The number of intercultural marriages has grown significantly in the past few decades, as have the numbers of intercultural couples presenting for marital and family therapy. Current literature on intercultural relationships states that they are at a high risk for failure, with higher divorce rates and lower marital satisfaction reported than for same culture marriages. Few actual research studies have been conducted to prove or disprove these theories, and no studies have looked at how successful couples have dealt with the stressors stated in the literature such that they remain married and report high marital satisfaction. This study was an exploratory study on the stress and coping techniques successful couples have utilized in their relationships, based on the ABCX model of stress and coping. Six couples were interviewed on what stressors they have faced, what resources they have accessed and built to combat those stressors, and what their perceptions of their challenges have been. Several themes emerged. Couples revealed common stressors from family and society disapproval, language barriers, logistics, cultural barriers and traditions, and children. Coping resources included humor, learning about the other's culture, support, communication, personal preparation, working towards common goals, and religion. These couples were found to have attitudes of commitment to their marriage and each other, and a belief that they were not that different from their partner. Clinical implications include support for the idea of strength-based intervention for intercultural couples. This study will provide a beginning framework for others interested in doing more research on intercultural relationships, and designing models for work with this population. / Master of Science

The aim of our thesis is to study the two concepts “reading culture” and “literacy” in the context of Uganda. We base our study on the project the Children’s Reading Tent. We examine these two concepts in relation to the people working with the Children’s Reading Tent and the participating children. Moreover, we look at what needs the children have according to the adult informants and how these needs can be met. The methods used are semi-structured interviews and observations of the Children’s Reading Tent. We interviewed ten of the project’s organisers, twenty of the participating children and conducted six observations. We applied the sociocultural approach to literacy in our study and used Street’s view on literacy as a social and cultural practise and Serpell’s concept “bicultural mediation”. We concluded that the participating children come in contact with one culture in school and one at home. The adult informants connect these two cultures through including both literacy practices from school, such as reading and writing, and indigenous literacy practises such as storytelling into the concept literacy. This is due to the fact that children need to learn from the familiar, which in this case is the culture at home. This need can be met through mediation between the two cultures. A reading culture in Uganda implies having the habit of reading in your everyday life and not simply for school purposes. This is believed to be difficult to accomplish since reading is mostly connected with the culture in school. / Uppsatsnivå: D

While several studies examining African Americans' mental health rates appeared in the past, existing research does not describe internal and external factor influences on positive ethnic identity development and their mediating effects on mental health help-seeking attitudes for this population. This quantitative study used structural equation modeling to examine the relationships between 3 ecological levels (the individual level/level of bicultural identity, the family level/family ethnic socialization, and the social context level/self-concealment) and examine their collective influence on ethnic identity development and mental health help-seeking attitudes of African Americans. The choice of variables for this study was grounded in Stokols' social ecological theory, Lewin's theory of psychological fields, and Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems that outline human development. Results were measured by responses to surveys from 161 African American males and females residing within the Atlanta, Georgia area. The family and social level were more predictive of ethnic identity development and ethnic identity positively and negatively, respectively, related to bicultural self-efficacy. Having the ability to communicate in both mainstream and ethnic cultures was directly predictive of positive attitudes toward seeking professional help. The social change implications of this study included gaining insight into African Americans' difficulty with developing positive ethnic identity and mental health help-seeking, providing professional clinicians with a model of the process of ethnic identity and mental health help-seeking attitude development, and improved advancement in training and cultural-based interventions for clinicians specifically working with minority populations.

Traditional studies of ethnic relations focus on racialization between Whites and Blacks, or ethnic stratification between Whites and people of color. The increasingly integrated world has ensured continued movements of humans and goods and the inevitable contacts between people of different cultural background. This dissertation aims at broadening conventional studies of interethnic relations to examine racial attitudes among people who have internalized more than one culture -- i.e. the biculturals and multiculturals. Social psychological research suggests that bicultural individuals are capable of switching between two cultural meaning frames depending on contextual demands. Bicultural individuals vary in how well they integrate the two cultural identities internalized in them -- i.e., their bicultural identity integration levels (BII levels). Their BII levels lead to either culturally congruent or culturally incongruent behaviors among bicultural individuals. The underlying assumption of linguistic intergroup bias indicates that people tend to describe more abstractly observed positive ingroup behaviors and negative outgroup behaviors and describe more concretely observed negative ingroup behaviors and positive outgroup behaviors. In this study, bicultural Asian American participants are hypothesized to use language of either higher or lower abstraction to describe actions of positive and negative valence performed by either ethnic Asians or European Americans depending on the cultural priming they received and their BII levels. The study results point out the perceived ingroup/outgroup orientation of the bicultural participants towards their coethnics and people of the mainstream culture. Effects of the cultural priming and impact of BII levels are also discussed. / text

