Cross-Cultural Modification Strategies for Instruments Measuring Health Beliefs About Cancer Screening: Systematic Review

Background Modification is an important process by which to adapt an instrument to be used for another culture. However, it is not fully understood how best to modify an instrument to be used appropriately in another culture. Objective This study aims to synthesize the modification strategies used in the cross-cultural adaptation process for instruments measuring health beliefs about cancer screening. Methods A systematic review design was used for conducting this study. Keywords including constructs about instrument modification, health belief, and cancer screening were searched in the PubMed, Google Scholar, CINAHL, and PsycINFO databases. Bowling’s checklist was used to evaluate methodological rigor of the included articles. Results were reported using the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses) approach with a narrative method. Results A total of 1312 articles were initially identified in the databases. After removing duplications and assessing titles, abstracts, and texts of the articles, 18 studies met the inclusion criteria for the study. Based on Flaherty’s cultural equivalence model, strategies used in the modification process included rephrasing items and response options to achieve semantic equivalence; changing subjects of items, changing wording of items, adding items, and deleting items to achieve content equivalence; adding subscales and items and deleting subscales and items to achieve criterion equivalence. Solutions used to resolve disagreements in the modification process included consultation with experts or literature search, following the majority, and consultation with the author who developed the scales. Conclusions This study provides guidance for researchers who want to modify an instrument to be used in another culture. It can potentially give cross-cultural researchers insight into modification strategies and a better understanding of the modification process in cross-cultural instrument adaptation. More research could be done to help researchers better modify cross-cultural instruments to achieve cultural equivalence.

A Psycho-Biological Approach to Suspense and Horror: Triggers of Emotion in a Passage from Lewis's The Monk

In this article on a passage from Matthew Lewis's The Monk (1796), Peter Wenzel shows how to analyse powerful literary horror texts with a »psycho-biological approach«. Drawing on evolution-based embodied patterns, Lewis's text displays the affect programme of a typical predator-prey confrontation, including the sensation of coldness, bristling hair, body shaking, reduced respiration, and a prey animal's final shock paralysis in view of its predator. Conceptual metaphors and a spell-like poem increase the programme's effect. Concluding with empirical evidence from responses to the text, the article discusses the question to what degree embodied suspense patterns are open to cultural modification.

Cross-Cultural Modification Strategies for Instruments Measuring Health Beliefs About Cancer Screening: Systematic Review (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Modification is an important process by which to adapt an instrument to be used for another culture. However, it is not fully understood how best to modify an instrument to be used appropriately in another culture. OBJECTIVE This study aims to synthesize the modification strategies used in the cross-cultural adaptation process for instruments measuring health beliefs about cancer screening. METHODS A systematic review design was used for conducting this study. Keywords including constructs about instrument modification, health belief, and cancer screening were searched in the PubMed, Google Scholar, CINAHL, and PsycINFO databases. Bowling’s checklist was used to evaluate methodological rigor of the included articles. Results were reported using the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses) approach with a narrative method. RESULTS A total of 1312 articles were initially identified in the databases. After removing duplications and assessing titles, abstracts, and texts of the articles, 18 studies met the inclusion criteria for the study. Based on Flaherty’s cultural equivalence model, strategies used in the modification process included rephrasing items and response options to achieve semantic equivalence; changing subjects of items, changing wording of items, adding items, and deleting items to achieve content equivalence; adding subscales and items and deleting subscales and items to achieve criterion equivalence. Solutions used to resolve disagreements in the modification process included consultation with experts or literature search, following the majority, and consultation with the author who developed the scales. CONCLUSIONS This study provides guidance for researchers who want to modify an instrument to be used in another culture. It can potentially give cross-cultural researchers insight into modification strategies and a better understanding of the modification process in cross-cultural instrument adaptation. More research could be done to help researchers better modify cross-cultural instruments to achieve cultural equivalence.

EDUCATIONAL NEEDS OF FOREIGN SECONDARY STUDENTS AND ITS IMPEDIMENT IN MALAYSIA: TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVE

The enrollment of the international students in secondary school education in Malaysia has increased significantly in the last few years. This qualitative study involved the observation of the international students’ skills by their teacher in terms of academic and socio-cultural obstacles. The method of data collection employed was face to face semi-structured interviews. Findings showed that international students experienced academic obstacles, challenges, cultural modification and social isolation. Academic obstacles and challenges that they faced include communication with teacher and classmates. Therefore, international students should be helped with their problem of social isolation by involving them in various group activities. Culturally, international students had to adjust to the different methods of thinking and learning in Malaysia. In order to overcome these challenges, students have to accept the resources and assistance from the teacher.

