Table of Content

15 July 2010, Volume 26 Issue 4

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Relationships among Attention, Working memory, and Reasoning in Children

REN Xue-zhu, QIAN Ying-ji, LI Chun-hua, XU Fen

Psychological Development and Education. 2010, 26(4):  337-343. 

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The present study investigated the relationships among attention,working memory,and reasoning in children of 7,10,and 13 years old.The results are summarized as follows:both attention and working memory are adequately required for the development of reasoning,but the two abilities have differentiating effects on reasoning in different age groups.Specifically,attention plays a better part than working memory in reasoning in 7-year-old children;both attention and working memory have significant effects on reasoning in 10-year-old children, and working memory behaves as a partial mediator between attention and reasoning;in 13-year-old children, working memory plays a larger role in reasoning,and working memory serves as a full mediator between attention and reasoning.The results suggested that,as children grow older,the role of attention in reasoning development is decreasing,while the role of working memory is increasing.

The Characteristics of Global Orthographic Processing for Children with Spelling Difficulties under Fully Processing Condition

PAN Yi-zhong, YANG Shuang, YANG Mei-ling

Psychological Development and Education. 2010, 26(4):  344-350. 

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Previous studies suggested that children with spelling difficulties have deficits in global orthographical processing.In the present study,the characteristics of global orthographical processes were investigated under fully processing condition.As a result,under fully processing condition,children with spelling difficulties can process and form not only the global orthographical representations of two-radical Chinese characters,but also the global orthographical representations of multiple-radical characters with different orthographical organization levels.Thus, the authors proposed that under fully processing condition,the global orthographical processing abilities of children with spelling difficulties were normal.

Development of Adolescent’s Measurement Estimation Ability and Related Factors

SI Ji-wei, ZHANG Chuan-hua, MENG Li-li

Psychological Development and Education. 2010, 26(4):  351-356. 

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Measurement estimation has been one of research focuses in mathematics cognition since 1970s.Using self-designed tasks,the present study investigated the developmental tendency and related factors of measurement estimation competence in adolescent.Length and area estimation were included in the task,and each task type including geometric figures and actual objects presenting mode.747 adolescents participated in this research.Their average age was 17.11 years old.The results showed that the measurement estimation ability in adolescents was generally low.It was remarkably rising during junior middle school stage,but after then a slowly developmental trend emerged.Task type and presenting mode showed significant effect on adolescents' performances of measurement estimation.In particular,the estimation performance of length tasks was better than that on area tasks;similarly,the estimation performance of geometric figures was better than that on presenting actual objects. No significant gender difference was found in adolescents' performance of measurement estimation.

A Study on the Attentional Bias to Emotional Information in Pathological Internet User

LI Xiang-yu, ZHENG Xi-fu

Psychological Development and Education. 2010, 26(4):  357-363. 

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To explore whether pathological Internet users have emotional interference,this study employed emotional picture-word Stroop pattern to look into characteristics of attentional bias to different Internet users.The results are as follows:(1)pathological Internet users have more reactional delay than non-Internet addicts on emotional words, and they have obvious emotional interference on their attentional bias;(2)pathological Internet users have much more negative coding than non-internet addicts,and they have more negative recognition than non-internet addicts; (3)pathological Internet users have more reactional delay when the picture and word are inconsistent.

The Relationship between Moral Disengagement and Academic Dishonesty Behavior of College Students

YANG Ji-ping, WANG Xing-chao, LU Li-jun, ZHANG Li-wei

Psychological Development and Education. 2010, 26(4):  364-370. 

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Based on the results of a survey of 550 college students,this study explored the role of moral disengagement in academic dishonesty behavior.The results suggested that moral disengagement had a positive effect on academic dishonesty behavior.The responsibility and moral identity had a negative effect on moral disengagement,and the relationship was mediated by moral disengagement.Moral disengagement didn't mediate the relation between empathy and academic dishonesty behavior.Finally,The implications of these findings was discussed in this article.

Family Functioning and Social Adjustment:the Mediating Effect of Autonomy

LI Cai-na, ZHANG Man, FENG Jian-xin

Psychological Development and Education. 2010, 26(4):  371-377. 

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In order to investigated the social adjustment of college students and its relations to their autonomy and family functioning,643 college students from Xi'an completed the Chinese College Student Adjustment Scale (CCSAS),the Self-Regulatory Questionnaire and Family Functioning Inventory.The results indicated as follows: (1)The boys'score of campus life adjustment was significantly higher than that of girls;College student's social adjustment showed significant grade differences.The junior'score of interpersonal relations adjustment and self-adjustment was significantly higher than that of seniors;The freshmen'score of learning adjustment was significantly higher than that of Sophomores;The freshmen'score of satisfaction was significantly higher than that of juniors.(2)Except for introjected regulation,there were significant correlations among family functioning, autonomy and social adjustment;(3)Except for introjected regulation,Family cohesion and autonomy could significantly predict the social adjustment of college students,and the autonomy was the full mediator between family cohesion and social adjustment.

