Cultural Psycology

Week 1 (Feb 9 – Feb 15; 39 pages)

Culture…and psychology?

Why make psychology cultural?: Perspectives from philosophy and anthropology

Cassirer, E. (1944). A clue to the nature of man: The symbol. In E. Cassirer, Essay on Man

(pp. 23-26). New Haven: Yale University Press.

Geertz, C. (1973). The impact of the concept of culture on the concept of man. In C. Geertz, The

Interpretation of Culture (pp. 34-53), New York: Basic Books.

General ideas about how to take a cultural approach to psychology

Shweder, R.A. & Sullivan, M.A. (1990). The semiotic subject of cultural psychology. In L.A. Pervin

(Ed.), Handbook of Personality Theory & Research (pp. 399-416). New York: Guilford.

Cultural vs. Cross-cultural psychology

Valsiner, J. (2007). Culture in Minds and Societies: Foundations of Cultural Psychology. Thousand

Oaks, CA: Sage.

· Read p. 22 to bottom of p.33. Start at “Culture within the tradition of cross-cultural psychology” and stop at “The question of transfer of culture”.

· For a parallel discussion from a different perspective, see: Seligman, Choudhury, & Kirmayer (2016). Locating culture in the brain and in the world: From social categories to the ecology of mind. The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Neuroscience (pp. 3-20).

Week 2 (Feb 16 – Feb 22; 54 pages)

Further exploration of how to approach psychology culturally

Michael Cole on cultural and cross-cultural psychology

Cole, M. (1996). Cultural Psychology: A Once and Future Discipline. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

· Read Sheldon White’s Foreword (pp. ix-xvi) and stop where marked

· Read Chapter 2, “Cross-cultural investigations” (pp. 38-68)

· Read Chapter 4, “From cross-cultural psychology to the second psychology” (pp. 98-115)

Week 3 (Feb 23 – Mar 1; 27 pages + recommended reading)

Making culture personal

Personal and collective cultures

Valsiner (2007). Personal culture and the conduct of value. Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology, 1(2), 59-65.

· Focus on pp. 62-63.

· For further discussion, see: Strauss (2007). The complexity of culture in persons. Advances in Culture Theory from Psychological Anthropology (pp. 109-138).

· Highly recommended!

Cultural transmission and internalization

Valsiner, J. (2007). Culture in Minds and Societies: Foundations of Cultural Psychology. Thousand

Oaks, CA: Sage.

· Read pp. 33-36. Start at “The question of transfer of culture” and stop at “Social norms as cultural tools”.

Zittoun, T. & Gillespie, A. (2015). Internalization: How culture becomes mind. Culture & Psychology, 21(4), 477-491.

· Focus on pp. 477-482.

Valsiner, J. (2014). An Invitation to Cultural Psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

· Read pp. 78-82. Start at “Layers in the internalization/externalization processes” and stop at “Looking for direct access to Layer III: The functions of music”.

Week 4 (Mar 2 – Mar 8; 54 pages)

Signs in action

Semiotic basis for culture: Signs and sign complexes

Valsiner, J. (2007). Culture in Minds and Societies: Foundations of Cultural Psychology. Thousand

Oaks, CA: Sage.

· Read pp. 40-54. Start at “Semiotic basis for culture: The legacy of Charles S. Peirce” and stop at “From mediator to regulator: Overdetermination by meaning”.

Chiang, C.Y. (2008). The nose knows: The sense of smell in American history. The Journal of

American History, 95(2), 405-416.

(continued on next page)

Using signs to regulate ourselves and others: An introduction to semiotic regulation

Valsiner, J. (2001). Process structure of semiotic mediation in human development. Human

Development, 44 (2-3), 84-97.

Musaeus, P., & Brinkmann, S. (2011). The semiosis of family conflict: A case of home-based psychotherapy. Culture & Psychology, 17(1), 47-63.

Week 5 (Mar 9 – Mar 15)

Prepare for Exam 1

Open discussion all week

Exam 1 available from noon (12:00pm) on Thurs., Mar. 11 until 11:59pm on Friday, Mar. 12

Week 6 (Mar 16 – Mar 22; 41 pages)

A closer look at personal culture: Functional oppositions in action

A closer look at the meaning-making process

Valsiner, J. (2007). Culture in Minds and Societies: Foundations of Cultural Psychology. Thousand

Oaks, CA: Sage.

· Read pp. 160-169. Start at “Semiotic field theory of mutually generating opposites” and stop at the end of the chapter.

Marková, I. (1992). Structure and dialogicality in Prague semiotics. In A.H. Wold (Ed.,) The

dialogical alternative: Towards a theory of language and mind (pp. 45-63). Scandanavian University Press.

· Focus on pp. 51-61, beginning at “The theory of meaning”.

Regulating one’s own meaning-making process: Functional oppositions and circumvention strategies

Josephs, I.E., & Valsiner, J. (1998). How does autodialogue work? Miracles of meaning

maintenance and circumvention strategies. Social Psychology Quarterly, 61(1), 68-82.

Week 7 (Mar 23 – Mar 29; 69 or 74 pages)

A closer look at collective culture

Discourse and institutional guidance of meaning-making

Fields, J. (1999). ‘Fighting the corsetless evil’: Shaping corsets and culture, 1900-1930. Journal of

Social History, 33(2), 355-384.

Functional oppositions within collective representations

Castro, P., & Gomes, I. (2005). Genetically modified organisms in the Portuguese press:

Thematization and anchoring. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 35(1), 1-17.

Choose one:

Dalgaard, N.T. (2016). The impact of Islam and the public and political portrayals of Islam on child-rearing practices: Discursive analyses of parental accounts among Muslims living in Denmark. Culture & Psychology, 22, 1, 65-79.

[OR]

Frazier, K.E., & Falmagne, R.J. (2014). Empowered victims? Women’s contradictory positions in the discourse of violence prevention. Feminism & Psychology, 24, 4, 479-499.

Week 8 (Mar 30 – Apr 5; 45 pages)

Connecting personal and collective worlds through functional oppositions

Confronting life, death, and everyday chores through culture

Meintjes, H. (2001). ‘Washing machines make lazy women’. Journal of Material Culture, 6(3),

345-363.

Landzelius, K.M. (2001). Charged artifacts and the detonation of liminality: Teddy-bear

diplomacy in the newborn incubator machine. Journal of Material Culture, 6, 332-344.

Josephs, I.E. (1998). Constructing one’s self in the city of the silent: Dialogue, symbols,

and the role of ‘as-if’ in self-development. Human Development, 41(3), 180-195.

Week 9 (Apr 6 – Apr 12; 37 pages)

The cultural structure of our everyday physical environments

Encoding meaning (for others and ourselves) in our environments

Valsiner, J. (2005). Culture and Human Development: An Introduction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

· Read pp. 119-123. Start at the beginning of Chap. 7 and stop at “Bases for culture in person-environment relations.

Gauvin, M. & Altman, I. (1982). A cross-cultural analysis of homes. Architecture and Behavior, 2, 27-46.

Living in environments encoded by others

Valsiner, J. (2005). Culture and Human Development: An Introduction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

· Read pp. 123-126. Start at “Bases for culture in person-environment relations” and stop at “Urie Bronfenbrenner’s systemic model”.

Valsiner, J. (2008). Ornamented worlds and textures of feeling: The power of abundance. Critical

Social Studies, 1, 67-78.

Week 10 (Apr 13 – Apr 19)

Prepare for Exam 2

Open discussion all week

Exam 2 Thurs., Apr 15. – Friday, Apr. 16 (available noon – noon)