Sachiyo Morinaga Shearman

Attitudinal and affective response toward accented English

Abstract The study evaluated attitudinal and affective responses toward accented English based on variation in role identity and intelligibility. While American English was preferred, intelligible foreign accent resulted in more positive attitude and affective response compared to a foreign accent that was unintelligible. In addition, friends were viewed more positively for affect and attitude compared to teaching assistants regardless of accent. The study also assessed whether the strength of participants’ ethnic identity had any effect on attitude or affect. As predicted, people exhibiting strong ethnic identity preferred American English while people with weak ethnic identity were more accepting of foreign accent. These results suggest that greater intelligibility of foreign accent appears to be related to both more positive attitudes and affective responses especially for people who identify strongly with their ethnic group.

A Theory of Planned Behavior Study of College Students' Intention to Register as Organ Donors in Japan, Korea, and the United States

This study investigated willingness of Americans, Koreans, and Japanese to register as organ donors using the theory of planned behavior. Although previous research showed that attitude toward donation and communication with family predicted organ donation behaviors for respondents in the United States, these variables were also significant for respondents in Japan and Korea. Perceived behavioral control predicted intention to register for Japanese participants whereas knowledge about organ donation was associated with reluctance to register for Koreans. Spiritual connection and concern were shown to be causal factors underlying attitude in all 3 countries. In spite of positive attitudes toward organ donation and comparable knowledge with Americans and Japanese, most Korean participants declined to take an application to register as a donor. Implications of these findings for future research are discussed.

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Family Communication Patterns and Conflict Between Young Adults and Parents

Young adults in Japan (n = 173) and the United States (n = 131) completed surveys including Ritchie and Fitzpatricks (1990) revised family communication patterns instrument, Rahims (1983) conflict styles scale modified for the family setting, and a family communication satisfaction measure. Individual preferences for each conflict strategy (i.e., integrating, compromising, dominating, obliging, and avoiding) were examined in relation to his or her cultural background and family communication patterns. Results showed that the consensual family type was most common in the United States, while the laissez-faire family type was most common in Japan. Across cultures, high conversation orientation was associated with the young adults preference for integrating and compromising strategies in conflict with their parents, while high conformity orientation was associated with avoiding and obliging strategies. A strong positive correlation between conversation orientation and communication satisfaction was observed for both countries, while a strong negative correlation between conformity orientation and communication satisfaction was found for Americans. Possible explanations, implications and limitations of the studies are discussed.

“Even a Penny Will Help!”: Legitimization of Paltry Donation and Social Proof in Soliciting Donation to a Charitable Organization

“Even a penny will help!” is a donation solicitors effort in legitimating paltry donations in hopes of gaining higher compliance. This study reexamined the effect of Legitimization of Paltry Donation (LPD) in combination with Social Proof (SP) strategy. Participants were given one of four donation soliciting messages: simple request (control), LPD, SP, and LPD/SP. Compliance rate and size were examined through both the survey experiment and the field experiment. The LPD/SP condition yielded the highest rate of compliance both in the survey and field studies, followed by the LPD condition, the SP condition, and the control condition. As for the donation amount, results were not consistent across the two studies. Implications and limitations of the study were discussed.

Reservations of the Spirit: The Development of a Culturally Sensitive Spiritual Beliefs Scale About Organ Donation

This study investigated whether spiritual beliefs offered any explanation for why participants from Korea (N = 146), Japan (N = 134), and the United States (N = 146) were willing or reluctant to register as organ donors. A culturally appropriate measure of spiritual beliefs about organ donation, the Spiritual Beliefs Scale, was developed consisting of 2 factors: (a) Spiritual Connection and (b) Spiritual Concern. Spiritual Connection was a significant predictor of behavioral intention to become an organ donor for Korean respondents, whereas Spiritual Concern was a significant predictor of reluctance to become an organ donor for American respondents. Spiritual beliefs correlated as predicted with attitude toward organ donation and fear of bodily mutilation, showing that the Spiritual Beliefs Scale exhibited internal, external, and predictive validity. Across the 3-country sample, Spiritual Connection was associated with greater willingness to become an organ donor for women, whereas Spiritual Concern inhibited participation for men. Implications of these findings are discussed for developing culturally effective education and procurement campaigns.

Personal and cultural differences in responding to criticism in three countries

The present study investigated whether verbal aggression, argument approach, argument avoidance or assertiveness had any effect on how participants in three countries responded to criticism. Consistent with the first hypothesis, men were significantly more aggressive, assertive, less avoidant, and approached argument more than women. However, men did not respond more assertively to criticism. As predicted in the second hypothesis, US Americans responded more assertively to criticism than did Japanese and Chinese. The third hypothesis predicted that verbal aggression, argument approach, argument avoidance and assertiveness would be associated with a more assertive response to criticism. The data obtained were only partially consistent with the third hypothesis. While only a small number of participants in this study indicated that they would respond to criticism with silence, US Americans used silence to mean anger while for Chinese silence showed personal embarrassment. Very few Japanese selected silence as an option for responding to a neighbor’s criticism. The implications of these results are discussed.

Dogmatism Updated: A Scale Revision and Validation

Dogmatism represents an individual difference in cognitive style characterized by closed-mindedness. The concept of dogmatism has received a great deal of research attention in such topics as information selection, information processing, message selection, and source-message distinction. Previous dogmatism scales, however, have psychometric problems, and item wordings have become outdated. The present study updates the scale items based on a simplified conceptualization of dogmatism and assesses the validity of the new scale. Factor analyses and item analyses were employed to assess the unidimensionality of the scale. Two validation studies (N = 165 for study 1; N = 175 for study 2) were conducted. Both studies provided evidence consistent with construct validity. The updated dogmatism correlated positively with dominance and submission and negatively with perspective-taking and empathic concern. The predictive validity of the scale was only partially consistent with the data.

Roommate Conflict: Does Race Matter?

Two studies examined whether race of a roommate or a residence hall advisor had any effect on use of mediation for participants from two regions of the United States. Results from the first study showed that European Americans from the Midwest were likely to seek outside help when the roommate was a different race from them. The racial identity of the resident hall advisor did not appear to matter. Participants with stronger ethnic identification made more negative internal attributions about disruptive roommates. The data from the second study collected in the Southeastern United States showed that European Americans were more likely than African Americans to seek third-party help with a disruptive roommate. As in the first study, participants with stronger ethnic identification made more negative internal attributions about difficult roommates. Implications of mediation theory for structuring effective mediation sessions and persuading students to use university residence hall mediation services are discussed.

Cultural Variations in Accounts by American and Japanese Young Adults: Recalling a Major Conflict With Parents

American (N = 208) and Japanese young adults (N = 181) were asked to recall a major conflict with their parents for our study on cross-cultural variations in family communication. Reported conflict episodes were coded on: 1) topical content, 2) conflict strategy used by the parents, 3) conflict strategy used by the young adults, 4) outcome, and 5) reported consequences of the conflict. In both countries, four categories of conflict were identified: life and educational decisions, social and socializing behavior, moral or appropriate codes of conduct, and parents behavior. Japanese young adults reported integration strategies most frequently for themselves and for their parents. American young adults reported that they used avoidance and their parents used distributed strategies most frequently. In both countries, parents got the final words more than the young adults did. Significantly more reciprocity (i.e., use of same conflict strategies by parent and young adult) was observed in Japanese accounts than in the American accounts. Results are considered in light of cultural variability and relational communication practices in the United States and Japan.