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Thesis (MPhil (General Linguistics))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009.

Theory of mind (ToM) refers to a cognitive ability that enables one to attribute mental states (such as desires, emotions, beliefs) to self and others. In recent years researchers have identified cultural variations in the onset of ToM understanding in collectivist and individualist cultures. However, the findings of cross-cultural studies regarding these variations are inconsistent. The major aim of this innovative research was to investigate differences in the acquisition of ToM in children from a collectivist culture (Pakistan) and an individualist culture (UK). The second aim of the study was to assess the specific association between ToM and social competence in a culturally diverse sample. An additional aim of the study was to investigate the universality of various correlates of ToM such as executive functioning (EF), parenting styles, and maternal mental state talk. The findings of the studies demonstrated a significant delay in the acquisition of ToM in Pakistani children, when compared with Western children from individualist societies. These findings were corroborated by the results of novel cross-cultural study that compared the performance of White British, British Pakistani, and Pakistani children on a ToM scale. White British children outperformed both Pakistani and British Pakistani children on measures of ToM, EF, and social competence. The current findings also provide support for the association of mental state understanding with EF, social competence, parenting styles, and maternal mental state talk. These findings have important implications for the role of general (collectivist vs. individualist cultures) as well as specific cultural practices (such as parenting and education) in the acquisition of mental state understanding.

This dissertation explores how family and marriage relationships vary according to the culture in which they occur. Based on the individualism/collectivism framework about cultural variations in familial beliefs across countries, I study three topics of family and marriage relationships across cultures. In the first study, I examine how 17 member countries of Organisation of Economic and Co-operation and Development (OECD) differ culturally in older adults' preference for family elder care. I find that older adults from countries with more traditional values that emphasize the importance of a strong parent-child tie are more likely to prefer family care rather than formal care than those from more secular-rational countries with less emphasis on the parent-child tie; the cultural difference gets smaller at a higher level of individual family income. In the second study, I select China as a representative of the collectivist culture, and look into how the collectivist culture and older parents' filial beliefs shape the intergenerational relationship in China. I find that patrilocal and patrilineal traditions are still prevail in China. A highly cohesive intergenerational relationship people idealize in the collectivist culture is more common between older parents and married sons, and least common between older parents and married daughters. In the third study, I compare an individualist society, the U.S., and China, a collectivist society to test whether marriage also isolates people from their informal social network in China as observed in the U.S. I find that marriage does not isolate but integrates people into their informal social network in China, while marriage isolate people in the U.S. The three studies present new evidence on how marriage and family experiences differ due to different cultural beliefs about family, and under what conditions the cultural influences are weakened or reinforced. / Ph. D. / People tend to think and behave according to their individual cultural beliefs and value system and influenced by the cultural environment they live in. Three studies in this dissertation examine how the macro cultural environment and individual beliefs about the family and family relationships influence 1) the preference for family elder care in 17 countries in Europe, North and South America, and East Asia; 2) the intergenerational relationship in China; and 3) the marriage effect on socializing with friends, neighbors, and relatives in the collectivist China and the individualist U.S. In the first study, I find that the preference for family elder care is stonger among older adults from more traditional countries that value family traditions and strong parent-child ties than those from countries with less emphasis on family traditions and the parent-child tie. The cultural influence gets weaker as older adults’ family income increases. In the second study, I find that intergenerational relationship is still very traditional in China. A highly cohesive relationship idealized in the collectivist culture is more common between older parents and their married sons, and least common between older adults and married daughters. In the third study, I find that, compared to the never married and the previously married, married Chinese do not socialize less often with friends, and tend to socialize more often with neighbors and relatives. However, married Americans socialize less often with all these three groups of people in their informal social network than the unmarried. All three studies present new evidence on how marriage and family experiences differ due to different cultural beliefs about family, and how the cultural influence would change according to individuals’ social conditions.

