Parenting and Preschool Child Development: Examination of Three Low-Income U.S. Cultural Groups

We examined the impact of parenting behaviors on preschool children’s social development in low-income families from three cultural groups: European American (n = 286), African American (n = 399), and Hispanic American (n = 164) using Spanish as the primary language in the home. Observed parenting behaviors of stimulation, responsivity, and acceptance of the child in European American and African American families showed positive impacts on children’s social development with notable exceptions discussed. Corporal punishment had a negative impact on children’s social development. With the exception of corporal punishment, none of the parenting behaviors predicted social development outcomes for Hispanic children.     

Family Functioning and Self-Differentiation: A Cross-Cultural Examination

This study examined the degree to which self-differentiation as related to family functioning is valued differently by Korean and European-American university students. The main findings confirm that the level of family functioning reported by European Americans is greater than for their Korean counterpart; family functioning is associated with differentiation measures (total score, emotional reactivity, and emotional cutoff) to a different extent across the two groups; and controlling for the effect of family functioning, the added contribution of a country variable explained further variance in self-differentiation. The importance of addressing the issue of similarities and differences between cultures in the assessment and treatment of individuals with problems related to their families of origin is discussed.     

The Role of Religion in Psychotherapy: A Cross-Cultural Examination

The question of whether religion should be considered in psychotherapy continues to be a point of debate. Many authors, notably Boyd-Franklin and Peck, feel that it is a serious oversight for mental health workers to ignore the role of spirituality in the development of the psyche. The present author offers a training program for mental health workers to aid in their understanding of the psycho-spiritual development of their clients. Moreover, the role of religious folk belief in psychotherapy is highlighted to aid therapists in understanding the explanations that clients from culturally diverse backgrounds may give in attempting to explain the causes of mental illness. Finally, a differential diagnosis of spirit possession versus schizophrenia is discussed. Several case examples are presented.     

Religiosity and Deviance: An Examination of the Moral Community and Antiasceticism Hypotheses Among U.S. Adults

Several hypotheses regarding the relationship between religiosity and deviance are examined using data from the geocoded General Social Survey. An inverse relationship between religiosity and several forms of deviance was documented; however the moral community hypothesis, which would predict that the interaction between group‐level religiosity and individual‐level religiosity would be inversely related to deviance, was not supported for any of the forms of deviant behavior examined. Additionally, the antiasceticism hypothesis, which argues that religiosity is more effective at deterring minor rather than serious forms of deviance, is only partially supported by the results of the analysis. The theoretical implications of this line of research, as well as suggestions for future avenues of research, are also discussed.     

An Examination of the Relationship Between Characteristics of Sect-Like Religiosity and Community Volunteering Among U.S. Churchgoers

Previous research indicates a robust relationship between religious participation and volunteering. However, religion is a multidimensional phenomenon and relatively few studies have examined the effects that different types of religiosity have on the likelihood of volunteering. In this article I extend our understanding of the link between religion and volunteering by examining the effect that several characteristics associated with sect-like religiosity have on the likelihood of community volunteering among U.S. churchgoers. My findings indicate a more nuanced relationship between volunteering and religious belonging, practice, and experience than previous studies have shown. Density of congregational friendship networks and frequency of evangelism are found to increase the likelihood of volunteering through and for religious congregations while supernatural experiences and frequency of evangelism are found to increase the likelihood of volunteering outside of the congregation. Religious strictness is found to decrease the likelihood of volunteering outside of the congregation. Implications for our understanding of the link between religion and volunteering are discussed as well as directions for future research.     

Latent Profile Analysis of Psychopathy in Chinese Female Offenders

The present study aimed to identify meaningful subtypes of psychopathy among Chinese female offenders. A Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) based on the scores of the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathic Scale was performed in a sample of Chinese female prisoners (N?=?279, M age?=?45.43, SD?=?8.62). The LPA yielded three profiles: “low psychopathy group” (27.6%), “moderate psychopathy group” (66.7%), and “high egocentricity and antisocial group” (5.7%). These profiles differed on all outcome variables including anxiety, depression, reactive aggression, and proactive aggression. The high egocentricity and antisocial group had a greater risk for anxiety, recidivism, impulsiveness, and aggression. Overall, the findings support the existence of psychopathy subtypes in non-Western cultural contexts, suggest gender similarities in the manifestation of psychopathy traits, and further the understanding of psychopathy typologies.

