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While social vulnerability in the face of disasters has received increasing academic attention, relatively little is known about the extent to which that knowledge is reflected in practice by institutions involved in disaster management. This study charts the practitioners' approaches to disaster vulnerability in eight European countries: Belgium; Estonia; Finland; Germany; Hungary; Italy; Norway; and Sweden. It draws on a comparative document analysis and 95 interviews with disaster managers and reveals significant differences across countries in terms of the ontology of vulnerability, its sources, reduction strategies, and the allocation of related duties. To advance the debate and provide conceptual clarity, we put forward a heuristic model to facilitate different understandings of vulnerability along the dimensions of human agency and technological structures as well as social support through private relations and state actors. This could guide risk analysis of and planning for major hazards and could be adapted further to particular types of disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to get insight into the acceptance of insects as food using neophobia descriptors. Data were collected through questionnaires applied to a Spanish-Dominican sample. Models were created using binary logistic regression, and determinants of acceptance of insects as food were obtained. The results reveal that Dominicans presented the highest food neophobia and the lowest acceptance of insects as food. The openness to eat almost anything is the positive determinant in Spain for accepting insects as food, while in the Dominican Republic to overstate the benefits of the new food technologies. Principal component analysis was used to calculate the optimal number of descriptors in the neophobia scales; 3–5 descriptors could be removed. Marketers can use these results to better understand how to market insect-based products considering different contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How humans choose their mates is a central feature of adult life and an area of considerable disagreement among relationship researchers. However, few studies have examined mate choice (instead of mate preferences) around the world, and fewer still have considered data from online dating services. Using data from more than 1.8 million online daters from 24 countries, we examined the role of sex and resource-acquisition ability (as indicated by level of education and income) in mate choice using multilevel modeling. We then attempted to understand country-level variance by examining factors such as gender equality and the operational sex ratio. In every nation, a person's resource-acquisition ability was positively associated with the amount of attention they received from other site members. There was a marked sex difference in this effect; resource-acquisition ability improved the attention received by men almost 2.5 times that of women. This sex difference was in every country, admittedly with some variance between nations. Several country-level traits moderated the effects of resource-acquisition ability, and in the case of unemployment this moderating role differed by sex. Overall, country-level effects were more consistent with evolutionary explanations than sociocultural ones. The results suggest a robust effect of resource-acquisition ability on real-life mate choice that transcends international boundaries and is reliably stronger for men than women. Cross-cultural variance in the role of resource-acquisition ability appears sensitive to local competition and gender equality at the country level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Since the literature investigating the stigmatising attitudes of psychiatrists is scarce, this is the first study which examines the phenomena across Europe. The Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers (OMS-HC) is a widely used questionnaire to measure stigma in healthcare providers towards people with mental illness, although it has not been validated in many European countries. Objectives A cross-sectional, observational, multi-centre study was conducted in 32 European countries to investigate the attitudes towards patients among specialists and trainees in general adult and child psychiatry. In order to be able to compare stigma scores across cultures, we aimed to calculate measurement invariance. Methods An internet-based, anonymous survey was distributed in the participating countries, which was completed by n=4245 psychiatrists. The factor structure of the scale was investigated by using separate confirmatory factor analyses for each country. The cross-cultural validation was based on multigroup confirmatory factor analyses. Results When country data were analysed separately, the three dimensions of the OMS-HC were confirmed, and the bifactor model showed the best model fit. However, in some countries, a few items were found to be weak. The attitudes towards patients seemed favourable since stigma scores were less than half of the reachable maximum. Results allowed comparison to be made between stigma scores in different countries and subgroups. Conclusions This international cooperation has led to the cross-cultural validation of the OMS-HC on a large sample of practicing psychiatrists. The results will be useful in the evaluation of future anti-stigma interventions and will contribute to the knowledge of stigma. Disclosure No significant relationships.

This article analyses and compares preventive models for obesity in Spain, Argentina and Brazil through an examination of the respective measures adopted to counter it in those countries. Based on a qualitative study of the main actions carried out since 2004, the aim is to delineate the conceptual framework and reflect on the reasons for their relative effectiveness. The results show that in contexts where prevalence has increased rapidly, sociocultural causes acquire greater explanatory power as opposed to biological and/or behavioral factors. These models premise worsening diets and sedentary lifestyles as being the main culprits, and assume that contemporary societies generate obesogenic and toxic environments. The international health bodies have developed specific strategies to control and prevent obesity based on this diagnosis, and these have been supported by member states such as Spain, Argentina and Brazil. Although the measures reflect certain particularities, they conform to a common pattern organized from platforms promoting so-called "healthy lifestyles" and articulated mainly around the twin axes of a balanced diet and regular physical exercise. The discussion suggests that the excessive emphasis on individual responsibility and the underplaying of the role of food as a complex practice, as well as changing structural factors and the differential distribution of this disease, might largely explain the limited impact of these strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The qualitative method of phenomenology provides a theoretical tool for educational research as it allows researchers to engage in flexible activities that can describe and help to understand complex phenomena, such as various aspects of human social experience. This article explains how to apply the framework of phenomenological qualitative analysis to educational research. The discussion within this article is relevant to those researchers interested in doing cross-cultural qualitative research and in adapting phenomenological investigations to understand students' cross-cultural lived experiences in different social educational contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The qualitative method of phenomenology provides a theoretical tool for educational research as it allows researchers to engage in flexible activities that can describe and help to understand complex phenomena, such as various aspects of human social experience. This article explains how to apply the framework of phenomenological qualitative analysis to educational research. The discussion within this article is relevant to those researchers interested in doing cross-cultural qualitative research and in adapting phenomenological investigations to understand students’ cross-cultural lived experiences in different social educational contexts.

