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The effects of the parent-child relationship and parental educational involvement on adolescent depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation: The roles of defeat and meaning in life HU Yiqiu, ZENG Zihao, PENG Liyi, WANG Hongcai, LIU Shuangjin, YANG Qin, FANG Xiaoyi Acta Psychologica Sinica    2023, 55 (1): 129-141.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2023.00129 Abstract （10865）   HTML （1091）    PDF（pc） （844KB）（15640）       Knowledge map    Save Because of their high incidence as well as high risk, adolescent psychological problems have been a constant pressing topic of governmental, psychological, sociological, and medical interest for research. Adolescent depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation not only have serious impacts on an individual social functioning, the burden of disease and economic pressures caused by self-harming incidents also make it vital to explore the factors affecting these behaviors and their developmental mechanisms. Ecosystem theory emphasizes the role and significance of the environment in the process of individual development, believing that individual development is the result of one’s interactions with the surrounding environment. As the innermost structure in the ecosystem, family is the environment that is most relevant for individuals, having the greatest influence. In this study, two important components of the parent-child subsystem parent-child relationship (child) and educational involvement (parent) were introduced to explore their combined effects on adolescent depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation from a binary perspective. The roles of frustration and sense of meaning in life were also investigated from an integrated motivational-volitional model perspective. The current study built a moderated mediation model exploring the combined effects of the parent-child relationship on adolescent depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation. A total of 930 middle school students (501 boys, 429 girls; average age = 15.24 ± 1.66 years) and their parents participated in this investigation. After given their informed consent, both parents and students completed the Short Form of Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, the Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory, the Four-item Depressive Symptom Index − Suicidality Subscale, the Parent-Child Intimacy Questionnaire, Parental Involvement in Primary School Children Education, the Defeat Scale, and the Chinese Meaning in Life Questionnaire. SPSS 26.0, AMOS 23.0, and Mplus 7.0 were used to analyze the data. The results indicated that: (1) Compared to individuals with a low parent-child relationship and low educational involvement, adolescents with a high parent-child relationship and high educational involvement had lower levels of defeat. Compared to adolescents with a low parent-child relationship and high educational involvement, individuals with a high parent-child relationship and low educational involvement showed lower levels of defeat; (2) Defeat partially mediated the relationship between the parent-child relationship and educational involvement and adolescent depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation; (3) The second half of the mediation model was moderated by meaning in life, that is, with the increase of meaning in life, the effect of defeat on depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation gradually decreased. Based on ecosystem theory and integrated motivational-volitional model, and using innovative polynomial regression and response surface analysis, the current study investigated the influence of the parent-child relationship and parents' educational involvement on adolescent depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation, as well as the mediating and moderating effects of defeat and meaning in life. The results providing additional evidence for the relevant developmental theories of depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation. This study also offers more insight into potential psychological crisis behavioral interventions. Table and Figures | Reference | Related Articles | Metrics

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The effect of the angry emoji position on consumers’ perception of the sender’s anger WU Ruijuan, CHEN Jiuqi, LI Yan Acta Psychologica Sinica    2021, 53 (10): 1133-1145.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.01133 Abstract （10363）   HTML （1491）    PDF（pc） （689KB）（12623）       Knowledge map    Save Emoji are widely adopted in smartphones, for input methods, and on social networks. As ubiquitous characters, emoji transcend linguistic borders and are gaining worldwide popularity. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of the position of the angry emoji in negative online consumer reviews on the consumers’ perceptions of the sender’s anger. The present study first proposed the main location effect of the position of the angry emoji on the consumers’ perception of the sender’s anger. That is, compared with the angry emoji at the end of a sentence, the angry emoji in the middle of a sentence led to a stronger perception of anger. Based on visual information processing of the location effect, the current research proposed that the position salience perception and the sentiment-strengthening perception of the angry emoji serially mediated the above main effect. Further, we hypothesized that word review extremity moderated the effect of the position of the angry emoji on the consumers’ perceptions of the sender’s anger. For this paper, we conducted one eye-tracking experiment and three laboratory experiments. In Study 1, we conducted a pretest, which was the eye-tracking experiment. The product used in the pretest was a thermos mug. Study 1 was a 3 (one emoji at the end of a sentence vs. one in the middle of a sentence vs. no emoji) × 2 (feature description: feature one precedes feature two vs. feature two precedes feature one) between-subjects design. The product used in Study 1 was a laptop. Study 2 was a 2 (the position of the angry emoji at the end vs. in the middle of a sentence) × 2 (feature description: feature one precedes feature two vs. feature two precedes feature one) between-subjects design. Study 2 used a gel-ink pen refill as the target product. In Study 2, we measured the consumers’ perceptions of the sender’s anger, the angry emoji sentiment-strengthening perception, and the position salience perception created by the angry emoji. Study 3 was a 2 (the position of the angry emoji at the end vs. in the middle of a sentence) × 2 (word review extremity: moderate vs. extreme) between-subjects design. Study 3 used a coat as the target product. The results of the pretest demonstrated the effectiveness of visual information processing on the location effect. The position of the angry emoji influenced the participants’ attention. The angry emoji in the middle of a sentence led to higher fixation counts and longer fixation durations. The results of Study 1 demonstrated the main effect in this paper, which was that an angry emoji in the middle of a sentence led to a stronger perception of the sender’s anger than did an angry emoji at the end of a sentence. The results of Study 2 replicated the results of Study 1 and tested the serial-mediating roles of the position salience perception and the sentiment- strengthening perception of the angry emoji. The results of Study 3 replicated the results of Study 2 and tested the moderating role of word review extremity in the relationship between the position of the angry emoji and the consumers’ perception of the sender’s anger. When we considered the extreme word review, the influence of the position of the angry emoji on the sender’s perception of anger was not significant; however, when we considered the moderate word review, the angry emoji in the middle of a sentence significantly enhanced the consumers’ perception of the sender’s anger. The current research extended the extant literature in several dimensions. First, it supplemented the literature in the field of marketing on the effects of the emoji on consumers’ responses. Second, it supplemented the literature of application contexts and the influence of the location effect. Third, the present research provided empirical evidence for emoji functions. Fourth, the present study supplemented the literature of online consumer reviews. Table and Figures | Reference | Related Articles | Metrics