This study arose from the experience of difficulties in individuating incorporating tensions in the self-group, self-other, and self-self relational dimensions. This situation initiated the questions: What does individuation mean in collectivist cultures? Can selfexpression occur in a different way to opposing public opinion? Can one conceptualise experiential dialectics to facilitate their resolution in practice? The literature initiated the questions: How do Western theories on individuation incorporate 'culture'? Does a relationship between the socio-cultural context and the process of self-expression exist? Conclusions were: - that the socio-cultural context influences this experience directly by influencing the process of self-expression via defining what is experienced as narcissistic, altruistic, or individualistic behaviour, and indirectly by the theories which reflect its norms; - that the relationship between experience, and theory and personal epistemologies potentially initiate tensions, and facilitate their resolution; - that a theory of individuation in collectivist cultures is lacking. A way of interpreting 'individuation' was discussed. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

There is evidence of a prospective association between wellbeing and health outcomes including disease risk and longevity. The aim of this thesis was firstly to further explore whether wellbeing is a risk factor for specific chronic physical diseases, and secondly, to identify potential mediators and moderators of the association between wellbeing and disease risk or longevity. Chapter 1 provides an overview of research into associations between wellbeing and physical health. In addition, we outline theoretical models of how the experience of high wellbeing might impact physical health. In chapters 2 and 3, we build on research into wellbeing and chronic physical disease risk. In these chapters, we tested whether the association between wellbeing and disease risk was similar across different types of disease, and, whether different theoretical domains of wellbeing varied in their association with disease risk. We found particularly strong associations - that were not explained by demographic or health behaviour differences - between higher wellbeing and lower risk of arthritis, diabetes or chronic lung disease. In chapter 4, we further explore the association between wellbeing and arthritis risk using mediation analysis. Specifically, we tested whether this association was mediated by inflammatory biomarkers. We found that the biomarker C-reactive protein accounted for a small proportion of the association between wellbeing and a reduced risk of arthritis. The focus of the next two chapters was on potential moderators of the association between wellbeing and mortality risk. In chapter 5, we examined whether the association between higher wellbeing and lower mortality risk varied across individualist and collectivist cultures. We found a significant interaction between individualism and wellbeing such that the association between wellbeing and risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease was stronger in more individualistic countries. In chapter 6, we examined how positive affect (a subdomain of wellbeing), interacted with another psychosocial factor, namely subjective stress. Here, we tested Pressman and Cohen's (2005) stress buffering hypothesis that positive affect may be most strongly related with health under stressful conditions. In support of this hypothesis, we found that the association between positive affect and all-cause mortality risk was stronger in people reporting higher stress. In the final chapter, we summarise our findings, discuss the limitations of our approach and make recommendations for future research.

This study arose from the experience of difficulties in individuating incorporating tensions in the self-group, self-other, and self-self relational dimensions. This situation initiated the questions: What does individuation mean in collectivist cultures? Can selfexpression occur in a different way to opposing public opinion? Can one conceptualise experiential dialectics to facilitate their resolution in practice? The literature initiated the questions: How do Western theories on individuation incorporate 'culture'? Does a relationship between the socio-cultural context and the process of self-expression exist? Conclusions were: - that the socio-cultural context influences this experience directly by influencing the process of self-expression via defining what is experienced as narcissistic, altruistic, or individualistic behaviour, and indirectly by the theories which reflect its norms; - that the relationship between experience, and theory and personal epistemologies potentially initiate tensions, and facilitate their resolution; - that a theory of individuation in collectivist cultures is lacking. A way of interpreting 'individuation' was discussed. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Orientador: Ulbaldo Silveira / Banca: Mário José Filho / Banca: Helen Barbosa Raiz Engler / Banca: Armando Pereira Antônio / Banca: Wlaumir Doniseti de Souza / Resumo: O estudo aqui apresentado é uma investigação a respeito da cidadania. Inicialmente nossa análise se baseia num enfoque sócio-histórico-conceitual, uma vez que refletimos sobre a origem e evolução da cidadania numa perspectiva histórica, tanto no âmbito mundial quanto nacional. Ademais, apresentamos, laconicamente, alguns aspectos da cidade onde efetuamos o trabalho de campo e posteriormente analisamos o conceito de cidadania. Em seguida, nossa abordagem se consubstanciou em perquirir sobre as dificuldades e possibilidades de existência da cidadania, no espaço público e privado, para famílias de classes populares. Para tanto, baseamo-nos em depoimentos e nas condições sociais de seis famílias moradoras num bairro periférico da cidade de Presidente Prudente. O presente estudo tem como fio condutor a análise da ideologia relacional – que faz parte da cultura popular - e à sobrevivência material dos sujeitos desta pesquisa. Assim, os principais empecilhos para existir cidadania, na esfera privada, se devem à presença dominante da referida ideologia, juntamente com as inúmeras privações de ordem material, às quais destacamos àquelas que se circunscrevem à moradia e ao bairro periférico. No tocante às possibilidades de haver cidadania, no espaço privado, enfoca o poder feminino, com a dimensão afetiva e a questão da solidariedade. Contudo, a cidadania não é realizada em razão da unilateralidade do poder feminino; pelo fato da esfera afetiva contribuir e reforçar tendências assimétricas em ambos os cônjuges e; somente a solidariedade não é suficiente para se garantir cidadania. Com relação à cidadania no espaço público, os obstáculos são infinitamente maiores do que as possibilidades para a sua realização, seja pela cultura política do favor (que tem afinidade com a ideologia relacional), seja pela presença marcante da ideologia relacional, da opressão e exploração no espaço do trabalho. / Abstract: The study present here is an investigation about citizenship. Initially our analysis is based on social-historical conceptual focus, since qe hare reflected on the origin and evolution of the citizenship on a perspective, as on the word as on the national ambit. Moreover, we present laconically some aspects of the city where we have performed the field work and afterwards we have analyzed the citizenship concept. Afterwards, our broach is consubstantiated on the analysis respecting the difficulties and possibilities of the citizenship existence, at the public and private space for the popular class families. For this, we have based on the declaration and the social conditions of six families who live in the peripherical district in the city of Presidente Pr. The present study has as a conductor thread the analysis about the relational ideology that is related to the popular culture – and the material survival of the subjects on this research. Thus, the main hindrances to make citizenship exist on private sphere, is due to the dominant present of referred ideology along with the numberless privations of material sort, which we emphasize the ones that are encircled to the housing and the peripherical district. Concerning the possibilities to have citizenship, on the private space, it is related whit the feminine power, with the affective dimension and the matter of solidarity. However, the citizenship isn’t performed in reason for the unilaterality of the feminine power; for the fact of the affective sphere contribute and reinforce asymmetrical in both married people and; only solidarith isn’t enough to guarantee citizenship. Concerning the citizenship on the public space, the obstacles are infinitely bigger than the possibilities for its relation, as for the political culture of the favor (that has affinity with the relational ideology) as for the remarkable presence of the relational ideology, the oppression and exploration on the work space. / Doutor

[pt] Esta dissertação irá discutir a série de televisão A Grande Família, exibida na TV Globo em dois períodos distintos, 1972-1975 e 2001-2014. O objetivo é avaliar como se relacionam os elementos cômicos e melodramáticos na série e o quanto estes são afetados pela ideologia individualista e pelo sentido atribuído à maternidade na sociedade ocidental moderna e contemporânea. Para esse fim, vou examinar a personagem Nenê, que representa na série a mítica mãe de uma grande família, sempre agindo para o bem comum em detrimento de seus desejos individuais. No percurso de análise foram separados seis roteiros, um do primeiro período e cinco do segundo período da série, que permitem um aprofundamento da questão enunciada. / [en] This dissertation will discuss the television series A Grande Família, broadcasted by TV Globo during two distinct timepoints, 1972-1975 and 2001-2014. The objective is to evaluate the comical and melodramatic elements of this series, how they are impacted by individualist ideology and by the meaning attributed to the notion of motherhood in a modern and contemporary Western society. For this purpose, I will examine a character called Nenê, who represents the mythical protective mother of a big family, always prioritizing the greater good over her personal desires. Throughout this analysis, six scripts were assessed, one of the first period and the other five of the second period of this series, allowing for an in-depth analysis of the main question of this dissertation.