The reminiscence bump and the self: evidence from five studies on positive and negative memories

A plethora of studies have shown that people persistently remember public and personal events experienced during adolescence and early adulthood, particularly with a positive valence. In five studies, we investigate the reminiscence bump (RB) for positive and negative memories of public events (Studies 1 and 2), private events (Study 3), music-related events (Study 4), and cross-cultural memory differences (i.e., China and US) (Study 5). Participants retrieved either one positive or one negative memory, indicated their Age of Encoding, and provided secondary measures, i.e., memory vividness and rehearsal (Studies 1 and 3) and emotional intensity (Studies 2 and 4). About 10,000 memories were collected and positive memories appeared generally older than negative recollections, but the RB emerged for both positive and negative memories. Furthermore, the peak was earlier for positive memories of public events (<15 years old) than for negative memories (20-40 years), while no differences were found for private events or music-related experiences (15-25 years). Chinese had their RB later than US respondents. Finally, autobiographical recollections have moderate to low associations with secondary measures of phenomenological features of memory. These findings are consistent with the identity-formation theory, providing additional and important information on the development of the Self.

Intimate Partner and Family Violence Among Women Tertiary Students in Australia: Prevalence and Cross-Cultural Differences

Most prior research on violence among tertiary students has been restricted to dating and sexual violence and neglected cross-cultural variation. To provide more comprehensive and intersectional understandings, this study examined the prevalence and cultural differences in intimate partner and family violence among women tertiary students in Australia. Data were collected from 1,845 women studying at post-secondary institutions and weighted by age and country of birth to reflect the population composition. Eighty-seven percent (86.7%) of participants reported having experienced violence (physical, sexual, psychological, and/or financial) from an intimate partner and/or family member during adulthood. Students who identified as Anglo were more likely to report victimization by intimate partners, while those who identified as non-Anglo and multicultural were more likely to report victimization by family members. The findings highlight the need for tertiary education institutions to prioritize preventing and responding to intimate partner and family violence in their culturally diverse student bodies.

The Gender-Equality Paradox in Chess Participation Is Partially Explained by the Generational-Shift Account but Fully Inconsistent With Existing Alternative Accounts: A Partial Concession and Reply to Napp and Breda (2023)

Napp and Breda (2023) raised three arguments against the generational-shift account of the gender-equality paradox (GEP) in chess participation. First, using finer operationalizations of the age structure of players, they showed that it partially but not fully accounts for the GEP in chess participation. I find merit in these analyses and conclusion. Second, they argued that the country-level age structure is unrelated to the GEP in chess participation, which undermines the generational-shift account of the GEP. In contrast, I provide new analyses to show that the two are related after adjusting for the U-shaped relation between gender equality and female chess participation. Finally, they argued that previous explanations of the GEP are viable for explaining the GEP in chess participation. In contrast, I argue that the global increase in the proportion of female players is incompatible with previous explanations of the GEP, and I provide new analyses to support this.

Political Person-Culture Match and Longevity: The Partisanship-Mortality Link Depends on the Cultural Context

Recent studies demonstrate that Republicans live longer than Democrats. We examined whether these longevity benefits are universal or culturally varying. Following a person-culture match perspective, we hypothesized that Republicans' longevity benefits occur in Republican, but not in Democratic, states. To test this argument, we conducted two studies among U.S. adults. In preregistered Study 1, we used large survey data (extended U.S. General Social Survey; N = 42,855). In confirmatory Study 2, we analyzed obituaries/biographies of deceased U.S. political partisans (novel data web-scraped from an online cemetery; N = 9,177). Both studies supported the person-culture match perspective with substantial effect sizes. In Republican contexts, up to 50.1% of all Republicans but only 36.3% of all Democrats reached an age of 80 years. In Democratic contexts, there was no such longevity gap. Robustness tests showed that this effect generalizes to political ideology and holds across spatial levels but is limited to persons with strong political convictions.

Universal Constraints on Linguistic Event Categories: A Cross-Cultural Study of Child Homesign

Languages carve up conceptual space in varying ways-for example, English uses the verb cut both for cutting with a knife and for cutting with scissors, but other languages use distinct verbs for these events. We asked whether, despite this variability, there are universal constraints on how languages categorize events involving tools (e.g., knife-cutting). We analyzed descriptions of tool events from two groups: (a) 43 hearing adult speakers of English, Spanish, and Chinese and (b) 10 deaf child homesigners ages 3 to 11 (each of whom has created a gestural language without input from a conventional language model) in five different countries (Guatemala, Nicaragua, United States, Taiwan, Turkey). We found alignment across these two groups-events that elicited tool-prominent language among the spoken-language users also elicited tool-prominent language among the homesigners. These results suggest ways of conceptualizing tool events that are so prominent as to constitute a universal constraint on how events are categorized in language.

The meaning of love and its bittersweet nature

Love is the core of human experience and central to our meaning in life and wellbeing, yet it is also a complex concept full of ambiguity and contradiction. The main purpose of this paper is fourfold: Firstly, we want to clarify questions such as 'What is the meaning of love?' and 'Why is meaning of love so important to us?' Secondly, we want to explain why love is both suffering and essential for our happiness and mental health. Thirdly, we identify the major types of love and clarify which types are constructive and which are destructive. We also identify the key dimensions of true love. Finally, we emphasise that love does not always mean happiness; rather, it is meant to be a school to teach us important lessons and to make us complete. Therefore, we need to embrace suffering and at the same time cultivate the constructive types of love to improve our mental health and to make the world a more compassionate place.

Cultural background and input familiarity influence multisensory emotion perception

OBJECTIVES

During multisensory emotion perception, the attention devoted to the visual versus the auditory modality (i.e., modality dominance) varies depending on the cultural background of the perceiver. In the present study, we examined (a) how cultural familiarity influences multisensory emotion perception in Eastern and Western cultures and (b) the underlying processes accounting for the cultural difference in modality dominance.

METHOD

Native Mandarin speakers from China and native English speakers from the United States were presented with audiovisual emotional stimuli from their own culture (i.e., familiar) and from a different culture (i.e., unfamiliar) and asked to evaluate the emotion from one of the two modalities. Across modalities, the emotions were either the same (i.e., congruent, happy face, and happy voice) or different (i.e., incongruent, happy face, and sad voice).

RESULTS

When the input was in a familiar cultural context, American participants were more influenced by the visual modality, while Chinese participants were more influenced by the auditory modality. While both groups integrated the incongruent emotion from the irrelevant modality, only the American group integrated the congruent emotion from the irrelevant modality. When the input was in a less familiar cultural context, both groups showed increased visual dominance, but only the Chinese group simultaneously showed decreased auditory dominance.

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that cultural background and input familiarity interact to influence modality dominance during multisensory emotion perception. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Cultural Differences in How People Deal with Ridicule and Laughter: Differential Item Functioning between the Taiwanese Chinese and Canadian English Versions of the PhoPhiKat-45

The PhoPhiKat-45 measures three dispositions toward ridicule and laughter, including gelotophobia (i.e., the fear of being laughed at), gelotophilia (i.e., the joy of being laughed at), and katagelasticism (i.e., the joy of laughing at others). Despite numerous cultural adaptations, there is a paucity of cross-cultural studies investigating measurement invariance of this measure. Undergraduate students from a Canadian university (N = 1467; 71.4% females) and 14 universities in Taiwan (N = 1274; 64.6% females) completed the English and Chinese PhoPhiKat-45 measures, respectively. Item response theory and differential item functioning analyses demonstrated that most items were well-distributed across the latent continuum. Five of 45 items were flagged for DIF, but all values had negligible effect sizes (McFadden's pseudo R² < 0.13). The Canadian sample was further subdivided into subsamples who identified as European White born in Canada (n = 567) and Chinese born in China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan (n = 180). In the subgroup analyses, no evidence of DIF was found. Findings support the utility of this measure across these languages and samples.

No strong evidence for universal gender differences in the development of cooperative behaviour across societies

Human cooperation varies both across and within societies, and developmental studies can inform our understanding of the sources of both kinds of variation. One key candidate for explaining within-society variation in cooperative behaviour is gender, but we know little about whether gender differences in cooperation take root early in ontogeny or emerge similarly across diverse societies. Here, we explore two existing cross-cultural datasets of 4- to 15-year-old children's preferences for equality in experimental tasks measuring prosociality (14 societies) and fairness (seven societies), and we look for evidence of (i) widespread gender differences in the development of cooperation, and (ii) substantial societal variation in gender differences. This cross-cultural approach is crucial for revealing universal human gender differences in the development of cooperation, and it helps answer recent calls for greater cultural diversity in the study of human development. We find that gender has little impact on the development of prosociality and fairness within these datasets, and we do not find much evidence for substantial societal variation in gender differences. We discuss the implications of these findings for our knowledge about the nature and origin of gender differences in cooperation, and for future research attempting to study human development using diverse cultural samples. This article is part of the theme issue 'Cooperation among women: evolutionary and cross-cultural perspectives'.

The effect of mobile phone addiction on perceived stress and mediating role of ruminations: Evidence from Chinese and Czech university students

Introduction

The rise in the capabilities of mobile devices and the associated increase in the proportion of time we spend on them has not only positive benefits but also several risks, including mobile phone addiction and its consequences. The complex mechanisms of the impact of this addiction on mental health, especially in a cross-cultural context, however, remain relatively unknown. The aim of this cross-cultural study was to investigate the mediating role of rumination on the association between mobile phone addiction and perceived stress.

Methods

A population of 358 Chinese and 282 Czech university students was tested using a battery of validated psychological tests that included a short version of the Smartphone Addiction Scale, the Ruminative Response Scale, and the Perceived Stress Scale.

Results

The results showed significant cross-cultural differences with Czech students manifesting greater rumination (d = 0.79) and perceived stress (d = 0.42) and Chinese students showing greater mobile phone addiction (d = 1.01). Mediation analyses showed that the effect of mobile phone addiction on stress levels was mediated through the rumination in both populations (45.6% and 80.9% of the explained variance for Chinese and Czech students, respectively) and did not differ between the two countries (estimate of difference [95%CI] = -0.052[-0.166, 0.037], p = 0.27). In contrast, the significant direct effect of mobile phone addiction on perceived stress was only present in Chinese students, where it was marginally larger than the indirect effect. In Czech students, the direct effect was not manifested and the difference between countries was significant (estimate of difference [95%CI] = 0.242 [0.035, 0.413], p < 0.001). In all of the cases, the association between the variables was positive, i.e., as one grew, so did the other. Finally, a moderated-mediation analysis confirmed that country of origin significantly moderated only the direct relationship between mobile phone dependence and perceived stress (p = 0.002).

Discussion

These results suggest that the mechanism of interaction between excessive mobile phone use and perceived stress is culturally conditioned, which may limit the transferability of research findings in a global context and requires further cross-cultural studies.

Do Positive Psychological Factors Equally Predict Resistance to Upper Respiratory Infections in African and European Americans?

Research has consistently shown that positive psychological constructs are linked to better physical health, but few studies have examined the role that race plays in this connection. We explored whether positive self-evaluations were equally protective against upper respiratory infection for 271 African American adults and 700 European American adults in a series of virus-exposure studies. Participants were assessed at baseline for psychological functioning and physical health, quarantined and exposed experimentally to a respiratory virus, and then monitored for infection and symptoms. Regression analyses revealed significant interactions between race and multiple positive psychological factors; several factors that were helpful to European Americans were unhelpful or even harmful to African Americans. Building on past work showing cross-cultural variation in the health correlates of affect, this study provides evidence that the health benefits of positive psychological constructs may not be universal and points to the need to explore factors that underpin these observed differential patterns.

Comparison of U.S. and Tajik infants' time in containment devices

How infants are held or contained throughout the day shape infants' experiences, particularly around movement and exploration. In Tajikistan, caregivers use "gahvora" cradles, which severely restrict the body and limbs. The present study explored the variability and use of containment devices in U.S. and Tajik infants. Using time diaries, we compared 12-month-olds in the U.S. and Tajikistan on the types of containments used and time spent in them throughout the day. During the day, Tajik infants accumulated more time in gahvoras than infants in the U.S. spent in cribs, primarily used for sleep, suggesting gahvoras served other functions. Given the availability of other devices, U.S. infants' time was distributed in short yet frequent bouts across devices. Accumulated time in these containments matched accumulated time Tajik infants spent in gahvoras. Tajik infants accumulated more unrestricted time on the ground, which was distributed in prolonged bouts, than U.S. infants. Findings highlight differences in infants' everyday experiences during the developmental period when motor skills emerge. By embracing commonalities and exploring differences between cultures, this study offers insights into differences in infants' everyday experiences and opportunities for movement.

