A Model of Family Change in Cultural Context

This reading is about the psychological study of the family with a cross-cultural comparative orientation. It attempts to provide answers to some basic questions regarding the family in context - whether there are systematic global changes in the family, what might be some of the important factors that characterize family and family change, and how they function. A model of family change is proposed to address these questions and to shed light on the variations in family patterns in different socio-cultural-economic contexts. These patterns also help understand the development of the self in family and society. It is proposed that the modernization hypothesis of \u27converging on the Western pattern\u27 with socio-economic development around the globe is not being supported by the research results from various countries. Instead, a synthetic family pattern of emotional/psychological interdependence is emerging across different contexts, as it best satisfies the two basic human needs for autonomy and relatedness

From Diversity to Systematic Patterns and Integrative Syntheses: A Journey in Cross-Cultural Psychology

The evolution of cross-cultural psychology started with studies of differences, advanced to examining systematic patterns and currently is involved with possible Integrative syntheses. The beginnings of cross-cultural psychology, closely allied with anthropology, involved European and North American scientists’ search for human differences in “exotic” places. With the internationalization of the field, research is now carried out mostly in contemporary societies. With large comparative data sets systematic patterns are revealed, for example in values. The next step, which may have already started, is likely to integrate cultural differences with similarities adaptive to increasingly similar urban life styles. Such syntheses promise to contribute to human wellbeing

Changing life styles - changing competencies: Turkish migrant youth in Europe

"Dieser Artikel beschäftigt sich mit der Misere der türkischen jugendlichen Migranten in Europa unter dem Gesichtspunkt, dass Migration auch sozialen Wandel darstellt indem sich Lebensstile verändern, die neue Kompetenzen erforderlich machen. Damit jugendliche Migranten einen Gewinn statt einer Last für die Aufnahmegesellschaften darstellen ist eine volle Integration unumgänglich. Diese beinhaltet die Förderung von kognitiven Kompetenzen und der psychosozialen Entwicklung auch im Hinblick auf das autonom-zusammengehörige Selbst. Es werden Parallelen zwischen der Landflucht und internationaler Migration in Hinblick auf wahrgenommenen sozialen Wandel gezogen und das Türkische Frühförderungsprogramm TEEP als Beispiel angeführt. Das TEEP hat gezeigt, dass Frühförderung durch Unterstützung von nach Istanbul eingewanderten Müttern vorteilhaft für die kognitiven Kompetenzen und die psycho-soziale Entwicklung der Kinder war. Diese Effekte blieben bis ins junge Erwachsenenalter erhalten. Ähnliche Interventions- und Unterstützungsprogramme wären hochgradig förderlich für ethnische Migranten in Europa und vor allem für deutsch-türkische Jugendliche, da diese besonders schlechte Schulleistungen aufweisen. Auch die Aufnahmegesellschaften würden sehr umfangreich von einer positiven Entwicklung dieser Jugendlichen profitieren, die sich in der Verbesserung des autonom-zusammengehörigen Selbst, der kognitiven Kompetenzen und der psychologischen sowie sozio-kulturellen Anpassung widerspiegeln würde." (Autorenreferat)"This paper examines the plight of Turkish migrant youth in Europe particularly as migration involves social change in terms of changing life styles which require changing competencies. For the migrant youth to be assets, rather than problems, for the receiving society, their full integration into society should be ensured. This requires the enhancement of their cognitive competence and psycho-social development involving the autonomous-related self. Drawing parallels between rural to urban migration and international migration with regard to the experienced social change, the Turkish Early Enrichment Project (TEEP) is taken up as a case in point. TEEP showed that early childhood enrichment through supporting the mothers among rural to urban migrants in Istanbul, Turkey was beneficial for both the cognitive competence and the psycho-social development of their children. The gains were found to be sustained into young adulthood. Similar programs of intervention and support would be highly beneficial for ethnic migrants in Europe, particularly for Turkish-German youth, given the fact that they tend to do poorly in school. Immigrants' positive youth development, involving the enhancement of autonomous-related self, cognitive competence, psychological and socio-cultural adaptation, promises to provide far reaching benefits to the receiving societies, as well." (author's abstract

Changing value of children in Turkey

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The Value of Children for Parents in the Minds of Emerging Adults

The value that children have for parents (i.e., social/traditional, economic/utilitarian, and psychological-value of children [VOC]) is important in shedding light on parental goals and expectations regarding children, intergenerational relationships and a host of related factors that reflect the place of the child in family and society. VOCs also figure prominently in a theory of family change which informs this study. Young adults' views regarding the value of children are important in the context of generational change. The present study focused on Turkish and American emerging adults, the former residing in urban/metropolitan, and rural settings. Students' attitudes and values were compared to their perceptions of the attitudes and values of their parents. Comparisons across generations, cultures, and SES levels reflected changes over time and across geographical regions. Both differences and similarities between American and Turkish samples were obtained as well as between urban and rural settings. Differences in VOC across generations and socioeconomic/cultural comparison groups provided some support for Kagitcibasi's family change theory

Intercultural engagement and relatedness: Examining mediation effects

Most research on student sojourners has studied students coming from the Majority World to Western countries, especially the United States, for undergraduate and graduate education. Though increasing greatly in numbers, shorter sojourn has not been the focus of attention. With regard to the adjustment of sojourners, research has tended to stress situational factors rather than personality. This study is different in terms of focusing on short term educational sojourn of Western students in a Majority World country and examining the effect of personal characteristics and cultural evaluation of the sojourners on their experience. Relatedness and country of origin were found to influence the cultural experience of exchange students through their cultural evaluation at baseline. Students with higher relatedness orientation had more positive cultural evaluations at baseline which then led to a more positive cultural experience in the receiving country