Topic: What Moving Can Tell Us About Psychological Changes During Transitions? Evidence from 4 Longitudinal Studies
How do humans change when they move between vastly different cultural environments? This is a question for both psychologists and policy-makers in the era of globalization. To investigate this question, I will present three longitudinal studies from China. Study 1, I investigate how international students who applied culturally congruent coping strategies adapted when living in China. In Study 2 and 3, I replicated this finding by testing the similar experiences of Chinese moving from around the country. Finally in Study 4, I will discuss key findings from my study that tracked the cultural thought style of 1,462 students from 18 sites as they moved to colleges across China. While most psychologists would expect that modernization might be the driving force behind thought style change, I found no evidence to support the modernization hypothesis. Instead, students who moved to counties with a history of rice farming thought more holistically within just five months. This fits with the theory that rice farming’s labor and irrigation requirements encouraged tight ties and interdependence. Acculturation was stronger in small, homogenous communities. The results suggest China’s history of farming is shaping cultural differences in the modern day and that psychologists are largely unaware of it.
The Michael Harris Bond Award for Early Research Contributions
Michael Harris Bond has worked in Asia for almost four decades. To commemorate his many significant contributions to Asian social psychology, a group of his friends and former students have set up an endowment fund with AASP for the Michael Harris Bond Award for Early Research Contributions. One award will be given every two years. Eligibility criteria for the award are as follows:
The awardee can be of any nationality, but must be based in Asia (broadly defined, including Australasia) at least for the last three years.
He/she must have obtained his/her Ph.D. within eight years from the closing date for the current round of nominations.
He/she has made significant contributions to Asian social psychology, broadly defined as psychological research on social processes in the Asian context, of a basic and/or applied nature.
He/she will receive a certificate for the award, as well as the sum of US $1,500 and a waiver of the registration fee to attend the forthcoming biannual conference of AASP, at which he/she will deliver a state-of-the-art lecture. The awardee must attend the virtual conference to receive the award.
The awardee will be invited to write a review that summarizes his/her research contributions and their implications for future research, to be published in the Asian Journal of Social Psychology after being reviewed.
Misumi Award for Best Article Published in the Asian Journal of Social Psychology
Winners
2019
Li, W. Q., Li, L. M. W., & Li, M. (2019). Residential mobility reduces ingroup favouritism in prosocial behaviour. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 22(1), 3-17. doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12338
2020
Yang, Z., & Xin, Z. (2020). Income inequality and interpersonal trust in China. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 23(3), 253-263. doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12399
Runners up for Misumi Award (Special citation)
Krys, K., Zelenski, J. M., Capaldi, C. A., Park, J., van Tilburg, W., van Osch, Y., Haas, B. W., Bond, M. H., Dominguez-Espinoza, A., Xing, C., Igbokwe, D. O., Kwiatkowska, A., Luzniak-Piecha, M., Nader, M., Rizwan, M., Zhu, Z., & Uchida Y. (2019). Putting the “We” into well‐being: Using collectivism‐themed measures of well‐being attenuates well‐being's association with individualism. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 22(3), 256-267. doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12364
Guo, S., Huang, Z., Yuan, Y., & Gao, D. G. (2019). Sharing economy promotes morality, not impedes it. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 22(1), 84-92. doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12357
English, A. S., Kunst, J. R., & Sam, D. L. (2019). Climatic effects on the sociocultural and psychological adaptation of migrants within China: A longitudinal test of two competing perspectives. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 22(3), 244-255. doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12363
Wice, M., Karasawa, M., Matsui, T., & Miller, J. G. (2020). Knowing minds: Culture and perceptions of mental state access. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 23(3), 319-327. doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12404
Misumi Award
Misumi Award is established jointly by the Japanese Group Dynamics Association and the Asian Association for Social Psychology in honor of Professor Jyuji Misumi, a long time president of JGDA who made great contributions to the development of social psychology in Asia.
The award is given to the author(s) of the article in the Asian Journal of Social Psychology of which contribution to the development of social psychology in Asia is most prominent. One paper is selected for the award each year from the papers published in the previous year's volume of the Asian Journal of Social Psychology. The selection committee consists of three members of the Asian Association for Social Psychology and two members of the Japanese Group Dynamics Association.
The ceremony for granting the Award and the prize of $1,000 will take place during the Conference.
Alex English (Research Fellow at Zhejiang University)
Biography
Dr. Alex English has lived in China for more than 13 years. He graduated from Zhejiang University in 2016 with a PhD in Applied Psychology, and Honor’s Post-doctoral Research Fellowship from Shanghai International Studies University in 2021. Dr. English researches how culture impact human behavior and psychological changes. He is interested in social cognition, coping congruence, and how COVID-19 has impacted social norms around the world. Dr. English has published in papers in prestigious journals like PNAS, PLoS ONE, JCCP , IJIR and AASP.
