A Cross-Cultural and Developmental Analysis of Self-Esteem in Chinese and Western Children

In this review, we examine the construct of self-esteem from a cross-cultural perspective in Chinese and Western children and adolescents. We also explore the role of childrearing practices in the development of self-esteem in these different cultures. In doing so, we first review the concepts of emic (i.e., variations in patterns of behavior within a given culture) and etic research (i.e., variations in common patterns of behavior or activities across cultures). Then, we invoke Berry's notions of “imposed-etic” and “derived-etic” approaches (J. Berry, 1989) in understanding crucial cross-cultural differences that are evident in the literature. We pose basic questions such as: (1) What does self-esteem “look” like in Chinese children? (2) How do childrearing practices in China influence the development of self-esteem in children? And, (3) what are the limitations of cross-cultural research in understanding a phenomenon such as self-esteem? We suggest that self-esteem does not “mean” the same things across these collectivist and individualistic cultures. We conclude our discourse with specific recommendations for clinical theory, research, and practice.     

幼儿自我调控的中日比较及其跨文化分析

实验以中日166名4、5岁幼儿为被试(其中中国幼儿84名,日本幼儿82名),采用故事法比较了中日幼儿在故事情境中的自我调控反应。结果表明:(1)中日幼儿自我调控的反应方式因交往对象的不同表现出了差异。在幼儿与成人的矛盾情境中,日本幼儿比中国幼儿表现出了更多的自我抑制反应,在幼儿与同伴的矛盾情境中,日本幼儿比中国幼儿表现出了更多的自我主张反应;不论在幼儿与成人的矛盾情境中还是在幼儿与同伴的矛盾情境中,中国幼儿都比日本幼儿表现出了更多的依赖成人反应。(2)中日幼儿自我调控的反应方式因情境类型的不同没有表现出差异。不论在幼儿与同伴的矛盾情境中,还是在幼儿与同伴的非矛盾情境中,日本幼儿比中国幼儿表现出了更多的自我主张反应,中国幼儿比日本幼儿表现出了更多的依赖成人和冲动行为反应。     

Visual Information and the Control of Reaching in Children: A Comparison Between Children With and Without Developmental Coordination Disorder

Three experiments were performed on reach and grasp in 9- to 10-year-old children (8 controls and 8 with developmental coordination disorder [DCD]). In normal reaching, children in the DCD group were less responsive to the accuracy demands of the task in controlling the transport component of prehension and spent less time in the deceleration phase of hand transport. When vision was removed as movement began, children in the control group spent more time decelerating and reached peak aperture earlier. Children in the DCD group did not do that, although, like the control group, they did increase grip aperture in the dark. When depth cues were reduced and only the target or only the target and hand were visible, children in the control group used target information to maintain the same grip aperture in all conditions, but DCD children behaved as if the target was not visible. Throughout the studies, the control group of 9- to 10-year-olds did not produce adult-like adaptations to reduced vision, suggesting that they had not yet attained adult-like integration of sensory input. Compared with control children, children with DCD did not exhibit increased dependence on vision but showed less recognition of accuracy demands, less adaptation to the removal of vision, and less use of minimal visual information when it was available.     

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.     

Cognitive Bias in Spider-Phobic Children: Comparison of a Pictorial and a Linguistic Spider Stroop

The relation between spider fear in children and cognitive processing bias toward threatening information was examined. It was investigated whether spider fear in children is related to a cognitive bias for threatening pictures and words. Pictorial and linguistic Stroop stimuli were administered to 28 spider phobic and 30 control children aged 8–12. Spider-phobic children showed a moderate bias for threatening words. Surprisingly, no bias was found for spider pictures, while the spider-phobic children judged the pictures as more aversive. Moreover, in a recent similar study in adults (Kindt & Brosschot, 1997), a strong relation between spider phobia and bias toward threat words and pictures was found. Several explanations are given to account for this divergence.     