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How interpersonal factors impact the co-development of depression and non-suicidal self-injury in Chinese early adolescents HUANG Yuancheng, ZHAO Qingling, LI Caina Acta Psychologica Sinica    2021, 53 (5): 515-526.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00515 Abstract （10257）   HTML （1365）    PDF（pc） （663KB）（13109）       Knowledge map    Save Adolescent depression and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) are major public health concerns worldwide. Identifying the developmental trajectories that lead to these problems can help to design effective prevention programs. Previous research has reported 3 to 6 developmental trajectories of depressed mood and 3 to 4 developmental trajectories of NSSI. However, depressed mood and NSSI often co-occur, and little research has explored their joint developmental trajectories. Importantly, various interpersonal factors may affect the development of both depression and NSSI. For example, research has suggested that adolescents’ relationships with their parents and peers plays a crucial role in developing depression and NSSI. Yet, to date, no research has examined the effect of teacher-student relationships. Therefore, the present study aimed to characterize the joint developmental trajectories of adolescents’ depressed mood and NSSI, and examine the importance of peer, parent and teacher relationships in these trajectories. A sample of 859 adolescents (56.43% males;Mage = 14.73, SD = 0.43) was followed up for three years from the first year to the third year of junior middle school, in a central western Chinese city, Xi’an. Participants reported their depressed mood and NSSI at three time points, one year apart. They also completed self-measures of friendship quality, parent relationships and teacher relationships at Time 1, and nominated their classmates’ peer status at Time 1. All measures were conducted anonymously and approved by school administrators. Latent class growth analysis was used to identify the independent and joint developmental trajectories of depressed mood and NSSI, while logistic regression was used to examine the effects of relations with parents, peers and teachers. We found 4 developmental trajectories of depressed mood and 3 developmental trajectories of NSSI. Moreover, we identified three joint developmental trajectories of adolescents’ depressed mood and NSSI. The first trajectory class (91%), labeled “low depression- low NSSI- stable”, included adolescents with low depression and NSSI across all timepoints. The second trajectory class (5%), labeled “moderate depression- moderate NSSI- decrease”, consisted of adolescents whose depression and NSSI were moderate at baseline and then decrease over time. The third trajectory class (4%) labeled “low depression- low NSSI- increase”, consisted of adolescents whose depression and NSSI were low at baseline and then increase over time. Furthermore, the level of parental psychological control differentiated adolescents in the first joint trajectory class from those in the second and third joint trajectory class. In addition, peer acceptance distinguished adolescents in the third joint trajectory class from those in the first and second joint trajectory class. This study examined the independent and joint developmental trajectories of depressed mood and NSSI during adolescence and revealed important roles of parents and peers in these developmental processes. These findings extend our knowledge of the dynamic relationships between depression and NSSI, and the interpersonal factors that influence this. By improving adolescents’ relationships with their parents and peers, school practitioners can reduce rates of depression and NSSI in this group. Table and Figures | Reference | Related Articles | Metrics

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How does emotion shape aggressive behavior of violent offenders? An explanation based on emotion regulation theory LIU Yuping, ZHOU Bingtao, YANG Bo Acta Psychologica Sinica    2022, 54 (3): 270-280.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.00270 Abstract （10162）   HTML （1658）    PDF（pc） （638KB）（11489）       Knowledge map    Save Emotion is considered to be an important factor affecting aggressive behavior. According to emotion regulation theory, distressed people hope to improve their moods, and the motivation to use aggression to improve mood will increase aggressive behavior. In other words, the expectation of emotions is an important factor in the generation of aggressive behavior. Previous theories and studies mostly focused on the role of negative emotions such as anger in aggressive behavior. Recently, some researchers believe that positive affect plays an equally important role in aggression. Also, negative and positive affect are orthogonal, they should be studied separately. In addition, according to the purpose of aggression, it is often divided into premeditated/ proactive aggression and impulsive/reactive aggression, the mechanism between the two subtypes may exist differences. Finally, most of the previous studies used college students as participants, and the external validity is limited. The present study based on emotion regulation theory, selected violent offenders as participants to explore the role of negative/positive affect in proactive and reactive aggression with 2 studies. In study 1, we recruited 88 violent offenders for a scenario-based experiment. Participants were randomly divided into a reactive aggression group (n = 46) and a proactive aggression group (n = 42) in the adapted reaction time competition paradigm (Taylor Aggression Paradigm). Participants finished the first stage to manipulate types of aggression. Participants were told to compete with another participant (a fake participant) in racing the speed of reactions. In the reactive aggression group, participants lost the game and received negative feedback from their rivals; in the proactive aggression group, participants won the game and received positive feedback from their rivals. Then, they completed the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and the questionnaire of emotion regulation motive. Finally, they finished the second stage in which they could send noises to their rivals, which can be considered as an aggressive indicator. Model 4 of Process in SPSS 23.0 was used to test the mediating role of emotion regulation motive between negative/positive affect and aggression. Participants finished PANAS after the second stage for study 2. Repeated measures ANOVA and regression analysis were used to test the change of emotion before and after aggression. Study 1 showed that the motivation to improve mood played a mediating role between negative emotion and proactive/reactive aggression, but the effect was not significant for positive emotion. Study 2 showed that positive emotions would increase after proactive and reactive aggression; reactive aggression could reduce negative emotions, while proactive aggression could increase negative emotions. The following conclusions can be obtained from the two experiments: (1) In a negative emotional state, violent offenders hope to improve their mood by conducting aggressive behavior. (2) Proactive and reactive aggression can increase the positive emotions of violent offenders, indicating that aggression can produce pleasure. (3) Reactive aggression can reduce negative emotions; proactive aggression can increase the negative emotions of violent criminals. The present study illustrates the relationship between emotion, especially positive emotion, and aggressive behavior in violent offenders. Aggression can produce pleasure, but it may also increase negative emotions, which in turn increases aggressive behavior, forming a feedback loop, which reflects the non-adaptive of aggressive behavior from the perspective of emotion. In practice, especially in prison, we should help individuals to learn a reasonable way to regulate their emotions, such as mindfulness. Table and Figures | Reference | Related Articles | Metrics

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The influence of anger on delay discounting: The mediating role of certainty and control SONG Xiyan, CHENG Yahua, XIE Zhouxiutian, GONG Nanyan, LIU Lei Acta Psychologica Sinica    2021, 53 (5): 456-468.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00456 Abstract （9335）   HTML （1494）    PDF（pc） （771KB）（13083）       Knowledge map    Save Delay discounting occurs when, compared to current or recent benefits (or losses), people give future benefits (or losses) less weight and choose current or recent benefits (or losses). Delay discounting is an important research direction in the field of decision-making. Based on the Appraisal-Tendency Framework, the present study aimed to examine how anger influences an individual’s delay discounting and then explore the underlying mechanism of the effect of anger on delay discounting. The key hypotheses--that anger would influence delay discounting and that certainty and control appraisal tendencies would drive this effect--were tested across three experiments. Experiment 1 investigated the effect of anger on delay gratification. In Experiments 2a and 2b, an experimental-causal-chain design was used to test (a) whether anger increases certainty-control relative to fear and neutral feelings, and (b) whether experiencing certainty-control increases one’s delay gratification. In Experiment 3, a measurement-of-mediation design was used to test whether feelings of certainty-control stemming from anger predicted delay gratification. Simultaneously, we explored whether positive emotions associated with certainty-control produced increases in delay gratification. The focus was on pleasure as a positive, certainty-control-associated emotion. In Experiment 1, the results showed that compared with fear and neutral participants, angry participants were more likely to choose large and delayed rewards. In Experiment 2a, the results showed that compared with fear and neural participants, angry participants were more likely to experience certainty-control feelings. Then, in Experiment 2b, the results showed that compared with low certainty-control participants, high certainty-control participants were more likely to choose large and delayed rewards. In Experiment 3, the results showed that compared with fear and neutral participants, angry and pleasant participants experienced more certainty-control feelings and were more likely to choose large and delayed rewards. Furthermore, the mediation analysis showed that certainty-control feelings played a complete mediating role in the effect of anger and pleasure on delay discounting. Converging evidence from the three experiments indicated that incidental anger can influence delay discounting. Compared with fear and neutral feelings, those experiencing anger were more likely to choose larger and delayed rewards (Experiment 1). Importantly, these two experiments provide direct process evidence by showing that the certainty and control appraisal tendencies triggered by anger may underlie its delay gratification-enhancing effects (Experiments 2 and Experiment 3). Furthermore, experiencing certainty- control-associated emotions (i.e., anger and pleasure), regardless of valence, increased to the likelihood that individuals would choose larger and delayed rewards (Experiment 3). The current research supports the hypotheses that anger increases delay gratification and that certainty and control appraisal tendencies drive this effect. These findings have important implications for understanding the mechanism underlying the effect of specific negative emotions on intertemporal choice. Table and Figures | Reference | Related Articles | Metrics

