Exploring the self-concept in an African culture

Balancing Ethics and Culture: A Scoping Review of Ethico-Cultural and Implementation Challenges of the Individual-Based Consent Model in African Research

Objective: This review explores the ethico-cultural and implementation challenges associated with the individual-based informed consent (IC) model in the relatively collectivistic African context and examines suggested approaches to manage them. Methods: We searched four databases for peer-reviewed studies published in English between 2000 to 2023 that examined the ethico-cultural and implementation challenges associated with the IC model in Africa. Results: Findings suggest that the individual-based IC model largely misaligns with certain African social values and ethos and subverts the authority and functions of community gatekeepers. Three recommendations were proffered to manage these challenges, that researchers should: adopt a multi-step approach to IC, conduct a rapid ethical assessment, and generate an African-centered IC model. Conclusions: A pluriversal, context-specific, multi-step IC model that critically harmonizes the cultural values of the local population and the general principles of IC can minimize ethics dumping, safeguard the integrity of the research process, and promote respectful engagement.

The importance of self-efficacy and educational aspirations for academic achievement in resource-limited countries: Evidence from Ghana

INTRODUCTION

Research on the influence of academic self-efficacy and educational aspirations on academic performance is underdeveloped in resource-limited countries. This study replicates and expands on earlier research that investigated a complex network of relationships between academic self-efficacy, educational aspirations, and academic performance.

METHODS

Data from 4282 adolescents in Ghana and path analysis were used to test the causal pathways, and path invariance analysis was used to assess the moderation role of gender. Instrumental variable techniques were used to validate the path models.

RESULTS

Increase in academic self-efficacy indirectly accounts for improvement in academic performance through the mediational role of educational aspirations. The effects of self-efficacy on educational aspirations, and educational aspirations were stronger for boys than for girls.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that in resource-limited countries where the financial burden of schooling tends to be a demotivating factor, interventions that target adolescents' academic self-efficacy may be an effective means to boost educational aspirations and academic performance. Interventions should be tailored to meet the needs of all students so that all children can think of school as an important part of their lives and aspire to achieve, now and in the future.

Social representations of trust among teachers and principals in Cameroonian, Indian, and Finnish schools

Quantitative studies on trust often attempt to measure levels of trust, while neglecting local meanings of trust. These studies are usually based on Eurocentric models in Western cultures, though the models may have limited ecological validity. As a result, this study sought to investigate trust as locally produced structures and practices in Cameroon, Finland and India. In each country, teachers and principals were interviewed individually, while nineteen focus groups among teachers were also conducted (N = 111). The theory of social representations provides the methodological framework for the study. Our analyses suggest that in Cameroon understandings of trust were anchored in complementarity, in Finland in contracts, and in India in social hierarchies. We suggest that the Cameroonian representations were more fluid than in the other two countries, which may be due in part to the working arrangements there. In all of the national contexts, numerous metaphors and imagery helped to solidify trust as phenomena built in everyday practices. Cooperation was an important element in the data from all of the country contexts, although it had particular and varying meanings in each. Finally, we interpret culturally embedded dichotomies, or themata, that participants draw upon to imbue workplace trust with meaning. We discuss the analyses and interpretations in terms of local practices and the concrete conditions in which the participants worked.

Acculturation and Integration Patterns among Indian and African University Students in South Africa

South Africa is a country in transition. Apartheid, akin to “ethnic cleansing”, created a siege ingroup mentality. The 1994 democratic elections ushered in the “Rainbow” nation. In this historical context, this exploratory study of acculturation and integration to western culture by young people of non–western origins was conducted. A sample of 63 African and 106 Indian, male and female students at the University of Durban–Westville (now part of the University of KwaZulu–Natal) was administered the Berry Acculturation Scale (1986), Naidoo Measure of Value Preferences (1986), and Triandis Individualism–Collectivism Scale (1990). Questions posed were: (a) What mode of acculturation to western culture do African and Indian students prefer; (b) what values do they admire and adopt from the dominant western individualistic value systems; (c) do these cultural groups retain ancestral collectivist values; and (d) what intergroup social/work contacts occur. Significant findings were obtained based on appropriate ANOVAS for data derived from the two ethnic groups and genders for the three measures used. Both groups shared commonalities, favouring integration of ancestral collectivist and western individualistic values; both expressed selectivity to western values. Both groups desired western education, careers, and opportunity for all, but also wanted to retain core collectivist family values. Indians felt strongly about the retention of religious values; Africans were staunch Christian. Women participants looked to the western culture for new feminist values. Indians had lost their ancestral languages but both shared English. The implications of the commonalities for ethno–gender co–existence in “Rainbow” South Africa have been discussed.

