Work-family conflict is a type of interrole conflict in which psychological stress arises when demands from work domain interfere with one’s capability to carry out responsibilities associated with family. Social support, on the other hand, is commonly regarded as a valuable coping resource that can alleviate job stress. In the past few decades, different models have been proposed to understand the role of work-family dynamics in the workplace. However, some of these models are mutually exclusive. While some studies found that either positive or negative experience from one domain will spill to the other domain, a different stream of research found that the negative experience from one domain can be compensated by the positive experience from another domain. In an attempt to understand the underlying mechanism of work-family conflict, a moderated-mediation model was proposed. The model encompasses the indicators, the consequences, and the moderators into the study of work-family conflict. More importantly, the model puts forward the importance of a situational fit between the source of stress and the type of social support being offered (Study 1). It also emphasizes the significance of relationship closeness in affecting the effectiveness of social support (Study 2). Adopting the Job Demand-Resources model, Study 1 attempted to test the contextual variability of social support. In particular, the buffering role of two types of domain-specific support, namely the coworker support and family support, were tested in the work context. The results showed that there is a domain difference of the effectiveness of social support. The moderating effect of within-domain social support was stronger than the cross-domain social support. Coworker support was found to buffer against the linkage between job demands and psychosomatic symptoms, whereas family support was found to strengthen the lethal impact of the same relationship. Based on a sample with two time points of 18- to 20-month interval, Study 2 further tested the impact of relationship closeness on social support. Work-family conflict was found to be a mediator between the linkage of job demands and psychological well-being. A main effect was shown for both coworker support and family support in which the both types of social support from Time 1 significantly predicted Time 2 work-family conflict reported by participants. Peer support was found to be a negative buffer in the moderated mediation model in which a higher level of peer support was shown to intensify the negative relationship of job demands on psychological well-being through work-family conflict. The findings from the current research challenge the perspectivethat views social support as favorable at all times. In particular, the proposed model showed that receiving social support in a right context, or social support from significant others will be beneficial to employees’ psychological well-being, whereas social support from non-significant others in a misfit context will be hazardous. / published_or_final_version / Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

When compared with basic theory of mind (ToM), there is very limited research on advanced ToM. The two studies of the current research aimed to explore the underlying mentalistic processes leading to advanced ToM understanding in Strange Stories and possible factors that facilitate the development of advanced ToM from basic ToM. The participants were 25 adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 25 typically developing (TD) peers with matching age (12 to 15) and Verbal IQ. The first study explored the difference in level of difficulty with regard to two groups of stories in the Strange Stories test (Happe, 1994), non-literal and untrue literal. As predicted, stories with non-literal statements were found to be more difficult than untrue literal statements in both ASD and TD groups. With reference to Grice theory, the difference in level of difficulty was suspected to be related to the difference in level of complexity in the mentalistic processes involved. The underlying mentalistic processes of advanced ToM understanding were then explored by extending a hierarchy of 3 mentalistic processes developed from an irony study on TD population (Filippova and Astington, 2008) to other advanced ToM social situations. According to this hierarchy, to detect the speaker’s motivation/ attitude, i.e. advanced ToM understanding, in a statement, one has to first understand the speaker’s belief towards the statement. The speaker’s communication intention would then be identified with reference to this belief. Finally, with understanding at the belief and intention levels as basis, people could interpret the motivation or attitude of the statements. With reference to previous research findings, it was hypothesized that understanding at the motivation/attitude level of non-literal statements would follow the hierarchy of mentalistic processes which reflected more complex mentalistic processes. Understanding of untrue literal statements at motivation/attitude level would involve less complex mentalistic processes as it did not necessarily follow the hierarchy, since understanding of intention and (or) belief was not essential. The results partially supported the hypotheses with some exceptions. Re-categorization according to the adherence to the hierarchy reflected a greater difference between the two new story categories for both ASD and TD groups, which suggested salience in meaning is a better grouping factor to reflect the variation in levels of difficulty among Strange Stories. The factor of “intention and belief” derived from the delineation of mentalistic processes of advanced ToM understanding was found to have significant mediation effects in the link between basic ToM and advanced ToM in the ASD group, which suggested its facilitating role. Yet, the mediation