Author Description

In this volume the author explores the psychological experiences of social belonging and alienation that occur in individuals of both U.S. and Japanese societies. Dr. De Vos investigates the family context of social conformity or delinquency in Japan, suicide patterns, and the continuing plight of Japan's two largest minorities, the Burakumin and the ethnic Koreans. He also examines gang and peer group formation in the American context, especially as these processes relate to the breakdown of family cohesion in some ethnic families. Comparing the deleterious effect of social degradation on minority group members of both societies, De Vos develops a psychocultural concept of selective permeability to explain non-learning among some ethnic youth.