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Geocentric Gestural Deixis Among Yucatec Maya (Quintana Roo, México), Olivier Le Guen

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

Fieldwork conducted among the Yucatec Maya of Mexico reveals that this group preferentially uses a geocentric frame of reference in both linguistic and non-linguistic tasks. Contrary to other cultural groups (such as the Guugu Yimithir of Australia or Tzeltal of México), this frame does not seem to rely on the use of specific spatial terms (such as cardinal directions for instance). Because linguistic evidence is not sufficient to determine which frame of reference is used, attention to gestural deixis is particularly relevant. Using a comparative French example, we present a method of analysis for gestural deixis and show that Yucatec …

Youtube, The Internet And Iaccp: Opportunities And Challenges For Cross-Cultural Psychology, William K. Gabrenya Jr., Nathalie Van Meurs, Ronald Fischer

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

We culturalists are an unusual lot! Dispersed geographically and divided socially by potential and real political conflict, economic competition, religious disagreement and vast disparities in wealth and resources, we struggle with the dilemma of studying diversities that can only be understood adequately through effective communication and collaboration. The International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology was conceptualized by psychologists who recognized and participated in this dialectical context. The Founders set out to create an organization that would provide communication venues in order to facilitate the development of a community of psychologists who would collaborate on cultural research. Communication, indeed, was the starting …

From Homer To The 21st Century: Charting The Emergence Of The Structure Of Interpersonal Meaning, John Adamopoulos

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

During the last quarter of the 20th century, cross-cultural research established that the meaning of interpersonal behavior can be described in terms of a universal structure that includes, among others, the notions of association (affiliation), superordination (dominance), and intimacy. While researchers generally agree on most of these universal dimensions, little is known about their origins –the whys and the wherefores of these structures. An approach designed to explain the emergence of the meaning of interpersonal behavior is the focus of this chapter. This approach is based on the assumption that social behavior involves the exchange of material and psychological resources, …

Cultures Of Infancy. The Foundation Of Developmental Pathways, Heidi Keller

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

Development can be understood as a series of universal developmental tasks that pattern the human life span. These developmental tasks evolved during the history of humankind, mainly to solve recurring adaptive problems. They are functionally related to each other in the sense that the solution of earlier tasks influences the solution of later developmental tasks. Thus developmental and biographical continuity emerge. The resulting developmental pathways, however, are not conceived of as being absolutely determined by the earlier influences. Developmental pathways are informed by earlier as well as concurrent influences. Plasticity, yet not unlimited, characterizes developmental pathways as well as continuity.

Comparative Study On Concept Construction For Violence, Intelligence And Religion In Early Adolescence In The Parisian Suburbs, Annamária Lammel, Eduardo Márquez

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

Based on association tasks, we focused our research on the process of concept construction and on the nature of the semantic structure network of three important concepts in the lives of young adolescents in the Parisian suburbs: violence, religion and intelligence. In this exploratory study, we were interested in identifying similarities and differences in the organization of these social concepts between adolescents with French parents and adolescents with immigrant parents. Despite the fact that these children share common “eco-cultural” experiences, we supposed that the different cultural guidelines in the family settings might influence the construction and the semantic organization of …

Innovative Disaster Counseling Approaches With Children And Youth, Thomas Demaria, Minna Barrett

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

Children and youth from all cultures are at high risk following a disaster because of their dependency on caregivers and their stage of cognitive and emotional development. Without an available caregiver to help interpret the traumatic event, most children internalize their experiences making them more vulnerable to future stressors. Traumatic events also can lead to psychological and environment dislocation of children from ethnocultural support structures and systems of meaning. Engagement of families is often a significant barrier that prevents the utilization of existing services. An innovative counseling approach is presented that was utilized following the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. …

Culture, Self-Construal And Social Cognition: Evidence From Cross-Cultural And Priming Studies, Ulrich Kühnen

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

Members of different cultures vary in basic social psychological processes, such as value orientation, attitudes, attitude-behavior relations, person perception and attribution of observed behavior. Previous researchers have traced back these differences to the respective culture members’ self-construal: Westerners define their self primarily in independent terms, whereas Asians are more likely to define their selves in interdependent ways. This difference in construing the self in turn affects the above mentioned judgmental processes. However, when relying on cross-cultural studies alone, the critical role of the self cannot directly be tested. In this chapter I argue that the accessibility of either independent or …

South Asians In Scandinavia: Diasporic Identity Processes, Rashmi Singla

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

This chapter1 probes selected social-psychological aspects for South Asian young adults in Denmark and is a follow up of a Danish project conducted in the mid-nineties. The diasporic conceptualizations in respect to human centeredness and cultural processes in migration combined with life course perspective, provide the theoretical framework for this study. In-depth interviews were employed, and information was analyzed through meaning condensation and subsequent categorization of the narratives. The results show the reinterpretation of the self, “others” and home in the diasporic families, for the parental as well as the young generation. The chapter also depicts the young adults’ diasporic …

Reflections On Two Of Our Early Ancestors, Gustav Jahoda

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

No abstract provided.

