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Uses a Confucian-Socratic framework to analyze culture's influence on academic learning, comparing and contrasting ideals for learning that are culturally more Chinese (Confucian) with those that are more western (Socratic). Discusses expressions of these approaches in modern postsecondary contexts, noting the effects of these approaches on students who either fit or do not fit the cultural ideal. (Contains references.) (SM)

Martin Buber was untrained in psychology, yet his teaching provides helpful guidance for a psychological science of suffering. His ideas deserve attention at three distinct levels. For each of these, his ideas align with research findings, but also push beyond them. At the individual level, Buber’s radical approach to relationships disrupts typical social cognitive cycles of suffering and can thereby build a defense against suffering. At the community level, he provides guidance that can help create a society that cares for people who suffer. At the dyadic level, Buber’s guidance also matters. His ideas point toward a therapeutic dyad that can help address suffering when the individual and community responses are not sufficient. Specifically, he guides us toward a holistic view of the person that transcends labels and also toward ineffable human relations. Here again, his ideas align with empirical research, but push beyond. Buber’s unique take on relationships has much to offer scholars seeking to understand and alleviate suffering. Some might perceive Buber as ignoring evil. That possible criticism and others deserve consideration. Nonetheless, readiness to adjust theory in response to Buber and other psychological outsiders may be valuable when developing a psychology of suffering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides evidence for a link between cultural collectivism and indexes of governmentally initiated restriction both across nations and within one nation, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. In Investigation 1, across U.S. states, an index of legislative restriction is positively related to an index of collective behaviors. In Investigation 2, across nations, an index of political restriction is positively related to measures of national cultural collectivism. In Investigation 3, longitudinal analyses suggest that cultural measures predict restriction better than vice versa, although this evidence is stronger and more consistent across nations than across states. The present findings are discussed in terms of their contribution to understanding the relationship between culture and politics. Keywords: collectivism; culture; legal restriction; politics

Two studies examined internally and externally targeted control strategies in response to life stressors in European Canadians, East Asian Canadians, and Japanese. In Study 1, European Canadian, East Asian Canadian, and sojourning Japanese university students in Canada recalled a stressful life event and reported their coping strategies. Respondents also reported current and retrospective self-evaluations that allowed assessment of perceived self-changes over time. Study 2 included East Asian Canadian and European Canadian university students in Canada and Japanese university students in Japan. Both studies revealed that several types of internally targeted control strategies were more prevalent among East Asian participants but that a particular type of internally targeted control strategy, self-enhancing interpretive control, was more prevalent among people with Western English-speaking backgrounds. Keywords: culture; stress; coping; Japanese; North American

The vast majority of bereavement research is conducted after a loss has occurred. Thus, knowledge of the divergent trajectories of grieving or their antecedent predictors is lacking. This study gathered prospective data on 205 individuals several years prior to the death of their spouse and at 6- and 18-months postloss. Five core bereavement patterns were identified: common grief, chronic grief, chronic depression, improvement during bereavement, and resilience. Common grief was relatively infrequent, and the resilient pattern most frequent. The authors tested key hypotheses in the literature pertaining to chronic grief and resilience by identifying the preloss predictors of each pattern. Chronic grief was associated with preloss dependency and resilience with preloss acceptance of death and belief in a just world.

Within-nation cultural variation across regions provides a largely untapped resource for examining cross-cultural relations usually studied at the international level. The current study examines the relations of collectivism, helping behavior with strangers, and pace of life across regions of the United States. The study shows that within-nation cultural variation can be used both to (a) cross-validate findings generated at the international level, findings that are otherwise exceedingly difficult to cross-validate, and to (b) generate new findings. The current study provides cross-validation for the previously reported negative relation at the international level between collectivism and a faster pace of life. The study also provides evidence that in the context of helping strangers, collectivism is negatively associated with certain types of helping behavior. In particular collectivism was negatively associated with the 'planned' (as opposed to 'spontaneous') and 'giving' (as opposed to 'doing') types of helping.

Issues discussed concern how culture influences the cognitive complexity of an individual, focusing on contemporary cross-cultural research which suggests that the relationship between cognitive complexity and culture is dependent upon the social context in which the complexity is revealed. The article addresses differences in ways of thinking between East Asian and Western cultures.

