The effects of positive affectivity on expatriate creativity and perceived performance: What is the role of perceived cultural novelty?

This study set out to investigate the effects of positive affectivity (PA) on expatriate creativity and perceived performance in the host country workplace. Most importantly, the study examined the moderating role of perceived cultural novelty in the relationship between PA and creativity and its consequences for the indirect association between PA and perceived performance as mediated via creativity. Data from 297 expatriates in Denmark were collected and hypotheses were tested using regression-based analyses. Consistent with predictions, findings showed a positive relationship between PA and creativity. In addition, PA was positively associated with perceived performance. Results of mediation analysis indicated that creativity mediated the effects of PA on perceived performance. While a moderating effect of perceived cultural novelty in the relation between PA and creativity was found, this moderation was in the opposite direction of the postulated hypothesis, i.e. the positive association between PA and creativity was strongly attenuated at high levels of perceived cultural novelty. Subsequent moderated mediation analysis showed that the identified mediation ceased to exist at high levels of perceived cultural novelty.     

To vent or not to vent? The impact of venting on psychological symptoms varies by levels of social support

The current study examined the interaction between venting (as a form of emotional coping) and perceived emotional social support in predicting internalising psychological symptoms (anxiety, depression and somatic symptoms) over time in international students. A short-term longitudinal survey design was employed with three months between two measurement points. Participants were 130 international students from a university in New Zealand. The questionnaire included questions on venting, perceived emotional social support and internalising symptoms. The longitudinal impacts of venting and its interaction with emotional support on internalising symptoms were evaluated using structural equation modelling. Perceived emotional social support significantly moderated the effect of venting on internalising symptoms over time. Specifically, venting was associated with decreased internalising symptoms when students reported low levels of perceived emotional social support. However, venting was associated with increased symptoms when they reported very high levels of perceived support. In the presence of moderate to high emotional support, venting was not associated with changes in internalising symptoms over time, indicating that venting has no significant psychological consequences for international students with moderate to high perceived support. Venting can be an adaptive coping response for those with low perceived support, but it can be harmful in the presence of very high perceived support.     

Rejection identification or disindentification? The association of discrimination on depressive symptoms via religious and national identity among British Muslims

Muslims comprise a small, yet important and growing percentage of the population in the United Kingdom. In addition to economic and social hardship, British Muslims are disadvantaged by hostile, Islamophobic attitudes and pervasive discriminatory practices. Previous research testing the Rejection-Identification (RIM) and Rejection-Disidentification (RDM) Models has suggested that the impacts of discrimination on the well-being of minorities may be mediated by processes of increased minority identification and decreased majority identification. The current research utilised these explanatory frameworks to investigate the relationships between personal discrimination and perceived Islamophobia, religious and national identities, and depressive symptoms in young British Muslims aged 16–27 years (N = 142). The results provide support for some, but not all, elements of the theoretical models tested. Specifically, perceived Islamophobia was directly associated with stronger Muslim identity, and personal discrimination was associated with weaker British identity. Furthermore, personal discrimination was associated with greater depressive symptoms; neither social identity was associated with more favourable mental health outcomes; and Muslim identity was weakly, but significantly, associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms. This research points to the need to assess personal discrimination alongside indicators of group level discrimination, to include multiple social identities, and to be mindful of broader social and contextual factors when investigating RIM and RDM.     

The Influence of Social Norms on Korean Wives’ Intention to Talk with Their Husbands about the Equal Division of Housework

Currently, Korean males see the equal division of housework more positively than in the past. However, a large gap still exists between the attitude and the actual behaviour of the equal amount of housework. Interpersonal communication can be used to reduce this gap. The theory of planned behaviour and social norms approach are the theoretical frameworks that guide the study. The purpose of the study is to examine how social norms are influencing Korean wives’ intention to talk to their husbands about the equal division of housework.     

