Samevatting boek culturele psychologie
Hoofdstuk 1
Cultural psychology = A subdiscipline within psychology that examines the
cultural foundations of psychological processes and human behavior. It includes
theoretical and methodical frameworks that posit an important role for culture
and its influence on mental processes behavior, and vice versa.
Psychology has 2 goals:
1. Build knowledge about people, seek to
understand behavior, explain why it
happens and predict certain behavior.
2. Others taking that body and apply it into
others people lives
This is a basis for interventions
Most research is done in the US, based on WEIRD
people: western, educated, industrialized, rich and
democratic people, which aren’t representative
for everyone.
- Daarom de vraag: Is what we know true for all people, regardless of
gender, race, ethnicity, culture, class and lifestyle?
≫ Cross-cultural research = A research methodology that tests the cultural
parameters of psychological knowledge. Traditionally, it involves research on
human behavior that compares psychological processes between two or more
cultures. In this book, we also incorporate knowledge contrasting human cultures
versus nonhuman animal cultures. This approach is primarily concerned with
testing the possible limitations of knowledge gleaned from one culture by
studying people of different cultures.
As a method, cross-cultural research can be understood as a matter of scientific
philosophy—that is, the logic underlying the methods used to conduct research
and generate knowledge. This idea is based on a few assumptions.
- Results of psychological research Is bound by our methods, theories
depend on research to confirm them.
The contribution that cultural psychology and cross-cultural research makes to
psychology as a whole goes far beyond simple methodological changes in the
studies. It is a way of understanding principles about human behaviors within a
global perspective. It test whether it is universal (A psychological process that is
found to be true or applicable for all people of all cultures.) or culture-specific
(A psychological process that is considered to be true for some people of some
cultures but not for others.)
Culture = A unique meaning and information system, shared by a group and
trans mitted across generations, that allows the group to meet basic needs of
survival, pursue happiness and well being, and derive meaning from life.
- This concept is used in many different ways because is touches so
many aspects in life
,Where Does Culture Come From?
- Group life
o Groups increase our change at surviving, it increases trhoug
division of labor → allows groups to accomplish more → adaptive
Negative; group conflict → people are different, may clash
- Environment
o Have an impact on how groups live.
o Deviation from temperate climate = The degree to which the
average temperature of a given region will differ from what is
considered to be the relatively “easiest” temperature to live in,
which is 22°C (about 72°F).
o Population density = The number of people living within a
given unit of space. In a place like a city in which a large number
of people live in a relatively small space, the population density
is higher than in a rural area where fewer people live in each
similar amount of space.
Arable land = The type of land that can sustain life by
food production of some sort.
Many people on a small part land with scarce food.
- Resources
o A land void of natural resources → teamwork
o money
- The evolved human mind
o Needs and motives: human needs are related to reproductive
success → universal; motives to achieve and affiliate with others.
o Universal psychological toolkit = A set of basic psychological
skills and abilities that
people can use to meet
their needs. These
include complex cognitive
skills, language,
emotions, and personality
traits.
Shared intentionality = Knowledge about motivations
concerning behaviors that are common among people in a
group. → Only humans
Ratchet effect = The concept that humans continually
improve on improvements, that they do not go backward
or revert to a previous state. Progress occurs because
improvements move themselves upward, much like a
ratchet. → only humans
, A Definition of Culture
Groups of people need to adapt their behaviors to their ecologies by maximiz ing
the use of their available resources in order to meet their needs; the abilities and
aptitudes in their psychological toolkits give them the tools to adapt → behaviors
To achieve social order, coordination, and group harmony, and avoid chaos, we
create rules of life, or systems of living, or ways of being → culture.
- Provides guidelines on what to do and how to think.
o These are passed along from one generation to the next
- Culture = 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, and derive
meaning from life.
Groups that have culture
- Society is “a system of interrelationships among people.” Culture,
however, refers to the meanings and information that are associated
with those social networks.
- Nationality refers to a person’s country of origin, and countries have
their own cultures.
o The concept of “country” is a geopolitical demarcation that may
include many different cultures
- Ethnicity means people of a nation or tribe, and is usually used to
denote one’s racial, national, or cultural origins.
o Ethnicity is generally used in reference to groups characterized
by a common nationality, geographic origin, culture, or
language
- Sex refers to the biological differences between men and women,
particularly in their reproductive systems. Sex roles are behaviors tied
to these biological differences, such as breastfeeding. Gender involves
the behaviors or roles a society assigns as appropriate for men and
women, which may or may not be related to biological sex. Gender
role refers to how much a person adopts the culturally specific
behaviors expected of their gender.
- Disability, they share the same feelings, ways of thinking etc.
- Sexual orientation
Contents of culture
- Objective elements: The objective elements of culture involve
objective, explicit elements that are physical.
- Subjective element: include all those parts of a culture that people
don’t subscribe as physical artifacts. → more interested because they
tap into psychological processes and behaviors.
o Values = A trans-situational goals that serve as a guiding
principle in the life of a person or group (e.g., kindness,
creativity). Values motivate and justify behavior and serve as
standards for judging people, actions, and events.
Personal values represent transitional desirable goals that
serve as guiding principles in people’s lives. Cultural
values are shared, abstract ideas about what a social
collectivity views as good, right, and desirable.