Implications For Cross-cultural Research Research Articles

The development of the Japanese version of the Forms of Self-Criticising/Attacking & Self-Reassuring Scale (J-FSCRS): implications for cross-cultural research on self-criticism and self-reassurance

ABSTRACT People with high self-criticism tend to suffer from poor mental health whereas those with high self-reassurance tend to have good mental health. Poor mental health is a great cause for concern in Japan. Many people in Japan live with mental health issues, and the suicide rate is high. In particular, the mental health of caring professionals in Japan is devastated. However, there is no established measure to assess the levels of self-criticism and self-reassurance in the Japanese language. The Forms of Self-Criticising/Attacking & Self-Reassuring Scale (FSCRS) has been actively used in mental health research. Accordingly, this study aimed to develop the Japanese version of FSCRS (J-FSCRS). 300 nurses and 120 psychologists in Japan responded to an online survey containing J-FSCRS and Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21. Confirmatory factor analyses and a Pearson's correlation analysis were conducted. J-FSCRS is proven to be reliable to assess self-criticism and self-reassurance in the Japanese language.

An implicit leadership theory examination of cultural values as moderators of the relationship between destructive leadership and followers’ task performance

Destructive leadership and its effects on followers all over the world have been emphasized in cross-cultural research in recent years. Despite continued scholarly and practitioner interest in both destructive leadership and job performance due to its implications for cross-cultural research, we have an incomplete understanding of the impact of cultural context on the relationship between destructive leadership and followers’ task performance. We advance international business research by building and testing implicit leadership theory predictions about the impact of country-level cultural values as moderators of the relationship between destructive leadership and followers’ task performance. We test our hypotheses and research question with a meta-analytic dataset that includes respondents from 12 countries (k = 72, N = 20,878). Our results demonstrate that several of the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) framework’s cultural value dimensions moderate the relationship between destructive leadership and followers’ task performance across countries. The findings are driven by the strong predictive validity of the performance orientation, in-group collectivism, gender egalitarianism, and humane orientation cultural value dimensions. Our contributions are important because we generate nuanced knowledge about the independent, relative, and collective predictive validity of cultural values in explaining the strength of the relationship between destructive leadership and followers’ task performance across countries.

Differentiation of self in adolescents: measurement invariance analysis across six Spanish-speaking countries

This article examines the measurement equivalence of the Spanish Differentiation of Self Inventory for Adolescents (S-DSI-A) in adolescent populations across Spanish-speaking countries (N = 5,552), including Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Spain. Within the Bowen family system theory, Differentiation of self is one of the most recognized constructs to systemic researchers and couple and family therapy practitioners, with implications in relationship adjustment or mental and physical health. The study uses multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) to test for configural, metric, and scalar invariance of the S-DSI-A across the six samples. The results indicate that the S-DSI-A demonstrates configural and metric invariance, but scalar invariance is not achieved. These findings have implications for cross-cultural research on differentiation of self and highlight the importance of considering measurement equivalence when comparing results across different populations. Specifically, our results suggest that the S-DSI-A reliably assesses the latent variables of Emotional Reactivity (ER) and Emotional Cutoff (EC) uniformly across Spanish-speaking nations, but the mean scores for the ER and EC lack cross-sample comparability.

Intercultural differences in issue interpretation: Effects of emotions and framing

The interpretation of strategic issues as threats or opportunities influences strategic actions and firm performance. The extant research identifies cultural differences as an important driver of strategic issue interpretation. Specifically, research from a socio-cognitive perspective shows that differences in cognitive styles across cultures lead to differences in the interpretation of strategic issues by East Asian and Western managers. Based on cross-cultural research on emotions and decision-making, we argue that cultural affordances also lead to differences in emotional experiences and behavioral consequences across cultures which affect the strategic issue interpretation of managers from East Asian and Western cultures in different ways. We theorize that Chinese managers are similarly affected by fear and happiness in their strategic issue interpretation, while German managers are only affected by fear. For German managers, this effect is moderated by issue framing, which is not the case for Chinese managers. A vignette-based decision experiment involving 194 German and 174 Chinese executives offers support for our hypotheses. These findings have implications for cross-cultural research on strategic issue interpretation and for cross-cultural research on strategic decision-making in general.

