Chapter 3(1): culture and evolution

Is Culture Unique to Humans?

If we define culture as an ability to learn new things then we are not alone. Japanese
Macaque’s “potato washing”, Japanese Macaque’s “hand washing”. Both imitated the
behaviour from humans. Chimps’ “ant eating tools ( use barks to eat termites. This is
completely different from other chimps ”

Imitative Learning vs. Emulative Learning

Imitative Learning: The learning style in which learners focus on the model’s
intentions, and internalize something of the model’s goals and behavioural strategies.
Emulative Learning: The learning style in which learners focus only on what the model
appear to be doing, and engage in trial and error to change the situation (e.g. get bananas)

Research study by Nagel et al., 1993

Contrasted chimp’s and two year old children to find what type of learning mechanism do
they use. Subjects watched a target use a rake to retrieve a desired object that they
couldn’t otherwise reach. Half of the subjects saw the target use the rake in the most
effective “teeth up” position; the other half saw the target use the rake in a less effective
“teeth down” position.

Results: Children used the rake in the same way that the target did (his goals and his
intentions). Chimpanzees used the rake in the more effective “teeth up” position ­­
regardless of the way the target used it (focused on the end result and found most
effective way by accident). That is, the children demonstrated imitative learning, and the
chimpanzees demonstrated emulative learning.

Key Benefit of Imitative Learning

Imitative learning allows for a faithful and high fidelity reproduction of the target
behavior. New cultural information cannot only be accurately reproduced ­ it can also be
improved. This allows for cultural accumulation = Rachet effect (Tomasello et al, 1993).
You don’t have to start from stretch in subsequent invention. The accumulated knowledge
is always moving forward and overtime this knowledge builds up. It is because of this
knowledge that we are able to build the human civilizations. Chimps level of cultural
knowledge remains the same where human’s increase exponentially.

Human’s big brain and its high ratio of the basal metabolism: why is that that we use
so much more then other animals.

Competing Theories for Why Primates have such Big Brains

• Many species of primates eat fruit, and a fruit diet requires remembering where
you find fruit trees so you can return when they’re ripe. Remembering things
requires big brains.
• Many species of primates eat nutrient­rich food that is difficult to extract, like
termites and nuts ( for that you need problem solving thought=brains)
Chapter 3(1): culture and evolution

• Many species of primates live in large social networks, which require one to keep
track of social relationships, and to learn from each other.

Data results: Correlation is very weak, the fruit explanation is wrong so is the type of
foraging techniques that they use as there was no relationship (weak correlations) of both
of these to the neo­cortex size.. The neo­cortex is the measure of smartness.

Except: Primate brain evolution appears to be largely driven by their highly social
lifestyle. Danber proposes a hypothesis of the magic number of 150. That is in the group
one need about 150.

Thus this means that Humans aren’t just social; they’re ultra­social

This can be seen in that Humans live in larger groups than other primates.. Humans
appear more interested in each other’s activities than do other primates. Humans engage
in more cultural learning than do other primates.

Why Are Humans Adept at Cultural Learning?

Thus, for the brain to take so much energy for cultural learning, the rest of the body must
be vary efficient. In fact this is what we see. Humans have less muscle mass than primate
relatives. Humans have shorter intestines, apparently an adaptation to eating cooked food.

Where Does Cultural Variation Come From?

• There are many reason such as:
- The diet of people
- Foraging Behaviour
- Gender Roles
- Climate condition
- Ppopulation size
- Fasters transmission of ideas
- Language variation
- Governments
- Religion
- Genetic variationà bravery and anxiety
- Minor Geographical differences in the availability of easy to domesticate
animals and plants, and the position of Eurasia allow people to develop
complex societies (diamond jarred)

Questions: How much do you agree with jarred diamond explanation? Are there any
other factors that could be the source of this variation
Chapter 3 (2): cultural evolution continued
Where Does Cultural Variation Come From (Cont’)?
Evoked Culture vs. Transmitted Culture

Evoked Culture: All people, regardless of where they are from, have biologically­ encoded
behavioural repertoire that are potentially accessible to them, and these repertoires are engaged when
the appropriate situational conditions are present (Tooby & Cosmides, 1992). An Example of Evoked
Culture is People’s sense of physical attractiveness (symmetrical faces, blemish free skins, less
anomaly faces) is highly dependent on the environment but the attractiveness based on physical
characteristics is encoded based on biological encoded behaviour. Because such indicators tell you
that how much the person is physically healthy = it increases the chance to have healthy offspring. 1)
Bad environment you need a very healthy mate so that you have a very healthy mate to be able to
have good kids. And in less parasitesless importance on physical attractiveness.

Transmitted Culture: People come to learn about particular cultural practices through social
learning or by modeling others who live near them (Richerson & Boyd, 2005). Main points: We do
not care about innateness but rather process of how the information actually spreads? The
transmission process occurs from caregivers to babies, from teachers to students, from the masters to
their disciples (prof example). Transmitted culture can travel with people even if the environment of
the new places different from that of the initial set of geographic conditions (like me).
How Do Ideas Catch On?
• Biological Evolution occurs mainly through things like Natural Selection, Sexual Selection.
On the other hand
• Cultural Evolution
– Longevity (information in genes remain in long time in cultures views the ideas that
are replicated and improved upon through communication and imitations. Idea that
only remain in your head for few seconds is not going to be passed on)
– Fidelity (no gene errors and in culture view things that are fecund or go viral tend to
be copied in exact same way without any changes.
– Fecundity (# of offspring and in culture view: things that are popular and go viral and
spread out)
Process of cultural evolutions:
Meme(s)­A smallest units of cultural Information that can be faithfully transmitted to others and the
next generations. Like genes, the longevity, fidelity, and fecundity are high (as explained above).
However, unlike genes, memes do not have (1) any tangible entities ( genes are identified but memes
have not been yet) (2) Random copying errors (mutations), (3) do not have to be adaptive things that
are bad like cannibalismdiseases causesbut still passed on.
Main point: Acording to this of meme by dawkins, the same idea should be transferrad from one
generation to the next generation in exactly the same way.
How Do Ideas Catch On? (Dan Sperber)

Epidemiology of ideas: (1) an individual who comes up with an idea (AKA an inventor) has a
mental representation of this idea in his/her mind.­­> (2) another individual (AKA an imitator) learns
about this idea from the inventor. But, it is not a simple give and take relationship. The imitator needs
to imitate it and recreate it using his own brain (hens it is not the same idea).

How it works: Dad communicate with many people in one generation so get comes up with idea 1.
his idea spread to the society including his friends and his child ( prof). Bbecause of this the prof
comes up with an idea 1 which is somewhat different from the dad but the prof came up with it by
himself. ( note that the idea or the representation of this idea will be slightly different as this idea was
came out by different people. The boundaries do not overlap. This idea is better as it it nicely depict
the culture transmission of information.
Chapter 3 (2): cultural evolution continued

Factor That Causes Ideas to Spread

The messenger game: In China, 1084 elder people attended the message game. The first message “the
red pepper is afraid of Szechuan people” ended up transmitted to “The red pepper is good for your
health” . There are many copying errors. The word health appear at the end. This says that amond the
elder’s health is very important thus we are able to tell the concerns of the general population in this
case health is important.
Communicable Ideas Spread
Ideas usually need to be communicated in order to spread. They spread within social networks, so
some ideas vary across groups.

Dynamic Social Impact Theory: Study by Cullum and Harton, 2007

Explored how students’ attitudes changed while living in residence halls. The students were randomly
assigned to the different halls, so their living arrangements made for a nice natural experiment.
The students completed surveys that assessed their attitudes on a variety of issues after spending 2
weeks and 13 weeks in the residences.

They also indicated how important each attitude was. They assessed how much more student’s
attitudes were clustered together (i.e., their own attitudes more similar to hall mates, while the
average attitude of people in residence halls differed from each other), in the second time period
compared with the first

Results: All attitudes showed an increase in clustering attitude over the term. This was especially
true for the attitudes that were rated as more important ­ these attitudes were discussed more and thus
similar ideas were spread out. New subcultures were formed on the basis of the ideas that people
regularly communicated. If you are exposed to different group, this will allow you change you idea
and thus break through you narrow mind and get new ideas.
Emotional ideas more likely to spread (Heath et al., 2001).
Study investigated how much the emotional intensity of a story predicted whether people would relay
that story to others .The researchers created 12 stories and made three different versions of each story,
that varied in emotional intensity (mild, moderate and strong degree of emotions). They were asked
to indicate how likely they would be to pass this story along to a friend. Participants were more likely
to pass along stories that elicited strong emotions.

Minimally counterintuitive ideas spread (Norenzayan et al., 2006.)

Participants received a list of 18 items to read. Some of these items were intuitive and some were
counter­intuitive. Participants were divided into four conditions that varied in the percent of counter­
intuitive (thirsty door/ walking on water) items. Quesitons: which one of the information was spread
the best.

Results: Three minutes after reading the items, participants were asked to recall them.
Accuracy: likely to remember intuitive (100%) items ( walking on street) then counter
intuitive( walking on water). A trend is seen. As the number of counter intuitive increase we see
decrease in accuracy

Three weeks later: the result actually changes from the first data. MINIMALY Counter intuitive (72
% intutive and 28 % counter) data was mostly remembered.
The conclusion: Over time, narratives that include a few, but not too many, counterintuitive items are
recalled better( fold tail/religion employ this). The bible. If the Jesus miracle appears few times,
Chapter 3 (2): cultural evolution continued
while the rest of the story is normal, this minimal counter intuitively helps us to remember things
better. Also this makes the story more believable and this is more talk able as well (this is true for
more religions and other myth and so one)

Another study: Number of Counterintuitive Elements in Successful and Unsuccessful Folktales

( like Cinderella, the beauty and the beast and the jew in the brambles) from the Grimm Brothers
(determined by Google hits; also in Norenzayan et al., 2006)
Results: Most successful stories had around 2­3 counter intuitive elements.

How Have Culture Been Changing?

We Americans are becoming more individualistic. I do what I want is an example of individualistic.
Like bowling alone and not in the team. Many other cultures follow this path. This can be seen in
other life changes like People are Participating Less in Civic Affairs, Attending Church Less, less
likely to entertain at Home, Eat Together Less Often, socializing less and less Trusting
Some causes of this Increased time pressures from families with dual incomes (~ 10% of change),
Sub­urban lifestyles (~ 10% change), Electronic Entertainment (~25%), Generational Difference
(living through WW2~50%)

The Flynn effect:

People in many cultures are becoming more intelligent. A review of changes in IQ scores in 14
nations showed increase in IQ between 5 and 25 %. The tendency is observable in different
Standardized Tests that are said to measure one’s stable intelligence. Such as the Raven matrix..
Other things like Education, Popular culture (suspense dramas etc) and game all lead to increase
cognition. Increase cognition is better better=better ability to learn and transmit ideas.

In The Face of Change, How Does Culture Persist?

Culture Persists A Great Deal Across Time
Adaptations are constrained by previously existing structures. Because Cultures do not emerge out of
a vacuum as it require years of accumulation of ideas and knowledge. Early conditions have
disproportionate influence on cultural evolution.
Example is Regional different in Italy still remain even after becoming a one country. This shows that
adaptation ( to Italy being 1 country) is constrained by previously existing structures. Another
example is Japanese has a lot of practice vs Canada baseball leaque. This is dependent on the cultural
belief. Our culture beliefs strongly affect our practices

Early Conditions Have Disproportionate Influence on Cultural Evolution

• Autokinetic Effect: The group establishes a collective Frame of references
• Pluralistic Ignorance: The tendency for people to collectively misinterpret the thoughts that
underlie other people’s behaviors (no one believes, but everyone thinks that everyone
believes). Both of these mean that Initial Conditions have lasting effects on cultural norms.
Chapter 6(1): Self and Personality

Self­concept
How we perceive ourselves, and understand our identity plays a crucial role in how we
think about many things. The self­concept is implicated in directing what information
we should attend to, it shapes the kinds of meaning that we draw from events, it
influences the kinds of relationships that we have, it affects our emotions, and it
influences what we will be motivated to work towards. It is central to our psychology.

Independent vs. Interdependent Views of Self

Reserachers: Seminal paper by Markus and Kitayama (1991)

They argued that much of what is known in social psychology has been studied with
people who share a primarily distinct view of self ­ an independent self (usually
westerners). In much of the non­Western world, in contrast, an interdependent self is
more common. If the view of self differs from culture to culture should the psychology
also differ? These researchers argued that this is the case.

Independent View of Self

• Identity is experienced as largely independent from others.
• Important aspects of identity are personal characteristics (that everyone has their
own unique attributes and are distinct.)
• Identity remains largely constant across roles and situations.
• Considerable fluidity between in­groups and out­groups.
The diagram:
Circle around the individual (yellow), does not overlap anyone and is independent from
other. This mean that their identity is shaped based on internal characteristic (the X).
The aspects of identity or the kind of feature that people thing of them are within the
Individual independent from others.
The borderline around induidual is a solid line, it indicates that self is bounded and
experiences a rather stable and does not change from situation to situation
The boundary btw in­group and out­group (is dashed) is not important but rather the
most important boundary is the boundary around the individual ( yellow)
Thus their view of self often arises from oneself alone. This view is dominant in the
western society.

Interdepended view of self

• Individual’s identity is importantly interdependent with others.
• Key aspects of identity include roles, relationship, and memberships As roles
change across situations, identity is also somewhat fluid across situations.
• Clear distinction between in­groups and out­groups.
Comments: Usually Asian ( south, north, etc). Self is a relational antity that is made up
of interaction with members of the significant others. Mentally, the self is connected to
others (participant of the large social units). Main idea is that you are part of the society

Diagram:
Border around self: overlaps with Indi duals who the person is in relation with. They are
connected it others and thus are NOT distinct unique identities.
Chapter 6(1): Self and Personality

The large X’s: rest at the interaction of other this indicates that identity is grounded in
relationship to others. There are some axes that are not connected to others but that’s not
so important.
The doted line around individual yellow: reflect that identity of the interdepended of
the self is fluid and changeable it depends on the situation and roles.
Solid line around in­group and out­group: distinction btw in­group members and the
out­group. The relationship with significant other is very close and very hard to get away
from in­group to out­group. Out groups is not important relationship.

Independent vs. interdependent lifestyles: differ a lot (sleeping arrangements)

Study: Chines immigrant in Edmonton vs. Europeans in Sherwood park vs. Chinese in
china 90% European: solitary sleeping, 99% in Chinese with parent sleeping
80% first generation still exercise they indorse the traditional ways of child bearing.

Self Representation & Culture

Question: Do East Asians really merge others (and Others’ view) into their self­
representation?
Author: A Neuro­Imaging Study by Zhu, Zhang, Fan, & Han (2007).
Participants: (Chinese & Americans) were presented with a variety of personality traits,
and asked to judge how much each trait was applicable to them.
Results: For Chinese, MPFC (related to the self representation) were activated when the
word “self and my mother” were presented. For Americans, MPFC was activated only
when the word “self” appeared. Mental differentiation was activated only if you got the
information about you (self) but it depended on what you define self as (self=me and my
parent in Asian vs Self=me only in USA)

Variety Facets of Interdependent vs. Independent Self Construals

Cognition study involves: Self­Description, Self­Awareness, Self­Consistency
Self­Description
People are asked to describe themselves with a number of statements that begin with “I
am _____’? The kinds of statements that they list are then counted and analyzed. People
from some different cultural groups often provide different kinds of statements. In one
study, participants were asked to complete twenty of these

The Results of Ma & Schoeneman, (1997)

Personal Characteristics were dominant responses among American Undergrad Students
(independent self). In Urban Kenyans’ responses were similar to these of American
Undergrad Students (they are western influenced).
Roles of memberships were dominant responses among tribal
Kenyans’/samburu/masai/Nairobi workers responses (people are related to their social
membership/interconnected self)

Results of Cousin (1989)

Contextualized vs. Context Free – Responses
Condition 1: Participants described themselves without any context ( I am ____)
Chapter 6(1): Self and Personality

Condition 2: Participants described themselves at home, at school, and with close friends
(I am _____ at _________(some context)
Measured: Social – group membership, or socially defined status and Attributive –
abstract traits such as friendly, moody, etc ( pure psychological attributes)

Results: under no context, as expected, Social roles: dominant in Japanese and similar to
Kenyan people and Pure attributes: dominant in US.
Under context, US are independent use context free abstract terms.
Japaness in interdependent way in relation to context

Self awareness:
Subjective self awareness: first person perspective (is more likely to follow by
independent self)
Objective self awareness: the 3rd person perspective ( might be done by interdependent
self)
To test this, tests were conducted.

Perspective Taking Task by Cohen and Gunz (2002)

In that study participants indicated whether their memories contained 1st person or 3rd
person imagery for a variety of events. In some of the events they were the center of
attention (e.g., your birthday party) and some they were not the center of attention (e.g.,
watching a movie with friends).
Results: Asians had more third person memories or objective awareness. This study
suggests that East Asians are attending to the perspective of an audience so much more
than are Westerners that this perspective leaks into and distorts the visual imagery in their
memories. But for them this is important as:
Being a member of an interdependent group makes it more important for one to
understand how others are viewing them. It is others’ opinions about one that especially
matter for one to be successful. In many ways, in interdependent contexts, how an
individual feels about himself or herself is less important than how others feel about one.

Mirror and self­discrepancies:

If East Asians tend to habitually consider themselves from the perspective of others, they
may tend to view themselves more often in a state of objective self­awareness (3rd
person)/ Are we able to change this cognitive bias? Objective self­awareness is often
manipulated by putting people in front of mirrors, where they can see themselves as the
world sees them

Study/procedure.: Japanese and Americans evaluate themselves with a measure of

actual­ideal self­discrepancies. A larger discrepancy indicates a more self­critical
view(means u see yourself objectively). Half completed the questionnaire in front of a
mirror. The other half did not.

Results: Americans had larger self­discrepancies (i.e., are more self­critical) when in
front of a mirror than when not.. When Americans were in front of a mirror they seemed
Chapter 6(1): Self and Personality

to think of themselves in ways more similar to that of Japanese ( they now saw how
others view them). Japanese were unaffected by the mirror as they always see themselves
how other people view them so there is not discrepancy

Self­consistency:
When people are in different situations they are often in different roles ­ if the identity of
the interdependent self is importantly grounded in roles, than across situations, identity
should vary. We expect that the interdependent self should be more contextually variable
than the independent self.

Study Kanagawa et al. 2001

Japanese and American students completed the Twenty Statements Test in different
situations (Kanagawa et al., 2001). There were 4 test­taking situations: alone, with peers,
in a professor’s office, and in a large class.

Data results: American Data: Pure psychological attributes values is all the same.
Suggesting that American did not change the way of describing themselves. In different
context they are consistent. American self­descriptions were highly similar across
different situations. Their self­descriptions were also uniformly positive.

Data Japanese: self­descriptions varied significantly across different situations. They

were more positive when alone and most critical when with their professor. Their self­
descriptions were also less positive than the Americans. Thus under different
context/roles, their self­description changes.

Are japaness unpredictable:

Interdependent: conceptualize themselves different acroos contextually (when in family,
frined etc) but within context they are constant. This is considered good in japaness
culture. So they are predictable but within each kind of relationship.

Why do culture vary in consistency?

In the case of consistency it appears that Westerners benefit more than East Asians from
being consistent. In a study conducted, Americans described themselves more
consistently than did Koreans. These consistency scores were then correlated with some
other variables.

