THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTENTS OF CULTURE

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• THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTENTS OF CULTURE

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Issues with Cross-Cultural Comparisons

• No valid measure of culture
• Researchers use race or ethnicity instead.
• This produces stereotypic beliefs and opinions
  (Zuckerman, 1990)
• Are you really measuring differences in culture
  or some other demographic variable?
• i.e. socioeconomic, education, social, etc.
• Sampling Adequacy
• Is sampling African Americans from Texas the same
  as sampling African Americans from Wisconsin?
  Can these results be generalized to all African
  Americans?

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Other Issues

• Validity and Reliability of variables across
  cultures.
• Different cultures can define and measure
  constructs differently (i.e. intelligence may not
  mean the same thing in another country as it does
  in the U.S.)
• Language and Translation
• Research environment, setting, and procedures
• The U.S. uses Intro to Psych classes

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So how do we measure Culture?

• Traditionally culture has been broken into
  subjective and objective elements (Triandis, 1972
  Kroeber Kluckholn, 1952)
• Subjective elements have been categorized into
• Domains opinions, attitudes, values, behaviors,
  norms, etc.
• Dimensions Individualism, Collectivism, power
  distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity,
  etc.
• The challenge is to identify dimensions for which
  the domains vary.

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Hofstedes Cultural Dimensions

• Individualism, Collectivism
• Power Distance
• Uncertainty Avoidance
• Masculinity, Femininity
• Long, Short Term Orientation

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Dimensions

• Individualism-Collectivism (IC) --(Hofstede,
  1980 Kluckholn Strodtbeck, 1961 Mead, 1961
  Triandis, 1972)-Best known
• --the degree to which a culture encourages,
  fosters, and facilitates the needs, wishes,
  desires, and values of the individual over those
  of a group
• --Members of individualistic cultures see
  themselves as separate and autonomous
  individuals, whereas members of collectivistic
  cultures see themselves as fundamentally
  connected to others.

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Dimensions (cont.)

• Power Distance (PD) (Mulder, 1976, 1977Hofstede,
  1980, 1984)
• Inequality in power between less-powerful
  individual and a more powerful individual.
• PD has to do with the degree to which different
  cultures encourage and maintain power and status
  differences among the members of an organization.

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Dimensions (cont.)

• Uncertainty Avoidance (UA) (Hofstede, 1980, 1984)
• Degree to which cultures create institutions and
  rituals to deal with anxiety created by
  uncertainty.

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Dimensions (Cont.)

• Masculinity (Hofstede, 1980, 1984)
• Degree to which cultures foster traditional
  gender differences.
• --the degree to which cultures foster traditional
  gender differences among their members, e.g.
  drawing organizational parallels between gender
  relations that are present in the larger society.

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Hofstedes Cultural Dimensions

• Long, Short Term Orientation
• Degree to which cultures encourage delayed
  gratification of material, social, emotional needs

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• HOW DOES CULTURE INFLUENCE HUMAN BEHAVIORS AND
  MENTAL PROCESSES?

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Figure 1.5 How Does Culture Affect Behavior?
Ecological Factors
Psychological Processes Attitudes Values Beliefs
Opinions Worldviews Norms Behaviors
Enculturation via Family Community Institutio
ns
Social Factors
Culture
Biological Factors
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Cultural influences on behavior and mental
processes

• This system is dynamic and interrelated
• Although culture is an important factor
  influencing behavior so are other factors like
  personality, context
• Depending on context, cultural influences on
  behavior may change

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Understanding culture in perspective universals
and culture-specifics

• Universals psychological processes in which all
  humans engage
• Ex) all humans make attributions about reasons
  underlying human behavior
• Culture-specifics differences among cultures
  dues to specific, unique environments of
  cultures
• Ex) different cultures may differ in the way they
  make attributions

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Etics and Emics

• Universals are Etics
• Culture specifics are Emics

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On psychological knowledge and truths A Recap

• Is the knowledge we learn in psychology
  applicable to all or only to some people of some
  culture?
• By asking this question, psychology can move
  toward producing accurate knowledge that applies
  to all
• Culture incorporated into mainstream psychology