Cross-cultural Aspects Research Articles

Minority and Cross-Cultural Aspects of Neuropsychological Assessment

Minority and Cross-Cultural Aspects of Neuropsychological Assessment

Rome IV—Functional GI Disorders: Disorders of Gut-Brain Interaction

Rome IV—Functional GI Disorders: Disorders of Gut-Brain Interaction

Community psychiatry in Mozambique – a transcultural journey

Historically the psychiatric clinical practice in Mozambique evolved from an eminently reclusive care setting (colonial period) to a phase where the patients were rapidly deinstitutionalized into their communities (post-independence years). In 1990, in order to restructure the mental health care network, the National Mental Health Plan was approved. Its main goal was to promote a semi-open treatment setting, activating the community role in the rehabilitation and social reintegration of the psychiatric patient. To cope with the scarcity of human resources, a three-year technical degree was created, training medical technicians in psychiatry. Presently, there are two specialized psychiatric hospitals, one in Maputo and another in Nampula. Through the description of our 3-month community psychiatry internship in Mozambique, we intend to depict the country's mental health care reality. Our internship took place in Sao Joao de Deus Mental Health Centre, the psychiatric hospital located in Nampula, which is responsible for the country's northern region. Besides offering in-patient and ambulatory treatment, it also aims to intervene at a community level. We will address the hospital's community intervention project, the developed activities, the most commonly observed pathologies, the cross-cultural relevant aspects, as well as the challenges we had to face in a harsh environment. As one would expect, the social and medical realities we encountered were quite different from the ones we are used to, forcing us to adapt constantly in order to surpass challenges of a multiple nature. Nonetheless, these were also the circumstances that turned this experience into something unique, extremely enriching and certainly unrepeatable.

CROSS-CULTURAL ASPECTS OF METAPHORICAL FRAMING IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE

The article examines cross-cultural aspects of metaphorical framing in political discourse. The author notes the importance of conceptual metaphor in framing the conceptual domain of politics, political discourse as a whole, its perception as well as political reality itself. The author shares an opinion that the metaphorical structure of basic concepts of a nation always correlates with its fundamental cultural values. However, the examination of political discourse from the cross-cultural perspective reveals the cases of metaphor uses that don't meet the requirements of cultural coherence and may lead to negative cognitive and communicative consequences. Along with admitting a wide discrepancy between metaphorical models in western and oriental political discourse, the author gives some examples of metaphorical coherence as well as its violation in a number of basic metaphors in American, British and Russian political discourse. To illustrate how cross-cultural factors determine the specific character of metaphorical framing, the article analyses the dynamic character of metaphorical models that can realize diverse scenarios in different national varieties of political discourse. An observation is made about the dependence of metaphoric scenarios in different national varieties of political discourse on the cultural, historical, social and political components of the national cultural cognitive map. The latter is heterogeneous as it is structured by the objectified individual, group, and national verbal and nonverbal experience. This explains, for instance, why there are examples of similarity as well as discrepancy between metaphorical framing in ideologically different party varieties of political discourse within the national political discourse as well as in the rhetoric of politicians belonging to different generations. The observations are illustrated by cross-linguistic data proving the dynamic character of metaphorical models, their variability and potential for conveying new meaning nuances that reflect culture-specific characteristics of the political situation in discourse.

Face cognition in humans: Psychophysiological, developmental, and cross-cultural aspects

