As large-scale collaborative, cross-cultural ethnographic research becomes easier and easier to realize, certain ethnographic methods and analyses should be correspondingly more available, inviting, and accommodating. We have therefore created AnthroTools, a package for the free, open-source language R, with a variety of tools and functions suitable for both multi-factor free-list analysis and Bayesian cultural consensus modeling. Free-list data elicitation is a simple technique for ethnographic research. However, especially for cross-cultural free-list data, background preparation is considerable and often requires specific software. In addition, although current cultural consensus analysis tools offer very sophisticated analyses, they also either require specialized software or have computationally taxing methods. AnthroTools expedites these techniques, rapidly performs diagnostics, and prepares data for further analysis. In this article, we briefly discuss what this package offers cross-cultural researchers and provide basic examples of some of its functions.
Given the importance of interethnic intimate relationships for the integration of minority groups, the present study examined attitudes toward marriages and sexual relationships with in-group and out-group members among young second-generation immigrants in the Netherlands compared with the Dutch. A sample of 95 ethnically Dutch, 68 Moroccan, and 68 Turkish individuals aged between 15 and 25, living in the Netherlands filled out an online questionnaire. Overall, individuals showed a preference for a marital partner from the same ethnic group as themselves, but a less pronounced preference for a sexual partner from their own ethnic group. Turkish and Moroccan, but not Dutch, men would rather engage in a sexual relationship than in a marriage with a Dutch woman, and rather in a marriage than in a sexual relationship with a woman from their own ethnic group. In contrast, women, especially Moroccan women would rather engage in a marriage than in a sexual relationship, preferably with someone of their own ethnic group. Finally, the more religious they were, the more Turkish and Moroccan women preferred a marital partner from their own ethnic group. Findings are discussed in the light of the integration of different ethnic groups in society.
In this article, we re-analyze the hypothesis that the relationship between the type of political regime and its political instability forms an inverted U shape. Following this logic, consistent democracies and autocracies are more stable regimes, whereas intermediate regimes (anocracies) display the lowest levels of political stability. We re-test this hypothesis using a data set that has not been previously used for this purpose, finding sufficient evidence to support the hypothesis pertaining to the aforementioned U-shaped relationship. Our analysis is specifically focused on the symmetry of this U shape, whereby our findings suggest that the U-shaped relationship between regime types and sociopolitical destabilization is typically characterized by an asymmetry, with consistently authoritarian regimes being generally less stable than consolidated democracies. We also find that the character of this asymmetry can change with time. In particular, our re-analysis suggests that U-shaped relationship experienced significant changes after the end of the Cold War. Before the end of the Cold War (1946-1991), the asymmetry of inverted U-shaped relationship was much less pronounced—though during this period consistent authoritarian regimes were already less stable than consolidated democracies, this very difference was only marginally significant. In the period that follows the end of the Cold War (1992-2014), this asymmetry underwent a substantial change: Consolidated democracies became significantly more stable, whereas consolidated autocracies became significantly more unstable. As a result, the asymmetry of the U-shaped relationship has become much more pronounced. The article discusses a number of factors that could account for this change.
We study whether having several siblings decreases the level of educational performance of adolescents and whether this phenomenon can be compensated by other factors such as the economic or cultural resources of the parents. Based on this compensation model, parental resources should be associated with children’s educational attainments more strongly in families with a higher rather than a lower number of children. We analyzed the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) data from 20 Western countries and found that better family wealth, an increased level of parental education, and a higher parental occupational status were associated with increased educational attainments more strongly among 15-year-old children who have siblings than among children without siblings. The same effect was not found in the case of family cultural possessions. Although parental resources may matter more in larger families than in smaller families, some types of resources are more important than others regarding compensation.
