Loading...
ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B
主办:中国心理学会
   中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

Archive

    28 July 2012, Volume 44 Issue 7 Previous Issue    Next Issue

    For Selected: Toggle Thumbnails
    Inter-word Space Effects on Saccadic Target Selection in Chinese Reading: Evidence from Second Language Learners
    BAI Xue-Jun,LIANG Fei-Fei,YAN Guo-Li,TIAN Jin,ZANG Chuan-Li,MENG Hong-Xia
    2012, 44 (7):  853-867. 
    Abstract ( 800 )   PDF (590KB) ( 1760 )  
    A series of studies have demonstrated that saccadic target selection within alphabetic writing systems is based on words. Specifically, there is plenty of evidence that the observation of the optimal viewing location effect, in which words are identified most quickly when they are fixated close to the word center, and the preferred viewing location effect, in which landing positions on words are most commonly observed to be just to the left of the word centre. If word spaces are removed, the preferred viewing location is transferred to the word beginning. There is a heated debate, however, concerning the basic unit of saccadic target selection in non-alphabetic writing systems, such as Chinese, which is printed as continuous strings of characters without spaces between the words. It is intriguing whether the saccadic targets are selected on the basis of characters or words during Chinese reading.
    In the present study, we selected readers with different native languages, with Chinese as a second language, to investigate the role of inter-word space on saccadic target selection during Chinese reading, especially to explore whether this effect was modulated by the familiarity of the presentation for their native languages.
    The eye movements of 80 participants with Chinese as a second language, whose native languages were Korean, American, Japanese, and Thai were recorded with a SR Research EyeLink 1000 eye tracker (sampling rate = 1000 Hz) that monitored the position of the right eye every millisecond. All of the participants were instructed to read 64 Chinese sentences with two different presentation conditions (normal, unspaced condition and word-spaced presentation). For each participant, half of the sentences were presented in the normal, unspaced condition, and the other half were presented with word-spaced condition.
    The results showed that there was a very similar pattern in the saccadic targeting selection for the four groups of second language learners, regardless of their native language: they showed a strong tendency to fixate the word center in single-fixation cases, and to fixate the word beginning in multiple-fixation cases. Furthermore, the proportion of the first fixation which located in the word center across the word-spaced condition is higher than that in the normal, unspaced condition, which indicated that the insertion of spaces between words partially guided the next saccadic target selection effectively. According to the theory of primary oculomotor control, we propose that readers with Chinese as a second language use “strategy-tactics” to guide their eye movements during Chinese reading.
    Related Articles | Metrics
    Effects of Phonetic Radical Position on the Regularity Effect for Naming Pictophonetic Characters
    CAI Hou-De,Qi Xing-Liang,CHEN Qing-Rong,ZHONG Yuan
    2012, 44 (7):  868-881. 
    Abstract ( 868 )   PDF (381KB) ( 1522 )  
    The regularity effect has been found for naming low-frequency pictophonetic characters but not high-frequency pictophonetic characters. However, all or most of the characters used in these studies had their phonetic radicals on the right. Therefore, the results may suggest a processing pattern that is only applicable to these characters. In the present study, three experiments were conducted to investigate the regularity effect for naming four types of pictophonetic characters: left-right structure with their phonetic radicals on the left; left-right structure with their phonetic radicals on the right; upper-lower structure with their phonetic radicals on top; and upper-lower structure with their phonetic radicals on the bottom. In this way, we were able to explore effects of the positions of phonetic radicals on the regularity effect.
    In the first experiment, only characters with their phonetic radicals on the right were tested. The results a) duplicated the regularity effect for low-frequency characters that was shown in previous studies in which the positions of phonetic radicals were not manipulated and b) displayed a reversed regularity effect for naming the high-frequency characters. In the second experiment, characters with their phonetic radicals in the left and right positions were examined. The regularity effect was found for naming the low-frequency characters with their phonetic radicals on the right, and a reversed regularity effect was found for naming the high-frequency characters with their phonetic radicals on the left. In the third experiment, characters with their phonetic radicals in the upper and lower positions were tested. The regularity effect was found for naming the low-frequency characters with their phonetic radicals in the lower position and both the low- and high-frequency characters with their phonetic radicals in the upper position, but a reversed regularity effect was obtained for naming the high-frequency characters with their phonetic radicals in the lower position.
