Module 1: What is Culture? Flashcards
culture
defined as “a unique meaning and information system, shared by a group and transmitted across generations, that allows for the group to meet basic needs of survival, pursue happiness and wellbeing, and derive meaning form life”
functional definition of culture
a schema with which to evaluate and organize information
- can be described as a pair of glasses that we are constantly looking through
4 sources culture is built from
- group life
- environment
- resources
- developed human mind
group life
living in groups increases your chance of survival
- creates a division of labor, making the group more functional
- disdvantage of groups can be the creation of conflict because people are different
environment
the environment in which a group lives has a lot of influence on how they live
- important aspects are temperature and population density
resources
there are natural resources such as water or farmland that can affect a group
- but humans have also created resources of their own (money)
- people with more money can afford to be less dependent on others, which influences culture
developed human mind
humans have a psychological toolkit that allows them to adapt and survive, such as norms and values and other universal skills that other animals do not possess
- shared intentionality: everyone knows the same rules for expressing and interpreting emotions
cultural psychology
the field of psychology that studies cultural influences on psychological processes and behavior
cross-cultural research
investigates whether psychological theories are universal or culture-specific
3 goals of cross-cultural research
- to test hypotheses and findings in different cultural settings
- to explore other cultures to discover cultural and psychological variation
- integrate findings to create a more universal psychology
Van de Vliert (2023)
came up with latitudinal psychology: the distance from the country you are in to the equator can affect certain psychological variables
community ≠ culture
- a community is the general structure of interpersonal relationships between individuals or groups
- culture is the meaning associated with these individuals or groups
country ≠ culture
the country is the legal state, in which many cultures can coexist
race
a socially constructed concept, given meaning by culture
ethnicity
groups characterized by equal nationality, geographical origin, culture, or language
objective elements
are physical, tangible artifacts regularly found in a culture, such as clothing, architecture, art, foods, advertising, music, books, and the like
subjective elements
all the parts of a culture that do not survive as physical artifacts
- the implicit elements of culture are the focus of cultural psychology
- the most important ones are values, beliefs, norms, attitudes, and worldviews
Hofstede
studied the work-related values of IBM employees during the 1970s and derived 4 classic dimensions:
- individualism/collectivism
- power distance
- masculinity/femininity
- uncertainty avoidance
individualism
people feel independent, ties between people are loose, everyone is expected to make individual choices
collectivism
people are interdependent as members of larger wholes, ties between people are strong, everyone knows their place in society
power distance
the degree to which people in a group accept that power is distributed unequally
masculinity/femininity
the extent to which society is driven by success, money, and things (= masculinity), or by caring for one another and quality of life (= femininity)
- in a masculine society , force and competition are more accepted and winning is important
- in a feminine society, there is sympathy for the underdog
uncertainty avoidance
the degree to which groups are willing to avoid or accept uncertainty
2 dimensions later added to Hofstede’s 4
- long-term/short-term orientation
- indulgence/restraint
long-term/short-term orientation
the extent to which a society retains connections related to the past to deal with the present and future
- in a long-term oriented group, the world is seens as a constant flux and delayed gratification is encouraged
- in a short-term oriented group, the world is seen as fixed and unchanging, so the past provides a moral compass
indulgence/restraint
the degree to which people in groups feel that it is good to be free, impulses should be followed, and the good things in life should be enjoyed
- in a restrained (non-indulgent) group, people feel that life is hard, and duty must be followed
criticism of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions
- the items measuring the dimensions have low face validity
- only a small fraction of the differences between countries can be attributed to the dimensions
- evidence for the idea that “America is individualistic and Japan is collectivistic” is mixed
- the added “long-term orientation, and indulgence” are unclear and difficult to understand
Minkov (2017) questions about Hofstede’s framework
- are the IBM employees representative of their countries?
- do the dimensions replicate?
- do the dimensions have internal reliability?
- do the dimensions have predictive properties?
Bond and Leung (2004)
coined the term of social axioms (culture-level beliefs), consisting of 2 social axiom dimensions
- dynamic externality
- societal cynicism
dynamic externality
includes beliefs related to external forces such as fate or spirit
- cultures with high dynamic externality tend to be more collectivistic, conservative, and hierarchical
- have less freedom and human rights activities
societal cynicism
pessimism towards the world
- cultures high on societal cynicism think that they are surrounded by negative outcomes which are inevitable
norms
generally accepted behaviors in a group
- a way we express our expectations of others in our culture
Gelfand et al. (2011)
distinguished between tight and loose cultures
tight cultures
a culture with strong norms and low tolerance for deviant behavior
- if a culture has faced many ecological and historical threats, it will tend toward tightness
loose culture
a culture with weak norms and high tolerance for deviant behavior
worldviews
summarize attitudes, beliefs, norms, and values, and are tied to our self-concept
Markus and Kitayama’s (1991) framework of independence vs interdependence
the self is viewed as the mediator of collectivist/individualistic cultures
independent self-construal
the focus on being different from others
- others are important, but they are not a part of you
- typical of Western cultures
interdependent self-construal
the focus is on being connected to others
- the way you define yourself overlaps with others
- typical of Eastern cultures
enculturation
the gradual acquisition of the characteristics and norms of a culture or group or a person or another culture
3 main views on the universality of psychological processes
- absolutism
- relativism
- universalism
absolutism
claims that all psychological processes are the same for all people
- we are just born with them
- not supported by evidence
relativism
not all underlying processes are the same, some are different depending on the culture
- useful as a safeguard against absolutism
universalism
underlying processes are the same for everyone, it’s just the expressions that may be different
manifest
the observable behavior
latent
the underlying processes
etics
aspects of life that are the same in every culture, or universal psychological concepts
- e.g. everyone can talk
emics
aspects of life that differ by culture, or culture-specific concepts
- although everyone can talk, that differs by culture in what language
WEIRD samples
Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic
- make up 96% of psychological samples
modern-industrialized vs small scale societies
there are cultural differences in how we interpret certain stimuli
- people from industrialized societies are more susceptible to the Mueller-Lyer illusion than participants from small-scale societies
Western vs non-Western industrialized societies
Western cultures tend to be more individualistic, and this is also linked to a lower rate of conformity
Americans vs other Westerners
the USA is considered the most individualistic country in the world
- most believe their successes or failures are within their control, whereas people in other Western countries (e.g. Germany/France) believe that external factors play a larger role in someone’s successes and failures
university-educated vs non-university educated Americans
even within the USA population, there are differences between educated and non-educated citizens
- highy educated participants have a larger post-decisional spread than lower educated participants
post-decisional spread
the phenomenon by which we evaluate something more favourably after we have chosen it, and less favourably after we chose something else
