This study examines dance terminologies and documentation of Korean and French court dances, Jeongjae and Belle Dance, respectively. For Belle Dance, Raoul Feuillet's Chorégraphie (1700) and Pierre Rameau's Maître à Danser (1725) provide lists of movement terms, definitions of them, and instructions for how to enact them. For Jeongjae, Jeongjae mudo holgi, written in the nineteenth century, comprises diagrams and descriptions of dance movements. These sources have their own ways of converting dance movement into language, revealing the divergent perspectives toward body movement in each culture. Their divergent modes of documenting dance demonstrate the characteristic ways of expressing and constructing knowledge of body movement of their historical and cultural contexts. By comparing the terminologies and documentation that carry historically and culturally specific concepts, I explore underlying assumptions about what kinds of information are considered knowledge and preserved through articulation in words and graphic symbols. This study addresses the research question, what do dance terminologies and processes of documentation suggest about perspectives on dance movement in two distinct dance cultures. To articulate the differences, this study examines selected documents as a whole and dance terms in specific. The significance of characteristic features found in the textual analysis will be illuminated through an exploration of intertextual relationships between the dance texts and important sources of the period that focus on the body and how it is conceived in relation to the human being. This study suggests that, dance documents, which translate selected aspects of dance movement into words and graphic symbols, encapsulate historically and culturally specific ways of knowing dance movement. Intending to capture movement analytically and visually, Belle Dance treatises attempt to establish objective knowledge of dance. This mode of knowing corresponds to philosophical and practical milieus that constructed the theory of mind-body dualism, mathematical foundations of modern science, and reliance on sense perceptions. In contrast, Jeongjae documents take the performer's experience as the standard point of view, considering his or her inner experience as well as observable results of movement. Correspondingly, Korean traditional culture adhered to a holistic view of the body and promoted implicit expressions to describe body movements. / Dance

No description available.

An analytical tool must combine sufficient scope with cultural neutrality to be adequate for analyzing problems across technological style boundaries. The concept of a wood-supply system is proposed, defined as a mechanism generating a consistent flow of wood to a set of wood-consuming mills, beginning its work with the severing of trees and ending it by feeding a pulping digester or head saw. The contrast in wood flow between the wood-supply systems of the Southern United States and Sweden is explored. The systems accommodate surges in wood-consumption rates and changes in wood-supply difficulty differently .. The South maintains a small wood inventory by keeping considerable production capacity idle; Sweden keeps little capacity idle by maintaining a large cushion of wood inventories. The implications of differences in relative cost between wood in inventory and forcibly idle production capacity are discussed. As a result of the historically motivated emphasis on accounting for capacity in Sweden and for wood in the South, costs associated with wood inventories and idle capacity appear to have been overlooked in a mirror-image pattern. The transfer of equipment between harvesting styles whose evolution has been governed by different relative costs has a high risk of failure. Southern equipment is cheap, uncomplicated. robust, and dependable in order to survive forced idleness and to produce without buffer inventories. Swedish equipment is expensive, complex, sensitive, and less dependable, due to the freedom to produce at capacity and the occurrence of large buffer inventories. Equipment manufacturers need to estimate the relative cost of idle wood and idle capacity when analyzing equipment exports across style boundaries. Suggestions for further work include an exploration of the relative cost in each region, and the development of unbiased methods of accounting for idle resources. It is also suggested that the different interpretations of the concept of forestry in Europe and North America be explored. / Ph. D.

The literature available on study abroad addresses reasons students chose to study abroad, outcomes of participation in study abroad, and study abroad program characteristics. However, there is a lack of research linking outcomes of study abroad to program characteristics. The present study will add to the literature by providing information about study abroad program characteristics and their relationship to one possible outcome of study abroad, cross-cultural adaptability. In this study, four factors were used to measure cross-cultural adaptability: (a) emotional resilience, (b) flexibility/openness, (c) perceptual acuity, and (d) personal autonomy. Data were collected using the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory (CCAI) (Kelley & Meyers, 1995). The target sample for this study was undergraduate college students that have participated in study abroad programs of varying lengths. The findings showed significant differences in all five areas: emotional resilience, flexibility/openness, perceptual acuity, personal autonomy, and total CCAI score. These findings suggest that researchers need to take a further look at study abroad program characteristics and their relationship to beneficial outcomes. / Master of Arts

