Search

The benefits of religion have predominantly focused on personal religious identities and experiences, while the broader context of religious worldviews remains understudied. Across two quantitative studies, we showed the incremental predictive power of religious worldview and its mechanism among young adults in two societies—the USA (N = 179) and Hong Kong (N = 164). The mediation mechanism with social connectedness was further inferred from a 12-month study among Hong Kong Chinese (N = 133). This research has laid important groundwork for a deeper understanding of how religion shapes our perception of the world and its impact on our well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advancements in vaccination technologies mitigate disease transmission risks but may inadvertently suppress the behavioral immune system, an evolved disease avoidance mechanism. Applying behavioral immune system theory and utilizing robust big data analytics, we examined associations between rising vaccination coverage and government policies, public mobility, and online information seeking regarding disease precautions. We tested whether cultural tightness–looseness moderates the relationship between mass immunization and disease prevention vigilance. Comprehensive time series analyses were conducted using American data (Study 1) and international data (Study 2), employing transfer function modeling, cross‐correlation function analysis, and meta‐regression analysis. Across both the US and global analyses, as vaccination rates rose over time, government COVID‐19 restrictions significantly relaxed, community mobility increased, and online searches for prevention information declined. The relationship between higher vaccination rates and lower disease prevention vigilance was stronger in culturally looser contexts. Results provide initial evidence that mass immunization may be associated with attenuated sensitivity and enhanced flexibility of disease avoidance psychology and actions. However, cultural tightness–looseness significantly moderates this relationship, with tighter cultures displaying sustained vigilance amidst immunization upticks. These findings offer valuable perspectives to inform nuanced policymaking and public health strategies that balance prudent precautions against undue alarm when expanding vaccine coverage worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the parasite-stress theory, collectivism serves as a trait of ingroup assortative sociality, providing defense against infectious diseases. This study investigated the association between cultural collectivism and COVID-19 severity at the state (Study 1: N = 51), county (Study 2: N = 3,133), and daily (Study 3: N = 52,806) levels from the beginning of 2020 to the end of 2022. State-level collectivism was assessed using two distinct measures: the U.S. collectivism index, focusing on social interconnectedness and interdependence, and the subjective-culture individualism-collectivism index (reversed), capturing attitudes and beliefs related to religion, abortion, and same-sex marriage. By employing random-intercept multilevel models, the results demonstrated significant and negative effects of state-level collectivism, as measured by the U.S collectivism index, on COVID-19 cases per million, COVID-19 deaths per million, and composite COVID-19 severity index, after controlling for confounding factors, such as socioeconomic development, ecological threats, disease protective behaviors, cultural norms, and political influences. A mini meta-analysis (Study 4: N = 9) confirmed the significance of these effects across studies. These findings supported the proactive role of collectivism in defending against the novel coronavirus in the United States, aligning with the parasite-stress theory of sociality. However, the subjective-culture individualism-collectivism index (reversed) did not exhibit a significant relationship with COVID-19 severity when confounding factors were considered. The high correlation between the subjective-culture individualism-collectivism index (reversed) and the controlled variables suggested shared variance that could diminish its impact on COVID-19 outcomes. Accordingly, the present findings underscore the significance of accounting for confounding factors when examining the association between collectivism and COVID-19 severity at population level. By considering relevant confounding factors, researchers could gain a comprehensive understanding of the complex interplay between cultural collectivism and its influence on COVID-19 severity. Overall, this research contributes to our understanding of how cultural collectivism shapes the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, emphasizing the importance of adjusting for confounding effects in population level studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research has shown that worldviews can influence coping strategies but coping is often regarded as a stable person-based behavioral characteristic. The present research aims to examine how one component of worldviews – social complexity – influences the flexibility of coping strategies across situations. In two cross-sectional studies and one prospective study, we tested a mediation model in which the perceived complexity of the social world (i.e., social complexity) predicted coping flexibility through dialectical thinking. Across three studies, social complexity consistently facilitated dialectical thinking, which in turn fostered the cross-situational flexibility of coping strategies at a single time point and over 12 months. Believing in complex causes of phenomena and multiple solutions to problems facilitates a cognitive style of viewing issues from multiple perspectives and tolerating contradictions, which are conducive to the flexible evaluation and implementation of effective strategies to cope with problems. Theoretical and practical implications of the present research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the role of group identification in shaping collective health behaviors. Using the novel Pronoun-Influenced Collective Health Model — an integrated framework combining elements from health and social psychology theories — we investigated the relationship between online first-person plural pronoun usage and adherence to COVID-19 preventive measures across the United States. Analyzing weekly Google Trends data on English (Study 1) and Spanish (Study 2) first-person pronoun searches, alongside data on adherence to pandemic precautionary measures from early 2020 to late 2022, we found significant positive associations between relative first-person plural pronoun search volumes and adherence to social distancing, stay-at-home orders, vaccination