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Where Culture Meets Neuroimaging: The Intersection of Luria's Method with Modern Neuroimaging and Cognitive Neuroscience Research

Xavier E. Cagigas and Robert M. Bilder

in Luria's Legacy in the 21st Century

This chapter utilizes A.R. Luria’s method of neuropsychological investigation to shed light upon recent advances in neuroimaging and emerging paradigms in the cognitive neurosciences such as ... More

This chapter utilizes A.R. Luria’s method of neuropsychological investigation to shed light upon recent advances in neuroimaging and emerging paradigms in the cognitive neurosciences such as cognitive phenomics. Particular attention is focused on the theoretical power of Luria’s method for understanding the emerging literature in cultural neuropsychology which is challenging the notion of psychic unity and revolutionizing the field’s understanding of cognition. An argument is made for embracing biological and cultural diversity by recasting neurocognition as being completely culturally-constituted. Other themes covered in the chapter include: Goldberg’s gradiental theory, activity theory, the effects of bilingualism and other experience-based influences on brain plasticity, biocultural co-constructivism, and the cultural-historical method for understanding neurocognition.Less

Comparability Effects: The Limits of Equivalence

in The Total Survey Error Approach: A Guide to the New Science of Survey Research

Comparability issues arise when different surveys are compared. Surveys taken by different organizations, in different countries, and/or at different times are often compared, but the differences ... More

Comparability issues arise when different surveys are compared. Surveys taken by different organizations, in different countries, and/or at different times are often compared, but the differences that are found are not necessarily meaningful. The first section of this chapter focuses on the meaning of equivalence between surveys, after which the second section briefly examines three related comparability issues: “house effects,” cross-cultural differences, and over-time differences. House effects refers to the differences that different survey organizations sometimes obtain even when they ask the same question to the same population. Cross-cultural differences are the factors that preclude total equivalence when the same question is asked in multiple countries. Over-time differences relate to changes in the meaning of survey questions over time.Less

Dialecticism in Close Relationships and Marriage

Susan E. Cross and Ben C. P. Lam

in The Psychological and Cultural Foundations of East Asian Cognition: Contradiction, Change, and Holism

This chapter explores how the cultural framework of dialecticism can be applied in research on romantic relationships. Using cross-cultural data from dating and married individuals, the chapter first ... More

This chapter explores how the cultural framework of dialecticism can be applied in research on romantic relationships. Using cross-cultural data from dating and married individuals, the chapter first examines the predictions that East Asians, as compared to Westerners, are more ambivalent and realistic in their perceptions of their partners, perceive lower similarity with their partners, and are more motivated to adjust and change themselves in the relationship. It then discusses research on cross-cultural differences in emotional experience among couples and relationship cognitions (e.g., the concept of Yuan and focalism). In sum, it is suggested that cross-cultural differences in how individuals think, feel, and act in romantic relationship contexts can be understood through the theoretical perspective of dialecticism. However, more empirical studies are needed to explore the influence of dialectical thinking on relationship development and maintenance across cultural contexts.Less

Lifestyles in Emerging Adulthood: Who Needs Stages Anyway?

Leo B. Hendry and Marion Kloep

in Debating Emerging Adulthood: Stage or Process?

A theory, describing ”many different emerging adulthoods” as a normative stage, is not particularly insightful. This chapter takes a global view of transitions to adulthood from studies of ... More

A theory, describing ”many different emerging adulthoods” as a normative stage, is not particularly insightful. This chapter takes a global view of transitions to adulthood from studies of non-Western cultures, ethnic minorities and sub-cultures suggesting that generalisations about emerging adults do not capture the variations that exist within individuals and across cultures. To understand the developmental changes that have occurred for young people individually, the changes that have occurred on the macro-level of their societies, how this is mediated by governmental and institutional policies and micro-system factors are discussed. The experience of approaching adulthood appears to depend on whether or not a prolonged moratorium results from cultural and economic forces, policies, prevailing values, parental styles, self-agency and non-normative shifts, which give individuals either choices or constraints.Less

Folk emotion concepts: Lexicalization of emotional experiences across languages and cultures1

Anna Ogarkova

in Components of Emotional Meaning: A sourcebook

The chapter overviews an expansive research area spanning several disciplines in the affective sciences (such as emotion psychology, anthropology, and linguistics) where emotion words are assumed to ... More

The chapter overviews an expansive research area spanning several disciplines in the affective sciences (such as emotion psychology, anthropology, and linguistics) where emotion words are assumed to be good entry points for the study of culture-embedded (‘folk’) emotion concepts. On outlining major dimensions in current theorizing of the interrelationship between emotion words, concepts, and experiences, the chapter proceeds to discuss the state-of-the-art empirical evidence on emotion lexicalization in different languages of the world, focusing on both the similarities and the differences therein. This literature review convincingly suggests the saliency of emotion components (such as the emotion-eliciting events, emotional expression, regulation, and so on) which appear to not only discriminate individual emotion words across languages, but also clusters of terms, or even entire emotion vocabularies. The chapter concludes with the discussion of the implications of this evidence for cross-cultural research on the emotion lexicon.Less

