A quest for knowledge about the behavior and development of people in other parts of the world, concerns for social action, and greater family mobility have led to an increased interest in cross-cultural research. Male (N=112) and female (N=113) college students in India rated the desirability of 104 traits for Indian men or for Indian women. The…

To complement a volume of case studies, these four papers and an introduction discuss the problem of regional disparities in educational development from several different perspectives. Varying points of view are presented on the relationship between regional educational disparities and socioeconomic, political, and cultural development; the…

The paper examines aspects involved in providing an accurate evaluation of speech and language of culturally different preschool children. Dialectical differences of Spanish and Black English speakers are detailed. Culturally based nonverbal behaviors and situational factors, including touching behavior and eye contact, are considered. Cultural…

In order to test the strengths of radio as a learning tool for children, research was conducted in which radio and television were compared in relation to their abilities to stimulate children's imaginations and to transmit information to children. The research involved a series of studies in which children were presented with two unfamiliar…

The development of literacy is traced in this paper to promote the thesis that dependence on literacy education naturally leads to two competing cultures, one oral and one literate. Events in the development of the Greek alphabet are traced to advance the argument, and the differences between cultures dependent on Greek and non-Greek writing…

The purpose of this study was to examine Anglo-American and Mexican-American parents' attitudes about infant socialization. Occupational status of fathers was used to identify participants' social class, and mothers and fathers were interviewed in English or Spanish 9 weeks after the birth of their first child. Attitudes were examined regarding…

A study investigated the relationship between communication apprehension and two nonverbal variables--proxemic establishment and kinesic behavior--in an intercultural setting. Subjects were 30 high and 30 low apprehensive adults (15 white and 15 black in each category). The subjects were paired to create three groups: the first containing 10 dyads…

Two hundred forty-eight male and female subjects from United States, Mediterranean, Near East, and Far East cultures completed a touch avoidance measure in a study examining cultural differences in touching behavior. Factor analysis of the instrument yielded four factors: opposite sex, other-directed same sex, kissing, and self-directed same sex.…

An Hispanic practitioner discusses the identification of both the non-English speaking and English speaking culturally different gifted child. Definitions are offered for nondiscriminatory assessment and giftedness. Four case studies illustrate the methods used to identify two English speaking and two nonEnglish speaking gifted Hispanic children.…

The social values orientation of Canadian adolescents and pre-adolescents was analyzed to determine the effects of television choice on their values. Youth were randomly selected from ethnic and non-ethnic populations in Montreal and Windsor by percentages of subgroups listed in Statistics Canada for each city. It was assumed that ethnic and…

Africa's educational systems were developed by colonial and missionary authorities as a means to create a trained labor force with respect for European social and moral superiority. With independence, African nations were faced with selecting new objectives for their educational systems. Among the educational aims emerging are fostering national…

If a program is to succeed, sufficient attention must be devoted to the personality characteristics, attitudes and interests of the persons for whom the program is being planned. The data from a study of the personality characteristics of 446 poor, black adolescents enrolled in a summer poverty work program were used to demonstrate how the…

Written for the Indochinese adult immigrant and the American sponsor, friend, or teacher, the document describes the cultures both in English and Vietnamese. The first part is a guide to the American culture. It explains American characteristics that may seem puzzling to a foreigner: the value placed on achievement and hard work, the highly…

Noting that one means of better understanding the nature of cultural differences is to elucidate the cognitive differences between members of differing cultures, this paper examines Alexander Luria's sociohistorical theory of functional cognitive systems. The paper first describes Luria's notion of functional systems, the crux of which postulates…

Vocational development theories and interest inventories researched with white samples may not be relevant to Spanish-speaking individuals. A Spanish translation of the Harrington/O'Shea System for Career Decision-Making (CDM) was developed and revised. The six scales of CDM correspond to the six personality types developed by Holland (1973):…