Chapter 4

Question 1

Dualistic Nature of Psychological Functioning

Answer 1

The recognition that human psychological functioning has a dualistic nature was proposed by German scholar Wilhelm Wundt. He differentiated between lower mental functions (physiological psychology) and higher mental functions (ethno-social psychology).

Question 1

Physiological Psychology

Answer 1

Physiological psychology, as proposed by Wundt, deals with lower mental functions such as sensations, basic emotions, and motivations. It employs experimental methods akin to those used in natural sciences.

Question 2

Ethno-Social Psychology

Answer 2

Ethno-social psychology, also termed Volkerpsychologie by Wundt, focuses on higher mental functions involving language, consciousness, and symbolic activities. It requires multidisciplinary approaches to understand socio-cultural determinants of human actions.

Question 3

Methodological Approaches

Answer 3

Physiological psychology employs experimental methods akin to natural sciences, while ethno-social psychology utilizes multidisciplinary approaches, including history, anthropology, linguistics, and sociology, to understand socio-cultural determinants of human actions.

Question 4

Demand for Two Psychologies

Answer 4

The demand for two psychologies arose historically from the recognition of the dualistic nature of human psychological functioning. German scholar Wilhelm Wundt proposed this duality, differentiating between physiological psychology, which deals with lower mental functions like sensations and basic emotions, and Volkerpsychologie or ethno-social psychology, which focuses on higher mental functions involving language, consciousness, and symbolic activities. While physiological psychology employs experimental methods akin to natural sciences, ethno-social psychology requires multidisciplinary approaches to understand the socio-cultural determinants of human actions. This historical division reflects a tension between natural science and sociocultural perspectives within psychology.

Question 5

Quantitative Methodology

Answer 5

Quantitative methodology in psychology involves studying individuals in controlled laboratory settings or through standardized surveys. Data collected from experiments and surveys are transformed into numerical values for statistical analysis to establish empirical regularities among mental variables and their relationships with environmental, social, and cultural factors.

Question 6

Qualitative Methodology

Answer 6

Qualitative methodology in psychology aims to study human thoughts, emotions, desires, and reasons for actions by using verbal reports, observations, interviews, and naturalistic settings. It emphasizes analyzing sociocultural aspects of human habitats as integral to understanding psychological phenomena.

Question 7

Methodological Division in Psychology

Answer 7

The methodological division in psychology reflects a struggle between quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Quantitative methods focus on empirical regularities and statistical analyses, while qualitative methods emphasize understanding subjective experiences and sociocultural contexts.

Question 8

Crisis of Identity in Social Psychology

Answer 8

The crisis of identity in social psychology emerged in the late 1960s due to disagreements over the uncritical application of experimental methodology to study social and cultural phenomena. Some psychologists questioned the validity of experimental methods in understanding complex social behaviors and contexts, leading to ongoing debates within the field.

Question 9

Goals of Cross-Cultural Psychology

Answer 9

Cross-cultural psychology aims to study psychological functioning across different cultures. It assumes that basic psychological processes are common to all humans but influenced by culture. Goals include investigating psychological universals, variations across cultures, and differentiating universal and culture-dependent components.

Cross-cultural psychology (CCP) emerged as a sub-discipline in response to the crisis in social psychology in the late 1960s

Question 10

Psychological Universalist Approach

Answer 10

Cross-cultural psychology adopts a psychological universalist approach, assuming that basic psychological processes are common to all humans. Culture influences the development and display of psychological characteristics, resulting in variations across cultures while maintaining underlying themes.

Question 11

Empirical Basis of Cross-Cultural Psychology

Answer 11

Cross-cultural psychology seeks to generate a nearly universal psychology with pan-human validity. It aims to differentiate universal and culture-dependent components of human psychological functioning through empirical investigation across diverse cultural communities.