Cross-Cultural Differences in Student Attitudes Toward Intimate Partner Violence: A Systematic Review

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major human rights and public health problem which occurs at exceptionally high rates among tertiary students. Attitudes toward IPV are increasingly being recognized as a key risk factor for IPV and targeted in IPV prevention programs on college and university campuses. Understanding the influence of culture on attitudes toward IPV is necessary to change attitudes supportive of IPV and ultimately reduce the occurrence of IPV in the student population. This review sought to systematically identify, appraise, and synthesize research studies examining cross-cultural differences in attitudes toward IPV among tertiary students. A comprehensive search of nine electronic databases was conducted from inception to 15 May 2019. Studies were required to have compared attitudes toward IPV (e.g., acceptance or justification of IPV) among two or more cultural groups (based on country, race, or ethnicity) of tertiary students. Eighteen articles met eligibility criteria for the review, representing over 6,800 students. The studies provide considerable evidence that student attitudes toward IPV differ across cultures. Students in the United States and ethnic majority students in the United States generally showed less accepting attitudes toward IPV than their counterparts in other countries and ethnic minority groups. The particular contexts in which IPV is justified may reflect cultural values and norms. The findings have important implications for prevention and intervention strategies aimed at improving attitudes toward IPV among tertiary students.

Cultural Differences in Fear of Negative Evaluation After Social Norm Transgressions and the Impact on Mental Health

Social norm transgressions are assumed to be at the root of numerous substantial negative outcomes for transgressors. There is a prevailing notion among lay people and scholars that transgressing social norms can negatively impact one's mental health. The present research aimed to examine this assumption, focusing on clinically relevant outcomes such as anxiety and depression. The present research further aimed to examine a social cognitive process for these outcomes in the form of fear of negative evaluations as a result of one's norm transgressing behavior. Specifically, it examined whether it is negative evaluations about ourselves or about those close to us that mediates the effect of social norm transgressions, and whether those may vary as a function of culture. Results of the present research, including a study with a community sample (N = 410), suggest a positive association between social norm transgressions and psychological distress. Results also suggest that increased fear of negative evaluation mediates that association but does so differently for people from more collectivistic cultures and people from less collectivistic cultures. For people from more collectivistic cultures increased fear of negative evaluation of close others may mediate the association between social norm transgressions and psychological distress. However, for people from less collectivistic cultures that association may be mediated by increased fear of negative evaluation of oneself. Implications for research on consequences of social norm transgressions and cross-cultural differences in perceptions of such consequences are discussed as are practical implications for motivating social norm adherence and the maintenance of constructive social norms.

Exact Number Concepts Are Limited to the Verbal Count Range

Previous findings suggest that mentally representing exact numbers larger than four depends on a verbal count routine (e.g., "one, two, three . . ."). However, these findings are controversial because they rely on comparisons across radically different languages and cultures. We tested the role of language in number concepts within a single population-the Tsimane' of Bolivia-in which knowledge of number words varies across individual adults. We used a novel data-analysis model to quantify the point at which participants (N = 30) switched from exact to approximate number representations during a simple numerical matching task. The results show that these behavioral switch points were bounded by participants' verbal count ranges; their representations of exact cardinalities were limited to the number words they knew. Beyond that range, they resorted to numerical approximation. These results resolve competing accounts of previous findings and provide unambiguous evidence that large exact number concepts are enabled by language.

Queen's Gambit Declined: The Gender-Equality Paradox in Chess Participation Across 160 Countries

The gender-equality paradox refers to the puzzling finding that societies with more gender equality demonstrate larger gender differences across a range of phenomena, most notably in the proportion of women who pursue degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math. The present investigation demonstrates across two different measures of gender equality that this paradox extends to chess participation (N = 803,485 across 160 countries; age range: 3-100 years), specifically that women participate more often in countries with less gender equality. Previous explanations for the paradox fail to account for this finding. Instead, consistent with the notion that gender equality reflects a generational shift, mediation analyses suggest that the gender-equality paradox in chess is driven by the greater participation of younger players in countries with less gender equality. A curvilinear effect of gender equality on the participation of female players was also found, demonstrating that gender differences in chess participation are largest at the highest and lowest ends of the gender-equality spectrum.

Fostering Creativity and Critical Thinking in College: A Cross-Cultural Investigation

Enhancing creativity and critical thinking have garnered the attention of educators and researchers for decades. They have been highlighted as essential skills for the 21st century. A total of 103 United States students (53 female, 24 male, two non-binary, and 24 non-reporting) and 166 Chinese students (128 female, 30 male, one non-binary, and seven non-reporting) completed an online survey. The survey includes the STEAM-related creative problem solving, Sternberg scientific reasoning tasks, psychological critical thinking (PCT) exam, California critical thinking (CCT) skills test, and college experience survey, as well as a demographic questionnaire. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) yields a two-factor model for all creativity and critical thinking measurements. Yet, the two latent factors are strongly associated with each other (r=0.84). Moreover, Chinese students outperform American students in measures of critical thinking, whereas Americans outperform Chinese students in measures of creativity. Lastly, the results also demonstrate that having some college research experience (such as taking research method courses) could positively influence both United States and Chinese students’ creativity and critical thinking skills. Implications are discussed.

Cross-Cultural Differences and Psychometric Properties of the Japanese Actions and Feelings Questionnaire (J-AFQ)

Aims: We aimed to assess the psychometric properties of a Japanese version of the Actions and Feelings Questionnaire (J-AFQ), an 18-item self-report measure of non-verbal emotional communication, as well as to examine its transcultural properties.

Methods: The J-AFQ was administered to 500 Japanese adults (age 20–49, 250 male), alongside the Japanese Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire (BAPQ-J) and Empathy Quotient (EQ-J). These were compared to a group of 597 British and Irish participants (age 16–18, 148 male). J-AFQ was assessed in terms of validity by confirmatory factor analysis and convergence with BAPQ-J and EQ-J using Pearson correlation. Internal consistency and differential item functioning (DIF) were assessed and compared between Japanese and UK/Irish participants.

Results: Reversed worded items (RWIs) showed poor item-total correlations but excluding these left a 13-item version of the J-AFQ with good internal consistency and content validity. Consistent with the English version, J-AFQ scores correlated with EQ and lower BAPQ scores. However, comparing across cultures, J-AFQ scores were significantly lower in the Japanese sample, and there was evidence of important DIF by country in over half of the J-AFQ items

Conclusion: Cultural differences in attitudes to self-report, as well as increased acquiescence to RWI's also seen in previous studies, limit the value of the 18-item instrument in Japanese culture. However, the 13-item J-AFQ is a valid and reliable measure of motor empathy, which, alongside the English version, offers promise for research in motor cognition and non-verbal emotional communication across cultures.

