Multicultural societies - and the disappearance of culture?

Vertovec (2007) describes countries with a heterogeneous population in terms of origin and migration status as super-diverse. Within these plurally composed societies the boundaries between minority and majority become blurred and norms, values and symbols may be negotiated dependent on context. For people growing up in such a multicultural context it is the norm to be with people of different cultural backgrounds and language skills. Reinders (2006) has introduced the term co-culturation, as distinct from enculturation and acculturation, to describe the process of engagement with cultural diversity by both, natives and those with migration background. In a sample of adolescents growing up in multicultural Luxembourg, we highlight the interplay between migration status, friendship patterns, family relations, well-being and identity. Students (N = 85) attending a Luxembourgish secondary school participated in this questionnaire study (Mage = 16.45, SD = 1.09, 46 male, 39 female). The majority (n = 68) of the students were born in Luxembourg, 17 are natives (born to two Luxembourgish parents), 43 are second generation, 17 first generation and 6 are of mixed parentage. We assessed language competence and use, friendship patterns and family relationships. Measures also included the Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scales (BMSLSS) which assesses satisfaction with life in different domains and the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) scale. The results indicate that friendship patterns are formed on the basis of the characteristics of the individual rather than based on the country of origin. Few statistically significant differences could be found in terms of country of origin/ migration status and various outcome measures. The results can be interpreted in the co-culturation framework. For this cohort of adolescents, culture contact is the norm and salience of cultural background appears to weaken as a result. However, the Luxembourgish language plays an important unifying role

The Multicultural Ideology Scale (MIS): Factor structure and measurement invariance

The concept of multiculturalism has been widely used in cross-cultural research to describe positive attitudes towards a culturally plural society and practices that support cultural diversity. To date, attitudes towards multiculturalism among majority and minority group members have been assessed with the same instruments. However, there is little psychometric evidence that these measures operate appropriately in various cultural contexts. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the factor structure of the Multicultural Ideology Scale (MIS; Berry & Kalin, 1995) and test its measurement invariance across different language versions and ethnic groups. The entire sample consisted of 1572 adolescents and adults in Luxembourg, including native majority members (N = 693) and immigrants from diverse ethnic backgrounds (N = 879). Participants were given the option to complete the questionnaire in one of the following languages: English, German or French. The unidimensional model of multicultural ideology did not show an acceptable fit of the data across all language versions of the MIS. Exploratory and confirmatory factorial analyses revealed a two-factor structure, which was partially invariant across two different language versions (English and German). The two factors reflected positive and negative attitudes towards cultural diversity respectively. Subsequent multigroup confirmatory factor analyses supported configural and metric invariance across majority and minority group members. Scalar invariance was not established, indicating that respondents across these two groups conceptualize multiculturalism in different ways. Implications of these findings are discussed together with methodological issues concerning the assessment of measurement invariance

The role of cultural heterogeneity in strengthening the link between family relationships and life satisfaction in 50 societies

We argue that the importance of family relationships for individual well-being varies across societies as a function of a society’s degree of cultural heterogeneity. To examine the role of family relationships, we analyzed the responses from 13,009 participants in 50 societies on their life satisfaction across societies varying in their levels of historical and contemporary cultural heterogeneity. Such heterogeneity creates differences in the frequency of interacting with unfamiliar groups, which leads families to become more central to their members’ satisfaction with life. Multi-level analyses showed that historical and contemporary cultural heterogeneity moderated the pattern such that greater historical or contemporary cultural heterogeneity of society promoted a stronger positive relation between family relationship satisfaction and individual life satisfaction. Our results also revealed that the moderating role of historical cultural heterogeneity was more reliable than that of contemporary cultural heterogeneity. These findings demonstrate the importance of societal demography in shaping people’s psychological processes in different historical periods, suggesting a universal, trans-historical cultural process.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Role of Cultural Heterogeneity in Strengthening the Link Between Family Relationships and Life Satisfaction in 50 Societies

We argue that the importance of family relationships for individual well-being varies across societies as a function of a society’s degree of cultural heterogeneity. To examine the role of family relationships, we analyzed the responses from 13,009 participants in 50 societies on their life satisfaction across societies varying in their levels of historical and contemporary cultural heterogeneity. Such heterogeneity creates differences in the frequency of interacting with unfamiliar groups, which leads families to become more central to their members’ satisfaction with life. Multi-level analyses showed that historical and contemporary cultural heterogeneity moderated the pattern such that greater historical or contemporary cultural heterogeneity of society promoted a stronger positive relation between family relationship satisfaction and individual life satisfaction. Our results also revealed that the moderating role of historical cultural heterogeneity was more reliable than that of contemporary cultural heterogeneity. These findings demonstrate the importance of societal demography in shaping people’s psychological processes in different historical periods, suggesting a universal, trans-historical cultural process

The perceived vulnerability to disease scale: Cross‐cultural measurement invariance and associations with fear of COVID‐19 across 16 countries

