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This thesis explores item response theory (IRT) in the Personal Profile Analysis (PPA) from Thomas International. The study contains two parts (Part 1 and Part II) for which two sample groups were collected. For Part I of the research 650 participants were collected via the old form (CPPA25/C7) in the Beijing office of Thomas International in China (male=323, Female=267, missing=60). Part II of the research used the amended form in the same area and collected a sample of 307 (male=185, female=119, missing=3). The study postulates that IRT methods are applicable to forced-choice psychometrics. The results of Part I showed that the current CPPA form functions, to some extent, according to PPA’s original constructs. Part I of the research identified 16 items that need to be amended (called Amend A in this research). The amended form was returned to China for the collection of samples for Part II, and the results are deemed acceptable. The study concludes with a research protocol for PPA-IRT research generated from the current research. The research protocol suggests four levels of analysis for forced choice (FC) psychometrics, namely: 1. Textual analysis, 2. Functional analysis, 3. Dynamic analysis, and 4. Construct analysis. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Den ökade globaliseringen har resulterat i att många organisationer stiger in på denkonkurrenskraftiga internationella marknaden. Detta har influerat organisationer att spridaderas budskap globalt – oftast genom marknadsföring. Tv-reklam är en mediekanal som anseseffektiv när man tillämpar humor som en kommunikationsstrategi då den enligt tidigareforskning genererar högt medvetande hos konsumenterna. Dock, finns det ett behov av attbelysa de kulturella skillnaderna när reklamen riktas internationellt eftersom humor uppfattasolika beroende på kultur, vilken kan generera negativa effekter. Eftersom att de kulturellaskillnaderna i humoristisk reklam tenderar att bli bortsedda så fokuserar denna kvantitativestudie på att belysa dessa skillnader med hjälp av Hofstedes kulturdimensionsteori. Dennakvantitativa studie fokuserar därför på att belysa karaktärerna av de kulturella skillnaderna ihumoristisk reklam, genom att använda Hofstedes kulturdimensionsteori, eftersom de tenderaratt bli översedda. Länderna Sverige och Kina jämfördes genom att betona kulturen motreaktionerna gentemot de olika humorstilarna i tv-reklam kopplat till uppfattade känslor. Föratt kunna identifiera humortyperna, användes Rod Martins fyra humorstilar affiliative humor,self-enhancing humor, aggressive humor och self-defeating humor.Syftet med studien var att upplysa hur viktiga aspekterna av de kulturella skillnaderna är ihumoristisk reklam med betoning på kultur och hur känslor mottas i svensk och kinesiskkultur. Detta för att se hur humor kan tillämpas effektivt i reklam över internationella gränser.Enkäten utfördes på svenska och kinesiska universitetsstudenter vilket genererade i detinsamlade empiriska materialet. Resultatet visade att affiliative humor och aggressive humorapplicerad i reklamfilm tas emot likadant känslomässigt i både kinesisk och svensk kultur ochpåverkar även köpintentionerna på samma sätt. Medan, self-defeating humor och selfenhancinghumor tas känslomässigt emot likadant i båda kulturera, men de kinesiskakonsumenterna är mer villiga att köpa produkten. / The growth of globalization has resulted in more organizations entering the competitiveinternational market which has influenced organizations to disseminate their message globally- commonly through the use of advertising. Television commercial is a media channelconsidered to be highly effective if applied with humor as a communication strategy. Theeffectiveness of this strategy generates in high awareness according to previous studies.However, there is a need of highlighting the cross-cultural distinctions when promoting acrossinternational boarders as humor is perceived differently depending on culture, which cannegatively affect the results. As the cultural characteristics in this matter tend to beoverlooked, this quantitative research is focusing on highlighting the cross-culturalcharacteristics in humorous advertising, through the use of Hofstede’s framework of nationalculture. The countries Sweden and China were compared with emphasize on cultureassociated to the reaction toward different humor styles in television commercials linked toperceived emotions. For identifying the humor types, Rod Martin’s four humor stylesaffiliative humor, self-enhancing humor, aggressive humor, and self-defeating humor, wereused.The purpose of this research was to disseminate the importance of cross-cultural aspects inhumor advertising with emphasize on culture and how emotions are perceived in Swedish andChinese culture. The importance relied within how to effectively apply humor in commercialsover cross-cultural boundaries. The questionnaires were performed by Swedish and Chineseuniversity students that generated in the collection of the empirical chapter. The researchfindings indicated that affiliative humor and aggressive humor used in commercial is equallyperceived emotionally in both Chinese and Swedish culture and also affects the purchaseintention similarly. Whereas self-defeating humor and self-enhancing humor are emotionallyequally perceived in both cultures, but the Chinese consumers are more willing to purchasethe product.

