Culture, Emotional Expression and Parental Socialization Strategies among Two-year-old Israeli Toddlers

One of the most important developments in childhood is the development of emotional expression and its regulation. The capacity for the deliberate modulation of one’s behavior and emotion develops mainly in the second year, and it is considered a key developmental milestone that markedly transforms the child’s ability to function in the social environment (Kochanska, Coy, & Murray, 2001; Maccoby, 2007). Social norms, established by culture, dictate how, where, when and to whom specific emotions are expressed (Garrett-Peters & Fox, 2007). These norms are specific rules taught in a specific culture and dictate which emotional expressions are socially desirable in certain social contexts, and are the basis for emotional regulation (Ekman & Friesen, 1975; Matsumoto, 1990). Previous studies have shown that there are cultural differences in emotional expression among various cultures (e.g., Garrett-Peters & Fox, 2007). The present study compares the type and intensity of the child’s emotional expression and parental practices of socialization in two ethnic groups: Israeli Jews and Arabs. This comparison was aimed to contribute to the existing scientific knowledge in this field, and provide insight into the differences and similarities between the ethnic models of emotions, as well as the practices of socialization strategies regarding regulating emotions and emotional behavior of children

Culture-level dimensions of social axioms and their correlates across 41 cultures

Leung and colleagues have revealed a five-dimensional structure of social axioms across individuals from five cultural groups. The present research was designed to reveal the culture level factor structure of social axioms and its correlates across 41 nations. An ecological factor analysis on the 60 items of the Social Axioms Survey extracted two factors: Dynamic Externality correlates with value measures tapping collectivism, hierarchy, and conservatism and with national indices indicative of lower social development. Societal Cynicism is less strongly and broadly correlated with previous values measures or other national indices and seems to define a novel cultural syndrome. Its national correlates suggest that it taps the cognitive component of a cultural constellation labeled maleficence, a cultural syndrome associated with a general mistrust of social systems and other people. Discussion focused on the meaning of these national level factors of beliefs and on their relationships with individual level factors of belief derived from the same data set.(undefined

Identification of 12 new susceptibility loci for different histotypes of epithelial ovarian cancer.

To identify common alleles associated with different histotypes of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), we pooled data from multiple genome-wide genotyping projects totaling 25,509 EOC cases and 40,941 controls. We identified nine new susceptibility loci for different EOC histotypes: six for serous EOC histotypes (3q28, 4q32.3, 8q21.11, 10q24.33, 18q11.2 and 22q12.1), two for mucinous EOC (3q22.3 and 9q31.1) and one for endometrioid EOC (5q12.3). We then performed meta-analysis on the results for high-grade serous ovarian cancer with the results from analysis of 31,448 BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers, including 3,887 mutation carriers with EOC. This identified three additional susceptibility loci at 2q13, 8q24.1 and 12q24.31. Integrated analyses of genes and regulatory biofeatures at each locus predicted candidate susceptibility genes, including OBFC1, a new candidate susceptibility gene for low-grade and borderline serous EOC

Promotion, Prevention or Both: Regulatory Focus and Culture Revisited

Regulatory focus theory (e.g., Higgins, 1997) presented a differentiation between promotion orientation, focused on growth and advancement, and prevention orientation, focused on safety and security. Cross-culture differences in these systems generally show that that collectivist, Eastern cultures (mostly East-Asian cultures) are considered as prevention oriented whereas Western cultures are considered as promotion oriented. Two main claims that contribute to the refinement of the relations between culture and regulatory foci will be presented. The first refinement pertains to the relations between individualism-collectivism and regulatory foci on base of the vertical-horizontal distinction, showing that vertical collectivism is especially relevant to regulatory foci. The second claim challenges the traditional notion of uni-dimensional mapping of cultures on the prevention-promotion continuum. Cultural groups from Hong Kong and Israel were compared in their typical levels of regulatory foci and in reaction to different incentive framing (gain/non-gain vs non-loss/loss). The findings revealed a culture (Hong Kong) that is oriented to both, prevention and promotion, at least regarding achievement