Using cross‐sectional data from N = 4274 young adults across 16 countries during the COVID‐19 pandemic, we examined the cross‐cultural measurement invariance of the perceived vulnerability to disease (PVD) scale and tested the hypothesis that the association between PVD and fear of COVID‐19 is stronger under high disease threat [that is, absence of COVID‐19 vaccination, living in a country with lower Human Development Index (HDI) or higher COVID‐19 mortality]. Results supported a bi‐factor Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling model where items loaded on a global PVD factor, and on the sub‐factors of Perceived Infectability and Germ Aversion. However, cross‐national invariance could only be obtained on the configural level with a reduced version of the PVD scale (PVD‐r), suggesting that the concept of PVD may vary across nations. Moreover, higher PVD‐r was consistently associated with greater fear of COVID‐19 across all levels of disease threat, but this association was especially pronounced among individuals with a COVID‐19 vaccine, and in contexts where COVID‐19 mortality was high. The present research brought clarity into the dimensionality of the PVD measure, discussed its suitability and limitations for cross‐cultural research, and highlighted the pandemic‐related conditions under which higher PVD is most likely to go along with psychologically maladaptive outcomes, such as fear of COVID‐19

Introduction to a culturally sensitive measure of well-being: Combining life satisfaction and interdependent happiness across 49 different cultures

How can one conclude that well-being is higher in country A than country B, when wellbeing is being measured according to the way people in country A think about wellbeing? We address this issue by proposing a new culturally sensitive method to comparing societal levels of well-being. We support our reasoning with data on life satisfaction and interdependent happiness focusing on individual and family, collected mostly from students, across forty-nine countries. We demonstrate that the relative idealization of the two types of wellbeing varies across cultural contexts and are associated with culturally different models of selfhood. Furthermore, we show that rankings of societal well-being based on life satisfaction tend to underestimate the contribution from interdependent happiness. We introduce a new culturally sensitive method for calculating societal well-being, and examine its construct validity by testing for associations with the experience of emotions and with individualism-collectivism. This new culturally sensitive approach represents a slight, yet important improvement in measuring well-being

Societal emotional environments and cross-cultural differences in life satisfaction: A forty-nine country study.

In this paper, we introduce the concept of ‘societal emotional environment’: the emotional climate of a society (operationalized as the degree to which positive and negative emotions are expressed in a society). Using data collected from 12,888 participants across 49 countries, we show how societal emotional environments vary across countries and cultural clusters, and we consider the potential importance of these differences for well-being. Multilevel analyses supported a ‘double-edged sword’ model of negative emotion expression, where expression of negative emotions predicted higher life satisfaction for the expresser but lower life satisfaction for society. In contrast, partial support was found for higher societal life satisfaction in positive societal emotional environments. Our study highlights the potential utility and importance of distinguishing between positive and negative emotion expression, and adopting both individual and societal perspectives in well-being research. Individual pathways to happiness may not necessarily promote the happiness of others

Happiness Maximization Is a WEIRD Way of Living

Psychological science tends to treat subjective wellbeing and happiness synonymously. We start from the assumption that subjective wellbeing is more than being happy to ask the fundamental question: what is the ideal level of happiness? From a cross-cultural perspective, we propose that the idealization of attaining maximum levels of happiness may be especially characteristic of WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, Democratic) societies, but less so for others. Searching for an explanation for why “happiness maximization” might have emerged in these societies, we turn to studies linking cultures to their eco-environmental habitat. We discuss the premise that WEIRD cultures emerged in an exceptionally benign ecological habitat, i.e., compared to other regions, they faced relatively light existential pressures. We review the influence of the Gulfstream on the North-Western European climate as a source of these comparatively benign geographical conditions. We propose that the ecological conditions in which WEIRD societies emerged afforded them a basis to endorse happiness as a value and to idealise attaining its maximum level. To provide a nomological network for “happiness maximization”, we also studied its several potential side-effects: alcohol and drug consumption and abuse, and the prevalence of mania. To evaluate our hypothesis, we re-analyse data from two large-scale studies on ideal levels of personal life satisfaction—the most common operationalization of happiness in psychology—involving respondents from 61 countries. We conclude that societies whose members seek to maximize happiness tend to be characterized as a WEIRD, and generalizing this across societies can prove problematic if adopted at the ideological and policy level

Facial perception and implicit prejudice: An eye-tracking study

Racial bias can affect the way of processing visual stimuli that are targets of prejudice. Different levels of prejudice and the type of prejudice (implicit vs. explicit) were related to automatic and controlled processes of visual exploration (Hansen Rakhshan, Ho, & Pannasch, 2015). The proposed study aims to extend these findings by including pictures of individuals that belong to different racial and ethnic groups (White, Asian, Black, Latino) and vary in prototypical characteristics. Images of the Chicago Face Database will be presented in an online study. Eye movements will be recorded during the presentation of visual stimuli. We will examine differences in exploratory looking behavior among natives in a western European country and individuals with migratory background