Psy 344 Armor Chs #1-5 Cultural Psychology (3rd Edition) Heine Reading Highlights Spring 2020 SDSU

molecular genetic technologies

assess how gene frequencies vary across populations and how particular genes are associated with particular ways of thinking across cultures

socially desirable responding

when survey respondents are motivated to be evaluated positively by others, and as a result, they might disguise their true feelings to appear more socially desirable

generalizability

when the findings of a study generalize to populations other than the samples that were studied

protection of the vulnerable (underlying value of Indian culture)

young children who are needy and vulnerable should not be left alone at night

respect for hierarchy (underlying value of Indian culture)

postpubescent boys are conferred social status by allowing them to not have to sleep with parents or young children

subjective well-being

the feeling of how satisfied one is with their life

accessibility

the likelihood of the person using the particular cognitive tool

cultural psychology (simplified)

the mind is shaped by content and context

general psychology (simplified)

the mind operates independently of content and context

pluralistic ignorance

the tendency for people to collectively misinterpret the thoughts that underlie other people's behaviors

independent variable

the variable that is manipulated

difficult developmental transitions

there are two major stages in life where children go through growing pains as they reach a new level of maturity: 1. the terrible twos 2. adolescence - individualistic cultures are heavily associated with more difficult developmental transitions, whereas collectivistic cultures tend to have much less stressful, antisocial, and even violent adolescent transtions

parenting styles

three major types: 1. authoritarian parenting 2. authoritative parenting 3. permissive parenting

American vs Chinese parenting

- Americans tend to socialize individualistic mindsets into their children and emphasize their successes to encourage future successes - Chinese parents tend to socialize collectivistic mindsets into their children and emphasize their failures to encourage future successes

we are products of our culture

"it would hardly be fish who discovered the existence of water" - we don't really come to understand our own culture until we see it contrasted with other cultures - we are socialized by our cultures into thinking that most of our ways of doing things are particularly good and moral ---> as such, culturally normative behavior comes to be seen as natural, and deviations from that path often tend to be viewed as less desirable or even immoral ---> this thinking can lead people to the error of ethnocentrism

color blind approach (also known as the "culture blind approach")

- "people are the same wherever you go" - usually said by people who have good intentions in that they don't want people do be judged by the content of their ethnic background but rather by the content of their character - the idea is to pretend like our ethnic differences do not exist so that people do not form an "us versus them" approach when it comes to ethnicity - proven by science to be the inferior approach *it creates an environment where people are blind to discrimination that has historically existed and still continues to exist

reference group effects (a challenge with using surveys when conducting cross-cultural survey research)

- *a tendency for people to evaluate themselves by comparing themselves with others from their own culture* ---> example: a person that 5'8 ---> when asked to rate themself on a scale of 1-7 for statement "I am tall", you would likely get different results from different countries ---> in Japan that person would likely mark themselves down as a 5 or 6 ---> in Canada that person would likely mark themselves down as a 2 or 3 ---> in the Netherlands (tallest people on the planet) that person would likely mark themselves down as a 1 *reference group effects are a problem because simple statements like "I am tall" can take on completely different meanings across cultures ---> this occurs because people in different cultures use different standards to answer the same questions - this occurs because we compare ourselves to others around us (example: a stupid person might see themselves as the most intelligent person in the world if all they are is surrounded by even stupider people --> like the movie Idiocracy)

deprivation effects (a challenge with using surveys when conducting cross-cultural survey research)

- *a tendency for people to value something more when it is lacking in their culture* *example: British people (that have a universal health-care service where everyone is covered free at the point of service) value health-care less than Americans (whom almost 100 million are uninsured or underinsured, and lack any kind of universal health-care service) - deprivation effects pose a serious challenge to the investigation of values between cultures (with each culture having different response biases and reference groups), therefore self-report surveys should only be used in determining values within cultures (that share the same response biases and reference groups)

