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This essay delves into the importance of cross-cultural approaches in international sales management, which is becoming increasingly significant in the globalized business environment. This essay explores how cultural nuances significantly influence sales strategies in international markets through a comprehensive literature review, including seminal works by Hofstede (1980) and Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1997). The study uses qualitative insights from industry experts and quantitative data from sales professionals, enriched by case studies of multinational corporations. The key findings of this study underscore the indispensability of cultural intelligence, as defined by Ang et al. (2006), in developing effective cross-cultural sales strategies. It highlights the common challenges in cross-cultural sales, such as communication barriers and cultural biases, and proposes strategies like cultural training and flexible business models to mitigate these issues. The analysis of practical cases, supported by Shankar et al. (2008) and Zhang & Waring (2017), illustrates the successful applications of these strategies. The discussion emphasizes the implications for practitioners in international sales management, advocating for continuous adaptation and learning in diverse cultural landscapes. While acknowledging the limitations of its scope, the essay concludes by suggesting areas for future research, particularly in emerging markets and digital sales platforms. Overall, this study contributes to the field by bridging theoretical frameworks with practical applications, offering valuable insights for academic and practical fields in international sales management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay delves into the importance of cross-cultural approaches in international sales management, which is becoming increasingly significant in the globalized business environment. This essay explores how cultural nuances significantly influence sales strategies in international markets through a comprehensive literature review, including seminal works by Hofstede (1980) and Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1997). The study uses qualitative insights from industry experts and quantitative data from sales professionals, enriched by case studies of multinational corporations.The key findings of this study underscore the indispensability of cultural intelligence, as defined by Ang et al. (2006), in developing effective cross-cultural sales strategies. It highlights the common challenges in cross-cultural sales, such as communication barriers and cultural biases, and proposes strategies like cultural training and flexible business models to mitigate these issues. The analysis of practical cases, supported by Shankar et al. (2008) and Zhang & Waring (2017), illustrates the successful applications of these strategies.The discussion emphasizes the implications for practitioners in international sales management, advocating for continuous adaptation and learning in diverse cultural landscapes. While acknowledging the limitations of its scope, the essay concludes by suggesting areas for future research, particularly in emerging markets and digital sales platforms.Overall, this study contributes to the field by bridging theoretical frameworks with practical applications, offering valuable insights for academic and practical fields in international sales management.

Richard Rorty never limited himself to a single philosophical school. Although pragmatism and analytical philosophy are his primary philosophical concerns and most of his works are in this field, he was never unaware of the possibilities available in other intellectual and even literary traditions to improve and modify his own thinking, and, if possible, to expand them. Rorty has discussed the Western and Greek foundations of philosophy and the negation of Eastern philosophy in general, and Chinese philosophy in particular, without having a racist and hierarchical view to the East like Kant and Hegel. At first glance, Rorty's approach to Eastern thought seems incompatible with the spirit that governs his thinking. Therefore, this question naturally arises for the readers of Rorty's works: how can a thinker who tried to establish a connection between the two continental and analytical philosophical traditions- considering their fundamental differences- and who also spoke about the coexistence of philosophy with literature, while constantly recommending that novels should be used to advance philosophical goals, neglect the possibilities offered by Eastern philosophy? In terms of richness of thought, Eastern philosophy is far superior to his novels. In this article, citing Rorty's works, the reasons for his opposition to comparative philosophy are evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The paper presents the results of research into the features of volitional regulation among Tuvans living in rural areas and cities. Objectives. The study had its purpose to test the hypothesis about the relationship of volitional regulation with the characteristics of the lifestyle and semantic sphere of the respondents. Methods: “Action Control Scale”, “Questionnaire for identifying the severity of self-control in the emotional sphere, activity, and behavior”, PIL test, and the author's ad hoc questionnaire for studying the lifestyle characteristics. Sample. Tuvans living in Erzin (185 people), in Mugur-Aksy (265 people), in Kyzyl (172 people), and in Moscow (105 people) were compared. In total, the study involved 727 people aged 18 to 79 years, 466 women and 261 men. Results. It is shown that Tuvans living in rural vs urban areas assess their lifestyle differently. Rural residents are significantly more likely (p = 0.01) to assess their way of life as traditional whereas urban residents consider their lifestyle as modern (p = 0.01). MANOVA revealed the significant differences between the compared groups in all indicators of volitional regulation. Сovariance analysis showed that these differences are due to the lifestyle characteristics as well as the features of the respondents’ semantic sphere. The data processing obtained significant effects of the PIL test indicators and lifestyle characteristics for the Action Control Scale (p = 0.01 and p = 0.05, respectively), for emotional self-control (p = 0.01 and p = 0.01), behavioral self-control (p = 0.01 and p = 0.01), and social self-control (p = 0.01 and p = 0.01). Conclusion. The obtained results allow to assume that in the process of modernization/urbanization of Tuvan society, the role of traditions and group experience in the regulation of activity decreases whereas the role of volitional regulation increases.

