bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Chinese Values and the Search for Culture-Free Dimensions of Culture
Authors:   The Chinese Culture Connection
Published: March 2007

A survey of Chinese values was constructed and administered to university students in 22 countries around the world. An ecological factor analysis was run on the culture means for the 40 scale items and revealed four dimensions of cultural valuing. In a search for validities, country scores on these four factors were correlated with those derived from a Western survey of work-related values by Hofstede (1980). Three of the factors from the Chinese Value Survey (CVS) correlated at high levels with three of Hofstede's four, strongly suggesting the robust value dimensions of collectivism and compassion. The second CVS factor, Confucian work dynamism, was unrelated to any of Hofstede's, but correlated .70 with economic growth from 1965 to 1984. This validational evidence confirms the potential of instruments developed outside a Western cultural tradition for opening up new theoretical vistas to the attention of behavioral scientists.
Foreign Policy Substitutability and Internal Economic Problems in Enduring Rivalries
Authors: Bennett D. Scott , Nordstrom Timothy
Published: March 2007

The authors advance a general perspective on how to incorporate the notion of foreign policy substitutability in probabilistic models of international politics. They suggest that substitutability may be dealt with in one of two ways, namely, (1) through better specification or (2) through the use of multinomial logit analysis techniques. Their solution is applied to the substantive problem of how internal economic conditions affect the behavior of states in enduring rivalries. States in rivalries might react to worsening economic problems by either (1) escalating conflict within the rivalry to gain the benefits of a diversionary conflict or (2) seeking to settle the rivalry to free up resources that can be directed toward dealing with economic problems. The possibility that seemingly contradictory policies may be undertaken requires the use of a model for analysis that takes into account substitutability. The authors perform empirical analysis to determine how economic conditions may simultaneously affect the probabilities of dispute initiation and rivalry termination.
Response to Randall Stone
Authors: Brams Steven J.
Published: March 2007

Randall Stone's critique of theory of moves (TOM) is motivated by a desire to purge game theory of TOM's alleged “backsliding” and restore its superior orthodoxy. But Stone's indictment is marred by serious misunderstandings of TOM and unfortunate misconceptions about what constitutes a scientific theory and how it should be applied and tested. The author rebuts Stone's charges and briefly discusses a new area for which TOM seems especially well suited—the study of path dependence—suggesting how TOM can contribute to the understanding of when actors make seemingly irrational choices that lead to immediately worse outcomes.
Comparison of Sequential and Simultaneous Responding, Matrix, and Strategy Variables in a Prisoner's Dilemma Game
Authors: Oskamp Stuart
Published: March 2007

This experiment systematically compared the effects of simultaneous responding and sequential responding by subjects, using a 2 x 4 x 2 factorial design. The four strategy conditions were 10% Cooperation, 90% Cooperation, Tit-for-Tat (response- matching with a one-trial lag), and Free-Play (two subjects actually paired). The two PD matrices had average expected payoffs of $.00 and $.025 per trial. Subjects were 160 college freshman women volunteers who served in groups of two or four and were paid for their participation. Overall cooperation was moderately high (56%). The significant findings were a strategy effect (10% Cooperation lowest, then 90% Cooperation, Free-Play, Tit-for-Tat highest), an increase in cooperation across the fifty trials, an interaction of trials with strategies, and an interaction of matrices with response procedures. The latter finding supports the experimental hypothesis that simultaneous and sequential responding do not have equivalent effects.
Styles of Announcing Conciliation
Authors: Lindskold Svenn , Finch Marta L.
Published: March 2007

A total of 48 subjects (24 female and 24 male) participated in 30 trials of a Prisoner's Dilemma game with a simulated other who was 50% cooperative in the first block of 10 trials and 100% cooperative in the third block. Following trial 10, the other sent one of two handwritten notes to the subject, or, in a third condition, sent none. One of the notes said, in effect: "If you cooperate, I will," (the IF-U note) while the other said: "I will cooperate ; it's what we have to do to get our most points," (the GRIT note). As hypothesized, the GRIT approach elicited more cooperation by the subject than the IF-U approach, particularly in the third block where the other was consistently cooperative and most vulnerable. Both notes positively influenced cooperation in comparison with the no-note condition. The results were discussed in terms of the perceptions of intentions created by the two notes and the GRIT proposal in general.
Comparing Two Studies of Crisis Bargaining
Authors: Leng Russell J. , Walker Stephen G.
Published: March 2007

