Culture Flashcards
cultural variations
- within-group similarities and between-group differences
- physical, psychological, behavioural, attitudinal
cultural psychology goals
- discover principles underlying cultural diversity
- discover how human psychology shapes culture
- discover how cultural understanding shapes psychology
cultural differences
- evoked culture
- transmitted culture
- do cultures have distinctive personality profiles
evoked culture
- way of considering culture that concentrates on phenomena that are triggered by different env. conditions
1. universal underlying mechanism (all humans)
2. environmental differences in activation of underlying mechanisms (degree of expression based on environment)
types of evoked culture: evoked cooperation
evoked cooperation
- cultures differ in the degree to which groups share food
- external environmental conditions
- variance in the food supply
1. more variance = more sharing
2. more food supply = more sharing
3. egalitarianism and food sharing
types of evoked cultures: evoked mating strategies
- in China, marriages = lasting, divorce = rare, and parents invest heavily in children - high value on chastity, virginity
- refer to notebook for all other cultures (Sweden)
evoked short-term sexual strategy
- harsh, rejecting, inconsistent child-rearing practices, erratically provided resources and marital discord
- children learn that they cannot rely on a single mate
- sensitivity of personality and mating strategies to early experiences
What may explain cultural differences in the value placed on chastity or virginity in a potential mate?
evoked short-term sexual strategy
evoked aggression: in cultures of honour…
- insults = viewed as highly offensive public challenges
- must be met with direct confrontation and physical aggression
- assumption is that all humans have capacity to develop high sensitivity to public insults and capacity to respond with violence
- these capacities = evoked only in certain cultures (lie dormant in others (non-hearding economies)
authoritarianism
a personality trait involving submission and blind allegiance to authority
conformity and authoritarism
- prevalence of disease-causing pathogens causes cultural pressure to conform
- “behavioural immune system. that functions to prevent contact with disease-causing agents
- when the threat of pathogen infection becomes especially salient, people become more introverted
transmitted culture
- representations (ideas, values, beliefs, attitudes) that exist in at least one person’s mind
- are transmitted to other minds through observation on interaction with the original
- cultural differences in moral value: e.g. consider the question “it is immoral for adults to disobey parents”
cultural differences in self-construal: two fundamental “cultural tasks”
- communion or interdependence
- concerns how you are affiliated with the large group of which you are a member - agency or independence
- how you differentiate yourself from the larger group
cultural differences in self-construal: cultures appear to differ in how they balance the two cultural tasks of (1)communion or interdependence and (2) agency or independence
- non-Western Asian cultures focused more on interdependence (collectivism)
- Western cultures focused more on independence (individualism)
cultural differences: the self
Western cultures
- independent view of self-concept
- defining oneself in terms of one’s own internal thoughts, feelings and actions
- explain events in analytic way
- uniqueness encouraged
- private self-consciousness
Eastern cultures
- interdependent view of self concept
- defining oneself in terms of relationship to others
- explain events in holistic way
- interdependence and connectedness encouraged
- public self-consciousness
self-enhancement
- tendency to describe and present oneself in positive/socially valued attributes
- individualistic: stand out, express themselves as “better than others”
- collectivistic: more likely to gain status/self-esteem by trying to conform to norms of the group
In describing oneself has an honest person, how would someone from Canada describe this attribute?
“I am honest”
In describing oneself has an honest person, how would someone from Japan describe this attribute?
“I am considered to be an honest person”
acculturation
process of adopting the ways of life and beliefs common in that culture
metapersonal self-construal
representations of the self within a very broad context
- global community, humankind, planet, cosmos
How would someone low in a metapersonal self-construal see themselves?
They may be more likely to see themselves (simply) as a parent or sibling, instead of something broader, such as a member of the human race
What societal contexts might have an effect on personality
- social class
- historical eras
What are cultural universals?
this approach attempts to identify features of personality that appear to be universal, or present in most cultures
beliefs: how are men viewed, generally?
more:
- active
- loud
- adventurous
- obnoxious
- opiniated
- arrogant
- course
- conceited
beliefs: how are women viewed, generally?
more:
- affectionate
- modest
- nervous
- appreciative
- patient
- changeable
- charming
- fearful
expression of emotion
- fear, anger, happiness, sadness, disgust, surprise = universal facial expressions
- Whorfian hypothesis of linguistic relatively
- contends that language creates thought and experience
personality evaluation
- strong evidence suggests two key dimensions (dominance + warmth) = used
- for describing + evaluating personality traits of others
- evidence that structure of personality traits (5 factor model) may be universal for 4-5 traits
- surgency, agreeableness, emotional stability, conscientiousness
