Reflections on 30 Years of Advocacy,Thinking, and Writing About Elderly Latinos

SUMMARY

The author reflects on over 30 years of thinking, writing, and advocating on behalf of elderly Latinos. Personal, cultural, and familial experiences are intertwined with implications for policy and practice. The impact of Latinos' generational socialization into American society is examined in relation to familial obligations to elderly relatives.     

From cognitive dissonance to cognitive Polyphasia: A sociocultural approach to understanding meat‐paradox

Cognitive Dissonance Theory seeks to understand inconsistency by situating it within individual cognition. By doing so, it overlooks the role of the social context in the experience and management of inconsistency and dissonance and fails to capture the processes through which it is negotiated when it appears. On the other side, the cognitive polyphasia hypothesis together with a dialogical approach on Social Representations provide a socioculturally situated, process‐oriented understanding of inconsistency. In this paper, meat‐paradox, the phenomenon of simultaneously declaring love and respect towards animals and also consuming animals, mainly studied through Cognitive Dissonance Theory, is used in order to highlight the merits of a sociocultural approach to inconsistency. Four relevant empirical examples from interviews and focus groups with meat‐eaters and vegetarians in Cyprus are used to illustrate the approach. The examples illustrate how meat‐eaters manage dissonance in ways that exhibit coexistence of contradictory representations and ways of thinking. Three different modalities of knowledge coexistence are identified, as proposed by cognitive polyphasia researchers: displacement, selective prevalence and hybridisation. We discuss the importance of a sociocultural approach to studying paradoxes, the epistemological and methodological implications of such a theorisation and we suggest other life contexts in which such an approach can be applied.     

When difference creates dissonance: understanding the ‘engine’ of intercultural learning in study abroad

Why do some study abroad students improve their intercultural skills, while others revert to less sophisticated ways of making sense of cultural difference? Both intercultural competence theory and transformative learning theory attempt to explain why student intercultural learning occurs, but they only provide partial answers. Building on our previous study assessing intercultural competence in a 2015 field school in India, this article applies the concept of cognitive dissonance to explain the process behind intercultural learning. In the context of study abroad, students experience cognitive dissonance when they encounter cultural differences or similarities that confound previously held expectations about culture. Adapting Maertz, Hassan, and Magnusson’s cognitive dissonance resolution framework, we employ qualitative analysis of students’ written reflections to show how the resolution of cognitive dissonance could act as the ‘engine’ of intercultural learning.     

Role of Leaders as Agents of Negotiation for Counterbalancing Cultural Dissonance in the Middle East and North Africa Region

This study provides a unique perspective in the field of cross-cultural management by exploring the relationship between “cultural dissonance”—the gap between cultural values and actual practice—and effective leadership attributes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Incorporating cultural dissonance into implicit leadership theory, the study uses measurements of dissonance on nine cultural dimensions to identify particular leadership preferences in seven MENA countries. The overall findings suggest that societies prefer leaders who counterbalance cultural dissonance by allowing space for negotiations by members of society to reduce disparities between cultural values—“the way things should be”—and actual practices—“the way things are.” The greater the disparity between cultural values and practices, the greater the citizens' desire that leaders act as agents of change by creating space for negotiation.     

Examining the role of cognitive dissonance in crisis fundraising

Fundraising scholarship has focused on the application of public relations theory to the process particularly in exploring the predictive power in applying relationship management theory to the non-profit organization–donor relationship. However, people often are impacted by catastrophic events and want to donate to relief efforts even though they may not be connected to the region. A survey of two American Red Cross chapters’ donors revealed that individuals who contributed to the December 2004 tsunami relief efforts were more likely to experience feelings of cognitive dissonance than non-donors, and their donations resulted in a consonance restoration. These results support an argument for non-profits, particularly those in crisis response, to have an active crisis communication plan in place that deals not only with responding to the event but also having a proactive plan established to publicize how to donate to relief efforts. Highlighting the consonance restoration, non-profits should also discuss the positive aspects of donating to their efforts, such as the work being done for the disaster victims.     