This study investigated Rogerian unconditional positive self-regard (UPSR) among young adults. Based on the findings of extant research in support of the Rogerian metatheoretcial model, variables were selected based on the fully functioning person to represent characteristics predictive of UPSR. Using hierarchical regression, UPSR was assessed with young adults aged 16 to 19 years (x = 16.87). Participants completed emotional self-assessments (Block 1: depression, anxiety, and self-esteem), humanistic/positive psychology construct assessments (Block 2: authenticity, life satisfaction, aspirations), and a measure of perceived parental conditional regard (Block 3: domain-specific perceptions of parental conditional regard [PPCR]). Analyses revealed that each block of variables significantly accounted for the variance in UPSR. All scores (except PPCR-Sport) had significant zero-order correlations with UPSR, however when considered together this was no longer the case due to the significant intercorrelations of the predictor variables. Overall, the following significant predictors of unconditional positive self-regard among young adults emerged: self-esteem, authentic living, accepting external influence, life satisfaction, importance of intrinsic motivations, and perceived parental conditional regard on academic success. Implications are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, positive psychology is experiencing problems with coherence, and the field could benefit from more organizing concepts linking disparate findings and researchers within the field. This incoherence can be seen in several domains. At a conceptual level, the field has produced an abundance of important studies clarifying predictors of well-being, but no consistent theory has emerged explaining why these factors predict well-being. In addition, disunity has emerged between first wave positive psychologists and second wave positive psychologists, and also between practitioners and researchers. The field could benefit from more unifying constructs that explain links between constructs and practices within positive psychology. Faith in humanity (FIH) has potential as a unifying construct. FIH is like a forgotten sibling whose important story is mentioned rarely and mainly obliquely. In fact, this construct, though seldom mentioned, already implicitly pervades much of positive psychology, and the field would benefit by explicitly recognizing this fact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What kinds of physical environments make for free societies? The present research investigates the effect of three different types of ecological stressors (climate stress, pathogen stress, and frontier topography) on two measurements of governmental restriction: Vertical restriction involves select persons imposing asymmetrical laws on others, while horizontal restriction involves laws that restrict most members of a society equally. Investigation 1 validates our measurements of vertical and horizontal restriction. Investigation 2 demonstrates that, across both U.S. states and a sample of nations, ecological stressors tend to cause more vertically restrictive societies but less horizontally restrictive societies. Investigation 3 demonstrates that assortative sociality partially mediates ecological stress→restriction relationships across nations, but not in U.S. states. Although some stressor-specific effects emerged (most notably, cold stress consistently showed effects in the opposite direction), these results in the main suggest that ecological stress simultaneously creates opposing pressures that push freedom in two different directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Positive emotion following bereavement was examined in a prospective longitudinal study. Participants lost a spouse (n = 250) and were interviewed prior to the death, 6 months after the death, and in some cases 18 and 48 months after the death. Early theorists suggested that positive emotion during times of distress may indicate pathology. In contrast, more recent theorists suggest that positive emotion is desirable even during times of distress. In this analysis, positive emotion was associated with desirable outcomes (less depressed mood, more social support received, more social provision to others) and this effect was not diminished among people reporting elevated levels of distress. Also, the simultaneous occurrence of positive emotion and distress was not associated with pre-existing emotional instability. Those experiencing positive emotion reported lower levels of grief, but not qualitatively different grief. The findings suggest that positive emotion tends to be associated with desirable outcomes even among people reporting elevated distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors developed an 80-item scale to measure counterproductive tendencies, using items on the California Psychological Inventory (CPI), Form 434, and choosing items on the basis of their correlations, in a sample of 1,019 university undergraduates, with a self-report instrument measuring counterproductive behaviors. A factor analysis of this criterion instrument revealed nine underlying dimensions. Analyses of scores on the new scale revealed significant gender differences (males higher) and yielded separate-gender norms for four populations of interest. Internal-consistency and test-retest reliability estimates ranged between .80 and .90 across five samples. Correlations with standard CPI scales and domain and facet scales from the NEO PI-R provided evidence of construct validity. Estimated true criterion-related validity for the scale (a) averaged .60 in a student sample against the self-report counterproductive-behavior criterion, (b) was .35 against rated counterproductive job behavior in an employee sample, and (c) ranged as high as .36 against several other job-performance ratings in two additional workplace samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within-nation cultural variation across regions provides a largely untapped resource for examining cross- cultural relations usually studied at the international level. The current study examines the relations of collectivism, helping behavior with strangers, and pace of life across regions of the United States. The study shows that within-nation cultural variation can be used both to (a) cross-validate findings generated at the international level, findings that are otherwise exceedingly difficult to cross-validate, and to (b) generate new findings. The current study provides cross-validation for the previously reported negative relation at the international level between collectivism and a faster pace of life. The study also provides evidence that in the context of helping strangers, collectivism is negatively associated with certain types of helping behavior. In particular collectivism was negatively associated with the “planned” (as opposed to “spontaneous”) and “giving” (as opposed to “doing”) types of helping. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Focuses on the bipolar descriptions of individual difference dimensions for bishops by Pope Gregory the Great. Exclusion of the psychology of Gregory from histories of psychology; Factors of personality; Distinction between inner and outer life.

