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Using Motivational Interviewing In Public Health Practice To Prevent Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Lisa J. Ficker, Cheryl Lauber, Sandra L. King, Jewell Akins, Dranoel Knox, William Ridella

Michigan Journal of Public Health

Background: Surveys of women in prenatal care at busy clinics in Detroit, Michigan have reported 12.5% continue to drink during pregnancy (Flynn et al, 2003) and women in substance abuse treatment programs in Wayne County, MI have an incidence rate for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) of 4 in 1,000 births, double the national prevalence rate of FAS. The goal of the current study was to intervene with women at high risk for an alcohol-exposed pregnancy using techniques of Brief Motivational Interviewing (BMI) in a verbal and written format. Methods: One third (33%) of 1,784 women screened at Detroit Department of …

Early Childhood Services And Supports In The Context Of Cultural Community Psychology, Richard N. Roberts

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

cultural and community aspects of the family’s and child’s experience. Though the effects of each of these variables may be hard to separate, distinct elements of each can be seen in the three examples used to illustrate this point. The common theme of the three case studies demonstrates that neither the community ecology nor cultural archetypes provide sufficiently satisfactory explanations for the everyday behaviors of the family members. Rather, the common denominator involves the context in which community and cultural influences interact to determine the outcome. When the context is one that supports both sets of influences, the families of …

Uncertainty Orientation: A Theory Of Self-Regulation Within And Across Cultures As Related To Cognition, Andrew C. H. Szeto, Richard M. Sorrentino, Satoru Yasunaga, John Nezlek

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

Erich Fromm once said “the quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.” For some, this quote is unmistakably true, impelling them to great discoveries of nature and the mind. For others, uncertainty is the very essence of confusion and ambiguity, offering nothing more than reason to retreat to more predictable and certain times. In this chapter, we explore the theory of uncertainty orientation as related to cognition and cognitive processes, including research that was conducted in Canada, Japan, and China. First, we discuss the characteristic uncertainty selfregulation …

Intergenerational Transmission Of Values In Different Cultural Contexts: A Study In Germany And Indonesia, Isabelle Albert, Gisela Trommsdorff, Lieke Wisnubrata

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

The aim of this study1 is to investigate cultural similarities and differences in the transmission of general and domain-specific value orientations (individualism/collectivism, and value of children) within German and Indonesian families. Supposing that both cultures differ with respect to developmental pathways of independence and interdependence, we asked if the extent of intergenerational transmission of values within families differs between Germany and Indonesia, and we studied possible cultural differences in intergenerational transmission with respect to different value contents. More precisely, we asked if there is a difference in transmission of values that are highly versus not highly endorsed by the members …

Meaning Constitution Analysis: A Phenomenological Approach To Research In Human Sciences, Roger B. Sages, Jonas Lundsten

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

Each and every thought, word, feeling or action of a person harbor a richness of meaning, opening on all the possible worlds accessible for him/her. A vision on those possible worlds, those open possibilities of action, should be of great interest for human science research. We believe that the phenomenological thinking of Edmund Husserl, reworked to adapt to the modern conception of the human sciences, can allow such an understanding of a person or a more or less large group, giving not a static picture of his mind, but a dynamic view of the ongoing process of constitution of meaning. …

Reducing Bias In Cross-Cultural Factor Analysis Through A Statistical Technique For Metric Adjustment: Factor Solutions For Quintets And Quartets Of Countries, Kostas Mylonas

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

Differential item functioning or item bias is a usual threat in psychological research and many experts in the field such as Kline (1993), Nunnally and Bernstein (1994), and others have suggested various methods for its detection and removal. Item bias in terms of culture has been addressed by Poortinga, Van de Vijver, Leung, Muthén, and others, with most of the proposed methods attempting to minimize variance explained by culture itself by detecting and deleting culturally-biased items from the analysis. This is done through the detection of inequivalent –in terms of factor structure– items and their elimination before comparing for factor …

An Examination Of Acquiescent Response Styles In Cross-Cultural Research, Ronald Fischer, Johnny R. J. Fontaine, Fons J. R. Van De Vijver, Dianne A. Van Hemert

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

Response styles constitute a formidable challenge for cross-cultural research. In this article, three different response styles are discussed (acquiescence, extremity scoring, and social desirability). Acquiescence responding (ARS) is then integrated into a larger classical test theoretical framework, which allows for an examination of the various roles that ARS may play in cross-cultural research. A new meta-analytical method is proposed to examine the prevalence and nature of ARS. Preliminary evidence suggests that ARS has only a small, but systematic effect on survey responses. The meaning of ARS is explored through correlations with nation-level indicators. Implications for future research are discussed.

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 …

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

Investigations In The Geometry Of Polynomials, Neil Biegalle

McNair Scholars Journal

Because polynomial functions are completely determined by their roots, every property of a polynomial is affected when these roots change. Our research aims to further our understanding of how the distribution of a polynomial's roots affects specjfic characteristics of the function. We are especially interested in classifying which root distributions maximize or minimize certain properties. We employ recent results on polynomial root dragging and root motion to explore these issues further, including the attempt to explain why many properties are maximized by Bernstein polynomials. This paper will survey some important results and present our investigations into new problems and approaches.

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 …

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 …

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. …

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 …

Geocentric Gestures As A Research Tool, Pierre R. Dasen, Nilima Changkakoti, Milena Abbiati, Shanta Niraula, Ramesh C. Mishra, Harold Foy

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

This study1 is part of a large-scale cross-cultural research project on the development of spatial language and cognition, in India, Indonesia and Nepal, that focuses on a culturally particular way of organizing small-scale, table space, using a large-scale geocentric spatial orientation system (Dasen & Mishra, in preparation). One of the main questions is at what age this geocentric frame of reference starts to be effective. The study of language development does not provide a clear answer, because young children (ages 4 to 7) use ambiguous “deictic” descriptions, i.e., they just say “this way” accompanied by a gesture. Can these gestures …

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.