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20 January 2024, Volume 47 Issue 1 Previous Issue    Next Issue
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Pupillary Response and Brain Mechanisms of Cognitive Control Wang Zhijing, Li Fuhong 2024, 47(1): 2-10.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240101 Abstract ( )   PDF (528KB) ( )   Cognitive control which forms the basis of goal-oriented behavior, is closely related to people's daily life, learning, and work, and is a hot topic in the fields of psychology and neuroscience. Pupillometry provides a new perspective on cognitive control. The pupillary response can be divided into two components: tonic pupil size and phasic pupil response. Tonic pupil size usually refers to baseline pupil size, and phasic pupil response corresponds to task-evoked pupillary response (TEPR). This paper summarizes the relationship between pupillary response and cognitive control, as well as the underlying brain mechanisms of pupillary response induced by cognitive processing. Few studies have correlated baseline pupil size with cognitive control, and their results are inconsistent. Moreover, there was no definitive evidence of a linear correlation between baseline pupil size and individual differences in cognitive control. Across the domains of inhibition, switching, and updating, TEPR closely responds to changes in task demands and cognitive effort. In addition, TEPR can also effectively reflect the individual monitoring of error and conflict, as well as the subsequent cognitive control regulation. Many lines of evidence indicate that TEPR provides an effective online measurement psychophysical marker of effort changes in different cognitive control processing. TEPR is positively correlated with participants’ cognitive control task performance, and in some cases, its magnitude can predict the improvement of task performance. However, the relationship between TEPR and cognitive control task performance is influenced by task difficulty, and this correlation vanishes when the task is easy. Thus, individual differences in cognitive control lie not only in the amount but also in the efficiency of cognitive effort exerted, which can be reflected in the TEPR. Collectively, prior research has suggested that pupil response can be used as an indirect indicator of locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system activity. The combination of EEG or fMRI with pupillometry revealed that the LC-NE system may play different roles in different cognitive control subprocesses. Specifically, the LC-NE system may mainly be responsible for amplifying the gain of relevant information and suppressing irrelevant information in task switching, whereas regulating the motion response process in inhibition tasks. Thus, individual differences in cognitive control are probably related to differences in LC-NE function. Future research could focus on the following aspects. Firstly, various pupillary indexes have been used in different studies, making it difficult to compare between studies. Thus, it is necessary to explore a more sensitive and effective pupillary activity index suitable for cognitive control research and optimize the analysis of pupil data. Secondly, the relationship between baseline pupil size and cognitive control is still unclear. A systematic study is necessary to investigate the relationships between baseline pupil size as well as the variability of baseline pupil size with cognitive control capacity, with consideration of confounding factors and nonlinear correlations. Thirdly, taking advantage of the higher temporal resolution of TEPR to reveal the temporal dynamic processing of cognitive control. Finally, other techniques (e.g., EEG, fMRI, or machine learning) can be combined with pupillometry to advance the understanding of the complex role of brain mechanisms, especially the LC-NE system in cognitive control processing. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Bayes-Optimal Perception of Temporal Information Chen Youguo, Peng Chunhua, Liu Peiduo, Yu Jie 2024, 47(1): 11-20.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240102 Abstract ( )   PDF (2712KB) ( )   The Bayesian theory is widely used in cognitive science. Previous studies have proven that Bayesian inferences cause many illusions in temporal cognition. From the perspective of Bayesian inference, we analyzed the processing mechanism of the central tendency effect, integration of multisource temporal information, spatiotemporal interference effect, and Bayesian calibration of simultaneity. This study has crucial implications for research on temporal information processing; additionally, it helps other researchers in cognitive science to understand the basic methods of modeling mental processes using the Bayesian theory. Temporal information processing is reinterpreted using a Bayesian model. The clock, reference memory, working memory, and decision-making in the temporal information processing model were analogized with the likelihood, prior, posterior, and loss functions of Bayesian inference. The central tendency effect is known as the Vierordt’s law, in which participants underestimate long time intervals and overestimate short time intervals in various time intervals. A three-stage Bayesian model is constructed to explain the mechanism of the central tendency effect. In daily life, the integration of multiple sources of temporal information is necessary. The maximum likelihood estimation model proposes that the brain uses Bayes’ rule to integrate temporal information from different sources, reducing uncertainty and increasing estimation reliability. The causal inference model uses a hierarchical Bayesian model to determine whether different temporal information originate from the same source or different sources. The spatiotemporal interference effect involves the mutual interference between spatial and temporal information, among which the Kappa effect has significantly progressed. The Kappa effect is a spatiotemporal illusion in which the irrelevant distance between the stimuli systematically distorts the perception of elapsed time between sensory stimuli. An algebraic model assumes that the perceived interstimulus time is a weighted average of actual and expected times, calculated as a ratio of known distance and velocity. This algebraic model was rewritten as a Bayesian model with a constant-speed hypothesis. A logarithmic constant-velocity model was proposed by integrating the Weber-Fechner law with an algebraic model. The logarithmic constant-velocity model considers that the deceleration tendency of the Kappa effect is driven by the Weber-Fechner law. The fitness of the logarithmic model for the Kappa effect behavior data is better than that of the original constant-velocity model. Additionally, priors influence the simultaneity of temporal order perception. During the temporal-order judgment task, participants learned the statistical distribution of temporal-order information as a prior. The prior and likelihood of the temporal-order information are then integrated using the Bayes’ rule, which is similar to the central tendency effect. Future research on Bayes-optimal perception of temporal information should answer the following questions. (1) To test the rationality of the prior proposed in previous studies, neuroscience should incorporate the Bayesian model to test priors using electrophysiological evidence. (2) To clarify the mental representation of the likelihood of temporal information, neural activity in the dorsolateral striatum is associated with objective temporal coding. Neural activity can be measured to decode the likelihood of temporal information and to clarify whether the likelihood of temporal information has a normal or lognormal distribution. (3) To identify the neural basis of the Bayesian estimation of temporal information, further evidence is needed to identify whether temporal Bayesian estimation is specific to the parietal cortex or involves a larger neural network. The advantages of the temporal information processing and Bayesian models should be combined to provide new ideas for research on the cognitive and neural mechanisms of temporal information processing. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Impact of Music Learning on Language Prosodic Processing and Its Underlying Mechanisms Zhang Jingjing, Xue Yanan, Feng Yin, Gao Panke, Chen Qingrong 2024, 47(1): 21-27.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240103 Abstract ( )   PDF (343KB) ( )   Music and language, as two primary communication systems of humans, share similarities in terms of acoustic elements and structural organization. Empirical research has shown that cognitive and neural mechanisms are shared in the processing of music and language. Among the different components of language, prosody and music are most closely related, both of which can convey meaning and express emotion through acoustic cues such as pitch, duration, and intensity. Therefore, exploring whether and how music learning affects prosodic processing has attracted many researchers. The question is significant because it may offer a unique window to reveal the relationship between music and language. The current study discusses the effects of music learning on language prosodic processing in different groups from two aspects: speech prosody and emotional prosody. For normal populations, using behavioral and neurophysiological techniques, a considerable number of studies have found that music learning enhances the processing of different aspects of speech prosody, such as intonation, tone, and accent. In addition, these effects are not affected by age or language familiarity. Music learning also facilitates both early and late stages of the processing of emotional prosody, particularly the extraction of sensory information from acoustical cues, and the evaluation of the emotional significance of acoustic signal. For people with prosodic processing disorders, some longitudinal studies have found that music learning enhances speech prosodic processing (e.g., intonation and tone) in both Cochlear Implantation (CI) and Williams syndrome (WS) groups. However, the results are not consistent across studies, which may be due to the severity of the disorder and differences in the timing and learning style of music learning. In addition, the existing research is mainly limited to the above two special groups, so the research subjects need to be expanded. There is also a lack of research on the cognitive and neural mechanisms of the relationship between musical learning and prosodic processing in these populations. Nonetheless, the discovery of the positive effect of music learning has shed light on people with language disorders, and provided a new way for speech rehabilitation. Moreover, this paper explores the mechanisms underlying the influence of music learning on language prosodic processing. Researchers have attempted to explain the effect using two possible perspectives. One view suggests that music learning facilitates the processing of language prosody through promoting general auditory processing of acoustic cues, such as pitch and intensity. The other view believes that, apart from the strengthened auditory processing, enhancement in general cognitive abilities is also a possible mechanism. Empirical studies have provided evidence for the first view, showing that musical learning enhances the encoding of prosodic information in brainstem and cortex, but the second view remains to be tested. Based on previous studies, three questions for future research are proposed. Firstly, the impact of music learning on prosodic processing and its underlying mechanisms needs to be further explored. Specifically, how music learning works when different prosodic features interact or when prosody interacts with other language components such as semantics and syntax remain unknown. The cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying the observed prosody benefits of music learning need further research. Secondly, factors that may influence music learning on prosodic processing should be explored in future research, such as music learning style and learning time. More importantly, whether there is a critical period for the promotion of music learning to language prosodic processing and whether different prosodic features have different critical periods are still unclear. Lastly, the influence of music experience on language prosodic processing really comes from music learning, or the innate musical ability also plays an important part? Studies comparing musicians with non-musician as well as existing longitudinal studies confounded the effects of the two factors, which need to be clarified in future studies. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Syntactic Processing of Text Reading for People Who are Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing: Qualitative or Quantitative Difference? Wang Yang, Wu Yan 2024, 47(1): 28-35.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240104 Abstract ( )   PDF (381KB) ( )   Text-reading ability is required for people who are deaf and hard-of-hearing to access external information and integrate into society. However, the reading comprehension scores of deaf readers are lower than those of hearing readers. After high school graduation, the average reading comprehension levels of deaf readers are comparable to those of hearing readers in the fourth grade of primary school. According to the results of the language proficiency test, the syntactic awareness deficit is one of the reasons for the reading difficulties of deaf readers. Syntactic awareness contributes more to the reading comprehension of deaf readers than other linguistic or non-linguistic factors. Nevertheless, it is unclear whether the deficit in syntactic awareness may affect the syntactic processing and whether deaf readers have access to syntactic information when reading text. Currently, two distinct perspectives exist. First, there is a qualitative difference in syntactic processing between deaf readers and hearing readers. Syntactic violations in sentences have not elicited a P600 effect for deaf readers. In contrast, only the N400 effect accurately predicted their reading performance. This study has revealed that deaf readers have neglected syntactic information and prioritized semantic information for comprehension. The second perspective is a quantitative difference whereby deaf readers activate syntactic information automatically, yet it takes them longer and is less accurate. Despite the uncertainty over whether the syntactic processing of deaf readers has undergone a qualitative or quantitative change, it is indisputable that the sentence processing speed and accuracy of deaf readers are lower than those of hearing readers as a result of the impairment of their syntactic processing ability. What would this difference occur? The word processing efficiency hypothesis in previous studies has suggested that deaf readers show improvement in visual compensation due to their hearing loss, thereby increasing their perceptual span. Deaf readers can process semantic information, such as orthography, more quickly, which can impede syntactic processing. What is the extent of compensation provided by the visual area and other brain areas? Findings reveal that individual differences, such as prior experience with sign language and working memory capacity, influence the syntactic processing of deaf readers. Future research is expected to focus on the syntactic processing mechanisms in deaf readers from four directions. First, it can investigate the neural basis of deaf readers' syntactic processing at the space-time level from the perspective of brain function compensation. Second, for the experimental design, future studies could choose a paradigm that is more suitable for speech impairment and Chinese characteristics. Third, regarding individual differences, it is essential to examine the effect of oral experience on executive functioning. Lastly, it should create sign bilingualism and co-enrollment environments and control groups that are suitable for interventions. