Table of Content

15 January 2013, Volume 29 Issue 1

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Attentional Bias among Individuals with Low Self-Esteem：an Event-Related Potential Study

LI Hai-jiang, JIA Lei, LUO Jun-long, YANG Juan, ZHANG Qing-lin, LI Bing-bing

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(1):  2-9. 

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Research has revealed that attentional biases are comprised of rapidly attentional orienting towards threat, difficulty in disengaging attention from threat. However, the neural basis of the component of attentioanl bias is still uncertain. In present study, a spatial cueing task was used to measure attentional biases because this task can differentiate rapidly attentional orienting and difficulty in disengagement. Event related potentials for targets were recorded when participants performed the spatial cueing task. Behavioral data showed that reaction time was longer under invalid condition than valid condition. ERP data revealed that LSE individuals showed more enhanced P1 and smaller N1 amplitude when the face cue was "angry" relative to "neutral" and "happy" on invalid trials. More increased P290-370 amplitude under invalid condition than valid condition. No other significant main or interaction effects were found. These findings suggested that attentional bias in LSE individuals reflect a difficulty in disengaging from threaten stimuli, rather than a rapidly attentional orienting for threaten stimuli.

An Experimental Study on Inhibitory Implicit Aggressive Cognition through Prosocial Video Games

LEI Hao, WEI Jin, LIU Yan-ling, TIAN Lan, PAN Yan-gu, CHEN Rong

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(1):  10-17. 

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The IAT test was used to investigate whether situational prosocial video games would inhibit implicit aggressive cognition, and its difference in genders and aggressive characteristics. Results show that: 1)prosocial video games have suppression inhibitory effect within implicit aggressive cognitive on high school students 2) the main effect of game type and the interaction between genger and game type were significant.3) the main effect of aggressive characteristics and game type were significant, the interaction between g aggressive characteristics and game type was significant. Therefore, prosocial video games can effectively inhibit the implicit aggressive cognition level of high school students.

The Effect of Self-esteem Level, Event Valence and Temporal Distance on Temporal Distance Estimation of Past Events

YAO Guo-jing, ZHANG Feng

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(1):  18-22. 

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Temporal self-appraisal theory in western culture suggests that people can maintain positive present self-esteem by enhancing earlier selves who feel close and disparaging past selves who feel distant. With the method of evaluation on a line, we conducted 2 experiments to investigate the effect of self-esteem level, event valence and temporal distance on temporal distance estimation of past events with 311 Chinese college students for testing temporal self-appraisal theory's cultral universality. The results showed that:In the same temporal distance, temporal distance estimation of past event had no significant difference in event valence, self-esteem level and their interaction; Temporal distance estimation of past event had a significant difference in temporal distance, the interaction between event valence and temporal distance was significant, and in the negative valence, there had a significant difference in temporal distance, but in the positive valence, there had no significant difference in temporal distance. In conclusion, the results of this study didnt support the temporal self-appraisal theory based on western culture.

An Experimental Research on Implicit and Explicit Gratitude of Undergraduates

HE An-ming, LIU Hua-shan, HUI Qiu-ping

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(1):  23-30. 

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The research explored the feasibility of measuring undergraduates' gratitude by use of Implicit Association Test(IAT), Go/No-go Association Task(GNAT) and analyzed the relationship between implicit gratitude and explicit gratitude. Preliminary research selected each 16 self/others words from the modern Chinese dictionary, and selected each 20 positive/negative words related to gratitude from Chinese idioms dictionary, according to the evaluation results of 65 undergraduates, the each 8 self/others words, and each 8 positive/negative words were screened out for the formal research. Formal research used IAT and GNAT gratitude measurement procedures and Adolescent Gratitude Scale(AGS), 155 undergraduates were simultaneously assigned to receive IAT test and explicit gratitude measurement. The results showed that:(1) Undergraduates generally had positive implicit gratitude, there were no significant differences of the undergraduates' implicit gratitude on such demographic indicators as gender, student nationalities and the only or not;(2) There was no significant correlation between implicit gratitude and explicit gratitude, they belong to two different constructions;(3) It was feasible for gratitude measurement via the IAT and GNAT.