Background: Human memory appears to prioritise locations of high-calorie foods, likely as an adaptation for foraging within fluctuating ancestral food environments. Importantly, this "high-calorie bias" in human spatial memory seems to yield consequences for individual eating behaviour in modern food-abundant settings. However, as studies have mainly been conducted in European (Dutch) populations to date, we investigated whether the existence of the cognitive bias can be reasonably generalised across countries that vary on culturally-relevant domains, such as that of the USA and Japan. Furthermore, we investigated whether sociodemographic factors moderate the expression of the high-calorie spatial memory bias in different populations. Methods: In a cross-cultural online experiment, we measured the food location memory of diverse participants from the USA (N = 72; 44.4% Male; 54 ± 15.99 years) and Japan (N = 74; 56.8% Male; 50.85 ± 17.32 years), using a validated computer-based spatial memory task with standardised images of high-calorie and low-calorie foods. To directly compare the magnitude of the high-calorie spatial memory bias in a broader cultural scope, we also included data from a previous online experiment that identically tested the food spatial memory of a Dutch sample (N = 405; 56.7% Male; 47.57 ± 17.48 years). Results: In the US sample, individuals more accurately recalled (i.e. had lower pointing errors for) locations of high-calorie foods versus that of low-calorie alternatives (Mean difference = -99.23 pixels, 95% CI = [-197.19, -1.28]) – regardless of one's hedonic preferences, familiarity with foods, and encoding times. Likewise, individuals in the Japanese sample displayed an enhanced memory for locations of high-calorie (savoury-tasting) foods (Mean difference = -40.41 pixels, 95% CI = [-76.14, -4.68]), while controlling for the same set of potential confounders. The magnitude of the high-calorie bias in spatial memory was similar across populations (i.e. the USA, Japan, and the Netherlands), as well as across diverse sociodemographic groups within a population. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that the high-calorie bias in spatial memory transcends sociocultural boundaries. Since the cognitive bias may negatively impact on our dietary decisions, it would be wise to invest in strategies that intervene on our seemingly universal ability to efficiently locate calorie-rich foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relevance of this work is due to the formation of a new integrated area of research ethnolinguoculturology, and the lack of a clear approach to the definition of objects and subjects of ethnolinguistics and cultural linguistics (linguoculturology), which are integral parts of this new area. The purpose of the work is to determine the object and subject of ethnolinguistics and сultural linguistics based on the analysis of scientific works of domestic and foreign authors related to this problem. The author substantiates the position that the object of synchronic ethnolinguistics are ethnospecific phenomena of language (non-equivalent vocabulary, lexical units with ethno-specific structures, values, idioms and proverbs, reflecting the peculiarities of the mentality, ethno-specific derivational means, grammatical forms, syntactic structure, part-of-speech form of words), and the subject – the specific features of the worldview, axiology and pragmatics of a particular ethnic group. The object of cultural linguistics, according to the author, is the verbalized part of the «language of culture» (culturallymarked words and expressions, phraseological units and proverbs, lacunae, verbal and non-verbal symbols (for example, birch as a symbol of Russia), mythologems (for example, living and dead water), rites and beliefs, rituals and customs, enshrined in language, slogans, precedent phenomena, etiquette formula). and etiquette rules of speech and non-speech behavior, and the subject is the culturally significant information contained explicitly or implicitly in the verbalized units of the language of culture, as well as the national specificity of etiquette rules.