Organizational behavior (OB) research in Taiwan has been flourishing for over half a century. The article aims to illustrate the process of OB development in Taiwan from my experience—how did elect the research approach under the circumstances of culturalism? These pathways include the etic introduction, cross-cultural comparison, indigenous psychology, globalized dialogue, and practical action approaches. The choice of approach depends on the context in which the individual is located. In 1970s Taiwan, OB researchers mostly believed that the only way to modernize was to learn the latest knowledge from the United States (US) and Western Europe (WE). Therefore, we take the cultural neutrality position, believing that the principles of OB research should be universal and must be actively imitated. Subsequently, the etic approach has become the trend to transplant important OB concepts, theories and measurements directly. Because of Japan’s outstanding economic outlook, the intervening effects of the cultural context have gradually become an inevitable concern, which motivated the OB researchers to adopt cultural relativism to examine the outcome of implementing western theories across various cultures—comparing the OB between Taiwan, US, and WE. Nevertheless, since the cross-cultural research was developing based on western theories, the understanding of OB in Taiwan remained inadequate. Meanwhile, the perspectives of cultural psychology and cultural characteristic have caught more researchers’ attention, coupled with the promotion of Taiwan’s indigenous psychology movement, indigenous exploration began to be adopted. Throughout the long-term systematic research, we were dedicated to developing theories and collecting data to puzzle the insufficient understanding of OB research. Simultaneously, we positively engaged in the conversation to understand OB’s East and Western perspectives. We also expected to integrate the OB concepts with cultural contexts. Since the 21st century, the perspective of multicultural convergence has been highlighted as a gateway to opening up the globalized conversation. As a result, solving practical problems has become crucial for social science researchers by conducting systematic action research. That is, we solved the managerial problems based on constructing OB knowledge. Above, in turn, enhanced the theory’s effectiveness, reliability, and feasibility. As going through all the pathways, we learned that the full-cycle approach enables us to expand and innovate the OB knowledge and accomplish the missions as OB researchers — taking into account theoretical contribution and practical implications, hypothesis and evidence, as well as research and help. Ultimately, our study can potentially manage managerial issues, enhance well-being and facilitate the sustainable development of organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the object of interest is the linguodidactological simulations in the process of learning a foreign language. In the context of the leading modern trends in the field of research in private linguodidactology, an attempt is made to outline the figure of the foreign language teacher as a “methodical screenwriter” and the tasks he performs to optimize the mastery of communicative competence through the perspective of linguodidactology simulations. The methodology used is analysis of sources, observation of positive practices and modeling of techniques for transposition of a linguistic-communicative fragment of reality in the learning process of a foreign language. Based on an analysis of achievements in the field of theory and practice of interactive foreign language learning, guidelines are formulated for the development of various types of simulation activities for mastering the studied language, in which the learner acquires a leading role in the learning process. A model for a widely applicable linguistic didactic simulation in the conditions of active foreign language learning is proposed and the main activities that should be performed to achieve positive results from its application in the learning process are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relevance of the research of the European humanistic personnel management vision as a factor in humanocracy development acquires great importance in the modern era, since in organizations as in living systems, a person stands above everything, and this equates to humanocracy. For this, all management mechanisms should be changed from the bottom up in order to create an effective functional organization in which a person is the subject of all processes. It should be noted that today there are no companies in which humanocractic conceptual works, there are no step-by-step instructions on how to switch to the humanocractic mode. The purpose and formation of the goals in the article (statement of the task). The purpose of the article is to develop a humanistic and cross-cultural approach to the organizational management as a humanocractic factor. The object of research is organizational management phenomenon as a humanocractic factor. The subject of the research is a humanistic and cross-cultural approach managing the organization as a humanocractic factor. The research methodology is the use of systemic, structural-functional, and axiological analystic methods to manage the organization as a humanocractic factor. Thus, the systematic method helped to combine all the scattered facts into a coherent system, the humanistic approach helped to show the organizational human-dimensional factors, based on which man is the measure of all things; the crosscultural approach helped to provide a comparative analysis to the organizational management and to identify common and commonalities, peculiarities and differences in it; the axiological approach helped reveal the organizational management values as a humanocractic factor. The result of the research: 1. The humanistic approach to the organizational analysis as an inclusive factor, socially just and ecologically sustainable development was studied. 