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Characteristics and Neural Mechanisms of Working Memory of College Students with Different Neural Types Shi Xinguang, Li Xiao, Feng Chengzhi 2024, 47(1): 36-43.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240105 Abstract ( )   PDF (2297KB) ( )   Pavlov proposed the theory of higher nervous activity, and divided the neural activities of humans and animals into four types. Different types of individuals have different behavioral performances and cognitive processing characteristics. At present, while most of the researches on neural types and working memory are behavioral experiments, the neural mechanism of the differences in working memory of different neural types is not clear. Therefore, this study focuses on the neural mechanism of working memory of different neural types by using event-related potentials technique (ERPs). Before the normal experiment, 1263 college students were tested using 80-8 Neural Type Test Scale, with each 15 students for the flexible, quiet, excitatory and inhibitory type randomly selected from the subjects (a student of the flexible type did not complete all the experimental tasks) .The 59 subjects were engaged in and finished N-back tasks, the behavioral data and ERP data in the task were recorded and analyzed. Behavioral results showed that: (1) In accuracy, the main effect of task type was significant (p < .001), task of 2-back was significantly higher than that of 3-back; the main effect of neural type was significant (p = .001), the flexible type was significantly higher than the excitatory (p = .01) and inhibitory type (p = .001), there was no difference between the quiet type and the excitatory type, and there was no difference between the excitatory type and the inhibitory type either. (2) In reaction time, the main effect of task type was significant (p < .001), task of 2-back was significantly higher than that of 3-back; the main effect of neural type was significant(p < .001), the quiet type was borderline significantly higher than the excitatory type(p = .06) and the inhibitory type(p = .07), the flexible type was significantly higher than the excitatory type (p < .01) and the inhibitory type (p= .004), there was no differences between the flexible type and the quiet type, excitatory type group and inhibitory type had no differences either, the interaction between neural type and task type was not significant. The ERP results showed that: (1) On the P3 amplitude of the target trials, the main effect of task type was significant (p < .001), the P3 amplitudes of 2-back was significantly higher than 3-back; the main effect of neural type was significant (p < .05), flexible type group was borderline significantly higher than the inhibitory type group (p < .05), there was no difference between other types. (2) On the P3 amplitude of the non-target trials, the main effect of task type was significant (p = .001), the P3 amplitudes of 2-back was significantly higher than 3-back; the main effect of neural type was significant (p < .05), the flexible type was significantly higher than the inhibitory type group (p = .03), there was no difference between other types. (3) On the P3 latency of the target and non-target trials, the main effect of task type was not significant, the main effect of neural type was not significant, and the interaction between neural type and task type was not significant either. In conclusion, the present study found that there were significant differences between subjects with different neural types in the working memory, the flexible type was higher than the excitatory type and the inhibitory type in accuracy. For the ERP results, the P3 amplitude of the flexible type was significantly higher than the inhibitory type, and there was no difference between the types in the P3 latency. These findings suggested that the difference between the flexible type and the inhibitory type was not due to the matching subtask of working memory, but due to the updating subtask of working memory. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Perceptual Grouping on Temporal Order Perception: The Role of Attentional Cues Yin Tianzi, Liu Xiao, Liu Zongxia, Qi Jiangdan, Wu Qian 2024, 47(1): 44-51.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240106 Abstract ( )   PDF (673KB) ( )   Perceptual grouping is an important factor affecting temporal order perception. Whereas grouping of perceptual elements to form meaningful objects may occur relatively automatically and independently of top-down attention selection. The effect of perceptual grouping on temporal order perception may occur mainly in the early stage of perceptual processing. It has also been found that exogenous attention and endogenous attention represent two attention systems that can affect temporal order perception. Generally, perceptual judgments are biased towards attended stimuli, which are more likely to be perceived appeared first. A further question concerns whether attention can regulate the effect of perceptual organization on temporal order perception. The goal of the present study was to investigate the role of endogenous and exogenous attention in the effect of perceptual grouping on temporal order perception. The "C" figure composed of three line segments was used as the experimental material. Participants performed a ternary-response task in which two stimuli were presented in a configuration that encouraged perceptual grouping or not. In the task, the participants were required to report which stimulus was presented first, or else that the two stimuli appeared to have been presented simultaneously. Within-subjects design was conducted in Experiment 1 and Experiment 2, perceptual grouping(one-object and two-object), attention condition (valid cues and invalid cues), and SOA(0ms, ±15ms, ±30ms, ±45ms, ±90ms) as the independent variables, to investigate the role of exogenous and endogenous attention in the effect of perceptual grouping on temporal order perception. The temporal order judgment response of the subjects was converted into the judgment frequency of the picture on the same side with the cues appeared first and the judgment frequency of two pictures appeared at the same time. The results showed that when endogenous attention cues were used, the judgment frequency of the picture on the same side with the cues appeared first in the effective cue condition was significantly higher than that of the invalid cues condition, while the judgment frequency of simultaneous in the effective cues condition was significantly lower than that of the invalid cues condition. The same results were also found by using exogenous attention cues. However, compared with endogenous attention cues, exogenous attention played a more important role in the effect of perceptual organization on temporal order perception. This may be due to the fact that endogenous attention and exogenous attention speed-up perceptual processing about the stimulus appearing at the attended location, thus destroying the grouping of perceptual elements to form meaningful objects, and reducing the effect of perceptual organization on temporal order perception. However, the effect of endogenous and exogenous attention on temporal order perception was limited. The results show that the frequency of simultaneous judgment of the perceptual grouping condition is significantly higher than the other condition regardless of whether the two figures appeared at the same time. This indicates that even under the influence of attention cues, the perceptual organization process still has an effect on temporal order perception. The mechanism of attention in the influence of perceptual organization on temporal order perception needs to be further studied by cognitive neuroscience technology. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Intuitive Logic: Conflict Detection and the Mechanism of Individual Differences Wang Yunhong, Luo Junlong 2024, 47(1): 52-60.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240107 Abstract ( )   PDF (518KB) ( )   The logical intuitions model assumes the existence of two different types of intuitive processing. While heuristic intuitions automatically apply knowledge and beliefs, logical intuitions are based on simple logical knowledge and probabilistic rules that can help individuals automatically arrive at answers conforming to logical rules without engaging in analytical processing. Consequently, logical intuitions can help people develop mechanisms for solving reasoning problems quickly and accurately. The two-response paradigm, instructional paradigm, and logic-liking or logic-brightness paradigm are widely used experimental paradigms. Specifically, the two-response paradigm requires participants to make two successive responses to the same question. In the initial response, participants are asked to respond to the question as quickly as possible based on their intuition. They can then reflect on the question in depth and consider it thoroughly before giving a second response. The instructional paradigm requires participants to respond to a given instruction by setting both a logic-based response and a belief-based response. The Logic-liking or logic-brightness paradigm requires participants to give their liking-rating or brightness-rating for the current conclusion, rather than directly judging the logical validity of the conclusion. Researchers have verified the existence of logical intuition from different perspectives through these paradigms. The elicitation of conflict detection suggests discrepancies between logical and heuristic intuitions. The emergence of conflict implies an incongruence between the corresponding processing of beliefs and the corresponding processing of logic, indicating that the individual has developed a sensitivity to logic. Most individuals detect a cognitive conflict between the two intuitions whether they produce a logic-based or belief-based response. One possibility for inducing conflict detection is that the two intuitions have different strengths. However, as the strength of logical intuitions decreased, the level of conflict detection appeared to increase significantly for logical reasoners and decrease for heuristic reasoners. This implies that individual differences may exist in logical intuitions. Cognitive ability is the key variable for measuring individual differences in the study of logical intuition. Individuals with high cognitive ability may be in a better position to detect and resolve cognitive conflicts and thus arrive at logical answers. In contrast, individuals with low cognitive ability may not have the relevant logical knowledge and mindware, or if they do have this knowledge, failure to apply it to the appropriate problem (i.e., it may not be sufficiently practiced forming a high degree of automation) may lead to failure in conflict detection or to a low enough degree to warrant attention. In general, the article reviews recent research on logical intuitions in terms of conflict detection and individual differences, summarizes the common problems in the literature, and suggests corresponding solutions to address them. First, it is not possible to determine the level of involvement in analytical processing. Second, the relationship between individual differences and reasoning strategies is further clarified through the instructional paradigm. Finally, with respect to the lack of abundant theoretical constructs, research should further clarify the operational definition and indicators of logical intuitions. In addition, more hypotheses based on the logical intuition model should be available for examination in empirical studies and emphasis should be placed on the development and application of logical intuition for individuals with low cognitive ability. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Developmental & Educational Psychology

