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Cultural Psychology > Module 1: What is Culture? > Flashcards

Module 1: What is Culture? Flashcards

1
Q

culture

A

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”

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2
Q

functional definition of culture

A

a schema with which to evaluate and organize information
- can be described as a pair of glasses that we are constantly looking through

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3
Q

4 sources culture is built from

A
  • group life
  • environment
  • resources
  • developed human mind
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4
Q

group life

A

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

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5
Q

environment

A

the environment in which a group lives has a lot of influence on how they live
- important aspects are temperature and population density

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6
Q

resources

A

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

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7
Q

developed human mind

A

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

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8
Q

cultural psychology

A

the field of psychology that studies cultural influences on psychological processes and behavior

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9
Q

cross-cultural research

A

investigates whether psychological theories are universal or culture-specific

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10
Q

3 goals of cross-cultural research

A
  • 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
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11
Q

Van de Vliert (2023)

A

came up with latitudinal psychology: the distance from the country you are in to the equator can affect certain psychological variables

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12
Q

community ≠ culture

A
  • a community is the general structure of interpersonal relationships between individuals or groups
  • culture is the meaning associated with these individuals or groups
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13
Q

country ≠ culture

A

the country is the legal state, in which many cultures can coexist

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14
Q

race

A

a socially constructed concept, given meaning by culture

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15
Q

ethnicity

A

groups characterized by equal nationality, geographical origin, culture, or language

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16
Q

objective elements

A

are physical, tangible artifacts regularly found in a culture, such as clothing, architecture, art, foods, advertising, music, books, and the like

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17
Q

subjective elements

A

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

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18
Q

Hofstede

A

studied the work-related values of IBM employees during the 1970s and derived 4 classic dimensions:
- individualism/collectivism
- power distance
- masculinity/femininity
- uncertainty avoidance

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19
Q

individualism

A

people feel independent, ties between people are loose, everyone is expected to make individual choices

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20
Q

collectivism

A

people are interdependent as members of larger wholes, ties between people are strong, everyone knows their place in society

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21
Q

power distance

A

the degree to which people in a group accept that power is distributed unequally

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22
Q

masculinity/femininity

A

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

23
Q

uncertainty avoidance

A

the degree to which groups are willing to avoid or accept uncertainty

24
Q

2 dimensions later added to Hofstede’s 4

A
  • long-term/short-term orientation
  • indulgence/restraint
25
Q

long-term/short-term orientation

A

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

26
Q

indulgence/restraint

A

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

27
Q

criticism of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions

A
  • 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
28
Q

Minkov (2017) questions about Hofstede’s framework

A
  • are the IBM employees representative of their countries?
  • do the dimensions replicate?
  • do the dimensions have internal reliability?
  • do the dimensions have predictive properties?
29
Q

Bond and Leung (2004)

A

coined the term of social axioms (culture-level beliefs), consisting of 2 social axiom dimensions
- dynamic externality
- societal cynicism

30
Q

dynamic externality

A

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

31
Q

societal cynicism

A

pessimism towards the world
- cultures high on societal cynicism think that they are surrounded by negative outcomes which are inevitable

32
Q

norms

A

generally accepted behaviors in a group
- a way we express our expectations of others in our culture

33
Q

Gelfand et al. (2011)

A

distinguished between tight and loose cultures

34
Q

tight cultures

A

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

35
Q

loose culture

A

a culture with weak norms and high tolerance for deviant behavior

36
Q

worldviews

A

summarize attitudes, beliefs, norms, and values, and are tied to our self-concept

37
Q

Markus and Kitayama’s (1991) framework of independence vs interdependence

A

the self is viewed as the mediator of collectivist/individualistic cultures

38
Q

independent self-construal

A

the focus on being different from others
- others are important, but they are not a part of you
- typical of Western cultures

39
Q

interdependent self-construal

A

the focus is on being connected to others
- the way you define yourself overlaps with others
- typical of Eastern cultures

40
Q

enculturation

A

the gradual acquisition of the characteristics and norms of a culture or group or a person or another culture

41
Q

3 main views on the universality of psychological processes

A
  • absolutism
  • relativism
  • universalism
42
Q

absolutism

A

claims that all psychological processes are the same for all people
- we are just born with them
- not supported by evidence

43
Q

relativism

A

not all underlying processes are the same, some are different depending on the culture
- useful as a safeguard against absolutism

44
Q

universalism

A

underlying processes are the same for everyone, it’s just the expressions that may be different

45
Q

manifest

A

the observable behavior

46
Q

latent

A

the underlying processes

47
Q

etics

A

aspects of life that are the same in every culture, or universal psychological concepts
- e.g. everyone can talk

48
Q

emics

A

aspects of life that differ by culture, or culture-specific concepts
- although everyone can talk, that differs by culture in what language

49
Q

WEIRD samples

A

Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic
- make up 96% of psychological samples

50
Q

modern-industrialized vs small scale societies

A

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

51
Q

Western vs non-Western industrialized societies

A

Western cultures tend to be more individualistic, and this is also linked to a lower rate of conformity

52
Q

Americans vs other Westerners

A

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

53
Q

university-educated vs non-university educated Americans

A

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

54
Q

post-decisional spread

A

the phenomenon by which we evaluate something more favourably after we have chosen it, and less favourably after we chose something else

Cultural Psychology (12 decks)

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