Reciprocity of inter-ethnic attitudes in a multicultural society

A national survey of multicultural and ethnic attitudes in Canada was conducted in 1974 (n = 1849). Data were analysed for the 1244 respondents whose ethnicity could be determined as Angloceltic, French, German, Italian or Ukrainian Canadian, A five group by five group intergroup attitude matrix was created, with each group acting both as attitude object and as holder of attitudes. Analysis indicated the existence of reciprocity or balance in the matrix: groups tended to reflect the attitude held toward them back onto the group holding the attitude. However this structural balance was moderated by the existence of shared attitudes about the position of a group in the national ethnic hierarchy. Further analysis indicated the existence of ethnocentrism in the matrix: attitudes toward ingroup and positive reference groups were more positive than toward out-groups. Perceived intergroup similarity and familiarity were positively correlated with each other and with intergroup acceptance. Results were discussed in relation to attitude balance theory and ethnocentrism theory, and in their implication for intergroup research in multicultural societies.     

Images of life in America: The impact of American T.V. in Israel

The present study sets out to uncover young Israelis' perceptions of the American reality using the postulates and methodology of the cultivation analysis approach to mass communication. The comparison of the perceptions of “light” and “heavy” T.V. viewers with measures of the actual reality reveals that heavy viewers demonstrate a strong and consistent tendency to paint a rosier picture of life in the U.S., in terms of wealth and standard of living, even when other factors (age, gender, residence and ethnic group) are held constant. The findings of this study have methodological implications concerning the study of media effects as well as theoretical implications regarding the ongoing debate on “media imperialism.”     

Contrasting roles: Eastern and Western European womenRoles en contrast: Femme d'Europe de l'est et de l'ouestRoles contrastantes: Las mujeres orientales y occidentales

The article presents an overview of the status of women in Western and Eastern Europe during the last decade. Relevant research in English is reviewed. Four indicators of women's status are treated: (1) equality before the law, (2) educational opportunities for women, (3) position in the labor force, and (4) level of leadership in social institutions. Successes and shortcomings in each division are cited; problem areas with presently incomplete information are indicated. The paper makes several recommendations for further research and better dissemination of information.     

Intercultural communication for health personnel

In order to develop successful health care delivery systems, both in the United States and abroad, health service workers need to understand various cultural orientations and to communicate effectively within the cultures. The authors discuss the cultural implications of health problems in three countries, the need for training health science professionals in intercultural communication, and describe an intercultural communication course designed especially for health science students at California State University, Northridge.     

Ethnic identity: Myth and reality in Western Canada

The paper analyzes eleven research projects which have focused on the issue of ethnic identity. Each study addresses the question of how important ethnicity is to the individual. The results suggest that ethnicity, as measured in the present studies, is of little importance to Canadians. Ethnicity, however, should be viewed as an adaptive response to the conditions governing the context for acquisition of scarce and desired goods! What is clear is that assertions of the universal and constant import of ethnicity to Canadians are not true.     

Attitudes toward an enemy and personality in a war environment

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of war environment on political attitudes toward an enemy and on personality development. High school students from an Israeli town on the border of “Fatahland” and a town in central Israel were asked to fill out: A questionnaire on their political views toward the Israel-Arab conflict and the Repression-Sensitization (R-S) scale (Byrne et al., 1963). Results showed three factors in the students' political views: (a) Return of the Controversial Territories (Samaria, Judea, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and Sinai); (bj Credibility of the Arabs in negotiation; (c) The policy of the previous government in its return of certain territories in Sinai.It was found that the students in the border town were less opposed to return the Controversial Territories than the students in the non-border town. Repressers in both towns gave more credibility to the Arabs in negotiation than did sensitizers. Girls agreed more with the policy of the previous government in its return of the territories in Sinai than boys. Results also showed that the students in the border area as well as boys in both towns were more repressive in their personality type than the students in the more peaceful area and girls of both towns respectively.     

