Table of Content

15 July 2015, Volume 31 Issue 4

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Familiarity-based Recognition of Inter-item Semantic Relations

ZHAO Guangping, ZHOU Chu, GUO Xiuyan

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(4):  385-392.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.04.01

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Among cues that fail to elicit successful recall, participants can still discriminate based on familiarity between cues that do and do not resemble studied inter-item semantic relations. In the laboratory, this ability is referred to as recognition without cued recall (RWCR). One theoretical question is whether inter-item relational RWCR is driven by relational concept or by abstract structure processing. We hypothesized that the RWCR could be supported by abstract structure information between items.
240 word pairs and relational concepts were used in RWCR paradigm, in which participants studied some items and were shown new items at test, half of which related to studied items and half of which did not. For each test item, participants first attempted to recall a related item from the study list. Then, regardless of whether successful recall occurred, participants were prompted to rate the familiarity of the test pair, which was said to indicate the likelihood that an item was similar to the test item studied. To examine how abstract structure vs. relational concept affected RWCR effect, Experiment 1 controlled test condition and used 2 study status (within-subjects: studied vs. unstudied)×2 test condition (between-subjects: word-pair vs. relation-concept), in which participants studied word pairs (e.g., lion-gazelle) and were shown two types of test cues (e.g., snake-mouse vs. prey on). Experiment 2 controlled study condition in which participants studied two types of materials (e.g., prey on vs. A prey on B) and were shown word pairs (e.g., snake-mouse).
The results showed that participants demonstrated an ability to recognize inter-item semantic relations without cued recall through familiarity. RWCR effect was found only when relational concepts act as test cues rather than study materials. However, the processing of structured materials of relational concepts in study can cause RWCR effect.
To conclude, the results support that RWCR effect of inter-item semantic relations depends on abstract structure processing at encoding.

Meta-analytic Review on The Gender Differences in Perceived Social Support

ZHANG Shupeng, ZHANG Qingyao, LI Caina

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(4):  393-401.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.04.02

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Researches on stress and coping strategy have shown that one of the most effective means by which individuals cope with stressful events is social support. There has been substantial evidence showing the benefits of different forms of social support for both mental and physical health, of which the perceived social support is the most essential one. Most existing researches showed that females perceived more social support than males, but some others held the contrary opinion. However, up to now, there has been not a comprehensive review regarding this controversy.
A meta-analysis of 58 independent studies published between 2002 and 2014, which employed the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support to investigate gender difference in perceived social support among Chinese, was conducted in present study. 31286 participants (15279 males) were included in this analysis. After literature selection and screening, 59 independent effect sizes (Cohen's d) were picked out as meta-analysis unit according to the inclusion criteria. After coding of study characteristics, independent effect sizes were analyzed by Synthesizer 1.0 R software. The present research included three methodological procedures, including main effect analysis, publication bias test and moderation effect analysis. In addition, the fixed-effect model that assumed a common effect for results of all researches performed poorly under the condition of effect size heterogeneity, and the unrealistic assumption about random sampling of observed effect sizes from a normally distributed superpopulation of random-effect model made it difficult to achieve (Krizan, 2009), so the varying-coefficient model recently proposed by Bonett (2008, 2009) was preferred in this article. As shown in results: (1) there existed a significant gender difference in perceived social support, specifically, females scored higher than males on overall support, family support, support outside family, friends support, and significant others support; (2) the results of the moderation analyses indicated that the gender differences in family support and overall support among middle school students was smaller, as compared to those of undergraduates.
To sum up, females did perceive more social support than males and the gender difference among middle school students was smaller than that of undergraduates on family support and overall support. The results could be explained by the gender difference in perception, or/and the fact that females get more supports from the surroundings. The implications of these findings were also discussed.

Children's Prosocial Behavior and Their Psychosocial Adjustment

WEI Xing, LV Na, JI Linqin, CHEN Liang, ZHANG Wenxin

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(4):  402-410.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.04.03

