National and Regional Cultural Values in the United States

Gillin, John

doi:10.2307/2572823

Cited by 32 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Eight participants fully embraced the stereotype with comments like "don't slack off, work hard." The participants were more likely to identify with hard work and link it with their race than some other facets of the MMS, perhaps because it is a better cultural fit with the work ethic that is part of U.S. culture (Gillin, 1955). One student reported an Asian faculty member announcing in class that he expected Asian students to work harder.…”

Section: (July 2012) 3 Journal Of Engineering Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Asians are Good at Math. What an Awful Stereotype” The Model Minority Stereotype's Impact on Asian American Engineering Students

Trytten

Lowe

Walden

2012

J of Engineering Edu

117

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Background The Model Minority Stereotype (MMS) describes Asians and Asian Americans (As/AsAm) as the epitome of assimilation into U.S. society using hard work, intelligence, high educational attainment, and economic success to overcome the challenges of discrimination and recent immigration. Certain facets of the MMS intersect with qualities often perceived as desirable in engineering education. Purpose (Hypothesis) Our research questions are: To what degree do academic data support the assertion that AsAm engineering students conform to the MMS? How do AsAm engineering students express the impact of the facets of the MMS on their lived experiences? What facets of the MMS are more often reported than others among AsAm engineering students? How do AsAm engineering students perceive their fellow racial/ethnic peers fit within the MMS? Design/Method The research uses a mixed methods approach including analysis of academic transcript data, surveys and semi‐structured interviews. Results The academic record of AsAm participants was not significantly different from participants in other racial/ethnic groups. Although the AsAm participants were not found to conform to the MMS academically, they discussed their perceptions of many facets of the MMS including: being hardworking, uncomplaining and extremely intelligent, and seeking both economic attainment and educational prestige. Interestingly, many students who denied that the stereotype applied to them projected this stereotype on other AsAms. Conclusions Documentation of the existence of the MMS on our campus shows that, although AsAm students are not underrepresented, they face stereotyping and discrimination. We present specific recommendations for institutions to address equity and parity challenges.

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Section: (July 2012) 3 Journal Of Engineering Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Asians are Good at Math. What an Awful Stereotype” The Model Minority Stereotype's Impact on Asian American Engineering Students

Trytten

Lowe

Walden

2012

J of Engineering Edu

117

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Although most Americans have believed in upward mobility, the realities of the Great Recession contradict starkly the “folk gospel” of upward mobility promoted by the American Dream (Chinoy ; Cullen ; Gillin ; Spindler and Spindler ). The recent seismic shift noted with alarm by homeowners, pundits, and politicians is that increasingly more Americans are on their way down .…”

Section: The Consumerist American Dreammentioning

confidence: 99%

“Not what it used to be”: Schemas of class and contradiction in the Great Recession

Jefferson

2015

Economic Anthropology

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The U.S. housing crisis and Great Recession (2007–9) significantly exacerbated 40 years of rising inequality in America. Widespread concern about the “struggling middle class” epitomizes Americans' anxiety about inequality and the country's claim to great nationhood. This article provides ethnographically grounded analysis of the restructuring of class experiences and discourses in Michigan in 2009 and 2010, from the perspectives of homeowners facing foreclosure and of nonprofit housing counselors who mediate between homeowners and their banks. First I examine homeowners' downward mobility, then I turn to all participants' analyses of the American class system. Most homeowners facing foreclosure emphasized their fall from the middle class to poverty or an in‐between status like “middle working poor.” Such complex self‐locations are not only about class shame or the inadequacy of American class discourse; they are also about maintaining citizenship status. When Michiganders identify as “middle working poor” and other permutations, they struggle to reconcile downward mobility with claims to current rights and their own history as the emblem of the American middle class. Homeowners and housing counselors also tied current class polarization to the long‐term decline of the manufacturing economy and American greatness. Their perception that being middle class is “not what it used to be” underscores the ongoing importance of the mid‐20th century to definitions of the middle class as financially secure. These experiences show simultaneous angst over and normalization of inequality. Because of the centrality of middle‐classness to affirmative citizenship in the United States, the hollowing out of the middle class is experienced as a citizenship of lack and contradiction.

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“…The West is second perhaps only to the South in its prominence in the American imagination, with the distinctiveness of both the South and West possibly supported by the relative consistency of personality traits within these two regions (Rentfrow ). Counter to the South, residents of the American West are portrayed as optimistic (Gillin ), more individualistic (Vandello and Cohen ), and supportive of the notion that individuals can rise on the basis of their own hard work (Knight ). With these qualities synonymous with a more internal locus of control, we hypothesize adolescents in the West may exhibit more internal control on average than adolescents in other regions.…”

Section: Regional Culture and Urbanicitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Region‐Urbanicity Differences in Locus of Control: Social Disadvantage, Structure, or Cultural Exceptionalism?

Shifrer

Sutton

2014

Sociological Inquiry

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People with internal rather than external locus of control experience better outcomes in multiple domains. Previous studies on spatial differences in control within America only focused on the South, relied on aggregate level data or historical evidence, or did not account for other confounding regional distinctions (such as variation in urbanicity). Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study, we find differences in adolescents' loci of control depending on their region and urbanicity are largely attributable to differences in their social background, and only minimally to structural differences (i.e., differences in the qualities of adolescents' schools). Differences that persist net of differences across adolescents and their schools suggest the less internal control of rural Southern adolescents, and the more internal control of rural and urban Northeastern adolescents, may be due to cultural distinctions in those areas. Results indicate region is more closely associated than urbanicity with differences in locus of control, with Western and Northeastern cultures seemingly fostering more internal control than Midwestern and Southern cultures. These findings contribute to research on spatial variation in a variety of psychological traits.

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National and Regional Cultural Values in the United States

Cited by 32 publications

References 1 publication

“Asians are Good at Math. What an Awful Stereotype” The Model Minority Stereotype's Impact on Asian American Engineering Students

“Asians are Good at Math. What an Awful Stereotype” The Model Minority Stereotype's Impact on Asian American Engineering Students

“Not what it used to be”: Schemas of class and contradiction in the Great Recession

Region‐Urbanicity Differences in Locus of Control: Social Disadvantage, Structure, or Cultural Exceptionalism?

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