Abstract Using a contrastive analysis approach, this study aimed to study emotive words (EWs) in Persian and English short stories for children. It actually tries to find the similarities and differences between the two languages in terms of using emotive words based on different types and tokens of emotions introduced by Wierzbicka (Emotions across cultures: Diversity and universality, 1999) and Devon (The origin of emotions, 2006). Additionally, it sought to investigate the impact of teaching emotive narratives on the learners’ practical knowledge of controlling emotions. To fulfill this objective, 20 short stories with similar length and level of difficulty were randomly selected, 10 in English and l0 in Persian, and 35 lines of each story were investigated to identify and classify their EWs based on the two models employed for classification. To examine the extent of similarities and differences between the frequency of EWs used in English and Persian short stories, a Chi-square test was run. The results revealed that there was not a significant difference between the two groups of stories in terms of emotion tokens; however, a significant difference was found between the frequency of EWs used in English and Persian short stories concerning different types of emotion. In the second phase of the study, emotive short stories were explicitly taught to a sample of 25 EFL learners; a DCT was utilized as the pre-test and post-test to find if learners’ practical knowledge would improve in the wake of this intervention. The findings revealed a significant improvement in the practical understanding of the participants after being exposed to the instruction of emotive narratives. The results also demonstrated that literature-based activities containing emotional cues could improve young learners’ practical knowledge required for controlling their emotions.

The author reflects on the possibilities of cross-national methodology in relation to the prospects of higher education in the world as a whole as it is predicted by the fundamental work of B. Clark , the largest American researcher of the phenomenon of universities and, in particular, in the application to the analysis of problems of student mobility. In solidarity with the author of the book, this article also focuses not so much on the unification of higher education, but, first, on the need to take into account its national characteristics generated by the culture of a particular country. and, secondly, on the impact of the dialogue of national cultures on the nature of educational tech- nologies. In this proposed the book concept makes it possible to analyze the specifics of the current functioning of the institution of higher education, in particular, in the countries of the European Union symbolically –mental paradigm of national cultures, adding a cross-national cross-cultural methodology In this context, the article presents case studies of some European University systems, allowing you to capture not only similarities but also profound differences between them that need to be taken into account in the formation of the European higher education area, this is also the case when monitoring educational student mobility.

Reputations are an essential feature of human sociality and the evolution of cooperation and group living. Much scholarship has focused on reputations, yet typically on a narrow range of domains (e.g. prosociality and aggressiveness), usually in isolation. Humans can develop reputations, however, from any collective information. We conducted exploratory analyses on the content, distribution and structure of reputation domain diversity across cultures, using the Human Relations Area Files ethnographic database. After coding ethnographic texts on reputations from 153 cultures, we used hierarchical modelling, cluster analysis and text analysis to provide an empirical view of reputation domains across societies. Findings suggest: (i) reputational domains vary cross-culturally, yet reputations for cultural conformity, prosociality, social status and neural capital are widespread; (ii) reputation domains are more variable for males than females; and (iii) particular reputation domains are interrelated, demonstrating a structure consistent with dimensions of human uniqueness. We label these features: cultural group unity, dominance, neural capital, sexuality, social and material success and supernatural healing. We highlight the need for future research on the evolution of cooperation and human sociality to consider a wider range of reputation domains, as well as their social, ecological and gender-specific variability. This article is part of the theme issue 'The language of cooperation: reputation and honest signalling'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous literature has explored how factors such as maturation,attachment style, and security influence children’s freeplaybehavior. The present study investigates a previously unexploredfactor: peer presence. This is an important considerationbecause much of children’s play and early learning occursin a social context with siblings and friends. We testedchildren (ages 2 to 11) from two different cultural environments:the lowlands of Bolivia, the home of a group of Amazonianfarmer-foragers called the Tsimane’ (Experiment 1),and the United States (Experiment 2). We presented groups ofchildren from both cultures with a set of toys hidden in envelopesto explore and discover either with a familiar peer orwithout. Tsimane’ children discovered significantly more objectsin the presence of a peer, over and above the effect thatwould be expected from simply having two children searchthe toys independently in parallel. Additionally, Tsimane’children discovered more objects as a function of age. TheUnited States children did not exhibit the same pattern of behavior.Peer presence facilitated exploration in younger childrenbut inhibited exploration in older children, relative toexploration rate without the peer. Taken together, peer presencefacilitates exploration among young children across bothcultures. However, among older U.S. children, peer presenceinhibited exploration. We propose that the positive effect ofpeer presence on discovery rate may be driven by an increasein competition for resource control. The differences amongolder children across cultures may be an artifact due to experiencewith formal schooling

Basing on the analysis of the Federal State Educational Standards (FSES) and the legislative context of their development and approval, the post-reform history of the standardization of architectural education is viewed with the focus on the transformation of a qualification portrait of an architect as a set of the architect’s qualification characteristics. The article traces the evolution of standards of the last decade, the “age of FSES”. The national FSES of the bachelor degree of the “generation 3++” is compared with the UIA international standard of an architect. The author makes a conclusion whether it is practicable for Russia to use international principles and models of educational standards, the standards of architectural professional practice.

