Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Juvenile crime, as an important factor of public security, has extensively concerned the whole society. Although juvenile offenders with antisocial tendency exhibit unique behavior patterns and development characteristics, few studies have investigated the potential mechanism of aggressive behaviors in juvenile offenders. Based on the dual-hormone hypothesis and social information processing theory, It is plausible to argue that biological hormones and the social information processing process related to hostile might play an fundamental role in shaping aggressive behaviors of juvenile offenders. Therefore, the present study proposes a moderated mediating model and examined the prediction of testosterone for aggressive behaviors in juvenile offenders that is mediated by hostile attention bias and moderated cortisol. Drawing on both biological hormone and social cognition perspectives, the present study attempts to answer the questions of “how” testosterone affects aggressive behavior and “when” the effect will be present, which provides implications for further developing interventions against aggressive behaviors in juvenile offenders with antisocial tendency. This study included 84 juvenile offenders (average age: 17.55, standard deviations: 0.52) as participants. Their aggressive behavior was measured using the Chinese version of the Buss-Perry Attack Scale (AQCV). Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) was utilized to measure the salivary testosterone and cortisol levels of the participants. Moreover, the participants' attention biases toward hostile aggressive phrases and hostile facial expressions were evaluated using an adopted Stroop and the dot-probe paradigm, respectively. Both traditional and trail-level attention bias scores were calculated to reflect the participants' attention bias statically and dynamically.Results showed that (1) attention bias toward hostile stimuli (Variability, Peak TL-BSNEGATIVE) played a complete mediation role in the relationship between testosterone and aggressive behavior (i.e. variability played a complete mediation role in the prediction of AQCV total score, physical aggression subscale score, and anger subscale score. Peak TL-BSNEGATIVE played a complete mediation role in the prediction of verbal aggression subscale score by testosterone). (2) Cortisol moderated the relationship between testosterone and attention bias toward hostile stimuli. More specifically, at a high cortisol level, testosterone positively predicted individual attention avoidance (Peak TL-BSNEGATIVE) and variability, thereby reducing the aggression level. However, the mediation effect of attention bias toward hostile stimuli was not significant at a low cortisol level. Based on the dual-hormone hypothesis and social information processing theory, the present study examined a moderated mediating model in a sample of juvenile offenders with antisocial tendency using the perspectives of biological hormone and social information processing in aggressive behaviors. The present study revealed a potential development mechanism of aggressive behaviors in juvenile offenders and thus provides an empirical foundation for hormone-based interventions against aggressive behaviors in juvenile offenders. Finally, on the basis of the mediation and moderation effects of biological hormones on aggressive behavior, the present study indicates that increasing attention avoidance and the cortisol level for juvenile offenders with antisocial tendency might help reduce their aggressive violence.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Conceptually, prosocial behavior reduces externalizing problems (e.g., aggression) and internalized problems (e.g., depression) because prosocial behavior promotes positive emotions (e.g., to find delight in helping others). Therefore, understanding the development cascades of prosocial behavior tendency, internalizing and externalizing problems is of great value to the promotion of adolescent mental health. Developmental cascades model describes the above-mentioned process, that is, the function of one domain (level or system) will affect the function of another domain (level or system); as time goes on, multiple interactions in different domains (levels or systems) will produce cumulative effects that can spill over and affect the functions of other domain (level or system). Researchers usually use longitudinal data to test a developmental cascade model. However, previous studies tend to base their conclusions on Cross-Lagged Panel Models, which cannot sufficiently answer the causally reciprocal relationship the developmental cascade model described because CLPM mixed the between- and within-person effects. The results of the within-person analysis, which takes the person himself as the control, is more likely indicating the within-person changes of studied variables and their temporal relationships, and thus are consistent with the theoretical hypothesis of the developmental cascades model. The current study attempts to test the developmental cascades of prosocial behavior tendency, internalizing and externalizing problems in a sample of Chinese adolescents, and to show how the within-person analysis and the analysis based on traditional CLPM influence the conclusions. The demographic questionnaire together with Prosocial Behavior Tendency, Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale and Buss Warren Aggression Questionnaire were administered in two junior schools for three years. Totally 894 students completed the three-wave investigation. Among them, the age ranged from 11 to 15 years old (12.7 ± 0.60), including 517 boys (57.8%) at the beginning of the investigation. In terms of parents' education