Good book but somewhat imbalanced in cultural and personality perspectives
349255
Readers can get insights from this book, which can make them stronger and more discerning individuals. However, much of the solutions and ideals in this book come within a cultural framework, so care and discernment should be exercised. This is especially needed as often Christian books are read in other countries or by people from other countries without a cultural filter resulting in feelings of judgment, but the reality is relationships are structured and conflicts are resolved differently in many cultures. We need to be careful in universal claims.

One example is the parent-child relationship. Not every culture is like the American culture where there is much emphasis on the separateness of individuals. Caring about parents' concerns and making decisions with the family in mind are not always infantile, regressive, immature, or co-dependent. In some cultures, as my own, these are done with genuine love, respect, and selflessness (qualities that seem hard to understand by people coming from very individualistic mindsets) and also within the context of difficult socioeconomic situations (again, difficult to understand by those coming from privileged countries with much opportunity). Another example is confrontation. In some cultures, confrontation is the last straw--there are other steps that come first that are mutually understood by people within the same cultural context: i.e. nonverbal clues, indirect rebukes, and yes, even some withdrawal in order not to escalate the conflict. Despite these, this might be a good book for those coming from other cultural backgrounds to understand what it takes to survive healthily in a new environment such as the U.S. My only caution for those coming from another culture is to keep this cultural aspect in mind so as not to feel overwhelmed by thinking they are moral universals.

Ironically, the authors also seemed biased towards extroverted personalities in this book, not taking into account the real struggles of people with more introversion. Case in point was how one author described one person as painfully awkward. The solutions are rather simplistic with no deep supportive care for people who are genuinely having a hard time. I felt it was more like a do's and don't's kind of book that can make one feel more depressed and overwhelmed. The reality is that the solution they kept on repeating--find safe people who will support you--is not available all the time, and it seems rather confusing and simplistic on how they suggest going about this: find a small group, find a counselor, persevere, etc. Throughout the book, principles seem contradictory--like stay away from unsafe people but don't severe relationships that quickly.

Probably the most valuable insight I got, however, was that we as humans are relational creatures that's why relational problems hurt so much. Just as God is relational, we are made to be relational, so the idea that we only need God is faulty. The two greatest commandments center not just on loving God but also loving our neighbors. Our perception of God often stream from our experiences with people, that's why the Church is called the Body of Christ on earth. Another is how the authors explained that sometimes our symptoms and problems are not necessarily solved by reading the Bible more or praying more but filling in the need to be more connected to others. They also gave good recommendations on how to talk to others like, "I am having a hard time. Can you support me through this?" "I just need to know that you are here. You don't have to, but can I have your emotional and social support?" They explained that safe people won't judge you for this need, for they themselves recognize how important it is to be connected to others. We also need to strive to develop relationships not as extra benefits from functional roles but to actually pursue relationships in contexts where this is the main purpose.
848343
Good as a source for basic principals of cultural differences.  Many of the case studies are written as opinions, which is not what I'd expect for an academic book.
2300891
This book focuses on the problems that can be caused in Christian marriages by men who are passive in their behaviour - who fail to conform to society's view of masculinity (which itself has been devalued over the last decades). The book looks at why some men are like this and ways in which both husband and wife can work with each other to improve matters. The book was easy to read; however I felt that much of the subject matter was probably far more prevalent in America and that some of the stated problems would be less of an issue within the British personality so it may not be as universal as the authors imagined.

This book isn't a ten step guide to overcoming the problems of men feeling weak and in fact I wasn't always sure that it offered much useful advice - it was good at identifying the problems but didn't offer that many concrete ways to resolve them. However it did offer some points for thought about communication between men and women and referenced many other books that might be helpful in addition.
228786
If you're a casual reader of cultural science, this book might come across as very dense and slow-reading. But if you are already familiar with basic cultural and evolutionary psychology theory, you could find this an interesting read. The book begins by outlining connectivist (spreading activation) models of neurology, and tries to apply them to cultural schemas. The chapters are divided between "case-study" chapters that use a particular event or set of interviews to examine one particular schema style in detail, and more theory minded chapters. The case-study chapters were more interesting and illuminating in my opinion. This book would do well if paired with the "Selfways" research paper by Kitayama and Markus, or paired with a book like 'The Moral Animal' which offers a totally different biological basis for cultural drives in psychology.
131570
The author covers the differences between Japanese and American baseball, but sort of goes over and over certain things, with little regard to chronological order--Americans in Japan, Japanese in Japan. But the difference between the Japanese and American point of view, personality, and tradition is very interesting.
1122649
Here's the conundrum I faced with this book: I loved reading it and yet some of the chapters seemed disconnected from both the title and the main themes implied by that title - Jewish identity, experiences, memory, alienation and belonging. When author Roger Cohen addressed these topics, he made many thought-provoking points. He noted that memory may be tailored to fit our political and emotional needs, and often focused on  aspects of belonging versus a sense of "otherness." He wrote very poignantly about how he missed meeting "the last Jew in Zagare, Lithuania by only months ". This was in 2011). I struggled to imagine how it must feel to be the sole Jew left in a town once known as "a center of of Jewish learning and Kaballah."