We describe methods of coding and analyzing historical and archaeological data for comparative analysis of premodern cities. As part of a larger study of spatial access to urban services, we identify eight relevant contextual domains and define variables for each domain. Information from publications on each city is assembled, and the data are coded independently by three scholars and checked for agreement. To date, we have completed contextual coding for 15 cities. Here, we focus on methods to analyze relationships among variables within contextual domains using two example domains—Class Mobility and Governance. Key methodological points involve the problem of missing data, multiple tests with an appropriate correction, and the importance of variation among cases for effective analysis of a domain. Our interpretation of preliminary findings highlights a degree of independence between two different arenas of social life that may relate to collective action. Documentation of our procedures contributes to a growing body of systematic, comparative, cross-cultural analyses of mid-size samples. This study is distinctive in its focus on cities rather than cultures, societies, or polities.
The spectator lek hypothesis argues that sex differences in preferences for sport largely stem from evolved predispositions and thus should be universal or near universal, whereas socioconstructivist hypotheses argue that such sex differences are entirely socially constructed and thus should vary as a function of a society’s gender inequality. To test these competing hypotheses, cross-national nested data were acquired from the International Social Survey Program (ss = 49,729, ncountries = 34). Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine whether sex differences in sport are universal or near universal when controlling for countries’ gender inequality. Findings indicate that even when controlling for gender inequality, sex differences remain in reporting sport as one’s most common activity, in watching sport, and in attending sport events and for agreeing with the statement that one plays sport to compete against others. Although this study was limited by the homogeneity of the sampled countries and the use of self-report measures, these findings nonetheless support the spectator lek hypothesis. Future research should examine case studies (e.g., matrilineal societies) that can specifically test the assumptions of the spectator lek hypothesis.
Across two studies, we tested whether members of host communities (i.e., locals) can themselves simultaneously maintain their national culture maintenance and adapt toward cultural diversity (i.e., multiculturalism) in their own home country, supporting a bidimensional model of acculturation, or whether these strategies are incompatible, supporting a unidimensional model of acculturation. We modified the Vancouver Index of Acculturation (Multi-VIA) to assess locals’ national culture maintenance and multicultural adaptation within their own home country. Study 1 supported the bidimensionality of the Multi-VIA in an American sample (n = 218). Moreover, we found an oblique association between locals’ national culture maintenance and multicultural adaptation. In Study 2, we tested the Multi-VIA’s psychometric properties across three continent groups (North America, Europe, and Asia; N = 619). Multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated good model fit for the entire sample. Nevertheless, the association between national culture maintenance and multicultural adaptation was orthogonal for Asians and oblique for Americans and Europeans. In addition, national culture maintenance predicted higher levels of locals’ life satisfaction, whereas multicultural adaptation was associated with less acculturative stress and greater intercultural sensitivity.
This research examines sense of place among hunter-gatherers. More specifically, it assesses whether or not hunter-gatherers are focused on social parameters when they form their sense of place. Most previous research of sense of place has taken place in industrial society where humans have become disconnected from the surrounding lands and spaces. As hunter-gatherers are dependent on the surrounding lands and spaces, this research will add valuable insights about the phenomenon of sense of place. The findings indicate that sense of place among hunter-gatherers is closely associated with the social group that they identify with. The most significant social unit in terms of sense of place for hunter-gatherers is the conglomeration of multifamily units. Overall, this study implies that sense of place among hunter-gatherers adds a spatial component to an individual’s overall sense of social identification.
Tropical Africa is known to be lagging far behind the rest of the world in its fertility transition. Many attempts have been made to specify the factors responsible for its resistance to fertility decline; however, no systemic explanation of the mechanisms sustaining its high fertility has been presented in cross-cultural perspective. In this article, we show how a set of anthropological factors provides both social and economic foundations for the preservation of high fertility in tropical Africa. Cross-cultural tests imply that the most important obstacles to tropical Africa’s fertility transition are (a) a high ideal family size, (b) a large potential to absorb increases in the female labor force participation rate without any substantial decreases in fertility due to ample child care readily available through extended family structures, (c) a large potential to increase fertility at the early stages of economic development through the abolition of postpartum sex taboos, and (d) a low potential for increases in birth spacing to contribute to fertility decline. In the last section, we discuss how the results obtained could be useful for policy recommendations aimed at accelerating the fertility decline in tropical Africa, and mitigating the forecasts of explosive population growth.
