HC 1 cultural psychology Flashcards
Content based definition culture?
A unique meaning & information system, shared by a
group and transmitted across generations, that allows the group to meet basic needs
of survival, pursue happiness and well-being, and derive meaning from life”
–> many different content-based definitions
Functional definition culture?
culture is a pair of glasses that we are constantly looking through
–> a schema to help us evaluate and organize information
Cultural psychology?
a subdiscipline within psychology that examines the culturalfoundations of psychological processes and human behavior.
- includes theoretical and methodological frameworks that posit an important role for culture and its
influence on mental processes behavior, and vice versa
Goals cultural psychology?
- Transport and test hypotheses and findings to other cultural settings
- Explore other cultures to discover cultural and psychological variations
–> creating a body of knowledge about people - Integrate findings into a more universal psychology
Why do we use cultural psychology?
- Psychological research is based on studies among WEIRD samples –> not representative for mankind
- What we know about psychology is from countries with only 12% of the world’s
population and 99% of research is done on universities
WEIRD?
Western,Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic
Cross-cultural research?
Research methodology that tests the cultural
parameters of psychological knowledge, comparing psychological processes between
two or more cultures, and also between humans and nonhuman animals
Where does culture come from? –> Group life
- People have always lived in groups because it increases chances for survival and is
efficient through division of labor to accomplish more. - Downside is social conflict and chaos, as people are different
Where does culture come form? –> environment?
- Groups live in specific environments, which influences how they live
–> depend on climate, arable land (land that can sustain food etc.), population density, diseases etc.
Where does culture come from? –> resources
- The amount of resources available like food or water fosters certain psychological characteristics and attributes to the community whether there is plenty or whether people need to work together to gain these resources
Basic human needs and motives?
- psysical needs (eating, sleeping, security) = universal
- social needs –> related to reproductive succes (matches, raising children etc.)
Universal psychological toolkits?
= set of basic psychological skills and abilities that people can use to meet their needs.
What is in the universal psychological toolkit?
- cognitive abilities: language, complex social cognition, memory, hypothetical reasoning, problem solving etc.
- emotions: basic emotions, self-conscious emotions, moral emotions
- personality traits: extraversion, neuroticism, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness
Why do people come to the world pre-equiped with an evolved naturally selected set of abilities?
- Because it allows them to adapt, survive and create cultures
–> to achieve social order, coordination and group harmonu cultures of life and systems are created
Why is human culture different from animal culture?
Human culture had knowledge, tools and technology and continues to improve.
Society?
A system of interrelationships among people
–> structure of relationships among
individuals
Culture?
Refers to the meanings and information that are associated with those social networks
Aspects of culture?
nationality, language, ethnicity, sex, disability, sexual orientation
Nationality?
A person’s country of origin –> has an effect on a person’s culture because countries usually have boundaries and have one main culture
Language?
Different language groups typically have different cultures
Ethnicity?
One’s racial, national, or cultural origins
–> culture makes ethnic group differences meaningful
Sex?
= male or female
–> gender = the behaviors that society or culture deems appropriate for men and wome (gender differences are cultural differences)
Disability?
The unique psychological and sociocultural characteristics of disabled
individuals
Sexual orientation?
Tthe particular psychological outlook and characteristics that are shared by and unique to each orientation –> may be cultural
Why is race not culture?
race is more of a social construction than a biological essential –> culture gives race its meaning
Why are personality and culture not the same?
Culture is a group level construct, personality is the unique combination of traits in an individual
Why do have popular culture and culture similarities but mostly differences?
Culture is a system of rules across attitudes, values, opinions, beliefs, norms, etc. that is stable over time,
and pop culture does not involve a way of life and is more temporary
Objective elements?
Objective, explicit elements that are physical
- Architecture, clothes, food, art, advertising, television, music
Subjective elements?
All parts of culture that do not survive people as physical artifacts, including psychological
processes as attitudes, beliefs, values and behaviors
Subjective element: values?
guiding principles that refer to desirable goals that motivate behavior
–>can be personal and cultural
–> Hofstede and Schwartz look at the cultural values