Question 12

Definition of cross-cultural psychology

Answer 12

“Cross-cultural psychology is the study: of similarities and differences in individual psychological functioning in various cultural and ethnocultural groups; of the relationships between psychological variable and socio-cultural, ecological and biological variables; and ongoing changes in these variables” (Berry, Poortinga, Segall, & Dazen, 1992 p. 3)

Question 13

Complex Relationship with Culture

Answer 13

Cross-cultural psychologists have a complex relationship with the concept of culture. While it is central to their discipline, they acknowledge its complexity, vagueness, and difficulty for empirical investigation. Some debate abandoning it or replacing it with more definite constructs or variables.

Question 14

Dimensional Approach to Culture

Answer 14

Geert Hofstede’s dimensional approach to culture involves extracting dimensions such as individualism-collectivism, power distance, masculinity-femininity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term versus short-term orientation from cross-cultural data. These dimensions provide a framework for correlating cultural variables with various outcomes.

Question 15

Reification of Culture

Answer 15

Cross-cultural psychologists may reify culture by treating it as a set of independent variables influencing behavior, separate from ongoing interactions within cultural communities. This allows for the essentialization of culture, assigning dimensions to it for measurement, evaluation, and statistical analysis.

Question 16

Methodological Tools in Cross-Cultural Psychology

Answer 16

Cross-cultural psychologists utilize variable-based analysis, a comparative approach, and quantification/statistical analysis to study socio-cultural and psychological states and processes on individual and country levels.

Cross-cultural psychology is rooted in a scientific tradition that emphasizes experimentation and measurement, rejecting earlier European traditions of political and social philosophy as “soft.” It continues the use of controlled experiments and standardized assessments to study psychological phenomena.

Question 17

Goals of Cross-Cultural Psychology

Answer 17

The goals of cross-cultural psychology include investigating the development and manifestation of universal psychological mechanisms across different cultural communities, as well as identifying universal and culture-specific approaches to resolving adaptation problems.

Question 18

Cross-Cultural Investigation of Sensory Processes

Answer 18

Torres Strait, British New Guinea (1895)

Researchers: W.H. R. Rivers, C.S. Myers, W. McDougal

Background: Challenging ethnocentric views, the study aimed to examine sensory and perceptual processes across cultures.

Methodology: Experimental techniques were used to investigate visual acuity, color vision, auditory acuity, smell, taste, tactile sensitivity, weight discrimination, and the size-weight illusion.

Findings: Contrary to expectations, cross-cultural differences in sensory processes were minimal. Aboriginal individuals did not demonstrate significantly higher visual acuity but showed heightened tactile sensitivity.

Significance: The study contributed to the notion of the “psychic unity of mankind” and exemplified the appropriate application of standardized experimental methodology in cross-cultural research.

Question 19

Cross-Cultural Study of Intelligence Testing

Answer 19

Early 20th Century

Researchers: Alfred Binet, Theophile Simon, Lewis Terman

Background: Originating in France to identify slow-learning children, IQ testing expanded to cross-cultural studies of intelligence.

Methodology: Standardized intelligence tests, including the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scales and the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, were administered across different racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Controversy: Initial focus on academic performance evolved into claims of innate, culture-free intelligence, leading to the development of racial hierarchies.

Criticism: Some scholars argued that intelligence is culture-contingent and requires culture-appropriate tasks for meaningful assessment.

Significance: This controversy highlights the ongoing debate over the nature of intelligence and the appropriateness of standardized testing across cultures.

Question 20

Etic approach vs. emic approach:

Answer 20

Etic approach: Studies behavior from outside of a system, often with an outsider perspective.

Emic approach: Studies behavior from inside a system, with an insider perspective

Question 21

Steps of a cross-cultural study:

Answer 21

1. Select psychological processes: Choose processes for cross-cultural comparison, often taken from Western psychology.
2. Select psychological instruments: Translate tests and questionnaires, ensuring construct and linguistic equivalence.
3. Select cultural groups: Choose cultures for comparison based on cultural dimensions or researcher familiarity.
4. Collect and analyze data: Conduct statistical analysis, such as regression or factor analysis.
5. Theorize and conclude: Draw conclusions about universal and culture-specific aspects of studied processes.
   Draw conclusions about universal and culture-specific aspects of psychological processes based on similarities and differences across samples.