This article employs events data to compare two studies of crisis bargaining: a qualitative study by Snyder and Diesing based on comparative case studies, and a quantitative study by Leng and Wheeler. Three propositions are tested: (1) both disputants will adopt increasingly coercive bargaining strategies during the confrontation phase of the crisis; (2) the structure of the crisis will determine the strategies of each side once the crisis turning point is reached; (3) to maximize success, each disputant should follow a strategy consistent with the crisis structure. The authors find strong support for the first proposition, little support for the second, and modest support for the third. Interesting parallels between Snyder and Diesing's study and Leng and Wheeler's regarding the overall effectiveness of reciprocating bargaining strategies emerge.
Collective Political Action and Media Strategy
Authors: Wolfsfeld Gadi
Published: March 2007

The study puts forth a theoretical framework for explaining the ways in which political action groups use the mass media. Rooted in the resource mobilization approach to conflict, media strategy is determined by the extent of collective resources. The mass media is seen as one of several alternative arenas of conflict through which groups attempt to influence the government. Compared to other more institutional arenas, access to the media is a relatively inexpensive alternative for small, unorganized groups. A more detailed understanding of media strategy comes through an analysis of the attempts of group leaders to meet specific groups needs and minimize particular risks. A participant-observation was carried out, involving three different action groups that were active during the Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. While all of the group leaders attempted to maximize collective rewards, their particular set of collective resources and needs were reflected in both the type of group risks they encountered and the media strategies they developed to minimize those risks.
Defense Expenditures, Security Threats, and Governmental Deficits
Authors: Ward Michael Don , Mahajan A. K.
Published: March 2007

This article presents a model of defense spending in India that is based on (a) acceleration, (b) threat/security perceptions, and (c) the role of governmental deficits. The specific mechanisms involved are based upon the feedbacks that exist between the growth in military spending and the perceived security that military expenditures purportedly purchase. Additionally, military spending is argued to fuel inflation in certain economies and put additional pressure on the size of the governmental deficit, that in turn places a brake on the growth of defense spending. These arguments are formulated mathematically and a continuous time simulation model of these processes is developed. Using dynamic trajectory fitting techniques, we subjected the nonlinear dynamic model to an empirical test with data pertinent to the Indian case. The empirical results are generally supportive of the model developed: Fit is high and most, but not all, parameters are in the predicted direction and highly significant. The primary shortcoming seems to lie in the putative, but non-supported, link between security perceptions and military spending.
Perspectives for Understanding Negotiation
Authors: Neale Margaret A. , Bazerman Max H.
Published: March 2007

Bargaining and negotiation research has traditionally been of significant interest to those in the industrial relations field. The current work in this area may be divided into four common perspectives: economic models, structural effects, personality differences in negotiators, and behavioral systems approaches. These approaches, however, do not explain the failure of negotiators to reach mutually beneficial agreements. To complement the existing literature, a fifth framework is proposed. Viewing negotiation as a decisionmaking process is posited to explain, in part, the negotiators' failure to reach such agreements.
Contexts and Forms of Rural Revolt
Authors: Markoff John
Published: March 2007

The varied forms and targets of rural insurrection are the subjects of an extensive literature. The diverse modes of peasant mobilization at the beginning of the French Revolution provide a setting for the examination of hypotheses concerning the social conditions that generate specific types of social conflict. A logistic regression analysis reveals the varying contexts in which rural mobilization took on its many forms; but economic integration into the market appears to have contributed to all forms of conflict.
The Power Approach to Intergroup Hostility
Authors: Giles Micheal W. , Evans Arthur
Published: March 2007

The power approach views intergroup hostility as a natural product of competition among groups for scarce resources. The findings of this study show clear support for the operation of this approach in the area of American race relations. Consistent with the model, whites' racial tolerance and support for government policies favorable toward blacks are found linked to black competition measured by the black concentration in the local context and to whites' sense of group identity. The effects of black concentration are nonlinear with a positive but decreasing slope. The effects of the power variables remain significant even after controls for respondents' education, affect toward blacks, and region of origin. In general, the results suggest that white opposition to blacks reflects, in part, a reaction to the loss that governmental policies signify for whites in the ongoing group competition for status, power, and advantage.
A Theory of the Balance of Power in International Systems
Authors: Niou Emerson M.S. , Ordeshook Peter C.
Published: March 2007

Attempts at incorporating the assumption that national leaders pursue clearly defined objectives, and at applying the theory of cooperative games to the analysis of international systems, have led to little success in formalizing the concept of balance of power, and in providing a theoretical justification for much of the scholarly intuition about this concept. But by assuming that such leaders temper their desire to maximize resources by the goal of ensuring the survival of their countries, and by distinguishing between two forms of stability—one in which no nation's existence is threatened and one in which no nation's resources are threatened—we offer a model that yields necessary and sufficient conditions for both forms of stability. Our critical assumption is that before entering armed conflicts and before forming either offensive or defensive alliances, national leaders evaluate the future games that their current actions imply, and the consequences of participating in such games.
Deprivation and Political Violence in Northern Ireland, 1922-1985
Authors: Thompson J. L. P.
Published: March 2007

