In this study, comparisons on job stressors and job strains have been made between American and Chinese employees. Data were collected from two jobs differing in social status: university professors and university administrative and support staff. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. The quantitative part involved traditional Likert scales for measuring job stressors (e.g., lack of job autonomy, interpersonal conflict, and organizational constraints), and job strains (e.g., turnover intention, frustration, negative emotions, job dissatisfaction, depression, and physical symptoms). The qualitative part was an open-ended questionnaire asking about a stressful job incident. Independent t-tests were used to compare the United States to China on the job stressors and job strains for the quantitative data. Content analyses were applied on the open-ended answers. Finally, I conducted chi-square tests to examine if the frequencies of reported stressors/strains between the U.S. sample and the Chinese sample were significantly different. From the quantitative analyses on job stressors, American employees perceived more job autonomy and organizational constraints than Chinese employees. There was no significant difference between the two samples on interpersonal conflict. The analyses on the qualitative data revealed that heavy workload, interpersonal conflicts, and organizational constraints were the common job stressors for both the U.S. and Chinese samples. However, lack of job control was a unique stressor for American employees, while performance evaluations and work mistakes were specifically stressful for Chinese employees. The Chi-square analysis yielded a significant difference in the nature of reported stressors between the U.S. and Chinese sample. The qualitative analyses on job strain data revealed that, under high pressure, American employees tended to be angry and frustrated, while Chinese employees tended to feel worried and helpless. The most important physical symptom for the U.S. sample was tiredness and exhaust, while sleep problems was serious to Chinese sample. The Chisquare analysis yielded a significant difference in both psychological and physical strains between the U.S. and Chinese samples.

Water is a finite resource which is increasingly valued as a commodity. This thesis explores the use and appreciation of water, in the context of community response and exchange. Its focus is a community writing practice, and in particular a project entitled new dimensions in Water Conversation based in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. This project was a non-crisis driven investigation into a wide range of interests in water. The central proposition of the thesis is that techno-scientific and broader cultural world views on water rarely connect, and that bringing them together reveals awkward tensions between specialist and non-specialist standpoints. These disparities are shown in the group writings and outcome of the project, which bring water provision into closer perspective. A story emerges from the project and its influences. It is one of material relationships to water over testings, tastings and visits to a water treatment works. It suggests links which would not normally be anticipated, for example between a regional bulk water supplier and a group of water writers. The study combines fiction and contemplation with critical analysis and the thesis crosses disciplinary boundaries, drawing on insights from critical cultural theory and the philosophy of science. The writing is performative rather than accumulative in nature, yet is a concrete record of the interplay between water users and water specialists, in a local and global dimension which includes the Northern Rivers, Australia more generally and Varanasi in India. Using this transcultural approach, it decentres theory and locates value in the situated contexts and views of different stakeholders in water, which range from sacred values to indifference. The work calls out for a way of thinking about water that is not yet in the public discourse. Through the practical connection of the project with an Australian water instrumentality, it draws in developments in contemporary water management, and raises questions and doubts about how instrumentalist and market values have come to dominate imaginings of a global water future. At the same time it points to the importance of putting the values of the arts and humanities into practice in the increasingly inter-disciplinary environment in which the resource of water is managed and maintained.

<p>The aim of this study was to examine how athletes and coaches, in Sweden and Portugal, perceive and experience success and failure in relation to sport. Moreover, study if there were cultural differences in coping. The main objectives of the study consisted of examining differences based on culture and coaches vs. athletes in the following research questions; how athletes and coaches define, react and cope with success and failure, how they perceive consequences and how coaches help athletes to cope with success and failure. Fifteen (n=15) individual semi structured interviews was carried out with ten (n=10) Swedish and five (n=5) Portuguese sportsmen. An interview guide based on the objectives of the study was developed. 1226 raw data units were identified and categorised using categorization, tagging and regrouping of relevant concepts. The results are discussed according to several stress-coping theories. Moreover, the result showed some differences based on both culture and on coaches vs. athletes. Furthermore success was mainly defined as reaching goals and failure as performance related mistakes. Reactions on both success and failure were mainly emotional. Negative consequences of both success and failure were most common and problem- focused coping were adopted to cope with those situations. The coaches supported the athletes by adopting emotion- and problem-focused coping.</p>