Culture

- *any kind of information that is acquired from other members of one's species through social learning that is capable of affecting an individual's behaviors* ---> examples: beliefs, technologies, habits, practices - a particular group of individuals who are existing within some kind of shared context, are exposed to many similar cultural messages, and contain a broad range of individuals who are affected by those cultural messages in divergent ways *example: most Americans live under the same cultural institutions, engage in similar cultural practices, see the same advertisements, follow the same norms, and have conversations together on similar topics - Humans are a cultural species

Cultural Psychology

- *the field that studies cultures profound implications for our thoughts and behaviors* - people from different cultures also differ in their psychology ---> *psychological processes are shaped by experiences* * example: because people in different cultures have many different experiences, we find that there are differences in the many ways that they think ---> examples: cultures differ in what they find funny ---> USA loved Seinfeld, but Germany hated it; Adam Sandler is beloved in China

acquiescence bias

- *the tendency to agree with most statements on questionnaires, regardless of the content* - cultures differ in their tendency to agree with survey items *example: more holistic cultures (like East Asians) would be far more prone to agree with both of the following statements ---> "I am introverted." ---> "I am extroverted." ---> East Asian cultures tend to see everyone as interconnected and are more likely to find truth in everything, and therefore agree with it on surveys

natural selection shares parallels with cultural evolution

- *cultural evolution is basically natural selection but with ideas* ---> example: manners --> what is considered polite changes every century --> when a new idea of what is polite become popular enough, the old idea starts to die out --> the new idea then takes it's place and is now what is considered to be polite - some differences: i. natural selection copies genes (with few and rare mutations) that can not really be changed; whereas culture is almost never perfectly copied and always is being changed ii. natural selection passes genes vertically from parents to offspring with genetic variants changing slowly over time; whereas cultural evolution passes ideas horizontally from one person to anybody else almost instantly (like with the Internet) iii. natural selection is by nature adaptive (trying to increase chances of offspring survival); whereas cultural evolution isn't always so ---> examples: NAZIs starting WW2 which ended up killing millions, China's cultural revolution which ended up killing millions, Capitalisms many failings which continues to kill

evoked culture

- *culture evoked from the surrounding geography* - all people, regardless of where they come from, have certain biologically encoded behavioral repertoires that are potentially accessible to them ---> these repertories are engaged when the appropriate situational conditions are present *examples: all people get aggressive when their children are threatened; everyone prefers attractive mates (physical beauty, intelligence, kindness, sense of humor); both situations are important in ensuring the survival of the parents genes via their offspring * another example: the more parasite infections prevalent in the cultures geographical area, physical attractiveness is more important (because physically attractive people are very likely healthy and are likely not infected by parasites) ---> this is a universal characteristic to Humans (accessibility universal)

methodological equivalence

- *in cross-cultural research, the concern with making sure participants from different cultures understand the research questions or situations in equivalent ways* *creates successful research - can be a challenging endeavor ---> therefore, when conducting research, different procedures may have to be used in order to produce accurate and useable results

social transmission (also known as "cultural learning")

- *learned information/behaviors that are culturally transmitted from one generation to another* *examples: macaque monkeys off the coast of Japan taught each other how to clean sweet potatoes so that they taste better ---> this process started with one of the macaques named Imo eventually taught her children and many others how to cleanse sweet potatoes; chimps teaching each other how to use twigs as tools to eat more termites in Tanzania unlike Sengalese chimps who use bark to fish out termites - this definition of culture is seen not only in many primate species but also in dolphins and whales *example: bottlenose dolphins use marine sponges as foraging tools to prevent themselves from getting hurt by their environment and also to hide behind to hunt fish; and killer whales have been found speaking different dialects that change over time (like Human dialects do) - all sorts of different animals partake in social transmission *however, Humans are much more efficient in learning cultural information than other animals are

emulative learning (type of cultural learning)