Medicinal plants are utilized around the globe for the treatment of a wide range of ailments. This study is an attempt to document the utilization of medicinal plants across the four different cultural groups residing in the rural and remote villages of the northern districts of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. To gather information related to medicinal plants and health care practices among the local folk, field surveys were conducted from February 2018 to May 2021. The ethnomedicinal information was gathered through semi-structured interviews and group discussions. During the study, a total of 109 plant species belonging to 35 families were recorded as commonly utilized by the local population, with Asteraceae reported as the dominant family. The most common growth form was herbs, with a percentage contribution of 86%. Leaves (38%) were the most commonly used plant part for the preparation of traditional remedies, and most of the remedies were prepared as paste and applied topically. The highest use value of 0.30 was reported for Capsella bursa-pastoris. Greater similarity (14% species) in the usage of plants was shown by Bakerwal, Gujjar, and Pahadi ethnic groups, whereas the least similarity (1%) was observed between Bakerwal and Kashmiri ethnic groups. Based on the results obtained in the present study, further phytochemical and pharmacological analysis of plants is recommended to confirm the efficacy and safety of the remedies used and to possibly elucidate candidates for the development of new drugs.

According to media systems dependency theory, increased dependence on media to meet individual needs is directly proportional to greater perceived media importance in one's life and subsequently stronger media effects on one's attitudes and behavior. This dependency relationship intensifies during times of uncertainty or crisis. Although several recent studies have focused on media dependence during health crises such as SARS and H1N1 influenza, insights from eastern countries may not be validated in other hemisphere. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to adopt a cross-cultural lens to examine how participants from three different continents used media during the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, 860 adults completed a survey during April and May 2020. Participants were asked to provide demographic and socioeconomic details, followed by questions measuring their media consumption, channel preferences, motivations, and perception of their well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results revealed that national culture had a strong influence on media use and preferences during the COVID-19 crisis. For example, the US participants spent the most time using the media but scored the lowest on well-being. This aligns with the claim that in individualistic countries people rely on media more than on their social network. US participants also used the media for surveillance goals more than their Thai or Croatian counterparts. Another cultural difference was that Thai participants reported using the media to relax more than other nationalities, which reflects the Thai's “way of life” and can explain their higher score on well-being. Finally, there were cultural differences in the use of social media. While Croatian and Thai participants' use of social media reflected collectivistic tendencies (using social media for social interaction), among Americans, social media use reflects individualistic trends (using social media for surveillance). The study discusses limitations and suggestions for future research.

Pictures are often used as stimuli in several fields, such as psychology and neuroscience. However, co-occurring image-related properties might impact their processing, emphasizing the importance of validating such materials to guarantee the quality of research and professional practices. This is particularly relevant for pictures of common items because of their wide applicability potential. Normative studies have already been conducted to create and validate such pictures, yet most of them focused on stimulus without naturalistic elements (e.g., line drawings). Norms for real-world pictures of common items are rare, and their normative examination does not always simultaneously assess affective, semantic and perceptive dimensions, namely in the Portuguese context. Real-world pictures constitute pictorial representations of the world with realistic details (e.g., natural color or position), thus improving their ecological validity and their suitability for empirical studies or intervention purposes. Consequently, the establishment of norms for real-world pictures is mandatory for exploring their ecological richness and to uncover their impact across several relevant dimensions. In this study, we established norms for 596 real-world pictures of common items (e.g., tomato, drum) selected from existing databases and distributed into 12 categories. The pictures were evaluated on nine dimensions by a Portuguese sample. The results present the norms by item, by dimension and their correlations as well as cross-cultural analyses. RealPic is a culturally based dataset that offers systematic and flexible standards and is suitable for selecting stimuli while controlling for confounding effects in empirical tasks and interventional applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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As international travel begins to rebound from the pandemic, there is value in analyzing pandemic-related travel risks to know which markets are likely to come back online first. Thus, this paper examines the perceptions of travel-related risks, governmental response, and intention to travel to the U.S. from the top five inbound international markets to the U.S. (Canada, China, Japan, Mexico, and the U.K.). ANOVA was adopted to analyze 1653 online survey responses from potential travelers. Utilizing Hofstede's cultural dimensions, the results revealed significant differences in travel-related risks, governmental response, and travel intentions among travelers from these five countries, suggesting marketers should adopt different strategies depending on a target market's cultural characteristics. International travel makes up a significant portion of many countries' GDP, and knowing which top global markets are more resilient and likely to come back online first provides DMOs with critical information on using their marketing dollars wisely. • Travel risks differ among tourists from different cultural backgrounds. • Governmental responses are different among tourists from different cultures. • Intentions to travel to the U.S. differ among tourists from different countries. • Hofstede's cultural model explains the perceptual differences of travel risks. • Hofstede's cultural model explains the differences in tourists' travel intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A classic epistemological problem in the social sciences is how to analyse and understand social change. In media and communication studies, for example, the concept of mediatisation has sparked off such a debate, since one of the main criticisms against the approach is that researchers rather take change for granted without being able to empirically establish if and how change has occurred. In this article is suggested a model for analysing social change through an analysis of how generational identity as “we-sense” is produced in narratives about media use. The empirical basis for the discussion is picked from a recently finished project on media generations in Sweden and Estonia, building on foremost qualitative material. The article concludes with accounting for the merits of using a generational perspective for analysing social change. Cómo analizar y comprender el cambio social es un problema epistemológico clásico en ciencias sociales. Sin embargo, en los estudios de comunicación, por ejemplo, el concepto de mediatización ha precipitado el debate, de manera que una de las principales críticas que se dirigen a los estudios realizados desde este concepto tienden a dar por sentado el cambio, sin llegar a establecer empíricamente si tal cambio ha ocurrido o cómo se ha producido. En este artículo, se sugiere un modelo para analizar el cambio social a través de un análisis de cómo la identidad generacional -entendida como “sentido compartido” (we-sense)- se produce en las narrativas sobre el uso de los medios de comunicación. La base empírica para la discusión deriva de un proyecto recientemente finalizado sobre las generaciones de medios de comunicación en Suecia y Estonia, fundamentado principalmente en material cualitativo. En artículo concluye resaltando el valor que tiene el uso de una perspectiva generacional para analizar el cambio social.

