Psych 355 exam 2
How has Protestantism influenced achievement motivation? (You may want to review Weber's thesis on this topic, described on pgs. 254-258, but more importantly, focus in on the research that tests Weber's ideas, pgs. 259-262).
Key point, Protestant anxiety about salvation was the driving force behind their work ethic, and that this was coupled with a Protestant worldview that maintained that people were inherently wicked and depraved. Any encounters with thoughts that one was behaving in a way that was less than holy should thus motivate Protestants to work even harder at their calling, in an effort to convince themselves that they are still among the elect, despite their occasional failing.
What is the evidence for cultural variation in physiological reactions (Hint: the rude experimenter)? -
This would be the fact that people in other cultures make the same facial expressions when they are happy, sad, laugh, etc. The physiological displays of emotion are the same throughout cultures. Reactions are different.
How does culture influence choice: The Oettingen studies examining choice in East and West Germany before and after unification?
"If I want to do well in school, I can" If one has feeling of primary control and efficacy, one should endorse this item. West Berlin endorse this item significantly more than East German. So West German children felt that they had more control (At least in school work) than East children. Decreased feeling of control might be associated with some psychological cost, like learned helplessness. (pg. 275)
What is the free-choice paradigm?
A paradigm that see's the reactions that we make after making a free choice, comparing dissonance reduction tendencies between cultures.
How does culture influence choice: The Rozin et al (2006) study on culture and the effects of too much choice?
Americans wanted a choice of 50 ice cream flavors, Europeans wanted 10. For American's too much choice is aversive. Though they want more choices, they make better choices when they have fewer choices. In collectivistic cultures, they tend to identify with group goals more than do people in individualistic cultures, they should be more content with exchanging some individual control for control by valued others.
What are the six basic emotions?
Anger, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise, and disgust
Know the characteristics of and distinctions between analytic and holistic thinking.
Anlaytic thinking characteristis are: We focus on focal objects - Existing separately from their contexts, and Comprised of components parts, attributes. In addition, we understand via use of systematic, logical rules, universal properties, having an emphasis on models, rules, principles for prediction. Holistic thinking characteristic are: Focused on contexts-Association between objects, objects and context, Objects understood by relationship to context- Understand via experience with associations.
What are appraisals? What kinds of appraisals are universal? Culturally influenced? Would you be able to identify examples of appraisals that are likely to be universal vs. culturally influenced?
Appraisal: evaluation of what the situation/event means. The universal appraisals are Facial expressions. emotional expressions would be culturally influenced.
What are some possible origins of these thinking styles?
Arising from the different social experiences people have within individualistic and collectivistic societies
How does the free-choice paradigm assess reactions to cognitive dissonance?
Asses dissonance by comparing dissonance reduction tendencies between cultures like Japanese and Canadians. It looks at if people rationalized their decisions. The paradigm demonstrates how people engage in post-decision dissonance reduction (rationalization). The bigger the change in preferences, the more people are rationalizing their decisions. The less people rationalized, the less motivation they had to ensure consistency. The more rationalization the more people were motivated to ensure consistency. • Dissonance reduction = Spread of alternatives, rationalizing. - But consider the type of choice that is being made
Why do people from different cultures differ in their need to be consistent? (HINT: Pay attention to thesis sentences when reading!)
Because of the marked effects on their behavior. Not all humans behaviors are rational or necessarily function within their cultures. In the US there are rewards for being consistent, in Korea there are few benefits for being consistent (pg. 222).
Why does the experience of objective self-awareness tend to be aversive (at least in the U.S.)?
Because we tend to see ourselves in ways that we would like to see ourselves, whereas we see others in a more detached objective way. And if we view ourselves as the object, we will be more critical when adopting this perspective of an audience, because we take on the role of the judge. This criticalness comes from always being able to conjure up standards to compare ourselves with that are higher than our current levels of performance.
4) What is cognitive dissonance? How does it relate to self-consistency?
Cognitive dissonance is the distressing feeling we have when we observe ourselves acting consistently. This relates to self-consistency because we as people hold most importance to viewing ourselves as consistent. We have a powerful motivation to be consistent.
How does culture influence choice: The Snibbe & Markus (2005) study on social class and satisfaction with one's choices?
