Downloaded from JOURNAL OF CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY Leung et al. / SOCIAL AXIOMSTo broaden our conceptual framework for understanding cultural differences, the present article reports two studies that examined whether pancultural dimensions based on general beliefs, or social axioms, can be identified in persons from five cultures. A Social Axioms Survey was constructed, based on both previous psychological research primarily in Europe and North America on beliefs and qualitative research conducted in Hong Kong and Venezuela. Factor analyses of these beliefs from student as well as adult samples revealed a pancultural, five-factor structure, with dimensions labeled as: cynicism, social complexity, reward for application, spirituality, and fate control. In the second study, this five-factor structure, with the possible exception of fate control, was replicated with college students from Japan, the United States, and Germany. The potential implications of a universal, five-factor structure of individual social beliefs were discussed, along with the relation of this structure to indigenous belief systems and to culture-level analyses.Culture has long been a fuzzy concept, and numerous attempts have been made to define and measure it (e.g., Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952;Rohner, 1984). The now-classic work of Hofstede (1980) on work-related values represented a major step forward in classifying cultures. For instance, individualism-collectivism, one of his cultural dimensions, has been used to account for a wide range of cross-cultural similarities and differences among nations (e.g., Triandis, 1995). Subsequently, several major projects have adopted a similar approach in the search of cultural dimensions. Using values salient to the Chinese people, the Chinese Culture Connection (1987) identified one additional dimension that Hofstede (1980) did not capture, Confucian work dynamism, or short-term versus long-term orientation (Hofstede, 1991). Schwartz (1994) has established a more psychologically grounded mapping of cultures with seven cultural-level value dimensions. Finally, Smith, Dugan, and Trompenaars 286 AUTHORS' NOTE: We would like to thank Shalom Schwartz, Karen Phalet, and the reviewers for their highly valuable comments. Downloaded from (1996) identified three major value dimensions at the cultural level. Smith and Bond (1998, chap. 3) concluded that these different surveys produced converging results despite differences in instrumentation, subject populations, and time periods during which the data were collected.The value-based approaches to culture described above have all been pitched at the national level. However, both Schwartz (1992) and Bond (1988) have provided value-based approaches to cultural differences pitched at the individual level of analysis. That is, the domains or dimensions along which people from different nations may be compared in their studies were derived by analyzing the data in ways that adduce individual-level constructs, thereby enabling researchers to compare people rather than...

Parent involvement is a robust predictor of academic achievement, but little is known about school- and home-based involvement in immigrant families. Drawing on ecological theories, the present study examined contextual characteristics as predictors of parent involvement among Afro-Caribbean and Latino parents of young students in urban public schools. Socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with lower home-based involvement. Several factors were associated with higher involvement, including parents’ connection to their culture of origin and to U.S. culture, engagement practices by teachers and parent–teacher ethnic consonance (for Latinos only). Findings have implications for promoting involvement among immigrant families of students in urban schools.

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This paper presents a realistic generator of power quality (PQ) disturbances developed using real time-hardware in the loop (RT-HIL) technologies; the aim is to reduce the gap between the PQ mathematical theory and its practical application by improving the technical skills of students through the use of instruments in a controlled and safe laboratory environment. The implementation of this interactive teaching tool in a graduate level course has significantly enhanced the communication process between the teacher and students and thus, resulted in a highly effective teaching methodology. ß 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 23:391-402, 2015; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae;