Cross-cultural Evidence Research Articles

Reliability and validity of Turkish version of the Individualised Care Scale

To validate an English version of the Individualised Care Scale for use with a Turkish population and evaluate its validity and reliability. Studies about the evaluation of nursing care from the patients' perspective are becoming more important. No valid and reliable instruments are available in Turkey for evaluating individualised care from the patients' perspective. Cross-sectional survey design. Standard forward-back translation techniques were used to obtain semantic equivalence of the Individualised Care Scale. An expert panel considered the translations and provided content validation. A convenience sample of 120 predischarged patients participated in a survey conducted on neurosurgical and orthopaedic wards in a university hospital in Istanbul 2006. Cronbach's alpha coefficients and item analysis established the internal consistency and factor analysis the construct validity of the Individualised Care Scale. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were 0·92 for Individualised Care Scale-A and 0·93 for Individualised Care Scale-B. A principal component analysis supported the construct validity by generating a three-factor solution, which accounted for 65% of the variance in the Individualised Care Scale-A and 62% in the Individualised Care Scale-B. Pearson's correlation coefficients in this data were at least 0·84 between the sub-scales and the total domain Individualised Care Scale-A or Individualised Care Scale-B. The Turkish version of the Individualised Care Scale is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring patients' evaluations of individualised care. The results of this study provide cross-cultural evidence for the usefulness of the Individualised Care Scale. The information obtained by the Individualised Care Scale will help nurses to identify areas where developmental work could be undertaken to provide individualised care.

Testosterone and partnering are linked via relationship status for women and ‘relationship orientation’ for men

Cross-cultural evidence links pair bonding and testosterone (T). We investigated what factors account for this link, how casual relationships are implicated, and whether gender/sex moderates these patterns in a North American sample. We gathered saliva samples for radioimmunoassay of T and self-report data on background, health, and social/relational variables from 115 women and 120 men to test our predictions, most of which were supported. Our results show that singles have higher T than long-term (LT) partnered individuals, and that casual relationships without serious romantic commitment are more like singlehood for men and LT relationships for women–in terms of T. We were also able to demonstrate what factors mediate the association between partnering and T: in women, frequency of partnered sexual activity mediated the effect in men, interest in more/new partners mediated the effect. This supported our prediction of relationship status interpretations in women, but relationship orientation in men. Results replicated past findings that neither sexual desire nor extrapair sexuality underlie the T-partnering link. We were able to rule out a large number of viable alternative explanations ranging from the lifestyle (e.g., sleep) to the social (e.g., social support). Our data thus demonstrate pattern and mediators for the development of T-pair bonding associations, and emphasize the importance of neither under- nor overstating the importance of gender/sex in research about the evolution of intimacy.

How Selfish Are Self-Expression Values? A Civicness Test

Various analyses of World Values Survey data find a syndrome of emancipative orientations, mostly known as “self-expression values,” on the rise throughout all countries with longitudinal evidence. But, as much as scholarship agrees on the rise of self-expression values, there is disagreement on whether these values are civic or uncivic in character. Some declare self-expression values uncivic because they see them as indicative of egoism and weak social capital. Others consider self-expression values as civic for the opposite reasons. They interpret them as a sign of altruism and strong social capital. Cross-cultural evidence from the World Values Surveys supports the civic view on both accounts. First, in a Schwartz value space, self-expression values are associated with altruism, especially at high levels of self-expression values. Second, in a social capital space, self-expression values go together with trust in people and peaceful collective action. The findings qualify self-expression values as a civic form of modern individualism.

Culture-general and -specific associations of attachment avoidance and anxiety with perceived parental warmth and psychological control among Turk and Belgian adolescents

Both the adolescent peer attachment and perceived parenting style literatures emphasize the role of the quality of the parent–child relationship in children's healthy adjustment beyond the family, but few studies have investigated links between adolescents' peer attachment and perceptions of parenting. We investigate relations of adolescents' perceptions of warmth and psychological control from parents with avoidance and anxiety in attachment to close friends in two contrasting cultures. Altogether, 262 Turk and 263 Belgian youth between 14 and 18 years of age participated. Cross-culturally, attachment avoidance was negatively related to maternal warmth, and attachment anxiety positively related to maternal and paternal control and negatively to paternal warmth. Beyond these general relations, attachment avoidance was associated with paternal psychological control in Belgians but not in Turks. The study provides cross-cultural evidence for specific relations between peer attachment and perceived parenting and suggests a culture-specific pathway for the development of attachment avoidance.

