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Objective: This paper discusses the influence of family and cultural backgrounds on South Asian student survivors' understandings of dating relationships and help-seeking after experiencing dating violence. Methods: Six South Asian undergraduate women dating violence survivors participated in two thé talks (similar to semi structured interviews) and a photo-elicitation activity to share their experiences of dating violence and how they make meaning of these experiences. Findings: Through analysis guided by the tenets of Bhattacharya's Par/Des(i) framework, this paper highlights two key findings: 1) the powerful role of cultural values in students' conceptualizations of healthy and unhealthy relationships; and 2) the effect of familial and intergenerational experiences on students' help-seeking behaviors. Conclusion: Findings highlight the need to incorporate considerations of family and culture in efforts to address and prevent dating violence in higher education.

Current evidence implicates educational pressures and reduced outdoor time as major causes of myopia. This paper examines the ongoing battle against the myopia epidemic in East Asia, including its cultural offshoots such as Singapore, where over 80% of young adults are myopic. East Asian societies share deeply rooted Confucian values that attach great importance to education and familial obligations, with heavy parental investment in education and the perception that academic excellence reflects filial piety. Coupled with a strong emphasis on standardised test results, East Asian children face intense educational pressures from a young age. Existing education-based myopia prevention strategies focus either on top-down school reforms to promote more outdoor time for students during school hours or on bottom-up awareness initiatives encouraging lifestyle changes. However, the entrenched Confucian worldview suggests that more extensive top-down reforms aimed at reducing competition in education, combined with widespread bottom-up awareness initiatives targeting the public-particularly parents, given their active involvement in children's education outside of school-may be required to truly turn the tide on myopia., Competing Interests: Declarations. Conflict of interest: The author declares no conflict of interest., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: To address the growing concerns about mental health issues among Chinese university students, our study investigates the impact of social media on their mental health. This study intends to shed light on how these students' use of social media platforms contributes to these mental health issues, given that it has been estimated that up to 30% of university students in China suffer from mental health issues., Methods: We investigate the extent of this issue by looking at how Chinese social media platforms like WeChat, Weibo, and QQ impact students' mental health. To gain a comprehensive insight into students' perspectives, this study's sole methodology is qualitative semi-structured interviews. Our core claim asserts that social media considerably affects Chinese university students' mental health, with both positive and negative consequences., Results: The findings show how closely social media use and Chinese university students' mental health are related. These networks let people connect and get support but also encourage social comparison and stigma towards mental illness. Students use a variety of coping skills, such as self-regulation techniques, digital detoxification techniques, and looking for emotional support in online networks. These results highlight the need for a complex understanding of social media's effects on mental health. Our study also recognizes students' capacity for adaptation and resilience as they traverse the digital world, offering theoretical and practical applications for successfully juggling online and offline lives., Conclusion: In the end, our study contributes to a thorough and culturally sensitive understanding of how social media affects the mental health of Chinese university students., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflict of interest.

Emotional attenuation in a second language is believed to be one of the main causes of the Moral Foreign Language effect (MFLe). However, evidence on the mediating role of emotion in the relationship between language and moral judgements is limited and mainly derives from unrealistic moral dilemmas. We conducted two studies to investigate (1) whether the MFLe is present in both unrealistic (Study 1) and realistic (Study 2) moral dilemmas, and (2) whether this effect can be attributed to reduced emotionality. In Study 1, the MFLe was found in the moral judgements made by Spanish-English bilinguals. However, the same pattern was not observed in Greek Cypriot-English bilinguals' moral judgements, and this result was attributed to the prominent role of English in Cyprus. In Study 2, the MFLe extended to realistic moral dilemmas when the outcome of the action entailed the violation of a social norm. Study 1 and Study 2 also revealed that these bilinguals experienced a wide range of emotions in their L1 and L2, which did not differ significantly across languages. Mediation analyses further indicated that the MFLe was not mediated by emotional blunting, which made us consider alternative explanations for the MFLe.

