Group No.

: _______ English Name:__________________ SID:______________

PSY 14 Cultural Psychology

Is psychology too WEIRD?

W________, E_________, I__________, R________, D________

What do Wundt, James, Freud, Skinner & Maslow all have in common?

Individualistic vs. Collectivistic Cultures

Individualistic Cultures –

Collectivistic Cultures –

Ego Identity / Self Concept: Independent Self vs. Interdependent Self

INDEPENDENT INTERDEPENDENT

Self & Brain I (Ma et al., 2012)

Self & Brain II (Zhu et al., 2007)

Ingroups vs. Outgroups

Self-Consistency

Kanagawa et al. 2001: 20-Statements Test in 4 Situations

Method:

Results:

Cialdini et al., 1999: Requests for help in collectivistic Poland and individualistic US
Method:

Results:

1
Group No.: _______ English Name:__________________ SID:______________

Suh, 2002: Self-consistency and well-being, social skills & likability – US vs. Korea

Method:

Results:

What did Maslow say about ‘esteem’? Would he have said that esteem needs are the same
across cultures? Do you agree?

Culture and Self-esteem

How many people report having “high self-esteem”? (Heine et al., 1999)
___% European-Canadians ___% Japanese

Japanese vs. American college students asked to list the success & failure experiences you
can remember (Endo & Meijer, 2004):
Americans: ___% success memories and ___% failure memories
Japanese: ___% success memories and ___% failure memories

Self-serving biases: Self-enhancement ‘tricks’

1. Social Comparisons. After experiencing a failure…

Asian-Canadians:
European-Canadians:

2. Compensatory Self-enhancement: North Americans vs. Japanese

3. Discounting: North Americans vs. Japanese

4. External Attributions: North Americans vs. Japanese

5. Basking in Reflected Glory: US vs. Japan

East Asians (more collectivistic societies with more ‘inter-dependent’ selves) do not seem to
share the same ‘esteem’ needs or ‘self-enhancement’ motivations as Westerners
(individualistic societies with more independent selves). Why might this be?

Does Bandura’s idea of ‘self-efficacy’ work the same way in all cultures?

How do E. Asians and Westerners handle success and failure?

Heine, 2001
Method:

Results:

2
Group No.: _______ English Name:__________________ SID:______________

Culture and Emotions

What were Paul Ekman’s original six basic emotions? What did he claim about
them?

Take the survey. Then, compare and contrast American and Tibetan
responses.
US TIBET
‘Getting angry’ – good
or bad?

What if someone is
angry too often?

Are there ‘after effects’

from getting angry? Are
they good or bad?

Can anger be prevented

or overcome? Should it
be?

How should you handle

feelings of anger when
they emerge?

What do you think when

you see other people
showing their anger?

CULTURAL DISPLAY RULES: Based on the above, how would you define
“cultural display rules”?

Facial feedback hypothesis – related to how cultures control emotional

displays?

Intensity of emotional experience – US vs. Japan

3
Group No.: _______ English Name:__________________ SID:______________

Insult, Anger, Aggression (Cohen et al., 1996)

METHOD:

RESULTS: Changes in Cortisone & Testosterone Levels After an Insult

Anderson & Linden, 2006: Anger in Chinese-Canadians vs. European

Canadians

Study 1 METHOD:

Study 1 RESULTS:

Study 2 METHOD:

Study 2 RESULTS: Changes in Blood Pressure During an Experience of Anger

4
Group No.: _______ English Name:__________________ SID:______________

Culture & Thinking

Quick Tasks:

1. Smartphone pics!

2. Draw a picture of a landscape that includes: a house, a tree, a river, a person, and the
horizon. You can add anything else that you want.

3. Dog, rabbit, carrot: Which 2 belong together? Why?

4. Place the objects on the right with the matching group.

4a.
Is this more similar to
the objects in Group 1
or 2?

Is this more similar to

the objects in Group 1
or 2?

4b.
Is this more similar
to the objects in
Group 1 or 2?

Is this more similar

to the objects in
Group 1 or 2?

5. Write down what you see on the screen:

5
Group No.: _______ English Name:__________________ SID:______________

1. Culture and Attention

Masuda et al. (2008), “Culture and Aesthetic preference: Comparing the attention to context
of East Asians and Americans”

STUDY 1 METHOD:

STUDY 1 RESULTS:

STUDY 2 METHOD:

STUDY 2 RESULTS:

2. Object or background?

Fish Tank Picture (Masuda & Nisbett, 2001)

Japanese students:

US students:

Why?

3. Reasoning Styles: Rule-based vs. Associative Reasoning

Norenzayan et al., 2002:

Method:

Results:

Who used rules? Who used family resemblances?

4. Culture and Categorization

Taxonomic (rabbit & dog) –

Thematic (rabbit & carrot) –

5. Tolerance for Contradictions

Can you accept apparent logical contradictions?

What is the point of the story about the farmer?

6
Group No.: _______ English Name:__________________ SID:______________

Prediction Task

YOUR
SCENARIOS
GUESS

1. Lucia and Jeff are both seniors at the same university. They
have been dating each other for two years. How likely is it that they ___% ___% ___%
will break up after graduation?

2. Two kids are fighting at kindergarten. How likely is it that they

___% ___% ___%
will become lovers some day?

3. Richard grew up in a poor family, but he managed to go to

___% ___% ___%
college. How likely is it that he will become rich one day?

4. Vincent has been the chess champion for 3 years. How likely is
it that he will lose in the next game against his strongest ___% ___% ___%
opponent?

How would you solve a crime?

Choi et al. (2003): What difference did they find between Koreans and Americans?

METHOD:

RESULTS:

7
Group No.: _______ English Name:__________________ SID:______________

SUMMARY: COMPLETE THE TABLE BASED ON THE ABOVE FINDINGS

HOLISTIC THINKING
ANALYTIC THINKING (Asia, much of world)
(Western Cultures)

1. Focus on…

2. Object-
Background
Relation

3. Reasoning
strategy

4. Using Categories

5. Tolerance for
Contradictions

One final study: Talking and Thinking

Method

Results

Discuss: What do you think it means? What explains this finding? When you
think, are you “speaking to yourself”?