psych 307 - M2

Question 1

Cultural Values

Answer 1

• guiding principles for how people in certain cultural environments interact with their physical and social environment
• studied using value dimensions:
  
  • Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s Value Dimensions
  • Hofstede’s Value Dimensions
• overlap between the value dimensions: relational v individualism and indulgence
  
  • most commonly studied

Question 2

Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s Value Dimensions

Answer 2

• “time” dimension: where in the chronological timeline do people focus on
  
  • past: ancestor worship, discussion of ancestors (East, South-East Asian)
  • present: not focused on planning, here and now (i.e. substance use)
  • future: planning and thinking about the future
    
    • linked to higher academic achievement
• “nature” orientation: human’s place in the cosmos – how we interact with the environment
  
  • subjugation to nature: higher levels of helplessness, cannot change the environment
  • harmony with nature: humans are extension to nature, meant to take care of it
  • mastery over nature: can fully exert agency to shape environment however they want to (i.e. land reclamation)
• “human nature” orientation: what is the nature of humanity
  
  • good: humans are good by nature, but is easy to stray away > have to continue to cultivate to refine “chi”
  • evil: people are born with sin
  • mixed: people have capacity for good or bad, not not innately good or bad
• “relational” orientation: nature of the relationships between people
  
  • collateral: power sharing, equality between individuals, horizontal collective hierarchies
  • linear: hierarchy, decisions made at the top and filtered down
  • individualistic: making decisions for me, by myself

Question 3

Hofstede’s Value Dimensions

Answer 3

• power distance: whether people in a group (particularly those at the bottom), accept and expect unequal distributions of power in society
  
  • low: lower rates of corruption, equal distribution of wealth and income, children given more autonomy [Western European]
  • high: rampant corruption and scandals, uneven distribution of income, children taught to respect authority [Eastern European, Southeast Asian]
• uncertainty avoidance: whether people in a group are comfortable with ambiguity and unstructured interactions
  
  • low: tolerate different opinions, dislike rules and norms, teachers can say “idk” [East Asian, South American]
  • high: different opinions seen as dangerous, emotional need for rules for clarity and structure, teachers should have all answers [English-speaking, Nordic]
• masculinity: whether men and women in a group have differentiated gender roles (assertive, ambitious v modest, caring)
  
  • fem: minimum gender role differentiation, many women elected into politics, sexuality is not a moral issue [Nordic]
  • masc: maximum gender role differentiation, few women elected into politics, sexuality is highly moralized [Eastern European, Asian]
• individualism: whether people are integrated into a cohesive group rather than a loose collection of individuals
  
  • collect: strong emphasis on maintaining harmony, breaking rules leads to shame, born into complex network of extended relationships [Central American, East Asian]
  • indiv: strong emphasis for speaking one’s mind, breaking rules lead to guilt, primary relationships involve immediate family [Western countries]
• indulgence: whether people in a group value / control gratification of one’s desires and happiness
  
  • restrained: little concern for freedom of speech, personal life seen through helplessness, less likely to remember / think about positive emotions
  • indulgent: great importance on free speech, people see personal life as controllable, more likely to remember / think / talk about positive emotions

Question 4

self schema / concept

Answer 4

• self schema: cognitive schema that contains beliefs about the self (= self construals)
• 2 types of self-construals (Markus and Kitayama (1991))
  
  • everyone falls somewhere in-between the two: independent v interdependent self-construal
  • instead of seeing it as binary / high-low, speak in terms of which end they are closer to
• self-concept serves key functions = understanding how people view themselves allows us to make predictions about how specific psychological processes vary cross-culturally
  
  • how we relate to others
  • attainment of personal goals
  • organize information we have about ourselves
  • direct attention to information considered relevant
  • shapes the concerns we have
  • guides choices of relationship partners and kinds of relationships we maintain
  • influences how we interpret situations and the emotional experiences we have

Question 5

Independent Self-Construal

Answer 5

• main separation between self and others
• linked to higher individualism (more emphasis on the self)
• attributes are basis of the individual’s identity
• diagram:
  
  • circle around individual do not overlap with significant relationship circles
    
    • attributes are self-contained
    • arises from individual, not from interactions with others
    • individuals feel obligated to publicly present themselves consistently with these attributes
  • X lie inside the circle within the individual:
    
    • unique to the individual
    • significant for regulating behaviour
  • circle around individual has solid border: experiences are stable, and do not change from situation to situation
  • circle around in-group has dotted line border: boundary between in-group and out-group is permeable
    
    • people view themselves as closer to in-group than out-group, but do not view them in fundamentally distinct ways

Question 6

Interdependent Self-Construal

Answer 6

• main separation is between in-group and out-group
  
  • linked to collectivism
  • important aspects of self sits at relationships with others (X)
  • aspects of identity based on internal characteristics (x) are less central to their identity
• diagram:
  
