Week 1 introduction: what is cross cultural psychology Flashcards
What is cross cultural psychology? And what are some definitions used to define it?
“Cross-cultural research in psychology is the explicit, systematic comparison of psychological variables under different cultural conditions in order to specify the antecedents and processes that mediate the emergence of behaviour differences”(Eckensberger, 1972, p. 100).
“Cross-cultural psychology is the empirical study of members of various culture groups who have had different experiences that lead to predictable and significant differences in behavior. In the majority of such studies, the groups under study speak different languages and are governed by different political units” (Brislin, Lonner and Thorndike, 1973, p. 5).
“Cross-cultural research is any type of research on human behavior that compares behavior of interest across two or more cultures” (Matsumoto, 1996, p. 5).
“Cultural psychology [is] the study of the culture’s role in the mental life of human beings” (Cole, 1996, p. 1).
Cultural psychology “has a distinctive subject matter (psychological diversity, rather than psychological uniformity); it aims to reassess the uniformitarian principle of psychic unity and develop a credible theory of psychological pluralism” (Shweder, 2007, p. 827).
What is the life expectancy of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people?
in 2010-12 the average life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was Ten years less than non-indigenous Australians
age gap- 10.6 for men and 9.5 for women.
What is Australia’s diversity in relation to disability and the languages spoken at home?
4 in 10 Australians aged 18 years and over report having a disability or long term health condition.
And nearly 20% of Australians speak a language other than English at home.
At what rate is the population of Indigenous people increasing and where are they most likely to live?
in 2011 the Aboriginal and Torres strait islander population was 3% or 670,000 and by 2031 is estimated to be 4% or 1 million people.
43% live in rural areas.
34% live in major cities
7.7 like in remote areas
13.7% living in very remote areas.
Evaluate the level of education and employment among Indigenous people.
unemployment rate of indigenous in 2012-13 was higher then non-indigenous.
completion of year 12 in 2006 was only 47.4% and in 2011 53.9%
Identify the rate of imprisonment of Indigenous people.
aboriginal and Torres strait islander people are 15x more likely to be in prision.
Describe cultural-comparative psychology.
Cultural Psychology
Cultural psychology focuses on the way in which cultural processes and psychological functioning interact and influence each other
The notion here is that culture and behaviour cannot be separated
So people’s behaviour in each culture is different
Certain cultures were described as having a certain personality type.
What does this create? Perhaps, stereotypes
Researchers have examined people in different countries and then compared how they think and behave. But how accurate is this?
Have they considered the individual level differences in terms of how individuals interact with their environment?
We know that not all people in a particular country or culture behave or think in the same way
Describe cultural psychology.
Cross cultural psychology is focused on the comparisons of cultural practices that influence psychological functioning
•This branch of psychology originated to contribute to the knowledge on developmental psychology across people in different cultures
•Cultures are assumed to be similar in a broad sense in terms of the basic human needs of hunger, thirst, and being part of a society
•The assumption then is that if those conditions are similar, behaviour anywhere should be similar – for example, emotions
•In cross cultural or culture comparative studies, any differences in psychological variables are believed to be the result of differences in the broader cultural context
Describe indigenous psychology.
This branch arose to account for more authentic research that relates to certain indigenous communities
•Until recently, a Western lens was imposed on understanding behaviour all over the world.
•So there was an external interpretation of behaviour and that interpretation did not consider the specific cultural context of indigenous people.
•Research methods and tests were found to be inappropriate and irrelevant to many indigenous communities
•Different methodologies such as ethnography where the participant is in control of the content and the direction of the interaction are considered more appropriate.
How Indigenous research was initially conducted
•Indigenous research is required because many psychological constructs are explained differently or terms for them do not exist at all in indigenous languages.
•In Australia, people slowly realised the need to do more socially responsible research to account for the past misunderstandings, ignorance, biases and injustices towards Indigenous communities
•For example, initial psychological research with indigenous communities in Australia was conducted to measure cognitive and educational outcomes.
•The methods of testing were inappropriate, but this did not stop them from making conclusions about differences in behaviour such as parenting practices which was explained as a lack of appropriate level of development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals.
•Such research was used as an argument for the separation of mothers from their children in order to provide ‘advanced’ education to the children.
•They also did not consider that Indigenous mothers had their own ways of parenting and instead believed that they had not benefited from knowing how Western mothers had parented to put their children in a more advantageous position in terms of development.
Consideration of social, political and ecological contexts
•Researchers have called for Indigenous research in Australia to consider the structural and ecological contexts and political determinants that have not enabled indigenous communities to do as well as other communities on a range of psychological constructs.
•Western researchers also have a responsibility to account for past wrongs and interpretations and the theories developed without inappropriate evidence.
•It is only when such wrongs are corrected and the effects of racism and the ecological and political contexts are included in the study of behaviour, that we can truly begin to make interpretations of the behaviour of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Responsibilities of researchers
•Failure to act is a political statement in itself according to the researchers Davidson et al. (2000)
•Thus psychologists and the broader community and political leaders have a responsibility to shape the understanding of indigenous communities and adopt a framework of dialogue and negotiation wherein all groups are invited and the understanding of behaviour takes place through a process of dialogue
•Thus psychology has a responsibility to act ethically and conduct more relevant research and use more culturally relevant frameworks to impart social justice to all communities.
Identify the similarities and differences in behaviour across cultures: culture as context for development.
and what is the role of one’s cultural context in their overall development?
- Culture is part of the environment that influences our overall development
- Apart from the social environment, artefacts within our environment such as books, the kinds of social media, our electronic equipment and cultural tools around us such as statues also influence how we grow “culturally”
- In the 1920s, Vygotsky and other physicians and educators believed that mind, body and culture were inseparable and that development of an individual is shaped by the socio-cultural context.
- Children in different cultures learn in different ways
- Aboriginal children were able to remember locations of objects better than Anglo-Australian children
- African adolescents were able to better recall stories that were orally transferred better than US-American adolescents
- Western children performed better than children in other countries in relation to rote learning and memorising lists of information
- Behaviour is culturally mediated
- Actions, thoughts and feelings can be better interpreted through context and culture
- Individuals play an active role in their development through their understanding and interpretation of cultural processes
- Cultural theory should be applied to a person’s development throughout the course of their lifetime
- Currently most developmental theories do not adopt this process of co-construction, i.e., of including both cultural and contextual influences throughout one’s lifetime.
