The effects of economic development and modernization in resolving traditional-modern attitudinal conflict

Experts point out that development changes societies in ways so profound that they cannot be anticipated by the participants in the experience. This article analyses the effects of rapid economic development on traditional life styles and the resolution of ensuing attitudinal conflict. Previous studies of traditional-modern (T-M) problems encountered in the process of modernization are reviewed and modernization theories and methodological problems are discussed. Evidence is presented for a T-M model based on studies in West Africa, Australian aborigines, Hong Kong Chinese, Japanese, and Alaskan Eskimo, identifying certain independent variables which are held to influence modernization: the nature of traditional ecologies, e.g., agricultural, pastoral, or hunting/fishing societies, the severity of socialization and the nature of traditional authority systems. The analysis confirmed that development does change societies in profound ways, uprooting cultures, altering environments and modifying individuals physically and psychologically. However, it was also postulated, based on T-M research, that hunting, fishing and the main pastoral societies are generally more highly resistant to change, do not want change and may be better off without it. In contrast, most agricultural and mixed agricultural-pastoral societies are not only more susceptible to modern change, they can usually derive the most benefit from it and also in most cases want change.     

Racial similarity as a moderator variable in the perception of leader behavior and control

This study compared leader behavior ratings of black and white Army infantry squad members serving in squads led either by black or white leaders. One black and one white squad member, chosen at random from each of 34 racially mixed squads, rated their leader's Consideration and Initiation of Structure behaviors (Stogdill, 1963), and their leader's behavior relevant to French and Raven's (1959) five bases of social power. In general, it was found that members who were of the same race as their leader rated him as significantly less likely to use punishment-related behaviors than did members who were of a different race than their leader. However, same-race members did not rate their leader's considerate or structuring behavior differently than did different-race members. The overall pattern of findings were discussed in terms of the leaders' implicit reliance on their punishment power to obtain compliance from different-race subordinates.     

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.     

Situational and personal influence on attitude change following ethnic contact

The study undertook to examine the validity in Israel of several conclusions reached by investigators in the United States on the effect of intergroup contact on change in ethnic attitudes, as well as to extend contact research to topics which heretofore have received only scant attention. There were 100 subjects: 12-year-old Israeli girls of different ethnic background, participating in a summer camp. Results indicated that (1) as a result of contact, a positive change in attitude of the high status towards the low-status group occurred with regard to people and activities both related and not related to the contact situation, (2) only subjects without previous ethnic contact showed changes, (3) enjoyment of the contact situation was related to attitude change, while (4) authoritarianism was not related to attitude change.     

Cross-national encounters: Turkish students in the United States

This research studied the effects of sojourn experience on the attitudes of young Turkish students spending a year in the U.S. The study, using a pretest-posttest control group design, was repeated for two years and was completed by a follow-up. Certain attitude changes were obtained which were attributed to the favorable nature of sojourn experience. These changes were mainly decreases in authoritarianism and religiosity and increases in world-mindedness and to a lesser degree in belief in internal control and perceived family control. Most of these changes were found to be of duration longer than one year. Patriotism and achievement values decreased independently of sojourn experience, indicating an age trend. After returning home subjects were found to undergo a readjustment process arriving at an optimum level in about a year.     

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.     

Intercultural marriages: An intrareligious perspective

This study examines 108 intercultural and 62 intracultural, intrareligious marriages in Hawaii in terms of inferred causality or internal and external variables affecting the satisfaction of the relationship. Personal questionnaires were conducted privately by an interculturally trained interviewer with each marriage partner. Intercultural couples reported significantly more external problems (intercultural experiences attributed to extended family members, relatives, friends and community), greater assimilation pressures on the female towards accepting the husband's culture and greater negative responses toward intercultural marriage per se than intracultural couples. Responses were in concurrence with the idea that for an intercultural, intrareligious marriage to suceed it demands considerable more sacrifice, patience, and commitment.     

The perception of transcendent interest: Communication and identification in an emergent community

The interrelationships among five variables were analyzed in an effort to understand the process of community formation in a culturally plural metropolitan environment. The variables—perception of transcendent interest, perception of commonality, cooperative interaction, maintenance adaptation, and growth adaptation—were formulated by explicating and synthesizing the concepts of community, community identification, and coorientation. The perception of transcendent interest, described as the focal point of identification, and the basis of an emerging community, was found to correlate significantly with all the other four variables, but to be best predicted by cooperative interaction and maintenance adaptation. The study offers insight into the processes of acculturation and cultural group formation in a plural system.     

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.”     

