Browsing by Author "Karakitapoğlu-Aygün, Z."

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9

Open Access
Cultural prototypes and dimensions of honor
(Sage, 2014-02) Cross, S. E.; Uskul, A. K.; Gerçek-Swing, B.; Sunbay, Z.; Alözkan, C.; Günsoy, C.; Ataca, B.; Karakitapoğlu-Aygün, Z.
Research evidence and theoretical accounts of honor point to differing definitions of the construct in differing cultural contexts. The current studies address the question “What is honor?” using a prototype approach in Turkey and the Northern United States. Studies 1a/1b revealed substantial differences in the specific features generated by members of the two groups, but Studies 2 and 3 revealed cultural similarities in the underlying dimensions of self-respect, moral behavior, and social status/respect. Ratings of the centrality and personal importance of these factors were similar across the two groups, but their association with other relevant constructs differed. The tripartite nature of honor uncovered in these studies helps observers and researchers alike understand how diverse responses to situations can be attributed to honor. Inclusion of a prototype analysis into the literature on honor cultures can provide enhanced coverage of the concept that may lead to testable hypotheses and new theoretical developments.
Open Access
Embracing American culture: structures of social identity and social networks among first-generation biculturals
(Sage Publications, 2007) Mok, A.; Morris, M. W.; Benet-Martínez, V.; Karakitapoğlu-Aygün, Z.
This study examines the relationship between bicultural individuals' identity structure and their friendship network. A key dimension of identity structure for first-generation immigrants is the degree to which the secondary, host-culture identity is integrated into the primary, ethnic identity. Among first-generation Chinese Americans, regression analyses controlling for cultural identification strengths show that more integrated identity structures are associated with larger and more richly interconnected circles of non-Chinese friends.
Open Access
Importance and descriptiveness of self-aspects: a cross-cultural comparison
(Sage Publications, 2005) Carpenter, S.; Karakitapoğlu-Aygün, Z.
This study investigated self-concept similarities and differences among Turkish and American (Mexican American and White) university students. The descriptiveness of self-attributes was measured in three domains (independent self, relational self, and other-focused or traditional self). In addition, the importance of personal, social, and collective selves was identified for each culture group. In terms of importance of self, the cultural groups showed more similarities than differences, emphasizing personal identity the most, followed by social and collective identity orientations. The results also suggested similarities across the cultural groups in descriptiveness of self-aspects, whereby relational attributes were rated as more self-descriptive than independent and other-focused or traditional aspects. Despite these similarities, our results suggested that importance and descriptiveness ratings do not show the same pattern. The results are discussed in terms of self-schemas and the association between aspects of the self that are important and descriptive of the self.
Open Access
A multilevel examination of benevolent leadership and innovative behavior in R&D contexts: a social identity approach
(SAGE Publications Inc., 2017) Gumusluoglu, L.; Karakitapoğlu-Aygün, Z.; Scandura, T. A.
Studies of innovation have emphasized the importance of leadership for individual or team innovative behaviors, but have largely ignored cross-team innovative behaviors. Enhancing innovative behaviors across teams is particularly vital for organizations relying on large-scale, complex, and multiteam projects to compete in a dynamic environment. We extend the innovation literature by introducing benevolent leadership as an antecedent to innovative behavior within and across teams. We examine identification to the team and department as mediators based on social identity theory in a sample of 397 R&D employees (consisting of 68 teams). First, individuals reported that benevolent R&D leaders facilitate innovative behavior within their teams when employees are highly identified with these teams. Second, on average, teams reported that benevolent R&D leaders enhance their teams’ innovative behavior across the boundaries when these teams are highly identified with the R&D department. Finally, in contrast to social identity theory’s expectations, individuals reported that benevolent R&D leaders facilitate their innovative behaviors with other teams when employees are highly identified with their teams. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings along with suggestions for future research are discussed.
Open Access
Opposite ends of the same stick? Multi-method test of the dimensionality of individualism and collectivism
(Sage, 2014-01) Taras, V.; Sarala, R.; Karakitapoğlu-Aygün, Z.; Kashima, E. S.; Kolstad, A.; Milfont, T. L.; Oetzel, J.; Okazaki, S.; Probst, T. M.; Sato, T.; Shafiro, M.; Singelis, T. M.; Schwartz, S. J.; Sinclair, H. C.; Muchinsky, P.; Kemmelmeier, M.; Avsec, A.; Coon, H. M.; Dinnel, D. L.; Gardner, W.; Grace, S.; Hsu, S.; Johnson, J.; Hardin, E. E.
The construct of individualism–collectivism (IND-COL) has become the definitive standard in cross-cultural psychology, management, and related fields. It is also among the most controversial, in particular, with regard to the ambiguity of its dimensionality: Some view IND and COL as the opposites of a single continuum, whereas others argue that the two are independent constructs. We explored the issue through seven different tests using original individual-level data from 50 studies and meta-analytic data from 149 empirical publications yielding a total of 295 samplelevel observations that were collected using six established instruments for assessing IND and COL as separate constructs. Results indicated that the dimensionality of IND-COL may depend on (a) the specific instrument used to collect the data, (b) the sample characteristics and the cultural region from which the data were collected, and (c) the level of analysis. We also review inconsistencies, deficiencies, and challenges of conceptualizing IND-COL and provide guidelines for developing and selecting instruments for measuring the construct, and for reporting and meta-analyzing results from this line of research.
