Table of Content

15 April 2008, Volume 24 Issue 2

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The Stability of Children’s Behavior Problem from 2 to 11 Years Old

ZHANG Guang-zhen, LIANG Zong-bao, CHEN Hui-chang, ZHANG Ping

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  1-5. 

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This study use parents-reported longitudinal data to investigate the stability and changes of children's problem behavior from 2 to 11 years old. The results indicated moderate degree of correspondence between interparental reports of children's behavior at 2,4,7,and 11 years old. 2-year-old children have most behavior problem,which decrease when children get older,and 11-yearold children have least behavior problem. The children's problem behavior have moderate stability,the correlation between 2,4,7,11 years old is very significant.

Relationship between Categorization and Category-based Induction in Early Age

LONG Chang-quan, LU Xiao-ying, LI Hong, FAN Ji-dan

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  6-12. 

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In traditional opinion,the function of category is to support inductive reasoning. According to this view, children's categorization wauld be consistent with categorybased induction. If child categorize objects based on similarity,they would also make induction based on similarity. Otherwise,when child categorize objects based on concept,they would use concept to make induction. Recently,Slo utsky,Kloos and Fisher (2007)'s study showed that children' s categorization and induction had a disassociation. In fact,many studies showed that young children would mainly base on similarity to classify objects whereas children would base on similarity or concept to support induction in different tasks. These studies indicated that it wauld have a complex relationship between categorization and category based induction in early development.Total 96 4-yearold children were divided into four tasks including categorization tasks and induction tasks in photos and drawings. In other words,it was designed to be 2(materials:photos and drawings) ×2(tasks:categorization and induction) between subjects. Each task included six groups of items. Each experimental group included three items;the first was the target stimulus and the second and third were the selective stimulus. The second one was similarity wrath the first but belong to different concept and the third one was dissimilarity wrath the first but belong to the same concept. In photos,children showed inconsistently between categorization and category-based induction. They based on similarity in categorization but mainly based on concepts in induction. However,children showed consistently between categorization and induction in drawnngs. They mainly used similarity to categorization and induction. The relationship would be complex in early categorization and category-based induction. It would be necessarily to integrate the work on categorization and category-based induction.

Influences of Trait labels on False Belief Understanding in Chidren

LIU Juan

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  13-17. 

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In the present study, the protagonist of a false belief task was descxlbed,"smut" or "stupid" in order to examine whether the trait labels are able to affect false belief understanding in children. 360 five-to eight-yera-old children were exmnined, and each age group was randomly divided into three subgoups("slnaxt" label group, no label group,"stupid" label group).The results indicated as that:(1)"smart" label greatly hindered six and seven years yearold children understand other' false beliefs, but not influenced five and eight yeay-olld children;(2)"stupid" label had no influence on children at all ayes.

The Tendency of Children’s Response to Nonsensical Questions and its Age Difference

LI Qing-gong, JIANG Wen-ming, Amanda Waterman, XU Fen

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  18-22. 

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128 five to ten yearold children from Beijing were asked to answer 24 simply questions.Half of the questions were sensible base on general knowledge;the other half were nonsensical for these questions could not be answered based on general knowledge. Accordingly,their correct answers should also be "I don't know" or something like this. The results showed:(1)Chinese children had a tendency to speculate or guess answers when they answered nonsensical questions,and the question format affected children's response tendency,there were more correct answers to open questions then closed questions when answering nonsensical questions. (2) there were differences among ages,older children gave more correct answers then younger on nonsensical questions not included a comparison. (3) children answered rare "No" then "Yes" to closed nonsensical questions not included a comparison,but not to closed nonsensical questions included a comparison.

Experimental Research on Development of Inhibition of Return in Children

CHAO Qiu-ling, SHEN De-li, BAI Xue-jun

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  23-28. 

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The study compared the changing conditions of inhibition of return (IOR) in children when the single and double cue-target procedures were used respect ively, and 80 participants were divided into four groups of 6-years-old (n=20), 9-years-old (n=20), 12-years-old (n=20) and 17-years-old (n=20). The results revealed that (1) IOR in children appears earlier in single procedure and IOR is delayed in double procedure; (2) the time course of IOR appears gradually with increase of age. The IOR might be influenced by the age; (3) the critical period of development of IOR of children is probably the time when he or she is about 12 years of age.

The Selective Inhibition of ADHD

ZHANG Wei, LIU Xiang-ping, JIN Ying

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  29-33. 

