Two ways to be complex and why they matter: Implications for attitude strength and lying.

Integrative complexity broadly measures the structural complexity of statements. This breadth, although beneficial in multiple ways, can potentially hamper the development of specific theories. In response, the authors developed a model of complex thinking, focusing on 2 different ways that people can be complex within the integrative complexity system and subsequently developed measurements of each of these 2 routes: Dialectical complexity focuses on a dialectical tension between 2 or more competing perspectives, whereas elaborative complexity focuses on complexly elaborating on 1 singular perspective. The authors posit that many variables have different effects on these 2 forms of complexity and subsequently test this idea in 2 different theoretical domains. In Studies 1a, 1b, and 2, the authors demonstrate that variables related to attitude strength (e.g., domain importance, extremism, domain accessibility) decrease dialectical complexity but increase elaborative complexity. In Study 3, the authors show that counterattitudinal lying decreases dialectical complexity but increases elaborative complexity, implicating a strategic (as opposed to a cognitive strain) view of the lying-complexity relationship. The authors argue that this dual demonstration across 2 different theoretical domains helps establish the utility of the new model and measurements as well as offer the potential to reconcile apparent conflicts in the area of cognitive complexity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Television and the reflexive project of the self: soaps, teenage talk and hybrid identities

The purpose of this paper is to report on qualitative research into the role of television soap opera as a resource employed by teenagers in identity work. The central methodological strategy has been to enable young people to do the research themselves. Twenty groups of young people (aged 14-15) were recruited to talk about soap opera without an adult presence. The stress in the paper is on the formative nature of language in lending form to ourselves from the disorderly flow of everyday talk and practice. I argue that the girls construct reflexive identities in two grammatical forms. Identities are instanciated in the flow of language as well as in the self-narrative of 'I'. I am centrally concerned with the production of multiple, hybrid identities amongst British Asian girls. They see themselves as Asian yet distance themselves from aspects of tradition by virtue of their participation in other domains of British culture. They are both in and out of British society and Asian culture. These identities are complicated by gender relations so that ethnic and gender identities 'cross-cut or dislocate each other'.     

Perceived cultural importance and actual self-importance of values in cultural identification.

Cross-cultural psychologists assume that core cultural values define to a large extent what a culture is. Typically, core values are identified through an actual self-importance approach, in which core values are those that members of the culture as a group strongly endorse. In this article, the authors propose a perceived cultural importance approach to identifying core values, in which core values are values that members of the culture as a group generally believe to be important in the culture. In 5 studies, the authors examine the utility of the perceived cultural importance approach. Results consistently showed that, compared with values of high actual self-importance, values of high perceived cultural importance play a more important role in cultural identification. These findings have important implications for conceptualizing and measuring cultures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deviance regulation: A theory of action and identity.

The authors propose a behavioral decision theory relevant to the maintenance of desirable identities. The theory, termed deviance regulation theory (DRT), predicts that actions translate into meaningful identities to the extent that they cause the individual to deviate from reference group norms. This straightforward proposition is used to predict the patterning of behavior across a wide array of social contexts. The authors present evidence that predictions generalize across Eastern and Western cultures and to both personal and collective identities. Finally, they show how DRT alters current theoretical assumptions about social motives and social and cultural influence, and they illustrate how it can help explain the structure of both informal and formal social forces. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

思想政治工作与企业文化的整合

思想政治工作和企业文化各自的历史发展趋势对其整合提出了要求,同时两者间存在的共性及特性互补为其整合又提供了可能性。在提出了思想政治工作与企业文化整合模型的基础上,具体分析了两者有机整合的四条途径及其方法:在物质文化层次上塑造品牌;在行为文化层次上强化观念;在制度文化层次上优化规则和在精神文化层次上进行团队再造。同时探讨了整合时必须坚持的立足“以人为本”、凸现“三个代表”、服务企业核心能力和着力创建学习型的组织等四个原则。     

Leadership and Organizational Vision in Managing a Multiethnic and Multicultural Project Team

