Acta Psychologica Sinica

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The influence of emotion regulation flexibility on negative emotions: Evidence from experience sampling

WANG Xiaoqin, TAN Yafei, MENG Jie, LIU Yuan, WEI Dongtao, YANG Wenjing, QIU Jiang

Acta Psychologica Sinica 2023, 55 (2): 192-209. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2023.00192

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In our complex social environments, life situations are ever-changing. When dealing with these changes, there is no one-size-fits-all response or regulatory strategy suitable for all situations. Emotion regulation flexibility (ERF)—a framework for understanding individual differences in adaptive responding to ever-changing life contexts—emphasizes that individuals can flexibly deploy and adjust emotion regulation strategies according to specific characteristics of stressful situations in daily life. To achieve regulatory efficacy, it is important that one can utilize a balanced profile of ER strategies and select strategies that fit well with particular stressful situations. Specifically, using multiple ER strategies in daily life, rather than relying on only single-strategies, would indicate higher ERF. Additionally, based on leading models of strategy-situation fit, certain ER strategies are more appropriate for high versus low intensity stressful events. For instance, distraction involves with shielding oneself from negative stimuli and replacing them with irrelevant things, which may have a greater regulatory effect in high-intensity negative situations. Conversely, strategies such as reappraisal, which involves the processing of negative situations through deep cognitive change, may be more effective in lower-intensity negative situations and as a cornerstone of longer-term ER. We used the experience-sampling method (ESM) to quantify individual’s ERF; more specifically we assess participants for 1) having more or less balanced ER strategy profiles and 2) showing greater strategy-situation fit, in regard to the use of distraction versus reappraisal in the regulation of high-intensity versus low-intensity negative life events. To test the adaptive value of ERF on negative emotions and mental health, we investigated the influence of ERF on depressive and anxiety symptoms in two samples. We hypothesized that individuals with a more balanced profile of ER strategy use and a great level of strategy-situation fit would have higher levels of mental health, indicated by low levels of anxiety and depressive feelings.

In sample 1, two hundred eight college students finished the ESM procedure (2859 beeps). Intensity of negative situations was measured by self-reported negative feelings for the time points where participants reported an adverse event. Simultaneously, we assessed participants’ use of two ER strategies (i.e., distraction and reappraisal). Considering the negative impact of COVID-19 on people’s daily life, we collected another sample (sample 2, 3462 beeps) with one hundred people who lived in Hubei Province, where Wuhan was in lockdown during the severe phase of COVID-19 (March 7-13, 2020). We measured intensity of negative situations (by averaging individuals’ negative feelings), as well as the use of two ER strategies at corresponding time points. After completing the ESM procedure, the participants were asked to fill out a series of emotional health questionnaires, including Beck Depression Inventory-II, Beck Anxiety Inventory and Spielberger State Anxiety Scale. Multilevel models were used to fit the covariation between the use of distraction versus reappraisal ER strategies and the intensity of negative events. Additionally, we used multiple level regression models to test whether high level of strategy-situation fit would result in lower negative feelings. To test whether a single-strategy preference would lead to higher levels of anxiety and depressive feelings compared to a multiple-strategy preference, latent profile analyses (LPA) was used.

Results from the LPA indicated that there were five emotion regulation profiles in sample 1 (AIC = 3597.30, BIC = 3751.48, Entropy = 0.84, BLRT_p = 0.009) and six profiles in sample2 (AIC = 1595.19, BIC = 1754.71, Entropy = 0.95, BLRT_p = 0.001). In sample 1, results from One-way ANOVA showed that there were significant difference between five profiles in both depression (F (4, 206) = 5.44, p < 0.001) and anxiety (F (4, 206) = 5.68, p < 0.001) (See Figure 1 a-b). In sample 2, results from One-way ANOVA also showed that there were significant difference between six profiles in both depression (F (5, 95) = 2.74, p = 0.024) and anxiety (F (5, 95) = 2.98, p = 0.015) (See Figure 1 c-d). Specifically, individuals with preferences for rumination and express suppression reported higher levels depression and anxiety than individuals with a multi-strategy preference in two independent samples. In the multilevel models, results of the two independent samples both suggested that there were significant association between strategy-situation fit and depression and anxiety (Depression: Sample 1 [B = −0.01, p = 0.047, f ²=0.03]; Sample 2 [B = −0.01, p = 0.017, f ²= 0.03], see Table 1; Anxiety: Sample 1 [B = −0.00, p = 0.591]; Sample 2 [B = −0.01, p < 0.001, f ²= 0.05], see Table 3). Furthermore, simple slope tests showed that individuals who were more inclined to use a higher level of distraction in response to high-intensity negative situations (e.g., adverse events or during COVID-19) and of reappraisal during low-intensity situations (i.e., high level of ERF) reported lower levels of depression (Sample 1 [B = 0.14, p = 0.003]; Sample 2 [B = 0.13, p < 0.001], See Table 2, Figure 2 a-b and Figure 3 a-b) and anxiety (Sample 1 [B = 0.04, p = 0.356]; Sample 2 [B = 0.26, p < 0.001] See Table 4, Figure 2 c-d and Figure 3 c-d). On the converse, individuals who tended to use more distraction in low intensity situations and more reappraisal in high intensity situations, (i.e., those showing lower ERF) reported a higher level of negative feelings.

Together, our findings revealed a negative relationship between ERF and mental health problems in two samples, suggesting that having balanced ER profiles and flexibly deploying strategies in specific life contexts may have adaptive value in facilitating positive mental health. This work deepens our understanding of the interaction between ER strategies and situational demands, paving the way for future intervention research to help alleviate negative emotions associated with affective disorders or the experience of major traumatic events (such as epidemics, earthquakes, etc.).

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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

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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 defeat 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 (S = −4.37, p< 0.001, 95% CI= [−5.57, −3.32]). 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 (S = −3.40, p< 0.001, 95% CI = [−4.53, −2.21]);

(2) Defeat partially mediated the relationship between the parent-child relationship and educational involvement and adolescent depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation (Direct effects_depression = 0.22, 95% CI = [0.16, 0.27], indirect effects_depression = 0.19, 95% CI = [0.14, 0.24]; Direct effects_self-injury = 0.14, 95% CI = [0.07, 0.20], indirect effects_self-injury = 0.10, 95% CI = [0.06, 0.14]; Direct effects_{suicidal ideation} = 0.21, 95% CI = [0.15, 0.28], indirect effects_{suicidal ideation} = 0.12, 95% CI = [0.08, 0.17]); (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.

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“Neijuan” in China: The psychological concept and its characteristic dimensions

ZHANG Wen, PAN Chao, YAO Shiming, ZHU Jiajia, LING Dong, YANG Hanchun, XU Jingsha, MU Yan

Acta Psychologica Sinica 2024, 56 (1): 107-123. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2024.00107

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With the deepening and spread of reform and opening-up, China has undergone rapid and unprecedented economic growth and societal transformations over the past few decades. Accumulating evidence has revealed the impacts of sociocultural changes on Chinese mental health. Since 2020, a popular buzzword, “Neijuan” (involution), has garnered significant attention and discussion in daily life. Neijuan could be traced back to agricultural involution, which refers to a process of inward over-elaboration in agricultural development. This concept was first identified by the anthropologist Geertz (1963), who observed that population growth failed to enhance productivity growth and economic development.

