psych 307 - M1 Flashcards
1
Q
What is Cultural Psychology
A
- culture is rooted in our everyday lives and influences everything we do
- there is racism within cultural psychology: not the same recognition for all
- psychological processes are shaped by experiences
2
Q
Kroeber & Kluckhohn (1952)’s definitions of culture
A
- historical
- descriptive
- normative
- structural
- psychological
3
Q
Historical definition of “culture”
A
Culture is the total social heredity of mankind, while as a specific term, a culture means a particular strain of social heredity
- i.e. Across Chinese history, cloth X is used for…
4
Q
Descriptive definition of “culture”
A
Culture is all social activities in the broadest sense: language, marriage, property system, art, etc
- purely descriptive, laundry list of things people do
5
Q
Normative definition of “culture”
A
Culture is all standardized social procedures and customs, passed on socially, that form people’s way of life
- step further from descriptive definition – adds social consequence part
- i.e. Younger people are expected to bow (desc), and will be reprimanded of not (normative)
6
Q
Structural definition of “culture”
A
Culture is a system or organization of interdependent values common to specific social groups, forming a pattern unique to each society
- behaviour is related to structural variables: desire for sanitation, desire for purity, etc
7
Q
Psychological definition of “culture”
A
Culture consists of all results of human-learned effort at adjustment
- step further from structural definition
- the things we do allow us to adapt to environment
8
Q
Textbook definition of “culture”
A
Any kind of information acquired from other members of one’s species through social learning that can affect one’s behaviours
Group of individuals existing in some shared context
9
Q
Issues with defining culture
A
- cultural boundaries are fuzzy, not clearly defined
- constantly changing and emerging
- within-culture v between-culture
- difficult to say 2 groups are different when there are so many differences within 1 group
- caused by variability among individuals of same culture
- culture reflects average tendencies within groups, but have enormous degree of individual variation
- difficult to say 2 groups are different when there are so many differences within 1 group
10
Q
Key Figures: General v Cultural Psychology
A
- Wilhelm Wundt
- studied low-level processes – emphasized need for experimental control
- studied high-level processes: volkerpsychologie – we need less controls to fully understand high-level cultural processes - John B Watson
- focused on behaviourism – anything unseen is outside realm of psychology
- cognitive revolution (= we have thoughts and feelings and mental processes)
- human brains are the same everywhere – focused on universal topics - Richard Shweder
- the mind and environment mutually constitute each other
- thinking is not universal, but involves interaction with its context
- cannot consider the mind and culture as separate
11
Q
Levels of universality
A
- Non-universal: cognitive tools are not found in all cultures, only exist in certain environments (i.e. abacus)
- Existential universal: exists to serve different functions in different contexts (i.e. criticism)
- Functional universal: serves the same function in all cultures, but presented in different degrees (i.e. prosocial punishment)
- Accessibility universal: exists everywhere with the same purpose and extent (i.e. social facilitation)
12
Q
Culturally universal v culturally variable
A
- culturally universal: more general things (i.e. math, create facial expressions)
- culturally variable: more specific things (i.e. derivatives, some expressions have meaning while others don’t)
- however, difficult to determine which is which – lack sufficient data (most data is WEIRD)
- i.e. things initially considered universal: Figure-Line task, Müller-Lyer Illusion
13
Q
Caution about culture
A
- people from different places are not “fundamentally different” – more differences within than across groups
- cultural is not something we are born with, but something we learn to have
- culture is not biological, and cultural differences are not necessarily biological differences
- some behaviour can be caused by varying alleles, but should not be biological reductionistic
14
Q
Different approaches to culture
A
-
colour-blind approach: emphasize similarities and ignore cultural differences
- may become unaware of pre-existing cultural biases
- created due to minimal group paradigm
- even smallest thing can cause discrimination
-
multi-cultural approach: appreciate and recognize differences
- fares better in society: more positive attitudes, reduced negative emotions, more trust and comfort within companies
15
Q
Majority v Minority in cultural approaches
A
-
Majority prefers colour-blindness
- feels that multicultural messages exclude them