To meet the demands of managing complex projects, project leaders face challenges of daily leadership behavior and organizational vision to manage a project team. The challenges are compounded when the task of creating a project culture is also influenced by cultural, ethnic and corporate differences. A program management team involves many disciplines: project management, planning and engineering, cost estimating, scheduling, material procurement, program controls, management information systems, administration, construction inspection, and others. Different personality types often gravitate to predictable areas of function during the course of their careers. Managing these differing personality types is one challenge of program leadership. Another equal challenge is managing people of widely differing cultural and ethnic backgrounds. What is regarded as a routine order by one culture can be considered as an extreme insult by another. Good natured American jokes about one group can deeply offend members of that group even though the intentions may not be malicious. In addition to these ethnic and cultural sensitivities, the personalities attracted to the individual disciplines can be even more magnified. The greatest challenge of leadership lies in identifying strengths and similarities while valuing the differences to accomplish the common program management goals. The program management team used as an example in this paper consists of native born Caucasian Americans, African-Americans, African-Caribbeans, Middle-Easterners, Asian-Indians, Mexicans, Cuban-Americans and other Latin-Americans. The paper discusses the experiences of adopting different leadership styles, behavior and communication links to improve the performance of individual leaders and management team.     

Culture as common sense: Perceived consensus versus personal beliefs as mechanisms of cultural influence.

The authors propose that culture affects people through their perceptions of what is consensually believed. Whereas past research has examined whether cultural differences in social judgment are mediated by differences in individuals’ personal values and beliefs, this article investigates whether they are mediated by differences in individuals’ perceptions of the views of people around them. The authors propose that individuals who perceive that traditional views are culturally consensual (e.g., Chinese participants who believe that most of their fellows hold collectivistic values) will themselves behave and think in culturally typical ways. Four studies of previously well-established cultural differences found that cultural differences were mediated by participants’ perceived consensus as much as by participants’ personal views. This held true for cultural differences in the bases of compliance (Study 1), attributional foci (Study 2), and counterfactual thinking styles (Study 3). To tease apart the effect of consensus perception from other possibly associated individual differences, in Study 4, the authors experimentally manipulated which of 2 cultures was salient to bicultural participants and found that judgments were guided by participants’ perception of the consensual view of the salient culture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Identity fusion: The interplay of personal and social identities in extreme group behavior.

The authors propose that when people become fused with a group, their personal and social identities become functionally equivalent. Two hypotheses follow from this proposition. First, activating either personal or social identities of fused persons should increase their willingness to endorse extreme behaviors on behalf of the group. Second, because personal as well as social identities support group-related behaviors of fused persons, the 2 forms of identity may combine synergistically, fostering exceptionally high levels of extreme behavior. Support for these hypotheses came from 5 preliminary studies and 3 experiments. In particular, fused persons were more willing to fight or die for the group than nonfused persons, especially when their personal or social identities had been activated. The authors conclude that among fused persons, both the personal and social self may energize and direct group-related behavior. Implications for related theoretical approaches and for conceptualizing the relationship between personal identities, social identities, and group processes are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Health related behavioural change in context: young people in transition

Post-modern theorists have highlighted the impacts of rapid social and economic change in lessening structural constraints, arguing that the concepts of "gender" and "social class" are now less useful in understanding people's life chances and choices. While the epochal nature of such changes has been questioned, increasing levels of individualisation and reflexivity have been widely recognised. Agency is prioritised and structural disembeddedness increasingly assumed: people are held to construct their identities and biographies reflexively from a diverse range of experiences and opportunities. When used in relation to understanding health related behaviours this theorising has led to an increasing focus upon the symbolic significance of consumption (and indeed risk) in defining lifestyles and identities. Here we report on the health related behaviours of 106 young people (15/16 yr) during their transition from school to employment, training or further education. This period is arguably central in the process of creating adult identities and accordingly should involve considerable lifestyle choice, reflexivity and symbolic consumption as identities are formed. By drawing on two rounds of data (semi-structured interviews and structured questionnaires) we consider how smoking and drinking behaviours related to the wider social transitions towards adulthood. We provide a situated account of health related behaviours which acknowledges both subjective experience and social location. We argue that the current challenge is to integrate the different levels of structural constraint and individual agency within the context of current rapid social and economic change and suggest that it is only through empirical investigation which embraces an analysis both at the level of structure and individual experience that the conditions of late modernity can be more thoroughly understood.     

Acculturation: A psychometric perspective.