Modernity and Subjective Well-Being in Zimbabwean College Students

The study utilized a multiple discrepancy approach to examine modernity as a correlate of subjective well-being in a sample of 110 Zimbabwean college students (44 males; 66 females) aged 24 to 58 years. Measures of subjective well-being covered satisfaction with life, domain of life satisfaction, frequency of emotional experiences, positive and negative affect. Students gave actual and ideal ratings of their subjective well-being and with comparison to their ideal person or desirability. The Zimbabwean college students had positive perceptions of their subjective well-being, although they tended to be less happy with their lives as compared to their ideal persons in satisfaction with life, recreation, finances, frequency of emotional experience, positive, and negative affect. Students with a higher preference for modernity reported having a higher self-regard, being less fearful, experiencing more pleasant affect and feeling closer to their ideal life as compared to those with a lower endorsement of modernity. Those with a higher preference for collectivism reported a higher satisfaction with family. Younger, and female students tended to report being significantly closer to their ideal levels of well-being.

Caregiver profiles and determinants of caregiving burden in Ghana

OBJECTIVES

Due to the growing elderly population, the high cost of care in Ghana and low coverage of the National Health Insurance Scheme, demands for family caregiving have become more imperative in Ghana than ever before. Many caregivers experience high burdens, yet literature on caregiving in Ghana is lacking. This study examined caregiver profiles and determinants of the burden of caregiving in Ghana.

STUDY DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

METHODS

This study used data from Wave 1 of the World Health Organization (WHO) Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (2007-2008). In total, 238 caregivers were analysed in the study. The burden of caregiving was measured using the WHO Impact of Caregiving Scale. Independent sample t-tests, correlations and analysis of variance were used to investigate associations between background characteristics and the burden of caregiving. Linear regression was used to examine determinants of the burden of caregiving.

RESULTS

The mean age of caregivers was 61 years (standard deviation 14.5), and the male:female ratio was approximately equal. On average, approximately two adults per household required care. Less than five percent of caregivers received financial, emotional, health, physical and personal care support. Place of residence, provision of financial, health and physical support to care recipients, and receipt of financial, physical and health support were significant determinants of the burden of caregiving.

CONCLUSIONS

This study found a mismatch between the number of people needing care and the number of people providing care. In order to improve the health of caregivers and care recipients, there is a need to provide financial support for caregivers. In addition, pro-caregiving government programmes and policies should be established.

Understanding the Five-Factor Model and Five-Factor Theory through a South African cultural lens

Despite the vast body of evidence accumulated for the Five-Factor Model worldwide, it is often criticised for being atheoretical, too descriptive, and lacking reference to personality development across the lifespan. In response to these critiques, McCrae and Costa proposed the Five-Factor Theory. This article introduces the reader briefly to the Five-Factor Model and Five-Factor Theory. The Five-Factor Theory refers to the five factors of the Five-Factor Model as Basic Tendencies and postulates that the five factors of the Five-Factor Model are innate, heritable, and universal structures. This article debates whether the Five-Factor Theory is correct in arguing for five Basic Tendencies by providing local and international literature that suggests that five factors do not form the topmost hierarchy in personality. In African and Asian cultures, specifically, it has been argued that the collectivist dimension in particular is not captured in the Five-Factor Model and Five-Factor Theory. This article explores these arguments with particular reference to the Individualism\Collectivism dimensions and concludes by suggesting that both Five-Factor Theory and the Five-Factor Model take more cognisance of other cultural perspectives on personality at both the theoretical and empirical levels.

African indigenous knowledge and research

This paper seeks to heighten awareness about the need to include indigenous knowledge in the design and implementation of research, particularly disability research, in Africa. It affirms the suitability of the Afrocentric paradigm in African research and argues the necessity for an emancipatory and participatory type of research which values and includes indigenous knowledge and peoples. In the predominantly Western-oriented academic circles and investigations, the African voice is either sidelined or suppressed because indigenous knowledge and methods are often ignored or not taken seriously. This paper posits that to be meaningful and empowering, African-based research must, of necessity, include African thought and ideas from inception through completion to the implementation of policies arising from the research. In this way the work is both empowering and meaningful for context-specific lasting impact.