Multiculturalism and polyculturalism are two lay theories of culture that have been associated with some similar intergroup attitudes and behaviors. But other than the studies of Rosenthal and Levy in the United States, there have been no studies that directly distinguish between these two lay theories. In this study, we use confirmatory factor analysis procedures to show that multiculturalism and polyculturalism represent two distinct latent constructs among our 1,730 participants in six Asian cultural groups (China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines). Moreover, we show that essentializing race is associated with endorsement of multiculturalism (but not polyculturalism) in five cultural groups (except Hong Kong). The results provide strong cross-cultural empirical evidence for the distinction between the two lay theories and, more importantly, point to aspects of the lay theory of multiculturalism that relate to why it is sometimes associated with stronger stereotyping and prejudice toward minority cultural groups.
The current study focuses on the human value of forgiveness and explores its correlates using a country-level meta-analytical approach. We investigated the importance of forgiveness using the Rokeach Value Survey with 41,975 participants from 30 countries to address the following research questions: How important is forgiveness across different countries? What contextual variables correlate with the ranked importance of forgiveness? This study provides important insights on country-level correlates of forgiveness in regard to conditions that may favor prioritizing the value forgiveness and its possible implications for societies. The results show that the value forgiveness is related to a highly developed socioeconomic and sociopolitical environment as well as to subjective well-being at the country level.
Athletic contests constitute an important aspect of human affairs. However, the evolutionary origins of athletic behavior, that is, behavior which is associated with participating in and watching athletic contests, are rather obscure, as they do not seem to contribute directly to increasing survival or reproductive success. This article argues that athletic behavior has been shaped in ancestral times jointly by intrasexual selection forces, where men look for potential allies, and intersexual selection forces, where men look for spouses for their female relatives. On the basis of this evolutionary framework, a number of hypotheses are derived: First, men are more interested than women in taking part in and watching sports. In addition, men are more interested than women in taking part in and watching competitive sports than non-competitive sports, and are more interested in team sports than individual sports. Finally, men and women differ in their motives for participating in sports, while the sex differences in athletic behavior between men and women are consistent across different cultures. Evidence from a sample composed of 37 different countries provides support for all hypotheses.
Adaptive variation refers to the lock-and-key type relationship between an organism and its ecological niche. This includes a patterned relationship between human behavior and societal variation. As societies become more complex, for example, our capacity to process a great deal of information quickly increases (the Flynn effect). Such adaptive processes illuminate societal variation because there is a reliable pattern in comparative research whereby behavioral differences are predicted by ecological and demographic differences. This pattern cannot be explained in terms of genetic adaptation but reflects changes mostly occurring in the lifetime of the individual. It involves an evolved capacity of humans (and other species) to adapt their behavior developmentally to local challenges. The resulting phenotypes are ecologically predictable (or "adaptive") but may not maximize reproduction (e.g., low fertility in modern urban cities). This innovative theoretical approach is scientifically valid and heuristically useful based on comparisons across species and between societies.
This study investigated the effects of perceived maternal and paternal acceptance, and parental power and prestige on university students’ psychological adjustment. The sample consisted of 315 students (17% males) ages 18 through 49 years (M = 23.35) from the United Kingdom. Measures used were the adult versions of Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire for mothers and fathers, the adult version of the Parental Power–Prestige Questionnaire, and the adult version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire. Results showed significant positive correlations between perceived parental acceptance and students’ psychological adjustment, and between perceived maternal acceptance and power and prestige. Significant negative correlations were found between perceived paternal acceptance and power and prestige, and between perceived parental prestige and psychological adjustment as well as between a composite measure of power–prestige and students’ psychological adjustment. Results of hierarchical regression analyses showed that both perceived maternal and paternal acceptance made significant and unique contributions to students’ (both men’s and women’s) psychological adjustment. In addition, a composite measure of power–prestige significantly moderated the relationship between perceived maternal (but not paternal) acceptance and students’ psychological adjustment.
