Culture Flashcards
Culture, definition?
“Game rules”
Shared systems of meaning that provide the standards for perceiving, believing, evaluating, communicating, and acting among those who share a language, a historic period, and a geogrpahic loation
Culture IS NOT the same as Race or Ethnicity
:)
Modern cultural view?
Personality traits as products of biological and cultural evolution
Culture -> Personality
“Personality is completely interdependent with the
meanings and practices of particular sociocultural contexts.
People develop their personalities over time through their
active participation in the various social worlds in which they
engage. A cultural psychological perspective implies that
there is no personality without culture; there is only a
biological entity”.
(Markus & Kitayama, 1998)
PERSONALITY -> CULTURE
… and there is no culture without personality.
Personality meaning resides in artifacts people use (e.g., living spaces, consumer preferences, preferred icons, etc.) and institutions they support (Hollywood, capitalism, etc.).
*Personality -> Culture
The use and availability of these cultural products, in turn, perpetuates particular behavioral, affective, and cognitive tendencies (personality).
*Culture -> personality
Personality and Culture in everyday contexts: Personal Ads?
San Francisco Chronicle, focus on the indiviudal traits such as interests. Person seeking a partner that meets their needs.
India Tribune, focus on the family, culture and achivements (education, career). Family is seeking a partner that meets the family’s needs.
Research on Cross-Cultural Differences in Personality, 1. Lexical approach?
Using natural language as a window to study cultural universals/differences in personality
Fundamental Lexical Hypothesis:
Those psychological constructus that are the most salient and socially relevant in people’s lives will eventually become encoded into their language; the moste important a construct is, (1) the more likely it is to be expressed as a single word and be over represented in the language; and (2) the more languages and cultures will have a word for it.
Study - Do the Big 5 traits replicate across cultures?
Yes, in Spain - using translated American measure
Translation limitations! They would probably come up with other words that are more commonly used instead of the direct translations
Need for another study that:
1. Identifies these terms and how they formed clusters of the “most important traits”
Combined etic/emic approach?
Emic Approach: Indigenous measure
self-reports on 299 indigenous Spanish personality adjectives from the dictionary
Etic Approach:
self-reports on Spanish-translated Big Five questionnaires
7 Indigenous Spanish personality dimensions?
Positive Valence
Negative Valence
Conscientiousness
Agreeableness
Openness
Pleasantness
Engagement
Using different words to describe these categories than English speakers
Pleasantness & Engagement: new Spanish factors?
Spaniards… passion is the seed that brings them forth, and passion is the flower they bear
Famous movies: Almodovar’s, A celebration of pleasure/pain and passion
Overlap between the indigenous (emic) Spanish personality dimensions and imported (etic) Big 7 Inventory?
Many traits correlate
But extroversion correlates positively with pleasantness and engagement. Where as Neurtocism correlates negatively with pleasantness and positively with engagement
Conclusion from the Indigenous Spanish personality study?
(1) There is considerable overlap between the Spanish Siete
Grandes and the American Big 7
(1b) Exceptions: Pleasantness and Engagement
Instead of Extraversion and Neuroticism
Also, Openness not quite the same
(2) Positive and Negative Valence seem fairly robust across
these two cultures.
Individualism?
- Focus on what YOU want
- Minimize role of others in self’s behviours
- Use self-descriptive traits to describe self
Collectivism?
- Emphasis on interconnectedness of group
- Goal: Fit in, promote group harmony
- Use interpersonal roles to describe self
Independent self-system?
An independent sense of self. Your close relationships are close to you but you are your own entity.
Interdependent self-system
An interdependent sense of self. The self is interdependent on the close relationships, your close relationships are part of who you are.
Criticism of Collectivist/Individualist Approach?
What countries are we talking about?
- Almost all evidence of differences comes from studies comparing US and Japan
Overgeneralization
- People within each culture may be independent or interdependent
- May vary by context, ex at work vs. the dinner table
Big Two Cultural Syndromes?
Individualism/Collectivism: extent to which the self is defined as bound and separeate (vs. fluid and interdependent on ohters around him/her)
Vertical/Horizontal Relationships:
emphasis on hierarchy and status versus equality; Egalitarianism
Egalitarianism and Evoked Culture?
Evoked Culture: Culture differences that emerge as a result of different environments
- E.g., effects of geography, climate, means of subsistence
Egalitasiamosm (vertical vs. horizontal) is correlated with how variable the food supply is
- Highly variable food supply -> more horizontal culture
- Less variable food supply -> vertical culture
Evoked Culture: Culture of Honor? (Nisbett 1993)
In cultures of honor, insults must be responded to with aggression
Depends on economics
- In cultures based on herding economics, must build reputation (honor) to prevent thievery
- In cultures based on agricultural (more settled), !!!!
Evidence for Culture of Honor?
USA North vs. South
How do people respond to insults?