Cultural Modification and Cultural Alignment in Police Services: An Empirical Analysis of Select Variables

Police forces, traditionally, were tacitly assumed to be rule-bound, legalistic, bureaucratic organisations, in which top-down policies prevailed through a quasi-militaristic rank hierarchy and strict discipline code ( Reiner,2016 ). The profile of the police organisations has been radically transforming, in view of the wider politico-economic and cultural context of re-emerging conflicts and social divisions in the recent past. Because of loose ends in the legal powers and processes, police officers at the operational level were characterised by the extent of discretion on how to behave or misbehave ( Newburn & Reiner, 2012 ). An empirical study was carried out in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh using Convenience sampling on 680 (340 respondents from police from different cadres and public each through separate structured questionnaires for each category of respondents), covering three variables, namely police beat, patrolling and responding to public calls. This article presents how Visakhapatnam Police could focus on the beat and patrolling, responding to public calls as part of aligning its working processes and bring in the cultural change not only in the Police Organisation as a whole, but also among the stakeholders. The Visakha Police is today known to be more citizen-friendly, tech-savvy and relatively fast in addressing and resolving issues.

KELOMPOK MUSIK REJUNG PESIRAH: STRATEGI ADAPTASI PADA MASYARAKAT PALEMBANG

The present phenomenon has clearly brought a change and the influence of the development of traditional music in Palembang society, if this is not carefully addressed, it will experience a shift, alienation and even lose its supporters. The rejung pesirah music group is one of the music groups that still maintains traditional arts in the people of Palembang. This study examines how the adaptation strategy of the rejung pesirah music group in dealing with changes and developments in Palembang society. For this reason, the approach used is cultural anthropology with qualitative case study research methods in Palembang. Data collection is done through observation, interviews and document studies that use triangulation techniques as the validation of the data, while for data analysis through content analysis and interactive models. The results showed that the adaptation strategy undertaken by the rejung pesirah music group was an act and creative ability and had a positive mindset, understanding in responding to changes and needs as an impulse to develop in the face of environmental change and development through learning processes and cultural modification, which resulted a creativity that is the creation of songs, musical arrangements, and musical instruments in the rejung pesirah music group.

Transcultural Diabetes Nutrition Algorithm: A Malaysian Application

Glycemic control among patients with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) in Malaysia is suboptimal, especially after the continuous worsening over the past decade. Improved glycemic control may be achieved through a comprehensive management strategy that includes medical nutrition therapy (MNT). Evidence-based recommendations for diabetes-specific therapeutic diets are available internationally. However, Asian patients with T2D, including Malaysians, have unique disease characteristics and risk factors, as well as cultural and lifestyle dissimilarities, which may render international guidelines and recommendations less applicable and/or difficult to implement. With these thoughts in mind, a transcultural Diabetes Nutrition Algorithm (tDNA) was developed by an international task force of diabetes and nutrition experts through the restructuring of international guidelines for the nutritional management of prediabetes and T2D to account for cultural differences in lifestyle, diet, and genetic factors. The initial evidence-based global tDNA template was designed for simplicity, flexibility, and cultural modification. This paper reports the Malaysian adaptation of the tDNA, which takes into account the epidemiologic, physiologic, cultural, and lifestyle factors unique to Malaysia, as well as the local guidelines recommendations.

Bioarchaeological Analysis of Sacrificial Victims from a Postclassic Maya Temple from Ixlu, el Peten, Guatemala

Excavations at the site of Ixlú in northern Guatemala recovered a series of skulls and dismembered postcrania from a Postclassic (ca. A.D. 1000—1525) Maya temple. The current study considers demography, taphonomy (including mortuary processing), cultural modification and biological distance among the remains in light of ethnohistoric and archaeological data. Doing so addresses who made the deposits, why they were made, and who was interred, and informs on the use of ritual violence in the Postclassic Southern Lowlands. Six skulls were arranged in pairs on the east-west midline of the building, and fifteen skulls were placed in rows in the center of the building. All of the skulls faced east. Four postcrania were placed perpendicular to the skull rows. The skulls and postcrania were primarily late adolescent to young adult males. Three of the individuals exhibited a rare dental trait, supernumerary teeth, indicating that at least some of the individuals were related. The most likely scenario to account for the deposits is that the Itzá, a dominant political group in the area, sacrificed enemy combatants drawn from raiding and buried them as a part of a dedicatory ritual in the temple.