Emotion and economic development — Data and speculations concerning the relationship between economic factors and emotional experience

While proponents of biological theories of emotion claim the existence of universal emotion and expression patterns, recent theories stress cognitive appraisal mechanisms as elicitors of emotion, thus suggesting the influence of cultural and social factors on emotional experience and emotional expression. Data from a large-scale questionnaire study with about 2400 respondents in 30 countries allowed us to test that notion in part. In this study, respondents had to describe in detail situations in which they had experienced the emotions of joy, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, shame, and guilt. The results indicate that emotional expression patterns do seem to be universal, while characteristics of the subjectively experienced emotion, in particular its duration and intensity, show a high variance across country samples. An attempt is made to link these differences to economic data for the different countries, specifically to the gross national product. The rather striking differences found between ‘rich’ and boor' countries are discussed in terms of the frequency of confrontation with emotion eliciting situations and the importance of such situations.     

Factorial validity and measurement invariance of the Revised Physical Self-Perception Profile (PSPP-R) in three countries

The revised physical self-perception profile (PSPP-R) was constructed to measure both perceived competence and importance linked to domains of the physical self. In the present study, we tested the factorial validity of the PSPP-R, using confirmatory factor analytic approach, on samples of university students from three different countries: Sweden, Turkey, and the UK. Multi-sample covariance structure analyses were also used to test the invariance of the PSPP-R across the three national samples. First-order four-factor models, including the latent factors of sport competence, physical conditioning, body attractiveness and physical strength, demonstrated good-fit with the data both for competence and importance factors. Second-order factor models, incorporating the second-order latent domain factor of physical self-worth also exhibited good-fit with the data. Factor patterns and covariances were invariant across samples for both competence and importance scales. Item intercepts were also invariant for the importance scales, whereas partial invariance of intercepts was supported for competence scales. The results are discussed with reference to the validity of the original physical self-perception profile and cross-cultural studies on the physical self.     

National intelligence and suicide rate across Europe: an alternative test using educational attainment data

National mean scores on a historical knowledge test (taken as a proxy for intelligence), stemming from representative samples of male (and female) 9th-grade school students from 26 European countries in a 1999 report by Wilberg and Lynn, were significantly positively associated with the national male (and female) suicide rates, independent of the general quality-of-living conditions in these countries. This finding replicates previous evidence from cross-national studies (by Lester and by Voracek), of a correspondence of higher national IQ to higher suicide rates, with an alternative measure of national IQ that is independent of the national IQ estimates recently published by Lynn and Vanhanen which have been used in prior studies.     

Operationalizing the Civil Religion Concept at a Cross-Cultural Level

This study represents an attempt to operationalize and validate the civil religion concept on four different national samples. The cultural heritage of these countries varies greatly, and according to Samuel Huntington's (1994) classification, they belong to three different civilizations. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to confirm the statistical adequacy of a proposed civil religion scale at the national and at the cross-cultural level. Civil religion proved to be a separate dimension from general religiosity, as well as from traditionalism, both at the cross-cultural and at the national level, although closely linked to these. Of the latter two background variables, civil religion proved to be linked more to traditionalism.     

A comparison of normative data for the Trail Making Test from several countries: equivalence of norms and considerations for interpretation

The Trail Making Test may not be equivalent across cultures, i.e., differences in the scores across different cultures may not reveal real differences in the ability of the subjects on the construct being measured. In order to assess this hypothesis, normative samples from ten different countries were compared. Age decade subgroups across samples were ranked based on mean time taken to complete each part of the task. Large Z scores differences were found between these samples when comparing the first with the second, and the last in the rank. These differences were significant even when age and education were comparable across samples. Following Van de Vijver & Tanzer (1997), several possible sources of bias were identified. Incomparability of samples and administration differences were the most likely factors accounting for differences. Because of the lack of validity studies in the countries considered, no firm conclusions could be obtained regarding construct bias. Although the TMT may be measuring visual scanning, psychomotor speed and mental flexibility, normative data from different countries and cultures are not equivalent which might lead to serious diagnostic errors.     

Age of anxiety and depression revisited: A meta-analysis of two European community samples (1964-2015)

Background/Objective: Based on studies using established psychometric scales, Twenge and coworkers have shown substantial increases in trait anxiety, depressive symptoms and neuroticism in North American population samples since the 1950s. Similar analyses for European samples have not yet been conducted. Our study therefore examined whether similar secular trends exist in German-speaking and British non-clinical samples together with possible connected societal factors. Method: A literature search identified 131 studies (N = 63,269) using the STAI, BDI or EPI in non-clinical samples between 1964 and 2015. Seven societal factors from national statistics were included. We conducted meta-analyses with displayed means and moderation analyses of publication year for all scales. Results: In contrast to North America results, anxiety, depression and neuroticism showed no increase in the two European populations. Publication year correlated negatively with and moderated trait anxiety (GER) and neuroticism (UK). Most societal factors were highly correlated with year of publication. Trait anxiety and neuroticism were significantly predicted by age at marriage and unemployment rate in German-speaking countries. Conclusion: The difference in secular trends between European and North American samples may indicate society specific developments connected to different societal factors.     

Influences of Adaptation to Communist Rule on Value Priorities in Eastern Europe

The basic value priorities prevalent in Eastern Europe are studied in a cross-national comparison. Analyses of the implications of adaptation to life circumstances under communist regimes lead to the hypotheses that East European samples are likely to attribute especially high importance to conservatism and hierarchy values and low importance to egalitarianism, intellectual and affective autonomy, and mastery values. The same hypotheses apply to differences between countries within Eastern Europe in which there was greater or lesser communist penetration. These hypotheses are largely supported with data both from samples of school teachers and of university students from nine Eastern European and 12 Western European countries. Various possible alternative explanations are discussed: national economic level, religion, earlier shared history, effects of totalitarianism, and distinctiveness of Western Europe.     

Social comparisons and income satisfaction: A cross‐national examination

In this study we look at the cross‐national applicability of social comparison theory. National samples of workers in 12 countries were used to examine the effect of social comparisons on pay satisfaction. After controlling for actual pay levels, three different pay comparisons were predictive of satisfaction with pay. Further, we showed that these social comparison effects extended across the majority of countries in this sample. We call for more research that specifically examines cultural dimensions of comparisons, within and across borders.     

Philosophy: National and International

The recent upsurge of national sentiments in the former socialist countries has also brought about the desire to create "national"philosophies. Such attempts are bound to be unsuccessful, partly because of the increasingly internationalized contexts of philosphical inquiry. What is possible instead and is actually taking place in many countries, cultures, and even cities are philosophical "schools" In smaller countries frequently the most productive position for philosophy is to be simultaneously national and international, facilitating in this way a critical discussion within the limited national cultural space and simultaneously pursuing universal philosophical problems.     

Predictors of future employment status among Australian and Swedish school‐leavers: Longitudinal data

Longitudinal data were compared from samples of school‐leavers in Australia and Sweden. The data were collected at approximately the same time and comprised two waves. Wave 2 occurred 5 years after Wave 1. The study examined at‐school predictors of future employment status. It was anticipated that prediction would be better in Sweden, where the unemployment rate was low, than in Australia, where the unemployment rate was high. The hypothesis was not supported. Two possible explanations for this were considered: (1) the different attrition rates in the two samples; (2) the fact that the local unemployment rates in the areas of study at the time, Luleå, northern Sweden and Adelaide, South Australia were actually very similar, despite big differences in the national rates. Attrition analyses on the Australian sample revealed that, despite the fact that unemployed school‐leavers were more likely to drop out, the dropouts and stayers did not differ significantly on any of the pretest measures or demographic variables, apart from socioeconomic status (low SES respondents were more likely to drop out). Consequently the latter explanation was felt to be more plausible and it is proposed that future research designed to test the hypothesis should compare different regions within the same country where unemployment rates vary substantially. The best predictors of future employment status in both countries were the academic variables: teacher‐rated academic potential and stated intention to continue with further study after completing compulsory schooling.     

Global identification,xenophobia and globalisation: A cross‐national exploration

This paper explores the ways in which globalisation influences social identity. Combining a psychological social‐identity framework with sociological considerations regarding the contextual impact of globalisation, it tests whether global identification—that is, people's identification as global citizens—constitutes an inclusive category, negatively linked to xenophobic attitudes towards immigrants across countries and whether the actual country level of globalisation moderates the relationship between global identification and xenophobia. Unlike most psychological studies of globalisation, it draws its data from 124 national samples across 86 countries, with 154,760 respondents overall, using three different cross‐national surveys. Study 1 (International Social Survey Program National Identity Module III 2013; N = 39,426, countries = 32) evinces that while global identification is in fact negatively linked to xenophobia, the correlation is moderated by the country level of globalisation, countries marked by higher levels of globalisation exhibiting a stronger negative relation between global identification and xenophobia than those characterised by a lower level of globalisation. Study 2 (European Values Study 2008; N = 53,083, countries = 44) and Study 3 (World Values Survey 6; N = 65,251, countries = 48) replicated these results across other countries employing dissimilar scales for global identification and xenophobia.     