- leads to dislike of minorities with strong ethnic identities- if initially high in prejudice, multiculturalism leads to worse interactions
-
Minority prefers multiculturalism
- greater ethnic identification and less perception of threat
- taxing to downplay or hide identity under colour-blind approach
16
Q
Ethnocentrism
A
Judging people from other cultures by the standards of one’s own culture
- our values are shaped by our cultural experiences
- socialized to think certain things are good and moral v bad
17
Q
Cultural Psychology v Cross-Cultural Psychology
A
- Sim: both deal with cultural processes
- Diff: in scope – cross-cultural compares across numerous cultures
18
Q
Cultural Psychology v Sociology
A
- Sim: relationship betw cultural environment and one’s mental processes and behaviour
- Diff: heavier use of qualitative measures, focus on large abstract societal structures
19
Q
Cultural Psychology v Multicultural Psychology
A
- Sim: studying how culture affects psychology at individual and social levels
- Diff: focus on how people from different backgrounds interact with each other within one context
20
Q
Berry’s Ecocultural Model
A
- background variables > (biological and cultural adaptation) > process variables > psychological variables
- background variables: ecological and sociopolitical context
- process variables: ecological influence, genetic transmission, cultural transmission, acculturation
- psychological variables: observable behaviour and inferred characteristics
21
Q
Types of cultural transmission
A
-
Vertical transmission: parents teaching cultural information to their children
- primary form for small-scale societies
- results in a lot of modelling behaviour: learn by watching, not much explicit teaching
- Horizontal transmission: passing on of cultural information between peers
- Oblique transmission: passing on cultural information from an older generation to a younger generation
22
Q
What type of cultural transmission is most common?
A
- Hunter gatherer societies: fair proportion of vertical, horizontal and oblique transmission
- Industrialized societies: lots of horizontal and oblique transmission
- has vertical transmission when younger, but increasingly less now
- oblique transmission comes very early on (daycare, media figures)
23
Q
Cognitive capacities that facilitate cultural transmission
A
- Language: to convey ideas
- Theory of mind: understand that others have differing mental states = imitative learning (v emulative learning)
- Sharing experiences and goals: allows for cultural and instructed learning (collaboration and scaffolding)
24
Q
Tomasello, Kruger and Ratner (2003): Theory of Cultural Learning
A
- [0-9 mo] primary focus is on object = emulative learning
- [9 mo - 4 years] sees others as “intentional agents” with independent intentions = imitative learning
- [4-6 years] sees others as “mental agents” with wrong thoughts = instructed learning
- [6-7 years] sees others as “reflective agents” with abstracts or hypotheticals = collaborative learning
25
Cultural transmission in humans
- can learn cultural information _much quicker_ than animals through _individual and social learning_
- have **cumulative cultural complexity**: information gets _added_ on, _shared_ by nearly every member, and are _selective of who_ we imitate
26
Brain - definitions
- **cephalization factor**: pattern to predict what the expected brain weight should be (given body weight)
- **Encephalization Quotient (EQ)**: actual brain weight / expected brain weight
27
Human Brain
- large EQ: more social species with complex social systems
- large brain has costs: requires enormous energy
= less muscle mass, smaller digestive tract
28
Advantage of large brain
- **social brain hypothesis**: _complexity of social worlds_ require great cognitive demands = cause _evolution of large brains_
- when brain increases in size, usually the neocortex that gets bigger
- neocortex: sensory perception, language, consciousness, complex thoughts, problem solving
- neocortex ratio: volume of neocortex / volume of rest of the brain
- those living in larger groups tend to have larger neocortex ratios
29
Possible causes for large brains
- Food consumption: mental maps to find seasonal fruits
- Food extraction: needs ingenuity to get food
- Social brain: living in complex social environments = has relationship with neocortex ratio
30
Cumulative cultural evolution
- **ratchet effect**: modifications and improvements stay in the population until further changes occur
- after an idea is learned from others, it can be modified and improved = cultural information grows in complexity and usefulness
- have to *understand intent* to learn to make it better
- key: _reliable and faithful social transmission_
- modifications must be repeated accurately enough that others have solid foundation to make innovations
- requires **imitative learning** and **communication**
31
Muthukrishna et al: Cultural Brain Hypothesis
