1. Cross-Cultural Psychology
Cross Cultural Psychology - Psychology II - Andover HS
Cross-Cultural Psychology

2. 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

3. 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?

4. 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

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

7. 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)

8. 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

9. 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”)

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

11. Prejudice
Negative attitude held toward members of a group

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

13. 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