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92 Cards in this Set
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humanistic psychology
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based on the premise that to understand a person, you must understand their unique view of reality.
- focuses on phenomenology, the meaning of life, happiness, - can go two ways but recently follows the view that people are good and find meaning in life by not being selfish and by helping others (in contrast to people are selfish and life is meaningless) - different because the mind is aware and with awareness comes willpower, reflective thinking, imagination, self-criticism, aspirations, creativity, and free will. |
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phenomenology
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a person's conscious experience of the world - everything a person hears, feels, and thinks
- the immediate, conscious experience is all that matters and the past is only important in how it affects your present thoughts and feelings |
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construal
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your particular perception of the world
- form your basis of how you live life, including your goals and obstacles, etc. - it is by choosing your construal of the work - deciding how you interpret your experience - that you can achieve free will |
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existentialism
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rose as a reaction against European rationalism, science, and the industrial revolution because they thought that science, technology, and rational philosophy had lost touch with human experience. the purpose of existentialism was to regain contact with the basic experience of being alive and aware
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existentialism + three parts of experience
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By Ludwig Binswanger - there are 3 parts of your conscious experience of being alive:
1. umwelt 2. mitwelt 3. eigenwelt |
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existentialism + three parts of experience + umwelt
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biological experience, which consists of the sensations you feel.
- pain, pleasure, heat, cold |
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existentialism + three parts of experience + mitwelt
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social experience, which is made of what you think and feel as a social being
- emotions and thoughts about other people and emotions and thoughts directed at you. |
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existentialism + three parts of experience + eigenwelt
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inner, psychological experience or the experience of experience itself. consists of how you feel and think when you try to understand yourself, your own mind, and your own existence
- includes introspection |
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existentialism + thrownnes
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an important basis of experience; refers to the time, place, and circumstances into which you happen to be born.
- being thrown into modern society is difficult because the world seems to have no overarching meaning or purpose so people don't know why they're here or what they should be doing |
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existentialism + angst
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existential anxiety; the unpleasant feeling caused by not knowing the meaning of life or whether you are spending your life the right way
- can be separated into three parts: 1. anguish - felt because choices, though inevitable, are never perfect. 2. forlornness - you are alone with your choices because you make em 3. dispair - feeling that you cannot change important parts of your life and the world |
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existentialism + optimistic toughness
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it means existential courage, which is a part of your existential responsibility to face your angst, your morality, and the meaningless of life, and to seek purpose for your existence nonetheless.
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existentialism + bad faith
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an alternative to optimistic toughness where you avoid the problem all together and instead of worrying about what life means, you of as you're told by society and lead an unexamined life.
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existentialism + 3 problems associated with living in bad faith.
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1. to ignore the troubling facts of existence i to live a cowardly lie. you might as well not be alive.
- awareness makes you uniquely human, and if you don't experience the world and examine your life, you're no different than the mud you walk on. 2. even if you manage to ignore troubling existential issues by surrounding yourself with material comforts you still won't be happy. 3. it is impossible to not make your life meaningful because you chose to not worry about life and surrendering your choices to external authorities is still a choice. |
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existentialism + authentic existence
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an alternative to bad faith where you courageously come to terms with existence and realize that you are mortal, your life is short, and you are the master of your destiny. Knowing this, you have to be honest, insightful, and morally correct.
- will not relive you of loneliness and unhappiness. |
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the eastern alternative to existentialism + anatta
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nonself; a key idea of Buddhism; the idea that the independent, singular self you sense inside your mind is merely an illusion.
- Buddhism teaches that have this illusion of a separate self is harmful and makes you feel isolated. - everyone and everything and every time in the universe is interconnected. you are immortal in the sense that you are a part of something larger than yourself that will last forever |
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the eastern alternative to existentialism + anicca
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the idea that nothing lasts forever and it is best to accept this fact instead of fighting it.
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the eastern alternative to existentialism + enlightenment/nirvana
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if you understand anicca and care for others the same as yourself, you will have universal compassion leading to nirvana.