Acculturation, stress and coping : Some implications for research and education

Acculturation processes are conceptualized as requiring a multivariate model with variables operating at four psychosocial levels: cultural, ethnic, interpersonal and intrapersonal. Examples of changes in mental health status, social networks, cognitive style, social orientation and child rearing values consequent to immigration are considered. The primary focus is on the delineation of several approaches to the study of acculturative stress and coping. These include stressful life events, chronic role strains, and Lazarus's cognitive appraisal model.The implications of the model for research emphasize the importance of multivariate, multi-method, multi-level approaches involving both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of situational and process variables. Since the school is a critical acculturation context, an intensified analysis of the strains, stresses and coping responses in that context is required. Promising approaches to such an analysis include parent and teacher cultural sensitivity training, classroom restructuring in order to reduce devaluation of immigrant children by the dominant ethnic group, and stress-innoculation training specifically designed to help children to learn to cope more effectively with the stresses of the school environment.     

Perceiving punishment as a contingent of interethnic relations

This study raises the question of whether the perception of punishment is contingent upon ethnic homogeneity or heterogeneity of teachers and students. Eighty Israeli Oriental seventh-grade students were classified into two groups according to their ethnic identification scores. Each was shown one of four films portraying a classroom scene in which a student (Oriental or Western) is punished by either a Western or an Oriental teacher. Results show that the context of interethnic relationships influences the perception of punishment. Compared to low identifiers, the high identifiers perceived punishment as unjust and showed less affection for a Western teacher punishing an Oriental student than for a Western teacher punishing a Western student. In a parallel fashion, the high identifiers assessed more positively an Oriental teacher punishing a Western student than the low identifiers. The results are discussed in terms of interethnic relations and attributional bias.     

Stereotypes of the Japanese manager in Singapore

Semantic profiles of the Japanese manager were obtained from a questionnaire study of Japanese and Singaporean managers in the Singapore subsidiaries of Japanese companies, to establish an autostereotype and a high-contact heterostereotype. Questionnaires were also administered to Singaporean, British and American managers in the Singapore subsidiaries of British and American companies, to establish low-contact heterostereotypes of the Japanese manager. Discriminant analysis was used to map the stereotypes in perceptual space. No significant differences were found between the low-contact heterostereotypes of the Japanese manager held by the British, American and Singaporeans, but very significant (α < 0.1%) and interpretable differences were found between the low-contact and high-contact heterostereotypes, and between each of these and the autostereotype. The differences between the stereotypes are discussed, and the implications for multinational organizations are considered.     

Challenging evaluation to the cross-cultural test: Program evaluation in cross-cultural settings

The author cites the recent emergence of two new fields in education: evaluation and international education. Each has developed unique methodologies in its area of most concern. Evaluators judge the process and output of national programs; international educators plan for programs overseas. Although the author believes such developments should be complementary, the professions have remained relatively isolated from one another in two distinct regards: as practitioners in a single field, and in the manner in which they train students. Drawing upon personal experience, the author illustrates how current evaluation methods fail to provide adequate guidance in cross-cultural settings. The author further identifies issues, poses questions, and calls for increased cooperation between fields of evaluation and international education as well as across the social science disciplines.     

Testing a model of emotional and coping responses to problems in adaptation: Foreign students at a Canadian university

The purpose of this research was to develop and test a model of cross-cultural adaptation which proposes that adaptation to movement across cultures involves three processes: learning new social norms, matching behavior to these norms, and matching one's self-concept to the newly acquired behaviors and social norms. According to this model, adaptation problems arise when the foreigner fails in one or more of these processes so as to create various types of mismatches between the components of norms, behavior, and self-concept. Each type of mismatch was hypothesized to lead to a particular affective response and to be most effectively resolved by unique coping strategies which would restore balance among these three components. Successful adaptation, then, occurs when the foreigner uses the coping strategy which is appropriate to the type of mismatch problem encountered in the acculturation situation.This study tested the hypothesized relationship between mismatch problem, affective response, and coping strategy. Subjects were 40 foreign and 40 Canadian students at a Canadian university. They were presented with scenarios depicting five types of mismatches in hypothetical acculturation situations. Results showed that subjects' interpretations of these agreed with the mismatches proposed by the model. Moreover, their reported affective and coping responses confirmed the majority of the hypothesized relationships. These findings suggest the mismatch model may serve as a good framework for classifying diverse adaptation problems and for predicting the coping strategies which would effectively resolve these.     