Cross-cultural experience, strategic motivation and employer hiring preference: An exploratory study in an emerging economy

The relationship between self-complexity, strategic motivation, and organizational processes such as staffing seems lacking in the human resources management and organizational behavior (OB) literatures. In two studies we examined the self-complexity of potential employees with and without cross-cultural experience as determinant of preferences of employers mediated by strategic motivations of organizations. We found in a sample of 40 organizations from an emerging economy, Ghana, that employers seemed to prefer employees with cross-cultural experience who are perceived to facilitate achievement of their strategic motivations. Implications for international human resources management are discussed.

The Multi-voicedness of Independence and Interdependence: The Case of the Cameroonian Nso

It is often claimed that independence and interdependence are two dimensions that are part of any culture and the psychology of any human being. While previous studies have considered these two concepts merely as a matter of degree, this article argues that, in fact, they can be of different quality and have a variety of meanings depending on the specific socio-cultural context. From a systemic approach, the study addresses the dialogical co-existence of these dimensions and views culture as an open system that allows for adaptation and constant reorganization according to the given context. Interviews with 10 mothers from the ethnic group of the Cameroonian Nso on their ideas on childrearing revealed that different conceptions of autonomy and interpersonal relatedness not only co-exist in this ethnic group but may serve different purposes and change depending on the specific socio-cultural conditions in which the mother lives.

Gender differences in self-construal: how generalizable are Western findings?

The authors used the Twenty Statements Test in 2 studies to investigate gender and country differences in the spontaneous self-descriptions of 811 college students from Hong Kong, India, Nepal, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe and 136 secondary school students from Taiwan and Hong Kong. The authors performed statistical analysis and found no significant gender differences in the percentage of responses classified as belonging to the idiocentric self in either study. However, the authors found significant Country effects in both studies for responses classified as representing the idiocentric self and some aspects of the collective self, and the authors found significant Country x Gender effects involving all 4 categories of the idiocentric self and the collective self for the college students. These findings raise questions about the generalizability of Western findings that males are more likely to espouse an independent conception of self than females. However, as the authors predicted, females were more likely to use small group self-descriptions than their male peers.

Culture and self in South Africa: individualism-collectivism predictions

People from collectivist cultures may have more concrete and interdependent self-concepts than do people from individualist cultures (G. Hofstede, 1980). African cultures are considered collectivist (H. C. Triandis, 1989), but research on self-concept and culture has neglected this continent. The authors attempted a partial replication in an African context of cross-cultural findings on the abstract-concrete and independent-interdependent dimensions of self-construal (referred to as the abstract-specific and the autonomous-social dimensions, respectively, by E. Rhee, J. S. Uleman, H. K. Lee, & R. J. Roman, 1995). University students in South Africa took the 20 Statements Test (M. Kuhn & T. S. McPartland, 1954; Rhee et al.); home languages were rough indicators of cultural identity. The authors used 3 coding schemes to analyze the content of 78 protocols from African-language speakers and 77 protocols from English speakers. In accord with predictions from individualism-collectivism theory, the African-language speakers produced more interdependent and concrete self-descriptions than did the English speakers. Additional findings concerned the orthogonality of the 2 dimensions and the nature and assessment of the social self-concept.

Educational and Psychological Testing in Zimbabwean Schools: Past, Present and Future

Psychoeducational testing practices in Zimbabwe can be understood in terms of the colonial heritage of the country and the democratization of the education system following Black majority rule. Regulations for psychological practice and Western-oriented psychology curricula inherited from the colonial era are elements of continuity in the country's psychoeducational testing practices. The demands of the postindependence education dispensation that extended psychological services to native Blacks represent elements of change that challenge psychological and educational testing in the country to be more responsive to the cultural diversity. A survey of test users in educational settings in the country revealed a significant use of Western tests, although some limited progress has been made in developing local tests, particularly in the area of achievement testing. The current status of psychoeducational testing in Zimbabwe is best characterized as being in a transitional or modeling stage, entailing the application of Western concepts and technologies. Authentic testing has great potential as an alternative in this developing country.