Quod Erat Demonstrandum: From Herodotus’ Ethnographic Journeys To Cross-Cultural Research, Aikaterini Gari, Kostas Mylonas

IACCP Proceedings of the Biennial International Conferences

A peer-reviewed book based on presentations at the XVIII Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, 2006, Isle of Spetses, Greece.

(c) 2009, International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology

Education In Cross-Cultural Settings: Psychological Underpinnings Of Achievement In Papua New Guinea, Genevieve F. Nelson, Jasmine Green, Dennis M. Mcinerney, Martin Dowson, Andrew C. Schauble

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

Education and achievement in Papua New Guinea has received minimal attention in the psychological and educational literature. Although student motivation and achievement have been investigated in a large variety of cultures throughout the world, this has not been substantially extended to the developing world. The current study investigated a selection of psychological processes that contribute to student achievement in the context of a majority, indigenous and developing culture. Motivational goal orientations, learning and self-regulatory processes of 359 students from Papua New Guinea (PNG) were investigated. Structural equation modeling investigated the relations between the psychological variables. Results are discussed in the …

Dimensions Of Well-Being: A Cross-Cultural Study In European Neighborhoods, Penny Panagiotopoulou, Aikaterini Gari, Sophia Christakopoulou

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

People build their sense of well-being by responding to their objectively defined environment. The community environment and more specifically the neighborhood affects the subjective and psychological well being of the individuals. Neighboring refers to the residents’ social interaction and mutual material and non material support. This chapter attempts to examine how the social, political, and economic aspect of community life is related to community well-being focusing on community satisfaction, informal social interaction, feeling safe, the residents’ involvement in the community decision making process, the economic life, and the job opportunities and training of 705 participants in six European cultural settings: …

Research And Action On Intimate Partner Violence: Interdisciplinary Convergence Of Cultural Community Psychology And Cross-Cultural Psychology, Eric S. Mankowski, Gino Galvez, Nancy Glass

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

An analysis of the respective organizational histories, missions, and scholarly activity of the International Association for Cross-cultural Psychology (IACCP) and the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA) indicates many points of shared values and actions, as well as some important differences. Both scholarly organizations developed out of a similar historical and cultural zeitgeist in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Our missions emphasize the role of culture/diversity in psychological phenomena, adopting an interdisciplinary orientation, the value of collaboration, the importance of research methods and ethics, and the value of action research. However, community psychology generally lacks an adequate treatment …

An Emerging Integration Of Universal And Culturally Specific Psychologies And Its Implications For The Study Of Psychopathology, Gregory T. Smith, Nichea S. Spillane, Agnes M. Stairs

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

There is an emerging consensus among researchers on the need to integrate universal and culturally specific psychological perspectives. Important tasks in this process have included identifying the appropriate level of generality for putatively universal processes, how to understand culturally different processes in light of shared universal capacities, and the development of transparent scientific means for investigating cultural differences. In this chapter, the authors discuss each of these issues. It appears to be true that many psychological processes appear to reflect culturally-specific instantiations of universal capacities. The authors then consider implications of this emerging integration for psychology, by applying it to …

National And European Identities Of Bulgarian And Dutch Students, Velichko Valchev, Fons J. R. Van De Vijver

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

The present study explored the adoption of national and European identities and the perceptions of own nation and Europe in Bulgarian and Dutch students. A questionnaire developed by Georgas et al. (2004) was administered to 256 students in Bulgaria and 190 students in the Netherlands. The majority of participants in both countries (88% in Bulgaria and 85% in the Netherlands) endorsed both national and European identity; European identity was secondary to national identity. There were marked cross-national differences in the way own country and Europe were perceived. Bulgarian students perceived larger differences between the two identities than did Dutch students. …

Predicting Opposition Towards Immigration: Economic Resources, Social Resources And Moral Principles, Alice Ramos, Jorge Vala

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

This study analyses the predictors of opposition towards immigrants of “different ethnic groups” and “poor countries” in 5 European countries (Portugal, Germany, Netherlands, France and United Kingdom), using data from the European Social Survey 1 (Jowell & the Central Coordinating Team, 2003). Besides Portugal, a country that has moved from being one of net emigration to being a new host country for immigrants, the other countries were selected according to their main policies of immigrants’ integration. Opposition towards immigration (OTI) is analysed using three theoretical models: a) the economic self-interest model that proposes that opposition towards immigration may be due …

