Title: Culture and Social Behavior: Cross-Cultural Social Psychology
1Culture and Social Behavior Cross-Cultural
Social Psychology
2Interpersonal Communication
- Context vs. Content Cultural Orientation
- Context of communication
- level and tone of voice
- looking or not looking into the eyes (contact)
- distance between bodies
- posture and body orientation
- extent of body touching, including what parts of
the body are being touched.
3Culture and Communication
- Context cultures - societies that are
homogeneous, relatively simple, and where people
have to maintain good long-term relationships
with others. - Content culture everything is spelled out
(said) clearly and explicitly. Nothing is left
open to interpretation.
4Social Behavior Patterns
- Work by Fiske revealed four types of social
behavior patterns across cultures. - 1. Community Sharing
- People know each other well
- family life is the closet metaphor
- what is mine is yours, intimacy, oneness,
cooperation and self-sacrifice are typical
behaviors.
5Social Behavior Patterns (cont.)
- 2. Authority Ranking
- Obedience, admiration, and giving and following
orders without questioning are typical behaviors. - The relationship between a general and a soldier
is the closest metaphor.
6Social Behavior Patterns (cont.)
- 3. Equality Matching
- Social interaction between totally equal friends
is the best metaphor. - Typical behaviors taking turns, dividing things
evenly, one person, one vote, etc.
7Social Behavior Patterns (cont.)
- 4. Market Pricing
- Social relationships based on a cost-benefit
analysis - Ill be your friend if it pays to do so
8Collectivism vs. Individualism
- As we have said again and again in this class,
this continuum provides a parsimonious yet highly
predictive culturally relevant construct for
understanding all sorts of behavior patterns
across cultures.
9Perception and Attractiveness
- Attractiveness
- Cultural differences in the definition of
attractiveness can influence the formation of
impressions. - i.e. in Japan, attractiveness was correlated with
large eyes, small mouths, and small chins.
However, in Korea-large eyes, small and high
noses, and thin and small faces define
attractiveness.
10Perception and Attractiveness (cont.)
- Person Perception
- Recognition of Faces
- People tend to recognize others of their own
perceived race more accurately.
11Love and Intimacy
- What attracts people to selecting a mate?
- Early 1950 studies indicated proximity
- Recent studies indicate physical attractiveness
- Matching Hypothesis-people of equal physical
characteristics are likely to select each other. - Similarity Hypothesis-people similar in age,
race, religion, social class, education,
intelligence, attitudes, and physical
attractiveness form intimate relationships. - Reciprocity hypothesis-people tend to like others
who like them.
12Love and Intimacy (cont.)
- Hatfield and Berscheids Theory of Love
- Passionate Love - absorption of another that
includes sexual feelings and intense emotion. - Companionate Love - warm, trusting, and tolerant
affection for another whose life is intertwined
with yours. - Sternbergs Theory
- Seven different forms of love depending on the
presence or absence of passionate love, intimacy,
or commitment.
13Love and Intimacy (cont.)
- Differences Across Cultures
- Romantic love valued more in America and Germany
than in Japan (Simmons et al., 1986) - Europeans value love more than South Africans and
Indians, the South Africans place higher value on
equality and peace (Furnham, 1984)
14Cross Cultural Similarities Buss studies (1989
and 1994)
- - More than 10,000 respondents in 37 different
cultures completed 2 questionnaires (factors in
choosing a mate and preferences concerning
potential mates) -
- - In 36 of 37 cultures, females rated financial
prospects as more important than did males. -
- - In all 37, males preferred younger mates and
females preferred older mates. - - In 34, males rated good looks as more important
- - In 23, males rated chastity as more important
15Attributions for Social Behavior
- Casual Attributions are the inferences people
make about the causes of events regarding and
their own and others behaviors. - Traditional American Attributions
- Kelleys Covariation Model - people attribute
behavior to causes that are present when the
behavior occurs and absent when the behavior does
not.
16Attributions (cont.)
- People consider 3 types of information when
making attributions - Consistency is a persons behavior consistent
across situation or is it situation specific? - Distinctiveness is a persons behavior unique
to the specific target? - Consensus would other persons faced with the
same situation behave is a similar manner?
17Attributions (cont.)
- Weiners Theory of Stability
- Describes four types of attributions for success
and failure Stable and Unstable, internal and
external - I.e. if didnt get a job you could attribute it
to - 1) stable internal factors (lack of ability),
- 2) stable external factors (too much
competition), - 3) unstable internal factors (lack of effort),
or - 4) unstable external factors (bad luck).
18Attributions (cont.)
- Fundamental Attribution Error - a tendency to
attribute negative behavior outcome in others to
internal factors (lack of ability) and to
attribute negative outcomes in ourselves to
external factors (unfair test). - Self Serving Bias - a tendency to attribute our
own successes to personal factors and our
failures to situational factors. - Defensive Attributions a tendency to blame
victims for their misfortune.
19Cross-Cultural Extensions of Causal Attribution
Theories and Research
- This is an area where the limitations of American
and Western European Psychology have been
extremely apparent. - Cultural differences abound.
- In fact, most of these theories have failed the
universalism test.
20Aggression
- Any act or behavior that hurts another person,
either physically or psychologically. - Cross-Cultural Differences
- Robbins et al (1972) - countries in hotter
climates are associated with higher murder rates. - Terav et al (1998) studied justifications for
aggression - Estonians chose instrumental justifications
(means to an end) - Finish reported that aggression was fun.
21Aggression (cont.)
- Bond et al (1985) studied aggressive insults and
criticisms - Aggressive behaviors was more acceptable in
relationships where status and power were unequal
for Chinese participants than for Americans. - Cross Cultural Similarities
- Across cultures, overt physical and verbal
aggression is more prevalent among boys than
girls (Tomada et al.) - Acceptance of various forms of aggression are
similar across cultures from Spain, Finland,
Poland, South Africa, US, Japan, and Iran
(Ramirez et al, 2001)
22Conformity and Compliance
- Conformity - yielding to real or imagined social
pressure. - Compliance - yielding to social pressure in ones
public behavior, even if ones private beliefs
may not have changed. - Obedience - when people follow direct commands.
- Cooperation - ability to work together toward a
common goal.
23Conformity and Compliance (cont.)
- Cross-Cultural Research
- American bias-negative feelings (Asians value
conformity) - Research on child rearing-indicates that Asians
and Puerto Ricans were found to value conformity
and obedience - Garza et. al. Studies