Self-awareness, Perspective-taking, and Egocentrism

Impact of Family Functioning on Adolescent Materialism and Egocentrism in Mainland China: Positive Youth Development Attributes as a Mediator

Although adolescent materialism and egocentrism are growing problems in Chinese societies, there are very few studies investigating their predictors and related mediators. Longitudinal studies in this area are also sparse. Based on a short-term longitudinal study (n = 4981), we assessed the impact of family functioning on materialism and egocentrism of Chinese adolescents, with positive youth development attributes as a hypothesized mediating factor. Results showed that family functioning positively predicted positive youth development attributes but negatively predicted adolescent materialism and egocentrism; positive youth development attributes also negatively predicted adolescent materialism and egocentrism. Mediational analyses showed that positive youth development attributes mediated the impact of family functioning on adolescent materialism and egocentrism. The theoretical and methodological advances of the study are discussed.

Expressing Discrepancies between Religious Affiliations and Drinking Reduces Drinking Intentions

The majority of young adults express a religious affiliation. Most widely-practiced religions have some proscriptions against excessive drinking and/or drunkenness. Yet many religious college students engage in drinking in excess of these proscriptions, albeit at lower levels than non-religious students. At present, virtually no empirically-evaluated brief interventions in this population have directly incorporated religious affiliation.

OBJECTIVE

The present study evaluated an expressive writing intervention that elicits awareness and expression of discrepancy between religious affiliation and drinking behaviors, especially for students expressing moderate to high subjective religiousness and drinking levels. We expected discrepancy to result in lower drinking intentions.

METHOD

Undergraduate students (N=344) were randomly assigned to a 2 (priming: religious affiliation vs. college major) X 2 (comparison of current drinking with: religious affiliation vs. college major) expressive writing design in which those in the experimental condition were asked to describe how their current drinking fit with their religious affiliation.

RESULTS

Writing about the fit between current drinking and one's religious affiliation (versus college major) was associated with expressing more discrepancy, which was, in turn, associated with intentions to reduce drinking. No effects were found for priming, nor for the interaction between priming and comparison. Subjective religiousness and current drinking were evaluated as moderators of the indirect effect of comparing one's current drinking and religious affiliation on future drinking intentions through expressed discrepancy. The effect of comparison on discrepancy was stronger at higher levels of subjective religiousness. The association between discrepancy and intentions to reduce drinking was stronger for heavier drinkers, especially when also accompanied by higher subjective religiousness.

CONCLUSION

Results provide preliminary support for a novel intervention strategy with the potential to reduce drinking in a significant proportion of students that has previously received little consideration.

Weaving social reality around the grandparent/great-grandparent with dementia to maintain relational presence: A verbal and non-verbal dementia interactions model

We proposed a dementia interactions model based on analyses of five focus groups with grandchildren of grandparents with dementia. Interactions with their grandparent with dementia motivate grandchildren to maintain connection with a grandparent who is relationally present. To do so, they weave a social reality around the grandparent. To help the grandparent remain connected, grandchildren engage in scripts and routines and employ three intertwined psychological processes: perspective taking, vigilance, and knowledge about the grandparent's preferences, personality, state of mind, and context. Grandchildren use four relationship anchors to help the grandparent remain relationally present: family members, meaningful sensory objects and activities, physical space/context, and themselves. Implications for improving social interactions with close others with dementia are discussed.

Perspective Taking, Self-Anchoring, and Attention to Context in Long-Distance and Geographically Close Romantic Relationships

We manipulated perspective taking and measured romantic intimates’ attention to their partners’ context. Participants read a letter supposedly from their romantic partner describing the partner's precarious situation (e.g., stress and financial issues) and either imagined their partner's difficult situation (n = 87) or remained objective and detached (n = 85). Afterwards, they drew a picture of their romantic partner in the situation (drawing task) and wrote about the thoughts they had while reading the letter (writing task). As predicted, when adopting their romantic partner's perspective (vs. remaining detached), geographically close intimates focused more on their partner's context, whereas long-distance intimates relied on self-anchoring processes to produce knowledge about their partner's feelings and thoughts in that specific situation. We discuss theoretical, clinical, and therapeutic implications of the findings for the study of differential perspective-taking processes and mechanisms in long-distance and geographically close relationships.