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Associations between empathy and negative affect: Effect of emotion regulation GUO Xiaodong, ZHENG Hong, RUAN Dun, HU Dingding, WANG Yi, WANG Yanyu, Raymond C. K. CHAN Acta Psychologica Sinica    2023, 55 (6): 892-904.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2023.00892 Abstract （8876）   HTML （763）    PDF（pc） （1267KB）（10937）       Knowledge map    Save Empathy refers to understanding, inferring and sharing others’ emotional states, which can be divided into affective and cognitive components. Although empathy contributes to prosocial behaviors and harmonious interpersonal relationships, it also increases an individual’s negative emotional experiences and affect distress. Emotion regulation, the psychological process of managing one’s own emotions, has been found to be closely associated with empathy. Cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression are two commonly used strategies to regulate emotions, of which cognitive reappraisal is effective in reducing negative emotional experiences while expressive suppression is usually correlated with more affective distress. However, the roles of emotion regulation strategies in the empathic response are still unclear. We conducted two studies to investigate the roles of emotion regulation on the negative affect related to empathy using self-report questionnaires and experimental task respectively. Study 1 administered the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE), the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) to 442 college students. The moderating effects of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression on the association between empathy and negative affect were examined separately. Study 2 adopted the Chinese version of the Empathic Accuracy Task (EAT) to further examine the effect of emotion regulation (i.e. cognitive reappraisal) on cognitive empathy and affective responses. The EAT requires participants to continuously rate targets’ emotional valence in video clips as a second person and rate emotional valence and arousal of both targets and themselves after each video. Seventy-five participants (33 for experiment 1 and 42 for experiment 2) were recruited to perform the EAT under two conditions, i.e., naturally viewing without any instructions and applying cognitive reappraisal while viewing the scenarios. Paired sample t tests and repeated-measure ANOVA were performed to examine the effect of cognitive reappraisal on task performance. Findings from Study 1 showed that affective empathy was significantly correlated with higher levels of anxiety and stress, while empathic concern was correlated with less anxiety, stress and depression. However, when participants endorsed cognitive reappraisal more frequently, such positive association between affective empathy and stress was reduced, while the negative association between empathic concern and anxiety was strengthened. Cognitive empathy was significantly correlated with reduced depression. Expressive suppression strengthened the negative association between cognitive empathy and depression. Moreover, negative correlations between cognitive empathy and anxiety as well as stress emerged for participants endorsing cognitive reappraisal more frequently. Findings from Study 2 showed that task performances of the EAT were significantly improved when participants endorsed cognitive reappraisal strategy compared to the condition of naturally viewing. Specifically, under the cognitive reappraisal condition participants scored higher empathic accuracy, experienced less negative affect in reaction to others’ affect distress, and experienced more positive affect in reaction to others’ positive emotions. Taken together, the findings from these two studies suggested that both cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression play a protective role in the associations between empathy and negative affect, and the endorsement of cognitive reappraisal would improve task performance on both cognitive and affective empathy. Our findings shed light on the psychological mechanisms of empathy and provide new approach for improving individuals’ social cognitive ability, especially for early intervention in clinical and subclinical populations. Table and Figures | Reference | Related Articles | Metrics

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Effects of integration of facial expression and emotional voice on inhibition of return ZHANG Ming, WANG Tingting, WU Xiaogang, ZHANG Yue’e, WANG Aijun Acta Psychologica Sinica    2022, 54 (4): 331-342.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.00331 Abstract （8794）   HTML （1208）    PDF（pc） （773KB）（10054）       Knowledge map    Save Both inhibition of return (IOR) and emotion have the characteristics of attentional bias and improving search efficiency. Previous studies mostly used a single modality presentation of emotional stimuli to investigate the relationship between the two, but the findings are inconsistent. Existing studies have shown that the congruent emotion of audiovisual dual modality can be integrated into the perceptual stage, which is the same as the processing stage of IOR. Therefore, the present study adopted the cue-target paradigm and used audiovisual dual modality to present emotional stimuli to further investigate the interaction between emotion and IOR. Experiment 1 was a three-factor within-subject design. We manipulated the presentation of cue validity (cued vs. uncued), target modalities (visual vs. audiovisual), and emotion type (negative vs. neutral). The task of the subjects was to identify the emotional stimuli of visual modality. Experiment 2 was similar to Experiment 1, but the emotional congruency was changed. The audiovisual dual modality presented incongruent emotional stimuli (visual negative face-auditory neutral sound; visual neutral face-auditory negative sound) to further investigate whether the impact of the audiovisual dual modality emotional stimulus on IOR was caused by the emotional stimulus of the auditory modality, that is, whether the emotional stimulus of the auditory modality was processed. In Experiment 1, the responses in the cued condition were slower than those in the uncued condition, which suggested that IOR occurred. More importantly, the interaction between emotion type and cue validity in the audiovisual dual modality condition showed that congruent negative emotion produces a smaller IOR effect (11 ms) than neutral emotion (25 ms). At the same time, the audiovisual dual modality condition produced a smaller IOR effect (18 ms) than the visual single modality condition (40 ms). We also found a larger multisensory response enhancement effect in the congruent negative emotion than in the neutral emotion. In Experiment 2, the results showed that there was no interaction between emotion and IOR under the condition of audiovisual dual modality, and there was no significant difference in IOR effect between single modality and audiovisual dual modality. This indicated that the IOR effect was not influenced by the presence of incongruent emotion in the audiovisual dual modality. In summary, the present study showed that the IOR effect was influenced only when the audiovisual dual modality presented the same emotion. Our findings revealed that IOR and audiovisual dual modality congruent emotion in the same processing stage had a mutual influence. Audiovisual dual modality congruent emotion weakened the IOR effect, and the differences between the negative emotion and the neutral emotion showed the adaptability of IOR. At the same time, this study further supports the perceptual inhibition theory of IOR. Table and Figures | Reference | Related Articles | Metrics

