A strict test of the phonological loop hypothesis with Libyan data

In Arabic, there are two ways, differing in length, of pronouncing each digit. This feature of word pairs that are conceptually identical but of different length allows for a stricter test of the phonological loop hypothesis than has been reported previously. Libyan schoolchildren, both boys and girls, of two grades took part in a quasi-experimental study in which shorter and longer digits and shorter and longer words were presented in recall and pronunciation tasks. The results confirmed the validity of the phonological loop model in that memory span was longer for shorter stimuli. Analysis of the data with structural equation modeling showed that only 17% of the individual-level variation in memory span could be explained by pronunciation speed. In an analysis of covariance, it was determined that pronunciation speed could account for a substantial proportion of the variation found across age (8-year-olds vs. 10-year-olds), stimulus modality (digits vs. words), and stimulus length (short vs. long), but not for gender differences.     

Reaping the benefits of cultural diversity: Classroom cultural diversity climate and students’ intercultural competence

Culturally diverse schools may constitute natural arenas for training crucial intercultural skills. We hypothesized that a classroom cultural diversity climate fostering contact and cooperation and multiculturalism, but not a climate fostering color-evasion, would be positively related to adolescents’ intercultural competence. Adolescents in North Rhine-Westphalia (N = 631, M_age = 13.69 years, 49% of immigrant background) and Berlin (N = 1,335, M_age = 14.69 years, 52% of immigrant background) in Germany reported their perceptions of the classroom cultural diversity climate and completed quantitative and qualitative measures assessing their intercultural competence. Multilevel structural equation models indicate that contact and cooperation, multiculturalism, and, surprisingly, also color-evasion (as in emphasizing a common humanity), were positively related to the intercultural competence of immigrant and non-immigrant background students. We conclude that all three aspects of the classroom climate are uniquely related to aspects of adolescents’ intercultural competence and that none of them may be sufficient on their own.     

Ethnic Identity in Emerging Adults in Sub‐Saharan Africa and the USA,and Its Associations with Psychological Well‐Being

Ethnic identity as a social dimension of identity is argued to be developmentally important for psychological well‐being. However, the relationships between these constructs are mainly examined in Western contexts, amongst dominant–non‐dominant groups. We investigate ethnic identity across the mainstream group of a prototypical Western society (the USA) and several multi‐ethnic sub‐Saharan African countries (Cameroon, Kenya, South Africa, and Zambia), as well as how it relates to psychological well‐being. A total of 1255 university students (61.8% females, M_age = 20.94 years, SD = 2.97) completed a questionnaire with ethnic identity and psychological well‐being measures. Results indicated that ethnic identity was most salient in two different South African ethnocultural samples and least salient in a mainstream US sample. These results suggest that groups that are more exposed to ethnic strain in multicultural societies tend to have more salient ethnic identities. Furthermore, the underlying structure in the ethnic identity psychological well‐being relationship was similar across groups. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Value incongruence,job autonomy,and organization-based self-esteem: A self-based perspective on organizational cynicism

Combining the perspectives of person-environment fit and self-theory, a model was postulated in which both the incongruence between personal and perceived organizational values and job autonomy precede organizational cynicism, while organization-based self-esteem, as a psychological explanation for cynicism, was hypothesized to mediate both relationships. The model and corresponding hypotheses were tested on a sample of 174 Dutch workers. Polynomial regression results indicated that value incongruence and job autonomy add significantly to the prediction of organizational cynicism. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypothesized mediating effect of organization-based self-esteem. Results indicated that self-esteem partially mediates both relationships. These results support the conceptualization of organizational cynicism as a self-defensive response to problematic events and circumstances in the work environment.     

Collective identity and wellbeing of Roma minority adolescents in Bulgaria

In Europe and particularly in Bulgaria, Roma represent the largest low‐status minority group that is subjected to marked public intolerance and discrimination. This study examined links among Roma (N = 207) and Bulgarian (N = 399) adolescents’ ethnic, familial, and religious identities as salient identity aspects for their psychological wellbeing. Results indicated that, as expected, Roma youth reported lower levels of wellbeing than Bulgarian youth. The latter revealed a weaker religious identity than Roma youth, whereas no ethnic group differences emerged regarding Bulgarian or familial identity. Furthermore, we observed that collective identity was higher in older participants of both groups. Finally, a multigroup analysis using structural equation modeling showed that collective identity was a positive predictor of wellbeing for both Roma and Bulgarian adolescents. Findings demonstrated differences in salience as well as structural communalities regarding ways in which collective identity affects wellbeing of youth from two ethnically diverse communities.     