The Relationship Between Reality Altruistic Behavior and Internet Altruistic Behavior：the Role of Online Social Support

ZHENG Xian-liang

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(1):  31-37. 

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Based on 366 college students and with Internet Altruistic Behavior Scale of Undergraduates, Adolescents' 0nline Social Support Questionnaire and College Students' Altruistic Behavior Questionnaire, a survey was conducted to examine the mediating and moderating role of online social support on the relationship between reality altruistic behavior and internet altruistic behavior. The results indicated that:(1) The total average score of college students' internet altruistic behavior was significantly lower than medium critical value, while the total average score of their reality altruistic behavior and online social support were significantly higher than medium critical value.(2) There were significant positive correlations among reality altruistic behavior, online social support and internet altruistic behavior.(3) The effect of reality altruistic behavior on internet altruistic behavior was fully mediated by online social support.(4) Online social support also moderated the relationship between reality altruistic behavior and internet altruistic behavior. Compared to less online social supporters, the effect of reality altruistic behavior on internet altruistic behavior was much stronger for higher online social support counterparts.

The Effects of Father’s Involvement and Parenting on Children’s Early Social Skills

LIU Li-sha, LI Yan-fang, LV Ying, LI Yan-wei

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(1):  38-45. 

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Compared with mother, father play specific role on children's early social development. With 184 preschoolers aged about 60 months and their parents as the subjects, the present study investigated the impacts of quantity(father's time with child) and quality(positive parenting behaviors) of father's involvement on children's early social skills. Results showed that:(1) After controlling mother's positive behaviors, father's time with child still significantly predicted children's social skills, while paternal positive parenting behaviors did not.(2) After controlling for mother, father's time with child positively predicted girl's cooperation, responsibility, self-control and general social skills, while predicted boy's assertion marginal significantly. Paternal positive behaviors marginal positively predicted boy's assertion only.(3) Father's time with child predicted cooperation, assertion, responsibility, self-control and general social skills, and positive parenting behavior predicted cooperation and general social skills marginal significantly only when mother's positive parenting was lower than average, which indicated that father's involvement could buffer children's social skills against mother's inactive parenting.

The Effect of Animation’s Presentation Speed on Multimedia Learning：An Eye Movement Study

DUAN Zhao-hui, YAN Zhi-qiang, WANG Fu-xing, ZHOU Zong-kui

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(1):  46-53. 

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As an important part of the multimedia and cognitive load, the presentation speed of the animation is one of vital factors to influence the learning performance. Some previous studies found that speed can improve multimedia learning outcomes, the other found it hinder learning outcomes. In this study, memory test and eye tracking technique were used to investigate how presentation speed affects learning performance and attention shifting during multimedia learning. In this study, low, normal and high speed animations were manipulated. An animation of formation of lighting from Moreno & Mayer(1999) was constructed as multimedia learning material. EyeLink 1000 was used to record eye movement data. It was found that the scores of transfer test in low speed condition were higher than normal and high speed. The whole eye movement data showed that the low speed was more than the other two speed in the fixation count, fixation saccades, the dwell time in task-relevant area and the run count of task-relevant area. But after the length of time in control, the low speed and high speed were only longer than normal speed in the the dwell time in task-relevant area. In conclusion, the presentation speed can affect the multimedia learning performance. It suggests that low speed can aid learner's understanding but not memorizing. Furthermore, the present speed is independent of the learner's attention shifting to affect his understanding, and the present speed's effect on eye movement is very weak.

Activation of Non-target words During Chinese-English Bilinguals’ Language Production

CHANG Song, WANG Rui-ming, LI Li, XIE Jiu-shu

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(1):  54-60. 

