Tae-Seop Lim

Intergenerational Communication Across Cultures: Young People's Perceptions of Conversations with Family Elders, Non-family Elders and Same-Age Peers

Young adults from three Western (Canada, U.S.A., and New Zealand) and three East Asian (The Philippines, South Korea and Japan) nations completed a questionnaire regarding their perceptions of interactions with family elders, non-family elders, and same-age peers. Results showed that East Asians perceived family elders to be as accommodating as same-age peers, whereas Westerners perceived family elders as more accommodating than their same-age peers. Participants in both cultural blocks indicated an obligation to be most deferential towards non-family elders, followed by family elders, followed by same-age peers. Whereas both groups perceived interactions with same-age peers more positively than with the two older groups, the Western group perceived the older age groups more positively than did East Asians. Intergenerational communication is reportedly be more problematic than intragenerational communication and, consistent with previous findings, this pattern is more evident in East Asian nations on some variables.

Young People's Beliefs About Intergenerational Communication An Initial Cross-Cultural Comparison

This article examines young peoples perceptions of their conversations with older people (age 65-85) across nine cultures−five Eastern and four Western. Responses from more than 1,000 participants were entered into a crossnational factor analysis, which revealed four initial factors that underlie perceptions of intergenerational conversations. Elder nonaccommodation was when young participants reported that older people negatively stereotyped the young and did not attend to their communication needs. On the other hand, elder accommodation was when older people were perceived as supportive, attentive and generally encouraging to young people. A third factor was respect/obligation and a fourth factor labeled age-irrelevant positivity described a situation where young people felt conversations with much older people were emotionally positive and satisfying, age did not matter. Examining cross-cultural differences, some East versus West differences were observed, as might be expected, on the basis of simplistic accounts of Eastern collectivism versus Western individualism. However, the results challenge commonsense notions of the status of old age in Eastern versus Western cultures. On some dimensions, participants from Korea, Japan, Peoples Republic of China, Hong Kong, and the Philippines appear to have relatively less positive perceptions of their conversations with older people than the Western cultures−the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. But there was also evidence of considerable cultural variability, particularly among Eastern cultures−variability that has heretofore all too often been glossed over when global comparisons of East versus West are made. A range of explanations for these cultural differences is explored and implications for older people in these societies are also considered.

Age Vitality Across Eleven Nations

This paper is the second in a series of empirical applications of the concept of (ethnolinguistic) vitality into the intergenerational arena. It examines young peoples assessments of the subjective vitalities of young, middle-aged, and elderly targets in four Western (midwest USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) and seven south and east Asian sites (Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, mainland China, The Philippines, and India). The results support earlier findings (in Hong Kong and California) in that, relative to young adult targets, the elderly were rated as having more vitality in the Western than the south and east Asian settings; the middle-aged were seen as having the highest vitality across all nations. Differences in the age vitality profiles between the different nations allowed identification of three distinct patterns. The study also provided intriguing cross-cultural data on how respondents construed the on-sets of young adulthood, middle age, and old age as well as the ends of the former two categories. The findings are related to other cross-cultural studies of intergenerational communication and age stereotyping, and future research directions are highlighted.

Holism: A Missing Link in Individualism-Collectivism Research

Studies on Individualism-Collectivism (IND-COL) have documented results contradicting Hofstedes theory. We attribute these theory-data inconsistencies to construct underspecification. Both IND and COL are confounded with similar yet disparate sub-constructs. In the main, this study illustrates that the West and the East do manifest opposite cultural values as Hofstede had initially conceptualized, and this can be empirically observable when utilizing more refined constructs and measurement instruments. This study (a) proposes holism, not collectivism, as a cultural fundamental of East Asia, (b) separates personalism from individualism, and (c) breaks collectivism down into Western group collectivism and Eastern relational collectivism. A cross-cultural study with 152 Korean and 171 American students was conducted. Results indicate that individualism and holism constitute elements of the most basic cultural layer while collectivism belongs to a peripheral one. Koreans were much more holistic than Americans, who were significantly more individualistic than Koreans. Group collectivism was more pronounced in the U.S. while relational collectivism tended to prevail in Korea. In both cultures, collectivism was influenced by their respective cultural fundamentals: Individualism better predicted collectivism in the U.S. while holism did so in Korea.