The present study aims to provide insights into the leadership–innovation relationship on the national level by considering national-level contingency factors. We argue that the impact of a prevailing leadership style on innovation is mediated by economic and political factors and innovation-related cultural practices. Moreover, it is argued that the educational level of a country is related to the prevailing leadership style and economic factors. We propose a model and test its explanatory power with a sample of 55 countries using variance-based structural equation modeling. The results show that the prevailing leadership style has no direct relationship with national innovation but is mediated by the abovementioned factors. The results also show that the level of education within a country is positively related to participative leadership and negatively to team-oriented leadership. Furthermore, the level of education is directly related to economic and political factors and indirectly to national innovation.
This article explored the effects of perceived maternal and paternal acceptance, power, and prestige on children’s psychological adjustment. The sample consisted of 254 children (59% boys) ages 9 through 12 years (M = 10.88) from Bangladesh. The measures used were the child versions of the Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire for mothers and fathers, the youth version of the Parental Power–Prestige Questionnaire, and the child version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire. Results showed that perceived maternal and paternal acceptance were significantly correlated with children’s (both boys’ and girls’) psychological adjustment. However, neither power nor prestige was significantly correlated with either maternal or paternal acceptance, or with children’s psychological adjustment. Results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that both perceived maternal and paternal acceptance made significant independent contributions to children’s psychological adjustment. In addition, perceived maternal (but not paternal) power significantly moderated the relation between perceived maternal acceptance and children’s psychological adjustment.
This study dealt with the impact of paternal versus maternal acceptance on the psychological adjustment of adolescents in relation to parental power and prestige within the family in the Lahore region of Pakistan. The study drew from a sample of 91 adolescents (46% males) ages 13 through 17 years (M = 14.86). Measures used were the child version of the Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire (mother and father forms), the child version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire, and the youth version of the Parental Power–Prestige Questionnaire. Results showed that perceived maternal and paternal acceptance were significantly correlated with adolescents’ psychological adjustment. However, neither power nor prestige was correlated with either maternal or paternal acceptance. Results of hierarchical regression analyses confirmed that adolescents’ perceptions of psychological adjustment were uniquely predicted by both maternal and paternal acceptance irrespective of either parent’s power or prestige within family.
This article analyzed the moderator role of perceived interpersonal power and prestige in the relation between perceived parental acceptance and children’s psychological adjustment. The sample consisted of 187 children (43% boys) ranging in age from 9 through 12 years (M = 10.58). The measures used were the child versions of the Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire, the youth version of the Parental Power–Prestige Questionnaire, and the child version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire. Results indicate that perceived maternal acceptance and perceived paternal acceptance were significantly related to children’s psychological adjustment. Paternal acceptance was also significantly related to both interpersonal power and prestige. Results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that perceived parental acceptance and interpersonal prestige made significant independent contributions to children’s (both boys’ and girls’) psychological adjustment. Analyses of the interactions between these variables revealed a moderating role of both perceived interpersonal power and prestige in the relationship between perceived paternal acceptance and children’s psychological adjustment.
The moderator role of perceived parental power and prestige in relation to perceived parental acceptance and adolescents’ psychological adjustment was analyzed in this study. The sample consisted of 306 adolescents (45% males) within the age range of 16 through 20 years (M = 17.23). Measures used were the child versions of Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire for mothers and fathers, the youth version of Parental Power–Prestige Questionnaire, and the youth version of Personality Assessment Questionnaire. Results showed that both maternal acceptance and paternal acceptance were significantly correlated with youth’s psychological adjustment, regardless of sex. Neither power nor prestige was significantly correlated with psychological adjustment. Power and prestige were, however, correlated with maternal acceptance among females, but not among males. In addition, parental prestige was negatively correlated with paternal acceptance among females. After controlling for the effects of age, hierarchical multiple regression showed that only perceived maternal acceptance made a unique contribution to the psychological adjustment of females, and only perceived paternal acceptance made a unique contribution to the adjustment of males. However, interpersonal power moderated the relationship between perceived maternal acceptance and females’ psychological adjustment.