Children, Families and Violence: Challenges for Children’s Rights

Children, Families and Violence: Challenges for Children’s Rights By Covell, Katherine and Brian Howe, R. London : Jessica Kingsley , 2009 ISBN 9781843106982 , 287 pp, £39.99 Children, Families and Violence has been written to highlight the importance of children’s rights and to illustrate the potential gains from altering child-rearing methods from physical punishment to a more democratic system. The book reviews literature examining the risk factors that influence children to become violent and the protective factors that influence children to avoid violent behaviour. This information is correlated with the policies of the UN Convention on Children’s Rights (1989) to illustrate to the reader the importance of each country in ratifying the Convention to protect children, to encourage successful development and begin a move towards non-violent actions rather than violent actions. The authors use a wide range of literature, from the socio-cultural to the neuropsychological, to evidence their arguments for changes in policy and law for child-rearing methods. Much of the literature that the authors cite reflects divergent views on children and violence, which helps the reader to gain an understanding of the conflicting attitudes and evidence that prevent changes from being made. For example, the literature indicates that more democratic parenting methods produce more co-operative and sensitive young people who are more internally organised with greater concentration and confidence. Conversely, traditional punishment systems increase the risk of angry, disorganised, insecure young people. This range of literature provides the reader with a balanced argument and displays the authors’ understanding of all the issues and views involved in this sensitive area. The arguments, items and evidence all relate back to the Convention making it simple for the reader to understand the significance of the Convention in relation to children in our society. Although this depth and breadth of information make for sound, well-evidenced arguments, the concepts and terminology are highly specialised. Some of the concepts are explained and various definitions and explanations of items under discussion are given, but this makes parts of the book very long-winded as many of these concepts take time to explain. Even so, this does not help the reader with the more specialised language and terms, such as ‘serotonin reuptake inhibitors’ and ‘myelination’. This is also the case with the structure of the book as it is written very much in the vein of scientific reports and literature reviews with cited journals and studies throughout. However, the book is still concisely structured enough for the non-scientific reader to manage and is a relatively simple read if you are accustomed to similar books and articles. The authors use cross-cultural evidence to give examples of the outcomes when the policies of the Convention are ratified and when they aren’t. They also illustrate the pros and cons of each policy, system and method, providing the reader with an all-round view of the impact of law on children’s behaviour, for example, juvenile delinquency. They express ideas that have potential in the UK based on systems that have worked in other countries, where, for example, physical punishment of any kind has been banned. The message being delivered is how the Convention needs to be ratified by the countries that have signed it, through law and policy change that forbid the practice of physical punishment. Many of the countries that did sign, including the UK, still practice physical punishment and have yet to ratify all of the terms of the Convention. The use of these cultural comparisons gives the authors’ arguments a cultural validity, which confirms the importance of the Convention for our children through its policies and emphasises the necessity of its ratification. This book raises essential points that challenge accepted or ‘normal’ beliefs in child-rearing practices with concerns about the perpetrators of violent acts worldwide. Its evidence and arguments, in relation to the UN Convention, encompass child development from the pre-natal to youth offenders, mapping the potential effects of our behaviours, as individual parents, adults and as a society, on the development of our children and their potential for future violence. This book is an interesting and thought-provoking read and it is clear to any reader how much work, time and effort has gone into its publication, emphasising its central message that children and their rights should be respected to help end our society’s predisposition to violence. I think this book contains a wealth of knowledge for those who work within policy, participation and education sectors. I am sure that others will find this as educational and interesting as I have.

Mindfulness in Iran and the United States: Cross-Cultural Structural Complexity and Parallel Relationships with Psychological Adjustment

In theory, mindfulness has a role to play in resolving intercultural conflicts. This suggestion rests upon the relatively untested presumption that mindfulness operates similarly across cultures. In a test of this presumption, university students from two countries that are often in conflict at the governmental level, Iran (N = 723) and the United States (N = 900), responded to the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (Brown and Ryan Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84(4):822–848, 2003), along with an array of other psychological measures. This Mindfulness Scale displayed structural complexities in both societies, but a measurement invariant subscale was nevertheless identified. Similar cross-cultural evidence of concurrent validity was obtained in relationships with wide-ranging measures of adjustment. Nonsignificant linkages with Public Self-Consciousness and Self-Monitoring demonstrated discriminant validity in both societies. These data identified mindfulness as a cross-culturally similar psychological process that could plausibly have a role in resolving intercultural conflicts.