    These results indicate that when phonetic radicals are located in the right or lower positions, where their pronunciations are easily activated, the regularity effect is applicable to naming low-frequency characters whereas there is a reversed regularity effect or no regularity effect for naming high-frequency characters. The reversed regularity effect is more sensitive to position changes of phonetic radicals for the left-right structure of characters but less sensitive to changes in the upper-lower structure of characters.
    We propose that the positions of phonetic radicals may be a spatial attribute of the sub-lexical units that determines the convenience of the activation of their pronunciation. Word frequency may be a lexical attribute that restricts the convenience and may regulate the direction of the effects of the positions of phonetic radicals on the regularity effect.
    Related Articles | Metrics
    Role of Familiarity of Semantic Radicals in the Recognition of Lowly Familiar Chinese Characters
    CHEN Xin-Kui,ZHANG Ji-Jia
    2012, 44 (7):  882-895. 
    Abstract ( 771 )   PDF (470KB) ( 1292 )  
    Chinese characters are logograms, with semantic radicals playing the dominating role in conveying meaning through form. Though fruitful results have been achieved in semantic radical’s studies, providing evidence to support that semantic radical embodies the pictographic, ideographic and grammar function. The tasks applied in those studies are mostly outline, much less inline. The latter method mainly regards frequency as a balance-matching factor, while the matching method is likely to hide the difference in processing characters with different frequencies; this is probably one important reason why no concordant conclusion has been made in current semantic radical’s studies.
    This study, referring to the Chen Xinkui and Zhang Jijias’ research on the influence of the familiarity of semantic radicals on the recognition of high frequency Chinese characters, and applying the same research paradigm, i.e., by matching components of high frequency words and low frequency words like word frequency, number of strokes, details, contextual requisitions, probed into the impact of low frequency phonograms as initiate words on target words under three different SOA conditions, thus analyze systematically and thoroughly the impact of familiarity of semantic radicals on the understanding of phonograms.
    The results showed that when SOA = 43ms, the target latencies following R+S-primes were slower than the R - S - controls under the highly familiar semantic radical condition; however, this was not the case under the less familiar condition. When SOA = 72ms, the target latencies following R+S- primes were slowed relative to R - S - controls under both highly familiar and less familiar semantic radical conditions. Further, when SOA= 243ms, facilitation effects of R-S+ and inhibition effects of R+S- Primes were observed under both highly and lowly familiar semantic radicals conditions, with a inhibition effects found in the highly familiar one.
    The results indicated a dynamic interaction between the processing of semantic radicals and the processing of whole characters. As an important influencing factor of lexical processing, word frequency influence not only the speed of lexical access, but also the processing of sublexical component such as radicals. Those two were at the different processing level. The results provided new evidences for the model of semantic radical representaion, and surported to theory of Chinese character’s cognition further.
    Related Articles | Metrics
    The Effect of Mass Representation and Oculomotor Overshoot on “Representational Momentum”
    WANG Xiang-Bo,DAI Xiao-Dong,DING Jin-Hong
    2012, 44 (7):  896-909. 
    Abstract ( 634 )   PDF (702KB) ( 876 )  
    Analogous to the physical momentum of objects in the real-world, visual memory for the final position of a moving target is usually displaced along its trajectory. Such displacement is referred to representational momentum. Several different approaches have been applied to interpret the representational momentum, which range from low-level perceptual processing to high-level cognitive mechanisms (Hubbard, 2010). An early approach tried to explain the displacement effect by cognitive factors dealing with principles of “internalized dynamics”. In addition to this cognitive approach, “low-level” explanations of representational momentum also have been proposed, suggesting that sensory factors play a decisive role. In particular, one plausible interpretation attributes the displacement effect to oculomotor action. In addition, it is possible that high-level information regarding physical principles contribute to the displacement by modulating eye movements (Hubbard, 2006b).
    We hypothesize that if eye movements modulate or mediate the effects of such information on displacement, disrupting normal eye movement would interrupt the effective information. In the current study, three types of 3D balls (made of paper, wood or stone) rolled from left or right sides accompanied by sound corresponding to the ball material. In Experiment 1, subjects (22 college students) were instructed to indicate the stop position of the ball by pressing a button after tracking its movement for 1037ms and disappeared about 350ms. In Experiment 2, subjects (19 college students) were asked either to pursue the moving target until it disappeared or to track it till it stopped at the center of screen indicating by a “+”. The other procedures are similar to the Experiment 1. The subjects’ eye positions in both experiments were recorded by SMI Hi-Speed eye tracking system with sampling rate of 350Hz.