rates, and proactive disease prevention information seeking. These associations remained robust after adjusting for potential confounding factors. A mini meta-analysis (Study 3) confirmed the consistency of our findings, revealing no significant moderation effects by language context or ecological-socio-cultural factors, suggesting broad generalizability. The implications of this research highlight the potential for tracking online collective language as a valuable indicator of and proxy for societal-level health engagement during crises. This novel digital linguistics approach, synergistically combining applied health and social psychology with big data from digital platforms such as Google, offers powerful tools for monitoring collective health actions across linguistic and cultural boundaries during large-scale health crises. • Online searches for first-person plural pronouns predicted adherence to COVID-19 preventive behaviors across U.S. • This relationship was consistent across English and Spanish linguistic contexts. • Group identification fostered by plural pronouns promoted collective efforts during health crises. • Cultural collectivism did not significantly moderate the observed language-behavior link. • Integrating inclusive language can offer a powerful tool for monitoring collective health actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected both physical health and mental well-being around the world. Stress-related reactions, if prolonged, may result in mental health problems. We examined the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in a multinational study and explored the effects of government responses to the outbreak. We sampled 18,171 community adults from 35 countries/societies, stratified by age, gender, and region of residence. Across the 35 societies, 26.6% of participants reported moderate to extremely severe depression symptoms, 28.2% moderate to extremely severe anxiety symptoms, and 18.3% moderate to extremely severe stress symptoms. Coronavirus anxiety comprises two factors, namely Perceived Vulnerability and Threat Response. After controlling for age, gender, and education level, perceived vulnerability predicted higher levels of negative emotional symptoms and psychological distress, whereas threat response predicted higher levels of self-rated health and subjective well-being. People in societies with more stringent control policies had more threat response and reported better subjective health. Coronavirus anxiety exerts detrimental effects on subjective health and well-being, but also has the adaptive function in mobilizing safety behaviors, providing support for an evolutionary perspective on psychological adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing efforts have been made to pool coronavirus data and control measures from countries and regions to compare the effectiveness of government policies. We examine whether these strategies can explain East Asia's effective control of the COVID‐19 pandemic based on time‐series data with cross‐correlations between the Stringency Index and number of confirmed cases during the early period of outbreaks. We suggest that multidisciplinary empirical research in healthcare and social sciences, personality, and social psychology is needed for a clear understanding of how cultural values, social norms, and individual predispositions interact with policy to affect life‐saving behavioural changes in different societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Based upon a mixed methods follow-up explanation model, the present research examined the relationships between global orientations and the attitudes toward integration policies among both locals (majority group) and South Asians (minority group) in Hong Kong. Methods: In Study 1, quantitative data were collected from a community sample of 1,614 adults comprising 1,007 locals and 607 South Asians in three minority groups (Indians, Nepalese, and Pakistanis). In Study 2, a follow-up explanation phase of qualitative investigation was conducted, with 12 in-depth semistructured focus group discussions among seven locals and 49 South Asians, generating three main themes and six subthemes. Results: Quantitative results showed that the positive link between multicultural acquisition and instrumental integration policies was significantly stronger for South Asians than for locals, and that ethnic protection was negatively associated with a positive attitude toward symbolic integration policies in the majority group but had no effects in the minority group. The three main themes generated from the qualitative results include alleviating minority disadvantage, preserving majority privilege, and embracing diversity for the common good. Conclusions: The combined quantitative and qualitative results suggest that the differential relationships of multicultural acquisition and ethnic protection with support for specific integration policies can be understood with the underlying structural power asymmetry between the majority and minority groups. Public Significance Statement: Intergroup relations have been studied extensively from an acculturation perspective. We investigate majority and minority group members' attitudes toward social integration in the context of globalization. Their global orientations have differential relationships with symbolic and instrumental integration policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theory and research have revealed the impact of cognitive factors on propensity for gambling, but the role of generalized beliefs and their underlying mechanisms receive little attention. In the present research, we operationalized generalized beliefs as social axioms (Leung et al. in J Cross Cult Psychol 33:286-302, 2002) and tested how the axiom factors of fate control and social cynicism affected the likelihood to gamble in hypothetical scenarios (Study 1) and the actual behaviour of gambling (Study 2). In Study 1, we found that both fate control and social cynicism positively predicted the propensity to participate in horse betting and casino gambling among university students (n = 184). The effect of fate control was mediated by perceived benefit of gambling, whereas social cynicism affected gambling propensity directly. In Study 2, we showed the same effects of fate control and social cynicism on gambling frequency among at-risk adolescents (n = 547), and identified two types of gambling-related cognition (i.e., distortive gambling cognitions and attitudes towards money) as mediators. Overall, this research provided evidence for the importance of social beliefs in formulating specific gambling cognitions and gambling behaviours, shedding light on intervention strategies for helping frequent