Extreme response style as a cultural response to climato‐economic deprivation

We investigated the effects of climato‐economic harshness on extreme response style. Climato‐economic theorising postulates that a more threatening climate in poorer countries, in contrast to countries with a more comforting climate and richer countries with a more challenging climate, triggers intolerance of ambiguity and uncertainty avoidance inherent to conservatism, in‐group favouritism and autocracy. Scores of extreme response style at country level, a proxy of this cluster of cultural characteristics, were extracted from students' responses in the Programme for International Student Assessment to test the hypothesis. In a series of hierarchical regression analysis across 64 countries, cold demands, heat demands and GDP per capita showed a highly significant interaction effect on extreme response style, predicting in total 30.7% of the variance. Extreme response style was highest in poorer countries with higher climatic demands, and lowest in richer countries with lower climate demands. Implications are discussed.     

Diagnostic efficiency among psychiatric outpatients of a self-report version of a subset of screen items of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR Personality Disorders (SCID-II)

This article describes the identification of a 10-item set of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Personality Disorders (SCID-II) items, which proved to be effective as a self-report assessment instrument in screening personality disorders. The item selection was based on the retrospective analyses of 495 SCID-II interviews. The psychometric properties were studied in a prospective validation study in a random sample of Dutch adult psychiatric outpatients, using the SCID-II interview as the gold standard. First, all patients completed the short questionnaire. One week later, they were interviewed with the full SCID-II. After another week, the short questionnaire was readministered. According to the scores obtained with the full SCID-II, 97 patients (50%) had a personality disorder. The set of 10 SCID-II items correctly classified 78% of all participants. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative power were 0.78, 0.78, 0.78, and 0.78, respectively. The results based on the retrospectively obtained data were rather similar to those obtained in the prospective validation study. Therefore, it is concluded that the set of 10 SCID-II items can be useful as a quick self-report personality disorder screen in a population of psychiatric outpatients.     

Structure and function of the perceived acculturation context of young Moroccans in the Netherlands

T he goals of this research were twofold: (1) to explore the structure of the perceived acculturation context in a group of 155 Moroccan adolescents and young adults living in the Netherlands, and (2) to examine to what extent this structure can predict quality of relationships, success, and mental health. The perceived acculturation context turned out to be multidimensional and its dimensions independent. The perceived mainstream context consisted of a tolerance factor and an integration factor while the perceived minority context consisted of a permissiveness to adjust factor and an ethnic vitality factor. A path model in which both the perceived mainstream and minority contexts predicted acculturation outcomes showed a good fit. The effects flowed from context to relationships to success to acculturative stress, were both direct and indirect, and showed the expected signs. Both perceived mainstream context and perceived minority context were more or less equally, though distinctly, important. While the mainstream context was crucial for work success, the minority context remained especially important in leading to school success and good mental health. A good fit was found for a model in which sociocultural adaptation preceded psychological adaptation and within the sociocultural component of adaptation, quality of relationships preceded school success, which, in turn, preceded work success.     

Locus of control and affectivity by gender and occupational status: A 14 nation study

This study investigated the extent to which reported gender differences in values are attributable to differences in national culture and organizational seniority. Locus of control and affectivity scores were obtained from 4599 managers and employees in business organizations located in 14 countries. Across nations, men and those in senior positions were more internal and less affective. Gender effects were additional to those attributable to status. Respondents in nations scoring higher on an index of modernity were found to be less internal. A pan-cultural factor analysis of locus of control items yielded four subscales. Men and those in senior positions scored higher on Socio-Political Control and Effort, but no differences were found on the Luck and Active Friendship subscales. The results are contrasted with those obtained from single-nation samples using student subjects. We acknowledge receipt of ESRC Grant R 000 22 1552, which aided the completion of this study, and the helpful comments of Michael Bond and John E. Williams upon an earlier version.