The aim of this study was to examine how athletes and coaches, in Sweden and Portugal, perceive and experience success and failure in relation to sport. Moreover, study if there were cultural differences in coping. The main objectives of the study consisted of examining differences based on culture and coaches vs. athletes in the following research questions; how athletes and coaches define, react and cope with success and failure, how they perceive consequences and how coaches help athletes to cope with success and failure. Fifteen (n=15) individual semi structured interviews was carried out with ten (n=10) Swedish and five (n=5) Portuguese sportsmen. An interview guide based on the objectives of the study was developed. 1226 raw data units were identified and categorised using categorization, tagging and regrouping of relevant concepts. The results are discussed according to several stress-coping theories. Moreover, the result showed some differences based on both culture and on coaches vs. athletes. Furthermore success was mainly defined as reaching goals and failure as performance related mistakes. Reactions on both success and failure were mainly emotional. Negative consequences of both success and failure were most common and problem- focused coping were adopted to cope with those situations. The coaches supported the athletes by adopting emotion- and problem-focused coping.

With the development of the Internet and the globalization, corporate web site has played an important role for multinational enterprise. The corporate not only need to focus on the globalization of their web site, but also need to devote the localization of the web site to fit the local needs. This study adopted the qualitative research methods, and has interviewed with employees of a domestic leading computer manufacturer-E Company. The purpose of the study is to explore the pros and cons of the multinational team by using cross-cultural studies in the theoretical analysis. Base on the experiential case, this study discussed how the cross-cultural issues influence the cooperation of the multi-national team and to find out the best solution for managerial issues. The research conclusion summarized as below. 1. Low cultural difference result in better web site performance. If the communicate is positive, the web site consistency can be recognized. 2. When the cultural difference is low, instead of the rich medium of communication, the key factor is the context of communication. 3. The performance of web site consistency and localization are affected by the national cultural differences. The differences in cross-cultural communication will also affect the cost of web site. 4. The cross-cultural differences have the negative impact of web site performance, however, the richer communication medium, and the trust can help to reduce the negative impact of this issue. 5. If two parties cooperate under the cross-cultural differences, the lack of cultural awareness, language, cognition and awareness of space and time could easily lead to ineffective communication or misunderstanding, the project is also leading to poor results.

As today's global businesses acknowledge the criticality of being competitive in international markets, this new awakening also compels these businesses to not just understand the diverse cultures across which they manage and operate, but to also recognize the impact of their own cultural grounding within their business contexts. However, there is comparatively less attention given to the subcultural aspects of business culture. Acknowledging a gap in research examining attitudes of subcultures in a single nation to particular management approaches, Peppas conducted a comparative study in 2002 between the subcultures of African Americans and Euro Americans regarding 18 values statements framed around the managerial functions. This study builds upon that quantitative research addressing specifically the management values of the African American subculture. However, while this study is similarly framed around some values examined in Peppas' research, the purpose of this study was to explore the African American subcultural experiences in practice through qualitative inquiry, presenting the informants' emic views to understand uniqueness or commonalities of their management values (attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors). The methodology utilized a purposive sample of 10 African American managers across technology, financial services, oil and gas, healthcare, and banking industries. This basic qualitative, exploratory study employed semi-structured interviews framed around some of the management values examined in the Peppas study in 2002. The data specifically revealed insight regarding aspects of management values of planning, evaluating, innovating; organizing and controlling; recruiting, selecting, rewarding; leadership; communication; and relationships between work and social life. The findings in this study mainly corroborate the findings of related values in the Peppas study of 2002. However, interpretation of the informants' behavioral experiences sometimes contrasted to their expressed beliefs. Emergent themes reveal a consistency in the belief of these African American managers that they are observed more closely than other non-minority managers and that they are challenged and tested by others particularly because they must prove their worthiness. Also, entrenched educational values proved common across all informants' experiences.

