The universality versus culture specificity of quantitative evaluations (negative-positive) of 40 events in world history was addressed using World History Survey data collected from 5,800 university students in 30 countries/societies. Multidimensional scaling using generalized procrustean analysis indicated poor fit of data from the 30 countries to an overall mean configuration, indicating lack of universal agreement as to the associational meaning of events in world history. Hierarchical cluster analysis identified one Western and two non-Western country clusters for which adequate multidimensional fit was obtained after item deletions. A two-dimensional solution for the three country clusters was identified, where the primary dimension was historical calamities versus progress and a weak second dimension was modernity versus resistance to modernity. Factor analysis further reduced the item inventory to identify a single concept with structural equivalence across cultures, Historical Calamities, which included man-made and natural, intentional and unintentional, predominantly violent but also nonviolent calamities. Less robust factors were tentatively named as Historical Progress and Historical Resistance to Oppression. Historical Calamities and Historical Progress were at Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 43(2) the individual level both significant and independent predictors of willingness to fight for one's country in a hierarchical linear model that also identified significant country-level variation in these relationships. Consensus around calamity but disagreement as to what constitutes historical progress is discussed in relation to the political culture of nations and lay perceptions of history as catastrophe. Keywords cross-cultural dimensions of meaning, evaluation of historical events, perceptions of history, World History Survey, Historical Calamities, Historical Progress, Historical Resistance to Oppression, willingness to fight for one's country A major contribution of cross-cultural psychology to the global science of psychology has been the identification of dimensions of cultural variation on which national cultures can be located. Two of the most sophisticated investigations of this type have converged on the finding that while cultures may differ on average as to the extent that members endorse certain values (Schwartz, 1992) or beliefs (Leung & Bond, 2004), there is substantial universality in the associational meaning

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This paper focuses on the examination of the early production of F.C. Bartlett devoted to the psychological study of an anthropological question: the conventionalization of cultural materials. His early articles offer a project for a cultural psychology which also foresees a theory of activity, as well as developing a set of categories which allow a transition from the social to the individual levels of analysis. His view of how symbols are created, transmitted and changed is also of particular interest, both in individual and in social life, as is his discussion of the role feelings play in semiosis.

Esta es la versión de autor del artículo publicado en: This is an author produced version of a paper published in: AbstractThis paper is devoted to the study of experience as a semiotic process of constructing the personal meaning of the situation lived. Its main purpose is to devise a semiotic methodology capable of describing and explaining the dynamics of positioning when facing personal lived experiences in real life contexts. Twenty four young adults were exposed to a simulated conflict and then asked to write a narrative of their understanding of the incident and a self-report of their personal experiences. Resultsshow how narratives and trajectories of experience present different forms in each participant, which could be related to: a) the understanding of the situation lived and the position taken regarding the conflict; and b) the position each participant takes regarding the reports they had to produce for the researchers. The incorporation of reflexivity into the applied method allows and identification of how the dynamics of double positioning leave traces in the records produced.Keywords: Experience, trajectories of experience, positioning, semiotics.Title page Click here to view linked References 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 1 Trajectories of experience of real life events.A semiotic approach to the dynamics of positioning. AbstractThis paper is devoted to the study of experience as a semiotic process of constructing the personal meaning of the situation lived. Its main purpose is to devise a semiotic methodology capable of describing and explaining the dynamics of positioning when facing personal lived experiences in real life contexts. Twenty four young adults were exposed to a simulated conflict and then asked to write a narrative of their understanding of the incident and a self-report of their personal experiences. Results show how narratives and trajectories of experience present different forms in each participant, which could be related to: a) the understanding of the situation lived and the position taken regarding the conflict; and b) the position each participant takes regarding the reports they had to produce for the researchers. The incorporation of reflexivity into the applied method allows an identification of how the dynamics of double positioning leave traces in the records produced.Experience: a dynamic and semiotic process.How is a lived situation understood? How is it that in the same situation some people feel impelled to act and some others do not? What makes some people to act and others to refrain from doing so? Why do people, who an observer would say behaved similarly in the same situation, could feel very differently about the way they themselves behaved? These are questions about personal experience, about the forms it takes in different people, abou...