Results: For Americans, there were clear positive correlations between consistency and
each of measures of well­being, social skills and likability. For Koreans, the correlations
were far weaker ( consistency is not thought of as good in here) In sum, Americans
benefit more from being consistent across roles than do Koreans.
Chapter 6(2): self concept and personality
Variations within Culture
Dichotomy (like independent vs. interdependent) is used only as an explanatory device. All cultures
are highly heterogeneous and contain a great variety of people. Cultural differences reflect general
patterns of differences, and not all­or­none statements.
How does this within culture variation arise?
Regional Differences
The Individualistic Ideology is well developed in Tokyo & Hokkaido ( japan). Hokkaido is a frontier
(wilderness) of Japan (12) while People in Tokyo is exposed by Western cultures and have
independent philosophies in ti.

Social class:
Working­class and middle/upper middle class North Americans were exposed to different types of
cultural message Working class: being resilient message in country music. Middle class:
independent and being free message in the rock music. People in different social class are surrounded
by different kind of cultural resources which influences your resources. Thus producing a within
culture variation

Differences in Socialization Process

The childs are born in the peripheral place and don’t know anything about the core culture. They go
to school and get job and get olderà get success. They learn the core message of the society and
become a mature member of the culture and then you have the core culture of the nation. The core
culture now is very stable. The main point is how are you going to internalize cultural message ( old
have to do a lot of these). People in relation to core culture vary.

Culture and Human Minds

Each Individual’s patterns of behaviour are not equal to cultural knowledge. Members of a given
culture explore different layers of cultural knowledge (somewhat freely). (Some people don’t care
about culture. Children experience culture a lot more when with grand parent vs just papers. Thus
they are exposed to different message and this as well create variations . Culture is both some internal
(humans idea in the mind/brain) and external as well ( the people you are in contact with)

Culture and Gender

ndependence and interdependence may not only distinguish Western and non­Western cultures it
might be able to distinguish in gender. Thus, leads to question that Do men and women show parallel
differences in their self­concepts?

Study: investigated this question by comparing Western (American and Australian) and East Asian
(Japanese and Korean) men and women on a number of measures of independence­interdependence.

Procedure: measured 4 of these variables.

• Collectivism (e.g., “I am prepared to do things for my group at any time, even though I have
to sacrifice my own interest.”)
• Agency (e.g., “I do things my own way regardless of what my group members expect me to
do.”)
• Assertiveness (e.g., “I assert my opposition when I disagree strongly with the members of my
group.”)
• Relatedness (e.g., “I feel like doing something for people in trouble because I can almost feel
their pains.”)

Results:
Chapter 6(2): self concept and personality
• As expected: Westerners”: agency and assertiveness (independent) and Eastern: collective
and relatedness (interdependent).
• In contrast, the sexes only differed in relatedness (women > men). Men and women were
highly similar for the other three factors. This pattern was largely similar in each culture.
Women (gender) and Asians (culture) are not the same concept. You can see clear and
strong culture variations but gender doesn’t seem to have any effect in a lot of research that
has been done.
Culture and Personality
The Five Factor Model of Personality argues that there are five core traits that universally represent
personality (Costa & McCrae, 1992).Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion,
Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

• Openness to Experience: a general appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas,
imagination, curiosity, and variety of experience.
• Conscientiousness: a tendency to show self­discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement
(perfectly do things/need for achievement). Benefits: avoid trouble/persistence/trust
worthy/intelligent and complete your role is the good aspect but it also have some Negative:
perfectionist and workaholic.
• Extraversion: positive emotions, surgency, and the tendency to seek out stimulation and the
company of others. ( comments) engagement with the external world. Enjoy with people and
very energetic. “ lets do something yah”. Centre of the topic in most of the time. Oopposite of
this is introvert ( not depression though but just don’t need too much stimulation to
deliberately think properly)
• Agreeableness: a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and
antagonistic towards others. generous and helpful and able to compromise and maintain
harmony. They believe all people are good.
• Neuroticism is the tendency to experience negative emotions, such as anger, anxiety, or
depression. : negative emotions. Minor problems become very negativ eand persist for a long
time. Bad mode. There are also opposite of these people.
Cross­Cultural Studies on Personality Structure Students in 50 different cultures have completed
the Big 5 questionnaire, and a highly similar factor structure has emerged in each culture. However,
this research has all been based on translations of English personality terms ( NA). . A question
remains whether the same set of personality factors would emerge from indigenous sets of
personality traits ( can you universally see this pattern)

Results: Investigations in a number of cultures, have found most of the Big 5 factors, but also some
additional factors. It has not yet been established how universally found are those personality factors
that are separate from the Big 5.
In summary, personality structure appears to be largely similar around the world, although there
might be some significant cultural variation depending on the language that personality traits are
derived from.

More results: Investigations in a number of cultures, have found most of the Big 5 factors, but also
some additional factors.
Cheung et al (1996) developed CPAI (the Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory), and identified
four factors: dependability, interpersonal relatedness, social potency, and individualism. Thus
personality factors vary if you focus on non­English terms.

Cultural Variation in Degree of Importance

Chapter 6(2): self concept and personality
• There is Considerable cultural variation in terms of how much people from different cultures
endorse each of the Big 5 traits. However, this research enterprise is compromised because it
is based on comparisons of mean scores across cultures on self­report measures (What is
the problem of self­report measure? Is on the exam)
Cross cultural comparison:
All the value in US are standardized (50). Cross­cultural comparison shows a lot of variability. The
chart shows variability. Japan is most less consciousness then italy and other nations (is this really
true?) this is very counter­intuitive why is this?

Are Aggregate Personality Traits Valid?

Researchers viewed this set of measures as a validity criterion of conscientiousness (Heine, Buchtel,
& Norenzayan, 2008). The measures obtained were average clock accuracy (emphasis of
consciousness), average postal workers’ speed, walking speed, GDP, and longevity. These all
correlate together very strongly to indicate a single factor conscientiousness. Then they asked how
are these related to the self­report?

Heine et al, assessed how well 4 different aggregate measures of national level of conscientiousness
predicted this validity criterion. The 4 measures included:
– A self­report measure of the Big 5.
– A different self­report measure of the Big 5.
– A peer­report measure of the Big 5 (i.e., people completed a personality scale for their best
friend).
– A national character survey of the Big 5, where people were asked to indicate how they
thought most people from their country would answer these items.
They expected that the first 3 measures would be problematic assessments of national personality
because of the reference­group effect. People would be evaluating the target (either themselves
or a friend) by standards common in their country. The 4th measure, the national character survey,
would be the least affected by the reference­group effect because people had to compare their
compatriots to something, and so their comparison would be between their country and what they
assumed was true in other countries.

Results: all 2 self report Not a good indicator to assess as you have a negative correlation ( i.e. with
the clock accuracy). Also the peer report was close to 0.
But in the national it is 0.61. This is the best one to do the study!!!!!!!!!!!!
Summary: the first three factors are very biased. You really have to use national character survey
(EXAM!!!). In sum, beware of cultural comparisons of mean self­report scores.. Thus, We don’t yet
really have a good mapping out of the world’s cultures in terms of their personalities.
What is Self­Esteem
Self­esteem ­ positive or negative overall evaluations you have of yourself
Trait self­esteem ­ enduring level of confidence and affection that people have for their defining abilities and
characteristics across time
State self­esteem ­ dynamic, changeable self­evaluations that are experienced as momentary
Feelings about the self
Rosenberg’s Self­Esteem Scale: it is a 4 number scale that has Strongly agree to disagree. And then you have 10
questions. 5 that are positive regarding oneself and 5 that are negative. To determine the scoring, you first reverse
the scoring of the five negatively worded items and then add up your scores across the 10 times your total score
should be between 0­30 and the higher number indicates higher SE.
Motivations for Self­Enhancement:
• Self­enhancement is a motivation to focus on and elaborate more about one’s strengths and positive
characteristics than on one’s weaknesses and negative characteristics.
• Many studies demonstrate that this is a powerful motivation that used to be viewed as universal. Cross­cultural
research reveals that it’s a motivation that’s more pronounced in Western cultures than elsewhere.
Evidence for North American Self­Enhancement
• Most North Americans (93%) have high self­esteem. They also show evidence for various self­serving
biases, in which they view themselves in unrealistically positive (i.e. they say their competence is in top 1%
in skill/academics) terms.
• Most North Americans also use various self­esteem maintenance strategies to discount any negative
feedback that they might encounter (i.e. the exam was written bad etc. thus that’s why I did bad)
• Such self­enhancing tendencies are so commonly found in North American samples that they have been
proposed to be mentally healthy ways of viewing the world. Is it culturally universal tendency?
• In East Asian samples, in particular, there is little evidence for self­enhancing motivations, but also little
evidence for problems of mental health.
Self­Esteem and Culture
• Heine et al. conducted a meta­analysis ( a lot of different things were looked at) on all published studies
comparing Westerners and East Asians on various measures of self­enhancement.
• Western Self enhancement effect summary: NA self esteem: some data shows effects other do not ( dot
refer to each study he detected). In some it does show self­enhancing tendency. On avg, statistically larger
then 0 ( it is 0.86). Overall, NA are indeed self enhancing as increase average value
• Even Japanese have some tendency ( i.e. some dots of some research’s are above 0) BUT IN MOST data,
there is not self enhancement. it is not statistically significant, it is 0, thus they do not show, on average, any
self enhancement. (very weak)
• To summarize, there are large cultural differences in self­enhancement motivations. Whereas Westerners
show consistent and strong evidence for self­enhancement, East Asians do not. In many studies, East Asians
show evidence for self­ criticism
1) Do East Asians Enhance their Groups?
• One alternative explanation is that East Asians enhance their group selves rather than their individual
selves. That is, the motivation to self­enhance is similar across cultures but the target that is enhanced is
different.
Self­Esteem and Culture
Procedure:Two rival universities in Vancouver and in Kyoto were studied to check Se across culture.
• In Vancouver, Heine et al. assessed how UBC and SFU students evaluated both UBC and SFU.
• In Kyoto, Heine et al. assessed how Ritsumeikan and Doshisha students evaluated both Ritsumeikan and
Doshisha. Doshisha is usually in the top ranking in Jap.

• Evaluations of Euro­Canadians: Both students from UBC and SFU evaluated UBC more positively than
SFU. However, UBC students viewed the gap between the schools to be much larger than did students from
SFU (UBC student: UBC is better and it is WAY MORE better then SFU) (self enhancing)
• Evaluations of Japanese Both students from Doshisha and Ritsumeikan evaluated Doshisha more positively
than Ritsumeikan. However, Doshisha students viewed the gap between the schools to be smaller (( Doshira
 student said: we are better school BUT not too much better then Ritsumeikan=not so much self enhancing as
we saw in the previous one) than did students from Ritsumeikan ( these guy will say like Doshisha is WAY
better then our school)
(2) Social Norm vs. True Attitude
• True attitude: Another alternative explanation is that these studies might just tap into what people say, and
not what they really feel.
• Self Norm: Perhaps modesty norms make it difficult for East Asians to express their self­enhancing
feelings. Alternatively, perhaps Westerners learn to describe themselves in terms that are more positive
than they really believe.
• That is, the cultures might have similar self­enhancing motivations, but self­presentation norms conceal
this.
• Heine conducted a study to investigate whether cultural differences in self­enhancement generalized to their
private thoughts.
• Procedure: Canadian and Japanese first completed 20 IQ test items on a computer. They were told that the
second part of the study investigated their ability to make decisions with limited information.
• Half were assigned to receive scores better than the average student, and half were assigned to receive
worse scores. These Participants viewed their performance alongside that of the average student for each of
the individual IQ items, one item at a time.
• They were asked to make a decision about their overall performance (across all 20 items) as soon as a
pattern was evident to them.

Results: Number of Items Needed to Make a Decision

• Canadians needed to view more before being able to conclude that they had done worse (12 items view)
than average than when they concluded they had done better ( 8 item viewed=I did better)
• Japanese showed the opposite pattern. They were more easily convinced that they had done poorly (only
took 9 items) than that they had done well ( took 12 items)
Interface of Culture and Psychology: The Situation Sampling Method
You cannot manipulate culture of a person!!!!! This is the short coming you cannot do this.. If we could do this,
we could see a clear change. Thus natural science is not possible. Thus we could use the situation sampling
method.
• Psychological processes and a cultural system are mutually constitutive.
• Becoming one’s self requires tuning and coordinating one’s responses with prevalent patterns of public
(collective) meaning and situations through cultural practice.
Perception of Self:
• U.S. – Self­enhancement: ↑positive characteristic of the self.
• Japan – Self­criticism: ↑self­critical attitude to meet socially shared standards
Do Cultural Resources Constraint People’s Patterns of Behavior?
Suppress emotion in front of a monk is a Buddhist practice. He left jap and brought his parents. When he took his
father to Disney land, who was a monk. He then smiled. He was amazed as monk was not suppose to. THIS
MEANs that this is context related. Depending on the culture, you may tone your response depending on the
normal/majority cultural views.
The Situation Sampling Method:
How it worksL
1) Asked both people to Come up with situation where you might get High self esteem and low self esteem and
make them very concrete. This was like a mini jap and mini US culture.
2) This is taken and then this situation is given to the next person. These are then asked about how you will feel in
this situation. How much they thought that they will have increase or decrease self esteem if they were in those
specific situation.
The data: how would you feel in US and Jap anecdotes/ situations.
Results: showed a clear interaction btw people and culture resources. Japs in Japs showed negative self
enhancement to japs situation. But the same Japs situation when showed to Japs In US showed less negative
effect. Also Japs in Japs showed some negative self enhancement to American situation. But the same American
situation when showed to Japs In US showed Positive self enhancement.
In contrast, American makes you feel good or had high self esteem in both situation.

Mutual Relationships between Culture and Psychology

• Collective constructionist theory
• American Cultural Resources: It reinforces the direction of self­enhancement
• Japanese Cultural Resources: It reinforces the direction of self­criticism.
• Americans: They tend to hold Independent and autonomous view of self (highly motivated to experience
positive feeling)
• Japanese: They tend to hold Interdependent and mutually connected view of self( modest and critical to
nicely fit in.

Where does the cultural difference in self­views come from?

1) Thinking style: Linear manner: experience good, you feel happy, if you experience bad, you will be unhappy
this is linear and esteem is low. Japanese: the ying and the yang, there is no clear boundary btw +/­ and success
vs. failure. This is why, if they ever feel that they are happy, they will think about some bad thing also
(happiness and bad things go hand in hand= dialectical understanding of the world). If they get high esteem,
they start to go down based on this.
2) Independent and interdependent: USà be independent, and thus you have to be confident to take an action.
In contrast, good skill of interaction with other people is favored. You don’t have to be competent others can
help you ( societal message)
3) The lay theory of talents and efforts Everything is genetic/innate ( US). In other non­western, strongly value
hard work to change thing (Jap). Because of this you have to focus on problem/insufficient aspect and thus you
cannot improve. Thus being critical of yourself is good.
4) The frame of reference US: first person, and Jap: 3rd person. Thus, you they can tell a difference btw ideal and
actual self ( last midterm)
5) The expectation of outcomes: you always have to think about both good and the bad. East asian do not take a
lot of risk as they think something bad will happen (promotion or prevention oriented).
6) The relational mobility (Mobile culture vs. Stable culture): The general degree to which individuals in a
society have opportunities to form new relationships and terminate old ones. Thus, higher in relational mobility
mean (in which relationships can be formed and dissolved relatively easily)

Self­Help and Culture

• This cultural difference extends broadly beyond the kinds of information that is relevant to their self­views.
• Study: Book Review Research. The reviews of the top 10 fiction and non­fiction books in the US and Japan
were compared. The 8 most helpful reviews for each book were selected. The researchers coded each
review in terms of the amount of positive and negative information that it contained.

• Results: The helpful reviews for American books contained about the same amount of positive and
negative information. In contrast, The helpful reviews of Japanese books contained more negative than
positive content. Japanese find critical feedback more helpful than do Americans
• Unhelpful reviews, in contrast, didn’t show this pattern.

Does One’s Self­Esteem Change across generation?

Average Self­Esteem of American College Students USà 1995 increase self esteem as compare to 1965. their self
esteem is increase
Culture Change and Self­Esteem: as you go from Japan to European, we see increase in SE. Even the Third
generation Asian/Canadians seems to be same as the European Canadian. But the Japanese is very low SE.

Implications:
• Self­Esteem is a cultural construct, not entity. ( no clear entity that indicates self esteem and is not innate)
• North American cultures emphasize the shared sense of self­worth(enlighten ideaàautonamy/independent
self lead to western induidual)
 • Recent College Undergraduates were more likely than their parent generation to care about their sense of
self­worth.
Dark Side of High Self­Esteem
• Several Researchers have highlighted some specific and compelling dangers of elevated self­esteem.
• Bad things: High self­esteem inflates egotism, and grandiosity, and narcissism.
• It often invites violence like many psycho people have these.
• Good things: North Americans know many benefits of modesty and humility.

Chapter 7(2)
Incremental vs. Entity Theories of Self
• Incremental theories of self involve the belief that abilities are Malleable and are capable of being
changed , with efforts.
• Entity theories of self involve the belief that abilities are largely fixed , and reflect fixed features of the
self.
• People with more interdependent selves have more incremental and less entity­based theories of self.
Fitting in with other’s expectations across different roles appears to be linked with viewing oneself as
flexible enough to adapt oneself to role expectations.
• What is intelligence based on: Japs: 55% effort, Asians Americans: innate 55%, Euro: innate 64%.
• If you have an incremental theory of self: you really have to develop the motivation of self­improvement
• If you are entity theorist, it is reasonable to look at it this way because once you accept failure, it means that
you have to admit your failure­prone personality which is impossible to change.

The Hidden Camera Research

1. Procedure: Cover Story was given to them that we: Test for the relation between creativity and emotional
intelligence Remote Association Test (Easy vs. Hard). Measure of creativity (e.g. what is the word related
to sleep, fantasy and day?) Feedback was given as (Success vs. Failure Participants were told they can
work on RAT if they wanted. The persistence with RAT was measured
2. Result 1: Failure is more motivating for Japanese student then Canadians. Success was more motivation for
Canadians
3. Result 2: They added an additional test: they get to do the same test/redo after feedback or do they select
another test. Americans: success feedback, they choose the same test again Failure feedback: they choose
another test.
4. Results 3: For American participants, they persisted as long when they received entity instructions as when
they received no instructions ( this is what they get normally in life). This suggests that they the entity
instructions conveyed no new information to them. In contrast, the incremental instructions affected their
behavior and made them persist more.
5. Result 3: For Japanese participants, they persisted similarly long time when they received incremental
instructions as when they received no instructions. This suggests that the incremental instructions
conveyed no new information to them ( they are used to this in their environment). In contrast, the entity
instructions affected their behavior and made them persist less ( they do not encounter this normally)
6. Result 3: Overall, Japanese persisted longer in the face of failure than Americans, which suggests that they
have more incremental theories.
Important: When Japanese are given American ideas (i.e., entity theories) they act more like Americans (less
persistence) . And when Americans are given Japanese ideas (i.e., incremental theories) they act more like
Japanese ( higher persistence in tasks)
Control
• People with independent views of self tend to have entity theories of self, but incremental theories of the
world. People strive to change circumstances to fit their desires. This is known as “Primary Control.”
• People with interdependent views of self tend to have more incremental theories of self, but entity theories
of the world. People strive to adjust themselves to accept circumstances as they are. This is known as
“Secondary Control.”
Fitness Club Research
 • Morling (2000) studied aerobics classes in the US and Japan. People completed a questionnaire about why
they chose the class, and what they do when the instructor initiates a difficult move.
• Results: Americans were more willing to choose classes on times that were convenient for them than were
Japanese ( show primary control)
• Results: Japanese were more willing to choose classes based on the level that the class was (2nd control
What do you do when a move is too difficult?
• Japanese are more likely to try harder when the move is difficult than are Americans.
• Americans are more likely to do their own thing when the move is difficult than are Japanese.
Summary:
• Secondary control strategies are more common in non­Western contexts than in Western ones.
• Primary control strategies are more common in the West than elsewhere.
• For Westerners (North Americans), the primary control is good thing, and the secondary control is bad
thing. Non­Westerners often feel a positive feeling by taking the secondary control
Choice:
• A way that primary control is perhaps most directly evident is when people makes choices.
• Making choices, the freedom to choose, is emphasized more in North american contexts than it is
elsewhere. Some key decisions in life, such as who one will marry, what career one will have, where one
will live, are not made by individuals in many cultural contexts ( you don’t control your self)
• North Americans are more used to making choices than are people in some other cultures.
Choice and Social Class
• Study by Snibbe and Markus (2005) contrasted Upper middle class Americans with working class
Americans with regards to their evaluations of a pen they received as compensation in a study..