effect was not found in the TD group. The second study investigated the possible facilitating role of knowledge of advanced ToM mental state concepts for the acquisition of advanced ToM. The ASD group was significantly weaker than their TD counterparts in both example and definition level of knowledge of advanced ToM mental state concepts. Similar to the results in Study One, knowledge of advanced ToM mental state concepts was found to be positively associated with advanced ToM understanding but such a relationship was not significant in the TD group. The lack of significant associations among basic ToM, advanced ToM and Intention-Belief as well as the absence of a significant relation between knowledge of advanced ToM mental state concepts and advanced ToM understanding in the TD group indicated the possibility that they are necessary but not sufficient factors for facilitating advanced ToM acquisition. The results shed light on the theoretical framework of advanced ToM acquisition and provided practical implications especially for intervention related to advanced ToM development. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Psychology

The relationship between music and emotions has been the focus of the study of musical experience. However, previous studies have focused in particular on what psychologists understand as the "basic emotions", which are rigorously defined. This thesis argues that the focus on basic emotions has indeed limited our understanding of what we feel when we listen to music. A narrative review of the recent literature has been carried out to closely examine the existing findings and limitations of previous studies have been revealed. In addition, a positive tendency is observed in listeners' responses to music. Participants' ratings of happiness were overwhelmingly high among different music excerpts. This suggests that listeners tend to feel positive when they listen to music regardless of the specific emotions aroused by music (e.g. happiness and sadness). The high level of happiness observed in the review may actually point to the experience of pleasure. Taking this as a starting point, this study moves on to introduce the psychological notion of pleasure and how it can be applied to the study of musical experience. The experience of pleasure involves an evaluation process and is not necessarily tied up with particular emotions. The relationship between pleasure and musical expectations is also explored. An explorative empirical study has been carried out to investigate listeners' experiences of pleasure and emotions when they listen to music. Participants listened to several music excerpts and they had to report the affective response induced by the excerpts in them. They also gave ratings to the level of pleasure they experienced with the music excerpts. Results show that different excerpts induced different responses in the participants, but the levels of pleasure they experienced towards different excerpts were not significantly different. Taken together, this study suggests that pleasure is commonly experienced when we listen to music and it is a psychological experience independent of emotions. A better understanding of musical pleasure can lead to a more comprehensive understanding of our musical experience. / published_or_final_version / Music / Master / Master of Philosophy

People depend heavily on various forms of assistance, guidance, and care for survival, which leads many to view social support as definitively beneficial. However, recent studies have provided the counterargument that social support is not necessarily a panacea for coping with stress. A considerable number of studies have been conducted on social support, yet the majority of the theoretical models developed to understand its influence have focused on its benefits, with few exploring the negative support effects from the relational aspect. No studies have attempted to explain support effects from the perspective of individual differences. More importantly, the underlying social support mechanism and the roles played by the different modes of social support remain unknown. Building on the available theoretical insights, a relativistic approach is adopted here to study social support. A hybrid self-focus model of social support is proposed to understand the relationships between personality resources (specifically self-esteem) and levels of affect (positive and negative), the underlying mechanism of self-focus processes (public self-consciousness and social comparison), and the moderating role of the mode of social support (offline and online). The two studies incorporated correlational and quasi-experimental methodologies conducted to examine the proposed model among participants from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Study 1 was correlational and applied a naturalistic categorization method to the mode of social support. This study showed that the focus of social comparison varied based on the levels of self-esteem and engagement in the offline and mixed modes of social support, but the findings were inconclusive regarding social comparison as the underlying mechanism. In addition, the analyses of public self-consciousness revealed puzzling results. Hence, the findings only provided partial support for the hybrid self-focus model of social support. To clarify the counterintuitive findings revealed in Study 1, Study 2 adopted a quasi-experimental design to examine the mediating effects of self-focus processes on the relationship between self-esteem and levels of affect in two distinct modes of social support. One hundred and seventy-seven participants were included in the moderated mediation analyses, and the findings were largely consistent with the proposed model of public self-consciousness as the facilitating mechanism. People’s awareness of the self-referent aspects that were matters for public display