One hundred four 18- through 36-year-old students (M = 22.6 years, 44% men) were recruited from Karakoram International University, Gilgit city, Pakistan. The adult version of the Parental Power–Prestige Questionnaire was administered to participants along with short forms of the adult Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire for mothers and for fathers, the adult version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire and the Gender Inequality Scale. Results showed that perceived paternal and maternal acceptance were significantly correlated with the young adults’ psychological adjustment. Neither power nor prestige was significantly correlated with adjustment. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that both perceived paternal and maternal acceptance independently predicted offspring’s psychological adjustment, while perceived parental power and prestige failed to predict their psychological adjustment. Perceived parental power and prestige were also evaluated as possible moderators in the relationship between paternal and maternal acceptance and psychological adjustment, but findings were not significant.
Drawing stimulus from parental acceptance–rejection theory (PARTheory), which postulates a pancultural association between perceptions of parental acceptance–rejection and offspring’s (children’s and adults’) psychological adjustment, this article describes the International Father Acceptance–Rejection Project along with the results of 13 studies in 11 nations. These studies not only test this postulate but also more importantly explore the question of whether offspring’s perceptions of parental power and parental prestige tend to moderate the relationship between perceived parental acceptance and offspring adjustment. This question derives from the fact that offspring’s perceptions of their fathers’ acceptance sometimes have a greater impact on the psychological adjustment of youth than do offspring’s perceptions of their mothers’ acceptance. Sometimes, however, offspring’s perceptions of their mothers’ acceptance have a greater impact on adjustment than do offspring’s perceptions of their fathers’ acceptance. And sometimes there is no significant difference in the impact of one parent’s acceptance versus the other parent’s. This much is known. But what is not known is, Why or under what conditions do the love-related behaviors of one parent have a greater impact on the adjustment than the love-related behaviors of the other parent? Results of research described in this Special Issue point in the direction of one class of conditions that helps to answer this question.
This study examined the moderating influence of parental power and prestige on the relationship between parental acceptance and the psychological adjustment of Chinese adolescents. Data were collected from 335 urban Chinese adolescents (45% boys) ages 11 through 16 (M = 13.57 years). The adolescents responded to questionnaires measuring their perceptions of parental power and prestige, parental acceptance–rejection, and their own psychological adjustment. Results suggest that both sons and daughters tended to perceive their parents to be loving (accepting), and they perceived their parents to be approximately equal in interpersonal power and prestige. In addition, both sons and daughters self-reported fair psychological adjustment. Both maternal and paternal acceptances—but not parental power or prestige—were significantly correlated with sons’ and daughters’ psychological adjustment. However, hierarchical regression analysis showed that only perceived maternal acceptance made a unique (independent) contribution to sons’ psychological adjustment, whereas both maternal and paternal acceptance made unique contributions to daughters’ adjustment. Finally, the relationship between perceived parental acceptance and adolescents’ psychological adjustment was not moderated by either parental power or prestige.
This article explored the effects of perceived maternal and paternal acceptances, parental power, and parental prestige on young adults’ psychological adjustment. The sample consisted of 252 university students (24% men) with a mean age of 20.74 years on the island of Crete, Greece. Measures used were the adult versions of the Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire for mothers and fathers, youth version of the Parental Power–Prestige Questionnaire, and adult version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire. Men perceived their fathers to be significantly less accepting but more powerful than did women. For both men and women, perceived maternal and paternal acceptances were significantly correlated with psychological adjustment. Moreover, parental prestige was positively correlated with men’s psychological adjustment, but parental power was negatively correlated with women’s psychological adjustment. Furthermore, women’s (but not men’s) remembrances of paternal acceptance in childhood were positively correlated with both parental power and parental prestige. Results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that remembered maternal acceptance and the composite variable parental power–prestige were uniquely and positively associated with men’s psychological adjustment. Moreover, perceived parental power was uniquely but negatively associated with men’s adjustment. For women, however, both remembered maternal and paternal acceptances were unique predictors of psychological adjustment. Neither parental power nor prestige moderated the relation between perceived acceptance and psychological adjustment for women, but parental power did moderate this relationship for men.