Previous research on subtypes of batterers has revealed at least two distinct types of batterers. One group (type 1) demonstrates suppressed physiological responses during conflicts with their wives, tends to use violence in nonintimate relationships, and manifests Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-II) scale elevations on the Antisocial and Aggressive-Sadistic scales. The second group (type 2) manifests violence in the intimate relationship only and reports dysphoria. The current study extends current knowledge of these two groups by using a cluster analysis to assess personality disorder and relating the results to each group's attachment style, anger, trauma scores, and scores on a self-report regarding Borderline Personality Organization (BPO). An instrumental group (Type 1) showed an Antisocial-Narcissistic-Aggressive profile on the MCMI-II and reported more severe physical violence. An impulsive group (Type 2) showed a mixed profile on the MCMI-II with Passive-Aggressive, Borderline, and Avoidant elevations, high scores on a self-report of BPO, higher chronic anger, and Fearful attachment. Both types of abusive men reported a Preoccupied attachment style, but only the Impulsive men reported an accompanying Fearful attachment style.

Previous marketing research has focused on the optimal use of an existing salesforce, reflecting relatively little interest in the effects of salesforce selection on subsequent sales performance. A predictive validity study is described herein in which 85 telemarketing employees in a large telecommunications company were, prior to being hired, administered a battery of cognitive-ability and self-report trait measures. Three months later they were assessed on their job performance. Two cognitive-ability tests—one measuring perceptual speed and accuracy, the other, divergent thinking ability—and a number of scales from both a widely used personality questionnaire (the California Psychological Inventory [CPI]) and a special-purpose telemarketing selection instrument (the Telemarketing Applicant Inventory) yielded significant validities (of between 0.18 and 0.41) for at least one of several aggregated job-performance measures. A predictively-effective composite was derived, consisting of the two cognitive-ability tests noted and three CPI scales (Self-Acceptance, Socialization, and Achievement via Conformance). The composite yielded statistically-significant and useful predictive validities (of between 0.32 and 0.49) for several aggregated job-performance criteria. Utility analysis—a technique often used to examine the organizational consequences of selection strategies—was performed, with the present results reflecting substantial gains to the hiring organization. The reported research highlights the importance of effective hiring practices in achieving optimal subsequent salesforce performance. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined self-perceived strengths among 116 people who were homeless. Those who had experienced a longer period of current homelessness tended to report fewer personal strengths (r = -0.23). Nonetheless, in spite of their marginalized position in society, the vast majority of participants (114 out of 116) perceived personal strengths. A prior diagnosis with mental illness was not associated with the number of strengths reported, but self-perception of strengths was associated with altruistic orientation. The Values in Action (VIA) taxonomy of character strengths captured many of the responses generated by this population. The most frequently mentioned character categories included social intelligence, kindness, persistence, authenticity and humour. The most frequently mentioned other strengths included personal skills (e.g. music, sports), job skills, intelligence and education. The results have relevance for efforts to build self-perceptions that facilitate escape from homelessness.