Cross-cultural Psychology Research Articles

Research on Evaluation of Intercultural Competence of Civil Aviation College Students Based on Language Operator

Abstract The latest “Guide to College English Teaching” lists cross-cultural education as an important part of college English courses. At the same time, ICAO ’s requirements for civil aviation pilots and controllers ’cross-cultural abilities increase year by year, which raises new requirements for the cultivation of cultural abilities. This article explores this subject from two aspects of cross-cultural psychology and cross-cultural behavior, using SPSS22.0 data analysis method and Delphi method to establish an evaluation model, which includes four first-level indicators: attitude, awareness, knowledge and skill. Attitude and consciousness evaluate cross-cultural psychology, and knowledge and skills evaluate cross-cultural behavior. Under the 4 first-level indicators, there are 6 second-level indicators and 17 third-level indicators. This paper uses the accuracy and convenience of language operators in the process of information conversion to transform fuzzy subjective qualitative analysis into quantitative analysis, and proposes a set of evaluation methods for cross-cultural competence based on language operators. At the same time, an empirical study was conducted with C University as an example. The statistical results show that the method has good applicability and scientificity for the evaluation of the cross-cultural competence of civil aviation college students.

Do People Agree on How Positive Emotions Are Expressed? A Survey of Four Emotions and Five Modalities Across 11 Cultures

While much is known about how negative emotions are expressed in different modalities, our understanding of the nonverbal expressions of positive emotions remains limited. In the present research, we draw upon disparate lines of theoretical and empirical work on positive emotions, and systematically examine which channels are thought to be used for expressing four positive emotions: feeling moved, gratitude, interest, and triumph. Employing the intersubjective approach, an established method in cross-cultural psychology, we first explored how the four positive emotions were reported to be expressed in two North American community samples (Studies 1a and 1b: n = 1466). We next confirmed the cross-cultural generalizability of our findings by surveying respondents from ten countries that diverged on cultural values (Study 2: n = 1826). Feeling moved was thought to be signaled with facial expressions, gratitude with the use of words, interest with words, face and voice, and triumph with body posture, vocal cues, facial expressions, and words. These findings provide cross-culturally consistent findings of differential expressions across positive emotions. Notably, positive emotions were thought to be expressed via modalities that go beyond the face.

Different Developmental Stages and Developmental Ages of Humans in History: Culture and Socialization, Open and Closed Developmental Windows, and Advanced and Arrested Development

Abstract Piagetian cross-cultural psychology indicated that humans living in preindustrial nations do not develop the adolescent stage of formal operations but stay in the preoperational or concrete operational stage. The stage of formal operations originated among intellectual elites of early modern times and became a mass phenomenon in the 20th century, many empirical indicators suggest. Racial-biological approaches cannot explain these phenomena, but those that combine developmental psychology with socialization theory can. The culture of modern, industrial nations, with their systems of primary and secondary socialization and their systems of occupation and media, stimulate young brains and psyches to use open developmental windows so strongly that they can reach the formal operational stage successfully. Conversely, premodern cultures, across times and regions, do not stimulate humans to develop beyond the childhood stages. Accordingly, unused developmental windows in youth lead to early arrested development there. Both ethnographic data and Piagetian training studies indicate that premodern adults cannot skip stages, being stuck in the childhood stages throughout their lives. However, children born in premodern cultures can develop the formal operational stage when they move to modern cultures in their early years. Only the theory of (open or closed) developmental windows can explain these remarkable phenomena. Data indicate that every stage or substage described by developmental psychology was once the “developmental age” certain nations or social milieus had actually reached.

The Role of Incubation in Creative Problem Solving: Within a Collectivistic Cultural Context

Creative thinking is essential for the progress in education, industry and life in general. Incubation is a widely studied phenomenon in creativity research, referring to leaving a problem aside for a period, to accrue performance on a creative problem. This study investigated the effect of incubation on creative problem-solving by means of a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design, and remote associates tasks (RATs) were used as a measure of creative problem-solving. For this purpose, a sample of 60 students (22 males, 38 females) was recruited from the population of a private university. They were assigned to a control condition and two different experimental conditions based on the time of onset of incubation. The data collected was analyzed for a significant effect across all conditions by means of a chi-squared test and covariates were inferred by means of Spearman's Rho, with a significance level set at ?<.05. The results did not find an incubation effect in creative problem-solving, and several possible explanations may account for this trend, especially the limited cross-cultural application of measurement tools and theoretical paradigms. The disparity is especially prominent with regards to Pakistan, which is predominantly collectivistic, and the educational system stymies creative thinking. Future research must take into account the relevance of culture in creative problem-solving, and propose solutions to circumvent the dearth of creative potential in developing nations such as Pakistan. Keywords: Incubation, Creative Problem-Solving, Creativity, Remote Associate Tasks, Cross-Cultural Psychology