2. An analysis of the cross-cultural approach managing the organization as a complex sociocultural system is presented. The principles and approaches to the humanistic vision of managing the organization as a humanocractic factor have been formed. In organizations, humanism is usually considered indirectly from the corporate social perspective responsibility, diversity and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to identify the hierarchy of value dominants in the axiosphere of the Karelian Arctic residents, which has developed under the influence of natural, social, economic, and cultural-historical factors. The methodology used is complex and includes sociological, economic questionnaires, focus groups, and in-depth interviews. The study’s cameral stage is based on an analysis of the empirical stage results conducted during a comprehensive scientific expedition of scientists of Petrozavodsk State University to two Arctic regions of Karelia in the summer of 2019. The most important in the study is the cross-cultural approach, based on comparing the results of a survey of respondents - the Karelian Arctic residents with the “general cultural profile” of S. Schwartz and identifying the level of validity of the applied psychological methodology. During the study, the author’s hypothesis about features in the axiological preferences of the inhabitants of the Arctic zone at the level of dominant indicators is confirmed. At the stage of analysis and synthesis of the empirical stage results, the relationship of preserving human capital in the Arctic regions of Karelia with the identified value dominants of residents’ health and safety is established. Special attention is paid to the influence of the current socio-cultural situation on the formation of the axiosphere of the inhabitants of the Arctic zone, and the conclusion is also made about the need for an integrated scientific approach in determining the prospects for the development of society in the Arctic regions.

Main goal of this study is to explore the entrepreneurial intentions of students in selected European post-communist states. The second purpose of the research is to learn about those determinants which, according to the respondents themselves, are essential for the emergence of entrepreneurial intentions. In short, the results of hierarchical multiple OLS regression indicated that the most important factor influencing the entrepreneurial intentions of the surveyed students was entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Moreover, based on estimates of the final regression model, it was identified that dummy variables concerning the respondents’ country significantly moderate the relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and the dependent variable. It can be noted that the strength of the impact of the above-mentioned regressor is closely related to the values of Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture. The obtained results were fully confirmed using an alternative research method, i.e. the ordered logit model. In the second stage of the study, it was revealed that the desire to be independent is the most frequently cited factor motivating the respondents to start their own business. Moreover, using the multiple marginal independence (MMI) testing method, it was found that student responses differ significantly among the examined countries, except for two cases, i.e. Russia and Latvia, and the Czech Republic and Slovakia. First published online 30 November 2021

Main goal of this study is to explore the entrepreneurial intentions of students in selected European post-communist states. The second purpose of the research is to learn about those determinants which, according to the respondents themselves, are essential for the emergence of entrepreneurial intentions. In short, the results of hierarchical multiple OLS regression indicated that the most important factor influencing the entrepreneurial intentions of the surveyed students was entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Moreover, based on estimates of the final regression model, it was identified that dummy variables concerning the respondents' country significantly moderate the relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and the dependent variable. It can be noted that the strength of the impact of the above-mentioned regressor is closely related to the values of Hofstede's dimensions of national culture. The obtained results were fully confirmed using an alternative research method, i.e. the ordered logit model. In the second stage of the study, it was revealed that the desire to be independent is the most frequently cited factor motivating the respondents to start their own business. Moreover, using the multiple marginal independence (MMI) testing method, it was found that student responses differ significantly among the examined countries, except for two cases, i.e. Russia and Latvia, and the Czech Republic and Slovakia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the burgeoning of positive psychology, foreign language teaching enjoyment (FLTE) was introduced as a combination of personal and social enjoyment and student appreciation. Despite its critical role in language teachers' professional development and psychological growth, scant qualitative attention has been paid to clarify how it can be developed. Moreover, there needs to be more cross-cultural evidence to clarify the role of contextual and cultural factors in shaping teachers' FLTE. Therefore, this study explored how Iranian and Turkish EFL teachers experienced and developed enjoyment in their teaching careers. The study followed a cross-sectional and cross-cultural perspective as a research design. Purposeful and convenience sampling strategies were used to reach the target participants, and there were 24 Turkish EFL teachers and 22 Iranian EFL teachers in the study. An online survey method involving open-ended questions was employed to collect data. Thematic analysis was performed to interpret the data. The FLTE among Iranian and Turkish teachers were depicted under the main themes of feelings, enhancing factors, challenges, individual coping strategies, and suggested solutions. The findings implied the dynamic nature of FLTE. Based on the findings, several implications were highlighted to enhance the FLTE of Iranian and Turkish EFL teachers in educational contexts. • Cross-cultural studies can clarify the role of contextual and cultural factors in shaping teachers' FLTE. • Iranian and Turkish EFL teachers experienced and developed enjoyment in their teaching careers based on their work environment. • Student motivation was a key factor in determining both Turkish and Iranian EFL teachers' enjoyment. • Turkish EFL teachers find communication with the colleagues and ongoing professional development chances as solutions to keep their FLTE during the career. • Iranian EFL teachers tried to focus on their professional problems and understand their learners' needs as effective mechanism for enhancing their FLTE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the ethnocultural factors of volitional regulation from the cultural-historical perspective. A hypothesis is put forward about the relationship between the specifics of volitional regulation and national self-consciousness of the individual. The aim of the work is to study the relationship between ethnic identity and features of volitional regulation among representatives of various ethnic groups (Russians, Komis, Tuvans, Kabardians, Mari, Koreans). A total of 600 people aged 18 to 30 years took part in the study (the samples were gender balanced). To evaluate the individual characteristics of volitional regulation in the respondents, the following techniques were used: the Action Control Scale by J. Kuhl; the "Questionnaire for revealing the expression of self-control in the emotional sphere, activity and behavior"; the technique for self-assessment of volitional qualities; the Purpose in Life Test. The features of ethnic identity were evaluated using the “Types of Ethnic Identity” technique (by S.V. Ryzhova, G.U. Soldatova). The study revealed significant positive correlations between the intensity of volitional self-control and the overall score of volitional self-esteem and positive ethnicity in groups where nationality occupies an important place in the structure of the subject's self-consciousness (Tuvans, Koreans, Kabardians).

The article is devoted to the study of the professional linguocultural type «head of the company» in the national corporate discourse of Russia, Spain, and the United States. The purpose of the article is to determine the value component of this type, as well as to describe the language means of its realization in the text of a corporate website. The intercultural approach to the study of this linguistic phenomenon is of particular interest. The research finds out that a company, while verbalizing the type «head of the company» as a socially responsible personality, declares its value priorities and defines its place in the society. In conclusion, the author speaks about the national specifics of the type «head of the company» verbalized in the corporate discourse of Russia, Spain, and the United States under the influence of basic national cultural values. The article is addressed to specialists in the field of intercultural communication and integrated communications and CEOs

An interesting trend that has emerged in the last decade or so concerns empirical turn in the study of argumentation. Empiricalization involves ensuring the connection of argumentation theory with argumentative reality by using different qualitative, quantitative, and mixed empirical methods. Nowadays there are many empirical approaches in the field of argumentation. This paper organizes three of them, namely the historical-textual, the meta-argumentation, and the cross-cultural approaches. In addition to organizing what is already known about empiricalization, this paper also serves the function of suggesting what empirical research is needed to fill in theoretical gaps of the recent treatment of argumentation. In this regard, the purpose of this paper is to provide up-to-date, relevant, and informative discussion about an empirical component in argumentation research.

