A. A. Alao

Beyond prejudice as simple antipathy: Hostile and benevolent sexism across cultures

The authors argue that complementary hostile and benevolent components of sexism exist across cultures. Male dominance creates hostile sexism (HS), but mens dependence on women fosters benevolent sexism (BS)--subjectively positive attitudes that put women on a pedestal but reinforce their subordination. Research with 15,000 men and women in 19 nations showed that (a) HS and BS are coherent constructs that correlate positively across nations, but (b) HS predicts the ascription of negative and BS the ascription of positive traits to women, (c) relative to men, women are more likely to reject HS than BS, especially when overall levels of sexism in a culture are high, and (d) national averages on BS and HS predict gender inequality across nations. These results challenge prevailing notions of prejudice as an antipathy in that BS (an affectionate, patronizing ideology) reflects inequality and is a cross-culturally pervasive complement to HS.

Sociocultural Differences in Self-Construal and Subjective Well-Being: A Test of Four Cultural Models

In this study, the authors tested four cultural models—independence, interdependence, conflict, and integration—that describe the hypothesized relationships between dimensions of self-construal and components of subjective well-being among individualistic and collectivistic countries. Collectivistic countries that have undergone rapid socioeconomic changes (i.e., East Asian countries) and those with limited changes (i.e., African countries) were differentiated. Participants were 791 university students from four Western countries, 749 university students from three East Asian countries, and 443 university students from three African countries. Findings provided some support for the applicability of (a) the independence model to individuals from Western countries and (b) the integration model to individuals from East Asian countries. Mixed results were found among the African countries. The interdependence model is more applicable to African participants from the sub-Saharan region, but the integration model is more applicable to those from the North African region.

Lack of mutual respect in relationship: the endangered partner.

Abstract:  Violence in a relationship and in a family setting has been an issue of concern to various interest groups and professional organizations. Of particular interest in this article is violence against women in a relationship. While there is an abundance of knowledge on violence against women in general, intimate or partner femicide seems to have received less attention. Unfortunately, the incidence of violence against women, and intimate femicide in particular, has been an issue of concern in the African setting.