Rather, ecological variables are necessary to examine structural, contextual, and sociological effects on human behavior and disease development. Schwartz, 1994 b, p. 823 Many attempts have been made to define (e.g., Rohner, 1984) and then to measure culture. Given the classic definition of culture provided by Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952), this mapping has usually been made by using values. The most widely known value mapping is the work of Hofstede (1980), whose four value dimensions of Individualism-Collectivism, Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Masculinity-Femininity are used as organizing and explanatory constructs in many disciplines. Tapping values salient to Chinese people, the Chinese Culture Connection (1987) has identified one additional dimension to the Hofstede four: Confucian Work Dynamism, or short-term versus long-term orientation (Hofstede, 1991). All five dimensions of culture-level values have provided the conceptual impetus for numerous cross-cultural studies. Several major cross-cultural projects have been conducted subsequent to Hofstede's (1980) groundbreaking work. With his theory-derived value survey, Schwartz (1994 a) has identified seven culture-level dimensions, namely, Conservatism, Intellectual Autonomy, Affective Autonomy, Hierarchy, Egalitarian Commitment, Mastery, and Harmony. Smith, Dugan, and Trompenaars (1996) have identified two reliable value dimensions at the cultural level from their analysis of managerial values: Egalitarian Commitment versus Conservatism, and Utilitarian Involvement versus Loyal Involvement. Smith and Bond (1998, Ch. 3) concluded that these different value surveys have produced convergent results, lending support to the validity of the cultural dimensions originally identified by Hofstede (1980). Recently, House and his associates (2003) have orchestrated a major project to identify cultural dimensions across 62 countries. A distinctive feature of this multicultural project is that values associated with leadership were measured concurrently with ideal and actual leadership behaviors. The House team has identified nine culture-level dimensions:

This study examined the pattern of use of different forms of contact between grandparents and grandchildren, and especially the use of new technologies (SMS, e-mail) and factors affecting this. Questionnaire data are reported from 408 grandparents in the UK, Spain, Finland and Estonia, regarding contacts with grandchildren mostly in the 10-15-year age range. Face-to-face contact remained the most frequent mean, followed closely by landline telephone; there was moderate use of mobile phones, and many used letters/cards occasionally; and a minority used SMS and e-mails (about one-half to one-third of those with mobile phones, and networked computers, respectively). When contacting grandchildren, most grandparents accumulate different forms of contact, but others compensate some forms of contact. There were no differences by age of grandparent, but grandmothers made more use of e-mail than grandfathers, as did more highly educated grandparents and those with older grandchildren. Implications for use of Information and Communication Technology by older people are discussed.

No abstract

The article concerns factors predicting different types of both traditional and modern forms of grandparent-grandchild communication in a sample of Finnish grandparents and in a separate sample of Finnish grandchildren between 11-13 and 16-17 years of age. The data has been gathered using a New Technologies Questionnaire in both samples and the Grandparent Role Inventory in the grandparent sample. In the grandparent sample, age, gender, education, the geographical distance between the two generations, and four factor scores of grandparenting style have been used as predictors of different types of contact frequency in categorical regression analyses. The same types of analyses have been carried out in the grandchild sample with age, gender, the age of the grandparent, and proximity to the grandparent as predictors. A significant relation between the proximity between the generations (measured in time) and all forms of contact frequency is found both in the grandparent and grandchild sample. There are fewer face-to face contacts, landline phone contacts, and mobile contacts the farther away the generations live but more letters and/or cards. In the grandchild sample, the farther away the generations live, the less the grandchildren use short message service, or text messaging. The study also finds a significant relation between contact frequency and the factor of formal

Culture perception was examined in the domain of gender roles. Three video clips containing an example of typically Polish gender role behavior (displaying much respect and courtesy of men toward women) were shown to female and male university undergraduates in Poland (n = 88), the United States (n = 91), Finland (n = 60), and the Netherlands (n = 60). The Polish group was more accurate than all other groups in its recognition of the time and place of video recording; they also rated these video clips as higher in typicality for their own culture. The Dutch revealed the lowest scores in evalua-