There is no a priori basis for assuming that theories of social psychology are universal. For theories to be universal, the meaning of the stimulus would have to be consistent across cultures, but this cannot be taken for granted. Cross-cultural variations in social behavior may be "surface" expressions of deep structure norms that are universal.…

Compared 320 Italian and U.S. college students' attitudes toward computers, science, and technology by field of study (the humanities, psychology, science, and engineering) and by gender. Attitudes were more positive than negative in both the U.S. and Italian samples, but sociocultural factors produced attitudinal differences. Nationality…

Examination of the sex role identity of college students in India and in Australia reveals that sex role transcendence is the product of educated, middle-class Western societies. Androgyny, on the other hand, is more predominant in certain traditional cultures, such as the India culture, and particularly predominant among Indian males. (PS)

Summarizes clinical and research literature on Southeast Asian refugees' adjustment in the United States and proposes the adoption of theoretical models that may help explain individual differences. Reports that acculturation, learned helplessness, and stress management models appear to aid the conceptualizing of refugee problems and provide a…

Reviews empirical research on the development of ethnic attitudes and finds overlapping sequences: (1) progression from a focus on oneself to a focus on groups, and then on individuals; and (2) progression from affective to perceptual to cognitive forms of differentiation. Also discusses differences between majority and minority group children.…

Compared associations of family decision making, identity formation, and self-esteem in Turkish and American late adolescents. Questionnaire results from 82 university students in Turkey and 101 American students in the United States show both groups are more similar than different in their level of identity formation. Differences were found in…

Studies the "urban unhelpfulness" effect in England and the Sudan and the validity of cultural and dispositional explanations that have been put forward to explain it. Responses from 270 participants show the urban unhelpfulness effect to be quite equivalent in both countries. Additionally, the dispositional explanation was not supported…

The impressively high factor congruence coefficients observed in cross-cultural studies with the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) cannot be taken as sufficient evidence for the "similarity" or "essential identity" of these factors in the cultures concerned. Cross-cultural comparisons of factor scores on the EPQ are…

Addresses the problem of the equivalence of linguistically translated items that form measurement scales used to assess psychological traits or constructs in source and target cultures and languages. Outlines assessment procedures that are standardized but that also reflect cultural-specific concepts and values. (PS)

The cultural distinction between Western and Middle Eastern Jews in Israel is a product of underlying cultural differences in mediating familial factors such as interdependence, size, and delegation of authority, as well as peer exposure. Middle Easterners were more cooperative than Westerners in rural settings, but not in urban areas. (Author/LHW)

The degree to which 484 Japanese, Korean, and American subjects sacrificed their self-gain to benefit in-group members in allocating a group reward was tested. Results indicated that although the effects involving culture were not significant, students in general were more individualistic than adults. (Author/BJV)

The disparity between interview and self-report data on East Asian mental health has been attributed to the following explanations: (1) incomparability of item content; and (2) cultural differences in the social desirability of questionnaire items. Examination of groups of elderly Korean, Japanese, and European-American subjects undermine these…

Analysis of the verbal content of 48 Hispanic and Anglo mothers revealed that questions about a newborn infant's gender were more frequent than comments about family resemblance. The contradiction with previous research may be a result of (1) different time intervals for recording conversations or (2) different sociological backgrounds of mothers.…

Using meta-analysis to examine literature on sex differences in child competitiveness, finds an overall tendency for males to be more competitive than females, but also finds that analysis within cultures indicates that this trend is not universal. Propounds the usefulness of meta-analysis in conjunction with cross-cultural comparison. (Author/GC)

Discusses theoretical and methodological problems relating to the comparison of test results of individuals and groups with differing cultural backgrounds. Develops a statistic by which deviance of score patterns can be quantified and which indicates whether a person's score can be compared with the scores in a specific group. (Author/GC)