Sik Hung Ng

Values and beliefs of vegetarians and omnivores.

Abstract Following the claim by some anthropologists and sociologists that 1 symbolic meaning of meat is a preference for hierarchical domination (C. J. Adams, 1990; N. Fiddes, 1989; D. D. Heisley, 1990; J. Twigg, 1983), the authors compared the values and beliefs of vegetarians and omnivores in 2 studies conducted in New Zealand. They compared the full range of vegetarians and omnivores on right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, human values, and consumption values. The participants tending toward omnivorism differed from those leaning toward veganism and vegetarianism in 2 principal ways: The omnivores (a) were more likely to endorse hierarchical domination and (b) placed less importance on emotional states. Accordingly, the acceptance or rejection of meat co-varied with the acceptance or rejection of the values associated with meat; that finding suggests that individuals consume meat and embrace its symbolism in ways consistent with their self-definitions.

Filial Obligations and Expectations in China: Current Views from Young and Old People in Beijing

This study examines how 90 university students and 77 old people in Beijing view filial piety in Chinese society now. The results show that old people continue to hold high filial expectations for young people and that young people still endorse strongly filial obligations for old people. Obedience received the lowest rating while respect received the highest rating. ‘‘Looking after the aged parents’’ and ‘‘assisting them financially’’ are the top filial concerns for young males whereas ‘‘retaining contact with the elders’’ is the top filial concern for young females. ‘‘Respecting elders but necessarily obeying them’’ appears to be a new cultural protocol for fulfilling filial obligations in Chinese societies now.

College students' trait ratings of three age groups around the Pacific Rim

In this paper, the traits which younger adults associate with younger, middle-aged, and older adults in a number of Pacific Rim nations were assessed. Two dependent variables (‘personal vitality’ and ‘benevolence’) emerged from factor analyses of a series of trait adjectives. Cross cultural trends emerged which replicated patterns found in the US context. Main effects indicated declines in ratings of personal vitality and increases in ratings of benevolence with increasing target-age. However, interesting variations on this pattern emerged in different cultures. In particular, very negative evaluations of aging in Hong Kong, and a lack of differentiation between middle-aged and older adults in the Philippines and New Zealand were found. Little evidence emerged supporting the notion of particular positive evaluations of older adults in Asian cultures.

Children's ideas about the bank and shop profit: Developmental stages and the influence of cognitive contrasts and conflict

Abstract Ninety-six Hong Kong boys, aged 6 to 13, were given a questionnaire dealing with the operation of the bank and shop transactions. The developmental progression in the understanding of the bank, though more complex in the Hong Kong sample, was essentially similar to that of a Scottish sample reported by Jahoda (1981). A full understanding of the bank emerged at age 10, while that of shop profit emerged at age 6, both showing a precocity over the Scottish sample. The study also considered the roles of cognitive differentiation and conflict, and experimentally tested for any new understanding that might result from the experience of cognitive contrasts and conflict. The experience was found to produce a significant improvement in the understanding of the bank among 10 to 13 year old boys, and of shop profit among 8 to 10 year old boys.

Language, Power, and Intergroup Relations

Language is a communication medium for turning a power base into influence. But more than that, the creation of power and its maintenance or change can also occur in and through language. In the present article, we discuss some of the dynamic links between language and power to underscore their relevance to the study of intergroup relations. In particular we address the means by which low-power groups might achieve power, and how those who are in high-power positions might retain and subvert acts of power. In doing this, we counterpose our discussion with research that addresses these same issues from a static and individualistic approach to power. Our central argument is that the latter work lacks theoretical facility for describing and understanding the aforementioned dynamic processes of power, and moreover, that its application may unwittingly serve to reify and cement existing control relationships.

Social Psychology in an Ageing World: Ageism and Intergenerational Relations

In many countries, individuals are living longer and the population is ageing. The advent of ageing societies will lead to various social changes, reconstruct beliefs about ageing, and affect the life-style of individuals. One of the challenges of ageing societies for social psychology is the undertaking of research that is more gerontologically sensitive. The paper reviews studies on attitudes and stereotypes towards older adults, as well as intergenerational conflict and communication. In doing so it highlights the roles of social communicative, intergroup and power processes, and concludes with the call for a life-span approach to theoretical development.

Androcentric coding of man and his in memory by language users

Abstract Existent research, mostly carried out among North American college students has shown that male words ( man, he, his ) intended to refer grammatically to both sexes (i.e., generically) are in fact androcentric in various ways. Using a “proactive inhibition” procedure, we tested for androcentrism in the memory code of man and his by language users who were sampled randomly from a New Zealand school population between 11 and 17 years of age ( n = 408). It was found that the words man and his were coded in memory primarily as members of the masculine linguistic category, and that they were quite alien to the feminine linguistic category. The results provide a linguistic-cognitive link for understanding androcentrism in these words.

Will the young support the old? An individual- and family-level study of filial obligations in two New Zealand cultures

Do people feel that they are obliged to look after older parents and grandparents, support them financially, respect, obey, and maintain contact with them, as well as please them and make them happy? Two surveys of filial obligations were conducted in New Zealand involving 100 Chinese and 103 European families respectively. Across the 587 individuals from two generations, a widely shared obligation hierarchy emerged with social contact and respect on top of all others. Chinese were higher than Europeans on obedience and financial support as predicted, but also on most other obligations. Gender differences, contrary to prediction, were generally absent; but children were significantly higher than their parents on obedience. Obligations were moderately intercorrelated, and also correlated with corresponding expectations. K-means cluster analysis was used in a novel way to discover three European and four Chinese family obligation types. Further family-level analysis showed that parental income, grandparents’ residence, and motivations in communicating with elders differentiated the family types.

Sex Bias in Visual Images Evoked by Generics: A New Zealand Study.

Male biases are known to exist in the usage, evaluation, and interpretation of masculine generics. This study explored, by means of a tachistoscope, sex-specific biases in visual images evoked by masculine (“All men are created equal,” “At university a student can study whatever he wants”) and feminine (“The feminists protested outside the town hall,” “At university a student can study whatever she wants”) generics. Photographs of male and female faces were presented in a deliberately ambiguous (subthreshold) viewing field while maintaining the masculine or feminine generic sentence on constant view. It was predicted and found in a sample of 48 university students that if generics invoked sex-specific images, the images would affect the direction in which the viewer would resolve the ambiguous faces, resulting in more reported male faces in the masculine than in the feminine generic condition.

Language and Social Influence in Small Conversational Groups

University students, in groups of 3 or 4, discussed legal aspects of commercial surrogacy and afterwards ranked the relative influence of each group member. As predicted, high-influence members spoke more words and had more successful turns during the conversation than low-influence members. The latter used a greater rate of intonation and intensifiers than the former. A closer examination of the results showed that turns were particularly important for high influence. Unexpectedly, tag questions and hedges did not result in low influence, probably due to the different usage of tag questions and to the nature of the conversation setting which, unlike one facing court witnesses, required tactful hedging in the exertion of influence.