СТРАТЕГІЇ АКУЛЬТУРАЦІЇ МІГРАНТІВ У КОНТЕКСТІ МІЖКУЛЬТУРНОЇ ВЗАЄМОДІЇ

The article highlights that the phenomenon of cross-cultural interactions retains its significance and relevance during the time of rapid globalization and active migration. Intercultural conflicts often lead to social imbalance, alienation, separation, and even to the loss of national identity. Everything depends on the nature of acculturation pathways, i.e. the strategies migrants choose in order to adapt to a multicultural environment. Within the framework of cross-cultural psychology, J. Berry – an influential Canadian scholar in the field of social multiculturalism – proposed the concept in terms of intercultural relations and acculturation strategies. According to the researcher, the latter comprises two components, namely: socio-cultural attitudes and the real model of individual behavior under specific conditions, which rarely coincide. Such strategies as assimilation, separation/segregation, marginalization, and integration have been discussed in the article. By assimilation we mean the refusal from or complete loss of people’s cultural identity, traditions, language, and the consequential unification with the dominant ethnic group. Separation or segregation is defined by the absence of significant relations or contacts with the dominant ethnic group and the preservation of ethnic identity and traditions. This strategy can take the form of either segregation or separation, depending on which group (dominant or non-dominant) controls the situation. Marginalization is characterized by the feeling of alienation, the loss of the sense of identity, and the so-called acculturation stress. This strategy leads to the deprivation of cultural and psychological interactions with both the traditional and dominant cultures due to exclusion or discrimination. Integration is perceived as both the preservation of the cultural integrity of a certain group and the desire to become an essential part of a larger community. Therefore, integration can be considered the middle ground between preserving one's cultural identity and joining a dominant society. In conclusion, the integration strategy is considered the most successful. However, it should also be emphasized that such factors as a relatively low level of social prejudice, positive relationships between different cultural groups, and a wide range of cultural values within a society are vital for the effective implementation of the strategy. In further research, we intend to investigate which of the strategies mentioned international students use most during the process of their acculturation to a foreign academic environment.

Beyond the façade of generosity-Regional stereotypes within the same national culture influence prosocial behaviors.

We analyzed prosocial behaviors in a field experiment (N = 307) conducted in an urban context (Timisoara, Banat region, Romania), starting from a classical Cross-Cultural Psychology research organized in UK and Iran by Collet & O’Shea in 1976. If the evoked study is focused on comparing prosocial behaviors in two very different national cultures (UK vs. Iran), we compared helping strangers strategies within the same national culture in relation to the regional identities of the help-seeking subjects. A behavioral scenario was created by asking naïve participants to offer support and give directions to a place even if they did not know its whereabouts. Drawing on social identity theory, it was tested whether regional belonging of the help-seeker (in-group vs. out-group) predicts the availability of help-givers for offering help, their availability for giving wrong directions, as well as their emotional expressiveness. Results are interpreted within the perspective of social distance between groups and show that the more distant regional identities are perceived to be, the less generous help-givers are, both in terms of their decision to help and to give wrong directions, as well as in their expressed emotions.

Explorations in Reported Moral Behaviors, Values, and Moral Emotions in Four Countries.

University students (n = 758) from Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, and Portugal were given a list of morally relevant behaviors (MRB), the Schwartz Value Survey (PVQ40) and Tangney’s TOSCA, measuring empathic guilt, guilt over norm-breaking, and shame. A factor analysis of MRB yielded 4 dimensions: prosocial behaviors, interpersonal transgressions, antisocial behaviors and secret transgressions. Prosocial behaviors were predicted by self-transcendence–self-enhancement (SET) value contrast only while the three transgression categories were associated with both SET and openness to change–conservation (hedonism–conformity) contrast. Norm-breaking guilt was more strongly associated with behaviors than were empathic guilt and shame. However, shame was (positively) associated with secret transgressions in three countries, after controlling for values. The associations were strongest in Bulgaria and Estonia while fewer associations were found in Finland and Portugal. The implications of the findings for the cross-cultural psychology of morality are discussed.

Further Support for the Psychometric Properties of the Farsi Version of Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire.

