1. Cross-cultural Psychology
Chalalai taesilapasathit
Faculty of liberal arts, Thammasat university

2. What is Culture?
System of subtle and obvious rules (shared beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors) established to ensure a group’s survival and passed from one generation to the next (Blair- Broeker & Ernst).
“The software of our minds” (David Matsumoto)
Human species fundamentally social, therefore; all behavior is cultural.

3. What is Culture?
Is race culture?
Is nation culture?

4. How does culture develop?
Population density
Societies with higher population densities require more rules for maintaining social order.
Climate
Lifestyle adapts to climate.
Resources
Working styles depend on amount of resource.
Technology
Technology shapes lifestyle.

6. Culture and Psychology
Cross-cultural Psychology
How do cultural factors influence human behavior?
Is the study of psychology universal?
Tests hypotheses on many groups of people to understand whether principles apply across cultures.
Cultural Psychology
How do local cultural practices shape psychological process?
The study of the way cultural traditions and social practices regulate, express, and transform human’s mind.

7. Culture and Psychology
Cross-cultural Psychology
Cultural Psychology
The study of greetings: Psychological factors behind the act of greetings in human
Why Thai people use “wai” as a form of greeting: The psychological explanation of “wai”

8. Social Context and Social Behavior
The Biopsychosocial Model and human behavior
Social behavior dependent on sociocultural context from which they originate.
Greetings (shaking hands, kisses, hugs, wai, etc.)
Kissing

9. Individualism vs. Collectivism
A cultural style that places personal goals or needs ahead of group goals or needs.
Independent view
Collectivism
A cultural style that places group goals or needs ahead of personal goals or needs.
Interdependent view
Generally, almost the entire class will have done better on the second list. Tie this in to depth/levels of processing theory on the next slide.
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11. Individualism vs. Collectivism
Benefit:
Allow us to understand, predict, and interpret cultural differences without relying on an impression we have about a particular cultural group that we observe through media.
Behaviors that are affected by cultural differences:
Self-concept, motivation and emotion
Generally, almost the entire class will have done better on the second list. Tie this in to depth/levels of processing theory on the next slide.
© McGraw-Hill Education Permission required for reproduction or display

12. Self-concept Self-concept is
Who you are. Your view of your worth and value.
The way you see yourself in relation to others.
The way you ideally want to be.
The degree to which you accept yourself as you are.
Culture influences self-concept and affects what motivates our behavior and emotional reactions.
Individualism:
Independent understanding of self
Individual preferences, abilities, goals
A sense of separation of themselves from others who may be relevant to their lives.
Who you are = you!
Collectivism:
Interdependent understanding of self
Their primary task is to fulfill/help maintaining cohesiveness among individuals in their group.
A sense of their selves that are connected to others.
Who you are = the role you play in society.

13. Motivation and Emotion
Achievement motivation is
The desire to be the best you can be or to strive to achieve your goals
“pulling ahead of others”
A product of cultural environment
Individualism:
Motivation is an internal push and achievement is an individual triumph.
Place personal goals/needs ahead of group goals/needs.
Collectivism:
Achievement refers to enhancing the family’s social standing.
Desire to achieve emerge out of a sense of indebtedness to parents and are guided by the expectations of family members or other relevant people.

14. https://www. huffingtonpost

15. Specific Emotion and Culture
Amae
Japanese positive emotion
The ability to depend and presume upon
another’s love or benevolence
A key concept for understanding a structure of
Japanese society as a whole.

16. Specific Emotion and Culture
Fago
Emotion that combines compassion, love,
and sadness
Common among the Ifaluk of Micronesia
It is an emotion that promotes helping
behavior

17. Specific Emotion and Culture
Ker
Emotion that combines happiness with
excitement.
The Ifaluk views ‘Ker’ as socially disruptive
and dangerous.

18. The Ifaluk and their specific emotions
Question:
Are the Ifaluk collectivist or individualist?

19. The Concept of Face in Asian Culture
A familiar concept in Asian culture, especially East Asia
Face can be described as “a combination of social standing, reputation, influence, dignity, and honor”.
Humility vs. Asia

20. The Concept of Face in Asian Culture
Giving Face
Shifting the spotlight away from yourself even when the credit is due.
Saving Face*
A desire to avoid humiliation or embarrassment, to maintain dignity or preserve reputation.
Losing Face*
A situation where your ability to function as part of the social order has been damaged, which results to a feeling of losing your influence or/and reputation.

22. Values and Culture Gerard Hendrik (Greet) Hofstede
Dutch social psychologist
Cultural dimensions theory
National cultures along six dimensions:
Power distance
Individualism
Masculinity
Uncertainty avoidance
Long term orientation
Indulgence

23. Importance of values differs across cultures
Power Distance
The extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.
Individualism
The degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members.
Masculinity
Characteristics of society that are either driven by competition, achievement, and success (Masculine society), or caring for others and quality of life (Feminine society).

24. Importance of values differs across cultures
Uncertainty Avoidance
The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations and created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these.
Long Term Orientation
How every society has to maintain some links with its own past while dealing with the challenges of the present and future.
Indulgence
The extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses.

25. Southeast Asia

26. East Asia

27. Western Countries

28. African Countries

29. Values and Culture Question:
Is the Hofstede’s study on six dimensions on national cultures a cross-cultural psychological study or cultural psychological study?