- *learning is focused on the environmental events/objects that are involved* ---> how the use of one object could potentially affect changes in the state of the environment *example: you see someone use a rake bring some bananas to themselves ---> they are using the rake teeth straight down to scrape the banana over to them ---> you instead use the rake teeth straight up to efficiently carry the banana over to you - chimps only understand learning in this way *they tend to copy only the relevant actions while ignoring the irrelevant actions - better than imitative learning except it doesnt not allow cultural information to accumulate

imitative learning (type of cultural learning)

- *new behaviors are acquired via imitation* ---> the imitator internalizes the model's goals and behavioral strategies ---> what the model intends to accomplish *example: you see someone use a rake bring some bananas to themselves ---> they are using the rake teeth straight down to scrape the banana over to them ---> you imitate that in the same way to bring the banana over to you - Humans tend to learn this way, and will imitate irrelevant actions for no reason other than the model did it this way (like using the rake teeth down to scrape the banana over to them)

dynamic social impact theory

- *people tend to be more influenced by the ideas of those that with whom they regularly interact ---> leads to clusters of like-minded people who are separated by geography (leads to cultures)* - our behaviors have an influence on others because each of us is connected to those around us through a web of relationships *example: I plan on voting in the primary, me telling my friends that I'm voting increases the likelihood of them voting, and then telling their friends that they're voting and so on *another example: people living in dorms are participating in dorm culture, but several micro-cultures will form on each floor, and within certain parts of each floor as the people in the closest proximity to each other will influence each other more than those farther way from them

pluralistic ignorance is a force of cultural persistence

- *people will mislead others by making socially desirable behaviors/ statements that make people think better of us in order to maintain a positive impression* ---> example: society thought Prohibition of alcohol in the 1920's US was popular ---> people thought this because it was unpopular to say that alcohol should be legal for consumption, and so because nobody would ever hear someone advocate against Prohibition, everyone thought that Prohibition must be popular ---> once opinion polling was conducted showing Prohibition was actually unpopular, scientists realized that pluralistic ignorance is the real reason Prohibition had occurred - pluralistic ignorance is relevant to cultural persistence because people are influenced by what THEY BELIEVE other believe feel rather than what other people ACTUALLY feel ---> this creates an environment where people will partake in actions that uphold/support institutions that they do not actually believe in (like Prohibition)

Occam's Razor

- *simpler explanations are more likely to be true than complex ones* - any theory should make as few assumptions as possible - is the reason why researchers should use as many different research methods as possible when conducting any research *example: if a researcher conducts four research studies on a topic, each using a different method, and these results all converge with his predictions, the researcher's own account would be more compelling than an account that offered four separate alternative explanations for each of his individual studies

Humans vs Chimps encephalization quotient

- Human encephalization quotient doubles Chimps - Chimps have considerably more muscle mass (27% more muscle mass) -Chimps have 60% more digestion tract - Humans are able to have such large brains because through evolution we started to reroute energy and mass from muscles and digestive tract so that we could have larger brains *this increase in intelligence allowed us to begin cooking our food, resulting in less chewing time and greater energy extraction from food (Humans average one hour a day chewing food, chimps average six hours a day) ---> this made our digestion tract smaller, and our brains continued to get larger

prestige bias (type of cultural learning)

- Humans are especially concerned with detecting who has prestige -that is, they seek others who have skills and are respected by others- and try to imitate what these individuals are doing - viewed as an extremely efficient way of cultural learning *instead of picking random people to imitate, we tend to want to pick people we view as successes/ experts - trait developed via evolution

there is a SENSITIVE PERIOD for language acquisition in Humans

- Humans can understand up to 150 different phonemes *however, most languages only use 70 phonemes ---> so how do English speakers distinguish our language between the sounds/phonemes of other languages? ---> there is a critical period in young infants where they can actually discriminate among all phonemes that Humans produce, and as we are exposed to language we actually automatically begin to categorize sounds in ways that are used by the languages that we are hearing ---> this process begins VERY EARLY IN INFANT LIFE, and within the end of the first year of life this ability is lost - Humans are biologically prepared to attend to Human speech as soon as we come into the world - if the sensitive period is missed, grammar and syntax is almost impossible for even intelligent people to comprehend *unfortunate example: Genie was abused and found when she was 13 years old chained to her crib. She did develop is vast vocabulary, but could not form perfect sentences ---> example: "Think about Mama love Genie" ---> despite decades of exposure to English as her only language, Genie has not been able to attain the grammatical competence of a 4-year-old