How online grocery shopping behaviors differ among Asian American (AA) ethnic subgroups and acculturation level is unknown. From June 9-15, 2020, we administered an online survey to a nationally-derived nonprobability sample of 2,895 AA adults, including 1,737 East, 570 South, and 587 Southeast Asian adults, assessing online grocery shopping (yes/no, frequency, reasons). We used logistic regression to compare responses by subgroup and acculturation score, controlling for sociodemographics. Thirty-percent of participants reported shopping online for groceries in a typical month, with a higher percentage among South (45%) versus East Asian adults (23%). Participants with low (vs. high) acculturation scores were more likely to report a lack of special foods (OR = 0.7; 95% CI: 0.5-0.98) and poor food quality (OR = 0.6; 95% CI: 0.4-0.7) as preventing them from shopping online. Online grocery shopping has the capacity to address inequities in health, potentially via culturally-tailored programs designed for less-acculturated AA adults., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Introduction: The COVID-19 epidemic and its lockdown dramatically impacted the general well-being of the population and affected sociosexual experiences, thus modifying sexual behavior, desire, and well-being. Clustering analysis has not yet been applied to research and data investigating sociosexuality. The cluster analysis method could be a valid support for clinicians in investigating the condition of a population with respect to problems related to sociosexuality. The aim of the present study was to analyze the different perceptions of the sociosexual experiences in southern population during the COVID-19 pandemic., Methods: We enrolled 734 (450 female) participants with a carried out anonymous web-based survey from the 16th of April 2020 to the 3rd June of 2020. The revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI-R) is a self-report test assessing three theoretically meaningful facets of sociosexual orientation (behavior, attitude, and desire)., Results: We found eleven clusters, and the findings showed, for the first time, an intra- and inter-diagnostic heterogeneity in the sexual profile of participants. Theoretically, we identified subtype clusters whose sexual attitude was to avoid sexual promiscuity with significant gender differences. Women show a greater propensity for attitude and desire facet than men., Conclusions: Our new method of unsupervised learning could represent a reliable tool to support socio-cultural analysis studies on issues influenced by cultural mechanisms in a quick and explanatory way, as in the case of sexual orientation and attitude differences between men and women., Social and Policy Implications: Understanding these gaps is fundamental for policy makers, managers of social networks, those who deal with engaged couples and families, and sexuality starting from the very youngest adolescents. We claim to devise a strategy to measure how much a sexist culture implicitly and explicitly limits the freedom of sexual expression and how this can affect psycho-sexual well-being in a society., Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13178-022-00771-2., Competing Interests: Conflict of InterestThe authors declare no competing interests., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.)

Objective. Cultures have essential influences on emotions. However, most studies on cultural influences on emotions are in the areas of psychology and neuroscience, while the existing affective models are mostly built with data from the same culture. In this paper, we identify the similarities and differences among Chinese, German, and French individuals in emotion recognition with electroencephalogram (EEG) and eye movements from an affective computing perspective. Approach. Three experimental settings were designed: intraculture subject dependent, intraculture subject independent, and cross-culture subject independent. EEG and eye movements are acquired simultaneously from Chinese, German, and French subjects while watching positive, neutral, and negative movie clips. The affective models for Chinese, German, and French subjects are constructed by using machine learning algorithms. A systematic analysis is performed from four aspects: affective model performance, neural patterns, complementary information from different modalities, and cross-cultural emotion recognition. Main results. From emotion recognition accuracies, we find that EEG and eye movements can adapt to Chinese, German, and French cultural diversities and that a cultural in-group advantage phenomenon does exist in emotion recognition with EEG. From the topomaps of EEG, we find that the γ and β bands exhibit decreasing activities for Chinese, while for German and French, θ and α bands exhibit increasing activities. From confusion matrices and attentional weights, we find that EEG and eye movements have complementary characteristics. From a cross-cultural emotion recognition perspective, we observe that German and French people share more similarities in topographical patterns and attentional weight distributions than Chinese people while the data from Chinese are a good fit for test data but not suitable for training data for the other two cultures. Significance. Our experimental results provide concrete evidence of the in-group advantage phenomenon, cultural influences on emotion recognition, and different neural patterns among Chinese, German, and French individuals., (© 2022 IOP Publishing Ltd.)