  • circle around individual overlaps considerably with significant relationships
    
    • behaviour depends on perception of others’ thoughts, feelings and actions
    • individual is not perceived as separate entities, but as participants in a larger social unit
  • X lies in intersections between individual and their significant relationships
    
    • identities are grounded in relationships with others – people take particular roles that govern how they feel and behave towards their partners
  • circle around individual has dotted line: identity is fluid and permeable
    
    • the role the person occupies will vary
  • circle separating in-group and out-group has a solid line: significant and stable
    
    • relationships with in-group are self-defining
    • people do not easily become in-groups
    • in-groups do not easily become out-groups
    • views in and out-groups distinctively, and will behave differently

Question 7

Independent v Interdependent self-construals

Answer 7

• definition of self:
  
  • free from social context
  • tied to social context
• structure of self
  
  • stable, bounded, unitary - individual is own entity
  • variable, flexible, fluid
• primary tasks
  
  • uniqueness, self-expression, realization of internal attributes, promotion of personal goals
  • fitting in, self-restraint, assuming one’s proper place, promotion of others’ goals
• basis of self-esteem:
  
  • ability to express oneself and one’s internal attributes
  • ability to restrain oneself and maintain harmony with others
• in-group and out-group relationships
  
  • [ind] several close relationships with in-group, but relationships are less self-defining
  • perceives selves as functioning separately from social environment
    
    • relationships can form and dissolve without much impact on identity
    • more wiling to form new connections, maintain large networks
  • [inter] more solid and stable in-group and out-group boundary
  • close relationships are especially important
    
    • serves to direct behaviour
    • people have obligations to these relationships
  • study: Asian Americans more accurate in identifying emotions of close friends, European Americans more accurate in recognizing emotions of strangers and have higher levels of general trust to strangers
    
    • problem in conducting research: studies usually assess behaviour with strangers – interdependent people may feel especially distant and would act differently than Westerners

Question 8

differences associated with self-construals

Answer 8

• [1] self descriptors: how people describe themselves (“i am ___”)
  
  • through Twenty Statements Test
  • [ind] describes you as a general person, focus on personal characteristics (abstract, global, stable)
  • [inter] describes you in the relation of your relationships, focus on social identity (social categories, affiliations, social roles)
• [2] self-consistency: structure of the self
  
  • measured through self-concept clarity scale:
    
    • strong relationship between self-concept confusion = lower self-esteem for European Canadians with self-esteem, weak relationship for East Asians
  • built into languages / society (i.e. Korean uses different words)
  • [ind] more fixed – you are the same person no matter where or who you are with
    
    • conformity seen as negative and immature (have not developed self)
    • people who adapt to situations are seen as “fake” / not genuine
  • [inter] more variable and fluid
    
    • conformity seen positively, as sign of maturity (insistence on non-conformity is immature and stubborn)
    • maturity = able to overcome urges, read social situation and act accordingly
  • cognitive dissonance: distressing feeling when we observe ourselves behave inconsistently, or against our own sense of self-consistency
    
    • to reduce: act more consistently / dissonance reduction: change our attitudes (after decision) so we don’t appear inconsistent
    • North Americans aspire to be self-consistent (rationalize for own decision), while East Asians aspire to be consistent with others (rationalize for decision made for others)
      
      • East Asians are not less consistent, just in a different way
• [3] implicit theories of self
  
  • [ind] entity theory of self = abilities are fixed and reflect innate qualities because the self is stable and bound
    
    • deal with failure: blame lack of ability > will withdraw from task
  • [inter] incremental theory of self = abilities are malleable and can be changed with effort because the self is malleable and fluid
    
    • deal with failure: blame lack of effort > will redouble efforts and be less likely to give up
  • North Americans less likely to hold incremental view than Asians (can see difference in kinds of exams created: aptitude v knowledge)
• [4] self-esteem
• [5] brain activation patterns
  
  • Westerners show different regions of brain activation between themselves and their mothers
  • Chinese show activation patterns in the same brain regions
    
    • shows that significant in-group relationships form core part of self-concept
    • activation occurs in medial pre-fontal cortex: linked to self-concept
• [6] self awareness
  
  • subjective self-awareness: consider ourselves from inside out perspective
    
    • concerned with outside world, unaware of ourselves
    • American: self-evaluations unaffected by whichever score other people know about = evaluations based on own standards
  • objective self-awareness: consider ourselves from the outside in perspective
    
    • looking at ourselves objectively the way we perceive the rest of the world
    • Hong Kong: self-evaluations affected by score confederate saw = evaluations are product of others’ thoughts
  • affects how you think:
    
    • first v third person perspective (habit of considering perspective of others > objective perspective of self)
    • accuracy of one’s self-view (more accurate in predicting own future behaviour because of objective perspective of self)