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The Reciprocal Relations Between Professional Identity and Teacher Emotions: A Longitudinal Study on Pre-Service and Novice Teachers Sun Mengmeng, Ji Yajing, Wu Yinlin, Ying Kuilin, Chen Xuhai 2024, 47(1): 61-69.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240108 Abstract ( )   PDF (798KB) ( )   With the gradual development of education reform, normal university students have become the reserve army of teachers. The new wave of education reform driven by "double reduction" has put forward new requirements for teachers, and it is urgent to further explore the formation mechanism and development characteristics of teachers' professional identity, so as to provide reference for teacher cultivation in the new era. Previous studies have shown that teacher emotions and professional identity are the key factors affecting teacher career development, and pleasant emotional events confirmed their identities and others elaborated the unpleasant emotional events which caused them to confront and adjust their emergent identities. In addition, some studies have found that there was an interactive effect between novice teachers' emotional experience and professional identity. Not only professional identity affects teachers' emotional experience, but also teachers' behaviors and emotions affect the formation of their professional identity. However, most studies only examine the influence of teachers' professional identity on their emotions or the influence of teachers' emotions on their professional identity. Few studies have investigated their bidirectional relationship. But it is worth noting that Jiang et al. (2021) provided a series of vivid and dynamic pictures for teachers' emotions and professional identity through a three-year longitudinal case study, which revealed the process of creating new or multiple professional identities, and the generation process of teacher emotions could be intertwined and developed together. Therefore, we designed a three-year longitudinal study to investigate the relations between teachers’ professional identity and emotions. In order to explore the mutual predictive relationship between teachers’ professional identity and positive and negative emotions from junior normal students to novice teachers, four theoretical models are proposed by the method of cross lag analysis. The models are compared with χ2(df), CFI, TLI, RMSEA, and SRMR. Participants were junior normal university students located in various parts of China. Data were collected at three time points in 2018, 2019, and 2020, creating a lag of approximately 1 year. Each participant completed the Professional Identity Scale and the Teacher’s Emotions Scale. After deleting invalid questionnaire, a total of 284 valid questionnaires were obtained. Finally, the collected data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 and Mplus 7.0, including repeated measurement of variance analysis, correlation analysis and path analysis of cross lag model. The results are as follows: (1) Pearson correlation analysis shows that participants' professional identity, positive and negative emotions all have moderate positive autocorrelation at several time points, indicating that these variables had certain cross-time stability. Participants’ professional identity is positively correlated with positive emotions, but not with negative emotions. (2) Paired sample T test finds that novice teachers’ positive and negative emotions are significantly lower than that during internship. The professional identity score shows a trend of rising first and then falling. One-way repeated measurement ANOVA finds that the main effect of measurement time is significant, and the post-experience comparison shows that the professional identity during internship is significantly higher than that in Time 1 and Time 3, and there was no significant difference between the latter two. (3) Cross-lagged analysis shows that professional identity at Time 1 can positively predict their positive emotions, but not negative emotions at Time 2. Professional identity at Time 2 can positively predict their positive emotions, but not negative emotions at Time 3. Positive emotions at Time 2 can positively predict their professional identity at Time 3, but negative emotions at Time 2 cannot predict their professional identity at Time 3. Therefore, these results suggested that teacher positive emotions and professional identity had an interactive promoting effect. Teacher education should grasp the critical period of pre-service to novice to enhance teacher professional identity and emotional competence, so as to promote the development of teachers. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Parental Psychological Control and Internalizing and Externalizing Problems among Adolescents: The Role of Rumination on Sadness and Anger Jia Qiannan, Huang Yuancheng, Ma Jing, Li Caina 2024, 47(1): 70-79.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240109 Abstract ( )   PDF (767KB) ( )   Previous research has revealed that both internalizing and externalizing problems in adolescence were prominent risk factors for developmental disorders in adulthood. Thus, identifying risk or protective factors of adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing problems would be helpful to provide theoretical bases for prevention programs. Parenting style has been documented to play a crucial role in adolescents’ development. Parental psychological control, as a typical negative parenting style, refers to parents' attempt to control children’s emotions and behavior through psychological means. According to the Social-ecological Diathesis-stress model, parental psychological control as a stressful life event may activate adolescents’ cognitive vulnerability (e.g., rumination), thus leading to negative developmental outcomes, such as depression and relational aggression. Moreover, rumination has been differentiated into sadness rumination and anger rumination. Sadness rumination has been conceptualized as repetitive thinking that focuses on one’s sadness, which will continually exacerbate adolescents’ negative emotions and make them unable to take positive and effective coping actions and gain support from others, thus increasing adolescents’ depression. In contrast, anger rumination refers to thinking repeatedly about anger and contributes to the maintenance and intensification of angry feelings. Adolescents with high anger rumination are more likely to be over-sensitive to negative social situations and to have rapid activation of aggressive schemas, which ultimately trigger their relational aggression. Therefore, this three-wave longitudinal study aimed at exploring the unique roles of both sadness rumination and anger rumination in the relationships between parental psychological control and depression/relational aggression. A sample of 861 adolescents (57% male, Mage =12.73 years old, SDage= .43 years old) was recruited from junior middle school located in western China, Xi’an, and followed for three time points, one year apart. After gaining informed consent from students, their parents, and schools, all participants completed a set of questionnaires which included the Parental Psychological Control Scale, the Sadness and Anger Rumination Questionnaire, The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, and the Social Experience Questionnaire in their classroom during a class session. SPSS22.0 was used to calculate descriptive statistics and the correlations between study variables. Mplus 7.0 was performed to examine the hypothetical mediation model. The result indicated that: (1) Parental psychological control increased adolescents’ depression and relational aggression behavior two years later. (2) The mediating effect of sadness rumination and anger rumination on parental psychological control and depression/ relational aggression was only significant for boys. That is, for boys, sadness rumination exclusively accounted for the relation between parental psychological control and depression, while anger rumination exclusively explained the relationships between parental psychological control and relational aggression behavior. Our findings have revealed several new insights into the roles of both sadness rumination and anger rumination in the effect of parental psychological control on depression and relational aggression behaviors in adolescents. We found that adolescents would increase their depression mainly because of sadness rumination, whereas they would increase their relational aggression because of anger rumination. The results not only verified the effects of sadness rumination and anger rumination as two unique structures on adolescent mental health development theoretically, but also provide suggestions for follow-up intervention. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Reciprocal Relation Between Executive Function and Emotion Regulation in Preschoolers: A Cross-Lagged and Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Analysis Xing Xiaopei, Zhao Xinyu, Hu Xia 2024, 47(1): 80-88.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240110 Abstract ( )   PDF (1286KB) ( )   As two important components of self-regulation, executive function (EF) and emotion regulation (ER) are closely associated. EF refers to the high-level cognitive processes that are necessary for planning and executing goal-directed behavior, and ER refers to the extrinsic and intrinsic processes responsible for monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions, especially their intensive and temporal features, to accomplish one’s goals. Existing, empirical studies have shown that children’s positive EF is conducive to the development of their ER, and higher ER skills can also improve children's EF. However, longitudinal research scarcely explored the potential reciprocal relationship between EF and ER. Moreover, developmental theory is typically concerned with within-person variability, and developmental processes are often assumed to occur within, rather than between individuals. The cross-lagged panel model (CLPM), a traditional method testing direction of effects, fails to separate between-person variance from within-person variance. In this regard, the random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) could split the variance of each variable into stable between-person variation, which denotes, on average, whether children who perform better on one variable (e.g., EF) also perform better on the other (e.g., ER), and within-person variation, which denotes changes from one’s own mean level (e.g., EF) during the assessment period as a function of changes in one’s own levels of the other variable (e.g., ER) and the autoregressive effect from the previous assessment point. Therefore, the aim of this study is to use the RI-CLPM to provide a strong test of both between- and within-person associations between EF and ER during preschool period. Meanwhile, we also use the CLPM to test the EF-ER relations to further verify and compare results. In addition, EF components, including inhibitory control, working memory and attention shift, are suggested to be independent of each other even at a young age and also to undergo distinct developmental changes with age. Thus, it is vital to understand how each EF component is related to ER and whether the relations would vary with EF components. The longitudinal sample consisted of 381 Chinese preschool children (Wave 1:Mage = 4.22 years, SD = .46 years; 50.97% boys, 49.03% girls) in Beijing. During three waves, mothers reported children’s EF using the Behavior Rating Inventory of the Executive Function-Preschool Version (BRIEF-P), which included the inhibitory self-control index (ISCI), the emergent metacognition index (EMI) and the flexibility index (FI). Children’s ER was also reported by mothers using the Emotional Regulation Checklist (ERC). The internal consistency was good for both measures at three times. The results of the CLPMs showed that all of the autoregressive paths were statistically significant. With regard to the cross-lagged effects, ISCI and FI were bidirectionally related to ER at T1 and T2, but only the paths from EF at T1 and T2 and EMI at T2 to ER at the subsequent time point were significant, but not vice versa. The results of the RI-CLPMs showed that at within-person level, all of the autoregressive paths were not statistically significant except for the path from ER at T2 to ER at T3. As to cross-lagged paths, FI and ER were reciprocally predicted at the within-person level between T1 and T2, and ER at T1 significantly predicted the within-person changes in ISCI at T2. In addition, at the between-person level, the random intercepts of EF, ISCI and EMI were significantly correlated with the random intercept of ER. In sum, the associations between EF and ER are found to be different for EF components. The associations between ISCI/EMI and ER are more likely to occur at the between-person level, and the relations between FI and ER primarily represent within-person associations only from early preschool to middle preschool. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Failure Does Not Mean Giving Up: Near Miss Outcomes Increase Subsequent Persistent Behavior of Undergraduates with High Perseverance Du Xu, Feng Mengmeng, Yang Boxi, Kang Jia, Li Jianxiang, Bai Xuejun 2024, 47(1): 89-96.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240111 Abstract ( )   PDF (677KB) ( )   Near misses occur when an outcome is adjacent to a desired outcome (a win). For instance, a standard three-reel slot machine requires three matching symbols to land on the pay-line for a win. A near-miss occurs when the two reels display matching symbols while the third reel is a non-match. Near-misses are known to increase continue persistence compared to full misses. This phenomenon is called as the near miss effect. Undergraduates also encounter near miss outcomes in learning activities. It is not clear whether near miss outcomes can promote persistent behavior in learning activities. Moreover, previous studies have revealed that the personalities related to failure affect the near miss effect. Perseverance refers to the personality state in the face of setbacks or failure. It is unclear whether perseverance affects the near miss effect. The mechanism of perseverance affecting the near miss effect is also unclear. Thus, the purpose of the study is to examine the effect of near miss outcomes on promoting persistent behavior, the effect of perseverance on the near miss effect, and the mediating role of counterfactual thinking between perseverance and persistent behavior after getting near miss outcomes in learning activities. In study 1, undergraduates who failed the CET test (the points were below 425) were invited as subjects. They were divided into the near miss group (the points were between 394 and 424) and the full miss group (the points were below 364). Their confidence in success and persistent intentions were measured. In study 2, undergraduates with high and low perseverance were selected as participants by using the Undergraduate Perseverance Scale. They were asked to complete a cognitive task (10 questions, and the qualified standard was to answer 8 questions correctly) and encountered a near miss outcome (seven questions were answered correctly) or a full miss outcome (less than three questions were answered correctly). Their confidence in success and persistent behavior were then measured. In study 3, undergraduates were asked to complete a cognitive task, and encountered a near miss outcome. Their persistent behavior, perseverance, and counterfactual thinking were then measured. The results of study 1 found that undergraduates in near miss group expressed more confidence in success and persistent intentions compared to those in full miss group. The results of study 2 found that the confidence in success and persistent behavior of undergraduates with high perseverance after getting the near miss outcome were better than those after getting the full miss outcome. The results of study 3 found that counterfactual thinking partially mediated the relationship between perseverance and persistent behavior after getting the near miss outcome. In conclusion, the present study reveals that the near miss effect exists in learning activities, and near miss outcomes have positive impact in increasing persistent intentions and persistent behavior of undergraduates. Perseverance affects the near miss effect. Specifically, the near miss effect only exists in the learning activities of undergraduates with high perseverance. Moreover, counterfactual thinking and perseverance jointly affect undergraduates’ persistent behavior after getting the near miss outcome. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Teacher-Student Relationship and Mathematics Achievement: A Chain Mediating Model of Behavioral Engagement and Social Emotional Competency Zhu Zhiying, Wang Yehui, Du Changhong, Wang Faming, Yang Zhaoxi 2024, 47(1): 97-104.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240112 Abstract ( )   PDF (971KB) ( )   The association between teacher-student relationship and academic development of students has always been the focus of research. In this study, students' behavioral engagement and social emotional competence were introduced as two mediating variables in the relationship between the teacher-student relationship and mathematics achievement. This study further examined the chain mediating effect of “behavioral engagement - social emotional competence”. Besides, peer acceptance, the group's attitude towards individuals, is an important manifestation of the student's peer relationship. Students of different peer acceptance types may have different performances in teacher-student relationship, behavioral participation, social emotional competence, and academic performance. The purpose of this study is to explore the roles of behavioral engagement and social emotional competence in the relation between teacher-student relationship and mathematics achievement. On this basis, the multigroup structural equation model analysis is carried out according to the different types of peer acceptance of students. We enrolled 6, 534 primary school students in western China, of which 3354 were male and 3043 were female, with an average age of 11.4. This research used the Chinese version of Delaware Social-Emotional Competency Scale, and the School Engagement Test Scale compiled by Fredricks to test students' social emotional competence and behavioral engagement. Select questions from PISA 2018 to measure the mathematics teacher-student relationship. Mathematics tests are jointly prepared by mathematics teachers and mathematics education measurement researchers in accordance with the "Mathematics Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education", including 35 multiple-choice questions in four content areas. A standardized peer-nomination procedure was used to collect information on children's peer acceptance types. We used SPSS 25.0 and Mplus 8.0 to analyze the data, the non-parametric percentile Bootstrap method to repeatedly sample 1000 times to test the mediation, and the multiple structural equation models to test path differences. The results found that: (1) Teacher-student relationship could indirectly predict mathematics achievement by the mediating roles of behavioral engagement (β =. 027, 95%CI=[. 012, . 042], p <. 001) and social emotional competence (β =. 047, 95%CI=[. 036, . 059], p <. 001), and it could also influence mathematics achievement by the chain mediating role of “behavioral engagement - social emotional competence” (β =. 044, 95%CI=[. 034, . 054], p <. 001). (2) For students with different types of peer acceptance, behavioral engagement, and social emotional competence played different roles in the association between teacher-student relationship and mathematics achievement. The teacher-student relationship of neglected and controversial students cannot directly predict math scores. Behavioral engagement in popular, rejected, and neglected students cannot directly affect students' math scores, while in the controversial group of students, social emotional competence cannot affect students' math scores. Conclusions contributed important evidence to improve behavioral engagement and social emotional competence of students. At the same time, the differences in the paths of students with different peer acceptance types also remind us that we should pay more attention to students who are disadvantaged in peer interaction, and help them better promote personal development and academic improvement. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Parental Autonomy Support and Interpersonal Forgiveness: The Mediator Role of Gratitude and the Moderating Role of Resilience Xie Xiaochun, Tong Dandan 2024, 47(1): 105-112.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240113 Abstract ( )   PDF (821KB) ( )   Forgiveness and gratitude are two traditional virtues in Chinese culture. Harmonious family environments, especially positive parenting, are protective factors for cultivating forgiveness. According to the Self-determination Theory, parental autonomy support refers to parenting that provides opportunities for children to self-regulate and encourages them to make self-determined decisions. Individuals growing up in autonomy-supportive parenting tend to have healthy psychological conditions, high academic performance, and less deviant behaviors. Based on the Self-determination Theory, the present study proposed that, regarding the relationship between the two variables, parental autonomy support would positively correlate with forgiveness. The model of empirical work in basic psychological need satisfaction (BPNS) indicates that a need-supportive context predicts adjustment through satisfying BPNS, and gratitude represents BPNS. Individuals with high gratitude have high relationship quality and pro-social behaviors, and gratitude is a predictor of interpersonal forgiveness. Cultivating gratitude is a vital task for parents in their children’s socialization. Parenting is associated with gratitude in emerging adults. Hence, based on the BPNS model, the present study aimed to examine whether gratitude mediates the relationship between parental autonomy support and interpersonal forgiveness and hypothesizes that parental autonomy support positively predicts interpersonal forgiveness through gratitude. The BPNS model also shows that personality characteristics moderate the mechanism of a need-supportive context on adjustment. Resilience is the capacity of individuals to gain positive outcomes, even in adverse and stressful situations. High gratitude and interpersonal forgiveness levels have been found in highly resilient individuals. However, to our knowledge, no study has examined whether resilience moderated the relationship between parental autonomy support and interpersonal forgiveness. Based on the previous literature, this study proposed that the indirect relationship between parental autonomy support and interpersonal forgiveness through gratitude would be more robust for higher-resilience individuals. This study recruited 720 undergraduates from three Chinese universities with a mean age of 19.51±1.06 years. Excluding those questionnaires with large missing information, data from 690 participants (female = 377) were retained for analysis. They completed questionnaires on parental autonomy support, interpersonal forgiveness, gratitude, and resilience. Harman’s single-factor test showed no significant common method bias in the current data. Zero-order correlations revealed a positive association between parental autonomy support, interpersonal forgiveness, gratitude, and resilience. PROCESS Marco in SPSS (Version 25.0) was used to examine the mediating role of gratitude and the moderating role of resilience. Results revealed that gratitude mediated the relationship between parental autonomy support and interpersonal forgiveness. Resilience moderated the indirect effect by moderating the path between parental autonomy support and gratitude. However, as opposed to our hypothesis, the results indicated that the indirect effect was greater in low-resilience participants (vs. high resilience). The current research uncovers the mechanisms of parental autonomy support on interpersonal forgiveness among undergraduate students. We expand on previous literature by examining the effect of parental autonomy on children and adolescents. We also support and broaden the applied scope of the model of empirical work in BPNS. In practice, we highlight the importance of positive parenting (i.e., parental autonomy support) to cultivate undergraduates’ virtues. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Development of Inequity Aversion in Children Aged 5~9 and Its Influencing Factors Jiang Yi, Ding Fang 2024, 47(1): 113-120.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240114 Abstract ( )   PDF (5030KB) ( )   Fairness is a social norm to regulate people’s communication. The individual’s negative feeling and strong reaction to unfairness characterize inequity aversion, which can be divided into disadvantageous inequity aversion and advantageous inequity aversion. Previous studies have shown that the development of children’s inequity aversion was affected by a variety of factors, but the questions of whether different distribution modes would affect children’s two types of inequity aversion, and how distribution mode influences the two types of inequity aversion under the influence of ingroup and outgroup or reputation and other factors are still needed to be further explored. Therefore, two experiments were conducted to explore the developmental characteristics of children’s disadvantageous and advantageous inequity aversions. In experiment 1, 240 children aged 5, 6, and 7 were selected as participants in a real assignment situation. The developmental characteristics of children’s disadvantageous inequity aversion under the different distribution modes and whether it was influenced by the factor of ingroup and outgroup were investigated by using a modified paradigm of assignment of additional resources. The results showed that: (1) The disadvantageous inequity aversion decreased with the growth of children’s age, and 7-year-old was the turning point. (2) Children’s disadvantageous inequity aversion caused by self-distribution was significantly lower than that caused by others-distribution. (3) Children’s disadvantageous inequity aversion caused by ingroup members was significantly lower than that caused by outgroup members. (4) Children’s disadvantageous inequity aversion caused by the ingroup members was significantly lower than that caused by the outgroup members under the condition of self-distribution, while there was no significant difference in children’s disadvantageous inequity aversion caused by the ingroup and outgroup members under the condition of others-distribution. (5) The 6-year-old children’s disadvantageous inequity aversion caused by self-distribution was significantly lower than that caused by others-distribution. However, there was no significant difference between 5- and 7-year-old children in the disadvantageous inequity aversion caused by the two distribution modes. In experiment 2, 240 children aged 7, 8, and 9 were selected as participants in a real assignment situation. The developmental characteristics of children’s advantageous inequity aversion under the different distribution modes and whether it was influenced by the factor of reputation were investigated by using the modified paradigm of assignment of additional resources. The results were as follows: (1) The advantageous inequity aversion increased as children grew older, and 8-year-old was the turning point. (2) Children’s advantageous inequity aversion caused by reputation was significantly higher than that caused by no reputation. For children aged 7- and 9-year-old, their advantageous inequity aversion caused by reputation was significantly higher than that caused by no reputation, while there was no significant difference in the 8-year-old children’s advantageous inequity aversion between the condition of reputation and no reputation. (3) The effect of distribution mode on advantageous inequity aversion was not significant, and children’s advantageous inequity aversion under both two distribution modes was low. In conclusion, the research showed that children’s two types of inequity aversion have different developmental patterns, and can be affected by the distribution mode and the factors such as ingroup and outgroup or reputation. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Developmental & Educational Psychology

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When Science Meets Music: Whether Background Music can Promote Individuals’ Scientific Creativity? Pi Zhongling, Yang Yuan, Wang Peng, Li Xiying 2024, 47(1): 121-131.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240115 Abstract ( )   PDF (2047KB) ( )   Creativity is a crucial skill for twenty-first-century individuals and contributes to personal achievement and social development. With the ubiquitous availability of portable devices and music, it is prevalent for university students to listen to music while learning, even viewing video lectures, and doing other types of cognitive tasks. Background music can help them concentrate on tasks, relieve boredom, and regulate their mood. Although listening to music has become fully embedded in learning and creativity, the effects of background music on learning from video lectures and scientific creativity are not well established. According to the arousal and mood hypothesis, background music benefits learning by enhancing individuals’ arousal and regulating their mood. Additionally, the impacts of background music on arousal and mood are considerably moderated by the tempo (fast vs. slow). Generally, fast background music often increases individuals’ arousal and induces pleasantness, whereas slow music usually decreases their arousal level and induces unpleasantness. According to the Cognitive Load Theory, individuals’ cognitive resources are limited, and they can only process limited information at any moment. Listening to music while learning and creating inevitably consumes finite cognitive resources and brings an extra cognitive load. As slow music needs more time to be presented, individuals experience more resources to process slow music and have a higher cognitive load than fast music. Based on the above theoretical considerations, it is reasonable to claim that when individuals’ cognitive load induced by slow music surpasses some critical threshold, their learning performance and creativity are impaired. We conducted two experiments to address the various effects of background music on arousal, learning performance, and creativity (i.e., frequency, flexibility, and originality). The goal of Experiment 1 was to test the effect of the tempo of background music (fast vs. low vs. non-music) during viewing video lectures. The slow music condition showed better learning performance, followed by the fast music condition, and then the non-music condition. Regarding creativity, the fast music condition showed higher fluency followed by the non-music condition and the slow music condition. The fast music condition showed higher flexibility than the slow music condition; the fast music condition showed higher originality than the slow and non-music conditions. The goal of Experiment 2 was to test the effect of playing timing of background music (before viewing video lectures vs. during viewing video lectures vs. during creativity tasks). The condition listening to music during creativity tasks had a higher cognitive load, lower learning performance, and higher fluency and flexibility of scientific creativity. In addition, the condition of listening to music during creativity tasks had lower originality of scientific creativity. In summary, the above results suggested that background music did not significantly influence individuals’ arousal, but the slow background music facilitated individuals’ learning performance, and the fast background music facilitated individuals’ fluency and flexibility, especially when listening to music during scientific creativity. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Social, Personality & Organizational Psychology