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An effect of menstrual cycle phase on episodic memory LI Jianhua, XIE Jiajia, ZHUANG Jin-Ying Acta Psychologica Sinica    2022, 54 (5): 466-480.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.00466 Abstract （7844）   HTML （922）    PDF（pc） （6306KB）（12052）       Knowledge map    Save Episodic memory refers to the recollection of personally experienced events in a specific context. Evolutionary psychology findings have suggested that female sex hormones may be important influencing factors for episodic memory, but the specific mechanism underlying these influences are unclear. The aim of the present study was to examine whether periodic fluctuations of estrogen and progesterone over the menstrual cycle may influence episodic memory in the What-Where-When Task. Healthy women with stable menstrual cycles and not taking exogenous hormones were recruited for two experiments. In Experiment 1, episodic memory was tested with 33 women during the late follicular phase (FP) and during the mid-luteal phase (LP) with the following five tasks employing images of objects as stimuli: object-only, position-only, object-position binding, object-order binding, and position-order binding. The testing order was counter-balanced across subjects. After a learning phase, participants were asked to recollect elements according to the requirements of each task, and the accuracy rates of their recollections were recorded as dependent variables. The results of Experiment 1 showed that recollection accuracy differed between the late FP and mid-LP for only one of the tasks, namely the position-order binding task. Thus, in Experiment 2, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during the performance of the position-order binding task, while recollection accuracy performance was evaluated. For the position-order binding task in both experiments, a significantly higher response accuracy rate was observed in the mid-LP than in the late FP. Regarding the ERP results, amplitudes of the P300 component and the late positive component (LPC) in frontal cortices, which has associated with cognitive control, were found to be higher in the mid-LP than in the late FP. The present results support the notion that people may have greater cognitive control of episodic memory in the mid-LP than in the late FP. In conclusion, the present results showed that menstrual cycle phase affects position-order binding memory performance and concomitant neural activities. Better episodic memory performance during the mid-LP, relative to the late FP, could be attributed to better cognitive control ability. This study provides new information on physiological factors that can affect episodic memory. Table and Figures | Reference | Related Articles | Metrics

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The relationship between adolescents’ resilience and their malevolent creative behaviors WANG Dan, WANG Dianhui, CHEN Wenfeng Acta Psychologica Sinica    2022, 54 (2): 154-167.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.00154 Abstract （7791）   HTML （1349）    PDF（pc） （784KB）（10105）       Knowledge map    Save Malevolent creativity is distinguished from general creativity due to its “harmfulness”. It is known that negative personality traits and threatening social situations may promote malevolent creativity via strengthening malevolence. So it seems reasonable to speculate the inhibitory role of positive personality traits (e.g., resilience) on the malevolence in malevolent creativity. However, it has been also evident that resilience is positively correlated with creativity itself. Thus, the two roles of resilience seem to be contradictory when malevolence and creativity are linked together. As a result, it is unclear that what the dominant role of resilience in malevolent creativity is. To tackle this issue, two studies were conducted with the hypothesis that high resilience may predict less malevolent creativity via weakening the malevolence. A moderated mediation model was further proposed to investigate the roles of coping style and stress on the relationship of adolescents’ resilience and their malevolent creative behaviors. Study 1 aimed to explore whether resilience predicts malevolent creativity in a positive or negative direction and whether coping style mediates the influence of resilience on malevolent creativity. A sample of 370 teenagers in study 1 completed the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CDRS), Malevolent Creativity Behavior Scale (MCBS), Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire, and Runco Ideational Behavior Scale (RIBS). Study 2 aimed to investigate the moderating role of stress in the mediation process of coping style on the relationship of resilience and malevolent creativity. Another sample of 244 teenagers was recruited in study 2 to induce their acute stress using the Trier Social Stress Test before completing the above questionnaires. The results showed that: 1) the resilience scores of participants were negatively correlated with their malevolent creativity behavior scores; 2) Coping style played a complete mediating role in the relationship between resilience and malevolent creativity; 3) The mediating effect of coping style was moderated by stress where stressful situation weakened the inhibitory effect of positive coping styles on malevolent creativity. These results suggested that the positive quality of resilience can inhibit the harmfulness of malevolent creativity, but stressful situations can reduce the inhibitory effect of resilience. It shed light that cultivating the resilience of young people will resist the adverse effects of stressful situations, and it is necessary to guide the development of their creative ability. Table and Figures | Reference | Related Articles | Metrics

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Emotional bias of trait anxiety on pre-attentive processing of facial expressions: ERP investigation LI Wanyue, LIU Shen, HAN Shangfeng, ZHANG Lin, XU Qiang Acta Psychologica Sinica    2022, 54 (1): 1-11.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.00001 Abstract （7778）   HTML （916）    PDF（pc） （1298KB）（15037）       Knowledge map    Save Facial expressions are important for understanding the emotional feelings of other human beings. However, individual factors, such as sex, age, and personality traits, can influence the perception of facial expressions. For example, individuals with an elevated level of trait anxiety—which is a measure of the frequency and intensity of occurrence of anxiety-related symptoms—show attentional bias toward emotional stimuli; that is, they pay greater attention to emotional information such as facial expressions. Previous studies focused mainly on the attentional processing stage, but whether trait anxiety affects the pre-attentive processing stage of facial expression perception remains unclear. Pre-attentive processing is an automatic evaluation of whether attention is needed to react to a stimulus, thereby filtering out irrelevant information to conserve cognitive resources and improve information processing efficiency. Hence, the present study is aimed at investigating the pre-attentive processing of facial expressions and the bias toward emotional stimuli of trait-anxious individuals during the pre-attentive processing stage. According to Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) scores, 20 participants who scored in the top 27% were assigned to the high-trait-anxiety group (13 women; mean age 19.02 ± 0.63 years) and 20 participants who scored in the bottom 27% were assigned to the low-trait-anxiety group (11 women; mean age 19.63 ± 0.88 years). The stimuli used in the experiment were happy, sad, and neutral face images selected from the Chinese Facial Affective Picture System (CAFPS) that included 10 pictures (five females and five males) of each of the aforementioned emotions. The deviant-standard-reverse oddball paradigm included four types of facial expression sequences: neutral standard stimuli/happy deviant stimuli; happy standard stimuli/neutral deviant stimuli; neutral standard stimuli/sad deviant stimuli; and sad standard stimuli/neutral deviant stimuli. “Standard stimuli” means that this type of stimulus appeared approximately 80% of the time in the sequence, and the deviant stimuli appeared approximately 20% of the time. Participants were instructed to detect unpredictable changes in the size of a fixation cross at the center of the visual field and to press a corresponding button as quickly and accurately as possible and to ignore facial expressions. The results revealed that the amplitudes of N170 elicited by deviant faces were significantly larger than those of standard faces. Importantly, in the early expression mismatch negativity (EMMN) results, the mean amplitude elicited by sad facial expressions was significantly larger than that elicited by happy facial expressions in the low-trait-anxiety group, but there was no significant difference between happy and sad facial expressions in the high-trait-anxiety group. Moreover, the early EMMN amplitude of happy faces was significantly larger in the high-trait-anxiety group than in the low-trait-anxiety group. These results suggest that the high-trait-anxiety group had a similar amplification of EMMN amplitude for both happy and sad expressions. The results further show that there is a difference between high and low trait anxiety in the pre-attentive processing of facial expressions. This, in turn, suggests that personality traits are important factors influencing the pre-attentive processing of facial expressions, and that high-trait-anxiety individuals may have difficulty in effectively distinguishing between happy and sad emotional faces during the pre-attentive processing stage and have similar processing patterns for both. Table and Figures | Reference | Related Articles | Metrics