Conflicts between couples and their parents-in-law are a common phenomenon in Chinese families. In this study, in-law psychological aggression (InPA) victimization and its association with intimate partner violence (IPV), women's health, and gender role valuation were examined. A household face-to-face survey with random sampling was conducted, and a total of 260 married Chinese women with parents-in-law were recruited. Among the participants, 11.2% and 43.1% had experienced InPA victimization and IPV victimization, respectively, and 7.3% had experienced both. Women's daily contact with parents-in-law, anxiety symptoms, demand to obey parents-in-law, and the low valuation of the male role significantly positively related to InPA victimization, whereas discussions of in-law conflict with husbands were significantly negatively related to InPA victimization. Therefore, in developing interventions for women experiencing InPA victimization, the role of the husband in InPA victimization and the risk of co-occurring InPA and IPV should be considered. These findings reflect the need to raise awareness about the influence of culture on gender roles, the harm caused by InPA victimization, and the urgent need to help Chinese women who are experiencing in-law conflict., (© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

In settings where traditional medicine is a crucial part of the healthcare system, providing culturally competent healthcare services is vital to improving patient satisfaction and health outcomes. Therefore, this study sought to gain insight into how cultural beliefs influence health-seeking behaviors (HSBs) among Mozambicans. Participant observation and in-depth interviews (IDIs) were undertaken using the ethnonursing method to investigate beliefs and views that Mozambicans (living in Pemba City) often take into account to meet their health needs. Data were analyzed in accordance with Leininger's ethnonursing guidelines. Twenty-seven IDIs were carried out with 12 informants from the Makonde and Makuwa tribes. The choice of health service was influenced by perceptions of health and illness through a spiritual lens, belief in supernatural forces, dissatisfaction with and dislike of the public medical system on grounds of having received poor-quality treatment, perceived poor communication skills of health professionals, and trust in the indigenous medical system. This study confirmed the need for health professionals to carefully take cultural influences into consideration when providing care for their patients. We recommend an educational intervention that emphasizes communication skills training for healthcare workers to ensure successful physician/nurse-patient relationships.

Lay Abstract: Caregivers of people with autism spectrum disorder commonly experience stigma. As a result, they may avoid contact with others, in turn, influencing their child's social participation. This study aimed to explore the impact of stigma perceived by the caregivers on the everyday social experience of Taiwanese adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. We asked 76 adolescents with autism spectrum disorder who did not have intellectual disability (69 males, aged 10-16 years) to carry a mobile device for 7 days. The device prompted them 7 times each day to record who they were interacting with, what they perceived, and how they felt about their social interactions. In addition, we asked their caregivers to complete the Affiliate Stigma Scale to measure their experience of stigma. We found that participants whose caregivers perceived high levels of stigma were more likely to spend time with family members and less likely to be interested in interacting with people at school. Those participants also were more likely to experience anxiety while interacting with family. Our study suggests that it is important for clinicians to implement support services for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder and help caregivers in managing stigma to promote their child's social participation.

Introduction: Limited access to affordable, healthy food and identifying as African-American or Hispanic-American are associated with greater risk of childhood obesity, especially for low-income individuals., Purpose: To report on (1) the emergent theme of the influence of culture on primary caregivers' behaviors and motivations when preparing meals for their families; and (2) primary caregivers' perceptions of the nutritional information they receive from health care providers., Methods: Twelve focus groups with low-income, adult primary caregivers of children ages 3 to 6 years were conducted in Texas and the DC-Maryland-Virginia region and were segmented by race/ethnicity and access to grocery stores., Results: Culture emerged as an important theme in influencing which foods participants cook at home. In some cases, that influence spilled over into the child's diet. In other instances, the food that participants reported making for their children varied from the food they make for themselves. Participants reported having high trust in health care providers, but acknowledged that health care providers' nutritional advice might not always be applicable., Discussion and Conclusions: Our findings highlight the importance of considering the role culture might play in influencing and informing caregivers' decisions regarding children's diets, and also better understanding caregivers' perceptions of health care providers as a source of nutrition information for their children.

Past research on pathways to cultural influence on judgment has compared the explanatory power of personal preferences, perceived descriptive norms and institutionalization. Positive education is an education movement inspired by Western positive psychology. The present study examined how these factors jointly predict Hong Kong teachers' evaluation of imported positive education programs in their schools. In a field study, we measured teachers' personal endorsement of growth mindset (a positive psychology construct developed in the US) and their evaluation of adopting positive education programs in their schools. We also measured teachers' perception of the extent of institutional and normative support for positive education in their schools. The results show that teachers' personal preferences for growth mindset predict more favorable evaluation of positive education programs when institutional and normative support for positive education programs are both weak, or when they are both strong. We interpret these effects from the perspectives of the strong situation hypothesis and the intersubjective theory of culture., (Copyright © 2020 Chan, Chiu, Lee, Leung and Tong.)

