week 10

Question 1

WEIRD

Answer 1

Western
Educated
Industrialized
Rich
Democratic

Overall: 96% of participants are WEIRD
68% of participants come from the USA
27% are from the UK, Canada, Australia or Europe
Undergraduates are used:
67% of the time in USA research
80% of the time in non-USA research

Question 2

Proposals for Improving diversity in psychology

Answer 2

For Journal Editors and Reviewers
Non-WEIRD = novel and important
Diversity targets
E.g., > 50% of papers sampling population outside WEIRD
Diversity badges
For Authors
Reporting sample characteristics
E.g., Age, SES, ethnicity, religion, etc.
Explicitly tie findings to populations
Justify the sampled population
Discuss generalisability of findings

Question 3

Defining culture

Answer 3

Culture is a symbolic and behavioural inheritance received from the historical/ancestral past that provides a community with a framework for other-directed vicarious learning and for collective deliberations about what is the case, what is true, beautiful, good and normal

Question 4

Review of Definitions of “Culture” Jahoda (2012)

Answer 4

Culture as external
Culture is outside the individual (Schwartz, 2009)
Culture “as a changing environment”
“the social habits of a community”
“the man-made parts of the human development”
Culture as internal
Knowledge and beliefs
“systems of shared meanings” (Smith & Bond, 1998)
“the collective programming of mind” (Hofstede, 2001)

Question 5

``Two traditions

Answer 5

Cross-cultural
What are the differences between cultures?
E.g. the fundamental attribution error is particular to some cultures
Cultural psychology
What is common to all cultures? And how do all cultures contribute to making people?
Language is universal culture

Question 6

Emic and Etic

Answer 6

Emic = view from within the social group
how do people think, feel, imagine, explain things
What is meaningful from the viewpoint of the actor

Etic = view from outside
A description of a belief/behaviour that can be applied across cultures
What is meaningful from the viewpoint of the observer

Question 7

Facial expressions – psychology vs anthropology

Answer 7

Ekman: American psychologist – saw facial expressions as universal
Mead: American cultural anthropologist – saw facial expressions as part of learned behaviour

Question 8

Replicating Asch conformity

Answer 8

Classic Asch line experiment showed the power of majority ClassicClassic Asch line experiment showed the power of majority influence.
Original research by Asch on US students and adults showed 37% conformity
Studies in 16 other nations show a vast range of results (Smith & Bond, 1998)
6% conformity in France
58% conformity among Fijian Indians

Question 9

Cultural Dimensions Theory (Hofstede, 1980)

Answer 9

Used a large databank of survey items completed by IBM employees from across 50 different nations.
Conducted a national-level factor analysis to pioneer early measurement of culture at a national level
The factor analysis revealed four dimensions

Question 10

Understanding Hofstede’s cultural dimensions

Answer 10

individualism vs collectivism: nations where one tends to think of self as autonomous from others, verse nation where one emphasises
Power distance: the extent to which hierarchy and defence are accepted within a nation
Uncertainty avoidance: the extent to which a nation is averse to risk and certainty
Cultural masculinity femininity- nations with high masculinity have strongly differentiated gender roles; higher similar gender roles

Question 11

Development of Cultural Dimensions Theory

Answer 11

Further work by Hofstede developed a survey instrument specifically designed to measure cultural values
This is the Values Survey Module (VSM), with the latest revision in 2013 with 6 dimensions (long-term orientation and Indulgence)
HOWEVER – poor reliability reported of using these dimensions (Gerlach & Eriksson, 2021) suggesting constructs are poorly defined

Question 12

Reflections on individualism and collectivism

Answer 12

“collectivism” - homogenisation of cultures that are poorly understood? See Social Identity Theory
Questionnaires may detect language difference rather than cultural
There are also cultural differences in the way people response to questions
Conformity, or “saving embarrassment”?