A review of recent research indicates that the measurement of individual acculturation is not only a legitimate area of investigation but can also meet conventional criteria of reliability and validity. Furthermore, particularly within the framework of a full measurement model, psychometric methods have the potential to contribute to a better understanding of complex issues such as the identification and cross-cultural equivalence of the cultural variable as an antecedent of behavior. Recent developments in the quantification of acculturation along multiple dimensions suggest that this approach is more promising than arbitrary cultural group or generational typologies. (51 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

It was meant to happen: Explaining cultural variations in fate attributions.

People often perceive important and improbable life outcomes as “meant to happen,” that is, predetermined and inevitable. In 4 studies, we constructed diverse measures of such fate attributions and examined the cultural correlates of this attributional tendency, focusing on ethnic culture and religious affiliation differences. Independently of ethnic culture, Christians were found to endorse fate attributions more than did the nonreligious; and independently of religious affiliation, East Asian Canadians attributed events to fate more than did European Canadians. Consistent with theoretical predictions, the religious affiliation difference was mediated by belief in God, whereas the ethnic cultural difference was mediated by a measure of causal complexity, although not by a measure of acculturation. Experimentally inducing thoughts of causal complexity in one domain increased fate attributions in unrelated domains. These results point to 2 independent psychological sources of fate attributions which also explain observed cultural differences in this tendency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cultural assessment in home healthcare

As the nurse becomes adept at performing cultural assessments and culturally competent care, it will become clear that "although it is critical to conduct a cultural assessment with culturally and ethnically diverse groups, it is also important to realize that every client needs a cultural assessment. Every client has values, beliefs, and practices that must be considered when a clinician renders healthcare services. Therefore, cultural assessments are not limited to specific ethnic groups, but rather should be conducted on each individual" (Campinha-Bacote, 1995, p.148). Nurses who have been identified as good transcultural nurses have been found to be empathetic, caring, open, and flexible. They have a positive attitude toward cultural differences and have a genuine interest in learning from the client about the client's culture (Emerson, 1995). Talabere (1996) states that openness, appreciation of another's perspective, holistic communication, genuine interest, and a nonjudgmental attitude are central to cultural sensitivity. When a culturally sensitive nurse develops mutually agreeable goals with a patient from another culture, a kind of cultural synergy occurs, resulting in care that is "meaningful, satisfying and beneficial to clients" (Leininger, 1988, p.155).     

Culturally responsive assessment with diverse older clients.

Clinical research in the field of geropsychology has focused primarily on older people of dominant cultural identities. The purpose of this article is to help psychologists conduct assessments that are more responsive to older people of diverse minority cultures. The ADRESSING framework (which represents age and generation-specific influences, disability, religion, ethnicity, social status, sexual orientation, indigenous heritage, national origin, and gender) is used to organize and consider diverse cultural influences and identities affecting older clients. Suggestions are offered for establishing rapport with older people of minority groups, understanding their cultural identities and heritage, and obtaining clients' histories with attention to generational and culture-specific contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Twelve Practical Suggestions for Achieving Multicultural Competence.

Multicultural competence can be defined as the ability to understand and constructively relate to the uniqueness of each client in light of the diverse cultures that influence each person's perspective. Because the complexity of culture is often overlooked, multicultural research often inadvertently strengthens the stereotypes that it is intended to thwart. To avoid stereotypic thinking, clinicians must critically evaluate cross-cultural research and be thoughtfully creative in applying it to clinical practice. Twelve suggestions are offered for the use of multicultural research as a source of questions that enhance respect for clients' cultural identities rather than as answers that foreclose it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of occupational complexity in trajectories of cognitive aging before and after retirement.

We examined the association between complexity of the main lifetime occupation and changes in cognitive ability in later life. Data on complexity of work with data, people, and things and on 4 cognitive factors (verbal, spatial, memory, and speed) were available from 462 individuals in the longitudinal Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging. Mean age at the first measurement wave was 64.3 years (SD = 7.2), and 65% of the sample had participated in at least three waves of data collection. Occupational complexity with people and data were both correlated with cognitive performance. Individuals with more complex work demonstrated higher mean performance on the verbal, spatial, and speed factors. Latent growth curve analyses indicated that, after correcting for education, only complexity with people was associated with differences in cognitive performance and rate of cognitive change. Continued engagement as a result of occupational complexity with people helped to facilitate verbal function before retirement, whereas a previous high level of complexity of work with people was associated with faster decline after retirement on the spatial factor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of groups' variety and disparity on groups' cognitive complexity.

