Imagery in cultural tradition and innovation

Cultural traditions are preserved in the mental images stored and reconstructed from past experiences. Innovation requires the manipulation of this imagery in the course of productive activity. Tool use in the broadest sense is the mechanism enabling these processes. Vygotsky articulated a significant role for instrumental mediation in human psychology. We combine his perspective with insights from phenomenology and cognitive anthropology to develop a cultural psychology of visual imagery in the context of contemporary artist‐blacksmithing.     

Theory of Mind in Preadolescence: Relations Between Social Understanding and Social Competence

Theory of mind (ToM) underlies the ability to attribute mental states to people as a way of understanding their social behaviour. Although ToM development is an active area of research, most empirical investigations focus on infants and young children. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to assess ToM in preadolescents and to determine whether individual differences in this mentalizing ability relate to social competence and relate differently for girls and for boys. It was hypothesized that preadolescents' ability to understand thoughts and emotions in others would be associated with their social competence. 128 preadolescents (64 girls; 64 boys; mean age 11-9) completed peer social competence ratings, a vocabulary task, and participated in a social understanding (ToM) interview. Teacher ratings of the participants' social competence were also collected. Based on composite ToM scores, results indicated positive associations between ToM and (a) peer ratings of social-interaction skills, (b) general vocabulary ability. Separate gender analyses revealed significant effects. Results are discussed in relation to (1) individual differences in social understanding and social competence and (2) effects of socio-cultural context.     

Integration of Behavioral Frequency and Intention Information in Young Children's Trait Attributions

Two experiments examined three‐ to six‐year‐olds' use of frequency and intention information to make trait attributions and behavioral predictions. In experiment 1, participants were told a story about an actor who behaved positively once or four times on purpose or incidentally. Children were most likely to make trait‐consistent behavioral predictions after hearing about several positive, intentional behaviors. Trait attributions were largely positive. Experiment 2 examined children's use of the same cues concerning negative behavioral outcomes. Participants tended to predict that actors who engaged in negative behavior would do so again, irrespective of intention, although younger children required more exemplars than older children. Participants were most likely to make negative trait attributions after hearing about multiple intentional behaviors; however, there was reluctance with age to describe actors as mean. Implications for children's ‘theory of personality’ are discussed.     

Cultural family beliefs,maternal sacrifice,and adolescent psychological competence in Chinese poor single‐mother families

Research on cultural family beliefs and family processes as protective factors of adolescent development is severely lacking in the Chinese culture. Based on 432 Chinese single‐mother families living in poverty in Hong Kong, the relationships among Chinese cultural beliefs of familism, adolescent perceived maternal sacrifice, and psychological competence (indexed by a clear and healthy identity, cognitive competence, and a positive future outlook) were examined. Results showed that adolescents' perceived maternal sacrifice mediated the influence between maternal Chinese cultural beliefs of familism and the psychological competence of adolescents raised in poor single‐mother families in Hong Kong. The present study underscores the importance of cultural family beliefs and parental sacrifice on nurturing adolescent psychological competence in Chinese single‐mother families living in poverty, which contributes to the construction of a family resilience model applicable to Chinese communities.     

Retirement Plan Participation in an Era of Change: The Case of a Rural Region*

Individual savings are critical for retirement as government and employer‐based provisions fade or become less secure. Rural communities are vulnerable given their higher proportion of elderly and more who rely on Social Security. Using a telephone survey of working‐age residents in Michigan's rural Upper Peninsula, this research investigates factors associated with participation in tax‐advantaged retirement plans that have largely replaced defined‐benefit pension plans for earmarked retirement savings. The project also identifies factors predictive of making maximum contributions to those retirement plans. We consider several distinct categories of variables to reflect the social embeddedness of economic action. In addition, the research included community variables describing aspects of respondents' social context, a new component of the savings discourse, which we show to be significantly related to saving outside a tax‐advantaged retirement plan and making maximum contributions to a tax‐advantaged retirement plan.     

Career mobility and satisfaction of women administrators in postsecondary education: A review and research agenda

The purpose of this article is to examine the formal and informal organizational and environmental structures and processes that influence the opportunities, achievements, and satisfaction of women administrators in postsecondary education. A model is developed that synthesizes the research from human capital and structural approaches to occupational mobility and applies it to university contexts. Emphasis is placed on the structural factors, including organizational characteristics, and membership in formal and informal networks. A set of hypotheses is derived from this model. Gaps in current literature and research and proposed avenues for future research are discussed.