Despite Neijuan's growing attention, it is still unclear about the connotation and characteristic dimensions of this social phenomenon. Cultural psychology provides a solid theoretical and empirical basis for exploring how social and cultural changes affect individuals’ psychological states and behaviors. In this context, we propose that Neijuan is a multidimensional psychological concept of great significance in this new era, closely connected to cultural changes in China’s rapid development and growth.

To explore the psychological concept of Neijuan, Study 1 employed a grounded theory approach through in-depth interviews to clarify the intricate psychological components of Neijuan, including resource scarcity, social norm, psychological pressure, and competition (see Figure 1). At the macro level, limited resources of society and organization would make people conform to the implicit norms and perform irrational behaviors related to Neijuan. At the micro level, people would perceive intrinsic and extrinsic stressors to make them feel stressed and lead to no-benign competitive behaviors.

Based on the results of Study 1, Studies 2 and 3 developed a measurement tool to validate the multiple characteristic dimensions of Neijuan in Chinese culture, utilizing exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). We first designed the measurement including 68 items to assess individuals’ perception of Neijuan. Based on the classical measurement theory, the discrimination ability of 68 items was analyzed by using the independent sample t test and the correlation test of total scores and each item score as the discrimination index. Through item analysis, we deleted only one item because of no difference between the low- and high-score groups. Then, principal component analysis (PCA) and the Procrustes variance maximum-oblique rotation method were used to analyze the factors of 67 items. The results showed that there are four factors for the feature value greater than 1, the cumulative total variation is 56.62%, and the load value of each item is between 0.45 and 0.88. Further, we explored the rationality of the four-factor model. The results among employees and undergraduates showed that χ²/df was less than 3, SRMR was less than 0.10, TLI and CFI were all more than 0.80, and RMSEA was less than 0.10, which suggested the model fits well. Thus, we supplied the effective 18-item measurement for assessing the individual perception of Neijuan and confirmed that Neijuan comprises four dimensions: resource scarcity, social norm, psychological pressure, and competition. Subsequently, Study 4 used a Neijuan scenario-based task in the university and workplace environments to assess participants’ behavioral tendencies related to Neijuan and examined the relationship between individuals’ perceptions of Neijuan and their actual behaviors. Results revealed that individuals with higher levels of perceived Nejuan exhibited a greater tendency to engage in behaviors associated with Neijuan among employees (r = 0.66, p < 0.001) and undergraduates (r = 0.61, p < 0.001).

In summary, the series of studies sought to explore the psychological concept and multiple characteristic dimensions of Neijuan, which provides a theoretical and empirical basis for understanding this significant phenomenon in the contemporary era. The current research also offers an effective measurement tool to assess individuals’ perception of Neijuan and enlightens future research on the effect of Neijuan on psychological maladjustment and non-benign competition behaviors related to Neijuan.

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The essence of bounded rationality and debate over its value

LIU Yongfang

Acta Psychologica Sinica 2022, 54 (11): 1293-1309. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.01293

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Bounded rationality is not the optimization under constraints, not to mention the irrationality. In essence, it is an objective description of the level of human rational evolution and development so far, that is, human beings are rational either in the attitude to reality or in the ability to recognize and transform reality. However, limits to human rationality are observed. Bounded rationalists question popular rationalism in contemporary social science and the reliability of the methodology and knowledge system derived from it, but they do not question rationality itself. They eliminate the dualism thinking mode of rationalism or irrationalism in history, which provides us with a new perspective to understand the nature of rationality from the resource-based, quantitative, and dynamic developmental views. Bounded rationality is defective in the sense of value rationality, but reasonable in the sense of instrumental rationality. Therefore, it is necessary to find a proper equilibrium point between them. The concept of bounded rationality in psychology and its extensive influence have led to another human rational revolution after the “probability revolution” of the Renaissance. It is one of the most important contributions made by this discipline to the treasure house of human thought and knowledge. It not only has far-reaching historical significance but also has interdisciplinary methodological significance.

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Personality subtypes of depressive disorders and their functional connectivity basis

LI Yu, WEI Dongtao, QIU Jiang

Acta Psychologica Sinica 2023, 55 (5): 740-751. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2023.00740

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Heterogeneity among mental health issues has always attracted considerable attention, thereby restricting research on mental health and cognitive neuroscience. Additionally, the person-centred approach to personality research, which emphasizes population heterogeneity, has received more attention. On the other hand, the heterogeneity among depressive patients has been a problem that cannot be ignored (most studies ignored the actual situation and directly assumed sample homogeneity). A large number of empirical studies have provided evidence that isolated personality traits are often associated with depression. Only a few studies have considered the probable effect from a taxonomy perspective. Moreover, the neural mechanisms of personality types in depression remain unclear. This study aimed to reveal different personality subtypes of depressive disorders and elucidate subtypes from the perspective of resting-state functional connectivity.

Personality and resting-state functional imaging data of 159 depressive patients and 156 controls were collected. Demographic characteristics are shown in Table 1. First, combined with “depression diagnosis”, the personality types in depressive patients and controls were identified through functional random forest. Specifically, neuroticism and extraversion (input features) were fitted with the diagnosis of depression by a random forest model. The random seeds were set to 1234, and 500 decision trees were fitted. The performance of the model was evaluated by tenfold cross-validation. Subsequently, the random forest algorithm generated a proximity matrix that represented the similarity between paired participants. Then, based on the proximity matrix, community detection clustering analysis was conducted on depressive patients and controls, and personality types associated with depression diagnosis were obtained. Finally, we selected the amygdala, hippocampus, insula (AAL atlas) and limbic network, default network, and control network (Schaefer-Yeo template) as regions of interest and calculated the functional connectivity of the subcortical regions to the networks. ANOVA was used to compare resting-state functional connectivity between the personality types.

The results showed the following. (1) Depression was more common among individuals with high neuroticism and low extraversion tendencies, but there were also individuals with low neuroticism and high extraversion tendencies. The controls were more likely to be individuals with low neuroticism and high extraversion (see Figure 1). (2) The results of resting-state functional connectivity showed no significant difference between depression and controls. (3) The functional connectivity strength of the left amygdala-limbic network (F(6, 214) = 4.273, p = 0.0004, threshold-controlling FDR at 0.05/6) and left insula-limbic network (F(6, 214) = 4.177, p = 0.0005, threshold-controlling FDR at 0.05/6) was significantly different across personality subtypes. The post-hoc tests are presented in Table 2, Figure 2 and Figure3.