Botanical Medicines for Oral Health

The use of natural medicines for dental care is an ancient cross-cultural practice that persists in the majority of cultures today. Medicinal plants have been employed in dentistry since prehistoric times in different societies for both therapeutic and preventive oral health care. The various applications of phytomedicines for dental health and healing were explored through a survey of 91 medicinal plant shops in Miami, Florida, original research results from the Caribbean, and a review of published cross-cultural evidence. Anecdotal informant reports, case-study field data, clinical research trials, and biochemical laboratory tests all indicate that botanical medicines represent an historically effective and promising complementary approach to dental health maintenance, therapy, and support. Botanical remedies have proven effective in the treatment and management of a variety of oral disorders, partly due to the action of beneficial phytochemicals they contain. Contraindications and potentially negative side effects have also been recorded in the safety profiles for several of the medicinal plants.

The Origin and Evolution of Religious Prosociality

We examine empirical evidence for religious prosociality, the hypothesis that religions facilitate costly behaviors that benefit other people. Although sociological surveys reveal an association between self-reports of religiosity and prosociality, experiments measuring religiosity and actual prosocial behavior suggest that this association emerges primarily in contexts where reputational concerns are heightened. Experimentally induced religious thoughts reduce rates of cheating and increase altruistic behavior among anonymous strangers. Experiments demonstrate an association between apparent profession of religious devotion and greater trust. Cross-cultural evidence suggests an association between the cultural presence of morally concerned deities and large group size in humans. We synthesize converging evidence from various fields for religious prosociality, address its specific boundary conditions, and point to unresolved questions and novel predictions.

Facial Averageness and Attractiveness in an Isolated Population of Hunter-Gatherers

Average faces possess traits that are common to a population. Preferences for averageness have been found in several types of study of both real and computer-manipulated faces. Such preferences have been proposed to be biologically based and thus should be found across human populations, though cross-cultural evidence to date has been limited. In this study we examined preferences for averageness in both the West and in an isolated hunter-gatherer society, the Hadza of Northern Tanzania in Africa. We show that averageness is generally preferred across faces and cultures, but there were no significant preferences for averageness in European faces by Hadza judges. The different visual experience of the two cultures may explain the differences in preferences. While Westerners have visual experience of both European and African faces, the Hadza are limited in their experience of European faces, potentially leading to a lack of preference for averageness in this group because of the lack of a representation of the 'norm' of European faces.

Redefining marriage or deconstructing society: A Canadian case study

In this article, we examine the pivotal Canadian cases that led to the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2005. Using historical, cross-cultural, ethical, and existential arguments, our aim is to alert countries still struggling with this topic to the rational and substantial grounds for maintaining the historic definition of marriage – specifically, the rational connection between heterosexuality and the purposes of marriage – and how to do this with minimal impairment to gay couples and their children. Toward this end, we answer six questions: (1) Was the court’s redefinition of marriage in line with international law? (2) Did its definition of (straight) marriage do justice to the historical and cross-cultural evidence? (3) Was the exclusion of gay couples from marriage discriminatory according to s. 15(1) of the (Canadian) Charter of Rights and Freedoms? (4) Even if the historic definition of marriage really had discriminated against gay couples, could it have been justified according to s. 1 of the Charter? (5) What risks are involved in severing the historic connection between the purpose of marriage and its exclusively heterosexual definition? (6) To maintain the historic definition of marriage, could we have discriminated with only ‘minimal impairment’ to gay couples? (7) What were the underlying judicial strategies used by the Canadian courts? (8) Was there a problem of judicial activism is the Canadian cases?