Alexithymia is defined as the lack of words to describe emotions and is associated with different psychopathologies. Various tools have been developed for measuring alexithymia; each has its limitations. A new questionnaire, Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ), was developed to simultaneously assess positive and negative dimensions. Validation of such a tool in different cultures allows cross-cultural health psychology studies and facilitates knowledge transfer in the field. We aimed to examine the psychometric features of the PAQ in the Farsi-speaking population in Iran. Four-hundred-twenty-nine university students were asked to complete the PAQ, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and emotion regulation questionnaire (ERQ). Concurrent validity, discriminant validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability and factor structure were investigated. Confirmatory factor analysis showed a five-factor model identical to the original questionnaire. The questionnaire indicated good internal consistency (0.82 < α < 0.94). Test-retest reliability was acceptable for all subscales. The correlations between PAQ and its subscales with BDI-II, BAI, and TAS, and expression suppression subscale of ERQ were strong for concurrent validity. Concerning the discriminant validity, PAQ and its subscales were not correlated with reappraisal subscales of ERQ. The present findings suggest that the Farsi version of PAQ has strong psychometric properties and is appropriate for use in the Farsi-speaking population.

The role of the emotions of guilt and shame in methodology of research on social emotions

This article is dedicated to examination of the role of guilt and shame, namely to prevalence one of these emotions in a particular culture as the leading mechanism of social control. The prevalence of guilt or shame as a cultural &amp;ldquo;dimension&amp;rdquo; has become one of the first criteria for the division of cultures into Western and Eastern, and was used by the researchers as a basic postulate for cross-cultural r. Over time, the perception of emotions as the criterion for the division of cultures has been revised. The article traces the history of research on emotions in general, namely the emotions of guilt and shame as social emotions, as well as describes guilt and shame as collective and individual experiences. Analysis is conducted on the role of guilt and shame in methodology of research on social emotions, cross-cultural studies. The author outlines certain methodological problems and contradictions, and assesses the current state of scientific research dedicated to social emotions. The conclusion is made that the research on collective sense of guilt and shame is more advanced from the perspective of cross-cultural psychology and philosophy, as well as the overall methodology of science; it allows shifting from the study of the role of individual emotions in interpersonal (conditioned by collective ties), intergroup and intragroup communication towards the integrated study of emotions associated with interaction of the individual and society, i.e. social experiences.

A Qualitative Exploration of Chinese Self-Love.

Although self-love is an important topic, it has not been viewed as appropriate for psychological research, especially in China. We conducted two studies to understand how Chinese people view self-love. In the first study, we surveyed 109 Chinese people about the dimensions of self-love using an open-ended questionnaire. In the second study, 18 participants were selected by means of intensity sampling and interviewed about the connotations and structure of Chinese self-love. The two studies revealed three important aspects of the Chinese understanding of self-love: (1) self-love has four dimensions: self, family, others, and society; (2) it comprises five components: self-cherishing, self-acceptance, self-restraint, self-responsibility, and self-persistence; and (3) the five components of self-love are linked together to form a stable personality structure. The reliability and validity of the two studies were strong. Finally, the results showed that Chinese self-love is dominated by Confucian culture, which provides guiding principles for how to be human. At the same time, it shows that there are differences in the understanding of self-love between Chinese and Western cultures, which provides an empirical basis for further research based on cross-cultural psychology and self-love psychology.

Understanding East Asian holistic cognitive style and its cultural evolution: a multi-disciplinary case study of Traditional Chinese Medicine

This paper improves understanding of the cognitive anthropology of East Asian holistic cognition by providing readers a detailed, multi-disciplinary case study of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). In §1 contemporary results in cross-cultural psychology studies are used to review four components of holistic cognitive style: non-linear associationism, causal pluralism, contextualism, and inconsistency. §2 discusses cognitive commitments in five major TCM doctrines: five agents (wu xing), organs, qi and blood, the theory of meridians (jing luo), and yin-yang. §3 presents a close reading of East Asia’s most influential historical medical text, the Huangdi Neijing, in terms of its representation of components of holistic style (in §1) through major TCM commitments (in §2). §4 presents machine-learning research findings using an historical Chinese corpus to show the wide dispersal of holistic cognition in Early Chinese literature and its medical texts. §5 explains some of the major means by which TCM and the holistic cognition on which it is based was culturally transmitted into the present. §6 reviews experiments asserting that TCM training is not merely correlated with but causes holistic cognition. In §7 and §8 we scrutinize holistic cognition as present in discussions of diagnosis and treatment in contemporary TCM textbooks.

