Summarizes a study using the Children's Scale of Social Attitudes to compare the factor structure of conservatism in seventh-grade Israeli children of Western ethnic origin with Israeli children from Eastern cultural backgrounds. Results indicated a marked similarity in factor structures reconfirming the universal nature of general conservatism…

Efforts to enhance the effectiveness of cross-cultural interventions have emphasized the need for counselors to assess their own as well as their client's cultural value systems. To assess cultural world views, the Cultural Attitudes Repertory Technique (CART), which examines the content and structure of an individual's personal system of cultural…

Sixty-six Nigerian and 120 U.S. rural children and adolescents (ages 6-18) from three social classes were interviewed about their conceptions of economic inequality. The rich and poor were described referring to central (traits, thoughts) and sociocentric (class consciousness, life chances) characteristics. Age was a factor in change of type of…

Reports on a study of differences in assumptions about a just world among 140 college students. Finds that nonminority students saw their personal worlds as less random, more just, and more benevolent than they saw the general world. Finds that minority students saw both the personal and the general world as less benevolent and less lucky. (CFR)

Reports a study, based on the father-child occupational linkage theory, that compares the work values of independence, management, and achievement of Jewish and Bedouin-Arab Israeli youth in order to determine if work values differ when the father's occupational status was controlled. Findings failed to support the occupational linkage theory. (LS)

Research bears out the assertion that the traditional tests and measures used to define achievement have incorporated societal attitudes about class, race, and gender. Cultural factors, teacher behaviors, and teacher bias can account for early differences in the reading achievement of girls and boys. Furthermore, girls' grades for English and…

Maintains that the issue of political correctness has gained wide coverage in the press as it relates to higher education academic policy. Reports on a survey of 196 New York State political scientists. Finds that they perceive political correctness as an issue on their college campus and in the discipline, but not in their departments. (CFR)

The thesis that Mexican Americans share a monolithic, "pathological" subculture that causes difficulties Mexican American children may have in adapting to Anglo society is challenged, using data from studies of Mexican American families and youth. Origin of the theory that all Mexican Americans share a negative subculture is detailed,…

Posits a distinction between cultures motivated by individualistic value systems (idiocentric) and collectivistic value systems (allocentric). Study reveals that Mexican American adolescents describe themselves in more allocentric terms, while Anglo American adolescents choose idiocentric terms. Suggests a correlation between idiocentric values…