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The inhibition deficits of ADHD were explored by the nonselective stop signal task in the most previous studies. But it is still not explicit that which causes the inhibition deficit found in stop task, the race between execution and response inhibition or the response variability. The more accurate selective stop signal task was used to explore the deficit of ADHD in this research. It was found that the ADHD group made more commission errors than controls, and they have larger response variability than controls, but there is no difference in the processing speed. We suggest that the disinhibition of ADHD is not caused by the slow cognition tempo rather than by the failure to maintain the optimal arousal state.

On the Relationship between Social Creative Tendency and Parenting Style among Primary Schoolchildren

GU Chuan-hua, ZHOU Zong-kui

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  34-38. 

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Social Creative Tendency Questionnaire for Primary Schoolchildren and Parenting Style Scale (EMBU) were administered to 363 primary schoolchildren randomly selected from grade 3 to grade 6 to investigate the relationship between social creative tendency of primary schoolchildren and their parenting style. The results showed that: (1) significant positive correlation existed between social creativity tendency and paternal emotional warmth and understanding and favoritism, and negative correlation existed between the tendency and paternal punishment and sternness, and similar correlation matrix was found for maternal parenting style; (2) only the first pair of canonical variables of social creativity tendency and paternal or maternal parenting style was significant, showing that individual influence among peers, problem-solving ability, social intelligence and initiative and conscientiousness had significant canonical correlation with paternal emotional warmth and understanding and favoritism.

Effect of Working Memory,Processing Speed and Reasoning Ability On Strategy Adaptation in Children

ZHANG Hui, WANG Fu-xing, LI Ya-hong

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  39-45. 

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Path analysis was used to explore the impacts of working memory, processing speed and reasoning ability on grade 3 to 5 students' strategy adaptivity. The effects of the three factors on strategic adaptation were analyzed systematically. The results indicate that, (1) the total effects of working memory, reasoning ability and processing speed on strategic adaptation are descending. Both reasoning ability and working memory have direct effects on strategic adaptaction, but the former is bigger. (2) Working memory has indirect effect on strategic adaptation via reasoning ability. Processing speed doesn't have direct effect, but there are two paths for it to produce indirect effect. (3) Age has direct effect on processing speed and reasoning ability, but it has no significant effect on working memory. (4) There is no direct effect of age on strategic adaptation, but there are three paths for age to produce indirect effect on strategic adaptation. The development of strategy adaptivity is based on working memory and reasoning ability.

Prior Analysis and Post Hoc Analysis on the Complexity of the Balance Scale Task

ZHANG Li, XIN Zi-qiang

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  46-53. 

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The aims of this study were to explore if the loadings on the first un rotated factor can be taken as a way to evaluate the task complexity of the balance scale task and to explore the validity of the prior analysis on the balance scale task based on the Relational-Representational Complexity Model. 264 children from grade 4, 5 and 6 were presented with a computerized balance scale task. There were 51 items and six item types, including weight problems, distance problems, weight distance problems, conflict weight problems, conflict distance problems, and conflict balance problems. Results showed that: (1) the loadings of all balance scale items on the first un rotated factor and the difficulty of those items had no significant positive relation. It might be that task complexity could be quantified by the loadings on the first un-rotated factor only when the difficulty of task was moderate. (2) The analysis of task complexity based on the Relational-Representational Complexity Model could predict task difficulty (R²=0 95), which indicated that the model was valid in analyzing the complexity of the balance scale task.

The Relations among Problem Behaviors,Personalities and Family Functioning of Migrant Children

LI Xiao-wei, ZOU Hong, JIN Can-can, KE Rui

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  54-59. 

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The research investigated the character of migrant children and its relations to their personalities and family functioning. 806 migrant children and 319 children in Beijing completed the children's problem behaviors questionnaire, the five-factor personality inventory and family funct ioning inventory. The result showed: (1) Migrant children. s externalizing problem behaviors showed significant gender differences. The percentages of the internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors are 3110% and 2011%. Compared to the urban children, migrant children showed more problem behaviors especially the internalizing problem. (2) In terms of the internalizing problem behaviors, the neuroticism and openness in personality had positive effect, extraversion and familiarity had negative effect; In terms of the externalizing problem behavior, the neuroticism and openness in personality also had positive effect, agreeableness, conscient iousness and familiarity had negative effect. (3) For connections among personality, family function and problem behavior, personality is more immediately related with the sense of isolation, which serves in part as medium between familiarity and internalizing problem behavior, serves completely medium between familiarity and externalizing problem behavior.