Investigators are finding increasing evidence for cross-cultural specificity in face cognition along with individual characteristics. The functions on which face cognition is based not only are types of general cognitive functions (perception, memory) but are elements of specific mental processes. Face perception, memorization, correct recognition of faces, and understanding the information that faces provide are essential skills for humans as a social species and can be considered as facets of social (cultural) intelligence. Face cognition is a difficult, multifaceted set of processes. The systems and processes involved in perceiving and recognizing faces are captured by several models focusing on the pertinent functions or including the presumably underlying neuroanatomical substrates. Thus, the study of face-cognition mechanisms is a cross-disciplinary topic. In Russia, Germany, and China there are plans to organize an interdisciplinary crosscultural study of face cognition. The first step of this scientific interaction is conducting psychological and psychophysiological studies of face cognition in multinational Russia within the frame of a grant supported by the Russian Science Foundation and devoted to “cross-cultural tolerance”. For that reason and in the presence of the huge diversity of data concerning face cognition, we suggest for discussion, specifically within the psychological scientific community, three aspects of face cognition: (1) psychophysiological (quantitative data), (2) developmental (qualitative data from developmental psychology), and (3) cross-cultural (qualitative data from cross-cultural studies). These three aspects reflect the different levels of investigations and constitute a comprehensive, multilateral approach to the problem. Unfortunately, as a rule, neuropsychological and psychological investigations are carried out independently of each other. However, for the purposes of our overview here, we assume that the main factors that could influence the developmental, individual psychophysiological, and cross-cultural differences in face cognition are not only biological but also social and cultural. One of the principal tasks of this article is to draw the attention of psychologists to the physiology of face processing and to draw the attention of neuroscientists to the psychology of face cognition. Thus, the main goal of the article is to instigate a discussion among social psychologists, psychophysiologists, and neuroscientists about the mechanisms of face cognition, which, as in a mirror, reflect the basic, fundamental “psychophysical” problem of psychophysiology.

Television watching, diet and body mass index of school children in Saudi Arabia

Watching television has been widely associated with various health and psychological outcomes in children. Excessive intake of carbonated, sweetened beverages and fast foods, inadequate intake of fruit and dairy products; and reduced levels of physical activity also pose a risk to healthy lifestyle among youth. Limited literature is available, however, on the cross-cultural aspects of duration of television viewing, diet preferences and their effect on weight in school children in the Middle East, especially in Saudi Arabia. We conducted an online survey in school children in Saudi Arabia (age 12-16 years) to determine whether there is any association between duration of daily television watching, body mass index (BMI), eating habits and diet preferences. A self-administered questionnaire was uploaded online and the link was sent to school children, inviting them to participate in the study. It included questions on demographic data; family medical status; daily routine in and after school; number of hours of daily TV watching, self-perception of health and daily diet habits and preferences. A total of 220 children aged between 12 and 16 years participated in the present study. There was a higher duration of television viewing, and higher consumption of high-fat fast foods and high-sugar drinks, and this was significantly associated with BMI (P < 0.05). The availability of television in children's bedrooms, and of high-fat foods and drinks at school and in other cafeterias in Saudi Arabia seems to be the major cause of the association between sedentary lifestyle and dietary habits, which needs to be checked and limited. Parents and teachers need to be trained because they can play a major role in its prevention. Saudi Arabia is a growing country banking on its youth. Their awareness can prevent the incidence and lower the prevalence of such ill health habits among them.

Cross-cultural Communication in Russian Advertising

The processes of globalization/glocalization in contemporary world give rise to s cross-cultural communication across the cultures (Gudykunst, 2003) where a crucial role is played by advertising. The current investigation is dedicated to cross-cultural aspects of Russian advertising and deals with the adverts created for Russian and foreign companies working in Moscow in late 2000s to mid 2010s. The study aims to highlight not so much economical or political components of cross-cultural advertising communications as their cultural constituents. The analysis of textual and visual content of the adverts based on the semiological approach (Barthes, 2013) showed that cross-cultural communication in advertising in Russia mostly involves “global symbols” (Urri, 2002), well-known touristic referents of concrete cultures. Symbols from the sign systems of different cultures are not only translated by advertising by means of semantic codes alien to them, but the signs and their referents are re-encoded in a substantial way. The postmodern cross-cultural game in advertising constructs the culture’s external and internal self-representations on the basis of its external ethnic images which have developed in foreign cultures. Cross-cultural communication in Russian advertising creates a multi-layered blend of cultures and imparts new cultural meanings into authentic artifacts and images and the semiosphere of the intercommunicating cultures in general. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s5p250

Custom and Moral Sentiment: Cross-Cultural Aspects of Postgraduate Student Perceptions of Leadership Ethicality

