28th International Congress of Psychology August 8 ... - U-netSURF

system.
2061.5 Social supervision and services for family juvenile education in China, T. Liu, Hebei
University, Baoding city, China
Due to social, cultural and family structural circumstances, family juvenile education in China has
long been problematic. The contributing factors for such an undesirable situation in family
juvenile education include the family-centered attitude of parents, poor parent education
background, one-couple-one-child family structure, cultural prejudice, and lack of social
supervision. Family education issues have caught the attention of both government organizations
and the family education society. Strong attention has been paid to family education research,
emphasizing educational psychology. Healthy and scientifically sound social intervention systems
in forms of government control and supervision and social services are discussed.
2062 INVITED SYMPOSIUM
Culture and agency: New directions of research
Convener and Chair: S. Kitayama, USA
2062.1 Class, agency and choice in American and Indian cultural contexts, H. Markus 1 , A.C.
Snibbe 2 , K. Savani 1 , 1 Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; 2 University of California, San
Francisco, CA, USA
Studies comparing working and middle class Americans in self-determination and dissonance
paradigms, find that middle class Americans evaluate objects they have chosen more positively
than unchosen objects, while working class respondents do not differ across choice conditions.
Replications of these studies in India also reveal a significant effect of social class. Yet the effect is
opposite to that found among European Americans: those lower in social class standing evaluate
chosen objects more positively than unchosen objects, but middle and upper class Indians do not
differ across choice conditions. These studies suggest that exercising personal choice may not be
the universal signature of agency.
2062.2 Competition and goal achievement: Construction of their relationship in three cultures:
Hungary, Japan and the USA, M. Fülöp, Institute for Psychology, Hungarian Academy of
Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
This study compares Hungarian, Japanese and American secondary school students’ concepts on
the role and function of competition and its relation to goal achievement. It will interpret the
similarities and differences within the context of culture. Hungary is a transitory society from
ideologically banned competition to market economy, Japan is known as a highly competitive and
cooperative society, while the USA has an open ethos of competition. 220 respondents in each
country filled in a questionnaire with open-ended questions. The free descriptive answers were
categorised. The paper will present the qualitative and quantitative differences among the three
groups of students in the way they construct the meaning and function of competition.
2062.3 Culture, self, and wellbeing: The voluntary settlement hypothesis, S. Kitayama,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
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