The Relationship between Parents’ Disclosure and Children’s Interpersonal Competence

TAN Rui, ZHOU Hui

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  60-64. 

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The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of parental disclosure on their children's interpersonal competences with their peers. 68 triadic parent-child samples, 204 persons in total, participated in this study by filling anonymous scales. Average age of parents was 44, while that of children was 17.Children filled out Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire, and their parents completed two scales, called Self-Disclosure Scale and Disclosure Topics and Motivations Scales. Findings revealed: (1) There were some differences between father and mother in disclosure topics, motivations, and styles. (2) Children's competences can be predicted by parental disclosure motivations and styles, but the variances of children's variables which can be accounted by parental variables were different. (3) Children's abilities of Negative Assertion and Emotional Support were predicted by maternal and paternal variables together, while the others abilities were predicted by paternal variables respectively.

Adolescent Ego Identity Status Development and Its Relations with Parenting Authoritativeness and Identity Style

WANG Shu-qing, CHEN Hui-chang, SHI Meng

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  65-72. 

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This study investigated adolescents. ego identity status development and the relations among parenting authoritativeness, identity style and ego identity status on 1233 adolescents ranging from middle school to university, using the revised Extend Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status22, Identity Style Inventory23 and Parenting Style Questionnaire. The results indicated as follows: (1) a progressive developmental trend was found on adolescents. identity statuses from junior middle school to senior middle school. There are no significant difference on percentage of four identity statuses between senior middle school and university; (2) Male college students were more on the identity achievement status than female college students. (3) Parenting authoritativeness had both direct and indirect influences on identity statuses. Indirect influences were moderated by informational identity style and diffuse identity style.

Empathy and Aggressive Behavior of Middle School Students:The Mediating Effect of the Anger-Hostility Action

YING Xian-hui, DAI Chun-lin

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  73-78. 

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Methods of questionnaire and Structural Equation Models were used to investigate the relationship between empathy and aggressive behavior, and also the mediat ing effects of the anger-hostility action. Data were collected with 305 students from two middle schools. The results indicate that: (1) Oral aggression is the primary form of aggressive behaviors in middle school students; the gender and the grade have influence on aggressive behavior; (2) The anger-hostility action plays the mediating role between empathy and aggressive behavior; (3) Empathy to others impacts negatively on aggressive behavior through the mediating role. However, sensitivity of self2feeling is a two-way process, including both positive effect by mediating role and direct inhibitory effect.

Effect Mechanism of Family Functioning on Adolescent’s Emotional Problem

XU Jie, FANG Xiao-yi, ZHANG Jin-tao, LIN Dan-hua, SUN Li

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  79-85. 

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To explore the relationship between family functioning process and family functioning outcome and the effect mechanism of family functioning on adolescents. emotional problems. 422 Chinese adolescents were tested using Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale(family functioning outcome) by Olson, Family Assessment Measure(family functioning process) by Skinner, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, Self-Rating Anxiety Scale. By correlation analysis, Hierarchical Regression, Structural Equation Modeling analysis, it suggested that (1) Adolescents. emotion was normal totally; (2) Every dimension of family functioning process has significant correlation with every dimension of family functioning outcome one other; (3) family functioning process had a stronger predicting effect on adolescent emotional problem than outcome (4) family functioning outcome was a part mediator between family functioning process and adolescents. emot ional problems.

The Correlation between Gender Roles and General and Intimate Cross-Gender Relationships among College Students

YANG Jiong, HU Huai-lin, YU Le-xiao

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  86-90. 

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In order to examine the relationship between gender role and the quality of cross-gender intercommunication, related scales were used to survey 311 college students. The results showed that there were significant differences in love experiences both between different genders and among different gender role types; masculine and androgynous individuals were significant higher than feminine and undifferentiated ones in General Cross-gender Intercommunication Scale. Main effects of gender and gender role type were both significant in the scores of Intimate Cross-gender Intercommunication Scale. In conclusion, the gender role types of college students had close relationship with the quality of cross-gender intercommunication.

Memory Bias for Self-Relevant Information of People with Different Self-Esteem

TIAN Lu-mei, ZHANG Xiang-kui

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  91-96. 