Biculturals are increasingly recognized as an important segment of managers, yet U.S.-based global organizations’ limited knowledge and recognition of this group’s distinctive experiences and related implications within their work environment limit the value placed on bicultural managers’ leadership of multicultural teams and the use of their competencies and skills to improve the effectiveness of multicultural teams. Notwithstanding, traditional leadership models are lacking in diversity and unanswered questions remain regarding the role of multiculturalism in global leadership and team effectiveness. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory multiple case study was to gain deeper understanding of the management experiences of biculturals in U.S.-based global organizations and the implications of their bicultural competencies and skills in leading multicultural teams. This study was framed by 3 concepts: bicultural competence, boundary spanning by bicultural managers, and leadership emergence in multicultural teams. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 7 participants, reflective field notes, and archival data. Identifiable themes emerged through thematic analysis of the textual data and cross-case synthesis analysis. Five conceptual categories that enclosed a total of 16 themes were identified. The conceptual categories are (a) bicultural competence, (b) boundary spanning, (c) cultural intelligence, (d) global identity, and (e) leading multicultural teams. Findings may drive social change by challenging the status quo in existing formal work structures and promoting diversity in the workplace creating emerging avenues for business growth and building bridges of communication between the business world and society.

With a growing multilingual global population, it is becoming increasingly important to know how people of varying cultures respond to persuasive appeals. Cross-cultural studies on persuasion have found differences in American and Chinese advertisements that reflect individualistic and collectivist cultural values. However, these studies have ignored the possible effect of language, despite research showing that language can activate specific cultural ideas and behaviors in bilingual individuals. Additionally, differences have been found in thinking and emotionality in the native (L1) versus the non-native language (L2), that seem to parallel the central and peripheral routes of elaboration in persuasion. Therefore, the proposed study will explore relationship between culture, language and attitude change. In stage 1, participants will report their initial attitudes towards the topics of air travel and nuclear power and their L1 preference. In stage 2, participants will read 2 stories that contain a cultural prime (magpie/red light from a lantern) with contrasting cultural association in American and Chinese culture and fictional scenarios about air travel and nuclear power. Participants will report their attitudes after reading the stories and attitude change will be examined. Two possible outcomes for main effects and interactions between Linguistic/Cultural association and L1 preference on the dependent variable of attitude change will be explored with the intent of discovering which processes are dominant in the bilingual brain.

Most of the research related to psychotherapy is about modality, treatments and therapeutic outcomes. There is little research on the psychotherapists themselves; their subjective experiences, their preparation or personal development. Personal growth, which leads to a developmental level permitting self-reflection and relational ability, is considered by the psychotherapy profession to be an important aspect of the psychotherapist's education. This hermeneutic study focuses on students' experience of personal growth during a formal psychotherapy educational programme. The core of the thesis is the presentation of the students' lived experience during training. Recent graduates of psychotherapy programmes were interviewed and their accounts include the process of personal growth, in what ways the developmental journey was felt to be supportive and containing, ways graduates feel changed, the impact on their lives during and after the training, and the meanings they ascribe to the experience. The particular growth experiences of Maori graduates are to some degree explored, as are the experiences of psychotherapy teachers who facilitate personal development. Themes emerged from data analysis; personal growth did happen, was felt to be positive, and took place as a journey. The growth process was turbulent, painful, yet resulted in positive outcomes for the graduates. Love and relationship were experienced as the most significant catalyst in promoting growth towards key outcomes. It was felt that bicultural learning activities enhanced and supported growth for Maori and non-Maori. The nature and complexity of love is discussed; including the place of love in personal change, psychotherapy and psychotherapy training. The discomfort commonly experienced in the profession around describing the therapeutic relationship as one involving love is highlighted. Possible reasons are given for this, for not using the word love in psychotherapy. Implications for psychotherapy education arising from the research are presented; with questions about, and recommendations for, facilitating personal growth, and the utilisation of love in a more open and conscious manner as a part of psychotherapy training. Currently most preparation of psychotherapists occurs in mainstream academic institutions, with a movement in the profession towards more formal qualifications. It is a challenge for educators and students alike to continue to include in traditional academic structures and processes what is felt to be the essence of psychotherapy; love and relationship, the practice of which requires high levels of personal development.

