Cross-Cultural Psychology Flashcards
What is objective culture?
Explicit (e.g., buildings, Music, language) of interest to anthropologists
- Things we can see and touch, e.g., what people wear, eat, traditions, music, language etc.
What is subjective culture?
More latent (e.g., norms, values, expectations, attitudes) of interest to psychologists - Things that we can’t be certain of, but we can infer through questionnaires like role definitions.
What is the difference between mainstream psychology and cross-cultural psychology?
- “Mainstream” Psychology: the study of human psyche in one culture. It assumes that the findings can be generalised to all humans and not just those in the study.
- Cross-cultural psychology: the study of cultural difference in more than one culture. The goal is to develop a universal psychology (doesn’t see the lack of replicability in different cultures as a failure, views differences as important to learn from)
What is the Emic approach to studying culture?
You dive into a culture and study it from within, try to understand behaviour, norms behaviours etc. Anthropologists tend to do this, for example they might become part of a tribe and observe it very carefully from within.
What is the Etic approach to studying culture?
A comparison of different cultures. It’s important to think of variables that would have the same meaning across cultures in the way you measure them. Cross-cultural psychology compares different cultures on aspects such as values, behaviour etc.
What does the emic approach focus on and what type of research would use this approach?
Focus on culture-specific phenomena, e.g., • Behaviours • Norms • Values • Customs • Traditions
Used ethnographical research, anthropology
What does the etic approach focus on and what type of research would use this approach?
Etic approach Compares universal dimensions, e.g., • Behaviour • Norms • Values • Emotion
Used in cross-cultural psychology
What was triandis’ idea about individualism-collectivism. Give an example of these cultures?
The idea is that cultures vary on a scale from extreme individualism to extreme collectivism.
Eastern cultures are regarded as ‘collectivist’ with emphasis placed on importance of the group over the individual. E.g., family is more important than what you want.
Western cultures are regarded as ‘individualist’ where pursuit of individual or personal goals are encouraged. Encouraged to pursue your own interests and express yourself. Being unique and different is acceptable.
What would make an individual from different cultures satisfied with their life?
In individualistic cultures, life satisfaction depends on how an individual feels (their moods and emotions).
In collectivistic cultures life satisfaction depends on how well an individual adheres to cultural norms.
(Suh et al, 1998)
What did Triandis argue about Private self vs. Public and Collective self
- Individualistic cultures emphasize the private self (internal attributes and separateness).
- Collectivistic cultures emphasize the public and collective aspects of self (interconnected with other people and interdependent with them) – roles within society and the groups you belong to e.g., being a mother, job role, having particular friends or belonging to a particular ethnicity or religious community. The public self is the self that’s connected with other people, the groups an individual belongs to are more important in collectivistic cultures.
What did Griffiths argue about the image of schizophrenia in Japan?
Schizophrenics are not very well accepted in individualistic cultures, but it is far worse in collectivistic cultures.
There is a very clear difference between an ingroup (people who belong to your group) and an outgroup (people outside your group) in collectivistic culture.
When someone is diagnosed with schizophrenia and has to go to a mental health institution they have to go out of the group. Once an individual is an outgroup member it is very difficult for them to return to the group.
It was found that Japanese people want to distance themselves from people who were schizophrenic much more than Australian people. It’s shameful to have someone in your family who is so different and therefore people are not willing to talk about them.
What is the significance of groups in collectivistic culture? (think about schizophrenia)
o Hard to return to the group once out of the group
o Maximise differences in/outgroup
o Japanese want more social distance from schizophrenics than Australians
o Japanese don’t want to talk about schizophrenic relatives outside the family. Schizophrenics are less likely to seek professional help in collectivistic cultures and instead will seek help them within the family (not professionals). – Keep it in the family, it’s okay if it doesn’t get out and bring shame.
What is the difference between the independence of the self versus the interdependence of the self?
Independent cultures – the self is separate from other people and you can talk more freely and communicate more directly.
Interdependent cultures – the self is interconnected and interdependent on other people in the group. This means you want to maintain harmony and can’t always talk so freely or directly. You have to ensure you don’t offend people and won’t necessarily act according to your values or traits – behaviour is less consistent.
What cultures are independent and interdependent?
Individualistic cultures are independent and Collectivistic cultures are interdependent.
What are the differences between ads from different cultures?
American ads: more emphasis on uniqueness
East Asian ads: more emphasis on conformity
American participants choose products that are unique whereas East Asians choose products that are common.