Question 22

Critiques of Cross-Cultural Psychology:

Answer 22

1. Methodological Misalignment: CCP often applies natural science methodology to phenomena that belong to intentional and intersubjective realities, violating the principle that the study methodology should align with the nature of the phenomenon.
2. Universal Assumption: CCP assumes the universality of psychological phenomena discovered in Western psychology, imposing this understanding on other cultural communities, neglecting indigenous psychologies.
3. Outsider Perspective: Researchers typically use the etic approach, examining cultures from an outsider position without incorporating the emic approach, limiting cultural understanding.
4. A-Cultural Perspective: CCP studies may be labeled a-cultural as they often represent culture solely by nationality or ethnicity, neglecting the depth of cultural understanding.
5. Standardization Imposition: Emphasis on equivalence and standardization may impose Western interpretations of psychological phenomena on diverse cultural communities, ignoring cultural nuances.
6. Sampling Issues: CCP often lacks representative probability sampling, hindering appropriate generalizations and universal psychology development.
7. Focus on Statistical Generalizations: Studies often focus on empirical/statistical generalizations, neglecting the mechanisms of interactions between cultures and the human psyche.

Question 23

Cultural psychology

Answer 23

is the study of the way cultural traditions and social practices regulate, express, and transform the human psyche, resulting less in psychic unity of humankind than in ethnic divergences in mind, self, and emotion. Cultural psychology is the study of the way subject and object, self and other, psyche and culture, person and context, figure and ground, practitioner and practice, live together, require each other, and dynamically, dialectically, and jointly make each other up. (Shweder, 1991, p. 73)

Question 24

What is Cultural Psychology?

Answer 24

cultural psychology (CP) is a discipline developed in response to criticisms of mainstream cross-cultural research. It integrates culture and socio-symbolic environments into psychological research across cultural communities

Question 25

Key figures

Answer 25

include Jerome Bruner, Michael Cole, Patricia Greenfield, Hazel Markus, Richard Nisbett, Richard Shweder, Jaan Valsiner, among others

Question 26

Second Discipline of Psychology

Answer 26

CP aligns with Wundt’s “second discipline,” focusing on intentional, symbolic, and linguistic manifestations of human functioning inseparable from socio-cultural environments.

Question 27

Mutually Constitutive

Answer 27

Assumes sociocultural worlds and human psychological functioning are mutually constitutive, emphasizing their interconnectedness and inseparability in understanding human behavior.

It emphasizes the mutual constitution of sociocultural worlds and human psychological functioning, asserting they cannot be understood separately.

Question 28

Understanding culture

Answer 28

Cultural psychologists remain faithful to the definition of their discipline and deviate from their cross-cultural colleagues. Richard Shweder brought the concepts of intentionality into culture and psychology research, bridging cultural and psychological domains.

Question 29

Complex Nature of Human Interactions

Answer 29

Cultural psychology highlights the complexity of human interactions with socio-cultural worlds. People share and execute learned practices and meanings, while cultures exist because of members’ intentional states and actions.

Question 30

Agency and Cultural Change

Answer 30

Individuals possess agency to change their cultural worlds, thereby impacting themselves. Cultural psychology acknowledges the role of agency in cultural dynamics and transformation.

Question 31

Advanced Understanding

Answer 31

Cultural psychology offers a more advanced understanding of how culture and the human psyche interact and change each other compared to cross-cultural psychology. It also holds high humanistic potential for addressing social and cultural issues.

Question 32

Cultural Study Example

Answer 32

Kathleen Barlow, an American psychological anthropologist, conducted a study on food sharing between mothers and children in a Murik community in Papua New Guinea. She explored how food sharing practices symbolically represent mothering and parenting values in the community, using ethnography including participant observation and interviews. Barlow employed the theory of cultural models to understand the deeper layers of mothering and socialization in the Murik society.

Question 33

Comparison of Cultural and Cross-Cultural Psychology

Answer 33

Cross-cultural psychology assumes universality and relative independence of psychological makeup from cultural environments. Cultural psychology emphasizes understanding psychological processes within their cultural contexts and the practical activities they serve, highlighting the cultural relativity of human psychology.