- **group size > brain size > social learning > group size** = allows for increased cultural complexity
- **as group size increases, it pushes evolution for brain size to deal with larger groups**
- social learning: facilitates learning from models to gain information
- key: interconnectedness
32
biases in imitation
- **prestige bias**: more likely to attend to models who are better respected and garner more people's attention
- innate = seen in young children
- very efficient form of cultural learning
- **similarity bias**: more likely to target someone similar to you
- motivation: demonstrate your group identity and affiliation
- **conformist transmission**: tendency to learn from people who engage in behaviours that are more common compared to others
- most useful behaviour should be copied
- especially when task is difficult / lack confidence / many options to choose from
33
humans are _______
- humans are **ultra-social**
- more social in terms of # of relationships we maintain
- more engaged with others around them
- learning from each other leads to **accumulation of culture**
- *individual learning is too inefficient*
34
culture variation is caused by:
- evoked v transmitted culture
- distal v proximal causes
- ecological and geographical variation
35
Cause of Cultural Variation: Evoked v transmitted culture
- **evoked culture**: humans have _biological encoded_ behaviours that are activated in certain environmental conditions
- universally present, but _only evoked in certain situations_
- *i.e. pathogen prevalence = conformity*
- **transmitted culture**: learn about cultural practices through social learning and modelling
- _can travel_ with people as they move to new environments
- _more important than evoked culture_ > important to learn from others
36
Cause of Cultural Variation: Distal v proximal causes
- **distal causes**: _initial differences_ lead to effects over long periods of time
- i.e. Neolithic Revolution led to massive shift in lifestyle: large-scale agriculture, animal domestication
- fewer people needed for food production > can invent new technology and become specialists
- **proximal causes**: something that has a _direct and immediate effect_ to the observation of interest
37
Cause of Cultural Variation: Ecological and geographical variation
- variation caused by _influences from physical environment_
- i.e. harsh environments = gender roles (value masculinity)
38
Biological v Cultural Evolution
- copying error:
- (b) genes copied faithfully with rare errors
- (c) errors are _common_, and often _intentional_
- direction of transmission:
- (b) vertical transmission from parents to offspring, slow and gradual process
- (c) _horizontal transmission to anyone_, instantly to many people, very fast
- type of info:
- (b) genes become common if there is adaptive advantage
- (c) cultural ideas _do not have to be adaptive to be common_
39
Memetic View
- cultural evolution parallels to genetic evolution > memes = genes
- replication > variation > selection
- **replication**: meme copied through imitation
- replicates rapidly through vertical, horizontal and oblique transmission
- _high in fecundity_ = creates _lots_ of copies
- initially replications are identical, over time see more variation as more people replicate
- **variation**: memes can undergo _mutation and recombine_
- new memes are produced > leads to "innovations"
- _initially high in fidelity_ = faithfully replicated, then _become low_
- **selection**: _not all memes get passed on_
- retained = more likely to spread to others
- survival/reproductive advantage
- economic advantage
- easy communicability
- useful or unexpected ideas
- emotional ideas: positive affect, fear
40
Language phylogeny
- can create phylogeny trees
- based on shared characteristics
41
Types of papers
- **empirical papers**: based on _new studies_, provides new information to the field
- **review papers:**
- **meta-analyses:** _statistical summary_ of published papers > arrive at average of size of effect
- **literature review**: information _reorganized_ into novel framework > clarify structure of existing knowledge
42
How have cultures been changing
- becoming _increasingly interconnected_
- globalization accelerates process of cultural evolution
- cultural homogeneity in a global level, but heterogeneity on a local level
- becoming more individualistic
- people in many cultures are becoming more intelligent
- **Flynn effect**: people in current generation have _higher IQ scores_ than earlier generation
- world is becoming a more complex place
43
Cultural persistence
- _building on previous structures_: constrained by previous structures
- _influence of early conditions_: effect would persist more if people have participated in the culture for a longer period
- _pluralistic ignorance_: tendency for people to *collectively misinterpret* thoughts that underlie behaviour of others
- exists because it is socially undesirable to express some thoughts
