Teaching Perspectives on Cross-Cultural Psychology and Japanese Society

This article discusses educational aspects of cross-cultural psychology in relationship to Japanese society. After exploring the present status of cross-cultural psychology in Japan, the paper delineates the factual, theoretical, and methodological implications of cross-cultural psychology for the teaching of psychology in Japanese universities. It is argued that an area approach incorporating comparative research on Japanese society can add context, detail, historical perspective, new methodology, and interdisciplinary richness to classes otherwise relying on traditional journal articles and textbooks of cross-cultural psychology. Such an approach is deemed useful for cross-cultural psychology classes taking place both inside and outside Japan. The article concludes with an annotated bibliography of research on Japanese society.     

Cross-Cultural Supervision

A multicultural perspective is essential in the twenty-first century. It is projected that by the year 2010 twelve of our most populous states will have significant minority populations. Thus, the supervision triad of patient, psychoanalyst, and supervisor will most likely contain persons of differing racial-ethnic backgrounds who are confronting problems and concerns in a diverse social environment. This paper uses examples to illustrate how this diverse triad is played out.     

Gender Perspective in Cross-Cultural Couples

This article explores gender perspective in clinical work with couples whose romantic choices fall across cultural, racial and religious lines. A conceptual framework is presented to track the dimensions of differences between the two partners in intercultural couples (collective vs. individualistic). The article illustrates how emotional expressiveness, continuum of autonomy, gender differentiation, and sexuality play out in intimate cross-cultural relationships. It also shows how the embedded, culturally assigned gender beliefs and roles are addressed in treatment. Examples from the author’s clinical work are presented throughout the article.

Cross-Cultural Vocational Assessment

This article discusses the influence of culture on four stages of vocational assessment. The article reviews the role culture plays in problem clarification, information gathering, understanding the problem, and coping with the problem. Issues in the use of standardized tests across cultures are addressed, and research on cross-cultural interest assessment is highlighted.     

Achieving Shared Meaning in Cross-Cultural Dialogue

Abstract

Based on a qualitative study of the Twin Cities Hmong community, this paper offers a case study of a Hmong family's response to a situation in which a woman who is a member of their family has been chronically physically abused by her husband. The case illustrates the challenges of understanding the family's reactions in light of their cultural context as well as the implications for social work practice. An excerpt of a verbatim interview between the author and a subject from the study is provided. The specifics of the cultural values, protocol for handling conflict and communication patterns that contribute to understanding what has occurred are discussed. The author then discusses the challenges for the social work practitioner of simultaneously maintaining the ethical values of honoring diversity and protection of the oppressed.     

Cross-Cultural Competency Through Service-Learning

ABSTRACT

This article addresses the development of cross-cultural competency within the context of service-learning. The need to integrate cross-cultural competency into the academic curriculum has risen dramatically with the sharp increase in resident Hispanics and their families. Service-learning addresses the demand for culturally competent graduates who can address the paradigms of inequality and invisibility as well as the language barrier. Service-learning develops cultural competency through weekly direct contact and journal writing exercises. By venturing into the community, students see beyond the cultural walls that often divide neighborhoods, and they also make connections between economics, anthropology, history, political science, and other disciplines. Through service-learning, many university students develop maturity and ingenuity that they would not acquire in the classroom. Community partners—the families, students, and teachers—discover how to complement and advocate for each other to help ensure well-being and academic success. This article analyzes and evaluates the service-learning experience through a community practicum course in which students spend 40 hours working with Hispanic migrant families. It includes the evolution in service-learning in a university program and the value in the shift from a focus on language acquisition to the development of cultural competency as an integral part of the program. Working with a population that is culturally different from themselves and the textbook knowledge they have received has become a cornerstone of university language and teacher-training programs.     

Strategies for Developing Cross-Cultural Sensitivity

Developing cross-cultural sensitivity currently is a primary challenge for social work educators. In this article, the authors propose the use of an analogy between child abuse and cultural wounding to provide a metaphorical understanding of minority cultures. From the overtly physical wounding of castration to the more subtle forms of psychological wounding that occur through denying the importance or value of one’s culture, the range of cultural wounding that occurs as a result of oppression, devaluing or stigmatizing is presented. It will be shown that the use of the child abuse metaphor will allow the student to understand the feelings and behaviors of those oppressed and through a new level of empathy, learn to join the oppressed in a different type of problem—solving effort.     

Parenting in Later Life: A Cross-Cultural Study

This study explored older parents’ beliefs about their parental role with their adult children, their perceptions of intergenerational conflicts between themselves and their adult children, and the negotiation of autonomy versus dependence with adult children in later life. The influence of cultural norms and mutual dependence on these intergenerational relationships was also evaluated. Focus groups were conducted with two groups of older adults attending a senior center in New York City—one who identified as American and the other as Asian Indian. Implications of the findings and recommendations for social workers are highlighted.     

