Hope in Africa?: social representations of world history and the future in six African countries.

Data on social representations of world history have been collected everywhere in the world except sub-Saharan Africa. Two studies using open-ended data involving university students from six African countries fill this gap. In Study 1, nominations from Cape Verde and Mozambique for the most important events in world history in the past 1000 years were dominated by war and politics, recency effects, and Western-centrism tempered by African sociocentrism on colonization and independence. The first three findings replicated previous research conducted in other parts of the world, but the last pattern contrasted sharply with European data. Study 2 employed a novel method asking participants how they would begin the narration of world history, and then to describe a major transition to the present. Participants most frequently wrote about the evolution of humanity out of Africa, followed by war and then colonization as a beginning, and then replicated previous findings with war, colonization, and technology as major transitions to the present. Finally, when asked about how they foresaw the future, many participants expressed hope for peace and cooperation, especially those facing more risk of collective violence (Burundi and Congo). A colonial/liberation narrative was more predominant in the data from former Portuguese colonies (Angola, Cape Verde, and Guinea-Bissau) than from former Belgian colonies (Burundi and Congo).

"Heroes" and "villains" of world history across cultures.

Emergent properties of global political culture were examined using data from the World History Survey (WHS) involving 6,902 university students in 37 countries evaluating 40 figures from world history. Multidimensional scaling and factor analysis techniques found only limited forms of universality in evaluations across Western, Catholic/Orthodox, Muslim, and Asian country clusters. The highest consensus across cultures involved scientific innovators, with Einstein having the most positive evaluation overall. Peaceful humanitarians like Mother Theresa and Gandhi followed. There was much less cross-cultural consistency in the evaluation of negative figures, led by Hitler, Osama bin Laden, and Saddam Hussein. After more traditional empirical methods (e.g., factor analysis) failed to identify meaningful cross-cultural patterns, Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was used to identify four global representational profiles: Secular and Religious Idealists were overwhelmingly prevalent in Christian countries, and Political Realists were common in Muslim and Asian countries. We discuss possible consequences and interpretations of these different representational profiles.

Entre o passado e o presente: representações sociais da história da América Latina para estudantes de três países latino-americanos / Between the past and the present: social representations of Latin American history for students from three Latin American countries

Neste estudo, objetivou-se analisar as representações sociais da história da América Latina para latino-americanos. Os dados foram coletados por meio de questionário online, contendo questões de evocação livre sobre acontecimentos e personalidades importantes na história latino-americana. Participaram do estudo 213 estudantes brasileiros, chilenos e mexicanos, com idades entre 18 e 35 anos. Seguindo orientação teórico-metodológica da análise estrutural da Teoria das Representações Sociais, os dados foram processados com o Programa EVOC. Os resultados indicaram que, para os participantes, os eventos mais centrais à memória social da América Latina são a colonização e as independências, enquanto as principais personalidades mencionadas foram Cristóvão Colombo e Simón Bolívar, em consonância com a dinâmica nuclear conquista/descobrimento, colonização e independências.Discute-se a articulação entre memória, identidade e representações sociais para a compreensão da forma como os grupos lidam com o seu passado, a partir do presente

In this study, the aim was to analyse social representations of the history of Latin America among Latin Americans. Data were collected through an online questionnaire, containing free-recall questions about important events and historical figures in Latin American history. A total of 213 Brazilian, Chilean and lexican students, aged 18 to 35 years old, participated in the study. Following the theoretical-methodological orientation of the structural approach of Social Representations Theory, data were processed with the EVOC software. The results indicated that, for the participants, the most central events to the social memory of Latin America are colonizationand independence, while the main historical figures mentioned were Christopher Columbus and Simón Bolívar, in line with the nuclear dynamics conquest/discovery, colonization and independence. The articulation between memory, identity and social representations is discussed in order to understand the way groups deal with their past, in the present

Differences between tight and loose cultures: a 33-nation study.

With data from 33 nations, we illustrate the differences between cultures that are tight (have many strong norms and a low tolerance of deviant behavior) versus loose (have weak social norms and a high tolerance of deviant behavior). Tightness-looseness is part of a complex, loosely integrated multilevel system that comprises distal ecological and historical threats (e.g., high population density, resource scarcity, a history of territorial conflict, and disease and environmental threats), broad versus narrow socialization in societal institutions (e.g., autocracy, media regulations), the strength of everyday recurring situations, and micro-level psychological affordances (e.g., prevention self-guides, high regulatory strength, need for structure). This research advances knowledge that can foster cross-cultural understanding in a world of increasing global interdependence and has implications for modeling cultural change.

Ethnic identity as predictor for the well-being: an exploratory transcultural study in Brazil and Europe / Identidad étnica como predictor del bienestar: estudio exploratorio transcultural en Brasil y Europa

The aim of the present research was to examine the association between subjective well-being, ill-being with ethnic identity in different cultural groups of college students (Brazilian, Portuguese, and Polish). A questionnaire package was responding: Ethnic identity, Health, Depression and Happiness. Results show that Brazilians students are the group particularly where find relationships between ethnic identity and well-being. The European students (Portuguese and Polish) have showed a significant association between the positive attitude and its sense of ethnic belonging with better quality of life and less ill-being. These results are important because, confirm the basic idea of the strong social identity as an aspect of happiness and less distress; and discurs practical intervention directed toward ethnic identity.

El objetivo de la presente investigación fue examinar la asociación entre la felicidad y el malestar en los grupos analizados con la identidad étnica, en grupo de estudiantes universitarios (Brasil, Portugal y Polonia). Se aplicaron los siguientes cuestionarios: Identidad Étnica-MEIM, Salud, Depresión y Felicidad. Los datos muestran que los estudiantes brasileños en particular fueron el grupo donde se encontraron más relaciones entre la identidad étnica y el bienestar. Los estudiantes europeos (portugueses y polacos) han mostrado una asociación significativa entre la actitud positiva y su sentido de pertenencia étnica con una mejor calidad de vida y menos malestar. Estos resultados son importantes porque confirman la idea básica de la identidad social fuerte como un aspecto de felicidad y menos angustia; y discuten la intervención práctica dirigida hacia la identidad étnica.