Climatic effects on the sociocultural and psychological adaptation of migrants within China: A longitudinal test of two competing perspectives

Stay strong, stay healthy: exploring a predictive model of psychological adaptation among Macau students studying in Mainland China within the postcolonial context

The prevailing research on adaptation primarily centers around the settlement of international students and immigrants in different cultural environments. However, there is a notable gap in understanding the intra-cultural adaptation process for individuals from postcolonial areas when relocating to their home country. The primary focus of the current study lies in constructing a predictive model that delineates the psychological adaptation experienced by Macau students studying in Mainland China. In total, two hundred and fifty-five Macau students completed a questionnaire which assessed variables falling into two categories: identity-related variables, such as language proficiency and identity, and intergroup-related variables, including intergroup contact and the quality of contact, and psychological adaptation. The findings from the present study revealed that identity and quality of contact continued to make significant contributions to psychological adaptation in intra-cultural environments as in inter-cultural environments, whereas language proficiency and intergroup contact were unrelated to psychological adaptation in intra-cultural adaptation. The present study extended the adaptation research by transporting hypotheses and findings from inter-cultural adaptation and testing their validity and applicability in postcolonial contexts. The findings also provided practical implications for Chinese education institutions and policy-makers.

Enriching Psychology by Zooming Out to General Mindsets and Practices in Natural Habitats

Psychology has been "zooming in" on individuals, dyads, and groups with a narrow lens to the exclusion of "zooming out," which involves placing the targeted phenomena within more distal layers of influential context. Here, we plea for a paradigm shift. Specifically, we showcase largely hidden scientific benefits of zooming out by discussing worldwide evidence on inhabitants' habitual adaptations to colder-than-temperate and hotter-than-temperate habitats. These exhibits reveal two different types of theories. Clement-climate perspectives emphasize that generic common properties of stresses from cold and hot temperatures elicit similar effects on personality traits and psychosocial functioning. Cold-versus-heat perspectives emphasize that specific unique properties of stresses from cold and hot habitats elicit different effects on phenomena, such as speech practices and intergroup discrimination. Both zooming-out perspectives are then integrated into a complementary framework that helps identify explanatory mechanisms and demonstrates the broader added value of embedding zooming-in approaches within zooming-out approaches. Indeed, zooming out enriches psychology.

The Lineage Theory of the Regional Variation of Individualism/Collectivism in China

China has undergone a rapid process of modernization since 1949. The modernization process has accelerated with the development of the market economy and rural-to-urban migration after the 1980s. Nevertheless, Chinese regions still exhibit substantial differences in terms of individualist/collectivist cultural orientations. The rice theory and the climato-economic theory have attempted to explain this variation by analyzing provincial-level data. Based on a quantitative analysis of more granular, county-level variables spanning from the early 1990s until 2010, we offer an alternative account of this cultural variety based on lineage development in different Chinese regions. Using the ArcGIS geographic information system, we first present the regional distribution of individualism/collectivism indicators at the county level through descriptive statistics and spatial analysis. We also run a regression model to analyze county-level data on individualism/collectivism that includes three periods (1990, 2000, and 2010). Our multi-level analysis shows that lineage development is a critical variable that explains more regional variation of culture in China when compared to other variables. While rice farming, the key variable of the rice theory, is a significant variable, its explanatory power is less than the lineage variable. Finally, our analysis shows that the climato-economic theory fails to explain the regional variation of culture.

Crossing the rice-wheat border: Not all intra-cultural adaptation is equal

This study aimed to test whether or not where people come from and move to impacts their method for dealing with stress. We investigated this research question among newcomers crossing between the rice and wheat farming regions in China-south and north China, respectively. New evidence suggests wheat-farming agriculture fosters a coping strategy of changing the environment (primary coping), while rice-farming regions foster the converse strategy of fitting into the environment (secondary coping). Using two longitudinal studies on newcomers at universities located in both the rice and wheat farming regions, we hypothesized that students from south China (rice region) at a university in north China (wheat region) would use more primary coping and it would lead to better adaptation (Study 1). In contrast, students from wheat-farming regions moving to a rice university would benefit from secondary coping as an effective strategy for buffering stress (Study 2). Results indicated that for students from rice-farming regions who were studying universities in wheat-farming regions, secondary coping was damaging and attenuated the stress-adaptation relationship. However, in study 2, the reverse was found, as secondary coping was found to buffer the negative effects of stress on sociocultural adaptation for students from wheat-farming regions who were studying at universities in rice-farming regions. This study lends further support to the theory that ecological factors impact how individuals cope with the acculturative stress of moving to a new environment.