Michael Shengtao Wu

In this commentary, the author first seeks to counterbalance the current focus on the cost of cultural value mismatch by calling attention to ample evidence in the literature that value mismatch can produce cultural adaptation and resilience in the long run, besides promoting cultural innovations and individual creativity. Second, we propose three factors that differentiate the benefits from the costs of cultural value mismatch. Personal orientation towards integrating heritage and host culture, accurate perception of cultural value differences, and supportive multicultural environments are associated with benefits. In contrast, dichotomous orientation towards one or the other culture, exaggeration of value differences between heritage and host culture, and assimilationist social environments are associated with costs. Third, our analysis of the decoupling between cultural values and ecological niches in the special issue led to observation of bidirectionality in cultural value mismatch: Whereas most articles in the Special Issue focus on the cross‐cultural value mismatch that occurs when people move from a more rural, low‐resource, less technological ecology into a more urban, high‐resource, more technological ecology, we were able to document the effects of value mismatch when movement occurs in the opposite direction.

There is a huge demand of psychological counseling in China, given the growing pains along with dramatic social changes. However, it remains unclear whether psychological counselors hold special psychological qualities as compared to the general population, especially when it is hard to assess psychological professionals' personality using self-reported methods. Based on the ecological recognition technology, the present research is to explore psychological counselors' personality traits, and to examine the possible effect of gender, therapeutic orientation, and years of experience on personality. One hundred and thirty-one counselors' introduction and articles on the “Yi Psychology” were collected to analyze their personality using Big Five personality prediction model. The results revealed that psychological counselors showed a higher level of agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness, but lower extraversion and neuroticism, as compared to norm groups. In addition, there was significant relationship of the counselors' personality to gender and years of experience, but not to their therapeutic orientation. Taken together, the current findings demonstrate the different profile of personality traits among Chinese psychological counselors, compared with norm group. The applications for clinical trainings and selection are discussed.