Problem and pathological gambling has become an increasing public health concern worldwide in recent years, and individuals from China and East Asian countries may be especially vulnerable. Knowledge of how individuals make choices between outcomes that are delayed or uncertain, and of potential differences in decision making across cultures, may contribute to our understanding of factors which increase the risk of problem gambling. Our research is based on a discounting perspective in which the value of a delayed or uncertain reward decreases according to the time until or the odds against its receipt, respectively. We use experimental procedures in which individuals make a series of hypothetical choices so as to estimate an indifference point – an amount of money available immediately or with certainty – that is equal in subjective value to a delayed or uncertain reward. Our starting point is the hypothesis that reward contrast – in which the subjective value of a reward varies inversely with amount of a prior reward – plays a role in choice between delayed or probabilistic outcomes and might contribute to problem gambling. This thesis describes four experiments which investigate these ideas. Experiments 1 and 2 establish that reward contrast is a reliable phenomenon in choice. Indifference points for an intermediate reward ($475/$525) varied as predicted if its subjective value was larger when the individual had previously been making choices with a smaller amount ($50) and smaller when previously making choices with a larger amount ($5,000). Reward contrast was obtained for both delayed and probabilistic choice, using between-subjects (Experiment 1) and within-subjects (Experiment 2) designs. Experiment 3 used a computerized Card Playing Game (CPG) as an analogue gambling task and also measured delay discounting using the same task as Experiment 2. Participants began with an initial stake and could win or lose 10% of the stake with each card that they played. The critical aspect of the procedure was that the probability of winning for each card decreased as more cards were played. Participants played the CPG four times with stakes of $50, $500, $5,000 and $500 (order of $50 and $5,000 was counterbalanced). Results showed that performance on the CPG improved over successive trials, suggesting that participants learned the contingencies in the task. Although this confounded our attempt to measure reward contrast within-subjects, participants who had a $50 stake in the first deck performed better in the second deck with a $500 stake than those who had a $5,000 stake in the first deck, consistent with reward contrast. Results from the delay discounting task were correlated with CPG performance, showing that participants who had lower reward contrast and discounting rates, and greater magnitude effects won more money on the CPG task. Experiment 4 used a larger sample (N = 182) with both Chinese and Caucasian (New Zealand European) participants and recruited individuals with gambling histories, and compared performance on delay and probability discounting tasks and the CPG. Results showed that Chinese participants had higher delay discounting rates and lower probability discounting rates when data were analyzed according to the area under the discounting curve (AUC). Gamblers (those participants with scores on the South Oaks Gambling Screen [SOGS; Lesieur & Blume, 1987] > 1) were less risk averse in probability discounting and had reduced magnitude effects in delay discounting and performed more poorly on the CPG. Closer analysis of the probability discounting data showed that compared with Caucasians, Chinese were more risk averse for high probabilities of reward outcome, and less risk averse for low probabilities. Although results do not suggest that individual differences in reward contrast, as measured using our within-subjects delay discounting task, play a significant role in the maintenance of gambling behavior, the cross-cultural differences in delay and probability discounting in Experiment 4 suggest some factors that might contribute to gambling. In the General Discussion, we propose an account of the probability discounting results in terms of a tendency toward dialectical thinking and emotions in Chinese culture. Based on this result and previous research, we propose a framework for the cross-cultural analysis of risky decision making, and consider some of its broader implications for both research in decision making and issues of globalization.

Water is a finite resource which is increasingly valued as a commodity. This thesis explores the use and appreciation of water, in the context of community response and exchange. Its focus is a community writing practice, and in particular a project entitled new dimensions in Water Conversation based in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. This project was a non-crisis driven investigation into a wide range of interests in water. The central proposition of the thesis is that techno-scientific and broader cultural world views on water rarely connect, and that bringing them together reveals awkward tensions between specialist and non-specialist standpoints. These disparities are shown in the group writings and outcome of the project, which bring water provision into closer perspective. A story emerges from the project and its influences. It is one of material relationships to water over testings, tastings and visits to a water treatment works. It suggests links which would not normally be anticipated, for example between a regional bulk water supplier and a group of water writers. The study combines fiction and contemplation with critical analysis and the thesis crosses disciplinary boundaries, drawing on insights from critical cultural theory and the philosophy of science. The writing is performative rather than accumulative in nature, yet is a concrete record of the interplay between water users and water specialists, in a local and global dimension which includes the Northern Rivers, Australia more generally and Varanasi in India. Using this transcultural approach, it decentres theory and locates value in the situated contexts and views of different stakeholders in water, which range from sacred values to indifference. The work calls out for a way of thinking about water that is not yet in the public discourse. Through the practical connection of the project with an Australian water instrumentality, it draws in developments in contemporary water management, and raises questions and doubts about how instrumentalist and market values have come to dominate imaginings of a global water future. At the same time it points to the importance of putting the values of the arts and humanities into practice in the increasingly inter-disciplinary environment in which the resource of water is managed and maintained.

