Cross-culture Flashcards

1
Q

Issues of culture

A
  • Early psychology (Europe and US) emerged from philosophy in the 20th century
  • Colonisation and globalisation has increased diversity - is our psychology relevant
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2
Q

Culture

A
  • The human made part of the environment: objective (tools and houses) and subjective (norms and values) elements
  • Shared system that influences attitudes, values, opinions, beliefs, norms and behaviour which is stable over time across generations
  • Unlike nationality, ethnic group and geological boundaries, cultures are dynamic open systems that spread across geographical boundaries and evolve over time
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3
Q

Pop culture

A
  • Popular music and art is similar to culture as it involves expressions and values held by the those involved (trends change within few years)
  • Psychological attributes not shared
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4
Q

Historical overview

A
  • Early attempts: one group observes another ‘less developed’ group
  • End of 19th century: Wundt and Jung believed in a collective unconscious
  • After WWII: studying human behaviour in cultural contexts grew quickly
  • Lately there has been an increase in studies from Asia and Africa
  • Today: more than 90% of publications in organisational and consumer psychology involve only 15% of the world’s population (Eurocentric)
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5
Q

Ethnocentrism

A
  • Belief/attitude that one ethnic group is superior to another/all others
  • Manifests outright negativity to other ethnic groups and subtle assumption that own ethnic group should be the norm for others to be measured against
  • Results in stereotyping and discrimination
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6
Q

EThnocentrism in psychology

A
  • Studies examining ethnocentrism, the processes behind it and methods to combat
  • Subjective beliefs can affect studies as they are mistaken for scientific truths
  • Tests may be biased towards/against a certain culture
  • Performance reinforces psychologists’ beliefs and propagates to others
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7
Q

Culture bias in intelligence test

A

-Sternberg’s intelligence test involved linguistic context, culturally specific knowledge and western problem-solving skills (cultural bias)

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8
Q

Redicing/removing bias in intelligence tests

A
  • Mental functions and processes may by universal e.g. recognising problems and allocating mental resources, but the mental contents may differ (type of knowledge)
  • To remove cultural bias, use non-verbal, non-culture specific tests (ravens’ matrices)
  • Develop tests to measure skills and knowledge that are contextually important (adaptive and valued to that culture) e.g. Swazi Reed dance
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9
Q

Issues in cross cultural psychology

A
  • Universalist approach: you are subjected to your culture (cross-cultural)
  • Contextualist approach: lens through which we view the world (culture)
  • Integrationist approach: subjective meaning (indigenous)
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10
Q

Cross cultural research

A
  • Empiricism (Universal (scientific) truth) and reductionism
  • Pros: simple broad application
  • Cons: insensitive
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11
Q

Cultural research

A
  • Relativism (integrative) and holism
  • Pros: flexible, sensitive and context specific
  • Cons: complicated limited application
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12
Q

Definitions of cross-cultural psychology

A
  • Scientific study of human behaviour and the influence of social and cultural forces
  • Previous definitions: systematic comparison of psychological variables under different cultural conditions to determine the limits of general psychological theories and the modifications needed to make them universal
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13
Q

Goals of cross cultural psychology

A

-Transport current hypotheses and conclusions about human behaviour to other cultural contexts to test their validity and explore culturally specific phenomena

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14
Q

Etic

A
  • Culture = Universal approach: global factors e.g. age/gender
  • Apply Euro-American concepts & measures globally, with some modification
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15
Q

Traits

A

-Attempts to distinguish differences in individual behaviour being due to cultural position on small number of traits drawn from personality theory e.g. individualism vs collectivism and independence vs interdependence

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16
Q

Cultural dimensions theory

A
  • Individualism-collectivist: Netherlands vs south Korea, uncertainty avoidance: Germany vs Jamaica ( etc.
  • Criticisms: culture bias
17
Q

New approaches

A
  • Cross-cultural psychology needs to shift towards deterritorialization of culture
  • Cognitive-constructivist approach: cultural differences reflect structures of knowledge that direct action
  • Dynamic constructivist approach: knowledge activation is triggered by cultural elements in the social context
18
Q

Cognitive constructivism

A
  • Piaget suggested humans construct their own knowledge through subjective experience using schemas which expand through assimilation and accommodation.
  • Different from social constructivism (suggests mind extends beyond the body)
19
Q

Dynamic constructivism

A
  • Culture is a loose network of specific cognitive structures (theories and beliefs).
  • Individuals can hold more than one cultural meaning system even if they conflict.
  • Contrasts culture domain and situation interactions with the main effects of culture
20
Q

Personality

A
  • The idea of self is a social construct so is a cultural product
  • However, there is cross-cultural validity in personality assessment suggesting there are universal dimensions in personality
21
Q

Gender issues

A
  • Small sex differences across cultures
  • Some variation in gender roles e.g. male dominated cultures show androgynous behaviours and in female dominated cultures there is more segregation
22
Q

Acculturation

A
  • Changes due to direct/continued contact between individuals of different cultures
  • Acculturation theory: Intercultural contact, cross-cultural transitions, and phenomena such as culture shock
  • Berry’s acculturation strategies: assimilation, separation, marginalisation and integration (optimal - consistent positive outcomes).