In summary, the personality subtypes of depression identified by person-centred perspectives are more in line with reality and individual cognitive patterns, and they have potential clinical adaptive value. The findings of this study enhance the understanding of heterogeneity among depressive disorders.

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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

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Based on questionnaire survey, field experiment and laboratory experiment, this paper investigates the influence and mechanism of positive co-experience on adolescent teacher-student relationship. The results show that: (1) positive co-experiences positively affect teacher-student relationship, and different types of experiences (recall, imagination, example) are prominent promoting effect; (2) Positive emotional bonding plays a stable mediating role in the influence of positive co-experiences on teacher-student relationship. This study preliminarily proposed the “co-experience relationship effect model”, which promotes the research on the influence mechanism of teacher-student relationship, and has good ecological validity and practical educational value.

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Associations between empathy and negative affect: Effect of emotion regulation

GUO Xiao-dong, ZHENG Hong, RUAN Dun, HU Ding-ding, WANG Yi, WANG Yan-yu, Raymond C. K. CHAN

Acta Psychologica Sinica 2023, 55 (6): 892-904. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2023.00892

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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.

As shown in Figure 1, findings from Study 1 showed that affective empathy was significantly correlated with higher levels of anxiety (r = 0.14, p = 0.003) and stress (r = 0.14, p < 0.001), while empathic concern was correlated with less anxiety (r = -0.28, p < 0.001), stress (r = -0.27, p < 0.001) and depression (r = -0.22, p < 0.001). However, when participants endorsed cognitive reappraisal more frequently, such positive association between affective empathy and stress was reduced (β = 1.48, Wald = 5.22, p = 0.022), while the negative association between empathic concern and anxiety was strengthened (β = 0.66, Wald = 4.73, p = 0.030). Cognitive empathy was significantly correlated (or marginally significantly) with reduced depression (QCAE-CE: r = -0.08, p = 0.096; IRI-PT: r = -0.11, p = 0.019; IRI-FS: r = -0.10, p = 0.034). Expressive suppression strengthened the negative association between cognitive empathy and depression (β = 1.77, Wald = 5.32, p= 0.021). Moreover, negative correlations between cognitive empathy and anxiety (β = 1.33, Wald = 4.67, p = 0.031) as well as stress (β = -0.37, Wald= 4.43, p= 0.035) 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 (Experiment 1: t = -2.27, p= 0.030, Cohen’s d = 0.40; Experiment 2: F(1, 40) = 4.13, p = 0.049, η² = 0.09), experienced less negative affect (Experiment 1: t = -2.68, p= 0.012, Cohen’s d = 0.47; Experiment 2: F(1, 40) = 29.20, p < 0.001, η² = 0.42) in reaction to others’ affect distress, and experienced more positive affect in reaction to others’ positive emotions (Experiment 1: t = -10.9, p< 0.001, Cohen’s d = 1.90; Experiment 2: F(1, 40) = 31.54, p < 0.001, η² = 0.44) (see Table 1 & Figure 2).

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.

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Accept or change your fate: Exploring the Golem effect and underdog effect of underdog expectations

MA Jun, ZHU Mengting

Acta Psychologica Sinica 2023, 55 (6): 1029-1048. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2023.01029

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In organizations, some employees are heralded as rising stars, whilst others are considered underdogs with no prospects. Scholars define individuals’ perceptions that others view them as unlikely to succeed as underdog expectation. The traditional view indicates that when individuals experience underdog expectations from others, they will reduce their subsequent performance through a sense of self-efficacy. This phenomenon, in which one’s performance is manipulated by someone else’s negative assessment, is also known as the Golem effect. Indeed, some studies have suggested that underdog expectations can enhance their desire to prove others wrong to improve performance. However, such studies have only focused on the influence of underdog expectations on employee behavior as social-situation cues but have disregarded its interaction with individuals’ traits. By integrating the preceding arguments, we proposed a comprehensive model based on trait activation theory, which examines the Golem and underdog effects. Specifically, under the moderating effect of underdog expectations, employees with fixed mindsets have a negative impact on subsequent task performance through feedback- avoiding behavior. Meanwhile, employees with growth mindsets have a positive impact on subsequent task performance by proving others wrong. The task context (task focus vs. future focus) plays a role in inhibiting and amplifying the two interactions.

This study aimed to explore the reasons why employees who are trapped in underdog expectations become a Golem manipulated by fate and how to counter strike and become an underdog in the workplace. This study constructed a three-term interaction model of nested moderated mediation model. Three studies were designed to explore the internal and intervention mechanisms of the Golem and underdog effects activated by underdog expectations. In the first study, the existence of three interactions was initially examined through a multi-source, multi-point questionnaire of 341 employees. To test the stability of the three interactions and the extensibility of the research conclusions in different groups, a second multi-source and multi-time questionnaire survey involving 650 employees and a field study based on a quasi-experiment were designed for retesting. Regression analysis, bootstrap method and Johnson?Neyman (J?N) technology were used to analyse the questionnaire data to examine the moderated mediation effects of the three-term interaction. T-tests were used to analyse data from the field study.

The analyses of the study showed the following results. (1) The interaction between underdog expectations and fixed mindsets positively affects subsequent task performance through feedback-avoiding behavior. (2) The interaction between underdog expectations and growth mindsets positively affects subsequent task performance through the desire to prove others wrong. (3) Lastly, task focus reduces the positive moderating effect of underdog expectations on fixed mindsets, and future focus strengthens the positive moderating effect of underdog expectations on growth mindsets.

Findings of our research have several theoretical and practical implications. This study revealed the causes of the Golem and underdog effects, thereby enriching and expanding the research on implicit theory. It showed that fixed and growth mindsets have different paths in processing negative information, which is helpful in integrating the research on underdog and topdog employees. It also provided a theoretical explanation and transformation idea for the emergence and popularity of the depressed culture represented by the lie down and Buddha-like mindsets.

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The forward testing effect in spatial route learning

MA Xiaofeng, LI Tiantian, JIA Ruihong, WEI Jie

Acta Psychologica Sinica 2022, 54 (12): 1433-1442. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.01433

