Proposed a research framework (the "cube" model) in which community psychologists working in ethnic-cultural communities can make appropriate decisions on conceptual and methodological issues from a culturally anchored, ecological-contextualist perspective. The intent of the model is to articulate ethnic-cultural heterogeneity in community research by elucidating three metamethodological issues: (a) definition of an ethnic-cultural community, (b) applicability of cross-cultural theories and methods to ethnic-cultural community research, and (c) geographical or ecological stability of an ethnic-cultural community. The model posits that ethnic-cultural community research can be conceptualized as a three-dimensional structure that represents an interaction among research questions, methods, and cultural complexity (referring to the extent to which an ethnic-cultural group is defined in a larger ecological context or community both at the individual and collective levels). Future directions for research were discussed in terms of the utility and the limitations of the proposed research model.

This paper examines public preferences on siting landfills using a choice experiment.A choice experiment is a method that elicits public preferences directly through questionnaires. This paper focuses on possible negative effects of a hypothetical landfill siting on residents who are assumed to live around the landfill. The results of this analysis clearly show that the residents evaluate accepting waste originating from outside their community quite negatively, especially industrial waste originating from the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. Large external costs also are seen for siting landfills near areas that are sources of drinking water. In addition, the results show that the NIMBY syndrome of the residents weakens as the hypothetical landfill site is farther away.Considering three hypothetical siting plans, external costs based on public preferences are estimated. The social costs, which are the sum of the private costs and external costs, are then calculated. The results of the case study indicate that the option with the lowest private cost it is not always the option with the lowest social cost.

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This study examined the feasibility of using surname‐based telephone survey methodology in Asian‐American (AA) communities by highlighting some practical issues, caveats, and research directions in implementing telephone surveys in AA communities. These issues were: (a) identifying and sampling AA respondents; (b) obtaining respondent cooperation; (c) designing bilingual interview protocols; (d) dealing with possible biases due to interviewer gender, language, and topical sensitivity; and (e) cost of phone survey. In a recent statewide telephone survey involving Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Pilipino, and Vietnamese residents in California (n = 1,764), we found low‐to moderate‐level response rates with varying levels of refusal rates in telephone interviewing on substance abuse and health‐related issues. The results suggested that despite general reluctance to use telephone survey methodology in AA communities, personal information may be reliably collected by telephone to the extent that phone‐number lists contained Asian surnames that were clearly unique to a particular AA group. Certain aspects of telephone surveying must be exploited for unraveling important social and mental health issues in a timely and cost‐efficient manner.

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