However, there are also chapters which focus only the the author's family members and seem less clearly connected to the other parts of the book.  One chapter, titled "Madness in the Brain, centers on the author's mother, a woman who suffered from manic-depression. Because issues of mental illness and treatment interest me, my attention never flagged while reading this chapter. I was often moved by the author's description of his mother's devastating ordeal and his conclusion that " Mental illness is a charnel house from which nobody escapes unscathed."

 But I did wonder if other readers might be confused or find these sections less cohesive than the rest of the book. The bottom line?  I found this to be a thoroughly engaging book. For those looking solely for a memoir focused on  family and individual Jewish identity, history, and related themes, it might be helpful to know that some chapters strongly veer from those topics and address mental health issues, particularly manic-depressive illness.
2369176
Mr. Cornes obviously knows his subject.  Travel and Meet Yourself is a veritable smorgasbord of information gathered from intercultural experts and self-insight test like the Myers Briggs type indicators. While it is perhaps helpful to have all this information in one place, in order to do so the story telling that makes a cross culture book interesting is missing.
4519841
Values are an important aspect of culture, but have not been the subject of sustained enquiry in the social sciences.  Here D'Andrade takes up a quantitative-based study of values among "Americans ..., Vietnamese refugees in the United States ..., and native-born Japanese, primarily living in Japan" (D'Andrade 2008:22).

D'Andrade acknowledges that using quantitative data from questionnaires to do a cross-cultural study of values has its limitations, but he argues that it has virtues too and our understanding of values is at such a stage where the contribution from such research would be important.  His discussion of how his measures were constructed is also, as usual, thorough and forthright.  Ditto his methods of analysis.  Much can be learned from these two sections, and together they demonstrate the challenge of doing good quantitative research into cultural phenomenon.  This is no simple ask-and-tally procedure.

Although there are some surprising findings -- for example, the Japanese appeared more like the  Americans than the Vietnamese on the individualism versus collectivism dimension -- for D'Andrade and others working on the project the greater surprise seems to be that the value differences were so small.  This leads him to conclude -- and I may be missing something here -- that the "values" of the questionnaire were too general; what counts as satisfaction of that value for a given person in a given instance is more informative.

I think that sums up the limitations of questionnaire research in a nutshell.  It's why we do ethnography (if you're an anthropologist) -- although, as D'Andrade noted, that takes more time, money, resources, ...

So what would the next step look like?  One example is Adrie Kusserow's compelling American Individualisms (2004), which shows how different social groups may share the value of "individualism" but give different meanings to the word/concept, based on their (class) experiences.  Note that these are all "Americans."  Taking this one step further, if you will, Claudia Strauss shows how individuals learn, hold, and use different, even discordant, value-schemes to judge behavior in different contexts (see her chapter in Quinn's Finding Culture in Talk, 2005).

I bought this book on the strength of the author's reputation, his fine The Development of Cognitive Anthropology (1995), and the book's title (I study Japan).  I confess I was surprised at the approach he used here.  I need more convincing on the subject of generalizing from small samples to large societies, for example.  I would be more interested in seeing how values emerge in a more narrowly defined context, perhaps discussion of a specific moral dilemma (a la Lawrence Kohlberg, Carol Gilligan, Naomi Quinn, or Claudia Strauss).  In general, I find the approach of Strauss and Quinn more useful.  All the same, I was glad to see this work published, because D'Andrade's honest scholarship really clarified for me the limitations of this type of research for this type of topic.  And he has left us with some new questions.  So if your library has a copy you might want to give this a look.

Recommended Works:

Kusserow:
http://www.amazon.com/American-Individualisms-Rearing-Neighborhoods-Culture/dp/1403964807

Quinn:
http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Culture-Talk-Collection-Methods/dp/1403969159/ref=cm_cr_wr_img

Strauss and Quinn:
http://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Cultural-Publications-Psychological-Anthropology/dp/052159541X/ref=cm_cr_wr_img

D'Andrade and Strauss:
http://www.amazon.com/Motives-Cultural-Publications-Psychological-Anthropology/dp/0521412331/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269315397&sr=1-1

D'Andrade:
http://www.amazon.com/Development-Cognitive-Anthropology-Roy-DAndrade/dp/0521459761/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269315308&sr=1-1
1674943
Good generalization of different cultures that will help you understand a little better, someone's perspective or perception of the world.
1911295
Given the increasing influence of religious issues among global leaders and American politicians, I read this book to understand more about religion's affect on the development of personality.

