Exam 1 Flashcards
Cross-cultural research
A research methodology that tests the cultural parameters of psychological knowledge.
- Compares the human behavior and the resulting psychological processes between 2 or more cultures
- Contrast human and nonhuman evidence
- Studies the limitations of cultures by studying different cultures.
Cross-cultural psychology
A subdiscipline within psychology that examines the cultural foundations of psychological processes and human behavior.
- Uses theoretical and methodological frameworks
- Investigates the main role of culture and its influence on mental processes for behavior
Universal
A psychological process that is found to be true or applicable for all people of all cultures.
Culture specific
A psychological process that is considered to be true for some people of some cultures but not for others.
Deviation from temperate climate
The degree to which the average temperature of a given region will differ.
- It will differ from the relatively “Easiest” temperature to live in
- This is 22°C (about 72°F)
Arable land
The type of land that can sustain life by food production of some sort.
Population density
The number of people living within a given unit of space.
- In cities, people tend to live many people in a small space
- This tends to be higher in cities and lower in rural areas
Latitudinal psychology
A perspective that understands group differences in mental processes and behaviors according to a combination of distance from the equator and affluence.
Universal psychological toolkit:
A set of basic psychological skills and abilities that people can use to meet their needs.
- Complex cognitive skills
- Language
- Emotions
- Personality traits
Shared intentionality
Knowledge about motivations concerning behaviors that are common among people in a group.
Ratchet effect
The concept that humans continually improve on improvements, that they do not go backward or revert to a previous state.
- Progress occurs because of improvements
Culture
A unique meaning and information system.
- This is shared by a group and transmitted across generations
- It allows the group to do this:
- meet basic needs of survival
- pursue happiness and well-being
- derive meaning from life
Values
Trans-situational goals that serve as a guiding principle in the life of a person or group.
- This motivates and justifies behavior
- This also serves as standard for judging people, actions, and events
- Examples: kindness, creativity
Sacred values
These specific values are considered to be non-negotiable.
- Incorporates moral beliefs that drive action in ways dissociated from prospects for success
- People believe devotion to core values should be absolute and inviolable
- These values outweigh other values, especially economic ones
- Examples:
- Religion
- Honor
- Justice
Beliefs
A proposition that is regarded as true.
- This is different across all cultures
Social axioms
General beliefs and premises about oneself, the social and physical environment, and the spiritual world.
- This is an assertion about the relationship between two or more entities or concepts
- People endorse and use them to guide their behavior in daily living,
- Example:
-“Belief in a religion helps to understand the meaning of life.”
Belief in a zero-sum game
The proposition that social relations are basically antagonistic.
- Operates on the condition that one person’s gain occurs at the expense of others
Religion
Organized systems of beliefs that tie together many attitudes, values, beliefs, worldviews, and norms.
- Provide guidelines for living
Norms
A generally accepted standard of behavior within a cultural or subcultural group.
Rituals
Culturally prescribed conduct or any kind of established routine or procedure.
Etiquette
Culturally prescribed code of behavior that describes expectations for polite behavior.
Tightness versus looseness
A dimension of cultural variability that refers to the variability within a culture of its members to norms.
- Tight: have less variability and are more homogenous (norms)
- Loose: have more variability and are more heterogeneous
Attitudes
Evaluations of objects occurring in ongoing thoughts about the objects, or stored in memory.
Cultural worldviews
Culturally specific belief systems about the world.
- Contains attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and values about the world
- Content of view is specific and different for each culture
- People have worldviews due to evolution and complex cognition
- This is a universal psychological process
Self-concept
The cognitive representations of who one is, that is, the ideas or images that one has about oneself, especially in relation to others, and how and why one behaves.
- Central to the personality identity
- Can change over time
- Considered partially unconscious or conscious
- The sum of:
- One’s idea about oneself
- physical, mental, historical and relationship aspects
- One’s capacity to learn and perform
Enculturation
The process by which individuals learn and adopt the ways and manners of their specific culture.
Attributions
Beliefs about the underlying causes of behavior.
Etics
Aspects of life that appear to be consistent across different cultures.
- Universal or pancultural truths or principles.
Emics
Aspects of life that appear to differ across cultures
- Truths or principles that are culture-specific.
Socialization
Enculturation
The process by which individuals learn and adopt the ways and manners of their specific culture.
Socialization and enculturation agents
The people, institutions, and organizations that exist to help ensure that enculturation occurs.
Parental ethnotheories
Parental cultural belief systems.
Authoritarian parent
A style of parenting in which the parent expects unquestioned obedience and views the child as needing to be controlled.
Permissive parents
A style of parenting in which parents allow children to regulate their own lives and provide few firm guidelines.
Authoritative parent
A style of parenting that is viewed as firm, fair, and reasonable.
- This style is seen as promoting psychologically healthy, competent, independent children who are cooperative and at ease in social situations.
Uninvolved parents
A style of parenting in which parents are often too absorbed in their own lives to respond appropriately to their children and may seem indifferent to them.
Postfigurative culture
A culture in which change is slow and enculturation occurs primarily by elders transferring their knowledge to their children.
- Elders hold the knowledge necessary for becoming a successful and competent adult.
