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     Mobile phone addiction and sleep quality in adolescents: Mediation and moderation analyses
    LIU Qingqi, ZHOU Zongkui, NIU Gengfeng, Fan Cuiying
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2017, 49 (12): 1524-1536.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2017.01524
    Abstract13820)      PDF (852KB)(2058)      
     Mobile phones have integrated into people’s daily lives. Proper mobile phone use would help individuals meet diverse needs in learning and shopping, as well as in recreation and communication. However, the problem that more and more people are getting addicted to mobile phones has been salient. Studies have revealed that mobile phone addiction would bring about significant adverse impacts on mental health such as depression, anxiety, and even suicidal ideation. Poor sleep quality is also one of the major undesirable outcomes of mobile phone addiction. Research documented that mobile phone addiction significantly predicted sleep quality, and sleep quality deteriorated with increasing level of mobile phone addiction. Prior studies have focused mainly on the direct association between mobile phone addiction and sleep quality, however, little is known about the underlying mediating mechanism (i.e. how mobile phone addiction influences sleep quality) and moderating mechanism (i.e. when mobile phone addiction influences sleep quality). To address these gaps, the present study constructed a moderated mediation model to examine the effect of mobile phone addiction on sleep quality in adolescents since both the use rate of mobile phone and the occurrence rate of mobile phone addiction are very high among adolescents. Specifically, the present study would examine the mediating role of affect balance in the relation between mobile phone addiction and sleep quality of adolescents, and test whether the direct effect and the indirect effect would be moderated by rumination and mindfulness. A sample of 1258 high school students completed a battery of self-report questionnaires measuring their mobile phone addiction, sleep quality, affect balance, rumination and mindfulness. All the measures showed good reliability and validity in the present study. Data were analyzed using SPSS 17.0 and the SPSS macro PROCESS which was specifically developed for assessing the complex models including both mediators and moderators. The results were as followings: (1) After controlling for gender and grade, mobile phone addiction significantly exerted direct effect on sleep quality and indirect effect on sleep quality through the mediation of affect balance. (2) Both the direct effect of mobile phone addiction on sleep quality and the indirect effect of affect balance were moderated by rumination, and these two effects were stronger in adolescents with high level of rumination. (3) Both the direct effect and the indirect effect of were moderated by mindfulness, and these two effects were weaker in adolescents with high level of mindfulness. The present study highlights the mediating role of affect balance and the moderating role of rumination and mindfulness in the effect of mobile phone addiction on sleep quality. It may contribute to a better understanding of the effects as well as its paths and conditions of mobile phone addiction on sleep quality of adolescents. Moreover, it can also provide constructive suggestions for protecting and improving affect balance and sleep quality of adolescents in the mobile Internet era.
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     The influence of Chinese and English background pop music to the memory of Chinese and English words in Chinese undergraduates
    GAO Qi, BAI Xuejun
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2018, 50 (1): 1-8.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2018.00001
    Abstract13417)      PDF (328KB)(594)      
     It was generally found that pop music would do harm to the efficiency and accuracy of visual activity when it was as a kind of background music. This is called irrelevant sound effect, which means that the presence of irrelevant sound significantly impairs people’s performance on main visual task. Some researchers believe that the reason of this phenomenon is because the lyrics of the background pop music add extra workload to the working memory, which interferes with the visual task. Moreover, it was shown that the first language lyrics impaired participants’ performance more seriously than a strange language. To participants, the second language is less familiar than the first language but more than a strange language. So how about the irrelevant sound effect when lyrics are participants’ second language? And how about it when the visual task contains the second language? This study aimed to investigate the influence of different language lyrics to the visual memory task, the familiarity of whose materials was different in two experiments. It was hypothesized that there would be significant irrelevant sound effects in different language background musics with different language materials, and languages of the lyrics and materials would have reciprocal actions in both experiments. 180 participants from a university (90 for each experiment)who have passed CET6 (College English Test 6) attended this study to research the effect of lyrics in background pop music on short-term memory for familiar and unfamiliar Chinese and English words. There were three kinds of background sounds: no background sound, Chinese background pop music and English background pop music. In order to control effects caused by instruments, this research used Let it go sung by Yao Beina (Chinese) and Demi Lovato (English) as the background music in both two experiments. Only the refrain was used as music materials. In the first experiment, participants should remember 32 Chinese and 32 English familiar nouns and finish an instant recall task. In the second experiment, participants should remember 10 unfamiliar Chinese and 10 unfamiliar English nouns and finish an instant recognition task. Memory materials were displayed by Eprime 1.0 randomly. In the first experiment, the main effect of music types was significant, F(2,87) = 15.67, p < 0.00, ηp² = 0.15. The scores in the condition of no background music (M = 14.12) were significantly higher than the other two conditions. Participants’ scores in English background pop music (M = 12.50) were significantly higher than that in Chinese background pop music (M = 10.30). In the second experiment, the results showed that the scores in the condition of no background sound (M = 6.87) were still significantly higher than the other two conditions (M = 6.03 for Chinese music, M = 5.83 for English music). F(2,87) = 4.69, p < 0.05, ηp² = 0.05. The difference between two experiments was a significant reciprocal action in the second experiment, F(2,87) = 19.23, p < 0.01, ηp² = 0.20. The scores in the condition of Chinese background pop music were higher when the materials were Chinese words (M = 7.03), and the scores in the condition of English background pop music were higher when the materials were English words (M = 6.93). The conclusion was that lyrics in background music would effect the main visual task no mater what kind of lyrics’ language was, but different familiarity of languages indeed had different influences on the efficiency and accuracy of the main task. When memory words were familiar, the familiar language of lyrics would do more harm to the memory. While the words were unfamiliar, which means the task was more difficult, lyrics would do more harm to the memory of words that with the same language. The level of difficulty of the task and the familiarity of lyrics’ language both can effect the memory, while the former is more important.
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    Influence of time stress on mood-congruent false memories
    Yiping ZHONG, Wenjie ZHANG, Yalei LI, Wei FAN
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2018, 50 (9): 929-939.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2018.00929
    Abstract12534)      PDF (1071KB)(395)      