Dr. Kania begins by contrasting the characteristics of unhealthy vs. healthy religion. In general, the author places them in the categories of conservative vs. liberal religious approaches, respectively. He then draws from mythology to illustrate that many of the conservatively literal interpretations of scripture actually represent symbols that can be interpreted metaphorically rather than as actual Biblical events. Often these symbols denote psychological themes about life, human experience, and personal growth. Next, the author reviews the theoretical work of psychologists who incorporated a religious sentiment into their theories, some of whom described qualities of mature or healthy religion, thus setting the stage for his chapter connecting personality and religion.

While Dr. Kania discusses the limiting qualities of fundamentalism and other authoritarian religious viewpoints on personality growth and development, my favorite chapter is his chapter titled "Healthy Religion". In this chapter he presents twenty-five considerations to help you evaluate the healthiness of your own religious perspective. I think many of these considerations would provide one with a pause for thought and a basis for discussion if one is questioning their religious approach or desiring to broaden their religious perspective. Also helpful are the author's three minimal requirements for healthy religion. They are centered on the development of the individual's personality and his or her belief about ultimate power and authority.

Overall, Dr. Kania makes a case that unhealthy religion is an externalized closed system. Its authoritarian style and judgmental tone tends to stymie an individual's process of self-exploration, a necessary component for the growth of a healthy personality.  On the other hand, healthy religion is an internalized open process that evolves in stages as one's personality also evolves. In support, Dr. Kania discusses a stage theory of religious development that corresponds to the stages of personality development. He also discusses the importance of providing a nonjudgmental environment where there is freedom to safely explore and question one's religious and spiritual beliefs in order to progress through the developmental stages.

This book causes me to reflect on my own religious experiences and evolving personality as well as the overall importance of religion on personality development. As a consequence, it gives me pause for thought about our world leaders and the affect of their religious backgrounds on their personality and leadership style.
3284476
It goes over different ethnic backgrounds and what not overall its okay.
Used it for my Multicultural Psychology class

The Goods:
Organized structure
Compare and contrast vs. the Dominant culture
Easy read

The Bad:
Some of the ethnic backgrounds lacks information
Much of it is Biasd and miss some of the key point while overbloating with information for other (African American Culture/Korean American Culture)
Objectivity of the book becomes questionable as the book progresses
Some of the implication should not even in the book as it has no place
2468281
Realizing it's hard to be sympathetic to sociopaths (defined in this book as people without a conscience), I was annoyed by the author's continual judgmental attitude toward her subjects. I found some parts of this book very interesting an readable, but even larger swaths annoying. I had a pretty good idea the first couple chapters in that I wasn't going to like this book, but I wanted to write a review, and I didn't feel I could fairly do that unless I'd read the whole thing. I'm glad I finished it because the best parts are toward the late-middle. I might recommend chapters 6-8 to an interested party, but not the book as a whole.

There is a section on the history of sociopathy which I found to be woefully Eurocentric. Elsewhere in the book she acknowledges that other cultures have sociopaths and how they deal with them, these cultures are not important enough to be under the heading history.

The book does raise some interesting philosophical questions, if only inadvertently. Does it matter that the author is broadly disrespecting a group of people who purportedly don't have feelings to hurt? Can we really know for sure what another human's psyche has or does not have? The author suggests that sociopaths don't know they're sociopaths. I don't think I am one, but if so accused, there's nothing I could do to try and prove that I do have a conscience that I couldn't just as easily fake.

