Browsing by Subject "Culture"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Creating Community: Italian and Southeast Asian Placemaking in South Philadelphia
    (2024) Mabrouk, Tasneem; McDonogh, Gary W.
    My thesis explores how the Italian and Southeast Asian communities in South Philadelphia utilized physical spaces to create a meaningful identity and sense of belonging for themselves in a new city. Given the significance of ethnic enclaves to immigrant communities, I wanted to explore what hindered immigrant placemaking efforts and how these issues could be remediated. My research synthesized scholarly work, field visits, and personal narratives from community members to gain insight into the histories and meanings engrained in ethnic enclaves in South Philadelphia, and to then identify the threats they were facing, such as gentrification and predatory development. By comparing the more established Italian Market to the newer Southeast Asian spaces that the community is still fighting to create, my research sheds light on how the city’s cultural and political landscape has shifted over the last century, further marginalizing its immigrant communities and making it more difficult for them to carve a place for themselves.Through these insights, I highlight the continued importance of physical space to urban immigrants, serving as a platform through which they can assert themselves as active citizens, find joy in community, and create sites that cater to their needs and reflect their identities.
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    “Shame on You”: Collectivistic Cultural Values Influence the Relationship between Shame Experiences and Psychosocial Well-being
    (2024) Cheng, Katy Anne; Wang, Shu-wen
    Objective: Shame is an understudied emotion, especially amongst individuals in collectivistic cultures. Previous research has suggested that East Asians/ harmony collectivists in particular are more tolerant of shame than people in Western, individualistic societies. The current study aims to build upon theoretical research by comparing how three distinct cultural groups (harmony collectivistic, convivial collectivistic, and individualistic) differ on their frequency and likelihood of feeling shame, and how this emotion is related to psychosocial well-being. Method: We utilized a mixed-methods approach by collecting both quantitative and qualitative data through online surveys from participants in the United States (n = 144), Mexico (n = 162), and Japan (n = 140). Information was collected on shame proneness and frequency, personal shame experiences, and various psychosocial well-being outcomes (self-esteem, satisfaction with life, stress, anxiety, depression, and perceived social support). Results: Participants from the three countries did not differ on their likelihood of, and frequency of experiencing shame. Surprisingly, increased shame proneness and frequency predicted decreased psychosocial well-being across all three groups. However, harmony collectivistic cultural values buffered against the maladaptive associations between shame and decreased life satisfaction, along with shame and decreased self-esteem. Convivial collectivistic values protected against maladaptive relationships between shame and decreased self-esteem, decreased perceived social support, and increased depression symptoms. Conclusions: While shame was experienced as a maladaptive emotion for all participants, greater endorsement of collectivistic values led people to be less disadvantaged by shame compared to their individualistic counterparts, suggesting that shame serves a functional purpose within collectivism.
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    The Influence of Advertising: A Cross-Cultural Study
    (2024) Gandhi, Reesha; Le, Benjamin
    This study explores the influence of advertising across different cultures, particularly focusing on the persuasive power of emotionality in advertisements. The paper asserts that emotional appeals in advertisements having varying effectiveness in individualist versus collectivist cultures and need to be tailored to the specific values and norms of each culture. The study highlights the Elaboration-Likelihood Model (ELM) and the Heuristic-Systematic Model (HSM) as theoretical frameworks to understand how individuals process persuasive messages. The paper argues that global advertising campaigns should resonate with the cultural values and emotional norms of their target audiences in order to be successful. Moreover, the paper also underscores the concerns about how emotionally charged advertisements can be misused in unethical practices that exploit heuristic cues, particularly targeting vulnerable populations and perpetuate unhealthy consumer behaviors. In conclusion, this research summarizes how emotionality in advertisements impacts the psychology of consumers and calls for a deeper understanding of cultural nuances and ethical practices in producing advertisements.