    A large number of studies have revealed that memories not only easily fade away but also can occasionally be changed spontaneously; memory errors are everywhere, reminding us that memories are not an exact copy of the experienced events. The influences of the various types of stimulus and emotional states on false memories were first studied by using the classical DRM paradigm. Furthermore, we investigated the influence of time stress on mood-congruent false memories.
    The first experiment was performed to identify the influences of different emotional stimuli on false memories under time pressure. The hybrid design method was used, namely, 2 (time stress: stress group and control group) × 3 (word titer: positive word, negative word, and neutral word). The between-subject variable was time pressure, the within-subject variable was word titer, and the dependent variable was the number of the false recognitions of the critical lures. The results of experiment 1 showed that the main effect was remarkable under time stress, as was the valence of words. The interaction between the time stress and valence of words was significant. The results demonstrated that the number of false recognitions for the subjects in the stress group with respect to the negative critical lures was much higher than were those of the neutral and positive ones.
    The second experiment sought to uncover the influences of different emotional states on the false memory under time pressure. The design method of 2 (time stress: stress group and control group) × 3 (emotion titer: positive emotion group, negative emotion group, and neutral group) was used, and the dependent variable was the number of the false recognitions of the critical lures. The results of experiment 2 showed that the main effect was marginally significant under the time stress, and the emotion was significant. The interaction between time stress and emotion was significant. The results revealed that the false recognition for the subjects in the positive emotion group with respect to the critical lures had the largest number.
    The third experiment utilized the hybrid design method of 2 (time stress: stress group and control group) × 4 (mood type: positive mood-congruency, negative mood-congruency, positive mood-inconsistency, and negative mood-inconsistency) to investigate the influences of time pressure on mood-congruent false memories, demonstrating that both the pressure group and the control group subjects showed a significant mood-congruent false memory. The results of experiment 3 showed that the number of false recognitions with respect to the mood-congruency for the subjects in the stress group and the control group were both higher than that of the mood-inconsistency, and the stress group had a larger number of false recognitions than did the control group under the condition of mood-congruency.
    The results of three experiments show that time pressure has a positive effect on false memories and further promotes negative mood-consistency false memories. Individual negative emotions can undermine the generation of false memories under time pressure.

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     Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: The halo effect and generalization effect in the facial attractiveness evaluation
    HAN Shangfeng, LI Yue, LIU Shen, XU Qiang, TAN Qun, ZHANG Lin
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2018, 50 (4): 363-376.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2018.00363
    Abstract12313)      PDF (1140KB)(1672)      
     Even though people usually agreed that “a book should not be judged by its cover”, researches had repeatedly demonstrated that individuals spontaneously and very swiftly formed impression on others based merely on the appearance of their faces. Facial attractiveness is an important content in the first perception. Which had been linked to outcomes as diverse as mate choice, job hunting, and cooperation. Given these real world consequences of the first impressions, it is important to understand how these impressions are formed. Some studies found that facial physical characteristics, such as symmetry, averageness and sexual dimorphism, had a great impact on facial attractiveness. While different individuals have different experience, when faced with the same face in the same context, different individuals have different evaluations on facial attractiveness. Some researchers put forward a new theory, namely, the observer hypothesis, which demonstrated that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, the processing of unfamiliar facial attractiveness remained unclear. The goal of the current study was to explore how we processed the impression of unfamiliar facial attractiveness. 19 males and 27 females took part in the experiment one and 16 males and 22 females participated in the experiment two, each experiment contained two phases that were learning tasks and evaluation tasks. In the learning phase, participants firstly learned to associate faces with negative, neutral, or positive trait words or imaged the behavior of the individuals to form different impression, which was contribute to the same valence between the neutral face and trait words or sentence. When participants could evaluate the valence of the face correctly, they could proceed to the next phase. In the experiment one, 13 males and 25 females had passed learning phase and evaluated the original faces and the unfamiliar faces. In the experiment two, 12 males and 17 females had done the learning task and evaluation task successfully. And in the evaluation phase, extend of warmth, competence and facial attractiveness of the unfamiliar faces, which had 50% similarity with the learned faces, were evaluated. Both of the two experiments had the same results, which showed that there are two ways to form unfamiliar facial attractiveness: (1) the first one is that generalization effect occurred after halo effect, compared with negative familiar faces, positive familiar faces were evaluated more attractive, so did the unfamiliar faces that were familiar with positive familiar faces; (2) the second one is that halo effect occurred after generalization effect, unfamiliar faces which were similar with positive familiar faces were not only evaluated more positive but also more attractive. The results suggested that generalization effect occurred after halo effect and halo effect occurred after generalization effect were the two ways to form unfamiliar facial attractiveness. In conclusion, halo effect and generalization effect play an important role in the processing of unfamiliar facial attractiveness.
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    The influence of shame on deceptive behavior: The role of self-control
    FAN Wei, REN Mengmeng, XIAO Junze, JIAN Zengdan, DU Xiaoming, FU Xiaolan
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2019, 51 (9): 992-1006.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00992
    Abstract10646)      PDF (1516KB)(333)      

    Shame, as a typical moral emotion, has an influence on individual behavior that is both complex and controversial. Previous studies have found that shame produces both an unpleasant experience and a moral emotion that encourages individuals to produce positive behaviors. In recent years, Hooge’s research has proceeded from the perspective of motivation. He believes that, no matter how shame makes individuals perform, their motivation is to restore and protect the damaged self. Therefore, based on Hooge's theory, this research will examine this typical immoral behavior as an example to discuss the impact of shame upon it and its ways.