• Results: Upper middle classes Americans take choice seriously ­ they like a pen considerably less if their
choice was usurped ( i.e. here is the pen for you) . Working class Americans liked the pen the same degree
regardless of whether they chose it or if somebody else chose it for them.
Conformity
Motivations to Fit In or to Stick Out
• Procedure: Study by Kim and Markus (1999) investigated how East Asians and Euro­Americans would
respond to alternatives that were either in the majority or the minority. In one case participants had to rate
which shape they viewed as more attractive
• Results: East Asian participants tended to rate the common shape as more desirable, whereas the Euro­
Americans rated the uncommon shape as more desirable ( stick out)
• Another study: westerners choose minority pen more

Advertisement Research:
• Cultural messages are commonly expressed in advertisements. Analyses of magazine ads have been
compared across the US and East Asia regarding the use of themes of uniqueness and conformity.
• Results: American ads more frequently contained themes of uniqueness than fitting in
• Korean ads more frequently contained themes of fitting in.
• The cultural messages that people encounter in their daily lives through advertisements differentially
emphasize the value of fitting in or sticking out.
• Motivations for fitting in are especially strong in interdependent contexts (Asian)
• Motivations for uniqueness reinforce how one person is different and not dependent on others. These
motivations are especially pronounced in independent contexts (westerners)
Consistency:
Is Dissonance Universal? Culture & Attitude Change
Phase 1: A bogus personality test “Multi­Polar Integrative Personality Inventory”: (MPIPI)
Phase 2: CD Evaluation Task (select top 10 from 40 available title)
Phase 3: CD Selection Task: Choosing either the 5th or 6th ranked CD.
Phase 4: Positive vs. Negative vs Control Feedback on the MPIPI (i.e. your person anility is good or bad)
Phase 5: The second CD Evaluation Task (This must be great because I chose it! Or bad I didn’t)
If Canadian participants felt dissonance, their second evaluation of the chosen CD was more positive than the first
evaluation task. On the other hand, Japanese not care about a negative evaluation and not feel any cognitive
dissonance

Is there any way for Asians to feel cognitive dissonance?

Study 1: The task is identical to Heine’s CD selection task
• In the other­reference/self­first condition, participants first ranked the 10 CDs according to their own
preferences and then ranked the CDs according to the avg college student preference.
• In the other­reference/other­first condition, the order of tasks was reversed in the other­reference/other­first
condition.

• Results: Spread of Alternatives (Ranking differences between the selected CD vs non­selected CD) was
greater in the two other­reference conditions than in the standard condition, and the two other­reference
conditions were not significantly different from each other.
Study 2:
• There are two conditions: the control condition vs. the poster condition
• In the poster condition, an alleged conference poster was hung on the wall of the lab. Researchers assumed
that Japanese tended to show cognitive dissonance when. They were primed with ___________
• The control condition is identical to Heine’s original study.
• In the poster condition, an alleged conference poster was hung on the wall of the lab.
• Researchers assumed that Japanese tended to show cognitive dissonance when they were primed with
_______
Results:
• In the standard condition, the Japanese showed no evidence of dissonance reduction.
• But, in the poster condition they did.
• Americans showed dissonance effect in both conditions, but the effect of the poster condition was weaker
compared to Japanese data.
Summary
• The dissonance effect may indeed be universal.
• But, the condition that prompts it may vary across cultures.
• For independent Westerners, it may be prompted by a concern about one’s own decisions to keep his/her
internal consistency.
• For East Asians, it may be prompted by a concern about other’s approval of one’s decision making.
8(1): Cognition & Perception­Cognition
Causes of Cultural Variation in Human Behavior: Philosophy
• Western philosophers in general shared the idea that everything exists, independently and all the objects
have their own characteristics inside of it.
• Eastern philosophers in general shared the idea that everything is interrelated to each other, and that all
the actions should be interpreted as a whole. Ying and yang alternates. They exist because of each other
other.
Different view, nature, economic views that differ. Where do they come from?
• Ecology leads to different economy and social structure. For example., irrigation project of ancient china:
in the low mountain. Need collaboration and live together in a harmony especially for rice and wheat
farming which requires a lot of people working together.
• Social Structure & Social Practices effect Naïve Metaphysics (Where you attend to). For example,
Chinese: look at pairs, authorities, and their relation that are surrounding them (right side) while the Greek:
focus on the target and its feature only.
Linear­Thinking vs. Dialectical Thinking
• When reading two tendency, you immediately choose immediately which sides you are on. This shows
Analytic from holistic thought differentiation Chinese=more dialectic
Characteristics of Linear­Thinking vs. Dialectical Thinking
• Linear­Thinking: polarizing, based on formal logic
– The law of identity (“ A student is a student”)
– The law of non­contradiction(“A student is not a non­student”)
– The law of excluded middle (“ A student must be a student or a nonstudent, cannot be both”)
• Dialectical thinking in Chinese thought: “middle way”
– Principle of change
– Principle of contradiction
– Principle of relationship or holism
Differential preferences for dialectical proverbs
• Dialectical proverb: e.g. “too humble is half proud”.
• Non­dialectical proverb: e.g. “one against all is certain to fall”.
– Material: 8 dialectical and 5 non­dialectical proverbs from Chinese and English books respectively.
– Procedure: Participants rate their response on a 7­point scale.

– Results: Americans rated that American­made non­dialectical proverbs as more plausible.

– Chinese rated that Chinese­made dialectical proverbs as more believable.
Dialectical Resolution of Social Contradictions
• Method: causes and resolutions for two everyday­life scenarios
– Mother­Daughter Conflict
– School­Fun Conflict
• Expected: Dialect: address issues from both sides and resolve using compromise ( both mom and dad
should this)Non dialect­ exclusively one side i.e. mother should do this

• Results: Chinese were in general more likely than their American counterparts To solve the problem
Dialectically, whereas Americans tended to Jjudge which side was right, and which sides was wrong.
(Dialect=no one wins middle way. Non­dialect=one person wins)
Differential Approaches toward Contradiction
• Materials: 5 apparently contradictory research findings
• Procedures: three conditions, rate beliefs about the accuracy of each statement on a 9­point scale
• Results: US: One is right the other is wrong ( the law of non­contradiction, you cannot have it both ways) .
Americans who received both arguments showed a counter normative reasoning style in that they were
 more convinced that the stronger argument was correct when they also heard of a contradictory argument
than if they had only heard the strong argument by itself.
• Chinese: Dialectical reasoning styles of compromising ( the truth lies between the two sides)
• Chinese viewed a strong argument to be less plausible if they heard a contradictory argument. However,
they showed a counter normative response in viewing a weak argument as being more plausible if it was
paired with a contradictory argument ( finding the middle way)
Self­Ambivalence (ASK)
• Are there any differences in their level of ambivalence regarding them? Chinese, Asian Americans, Euro­
Americans, Latinos, African American answered the self­esteem scale (expected to be low in dialect). The
level of ambivalence was computed.
• Results: The level of self­evaluative ambivalence scores indicate that the Chinese are the highest, and
Asian Americans ranked second. Compared to Euro­Americans, Latino, and african­american Asians are
more accepting about contradiction within themselves
• Support the expectation: Asians are more accepting of contradiction within self then others euro cultures.
Summary:
• Characteristics of western thinking include
(a) Construction of counterarguments (one wins)
(b) Preference for consistency
• Characteristics of eastern thinking
(a) Little emphasis on counterarguments
(b) Emphasis on finding the middle way
Culture and Prediction of Change
• Westerners are inclined to predict that the world will move in whatever direction it now moves
• East Asians are likely to expect the world to Reverse field
Cultural Variation in the Perception of Change
• Various types of graphs, which indicates the trend of some event (e.g. economic growth)
• Participants were then asked to predict the probability for the trend to go up, go down, or to remain the same
in comparison to the last point on the graph.
Negatively Accelerated Decay:
Given a line US said the trend would continue to go down. Chinese thought that it might stop and start ascending
Positively Accelerated Growth
• Results: US: thought the trend will go up. Chinese: thought it will platue or begin to change or go down.
Shows different in cognition about the change
• Culture and Child Development: Perception of Change
• Procedure: Scenarios with 5 possible states. Children were asked to predict the future state. They were then
asked to justify their answer
• Results: Canadian: things could be change easily and as they got older their way of thinking change and they
start thinking that it will not change as north American culture prefer stability over change (absorb societal
culture now)
• Chinese: no sure what is change, but then as they get older they absorb Chinese culture and say now that
change is the rul.
Investigating Training Effect of Holistic Thinking
• questions: Training in Oriental medicine would make students think in a more holistic way”. Thus Can the
way a person think be modified by formal education and training.
• Trying to prove that cultural differences are not fixed, but shaped through various socialization processes.
Regular Students vs. East Asian Medical Students
• Participants were provided a graph showing a trend of an event over three data points.
• Participants were asked to predict how the phenomenon would change by marking dots at the next two data
points.
• Students of both oriental medicine(square) and other majors thought the graph would continue in the same
direction to point four.
• However, at point 5, the oriental medicine group expected the trend would reverse.
 • The students from other majors still predicted that the graph would continue in the same direction at point
five as it did in point four
• Thus, difference in socialization or institutional practices effects the answers even though from same
culture.

• Discussion: What is the difference between western dialectical thinking and eastern dialectical thinking?

• Ans: In such a society, placing everything on the same logical field is often seen as rather naïve , childish,
and less intelligent. ( no strong motivation to simplify things using clear logic)
8(2)
Attitude Inference
• Analytic thinking involves understanding objects by focusing on their component part, whereas holistic
thinking involves understanding objects by considering their relation with with context.
• Explaining people’s behaviors by attending to their personal characteristics is known as a dispositional
attribution. North Americans: mostly dispositional attributionà this bias is called the called the fundamental
attribution error
• In contrast, explaining people’s behaviors by attending to contextual variables is known as a situational
attribution.

• Study: In Jones & Harris’s (1967) classic study, American students were asked to evaluate an essay
writer’s true attitude by reading an essay that they had written, which espoused either positive or critical
attitudes towards Fidel Castro.
• fundamental attribution error: Personnel disposition rather then the situation in which a person is. What
ever the person says are does it because of the person’s internal factors and not in the situation in which a
person might be.
• CASTRO STUDY: ( Ask)

• Condition 1: Participant read an essay, which was said to be written freely. I hate castroyes he does.
• Condition 2: Participant read an essay which was said to be written under constraints and he says I LOVE
CASTRO as a judge, In this case, you are not sure since you don’t know if its his true thought. But you
know that most Americans at that time have anti-castro beliefs ( so you might think that these are not his
true attitudes). Same thing if he says I HATE CASTRO you are not sure what he thing but might be
tempted to say yes based on majority beliefs.
• Results: Large number difference =pro castro ( freely choosenà judge that essay written by the participant
truly represented the participant’s belief regardless of what the most people at the time believed)
• Small number difference btw pro and anti-castro difference. This should not have been the case if they had
though about the situation.
• In all of these conditions, participants assumed that the person reading or writing the anti-Castro essay had
more negative feelings towards Castro than the person reading or writing the pro-Castro essay.
• These tendencies to neglect situational information in favor of dispositional information are so pronounced
that they have been labeled the “fundamental attribution error.”

Culture and the Fundamental Attribution Error (ASK)

Replicating Snyder & Jones’ (1974) Experiment

Condition 1: Free Choice: Participant read an essay, which was said to be written freely

Condition 2: Forced Choice: Participant read an essay which was said to be written under constraints (i.e. told to
wrote an essay on it). Condition 3: Experience: Overal, john wrote the essay under social pressures.
Condition 4: Experience + Fixed Arguments ( i.e. this is what you have to say to why it is great)
Results: Y= strength of fundamental attribution error
Free choices: NA+Kor=truly represent their true beliefs which expected
No choice: wrote under assigned position. NA+Korà showed strong Fundemental atrribution error
Experience: NAàerror seen. Korà attinuated to level of error. They took into account the situation thus decreasing
error.
Experience + arugment: NA= still show it. Kor=decrease error to almost 0
Mainpoin: Cultural differences start coming out in the last 2 groups. In these last groups, they are not aware of the
situation in which they wrote the essay regarding punishment.

Summary:
• If Asians are aware of the salient situational factors through the experimental manipulation, they are able to
attenuates the fundamental attribution error ( decrease like in number 4 scenario above)
• However, such experimental manipulation did not work for American participants. American participants
continued to show a strong fundamental attribution error.
•
Causal Attribution
Internal Attribution: Attributing the causes of one’s behavior to the person’s personality, skill, talent, and
abilities (e.g. Richard Gere is clumsy!)
External Attribution: Attributing the causes of one’s behavior to situational factors (e.g. Dancing is very
difficult!)
Study: Culture and Causal Attribution: Ball
Task: Guessing the reason of why the orange ball moved forward
North Americans and Chinese equally explain the event using both internal and external attribution
Culture and Causal Attribution: Fish
North Americans tended to explain the event using internal Attribution, whereas Chinese tended to explain the
event using external Attribution
Explanation: Social behavior is more complex and thus we began seeing a cultural different. NAà intentially
moved forward since it was the leader. Chineseà Kicked out since its color was different

Two Murder Case Scenarios of a Chinese and then another person was irrish person killing someone.
• Results: NAà lau was mentally imbalance/he worked too much/pressure on himself
(internal/dispositional). They did mention external but not as much as the chinese

• Results: North Americans tended to explain the event using dispositional attribution, whereas Chinese
tended to explain the event using situational attribution
• Chineseà Americans individualistic and violence tactic effect international students. Advisors were the
proble. A lot of external factors/situational factors.
Newspaper Reports of Soccer Games
• Study: Lee, Hallahan, Herzog’s research on positive causal attribution (1996).They analyzed 11 US
Newspaper articles vs. 28 Hong Kong Newspaper articles Coding the contents of article:
• Measure: The amount of Dispositional Attribution
• Results: NAà more likely to mention player’s personal characteristics ( mental/physical strength and
personal attributes).HKà relation to the team and the circumstances surrounding the player ( external
attributes) Thus, Cultural variation exist…. But where to do they comes from?
Attribution & Child Development
• Joan Miller (1984): 8,11,15 year-old children as well as adults from Mysore, India, and from Chicago, USA
engaged in attribution task to try to ans if it is It is innate/social developed.
• Results: Indiansà situation. As they got older this tendency became stronger.
• Americansà dispositional attributes and as they got older this got stronger.
 • No difference btw the 8 years old but then changer. Our child rearing component are very important. WE
explain events using external events/internal attribute and teach them/explain events using these thus they
internalize these and these become stronger as they get older.
Culture and Prediction of Causes
Study: Looked at regular and premedical students who study ancient chinese medicine.

• Procedure: Participants were given a brief summary of a hypothetical murder case, involving a graduate
student being a suspect in the murder of his advisor. Participants were given a list of 97 items that could be
factors in the crime.
• Participants were asked to eliminate any of the items on the list that they thought were useless in the
investigation of the murder. The items were randomly ordered.

• Results: The second year premedical students excluded fewer items then did the students of other majors.
• Importantly, second year medical students excluded even fewer items that that of second year premedical
3students. Study two-showed evidence of positive correlation between holistic thinking and oriental
medicine education.
Reasoning Style
Family Resemblance vs. Rule-Based Categorization
NAà More importance on things that they can categorize.
Chineseà Motivated on similarties/family resemblance of the examples ( i.e. they are all same in color=they are
all related even though they are square and circles)à they cannot help but think that all Asians a re related.
They are not good at categorizing things. Less sensitive to common characteristics

Similarity-Based Categorization vs. Rule-Based Categorization

• Analytic and holistic thinkers show different reasoning styles.
• In general, analytic reasoners are more likely to apply abstract rules in order to solve problems.
• Holistic reasoners attend more to relationships among objects or events, looking for similarities or temporal
relations.
• Which flowers belong to which groups? i.e. shape of the steep is same to the group of flower A=group 2
( rules based category)=NA
• Similarities of the pedalà group 1 had pedal/lead and were circle thus overall, A=group 1
• Results: North Americans were in general good at identifying common characters
• EA=similrility / family based oriented vs NA=rules based categorization mostly.
Differences in Similarity Judgments between Americans and East Asians
• European-Americans make these decisions more based on applying rules than in looking at the overall
similarity between the targets and the groups.
• East Asians and Asian-Americans make these decisions more based on the overall similarities
• These cultural differences only emerge when there is a conflict between an analytic and a holistic solution.
Both groups can reason well in purely analytic or purely holistic tasks.
8(3)
Field Dependence vs. Field Independence
• When perceiving a scene, holistic thinkers are more likely to perceive it as an integrated whole. This makes
it more difficult to separate objects from each other in a scene. This is called field dependent.
• Being able to separate objects from each other is termed field independent.

Cultural Difference in Attention

• Westerners’ Attention Selectively attending to the target object and its attributes (context independence,
object­oriented).
• East Asians’ Attention: Holistically attending to target objects in relation to their context and situation
(context dependence, context­oriented, relationship­sensitive).
Field Dependence vs. Field Independence
 • Often field independence is tested with a Rod and Frame task, where a rod is inside of a frame and they
are both rotated.
• Results: In general, Westerners perform better on field independence tasks than do non­Westerners.
• The individual parts of the scene are seen as distinct, and Westerners are better able to ignore the rest of the
scene. This difference can be seen in a variety of other tasks.
• If you ignore the frame, you will do well. If you pay too much attention to the angle of the frame, you will
do worse ( east Asian)=context dependent= field dependent.

• Results of the rod and frame task: East Asians performed worse than European Americans because they
paid too much attention to the frame.
• Overall, Female=more context dependent. East asian=more contexual factor and thus made more errors and
this is even replicated in asian americans as well.