Terrorist movements are discussed under the rubric of social movements that generate collective violence. Deprivation theory is tested with multivariate time-series regression models, with controls for security force levels and industrial production. Findings are: (1) although Northern Ireland suffers from high unemployment, increases in fatal violence are not related to rises in unemployment; (2) the violence has a tendency to perpetuate itself, independently of its stimuli; (3) the conflict is unrepresentative of clashes between state and insurgent forces in that most of the fatalities in it are not attributable to the security forces; and (4) further explanations should incorporate both political factors and mechanisms that contribute to the escalation process. Several possibilities are explored.
Nuclear Weapons, Deterrence, and Crisis Escalation
Authors: Geller Daniel S.
Published: March 2007

The effect of the possession of nuclear weapons on patterns of international conflict is the subject of an extensive but generally impressionistic body of work. Assumptions in this area determine one's confidence in superpower deterrence and fuel the debate over the proper expenditure of military allocations. This study presents an analysis of escalation patterns in interstate disputes among nations with both identical and different levels of weapons technology. The results demonstrate that the distribution of nuclear capabilities does impact the patterns of escalation in serious international conflicts. The findings are supportive of the thesis of competitive risk taking in disputes between nuclear powers but also indicate that the possession of nuclear weapons has no apparent inhibitory effect on the escalatory propensities of nonnuclear opponents. The principal policy implication of this analysis is that nuclear weapons cannot be relied upon to impede escalatory dispute behavior by either nuclear or nonnuclear antagonists.
Testing the Theory of Collective Action
Authors: Oneal John R.
Published: March 2007

Mancur Olson's theory of collective action is tested using pooled cross-sectional and time-series regression analyses of the defense burdens (military expenditures/gross domestic product) of fifteen NATO countries for the years 1950-1984. The influence of four factors is assessed: relative economic size, the intensity of the Cold War, the pursuit of private benefits by three countries in exceptional circumstances, and increased cooperation among the European allies. The results indicate that the alliance is still best characterized as a uniquely privileged group seeking a relatively pure public good: collective security through deterrence. Disaggregated analyses show that, consistent with this conclusion, the United States and its allies differ in theoretically predictable ways not only in the magnitude of their defense burdens but in the influences that shape their military allocations.
A Conflict Analysis of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Dispute
Authors: Fraser Niall M. , Hipel Keith W. , Jaworsky John , Zuljan Ralph
Published: March 2007

The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in the Soviet Union is modeled and analyzed using conflict analysis methodology. To allow a conflict analysis approach to be conveniently and expeditiously applied to the dispute, DecisionMaker: the Conflict Analysis Program is employed. After acquiring the background information pertinent to the conflict, DecisionMaker was used to develop two conflict models at different times, in terms of decision makers, options, and preferences. Based on the conflict model, DecisionMaker calculated the equilibrium resolutions to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. Several other analyses were then carried out on the basis of the equilibria generated. The overall results match well what has happened in the dispute.
A Methodological Critique of a Test of the Effects of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field
Authors: Schrodt Philip A.
Published: March 2007

The test of the effects of the “Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field” by Orme-Johnson et al. which appeared in the December 1988 issue of the Journal of Conflict Resolution contains several substantial methodological problems. First, the measurement of the critical independent variable governing whether an effect should be found does not correspond to the most obvious interpretation of the theory, an interpretation used in later studies of the same theory. If population is measured using geographical radius rather than political boundaries, the observed effects should not have occurred, yet the study finds them anyway. In addition, the study did not adequately control for the possibility of reverse causation (the effects causing the treatment) or properly test for the possibility of spurious relationships. Because validation of the theory would contradict virtually the whole of contemporary understanding of causality in social behavior, insistence on such additional measurement specifications, controls, and statistical tests prior to publication would not have constituted unreasonable “censorship” of the research in question.
World Opinion in the Gulf Crisis
Authors: Wilcox Clyde , Tanaka Aiji , Allsop Dee
Published: March 2007

The authors investigate the empirical claim that a world opinion existed in the Iraq/Kuwait crisis. They find substantial agreement among citizens of a variety of world cities on the interpretation of events, on affect toward the major actors, and on the goals of the international community, but less agreement on the use of military force. There were significant differences in enthusiasm for that agreement across the various countries, but these mostly reflected differences in affect and in support for various goals. It appears that the attitudes of citizens of various world cities responded to the same factors.
Nice Strategies in a World of Relative Gains
Authors: Busch Marc L. , Reinhardt Eric R.
Published: March 2007