    In this study, students from a university were randomly selected as participants, and the number of each experiment’s participants was arranged according to the experimental requirements. Questionnaires and behavioral experiments were used throughout the experiment, and the experimental procedures were completed in accordance with the regulations of each experiment. The requirements for each experiment were different and the procedures for conducting the experiment were different. The statistical methods of the study were also based on the requirements of each experiment.

    Experiment 1 examines whether shame has an effect on deceptive behavior. Its results show that the number and tendency of deception in the shamed group were significantly lower than in the control group. To more fully explore the impact of shame on deceptive behavior in different contexts, Experiment 2 improved upon the deficiencies of Experiment 1 and divided shame situations into two types: moral anomie and lack of ability. It was found that the number of deceptions in the moral anomie shamed group was significantly lower than that in the control group, and the number of deceptions in the lack of ability shamed group was significantly higher than that in the control group. To examine the specific methods and mechanisms of shame in affecting deception, we propose that shamed individuals increase their self-control resources and, thus, reduce the theory of fraud. Experiment 3a examined the impact of shame on self-control resources and found that the self-control resources of the shamed group were significantly higher than those of the control group. Experiment 3b explored the specific mechanisms of shame affecting deceptive behavior. It was found that self-control resources played a complete mediating role in the process of shame in affecting deception.

    In summary, these findings suggest that shame can deter deception under certain conditions. The condition is that shame is caused by moral disorder rather than lack of ability; the mechanism of shame in affecting behavior may be: Individuals who feel shame will restore and protect the damaged moral self by mobilizing more self-control resources to influence behavior.

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    The effect of emotion on directed forgetting for continuous events
    REN Xiaoyun, LI Yuting, MAO Weibin, GENG Qiuchen
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2019, 51 (3): 269-279.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00269
    Abstract10573)      PDF (1222KB)(146)      

    Forgetting is an adaptive process that can limit the interferences from irrelevant distractors and update valuable information. With regard to negative events, intentional forgetting can effectively help us to recover from trauma. The research on the intentional forgetting of emotional information usually adopts the directed forgetting paradigm. The better memory performance of R items relative to F items is referred to as the typically directed forgetting effect. Although emotional information is thought to be easier to remember than neutral information because of the attentional capture and elaborative process, whether emotional information is more resistant to forgetting is obscured. Most studies on emotional directed forgetting used various discrete items, such as words and pictures, and few addressed continuous events that are actually common in our episodic memory. Directed forgetting is not an all-or-nothing phenomenon because specific and general information appears to be forgotten at different rates. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the influence of emotions on the directed forgetting effect of continuous events. This study also explores the differences in forgetting rates between general/gist memory and specific memory.
    In the present study, we adopted the event directed paradigm that embeds memory instructions into continuous videos. In experiment 1, 36 participants were equally divided into two groups: one group watched a neutral video, and the other group watched a negative one. Each video contained nine R segments and nine F segments that were surrounded by green and purple borders. The colored borders acted as memory instructions. The participants were asked to remember the video segments when the border was green and to forget the video segments when the border was purple. The test phase involved free recall and recognition. The participants were requested to recall all information about the video regardless of the classification of the memory instruction (R or F segments). Then, the participants were asked to identify the old pictures among the distractors. The old pictures were taken from the studied videos, and the distractors were slightly similar to the old pictures. The participants’ responses were classified as general/gist memory and specific memory on the basis of previous studies. In experiment 2, we disrupted the play order of segments to further explore the influence of continuity on the directed forgetting effect.
    The results of experiment 1 showed that the directed forgetting effect was lower in the negative video than in the neutral video. In addition, the participants demonstrated good memory for the general/gist information of the negative video in free recall. In the recognition phase, no directed forgetting effect was observed for specific memory in the negative video. The result indicated that emotions impaired or eliminated directed forgetting for continuous events. However, the performance of the gist-only memory for the R and F segments was not significant in the neutral and negative videos. Therefore, we speculated that the sequential play of segments might have led to the possibility of participants correctly guessing the general gist of the content. Therefore, we disrupted the order of segments in experiment 2, and the results showed a typically directed forgetting effect for gist-only memory.
    In conclusion, directed forgetting could appear in continuous events. However, emotions impair the directed forgetting effect for a specific memory. For gist-only memory, the directed forgetting effect is affected by the continuity of events.

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     Access to awareness is improved by affective learning
    ZHANG Xiuling, PANG Zhaoyang, JIANG Yunpeng, ZHANG Ming, JIANG Yi
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2018, 50 (3): 253-259.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2018.00253
    Abstract10239)      PDF (313KB)(117)      
     Increasing evidence has indicated that emotional information, and particularly threatening visual input, elicits faster behavioral responses than non-threatening stimuli. This superior processing of threatening information is also found under conditions where consciousness is absent. However, recent studies found that faster unconscious detection of emotion-associated stimuli than neutral stimuli may be due to their unmatched physical characteristics, rather than by their emotional content. Thus, it is necessary to test whether emotional stimuli still have the processing advantage over neutral ones in unconscious conditions when low-level visual properties are matched. In order to investigate whether unconsciously prioritized processing still occurs with emotion-associated stimuli which are physically identical, we used the conditioning paradigm to manipulate the affective significance of Gabor patches. Participants performed two challenging visual detection tasks under the breaking Continuous Flash Suppression (b-CFS) paradigm. In experiment 1, differently oriented Gabor patches (45° and 135°) were used as material. During an initial learning phase, one oriented Gabor patch (e.g., 45°) was paired with an alarm sound (CS+), whereas the other was never paired with the alarm sound (CS–). The emotional rating indicated that negative emotion could be elicited by the alarm sound in the participants. The orientation of CS+ Gabor patches was counterbalanced across participants. In the subsequent testing phase, participants were required to discriminate the location of the Gabor patch relative to the central fixation as quickly and accurately as possible. In this phase, Gabor patches were suppressed by dynamic noise using b-CFS. The procedure in experiment 2 was the same with that in experiment 1, except that the color of the Gabor patches was also varied, between red and green. In experiment 1, there was no difference in the accuracy rates between CS+ stimuli and CS– stimuli (99% vs. 99%). Suppression time results showed that CS+ stimuli emerged from suppression faster than CS– ones. In experiment 2, there was no difference in the accuracy rates for different learning condition. For the analysis of suppression time, the “learning effect” was computed to represent difference between experimental conditions and control condition. Integrated learning showed a significant learning effect, while there was no remarkable learning effect in orientation learning or in color learning condition. These findings revealed an unconscious processing advantage for aversive conditioned stimuli. Furthermore, the learning effect was specific to the conditioned stimuli and could not generalize to other similar objects. Taken together, this study provided further evidence for the optimized processing of affectively significant visual stimuli in unconscious conditions.
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    Mediating roles of gratitude, social support and posttraumatic growth in the relation between empathy and prosocial behavior among adolescents after the Ya’an earthquake
    Wenchao WANG, Xinchun WU
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2020, 52 (3): 307-316.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2020.00307
    Abstract9581)      PDF (787KB)(1016)      