Temporal Orientation And Its Relationships With Organizationally Valued Outcomes: Results From A 14 Country Investigation, Tejinder K. Billing, Billing S. Bhagat, Annamária Lammel, Karen Moustafa Leonard, David L. Ford Jr., Fran Brew, Jose Rojas-Mendez, Vilma Coutino-Hill, Ujvala Rajadhyaksha, B.N. Srivastava, Bernadette Setiadi, Darwish Yousef, Olga Soler, Mannsoo Shin, Ichal Nowak, Shuming Zhao, Stefan Schmid, Murat Gumus, Tim Keeley, Catherine Kwantes, Ben Kuo

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

In this investigation we were concerned with the cultural covariates of temporal orientation in 14 different national contexts. Data were collected from United States of America (US), Australia, Germany, Poland, Chile, Venezuela, Turkey, United Arab Emirates (UAE), India, Indonesia, Malaysia Japan, South Korea and China. Analyses show that collectivistic cultural orientation tends to be relatively important in the prediction of three facets of temporal orientation (i.e. emphasis on planning and scheduling; sense of time and attitude towards time).

Taking Advantage Of The Circular Structure Of Human Values, Sipko E. Huismans, Wijbrandt H. Van Schuur

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

Schwartz (1992) has shown that Value Domains have a circular structure. The same circular structure has been observed in so many samples all over the world that we may assume that the circular structure is rather universal. Given this structure, the Value systems of individuals can be fruitfully characterized using only one score, which enables us to describe it extremely economically. The Value Circle score we suggest might be independent of response tendencies and cross culturally valid as well. The purpose of this chapter is (a) to show how such a score can be assigned to individuals and (b) to …

Enhancing Psychological Assessment In Sub-Saharan Africa Through Participant Consultation, Amina Abubakar, Fons J. R. Van De Vijver, Anneloes Van Baar, Patricia Kitsao-Wekulo, Penny Holding

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

There are few psychological tools developed and standardized for use in sub-Saharan Africa. Consulting with target populations provides a potentially powerful procedure to develop and adapt measures for this population. This review identifies and describes methods used to consult target populations in sub-Saharan Africa. Relevant studies were identified using PsycINFO and PubMed, supplemented by a review of relevant books. We further illustrate the role of participant consultation in psychological assessment with examples of our work in Kilifi (Kenya). Three major approaches are described: focus groups, individual interviews, and participant observation. Participants have been consulted to generate items, identify appropriate assessment …

Exploring The Consequences Of Biculturalism: Cognitive Complexity, Verónica Benet-Martínez, Fiona Lee

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

To explore the possible socio-cognitive consequences of biculturalism, we examined the complexity of cultural representations in monocultural and bicultural individuals. Study 1 found that Chinese-American biculturals’ free descriptions of both American and Chinese cultures were higher in cognitive complexity than that of Anglo-American monoculturals, but the same effect was not apparent in descriptions of culturally-neutral entities (landscapes). Using the same procedures, Study 2 found that the cultural representations of biculturals with low levels of Bicultural Identity Integration (BII; or biculturals with conflicted cultural identities) were more cognitively complex than that of biculturals with high BII (biculturals with compatible cultural identities). …

The Iaccp Archives Project, John W. Berry, Walt Lonner

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

In July 2006 a workshop featuring a suggested IACCP Archives Project was part of the programme at the IACCP international congress in Spetses, Greece. About 25 highly interested people attended it. An informal meeting was held about a week later. John Berry and Walt Lonner, and several senior members of IACCP, were active participants in both sessions. Everyone involved so far has enthusiastically endorsed the basic idea of establishing the Archives and finding a permanent home for them. We also will need to develop some procedures for possible uses of the various components that the archives may contain.

Rogelio Díaz-Guerrero: A Legacy Of Psychological Creation And Research, Rolando Diaz-Loving, Ignacio Lozano

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

Rogelio Díaz-Guerrero’s journey began in 1918, born into a large (13 brothers and sisters) and very typical and traditional Mexican family in his homeland, Guadalajara. In search of the keys to understand human behavior, he moved to Mexico City immediately after finishing high school, where he studied medicine whilst taking psychology and chemistry classes at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). During this stage of his life, he was a student to a series of distinguished and prominent Mexican professors and thinkers: Enrique Aragon, Ezequiel Chavez, Guillermo Davila, Oswaldo Robles, Antonio Caso, Samuel Ramos and Jose Gaos. Finishing his …

Causes Of Culture: National Differences In Cultural Embeddedness, Shalom H. Schwartz

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

What causes national differences in culture? Past attempts to answer this question take insufficient account of how slowly culture changes or of the fact that culture itself influences the social structural, political, and demographic variables identified as causes. Convincing causes of cultural differences must meet three criteria: They should reflect the formative historical experiences of societies, they should not be influenced reciprocally by culture, and theoretically plausible process should explain their impact on culture. I propose and explain causes of national differences in cultural embeddedness, a value orientation that calls upon people to find meaning in life through identifying with …