Ype H. Poortinga

Body sensations associated with emotions in Rarámuri indians, rural Javanese, and three student samples

Cultural variations in the associations of 12 body sensations with 7 emotions were studied in 2 rural samples from northern Mexico (n = 61) and Java, Indonesia (n = 99), with low exposure to Western influences and in 3 university student samples from Belgium (n = 75), Indonesia (n = 85), and Mexico (n = 123). Both parametric and nonparametric analyses suggest that findings from previous studies with only student samples (K. R. Scherer & H. G. Wallbott, 1994) were generalizable to the 2 rural samples. Some notable cultural deviations from common profiles were also identified. Implications of the findings for explanations of body sensations experienced with emotions and the cross-cultural study of emotions are discussed.

Cross-Cultural Equivalence of the Big Five

This chapter examines cross-cultural evidence on the Five-Factor Model (Big Five dimensions) and other dimensional representations of personality (like the Eysenck model) in the light of distinctions between various forms of psychometric equivalence. In the first section we give an overview of types of inequivalence and associated forms of cultural bias. In the following three sections we look at evidence concerning three categories: structural equivalence, metric equivalence, and full score equivalence. Dimensions of personality replicate reasonably well across cultures. However, metric and full score equivalence are questionable. In a final section we discuss implications for trait theory. The findings of structural equivalence suggest that a common set of dimensions may reach across cultures to represent personality. The absence of empirical evidence for equivalence in score patterns and levels of scores makes the interpretation of quantitative cross-cultural differences on the dimensions rather tentative.

Integrating Intervention Theory and Strategy in Culture-Sensitive Health Promotion Programs

One of the tasks of psychology is to promote positive changes in individual health behavior. Interventions to bring about these changes should be directed at skills knowledge, and beliefs pertinent to specific situations.Maintenance of change is facilitated by a conducive context. A conceptual framework is presented that reflects these concerns A systematic strategy is also outlined that includes needs analysis, development and piloting of programs, as well as advocacy and dissemination for large-scale implementation. A program aimed at enhancing the role of pharmacy sales staff in HIV/AIDS prevention in Mexico is presented to illustrate how the framework and strategy are used.

Cross-cultural theory ad methodology

INTRODUCTION In a psychological study of family across cultures we should consider how human behavior is related to culture. Cross-cultural psychology attempts to understand similarities and differences in human behavior in their cultural contexts (Berry, Poortinga, Segall, and Dasen, 2002). As such, it takes culture seriously as a factor in the development and display of individual behavior. The first part of this Chapter introduces cross-cultural theory. We begin outlining by what we mean by culture, taking classical and more recent definitions of “culture” from the discipline of anthropology. Next, we present a relevant set of concepts from the discipline of human biology. Armed with these ideas from our two cognate disciplines, we then consider three broad theoretical approaches to how cultural and biological factors are reflected in the course of human psychological development (termed absolutism, relativism, and universalism). The complementary approaches of the “cultural,” the “indigenous,” and the “comparative” schools of thinking about cultural and biological influences are then related to these three theoretical approaches. Finally, we elaborate on our own position on these issues, adopting both indigenous and comparative approaches, and situating them within the universalist theoretical perspective. The second part of the Chapter introduces an Ecocultural Framework that guides the research reported in this book. As cross-cultural psychologists, we examine how human behavior is adaptive to the cultural and biological contexts in which it is nurtured, and how all three domains (behavior, culture, and biological functioning) are adaptive to the broad ecological and sociopolitical contexts in which they are situated.

Parent Care by Indian and Belgian Caregivers in their Roles of Daughter/Daughter-in-Law

Patterns of scores on measures of the strength of current caregiver/care receiver relationship quality (adult attachment, closeness, and conflict) and measures of parent care (filial concern, caregiver burden, and amount of parent care given) were examined in India and Belgium (Flanders) with middle-aged women looking after their mother and/or mother-in-law. Patterns of scores in care receivers ratings of current bonds with their daughters and daughters-in-law were also investigated. The results suggested that the relationship between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law is relatively less close in India than in Belgium. In contrast, pat-terns of variables related to actual behavior follow cultural prescriptions, with Indian daughters-in-law pro-viding more care for their mothers-in-law. It is concluded that cultural demands will determine actual behavior but have, at most, a limited influence when it comes to deep-rooted interpersonal relations, such as the attachment between mother and daughter.

