Cross-cultural psychology as a scholarly discipline: On the flowering of culture in behavioral research.

A history of cross-cultural psychology shows it to be an increasingly important part of modern psychology. Despite widespread agreement that culture is an indispensable component in the understanding of human behavior, there are noteworthy conceptual differences regarding the ways in which culture and behavior interrelate. Perspectives include absolutism and relativism, each with methodological consequences for such contemporary research concerns as values (including individualism-collectivism), gender differences, cognition, aggression, intergroup relations, and psychological acculturation. Societal concerns relating to these topics are briefly described. When all of psychology finally takes into account the effects of culture on human behavior (and vice versa), terms like cross-cultural and cultural psychology will become unnecessary. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Polytrauma in the elderly

As the elderly population grows, a concomitant increase in polytrauma in the geriatric sector is predicted. Diminished physiologic reserve and deficiencies in management contribute to higher rates of morbidity and mortality in the elderly patient with trauma as compared with the young patient with equivalent trauma. Currently, traditional trauma scoring systems are insufficient in directing triage and predicting survival for these elderly patients. This may be related to the effects of aging and associated comorbidities. Age, therefore, should be considered in contemporary scoring systems and treatment algorithms. The benefits of prompt identification and treatment of musculoskeletal, neurologic, abdominal, and cardiopulmonary trauma, and maintenance of adequate nutritional status are well established in the polytrauma setting, in general. For the elderly patient with polytrauma, early invasive hemodynamic and cardiac monitoring are advisable to identify occult shock, limit end organ hypoperfusion, prevent multiorgan failure, and ultimately improve survival.     

Interest patterns of psychologists in nine Western nations.

Administered the SVIB (male form) to a total of 153 psychologists from 5 English-speaking countries: Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa. Scores were compared with corresponding earlier data from 256 Austrian, German and Swiss psychologists who took the translated SVIB, and with anchoring data from 1,045 United States psychologists tested in 1947. 1-way analyses of variance for English-speaking countries on 81 SVIB scales resulted in only 8 significant differences. At the item level, few items differentiated English-speaking Ss. Profile similarities between all 9 countries were strikingly high, suggesting that Western psychologists have esentially the same measured interests, with only minor cultural variations. Cautions concerning the cross-cultural use of the SVIB are emphasized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A note on the measured interests of Canadian psychologists.

In 1969-70 we conducted a small project which aimed to compare the measured interests of psychologists in five countries (Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, and South Africa). The well-known Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB) was mailed to random samples of 75 psychologists in each country. In this article, we wish to summarize the findings for readers of this Journal and to refer them to lengthier reports given in the references section. The results suggest this: The commonality of the measured interests of Western psychologists is so great that we may infer that the multiple occupational interest criteria used in the United States to aid students in making occupational and educational decisions may be appropriate for use in other Western countries. But the nature of the criteria used in this empirical method of measuring interests may be so culture-bound that a truly cautious approach should be used when extending the method and its supporting modes of interpretation to other countries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)