The Single Category Implicit Association Test as a measure of implicit social cognition.

The Single Category Implicit Association Test (SC-IAT) is a modification of the Implicit Association Test that measures the strength of evaluative associations with a single attitude object. Across 3 different attitude domains--soda brand preferences, self-esteem, and racial attitudes--the authors found evidence that the SC-IAT is internally consistent and makes unique contributions in the ability to understand implicit social cognition. In a 4th study, the authors investigated the susceptibility of the SC-IAT to faking or self-presentational concerns. Once participants with high error rates were removed, no significant self-presentation effect was observed. These results provide initial evidence for the reliability and validity of the SC-IAT as an individual difference measure of implicit social cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

社会批判:大学与知识分子的历史使命与学术责任

大学作为一个独特的社会组织，理应承担特殊的社会使命，也就是其他社会组织无力承担的社会批判责任。大学作为知识分子的社区，是知识分子汇聚的场所，大学与知识分子紧密相连，知识分子是大学精神的实践者，是大学社会批判使命的履行者。这一特殊的使命有起源，有衰落，有在位，也有缺失。中国大学若想实现短时间内的跨越，珍视独立自由的精神，坚持社会批判的立场，这是一个十分必要的前提条件。     

Investigating the Social Dimensions of Transport Disadvantage—I. Towards New Concepts and Methods

This article is the first of two papers that engage critically and productively with the relationship between the socio-economic transformations of cities, the differentiation of vulnerable groups within urban space and the distribution of transport services. This article undertakes a comprehensive review of the major conceptual and methodological approaches by which scholars and policy researchers have sought to address the connection between social disadvantage and access to transport. The article critically assesses the relative merits of various spatial analytical methodologies in illuminating social-transport links. The study finds that there is a need for greater sophistication in the use of analytical methods in transport research as well as an imperative for greater sensitivity to social differentiation within urban areas and relative to infrastructure and services. The article concludes by developing a method for combining spatial social and transport service data that is then deployed in the empirical case study reported in the second paper.     

Social-cognitive determinants of hoist usage among health care workers.

Injuries caused by unsafe manual handling of patients are a major source of ill health in health care workers. The present study evaluated the ability of 4 classes of variable to predict use of a hoist when moving a heavily dependent patient. Variables examined were occupational role characteristics, such as hours of work and type of shift worked; biographics, including age and height; aspects of occupational context, such as number of hoists available and number of patients; and motivational variables specified by the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985) and protection motivation theory (Rogers, 1983). Regression analyses showed that background and social-cognitive variables were able to account for 59% of variance in intention to use a hoist and 41% of variance in use of the hoist assessed 6 weeks later. Height, hoist availability, coworker injunctive norm, perceived behavioral control, response cost, response benefits, and social and physical costs of not using the hoist each explained independent variance in motivation to use a hoist at work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

浅谈环境对英语学习的影响

在学习英语的诸多因素中．环境对学生的影响不可低估。为了奠定坚实的英语基础．就要打破现有常规，使每个学生都得到足够的英语基本功训练和人文环境的熏陶，营造一个生动活泼的英语环境必不可少。     

Passage meditation reduces perceived stress in health professionals: A randomized, controlled trial.

The authors evaluated an 8-week, 2-hr per week training for physicians, nurses, chaplains, and other health professionals using nonsectarian, spiritually based self-management tools based on passage meditation (E. Easwaran, 1978/1991). Participants were randomized to intervention (n = 27) or waiting list (n = 31). Pretest, posttest, and 8- and 19-week follow-up data were gathered on 8 measures, including perceived stress, burnout, mental health, and psychological well-being. Aggregated across examinations, beneficial treatment effects were observed on stress (p = .0013) and mental health (p = .03). Treatment effects on stress were mediated by adherence to practices (p = .05). Stress reductions remained large at 19 weeks (84% of the pretest standard deviation, p = .006). Evidence suggests this program reduces stress and may enhance mental health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Form emergence and fixation of head bobbing displays in the green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis): A reptilian model of signal ontogeny.

Signal ontogeny was examined in green anoles (Anolis carolinensis). From 1,246 head bob displays given by 114 juveniles, it was found that juveniles possessed all 3 display types (A, B, and C) described for adults and that C displays were present at hatching, but A and B displays appeared to emerge gradually from a common precursor. Durations of the head bobs and pauses that make up juvenile displays tended to be more variable (i.e., less stereotyped) than those of adult displays. However, within the juvenile class, sex, age (or size), social contex, and rearing environment (field or lab) had no effect on display structure or stereotypy. Thus, in contrast to typical signal ontogeny in songbirds and mammals, components of the green anole signal repertoire are expressed from early development. Similar to signal ontogeny in altricial species, maturation is nevertheless important for the complete and stereotyped expression of the adult signal repertoire. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Myopic Social Prediction and the Solo Comparison Effect.

Four experiments explored the psychological processes by which people make comparative social judgments. Each participant chose how much money to wager on beating an opponent on either a difficult or a simple trivia quiz. Quiz difficulty did not influence the average person's probability of winning, yet participants bet more on a simple quiz than on a difficult quiz in the first 3 experiments. The results suggest that this effect results from a tendency to attend more closely to a focal actor than to others. Experiment 4 directly manipulated focusing; when participants were led to focus on the opponent instead of themselves, the effect was reversed. The discussion relates the results to other literatures including overly optimistic self-evaluation, false consensus, overconfidence, and social comparison. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive and negative opinion modeling: The influence of another's similarity and dissimilarity.

Modeling research that has focused on the effects of observing similar others appears to have underestimated the influence of observing dissimilar others. Two experiments demonstrated that observing a model express liking for a piece of music induced more favorable opinions of the music (positive modeling) when the model was similar to the participant observer in relevant opinions, and more negative opinions (negative modeling) when the model was dissimilar to the participant in relevant opinions. Of note, this pattern was more pronounced when participants also believed their general backgrounds were dissimilar rather than similar to that of the model. Underlying social comparison processes and the mediational role of participants' liking of the model are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)