Journal of General Psychology最新文献

This study explored a longitudinal dataset of 10,663 children (50% girls) to examine a set of psychological and socio-demographic factors that influenced children's cognitive ability (intelligence test scores) at the age of 7 years, using a large, nationally representative birth cohort. We set out to test a model based on the longitudinal nature of the data which was gathered at three points in time. Results of correlational analyses showed that parental social status indicators (parental education and family income), maternal psychological distress, parent-child relationship quality, maternal traits extraversion and emotional stability were all significantly associated with children's cognitive ability/intelligence. Structural equation modeling showed that parental social status had a relatively strong influence on children's cognitive ability (path coefficient = 0.49, p < 0.001). Further, parent-child relationship quality (path coefficient = 0.10, p < 0.001) and maternal trait emotional stability (path coefficient = 0.04, p < 0.05) had significant but very modest direct effects on the outcome variable, accounting for 28% of the variance. A significance of mediation test showed that parent-child relationship quality was both a predictor and a mediator (z = 7.16, p < 0.001), that the effect of maternal psychological distress on children's cognitive ability in part, mediated through parent-child relationship quality. The implications and limitations are discussed.

Although extensive research has examined immoral behavior, little is known about how the role of episodic simulation plays on immoral behavior. Two experiments adopted the text priming paradigm to verify two opposing theories-the imagination inflation hypothesis and the imagination inhibition hypothesis. To be specific, this study investigated whether episodic simulation increases or decreases participants' general willingness to immoral behavior, and further explored the mechanism and boundary conditions underlying the result. Experiment 1 revealed that simulating low immoral texts significantly increased self-reported intention to engage in such behavior, whereas no significant difference was observed in high immoral behavior. The result was mediated by increasing scene vividness and behavioral reasonableness. Experiment 2 replicated the result of Experiment 1 and further found that regardless of the immoral level, simulating immoral texts made participants more likely to commit actual immoral behavior (i.e., lying for financial gain). Experiment 2 also found people with high moral sensitivity and moral disengagement are more likely to be influenced by episodic simulation and behaved immorally. Overall, this study supported the imagination inflation hypothesis and found the moderating role of behavioral characteristics and moral traits. Furthermore, this study provides cross-cultural evidence supporting the imagination inflation hypothesis, extending previous findings beyond Western samples.

Teacher burnout - manifested through emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment remains a challenge affecting educational quality and teacher well-being. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of an online content-focused coaching (CFC) program in reducing burnout among elementary school teachers. An experimental design was employed with 200 participants from Abu Dhabi, Al Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Ajman and Om Alquin, randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Over six months, the experimental group participated in a structured online CFC program, while the control group continued their usual activities. Burnout levels were measured at pretest and post-test using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Independent t-tests revealed significant reductions in emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and a notable increase in personal accomplishment in the experimental group compared to the control group. These findings confirm the efficacy of content-focused coaching as an evidence-based strategy for supporting teachers' psychological well-being. The flexibility of the online format highlights its potential for scalable professional development interventions. This study provides practical implications for educational leadership, emphasizing the integration of digital coaching programs into teacher support systems to promote well-being, resilience, and instructional quality.

Existential concerns, an unavoidable aspect of human existence, are one of the key elements influencing people's quest for purpose in life. Individuals may experience inner turmoil and sorrow in this situation. However, hope may play a crucial part in mitigating this adverse circumstance, despite existential concerns, as it symbolizes the person's ability to cultivate optimistic hopes and beliefs toward the future. In this regard, the current study intends to investigate the longitudinal mediation role of hope between existential concerns and inner peace. The literature has never examined the linkages between these concepts and their design in a longitudinal study. A significant gap in the research was addressed in the current study by combining these factors for the first time and employing a longitudinal mediation analysis, which also avoided the drawbacks of mediational analysis in cross-sectional studies. As a result, by autoregressive analysis of the cross-lagged panel model in a half-longitudinal form, the connections among existential concerns, hope, and inner peace ideas are investigated. In the relationship between existential concerns and inner peace, the analysis's findings demonstrate the longitudinal mediation of hope. Existential concerns can be viewed as a normal state, yet they pose a threat to inner peace and necessitate optimism. If not, people may lose hope and experience inner turmoil as a result of existential concerns. Interventions with an existential viewpoint are therefore necessary to boost hope in this area.

Despite the importance of romantic relationships to the majority of individuals, romantic relationships end often. This article advances understanding of why romantic relationship dissolution occurs by considering dissolution through the lens of two prominent theories of intentional behavior: the reasoned action approach and the theory of interpersonal behavior. The components of each theory are explained and examined within the context of romantic relationship dissolution. Additional factors including anticipated affect, implementation intentions, and attitude toward the process, are considered to provide an integrative framework that can increase understanding and prediction of relationship dissolution. This article responds to calls for more theoretical integration of romantic relationship dissolution research. Future research using this integrative framework should explore the causal relationship among the proposed theoretical antecedents to relationship dissolution to reduce the negative outcomes of breaking up as well as to facilitate fulfilling romantic relationships. The integrative framework can also be applied to remedy relationship dissolution issues as well as to enhance the development and maintenance of romantic relationships.

When searching for innovative means of fostering enthusiasm for sports and physical activity, the world has been increasingly diverting its gaze toward virtual reality (VR). This study aims to examine the impact of the VR instructional approach on students' Aerobics engagement and motivation levels. The study involved 112 students from Qingdao Huanghai University, divided into two groups of equal sizes: 56 students assigned to using the VR app, and 56 students exposed to the traditional teaching method. The results show that the VR-based intervention had significant positive effects on both the level of Aerobics engagement and the level of Aerobics motivation. The present findings can be used to develop engaging physical education programs and sports courses. Future research will examine the long-term effects of VR on physical activity and sports performance and will compare these effects against other teaching methods.

While the construct of self-deception has received ample theoretical and empirical attention, its virtuous counterpart-self-honesty-has been largely neglected. Yet, as argued here and elsewhere, the metacognitive practice of being honest with oneself may be among the most crucial concomitants of psychological growth and change. Consequently, drawing on theory and research from across several disciplines, this paper proposes a novel framework for understanding and measuring self-honesty as a core value. Using data from three separate studies that explore self-honesty via a newly developed self-report, implicit association test and an ecological momentary assessment measure, findings offer preliminary support for the construct of self-honesty as a distinct, psychometrically valid and reliable construct with relevance to multiple indices of psychological functioning. Pending further research, these findings have potentially far-reaching implications for our understanding and promotion of human virtue and flourishing.

There are gender-related associations in people's perceptions and judgment of color. This study verified the existence of more diverse gendered colors in the Chinese cultural context (pre-study). Furthermore, individuals hold color-gender stereotypes at both implicit and explicit levels. In explicit measurements, individuals generally believe that colors with male labels have more masculine qualities, while colors with female labels have more feminine qualities (Study 1). In implicit measurement, participants' response times for target lexical categorization and judgments increased significantly when lexical gender did not match the color gender in the Stroop Task (Study 2). In addition, color-gender stereotypes influence people's decisions and judgments in impression evaluation and interpersonal interactions. In impression evaluation, when presented with the target person using a color that is inconsistent with the existing gender stereotype, the original impression of the subject on the difference between warmth and competence is weakened (study 3). In interpersonal interaction, individuals tend to show higher negative social attractiveness evaluation and avoidance tendency in choices of friend-making when the target person uses a color that is inconsistent with the existing color-gender stereotype (study 4). Finally, the study extends the boundaries of the negative effect of color-gender stereotype inconsistency, with individuals evaluating the social attractiveness of color-gender stereotype inconsistent group significantly higher than that of color-gender stereotype inconsistent individual (Study 5).

JOL reactivity denotes the modulation of memory performance by making judgments of learning (JOLs). Previous studies centering on verbal materials, evidence pertaining to visual stimuli, particularly emotional faces, remains limited. Additionally, theoretical frameworks explaining JOL reactivity remain contested. The present study aimed to elucidate the influence of emotional faces on JOL reactivity and the underlying cognitive mechanisms. Experiment 1 adopted a within-subject design with the forced choice recognition test as the memory test. The results found that making JOLs could improve memory performance only for negative faces, but not for positive and neutral faces, which revealed JOL reactivity specifically for negative faces. Experiment 2 adopted a mixed design and replicated these findings in an old/new recognition test. Notably, both experiments consistently revealed that participants assigned higher JOLs values to negative faces compared to positive and neutral faces. These findings indicate that making JOLs prompted individuals to pay greater attention to negative faces they considered easily memorable. Consequently, this enhanced their memory performance for these negative faces. The changed-goal hypothesis, which accounts for JOL reactivity, proposes that making JOLs shifts individuals' goal orientation, leading them to focus on learning items they perceive as easier while neglecting more difficult ones. This shift ultimately influences memory performance. This hypothesis aligns with the findings of the present study and offers a plausible explanation for the observed results.

Object-based attention (OBA) is a selective attention mechanism that suggests that attention selects an object as a processing unit. This mechanism has been widely studied using the double-rectangle paradigm (Egly et al.), with shorter reaction times (RTs) in the within-object than in the between-object conditions as the OBA effect. However, this paradigm could not distinguish whether this OBA effect reflects a within-object benefit or a between-object cost. To address this issue, the present study employed the single-rectangle paradigm to disentangle the processes of spreading and shifting attention within an object, within space, and across an object's boundary. In Experiments 1 and 2, attention was encouraged to spread by using a two-target comparison task. The results revealed that spreading attention within an object is faster than within space, but the object boundary can impede this spreading. In Experiment 3, a detection task was used to encourage attentional shifts. Results showed that shifting attention across an object boundary incurs a cost, whereas shifting within an object provides no advantage over shifting within space. These findings, largely replicated with briefly disappeared objects, suggest that the OBA effect involves both a within-object benefit and a between-object cost, providing insights into how object influences attentional shifting and spreading.