Projects
Emotional Interactions in Couples: A Comparison Between Belgium and Japan. KU Leuven
Do couples’ emotional interactions vary across cultures? In this dissertation, I address this question in a focus group and couple-conflict study across two cultures: Belgium and Japan. Couples in Belgian and Japanese cultural contexts emphasize different relationship goals: independence and autonomy are valued in Belgium, while interdependence and harmony are emphasized in Japan. To the extent that emotions are shaped by cultural ...
Antecedent-focused regulation: a source of cross-cultural differences in emotion. KU Leuven
The integration conundrum: An intergroup relations perspective on majority support for inclusion versus exclusion of immigrant minorities KU Leuven
The proposed research project addresses ‘the integration
conundrum’ as an important cause of public concern and political
contention in today’s Europe. The proposal zooms in on the less
well-researched acculturation views of the majority: do majority
citizens expect minorities to engage mainly or exclusively with the
mainstream culture, with the heritage culture, or do they expect them
to combine both cultures? ...
Unpacking the Black Box of Emotional Acculturation. KU Leuven
Education and sociocultural identification: Facilitating learning effects through congruence. KU Leuven
In most contemporary Western educational systems, sociocultural inequalities remain prominent. Nevertheless, the functionalist meritocratic perspective—which claims that by focusing on students’ own achievement, the educational system limits the privileges associated with ascription, such as wealth and family background—has further permeated the common sense in recent decades. This perspective has been severely criticized by interactionism ...
Conditions of emotional acculturation KU Leuven
Emotional Acculturation examines when and how immigrant minorities’ emotions acculturate to fit the emotions of the majority, and when and how this removes the obstacles to integration. It addresses the question of emotional acculturation. EmotionAcculturation adopts a novel approach to psychological acculturation that challenges the tacit assumption in much-existing acculturation research that minority individuals’ cultural affiliation and ...