Partners’ Dyadic Coping in India: Psychometric Properties and Validity of the Tamil Version of the Dyadic Coping Inventory

Research outside of India suggests that romantic partners can help one another cope with these stressors by engaging in dyadic coping; however, to date, there lacks an empirically validated self-report measure to assess perceptions of one’s own and their partner’s behaviors in the Indian cultural context. While the Dyadic Coping Inventory has been translated into 24 languages, it has not yet been validated for use with individuals in India. The purpose of this study was to translate and validate the DCI in Tamil, one of the widely spoken languages in India, using data from 931 (n men = 431 men; n women = 500) married individuals in different-gender relationships. The factorial structure and measurement invariance (MI) were tested across genders (Indian men and women) and cultures (India, Switzerland, and the United States). Results supported the five-factor structure for the self and partner subscales and a two-factor structure for common dyadic coping. MI analysis indicated the DCI subscales showed configural, full metric and partial scalar invariance across gender (male vs. female in Indian sample) and culture (Indian vs. Swiss and Indian vs. the US). Implications for cross-cultural research and future directions are presented.

Researcher Linguistic Vulnerability: A Note on Methodological Implications.

We reflect on the experiences of a researcher conducting a pilot exercise project with marginalized research participants within the substance use disorder treatment field, in a language that was nonnative to her. While the project collected and analyzed quantitative data, the researcher was motivated by qualitative inquiry's commitment to reducing participant-researcher distance and power differences. Despite multiple sources of power imbalances favoring the researcher, the ability of participants to speak their native language to a nonnative researcher, and the researcher's active recognition of her linguistic vulnerability, appeared to afford them an unexpected source of power within the context of the project. We discuss the researcher's observations of these power dynamics and their implications for cross-cultural research and when working with marginalized research participants.

Moral asymmetries in judgments of agency withstand ludicrous causal deviance.

Americans have been shown to attribute greater intentionality to immoral than to amoral actions in cases of causal deviance, that is, cases where a goal is satisfied in a way that deviates from initially planned means (e.g., a gunman wants to hit a target and his hand slips, but the bullet ricochets off a rock into the target). However, past research has yet to assess whether this asymmetry persists in cases of extreme causal deviance. Here, we manipulated the level of mild to extreme causal deviance of an immoral versus amoral act. The asymmetry in attributions of intentionality was observed at all but the most extreme level of causal deviance, and, as we hypothesized, was mediated by attributions of blame/credit and judgments of action performance. These findings are discussed as they support a multiple-concepts interpretation of the asymmetry, wherein blame renders a naïve concept of intentional action (the outcome matches the intention) more salient than a composite concept (the outcome matches the intention and was brought about by planned means), and in terms of their implications for cross-cultural research on judgments of agency.

Global psychology: implications for cross-cultural research and management

Purpose – Psychology, both as science and practice, has been largely developed in one cultural area of the world: Europe and North America. As a result, the discipline is culture-bound, limited in its origins, concepts, and empirical findings to only this small portion of the world. The discipline is also culture-blind, largely ignoring the influence of the role of culture in shaping the development and display of human behaviour. These limitations have resulted in the dominant position of a Western Academic Scientific Psychology (WASP) in relation to other cultural perspectives on human behaviour. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on concepts and strategies in psychology (particularly cross-cultural and intercultural psychology) to propose some remedies to problems arising from the dominant WASP position. For example, of what relevance is such a limited perspective to understanding human activity in other cultures; and how can such a limited understanding serve the purpose of effective intercultural interactions? Findings – The eventual goal is to achieve a global psychology that incorporates concepts and findings from societies and cultures from all parts of the world, one that will permit a valid understanding of people within their cultures, and permit effective intercultural across cultures. Originality/value – The paper presents some criticisms of the dominant western psychology (WASP), and proposes that the achievement of a more global psychology may be within reach if some concepts and methods now available in psychology from both the dominant western sources and from those working in the rest of the world are used.

Landscape and Life: Appropriate Scales for Sustainable Development

Defining sustainable development as the challenge of continuously balancing economic, social and ecological values, a European research project sought lessons from experiences of a forty-year period to frame criteria of appropriate scale for contextually-sensitive environmental policy. A network of case studies conducted by partner teams in Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden examined changes of scale in the territorial, functional and socio-political contexts of life and landscape between 1950-1990. Themes central to the project included landscape transformations, tensions among area- and sector-based ways of life (genres tie vie), and changing horizons of discretionary reach. With illustrations drawn mainly from the Irish case studies in Tipperary, this paper describes some regional differences in response to external—policy and market-driven—influences. Implications for cross-cultural research and the framing of contextually-sensitive environmental policy are outlined, and suggestions made for their modulation through European Union, national, regional, and local levels.

