Cultural Priming as a Tool to Understand Multiculturalism and Culture

What is multiculturalism, and how is it typically studied? The current paper provides answers to these questions by introducing approaches to the study of multiculturalism and their implications. We first present the view of multiculturalism as a static and dispositional phenomenon (i.e., demographic, as well as most uni- and bidimensional conceptualizations of acculturation) and then focus on more dynamic approaches to multiculturalism, that view culture as emerging from domain-specificity, situated cognition, or as a dynamic constructivist process. As part of a dynamic approach to culture, two prominent techniques of priming cultural orientations (i.e., priming Individualism - Collectivism versus Cultural Frame Switching) are introduced and compared, and implications are outlined. We propose that it is necessary to perceive culture as more than a categorical variable that is stable over situations, and highlight future research avenues that might help to further advance our understanding of multiculturalism and culture as dynamic constructs

Helping and Volunteering across Cultures: Determinants of Prosocial Behavior

Why do people help others and what motivates them to engage in voluntary work? Are the psychological mechanisms that initiate prosocial behavior similar across cultures? In order to find answers for these questions, we give an overview of the prominent approaches to helping, and report findings of studies investigating informal spontaneous help and formal, planned forms of helping. A linchpin of our review is to go beyond a mere descriptive comparison of helping and volunteering across cultures, and to examine the pathways leading to helping and volunteering, which we argue can be considered universal across cultural contexts. Previous studies demonstrate cultural differences in the frequencies of helping and volunteering. Particularly when the prosocial act is not directed at close others, i.e., at out-group members, differences between cultural samples are likely to emerge. In situations of spontaneous helping, helping is more frequent in rural and less affluent contexts than in urban and wealthier contexts. For long-term commitments of helping (i.e., volunteering) however, the reverse direction is found. Here, rates of volunteering are higher in more western and affluent countries. We propose a model of helping that assumes different precursory mechanisms involved in these two forms of helping: spontaneous helping is an unconscious and implicit process activated by automatic affective components, whereas the decision and action of volunteering is a more conscious and explicit effort, initiated by elaborate considerations. We assume these two ways of initiating prosocial acting – implicit and explicit- to function similarly across different cultural groups. We conclude by highlighting conceptual, integrative avenues for a more systematic investigation of helping, and indicate methodological issues that need to be addressed in future research. In particular, we argue for the use of implicit measures in research of prosocial behavior, and present exemplary results for such an approach, which supports the proposed two-process model of prosocial behavior, and thus highlights the relevance for using both explicit and implicit measures in research on prosocial behavior

Beyond Harmfulness and Impurity: Moral Wrongness as a Violation of Relational Motivations

Building on Rai and Fiske's (2011) Relationship Regulation Theory, we argue that violation of relational motives will predict the perception of the moral wrongness of moral transgressions better than violation of harmlessness or purity. We also argue that "metarelational threat" plays an important role in determining the degree of moral wrongness of a particular act. To test our propositions, we conducted 6 studies, 3 with Turkish and American respondents. Scenarios where a relational component was present were perceived as more morally relevant (Study 1, N = 199). We found that relational motive violations predicted perceived moral wrongness better than violations of harmlessness or purity (Study 2, N = 261) and that metarelational threat partially mediated this relationship (Study 3, N = 357). Turkish participants generally based their judgments on the principle of unity, whereas the Americans tended to base theirs on the principle of equality. Study 4 (N = 138) confirmed the key findings and indicated that harmfulness was not related to moral wrongness when relational motive violation was low, but it did predict perceptions of moral wrongness when relational motivation was high. Study 5 (N = 152), by contrast, showed that harmfulness and impurity were superior to violations of relational motives in predicting the perceived moral wrongness of severe harmful and impure behaviors. Study 6 (N = 134) addressed this inconsistency and confirmed that relational motivations matter for perceptions of moral wrongness. Implications of the current research for understanding morality are discussed, and avenues for future research are recommended

How prosocial behavior turns bad into good: An examination among Turkish-Bulgarian adolescents