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The forward testing effect describes how testing previously learned material could improve participants long-term memory for later learning of new material when continuously exposed to various information. This has been verified using different language materials. However, the effect of forward testing on spatial path learning requires further study.
This study selected 112 participants randomly and conducted two experiments to explore the forward test effect of visuospatial route learning in different directions in the same scene (Experiment 1). Further, it investigated the forward test effect of visuospatial route learning in various settings (Experiment 2). The spatial route information memory method was adopted based on the extensive experimental procedure formed by the forward test effect. Through a sequence of sites in a virtual route setting, participants were required to comprehend and recollect the structures that passed on the route. Furthermore, the exercise ended with a sequential recall test. A total of 52 participants were randomly assigned to the test and repeated study groups in Experiment 1. Eight common landmark buildings, such as hospitals and schools, were selected to form four different route information. After learning approximately 1~3 pieces of route information, the repeated study group re-learned the route information. Further, the test group recalled the order of the buildings passing through the route information as required. When learning about Route 4 regarding either the test condition or the re-learn condition, it was necessary to recall the order in which the route passed through buildings. The forward test effect of memorizing route information in different scenarios was explored in Experiment 2 with 60 participants. Unlike Experiment 1, the participants in Experiment 2 learned four different routes, each containing a different building. The experimental procedure was the same as that used in Experiment 1.
The results of experiment 1 using a 2 (group: test group, repetitive learning group) × 2 (test results: correct rate, interference rate) analysis of variance (ANOVA), which showed a significant interaction between groups and test results [F(1, 50) = 32.157, p < 0.001, η²= 0.39, see Figure 4]. Further simple effect analysis found that, the recall accuracy of spatial path information in the test group was significantly higher than in that the repeated-learning group (0.74 vs 0.32, t (50) = 5.95, p < 0.001, d = 0.64). Moreover, the active interference generated when recalling the fourth path information was considerably lower than that in the repeated-learning group (0.07 vs 0.16, t (50) = 2.831, p = 0.007, d = 0.37). The results of Experiment 2 showed that there was a positive test effect for different scene background information. 2 (groups: test group, repetitive learning group) × 2 (test results: correct rate, interference rate) analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed a significant interaction between groups and test results. The interaction between group and test results was significant [F(1, 58) = 45.483, p < 0.001, η²= 0.44, see Figure 7], the recall accuracy of spatial path information in the test group was significantly higher than in that the repeated-learning group (0.53 vs 0.24, t (58) = 5.40, p < 0.001, d = 0.57). The proactive interference in route information 4 under test condition was significantly lower than that repeated-learning condition (0.07 vs 0.27, t (58) = 5.612, p < 0.001, d = 0.59). This further proves that the application background of the forward test effect in route-information learning was extensive. More importantly, by comparing the two experimental results horizontally, it was found that different interference levels of previous information have different effects on learning following new information (Experiment 1: Figure 3 reports changes in the correct recall rate as well as the interference rate of the test group after each test in routes1-4.The recall accuracy of route 1~4 was 0.62, 0.38, 0.56, 0.74. F(3, 75) = 9.41, p < 0.001, η² = 0.27. The proactive interference rate of route 2~4 was 0.14, 0.13, 0.07. F(2, 50) = 3.28, p = 0.046, η² = 0.12. Experiment 2: The recall accuracy of route 1~4 was 0.70, 0.59, 0.73, 0.53. F (3, 87) = 4.57, p = 0.005, η² = 0.14. And the proactive interference rate of route 2~4 was 0.02, 0.04, 0.07. F(2, 58) = 4.32, p = 0.018, η² = 0.13, see Figure 6). This is manifested in the difference in the interference rate caused by the difficulty of “isolation” among materials, including the trend that the correct rate decreases when the interference rate increases and the correct rate increases when the interference rate decreases. All of these directly reveal the forward direction−the importance of counteracting proactive interference in testing the effects.
In summary, this study verified the existence of the forward test effect in the path learning of different directions in the same scene and the path learning in various settings. Extending the study of the forward testing effect on learning visuospatial path information will enrich the exploration of the forward testing effect in spatial memory. Additionally, this study found that different levels of interference from previously learned information affect the subsequent learning of new information. The findings provide direct experimental evidence for proactive interference reduction theory.

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Effect of auditory stimulus on distance compression in virtual reality

HU Xiaofei, WANG Jiawei, LIU Hanyu, SONG Xiaolei

Acta Psychologica Sinica 2023, 55 (1): 1-8. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2023.00001

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Distance compression in virtual reality (VR), which will lead to a distortion of fine manipulation in practical application, depicts that people tend to underestimate the spatial distance of visual stimuli in virtual environments. The apparent perceived differences between virtual and real environments break the immersive experiences and lower users' acceptance. Therefore, it is crucial to ameliorate the distance compression to increase the fidelity and ultimately promote the wider application of VR. Capitalizing on the fact that distance compression is a multiple modality phenomenon and occurs for auditory and visual stimuli, researchers reported that the distance judgment in VR would get more accurate when the positions of auditory and visual stimuli were incongruent. However, it is unclear to what extent the incongruency is to get effective amelioration. In this study, we aimed to completely examine the effect of the auditory stimulus on distance compression in VR. We presumed that the larger the incongruency was, the better amelioration obtained.

We used the HTC Vive Pro to render the virtual environment and the build-in headphone to present auditory stimulus. A total of 30 participants were recruited to perform a distance judgment task. In Experiment 1, we first controlled the presence or absence of the auditory stimulus. We also varied the egocentric distance of visual stimulus (3 m, 4 m, 5 m). Then, in Experiment 2, we controlled the incongruency of the audio-visual condition, that is, the exocentric distance between auditory and visual stimuli (0.5 m, 1 m, 1.5 m, 2 m). Each block consisted of 30 consecutive trials, wherein the reference visual stimulus was presented at the beginning 5 s. Participants were asked to judge whether the following adjust stimulus was nearer or farther than the reference stimulus. The egocentric distance would be adjusted according to the response of the prior trial. The egocentric distance of the adjust stimulus in the last trial was referred to as the ultimate distance judgment for the initial reference stimulus.

For Experiment 1, we performed a two-way repeated analysis of variance (ANOVA) on the distance compression rate, which was calculated by subtracting the perceived egocentric distance from the physical egocentric distance and then dividing it by the physical egocentric distance. The within-subject factors included the egocentric distance of reference stimulus (3 m, 4 m, and 5 m) and the presence of the auditory stimulus (audio-visual condition and visual-only condition). The result of Experiment 1 is shown in Figure 1. We found that the distance compression rate under the audio-visual condition was marginal significantly smaller than that under the visual-only condition, F(1,29) = 4.05, p = 0.054, η_p² = 0.12. In contrast, the main effect for the egocentric distance of reference stimulus and the interaction were not significant (p > 0.05). Then, we performed a paired one-sided t-test to compare the distance compression rates for audio-visual and visual-only conditions at different levels of the egocentric distance of reference stimulus. We found that the distance compression rate for the audio-visual condition was smaller than that for the visual-only condition at egocentric distances of 4 m (difference = 1.8%, t = −1.587, p = 0.062) and 5 m (difference = 1.6%, t = −1.85, p = 0.037), but not at an egocentric distance of 3 m (p = 0.307).