gamblers through altering their worldviews in general and risk-taking beliefs in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural events have been found to make one's group identity temporarily more salient. How long such an elevated sense of identity can endure remains, however, an empirical question. Building upon the model of affective adaptation, we propose that the elevated sense of group identity may decrease quickly during a culturally important event, and this process is mediated by the decline of positive emotions during the event. Consistent with this prediction, a diary study (Study 1) with a Chinese sample observed that Chinese identity was very salient at the beginning of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and then was gradually neutralized during the event. Moreover, the dissipation of positive emotions during the event mediated temporal change of the salience of Chinese identity. An experiment (Study 2) further showed that positive emotions during national-identity-related events could create the initial elevation and subsequent decline of the salience of the group identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personality research has been focused on different aspects of the self, including traits, attitudes, beliefs, goals, and motivation. These aspects of the self are used to explain and predict social behaviour. The present research assessed generalized beliefs about the world, termed 'social axioms' (Leung et al., ), and examined their additive power over beliefs about the self in explaining a communal behaviour, that is, modesty. Three studies predicted reported modest behaviour among Mainland Chinese, Hong Kong Chinese, East Asian Canadians, and European Canadians. In addition to self-reports in Studies 1 and 2, informant reports from participants' parents and close friends were collected in Study 3 to construct a behavioural composite after examining the resulting multitrait-multimethod matrix and intraclass correlations. World views (operationalized as social axioms) explained additional variance in modest behaviour over and above self-views (operationalized as self-efficacy, self-construals, and trait modesty) in both Eastern and Western cultures. Variation in reports on three factors of modest behaviour was found across self-, parent, and friend perspectives, with significant differences across perspectives in self-effacement and other-enhancement, but not in avoidance of attention-seeking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influences of globalization have permeated various aspects of life in contemporary society, from technical innovations, economic development, and lifestyles, to communication patterns. The present research proposed a construct termed global orientation to denote individual differences in the psychological processes of acculturating to the globalizing world. It encompasses multicultural acquisition as a proactive response and ethnic protection as a defensive response to globalization. Ten studies examined the applicability of global orientations among majority and minority groups, including immigrants and sojourners, in multicultural and relatively monocultural contexts, and across Eastern and Western cultures. Multicultural acquisition is positively correlated with both independent and interdependent self-construals, bilingual proficiency and usage, and dual cultural identifications. Multicultural acquisition is promotion-focused, while ethnic protection is prevention-focused and related to acculturative stress. Global orientations affect individuating and modest behavior over and above multicultural ideology, predict overlap with outgroups over and above political orientation, and predict psychological adaptation, sociocultural competence, tolerance, and attitudes toward ethnocultural groups over and above acculturation expectations/strategies. Global orientations also predict English and Chinese oral presentation performance in multilevel analyses and the frequency and pleasantness of intercultural contact in cross-lagged panel models. We discuss how the psychological study of global orientations contributes to theory and research on acculturation, cultural identity, and intergroup relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intricate interactions between language and culture shape bilingual and bicultural individuals' psychological responses to social contexts. Language carries cultural scripts, ideals, and practices, which can be activated by situational cues. In the process of managing two acquired languages, bilinguals shift their self-perception and self-presentation to accommodate the prototypical norms characteristic of the culture being primed by language use. Cultural mindset can explain such language priming effects. In the process of negotiating two intersecting cultures, integrating bicultural identities is central to psychological adjustment among individuals experiencing immigration-based and globalization-based acculturation, whereas bilingual or trilingual competence is important to sojourners' adjustment. The present paper reviews empirical work along these lines of research and suggests that it is possible for alternation and integration to coexist within the same individuals who integrate their bicultural identities and alternate their behavioural responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies comparing personality across cultures have found inconsistencies between self-reports and measures of national character or behaviour, especially on evaluative traits such as Conscientiousness. We demonstrate that self-perceptions and other-perceptions of personality vary with cultural mindset, thereby accounting for some of this inconsistency. Three studies used multiple methods to examine perceptions of Conscientiousness and especially its facet Competence that most characterizes performance evaluations. In Study 1, Mainland Chinese reported lower levels of self-efficacy than did Canadians, with the country effect partially mediated by Canadian participants' higher level of independent self-construal. In Study 2, language as a cultural prime induced similar effects on Hong Kong bilinguals, who rated themselves as more competent and conscientious when responding in English than in Chinese. Study 3 demonstrated these same effects on ratings of both self-perceived and observer-perceived competence and conscientiousness, with participants changing both their competence-communicating behaviours and self-evaluations in response to the cultural primes of spoken language and ethnicity of an interviewer. These results converge to show that self-perceptions and self-presentations change to fit the social contexts shaped by language and culture. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether language shapes cognition has long been a controversial issue. The present research adopts a functional approach to examining the effects of language use on personality perception and dialectical thinking. We propose that language use activates corresponding cultural mindsets, which in turn influence social perception, thinking, and behavior. Four studies recruited Chinese- English bilinguals ( N = 129 in Study 1, 229 in Study 2, 68 in Study 3, 106 in Study 4) and used within-subjects and between-subjects design, written and behavioral reports, and self- and other perceptions. The four studies converged to show that Chinese- English bilinguals exhibit higher dialectical thinking and more variations in self- and observer ratings of personality when using the Chinese language than when using English. Furthermore, dialectical thinking predicted more self- and other-perceived variations in personality and behavior across bilingual contexts. These results highlight the important role of culture in understanding the relations between language and cognition, and attest to the malleability of personality perception and dialectical thinking within and across individuals in response to culture-related linguistic cues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective We applied the concept of naïve dialecticism (Peng & Nisbett, ), which characterizes East Asians' greater tendency to encompass contradictory, ever-changing, and interrelated features of an entity, to bicultural contexts and examined its effects on psychological well-being across various acculturating groups. Method We administered questionnaire measures of the dialectical self, bicultural identity integration ( BII; Benet- Martínez & Haritatos, 2005), and well-being to Hong Kong Chinese ( N = 213) in Study 1 and Mainland Chinese ( N = 239) in Study 2. In Study 3, a 4-week longitudinal study was conducted among Hong Kong Chinese ( N = 173) to test the relationships of these variables over time. We then extended similar measures to new immigrants from Mainland China ( N = 67) in Study 4 and Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong ( N = 153) in Study 5. Results Five studies converged to show that psychological adjustment was positively related to BII, but negatively related to the dialectical self. In Studies 1-3, dialecticism mediated the effect of BII on psychological adjustment among Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese bicultural individuals. Conclusions Our findings reveal the deleterious effects of tolerance for contradiction on well-being and differentiate biculturalism patterns of immigration-based and globalization-based acculturation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempted to apply theoretical concepts from personality and social psychology to understand the nomological network informing clinical models held by laypersons. Personal values and social axioms predicted the lay beliefs of Chinese adolescents about the causes and cures of 2 psychological problems (agoraphobia and schizophrenia) and 2 social problems (child abuse and corruption). Using path analyses, we developed a model of lay beliefs for each specific problem, and found that social problems were perceived to be caused by social-personal factors, whereas psychological problems varied in their perceived etiology, with agoraphobia perceived to be caused by the environmental/hereditary factor and schizophrenia by the social-personal factor. Clinical methods were perceived to be the important curative factor in overcoming most problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study tested a mediation model to predict adolescents' academic achievement in Hong Kong. Generalized expectancies, including personal beliefs about agency and competence (i.e., self-efficacy) and social beliefs about effort and outcome (i.e., reward for application and fate control), were found to be significant antecedents of academic aspiration, a domain-specific mediator that predicted academic achievement positively. Self-efficacy and reward for application were positively related to academic aspiration. The indirect effect of fate control was negative on academic aspiration, but its direct effect was positive on academic achievement. These findings were used to make sense of the equivocal patterns of general self-efficacy, social axioms, and academic outcomes in the extant literature on learning and achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined the applicability of social beliefs in school-aged children and investigated factors contributing to the formation of their views about the world. As an extension of the authors' previous work on family dysfunction and social axioms, they hypothesized a mediation model to identify personal and interpersonal antecedents for two dimensions of social axioms, namely, social cynicism and reward for application. Data on general family functioning were collected from elementary school students in Hong Kong. Results of path analysis showed that family dysfunction predicted self-esteem and relationship harmony negatively; in turn, self-esteem predicted social cynicism negatively and relationship harmony predicted reward for application positively. These findings confirmed the mediating effect of self-esteem on personal development and that of relationship harmony on interpersonal development, with both leading from the quality of family functioning to different beliefs on the dimensional profile of a person's social axioms. The direct effect of family dysfunction was also significant on the two axioms. Together, these results support the position that familial influences shape the formation of a child's worldview. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the research improvements on social axioms with Chinese people. It mentions that while researchers focus their attention on people view themselves, Leung and Bond suggested a research which is focused on how people view the world around them and the social environment on which they find their niches. An overview of the term social axioms is also discussed which include beliefs about people, social groups and social institution.

