Table of Content

15 September 2011, Volume 27 Issue 5

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Emotional Faces Detection and Processing of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder Aged 7-10

CHEN Shun-sen, BAI Xue-jun, SHEN De-li, YAN Guo-li, ZHANG Ling-cong

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(5):  449-458. 

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Eye movements while watching pictures of 14 ASD(autism spectrum disorder)children and 20 typically developed children were monitored in two experiments to investigate the nature of emotional faces detection and processing of ASD individuals.In Experiment 1,the semantic inconsistency stimuli were created by embedding emotional faces(neutral,fear,or happy)into outdoor scenes.The scrambled pictures of a person with different expressions(neutral,fear,or happy)were presented in Experiment 2.The results showed:(1)ASD individuals needed longer time to detect the emotion faces than normal controls consistently across experiments.(2)An attentional bias to the fearful faces was observed in both ASD and control groups.(3)In Experiment 2,children with ASD performed an abnormal attentional allocation pattern to feature areas of the different emotional faces.The typically developing children showed more focus on the areas which are thought to display the most characteristic changes and convey the most important information for the different facial expressions,such as the eyes with fear or the mouth with happy,however the ASD group showed a similar pattern on the distribution of looks on three emotional faces.(4)Children with ASD showed a similar pattern to the typically developed children while detecting and processing emotional faces.

Neural Mechanism of Face Specific Recognition

LI Ming-fang, ZHANG Ye, JIA Lei, LI Ting, LI Wei-xia, ZHANG Qing-lin

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(5):  459-467. 

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The present study employed the event-related brain potentials to record time courses when 16 normal young participants made consistency judgment to face/house stimuli with structural/partial changes.The aim is to reveal the nature of specificity of face recognition.The results showed N170 amplitude and latency had a significant main effect at stimulus type.Compared with the non-face stimuli,faces evoked a higher amplitude and shorter latency of N170;there wasn't a significant difference in processing at amplitude and latency of N170 component between face/non-face stimuli.Late components in the time window from 300-700 msec also had similar results. These results indicated the processing of faces and houses(non-face)were different in early and late components, reflecting the specificity of face recognition in early and late time windows.The late ERP components didn't support that the face processing was whole and structural and non-face object processing was local,part-based.

The Use of Emotional Information and Evaluative information in Children’s Traits Inference

ZHANG Qin, ZHANG Ting, LI Hong, WANG Yun

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(5):  468-474. 

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This study examined whether 4-,5-,and 7-year-olds can infer trait labels from behaviors and predict behaviors from traits labels.Investigated children rely on which information when they pass the simple trait-inference task from two aspects.Experiment 1 demonstrates all children can pass two inference tasks,they use emotional inferences when the traits contain emotional information;Experiment 2 support the results of Experiment 1,all children can pass two inference task,and demonstrates when the traits contain both evaluative information and emotional information,young children had a tendency to rely on evaluative inferences.

Cognitive Development of 4-5 years old:The Positive Impact of Appropriate Kindergarten Enrollment Age

ZHANG Jia-hui, XIN Tao, CHEN Xue-feng

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(5):  475-483. 

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The current study addresses the impact of kindergarten enrollment age on children's cognitive development.Data were drawn from a large-scale project and included a national representative sample of 1,391 children who had scores for cognitive scores at the age of 4,and 964 of them were followed into the next year.The method of multilevel regressions was realized using MLwiN.Different multilevel models were employed to estimate the impact of enrollment age as well as interactions between enrollment age and home learning environment. Evidence was found in the data for quadratic effects of enrollment age in predicting cognitive scores.The results also demonstrated the moderating effect of home learning environment.Implications may include the better location of preschool education resources and cautions of the different needs of children from different backgrounds.

Left-home children’s Belief in A Just World:Its Characteristic and Relationship with Well-being with different duration of left time

ZHANG Li, SHEN Ji-liang, WONG Swee-meng, LUO Man-nan

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(5):  484-490. 

