© 2013 Cengage Learning

Outline  Cultural Psychology – Psychology with a Cultural Perspective  The Goals of Psychology  Cultural Psychology and Cross-Cultural Research  The Contribution of the Study of Culture on Psychological Truths  The Contribution of the Study of Culture in Our Own Lives  The Growth of Cultural Psychology and Cross- Cultural Research

Outline (cont'd.)  What Is Culture?  Where Does Culture Come From?  A Definition of Culture  Is Culture a Uniquely Human Product?  The Difference Between "Society" and "Culture"  Groups That Have Cultures  Contrasting Culture, Race, Personality, and Popular Culture

Outline (cont'd.)  The Contents of Culture  Objective Elements  Subjective Elements  How Does Culture Influence Human Behaviors and Mental Processes?  Understanding Culture In Perspective: Universals and Culture-Specifics  Etics and Emics  Changing Culture  The Goal of This Book

C ULTURAL P SYCHOLOGY – P SYCHOLOGY WITH A C ULTURAL P ERSPECTIVE

The Goals of Psychology  Psychology is well-equipped to meet the challenge of cultural diversity  First goal: build body of knowledge about people  Second goal: take body of knowledge and apply it to intervene in people's lives  Applied psychologists engage in lifelong learning process to help intervene in people's lives  Theories tested for validity both in science and on streets

Cultural Psychology and Cross-Cultural Research  WEIRDOS (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic cultures) are not representative of all humans  Is what we know about human behavior true for all people?  Cross-cultural research: tests cultural parameters of psychological knowledge  Involves inclusion of people of different cultural backgrounds  Cultural psychology: phenomenon of understanding cultural influences on behavior

The Contribution of the Study of Culture On Psychological Truths  Important to incorporate a cultural perspective in mainstream psychology  Knowledge created in psychology should be accurate and descriptive of all people  Cross-cultural research tests whether what is true for some is also true for others  Cultural diversity in findings and cultural differences in research are widespread  Multicultural psychology incorporates psychologies of cultures around world

The Contribution of the Study of Culture In Our Own Lives  Practicing cultural psychology is an exercise in critical thinking:  Is what we know true for all people regardless of their cultural backgrounds?  Under what conditions do differences occur, and why?  What is it about culture that produces such differences?  What factors other than culture contribute to these differences?

The Growth of Cultural Psychology and Cross-Cultural Research  Cultural psychology has made substantial impact in psychology worldwide  Popularity of cultural psychology due to importance of culture on behavior  Intercultural conflicts led to much interest in cross-cultural research  Theoretical models are increasingly incorporating culture  Increased interest in cultural psychology is a normal and healthy development

W HAT IS C ULTURE ?

What is Culture?  Many people use culture, race, nationality, and ethnicity interchangeably  Culture:  Describes activities or behaviors  Refers to heritage or tradition  Describes rules and norms  Describes learning or problem solving  Defines organization of group  Refers to origins of a group

Where Does Culture Come From?  Ecology: types of places where people live has major impact on how they live  Resources: natural and monetary affect culture  People: group living, needs, and motives influence culture  Universal psychological toolkit: aptitude and cognitive abilities help people adapt to environment  Individuals differ in how much they have or use their toolkits, but all have similar toolkits

A Definition of Culture  Function of culture:  Provides guidelines or roadmaps on what to do, how to think, and what to feel  Ways of living take advantage of toolkits to meet basic human needs  Definition of culture:  Unique information system, shared by group, and transmitted across generations  Allows group to meet basic needs, pursue well-being, and derive meaning from life

Culture  Culture is the human-made part of the environment.  Plus a process for transmitting it to future Generations  Culture is to society what memory is to individuals  Therefore - Culture is a shared pattern of beliefs, attitudes, norms, role perceptions, and values

Material and Subjective  Material culture – Objects: clothes, food, houses, highways, tools, and machines.  Subjective culture – Rules: how to live properly, how to  behave in relation to objects and people.

Subjective culture  Language and economic, educational, political, legal, philosophical and religious systems are important elements of culture.  Ideas about aesthetics, and people should value and how they should live

Some Elements of Culture  Norms - ideas about behavior expected of members of a group  Tight culture - people are expected to behave exactly as specified by norms, are interdependent and supervised closely  Loose cultures - one can deviate from norms.  Roles – Norms for correct behavior of people who hold a position in a social group.  Values – Guide behaviors and desirable states of affairs.

Values  1. Self-direction: creativity, freedom, choosing own goals, curious  2. Stimulation: a varied life, an exciting life, daring  3. Hedonism: pleasure, enjoying life.  4. Achievement: ambitious, successful, capable  5. Power: authority, wealth, social recognition  6. Security: social order, clean, health, sense of belonging  7. Conformity: obedient, self-disciplined, politeness  8. Tradition: respect for tradition, humble, devout  9. Benevolence: helpful, loyal, forgiving  10. Universalism: broadminded, social justice, world of beauty

Is Culture a Uniquely Human Product?  Many animals are social  In animal societies, clear social networks and hierarchies exist  Many animals invent and use tools  Many animals communicate with each other  Characteristics of human life that differentiates it from those of animals: complexity, differentiation, and institutionalization

The Difference Between "Society" and "Culture"  Society: system of interrelationships among people  Human societies are complex  Culture: meanings and information that are associated with social networks  Human cultures give concept of family own unique meaning  Different human cultures assign different meanings to family

Groups That Have Cultures  Nationality  Language  Ethnicity  Gender  Disability  Sexual orientation

Contrasting Culture, Race, Personality, and Popular Culture  Race is more of social construction than biological essential  “Racial" differences are of little scientific or practical use  Personality: unique constellation of traits, attributes, qualities, and characteristics  Culture is relatively stable across individuals, whereas personality is vastly different  Popular culture does not involve sharing a wide range of psychological attributes

T HE C ONTENTS OF C ULTURE

The Contents of Culture  Objective elements  Architecture, clothes, foods, art, and eating utensils  Mass media, music, Facebook, and Twitter  Subjective elements  Values and beliefs  Norms: generally accepted standards of behavior for cultural group  Attitudes: evaluations of things occurring in ongoing thoughts  Worldviews: belief systems about world

H OW D OES C ULTURE I NFLUENCE H UMAN B EHAVIORS AND M ENTAL P ROCESSES ?

How Does Culture Influence Human Behaviors And Mental Processes?  Culture influences psychological processes  Enculturation: process of learning about one’s culture beginning at birth  Culture, situational context, and individual factors influence mental processes  System by which culture influences mental processes is dynamic  Relationship between culture and individual behaviors is a reciprocal, dynamic one

Understanding Culture in Perspective: Universals and Culture-Specifics  There are many psychological processes in which all humans engage  Attributions: ability to recognize others as intentional agents while drawing inferences  Because human cultures exist in unique environments, differences exist among cultures  Making attributions is universal, but people may differ in the way they make them  Same psychological process may be done differently when comparing human cultures

Etics and Emics  Etics: universal psychological processes  Emics: culture-specific processes  Each culture has had different combinations of geography, climate, resources, precious culture, and contact with other cultures  People are very similar in their basic needs  Cultures have long histories of having worked for many generations

The Goal of This Book  Raise questions about traditional, mainstream knowledge of human behavior  Determine if human behavior is applicable to people of all cultural backgrounds  Find better ways to understand differences  Impart flavor of evolution in science and knowledge  Understand, appreciate, respect, and feel cultural diversity and its influence on human behavior