Perception Differences in Ambiguous Forms of Workplace Sexual Harassment: A Comparison between the United States and Turkey

Certain social–sexual behaviors that could be potentially encountered in workplaces are ambiguous in nature and perceiving them as sexual harassment can depend on the culture. With an aim to delineate the overlap and distinctions of sexual harassment perceptions of such behaviors across samples of women university students from Turkey (TR, N = 215) and the United States (US, N = 209), measurement invariance and latent mean differences in perceiving three ambiguous forms; sexist hostility, sexual hostility, and insinuation-of-interest, were examined. It was hypothesized that the US sample would perceive sexist hostility more sexually harassing as sexist workplace discriminatory practices are emphasized as a form of sexual harassment, and that the TR sample would perceive sexual hostility and insinuation-of-interest as more sexually harassing as women in TR operate in a conservative context. Despite similarities in rank ordering, US participants perceived sexist hostility more sexually harassing; insinuation-of-interest and sexual hostility less sexually harassing than Turkish participants, supporting all three hypotheses. There are implications of differing perceptions across cultures for organizations in terms of disseminating awareness via training programs about the forms of sexual harassment (SH) in a local context and for taking account of local findings in shaping the labor code of countries in relation to SH.     

Factorial Structure of the Family Values Scale From a Multilevel-Multicultural Perspective

In cross-cultural research, there is a tendency for researchers to draw inferences at the country level based on individual-level data. Such action implicitly and often mistakenly assumes that both the measuring instrument and its underlying construct(s) are operating equivalently across both levels. Based on responses from 5,482 college students sampled from 27 countries, we took a structural equation modeling approach to addressing this issue of level equivalence. Purposes of the study were: (a) to validate the hypothesized two-factor structure of the Family Values Scale (FV Scale; Georgas, 1999) within a multilevel framework that took individual- and country-level information into account; (b) to test equivalence of the FV Scale across individual and country levels; and (c) to evaluate relations between the FV Scale and three possibly important covariates—gender at the individual level, and affluence and religion at the country level. Implications of findings and importance of multilevel equivalence in cross-cultural research are discussed.     

A 21st century cognitive portrait of the Himba,a remote people of Namibia

This research sketches the cognitive portrait of the Himba, a remote population from Northern Namibia living in a non-industrial society almost completely devoid of modern artefacts. We compared the Himba sample to a French sample, exploring cognitive reflection, moral judgement, cooperative behaviour, paranormal beliefs, and happiness. We looked for both differences and similarities across cultures, and for the way cognitive functioning is associated with a range of demographic variables. Results showed some important group differences, with the Himba being more intuitive, more religious, happier, and less utilitarian than the French participants. Further, the predictors of these beliefs and behaviours differed between the two groups. The present results provide additional support to the recent line of research targeting cultural variations and similarities, and call for the need to expand psychology research beyond the Western world.     

The Oldest Typology of Argumentation Schemes

The Rhetoric to Alexander (about 340 B.C.) contains a list of proofs (pisteis) and other types of argumentation which may be seen as the oldest surviving typology of argumentation schemes (avant la lettre). In the present article this typology is derived and compared with modern proposals. The conclusion is that the oldest typology is surprisingly similar to the most recent classifications.     

文化与社会赞许反应:社会个人互动的观点

在处理社会赞许反应的文化差异时,常用的两种方法为实验控制和统计控制。我们在本文中提出另一个观点。通过回顾近期的相关文献,我们指出:社会赞许反应的文化差异,反映在不同社会环境中,人们在相应的文化要求下,以不同的自我呈现方式来加强他们追求个人目标的动力。这种社会、文化与个人的对话历程乃研究文化—心理关系的核心课题。用实验或统计方法将因这个历程产生的变量从跨文化数据中剔除后,所得的结果便只有微薄的文化意义了。因此,我们反对将社会赞许反应的文化差异视为跨文化研究的噪音。相反地,我们认为跨文化研究者应认真地分析社会赞许反应的社会文化意义,以社会赞许反应作为一个窗口,管窥社会、文化与行为相生相成的关系。     

Considering boundaries when doing therapeutic work with people who are seeking asylum: a reflective case study

People who are seeking asylum often have lived experience of their personal boundaries and human rights being violated. For this reason, it is especially important that we consider the impact of boundaries in therapeutic work with this population. This paper explores work with a woman with a severe trauma history who was seeking asylum in England. Examples of perceived boundary crossings in the therapeutic relationship are examined. Considerations for other clinicians working with asylum seekers are discussed. These include: addressing socio-political factors; being sensitive to cultural differences; the importance of supervision and reflective practice; the personal impact of such work; and using critical thinking and warmth to manage boundaries rather than rigidly following rules.     

Antonyms and Paradoxes

Adjectives can be gradable or non-gradable and this aspect of their meaning is responsible for their different distribution and also for their classification into two different classes of antonyms. Non-gradable antonyms are called contradictories: they are neither true nor false together and exclude any middle term; gradable antonyms are called contraries: they are not simultaneously true, but may be simultaneously false. While with contraries a negative disjunction (neque...neque) can define an intermediate level, with contradictories it simply means that either term of the disjunction is excluded. There are however some Latin examples, such as neque vivus neque mortuus (`neither alive nor dead'), where the negation of a contradictory pair is used to convey a third, intermediate value. This third possibility is precisely what gives place to a paradox. Such an intermediate level can be defined also by terms like semivivus, semianimis (`half-dead'). Following Ducrot's theory on argumentation, such terms represent an argumentative attenuation, not with respect to life, rather with respect to death. With contradictories, in fact, the use of semi-, like the use of negation, gives the assertion of the opposite term as a result.     

MACI Personality Patterns and DSM-IV Symptomology in a Sample of Troubled Mexican-American Adolescents

Bivariate and multivariate correlation analyses were used to investigate personality trait variables and their relation to DSM-IV symptomology in a clinically-identified sample of 142 Mexican-American adolescents. Personality variables were measured with the Personality Style subscales of the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory. DSM-IV symptomology was assessed by four clinical subscales of the Adolescent Psychopathology Scale. Canonical correlation analysis revealed two independent and salient patterns of correlation between the personality variables and symptomology which together accounted for 86% of the variance. We conceptualized these patterns as outgoing conformity and egotistical unruliness. Results are discussed in terms of cross-cultural issues and implications for mental health services for minority youth.