Chapter 7

Psychology of Myths and

Customs
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Learning Objective
At the end of this chapter, students are able to:

1. Describe the concept of indigenous psychology

2. Explain the interaction with western psychology

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1.1 Indigenous psychology
 Definition
 Kim & Berry (1993) defined as “the scientific study of human behavior or
mind that is native, not transported from other regions, and designed for its
people”
 Enriquez (1990) defined IP as a system of psychological thought & practice
“rooted in a particular cultural tradition”, “that is native,” “that matches the
sociocultural realties of one’s own society,”

 Culture as Patterns (Triandis, 1980)

 A pattern of beliefs, attitudes, self-definitions, norms and values that are
organized around some theme that can be identified in a society.
 a.k.a : Cultural Syndromes

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1.2 Elements of Subjective Culture

Knowledge-
Norm-Related
Related
Constructs
Constructs

Self and Social

Values
Relationships
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a) Knowledge-Related Constructs
 Schema
 An organized body of information including categories and their
associations, stored in memory.
 Schemata provide structure that help with perceiving, organizing and
remembering information, allowing for efficient processing of social
information.
 Example: National Car – Proton & Perodua

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b) Norm-Related Constructs
 Norms
 Implicit or explicit generalized expectations regarding what is appropriate behaviour for
members of a group

 Kinds of Norms
 Folkways, sometimes known as “conventions” or “customs,” are standards of behavior that
are socially approved but not morally significant. For example, belching loudly after eating
dinner at someone else's home breaks an American folkway. 
 Mores are norms of morality. Breaking mores, like attending church in the nude, will offend
most people of a culture.
 Certain behaviors are considered taboo, meaning a culture absolutely forbids them, like
incest in U.S. culture.
 Laws are a formal body of rules enacted by the state and backed by the power of the state.
Virtually all taboos, like child abuse, are enacted into law, although not all mores are. For
example, wearing a bikini to church may be offensive, but it is not against the law.

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c) Self and Social Relationships
 Fiske (1990, 1992)
 Communal Sharing
 Share resources according to need
 Authority Ranking
 Distribute resources according to rank
 Equality Matching
 Share resources equally
 Market Pricing
 Distribute resources equitably (the more you give, the more you get)

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d) Values
 Values are principles that guide our lives. They are designed to lead us to our ideal world
(Schwartz, 1992)
 Value Dimensions (Hofstede, 1980)
 Power Distance
 the tendency to see a large social distance between those in the upper part of a social
structure and those in the lower part of the social structure.
 Uncertainty Avoidance
 Avoidance of situations where the outcome is uncertain
 Masculinity-Femininity
 Emphasize differences between men and women
 Focus on “achievement” and “success” vs. “interpersonal harmony” or “caring for others
and quality of life”
 Individualism-Collectivism
 Tendency to give priority to personal goals even when they conflict with the goals of
important groups.

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2.1 Interactions with western psychology
 Why study cross cultural differences?
 Differences between western and non western cultures can profoundly
effect relationships
 Hui & Tiandis’s individualistic and collectivistic dichotomy as well as Hsu’s
(1983) distinction between ‘continuous’ and ‘discontinuous’ societies
illustrate some of these differences and their effects.

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a) Western cultures
 Individualistic
 emphasising goals, rights attitude and needs.
 a focus on first acquaintances, close friendships and intimate partnership
between two individuals.
 An emphasis on voluntary choice due to:
 High mobility
 Easy long distance relationships
 Greater availability of relationships
 Rules in relationships may be less important, since if they are broken the
relationships can be left and other found.

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b) Non-Western Cultures.
 Collectivistic
 Emphasising the group, it decisions and attitudes needs and one’s duties
towards it.
 More emphasis on long term kinship and social group relationships, (more
than two)
 A lack of voluntary choices in relationships is due to :
 More stationary lifestyles, with less long distance communication, leading to
less availibity.
 Obligations to family and social norms. Marriages arranged to take into
account the wishes of others.
 There is a tendency for relationship interactions to be more governed by
group need or equality based resource sharing and obligatory reciprocity.
 Rules are adhered to because of the need to maintain long term commitment.
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In short................

WESTERN CULTURE NON WESTERN CULTURE

Individualistic Collectivistic
Discontinuous Continuous
Voluntary Involuntary
Impermanent Permanent.

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Thank you

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