Culture Reviewer

Chapter 1 Module 1: AN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURE AND PSYCHOLOGY

The Goals of Psychology

• The first is to build a body of knowledge about people. Psychologists seek to understand
behavior when it happens, explain why it happens, and even predict it before it happens.
• The second goal of psychology involves taking that body of knowledge and applying it to
intervene in people’s lives, to make those lives better.

Cultural Psychology and Cross-Cultural Research

Cultural psychology uses cross-cultural research as the primary research method that tests the cultural
parameters of psychological knowledge. Cross-cultural research involves participants of more than one
cultural background and then compares findings obtained across those cultures. Cross-cultural research
is a method that allows psychologists to examine how Page | 2 knowledge about people and their
behaviors from one culture may or may not hold for people from other cultures, and that contributes to
cultural psychology.

Cross-cultural research not only tests whether people of different cultures are similar or different; it also
tests possible limitations in our knowledge, by examining whether psychological theories and principles
are universal (true for all people of all cultures) or culture-specific (true for some people of some
cultures), thus contributing to a cultural psychology.

WHERE DOES CULTURE COME FROM?

There are three important sources of the origins of culture: ecology, resources, and people.

• Ecology

People live in groups that exist in specific ecologies, and the kinds of places in which groups of people
live has a major impact on how they live. One aspect of ecology that influences cultures and that has
received much attention recently is climate.

Another ecological factor that influences culture is population density. This is the ratio of the number of
people that live in a specific area to the size of the area that can grow food and sustain the population.

• Resources
These resources can be natural, such as the presence or absence of water or land to farm to grow
vegetables or raise animals. A land void of natural resources may encourage teamwork
and community spirit among its members and interrelationships with other groups that have abundant
resources in order to survive.

People

Group Living - The first characteristic of people that contributes to the creation of culture is the fact that
humans are social animals, and have always lived in groups.

Needs and Motives - The second characteristic of people that contributes to the creation of cultures is
the fact that humans have basic needs that are ultimately related to reproductive success.

Universal Psychological Toolkits - Another important factor to understand about people concerns the
evolved human mind and brain.

A DEFINITION OF CULTURE

Culture is a unique meaning and information system, shared by a group and transmitted across
generations, that allows the group to meet basic needs of survival, pursue happiness and well-being, and
derive meaning from life.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN “SOCIETY” AND “CULTURE”

Society is “a system of interrelationships among people.” It refers to the fact that relationships among
individuals exist, and in human societies, individuals have multiple relationships with multiple groups,
and the groups themselves have interrelationships with other groups. Thus, human societies are
complex. Nonhuman animals are also social and have societies.

Culture refers to the meanings and information that are associated with social networks. “Family,” for
example, is a social group that exists in both the human and nonhuman animal world. But human
cultures give the concept of family its own unique meaning, and individuals draw specific information
from these meanings.

GROUPS THAT HAVE CULTURES

Culture and Nationality - Nationality refers to a person’s country of origin, and countries have their own
cultures. This is because countries are associated with each of the factors that influence culture.

Culture and Language - a cultural group defines meaningful things in its world by encoding its world in
words, and by incorporating unique aspects of language (syntax, grammar, pragmatics).

Culture and Ethnicity - The word ethnicity is derived from the Greek ethnos, meaning people of a nation
or tribe, and is usually used to denote one’s racial, national, or cultural origins.
Culture and Gender – Sex refers to the biological differences between men and women, the most
obvious being the anatomical differences in their reproductive systems.

Culture and Disability - Persons with disabilities share the same feelings, ways of thinking, and
motivations as everyone else.

Culture and Sexual Orientation - People form different sexual relationships with others, and the persons
with whom they form such relationships constitute a major aspect of their sexual orientation.

CONTRASTING CULTURE, RACE, PERSONALITY, AND POPULAR CULTURE

Culture and Race - Race is not culture, although many people use the terms interchangeably. The
problem with race is that there is considerable controversy surrounding what it is.

Culture and Personality - Culture is a macro, social, group-level construct. Personality refers to the
individual differences that exist among individuals within groups. Culture is the social psychological
frame within which individuals reside, much like the structure of our houses and homes.