Culture and attention: The Frame & Line Task

• Procedure: Image with line and frame. Watch for 5 seconds. Then presented with blank frame. Which was
either smaller or larger ( like the bottom). The task was to draw a line that was taking into proportion the
frame ( the relative task=context dependetn) or just draw the line ( non­context dependent)
• Results: North Americans nicely ignore the frame, therefore, they performed the absolute task better than
the relative task. absolute­=just remember the lineànon context like the size of the frame
• East Asians automatically attend to the frame, therefore, they performed the relative task better than the
absolute task. Relatieveàremember the proportion of the line ( tuhs you have to observe both the size of
the frame and the line)à
Same study was done in subject in different cultures the results showed that:
• Japs in Japà better in relative (less errors). Americans in Americaà absolute better
• NOW in different culture: A in Japsà cultural assimilation (response pattern similar to the japs). Thus
dominant pattern of attention can be learned as we change our perceptions. Same things for japs in America
Culture and Attention: Description of Events
• Procedure: Japanese and americans watch underwater scenes and later were asked to describe what they
had seen.
• Results: Americans focused on main target the fish without focusing on the background. Japs: holistically
attention while describing the background as well
Another study of attention:

• Procedure: Participants are first asked to describe the original pictures while they are looking at them.
Later, participants are shown another series of photos, then asked whether they have seen the animal in the
picture before. Animals stay consistant but the background changed.

• Results: East Asians appear to see the scene as bound together in an irreducible whole. Westerners see it
as a collection of parts.
• Chinese were more likely than Americans to alternate their attention from the target animal to its
background
Culture and Aesthetic Preferences
• Pictorial information disseminated through both mass media and traditional aesthetic styles (e.g., fine
arts) could be important means of conveying dominant messages of a given cultural meaning system
• Landscape: In east asia: have imployed different was of showcasing the landscapes.usually like the
Birds eye view or the flatting . Westernersà usually the size of objects ( like portraits)
• Portraits is also different: EAà more in the forms of context ( the model is very small but the
background is also very important like the mattresses, sea water etc). The ratio of the face as compare to
the background is very small. Westà portraits of the person only.
 • Comparisons of Paintings in Museums:
• Scenery: East: horizon drawn much higher suggesting it consists of more field information’s
• Portrait: East: deemphasize the face and more the context ( that’s why the ratio is so smalls)
• Notes: Famous paintings held in art museums show clear differences between East Asian and Western
styles.Perhaps this just reflects the vagaries of historic styles
• Do people still prefer representations of scenes and people like this? Comparison of Student
Drawings: Consistent with previous findings: People maintain cultural specific ways of drawings.
Easterjs students tended to have more objects then americans and the location of the horizon was high
for east asians ( 19% higher) .
Comparison of Photos taken of confederates in labs by participants: Americans vs Asians.
• East Asians: Models was 35% as large as the the Americans participants
• East Asians place the modern the background as if the model was part of the background while
Americans emphasize the model at the expense of the background.
• More face was shown ( in Americans)

Summary:
• Westerners and East Asians represent scenes differently. Westerners prefer lower horizons, which bring an
emphasis to the foreground objects, and they prefer larger central figures.
• East Asians prefer higher horizons, with busier scenes, which highlight the relations among objects in the
scenes, and they prefer smaller
Culture and Environment
1) Japs scenes were more complex then the US scenes (1)
2) Pparticipant presented with japs and Americans scenes. Rresults found that north Americans who became
primed with Japanese picture, became more contextual.

Culture & Design Hypotheses How do different culture process different information?

• East: It is good including information's that are associated with an information's including the secondary
information's. When you have certain piece of information then you say that is ok. Now the main
information is blended in with other information's. For NAà this is too much information
• North Americans: tend to include important and not secondary. Thus they place the secondary piece of
information in the background to make the primary information stand out ( the right size big circle). FOR
EAà this is too simple though
• Main point: EAà more information are included in the environment and everything is equally important .
NAà good at finding central and important information,
Other studies: East Asian posters were more long and complex compared to their North American counterparts?
• Finding: Posters with multiple studies produced by Easterners contained more words and characters than
those produced by Westerners and people in the unmatched group.
• Finding 2: Webpages: Scroll bars of Eastern webpages were shorter than those of Western ones, while there
were more links, words, and characters in Eastern webpages than in Western ones.
• Study three: Are east Asians are overwhelmed with information's?
• Dependent variable:: Reaction time when doing the information task
• Results: NAà better when searched for information in less complex ( BUT WAS NOT SIGNIFICANT)
• EAà a lot better when dealing with more complex web information's.

Summary/conclusion:
• Posters with multiple studies produced by Easterners were more complex than those produced by
Westerners and people from the unmatched group
• Eastern webpages were more complex than Western ones
 • Easterners were better than Westerners at dealing with the information on complex web pages, while no
differences were found in dealing with the information on simple webpages
• Research on Culture and Human Psychology require us to take an interdisciplinary approach (both Sciences
& Arts).
• Research Methodologies vary according to the targets of the investigation. For example, on the one hand
you can have analyses of cultural products & cultural discourses. And on the other, you can have analyses
of underlying processes of a behavior, such as eye movement and brain activation.

8(4): Language

Language Relativity Hypothesis: Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: Particular language's nature influences the
habitual thought of its speakers. Different language patterns yield different patterns of thought.
Does Language Influence Thought?
• A strong version of the Whorfian hypothesis is that language determines thought. Without access to the
appropriate words people are unable to have certain kinds of thoughts. ( see example below)
• The strong version of this hypothesis has been largely rejected (e.g. The myth of Inuit’s vocabularies of
“snow”).
• Example: Whorfian’s often claimed Canadian Inuits/eskimos had many terms to describe snow, use at least
four words to describe snow, that are not related… some say Inuits have over 100 words to snow
• English vs. Hopi: have No words, grammatical forms, or expressions that refer to What we call “time,” or
to past, or future, or to enduring or lasting” “No general notion or intuition of “time” as a smooth flowing
continuum n which everything in the universe proceeds at an equal rate, out of a future, through a present,
into
• A weaker version of the hypothesis is that language influences thought. Having access to certain words
influences the kinds of thoughts that one has.
• There remains a lively controversy regarding the weaker version of the hypothesis, with much recent
evidence coming out in favor of it. The Whorfian hypothesis has much relevance to cross­cultural research
as one way that cultures differ is in their languages and the words that are available to them.

Language and Color Perception

• Although color exists along a continuum, color terms themselves are discrete. Color terms vary
dramatically around the world, although there are only a limited number of patterns of color terms in all
languages.
• This leads to the Whorfian question; if people don’t have a word for green do they still see green the same
way?

• Study: The Danni people, who only have 2 color terms: dark or light; black vs. white.
 • Results: The studies showed that the Dani could learn new color terms that were closer to the prototypes
of English color labels, than they could learn new color terms that were further from the English prototypes.
This research was enormously influential in arguing that language is independent of thought. Seems to
argue that Eyes consists of 3 cones, that are wired to neurons, should be completely separate from language
system
Anti Whorfian Assertion
• Various studies in the last two decades disproved Sapir­Whorf hypothesis and suggested that our thoughts
are in general quite free from language
• However, numerous researchers raised the fact that there were various technical problems with these
studies. Recently, new research has been exploring whether color terms affect perception of colors.
• Study of himba and berinmo people and English colars: Color boundaries are quite diff across
cultures.Participants were shown triads of color chips and were asked to identify which two chips were
more similar in color (see Roberson et al., 2000, 2005).
• The chips that they chose from were equidistant in terms of hue, however, on test trials two of the chips
crossed a boundary between two different color terms.
• The researchers compared how similarly people viewed colors to be based on whether the two chips
crossed a color boundary in their own language, or a color boundary in another culture’s language.

• Color: Relativity Supportive Results(ASK):: People tended to make more judgments based on whether
the color of the chips crossed the boundaries of the color terms in their own language than they did when
the color terms crossed the boundaries of the color terms in the other languages.
Color: Blue vs. Green
• In some societies, the boundary between green and blue is ambigous.
• Japanese often get confused by mismatches between perception and official color term.
• Study: 2 terms; dark blue and light blue,. Task was to select which group the target color fit into.
• Results: English speakers do not distinguish from the light & dark blue.
• Russian Speakers’ detection speed was faster when the two alternatives are in different linguistic categories
in Russian then When they were from the same linguistic category

Spatial Cognition
• Space: Tight fit vs. Loose fit: Koreans speakers distinguish tight fit (“nehta”) ( like envelop or a magnet
on the fridge) from loose fit ( like an apple is a ball) (“kitta”)—They paid more attention to the kind of
spatial relation they had just been familiarized, and easily picked out the odd picture, whereas English
speakers did not.

• Results: Korean speaking adults looked longer at the kind of spatial relation they had just been
familiarized with during the first task, while English speaking adults did not distinguish between the tight
and loose fit scenes, and ended up looking equally long at the familiar and novel scenes.
• Furthermore, when given several examples of tight fit and one example of loose fit, Korean speaking adults
could easily pick out the odd picture. However, English­speaking adults could not do it.
• Space: Egocentric vs. Cardinal Localization: Some languages have egocentric spatial terms, such as
right, left, in front of, or behind. Many languages lack terms for these, so that people describe location in
terms of the cardinal directions (e.g., north, east,...).
• What will people do when are asked to recreate a scene when they change the direction that they are
facing?

• Study: Dutch speaking and Guugu Ymithirr (a language without egocentric spatial terms) speaking
participants were shown an array of objects. They were then taken to a different room and were asked to
recreate the scene. In one condition they faced the same cardinal direction in the second room. In the other
condition they faced a different cardinal direction in the second room.
 • The DV = how they arranged the objects in the second room.
• Results: Dutch speakers chose the arrow that still pointed to the right, whereas Tzeltal speakers chose the
arrow that pointed to the left. Cardinal thinker – draw line completely opposite, choose arrow pointing to
left
• Study 2: Original Stimulus ­ All participants facing North. In the second room, participants were facing
South. (different cardinal direction in the
• Second room. Results: English – order does not change, Guugu­ order depends which direction you’re
facing

• Study 3: Likewise, another study investigated whether people would represent the passage of time
differently. Most English speakers arrange time as moving from the left to the right, likely because this is
the direction that we read. Arabic­speakers, in contrast, arrange time from right to left, as they read that
way too. In contrast, Australian aborigines who speak Kuuk Thaayorre arrange time as moving from the
East to the West, following the sun. So what happens when Kuuk Thaayorre speakers are asked to arrange
pictures in a temporal order?

• Results: It appears that representing space in absolute terms is common among most subsistence societies
in the world. This is common even among people who are bilingual and have learned egocentric direction
terms in one of their languages ­ apparently, they prefer to represent space in absolute ways.
• Chimpanzees also don’t represent space in egocentric ways.
• Egocentric space representation appears to be a relatively recent development in human history.

Numerical Cognition

• Numerical Cognition in the Absence of Words:

• Young children are able to represent numbers up to 3, and after that, they require cultural learning to
represent larger numbers.
• Some cultures do not have number terms beyond two. For example, the Piraha from the Amazon have
number terms that correspond to 1,2, and many.
Research in Pirahã brazil:
• What happens when the Piraha are asked to do simple tasks that require counting to numbers beyond 3?
(see Gordon, 2004).
• Results: In general, they had an approximate understanding of magnitude, such that they matched larger
quantities with increasingly large quantities, however, they were only accurate up to small numbers, such as
to 3 or 4.
• The larger the number they were asked to represent, the larger was their error, however, they did show a
general sense of approximate quantities. They often would use their fingers to aid their performance,
however, this was highly inaccurate, even for numbers smaller than five.

Research in Mundurucu
• Subsequent studies reveal that very young children, as well as those from other tribes without number
words (e.g., the Mundurucu from the Amazon) represent numbers logarithmically (Dehaene, Izard, Spelke,
& Pica, 2008)

• Procedure: Mundurucu participants were shown on a laptop a line between the values of one and 10 dots.
They were then shown a set of dots and were asked to indicate the position on a line.

• Results: Participants placed the line at positions that roughly corresponded to the logarithmic value of the
number. For example, they rate the middle of the scale to be about a 3 rather than a 5.
• This, together with the results from young children, suggests that people’s innate number sense may be
logorithmic, and they learn linear numbers greater than three through cultural learning.
• Much of what we understand about numbers only occurs as the result of cultural learning.

• Research Question: How do people perceive similarities among ordinary concepts that are differently
dissected across languages?
• Participants: Native English speakers at U of A, and native Japanese speakers at Kobe University in Japan

• They had: Objects distinct in Japanese concepts, but not in English concepts (DJ) and Objects distinct in
English concepts, but not in Japanese concepts (DE)
• Study 1: Native Japanese and English speakers judged the similarity of the images, but first they named the
objects, which served to verify the influence of language on judgment.
• See results:

• Study 2: Different native Japanese and English speakers engaged in the same task, but were not asked to
name the objects; this allowed us to test whether an effect is observable even when the stimuli are not
explicitly coded using language.
• Results (see)
• Summary: Although there were similarities in judgment across languages, implying universality in
perception, explicit use of language during the task indeed influenced judgments of similarity.
• The patterns were replicated even when participants were , not explicitly asked the name the object but the
magnitude of effect was slightly attenuated.
• The current research on ordinary concepts revitalizes Whorf‘s original concepts in a broader context.
Chapter 10(1): Living in Multicultural Worlds
Heritage Culture vs. Host Culture
Longitudinal study: very difficult as takes a long time and hard to do.
Cross sectional studies: easy since those that are born on outside their culture and those live in same culture
compared. Problem is that there are so many confounding variables so it is very hard to control.

What Happens When People Move to a New Culture?

• There are many reasons why people go to another culture. Once
they are in their, they might live n different environments.
• Moving to a new culture involves psychological adjustment=the
stress level is high.
• One common pattern of acculturation is captured by a U­shaped
curve.
• Y=positive how the participants like the new culture and
X=times
• First few monthvery excitedcalled the HONEYMOON phase
• As the time passesa dip seencultural shock (6­18 month being sick, and tired of the new country). They
may find to hard to communicate with new culture people and are overwhelmed. Some of them can’t go
through this go back while others stay. CRISIS or CULTURAL SHOCK period.
• As you stay longthey start enjoying the experience again. Language mastered now. Develop friendship as a
results etc. ADJUSTMENT PHASE.
• They can reverse this and receive cultural shock if they now after spending long time in America and then
decide to go back.
Homogenous Culture vs. Multiculturalism
• In more homogenous cultures the adjustment phase of the curve is sometimes not experienced. For
example, one study of immigrants to Japan showed an L­shaped curve, where people who had lived in
Japan for more than 5 years weren’t faring much better than those who were in the depths of culture shock
after one year (Hsiao­Ying, 1995).
Who Adjusts Better?
• Cultural Distance ­ How similar is their heritage culture to the host culture.( Same culture, it is ok and you
adjust better)
• A parallel phenomenon exists for learning another language.
• Languages can be categorized by how recently they shared a common linguistic ancestor. Those, which
have a more recent common linguistic ancestor, are more similar in terms of their grammar and
morphology. Thus it might be easier for them to get this language rather then completely different.
• When you look around the world, their are chunk of language spread throughout the world.
• Similarity in language can help you adjust better. TOEFL score showed that Germany and Sweden has the
highest score. Perhaps because English is very similar to language in these culture (Indo­Europeans are a
lot better). Japanese is the lowest.
Similar Culture, Good Adaptation
• Verb is at the end of the sentence for Japanese I you love NOT (verb at the end). I you LOVE (will be on
exam)
• The more similar one’s heritage culture is to one’s host culture, the easier it is to adapt to the host culture.
• Sojourners who have greater cultural distance from the host culture tend to show more distress, have more
medical consultations, and have more difficulty in making friendships with people from the host culture.
• Study: Malaysian exchange students who went to study in culturally­similar Singapore showed more
successful sociocultural adjustment than those who went to study in more culturally distant New­Zealand.
First Nations in Canada
• The tsimshian of the Northwest BC coast traditionally relied largely on subsistence practices (mostly
fishing) that allowed them to accumulate large quantities of food and establish permanent highly stratified
settlements.
 • The eastern cree from Northern Quebec were migratory, did not accumulate many resources, and had little
stratification (hunter and gather)
• The carrier, of Northeastern BC was intermediate in terms of their resource accumulation, and social
stratification.
• Paralleling the cultural similarities with colonial culture, the tsimshian acculturated to mainstream Canadian
culture with the least acculturative stress, the eastern Cree showed the most difficulties, and carrier were
intermediate.
• Thus cultural difference btw first nations and the colonial culture determine who are better able to adapt to
it.
Acculturation and Personality
• Research has found that extraverted Finns from rural Finland are more likely to move to urban parts of
Finland, than are less extraverted rural Finns. Apparently, people with a preference for social engagement
enjoy the diverse social opportunities in urban regions (Jokela et al., 2008).
• ANIMAL RESEARCH: Curiously, a similar pattern has been identified with lizards. Those lizards with
high “social tolerance” are more likely to move to densely populated patches than low in social tolerance.
• Extraversion does not universally predict acculturation success.
• However, what appears to be more important is whether the individual’s personality matches with that of
the dominant host culture
• Extraverts fare well in a largely extraverted culture, such as the US, but extraverts have more problems
fitting in in less extraverted cultures, such as Singapore.
• Likewise, Asians with more independent self­concepts have an easier time acculturating to North America
vs. those that are more collectivist.
Acculturation Strategies
• People vary in the acculturation strategies that they use.
• The two key variables are how positive are people attitude
towards their host culture, and how positive are attitudes
towards their heritage culture There are 4 possible strategies
that can be arranged in a 2 by 2 table.
• The table on the right will be on exam.
Acculturation Strategies (con’t)
• The most common strategy that people pursue is the integrations strategy.
• The marginalization strategy is the least common strategy (very negative attitudes associated with it)
• Assimilation and separation are intermediate in frequency.
• The assimilation strategy is associated with more positive outcomes than the separation strategy.
• Separation bears the cost of rejecting the host culture ( reject Canadianàyour children also do this)
A Salad Bowl or a Melting Pot?
• Societies also vary in terms of the model of multiculturalism that they pursue.
• Some countries, such as Canada, strive for a “salad bowl” model, where each ethnic group maintains its
distinctive characteristics, and adds unique flavor to the whole.
• Other countries, such as The USA, strive more for a “melting pot” model, where each ethnic group’s
distinctive characteristics are melted away as they learn to assimilate to the dominant culture.
• What do you see as some of the strengths and weaknesses of these two models? (we are all Americans but
then original culture values is lost. People can be proud at the expense of group solidary but they also try to
fit in if it values diversityand more positive attitudes as a result)
Need for Cognitive Closure (NCC)
• They completed a “Need for Cognitive Closure” scale. This scale assesses people’s comfort with
uncertainty. Those with a high need for cognition are uncomfortable with uncertainty, and will seek firm
answers, even if such answers might not really exist.
• It’s all about trying to make everything clear. If you are in Italy if you are high in need of this, i..e things are
very unclear, you are more likely to take assimilation strategy since they really hate the uncertainty.
• Study: Croatian immigrants to Italians.
• They indicated whom they primarily associated with during their first 3 months in Italy.
 • They completed a measure of sociocultural adaptation, which indicated how successfully they had adapted
to life in Italy.
Effect of initial interactions:
• For participants low in a need for cognitive closure, their early experiences had little impact on their
subsequent adaptation.
• In contrast, for those high in a need for cognitive closure, their early experiences had much impact on their
adaptation.