Question 9

Individualism v Collectivism

Answer 9

• self-concept and cultural practices make each other up
  
  • self-concept is shaped by cultural practices to direct individuals on what to focus on, value, believe and attain
  • cultural practices are shaped by self-concept of a culture’s members
  • [indiv] engage in thoughts and behaviours that foster independence, feel distinct from others, emphasize being self-sufficient
  • [collect] engage in thoughts and behaviours that foster interdependent self-concept = close relationships and group memberships
• issue: collectivistic cultures make up > 80% world population, but most research is done in independent cultures
• individualism varies with social class
  
  • higher SES: have more independent selves from poorer backgrounds
  • exception: impoverished people = experience social isolation and report fewer close social relationships
  • middle-class parents emphasize teaching children self-direction // working-class parents put greater value to conforming to authority
  • economic growth is linked to greater rates of independence, recession is linked to greater rates of interdependence

Question 10

Gender and Culture

Answer 10

• 4 underlying factors: agency, assertiveness, collectivism, relatedness
  
  • cultural differences:
    
    • Western score higher on agency and assertiveness
    • Eastern score higher on collectivism and relatedness
  • gender differences:
    
    • independent self-concept more characteristic of men, interdependent self-concept more characteristic of women
    • but women score on relatedness [no differences for other factors]
    • suggests women are more interdependent than men in feelings and concerns, while other factors have no differences
• gender norms
  
  • part of cultural discourse: men and women share similar views, but men have more traditional views than women
    
    • Northern = more egalitarian, Southern = more traditional
    • Urban = more egalitarian
    • Christian countries = more egalitarian, Muslim = more traditional
  • roots in agriculture: societies who historically did plowing have more traditional norms and fewer women in the work force today
    
    • shifting cultivation (work done by women) v plow cultivation (work done by men)

Question 11

Personality

Answer 11

• personality: one’s characteristic pattern of thought, emotion and behaviour, along with accompanying psychological mechanisms
• cultural differences:
  
  • some see as fixed, some as entity that can change
  • universality: all cultural groups possess terms to describe enduring characteristics
    
    • personality exists everywhere, but for some cultures may need to re-conceptualize as something existing within relationships
  • variability: some languages pay a lot to attention and have many words to describe it
    
    • some cultures conceptualize as trans-situationally stable, others do not discuss being stable across situations
    • some argue that the study of personality is simply an extension of studying Western individualism
• personality traits tend to cluster: influence of daily interactions / demands of environment / people move to places with like-minded others

Question 12

How to study personality?

Answer 12

• lexical approach:
  
  • look for dictionary entries with trait adjectives
  • eliminate synonyms, physical descriptors (i.e. muscular), temporary states (i.e. tired), unfamiliar terms (uncommonly known)
  • give list to people to rate themselves
  • do a factor analysis: determines how many factors underlie a construct
• example: 2 factors from 6 questions
  
  • factor 1: answer question 1, 3, 4 similarly (if high for 1, will be high for 3, 4)
  • factor 2: answer question 2, 5, 6 similarly
• results in 5 factor model = OCEAN
  
  • openness to experiences
  • conscientiousness: how responsible / dependable
  • extraversion: how active / dominant
  • agreeableness: how warm / pleasant / friendly
  • neuroticism: emotional instability / unpredictability
• OCEAN shows universality and coverage for personality variations, but it is not shocking if the 5 factors are yielded from one language
  
  • must take lexical approach to other cultures
  • Tagalog yielded 7 factors
    
    • intellect: clever / sensible (= openness)
    • conscientiousness: dependable / religious
    • gregariousness: liking company of others (= extraversion)
    • concern for others: humble / not violent (= agreeableness)
    • self-assurance: brave / assertive (= neuroticism)
    • temperamentalness: emotional reactivity / hotheaded
    • negative valence: sadistic / crazy / social deviance

Question 13

Measures and Questions of universality

Answer 13

• emic measure: a measure created within a culture, and used to assess people from within the culture
  
  • would see more variability
• etic measure: a measure created from one culture and exported for use in another culture
  
  • would see more universality (it is what the test is designed to reveal)

Question 14

Self Esteem (last difference associated with self-construal)

Answer 14

• self esteem: how positive one’s overall / global evaluation of oneself
  
  • measured using Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale: European Canadians > South Asian Canadians > everyone else > East Asian Canadians
  • [ind] strong emphasis on having and maintaining high self-esteem
  • more likely to engage in self-enhancement: tendency to view selves positively and socially desirable
    
    • self-serving bias: tendency for people to exaggerate their positive characteristics
    • motivated by desire to bolster self image and demonstrate unique attributes
    • try not to think about discrepancy between actual and ideal self > predictive of depression symptoms
  • [inter] strong emphasis on social categories, affiliations, social roles
  • more likely to engage in self-effacement: tendency to view selves in a critical manner and think of shortcomings
    