The Development of Children’s Trust in Economic Games

ZHENG Pu, YU Guo-liang, ZHENG You-fu

Psychological Development and Education. 2010, 26(4):  378-383. 

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Using the Trust Game task to examine children's trust development in economic activities,subjects were 242 children from 3^rd grade to 6^th grade.The result revealed that:(1)The offers of children decreased significantly from 3^rd grade to 4^th grade,then raised again in 6th grade.(2)In group-representation context,children offered much more than in individual context,these result apparently differed from previous studies.(3)Children's offers has obvious gender difference,boy offered more than girls. The results are interpreted as follows.As they grew older,children's trust motive possibly shifted from fairness to selfish then finally to cooperation.Due to the immature sense of responsibility and the motive to behavior more selfless than others,children trusted more when they were on behalf of a group.Children have already developed gender difference in economic activities,boys exhibit greater trust than girls did while girls displayed a high degree of risk aversion.

A Educational Experimentation Study:the Effects of Different Teaching Methods on College Students’Academic Emotion

MA Hui-xia, LIN Lin, SU Shi-jiang

Psychological Development and Education. 2010, 26(4):  384-389. 

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Using educational experimentation in 77 College Students of 3 classes to explore the impacts of three teaching methods,which are traditional teaching methods,attribute-training intervention,as well as activity teaching pattern,on fostering and inspiring college students' academic emotion in English classroom.The results showed that the traditional teaching methods can not significantly affect the students' academic emotion;after attribute-training intervention,the students' anxiety,anger,relief,pride,boredom,hopelessness and interest have been changed significantly;the using of activity teaching pattern have made students' anxiety,shame, boredom,enjoyment and interest changed significantly.And the second and the third teaching methods made the positive academic emotion scores improved,the negative emotion scores decreased;the impact of attribute-training intervention on hopelessness was significantly better than others,and the effect of activity teaching pattern on enjoyment was significantly superior to the traditional teaching methods and attributed-training intervention.

An Experimental Study on Enhancing Pupil’s Difficulties in Emotion Regulation in Chinese Teaching

SHAO Jing-jin, ZHANG Da-jun, WANG Jin-liang, JI Qiao-ling

Psychological Development and Education. 2010, 26(4):  390-394. 

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Using a pre-test and post-test experimental design,the purpose of this study was to explore the feasibility and validity of enhancing pupil's difficulties in emotional regulation through Chinese teaching,with a sample of 42 students at grade four in a primary school.The results had shown that the students' difficulties in emotion regulation and their mental quality can be improved efficiently in a certain extent by using the mode of penetrating in Chinese teaching,especially for students with middle and high level of difficulty in emotion regulation.For the experimental group,the students'score on Chinese had improved,but not to a significant extent.The experimental research had shown that the mode of penetrating in Chinese teaching was effective in cultivating pupils' mental quality.

Influences of Environmental Factors on Perceived Discrimination and the Role of Group Attitude as a Moderator among Migrant Children in China

LIU Xia, SHEN Ji-liang

Psychological Development and Education. 2010, 26(4):  395-401. 

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The present study aimed at investigating the relationship between environmental factors and perceived discrimination as well as the moderating effect of group attitude on it with a sample of 1350 migrant children in Beijing China.The results indicated that:(1)Social economic status and social support from teachers and classmates had significantly negative effects on perceived personal and group discrimination,class cohesion had a significantly negative effect on perceived personal discrimination,and class environment satisfaction had a significantly negative effect on perceived group discrimination.(2)Classmates'social support contributed more to perceived personal discrimination while teachers'social support contributed more to perceived group discrimination.(3)Group attitude moderated the effect of environmental factors on perceived personal and group discrimination.Classmates'social support was the best predictor of perceived personal discrimination for migrant children with no bias or pro-city bias,and class cohesion was the best predictor of perceived personal discrimination for those with pro-migrant bias.Teachers'social support was the best predictor of perceived group discrimination for all types of migrant children.

Prosocial Tendencies and Its Relationship to Personalities and Family Functioning among the Left-home Kids in Junior Middle School

WEI Xin, CHEN Xu

Psychological Development and Education. 2010, 26(4):  402-408. 

