Lecture 1: What is Cultural Psychology?

Question 1

culture (3)

Answer 1

• Emerges based on the interaction between humans and their environments;
• Consists of shared elements (language, traditions, values);
• Is transmitted to others (across time and space).

Question 2

cultural psychology (1)

Answer 2

• Studying how culture influences psychological constructs.

Question 3

cross-cultural psychology (1)

Answer 3

• Studying systematic differences in psychological constructs across cultures.

Question 4

Individualism-Collectivism (2)

Answer 4

• individualist cultures: Emphasize personal achievement, even at the expense of others, and competition (e.g. Canada, Western Europe).
• collectivist cultures: Emphasize social roles and collective responsibilities, even at the expense of the individual, and co-operation (e.g. China, Korea, Latin America).

Question 5

Power Distance (2)

Answer 5

• high power distance: Greater acceptance of established hierarchies within society and acceptance of inequality.
• low power distance: Tendency to question established hierarchies and to stand up against inequality.

Question 6

Uncertainty Avoidance (2)

Answer 6

• high uncertainty avoidance: Less tolerance of ambiguity; belief that one lone truth dictates everything.
• low uncertainty avoidance: Greater tolerance of ambiguity; more acceptance of differing thoughts/ideas.

Question 7

Masculinity-Femininity (2)

Answer 7

Hofstede (1991):

• masculine: “Greater preference for achievement, heroism, assertiveness.”
• feminine: “Greater preference for cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak.”

Question 8

factors that affect (and are affected by) culture (3)

Answer 8

• Political climate; political structure greatly constrains behaviour and cultural expression.
• Religion; dominant religious beliefs characterize a culture’s moral reasoning and motivations.
  
  • Religion also affects social roles and norms.
• Ecological difference; environmental context shapes the development and focus of a culture.

Question 9

WEIRD populations (3)

Answer 9

• Societies that are Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic.
• Most research in psychology comes from WEIRD populations.
  
  • To what extent are the findings from these populations generalizable to other populations?

Question 10

“color-blind (or “culture-blind”) approach (3)

Answer 10

• “People are the same wherever you go”; the hope that people will interact with each other without giving much attention to anyone’s ethnic background.
• Attention to differences, no matter how small (e.g. having a red chip or a blue chip) can lead to discrimination.
• If people’s attention isn’t drawn to the differences between cultures, they’ll be less likely to create boundaries between themselves and others, and they will get along better.

Question 11

multicultural approach (4)

Answer 11

• Asserts that people do identify strongly with their groups, and most group identities are far more meaningful than the kind that can be artificially created in the lab.
• Furthermore, people are more likely to identify with their groups if their groups are smaller or disadvantaged in some way.
• Efforts to downplay group differences may come across as suggesting that minority members would be accepted as long as they shed their distinctive cultural identities and act like those in the majority group.
• Multicultural messages consistently result in better interactions.