    In Experiment 1, the forward shift in the direction of motion of the stone ball was larger than those of the wooden and paper balls’. There was a significant difference between the forward shift of the stone ball and wooden or paper ball. In addition, the oculomotor overshoot velocity of the stone ball was significantly faster than other two lighter balls’. In Experiment 2, when the oculomotor behavior was controlled, the forward shift in the trajectory and the oculomotor overshoot velocity were reduced compared to those in the eye tracking condition.
    The present findings revealed that high-level cognitive factors (mass representation) modulate both oculomotor behavior and representational momentum. Meanwhile, representational momentum is also influenced by oculomotor overshoot. Our results suggest that high-level cognitive factors (mass representation) influence representational momentum by oculomotor-related information. Yet, representational momentum is also affected by many other factors. Our study provides new evidence that perceptual factor (oculomotor information) is not the only way to produce representational momentum.
    Related Articles | Metrics
    Effect of Task Information Accessibility on Visual Imagery Eye-movement
    HE Li-Guo,ZHOU Ai-Bao,GUO Tian-You,BAO Xu-Hui
    2012, 44 (7):  910-923. 
    Abstract ( 687 )   PDF (516KB) ( 1380 )  
    Visual imagery is an important visuo-spatial representation, which has the same mental storage characteristics with visual perception (Romke, Kosslyn & Hamel, 1997), sharing the same brain mechanisms with visual perception (Kosslyn, Thompson & Alpert, 1997; Ganis, Thompson & Kosslyn, 2004). As is known to all, fixation is the primary source of visual perception information, and eye movement is very important to visual perception. So, does eye movement also play an important role in the visual imagery processing? There are two contrasting accounts for the phenomenon. The functional account hypothesizes that the encoding of each eye fixation during perception process participates, as an index in the location of the space in the subsequent image generation.
    In contrast, the epiphenomenal account views eye movements during imagery processing as the passive “spill over” from covert shifts of attention during the stage of image inspection, subsequently to its generation (Laeng & Teodorescu, 2002). Early studies (Jacobson, 1932; Lorens & Darrow, 1962) reported increased oculomotor activity during visualization and during mental arithmetic. Recently, researchers found that subjects who fixed their gaze centrally during perception did the same spontaneously during imagery. The subjects who are free to explore during perception, but maintaining central fixation during imagery, showed decreased ability to recall the pattern. They concluded that the eye scan paths during visual imagery reenact those of perception of the same visual scene and eye movements during mental imagery are not epiphenomenal but assist the process of image generation (Brandt & Stark, 1997; Laeng & Teodorescu, 2002). Actually, whether regular eye movements promote the representation processing relies on the level of eye movement regularity of change that regular change task information accessibility of visual imagery would cause. If task information accessibility level change inevitably leads to eye movement regularity changes, it can be inferred that eye movements play a functional role in visual imagery.
    Forty postgraduates, from 25 to 30 years old, attended two experiments respectively. All participants didn’t know the purpose of the experiment and had normal or corrected-to-normal vision. Stimulus presentation and data collection were controlled by two microcomputers. Eye movements were recorded by means of the Eye Tracking Device made by ASL with a sample frequency of 256Hz. Referencing Brandt & Stark (1997) and Laeng & Teodorescu (2002) study, the “perception-imagery” dual task experimental paradigm was applied to compare the change of eye-movement parameters in different task information accessibility level in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, task information accessibility effect was dissociated from eye controlling in order to see how task information accessibility levels influence visual imagery eye movements.
    The results revealed that under the low task information accessibility, the eye movements in visual imagery duplicate the pattern in perception, and eye-movement parameters, such as average fixation, saccade duration, saccade distance, will change in accordance with task information accessibility levels. The second experiment replicated successfully the findings of the first experiment. Eye-movement control and task information accessibility has different influence on visual imagery processing. The eye movements in visual imagery not only duplicate the pattern in perception, but also change depending on the level of task information accessibility. That is to say, eye movements play a functional role in visual imagery.