Is autism stigma higher in South Korea than the United States? Examining cultural tightness, intergroup bias, and concerns about heredity as contributors to heightened autism stigma

LAY ABSTRACT

Misunderstandings about autism may be more common in South Korea than the United States. Koreans often have clear ideas about how people should act. Another way of saying this is that Korea has a tight culture. Americans are looser, meaning people are freer to act as they like. Autistic people often do not act as people expect them to. This makes autistic people stand out. Autistic people may stand out more in tight cultures like South Korea. We studied how people in South Korea and the United States feel about autism. We wanted to see why Korean people might reject autistic people more than people in the United States do. American and Korean people did online surveys. Koreans said they did not want to get close to autistic people more than Americans did. People who understood autism and had met and liked autistic people wanted to get closer to autistic people. We were surprised to learn that Americans said having an autistic brother or sister makes it harder to find a romantic partner more than Korean people did. People who believed that autism makes it harder for family members to find love did not want to get very close to autistic people. Koreans said people should act as expected more than Americans did. People who believed that acting as expected was important did not want to get very close to autistic people. Teaching people that there are many ways of being a good person may help them understand and appreciate autistic people.

Iranian and American Moral Judgments for Everyday Dilemmas Are Mostly Similar

Moral judgment is a complex cognitive process that partly depends upon social and individual cultural values. There have been various efforts to categorize different aspects of moral judgment, but most studies depend upon rare dilemmas. We recruited 25 subjects from Tehran, Iran, to rate 150 everyday moral scenarios developed by Knutson et al. Using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), we observed that the same moral dimensions (except socialness dimension) were driven by the same moral cognitive factors (norm violation, intention, and social affect) in Iranian vs. American studies. However, there were minor differences in the factor loadings between the two cultures. Furthermore, based on the EFA results, we developed a short form of the questionnaire by removing eleven of the fifteen scenarios from each of the ten categories. These results could be used in further studies to better understand the similarities and differences in moral judgment in everyday interactions across different cultures.

Cross-cultural similarities and differences in the theoretical predictors of cyberbullying perpetration: Results from a seven-country study

The Barlett Gentile cyberbullying model (BGCM) posits that correlated anonymity perceptions and the belief in the irrelevance of muscularity for online bullying (BIMOB) predict positive cyberbullying attitudes to predict subsequent cyberbullying perpetration. Much research has shown the BGCM to be the only published theory that differentiates traditional and cyberbullying while validly predicting cyberbullying. So far, however, the cross-cultural ubiquity has gone understudied. Thus, 1,592 adult participants across seven countries (USA, Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Japan, and Singapore) completed measures germane to the BGCM. Supporting the BGCM, the variables were significantly correlated for the entire sample, participants from independent cultures, and participants from interdependent cultures. However, the relationship between BIMOB and positive cyberbullying attitudes as well as the relationship between positive cyberbullying attitudes and cyberbullying perpetration were stronger for independent cultures. These results suggest that the BGCM postulates are mostly universal, but several relations appear to be culturally different. Theoretical implications are discussed.

An Exploratory Study on Cross-Cultural Differences in Facial Emotion Recognition Between Adults From Malaysia and Australia

While culture and depression influence the way in which humans process emotion, these two areas of investigation are rarely combined. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the difference in facial emotion recognition among Malaysian Malays and Australians with a European heritage with and without depression. A total of 88 participants took part in this study (Malays n = 47, Australians n = 41). All participants were screened using The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 Clinician Version (SCID-5-CV) to assess the Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) diagnosis and they also completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). This study consisted of the facial emotion recognition (FER) task whereby the participants were asked to look at facial images and determine the emotion depicted by each of the facial expressions. It was found that depression status and cultural group did not significantly influence overall FER accuracy. Malaysian participants without MDD and Australian participants with MDD performed quicker as compared to Australian participants without MDD on the FER task. Also, Malaysian participants more accurately recognized fear as compared to Australian participants. Future studies can focus on the extent of the influence and other aspects of culture and participant condition on facial emotion recognition.

Revisiting the Suffixing Preference: Native-Language Affixation Patterns Influence Perception of Sequences

Similarities among the world’s languages may be driven by universal features of human cognition or perception. For example, in many languages, complex words are formed by adding suffixes to the ends of simpler words, but adding prefixes is much less common: Why might this be? Previous research suggests this is due to a domain-general perceptual bias: Sequences differing at their ends are perceived as more similar to each other than sequences differing at their beginnings. However, as is typical in psycholinguistic research, the evidence comes exclusively from one population—English speakers—who have extensive experience with suffixing. Here, we provided a much stronger test of this claim by investigating perceptual-similarity judgments in speakers of Kîîtharaka, a heavily prefixing Bantu language spoken in rural Kenya. We found that Kîîtharaka speakers (N = 72) showed the opposite judgments to English speakers (N = 51), which calls into question whether a universal bias in human perception can explain the suffixing preference in the world’s languages.

Examining Gender Differences, Personality Traits, Academic Performance, and Motivation in Ukrainian and Polish Students of Physical Education: A Cross-Cultural Study

Background: This study examined the relationship of academic performance with the Big Five traits of personality, academic motivation, and gender in a cross-cultural context. Methods: Participants in the study were 424 university students of physical education (PE) departments from Poland (53%) and Ukraine (47%). Undergraduates completed a brief version of the International Personality Item Pool (Mini-IPIP) to assess the Five-Factor model of personality, the Academic Motivations Scale (AMS), and grade point average (GPA). Results: Polish PE students scored higher in emotional stability and extroversion and had a higher GPA than Ukrainian PE undergraduates. Gender differences were found in both personality traits and academic motivation scales. Intrinsic motivation may predict academic performance. Conscientiousness and intellect emerged as mediators of the relationship between intrinsic motivation and academic performance and gender was found as a moderator in the relationship between conscientiousness and academic success. Conclusions: Women are more motivated regarding academic achievements than men. In addition to intrinsic motivation, the most important factors for academic grades are some personality traits, gender, and cultural differences. Openness and conscientiousness in men are mediators between intrinsic motivation and academic performance. The results of this study may be useful for PE academic teachers to improve the motivation of their students.

The Fairytale Semantic Differential Technique: A Cross-Cultural Application

The “Fairytale Semantic Differential” method, in which the respondent assesses several fairytale characters according to a set of personal characteristics, is designed for individual psychological work with children 4–10 years old. Personality characteristics, according to which the characters are evaluated, are formulated in terms understandable to child respondents, i.e., these are words that parents and teachers use when dealing with children of this age. An analysis of the child’s attitude to a certain fairytale character makes it possible to determine the individual properties of his/her moral value sphere. Quantitative indicators that can be calculated on the basis of the data collected by the questionnaire are discussed. These indicators characterize the child’s personality, his/her understanding of interpersonal relationships, the dimensionality of the categorial space of interpersonal perception, the content of these categories and its hierarchy, the level of cognitive development in this domain, and the degree of socialization. The results of an empirical study that was conducted in Moscow, Baku, and Tashkent are presented. Age and sex differences were found in the cognitive complexity of interpersonal perception and socialization. Also, an example of individual semantic space is presented.