Cette recherche a pour but d’étudier le rapport à l’école et à la scolarisation de parents d’élèves récemment immigrés au Québec. Plus précisément, elle étudie les représentations sociales (RS) de ces parents sur les systèmes scolaires de leurs sociétés d’accueil et d’origine ainsi que les stratégies qu’ils déploient pour soutenir l’expérience socioscolaire de leurs enfants dans le contexte scolaire québécois. L’originalité de notre étude réside à la fois dans le recours aux RS pour étudier le rapport à l’école des parents, dans la considération de leur situation prémigratoire et dans le croisement de deux points de vue sur la situation d’intérêt, soit celui de parents récemment immigrés ainsi que d’intervenants et d’intervenantes communautaires scolaires interculturels (ICSI). Ancrée dans une démarche qualitative interprétative exploratoire, notre collecte de données s’est faite auprès de six ICSI (6) et de vingt-cinq parents d’élèves québécois récemment immigrés (25). Les deux groupes de sujets ont été rencontrés dans le cadre d’entrevues semi-dirigées. La technique d’associations libres a aussi été mise à profit auprès des parents, afin de favoriser l’accès à la complexité de leurs RS (Carassus et Dosquet, 2010; Vidal, Rateau et Moliner, 2006). Selon nos résultats de recherche, les RS des parents récemment immigrés sur le système scolaire québécois s’ancrent plus largement dans leur expérience migratoire : motifs d’immigration et conditions d’établissement expérimentées dans la société d’accueil. Aussi, nos résultats ont montré la pertinence de structurer les RS des parents autour de quatre grands thèmes : l’intégration scolaire, sociale et professionnelle assurée par l’école; le développement intellectuel et la forme scolaire; divers enjeux de socialisation véhiculés à l’école et dans la société québécoises; les relations école-familles immigrantes. Dans ce sens, bien que les parents mettent en contraste divers éléments des systèmes scolaires de leurs sociétés d’accueil et d’origine, leurs RS du système scolaire québécois sont surtout ancrées dans des perspectives d’avenir pour leurs enfants, interpellant fortement la capacité de l’école à intégrer ces derniers dans les milieux scolaires et socioprofessionnels de la société d’accueil. Aussi, nos données convergent vers le désir de nombreux parents que le capital humain de leurs enfants soit actualisé à leur plein potentiel dans le contexte migratoire. Nos résultats montrent aussi l’ancrage de l’école à un moment et dans un espace donnés, alors que les RS des parents illustrent souvent des valeurs socioculturelles véhiculées à l’école québécoise et des modalités des relations école-familles pas toujours connues des parents récemment arrivés au Québec. Le croisement des regards des parents et des ICSI révèle aussi de nombreuses stratégies mobilisées par les parents récemment immigrés pour soutenir l’expérience socioscolaire de leurs enfants dans la société d’accueil que nous avons catégorisées ainsi : stratégies déployées «à la maison», stratégies déployées «à l’école» et stratégies déployées «en lien avec la communauté». Nos résultats tendent à montrer que l’actualisation du rôle de parent d’élève «à l’école» est soumise à des modalités plutôt instituées par le milieu scolaire. Aussi, les résultats de notre recherche mettent en lumière un décalage intéressant entre la mobilisation et la proactivité accrues de nombreux parents récemment immigrés ainsi que l’invisibilité de ces dernières pour le milieu scolaire, surtout lorsque les stratégies sont déployées dans l’intimité du milieu familial ou dans des contextes liés à la communauté. Le croisement des données recueillies auprès des parents et des ICSI permet aussi de préciser les besoins d’accompagnement des parents récemment immigrés pour une meilleure maîtrise des enjeux du milieu scolaire de la société d’accueil et permet de faire ressortir des pratiques des milieux scolaires et communautaires qui semblent soutenir cet accompagnement. De manière générale, nos résultats convergent vers la pertinence d’accorder une plus grande considération aux parents dans le processus d’intégration des enfants récemment immigrés à l’école du Québec et de favoriser l’établissement de relations école-familles ancrées dans une perspective de partenariat. Enfin, il semble que l’école ne puisse arriver à elle seule à soutenir l’intégration des familles récemment immigrées dans le milieu scolaire québécois ainsi que la réussite scolaire des enfants et que les ICSI représentent des ressources stratégiques à cet égard. / This research aims to study newcomer students’ immigrant parents’ relationship in regards to school and education in Quebec. Specifically, we examined these parents’ social representations (SR) with respect to the host and home societies’ school systems as well as the strategies they deploy to support their children’s