    Related Articles | Metrics
    Brain Perceived Intuitively Mental Impasses in Insight Problem Solving: An ERP Study
    SHEN Wang-Bing,LIU Chang,LUO Jing,YU Jie
    2012, 44 (7):  924-935. 
    Abstract ( 1116 )   PDF (456KB) ( 2165 )  
    Although previous studies on insight have fully investigated brain activities and neural correlates of “flash of insight”, little knowledge was known on cognitive process of active solution-seeking in problem solving before insight. Studies revealed that we would not obtain a full and deep understanding on insight problem solving and its neural basis, unless given an equal and all-sided study for active solution-seeking before insight and “flash of insight” during hint presentation period. Mental impasse is an important elementary process not only for subsequent incubation and presentation restructuring but also for human problem solving behavior. However, yet to date there were few studies that have examined this issue. Existing studies on FOK in insight tasks solving revealed that people’s metacognition can not accurately monitor sudden insight, but they did not elucidate whether people’s intuition can perceive possible mental impasse subsequently encountered or not. Thus, the present study focused on this problem.
    The current study adopted normal three-word Chinese riddles and firstly employed high-density event related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the neural markers of insight during active solutions-seeking period. 13 paid participants were recruited to fulfill a three-character guessing task, and brain electrical activity was recorded. The results showed that, the process of active solutions-seeking of riddles with impasses compared to those without impasses elicited a more positive potential in the time windows of 120~210 ms (P170) and 620~800 ms (terminal LPC). P170 may be associated with the processing that people perceive intuitively mental impasses at the perceptual stage, whereas the terminal LPC may be associated with a conscious reappraisal and reflection of mental impasses. These results imply that mental impasse not only appears at the terminal phase, but also be intuition-sensitive at the perceptual stage. Human brain can perceive whether they would meet subsequent mental impasses or not during problem solving.
    The mental ruts hypothesis claims that mental impasses are formed because the repeated exploration of an unsuccessful search path or the search for the same knowledge element adds more and more activation to this path. However, our findings suggest that mental impasses in insight riddle solving task do not result from iterative repetitions of non-effective exploration. If necessary, mental impasses can be formed initially at an early stage, and then be reappraised at a late stage. The finding suggests that human brain can perceive intuitively subsequent mental impasses underlying our complex insight problem solving behaviors at an early stage.
    Related Articles | Metrics
    The Effect of the Impulsivity on the Conditioned Placed Preference and Behavioral Sensitization Induced by Morphine in Rats
    ZHANG Liu,LI Xin-Wang,ZHANG Wen-Ting,DU Rui
    2012, 44 (7):  936-943. 
    Abstract ( 781 )   PDF (331KB) ( 1153 )  
    Conditioned placed preference (CPP), which reflects the rewarding and the strengthening effects of addictive drug, is a classical experimental model to evaluate drug addiction. Behavioral sensitization is defined as an increased (behavioral) response to a given dose of drug or a response of a similar magnitude upon treatment with a lower dose of drug after repeated treatment. It reflects the behavioral activation effect of addictive drug. Many studies have demonstrated the high relevance between abuse-like effects of some drugs (such as nicotine, cocaine and heroin) and impulsivity. However, little is known of the relationship between impulsivity and CPP induced by morphine. Therefore, this experiment attempted to investigate the effects of impulsivity on CPP and behavioral sensitization induced by morphine, using delayed reward model (T maze) and CPP model.
    Adult male Wistar rats were stratified into three groups (high impulsivity, HI; middle impulsivity, MI; low impulsivity, LI) according to their choices in a delayed reward model, and then received morphine administration in morphine-paired chamber or saline administration in morphine-unpaired chamber. The following behavior of rats was recorded: the time of stay in morphine–paired chamber before and after morphine administration, the effect of morphine on the development of behavioral sensitization (the locomotor activity of 45 minutes in morphine–paired chamber) and the locomotor activities in the expression period (the locomotor activity of 120 minutes after conversion of behavioral sensitization).
    The result of experiment suggested that the magnitude of the place preference of the three groups of rats was: LI > MI > HI. LI and MI animals developed CPP while HI group did not develop CPP. These results demonstrated that in CPP, the higher the innate impulse in rats, the less the rewarding and the strengthening effects of morphine (HI﹥MI﹥LI).
