Cultural psychology
Lecture 1 3
Where does culture come from? 3
Theoretical frameworks: ways of studying cross-cultural differences 3
Hofstede: individualism vs collectivism 3
Schwartz: 7 cultural values that are universal 4
Markus and Kitayama: interdependence/independence 4
Gelfand: tight and loose cultures 4
WEIRD psychology 4
Conceptualizing culture: 4 ways of seeing culture 4
Lecture 2 Methods and bias 6
Features of studies 6
Bias 6
Equivalence 7
Everyday biases and fallacies 7
Lecture 3 Cultural transmission 8
Childhood 8
Cultural change 8
Parenting styles 9
Parental ethnotheories 9
Prototypical parenting behavior 9
Culture and temperament 10
Lecture 4 The self and identity 11
Self-esteem and self-enhancement 11
Identity 11
Biculturalism 11
Lecture 5 Language and communication 13
Language, culture, evolution 13
Bilingualism 13
Business blunders 13
Communication 13
Intercultural competence (ICC) 14
Lecture 6 Acculturation and multiculturalism 15
Acculturation 15
Maintenance and adoption 15
Assessment of acculturation 15
Acculturation conditions 16
Multiculturalism 16
Remigration/return migration 16
, Multiculturalism and feminism 17
Lecture 7 Personality 18
Etic approach 18
Emic approach 18
Combined emic-etic approach 19
Chinese personality assessment inventory (CPAI) 19
South African Personality Inventory (SAPI) 19
Lecture 8 Culture and cognition 21
Culture and thinking 21
Intelligence in America 21
Intelligence in South Africa 22
Lecture 9 Emotions 23
Influences of culture on emotion 23
Approaches 23
Dispay rules 24
Lecture 10 Health 25
Health all over the world 25
Social determinants of health: migration 25
Climate differences 26
Lecture 11 Abnormality 27
Cross cultural research 27
Minorities 28
Treatment 28
Cross-cultural treatment 28
Matching therapist and client 29
Lecture 12 Social behavior 30
Cultural influences on person perception 30
Stereotypes 30
Discrimination 31
Prejudice 31
Lecture 13 Culture and organizations 33
Work related values 33
Leadership 33
Communication at work 34
Selection procedures 34
Lecture 14 Morality, honor and radicalization 35
Morality 35
Honor 35
Radicalization 35
,Lecture 1
Culture is a pair of glasses that we are looking through, a schema to help us evaluate and
organize information. Psychological research is based on studies among WEIRD samples
(Western, Educated, Industralized, Rich and Democratic).
Where does culture come from?
- Group life: living in groups increases chances for survival and accomplish more,
downside is social conflict and chaos.
- Environment: climate, population density, arable land, diseases.
- Resources: food and water but also money is a human cultural product which
influences if people need towork together when they have little money or when
people have plenty they live more independently.
Society: a system of interrelationships among people -> structure of relationships among
individuals.
Culture: refers to the meanings and information that are associated with those social
networks.
- Nationality: a person’s country of origin.
- Language: different language groups typically have different cultures.
- Ethnicity: one’s racial, national, or cultural origins.
- Sex: male or gemale, and gender: behaviors society deems as appropriate for sex.
- Disability
- Sexual orientation:
Contents of culture:
- Objective elements: architecture, clothes, food, art, advertising, television, music
- Subjective elements: values, beliefs, norms, attitudes, cultural worldviews.
Etics: aspects of life that appear to be cnsistent across different cultures.
Emics: aspects of life that appear to differ across cultures.
Theoretical frameworks: ways of studying cross-cultural
differences
Hofstede: individualism vs collectivism
Individualism: pertains to societies in which the ties between the individuals are loose:
everyone is expected to look after themself and his or her immediate family.
Collectivism: pertains to societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into
strong cohesive in-groups, which protect them in exchange for loyalty.
1. Power distance
2. Individualis/collectivism
3. Masculinity/femininity
4. Uncertainty avoidance
5. Long-term/short-term orientation
6. Indulgence
Criticism: assessment and face validity. Minkov found problems with reliability: power
distance is a part of individualism/collectivism, not separately. Femininity/masculinity doesn’t
predict criteria. Hofstede model is for national level of analysis but most dimensions fail this
test.
Expansion on Hofstede’s model: cultural syndromes (Triandis)
, - Vertical collectivism: perceiving the self as a part of a collective and accepting
inequalities within the collective.