Building on the Altruism Born of Suffering (ABS) Hypothesis, the present research tests the mediator role of prosocial behavior on the link between perceived personal discrimination and several psychological well-being outcomes in a sample of Turkish-Bulgarian minority youth. We argue that perceived personal discrimination is linked to prosocial behavior, which in turn alleviates discriminations' detrimental effects on life satisfaction, self-esteem, negative affect and loneliness. Results revealed that prosocial behavior partially mediated the link between perceived personal discrimination and life satisfaction, perceived personal discrimination and self-esteem, and perceived personal discrimination and loneliness, while no mediating effect was found for negative affect. Our research contributes to the existing literature on minority youth dealing with discrimination, and proposes prosocial behavior to be a mechanism of resilient functioning against the maladaptive effects of perceived personal discrimination

Implicit and explicit prosocial motivation as antecedents of volunteering: the moderating role of parenthood

We test a model proposing that having children influences motivational pathways of volunteering in the same way across two different cultures. The model posits that parents’ engagement in volunteering is driven by implicit, whereas non-parents’ engagement in volunteering is related to explicit prosocial motivation. Participants were 570 parents and non-parents from Turkey and the US (M$_a$$_g$$_e$ = 33.7 years; 58.2% female). Results across the two cultural contexts confirmed our model. Our findings highlight the need for considering implicit prosocial motivation as an antecedent of volunteering, and underline the importance of examining parenthood as a moderator for motivations to volunteer. Avenues for further research and implications for voluntary organizations are discussed

Perinatal and maternal outcomes of fetal macrosomia

Objective: To determine the perinatal and maternal outcome of the macrosomic infants. Study Design: A case-control, retrospective study is performed in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, between 1988-1992. The maternal and neonatal records of infants with birthweight of at least 4000 g (n = 1000) were reviewed. Another 1000 cases amongst the newborns delivered in the same period between 2500 and 3999 g formed the control group. The obstetrical outcome variables of the groups including mode of delivery and the incidence of maternal and perinatal complications were compared. Results: A total of 16,112 deliveries occurred during the study period. The rate of macrosomic deliveries was 6.21% and the rate of the deliveries (4500 g or heavier) was 1.04%. The mean birthweight of the study group was 4272 +/- 239 and 3277 +/- 316 g of the control group (P < 0.001). While the cesarean section rate was 28.8% for the study group and it was 16.6% for the control group (P < 0.001). In the study group, 17 cases of brachial plexus palsy (2.4%), 16 cases of clavicular fracture (2.3%) and one case of humeral fracture were observed (P < 0.001). The rate of perinatal mortality was 0.8%, in the study group. No perinatal mortality was recorded in the control group. There were 14 cases (1.4%)of asphyxia related to delivery in the study group(P < 0.01). The rate of maternal complications, were significantly higher in the study group (P < 0.01). Conclusion: The macrosomic infants are in increased risk for birth trauma and asphyxia. The risk of birth trauma for the infants weighing 4500 g or more is even greater. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

Heritage identity and maintenance enhance well-being of Turkish-Bulgarian and Turkish-German adolescents

This study compares Turkish minority youth in Bulgaria and Germany by examining differences in ethnic identity (heritage and mainstream), acculturation (host culture adoption and heritage culture maintenance), and their influence on psychological and sociocultural outcomes. Participants were 178 Turkish-Bulgarian and 166 Turkish-German youth (mean age of 15.96 years). Youth in both cultural contexts regarded their Turkish identity and culture maintenance as more relevant than their mainstream identity and culture adoption. Turkish-Bulgarians also reported higher scores on host culture adoption than Turkish-Germans. A multigroup path model showed that Turkish identity and maintenance were positively related to well-being and adjustment to both cultures, whereas mainstream identity and adoption were positively associated with adjustment to the host culture only

Implicit and explicit prosocial motivation as antecedents of volunteering: the moderating role of parenthood

We test a model proposing that having children influences motivational pathways of volunteering in the same way across two different cultures. The model posits that parents' engagement in volunteering is driven by implicit, whereas non-parents' engagement in volunteering is related to explicit prosocial motivation. Participants were 570 parents and non-parents from Turkey and the US (. M=. 33.7. years; 58.2% female). Results across the two cultural contexts confirmed our model. Our findings highlight the need for considering implicit prosocial motivation as an antecedent of volunteering, and underline the importance of examining parenthood as a moderator for motivations to volunteer. Avenues for further research and implications for voluntary organizations are discussed