Comparing Cultures
BROAD LINES
Table of content
Lectures & Tutorials
LECTURE 1: Cross-cultural psychology and culture
TUTORIAL 1
LECTURE 2: Methodological Issues
TUTORIAL 2
LECTURE 3: Cultural Socialisation
TUTORIAL 3
LECTURE 4: Self and Personality
TUTORIAL 4
LECTURE 5: Emotions and Motivation
TUTORIAL 5
LECTURE 6: Cognition and Morality
TUTORIAL 6
LECTURE 7: Interpersonal and group processes
TUTORIAL 7
LECTURE 8: Intercultural Relations & Acculturation
Literature
Heine: CHAPTER 1: A psychology for a cultural species
Heine: CHAPTER 2: Culture and Human Nature
Heine: CHAPTER 13: Physical Health
Heine: CHAPTER 3: Cultural Evolution
Heine: CHAPTER 4: Research Methods
Keller (2010): Continuity in Parenting Strategies: A Cross-Cultural Comparison
English & Chen (2011): Self-Concept Consistency and Culture: The Differential Impact of
Two Forms of Consistency
Beaupré & Hess (2005): Cross-cultural emotion recognition among Canadian ethnic
groups
Heine: CHAPTER 6: Self and Personality
Norenzayan: Cultural Similarities and Differences in Social Inference: Evidence From
Behavioral Predictions and Lay Theories of Behavior
Heine: CHAPTER 8: Motivation
Heine: CHAPTER 10: Emotions
Heine: CHAPTER 9: Cognition and Perception
, Heine: CHAPTER 12: Morality and Religion
Heine: CHAPTER 11: Attraction and Relationships
Thelamour (2017): Applying the Relative Acculturation Extended Model to Examine
Black Americans’ Perspectives on African Immigrant Acculturation
Heine: CHAPTER 7: Living in Multicultural Worlds
Key Terms & Theories
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,Lectures & Tutorials
LECTURE 1: Cross-cultural psychology and culture
Means and correlations
- Statistical index r, for the association between two quantitative measures (e.g., length
and shoe size)
- Ranges from -1 to +1
- Can be displayed in a scatterplot
- Differences (variance) required!
Generalizability (statistical significance)
- To what extent can you apply your research findings to the population your sample
was drawn from?
- Test for significance: the probability (p) that your findings are absent in the
population (and hence coincidental)
- e.g., the probability of no correlation or no mean differences in the population
- Normally p < 0.05, but the smaller the better
Whom is psychology about?
- Most psychological subjects are American college students: convenience samples.
- Other than that, mostly subjects from WEIRD countries:
- Western
- Educated
- Industrialised
- Rich
- Democratic
Cross-cultural psychology: The scientific study of human behavior and its transmission,
taking into account the ways in which behaviors are shaped and influenced by social and
cultural forces (Segal et al., 1992)
- Focus on: What is fundamental and basic about human nature, and what is
malleable and likely to emerge in a different form depending on the ways in which
particular individuals are socialized? (Smith, Bond & Kağıtçıbaşı, 2006).
- Goals: (Berry et al., 1992)
1. Testing the generality of existing psychological knowledge and theories
(transport and test goal).
- Transport goal: Testing whether the results found from psychological
studies in WEIRD countries are applicable in other countries.
2. Exploring other cultures in order to discover psychological variations not
present in one’s own limited cultural experience.
3. Integrating findings resulting from the first 2 goals to generate a more
universal psychology valid for a broader range of cultures.
- Modify the existing knowledge, adding culturally specific information to
it and trying to come up with a broader perspective to psychology.
- Two subdisciplines:
1. Cultural psychology: “Mind and culture influence and complement each
other, and therefore we are often not the same”
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, - We as persons are fundamentally different because of the different
cultural backgrounds we have.
2. Culture comparative psychology: “Psychologically, we are all the same
despite our cultural differences”
- Focus on the similarities between human beings, despite cultural
differences.
Psychological universals:
core mental attributes shared
by all humans → human
mind as a toolbox.
But: different levels of
universality.
- Not all mental attributes are available to all people, therefore it is useless to compare
these strategies = non-universal
- Example: the use of specific calculation strategies with abacus [telraam].
- If the mental attributes are available to and used by all people, these could still be
used differently = existential universal
- Example: classification strategies.
- If the mental attribution is available used in the same manner, but not same
accessibility = functional universal
- Example: internal attributions.