Comparing working-class and upper-middle-class Americans. Questionnaire which they offered a pen as compensation. Free choice, you can choose any pen you wanted, usurped choice, you were allowed to choice the pen, but the experimenter told you afterwards, you can't have that pen, and to take a different one. Working class happy with the pen they received in the usurped choice, upper-middle-class weren't as satisfied with their choice being taken away. Upper-middle-class Americans are said to be raised to favor choice and to express themselves through their choices. Working-class is taught growing up that life is beyond your control, and that a good way to maintain independence is to emphasize integrity and resilience during tough times.
The effects of equality on subjective well-being?
Countries that promote human rights the most tend to have the happiest citizens. People feel better when their not under the constant threat of being throw in jail for suspicions of plotting against the government.
The effects of human rights on subjective well-being?
Countries that promote human rights the most tend to have the happiest citizens. People feel better when their not under the constant threat of being throw in jail for suspicions of plotting against the government.
How does culture affect people's self-awareness?
Culture affects our self-awareness because of it being independent or a collectivistic culture. If an individual has more of an interdependent view of self, they would be more likely to consider themselves from the point of view of an audience. Focusing more on their belongingness and connection to others as opposed to independent views of self. If we are the objective, we will focus on what people think of us, and our views will be guided by the impressions of others.
situational attributions?
East Asians whom are more holistic thinkers would observe the situations from the aspect of the outside characteristics such as the situation he's in, like maybe he purchased a defective item and the store's clerk will not exchange it. This would be situational attribution, which is explaining someone's behavior in terms of contextual variables.
What is the evidence for the universality of facial expressions?
Ekman did a study which used a culture that had the least possible exposure to Western ways, choosing the Fore of the inner highlights of New Guinea. The Fore participants tended to make the same facial expression similar to the ones that you and I make, even though they had no contact with our cultures, are extremely remote.
How do entity and incremental theories of self differ?
Entity theory is a theory that embraces the aspect of the self is largely resistant to change. People who endorse this set of beliefs tend to view their abilities and traits as fixed, innate feature of the self. Abilities are largely inborn. Incremental theory of self is the belief that we can easily change, and are expected to change. This theory of self represents the belief that a person's abilities and traits are malleable and can be improved. Our attribute that we possess are not constant but do reflect how hard we worked to get them. Example: if we believe we are intelligent, we believe it is due to us studying hard.
Review the material on the William & Best (1990) study as well as Boserup's (1970) theory and related research (Alesina et al., 2011) about agricultural innovation and gender equality.
Ester Boserup (1970) proposed that a seemingly simple cultural innovation in agriculture had far-reaching implications for gender norms. He states that there are two key ways that agricultural cultivation is conducted. One is term "shifting cultivation, " which, among other things, is characterized by the earth being dug up with a tool similar to a contemporary hoe. The other major cultivation method is "plough cultivation," in which a large animal is used to pull the plow to turn over the soil. (Pg 213)
What level of universality characterizes self-enhancement/self-improvement? (NOTE: the answer is the same for both motivations)
Existential universal. Which means it exist in multiple cultures, although the tool is not necessarily used to solve the same problem, nor is it equally accessible across cultures (pg. 19).
Know the characteristics of and distinctions between field independence and field dependence. How do these relate to analytic and holistic thinking?
Field independent would be - Analytical thinkers tend to show focus on object, independent of the field when we're focused on our environment. Field dependence would be, Holistic thinkers tend to show focus on context, dependent of the field to understand the objects, and focal point, Example would be the fish story.
Dispositional attributions?
For example you see your friend arguing at a shop's store clerk, angrily; use westerners whom are analytic thinkers would analyze and interpret this as his internal characters like his short temper, and difficult personality. This would be dipositional attribution, which is explaining someone's behavior in terms of their underlying dispositions.
Could you identify examples of these concepts within a "story problem"?
For field dependence, Japanese people made more (60%) references to the background objects than Americans (field independence/analytic thinkers). When they saw the fish with its original background, the Japs were more likely to recognize the fish than Americans. However, when the fish was shown with a novel background (Different), Americans were more likely to recognize the fish than the Japs. This means that Americans tended to perceive the fish separately from the background—they were not influenced by whether the fish was present with the original background or novel background. But, Japs seem to have seen the fish and background as bound together, so when the background changed, the fish no longer looked quite the same.
