Welcome to PSY 381 Psychology of Culture

1. Welcome to PSY 381 Psychology of Culture Dr. Jill Norvilitis

2. Volunteer Service Learning • Journey’s End Refugee Services • Financial literacy • 6 sessions with newly arrived families • About 20 hours • Teams of three students • Orientation next week

3. Are the following universal? • Smiling to express happiness • Kissing • Temperament • Anorexia nervosa • Depression

4. Goals of Psychology • 1) Build a body of knowledge about people • 2) Apply this knowledge to intervene in people’s lives • How do we get this knowledge? • Not from a single study • Most research has been done with American college students

5. Cross-Cultural Psychology • Does our knowledge about people hold up in another culture? • Cultures is the independent variable • Look for universals and culture-specific information.

6. Brief History of the Field • Diverse influences • Interests in human diversity began to emerge in the 15th century • Philosophers of the 17th and 18th century began to debate the nature of human beings • By end of 19th, early 20th cent—anthropologists, psychologists, and other social scientists began to speculate on cc human behavior • Slowly things began to get empirical • Galton—cc work on intelligence • William Rivers—New Guinea • Richard Thurnwald—Melanesia—cognitive functions • C-c psych really came into its own in 1960s • Until recently, though, people viewed CC Psych as something only a few esoteric psychologists did

7. C-C Psych Today • APA Division Memberships 2.  Experimental:  925 6.  Behavioral Neuroscience:  538 7.  Developmental:  1,142 20.  Adult Dev. and Aging:  1,132 50.  Addictions:  993 53.  International:  714 •  PsycInfo:  hits for "cross-cultural" 1980:  289/28,737=.0097 1990:  839/58,451=.014 2000:  1545/70,567=.021 2010:  2931/161,743=.018 • Added as major subject heading in PsycInfo in 1997

8. What is cross-cultural psychology? • Critical and comparative study of cultural effects on human psychology • At least two cultural groups • Not the same as cultural psychology—seeks to discover links between a culture and the psychology of individuals living in that culture

9. Small groups: Define culture

10. What culture is not… • Race—a group of people distinguished by certain similar and genetically transmitted physical characteristics • Ethnicity—a group of people with a shared cultural heritage • Nation— a group of people who have a common geographical origin, history, and language and are defined as a unified political entity

11. Definitions of Culture • Kroeber & Kluckholn (1952)—6 categories in which culture is discussed • Descriptive • Historical • Normative • Psychological • Structural • Genetic • Different aspects of these will be emphasized by people in different cultures

12. Aspects of Life Touched by Culture • General characteristics • Food and clothing • Housing and technology • Economy and transportation • Individual and family activities • Community and government • Welfare, religion, and science • Sex and the life cycle

13. Definitions of Culture • Tylor (1865) culture—all capabilities and habits learned as members of a society • Linton (1936)—social heredity • A set of attitudes, behaviors, and symbols shared by a large group of people and usually communicated from one generation to another

14. Types of Knowledge • Scientific • Popular or folk • Ideological • Legal

15. Factors that Affect Culture • The environment—available natural resources • If few, must work together and with others • If many, less need for teamwork • Population density—higher may require greater social order • Affluence—related to individualism and emotionality • Technology • Climate—food, clothes, health, housing

16. Cultural Syndromes • Dimensions along which cultures vary • Typologies • Hsu, 1972—dominant family role • Hall—high vs. low context communication • Triandis—social distance

17. Cultural Complexity • Murdock and Provost • Writing and records • Fixity of residence • Agriculture • Urbanization • Technological specialization • Land transport • Money • Density of population • Level of political integration • Social stratification

18. Modernity • Traditional • Rooted in traditions, rules, symbols, and principles established predominantly in the past. • Tends to be more conservative and intolerant of innovations. • Nontraditional • New principles, ideas, and practices; often science and technology based. • Individuals’ choices are not strongly restricted to the social prescriptions. • Embrace individualism. Good and evil is relative. • Often associated with economic and social change.