    Empathy refers to the traits, or tendencies, of a person to affectively experience emotions of concern at the suffering of others and to cognitively adopt another person’s perspective. Possession of empathy has been assumed to encourage prosocial behavior. The mechanisms by which empathy affects prosocial behavior for adolescent survivors of disaster, however, are unclear. Posttraumatic growth (PTG) was considered a common positive change following trauma events and was identified as having a high prevalence rate in various trauma types. After experiencing natural disasters, individuals with high empathy are more vulnerable to their adverse environment and the traumatic situations of others. This results in more psychological pressure and fear, and these pressures and negative emotions force individuals to think about the meaning of trauma, thus promoting the generation of PTG. The emergence of PTG brings positive behavioral change among survivors after the disaster. Therefore, it was suggested that empathy may exert indirect effects on prosocial behavior through PTG.
    According to current theories, empathy has different emotional and cognitive components. When individuals empathize with others, these components are activated, which may lead to gratitude and, in turn, result in prosocial behavior. As a moral barometer, gratitude informs the beneficiary that a benefactor has bestowed a gift. The prosocial behavior of a benefactor toward a beneficiary is thought to produce gratitude within the beneficiary. This then stimulates the beneficiary’s prosocial behavior, further strengthening the benefactor’s own prosocial behavior.
    Furthermore, traumatized survivors with greater empathy may improve communication with others, increase the sense of intimacy, and perceive more support from others—meaning that empathy may lead individuals to have more social support. Social support refers to an individual’s perception of the support provided by others. That perception can be influenced by gratitude. Adolescents with low social support are more likely to interpret other people’s ambiguous actions as aggressive. Thus, stable social relationships seem to promote PTG and prosocial behavior. Taken together, it is possible that empathy can promote prosocial behavior through gratitude, social support, and PTG in post-disaster contexts. The utility of these predictions, however, was unclear.
    To examine the relation between empathy, gratitude, social support, PTG and prosocial behavior, this study used an interpersonal reactivity index scale, gratitude questionnaire, social support questionnaire, posttraumatic growth inventory and prosocial behavior questionnaire to assess 542 adolescents following Ya’an earthquake. The results indicated that after controlling the trauma exposure, empathy have a positive association with prosocial behavior through the following routes: three one-mediator paths of gratitude, social support and PTG, respectively; three two-mediator paths of gratitude via PTG, social support via PTG and gratitude via social support, and one three-mediator path from gratitude to PTG via social support. These findings suggested that following a natural disaster, adolescent survivors’ empathy may have an indirect and positive relation with prosocial behavior by gratitude, social support and PTG.

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    Effects of lyrics on the processing of musical emotion: Behavioural and ERP study
    ZHANG Weixia, WANG Wanqi, ZHOU Linshu, JIANG Cunmei
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2018, 50 (12): 1346-1355.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2018.01346
    Abstract8891)      PDF (472KB)(298)      

    Music and language are unique to the human beings. It has been suggested that music and language have a common origin as an emotional protolanguage. The development of socialisation has resulted in the development of language into a symbolic communication system with explicit semantics. By contrast, music has become an important means of emotional expression. However, whether language with explicit semantics affects the emotional processing of music remains uncertain. Given that songs contain melody and lyrics, previous behavioural studies have focused on songs to analyse the influence of lyrics on the processing of musical emotion. However, several studies have also shown the influence of lyrics, although such findings are relatively contradictory.

    Thus, the current study used behavioural and electrophysiological measurements to investigate the impact of lyrics on the processing of musical emotion. Experiment 1 analysed whether the emotional connotations in music with and without lyrics could be perceived by listeners at the behavioural level. Experiment 2 further investigated whether there are different neural responses to emotions conveyed by melodies with and without lyrics.

    A cross-modal affective priming paradigm was used in Experiments 1 and 2, in which musical excerpts served as the prime and emotional faces as target. To avoid the impact of familiarity, 120 musical stimuli were selected from European opera. Each was sung by a vocalist with and without lyrics, thereby resulting in 240 musical stimuli in two versions as potential prime stimuli. A total of 160 facial expressions affectively congruent or incongruent with the preceding musical stimuli were selected as potential target stimuli. Three pre-tests were conducted to ensure the validity of the stimuli. Eventually, 60 musical stimuli for each music version were selected as the prime stimuli, whilst 120 images were used as the target stimuli, thereby resulting in 240 music-image pairs. To ensure that each stimulus appears only once for each participant, two lists were prepared using a Latin square design. Each prime and target was presented in either the congruent or incongruent condition within each list. Thus, each list comprised 120 trials, with 30 trials in each condition. During the experiment, the two lists were equally distributed across the participants. A total of 40 healthy adults participated in Experiment 1. They were asked to judge as quickly and accurately as possible whether the emotion of the target was happy or sad. The accuracy and reaction time were collected. Meanwhile, 20 healthy adults participated in Experiment 2. They were required to judge whether the emotion between music and image was congruent or incongruent whilst their EEG waveforms were recorded. ERPs were analysed and compared between conditions at the time windows of 250~450 ms and 500~700 ms after the onset of the target.