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Prosocial behavior refers to behaviors intended to benefit others. Using a person-oriented approach, the current study was to identify the patterns of children's psychosocial adjustment and to explore the association between prosocial behavior and patterns of children's psychosocial adjustment. A sample of 2097 children (mean age=12.27) from sixth grade in a capital city of eastern China was investigated. Children's prosocial behavior was rated by teachers, and information on multiple aspects of psychosocial adjustment (loneliness, depression, aggression, delinquency, peer rejection, peer acceptance, social self-concept, and general self-concept) was collected through self-report, mothers-report and peer nomination. The main findings were as follows: (1) Prosocial behavior was negatively correlated with loneliness, depression, aggression, delinquency and peer rejection, and positively correlated with peer acceptance, social self-concept, and general self-concept. (2) Four patterns of children's psychosocial adjustment were identified. That is internalizing, externalizing, peer rejection, and normal development pattern. (3) Multinomial logistic regression indicated that children's prosocial behavior was associated with the four patterns of psychosocial adjustment. Specifically, prosocial children were more likely to be classified into normal development pattern, and children with low prosocial behavior were more likely to be classified into externalizing and peer rejection pattern instead of internalizing pattern. (4) 6.8% of the highly prosocial children had internalizing problems, whereas 50.2% of the children with low level of prosocial behavior were well adjusted. Compared with normal children, children with low level of prosocial tended to have more psychosocial problems.

The Characteristics of Parenting Stress of Parents of Children with Disabilities and Their Effects on Their Quality of Life: The Mediating Role of Social Support

GUAN Wenjun, YAN Tingrui, DENG Meng

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(4):  411-419.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.04.04

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The present study aimed at exploring the characteristics of parenting stress of parents of children with disabilities and exploring the effects on their quality of life, as well as the mediating effect of social support. Three hundred and sixty-nine parents of children with 5 types of disabilities (autism, intellectual disability, hearing disability, visual disability and cerebral palsy) were investigated. The results showed that: (1) Significant differences of parenting stress were emerged in different types of disability, parents of children with autism perceived significantly higher parenting stress than other types of disability and parents of children with hearing disability perceived significantly lower; (2) The dimensions of parenting stress and social support as well as the dimensions of quality of life showed a significant negative correlation, and the dimensions of social support and quality of life showed a significant positive correlation; (3) Canonical correlation suggested that the overall correlation between parenting stress and quality of life was significant. (4) Social support partially mediated the relationship between parenting stress and quality of life.

The Relationships between Family Socioeconomic Status and Adolescents' Future Planning: The Moderating Effect of Extroversion and the Gender Differences

CHEN Xi, CHEN Guanghui, ZHAO Jingxin

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(4):  420-427.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.04.05

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Based on a longitudinal design, 935 adolescents of Grades 8 and 10 from Shandong province were recruited to explore the relationship between family socioeconomic status and adolescents' future planning, and also test the moderating effects by extroversion on the link between family socioeconomic status and future planning for boys and girls. Results indicated that family socioeconomic status positively predicted adolescents' educational planning at Time 1 and Time 2 and occupational planning at Time 1. Extroversion positively predicted adolescents' educational planning and occupational planning at Time 1. In addition, extroversion moderated the link between family socioeconomic status and adolescents' educational planning, and there were significant gender differences in the moderating effect, while no moderating effect was observed between family socioeconomic status and adolescents' occupational planning. The results demonstrated that extroversion can not only protect adolescents' future planning directly but also buffer the negative influence of low family socioeconomic status, but the buffering effect is different for boys and girls and also different in domains of future planning.

Relationship between Internet Altruistic Behavior and Hope of Middle School Students: The Mediating Role of Self-efficacy and Self-esteem

ZHENG Xianliang, ZHAO Wei

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(4):  428-436.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.04.06

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This study aimed to examine the effect of internet altruistic behavior on hope and the mediating role of self-efficacy and self-esteem with Hope Scale, Internet Altruistic Behavior Scale, Self-esteem Scale and Self-efficacy Scale. Using a sample of 326 middle school students, the correlation analysis showed that there was a significant positive correlation between internet altruistic behavior, self-efficacy, self-esteem and hope of middle school students. The structural equation model (SEM) analysis indicated that self-efficacy in internet altruistic behavior played a full mediator effect of hope, and self-esteem didn't play a mediating role. Additionally, self-efficacy and self-esteem played a chain mediating role between middle school students' internet altruistic behavior and hope.

The Mechanism of Online Game Addiction for Adolescents: Based on Technology Acceptance Model

ZHANG Guohua, LEI Li

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(4):  437-444.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.04.07

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This study investigated the influencing factors of online games addiction and its mechanism through questionnaires on 380 middle school students, based on the theoretical model of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The results indicated that (1) the variables, such as perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived quality of online games, online game experience and attitude, are all positively correlated with online games addiction; (2) perceived quality of online games and online game experience have direct effects on online games addiction and partly mediated by attitude; (3) perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use indirectly impacted online games addiction completely mediated by attitude, and had no direct effects on online games addition. The results suggests that perceived quality of online games, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and online game experience have significant influence on adolescents' online game addiction, and attitude was an important mediation variable among them.

