PSY101 EXAM - Lecture notes 1-12 PDF

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PSY101: Intro to Cultural PsychologyWhat is Culture?Cultural Psychology: phenomenon of understanding cultural influences on behaviourWhat is Culture:  Describes activities or behaviors  Refers to heritage or tradition  Describes rules and norms  Describes learning or problem solving  Defines or...

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PSY101: Intro to Cultural Psychology What is Culture? Cultural Psychology: phenomenon of understanding cultural influences on behaviour What is 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:  Group life (labour, efficiency, survival)  Environments (climate, pop density, land, disease, cross cultural contact)  Resources (food, water, money)  The Evolved Human Mind (Universal Psych Toolkit, basic human needs/motives)  Universal Psychological Toolkit: aptitude and cognitive abilities help people adapt to environment Cognitive Abilities: -Language -Complex Social Cognition -Memory -Hypothetical reasoning -Problem solving -Planning

Emotions: -Basic Emotions -Self-conscious emotion -Moral emotions

Personality Traits: -Extraversions -Neuroticism -Openness -Agreeableness -Conscientiousness

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

Is Culture a Uniquely Human Product:  Many animals are social  Animal societies can have social networks and hierarchies  Many animals invent and use tools  Many animals communicate with each other  Characteristics of human life/culture differentiates it from those of animals on: -Complexity -Differentiation -Institutionalization The Difference Between ‘Society’ and ‘Culture’: • Society: system of interrelationships among people • Culture: meanings and information that are associated with social networks E.g. 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: 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 can be vastly different • Popular culture: does not involve sharing a wide range of psychological attributes The Contents of Culture: Objective elements • The explicit, physical elements of a culture – Architecture, furnishings, clothes, foods, art, eating utensils, tools, musical instruments – Mass media, music, social media Subjective elements • Values: guiding principles that motivate and justify behaviour and serve as standards of judgment • Beliefs: propositions regarded as true relating to oneself, the social and physical environment, and the spiritual world • Norms: generally accepted standards of behavior for cultural group • Attitudes: evaluations of things occurring in ongoing thoughts

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Worldviews: belief systems about world

How Does Culture Influence Human Behaviours And Mental Processes: • Enculturation: process of learning about one’s culture beginning at birth • Culture influences psychological processes • Culture, situational context, and individual factors influence mental processes • System by which culture influences mental processes is dynamic • Relationship between culture and individual behaviours 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 – Making attributions is universal, but people may differ in the way they make them – Because human cultures exist in unique environments, differences exist among cultures – Same psychological process may be done differently when comparing human cultures  Etic: universal psychological processes  Emics: culture-specific processes

Types on Cross-Cultural Research Validity and Reliability in Research: • Validity: how accurately does tool measure what it is supposed to measure? • Reliability: how consistent is measurement? e.g. measures of personality traits (which are considered stable and enduring ) should produce similar results in different circumstances Method Validation in Studies: • Cannot take scale or measure developed and validated in one culture and use it in another • Cross-cultural validation studies: • First step before cross-cultural comparisons • Do no involve testing hypotheses about cultural difference • Determine if a measure developed in one culture can measure the same thing in another culture? Indigenous Cultural Studies: • Psychological processes and behaviour can be understood within cultural milieu • To understand behaviour requires in-depth analysis of cultural systems • Use of rich descriptions of theoretical models of culture ( e.g. how we account for cultural differences)

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Roots in anthropology

Types of Cross-Cultural Comparisons Exploratory vs. Hypothesis Testing: • Exploratory studies: examine existence of cross-cultural similarities and differences – Strength: broad scope for identifying similarities and differences – Weakness: limited capability to address causes of differences • Hypothesis-testing: examine why cultural differences may exist – Hypothesis-testing leads to more substantial contributions to theory development Contextual Factors: • Characteristics of participants or their cultures • Involves any variable that can explain observed cross-cultural differences • Enhances validity and helps rule out influence of biases and in equivalence • Evaluation of contextual factor influence can help to (dis)confirm their role in accounting for cultural differences observed • Hypothesis testing studies generally need to include contextual variables Structure v. Level Oriented: • Structure: comparisons of constructs, structures, or relationships with other constructs – Structure-oriented studies focus on relationships among variables – Attempt to identify similarities and differences in these relations across cultures e.g. how do different cultures conceptualize intelligence? • Level oriented: comparisons of scores – Level-oriented studies ask whether people of different cultures have different mean levels of different variables e.g. what are the mean individualism scores of different cultures? Individual v. Ecological Level (Cultural) Level: • Individual-level studies: individual participants provide data and are unit of analysis • Ecological- or cultural-level studies: countries or cultures are units of analysis e.g. Hofstede's work-related values • Data from > 117000 participants, from 72 countries • Analysis of the country means on work related values led to five dimensions for describing cultures: – Individualism vs Collectivism – Power distance – Uncertainty Avoidance – Masculinity vs Femininity – Long vs Short term Orientation • Multi-level studies: Involve data collection at multiple levels of analysis

