Nowadays, consumers expect that brands could not only satisfy their functional needs, but also bring emotional and spiritual experiences. Thus, how to garner brand well-being, which means consumers access well-being from using and consuming a brand, has been a challenge for both theory and practice. In fact, whether a brand can create well-being could be shaped by positive interactions between a brand and its consumers. Thus, we postulate that service ritual, which is a prevalence brand-consumer interaction in practice, could create and enhance a brand’s ability to deliver well-being for consumers. Drawing from the interaction ritual chain theory, service rituals refer to a fixed sequence of behaviors that involve symbolic icons and meaningfulness, whereas brands include a series of identifying, integrating, and signaling symbols, indicating the optimal service ritual could form a well-being chain which connects a brand and its consumers. Based on this rationale, the current research draws on interaction ritual chain theory, proposes the new concept of brand well-being, defines and confirms core elements of service rituals, investigates the relationship between service ritual and brand well-being, and further examines the moderating roles of value co-creation orientation of a company and self-brand congruency. In general, the current research offers novel insights on brands and branding theories, well-being and positive psychology literature, and service management theories, while providing implications for companies how to build and manage their brands.

Despite the recent proliferation of research on the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and employee performance, the results is still inconsistent. Based on a review of 35 empirical studies, a meta-analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between CSR and employee performance by using 140 effect sizes from 11690 participants. Overall, the results show that CSR manifested a moderate and positive correlation with employee performance (r = 0.38) in general, task performance (r = 0.45) and contextual performance (r = 0.37). Uncertainty avoidance and individualistic tendency did not make any significant differences in the relationship between CSR and employee performance. While industry characteristics and economic level make significant differences: the relationship is stronger in rich areas than in poor areas, and for manufacturing industry than for service ones.

The discrepant effects of dance and music training on gray matter volume are still unknown. In this study, We used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) method to analyze the structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) data of modern dancers, string instrument players and controls subjects. Our results showed increased gray matter volume (GMV) among cortical, subcortical and the cerebellum areas within the modern dancers and localized cortical regions in the string instrument players respectively. Moreover, among the three groups only modern dancers showed decreased GMV between cortical and subcortical regions. The results suggested a systematical and widespread effects of modern dance training as well as an effector-specific training outcome in the auditory-motor-semantic cortex of the string instrument players.

There is a great difference between the recognition process of handwritten words and printed words. Compared with the printed words, the recognition of handwritten characters is more influenced by text material. The factors related to the text material include physical structural characteristics of the text, the character characteristics, and the writing style. Research on the neural mechanisms found that the brain regions under recognizing handwritten character is different from those under recognizing printed words. The activation brain area of recognizing handwritten words include the occipital lobe and lateral frontal and parietal lobes, which is the same as those of recognizing the printed words; and also include the left posterior motor cortex, the lateral prefrontal cortex and the posterior parietal cortex, which is different from those of recognizing the printed words. Handwritten word processing involves both holistic processing and feature processing. The future research should further explore around two aspects. The first is how the brain extracts the target words from the noisy visual information when we recognize the handwritten words. The second is to consider building a theoretical model of handwritten character recognition to explain the recognition process of the handwritten characters more efficiently.

Visual mental imagery is an important way of information representation for human being. Compared with working memory and attention, visual mental imagery sheds more light on the subjective contents which are different strikingly among individuals. With the perspective of individual differences, we review the various individual performances and the underlying neural basis of visual mental imagery. We also explore some potential applications and future directions of visual mental imagery. This review will lead to a better understanding of the nature of individual differences in visual mental imagery and accelerate the development in the research field.

Individuals experiencing early life stress (ELS) are at a higher risk of mental/behavioral disorders such as depression and violence, the difficulties of emotion regulation might be one of the underlying mechanisms. ELS individuals use maladaptive strategies (such as avoidance and rumination) more frequently than normal individuals. And most of the studies found that ELS impaired the ability of emotion regulation. However, moderate ELS may enhance the ability of emotion regulation. Besides, emotion regulation moderated the relationship between ELS and mental/behavior disorders. Furthermore, we explored the neural mechanisms of how ELS influences emotion regulation. Finally, we made a summary and pointed out future directions.