- _people are influenced by what they believe other people feel_
- cultures are highly fluid, but has enduring tendency to persist
- people tend to maintain culture if there is stability in their environment and climate
44
humans have universal brains
- humans are not born with cultural knowledge and skills (unlike animals)
- powerful role of **socialization**: born with similar potentials > _different life experiences due to context_
45
sensitive period for socialization
- language acquisition
- infants can discriminate all kinds of sounds > whittled down to those heard in critical period
- simultaneous v sequential bilinguals: 1 v 2 parts of brain used
- acquiring culture
- Reading 2
46
socialization experience
- [7 mo] fetus has response to acoustic simulation
- can hear: maternal respiration, cardiovascular, intestinal activity and physical movements
- speech must surpass all background noise and other factors > syllables, emphasis on speech, vowels
47
cross-cultural psychological differences
- with age, people from different cultures diverse
- i.e. thoughts of the future between Chinese and Canadian children: _similar at age 7, differ at age 9 and 11_
- i.e. explanations of others' behaviour, optimism, tendencies to focus on positive aspects of self
48
Influences of early childhood
- infant's personal space
- sleeping
- attachment styles
- parenting styles
- the noun bias
49
Influences of early childhood 1: Infant's personal space
- amount of bodily contact between mother and infant
- European babies tend to occupy own space > can interact with mom as separate beings
- amount of face-to-face contact
- responsiveness of infant's vocalization
- root in child's ability to take turns in conversations
- likelihood for mother to mirror child's expressions
- Western countries have more interactive experiences > rate to acquire certain developmental skills (i.e. recognize themselves in a mirror)
50
Influences of early childhood 2: Sleeping
- sleep is a biological universal, but parameters of sleep is not universal
- cultural differences:
- sleep time at night: E > A
- sleep latency: E < A
- sleep problems: E < A [very subjective, forcing definitions may lose aspects of the problem that are not present in some cultures]
- sleep alone: E > A
- parent's room / bed: E < A
- additional factors: sleeping arrangements, co-sleeping (other cards)
51
Cultural differences in sleeping arrangements
- children will have different early experiences from values held regarding sleep arrangements
- Indians
- incest avoidance
- protection of the vulnerable
- female chastity anxiety
- respect for hierarchy
- Americans
- incest avoidance
- sacred couple
- autonomy ideal: young children who are needy should sleep along to learn self-reliance
52
Co-sleeping
- (+) good for promoting breastfeeding
- (-) dangerous -- leads to SIDS
- when looking at global pattern: cultures that do co-sleeping have fewer SIDS cases
- doing it right:
- no smoking, alcohol or drug use
- babies should be placed on their backs
- bedsheets should be tight
- beds should not have cracks
- avoid couches
53
Influences of early childhood 3: Attachment styles
- **secure attachment:** ideal and healthy, allows child to function independently
- occasionally seek their mother's presence
- intensify desire to be close to mother after being left alone in unfamiliar situation
- **avoidant attachment:** prevents child from developing trust or intimacy
- show little distress at mother's absence
- avoid her on her return
- **anxious-ambivalent attachment:** prevents child from developing trust or intimacy
- show frequent distress when mother is present or absent
- sometimes want to be near mother, sometimes will resist and push her away
54
Limitations with attachment theory
- behaviours vary, may not have same meaning everywhere
- secure attachment style is not always ideal - what is ideal is different
- not all 3 styles are found everywhere
- although there is a universal need to form attachments, we should expect some variation
55
Attachments styles and romantic relationships
- secure a: easy to get close to others and depend on them
- avoidant a: hard to be close to others or trust them
- anxious-ambivalent: wish partner would get closer, but end up driving him/her away
56
Influences of early childhood 4: Parenting styles
- Baumrind's typology: responsiveness & demandingness
- Responsiveness: degree of warmth, support and acceptance v. rejection and non-responsiveness
- Demandingness: degree parents are controlling and demanding
- High R + High D = Authoritative
- child centred, help child build emotional regulation
- high expectations
- High R + Low D = Permissive
- very child centred
- few rules, limits, controls
- Low R + High D = Authoritarian
- little open dialogue with child
- high expectations, strict rules
- Low R + Low D = Rejecting - Neglecting
- no limits or monitoring, focused on own needs
- disengaged from role as paren
57