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Job Insecurity and Work-Life Balance: A Moderated Chain Mediation Model Hu Sanman, Liang Xiaoyan, Shen Chuangang 2024, 47(1): 132-141.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240116 Abstract ( )   PDF (921KB) ( )   In recent years, with the increasing uncertainty of the competition environment, the stability of the employment environment has sharply decreased, and the job insecurity of employees is rapidly increasing. Employees trapped in a fierce battle for secure jobs may suffer from a work and life imbalance. However, previous studies mainly focused on examining the effects of job insecurity in work or family field, and paid less attention to its effect on the overall balance of the work and life. With the development of society, it has become a new pursuit for employees to fulfill their diverse roles from work, family, leisure, health, personal development, and social relations. Hence, the present study tried to propose a moderated chain mediation model to investigate the effect and inner mechanism of job insecurity on work-life balance. First, drawing on the Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory, the present study indicated that when employees face the threat of job loss and experience job insecurity, they are very likely to invest more resources (e.g., overtime work) in the first place to avoid continued resources loss, which may trigger the reduction of their resources in non-work areas and break the work-life balance. Second, based on the loss cycles in the COR Theory and individual cognitive perspective, the present study proposed that workplace cognitive failure and negative work rumination may act as serial mediators between job insecurity and work-life balance. When employees fall into worries about job security, they may be restricted in their cognitive functions (i.e., attention, memory, and action), resulting in workplace cognitive failure. Then, as an obvious negative work experience, workplace cognitive failure could easily stimulate employees’ negative work rumination after work, further weaken the personal cognitive resources that employees can utilize in non-work fields, and aggravate the imbalance of work-life. Lastly, this study also examined the boundary effect of perceived superior support between the chain mediation model proposed above, as supervisor support is an important social support for employees in the workplace and previous studies have confirmed that it can buffer the negative effects of job insecurity. Based on a sample of 346 Chinese employees, data were collected at two time points with an interval of one month. This study used Structural Equation Model, Bootstrap and Latent Moderate Structural Equations for empirical test, with the use of Mplus8.0. The analysis results revealed that job insecurity not only had a significantly direct negative effect on work-life balance but also had a significantly indirect negative effect on work-life balance via the chain mediating effect of workplace cognitive failure and negative work rumination. The results did not support the moderating effect of perceived supervisor support between job insecurity and workplace cognitive failure but showed that perceived supervisor support acted as an amplifier, not a buffer between the relation of workplace cognitive failure and negative work rumination. Therefore, although the opposite direction was expected, perceived supervisor support moderated the chain mediation relationship proposed above. Specifically, for employees with higher perceived supervisor support, the indirect negative effect of job insecurity on work-life balance via workplace cognitive failure and negative work rumination was stronger than that of employees with lower perceived supervisor support. This study enriched the limited research on the non-work field outcomes of job insecurity through exploring how and when job insecurity influence employee work-life balance under the Chinese organizational background. In terms of practical implications, this study suggested that to reduce the negative impact of job insecurity on work-life balance, enterprises should take various cognitive interventions (e.g., mindfulness training) to avoid job insecure employees from falling into negative cognitive states and help supervisors to give employees appropriate social support through management competency (e.g., coaching) training. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of Implicit Belief Perception on Preemptive Strikes in Interpersonal Conflict: The Mediating Role of Hope Xie Zhouxiutian, Wang Zhencheng, Lin Lina, Liu Lei 2024, 47(1): 142-150.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240117 Abstract ( )   PDF (1030KB) ( )   Preemptive strikes are actions to eliminate or reduce the potential threat by a costly act, resulting in harm to others. While managing interpersonal conflicts, individuals prefer preemptive strikes to reduce or eliminate what they may perceive as a threat. Yet, it may cost individuals to initiate a preemptive strike and may find themselves in a substantially worse situation after launching a preemptive strike. It is unfortunate that such pricey and destructive preemptive strikes are prevalent in daily interpersonal interactions. The goals of this research were to explore the effects of perceived implicit beliefs on interpersonal preemptive strikes in interpersonal conflict situations using two experiments and to examine the mediation role of hope. In both experiments, a one-way between-subjects design was used, with the independent variable in Experiment 1 being the implicit belief that threatening conflict is changing/unchanging and the independent variable in Experiment 2 being the implicit belief that the world is changing or unchanging. The dependent variable in both experiments was preemptive strikes, which was measured by the proportion of people who pressed the red button. The mediating variable in both experiments was the hope of subjects in each experimental condition. In Experiment 1, subjects were asked to manipulate their perceptions of implicit beliefs about threatening conflict by reading an article presented in a news form highlighting that "threatening conflict is changing" or "threatening conflict is unchanged". Some studies, however, have suggested that those who did not directly refer to conflict situations, but merely believed that the world is a dynamic and constantly changing place, were more likely to experience hope in the conflicts. Consequently, they were more inclined to make amends with their conflict opponents. Therefore, in Experiment 2, we manipulated implicit beliefs about a changing and unchanging world successfully by building a more neutral intervention. The findings of Experiment 1 indicated that in interpersonal conflict situations, people with the implicit belief that threatening conflict is constant more often preferred preemptive strikes than people with the implicit belief that threatening conflict is variable. Moreover, individuals with "threatening conflict is changing" implicit beliefs had significantly higher hope than those with "threatening conflict is constant" implicit beliefs. Hope fully mediated the causal relationship between the perception of threatening conflict implicit beliefs and preemptive strikes. The results of Experiment 2 revealed that in situations of interpersonal conflict, people with unchanging world implicit beliefs were more probably to initiate a preemptive strike than people with changing world implicit beliefs. In addition, individuals who hold implicit beliefs about a changing world have significantly more hope relative to individuals who hold implicit beliefs about an unchanging world. Hope fully mediated the causal relationship between implicit beliefs about a changing world and preemptive strikes. The results of these two experiments suggest that when people hold implicit beliefs about change, they experience higher levels of hope, which in turn reduces the likelihood of individuals initiating preemptive strikes. This study has illustrated one such mechanism for promoting peace: by indirectly inducing people to believe that conflict or the world is changing, increasing hope people would experience successfully reduced the tendency of individuals to initiate preemptive strikes in interpersonal conflicts. This study helps people to find solutions to the problem of defensive aggression, and thus to facilitate conflict resolution. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Fluid Compensation on Group Members' Satisfaction after Concessions Huang Jing, Wang Hao, Wang Zhengrong 2024, 47(1): 151-160.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240118 Abstract ( )   PDF (670KB) ( )   Groups are becoming increasingly important contexts for people to make consumption decisions and behaviors, and consumers often complete consumption choices as group members. It is worth noting that group members may have different preferences for a product, and those who disagree with the majority may sacrifice their preferences and make consumption choices consistent with the group they identify with. This phenomenon is called concessions. Concessions lead to lower post-decision satisfaction and even harm subsequent consumption behavior and group behavior. Because the dissatisfaction of concessionaries is rooted in the fact that some attributes of the product do not satisfy their own needs, we classify the concessions of group members into concessions to hedonic attributes and concessions to utilitarian attributes. According to the Fluid Compensation Theory, when the current product attribute does not meet consumption expectations, people are more likely to seek and affirm another irrelevant attribute to indirectly eliminate the dissatisfaction after concessions with new purchase reasons. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate whether fluid compensation of utilitarian information can improve the post-concession dissatisfaction when group members concede because the product's hedonic attribute does not meet the demand. We also examined how compensation of hedonic information affects the satisfaction of conceders when group members concede because they do not like the product's utilitarian attribute. The mediating mechanisms and moderating variables are further explored. To support the hypothesis of fluid compensation on product satisfaction after concessions, this study first collected some secondary data of consumer reviews in a group consumption scenario. Reviewers indicated that they initially did not want to participate in group consumption because of the hedonic attributes of the target product, and were impressed by the utilitarian attributes after going to the consumption in order to fit in the group, which alleviated the post-decisional dissatisfaction. This was initial evidence of the main effect. Three experiments were then conducted to further explore the main effect, mediating effect, and moderating effect. A concession scenario was first set up, in which subjects did not like the crowd-favored product because their hedonic or utilitarian preferences were different from the group, and then compensated for the hedonic or utilitarian attributes after the subjects chose to concede, followed by measurement of variables such as product satisfaction and certainty. Experiment 1 supported the main effect where compensation for utilitarian (vs. hedonic) information led to higher (vs. lower) product satisfaction when group members conceded to hedonic attributes, while compensation for utilitarian and hedonic information had no difference on product satisfaction when group members conceded to utilitarian attributes. Experiment 2 supported the mediating effect of certainty. That is, compensation for utilitarian information led to higher product satisfaction through higher certainty compared to hedonic information when group members conceded to hedonic attributes, while compensation for hedonic information led to no significant increase in product satisfaction through lower certainty compared to utilitarian information when group members conceded to utilitarian attributes. Experiment 3 supported the moderating effect of perceived similarity, where perceived similarity in in-group hedonic preferences leads to higher product satisfaction through increased certainty in hedonic compensation (vs. utilitarian compensation) after concessions to utilitarian attributes. According to our study, fluid compensation based on product hedonic and utilitarian attributes mitigates dissatisfaction after concessions and also validates the mediating effect of certainty and the moderating effect of perceived preference similarity. The findings add new improvement strategies to the concession phenomenon of group consumption, applying psychological theory to the marketing field to solve real-world problems. This study suggests that marketers should mention the utilitarian attributes of the product while communicating the hedonic value of the product to the group; when promoting utilitarian products with hedonic compensation to the group, they need to pay attention to whether the group's hedonic preferences for the target product are similar. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Impact of Internet Use on Depression Symptoms among Older Adults: The Mediating Role of Social Networks and The Moderating Role of Urban-Rural Disparity Feng Zhixin, Shi Jiaming, Jiang Chaoxin, Deji Zhuoma 2024, 47(1): 161-169.