    • find failures more memorable (think of them more)
    • motivated by desire to fit in and self-improve
    • experience more actual-ideal discrepancy (not as concerned)

Question 15

Strategies for self-enhancement

Answer 15

• downward social comparison: compare ourselves to those who are worse off than us (“at least I didn’t get 50% like that person”)
  
  • v upward social comparison: compare ourselves to those better than us
• discounting: downplay the importance of the attribute (“i don’t really care about this course anyways”)
  
  • v value task even more
• external attributions: attribute failures to others than than ourselves (“the prof’s instructions were unclear”)
  
  • v make external attributions for success (instead of failures)
• compensatory self-enhancement: focusing on and exaggerating how good you are at something unrelated (“but I am a really good clarinet player”)
  
  • v tendency to exaggerate negative self-view
• basking in reflected glory: emphasizing connections to successful others from a group you belong to (“we won!” - about university football team)

Question 16

Result for self-enhancement

Answer 16

• more ambition: more likely to try for less-likely outcomes due to positive view of self
• ignore adversity: believe in ability to handle adversity due to unrealistically positive view of self
• better physical health (less stressed)

Question 17

Modesty Norms

Answer 17

• alternative explanation to self-enhancement v self-effacement > explain away cultural variability
• culture norms to be modest stops people from self-enhancing (= don’t self-enhance when giving answers)
• studied self-enhancement through overconfidence (= overestimation, overplacement and overprecision)
  
  • overestimation:how well you think you did v how well you did
  • overplacement: estimating how you did in relation to others (what percentile rank are you)
  • overprecision: how certain are you in the absence of information
• results: have to be specific, cannot give blanket statement
  
  • with incentives, all cultures do self-enhancement, but some more than others
  • less cultural variability for overestimation
  • more cultural variability for overprecision

Question 18

Origin of cultural differences for self-enhancement

Answer 18

• people learn motives for self-enhancement as they grow up
  
  • parents’ stories about child’s past behaviour
    
    • European American: focus on previous successes
    • Taiwan: focus on child’s past transgressions
  • parents’ view on self-esteem
    
    • American: self-esteem is central to child rearing, is a positive quality, and should be cultivated by parents
    • Taiwan: seen negatively, too much self-esteem leads to frustration in adversity
• [1] Protestant Reformation stimulated growth of self-enhancing motivations
  
  • predestination: before birth, it is pre-determined whether someone will go to Heaven / Hell
  • motivated people to interpret events in life as a sign of favor from God
• [2] as cultures become more individualistic, people have to learn to take care of themselves
  
  • needs increased self-esteem to do that
  • as individualism increases, self-esteem and self-enhancement also increases
• [3] income inequality - people want to think of themselves as better than others when there are pronounced differences

Question 19

Face and Self-Improvement

Answer 19

• self-improvement: identifying potential weaknesses and work on correcting them
• face: amount of social value others give you if you live up to standards associated with your position
  
  • higher social position = greater face
  • face can be shared by groups
  • very important in hierarchical, collectivist societies
• characteristics of the face
  
  • [1] more easily lost than gained
    
    • prevention orientation: defensive, cautious approach to protect self from negative outcomes > avoid bad things
      
      • more interested on things they did poorly = less likely to fail in the future
    • promotion orientation: advancing oneself and aspiring for gains > strive at advancements
      
      • more interested on things they did well = more likely to provide opportunity for success
  • [2] involves person’s concern with how they are being considered by others
    
    • only maintained through others’ evaluations
    • another strategy: present oneself to others in a way that enhances face (i.e. brand-name products) > maintain / increase face

Question 20

Agency and Control

Answer 20

• different cultural environments will foster different ways of exercising control
  
  • implicit theory of self: can I change?
    
    • if yes = incremental theory of self: belief that abilities are malleable and can be changed with effort
    • if no = entity theory of self: belief that abilities are largely fixed, and reflects innate self
  • implicit theory of the world: can the world change?
    