Cognitive dissonance and risk denial: The case of cannabis use in adolescents

This paper integrates insights from both sociology and psychology into the economic approach of drug use. Within this theoretical framework, the utility provided by cannabis use depends on the ability to deny its riskiness, and this ability is a kind of human capital accumulated through earlier consumption. This assumption is tested with a dataset of French adolescents. A simultaneous equation model is estimated, with one equation for cannabis use, and one for risk denial. The results provide some empirical evidence in favour of the tested assumption, and they also cast doubt on the efficiency of preventive information at school.     

认知鸿沟视角下的网络谣言传播影响因素研究 ——以台湾洪仲丘事件为例

从认知心理角度,以平衡理论、一致性理论与认知失调理论为基础,延伸出认知鸿沟概念,探讨虚拟世界中的网络谣言传播,分析中国台湾地区网民对于2013年发生的重大社会事件洪仲丘命案,检视认知鸿沟、信任态度、误信谣言到再传递的过程。透过量化问卷调查进行实证,分析604份有效问卷。结果显示:当产生的认知鸿沟越大时,民众会越相信谣言,在态度上也越不会信任中国台湾军方与地区行政当局,在行为上也越倾向于将讯息再次传递出去。此外,从模型结构中也发现,相信谣言这个变量,在认知鸿沟与网络传播的路径间扮演重要的中介变量角色,显示认知鸿沟不仅会对讯息传递产生直接效果,还会通过误信谣言造成间接效果,然而,这种显著的中介角色在军政信任变量上却未发现。     

Permission-Giving and Marital Infidelity

ABSTRACT

The research used qualitative methods to begin exploring how individual’s decision-making enhances their risk of having a marital affair. Particularly how does a woman give herself permission to move forward with having an affair? Semistructured interviews were recorded with women who had a marital affair and then transcribed in preparation for coding. The transcendental phenomenological model was used to analyze the data collected. Sensitizing concepts were used as a base in identifying how participants were able to limit their cognitive dissonance as a way of giving themselves permission to have an affair. The results found four methods of limiting cognitive dissonance: not being worthy of loyalty, rationalization, guilt-free infidelity, and compartmentalization. Clinical implications are discussed.     

英国旅行文学与现代情感结构的形成

18世纪的英国处在贵族精英与中产阶级同时并存、海外冒险与殖民开拓齐头并进、大陆旅行与国内旅游互相促进的年代。在旅行文学的影响下,启蒙时代英国人的'情感结构'发生了微妙而深刻的变化,从注重平衡对称的古典美学理念转而强调崇高和宏伟的情感体验,从理性至上的态度转而注重感伤主义和情感主义。持续不断的旅行刺激了文化感受力的复苏,激发了旅行主体的移情能力,使其获得了替代性经历,从而更加深刻地认识了自己。通过时空的转换,旅行主体持续不断地躲避着固定的身份和定义,持续不断地发现自我和确认自我。'情感结构'中出现的这种主体性倾向,在此后的浪漫主义思潮中获得了进一步发展。     

Bridging help-seeking options to Vietnamese Americans with parent–child conflict and depressive symptoms

To help practitioners bridge services to their clients who face family problems, this research aims to identify help-seeking behaviors among Vietnamese Americans who have experienced parent–child conflict and depression. The 2008 Asian Survey found that 46.3% of 572 Vietnamese Americans experienced parent–child conflict and 30.2% reported depressive symptoms. Having parent–child conflicts or depressive symptoms did not predict help-seeking from mental health professionals. Logistic regression results show that having parent–child conflict would increase the likelihood by 81.7% of a thinking that the problem will be naturally resolved; having depressive symptoms would increase the likelihood of seeking help from herbalists by 1.718 times and from medical doctors by 39.7%. Service strategies should include offering educational programs by multidisciplinary professionals with a focus on the natural aspect of building parent–child bonding.