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People may often encounter a dilemma where they have to choose between smaller but immediate benefits and larger but delayed rewards, which is termed intertemporal choice. To explore the unusual behavior in intertemporal choice among those who are addicted to internet, a dual processing model, which is at present limited to the neural science, is tested and further extended to behavioral domain through a series of laboratory experiment. Study 1 tested and supported the dual processing model on intertemporal choice, showing that the hot processing and cold processing systems displayed an interacting effect on internet addicts' behaviors in intertemporal choice. Study 2 examined different features of processing type among internet addicts and common people, finding that internet addicts did not show preference over any kind of three processing types as common people did. Moreover, we found that level of self-control displayed a mediating effect on internet addicts and healthy control's different behavior in intertemporal choice. At last, study 3 manipulated the level of self-control to explore the mediator effect on internet addicts' unusual behavior in intertemporal choice, showing that self-control mediated the relationship between subject type and intertemporal choice. The findings indicated that the self-control as the psychological mechanism in the intertemporal choice.

Explicit self-esteem (ESE) is an important factor influencing subject well-being (SWB). However, the relationship between ESE and SWB is not clear. Due to the complex nature of self-esteem, implicit self-esteem (ISE) might moderate the relationship between ESE and SWB. Furthermore, providing the consistency between ISE and ESE, the interacting effect of ISE and ESE would only be significant for the cognitive component of SWB rather than the emotional component. To examine these assumptions, the present study recruited a total of 134 undergraduate students and measured their ISE, ESE, and SWB using Implicit Association Test (IAT) and self-report measures. The results showed that (a) ESE, rather than ISE, was significantly correlated to SWB; and (b) the interaction between ISE and ESE could significantly predict the cognitive components of SWB rather than the emotional components. Those findings contribute to the further understanding of the relationship between self-esteem and SWB.

Governments have adopted strict home quarantine measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. A monotonous, barren, and under-stimulating environment can cause state boredom, and people often deal with boredom via novelty-seeking behavior. Novelty-seeking behavior can be divided into “novelty input” and “novelty output.” The former refers to obtaining novel information such as browsing the Web; the latter refers to engaging in creative behavior such as literary creation. This study explores the relationship between two types of novelty-seeking behavior and individual state boredom during home quarantine, along with the moderation effect of trait creativity. The study sample consists of 582 Chinese college students who were quarantined at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants completed the Multidimensional State Boredom Scale, the Williams Creativity Aptitude Test, and self-compiled questionnaires of novelty input and novelty output. The results show that there is no significant relationship between novelty input or novelty output and boredom during the COVID-19 quarantine. Trait creativity is found to negatively moderate the relationship between the two means of novelty seeking and boredom. Specifically, novelty output negatively predicts the state boredom of individuals with high creativity, while novelty input positively predicts the state boredom of individuals with low creativity. Our findings suggest that different novelty-seeking behaviors may have different effects on the boredom level of individuals with high versus low creativity during quarantine. During a quarantine period, individuals should avoid excessively engaging in novelty input behaviors aimed at escaping boring situations.

When humans are confronted with an epidemic situation or a continuous natural disaster, success depends largely on how critical information is conveyed to as many people as possible, how individuals' emotional experiences of the crisis are elicited, and how their behaviors are directed going forward. Efficient publicity is key to successful epidemic prevention and control. This study explores the role of creative publicity by comparing the influence of creative publicity and general publicity in different periods of the COVID-19 outbreak in China. The effects of creative and general publicity differed across varying periods of the COVID-19 outbreak. Specifically, compared to general publicity, creative publicity had a significant impact on individuals' emotional arousal in the early period of the COVID-19 outbreak while it significantly promoted individuals' emotional arousal, behavioral regulation, and willingness to actively disseminate information in the middle period. In the stable period of the COVID-19 outbreak, creative publicity performed better than general publicity in regulating individuals' behavior. On the other hand, general publicity was more effective than creative publicity in regulating individuals' behavior and actively disseminating information about the epidemic in the early period of the COVID-19 outbreak. In conclusion, creative and general publicity had differing effects in different periods of the COVID-19 outbreak, which may relate to the characteristics of the publicity format and people's psychological conditions in different periods of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Past literature on humor and creativity mainly focuses on the positive effect of humor on the divergent aspect of creativity. However, few researches have examined the relationship between humor and the convergent aspect of creativity, specifically insight problem-solving. The present research aimed to fill in this gap and examine the effect of humor on insight problem-solving. In Study 1, a sample of 32 subjects participated in a within-subjects study that tested the effects of humor comprehension (cognitive component of humor) and humor appreciation (affective component of humor) on insight problem-solving. In Study 2, a sample of 62 participants was recruited in a between-subjects study that examined the mediating role of cognitive flexibility. The results showed that: (1) participants' performance on insight problem-solving was significantly higher in humor condition than that in the non-humor condition; (2) no performance differences were found between the cognitive humor condition and the cognitive and affective humor condition; (3) cognitive flexibility partially mediated the effect of humor on insight problem-solving. These findings suggested that humor comprehension, rather than humor appreciation, can promote individuals' performance on insight problem-solving. The implications for convergent aspect of creativity and interventions on how to utilize humor to enhance creativity are discussed.