High-context culture?
High context culture is a culture where people are deeply involved with each other, and this involvement leads them to have much shared information that guides behavior. Clear rules of how to behave appropriately in each situation, and this information is widely shared, understood, and communicated, so it does not need to be fully-revealed in communication, it can be inferred. They use nonverbal cues, and focus on the external.
What is the evidence for cultural variability in facial expressions? (NOTE: These are integrative questions, and draw on a lot of different research findings from class and the textbook!)
In general, although overall facial expressions of emotions are universally recognized at better than chance, people are especially adept at recognizing those expressions made by people from their own culture. Cultures are also different in how they interpret facial expression stems from the part of the face to which they are attending.
How do these self-construals differ across cultures? How do these differ across situations?
Independent experiences are stable and do not change much from situation to situation. They can move between the ingroup and outgroup, they still feel closer to the ingroup than outgroup members; however, they do not view them in fundamentally distinct ways. Interdependent construals are fluid in different situations, meaning depending on the situation, and the role the person occupies in that situation—the experience of self—will vary accordingly. People don't closely become ingroup members, not do close relationships easily dissipate into outgroup relations.
Know the characteristics of independent and interdependent self-construals
Independent self-construals deal with person's attitudes, personality traits, preferences, opinions, abilities, and individual qualities. Interdependent are focused on how they are connected with others.
If you knew that a culture tended to be individualistic (or collectivistic), would you be able to identify the types of self-descriptions members of that culture might use on the Twenty-Statements Test (TST; Kuhn & McPartland, 1954)?
Individualistic cultures may have more deeper and more penetrating influences of our culture on our self descriptions, which are harder to detect. These cultures focus more on people who focus on their enduring inner attributes, such as personality traits, attitudes, or abilities as a means to understand themselves. If you are more collectivistic, you are more likely to have a rather superficial identity, having self-descriptions that might include some culturally shaped statements. These only reveal a superficial influence of culture, because the culture is merely providing the content about the ways we think of ourselves.
What is predestination?
It is the idea that before we were born, it had already been determined whether we were on of the fortunate "elect" who would spend eternity in blessed heaven after our passing, or were one of the wretched many who were doomed to burn in hell forever.
What are emotions according to the two-factor theory of emotion? What is the take-home message of the Schachter & Singer (1962) study?
It proposed that our emotions are primarily interpretations of those bodily responses. The take-home study's message was that people look to cues from their environment to help them label their physical sensations.
Low-context culture?
Low-context culture is a culture where there is relatively less involvement among individuals, and there is less shared information to guide behavior, hence individualism and individualistic cultures. Because of the less shared info, it's necessary for people to communicate in full detail. They focus on the language.
How does culture influence choice: The Iyengar & Lepper (1999) study on cultural influence on children's choice.?
Making individual choices seem to be especially valued in individualistic cultures.
Monochronic time?
Monochronic - we view time as quite linear. We view time as discrete, time is a very limited resource. - Time is linear...and discrete - Preference for sequenced activities/events (we prefer these type of events) - The schedule is more important than the event. We want to focus on the schedule we've set, than other events. We focus on the schedule than the event itself. We have it to save time. - Attention focused on "when" things will be achieved. - Time being looked at as based on the person and their character
What is self-enhancement?
Motivation to view one's self positively.
What is naïve dialecticism? What type of thinking style (analytic or holistic) encourages naïve dialecticism? How does this play out in people's understanding of their own personality (look to your class notes for assistance)?
Naïve dialecticism is the acceptance of contradiction. Holistic thinkers tend to encourage naïve dialecticism because they perceive everything as fundamentally connected, they look at everything as a whole, not field independence.
How does culture influence how people react to cognitive dissonance?
No dissonance if there is no compensatory change in ranking. North American are more likely to engage in post-decision reduction. Japanese however, show no tendency to rationalize their decisions. They were not motivated to be consistent. Japanese rationalize when they make decisions for others, with suggest a motivation to have their behaviors be consistent with other expectations. Americans rationalize after we make our decisions because that is when the potential inconsistencies emerge. Americans are affected by information about their past performance, and Poles are affect by information about what their classmates had done.