This article explored the effects of perceived maternal and paternal acceptance, parental power, and parental prestige on adolescents’ psychological adjustment. The sample consisted of 269 high school students (48% boys) ages 15 through 19 years (M = 15.75) from Zagreb, Croatia. The measures used were the child versions of the Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire for mothers and fathers, the youth version of the Parental Power–Prestige Questionnaire, and the child version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire. Perceived maternal and paternal acceptances were significantly correlated with youth’s psychological adjustment. Paternal acceptance, power, and prestige were positively intercorrelated among males. Maternal acceptance, power, and prestige were negatively intercorrelated among females. Neither power nor prestige was correlated with youth’s psychological adjustment. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that both perceived maternal and paternal acceptance made significant independent contributions to the psychological adjustment of both males and females. Finally, parental power made an independent contribution to females’ (but not males’) psychological adjustment. Neither power nor prestige moderated the relation between perceived parental acceptance and youth’s psychological adjustment.
The purpose of this study was to examine whether or not the relationship between perceived parental acceptance and psychological adjustment of Korean children is moderated by parental power and prestige. Two hundred nine children (49% boys) ages 11 through 13 years (M = 11.63) participated in the study. The measures used were the child versions of the Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire for mothers and fathers, the Parental Power and Prestige Questionnaire, and the child version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire. Significant gender difference was found in children’s psychological adjustment. Results showed that maternal acceptance and paternal acceptance were significantly correlated with psychological adjustment among both boys and girls. Parental prestige was significantly and negatively correlated with paternal acceptance among girls only. Results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that neither power nor prestige was uniquely associated with either boys’ or girls’ psychological adjustment. However, these analyses did reveal that children’s perceptions of parental power and prestige moderated the relationship between perceived parental acceptance and children’s psychological adjustment.
A sample of 168 children ages 7 through 12 years (M = 10.49 years) from Northern Greece (47.9% boys) was drawn to explore whether interpersonal power or prestige moderated relationships between paternal and/or maternal acceptances and children’s psychological adjustment. Child versions of the Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire (mother and father forms), the Personality Assessment Questionnaire, and the youth version of the Parental Power–Prestige Questionnaire were used. Both boys’ and girls’ psychological adjustment was significantly correlated with perceived paternal acceptance, but only girls’ adjustment was significantly correlated with maternal acceptance. In addition, girls’ perceptions of parental prestige were negatively correlated with paternal acceptance. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that boys’ adjustment was marginally predicted by their perception of paternal (but not maternal) acceptance, whereas girls’ adjustment was uniquely and significantly predicted by their perception of maternal (but not paternal) acceptance. Finally, parental prestige moderated the relationship between perceived maternal acceptance and both boys’ and girls’ psychological adjustment.
This article discusses the relationship between perceived paternal and maternal acceptance, parental power and prestige, and psychological adjustment, having in mind national and international gender equality indicators. The sample consisted of 785 Portuguese college students, 44% of whom were men. The participants ranged in age from 18 through 62 years (M = 22.38). Measures used were Portuguese translations of the adult versions of the Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire for mothers and fathers, and the Personality Assessment Questionnaire, as well as the Parental Power–Prestige Questionnaire. Gender differences were found only in perceived parental power, with men perceiving fathers as being more powerful than did women. The study concluded that parental power (especially paternal power) moderated the relation between perceived paternal acceptance and women’s psychological adjustment. However, parental prestige (especially paternal prestige) moderated the relation between perceived paternal acceptance and men’s psychological adjustment.
This article explored relationships between perceived maternal and paternal acceptance, parental power and prestige, and young adults’ psychological adjustment in Poland. The sample consisted of 200 college students (38% men) ages 20 through 22 (M = 21.10). The measures used were the child versions of the Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire for mothers and fathers, the youth version of the Parental Power–Prestige Questionnaire, and the adult version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire. Results showed that maternal and paternal acceptance were significantly and positively correlated with offspring’s psychological adjustment. Furthermore, fathers’ high power and prestige were positively correlated with women’s psychological adjustment, whereas mothers’ high power was positively correlated with men’s adjustment. However, hierarchical regression analyses showed that only paternal (but not maternal) acceptance was a unique predictor of women’s psychological adjustment as well as of men’s adjustment. The regression analysis also suggests that the less power–prestige fathers had relative to mothers (beyond the point where both parents were perceived to be approximately equal in power and prestige), the better was men’s adjustment. No significant moderating effects were found.