Question 34

The Mind vs. Mentalities

Answer 34

Shweder (2000) proposed differentiating the universal human ‘mind’ from the multiplicities of cultural ‘mentalities.’ The ‘mind’ refers to humans’ universal brain-determined cognitive, emotional, and motivational mechanisms, while ‘mentalities’ denote the actual mental composition influenced by socio-cultural environments.

Question 35

Universal Human Mind

Answer 35

According to Shweder, the ‘mind’ constitutes humans’ universal biological, physiological, and psychological propensities, making all individuals members of the same species, Homo sapiens.

Question 36

Cultural Mentalities

Answer 36

Cultural ‘mentalities’ encompass individuals’ styles of thinking, culture-specific emotions, motivations, and personality proclivities shaped by communal cultural models. Each community creates its own specific mentality, such as the Canadian, Aboriginal, Chinese, or Soviet mentality.

Question 37

Neuroscientific Perspective

Answer 37

Panksepp and colleagues (1990) argued for a general-purpose cortico-computational space in the human brain that interacts with socio-cultural contexts, producing culture-specific mentalities. This view suggests that without culture, human mentalities cannot evolve.

Question 38

Emic vs. Etic Approach

Answer 38

Cultural psychology adopts the emic approach, examining behaviors and experiences from ‘within’ cultural contexts, while cross-cultural psychology utilizes the etic approach, studying cultural communities from the ‘outside.’

The emic approach allows researchers to grasp psychological phenomena in their authentic cultural manifestations, studying them as they unfold in natural socio-symbolic environments.

Researchers employing the emic approach adopt an ‘outsider-to-insider’ stance, striving to understand cultural phenomena from the perspective of the community being studied.

Question 39

Barlow’s Approach in Murik Society

Answer 39

Barlow entered the Murik community with an open mind, without preexisting conceptions or hypotheses about food sharing. She exercised an ‘outsider-to-insider’ position, making efforts to understand and view their lives from an ‘insider’ perspective.

Question 40

Denial of Naturalistic Methodology

Answer 40

Cultural psychology rejects the naturalistic methodology common in mainstream psychology. Researchers avoid terms like ‘variables’ and refrain from quantifying phenomena, instead employing qualitative methods such as ethnography, participant observation, interviews, and socio-historical analysis.

Question 41

Qualitative Approach in Cultural Psychology

Answer 41

Cultural psychologists utilize qualitative methods to study phenomena, presenting results in narrative forms rather than relying on statistical analysis. This approach emphasizes rich descriptions and contextual understanding over quantification.

Question 42

Main Steps of a Cultural Psychological Study

Answer 42

1. Cultural Analysis: Begin with an analysis of the community under study, unpacking its cultural models, values, social practices, and rules of conduct.
2. Literature Review and Fieldwork:** Conduct a thorough literature review and complement it with fieldwork, including living in the community, observing, and talking to people.
3. Focus on Specific Phenomena:** Concentrate on particular psychological phenomena and their socio-cultural constitution and regulation.
4. Intentional Phenomena:** Analyze intentional phenomena in participants’ lives, such as the concept of ‘face’ in Chinese society.
5. Unit of Analysis:** Focus on intentional things as presented in cultural models and represented in the minds of community members.
6. Monocultural or Comparative Research:** Choose between conducting a monocultural study within one cultural community or comparative research analyzing different intentional worlds and their role in shaping mentalities.

Question 43

Cultural Analysis in Psychological Research

Answer 43

**- Begins with unpacking cultural models, values, social practices, and rules of conduct within a community.

Involves a thorough literature review, fieldwork, and focus on specific psychological phenomena.

Analyzes intentional phenomena and examines their representation in participants’ minds.

Can be conducted as a monocultural study within one community or as comparative research across different cultural contexts.**

Question 44

Ruth Benedict’s Ethno-Psychological Portrait of Japanese People

Answer 44

Ruth Benedict, an American anthropologist, conducted a cultural psychological study of Japanese people for the American Government post-WWII. Despite never visiting Japan, she utilized “anthropology at a distance” by studying literature, newspapers, movies, and interviewing Japanese-Americans. Her findings were published in the influential book “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” in 1946/1974.