Culture's Consequences on Student Motivation: Capturing Cross-Cultural Universality and Variability Through Personal Investment Theory

Culture influences basic motivational processes; however, Western theories of achievement motivation seem to have neglected the role of culture. They are inadequate when trying to explain student motivation and engagement across a wide range of cultural groups because they may not have the conceptual tools needed to handle culturally relevant information. Personal investment (PI) theory is proposed as a viable alternative that could be used across diverse cultural contexts. It designates three components of meaning: sense of self, perceived goals, and facilitating conditions as central to understanding investment in the educational enterprise. Moreover, it is an integrative framework that can shed light on both etic (culturally universal) and emic (culturally specific) dimensions of student motivation. Studies utilizing PI theory are reviewed revealing interesting etic and emic findings. Implications for cross-cultural research in educational psychology are discussed.

The Effects Of Extroversion On Conflict Resolution In Student Teams: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

This paper reports the results of a cross-cultural investigation of the role of Extroversion in determining the conflict resolution styles of business students in the United States and the Republic of Armenia. PLS modeling showed that Extroversion was associated with the Dominating style among US students and with the Compromising and Obliging styles among Armenian students. Extroversion was associated with the Integrating style in both cultures. Findings are discussed along with their implications for cross-cultural research.

Affect and Morality

Principles of attribution do not always apply equally in all cultures. In the present research, we use the Kantian approach of perfect and imperfect duty violations to assess how attributions are made in the United States and Korea. Perfect duties are actions that moral people are required to do, whereas imperfect duties, although not required, are actions expected of moral people. In Experiment 1, we assessed whether there were cross-cultural differences in response to perfect and imperfect duty violations. In Experiment 2, we explored the mediating role of affect in these differences. In Experiment 3, we manipulated affect to test alternative explanations for the results of Experiment 2. Results show that the process of making moral attributions differs between Americans and Koreans, and this difference is due to Koreans requiring comparatively more negative affect before making a moral attribution. Implications for cross-cultural research are discussed.

Delineating groups for cultural comparisons in a multicultural setting: Not all Westerners should be put into the same melting pot.

When conducting cross-cultural studies, researchers often rely on generalised categorisations (e.g., East–West), frequently assuming homogeneity within each of the cultural groups being compared. We argue that such broad categorisations may be misleading and that careful demarcation of cultural groups that takes into consideration their specific sociohistorical realities is necessary to produce knowledge that is both meaningful and realistic. We illustrate this contention by examining preferred mate attributes among four different cultural groups in Canada. In line with predictions, we found that Italians, who are ordinarily considered Western European, demonstrated preferences for status and traditional characteristics in a mate that differed from those preferred by the rest of the Western Europeans (not including Italians). Instead, Italians were similar to the more “Eastern” South Asians and Chinese in their preferences for status traits and to South Asians in their preferences for traditional traits. Importantly, the pattern of cultural differences changed when Italians were included in the Western European category. Lastly, we showed that the influence of culture on preferences for traditional and status traits was differentially transmitted through family connectedness and identification with mainstream Canadian culture. Implications for cross-cultural research are discussed.

Gender differences in the meaning of dating and marriage among international students from Turkey

In this qualitative study, we interviewed 12 female and 10 male graduate students from Turkey. All of the participants have been living in the US for at least a year. Given that the collectivistic Turkish culture is very different than the more individualistic American culture, we aimed at understanding how men and women’s meaning of dating and marriage changed as a result of living in the US. We conducted semi-structured interviews to understand the gender differences in the experience of change as experienced by the participants. The results and implications for cross-cultural research are discussed.

Blessed are Those Who Wait: Validating the Filipino Version of the Academic Delay of Gratification Scale (ADOGS)

The objective of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Filipino version of the Aca- demic Delay of Gratification Scale (ADOGS; Bembenutty and Karabenick, Learn Individ Differ 10:329-346, 1998). This instrument measures the degree to which students postpone immediately available opportunities to satisfy their impulses in order to pursue important goals that are temporally remote but ostensibly more important. Filipino high school students (N = 425) completed the ADOGS. Both within-network and between-network approaches to construct validation were used. Responses to this questionnaire were shown to have good internal consistency reliability and support is provided for its construct validity in terms of its correlations with other theo- retically relevant educational constructs such as cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Multigroup tests showed strong invariance across year levels and partial invariance across genders. Implications for cross-cultural research are discussed.