     

A Comparative Analysis of the Distributive Property in U.S. and Chinese Elementary Mathematics Textbooks

This study examines presentations of the distributive property (DP) in two widely used U.S. elementary text series and one main Chinese text series along three dimensions: problem contexts, typical problem types within each problem context, and variability in using the DP. In general, the two U.S. texts were found to resemble each other but to differ considerably from the Chinese text series. Both U.S. texts are computation-dominated, presenting various strategies centering on “breaking apart a factor to perform multiplication.” These strategies limit the use of the DP mainly with whole numbers and in a regular direction. The underlying principle of these strategies is seldom made explicit. In contrast, the Chinese text approaches focus on the underlying principle and are well aligned with cognitive research suggestions. Multiple-step word problems with particular structures are used in a systematic and hierarchic manner across grades to help students learn and transfer the DP. The Chinese texts also tend to ask students to “compute in convenient ways” involving various numbers (e.g., whole numbers, decimals, fractions, and percents) and using the DP in both regular and opposite directions. The introduction of repeated variables is a timely application of the DP, which provides an entry to algebra (e.g., expressions and equations with repeated variables). The Chinese approaches (e.g., contextual interferences, spaced practice, and encoding variability) suggest alternative insights into developing U.S. students’ understanding of the DP and readying them for algebra.     

Environmental psychology in the U.S.S.R.

A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the 19th National Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Boston, November, 5, 1987.     

Quality of care and cost containment in the U.S. and U.K.

Many activities of doctors in the acute hospital sector do not improve patient outcome because they are inappropriate. Curtailing interventions that are unnecessary (because the patient is not bad enough) or are unsuccessful (because the condition is too advanced) could both save resources and improve care. Rational rationing depends on knowledge about the expected benefits of various technologies when used in different clinical circumstances.     

Perceptions of Organizational Culture and Women's Advancement in Organizations: A Cross-Cultural Examination

This study is a cross-cultural examination of the relationship between organizational culture and women's advancement to management in organizations. The source of data for this study was the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness Research Project, a cross-cultural study of societal culture, organizational culture, and leadership. The results of this study indicate that aspects of organizational culture typically associated with women are related to women's progress. In organizations in which organization members reported shared values of high humane orientation and high gender equity, organization members also reported high percentages of women in management relative to other organizations in their society. In addition, organizational cultural practices that emphasized high humane orientation, high gender equity, high performance orientation, and low power distance were also related to reports of high percentages of women in management relative to societal norms. Results of regression analysis predicting the percentage of women in management from the dimensions of organizational culture indicated that gender equity practices and values emphasizing humane orientation contributed significantly to the prediction of the percentage of women in management. Organizational cultural practices related to gender equity were found to be the most important predictor of the percentage of women in management. This study adds to the literature on women's progress in organizations by further extending the focus from individual and structural characteristics to characteristics of organizational culture. The findings suggest that change agents focused on increasing opportunities for women in management should attend to organizational culture, particularly aspects of culture related to gender equity practices.     

Differences in Emotional Labor Across Cultures: A Comparison of Chinese and U.S. Service Workers

Purpose

In the global economy, the need for understanding cross-cultural differences and the customer service-related processes involved in emotional labor is evident. The current study attempts to examine this issue by developing and testing hypotheses pertaining to cross-cultural differences between U.S. and Chinese service workers on the levels of display rule perceptions, emotion regulation, and burnout (i.e., emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment, and depersonalization) as well as the relationships among these variables.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data was collected from service workers in the U.S. (n = 280) and China (n = 231). We tested for measurement differences, mean differences, and differences in the relationships among emotional labor variables between the two samples using a variety of analyses.

Findings

It was found that the relatively robust sequence of display rules to surface acting to burnout was observed in a U.S. sample but was not observed in a Chinese sample, with some relationships being significantly weaker in the Chinese sample (e.g., surface acting to burnout dimensions) and others exhibiting relationships with the opposite sign (e.g., display rules were negatively related to surface acting in the Chinese sample).

Implications

The results of this study suggest that many of the relationships among emotional labor variables vary as a function of the cultural context under consideration.

Originality/Value

This is the first study to directly compare emotional labor across samples from Eastern and Western cultures. Additionally, this study begins to answer questions concerning why models of emotional labor generated in a Western culture may not apply in other cultures.