Contemporary Lifestyles and Values of Students in Louisiana, USA and North Cyprus: A Cross Cultural Study

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article reports the results of a cross cultural survey of values and lifestyles of Turkish and American college students. The sample consisted of 182 students from a university in North Cyprus and 101 students at a university in Louisiana. The students were asked to respond to a set of questions which indicated values and lifestyles in terms of the four dimensions of family values, materialism, postmaterialism, and idealism. The role of religion in politics has grown stronger in both the United States and Turkey in recent years. However, the United States can be said to be “postmodern,” while Turkey is still a developing country. One might expect to find significant differences among the two groups of students. It was found that the Turkish students were more liberal in terms of family values and they also appeared to be more idealistic than the American students. However, in terms of materialism, it was not found that one group of students were more materialistic than the other. Both groups...