Question 45

Approach of Ruth Benedict’s Study

Answer 45

Ruth Benedict’s study exemplifies cultural psychology conducted “at distance.” She aimed to understand and predict Japanese behavior post-war and during occupation. Benedict’s research, although criticized initially, later gained popularity and influenced Japanese self-understanding. Her work was later acclaimed in China and Taiwan, particularly during times of tension with the Japanese government.

Question 46

Interpretation and Understanding in Cultural Psychology

Answer 46

Cultural psychologists rely on interpretation and understanding as their main analytical tools to grasp the symbolic intentional worlds of participants. Interpretation involves grasping the meaning of symbolic intentional worlds, while understanding results from interpretation, providing insight into the intentional worlds of cultural communities.

Question 47

Critique of Cultural Psychology by Cross-Cultural Psychologists

Answer 47

Cross-cultural psychologists critique cultural psychology for its interpretative nature, arguing that it lacks the ability to establish causal relations between cultural and psychological variables. They suggest using cultural psychology as a preliminary description of a cultural phenomenon before applying more rigorous psychological measurements and experiments.

Question 48

Methodological Differences Between Cultural and Cross-Cultural Psychology

Answer 48

Cultural psychology utilizes participant observations, ethnography, interviews, and artifact analysis, rejecting statistical analysis common in cross-cultural psychology. While cross-cultural psychology aligns with natural sciences, cultural psychology is considered an interpretative, second discipline of psychology with a qualitative methodological approach.

Question 49

Social Coordination and Intersubjectivity

Answer 49

Humans have evolved to solve the adaptive problem of social coordination, which involves understanding the goals and intentions of others. Through intersubjectivity and shared cultural programming, individuals can coordinate their actions effectively within a group.

Question 50

Penetrating Intentional Worlds in Research

Answer 50

Cultural psychologists aim to understand the intentional worlds of cultural communities, similar to how members of a group can grasp each other’s intentions for social coordination. Researchers seek to read the intersubjectively shared part of people’s minds, their cultural mentalities, to comprehend their goals and intentions.

Question 51

Methodological Considerations in Cultural Psychology

Answer 51

Cultural psychology deals with a different kind of reality than natural sciences, focusing on interactive and intentional phenomena. As such, cultural psychologists use qualitative methodologies and interpretive approaches, rather than strict quantification and statistical analysis, to understand cultural worlds and mentalities.

Question 52

Definition of Indigenous Psychology (IP)

Answer 52

Indigenous psychology (IP) is a form of cultural psychology focused on specific cultural communities such as Aboriginal, Chinese, Indian, or African. It encompasses a system of psychological thought and practices rooted in a particular cultural tradition, reflecting the indigenous categories and ideas about human psychology.

Question 53

Emergence of Indigenous Psychology

Answer 53

Indigenous psychology emerged in response to the Westernization of psychology in non-Western cultural communities. Indigenous psychologists reject the imposition of Western psychological concepts and methods, advocating for the inclusion of indigenous categories and ideas in understanding the psychological functioning of diverse cultural groups.

Question 54

Transition to Indigenous Psychology

Answer 54

Proponents of indigenous psychology, like Kuo-Shu Yang, highlight the limitations of conducting Westernized psychological research in non-Western contexts. They emphasize the importance of reflecting cultural values, ideas, and ways of thinking in the research process to avoid creating “soulless psychology” that fails to capture the unique aspects of cultural communities’ psychological characteristics.

Question 55

Indigenous Psychology vs. Western Psychology

Answer 55

Indigenous psychologists reject the idea that Western psychology represents universal human psychology, considering it one of many culture-specific indigenous systems of knowledge. They emphasize studying psychological phenomena through the lens of indigenous cultural models and resist the ethnocentric notion that Western psychological concepts apply universally.