Early Learning Experience and Adolescent Anxiety: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between Japan and England

The main aim of this study was to compare the frequency of anxiety symptoms among adolescents in Japan and England, and to examine the association between early learning experiences and anxiety symptoms. A total of 299 adolescents (147 from England and 152 from Japan), aged 12 to 17 years were investigated. Results showed that adolescents in England reported significantly higher levels of anxiety symptoms than adolescents in Japan. For early learning experiences, no significant differences emerged between the two countries for parent punishment and reinforcement of anxious behavior. However, for non-anxiety physical symptoms (i.e. cold), adolescents in England scored significantly higher in parent punishment and the Japanese sample scored higher in parent reinforcement. Parent verbal transmission about the danger of anxiety and cold symptoms was more common in Japan than in England. The impact of learning experience on adolescent’s anxiety seemed to differ across cultures, which underscore the importance of cultural factors on adolescent’s anxiety.     

Religiosity as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

In this study, the author examines the association between authoritarianism, social dominance orientation (SDO), and religiosity. She tested these associations in three sociopolitical contexts (i.e., Italy, Finland, and Estonia) based on representative samples. In all three countries, religious people were found to be more authoritarian and less socially dominant. Dallago, Cima, Roccato, Ricolfi, and Mirisola (2008) showed that religiosity decreases the correlation between SDO and authoritarianism in Italy. Their results are replicated in this study, using a more advanced measure of religiosity. The author also obtained cross-cultural confirmation in Finland. In both countries, she found hardly any relation between authoritarianism and SDO at high levels of religiosity; moderate relations were found at moderate levels of religiosity, and strong associations were found amongst nonreligious respondents. The association between authoritarianism and SDO was not influenced by religiosity in Estonia, a country with a history of communism and a high secularization rate.     

Happiness Components and their Attainment in Old Age: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between Italy and Cuba

This study investigates the subjective representation of the components of happiness and their attainment in older adults from two countries with different economic well-being and cultural orientations: Italy and Cuba. Two hundred and nine Italians and 186 Cubans completed a questionnaire. Respondents were asked to write down at least five components that made them feel happy. A measure of overall happiness was also obtained by asking the subjects to rate to what extent they had attained each component in their life and calculating their mean. The results showed that there was agreement amongst the participants over their choice of components used to represent happiness; however, there were cross-cultural differences regarding the frequency of citation and importance of these components. The fact of living in Italy or Cuba was not a predictor of overall happiness, despite the difference in national income. This is in line with previous research highlighting how subjective well-being does not depend wholly on economic well-being.     

Linguistic Acquisitional Style and Mentalising Development: The Role of Maternal Mind-mindedness

We investigated three main questions: (a) Is there consistency over time in mothers' mind-mindedness (the proclivity to treat one's child as an individual with a mind)? (b) Does mind-mindedness relate to children's subsequent mentalising development? and (c) Is mentalising development related to children's linguistic acquisitional style? Two measures of early vocabulary—proportion of common nouns and proportion of frozen phrases—were obtained at 20 months. Three measures of maternal mind-mindedness were taken: (a) mothers' reports of nonstandard words in their children's vocabularies; (b) mothers' meaningful interpretations of their children's early vocalizations; and (c) mothers' propensity to focus on their children's mental attributes at age 3. Children's mentalising abilities were assessed using the “false belief and emotion” task (Harris, Johnson, Hutton, Andrews, & Cooke, 1989) at age 5. There was clear evidence for consistency in mind-mindedness between 20 months and 3 years. All three measures of mind-mindedness were positively related to children's performance on the false belief and emotion task, but children's linguistic acquisitional style was not related to subsequent mentalising ability. These findings are interpreted as providing support for the view that caregivers' behavior is critical in helping children acquire a “theory of mind.”     

Developmental Potential in Venezuelan and American Artists: A Cross-Cultural Validity Study

By comparing the overexcitability scores of 27 Venezuelan and 23 American artists, support was found for the hypothesis that creative individuals show a high degree of animistic, intuitive, and emotional thinking. Overexcitability refers to heightened mental functioning in Dabrowski's (1964) theory of emotional development. Along with other special talents and abilities, it represents the developmental potential for intensified personality growth. Scores on 4 of the 5 dimensions of overexcitability were not significantly different for American and Venezuelan artists. This evidence of similar profiles for artists in 2 different societies demonstrates cross-cultural validity for the concept of developmental potential.     