Open Access
A Re-conceptualization of transformational leadership in the Turkish context
(Turk Psikologlar Dernegi, 2013) Karakitapoğlu-Aygün, Z.; Gumusluoglu, L.
The present study adopting a cultural approach, investigated how transformational leadership is defined in the Turkish context, what its dimensions are and to what extent these cultural features differ from the universal dimensions in the literature. The first study examined how transformational leadership is defined and understood through interviews with 31 knowledge workers. In the second study with data from 230 R&D employees, we tested the psychometric properties of the emic items. Factor analysis conducted with both etic and emic items revealed three factors: Considerate-Paternalistic Leadership, Inspiring Charismatic Leadership, Active-Stimulating Leadership. Among these factors, Paternalistic and Active Leadership represented the emic aspects, while Inspiring-Charismatic Leadership included both emic and etic items. In the third hypotheses-testing study, data was collected from 256 R&D employees and their leaders. The results showed that 3 factors predicted important outcomes of transformational leadership and emic aspects of these dimensions predicted those outcomes above and beyond universal dimensions. Findings are discussed with reference to the recent economic and social change in Turkey in addition to theoretical suggestions regarding the emic aspects.
Open Access
Relatedness of identities and emotional closeness with parents across and within cultures
(Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 2007) Imamoğlu, E. O.; Karakitapoğlu-Aygün, Z.
Differences in emotional- and identity-relatedness with parents were explored across two cultural groups (863 university students from the USA and Turkey, representing individualist and collectivist societies, respectively) in Study 1, and across two socioeconomic status (SES) groups (353 high school students from the upper and lower SES in Turkey) in Study 2. In both studies, within-cultural differences in emotional- and identity-relatedness with parents were also explored in terms of: (i) self-directed and other-directed value orientations; and (ii) self-types, as suggested by the Balanced Integration-Differentiation Model. Results indicated cultural groups to be quite similar in emotional-relatedness, but to differ in relatedness of identities, with Turks reporting more related identities. Similarly, in Turkey, SES seemed to have more impact on identities than on emotional closeness, the lower SES adolescents reporting more relatedness with parents than upper SES adolescents. Thus, relatedness of identities appeared to be more important than emotional relatedness in differentiating between cultural and SES contexts. Results involving different self-types and value orientations pointed to both cross-cultural similarities and within-cultural diversity in the two domains of relatedness. Theoretical implications of cross- and within-culture differences in emotional- and identity-relatedness with parents are discussed.
Open Access
Self, identity, and emotional well-being among Turkish university students
(Routledge, 2004) Karakitapoğlu-Aygün, Z.
The aim of the present study was to identify indigenous or emic domains of self-descriptions and to investigate identity orientations among urban middle-upper socioeconomic status Turkish university students. The relationships between emotional wellbeing, self-descriptions, and identity orientations, as well as the gender differences in these variables, were also explored. The 205 participants (mean age of 20.35) found independent and relational-interdependent aspects of the self and identity more descriptive than the collective or interdependent aspects. Significant gender differences were found between independent and collective-interdependent aspects of the self. Specifically, women reported more Personal Identity and more Social Influencability and less Traditionalism and Openness and Creativity-related self-definitions than did men. Finally, emotional well-being was positively associated with all types of identity orientations as well as with independent and relational-interdependent domains of self-descriptions. The results are discussed with reference to the studies of self-concept in the literature and the existing social change in Turkish society.
Open Access
Self-construals and values in different cultural and socioeconomic contexts
(2004) Imamoǧlu, E. O.; Karakitapoğlu-Aygün, Z.
In this study the authors investigated (a) how individuational and relational self-orientations, as well as self-directed and other-directed values, are related to one another, and (b) how these self- and value orientations differ across 2 cultural (i.e., 422 Turkish and 441 American university students) and 2 socioeconomic status (SES) groups (i.e., 186 lower SES and 167 upper SES Turkish high school students). Across cross-cultural and SES groups, individuational and relational self-orientations appeared to be not opposite but distinct orientations, as predicted by the Balanced Integration-Differentiation (BID) model (E. O. Imamoǧlu, 2003). Furthermore, both Turkish and American students with similar self-construal types, as suggested by the BID model, showed similar value orientations, pointing to both cross-cultural similarities and within-cultural diversity. Individuational and relational self-orientations showed weak to moderate associations with the respective value domains of self-directedness and other-directedness, which seemed to represent separate but somewhat positively correlated orientations. In both cross-cultural and SES groups, students tended to be high in both relational and individ-uational self-orientations; those trends were particularly strong among the Turkish and American women compared with men and among the upper SES Turkish adolescents compared with lower SES adolescents. Results are discussed as contesting the assumptions that regard the individuational and relational orientations as opposites and as supporting the search for invariant aspects of psychological functioning across contexts.