Religion and spirituality (R/S) serve as coping mechanisms for circumstances that threaten people’s psychological well-being. However, using R/S inappropriately to deal with difficulties and problems in daily life may include the practice of Spiritual Bypass (SB). SB refers to avoiding addressing emotional problems and trauma, rather than healing and learning from them. On the other hand, coping strategies may be determined by the cultural context. This study aims to describe the presence of SB in individuals who may have experienced stressful situations and to understand the influence of culture on SB by comparing SB in two culturally different groups. The sample consists of a total of 435 people, 262 of Honduran nationality and 173 of Spanish nationality. Both groups are approximately equivalent in age and gender. The degree of SB, stressful events, perception of social support and spiritual well-being are examined, respectively, through the Spiritual Bypass Scale, and specific items and subscales from the Social Readjustment Rating Scale, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy - Spiritual Wellbeing. The results showed a higher spiritual well-being and use of SB in the Honduran sample as compared to the Spanish sample, but similar social support and stressful events. Furthermore, some of the factors predicting SB were different between the two samples. While age and a greater number of R/S practices were important in both samples, for the Honduran sample the variables that best explained SB were being a Christian, having greater social support, fewer stressful events, and greater attendance at church or temple. For the Spanish sample, however, the variable that best explained SB was studying R/S texts. Therefore, SB must be understood within the culture in which it develops, since in different cultural contexts it appears to relate to differing factors. Thus, SB becomes a possible functional or dysfunctional coping strategy depending on the social context.

Religion and spirituality (R/S) serve as coping mechanisms for circumstances that threaten people's psychological well-being. However, using R/S inappropriately to deal with difficulties and problems in daily life may include the practice of Spiritual Bypass (SB). SB refers to avoiding addressing emotional problems and trauma, rather than healing and learning from them. On the other hand, coping strategies may be determined by the cultural context. This study aims to describe the presence of SB in individuals who may have experienced stressful situations and to understand the influence of culture on SB by comparing SB in two culturally different groups. The sample consists of a total of 435 people, 262 of Honduran nationality and 173 of Spanish nationality. Both groups are approximately equivalent in age and gender. The degree of SB, stressful events, perception of social support and spiritual well-being are examined, respectively, through the Spiritual Bypass Scale, and specific items and subscales from the Social Readjustment Rating Scale, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy - Spiritual Wellbeing. The results showed a higher spiritual well-being and use of SB in the Honduran sample as compared to the Spanish sample, but similar social support and stressful events. Furthermore, some of the factors predicting SB were different between the two samples. While age and a greater number of R/S practices were important in both samples, for the Honduran sample the variables that best explained SB were being a Christian, having greater social support, fewer stressful events, and greater attendance at church or temple. For the Spanish sample, however, the variable that best explained SB was studying R/S texts. Therefore, SB must be understood within the culture in which it develops, since in different cultural contexts it appears to relate to differing factors. Thus, SB becomes a possible functional or dysfunctional coping strategy depending on the social context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The science of reading has made genuine progress in understanding reading and the teaching of reading, but is the science of reading just the science of reading English? Worldwide, a majority of students learn to read and write in non‐European, nonalphabetic orthographies such as abjads (e.g., Arabic), abugidas/alphasyllabaries (e.g., Hindi), or morphosyllabaries (e.g., Chinese). Over a decade ago, I argued that the extreme inconsistency of English spelling–sound correspondence had confined the science of reading to an insular, Anglocentric research agenda addressing theoretical and applied issues with limited relevance for a universal science of reading. Here, I ask if the science of reading has moved forward. Acknowledging some limited progress over the past decade, it is evident that even today, mainstream reading research remains entrenched in Anglocentrism, Eurocentrism, and another form of ethnocentrism that I call alphabetism. Even the two dominant theoretical frameworks for describing cross‐script diversity, orthographic depth and psycholinguistic grain size theory, give little or no consideration to non‐European alphabets or nonalphabetic scripts, promoting a one‐dimensional view of script variation (i.e., spelling–sound consistency). Consideration of the full spectrum of the world's languages and writing systems reveals multiple dimensions of writing system complexity, each liable to create obstacles for the developing reader. If the science of reading is to contribute meaningfully to assessment, diagnosis, instruction, and intervention for all readers around the world, then we must extricate our field from entrenched ethnocentrism and embrace global diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Establishing a coherent meaning in life has long been considered to be a protective factor of well-being, but this construct has been understudied in early adolescent development. The current study investigated the relationships between family allocentrism and depressive symptoms as well as the mediation effect of meaning in life in 214 Chinese and 201 Italian early adolescents. Although family allocentrism was higher in Chinese than Italian participants, it was significantly associated to lower depressive symptoms in both countries. Moderated mediational analyses showed that in both