Designing global interfaces for users has always been a challenge. This challenge is even greater today with the current trend of globalization, which leads to highly diverse users of the same product. The global audiences for the software and information technology products belong to different countries, different religions, speak different languages, have different life styles, belong to different cultures and have different perceptions and expectations of the same product. A truly global product must inherently accommodate this diversity in order to be effective and successful. A major impediment is that there is very inadequate understanding of the role of culture in user interfaces and how they are built. This lack of understanding is further compounded by the fact that very little empirical work exists regarding the role of culture in usability testing. The objectives of this research are to study and empirically establish the effects of culture on the usability assessment technique of structured interviews. A study was conducted to determine the effects of culture on Indian participants when structured interviews are used in usability testing. The experiment consisted of usability testing of two independent groups of Indian participants by two interviewers; one belonging to the Indian culture and the other to the Anglo-American culture. The findings from the study clearly demonstrate the effects of culture on structured interviews during international user testing. Participants found more usability problems and made more suggestions to the interviewer from their own culture than to the interviewer from a foreign culture. The results of the study prove that culture affects the efficacy of structured interviews during international user testing. / Master of Science

In 2002 the number of reported nonfatal injury and illness cases in the construction industry involving days away from work was over 98,000 for European-Americans (non Hispanic) and 26,000 for Hispanics. Disproportionate to the number of injury and illness cases, the construction industry is comprised of 68% European-Americans, 7% African-Americans and 23% Hispanics (BLS, 2004a). Based on the expected increase in employment of construction laborers and the increase in the number of injuries and fatalities among specific ethnic groups, a need exists to study disparities across cultural groups to determine the basis for injury and fatality differences between these ethnic groups. The purpose of this research was to contribute to the literature, an effective method for predicting the risk judgments of laborers employed by small construction firms. Predicting the risk judgments of laborers will assist in developing training programs to address these risk factors, which ultimately will reduce injury and fatality rates. Thirty-six construction laborers , 18 European-American and 18 Hispanic, were recruited for the research. Both ethnic groups were divided into two groups; the control and experimental groups. The control groups viewed a generic concrete construction video and the experimental groups viewed a People-Based Safety video. Each of the participants completed a demographic form, questionnaires, and the narrative simulations (pre-test). Following the narrative simulations the participants rated the narrative simulations, watched a video designated by group, and completed the narrative simulations (post-test). The narrative simulations were used to assess their ability to make risk judgments based on the information presented in the video. The questionnaires completed measured various individual differences, and were administered to detect confounding factors that may not be directly attributed to ethnicity. These questionnaires included: Phinney's (1992) Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure, Leonard, Hill, and Karners' (1989) Risk Perception Scale, Janicak's (1996) Accident Locus of Control Scale, Rooney and Osipow's (1992) Self-efficacy Measure, and Zohar's (1980) Safety Climate Measure. Participant prior exposure to incidents as well as experience in the construction industry was also included. These measures were used to determine if differences in risk perception, locus of control, experience, acculturation, incident exposure, education, self-efficacy, and safety climate had an influence on the ability to make safe risk judgments. Information on topics construction laborers would like included in safety training as well as the preferred method of training was obtained through the use of focus groups. Eleven participants from the experimental group were recruited for the focus groups; 5 European Americans and 6 Hispanics. One focus group was conducted for each ethnic group. Six hypotheses were tested in this study: (1) there would be no difference in the risk judgments of European-American and Hispanic construction workers when given a choice of language, (2) more experienced construction workers would have more difficulty making safe judgments, (3) construction workers who have had more experience with safety related critical incidents in the workplace would have more difficulty making safe judgments, (4) construction workers who have lower levels of risk perception would have more difficulty making safe judgments, (5) construction workers who have an internal locus of control would have more difficulty making safe judgments than those who have an external locus of control, and (6) high acculturation participants would score higher on the narrative simulations than low acculturation participants following the video intervention. The first and fourth hypotheses were supported by the research. There were no significant differences found between the risk judgments of European-American and Hispanic construction workers, and risk perception was positively correlated to risk judgments. The remaining hypotheses were not supported by the research. The major findings of the research are (1) there were no differences in the risk judgments of European-American and Hispanic construction laborers, (2) risk perception and safety climate were significant predictors of construction laborer risk judgments, and (3) the risk judgments of participants were significantly higher for individuals viewing a People-based Safety intervention. There are several advantages of having this information. First, the lack of differences between the two ethnic groups, demonstrates that both groups are able to make safe risk judgments when given the appropriate information in the correct form and language. Secondly, regression analysis using independent variables risk perception and safety climate, may be used to predict narrative simulation risk judgments. The positive relationship between risk perception and safety climate on safe risk judgments should encourage employers and trainers to increase employees' awareness of hazards on the job and increase employees' perception of the company safety climate. Hazards should be identified in addition to their consequences. Trainers should aim to increase workers' perception of risk by relying on past negative outcomes that have a personal nature even if they are infrequent events. Third, experience was positively correlated to participants' confidence in their risk judgments on the narrative simulations. Trainers should not exclude the more experienced employees during training. Continuous training will allow more experienced employees to re-familiarize themselves with old hazards and become aware of new hazards. It is just as important for more experienced employees to be updated on risks because they are more confident in how they react to hazardous situations. It is in the best interest of the company for the confident employees to be confident in safe risk judgments. / Master of Science

