Cross Cultural Psychology

Question 1

Culture and Psychology

Answer 1

Culture:

• Shared beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviours
• -> learned behaviour rather than genetically defined

Cultural psychology:
-ways people are influenced by their culture

Cross- cultural psychology
- difference and similarities in people across different cultures

Question 2

Common cultural differences

Attitudes towards time:

Answer 2

• Monochronic cultures
• -> time regulated
• -> expectation- punctual, deadlines met, schedule kept
• Polychronic cultures
• -> time is fluid
• -> lessened expectation: punctual, deadlines, schedule

Question 3

Common cultural differences

Emotional displays

Answer 3

cultural display rules

- what emotions it is appropriate to display and when appropriate

Question 4

Common cultural differences

Interpersonal space

Answer 4

• culturally define appropriate distance kept from others
• directly related to population density
• Densely populates areas much smaller personal space
• -> in Australia personal space varies greatly depending on the areas

Question 5

Common cultural differences

Context

Answer 5

low context cultures
–> literal interpretation of what is said

High context

• attention to body language and situation
• look for hidden meaning

Question 6

Common cultural differences

Tight vs loose adherence to cultural norms

Answer 6

Tight:
- close adherence to cultural norms expected

loose:
- deviations from cultural norms accepted

Question 7

Common cultural differences

Individualism vs collectivism

Answer 7

individuals:
- focus on the self as unique and own goals most important

collectivism:

• focus on the group
• group goals more important than individual goals.

Question 8

Linguistic Relativity

Answer 8

Whorf (1956)
- language determines the way we think

Cross- Cultural differences in memory

• Fausy & Boroditsky (2011)
• English and Spanish speakers
• Videos of intentional vs accidental events
• -> english speakers more likely to remember agent of accidental event (implication for eyewitness testimony)

Question 9

Culture and identity

Answer 9

Ethnic identity

• part of a person’s identity associated with racial, religious or cultural group to which one belongs
• development begins in early adolescence
• Phinney (1989) ethnic identity stage model
• -> unexamined: little thought to ethnic identity
• -> exploration: active learning about culture
• -> Achievement: commitment to ethnic identity

Question 10

Culture and Health

Answer 10

• Cultural differences in concepts of health and illness

disease

• -> western culture: due to organic cause
• -> Chinese culture: due to imbalance in energy- (concepts of yin and yang) or with the natural environment

Health

• Native Americans- balance between self and natural environment
• Maori people- balance between physical, emotional, physiological and spiritual health
• Australia Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people- connection to land, spirituality, ancestry, kin
• Western culture- thin is ‘healthy’

Question 11

Culture and Psychological Health

Answer 11

• Some psychological disorders are found cross- culturally
• -> depression, schizophrenia
• Culture- bound syndromes

Windigo – Native Americans
- Cannibalistic obsession, depression, homicidal/suicidal, delusional, may want to eat human flesh

• Brain fag sydrome – West Africa
  Low-grade stress in students prior to exams; headaches, eye fatigue, inability to concentrate
• Piblokto (Artic hysteria) – Artic Circle
  Dissociative episode followed by extreme excitement, then a seizure, coma, and amnesia

Question 12

Cultural Contact

Culture shock

Answer 12

clash between cultural practices of of country of origin and new country
–> anxiety, fear, depression

Question 13

Cultural Contact

Acculturation

Answer 13

Process of understanding a new culture

• -> leads to changes in behaviours, attitudes, beliefs, perception of self
• Framework for understanding acculturation-> Berry’s (1980) typology

Question 14

Cultural Contact

Berry’s (1980) typology

Answer 14

Extent to which an individual retains own culture and embraces another culture

• Assimilation:
• -> adopt new culture; reject original culture
• Segregation:
• -> maintain original culture, reject new culture
• Integration (biculturalism)
• -> adopt new culture, maintain connection with original culture.
• Marginalisation
• -> reject both new and original culture

Question 15

Cultural Contact

Racism

Answer 15

ideas that siggest particular groups of people possess characteristics, behaviours, beliefs or attitudes that are superior or inferior to other groups
–> new racism- more subtle/ covert –> can lead to internalised racism

Question 16

Cultural Contact

Discrimination

Answer 16

Differential treatment of an individual based on attributes such as age, gender, ethnicity, religion rather than perceives merit.

Question 17

Cultural Competence

Answer 17

Effectiveness in communicating and behaving appropriately with people from another culture

• awareness of own cultural background and biases
• understand and respect that people from other cultures may have different values, attitudes and world views

Question 18

Cultural and cross- cultural research methods

Answer 18

Cross cultural researchers:

• seek to understand similarities and difference between cultural groups
• -> etic (outsider) approach
• -> comparative research, quantitative

Problem: ethnicity is often confounded with other variables e.g., SES
Ethical dilemma: research findings could lead to further discrimination or marginalisation

Cultural researchers

• Seek to understand the subjective experiences of people in particular cultural contexts
• -> Emic (insider) approach
• -> Qualitative