The present study examined the applicability of social beliefs in schoolaged children and investigated factors contributing to the formation of their views about the world. As an extension of the authors' previous work on family dysfunction and social axioms, they hypothesized a mediation model to identify personal and interpersonal antecedents for two dimensions of social axioms, namely, social cynicism and reward for application. Data on general family functioning were collected from elementary school students in Hong Kong. Results of path analysis showed that family dysfunction predicted self-esteem and relationship harmony negatively; in turn, self-esteem predicted social cynicism negatively and relationship harmony predicted reward for application positively. These findings confirmed the mediating effect of self-esteem on personal development and that of relationship harmony on interpersonal development, with both leading from the quality of family functioning to different beliefs on the dimensional profile of a person's social axioms. The direct effect of family dysfunction was also significant on the two axioms. Together, these results support the position that familial influences shape the formation of a child's worldview. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study tested a mediation model to predict adolescents' academic achievement in Hong Kong. Generalized expectancies, including personal beliefs about agency and competence (i.e., self-efficacy) and social beliefs about effort and outcome (i.e., reward for application and fate control), were found to be significant antecedents of academic aspiration, a domain-specific mediator that predicted academic achievement positively. Self-efficacy and reward for application were positively related to academic aspiration. The indirect effect of fate control was negative on academic aspiration, but its direct effect was positive on academic achievement. These findings were used to make sense of the equivocal patterns of general self-efficacy, social axioms, and academic outcomes in the extant literature on learning and achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A foreword to the "Journal of Psychology in Chinese Societies, Vol. 11, No.1 (2010)" is presented.

Research on suicide has documented various factors predicting suicidal ideation. The present study focused on the pathways emanating from one of the external, environmental forces (i.e. family dysfunction) through internal responses (beliefs about oneself and about the world), to suicidal ideation among Hong Kong Chinese. Using structural equation modelling, we tested the mediating roles of depressive self-views (including stress perception, depressive cognition and negative self-esteem) as well as two dimensions of social axioms (social cynicism and negative reward for application). Multi-group analysis showed that the mediation model was invariant across both males and females. Being socialized into a problematic family of origin affected multiple aspects of one's assessments of both oneself and one's world which, in turn, lead to greater suicidal ideation. Our findings provide important implications for assessing suicidal risk and guiding interventions in clinical treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation examined the impact of bicultural identity, bilingualism, and social context on the psychological adjustment of multicultural individuals. Our studies targeted three distinct types of biculturals: Mainland Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong, Filipino domestic workers (i.e., sojourners) in Hong Kong, and Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese college students. Individual differences in Bicultural Identity Integration (BII; Benet-Martínez, Leu, Lee, & Morris, 2002 ) positively predicted psychological adjustment for all the samples except sojourners even after controlling for the personality traits of neuroticism and self-efficacy. Cultural identification and language abilities also predicted adjustment, although these associations varied across the samples in meaningful ways. We concluded that, in the process of managing multiple cultural environments and group loyalties, bilingual competence, and perceiving one's two cultural identities as integrated are important antecedents of beneficial psychological outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research took an ecological approach to explore a relational issue in social perception − are the perceived personality characteristics of dyad members and their perceived behavioural exchanges related to perceptions of that dyad’s perceived level of friendship? To this end, observers reported on a dyad they knew well using an indigenous measure of personality perception and the Dyadic Behavioural Exchange Scale, combined with an adapted version of Hays’ Friendship Observation Checklist. Perceived similarity of personality on the dimensions of application, emotional stability (negative) and helpfulness (negative) along with the perceived level of dyadic behaviour exchange were found to be additive predictors of perceived communion or friendship strength. This interplay of personal and interpersonal processes has demonstrated the application of methodological relationalism in the social domain, and broadened the ambit of social cognition to include knowledge of relationship units of which the observer is not a member, but which plays a part in his or her social world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The present study attempted to evaluate the relationship between personality and beliefs about the world by employing both universally applicable and indigenously derived measures of personality along with the Social Axioms Survey. The bivariate correlations showed only a modest overlap between personality factors and social axioms, and yet canonical correlation analysis indicated a much stronger relationship overall. The moderate relations between specific personality and belief dimensions were also examined and discussed. Furthermore, social axioms were linked with horizontal and vertical individualism and collectivism after controlling for personality, suggesting the close links between beliefs about the world and measures focusing on the culturally derived characteristics of the interpersonal world. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This study examined the effects of face concern and social support on stress–distress relationships, after controlling for preexisting distress and demographic characteristics in a stratified community sample of Chinese Americans (n =1503). Emotional support and instrumental support from family and friends were found to significantly predict psychological distress among Chinese Americans in addition to face-related daily hassles and financial strain. Face concern emerged as an important contributing factor above and beyond social support and stress variables although no interaction effect between face and face-related stressors was found. Testing this culturally salient variable has furthered our understanding of the stress–distress experiences of Chinese Americans and provided important implications for cultural dynamics in social relationships. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The present study examined three fundamental components contributing to life satisfaction among Chinese college students − who you are, how you conceive of yourself, and how you understand the world in which you function. To account for life satisfaction beyond self-esteem, we used two comprehensive measures of personality and social beliefs that have recently established their cross-cultural applicability: the Cross-Cultural Personality Assessment Inventory and the Social Axioms Survey. It was found that the personality variables tapping interpersonal relationship and social axioms tapping perceptions of social contexts were significantly related to life satisfaction over and above its relationship to self-esteem. These and other constructs were discussed as emic and possibly pancultural contributors to subjective well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Many personality researchers have considered personality to be an integrated constellation of attitudes, values, feelings, beliefs about the self and behaviors, and most of the comprehensive personality measures reflect such a multifaceted conceptualization by including a mixture of items assessing these components. The present study examined the relationship between personality and beliefs about the world by using culturally derived yet universally applicable measures of personality and social beliefs—the Cross-Cultural Personality Assessment Inventory-2 (CPAI-2) and the Social Axioms Survey (SAS). It was found that the overlap between the CPAI-2 and the SAS was slight, suggesting that personality and beliefs about the world are two distinct multi-dimensional concepts, and that their overlap lies in self-assessments of personal control. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study used a prospective design to test the robustness of a psychosocial model of stress-distress relationship among Chinese Americans. Direct and moderating effects of personal resources (hardiness and self-esteem) as well as stress (recent events, daily hassles, and financial strain) on psychological distress were tested after accounting for demographic factors and acculturation of 1,503 Chinese Americans, aged 18-65, who were interviewed at two time periods within an 18-month interval in Los Angeles County. Both hardiness and self-esteem had significant main effects on psychological distress. Whereas hardiness did not buffer the stress-distress relationship, self-esteem moderated the effects of recent events and daily hassles on distress. Gender, education, and acculturation were related to levels of distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cultural theory of naïve dialecticism, denoting Chinese lay beliefs about expectation of change and tolerance of contradiction, was employed to examine Chinese and European Americans' representation and evaluation of their romantic partners and relationships across three studies. We found that Chinese were more likely than Euro‐Americans to spontaneously describe their partners with contradictory attributes (Study 1). While Chinese and Euro‐Americans organized their evaluative partner knowledge in equally compartmentalized ways, Chinese were more likely to hold complex knowledge structures and to value both positive and negative partner knowledge (Study 2). Moreover, Chinese were more likely than Euro‐Americans to simultaneously hold positive and negative attitudes toward their partner and relationship (i.e., being ambivalent), both implicitly and explicitly (Study 3). These findings illuminate theories and research on contradictions in intimate relationships from a cultural perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Holistic thinking and analytic thinking are advanced modes of thinking, which neural mechanisms have not been fully explored. • We used the frame-line task and the triad task, with multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA). • We mapped the fundamental neural substrates of holistic thinking and analytic thinking. • We provided a new method to explore the neural representation of cultural constructs. Holistic and analytic thinking are two distinct modes of thinking used to interpret the world with relative preferences varying across cultures. While most research on these thinking styles has focused on behavioral and cognitive aspects, a few studies have utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore the correlations between brain metrics and self-reported scale scores. Other fMRI studies used single holistic and analytic thinking tasks. As a single task may involve processing in spurious low-level regions, we used two different holistic and analytic thinking tasks, namely the frame-line task and the triad task, to seek convergent brain regions to distinguish holistic and analytic thinking using multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA). Results showed that brain regions fundamental to distinguish holistic and analytic thinking include the bilateral frontal lobes, bilateral parietal lobes, bilateral precentral and postcentral gyrus, bilateral supplementary motor areas, bilateral fusiform, bilateral insula, bilateral angular gyrus, left cuneus, and precuneus, left olfactory cortex, cingulate gyrus, right caudate and putamen. Our study maps brain regions that distinguish between holistic and analytic thinking and provides a new approach to explore the neural representation of cultural constructs. We provide initial evidence connecting culture-related brain regions with language function to explain the origins of cultural differences in cognitive styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic has significantly affected the psychological well‐being of individuals worldwide. Previous research has indicated that values and beliefs, particularly social axioms, are associated with psychological responses during crises. However, most of the studies have focused on specific regions; the impact of social axioms on a global scale remains unclear. We conducted a multinational study comprising stratified samples of 18,171 participants from 35 cultures. Using multilevel modeling, we examined the associations between social axioms, personal worry, normative concerns, trust, and individuals' psychological responses to the pandemic. The results showed that greater personal worry and normative concerns predicted more negative psychological responses. Furthermore, the study also identified significant buffering effects at the societal level, as cultures with higher overall levels of fate control, religiosity, or reward for application exhibited weaker associations between personal worry and negative responses. Our findings reveal the influence of social axioms on psychological responses