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optimistic humanism
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Rogers and Maslow build on existentialism:
1. phenomenology/experience is central 2. people have free will 3. ADDED: people are basically good. |
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Rogers + self-actualization
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Rogers believed that a person can only be understood from the perspective of their phenomenal field (their entire conscious experience) and that they have a basic need to actualize
- actualization means to maintain and enhance life. |
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Maslow
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Followed the same beliefs as Rogers - that a person's ultimate motive is to self-actualize - but he believed that this motive only becomes activated after other basic needs have already been met.
- so someone starving to death won't be concerned with the higher aspects of existence. - has a lot of practical applications, such as in areas of career choice (if you grew up homeless or unemployed, you want a career where a job will always be available) and employee motivation (Southwest makes its employees feel valuable) |
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Maslow + hierarchy of needs
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1. basic physiological needs, food, water, etc
2. safety, security, comfort, sex 3. belonging, social activity 4. status, esteem 5. self-actualization |
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Maslow + hierarchy of needs + cultural differences
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can explain why the definition of happiness varies for people in different countries. In poorer countries, financial status was associated with life satisfaction. In richer countries, home life was more important.
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Maslow + updated hierarchy of needs
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by Kenrick, an evolutionary psychologist who believed that the ultimate goal as to reproduce and keep the species going
1. immediate physiological needs 2. self-protection 3. affilitation 4. status, esteem 5. mate acquisition 6. mate retention 7. parenting. |
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optimistic humanism + a fully functioning person
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Rogers and Maslow both believed that the best way to live is to being aware of reality and yourself. If you perceive the world accurately without neurotic distortion and you take responsibility for your choices, you becoming fully functioning (like an authentic existence, but you're happy)
- only possible if you experience unconditional positive regard from the important people in your life, esp during childhood - Maslow believed anyone form any background could become a fully functioning person. |
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optimistic humanism + conditions of worth
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Rogers; when other people value you only because you are smart, successful, attractive, etc.
- limit your freedom because you act and perceive in ways that make you valuable, so you lose your ability to do whatever you want to do and to see the world as it is |
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optimistic humanism + unconditional positive regard
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Rogers; the only way someone could become a fully functioning person was through unconditional positive regard from parents and other people
- you won't develop conditions of worth - leads to a life free of existential anxiety |
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optimistic humanism + psychotherapy
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The goal is to make the client a fully functioning person. - the therapist has to develop a genuine relation with with the client and provide unconditional positive regard
- help the client find their own thoughts and feelings without the therapist changing them - make the client feel appreciated regardless of what the client does - research shows that therapy helps people align their ideal selves and their real selves more closely. however, there are 2 problems 1. clients change what they think they themselves are like but they also change how they wish to be. 2. describing oneself as similar to one's ideal of a perfect person is not a good measure of psychological adjustment. |
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George Kelly + personal construct theory
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Kelly believed that a person's individual experience of the world was important but his main contribution was that one's cognitive system assembled ones various construals of the world into individual held theories called personal constructs
- these personal constructs help determine how new experiences are construed. - constructs are based on bipolar dimensions |
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Kelly + role construct repertory test
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A test to assess a person's personal construct system. First, you're asked to identify 3 important people in your life and then you answer questions about how two are similar and one is different.
- Kelly thought that the way you discriminate between the people reveals the constructs through which you view the world. - For example, if you frequently talk about strong v. weak, this construct is an important part of how you frame reality because you use it to relate different aspects of the world. |
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chronically accessible constructs
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particular constructs that are more readily brought to mind in certain individuals
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Kelly + where do constructs come from?
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Constructs come from but are not determined by past experience. A person is like a scientist and their past experiences and perception are data, but the scientist can interpret his own data to make his own theory or personal constructs.
- your personal construct system is determined not by your past experience but by your freely chosen interpretation of your past experience. |
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Kelly + sociality corollary
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Understanding another person requires understanding the person's personal construct system. You have to be able to look at the world through that other person's eyes.
- Even the most evil actions can make sense if you see them from that person's point of view |
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Kelly + psychotherapy
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Kelly thought the main duty of a psychotherapist would be to lead the client to self-understanding.