- Southerners favor violence more than Northerns
- Southern economy historically lined to herding
- Southern violence is specific to reputation insults
Supported by lab study in which people were actually insulated by confederate
- Southerners responded with higher cortisol and testosterone
- Southerners show higher implicit associations with violent words, more aggressive responses
Additional Cultural Syndromes? “Big Four” Cultural Syndromes
- Individualism vs. collectivism
- Power distance (similar to vertical vs. horizontal)
- Uncertainty avoidance
- Tolerance for ambiguity and comfort in unstructured situations VERSUS strong belief in rules, codes of conduct, safety and security - Gender socialization
- Men as dominant and competitive and women as nurturing and caring VERSUS lower differentiation between the sexes
- “distribution of emotional roles”
Research on Personality and Cultural Syndromes? Broad scope 33 nations
Each sample filled out a questionnaire assessing the Big 5
Research Question: How does personality (“national character”) correlate with the Big Four cultural syndromes?
Cultural Syndromes Across Nations?
Individualism: developed and Western countries
Collectivism: developing and Eastern countries - Japan is mid-level
High Power distance: Latin, Asian, and African countries
Low Power distance: Germanic countries
High Uncertainty avoidance: Latin countries, Japan, Germanspeaking countries
Low Uncertainty avoidance: Anglo, Nordic, Chinese cultures
High Gender socialization: Japan, some European countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)
Moderate Gender socialization: English-speaking countries
Low Gender socialization: Nordic countries, Netherlands,
some Latin and Asian countries (Thailand)
Cultural syndrome and personality? + conclusion?
Countries that are high in individualism -> individuals are on average higher in extraversion
High Power distance -> L extraversion, H contentious, H openness
High Gender differentiation -> H Openenss, H neuroticism, L agreeableness
High Uncertainty avoidance -> H neuroticism, L Agreeableness
Personality is linked to culture!
Personality proflies of cultures project?
University students from 51 cultures rated someone they knew well on the NEO-PR-R measure of the Big Five
Two dimensions, Neurotism and Extraversion
How does culture create national
personality differences? Transmitted Culture
Culture-specific ideas, values, and beliefs that are transmitted to others within the culture
- Taught to children early in life, through socialization
Moral behavior, is it ok to..
- Divorce?
- Sex outside of marriage?
- Homosexuality?
Transmitted culture affects subjective well-being? (Rice & Steele 2004)
Compared SWB of citizens in 20 nations with SWB of Americans who has ancestors from those nations
General Social Survey (GSS): US survey was compared with World Values Survey (WVS) : 20 nations survey
To some extent, your Social Wellbeing is related to the culture of your ancestors
What causes this connection?
Church! The people who attended church more often have a higher correlation with their ancestors bc Chruch is a place where culture is transmitted (Jewish, Protestant etc)
Biculturiasm? Overarching question?
How do individuals who have internalized more than one culture navigate between their different and (often opposing) cultural identities?
Variations in the compatibility and fluidity (vs. conflict and dissociation) perceived between the ethnic and mainstream cultures? - Compatible Cultural identities?
- Unconflicted identites
- Co-exist
“I am both”
“ I am Mexican-American” - Fluid view of culture
- Complementary
Biculturalism as an asset “Gives a wider repertoire of behaviors”
Variations in the compatibility and fluidity (vs. conflict and dissociation) perceived between the ethnic and mainstream cultures? - Compatible Cultural identities?
- Conflicting identities
- Choose one or the other
“I am Chinese in America” - Essentialist view of culture
- Dissociation
Biculruam as burden “Having to choose and be hypervigilant how to behave”
Do bicultural individuals average across their different cultural orientations? Switch between them? Or eventually simply adopt one and abandon the other?
Cognitive perspective approach to culture
Culture as shared meaning-systems
->
Individuals can possess more than one cultural meaning-system
->
Culture guides behavior only when the relevant meaning systems are cognitively available, accessible and also applicable
Ambiguous Social Event -> American meaning System -> Internal attribution (individualistic)
Ambiguous Social Event -> Chinese meaning System -> External attribution (collectivitis)
Cultural frame switching in Biculturals? 4 studies, Chinese-American bicultural samples from Hong-Kong and US
Manipulation: Activation of US or Chinese cultural meaning system through priming
Dependent Variable: internal (individualistic) vs. external (collectivistic) explanations for an ambiguous social event
AFTER PICTURES:
“WRITE AN ESSAY ABOUT CHINESE (or AMERICAN) CULTURE”
-> to ensure activation of their Chinese or American cultural meaning system
- also, to facilitate accessibility of culture schemas
Explanation Task (ambiguous social event) “Is the fish a leader or being excluded?”
Summary of bicultural study?
Biculturals have multiple cultural meaning systems and can move between them in response to cultural cues
Without priming, biculturals’ baseline cognitive attributions fall in between the American and Chinese primed versions