    In the test of behavioral sensitization, morphine induced significant behavioral sensitization in HI and MI rats but not in LI rats.
    The present data suggested that the impulsivity level in rats is a negative correlation with the CPP and a positive correlation with the behavioral sensitization, which induced by morphine. It also indicated that the effects of the innate differences of impulsivity on CPP and behavioral sensitization are inconsistent.
    Related Articles | Metrics
    Effects of Parental Support and Friendship Support on Loneliness and Depression During Early and Middle Adolescence
    TIAN Lu-Mei,CHEN Guang-Hui,WANG Shu-Qiong,LIU Hai-Jiao,ZHANG Wen-Xin
    2012, 44 (7):  944-956. 
    Abstract ( 3088 )   PDF (457KB) ( 7924 )  
    Teenagers’ relationships with parents and friends undergo many changes during their adolescence. Friendship becomes increasingly important. However, researchers have found that support and warmth from parents still play an important role in fostering healthy socioemotional development for adolescents.
    Although lots of studies have explored the main effect of parental and friendship support on adolescent adjustments, few have examined the interaction between the two. It should be noted that at least three relationship patterns have been discovered according to existing research: an enhancement pattern, a compensation pattern and an independence pattern. But no consistent conclusion about these interaction patterns has been achieved, which is probably due to different emotional problems, ages and genders in different studies. So this study adopted the Chinese modified versions of the Network of Relationships Inventory, Friendship Quality Questionnaire, Loneliness Scale, and Children’s Depression Inventory, and specially focused on the interaction patterns between parental support and friendship support on adolescent loneliness and depression and their applicability to different stages and genders with a sample of 391 Chinese adolescents (211 boys and 180 girls) from grade 7 (early adolescence) and 10 (middle adolescence). The main findings were as follows.
    (1) On one hand, middle adolescents perceived significantly lower parental support and friendship quality than early adolescents did, but no significant difference was found in loneliness and depression. On the other hand, girls perceived obviously higher friendship support than boys did, and no other significant difference was observed between genders. (2) Friendship support was the better predictor for adolescent loneliness, whereas parental support was the better predictor for adolescent depression. (3) During early adolescence, parental support and friendship support had significant interactions in loneliness and depression while the specific interacting patterns were different. High level of parental support enhanced the positive effect of high friendship support on reducing loneliness (an enhancement pattern), whereas high friendship support compensated the negative effect of low level of parental support (a compensation pattern); High parental support and high friendship support enhanced each other in the positive effect on reducing depression (an enhancement- each-other pattern). (4) Contrasted to early adolescents, there was no significant interaction between parental support and friendship support on middle adolescent depression (an independence pattern). These interacting patterns of boys were similar to those of girls.
    It suggests that the effects of family and peers on adolescent emotional adjustments take several types of patterns, which can be applied to different adjustment problems and development stages.
    Related Articles | Metrics
    Influences of Temporal Distances, Cover Story, and Probability on Framing Effect
    SONG Guang-Wen,XIA Xing-Xing,LI Cheng-Zong,HE Yun-Feng
    2012, 44 (7):  957-963. 
    Abstract ( 985 )   PDF (380KB) ( 1984 )  
    When making choices, people are sensitive to the way in which the problem is presented. This sensitivity was well exemplified by the framing effect initially described by Tversky and Kahneman (1984). In the well-known “Asian disease problem ”, they found that the majority were risk averse when the options of the problem were framed positively, yet turned to be risk seeking when the options were framed negatively.
    The first study was to investigate 625 Chinese college students’ cognitive relativity in different temporal distances and cover stories. The results of the questionnaire survey showed the main effect of temporal distances and cover stories were both significant, and the effect of interaction was also significant. It showed the greatest cognitive relativity when the temporal distance was 1 year under the bad cover story.
    The second study used scenarios that were similar to the Asian disease problem to research how the characteristics of the cover stories framing effects and probability levels influence risk preference in different temporal distances. In order to examine whether temporal distances (1 week, 1 year, 5 year and 50 year), the characteristics of the cover stories (good vs. bad) and the probability of outcomes (high vs. median vs. low) would affect people’s risk preference, the scenarios were designed to begin with four different temporal distances, therefore, there was a four 2 (the cover story: good vs. bad) × 3 (probabilities: high vs. median vs. low) × 2 (outcome framing: positive v s. negative) mixed designs with probabilities as the within participants variable and the other three factors as between participants variables. McNemar test and logistic regression were performed for the analysis. The results were as follows: (1) When temporal distance was 1 week, under bad cover story, the difference among three probabilities were significant in the number of pursuing sick; when the probability was 95%, the main effect of cover story and the effect of interaction between cover story and outcome framing were significant; (2) Framing effect was found only on high probabilities level under bad cover story when temporal distance was 1 week.