level, 94.6% of fathers completed nine-year compulsory education, and 56.9% of them completed high school or above level education; 91.5% of mothers completed nine-year compulsory education, and 52.2% of them completed high school or above level education. Two models of within-person analysis (RI-CLPM and GCLM) were used to analyze the data, compared with the traditional CLPM. The data fitting indexes of the three models are all acceptable, but the results are different leading to very different conclusions. Particularly, GCLM can separate within- and between-person effects; (2) GCLM do not assume continuous development in comparison with RI-CLPM. These advantages of GCLM make GCLM have accurate estimates than other two models. Based on the results of GCLM, the research showed that: (1) at the within-person level, prosocial behavior tendency has a moderate or weak co-movements with internalizing and externalizing problems. The prosocial behavior tendency measured at T1 can predict the internalizing problems measured at T2, and the prosocial behavior tendency measured at T2 can predict the externalizing problems measured at T3; (2) For the girl group, the internalizing problems measured at T2 can predict the externalizing problems measured at T3, while in the boy group, the results did not support the reciprocal relationship between internalizing and externalizing problems; (3) The public, submissive, emotional and altruistic factors of prosocial behavior tendency can negatively predict the next-year internalizing problems, and these four factors can negatively predict the externalizing problems measured at T2. These results suggest the value of prosocial behavior as the potential way to promote adolescent’s mental health, within-person analysis in the developmental cascades research, and also indicate that mental health promotion programs should take the gender difference into account.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： The novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak increases public mental stress and pandemic-related trauma. Timely and comprehensive online mental health services have been deployed across China. Hotline counselors can be exposed to the stress and trauma experienced by callers indirectly. They may experience secondary traumatic stress (STS) as a result of their empathetic engagement with traumatized clients, and they may also experience vicarious posttraumatic growth (VPTG). The present study examined negative and positive change in hotline counselors concurrently and explored the mechanisms of both positive and negative outcomes. Participants were 776 counselors (81% female, average age = 42.57 ± 7.90, average years of experience = 12.44 ± 5.92) recruited from MOE-CCNU Mental Health Service Platform, the biggest official telephone-based and online psychological support platform in China during COVID-19 period. Empathy and VPTG were measured by revised Chinese versions of self-report questionnaires. STS was assessed by the corresponding subscale of the Professional Quality of Life Scale. The Chinese Meaning in Life Questionnaire was used to assess participants’ search for life meaning. Mindfulness was evaluated by Mindful Attention Awareness Scale. Latent variable structural equation modeling was applied. After controlling age, trauma cases and total cases, counselors’ empathy was positively associated with STS and VPTG. Results revealed that empathy was positively associated with STS and VPTG. Mindfulness mediated this association between empathy and STS. Search for meaning mediated the relationship between empathy and VPTG. Additionally, the association between empathy and VPTG was also mediated through other four significant mediating pathways: (a) secondary trauma stress, (b) secondary traumatic stress and search for meaning, (c) mindfulness and search for meaning, and (d) mindfulness and secondary trauma stress and search for meaning. Our findings support that empathy lead to both positive and negative outcomes among hotline counselors during COVID-19 period in China, highlighting dialectical insights into trauma workers’ experiences. When counselors engage in others’ traumatic experience, their vicarious negative emotional experience may be a pathway to growth, and search for life meaning is an important factor in that growth.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： The semantic search during creative thinking refers to the activation process of semantic information in long-term memory involved in creative activities. Influential theory has posited that the semantic activation process in free recall shows spreading activation within semantic networks and is characterized by negative acceleration and clustering. Unlike the free recall, it is necessary to suppress the dominant response and to activate novel and distant information during creative thinking. Therefore, one might expect different semantic search processes during creative thinking, but such a hypothesis has not yet been directly tested. To explore the semantic search process during creative thinking, the present study described the quantitative dynamic characteristics of answer generation in a divergent thinking test using a series of parameters, such as cumulative response distribution and semantic similarity. The experiment employed a within-subject design with the task type (novel V.S. normal) as the independent variable. The experiment included two versions of alternative uses task (AUT): novel and normal AUT. In the novel AUT, participants were asked to report novel and valid uses for the daily-life items presented on the screen as many as possible, while in the normal AUT they were only asked to think of valid uses for objects as many as possible. During the