Cultural Psychology
Article 1 - The weirdest people in the world? (Heinrich et al., 2010)
● Boy-inseminating practices: for boy to achieve manhood, must ingest (or through anus) semen of his elders
● Locations: e.g. tropical forests of New Guinea, nearby Kaluli
● WEIRD societies: western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic
● Scientific knowledge in psychology largely based on findings from this subpopulation (especially American undergraduates) -
species-level generality?
● 68 percent of participants from US, 96 percent from Western industrialized countries
○ 96 percent of psychological samples come from countries with only 12 percent of the world’s population
● 73 percent of authors from American universities, 99 percent of authors from universities in western countries
● Review of evidence how WEIRD people compare with other populations
○ Industrialized societies - small-scale societies
○ Western societies - non-western industrialized societies
○ Americans - people from other western societies
○ University-educated Americans - non-university-educated Americans / university students with non-student adults
● Thesis: questioning current ability to distinguish the reliably developing aspects of human psychology from more (...) aspects of
our psychology, given the disproportionate reliance on WEIRD subjects
● Background:
○ Behavioral sciences database is narrow
○ Researchers often assume their findings are universal
● Industrialized societies - small-scale societies
○ Several domains in which small-scale societies appear similar to industrialized societies
○ Industrialized population shown as outliers in: visual illusions, social motivations (fairness), folkbiological cognition,
special cognition
● Western societies - Non-western societies
○ Robust patterns have emerged among people from industrialized societies
○ Westerners emerge as frequent global outliers on several key dimensions
■ Qualitative differences
● Americans - people from other western societies
○ American participants are exceptional within the population of Westerners
■ Outliers among outliers
● University-educated Americans - non-university-educated Americans / university students with non-student adults
○ Differences typical subjects and rest of American population (e.g.moral reasoning, perceptions of choice)
○ Typical subjects may be outliers within an outlier population
● Exclusive use of WEIRD samples justified when seeking existential proofs
○ whether a certain phenomenon can be found in humans at all
Lecture 1
● Definition of culture
○ A set of attitudes, behaviors and symbols shared by a large group of people, and usually communicated from one
generation to the next
○ Culture is also a pair of glasses that we are constantly looking through - a schema to help us evaluate and organize
information
● Studies usually derive their samples from a WEIRD population
○ Western
○ Educated
○ Industrialized
○ Rich
○ Democratic
Lecture 2
A theoretical approach to culture
Definitions
● Ethnicity: Cultural heritage indicator, experience shared by people who have common ancestral origin, language, traditions, religion,
geographic territory
● Ethnic identity: cultural heritage + social identity
● Race: Differentiation based on similar, genetically transmitted physical characteristics, groups overlap
○ Applied in US, not much in Europe - rather culture here
○ Socially constructed category
, Types of knowledge
● Scientific
○ Gall and Phrenology
○ What WEIRD relies on
● Popular
○ General or specific
● Ideological
○ Dogmatic principles
● Legal
○ Death, child education, abortion, life support etc
Theories
● Evolutionary approach
○ Natural and sexual selection: survival of the fittest, meaning who is best adapted
○ Biological gender differences: psychological differences, resulting in universalism
● Sociological approach
○ Social structures influence society as a whole
○ Culture = product of human activity + a forming factor
○ Society as a means of guaranteeing stability
● Ecocultural approach
○ Individual cannot be separated from the environment
■ E.g. parents educate their children, children influence their parents
○ Major factors
■ Ecological: economic activity, nutrition, climate, population density
■ Sociopolitical: ideological values, organization of the government, presence of lack of political freedom
○ People in colder, mild climate zones are typically wealthier
● Ecocultural Framework (Berry)
○ Ecology -> culture -> behavior
Conceptualization of culture
● Culture as an independent variable
○ Certain factors vary with culture and influence psychological phenomena
○ E.g. optical illusions
● Culture as a confounding variable
○ Psychological phenomena are supposed to be universal
○ E.g. Theory of Cognitive Development (Piaget), Theory of Attachment
■ Do some people not reach certain stages because they’re not valued in certain cultures?
● Culture as a genuine psychological phenomenon
○ Every psychological phenomenon takes place in a cultural context, culture is in one’s head
○ E.g. Vygotsky, Indegineous psychology
■ What’s valued in society becomes important
● Culture as a placeholder
○ Specific contextual differences instead of large, overarching differences
■ Do weird people have few kids or do people with few kids have weird features?