Cross-cultural contact and health in Asia

Investigating the relationship between psychology and culture takes three approaches: cross-cultural or trans-cultural psychology, indigenous psychology, and cultural or comparative psychology. This study focuses on the first category, the psychology of cross-cultural contacts and transitions, and introduce studies conducted by the author and colleagues. Based on this, investigations on international students’ cross-cultural adjustment in Japan, foreign workers in Japan, Japanese overseas students, and Japanese hosts are discussed. The study examined the following questions: (a) How do adjustment and maladjustment develop? (b) How is positive health maintained under different cultural environments and cross-cultural contacts? (c) What can Asian health psychology suggest about general psychology if Asian researchers focus closely on differences between Asian and Western cultures rather than assume a Western identity? Questions and findings of specific studies are illustrated, and perspectives and possibilities of investigating cross-cultural contact are discussed. Finally, future tasks and prospects for developing cross-cultural health psychology in Asia are outlined.

The Relation of School Environments to Bullying Behaviours Amongst Elementary School Students

The survey findings released in The Cross-cultural Psychology Journal (2017) reported that Indonesia was in the 21st position with a score of 3.62, leaving it far behind its neighbouring country Malaysia (in 11th position globally). This study aims to identify the role of school environment with regards to bullying behaviour amongst elementary school students in Jambi city. A cross-sectional research design was performed with 214 elementary school students at SDN 116/IV Kota Jambi, Indonesia. Purposive sampling was used in this study. The questionnaires by Olweus Bully Questionnaire (OBQ) Goncalves et al. (2016) were used to collect data. Chi-square test was used in this study. The results indicate 112 (52.3%) respondents had mild bullying behaviour and suggest there is a significant relationship between bullying behaviour and the role of the school environment (p-value = 0.001&gt; 0.05).

Involuntary Cultural Change and Mental Health Status Among Indigenous Groups: A Synthesis of Existing Literature.

Indigenous groups throughout the world have experienced social exclusion and have been subjected to marginalization. Globalization has resulted in significant changes in traditional lifestyles and developmental programs have not been successful in integrating Indigenous people into communities with non-Indigenous people. Although there is substantial research on acculturation and adaptation within the field of cross-cultural psychology, there are few narrative reviews of this literature. The present paper provides such a review and examines the mental health concerns of Indigenous groups undergoing acculturation. We address the consequences of involuntary cultural change and review studies that have been conducted on mental health issues, psychosomatic symptoms, substance use, and suicidality in Indigenous groups. We conclude by offering suggestions to mitigate mental health problems. Directions for future research on the acculturation of Indigenous groups are also provided.

Building Cultural Bridges Between China and India

Employing one of the established theories from cross-cultural psychology and sociology, first it is shown that both China and India are collectivist cultures. Then the Chinese and Indian worldviews are compared to highlight fundamental similarities between the two cultures. Finally, it is shown how self-cultivation is emphasised in both China and India. Effort is made to show how ideas presented by Confucius and Lao Tsu are captured in the Indian culture and social behaviours. A number of issues are raised for the development of indigenous knowledge from multiple perspectives using various paradigms and methodology. It is hoped that the special issue and this article will stimulate researchers to bridge Chinese and Indian psychologies which may pave the path towards peaceful prosperity.

Social constructions of mental health among Romani in Ukraine

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to characterize the social and cultural context of the social construction of mental health (MH) by members of Romani communities in Ukraine.Design/methodology/approachThe research collected qualitative data to gain a better understanding of how Romani communities in Ukraine view the social and cultural factors influencing mental health. This paper analyzes data from focus groups in Romani communities in Ukraine (from six different oblasts) from February to March 2020. A total of 49 persons 19–75 years of age participated in the research, including 17 men and 32 women.FindingsThis study identifies four clusters of perceived social determinants of Romani mental health, these being employment, financial difficulties, level of education and discrimination. The findings indicate specific cultural characteristics of the Romani community that are seen as helping to support mental health. Family values, mutually supporting and referring to other members of the community are seen as especially important. Such social cohesion is believed to have a positive effect on the mental health of members of the Romani community. This paper discusses the implications of the study and suggests possible avenues for future data-driven policymaking in the area of mental health that take account of the culturally-specific meanings of mental health for these communities.Originality/valueGiven the significant gaps, shortages and, in some cases, complete lack of data on Romani ethnic and cross-cultural psychology, research is urgently needed to fill this gap. Lack of understandings of how Romani construct mental health can lead to badly-matched, misplaced or ineffective actions and distrust. This paper aims to support better understandings of Romani among MH service providers and enhancing the mutual engagement of Romani and MH services, supporting the broader agenda of social inclusion of Romani people.

