week 1 Flashcards
cross-cultural psychology
The field of Cross-cultural psychology is the scientific study of variations in human behaviour, taking into account the ways in which behaviour is influenced by cultural context.
Absolutism
assumes that psychological phenomena are basically the same (qualitatively) in all cultures: “honesty” is ‘honesty” and “depression” is “depression”, no matter where one observes them.
From the absolutist perspectives culture is thought to play little or no role in either the meaning or display of human characteristics.
Relativism
assumes that all human behaviour is culturally patterned. It seeks to avoid ethnocentrism by trying to understand people “in their own terms”. Explanations of human diversity are sought in the cultural context in which people have developed.
Universalism
lies somewhere between the first two positions. It makes the assumption that basic psychological processes are common to all members of the species (that is, they constitute a set of psychological givens in all human beings) and that culture influences the development and display of psychological characteristics (that is, culture plays different variations on these underlying themes).
ethnocentrism
evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one’s own culture.
indigenous psychology
“the scientific study of human behaviour or mind that is native, that is not transported from other regions, and that is designed for its people”
- Understanding each culture from its own frame of reference