The Relationships among Proactive Personality, Career Decision-making Self-efficacy and Career Exploration in College Students

QU Kejia, JU Ruihua, ZHANG Qingqing

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(4):  445-450.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.04.08

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Career exploration is one of the most important tasks of college students. It has been referred to as a negotiating process, which sustains between self and environment exploration, in order to attain career goals. Career exploration during college could enhance the career achievement and job satisfaction after work, which is meaningful for each individual. This study explored the effects of college students' proactive personality on their career exploration, and the moderate role of the career decision making self efficacy. Based on questionnaire method, 305 college students from one comprehensive university were used as participants to explore the relationship of proactive personality, career decision-making self-efficacy and career exploration. The results: (1) proactive personality had significantly positive correlations with career decision-making self-efficacy and career exploration. (2) The result also demonstrated that proactive personality significantly predicted career exploration positively. (3) Career decision-making self-efficacy, especially, self-evaluation, plan-making, information collection and goal-selection, served as mediator in the relations between proactive personality and career exploration.

Goal Striving and Hopelessness in The College-to-career Transition: The Role of Gender and Social Support

SUN Ling, NING Caifang, HUANG Silin, DOU Donghui, ZHANG Hongchuan, ZHANG Mei

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(4):  451-458.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.04.09

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Graduation is an important transition in life for college students. What they feel about their personal goals and social support has a great influence on the feeling of hopelessness for future. The present research recruited 192 senior college students and investigated the autonomy of personal goals by adopting the target-measurement approach and further evaluated social support and hopelessness for future by using questionnaires. The results showed that (1) Students who have a settled destination showed remarkably higher hopeless feeling than others. (2) The higher the goal autonomy, the lower the degree of hopelessness for future would be. (3) The more social support they felt, the lower the degree of hopelessness would be. (4) The influence of goal autonomy on the feeling of hopelessness is greater for male students than for female students. The result indicates that when facing significant transition in life during Emerging Adulthood, one can adjust its pessimistic expectation to future by constructing autonomous individual goals and improving social support; what's more, the emphasis of education should be distinguished between genders.

Relation between Parental Alexithymia and Children's Behavioral Problems: Mediating Effects of Parents' Mood

LIANG Zongbao, YANG Xueli, ZHANG Guangzhen, JIANG Ning, DENG Huihua, YE Ming

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(4):  459-466.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.04.10

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Emotion discourse among family members will influence their emotions and behaviors with each other. Cognitive and describing ability of self-feeling for parents not only affect their mental health, but also play an important role in the development of children's social behaviors. This study aimed to investigate the relations among parental alexithymia, mood and childhood behavioral problems. 438 preschoolers and their parents participated in this study. The 20-item Toronto alexithymia scale and mood scale were used to measure parents' alexithymia and mood, respectively. Mothers rated children's behavioral problems on the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation Scale. The results of structural equation model analysis showed that: (1) Fathers' difficulty of feeling describing was significant associated with children's anxious-withdrawn behaviors, and fathers' happy mood was completely mediated between their difficulty of feeling describing and children's anxious-withdrawn behaviors. (2) Mothers' difficulty of feeling describing was positively associated with children's conduct problems; mothers' frequency of mood change partly mediated the relation between their alexithymia and children's angry-aggression behaviors. The results indicated that fathers who take a higher risk of alexithymia would exhibit lower happy mood, which then result in children's more anxious-withdrawn behavior. Compared with fathers, if mothers experienced higher risk of alexithymia and fluctuated mood, their children may show more conduct problems. Thus, parental alexithymia has great implications for children's conduct problems because it will result in parents' lower happy mood and higher fluctuated mood. These findings highlight the importance of parental emotion discourse in children development in China.