- he developed the Rep tool to do that. |
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Kelly + constructive alternativism
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your personal reality does not simply exist apart from you; you construct it in your mind. you can always chose to reconstruct it differently
- the main lesson from Kelly's theory is that your experience can lead to many different construals. |
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Kelly + implications
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1. scientific paradigms are frameworks for construing the meaning of data
- it's not a choice of what's right or wrong but a choice of which paradigm addresses what you're most interested in - personality psych needs all the paradigms because one leaves something out 2. same for daily life. belief systems are like scientific paradigms and they are useful and necessary but if you stick too close to one, you forget or deny other important ways of constructing reality. - ex. the economic concept of opportunity costs. ordinary cost (the cost of resources to get something) v. opportunity cost (what something brings to you and what you could have gained by spending your resources on something else) |
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Csikszentmihalyi
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Csik focus on the heart of the phenomenological approach - the conscious experience of being alive from moment to moment. He said this moment to moment experience is what really mattered in life and he wanted to make the most of it
- focused on optimal experience - understanding and achieving it |
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Csikszentmihalyi + flow
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the subjective experience of an autotelic activity - the enjoyment itself
- Csik believed that the best way a person can spend time is in autotelic activities, which are activities that are enjoyable for their own sake. - flow isn't the same as happiness. it is characterized by concentration, lack of distractibility, and thoughts only about the activity. mood is slightly elevated, and time passes very quickly - flow arises when he challenge an activity presents are well-matched with your skill - Csik believed that the secret for enhancing your quality of life is to spend as much time in flow as possible - however, flow doesn't work for everybody; it only works for people with a high locus of control who believe they can control their own life outcomes - a drawback to flow is that somebody experiencing it can be difficult to interact with. |
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Maddi
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Believed that without stress, like would be boring and meaningless. People want to avoid stress by developing a conformist lifestyle but that can lead to an existential psychopathology similar to bad faith because a person leading a conformist lifestyle leads to the development of a false self in which an individual's acts are no longer self-expressions
- negs include 1. psychopathology 2. there is an adventurousness in which only extreme thrills manage to garner one's full attention and distract from deep feelings of meaninglessness. so, the person will do drugs, risky sex, etc - all to conceal the emptiness at the center of life - main teaching is that the purpose of life is not to avoid everything that makes you stressful but instead to tackle challenges with gusto and learn from these experiences |
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Maddi + two types of existential psychopathology
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1. vegetativeness - the most severe; when a person feels that nothing has meaning and becomes listless and aimless
2. nihilism - less severe; experience is dominated by anger, disgust, and cynicism |
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Maddi + hardiness
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a lifestyle that embraces rather than avoids potential sources of stress. stressful challenges, when properly approached, can being leading, growth, and wisdom, and dealing with them successfully is an important part of what gives life meaning.
- research has shown that hardy people are generally healthier and better psychologically adjusted. |
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hedonia
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one route to happiness; when one seeks to maximize pleasure and minimize pain
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eudaimonia
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a second route to happiness; when one seeks a deeper meaning to life by pursuing important goals, building relationships, and being aware of taking responsibility for one's choices in life
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Ryan and Deci + self-determination theory
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Believed that hedonia is dangerous because it puts a person at rick of living a life bereft of depth and instead based on selfishness and materialism
- eudaimonia entails finding and seeking intrinsic goals (goals that are valuable in their own right) rather than extrinsic goals (goals that are a means to an end) |
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self-determination theory + three central goals
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you need to meet 3 central, intrinsic goals to become a fully functioning person:
1. autonomy - finding your own way in life and making your own decisions. 2. competence - finding something you're good at and becoming better 3. relatedness - establishing meaningful and satisfying ties to other people. |
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self-determination theory + practical implications
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Research has shown that people who valued financial success over their relationships, personal growth, and community had lower well-being overall
- another study looked at seven life goals - 3 extrinsic (attractiveness, wealth, fame) and 4 intrinsic (personal growth, intimacy, community, and physical health). people who emphasized intrinsic over extrinsic goals were higher in vitality and positive emotion and lower in depression, negative emotions, anxiety, and signs of physical illness |
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self-determination theory + criticism
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SDT claims that autonomy, competence, and relatedness are basic to everyone in the world, regardless of circumstances and/or cultural background.