Yes / Despite a substantial body of self-congruity (SC) research (cf. Aguirre-Rodriguez, Bosnjak, & Sirgy, 2012) two important questions remain open: First, does the SC effect apply beyond Western countries. Second, does individual level culture moderate the SC effect? This study contributes to SC theory by developing hypotheses on the validity of the four SC effects across East and West and by studying the moderating impact of the individual level cultural variable self-construals on those four effects. This study tests its hypotheses through a survey of over 1,600 consumers in an Eastern (India) and a Western (USA) country. Results show that the overall actual SC effect holds across East and West, while the ideal SC effect holds across contexts yet only for consumers with an independent self-construal. Meanwhile, the social SC effect holds in the Eastern but not in the Western context, while the ideal social SC effect does not hold in either context. Results further show a moderating effect of individual level culture on the SC effect, as the actual SC effect is stronger for interdependent consumers whereas the ideal SC effect is stronger for independent consumers across contexts. Finally, the findings of this study are used to advance managerial implications and to propose a refinement of SC theory.

<u>Purpose</u>. The purpose of the proposed study is to investigate the differences and similarities in child-rearing practices among Chinese, Chinese-American, and non-Asian American parents. <u>Variables</u>. The independent variables are the parents’ ethnic background (Chinese, Chinese-American, or non-Asian American) and the child’s sex (male or female). The dependent variables are eight parental child-rearing practices dimensions: father’s and mother’s parental control, father’s and mother’s encouragement of independence, father’s and mother’s expression of affection, and father’s and mother’s emphasis on achievement. <u>Methodology</u>. The subjects of this study are the mothers and fathers of children from intact families enrolled in kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade. Forty-four Chinese Chinese, 46 Chinese-American, and 48 non-Asian Americans parent-couples participated in this study. The Chinese parent couples were recruited in Taiwan. The immigrant Chinese-American parent couples were recruited from the states of Maryland and Virginia. The non-Asian American parent couples were recruited in Virginia. The child-rearing variables were measured by four subscales, 28 items, from the Child-Rearing Practices Report (CRPR) developed by Block (1986). The subjects rated each item on a 5-point rating scale. A two way-MANOVA (3 x 2) (ethnic group x child’s sex), univariate ANOVA tests, Tukey tests, repeated measure analysis, Pearson correlation coefficients, and dependent ṯ-tests were used to analyze the data. <u>Findings and Conclusions</u>. The two way MANOVA yielded significant group effect on the parental variables <u>F</u>(16, 250)= 10.31, <u>p</u><.0001. Generally, it was found that Chinese and Chinese-American parents tended to rate higher on parental control, encouragement of independence, and emphasis on achievement than American parents. / Ph. D.

No description available.

Thesis (MA (Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / This research project investigated differences in hypnotic suggestibility between young adults of different ethnic groups, and between male and female subjects. Further, the relationship between creativity and suggestibility in young adults was examined. Therefore, 15 white female, 11 white male and 10 black female students participated in the study. For this research, the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults, and a biographical questionnaire on Individual Creative Background were utilized. Analyses of variances and regression were used as statistical procedures in order to analyse the data. From the findings it appears that young black South Africans are more suggestible than white South Africans. Gender differences were found regarding suggestibility, but no significant differences between white and black females. Regarding the outcomes on suggestibility and creativity, it can be concluded from the regression analysis that there is no relationship between suggestibility and creativity in this sample. It can be said that suggestibility cannot predict creativity and vice versa. It appears that young South Africans do not differ in creativity regarding cultural group or gender. Nevertheless, creativity and relationship to the parents in childhood were significantly related. Further, creativity was highly correlated with the amount of time for unstructured playtime in childhood. Reasons for results obtained are discussed and suggestions for future research made.