The debate between neoliberals and realists in the field of international relations draws heavily on the findings offered in Robert Axelrod's Evolution of Cooperation. Axelrod's well-known argument is that cooperation can emerge among egoists despite the absence of a central authority. This article assesses the robustness of Axelrod's findings in light of the realist critique that relative gains concerns make cooperation less likely than neoliberals contend. We build on an amended prisoner's dilemma (PD) game and conduct a computer simulation tournament in which we vary (1) the payoff structure and (2) Axelrod's population of strategies. The results indicate that cooperation can emerge even under strong relative gains concerns, so long as the population of strategies is sufficiently retaliatory. On the basis of this finding, we argue that the realist critique is overstated: the introduction of greater relative gains concerns does not necessarily limit the prospects for cooperation among states.
The Nature of the Dispute and the Effectiveness of International Mediation
Authors: Bercovitch Jacob , Langley Jeffrey
Published: March 2007

The literature on mediation focuses largely on experimental laboratory studies or descriptions of single cases. This article goes beyond such approaches by analyzing systematically how dispute characteristics affect mediation outcomes. A theoretical framework for studying mediation behavior is developed and its central variables are evaluated against the mediation patterns of 97 international disputes in the postwar period. Using multivariate analysis and loglinear methods, the results indicate that dispute features such as fatalities, complexity, nature of the issue, and duration of dispute are most predictive of mediation outcomes. The authors use those results to specify a causal model that explains the data and to consider how best to evaluate the fit of alternative models of mediation to their data.
Uncertainty and the Evolution of Cooperation
Authors: Bendor Jonathan
Published: March 2007

It is well known that inferential errors can induce nice but provocable strategies to engage in vendettas with each other. It is therefore generally believed that imperfect monitoring reduces the payoffs of such strategies and impairs the evolution of cooperation. The current literature, however, only scrutinizes specific strategies, either analytically or in particular tournaments. This article examines in a more general way how monitoring uncertainty affects the fate of cooperation in tournaments of the iterated prisoner's dilemma (IPD). The first set of results shows that imperfect monitoring does create a sharp trade-off between cooperativeness and unexploitability. The second set examines how random shocks affect the tournament payoffs of several large classes of strategies in the IPD, and shows how noise can help certain nice strategies. The third set analyzes how imperfect monitoring can facilitate the emergence of cooperation based on a population of non-nice strategies. Thus the idea that inferential uncertainty always harms nice strategies and always impairs the evolution of cooperation must be sharply qualified.
Signaling Versus the Balance of Power and Interests
Authors: Fearon James D.
Published: March 2007

Conventional wisdom holds that in international disputes, a state's military threast are more likely to work the more the state is favored by the balance of power or the balance of interests. Analysis of a game-theoretic model of crisis signaling substantially refines and revises this claim. Due to selection effects arising from strategic behavior, measures of the relative strength of a defender's interests that are available before a crisis begins (ex ante) should be related to the failure of the defender's threats during the crisis. Ex ante measures of the defender's relative military strength should correlate with the success of the defender's crisis threats, but due to strategic dynamics that are not grasped by the standard arguments. A reanalysis of Huth and Russett's data on immediate deterrent threats lends support for these and other hypotheses drawn from the game-theoretic treatment.
Incomplete Information and Timing in the Volunteer's Dilemma
Authors: Weesie Jeroen
Published: March 2007

We analyze the supply of a public good that can be privately produced at costs smaller than the benefits. Without a coordinating mechanism, the selection of a volunteer poses a social dilemma. By varying two conditions, we obtain four scenarios. First, we distinguish whether or not players observe each other's behavior. Under the condition that behavior is observed, strategies involve timing decisions, namely how long to wait before volunteering, hoping that someone else volunteers first, but incurring costs for delayed production. If behavior cannot be observed, players effectively choose simultaneously, and rational players will either volunteer immediately or not at all. Second, we distinguish complete information with respect to the costs and benefits of the other players from incomplete information. For each of the four scenarios, we discuss a game theoretic model that assumes (ex ante) symmetrical costs and benefits. Remarkably, the probability that a player volunteers may increase with the degree of uncertainty. Moreover, in contrast with the complete information models, if uncertainty is sufficiently high, the probability that the collective good is produced may actually increase with group size. Finally, the four scenarios are ranked by the extent to which they generate favorable incentives for the production of the public good.
Laboratory Tests of a Motivational-Perceptual Model of Conflict Escalation
Authors: Peterson Bill E. , Winter David G. , Doty Richard M.
Published: March 2007