    • if yes = incremental theory of the world: the world is flexible and responsive to our efforts of change
    • if no = entity theory of the world: perspective that the world around you is fixed beyond your ability to change it
• group agency
  
  • Americans: events are caused by individuals involved (i.e. CEO’s fault)
  • Japanese: group is responsible for events (i.e. company caused the scandal)
• differences in control and agency is associated with differences in choice-making
  
  • independent self-construal: important decisions must be made by ourselves (made by myself, for myself)
  • interdependent self-construal: important decisions are made by close others (with others / by others)

Question 21

Type of Control

Answer 21

• primary control: internal locus of control
  
  • incremental theory of the world + entity theory of the self + independent view of the self
  • exercising agency to make changes in environment to suit own needs
  • influences people / objects around them
• secondary control: adjustment / external locus of control
  
  • entity theory of the world + incremental theory of the self + interdependent view of self
  • exercising agency by adjusting goals and desires to control psychological impact of reality
  • adjust and adapt yourself to be suitable to the world
• everyone experiences both primary and secondary control, but cultures differ in extent people engage in it
  
  • collectivistic: power and agency is concentrated in groups/leaders of groups/mandated by roles

Question 22

Making Choices

Answer 22

• paradox of choice: don’t like too much or too little
  
  • too many: overwhelming choices deplete mental resources
    
    • European-Americans will prefer to have many choices than little, but actually fare better with fewer
  • too little: learned helplessness
• learned helplessness: person feels powerless and unable to control or avoid unpleasant events
  
  • caused by less direct control over events
  • income positively correlates with feelings of control
    
    • working-class has fewer choices: learned that what people encounter in life is beyond their control = learn to accept and cope with unchosen situations
      
      • good way to maintain independence is to emphasize one’s integrity and resilience
      • when making decisions, influenced by opinion of others
    • middle-class: raised to favour freedom of choice and expressing themselves through decisions = learn to respond negatively when they don’t have choice
      
      • when making decisions, largely ignore others’ choices, assuming their selections would be the same as their own

Question 23

Individualism v Collectivism in Choices

Answer 23

• more choices are available when acting alone v part of a network
  
  • [indiv] less dependent on others’ actions
  • [collect] more concerned with goals of their group and more willing to adjust behaviours = reduce their choices
    
    • decisions appear to be more difficult for collectivists
    • in-group member making choice for them is an opportunity to promote harmony and belonging
• individualistic:
  
  • if someone tried to influence their decision, would assume they are doing this selfishly (v altruistically)
  • less likely to go along with decisions made by an influencer (v more likely)
  • respond negatively when deprived of choice (v not responding negatively)
  • the more important the action, the more likely it is identified as a personal choice (v less likely a personal choice)
  • choices reflect personal preferences (v deferring to views of authority’s expectations)
  • more motivated when making own choice (v more motivated when trusted other made the choice for them)

Question 24

Conformity v Uniqueness

Answer 24

• Behaving in a group is decided by
  
  • fitting well with others: increases group harmony at expense of individual distinctiveness
  • standing out: highlight uniqueness at risk of not getting along with group
• why do people conform?
  
  • social costs (i.e. laughed at)
  • cultures that are more socially cohesive (social cost of dissenting is high, adults see children who conform as intelligent)
• people may be driven to stand out due to independent self-construal
  
  • sees identity as grounded in individual qualities (need to perceive themselves as unique)
  • want to express uniqueness by making unique choices
  • seen through ads: unique messages more common (v conformity messages)

Question 25

Emotion and its theories

Answer 25

• emotion: psychological and physiological state in response to some stimulus
  
  • psychological: subjective component + cognitive component (emotions tend to accompany thoughts)
  • physiological: your body’s reaction in response to stimuli
• James-Lange Theory of Emotion: emotions are a physiological response to stimuli in the world
  
  • event occurs > creates physiological change > we recognize those responses > emotion
  • physiological responses are the product of the autonomic nervous system designed to indicate the proper reactions to facilitate survival
  • each emotion is a description of a different bodily state
  • emotions should be universal due to physiological similarity of all humans
  • facial feedback hypothesis: by manipulating physiological changes, one can produce distinct emotions
    
    • problem: assumes 1-on-1 mapping of emotions and physiological response (multiple emotions can have similar expressions)
• Two-Factor Theory of Emotion:
  
  • physiological change + cognitive appraisal = emotions
  • emotions are more than physiological changes: as physiological change occurs > we come up with cognitive appraisal on the context > response
  • emotions should vary across culture: different cultural and belief systems results in different interpretations of physiological responses
  • cognitive appraisal could lead to misattribution of arousal (is heart rate increase due to the scary movie, or because you’re on a date?)

Question 26

Emotional universality

Answer 26

• [1] emotional antecedents: what leads to people feeling certain emotions?
  
