Young Children's Understanding of Restorative Justice.

The present study investigated how young children understand the sophisticated concept of restorative justice in unintentional moral transgressions. A sex-balanced sample of 5-year-old (M = 5.67, SD = 0.34, 49.3% girls) and 8-year-old (M = 7.86, SD = 0.29, 46.0% girls) Chinese children (N = 193) participated in the study. In designing the materials, we distilled the multidimensional meanings of restorative justice into two stories, one addressing the theme of property violation and the other physical harm; both stories were set in an animal community. We then engaged the children in joint reading and an interview, during which they showed preference for the given treatments for the transgressor (two restorative treatments vs. two retributive treatments) and ranked two further sets of restorative vs. retributive treatments at the community level. The results indicated that most children favored restorative treatments over retributive treatments for a transgressor, and the 8-year-olds viewed psychological restoration more favorably and behavioral punishment less favorably than the 5-year-olds. The children also tended to endorse restorative treatments at the community level, revealing an understanding of the needs, and obligations of all parties concerned. Notably, more 8- than 5-year-olds showed a consistency in restorative orientation at this level. Interpreting our data through the lens of the Representational Redescription model, we attained a more refined account of young children's levels of understanding regarding restorative justice. These results provide insights for the early cultivation of restorative justice among young children, which is a cornerstone for its successful practice in any society.

Gender Differences in the Distribution of Creativity Scores: Domain-Specific Patterns in Divergent Thinking and Creative Problem Solving.

The present study examined gender differences in the distribution of creative abilities through the lens of the greater male variability hypothesis, which postulated that men showed greater interindividual variability than women in both physical and psychological attributes (Ellis, 1894/1934). Two hundred and six (51.9% female) undergraduate students in Hong Kong completed two creativity measures that evaluated different aspects of creativity, including: (a) a divergent thinking test that aimed to assess idea generation and (b) a creative problem-solving test that aimed to assess restructuring ability. The present findings extended the research of greater male variability in creativity by showing that men generally exhibited greater variance than women in the overall distribution of the creativity scores in both divergent thinking and creative problem solving, despite trivial gender differences in mean scores. The findings further enriched the discourse of the greater male variability hypothesis by showing interesting domain-specific gendered patterns: (1) greater male variability was more likely to occur in figural forms of creativity, with larger effect sizes, when compared to the variability in verbal forms of creativity; and (2) mixed gendered patterns were found in the upper tails of the creativity score distribution with respect to the verbal domain but not the figural one, despite greater male representation being consistently observed in the lower tail of the distribution. Possible underlying mechanisms and implications were discussed.

Middle School Students From China's Rice Area Show More Adaptive Creativity but Less Innovative and Boundary-Breaking Creativity.

The present study aimed to conduct a cross-cultural comparison of creative thinking among Chinese middle school students from the rice- and wheat-growing areas in China through the lens of the rice theory, which postulates that there are major psychological differences among the individuals in these agricultural regions. Differences in cultural mindsets and creativity between the rice group (n = 336) and the wheat group (n = 347) were identified using the Chinese version of (1) the Auckland Individualism and Collectivism Scale (AICS) and (2) the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP), respectively. Interesting findings were obtained. The results of latent mean analyses indicate that the rice group showed significantly more collectivism and adaptive creativity than the wheat group but less individualism and innovative and boundary-breaking creativity. However, the two groups showed no significant differences in their overall creative performance, as reflected in the TCT-DP composite score. Moreover, results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that collectivism was positively related to adaptive creativity but negatively related to innovative and boundary-breaking creativity; however, a reverse pattern was found for individualism. These findings enrich the discourse regarding the rice theory and shed important light on the effect of culture on creativity.

Emotional Reactions Mediate the Effect of Music Listening on Creative Thinking: Perspective of the Arousal-and-Mood Hypothesis.

This study examined the effect of music listening on creative thinking through the lens of the arousal-and-mood hypothesis, which posits that emotional reactions (i.e., arousal and valence) mediate the effect of music listening on cognitive functioning. Participants were randomly assigned to three groups: a positive music group (n = 198), a negative music group (n = 195), and a control group (n = 191). Creative thinking and emotional reactions were assessed with the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production and the Affect Grid, respectively. The results showed that both positively and negatively arousing music enhanced creative thinking. The results further revealed that arousal, regardless of valence, significantly mediated the music-creativity relationship. This study enriches the research on the arousal-and-mood hypothesis by (1) providing direct empirical testing on the mediating roles of emotional reactions; (2) including both positively and negatively arousing music in the study design; and (3) identifying that only arousal, and not valence, was a significant mediator in the music-creativity link.