- If the mental attribute is available, used in the same manner, and accessed evenly
frequently = accessibility universal
Different focal points
- Cultural psychology: non-universals & existential universals
- Culture-comparative psychology: functional universals & accessibility universals
Definition of culture:
- Any kind of information that is acquired from other members of one’s species through
social learning that is capable of affecting an individual’s behaviors.
- By definition about a group of individuals.
- The totality of equivalent and complementary learned meanings by a human
population, or by identifiable segments of a population, and transmitted from one
generation to the next (Rohner, 1984).
- Tendency to be transmitted since it is connected to meaningness.
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, - Culture is evoked and transmitted:
- Evoked: Biologically based behavioral repertoires are ‘elicited’ by
environments. Patterns of culture exist as a response to the particular
environment groups of people live in.
- Adaptations to environments
- Ecological contexts and social political contexts
- Similar environments → similar cultures
- Example: agriculture → more conformism,
whereas hunting/gathering → more independence
- Different environments → different cultures
- More interdependence in rice-growing versus wheat-growing
regions in China
- Transmitted: Behavioral repertoires are acquired via social learning.
- Change: Exposure to new ideas.
- Imitation, explicit instruction, communication of ideas.
- Contact between cultures: borrowing and assimilation.
- Stability: Relative independence from environment, ‘functional
autonomy’ of cultures
- Self-affirming and ‘immune’ to ‘external’ influences (e.g.,
migration). So even when people change environments, their
culture persists. This shows that cultural patterns sustain
themselves even when context is changed.
Eco-cultural model Berry (2010):
Culture: characteristic of a
group
Culture is an adaptation to the
environment. This could be for
example ecological (fishing), but
also socio-political (interaction
with others; language)
But also biological explanations for common behaviors
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, - As a species humans have common genes (the human genome) that evolved due
to common evolutionary pressures related to survival and procreation.
- We as humans share genes, so biological explanations can be used in order
to explain similarities between groups with different cultural backgrounds.
Study of culture (Kashima, 2000)
1. Empiricist/positivist approach
- Stable meaning system
- Culture ‘external’ to human nature
- Explicit measure of meanings (e.g., values)
- Culture as the independent variable
2. Interpretivist approach
- Changing and continuously reproduced
- Culture intrinsic part of human nature
- Broader focus: practices included
- Culture as the dependent variable
- There is no “right approach” between the two. But consensus:
- Culture is an integral part of human nature
- Human development is a process of enculturation
- Culture and mind are complementary
- “Psychological agents generate culture, but culture too shapes the
agents’ minds”
3. Post-positivist (realist) approach: combines the two approaches.
- Perfect, objective knowledge about reality is impossible to attain
- Still we try to approximate this knowledge, acknowledging the importance of
different perspectives and experiences.
Are we even able to compare cultures? (Berry et al., 1992)
1. Absolutism: Yes, People from different cultures can be meaningfully compared:
psychological phenomena are similar across cultures, but their quantities differ.
- E.g., meaningful comparisons of personality or intelligence without
reservation
- Positivist
2. Relativism: No, Quantitative comparisons are meaningless because they are
culturally biased. They always rely on concepts from one culture, the researcher’s.
People should be understood in their own terms.
- Only qualitative descriptions are meaningful
- Interpretivist
3. Universalism: All people share basic psychological processes but their
manifestations differ across cultures.
- Cross-cultural comparisons can be made after these manifestation
differences have been taken into account → used in this course.
- Post-Positivist /Realist
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,Example: social conformity → The Asch experiment
- The results of the initial Asch experiment were compared to the repetition of a similar
experiment in North America, Europe and the rest of the world.
North America and Europe: social
conformity lower than the Asch
experiment.
Rest of the world: social conformity
higher than the Asch experiment.
Explanations
1. Initial explanation:
- Collectivistic societies: people conform to avoid their own embarrassment in
front of others.
2. Better explanation:
- Collectivistic societies: people conform to avoid embarrassment of others.
TUTORIAL 1
- Only notes on presentation.
LECTURE 2: Methodological Issues
Critical questions
- Cross-cultural psychology examines differences between groups of people
- Wouldn’t this promote stereotyping and contribute to bias?
- Shouldn’t we avoid making these comparisons at all?
Cultural psychology about cultural comparative psychology
- It is good that cultural comparative psychology acknowledges the importance of
culture as input or context for psychological processes…
- Therefore, cultural comparative psychology does a better job than
mainstream psychology for the latter does not take cultural differences into
account.
- … but like mainstream psychology it still assumes psychological uniformity.
