11 research outputs found

    The Background to the Research: Cultural, Theoretical and Methodological Issues

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    The disastrous earthquake of 12 May, 2008 had its greatest impact on the Qiang people, an ethnic minority living in the mountainous regions of Sichuan at the earthquake’s epicentre. Over 80,000 people died, over a million were injured or missing, most buildings collapsed and most homes were demolished under the avalanches. Thousands of children were evacuated to safety, some moved to far distant locations. The research team from the University of Newcastle responded to the plea of the Qiang leaders to help the children. In cooperation with the China-Australia Centre for Cross-Cultural Studies, a three stage psycho-cultural research program was devised, comprising a survey of children’s current caregivers, interviews with the children, and development of a culturally appropriate rehabilitation scheme. Shuguang Wang was appointed to coordinate the project. This paper discusses the research issues involved. Of paramount importance was the collectivist nature of the Qiang culture and the traditional ways of dealing with disasters. Theoretical issues related to the relevance of western individualistic psychological and psychiatric approaches to therapy in the Qiang collectivist environment. Methodological problems related to developing appropriate measuring instruments, and preparing guidelines and training programs for local Qiang interviewers and volunteers

    Building a Culturally Appropriate Intervention Program to Assist Children’s Rehabilitation after the Sichuan Earthquake of 12 May, 2008

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    Based on the findings of the survey and the interviews, the work in this stage of the research was to build a culturally acceptable program to aid the children’s recovery. The study was conducted in three project sites of a village, a large school and a hospital, all in the same locations as the baseline research. A group-based participatory approach is being employed to develop a variety of activities, in progressive steps dealing with children’s themes of rehabilitation in their own contexts. The total program includes a range of activities differing according to age, category, and site. To ensure comparability, a core of three activity types (drama; story-telling and writing; singing and music in Qiang style) is taken by all age and category groups. The aim is to encourage healthy personal and social development, self efficacy and cultural identity. Cultural leader-based advocacy and cultural events promoting health have been designed to support the children’s activities. Volunteer Leaders and Activity Leaders conduct the activities, and monitor progress using Observation Check Lists to record children’s perceived general activity and group involvement

    Situational Analysis from Two Studies Facilitating the Development of a Psycho- Cultural Rehabilitation Program for Children Affected by the 12 May 2008 Earthquake in Sichuan, China

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    The data presented are from two field studies: (1) a survey of 2234 current children’s caregivers; and (2) interviews with 1200 children, evaluating the children’s social, psychological and behavioural situation after the devastating Sichuan earthquake in the hard-hit Qiang ethnic community. Insights from the findings will be used to develop an evidence-based, culturally appropriate approach on the best use of cultural resources to facilitate the children’s post-disaster rehabilitation. Evidence from the first study indicated that the disaster had a significant impact on the ethnic Qiang children and their families in regard to personal loss, physical injury, social relationships and psychological well-being. Evidence from the second study further indicated: (1) the need for a sustained response to the increasing vulnerability of these children; (2) a very limited effect from outside community visitors, whose one-off inconsistent, non-indigenous approaches and psychological counselling, drawing on the western, individualistic, approach to counseling and psychological/ psychiatric therapies and non-Qiang approaches do not carry over into the children’s everyday life in their own contexts; (3) that little is known about psycho-cultural factors as key resources for supporting an effective response to disaster for ethnic Qiang children; (4) the greatest need for a sustainable effect is therefore to build a culturally appropriate approach through making best use of cultural resources drawing on contributions of both volunteers and official workers from various disciplines and using the Qiang traditional ways to promote the children’s psycho-cultural rehabilitation