Culture versus Popular - Culture From time to time, it is fashionable to refer to fads that come and go as
“culture.” This is also referred to as “popular culture” by the mass media and in everyday conversation.
Popular culture generally refers to trends in music, art, and other expressions that become popular
among a group of people.

THE CONTENTS OF CULTURE

The objective elements of culture involve objective, explicit elements that are physical. For example,
these would include architecture, clothes, foods, art, eating utensils, and the like.

The subjective elements of culture include all those parts of a culture that do not survive people as
physical artifacts. Thus, they include psychological processes such as attitudes, values, and beliefs, as
well as behaviors.

Values - are guiding principles that refer to desirable goals that motivate behavior.

Beliefs - A belief is a proposition that is regarded as true, and people of different cultures have different
beliefs.

Norms - Norms are generally accepted standards of behavior for any cultural group. It is the behavior
that members of any culture have defined as the most appropriate in any given situation.

Attitudes - Attitudes are evaluations of things occurring in ongoing thoughts about the things, or stored
in memory.
Worldviews - Cultures also differ importantly in cultural worldviews.

HOW DOES CULTURE INFLUENCE HUMAN BEHAVIORS AND MENTAL PROCESSES?

Individuals are first welcomed into their worlds at birth and begin a process of learning about their
culture through a process known as enculturation. The enculturation process gradually shapes and
molds individuals’ psychological characteristics, including how individuals perceive their worlds, think
about the reasons underlying their and other people’s action, have and express emotions, and interact
with others.

Chapter 3: Enculturation

Socialization- actual process and mechanisms by which people learn the rules of society—what is said to
whom and in which contexts.

Enculturation- products of the socialization process—the subjective, underlying, psychological aspects of

culture that become internalized through development.

Socialization (and enculturation) agents are the people, institutions, and organizations that exist to help
ensure that socialization (or enculturation) occurs.

Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory

Whiting and Whiting’s Six Cultures Study

• Conducted by Beatrice and John Whiting

• Known as the Six Cultures Study

• Cross-cultural project in Mexico, India, Kenya, the United States, Okinawa, and the Philippines

• Focus on child rearing and children’s behavior

• Examined how natural environment shaped household structure

• Observed parenting and child development across different cultures

Diversity in Parenting as a Function of Economics

• the Six Cultures Study highlighted how the ecological context affects child rearing and
development.

• Economic conditions play a significant role in parenting practices and child rearing.

• Societies with high infant mortality rates may prioritize meeting basic physical needs over other
developmental demands.

• Positive parenting behaviors in harsh conditions may include intense focus on the baby's well-
being, as seen in Sudanese tradition.

Parenting Goals and Beliefs

Parenting goals- provide the motivation and framework for what parents think is the best way to raise
their children.

Parents’ beliefs concerning their roles as caregivers also influence their behaviors.

Global Parenting Styles

Parenting styles are another important dimension of caregiving.

Patterns of Parenting

Authoritarian- parents expect unquestioned obedience and view the child as needing to be controlled.

Permissive parents are warm and nurturing to their children; however, they allow their children to
regulate their own lives and provide few firm guidelines.

Authoritative parents are sensitive to the child’s maturity and are firm, fair, and reasonable. They also
express a high degree of warmth and affection to their children.
Uninvolved parents are often too absorbed in their own lives to respond appropriately to their children
and may seem indifferent to them. They do not seem committed to caregiving, beyond the minimum
effort required to meet the physical needs of their child.

Parenting Behaviors and Strategies

One of the most representative cultural differences in parenting behaviors concerns sleeping
arrangements.

A Domain-Specific Approach to Parenting

One exciting development in the parenting literature is a proposal that outlines a domain-specific
approach to understanding parent socialization. This approach counters the global parenting style
approach.

The domain approach emphasizes the complexity of the socialization process by distinguishing between
distinct types or domains of parent-child socialization.

One domain is protection.

- Children depend on their parents to protect them from harm.

Another domain is control.

- children must learn how to live by culturally defined rules.

Other domains are reciprocity (learning how to cooperate), guided learning (learning specific skills), and
group participation (learning to participate in social groups and cultural practices).

Extended and multigenerational families

Extended families encompass relatives beyond parents and children, including aunts, uncles, cousins,
and grandparents.

Culture and Peers

Peer group is another critical context for enculturation. To what extent do peers contribute to child
development?