explained the positive link between self-esteem and distress. Such a positive indirect effect of self-esteem mediated through public self-consciousness was particularly strong in offline social support. In summary, the present project demonstrates that support effects are influenced by self-esteem, public self-consciousness, and the mode of social support. These findings provide unique insights that have not been examined by previous studies on social support. This project is the first attempt to address knowledge gaps by adopting a relativistic approach to social support. The subsequent discussion, implications, and future directions focus on a relativistic approach and the hybrid self-focus model of social support. / published_or_final_version / Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Objective: Chronic back pain is highly prevalent in orthopaedic clinics. The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship of psychological factors affecting disability and distress outcomes in chronic low back pain patients. Clinicians shared the impression that chronic pain patients resulted from Injury on Duty (IOD) were particularly difficult to manage. Profiles of IOD patients and non-IOD patients were compared. Methods: The present study is a prospective follow-up study. Fifty-four patients from a public orthopaedic out-patient clinic were assessed with low back pain as their primary complaint. Self-report inventories together with semi-structured interview were used to assess patients’ pain intensity, pain disability, psychological distress, positive and negative affect, as well as relevant pain-related parameters including pain catastrophizing thought, pain-related fear, pain self-efficacy and chronic pain acceptance. Patients were interviewed during their first visit to the orthopaedic out-patient clinic (i.e. Time 1), after 6 months (i.e. Time 2) and after 1 year (i.e. Time 3) of the first consultation. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted. Results: Chronic pain acceptance predicted mid-term and long-term pain disability and psychological distress at a period of one year after their initial assessment. However, the pain-related parameters of pain catastrophizing, pain-related fear and pain self-efficacy did not show a significant predictive effect on outcomes. Pain rating is an inadequate estimate to assess patients’ level of disability and psychological status. The meaning of pain is important for patients to make sense of their pain experience and employ appropriate coping strategies. Attaching a positive value to pain helps patients to accept their pain. In addition, half of the chronic pain patients showed a need for psychiatric services at one year follow-up, pointing to a high co-morbidity between chronic pain and psychiatric problems. Among the 54 patients, 17 (31.5%) were injured on duty (IOD). More IOD patients than non-IOD patients took sick leaves or were not working during the year. However, there is no significant difference between IOD group and non-IOD group on psychological distress, pain disability and other pain-related measures across 3 time points. Discussion and Conclusion: Pain problems in the context of chronic pain are different from those in the context of acute pain. Intervention focusing on pain relief is inadequate to treat patients’ chronic pain. A multi-factorial perspective is needed to understand and develop suitable models to account for chronic pain experience instead of just relying on the prevalent fear-avoidance model. A more comprehensive assessment that is tailored to patients’ needs is necessary for more effective rehabilitation. Chronic pain patients’ need for psychiatric intervention is also highlighted, with a focus on work-related issues for IOD patients. / published_or_final_version / Psychiatry / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This dissertation consists of two empirical essays about the cognitive limitation, herding behavior, and their association with investment performance. The essays utilize the detailed quotes and trades data in the Taiwan Futures Exchange with investor account identity, to study the cognitive limitation and herding behavior of the investors, and the association between the cognitive limitation, herding behavior, and the investment performance. In the first essay, I hypothesize that cognitive limitation maybe manifested in a disproportionately large volume of limit orders submitted at round-number prices if investors use these numbers as cognitive shortcuts., I find that investors with lower cognitive abilities, defined as higher limit order submission ratios at round numbers, suffer greater losses in their round-numbered and non-round-numbered limit orders, market orders, and round-trip trades. The positive correlation between cognitive ability and investment performance is monotonic and robust across futures and options markets. In addition, past trading experience helps mitigate the cognitive limitation. The second essay studies the herding behavior of investors. The second essay studies the herding behavior of investors. I find that individual investors trade in the same direction with other individual investors in the same branch of a broker. Individual investors’ tendency to herd is persistent, and it is negatively associated with their cognitive abilities and trading experience. The higher the herding tendency of an individual investor is, the worse she performs in her investments. Importantly, the negative association between herding and investment performance is driven by the orders that are traded in the same direction with other individual investors. Our results suggest that herding with other individuals imposes a direct cost to individual investors. / published_or_final_version / Economics and Finance / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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