  • antecedents: perception of events that lead up to / elicit certain emotions
  • substantial overlap across cultural environments of emotions (i.e. death = sadness, threat = fear)
• [2] physiological response associated with emotions
  
  • ergotropic responses: physiological responses that reflect actions of the sympathetic nervous system
    
    • about expending energy and preparing your body for action (cardiovascular, muscular, perspiration)
  • trophotropic responses: physiological responses that reflect actions of the parasympathetic nervous system
    
    • about relaxing you (gastric disturbance, crying)
  • felt temperature responses: temperature one feels in their bodies when they are experiencing emotions
    
    • anger: high ergotropic, low trophotropic = hot
    • sad: low ergotropic, high trophotropic = cold
• [3] emotional appraisal: antecedents don’t automatically elicit emotions, but people (universally) go through stimulus evaluation checks = expectation, pleasantness, fairness
  
  • anger = highly unexpected + highly unpleasant + highly unfair
  • happiness = highly pleasant + highly fair
• [4] emotional expression
  
  • basic emotions: anger, happy, sad, surprise, disgust, fear
  • regardless of upbringing, people recognize these emotions across culture

Question 27

Emotional variability

Answer 27

• [1] variability of emotional expression
  
  • when people share one ethnicity, but differ in nationality = express emotions differently
    
    • large universal component in recognizing facial expressions, but have small cultural specific component
    • people are 9% more accurate in judging facial expressions of people from their own culture v from another culture
  • caused by display rules: culturally specific rules that govern appropriateness and intensity of facial expressions and even “ritualized” displays
    
    • amplification: expression > experience
    • de-amplification: expression < experience
    • neutralization: expression = 0
    • simulation: expression > 0, experience = 0
    • masking: expression ≠ experience
    • qualification: expression = experience + smthg else
  • East Asians experience fewer and less intense emotions
    
    • strong emotions ruin group harmony / seems not genuine
    • Americans experience emotion longer and more intensely (blood pressure)
  • more heterogenous population, more expressive population (= requires explicit communication)
• [2] variability of emotional lexicon
  
  • some languages have unique words for unique emotions
  • Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: language affects how we think, but is not deterministic
    
    • lack of words hinders our ability to remember / discuss experiences
    • happiness and sadness emerge as reliable clusters, but need to consider cultural component for other emotions
• [3] kinds of emotions
  
  • people with different self-construals interpret situations differently
    
    • [ind] events are opportunities to distinguish themselves
    • [inter] events as influencing relationships w others
  • kinds of emotions that arise are different (i.e. defending honor)
    
    • Turks: anger and shame
    • Japanese: shame (no anger)
    • Americans: anger (no shame)
  • kinds of daily emotional experience
    
    • cause of feeling positive is different
    • Japanese: positive interpersonal engaged emotions = when emotions allow them to connect with others
    • Americans: positive interpersonal disengaged emotions = when emotions enable them to distinguish themself from others

Question 28

Happiness

Answer 28

• pursuit of happiness is universal, but have substantial cultural differences in average levels of happiness reported
• money and happiness = curvilinear pattern — curve flattens after reaching certain point of money
• what does happiness mean?
  
  • happiness has become more of an individual concept
  • culture varies in terms of the importance ascribed to happiness
  • Euro-Canadians show preference for fun game, while Asian-Canadians were close call between both
  • happiness-boosting activities do not seem as effective as it is for Westerners

Question 29

Subjective Well-Being

Answer 29

• subjective well-being: feeling of being satisfied with one’s life
  
  • countries with higher score: Northern European, wealthy, respect human rights, more income equality, less corruption
• but many countries have scores that depart from predictable patterns due to cultural differences
  
  • [indiv] base satisfaction on how many positive emotions they were experiencing
  • satisfied when living in ways consistent with inner attributes
  • [collect] more likely to pursue happiness through social engagement
  • feel good if lived lives up to others’ standards of being a good person
• another factor that influences life satisfaction: personal theory of how happy they think they should feel
  
  • European Americans: remember having a much better week than Asian Americans did
    
    • operate under theory that they should be happy > more likely to say ideal life is dominated by happiness
  • Asian Americans: remembered the week as good as they experienced it
    
    • operate under theory that emotional experience should be balanced > less likely to emphasize positive emotions, more readily experience mixed emotions

Question 30

Kinds of Happiness

Answer 30

• hedonism: concerned with satisfaction, happiness and subjective well-being
• eudaemonia: living a good life
  
  • measured by meaning of life: more meaning = more purpose, life matters, existence is significant
  • negative relationship between wealth and meaning of life
  • countries who are more religious tend to have a more meaningful life
• contrast of happy v meaningful
  
  • focus on present v focus on past and future
  • fun times with friends v with family
  • basic needs satisfied v religiosity and spirituality
  • sufficient money v expressing self
  • positive feelings v difficult struggles

Question 31

Dwelling on negative feelings

Answer 31

• cultures vary in extent people strive to enhance positive feelings and avoid negative feelings
• North Americans: more positive = less depression and health problems reported
• East Asians: positive feelings and depression / health is uncorrelated
• Russians: famous for wanting to wallow in their despair
• Russians brood more than Americans
  
  • Americans who ruminate were more depressed
  • no difference in depression for Russians
• America: cultural message that people should be happy
  
  • happiness is related to expectations
  • related to internal / external self-construals

