individual differeneces: cultural differences

Question 1

most of you are WEIRD, explain?

Answer 1

Western
Educated
Industrialised
Rich
Democratic
Quite unlike 88% of the earth’s population
But very much like most participants in psychology experiments
96% of participants are WEIRD participants

Question 2

Muller-lyer illusion =

Answer 2

Same length ….but this is not universal
Depends on where you are conducting your testing
Evanston (america) are most susceptible to illusion
‘hunter-gatherers’ are immune to the illusion
Possibly due to our carpentered environments.

Question 3

ultimatum game =

Answer 3

the self-interest hypothesis suggests that the proposer should offer the minimum (£1) and the responder should accept it- £1 isnt much, but is still a gain.
Possible between group differences between fair and punishment
Differences in socialisation?
Differences in social structures>

Question 4

horizontal-vertical illusion =

Answer 4

how you perceive this depends on where you grow up
Glasgow, a lot going on in the vertical when you have a weaker illusion than if you grew up in the fens (fenlands)
Visual system is tuned to the environment so a given length does not look as long.

Question 5

Grouping according to category membership is a common western strategy < example of analytic thinking.

Answer 5

true

Question 6

example of holistic thinking and a common eastern strategy

Answer 6

Grouping according to relationships is a common eastern strategy < example of holistic thinking.

Question 7

analytic thinking is typically western and….

Answer 7

Focusses on objects and their attributes
Attributes of objects define them, and abstract rules are used to predict their behaviour.
Pay less attention to context or situation
May have begun with ancient greeks

Question 8

holistic thinking is typically eastern and….

Answer 8

Focusses on context and relations
Objects understood by the way they relate to the surrounding context and relationships between them
May have begun with the ancient chinese

Question 9

modern day cultural differences example, Sydney Olympic games 2000 >

Answer 9

American coverage stressed personal characteristics more than Japanese coverage
> Japanese coverage stressed athletic background and experiences, the relationship between these more than the americans.

Question 10

self-enhancement =

Answer 10

94% of american professors rated themselves as better than the average American professor

Different explanations of behavior:
The fundamental attribution error
Tendency to ignore situational factors and explain behaviour in terms of a persons traits/attitudes.
Explored by Morris and Peng (1994) - same murder being reported in english papers vs chinese papers < explored differences such as personal/situational factors….

Question 11

developmental evidence =

Answer 11

Prosocial – describe something a person you know well did recently that you considered good for someone else
Antisocial – describe something a person you know well did recently that you considered a wrong thing to have done
Dispositional
Situational

Question 12

how much is enough?

Answer 12

Cultural differences in what people want in holistic and non-holistic
Non-holistic countries (austrailia, chile, peru, usa and russia) wanted more of everything compared to holistic societies
Holistic influenced by buddhism, jainism, taoism ect…
Measured participants idea levels of happiness, pleasure, freedom, health, self-esteem, life span and intelligence….
Hornsey et al, 2018

Question 13

intelligence - is there evidence for a universal ‘G’

Answer 13

While G is observed in western populations, it is uncertain whether ‘g’ is observed in cognitive data from other cultural groups
97 samples, 31 countries > 50,000 people
Using exploratory factor analysis, all but 1 gave single factor, explaining –46% variance, indicating that human intelligence works much the same way across all cultures.

Question 14

personality >

Answer 14

English has approx 18000 personality trait words (allport and odbert, 1936)
Traits can be categorised….
But always the big 5

Question 15

the big 5 across cultures……

Answer 15

Check slides
It is a fundamentally american instrument, using english-language trait words
is it inherently biased to produce the big 5 – questions aimed at asking questions about openness, conscientiousnes ect….
Chinese personality assessment Inventory (CPAI) using indigenous Chinese personality traits
4 factors emerge : Dependability, interpersonal relatedness, social potency, individualism
Overlap ? Between OCEAN vs CPAI
> neuroticism = dependability
> Extraversion = social potency
> Individualism = agreeableness
Different cultures and different ways of looking at things.
Other indigenous personality tests have also not mapped onto the big 5: eg filipenos.

Question 16

Summary

Answer 16

Clear cultural differences in some cognitive and perceptual tasks – particularly reflecting the holistic-analytic distinction
Including social factors, such as explanation of behaviour
Possible fundamental personality (classification) differences
Growing ‘cultural intelligence’ industry.