Previous studies have demonstrated that the preference for online social interaction (POSI) is one of the most important factors affecting problematic Internet use (PIU). As self-worth orientation theory suggests, however, only-child could buffer the effect of POSI on PIU, given the fact that children without siblings (the only-child) typically enjoy more resources from parents than do children with siblings. As children grow, particularly after school age, they would become more susceptible to the peers' influence than parents'. Thus, the buffering effect of only-child would decrease along with age due to the lessening effect of parents. To examine the moderating effect of sibling condition (only-child vs. children with siblings) and moderated moderating effect of age cohort (adolescent vs. emerging adult) on the relationship between POSI and PIU, we collected data from 12,051 Chinese students and measured their POSI, PIU, sibling condition, age and other demographics. The results showed that (a) the PIU score of only-child was significantly lower than that of children with siblings; (b) the POSI significantly predicted the PIU; (c) sibling condition moderated the relationship between POSI and PIU, and age cohort further moderated the moderation of sibling condition; (d) age cohort moderated the relationship between POSI and PIU. The implications for the prevention of Internet addictive behaviors among adolescents were discussed.

Teacher support plays a role in promoting students’ motivations in the academic settings, but little is known about how teacher support impacts students’ creative self-efficacy. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between perceived teacher support and students’ creative self- efficacy, taking into account the possible mediating effects of autonomous motivation and achievement emotions. A total of 512 junior high school students (age M = 12.58, SD = 0.74) completed the Perceived Teacher Support Questionnaire, Adolescent Achievement Emotions Questionnaire, Self-Regulation Style Questionnaire-Academic and Students’ Creative Self-Efficacy Scale. Results showed that: (1) junior high school students’ autonomous motivation and positive achievement emotions (enjoyment and relaxation) mediated the relationship between perceived teacher support and creative self-efficacy, but the mediating effects of negative achievement emotions (anxiety and boredom) were not significant. (2) perceived teacher support also affected creative self-efficacy through the chain mediation of students’ autonomous motivation and relaxation, but the chain mediation of students’ autonomous motivation and other achievement emotions was not significant. The present study has implications for educators and researchers interested in enhancing students’ creativity.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of handedness on the relationship between implicit self-esteem (ISE) and explicit self-esteem (ESE). A total of 93 undergraduate students (28 left-handers, 32 mix-handers, and 33 right-handers) participated in this study. Participants reported their ISE, ESE, and handedness using an Implicit Association Test (IAT) and an array of self-report measures. Results indicated that (a) there was a significant correlation between ESE and ISE in the whole sample, and (b) there was a very strong significant correlation in left-handed participants; and no significant correlation in right-handed participants. A further analysis showed a moderating effect of participants' handedness on the relationship between ISE and ESE. Implications and future research directions were discussed.

Results of studies on the relationship between implicit (ISE) and explicit (ESE) self-esteem have been inconsistent, possibly because of the moderating influence of factors such as gender, response latency, and cognitive load. We examined the moderating effect of cultural tendency on the relationship between ISE and ESE in the context of Chinese culture. We developed a Chinese version of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to measure participants' ISE. Participants were 100 undergraduate students at 2 Chinese universities, who completed the IAT and a series of quantitative measures to assess their ISE, ESE, and cultural tendency. Results showed that there was a weak correlation between ISE and ESE, and that individualism, rather than collectivism, moderated the relationship between ISE and ESE.

Father-child facial resemblance is an important cue for men to evaluate paternity. Previous studies found that fathers’ perceptions of low facial resemblance with offspring lead to low confidence of paternity. Fathers’ uncertainty of paternity could cause psychological stress and anxiety, which, after a long time, may further turn into trait anxiety. Conversely, females can ensure a biological connection with offspring because of internal fertilization. The purpose of this study was thus to examine the role of parents’ gender in the effect of parents’ perceived facial resemblance with child on their trait anxiety. In this study, one hundred and fifty-one parents (father or mother) from one-child families reported their facial resemblance with child and their trait anxiety. Results showed that (a) males tended to perceive higher facial similarity with child than did females, and (b) males’ perceived facial resemblance with child significantly predicted trait anxiety, whereas females’ perceived facial resemblance did not. These findings suggested that the uncertainty of paternity contributed to the trait anxiety of fathers, but not mothers.