The Developmental Trajectory from Amodal Perception to Empathy and Communication: The Role of Mirror Neurons in This Process

In a recent paper entitled “Mirror Neurons. Procedural Learning and the Positive New Experience” (Wolf et al., 2000), data were presented about a special type of neuron, the mirror neuron, originally located by Rizzolatti and his colleagues (1995). These neurons were discussed as they related to a particular developmental view of psychoanalysis, developmental systems self psychology (Shane, Shane, and Gales. 1997).

In this paper, we focus on how this mirror neuron system might contribute to the development of communicative abilities in humans. First we summarize the research findings about mirror neurons and how they apply to humans. We then attempt to demonstrate how the mirror neuron system might be involved in a developmental sequence hypothesized by Kohut (1984), Stern (1985), and others to begin in infancy. We postulate that this trajectory starts with the onset of “amodal perception” (Stern, 1985) and then proceeds to affect resonance, joint attention, and ultimately to symbolization of language. In this paper, we attempt to integrate these concepts with a formulation of empathy and demonstrate what might go awry in developmental disorders when the normative sequence of development described above does not take place.     

弱智儿童与正常儿童触觉长度知觉的对比研究

1　前言研究资料表明 ,弱智儿童动作笨拙 ,对动作的理解与模仿能力低于正常儿童 ;抓物时常常双手并用 ,右利手表现不突出 ;语言能力差 ,进步缓慢 ;他们的记忆力与正常儿童存在很大差别。　　本实验研究弱智儿童触觉长度知觉能力 ,并探讨他们该种能力低于正常儿童的脑功能基础。2　研究方法被试中的弱智儿童来自开封市两所弱智儿童学校 ,有效被试 3 5名 ,平均年龄 1 2 9岁 (最大年龄 1 5岁 ,最小年龄 1 0岁 ) ,平均智商 56 9。正常儿童来自河南大学附属小学和附属中学 ,共 3 5名 ,平均年龄 1 2 6岁。两组被试中的男女性别比例均接近对半。…     

Attitudes Toward and Beliefs about Transgender Youth: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between the United States and India

Using an internet-based survey, we examined attitudes toward transgender youth in the United States and India, two cultures with differences in conceptualizations of gender and treatment of transgender individuals in society, law, and religion. We found generally positive attitudes toward transgender youth in our U.S. (n = 218), but moderately negative ones in our Indian (n = 217), sample. Consistent with the literature on prejudice against transgender adults in many Western societies, general social conservatism in the form of religious beliefs and political ideology, gender-specific conservatism in the form of gender binary belief, and endorsement of environmental rather than biological causes of transgender identity were the best predictors of U.S. participants’ attitudes, although personal contact with gender and sexual minorities also played a role at the bivariate level. These findings suggest that the processes underlying prejudice against transgender youth are similar to those that foster adult-directed transphobia in that cultural context. In contrast, religion-based disapproval and environmental causal attributions were the best predictors of Indian respondents’ attitudes, whereas gender binary belief played only a minor role, and political conservatism and personal contact no role at all. Our regression analyses accounted for considerably more of the variability in U.S. than in Indian participants’ attitudes, highlighting the need for additional (qualitative) work to identify the factors that promote transprejudice in India. We discuss these findings in light of cross-cultural differences between the two countries in terms of our predictors and consider implications for efforts to reduce prejudice against transgender youth.     