- what if its a cultural teaching, not a human desire? |
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positive psychology
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shifts away from a focus on mental illness and psychopathology to a focus on phenomena such as positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions in order to improve the quality of life and prevent the pathologies that arise when life is barren and meaningless.
- unlike traditional psychology, it recognizes the uniquely human capacities for love, wisdom, creativity, and free will. - unlike humanism because positive pay also investigates the traits, processes, and social institutions that promise a happy and meaningful life - study of pessimism should also be a part of positive psych - focus on human strengths instead of human faults |
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positive psychology + practical implications
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Research shows that after a certain base level, money is not important for happiness; building relationships and overcoming challenges is more important
- some people naturally think in ways that promote happiness, such as avoiding unproductive rumination about negative events and instead appreciating the good things in life. |
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positive psychology + six core virtues
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valued in all cultures, so they are probably evolutionary based. each virtue counteracts a tendency that could threaten the survival of individuals and cultures.
1. courage - emotional strengths that involve the exercise of will to accomplish goals in the face of opposition 2. justice - strengths that underlie healthy community life 3. humanity - strengths that involve protecting and taking care of others 4. temperance - strengths that protect against excess 5. wisdom - strengths that entail the acquisition and use of knowledge 6. transcendence - strengths that give meaning to life by connecting to the larger universe |
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implications of phenomenology
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1. mystery of experience - conscious experience is an obvious fact and a basic mystery. thought we can't describe what it is to be aware and alive, everyone of us knows what it is
2. understanding others - you can only understand a person by understanding their experience of the world - so you shouldn't be judgmental. if you could see the world through their eyes, you would realize that their actions make sense according to their interpretation of reality. - results in cultural and moral relativism - you can't judge the actions and beliefs of other people through your own moral code. |
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culture + psychology
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Personality psych wants to focus on how people are different, and culture comes into play for two reasons:
1. individuals may differ from each other to some extent because they belong to different cultural groups 2. members of some groups may differ from each other in distinctive ways |
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culture
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psychological attributes of groups; shared customs, values, modes of thinking, fundamental views of reality, etc.
- genetics are probably not the reason for cross cultural differences because: 1. with DNA analyses, people within a given ethnic or racial group are only slightly more similar to each other than people from different groups 2. cultural groups are not just ethnic or linguistic, but can also be defined based on history, geography, religion, philosophy, or politics |
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enculturation
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when a child picks up the culture into which she was born
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acculturation
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a person who moves from one country to another may gradually pick up the culture of her new home`
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why are cross-cultural differences important?
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Psychologists are used to sticking to their own culture, but culture is important in understanding mental health disorders, interventions, and risk factors. There are 3 reasons why understanding cultural differences is important:
1. increasing international understanding - important because cultural differences cause misunderstandings that can be small or large. they can occur within as well as across international borders 2. assessing the degree to which psychology applies to people around the world - theories have to be generalizable but 80% of the participants in psych research make up only 12% of the world's population - also, culture affects the way personality is expressed and emotions are experienced. 3. appreciating the possible varieties of human experience. - culture is the lens through which you see the world. human experience could vary from culture to culture just because of this lens - experience in another culture makes you more creative - such as when drawing aliens |
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characteristics of culture + etic/emic
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- etic: universal components of an idea (people in all cultures have duties)
- emic: particular aspects of an idea (a man in India has different duties than a man in LA) |
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characteristics of culture + tough/easy
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- In easy cultures, individuals can pursue many different goals and at least some of them are relatively simple to attain
- In tough cultures, only a few goals are viewed as valuable and few ways are available to achieve them |
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characteristics of culture + achievement/affiliation
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McClelland analyzed children's stories and saw that in some countries, they emphasize a need to achieve, and in other countries, they emphasize affiliation/love
- countries with high achievement show more rapid industrial growth. |
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characteristics of culture + complexity
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It's easy to assume that industrial cultures are perhaps more complex than hunter/gatherer or monastery cultures, but you can't really make that judgment.