Trust behavior is mainly influenced by biological and environmental factors. Through quantitative or molecular genetic studies, researchers found that genes associated with trust include oxytocin receptor genes, serotonin transporter genes, and AVPR1A gene. From a biological perspective, genes affect the production and release of hormones, while the activities of hormones and specific brain regions affect trust. From gene-environment interaction theory, genes may play a moderating role between the environment and trust behaviors. An important direction for future research is to investigate the mechanism of the occurrence and development of trust from a more integrated and systematic perspective, and to further confirm the genetic role in the genetic mechanism of trust.

Besides affecting vision, light exerts powerful non-visual effects on a wide range of biological functions and behaviors, such as modulating circadian rhythm, melatonin suppression, and acute alertness. Comprehensive studies on the effect of light on human circadian rhythm now lead more researchers to pay attention to the effects of light on acute alertness. Here, we summarized (1) different measures of alertness, (2) factors that may influence the effect of light on alertness like illuminance, exposure, timing, wavelength and color temperature, (3) promising applications of the alerting effect of light in some affective disorders, circadian rhythm, and office lighting, and (4) future directions focusing on investigation of neural mechanisms, optimal lighting characteristics, and potential confounds.

The Manifestation of overt ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders) symptoms can be as early as before age of 3, yet the diagnosis under existing technique takes intervention only after 3 years old, on which the autistic children miss the optimal intervention period. The mismatch will makes autistic children likely to miss the optimal intervention period. The empirical evidence showing that the development of joint attention and empathy can be of importance as to an early warning of autism before the age of 3. The abnormal early joint attention development is a vital incentive for autistic speech disorders and social barriers. While the deviation of the early empathy may lead to ASD social barriers and communication disorders. The article depicts the trajectory of early joint attention and empathy, to summarize the neurophysiologic, genetic and environmental mechanism that affects the early development of the two. Future studies to combine molecular biology and neuroimaging techniques will provide significant evidence-based indicators for early warning from reaching on the brain cell layers.

Mobile Health (mHealth) is a kind of information technology, which aims at delivering health services. First, the electronic health (eHealth) and mHealth were distinguished. Then, through a series of empirical studies, five major theories of mHealth, namely Cognitive Behavior Theory, Social Support Theory, Transtheoretical Model and Stages of Change, Behavioral Learning Theory and Grounded Theory were summarized in the present study. Further analysis found that mHealthto some extent contributed to solving psychological problems, managing physiological diseases, as well as promoting healthy behaviors. However, more evidences are needed to support the efficacy and effectiveness of mhealth. The possible factors and the mechanisms of mHealth interventions should be explored for achieving optimal effectiveness in the future.

According to whether it is extended in time, self can be divided into two important parts—— minimal self and narrative self. Embodied constructivism holds the idea that distinguishing self from non-self is the core concept of minimal self. Therefore, defending the construction theory of self should emphasize the importance of the body itself. According to pathology and illusion studies of minimal self, investigating minimal self and self-other distinction by studying sense of ownership, sense of agency, as well as their deficits in certain disorders will be one fruitful path in current researches of self. Future studies could be focused on the discussion of the constructions of components, structures and processes of the self.

Moral elevation refers to a positive moral emotion response to a situation that, when witnessing other’s moral behavior, people appreciates other’s virtue and feels moral sentiment elevated. Moral elevation has affective, physical, cognitive, and behavioral aspects. Moral elevation can be induced by materials and situations, and be measured by identifier words and scales. The formation of moral elevation needs two key mechanisms, including positive inner attribution and positive upward social comparison, and these mechanisms can be affected by the characteristics of other’s moral behavior and the observer’s characteristics. Moral elevation triggers activation of the cranial and autonomic nerve as well as endocrine reactivity. Psychological effects of moral elevation include promoting pro-social behavior and positive social cognition, and enhancing positive impact to oneself. Future researches of moral elevation should investigate its physiological mechanisms, explore its broaden-and-build effects, examine diverse cultural and indigenous populations, and consider applications to moral education.