The good news is that the book does cite some interesting research on causes of sociopathy and how to discern if someone might be one.
3797211
I felt that this was a wonderful book. It provides the reader with a great insight into one man's effort to learn more about the cultural heritage of one group. The author of the book shares how difficult it was to gain insight and to process the insights produced by this person. It shares insights into the culture being studied, and what is interesting is how some of these values are different from those a majority of the society might recognize. This will be provocative because the author writes in a way that will encourage you to reflect upon these values. Get it and learn.
458763
I learned a lot about Danish culture including that of the author himself who appears to also lack full perspective of his own limitations even as he criticizes his own culture.  His critiques are valid and often amusing and well worth reading for anyone curious about Danish culture.  Sometimes he gets too philosophical and academic and loses sight of the big picture but, again, that's part of his own perspective in a culture that provides free education to nearly all its citizens to become educated even beyond their own needs (does everyone including the store clerk need to have a PhD?)
781982
I found this book as good food for thought, but I don't imagine I'll be using many of the techniques in the book.  In my opinion many of the techniques have a strong chance of backfiring.  Also, you're not supposed to use them with people who have a true personality disorder and in this day and age, how is your average person supposed to know?  However, it is an interesting read with plenty of stories/examples and I do think it can help people feel more empathy for others who are stuck in emotional/irrational states and also better recognize when they are experiencing those states themselves.  For me, I walked away from the book entertained and with some additional insight, but not really armed with any new techniques I plan on using with others.
332260
The publication of the original edition of Hofstede's Culture's Consequences was, within the field of cross-cultural research, comparable to the work of Darwin in evolutionary theory.  Now, with a second edition, practitioners and theorists alike have a rich quarry to mine for many years to come.
The second addition notably adds references to a number of corroborating studies that have been collected over the more or less twenty years since the first edition.  As an example, Appendix 6 contains references to well over 50 statistically linked research papers from other authors.  The result is the collection in a single volume of a growing body of literature in the field, work that continues to define a kind of mental geography of culture.
When I first come upon Hofstede's research in the 1980's I was immediately taken with the extraordinary relationship between his mental geographies (charted by developing ratios between his four, now five, dimensions) and the physical proximity of real countries.  In other words, the countries in his dimensions tended to cluster in similar ways to how countries cluster geographically.  Of course there are counter-intuitive examples (e.g., Germany), but in many of those cases, the data helps break cultural stereotypes widely held about those countries.
Hofstede's original research focused on over 115,000 questionnaires provided to the worldwide employees of IBM.  The premise behind using one company worldwide is that because the company is held constant, the data that can be examined for differences that can be attributed to country cultures.  If IBM employees had been compared to, for example, government workers in different countries, organizational culture would have been implicated.
More recent studies (for example Michael Hoppe's dissertation work) tend to revalidate the country positions on the dimensions, showing only slow shifts in the data over time.
Over the years that I have used Hofstede's research in my practice, I have found it to be a touchstone by which people of all backgrounds can understand how culture influences business and other fields.  I know that many, many other practitioners rely on his research approach as well.
The book is a compendium of much of the substantive cross-cultural research of the past half-century; it is an essential reference for students, teachers, researchers, and practitioners alike.
4172992
This is a very well-written, enlightening book that brings home how difficult it is to be an Asian American male in a society where "macho" and dominant "alpha male" attitudes are considered the ideal, versus the quiet, restrained and subtle philosophy of manhood that the philosophy of "Wen Wu" advocates.  This is less a memoir of Alex Tizon's life, however, than a sociological study of how Asian American males have been historically undermined, humiliated and treated in a derogatory fashion by the mainstream, Western culture. This despite the myth of the "model minority," the economic "miracle" of Japan and other Asian Tiger countries, and the fact that China has risen to near-superpower status.

However, I can't help but feel this would have been a better book if it had been written by a Chinese or Japanese American rather than a Filippino-American. Most of the examples he cites involve East Asians (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.) and there are far more of them in the U.S. than those from the Philippines. In other words,  he is speaking as a minority within a minority, and I sense a tension from his attempt to broaden his unique, quirky perspective to include the experiences of all Filippino men as well as every man hailing from Asia (including Indians).  At times this feels too ambitious and given the book's length (less than 300 pages), it feels  unfocused.

Also, more than half the book is devoted to a recounting of grievances - a long catalog of the ways in which Asian men have been mistreated and made to feel inferior to Western men.  Tizon seems to provide the obligatory "there's less racism and everything's better now" to provide some sense of closure in the final chapters, but this feels unsatisfactory given that he's brought up so many problems and doesn't offer much in the way of advice - how does an Asian male fight these unfair ways of seeing, and are there ways to cope and deal with the problem other than complaining?

In addition, Tizon never examines or criticizes the rigid, male-worshipping sexism of traditional Eastern culture and how this extreme contrast  leaves many Asian males psychologically damaged. Imagine an Asian male who's treated, from birth, as a Prince by traditional, male-worshipping immigrant parents, only to be knocked off his pedestal and treated as a loser by Western society. The psychological damage to one's self-esteem must be considerable, but Tizon never delves into this.

Complementing this, the author talks at length about physical and genital sizes to explain why women of all races continually ignore Asian men but never wonders whether the East's long, well-documented history of harsh sexism has subtly influenced Asian women to shun their fellow countrymen.  I've heard some Asian immigrant females express relief that, instead of being regarded as subhuman or a burden (females have been called "maggots" or "parasites" in China and Japan) white men here stampede to scoop them up as wives.