Designing Cross-Cultural Comparative Research 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Getting the Right Research Question Linkage Studies Unpacking Studies Self-Construal Sales, Personality, and Cultural Practices Experiments and Priming Studies

Challenges Faced by Researchers:  Isolating the source of cultural differences and identifying active cultural (vs. non-cultural) ingredients that produce those differences  Validity of theoretical models  Researchers must adopt design strategies that match their beliefs and models Linkage Studies:  Studies that measure an aspect of culture theoretically hypothesized to produce cultural differences  Empirically link that measured aspect of culture with the dependent variable of interest  Types -Unpacking studies -Experiments Unpacking Studies:  Measurement of a variable that assesses a culture factor thought to produce differences on the target variable  Utilizes context variables  Context variables: Operationalize aspects of culture that produces differences in psychological variables • Individual-level measures of culture – Assess variable on the individual level that is thought to be a product of culture – Individualism versus collectivism • Idiocentrism: Individualism on the individual level • Allocentrism: Collectivism on the individual level Self-Construal Scales, Personality, and Cultural Practices: • Self-construal scales - Measures independence and interdependence on individual level • Personality – Cultural differences can be explained based on different levels of personality traits in each culture • Cultural practices – Variables that assess child-rearing practices, nature of interpersonal relationships, or cultural worldviews Experiments and Priming Studies:

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Experiments: Researchers create conditions to establish cause–effect relationships Priming studies - Experimentally manipulating mindsets of participants and measuring the resulting changes in behaviour – behavioural studies - Manipulations of environments and observation of changes in behaviour as a function of those environments

Bias and Equivalence Bias: differences that do not have exactly the same meaning within and across cultures – If bias exists in cross-cultural comparative study, comparison loses its meaning – Important to understand many aspects of studies that may be culturally biased – Equivalence: similarity in conceptual meaning and empirical method between cultures  Bias refers to a state of non-equivalence, and equivalence refers to a state of no bias •

Conceptual Bias: • Is there equivalence of – Theoretical framework – Hypotheses being tested e.g. do the cultures being compared have the same understanding of intelligence Method Bias: • Sampling bias – Are samples appropriate representatives of culture? • Linguistic bias – Are research protocols semantically equivalent across languages? • Procedural bias – Are procedures, environments, and settings equivalent across cultures? Measurement Bias: • Degree to which measures used to collect data in different cultures are equally valid and reliable Response Bias: • Systematic tendency to respond in certain way to items or scales • If response biases exist, it is very difficult to compare data between cultures – Socially desirable responding: tendency to give answers that make oneself look good – Acquiescence bias: tendency to agree rather than disagree with items on questionnaires

– Extreme response bias: tendency to use ends of scale regardless of item content – Reference group effect: people make implicit social comparisons with others when making ratings on scales Interpretational Bias: • Culture can bias ways researchers interpret their findings • Data from hypothesis-testing are correlational • Cultural attribution fallacies: claim that between-group differences are cultural without empirical justification • Linkage studies address this problem

Enculturation  Process of learning and adopting ways and manners of their culture Enculturation and Socialisation: • Culture must be learned with practice through prolonged process • Socialization: process by which we learn and internalize rules and patterns of society • Socialization and enculturation agents - People, institutions, and organizations that ensure socialization and enculturation occurs -Parents who instil values in children  Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory -Studying children in relation to their particular contexts is key to understanding development -Children contribute to their own development by interacting with and influencing people around them

Culture, Parenting and Families • •

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Family: most important microsystem to child’s development By observing parents we are observing – Essence of a culture – How cultural rules and values are reinforced and passed on from generation to generation Study of parenting within cultural context tells us what is important to that culture

Whiting and Whitings’ Six Cultures Study: • Collected field data in Mexico, India, Kenya, USA, Okinawa, and Philippines • Major focus: examine child rearing and children's behaviour in varied cultural contexts • Findings – Child’s behaviour and personality is intimately connected to characteristics of broader ecology – Women's work roles contribute to children's social behaviours

Parenting Goals and Beliefs:  Parenting goals -Provide motivation and framework for raising children -Lead to variations in parenting behaviours across cultures  Parental ethnotheories (parental cultural belief systems) -Motivate and shape what parents think is “right” way to parent Global Parenting Styles: • Authoritarian parents: expect unquestioned obedience; child needs to be controlled • Permissive parents: warm and nurturing; allow children to regulate own lives with few guidelines • Authoritative parents: sensitive to child's maturity; firm, fair, reasonable and affectionate • Uninvolved parents: do not respond appropriately to children; indifferent Domain-specific Approach to Parenting: • Criticism of global parenting: ignores differences due to particular child, situation, and context • Domain-specific approach: – Focuses on parenting behaviours rather than general styles – Emphasizes complexity of socialization process – Domains include: protection, control, reciprocity, guided learning, and group participation – Parenting practices must be appropriate for domain in which child is functioning