Chapter 10 (2): 70% after midterms only notes and you will get 85%
Positive Outcomes of Multiculturalism
Being Multicultural
• Moving to a new culture requires psychological adaptation. In the process of adapting to a new culture, one
needs to begin to see things in a new way.
• There can be some particular benefits to learning how to see things differently.
Do Multicultural Experiences Foster Creativity?
• A key part of creativity is insight ­ where you see a problem in a novel way.
• Creative insight might be fostered by adjusting to a new cultural environment, where you learn to see things
in a different way. If you are used to looking at life from more than one perspective, you might be more
likely to have creative insights.
• Many famous artists and writers had multicultural experiences.
• Richard wright wrote: “Once I went (abroad) it was extremely exciting for me to become a new personality,
to be detached from everything that bound me, noticing everything that was different. That noticing of
difference was very important.”
The candle example:
• How could you attach the candle to the wall so that it burns properly (vertically), and doesn’t get wax on
the floor, using only these objects? Hammer the box into the wall and then light the candle and then using a
drop of wax to stick it to the wall. If you can’t think of the box as a holder of candle no answer will be
find.
The Creativity Test, Results
• Time spent living abroad predicted creativity
• Merely traveling abroad, as a tourist, in contrast, did not improve performance.
• One alternative explanation to this is that it might be that creative people are more likely to live abroad.
That is, according to this account, it’s not that adapting to new cultures makes one more creative, but
having a creative personality leads one to be more interested in adapting to new culture to address this, it’s
necessary to manipulate adaptation.
The Imagination Test, Procedure
• The “Adaptation prime” condition (real adaptation like )
• The “observation prime” condition (traveling like )
• And participants in the control condition received no priming materials.
• In the creativity task, participants were asked to draw an alien. They were told to imagine they had gone to
a distant galaxy, and had encountered an alien from a planet very different from earth.
• Coders rated the similarity to earth creatures and the number of sensory atypicalities.

Results:
• Participants who thought about adapting to a new culture showed increased creativity compared to the other
conditions. Their alien drawings were significantly less similar to earth creatures and had significantly more
sensory atypical ties (creative produced once you try to assimilate or become adaptive)
• Thinking about observing a new culture didn’t yield the same effects ( simply travelling does not effect
creativity). It seems to be that adaptation to other cultures is what is key to enhanced creativity.
Negative Outcomes of Multiculturalism
• When immigrants come to pick up the less desirable characteristics of a culture.
• They ended up living in the poorest neighborhoods of a country.
 • Ironically, those immigrants who are especially adept at fitting in with their new surroundings, are more
likely to drop out of school and engage in criminal activities. It is those immigrants who do not fit in well
that avoid these problems.
Obesity of Americans
• Immigrants adapt to American life in a number of ways. The longer they’ve lived in the US, the more
likely they are to have picked up the eating habits and resulting obesity levels ( immigrants also adapt to
undesirable habits as well
Direct and Indirect Discrimination
• Some of the effects of discrimination are direct and plainly visible due to difference in culture (e.g. Job
Competition, Insurance Fee huge for new comer).
• Other harmful effects of discrimination can be more indirect. People can come to internalize the the
stereotype that they encounter, have these guide their expectations, and ultimately come to act in ways
consistent with those stereotypes.
• Stereotype threat is the fear that one might confirm a negative stereotype about one’s group.
Streotype Threat
• African­Americans underperform European­Americans at university.
• Whenever an African­American student encounters a difficult academic challenge, they are likely to be
reminded of the negative stereotype, and experience anxiety and reduced optimism. This leads to worse
performance, so in the end, the student has proven the stereotype.
Coping with Streotype Threat
• Being made aware of the existence of stereotype threat reduces it’s impact?
• Heine conducted a study to investigate whether the perceived source of a stereotype influences its ability to
impair performance.
• One common negative stereotype is that women struggle with math. Thus would they have any difference
in performance if they learn that this was due to genetic factor or experience?
• Procedure: UBC female students into one of four conditions:
• Control condition, “Standard Stereotype Threat” condition ( took a math exam surrounded by guys),
“Genetic Account” condition ( received info that clear genetic evidence for this) , “Experiential Account”
condition (woman are not highly encouraged to be good at mathdoes not mean its innate)
• DV: Participants were asked to engage in a very difficult math test and assessed how many questions they
correctly answered.
Women’s Math Performance
• Reminded of their gender (being around men in standard stereotype threat) really effects them
• Genetic group this is same as the standard stereotype threat.
• In experience bar showed very good performance and they showed they believe they can overcome
• If these results can be generalized, they suggest that the harmful effects of stereotype threat across races are
because people view racial differences in genetic terms.

Multicultural People
• There are two ways that multicultural experiences impact the self­concept, and there is some evidence for
both.
• Blending ­ People’s self­concepts reflect a hybrid of their two cultural worlds.
• Frame switching ­ People maintain multiple self­concepts and switch between them depending
on context.
Evidence for Blending
• Do the self­concepts of multicultural people look intermediate between the self­concepts of monoculture
people from different cultures?
• For most measures, the answer appears to be “Yes.”
• We have investigated the self­esteem of people with exposure to both Canadian and East Asian cultures
Self­Esteem Change After 7 months
 • When Japanese had lived in Canada for 7 months, their self­esteem increased significantly
• In contrast, when Canadians had lived in Japan for 7 months, their self­esteem decreased significantly
• The change in the self­esteem occurred really quickly. Canadaself­enhancing society so japs become more
self­enhancing.
• How long does it take to make this switch usually?
Self­Esteem and Exposure to North American Culture
• A very large sample (about 5000) that were categorized into these categories:
• “Never Been­Abroad” Japanese: SE is very low
• “Been­Abroad” Japanese:, Recent East Asian Immigrants, Long­Term East Asian Immigrants
• 2nd­Generation East Asian Canadians.
• 3rd­Generation East Asian Canadians***=very high
• European­Canadians: very high***
• Results: As you spend many years in the Canadians society but to get fully assimilated to the Canadian
culture you have to be 3rd generation east Asian Canada=Canadian self esteem level.
Evidence for Frame­Switching
• Evidence of frame switching is quite clear in language. Bilinguals do not speak a blended language like
Spanglish, where half of their words and grammar are Spanish, and the other half are English. Rather, they
typically switch back and forth between speaking in Spanish and speaking in English, depending on
context.
• There is much evidence for frame switching.
The Inner­City Study
• Elijah Anderson describes how inner­city African­Americans need to switch between the “code of the
decent ” and the “code of the street” as they switch between functioning in a mainstream American
context and an inner­city African­American context.
• People are responsive to contextual cues about how they act and present themselves to others.
The Hong Kong Bilingual Study
• Students from Hong Kong were shown images that were either neutral, or primed with Western ideas
(Disney), or Chinese ideas (I.e. a Chinese dragon was shown, great wall)
• They were then given an attribution task, which assesses something beyond their awareness. Why is the
front fish swimming ahead of the others? Is it something about the fish (internal attribution) or about the
school (external).
• If Chinese images unconsciously activated knowledge about the Chinese. That will make them ready to
behave like the Chinese. If American primedAmerican behavior.
• Why one fish moving ahead of others (whether the cause is internal factor or the external factor)?
Explaining the Behavior of Fish
• Participants who saw American primes were less likely to explain the front fish’s behavior in terms of the
group of fish compared with the other conditions.
• Participants who saw Chinese primes were more likely to make external attributions for the fish’s behavior
compared with the other conditions (American=internal). Context activates this!!!!
Language and Frame Switching
• The language of the study appears to effectively prime different cultural thoughts among bilinguals.
• When bilinguals switch languages they also appear to be switching their self­concepts as well.
• These studies raise the question of whether bicultural are the only ones who show frame switching.
• Indeed, much research finds that priming ideas in anyone, monoculture or multicultural, leads to the
activation of associated networks. You don’t have to be bicultural!!! Even monoculture do as well.
Interdependent vs. Independent Priming
• When people are primed with interdependence (by circling plural pronouns in a sentence as opposed to
singular pronouns) they then show more of a concern with avoiding losses (East Asian=common)
• Frame switching is not unique to bicultural; however, bicultural might have especially pronounced frame­
switching, because the information networks may be more clearly demarcated for them, because of all of
the culturally­specific information that is linked to them.
• One study investigated whether bicultural would show greater frame switching than monoculturals
 • European­Americans (who are largely monocultural) and Asian­Americans (who are largely bicultural)
were primed with either ideas about independence or interdependence (plural word)
• They then rated how much they endorsed a series of individualistic and collectivistic values.
Results: (on the exam)
• Y axis: amount of endorsement of the target values (collective or individual)
• European­Americans rated individualistic/independent values as more important vs. AA
• Asian­Americans rated collective/interdependent values as more important.
• Asian American showed more pronounced frame switching (important). Asians showed more frame
switching as you see a huge gap in the data. Thus bicultural individuals show more frame switching.
•

Exams:
Self­concept
Attention pattern
Steven hidden research

Research to know!!!
Research of chapter 8
Chapter self concept
Steven hinen (motivation of culture)

40+15+3 long.
Culture and Cognition Chapter 11: Mental Health
Culture­Bound Syndromes
• Some psychopathologies are far more prevalent, or manifest in highly different forms across cultures
• dhat syndrome ­ men from some parts of South Asia become morbidly anxious that they are losing semen.
• The symptoms that are identified for the disorders typically were done in Western samples, and it’s not
always clear whether Western cultural beliefs are bound to the disorders. (DSM 4 now is beginning to
incorporate some cultural bound syndromes but still a lot are missing)
Hikikomori (social withdrawal)
• Commonly afflicts male (3x more than females) adolescents.
• Doesn’t map on to any diagnoses in the DSM­IV ( non­existence in pre­war and other countries)
• Typical response is to drop out from the social world, often barricading oneself up in a room for years, and
not interacting with anyone, except perhaps to make requests/demands to one’s parents.
• Reason: Perhaps extreme pressure from school. If they drop out it is hard to catch up and thus a lot of
disappointment. Other believes that interdependent society; if you are NOT part of the community you
might feel really bad. Even the exams and the ability to get into school is even more stress.
Anorexia/Bulimia Nervosa
• Anorexia involves symptoms where a person refuses to maintain a normal body weight because of a
preoccupation with their body.
• Bulimia involves symptoms where one uncontrollably binge eats, and then subsequently takes
inappropriate measures to prevent weight gain (i.e. vomit everything after eating)
• Both: somewhat present in other cultures BUT predominantly found in the west.
• Saints were highly motivated to engage in such voluntary starving because of their ascetic lifestyles. So,
such a behavior is called “Holy Anorexia.”
• In contrast, the main cause of anorexia common in contemporary Western societies relates to body image
(specially started to increase in 1970’s and 1980’s in Western societies)
• Thus meaning system associated with both are different.
Koro
• Men develop morbid anxiety that their penis is shrinking into their body (or, far less commonly, women
fear their nipples are shrinking).
• This occurs primarily in South and East Asia, especially Southern China and Malaysia.
Amok
• Most common in Southeast Asia.
• A condition where there is an acute outburst of unrestrained violent and homicidal attacks, preceded by
brooding, and followed by exhaustion and amnesia
• May be the result of not having culturally acceptable means to express frustrations.
• Could have parallels with Western mass homicidal attacks.
Frigophobia
• It is found largely in China. A morbid fear of catching cold.
• People will avoid cold air, eating cold food, and dress with several layers, even in summer.
Pibloktoq­Arctic Hysteria
• A unique hysterical attack observed among Arctic Inuit communities, particularly among women.
• People suddenly tear off their clothes, roll in the snow, and convulse, with no clear precipitating factors.
Other Cultural­bound Syndromes:Culture­bound syndromes dramatically reveal the cultural basis of some
psychopathologies.
• Hwa­Byung (Korea):
Ghost Sickness (Native Americans): psychotic disorder. General weakness, loss of appetite, and feeling of
terror. Illusion that they can’t breath and are breath alive.
• Windigo (Native Americans): fear of being eaten by this monster.
• Qi­Gong Psychotic Reaction (China): special bleeding techniques that are often dillusion
• Zar (Ethiopia): loss of function of the autonomic nervous system ( cry laught without any reason)
• Susto­Soul Loss (South America): people feel that their soul is dislodged from their body
 • Mal De Ojo­Evil Eye (Mediterranean Culture): insomnia. Vomiting, diarhehia without any causes.
• Channeling (All Over the World)

Universal Syndromes: But we still have some variation in them though

Depression
• Depression is probably the most familiar psychopathology, and it is found all over the world.
• General Symptoms: You have to have 5/9 and at least for MORE THEN 2 weeks
– a) depressed mood
– b) an inability to feel pleasure
– c) change in weight or appetite
– d) sleep problems
– e) psychomotor change
– f) fatigue or loss of energy
– g) feelings of worthlessness or guilt
– h) poor concentration or indecisiveness
– i) suicidality (suicide)
Depression and Culture
• Depression is found everywhere, however rates of depression vary across cultures.
• In particular, much research has identified how depression rates in China are only about 1/5 that observed
in the West.
• However, a challenge in comparing rates of depression across cultures arises because the presentation of
depression also appears to vary.
• Somatization­Physiological Symptoms ( no energy, fatiques, sleep problem etc)
• Psychologization­Psychological Symptoms (guilt, worthless, etc)
Somitization vs. Psychologization
• Arthur Kleinman, an anthropologist and psychiatrist, conducted extensive interviews with Chinese
neurasthenia patients and concluded that a majority (87%) could be diagnosed as having depression, even
though only 9% of them reported depressed mood as a chief complaint.
• That is, he argued that depression manifests itself among Chinese chiefly through somatization rather than
psychologization (say they ok but when you observe them they have headache, pain etc)
• Thus manifestation of depression are different.
Causes of Cultural Variation in Depressive Symptoms
• Why do these different presentations of depression exist?
• (1) Chinese people with depression are worried about the public stigma of having a mental disorder, and
thus conceal it with somatic symptom reporting. (do not report it openly)
• (2) Westerners are more attentive than the Chinese to their emotional states. Western psychological
symptoms might thus be more accessible to them than they are for Chinese.
• One recent study investigated this question by comparing psychiatric outpatients in China and Canada
(Ryder et al., 2008).
Procedure:
• All patients had to report at least one of the nine diagnostic markers of depression. Patients reporting any
kind of psychotic symptoms were excluded.
• Patients’ symptoms were assessed with three different methods.
• A spontaneous problem report, where they described their concerns with little prompting from the
interviewer.
• A standard clinical interview, in which the patients responded to specific questions about symptoms
from an interviewer.
• A standard questionaire, which was completed in private, in which patients gave answers to specific
symptom questions.
• Patients also completed measures of stigma and attention to emotional states ( how much pay attn?)
• Results: Chinese expressed greater somatic except the private questionnaire. Canadians expressed greater
psychological symptoms with all measures.
 • Chinese scored higher than Canadians on a concern for stigma. However, concerns with stigma correlated
with the severity of all symptoms, both psychological and somatic ­ it does not seem to be the case that
Chinese somatize because they have greater stigma concerns (they care about both NOT just psychological
symptom)
• Chinese also scored lower than Canadians on a measure of their attentiveness to emotional states.
• This measure was shown to mediate the cultural differences in somatic symptom reporting. That is, a key
reason that Chinese somatize depression symptoms more than Westerners is that they are less attentive to
their emotional states in general.

Depression as Dissociation from Cultural Norms

• One common finding from Western research on depression is that depressed people show diminished
emotional reactivity to both positive and negative emotion­eliciting stimuli. They often seem emotionally
numb/emotionless.
• The cross­cultural generalizability of this was explored in one study comparing both non­depressed and
depressed people of European­American and Asian­American backgrounds.
• Procedure: showed neutral, sad and amusing film. There emotions were examined using physiological data
and emotional expressions.
Results:
• Results: In the sad film condition onlywe see difference.
• Non­depressed European­Americans showed more crying and reported sadness to the sad film than did
depressed participants­­signs of emotional numbness.
• The depressed Asian Americans showed more emotional reactivity ­ they cried more and reported more
sadness than the non­depressed people. Thus THEY ARE NOT EMOTIONALLY NUMB as previously
suggested.
• The pattern is completely different!!!!! Why is this? Those depressed cannot bind to the social norm of
interdependent so express more then they are supposing too.
Social Anxiety
• The diagnostic criteria include:
– A marked fear of social situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people.
– Exposure to the feared social situation invariable provokes anxiety.
– The person recognizes that the fear is excessive.
– The feared social situation is avoided, and interferes with a person’s normal routine.
Culture and Social Anxiety
• Interdependence strongly correlates with people endorsing symptoms of social anxiety.
• Self­report surveys find that East Asians have more social anxiety symptoms than do Westerners.
• At the same time, clinical diagnoses of social anxiety disorders are far lower among East Asians (about
0.5% lifetime prevalence) than among North Americans (about 7%).
• One possibility for this discrepancy is that in interdependent contexts social approval is valued more, so it is
viewed as natural that one experiences distress in social situations (they experience it but they think many
other in the same situation like them. thus it is not a negative experience. It is completely expectable to be
stressed since everyone has it.)
TKS = Social Anxiety
• Taijinkyoufushou (TKS), which translates to the fears of confronting others (in japan)
• Unlike social anxiety, the primary symptoms are a preoccupation with physical symptoms, many imaginary
that the person may think that they have excessive body odor, blushing, sweating, and a penetrating gaze.
• It has been referred to as the “altruistic phobia” due to nature of social sensitivity.
• People are often most fearful around acquaintances, rather than around strangers.
• Thus their focus is very different.

Suicide
• Suicide rates vary quite dramatically around the world. At the extreme ends various Eastern European
nations have especially high suicide rates (e.g., Hungary, Lithuania), whereas Muslim nations have
especially low suicide rates (e.g., Egypt, Saudi Arabia).
 • Might be because the religionprohibits it.
Suicide Rate in Canada
• In Canada, some of the highest suicides rates are found are among Aboriginal youth, where the rates are
several times higher than the national rates (see Chandler & Lalonde, 1998).
• However, there is tremendous variability in suicide rates among Native bands from different tribal councils
in Canada. The suicide rates for one five year period ranged from a low of 0/100,000 people to a high of
633/100,000 people. Why is this?
• People at risk for suicide often don’t have a clear narrative about how their life fits together.
• A clear narrative refers to what your culture is and how it fits together, can be related to a sense of self­
continuity.
• Many First Nations bands do not have a strong sense of cultural continuity as a result of Western
colonization. Their present culture can be in many ways quite divorced from what the past culture was like.
Suicide Rate in Native Bands
• Markers that might be associated with cultural identity. These maker included:
• (1) involved in Land claim with govn’t (2) self­government, (3) educational services, (4) police and fire
services, (5) have health services, (6) their own cultural facilities.Alot of variability seen.
• Results: indicated that the numbers of markers negatively correlate with the suicide rate. The more the
society have markers, the less the suicide occurs
Schizophrenia
• Schizophrenia is one of the most debilitating mental disorders, and it is universally found around the world.
Might have biological reasons (a lot of evidence) and other factors
• To be diagnosed, one must have two or more of the following symptoms, each present for a significant
period of time.
• Delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior, or negative
symptoms (e.g., a loss of speech, or flattening of mood).
• 0.7à1.4 annual incidents per 10,000 across diverse cultures.
Culture and Schizophrenia
• Despite the a lot of biological basis, It is possible that there is more cultural variation in these more atypical
kinds of psychoses ( because the definition is very narrow).
• The subtype of schizophrenia did vary substantially. The most common subtype among Westerners is
paranoid schizophrenia (characterized by paranoid delusions) with rates as high as 75% of schizophrenics
in the UK, but only 15% in India.
• In contrast, catatonic schizophrenia (characterized by a near absence of motor activity) accounts for only 1­
3% of schizophrenics in the UK, but 20% in India.
• The most striking pattern of cultural variation is that patients in less­developed societies have a far greater
rate of recovery than in more industrialized societies.
• The cause of this cultural difference remains unknown. It may be that schizophrenics are more likely to
remain members of a community in less­developed societies, rather than becoming homeless in industrial
societies, and this community integration aids them in the course of their disease.
•
Chapter 12: Physical Health:
1) Different selection pressure à divergent of innate physical propensities
2) Different cultural pressure within the lifetime of this induidualà divergent of acquired physical propensities.
Innate Physical Propensity
• Some biological variation is due to differences in inherited genes. The most salient example of biological
variation is skin color.
• Skin color is strongly correlated with the amount of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) that reaches the surface in
different parts of the globe. People need light enough skin to allow sufficient UVR be able to synthesize
Vitamin D but dark enough skin to prevent the breakdown of folic acid
Ecology, Economy,and Genes
• There are also some cases where cultural factors have influenced the genome.
• For example, people from cultures in which cows have been domesticated for a longer period of time are
more likely to have a mutation that allows them to digest lactose into adulthood.
• Few Asian and African can fully digest milk. Most of the European are categorized that are able to drink
milk without any problem. Thus culture shapes our genetics.
Acquired Physical Propensities
• Thus far, the majority of adaptive gene variations have been associated with thermal regulation, resistance
to pathogen, and enduring dietary practices. There is much variation associated with non­adaptive genetic
drift.
• In addition to genetic variation across populations, there is also some acquired physical variation. That is,
various aspects of people’s bodies may change because of cultural experiences within single generations.
The Moken
• One example of acquired physical variation is that the Moken, sea gypsies from Southeast Asia, have twice
the underwater visual acuity as Europeans.
• From a young age Moken children swim underwater to retrieve seafood.
• Their enhanced underwater visual acuity appears to be the result of experience rather than a genetic
adaptation. Some research suggests that this ability can be trained into American.
Obesity and Diet
• One source of evidence for the role of culture is that obesity rates have been growing remarkably across
many countries. Japanese are very low as compare to the USA. But the pattern is that same in that they are
all going up for all.­­> change in people diet is the cause of this ( culture)
French Paradox
• Frech Paradox: Why are French thinner then American?
• Within the West itself, there is considerable variation in obesity rates.
• France, for example, has about one fifth the obesity rate of the US despite the more fat food.
• One account for this is that the French live in a culture where food comes in smaller portions than it does in
North America.
• Paul Rozin and colleagues set about measuring food serving sizes in the US and France. There were some
striking differences.