educational experience in Quebec’s school context. The originality of our study lies in the use of the SR concept to explore the relationship between newcomer parents in Quebec and school, the consideration of their premigratory situation and, in crossing two views on the situation of interest: newcomer immigrant parents and community, education and cross-culture worker (CECW). In the context of a qualitative interpretative exploratory approach, our data collection was done with six CECW (6) and twenty-five newcomer students’ immigrant parents in Québec (25). In both cases, we have made semi-structured interviews. Also, to access the complexity of SR, we used the technique of free associations with the parents (Carassus & Dosquet, 2010; Vidal & al., 2006). According to our results, parents’ representations of school system in Quebec were mostly based on their migratory experience: reasons for migrating and conditions of establishment in the host society. Also, our results revealed the pertinence to structure parents' SR around four main themes: children’s school, social and professional integration into the host society; intellectual development and school structure; various socialization issues conveyed into school and into society; relationship between school and immigrant families. In this regard, although parents compare various elements between school in the host and home societies, their SR of school in Quebec are generally related to the future of their children, and these SR highly raise school’s ability to integrate their children in the school and socio-professional contexts. Also, our data converge to express many parents’ the desire to see their children’s human capital being at its full potential in the migratory context. Our results also shows that school is rooted in a specific context, while the parents’ SR often illustrate socio-cultural values conveyed in Quebec’s school, and while the terms of relationship between school and families are not always known by immigrant parents. These two points of view - those of parents and CECW -, when put into perspective, also reveals the several strategies mobilized by immigrant parents to support their children's educational experience in the host society. These strategies have been categorized as follows: strategies deployed "at home", "in school" and "with community". Our results suggest that the actualisation of the role of "in school" students’ parents is subject to some terms imposed by school. Also, our results highlight an interesting gap between parents mobilization and proactivity to support their children, and the fact that their actions are invisible for school, especially when strategies are deployed in the privacy of the family environment, or in collaboration with the community. Putting into perspective these two points of view also led us to clarify the support needed by newly immigrated parents to manage different issues related to school and schooling in the host society. Also, we have been able to identify practices deployed by school and community that are likely to support newly immigrated parents in the school context. Overall, our results converge to the pertinence of giving greater consideration to parents in their children’s integration process in Quebec’s school and on the necessity of encouraging greater partnerships between school and families. Finally, it seems that school cannot ensure on its own the integration of newcomer immigrant families and the academic achievement of newly immigrated students in Quebec's schools. In this regard, ICSI seem to be strategic resources.

This thesis explores item response theory (IRT) in the Personal Profile Analysis (PPA) from Thomas International. The study contains two parts (Part 1 and Part II) for which two sample groups were collected. For Part I of the research 650 participants were collected via the old form (CPPA25/C7) in the Beijing office of Thomas International in China (male=323, Female=267, missing=60). Part II of the research used the amended form in the same area and collected a sample of 307 (male=185, female=119, missing=3). The study postulates that IRT methods are applicable to forced-choice psychometrics. The results of Part I showed that the current CPPA form functions, to some extent, according to PPA’s original constructs. Part I of the research identified 16 items that need to be amended (called Amend A in this research). The amended form was returned to China for the collection of samples for Part II, and the results are deemed acceptable. The study concludes with a research protocol for PPA-IRT research generated from the current research. The research protocol suggests four levels of analysis for forced choice (FC) psychometrics, namely: 1. Textual analysis, 2. Functional analysis, 3. Dynamic analysis, and 4. Construct analysis. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)