The present study aims to develop a short form of the Perceived Political Self-Efficacy scale (PPSE-S). The psychometric properties of the short form were first investigated in an Italian sample (n = 697), and compared with those of the extended version. The cross-cultural replicability of the short form was then investigated in Spain (n = 354), and Greece (n = 270). Finally, the relations between the PPSE-S and several indicators of political participation were assessed in each country. Results from confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) supported the unidimensionality of the PPSE-S. Reliability and criterion validity of the short- and the full-length scales were found to be substantially equivalent. Multigroup CFA provided evidence of measurement invariance across Italy, Spain, and Greece. Perceived political efficacy was positively related to political engagement in a stable and consistent way across the three countries. In light of these results, the usefulness and applicability of the PPSE-S for large-scale surveys were discussed.
This study explored the effects of psychological and cultural variables on self-reported emotional prototypes of anger. Eight anger components were examined using a multilevel analysis. Competitiveness, interdependence, gender, instrumentality, and expressivity were entered as individual variables, and individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, and the Human Development Index (HDI) were entered as cultural variables. All highlight the importance of considering simultaneously the individual and social levels, with a view to gaining more in-depth knowledge of the emotions. Data were collected among 5,006 college students from 25 countries. Being female, instrumentality, HDI, and the interaction between country-level HDI competitiveness predicted internal processes and behavioral outcomes of anger prototypes. Expressivity, instrumentality, country-level masculinity, and the interaction between gender and country-level masculinity predicted self-control mechanisms of anger prototypes. It is concluded that salient differences in anger prototypes can be found at both individual and country level, and that interaction effects of HDI with individual variables are essential in understanding anger prototypes.
Political trust is important to any culture, but there has been a noticeable decline in political trust around the world. In search for the origin of political trust and ways to enhance political trust, institutional theorists have largely focused on perceived competence of political institutions in Western democracies and neglected another dimension of political institutions’ character—benevolence. The lack of empirical evidence from Arab countries also raises questions about the generalizability of the institutional theories developed in Western democracies. Following previous research on legal institutions, I extended institutional theories of political trust and found that both perceived competence and benevolence of political institutions facilitated political trust in Arab countries, using the archival data from the Arab-Barometer (2006-2007). Given the limited research on political trust in Arab countries or authoritarian regimes and the ongoing search for a global, multilevel theory of trust, the current research makes a contribution to the literatures on political trust and trust at large.
We studied collective identity and psychological well-being in Bulgarian adolescents (305 mainstreamers, 278 Turkish-Bulgarians, and 183 Muslim-Bulgarians). Turkish-Bulgarian and Muslim-Bulgarian minorities (ethnic Bulgarians converted to Islam during the Ottoman Empire) have been subjected to severe assimilation policies until recently. A multigroup confirmatory analysis showed that ethnic, religious, and familial identities were significantly and positively related to a single underlying factor we labeled collective identity. Bulgarian identity was unrelated to collective identity in the Turkish-Bulgarian group. As expected, mainstream adolescents showed a stronger Bulgarian and weaker religious identity than Turkish-Bulgarian and Muslim-Bulgarian adolescents. In all groups, individuals with a stronger collective identity reported higher levels of well-being. We conclude that the concept of collective identity is useful to link various identity components to well-being of youth from different ethnic groups.
This article examines the connection between leadership and citizenship behaviors in a comparative study of Brazilian and U.S. employees. The influence of country and power distance orientation on the relationship between perceived charismatic leadership and follower organizational citizenship behaviors is analyzed statistically, while controlling for demographic factors. Given the ambivalent frameworks and findings in the literature, we also proposed and tested a quadratic effect of power distance orientation on citizenship behaviors, and analyzed the adequacy of the model to explain two dimensions of citizenship: altruism and generalized compliance. We found that charismatic leadership was positively associated with citizenship behaviors in the U.S. group, but not in the Brazilian group. Although the groups differed regarding power distance orientations, that cultural factor did not significantly moderate the relationship between charismatic leadership and citizenship behaviors, only country of origin did. However, we confirmed that both very high and low power distance orientation were associated with citizenship behaviors across the samples. While the tested hypotheses were confirmed when altruism was the criteria, the same was not observed regarding generalized compliance. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory, research, and practice.
