Cross-Cultural Psychology Cross Cultural Psychology - Psychology II - Andover HS Cross-Cultural Psychology

Naturalistic Observation of behaviors from 5 Tricks Refusal to play “Looks that kill” Pounding tables, throwing elbows Fighting over tricks, people just start taking tricks Laugh at the new people Confusion Threatening body language Strongest survive, dominance Throw cards in disgust Treat newcomer like they’re stupid (Ethnic groups sitting together) Learned helplessness, “Here’s my cards, play them for me” Refuse tricks you won, push them to others No one takes a trick Game rules completely change (Slapjack) Showing new people Ace & Trump

Some quick definitions… Culture: a set of behaviors and beliefs you learn from the people in your environment Race: a set of characteristics programmed into your genetic code Although… researchers are viewing this concept as increasingly meaningless, as there is greater genetic variation within racial groups than between them (yet race often still has major social implications) Ethnicity: the traits you have in common with some relatively large group of people with whom you share a history Cross-Cultural Research: research that tests hypotheses on many groups of people to understand whether principles apply across cultures Which psychological principles are universal, and which are culture-specific?

Individualism vs. Collectivism Individualistic Cultures-Put personal goals ahead of group goals & define one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group memberships Collectivistic Cultures-Putting group goals ahead of personal goals & define one’s identity in terms of the group one belongs to

Individualistic “He’s my Dad” Collectivistic “I am the son of ____”

Ethnocentrism The tendency to believe your own culture is superior to other cultures & you use your own culture as the standard for judging other cultures 5 Tricks? Examples: We say the British drive “on the wrong side of the road” instead of saying the opposite side or left-hand side. Food preferences Religion Role of women in society Clothing choices In-Group Bias: the tendency to favor one's own group over others (in-group vs. out-group)

Muzafer Sherif “Robbers Cave” Experiment & “Realistic Conflict Theory” 22 boys (ages 11-12) at a summer camp Split into 2 groups Competed against each other for prizes When competing for limited resources, conflict arose Later created a situation where the two groups had to work in cooperation to solve water crisis Groups came to view each other more favorably Superordinate Goals – shared goals that override differences among people and require cooperation

Stereotypes Widely held beliefs that people have certain characteristics because of a membership in a particular group (schemas about the entire group) Can be positive or negative Intensified by our tendency to perceive “outgroup homogeneity” (which also helps explain the “other-race effect” or “own-race bias”)

Vivid cases (9/11 terrorists) feed stereotypes (remember the Availability Heuristic?...)

Prejudice Negative attitude held toward members of a group

Discrimination Behaving differently, usually unfairly, towards members of a group.

Some factors contributing to prejudice and discrimination Just-World Phenomenon Tendency for people to believe the world is just and people get what they deserve Allows people to rationalize away injustice, often blaming the victim Ex: believing homeless people must be lazy and wealthy people must be hard-workers Scapegoat Theory Tendency to blame someone else for our own problems – allows us to explain our hardship or failure while maintaining our self-image Often results in prejudice toward the group being blamed