Beyond Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) Psychology: Measuring and Mapping Scales of Cultural and Psychological Distance

In this article, we present a tool and a method for measuring the psychological and cultural distance between societies and creating a distance scale with any population as the point of comparison. Because psychological data are dominated by samples drawn from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) nations, and overwhelmingly, the United States, we focused on distance from the United States. We also present distance from China, the country with the largest population and second largest economy, which is a common cultural comparison. We applied the fixation index (F_ST), a meaningful statistic in evolutionary theory, to the World Values Survey of cultural beliefs and behaviors. As the extreme WEIRDness of the literature begins to dissolve, our tool will become more useful for designing, planning, and justifying a wide range of comparative psychological projects. Our code and accompanying online application allow for comparisons between any two countries. Analyses of regional diversity reveal the relative homogeneity of the United States. Cultural distance predicts various psychological outcomes.

Measurement Invariance of Three Narcissism Questionnaires Across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany

With a recent surge of research on narcissism, narcissism questionnaires are increasingly being translated and applied in various countries. The measurement invariance of an instrument across countries is a precondition for being able to compare scores across countries. We investigated the cross-cultural measurement invariance of three narcissism questionnaires (Brief Pathological Narcissism Inventory [B-PNI], Narcissistic Personality Inventory [NPI], and Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire [NARQ]) and mean-level differences across samples from the United States (N = 2,464), the United Kingdom (N = 307), and Germany (N = 925). Overall, the B-PNI and NARQ functioned equivalently for the U.S. and U.K. participants. More violations of measurement invariance were found between Germany and the combined U.S. and U.K. samples, and for the NPI. In the B-PNI and NARQ, Americans scored higher than individuals from the United Kingdom regarding agentic aspects (self-sacrificing self-enhancement, admiration), while Germans scored lower than both Americans and U.K. individuals regarding antagonistic (entitlement rage, rivalry) and neurotic (hiding the self, contingent self-esteem) aspects. More inconsistent results were found for NPI facets. When noninvariance was present, observed means yielded biased results. Thus, the degree of measurement invariance across translated instrument versions should be considered in cross-cultural comparisons, even with culturally similar countries.

Doping Use in High-School Students: Measuring Attitudes, Self-Efficacy, and Moral Disengagement Across Genders and Countries

The main aim of this research was to test the factorial validity and measurement invariance across genders and countries of a set of instruments designed to assess high-school students’ attitudes, self-regulatory efficacy, and moral disengagement with regard to doping. A second aim was to examine the criterion and predictive validity of these scales. In total, 402 high-school students from Italy, Romania, and Turkey (40.0, 25.1, and 34.9%, respectively; M age 14.78 years old; SD = 1.04; 52.8% females) completed questionnaires measuring attitudes toward doping, self-regulatory efficacy in refraining from doping, doping-specific moral disengagement, and intention to use doping substances. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported our expectations with regard to the factor structure of the scales. Multigroup CFAs provided evidence for the full equivalence of the measures across males and females and partial equivalence of the measures across the three countries. The results of the latent mean comparison showed that male students had lower levels of self-regulatory efficacy than females and that Romanian and Turkish students had higher levels of moral disengagement and lower level of self-regulatory efficacy than Italian students. Finally, the results of a structural equation modeling supported the hypothesis that the proposed model predicted students’ intentions to use doping, thus generally confirming the criterion and the predictive validity of the measures. These findings suggested the validity of a set of instruments measuring attitudes toward doping, self-regulatory efficacy to refrain from doping, and doping-specific moral disengagement in high-school students from a cross-gender and a cross-cultural perspective and provided meaningful estimates of the differences in the three factors between males and females as well as between Italian, Romanian, and Turkish high-school students.

A Contextual Behavioral Account of Culture: Example Implementation of a Functional Behavioral Approach to the Study of Cultural Differences in Social Anxiety

The current article proposes integrating a functional behavior approach to the study of culture. After describing culture from a contextual behavioral science framework, we outline a three-step process to perform a functional behavior analysis of culture: (1) identifying potential contingencies, (2) determining functional relationships, and (3) gathering supporting evidence. As an example, we present each of the three steps through a re-analysis of data related to cultural differences in social anxiety between Japanese and European Americans as well as describe a hypothetical experiment. The results demonstrate how implementing an alternative framework that focuses on the relationship between behavioral function and environmental adaptability leads to different conclusions compared to implementing frameworks that emphasize the form or degree of a behavior or belief in one group compared to another. For this particular example, in contrast to viewing social anxiety in Japanese as something stemming from innate beliefs about themselves and others (e.g., self-construal), the current study suggests that displaying social anxiety in some situations within a Japanese context is more functionally adaptive (e.g., more likely leads to desirable outcomes) than within a European American context.

Neutral but not in the middle: cross-cultural comparisons of negative bias of "neutral" emotional stimuli

Previous studies have shown that the perception of neutral emotion stimuli can be negative rather than absolutely neutral. In the current study, we examined the negative bias of both neutral faces and scenes, cross-culturally between East Asians (e.g. Koreans) and Caucasian Americans. In all experiments, participants performed a Go/No-go task, by either executing or withholding a response toward neutral stimuli presented in the context of positive or negative stimuli. Differentiating neutral stimuli from negative stimuli was less accurate, measured in d', than doing so from positive stimuli. This negative bias was evident with both faces (Experiments 1 and 2) and scenes (Experiment 3). In all experiments, while both ethnic groups demonstrated significant negative biases, there was a subtle modulation of the bias by cultural background. For example, for Korean faces and IAPS scenes, Koreans showed a mitigated negative bias and Caucasian Americans demonstrated a greater negative bias. However, for Caucasian faces, bias was comparable between the two groups. With the possibility of cultural modulation, the prevalent negative bias of neutral emotion questions the validity of the neutrality assumption of the neutral emotion. The study discusses the necessity of methodological and theoretical reconsiderations for the utilisation of neutral emotion stimuli.

Self-Construal Differences in Chile and South Korea: A Brief Report

Latin American and East Asian cultures are generally considered to be collectivistic cultures. However, there are very few cross-cultural studies contrasting these two cultures against each other, as most studies in this field compare them to Western culture. Self-construal is one of the most used constructs to explain cultural differences, elucidating whether individuals of a cultural group see themselves as independent of their environment and others, focusing on personal motivations, or interdependent of others and their context, recognizing their role within it. This study intends to compare the self-construal of Chileans and South Koreans and observe the variability in the presence of these dimensions in these two cultures. A total of 200 participants from Chile and South Korea responded to the Self-Construal Scale. Chileans presented significantly higher scores on independent and interdependent self-construal simultaneously when compared to South Koreans. Also, Chileans presented higher scores on independent self-construal than on interdependent self-construal, while Koreans did not show a preference for either dimension. These results are consistent with previous studies on Chileans, implying that not all Latin American countries would adhere to collectivism.