For Experiment 2, we performed a two-way repeated ANOVA on the distance compression rate. Since the same participants were recruited for Experiment 1 and Experiment 2, the results of the audio-visual condition in Experiment 1, that is, an exocentric distance of 0 m, were included in the current analysis. The within-subject factors included the egocentric distance of reference stimulus (3 m, 4 m, and 5 m) and the exocentric distance between auditory and visual stimuli (0 m, 0.5 m, 1 m, 1.5 m, and 2 m). The result of the distance compression rate is shown in Figure 2. We found that the main effect for the exocentric distance between auditory and visual stimuli was significant, F(4,116) = 8.29, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.22. In contrast, the main effects for the egocentric distance of reference stimulus and the interaction were not significant (p > 0.05). Then, a Tukey multiple comparison test was performed after pooling the results of the three egocentric distances of the reference stimulus. We found that the distance compression rate decreased with the increment of the exocentric distance. Furthermore, it could reach a marginally significant or significant difference when comparing any two exocentric distances at least 1 m apart. Finally, we fitted a linear curve for the relationship between the exocentric distance between auditory and visual stimuli and the distance compression rate: distance compression rate = −0.024 × exocentric distance + 0.056. The slope was significant (p = 0.008), indicating the distance compression rate was negatively correlated with the exocentric distance and could be ameliorated at a pace of 2.4% for every 1 m. The adjusted R² was 90.7%.

We reported the effect of auditory stimulus on the distance compression in VR. Based on our results, we highly recommended presenting the auditory and visual stimuli simultaneously in the time domain and a minimum of 1 m apart in the space domain to ameliorate the distance compression in VR.

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Dialectical leadership behavior and its impact on firm innovation capability and performance: An exploration based on the Chinese culture

WANG Hui, WANG Ying, JI Xiaode, JI Ming

Acta Psychologica Sinica 2023, 55 (3): 374-389. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2023.00374

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Under the framework of exploring the psychological and behavioral characteristics of Chinese people in coping with crises, this paper explores the conceptualization, structure, measurement, and uniqueness of dialectical leadership behavior, as well as discuss its influence on firm innovation capability and performance. This study found that dialectical leadership behavior, which stemmed from the traditional Chinese and Eastern Asia culture, has six dimensions: 1) timely adjusting, 2) individualized mentoring, 3) balancing between kindness and strictness, 4) weighing contradictions, 5) promoting coordination, and 6) holistically managing. Results from multiple studies show that: 1) dialectical leadership behavior is different from other existing leadership behavior concepts; 2) the mean level of Chinese top managers' dialectical leadership behavior is higher than the United States top managers' dialectical leadership behavior; 3) dialectical leadership behavior is positively related to firm innovation capability and performance. Moreover, we also identified firm strategic flexibility as the underlining mechanism in the above relationships. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications and future research direction.

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Psychological richness increases behavioral intention to protect the environment

WEI Xinni, YU Feng, PENG Kaiping, ZHONG Nian

Acta Psychologica Sinica 2023, 55 (8): 1330-1343. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2023.01330

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Understanding the relationship between happiness and positive factors and pro-environmental behavior offers important practical implications for sustainable social development. To investigate the positive antecedents of pro-environmental behavior, the current study focused on psychological richness and examined its influence on pro-environmental behavior as well as potential mechanisms and boundary conditions through 10 studies (N = 2979). It is shown that psychological richness facilitates engagement in sustainable activities (Studies 1.1-1.4) through an increased level of self-expansion (Studies 2.1-2.4). Furthermore, the effect of self-expansion on pro-environmental behavior was more significant when individuals viewed nature as smaller than themselves (Studies 3.1-3.2). These findings reveal the positive effect of happiness on pro-environmental behaviors and provide insights to promote people's participation in building a sustainable society.

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The effective learning of discrete trial teaching: Evidence from pre-service teachers of children with autism

MA Shucai, LI Mengchun, QIAO Yu, HE Huan, LUO Manling

Acta Psychologica Sinica 2023, 55 (2): 237-256. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2023.00237

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Under the background of the continuous increase in the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) year by year as well as policy promotion and institutional guarantee of the inclusive education mode of learning in regular class, which covered every children with any kind of disability, children with ASD has become the new growth point of this kind of inclusive education. More and more autistic children are going to regular schools, although there was no accurate data on children with autism attending regular classes in China. However, the fact was that regular education teachers were generally lack of knowledge and skills in ASD and evidence-based educational interventions, which seriously undermines the results of this kind of inclusion education for these children. Setting up practice-oriented general education courses related to evidence-based education interventions in normal universities and providing pre-service teachers of autistic children with knowledge of evidence-based education interventions and cultivating their ability to faithfully implement these methods was an important entry point to fundamentally reverse this situation. The reality of both class periods being less and education internship opportunities being relative lack, made the question how practice-oriented general curriculum teaching can promote related teachers to take effective and efficient means of training or technology, which will assist pre-service teachers with autonomously learning evidence-based education interventions so that they can implement them with high fidelity, became the primary real problem today’s normal universities must be responded.

Among thousands of evidence-based interventions, the Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) got its evidence-based position for double advantage. First, All kinds of children, including the autistics and even their typical peers, could get many gains from the experiences of DTT intervention. The significant intervention improvements was occurred in areas such as intellectual skills, daily living skills, recognition and language skills, Motor and imitation skills, Symptoms of autism, problem behaviors, the numbers of supportive needs and so on. Besides this benefit to children with ASD, another advantage of DTT was it can be mastered and implemented with high fidelity by variety of stakeholders, including pre-service teachers from variety of contexts, such as school, community, institution, clinics and families and so on. It is therefore imperative for the pre-service teachers to find an efficient and effective self-instruction procedure based on their daily learning environment, help them acquire the core knowledge and skills of DTT, and enable them to apply these knowledge and skills to the life of autistic children for the sake of solving practical problems. In addition, do the advantages of channel effect and asynchronous training strategies still exist stably in the self-instruction of DTT skills of these pre-service teachers? The question remains untested.

In order to answer these questions, based on the existing researches, and with more detailed and intuitive real teaching videos replacing animation materials of relevant studies, the current study attempted to use pre-service teachers who never contacted with children with ASD as participants to exam what influences will be brought by different presenting modes of learning materials on their acquisition of DTT. By means of separately applying a self-paced repeating loop procedure of “learning→test→answer→feedback” and a role playing plus a self-paced repeating loop procedure of “learning→test→answer→feedback”, researchers conducted three experiments, respectively exploring what kinds of knowledge learning effect and practical operation transformation effect that pre-service teachers will perform, under the visual single-channel pattern (word, PPT) and audio-visual dual-channel pattern (real teaching video).

Experiment 1 recruited 24 students from Northwest Normal University, and tested the effect of audiovisual dual-channel materials on the DTT learning effect of pre-service teachers from the perspective of the presentation models of learning materials. Experiment 2 repeated the general method of Experiment 1 with another 24 participants recruited from the same university, aiming at exploring whether the distribution way of the test materials would affect the results of the Experiment 1. Considering that DTT is a very practical skill, researchers conducted Experiment 3 with another 6 participants, with the purpose of exploring whether audiovisual dual-channel materials had learning advantages at the level of practice application.