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The influence of anxiety on weight perception CHEN Xuyan, LI Peng, YAN Zhiying Acta Psychologica Sinica    2023, 55 (1): 66-78.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2023.00066 Abstract （7759）   HTML （753）    PDF（pc） （812KB）（10902）       Knowledge map    Save The economy of action argues that individuals’ perceptions of the physical environment are related to the resources they possess. Anxiety is an emotion characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil, often associated with threat or risk, that can be viewed as a manifestation of inadequate coping resources. Therefore, anxiety may affect individuals’ perceptions of the physical environment around them. Previous studies have shown that exercise influence perceptual judgments mostly based on vision-based perceptual indicators, and rarely involved stress anxiety and trait anxiety that are more common in the field of life. However, this study employed weight-based perception indicators rather than vision-based indicators to investigate the effects of two kinds of state anxiety in daily life with different mechanisms and the more stable trait anxiety on the perception of object weight, and proposed the following research hypothesis: individuals perceived objects as heavier in state or trait anxiety. In the present work, we conducted three studies to systematically investigate the effects of three types of anxiety with different attributes on the perception of weight: body posture-induced anxiety (Experiment 1), external task-induced anxiety (Experiment 2), and trait anxiety, which is stable at the personality level (Experiment 3). Participants in both Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 were asked to report their anxiety before and after the experimental task was manipulated and to judge the weight of the backpack they carried. In Experiment 1, 64 participants were randomly assigned to the anxious body posture group (n = 32) and the relaxed body posture group (n = 32) by being asked to do different body postures. In Experiment 2, 65 participants were randomly assigned to either the mental arithmetic task group (n = 33) or the odd-even task group (n = 32). In Experiment 3, based on the scores of the Trait Anxiety Inventory (T-AI) Scale, high and low scorers were selected to constitute a high-level trait anxiety group (n = 64) and a low-level trait anxiety group (n = 64), and were asked to perceive the post-test weight of the three backpacks. The results of three experiments showed that the influence of anxiety on weight perception. In Experiment 1, we found that the anxious body posture induced anxiety, and participants in the anxious body posture group perceived the weight of the object as heavier than those in the relaxed body posture group. The results of Experiment 2 revealed that the stressful mental arithmetic task induced anxiety, and participants in the mental arithmetic task group perceived the weight of the object as heavier than those in the odd-even judgment task group. The results of Experiment 3 indicated that participants in the high-level trait anxiety group perceived the weight of the object as heavier than those in the low-level trait anxiety group. The results of the three experiments suggest that either the state anxiety induced by physical changes or cognitive evaluations, or the more stable trait anxiety at the personality level, affects individuals’ perceptions of physical properties of objects, leading them to perceive objects as heavier. This study extends the indicator of perception from the visual to the weight domain at the theoretical level, validates and extends the economy of action theory again; the revealed features of weight perception of anxious individuals provide a new physical perspective for anxiety intervention, and such findings can be applied to the design of human-computer interfaces in the future, which is of great practical significance. Table and Figures | Reference | Related Articles | Metrics

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Relationship between depression and cognitive reappraisal in 8-12 years old children: The mediating role of attention bias toward sad expression ZHANG Ni, LIU Wen, LIU Fang, GUO Xin Acta Psychologica Sinica    2022, 54 (1): 25-39.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.00025 Abstract （7725）   HTML （1095）    PDF（pc） （841KB）（13379）       Knowledge map    Save As a typical negative emotion, depression significantly affects the development of an individual’s cognitive, emotional, and social functions. Cognitive impairment is common in depressed individuals with its main characteristic being emotional disorder. Based on Beck’s cognitive theory of depression and Gross’s progress model of emotion regulation, the current study explored the relationship between depression and cognitive reappraisal strategies and its mechanism in children aged 8~12 years. Study 1a measured depression, anxiety, and the tendency of daily using cognitive reappraisal strategy in 504 children through a questionnaire. After controlling gender, age and anxiety, the relationship between childhood depression and the tendency of using cognitive reappraisal was investigated. Following the suspected depression screening criteria, Study 1b selected 43 children as the high depression group from Study 1a and matched them with another 43 children as the low depression group. There was no difference in gender, age, and anxiety level between the two groups. Then a behavioral experiment was conducted on these 86 children to measure the ability of using cognitive reappraisal. The purpose was to explore the effect of childhood depression on the ability. Study 2 further explored this topic by randomly selecting 90 children and assessing their depression, the tendency and the ability using cognitive reappraisal, and attention bias to emotional faces combined with eye movement technology. The purpose is to investigate the role of attention bias in the relationship between depression and the two aspects of cognitive reappraisal. The results showed that: (1) depression has significant negative association with the use tendency of using cognitive reappraisal among 8-12 years old children; (2) for the reappraisal effect of the up-regulation of positive emotion in children, the main effects of depression, gender, and the interaction between them are not significant; for the reappraisal effect of the down-regulation of negative emotion, the main effect of depression was significant, but the main effects of gender and depression-gender interaction were not significant; (3) depression has significant positive association with total gazing time bias score of sad faces, and the total gazing time bias score of sad faces played a mediating role between children's depression and the tendency of using cognitive reappraisal. The hypotheses of this study were well verified by these results. The present study revealed the influence of depression on cognitive and emotional functions among school-age children, and also supported the view of previous studies that the attentional disengagement of sad emotional stimuli is the attention bias component that more closely related to depression, rather than the original attentional orientation. In addition, depression can indirectly influence the daily use of cognitive reappraisal strategy in children through the attention bias for sad expression. Table and Figures | Reference | Related Articles | Metrics