- Horizontal collectivism: perceiving the self as a part of the collective but seeing all
members as the same - equality.
- Vertical individualism: the conception of an autonomous individual and acceptance
of inequality.
- Horizontal individualism: conception of an autonomous individual and equality.
Schwartz: 7 cultural values that are universal
1. Embeddedness: the degree to which cultures want to keep solidarity of the group.
2. Hierarchy: degree of emphasizing getting ahead in amstering the environment.
3. Mastery: degree of emphasizing ambition and success.
4. Intellectual autonomy: degree of emphasizing pursue of individual intellectual
directions.
5. Affective autonomy: degree of emphasizing the promotion of positive experiences.
6. Egalitarianism: degree of emphasizing promotion of welfare of others.
7. Harmony: degree of emphasizing fitting in.
Markus and Kitayama: interdependence/independence
1. Interdependence: how other people are overlaps with how you see yourself, sees
itself as being imbedded in other people.
2. Indepence: Internal aspects are most important, sees itself as distinct from others.
The self is a mediator of cultural differences.
Criticism: little empirical support, concepts are used dualistic but could be regarded as
dimensional. The model was created based on the culture and used when looking at the
country: no mediator.
Gelfand: tight and loose cultures
1. Tight cultures: strong norms, low tolerance for deviant behavior
2. Loose cultures: weak norms, high tolerance for deviant behavior.
Threat leads cultures to become tighter (seen in non-weird, non-industrial society studies).
WEIRD psychology
1. Modern industrialized vs small scale societies
Muller-Lyer illusion: modern industrialized do see the illusion, small scale does not
(industrialized are used to seeing angles).
Dictator game: industrialized share less coins than small scale.
2. Western vs non-western industrialized societies
Classical conformity by Asche, effect smaller in US and is smaller the more
individualistic the context.
3. Americans vs other Westerners
Americans have highest scores for individualism, rarely attribute success to
something not in their control.
4. Educated vs non-educated
Lower educated people have less post-decisional spread than highly educated
people (less cognitive dissonance).
Conceptualizing culture: 4 ways of seeing culture
- Independent variable: certain factors vary with culture and influence psychological
phenomena
- Confounding variable: psychological phenomena are supposed to be universal.
Lecture 1 3
Where does culture come from? 3
Theoretical frameworks: ways of studying cross-cultural differences 3
Hofstede: individualism vs collectivism 3
Schwartz: 7 cultural values that are universal 4
Markus and Kitayama: interdependence/independence 4
Gelfand: tight and loose cultures 4
WEIRD psychology 4
Conceptualizing culture: 4 ways of seeing culture 4
Lecture 2 Methods and bias 6
Features of studies 6
Bias 6
Equivalence 7
Everyday biases and fallacies 7
Lecture 3 Cultural transmission 8
Childhood 8
Cultural change 8
Parenting styles 9
Parental ethnotheories 9
Prototypical parenting behavior 9
Culture and temperament 10
Lecture 4 The self and identity 11
Self-esteem and self-enhancement 11
Identity 11
Biculturalism 11
Lecture 5 Language and communication 13
Language, culture, evolution 13
Bilingualism 13
Business blunders 13
Communication 13
Intercultural competence (ICC) 14
Lecture 6 Acculturation and multiculturalism 15
Acculturation 15
Maintenance and adoption 15
Assessment of acculturation 15
Acculturation conditions 16
Multiculturalism 16
Remigration/return migration 16
, Multiculturalism and feminism 17
Lecture 7 Personality 18
Etic approach 18
Emic approach 18
Combined emic-etic approach 19
Chinese personality assessment inventory (CPAI) 19
South African Personality Inventory (SAPI) 19
Lecture 8 Culture and cognition 21
Culture and thinking 21
Intelligence in America 21
Intelligence in South Africa 22
Lecture 9 Emotions 23
Influences of culture on emotion 23
Approaches 23
Dispay rules 24
Lecture 10 Health 25
Health all over the world 25
Social determinants of health: migration 25
Climate differences 26
Lecture 11 Abnormality 27
Cross cultural research 27
Minorities 28
Treatment 28
Cross-cultural treatment 28
Matching therapist and client 29
Lecture 12 Social behavior 30
Cultural influences on person perception 30
Stereotypes 30
Discrimination 31
Prejudice 31
Lecture 13 Culture and organizations 33
Work related values 33
Leadership 33
Communication at work 34
Selection procedures 34
Lecture 14 Morality, honor and radicalization 35
Morality 35
Honor 35
Radicalization 35
,Lecture 1
Culture is a pair of glasses that we are looking through, a schema to help us evaluate and
organize information. Psychological research is based on studies among WEIRD samples
(Western, Educated, Industralized, Rich and Democratic).