Culture and Peers • •

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Postfigurative cultures (culture change is slow): – Socialization occurs primarily by elders transferring their knowledge Cofigurative cultures (culture change is quicker): – Adults socialize their children, but peers play a greater role in socializing each other Prefigurative cultures (culture change is rapid): – Culture is changing so rapidly that young people may be the ones to teach adults

Exposure to Peer Groups: • Industrialized countries: children spend significant amount of time with sameaged peers • Solitary farm settlements: children will have limited options to interact with wide range of playmates • Hunting and gathering society: children may be socialized by multiple-age peers

Culture and Education Culture and Education System: • Educational system - Formalized mechanism of instruction in many societies and cultures – Teaches and reinforces cultural values • School systems – Content taught in schools reflect the choices regarding what a culture believes is important to learn • Parental and familial values – Cultural differences in parenting beliefs about education impact children’s educational experiences • Attitudes and appraisals of students – Students around the world approach their academic work with different worldviews, attitudes, and attributional styles • Differences can be attributed to parental variations • Teaching practices and school environment – Differences exist in the classroom in terms of teaching style, and expectations across cultures – Actual behaviours contribute to children’s academic achievement  Summary: • Each culture's way of raising children represents culture's way of ensuring values and norms are transmitted to children • Practices are ritualized to transmit information from generation to next generation • Contemporary theories: children's active processing of information results in reproduction of culture and production of new elements • Enculturation is a life-long process

Development Human Development: Change over time that involves greater complexity, organisation and competencies across the following domains: • Biological • Physical • Cognitive • Emotional • Social

Culture and Temperament Temperament: • Temperament: biologically based style of interacting with world that exists from birth  Easy temperament: adaptable, mild, positive, responsive ()  Difficult temperament: intense, irregular, withdrawing style, negative mood ()  Slow-to-warm-up: needs time to make transitions The Goodness of Fit between Temperament and Culture: How well does a child’s temperament match the expectations and values of the parent?  Good match: better child outcomes are expected  Mismatch: more negative child outcomes are expected Dimensions of Temperament: • Activity level • Smiling and laughter • Fear (Behavioural Inhibition) • Distress to limitations • Soothability • Duration of orienting Behavioural Inhibition: • Behavioural inhibition: the consistent tendency of some children to demonstrate fear and withdrawal in novel situations • “Shyness”, more common in China than USA • Undesirable trait in individualistic cultures – A “poor fit” between culture and temperament leads to more negative outcomes • Desirable trait in collectivist cultures – A “good fit” between culture and temperament leads to more positive outcomes • Culture provides the meaning and consequences of temperament Sources Behind Temperament Differences:  Developmental contextualism perspective: genetics, reproductive histories, and environmental and cultural pressures over generations • Complex interplay between multiple factors • Temperamental styles valued in each culture • Specific environmental demands • Physiological aspects of mother

Culture and Attachment 

Attachment: special bond that develops between infant and primary caregiver

Bowlby's Theory of Attachment • Infants must have a preprogrammed, biological basis for becoming attached to their caregivers • Smiling and cooing elicits physical attachment behaviours on part of caregiver • Attachment relationship between caregiver and child is survival strategy Bowlby and Ainsworth's Classification System of Attachment • Tripartite classification system of attachment relationships – Secure: infant distressed when mother leaves but easily comforted when she returns – Ambivalent: infant is distressed when mother leaves but sends mixed signals upon return – Avoidant: not distressed when mother leaves and upon return, avoids reuniting with mother  Temperament and Attachment: A Summary • Optimal style of attachment in one culture may not necessarily be optimal across all cultures • Examining attachment "network" instead of focusing solely on dyads is of crucial importance • Children can be born with differences in biological predispositions or temperament – helps in cultural learning through socialization and enculturation • Close interaction between infant’s temperament, attachment with caregiver, and broader environment that contributes to development

Cognitive Development Piaget’s Theory: • Sensorimotor stage: (birth to 2 years) – Children understand by perceiving and doing • Preoperational stage: (2 to 6 or 7 years) – Conservation, centration, irreversibility, egocentrism, and animism • Concrete operations stage: (6 or 7 years to 11) – Thinking skills to work with actual objects and events • Formal operations stage: (11 years through adulthood) – Think logically about abstract concepts Piaget's Theory in Cross-Cultural Perspective • Piaget's stages occur in same fixed order in other cultures • Variations in ages at which children in different societies reach third and fourth Piagetian stages

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Considerable variation in order in which children acquire specific skills within Piaget's stages Different societies value and reward different skills and behaviours

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development: • Cognitive development is inseparable from culture – Culture’s symbols and generational knowledge structure cognition • Zone of proximal development: Gap between the actual developmental level of a child versus the potential level that the child is capable of, with some assistance by knowledgeable others

Moral Reasoning • • •

Moral principles and ethics provide guidelines for people's behaviours with regard to what is appropriate and what is not Morality is heavily influenced by underlying, subjective, and implicit culture Morality serves as basis of laws, and thus culture also affects laws of society

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