    The Experiment 1 results showed that when faces were primed by music either with or without lyrics, the participants responded faster and more accurately under affectively congruent condition compared with affectively incongruent condition. This finding indicated that the emotional connotations in music with and without lyrics could both be perceived. The ERP results in Experiment 2 showed that distinct neural mechanisms were activated by music with and without lyrics. Specifically, when faces were primed by music without lyrics, a larger N400 was elicited in response to affectively incongruent pairs than to affectively congruent pairs at the time window of 250~450 ms. However, when faces were primed by music with lyrics, a more positive LPC was observed in response to the affectively incongruent pairs than to the affectively congruent pairs at 500~700 ms. This finding confirms the results of Experiment 1, thereby suggesting that the emotion conveyed by music with and without lyrics could be perceived by the listeners. Moreover, the emotional processing between music with and without lyrics differs in the time course of neural processing. That is, the emotional processing of music with lyrics lagged behind that of music without lyrics.

    In conclusion, the present results suggest that the neural processing of emotional connotations in music without lyrics preceded that of music with lyrics, although the emotional connotations conveyed by music with and without lyrics could both be perceived. These findings also supported theory of musical philosophy, which suggests that music without lyrics can express emotion more immediately and more directly than music with lyrics owing to the lack of “translation” from the propositional system. On the other hand, considering that lyrics influenced the time course of emotional processing in music with lyrics, our results also provide evidence that the emotional processing of music and language may share neural resources to some extent.

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    Mindfulness training can improve 3-and 4-year-old children’s attention and executive function
    LI Quan, SONG Yanan, LIAN Bin, FENG Tingyong
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2019, 51 (3): 324-336.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00324
    Abstract8403)      PDF (3607KB)(537)      

    Mindfulness is a technique that alleviates the suffering of the yogi and implements self-awareness. Previous studies found that mindfulness training can improve work efficiency, emotional regulation, attention, and executive function. However, it is still unknown whether mindfulness training can improve attention and executive function in preschool children. This study sought to investigate the effect of mindfulness training for younger children to improve attention and executive function performance.
    The present study attempted to use a 2 (group: mindfulness training vs no-training) × 2 (test time:pre vs post) between-and-within-subjects design to investigate the effect of mindfulness training on improving 3-and 4-year-old children’s attention and executive function. The mindfulness training consisted of 12 sessions, with 20~30 minutes per session, and was held twice a week for two months involving 6 preschoolers at a time. The children were assigned to two groups, mindfulness group (N = 26, age range from 41.69 months to 51.42 months, SD = 1.12 months) and control group (N = 26, age range from 41.98 months to 53.98 months, SD = 3.60 months). In the mindfulness training group, the instructor guided children to perform activities of mindfulness, while children in the No-training group were given normal activities. In the study, the mindfulness training course consisted of three parts. Part 1 was “breath and attention” that children learned to master belly breathing and focused attention on specific sensory. Part 2 was “body perception and movement” that children gained balance awareness and body coordinates. Part 3 was “awareness of mental activity” that children learned to relax and perceive each body part. Children’s attention was measured before and after training using an attention task (e.g. Finding Animals Test), and three components of executive function were measured before and after training using three classic tasks (e.g. Inhibition Control: Peach Flower Heart Task, Cognitive Flexibility: Dimensional Change Card Sort Task (DCCS) and Working Memory: WPPSI-VI’s Picture Memory Test).
    To investigate whether mindfulness training can enhance children’s attention and executive function, we performed 2 (group: mindfulness training vs no-training) × 2 (test time: pretest vs posttest) repeated measures ANOVA. The results revealed that the interaction between group and test time was significant. An analysis of simple effects further indicated that in the pretest there was no significant effect between mindfulness training group and no-training group. In the posttest, the attention and two components of executive function performances (inhibition control and cognitive flexibility) improved significantly in mindfulness group, while no significant differences were found on attention and three components of executive function in no-training group. The results supported the usefulness of mindfulness training to enhance children’s performances on attention and executive function.
    In conclusion, our results suggested the positive effects of mindfulness training on two components of executive function (inhibition control and cognitive flexibility) and attention in preschool children. The results provided important theoretical and practical implications for 3-and 4-year-old children’s attention and executive function.

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    Measuring Adult Attachment: Chinese Adaptation of the ECR Scale
    Li-Tonggui,Kato-Kazuo
    null    2006, 38 (03): 399-406.  
    Abstract8326)           
    To promote research on adult attachment in China, the “Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory (ECR)”, a scale widely used and considered as the "standard" one in USA, was adapted into Chinese. 371 college students in China were asked to respond to the scale along with Rosenberg’s self-esteem and Other-view scales for testing construct validities, and 59 of them to retake the scales 4 weeks later for testing temporal reliability. Of them, 231 who reported had/have had romantic experiences were selected to final analyses. As a result, this scale was demonstrated to have adequate reliabilities (internal and temporal consistency) and validities (construct and criterion-related)
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    Emotional regulation goals of young adults with depression inclination: An event-related potential study
    LI Hong, YANG Xiaoguang, ZHENG Wenyu, WANG Chao
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2019, 51 (6): 637-647.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00637
    Abstract8220)      PDF (1802KB)(431)      

    Researches on deficits in emotion regulation of depression have mainly focused on the selection and application of emotion-regulation strategies; however, it remains unclear whether it is also related to emotion-regulation goals, i.e., the direction of emotion regulation. Situation selection is an antecedent-focused regulation strategy that is worked before the emotional reactions occur and it can be used as an index of emotional-regulation goals.