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:35:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2006-08-07Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:45:18Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 luiz_lt_dr_fran.pdf: 908815 bytes, checksum: a73e7b93cc4665107e1951db82a68e66 (MD5) / O estudo aqui apresentado é uma investigação a respeito da cidadania. Inicialmente nossa análise se baseia num enfoque sócio-histórico-conceitual, uma vez que refletimos sobre a origem e evolução da cidadania numa perspectiva histórica, tanto no âmbito mundial quanto nacional. Ademais, apresentamos, laconicamente, alguns aspectos da cidade onde efetuamos o trabalho de campo e posteriormente analisamos o conceito de cidadania. Em seguida, nossa abordagem se consubstanciou em perquirir sobre as dificuldades e possibilidades de existência da cidadania, no espaço público e privado, para famílias de classes populares. Para tanto, baseamo-nos em depoimentos e nas condições sociais de seis famílias moradoras num bairro periférico da cidade de Presidente Prudente. O presente estudo tem como fio condutor a análise da ideologia relacional que faz parte da cultura popular - e à sobrevivência material dos sujeitos desta pesquisa. Assim, os principais empecilhos para existir cidadania, na esfera privada, se devem à presença dominante da referida ideologia, juntamente com as inúmeras privações de ordem material, às quais destacamos àquelas que se circunscrevem à moradia e ao bairro periférico. No tocante às possibilidades de haver cidadania, no espaço privado, enfoca o poder feminino, com a dimensão afetiva e a questão da solidariedade. Contudo, a cidadania não é realizada em razão da unilateralidade do poder feminino; pelo fato da esfera afetiva contribuir e reforçar tendências assimétricas em ambos os cônjuges e; somente a solidariedade não é suficiente para se garantir cidadania. Com relação à cidadania no espaço público, os obstáculos são infinitamente maiores do que as possibilidades para a sua realização, seja pela cultura política do favor (que tem afinidade com a ideologia relacional), seja pela presença marcante da ideologia relacional, da opressão e exploração no espaço do trabalho. / The study present here is an investigation about citizenship. Initially our analysis is based on social-historical conceptual focus, since qe hare reflected on the origin and evolution of the citizenship on a perspective, as on the word as on the national ambit. Moreover, we present laconically some aspects of the city where we have performed the field work and afterwards we have analyzed the citizenship concept. Afterwards, our broach is consubstantiated on the analysis respecting the difficulties and possibilities of the citizenship existence, at the public and private space for the popular class families. For this, we have based on the declaration and the social conditions of six families who live in the peripherical district in the city of Presidente Pr. The present study has as a conductor thread the analysis about the relational ideology that is related to the popular culture and the material survival of the subjects on this research. Thus, the main hindrances to make citizenship exist on private sphere, is due to the dominant present of referred ideology along with the numberless privations of material sort, which we emphasize the ones that are encircled to the housing and the peripherical district. Concerning the possibilities to have citizenship, on the private space, it is related whit the feminine power, with the affective dimension and the matter of solidarity. However, the citizenship isn t performed in reason for the unilaterality of the feminine power; for the fact of the affective sphere contribute and reinforce asymmetrical in both married people and; only solidarith isn t enough to guarantee citizenship. Concerning the citizenship on the public space, the obstacles are infinitely bigger than the possibilities for its relation, as for the political culture of the favor (that has affinity with the relational ideology) as for the remarkable presence of the relational ideology, the oppression and exploration on the work space.