What is Cultural Psych

Benjamin Cheung

Langara College September 29, 2009

Definition of Culture?

• Mutual constitution, influence, and interpenetration of people and world (Shweder, 1991)

• We act on the world as the world acts on us

• Intrinsic factors vs. Extrinsic influences – the “noise” the others are missingRichard Shweder

Godfather

We, with intentions, manipulate and affect the world:

Is this a uni-directional influence?

We act/change, adapt to the world as it influences us:

Very dynamic People World mutual influence

Culture = horrible and useless label

Cultures are (broadly):

Systems with information being shared

Systems where people are influenced by the information being shared

Given this definition, what are some cultures you can think of?

What actions do we perform that are not bound by culture?

Heavily dependent on how “culture” is defined

“Unpacking” culture (we’ll return to this in Lecture 2)

About “Difference in Concepts,” not necessarily “Difference in Geographical Groups”

Admittedly, who makes the most noise? What appeals to people the most?

Broad definition of culture diverse areas of study,

Evolutionary Psychology

Religious Psychology

Cross-cultural Psychology

**N.B. Branches of cultural psychology not always easily divisible, and are not necessarily mutually exclusive

Origin of Cultural Practise

Current Changes in Cultural

Practise

Current Cultural Norm

Evolutionary rationale for given cultural practises

Socioculturalchanges leading to changes in practises

Visible and testable manifestations of “culture”

Cultural Studies (incl. Cultural Psychology)

Macro-level

Evolutionary origins of cultural practises

Examining changes over time

Comparing current norms

Micro-levelStudying units of

cultural transmission (memes)

Humans possess psychological mechanisms that defend against pathogens (like many other animals)

Social behaviours that serve anti-pathogen defence function more likely to shape cultural populations

Occurs amidst perception of vulnerability to disease

What role might collectivism/individualism play?

Negative correlation of pathogen prevalence with individualism

Farther away from average, cultures more disparate

Response to H1N1 – East vs. West

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Early communities were relatively small

Cooperation and prosociality relied on reputation, mutual familiarity, no anonymity within community

Larger communities necessitate more than reputation

Moreover, supernatural moral authority in religions provide framework for larger communities to cooperate

Effect of “moral authority” on our minds

Common religious identity could help social cohesion, social identity, and mutual trust

Can you think of large societies supported by lack of religious moral authority/authorities?

Cultural psychology ≠ field of usurpers

Contributions made to: Developmental Psychology; Personality Psychology; Social Psychology

Successfully shaken foundations of other psychology branches

Considered fundamental for ALL people in 1960’s

American participants: more dispositional attributions than situational attributions

Is this a universal finding? (Hint: This is a cultural psychology class)

American adults make more dispositional attributions than Indian adults

American adults make less situational attributions than Indian adults

But..but…this is FUNDAMENTAL!

Implications for much of psychology research?

Weird has two meanings: Exceptional

WEIRD people are those from:

Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic societies

What happens when <15% of world’s population is basis of theories about 100% of the world?

Not just N. Americans, but N. American university students dominate subject pool

Which line is longer?

(a) (b)

How much longer does line b have to be until a = b?

How representative is American data?

Cultural psychology as relatively new field (Shweder’spaper written in 1991)

Cultural STUDIES have existed, but not as an independently recognised field

Measurements and methodologies still crude

What difficulties do you think cultural psychology has in studying cultural differences?