This article examines commonalities and differences in the value theories proposed by Ronald Inglehart and Shalom Schwartz. A systematic review of previous findings was conducted. Then, we showed, with a joint multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis, that Schwartz’s Embeddedness versus Autonomy dimension tends to lie at the diagonal of the Inglehart Cultural Map of the World, suggesting that in order to be autonomous/open, individuals need to have both self-expressive and secular-rational values, whereas being embedded /conservative involves both traditional and survival values. Two distinct regions of Schwartz’s values (one at each level) which are missed by Inglehart’s instrument were identified. At the same time, an MDS plot revealed that, at the individual level, Inglehart’s Survival values are not captured by the Schwartz’s items included. The obtained structures at the two levels of analysis were shown to be remarkably similar (Tucker’s > .90).
Skin color is one of the first features that we notice in another person and, therefore, it plays a significant role in the mate selection process as well as in the assessments of attractiveness of others. However, almost all modern research showing a preference for lighter skin tone (particularly in women) was conducted within populations of relatively light skin color. The current study was conducted among the Yali people, who are dark-skinned and native to the isolated highlands of West Papua. We found that for both males (n = 53) and females (n = 53) preferred skin tone was either average or slightly lighter than the average. At the same time, we found that the male preference for lighter skin tone in females was correlated with contact with other cultures. We discuss our results in the context of social and biological theories explaining skin tone preferences.
Societal trust is widely believed to be a fundamental component of prosperous societies, but geographical determinants of societal trust have not been examined in depth. This study examines hypothesized pathways between geography and societal trust.
Strongest support is found for the hypothesis that higher geographical latitude leads to lower disease prevalence, lower income inequality, and less ethnic and less linguistic heterogeneity. Lower disease prevalence, lower income inequality, and less ethnic and less linguistic heterogeneity in turn appear to determine the viability of a "virtuous circle" of mutually reinforcing societal characteristics, including greater wealth, greater life expectancy, greater political rights, greater civil liberties, greater societal trust, less religiosity, and less corruption.
This study aims to compare the value structure of university students from postcommunist Turkic republics and Turkey within the framework of Schwartz and Bardi’s (1997) acclimation and compensation hypothesis. Participants from four Turkic republics (N = 269; Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan) and Turkey (N = 286) completed the Portrait Values Questionnaire. The results indicated that students from postcommunist countries reported higher levels of embeddedness and lower levels of intellectual autonomy, affective autonomy, and egalitarianism than Turkish students. No difference was found regarding mastery, harmony, and hierarchy values. This study provided support for the acclimation and compensation hypothesis, except for the hierarchy values. The findings were discussed considering the continuous social change in these countries and its implications for the dynamism of value structure.
This article reports a test of the hypothesis that national differences in personality traits are expressed by national differences in how accurately the final letter of the personal name designates the female or male gender. The names were obtained from lists of more than 80 popular names in each nation, separately for females and males. Gender designation was more accurate for female than male names. In nations with more accurate gender designation of the final letter of first names, four personality traits self-reported more often by inhabitants are high uncertainty avoidance, high power distance (PD), low individualism (Ind), thereby high collectivism, and a low proportion who are very happy (VH).
We test a theoretical model that explains the development of materialistic beliefs and compulsive buying. The model uses the life course framework, a paradigm that has recently been given attention in the marketing literature. To address the calls of prior consumer researchers, we investigate how these consumption orientations develop in 3 country contexts: the United States, France, and Brazil. We assess the level of measurement invariance and evaluate the model. Findings support family resources playing a mediating role between childhood family disruptions and young adulthood consumption orientations; they are relatively consistent across countries and suggest that some life course explanation of the two consumption orientations may be similar across diverse cultural settings.