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Does “male beauty” really work: The impact of male endorsements on female consumers’ evaluation of female-gender-imaged product WANG Lili, DONG Menglu Acta Psychologica Sinica    2022, 54 (2): 192-204.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.00192 Abstract （7591）   HTML （1306）    PDF（pc） （839KB）（10343）       Knowledge map    Save Nowadays, using male spokesperson to endorse female-gender-imaged product has become an important advertising strategy and has penetrated into many female-gender-imaged products, especially thanks to celebrity influence. Does it really work? While previous research only combined with a certain degree of theory to explain the cross-gender endorsement phenomenon, this paper aims to explore the relationship between the gender of female-gender-imaged product spokesperson and female consumer's product evaluation through a quantitative approach. Specifically, we proposed that when male spokesperson endorses female-gender-imaged product, female consumers would significantly downgrade their evaluation of the products compared to female spokesperson, which is mediated by a sense of gender-identity threat. In addition, when the participants are manipulated to increase gender affirmation, the main effect would be strengthened. Study 1 used a single factor (gender of female-gender-imaged product spokesperson: male vs. female) between-subjects design. 145 female college students were invited to participate in this study. Participants were asked to imagine a billboard advertising a lipstick endorsed by male star or female star, and then evaluated this lipstick by a scale. We examined the main effect through this scenario that using male spokesperson to endorse female-gender-imaged product would decrease female consumers’ product evaluation. Study 2A used a similar between-subjects design. 119 female participants were recruited to imagine a billboard of obstetrics and gynecology hospital endorsed by male star or female star, and then evaluated this obstetrics and gynecology hospital as well as sense of gender-identity threat by scales. Study 2B invited 136 female college students to replicate the results of Study 2A, ruling out the alternative explanations of shyness and shame. Participants were asked to look at an underwear advertisement poster that used endorsement by a real celebrity. We repeated the results of Study 1 and confirmed the mediating effect of a sense of gender-identity threat with bootstrap test to clarify the underlying mechanism. Study 3 used a 2 (gender of female-gender-imaged product spokesperson: male vs. female) × 2 (gender affirmation: with vs. without) between-subjects design. 250 female Mturk workers participated in this study. In the gender affirmation condition, participants were asked to write about important qualities and values of women. In the control condition, participants were asked to list 20 everyday items that came to mind. Next, participants were told that they were browsing an online shopping platform and intended to buy underwear. They would see the underwear picture of a famous brand endorsed by a popular female star (vs. a popular male star) and then fill out the same product evaluation scale as above. We examined the interaction between gender of female-gender-imaged product spokesperson and gender affirmation. Specifically, when the female-gender-imaged product uses male endorsement, the product evaluation of the gender affirmation condition is lower than that of the control condition. Apart from the above, results from these studies were summarized and showed that both exclusivity and privacy of female-gender-imaged product have significant interaction effects on the relationship between spokesperson gender and product evaluation. In summary, this paper combines the theory of self-concept and identity consciousness to provide evidences for a mechanism between cross-gender endorsement and female consumer's product evaluation mediated by a sense of gender-identity threat, and the moderating effect of gender affirmation, expanding the downstream results of product gender attribute research and contributing to the practice of advertising field. Table and Figures | Reference | Related Articles | Metrics

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The relationship between positive parenting and adolescent prosocial behaviour: The mediating role of empathy and the moderating role of the oxytocin receptor gene ZHANG Wenxin, LI Xi, CHEN Guanghui, CAO Yanmiao Acta Psychologica Sinica    2021, 53 (9): 976-991.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00976 Abstract （7541）   HTML （1199）    PDF（pc） （1045KB）（13121）       Knowledge map    Save Prosocial behaviour, that is, behaviour intended to benefit others, has been linked to a variety of desirable traits, including positive relationships, better academic performance and lower levels of antisocial behaviours. As such, the origins and the mechanisms underlying the remarkable individual differences in prosocial behaviour are the focus of an increasing number of studies, with numerous research consistently documenting the important role of positive parenting and empathy. Notably, differentiating between cognitive and emotional components of empathy may help further clarify the processes by which parenting eventuates in prosocial behaviour. Although all children may be impacted by parenting, some children benefit more than others from good-quality rearing. Recent research has suggested that the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene rs53576 polymorphism could determine the degree to which a child is influenced by environment. The biological function of rs53576 polymorphism has yet to be delineated, and the literature is mixed with regard to heterozygote (AG) grouping; thus, the implications for AG grouping are not well understood. Therefore, the dummy coding, additive coding, dominant coding and recessive coding models were all investigated in this study to test the nature of gene effect. This study aimed to extend previous studies on the association between parenting and prosocial behaviour by examining the mediating role of cognitive and emotional empathy and the moderating role of the OXTR gene. The participants were 1082 mother-offspring dyads (adolescents’ mean age: 12.32 ± 0.48 years, 50.3% females) recruited from the community. At Time 1, mothers reported their positive parenting via the Chinese version of the Child-Rearing Practices Report (CRPR) and peer-rated adolescents’ prosocial behaviours. At Time 2, adolescent-reported perspective-taking and empathic concern, peer-rated prosocial behaviours and saliva samples were collected. All measures showed good reliability. Genotyping at OXTR gene was performed with MassARRAY RT software version 3.0.0.4 and analysed using the MassARRAY Typer software version 3.4 (Sequenom). Results showed that adolescents who received higher levels of maternal positive parenting exhibited more prosocial behaviours. However, the direct effect of positive parenting on prosocial behaviour became nonsignificant after controlling for baseline prosocial behaviour. Cognitive empathy, but not emotional empathy, mediated the association between positive parenting and prosocial behaviour. Specifically, positive parenting was positively associated with cognitive empathy, which in turn was positively associated with adolescent prosocial behaviour. Further, this mediation was moderated by the OXTR gene rs53576 polymorphism. For adolescents with AA and GG genotypes, positive parenting was related to higher levels of cognitive empathy, which increased prosocial behaviour. However, this mediation effect was not observed among adolescents with AG genotype. In addition, the results revealed evidence for an overdominance model for OXTR rs53576. Moreover, the G × E term predicted cognitive empathy but not prosocial behaviour. This finding suggests that cognitive empathy may be an endophenotype closer along the causal chain to the genotype and that the strength of the G × E effects was greater for empathy than for distal behavioural outcomes. These findings add to our understanding of how empathy and genetic factors contribute to adolescents’ prosocial behaviour within the family context. In addition, these results suggest that cognitive and emotional aspects of empathy are likely to be involved—in somewhat different psychosocial mechanisms—in the development of prosocial behaviour. Notably, the overdominance effect of OXTR should be interpreted with caution until replicated. However, when a three-category polymorphic genotype is used, as is commonly applied when modelling a dominant or recessive effect, both false positive and false negative results can occur, and the nature of the interaction can be misrepresented. Table and Figures | Reference | Related Articles | Metrics

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The influence of positive co-experience on teacher-student relationship: The mediating role of emotional bonding DING Yuting, ZHANG Chang, LI Ranran, DING Wenyu, ZHU Jing, LIU Wei, CHEN Ning Acta Psychologica Sinica    2023, 55 (5): 726-739.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2023.00726 Abstract （7453）   HTML （577）    PDF（pc） （826KB）（10971）       Knowledge map    Save The teacher-student relationship is a key factor that contributes to educational activities and has hence long been considered an important topic in the field of educational practice and research. Previous studies have found that co-experience improves the development of interpersonal relationships. However, the question remains of whether positive co-experience has the same effect on the quality of teacher-student relationships. The current research aims to investigate the impact of positive co-experience on teacher-student relationships and the underlying mechanism. Building on previous studies, two main hypotheses are proposed: Firstly, that positive co-experience effectively promotes the development of teacher-student relationships (H1); secondly, that this effect is mediated by emotional bonding (H2). Three studies have been conducted to test these hypotheses (H1 & H2). In study 1, a total of 1, 273 students were invited to complete a questionnaire exploring aspects of positive co-experience, positive emotional bonding, teacher-student relationships, and a self-assessment of academic performance. In study 2, all students in a middle school in Shanghai were enrolled as research subjects. Taking each class as a unit, we randomly divided students into three groups. A mixed experimental design of 2 (time: pre-test vs. post-test) × 3 (positive co-experience type: sharing and recall group vs. simple recall group vs. normal group) was adopted. In the pre-test, all subjects in three groups were asked to complete the questionnaires. The students and their teachers would then take part in a sports festival, which was designed to foster positive co-experience within teacher-student relationships. The researchers took photos during this process and made a photo album for the enrolled students and teachers. In the post-test, all three groups were required to complete the questionnaire: students in the “sharing and recall group” were required to complete the questionnaire after reviewing the album of their shared experience with their teachers. “the simple recall group” was asked to complete the questionnaire after reviewing the album with their teachers without sharing experience with their teachers; and the normal group, as a control, completed the questionnaire directly. In study 3, 152 middle school students were invited to participate. We divided them into four groups and conducted a mixed experimental design grid with dimensions of 4 (positive co-experience type: recall vs. imagination vs. example vs. control) × 2 (teacher category: specific teacher vs. group teacher). The four groups of subjects were then required to complete tasks assessing the psychological distance and positive emotional bonding between themselves, a specific teacher, and the group teacher, respectively. They were then graded for “the vignette task”. In conclusion, the results of these studies congruently indicate that positive co-experience has a stable facilitatory effect on teacher-student relationships, and further, that positive emotional bonding plays a mediating role in the relationship between positive co-experience and teacher-student relationships. Further, sharing can promote the level of positive emotional bonding between teachers and students, and the positive co-experience of imagination, recall, and example can improve the level of positive emotional bonding between teenage students and their teachers. We also found that the positive aspect of the teacher-student relationship can be transferred to the group relationship between teachers and students. Table and Figures | Reference | Related Articles | Metrics