3 Figurative Cultures

Post figurative Cultures- cultural change is slow, socialization occurs primarily by elders transferring their
knowledge to their children. In this case, elders hold the knowledge necessary for becoming a successful
and competent adult.
Configurative Cultures- cultural change occurs more rapidly, adults continue to socialize their children,
but peers play a greater role in socializing each other. Young people may have to turn to one another for
advice and information.

Prefigurative Cultures- the culture is changing so rapidly that young people may be the ones to teach
adults. The knowledge that adults hold may not be sufficient for the next generation, and adults may
need to look to younger people for advice and information.

Exposure to Peer Groups

Do you think culture can influence children’s exposure to their peer groups?

Peers and Bullying

In the last two decades, several highly publicized stories of young teens who committed suicide after
relentless bullying have pushed researchers to study this negative aspect of peer socialization.

Dan Olweus (1993)

• 3 types of Bullying

Intentional

Power Balance

Repeated

Cross-National Differences in Math Achievement

Studies have shown cross-cultural differences in math performance, with younger children from Asian
countries demonstrating superior math skills compared to their American counterparts.
Social and Cultural Factors that Influence Math Achievement

Cross-national differences in math achievement are linked to secondary abilities, indicating a significant
role of social and cultural factors. Factors such as language, school systems, parental values, teaching
styles, teacher-student relationships, and student attitudes contribute to these differences. This
literature provides evidence on the relationship between culture and education.

Language

-Cross-national differences in counting and memory may be due to language differences

School Systems

-The educational system in different countries influences math abilities and cultural values.
Parental and Familial Values

-Cultural differences in parenting beliefs about education impact children's educational experiences.

Attitudes and Appraisals of Students

-Asian American students show a stronger desire to please parents, greater parental pressure, and
higher levels of parental support compared to European American students.

Teaching Styles, Teacher-Student Relationships, and School Environment

-Japanese and Chinese students spend more time in school and on math, leading to higher math -
performance.

-Teachers in Japan and China spend more time working with the whole class, while American teachers
spend less time with individual students.

Chapter 4: Culture and Developmental Processes

Culture and temperament

Temperament is a biologically based style of interacting with the world that exists from birth. Although it
is biologically based, it does not mean that temperament is fixed at birth or impervious to experience.

Instead, temperament reflects an interaction between a child’s predispositions and experiences in life.
And, while temperament is relatively stable, it can be modified over time.

Thomas and Chess (1977) were pioneers in the study of temperament.

Easy temperament is defined by a very regular, adaptable, mildly intense style of behavior that is
positive and responsive.

Difficult temperament is an intense, irregular, withdrawing style, generally marked by negative moods.

Slow-to-warm-up children need time to make transitions inactivity and experiences.

The Goodness of Fit between Temperament and Culture

Thomas and Chess (1977) developed an important concept in temperament research the notion of
goodness of fit.
 Dimensions of Temperament: A Focus on Behavioral Inhibition

Behavioral inhibition refers to when a child shows signs of wariness, discomfort, or distress when
confronted with novel, challenging, or unfamiliar situations.

Six Dimension of temperament

-activity level

-Fear

-distress to limitations

-smiling and laughter

-soothability

-duration of orienting

Cultural and Attachment

Attachment refers to the special bond that develops between the infant and his or her primary caregiver
and provides the infant with emotional security

Bowlby’s Theory of Attachment

Evolutionary theory of attachment proposes that infants must have a preprogrammed, biological basis
for becoming attached to their caregivers. This innate behavioral repertoire includes smiling and cooing
to elicit physical attachment behaviors on the part of the caregiver.

Bowlby and Ainsworth’s Classification System of Attachment

Based on Bowlby’s attachment theory, Mary Ainsworth’s (1967, 1977) study of mothers and infants in
Uganda led to the tripartite classification system of attachment relationships.

Cultural and Attachment

- special bond of infants and caregivers

Separation Anxiety
-child feeling of losing caregiver

Bowlby and Ainsworth’s Classification System of Attachment

3 attachment styles:

secure caregiver layo, lonely ka, pag bumalik, ndi ka na ulit lonely kahit iniwan

ambivalent- nag papasuyo pa, hard to get

avoidant- nakaka feel parin ng loneliness kahit bumalik si caregiver

Strange situation- ibinubukod ang care giver sa infant for a short period of time to test babies.

Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget’s Theory

Cognitive development is a specialty in psychology those studies how thinking skills develop over time.

What was more interesting to Piaget was not why children solved problems correctly, but why children of
similar ages tended to make the same mistake in solving problems incorrectly.

Sensorimotor stage

• Birth to 2 years of age Children

• understand the world through their sensory perceptions and motor behaviors
• Capability to use mental symbols to represent objects and events
• Imitation and language acquisition

Preoperational stage

• 6 to 7 years
• Conservation, Centration, Irreversibility, Egocentrism, and Animism
• Children at this stage do not yet think in a logical and systematic manner.

Concrete operations stage

• 6 or 7 years old until about 11 years of age

• Master the principle of conservation
• Children in this stage tend to rely on trial-and-error strategies.
Formal operations stage

• 11 years of age to adulthood

• Ability to think logically about abstract concepts, such as peace, freedom, and justice
• Individuals also become more systematic and thoughtful in their approach to problem solving.

Piaget describes two ways that we learn:

Assimilation the process of fitting new ideas into a preexisting understanding of the world.

Accommodation refers to the process of changing one ‘understanding of the world to accommodate
ideas that conflict with existing concepts.

Other Theories of Cognitive Development

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (18th Century)

German philosopher Hegel ranked all societies on an evolutionary scale based on a classification of
religious beliefs, with Christianity at the top.

They Proposed that humanity had progressed from savagery to civilization in a series of stages. 19th-
Century

• Lewis Henry Morgan

• Herbert Spencer
• Sir Edward Burnett Tylor

Lucien Lévy-Bruhl

He drew most of his conclusions from material related to the mystical and religious beliefs of non-
Western peoples. According to Levy-Bruhl, non- Westerners were not bothered by logical contradictions,
and they lacked a clear sense of individual identity.

Moral Reasoning

Moral judgments and Reasoning

Fundamental aspects of human cognition that involve evaluating actions, behaviors, and decisions

in terms of their moral implications.

Morality and Culture

Deeply intertwined, as cultural beliefs, norms, values, and practices shape individuals' moral judgments,
attitudes, and behaviors.

Moral- It is a complex and multifaceted concept that encompasses principles of right and wrong
behavior.

Kohlberg’s Theory of Morality

Three general stages of development of moral reasoning skills:

• Preconventional Theory
- involves compliance with rules to avoid punishment and gain rewards.

• Conventional Theory
- involves conformity to rules that are defined by others approval or society’s rules.

• Post-Conventional Theory
- involves moral reasoning on the basis of individual principles and conscience.

Three Ethics Approach to Moral Reasoning

• The ethic of Community

-in contrast, emphasizes interpersonal relationships and community.

• The ethic of divinity

-emphasizes the centrality of religious beliefs and spirituality in moral reasoning.

• The ethic of Autonomy

-emphasizes individual rights and justice, in line with the type of moral reasoning highlighted in
Kohlberg’s theory.
 Chapter 5: Culture and Cognition

Culture, Attention, Sensation and Perception

Culture is generally viewed as a set of mental representations about the world.

Hofstede (1980), in fact, called culture “mental programming.” He likened culture to computer
software; just as different software exists to do different things even with the same computer
equipment, different cultural “programs” exist that enable individuals to engage in different behaviors,
even given the same hardware.

Sensation refers to the feelings that result from excitation of the sensory receptors (touch, taste, smell,
sight, hearing).

Perception refers to our initial interpretations of the sensations. Regardless of culture, our perceptions
of the world do not necessarily match the physical realities of the world, or of our senses.

For instance, all humans have a blind spot in each eye—a spot with no sensory receptors, where the
optic nerve goes through the layer of receptor cells on its way back toward the brain.

With the help of micro eye movements called micro saccades, our brains fill it in so it looks as if we see
everything. It is only when something comes at us out of this spot that we get some idea that something
is wrong with our vision in this particular location.

Optical Illusions are perceptions that involve an apparent discrepancy between how an object looks and
what it actually is. They are often based on inappropriate assumptions about the stimulus characteristics
of the object being perceived.

