-reported client behavior and diagnostic indicators along with the changes in overall functioning and life satisfaction. Researches suggest that computerized interventions impact outcomes via similar potential mechanisms as in traditional interventions, with the exception of substance use outcomes being associated with changes in the quality of coping skills. The most frequent potential mechanisms detected were self-efficacy for tobacco abstinence and perceived peer drinking for alcohol abstinence. Generally, clinical professionals always integrate two or more kinds of interventions together to produce duplicate effect. Although computerized interventions have their own advantages to substance addicts, the limitations also do. On the one hand, there was no study comparing different interventions directly, and researches try to verify the effectiveness of the intervention, but don’t think about that if computerized interventions can cover the shortage of traditional interventions. There also exist some problems in evaluation method, for example, self-report contents are relatively subjective, it will influence the validity of the study, and the measurement of physiological criterion is also not unified in different studies. Of course, computerized therapy also offers several advantages including availability, convenience and accessibility, cost-effectiveness, anonymity and privacy, which are particularly relevant for those seeking help for addictions（Marsch, Bickel, & Badger,2007）. In the future, researchers should pay attention to the following three aspects. First, combine the substance abstinence interventions and the ecological momentary assessment which mainly focuses on the collection of data, develop the computerized assistant software both on computer and mobile phone. Second, researchers should further find out whether all computerized interventions are equally effective across the spectrum of substances, and evaluate the feasibility and limitation of the interventions to addicts. Third, conduct cognitive training for substance addicts before computerized intervention to improve the effect of intervention, because the training shows recovery effect on cognitive function and brain injury. Related Articles | Metrics

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What is mindfulness: A reflection on the concept development of mindfulness Bo Li 2017, 40(3): 753-759.  Abstract ( )   PDF (338KB) ( )   As the essential question in mindfulness research, “What is mindfulness” is a conundrum that has plagued researchers for decades. In much degree, the dilemma is created by the trans-contextual characteristic of mindfulness, since mindfulness is a concept spanning between Buddhism and psychology. Mindfulness meditation, originated from “satipatthana” in Buddhism, is the essence of Buddhist practice, the core of mindfulness-based intervention, and also a state that could be experienced in daily life by anyone. Researchers’ attempts in understanding the concept construction of mindfulness are manifested in “demystifying”, “de-contextualizing”, and “integrating” processes successively. Since Kabat-Zinn introduced mindfulness into psychological field from Buddhist context using “American language” in 1979, mindfulness has won more and more attention from scholars owing to its remarkable efficacy and extensive applicability. Without remoulding the connotation of mindfulness, Kabat-Zinn skillfully integrated the elements of Buddhism into commonsensical language, converting mindfulness into universal psychological interventions from religious meditation. This is referred to as “demystifying stage”, in which researchers focused on work of “what is mindfulness in commonsensical way”. Even though Kabat-Zinn clarified repeatedly that what he had done was not ‘de-contextualization’, the mainstream of mindfulness research gradually transmuted to that trend in the process of psychologicalization. Researchers attempted to abstract mindfulness from the Buddhist context that it originated from, and discarded the possible influence caused by its religious significance. According to the degree of recognition of theoretical research, the stage of“de-contextualization” could be further divided into “positivism approach” and “psychometrics and theoretical modeling approach”. Researchers of positivism approach mainly concentrated on the efficacy of mindfulness in the stage of de-contextualization, and inspected the effect of mindfulness-base intervention for different groups or different diseases, and took symptomatic scale, behaviors or physiological indices as indicators. In this stage, the interpretation of mindfulness embodied as the tendency of simplification and utility. The exploration during this period could be summarized as “simply speaking what is mindfulness”, and the quick answer was “attention”. Although attention, as the existing and relatively mature term in psychological realm, provided a starting point in mastering mindfulness, its intrinsic meaning stripped off the rich connotation of mindfulness. The problem caused by “essentialism” soon emerged from practice, and the researchers realized that mindfulness was more than “bare attention”. Around 2001, driven by demand of quantitative researches, researchers expanded their study of mindfulness to “specifically speaking what is mindfulness”, and started to concern the specific elements and structure of mindfulness. In this stage, numbers of scale were developed, as well as structural models. Attitude as one factor of mindfulness became consensus among researchers, and they deemed that mindfulness was a multi-dimensional concept constituted by at