The primary purpose of the present study was to investigate the joint effects of culture and attribution of outcome feedback on reasoning performance. This study attempted to address four major research questions: (a) Do Canadian and Chinese students have different cultural values and causal attribution patterns? (b) Do pre-experimental individual differences in causal attribution patterns lead to differences in Canadian and Chinese students' inductive reasoning performance? (c) Does attribution of outcome feedback affect Canadian and Chinese students' inductive reasoning performance? (d) Do Canadian and Chinese students conduct deductive reasoning differently as a function of outcome feedback and reasoning task contents? A total of 120 college students (60 Canadian and 60 Chinese) performed three phases of computerized experimental tasks. The research design involved 2 types of culture groups (Canadian and Chinese) under 3 conditions of outcome feedback (success, failure, and control) as two independent variables. The dependent variables observed were the number of instances used or correct responses made and response time, when possible. In terms of culture differences, Canadian students appear to be distinct and articulate about the matters of socio-cultural values, while Chinese students are relatively less distinct and articulate. When making attribution for other people's success, both Canadian and Chinese students held internal factors (i. e., good effort and high ability) as responsible. When accounting for other people's failure, Canadian students picked controllable factors (i.e., lack of effort), while Chinese students picked both controllable and uncontrollable factors (i.e., largely lack of effort and occasionally difficult task) as the reasons. However, following the success outcome feedback about their own reasoning performance, Canadian students emphasized mostly high ability and, occasionally, effort as the reasons, while Chinese students picked mostly good luck and, occasionally, high ability. Given the failure outcome feedback about their own task performance, Canadian students attributed to lack of effort and bad luck as causes, while Chinese students exclusively picked lack of effort as the explanation. Chinese subjects' inductive and deductive reasoning performances remained relatively unswayed by success or failure outcome feedback, whereas Canadian subjects' reasoning performance remained good only when success feedback was received. When failure feedback was provided, Canadian subjects' reasoning performances deteriorated and remained poor throughout the experiment. While Chinese students' reasoning performance is not predictable from their low-ability attribution of other people's failure outcome, Canadian students' reasoning performance is highly predictable; that is, the more they attributed others' failure to low ability, the faster they completed the culture-fair inductive reasoning task. On the other hand, when making attribution based on their own experience, given success feedback, Canadian students attributed their performance to their high ability. Given failure feedback, Canadian students attributed their performance to their lack of effort, with improved performance commensurable to their verbal causal attribution. The present findings indicate that Canadian and Chinese college students showed differences in causal attribution patterns, depending on when they explain others' success/failure experiences or their own, and further that upon receipt of failure outcome feedback, Canadian students' reasoning performance deteriorated, while Chinese students' performance remained insensitive to success or failure outcome feedback. Further fine-grained analyses of such causal attribution patterns interacting with outcome feedbacks and cognitive performance needs some more careful studies.

This research compared structured physical activity patterns to changes in body mass index (BMI) of Chinese university students. Chinese students attending Midwestern universities completed a 26-itemized, validated and reliable physical activity questionnaire. The questionnaire assessed demographics, time spent in various physical activities, BMI, and perceived barriers to exercise prior to and after residing in the U.S. for at least three months. Analysis of variance revealed that, after residing in the U.S., males had a greater increase in time spent in moderate-intensity physical activity compared to females (p < .01), while females had a greater increase in time spent in vigorous-intensity physical activity when compared to males (p < .01). Also, students 21 years of age or older were more likely to increase their time spent in moderate- and vigorous-intensity physical activities combined than those 20 years of age or younger. Lastly, change in BMI appeared to be affected by geographical region of origin (p < .05), where participants from the Eastern region of China had a greater increase in BMI than those from the Western, Northern, and Southern regions. Overall, educating Chinese university students on the importance of incorporating structured physical activities may help prevent future increases in BMI after immersion into the U.S lifestyle. / Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