Stereotyping Hispanics: The differential effect of research method,label, and degree of contact

One hundred Anglo university students were asked to rate a number of ethnic/national groups (American, Chicano, Mexican American, Hispanic, Puerto Rican, Japanese, and German) on a Semantic Differential and to openly produce traits they identified with each group. As expected, the freely produced traits differed from those obtained in another study which used the Katz and Braly technique with students from the same university. Furthermore, differential evaluations were found for Chicanos and Mexican Americans in which the latter group was perceived more positively in the Evaluative Dimension, but not in terms of Potency or Activity. Also, as expected, having a member of the group as a friend produced the highest correlations with a positive perception of the group as a whole.     

The 5th annual SIETAR conference in Mexico city: An evaluation

The 5th Annual Conference of the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR), in Mexico City, was evaluated using both scaled and open-ended questions. Analysis of the scaled responses suggested that the participants found the conference to be personally enjoyable, professionally worthwhile, well organized and intellectually stimulating. Overall, the conference was rated very favorably. On the other hand, however, negative evaluations were received regarding the quality of the presentations, the travel agent, the translations and direct benefits in the areas of intercultural training and research. Demographic analyses indicated that North Americans, researchers and university and government people rated the conference most favorably. Seven recommendations for future conferences were derived from the summarized open-ended responses.     

Sources of bias in performance evaluation: Two experiments

Attribution and stereotyping theories predicted that poor-performing black workers would receive lower evaluations than corresponding Whites, while good performance would have the reverse effect. “Dress and lifestyle” was also predicted to influence performance evaluation. Male business students, evaluating bogus employees differing in race, dress, and behaviorally described performance, provided weak support for the second hypothesis. A second experiment investigated the possibility that perceived social class, rather than race, was the relevant variable in the operation of a stereotype confirmation—contrast process. Individual differences in stereotyping were also measured. No support for the specific hypothesized process was found, but results supported the potential relevance of attribution theory to a configural performance-evaluation model. Results were also discussed in terms of worker-perceived discrimination.     

A communication approach to the acculturation process: A study of Korean immigrants in Chicago

This paper explores a theoretical and methodological basis for studying foreign immigrants' acculturation processes from a communication perspective. Communication patterns of immigrants are conceptualized on three levels — behavioral, attitudinal, and perceptual. The behavioral level of communication includes the immigrant's participation in communication channels of the host society as well as the ethnic community. The perceptual level refers to the immigrant's cognitive structure in perceiving the host society. The attitudinal level is examined by the immigrant's affective-evaluative orientation toward the host society. The three levels of communication patterns were empirically investigated in a survey of 400 randomly selected Koreans in the Chicago area. The communication variables were assessed through composite scores using questionnaire items that were tested for reliability. The results show an overall linear trend in the immigrant's interethnic communication with Americans, positive attitude toward Americans, cognitive complexity in perceiving the American society, and satisfaction level. A simultaneous increase is observed in the immigrant's interpersonal communication with Americans and with other Koreans. The immigrant's use of ethnic media rapidly decreases over the years while that of American media steadily increases. Findings are discussed in comparison to previous studies of foreign immigrants and students and to sociological theories of acculturation of minority groups.     

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.     

Cultural and situational influences on the process of persuasive strategy selection

This investigation explored compliance gaining attempts by members of two cultures: Asian and North America. Using the 16 Marwell and Schmitt compliance-gaining strategies, this study found significant differences in strategy use based on culture, but was unable to find a consistent underlying dimensionality for the Marwell and Schmitt typology. Effects for communicative context and locus of benefit were also found, indicating that strategy selection is influenced by situational as well as cultural variables. The results show that these latter two variables operate similarly in both cultures.     

Kiowa forty-nine singing: A communication perspective

Kiowa Forty-Nine singing is a social activity in which important aspects of Kiowa culture are performed and revealed through traditional communicative activities. The purpose of this study was to examine forty-nining as it serves to reveal cultural patterns of interaction. Rooted in ethnomethodology, this field research combined personal interviews and content analysis. The data first provided a general characterization of forty-nining; subsequent analysis produced distinguishable, but interrelated, sets of rules which regulate the nature and structure of forty-nines. Patterns identified in the fortynines can be extended to other intratribal interaction, as well as to intercultural communication. Better conception of these interactive patterns may foster better understanding of Kiowa intercultural relations.     

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.     

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.     

Cultural styles of persuasion

The study explores the hypothesis that persuasion can be carried out in a combination of three basic styles: the factual-inductive, the axiomatic-deductive, and the affective-intuitive. The weight of each of these three basic styles differs from culture to culture. The paper begins with the presentation of some earlier research on this question. The styles adopted by the representatives of the United States, the Soviet Union, and the Arab countries in the course of debates in the Security Council of the United Nations are then analyzed. The analysis confirms the hypothesis of there being in each case a dominant style as described above. The results of the study should be considered as preliminary: there exists a possibility of bias among the judges; the sample, even though sufficiently large for statistical purposes, is limited to the discussion of one dispute; the style of other nationalities is not investigated. It is hoped that additional results will be presented in the near future.