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Kawai vs. Whimsical: The influence of cuteness types of luxury brands on consumers’ preferences FENG Wenting, XU Yuanping, HUANG Hai, WANG Tao Acta Psychologica Sinica    2022, 54 (3): 313-330.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.00313 Abstract （7324）   HTML （1207）    PDF（pc） （894KB）（7883）       Knowledge map    Save Cute brand styles are being used by increasing number of luxury brands in their marketing to interact with consumers. Cuteness can be divided into two types, including kindchenschema and whimsical. The majority of current studies are focused on the effects of single kindchenschema cuteness on consumer psychology and behavior. So, how does the adoption of various cute styles by luxury brands influence consumer preference? What is the internal mechanism? We have contributed to the literature on luxury brands by investigating how consumers react to various cute styles of luxury brands in the current study. In order to achieve their various objectives, luxury brands can deliver specific messages to the market by selecting brand images of various cute styles. In this case, the cuteness type of luxury brands (kindchenschema vs. whimsical) can influence consumers’ brand preferences through their perception of the brand’s ideal self-expression. The ideal self of an individual is generally characterized by high autonomy. According to the theory of the ideal self, the cuteness styles of luxury goods can influence consumers’ ideal self-expression through the autonomy of luxury brands. When the cuteness style is whimsical, luxury brands demonstrate high brand autonomy, which is conducive to consumers’ ideal self-expression, thereby improving consumers’ preferences for luxury brands. However, there are boundary conditions for the applicability of main effects, and self-monitoring moderates the relationship between luxury brands’ cuteness styles and consumers’ preferences. In other words, when the level of self-monitoring is low, the cuteness styles of luxury brands will not significantly affect the individual’s brand preferences. To test our hypotheses, we conducted four experiments. Experiment 1 preliminarily shows that different cuteness styles of luxury brands can significantly influence consumers’ brand preferences. The findings validate the causal chain model, which tests the theoretical logic of main effects, from cuteness styles of luxury brands, brand autonomy, ideal self-expression, and consumer preference. Experiment 2 clarifies the main effect’s boundary. The results indicate that the influence of luxury brand cuteness styles on consumer preferences is only effective in the context of luxury brands. Experiment 3 examined the moderating effect of individual self-monitoring level on the main effect and discovered that for individuals with low self-monitoring, the cuteness styles of luxury brands could not effectively influence their brand preferences. Experiment 4 investigated the moderating effect of the individual development stage on the main effect. Adults preferred whimsical cuteness elicited over kindchenschema cuteness. Kindchenschema cuteness triggered a more positive response than whimsical cuteness in children. According to our findings, adopting the whimsical cuteness style in luxury brands can improve consumers’ brand preferences more than kindchenschema cuteness style. When the cuteness style is kindchenschema, luxury brands demonstrate low brand autonomy, which is not conducive to consumers’ ideal self-expression, reducing consumers’ preferences for luxury brands. When the cuteness style is whimsical, luxury brands demonstrate high brand autonomy, which is consistent with the consumers’ ideal self and improves their preferences for luxury brands. When individuals have low self-monitoring, the cuteness styles of luxury brands have no effect on consumers’ preferences. These findings provide novel insights into the cuteness styles and ideal self-expression of luxury brands, implying that brands should carefully consider consumers’ level of self-monitoring before displaying various cuteness types of luxury brand styles. Table and Figures | Reference | Related Articles | Metrics

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The causal mechanism between envy and subjective well-being: Based on a longitudinal study and a diary method XIANG Yanhui, HE Jiali, LI Qingyin Acta Psychologica Sinica    2022, 54 (1): 40-53.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.00040 Abstract （7250）   HTML （813）    PDF（pc） （803KB）（12385）       Knowledge map    Save With the rise of the Internet and the popularity of mobile phones, sharing life and flaunting happiness on Facebook and WeChat has gradually become the norm, which easily induces upward social comparison and leads to the generalization of envy. So, is there a predictive causal mechanism between envy and subjective well-being (SWB)? To the best of our knowledge, there is no in-depth study on this issue at present. Thus, based on the perspective of social comparison theory, this study used a longitudinal study and a diary method to systematically to explore the causal mechanism between dispositional envy and subjective well-being. A two-wave longitudinal study with the time interval of one year and a fourteen-day diary survey were conducted to test our hypotheses. Specifically, a sample of 307 young students participated in a two-wave study including the measurements of dispositional envy and SWB. We employed structural equation modelling techniques to assess cross-lagged effects between envy and the bi-factor structure of SWB [i.e., life satisfaction (LS), negative affect (NA), positive affect (PA) and the general SWB factor (gSWB)] in four models. On the other hand, a sample of 178 young students was selected by cluster sampling method. After a fourteen-day diary survey, we used HLM 6.08 to construct a hierarchical linear model to study the effects of daily envy on daily PA, NA and LS, and then we tested the mutual prediction between effect of daily envy and subjective well-being with amos24.0, latent growth curve model (LGCM) and structural equation model (SEM). The results of the longitudinal study showed that the dispositional envy of young students can positively predict NA (β = 0.54, p = 0.003) and gSWB (β = 0.81, p = 0.032), and negatively predict PA (β = -0.73, p = 0.011) and LS (β = -0.82, p = 0.016) in a long period of time. The result of the diary method indicated that the envy of the previous day could only positively predict NA of the next day in the bi-factor model of subjective well-being in a short period of time. That means the dispositional envy of young students can only positively predict their own NA. We also found that PA, NA and LS of the previous day can all predict the envy of the next day. Besides, the result of this study showed that there was an interaction between envy and gSWB, in which envy can positively predict gSWB (β = 0.81, p = 0.032) and gSWB can negatively predict envy (β = -0.17, p = 0.047). In conclusion, based on the theoretical perspective of social comparison, this study deeply reveals the complex causal mechanism between envy and PA, NA, LS of SWB from a longitudinal study and a diary method. In addition, on the basis of this finding, we put forward a circular hypothesis model of envy and gSWB for the first time, which provides a new perspective for exploring the predictive causal relationship between envy and SWB from the perspective of social comparison theory, and a new way for improving young students’ well-being. Table and Figures | Reference | Related Articles | Metrics