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characteristics of culture + tightness-looseness
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the tightness-looseness dimension contrasts cultures that tolerate very little deviation from proper behavior (tight cultures) with those that allow fairly large deviations from cultural norms (loose cultures)
- ethnically homogenous and densely populated societies tend to be culturally tighter than societies that are more diverse or where people are more spread out. this is because in order to strictly enforce norms, people must be similar enough to agree on those norms, and because strict norms of behavior are more necessary when people must live close together - in some situations, diversity is more important; in others, population is more important |
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characteristics of culture + head v. heart
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There are some cities that emphasize strengths of the heart (fairness, mercy, gratitude, hope, love, and religiosity) and others that emphasize strengths of the head (artistic excellence, creativity, curiosity, critical thinking, and learning)
- cities with higher strength of head had higher creativity, better job growth, lower employment, diverse immigration patterns, and lower strengths of heart - why would cities vary on dimensions like this? 1. selective migration - different people are attracted to different types of cities 2. social influence can affect a person's values 3. ecological factors may influence cultural differences between citiesx |
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collectivism v. individualism
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collectivists cultures believe the needs of the group are more important than the needs of the individual; individualistic cultures believe that the single person is important and that people are viewed as separate from one another.
- however, an individualist view also leads to existential anxiety (the concern over whether one is living life in the right way) because individualism isolates people from each other, making people particularly vulnerable to problems such as loneliness and depression |
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collectivism v. individualism + personality
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It could be the case that personality itself has a different meaning in collectivist cultures
- for example, individualistic cultures have nearly 2800 trait words in everyday speech, whereas collectivist cultures have only 557, so maybe personality is less meaningful - however, personality traits predict behavior and and these predictions are generally consistent across situations in both collectivist and individualistic cultures - there are some distinct differences. more autobiographies in ind, more group histories in col; life satisfaction is based more in self-esteem in ind, more on the harmony of one's relationships with others in col; attention to social hierarchies in sol, less attention to status in ind |
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collectivism v. individualism + behavior
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collectivist cultures tend to be more social.
- members of individualist cultures spend less time with more people; members of collectivist cultures spend more time with fewer people - collectivist people tend to have a few close relationships, not casually entered into, that are more intimate than usual western friendships |
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collectivism v. individualism + emotion
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people in ind cultures experience more self-focused emotions like anger; people in collectivist cultures experience more other-focused emotions like sympathy
- arranged marriages are more common in col; marriages for self-directed love are more common in ind. - emotions in col cultures tend to be more grounded in assessments of social worth, to reflect the nature of social reality rather than private/inner experience, and to depend on relationships rather than the individual alone |
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collectivism v. individualism + motivation
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People in collectivist cultures are afraid to lose face because respect can be lost quickly but gained slowly; people in individualistic cultures focus on individual achievement to stand apart from the group more than losing face
- in a study, americans were more sensitive to important that indicated the absence or presence of rewards/pleasure; asians were more sensitive to information relevant to risk/loss - individualists cultures have a need to self-enhance (holier than thou phenomenon) - individualists tend to say they donate money or avoid being rude more than they actually do; collectivists are more accurate. however, this is only when they're talking about themselves. both are equally as accurate when talking about how their friends will behave in the future |
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collectivism v. individualism + vertical and horizonatal societies
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Vertical societies assume that individual people are importantly different from one another; horizontal societies view all people as being essentially equal
- a collectivist-vertical society might enforce strong authority on its members; a collectivist-horizontal society may have weaker authority but a strong ethic that enforces equality and sharing - an individualist-vertical society would have strong authority but also the freedom to support oneself in a market economy; an individualist-horizontal society would value individual freedom but also assume that meeting everyone's needs is a shared obligation |
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collectivism v. individualism + the Japanese
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Whenever we're talking about collectivism and individualism, a lot of research compares the US to Japan. However, reviews of studies show that Japan and America may, in fact, be equally as individualistic and conform the same as well.
- It seems that historical observations of Japan, where the Japanese were cited as being collectivistic, have shaped people's beliefs even though empirical research does not necessarily support this. |
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honor, face, and dignity
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Some have argued that instead of dividing countries on whether they are collectivists or individualists, you should divide them based on honor, face, or dignity.
- all cultures have all three elements in them, but the people in each country vary on how much they agree with the culturally dominant view. - In a study looking as returning favors (dignity), repaying insults in kind (honor), and refraining from cheating (face), they saw how individuals in the cultures acted. generally, individuals in each group who more strongly accepts the cultural norm were more likely to behave in the culturally typical way - illustrates the importance of individual differences |
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cultures of dignity
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for example, the US; in these cultures, individuals are valuable in their own right and this value does not come from what other people think of them.