The purpose of this paper was to examine multicultural education, and clarify misconceptions about it. Particularly, those misconceptions that have resulted in House Bill 2281 ( i.e. multicultural education “promotes the overthrow of the United States government”), and the misconception that multicultural education solely involves content integration. In addition, this paper examines the possible benefits of having a multicultural education. These benefits include combating the negative effects of acculturation and assimilation, reducing prejudice and the effects of stereotypes, enhancing other-group orientation, and promoting critical analysis and empowerment.

This research posits art as an encounter, an encounter between the conceptual worlds of artists and of viewers. It acclaims the respective art skills within the marae (communal meeting place) named Tangatarua at Waiariki Institute of Technology, Rotorua. Tangatarua Marae is a place of bicultural encounter. This writing includes readers in the social relations of this encounter. This is a qualitative study that uses an interpretive epistemology to examine some of the art forms of Tangatarua. My focus is on micronarratives - that is, on intimate, improvised meanings generated by some of the small artworks. These reference and affirm the symbolism of the carvings but are less visible due to their lesser scale and interstitial placement within the interior architecture. They are rendered more visible through the phenomenological detail of participant accounts as well as the positivism of a formalist critique. I posit art as a dialogical activity, inseparable from the phenomenological conditions that precede and inform it, and inseparable from the emergent meaning that is forged at its encounter. I contend that the collaborative mode of art production within Tangatarua embodies this dialogical model. I amplify some of the tangible art forms of Tangatarua by dismantling the intangible discursive forms that have impinged on them. These include aspects of the political context of the establishment of the marae, Waiariki Institute of Technology’s bicultural framework, and the pedagogy of its Art School. My writing is underpinned by a participatory paradigm acknowledging my situatedness as an artist participant within Tangatarua, a woman of Ngai Tahu descent, and art tutor at Waiariki Institute of Technology. This study similarly acknowledges the multifaceted, experiential transactions between those artists whose small collective gestures have informed and transformed the interior of Tangatarua.

This research posits art as an encounter, an encounter between the conceptual worlds of artists and of viewers. It acclaims the respective art skills within the marae (communal meeting place) named Tangatarua at Waiariki Institute of Technology, Rotorua. Tangatarua Marae is a place of bicultural encounter. This writing includes readers in the social relations of this encounter. This is a qualitative study that uses an interpretive epistemology to examine some of the art forms of Tangatarua. My focus is on micronarratives - that is, on intimate, improvised meanings generated by some of the small artworks. These reference and affirm the symbolism of the carvings but are less visible due to their lesser scale and interstitial placement within the interior architecture. They are rendered more visible through the phenomenological detail of participant accounts as well as the positivism of a formalist critique. I posit art as a dialogical activity, inseparable from the phenomenological conditions that precede and inform it, and inseparable from the emergent meaning that is forged at its encounter. I contend that the collaborative mode of art production within Tangatarua embodies this dialogical model. I amplify some of the tangible art forms of Tangatarua by dismantling the intangible discursive forms that have impinged on them. These include aspects of the political context of the establishment of the marae, Waiariki Institute of Technology’s bicultural framework, and the pedagogy of its Art School. My writing is underpinned by a participatory paradigm acknowledging my situatedness as an artist participant within Tangatarua, a woman of Ngai Tahu descent, and art tutor at Waiariki Institute of Technology. This study similarly acknowledges the multifaceted, experiential transactions between those artists whose small collective gestures have informed and transformed the interior of Tangatarua.