The control processes and subjective well-being of Chinese teachers: evidence of convergence with and divergence from the key propositions of the motivational theory of life-span development.

An analytical review of the motivational theory of life-span development reveals that this theory has undergone a series of elegant theoretical integrations. Its claim to universality nonetheless brings forth unresolved controversies. With the purpose of scrutinizing the key propositions of this theory, an empirical study was designed to examine the control processes and subjective well-being of Chinese teachers (N = 637). The OPS-Scales (Optimization in Primary and Secondary Control Scales) for the Domain of Teaching were constructed to assess patterns of control processes. Three facets of subjective well-being were investigated with the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, the Life Satisfaction Scale, and the Subjective Vitality Scale. The results revealed certain aspects of alignment with and certain divergences from the key propositions of the motivational theory of life-span development. Neither "primacy of primary control" nor "primacy of secondary control" was clearly supported. Notably, using different criteria for subjective well-being yielded different subtypes of primary and secondary control as predictors. The hypothesized life-span trajectories of primary and secondary control received limited support. To advance the theory in this area, we recommend incorporating Lakatos' ideas about sophisticated falsification by specifying the hard core of the motivational theory of life-span development and articulating new auxiliary hypotheses.

Understanding conceptual development along the implicit-explicit dimension: looking through the lens of the representational redescription model.

This study examined conceptual changes in children in the dimension of explicitness through the lens of the representational redescription model (A. Karmiloff-Smith, 1986, 1992). The 4- to 9-year-old participants (N = 24) had to balance blocks on a narrow support in one task and predict whether the blocks could be balanced in another task. In addition to the application of a microgenetic approach, various new methods were introduced to capture fine-grained changes in explicitness. Explicit understanding and behavioral performance were assessed separately with different measures. By using an adapted prediction task in a new way, evidence supporting the existence of an intermediate level of explicitness (Level E1) was found. The results also supported the existence of implicit-to-explicit development. The findings imply that the development of conceptual explicitness deserves further investigation.

Conformational organizations of G-quadruplexes composed of d(G(4)T(n))(3)G(4).

Structural polymorphism is one of the important issues with regard to G-quadruplexes because the structural diversity may significantly affect their biological functions in vivo and their physical property in nano-material. A series of oligonucleotides with four repeat guanines sequence [d(G(4)T(n))(3)G(4) (n=1-6)] were designed. In this study, the effects of loop length on the formation of structures of G-quadruplex were investigated through the result of CD (circular dichroism) and 20% non-denatured polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Our studies demonstrate that the length of loop in 100mM KCl solution could predict the conformation of G-quadruplex.

Retracing the footsteps of Wilhelm Wundt: explorations in the disciplinary frontiers of psychology and in Völkerpsychologie.

In 1927, Wilhelm Wundt's daughter, Eleonore Wundt, compiled and published a comprehensive catalogue of her father's works and works in translation. We use this catalogue as a starting point for an examination of the breadth of Wundt's contributions, the reaction to his works from the international psychological community, and the overall trajectory of his academic career. Two areas of particular interest are Wundt's view on the nature of psychology and its relationship to other disciplines, and his discussion of the nature of Völkerpsychologie and its role in psychology. A close examination of original sources reveals that Wundt anchored psychology in the realm of mental sciences. He regarded "psychology [to be] in relation to natural sciences the supplementary, in relation to the mental sciences the fundamental, and in relation to philosophy the propaedeutic empirical science." The accomplishments and limitations of Wundtian Völkerpsychologie are viewed stereoscopically through the lenses of its explicated conceptions, goals, and methods, on one hand, and of the contemporary advancements in psychology, on the other. Current implications of Wundt's works and further developments of his ideas are related to Davidson's theory of epistemology and to present-day deliberations on the biocultural coconstruction of human development. We conclude by considering the continuing relevance of Wundt's intellectual legacy.

Application of microscopy in authentication of Chinese patent medicine--Bo Ying compound.

To establish a quality control method for the Chinese Patent Medicine (CPM)-Bo Ying Compound (BYC), a comparison study was carried out on it with microscopy. The micro-morphological characteristics of its 22 components in the CPM and in the crude constituents have been documented and compared with each other. Their corresponding features were described and documented with color digital micrographs, so as to authenticate the presence of genuine crude constituents in BYC. The results showed that almost all constituents of BYC are found within their representative fragments in the CPM except one (Borax) that could dissolve or merge with the other components. Also the study indicated that light microscopy, an easy and economical method, could be used for the identification of this kind of CPM that contains plant and animal materials without the specific characteristic chemical marker compounds.