Chapter 6 Flashcards
What is the purpose of the 20 Statements Test?
It says a lot about your cultural experiences in terms of both content and types of response.
What are some ways that culture shapes self-descriptions?
At a superficial level, your self-description includes some culturally shaped statements such as “I’m a Vancouver Canucks fan,” superficial influence because the culture is merely providing the content about the way people think of themselves. At deeper level, isn’t seen in the content of the statement as in their structure, this refers to an inner attribute about the self.
How do cultures differ in terms of how they describe themselves (attributes and roles)?
Some cultures encourage people to focus on enduring inner attributes, like personality traits, attitudes, or abilities, as a means to understand themselves. Other cultures, in contrast, encourage people to focus on their connections with other by considering themselves in terms of concrete roles, relationships, and group memberships.
What were the results of the study of Kenyans and Americans on how they described themselves with the test (see figure 6.4)?
Americans were personal characteristics, such as their traits, attitudes, and abilities, that accounted for 48% of their self-description. Statements like made up less than 2% of the Masai and Samburu self-description. Masai and Samburu statements reflected their social identity; roles and memberships accounted for more than 60% of self-description.
What are differences between independent views of the self and interdependent views of the self (know how figures 6.5 and 6.6 evidence how the self is entwined with or separate from others and how ingroup members differ from outgroup members)?
Independent: identity comes from inner attributes, which are seen as stable and unique. Who you are arises from the individual. Weak distinction between ingroup and outgroup.
Interdependent: identity comes from connections to others and is not unique; strong distinction between ingroup and outgroup.
How easily can outgroup members become ingroup members for both types of selves?
Independent: people can move between the boundary of in-group and out-group relatively easily. Identities still feel closer to in-group than out-group members; they do not view them in fundamentally distinct ways.
Interdependent: People do not easily become in-group members, nor do close relationships easily dissipate into out-group relations.
How does the phenomenon of conformity differ between both types of selves?
Independent people are less likely to conform than interdependent people when the group applying the pressure are peers, or friends. However, when the people are strangers, both interdependent and independent people conform to the group that is pressuring them.
Which type of self appears to be more common across the world?
Interdependent
How do individualism and collectivism map onto the two types of selves, and how were they explained in the film shown in class?
- Individualism falls into independent
- Collectivism falls into interdependent
Where are some areas of greater collectivism in the US?
Hawaii, Utah, and states of the Confederate South
How can types of selves change with situations and/or differ within cultures?
Some cultures create more independent, others interdependent depending on the values of the culture. Also, a person may change from independent to more interdependent depending on the people around them.
What are the differences between masculine and feminine cultures as discussed in the class film? How did South African and Ethiopian citizens explain the experience of gender in their cultures?
masculine: separate gender roles, no flexibility, certain roles for men (working) and certain roles for woman (cooking and cleaning)
feminine: gender roles flexible
SA: more is expected of women
Ethiopian: in city, women know their rights and are equal. in rural, gender roles increase so men are boss
What are the links between SES/education and individualism in various cultures (as evidenced in the chapter and a film)?
more fluent in life (more educated, more resources..tend to be more individualistic
more rural: maintain second nature stuff, so more collectivist
What trait do men and women across cultures seem to differ on, according to one study discussed in thechapter?
Relatedness-Feeling like doing something for a person because you feel their pain
What did the study using the Sex Role Ideology measure find in terms of which cultures are more traditional and which cultures are more egalitarian (feminist)?
Netherlands, Finland, and Germany believed that men and women should be treated quite similar. In India Pakistan, and Nigeria people believed the roles, obligations, and rights of men and women are clearly different.