What are some alternative explanations for the finding of East Asians self-enhancing less than North Americans? (see pgs. 247-249)
One alternative explanation for this is that East Asians really are just as motivate as Westerners to evaluate themselves positively; however, various Western biases in our research methodologies prevent us from seeing those motivations. Another possibility is that East Asians value a different set of traits from those that have been explored in research thus far, and if they were asked to evaluate themselves on especially important traits, the cultural differences would be reduced.
3) How do cultures influence people's views of gender equality?
One variable is the percentage of people in the country who embraced a particular religion. Geographical location is also another factor. For example, the more urbanized a country is, the more likely people were to have egalitarian views. Lastly, the country's individualism score relates to their views of gender equality. Cultural history also is taken into a account because cultural norms can often persist for long periods because new cultural developments must be fit in with the older norms. Gender norms have persisted across some cultures for centuries.
How does culture influence people's daily emotional lives? (See pgs. 427-428, with particular emphasis on the research on interpersonally engaged and disengaged emotions.)
Our type of cultures effect our daily emotional lives. Being in a more individualistic/independent culture, focus more intently on how events impact themselves, or how events might serve to distinguish themselves from others. Interdependent/collectivistic cultures on the other hand, are more concerned with maintaining a sense of interpersonal harmony and thus should be aware of how events in the world impact others close to them as well as themselves.
Polychronic time?
Polychronic time - Time is continuous...and flexible. We may not be focused on specific events, we have as much time as we want because time is there. - Comfort with shifting attention between events happening simultaneously - Multitasking - The event (and people) is more important than the schedule. The interaction with the people there. - Attention focused on "what" will be achieved. What are we getting out of certain activities - More collectivistic in those cultures. - Time being based on the events than the person - In the U.S. Hawaii and New Orleans are Poly
Cultural influences daily lives in relates to research on interpersonally engaged and disengaged emotions.)
Relating to engaged and disengaged emotions, Japanese feel especially good when they're focusing on how their emotional experiences lead them to connect with others, whereas Americans feel especially good when they're dwelling on those emotional experiences that distinguish them from others.
Know the self-enhancement strategies discussed in the book and in class.
Self-enhancement strategies: self-serving bias-human tendency to attribute one's successes to personal characteristics, and one's failures to factors beyond one's control, downward social comparison-when people compare themselves to those who are less proficient than they are., compensatory self-enhancement (aka self-affirmation), bask in reflected glory- individual associates themselves with known successful others such that the winner's success becomes the individual's own accomplishment. .
What is self-improvement? How does it relate to the concept of "face"? How does it relate to prevention and promotion orientations toward losses and gains?
Self-improvement is a motivation in which you desire to seek out potential weaknesses and work on correcting them. This is a prevention focus and it is used to prevent yourself from losing face since it's more easy to lose than it is to gain.
What was the study of free-choice paradigm that was conducted?
Study (Heine & Lehman, 1997b) - Given list of top 10 albums, rank order - Choose between 5th and 6th ranked albums - 10 minute interval (complete questionnaires) - Given the actual albums to view (i.e., more detail) rate desirability of each and rank order - Results? • Rank/rate chosen album more highly 2nd time;
What is the difference between subjective and objective self-awareness?
Subjective self-awareness is when we consider ourselves from the perspective of the subject—that is, the "I" that observes and interacts with the world. Our concerns are with the world outside of ourselves, and we are largely unaware of ourselves. Attention is directed away from ourselves from the inside out. We evaluate ourselves in the inside-out perspective, in which we evaluate based on our own subjective standards. Objective self-awareness is when we consider ourselves from the perspective of an object, the same way that we perceive the rest of the world. That is, the self can be experience as the "me" that is observed and interacted by others. In this state, we are directed specifically at ourselves from the outside in. We are conscious of how we are being seen and evaluated by others.
What are emotions according to the James-Lange theory?
The James-Lange theory maintains that our bodies response to stimuli in the world by preparing us to react in a survival-facilitating way (such as running away from the fear), and our emotions are our bodily changes that signal how we should behave.
Know the take-home message of the "fish study" by Masuda & Nisbett (2001, see pg. 293-295), and the Masuda, Ellsworth et al (2007) study (see pg. 295-295), both of which examine attentional differences across cultures.
