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CULTPSY3_Ch01_CulturalPsychology-1.pptx

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Lecture PowerPoint Slides

Benjamin Cheung

Chapter 1—What Is Cultural Psychology?

Cultural Psychology

Third Edition

Steven J. Heine

Chapter Objectives

In this chapter, you will:

Explain two ways in which culture can be conceptualized

Understand three challenges associated with thinking about groups of people as constituting cultures

Compare general psychology to cultural psychology

Discuss evidence supporting cultural psychology’s assertion that the mind and culture make each other up

Define the four degrees of psychological universality

Chapter Objectives

In this chapter, you will:

Define WEIRD

Understand how WEIRD samples impact the generalizability of results from psychological research

Contrast how a color-blind approach affects people differently than the multicultural approach

Chapter Objectives

In this chapter, you will:

Define ethnocentrism

Explain how ethnocentrism affects our understanding of other groups’ culture

Describe the historical development of cultural psychology

Overriding Themes in Cultural Psychology

Psychological processes are shaped by experiences

Universal brains vs. cultural experiences

Discuss: How are humans similar, how are they different?

Defining “Culture”

With partner/group, discuss the following:

What is “culture”?

How do you define “culture”?

What challenges are there in defining “culture”?

What is culture? How do you define culture? What challenges are there in defining culture?

Defining “Culture”

Culture, in the textbook, refers to:

Information acquired from other members of a species

A group of people who have a shared context (geographical, historical, linguistic, etc.)

Challenges to Defining “Culture”

“Cultural” boundaries are not distinct and often unclear.

“Cultures” are dynamic and change over time.

There are as many variations within cultures as there are between cultures.

General Psychology vs. Cultural Psychology

General psychology

Focus on universals

Assumes that the mind is independent from the context (context obscures the ability to understand CPU).

Conceives that the Human brain = CPU, and tries to find out the laws by which the CPU works.

General Psychology vs. Cultural Psychology

Cultural psychology

Focus on cultural variation

Studies the different meaning systems we create in our minds from living in different environments.

Assumes that mind and culture are entangled with each other.

General Psychology vs. Cultural Psychology

Cultural psychology

Assumes thoughts are shaped by contexts; contexts inform the content of our thoughts.

Thoughts are shaped by contexts; contexts inform the content of our thoughts

Minds and culture are entangled with each other

Culturally Universal vs. Culturally Variable

Culturally universal

Culturally variable

The number “2”

Numbers beyond “3”

The color “black”

The color “blue”

Smiling when happy

biting tongue when embarrassed

Mathematical reasoning

Universal: the number “2”

Variable: numbers beyond “3”

Color words

Universal: the color “black”

Variable: the color “blue”

Norms

Universal: smiling when happy

Variable: biting tongue when embarrassed

(Modified) Figure-Line Task

Here’s a task used to show how culture shapes the mind.

Relative task:

Find the box (A or B) where

the relationship between the

length of the middle line and

the size of the box is the same

as that with the

large box.

(Modified) Figure-Line Task

Absolute task:

Find the box (A or B) where

the length of its middle line is

the same as the length of the

middle line in the large square.

Figure-Line Task

A study looked at both the left inferior parietal lobule and the right inferior precentral gyrus–both associated with attentional control.

East Asians show more activation of the left inferior parietal lobule and the right precentral gyrus on the absolute task; Americans showed more activation on the relative task.

When people performed the culturally “less-familiar” task, they showed more evidence for attentional control.

Basically, it takes more effort to engage in tasks that are culturally unfamiliar.

The Cultural Brain

Even activation of brain structures can be subject to cultural influences.

These processes show that the mind is enmeshed with culture.

Tribe in Papua New Guinea

Culturally ingrained initiation for boys to transform into men

The Sambia

The Sambia are a tribe in Papua New Guinea that has a unique, culturally ingrained initiation for boys to transform into men.

The Sambia

Believe that femaleness is innate natural essence; maleness must be cultivated

Boys are seen as existing in a female world and are contaminated by mothers’ wombs.

Very important to rid boys of feminine habits and transform them into brave men

The Sambia

Initiation practices are used to transform boys into men:

Piercing septum of nose

Thrashing boys with sticks.

Initiation also includes older men giving jerungdu to boys:

Achieved through boys performing oral sex

Semen seen as physical basis of jerungdu

Males seen as incapable of producing semen.

The Sambia

Throughout one’s life, a male engages in:

Ingestion of semen from around ages 7 to 15

Receiving fellatio to impart semen at 15

Heterosexual contact with wife after age 17 (and some homosexual contact still)

The Sambia

Timeline of “jerungdu” process

15+  Impart

17+  Heterosexual w/ wife

7 – 15  Ingest

The Sambia

Sambian males thus go through homosexual, bisexual, and heterosexual phases throughout their lives.

Sexuality, seen as a core identity in Western cultures, is more dynamic in Sambian society.

The Sambia

Discuss: What aspects of sexuality are human universals?