experiment, participants completed two normal AUTs, followed by two novel AUTs. Each AUT lasted for three minutes. The novelty of responses and semantic similarity of responses were scored by participants themselves. The time function of the cumulative number of responses was fitted by the hyperbolic function, and clustering analysis was conducted based on the semantic similarity of responses. The results showed that: (1) The cumulative response distribution in the novel AUT condition were negatively accelerating similar to semantic search during free recall, but the search speed in the novel AUT condition was slower than that of the normal AUT condition. (2) In the novel AUT condition, the semantic similarity between participants’ responses and the questions (i.e., the items) was low and significantly lower than that in the normal AUT condition. (3) The responses in the novel AUT condition showed a significantly lower degree of clustering than that in the normal AUT condition. In the novel AUT condition, the semantic similarity between the clusterable and non-clusterable answers and the questions were low and not significantly different. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between the clusterable and non-clusterable answers in terms of novelty. These findings indicated that the semantic search during creative thinking was partly in line with spreading activation theory of semantic search in free call. But the search speed was relatively slower. Furthermore, the novelty requirement prompted the participants to break up the semantic restriction of the item at the initial search and avoid nearby search. The participants tended to generate few idea in each semantic field. However, when it is far away from the item in the semantic field, individuals might generate clustering ideas.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Trauma-related flashback (also called intrusive imagery) is one of the most typical re-experience symptoms of acute stress disorder (ASD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and has important impacts on the development of PTSD. The cognitive model of PTSD and the dual representation theory of PTSD both emphasize the effects of abnormal peritraumatic cognitive processing (i.e., data-driven processing or sensational representation being strengthened while conceptual processing or contextual representation being weakened). Some vulnerable personality traits of PTSD and working memory abilities are also focused in studies of analogue and real trauma, and are considered as risk factors and protective factors respectively. This study aimed to examine the effects of vulnerable personality traits of PTSD, working memory abilities and peritraumatic cognitive processing on flashbacks in different periods after analogue trauma. A total of 159 healthy college students (38 males; age = 17~26 ys, M = 20.44 ± 1.80) participated in the study, who were screened by a self-designed health status questionnaire (e.g., “Did you receive psychotherapy or psychopharmaceutical treatment in recent two years?”), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), and Self-report Anxiety Scale (SAS). In the laboratory, they were asked to watch a 14’34’’ long Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) film alone. Trait anxiety, trait dissociation, neuroticism and attentional control were measured before watching the film respectively by State-trait Anxiety Inventory-Trait version (STAI-T), Dissociative Experiences Scale-II (DES-II), the revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Short Scale for Chinese (EPQ-RSC), and Attentional Control Scale (ACS), while working memory capacity was tested by a revised Operation Span Task (OSPAN) seven days later. Immediately after the film, data-driven processing and conceptual processing were measured by Thoughts and Feelings Questionnaire-Chinese Revised (TFQ-CR). Five minutes after the film, participants firstly read a standardized description about the film-related flashback until they fully understood it with the help of the experimenter, and then reported immediate flashback (number, vividness and distress level). In the following week after the laboratory portion, participants independently reported flashback at three regular time points every day through WeChat or QQ. Upon coming back to the laboratory, they reported the frequency of posttraumatic symptoms through the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and triggered flashback after finishing a single-blind fake task assessing the degree in which they liked (10 relevant to the film). Structural equation model (SEM) and Bootstrap method were mainly adopted in the statistical analyses. Results showed that data-driven processing positively predicted the number, vividness and distress level of all three kinds of flashbacks (i.e., immediate, one-week and triggered) and one-week frequency of intrusion; higher neuroticism predicted higher distress level of triggered flashback; attentional control and working memory capacity both negatively predicted one-week frequency of intrusion. Conceptual processing played a mediating role between attentional control and distress level of immediate flashback. Furthermore, attentional control was positively associated with conceptual processing, whereas conceptual processing negatively predicted distress level of immediate flashback. These findings suggest that data-driven processing is the main factor influencing flashbacks in different periods after trauma; conceptual processing mainly affects the early acute stress response, while attentional control functions as a protective factor; neuroticism and working memory ability have long-term effects on flashback, and working memory ability serves as a protective factor.