Validating the Chinese Version of the Inventory of School Motivation

The aim of this study is to assess the cross-cultural applicability of the Chinese version of the Inventory of School Motivation (ISM; McInerney & Sinclair, 1991) in the Hong Kong context using both within-network and between-network approaches to construct validation. The ISM measures four types of achievement goals: mastery, performance, social, and extrinsic goals. A total of 697 high school students participated in the study. Results of the within-network test showed that the ISM had good internal consistency reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized four-factor structure. In addition, multigroup confirmatory factor analyses showed factorial invariance across students of different genders, year levels, and school types. The between-network test indicated that the achievement goals assessed by the ISM correlated systematically with different aspects of students’ self-concepts. These findings provide evidence of the applicability of the ISM among Hong Kong Chinese students. Implications for cross-cultural research are discussed.

Examining the role of social goals in school: A study in two collectivist cultures

Achievement goal theorists have mostly focused on the role of mastery and performance goals in the school setting with little attention being paid to social goals. The aim of this study was to explore the role of social goals in influencing educational outcomes in two collectivist cultures: Hong Kong and the Philippines. Results showed that social goals were able to predict additional variance in various adaptive educational outcomes even after controlling for the effects of mastery and performance goals. Implications for cross-cultural research are discussed.

Wives’ Relative Income and Marital Quality in Urban China: The Role of Perceived Equity

The debate over the association between wives’ relative income (WRI) and marital quality remain controversial in the west; however, this important research area has been surprisingly under-studied against the backdrop of the fast socioeconomic transition in contemporary China. Using 763 urban Chinese wives, this study examined both the mediating and the moderating role of perceived equity between WRI and marital quality. Hierarchical multiple regression indicated that urban Chinese wives’ relative income had a negative impact on their marital happiness and a positive impact on marital instability to a small extent. The mediating role of perceived equity was not supported in this study; however, perceived equity could buffer the positive effect of wives’ relative income on marital instability, especially for higher-earning wives. This study contributes to understanding wives’ socioeconomic resources and marital quality from an equity perspective in the Chinese context and generates implications for cross-cultural research on perceived equity. It also serves for marital counseling on improving higher-earning wives’ perception of fairness as well as family–friendly policy making.

Validation of the Chinese version of the Sense of Self (SOS) Scale

This study explored the cross-cultural applicability of the Sense of Self (SOS) Scale in the Hong Kong Chinese cultural context. The SOS Scale is a 26-item questionnaire designed to measure students’ sense of purpose, self-reliance, and self-concept in school. Six hundred ninety-seven Hong Kong Chinese high school students participated in the study. Both within-network and between-network approaches to construct validation were adopted. Responses to this questionnaire are shown to have good internal consistency reliability, and support is provided for its construct validity in terms of its factorial structure and correlations with other educational outcomes such as learning strategies. In addition, multigroup confirmatory factor analysis also indicated invariance of the instrument across males and females, across students of different year levels, and across students from different types of school. Implications for cross-cultural research are discussed.

Cross-Cultural Preferences for Distributive Justice Principles: Resource Type and Uncertainty Management

Drawing on social resource theory, we investigated the evaluation of distributive justice principles in relation to material benefits (monetary rewards in working life) and symbolic benefits (praise at university) in a cross-cultural study. We predicted that the equity principle would be perceived as more just for distributing culturally valued resources, whereas the equality principle would be perceived as more just for resources that are less valued within culture. Moreover, applying uncertainty management theory, we predicted that cross-cultural fairness evaluations would be more pronounced for individuals with higher (vs. lower) uncertainty avoidance or lower (vs. higher) uncertainty tolerance. Data of 608 Canadian and German students were collected in a two-wave survey. As expected, when allocating material benefits Canadians found the equity principle to be more just than did Germans, whereas Germans perceived the equality principle as more just than did Canadians. When allocating symbolic benefits, by contrast, Canadians perceived equality as more just than did Germans, though unexpectedly culture did not influence evaluations of the equity principle. Finally, consistent with uncertainty management theory, some of the cultural differences in the evaluation of distributive principles were more pronounced among people with higher uncertainty avoidance and lower uncertainty tolerance. Implications for cross-cultural research on distributive justice are discussed.