The results of Experiment 1 showed that the presentation models of learning materials had a significant impact on the independent learning effect of pre-service teachers in Discrete Trial Teaching: The audio-visual dual-channel material (real teaching video) which is composed of “subtitle + picture + sound explanation” produced the most desirable results (p < 0.05, Table 1). Between the rest two of visual single-channel materials, the PPT material which is composed of “text + image” had a slight advantage over the Word text material. The result of Experiment 2 was consistent with that of Experiment 1, which excluded the influence of the distribution of test materials on the experimental results (p < 0.05, Table 2). At the same time, it was further verified that PPT material had more advantages than Word text material. The results of Experiment 3 further proved that the advantages of real teaching videos were still existed, F(2, 4) = 30.33, p < 0.001, η² = 0.86 (see Figure 1, Table 3).

These findings suggested that the effective and efficient way for pre-service teachers to learn Discrete Trial Teaching will appear at the moment when the learning content was presented in audio-visual dual channels, both at the level of theory learning (Experiment 1, Experiment 2, Experiment 3) and implementation (Experiment 3). The field of pre-service teachers' evidence-based practices training also has modality effect. The real instruction video had learning advantage, regardless of its level of declarative knowledge or operational and procedural knowledge for evidence-based practices. Besides enriching the existing research literature, the implications of these findings were as followed: (1) provided further supporting evidence for the existence of modality effects; (2) extended modality effects into the learning field of evidence-based practices; (3) brought certain inspiration and practical value to teaching reform and innovation for pre-service teachers' capacity of evidence-based education; (4) lay a foundation for improving the quality and level of inclusion education for children with ASD on the supply side of the universities that cultivate teachers for the first line of education systems.

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Extended Mind: Is the brain the sole basis for realizing the mind?

SU Jiajia, YE Haosheng

Acta Psychologica Sinica 2023, 55 (11): 1889-1902. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2023.01889

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In the present era, humanity stands at the threshold of a new civilization spurred by scientific and technological advancements. Technologies such as the internet, computers, and smartphones have extended human cognitive abilities into machines, even altering human emotions and conscious experiences, gradually fostering the acceptance of the belief that “mental life is not confined to the brain”. This has led to the emergence of interest in the concept of “extended minds”. The concept of extended minds posits that psychological processes such as memory, thought, emotion, and sentiment are not restricted solely to the brain or the central nervous system of an organism. On the contrary, under certain conditions, the non-neuronal parts of an organism's body, the external environment, and the world at large play integral roles in realizing consciousness, exerting constitutive functions. Early research on extended minds primarily focused on investigating cognitive processes and underwent three waves of development. Later, it expanded to include extended emotions, exploring the extended attributes of emotions and sentiments. Recently, attention has been drawn to the question of whether conscious experiences can also be extended. If cognition, emotion, and conscious experiences can transcend the biological boundaries of the individual, incorporating external resources that facilitate mental processes, then psychological life may no longer be confined within the confines of the skull and skin, and the brain may not be the sole organ responsible for realizing mental life. In essence, extended minds remain grounded in the framework of embodied cognition, with a key emphasis on how to perceive the active role of the “body”. This has significant implications for redefining our understanding of the nature of psychological life.

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Effects of coworker anger expression on leader emergence: The mediating roles of perceived warmth and competence and the compensating effect of anger apology

JIANG Xuting, WU Xiaoyue, FAN Xueling, HE Wei

Acta Psychologica Sinica 2023, 55 (5): 812-830. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2023.00812

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Although previous research has paid much attention to examining whether leader anger expression is effective in enhancing leadership effectiveness, the social consequences of employee anger expression are underexamined. Integrating the stereotype content model with implicit leadership theory, we propose that appropriate anger expression, compared with suppressed anger, has ambivalent effects on leader emergence by increasing coworkers’ perceived competence of the expresser while decreasing coworkers’ perceived warmth of the expresser. In addition, appropriate anger expression, compared with deviant anger expression, is theorized to positively affect leader emergence by increasing coworkers’ perceived competence and warmth of the expresser. We further propose that apology after anger expression (anger apology) is likely to benefit leader emergence by repairing coworkers’ perceived warmth of the expresser.

We conducted two online scenario-based experiments (Study 1 and 3) and two field surveys (Study 2 and 4) to test our research hypotheses. In Study 1, we employed a two (type of anger expression: expressed vs. deviant) by two (anger apology: yes vs. no) between-subjects experimental design, with a silent anger condition (i.e., no anger expression and thus no anger apology) as the control group. The sample consisted of 279 full-time Chinese employees recruited via an online survey panel (Sojump.com). To replicate the findings in Study 1, we conducted a critical incident technique study (Study 2), with a sample of 200 full-time employees recruited via the same panel used in Study 1. Participants were asked to recall and describe a workplace incident of coworker anger expression and then to evaluate their perceptions of competence, warmth, and the likelihood of leader emergence of the expresser. To reconcile some controversial findings in the two studies, we conducted Study 3 (a sample of 354 full-time employees recruited online) to provide a more nuanced examination of the effects of different types of anger expression. Specifically, we employed a three (type of anger expression: muted anger, appropriate anger expression vs. deviant anger expression) by two (anger account: other-orientation vs. self-interest) between-subjects experimental design with an additional condition of silent anger. To further replicate our findings and enhance the external validity, we conducted a field study (Study 4) by collecting two-wave data from 248 full-time employees from a Western online survey panel (Prolific.com).

In total, empirical results from four studies (see Table 1, 2, and 3)¹ suggested that, compared with deviant anger expression, appropriate anger expression positively affected the likelihood of the expresser’s leader emergence by enhancing observers’ perceived competence and warmth of the expresser. However, the effects of appropriate anger expression, compared with anger suppression, were found to be contingent upon the type of anger suppression (silent vs. muted anger) and the cultural context (Chinese samples in Studies 1-3 vs. Western sample in Study 4). Moreover, anger apology was demonstrated as an effective relationship repair strategy that can increase observer perceived leader emergence of the anger expresser. These findings contribute to anger expression literature by shifting the focus from how leader anger expression affects leadership effectiveness to the social consequences of employees’ anger expression on leader emergence. Additionally, we contribute to implicit leadership theory and the dual threshold model of anger by testing and extending their core theoretical arguments in the context of coworker anger expression in the workplace. Finally, we develop a new construct of anger apology and examine its compensating effects for anger expression, providing new avenues for future research on the social functions of anger expression.

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The application of artificial intelligence methods in examining elementary school students’ academic cheating on homework and its key predictors

ZHAO Li, ZHENG Yi, ZHAO Junbang, ZHANG Rui, FANG fang, FU Genyue, LEE Kang

Acta Psychologica Sinica 2024, 56 (2): 239-254. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2024.00239

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Background. Academic cheating has been a challenging problem for educators for centuries. It is well established that students often cheat not only on exams but also on homework. Despite recent changes in educational policy and practice, homework remains one of the most important academic tasks for elementary school students in China. However, most of the existing studies on academic cheating for the last century have focused almost exclusively on college and secondary school students, with few on the crucial elementary school period when academic integrity begins to form and develop. Further, most research has focused on cheating on exams with little on homework cheating. The present research aimed to bridge this significant gap in the literature. We used advanced artificial intelligence methods to investigate the development of homework cheating in elementary school children and the key contributing factors so as to provide the scientific basis for the development of early intervention methods to promote academic integrity and reduce cheating.

