Maria Guadalupe C. Salanga

Cross-Cultural Differences in a Global “Survey of World Views”

We know that there are cross-cultural differences in psychological variables, such as individualism/collectivism. But it has not been clear which of these variables show relatively the greatest differences. The Survey of World Views project operated from the premise that such issues are best addressed in a diverse sampling of countries representing a majority of the world’s population, with a very large range of item-content. Data were collected online from 8,883 individuals (almost entirely college students based on local publicizing efforts) in 33 countries that constitute more than two third of the world’s population, using items drawn from measures of nearly 50 variables. This report focuses on the broadest patterns evident in item data. The largest differences were not in those contents most frequently emphasized in cross-cultural psychology (e.g., values, social axioms, cultural tightness), but instead in contents involving religion, regularity-norm behaviors, family roles and living arrangements, and ethnonationalism. Content not often studied cross-culturally (e.g., materialism, Machiavellianism, isms dimensions, moral foundations) demonstrated moderate-magnitude differences. Further studies are needed to refine such conclusions, but indications are that cross-cultural psychology may benefit from casting a wider net in terms of the psychological variables of focus.

Contrasting Lay Theories of Polyculturalism and Multiculturalism Associations With Essentialist Beliefs of Race in Six Asian Cultural Groups

Multiculturalism and polyculturalism are two lay theories of culture that have been associated with some similar intergroup attitudes and behaviors. But other than the studies of Rosenthal and Levy in the United States, there have been no studies that directly distinguish between these two lay theories. In this study, we use confirmatory factor analysis procedures to show that multiculturalism and polyculturalism represent two distinct latent constructs among our 1,730 participants in six Asian cultural groups (China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines). Moreover, we show that essentializing race is associated with endorsement of multiculturalism (but not polyculturalism) in five cultural groups (except Hong Kong). The results provide strong cross-cultural empirical evidence for the distinction between the two lay theories and, more importantly, point to aspects of the lay theory of multiculturalism that relate to why it is sometimes associated with stronger stereotyping and prejudice toward minority cultural groups.

Basic Psychological Needs and Flourishing in Filipino University Students

Flourishing is a concept in positive psychology that is focused on growth and continued improvement (Fredrickson and Losada, Am Psychol, 60: 678–689, 2008). Using the Self-Determination Theory (Deci and Ryan, Physchol Inquiry 11:227–268, 2000), the experience of flourishing involves meeting and satisfying the basic psychology needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The first aim of this study is to examine how autonomy, competence, and relatedness (the three basic psychological needs) are related to flourishing among Filipino undergraduate students. The second aim is to examine the relative importance of basic psychological needs in predicting flourishing. Filipinos students completed the following measures: (1) Basic Psychological Needs Scale (Deci and Ryan, Physchol Inquiry 11:227–268, 2000), and the (2) Flourishing Scale (Diener et al., Soc Indicat Res 39:247–266, 2009). Results from the regression analysis reveal that competence, autonomy, and relatedness predict flourishing. Dominance analysis reveals that relatedness is the best predictor of flourishing. These findings suggest that learning in the Philippine context takes on more social features, with the satisfaction of relatedness needs extending to learning contexts. Findings are further discussed in the context of the shared identity model of Filipino psychology.

Subjective Happiness Optimizes Educational Outcomes: Evidence from Filipino High School Students

Subjective happiness has been found to be associated with key psychological outcomes. However, there is paucity of research that assessed how subjective happiness is related to a number of positive student outcomes in the educational setting. The objective of the study was to assess the associations of subjective happiness with academic engagement, flourishing, and school resilience among 606 Filipino high school students (m age = 13.87; n boys = 300, n girls = 305, n missing = 1) in the Philippine context. Results of path analysis demonstrated that subjective happiness positively predicted behavioral engagement (β = .08, p < .01), emotional engagement (β = .08, p < .01), flourishing (β = .17, p < .01), and school resilience (β = .18, p < .01) even after controlling for gender. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Filipino Students’ Reasons for Not Being Motivated in School: Insights into Their Implicit Beliefs About Motivation and Learning

Motivation is an important multidimensional construct that is consistently associated with achievement in school, but few theories conceptualize students’ lack of motivation as an explicit dimension of motivation. The purpose of the study was to explore Filipino students’ reasons for not being motivated in school, and we explored these reasons by gathering open-ended questionnaire data from samples of Filipino students from the secondary and tertiary levels. Data from 405 high school students and 305 college/university students revealed core themes of reasons for not being motivated: beliefs and attitudes about the self and the subject, perceptions of the teacher’s competencies, and distractions afforded by social support systems. The findings are discussed in the context of current explicit theories on amotivation, but in addition, themes that are divergent with these explicit theories are discussed in the context of Filipino and Asian students’ implicit beliefs about motivation and learning in schools.