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86 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is cultural psychology?
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The study of how people from different cultures differ in their psychology and their processes are shaped by experiences and constrained by neurological structures
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Defining Culture
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1. Culture is any kind of information that is acquired from other members of one's species through social learning that is capable of affecting an individual's behaviors.
2. Culture is a group of individuals that exist in some kind of shared context |
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Differences between general psychology and cultural psychology
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1. general psychology thinks that the mind is a central processing unit that operates independently of content and context.
2. general psychology focuses on universality 3. cultural psychology believes that the mind is enmeshed with cultural influences 4. goal of cultural psychology is to understand how behaviors become meaningful |
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what is WEIRD
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the fact that most studies sample from people from western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic societies.
People from these societies are highly exceptional in many aspects of their psychology - This sample of people is actually very unique in comparison to the rest of the world |
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The more abstract a term is ..........
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the more easy it is to find a human universal
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accessibility universal
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when a given cognitive tool exists in all cultures, is used to solve the same problem across cultures and is accessible to the same degree across cultures . Most specific. Example - social facilitation
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functional universal
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when a cognitive tool exists in multiple cultures, it is used to solve the same problem across cultures, but it is more accessible to people from some cultures than others. Example - an attraction to similarity
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existential universal
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a cognitive tool that exists in multiple cultures, although the tool is not necessarily used to solve the same problem and it is not equal accessible across cultures. Example: increased persistence in the face of failure
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nonuniversal
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cognitive tools that do not exist in all cultures and are often cultural inventions. Example : an abacus
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Sambian view of sexual development
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Boys are seen as to be feminine when they are young and to become a man they must get jerungdu (physical strength that is the essence of maleness). To get jerungdu they must get it through performing oral sex on other males from ages 7-15, which then they provide semen to younger boys. They can get married and have sexual relations with their wives while receiving oral sex from young boys. They go through stages of homosexuality (age 7 to marriage) - bisexuality (married to fatherhood) - and heterosexuality (fatherhood onward)
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The more concrete a term is .....
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the more it supports evidence of variability
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Differences between humans and primates
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Humans learn cultural information at a much quicker rate
Humans imitate people of higher prestige more than they imitate people of lower prestige Humans have a much more complex language Humans have a theory of mind |
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Theory of Mind
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The ability to understand that other people have minds that are different than their own and see things from a different perspective.
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imitative learning
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the learner internalizes something of the model's goals and behavioral strategies
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emulative learning
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the learning is focused on the environmental events that are involved, like how the use of one object could potentially effect changes in the state of the environment. Chimps use this kind of learning
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Difference between emulative learning and imitative learning
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Emulatitive learning does not require imitating a model's behavioral strategies and only focuses on the events that happen around the model rather than what the model intends to accomplish
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ratchet effect
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After an initial idea is learned from others, it can be modified and improved upon by other individuals. Cultural info thus grows in complexity and utility over time
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Cumulative cultural learning
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The phenomenon that is unique to humans, in which technologies and ideas get more and more advanced over time and are constantly improving from the next. This can reverse if the size of the population shrinks, leaving a shortage of skilled models to copy from. (Humans have a unique cumulative culture)
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Humans as social animals
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we are designed to be social and logical due to our big brains.
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encephalization quotient
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ratio of the brain weight of an animal to that predicted for a comparable animal of the same body size
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social brain hypothesis
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Humans have large brains because of the great cognitive demands inherent in social living
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neocortex ratio
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The ratio of the volume of the neocortex (the part of the brain that controls higher brain functioning ) to the volume of the rest of the brain. Humans have the largest, theorizing it's because of our large social network because in primates that llve in larger social groups tended to have larger neocortex ratios
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culture as adaptation
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Humans live in a cultural environment that consists of shared culture. It is adaptive for humans to rely on cultural ideas to succeed and survive
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proximal causes
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are those that have direct and immediate relations with their effects
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distal causes
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those initial differences that lead to effects over long periods, and often through indirect relations
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evoked culture
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is the notion that all people, regardless of where they are from, have certain biologically encoded behavioral repertoires that are potentially accessible to them, these repertoires are engaged when the appropriate situational conditions are present. Example : the capacity to act in an intimidating manner
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transmitted culture
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the phenomenon that people come to learn about cultural practices through social learning or modeling others who live near them.