The recent crisis in a prominent German car manufacturer generated by unethical leadership practices has brought into sharp focus, once again, the need for radical and fundamental ethical transformation among members of capitalism’s leadership elite. The divide between ethics and business needs to be closed and to do this effectively in a globalized world, cross-cultural aspects of moral sentiment need to be better understood. The current paper contributes to the extant literature in this regard by describing and analyzing cross-cultural aspects of German and South African student’s ‘sympathy’ towards business ethical phenomena, using Adam Smith’s ‘Theory of Moral Sentiment’ as a theoretical framework and qualitative methods. The paper constructs a heuristic device based on Adam Smith’s theoretical framework and then proceeds to empirically analyze the theory by investigating German and South African student moral sentiments towards specific ethical leadership behaviors. The study indicates that while there is general cross-cultural homogeneity in moral approbation among students for fundamental aspects of ethical leadership behavior, nuanced custom-based differences emerge from the qualitative analysis. Following Adam Smith, fine grained differences in moral sentiment arising from ‘custom’ are evident. Thus, although ethicality of specific leadership behavior is found to be viewed similarly by both groups of students, significant nuanced differences arise in German students who emphasize intellectual autonomy over the conservatism favored by their South African counterparts. Practical aspects of these findings are briefly discussed.

Strategies in Negotiation

This paper outlines major strategies in negotiation and points to some difficulties non-native speakers are likely to experience when taking part in commercial, international negotiations. It stresses the need for an approach which integrates social and psychological knowledge of the process and strategies of negotiation interactions with cross-cultural and cross-linguistic aspects, from which guidelines for the practical training of negotiators can be derived.

Global Projects: A Conceptual Review on Execution Attitude in Multinational Corporations

Global projects are remarkably emerging all around the world, whether at the mega level such as Oil & Gas projects or at the micro level such as in specific R&D projects. Global Projects can be very complex or can be quite simple, they might involve huge investments or rather be at low budget, they can have a diverse spectrum of stakeholders or a limited community of beneficiaries. Accordingly the definition of Global Projects is actually far from being obvious.It is suggested that several factors are favoring the emergence of Global projects, such as globalization of business environment, cost driven project execution strategies, national requirements for local presence, dispersion of expertise, joint venture projects and corporate mergers & acquisitions. However Global Projects are thought to be associated with some side effects, such as integration and/or coordination difficulties, statutory and regulatory issues, uncertainty in project controls, and the drawbacks of remoteness and potential cultural differences.Through this conceptual paper, the gap in knowledge about Global Projects is highlighted and areas for potential academic research are suggested. The paper also proposes a series of research questions that are formulated from the literature review conclusions. The outputs of this conceptual literature review & analysis suggest that there are insufficient research and academic publications written on the subject. The discussions presented in the literature about global projects are actually fragmented and segregated with a clear biased drift toward the focus on cross-cultural aspects, virtual teams and project organization.It is intended that this conceptual research paper help researchers and projects stakeholders in international business environment better understand the opportunities and threats in global project execution, such as on innovation, on inter-transfer of knowledge and organizational resources and their relation to value creation in multinational corporations.

Students’ attitude to the marketing communications: Cross-cultural aspects

The article points out that the consumers' preferences while choosing marketing communications depend to the great extend on the peculiarities of the target audience. The defining criteria for the target audience are age, lifestyle of consumers and cultural peculiarities of the individuals. The aim of this investigation is the developing of the methodological approach and tools for the assessment of cross-cultural peculiarities influence on the students' attitude to the types of marketing communications (advertising (TV and outdoor)), sales promotion, public relations, personal sales, network communications). During the investigation we defined the influence of different elements of the culture model (cultural values, elements of material and institutional environment) on the Russian and Chinese students' attitude to the marketing communications. We defined the discontinuities in consumers' behaviour which are conditioned by the cross-cultural peculiarities. This is of great interest for the market operators when developing the programmes of sales and services promotion, oriented to the given target audience.

