Intro to Culture&Psych - Lec 1

Question 1

Goals of psychology

Answer 1

1. build body of knowledge about people
2. take body of knowledge and apply it to intervene in people’s lives.

Question 2

Culture;

Answer 2

Meanings and information that are associated w/social networks.
Describes activities/behaviours
Refers to heritage or tradition
Describes rules & norms
Describes learning/problem solving
Defines organisation of group
Refers to origins of group

Question 3

Where does culture come from?

Answer 3

Group life:
- Divisions of labour
- Efficiency
- Increase survival prob
Environments:
- Climate
- Resources
- Arable land
- Money
- Pop. Density
- Diseases
- Previous cultures
- Contact w/other cultures
The evolved human mind:
- Basic human needs & motives
- Universal psychological toolkit

Question 4

Universal psychological toolkit

Answer 4

Aptitude and cognitive abilities help people adapt to environment
- Needs & motives
- Physical needs
- Safety and security needs
- Motives to achieve
- Motives to affiliate with others
Complex cognitive abilities
- Shared intentionality
- Verbal language
- Ratcheting
- Memory
- Hypothetical
- Reasoning
- Problem-solving
- Planning
Emotion
- Basic emotions
- Self-conscious emotions
- Moral emotions
- Personality traits
- Extraversion
- Neuroticism
- Openness
- Agreeableness
- Conscientiousness

Question 5

Society

Answer 5

System of interrelationships among peopleu

Question 6

what is not culture;

Answer 6

Race - more of social construction than biological essential
- ‘racial’ difference are of little scientific or practical use

Personality – unique constellation of traits, attributes, qualities and characteristics
- Culture is relatively stable across individuals, whereas personality can be vastly different.

Popular culture – does not involve sharing a wide range of psychological attributes

Question 7

Contents of culture

Answer 7

Objective elements:
Explicit, physical elements of a culture
- Architecture, furnishings, clothes, foods, art, eating utensils, tools, and musical instruments.
- Mass media, music, social media
Subjective Elements
Values
- Guiding principles that motivate & justify behaviour & serve as standards of judgement.
Beliefs
- Propositions regarded as true relating to oneself, the social and physical environment & the spiritual world.
Norms
- Generally accepted standards of behaviour for cultural group.
Attitudes
- Evaluations of things occurring in ongoing thoughts
Worldviews
- Belief systems about world

Question 8

How does culture influence human behaviours and mental processes?

Answer 8

• Enculturation: process of learning about one’s culture beginning at birth
• Culture influences psychological processes
• Culture, situational context and invidiaul factors influence mental processes
• System by which culture influence mental processes is dynamic
• Relationship between culture and individual behaviours is a reciprocal dynamic one.