Question 32

Ways to consider happiness

Answer 32

• [1] total sum of all happy feelings you experienced
• [2] how you retrospectively evaluate your happiness
• the remembering self is the one that makes decisions in life [how you remember > how you actually experienced it]
• Euro-Americans more likely to possess theory that they are happy (when their daily reports are not)
  
  • Asian Americans not as committed to the idea that life should always be happy

Question 33

Ideal Affect

Answer 33

• ideal affect: the kinds of feelings people desire
  
  • will structure their lives in order to maximize the opportunity to experience them
• culture variation in kind of affects people want to have > guides behaviour
  
  • East Asians: prefer low arousal positive states (calm, relaxed, peaceful)
  • North Americans prefer high arousal positive states (enthusiastic, excited, elated)

Question 34

Happiness conclusion

Answer 34

• some things universally predict happiness: minimum level of wealth, human rights, income equality
• there is variation in levels of happiness
  
  • pursuit of happiness: people from different cultures are not all striving for the same kinds of good feelings
• people view happiness and positive emotions in different terms
  
  • Westerners: subjective well-being associated with positive feelings (v associated with appropriate role behaviours)
  • operate under implicit theory that opportunities for happiness should be maximized (v balance between positive and negative is normal)
  • positive emotions protect against depression (v do not protect)
  • high-arousal positive emotions are preferred (v low-arousal)

Question 35

perspectives on emotion

Answer 35

• evolutionary theories: focused on universality
  
  • emotions are hard-wired: automatic responses are tied to our nervous system
  • culture plays a minimal role
  • physiological changes are antecedents to emotion, not consequences (James-Lange Theory of Emotion)
• appraisal theories
  
  • universality in biological features
  • cultural variability in evaluative process
    
    • allows for individual variability in appraisals
    • culture plays important role in emotional experience due to influence on appraisals and interpretations

Question 36

Bio-Cultural Model of Emotion

Answer 36

• input (= event) > appraisal > core system > response tendencies > display/feeling rules
• core system: scans for information to find patterns matching pre-determined situations
  
  • results in response tendencies: facial expressions, subjective experience, autonomic responses
  • if something hits pattern, things are triggered really quickly
  • if not, it may take a while for things to come out

Question 37

Impact of Culture and Emotion

Answer 37

• impact of culture depends on emotional complexity
  
  • aspect of emotion: high intensity floods system = culture does not come in
  • type of emotion: culturally-based emotions are less rooted in survival functions, based more on socialization
  • emotional context: presence of cues indicate appropriate emotional expressions
  • the individual: extent of cultural identification

Question 38

Emotional Expressivity

Answer 38

• historical heterogeneity: extent to which a country’s modern population comes from migration from other countries in the last 500 years
  
  • results in adaptive over-expressivity
  • people from high historically heterogenous countries are more expressive
  • possibility of misunderstanding = adaptive to be overly-expressive to produce emotions accurately recognized by others
• high context cultures: rely more on contextual information than explicit information
  
  • more certainty: people have more things in common > implicit understanding of others’ mental states, require less explicit information
• low context cultures: do not rely on contextual cues and implicit information
  
  • more uncertainty in communication, especially in emotional states
  • hinders cooperation, requires explicit information

Question 39

Sensation v perception

Answer 39

• sensation: sensory signals reach the detectors in our bodies, reaching our brain (i.e. sound waves hitting ear drum)
• perception: process by which the brain selects, organizes and interprets the sensory information that it receives from the sensory organs (i.e. not hearing background sound)
  
  • what matters is what we think is happening in our mind, not reality → predicts our reactions

Question 40

Perception

Answer 40

• susceptibility to optical illusions
  
  • caused by difference in physical environment
  • i.e. Müller-Lyer Illusion → carpentered world hypothesis
  • i.e. i.e. Horizontal-Vertical Illusion: foreshortening hypothesis (sees line as existing beyond into the horizon)
• pictorial depth perception
  
  • perceiving 3D images from 2D requires sensitivity to depth cues:relative size of object, object superimposition, vertical position, linear perspective, texture gradient
  • Western education promotes sensitivity to depth cues
• object v field focus
  
  • difference in producing perspective on a 2D medium
  • one-point perspective v oblique perspective

Question 41

Analytical v Holistic Thinking

Answer 41

• analytic thinking: perceive objects focusing on specific elements rather than contexts, and use fixed abstract rules to explain and predict behaviour
  
  • more common in Western cultures
  • associated with field independence: tendency to separate focal object from its environment/background and attend to attributes of the focal object
• holistic thinking: people perceive scenes and situations as an integrated whole — paying more attention to the context
  
  • more common in non-Western cultures
  • associated with field dependence: tendency to attend to the context that surrounds focal object and relationships among objects in the environment / separate objects from their background fields
• importance of horizons
  