The Relationship Between Future Time Perspective and Self-Esteem: A Cross-Cultural Study of Chinese and American College Students

The present study explored cross-cultural differences in future time perspective (FTP) and self-esteem and investigated whether the relationship between FTP and self-esteem differs between China and America. The FTP Scale and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale were administered to 460 Chinese and 340 American undergraduates. Results showed that American undergraduates scored higher on the future-negative, future-positive, future-confusion, future-perseverant, and future-perspicuity subscales than did Chinese undergraduates; American undergraduates also had higher self-esteem than did Chinese undergraduates. The dimensions of FTP (future-negative, future-positive, future-confusion, and future-perseverant) significantly predicted self-esteem in both the Chinese and American samples. These results broaden our understanding of cross-cultural differences in FTP and self-esteem. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Obsessions Across Two Cultures: A Comparison of Belgian and Turkish Non-clinical Samples

There is a growing interest in the role of culture in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, yet cultural studies to date have suffered from methodological limitations and lack a clear theoretical framework. In the current study, we adopted a rigorous methodological approach, and a clear cultural psychological framework. We compared the structure and frequency of obsessions in non-clinical samples (N = 706) from Belgium, a Western culture, and Turkey, a non-Western cultural context. Obsessions were measured by a newly compiled instrument that included a broad range of obsessions. Cross-cultural equivalence of the structure of obsessions was assessed both in the pooled data, and in each culture separately. At an abstract level, we found a two-factor structure that was cross-culturally invariant, and that fit both cultures equally well. These two types of obsessions each corresponded with a different model of agency. Compared to the Turkish sample, the Belgian sample reported more obsessions that can be understood from a disjoint (independent) model of agency as frequently found in Western cultures, whereas the Turkish sample, compared to their Belgian counterparts, reported more obsessions that can be tied to a conjoint (shared) model of agency as frequently found in non-Western cultural contexts. Differences in the prevalent types of obsessions were systematic and interpretable, therefore. In addition to the cross-culturally equivalent two-factor structure, we found culture-specific factor solutions; these solutions point to cultural differences in the experience of obsessions that have yet to be fully understood. In the Discussion, we outline future directions of the research on culture and obsessions.

Generalizability is not optional: insights from a cross-cultural study of social discounting

Current scientific reforms focus more on solutions to the problem of reliability (e.g. direct replications) than generalizability. Here, we use a cross-cultural study of social discounting to illustrate the utility of a complementary focus on generalizability across diverse human populations. Social discounting is the tendency to sacrifice more for socially close individuals-a phenomenon replicated across countries and laboratories. Yet, when adapting a typical protocol to low-literacy, resource-scarce settings in Bangladesh and Indonesia, we find no independent effect of social distance on generosity, despite still documenting this effect among US participants. Several reliability and validity checks suggest that methodological issues alone cannot explain this finding. These results illustrate why we must complement replication efforts with investment in strong checks on generalizability. By failing to do so, we risk developing theories of human nature that reliably explain behaviour among only a thin slice of humanity.

Bullying History and Mental Health In University Students: The Mediator Roles of Social Support, Personal Resilience, and Self-Efficacy

Bullying victimization by peers is highly prevalent in childhood and adolescence. There is convincing evidence that victimization is associated with adverse mental health consequences. In contrast, it has been found that perpetrators suffer no adverse mental health consequences. These findings originate from Western countries such as Germany but have rarely been investigated in collectivistic societies such as China. Furthermore, it has been rarely studied whether positive intrapersonal characteristics (e.g., personal resilience and self-efficacy) and interpersonal positive resources (e.g., social support) may mediate the impact of bullying on mental health. The current study used a path analytic model to examine, firstly, whether previous bullying experiences (both victimization and perpetration) are associated with current positive and negative mental health in university students and, secondly, whether these influences are mediated by social support, resilience, and self-efficacy. The model was tested in 5,912 Chinese and 1,935 German university students. It was found that in both countries, higher victimization frequency was associated with lower levels of social support, personal resilience, and self-efficacy, which in turn predicted poorer mental health. Moreover, and only in China, perpetration was negatively associated with social support and personal resilience but not self-efficacy. In contrast, in the German sample, perpetration experience was found to enhance one's self-efficacy, and the later was associated with better mental health. The results support a mediation model in which social support, personal resilience, and self-efficacy partially mediate the influence of victimization on mental health in both countries. For the relationship between perpetration and mental health, self-efficacy was the only full mediator in Germany, whereas in China, both social support and personal resilience were partial mediators. In conclusion, peer victimization has adverse effects on mental health in both Germany and China. Only in China, however, is perpetration also associated with adverse mental health outcomes. In contrast, getting ahead by bullying in an individualistic society such as Germany is associated with increased self-efficacy and mental health. The differences found between an individualistic country and a collectivistic country have important implications for understanding and planning interventions to reduce bullying.

Cross-Cultural and Gender Differences in ADHD Among Young Adults

OBJECTIVE

This study explored the effect of cultural and gender differences in ADHD among Spanish, African American, Hispanic American, and European American young adults.

METHOD

Structural equivalence between the four groups was examined by Tucker's phi coefficient. A MANCOVA was carried out with cultural groups and gender as factors and age as covariate.

RESULTS

Structural equivalence was observed across all groups, and no differential item functioning was found. No significant effect was found for gender, although, with the exception of the Hispanic group, males scored higher than females. Furthermore, small, though significant, cultural differences were found. The lowest levels of ADHD were observed in the European American group and the highest in the Hispanic American group. ADHD symptoms, notably inattention, showed some decline with age.

CONCLUSION

Findings extend existing data and suggest a relationship between culture and the development of ADHD, which might be mediated by parenting style.

Workaholism on Job Burnout: A Comparison Between American and Chinese Employees

Past research frequently reports significant relation between workaholism and job burnout, and some studies further indicate workaholism varies across countries. Surprisingly, there is no study that directly examines whether country moderates the workaholism-burnout association. To address this research question, we have collected independent work samples from two culturally diverse countries, namely the People's Republic of China and the United States. A total of 2243 participants (1243 American respondents and 1000 Chinese respondents) were recruited. Preliminary group comparison suggested that there were statistical differences among participants from different industries on the key variables, including workaholism, job demands, autonomy and emotional exhaustion. Therefore, we have divided our participants into three subsamples [i.e., (1) natural resources, mining and construction industry, (2) manufacturing industry, and (3) service industry] and separate analyses were conducted. In the moderated regression analyses, workaholism significantly predicted two dimensions of job burnout, namely emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, even when job demand and job autonomy were controlled. Finally, although two significant moderating effects were found, there was a lack of consistent empirical support to the hypothesized moderating effect of country on workaholism-burnout association. Implications and limitations were discussed.