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240119 Abstract ( )   PDF (819KB) ( )   The high penetration rate of internet technology among older adults provides an opportunity to explore the influence of internet use on older adults’ depression symptoms. Existing studies have focused on internet use among adolescents, and relatively few studies have explored the association between internet use and depression symptoms among older adults. Based on the main effects model and buffering model of social networks, this study considers internet use as an online social network for older adults and hypothesizes that internet use is negatively associated with depression symptoms among older adults. The mechanisms underlying how internet use affects depression symptoms are limited. Internet is an online social network, and the “network gain effect theory” believes that online social networks can increase offline social networks in real life, which furtherly reduce depression symptoms. Thus, social networks may play a mediating role in the relationships between internet use and depression symptoms. However, existing studies mainly focus on the overall social network of the older adults, such as the mediating role of social capital, and failed to explore the differences in the mediating role of different types of social networks. Because family and friend social networks are the important types of offline social networks, this study hypothesizes that family and friend social networks play mediating effects in the associations between internet use and depression symptoms. Besides, according to the pattern of different sequences, the effects of internet use on family and friend social networks may be sequential. This study therefore hypothesizes that friends and family social networks play a chain mediating effect. In addition, as the long-time of urban and rural division in China, the effects of internet use on family and friend social networks may also demonstrate the disparities in rural and urban areas. This study hypothesizes that urban-rural disparity moderates the effects of internet use on social networks. The China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (CLASS) in the 2016 and 2018 waves were employed. After excluding samples with missing data of key variables, a number of 6,764 older samples were selected. SPSS 23.0 and PROCESS were used to analyze data. First, this study examined the common method deviation analysis. Second, the descriptive results and the correlation and regression analyses between key variables were reported. Third, this study explored mediating effects of family and friend social networks. Finally, the moderating effects of urban-rural disparity were tested. The results were as follows. First, internet use was significantly associated with fewer depression symptoms. Second, friend social network played a mediating effect on the associations between internet use and depression symptoms, while the mediating effects of the family social network were not significant. In addition, friend and family social networks played a chain mediating effect. In terms of the moderating effects of urban-rural disparity, internet use was positively associated with a larger friend social network among urban older adults. However, no significant moderating effect was found in terms of the influence of internet use on family social networks. Furthermore, friend social networks, as well as the chain association of friend and family social networks played mediating effects among urban older adults, but for rural older adults, no significant mediating effects of friends and family social networks were found. Practical contributions are proposed in this study. First, the problem of the "digital divide" should be bridged and measures should be taken to promote internet use among older adults, especially for rural older adults. Second, friend social networks are an important target for depression intervention, and social activities should be carried out to provide an opportunity to expand friend social network. Third, when intervening on depression symptoms based on older adults’ social networks, it is important to consider the urban-rural disparity. The intervention on urban older adults’ friend social networks could benefit to alleviate depression symptoms. For rural older adults, other effective methods should be considered to promote their friends and family social networks. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Work-Family Conflict and Rural Teachers’ Negative Working Emotion: Mindfulness in Teaching as a Mediator and Psychological Safety as a Moderator Tian Huidong, Xu Qiangqiang, Zhang Yuhong, Wang Dongrong, Wei Yixin 2024, 47(1): 170-177.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240120 Abstract ( )   PDF (727KB) ( )   Teachers, who are engaged in heavy emotional labor, are prone to emotional exhaustion, which leads to negative emotions such as depression and anxiety. According to the Affective Events Theory, rural teachers who face heavy workloads and difficulties are more likely to breed negative working emotions. If this negative emotion is accumulated longitudinally and cannot be relieved in an appropriate way, it may not only adversely impact teachers' mental health, but also cause moral misconduct, which in turn may disrupt their students' mental health. Rural teachers are constrained by the particularity of their posts, and undertake a lot of teaching and non-teaching work. The heavy work pressure makes it challenging to balance the relationship between work and family, and it is inevitable that the confusion and conflict of roles will result from the poor balance. In particular, rural teachers are more and more living in a "migratory bird" state between work and life. The separation of work and life makes it more difficult to balance the relationship between work and family, and the conflict between work and life is more intense. Although previous studies have shown that work-family conflict is the key inducing factor of teachers' negative emotion, few studies have paid attention to the influence of work-family conflict on rural teachers' negative working emotion and its mechanism. Based on this, from the perspectives of Work/family Border Theory, the Conservation of Resources, the Job Demands-Resources model, and the Person-Situation Interaction Theory, this study explores the generation mechanism of rural teachers' negative working emotion from three micro subsystems: work environment (psychological safety), family life (work-family conflict) and individual characteristics (mindfulness in teaching). A sample of 896 rural teachers were recruited in the study to complete the Work-family Conflict Scale, the Mindfulness in Teaching Scale, the Psychological Safety Scale, and the Negative Affectivity Subscale. The results showed that: (1) Work-family conflict significantly positively predicted rural teachers' negative working emotion. (2) The relationship between mindfulness in teaching significantly mediated work-family conflict and rural teachers' negative working emotion. (3) Psychological safety moderated the first half and the second half of the mediation process in which work-family conflict affected negative working emotion of rural teachers. Specifically, the negative predictive effect of work-family conflict on mindfulness in teaching was weakened in rural teachers with high psychological safety, while the negative predictive effect of mindfulness in teaching on negative working emotion was only significant on rural teachers with high psychological safety. This study revealed the influence of work-family conflict on rural teachers' negative working emotion and its mechanism, and provided evidence to promote the mental health and team building among rural teachers. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Employee Honesty-Humility and Workplace Deviant Behavior: From the Perspective of Trait Activation Theory Han Zhiwei, Xi Yiheng, Qin Jia, Ren Zhishuai, Hu Feng 2024, 47(1): 178-186.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240121 Abstract ( )   PDF (1040KB) ( )   Although numerous studies have confirmed that employee honesty-humility negatively predicts workplace deviant behavior, most studies have focused on the direct effect of employee honesty-humility on workplace deviant behavior, and have ignored the role of organizational contexts in this process. Identifying which organizational contexts strengthen or weaken the direct effect of employee honesty-humility on workplace deviant behavior can not only provide a more comprehensive understanding of the process by which employee honesty-humility affects workplace deviant behavior, but also adopt corresponding measures in management practices to lead employee work behaviors toward the direction expected by organizations. Based on the Trait Activation Theory, this study explores the organizational contextual conditions that may influence the direct effect of employee honesty-humility on workplace deviant behavior. Specifically, we argue that two ethics-related organizational contexts - ethical leadership behavior and team ethical climate - can activate employee honest-humility, thereby curbing the occurrence of workplace deviant behavior. In addition, ethical leadership behavior may also indirectly activate employee honesty-humility by promoting team ethical climate, thereby discouraging workplace deviant behavior. We employed a multi-stage questionnaire survey to collect the data, which consisted of three stages with an interval of one month. In the first stage, employees were asked to rate their honest-humility and answer basic demographic information. In the second stage, employees were asked to evaluate ethical leadership behaviors of their team leaders and team ethical climate of their teams. In the third stage, employees were asked to report their workplace deviant behavior. Valid data were obtained from 30 teams with a total of 221 employees. The results showed that: (1) Ethical leadership behavior strengthened the negative relationship between employee honesty-humility and workplace deviant behavior; (2) Team ethical climate strengthened the negative relationship between employee honesty-humility and workplace deviant behavior; (3) Team ethical climate mediated the moderating effect of ethical leadership behavior on the relationship between employee honesty-humility and workplace deviant behavior. This study has several theoretical contributions. First, by investigating the moderating effects of ethical leadership behavior and team ethical climate on the relationship between employee honesty-humility and workplace deviant behavior, this study provides a more comprehensive theoretical explanation for understanding the relationship between employee honesty-humility and workplace deviant behavior. Second, this study confirms that ethical leadership behavior and team ethical climate can act as trait-related contexts to activate employee honesty-humility, thus inhibiting the occurrence of workplace deviant behavior, which provides a novel perspective to understand the relationship between ethical leadership behavior and ethical climate and employee workplace deviant behavior. Finally, this study finds that trait-related contexts at the social level can influence the work behavior expression process of personality traits by affecting trait-related contexts at the organizational level, thus making a certain contribution to the Trait Activation Theory. Regarding practical implications, the findings suggest that managers should actively engage ethical leadership behavior and promote team ethical climate to activate employee honesty-humility, thus leading the development of their work behaviors in line with organization's expectations. Research deficiencies and prospects are also discussed. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Cognitive Basis of Materialists’ Luxury Consumption: From the Perspective of Mental Accounting Dong Yijia, Zhang Yue, Li Xue, Jiang Jiang, Liu Zishuang, Du Xiaopeng 2024, 47(1): 187-195.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240122 Abstract ( )   PDF (1023KB) ( )   In order to better understand the luxury consuming behavior of materialists, this study examined the differences in luxury consumption accounts of mental accountings between individuals with high and low material values. When exploring luxury consuming behaviors of materialists, the existing research mostly adopted the perspective of motivation. Few have examined the cognitive processes relative to economic decision-making underlying the relationship between materialists’ consuming motivation and luxury consumption. Based on the Mental Accounting Theory, a common theory of consumption in the field of economic psychology, this study explored this issue from a cognitive processing perspective. According to high and low materialists’ different perceptions about materials and the nature of mental accountings, this study hypothesized that high and low materialists’ luxury consumption accounts should have some differences. We conducted two studies to answer these questions. In Study 1, we tested the differences of high and low materialists’ willingness to separate luxury consumption accounts from other accounts, that is, whether high materialists were willing to set apart a single account to manage their luxury consumption. In Study 2, we asked participants to complete the Material Values Scale-Short Form and self-compiled items designed to detect their willingness to transfer money from one account to another. We hypothesized that high materialists were more likely to transfer their money from some common accounts to luxury consumption accounts. By conducting independent samples t test and hierarchical linear regression, Study 1 demonstrated some evidence that luxury consumption accounts of high and low materialists do have some differences. Specifically, high materialists are more willing to separate a single account to manage their luxury consumption. By conducting 2 (materialism: high vs. low) × 2 (transfer direction of money: from other accounts to luxury accounts vs. from luxury accounts to other accounts) × 3 (situations: study vs. living vs. relationship) ANOVA of repeated measuring, Study 2 showed that high materialists are more likely to transfer their money from some common accounts to luxury consumption accounts than low materialists regardless of situations. This study makes some contributions. On the one hand, this study explains the findings on materialism and luxury consuming behavior from a cognitive processing perspective relative to economic decision-making, pointing out that the differences in luxury consuming behavior between individuals with high and low material values may due to the differences in their luxury consumption accounts of mental accountings driven by their disparate motivation. On the other hand, the results confirm previous descriptions of materialists that they like extravagant material consumption, attach importance to appearance, and are more prone to irrational consumption. Besides, this study also has some limitations (e.g., we only used a specific luxury goods in Study 2), so future studies are still needed. In conclusion, this study introduces the theory in economic psychology to the research of materialism, exploring the cognitive basis of materialistic people’s luxury consuming behavior from the perspective of mental accountings. It helps us to better understand the nature of materialists and their luxury consumption, thus expands the research perspective of materialism. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Impact of Spouses on Employees’ Green Behavior: An Analysis Based on the Spillover-Crossover Model Song Meng, Jiang Aoxue, Wang Zhen 2024, 47(1): 196-204.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240123 Abstract ( )   PDF (1724KB) ( )   Promoting high-quality development requires a coordination between environmental protection and economic growth. In recent years, companies have been turning towards green transformation, emphasizing the importance of saving resources and reducing energy consumption. Therefore, the environmental responsibility of companies is being emphasized. As the specific executor and the performer of enterprise strategy, the green behavior of employees is the key to the realization of green transformation and has been widely concerned by theorists and practitioners. As a result, stimulating employees to actively implement green behavior has gradually become a widespread topic for academics and organizational practices. Researchers have extensively explored the aspects of employee personality traits and organizational contexts, nevertheless, they neglected the potential influence from the family domain. Based on the Spillover-Crossover Model (SCM), this study constructs a theoretical model of the relationships among spouses’ voluntary workplace green behavior, work family interpersonal capitalization, and employees’ voluntary workplace green behavior. Using the experience sampling method (ESM), the proposed research model is tested in a sample of 80 couples (containing both employees and their spouses) who completed surveys over 7 weeks. One week before the start of the weekly surveys, we sent a questionnaire containing the demographic information (e.g., age, gender, educational background, industry, position, organization size, dyadic tenure and the number of children) and other control variables (green values of themselves and green human resources management of their companies) to the employees. During the weekly survey, employees were sent one survey each week including the voluntary workplace green behavior during the last week; while their spouses were asked to report their voluntary workplace green behavior, their work family interpersonal capitalization, and their green knowledge sharing willingness, and their green knowledge sharing ability. The results show that: (1) The voluntary workplace green behavior of spouses has a positive impact on their work family interpersonal capitalization. (2) The work family interpersonal capitalization of spouses plays as a mediator between the spouses’ voluntary workplace green behavior and employees’ voluntary workplace green behavior. (3) The indirect effect of spouses’ voluntary workplace green behavior and employees’ voluntary workplace green behavior through work family interpersonal capitalization is moderated by spouses’ green knowledge sharing willingness, such that the indirect effect is stronger when spouses’ green knowledge sharing willingness are high rather than low. (4) The indirect effect of spouses’ voluntary workplace green behavior and employees’ voluntary workplace green behavior through work family interpersonal capitalization is also by spouses’ green knowledge sharing ability, such that the indirect effect is stronger when spouses’ green knowledge sharing ability are high rather than low. Based on our review and conceptual model, we identify and highlight several key avenues for future research that will help extend the current employee green behavior literature. This study crosses the work-family domain and reveals the influence process and boundary conditions of employees’ voluntary workplace green behavior from the perspective of significant others (spouse) in the family, extending the research perspective and scope of green behavior. The current study provides evidence for the association between spouses’ and employees’ green behavior through work family interpersonal capitalization, and contributes to the literature by clarifying the equivocal findings, as well as uncovering the underlying mechanisms of the above relationship. The conclusion integrated the SCM with the green studies, and extends the process of spillover-crossover-spillover, which further supports the applicability of the SCM in the field of green management research. It provides a theoretical and practical reference for how to promote the green development of organizations from the perspective of family. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of Different Language Emotional Evaluation on Social Conformity Jiang Xiaolei, Liu Huanhuan 2024, 47(1): 205-210.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240124 Abstract ( )   PDF (816KB) ( )   Conformity usually occurs in the interaction between individuals and others. What is often overlooked is whether individual decisions can be influenced by the interlocutor’s language and emotion in the interaction. Bilingualism research has shown that some psychological effects are accompanied by different languages, even when the meaning of a sentence is fully understood. In addition, previous studies have shown that individuals have biases in their emotional perception of different languages, but no study has shown whether such biases further affect individual conformity behaviors. Therefore, in order to compare the conformity effects when people use their first or second language in different emotions, a perceptual discrimination task was employed in this study by manipulating levels of difficulty and ambiguity of stimuli. In this study, an “Initial judgement - Partner feedback- Re-judgement” paradigm was employed in Experiment 1 and 2. By manipulating context (Chinese, English) and emotional valence (positive-praise, passive-blame), we investigated the cognitive mechanism of emotional evaluation of how difficulty levels and languages affect individual decision making in social conformity. Participants were told they would be going to take part in a dual-person experiment. In Experiment 1, participants would first complete the direction judgment of the random dot motion (RDM) perceptual discrimination task, then they would receive the feedback of word and direction judgement from their so called “partners” either in Chinese or in English, and finally they needed to consider whether to change their previous judgment according to the feedback from their partners. In order to highlight the role of emotional evaluation in different languages, in Experiment 2, the partner direction feedback was removed and only word feedback was retained. Experiment 1 showed that as the difficulty increases (e.g., uncertainty), the average consistency between the second judgment and the direction feedback was improved. Moreover, the average consistency between the second judgment and the feedback direction under the negative feedback in the first language was higher than that under the negative feedback in the second language. This indicates that compared with the English feedback condition, the Chinese negative feedback not only induced the participants to change their previous judgment, but also tended to be more consistent with their partner's judgment. Experiment 2 also showed that negative feedback in the first language was more likely to induce individuals to change their previous judgment than negative feedback in the second language. This study indicates that different languages influence individual’s conformity behavior by their emotional perceptions. In summary, language can influence social conformity behavior by influencing individuals' perception of negative emotions. The main findings of this study are that negative feedback in the first language is more likely to induce the subjects to change their previous judgments and exhibit conformity behavior than negative feedback in the second language. And this study supports the Emotion-Reducing Hypothesis about the cognitive inhibition of negative words occurred in foreign languages. Finally, in this experiment, positive emotions are less likely to show differences between native and foreign languages, and future studies should further explore the impact of positive emotions in different languages on social conformity. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of Customer Empowering Behaviors on Employees’ Job Crafting: A Moderated Mediation Model Deng Xincai, Han Yue, Ye Yijiao, Guo Gongxing 2024, 47(1): 211-219.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240125 Abstract ( )   PDF (1443KB) ( )   Increasingly fierce market competition requires organizations to continuously improve service quality to meet the diverse and fast-changing service requirements of customers. As a group directly contacting with customers, frontline service employees have unique advantages in sensing changes in customer needs and adjusting service behaviors in a timely manner to meet customer expectations. Therefore, as a positive behavior of employees to redefine their work cognition and remodel their work content, frontline employees’ job crafting has attracted increasing research attention. Existing studies on the antecedents of employees’ job crafting have mainly focused on internal organization factors (e.g., employee characteristics and leadership) and largely ignored the influence of external organizational factors (e.g., customer empowering behaviors) on employees’ job crafting. Based on the Self-determination Theory, this study investigates the effect of customer empowering behaviors on employees’ job crafting. In light of this, this study constructs and verifies the mediating effect of harmonious work passion between customer empowering behaviors and employees’ job crafting. Furthermore, this study also verifies the boundary effect of role breadth self-efficacy in this relationship. Results based on a time-lagged data of 373 frontline service employees revealed that customer empowering behaviors have a significant positive effect on employees’ job crafting, and role breadth self-efficacy plays a positive moderating role in this process. Moreover, harmonious work passion partly mediates the relationship between customer empowering behaviors and job crafting. Role breadth self-efficacy significantly strengthens the positive effect of customer empowering behaviors on harmonious work passion as well as the indirect effect of customer empowering behaviors on employees’ job crafting via harmonious work passion. This research contributes to the literature in three ways. First, it deepens the understanding of employees’ job crafting. By focusing on the effects of customer empowering behaviors, this study shifts the research focus on the antecedents of job crafting from internal to external organizational factors. Second, this study also broadens our understanding of the outcomes of customer empowering behaviors. It unpacks the underlying mechanism of translating customer empowering behaviors into employees’ job crafting by considering a mediator (harmonious work passion) based on self-determination theory. Third, this study contributes by investigating the role breadth self-efficacy as a new and critical boundary condition that aggravates the positive effect of customer empowering behaviors. This research provides several important practical implications. First, service organizations should pay attention to the important role that frontline service employees have in service delivery. To be specific, organizations should encourage employees to consciously collect the external heterogeneous resources and information provided by the customer, and encourage employees to make flexible decisions in service delivery, which are important in promoting employees’ job crafting behaviors. Second, given that harmonious work passion is positively related to employees’ job crafting, enterprises should pay attention to the influence of employees' work conditions on their job crafting, especially the effect of harmonious work passion. In this regard, organizations should create a supportive environment that can stimulate employees’ harmonious work passion to help them stay in a positive mental state and remodel their behavior to meet customer needs. Third, to amplify the positive effects of customer empowering behaviors, organizations should take measures to foster employees’ role breadth self-efficacy and pay special attention to employees who have low levels of role breadth self-efficacy. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Research on Social Psychological Service in the New Era