This study examined the influence of group diversity conceptualized as disparity and as variety on group cognitive complexity. Data on individual cognitive complexity and group cognitive complexity were collected in 44 groups using a conceptual mapping technique. Also data on the quality of teamwork processes and satisfaction were collected using an individual questionnaire. The results indicate that (a) gender variety has a positive impact on group cognitive complexity, (b) cognitive disparity has a negative impact on group cognitive complexity, and (c) groups with a high average individual cognitive complexity have the highest cognitive complexity as a group only if the quality of their interactions is high. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Making anthropology clinically relevant to nursing care

Transcultural nursing is generally seen as the interface between anthropology and nursing. A prime objective of transcultural nursing has been the translation of concepts from anthropology and nursing into the nursing process to guide a culturally informed clinical practice. To date, there has been a general inability of transcultural nursing to operationalize the concept of culture to develop culturally competent clinicians; that is, nurses who are capable of knowing, utilizing, and appreciating the effects of culture in the resolution of an individual, group, community, and/or family problem. A model of transcultural nursing is described, for incorporating the concept of culture into patient care. It includes the concepts of cultural brokerage, simultaneous dual ethnocentrism, multiple clinical realities, the patient as cultural informant, and cultural assessment of patient views of clinical reality. The problems of making anthropology and transcultural nursing clinically relevant through the transcultural nursing model are presented and methods are recommended for addressing such problems.     

Who drives divergence? Identity signaling, outgroup dissimilarity, and the abandonment of cultural tastes.

People often diverge from members of other social groups: They select cultural tastes (e.g., possessions, attitudes, or behaviors) that distinguish them from outsiders and abandon tastes when outsiders adopt them. But while divergence is pervasive, most research on the propagation of culture is based on conformity. Consequently, it is less useful in explaining why people might abandon tastes when others adopt them. The 7 studies described in this article showed that people diverge to avoid signaling undesired identities. A field study, for example, found that undergraduates stopped wearing a particular wristband when members of the "geeky" academically focused dormitory next door started wearing them. Consistent with an identity-signaling perspective, the studies further showed that people often diverge from dissimilar outgroups to avoid the costs of misidentification. Implications for social influence, identity signaling, and the popularity and diffusion of culture are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Integration of Object Levels and Their Content: A Theory of Global/Local Processing and Related Hemispheric Differences.

This article presents and tests the authors' integration hypothesis of global/local processing, which proposes that at early stages of processing, the identities of global and local units of a hierarchical stimulus are represented separately from information about their respective levels and that, therefore, identity and level information have to be integrated at later stages. It further states that the cerebral hemispheres differ in their capacities for these binding processes. Three experiments are reported in which the integration hypothesis was tested. Participants had to identify a letter at a prespecified level with the viewing duration restricted by a mask. False reporting of the letter at the nontarget level was predicted to occur more often when the integration of identity and level could fail. This was the case. Moreover, visual-field effects occurred, as expected. Finally, a multinomial model was constructed and fitted to the data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transcultural nursing practice described by registered nurses and baccalaureate nursing students

Using Leininger's Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality as a framework, this research examined transcultural practices of nurses and students. A survey was administered to a convenience sample of registered nurses and senior baccalaureate students with 767 usable questionnaires returned. Neither group expressed confidence in their ability to care for culturally-diverse patients. Registered nurses (RNs) reported assessing cultural factors and modifying practices more frequently than did students. Respondents reported their beliefs about transcultural nursing were influenced by being with people of other cultures, their own personal values, and education. Analysis of the open-ended questions revealed two major themes. First, both nurses and students perceive an overwhelming need for transcultural nursing. Second, nurses and students respond to cultural challenges by modifying their care. Modifications are based on language and communication, pain perception and relief, religious and spiritual dimensions, gender and family roles, and other values. Results suggest that nurses and students are aware of culture, recognize that culture influences the care they provide, and modify their health teaching and nursing care based on culture. The use of a conceptual framework to help make modifications in care was not mentioned.