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Whether words within the lexicon of the non-used language are activated during language production is an important question in bilingual research. Prior studies have not led to conclusive results in this question, because activation could have been artificially induced by the experiment paradigms and nothing is known about the activation of non-target words in the non-used language. Colomé and Miozzo(2010) used a suitable paradigm—picture-picture interference paradigm to study this issue. They found that for proficient bilinguals, non-target words were activated in the non-used language. But, whether co-activation can be found while less-proficient bilinguals use their first language or second language was still in debates. Moreover, if the co-activation could be found, it is clear that second language words' familiarity has regulated the activation. This will be an important finding in bilingual language production. Here, picture-picture interference paradigm was used to investigate to what extent non-target words are activated in less-proficient Chinese-English bilinguals during language production. Experiment 1 was designed to examine whether the English names of distracter pictures could be activated when participants were required to name the target pictures in Chinese, which is their first language. The results demonstrated that non-target words of high familiarity can be activated in less-proficient Chinese-English bilinguals, but not those of low familiarity. Experiment 2 explored whether the Chinese names of distracter pictures would be activated when participants were asked to name target pictures in English, which is their second language. The finding was that the non-target words can be activated regardless of their familiarity. Overall, these findings demonstrated that less-proficient bilinguals were affected by their familiarity of non-target words as well as language proficiency in both languages during language production.

School Climate and Academic Achievement Among Adolescents：A Moderated Mediation Model

BAO Zhen-zhou, ZHANG Wei, LI Dong-ping, LI Dan-li, WANG Yan-hui

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(1):  61-70. 

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A massive literature documents the positive association between school climate and adolescents' academic achievement, but little is known about the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this relation. This study constructed a moderated mediation model to examine whether school attachment mediated the relation between school climate and academic achievement, and whether this mediating process was moderated by adolescents' self-control. With stratified-cluster sampling method, 2758 junior high school students completed questionnaire measures of school climate, school attachment, self-control and academic achievement. The results indicated that:(1) After controlling for gender, grade, and socioeconomic status, school climate significantly contributed to academic achievement;(2) School attachment played a mediating role in the relationship between school climate and academic achievement;(3) Self-control moderated the mediated path through school attachment, such that this indirect effect was much stronger for adolescents with low self-control relative to those with high self-control. Thus, both mediating and moderating effects exist in the association between school climate and adolescents' academic achievement.

Social Economic Status and Study Engagement：The Mediating Effects of Academic Self-efficacy among Junior High School Students

SHI Lei-shan, CHEN Ying-min, HOU Xiu, GAO Feng-qiang

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(1):  71-78. 

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Socioeconomic status(SES) is one of the most widely studied constructs in the social sciences. Several ways of measuring SES have been proposed, but most include some quantification of family income, parental education, and occupational status. Research shows that SES is associated with a wide array of health, cognitive, and socioemotional outcomes in children, with effects beginning prior to birth and continuing into adulthood. High SES families afford their children an array of services, goods, parental actions, and social connections that potentially redound to the benefit of children and a concern that many low SES children lack access to those same resources and experiences, thus putting them at risk for developmental problems. It is expected that socioeconomic status is positively related to study engagement. Bandura's social-cognitive theory defines self-efficacy as the‘belief in one's capabilities to organize and execute the course of action required to produce given attainments'. It is expected that academic self-efficacy is positively related to study engagement because self-efficacy leads to a greater willingness to spend additional energy and effort on completing a task or an assignment and hence to more task involvement and absorption.Based on our conceptual model, the research formulated the following two hypotheses: H1: The better the social economic status, the more study engagement. H2: academic self-efficacy would serve as a mediator of the relationship between social economic status and study engagement. In order to examine and investigate the mediating effects of academic self-efficacy on the relationship between social economic status and study engagement, 953 students as subjects from 8 junior high schools in the cities of Nantong and Yancheng were chosen randomly. SEM results revealed that(1) social economic status have significantly positive direct influence on study engagement;(2)academic self-efficacy is one of the mediating factors between social economic status and study engagement;(3)The relationship between social economic status and study engagement is in nature through the influence of family income on study engagement, and parental education, occupational status are also through the influence of family income on study engagement. Academic self-efficacy is one of the mediating factors between family income and study engagement.

The Relations Between Personal Planning and Depression in Senior High School Students：The Moderating Effect of Gender

YU Feng-jie, ZHAO Jing-xin, ZHANG Wen-xin

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(1):  79-85. 