19. Tight/Loose • Factors leading to tightness— • Cultural homogeneity • Isolation from other cultural influences • Population density • Where there is need for coordinated action • Factors leading to looseness • Heterogeneity • Much space between people • Strong influences from other cultures • Many solitary occupations • Warmer climates favor looseness

20. Geert Hofstede • Began in 1960s • Culture’s Consequences   • Cultures and Organizations • “Cultural atlas”—helps person from X position self around Y • Over 50 countries • 4 dimensions emerged, then 5th

21. Power Distance • Power distance—how we deal with the inequality between people that is inevitable—are we highly stratified or not? • Lower PD—preference for consultation/interdependence • High PD—preference for dependence or counterdependence • Scores are largely for middle class • High PD at work—wide salary range between top and bottom at work, subordinates expect to be told what to do • Low PD at work—ideal boss is a resourceful democrat, privileges and status are frowned upon

22. Individualism/Collectivism • Power of the group vs. the power of the individual; relatively independent form PD • Collectivist—people are born into extended families or other ingroups which continue to protect them in exchange for loyalty • Individualist—everyone grows up to look after him/herself and his/her immediate family only • We vs. I • Collectivist—relationships over task • Individualist—task prevails over relationship • Collectivist—harmony and consensus; • Individualist—self-actualization is the goal

23. Masculinity/Femininity • Degree to which culture holds to traditional gender roles • Differences by gender in scores on this dimension • Feminine cultures • More leveling • More likely in colder climates • Dominant values—caring for each other and preservation; people and warm relationships • Masculine cultures • Dominant values—material success and progress; money and things are important; men should be tough and assertive, women should be tender and take care of relationships;

24. Uncertainty Avoidance • Degree to which members of a society feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity • Importance of punctuality—clocks • Weak UA—Low stress, uncertainty is a normal feature of life and each day is accepted as it comes; no more rules than necessary • Strong UA—Uncertainty inherent in life is felt as a continuous threat which must be fought; high stress; lots of rules

25. Confucian Dynamism • Bond designed questionnaire with non-Western bias and 10 basic Chinese values—did no locate uncertainty avoidance, but did id this. • Long term vs short term orientation

26. More on Individualism/Collectivism • Basic question of how do we get social order • Perceived potential to explain economic development • Allocentrism • Idiocentrism • Emotions and IC • Fundamental Attribution Error • Self-Serving Bias/False Uniqueness Effect • Social loafing vs. social striving

27. Evaluating Cross-Cultural Research • Considerations in hypothesis testing • 1) Choice of theory and hypothesis—begin with a question • 2) Design the methodology • Pick a research paradigm • Participants • Selection of variables • Environment, setting, and procedures • 3) Decisions about analyzing data and reporting findings • Choice of statistics • Interpretation of results • 4) Ethics

28. Preparing for a Cross-Cultural Study • Equivalence • Hypothesis generation • Design issues • Comparativist • Application-oriented • Explanatory • Ecological or cultural-level • Sampling adequacy • SES • Literacy

29. Definitions of Variables • Equivalence of language • Test translation • Words that seem straightforward may not be. • Need to avoid words like ‘it’ and ‘former’ or ‘latter’ • Some phrases have no equivalent in some languages • Avoid metaphors like ‘foot in mouth’ and vague words like ‘frequently’ • Even when words are the same, strength may differ • Back translation • Give the same scale to bilinguals

30. Other Issues • Response sets • Cultural influences on the interpretations of findings • Can’t make causal statements if you didn’t test • Can’t assume something is related to, say, indiv-collect if you didn’t assess IC • Researcher bias/value judgments

31. What If We Haven’t Achieved Equivalence? • 1) Don’t compare—the conservative choice • 2) Reduce the nonequivalence • 3) Interpret the nonequivalence • 4) Ignore it—a mistake that many make

32. Two Basic Positions • Absolutist • Relativist • Emic (between) and Etic (within) • Most researchers combine these.

33. Tips for Doing Your Own CC Research • Ask someone who is knowledgeable about the cultures to collaborate with you • Get a full demographic assessment of all your subjects • Search for measures that have psychometric reliability and validity for all subjects • Run a pilot study • Develop a culture-free analysis plan that involves raw scores as well as a standardized ones • Have people of different culture backgrounds check your interpretations of the data • In designing your study and interpreting its results, give some thought to what kinds of underlying psychological dimensions of culture produced or should produce differences 

34. Draw a map of the world • Whittaker and Whittaker, 1972 • Small group discussion of questions

35. Ethnocentrism • Making judgments about other ethnic, national, or cultural groups and events based on the observer’s own ethnic, national, or cultural group’s outlook. • Have a tendency to view the outgroup as inferior.  • Many say we need to rid ourselves of ethnocentrism. • Others say it is a natural psychological process. • Alternative view: cultural relativism—using one’s own country’s standards to judge that culture