Question 13

Independent self and interdependent self

Answer 13

Markus & Kitayama (1991)

Different cultures have different normative expectations of what people should be doing with their lives
E.g. America – focus on self, asserting self; Japan – focus on fitting in with others
Self-construals play a major role in regulating various psychological processes

Question 14

Independent Self and interdependent Self

Answer 14

The notion that the Self is detached from context is an inadequate definition
The Self is seen in some kind of relation to the Other

Question 15

How cultural differences in self-construals shape development

Answer 15

In European/American countries…
Child development is framed around goals of independence
E.g. accumulating independence – being able to walk, moving in to their own bedroom, leaving home
Whereas in interdependent cultures…
Child development is measured by the child taking on more responsibilities within the collective
E.g. helping the family, joining the family business, taking on responsibilities, upholding family traditions

Question 16

Independent self and interdependent self

Answer 16

Independent self: Bounded, stable, autonomous. Unique, express self, meeting personal goals. Others important to social comparison, reflected appraisal. Competitive. Express self and validate internal attributes

Question 17

Bartlett (1932) – War of the Ghosts

Answer 17

Famous “cognitive” psychologist - could also be considered socio-cognitive psychologist (Kashima, 2000)
study of reconstructive memory
English participants had to read a native American folktale called “war of the ghosts” and (see Padlet)
Serial reproduction method: Asked to recall the tale days, months and years after the first reading
Participants shortened the story when they recalled it
Participants confabulated details of the story in line with their own cultural experiences (e.g. “canoes” became “boats”, hunting “seals” became “fish”)
Participants rationalised confusing aspects of the story, even omitting the ghosts altogether in some cases

Memories of past events are actually reconstructions informed by culture and personality rather than direct recollections
Gaps in observations are filled by previous experiences and cultural norms
Culture is more than a static meaning system, it is dynamic (Kashima, 2000)
Bartlett’s method highlights the need to research the transmission and transformation of culture

Question 18

Cultural Psychology

Answer 18

Valsiner (2009)
Culture as a universal mediator of human behaviour
But that does not mean that behaviours are universal: although culture/language universal, cultures vary
The focus is not on comparing different cultures – the focus is on how culture gets inside psychology.

Question 19

Social Origin of Mind

Answer 19

Vygotsky believed that human mental abilities are shaped by use of cultural tools and language in social interaction.
“The path from object to child and from child to object passes through another person. This complex human structure is the product of a developmental process deeply rooted in the links between individual and social history.” (Vygotsky & Luria, 1994).
Before age 2-4, manipulation is physical; after it can be psychological.

Question 20

Cultural mediation - Language as the Mediator

Answer 20

A core observation for child development: one does not find babies alone – they are always with a carer
First: the action and thought of the child is supported by others
– Talk of others accompanies action
– Comments about the self
Second: the child talks-out loud to themselves (Private speech)
– Self-talk accompanies action and begins to guide it (Fernyhough & Fradley, 2005).
Third: the social relation is fully internalized (Inner speech)
– Internal dialogue enables planning before acting
– Self-reflection upon the self (identity; Gillespie, 2018)

Question 21

Scaffolding

Answer 21

What do caregivers do to support the child in ZPD?
Constant talking to the child
Use of ‘infant directed speech’
Attending to what the child is attending to: creating joint attention (Tomasello et al., 2005)
Cognitive support by asking questions
– eg looking for a toy: is it in the box? Where did you see it last?
– eg building with blocks: do you think it will fall over? Is it leaning
– eg drawing: what colour should the sky be?
Scaffolding also occurs with adults (Gillespie & Hald, 2017)

Question 22

Internalisation

Answer 22

“Any function in the child’s cultural development appears twice, or on two planes. First, it appears on the social plane, and then in the psychological plane. First it appears between people as an interpersonal category, and then within the child as an intrapsychological category” (Vygotsky, 1997).
Enables art and imagination (Zittoun & Gillespie, 2016)

Neo-Vygotskian research: shared intentionality
(Tomasello et al., 2005; Tomasello, 2020)

Question 23

Bringing Vygotskian ideas together

Answer 23

Culture is embedded in language and social relations
Our development is through a process of cultural mediation
Cultural processes and ideas consequently are part of how our minds are derived

Question 24

Applications of cultural psychology

Answer 24

Amer (2020)
How white British Muslims construct their identity through interaction
“While how one’s identities are seen and affirmed by others is important, just as crucial are metaperceptions – how one thinks other people see them”
“when one’s belonging to a group is perceived to be questions or doubted, individuals may present themselves strategically to legitimise and emphasise their membership where possible”
26 White British Muslim participants (11 female, 15 male)
Semi-structured interviews exploring themes of self-identification, practice and visibility of identity, perceived identification by others
Analysed using thematic analysis

All participants reported:
Identity recognition (affirmation by others)
Misrecognition (racialized and stereotyped assumptions being made)
Nonrecognition (active denial and erasure)

Specifically experienced in contexts of:
Predominantly white non-Muslims
Heritage (non-white) Muslims