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565 left-home children and 640 non left-home children from grade 5 to 8 finished belief in a just world scale,life satisfaction scale,positive-negative affect scale for exploring left-home children's characteristics of belief in a just world and its relationship with well-being.Results showed that:(1)there was a marginally significant difference on children's belief in just world among groups with different left-home duration.(2)The level of belief in a just world of left-home children was significantly lower than that of non left-home children.Further analysis indicated that the level of belief in just world of left-home children with duration of left time shorter than 10 years were significantly lower than that of non left-home children,while there was no difference between left-home children with other duration time and non left-home children.(3)Belief in a just world had significant positive effect on life-satisfaction and positive affect within all duration of left time and had significant effect on negative affect at given left time.In conclusion,left time was an important factor to belief in a just world and its role of mental health.

Perspective Taking and Helping Behavior in University Students:The Role of Group Relation and Empathic Response

SUN Bing-hai, MIAO De-lu, LI Wei-jian, ZHANG Hai-xing, XU Jing-yi

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(5):  491-497. 

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A sample of 56 university students was selected in the present study to explore the different roles of the group's relation and empathic response which influenced the relation between perspective taking and helping behavior.Within-group design was experimented in two different group relations.Following results were shown:1) in the in-group and out-group,empathic response served to mediate the association between perspective taking and helping behavior;2)the group's relation served to moderate this association in that,empathic response served to part of mediate the association between perspective taking and helping behavior in the in-group,which empathic response served to all of mediate the association between perspective taking and helping behavior in the out-group.

Interparental Conflict and Aggressive Behavior:The Mediating Effect of the Moral Disengagement

YANG Ji-ping, WANG Xing-chao

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(5):  498-505. 

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In order to investigate the moral disengagement of junior high school students and its relation to their interparental conflict and aggressive behavior,370 students completed the Moral Disengagement Scale,the Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale and the Aggression Questionnaire.The results indicated as follows:(1)The boys'score of moral disengagement was significantly higher than that of girls;student's moral disengagement showed significant age differences.(2)Moral disengagement mediated the relation between interparental conflict and aggressive behavior.

The Mediating Effects of Fears of Evaluation on the Relations between Self-Esteem and Social Anxiety for College Students

ZHONG You-jie, ZHANG Jin-fu

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(5):  506-512. 

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In order to investigate the mediating effects of fears of negative and positive evaluations on the relations between self-esteem and social anxiety for college students,the Fear of Positive Evaluation Scale,the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale,Self-Esteem Scale and Social Interaction Anxiety Scale have been applied to survey in the two universities of Fuzhou and 655 questionnaires have been acquired.The results indicate that:(1)there are good reliability and validity of the Fear of Positive Evaluation Scale in college students of the research;(2)the relationship between the self-esteem and social anxiety is partially mediated by fears of positive and negative evaluations.The value of mediating effect is 47.17%.It is that self-esteem directly affects the social anxiety,on the other hand,indirectly affects the social anxiety by means of fears of negative and positive evaluations.

The Relationship of Self Talk and Emotional Intelligence:The Mediating Role of Self Awareness

GUO Su-ran, WU Xin-chun, TENG Xiu-jie, ZHANG Ping

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(5):  513-521. 

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Base on 389 undergraduate students and with self talk scale,self awareness scale and emotional intelligence scale,the relationship among self talk,self awareness and emotional intelligence were explored to indicate the mediating role of self awareness in the relationship between self talk and emotional intelligence.The results were that in Chinese undergraduate students,the score of self reinforcement was the lowest,and the next lower was social assessment,and the scores of self criticism and self management were the highest;self awareness could explain total variance of self talk and emotional intelligence,and play total-mediating role;self awareness contained two constructs,private self awareness and public self awareness,private self awareness could explain partial variance of self talk and emotional intelligence and play partial-mediating role,and so did public self awareness;private self awareness could explain more variance and mediate the relationship more.

Relationship Between Gratitude and Symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Among Adolescents:Mediation of Social Support and Resilience

ZHENG Yu-hong, FAN Fang, YU Cheng-fu, LUO Ting-chen

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(5):  522-528. 

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To examine the relationship between gratitude and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD)and explore the mediated role of resilience and social support playing in that relation,by conducting an assessment 18 months after the disaster with a school-based sample of 1439 students who experienced the May 12^th Wenchuan Earthquake.Results indicated that:(1)PTSD symptoms were significantly correlated to gratitude(r=-0.18,p<0.001),social support(r=-0.17,p<0.001)as well as resilience(r=-0.24,p<0.001),and(2) gratitude not only had direct effect on PTSD symptoms,but also indirectly influenced PTSD symptoms.Significant partial mediation of resilience and social support on the association between gratitude and PTSD symptoms were revealed.

