L2-L5 Flashcards
Who came up with the 5 academic definitions of culture?
Kroeber and Kluckhohn
5 academic definitions of culture
descriptive, historical, normative, structural, psychological
Descriptive definition of culture
all social activities in the broadest sense, such as language, marriage, property system, etiquette, industries, art, etc.
Historical definition of culture
total social heredity of mankind or, more specifically, a particular strain of social heredity (i.e. behaviors passed between generations)
Normative definition of culture
all standardized social procedures and customs, passed on socially, that form a people’s way of life
Structural definition of culture
a system or organization of interdependent values common to specific social groups, forming a pattern that is unique to each society
Psychological definition of culture
all results of human learned effort at adjustment to the environment we exist in
2 definitions of culture according to the textbook
kind of information and a group of individuals
Information definition of culture
any kind of information acquired from other members of one’s species through social learning that can influence an individual’s behavior
People definition of culture
a group of people who are existing within some kind of shared context
3 main challenges with distinguishing cultures
fuzzy or fluid boundaries; tendency to change over time; more within-culture variability (i.e. individual differences) than between
Assumption of general psychology
the mind operates according to a set of natural and universal laws independent from context or content
CPU metaphor in general psychology
the mind is perceived as a highly abstract central processing unit (CPU) that operates independently of the context within which it is thinking and the content it is thinking about
What mental processes do general psychologists focus on?
lower-level processes (e.g. visual perception, memory) that emphasize the need for strict experimental control
Assumption of cultural psychology
cultural meanings are intertwined with the way the mind operates; thinking involves context and content
What mental processes do cultural psychologists focus on?
higher-level processes that emphasize the importance of relaxing experimental control
Behaviorism
all human behaviors are what can objectively be measured as stimulus-response patterns
What 2 brain regions are most involved in the figure-line task?
left inferior parietal lobule (small lobe) and right inferior precentral gyrus
What function are the left inferior parietal lobe and right precentral gyrus associated with?
increased attentional control
Difference between the relative and absolute task in figure-line task
need to use contextual cues; ignore environmental information and focus on one specific element
What cultural group performs better on the relative task?
East Asians (showed less activation of the left inferior parietal lobule and right inferior precentral gyrus)
What cultural group performed better on the absolute task?
European Americans (showed less activation of the left inferior parietal lobule and right inferior precentral gyrus)
2 main conclusions from the figure-line task
culturally less familiar tasks require more attentional control; culture and the brain are intricately intertwined
4 levels of universality of psychological processes
nonuniversal, existential universal, functional universal, accessibility universal
Nonuniversal (cultural invention)
psychological process or cognitive tool that doesn’t exist in all cultures (e.g. the use of an abacus, numerical reasoning)
Existential universal
psychological process that exists in all cultures but not used to solve the same problems nor equally accessible across cultures; variation in function (e.g. criticisms could be perceived as derision or motivation)
Functional universal
psychological processes that exist in all cultures, are used to solve the same problems across cultures, but are more accessible to people from some cultures than others (e.g. use of punishment to encourage fairness)
Accessibility universal
psychological processes that exist in all cultures, are used to solve the same problems across cultures, and are accessible to the same degree (e.g. social facilitation)
Social facilitation
tendency to perform better on a simple or familiar task the more people one is surrounded with
WEIRD
Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic
Is culture inherent?
No; it isn’t a biological concept, rather it is learned