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Failed players, successful advertisements: Does showing the failure experience increase observers’ intention to try? LUAN Mo, LI Junpeng Acta Psychologica Sinica    2022, 54 (12): 1562-1578.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.01562 Abstract （7062）   HTML （703）    PDF（pc） （4926KB）（9074）       Knowledge map    Save It is a common strategy of advertising to show pleasant experience of users, but the effect may be opposite on game advertising. Most games are based on the principle of competition, which makes the result of the game a key factor. Success or failure would not only affect the motivation of game players, but also affect the observers. However, there are few researches on investigating how observing others' failure influences individuals' willingness to try a task, especially in the context of game. Would observing the failure (vs. success) of others in the ads of game improve observers' intention to download the game? If yes, what are the underlying psychological mechanism and boundary conditions? Based on social comparison theory and competition theory, the current research explored the influence of observing others' failure on observers' download intention of the games, and the serial mediation model of downward social comparison and competitive motivation, as well as the moderating role of difficulty and the observers' trait competitiveness were discussed. Experiment 1 explored the main effect of game results on observers’ download intention. In Experiment 1A, each participant was required to watch an ad of game. We hypothesized that after observing the failure (vs. success) of others in game advertising, individuals show higher download intention. Experiment 1B tried to replicate the main effect in a real-world context. Experiment 2 measured downward social comparison and competitive motivation through another game ad. We hypothesized that the results of the game influence observers’ download intention through the serial mediator effect of downward social comparison and competitive motivation. In Experiment 3, we devised two levels in a same game that varied in their difficulty. We hypothesized that for simple tasks, observing failure facilitates observers’ download intention, whereas for difficult tasks, this effect would be weakened. Experiment 4 explored the moderating role of observers’ trait competitiveness through the same ad of Experiment 1A. We hypothesized that for individuals with a high level of trait competitiveness, observing failure facilitates their download intention, whereas for individuals with a low level of trait competitiveness, observing failure no longer has the edge. The results of Experiment 1 provided evidence for the influence of game results on download intention. When observing failure (vs. success), individuals showed higher download intention, which supported hypothesis 1. Experiment 2 replicated the main effect through another game advertising video. Results of Experiment 2 proved the serial mediator effect of downward social comparison and trait competitiveness in the impact of observing others’ failure on download intention, which confirmed hypothesis 2. Results of Experiment 3 suggested that when individuals were faced with difficult tasks, the effect of observing others’ failure was no longer significant. In other words, task difficulty played a moderating role between observing failure and download intention, which confirmed hypothesis 3 and further verified the mediating effect. Results of Experiment 4 supported that the observer's trait competitiveness played a moderating role between observing failure and observers’ download intention. Although observing others’ failure in game advertising improved observers' download intention as a whole, this effect still varied from person to person. For individuals with high trait competitiveness, observing the failure of others would lead to higher download intention. For individuals with low trait competitiveness, this effect was no longer present. Hypothesis 4 was supported. Taken together, based on the game advertising situation, these studies confirmed the positive effect of observing others' failure on observers’ behavior intention, and expanded the research on the impact of displaying failed product experience on advertising in the field of consumer behavior. The findings of the current research also added an alternative perspective to the social learning literature. Table and Figures | Reference | Related Articles | Metrics

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The establishment of Chinese Emotion Regulation Word System (CERWS) and its pilot test YUAN Jiajin, ZHANG Yicheng, CHEN Shengdong, LUO Li, RU Yishan Acta Psychologica Sinica    2021, 53 (5): 445-455.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00445 Abstract （7056）   HTML （793）    PDF（pc） （906KB）（10802）       Knowledge map    Save Implicit emotion regulation has become a hotspot of emotion regulation research recently. However, currently there is no standardized emotion regulation word system for researchers in the field of implicit emotion regulation. The purpose of this study is to establish a Chinese Emotion Regulation Word System (CERWS) by multi-dimensional ratings and analysis of emotional regulation words, and then to verify the effectiveness of the system by experiments. In Study 1, two hundred and twenty-six emotion regulation words (N = 226) were selected as preliminary materials by group discussion. Among them, 176 were judged as emotion regulation words that corresponded to five commonly used strategies (acceptance, distraction, venting, suppression and reappraisal) and 50 as neutral words. One hundred and twenty-eight participants (N = 128) rated the representativeness of words on five emotion regulation strategies. To ensure that the selected words are not mixed in strategic meanings, the words that exclusively represent one regulatory strategy or neutral meanings were selected into CERWS as emotion regulation words or neutral words, respectively. The words of CERWS were further rated by participants on the dimensions of valence, arousal, dominance, motivational tendency, familiarity and spelling complexity (N = 128). Thirty participants were randomly selected and retested one month later (N = 30). In Study 2, the emotion regulation effect of words in CERWS was further investigated. The regulatory effect of 5 strategies of CERWS on negative emotion was tested using a typical implicit emotion regulation paradigm (sentence unscrambling task). One hundred and ninety-six participants (N = 196) were involved in Study 2, who were divided into six groups (five implicit emotion regulation groups and one control group). Before viewing neutral and disgust pictures, the participants in implicit emotion regulation groups were required to complete the sentence unscrambling tasks to prime the emotion regulation strategy, while the participants in the control group were required to complete the sentence unscrambling task that was unrelated to emotion regulation. The CERWS was established in Study 1. One hundred and forty-nine emotion regulation words (N = 149) were selected into 6 groups (acceptance, distraction, venting, suppression, reappraisal and neutral) of CERWS. Comparing the attributes of emotion regulation words with those of neutral words, we found that five emotion regulation strategies had different affective connotation. For example, acceptance strategy was characterized by high pleasure, high dominance, high approach tendency and low arousal. In terms of gender differences, males were more pleasant with the words of distraction strategy, while females were more familiar with the words of acceptance strategy. The test-retest reliability was more than 0.7 after one month. The Cronbach’s α coefficients and Kendall’s coefficients of concordance of CERWS fit with relevant criteria. Moreover, results of Study 2 showed that implicit reappraisal and implicit suppression strategies decreased the emotional valence and arousal ratings significantly, and implicit distraction strategy decreased the emotional arousal ratings significantly. In conclusion, this study has established a standardized emotion regulation words system with good reliability. Moreover, this study has verified the regulatory effect of implicit reappraisal, suppression and distraction strategies on negative emotions, which provides a reference for the future use of the system. Table and Figures | Reference | Related Articles | Metrics

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The double-edged-sword effect of empathy: The secondary traumatic stress and vicarious posttraumatic growth of psychological hotline counselors during the outbreak of COVID-19 LAI Lizu, REN Zhihong, YAN Yifei, NIU Gengfeng, ZHAO Chunxiao, LUO Mei, ZHANG Lin Acta Psychologica Sinica    2021, 53 (9): 992-1002.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00992 Abstract （6516）   HTML （805）    PDF（pc） （510KB）（10005）       Knowledge map    Save 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. Table and Figures | Reference | Related Articles | Metrics