Large American Portion:

• Yogurt containers are about 80% bigger in the US than they are in France
• McDonald’s French fries are about 70% bigger in the US than in France.
• Meal at Chinese restaurant in France is less than 60% the size of a meal at a Chinese restaurant in the US.
• Recipes in the US call for larger portions of ingredients than they do in France.
• Even fruit is bigger in the US! About 28% larger for the same fruit.
• Curiously, cat food cans are slightly larger in France than in the US.
• Historical data: Large American portion sizes are the result of fairly recent cultural change. Here are some
examples of changes since the 1950s.

Attitude towards Foods

• French savor their food more, and take more time eating it (thus, healthy people)
 • Americans are more likely to associate food with fat.
• People were asked to choose which of the following options is the best metaphor for the human body in
relation to its diet: a tree, a car, or a temple.
• The most common answer, by far, for French was tree ­ this was the least common for Americans, who
preferred a car metaphor ( attitudes towards food is different)

Chernoff Figures
• People from France, belgium, japan and US and accessed their attitude. The size of the face linked to the
people’s response. + Attitudes =large and happy face
• Male in all culture have positive attitudes regarding food.
• French males look the most happy
• The least happy face was American female ( ­ association with food products)
• Thus a substantial cultural difference towards food

Culture and Health

Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Health
• The higher one’s SES, the longer one lives, on average. Even relatively small increments are associated
with longer life outcomes
Burkina Faso Research
• In north east Burkina Faso there are three ethnic groups that co­reside ­ the Fulani, Mossi, and Rimaibe.
• The Mossi and Rimaibe have evolved much genetic resistance to malaria.
• The Fulani(recently moved into this region) lack most of the genetic resistance to malaria.
• BUT The Fulani have SES
• Conclusion: Despite that they have less genetic resistance to malaria; the Fulani contract malaria less often
than do either the Mossi or the Rimaibe. ( in non­industrialized)
What Causes the Lower Health Risks for Higher SES People?
• Access to health care cannot explain all of this relation ( many societies all are able to get health care)
• Lower SES people are more likely to engage in unhealthy habits, such as smoking, eating fast food, and are
less likely to exercise. However, the SES differences still remain if you control for health habits.
• One mediating role between status and health outcomes is stress level
Stress and Health
• Stress affects health in at least two ways.
– First, when people are stressed they’re more likely to engage in health­compromising behaviors like
smoking and drinking.
– Second, stress directly weakens the immune system’s ability to fight off infections.
• Lower­SES people feel less in control of their lives than higher­SES people, and lower­SES people show
less vulnerability to illness when they are provided with control (Chen, 2007). ( the primary control is very
low)
Primate Studies
• Primates lower in the hierarchy show greater stress hormone levels when they belong to a social system
where:
– The hierarchy is stable (i.e. can’t change it)
– Is maintained through intimidation rather than direct physical attacks (Increase stress)
– The subordinates cannot avoid dominant individuals, and
– They have low availability for social support.
• There are many similarities to these societal features and those experienced by low­SES people in
modernized industrialized societies.
GDP and Longevity
• Feeling poor (subjective) can matter as much as being poor (objective)
• At the national level, there is only a relation between GDP and longevity up until a GDP of about $10,000
(little relationship overall, between absolute level of income and the health level. What is important is how
people perceive their social economic status. Subjective is better the Objective. )
 • If you feel others are doing better then you, that will make you feel bad=stress=consequences.
Health and Income Inequality
• African­Americans low in their SES suffer considerably more health problems than do Indians living in the
poor province of Kerala, despite the fact that in absolute dollar terms, the African­Americans as a group are
better off ( subjective perception is the key to health problems)
• The more income inequality in a country, on average, the lower is that country’s longevity
• The more income inequality in a country also the stronger the relation between SES and health outcomes.
Greater income inequality is associated with stronger feelings of relative deprivation for those lower in the
hierarchy
• This is also seen in Hollywood ( very rich). The Oscar winner live longer then those who don’t.
Health and Racial Discrimination
• For the 15 leading causes of death in the United States, African­Americans had higher death rates than
European­Americans for all of these except respiratory diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, and suicide.
• However, even when SES is controlled for, African­Americans suffer some worse health outcomes than
European­Americans, in particular, infant mortality rates and hypertension.
• There is a link between these conditions with stress, and stress is also clearly linked with being
discriminated against.
• Some surprising results: Of the leading 15 causes of death in the US, Hispanics had higher death rates
than European­Americans only for diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver, hypertension, and homicide.
• The surprisingly positive health outcomes of Hispanic­Americans (even though they are minority) has been
labeled the “epidemiological paradox”
• This remains largely unresolved, and some argue that it is due to a higher value placed on child­bearing,
enhanced emotional support from the community, or the benefits of higher levels of positive affect called
“sympathia”
• Mexicans are subjectively happiest people/shared believe in the world.
Medicine and Culture (Variations)
• Much medical knowledge derives from cultural learning.
• Modern medicine finds that the three leading causes of illness are deteriorating organ system, stress, and
infections.
• In contrast, among 186 traditional non­Western societies, none viewed organ deterioration as a cause of
disease, only 3 viewed stress as a cause, and only 1 viewed infection as a cause.
• In traditional societies, beliefs in supernatural causes of illness are the most common. The single most
common account for disease in traditional societies is ghosts.
• Other cultures believe that the primary cause of illness is witchcrafts
Medicine and culture ( Doctors variations)
• In France, the metaphor of the body is the “terrain,” which emphasizes a sense of balance.
• French doctors prescribe antibiotics less, and long rests and spa visits more.
• In France, Dirt and germs are seen as something that can strengthen one’s terrain, and as a consequence,
there is relatively less emphasis placed on daily bathing
• In contrast, in the US, the metaphor of the body is a Machine. American doctors are far more likely to treat
the body with surgery, to fix malfunctioning parts.
• Also, American doctors view germs to be a key threat to health, and they prescribe more antibiotics than
anywhere else.

Biodinamie:
• Let the soil speak, express the terrain and its vintage we can resume in these terms the quest of the maison
M. CHAPOUTIER (these wine makers emphasize traditional ways and completely organically. The grap
tree has its own power to gain energy from soil and thus can get good quality. Just like the body)
Doctors Have Culture Too
• Study by Leeman, Fischler, & Rozin (2008).
• 50­70 doctors and 50­70 lay people were asked 20 questions regarding diet, eating, and health in five
Western countries: France, Germany, Italy, UK, and USA.
• Sample questions included the value of vitamin pills, the healthiness of dairy products, wine, meat, the
importnace of food, exercise, and moderation for health.
• The participants’ answers to the 20 questions were correlated with other participants’ answers to the same
questions.

• Results: Physicians show much agreement with lay people from their own culture, but not with people
from other cultures ( very low correlations).
• Where people live effected various aspect of their life’s and the understanding of human body.
•
Chapter 14
To define emotion, you need theoretical perspectives and these are:
James­Lange Theory of Emotions
A theory proposed by William James and Carl Lange, that emotions were our physiological responses to stimuli in
our worlds. When we speak of emotions, we mean the physiological sensations that come bundled with our
thoughts. If we didn’t have such sensations, we would feel emotionless.
• These responses were products of our autonomic nervous system.
– The autonomic components changes the activity of autonomic nervous system
– The hormonal responses reinforce the autonomic responses.
– Example of this: U are hiking in a forest, then you stumble on a bear, what will happen ( you heart
starts pounding while you are running away and experiencing emotion called fear in this case. He will
ask you what is the definition of fear. The bear is an external stimulus that can sees as the cause of the
fear BUT it is NOT the SOURCE of the feeling of the fear. The feeling comes from the physiological
response of the target stimuli which is the bear thus our autonomic nervous system ( change in heart
rate, breathing, etc). this research is currently supported like Anthonio damashio: supports this
hypothesis based on the neurological testing. Relationship among many of these is interrelated, we don’t
have to subjectively percieve it but rather we are born with it.

Two­Factor Theory of Emotions

• A theory proposed by Schacter and Singer argued that emotions were our interpretation of our
physiological responses.
• Often it is clear how we interpret our physiological responses, and this is why in many situations the
interpretation part doesn’t seem necessary.
• But there are sometimes situations where the source of our feelings isn’t so clear to us. In these situations
there is evidence for the Two­Factor theory.
• Example: You are attending a long distance race. The bear or runing, cause us to run. During runningà
same heart beat/breathing/other but it is considered as an excitement. But when you see the bearà you get
the same response but you call it fear.

Capilano Suspension Bridge Study:

• Either an attractive female research assistant or an average-looking male research assistant approached
young male participants, either just as they stepped off of the Capilano Suspension Bridge, or when they
were standing on the wooden platform at the base of the park.
• They were asked to complete a questionnaire.
• One of the dependent measures was the percentage of participants who later called up the research assistant,
apparently to find out the results of the study (see Dutton & Aron, 1970) ( were given the phone number so
if you are good looking female, they guys might actually call you to find out)
Results: percentage of calling RA Male vs the female RA
• Male participants were especially likely to call back the RA (research assistance) if she was female and they
had met her on the bridge. Why?
• Apparently, the men misattributed their arousal from the bridge to be due to their attraction to the RA
( they thought their heart is beating because of this)
• The same physiological arousal can be interpreted to indicate two very different emotions.

Further questions:
• If one focuses on the physiological sensation associated with emotions, there is much similarity across
cultures.
• However, if one focuses on the interpretation of those sensations, there is more evidence for emotional
variability across cultures ( since your interpretation depends on our culture)
Chapter 14
Facial Expressions of Emotions
• What facial expressions correspond with what emotions? Originally Darwin noted that facial expressions
from other animals seemed to parallel those made by humans (i.e., people living in Victorian England).
• (Emotion develops through evolutionary history. Since our origin is the same, we can tell what others
animals are feeling ( it is not random). If we see similarity btw humans and other closely related species,
then we might say the universality of the crime. You can guess if dog is pissed, and some of chimps are
similar emotions to use)

2 Studies of the Universality of Facial Expression

Ekman, Sorenson, and Friesen (1969) and Ekman and Friesen (1971)
There are culturally universal basic emotions. Such emotions strongly correspond to their facial expressions ( these
include, fear, happy, sad, etc)

• Procedure: Paul Ekman and colleagues followed up on Darwin’s suggestion and explored how similarly
people made facial expressions for emotions around the world.
• They initially found much similarity across industrialized countries with how people recognized posed
facial expressions.
• However, given that it is possible that people from industrialized countries have such similar facial
expressions because they have learned them from each other, Ekman decided to test people from a culture
with almost _no interaction with Westerners. He went to investigate the Fore of New Guinea. So he
showed that different emotions (angry, disgust, happy, sad, shock, fear)
• Results: If no idea about what emotion, then they would have gotten 1/6 gotten right ( by chance) 0.1666.
But compare to these values. These values are very high it indicated that our understanding of cultural
emotions is universal. On average, in these 5 cultures the emotions are same (even though some variation
exists btw different culture)
• Questions: May be the cultures are not different and because of that they are getting different results.

Fore Tribe, Papua New Guinea

• Procedure: In one of Ekman’s studies with the Fore(these are people that have NOT exposure to the west
or other what so ever as they are very primitive people), participants were asked to show their face if a
number of different kinds of emotion­eliciting events had happened to them.
• Results: there was similarity thus we can conclude that these six basic emotions are similar around the
world (Happiness, Fear, Sadness, Surprise, Disgust, Anger) (exam). Ekman proposed that these are a set
of “basic emotion ” which are reflexively reproduced and recognized across the human species.
Other Universal Expressions?
• Some other emotions are considered by some researchers to also have universal expressions, although the
international evidence is not yet as compelling. Such as expression of Contempt, Shame, Interest, Pride.
Research on Pride
• Jessica Tracy proposes that there is a universally recognized expression of pride. Rather than being
restricted to the face, the pride pose involves much of body (expanded posture, head back, slight smile. A
lot of people recognize these)
Burkina Faso, Africa
Can this expression be observed outside of western culture? She targeted small tribe in Burkina faso.
Procedure: given different emotion including the pride one.
Results: 57% of the participant selected the word pride for this ( 8 options in total so chance in 12%. So 57
doesn’t look high but it does seem to be universal)
Study two: blind judo players: Compare to care when they lost, the number of times they expanded, raised
their hand. Thus means this is innate since you have never seen this.
In sum, the pride expression is universally recognized and produced around the world, even among those born
blind. Expressions of some emotions are not confined to the face, but can involve bodily posture as well.
Chapter 14
14(2)
Display rules ­ culturally specific rules that govern how and when and to whom we express emotion
Ritualized displays – highly stylized ways of expressing particular emotions
Displays rules: show picture of white model and Japanese model:
Results: Interdependent culture: show weaker facial expressions may be because their culture tells them to not to
be over emotions in public. The white girl is a model and have strong expressions The Japanese girl even she was a
friend but still did not express herself too much ( very ritualized)
Cultural Control of Emotional Expression: Display Rules’’
• Private Condition: Both Americans and Japanese show the same negative facial expressions
• Public Condition: Japanese were less likely to express negative emotions

Cultural Accents
In­group Familiarity matters. Specially something like Emotional perception which his is culturally learned. For
example, if you show Chinese and Canadian a harper smiling, face. Canadians say Harper is smiling. For Chinese
difficult to deduce this facial expression. If they were show a chienase face then because it is in­group they would
be much better at deducing the expression,
Study: participant of difference race were shown Facial expression produced by American models.
Pure American= the best to deduce the expression. The more times the asians spend in US, the more then the better
they are able to deduce the emotions.
Summary:
• People are considerably more accurate at recognizing facial expressions made by people from their own
culture than made by those from other culture
• About 58% of recognition of facial expressions reflects culturally universal expressions, whereas about 9%
reflect culturally specific expressions.
• Even very subtle “emotional accents” are evident in comparisons of quite similar cultures.
Locus of Attention to Face
• In one study, Japanese and American participants were shown photos of people expressing emotions.
Participants were asked to guess the emotion of the target The researchers swapped the eyes and mouths
from photos of different expressions, so that the eyes sometimes conveyed different emotions from the
mouth.
• Emoticons were show depecting different emotion based on change in eyes or mouths.
• Results: Japs more likely then Americans to judge based on eyes(left side), vs. Americans judge based on
shape of the mouth(right side)
Eye­Mouth Morphing Tasks: Real Faces
Results: Japs: bit weaker but pattern is pretty much the same. Eyes=key to telling the emotion of the person
NA= care a lot about the mouth.
• Summary: The results showed that the Japanese viewed the target’s emotion as happier than Americans if
the eyes were expressing a happier emotion than mouth. In contrast, the Americans judged the target to be
happier if mouth was expressing a happier emotion than eyes.
Eye tracking research: show them a face and then give them a scale that ask you to label the face.
Japs: more fixations went to eyes.
Canadians: More fixations on the mouth.
The result partially supports the hypothesis as some difference is seen in mouth and the eyes bars. When looked at
the total duration spend on certain region, Eye tells a lot of information so both cultural focus on it in total.
Subjective Emotional Experiences
• Cultures vary in the intensity with which they report experiencing emotions.
• For example, people from a variety of East Asian cultures report experiencing emotions less intensely, and
for shorter periods of time than do Westerners.

The “Anger” Paradigm

Chapter 14
• One study conducted at UBC compared how Chinese­Canadians and Euro­Canadians responded to an
anger provocation.
• Procedure: Participants were run through an “anger paradigm,” while their blood pressure and heart rate
were assessed. The experimenter was very unprofessional, showed up late, and rudely badgered them while
they had to do a tedious task. All participants showed physiological responses consistent with anger (their
systolic blood pressure increased), but the experimenters were interested in seeing how quickly the
participants’ anger would dissipate.

• Results: The Chinese­Canadians systolic blood pressure returned to baseline levels after the anger
induction more quickly than did the Euro­Canadians. This suggests that the Chinese­Canadians experienced
their anger less intensely and recover quickly

What Kind of Emotions Do People Have?

• Cultures vary in the kinds of emotions that people experience frequently, and in terms of how good
different emotions feel.
• In general, people from interdependent cultures experience more emotions that are interpersonally­
engaged, whereas people from independent cultures experience more emotions that are interpersonally­
disengaged. Study was done to show this. The procedure was as follow:
• DIMENSION 1: whether the emotion was positive or negative. For example happy has a positive valence,
whereas guilt has a negative valence.
• DIMENSION 2: whether the emotion was interpersonally engaged (you are my good friend or I am
sorry=both are engaging the other person in your conversation) or disengaged( I am number one or YOU
made the mistake= the other person is pretty much left alone ) that is whether the experience involved
connecting with others or distinguishing oneself from others.

•
• Results: Japs: really positive if they experience engaged emotions (0.58_
• NA; positive when express socially disengaged emotions ( I am number 1) (0.54 value)
Why might this difference be?
• Among Americans, there were stronger correlations between people’s general positive emotions and their
interpersonally disengaged emotions.
• Among Japanese, in contrast, there were stronger correlations between people’s general positive emotions
and their interpersonally engaged emotions.