We present a model suggesting that international conflicts escalate to violence when countries (a) express higher levels of power motive imagery, (b) exaggerate levels of perceived power motive imagery in communications and statements from the “other” side, and (c) express still higher levels of power motive imagery as a result of such exaggerated perceptions. The model is supported by three studies. In the first two, participants wrote replies to one of two versions of the same letter taken from a real crisis. The third study explored conditions that affect the exaggerated perception of power motive imagery of the other side by asking participants to highlight the important points of a letter from a real crisis, under neutral conditions and under conditions arousing power motivation. The role of psychological variables in the escalation of conflicts to violence is discussed.
A Theory of Escalation And International Conflict
Authors: Carlson Lisa J.
Published: March 2007

Escalation processes are found in many types of international conflict. However, a great deal of the theoretical and empirical literature on escalation is context specific and concentrates on explaining the outcomes of an escalation process. This approach has generated numerous insights; however, our understanding of escalation processes, in general, remains partial and incomplete. In this article, the author develops a two-sided incomplete information model to identify the kinds of escalation strategies states are likely to adopt in conflict. The model produces several hypotheses, one of which is tested empirically in the context of militarized interstate disputes. The hypothesis states that as the disparity between the players' cost tolerances increases, the lower cost tolerant actor is more likely to escalate to the maximum of his or her ability on the first move in the conflict. The results of the test confirm the theory's expectations of an inverse relationship between cost tolerance and an actor's escalation behavior. The article concludes by noting implications for future research on escalation processes.
Power and Satisfaction in the United Nations Security Council
Authors: O'neill Barry
Published: March 2007

The United Nations is under pressure to make the Security Council more representative of the membership. The formal literature on voting power has discovered much that can clarify this debate, and the present analysis gives a version of the Shapley-Shubik index of voting power that considers likely alliances based on voting in the General Assembly since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Veto members occupying outlying positions, like China, have especially high voting power, whereas states without vetoes hold almost none. However, power in itself is not the goal; if another permanent member is already reliably voting as one wishes, obtaining a veto of one's own is unnecessary. Other benefits from membership are prestige and access to information. The current debate seems at an impasse, but if these alternative goals are recognized, other feasible solutions might be found.
Regime Changes, Neighborhoods, and Interstate Conflict, 1816-1992
Authors: Enterline A. J.
Published: March 2007

This article investigates whether a new political regime's institutional type and the political composition of its geographic neighborhood influence patterns of intraneighborhood militarized conflict. An event count model is used to analyze data on 360 new political regimes. Variables assess attributes of each new regime's geographic neighborhood, including size, political composition, stability, the presence of alliances, the presence of major powers, the distribution of capability, and the frequency of militarized disputes initiated by and against new regimes. Results show evidence of an interactive relationship between a new regime's type, the political composition of its neighborhood, and militarized disputes. However, independent of the political composition of their neighborhoods, new democratic regimes are less likely to initiate disputes against neighboring states. Furthermore, an inverted U-shaped relationship obtains between the degree of democracy in a neighborhood and the rate at which new regimes initiate disputes against neighboring states. The coherency of regimes in a neighborhood, rather than their type, may play an important role in subsequent patterns of conflict.
Negotiating the Peaceful Expansion of the South African Electorate
Authors: Berman Dianne R. , Abdollahian Mark Andrew
Published: March 2007

Contrary to many predictions of instability, the expansion of the South African electorate in 1994 did not result in increases in political violence. The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between two substantial socipolitical developments: structural property and labor guarantees during the transition process. The authors argue that the interplay of property, labor, and electorate expansion sets the stage for either a peaceful or a conflictual expansion of the electorate. The outcomes of the negotiations between the key political coalitions will ultimately determine if a decrease in the levels and rates of political violence in the polity will result. Thus, to explain changes in the levels and rates of political violence and ultimately the successful expansion to a more inclusive democracy, it is necessary to understand the negotiation dynamics that take place among competing political coalitions in South Africa.
Behavioral Issues of Rationality in International Interaction
Authors: Langlois Catherine C. , Langlois Jean-Pierre P.
Published: March 2007

This study argues for a behavioral interpretation of rational choice in a changing environment that potentially restores the equilibria of discounted repeated games as useful descriptors of long-term bilateral relations between nation-states. The analysis reveals that all subgame perfect equilibrium strategies fall into one of three classes: countervailing, strongly inducive, or weakly inducive. Only strongly inducive strategies require knowledge of the opponent's exact strategy choice to achieve equilibrium. At the other extreme, countervailing strategies require only the expectation of some form of countervailing behavior from the opponent to become a rational choice. The intermediate weakly inducive strategies allow each side to choose some bound of tolerance for the opponent's actual behavior, permitting a range of countervailing behaviors within these bounds. The formal analysis provides constructive access to interesting subgame perfect equilibria of discounted repeated games and is suggestive of the observable and empirically testable consequences of rational behavior.
Romanian and American Life Aspirations in Relation to Psychological Well-Being
Authors: Frost Kathryn Minyard , Frost Christopher J.
Published: March 2007