Brief Report: Cross-Cultural Evidence for the Heterogeneity of the Restricted, Repetitive Behaviours and Interests Domain of Autism: A Greek Study

Recent studies provide evidence that the Restricted, Repetitive Behaviours, and Interests (RRBI) domain of autism is heterogeneous, consisting of at least two factors: Insistence on Sameness (IS) and Repetitive Sensory and Motor Behaviours and Interests (RSMB) [Cuccaro et al. (Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 34, 3-7, 2003; Szatmari et al. (Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47, 582-590, 2006)]. The main objective of this study was to replicate this two-factor structure in an independent sample of 153 Greek individuals with a diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD). Principal Component Analysis was used to analyze the data. Our findings confirmed the two-factor structure (accounting for 52% of the variance), providing evidence for the cross-cultural heterogeneity of the RRBI domain of autism and the clear distinction between IS and RSMB symptoms in individuals with PDD.

War and the Socialization of Children

This article presents two evolutionary models that may explain relationships between war, socialization, and other kinds of violence. One model derives from the perspective suggesting that reproductive strategy is contingent on environmental variation; the other model derives from a number of studies conducted by Carol and Melvin Ember. In this article, the authors focus particularly on the causes and consequences of low father salience. They spell out the assumptions of the two models and describe some new cross-cultural evidence on presumed causal connections not previously evaluated cross-culturally. Their findings largely question the assumption that low father salience, as measured by father sleeping distance, will be associated with wider mating efforts. They also find some inconsistencies in their own model that suggest how it needs to be revised.

Juvenile Delinquency and Gender Revisited

Cross-cultural evidence on the gender gap in delinquency is presented. Based on power-control theory (PCT), gender differences in aggressive behaviour are analysed. We assume that differences in labour force participation between father and mother lead to differences in parental control behaviour towards boys and girls, which in turn lead to different risk-taking preferences and eventually produce gender differences in aggressive behaviour. A revised PCT acknowledges that dominance ideologies also play a role in the genesis of gender differences in delinquency. This proposition is also tested. Analyses are based on data from 319 families (father, mother and two adolescent opposite-sex siblings) from West Berlin, East Berlin and Toronto. The findings support assumptions of PCT but differ substantially between the three cities. Evidence of the link between structural patriarchy and parental style – postulated in the original PCT – is found in East Berlin, whereas the West Berlin and Toronto results fit a modified version of PCT featuring gender-role attitudes (ideological patriarchy).

Reliability and validity of the Faces Pain Scale with older adults

Background The Faces Pain Scale (FPS) is effective with older adults in clinical assessment of pain intensity. The 0–10 numerical rating scale (NRS) has universally adapted for assessment of pain intensity. The commonly used versions of the FPS have six, seven or nine faces. Objectives We proposed an 11 face modified version of the McGrath nine face FPS to compare with the 0–10 NRS without the mathematical translation. The psychometric properties of the proposed version were also investigated in a sample of Korean older adults. Design This study employed methodological research design. Settings and participants A sample of 31 older adults was recruited through local senior citizen centers to examine the construct validity and the test–retest reliability. For the concurrent validity testing, a sample of 85 older adults with chronic pain was recruited through a general hospital and an oriental medical hospital. Methods The construct validity was examined by determining if the subjects perceive the FPS as representing pain and they agree on the rank of each face. The test–retest reliability was examined at a 2-week interval. The concurrent validity was examined by using the NRS and the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Results Subjects perceived the 11 FPS as a pain measure, and the subjects’ agreements in the rank ordering of the faces were almost perfect (Kendall's W = . 93 , p < . 001 ). Cohen's kappa of .61 ( p < . 001 ) for test–retest reliability was acceptable in the cognitively intact subjects. Concurrent validity measured by the correlation between the FPS and the NRS ( r = . 73 , p < . 001 ) and the VAS ( r = . 73 , p < . 001 ) was supported. Conclusions These results supported the appropriateness of the 11 FPS for use with the older adults in clinical practice to measure pain intensity. Additionally, this study provided cross-cultural evidence to evaluate usefulness of the FPS.