Entitativity Perceptions of Individuals and Groups across Cultures

Saori Tsukamoto, Yoshihisa Kashima, Nick Haslam, Elise Holland, and Minoru Karasawa

in The Psychological and Cultural Foundations of East Asian Cognition: Contradiction, Change, and Holism

Cross-cultural differences in social perceptions pose an intriguing puzzle. East Asians, in contrast to Westerners, tend to have the view that individuals lack coherent and thematically consistent ... More

Cross-cultural differences in social perceptions pose an intriguing puzzle. East Asians, in contrast to Westerners, tend to have the view that individuals lack coherent and thematically consistent characteristics and, therefore, are likely to exhibit cross-situationally inconsistent actions and reactions. This tendency is explained in terms of naïve dialecticism. However, from a different domain of perception, East Asians perceive groups as possessing more coherent and thematically consistent characteristics than ascribed by Westerners. Does this apparent contradiction mean that, unlike individual selves, groups are not dialectically construed by East Asians? One way to reconcile these findings is to say that naïve dialecticism is domain-specific—East Asian dialecticism applies to individuals, but not to groups. Another is to consider individualism–collectivism and argue that East Asians perceive groups as more entitative because they are collectivistic, and Westerners perceive individuals as more entitative because they are individualistic. Pros and cons for these explanations are examined in this chapter and future research directions are suggested.Less

The Dialectical Self: The Internal Consistency, Cross-Situational Consistency, and Temporal Stability of Self-Conception

Sylvia Xiaohua Chen, Julie Spencer-Rodgers, and Kaiping Peng

in The Psychological and Cultural Foundations of East Asian Cognition: Contradiction, Change, and Holism

Originating in East Asian epistemologies, naïve dialecticism gives rise to contradictory, ever-changing, and interrelated perceptions of all entities, including the self. It influences the self in ... More

Originating in East Asian epistemologies, naïve dialecticism gives rise to contradictory, ever-changing, and interrelated perceptions of all entities, including the self. It influences the self in three fundamental ways, specifically, by affecting the (1) internal consistency, (2) cross-situational consistency, and (3) temporal stability of the content and structure of people’s self-conceptions. This chapter reviews the cross-cultural research that shows that Westerners possess more consistent and stable self-conceptions over time and across situations, whereas East Asians possess more variable and contextualized self-views, at both an explicit and implicit level. The chapter further discusses some of the consequences of the dialectical self (e.g., in bilingual/bicultural contexts) and presents directions for future research.Less

Types of anger in Spanish and Russian1

Cristina Soriano, Johnny J. R. Fontaine, Anna Ogarkova, Claudia Mejía Quijano, Yana Volkova, Svetlana Ionova, and Viktor Shakhovskyy

in Components of Emotional Meaning: A sourcebook

This chapter investigates the internal structure of the category ‘anger’ in Spanish and Russian and its cross-cultural stability looking at the meaning of several anger lexemes in Spain, Colombia, ... More

This chapter investigates the internal structure of the category ‘anger’ in Spanish and Russian and its cross-cultural stability looking at the meaning of several anger lexemes in Spain, Colombia, Russia and Ukraine. The most salient terms in the lexicalization of anger experiences in Spanish and Russian do not form one single family, but split into two. The first and larger cluster (with words like gnev, zlost, ira or rabia, considered central to the category in their respective languages) refers to a high-power, expressive, confrontational form of anger. The second cluster (with words related to frustration and resentment/hurt) reflects a less expressive form of anger, with feelings of low-power, emotion-concealing behavior, and a preference for withdrawal. These two anger types can be provisionally labeled ‘high-power/ active’ and ‘low-power/ passive’ anger. Differences in the meaning of the Spanish word molesto are also observed between Spain and Colombia.Less

Dialectical Thinking and Creativity from Many Perspectives: Contradiction and Tension

Susannah B. F. Paletz, Kyle Bogue, Ella Miron-Spektor, and Julie Spencer-Rodgers

in The Psychological and Cultural Foundations of East Asian Cognition: Contradiction, Change, and Holism

Dialectical thinking has been investigated together with creativity for decades. This chapter organizes the literature by contrasting the different conceptualizations of dialectical thinking used to ... More

