Cultural Psychology

1. Cultural Psychology Individualism / Collectivism Egocentric vs. Sociocentric Selves “Patriarchal Connectivity”

2. Cross-Cultural Psychology • 1910s-1930s: “Culture and Personality” • Every culture a distinctive psychological configuration • 1940s-1950s: “National Character” studies • Every culture has a “basic” or “modal” personality

3. Cross-Cultural Psychology • 1960s-1970s: Critique and rejection • Sophisticated field & quantitative work • 1980s-1990s: “Cultural Psychology” • Culture and emotion: universals + display patterns • Culture and self: egocentrism vs. sociocentrism, I vs C

4. Culture & Self: Background • Cross-cultural comparisons of traits and self-conceptions • Based on questionnaires and surveys – differences between averaged responses (1980 Hofstede survey of IBM) • Consensus: individualism (the West) vs. collectivism (“the rest”)

5. Individualism vs. CollectivismEgocentric vs. Sociocentric Self

6. I vs. C

7. I vs. C

8. Criticisms of I vs. C • Eurocentrism: Westerners individuals; non-Westerners submerged in social roles and relationships • Average scores obscure co-existence of ego-centrism and socio-centrism • Matsumoto’s & Oyserman’s meta-analysis: generalization doesn’t hold, even for U.S. vs. Japan

9. Japanese, Korean, Indian, & Chinese Researchers • Individuals: both “I” and “C” orientations • Cultures: domains valuing “I” and domains valuing “C” • Individuals and cultures differ not in “I” vs. “C” trait, but in configuration of “I” and “C” orientations

10. Gender:Chodorow-Gilligan Theory • Men develop by separating from mother & create autonomous selves  “ethic of autonomy” • Women develop in relationship with mother, develop relational selves  “ethic of care”

11. Suad Joseph • Most scholars see MENA as collectivist • Families, clans, tribes, etc. – fragmented & often feuding • Prevents emergence of modern individualism • Minority see MENA as individualist • Society fragmented by individualism • Prevents cooperative social action

12. Suad Joseph: “relational matrices” • In Arab societies, persons are “embedded in relational matrices that shape their sense of self • “Children have been socialized to feel lifelong responsibility for their parents and siblings. • “Older children, often, have been given parental responsibility for younger ones. • “Men have been encouraged to control and be responsible for their female kin.

13. Suad Joseph: “relational matrices” • “Women have been called upon to serve and to regard male kin as their protectors. • “Non-kin relationships have been absorbed into the family or appropriated family idioms and morality to legitimate patriarchal connectivity outside kin groups.

14. Suad Joseph • Patriarchical connectivity: development of self enmeshed in family relationships of hierarchy and authority • But: individualism also develops “persons in these Arab families have often resisted, constructed alternatives, or created networks that crossed the boundaries of family, neighborhood, class, religion, ethnicity,” etc.

15. Suad Joseph “In patriarchal societies connectivity can become a psychodynamic instrument of domination…” “Intertwined, connectivity and patriarchy have helped produce selves trained in the psychodynamics of domination, knowing how to control and be controlled.”