Question 56

Insider Position in Indigenous Psychology

Answer 56

Indigenous psychologists typically hold an insider position within their cultural communities, contrasting with Western cultural psychologists who often approach research from an outsider perspective. Indigenous psychologists advocate for the emic and culturally-relative approach, aiming to develop psychological knowledge congruent with the nature and structure of their communities’ psychological functioning.

Question 57

MonoCultural Indigenous (MCI) Approach

Answer 57

The MCI approach in indigenous psychology focuses on studying the psychological functioning of a specific cultural community to develop culture-specific psychological knowledge. Researchers align their research activities with native people’s psychological elements, structures, and mechanisms rooted in their cultural, social, and historical contexts.

Question 58

Comparative Cross-Cultural Indigenous Approach

Answer 58

Indigenous psychologists may employ a comparative cross-cultural indigenous approach to study and compare the insights of two or more indigenous systems of psychological thought. This approach aims to build empirical research based on the understandings derived from comparing different cultural perspectives on psychological phenomena.

Question 59

Indian Indigenous Psychology - Motivation

Answer 59

Indian indigenous psychology intertwines with philosophical, religious, and spiritual teachings. Motivation, according to Indian psychology, is inherent in the individual’s nature and physical composition, driven by physiological needs arising from universal principles. Actions should be undertaken without attachment to outcomes and with consideration for societal well-being. Indian thinkers emphasize the recollection of past experiences, deliberation in voluntary actions, and freedom from desires for proper motivation. Understanding Indian motivation requires consideration of cultural knowledge and investigation into individual motivational systems.

Question 60

Two Approaches

Answer 60

Research on human psychology and culture employs two main approaches: cross-cultural psychology and cultural psychology.

In cross-cultural psychology, culture and psychology are seen as relatively independent. It often uses quantitative methods to study how culture influences psychological phenomena.

Cultural psychology, including indigenous psychology, views culture as intentional and intersubjective. It uses qualitative methods and interpretative science to understand the mutual constitution of culture and psychology.

Question 61

Methodological Differences

Answer 61

Cross-cultural psychology tends to employ quantitative methods, while cultural psychology uses qualitative methods and emphasizes understanding and interpretation.

Both approaches have strengths and weaknesses. Thoughtful and reflective research practices are essential for navigating these complexities effectively.

Question 62

Example 1 of a country-level cross-cultural psychological study

Answer 62

Study Title: “Cross-cultural differences in helping strangers” (Levine, R. V., Norenzayan, A., Philbrick, K., 2001)

Goal: Explore cross-cultural variations in helping strangers.

Research Questions:
a) Is helping strangers a cross-culturally meaningful characteristic?
b) Does helping strangers vary across cultures?
c) What community characteristics are related to helping strangers?

Method: Field quasi-experiment with convenience samples of pedestrians in 23 countries.

Measures: Standardized behavioral tasks to assess helping behavior.

Findings: Helping behavior varied across cities, with significant correlations found with economic indicators.

Comments: Descriptive study using country-level indicators to represent cultural communities. Use of standardized measures and non-probability sampling.

Question 63

Example 2 of a country-level cross-cultural psychological study using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions:

Answer 63

Study Title: “Dimensions of national culture as predictors of cross-national differences in subjective well-being” (Arrindell, W.A., et al., 1997)

Goal: Identify cultural dimensions associated with subjective well-being (SWB) across 36 countries.

Method: Researchers collected scores on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions related to SWB for 36 countries. SWB scores were obtained from Diener et al. (1995).

Results: High Individualism, low Masculinity, and low Uncertainty Avoidance predicted high national SWB.

Comments: This study exemplifies culture-level cross-cultural research, using international databases to correlate cultural dimensions with various outcomes. It avoids individual-level cultural analysis, potentially leading to ecological fallacies when inferring individual-level associations from country-level data.