Cultural context and the relationship between autistic traits and belief in a just world

In the USA, people who are high in autistic traits have been found to have lower degrees of general belief in a just world than people who are low in autistic traits. One explanation for this relationship could be that people with high levels of autistic traits receive relatively little influence from their social contexts and are therefore less likely to adopt cultural views. If this assumption is correct, the relationship between autistic traits and belief in a just world should be mitigated in cultures wherein the belief in a just world is relatively low (e.g., Great Britain). In this study, 241 participants from Great Britain and 249 participants from the USA completed measures of general belief in a just world and autistic traits. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the general belief in a just world was lower in Great Britain than in the USA. Moreover, culture served as a moderator: while autistic traits were negatively related to belief in a just world in the USA, these variables were unrelated in Great Britain. The present findings suggest that cultural context may be an important aspect in autism research, and autistic traits may be a useful variable in cross-cultural psychology.

Religiosity, neutrality, fairness, skepticism, and societal tranquility: A data science analysis of the World Values Survey.

Quantitative models of social differences have not only made major contributions to the fields of cross-cultural anthropology, psychology and sociology, but also have allowed for interdisciplinary studies that bring together engineering, life sciences, and social sciences. In this study, the authors use a data science approach to discover a set of quantitative social dimensions based on the World Values Survey, a nationally representative survey covering 60 countries and 90,000 individuals. Five national social dimensions, representing 198 questions and 56 countries are discovered using multidimensional item response theory (MIRT). They are (1) Religiosity, (2) Neutrality, (3) Fairness, (4) Skepticism, and (5) Societal Tranquility. This approach is unique from previous quantitative models because it groups responses by country and analyzes binary, nominal, and ordinal survey questions. It is possible today due to recent advancements in computing power and programming. Furthermore, this methodology tests the validity of previous quantitative dimensions and finds that some of the existing social and cultural dimensions are not clearly discernable. Therefore, this model provides not only more a rigorous methodology but also new social dimensions which more accurately quantify underlying differences across countries in the World Values Survey. Like other quantitative cross-cultural models, this model is a deeply simplified representation of national social differences. However, it is a useful tool for modeling national differences and can be used to help us understand the impacts of social preferences and values on different political, economic, and development variables.

Harry C. Triandis (1926-2019).

Presents an obituary for Harry C. Triandis (1926 -2019). Harry Charalambos Triandis, universally acknowledged as the father of cross-cultural social psychology as well as a leader of industrial/organizational and attitude research, passed away at his retirement home in Carlsbad, California, on June 1, 2019, in his 93rd year. Harry's academic career began in Montreal, Canada, where he enrolled in the Engineering Program at McGill University. Triandis received his master's degree in commerce from the University of Toronto, and then earned his doctorate in social psychology from Cornell University. He then joined the faculty at the University of Illinois where he remained until retirement in 1997. Early on, Harry realized that cross-cultural research had to employ different methods if the results were to be valid. Valid cross-cultural research, he reasoned, required the involvement of colleagues from the cultures being studied at every step in the process, including instrument design, hypothesis specification and analyses, joint publication, and so on. Thanks to Harry's untiring efforts to demonstrate their effectiveness, they have become standard procedure in cultural research. Harry was a prolific author, publishing over 200 papers, book chapters, and books. His work has been translated into Chinese, Farsi, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish and spans 60 years (1955-2015). Harry also pursued three other major funded programs of research. The first led to the publication Variations in Black and White Perceptions of the Social Environment in 1976. In his second program of research, he examined differences between Hispanic and Anglo culture in the context of social concerns about integrating the Hispanic community in the 1980s. His last research program culminated in his book on self-deception that was published in 2009. Harry received numerous accolades and awards for his contributions to cross-cultural and social psychology, some including Award for Distinguished Contributions to International Psychology (1994) and the Otto Klineberg Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues to name a few. Harry served as president of six associations or societies of psychology, and his colleagues and students unanimously endorse his status as a world class scholar, but also a world class human being who will be deeply missed in the field of psychology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Research Status about Influence Factors of International Students’ Cross-Cultural Adaptation with Different Models

With the advancement of global economic integration, the internationalization of higher education is constantly increasing, along with flourishing studies about cross-cultural adaptation of international students. Cross-cultural adaptation of international students was studied by researchers from different perspectives such as cross-cultural psychology, cross-cultural communication, and social psychology. To provide theoretical basis for the management of international students, this paper summarizes several predictors of cross-cultural adaptation with different models observed amongst international students.