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Cultural Psychology Summary: book and notes - Grade 8.5
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Tilburg University (UVT)
Psychology [EN]
Cultural Psychology
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CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS CULTURE?
Cultural psychology=a subdiscipline within psychology that examines the cultural foundations
of psychological processes and human behavior, it includes theoretical and methodological
frameworks that posit an important role for culture and its influence on mental processes
behavior
Goals of psychology: 1) to create a body of knowledge 2) apply that knowledge
Goals of cultural psychology: 1. Test hypothesis 2. Explore cultures 3. Apply knowledge to
universal psychology
Culture=a unique meaning and information system shared by a group and transmitted across
generations, that allows the group to meet basic needs of survival, pursue happiness and well
being
Cultural values/traits→historical/political context→cultural conventions→other/own
person→situation behavior
Factors that influence cultures: group life (division of labor, efficiency, increase survival
probability), environments (climate, population density, arable land, diseases, previous cultures,
contact with other cultures), resources, the evolved human mind (needs and motives, universal
psychological toolkits)
Deviation from temperate climate=the degree to which the average temperature of a given
region will differ from the “easiest temperature” to live in (22C)
Shared intentionality=knowledge about motivational concerning behaviors that are common
among people in a group
Ratchet effects=concept that humans continually improve in improvements, progress occurs
Culture is not an uniquely human products. But human culture differs from animal culture on
complexity, differentiation, institutionalization.
Culture and nationality. Countries have their own cultures, unique sociocultural history,
language, government, economic base, but also subcultures.
Culture and language. Within countries, there are different dialects and regional differences in
local and regional cultures.
Cultures and ethnicity (usually referred to as race)
,Cultures and gender. Gender roles and the degree to which a person adopts the gender-specific
and appropriate behavior ascribed by their culture, gender differences are cultural differences
Culture and disability. Disable people share the same feelings, way of thinking, motivations that
may be specific to their disability.
Culture and sexual orientation. The particular psychological outlook and characteristics that are
shared by and unique to each orientation
Contrasting culture
Race is not culture and the terms should not be used interchangeably, race is a social construct.
Personality is not culture, but an unique constellation of traits, attributes, qualities and
characteristics of individuals
Popular culture refers to trends that become popular among a group of people
Contents of culture
· Objective elements involve objective, explicit elements that are physical (architecture,
clothes, food, arts, etc.)
· Subjective elements include those that do not survive as physical artifacts, but
psychological processes (attitudes, beliefs, values=trans-situational goals that serve as a
guiding principle in the life of a person/group, behaviors);
HOFSTEDE ‘s values: individualism/collectivism, power distance(=the degree to which
cultures will encourage less powerful members of groups to accept that power is distributed
unequally), uncertainty avoidance, masculinity/femininity, (after 2010=>) long/short term
orientation(=the degree to which cultures encourage delayed gratification of material, social and
emotional needs among its members, high scores=pragmatic approach, thrift and efforts in
education to prepare for the future), indulgence
*criticism Hofstede* framework limitations, is it actually measuring individualism?
*criticism Gerhart & Fang*
*criticism by Matsumoto* little or no support for stereotypic individualism/collectivism
*criticism of Hosftede by Minkov* reliability, power distance seems to be part of the I-C,
uncertainty avoidance is not reliably measured, M-F does not meet criteria, levels of analysis, not
measuring all countries
TRIANDIS’ CULTURAL SYNDROMES:
, o Vertical collectivism-perceiving the self as a part of a collective and accepting
inequalities within
o Horizontal collectivism-includes perceiving the self as a part of a collective, but seeing
all members of the collective as the same; equality is stressed
o Vertical individualism=conception of autonomous individual and acceptance of
inequality
o Horizontal individualism-conception of autonomous individual and emphasis on equality
MARKUS & KITAYAMA independence (separate from social context, unitary, stable, ability to
express self, validate internal attributes) and interdependence (connected with social context,
flexible, fit-in, ability to adjust, maintain harmony in social context)
*criticism by Matsumoto* little empirical support, past research is mostly assuming and
documenting, more data needed on individual level, using dualism, instead on dimension
Sacred values=cultural non-negotiable values that incorporate moral beliefs
Cultural beliefs=social axioms=general beliefs and premises about oneself, the social and
physical environment and the spiritual world:
1. Dynamic externality=an outward-oriented, simplistic grappling with external forces that
are constructed to include fate and a supreme being. Cultures high on this dimension tend to
be more collectivistic, conservative, hierarchical, strong sense of spirituality
2. Societal cynicism=predominantly cognitive apprehension or pessimism of the world
confronting people. Cultures high on this dimension believe that the world produces
malignant outcomes that they are surrounded by inevitable negative outcomes and that
individuals are suppressed by powerful others
Religions are organized systems of beliefs and are important to many people and cultures, are all
similar and serve a specific need, but in different ways.
Norms are generally accepted standards of behavior for any cultural group, they dictate the
behavior that members of any cultures have defined as the most appropriate in any give situation.
GELFAND: Tightness/looseness refer to the variability within a culture of its members to have
norms, tight cultures=>more homogeneous, less variability, loose cultures=>heterogeneous,
more variability
Attitudes are facilitated by culture and serve as the basis of stereotypes and prejudice.
, Cultural Worldviews are belief systems about the world, the contain attitudes, beliefs, opinions
and values about the world. Self-concept is the cognitive representations of who one is, the ideas
and images they have about themselves, in relation to others; it is central to personal identity and
can change over time, partially conscious, partially unconscious or inferred.
Enculturation=the process by which individuals learn and adopt the ways and manners of their
specific culture
The relationship between culture and behaviors is reciprocal, dynamic and complex.
Ethics=aspects of life that appear to be consistent across cultures, truths or principles
Emics=aspects of life that appear to differ across cultures, truths or principles that are culture-
specific
People all around the world in different cultures are trying to accomplish many of the same
things (etics); they are just doing them in different ways (emics).
YAMAGISHI, HASHIMOTO, SCHUG: default strategy=an ecologically rational decision rule
used by individuals without conscious calculation (“Pen Paradigm”)
HENRICH ET. AL comparisons: industrialized vs small scales societies, western vs non-western,
Americans vs other westerns, university educated vs non educated
CHAPTER 2 CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH METHODS
TYPES OF STUDIES
1. Validation studies examine whether a scale, test developed in a culture is valid in
another culture
2. Indigenous cultural studies in depth analyses of theoretical models within a single
culture
3. Cross-cultural comparisons involve participants from two or more cultures, measured
on some psychological variable of interest
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