Cross-Cultural Flashcards
What is the anthropological definition of culture?
the man-made part of the human environment; physical artefacts and social systems
What is the psychological definition of culture?
collective programming of the mind to distinguish social groups
What is a social system?
the behaviour of multiple individuals within a culturally-organized population, including their patterns of interaction and networks of social relationships (Rohner, 1984)
What are the 4 dimensions found in Hofstede’s study?
power distance
uncertainty avoidance
individualism vs. collectivism
masculinity vs. femininity
What is power distance?
the extend to which people believe power is distributed unequally
perception of superordinates style (e.g. paternalistic vs. democratic)
preference for superordinates style (e.g. autocratic vs. consultative)
What is uncertainty avoidance?
the degree to which people feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity
should company rules be broken if it is in the best interest of the company?
intention to remain in current job for the next 5 years
What is individualism?
preference for a loosely knit social framework in which people take care of themselves and immediate family
spending time alone, freedom, challenge
What is collectivism?
preference for a tightly knit social framework where individuals can rely on anyone in the group
training, good physical conditions, use of skills
What is masculinity?
a preference for achievement, heroism, assertiveness and marital success
earning, recognition, advancement, challenge
What is femininity?
a preference for relationships, modesty, caring for the weak and quality of life
cooperation, desirable living area
What is an ecological fallacy?
falsely extrapolating group-level findings to an individual level of explanation
What is a reverse ecological fallacy?
wrongly attributing properties of individuals to cultures
What is an acquiescence bias?
the tendency to agree with all items on a scale, this bias can vary among different nations
What is a cultural syndrome?
shared attitudes, beliefs, categorisations, norms, roles and values organised around a central theme
What is the theory of self-construals?
Markus & Kitayama (1991)
Asian and Western cultures differ in the prevalence of independent and interdependent self-construals
a self-construal is a self-identity based on the relationships we share with others
What are the implications of self-construals for cognition?
Asian cultures tend to show more;
interpersonal knowledge
context-specific knowledge
attention to interpersonal context
What are the implications of self-construals for emotion?
Westerners show more ego-focused emotions; anger, frustration, pride
Asians show more other-focused emotions; sympathy, interpersonal communication and shame
What are the implications of self-construals for motivation?
self-expression vs. self-restraint
bases of achievement
self-enhancement vs. modesty
What evidence is there for the theory of self-construals?
Matsumoto (1999)
national culture influence self-construals which influences cognition, emotion and motivation
How does self-construal influence embarrassability?
Asian-Americans reported more susceptibility to embarrassment and interdependent self-construals than Euro-Asians
self-construal is a significant predictor of embarrass ability through mediation
What is the implicit model of self-hood?
Kitayama (2009) 7 factor model with a dichotomous view of cultural differences 1. defining the self 2. experiencing the self 3. making decisions 4. looking after oneself 5. moving between contexts 6. communicating with others 7. dealing with conflicting interests
What are other-construals?
people in Western cultures attribute ambiguous behaviours to dispositions rather than situations
bias is reduced or absent in Asian cultures (Miller, 1984)
How does the type of thinking influence other-construals?
Nisbett (2001)
east asians; holistic thinking, attending to entire field of information
westerners; analytic thinking attending to the primary object and the categories which it belongs to
What have frame switching studies shown about culture and inferences?
western primes cause dispositional inferences
asian primes cause situational inferences
culture has some flexibility
behaviour depends on accessibility of cultural knowledge rather than availability
How do communication styles differ across cultures?
individualistic - low context communication
clarity, self-expression, being direct
collectivistic - high context elaboration
interpersonal harmony, being indirect, reading between the lines
How can display rules differ across cultures?
Friesen (1972)
individualism-collectivism accounts for 30% of variance in display rules
Japanese people will show disgust when alone but when in a group they will not to avoid disrupting the harmony
How does judgements of others emotions differ culturally?
Matsumoto et al. (2002)
US participants judge high intensity expressions as indicating a less intense experience than the expression suggests
Japanese participants judge low intensity expressions as indicating a more intense experience than the expression suggests
What are the benefits of arranged marriages?
preserving social harmony
political and economic links between families
rational rather than emotion chocie
How does marriage differ across cultures?
individualistic cultures are more likely to say they wouldn’t marry without love
collectivistic cultures more likely to consider arranged marriages
What are some correlates with marriage for love?
higher affluence
lower fertility