The researcher employed personal belief system (PBS) theory as the theoretical foundation for this study because it holds that teachers' PBSs may influence their teaching behaviours, teaching styles, and pedagogies in classroom practice due to cultural influences. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how teachers' personal beliefs influence how they teach and how their approach may align with or diverge from cultural expectations in a private adult learning facility for English learning in Macau Special Administrative Region, China. The participants in this study were classroom teachers in a learning community who believe in collaborating to create environments for best practices. Two main research questions guided this study: (1) What is the relationship between teachers' personal belief systems and their classroom practice; and (2) How does a teacher's educational experience as a K-12 student affect their pedagogy in an adult English language learning program? Three types of data collection methods were employed: interview, classroom observation, and field note taking. The findings showed that teachers utilize their personal belief systems to engage their students through interactive teaching strategies, which was counter-intuitive for both teachers and students who had been taught with Eastern teaching styles. This study contributed to personal belief system theory and broadens the understanding of the perspectives and concepts of English teaching and supervision. The beliefs of teachers influenced their understanding of teaching and their classroom practices.

Objective: More than half of all cancer patients experience unrelieved pain. Culture can significantly affect patients' cancer pain-related beliefs and behaviors. Little is known about cultural impact on Chinese cancer patients' pain management. The objective of this review was to describe pain management experiences of cancer patients from Chinese backgrounds and to identify barriers affecting their pain management., Method: A systematic review was conducted adhering to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Studies were included if they reported pain management experiences of adult cancer patients from Chinese backgrounds. Five databases were searched for peer-reviewed articles published in English or Chinese journals between1990 and 2015. The quality of included studies was assessed using Joanna Briggs Institution's appraisal tools., Results: Of 3,904 identified records, 23 articles met criteria and provided primary data from 6,110 patients. Suboptimal analgesic use, delays in receiving treatment, reluctance to report pain, and/or poor adherence to prescribed analgesics contributed to the patients' inadequate pain control. Patient-related barriers included fatalism, desire to be good, low pain control belief, pain endurance beliefs, and negative effect beliefs. Patients and family shared barriers about fear of addiction and concerns on analgesic side effects and disease progression. Health professional-related barriers were poor communication, ineffective management of pain, and analgesic side effects. Healthcare system-related barriers included limited access to analgesics and/or after hour pain services and lack of health insurance.Significance of resultsChinese cancer patients' misconceptions regarding pain and analgesics may present as the main barriers to optimal pain relief. Findings of this review may inform health interventions to improve cancer pain management outcomes for patients from Chinese backgrounds. Future studies on patients' nonpharmacology intervention-related experiences are required to inform multidisciplinary and biopsychosocial approaches for culturally appropriate pain management.