“Doctors on the move”: Exploring professionalism in the light of cultural transitions

As the world becomes “flattened” and travel is easier, doctors and other health professionals move and live around the world in large numbers: some for short periods (such as student electives) others on a longer–term or permanent basis. Similarly, as wider migration patterns play out, all doctors need to learn to work in multi-cultural environments, whether they move countries or work in their “home country”. We consider cross-cultural aspects of “professionalism” in terms of medical students’ and graduates’ assimilation into different cultures and some of the aspects of professional practice that may be problematic where cultural expectations and practices may differ. Specifically we explore professional socialization, identity formation, acculturation and cultural competency as related concepts that help our understanding of challenges for individuals and strategies for curriculum development or support mechanisms.

Folk Music Intertwined: Cross-Cultural Pedagogical Aspects of Piano Works by Asian, Scandinavian, and other European Composers

Folk Music Intertwined: Cross-Cultural Pedagogical Aspects of Piano Works by Asian, Scandinavian, and other European Composers

Social Support, Social and Temporal Comparisons Protect Well-Being and Health between 45 and 70 Years Old in Four Urban Communities

This study examined the impact of social support and of temporal and social comparisons on well-being and selfreported health in four capital cities: Paris, Berlin, Moscow and Beijing. Based on the lifespan control theory, an integrative model investigating the influence of these coping strategies, especially on the psychological regulation of health losses, was tested on 1141 respondents aged 45 to 70 years by using structural equation modelling with multigroup comparisons. Results indicated a good fit of the model to participants’ responses. In all contexts, physical weaknesses favoured the use of social and temporal comparison strategies rather than social support. Moreover, across the cities, coping strategies were oriented more toward protecting self-evaluation of health than toward enhancement of well-being. Social comparison decreased the impact of physical weaknesses on health evaluation and on well-being in the four cities, but to a lesser extent in China. Results are discussed regarding the normative cross-cultural aspects that intervene during ageing in the four urban contexts.

Perception and Consumption of Global Luxury Brands in Russia and Romania: Comparative Cross-Cultural Aspects

The present paper compares the luxury consumption in Russia with that in the post-communist countries of the former Soviet bloc. The aim of this research is to find out the common and specific about an attitude to global luxury brands in Russia and Romania. We investigate the motives for buying luxury brands in these two countries, as well as the brands’ preferences for Russian and Romanian consumers. Furthermore, the portrait of an average luxury consumer in Russia and Romania is introduced and analyzed in the study. The current investigation consisted of two parts. First, it was qualitative research, as in-depth interviews with luxury brands consumers. It allowed us to formulate the hypotheses. Then to verify the hypotheses, we conducted on-line survey in which 45 female respondents from each country took part. As can be seen from the study, Russian and Romanian luxury brands connoisseurs have much in common. Both of them prefer global brands to local ones. The majority of Russian respondents agree that luxury brands are bought to demonstrate the status and welfare or at least it is a kind of reward for being hard working. As for Romanians, the key reason for luxury consumption is a very high quality and perfectionism in details. Although the consumers from the countries have shown some common characteristics, they are different in their attitude to Louis Vuitton (LV is not № 1 in Romania). What is more, the brands ratings and products choice are completely different in Russia and Romania. All our respondents have very strong cultural background: they visit opera, museums, listen to classical music and read serious books. Furthermore, their touristic destinations have cultural purposes as well. It means that people appreciate not only material brands, but also try to do their best to follow the cultural life style. This research contributes to some extent to the understanding of luxury brands consumption in Russia and Romania. The study can be useful for luxury companies, which plan to do business in these countries or already have been presented there.

Exploration of transcultural properties of the reduced version of the Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire (rMEQ) using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system

The reduced version of the Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire (rMEQ) is widely used to study morningness orientation. The fuzzy analysis helps mapping outputs of the questionnaire irrespective of linguistic and cross-cultural aspects in an efficient manner. In the present study, the rMEQ was administered to a convenience sample of university students (N = 2660) in four different countries and responses have been quantified by using an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system for the cross-cultural comparison and then the quantified values are used to construct the proposed model. The cross-country fuzzy morningness value showed that environmental temperature has definite influence on morningness orientation but other factors may also have a role. The developed model can be universally used to analyse the morning–evening orientation of people more precisely without cross-language and cross-cultural biases and it would become a potential tool for interpretation of morningness scores and counselling of individuals.