    In our current study, the event-related potential (ERP) technique was used to investigate the emotion-regulation goals of young adults with depression inclination. Participants were asked to freely select the emotion-inducing scenes in which they want to put themselves and to report their emotional preferences。

    ERP results revealed that the amplitudes of Late Positive Potential (LPP) were significantly decreased when viewing the sadness scene in young adults with depression inclination, and they selected to view sadness scene more frequently than healthy young adults. In addition, the ratings of sadness preferences were significantly higher among subjects with depression inclination, while the happiness preferences were lower.

    The current results suggest that, compared to the control group, the individuals with depression inclination are more willing to use situation selection to maintain or enhance their sadness rather than weaken it or enhance their happiness. These findings further indicate that emotion regulation goals of depressive subjects may be related to their motivations for selecting emotional stimulus, and provide a new perspective for exploring the causes and mechanisms of emotion regulation deficits in depressive disorders.

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     Effectiveness of mindfulness meditation in intervention for anxiety: A meta-analysis
    REN Zhihong, Zhang Yawen, JIANG Guangrong
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2018, 50 (3): 283-305.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2018.00283
    Abstract8043)      PDF (2406KB)(1299)      
     Mindfulness meditation (MM) has enjoyed a growing popularity in healthcare in recent years when bio-psycho-social approaches are becoming more and more emphasized in modern medicine. There has been mounting empirical evidence showing MM’s significant effectiveness in alleviating anxiety for both nonclinical and clinical populations. However, the effect size of the available empirical investigation results has remained inconsistent and possible moderators have yet to be explored comprehensively. In order to determine the immediate and long-term efficacy of MM in overcoming anxiety, we conducted a meta-analysis based on a systematic and comprehensive review of the published studies on mindfulness-based interventions for anxiety. We also examined whether some characteristics of research participants (e.g. age, geographic areas) and interventions (e.g. format, duration, at-home practice), and specifics of the study (i.e. types of control, quality of the study) and data analysis (e.g. attrition rate) moderate the magnitude of the effectiveness of MM interventions (11variables). The review was performed following the rigorous PRISMA Protocol. Published studies using randomized controlled trial were selected from major databases worldwide to include investigations conducted in both Western and Eastern countries. Databases used include VIP Journal Integration Platform, Wan fang, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, the Cochrane Library, and PubMed. Keywords used are mindfulness, meditation, MBSR, MBCT, anxi*, mood, intervention, therapy, program. Using the random effect model, we pooled the effect size (Hedge’s g), and conducted a publication bias evaluation, a moderating effect analysis and an interaction analysis in CMA 3.3. Results of our analyses revealed fifty-five RCTs from both Eastern and Western countries (k = 68 samples, N = 4595 participants). Mindfulness meditation for treating anxiety is shown to be efficacious with a medium to large immediate effect (g = 0.60), but the effect is not reliably shown at follow-up assessments. The post-heterogeneity test result suggests that using the random effect model is reasonable. Univariate meta-regression analysis yielded that study quality, geographic areas, participants’ age, intervention format (Group vs. Individual), amount of at-home practice, and attrition rate shown in data analysis remarkably influenced the effect size of MM’s immediate effect, while types of control, health condition, mindfulness practice experience, intervention duration, or statistical analysis methods used (ITT vs. PP) did not appear to moderate MM’s immediate effectiveness for reducing anxiety. Additionally, geographic areas affect the effect size the most. Multiple meta-regression models suggested that type of control and geographic areas, as well as statistical analysis methods significantly moderate the effect size of intervention effectiveness. Overall, the study results demonstrated high immediate effect of mindfulness-based practices for alleviating anxiety, but the effect did not seem to last. In addition, geographic area turns out to be the strongest moderator, and practitioners in the East seem to benefit more than those who are in the West. Study quality, participants’ age, mindfulness practice experience, intervention format, at-home practice quantity and attrition rate also affect the effect size to a certain extent. Future research is warranted to improve methodological quality of outcome studies, to provide more clear and replicable evidence of MM efficacy, and to explore more underlying moderators for the intervention effect size, such as participant satisfaction and so forth.
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    The Structure and Measurement of Transformational Leadership in China
    Li-Chaoping,Shi-Kan
    null    2005, 37 (06): 803-811.  
    Abstract7915)           
    Data was collected from a diverse sample of 249 mangers and employees from different companies using open questionnaire, and then were subjected to content analysis to identify major forms of transofmrational leadership in China. Results revealed 8 dimensions of transformational leadership. The Transformational Leadership Questionnaire (TLQ) was developed through expert discusses. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) of data from a sample of 431 employees showed that transformational leadership was a four-dimension construct in China, which included Morale Modeling, Charisma, Articulate Vision and Individual Consideration. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) of data from another sample of 440 employees further confirmed TLQ’s factorial validity. Internal consistency analyses and hierarchical regression analyses showed that TLQ had suitable reliability and high validity.
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    THE INFLUENCE OF DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE AND PROCEDURAL JUSTICE ON JOB BURNOUT
    Li Chaoping,Shi-kan
    null    2003, 35 (05): 677-684.  
    Abstract7839)           
    Based on 294 samples from three companies, this study first tested the psychological property of MBI-GS and made some revisions according to the result. Then 524 employees from six companies were invited to join the final survey. CFA was used to confirm the construct validity of MBI-GS. T-test and One-way ANOVA showed organizational justice and job burnout was influenced by demographics variables. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that organizational justice was a power predict of job burnout beyond demographics variables. Dominance analysis further indicated that when predicting Emotional Exhaustion 65.91% of the predicted variance was attributed to distributive justice. When predicting Cynicism 56.07% of the predicted variance was attributed to procedural justice
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    THE RELATION BETWEEN PERSONALITY TRAITS AND SELF-ESTEEM UNDER CHINESE CULTURE
    Zhou Fan, Wang Dengfeng
    null    2005, 37 (01): 100-105.  
    Abstract7461)           
    Self-esteem is thought to be a stable evaluation toward self. A large number of studies found significant correlation between self-esteem and personality traits. In recent years scholars in social cognition studies have presented a structure called “implicit self-esteem”, which is regarded to be independent from “explicit self-esteem” measured by traditional self-report methods. In this study an attempt was made to disclose the relationship between personality traits and self-esteem, both explicit and implicit. Since previous studies have found a systematic discrepancy in personality structure from western Five-factor model (FFM) under Chinese culture -that is, Chinese personality is a seven-factor structure and the content of each factor is quite different from what in factor of FFM, an indigenous personality scale developed under Chinese culture based on verbal assumption, QZPS, was adopted to assess personality traits. Implicit self-esteem was measured by Implicit Association Test (IAT). The results indicated that self relevant personality traits in QZPS predicted explicit self-esteem. However, no correlations were significant between implicit self-esteem and personality traits. Possible explanations for the results were discussed
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    The status quo of China's contemporary college students’ affective diathesis and its influencing factors
    LU Jiamei; LIU Wei; HE Wen; WANG Junshan; CHEN Nianqu; XIE Dengfeng
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2017, 49 (1): 1-16.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2017.00001
    Abstract7305)           