A study on Relationship Between Principal’s Psychological Empowerment and Job Burnout in Primary and Middle School

YAO Ji-hai, LIU Li-hua

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(5):  529-535. 

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This study,selected 425 primary and middle school principals and using method of questionnaire survey, explores their psychological empowerment and job burnout,and the differences about it in different background and discusses the relationship between psychological empowerment and job burnout.Results indicated that:(1)The models and data of principal's psychological empowerment and job burnout data fit well.(2)There is significant difference of the length of service in the school in psychological empowerment.Principals served less than 5 years score significantly higher than principals served 6～10 years on the factor of competence and total score of psychological empowerment,and principals served more than 11 years score higher than principals served 6～10 years on the factor of self-determination.(3)On the factor of cynicism and tatal score of job burnout,male principals are significantly higher than female principals.On the factors of emotional exhaustion,cynicism and total score of job burnout,principals with junior college degree or below significantly higher than principals with bachelor degree or above.Principals under the age of 35 score significantly higher than principals at the age of 41～45 and above 46 on the factor of reduced personal accomplishment.(3)The highly significant negative correlations of principal's psychological empowerment with job burnout are found,and regression analysis shows that principal's psychological empowerment is a significant negative predicator of job burnout.

Character Strengths of College Students:The Relationship between Character Strengths and Subjective Well-Being

ZHOU Ya, LIU Xiang-ping

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(5):  536-542. 

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Character strengths and subjective well-being are primary concerns of positive psychology.The purpose of this study was to:(1)evaluate the character strengths among Chinese college students;and(2)reveal the relationship between the 24 strengths and well-being.115 participants were recruited to complete the web-based Values in Action Inventory of Strengths,Oxford Happiness Questionnaire,and Satisfaction with Life Scale.The top five "signature strengths" of Chinese college students were love,honesty,gratitude,appreciation of beauty,and kindness.Taking gender into account,men and women share three of the top five "signature strengths" (honesty, gratitude,and appreciation of beauty).The main findings also include:Hope,love,zest,curiosity,citizenship, and social intelligence were substantially associated with happiness.And robustly related with life satisfaction were hope,social intelligence,perspectives,love,and industry.

Review on Attentional Bias to Smoking-Related Cues in Smokers

WANG Gang, ZHANG Da-jun

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(5):  543-552. 

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With regarding to the attentional bias to smoking-related cues in smokers,most of studies in recent years focused on several aspects including theory explaining,paradigm,occurrence and its relationship with smoking addiction.According to the theories of attentional bias,there were incentive-sensitization,automatic action schema,incentive-habit and current concerns et al;According to paradigm,there were addiction-stroop task,dot probe task and cue-modulated startle test et al;According to occurrence,it involved in subject's characteristic, subject's consciousness,attentional stage and biochemical mechanism;According to its relationship with smoking addiction,it included its relationship with subjective craving and its relationship with smoking-seeking behavior.In light of the limitations of present studies,future studies not only need to further reveal the stage of occurrence of attentional bias in smokers and test its relationship with smoking addiction using cue-target task et al,but also need to discover the specialty of attentional bias in smokers.

Secure-base Priming of Attachment System and Its Brain Mechanism

GUO Wei, CHEN Xu, YANG Nan

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(5):  553-560. 

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In recent years,secure-base priming of attachment system has become a significant empirical method for deepening and expanding attachment theory.Secure-base priming can improve mood and emotion regulation strategies,promote interpersonal relationships,self-actualization and increase altruistic tendency of insecurely attached subjects,especially.By means of secure-base priming and its effect,researchers had the chance of examining the neural basis of adult attachment and mother-infant attachment and their difference and connection. This article also analyzed some defects of secure-base priming,such as not optimal ecological validity,not high rates of secure-base priming effect's recurrence,limit of this method's application fields,lack of studying on the persistence problem of secure-base priming effect.In the future,the development tendency of secure-base priming should break through the shortcomings of laboratory experiment,broaden this method's application domains and enhance the exploration of secure-base priming effect's mental mechanism and neural mechanisms,etc.