FROM COLLECTIVISM TO INDIVIDUALISM? THE ACCULTURATION OF GREEK IMMIGRANTS IN AUSTRALIA*

The present study examined whether Greek immigrants in Australia have retained traditional Greek values and behaviours or moved to an integration of these with Anglo-Australian values and behaviours. The sample consisted of Anglo- and Greek-Australian parents and young adolescents and a comparison group of Greeks, resident in Greece. Measures were obtained of values and behaviours considered to be appropriate for family members in the culture. Results showed that Greek-Australians retained the collectivistic values of their Greek culture while Anglo-Australians demonstrated a more individualistic orientation. There was evidence for convergence of Anglo- and Greek-Australian perceptions of appropriate behaviours and thus support for a view that acculturation is more likely to be manifested in behaviours than in core values. Although there were some differences in expressed values and behaviours, overall there was little evidence for a cultural gap between Greek-Australian parents and their adolescents.     

Congruence and temporal stability of multimiethod profiles: A new pair of personality variables

Congruence and temporal stability of multimethod profiles within the individual subject were studied as proposed new personality variables in a pool of seven small groups of graduate students in clinical psychology (N= 51) Sex differences were minimal A Stability Index was derived from (a) Q correlation stability coefficients obtained from the single method profiles of an inventory, self-ratings, and mean ratings by others, or (b) absolute difference scores between the composite profiles on occasion 1 and occasion 2 A Congruence Index was derived from (a) Q correlation coefficients obtained from each pair of profiles measured by the three methods for each subject, or (b) mean absolute difference scores obtained from each pair of method profiles These moderately correlated indices were used as dependent variables in stepwise multiple regression analyses, in which scores on a profile of 21 personality variables served as independent variables Although the difference score method was at least as effective as the correlational method in predicting congruence, the Q correlational method was superior in all other analyses conducted in this study Persons high in temporal stability seem to maintain an intellectually searching and interpersonally affiliative approach to the environment, showing little hostility and little tendency to seek change in current life circumstances The highly congruent individual seeks a positive nurturant interaction with other persons, gains pleasure from both sensory and interpersonal experiences, and shows little discontent with present life circumstances     

AGAINST METAETHICAL IMPERIALISM: Several Arguments for Equal Partnerships between the Deontic and Aretaic

Virtue and deontological ethics are now commonly contrasted as rival approaches to moral inquiry. However, I argue that neither metaethical party should seek complete, solitary domination of the ethical domain. Reductive treatments of the right or the virtuous, as well as projects that abandon the former or latter, are bound to leave us with a sadly diminished map of the moral territories crucial to our lives. Thus, it is better for the two parties to seek a more cordial and equal relationship, one that permits metaethical pluralism, and acknowledges mutual dependence. I do not seek to prescribe how that relationship should look: this essay offers less a positive metaethical position than a prolegomenon to such a position, one that attempts to head off harmful attempts to reduce the territory of the aretaic to that of the deontic, or that of the deontic to the aretaic.