Researchers have concluded that individuals who perceive extrinsically related goals as relatively more important than intrinsically related aspirations show lower levels of psychological well-being (e.g., Kasser & Ryan, 1993). We found only partial support for the intrinsic goals hypothesis: In this cross-cultural study, Romanians and Americans both showed positive correlations with psychological well-being when community feeling (intrinsic) was considered central to their lives. However, when financial success (extrinsic) was held to be the most central aspiration, only the American sample showed a negative relationship with psychological well-being. Further analyses revealed the meaning of financial success for both cultures: For Americans, financial success was related to “power” and “security,” whereas the same construct more closely related to “self- direction” for the Romanian sample.
Concepts of Adaptive and Maladaptive Child Behavior
Authors: Olson Sheryl L. , Kashiwagi Keiko , Crystal David
Published: March 2007

Maternal concepts of desirable and undesirable child characteristics were compared across two contrastive cultures: Japan and the United States. Sixty mothers of preschool-age children, half from Japan and half from the United States, were asked to describe the behavioral characteristics they found most desirable and undesirable in young children and to choose one characteristic in each list that they considered most highly positive or negative. In describing positive characteristics, mothers in both cultures tended to emphasize social cooperativeness and interpersonal sensitivity. However, concerns about positive emotional adjustment were more salient among U.S. than Japanese mothers. Comparisons of negative behaviors revealed striking cultural contrasts. U.S. mothers were far more likely than Japanese mothers to designate aggressive and disruptive behaviors as negative, whereas Japanese mothers tended to highlight social insensitivity and uncooperativeness. Moreover, qualities of emotional maladjustment were described by U.S. mothers, but did not appear in the Japanese protocols.
A Comparison of Maternal Communication Style between Immigrant Italian and Second-Generation Italian Women Living in Canada
Authors: Greenglass Esther R.
Published: March 2007

In an experiment in which 89 mother-child pairs were employed as Ss, the relationship between maternal communication and ethnicity of the mother was examined. Direct observation of maternal communication was used during 3 discussion tasks in which mother and child were required to reach a consensus. The results of a verbal analysis of maternal communication indicated that Italian immigrant mothers tended to rely on direct imperatives and requests for orientation in addressing their sons and daughters. Canadian mothers relied on more indirect forms of control, and second-generation Italian mothers were most likely to employ justifications, particularly concrete and normative appeals.
Information Detection through Differential GSRs in Bedouins of the Israeli Desert
Authors: Kugelmass Sol , Lieblich Israel , Ben-Shakhar Gershon
Published: March 2007

A series of studies was carried out to investigate further Israeli ethnic differences in psychophysiological functioning. Data obtained from Abu Rhabiah Bedouin samples confirmed the earlier findings of higher skin conductances and relatively low rate of GSR reactivity previously found in Israeli Bedouins. Among both Jewish and Bedouin samples, the level of reported formal education seemed systematically related to differential GSR reactivity.
Age Estimation of Children in the Field
Authors: Kirk Lorraine , Burton Michael
Published: March 2007

This article updates a method of age estimation based on observation of a wide variety of dental landmarks. The method can be used with children between five and twelve years of age in semior nonliterate areas where reliable records or testimony of age are unavailable. Outlined and tested initially in Ghana (Kirk, 1975), the original method is validated and refined in the present Kenya study with a second population. Errors of estimation are summarized by age and sex, and accuracy and interjudge reliability measured. The method is revised to adjust for sex differences, increasing the accuracy of the procedure for estimating the ages of girls.
Cross-Cultural Variations in the Phenomenological Experience of Depression
Authors: Tanaka-Matsumi Junko , Marsella Anthony J.
Published: March 2007

Cross-cultural variations in the subjective experience of depression among normal college populations of Japanese-Nationals, Japanese-Americans, and Caucasian-Americans were investigated by examining word associations to the equivalent words of depression and yuutsu. The results indicated that Japanese-Nationals associated more external referent terms, such as "rain" and "cloud," and somatic referent terms, such as "headache" and "fatigue," to the word yuutsu. In contrast, both Japanese-Americans and Caucasian-Americans associated predominantly internal mood state terms, such as "sad" and "lonely," to the word depression. These differences are attributed to variations in the self-structure which mediates the subjective experience of depression in the different cultures. Japanese self-structure was considered to be essentially "unindividuated," while American self-structure was considered to be essentially "individuated."
Traditionalism and Field Dependence
Authors: Irwin Marc , Engle Patricia L. , Klein Robert E. , Yarbrough Charles
Published: March 2007