    A large-scale research on the affective diathesis of college students in China is a significant though challenging endeavor. Based upon the theory of affective diathesis and thoughts of developmental affection with classified thoughts, current study developed an original investigative tool with solid reliability and validity—“Questionnaire on College Students’ Affective Diathesis”. This instrument dealt with the complexities in affect measurement and is of great theoretical and practical significance. The questionnaire was used to investigate college students’ affect development on thirty-three different kinds of affects, including patriotism, responsibility, integrity, credibility, dedication, fairness, public benefit; curiosity, exploration, self-confidence, achievements, learning happiness, major interest; intimacy, cooperation, forgiveness, emotionally appealing, gratefulness, care; self-improvement, self-reliance, self-esteem, cherish, happiness, optimism; aesthetic for nature, aesthetic for humanity, aesthetic for science, aesthetic for deportment; emotional understanding ability, emotional expression ability, emotional control of oneself, emotional control of others. They belong to six categories (moral affection, rational affection, interpersonal affection, life affection, aesthetic affection and emotional intelligence) evolving from the identity layer of affection and the operational layer of affection. The questionnaire was administered to 11982 college students, including vocational college students and university students. The geological regions encompassed well-developed, developing and less-developed regions in China involving 100 colleges and universities of 14 major cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Changchun, Zhengzhou, Xi'an, Wuhan, Xining, Lanzhou, Guiyang, Nanning, Haikou, and Kunming). The results showed: (1) The questionnaire meets the criteria of an effective measurement tool and serves as an original investigative tool for affective diathesis of college students. (2) The college students’ affective diathesis has a multilevel structure. On the whole, the affective diathesis of college students in China is positive. The developmental level of moral affection and life affection is relatively higher, and the developmental level of interpersonal affection, aesthetic affection, rational affection and emotional intelligence were relatively lower. Affections of integrity, public benefit, dedication, exploration, learning happiness, self-confidence, forgiveness, intimacy, emotionally appealing, aesthetic for humanity, aesthetic for science and ability of emotional expression were still in urgent need of improvement. (3) A structural difference mainly existed between males and females. Females scored higher in intimacy, emotionally appealing and self-esteem, but males performed better on integrity, curiosity, exploration, self-confidence, aesthetic for science and emotional expression. (4) Those who received awards, reported achieving higher academic performance, or experienced no negative life events showed higher level of affective diathesis, especially reflected in self-confidence, achievements, learning happiness, self-improvement, happiness etc. (5) The factors affecting the affective diathesis development of the college students mainly derived from four aspects: individuals, families, schools and society. Strong interpersonal relationship, more public awareness, sound moral values, high self-expectations, democratic family education style et al. all had positive effects on college students’ affective diathesis. This investigation equips educators with abundant first-hand information on how to improve the affective diathesis of college students as well as for academics on the theoretical implications for affective diathesis research.

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    Good and evil in Chinese culture: Personality structure and connotation
    JIAO Liying, YANG Ying, XU Yan, GAO Shuqing, ZHANG Heyun
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2019, 51 (10): 1128-1142.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.01128
    Abstract7302)      PDF (3369KB)(480)      

    The ideas of good and evil characteristics have a long history in Chinese language and culture, with these characteristics considered to be two aspects of the Chinese personality. Abundant descriptions of good and evil characteristics can be found in human nature. However, the specific structures of good and evil concepts have not yet been delineated clearly and detailed studies on these concepts are limited. A careful definition is important with regard to what comprises a good or evil personality and to understand the psychological structure of the two concepts.

    A lexical approach was applied to determine constitutes a good or evil personality in Chinese culture. In Study 1, a set of 3, 240 good and evil personality descriptors was selected from The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary and accompanied by daily life expressions. The list was condensed into 62 good and 65 evil items following evaluation and selection by 12 psychology graduates. In Study 2, we explored the dimensions of a good personality using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with Sample 1 (n = 313) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with Sample 2 (n = 518). Results revealed that good personality contained four dimensions: conscientiousness and integrity, altruism and dedication, benevolence and amicability, and tolerance and magnanimity. We refined the four-dimensions good personality lexical rating scale, which contained 27 items. In Study 3, we used the same method as in Study 2 to explore the structure of an evil personality (EFA: Sample 1, n = 367; CFA: Sample 2, n = 269). Results showed the evil personality contained four dimensions: atrociousness and mercilessness, mendacity and hypocrisy, calumniation and circumvention, and faithlessness and treacherousness. Thus, we employed a 28-item evil personality lexical rating scale. The internal consistency, reliability, and criterion-related validity of the two scales were verified.

