L19 - Cultural Psychology

Question 1

What is Interdependence?

Answer 1

• Self is unbounded, flexible and contingent on context
• Overlap between self and others
• Key aspects of the self is defined by relationships
• Internal attributes are less salient
• Clear delineation between ingroup and outgroup

Question 2

What is independence?

Answer 2

• Self is bounded, stable and consistent across contexts
• No overlap between self and others
• Key aspects of self are defined by internal attributes
• Internal attributes are most salient
• Less clear delineation between ingroup and outgroup

Question 3

What are traits of high context cultures?

Answer 3

• Fewer social connections of longer duration
• Holistic focus
• Knowledge is situational and relational
• Beliefs and expectations less verbally explicit

Question 4

What are traits of Low context cultures?

Answer 4

• Many social connections of shorter durations
• Analytic focus
• Knowledge is codified, public, accessible
• Beliefs and expectations are more verbally explicit

Question 5

What were studies looking at salient objects and field?

Answer 5

1) Underwater scene to Japanese and Americans and asked to recall what they had seen
- Both cultural groups better at recalling salient elements
- Japanese much better at recalling field elements
2) Present ppts with animal in setting
- Asked to recognise same animal in pictures with new/old animals in new/old settings
- Cultures are equally adept at recognising animals in the same setting
- Both cultures less adept at recognising animals in different settings
- Japanese much less adept at recognising animals in different settings

Question 6

What was a study on change blindness?

Answer 6

• Flicker task where North Americans were better at noticing changes in focal point elements than background elements
• Japanese notice more field element changes than Euro Americans
• Euro Americans notice more focal element changes than Japanese
• Japanese notice more field element changes than focal elements changes
• Japanese notice changes in field elements much more frequently in Japanese settings
• Euro Americans notice changes in focal elements much more frequently in American settings

Question 7

What was a study looking at relative/absolute judgements?

Answer 7

• Americans and Japanese were asked to copy line from Frame A into Frame B
• To perform well in absolute task - ppts ignore size of frames and focus on vertical line and vice versa for the relative task (to fit the line in proportionately)
• J were better at relative task than Absolute
• J better at relative task than Euro Americans
• EA better at Absolute than relative
• EA better at Absolute than J

Question 8

What was a study looking at relative or absolute judgements abroad?

Answer 8

• Japanese students studying in the US made less errors in absolute judgements than Japanese in Japan, and more errors in relative judgements
• Americans studying in Japan made significantly fewer errors in relative judgements than Americans in US and more errors in absolute judgements

Question 9

What was a study looking at cognition - emotion judgements?

Answer 9

• Focal figure displaying facial expression
• Rate intensity of focal figure’s expression and four figures in the background displaying the same emotion or different emotions
• J and EA intensity equivalent when focal/background congruent
• EA intensity equivalent when focal/background incongruent
• J intensity lower when focal/background incongruent

Question 10

Study looking at cognition: covariation?

Answer 10

• Covariation task - pairs of objects flashed on screen
• Sometimes they appear together - 3 conditions: 0 covariation, 0.4 covariation and 0.6 covariation
• Stronger linear relationship between covariation ratings and actual covariation for Chinese relative to Americans.
• Relative to Americans, Chinese more likely to detect covariation when none exists
• Combining all conditions, Chinese are not more accurate than Americans in detecting covariation
• When absolute levels of covariation changed, Chinese ppts appeared to notice and revise their covariation estimates
• American ppts appeared to form a first impression of covariation and this was the basis for their covariation estimate

Question 11

What was a study on classification reasoning?

Answer 11

• Do High context rely on holistic reasoning/ Do low context rely on analytic reasoning when classifying objects - looking at similarity of objects
• Analytical rule - single feature of flowers that uniformly distinguishes group 1&2 (stem)
• Holistic Resemblance - multiple features of flowers that mostly distinguishes group 1 from 2 (petals and leaves)
• EA, Asian Americans and East Asians make classification and similarity judgements based on analytical rule or holistic resemblance
• When making classification judgements, all cultural groups predominantly use analytic reasoning
• When making similarities judgements, EA predominately use analytic reasoning while Asian Americans and East Asians predominately use holistic reasoning.

Question 12

Study looking at cognition: logical reasoning:

Answer 12

• High context rely on holistic reasoning/ Low context rely on analytic reasoning when judging convincingness of argument?
• Eagles and penguins share essential features that analytically classifies them as birds
• Eagles share more features that makes them holistically similar to other animals classified as birds compared to penguins who can not fly
• Both cultures are convinced by valid arguments but less convinced by atypical arguments
• EA least influenced by atypicality of arguments
• East Asians most convinced by typical arguments

Question 13

What was a study on the validity of arguments?

Answer 13

• High context rely on holistic reasoning/Low context rely on analytic reasoning when judging the validity of arguments
• EA and Koreans had to judge validity of 4 arguments: valid/believable or valid/unbelievable
• Both cultural groups predominantly identify valid and invalid arguments correctly
• Both cultural groups influenced by believability of arguments in validity judgements
• EA less influenced by believability of arguments in validity judgements