An international conference "The social psychology of economic and cultural change"
On June 10-11 International Scientific-Educational Laboratory for Sociocultural Research has held an international conference “The social psychology of economic and cultural change”. They keynote speakers were : Cigdem Kagitcibasi (Koc University, Turkey), Shalom Schwartz (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel), Fons van de Vijver (Tilburg University, Netherlands), and Seger Breugelmans (Tilburg University, Netherlands). Researchers from the Laboratory and other institutions also presented their research.
First to present was Cigdem Kagicibasi, who gave a talk on cognitive and social development of migrant children and the necessity of satisfying both basic needs – autonomy and relatedness – simultaneously (“Promoting Cognitive and Socio-Emotional Development through Social Change”). Shalom Schwartz in his talk “Stability and Change in Cultural Values in Europe with Special Focus on Russia” shared the results of a large-scale longitudinal study of value change in Europe. According to the data, in Russia value change occurs faster than in other European countries. In her presentation “Values and Domains of Creativity” Nadezhda Lebedeva discussed the results of her study on the relationship between personal values and creativity. Her study, conducted in North Caucasus and in Central Russia, showed a positive relationship between creativity and the values of openness to change, and a negative relationship between creativity and the values of conservation. Gender and regional differences moderated the relationship between values and creativity. Lusine Grigoryan shared her study on contextual influences on the link between values and attitudes towards multiculturalism (“Values and Attitudes to Cultural Diversity: the Role of the Context”), Alyona Kaptsova presented on value congruity as a predictor of well-being (“Value Congruity as a Determinant of Satisfaction with Life in Two Representative National Samples”), and Yuliya Gavronova talked about the cultural values of Russian and German students (“Individual Values of Russian and German Students”).
In a session on acculturation Tatyana Ryabichenko talked about the relationship between personal values and the choices of acculturation strategies among Latvians of Russian and Polish descent, Sergey Chuvashov presented on the role of personal values and socio-psychological capital in the decision to immigrate, and Olga Verbilovich shared her study of the perceptions of migrants in Moscow and in Stavropol. Nadezhda Lebedeva presented on her joint study with J. Berry and A. Tatarko that tested three intercultural relations hypotheses in Russian context.
The second day of the conference was dedicated to cross-cultural topics in economic psychology. Seger Breugelmans opened the session with a report on his study of cognitive and behavioral correlates of poverty. Alexander Tatarko continued with a study of individual social capital on entrepreneurial behavior. Ekaterina Romanova talked about the role of social network activity in individual social capital, while Irina Bazyleva presented on within-organizational communication in Russian companies.