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Culture and Psychology

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Universalism. Relativism. Approaches to the Psychological Study of Culture ... Universalism. Benevolence. Tradition. Conformity. Security. Power. Achievement. Hedonism ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: 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

6
Approaches to the Psychological Study of Culture

Absolutism
Universalism
Relativism
7
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)

8
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

9
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)

10
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)

11
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.

12
Elements of Subjective Culture
  • Knowledge-Related Constructs
  • Norm-Related Constructs
  • Self and Social Relationships
  • Values

13
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

14
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

15
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)

16
Independent and Interdependent Self-Construals
(Markus Kitayama, 1991)
Coworker
Mother
Coworker
Mother
SELF
SELF
Friend
Neighbour
Friend
Neighbour
Independent
Interdependent
17
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

18
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.

19
Chinese Culture Connection (1987)
  • CBC
  • Integration
  • Human-heartedness
  • Confucian work dynamism
  • Moral discipline
  • --
  • Hofstede
  • Collectivism
  • Masculinity
  • --
  • Power distance (high)
  • Uncertainty avoidance

20
Value Dimensions (Schwartz, 1992)
Self- Direction
Universalism
Benevolence
Stimulation
Hedonism
Tradition
Achievement
Conformity
Security
Power
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