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This chapter focuses on cultural influences on parenting, examining patterns across countries, but also within countries in different ethnic groups. Whereas forms vary, two broad functions of parenting practices can be consistently identified across cultural contexts: establishing a relational bond providing safety and security in infancy (commonly referred to as attachment), and transmitting culturally appropriate behavior, knowledge, and skills throughout the childhood years. The chapter then looks at the role of culture in ethnic minority parenting, which has unique features that are different from those in ethnic majority groups. It concludes by reflecting on the state of the research field of culture and parenting, and directions for the future. Given the high cultural diversity in many urban regions in the world where professionals deal with families from all over the world, and the frequent “export” of parenting interventions from the West to other parts of the world, the field would benefit enormously from investing in mixed-methods studies examining these processes in situations where cultures meet, and where it is not immediately clear which cultural norms should prevail.

Job Performance: The term job performance can either refer to the objective or subjective outcomes one achieves in a specific job (e.g., the profit of a sales persons, the number of publications of a scientist, the number of successful operations of a surgeon) or to work-related activities (e.g., writing an article, conducting specific surgical acts). In the majority of research on this topic, job performance as an outcome is used. Personnel selection: Personnel selection refers to the process of selecting the best employees for specific jobs. Introduction One major application of personality research is in the area of personnel selection. The key question in this area is to which extent personality can predict how well a candidate will perform on the job he or she is applying for. Most scholars in this area acknowledge that personality has predictive validity for job performance. In line with this, personality assessment is part of the selection procedure in many organizations.

Much of the early research explored domestic violence and abuse through a gendered lens; that is, focusing on violence against women with its root causes lying in patriarchy, gender inequality, and male privilege (e.g., Dobash & Dobash, 1979). This approach excluded male victims from the narrative, and had a focus on women’s victimisation, seeing any perpetration by women as likely stemming from self-defence (e.g., Saunders, 1988). The development of gender-neutral surveying methods (e.g., Conflict Tactics Scale [CTS]; Straus, 1979, followed by the CTS2; Straus, Hamby, Boney-McCoy & Sugarman, 1996) started a wave of research that highlighted the prevalence of both women’s violence and men’s victimisation. Since then, there has been a wealth of literature including meta-analyses (e.g., Archer, 2000) that has highlighted men’s and women’s propensity for violence within intimate relationships that shows almost equal rates. The aim of this chapter is to consider the extant literature that has explored men’s victimisation. It will start by exploring the emergence of male victimisation within the literature including reference to research that has explored historical accounts (e.g., George, 1994) and the term “battered husband syndrome” (Steinmetz, 1978). The chapter will then discuss what we know about men’s experience from the international literature including research exploring their experiences of physical violence, and psychological and emotional abuse. Domestic violence and abuse do not always end with the breakdown of the relationship and a further element of the discussion will include men’s experience of post-separation abuse that includes controlling behaviour seen through false allegations, harassment, and parental alienation. The chapter will conclude by making recommendations for future research, as well as discussing the implications for current interventions and practice.

Humans show preferential responses to ‘attractive’ individuals from the first hours of life onwards. However, these early preferences are subject to later development, both in terms of increasing agreement on general attractiveness, and the emergence of preferences for specific dimensions of attractiveness relevant to mate choice. Here we firstly outline key aspects of mate choice and consider evidence for their hormonal mediation in adults of reproductive age. We then examine preferences for these traits across key periods of hormonal changes, namely: infancy, puberty, and menopause; and consider potential hormonal mediation arguments for the mate choice changes observed during these periods. We find overall that expression of specific preferences is ambiguous in infancy, but there is clear evidence that preferences become stronger in late childhood and adolescence (albeit subject to disruption around puberty). There is also a modest evidence base suggesting a decline in some preferences at menopause in women. Across the developmental and lifespan literature, however, there is a critical lack of studies assessing hormones directly. We close with key recommendations for future research.

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