    Related Articles | Metrics
    The Effects of Authoritarian Personality and Power on Moral Thinking
    LI Xiao-Ping,YANG Sheng-Yu, LI Meng-Yao
    2012, 44 (7):  964-971. 
    Abstract ( 1666 )   PDF (335KB) ( 4012 )  
    In situations of moral dilemma – for example, when urban management officers meet street vendors – people have to decide what is fair and to choose between at least two conflicting options. They have to decide whether to apply rules or not, and their decisions may have different consequences for the people affected. Applying and not applying rules are two opposite types of moral thinking to resolve the dilemma. The former is rule-based moral thinking, and the latter is outcome-based moral thinking. In rule-based moral thinking, an act is inherently right or wrong, irrespective of specifics of the circumstances. In outcome-based moral thinking, the rightness of an act is not determined by the degree to which it fits with principles, but by looking at the consequences of that act. Previous research has shown that people with high power are more likely to use rule-based moral thinking styles, whereas low-power individuals are more likely to rely on outcome-based moral thinking. Another concept that is potentially related to power is authoritarian personality. The hypothesis of the current research is that the effects of power priming on moral thinking style are moderated by authoritarian personality type. More specifically, we expected that when primed with high power, only individuals with high-authoritarian personality would show rule-based moral thinking.
    To test our hypothesis, 122 public servants from the Chinese Public Security System were recruited to participate in the present study. Participants were first divided into two groups of high and low authoritarians based on their scores on an authoritarian personality scale. They were then randomly assigned to conditions in which they were primed with either high or low power. After the power priming procedure, participants read about a classic trolley problem and indicated how they would deal with the moral dilemma. Their choices reflected either rule-based or outcome-based moral thinking style.
    The results showed that compared to low-authoritarian participants, high-authoritarian participants were more likely to adopt rule-based moral thinking style. Moreover, high-authoritarian participants, after being primed with high power, exhibited more rule-based moral thinking. However, such effects were not found in those who scored low on the authoritarian personality scale. Therefore, power only affected high-authoritarian participants on moral thinking, but not low authoritarians.
    The present work allows us to better understand intergroup conflicts resulting from different moral thinking styles. According to previous research, public servants in the Public Security System tended to possess authoritarian personality. Current findings suggest that in the face of moral dilemmas, high-power public servants are probably more inclined to adopt rule-based moral thinking style than the relatively powerless general public. Therefore, when confronting with each other, high-power parties with authoritarian personality may appear rigid and unbending toward low-power parties. In the meantime, low-power parties may appear irresponsible, focusing on immediate outcomes rather than higher legal and social norms, especially in the eyes of the powerful. Furthermore, if rule-based and outcome-based moral principles lead to different decisions, conflicts between low- and high-power parties may arise as a result. Better conflict resolution strategies should therefore aim at satisfying both parties by incorporating both outcome- and rule-based elements.
    Related Articles | Metrics
    The Structure of Voice Efficacy and its Role in the Formation Mechanism of Employee Voice Behavior
    DUAN Jin-Yun,WEI Qiu-Jiang
    2012, 44 (7):  972-985. 
    Abstract ( 1251 )   PDF (478KB) ( 3385 )  
    As one representative kind of extra-role and challenging-promotive discretionary behavior, employees’ voice behaviors are valuable for employees themselves and the organization as a whole, especially in the complex economic society in the modern times. Nowadays, there are multitudes of scholars who had paid more attention to this important organizational phenomenon, and explored the formation mechanisms under this behavior preliminarily, in varieties of perspectives. Although these findings were inspiring, the cognitive decision-making processes underlying the behavioral engagement had remained relatively unexplored. Since Chiaburu et al.(2008) had first mentioned about this topic, and assumed an initial framework explaining discretionary behaviors including voice in particular using cognitive processes model, there were few scholars met this. This study attempted to fill this gap.
