Are Country and Culture Values Interchangeable?

Cross cultural research in occupational stress and coping has produced a wealth of knowledge. Although advances have been made, there are still problems to be solved. One of these problems is the confusion generated in the literature by researchers claiming that nation or country represents cultural values, and the use of the two terms interchangeably. It remains unclear whether this practice is correct. The present article reported on this by using 511 full-time employees from Australia, Singapore and Sri Lanka to study occupational stress and coping. Results revealed that cultural value paradigms (i.e. Individualism–Collectivism) were distributed across the three nations such that over 60% of participants were either high or low in both I–C paradigms. The findings also indicated that the relationship between cultural value paradigm and country impacted on stress and coping differently. The study shows that significant differences exist within countries as well as between countries, such that any attempt to equate ‘culture’ with ‘country’ becomes problematic. Therefore these findings established that country or nation is not the same as culture values and cannot be used interchangeably.

[1]  S. Schwartz,et al.  Toward A Universal Psychological Structure of Human Values , 1987 .

[2]  Y. Lavee,et al.  The Family in Israel , 2003 .

[3]  Prashant Bordia,et al.  Assessing alternative models of individualism and collectivism: a confirmatory factor analysis , 2001 .

[4]  S. Jex,et al.  Efficacy beliefs as a moderator of the impact of work-related stressors: a multilevel study. , 1999, The Journal of applied psychology.

[5]  Simon S. K. Lam,et al.  Collective efficacy versus self-efficacy in coping responses to stressors and control: a cross-cultural study. , 2000, The Journal of applied psychology.

[6]  S. Stewart,et al.  Psychological adjustment to cancer in a collective culture , 2000 .

[7]  S. Schwartz.  Universals in the Content and Structure of Values: Theoretical Advances and Empirical Tests in 20 Countries , 1992 .

[8]  Harry C. Triandis,et al.  Culture and social behaviour , 2004 .

[9]  L Eaton,et al.  Culture and Self in South Africa: Individualism-Collectivism Predictions , 2000, The Journal of social psychology.

[10]  S. Folkman,et al.  Stress, appraisal, and coping , 1974 .

[11]  Maxim Voronov,et al.  The Myth of Individualism-Collectivism: A Critical Review , 2002, The Journal of social psychology.

[12]  H. Markus,et al.  Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. , 1991 .

[13]  Harry C. Triandis,et al.  Individualism and collectivism: Theory, method, and applications. , 1996 .

[14]  Shinobu Kitayama,et al.  The Collective Construction of Self Esteem , 1995 .

[15]  Michael Harris Bond,et al.  Social Psychology Across Cultures: Analysis and Perspectives , 1994 .

[16]  R. K. Chiu,et al.  The Role of Affective Dispositions in Job Satisfaction and Work Strain: Comparing Collectivist and Individualist Societies , 1999 .

[17]  Chi-yue Chiu,et al.  Component ideas of individualism, collectivism, and social organization: An application in the study of Chinese culture. , 1994 .

[18]  S. Schwartz,et al.  Toward a theory of the universal content and structure of values: Extensions and cross-cultural replications. , 1990 .

[19]  Earl R. Babbie,et al.  The practice of social research , 1969 .

[20]  D. Seger.  The Myth , 2017, Toxicological reviews.

[21]  P. Dewel,et al.  Examining the Nature of Work Stress: Individual Evaluations of Stressful Experiences and Coping , 1989 .

[22]  S. Irvin.  Waiting: Concept Analysis , 2001 .

[23]  R. Scherer,et al.  The Dimensionality of Coping Among Chinese Health Care Workers , 2000, The Journal of social psychology.

[24]  P. Lovibond,et al.  The structure of negative emotional states: comparison of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) with the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories. , 1995, Behaviour research and therapy.

[25]  Joseph Becker,et al.  The Ways of Coping Checklist: Revision and Psychometric Properties. , 1985, Multivariate behavioral research.

[26]  L. Slavin,et al.  Toward a multicultural model of the stress process. , 1991 .

[27]  P. Dewe.  Primary appraisal, secondary appraisal and coping: Their role in stressful work encounters. , 1991 .

[28]  B. Parkinson.  Everyday conceptions of emotion: An introduction to the psychology, anthropology, and linguistics of emotion , 1998 .

[29]  James A. Russell,et al.  Everyday Conceptions of Emotion , 1995 .

[30]  S. Sears,et al.  Implications of an Africentric Worldview in Reducing Stress for African American Women , 1992 .

[31]  S. Hunter,et al.  Appraisal and coping strategy use in victims of school bullying. , 2004, The British journal of educational psychology.

[32]  N. Feather.  Values and national identification: Australian evidence , 1994 .

[33]  N. Feather.  Devaluing achievement within a culture: Measuring the cultural cringe , 1993 .

[34]  G. Hofstede,et al.  Culture′s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values , 1980 .