Question 64

Geert Hofstede

Answer 64

Dutch cross-cultural organizational psychologist

Analyzed work attitude surveys by IBM in nearly 70 countries; discovered cultural dimensions through factor analysis

Question 65

Cultural Dimensions by Hofstede

Answer 65

1. Power Distance: Extent to which less powerful members of a society accept and expect unequal distribution of power
2. Individualism-collectivism: Level of integration into groups; Individualism: loose ties among individuals, self-reliance; Collectivism: strong ties, group loyalty
3. Masculinity-Femininity: Degree to which a society emphasizes masculine or feminine values
4. Uncertainty Avoidance: How a society deals with uncertainties; avoidance: strict rules and safety measures; acceptance: tolerance of ambiguity
5. Short-term vs. Long-term Orientation (STO vs. LTO): Values related to time orientation; LTO: thrift, perseverance, future focus; STO: respect for traditions, present/past focus

Question 66

Chirkov & Ryan Study

Answer 66

Goal: Investigate if support for adolescents’ autonomy is universally beneficial to their well-being and academic motivation across the USA and Russia.

Research Questions:
a) Does the level of autonomy support differ between Russia and the U.S.?
b) Does autonomy support have the same effect on students’ self-determined motivation in both countries?

Method: Surveyed 236 high school students from Russia and the USA using standardized questionnaires based on self-determination theory.

Variables Assessed:
Parents and Teachers Autonomy Support
Academic Motivation
Psychological Well-Being

Measurement Invariance: Tested to ensure equivalence of scales used in the study.

Results: Found that Russian students perceived their social context as less autonomy supportive than American students. However, autonomy support positively correlated with academic motivation and psychological well-being in both countries.

Key Findings:
-Autonomy support from parents and teachers positively correlated with:
–Academic motivation
–Psychological well-being

-Autonomy support had similar effects in both Russia and the USA, despite cultural differences in autonomy perceptions.

Comments:
-Study conducted at the individual level, focusing on people rather than countries.
-Thorough tests of constructs’ equivalence and measurement invariance conducted.
-Psychological constructs assumed to be similar across cultures based on statistical analysis.
-Findings support the positive role of autonomy support regardless of cultural context.

Answer 67

Goal: Investigate parenting practices and beliefs in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Research Questions:
What is the cultural model of long-term parenting goals among Ecuadorian parents?
What practices are aimed at achieving these goals?
What are the meanings of these goals and practices?

Method:
Conducted 100 hours of observation of parent-child interactions in various households.
Utilized ethnography, including naturalistic observations and interviews with parents.

Results:
-Analyzed the cultural model of parenting, focusing on the development of a socially-oriented personality.
-Introduced the concepts of social versus antisocial personality traits within the Ecuadorian cultural context.
-Found that developing a socially-oriented personality is the primary parenting goal in the community.
-Discussed various practices, including discipline and permission granting, aimed at achieving this goal.
-Highlighted the cultural significance of permissiveness in parenting practices and its role in fostering social personality traits.

Comments:
-Published in a psychological anthropology journal, indicating a cultural psychological study.
-Emphasized understanding parenting practices within their cultural context.
-Utilized an emic approach to interpret results, focusing on local beliefs and perspectives.
-Did not use standardized measures, relying instead on observation and interviews.

Question 68

A comparative cultural psychological study: Shweder & Goldstein

Answer 68

Goal: Investigate the moral principles underlying sleeping arrangements in different cultural communities.

Method:
Conducted in India and the USA.
Asked family members to make sleeping arrangements for 7 family members in various sleeping spaces.
Participants were asked to justify their selections.

Results:
-Indian arrangements: Females in one room; Father & son 8 in another; Son 15 and son 11 in the third.
-American arrangements: Mother & father in one room; All sons in another; All daughters in the third.

Extracted Moral Principles:
-Indian:
Incest avoidance.
Care for dependents.
Female chastity anxiety.
Hierarchical deference for males.
-American:
Incest avoidance.
The sacred couple.
Respect for individual privacy.

Comments:
-Utilized a comparative cultural psychological approach.
-Implemented a standardized quasi-experimental procedure.
-Delved into the deeper moral principles underlying cultural practices.
-Treated each cultural community as sharing particular moral principles.
Perceived the goal as discovering and understanding these moral principles.

Question 69

A monocultural indigenous psychology study: Hwang & Han

Answer 69

Goal: Analyze the Chinese concept of ‘face’ from historical, philosophical, moral, and empirical perspectives.

