SAFMEDs Chapter 18: Cultural Context of Personality

Question 1

Culture

Answer 1

• a group’s shared beliefs, attitudes, standards of behavior. customs, and values that one generation passes to the next
• A shared way of thinking and understanding how the world works

Question 2

Cultural psychology

Answer 2

• the study of how behavior and personality are both embedded in culture and influential in shaping that culture
• powerful environmental influence

Question 3

Cultural/indigenous approach

Answer 3

-focuses on studying the unique aspects of a culture without reference to another culture

Question 4

Emic

Answer 4

• from a perspective that is inside the culture

- looks at a single culture and uses a bottom-up approach to try to understand a cultureal phenomenon

Question 5

Cross-cultural approach

Answer 5

-focuses on understanding human behavior and thought in diverse cultural settings

Question 6

Cultural relativism

Answer 6

-the principle that a person’s customs, beliefs and attitudes should be viewed from a neutral, unbiased perspective and that there are no universal standards by which to judge cultures

Question 7

Anthropology

Answer 7

• the study of human societies and cultures

- reflects the belief that Western culture is superior to all others

Question 8

Individualistic cultures

Answer 8

-the needs and desires of the individual take priority over the needs of the group

Question 9

Collectivistic cultures

Answer 9

-the group takes priority over the individual

Question 10

Ecology

Answer 10

• the physical environment, including natural resources, terrain and climate
• influences the development of culture

Question 11

Norms

Answer 11

-group-determined standards or expectations of behavior

Question 12

Cultural syndrome

Answer 12

-a pattern of behavior unique to a specific culture

Question 13

Values

Answer 13

-lasting beliefs in a culture about right and wrong

Question 14

Construal

Answer 14

-how people percieve themselves and interpret interactions with others

Question 15

Independent self construal

Answer 15

• people define their identity by looking at the qualities they have within them
• sense of personality comes from within the person not the culture

Question 16

Interdepedent self construal

Answer 16

• social relationships take priority instead of themselves as individuals
• how one presents themselves is a matter of choice based on the social circumstances

Question 17

Cognition

Answer 17

• how you think (process) and what you think (content)
• two dimensions
• affected by self construal: self knowledge & knowledge about others, processing self knowledge & knowledge about others, thinking in an interpersonal context

Question 18

Ego-focused emotions

Answer 18

• centered on interal indepedent attributes

- help reinforce our independent and autonomous and self defining sense of self

Question 19

Other-focused emotions

Answer 19

• experienced in a social context or relational situations
• reinforce the interdependent needs of the group or relationship
• shame, sympathy, indebtedness, empathy

Question 20

Achievement

Answer 20

-a thing done successfully, typically by effort, courage, or skill

Question 21

Self-actualization

Answer 21

• the highest level of motivation in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
• each person’s natural desire to achieve his or her full potential