during the pandemic, with varying effects across cultures. The buffering effects of fate control, religiosity, and reward for application underscore the importance of considering cultural differences and individual variability when examining the impact of social axioms on psychological outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global consciousness (GC), encompassing cosmopolitan orientation, global orientations (i.e. openness to multicultural experiences) and identification with all humanity, is a relatively stable individual difference that is strongly associated with pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, less ingroup favouritism and prejudice, and greater pandemic prevention safety behaviours. Little is known about how it is socialized in everyday life. Using stratified samples from six societies, socializing institution factors correlating positively with GC were education, white collar work (and its higher income) and religiosity. However, GC also decreased with increasing age, contradicting a 'wisdom of elders' transmission of social learning, and not replicating typical findings that general prosociality increases with age. Longitudinal findings were that empathy-building, network-enhancing elements like getting married or welcoming a new infant, increased GC the most across a three-month interval. Instrumental gains like receiving a promotion (or getting a better job) also showed positive effects. Less intuitively, death of a close-other enhanced rather than reduced GC. Perhaps this was achieved through the ritualized management of meaning where a sense of the smallness of self is associated with growth of empathy for the human condition, as a more discontinuous or opportunistic form of culture-based learning. This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolution and sustainability: gathering the strands for an Anthropocene synthesis'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While national parochialism is commonplace, individual differences explain more variance in it than cross-national differences. Global consciousness (GC), a multi-dimensional concept that includes identification with all humanity, cosmopolitan orientation, and global orientation, transcends national parochialism. Across six societies (N = 11,163), most notably the USA and China, individuals high in GC were more generous allocating funds to the other in a dictator game, cooperated more in a one-shot prisoner's dilemma, and differentiated less between the ingroup and outgroup on these actions. They gave more to the world and kept less for the self in a multi-level public goods dilemma. GC profiles showed 80% test–retest stability over 8 months. Implications of GC for cultural evolution in the face of trans-border problems are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People hold different perspectives about how they think the world is changing or should change. We examined five of these "worldviews" about change: Progress, Golden Age, Endless Cycle, Maintenance, and Balance. In Studies 1–4 (total N = 2733) we established reliable measures of each change worldview, and showed how these help explain when people will support or oppose social change in contexts spanning sustainability, technological innovations, and political elections. In mapping out these relationships we identify how the importance of different change worldviews varies across contexts, with Balance most critical for understanding support for sustainability, Progress/Golden Age important for understanding responses to innovations, and Golden Age uniquely important for preferring Trump/Republicans in the 2016 US election. These relationships were independent of prominent individual differences (e.g., values, political orientation for elections) or context‐specific factors (e.g., self‐reported innovativeness for responses to innovations). Study 5 (N = 2140) examined generalizability in 10 countries/regions spanning five continents, establishing that these worldviews exhibited metric invariance, but with country/region differences in how change worldviews were related to support for sustainability. These findings show that change worldviews can act as a general "lens" people use to help determine whether to support or oppose social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Living together in culturally plural societies poses numerous challenges for members of ethnocultural groups and for the larger society. An important goal of these societies is to achieve positive intercultural relations among all their peoples. Successful management of these relations depends on many factors including a research‐based understanding of the historical, political, economic, religious and psychological features of the groups that are in contact. The core question is 'how we shall we all live together?' In the project reported in this paper (Mutual Intercultural Relations in Plural Societies; MIRIPS), we seek to provide such research by reviewing three core psychological hypotheses of intercultural relations (multiculturalism, contact and integration) in 21 culturally plural societies. The main goal of the project is to evaluate these hypotheses across societies within the MIRIPS project in order to identify if there are some basic psychological principles that underlie intercultural relations panculturally. If there are, the eventual goal is to employ the findings to propose some policies and programmes that may improve the quality of intercultural relationship globally. An internal meta‐analysis using the MIRIPS project data showed that the empirical findings from these societies generally support the validity of the three hypotheses. Implications for the development of policies and programmes to enhance the quality of intercultural relations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An investigation of early peak-experiences among 116 Hong Kong college students, all born in Hong Kong or mainland China, generated 161 retrospective reports. The most frequent peak-experiences involved interpersonal joy, followed by those of external achievement and materialism. Implications of the findings for fostering Chinese youth development from a strength-based perspective are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a needs-based perspective toward understanding cultural differences in the self-identification of strengths and weaknesses. The authors argue that individuals have basic psychological needs for relatedness and autonomy; and that, because collectivistic and individualistic cultures tend to prioritize one need over the other, identities incorporate an awareness of the unmet need. The study's 210 Eastern (Chinese and Japanese) and 194 Western (Canadian and