Working paper
Sensitivity of Goodness-of-Fit Indices to Lack of Measurement Invariance with Categorical Indicators and Many Groups
Beliefs about personhood are understood to be a defining feature of individualism-collectivism (I-C), but they have been insufficiently explored, given the emphasis of research on values and self-construals. We propose the construct of contextualism, referring to beliefs about the importance of context in understanding people, as a facet of cultural collectivism. A brief measure was developed and refined across 19 nations (Study 1: N = 5,241), showing good psychometric properties for cross-cultural use and correlating well at the nation level with other supposed facets and indicators of I-C. In Study 2 (N = 8,652), nation-level contextualism predicted ingroup favoritism, corruption, and differential trust of ingroup and outgroup members, while controlling for other facets of I-C, across 35 nations. We conclude that contextualism is an important part of cultural collectivism. This highlights the importance of beliefs alongside values and self-representations and contributes to a wider understanding of cultural processes.
Samples in the form of an assembly of two tightly pressed Zr (0,3 mm), Ti (0,25 mm) and Ni (0,1 mm) foils were irradiated with 15 pulses high deuterium plasma (up to 10 keV) on the "Plasma focus "(PF-4, FIAN) [1, 2] for the creation of shock waves and deuterium ion implantation. Options PF-4 and deuterium plasma exposure conditions and posleradiatsionnyh studies described in [1, 2]. It performs measurements of the neutron yield from all assemblies foils. Studies of foil on both sides by recording recoil nuclei (ERDA) showed that deuterium ions under the influence of shock waves knocked out of the first foil and penetrate into the second foil of the same composition as initially present in the sample hydrogen redistributed. The measured depth profiles of all distributions and integral concentration of deuterium and hydrogen, both sides of each of the foils are presented. The model describing the observed effects in the first knockout implanted deuterium foil and redistribution of impurities under discussion. SEM studies of changes made and the elemental composition of the surface, the results are discussed.
The paper highlights some historical facts of gaming development in Russian higher non-linguistic education including contemporary situation. The authors also share their experience in role-playing and larping (from English: Live Action Role-playing Game, LARPG), business gaming, simulating and some other technologies of interdisciplinary approach in teaching Business English and ESP at non-language universities as well as language gaming and larping in teaching German as the second foreign language.
Comparability of scores between culturally and socially different is always a problematic question. It is even more questionable when the scores of latent variables are compared. Latent variables are frequently measured with several indicators, and the structure of indicators may differ between groups, resulting in the scores of the latent variables that may turn to be very different in terms of configuration and scale. This problem was labeled measurement invariance (MI) and became a necessary part of the studies with latent constructs. The lack of MI between groups may lead to biased or wrong conclusions. MI is an issue especially in cross-cultural studies, in which cultural differences as well as translation of questionnaire may evolve differences in latent construct structures. The paper discusses different methods of assessing MI and uses multiple group confirmatory factor analysis to test MI of four Schwartz higher order values among four populations surveyed during 4 and 5th rounds of European Social Survey. Since our interest is the sources and the extent of MI, only samples surveyed in Russian language were selected. The results show only partial scalar invariance that allows for comparison of means across groups. However, full scalar invariance is not achieved due to the differences in translation to Russian between four countries.
Three dimensions of subordinate-supervisor relations (affective attachment, deference to supervisor, and personal-life inclusion) that had been found by Chen et al. (2009) to be characteristic of a guanxi relationship between subordinates and their supervisors in China were surveyed in Taiwan, Singapore and six non-Chinese cultural contexts. The affective attachment and deference subscales demonstrated full metric invariance whereas the personal-life inclusion subscale was found to have partial metric invariance across all eight samples. Structural equation modelling revealed that the affective attachment dimension had a cross-nationally invariant positive relationship to affective organizational commitment and a negative relationship to turnover intention. The deference to the supervisor dimension had invariant positive relationships with both affective and normative organizational commitment. The personal-life inclusion dimension was unrelated to all outcomes. These results indicate the relevance of aspects of guanxi to superior-subordinate relations in non-Chinese cultures. Studies of indigenous concepts can contribute to a broader understanding of organizational behavior.
The late 1980s and early 1990s were characterized by the sudden rise of nationalist movements in almost all Soviet and Yugoslav ethnic regions. It is argued that the rise of political nationalism since the late 1980s can be explained by development of cultural nationalism in the previous decades, as an unintended outcome of communist nationalities policy. Soviet and Yugoslav political and cultural nationalism are studied in a historical and comparative perspective. All ethnic regions are examined throughout entire history of both communist states - the Soviet Union (49 regions, 1917-91) and Yugoslavia (8 regions, 1941-95), using the structural equation modeling approach. This paper aims to make at least three contributions in the field. Firstly, it is a methodological contribution for studying nationalism: a ‘quantification of history’ approach. Quantitative values are assigned to historical trends and events. Having constructed variables from historical data, I use conventional statistical methods like SEM. Secondly, this paper contributes to the theoretical debate about the role of cultural autonomy in multiethnic states. The results rethink the notion of ‘cultural autonomy’ as solution of interethnic conflict. Cultural nationalism matters, it indirectly reinforces political nationalism. In both cases concessions in the cultural domain has not stopped the growth of political nationalism in the late 1980-s. Finally, the paper statistically proves that the break between early Soviet and Stalinist nationalities policy explains the entire Soviet nationalities policy. In fact, the late Soviet nationalities policy was inherited from the Stalin’s rule period. This finding revealed in other studies now gets statistical evidence.
Several approaches to the concept of fatherhood present in Western sociological tradition are analyzed and compared: biological determinism, social constructivism and biosocial theory. The problematics of fatherhood and men’s parental practices is marginalized in modern Russian social research devoted to family and this fact makes the traditional inequality in family relations, when the father’s role is considered secondary compared to that of mother, even stronger. However, in Western critical men’s studies several stages can be outlined: the development of “sex roles” paradigm (biological determinism), the emergence of the hegemonic masculinity concept, inter-disciplinary stage (biosocial theory). According to the approach of biological determinism, the role of a father is that of the patriarch, he continues the family line and serves as a model for his ascendants. Social constructivism looks into man’s functions in the family from the point of view of masculine pressure and establishing hegemony over a woman and children. Biosocial theory aims to unite the biological determinacy of fatherhood with social, cultural and personal context. It is shown that these approaches are directly connected with the level of the society development, marriage and family perceptions, the level of egality of gender order.
This article is talking about state management and cultural policy, their nature and content in term of the new tendency - development of postindustrial society. It mentioned here, that at the moment cultural policy is the base of regional political activity and that regions can get strong competitive advantage if they are able to implement cultural policy successfully. All these trends can produce elements of new economic development.