Subjects: Psychology >> Educational Psychology submitted time 2021-06-22
Abstract： Students’ externalizing problem behaviors negatively impact on the current and future development of themselves, classmates and teachers. Managing students’ externalizing problems is a great challenge for teachers. Previous studies in a Western educational environment and experience of excellent domestic head teachers indicate that head teachers can effectively reduce students’ externalizing problem behaviors by adopting negotiation management strategies and building positive teacher-student relationships. Most of the existing studies emphasize the influence of teachers’ negotiation management behavior and the teacher-student relationship on students’ externalizing problem behaviors. However, conversely, the transactional model suggests that students’ externalizing problem behaviors may also affect teachers’ negotiation management behavior and the teacher-student relationship. The present study aims to explore the reciprocal relationships between head teachers’ negotiation management behavior and teacher-student relationship and primary school students’ externalizing problem behaviors from grades four to six in China. The questionnaire on head teachers’ negotiation management behavior, and the strengths and difficulties questionnaire, and the student perception of affective relationship scale was used for measurement were administered to 1407 students from grades four to six at three different periods in one school year. All the measures were reliable and valid. SPSS 20.0 and Mplus 7.4 were used to analyze the data. A cross-lagged model was used to investigate the reciprocal relationship among the head teachers’ negotiation management behavior, the teacher-student relationship, and primary school students’ externalizing problem behaviors. The results reflected that, after controlling for covariates, simultaneous correlation, and auto-regression of variables, head teachers’ negotiation management behavior drove the positive interaction cycle. The head teachers’ negotiation management behavior at Time 1 reduced the students’ externalizing problem behavior, improved the intimacy of the teacher-student relationship, and decreased the conflicts of the teacher-student relationship at Time 2, which further affected the head teachers’ negotiation management behavior, the teacher-student relationship, and the students’ externalizing problem behaviors at Time 3. The students’ externalizing problem behaviors drove the negative interaction cycle. The students’ externalizing problem behaviors at Time 1 reduced the head teachers’ negotiation management behavior, decreased the intimacy of the teacher-student relationship, and increased the conflicts of the teacher-student relationship at Time 2, which further affected the students’ externalizing problem behaviors, the teacher-student relationship, and the head teacher’s negotiation management behavior at Time 3. These observations deepen the understanding of the complex reciprocal relationships between head teachers’ negotiation management behavior and teacher-student relationship and primary school students’ externalizing problem behaviors from grade four to six in China. Additionally, the findings have important implications for preventing and intervening in students’ externalizing problem behaviors. The results reflect that the head teachers need to be aware of the negative “driver” role of students’ externalizing problem behaviors, and consciously use the positive “driver” role of negotiation management behavior to break the negative cycle driven by students’ externalizing problem behaviors. " " " " "
Subjects: Psychology >> Clinical and Counseling Psychology submitted time 2021-05-25
Abstract： " The novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak increases public mental stress and pandemic-related trauma. Timely and comprehensive online mental health services have been deployed across China. Hotline counselors can be exposed to the stress and trauma experienced by callers indirectly. They may experience secondary traumatic stress (STS) as a result of their empathetic engagement with traumatized clients, and they may also experience vicarious posttraumatic growth (VPTG). The present study examined negative and positive change in hotline counselors concurrently and explored the mechanisms of both positive and negative outcomes. Participants were 776 counselors (81% female, average age = 42.57 ± 7.90, average years of experience = 12.44 ± 5.92) recruited from MOE-CCNU Mental Health Service Platform, the biggest official telephone-based and online psychological support platform in China during COVID-19 period. Empathy and VPTG were measured by revised Chinese versions of self-report questionnaires. STS was assessed by the corresponding subscale of the Professional Quality of Life Scale. The Chinese Meaning in Life Questionnaire was used to assess participants’ search for life meaning. Mindfulness was evaluated by Mindful Attention Awareness Scale. Latent variable structural equation modeling was applied. After controlling age, trauma cases and total cases, counselors’ empathy was positively associated with STS and VPTG. Results revealed that empathy was positively associated with STS and VPTG. Mindfulness mediated this association between empathy and STS. Search for meaning mediated the relationship between empathy and VPTG. Additionally, the association between empathy and VPTG was also mediated through other four significant mediating pathways: (a) secondary trauma stress, (b) secondary traumatic stress and search for meaning, (c) mindfulness and search for meaning, and (d) mindfulness and secondary trauma stress and search for meaning. Our findings support that empathy lead to both positive and negative outcomes among hotline counselors during COVID-19 period in China, highlighting dialectical insights into trauma workers’ experiences. When counselors engage in others’ traumatic experience, their vicarious negative emotional experience may be a pathway to growth, and search for life meaning is an important factor in that growth. "
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2019-08-25
Abstract： Abstract: Considering the fact that there is a ‘positive bias’ in previous intergroup contact research, negative contact has also been taken into consideration simultaneously. Currently, questionnaire, content analysis and social network analysis, experiment are the four main research methods used in research considering both positive and negative contact. It is demonstrated that positive contact and negative contact exerted positive and negative effects on intergroup relations respectively, which were mediated by intergroup emotion and intergroup trust, and moderated by authoritarianism and intimacy. In addition, on the relationship between positive and negative contact effects, two kinds of research ideas were employed, that is, asymmetry and interaction, both of which were supported by empirical evidence. In future research, it is necessary to examine the generalization effects of different valenced contact, especially negative contact, expand the effect scope of positive and negative contact, perfect the mechanism of positive and negative contact, and further explore the factors that affect the asymmetric effect of positive and negative contact. " "
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