The ‘Isle of Vice’? Youth,class and the post-war holiday on the Isle of Man

This article broadens our knowledge of post-war holidaymaking (c. 1950–80) by adopting the Isle of Man as a case study. A popular holiday resort from the late nineteenth century, the Isle of Man experienced considerable political turbulence during the 1950s and 1960s about how best to stay competitive as a seaside resort, where authorities employed uniquely stringent methods to contain rowdiness and protect the island’s ‘respectable’ atmosphere. The first two sections examine the leisure habits of the young and working class in a holiday context, integrating this analysis with perceptions of their behaviour gleaned from oral interviews with local residents. The concluding section explores how the presence of holidaymakers on the Isle of Man – uniquely among seaside resorts in the British Isles – informed (and in some cases emboldened) a sense of national identity. Oral history, complemented by the Hansard reports of the Isle of Man parliament and local press coverage, sheds light on the activities of the post-war working class at play, and how the presence of holidaymakers fortified Manx national consciousness.     

The effects of Latino immigrants’ acculturation strategy and U.S. Americans' assimilation attitudes on perceptions of accommodation satisfaction and willingness to communicate

Guided by the acculturation framework (Berry, 1980, 2011) and communication accommodation theory (CAT; Giles, 1970, 2016), this study examines the effects of an immigrant target’s acculturation strategy on U.S. Americans’ accommodation satisfaction and willingness to communicate with the target and the potential interaction effect between the immigrant’s acculturation strategy and the participant’s assimilation attitudes. Supporting the hypotheses, results indicated participants with lower assimilation attitudes were most satisfied with the integrated target’s accommodation behaviors, followed by the assimilated and separated targets. In addition, participants with higher assimilation attitudes were equally satisfied by the integrated and assimilated targets’ accommodation, followed by the separated target. Across all levels of assimilation attitudes (i.e., low, moderate, and high), participants were more willing to communicate with the integrated or assimilated (no significant difference) target than with the separated target. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed regarding acculturation and inter-ethnolinguistic group relations.     

The ‘Golden Age of Quackery’ or ‘Medical Enlightenment’? Licensed Charlatanism in Eighteenth-Century Italy

The history of medicine during the enlightenment is full of paradoxes, and nowhere is this more evident than in the phenomenon of charlatanry. On the one hand, for the charlatans' numerical abundance and sheer audacity, historians have sometimes singled out the eighteenth century as the ‘golden age of quackery’. At the same time, it was one of increasing control and severity by the medical elites.

In Italy, from the mid-sixteenth century, protomedicato tribunals, colleges of physicians, or health offices (jurisdiction varied from state to state) had required ciarlatani to submit their wares for inspection and, upon approval, pay a licence fee in order to set up a stage from which to perform and sell them. This procedure became an administrative routine, and the ‘licensed charlatan’ – not the paradox it might seem – became a common sight in Italian towns. The licensing regime gives the historian unparalleled opportunities when it comes to the investigation of suspect but generally tolerated categories such as charlatans. This article is partly based on a database compiled from the licences issued to some 1100 different charlatans by the various medical authorities in the states of Italy from 1550 to 1800.

During the eighteenth century we notice a downward trend in the number of licences issued (in places such as Siena, Mantua, and Turin), especially from the middle of the century onwards. This was not part of a policy to discontinue the licensing of charlatans, for various reasons (which the article examines), but it did reflect a stricter licensing regime. This is especially evident in the attitude of the authorities to oral (or internal) remedies. Moreover, as of the early 1760s, both the Venetian and Milanese authorities began to reject charlatans' petitions to sell remedies that were not original, resembled medicines already stocked by apothecaries, or were judged to be either harmful or ineffective. The similarity to established remedies that had once helped ensure a charlatan's acceptance and licensing now prevented it. Fewer licence applicants met these criteria; there also appear to have been fewer applicants. The harsh policy may have made charlatanry a less attractive career option or economic opportunity than in previous centuries, reducing the supply and marginalizing charlatanry, economically and geographically.     

Birds of different feathers? The relationship between multicultural personality dimensions and foreign language mastery in business professionals working in a Dutch agricultural multinational

The relationship between personality dimensions, measured with the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ), and foreign language mastery were studied in a Dutch-based multinational company in the agricultural sector. In a survey, differences were studied between internal and external stakeholders to determine whether MPQ dimensions and language mastery allow us to discriminate between them. The internal stakeholders were divided into international and non-international employees; external stakeholders were the business contacts of the international employees (clients and business partners based or working abroad). The international employees were found to be more open-minded and flexible than the non-international employees, and the former group was found to be more emotionally stable than the group of business contacts. On average, the international employees reported speaking one foreign language more than both other groups. Also, the number of foreign languages correlated with the multicultural personality dimensions open-mindedness and emotional stability. It is concluded that emotional stability, open-mindedness, and the number of spoken foreign languages are to some extent predictive of differences between the various stakeholders distinguished in this sample.     