Where does culture come from?
- Group life: living in groups increases chances for survival and accomplish more,
downside is social conflict and chaos.
- Environment: climate, population density, arable land, diseases.
- Resources: food and water but also money is a human cultural product which
influences if people need towork together when they have little money or when
people have plenty they live more independently.
Society: a system of interrelationships among people -> structure of relationships among
individuals.
Culture: refers to the meanings and information that are associated with those social
networks.
- Nationality: a person’s country of origin.
- Language: different language groups typically have different cultures.
- Ethnicity: one’s racial, national, or cultural origins.
- Sex: male or gemale, and gender: behaviors society deems as appropriate for sex.
- Disability
- Sexual orientation:
Contents of culture:
- Objective elements: architecture, clothes, food, art, advertising, television, music
- Subjective elements: values, beliefs, norms, attitudes, cultural worldviews.
Etics: aspects of life that appear to be cnsistent across different cultures.
Emics: aspects of life that appear to differ across cultures.
Theoretical frameworks: ways of studying cross-cultural
differences
Hofstede: individualism vs collectivism
Individualism: pertains to societies in which the ties between the individuals are loose:
everyone is expected to look after themself and his or her immediate family.
Collectivism: pertains to societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into
strong cohesive in-groups, which protect them in exchange for loyalty.
1. Power distance
2. Individualis/collectivism
3. Masculinity/femininity
4. Uncertainty avoidance
5. Long-term/short-term orientation
6. Indulgence
Criticism: assessment and face validity. Minkov found problems with reliability: power
distance is a part of individualism/collectivism, not separately. Femininity/masculinity doesn’t
predict criteria. Hofstede model is for national level of analysis but most dimensions fail this
test.
Expansion on Hofstede’s model: cultural syndromes (Triandis)
, - Vertical collectivism: perceiving the self as a part of a collective and accepting
inequalities within the collective.
- Horizontal collectivism: perceiving the self as a part of the collective but seeing all
members as the same - equality.
- Vertical individualism: the conception of an autonomous individual and acceptance
of inequality.
- Horizontal individualism: conception of an autonomous individual and equality.
Schwartz: 7 cultural values that are universal
1. Embeddedness: the degree to which cultures want to keep solidarity of the group.
2. Hierarchy: degree of emphasizing getting ahead in amstering the environment.
3. Mastery: degree of emphasizing ambition and success.
4. Intellectual autonomy: degree of emphasizing pursue of individual intellectual
directions.
5. Affective autonomy: degree of emphasizing the promotion of positive experiences.
6. Egalitarianism: degree of emphasizing promotion of welfare of others.
7. Harmony: degree of emphasizing fitting in.
Markus and Kitayama: interdependence/independence
1. Interdependence: how other people are overlaps with how you see yourself, sees
itself as being imbedded in other people.
2. Indepence: Internal aspects are most important, sees itself as distinct from others.
The self is a mediator of cultural differences.
Criticism: little empirical support, concepts are used dualistic but could be regarded as
dimensional. The model was created based on the culture and used when looking at the
country: no mediator.
Gelfand: tight and loose cultures
1. Tight cultures: strong norms, low tolerance for deviant behavior
2. Loose cultures: weak norms, high tolerance for deviant behavior.
Threat leads cultures to become tighter (seen in non-weird, non-industrial society studies).
WEIRD psychology
1. Modern industrialized vs small scale societies
Muller-Lyer illusion: modern industrialized do see the illusion, small scale does not
(industrialized are used to seeing angles).
Dictator game: industrialized share less coins than small scale.
2. Western vs non-western industrialized societies
Classical conformity by Asche, effect smaller in US and is smaller the more
individualistic the context.
3. Americans vs other Westerners
Americans have highest scores for individualism, rarely attribute success to
something not in their control.
4. Educated vs non-educated
Lower educated people have less post-decisional spread than highly educated
people (less cognitive dissonance).
Conceptualizing culture: 4 ways of seeing culture
- Independent variable: certain factors vary with culture and influence psychological
phenomena
- Confounding variable: psychological phenomena are supposed to be universal.