Accuracy of National Stereotypes in Central Europe: Outgroups Are Not Better than Ingroup in Considering Personality Traits of Real People

In a study on national stereotypes in central Europe—composed of Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland and Slovakia—2241 participants rated their autostereotype (a typical representative of their own country) and heterostereotypes (typical representatives of the other countries) by using National Character Survey (NCS). Existing data from 17377 participants including self‐reports or observer ratings on Revised NEO Personality Inventory and NCS were compared with the national autostereotypes and heterostereotypes. Although national autostereotypes converged with personality traits of real people in Poland and an adult subsample in the Czech Republic, national heterostereotypes did not correspond to personality traits of real people in any of the studied countries. National stereotypes were shared within as well as across countries. In heterostereotypes, raters from similar cultural backgrounds speaking similar languages agreed better as compared with raters from more distant cultures. Target country played a role in agreement of raters from different countries, showed in the highest convergence between autostereotypes and heterostereotypes of a typical German. Sharing of national stereotypes is influenced by political and economic significance of the target country. Although national autostereotypes clearly differentiated between typical representatives of central European countries, the comparison of personality profiles of their inhabitants showed remarkable resemblance. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology.     

Basic Personal Values and the Meaning of Left‐Right Political Orientations in 20 Countries

This study used basic personal values to elucidate the motivational meanings of “left” and “right” political orientations in 20 representative national samples from the European Social Survey (2002–2003). It also compared the importance of personal values and sociodemographic variables as determinants of political orientation. Hypotheses drew on the different histories, prevailing culture, and socioeconomic level of three sets of countries—liberal, traditional, and postcommunist. As hypothesized, universalism and benevolence values explained a left orientation in both liberal and traditional countries and conformity and tradition values explained a right orientation; values had little explanatory power in postcommunist countries. Values predicted political orientation more strongly than sociodemographic variables in liberal countries, more weakly in postcommunist countries, and about equally in traditional countries.     

A Cross-National Comparison of Nationalism in Austria, the Czech and Slovac Republics, Hungary, and Poland

The transition to democracy in Eastern Europe after the breakdown of communist regimes was challenged by ethnic and national tensions. Nationalist sentiments and traditional patterns of ethnic intolerance were almost immediately revitalized. The analysis presented here concerns nationalist orientation in several of these countries in the context of ideology and social origin, which form links among nationalist identification, ethnic intolerance, democratic and economic orientation, and social class position. In 1996, representative national surveys were carried out in Hungary, the Czech and Slovak republics, and Poland. The study was then extended to Austria, where, like in other Western democracies, nationalistic, xenophobic, and rightist-radical attitudes have emerged. Analyses of the attitude structures (structural equation models) showed that different types of nationalism have developed. In post-communist countries—with the exception of the Czech Republic—anticapitalist feelings are strongly correlated with nationalism and ethnic intolerance. Such attitudes are held by the lower classes, yet this form of antiliberalism is not directed against democracy. In Austria, a classical "underclass authoritarianism" exists but remains independent of economic ideology. This is typical of the "new right" in Europe: a "modernized" brand of fascism in which neoliberal ideology, instead of anticapitalist resentments, is combined with traditional value patterns.     

An evaluation of the cross‐national generalizability of organizational commitment

Using data from two large multinational samples, this research sought to contribute to our knowledge of international organizational behaviour by examining the cross‐national generalizability of organizational commitment. Sample 1 included employees of 10 subsidiaries of a large multinational organization, whereas Sample 2 relied on data collected in 25 nations in the context of a large opinion survey. Results in both samples supported the expectation that measures of commitment would be more susceptible to measurement non‐equivalence than measures of job satisfaction. Differences in relationships between commitment and satisfaction across countries were observed in both samples, as were differences in mean commitment levels. Nation‐level individualism/collectivism (I/C) failed to account for the observed differences, however, suggesting that commitment and I/C are largely independent, despite theoretical arguments to the contrary. Results of the study suggest that despite some cross‐national variation, differences in commitment across national boundaries are small and empirically unrelated to I/C.     