countries: (a) family allocentrism was positively related with presence of meaning; (b) family allocentrism and presence of meaning were negatively related to depressive symptoms; and (c) presence of meaning mediated the relationship between family allocentrism and depressive symptoms. In conclusion, family allocentrism and presence of meaning in life are important preventive factors of early adolescents' depressive symptoms in both collectivistic and in individualistic countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When adult males are temporarily away from the household, observational evidence suggests cross-cultural and intra-cultural variation in the effects of their absence on the labor of other household members. In subsistence-based econ- omies, we predict that other adolescent or older members will work more in essential production activities that otherwise would be performed by the missing men. We test this hypoth- esis using spot-check time allocation datasets from rural Nicaragua and Peru and the methodology of mixed-effects statistical models. In Nicaragua, we find that the absence of male household heads rarely necessitates substitute labor by household co-residents, apparently because men typically time their absences to coincide with the non-peak agricultural season. In Peru, the absence of male household heads results in increased men’s work by co-residents only under unusual circumstances, as households apparently rely on other strate- gies to mitigate for the loss of labor. In addition to the com- parative empirical analysis of the two cases, we show how mixed-effects models allow for individual heterogeneity and data structures that confound more familiar statistical techni- ques and occasionally produce spurious results. Mixed-effects modeling techniques will be necessary if we are to realize the analytic potential of the extensive, standardized time al- location datasets gathered by anthropologists.

Going beyond previous studies, we investigated differential effects of teacher self‐efficacy (TSE) across the three basic dimensions of educational equality in student engagement, instructional strategies and classroom management in East and South‐East Asian, Anglo‐Saxon and Nordic country clusters in a cross‐cultural analysis. It was found that all three domains of TSE show different patterns of associations in relation to teacher, classroom, principal and school predictors across the three country clusters. Most variation occurred within the classroom and principal predictors, whereas the teacher and school predictors were more homogeneously related to the three country clusters and the three domains of TSE. However, there were more similarities between the Nordic and Anglo‐Saxon clusters than the East and South‐East Asian clusters and any of the other two. Cultural values, as found in the GLOBE study and by Hofstede, were used as a cultural framework to interpret the differences occurring in the country clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how sampled Chinese and U.S. third and fourth grade students (NChina = 167, NUS = 97) understand the commutative, associative, and distributive properties. These students took both pre- and post-tests conducted at the beginning and end of a school year. Comparisons between students' pre- and post-tests within and across countries indicate different learning patterns. Overall, Chinese students demonstrate a much better understanding than their U.S. counterparts. Among these properties, the associative and distributive properties appear to be most challenging, especially for the U.S. students. By the end of grade 4, some Chinese students demonstrate explicit understanding of the associative and distributive properties across tasks; almost no U.S. students achieve a comparable level of understanding on these properties. Student understanding in different contexts also reveals cross-cultural differences. Chinese students tend to reason upon concrete contexts for sense-making, which is rare with U.S. students. Finally, the Chinese student sample shows clear growth of understanding across grades, but this is not seen in the U.S. sample. This understanding gap between the two countries is found to dramatically increase over time. Implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the effect of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust in the sellers, and perceived sellers' risk on the intention to repurchase in online marketplaces by respondents from Thailand and Germany. This research also integrates the theoretical framework of cultural values to explore whether these determinants' effect on the intention to repurchase in online marketplaces differs significantly between the respondents from these two nations. Online survey data were collected from 404 Thai and 405 German participants, and partial least squares structural equation modeling was used for data analysis. The results confirmed the significant effect of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust in the sellers, and perceived sellers' risk on the intention to repurchase in online marketplaces. Moreover, the moderating effect analysis showed that the effect of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and trust in the sellers were significantly higher in Thai than in German respondents. However, there was no significant difference between the two nationalities in the effect of perceived sellers' risk on the intention to repurchase in online marketplaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I attempt to evaluate rebel discourse(s), as opposed to mainstream, dominant discourse, on gender as demonstrated by marriage practices in Chinese societies, both contemporary and historical, vis-à-vis general Western, marriage practices. This is done discursive-analytically by way of cross-cultural analysis as methodology. Contributions on the theory of discourse are considered and applied. In this contribution, several rebel discourses on marriage during both post-Maoist Peoples' Republic of China (PRC) and former dynastic periods, are found to be emancipatory (with women refusing to partake in patriarchal constructs such as marriage) and progressive (with women having several sexual partners simultaneously). The hope is expressed that the profound insights unearthed from these rebel discourse(s) might