The social construction of climate change has been an enduring interest to media scholars. Extensive research has been done to explore how the mass media portrayed climate change and how the influence of their representations contributed to the social reality of climate change. However, most research focused on the news media in the United States and other developed countries and ignored China--the second largest greenhouse gases emitter in the world. This oversight has led to a sociological map of global climate change with the one of the biggest puzzle pieces missing. In addition, traditional news media were in the spotlight of most literature while little attention was turned to blogs--a rising power in the public discourse. This study expands the understanding of the social construction of climate change by bridging two gaps--the cross-national gap and the cross-media gap--by examining how the news media and the blogosphere in the United States and China--the top two greenhouse gases emitters--framed this arguably the most daunting challenge of the 21st century. Following framing theorists' call for using defragmented frame typologies, the design of this frame analysis derived from five traditions of research of media framing and the social construction of climate change: (1) "episodic vs. thematic" framing, (2) micro-issue salience, (3) audience-based frames, (4) attribution of responsibility and (5) skepticism towards climate change. A purposive sample using multi-stage probability sampling techniques was comprised of 638 articles from three prestige U.S. newspapers (New York Times, USA Today, and Washington Post), two official Chinese newspapers (People's Daily and China Daily), and the American and Chinese blogospheres. The results delineated distinct characteristics of media framing that mirrored the social reality of climate change in both countries. Moreover, bloggers of both countries showed varying degrees of divergence from the news media, contradicting the argument that the blogosphere has been normalized by traditional news sources. Most importantly, this study synthesized its results with earlier literature and developed the B (Bloggers' understanding) - M (Media portrayals) - S (Skepticism) theoretical model that holds great explanatory power to harmonize inconsistent knowledge about the social construction of climate change, thus opening a new research avenue and significantly advancing our understanding in this area.

Having a child or sibling with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may be a positive experience, but it influences every family member differently. The present thesis examined the psychosocial adjustment of typically developing (TD) siblings of children with ASD and the extent to which this is impacted by key demographic and psychological variables. In addition, the influence of variables more specific to the families of children with ASD were considered, such as the broader autism phenotype (BAP) in parents and siblings, and the severity of symptoms in the child with ASD. A cross-cultural perspective was also adopted, in order to compare the coping and adjustment processes of siblings of children with ASD within two different cultures - Taiwan and the United Kingdom (UK). A combination of the Double ABCX Model and the Diathesis-Stress Model was used to explore: the influence of BAP-related traits; the interaction between coping, stressors, and support resources; and how these variables influenced TD siblings‘ adjustment outcome in the two locations. The research model was explored in two, interlinked studies using complimentary quantitative and qualitative methods. The first study was a large-scale questionnaire study including 89 and 77 parent-TD sibling dyads, in Taiwan and the UK, respectively. The findings indicated that UK siblings evaluated themselves as having significantly more adjustment difficulties but also significantly higher prosocial behaviour than their Taiwanese counterparts. Furthermore, there were substantial differences in terms of the variables which predicted TD siblings‘ adjustment outcome between the two countries. Taiwanese TD siblings‘ adjustment was more related to children‘s internal characteristics, while the UK TD siblings were influenced by both internal and external variables. The benefits of social support for adjustment were also evident in both countries. The discrepancies between parents and TD siblings‘ reports could be interpreted as resulting from culturally-specific patterns in parent evaluation of child behaviours. The siblings‘ level of BAP traits was also found to moderate the relation between ethnicity/culture and TD siblings‘ self-report adjustment difficulties. If Taiwanese TD siblings were reported to have higher BAP level by their parents, they showed fewer adjustment difficulties than those with lower BAP level, whereas the opposite pattern was found in UK siblings. This may indicate that for Taiwanese TD siblings‘ BAP level had a negative impact on their ability to evaluate their adjustment difficulties. Seven parent-TD sibling dyads from each country participated in the follow-up interview study. From thematic analysis of the data, a negative tone in the descriptions of the influence of ASD on the TD sibling was more evident in parents‘ and TD siblings‘ transcription in Taiwan, while a more balanced tone was apparent in the UK families. With the emphasis on involving their children in decisions about the child with ASD and providing age-appropriate information from the UK parents, it was speculated that UK siblings had a greater understanding of their parents‘ stress. Various types of support service were mentioned in the UK, whereas the availability of social services and support was relatively limited in Taiwan, whether for parents or TD siblings. Taken together, the findings from the two studies have important implications for clinical and educational settings. UK siblings‘ adjustment could be enhanced through modelling the coping of parents, while Taiwanese siblings could benefit from increased social support from peers. Health professionals should be aware of the influence of the BAP level displayed in parents and TD siblings, which might change the way they experience stress and respond under pressure. This thesis emphasised the importance of using TD siblings‘ report in comparison with parents‘ evaluation. Some potential relations, such as between BAP level and the coping style of parents and TD siblings remain unclear. With further development of self-report measurements, future research could replicate the present research design to clarify the influence of the variables discussed.