Mensuração em Marketing: Estado Atual, Recomendações e Desafios

Este artigo tem por finalidade debater o tema de mensurao de construtos em Marketing, sumarizando as principais discusses sobre o assunto. Inicialmente, discutimosa origem das preocupaes e os desdobramentos na rea desde os anos de 1970. Em seguida, apresentamos os principais modelos consolidados (modelo clssico de Churchill, modelo COARSE e modelo de mensurao formativa). Na sequncia, apresentamos preocupaes atuais que se somam teorizao clssica, com algumas recomendaes relevantes (especialmente sobre mensurao por mltiplos itens, mensurao por um nico item, escalas de verificao e aspectos transculturais). Ao final, apresentamos consideraes sobre tendncias de mensurao em Marketing, com nfase em Teoria da Resposta ao Item, operadores Bayesianos e estimao por mnimos quadrados parciais. O artigo atualiza o debate sobre o tema, e tem a possiblidade de contribuir para estudiosos e pesquisadores de Marketing que demandem uma viso atual sobre mensurao e recomendaes para pesquisas.DOI: 10.5585/remark.v13i2.2685

Cross-cultural aspects of anxiety disorders.

A person's cultural background influences the experience and expression of emotions. In reviewing the recent literature on cross-cultural aspects of anxiety disorders, we identified some culturally related ethnopsychology/ethnophysiology factors (the culture's conceptualizations of how the mind and body function) and contextual factors that influence anxiety disorders. Ethnopsychology/ethnophysiology factors include the person's ideas about the mental and bodily processes (and their interaction), whereas contextual factors are associated with the social norms and rules that may contribute to anxiety, including individualism vs. collectivism and self-construals. From the perspective of ethnopsychology/ethnophysiology and contextual factors, we will discuss "khyâl cap" ("wind attacks"), taijin kyofusho, and ataques de nervios, three prominent examples of culture-specific expressions of anxiety disorders that have all been included in the DSM-5 list of cultural concepts of distress.

Scrupulosity: A cognitive–behavioral analysis and implications for treatment

Scrupulosity involves obsessive religious doubts and fears, unwanted blasphemous thoughts and images, as well as compulsive religious rituals, reassurance seeking, and avoidance. This article provides a comprehensive review of the nature of scrupulosity, including (a) a detailed clinical description, (b) information about how to differentiate scrupulosity from normal religious practice, (c) cross cultural aspects of scrupulosity, and (d) the relationships between scrupulosity and religiosity. Next, evidence is presented in support of scrupulosity as a presentation of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and a cognitive–behavioral model of scrupulosity extending current models of OCD is outlined. In this model, the influence of religion on the misinterpretation of unacceptable intrusive thoughts, the ways in which symptom content depends on one׳s religious identification, and the role of intolerance of uncertainty are emphasized. Finally treatment implications are discussed for applying exposure and response prevention and cognitive techniques to the specific concerns relevant to scrupulosity.

Invisible Mediations. The Role of Adaptation and Dubbing Professionals in Shaping US TV for Italian Audiences

With the increasing global circulation of media products, professionals devoted to the process of audiovisual translation and ‘national mediation’ for foreign ready-made programmes have gained a central role in contemporary TV. Presenting the results of an ethnographical study, this essay explores the ‘invisible art’ of TV adaptation and dubbing, explaining its procedures, traditions and challenges. Adaptation has to consider both the technical necessities of the audio-visual and cross-cultural aspects of translation, while dubbing involves extremely intricate production routines, professionals with different skills, written and unwritten rules, a range of different workplaces, economic investments and traditions. The result is a new text, modified following contrasting linguistic, cultural and professional goals.