Dialectical thinking has been investigated together with creativity for decades. This chapter organizes the literature by contrasting the different conceptualizations of dialectical thinking used to study creativity. Dialectical thinking has been defined quite differently from a variety of theoretical perspectives. From the Hegelian perspective, dialectical thinking has come to mean the apex of formal thinking or a particular cognitive strategy. Naïve or East Asian dialectical thinking, by contrast, includes a sense that contradictions exist that need not be resolved. In this chapter, these conceptions of dialectical thinking are compared and contrasted. The chapter (1) discusses how creativity may be differentially impacted by different kinds of dialectical thinking, (2) describes cultural differences for acceptance-oriented (naïve) dialectical thinking, (3) reviews the literature on concepts related to dialectical thinking, (4) points out gaps in current theory and research, and (5) recommends future cross-cultural and within-culture research.Less

The conceptualization of despair in Basque, Spanish, and English1

Itziar Alonso-Arbiol, Cristina Soriano, and Fons J. R. van de Vijver

in Components of Emotional Meaning: A sourcebook

We examined possible dissimilarities in the English, Basque and Spanish prototypical terms for despair. The GRID instrument was used with samples from four geographical regions and five cultural ... More

We examined possible dissimilarities in the English, Basque and Spanish prototypical terms for despair. The GRID instrument was used with samples from four geographical regions and five cultural groups: Spanish speakers from Chile, Spanish speakers from Southern Spain, Spanish speakers from Northern Spain, Basque speakers from Northern Spain, and English speakers from the USA. Agreement of the different versions was examined using multidimensional scaling procedures with the overall scores and with the profiles of several components (Appraisal, Feelings, Bodily reactions, Action tendencies, and Expressions). Non-equivalence of despair terms across languages and cultural groups was observed both at a general and component level. The three words used in different geographical and/or linguistic contexts do not seem to refer to a unitary concept, but rather to two different concepts, where the Spanish ‘desesperación’ would convey a specific arousal-active pattern.Less

Innovation Equity Makes the World Go ’Round

Elie ofek, Eitan Muller, and Barak Libai

in Innovation Equity: Assessing and Managing the Monetary Value of New Products and Services

This chapter considers the book’s main framework in a global context. It establishes that innovation equity assessments typically differ across countries, even after controlling for population sizes, ... More

This chapter considers the book’s main framework in a global context. It establishes that innovation equity assessments typically differ across countries, even after controlling for population sizes, because diffusion and customer lifetime value parameters are generally not the same in each of them. An innovation’s diffusion scale and speed, for example, are typically affected by country-specific factors: the economic environment and cultural orientation. Cross-cultural differences in the degree of collectivism and homophily are particularly relevant for understanding international variations in the social force. Evidence is presented for how adoption in some countries can spill over to affect adoption in other countries. A global diffusion model can be constructed that allows capturing such cross-country social effects. The chapter also suggests there are often differences in customer per-period profit margins, retention rates and acquisition costs between countries. The iPhone’s global roll-out strategy is discussed and an example is presented for how to assess the equity of a particular innovation in multiple countries. Emerging online data sources, such as Google Trends, can help managers better understand the commercial prospects of new products and services in various countries and obtain proxy inputs for crafting global innovation equity analyses.Less

Within-firm Labor Productivity across Countries: A Case Study

Francine Lafontaine and Jagadeesh Sivadasan

in International Differences in the Business Practices and Productivity of Firms

This chapter presents a study that used weekly data from the outlets of an international retail food chain to analyze how labor productivity—defined as the number of items produced per working ... More

This chapter presents a study that used weekly data from the outlets of an international retail food chain to analyze how labor productivity—defined as the number of items produced per working hour—varies with outlet characteristics and organizational factors such as experience levels of the workers, average order size, governance, execution, and compliance differences, and a cross-country index of the severity of labor regulations. The chapter found that execution quality has a negative effect on labor productivity as expected, outlet age beyond the first year of operation and increases in the number of experienced employees do not have a statistically significant effect on labor productivity, and larger order sizes improve labor productivity. The effect of governance form is ambiguous, and the choice of governance form appears to be correlated with unobserved country fixed effects. Finally, a high frequency of the data was used to develop an empirical strategy that would allow us to estimate the net impact of the labor law rigidity on the output at the outlet levelLess

Language family similarity effect: Emotion term semantics in Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, Slovak, and Polish1

Anna Ogarkova, Nataliya Panasenko, and Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk

in Components of Emotional Meaning: A sourcebook

This chapter explores the idea that the meanings of emotion words in typologically close languages bear a higher resemblance to each other than to the corresponding words in languages from a ... More

This chapter explores the idea that the meanings of emotion words in typologically close languages bear a higher resemblance to each other than to the corresponding words in languages from a different language group. We test this prediction in a case-study of five Slavic languages (Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, Slovak and Polish) and compare the meaning profiles of emotion words with US and UK varieties of English (Germanic languages). Although the results largely confirm our prediction, additionally highlighting the capacity of GRID to capture yet smaller-scale linguistic and cultural affinities within the Slavic group, the observed language family similarity effect is considerably small. This finding contributes to the universality claim in the studies on emotion conceptualization and contradicts previous claims about a remarkable cultural ‘untranslatability’ of Slavic emotion concepts.Less