The Adolescent Peer Group in Cross-Cultural Perspective*

Cette etude se penche sur la question suivante: quelles sortes de relations sociales entretiennent entre eux et la societe des adultes, les adolescents qui vivent dans deux societes dont les degres de complexite sont differents ? Les donnees proviennent de deux etudes comparables d'adolescents americains et libanais. Les resultats indiquent que les jeunes americains sont plus orientes vers les groupes d'age que ne le sont ceux du Liban. Les jeunes libanais, au con-traire, sont plus influences par les valeurs familiales et scolaires que le sont les adolescents des Etats-Unis. Ces resultats s'expliquent a partir des differences dans les fonctions de la famille et des groupes d'age aux Etats-Unis et au Liban et a partir egalement des differences dans les empechements socio-structurels a l'autonomie des groupes d'age. On discute la signification de ces resultats pour la recherche. This study examines the question of how youth in each of two societies at different levels of structural complexity relate themselves to each other and to the adult community. Data were obtained from two comparable studies of American and Lebanese youth. The results show that American youth are more oriented to youth peer groups than are their Lebanese counterparts. Contrariwise, Lebanese youth are more oriented to the family and to school related values than are their American counterparts. These results are explained in terms of societal differences in family and peer group functions, as well as differences in social structural impediments to peer group autonomy. The research implications of the study are discussed.     

Evolutionary and Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Gambling

Few attempts have been made to incorporate evolutionary and cross-cultural perspectives on gambling. This paper begins with the assumption that gambling represents a risky endeavor undertaken for the purpose of winning stakes. This assumption leads to the derivation from evolutionary theory of two hypotheses concerning the socio-demographic characteristics of gamblers: (1) gambling should be over-represented among males, and (2) among young adults. To test these hypotheses, data are drawn from three sources. A cross-cultural sample of 60 societies reveals that males are more often identified as gamblers than females, and these results do not appear to reflect reporting biases. The data are insufficient to enable conclusions about age patterns associated with gambling within this cross-cultural sample. Nationally representative studies of problem and pathological gamblers drawn from seven nation states show that such gamblers tend to be over-represented by young males, as predicted. Lastly, available demographic data on casino gambling hint at sex differences in the games played and the stakes wagered, but require further research for robust conclusions to be drawn.     

Ego Psychology and Self Psychology in social work practice

Ego Psychology and Self Psychology are compared by examining how each theory would imply different treatment techniques. These differences are discussed at both a theoretical level and in terms of their applications to the same case. At the level of theory, Mahler's and Kohut's views are compared along five dimensions: definition of the problem, motivation, conflict, the nature of the therapeutic process, and the therapist's role in that process. At the level of technique, specific attention is paid to when the differences aid or impede the therapeutic process.     

Education for Cross-Cultural Social Work Practice

Abstract

Little attention has been given to the needs of international and American social work students who are preparing for direct practice outside of the United States. A preliminary model of cross-cultural social work practice is described as the basis for a course in direct social work practice in international settings.     

Therapeutic Dilemmas in Cross-Cultural Practice with Asian American Adolescents

The following study proposes that differences in traditions and values between Western clinicians and Asian American clients manifests in therapeutic dilemmas, and offers recommendations for cross-cultural practice with Asian American adolescents and their families. The themes that will be examined are independence vs. acculturation/individuation, equality vs. hierarchy/authority, and supportive vs. dynamic treatment.     

Large-Scale Observational Evidence of Cross-Cultural Differences in Facial Behavior

Self-report studies have found evidence that cultures differ in the display rules they have for facial expressions (i.e., for what is appropriate for different people at different times). However, observational studies of actual patterns of facial behavior have been rare and typically limited to the analysis of dozens of participants from two or three regions. We present the first large-scale evidence of cultural differences in observed facial behavior, including 740,984 participants from 12 countries around the world. We used an Internet-based framework to collect video data of participants in two different settings: in their homes and in market research facilities. Using computer vision algorithms designed for this dataset, we measured smiling and brow furrowing expressions as participants watched television ads. Our results reveal novel findings and provide empirical evidence to support theories about cultural and gender differences in display rules. Participants from more individualist cultures displayed more brow furrowing overall, whereas smiling depended on both culture and setting. Specifically, participants from more individualist countries were more expressive in the facility setting, while participants from more collectivist countries were more expressive in the home setting. Female participants displayed more smiling and less brow furrowing than male participants overall, with the latter difference being more pronounced in more individualist countries. This is the first study to leverage advances in computer science to enable large-scale observational research that would not have been possible using traditional methods.     

Toward a Cross-Cultural Understanding of Work-Related Beliefs

Although psychology's contribution to a study ofthe Protestant Work Ethic (PWE) made a slow start we nowhave an impressive array of studies which have examinedthis construct, even cross-culturally, and find that not only is this construct seeminglyalive and well, but also that it is espoused morestrongly by non-Protestant and non-Western countries.Furnham (1990b) examined a composite of seven scales designed to measure the PWE, and found thatseveral factors could be identified. A study wasundertaken to compare the meaning of work in twodifferent cultures, one Western Christian(Australian) and the other non-Western Buddhist (Sri Lankan).The results suggest that both cultures have similarperceptions about the meaning of work, but Sri Lankansseem to be more strongly committed to hard work.Although work related beliefs seem to be similar, SriLankans do not endorse the belief that hard work leadsto success as enthusiastically as Australiansdo.