The relationship between preschool children's field dependence-independence and mothers' traditionalism and intellectual stimulation provided in the home was investigated in rural Guatemala. Contrary to several previous studies-which have not measured traditionalism at the level of the family, but rather compared children from more and less traditional communities-EFT scores were found to be unrelated to traditionalism. EFT scores were related to both material sources of stimulation as well as to the presence of better educated older siblings in the home. It was argued that in previous studies traditionalism has been confounded with other variables such as the availability of intellectual stimulation.
Problem-Solving Strategies
Authors: Davis Michael , Goodnow Jacqueline J.
Published: March 2007

Two groups of children in sixth grade were given three tasks: memory for a set of 24 pictures, Olson's Buttonboard task, and 20 Questions. The two groups were both Australian, one group with Australian parents, the other with parents who were Greek immigrants. All children were drawn from the same classrooms. Nonetheless, some differences appeared on the Buttonboard task, differences that disappeared under explicit instructions to minimize the number of moves. Differences also appeared in the use of grouping or clustering-type queries on 20 Questions, differences that did not disappear with instructions to minimize moves. The results point to the importance of specific strategies on problem-solving tasks and to the importance, in cross-cultural comparisons, of shared understandings about the value and appropriateness of specific strategies.
A Social-Psychological Analysis of Modernization in the Philippines
Authors: Guthrie George M.
Published: March 2007

Four field studies of aspects of modernization in the Philippines are summarized: transitory ownership of space in a city, the development of the fishing industry in a provincial town, the practices of market vendors, and the development of modern attitudes. Processes of change and resistance are interpreted with reference to laboratory studies of cross-situational consistency, gaming strategies, avoidance learning, and operant conditioning.
Ethnic Role Salience in Racially Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Societies
Authors: Bochner Stephen , Ohsako Toshio
Published: March 2007

Hawaiian-Japanese, Japanese, and Australian subjects were presented with a slide depicting either a Japanese or a Caucasian couple, and asked to describe three ways in which the two persons in the picture were similar. The dependent variable was ethnic role salience, measured in terms of the frequency and rank order of ethnic trait references appearing spontaneously in the descriptions. Contrary to orthodox role theory, but as predicted by McGuire's distinctiveness theory of selective perception, the Japanese described the Caucasian but not the Japanese couple in ethnic terms, the Australians described the Japanese but not the Caucasian couple in ethnic terms, and the Hawaiian-Japanese described both the Japanese and the Caucasian couple in ethnic terms.
The Effect of Aging on Reversal and Extradimensional Shifts in Jordan
Authors: Shanab Mitri E. , Qassim Khamis A.
Published: March 2007

A two-phase discrimination shift design was used in which 192 Jordanian subjects in the age groups 50-59, 60-69, and 70 years and older were shifted following criterion learning of a discrimination task to either a reversal (R) shift or an extradimensional (ED) shift. Like older children and young adults, subjects in the 50-59 age group executed an R shift faster than an ED shift. Subjects who were 70 years or older, however, found the ED shift easier than the R shift, just as is traditionally found with preschool children. The reversed ontogenetic trend was explained in terms of Kendler and Kendler's two-stage mediational theory.
Modernization or Minority Status
Authors: Mar'I S. Khalil , Levi Avraham M.
Published: March 2007

The relative effects of modernization and minority status on the "coping" cognitive style of Israel's Arab citizens as contrasted with West Bank residents are compared. Eighth graders from three villages which had been arbitrarily sundered by the border at the end of Israel's war of independence, and reunited 19 years later during the six-day war, were given Shanan's coping test. Predictions for girls versus boys and Israelis versus West Bankers were tested according to a modernization theory and a minority status theory. Modernization theory predictions were for the most part supported by the data of "the ability to define external goals," "the readiness to actively cope," "self-esteem," "psychological instability," and the tendency to refrain from giving an answer. "The ability to detect external problems" yielded insignificant results, and the "evasive answers" data could be interpreted as supportive of the modernization theory.
Perceived Parental Acceptance-Rejection and Children's Reported Behavioral Dispositions
Authors: Rohner Evelyn C. , Rohner Ronald P. , Roll Samuel
Published: March 2007

