Suitability of published neuropsychological test norms for urban African secondary school students in South Africa

Variations in neuropsychological test performance as a function of ethnic/cultural group membership, socioeconomic and educational status are widely documented. In South Africa, issues of cultural difference, sociopolitical disadvantage, cognitive and educational limitations, are of particular relevance. Accordingly, this study investigated the performance on a neuropsychological test battery of urban African high school students. A group of 100 Soweto students in Grades 8–12, and a second group of 152 sixth grade Soweto students aged 13–15 years, scored significantly lower on most of the measures than their American counterparts, as reflected in published norms. Results also demonstrated a significant difference in test performance as a function of educational grade. The findings confirmed the need for using norms and approaches which are appropriate to a given population when interpreting and addressing neuropsychological test performance.     

Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale,Mini‐Mental State Examination and General Practitioner Assessment of Cognition in a multicultural cohort of community‐dwelling older persons with early dementia

Early dementia can be difficult to diagnose in older persons from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. The Folstein Mini‐Mental State Examination (MMSE), the General Practitioner Assessment of Cognition (GPCOG) and the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS) were compared in 151 older, community‐dwelling persons. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate diagnostic accuracy, while logistic regression was used to evaluate the influence of age, gender, CALD status and years of education. All three instruments were equally accurate in predicting dementia (ROC area under curve 0.92–0.97, p > 0.05 for all comparisons). At the recommended cut‐offs, the RUDAS was best for ruling in dementia (positive LR = 8.77), while the GPCOG was best for ruling out dementia (negative LR = 0.03). All three instruments were influenced by concomitant depression. Whereas the MMSE was influenced by CALD status, the RUDAS and GPCOG were not. While the GPCOG combines participant and informant data, the RUDAS is a stand‐alone measure specifically designed for, and validated in, multicultural populations.     

Prediction and Cross-Situational Consistency of Daily Behavior across Cultures: Testing Trait and Cultural Psychology Perspectives

Trait and cultural psychology perspectives on the cross-situational consistency of behavior, and the predictive validity of traits, were tested in a daily process study in the United States (N = 68), an individualistic culture, and the Philippines (N = 80), a collectivistic culture. Participants completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992) and a measure of self-monitoring, then reported their daily behaviors and associated situational contexts for approximately 30 days. Consistent with trait perspectives, the Big Five traits predicted daily behaviors in both cultures, and relative (interindividual) consistency was observed across many, although not all, situational contexts. The frequency of various Big Five behaviors varied across relevant situational contexts in both cultures and, consistent with cultural psychology perspectives, there was a tendency for Filipinos to exhibit greater situational variability than Americans. Self-monitoring showed some ability to account for individual differences in situational variability in the American sample, but not the Filipino sample.     

Identity motives and cultural priming: Cultural (dis)identification in assimilative and contrastive responses

The present article explores whether effects of cultural primes are influenced by identity motives as well as by construct accessibility. The authors hypothesized that assimilative responses (shifting one’s judgments toward the norm of the primed culture) are driven by identification motives, whereas contrastive responses (shifting away from this norm) are driven by disidentification motives. Evidence for this claim was attained in reanalyzes of past data sets and a new study of Chinese American biculturals, using improved measures of identification and disidentification motives. Consistent with the identity-motive hypotheses, assimilative responses to American-culture primes occurred for high (but not low) identifiers with American culture, and contrastive responses to Chinese-culture primes occurred for high (but not low) disidentifiers with Chinese culture. Results disconfirmed an alternative account predicting that contrast effects hinge on trait self-consciousness. Consistent with an accessibility saturation account, judgment patterns already heightened in accessibility by the task structure were not made more likely by priming.     

