Culture and Psychology

1
Culture and Psychology

• Conceptualizing Culture in Psychology

2
Why Study Culture in Psychology?

• To check the generality of psychological research
• To conduct natural experiments and
  quasi-experiments
• To extend understanding of culture
• To understand the process of cultural change
• To reduce ethnocentrism and promote intercultural
  understanding.

3
What is Culture?

• Material/Objective Culture
• Buildings, tools, clothing, methods of
  transportation, etc.
• Subjective Culture
• Characteristic ways of viewing the environment
  (e.g., ideas, theories, and political, religious,
  scientific, aesthetic, economic, moral and social
  standards for judging events in the environment.
• Subjective culture can be institutionalized in
  government, education, religion, etc. systems.

4
Defining Culture

• Range of activities, phenomena in human life
• Transmission from generation to generation
  accumulated knowledge
• Socialization/enculturation
• Implicit and explicit assumptions about life
• Shared rules to govern activity of a group
• Patterns of organization
• Genesis of culture (out of habitat, social
  interaction, etc.)
• A psychological construct

5
Defining Culture

• Culture as Patterns/Syndromes
• Culture as Intergroup Relations
• Culture as Border Crossing
• Culture as a Process

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Approaches to the Psychological Study of Culture

Absolutism
Universalism
Relativism
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Approaches to the Psychological Study of Culture

• Cross-Cultural Psychology
• Is concerned with the systematic study of
  behaviour and experience as it occurs in
  different cultures, is influenced by culture or
  results in changes in existing cultures
  (Triandis, 1980, p. 1)

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Approaches to the Psychological Study of Culture

• Cultural Psychology
• Is the study of all the things members of
  different communities think (know, want, feel,
  value) and do by virtue of being the kinds of
  beings who are the beneficiaries, guardians and
  active perpetuators of a particular culture
  (Shweder et al., 1998, p. 867)
• Study of meaning, intentions

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Approaches to the Psychological Study of Culture

• Indigenous Psychologies
• A psychology of a cultural group based on the
  day-to-day behaviour of its members, for which
  local points of view provide the paradigms that
  guide the collection and interpretation of
  psychological information. (Berry et al., 2002,
  pp. 459-460)

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Approaches to the Psychological Study of Culture

• Ethnic Minority Psychology
• is concerned with the use of culturally
  appropriate methods to understand the behavior
  and experiences of specific ethnic groups
  historically marginalized groups in North
  America. (Goldstein, 2000, p. vii)

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Culture as Patterns (Triandis, 1980)

• Cultural Syndromes
• A pattern of beliefs, attitudes,
  self-definitions, norms and values that are
  organized around some theme that can be
  identified in a society.

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Elements of Subjective Culture

• Knowledge-Related Constructs
• Norm-Related Constructs
• Self and Social Relationships
• Values

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Knowledge-Related Constructs

• Schema
• An organized body of information including
  categories and their associations, stored in
  memory. Schemata provide structure that help
  with perceiving, organizing and remembering
  information, allowing for efficient processing of
  social information.
• Beliefs

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Norm-Related Constructs

• Norms
• Implicit or explicit generalized expectations
  regarding what is appropriate behaviour for
  members of a group
• Kinds of Norms
• Descriptive
• Prescriptive vs. proscriptive (mores vs. taboos)
• Institutionalized norms
• Roles

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Self and Social Relationships

• Fiske (1990, 1992)
• Communal Sharing
• Share resources according to need
• Authority Ranking
• Distribute resources according to rank
• Equality Matching
• Share resources equally
• Market Pricing
• Distribute resources equitably (the more you
  give, the more you get)

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Independent and Interdependent Self-Construals
(Markus Kitayama, 1991)
Coworker
Mother
Coworker
Mother
SELF
SELF
Friend
Neighbour
Friend
Neighbour
Independent
Interdependent
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Values

• Values are principles that guide our lives. They
  are designed to lead us to our ideal world
  (Schwartz, 1992)
• Transcend specific situations
• Guide selection or evaluation of behaviour and
  events
• Ordered by relative importance

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Value Dimensions (Hofstede, 1980)

• Power Distance
• the tendency to see a large social distance
  between those in the upper part of a social
  structure and those in the lower part of the
  social structure.
• Control of others behaviours
• Uncertainty Avoidance
• Avoidance of situations where the outcome is
  uncertain
• Security, low risk-taking, state religion
• Masculinity-Femininity
• Emphasize differences between men and women
• Focus on achievement and success vs.
  interpersonal harmony or caring for others and
  quality of life
• Individualism-Collectivism
• Tendency to give priority to personal goals even
  when they conflict with the goals of important
  groups.

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Chinese Culture Connection (1987)

• CBC
• Integration
• Human-heartedness
• Confucian work dynamism
• Moral discipline
• --

• Hofstede
• Collectivism
• Masculinity
• --
• Power distance (high)
• Uncertainty avoidance

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Value Dimensions (Schwartz, 1992)
Self- Direction
Universalism
Benevolence
Stimulation
Hedonism
Tradition
Achievement
Conformity
Security
Power