be beneficial for Western feminisms. To this end, I utilise Zwart's notion of cultural "mixing" and Derrida's idea of the "sliding signifier" before making recommendations for improved public policy formulation. If the 21st century is indeed the Chinese century, such investigations are crucial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last several decades Ellen Dissanayake has developed an evolutionary theory of art that views all art as having evolved for the function of promoting group cohesion. This theory is not without its critics, yet it has received little empirical attention. In this article I propose a more modest formulation of Dissanayake's hypothesis and proceed to test it using a cross-cultural analysis. I rely on the ethnographic databases of the electronic Human Relations Area Files (eHRAF) as well as the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS) to compare proxies for group cohesion with measures of ritual art, a subset of art that I theoretically define. While my results cannot decisively prove or disprove Dissanayake's hypothesis, they do lend empirical support to her views. This is promising not only for her views but for outlining ways of empirically testing other views in evolutionary aesthetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extending from Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behaviour, this paper develops a more integrated entrepreneurial intention model. This incorporates the role of culture, along with motivations, skills and knowledge of the entrepreneurial environment. The cross-cultural applicability of the model is tested across two different countries, Great Britain and Spain, on a total sample of 1005. Partial Least Squares technique is used to try and overcome limitations of previous research. The model broadly holds for both countries. Implications for public decision makers and entrepreneurship education are discussed. In particular, enhancing the level of knowledge and awareness about entrepreneurship would increase self-efficacy perceptions and, hence, entrepreneurial intentions.

Using a contrastive analysis approach, this study aimed to study emotive words (EWs) in Persian and English short stories for children. It actually tries to find the similarities and differences between the two languages in terms of using emotive words based on different types and tokens of emotions introduced by Wierzbicka (Emotions across cultures: Diversity and universality, 1999) and Devon (The origin of emotions, 2006). Additionally, it sought to investigate the impact of teaching emotive narratives on the learners' practical knowledge of controlling emotions. To fulfill this objective, 20 short stories with similar length and level of difficulty were randomly selected, 10 in English and l0 in Persian, and 35 lines of each story were investigated to identify and classify their EWs based on the two models employed for classification. To examine the extent of similarities and differences between the frequency of EWs used in English and Persian short stories, a Chi-square test was run. The results revealed that there was not a significant difference between the two groups of stories in terms of emotion tokens; however, a significant difference was found between the frequency of EWs used in English and Persian short stories concerning different types of emotion. In the second phase of the study, emotive short stories were explicitly taught to a sample of 25 EFL learners; a DCT was utilized as the pre-test and post-test to find if learners' practical knowledge would improve in the wake of this intervention. The findings revealed a significant improvement in the practical understanding of the participants after being exposed to the instruction of emotive narratives. The results also demonstrated that literature-based activities containing emotional cues could improve young learners' practical knowledge required for controlling their emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human populations display remarkable diversity in language and culture, but the variation is not without limit. At the population level, variation between societies may be structured by a range of macro‐evolutionary factors, including ecological and environmental resources, shared ancestry, spatial proximity, and covarying social practices. Kinship terminology systems are varying linguistic paradigms that denote familial social relationships of kin and non‐kin. Systems vary by the kinds of salient distinctions that are made (e.g., age, gender, generation) and the extent to which different kinds of kin are called by the same term. Here, we explore two kinds of explanations for an observed typology of kin terms for cousins. The first one derives the typology from a learning bottleneck linked to population size. This would lead to a correlation between community size and the type of kinship system. The second one derives it from a set of social practices, particularly marriage and transfer of resources that might shape kinship systems. Using a global ethnographic database of over a thousand societies, we show that marriage rules and shared linguistic affiliation have a significant influence on the type of kinship system found in a society. This remains true if we control for the effect of spatial proximity and cultural ancestry. By combining cognitive and historic approaches to this aspect of kinship, we suggest broader implications for the study of human social cognition in general. Kinship terminologies are basic cognitive semantic systems that all human societies use for organizing kin relations. Diversity in kinship systems and their categories is substantial, but constrained. Rácz, Passmore, and Jordan explore hypotheses about such constraints from learning theories and social pressures, testing the impact of a community‐size driven learning bottleneck against the social coordination demands of different kinds of marriage and resource systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a multimodal, cross-cultural analysis of the most salient framing devices in on-line news about the US Embassy relocation to Jerusalem and subsequent revolts in Gaza Strip in May 2018. Drawing from a socio-cognitive and critical approach to discourse analysis, a sample of newsbites published in different online mainstream European newspapers were