American) participants reported on five of their positive and negative attributes. The findings confirm the study hypotheses that Westerners are more likely than Easterners to report attributes associated with separation from others as weaknesses and relatedness attributes as strengths; and that Easterners are more likely than Westerners to report attributes associated with a lack of autonomy as weaknesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research investigating the role of generalized beliefs about the world or worldviews is relatively scarce in the suicide literature. Two studies, using Hong Kong Chinese samples, examined how worldviews, as assessed by the Social Axioms Survey (SAS), were linked with individual vulnerability to suicide. In Study 1, we investigated the relationships of social axioms with various suicide indicators in cognitive, emotional and interpersonal domains, viz., suicidal ideation, negative self-esteem, psychache, burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness. Results from canonical correlation analysis showed that beliefs along the axiom dimensions of social cynicism, reward for application, and social complexity were linked to these suicide indicators. In Study 2, we tested the interplay of worldviews and personality traits in the prediction of suicidal thoughts. Hierarchical regression results demonstrated the predictive power of social axioms over and above that provided by the Big Five personality dimensions. Moreover, a significant interaction was observed between belief in reward for application and negative life events in predicting suicidal ideation, showing that reward for application buffered the effect of negative life events on suicidal ideation. Based on these results, we discussed the significance of worldviews as a consideration in suicide research and their implications for clinical assessment and intervention. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project examined cultural changes in terms of individualism-collectivism in China between 1950 and 1999 focusing on cultural associations that are discernible through analysis of language use. Drawing on algorithms in natural language processing (NLP) that numerically represent word meanings in a high-dimensional space, we examined patterns of word similarity for words indicating individualism and collectivism in Chinese. This methodology enables researchers of cultural change to investigate questions that were difficult to examine before. We examined four such questions pertaining to individualism-collectivism cultural change in China. The data spanning five decades found no evidence of Chinese culture becoming more positively disposed to individualism over time. Another finding suggested a continuing cultural association between collectivism and some life domains, work in particular. These findings suggest that rising individualism is not a universal consequence of societal modernization and that collectivism in China may be self-sustaining. The data also indicate that the Chinese language might have become more differentiated and complex in its discourse on individualism and collectivism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is a flourishing literature on the psychology of globalization and the psychology of morality, respectively, the moral dimension has been largely absent in the discourse of globalization psychology. Our current work attempts to fill this gap by establishing a conceptual and empirical link between global orientations and moral foundations. Our results indicated that (1) multicultural acquisition was positively linked with both individualizing and binding values; (2) ethnic protection was positively linked with only binding values; and (3) the relation patterns between global orientations and moral foundations were essentially congruent across cultures albeit with some cultural variations. Our findings provide direct evidence to map out the relation patterns between how people mentally cope with globalization and their explicit moral matrices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The maximization principle—that people aspire to the highest possible level of something good if all practical constraints are removed—is a common yet untested assumption about human nature. We predict that in holistic cultures—where contradiction, change, and context are emphasized—ideal states of being for the self will be more moderate than in other cultures. In two studies (Ns = 2,392 and 6,239), we asked this question: If participants could choose their ideal level of happiness, pleasure, freedom, health, self-esteem, longevity, and intelligence, what level would they choose? Consistent with predictions, results showed that maximization was less pronounced in holistic cultures; members of holistic cultures aspired to less happiness, pleasure, freedom, health, self-esteem, longevity, and IQ than did members of other cultures. In contrast, no differences emerged on ideals for society. The studies show that the maximization principle is not a universal aspect of human nature and that there are predictable cultural differences in people’s notions of perfection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In cross-national studies, mean levels of self-reported phenomena are often not congruent with more objective criteria. One prominent explanation for such findings is that people make self-report judgements in relation to culture-specific standards (often called the reference group effect), thereby undermining the cross-cultural comparability of the judgements. We employed a simple method called anchoring vignettes in order to test whether people from 21 different countries have varying standards for Conscientiousness, a Big Five personality trait that has repeatedly shown unexpected nation-level relationships with external criteria. Participants rated their own Conscientiousness and that of 30 hypothetical persons portrayed in short vignettes. The latter type of ratings was expected to reveal individual differences in standards of Conscientiousness. The vignettes were rated relatively similarly in all countries, suggesting no substantial culture-related differences in standards for Conscientiousness. Controlling for the small differences in standards did not substantially change the rankings of countries on mean self-ratings or the predictive validities of these rankings for objective criteria. These findings are not consistent with mean self-rated Conscientiousness scores being influenced by culture-specific standards. The technique of anchoring vignettes can be used in various types of studies to assess the potentially confounding effects of reference levels. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]