Cofigurative culture
A culture in which change occurs rapidly.
- Both adults and peers socialize with young people
- Young people may have to turn to one another for advice and information in this type of culture
Prefigurative culture
A culture that is changing so rapidly that young people may be the ones to teach adults cultural knowledge.
Cyberbullying
Bullying through electronic means, for example, using the Internet, social media, or sending text messages.
Cross-cultural comparative study
A study that compares two or more cultures on some psychological variable of interest.
- The hypothesis that one culture will have significantly higher scores on the variable than the other(s)
Exploratory studies
Studies designed to examine the existence of cross-cultural similarities or differences.
- Simple, quasi-experimental designs comparing two or more cultures on a psychological variable
Hypothesis-testing studies
Studies designed to test why cultural differences exist.
- They go beyond simple quasi-experimental designs
- Includes context variables or uses experiments.
Context factors
Any variable that can explain, partly or fully, observed cross-cultural differences.
- These may involve characteristics of the participants:
- socioeconomic status
- education
- age
- These may involve characteristics of the culture:
- economic development
- religious institutions
Structure-oriented studies
Structure-oriented studies examine whether constructs are conceptualized the same way across cultures, the association of a construct to other constructs, or the measurement of a construct.
Level-oriented studies
Studies that examine cultural differences in mean levels of variables.
Individual-level studies
These are the typical type of study in psychology, in which participants provide data and those individual participants’ data are the units of analysis.
Ecological- (cultural-) level studies
A study in which countries or cultures, not individuals, are the unit of analysis.
Multilevel studies
Studies that involve data collection at multiple levels of analysis, such as the individual level, context, community, and national culture.
Ecological fallacy
The mistaken application of findings from ecological-level studies to individuals.
Linkage studies
Studies that attempt to measure an aspect of culture theoretically hypothesized to produce cultural differences and then empirically link that measured aspect of culture with the dependent variable of interest.
Unpackaging studies
Studies that unpackage the contents of the global, unspecific concept of culture into specific, measurable psychological constructs and examine their contribution to cultural differences.
Context variables
Variables that operationalize aspects of culture.
- Researchers believe these aspects produce differences in psychological variables
- These variables are measured in unpackaging studies
Idiocentrism
Refers to individualism on the individual level.
- On the cultural level, individualism refers to how a culture functions
- Idiocentrism refers to how individuals may act by individualistic cultural frameworks
Allocentrism
Refers to collectivism on the individual level.
- On the cultural level, collectivism refers to how a culture functions
- Allocentrism refers to how individuals may act by collectivistic cultural frameworks
Experiments
Studies in which researchers create conditions to establish cause-effect relationships.
- Participants are generally assigned randomly to participate in the conditions
- Researchers compare results across conditions
Bias
Differences that do not have exactly the same meaning within and across cultures.
- a lack of equivalence
Equivalence
A state or condition of similarity in conceptual meaning and empirical method between cultures that allow comparisons to be meaningful
- a lack of bias
Measurement bias
The degree to which measures used to collect data in different cultures are equally valid and reliable.
Operationalizations
The way researchers conceptually define a variable and measure it.
Psychometric equivalence
The degree to which different measures used in a cross-cultural comparison study are statistically equivalent in the cultures being compared
- Measures are equally valid and reliable in all cultures studied
Factor analysis
A statistical technique that allows researchers to group items on a questionnaire.
- The theoretical model underlying factor analysis
- Groups of items on a questionnaire are answered in similar ways because they are assessing the same, single underlying psychological construct
- By interpreting the groupings underlying the items, researchers make inferences about the underlying traits that are being measured
Internal reliability
The degree to which different items in a questionnaire are related to each other, and give consistent responses.
Construct bias
Cross-cultural differences in definitions of meanings of psychological concepts.
Linguistic bias
The semantic equivalence between protocols (instruments, instructions, questionnaires, etc.) used in a cross-cultural comparison study.
Response bias
A systematic tendency to respond in certain ways to items or scales.
Socially desirable responding
Tendencies to give answers on questionnaires that make oneself look good.
Acquiescence bias
The tendency to agree rather than disagree with items on questionnaires.
Extreme response bias
The tendency to use the ends of a scale regardless of item content.
Reference group effect
Model bias
A condition in which the theoretical framework underlying a study or the hypotheses being tested mean different things in the cultures studied.
Sampling bias
Refers to when samples may not be adequate representations of their cultures as a whole, or when samples are different on noncultural demographic characteristics.
Procedural (administration) bias
Refers to situations in which the process of conducting research is different in different cultures in a study.
Interpretational bias
Refers to situations when researchers interpret data in a globalized, almost stereotypical fashion or with their own cultural filters.
Validity
The degree to which a finding, measurement, or statistic is accurate, or represents what it is supposed to
Reliability
The degree to which a finding, measurement, or statistic is consistent.
Cross-cultural validation study:
A study that examines whether a measure of psychological construct that was originally generated in a single culture is applicable, meaningful, and thus equivalent in another culture.
Indigenous cultural studies
Studies that use rich, complex, and in-depth descriptions of cultures and cultural differences to predict and test for differences in a psychological variable.
