Too many Asians in universities? The effect of social dominance orientation on support for admissions limits

This paper tests the hypothesis that support for limits on the admission of Asian students into universities is motivated by people’s social motivation—namely, the desire to maintain the status hierarchy. Study 1 found that, among participants who evaluated a proposed limit to the number of Asian applicants admitted to universities, social dominance orientation (SDO) was positively related to policy support. Conversely, among participants who evaluated a proposed limit on White admits, SDO was negatively related to policy support. Study 2 found that the perceived threat of the group getting admitted at high rates explained differential support of policies that seek to limit group-specific admissions. In all, these findings suggest that attitudes toward changes in campus demographics may be rooted in a desire to maintain the status hierarchy.     

Am I ‘Chinese’ or ‘Scottish’? children’s perceptions of the adaptive nature of Chinese Scottish children’s dual identities

Chinese Scottish children (children who are born and live in Scotland with Chinese parents) face challenges in establishing their identity. However, there is lack of research that investigates ethnic minority Chinese children’s identity and associated feelings about the dual social context in which they live. The study introduced a social identity vignettes task to examine Chinese Scottish and White Scottish children’s perceptions of Chinese ethnic identity and Scottish national identity of a Scottish born Chinese character within two contrasting socio-cultural contexts (Scottish vs. Chinese). This study examines whether children’s ethnic and national identity and feelings of positivity are adaptive and sensitive to social context. In addition it explored age-related changes in perceptions of ethnic and national identification in the vignettes. The sample comprised of 161 children (8, 11, and 14 years). The results found Chinese Scottish children and White Scottish children’s judgments of the characters’ ethnic identity changed with the cultural context. Both groups of children had a similar perception of vignette characters’ feeling of positivity. Both Chinese and White Scottish children judged that the character would feel more positive about him/herself in the Chinese context. There was no main effect of age.     

No Postmaterialists in Foxholes: Postmaterialist Values,Nationalism, and National Threat in the People's Republic of China

In this article, I present findings from a survey experiment in which Chinese university students exposed to a treatment designed to increase feelings of national threat were—based on their responses to the four‐item postmaterialism values‐priority battery—significantly more likely to be classified as “pure materialists.” These findings are presented in support of the proposition that perception of a hostile international environment may tend to exaggerate citizens' authoritarian and nationalistic sentiments at the expense of more democratically favorable value orientations. Media and political figures in the West who rail against the evils of China's authoritarian leadership might believe that they are championing and encouraging democratic aspirations among the Chinese people, but might instead be inciting impulses and attitudes that are far less “democracy‐friendly.”     

Cognitive testing in non‐demented Turkish immigrants ‐ comparison of the RUDAS and the MMSE

Nielsen, T. R. Vogel, A., Gade, A. & Waldemar, G. (2012). Cognitive testing in healthy Turkish immigrants ‐ comparison of the RUDAS and the MMSE. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 53, 455–460. Methods for culturally and linguistically appropriate cognitive testing of elderly minority populations are lacking in Europe. The aim of this study was to compare performance on the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS) and the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) in Turkish immigrants in Denmark and determine the impact of demographic and health‐related variables on test performance. A sample of non‐demented community‐dwelling Turkish immigrants was recruited from the greater Copenhagen area. All participants completed a structured interview regarding demographic, physical and mental health status, as well as measures of depression and acculturation, and cognitive testing with the RUDAS and the MMSE. A total of 76 non‐demented participants aged 50 or more were included in the study. The mean performance on the RUDAS and the MMSE was 26.8 (SD 2.4) and 23.7 (SD 4.3), respectively. In group comparisons, correlation analyses and regression analyses, level of schooling represented a more significant variable for RUDAS and MMSE performance than any other variable. However, the impact of schooling was considerably more pronounced on the MMSE and the test was not found to be a valid measure of general cognitive function in subjects with less than five years of schooling. Although not entirely free of educational bias, the RUDAS can be a valuable supplement to the MMSE for assessment of general cognitive function in Turkish minority populations.     

Narrative as a Root Metaphor for Political Psychology

The idea of narrative has become increasingly appropriated in empirical research in both psychology and politics, yet there is a notable absence of integrative frameworks that specify a conceptual and methodological approach to narrative research in political psychology. An integrative conceptual framework is proposed and anchored in four principles of a narrative approach: (1) the mutual constitution of language and thought, (2) the need for personal coherence through narrative identity development, (3) the need for collective solidarity through shared meaning, and (4) the mediational property of narrative in social activity and practice. Theory and empirical research related to these principles are reviewed. We argue that a narrative framework has the potential to enhance the relevance and amplify the voice of political psychology within and beyond the academy and to offer new knowledge on the complex and dynamic relationship between context and mind.     

民族宗教学的创立

民族宗教学是民族学与宗教学的交叉学科,是一门新兴的人文学科,其主轴是研究民族与宗教的互动关系,其核心理念是:"族教和谐,多元互补"。近些年在中央民族大学"985工程"推动下,课题组开展了民族宗教学的学理的系统研究,推出《民族宗教学导论》专著,初步搭建了民族宗教学的理论框架。本文主要围绕着民族宗教学的研究对象、范围、方法、主要概念和理论体系展开论述,从发生学、历史学、社会学、文化学、政治学等多学科角度介绍民族宗教学的基本议题和思路,并阐述中国宗教生态模式。     

Racial/ethnic differences in Body Mass Index: the roles of beliefs about thinness and dietary restriction

The greater BMI of African American relative to Caucasian women is implicated in racial/ethnic disparities in health outcomes. The principal aim of the current study was to evaluate a theoretical account of racial/ethnic differences in BMI. Thin-ideal internalization, the perceived romantic appeal of thinness, dietary restriction, weight, and height were assessed via self-report measures on a sample of female undergraduates of African American (n = 140) and Caucasian (n = 676) race/ethnicity. Using structural equation modeling, support was obtained for the primary hypothesis that racial/ethnic differences in BMI are explained by Caucasian women's greater thin-ideal internalization and perceived romantic appeal of thinness, thereby resulting in greater levels of dietary restriction. Current findings illustrate the potential for racial/ethnic differences in sociocultural standards of appearance to influence racial/ethnic disparities in physical health, of which BMI is a marker, via effects on weight control behavior.     

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.