The Japanese were more likely to recognize the fish than were the Americans when its original background. In a different background the Americans were more likely to recognize the fish than were the Japanese. Indicating Americans tended to perceive the fish separately from the background, regardless. Japanese saw the background scenery and the fish as bound together.
What factors predict life satisfaction differently across cultures?
The types of cultures the people are in, individualistic (independent) or collectivistic (interdependent) relating to doing what he or she should do. As well as, the theory the embrace regarding how happy they think they should feel and be doing
How do these lay theories (Entity and Incremental) differ across cultures?
These lay across culture because North Americans are less likely to show an incremental view than people from Asian cultures. This makes sense when we think about the cultural difference on consistency of the self. For example, Americans said being intelligent is inborn, but Japanese say its in the hard work they put into studying that's the key to successes. SAT in America originally was designed to measure innate aptitudes and not efforts in one's classes.
What is the fundamental attribution error? How does culture influence this bias?
This is the tendency to ignore situational information while focusing on dispositional information (it's the person's fault than the external factors). Because some cultures like westerners tend to use this information more for understanding others (and themselves), and East Asians may generalize to many other non-Western cultural contexts.
What did we learn about cultural influences on and health consequences of a nation's "pace of life" (Levine & Norenzayan, 1999)? (NOTE: this content is exclusively from class)
We learned as it relates to health and consequences that the more faster paced we live (more industrialized nations) the more stress, more health problems (Coronary hearth disease).
How does culture influence motivations for harmony and distinctiveness?
Well choices we make, though we think are unique, are quite similar to that of choices made by our closest friends. In reality, we're really making choices that allow us to fit in to consensually agreed upon norms for how good, interesting, and responsible people behave. We are often conforming, even when we're not aware of it. The motivation is standing up against a crowd can be ludicrous that people find it quite funny. There are cost like people laugh at you. So it's the social COST! People will laugh at you, often people would rather not associate with those that don't agree with others. Americans show a great deal of conformity according to Asch's paradigm. People from collectivistic cultures conform more though. The motivations to fit in are more powerful in cultural contexts that encourage people to maintain strong relationships with others. For distinctiveness, maintaining a view of oneself that is consistent with cultural values of independence, then should be aided by striving to view oneself as a unique and special individual.
How do these lay theories (Entity and Incremental) affect how people respond to difficulties?
Well for example, when a person who embraces an entity theory of intelligence encounters a failure, they are more likely to blame their static intellectual ability. When a person with more incremental theory in contrast, thru respond to failure by focusing on their efforts and strategies they utilized.
How does predestination relate to cultural influences on self-enhancement?
Well it leads people to make great efforts to interpret their situation in a favorable light. It is how self-enhancement grew. This idea makes your own self-concept become more and more focused on the lone individual, than in individualism. So achieving certain goals would be extremely difficult for some, if one did not view oneself positively. This reasoning suggest that cultures become more individualistic, rendering more people concerned be able to take care of themselves and to carve their own paths, there should be a corresponding motivation to view oneself positively.
How cultural distinctions of high-context and low-context cultures relate to the directness/indirectness of communication?
Well low-context culture is direct because it is focus on the direct information that is communicate in language. High-context culture focuses on shared (Already known) , implied/inferred, and nonverbal communication, which is not direct because it's not explicit.
Cultural differences of analytic and holistic thinking?
Western cultures being more analytic, and East Asians being more holistic. Like independent and interdependent self-concepts. Cultural difference being people with independent self-concepts come to understand people by focusing on their inner attributes and attending less to relationships. People with interdependent self-concepts, in contrast, tend to conceive people in terms of their relationships with others.
The effects of money on subjective well-being?
With wealth, people living in countries in which they have access to enough wealth to easily meet basic needs of life tend to be considerably more satisfied than those who do not. It can buy you a lot of happiness if you're struggling to survive, but doesn't do much if you're basic needs are already met. Countries that promote human rights the most tend to have the happiest citizens.
Do East Asians really self-enhance less than North Americans?
Yes, they have a strikingly lack of self-enhancement tendencies. When they experience failure, they are more likely to upward social comparison targets than downward ones. They make more external attributions to their successes. They even exaggerate a netgative self-view.