Recalled early maternal bonding and mother‐ and self‐related attitudes in young adult daughters: A cross‐cultural study in India and Belgium

The quality of child–parent relationships remains a vital aspect of development through the entire life span. Early childhood attachment develops into a lasting adult attachment bond in which the balance between caregiving and care‐receiving changes over time. Among young adult women a model was examined on the relationship of recalled early maternal bonding with (1) the current relationship with ones mother represented by variables such as adult attachment, filial responsibility and filial concern, and (2) self‐related attitudes represented by orientation to life and satisfaction with life. Participants were female university students from two quite different societies, India and Belgium, including 150 Hindi‐speaking and 150 English‐speaking students in India and 183 Dutch‐speaking students in Belgium. Instruments used were the Parental Bonding Instrument, the Adult Attachment Scale, a self‐constructed Filial Responsibility Scale, the Filial Anxiety Scale, the Orientation to Life Questionnaire, and the ...

Culturally Invariant Parameters of Cognitive Functioning

The two research traditions indicated with the terms indigenous cognition and information processing models are much further apart than suggested by the simple conjunction “and” through which they are related in the title of this workshop. Studies of indigenous cognition tend to be focussed on products of human cognitive functioning, with a preference for those not readily found in Western cultures. The term information processing refers to psychological functions and mechanisms supposedly mediating between stimulus input and subject’s responses.

Cross-Cultural Psychology: Intercultural communication and training

With growing migration, globalization and internationalization comes an increased need for an understanding of intercultural communication, as well as the use of this information for training people in order to make them more competent in dealing with intercultural issues. The field is very diverse, with publications from a wide variety of scientific and applied disciplines. For example, there is research in linguistics (especially sociolinguistics), sociology, cultural anthropology and cross-cultural psychology. Much of this variety can be surveyed in a handbook edited by Landis, Bennett and Bennett (2004). In this chapter, we mainly focus on the psychological aspects of intercultural communication and training, and point out important issues and studies from a psychological perspective. This chapter contains three main sections, each representing a distinct area of intercultural communication and training. The first, on intercultural communication, describes the attempts of researchers to delineate which elements of communication are the sources of communication problems during intercultural encounters. This section is somewhat more theoretical than later sections because the main questions focus on the nature of intercultural communication rather than on the application of this knowledge. The second section concerns sojourners, those people who stay in another culture mostly for purposes of work or study (e.g., international exchange students). This is a special group of acculturating people that has already been discussed in Chapter 13.

Cross-Cultural Psychology: Similarities and differences in behavior across cultures

With an initial knowledge of the goals, concepts and methods of cross-cultural psychology that were presented in the introductory chapter, this first part of the book seeks to display research findings on the range of psychological domains that have been examined across cultures. The background materials of Chapter 1 should provide the reader with some basis for understanding and critically appraising the research being described in Part I. The order of the chapters has been arranged to begin with a portrayal of human development in infancy and childhood, then continuing into adulthood and older age. The six chapters that follow present some of the core findings from some decades of research into social behavior, personality, cognition, emotion, language and perception. This sequence of topics attempts to illustrate the varying degree of cultural influences on the display of human behavior. In keeping with the perspective of moderate universalism mentioned in Chapter 1, there is a search for cultural variation in development and display of behavior, as well as for possible commonalities in the underlying psychological processes.

Cross-Cultural Psychology: Individual development: Childhood, adolescence and adulthood

At virtually the same time as the rise in cross-cultural studies of development, there has been a dramatic increase in interest in life span development , which covers not only the period from birth to maturity, but also continues through maturity to eventual demise (Baltes, Lindenberger and Staudinger, 2006). In this chapter, we examine cross-cultural variations in the developmental stages beyond the ones that were discussed in Chapter 2; these are childhood, adolescence and adulthood. After discussing cultural notions of childhood and adolescence, we will present evidence on how childhood experiences can explain cross-cultural variations in adulthood. In the section on adulthood, we will deal with mating, partnership and parenting across cultures. In the final section, we will discuss life span developmental and evolutionary approaches to late adulthood. The chapter concludes with reflections on the cross-cultural applicability of the developmental issues raised in the last two chapters. Childhood and adolescence As we have seen in the previous chapter, human development can be described in stages. There, we dealt with the first decade of life, comprising the two earliest stages, infancy and early childhood. While infancy is the period from birth to two years, childhood is mainly defined as the period after infancy and before sexual maturation.