Misperceptions of Chinese People about North American Culture

Cultural knowledge has some influence on successful inter-cultural communication.In order to help Chinese people communicate well with foreigners,this paper discusses some misperceptions of Chinese people about North American culture based on the data collected from several Chinese and American participants.And MK.Mayer's model of basic values and Kluckhohn-Strodtotbeck's model are adopted to analyze the reasons why Chinese people have such misperceptions.Based on the findings,three suggestions are provided to help Chinese to overcome some misperceptions with the hope that they can conduct a good communication with foreigners.

Misperceptions of peer gambling norms among adolescents: Analysis of a national sample in Finland

Introduction: Misperceptions of peer drinking norms are widely documented in the US student populations and are associated with increased personal consumption. Few studies have examined misperceptions of peer gambling, and none of these have been conducted among adolescents in the European context. In a national sample, we examined misperceptions of peer gambling in Finland. Tenets of the social norms approach form a framework for discussion of the findings. Methods: Participants were 4526 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years who completed the nationwide Adolescent Health and Lifestyle Survey in 2011. Main measures were gambling behavior and the perception of same age-sex peers’ gambling. Misperception was an overestimation of the frequency of gambling by others compared to the actual frequency of gambling. Results: Adolescents held substantial misperceptions of peer gambling, imagining they gambled much more than they actually did. Age, sex, and gambling behavior were correlated with the perceptions. The extent of misperception was greatest among monthly gamblers, whereas non-gamblers and daily gamblers were more accurate in their perceptions. Estimations of peers’ gambling frequency were more accurate in boys than in girls and among those aged 12 years than among older adolescents. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that adolescent gambling prevention efforts could benefit from adopting a social norms approach;that is, correcting gambling-related misperceptions might discourage gambling and protect adolescents from adopting more severe gambling patterns.

CONFLICT ANALYSIS APPROACHES FOR INVESTIGATING ATTITUDES AND MISPERCEPTIONS IN THE WAR OF 1812

Formal systems engineering approaches to modeling misperceptions and attitudes are employed within the framework of the graph model for conflict resolution to systematically study the War of 1812 between the United States of America and Great Britain in order to provide enhanced insights into the causes of the war. More specifically, relational definitions for preferences, movements and stability concepts are defined for describing the attitudes and associated behavior of decision makers involved in a conflict. To capture misperceptions of decision makers in the War of 1812, attitudes are studied within the structure of a hypergame. Combining attitudes and misperceptions within the paradigm of the graph model furnishes the flexible analytical tool which demonstrates that misunderstanding of attitudes by Great Britain and the United States may have contributed to the outbreak of this nasty war.

Misperception and pro-environmental behaviors of the Chinese public toward air pollution

This study analyzes the misperceptions of the Chinese public about air pollution levels and other potential predictors of participation in pro-environmental behaviors based on the 2013 Chinese General Social Survey(CGSS).In this paper,misperception is defined as the difference between subjective perceptions of air pollution and measurements through objective monitoring.We find that pessimistic respondents are more likely to participate in pro-environmental behaviors.The media use and evaluation of the environmental performance of the local government significantly stimulate pro-environmental participation.The results reveal that knowledge and concern about the environment can mitigate the negative effect of optimistic bias on pro-environmental behaviors.In regions where environmental information is widely available,environmental pessimists are especially more likely to participate in such activities.This finding suggests that the government should provide not only accurate information about environmental pollution but also relevant education to enhance the environmental awareness of the public and stimulate pro-environmental participation.

Body Image Disturbance and Dissatisfaction, Scorn and Stigma in Severely Obese Individuals, a Case-Control Study

Background: The obesity rate is rising. The aims of this study were to elucidate the connection among body image disturbance and dissatisfaction, scorn and stigma in severely obese individuals using a case-control method. Method: The study group consisted of 112 individuals receiving permanent disability pensions primarily for obesity. The controls were selected by random sampling. The controls were matched with the subjects by place of residence, gender, age, the time since the pension was granted and occupation. Psychiatric interviews and psychological assessments were conducted with all participants. The results were analyzed via chi-squared tests (χ2-tests) and percent distributions. The subject and control groups were compared via paired t-tests. Conditional logistic regression analysis was also conducted. Results: In the Draw a Person test, we found disorganization of the body image to some degree in the subject group. Some significant differences were found between the Machover index and the wholeness index. The Rorschach variables obtained some differences in the responses between the subject and control groups. Obesity was a problem in all age groups. In the study group, half of the participants thought that they were obese. Most of the participants had endured scorn and contempt directed at them due to being overweight. Conclusions: We believe that our study provides a novel and necessary overview of the connection among body image disturbance and dissatisfaction, scorn and stigma.

A Cultural Analysis on Women’s Issues in Islam

This article gives a general survey of the mainstream spirit of Islamic views on women as well as Western media’s misperception of women in Islam,and analyzes the reason,phenomena and essence of their mutual misunderstandings.Academically,the theory of“origin and variation”is introduced as a new methodological tool to study the women’s issues in Islam in order to provide an authentic explanation.