Goals of Cross-Cultural psychology
● Transport and test hypotheses and findings to other cultural settings
● Explore other cultures in order to discover cultural and psychological variations
● Integrate findings into a more universal psychology
Article 1 - The weirdest people in the world? (Heinrich et al., 2010)
● Boy-inseminating practices: for boy to achieve manhood, must ingest (or through anus) semen of his elders
● Locations: e.g. tropical forests of New Guinea, nearby Kaluli
● WEIRD societies: western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic
● Scientific knowledge in psychology largely based on findings from this subpopulation (especially American undergraduates) -
species-level generality?
● 68 percent of participants from US, 96 percent from Western industrialized countries
○ 96 percent of psychological samples come from countries with only 12 percent of the world’s population
● 73 percent of authors from American universities, 99 percent of authors from universities in western countries
● Review of evidence how WEIRD people compare with other populations
○ Industrialized societies - small-scale societies
○ Western societies - non-western industrialized societies
○ Americans - people from other western societies
○ University-educated Americans - non-university-educated Americans / university students with non-student adults
● Thesis: questioning current ability to distinguish the reliably developing aspects of human psychology from more (...) aspects of
our psychology, given the disproportionate reliance on WEIRD subjects
● Background:
○ Behavioral sciences database is narrow
○ Researchers often assume their findings are universal
● Industrialized societies - small-scale societies
○ Several domains in which small-scale societies appear similar to industrialized societies
○ Industrialized population shown as outliers in: visual illusions, social motivations (fairness), folkbiological cognition,
special cognition
● Western societies - Non-western societies
○ Robust patterns have emerged among people from industrialized societies
○ Westerners emerge as frequent global outliers on several key dimensions
■ Qualitative differences
● Americans - people from other western societies
○ American participants are exceptional within the population of Westerners
■ Outliers among outliers
● University-educated Americans - non-university-educated Americans / university students with non-student adults
○ Differences typical subjects and rest of American population (e.g.moral reasoning, perceptions of choice)
○ Typical subjects may be outliers within an outlier population
● Exclusive use of WEIRD samples justified when seeking existential proofs
○ whether a certain phenomenon can be found in humans at all
Lecture 1
● Definition of culture
○ A set of attitudes, behaviors and symbols shared by a large group of people, and usually communicated from one
generation to the next
○ Culture is also a pair of glasses that we are constantly looking through - a schema to help us evaluate and organize
information
● Studies usually derive their samples from a WEIRD population
○ Western
○ Educated
○ Industrialized
○ Rich
○ Democratic
Lecture 2
A theoretical approach to culture
Definitions
● Ethnicity: Cultural heritage indicator, experience shared by people who have common ancestral origin, language, traditions, religion,
geographic territory
● Ethnic identity: cultural heritage + social identity
● Race: Differentiation based on similar, genetically transmitted physical characteristics, groups overlap
○ Applied in US, not much in Europe - rather culture here
○ Socially constructed category
, Types of knowledge
● Scientific
○ Gall and Phrenology
○ What WEIRD relies on
● Popular
○ General or specific
● Ideological
○ Dogmatic principles
● Legal
○ Death, child education, abortion, life support etc
Theories
● Evolutionary approach
○ Natural and sexual selection: survival of the fittest, meaning who is best adapted
○ Biological gender differences: psychological differences, resulting in universalism
● Sociological approach
○ Social structures influence society as a whole
○ Culture = product of human activity + a forming factor
○ Society as a means of guaranteeing stability
● Ecocultural approach
○ Individual cannot be separated from the environment
■ E.g. parents educate their children, children influence their parents
○ Major factors
■ Ecological: economic activity, nutrition, climate, population density
■ Sociopolitical: ideological values, organization of the government, presence of lack of political freedom
○ People in colder, mild climate zones are typically wealthier
● Ecocultural Framework (Berry)
○ Ecology -> culture -> behavior
Conceptualization of culture
● Culture as an independent variable
○ Certain factors vary with culture and influence psychological phenomena
○ E.g. optical illusions
● Culture as a confounding variable
○ Psychological phenomena are supposed to be universal
○ E.g. Theory of Cognitive Development (Piaget), Theory of Attachment
■ Do some people not reach certain stages because they’re not valued in certain cultures?
● Culture as a genuine psychological phenomenon
○ Every psychological phenomenon takes place in a cultural context, culture is in one’s head
○ E.g. Vygotsky, Indegineous psychology
■ What’s valued in society becomes important
● Culture as a placeholder
○ Specific contextual differences instead of large, overarching differences
■ Do weird people have few kids or do people with few kids have weird features?
Goals of Cross-Cultural psychology
● Transport and test hypotheses and findings to other cultural settings
● Explore other cultures in order to discover cultural and psychological variations
● Integrate findings into a more universal psychology