Cultural differences in affect of parenting styles
- West: Authoritative = better school achievement, see parents as warm, child has autonomy and self-reliance
- Effect is not culturally consistent
- Authoritarian: bad for European American children, but good for ethnic minorities
- Authoritative: good for European American, but no relation for ethnic minorities
- General pattern:
- parenting style typical in a culture leads to more positive outcomes for the child
- overly strict, controlling parents = negative outcomes for West, but increased family cohesion and grades for non-West with less happy children
- there are trade-offs in parenting styles, ultimately depends on what culture prioritizes (i.e. happiness v achievement)
58
Weaknesses of Baumrind's Typology
- View is too wrapped up in western ideas: "warmth" viewed differently across cultures
- View does not take into account parenting styles that exist in other cultures
- Further complications: parents with different styles
- hispanic fathers < mothers in responsiveness
- Chinese fathers < mothers in responsiveness, but reverses over time
59
Influences of early childhood 5: noun bias
- **noun bias**: child's tendency to think more about nouns relative to other type of words > _assumed as universal (not anymore)_
- due to languages with sentence structures that end in nouns
- due to children hearing about objects differently
- West: analytical > see object as discrete and separate = talk about toy itself more
- East Asian: holistic > emphasize relationship between objects = explain toy within social routine
60
difficult developmental transitions
- **terrible twos**: increase in resistant, oppositional behaviour
- West: developmental milestone of establishing their individuality
- _not evident in many other cultures_ > acting unruly is immaturity, not blossoming individuality
- places more importance on accommodating for others in social group instead of asserting themselves
- adolescent rebellion: inclination to take risks, be violent, act out against authority figures, susceptible to substance abuse and suicide
- possibly due to hormonal changes in puberty
- but rebellion and violence is not universal > majority of culture do not expect teenagers to be disobedient
- different explanations for such behaviour:
- risky behaviour = harshness of environment
- increased difficulty = individualism where parent control is seen as constraint
- adolescent distress = sheer range of opportunities and having to assume adult roles
61
socialization through education
- teach us to think about the world
- learn to cluster information
- skills for analyzing patterns
- learn how to reflect on ways information is organized
- facilitates abstract logical reasoning: can apply rule based on logic rather than personal experience
- uneducated people reluctant to generalize beyond experiences
- cannot isolate intelligence from formal learning (most of our tests are saturated with cultural knowledge)
- education reflects society's beliefs about most important knowledge, learning styles and teaching styles
- case study: math education
- education shapes the way people think
- but also affected by teaching methods, value of education, expectations and language
62
Acculturation
- **plasticity v specificity**
- general (learn a lot) v specific learning (specialize in one area)
- _trade-off_: need to learn a variety of information, but do not have the resources and cognition ability to constantly learn everything
- but if we specialize from the beginning, what we choose may not suit us
- _best compromise_: benefits of both options
- plasticity in early ages > specificity once you decide
63
importance of school balance
- children face more challenges as children age
- more complex relationships (with peers)
- handling more independence
- bigger classroom = more complex social environments
- more workload
64
Arends-Tóth & Van de Vjiver (2006): Acculturation as a process
- factors that affect acculturation
- person: how opened to new experiences, how social you are
- group: how insular the group is > stick around sphere v encouraged to go out of sphere
- context: how multi-cultural or accepting the culture is
- outcomes of acculturation
- psychological outcomes: well-being, mental wellness, extent children act out
- cultural competence: extent of being comfortable with locals how well you learn language over time
65
Acculturation identification
- higher mainstream identification
- child shows greater cultural competence (ability to communicate, easily make friends with locals)
- contribute to psychological outcomes
- higher heritage identification
- contribute to psychological outcomes
66
Family matters
- parent involvement with education: h+, m+
- encouraging mainstream adoption: m+
- encourage heritage language maintenance: h+, m-
- encourage mainstream language at home: h-, m+
- child exists within a microsystem: close contacts = teachers, parents, close friends