The purpose of the present study was to examine the influence of cultural factors, such as self-construal, and social beliefs, on coping for U.S. and Chinese college students. Data from 325 U.S. and 321 Chinese college students were used for the analyses. It was found that independent self-construal, beliefs in reward for application and social complexity predicted task-oriented coping and self-regulation for both the U.S. and Chinese students. It was also found that beliefs in both fate control and social cynicism were associated with avoidance and emotion-focused coping in both groups. These two patterns of relationships were also observed across gender in each sample. Differences were also noted between the two countries. For the U.S. students, independent self-construal and interdependent self-construal contributed equally to task-oriented coping and self regulation, whereas for the Chinese students, only independent self-construal predicted these coping strategies. Moreover, religiosity was associated with emotion-focused coping and self regulation for the Chinese participants, while this pattern was not found in the U.S. student sample. The results of this study support the transactional model of coping. Consistent with previous findings, significant associations were found between three of the cultural variables (independent self-construal, beliefs in social complexity, and reward in application) and taskoriented coping. In contrast to prior research, the current study indicates that both independent and interdependent self-construal predicted task-oriented coping for the U.S. students. This contradicts Lam and Zane’s (2004) findings which suggested that these two dimensions of selfconstrual affect coping differently. Moreover, the current study found associations in the U.S. sample between self-construal, social beliefs, and coping dimensions which were originally identified in Chinese populations (i.e., self-regulation and help seeking). Similarly, the current research illuminated relationships in the Chinese sample between self-construal, social beliefs, and coping dimensions which were originally identified in the West (i.e., task-oriented and emotion-oriented coping). These findings suggest that current conceptualizations of coping in the West and China may not fully capture important aspects of coping in these two cultures. These results were discussed in relation to past findings in the literature, as well as the cultural contexts of the U.S. and China. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

The current study investigated the mediating role of motivational self-regulation (MSR) strategies (i.e., mastery self-talk, performance/extrinsic self-talk, performance/relative ability self-talk, interest enhancement, relevance enhancement, efficacy enhancement) in the relationships between achievement goals and cognitive and behavioral engagement (i.e., involved engagement, withdrawal in the face of difficulties, avoidance of challenges, rehearsal and elaboration) among 1096 Chinese gifted high school students (43% male). Structural equation modeling supported the mediating role of MSR strategies. Mastery goals positively predicted all six MSR strategies with medium to large effects whereas performance approach goals positively predicted five out of six MSR strategies with small to medium effects. While all six MSR strategies positively predicted involved engagement, rehearsal and elaboration, interest enhancement and efficacy enhancement showed additional benefits. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. / Department of Educational Psychology

Thesis (Ph.D. )--Duquesne University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 137-142) and index.