Digit ratio and hand-grip strength in German and Mizos men: Cross-cultural evidence for an organizing effect of prenatal testosterone on strength

The ratio of the length of the second and fourth digits (2D:4D), a putative proxy of prenatal testosterone (PT), is correlated with measures of physical fitness. The relationship between the organizing effect of PT on physical fitness is likely to arise as a response to intrasexual male competition for females. Physical strength is also likely to be important in intrasexual conflict, but nothing is known concerning the relationship between 2D:4D and strength. The strength of an individual is strongly influenced by body size, and 2D:4D is strongly dependent on ethnicity. We present evidence that strength, as measured from hand-grip strength, is related to 2D:4D in samples from two ethnic groups (52 Caucasian men from Germany, and 88 Oriental Mizos men from northeast India) which differed markedly in size. We found that 1) the German men were heavier and stronger, but had higher 2D:4D (lower PT) than the Mizos men; 2) a median split for grip strength into low (LGS) and high (HGS) groups showed that for right-hand 2D:4D (but not left-hand 2D:4D), the LGS men had higher 2D:4D than the HGS men; and 3) the relationships between right 2D:4D and grip strength were independent of ethnicity, age, height, and weight. Measures of grip strength correlate strongly with strength in other muscle groups, so we conclude that PT may have an early organizing effect on strength in men, and this is likely to be widespread in human groups.

Mental Hygiene and Socio‐Environmental Factors

Mental Hygiene and Socio‐Environmental Factors

Emotional Stability, Core Self-Evaluations, and Job Outcomes: A Review of the Evidence and an Agenda for Future Research

In this article we present a review of research on core self-evaluations, a broad personality trait indicated by 4 more narrow traits: self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, locus of control, and emotional stability. We review evidence suggesting that the 4 core traits are highly related, load on a single unitary factor, and have dubious incremental validity controlling for their common core. We more generally investigate the construct validity of core self-evaluations. We also report on the development and validation of the first direct measure of the concept, the Core Self-Evaluations Scale (CSES). Cross-cultural evidence on the CSES is provided. We conclude by offering an agenda for future research, discussing areas where future core self-evaluations research is most needed.

To give and to give not: The behavioral ecology of human food transfers

The transfer of food among group members is a ubiquitous feature of small-scale forager and forager-agricultural populations. The uniqueness of pervasive sharing among humans, especially among unrelated individuals, has led researchers to evaluate numerous hypotheses about the adaptive functions and patterns of sharing in different ecologies. This article attempts to organize available cross-cultural evidence pertaining to several contentious evolutionary models: kin selection, reciprocal altruism, tolerated scrounging, and costly signaling. Debates about the relevance of these models focus primarily on the extent to which individuals exert control over the distribution of foods they acquire, and the extent to which donors receive food or other fitness-enhancing benefits in return for shares given away. Each model can explain some of the variance in sharing patterns within groups, and so generalizations that ignore or deny the importance of any one model may be misleading. Careful multivariate analyses and cross-cultural comparisons of food transfer patterns are therefore necessary tools for assessing aspects of the sexual division of labor, human life history evolution, and the evolution of the family. This article also introduces a framework for better understanding variation in sharing behavior across small-scale traditional societies. I discuss the importance of resource ecology and the degree of coordination in acquisition activities as a key feature that influences sharing behavior.

Care, Intimacy and Same-Sex Partnership in the 21st Century

The article addresses the emergence of same-sex relationships as a public policy issue in contemporary society. Historical and cross-cultural evidence shows how same-sex relationships have been an integral part of the kinship system, household economies and iconography of many societies, and that desire and relationship are produced in diverse ways at the confluence of kinship, gender and life stage expectations circulating in different societies. Recent history of the advanced, industrial societies is characterized by sharp shifts in the conceptualization of same-sex relationships, from sin, sickness and crime to a patchwork of ‘relationship recognition’ forms in just a few decades. Relationship recognition and ‘gay marriage’ are just the beginning of a process of documenting and affirming relationship innovation among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people. On the horizon are looming new debates over reproductive rights, child-raising, the (over)valorization of the couple, and social service provision throughout the life course.

Children’s attributions of beliefs to humans and God: cross-cultural evidence

The capacity to attribute beliefs to others in order to understand action is one of the mainstays of human cognition. Yet it is debatable whether children attribute beliefs in the same way to all agents. In this paper, we present the results of a false-belief task concerning humans and God run with a sample of Maya children aged 4–7, and place them in the context of several psychological theories of cognitive development. Children were found to attribute beliefs in different ways to humans and God. The evidence also speaks to the debate concerning the universality and uniformity of the development of folk-psychological reasoning.