Cross-cultural differences in implicit learning of chunks versus symmetries

Three experiments explore whether knowledge of grammars defining global versus local regularities has an advantage in implicit acquisition and whether this advantage is affected by cultural differences. Participants were asked to listen to and memorize a number of strings of 10 syllables instantiating an inversion (i.e. a global pattern); after the training phase, they were required to judge whether new strings were well formed. In Experiment 1, Western people implicitly acquired the inversion rule defined over the Chinese tones in a similar way as Chinese participants when alternative structures (specifically, chunking and repetition structures) were controlled. In Experiments 2 and 3, we directly pitted knowledge of the inversion (global) against chunk (local) knowledge, and found that Chinese participants had a striking global advantage in implicit learning, which was greater than that of Western participants. Taken together, we show for the first time cross-cultural differences in the type of regularities implicitly acquired.

The neural underpinnings of cross-cultural differences in creativity

Whereas Western individualistic cultures emphasize uniqueness, collectivistic East-Asian cultures discourage it. Here we examined whether cross-cultural differences in creativity as measured by a task of divergent thinking (DT) are explained by enhanced activity in brain regions that mediate inhibitory control (e.g., the left inferior frontal gyrus [L-IFG]). We therefore predicted that the L-IFG would be "hyperactive" among individuals from East-Asian cultures compared to Western ones. In Study 1, Israeli and South Korean participants were compared on a classic DT task (AUT; "Alternate uses: Manual of instructions and interpretation"). Israelis generated more original ideas compared to South Koreans. In Study 2, Israeli participants and South Korean participants currently living in Israel were scanned while performing the AUT. In line with previous studies, the results indicate that generation of original ideas across cultures is associated with activation of the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), which is part of the default mode network (DMN). As hypothesized, South Koreans showed enhanced activation of the L-IFG compared to Israelis. This enhanced activation was associated with lower originality scores. The cultural dimension of traditionalism, being higher in the South Korean sample than in the Israeli Sample, was related to enhance L-IFG activity, further supporting our hypothesis regarding cultural influences on inhibitory control. Furthermore, functional connectivity analysis indicated that activation of the L-IFG was positively coupled with PCC activity among Israelis and with preSMA activity among South Koreans. The results suggest that cross-cultural differences in creativity might be explained by variations in inhibitory control.

How Much Is Enough in a Perfect World? Cultural Variation in Ideal Levels of Happiness, Pleasure, Freedom, Health, Self-Esteem, Longevity, and Intelligence

The maximization principle-that people aspire to the highest possible level of something good if all practical constraints are removed-is a common yet untested assumption about human nature. We predict that in holistic cultures-where contradiction, change, and context are emphasized-ideal states of being for the self will be more moderate than in other cultures. In two studies ( Ns = 2,392 and 6,239), we asked this question: If participants could choose their ideal level of happiness, pleasure, freedom, health, self-esteem, longevity, and intelligence, what level would they choose? Consistent with predictions, results showed that maximization was less pronounced in holistic cultures; members of holistic cultures aspired to less happiness, pleasure, freedom, health, self-esteem, longevity, and IQ than did members of other cultures. In contrast, no differences emerged on ideals for society. The studies show that the maximization principle is not a universal aspect of human nature and that there are predictable cultural differences in people's notions of perfection.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) targeting the left inferior frontal gyrus: Effects on creativity across cultures

Although evidence points to the existence of cultural differences in creativity, the mechanisms that underlie these differences are largely unknown. The twofold model of creativity posits two recursive stages: a generation phase and an evaluation phase. Considering that recent studies suggest that the left inferior frontal gyrus) L-IFG(may inhibit creativity during the evaluation phase, we hypothesized that manipulating IFG activity would affect participants' level of creativity. We further predicted that the IFG may be "hyperactive" in a culture that typically discourages uniqueness (e.g., Japan) as compared to a Western culture (e.g., Israel); therefore the effect of inhibiting the L-IFG was expected to be higher in Japanese. To support this hypothesis we altered L-IFG activation using tDCS (transcranial direct current stimulation) in 30 Japanese and 30 Israeli participants and examined the effect of anodal and cathodal stimulation on divergent thinking (DT). Regardless of culture, cathodal stimulation increased creativity compared to sham, while anodal stimulation diminished creativity. Although cultural differences were found in DT scores, stimulation had no differential effect between the cultures. Taken together, the results confirm that the L-IFG plays a key role in creativity across cultures. The null findings regarding the expected interaction between stimulation and culture are discussed.

Using Anchoring Vignettes to Adjust Self-Reported Personality: A Comparison Between Countries

Data from self-report tools cannot be readily compared between cultures due to culturally specific ways of using a response scale. As such, anchoring vignettes have been proposed as a suitable methodology for correcting against this difference. We developed anchoring vignettes for the Big Five Inventory-44 (BFI-44) to supplement its Likert-type response options. Based on two samples (Rwanda: n = 423; Philippines: n = 143), we evaluated the psychometric properties of the measure both before and after applying the anchoring vignette adjustment. Results show that adjusted scores had better measurement properties, including improved reliability and a more orthogonal correlational structure, relative to scores based on the original Likert scale. Correlations of the Big Five Personality Factors with life satisfaction were essentially unchanged after the vignette-adjustment while correlations with counterproductive were noticeably lower. Overall, these changed findings suggest that the use of anchoring vignette methodology improves the cross-cultural comparability of self-reported personality, a finding of potential interest to the field of global workforce research and development as well as educational policymakers.

Global Increases in Individualism

Individualism appears to have increased over the past several decades, yet most research documenting this shift has been limited to the study of a handful of highly developed countries. Is the world becoming more individualist as a whole? If so, why? To answer these questions, we examined 51 years of data on individualist practices and values across 78 countries. Our findings suggest that individualism is indeed rising in most of the societies we tested. Despite dramatic shifts toward greater individualism around the world, however, cultural differences remain sizable. Moreover, cultural differences are primarily linked to changes in socioeconomic development, and to a lesser extent to shifts in pathogen prevalence and disaster frequency.

The Headscarf Effect Revisited: Further Evidence for a Culture-Based Internal Face Processing Advantage

Encoding the internal features of unfamiliar faces poses a perceptual challenge that occasionally results in face recognition errors. Extensive experience with faces framed by a headscarf may, however, enhance perceivers' ability to process internal facial information. To examine this claim empirically, participants in the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America completed a standard part-whole face recognition task. Accuracy on the task was examined using a 2 (perceiver culture: Emirati vs American) x 2 (face race: Arab vs white) x 2 (probe type: part vs whole) x 3 (probe feature: eyes vs nose vs mouth) mixed-measures analysis of variance. As predicted, Emiratis outperformed Americans on the administered task. Although their recognition advantage occurred regardless of probe type, it was most pronounced for Arab faces and for trials that captured the processing of nose or mouth information. The findings demonstrate that culture-based experiences hone perceivers' face processing skills.