The Golden Age of the Arts? Taking Part Survey Findings on Older People and the Arts

The UK has an ageing population, and this trend is likely to continue. This article uses data from a new survey called ‘Taking Part’ to analyse patterns of arts engagement among older people (defined as those aged 55 and over) and the reasons for and barriers to older people engaging with the arts. While levels of engagement generally decline among older groups, those aged 55–74 make up a substantial part of the audience for a number of arts events including classical music, opera and craft exhibitions. Indeed, the analysis shows that the 55–64 age cohort is among the most actively involved with the arts. Adults in older age groups also engage with the arts, participating in a range of activities including crafts, reading and watching arts programmes on TV. When analysed further, socio-demographic factors including gender, disability status and socio-economic status emerge as important predictors of arts engagement among older people. Data on motivations and attitudes show that older people engage in the arts for enjoyment, relaxation, to see a specific performer or event and for a sense of a social occasion. In terms of barriers to arts engagement, time is less of an issue for older people, while the impact of poor health (particularly among people with a limiting disability) and the lack of social networks and transport is intensified among older age groups. The article closes with a consideration of the implications for arts engagement among older people of a number of projected future trends, including continuing population ageing and increasing average number of years spent in poor health, increasing Internet use, the narrowing of gender inequalities in life expectancy, the growth in ethnic minority representation among older people and pension reform.     

The undulating contours of sōgō geijutsu (total work of art), or Hanada Kiyoteru's thoughts on transmedia in postwar Japan

This article provides an insight into the theorization of sōgō geijutsu or the work of total art during the postwar decades in Japan, primarily through the language of Hanada Kiyoteru, a notable communist critic during the 1950s, as a way to present a discursive precursor to what would be explored as intermedia in the 1960s. It is an attempt to trace the debates that were seen in journal Sōgō Bunka, which was established immediately after the war, and how the question of collectivity and collective production of art was discussed among the contributing critics, artists, and intellectuals. Totality as some may know already, is a problematic term that comes close to the wartime notion of ‘totality’, as it was employed for Japanese government's ideological deployment for its war efforts. Although the term has accrued a sinister ring, the critics mentioned in the article, especially Hanada, were determined to reclaim the term as a way of devising a postwar aesthetic-political platform. One important component of sōgō geijutsu was popular art and its relationship to the masses, as it was designed to relocate avant-garde art practices to the juncture of popular space and political praxis, while critiquing the modernist avant-garde art associated with high art. In addition to providing a fuller historiography of intermedia (or transmedia) in Japan, interrogating sōgō geijutsu also serves to shed some light on the complex and multivalent discourse of locating a ‘people’ and their communicative action. Through this history, the term totality gains a greater texture, no longer dismissible as a mere vestige of fascism in the minds of the Japanese artists and critics.     

The left‐wing movement in Malaya,Singapore and Borneo in the 1960s: ‘an era of hope or devil’s decade’?

Abstract

The 1960s was a period of Leftwing resurgence in the world. As Britain was disengaging from its empire, the ethnically plural societies she had generated within her protectorates and colonies in Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, North Borneo and Brunei threw up anti‐colonial movements that began struggling towards self‐determination and national independence. These movements manifested the ideologies of communism, socialism, nationalism and communalism. As British imperialism began planning its retreat, the competition for power among the local movements became intense. In Malaya, the largest of the five colonial territories, the communist party launched an armed rebellion in 1948 in the name of national liberation and independence, but made little headway. As Singapore and Malaya were closely linked and ruled, Britain introduced emergency rule in both territories. Most leftwing parties disappeared. Nationalist and communalist parties in Malaya emerged and eventually succeeded in securing national independence from Britain in 1957. Singapore was given a measure of limited self‐government in 1955, while Sarawak, North Borneo and Brunei were gradually awakened towards self‐government. Leftwing parties re‐surfaced in Malaya, and in Singapore, Sarawak, North Borneo and Brunei in the 1950s and 1960s, and made some headway in parliamentary elections. This paper presents a historical account of their resurgence, which was however short‐lived.