Objective: The current study had two objectives: (1) to access the psychiatric comorbidity in axis I and axis II (according to DSM-IV) of anorexia nervosa in a sample of 60 anorexic patients; (2) to compare the features of the psychiatric comorbidity between the two groups of French and Greek anorexic patients who participated in the study, as well as to compare some psychological and behavioral aspects of their anorectic psychopathology., Method: Sixty anorexic patients, thirty French and thirty Greek, aged between 18 and 60 years, referred for evaluation and therapy at the unit of eating disorders at the "Institut national Marcel-Rivière of the MGEN" (hôpital de La Verrière, France) and at the unit of eating disorders of the First Department of Psychiatry of EGINITIO University Psychiatric Hospital in Athens (Greece), were accessed with the Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT26), Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI), Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL90R), Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, Version 5.0.0 and the International Personality Disorder Examination., Results: The comparison between the Greek and French patient populations did not show significant differences in age, socio-educational status, family status and BMI. French patients were hospitalized more regularly than Greek patients (χ 2 (1)=6.65, P=0.01) and psychotropic drug therapy was more common in French anorexic patients (χ 2 (1)=4.59, P=0.06). The results of the EAT 26 questionnaire in Greek and French patients show an average of 34.93 (±18.54) in total, with no statistically significant difference between the two groups. The results of EDI show a statistically significant difference between the two groups in the subscale 3 (body dissatisfaction) in which the Greeks scored on average at 9.40 and the French at 14.90 (t (58)=3.09, P<0.01). According to the results of the MINI scale, 47% of the patients in our total sample had a restrictive anorexia nervosa and 47% had anorexia nervosa of binge-eating/purging type. The most frequent comorbid disorder was the major depressive episode (40%) and the obsessive compulsive disorder (18.3%). The only statistically significant difference between the two groups was the frequency of the major depressive episode, which appeared statistically higher among the French (χ 2 (1)=6.94, P=0.01). According to the results of IPDE, 73.3% of patients in total (76.6% of the French and 70% of the Greeks) showed a personality disorder. The most common personality disorder was borderline personality disorder (40%), followed by obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (26.6%) and avoidant personality disorder (21.7%), with no statistically significant differences between the two groups., Discussion: The profile of anorexic patients who are addressed to the specialized units of eating disorders in both cities (Paris, Athens) had many points in common (demographic parameters, BMI, subtype of anorexia). The results of the EAT-26 and EDI questionnaires did not differ between the two groups, except for the EDI questionnaire subscale 3, which showed body dissatisfaction, where the French had higher scores; this fact underlines the influence of cultural factors on some psychological and behavioral aspects of the psychopathology of the anorexia nervosa. The rates of comorbidity of anorexia nervosa in axis I and axis II found in our study are in agreement with data from various literature reviews and studies in the recent years. The most interesting point of the comorbidity comparison on axis I between the two groups of patients concerns the difference in the frequency of the major depressive episode, for which the results show higher rates in French patients. We can consider that this finding follows the general trend of mood disorder rates in Western countries and we can assume an explanation based on cultural influences. Finally, we can consider that the differences concerning the hospitalization of French patients in a more regular way than Greek patients and the higher rates of psychotropic treatment in French patients reflect the differences in the health systems between the two countries., Conclusion: Our study has shown high rates of major depressive episode, as well as personality disorders. There were statistically significant differences in four parameters between our two patient groups, explained by the influence of cultural factors., (Copyright © 2017 L'Encéphale, Paris. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Background: This study investigated whether the body condition score (BCS) and/or culture influences the quality of life (QoL) of dogs, as evaluated by the owner, and whether the BCS is influenced by feeding and exercise and its owner's culture. To this end, a questionnaire was administered to 355 selected dog owners (Thai and Dutch). Their dogs had a BCS of 3 (normal weight), 4 (overweight) or 5 (obese) but no other physical problems. Instead of using Likert scales, continuous scales were used. Further, data for the questionnaire items were transformed using an integrated z-score methodology., Results: The magnitude of factor loadings was similar to that reported in a previous study, indicating that the questionnaire is not culture specific. QoL scores for general sickness were significantly higher (worse) in dogs with a higher BCS. Thus even though the dogs were apparently healthy, the BCS influenced the perceived QoL of the dog. Immobility was seen more often in dogs with a higher (poorer) BCS than in dogs with a lower (better) BCS; however, there was no clear relationship between immobility and total activity. The higher the BCS, the less owners felt in control of feeding and exercise. The BCS was higher in the dogs of owners who did not like to exercise. The Thai dogs showed more separation-related behaviour problems when their owner left home than did the Dutch dogs., Conclusions: The QoL of overweight and obese dogs is mainly influenced by the dog's physical status. The owners of dogs with a high BCS have less perceived control over feeding and exercise. Our findings indicate that owner attitudes and beliefs essentially cause obesity as a result of a lack of knowledge and perceived control.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to validate five concepts central to secondary traumatization (ST) using narratives of psychiatric mental health advanced practice nurses., Design and Methods: The study was designed as a directed content analysis of narrative notes (N-30)., Findings: Consistency was found between narrative notes and the concepts. This study revealed that exposure and vulnerability precede empathic engagement, reaction, and alteration/transformation. The bidirectional outcome of alteration/transformation suggested that conditions leading to ST could have a positive outcome., Practice Implications: Failure to recognize symptoms of ST and provide reflective supervision may compromise the nurse's ability to maintain a work-life balance and provide quality patient care., (© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Objective: The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine cultural factors that influence Hispanic male college students' intention to communicate with partners about contraception use., Participants: A sample of 239 self-identified Hispanic participants enrolled in at least 1 college course participated in this study in the spring 2014 semester., Methods: Students completed a 47-item paper survey. Data were analyzed with multiple regression and descriptive methods., Results: Participants with more siblings were more likely to intend to communicate with partners about contraception use than those with fewer siblings. Participants who received contraceptive information exclusively from fathers exhibited a more favorable attitude toward partner communication. Mother's education level was positively correlated with participants' contraceptive knowledge., Conclusions: These results emphasize the importance of support from family members to this sample's intentions to communicate with partners about contraceptive use. Parental involvement and male responsibility, in regards to contraceptive use, should be integrated into Hispanic-focused sexual health improvement efforts.