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biological evolution operates on .....
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natural selection and sexual selection
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natural selection
Needs 3 characteristics to ensure it happens |
1. variability among members of a species on certain traits, 2.those traits are associated with different survival rates,
3. and those traits have a hereditary basis |
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sexual selection
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the individuals that can best attract the healthiest mate will be the most likely to have surviving offspring
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Genes are to biological evolution as ....
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ideas are to cultural revolution. Ideas are replicators
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characteristics of successful replicators
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longevity, extremely high fidelity, fecunditiy (ability to produce many copies of itself) ,
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memes
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the smallest units of cultural information that can be faithfully transmitted. Examples: tunes, catchphrases. Memes do not have to be adaptive
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epidemiology of ideas
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ideas spread by an inventor coming up with an idea, and then telling a second person who then imitates the inventors idea and recreates it.
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Factors that Cause Ideas to spread (4 things)
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1. the idea must be communicable, preferably by language
2. Dynamic Social Impact theory - the more you interact with an individual, the more you influence each other. 3. The more emotional an idea is the more it spreads - example: Contemporary legends - fictional stories that are told in modern societies as though they are true 4. minimally counterintuitive ideas - statements that are surprising/unsual and violate our expectations but they are not too outlandish |
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Dynamic Social Impact theory
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the more two individuals interact the more they influence one another
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individuals
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include a variety of practices and customs that encourage individuals to prioritize their own personal goals ahead of those of the collective and consider themselves distinct from others
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collectivist cultures
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include cultural practices, institutions, and customs taht encourage the individual to place more emphasis on collective goals : usually the goal's of one's ingroup
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traditional culture
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cultural construct rooted in traditions, rules, symbols, and principles established in the past.
Social roles are prescribed to individuals, evaluation of an individual is based on custom/routine, clear distinction between good and evil in behavior, truth is not debatable. Individual choices restricted to social prescriptions |
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Non traditional culture
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Modern : based on new principles, ideas and practices.
Social roles are achieved by individuals, evaluation of individual behavior is based on individual choice, good and evil is relative, truth is revealed through competition of ideas, individual choices aren't restricted to social prescriptions. |
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Feminine cultures
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caring, consensus seeking, gentleness.
Ex: netherlands, France, Portugal, Costa Rica, Thailand |
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Masculine cultures
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assertive, decisive, lively, highly ambitious.
Ex: Japan, Germany, Britain, Mexico, Phillippines |
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Horizontal culture
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Emphasizes benevolence and equality, but not freedom
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Vertical Culture
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People refer to each other from power and achievement standpoints and are very hierarchal. Emphasize freedom but not equality.
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power distance
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extent to which members of a society accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unevenly.
High power distance cultures accept inequality between elite or leaders and subordinates, also between breadwinners and other family members |
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uncertainty avoidance
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high uncertainty avoidance cultures - support beliefs promising certainty and conformity
low uncertainty avoidance cultures - maintain nonconforming attitudes, unpredictability, creativity, and new forms of thinking or behavior |
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Formation of a global culture
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As technology increases, the world has become increasingly interconnected, some think that this could lead to the formation of a global culture, however as American culture permeates many other cultures there is an opposite movement of traditionalism and tribalism occurring as people try to preserve their traditional culture
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Cultural Changes in the US
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People are becoming less social: they are less likely to entertain at home, vote, obey traffic laws, be members of PTA, belong to a union, have dinner together as family, hang out at bars or nightclubs, play cards, socialize with neighbors, hold a position in a club or organization, trust each other, go bowling.
Americans are becoming more individualistic and this is a generational change This is due to increasing pressures of time and money, increasing amount of those living in suburbs, electronic entertainment, and different lifestyles than older generations Japan has shown this trend too to a smaller extent |
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Cultural changes in intelligence
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Across all cultures for which there is data, people in the current generation have higher iq's than those from earlier generations.
this may be due to the fact that our world is getting increasingly more complex, also may be due to increasingly complex video games and plot lines in movies and tv shows, however there is no widespread accepted explanation for this increase. |
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how cultures persist
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Although cultures are fluid, they persist over time. Scores of subjective well being (satisfaction with one own's life) mirror the level of one's own home country even if they have not lived there for generations.