The primary purpose of the present study was to investigate the joint effects of culture and attribution of outcome feedback on reasoning performance. This study attempted to address four major research questions: (a) Do Canadian and Chinese students have different cultural values and causal attribution patterns? (b) Do pre-experimental individual differences in causal attribution patterns lead to differences in Canadian and Chinese students' inductive reasoning performance? (c) Does attribution of outcome feedback affect Canadian and Chinese students' inductive reasoning performance? (d) Do Canadian and Chinese students conduct deductive reasoning differently as a function of outcome feedback and reasoning task contents? A total of 120 college students (60 Canadian and 60 Chinese) performed three phases of computerized experimental tasks. The research design involved 2 types of culture groups (Canadian and Chinese) under 3 conditions of outcome feedback (success, failure, and control) as two independent variables. The dependent variables observed were the number of instances used or correct responses made and response time, when possible. In terms of culture differences, Canadian students appear to be distinct and articulate about the matters of socio-cultural values, while Chinese students are relatively less distinct and articulate. When making attribution for other people's success, both Canadian and Chinese students held internal factors (i. e., good effort and high ability) as responsible. When accounting for other people's failure, Canadian students picked controllable factors (i.e., lack of effort), while Chinese students picked both controllable and uncontrollable factors (i.e., largely lack of effort and occasionally difficult task) as the reasons. However, following the success outcome feedback about their own reasoning performance, Canadian students emphasized mostly high ability and, occasionally, effort as the reasons, while Chinese students picked mostly good luck and, occasionally, high ability. Given the failure outcome feedback about their own task performance, Canadian students attributed to lack of effort and bad luck as causes, while Chinese students exclusively picked lack of effort as the explanation. Chinese subjects' inductive and deductive reasoning performances remained relatively unswayed by success or failure outcome feedback, whereas Canadian subjects' reasoning performance remained good only when success feedback was received. When failure feedback was provided, Canadian subjects' reasoning performances deteriorated and remained poor throughout the experiment. While Chinese students' reasoning performance is not predictable from their low-ability attribution of other people's failure outcome, Canadian students' reasoning performance is highly predictable; that is, the more they attributed others' failure to low ability, the faster they completed the culture-fair inductive reasoning task. On the other hand, when making attribution based on their own experience, given success feedback, Canadian students attributed their performance to their high ability. Given failure feedback, Canadian students attributed their performance to their lack of effort, with improved performance commensurable to their verbal causal attribution. The present findings indicate that Canadian and Chinese college students showed differences in causal attribution patterns, depending on when they explain others' success/failure experiences or their own, and further that upon receipt of failure outcome feedback, Canadian students' reasoning performance deteriorated, while Chinese students' performance remained insensitive to success or failure outcome feedback. Further fine-grained analyses of such causal attribution patterns interacting with outcome feedbacks and cognitive performance needs some more careful studies. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

This Dissertation examines Sichuan students' attitude toward modern education in the transitional times. The text describes the intrinsic crisis of the civil service examination system in the late nineteenth century, the establishment of the new school system in the first decade of the twentieth century, and the birth of the first generation of the new political elite in Sichuan after the 1911 Revolution. It highlights the students' participation in the educational reform from their motives of career-seeking and social mobility rather than from their political sentiments such as radicalism, nationalism, and modernization. The study argues that without fundamental social and economic change, educational reform in inland China did not cause a substantial change in the students' traditional attitude towards education. The new school system, substituting for the abolished civil service examination system, functioned as a new ladder of success or a new elite recruiting mechanism for the students. The study suggests that statistical growth did not mean modernity. Tradition played an important role in inland China's modernization movements in the twentieth century by shaping the ways that were used to pursue the aims of the movements and the motives of the people who participate in the movements. Extensive primary documents - ranging from government decrees to local gazetteers - are employed in the study, and attention is paid to the similarities and contrasts between Sichuan and the coastal provinces. Quite a number of tables and a comprehensive bibliography are also included. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

丘海雄. / Thesis (M.A.)--香港中文大學, 1987. / Reprint of manuscript. / Qiu Haixiong. / Thesis (M.A.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 1987. / 導論 --- p.1 / Chapter 第一章 --- 研究的問題 --- p.8 / Chapter 第二章 --- 理論與假設 / Chapter 第一節 --- 理論回顧 --- p.14 / Chapter 第二節 --- 變項與假設 --- p.21 / Chapter 第三章 --- 研究的方法 / Chapter 第一節 --- 自陳法 --- p.55 / Chapter 第二節 --- 樣本與資料收集過程 --- p.59 / Chapter 第三節 --- 概念的操作化和量度 --- p.63 / Chapter 第四章 --- 研究結果與分析 / Chapter 第一節 --- 兩變項分析 --- p.75 / Chapter 第二節 --- 多變項分析 --- p.79 / Chapter 第三節 --- 男女兩個群體的比較 --- p.98 / Chapter 第五章 --- 結論 / Chapter 第一節 --- 研究結果 --- p.107 / Chapter 第二節 --- 局限性 --- p.112 / Chapter 第三節 --- 討論與建設 --- p.114 / 注釋 --- p.117 / 中文參考資料 --- p.1 / 英文參考資料 --- p.1