36. From Where Does Ethnocentrism Come? • Ingrained rules from childhood • Expect these rules to be widely shared • Become annoyed, frustrated, angry when others don’t share these • Expect people of other cultures to act like we do • Flexible ethnocentrism vs. Inflexible ethnocentrism

37. Four Generalizations • Triandis, 1994 • What goes on in our culture is seen as natural and correct. What goes on in other cultures is unnatural and incorrect. • We perceive our ingroup customs as universally valid. • We unquestionable think that ingroup norms, rules, and values are correct • We believe that it is natural to help and cooperate with members of our ingroup, to favor our ingroup, to feel proud of our ingroup, and to be hostile/distrustful of outgroups

38. Contact Hypothesis • Contact reduces prejudice when • Contact is between groups that are roughly = in social, economic, or task-related status • People in authority and or the general social climate are in favor of and promote the contact • The contact is intimate and informal enough to allow participants to get to know each other as individuals • The contact is pleasant and rewarding • The contact involves cooperation and interdependence • Superordinate goals are more important than individual goals

39. Contact Hypothesis • Contact increases prejudice when • Contact reinforces stereotypes • Contact produces competition between groups • Contact emphasizes boundaries between groups • Contact is unpleasant, involuntary, frustrating or tense • Contact is between people of unequal status

40. Critical Thinking in CC Psych • Evaluative bias of language • Differentiating dichotomous variables and continuous variables • Similarity-uniqueness paradox • The Barnum effect • The assimilation bias • Remember to accommodate • Representativeness bias • The availability bias

41. Basic Psychological Processes • Political Difficulties in Doing Research in this Area • People assume that biology causes the psychology • Improper reliance on race as a measure of culture • Biases in interpretation can be used for personal/political agendas

42. Basic Principles • Sensation—process by which receptors are stimulated and transmit their information to higher brain centers. • Absolute threshold • Difference threshold • Sensory adaptation • Perception—process that organizes various sensations into meaningful patterns

43. Perceptual Set • Perceptual expectations that make certain interpretations more likely to occurmakes perception fast and efficient • Varies by culture • Personal experiences shape this

44. Perception of Depictions • Related to education and socialization • Picture scanning • Linked to reading and writing patterns • Also draw circles in the way you write • Three dimensions in two

45. Perception of Color • Three universal dimensions • Hue • Brightness • Saturation • Is color universal? • Language-related theories of color perception • Emphasize the role of language in the identification and labeling of colors in every language • Even though the majority of healthy individuals can identify the same colors, some languages lack certain words for particular colors • Red always has a separate word, but green and blue are sometimes not distinguished linguistically

46. Trends in Color Perception • Adams and Osgood, 1973—looked at 23 cultures • Red—salient and active • Black and gray—bad • White, blue, green—good • Yellow, white, gray—passive • Around the world, people view white with more + feelings than black • Roberson et al., 2004 • Followed English (11 basic terms) and Himba (5 basic terms) from Namibia 3 and 4 yo longitudinally • Looked at language and color. • Acquired color terms the same way. • Children in both cultures didn’t acquire terms in any particular order, in contrast to the widely held idea that primary colors + green are learned first

47. Optical Illusions

48. Why Illusions Occur • Carpentered world hypothesis • Front-horizontal foreshortening • Symbolizing three dimensions in two

49. Taste • All cultures respond to the same 4 basic tastes—sweet, salty, sour, bitter • Fifth taste—umami—savoriness • The ability to taste varies only slightly by culture • Preference for salty and sweet is universal. All cultures avoid spoiled or rotten foods • A supertaster is a person whose sense of taste is significantly sharper than average. Women are more likely to be supertasters, as are Asians, Africans, and South Americans. • Regions closer to the equator prefer spicier foods • Taboo foods vary

50. Touch • Pressure, temperature, pain • Lots of individual factors affect it • Anxiety can increase pain, anger can decrease it, pride can cause people to hide it • Cultural norms—labor pain is lower in cultures where childbirth is not considered to be defiling and where little help and comfort is offered • Halonen and Santrock (1995)—lower access to health care may create increased threshold for pain