National personality characteristics: II. Adaption-innovation in Canadian,American, and British samples

On the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory 1,106 Canadians scored as more adaptive than American and British standardization samples. Means for Canadian females and males were congruent with those in national samples from six other countries.     

Cultural and Institutional Determinants of Social Dominance Orientation: A Cross‐Cultural Meta‐Analysis of 27 Societies

We investigate macrocontextual antecedents of national levels of Social Dominance Orientation (SDO). The majority of previous research, in contrast, has tended to focus on individual‐level correlates of SDO. We extend research on Social Dominance Theory by modelling national‐level differences in institutional discrimination, macroeconomic development, and value ideologies as broad situational factors affecting SDO mean levels in previous studies. Our hypotheses were tested in a three‐level meta‐analysis of aggregate data from 50,971 individuals in 95 samples from 27 different societies. Strong effects for hierarchy‐attenuating legitimizing ideologies and gender empowerment were found. Aggregate discrimination against arbitrary‐set groups was less consistently linked to SDO, suggesting that these hierarchies are context‐specific. Using mixed‐effects three‐level modelling, the patterns can be generalized to new contexts and suggest a particular institutional and social climate that fosters high SDO.     

Spatial patterns of Indian serial burglars with relevance to geographical profiling

Earlier studies in Western countries have shown remarkably consistent spatial patterns in serial offenders, mainly for serious crimes notably serial killing and rape, but also (although with less clear patterns) for burglary. The universality of such spatial patterns are of theoretical interest in contributing to our understanding of criminal spatial behaviour and have practical significance for the possibility of using geographic profiling in developing countries. As such, burglars in India provide a particularly interesting test of the generality of the observed spatial consistencies. Information was therefore obtained on the offence location choices of 30 burglars, committing 150 offences in the Rourkela and Keonjhar districts of India. The home to crime distances were compared with those from developed countries, revealing similar but slightly shorter distances. In addition, the domocentricity of criminal spatial activity, reflected in the ‘marauder’ model (Canter & Gregory 1994) was tested through examination of the Canter Circle hypothesis, the mean interpoint distances (as they related to average distances from home), and the home base ‘search costs’ using a geographical profiling system (Dragnet). Overall the study found that the spatial patterns of the sample of Indian Burglars were not very different from their counterparts in the UK, North America and Australia, showing that the areas in which an offender is active tend to be shaped by, and, relatedly, close to, where he or she lives, irrespective of the part of the world in which this is. These results suggest that geographical profiling systems such as Dragnet would be productively used on the Indian sub‐continent. The results also contribute to our understanding of possible universalities in offender spatial behaviour. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Phobic anxiety in 11 nations. Part I: Dimensional constancy of the five-factor model

The Fear Survey Schedule-III (FSS-III) was administered to a total of 5491 students in Australia, East Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, and Venezuela, and submitted to the multiple group method of confirmatory analysis (MGM) in order to determine the cross-national dimensional constancy of the five-factor model of self-assessed fears originally established in Dutch, British, and Canadian samples. The model comprises fears of bodily injury-illness-death, agoraphobic fears, social fears, fears of sexual and aggressive scenes, and harmless animals fears. Close correspondence between the factors was demonstrated across national samples. In each country, the corresponding scales were internally consistent, were intercorrelated at magnitudes comparable to those yielded in the original samples, and yielded (in 93% of the total number of 55 comparisons) sex differences in line with the usual finding (higher scores for females). In each country, the relatively largest sex differences were obtained on harmless animals fears. The organization of self-assessed fears is sufficiently similar across nations to warrant the use of the same weight matrix (scoring key) for the FSS-III in the different countries and to make cross-national comparisons feasible. This opens the way to further studies that attempt to predict (on an a priori basis) cross-national variations in fear levels with dimensions of national cultures.     

Standardization of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised in a Spanish prison sample

This investigation examined the reliability, validity, and factor structure of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) in male adult Spanish prison populations (n = 117). The interrater reliability and internal consistency coefficients were high, and similar to those obtained in other countries. This data provides support for the homogeneity and unidimensionality of the psychopathy construct in Spanish male prison samples. The analysis of factor structure also replicated the two factor solution of previous studies. The two factors showed different patterns of intercorrelations with several self-report measures of personality, demographic, and criminal history variables, which confirmed the construct validity of PCL-R. The results confirm the psychometric properties of the PCL-R as a measure of psychopathy in Spanish male inmates, and suggest that psychopathy is a construct also observed in Southern European countries.