Drawing from a sample of 316 American and 174 Mexican children in the U.S.A. and in Mexico respectively, the hypothesis was supported that perceived parental acceptance-rejection among 8- to 15-year old school children in Mexico and the U.S.A. was generally related-as predicted by parental acceptance-rejection theory-to a specific constellation of reported behavioral dispositions. Perceived composite rejection was associated with approximately 46% of the variance in American children's self-reported behavioral dispositions, as measured on the Personality Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ); perceived composite rejection was associated with 41% of the variance in Mexican children's self-reported behavioral dispositions as assessed by the PAQ. Supportive evidence was also brought to bear on the postulate within parental acceptance-rejection theory that perceived parental acceptance-rejection and "culture" do not interact appreciably to produce differences in children's reports of their behavioral dispositions in different cultural settings.
Traits Associated with Men and Women
Authors: Williams John E. , Best Deborah L. , Tilquin Charles , Keller Heidi , Voss Hans-Georg , Bjerke Tore , Baarda Ben
Published: March 2007

The association of certain psychological traits with men and others with women was studied among 4285- and 8-year-old children in 5 European countries. Subjects were read 32 stories, each representing a particular trait (e.g., aggressive, emotional), and following each story they selected between male and female silhouettes as being "the person the story is about." The findings indicated substantial cross-national similarity in the traits ascribed to men and women. Some evidence of differences between countries was found, with the children's responses in Germany and France being relatively most discrepant. The results were discussed in relation to the findings from studies of adults in European countries, and from studies of children and adults in English-speaking countries.
Animism and Related Tendencies in Hopi Children
Authors: Madsen Millard C.
Published: March 2007

The work of Wayne Dennis on animism in Hopi Indian children is replicated after 40 years. The results indicate that while little change has taken place in the Hopi child's attribution of life to inanimate objects, there is a substantial decrease in the attribution of consciousness to these same objects. An additional result is that the moral realism of the present day Hopi children has decreased markedly as compared with the original study.
Family Type and Children's Cognition in Two Ethnic Groups
Authors: Ogilvy Carole M.
Published: March 2007

Lautrey (1980) related variations in children's cognition to type of family structuring. The prediction that the flexible type would be the most favorable for cognitive development, due to greater provision of opportunities for development experiences, was supported within both working-class and middle-class samples in Paris. The range of applicability of this finding was tested on indigenous and Pakistani samples in Glasgow. The results largely supported the structuring hypothesis. Associations between type of family structuring and process aspects of children's cognition were independent of sex and sociocultural variables. The cumulative benefits of the flexible type of environment were evident in the school performance of Scottish but not Pakistani children. Links between family structuring and both ecological and cultural variables are discussed.
Self-Ingroup Relationships
Authors: Lortie-Lussier Monique , Fellers Gloria L.
Published: March 2007

The individualist and collectivist value orientations of 40 English (EC), 40 French (FC), and 36 Italian (IC) Canadian children, aged 10 to 12, were investigated relative to three themes: ideal self, self-esteem, and peer relations. The study intended to determine whether the individualist value orientations displayed in an earlier study by younger EC children were now shared by those of other ethnic groups. Although most children expressed comparable conceptions of self-esteem and self-centered projections of an ideal self, significant differences persisted, and others emerged with respect to self-ingroup relationships across ethnic and gender groups. As expected, ECs were the most individualist, ICs the most peer oriented, and FCs the most family oriented. Accentuation of gender differences was encountered, but not consistently for the three ethnic groups. Although the North American individualist value orientations of the ECs appeared to reflect egalitarian child-rearing values, the different values toward significant others of the FC and IC male and female preteenagers suggest different parental modes of gender role socialization. Results are discussed within cross-cultural perspectives on self-ingroup relationships, and the implications of the results are discussed with regard to cultural diversity in Canada.
Evaluations of Attachment Relationships by Jewish Israeli-Day-Care Providers
Authors: Sternberg Kathleen J. , Lamb Michael E.
Published: March 2007

Israeli day-care providers (N = 109) viewed one 20-minute videotape of a mother and infant interacting in the Strange Situation. After viewing the videotape, subjects completed a questionnaire that included items related to the labeling and evaluation of infant behavior in the Strange Situation. In addition, subjects were asked to rank order eight definitions-descriptions of the eight subcategories comprising the traditional categorical system on how well they described the infant in the videotape. On 12 of the 16 labeling and evaluation items, groups were significantly differentiated, with most differences in the expected direction. Sixty-one percent of the care providers ranked the correct classification as their first or second choice, and 82% of the care providers who did not rank the correct definition in first or second place classified the infant in a conceptually adjacent category. These Israeli care providers preferred to interact with B2 infants and liked the C1 infants least, suggesting approval of independence on the part of young infants. The results of this study suggest that naive Israelis classify, label, and evaluate infants in a manner consistent with the explicit values of attachment theorists.