- people live up to their own values, not the values or others. |
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cultures of honor
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emerge in environments where the forces of civilization (laws and police) are weak or nonexistent and people have to protect themselves, their families, and their property.
- insults have to be retaliated because if you accept an insult, it puts you and your property at ricks - people are sensitive to threats of honor or reputations - high suicide rates; people who value honor are also at a higher risk for depression |
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cultures of face
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like Japan or China; emerge in societies that have stable hierarchies based on cooperation
- people have to protect each others' social image by making sure to not insult or criticize or disagree with people in public. - authority figures are obeyed and respected - hierarchy, humility, and harmony are important |
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cultural assessment + personality assessment
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a lot of the concepts used to assess differences among cultures can also be used to assess differences among individuals.
- cultural complexity = cognitive complexity - cultural tightness = conscientiousness and intolerance for ambiguity - collectivitist = allocentrism - individualist = ideocentricism - all languages have words for personality traits; they just vary on how many different words they have for one specific trait. to see cross-cultural differences in personality traits, researchers have asked two different questions: 1. to what degree do the average levels of specific traits vary between cultures? 2. to what degree can the traits that meaningfully characterize people in cultures also meaningfully characterize people in another culture |
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comparing the same trait across culture
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1. using the MMPI, chinese were higher on emotional reserve, introversion considerateness, social caution, and self-restraint than americans
2. when comparing chinese people living in canada v. hong kong, those in canada described themselves as being more open, cheerful, and agreeable. these differences were more pronounced the longer they lived in canada 3. people in different countries can have different levels of self-esteem. for example, canada has the highest self-esteem. this may be significant because they found that the lower a country's average self-esteem, the higher their suicide rate 4. for gender, women scored higher in neuroticism, agreeableness, warmth, and openness to feelings; men scored higher on assertiveness and openness to ideas. this difference was more pronounced in developed countries than in less developed countries |
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different traits for different cultures
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The results on whether all personality traits mean the same thing or are equally as important in all cultures are mixed. When you translate the big 5 into different languages, you miss stuff or think stuff that isn't important actually is important
- some researchers have concluded that only 3 of the big 5 are truly universal - conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness. |
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different traits for different cultures + item response theory
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Some psychologists are trying to improve the degree to which personality tests are comparable from one culture and language to the next using item response theory. They look at patterns of response in personality inventories to see if different cultures have completely different ways of responding to the same questions. in this way, comparing trait scores between cultures may not be comparing the same thing
- to deal with the problem, they are trying to develop trait scales endogenously (from the inside) to see if personality trait constructs that emerge in one culture also emerge in another. however, it's difficult to do this because you have to be native to the culture - in doing this, they found some traits that overlap and others that do not. in fact, china has an important trait that the us doesn't - the degree of interpersonal relatedness |
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thinking + holistic perception and the self
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It is thought that East Asians have a more holistic POV than Americans, so they explain events in context rather than isolation and they seek to integrate divergent POVs rather than setting them against one another
- the part of the PFC that is generally activated when thinking about the self is activated when Chinese people think about their mothers as well, because their concept of the self is broader and includes important people, too. - Collectivists also remember a wider context; they remember a whole picture rather than the specific object. |
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independent thinking
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There is controversy about the degree to which Asians, in comparison to Americans, characteristically formulate and express independent and original POVs. there are 2 different ideas:
1. asian students are more drawn to fields that require memorization rather than independent thinking and they are less likely to speak up in class - bc the self/ego is discouraged 2. thinking is disrupted by trying to talk for asians - asians respect their teachers so they are taught to listen attentively and only question after they have understood |
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universal values
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Some researchers are trying to find values that are universal to all cultures.