Police-Civilian Interaction, Compliance, Accommodation, and Trust in an Intergroup Context: International Data

Abstract Prior cross-cultural research has produced models of police-civilian interaction that highlight the effect of officers’ communication accommodation and reported trust in police on attitudinal outcomes. The present study, conducted in Korea, Japan, Guam, and Canada and involving 684 university students, continued this program of research by testing a theoretical model exploring the influence of perceived police officer communication accommodation and reported trust in police on attitudes about compliance with police requests. Findings indicated that across study locations perceived police officer communication accommodation predicted trust in police which, in turn, predicted attitudes about compliance with police requests.

Reframing the Cultural Differences between the East and the West

This study proposes that the fundamental cultural differences between the East and the West lie in a holistic-analytic worldview, and this new perspective can explain the cultural differences better than collectivism-individualism. To test the claim, this study developed a measurement for holism and its derivative, cognitive relativity. Then, it examined the degree of holism, cognitive relativity, and independent and interdependent self-construals with Korean and American college students. Results showed that (a) Koreans had a stronger holistic worldview than Americans, (b) Koreans maintained a higher degree of cognitive relativity than Americans, (c) Koreans and Americans did not differ in either independent or interdependent self-construals, and (d) the impact of holism was still strong after controlling for the effects of self-construals.

Differences in Cognitive Relativity Between Americans’ and Koreans’ Assessments of Self

Earlier studies on identity have reported that North Americans and East Asians have very distinct views of self. While North Americans related consistency, stability, and clarity of self to high self-esteem, good social adjustment, and strong true self, East Asians, who tended to contextualize their identity and demonstrate high inconsistency and lack of clarity, did not relate these tendencies to lack of self-esteem or true self. Markus and Kitayama (1991, 1998) explained this difference with independent and interdependent self-construals. This study extends these earlier studies by proposing and testing an alternative theoretical framework, the theory of cognitive relativity. The theory stipulates that Koreans, who hold a holistic worldview, maintain higher cognitive relativity in their self-concept than Americans, who hold an analytic worldview. The results supported the theory. Koreans showed higher relativity in all three attributes of self-concept: physical, psychological, and social. Particularly, the social attribute yielded a striking difference and the psychological attribute also showed robust differences between the two cultures. Physical attribute did not show as strong a difference, but the difference was still statistically significant. Americans and Koreans did not show statistically significant differences in independent and interdependent self-construals, while the effect of culture on cognitive relativity was significant after controlling for the effect of self-construal.

Exploring cultural differences in women's body weight perception: The impact of self-construal on perceived overweight and engagement in health activities

ABSTRACT We examined the cultural influence on perceived body weight and the level of health practices at a national and individual level. At a national level, we found that Japanese women (n = 80) overestimate body weight more than Korean (n = 82) and American (n = 63) women. At an individual level, individuals with interdependent self-construal were more prone to overestimate weight than those with independent self-construal (N = 182; American women). Based on the data, we identify that the relationship is mediated by self-criticism, and, importantly, it is self-criticism rather than perceived overweight that predicts the level of health activities. Health practitioners and campaign designers across cultures are recommended to concentrate on promoting positive body esteem instead of encouraging engagement in corrective health behaviors for weight loss.

Communicating Healthy Food Choice

This research examines cultural influence on the preference of promotive (i.e., trying to eat more healthy foods) and preventive (i.e., trying to avoid unhealthy foods) dietary practices. Survey data were collected from students and older adults in Korea (N = 287) and the U.S. (N = 245). Only students participated in the survey in Japan (N = 145). Consistent with the prediction, Study 1 shows Korean mature adults are more willing to adopt preventive dietary practices, while American counterparts favor promotive eating habits. The pattern of the data was inconsistent with the prediction among student participants across the three nations. Individual-level data from Study 2 (N = 284) confirm that independent self-construal affects promotive dietary practice via increasing promotive regulatory self-focus. The indirect impact of interdependent self-construal on preventive dietary practice was less apparent. Practical implications for doctor-patient communication are discussed.

Predicting Alcohol Misuse Among College Students in the US and South Korea

This study examines contributing factors of alcohol misuse among college students in South Korea and the U.S. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) on measurements of alcohol expectancy, alcohol efficacy, and accommodation resulted in social and personal causes for alcohol misuse. Social causes alone predicted alcohol misuse for both countries. Social factors constituted a much stronger predictor of alcohol misuse among South Korean students than among American students. Practical implications for effective deterrence of student binge drinking are discussed.