Method. We surveyed elementary school students from Grades 2 to 6 and obtained a valid sample of 2, 098. The questionnaire included students’ self-reported cheating on homework (the dependent variable). The predictor variables included children’s ratings of (1) their perceptions of the severity of consequences for being caught cheating, (2) the extent to which they found cheating to be acceptable, and the extent to which they thought their peers considered cheating to be acceptable, (3) their perceptions of the effectiveness of various strategies adults use to reduce cheating, (4) how frequently they observed their peers engaging in cheating, and (5) several demographic variables. We used ensemble machine learning (an emerging artificial intelligence methodology) to capture the complex relations between cheating on homework and various predictor variables and used the Shapley importance values to identify the most important factors contributing to children’s decisions to cheat on homework.

Results. Overall, 33% of elementary school students reported having cheated on homework, and the rate of such self-reported cheating behavior increased with grade (see Figure 1). The best models with the ensemble machine learning accurately predicted the students’ homework cheating with a mean Area Under the Curve (AUC) value of 80.46% (see Figure 2). The Shapley importance values showed that all predictors significantly contributed to the high performance of our computational models. However, their importance values varied significantly. Children’s cheating was most strongly predicted by their own beliefs about the acceptability of cheating (10.49%), how commonly and frequently they had observed their peers engaging in academic cheating (3.83%), and their achievement level (3.26%). Other predictors (1%-2%), such as children’s beliefs about the severity of the possible consequences of cheating (e.g., being punished by one’s teacher), whether cheating is considered acceptable by peers in general and demographic characteristics, though significantly, were not important predictors of elementary school children’s homework cheating (see Figure 3 for details).

Conclusion. This study for the first time examined elementary school students’ homework cheating behavior. We used machine learning integration algorithms to systematically investigate the key factors contributing to elementary school students' homework cheating. The results showed that homework cheating already exists in the elementary school period and increases with grade. Advanced machine learning algorithms revealed that elementary school students' homework cheating largely depends on their acceptance of cheating, their peers' homework cheating, and their own academic performance level. The present findings advance our theoretical understanding of the early development of academic integrity and dishonesty and form the scientific basis for developing early intervention programs to reduce academic cheating. In addition, this study also shows that machine learning, as the core method of artificial intelligence, is an effective method that can be used to analyze developmental data analysis.

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Neural correlates of consciousness of emotional faces and the unconscious automatic processing: Evidence from event-related potentials (ERPs)

SUN Bo, ZENG Xianqing, XU Kaiyu, XIE Yunting, FU Shimin

Acta Psychologica Sinica 2022, 54 (8): 867-880. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.00867

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The neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs) are debatable due to the confounding effects of subjective reports. In addition, although previous studies have suggested that vMMN is relatively insensitive to the manipulation of visual attention, the relationship between vMMN and visual consciousness remains unclear. The inattentional blindness paradigm can not only effectively manipulate visual consciousness, but also explore the conscious processing without relying on subjective reports. Therefore, we used this paradigm to manipulate visual consciousness. Moreover, we introduced emotional (happy and fearful) faces, which are biologically and socially significant visual stimuli, to explore NCCs and the relationship between automatic detection of changes and visual consciousness.
Fifty-six Chinese participants took part in the present study. We recorded electroencephalography (EEG) in three phases. In phase A, the participants needed to detect changes of the red dots. However, because they were not informed of the existence of emotional faces, 26 participants were unconscious of the task-irrelevant emotional faces. In phase B and C, all participants were informed about the emotional faces. Thus, they were conscious of the emotional faces. Specifically, in phase B, the participants still needed to detect changes of the red dots, and the emotional faces are task-irrelevant. However, in phase C, the participants were asked to detect changes of emotional faces, and thus emotional faces were task-relevant. To check the conscious state of emotional faces, participants were required to fill out an awareness questionnaire after completing phases A and B. Then the participants were divided into unconscious group and conscious group according to their conscious state of emotional faces in phase A.
For NCCs, two analyses of ERP amplitude of standard stimuli in Phase A and B of the unconscious group were performed. First, for the ERPs at PO7 and PO8 electrodes, a three-factor repeated-measures analysis of variance (rANOVA) of Phase (A, B) × Emotion (Fear, Happy) × Hemisphere (PO7, PO8) was used. Second, for the ERPs at the three electrodes of FCZ, CZ and CPZ, a three-factor rANOVA of Phase (A, B) × Emotion (Fearful, Happy) × Electrodes (FCZ, CZ and CPZ) was adopted. Similarly, two three-factor rANOVA were used for the effect of task relevance. However, exploring the effect of task relevance requires an analysis of the ERPs of standard stimuli in phase B and C of all participants. For vMMN, we analyzed the ERPs at PO7 and PO8 electrodes during the 250~350 ms window of time.
Results can be summarized as following. (1) For NCCs, the ERPs at PO7 and PO8 during the 200~300ms window of time were analyzed, which yielded a significant main effect of Phase [F(1, 25) = 16.385, p < 0.001, η²_p = 0.396]. This showed that the emotional faces in phase B evoked stronger negativity than in phase A for the unconscious group, suggesting that the conscious processing of emotional faces evoked visual awareness negativity (VAN). The ERPs at PO7 and PO8 during the 400~600 ms window of time were analyzed, which yielded a significant main effect of Phase [F(1, 25) = 15.79, p = 0.001, η²_p = 0.39]. This showed that the emotional faces in phase B evoked stronger positivity than in phase A for the unconscious group, suggesting that the conscious processing of emotional faces evoked late occipital positivity (LOP). Moreover, the ERPs at FCZ, CZ and CPZ during the 300~400ms window of time were analyzed, which yielded a significant main effect of Phase [F(1, 25) = 11.481, p = 0.002, η²_p = 0.32]. This showed that the emotional faces in phase B evoked stronger positivity than in phase A for the unconscious group, suggesting that the conscious processing of emotional faces evoked late positivity (LP).
(2) For the effect of task relevance, the ERPs on PO7 and PO8 in the 180~250ms interval were analyzed, which yielded a significant main effect of Phase [F(1, 55) = 20.93, p < 0.001, η²_p = 0.28]. This showed that compared with the task-irrelevant condition (phase B), the emotional faces under the task-relevant condition (phase C) evoked stronger negativity, suggesting that task relevance evoked selection negativity (SN). The ERPs on PO7 and PO8 in the 400~500ms interval were analyzed and the main effect of Phase is significant [F(1, 55) = 6.12, p = 0.02, η²_p = 0.1]. This showed that compared with the task-irrelevant condition, the emotional faces under the task-relevant condition evoked stronger positivity, suggesting that task relevance evoked LOP. Moreover, the ERPs on FCZ, CZ and CPZ in the 300~400ms interval were analyzed and the main effect of Phase is significant [F(1, 55) = 29.77, p < 0.001, η²_p = 0.35]. The results showed that compared with the task-irrelevant condition, the emotional faces under the task-relevant condition evoked stronger positivity, suggesting that task relevance evoked LP that may reflect the post-perceptual processing. Therefore, this study provides evidence that LP and LOP are NCCs without the confounding effects of task relevance. In short, VAN may reflect the early perceptual process of emotional faces, LP and LOP may reflect the further process of classifying and recognizing the representations of emotional faces, such as assessing the emotional valence of faces.
(3) For the relationship between vMMN and consciousness, we analyzed the data of phase A with a four-factor rANOVA of Stimulus-type (standard, deviant) × Emotion (Fearful, Happy) × Hemisphere (PO7, PO8) × group (conscious, unconscious). The rANOVA revealed that the main effect of Stimulus-type was significant [F(1, 54) = 9.43, p = 0.003, η²_p = 0.149], and the interaction between Stimulus-type and other factors was not significant [ps > 0.05]. This showed that compared to standard emotional faces, deviant ones evoked stronger negativity in phase A. Importantly, the vMMN effect was observed for both the conscious and unconscious group in the phase A. Furthermore, no amplitude difference of vMMN was observed between the aware (phase B) and the unaware (phase A) conditions among unconscious group [t(25) = 0.14, p = 0.88], suggesting that the automatic processing of emotional faces is independent of visual consciousness. Compared with Chen (2020), this study provides evidence that the automatic processing of emotional faces is independent of visual consciousness under the condition that the unconsciousness level is manipulated more effectively.
(4) In addition, we analyzed the vMMN effect with a ANOVA of Phase (A, B and C), which yielded a significant main effect of Phase [F(2, 110) = 5.24, p = 0.007, η²_p = 0.087]. And compared with the task-irrelevant condition (phase B), the vMMN amplitude under the task-relevant condition (phase C) was larger (p = 0.003), suggesting that task relevance modulates the amplitude of vMMN and the attentional effect of task relevance promotes the automatic processing of emotional faces.
The conclusions of this study can be summarized as following. (1) VAN is a NCC under the condition of avoiding confounding effects of visual attention, and LP and LOP are NCCs without the confounding effects of task relevance. (2) The visual awareness of emotional faces has different ERP indicators at different time stages. Specifically, VAN reflects the early perceptual experience, LP and LOP reflect the late conscious experience of non-perceptual information. (3) The automatic processing of emotional faces is independent of visual consciousness but is modulated by visual attention.