Several important theories have been developed to explain why optical illusions occur:

• Carpentered world theory suggests that people (at least most Americans) are used to seeing
things that are rectangular in shape and unconsciously come to expect things to have squared
corners. If we see a house from an angle and the light reflected off it does not form a right angle
on the eye, we still perceive it as a house with square corners.
 • The front-horizontal foreshortening theory suggests that we interpret vertical lines as horizontal
lines extending into the distance. In the horizontal-vertical illusion, we interpret the vertical line
as extending away from us, and we know that a line of set length that is farther away from us
must be longer.

• The symbolizing three dimensions in two theory suggests that people in Western cultures focus
more on representations on paper than do people in other cultures—and in particular, spend
more time learning to interpret pictures.

Attention refers to the focusing of our limited capacities of consciousness on a particular set of stimuli,
more of whose features are noted and processed in more depth than is true of non-focal stimuli.

Culture and thinking

People categorize on the basis of similarities and attach labels (words) to groups of objects perceived to
have something in common. In so doing, people create categories of objects that share certain
characteristics.

One of the best-known aspects of memory is the serial position effect. This effect suggests that we
remember things better if they are either the first (primacy effect) or last (recency effect) item in a list of
things to remember.

Another aspect of memory that studies have found to be universal is in the effect known as hindsight
bias, which refers to the process in which individuals adjust their memory for something after they find
out the true outcome.

Culture and Math Abilities

Asian countries continued to have the highest percentages of students reaching the advanced
International Benchmark, representing fluency on items involving the most complex topics and
reasoning skills.
 Culture and Problem Solving

Problem solving refers to the process by which we attempt to discover ways of achieving goals that do
not seem readily attainable. Psychologists have tried to isolate the process of problem solving by asking
people from different cultures to solve unfamiliar problems in artificial settings.

Culture and Creativity

Creativity is an interesting area of study because it highlights a universal and unique human process.

Creativity is what enables humans and only humans to create art and symphonies, explore space and
the sea, and design machines to improve life.

Unfortunately, creativity also is what enables humans and only humans to create and improve on
weapons of mass destruction and other terrible deeds. Creative individuals have been shown to have a
high capacity for hard work, a willingness to take risks, and a high tolerance for ambiguity and disorder
(Sternberg & Lubart,1995, 1999). These same characteristics

Culture & Dialectical Thinking

Dialectical thinking can be broadly defined as the tendency to accept what seem to be contradictions in
thought or beliefs. This is in contrast to positive logical determinism that characterizes much of American
and Western European thinking.

Dialectical thinking tries to find the way in which both sides of an apparent contradiction are correct,
tolerates the contradiction, and tries to find mutual middle ground. Logical deterministic thinking tends
to see contradictions as mutually exclusive categories, as either-or, yes-no, one-or-the-other types of
categories.

Culture, Regrets and Counterfactual Thinking

Counterfactual thinking can be defined as hypothetical beliefs about the past that could have occurred
in order to avoid or change a negative outcome. For example, if you got a bad grade on a test, an
example of counterfactual thinking would be “If I had only studied harder.” These types of counterfactual
thoughts often are related to feelings of regret (Gilovich, Medvec, & Kahneman, 1998).

Culture and Dreams

There are considerable cultural differences in the manifest content of dreams. Punamaeki and Joustie
(1998), for example, examined how culture, violence, and personal factors affected dream content
among Palestinian children living in a violent environment (Gaza), Palestinian children living in a peaceful
area, and Finnish children living in a peaceful area. Participants recorded the dreams they recalled every
morning for seven days, and researchers coded their manifest contents. The results indicated that the
dreams of the Palestinian children from Gaza incorporated more external scenes of anxiety, whereas the
Finnish children’s dreams had more “inner” anxiety scenes. Of course, themes present in these children’s
everyday lives affected the dreams considerably as well.

Culture and Time

People of different cultures experience time differently, even though time should be objectively the
same for everyone. Differences in time orientation and perspective are often a source of confusion and
irritation for visitors to a new culture. Many visitors from cultures in which time is respected and
punctuality is cherished have difficulty adjusting to U.S. public transportation systems, which may not
always be on time as scheduled. Visitors from other cultures, however, in which time is not so much of
the essence and queuing is commonplace, seem less affected by such deviations from schedule, viewing
them as trivial and to be expected.

Culture and Intelligence

One of the positive outcomes from so much research on the relationship between culture and
intelligence is an expanded view of what intelligence may be and how it may be conceptually related to
culture.