- mesosystem around the child
- proximal processes: interactions between different pieces of the microsystem
67
how to conduct cross-cultural research
- selecting samples: depends on RQ
- how a cultural variable shapes an aspect of psychology: use culture high v culture low
- to see universality: use samples that are maximally different = if equal, suggest universalism
- making meaningful comparisons
- understand the culture you study
- think about methodological equivalence
68
drawbacks of only using university students in industrialized societies
- generalizability
- study's power: capacity to detect an effect really exists
- design must be sensitive enough to detect DV
- participants may be highly similar in experiences = not strong power
69
generating ideas
- **deduction**: start from a theory and lead away from it
- _theory > hypothesis > prediction_
- **induction**: create a theory over time
- _observations > hypothesis > theory_
- **abduction**: reasoning in the absence of theory
- _specific observation > explanation_
- not trying to generalize, only try to figure out what happened
70
research designs: qualitative v quantitative
- personal text v numerical
- describe v identify regularities
- inductive v deductive
- unstructured v structured
- small sample v large sample
- large quantity of info per participant v large variable quantity
- analysis is interpretation v statistical analyses
- generalizability depends for both
71
Quantitative measures
- explicit
- implicit
- behavioural measures
- neurological measures (fMRI, EEG - can compare across cultures)
- physiological measures
- surveys using number scales (i.e. Likert-type scale)
- may have response bias > threatens validity of cross-cultural comparisons
72
Response bias
- **moderacy bias**: circle middle items
- **extremity bias**: circling opposite extremes (common in Hispanics for emotion terms)
- **acquiescence bias:** circling "agree" (common among East Asians for questions they're not sure about)
- solution: flip around statements, then reverse score them
- **socially desirable responding:** often about questions people are uncomfortable with
- motivations: self deception / image management
- solution: ensure anonymity, use neutral terms, measure to assess participant's tendency (= Paulhus Deception Scale)
- **reference group effect:** answers depend on the group they are using for reference
- solution: make questions more objective and concrete, _use specific context-based scenarios rather than abstracts_
- **deprivation effects:** consider what people actually have v what they wish to have
73
Cultural psychology outside the lab
- field study
- ethnography: comprehensive collection of data about a particular group
- indigenous research methodologies: heavy on qualitative - storytelling, interviews
- focus groups: allows for natural interactions, but assertive speakers may dominate
- talking circles: 1 person at a time to avoid domination
- amalgamating methods: use cultural products
74
Translations
- very important, but very difficult
- method 1: have bilingual researcher decide if material is appropriate
- limitation: have own biases and interpretations
- method 2: back-translation method
- translator A: original > target
- translator B: back to original
- compare and resolve discrepancies
- method 3: consensus method
- multiple bilingual speakers arrive at consensus
75
Structural Equivalence
- questions **must have structural/construct equivalence** = participants thinking of question in the same way
- **factor analysis**: determine how many factors can be separated in data > generate "fit index"
- one-factor solution: everyone answers in a similar way (and so on...)
- _no structural/construct equivalence > cannot compare_
76
Structural/construct equivalence
- questions must have structural/construct equivalence = participants thinking of question in the same way
- factor analysis: determine how many factors can be separated in data > generate "fit index"
- one-factor solution: everyone answers in a similar way (and so on...)
- no structural/construct equivalence > cannot compare = have to eliminate some questions
- (+) can compare
- (-) lose out on some valuable variability
77
Methodological Equivalence
- participants must understand questions in the same way for researchers to make meaningful comparisons
- researchers may need to adjust methods with different cultures
- unavoidable trade-off between experimental control v comparable meaning
78
Experimental v Correlational v Quasi
- correlational and quasi can have intersections when there are 2 groups
- with 2+ groups, it is only quasi (not correlational)
- arbitrary ordering will not make sense = correlational coefficient would be meaningless
- experimental groups allow us to compare individuals within a culture
- allows comparison of pattern of means (instead of magnitude of means)
- between-groups v within-groups (> 1 condition, response bias no longer a concern)