    The study found four-factor structures of good and evil personalities using the lexical approach and psychometrics methods, which contributes to knowledge on personality. In China, Confucius regarded benevolence as the highest moral principle for a person. Therefore, good and evil traits are embedded naturally in the personality structure of Chinese people. Understanding the structure of good and evil is useful for researchers interested in Chinese culture and for studies in Chinese indigenous psychology.

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    The relationship between relative deprivation and online gaming addiction in college students: A moderated mediation model
    Qian DING, Yun TANG, Hua WEI, Yongxin ZHANG, Zongkui ZHOU
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2018, 50 (9): 1041-1050.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2018.01041
    Abstract7261)           

    Online gaming is very popular among college students in China. Whereas low to moderate levels of online gaming may be entertaining and provide opportunities to interact with other players online, excessive gaming can lead to online gaming addiction and associated problems such as depression and anxiety. Prior studies have investigated the risk for online gaming addiction in terms of the ecological context in which addiction occurs. The present study has taken a further step by focusing on students’ perceptions of relative deprivation as a macrosystem influence on online gaming addiction. According to the cognitive-behavior model of Pathological Internet Use (PIU), the perception of relative deprivation may increase the risk for online gaming addiction by inducing negative thoughts and emotions or by increasing escape motivation. Importantly, the effect of relative deprivation may be mediated by maladaptive cognition; that is, the perception of relative deprivation may lead to maladaptive cognition, which in turn would predict online gaming addiction. Furthermore, individual differences in mindset may moderate this mediation process, in that entity theorists may be more vulnerable to maladaptive cognition than incremental theorists. In sum, we proposed a moderated mediation model to account for online gaming addiction. Specifically, we tested the relationship between relative deprivation and online gaming addiction, the mediating effect of maladaptive cognition, and the moderating effect of mindset, in a sample of college students.
    The participants of this study were 1,008 college students (mean age = 19.03 years, SD = 0.97 year; 795 males, 213 females) who had experience in online game playing. Their average time gaming was 1.74 hours (SD = 2.21 hours) per day in the past half year. The participants completed a battery of questionnaires, including the Financial Relative Deprivation Questionnaire, Maladaptive Cognitions Scale, Implicit Person Theory Measure, and Internet Gaming Disorder Scale.
    The proposed moderated mediation model was tested using regression analysis and the PROCESS macro. Previous studies have suggested that online gaming addiction may differ by gender and age. Hence, the effects of gender and age were controlled in all analyses. Results showed that: (1) Relative deprivation positively predicted online gaming addiction in college students. (2) Maladaptive cognition partially mediated this association. (3) This mediating effect was moderated by student mindset, in that it was stronger for students who were entity theorists than for those who were incremental theorists.
    The present study is the first to demonstrate the detrimental impact of perceived relative deprivation and the moderated mediation effect of maladaptive cognition and mindset on online gaming addiction. Our findings provide further evidence of the role of ecological context in the risk for online gaming disorder. They also have potential applied value with regard to online gaming addiction in college students. Because incremental theory may be more helpful than entity theory for online gaming addicts, and because incremental theory can be learned through training, understanding students’ self-theories can inform the development of prevention and intervention programs for online gaming addiction.

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     The effect of incidental similarity (“dress same”) on consumers’ product disposition intentions and its underlying mechanism
    GONG Xiushuang, JIANG Jing
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2018, 50 (3): 337-348.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2018.00337
    Abstract7132)           
     As a critical stage of consumer behavior, product disposition is closely related to the development of secondhand markets, ecology and public welfare. It is thus vital to examine the antecedents of product disposition behavior. Based on identity signaling perspective, we proposed a positive effect of “dress same” (i.e., incidental similarity of identity-signalling vs. non-identity-signaling products) on consumers’ product disposition intentions, with embarrassment as the underlying mechanism. Meanwhile, this paper also examined the moderating role of comparison of physical attractiveness in the aforementioned effect. Four studies were conducted to test our hypotheses. Study 1 was designed to test the main effect of “dress same”. Participants were randomly assigned to two conditions (i.e., incidental similarity of jacket vs. cellphone case). They were first instructed to read and imagine a scenario where they incidentally found a classmate wearing the same jacket (vs. using the same cellphone case) as theirs when they entered the classroom. Afterwards, they indicated their intentions to dispose of that jacket (vs. cellphone case). Study 2 was conducted on MTurk to test the mediating role of embarrassment and to preclude other alternative explanations. Similarly, participants read and imagined that they incidentally found a coworker wearing the same jacket (vs. riding the same bike) as theirs in a social interaction. Moods and product disposition intentions were measured subsequently. In study 3, we employed three product stimuli of the same product category (outfit: jacket vs. jeans vs. sports shoes) to rule out the confounding effect induced by product attributes and to enhance the robustness of our results. Study 4 further examined the moderating role of comparison of physical attractiveness using a 2 (incidental similarity of T-shirt vs. umbrella) * 2 (direction of comparison: upward vs. downward) between-subjects design. Comparison of physical attractiveness was manipulated by instructing participants to imagine that their physical attractiveness is superior or inferior to the person depicted in the scenario. In line with our predictions, “dress same” had a significant positive effect on consumers’ product disposition intentions, driven by feeling embarrassed. This effect was robust by using both student and non-student samples and independent of product visibility, price, and endowment effect. Moreover, our results also revealed a significant moderating role of comparison of physical attractiveness in the aforementioned effect. In the upward comparison condition, the main effect of “dress same” on product disposition intentions as well as the mediating effect of embarrassment was enhanced, but they were attenuated in the downward comparison condition. Our findings contribute to the literature in several different areas. First, by examining how “dress same” influences consumers’ product disposition intentions, this research enriches the literature of product disposition behavior in particular and consumer decisions in general. Second, our findings shed light on the literature of incidental similarity by exploring its negative consequences. Third, the current research contributes to the embarrassment literature by examining embarrassment in an important consumption context (i.e. “dress same”). Finally, we also extend the application of social comparison theory in consumer behavior research.
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