How Do Individuals In Intercultural Romantic Relationships Use Communication Strategies To Maintain Their Relationship? A Qualitative Analysis., Adira Daniel

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Intercultural relationships—romantic relationships where one partner is outside the other’s racial, ethnic, religious, and/or language group—are a growing sociodemographic group. Individuals in such relationships must navigate their cultural differences to mitigate the negative effects of the challenges they face and ameliorate the benefits of their relationship. Culture can impact preferences in communicating about these differences and consequently relationship maintenance. Yet little is known about how intercultural couples communicate about their cultural differences to effectively maintain their relationship. To address this gap, I conducted semi-structured, virtual, interviews with 23 intercultural couples and found that intercultural couples’ overall preference and efficacy …

Ethnic Differences In The Way College Students Cope With Stress, Temavulane N. Motsa

Masters Theses

Stress is one of the key concerns for students and has also been labelled the highest factor impacting students’ academic performance in colleges. A student’s ability to adequately cope with their stressors could determine their academic success or failure. This study examined whether there are any ethnic differences in the way African American and Caucasian American Students cope with stress. Data were collected from Students at Eastern Illinois University which included 45 African American Students and 40 Caucasian American students. The results revealed no significant differences in the way Caucasian American and African American students cope with stress. This paper …

The Impact Of Exposure To The Thin Ideal On Chocolate Cravings In U.S. -Born Women, Kathryn M. Helm

Psychology

Food cravings are experienced by a large proportion of the population and have a variety of negative implications- including overweight/ obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. Prior research has shown a lack of support for biological causes of craving. As such, we look to other factors such as culture, cognition, and sex, to explore why such factors have an influence on craving. The purpose of this study is to look at the impact of viewing thin ideal images on chocolate cravings in United States born women-including (but not restricted to) their reports of ambivalence towards chocolate. Participants were randomized …

Developing A Korean Version Of The Experiences In Close Relationships Scale Using Quantitative Methods For Verifying Semantic Equivalence, Ji-Sun Jeong

Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of this study was to verify semantic equivalence of a Korean version of ECRS using quantitative methods. Data were collected from 204 bilingual Koreans. The criterion sample included the 399 American college students surveyed by Mallinckrodt and Wang (2004). After translating the ECRS from English to Korean, five analyses for semantic equivalence were conducted: mean differences, DLSH reliability, internal reliability, test-retest reliability, and construct validity. First, the English items were equivalent to the Korean items except for the Avoidance subscale from Form B when comparing means differences. In addition, the English and Korean versions of each subscale showed …

Uncovering The Processes And Consequences Of Egyptian Immigrant Parental Involvement In Their Children’S Education: Bridging Cultural Differences, Hend Shalan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Abstract

For more than a decade, researchers have concluded that immigrant parents face several barriers to becoming involved in their children’s education. All studies agree that language and cultural differences are the most significant barriers to immigrants’ involvement in their children’s education, yet we know little about what these cultural differences are and how these cultural differences influence the school involvement of immigrant parents. This study integrates theories of cultural differences, acculturation, and culture shock and the corresponding literature to investigate the lesser involvement of immigrant parents in school-related activities.

A focused ethnographic design was employed and a thematic analysis …

Native American Students' Experiences Of Cultural Differences In College: Influence And Impact, Leslie Elizabeth Clark

Theses and Dissertations

The culture of most colleges and universities is very different for Native American students with close ties to their traditional communities. "Traditional," in a Native American sense, means multiple interconnections of emotional, physical, intellectual, and spiritual identity that combine to define expectations for the Native American way. This traditional cultural perspective is often in conflict with college cultures where typically only the academic or social aspects of identity are addressed. Research on college students of several ethnicities has found that the experience of post-secondary education can change individuals' attitudes, values, and behaviors. However, none of these studies focused on the …

An Integrated Approach To Acculturation: A Personal Journey, Douglas C. Stone

MA TESOL Collection

The intention of this professional paper is to propose a new, integrated model for acculturation which brings psychological understanding to this process. The first section of this paper gives a brief introduction and several necessary definitions. The second section introduces several existing acculturation models which I found applied to aspects of my experience, but which were inadequate in important areas. In the third diction I outlined a number of psychological models which I used to cope with acculturation and understand my experience before having contact with the acculturation material from the second section. In the fourth section I give an …

Cross-Cultural Differences And Intercultural Cooperation In The Context Of Change And Uncertainty: Americans And Finns In The Workplace, Maija Llisa Herweg

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

American and Finnish workers in financial institutions in the United States and in Finland were interviewed in their respective languages to explore cross-cultural differences in response to change and uncertainty in the work place. Changes were explored in the domains of organizational, process, procedure and work content, and technological changes in the work place. As a point of departure for this study, Hofstede's IBM study, as it pertains to Uncertainty Avoidance--a measure he used to evaluate culture-based resistance to change--was used for this study.

Differences in the kinds of change considered difficult to adjust to were found in the cross-cultural …

Living In Two Worlds: Asian-American Women And Emotion, Kimberly S. Gangwish

Student Work

Asian-American women have faced certain difficulties in growing up due to the distinct differences in Asian and American cultures. The two cultures have philosophical differences as well as differences in acceptable manners of behaving and communicating. The expression of emotion is one of these areas. This research study looks at the differences in the two cultures concerning the expression of emotions and how this affects the women who are trying to live within both worlds. Ten first-generation Asian-American women were interviewed, using an oral history method, concerning three different situations. One situation involving just their parents, another involving their friends, …