least two elements, attention and attitude. Another expansion was achieved in 2006, which enriched the connotation of mindfulness with a third factor “intention”, embodied as “consciously” or “on purpose”. In recent years, western societies are showing more and more acceptance of Buddhism, and their comprehension of Buddhism are becoming more and more objective. The acceptance of Buddhism has promoted the application of mindfulness, and the researches of mindfulness are highlighted. A growing number of definitions of mindfulness were proposed, however they did not bring a clearer comprehension of the connotation of mindfulness. On the contrary, profuse definitions resulted in a dilemma of mindfulness researches, as there was no criterion due to de-contextualization, making in-depth study struggling. Pondering under such situation, more scholars came to realize the importance of Buddhism context and came up with the claim that “science and Buddhism shall join forces”. This is the “Integrating context approach”, in which the focus is “completely speaking what is mindfulness”. “Ethics”was introduced in as one of the factors of mindfulness in this stage, which referred to the principle of “non-harming” and embodied as norms and requirements. With sorting out the historical perspective of 40-year, the research process of mindfulness is reviewed in this study, so as to explore possible answers to “what is mindfulness”, not only chronologically, but also systematically. In this study it is proposed that mindfulness is a multi-dimensional concept with elements of attention, attitude, intention and ethics. The complexity of mindfulness dictates that what existing in diverse perspectives are not fixed judgments, but dynamic evolving process of ideas, which goes through the path from “de-context” to context regression. A full-scale comprehension could only be achieved by in-depth integration of Buddhism and psychology from a developmental standpoint. Related Articles | Metrics

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Application of behavioral decision theory in energy conservation management 2017, 40(3): 760-765.  Abstract ( )   PDF (302KB) ( )   Energy shortage is one of the most difficult problems that human-beings need to solve. Human-beings use energy in everyday life, including water, gas, fossil oil and so on. Energy plays an important role in the development of human. However, the lack of awareness of energy conservation and bad habits in everyday life lead to the increasingly serious energy shortage. Owing to the fact that much energy is non-renewable, human-beings should realize the importance of energy-saving. Researchers have tried many ways to persuade individuals to encourage people to conserve energy, most of which are financial incentive. But the effectiveness of these approaches is complex, as they apply rational thinking to decision-making but ignore the non-rational decision processes. It seems that humanity is fated to be irrational. Instead of making a comprehensive cost analysis, People often use mental shortcuts or rules of thumb to complete a decision. Behavioral science concentrates on the deviation from standard rational decision-making models, and emphasizes the biases and errors resulted from irrationality in decision-making. By reviewing related literature that examines how biases in decision making can be used to encourage individuals’ energy-saving behaviors and promote policy decisions, we find these studies use simple interventions to nudge people to make more optimal energy-saving decisions. Several decision biases and theories related to energy-saving decision are discussed, such as status quo bias, reference point effect, framing effect, duel system theory and social norm. Status quo bias is a preference for the current state and default option which makes people tend to do nothing and keep the current or previous decision, though the it is not the most favorable choice. In addition, individuals will set a reference point in decision-making and consider less or great energy consumption, then they will adjust the energy-consumption behaviors. Furthermore, framing effect means that two normatively equivalent descriptions of the same option often lead to systematically different choices. Different descriptions of energy-saving behavior lead to different choices in energy-saving. Besides, duel system theory proposes that there are separate cognitive systems that control human decisions: System 1 and System 2, the decision processes of which are distinct and interactive. System 1 makes decisions be fast, heuristic and automatic while System 2 makes decisions be slow, reflective and deliberate. Researches show that System 1 governs most of the energy-consumption decisions without specific energy-saving methods. Therefore, the heuristic strategy employed by it tends to result in wasting energy behavior. People’s behavior is greatly influenced by others, which becomes the powerful effect of social norms. When it comes to energy-saving, the norm-based interventions work primarily by making people more aware of their own behavior. Then, the influencing factors of the energy-saving decision are also discussed, including the way and content of energy-saving information dissemination, the characteristics of cognitive objects and emotion. In the end, we predict the directions of future research. We offer three main potential directions: 1) Pay more attention to intercultural study about energy-saving decision 2) Improve the method to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions 3) Seek for new interventions and apply them to practice. Related Articles | Metrics