Comprehension of human pointing gestures in young human-reared wolves (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Canis lupus</Emphasis>) and dogs (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Canis familiaris</Emphasis>)

Dogs have a remarkable skill to use human-given cues in object-choice tasks, but little is known to what extent their closest wild-living relative, the wolf can achieve this performance. In Study 1, we compared wolf and dog pups hand-reared individually and pet dogs of the same age in their readiness to form eye-contact with a human experimenter in an object-choice task and to follow her pointing gesture. The results showed that dogs already at 4 months of age use momentary distal pointing to find hidden food even without intensive early socialization. Wolf pups, on the contrary, do not attend to this subtle pointing. Accordingly in Studies 2 and 3, these wolves were tested longitudinally with this and four other (easier) human-given cues. This revealed that wolves socialized at a comparable level to dogs are able to use simple human-given cues spontaneously if the human’s hand is close to the baited container (e.g. touching, proximal pointing). Study 4 showed that wolves can follow also momentary distal pointing similarly to dogs if they have received extensive formal training. Comparing the wolves to naïve pet dogs of the same age revealed that during several months of formal training wolves can reach the level of dogs in their success of following momentary distal pointing in parallel with improving their readiness to form eye-contact with a human experimenter. We assume that the high variability in the wolves’ communicative behaviour might have provided a basis for selection during the course of domestication of the dog.     

Socialization tactics, proactive behavior, and newcomer learning: Integrating socialization models

The purpose of the study was to examine how socialization processes (socialization tactics and proactive behavior) jointly affect socialization content (i.e., what newcomers learn) and adjustment. Longitudinal survey data from 150 business and engineering graduates during their first 7 months of work indicate that: (1) institutionalized socialization and proactive behavior are each associated with newcomer learning, (2) the socialization processes and learning are each associated with various forms of adjustment, and (3) the socialization processes are associated with adjustment, while controlling for learning. These findings suggest that how newcomers are socialized has substantive and symbolic value over and above what they actually learn.     

The fate of a warrior culture

Jonathan Lear in Radical Hope tackles the idea of cultural devastation, in the specific case of the Crow Indians. What do we mean by “annihilation” of a culture? The moral point of view that he imagines as he reconstructs the eve and aftermath of this annihilation is not second personal, of obligation, but first personal, in the collective and singular, as told by the Crows, with Lear as “analyst.” Radical Hope is a study of representative character of a people—of virtue, courage, resilience, and hope in the face of cultural collapse. The leading questions are shaped by ancient Greek ethics, but with a twist: On the brink of cultural death, what counts for us as good living and what is the nature of the virtues or excellences that constitute it? How might a leader, a phronimos, exemplify it? This puts it too narrowly. The questions, also, are Wittgensteinian: How does a nation go on, when the concepts and way of life it has lived by for centuries are no more? What does it mean to go on? What does it mean to stop when the marks of going on are no longer?     

Contextualizing rape: Reviewing sequelae and proposing a culturally inclusive ecological model of sexual assault recovery

Consistent evidence demonstrates that many women who encounter the trauma of rape experience a range of both acute reactions and chronic psychological sequelae. This article reviews both the short- and long-term psychological adjustment issues associated with rape. In addition, we propose a culturally inclusive ecological model of sexual assault recovery (CIEMSAR), which integrates and extends existing models to better examine the complex factors leading to differential postrape adjustment. Important components of the CIEMSAR are placing rape in the broader sociocultural context of the United States and explicated socioracial and ethnic factors influencing the recovery process. The five primary factors of CIEMSAR are outlined, including (a) macrosystem or sociocultural context factors; microsystem/individual factors such as (b) assault characteristics, (c) person variables, (d) coping responses; and mesosystems factors such as (e) social-support systems. Suggestions for future research are also provided.     

Research Ethics in Japanese Higher Education: Faculty Attitudes and Cultural Mediation

Principles of research ethics, derived largely from Western philosophical thought, are spreading across the world of higher education. Since 2006 the Japanese Ministry of Education has required universities in Japan to establish codes of ethical conduct and ensure that procedures are in place to punish research misconduct. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 13 academics in a research-intensive university in Japan, this paper considers how research ethics is interpreted in relation to their own practice. Interviewees articulated a range of ethical issues connected with data gathering and interpretation, applying for and using research funds, relationships with peers and research subjects, and the dissemination of results. The paper also explores the effect of personal values and cultural norms on the Japanese interpretation of research ethics identifying the impact in terms of the treatment of graduate research students and decision-making processes.