Mixed Methods Research – Nonverbal Observations of Cultural Convergence in Online and Offline Contexts: Testing Hall’s Low- Vs. High-Context Framework

ABSTRACT

Extending the existing low- and high-context culture theoretical framework, the current research examined the extent to which globalization has shaped low- and high-context cultures in relation to nonverbal communication. The current study employed an exploratory sequential design mixed research method. The first phase of the study observed cultural convergence evident in people’s nonverbal communication in real life and reported the observations qualitatively. In the second phase of the study, a quantitative content analysis was carried out. The content analysis, namely sentiment analysis, examined the occurrences of people of diverse nationalities expressing their emotions when they provide reviews of airlines on a travel website and empirically test the relevance of low- and high-context theoretical framework in the era of globalization. A total of 85,228 reviews of 592 airlines available on a travel website were downloaded using a web crawler. The qualified records used for analysis included records from the following regions: Africa, Asia, Australia, Latin America, Northwestern Europe, Southern Europe, and United States. An analysis of variance on the number of words people used in writing travel reviews online yielded significant variations among the seven regions. This data also sheds light on cultural convergence.     

Can Detroiters Dream Again? The Imagined Dialectics of Urban Decline in Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown—Detroit

Examining the Detroit episode of Anthony Bourdain’s CNN show, Parts Unknown, this study illuminates how the collective memory of the American dream is ironically projected onto Detroit, the metonymic city of America past. In order to identify the nostalgia of the American dream narrated in the show, we apply the dialectical approach to intercultural communication suggested by Martin and Nakayama and propose the imagined dialectics. Throughout our analyses, we contend that the imagined dialectic narrated in the Parts Unknown episode nostalgically frames Detroit’s past, which inevitably fetishizes its present. We ultimately argue that the nostalgia of the American dream epitomizes the lack of an intercultural and interregional understanding within the US and prevents us from democratic discussion for the betterment of the urban lives.     

Gender Games

This textual analysis focuses on the portrayal of female journalists in House of Cards. The uneven depictions of six female journalists could have a socializing effect on the audience. The researchers argue that the character Zoe Barnes is depicted as childlike, unprofessional, and unethical, while the character Ayla Sayyad is portrayed as a dedicated watchdog journalist. The researchers then explore the ethical implications of these portrayals through the lens of social responsibility theory.     

“Why Aren’t You a Sassy Little Thing”: The Effects of Robot-Enacted Guilt Trips on Credibility and Consensus in a Negotiation

Robots are becoming increasingly popular in social applications and have demonstrated effectiveness in a variety of contexts such as education, health, task management, and other complex cooperative roles. The purpose of this study was to examine human–robot interaction in a nonassistive environment: a negotiation scenario. Specifically, the authors examined what effect message appeals (guilt trip, no guilt trip) and robot agency (principal, agent) had on the negotiation outcomes and perceptions of credibility. Results indicated a significant main effect of agency and an interaction effect between agency and guilt messaging on perceptions of robot credibility such that participants rated a robot agent employing no guilt trips as more credible than one negotiating as principal or one utilizing guilt trips. Neither guilt nor agency had a significant effect on the overall concession of the negotiation task.     

STATE SUPPORT FOR INTERINSTITUTIONAL TRANSFER AND ARTICULATION: THE IMPACT OF DATABASES AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Research since the mid-1960s has demonstrated the relative paucity of state support for the transfer function of postsecondary institutions, particularly community colleges, while emphasizing the importance of support for student access to the full range of higher education opportunities. Ewell and Jones (1991) and Russell (1999) however, have documented that the state policy and planning environment for student transfer changed in the 1990s. At least 43 states, plus Puerto Rico, have ongoing student information systems that include data elements pertaining to transfer students and, thus, have the capacity to affect the transfer environment through data-based analysis of transfer student educational outcomes. This article presents the results of a national study of the purpose, structure, and impact of databases and information systems maintained on transfer students by state higher education agencies. The study concluded that, although most states have an increasing ability to collect, manipulate, and use such data to inform the policy process, state higher education agencies generally do not monitor or assess the effectiveness of their databases and information systems to help improve outcomes for transfer students. A major challenge for state higher education agencies and state policy makers is to develop measures and strategies for determining the effect of state and institutional policies on transfer students.     

EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL PROFILE ASSESSMENT USING THE BASC‐2 WITH KOREAN MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

Korean middle school students are experiencing high rates of behavioral and emotional problems, suggesting a need for comprehensive screening instruments with strong psychometric properties in school settings. The present study investigated the utility of the Behavior Assessment System for Children‐2 Self‐Report of Personality, Adolescent Form (BASC‐2 SRP‐A) to assess clinical problems and adaptive strengths among Korean middle school students. For this revalidation study of the BASC‐2, we first translated the BASC‐2 SRP‐A into Korean (K‐BASC‐2 SRP‐A). Then, using a total of 458 Korean middle school students aged 12 to 15 years, we examined the factor structure and reliability of the clinical, adaptive, and composite scale scores of the K‐BASC‐2 SRP‐A. We also used a separate sample of 45 middle school students to examine the convergent validity of a subset of the K‐BASC‐2 SRP‐A scales targeting the common problem areas of anxiety, depression, and inattention. Based on the current results, we found strong psychometric properties of the K‐BASC‐2 SRP‐A for use among adolescents in Korea, including a well‐fitting factor structure consistent with the originally proposed model, adequate reliability estimates, and validity coefficients falling in the acceptable range. The K‐BASC‐2 SRP‐A can offer the Korean school mental health field a useful and much‐needed multidimensional screening measure for middle school youths.