The Relationship between Gratitude and Subjective Well-being for Middle-school Students: The Mediation Role of Anti-frustration Ability and Social Support

LUO Li, ZHOU Tianmei

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(4):  467-474.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.04.11

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Adopting gratitude questionair (GQ-6), positive affection and negative affection scale (PANAS), satisfaction of life scale (SLS), anti-frustration ability scale and social support rate scale(SSRS), the study collected a sample of 865 middle school students to explore the relationship between gratitude and subjective well-being, and the mediation role of social support and anti-frustration ability to them.Results showed that: (1) Positive affection for middle school students was significantly higher than negative affection; (2) Significant correlations existed between middle school students' gratitude and subjective well-being, social support, and anti-frustration ability ; (3) Structure equation modeling analysis showed that middle school students' gratitude could directly and negatively predict negative affection, but not positive affection and life satisfaction; social support and anti-frustration ability completely mediated the relationship between gratitude and life satisfaction, positive affection, and anti-frustration ability partly mediated the relationship between gratitude and negative affection. Conclusion: gratitude influences middle school students' subjective well-being via social support and anti-frustration ability.

The Relationship between College Freshmen's Meaning in Life and Depression: Examining the Interacting and Mediating Effects

ZHU Haiteng, YAO Xiaoxue

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(4):  475-484.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.04.12

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On the basis of Frankl(1963)'s logotherapy perspective and Steger et al(2006)'s dual construct of meaning in life (i.e., presence of meaning, POM, and search for meaning, SFM), this paper aims to explore the mechanism underlying the effect of meaning in life on college freshmen's depression and testify possible interacting and mediating effects. A battery of questionnaires was administered to 435 college freshmen from a college of science and technology and a comprehensive college in a provincial capital in East China, and the results showed that: (1)Freshmen's POM was negatively associated with boredom proneness and depression but positively associated with hope. Nevertheless, the correlations between SFM and POM as well as SFM and depression were non-significant statistically. (2)The interacting effect of POM and SFM on depression was proven significant, that is, POM played an optimal protective role against depression especially among those who were on a relatively low level of SFM. (3)Boredom proneness and hope served as parallel multiple mediators within the POM-depression process, with the mediating effect of boredom proneness more salient than hope.

The Impact of Trait Anger on Aggressive Behavior: ModeratedMediating Effect of Hostile Cognition and Impulsivity Level

LIU Wenwen, JIANG Qi, REN Jingjing, LI Shufang, XU Yapei

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(4):  485-493.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.04.13

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To explore the relationship of trait anger, hostile cognition, impulsivity level and aggressive behavior, the research randomly chose 527 students from freshmen to junior in a comprehensive university in Chongqing with scales then we used structural equation modeling techniques to explore the mechanism among them. The results indicated: (1) Hostile cognition partly mediated the effect of trait anger on aggressive behavior, and trait anger had not only direct impact on aggressive behavior but indirectly affected aggressive behavior through hostile cognition. (2) Motor impulsiveness factor adjusted the mediating effect of hostile cognition, whose impact rose as the level impulsiveness did. Thus hostile cognition has adjustable mediating effect on individual aggressive behavior.

The Debate of Violent Video Game Impact on Aggression

TENG Zhaojun, LIU Yanling, GUO Cheng

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(4):  494-502.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.04.14

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It had indicated that exposed to violent video game could increase aggression by Anderson and his colleagues' decade research. General Aggression Model, which had put by Anderson and Bushman (2002), could be applied to explain the causality of violent video game associated with aggression. However, Ferguson had found that aggression weren't affected by violent video game, and Catalyst Model also accounted for this result. It was vary difference of the results due to slack experiment in social psychological research, and whether violent video game could affect aggression was hot debate. Therefore, we should do standardized and rigid measurements of violent video game and aggression, and then we ought to integrate the General Aggression Model and Catalyst Model, which conduct studying for violent video game linked to aggression, at last, we need to forward debates from others perspective evidence, such as cognitive bias or social cognitive neuroscience.

A Review of the Neural Mechanisms of Developmental Coordination Disorder

WANG Enguo

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(4):  503-509.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.04.15

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The developmental coordination disorder is a special developmental disorder which affects 5% to 8% school-age children and a remarkable feature of the disorder which also seriously affects the school-age children's academic performance and daily life is motor coordination difficulties. The developmental coordination disorder often coexists with other types of learning disabilities. The etiology of the developmental coordination disorder is very complex which is related to a certain degree of impaired visual space cognitive ability. Early subtle motor skills development and brain developmental process may have a overlap in time. In recent years, researchers have been trying to explore the neural basis of affecting the developmental coordination disorder and successively put forward some different neural associated hypotheses. These hypotheses mainly related to the parietal lobe, cerebellum corpus callosum, basal ganglia, white matter and other brain regions. The paper reviews the latest progress in this field and proposes the future research directions and problems that should be focused on.