analysed. Findings unveil a distinctive set of multimodal devices grouped around four categories -subject choice, composition, distance and point of view, that appear indistinctively in both visual and textual modes. These are used by newsmakers to create and manage communities of shared values about the issues reported. Also, interesting differences among newspapers were found in the context of European media discourse when dealing with these events. • European coverage of the US embassy opening in Jersualem is multimodally framed. • Frames of conflict, human interest and attribution of responsibility are salient. • Four framing devices are identified: subject, composition, distance and point of view. • In their search of objectivity, most news are placed in medium positions of a multimodal framing cline. • There are significant cross-cultural differences between German newspapers and others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The framing of strategic issues as opportunities or threats has been shown to significantly affect strategic behavior in organizations. However, whether and how this framing effect differs among executives from different national cultures remains unclear. Building on psychological research on culture and decision‐making, we introduce a socio‐cognitive approach to culture that offers a more differentiated explanation for the effect of culture on issue interpretation than the traditional values‐based approach. We argue that cultural differences in cognitive style affect strategic issue interpretation. However, this impact depends on the framing of the issue. We use a vignette‐based decision experiment involving 65 German and 63 Chinese executives to show that cultural differences occur if an issue is framed as a threat but not if it is framed as an opportunity. The socio‐cognitive approach to culture opens new avenues for cross‐cultural research on strategic issue interpretation in particular and strategic decision‐making in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overall, game‐based technology for early reading instruction has not robustly met the learning potentials of young readers. To better understand the effects and limitations of computer‐assisted instruction in classrooms, researchers have called for more critical attention to learning theory, methodological selection, and context for learning. GraphoGame (GG), an adaptive serious game designed to prevent reading difficulties through the promotion of sound–symbol connections, has been implemented in over 20 countries. Therefore, the GG research base provides an opportunity to synthesize research on a single computer‐assisted instruction across diverse contexts. Surprisingly, despite extensive use and further implementation plans, no review has yet synthesized GG's effects. Specifically, this systematic literature review, with an embedded meta‐analysis, synthesized 28 empirical studies for theory, methodological quality, and outcomes. The GG research base was dominated by theories of reading disabilities and psycholinguistics. Methodologically, quantitative methods, focusing on phonological and decoding outcome measures only, were most common. The meta‐analysis (n = 19), measuring GG's impact on word‐reading outcomes, did not yield an overall meaningful effect size (g = −0.02). However, among moderators (language complexity, duration of intervention, and adult interaction), adult interaction was significant, favoring implementation contexts with high levels of adult interaction. Specifically, studies with high adult interaction produced an average positive effect size (g = 0.48), which suggests implications for classroom use. Regarding future research, the authors recommend stronger clarity of theory, attention to learning context, and a more purposeful collection of process data, which can be obtained through greater plurality of methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fairness is undoubtedly an essential normative concept in humans and promotes cooperation in human societies. The fact that fairness exists is puzzling, however, because it works against the short-term interest of individuals. Theories of genetic evolution, cultural evolution, and gene-culture coevolution identify plausible mechanisms for the evolution of fairness in humans. Such mechanisms include kin selection, the support of group-beneficial moral norms through ethnic markers, free partner choice with equal outside options, and free partner choice with reputation as well as spite in small populations. Here, we present the results of a common-pool resource game experiment on sharing. Based on data from 37 multiethnic villages in a subsistence agricultural population in Foutah Djallon, Guinea, we show that fair behavior in our experiment increased with increasing ethnic homogeneity and market integration. Group size and kinship had the opposite effect. Overall, fair behavior was not conditional on reputation. Instead, the ability of the different village populations to support individuals' fairness in situations lacking the opportunity to build a positive reputation varied significantly. Our results suggest that evolutionary theory provides a useful framework for the analysis of fairness in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the extent to which audience's identification with a religious character relates to variables of the message, the cultural setting in which it is consumed, and the viewer. Four hundred and eight students from Spanish (Mean Age = 20.36, SD = 3.24) and Swiss universities (Mean Age = 22.16, SD = 2.76) were assigned to one of two narratives portraying a religious character (Mormon or Muslim). Before watching the film, they completed a questionnaire (gender, age, religious background, religious affiliation, religiosity, and spirituality). After the viewing, they indicated their identification with the character from the film. Results show that identification relates to the religion portrayed and the cultural context in which the film is viewed. Individuals with a personal link to religion identify to a greater extent. Moreover, individuals associate aspects of their spirituality and religiosity to dimensions of identification depending on the religion portrayed. The cultural setting impacts this association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]