    On the foundations of the Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1986) and Conservation of Resources Theory (Hobfoll, 2002), after inducing and clarifying the definition of voice efficacy, this study explored the role that voice efficacy played in the cognitive mechanism of voice behavior. The research was consisted of two sub-studies which sampled from private-firm employees and joint-venture employees in Yangtze Delta area of China. Study 1, according to the advice of Kish-gephart et al.(2009), 26 random samples of employees were interviewed to collect critical incidents of voice efficacy, and 14 items were collected. Then a questionnaire was made up of based on this 14 items. After the data survey, 3 items were deleted by item analysis procedure. Then, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted with 188 samples, the results showed that voice efficacy was one-dimension construct containing 7 optimal items. The results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with the other 188 samples further supported this construct.
    Study 2 probed the effects of voice efficacy in the formaiton mechanism of employee voice behavior. Based on 401 employee-supervisor matched samples, the results indicated that, general self-efficacy was positively related to voice behavior. In addition, voice efficacy mediated the positive relationship between general self-efficacy and voice behavior. Besides, the study also found that, under the condition of high job availability employee will conduct more voice behaviors. But job availability negatively moderated the positive relationship between voice efficacy and voice behavior. This outcome corroborated what conservation of Resources Theory purported, namely, resources are particularly salient in the context of loss (Hobfoll, 2002). The results of study 2 also supported the construct validity of what study 1 found, namely, voice efficacy.
    The implications, limitaions and future orientations of the study were discussed as well.
    Related Articles | Metrics
    “Le”: The Chinese Subject Well-Being and the View of Happiness in China Tradition Culture
    ZENG Hong,GUO Si-Ping
    2012, 44 (7):  986-994. 
    Abstract ( 2724 )   PDF (394KB) ( 6044 )  
    Subject Well-Being is an experience which involves evaluation by individuals of their quality of life according to the standard they set for themselves. Subject Well-Being includes feelings of happiness, peace of mind, sense of achievement and satisfaction with life.
    Chinese make place great emphasis on harmonious interpersonal relationship in their Subject Well-Being. Spirituality is also highly valued. These characteristics of Subject Well-Being have been influenced largely by the culture’s traditional view of happiness. Traditionally in Chinese culture, well-being is expressed using the word “Le” (happiness), Le is a psychological experience which is based on empirical and inner experience and feeling.
    The Multi-cultural nature of ancient Chinese society has helped to form the characteristics associated with the Chinese’ view of happiness. Confucian, Dao and Buddhism all have their own basic view on happiness: Confucian separated happiness onto two levels: one level where happiness is derived from the satisfaction of basic needs in real life, and the second where rational happiness comes from being kind to others and contributing to society at large (feeling of social value). Dao’s view of happiness required people to look beyond reality for happiness and suggested that happiness could be acquired from San appreciation of the beauty of nature and life. The Dao view also suggested that happiness and unhappiness were related and dependent on each other and that people should not rely on the material world for happiness. The Buddhist view was that everything in life was empty for humans apart from entering nirvana and that helping other people to get into nirvana would help them to achieve Subject Well-Being.
    Traditional Chinese culture also encouraged people to pursue the ‘ideal personality’. It was believed that in the process of pursuing, and upon attainment of the ideal personality, people would be in possession of the kind of happiness and Subject Well-Being that is achieved through kindness and contribution to society: having intelligence as water, morality as mountains and appreciating and enjoying the beauty of nature (mountain, river and sea). It was thought that when people truly developed the ability to appreciate the wonders of nature and life, the process of this appreciation would become a kind of happiness in itself.
    In summary, each school developed their unique opinions about happiness and Subject Well-Being. At the same time, these theories were integrated in the Chinese approach to the pursuit of happiness and Subject Well-Being. Ultimately, the Chinese formed a unique view of happiness and found ways of achieving happiness and Subject Well-Being other than the normal approach, which is similar to that of western culture.
    In conclusion, the view of Subject Well-Being in traditional Chinese culture is unique in three characteristics: first, personal emotion is not the key point in Subject Well-Being but rather interpersonal relationships and the feelings of social value; second, Subject Well-Being of the individual is not a single feeling and is always connected to moral sense and a sense of beauty; third, Chinese traditional culture encourages people to pursue rational happiness, which transcends happiness and Subject Well-Being in reality.
    Related Articles | Metrics