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Impact of Early Conditions
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Adaptations are ocnstrained by previously existing structures.Cultures may change over time but the foundation will still be there and a "new culture" will not emerge.
Early conditions have disproportionate influence on cultural evolution. Small causes can have large effects |
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Autokinetic Effect
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caused by the involuntary saccadic movements of our eyes, when in the dark create the illusion of movement. (in the study people conform to other people's judgements about the movement, and this lasted through generations of participants)
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Pluralistic Ignorance
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Collectively, people incorrectly judge the thoughts of others based on their actions.
They act in ways to fit in with their incorrect beliefs about what others value and can thurs perpetuate the culture. Phenomenon in which people in a group misperceive the beliefs of others because everyone in the group is acting inconsistently with their beliefs. |
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theory
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an organized system of assumptions and principles that purports to explain a specified set of phenomena and their interrelationships. A good theory is coherent (logically and internally consistent) , economical/parsimonious. Comprehensive (able to explain a good range of known findings. and be able to predict future observations
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Hypothesis
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a statement that attempts to predict or to account for a phenomenon. Scientific hypotheses specify relationships among events or variables that are empirically tested
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back translation
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It's important to translate perfectly. To do this they use the back translation method which translates it to a language, and someone fluent in that language translates it back and then compares the two translations.
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moderacy and extremity biases
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Moderacy bias - some people express their agreement in a moderate fashion
Extremity bias - some people express their agreement in an extreme fashion. To get rid of this make the question have a yes/no answer or to give a z score to the responses. |
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Acquiescence bias
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Acquiescence bias - tendency for people to agree with most statements
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reference group effect
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Reference group effect - people evaluate themselves by comparing themselves with others : Tall in one country means something different in another. To avoid this be more specific in your question.
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Vertical Culture
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People refer to each other from power and achievement standpoints and are very hierarchal. Emphasize freedom but not equality.
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deprivation effect
(type of reference group effect) |
The phenomenon that certain people are more concerned with different topics depending on how vulnerable or secure the issue is at hand.
Example: cultures that have less freedom value freedom more. |
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between groups manipulation
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in an experiment when different groups of participants receive different levels of the independent variable.
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within groups manipulation
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When each participant receives more than one level of the independent variable.
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cultural priming
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refers to a technique to make ideas more accessible to participants and to the extent that those ideas are associated with cultural meaning systems. When exposed/primed to parts of another culture a person sometimes responds in a way that is similar to the other culture and not their own.
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methodological equivalence
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having one's methods perceived in identical ways across different cultures. When cultures are similar in their familiarity with research settings researchers can use the same methods between them.
Ex: can use the same method between England and Germany but not the same method between England and Zimbabwae because there is a lack of equivalence which equals bias |
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unpacking cultural findings
3 steps: |
means identifying the underlying variables that give rise to the cultural difference in psychological processes. What is the reason in the culture that makes Japanese people more embarressed than American people?
1. let a theory guide the researchers search for potential underlying cultural variables 2. demonstrate the difference between the two cultures 3. demonstrate that the observed cultural differences relate to whatever you think the reason actually is |
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evidence for a culture of honor
(when men strive to protect their reputation through aggression) |
cultures of honor are where settlers were once/are herders. This happens because their wealth is portable and can be easily stolen. People learned to protect their herds by developing a reputation as someone who would respond to threats with violence. People in the South still respond more aggressively when their honor is threatened in comparison to the rest of the US.
There is physiological evidence and behavioral evidence and field experiments and archival data, survey data (more argument related murders) to support this |
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Differences between US Northerners and US Southerners
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Northerners were usually farmers and southerners were herders.
The south was more poor, more hot, and had slaves. |
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Evaluative vs descriptive bias of language
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People often use words to bias people's interpretations of a person or situation. People should describe not prescribe information
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dichotomous variables
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division into two mutually exclusive categories
- the variable is either one or the other |
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continuous variables
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infinite number of points lying between two polar opposites.
Ex: more or less/ the degree to which .... |
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similarity - uniqueness paradox
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most phenomena are both similar and different and we need to explore both similarities and differences.