Copyright of Frontières is the property of Universite du Quebec a Montreal, Revue Frontieres and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Emotions and culture have been found to influence the dynamics of romantic relationships. This study extends the psychological research on emotions and romantic relationships by examining cross-cultural differences in terms of individual negative emotions, their categorization in soft, hard, flat, fear-based types and families of negative emotions (e.g., anger, hurt, fear and boredom). The participants were 86 Romanian (84.9% women) and 48 Spanish (89.6% women). They are young, involved in a romantic relationship and answered a questionnaire about the negative emotions and their intensity, experienced in their romantic relationships, in day to day interactions. The results showed some similarities but also cross-cultural differences between Romanian and Spanish romantic relationships. The most reported family of emotions in both samples was anger. However, Romanians experienced the individual emotion of anger and the family of emotions related to anger more frequently than the Spanish participants. The other individual emotion most reported by Romanians was disappointment, and the emotions related to family stress. In contrast, Spaniards experienced hurt more frequently (both, when considering individual emotions and families) and the family emotions of shame. Clinical and theoretical implications for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents data of an empirical study of the relationship between aggressive manifestations and self-regulatory personality characteristics of teachers. It is assumed that the features of aggressive manifestations are determined by personal characteristics and the cultural context of the teachers' lives. The level of self-regulation development is also shaped by sociocultural conditions. The study involved 278 teachers aged 20—72 years from the Stavropol and Krasnodar territories and from the republics of North Ossetia-Alania, Karachaevo-Cherkessia, and Kabardino-Balkaria. The system of research methods was based on the integration of nomothetic and ideographic approaches and included observation and psychological testing. The study revealed certain differences in aggressive manifestations among the respondents from different regions of southern Russia. It was found that the level of conscious self-regulation development is not an invariant and has its cross-cultural specifics. Indicators of conscious self-regulation (planning, evaluation of results), racial tolerance and restraint in risk situations are significant predictors of aggression management.

The development of organizational behavior research in Taiwan has been approximately 50 years. This paper reviews both the logic and the transition of research approaches, including etic approach, cross-cultural approach, indigenous approach, and globalized approach. On one hand, this essay indicates that the advantages and disadvantages of different types of research methods employed by organizational behavior researchers. On the other hand, by depicting the context and background of the transition of each research approach, this essay highlights the theoretical contribution of different research approaches, thus shedding some light on further studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A climate of presenteeism has important effects on employee well-being and the organization itself. Our study, based on surveys of health sector employees in six different countries (Brazil, Ecuador, Lebanon, Portugal, Russia and Spain) examines whether organizational justice plays a mediating role in the relationship between a presenteeism climate in the organization and work–family conflict (WFC). Our results indicate that the perception of organizational justice and the presenteeism climate do influence WFC. Moreover, higher levels of WFC were found in non-Latin countries. This study contributes to the work attendance and life balance field by providing cross-cultural empirical evidence corroborating the effect of justice and presenteeism climate on the WFC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aims: The number of migrant children referred to speech-language pathologists (SLPs) is increasing in the United States. SLPs need to be competent in distinguishing between a language disorder and language differences associated with children who are learning English as a new language. Methods: SLPs need to acquire the knowledge, skills, and cultural attitudes to evaluate language of bilingual children to competently assess and intervene with linguistically diverse children and families. Often children separated from their biological parents at the border are placed in foster homes, and the foster parents often do not have essential information regarding the children's developmental history to share with the SLP. The children described in this article include school-age children in the United States who are learning to speak English as a second language and are migrants. Results: This article presents the difficulties faced when working with children learning a new language, effective strategies used with this population, and some of the resources available in the United States for children and families. Conclusion: This article highlights some challenges SLPs experience, assessment protocols used in different states and local school districts, successful strategies