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A sample of 1261 Chinese adolescents from the tenth and twelfth grades were employed to complete two self-report questionnaires, including a Chinese modified version of Personal Planning Questionnaire and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale(CES-D). The indicators of adolescents' personal planning were exploration and commitment related to three life domains, i.e. future education, occupation, and marriage/family. This study explored the associations between senior high school students' personal planning and their depression, and the moderating effect of gender on the associations. The main findings were as follows:(1) In the domain of education, the level of the senior high school students' personal planning(exploration and commitment) negatively predicted the level of depression; In marriage/family domain, the level of exploration positively predicted the level of depression, and the level of commitment negatively predicted depression. However, the level of the senior high school students' personal planning concerning future occupation was not associated with depression.(2) Gender moderated the relation between the exploration related to future marriage/family and depression. Further analysis indicated that for female students, the higher level of exploration concerning future marriage/family they perceived, the higher level of depression they reported, while no association was observed among males.

Effect of Consideration of Future Consequences on Aggression in Adolescence：Mediation and Moderation Effects

JI Wei-biao, WANG Ling, MO Hong-yuan, LIU Jing-jing, CHENG Yun-wei

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(1):  86-93. 

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To examine the relationship between consideration of future consequences and adolescent aggression, as well as the mediating role of self-control and the moderating role of empathy in the effect of consideration of future consequences, 720 secondary students were tested with aggression questionnaire, relational aggression scale, consideration of future consequences scale, empathy scale and self-control ability questionnaire. The results indicated that:(1) Consideration of future consequences was negatively associated with Adolescent aggression(overt aggression and relational aggression);(2)Self-control could fully mediate the relationship between consideration of future consequences and Adolescent aggression;(3)Empathy served to moderate the association between consideration of future consequences and overt aggression in that low empathy predicted a negative association between them while high empathy predicted no significant association;(4) The mediating effect of self-control was moderated by empathy, and a high level of empathy could effectively relieve Adolescents' aggression for low self-control.

Resilience of College Students and the Relations of Resilience to Positive Emotion and to Subjective Well-being

WANG Yong, WANG Zhen-hong

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(1):  94-100. 

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Base on 207 college students and with Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Positive Affect Scale and General Well-Being Schedule, the trait of resilience of the people who felt less stress and the relations of resilience to positive emotion and to subjective well-being were explored. The results showed that:(1) resilience of college students showed stability to some degree;(2) positive emotion had remarkable positive correlations with resilience, and it can predict the latter significantly;(3) resilience had a significantly positive effect on subjective well-being, positive emotion played partial-mediating role between resilience and subjective well-being.

Mediation and Moderation of Calling and Academic Satisfaction, Life Satisfaction in Normal Students：The Role of Life Meaning

ZHANG Chun-yu, WEI Jia, ZHANG Jin-fu, LI Zhe

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(1):  101-108. 

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This study examined the role of life meaning in the relationship between calling and academic satisfaction, life satisfaction among a sample of 679 tuition-free normal college students who was recruited from three normal universities in China. Results indicated no significant gender and grade differences. Structural equation models revealed that calling was associated with greater academic satisfaction and life satisfaction. The presence of life meaning significantly mediated these associations. However, the search for life meaning didn't significantly moderate these associations, indicating the potential cultural difference between Chinese and Western. These findings improve current understanding of the association between domain-specific calling and well-being by applying the effect of meaning in life. Implications are discussed in relation to previous research. The findings are useful for educators interested in intervention and treatment approaches to aid normal students find calling and experience the satisfaction and happiness.

Promoting the Rapid Growth of Chinese Science Journalswith the Open-Review System

ZHANG Xue-xin

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(1):  109-111. 

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The common peer review system in academic paper assessment is seriously deficient, making it difficult to ensure fair reviews and to enhance review quality of the research population under the current situation in China. An "Open-Review" system is proposed consisting of a public recommendation stage and an open, anonymous critical review stage. The system dissociates the publication and evaluation of research papers, which are two functions with conflicting requirements. Combining the traditional Chinese wisdom "Nomination of the competent" and the most current internet technology microblog, the openness and resource-sharing rationale of the new system, while ensuring fairness in academic review, can effectively help the propagation of knowledge and experience among the scientific community, and quickly promote the growth of Chinese science journals.