Compare and contrast and identify distinct points. What is the goal of your analysis? Don't be influenced by others. |
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Barnum effect: "one size fits all"
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tendency to accept the overly inclusive or generic statement as true/valid. We need de-barnumize findings to make them not so generic and more specific by incorporating qualifiers, modifiers, or adverbs
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assimilation bias
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categorization is a cognitive tool to simplify the world. We tend to increase perceived similarities within groups or categories. Contrasting is increased perceived differences between groups or categories. This leads to the application of schemas that involve our own perspectives and beliefs. We need to practice perspective taking
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development of culturally variable minds
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humans have developed culturally variable minds by our ability to learn and accumulate cultural information so well. This allowed us to learn technologies and skills to stake out a successful existence in diverse environments. Socialization influences who we become
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Cross cultural similarities on parenting of infants (3 things)
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intuitive parenting practices - attempt to capture and maintain the infant's attention, and exaggerate facial expressions.
Affect salient speech - songs, nonsense expressions and incomplete statements, empathize with needs of infants information-salient speech -provide information about the environment with a child. Encourages expression |
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sleeping arrangements (6 types)
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1. incest avoidance - post pubescent members of the family of the opposite sex should not sleep in rooms together
2. protection of the vulnerable - young children who are needy and vulnerable should not be left alone at night 3. female chastity anxiety - unmarried post pubescent women should always be chaperoned to protect them from engaging in sexual activity that would be viewed as shameful 4. respect for hierarchy - post pubescent boys are conferred social status by allowing them to not have to sleep with parents or children 5. sacred couple - participants believe that married couples should be given their own space for emotional intimacy and sexual privacy 6. autonomy ideal - young children who are needy and vulnerable should learn to be self reliant and take care of themselves (the first 3 are Indian concerns, the last 2 are American concerns) |
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physical contact
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Hispanic mothers show more close touch and more affectionate touch. Anglo mothers show more distant touch.
The less industrialized a nation is the more physical contact there is with the baby because the baby must be constantly held (no strollers etc) |
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play (similarities and differences)
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Similiarities: Play is culturally universal. Functions: promotes cognitive development and social development.
Differences: amount of time children spent playing, age children stop playing, sibling involvement in play, adult involvement play. The more complex a culture the more complex their play Ex: Chinese play more with other children, American kids play more individually |
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Gender and Socialization
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Girls socialize more towards obedience, responsibility, and nurturance.
Boys socialize more towards : self assertiveness, achievement orientation, and dominance Size of gender differences ranges from large to small between cultures and this is almost universal |
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parental ethnotheories
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Knowledge and beliefs about the domain of parenting
Beliefs, values, and practices a of a parent about the proper way to raise a child. (Affection and warmth between parents and children, amount of time breast feeding, development (when a child walks talks and chooses friends). Parents/caretakers reflect the standard and expectations of their cultural environment in how to treat children and how they perceive social situations. Parents don't realize the extent to which they direct their children into cultural practices |
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sensitive period for cultural socialization
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there is a sensitive period for being encultured. The younger you are the easier it is to become cultrualized
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language acquisition
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There is a sensitive period for language acquisition that starts as early as birth and the window closes at puberty. After this time it is much more difficult to learn a language
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phonemes in language
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infants come into the world being able to distinguish between all 150 phonemes at birth. Within the first year of life infants begin to lose the ability to distinguish between phonemes that aren't in their language.
We are biologically ready for language when we come into the world |
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noun bias
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At 18 months all children experience a surge in their vocabulary. Children learn more nouns, relative to verbs in the US but this is switched in Asian countries. It's because nouns are placed at the end of the sentence in the Us and in Asian countries verbs are placed at the end of the sentence
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Attachment styles (3 types)
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Secure attachment: infants have warm relationships with parents and are comfortable and explorative in their presence. Although they get upset to see their parents leave and are happy to see them upon their return they become comfortable in their absence
Avoidant Attachment: Infants have a detached style around their parents and are not particularly upset when their parents aren't around Anxious Ambivalent Attachment: Infants show frequent distress either in the presence or absence of parent. They oscillate between wanting the parent to be closer and pushing them away |