聋童和正常儿童在内隐和外显记忆上的发展差异

本研究采用自行编制计算机化的加工分离程序(PDP)．旨在探讨聋童和正常儿童是否在内隐和外显记忆上存在不同的发展模式。结果显示：(1)人群和年龄对内隐记忆没有显著影响,而外显记忆存在显著的人群差异和年龄差异;(2)外显记忆的人群和年龄存在显著的交互作用,聋童随年龄增长,其外显记忆存在显著的发展,而正常儿童的外显记忆有略微的下降。本研究结果支持意识和无意识的权衡理论．并为聋童教育提供了一些启示。     

The Development of Global and Local Processing: A Comparison of Children to Adults

In light of the adult model of a hemispheric asymmetry of global and local processing, we compared children (M _age = 8.4 years) to adults in a global-local reaction time (RT) paradigm. Hierarchical designs (large shapes made of small shapes) were presented randomly to each visual field, and participants were instructed to identify either the global or the local level in each of two blocks. We obtained evidence of a global-local processing asymmetry, with stronger effects for children than for adults. In both children and adults, responses were faster and more accurate for global identification in the right hemisphere and for local identification in the left hemisphere. Similarly, a significant asymmetry of global and local interference was obtained in children but not in adults. Interference reflects the RT cost of conflicting information at the nonattended level. For example, local interference indicates the degree to which inconsistency at the local level slows global identification. Stronger evidence for lateralized processing in children is discussed within the framework of increasing interhemispheric transfer. That is, as interhemispheric transfer increases, cost of presentation to the nonpreferred hemisphere (e.g., local identification in the right hemisphere) is reduced.     

语素意识对学前儿童言语技能发展的预测作用：追踪研究的证据

为探讨词素意识、同形语素意识和形旁意识等不同层面语素意识对汉语儿童口语词汇、汉字识别和阅读理解能力发展的预测作用,本研究对75名学前儿童进行了一年半的追踪,结果发现:(1)学前儿童的语素意识和言语技能随时间均有显著增长。(2)在控制了因变量的自回归效应后,同形语素意识对一年半后的口语词汇成绩仍有显著的预测作用;词素意识能显著预测一年半后的汉字识别成绩;词素意识和形旁意识是儿童一年半后阅读理解成绩变异的重要解释变量。这表明语素意识对于学前儿童语言技能的发展具有重要的预测作用。     

Psychopathy in Children and Adolescents: The Need for a Developmental Perspective

The current paper introduces the special issue on research attempting to extend the construct of psychopathy to child and adolescent samples. Past special sections and reviews have typically focused on the implications of this research for forensic research and practice. The current special issue focuses on topics relevant for integrating this research within the broader literature on childhood psychopathology. Papers included in this special issue focus on the structure of psychopathic traits in youth, the relation of these traits to other important psychopathological and personality constructs in children and adolescents, and the utility of these traits for identifying a distinct subgroup of antisocial youth who differ on important cognitive processes and on the severity and stability of their problem behavior. These empirical works are followed by commentary provided by two prominent scholars who outline the potential importance of the construct for advancing our understanding of childhood psychopathology. In addition, these scholars provide a discussion of important directions for future research.     

Cross-Cultural Competence: The Role of Emotion Regulation Ability and Optimism

Cross-cultural competence (3C) is critical for military personnel to understand and perform effectively in complex cultural environments and to interact with individuals from other cultures. The knowledge, skills, and abilities that make up 3C can result in clearer communication, build trust, and strengthen relationships in cross-cultural social contexts ( Selmeski, 2009 Selmeski, B. (February, 2009). Military Cross-cultural competence: Core concepts and individual development. Proceedings from the 7th Biennial Equal Opportunity, Diversity, and Culture Research Symposium. Patrick Air Force Base, FL. [Google Scholar]). This research investigated the role of emotional regulation and optimism in the development of 3C in military personnel. Results demonstrate that the ability to regulate emotions is positively related to 3C, both directly and through its effect on optimism.     

汉语发展性阅读障碍儿童心理机制的初步研究

本研究采用真假字判断与同音判断任务考察了汉语发展性阅读障碍儿童的心理机制。结果显示,对于真假字判断任务,阅读障碍儿童与正常儿童没有显著差异,而在同音判断任务中表现出了显著差异。本研究说明汉语阅读障碍儿童在整体字形表征方面是正常的,同时还支持了阅读障碍为语音表征缺陷的观点。