that involve working with interpreters, and varied service delivery options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work is the study of the universal and specific characteristics of empathy of students from Russia and China.Methods. The methods involve the analysis and generalization of literature on the concept and structure of empathy, the influence of cultural factors on this phenomenon. The research is performed in line with the cross-cultural approach. Data are obtained using two methods: «Diagnostics of the level of poly-communications empathy» by I. M. Yusupov and «Diagnostics of the level of empathic abilities» by V. V. Boyko (in the modification of V. V. Boyko and O. A. Klitsenko).Results. The influence of cultural factor the formation of the components of empathy and the severity of the empathy towards various social objects are analyzed. Specific characteristics of empathy of students from Russia (generalization, association, high severity emotional component of empathy) and from China (differentiation and selective empathy) are detected. Two universal characteristics are founded: empathy to the parents to be stronger than for other social objects, and also equally expressed the cognitive component of empathy.Scientific novelty. The study has proved that it is not enough to examine only the level of development of empathy. It is necessary to study its emotional and cognitive components, as well as orientation towards various social objects.Practical significance. Recommendations for creation of more comfortable and safe educational environment in Russian Higher educational institutions for students from China are proposed.

The article focuses on problems of the students’ intellectual and personal qualities in the linguistic education process. The researcher emphasizes the importance of metacognitive knowledge role in the content of cross-cultural competence. Based on the main characteristics of metacognitive knowledge (awareness, intentionality, controllability) the author shows the didactic aspect of personal qualities and abilities regulation in cross-cultural communication. The article presents the methods of metacognitive regulation of empathy, tolerance, readiness for changing prospect, flexibility and self-reflection. The author makes a conclusion that metacognitive knowledge in the content of cross-cultural competence forms regulatory base for students’ self-development.

An interesting trend that has emerged in the last decade or so concerns empirical turn in the study of argumentation. Empiricalization involves ensuring the connection of argumentation theory with argumentative reality by using different qualitative, quantitative, and mixed empirical methods. Nowadays there are many empirical approaches in the field of argumentation. This paper organizes three of them, namely the historical-textual, the meta-argumentation, and the cross-cultural approaches. In addition to organizing what is already known about empiricalization, this paper also serves the function of suggesting what empirical research is needed to fill in theoretical gaps of the recent treatment of argumentation. In this regard, the purpose of this paper is to provide up-to-date, relevant, and informative discussion about an empirical component in argumentation research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within comparative school effectiveness research facilitated by large-scale data across countries, this article presents the results of the testing for measurement invariance of the latent concept of Professional Community (PC) across 23 European countries and more than 35,000 teachers in secondary schools. The newly proposed Multiple-Group Factor Analysis Alignment method is applied to obtain the mean differences of the latent PC factor, while also identifying the non-invariant parameters in these different countries. After performing a number of robustness checks, including the Multiple-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis (MGCFA) exact scalar method, we conclude that teachers in Eastern European countries report the highest average perceived PC practices. The countries with smaller PC mean differences tend to shift places in the ranking when the 2 methods are applied; however, very few changes among the groups with significant latent mean differences are observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of the Cukurova University Institute of Social Sciences is the property of Cukurova University Institute of Social Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Intellectual disability (ID) is often accompanied by delays in emotional development (ED) that may result in challenging behavior. Insight into emotional functioning is crucial for appropriate diagnostic assessment in adults with ID. However, few standardized assessment instruments are available.Aims: The aim of this study was to develop a short, psychometrically sound instrument for assessing levels of ED in individuals with ID: The Scale of Emotional Development - Short (SED-S), which can be applied to adults.Methods and Procedures: The Scale for ED - Revised2 (SED-R2) was taken as a point of departure. In a first step, the validity and observability of the items (N=556) in the SED-R2 were assessed by 30 experts from Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands. The SED-S was then constituted in a consecutive consensus process, in which items to be included were selected based on their