Cross cultural developmental psychology Flashcards
What is culture?
While there are many definitions in general culture can be assumed to be the objective and subjective characteristics that a group of people share and propagate through generation in connection to their language
what is the distinct way cross cultural psychology studies culture?
with culture as an independent variable its goal is to seek out universal principles across cultures
What are two problems with cross cultural psychology?
Research designs and methods from one culture might be incompatible with or give preference to one culture.
generally there is a reliance on a single dimension for explanation
Individualism vs collectivism
how does cultural psychology approach culture,?
as a baseline, culture is internal to the person and cultural psychology is looking for how the culture is expresses itself by the individual.
its looking for emerging information and this is a reason why open questions are used instead of structured interviews.
What is Ethnographic methods?
observations and interviews
what is Indigenous psychology?
Efforts from non-western researchers to develop a science more closely resembling their own social and cultural background
instead of universalities it looks at cultures as psychological systems with their own internal rules.
What is a basic premise for psychological studies regarding culture?
People evaluate other cultures from the perspective of their own and tend to see their own as standard and superior
this is know as “Ethnocenterism”
What is a problem with Ethnocentrism´?
when comparing cultures we need to use the same measurements for both. if we are not aware of ethnocentrism we might bias results by using tools incompatible with other cultures simply because they fit our own
What is the Etic approach?
looking for commonalities between cultures
Example: all cultures want their people to be intelligent
What is the emic approach?
investigate cultures to find unique traits about said culture
Example:
What is intelligence in this culture?
What are some cultural dimensions?
scales we can view cultures on
Example:
individualism vs Collectivism
Power distance
Uncertainty avoidance
masculinity - femininity
long term orientation
Explain the cultural dimension: Power distance
Difference in power between the most and least powerful
Explain the cultural dimension: Uncertainty avoidance
the extent to which a culture is accepting of unsure outcomes (insurances)
Explain the cultural dimension: masculinity -femininity
How closely are people expected to follow gender norms
Explain the cultural dimension: Long term orientation
to what extent a culture gives up short term gain for long term gain
example: expectation of retirement