absolute length task

- Westerners do better at "the absolute length task" whereas as non-Western cultures tend to do better at "the relative length task" - just know that this is evidence that "mind and culture cannot be disentangled" ---> the mind is shaped by experiences, and cultures differ in the kind of experiences they provide

existential universal

- a cognitive tool found in all cultures that DOES NOT SERVE THE SAME FUNCTION and is ACCESSIBLE to a different degree in different cultures. *example: motivation ---> Westerners and East Asians differ in the function of their motivation (Westerners find experiences with success to be motivating, and experiences with failure to be demotivating; in contrast to East Asians that are the opposite, most find experiences with success to be demotivating, and experiences with failure to be motivating), however both cultures experience equally motivation - the cognitive tool: *variation in function across cultures *NO variation in accessibility across cultures

co-sleeping

- a custom in which parents (or grandparents) and their children (usually infants) sleep together in the same room *can last into early primary school years - common amongst collectivist and non-European cultures

encephalization quotient

- a measure of brain size relative to body mass, ours is scaled at 4.6 ---> this means Human brains are 4-5 times larger than other mammals our body size - us Humans have the largest encephalization quotient of almost any mammal - our big brains allow us to have the high-fidelity cultural learning and sophisticated language skills that are unique to us Humans - this requires a lot of energy---> most of the energy we get from food (16% of it) goes to our Brains

incest avoidance (underlying value of all cultures)

- a moral principle that post-pubescent family members of the opposite sex should not sleep in the same room together - is a culturally universal moral (all Human cultures follow this norm) - incest destroys family relations and produces offspring with serious genetic defects

sensitive period

- a period of time in an organism's development that allows for the relatively easy acquisition of a particular set of skills - if an organism misses that chance to acquire those skills, it would have a difficult time doing so later, after the sensitive period has expired - some organisms specialize shortly after birth, such as gosling imprinting on the first caretakers they encounter and following them as if they were their mothers - other organisms, such as humans, can continue to specialize throughout their lives in some domains, as your ability to learn cultural psychology demonstrates

individualism

- a variety of practices, institutions, and customs that encourage individuals to place their own personal goals ahead of the collective and to consider how they are distinct from others *examples common in individualistic cultures include: tracking of children at school, college-age children being encouraged to move out of their parents' homes, workers being given unequal or meritocratic pay at the office, employees being given individual offices/cubicles, people choosing to put their elderly into retirement homes

cultural priming

- activation of cultural ideas within participants by making certain ideas more accessible to participants *example: American and Chinese participants are asked to think either how they are different from others (an independence prime) or how they were similar to their family and friends (an interdependence prime) ---> then participants were asked to describe themselves in an open-ended survey ---> results: when Chinese participants (a collectivist culture) encountered the independence prime, their self-descriptions became similar to how Americans would describe themselves; when Americans (an individualist culture) encountered the interdependence prime, their self-descriptions became similar to how the Chinese would describe themselves - when cultural ideas are activated that are more common in another culture, people start thinking in ways that are more similiar to the thinking of people from tat culture

cumulative cultural evolution (called "the ratchet effect")