Happiness
• Is the pursuit of happiness universal? Some date the beginning of this pursuit in the West to the
Enlightenment, from the 18th century, when the world was seen to be a more predictable and rational place.
• There are substantial cultural differences in terms of the average levels of happiness that people report.
Chapter 14
• Ranking of countries subjective well being shows that places like Northern European or Latin American
that are with More Income Equality, Respect Human Rights, and wealthy are happiest.
• GDP – does money make you happy? à Yes at least partially, positive correlation
• Americans of Scandinavian descent are happier than those of central America ( culturally may be?)
The Role of Positive Affects and Cultural Norms
• A study­compared dozens of different countries indicated that in the most individualistic countries, life
satisfaction was more strongly predicted by people’s overall level of positive affects.
• In contrast, in the least individualistic countries, life satisfaction was more strongly predicted by the extent
to which people felt they were living up to cultural norms.
One­line vs. Retrospective Evaluation of Life Satisfaction
• People in individualistic societies were far more likely than those in collectivist societies to base their life­
satisfaction on how many positive emotions they experienced
• Study: Euro­ and Asian­ Americans indicated how satisfied they had been in the day. And do task for 7
consecutive days and at end need to summarize life satisfaction at end of the week
Two Kinds of Satisfaction
• Euro­Americans apparently are more likely than Asian­Americans to possess a theory that they are happy,
even when their daily reports are similar. i.e. in their actual report they do not indicate any form of
happinese but when you ask them retrospectively like a week later, they say yah yah I was more happies.
On the other hand, chinese had the same result. Show that they are realistic about it.
Tolerance for Contradictions
• In the West, people tend to avoid contradictions.
• Studies show that the amount of positive affect that Westerners have correlates weakly negatively with the
amount of negative affect that they have.
• In contrast, in East Asia, correlations between positive and negative affect are somewhat positive (e.g.,
Bagozzi, Wong, & Yi, 1999).
• The notion that the world is in constant flux, which is more common in East Asian thought, suggests that
good times will soon be replaced by bad times. It can be problematic dwelling on happiness, as it won’t
last.
Ideal Affect: What Kind of Happiness Would you Prefer?
• Cultures also differ in the kinds of positive emotions that people want to pursue – “ideal affect.”
• Cultural variation is more pronounced for the kinds of affect that people want to have than for their actual
affect.
• East Asians prefer low arousal positive states (e.g., calm, relaxed, peaceful) compared with North
Americans, who tend to prefer high arousal positive states (e.g., enthusiastic, excited, elated; see Tsai,
2006).
• Study: occurance of smiles. USA puts more emphasis on excitement smiles verses calm smiles
Culture and Happiness: Summary
• In sum, there is pronounced variation in levels of happiness across cultures.
• There are some things that universally appear to predict happiness, such as a minimum level of wealth,
human rights, and income equality.
• On the other hand, there is important cultural variability in the pursuit of happiness. People from different
cultures are not all striving for the same kinds of good feelings.
Groups
• The kinds of relationships that people have are also evident in the groups to which they belong.
• People with independent and interdependent selves also tend to view ingroups and outgroup differently.
• Although everyone has closer and somewhat different kinds of relationships with ingroups and outgroups,
the distinction between them is of more concern for people with interdependent selves .
Two Models of Ingroup Identity
• Westerners appear to base their group identity by The shared Features that they possess. (Entity Model of
Ingroup Identity)
• In contrast, East Asian groups appear to base their group identity more on Common Connections that they
might have I Network Model of Ingroup Identity)
• For example, The blue person IS an ingroup member, because they are bonded by connections to a other
people people. Everyone connected are an ingroup.
Study:
• American and Japanese participants played an economic trust game on the computer, which involved them
having to decide whether to trust their opponent to give them a fair share of money.
• They were told that their opponent was from one of the following 3 conditions.
• Their opponent was from their own university.
• Their opponent was from another university, at which the participant did not have any acquaintances.
• Their opponent was from another university, at which the participant had at least one acquaintance.
• The dependent variable was the amount of trust that participants showed towards their opponent.

• Results: Japanese showed greater trust for the out­group member when they had an acquaintance from that
other university. They could apparently imagine ways in which there might be a chain of relationships that
connects them. ( just like the blue guy example above. If you a connection, even if it is an imagined one
you are considered an ingroup.)
Culture and Friendship Formation
• Canadian participants and Japanese participants were asked to describe their experience of seeking help
from close­same sex friend in an open ended questionnaire
• Instrumental Help: Do me a favor
• Emotional Help: Giving or receiving nurturance.
• Informational Help: Giving or receiving help in understanding problems or reducing ambiguity
• Shared Activity: eg: Ask the friend to come with you when appealing a grade.
• Results: Overall both Canadian and Japanese participants reported tangible instrumental help more
frequently than the other types of help. Canadian a lot more through
• Compared to Canadian participants, Japanese participants were less inclined to seek help that directly
removed their personal problems but more inclined to seek help that indirectly aided them to deal with their
personal problems by themselves ( want to solve their own probems mostly themselves but would still
appreciate an aid)
Resultant Intimacy Expectations as a Function of Perceived Cost in Study 1
• Japanese participants reported lower intimacy expectations in their friendship as the help became more
costly to their friend
• Canadian participants assumed moderately higher intimacy levels as the help were perceived to be more
costly.
Social Support: European­Americans are far more likely than East Asians or Asian Americans to actively seek
social support from others. East Asians indeed depend on social support from close others. But, they are more
likely than Westerners to rely on implicit social support.
Are Friendships Only Positive?
• Poem is from Ghana, an interdependent culture. Which show different both positive and negatives of
having friends.
• Why should interdependent people sometimes be suspicious of friends? In interdependent contexts, people
often have a more closed relationship market. You’re not in a position to really choose who all of your
 friends are ­ you have to deal with them regardless of whether you really like them. Kind of like many
people’s relationships with their in­laws ( this happen in an interdependent societies)
• Friendship in many interdependent contexts, particularly Ghana, is a more ambivalent construct.
• Ghanaians report having fewer friends than Americans. Ghanaians also felt that someone who has many
friends was foolish.
A study of Friendship Caution
Relational Mobility ­ Socio­ecological approach
• The degree to what extent people can freely stay and leave the groups they belong. Also referred to as The
number of opportunities that are available for people to form new relationships in a society
• Relational mobility associated with individuals’ friendship strategies
o e.g., personality-similarity attraction (e.g., Schug et al., 2009)
o e.g., disclosure (e.g., Schug, Yuki, & Maddux, 2010)
Results:
• Relation ship mobility: US had higher value. This Higher value means that you have MORE freedom to
meet more people. If you’re from a high relational mobility society, you are less likely to be suspicious of
your friends. And vice versa.
• Friendship Ambiguity: HK had higher value and this Higher value means being more suspicious of friends.
A Cross­Cultural Study
• Ghanaians also report having more enemies than Americans (71% vs. 26%).
• Many Westerners state that they don’t have enemies because they avoid people that they don’t really like,
so that enemy ships can’t develop.
• This view would seem naive to many Ghanaians, as they view enemy ships as a natural state of life.
• When Westerners acknowledge having enemy ships they most often identify an out­group member. For
Ghanaians, enemy ships are most often identified as in­group members
A Study of Enemy ship
• Awareness of enemies e.g., People who claim they do not have enemies are naïve. It is possible that
enemies exist in my close social network (relatives and friends).
• -Perceived threats from the enemies e.g., My enemies can make a lot of troubles in my life
• In interdependent societies, such as Hong kong ( this study showed vs Canada) the concept of enemy ship is
more salient.
Interpersonal Attractiveness
Cuteness: Round eyes. Round Head. Cuteness is different than physical attractiveness for mating.
What kind of faces/bodies are perceived as attractive? Evolutionary Explanations:
• Complexion: Skin that looks free of blemishes, blotches, sores, and rashes is viewed as more attractive
than skin that does not.
• Bilateral Symmetry: bilaterally symmetrical faces are viewed as more attractive than these who don’t have
such faces. This is true for many species
• Average Faces: Averaging makes the face more attractive. 2 potential reasons: 1) Could represent genetic
health. Less likely to have genetic abnormalities. 2) Allows us to process the face quickly, and that quick
processing is associated with a good feeling. Weird.

Cultural Variations in Physical Attractiveness: Is the attractiveness really universal? Cultural

Explanations:
• Body Shapes: The ideal body shapes have been changed Historically, differ from culture to culture
( sometime in our culture we prefer fat ladies, now we prefer tal and thin). Other prefer Lip Extending,
some with long necks, other with long heal bones, body piercing, tattoos,
• Overall. Different cultures have different perception of beauty.
Defining Morality and Moral Judgment
• Morality ­ system of principles and ideals that people use as an obligatory guide to making evaluative
judgments of the actions or character of a person
• Three Components of Morality
1. Obligation: The rule is supposed to be followed
2. Inclusion: Rules should apply to all people
3. Sanction: Punishment for violations and praise for adherence to moral standards
The Morality of Thoughts
What Domains Does Morality Extend to?
• In all cultures people view some behaviors as being more moral than others. Nowhere is it acceptable to
harm others without cause.
• But is it a moral failing if one has undesirable thoughts? (I.e. just thinking bad things!)
Jewish vs. Christian Worldviews
• The New Testament (i.e., the Christian half of the bible) explicitly discusses private thoughts as moral
domains. It specifies how one is not saved until one has appropriate beliefs.
• Further, it discusses how impure thoughts themselves are sins.
• In contrast, the Old Testament (aka, the Hebrew Bible) has little to say about beliefs(thoughts) ­ mostly it
is about behaviors. For example, 8 of the 10 commandments are about behaviors, and the remaining 2
(honoring one’s parents when they are old and not coveting anything of your neighbor’s) appear to be
interpreted differently by Jews and Christians.
• Judaism emphasizes a wider variety of behaviors, such as keeping kosher, than does Christianity.
Will Jews and Christians View People with Impure Thoughts Differently?
• Study compared Jews and Protestants in how they responded to various vignettes where someone thinks
about inappropriate things.
• Results: When participants were asked if it was immoral if Mr. B actually had the affair there were no
differences between Jews and Protestants ­ both agreed equally that this would be immoral behavior.
• However, Protestants viewed Mr. B more negatively than did Jews for just thinking about having an affair.
• Protestants are also more likely than Jews to believe that thoughts are under one’s control.
• Protestants also view thoughts as being more likely to lead to behaviors than do Jews.
Justice:
What is Fair?
• People’s views of what is just and fair are evident in how they go about deciding how to distribute
resources (i.e. give someone 1$ while other 10$=injustice)
• There are 3 key principles that underlie how people distribute resources.
• Principle of Equality: Everyone gets the same amount, irrespective of contributions. (Example ­ gov’t
issues identical rebate cheques to every citizen).
• Principle of Equity: People get an amount based on what they have contributed. (Example ­ A salesperson
may earn her salary based on commission).
• Principle of Need: People get an amount based on the degree of their needs. (Example ­ universal health
care. The sick get more benefits than the healthy).
• Meritocracy: North American a lot. It leads to competition a lot.
• There is variation in the nation in which of the above principal is used. Asian equity ( olders get more) and
the need ( give beggars money)
Culture and Justice
• Study contrasted Americans and Indians. Participants were asked to imagine in a vignette how a company
might best distribute money for a bonus between two employees.
• One employee was a very effective worker, whereas the other employee did not contribute so much.
However, the latter employee was in a poor financial situation because of an illness in the family.
• They were testing which of the three principal they are going to use in this situations.

Allocation Principles
 • The most popular principle for Indians was need. This was the least popular principle for Americans.
• Americans preferred the principle of equity closely followed by equality. Equity was the least popular
solution among Indians.
• MP: Perceptions of fairness vary across cultures.
Why these results:
• Perceptions of fairness have been key to understanding how cooperative norms emerge in human societies.
• There are only 2 ways that cooperation are understood strictly in terms of biological evolution.
1. Kin selection. It is adaptive (i.e., you have more surviving offspring) if you take care of your kin.
2. Reciprocal altruism. It is adaptive if I help you provided that I keep track of whether you are likely
to help me back in return.
The Ultimatum Game
• In the UG two players are assigned to be either a proposer or a receiver. The proposer is given some money
(e.g., $10) and can offer any amount of this $10 to the receiver. Both players never meet each other. The
receiver makes a decision to either keep what the proposer gives them, or s/he can reject the proposer’s
offer. If the proposer’s offer is rejected, then neither person gets any money.
• If I split 5 and 5 its ok. But if I take 9 and give you 1 that will make you pissed off.
The Dictator Game
• In contrast, the DG is identical to the UG except that the receivers are not given the opportunity to reject the
proposer’s offers. They must accept what they are given.
• It would be maximally rational if proposers would give the receivers 0.
• However, in studies conducted in the US, people almost never behave in the “rational” way predicted by
economists.
• Instead, they behave in ways guided by internalized norms of fairness. They almost always, equally split the
allocation into two groups in both games. Even in DG game you can take all the money and can be greedy
but you don’t show that.
• What is the rational and irrational stuff?
Cross­Cultural Research
• Joe Henrich and colleagues (see Henrich et al., 2005) wanted to test these claims by studying economic
games in more than a dozen small­scale societies to check its universality (results are largely similar for
both UG and DG, so I only discuss DG here).
Basic Rules of Experiments
• All money in games is real
• Stake is one day’s wage.
• Games are always one­shot and completely anonymous
• Procedures are identical everywhere and have been carefully translated into the language of target research
group.
• There are several standardized pre­game tests to ensure rules are understood.
Dictator Game (Average Offers in %): An Index of Fairness
• The American pattern of an internalized norm for fairness was not held to the same extent elsewhere.
• In the small­scale societies, which are more similar to the environments that humans originally evolved in,
people acted in more rational ways. The results fit better if you do not assume that people have an
internalized concern for their reputation.
• Market integration: how much people in society are involved in market society. I.e. buying something from
Sobeys=market vs hunting ( no market culture)
• As the more people involved in the market, the more they care about the fairness of distribution. If you are
hunter and gatherer that doesn’t matter.

3rd­Party Punishment
• If people can be expected to be punished by others when they do not cooperate, they will have increased
incentive to cooperate.
 • A 3rd Party Punishment game has been created where people play in a group where money is contributed to
a pot that is distributed to everyone.
• People also have the chance to pay some of their own money to punish another member of the game, by
having some of their money taken away.
Is Altruistic Punishment Universal?
• Evolutionary models were subsequently created that argued that it was a desire to engage in altruistic
punishment that allowed for humans to engage in sufficient cooperation to form large societies.
• However, more recently, this 3rd Party Punishment game has been studied in a broader array of societies
• These studies find considerable evidence for “anti­social punishment” That is, people pay some of their
own money to punish those people who are being especially cooperative ( why!!!!!!!?)
• NA: not punish those who are cooperative. Throughout the world: this was not the case
• These results call into question whether altruistic punishment is a broadly human motivation.
• More research needs to be conducted to fully understand why people engage in anti­social punishment
Video:
One gets a sweet reward and the other gets a cucumbers. The monkey who got the cucumber was upset and threw
back the cucumber at the researcher. Thus justice seems to exist in monkeys too.
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Cross-cultural psychology is as old as psychology itself, older than experimental. Its often
been preoccupied between West vs the Rest, in a way that makes the West look superior.
However, this is not the case. Psychologist were send to the other corners of the world to test if
the other people were “civilized” like us. The easiest question was “do they have souls” and if
so we needed to convert them, if not slaves for days. These days many cross-cultural
psychologists try to be called cultural psychologists (thanks Shewder). The questions what is
cross cultural psychology is there is a comparative approach, for the sake of finding universal
psychological measures. The focus is on universals (sorry Shewder). They insist there is one
psychology or no psychology, however our fatal flaw is taking what we see in our Western
laboratories and trying to make them fit the universal narrative. Cross Cultural also strives to
expand psychology to INCLUDE other cultures. Lol.

Coined Terms
There is a fundamental distinction between two approaches to culture: Ethic (universal
frame of reference, quantitative (measurable), but gives an “outside” perspectives) and Emic
(anthropologic/ ethnopsycholwgy term, in terms originating in the culture being studied.
Typically gives “universal” accounts or closer to how the people who describe themselves (in
language that they would understand themselves, using untranslated words ect. (no english
equivalent to bon appetite/Northern native people having many words for snow ), or internal or
external (ling terms). The notion that you can study a culture using a universal frame of
reference or by there terms the people see themselves as. Does language shape or reflect our
perception? If the latter is true, the implications favour emic studies. Can you experience an
emotion if you don’t have a word for it? but when you favour the emic approach you lose the
comparison and qualitative approach. Meaning and everyday life are mundane, and because
our preoccupation with universals we have lost this vital piece of the puzzle. This is why we
cannot answer any “real” big questions and problems. Siegel et al make a further distinction:
the imposed epic (make assumptions about universals based on our own culture, classic
psychology. Applying the methods of studying ones own culture to study similar processes in
another culture.) and the derived etic (started out by gaining local points of view in each culture
studied and then drawing conclusions about psychological similarities across cultures.) People
in non literary cultures have d different ways of remembering things (mostly songs, ritchuals
and dances.)
The absolutist position - human phenomena are basically the same all over the world. The
absolutist position assigns little significance to culture and is therefore not interested in
understanding people in there own terms. The absolutist orientations resembles the imposed
etic approach. Basically all humans are the same. This is also reminiscent of the biology
approach to psychology. Looks a lot like Shewders ides about all of psychology. Legal and
others reject this. If you think everything can boil down to the way the brain works, you are
with the majority of psychology.
The relativist positions - the other extreme. Denies the existence of any universals. as
psychological differences are fundamentally different in different cultures. Moral dilemmas are
thought of differently (is it intuitive what is good or bad or is it ____ and dependent more on
context (shouldn’t kill people but if its us or them, you kinda have to), so there is ethical
implications as well). Segal worries if you do this you’re going to be unable to compare. This
keeps multicultural psychology going. (No-one knows the true truth and we are all working it
out at the same time. No-one knows it all, even if you have your self imposed truth.) viable
pluralism. If you try to immerse yourself in culture it must be for a serious purpose and let it kick
back onto yourself. That is when you find the flaws in your presumed truth, and then you can
and should question that (things that you take for obvious). The idea is that you only learn
about yourself via your dialog with others. We can understand our own psychology via this
approach.
The universalist position golds that universal characteristics can be found through careful
comparison of different cultures. Through comparisons we can find the psychic unity of
mankind. resembles the derived epic approach. Imperial approach, no imposition of values.
Often this approach is accused of being eurocentric and imposing the values of the west,
due to most of our knowledge coming from WEIRD demographics. The argument is you only
see what your culture has been primed to see. They realize this is an issue.
Ethnocentrism is using the standards of one own culture as the STANDARD to judge
other groups mostly to put yourself on top of the pile. This is kinda what used to happen in
psychology. This is an attitude that has dominated historically. The question is: is this what we
are still doing inadvertently? The way we deal with that is doing the same experiments four
times between two researchers and two cultures. Ethnocentric bias would occur when there is
disagreement between the two studies and two searchers. Valid differences would be indicated
by common findings between all four versions of the study. Practically, logistically that is a lot
of work over more than two cultures (fifty studies becomes two hundred.) In principle, this
might be a solution. However, if both searchers are from the same culture or both been trained
in the same methods they could be bias in the same way. Therefore it doesn’t really matter if
ones from the US and ones from India. Of course they’ll get the same result, they are both
scientists. They do things the science way. Good idea on paper though.
Even translation can distort the meaning of interpretations. There is no thing as a literal
translation. On things like questionnaires that is an issue, but even the idea of questionnaires is
already bias. The conception of what it is (ever individualistic based) is flawed. You need to
understand the social context around the questions. In the west we have self contained
individualism, but that its self if flawed. Interaction is secondary to the study of the individual
behaviour.Cross Cultural psychologist would argue that even this is a social construction (think
of our society) and you aren’t born an individual, you become one. In the end its more
complicated then this, but the idea that you can find genuine differences in a non bias way is
billshit. How can you find something different if your assumptions are incorrect? If you immerse
yourself and let go of these preconceptions you can finally understand.
In order to really defend of these you need to surrender yourself to them (same with love
apparently. deep.). But for obvious reasons you need to be careful about that.