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This study investigated the prosocial tendencies of the left-home kids in junior middle school and its relationship to their personalities and family functioning.299 left-home kids and 326 non left-home kids in Sichuan province completed the prosocial tendencies measure,the family assessment device and the five-factor personality questionnaire.The result showed that there were no significant differences on the prosoical tendencies between the left-home kids and non left-home kids.The problem solving in family functions,the openness and conscientiousness in personality could predict the prosoical tendencies of the left-home kihs,which mainly appears as the worse problem solving,the fewer prosocial tendencies,and the more openness and conscientiousness in one's personality traits,the easier for one to show more prosocial tendencies.For connections among prosoical tendencies, personality and family functioning,the openness,agreeableness and conscientiousness in persinality serve completely mediator between prosoical tendencies and family functioning.

Teacher’s Perceived Organization Justice and Organizational Citizenship Behavior:the mediating Role of Job Burnout

PAN Xiao-fu, TAN Xiao-hong, QIN Qi-wen, WANG Lei

Psychological Development and Education. 2010, 26(4):  409-415,444. 

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The purpose of this study was to examine how the teachers' perceptions of organizational justice(POJ) influenced organizational citizenship behavior(OCB),and to reveal the mediating effects of teachers' job burnout in POJ-OCB.A questionnaire was used to collect data from 1325 teachers in Chongqing and Chenzhou of Hunan.A series of hierarchical regression analyses,mediating effects testing and dominance analysis were conducted for data analyses.The results consistently showed that procedural justice is the positive predictor of OCB,and teachers' job burnout is the negative predictor of OCB.Additionally,the result also demonstrated that teachers' job burnout has remarkably mediating effects on POJ-OCB;especially,the passion burnout and diminished personal accomplishment have prominent mediating effects on the relationship between the teachers' perceptions of organizational justice and organizational citizenship behavior.

Group-level Domain Score and Its Estimation Methods

Xin Tao, Xie Min

Psychological Development and Education. 2010, 26(4):  416-422. 

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Needs for talent resources have gotten many countries and international organizations' high attentions, and they all have done some large-scale education assessments in country or region level.How to translate the students' performance into readable and informative score reports is an important and inevitable problems confronted by the large scale assessment.Domain score is often preferred by researchers and practitioners because of its understandability and readability for public.This paper detailed the definition of group domain score,its estimation methods and relevant researches,finally discussed the further study needed in the further.

Revisioning Hewitt’s Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale for Middle School Students

KOU Yu, ZHANG Lan-ge, ZHANG Li, HE Wan-ting

Psychological Development and Education. 2010, 26(4):  423-430. 

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The present study was designed to revise Hewitt's Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale(HMPS).The researchers investigated four times in Beijing,with the theory based on the Chinese cultural background and the developmental situation of middle school students.The researchers deleted one item to Self-oriented scale,two items to Other-oriented scale and six items to Socially-prescribed scale.The results show that the Cronbach's alpha coefficient of HMPS is 0.91 and the Self-oriented,Other-oriented and Socially-prescribed dimensions of HMPS are 0.89,0.80,0.78,respectively,and the test-retest reliability of the three dimensions are 0.80,0.79,0.67, respectively.The correlation between the three scales and the Chinese Frost's Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale are 0.58,0.38,0.57,respectively.

Meaning in Life on Psychological Theory and Measurement

CHENG Ming-ming, FAN Fu-min

Psychological Development and Education. 2010, 26(4):  431-437. 

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The theoretical and empirical study of meaning in life in psychology began in the middle of the twentieth century.From the theories of existentialism psychology,personality and motivation,relativism,to positive psychology,the research on meaning in life was far from the style of Philosophy,and became a most important psychological topic.Since the 1960s,researchers have gradually developed a lot of instruments to measure this concept from two dimensions:sense of meaning in life and the sources of meaning in life.The integration of sources and sense of meaning in life on measurement is the new tendency.There is wide development potential in the theoretical perspective,research content and methods and practical application for the psychological research of meaning in life.

Coding Systems in the Observation Studies of Parent-Child Communication

CHI Li-ping

Psychological Development and Education. 2010, 26(4):  438-444. 

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There are several basic approaches for coding and analyzing data in observation studies of parent-child communication.The present paper introduced four coding systems:behavior typology code,analysis of behavior sequence,verbal clue code and analysis of communication structure,which themselves have different characteristics and should be applied into specific research contexts.Finally,it was proposed that there were three possible ways to improve the coding in observation studies of parent-child communication:strengthening the analysis of verbal clues based on behavioral typologies,inquiring communication structures from behavior sequences,and combining the investigation of general trends with typical cases.