  • differs in whether people focus on “object” or “field”
  • East Asian: drew higher horizons (more space to show relations between objects)
  • East Asian: smaller head in portraits = more space
  • Asian: drew more than just 5 criteria items
    -

Question 42

Attention (in regards to worldviews)

Answer 42

• attention: the act or state of applying the mind to something / directing cognitive activity in a certain way
• analytic thinkers: focus attention on separate parts of a scene (specific items of interest)
  
  • describe Rorschach based on single aspect
  • recognized fish across conditions (despite different background)
  • more activation of object-processing brain regions
• holistic thinkers: direct attention across an entire scene
  
  • describe Rorschach based on whole picture
  • made more references to background elements
  • did not recognize fish – saw fish and background as bounded together
  • eye gazes have saccades: shifting of the gaze from one fixation point to another

Question 43

3 domains of analytical and holistic thinking

Answer 43

• [1] attributions
  
  • fundamental attribution error: tendency to put too much focus on someone’s internal dispositions as attributions for one’s behaviour, underestimating impact of external / contextual factors
  • [ana] dispositional attributions: explaining behaviour in terms of a person’s underlying qualities
  • more likely to conceive people in terms of abstract personality traits (”she’s friendly”)
  • American: more dispositional attribution as they got older (shows effect of socialization)
  • [hol] situational attributions: explaining behaviour in terms of contextual factors
  • more likely to describe others in terms of concrete behaviours (”she brought cake”)
  • Indian: more situational attribution as they got older (shows effect of socialization)
• [2] categorization (i.e. dog, rabbit, carrot)
  
  • [ana] focus on internal traits and dispositions > leads to tendency to categorize objects based on common traits
  • [hol] focus on relationships between objects > leads to tendency to categorize objects based on their connections and relationships
• [3] dialecticism
  
  • Western: no tolerance for contradiction
    
    • law of identity — whatever is, is
    • law of non-contradiction — nothing can both be and not be
    • law of excluded middle — everything must either be or not be
  • East Asian: relatively higher acceptance of contradiction > puts more value on the past because predicting future is complicated
    
    • principle of change: change is the only constant
    • principle of contradiction: as change is constant, contradiction is also constant
    • principle of relationship: as everything changes, it changes everything else

Question 44

Gaps of economic inequality

Answer 44

• knowledge gap: how do we get people to think differently about inequality, and the consequences of inequality: health, education, crime rates, etc?
• desirability gap: how do we get people to think differently about what we really want?
• action gap: how do we take these things and actually do something about it?

Question 45

Economic Inequality

Answer 45

• economic inequality: difference in people’s economic well-being within a group, measured using:
  
  • income inequality: uneven distribution of income within a population
  • wealth inequality: uneven distribution of assets within a population (i.e. income, property, cars, businesses)

Question 46

Consequences to inequality

Answer 46

• [1] authoritarianism: obedience to authority figures
  
  • the more income inequality → the more power differential in society
  • the more experience with power difference → the more acceptance and perceived naturalness
  • acceptance of authoritarianism has implications on political activity and activism
• [2] democratic political engagement
  
  • more acceptance of authoritarianism → more fatalism about one’s situation → less political engagement amongst those with less power
  • less political engagement > less political interest, discussion and electoral participation → increases political inequality
• [3] socioeconomic status
  
  • rich tend to have:
    
    • more independent self-construal (v interdependent)
    • more dispositional attributions i.e. self made (v situational attributions i.e. barriers)
    • more sense of personal control (v lower engagement and benefit from opportunities)
    • more unethical behaviour (v empathy and helping behaviour)
  • people from lower SES more likely to engage in behaviours that exacerbate situation (i.e. too many children, harmful health behaviours)
    
    • more present-oriented and less future-oriented

Question 47

Talking and Thinking

Answer 47

• Western: act of self-expression → bound to thought
• East Asian: little emphasis on talking
  
  • less talking does not mean less communication
  • the closer the relationship, the more people are likely to rely on nonverbal communication
• European Americans: talking and thinking are very related
• Asian American: perform better if they are thinking quietly to themselves (solving problems require nonverbal thoughts)

Question 48

Cultural difference for talking and thinking

Answer 48

• analytical v holistic thinking
  
  • analytic thinking: focus on separate parts
  • holistic thinking: involves attention to the whole, and how various parts are interrelated
    
    • when speaking, cannot describe multiple things at once
• high v low context culture
  
  • alternative explanation: something about certain languages requires people to listen to tone
• Whorfian hypothesis of linguistic relativity
  
  • language we speak influences how we think > helps obliges people to think about certain ideas
  • seen through colour perception (influenced by categories in language), odor perception (do better if language has more words for odor), perceptions of agency (active v passive construction), spatial perception (left-right v north-east), numerical cognition (think about numbers logarithmically, not linearly)