Do infants discriminate non-linguistic vocal expressions of positive emotions?

Adults are highly proficient in understanding emotional signals from both facial and vocal cues, including when communicating across cultural boundaries. However, the developmental origin of this ability is poorly understood, and in particular, little is known about the ontogeny of differentiation of signals with the same valence. The studies reported here employed a habituation paradigm to test whether preverbal infants discriminate between non-linguistic vocal expressions of relief and triumph. Infants as young as 6 months who had habituated to relief or triumph showed significant discrimination of relief and triumph tokens at test (i.e. greater recovery to the unhabituated stimulus type), when exposed to tokens from a single individual (Study 1). Infants habituated to expressions from multiple individuals showed less consistent discrimination in that consistent discrimination was only found when infants were habituated to relief tokens (Study 2). Further, infants tested with tokens from individuals from different cultures showed dishabituation only when habituated to relief tokens and only at 10-12 months (Study 3). These findings suggest that discrimination between positive emotional expressions develops early and is modulated by learning. Further, infants' categorical representations of emotional expressions, like those of speech sounds, are influenced by speaker-specific information.

Ageism in Belgium and Burundi: a comparative analysis

BACKGROUND

Recent cross-cultural comparisons between Asian and Western cultures have shown that ageism arises more from the lack of availability of social and economic resources for older adults than from the culture itself. We tested this assumption by conducting a survey among people living in a least developed country compared with those living in a developed country.

PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS

Twenty-seven Belgians living in Belgium, 29 Burundians living in Belgium, and 32 Burundians living in Burundi were included in this study. Their attitudes toward older adults were assessed using several self-reported measures.

RESULTS

Statistical analyses confirmed that older people are more negatively perceived by Burundians living in Burundi than by Burundians and Belgians living in Belgium, whose attitudes did not differ from each other.

CONCLUSION

Consistent with our hypothesis, our results suggest that the level of development of a country and more particularly the lack of government spending on older people (pension and health care systems) may contribute to their younger counterparts perceiving them more negatively.

Do stigma and its psychosocial impact differ between Asian-born Chinese immigrants and Western-born Caucasians with head and neck cancer?

Stigma appears to influence emotional distress and well-being in cancer survivors, but cross-cultural differences have been ignored. Previous studies suggest that stigma may be especially relevant for survivors of Asian origin. However, their study designs (e.g. focused on female cancers, qualitative designs, and an absence of comparison groups) limit the strength of this conclusion. We hypothesized that (1) Asian-born Chinese immigrants (AI) would report more perceived cancer-related stigma than Western-born Caucasians (WBC); and (2) the impact of stigma on emotional distress and well-being would be greater in AI as compared to WBC. Head and neck cancer survivors (n = 118 AI and n = 404 WBC) completed measures of well-being, emotional distress, and a three-item indicator of stigma in structured interviews. The majority of respondents (59%) reported one or more indicators of stigma. Stigma correlated significantly with emotional distress (r = .13, p = .004) and well-being (r = -.09, p = .032). Contrary to our hypotheses, WBCs and AIs did not differ in reported stigma nor did we detect differences in its psychosocial impact. Stigma exerts a deleterious psychosocial impact on head and neck cancer survivors. It did not differ significantly between AI and WBC survivors.

Qualities of Inpatient Hospital Rooms: Patients' Perspectives

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate what design features of hospital rooms are valued by inpatients.

BACKGROUND

Little research has explored how patients evaluate the physical environment of their hospital rooms. Most responses are captured by the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey, which includes only two questions about the physical environment.

METHOD

Two hundred thirty-six orthopedic patients (78 in the United States and 158 in Portugal) listed three features of their hospital room that influenced their level of satisfaction with their hospital stay, indicating whether the feature was positive or negative.

RESULTS

The comments were more positive (71.4%) than negative (28.6%). Using the framework of supportive design from Ulrich, over half the comments (64.31%) could be categorized in one of the three dimensions: 33.2% (positive distraction), 22.4% (perceived control), and 6.0% (social support). This total includes Internet (2.7%), which could be categorized as either social support or positive distraction. Comments called "other aspects" focused on overall environmental appraisals, cleanliness, and functionality and maintenance.

CONCLUSIONS

The majority of comments could be accommodated by Ulrich's theory, but it is noteworthy that other aspects emerge from patients' comments and affect their experience. Cross-cultural differences pointed to the greater role of light and sun for Portuguese patients and health status whiteboard for U.S.

PATIENTS

Qualitative research can add significantly to our understanding of the healthcare experience and may inform design decisions.

Culture moderates the relationship between interdependence and face recognition

Recent theory suggests that face recognition accuracy is affected by people’s motivations, with people being particularly motivated to remember ingroup versus outgroup faces. In the current research we suggest that those higher in interdependence should have a greater motivation to remember ingroup faces, but this should depend on how ingroups are defined. To examine this possibility, we used a joint individual difference and cultural approach to test (a) whether individual differences in interdependence would predict face recognition accuracy, and (b) whether this effect would be moderated by culture. In Study 1 European Canadians higher in interdependence demonstrated greater recognition for same-race (White), but not cross-race (East Asian) faces. In Study 2 we found that culture moderated this effect. Interdependence again predicted greater recognition for same-race (White), but not cross-race (East Asian) faces among European Canadians; however, interdependence predicted worse recognition for both same-race (East Asian) and cross-race (White) faces among first-generation East Asians. The results provide insight into the role of motivation in face perception as well as cultural differences in the conception of ingroups.

Competence Judgments Based on Facial Appearance Are Better Predictors of American Elections Than of Korean Elections

Competence judgments based on facial appearance predict election results in Western countries, which indicates that these inferences contribute to decisions with social and political consequence. Because trait inferences are less pronounced in Asian cultures, such competence judgments should predict Asian election results less accurately than they do Western elections. In the study reported here, we compared Koreans' and Americans' competence judgments from face-to-trait inferences for candidates in U.S. Senate and state gubernatorial elections and Korean Assembly elections. Perceived competence was a far better predictor of the outcomes of real elections held in the United States than of elections held in Korea. When deciding which of two candidates to vote for in hypothetical elections, however, Koreans and Americans both voted on the basis of perceived competence inferred from facial appearance. Combining actual and hypothetical election results, we conclude that for Koreans, competence judgments from face-to-trait inferences are critical in voting only when other information is unavailable. However, in the United States, such competence judgments are substantially important, even in the presence of other information.