Question for consideration: What aspects of sexuality are human universals?

Determining Universality vs. Variability

Level of analysis

Whether a process is universal or culturally variable often hinges on the level of definition.

Abstract definition generally leads to evidence supporting universality.

E.g. marriage = man and woman falling in love and agreeing to spend their lives with each other

Concrete definition generally leads to evidence supporting variability.

E.g. marriage = formal arrangement between man and woman accompanied by sexual exclusivity

Degrees of Universality

Nonuniversal (cultural invention):

Cognitive tool not found in all cultures (other criteria are, thus, irrelevant)

Example: abacus

Degrees of Universality

Existential universal:

Cognitive tool found in all cultures that serves different function(s) and is accessible, to a degree, in different cultures

Example: increased persistence in the face of failure

Degrees of Universality

Functional universal:

Cognitive tool found in all cultures that serves the same function(s) but is used to different degrees in different cultures

Example: fairness-based punishments

Degrees of Universality

Accessibility universal:

Cognitive tool found in all cultures that serves the same function(s) and is accessible to the same degree

Example: social facilitation

What Do We Know about Human Psychology?

It has been difficult to determine what processes are universal or culturally variable.

We lack the data to assess such claims about generalizability.

Psychology Is WEIRD

Most research can make sense of, and originate from, WEIRD societies:

W estern

E ducated

I ndustrialized

R ich

D emocratic

Psychology Is WEIRD

Evidence for WEIRD thinking has been shown by contrasting:

Industrialized vs. nonindustrialized societies

Western vs. non-Western societies

Americans vs. other Westerners

University-educated Americans vs. other Americans

The problem with these comparisons is the WEIRD population. Who are the people that participating in these studies?

Psychology Is WEIRD

68% of psychology participants are Americans.

American Non-American 0.680000000000002 0.320000000000001

Psychology Is WEIRD

96% of psychology participants are from Western, industrialized countries.

WEIRD Rest of world 0.960000000000001 0.04

Psychology Is WEIRD

Even more problematic: 70% of participants are psychology undergraduates.

Undergraduates Other people 0.700000000000001 0.3

Psychology Is WEIRD

But WEIRD countries only make up approximately 16% of the world’s population.

16%

84%

WEIRD Rest of world 16.0 84.0

Example of WEIRD Finding

Mueller-Lyer illusion demo

Which line is longer?

Example of WEIRD Finding

How does the United States stack up against other cultures?

The US participants aren’t even in the middle, or average. They are at the extreme end, potentially not representative of the rest of the human population.

Indeed, Americans’ responses tend toward the extremes.

Why Study Cultural Psychology?

To better understand full distribution of human psychology

To understand the implications for variation in psychology

Ignoring culture means ignoring the full spectrum of human psychology.

Without seeing how culture shapes psychological processes, we get a limited/incomplete understanding how the human mind works.

One important implication for understanding this variation is in learning how to interact in a globalizing world, particularly in multicultural societies.

Color-blind approach

Multicultural approach

Why Study Cultural Psychology?

Emphasizes common human nature, ignores cultural differences

Research has demonstrated that even trivial distinctions between groups often lead to discrimination.

Recognizes that group identities are different (particularly minorities)

Ignoring such group differences tend to lead to negative responses.

Why Study Cultural Psychology?

Discuss: Which do you think leads to better interactions, and why?

Research with employees indicates that multicultural messages lead to more engagement among minorities, and greater trust in the company.

Minority and majority members also have more positive interactions.

Importance of Cultural Psychology

Recognize our own ethnocentrism

Perceiving one’s own culture as standard of comparison

Tendency to judge people from other cultures by comparing them to our culture

Origins of Cultural Psychology

1921—Wilhelm Wundt’s Volkerpsychologie

1920s—Russian cultural-historical school

Interest in cultural influences on mental processes waxed and waned after 1930s.

1960s—Field gained momentum

1980s to 1990s—Shweder, Markus, Kitayama, and others: Monumental contributions to the field

1921—Wilhelm Wundt’s Volkerpsychologie

Recognized that cultural products (e.g., language and customs) have an effect on mental processes.

1920s—Russian cultural-historical school

Luria, Vygotsky, and others recognized that people-environment interactions are done using “tools” or cultural ideas that accumulate over the span of history.

Interest in cultural influences on mental processes waxed and waned after the 1930s.

1960s—Field gained momentum

1980s to 1990s—Shweder, Markus, Kitayama, and others: Monumental contributions to the field

Cultural psychology established itself as separate discipline within mainstream psychology.

Summary

Cultures are difficult to define because cultural boundaries are unclear, and cultures are dynamic.

Cultural psychology vs. general psychology have different focuses and premises.

Psychological processes have different degrees of universality.

Much of current psychology is WEIRD.

Cultural psychology provides an important perspective on how the human mind works.

Questions to Consider

How might something be universal and culturally variable at the same time?

How have your thoughts and behaviors been guided by, and affected by, your cultural environment?

Philosophy

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