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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)

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.

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]

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.