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The relationship between acute stress and risk taking: The moderating effect of ease of excitation

WANG Peishan, GU Ruolei, ZHANG Liang

Acta Psychologica Sinica 2023, 55 (1): 45-54. DOI: 10.3785/j.issn.1008-973X.2022.03.018

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In high-risk and even routine factory work, operators will inevitably encounter stressful events such as time pressure, high workload or emergencies. Numerous psychological and post-accident analyses showed that decision-making error under stress is one of the most common causes of industrial accidents. Previous studies have found that individual factors play an essential role in how we feel and react to stress, moderating stress response and then affecting subsequent decision-making. However, as one of these factors which is closely associated with stress and decision-making, ease of excitation has rarely been explored. Therefore, we conducted the present study to investigate the influencing mechanism of stress on risky decision-making and the moderating effect of ease of excitation. We supposed that stress level (indexed by salivary cortisol and heart rate) was positively correlated with risk-taking behavior, and ease of excitation played a moderating role in this relationship.

Forty-three male participants were recruited for the study. We adopted the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) to induce acute psychological stress and collected participants’ salivary cortisol, heart rate and subjective emotional states during the experiment to evaluate their stress responses. The Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) was applied to measure their risk-taking behavior under stress. The mean adjusted number of pumps across trials was taken as the primary behavioral index. We used the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (SPS) to evaluate ease of excitation before the stress task.

As shown in Figure 1, salivary cortisol, heart rate and negative mood all increased significantly from baseline after the stress task and gradually returned to baseline, which confirmed that the stress manipulation was efficient. Correlation analysis showed that cortisol response positively correlated with the mean adjusted number of pumps at a marginal significance level (r = 0.31, p = 0.06, 95% CI: [-0.06, 0.56]), while heart rate was unrelated to it (see Table 1). Furthermore, hierarchical multiple regression found that ease of excitation moderated the relationship between the salivary cortisol level and the mean adjusted number of pumps (B = 0.04, β = 0.39, p = 0.03, 95% CI: [0.01, 0.07]) (Table 2). To interpret the significant moderating effects of ease of excitation, we conducted a simple slope test. Figure 2 clearly shows that when ease of excitation was one standard deviation below the mean value, the salivary cortisol level could not significantly predict the mean adjusted number of pumps (β = -0.18, p = 0.49, 95% CI: [-0.50, 0.24]). However, when ease of excitation was one standard deviation above the mean value, the salivary cortisol level positively predicts the number of pumping times (β = 0.86, p = 0.01, 95% CI: [0.20, 1.03]). The more salivary cortisol increased, the more pumps did participants decide. However, ease of excitation did not moderate the relationship between the heart rate and the mean adjusted number of pumps (B = 0.06, β = 1.06, p = 0.68, 95% CI: [-0.23, 0.35]).

Altogether, the present study demonstrates that the increased cortisol level under stress positively associates with risk-taking behavior, and ease of excitation moderates the relationship. For individuals with a high level of ease of excitation, the more cortisol they increase, the riskier they are. It may owe to their hyper-sensitivity to internal and external stimuli. The high ease of excitation could be easier to be aroused by the surge of cortisol level and mistake it as the somatic marker to guide decision-making. It highlights the importance of individual differences in understanding stress-related decision-making error and their underlying mechanisms, which further provides scientific implications for selecting and training operators in high-pressure positions.

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Zhong-yong action self as a contributing factor to COVID-19 crisis management

YANG Chung Fang

Acta Psychologica Sinica 2023, 55 (3): 355-373. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2023.00355

Abstract （345）

This paper adopts an indigenous approach to explain why China can contain the COVID-19 Crisis swiftly and efficiently. For this purpose, it proposes a new conceptualization for studying the Chinese self—the Zhong- yong action self.
The action self refers to the self, activated by the situation an individual is facing, based on which the actor thinks about and decides the proper action to take. During the COVID-19 Crisis, beside the individuated self (the small self), many other more inclusive selves (the large selves), such as the family self, the community self, and the country self, are being mobilized at the same time, all of which demand the actor to exercise self-control and to help others to achieve the common goal—defeating the virus. This concerted effort thereby creates strength and flexibility in managing the crisis.
In every-day life situation, the many selves activated may demand conflicting actions from the actor. An adoption of the Zhong-yong deliberation process negotiate the most appropriate action, to help maintain inner peace and outer harmony with others and the flux environment. The author hopes that this new formulation will lead to new directions to the study of “the Chinese self.”

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