The cross-cultural transfer of educational technology: A myth

This paper argues that technologies can never be transferred from one culture to another. The implementation by Costa Rica of the Open University system of technologies developed in England is used as a case in point. The paper focuses on the non-applicability of using the term “transfer” with its attendant connotations, to signify the implementation of similar technologies in different cultures; differentiates between system specific and culture specific problems in the process of this implementation: and discusses the interaction of three cultures in the process of “transferring” a system of technologies from one of these cultures to another. The Open University system of technologies is described as it exists in England and the system specific problems of these technologies are delimited. The system of technologies is then “transferred” to Costa Rica and the culture specific problems discussed as seen by two evaluators from yet a third culture (the United States). The expectations of individuals from all three cultures (English, Costa Rican and U.S.) are raised in tight of these culture specific problems.     

Ethnic similarity and economic status of the potential helper as determinants of helping behavior

A field experiment was conducted in an attempt to study the effects of (a) the ethnic origin of the potential helper, (b) the ethnic origin of the recipient, and (c) the economic status of the potential helper, on the extent to which help would be offered. One hundred and twenty subjects participated in the experiment. The experimenter asked each of the subjects to contribute money for a needy family. The major finding was the significant interaction between the ethnic origin of the potential helper and the ethnic origin of the recipient. The frequency of European contributors was about equal for recipients from the two ethnic groups involved, whereas the frequency of Middle-Eastern contributors was higher when the needy family was of Middle-Eastern ethnic origin than when it was of European ethnic origin.     

Discovering ethnic root behavior patterns: Towards an applied Canadian ethnic studies

This paper reports a method used with six groups of either students or community professionals, since 1977, to experiment with inductive ways of identifying “ethnic root” behavior patterns. Such patterns are hypothesized to develop beyond the immigrant generation as ethno-culturat patterns and are passed on in the context of socialization. An acculturative framework is proposed to denote benchmarks in the cultural accomodation of individuals and families, through several generations. Along with this framework, the evolution of an ethnic behavior pattern is graphically depicted.A method is developed to identify the pattern beyond the level of conscious remembrance; (it is assumed that adult immigrants will remember the patterns from the country of origin). Although the method is interesting as an avenue of investigation in its own right, it was developed primarily as a conceptual tool to assist community professionals to understand ethnic-related material in their daily work. Three uses of the framework are outlined. First, it draws attention, in the counselling situation, to the level of integration into Canadian society that the client displays. Second, by getting in touch with the personal ethnic pattern that they own, the practitioner him/herself begins to understand the nature of ethno-culture, and thereby appreciate the presence of it in others. Third, the method permits the practitioner to identify personal values of an ethno-cultural sort that can interfere with practice.     

The intercultural reentry: Conceptualization and directions for future research

While there has been extensive research on the cultural adjustment of sojourners to a foreign culture, there has been a dearth of literature examining the adjustment of returning sojourners to their home culture (reentry). In order to further understanding of this phenomenon, this article discusses the reentry process as one type of cultural adjustment. First, reentry is defined and described. Secondly, research investigating the two processes of adjustment to a foreign culture and readjustment to the home culture is reviewed, and the two processes are compared and contrasted. Finally, suggestions are made concerning future research.     

The impact of cultural,ethnic, and national variables on attitudes towards the disabled in Israel: A review

Studies in Israel relating to attitudes of various ethnic, cultural and religious groups towards the disabled were reviewed. The results indicate that although there were differences in attitudes towards the disabled, these differences appear to be a function of interaction effects between many other variables and not necessarily only related to ethnic, cultural, and religious affiliation.