- 2 implications: 1. a value held by everyone is a "real" value 2. if we find a set of common values, we can use those values to help settle disputes and have universal agreement - some research has found around 10 universal values (power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation, self-direction, understanding, benevolence, tradition, conformity, and security) that can be organized in terms of two dimensions: 1. openness to change-conservatism dimension 2. self-transcendence-self-enchancement dimension |
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cultural differences in values
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One of the biggest differences can be seen in the moral reasoning of collectivists versus individualists
- individualists emphasize individual needs, liberty, freedom of choice; collectivists emphasize obligations, reciprocity, and duties to the group. - group norm v. individual choice - for example, abortion. protestants are pro-choice bc its the mother's individual decision; catholics are pro-life because the unborn fetus is already a member of the collective so a member can't decide to kill it |
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origin of cultural differences + deconstructionism
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the belief that reality has no meaning apart from what humans invent or construct
- can't answer the questions about why cultures are different and what determines the specific, distinctive psychology that a particular culture develops |
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origin of cultural differences + the ecological approach
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different cultures developed over a long period of time, in different circumstances, and with the need to deal with different problems
- A model by Triandis says ecology > culture > socialization > personality > behavior - Another model by Oishi says everything affects everything else -- ecology<>culture<>mind and behavior |
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ecology
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the physical layout and resources of the land where the culture originated, together with the distinctive tasks and challenges this culture has faced
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cultural differences + ecology + examples
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1. In Truk, fishing requires men to venture out into the dangerous sea, so men are dominant, etc. In contrast, in Tahiti, men can get their fish in a lagoon, so they are gentle and slow to fight
2. the culture of honor in the South may be due to the agrarian past where having your own farm land was very important |
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cultural differences + genetics
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Any discussion of genetic differences between cultural groups should emphasize:
1. the differences are small 2. traits are likely to be even weaker predictors of behavior at the cultural level than they are at the individual level 3. people within cultures are widely different from one another 4. the data available so dar can be explained in different ways. Moreover, people are a part of many different cultures, so it's hard to see how genetics could play such a substantial role |
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challenges + ethnocentrism
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judging another culture from the point of view of your own culture
- it's very difficult to try and escape from this and to ignore the lens through which we see the world, but cross-cultural psychology wants to do this anyways. |
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challenges + exaggeration of cultural differences
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Cross-cultural research exaggerates differences by acting like all the members in a given culture are all alike
- this happens for three reasons: 1. cross-cultural psychology has long been in the business of finding differences 2. statistics - many studies of cultural differences use significance tests but they don't examine the effect sizes. 3. outgroup homogeneity bias - people in your own group all seem to be different from one another, and people in other groups seem to all be the same |
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challenges + cultures and values
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cultural relativism - the idea that all cultural views of reality are equally valid, and that it is presumptuous and ethnocentric to judge any of them as good or bad
- okay until we started to look at things like genital mutilation, etc. - yes, there is cultural relativism, but there should also be a few universal values that we can all agree on |
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challenges + subcultures
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A lot of the cultural groupings we use are useful, but they are also imprecise. People of the same cultural group by one definition may belong to completely different groups using different definitions.
- subcultures exist even within the political borders of the US - for example, comparing irish american and scandanavian american immigrants, they found that they irish americans smiled more, which is consistent with their ancestors |
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challenges + multiculturalism
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Nowadays, more and more individuals belong to more than one culture
- bicultural chinese americans can quickly switch between chinese and american ways of looking at the world, sometimes without being aware of it - bilingual individuals may have two personalities. in a study with spanish speakers, english speakers, and bilingual, they found that those who took the test in english scored higher on extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. when they test was given in spanish, they scored higher on neuroticism. it's as if they have two personalities - bicultural identity integration |
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bicultural identity integration (BII)
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1/2 the world is bilingual, so they may have two different personalities. some people integrate multiple cultural identities to gain the maximum benefit from each, while others experience conflict or stress.
- high in BII means that the individual sees himself as being a member of a combined culture that integrates aspects of both source cultures - low in BII means that the individual is experiencing conflict between his two cultures and feels stress from being unsure about which culture he really belongs to - BII has two aspects: 1. the degree to which bicultural individuals see their two cultures as being distant from each other (as opposed to overlapping) 2. the degree to which they see their two cultures as being in conflict (as opposed to in harmony |
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universal human condition
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we are starting to focus on cross-cultural similarities more and more.
- culture may influence more how a person wants to feel than how they really feel - everyone wants to please their parents |