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The Functional Relationship between Cumulative Family Risk and Preschooler’s Problem Behaviors: The Cognitive Mechanism of Executive Function Wang Wenhui, Xing Shufen, Bai Rong, Wang Guoxin 2024, 47(1): 220-228.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240126 Abstract ( )   PDF (1927KB) ( )   Family risks are considered as important antecedents of problem behaviors. These risks usually emerge together and influence problem behaviors in preschool children with a cumulative way. Compared with a single family risk, cumulative family risks have much stronger effect on problem behaviors. However, the pattern of the relationship conforming to the linear model or the nonlinear model remains to be examined. Furthermore, little is known about the potential mechanism between cumulative family risks and problem behaviors. Executive function refers to a series of advanced cognitive processes including inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, which is vulnerable to family risks and closely related to problem behaviors. What’s more, there are significant gender differences in executive function and problem behaviors. Therefore, the current study examined the relationship between cumulative family risks and problem behaviors. More importantly, the cognitive mechanism of executive function and gender differences in above relationships were further tested. One hundred and seventy-seven preschoolers (108 boys, Mage = 5.19 years old) and their mothers were recruited in a kindergarten from Hebei Province. Cumulative family risks were measured by 6 variable indicators of family structure, socioeconomic status, and parenting behavior. Then the cumulative risk index was calculated by summing these risks up through the way suggested by previous studies. Problem behaviors were measured by the strength and difficulty questionnaire (SDQ). Meanwhile, three tasks in the NIH Toolbox Application (i.e., the flanker inhibitory control attention test, the dimensional change card sort test, and the list sorting working memory test) were used to measure children’s executive function. The results showed that: (1) Cumulative family risk was positively associated with externalizing behaviors in boys and girls, and the pattern was in line with the linear mode; (2) The pattern of relations between Cumulative family risk and boy’s internalizing behaviors conformed to the linear model, whereas the pattern of relations in girls conformed to the nonlinear model; (3) Children’s executive function mediated the associations between cumulative family risk and problem behaviors, and this mediating effect was cross-gender consistent. These results indicated that cumulative family risk has similar effects on externalizing behaviors among boys and girls, but has a greater impact on internalizing behaviors in girls than boys. Additionally, executive function served as a mediator between cumulative family risk and problem behaviors. Under the Cumulative Risk Model, this study clarified the special relationship patterns and underlying mechanisms of the associations between cumulative family risk and preschoolers’ problem behaviors, which provided valuable guidance for effective prevention and interventions of preschooler’s problem behaviors. Future prevention and intervention programs should pay more attention to preschool girls who are exposed to multiple risk factors. Furthermore, according to the findings, improving preschool children’s executive function may help to reduce both preschool boys’ and girl’s problem behaviors. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Psychological statistics, Psychometrics & Methods

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The Choice of Examinee Parameter Estimation Methods in Cognitive Diagnostic Models Zhou Man, Liu Yanlou, Teng Yaru 2024, 47(1): 229-236.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240127 Abstract ( )   PDF (1068KB) ( )   Cognitive diagnostic models (CDMs), which are also referred to diagnostic classification models (Rupp et al., 2010), are multiple discrete latent-variable models. In the past few decades or even earlier, CDMs have become a popular method in many fields, such as psychological and educational measurement, psychiatric evaluation, and other disciplines. Arguably, to offer fine-grained differentiated diagnostic information based on the examinees' observed response data to further help teachers and clinicians taking individualized instructions or interventions is one of the ultimate purposes of CDMs. Three examinee parameter estimation methods have been proposed to classify examinees into a group of latent classes in CDMs, including the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE; Birnbaum, 1968), maximum a posteriori (MAP; Samejima, 1969) and expected a posteriori (EAP; Bock & Mislevy, 1982). Huebner and Wang (2011) investigated the performance of MLE, MAP, and EAP for classifying examinees within the DINA model framework. They found that MLE/MAP had a higher correct classification rate on all K skills. In their study, however, the item parameters and structural parameters were assumed to be known. Although the previous study compared the performance of the MLE, MAP and EAP, the choice of the most suitable examinee parameter estimation methods in CDMs still tend to be a problem. In this study, we proposed that the main difference between MLE, MAP and EAP is that the last two methods consider the latent knowledge state distribution. Thus, a simulation study was conducted to investigate the impact of latent knowledge state distribution on the classification accuracy of MLE, MAP and EAP. Five factors were manipulated: the attribute tetrachoric correlation (0, .5 and .8), number of sample size (300, 1,000 and 5,000), number of attributes (3 and 5), data-generated models (DINA, DINO, A-CDM and G-DINA) and the types of Q-matrices (correctly and incorrectly). Four evaluation criteria were pattern correct classification rate (PCCR), attribute correct classification rate (ACCR), the classification rate for each skill (Skillk) and the average of the classification rate for all skill (Total). The classification results for all four criteria were averaged over the 1000 replications. Results showed that, (1) When the attribute tetrachoric correlation was zero, MLE produced the highest correct classification rate with the criteria of PCCR; (2) When the attribute tetrachoric correlation was moderate or high, the EAP and MAP generally yielded higher classification rate than that of the MLE; (3) The correct classification rate increased as the attribute correlation and item quality increased; (4) The correct classification rate of the misspecification of Q-matrix were worse than those in true Q-matrix and items with more attributes had lower accuracy; (5) The DINA and DINO models yielded more accurate classification rate than the G-DINA and A-CDM models. Overall, choosing the most appropriate knowledge state estimation method is of theoretical and practical importance. The results of this study indicated that the classification accuracy of MLE, MAP and EAP were affected by the latent knowledge state distribution, we recommend using EAP/MAP as an estimation method in practice to ensure the accuracy of estimation. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Clinical Psychology & Consulting

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Assessment of Professional Competence for Clinical and Counseling Psychology Professionals Lu Yun, Liu Mengyun, Gu Tianyi, Zhu Xu 2024, 47(1): 237-245.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240128 Abstract ( )   PDF (631KB) ( )   Since the 1980s, scholars have been advancing competency-based training for clinical and counseling psychology. Researchers and experts from various countries have reached general consensus on the core competencies encompassing professional psychology competence, and have generated observable and measurable behavioral benchmarks for the attainment of these competencies. The Licensing boards of the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and China adhere to competence frameworks that share similar competencies. Organizing training activities and accreditation according to the established competence frameworks is regarded as the best practice for the clinical and counseling psychology profession. To put competency-based training and evaluation into practice, a number of tools have been developed to evaluate professional competence of trainees and psychologists, of which supervisor-rated multi-item multidimensional Likert-type ratings are the most widely implemented method. However, psychometric research lags behind the implementation of competency assessment, and it is unknown the extent to which commonly used competency measurements map onto the established competence frameworks. As China transitions from non-degree-seeking counselor training to systematic counselor training in degree-seeking academic programs, the need is more than ever to develop competency-based accreditation guidelines consistent with the Chinese competence framework, for which fair, reliable and ecologically valid competency assessment is the foundation. To provide recommendations for competency-based training programs of clinical and counseling psychology in China, the standards and methods of competence evaluation were reviewed and discussed. Five published tools were reviewed, of which three were supervisor-rated Likert-type rating forms, one was a rating form for case reports and oral defense, and one was a computer-assisted vignette-based supervisor-rated measure. After comparing these tools against the established competence frameworks, gaps were observed. Specifically, the majority of the published tools focused on evaluating core clinical competencies (communication and interpersonal skills, assessment and intervention), but lacked measurement representation or specificity in foundational competencies that involve attitudes and values (ethical and legal standards, individual and cultural diversity, professional values and attitudes) and advanced functional competencies (supervision, consultation and interprofessional/interdisciplinary skills, management/administration, advocacy). For the two Likert-type measures that include assessment of foundational competencies, research indicated that supervisors could not effectively discriminate between professional attitudes from clinical competencies. This suggested that formal competency assessment was particularly weak in assessing the demonstration of professional attitudes and values, and programs continued to rely on course completion or knowledge-based tests to assess advanced functional competencies. Furthermore, the extant research on supervisor-rated Likert-type rating forms revealed serious limitations in structural validity and rater bias, which threated the validity of competence evaluation and ultimately the quality of the profession. Despite the common use of case reports and case presentations in training, only one assessment tool has been published that evaluates competencies using clinical case reports, and no psychometric research has been conducted. We recommend that Chinese counselor training programs (1) supplement supervisor ratings of clinical competencies using Likert-type scales with supervisory team meetings and video-based third-party evaluation to control for rater bias, (2) simplify supervisor ratings of professional attitudes and values such that they only rate below-expectation performance to accentuate their “gatekeeping” role and increase assessment validity, and (3) solidify the definition and operationalization of competency attainment for advanced functional competencies and explore alternative evaluation methods such as a portfolio format. More research is needed to translate and validate assessment tools, and evaluate case-report-based, video-based and vignette-based measurements, or else the significant halo effect and leniency bias observed in Likert-type assessments runs the risk of compromising the quality of the clinical and counseling psychology profession. The Chinese accreditation process should ensure that a training program has established a comprehensive and valid framework of competency-based training, uses the established framework as a blueprint for education and training activities, and implements fair and valid multi-trait, multi-method and multi-informant competency assessments. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Theories & History of Psychology

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The Neural Mechanism of Artistic Creative Process Zhang Xuan, Zhou Xiaolin 2024, 47(1): 246-252.  DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240129 Abstract ( )   PDF (359KB) ( )   Artistic creative process is the process that artists solve artistic problems and produce creative ideas and products with highly aesthetic value. Artistic creation is a specialized creation. The Geneplore Model suggests that the general creative process includes two stages, including the Generative process and Exploration process. In the generative process, individuals generate useful components related to creativity and combine them together to form pre-creative structures. In the exploration process, individuals interpret pre-creative structures, and select and verify the generated artistic ideas. The brain network dynamic model illuminates that the neural basis of the creative idea generation and exploration process involves the dynamics of the brain’s default network and executive control network interaction. In this article, we review recent work on the neural substrates of artistic creativity. Abundant studies have demonstrated that the generation of artistic creative ideas involves the separate function of the prefrontal cortex, while the exploration of artistic creative ideas is related to the cooperation of the executive network and the default network. In the generative process, the separate function of the prefrontal cortex is extensive inactivation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which is responsible for executive control, and the activation of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), which is responsible for generating new artistic creative ideas. Activation of the default network contributes to the generation of artistic creative ideas, and the inactivation of the executive control brain region reduces its inhibitory effect on the generation of artistic creative ideas. In the exploration process, the executive network and the default network are cooperated to generate and maintain the internal creative thinking, evaluate and select the generated artistic creative ideas. However, the activation of caudate nucleus, the deactivation of the default mode network, and the activation of the limbic network during the artistic creative process indicate that, beyond the dual-process highlighted by the Geneplore model, there is an intuitive process accompanied by emotion in the process of artistic creation, which may be a cognitive process in the special field of artistic creation. In the process of artistic creation, lots of artists reported that they have a peak creative and holistic experience and enter a flow state. Compared with the general creative process, artistic creation has an emotional intuitive cognitive process, which is an implicit level of cognition, and the neural mechanism involves that the activation of caudate nucleus, the deactivation of the default mode network, and the activation of the limbic network. Although we speculate that the creative processes of these different art forms have great commonalities, more research on the creative processes of different art types is still needed to provide evidence of their commonalities and differences. Due to the lack of evidence on cognitive neural mechanism with high time resolution in the process of artistic creation, whether generation-exploration processing and emotional intuitive cognitive processing have the chronological order in artistic creation needs to be supported by the empirical evidence of the time process of artistic creation, and further improve the theoretical model of neural mechanism in the process of artistic creation. In the future, researches should be conducted on the embodied mechanism of the artistic creative process. References | Related Articles | Metrics