- after an initial idea is learned from others, it can be modified and improved upon by other individuals ---> over time this information grows in complexity and utility *example: the evolution of cars over the last hundreds of years, over time they keep getting safer, they've gotten much faster, and more fuel-efficient - effective modes of social transmission are needed to create the ratchet effect *ours would be language - only Humans have effectively shown the ability for significant cumulative cultural evolution - is becoming more and more efficient in Humans as our population grows, and as globalization intensifies ---> the larger the group of people, and the more those people are in contact, the better cultural information can be maintained and improved upon - can also be reversed when a smaller part goes into isolation from the larger group *example: Tasmanians (living on Tasmania -an island off the coast of the Australia mainland) that crossed the Bass Strait land bridge before it closed thousands of years ago were found to have had worse technology then when colonized by the British in the 18th century

Muller-Lyer Illusion

- an illusion of line length that is distorted by inward-turning or outward-turning corners on the ends of the lines, causing lines of equal length to appear to be different - different cultures see the line length as different, examples: * noncarpenter/miner cultures tend to see left side as larger than right, falling for the illusion *carpenter/miner cultures tend to see both sides as equal in length, noticing that the right side is simply farther away than the left side

who performs better on Math tests? Americans or East Asians?

- answer = East Asians *why? their cultures value it more and teach it more in class with real-world examples, but also: 1. East Asians parents are almost twice as likely than American parents to give their kids a desk -----> this signifies to the children that education is important 2. this importance placed on education from a young age from East Asian parents socializes East Asian children to value education like their parents and society do 3. East Asian parents set higher standards on their children's test scores than American parents do ---> makes East Asian children work harder in academic settings 4. East Asian languages have far fewer range of vocabularies in math (example: one-ten, two-ten, three-ten versus American eleven, twelve, thirteen, et cetera) 5. East Asians adopted the metric system which is wayyyyyy simpler than American system

reference group effects can be avoided by

- avoiding subjective measures that might have different standards in groups being compared *example: a statement such as "I am helpful" can be interpreted quite differently depending on the culture's standards for what kinds of behaviors are perceived to be helpful. In contrast, a statement such as "If a friend of mine needed help with his studies, I would be willing to cancel my own plans to spend the evening helping him" is more concrete in describing the situation in terms of what kind of help is needed and what kinds of sacrifices are made ---> ultimately, THE MORE CONCRETE THE SCENARIO THE LESS LIKELY IT IS THAT PEOPLE FROM DIFFERENT CULTURES WOULD INTERPRET THE MEANING DIFFERENTLY *these survey questions can be too specific, make sure to include several items that indicate helping behaviors to produce the most accurate data - can also avoid by skipping surveys altogether and instead using: i. behavioral measures *example: watching how people react to certain events in real-time ii. physiological measure *recording the phsuological responses of people in real time ---> however, both strategies can be very expensive and time consuming

language acquisition

- best done during the sensitive period - early in life, after the sensitive period and before puberty our brains are still pretty liable for organizing themselves in response to language output - after puberty, however our brains are not as flexible ---> capacity to effectively learn new languages declines with age

proximal causes

- causes that have direct and IMMEDIATE relations with their effects *example: 168 Spaniards were able to conquer the vast Incan Empire fielding around 80,000 soldiers ---> what caused this> ---> the Spaniards had an experienced political organization that drew on the experiences of thousands of years of written history, advanced ocean-going ships, steel swords, steel armor, guns, and horses (which are very agile); all of which easily bested the Incan foot soldiers that used stone clubs, slingshots, and quilt armor while facing a deadly smallpox epidemic that would kill millions ---> these proximal advantages are what allowed 168 Spaniards to conquer the Incan empire

adolescence

- characterized as a chaotic period of "storm and stress" when teens act out against authority figures, commit acts of delinquency and criminal behavior, suffer from a great deal of emotional stress. and are at risk for substance abuse and suicide - is an existential universal concept - the more individualistic and modern (urban/cities) the society is, the more chaos adolescence is associated with ---> in less modern societies, people are more collectivistic and tend to do what their parents did (example: if your family has farmed for generations, you probably would as well) ---> but in more modern societies that are also individualist, people have more choices to decide how they'd like to spend their lives. This can be extremely stressful, and this causes all sorts of psychological problems for adolescents in Western cultures