Rather & Hui (Background reading) - “Critique of Cultural Psychology”

The main issues with the discipline:
influence on cultural factors on psychological differences is presumed on the basis
of faulty logic - country A & B score different on a social values and the underlying
values are why the cultures are different (we call it a cultural difference). Other
psychologists argue we should look more at psychological differences between
the cultures. There are independent and interdependent versions of self (internal
vs external attributes when rating ones self) and this is a psychological way to look
at cultural difference, rather than the differences of values. It turns out in Japan
they are more interdependent but Canada is independent. Therefore psychological
differences are considered to be due to differences in social values. one doesn’t
explain one or another (culture ad psychological) they are the same thing. one
behaviour != another cultural thing. Tautology is a reasoning or a statement that is
true, but is not true because its really true. Its true because its circular (EX all
mothers are children).
WHY IS THIS FAULTY: The mistake is that they are basically the same god
damn thing. All is based on behavioural responses. There are only two ways
to operationalize culture: geological or behavioural. But wouldn’t that mean
that Canada is both independent and interdependent (we have japanese
people here too. obviously.). a lot of things we take as true is nessisaryly
true (if you think you can do something you’re more likely to keep doing it.
Duh.) it is true, but when you waste resources testing it and the opposite is
meaningless there is no reason to study it.
Cultural factors are construed as abstract rather than concert. Abstract concept of
culture - culture can only be studied with a limited knowledge of culture EX the
scales we use to put self esteem into “high and low”.oversimplification of
complicated results in order to actually study them. If you stip everything away as
you would in a lab, this gets you super abstract results.
WHY THIS IS FAULTY: Shewder touched on this. If you have to say “tis way
more complicated” when you see the result then there result is basically
invalid. EX saying I’m an individualist isn’t valid. Maybe amount friends, but
not family, contextually based.
Particular cultural factors are misconceived and culture is a hold in for things that
are different between culture and by saying we different because the culture is
different and culture is different because of the differences is circular.
WHY THIS IS FAULTY: without actually thinking of the meaning of culture or
living the culture, you need to understand it in the real world. You actually
need to go to sciences and the social sciences and even law. You need to
go to the humanities and observe them to

Ideas:
Isn’t this basically the nature vs nurture approach but more complicated?

Camels idea (four researchers) would you be able to compare the results between different
types of researchers (enthnopsychologist or anthropologists vs psychologists)

Cant we do CT or fMRI Scans on people from different cultures reacting to the same stimuli?
(Russian Blue)

why is law so psychological?

Are you who you see yourself as or who you are to others.

Emic
Ethic
imposed etic
derived etic
absolutist

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Paper by Vygotsky
Why study him? He’s seen as a chef leader of modern cultural psychology despite being
dead for a while. He came before the cognitive revolution and died at the young age of 37, and
only really had a career for about ten years. He is described as a brilliant man who influenced a
lot of people and things. He lived in the Soviet Union (took a while for the West to
notice/translate his work) and remember that the SU was a dictatorial regime (how much of
what published is untouched by the government?). This is pretty relevant because he published
a Marx version of psychology. Marx’s theory assumes that human are different from animals
because they work in a way to transform the world as no other animal does. His psychology
focuses on the understanding of psychology that is changed due to the nature of this human -
work relationship.
These days, the work of Vygotsky is studied for his original idea that differed from Western
Psychology, untouched by the Cognitive Revolution (due to both time and context of his life).
His study was destructive of behaviourism more so that cognitive psych. Some of the leaders
of the Cognitive Revolution saw Vygotskys ideas as a way to fix some of the issues with
behaviourism caused by the over simplification of the human mind to compare the brain to a
computer. Focus should have been shifted from computers to the meaning behind why we
behave as we do.
Anyways, thats why Vygotsky is important. He’s gonna fix where we went wrong cause he
got it right. Wayyyyy before it even happened. He also influenced a lot of psychologists from
Lauria (father of neuroscience) and Oliver Saxx. These people have an integrative perspective
between the either and the or and that the way to put the pieces together it to include all of
them. The two are always played against each other, but balance is important. Culture enriches
our understanding of psychology.

Goal of the class is to gain a functional understanding of why cultural psychologists try to
accomplish and how they differ from mainstream psychology. Strive for sophisticated
understanding. The questions asked by cultural psychologists are yet to be answered. Even the
concepts remain contested. Psychologists are good at fronting and critical reading and
understanding allows us to see through that.
Shewder’s idea of intentional worlds tell us not to concentrate less on universals, but he
doesn’t lend much to the mechanics of mine. Developmental psychology is strongly tied with
cultural. When we are born we have biological heritage, but it is changed by the process of
living. Not a lot we do are things we are born with. When you see text you can read it (learned)
just as well as we can recognize faces (biological). Conceptual thinking is another thing to
study. Ontogenetic development refers to the accusation of culture through the lifetime. The
culture transforms your psychological makeup. Once you learn this skill it changes the way you
see and understand the world. You don’t “see” it, but it is evident. When looking at a chair you
don’t see the concept you see a normal old chair, when though the particular chair isn’t exactly
the “chairificaltion" of the ideal chair. It doesn’t share all chair values. This is true for all that is
possible. However this is really tied to language. Our social accusations are gained through life,
but born from biology. Nurture and nature transform your method of thinking.
Social origin and structure are quite universal. Thinking is internalized thinking.

Socio-Cultural Foundation of Mind (His Argument):

The idea was introduced by James Birtch, who introduced Vygotsky to a lot of Western
audiences. Now Vogotsky comes up to juxtapose PVJ. They coined words like zones of cultural
development. He is also mentioned a lot for his stance on individual directed speech.
Genetic method - We can understand human cognition only if we study its genesis
Not referring to genes, rather development or becoming, from the word genesis (to
come from). In a specific way in order to understand anything you must
understand its development. In order to understand things like conceptual thinking
you must realize the steps and sequence that lead to higher order thinking. For
example, if you want to play the piano and you ask your teacher what is playing
the piano, they will tell you to practice until you understand it. Psychological
development is key to understanding.
Look at development as different levels, each coming with its own implications.
These genetic domains are:
Evolutionary development (phylogenetic) - Development of species in
evolution through natural selection
Development of biological heritage is passes genetically, over
lifespans. This is the biological or elemental functions.
Thinks psychology is too preoccupied with these values, causing us
to miss the other genetic domains.
Cultural historical domain: accumulative modification of cultural artefacts
and behaviour traditions over generations
We also have historical development, things like reading a writing
improved over long, long time. Although typically quicker than
evolution. When you learn something you can pass it by teaching
your children (this) no through your genes.
Vygotsky sees this as important as this is our human heritage.
Often becomes tangled with biological heritage as we both embody
both simultaneously and exists because they are embodied in each
generation. Biological heritage is changed by the accusation of
culture. It isn’t about both components impact us, its about how we
become quantifiably different (memory is effected by language).
Any of the things that you can do were not developed by you (writing
or language)
Ontogenetic domain: Development of one individual in the course of her/his
lifetime
Micro-Genetic Domain: Development that happens moment by moment in
social interaction
The key is that these things are temporal or genetic. They cannot
simply be launched into your mind, you actually have to make sense
and learn the things. Opposite of cognitive that sees this as simply
coding.
Gradual make sense of the meaning of things. This is developmental
on a personal level.
They key is that these are all a part of the bigger picture.
More advanced or higher mental functions derive from interpersonal interaction (they
emerged first in the interpersonal domain and are only later internalized)
Notion of higher mental functions (wihat makes them higher) yes elementary
mental functions (basic, born with functions as part of biological heritage). and He
thinks this is only developed via interactions with other people. Even things like
voluntary attentions (being able to choose what you concentrate on). Structure of
interaction is telling yourself to focus on something. The order is important to
genetic method. First develops as a social method and then an interpersonal level.
We think we are first individuals, but this purposes otherwise. Our interactions
cause events like thinking. So language leads to higher order cognitive functions.
Evolutionary mental functions - instinctive, develop without aid or
interaction
Born with the capacity for attention (placeholder for concept). Chilling
in class and you hear a bang, your gonna suddently turn and look at
the noise. Reflexive and triggered by the environment. Under stimulus
control. Happens involuntarily. Shared with other animals.
Higher mental functions - need to be developed with social interaction .
Includes: mediated memory, voluntary attention, conceptual information .
Born with the capacity for voluntary attention (placeholder for
concept). Humans can choose to focus on what you choose to focus
your or others attention on certain things. The most basic example is
pointing. When I point you understand that You need to look or focus
on what I am trying to make you focus on. You cannot make you
intent but it sure helps that i have the capacity to direct your attention
(uniquely human, although dogs can do it too (evolution shaped by
humans), typically they can understand. But even a one year old can
understand it.) Language extends this as well.
Once you can do it to others you can do it for yourself, called
Derived ability but appears first in the social realm.
Social proceeds the individual.
EX Pointing only has meaning if others understand you. a word
is only a word if others understand you. Without a community
of mutual understanding signs and langue, these shared skills
are meanness and therefore would not appear organically in
the life of an isolated human. Vygotsky thought as soon as you
could do it to someone else and have them understand them,
you can teach it to yourself.
Mediated memory is also important to this. Verbal cultures tell
stories to integrate cultural history. Now to remember things
we can write them down or remind yourself via notes or (if
you’re real good, you don’t even need to write on the note, the
note itself acts as a stimuli).
On a developmental scale, this starts in birth when you
talk or point around a baby. Babies babble and are
“rewarded” when they babe closer to real words. We
place intentionality where it does not exist.
After accruing the function it can be internalized and controlled
in a more contained way. One feature of higher level function is
that they are more under our own control. Wr can control them
internally, we don’t need an environmental stimuli. Control.
Vygotsky thought as you gain more control over our actions we
become more free.
Called the social origin of higher mental functions. Quote:
"Every function in the child's cultural development
appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the
individual level; first, between people (interpsychological)
and then inside the child (intrapsychological). This
applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory,
and to the formation of concepts. All the higher functions
originate as actual relationships between individuals."
Opposite of individualistic notions
Zone of Procimal Development - The distance between the
actual development level as determined by independent
problem solving and the level of potential development as
determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in
collaboration with more capable peers.
According to Vygotsky children learn most when their
caregivers succeed in establishing this ZPD with them.
Therefore, it is very important that the caregivers are
sensitive to the child’s current level of development, so
that they can gear their pedagogic interventions toward
them.
“Scaffold” activities - example, a child building a
tower knows that you continue to go higher but
doesn’t know how to accomplish this. If you build
it or you let the child do it the child won’t learn the
max it could potentially learn. You should be
sensitive you to the level of development, and let it
do what is it in the childs potential rather and give
little guidance. Now the child has changed its level
of development. “Why don’t you start with the
bigger ones” is an example of what to say. A little
suggestion is all it needs. Animals are limited
because of not having a common language.
Better parents know better where the children are
at. A very delicate balance.
Opposite to suggestions by Piaget who said that
our socio schemas allow bottom-up processing
leading to full cognition/ Built by active
engagement in the world. This expiration is also
important to Vygotsky but he say more the role of
the caregiver. A lot of things like education are
guiding systems for children. A good teacher
makes you struggle to understand concepts within
your potential. Scaffolding helps the child grasp
these things with the help of a good caregiver.
Not only do we earn with other people, we also
learn the structure of the interaction. for example:
Egocentric speech - or talking to yourself.
Piaget: Egocentric speech doesn’t
serve a function. It appears when the
child is still rooted in its own
viewpoint (egocentrism) and not able
to direct its speech at others. It will
ultimately disappear when the child
learns to direct its speech at others.
Gradually overcome as language
skills improve to be directed at
others.
Vygotsky: Egocentric speech
(“private speech”) is a way station
between “social speech” and “inner
speech”. Children first learn to direct
their speech to others (speech starts
out as a social activity) but later they
learn to use language in order to
regulate their own behaviour(that is,
they ‘internalize’ language so that it
becomes internal speech, or
thought). Private speech (the child
talking to herself out loud) helps it to
solve certain problems. Important
stepping stone. To write is to
understand things in the same way
others will understand them. All
thinking even private thoughts and
experiences are only meaningful if
cast in a medium that allows you to
externalize those concepts. If i write I
am so lonely in my journal it is
captured by the book and allows you
to have a dialogue. The having a
thought is an expression of this same
concept except internally. In order to
learn to think you must be able to
express yourself as things only exist
in expression.
Language arises out of social
engagement, however children
start to use the function
increasingly for themselves
outlaid before they learn to
internalize and make thoughts.
As you do things for yourself
they become more condensed.
Because of the origin (genetic
method) is social interaction so
it maintains the social function.
In thinking we can entertain
ideas from different
perspectives (hallmark of being
a human).
First; you learn in the
social world people have
different perspectives
Second; more language
are function (english has
verbs) but a lot include
the opposite, you give
book and i get book are
the same from different
perspectives and we can
occupy either side.
Third; The dialogical
nature (looking at the
same thing in different
ways, is essential to
empathy)
Higher mental functions are mediated by tools and signs
Characterization of human psychological functions is always including signs
(language is most important) and tools
The notion of mediation is important to followers of Vygotsky. Genetic
method is how we acquire these skills.
Language is the most important tool
Concept formation and language develop together.
Language functions categorically, nouns and verbs are generalized to
a class of things or events, not simply the specific that you are
referring to in your context.
Zone of proximal development:
Based on the realization that things are passed on through
generations. The generation before knows better than you because
they embody the culture more. There is a certain normative status to
our behaviours.
When a child overgeneralizes in language (post the discovery of
“rules” children tend to overexagerate) the best way is to simply
repeat what they said but say it correctly. The child quickly learns.
Culture is normative, in ways that are different from whats biologically
effective. Sometimes its right because its right. This is the same way
we learn to use tools. Children find all kind of uses for tools but we
correct that behaviour through subtle corrections or demonstrating to
them. They are also sensitive to rights and wrong for themselves and
also for the caregiver. Children understand “uh oh” “oops” at a very
early age.
Zone can be intentional or not, but children are constantly emerged in
them. When children tune in they can be helped by caregivers. In a
process known as scaffolding (or breaking down) children are easy to
teach. This is the same way we learn to drive cars. Most skills are like
this and require practice. When you become your own instucture by
internalizing these skills. This is human cognition.
Egnotic Speech
Thinking is an abbreviated internalized version of speaking. Internal
for yourself you can take different perspectives. This is a key skill in
cognition as it teaches metacommunication (becomes metacognition)
Semiotic Mediation - tools are our way of effecting the world, is is why we aren’t
animals.
Signs are tools that can be used to effect other people psychologically. A
way of regulating the behaviours of others (vice versa) but also once you
can do this you can regulate yourself.
EX pointing to make someone look
A sign is inherently dialogical. - not a natural thing, there must be
convention or agreement. It needs to be learned. This is Part of cultural
heritage (like language) Vyvgotsky argued there is two meanings of words:
Dictionary meaning - more objective
Sense of the word - emotions and memories associated with your
own experience.
The more you share your sense of the word the harder and harder it
becomes to express your entire experience. Our understanding shits
between these two pols constantly. We need to know the formal meanings
(otherwise we can’t have science) but they don’t capture the true reality.
This is what makes it difficult to capture everyday life. We do understand
ourselves well (or do we).
Speech is the origin of this. The internal is too ambiguous but written
or formalized speech cannot produce the entire picture.
This is called Dialectic thinking. Very Marxist way of thinking (A
causes B causes A, but both change as a consequence of this). As
you move through life and internalize more, your psychological
makeup transforms. The richer you can communicate with yourself
the better your understanding of the world. Incorporates a lot of
psychological values but is difficult to teach on a deeper level.

Nine-mont Revolution an Entry into the Symbolic World

9-12 Months : start of children engage in distinctly human behaviour.
Joint engagement - child sees something new and checks with the caregiver to
see if they are perceiving the same thing. If the mother smiles the child will have a
more positive interaction with the thing but if she’s scared so will the child be.
Living through the mother kinda. Joined attentional scene.
11-14 months - when someone is looking at something you look at it too.
Gaze/point follow
Use imitative learning
13-15 months - the child will start to direct the attention of others at things. They don’t
want anything, they only want you to see it. Children can be pretty pushy about showing
you things. Assholes.
Imperative posting
Declarative pointing
Vyvgotsky would say we are biologically wired for this but this is the basis for cultural
acquisition. Sings become possible now. Its not only the two lines of inheritance, they hang
together in a massive way. as a consequence we develop signs like language which then
continue to change the way we interact with the world.

Level 1: I know that you know I am attending to the same thing, metal oriantation to both
each other and the object. This lead to an alteration of attention, very different from when
other primates attend to the same thing. External dialogue.
Level 2: The child can now maintain this without the third party. They can imagine
(imaginary friends) who can interact with them and have a dialogue with them. Helps
them with there interaction with the world. P2 is no longer physically present.
Level 3: At some point this becomes Expanded Inner Dialogue where we no longer have
to attend to anything around you, rather its fully internal. The child no longer has to talk
out loud during complex tasks, rather the dialogue is internal.
Level 4: Condensed Inner Dialogue, not even a back and forth (although this is possible).
You are both the listener and the talker, yet it is still dialogical in nature. Now you can
engage in conceptual thinking on a higher level.
Vyvgotsky argues when you’re trying to understand a difficult task its easier to step back
and engage in the steps before internalizing the complex idea or task. It is difficult to disagree
with yourself (difference between good and bad writers, need to understand all facets of the
subject.) by imaging all other positions you can create your own. What would i need to do to
merge two contrasting arguments to form my own? The best is to engage with a real person
and lets you see the back and forth before it becomes concentrated.
People like L___ (father of neuroscience) understood this in his book “Man with a bullet in
his brain”. They allowed this man to tell stories via organizing cards in order. He gained the
capacity to somewhat internalize after retraining himself.

Three positions of cross cultural psychology assignment, argue one of the positions
assignment was an embodiment of this. Best way to convince someone that something is true
to look at all the different perspectives and then argue your own case. Things are not as they
are, the same thing can be many things (this is language). The way you frame things effects
things, something children learn early on. If you ask them to describe a time they were angry (8
or older) they will say something like “my brother broke my toy”. The way the question was
framed makes them place blame. But if you asked them to describe a time they were sad they
could tell the same story in a way to make you emphasis with them “my toy got broken and it
made me sad”. This is a good example of how our thinking and motivation (as well as
emotions) is infused with the multi perspective of cultural psychology. Qualitative difference
that transformed the psychological makeup.

Review:
We are a combination of cultural and biological factors that come together via our heritages.
Everyone is different due to our involvement in different intentional worlds, but asa society we
have similarities in our historical heritage. You are the embodiment of your entire cultures. In the
process of acquiring culture transform the very way our psyche works. We still have the
biological elements (reflexes) but we also have qualitative differences in our newly accord skills
(they are typically more conscious choices). This is paradoxical. Vovgotskys argument is that all
our our higher mental functions is a version of internal dialogue and we can “see” different
perspectives in our minds. Thinking is an example of this and internal mental stuff is all
internalized social interaction (typically language).

Agency

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