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Self esteem is not only high or low, but also has different types in each level. Memory bias lies not only among groups, but also in groups themselves. However, very few researches are paid enough attention to these issues. 4(types of self-esteem)×2(valence of words) mixed design was mainly adopted in this study to explore different memory bias of self-relevant information of 184 participants with different self-esteem, in which types of self-esteem were divided according to the consistency between explicit self-esteem, measured with Rosenberg (1965) Self Esteem Scale, and implicit self-esteem, measured with Implicit Association Test. The results were as follows: (1) participants with high explicit self-esteem had more posit ive memory bias than those with low self-esteem; while those with low implicit self esteem had less positive or negative memory bias than those with low self-esteem. (2) for the memory bias as a kind of difference in groups, all groups had positive bias; for the bias as a kind of difference among groups, participants with fragile high self-esteem had more positive bias, but those with low self-esteem had no obvious negative bias either. These results indicate that people with different self-esteem, in different levels or different types, have different memory bias of self-relevant information.

Selective Predictive Value of RAN on Chinese Reading

XUE Jin, SHU Hua

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  97-101. 

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The relationship between Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN), single word reading and fast reading among children of different reading abilities was explored in present paper. A series of stepwise regression were conducted to test the relative contribution of RAN and character reading for fast reading comprehension, with IQ and age controlled for in the first step. It was found that, RAN explained more variances for dyslexics' character reading; as for fast reading, the results indicated that RAN had a selective predictive value for different reading processes and different reading abilities.

The Influence of Cognitive Style in Cooperative Learning Group to It’s Problem Solving

WANG Jing, CHEN Ying-he

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  102-107. 

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307 participants were divided into homogeneous field dependent group, homogeneous field independent group and heterogeneous group by the cognitive style of individual. The problem solving level of individual and group were investigated in two kinds of problem setting: open-end problem setting and reasoning problem setting. The results are as follows: (1) The field independent individuals open-end problem solving level were significant better than that of field dependent individuals, but there is no significance between field dependent individuals and field independent individuals in reasoning problem solving level. (2) The diversity between individuals in cooperat ive group was the obstacle of group members, and that would influence the problem solving level. To which degree the diversity would influence the problem solving dependent on how much communication and collaboration did the problem itself need. (3) Compare to reasoning problem solving, heterogeneous group do better in open-end problem solving.

Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Thoughts,Feelings,and Behavior

LI Jing-jie, ZHANG Wei, ZHEN Shuang-ju, LIANG Juan, ZHANG Cong

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  108-112. 

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Based on a 3×2×2 between-subjects-designed experiment, it is intended to explored the influence of violent video games, trait aggression and the sex on aggressive thoughts, aggressive feelings, and aggressive behavior in 75 college students. The results showed as follows: (1) Violent video games had significant influence on aggressive behavior. (2) Violent video games showed non-significant influence on aggressive feelings. (3) Violent video games increased aggressive thoughts. Man reported more aggressive thoughts than woman. A three-way interaction on aggressive thoughts was significant.

The Further Study on the Correlations of Prosocial Tendencies and Prosocial Moral Reasoning with Canonical Correlation Analysis

HONG Hui-fang, KOU Yu

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  113-118. 

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Simply correlation and Canonical correlation analysis were used together to explore the correlations of prosocial tendencies and prosocial moral reasoning on Chinese college students. The results were as follows: Chinese college students report dire prosocial tendency most, followed by altruistic, emotional, compliant, anonymous and public prosocial tendencies; They take need-oriented prosocial moral reasoning most, followed by stereotypic, internalized, hedonistic and approval-oriented prosocial moral reasoning; The stereotypic moral reasoning and the internalized moral reasoning are related positively to the six types of prosocial tendencies; Canonical correlation analysis shows that the correlations of prosocial tendencies and prosocial moral reasoning are not so high as the former theories suggests. Canonical variables mainly stand for the dire, anonymous and compliant prosocial tendencies; these prosocial tendencies are mainly explained by internalized, stereotypic and need-oriented prosocial moral reasoning.

Study on the Structure of Career Decision Self-Efficacy of Prospective Preschool Teachers

LI Chun-hua, ZHAO Li-li, WANG Da-hua, ZHANG Na

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(2):  119-123. 

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Based on a sample of 334 prospective preschool teachers (PPT), the present study validated the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale for Prospective Preschool Teachers (CDSES-PPT), and examined the characteristics of prospective preschool teachers' career decision self-efficacy. The result of study on the scale indicated that CDSES-PPT had good validity and acceptable reliability. The result of study on PPT's career decision-making self-efficacy indicated that there are no differences between the urban PPT and the rural PPT Things are the same with the 3 grades. The PPT who likes their specialty scored higher on all the 5 dimensions than those who don't like their specialty. There are no differences in the 3 interactions.