Method:
Utilized diverse methods including historical, ethical, and sociological analyses.
Employed indigenously created questionnaires to understand the psychodynamics of ‘face’-related behavior in schools.

Results:
-‘Face’ reflects a person’s social reputation accumulated through efforts and achievement.
-Represents a person’s morality and community’s trust in their honesty, fairness, and self-discipline.
-Rooted in Confucian ideology, ‘face’ serves as a significant determinant and regulator of social interactions.
-Identified two aspects of personal orientation toward face: protective and acquisitive.
-Discovered stable personality variations related to face-related differentiation.
-Investigated factors related to ‘having face’ and ‘losing face’ among seniors and young people.

Comments:
-‘Face’ is tightly related to maintaining morality, interpersonal cohesiveness, and social dependency.
-It is an intentional and intersubjective cultural phenomenon within the Chinese community.
-Members internalize the belief in ‘face’ and use it as a regulator of social behavior.
-This study exemplifies a monocultural indigenous psychology investigation focused on a specific cultural community.

Question 70

Comparative study in cultural psychology

Answer 70

is a cultural psychological study conducted in a comparative mode to understand the differences in cultural models and the meanings of cultural practices in different communities.

Question 71

Country/ecological level cross-cultural research

Answer 71

is the research where countries or cultural/ethnic communities constitute units of the analysis

Question 72

Cross-cultural psychology

Answer 72

is the study of similarities and differences in individual psychological functioning in various cultural and ethnocultural groups; it is the
study of the relationships between psychological variables and sociocultural, ecological and biological variables and the ongoing changes in these variables.

Question 73

Cultural psychology

Answer 73

(by Shweder) is the study of how cultural traditions and social practices regulate, express, and transform the human psyche, resulting less in the psychic unity of humankind than in ethnic divergences in mind, self, and emotion. Cultural psychology is the study of how subject and object, self and other, psyche and culture, person and context, figure and ground, and practitioner and practice live together, require each other, and dynamically, dialectically, and jointly make each other up.

Question 74

Culture-specific human mentality

Answer 74

(by Shweder) is an actual configuration of mental processes that people ultimately acquire in their cultural communities.

Question 75

Equivalence in cross-cultural research:

Answer 75

construct equivalence - the comparability of the meaning of the phenomena included in a study across cultural communities;

linguistic equivalence – similarity of the linguistic meaning of the psychological questionnaires and tests translated in different languages; measurement invariance - the psychometric invariance of the instruments designated to measure the constructs;

Question 76

Etic and emic positions

Answer 76

of researchers, introduced by Pike (1967), apply to the stance of a social scholar toward their object of investigation. Etic is an ‘outsider’ stance when a researcher imposes on an object of study their concepts, criteria of evaluation, a priory designated units of observation and some equivalent measures. Emic is an ‘insider’ stance when a researcher looks at an object of inquiry from ‘within’ the system where this object is located. All the tools for a study – concepts, criteria, units of observations and measurements – are selected based on the nature and qualities of these systems.

Question 77

Forward and back translation

Answer 77

is a set of procedures that aim to ensure the linguistic equivalence of psychological instruments.

Question 78

Indigenous psychology

Answer 78

is “a system of psychological thoughts and practices rooted in a particular cultural tradition” (Yang, 2000, p. 245).

Question 79

Individual level cross-cultural

Answer 79

studies are studies where individuals constitute units of the analysis.

Question 80

Interpretation

Answer 80

is grasping and explicating meanings of symbolic and intentional things, as well as humans’ actions and verbal statements. Interpretation applies to intentional and symbolic things and situations when something stands for something else. The goal of interpretation is to elucidate the meaning of ‘something else.’ Understanding is a result of interpretation. Interpretation and understanding are main intellectual analytical tools/methods of cultural psychology and other interpretative social sciences: interpretative anthropology and sociology.

Question 81

Monocultural study in cultural psychology

Answer 81

is a study of the mutual constitution of culture and human mentalities conducted in one cultural community.