This study investigated tadpole self-drawings from 183 three- to six-year-old children living in seven cultural groups, representing three ecosocial contexts. Based on assumed general production principles, the influence of cultural norms and values upon specific characteristics of the tadpole drawings was examined. The results demonstrated that children from all cultural groups realized the body-proportion effect in the self-drawings, indicating universal production principles. However, children differed in single drawing characteristics, depending on the specific ecosocial context. Children from Western and non-Western urban educated contexts drew themselves rather tall, with many facial features, and preferred smiling facial expressions, while children from rural traditional contexts depicted themselves significantly smaller, with less facial details, and neutral facial expressions.

Background: Heterogeneity in drinking across national groups is well documented, but what explains such heterogeneity is less clear. To improve understanding of the underlying cultural conditions that may lead to diverse drinking outcomes, we investigate whether 3 dimensions of ethnic drinking culture (EDC)-alcohol consumption level, drinking prevalence, and detrimental drinking pattern (DDP) in the country of origin (COO)-are significantly associated with alcohol consumption in Asian Americans and Latina/os, and whether the associations vary by gender and socioeconomic status (SES) as assessed by educational level., Methods: A nationally representative sample of 1,012 Asian American and 4,831 Latino adults extracted from the Wave 2 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions data was used. A series of multiple logistic and linear regression models were fitted separately for Asian Americans and for Latinos. Analyses were also stratified by gender and educational level., Results: Overall, the associations between EDC variables and drinking outcomes were more pronounced for all Asian Americans than for all Latina/os, for males than for females among Asian Americans, and for Latinas than for Latinos. In analyses simultaneously stratifying on gender and education level, however, there was a clear pattern of COO DDP associated with heavier drinking and alcohol consumption volume only for Latinos without a college degree., Conclusions: Ethnic drinking cultures may influence drinking in Asian American and Latino subgroups, albeit to a varying degree. Low-SES Latinos may be at disproportionate risk of harmful drinking patterns pervasive in their COO. Future research might investigate the complex interplay between socioeconomic disadvantage and cultural conditions to inform targeted interventions for subgroups at high risk of alcohol-related harms., (Copyright © 2015 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.)

Intersubjective perceptions refer to shared perceptions of the psychological characteristics that are widespread within a culture. In this article, we propose the intersubjective approach as a new approach to understanding the role that culture plays in human behavior. In this approach, intersubjective perceptions, which are distinct from personal values and beliefs, mediate the effect of the ecology on individuals' responses and adaptations. We review evidence that attests to the validity and utility of the intersubjective approach in explicating culture's influence on human behaviors and discuss the implications of this approach for understanding the interaction between the individual, ecology, and culture; the nature of cultural competence; management of multicultural identities; cultural change; and measurement of culture., (© The Author(s) 2010.)

This article explores key issues related to the agitation for human rights in Mozambique and its weak performance power. I define human rights in the context of HIV/AIDS as well as rights-based approaches to development and health. Based on fieldwork, I describe and analyse how human rights are received and applied in HIV/AIDS organisations in Mozambique. The central argument is that the weak performance power of human rights can be explained by the absence of their invocation, social-influence ability and social agitation, with reference made to Sen's (2004) theory of human rights. The article compares original findings to a rights-based approach to AIDS treatment in South Africa reported by Jones (2005). I argue that the successful agitation of human rights depends on skilful appropriation of a rights discourse adapted to the unique social and cultural context of Mozambique. Finally, the theory of transnational governmentality by Ferguson & Gupta (2002) is used to illustrate the challenges posed to an ethnography of human rights in an environment in which civil society and international organisations are simultaneously in alliance with and in opposition to the government.