'I don't like it here' : culture shock and adjustment

30 page(s

Adult Attachment, Love Styles, Relationship Experiences and Subjective Well-Being : Cross-Cultural and Gender Comparison between Americans, Portuguese, and Mozambicans

Attachment security, love styles, and romantic relationship experiences are closely associated with subjective well-being (SWB). A few studies have empirically observed significant relations between these variables. However, no studies have included all of these predictors to analyze the unique contribution of each to SWB, and no cross-cultural studies have analyzed these variables simultaneously. This article examined (a) the relations between attachment security, love styles, romantic relationship experiences and subjective well-being, (b) the unique contribution of each to predict SWB, and (c) cross-cultural and gender differences in the predictors of SWB across three samples of 1,574 university students: 497 from North Carolina (US), 544 from Maputo (Mozambique), and 533 from Lisbon (Portugal). We found cross-cultural differences in the three samples. The main predictor of SWB was attachment security in the US and Portuguese samples, while in the Mozambican it was eros love style. Storge love style positively predicted SWB in the US and Portuguese samples, but not in the Mozambican. In contrast, mania love style predicted the SWB of Mozambicans but not that of Americans or Portuguese. We found gender similarities and differences: the association between attachment security and SWB was not gender-specific; the associations between love styles, relationship experiences and SWB were gender-specific

An Integrative Theory Addressing Cyberharassment in the Light of Technology-Based Opportunism

Scholars are increasingly calling for a deeper understanding of cyberharassment (CH) with the goal of devising policies, procedures, and technologies to mitigate it. Accordingly, we conducted CH research that (1) integrated social learning theory (SLT) and self-control theory (SCT); (2) empirically studied this model with two contrasting samples, experienced cyberharassers and less experienced cyberharassers; and (3) conducted post hoc tests to tease out the differences between the two samples. We show that for less experienced cyberharassers, CH is largely a social-psychological-technological phenomenon; whereas, for experienced cyberharassers, CH is primarily a psychological-technological phenomenon. Our study makes a threefold contribution: (1) it shows the value of integrating two theories in a holistic and parsimonious manner to explain CH; (2) it shows that SCT alone is a more relevant framework for experienced cyberharassers, whereas a combination of SCT and SLT better explains less experienced cyberharassers; and (3) it reveals that the role of technology in fostering CH is crucial, regardless of the sample. The differential, yet consistent, findings demonstrate that addressing CH is contingent upon not only identifying theoretical approaches but also identifying the particular samples to which these theoretical approaches will be more suitable. Of several implications for practice, the most important may be that anonymity, asynchronicity, and lack of monitoring are the technology choices that foster CH, and thus these should be mitigated in designing social media and other communication technologies