- This is the point on which cultural psychology disagrees with cultural
comparative psychology.
Three cultural psychological claims
1. Culture determines who, what and how we are
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, - Example: In particular cultures people have a specific way they look at
themselves, which has a fundamental impact on their attitudes and behavior.
2. Culture determines how we perceive our world
- Example: test that measures the way people observe stimuli (p.11 book).
- If people look more at the details, they would be able to perform the
absolute task better, while people that look more at the whole picture,
perform better at the relative task.
3. Cultures are not fixed
- The way in which people question or change their own culture over time.
Methods and foci
Cultural Psychology (similar to anthropology: human variability)
- In-depth study of particular cultures
- Comparisons of a limited number of cultures
- Focus on (fundamental) differences
- Qualitative and quantitative
Cultural Comparative Psychology
- ‘Superficial’ study of cultures
- Comparisons of a larger number of cultures
- Focus on differences against the background of similarities
- Quantitative
- Methods and foci
1. Beliefs: what is true?
2. Values: what is desirable?
Hofstede’s research
- Measurements of culture → he used existing data on employee morale in
multinational (IBM)
- Factor analysis: He used a trick to take certain questions together and treat
them as one variable.
- Country-averaged item scores: for each of the items, Hofstede used 1
score per country, based on the average = simplification.
Hofstede dimensions:
1. Power Distance: The degree to which power differences are valued, expected and
respected. The extent to which people interact with formality.
2. Uncertainty Avoidance: The degree to which ambiguity is prevented rather than
tolerated.
3. Individualism – Collectivism: The degree to which individuals are seen as separate
versus interrelated.
4. Masculinity – Femininity: The degree to which assertiveness, competitiveness
(masculine) is valued over nurturance, cooperation (femininity).
5. (Longterm orientation): added later on.
Commentary
1. Measures (items) were formulated for another goal (employee morale)
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, - E.g., ‘Employees are afraid to disagree with their managers
- Hofstede used these findings to make general statements about different
cultures, even though these questions were targeted at company-life.
2. Are countries the appropriate unit for measuring culture?
- By taking the average response of a certain country, a lot of heterogeneity is
looked over.
3. Do individuals in groups represent their culture?
- The questionnaires were only taken by IBM employees, thus the question
arises whether they represent their whole country.
4. Are groups different with respect to culture only?
- To what extent do these results reflect culture instead of other mechanisms
such as social-economic differences, religious beliefs, etc.
5. Research is not about individuals
Culture at different levels
1. As characteristics of groups (nations/populations): culture
- Implies sharedness
- Analyze averaged scores for each country (e.g. factor analysis)
- Variation between groups necessary
2. As individual characteristics: cultural orientations
- Implies uniqueness
- Analyze individual scores (e.g. factor analysis)
- Variation between individuals necessary
→ A relationship that holds at a group level, does not necessarily hold at individual level.
Therefore, it is important to distinguish the two.
Example
People were asked whether they like to be humble versus
authoritarian.
All the dots are individuals, ABC are countries.
At the individual level being humble or authoritarian, rule out
each other and show a negative correlation.
Analyzing these results on the country level (like Hofstede), on
the other hand, shows that both humbleness and
authoritarianism need each other: positive relationship between
the two variables.
The more people there are in a country that are authoritarian,
the more people there are that are humble.
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, Importance of different levels
- Individual level (own cultural orientation) is directly relevant for the individual’s
behavior.
- Nation/group level involves shared, common culture with indirect influence on
individuals.
- Different pathways in doing so:
Possible pathways
1. Characteristics of the group as a whole can influence me on an individual level, via
my cultural orientation = internalization.
2. Even if I don’t adopt the group characteristic myself, it can still influence my behavior
= conformism.
3. Being affected by the culture, without being aware of it = implicit influence.
Subjective culture
- Subjective perception of shared culture
- Shared values: What is important to my group?
- Shared beliefs: What is true according to my group?
- Please note: subjective culture is measured at the individual level but it refers to the
group level!
Measurement problems
- Validity = does a test measure what it is
intended to measure
- Reliability = consistent measurement (over
time and within instruments)
Reliability is a precondition for validity
Cross-cultural invalidity
- Additional question for cross-cultural psychology: is validity (and thus reliability) the
same for different cultural groups?
- Are the measures equally valid for different cultural groups?
- Does the measure assess the same? = test bias
Three sources for test bias
1. Functional inequivalence: The construct does not exist in all groups.
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