assessments and subsequently rephrased, and in which the structure and method of administering the new scale were agreed upon.Outcomes and Results: The SED-S consists of 200 binary items describing five levels of emotional functioning (reference ages: 0-12 years) within eight domains: Relating to His/Her Own Body, Relating to Significant Others, Dealing with Change - Object Permanence, Differentiating Emotions, Relating to Peers, Engaging with the Material World, Communicating with Others, and Regulating Affect.Conclusions and Implications: The SED-S offers an empirical-based, practical tool to assessing ED in adults with ID. Further research will be needed to meet the requirements of a standardized diagnostic instrument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes important issues in the fledgling cross-cultural approach to I/O psychology in Romania. The first part of the paper deals with currently popular cross-cultural models of work values, and observes the relative absence of Romania in this global psychological map. The second part of the paper is more methodological and first describes a global framework of method issues in cross-cultural comparisons (bias and equivalence). I then describe specific issues in designing cross-cultural studies, such as the choice between existing questionnaires and developing novel tests, the importance of alternative interpretations of cross-cultural differences, and the need to have a team with all relevant types of expertise on board. Romanian psychology may benefit from the development of a cross-cultural approach, dealing with cultural heterogeneity in Romania, Romanians in the diaspora, and the place of Romania on the “psychological map of the world”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the validity of recent research into speech act theory by advocating the idea that with some of the traditional speech acts, their overt language manifestations that emerge from corpus data remind us of ritualised scenarios of speech-act-sets rather than single acts, with configurations of core and peripheral units reflecting the socio-cultural norms of the expectations and culture-bound values of a given language community. One of the prototypical manifestations of speech-act-sets, apologies, will be discussed to demonstrate a procedure which can be used to identify, analyse, describe and cross-culturally compare the validity of speech-act-set theory and provide evidence of its relevance for studying the English-Czech interface in this particular domain of human interaction.

This study presents the results of a test of the professional community latent concept for measurement invariance in 36 countries and more than 58000 teachers, using the International Civic and Citizenship education Study (ICCS 2009). The Multiple-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used for this analysis. Teachers become part of a professional community when they agree on a common school visions, engage in reflective dialogues and collaborative practices, and feel responsible for school improvement and student learning. The study discusses the implications of having (or not having) an invariant measure of the concept for quantifying and comparing the teacher professional community practices in the different countries involved. We establish that the latent concept of professional community can be meaningfully discussed in 35 countries, excluding Liechtenstein. In addition, in 34 countries all the items that represent the five specific dimensions are strongly related to the latent concept of professional community, except for the reflective dialogue item in Switzerland. As regards scalar invariance, we identify many noninvariant intercepts in different countries, especially for items measuring the dimensions of the deprivatisation of practice and collaborative activity, allowing to compare the professional community mean practices in 23 countries only, within partial scalar invariance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scholar undertaking a study of the origins of drama among the world’s peoples is drawn, by the magnet of cultural conditioning, through the lineage of Western theater to its historic emergence among the Ancient Athenians-only to be confronted by a maze of theories concerning the nature of ritual, catharsis, and Dionysos. These essential issues may seem remote and even irrelevant in the context of a worldly, industrialized culture. The notion of origins too often is presumed to imply an evolutionary development from a crude original form to something more sophisticated or effective. Any such assumption separates us from our ability to understand the potency of earlier theater forms by attributing their vitality to a stage of human development in which people were more easily deluded. The search for beginnings also too often leads to a close scrutiny of localized historical-political factors, which overlooks the more constant factors of the human psyche, which this author believes to be the true source of the power of the art of drama.A cross-cultural approach, which examines performance forms which are clearly on the dividing edge between ritual and drama, can be of use to clear the air. The Water Serpent puppet plays of the Hopi Indians provide such an example. Moreover, these plays concern a central character demonstrating numerous striking and significant cross-cultural parallels to the Greek Dionysos, the founding deity of Athenian theatre.