    Theory and research in strategic management: Swings of a pendulum

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    The development of the field of strategic management within the last two decades has been dramatic. While its roots have been in a more applied area, often referred to as business policy, the current field of strategic management is strongly theory based, with substantial empirical research, and is eclectic in nature. This review of the development of the field and its current position examines the field’s early development and the primary theoretical and methodological bases through its history. Early developments include Chandler’s (1962) Strategy and Structure and Ansoff’s (1965) Corporate Strategy. These early works took on a contingency perspective (fit between strategy and structure) and a resource-based framework emphasizing internal strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps, one of the more significant contributions to the development of strategic management came from industrial organization (IO) economics, specifically the work of Michael Porter. The structure-conduct-performance framework and the notion of strategic groups, as well as providing a foundation for research on competitive dynamics, are flourishing currently. The IO paradigm also brought econometric tools to the research on strategic management. Building on the IO economics framework, the organizational economics perspective contributed transaction costs economics and agency theory to strategic management. More recent theoretical contributions focus on the resource-based view of the firm. While it has its roots in Edith Penrose’s work in the late 1950s, the resource-based view was largely introduced to the field of strategic management in the 1980s and became a dominant framework in the 1990s. Based on the resource-based view or developing concurrently were research on strategic leadership, strategic decision theory (process research) and knowledge-based view of the firm. The research methodologies are becoming increasingly sophisticated and now frequently combine both quantitative and qualitative approaches and unique and new statistical tools. Finally, this review examines the future directions, both in terms of theory and methodologies, as the study of strategic management evolves.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

    Developing an innovative cross-cultural strategy to promote HIV/AIDS prevention in different ethnic cultural groups of China

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    The HIV and STIs epidemic in China has had a significant impact among China's ethnic minorities. However, the official traditional approach, which has used an anti-epidemic social campaign, has not paid any attention to the diversity of cultural backgrounds of the many ethnic minority groups. This study carried out in Sichuan Province is the first to explore how to use cultural resources for developing an effective strategy for promoting HIV prevention in different cultural groups in China. One hundred and fifty male volunteers drawn from the Yi (50), Tibetan (50) and majority Han (50) cultural groups were assigned to a direct training programme. After training, these participants spread safe sex messages to other contacts who became an indirect peer diffusion group. A third group of 150 male volunteers from the same three cultural groups but from another relatively comparable community acted as controls. Each participant was interviewed before and after the intervention to assess knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions regarding HIV/AIDS prevention. The study examined the cultural appropriateness and effectiveness of peer-led health message diffusion in promoting condom use through a traditional oral communication approach from the direct training groups to the indirect intervention groups and broad peer networks within the Yi, Tibetan and Han cultural communities. Key findings showed that the peer-based oral communication strategy was effective for encouraging condom use with casual sexual partners in both the direct training group and the indirect peer diffusion group in all three cultural groups. There was no significant change in any of the comparison groups. Although change in the majority Han cultural group was generally greater than in the ethnic minority groups, the results clearly suggest that the methods can be successfully adopted to promote safe sexual behaviour in different cultural groups of China

    The children of the Sichuan earthquake: the psycho-cultural empowerment program

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    This book entitled "Children of the Sichuan Earthquake: The Psycho-Cultural Empowerment Program", tells the story of our work in response to the request of the Qiang leaders to help the children who suffered in the great earthquake of 12 May, 2008, whose needs they saw as their greatest concern. It has been written for English language readers, particularly for those in the field of cross-cultural psychology, but also for a general readership from other disciplines and interests

    Performan dalam ujian-ujian perbendaharaan kata dan operational dalam dua bahasa di kalangan kanak-kanak Melayu dan Cina.

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    Kajian ini dilakukan untuk menunjau pertalian di antara latarbelakang bahasa termasuk performan dalam ujian perbendaharaan kata bergambar dalam dua kumpulan kanak-kanak Malaysia yang berbahasa dua dengan performan dalam tugas-tugas concrete operational. Alat-alat yang digunakan terdiri daripada satu soalselidik mengenai latarbelakang bahasa, Ujian Peabody Picture Vocabulary dan alat-alat biasa mengenai tugas-tugas concrete operational. Kesemua alat/arahan yang digunakan diterjemahkan ke dalam Bahasa Malaysia atau Cina dengan cara back-translation. Alat-alat keputusan menunjukkan terdapat korilasi yang signifikan di antara latarbelakang bahasa dengan performan dalam tugas-tugas concrete operational bagi kumpulan Cina. Bagi performan dalam ujian perbendaharaan kata pula, markah-markah Ujian Peabody Picture Vocabulary dalam bentuk Inggeris mempunyai korilasi yang signifikan dengan performan dalam tugas-tugas concrete operational bagi kedua-dua kumpulan. Bagi susunan perolehan pengkalan pula kajian ini menyangkal dakwaan Kumpulan Geneva
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