Stereotype lift means that the individuals who are aware of negative stereotype of outgroups can elevate self-efficacy and motivation after comparison with the denigrated outgroups, resulting in improving performance. While stereotype boost is the positive result of activation of positive stereotype, which refers to performance improvement of individuals in situations when their positive stereotype identities are activated. This paper is mainly focused on the relationships between moderators and results based on stereotype lift and stereotype boost. Meanwhile, their distinctions are discussed in terms of related concepts, the requirements of participants and psychological mechanisms. Finally, our paper points out that the further research in the future would pay more attention to these two concepts, and be attempt to eliminate the confusion of them. Also their psychological mechanisms and neural mechanisms would be further studied as well as combination with stereotype reactance to explore.

During social categorization, a critical cognitive process that serves as the basis for group cognition and impression evaluation, a very specific type of categorization, or Cross-categorization, may arise, in which two or more social categories/dimensions of targets are simultaneously salient for participants, forming intersections of ingroups and outgroups across multiple categories. Research examining whether cross-categorization decreases or increases stereotyping shows conflicting results. Theoretical explanation from a categorization perspective emphasizes the effect of group membership and identification, whereas an individualization perspective highlights a “de-categorization” process in the multiple-category context. The limitations of existing research are the failure to reach an agreement about how to understand and investigate the conflicting results and to recognize the significance of stereotypes for an individual’s cognition and identification process. Future research should focus on the motivations and cognitive processes critical to the categorization perspective, the dominant category and processing styles under the individualized perspective, as well as the potential of a theoretical integration based on self-categorization process.

Classic studies distinguish social norms from descriptive and injunctive norms. In contrast to this static division, research has recently begun to focus on the dynamic process of social norm development, including the acquisition, transmission, and transformation of social norms as well as their influencing factors. The acquisition of social norms can be traced back to early childhood social interaction. The formation of descriptive norms can be considered a result of the learning of exemplars of a social category. The rationalization of the status quo has led to the transformation of descriptive norms into injunctive norms. The influencing factors of social norms are not only related to their psychological functions - to meet individuals’ needs for security, belonging, and uniqueness - but also to external environment, which involves power positions and punishment mechanisms. To probe the process of normative influence, future studies could further analyze the formation and action processes of social norms, take account of studies of social norm strength, and analyze social norms in their cultural context.

Embodiment cognition theory has become a significant direction of consumer behaviour with abundant research findings. Hardly, however, have any related studies done in China. To promote the development of this domain, we reviewed relevant researches from the perspective of visual sense, tactile sense, taste sense and perception of movement. In the aspect of visual sense, we examined the impact of “up and down”, “left and right” and “big and small”. In the aspect of tactile sense, we mainly studied the effect of “soft and hard”, weight and temperature. In the aspect of taste sense, we mainly studied the effect of “sweet and bitter”. In the aspect of perception of movement, we examined the impact of “up and down movement”, “approaching movement” and “shut-down action”. Finally, based on the limitation of previous researches, we put forward directions for future research.

We reviewed and summarized organizational events that can potentially affect how victims of workplace incivility become instigators, including supervisor inaction, supervisor incivility, and coworker incivility. Based on the event system theory, we explained the cognitive process through which victims of workplace incivility become instigators. Specifically, if organizational events are strong enough to influence victims’ controlled information processing, the victims might change their original behavioral pattern and engage uncivil behaviors. Based on the social information processing theory, victims’ controlled information processing includes three different paths, including social learning, attribution, and moral judgment. We suggest future studies explore the role of other factors in the process of transmission from victims of workplace incivility to instigators, such as emotion, cognition, and factors outside the workplace. Daily diary method can be used to examine these processes. Furthermore, we encourage researchers to explore how witnesses of workplace incivility might also become instigators.

As a style with Chinese cultural characteristics, paternalistic leadership has significant influences on multi-level creativity. Based on the previous empirical research, the paper not only examines direct relationships between paternalistic leadership, its dimensions and multi-level creativity, but also expounds their interactive effects, moderating effects and internal mechanisms. The paper develops a model of “mechanisms of paternalistic leadership’s effects on both employee and team creativity”, and proposes that the effect of paternalistic leadership on employee creativity is moderated by workplace situational and individual difference, also mediated by psychological cognition and social relationships, while its influence on team creativity is mediated by team cognition and team interaction. Future research should strive to expand the levels of research, enrich research methods, and further explore the mechanisms of paternalistic leadership on multi-level creativity from a cross-cultural perspective.