the terrible twos

- characterized by terrible temper tantrums *is important because the terrible twos are seen to serve an important function in the young child's socialization to be a mature, verbally assertive individual - the more individualist the culture is, the worse the terrible twos are *in more interdependent cultures, such signs of noncompliance (like temper tantrums) are often replaced by efforts to fit in and belong

differences between infant-parent relationship between cultures

- collectivist cultures (Costa Rican, Gujarati, Cameroonian) held their babies far more than individualist cultures *the more attention given to babies by their mothers, the faster babies recognize that they exist as distinct entities from everything around them *infants sleep with their parents in the same space as their parents (the same bed or room) ---> called "co-sleeping" - individualist cultures (German, Greek) had face-to-face time far more than collectivist cultures *infants sleep in their own space (a different room from the parents)

collectivism

- contrasted to individualistic cultures - a variety of practices, institutions, and customs that encourage individuals to place relatively more emphasis on collective goals -specifically the goals of one's ingroups- *examples common in collectivistic cultures include: children sleeping with their parents, classes of school-children being promoted together to the next grade regardless of the performance of some individual children, marriages being arranged by parents, companies compensating their employees on the basis of how long they've been unemployed, and extended families living under the same house

the Sambia

- culture from Papua New Guinea - an ex warrior culture that sees the world as feminine - they attempt to "cleanse" their boys of their femininity so that they can grow into men *they do this by extremely painful rituals such as extremely invasive nose piercings and beating the boys in their tribe senseless with sticks ---> they believe this gives their boys a sense of power called "jerungdu" (or the "supreme essence of maleness") *the ultimate way to achieve jerungdu however, is to have all of the boys from the age of 7 until marriage (usually at 17) to give oral sex (fellatio) to men in order to absorb their semen and gain jerungdu - known for their "ritualized homosexuality" *the nearby tribes of the Etoro and the Kaluli partake in similar rituals (except the Kaluli receive semen not orally, but anally) ----> interestingly the Etoro and Kaluli view each other's rituals as abhorrent and disgusting, but their own as "normal" - compared to Western society: *Westerners view their sexuality as lifestyles (homosexuality, bisexuality, or heterosexuality) *Sambians view their male's sexuality as phases/stages of life (homosexuality before marriage, bisexuality until fatherhood, heterosexuality after fatherhood and until death) *cultural psychologists have concluded that sexual motives are biological, but sexual orientation is shaped by specific cultural beliefs and practices

cultural innovations build on previous structures

- cultures do not start from scratch, they are adapted upon from past cultures examples: *21st century US came from 20th century US, and 20th century US came from 19th century US, and so on *areas of Germany that had a history of Jewish pogroms 5 centuries earlier had more support for the NAZIs then areas that did not have a history of Jewish pogroms 5 centuries earlier

culture and mind make each other up

- cultures emerge from the interactions of the various minds of the people that live within them, and cultures then, in turn, shape the ways that those minds operate - because cultures often do differ in dramatic ways in terms of their practices, institutions, symbols, artifacts, beliefs, and values, the ways that people think, act, and feel should also vary in important ways - considering all of this, cultural psychologists thus expect to find significant differences in the psychological processes among people from various cultures

Russian cultural-historical school

- developed by developmental psychologists Lev Vygotsky, Alexander Luria, and Aleksei Leontiev in the Soviet Union - school of thought that argued people interact with their environments through human made ideas (or what they called "tools") that have been passed to them down across history ---> is called CULTURAL LEARNING *examples: cultural inventions like the wheel, agriculture, or democracy - according to this view, all of human thought is sustained and expressed through accumulated human-made ideas as they are practiced in day to day activities - HUGE BREAKTHROUGH in the field of cultural psychology

between-groups manipulation

- different groups of participants receive different levels of the independent variable - dependent variables are called "conditions" ---> there are multiple different conditions - requires random assignment (each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to a random condition) - any differences in the responses or behaviors of participants that are observed must be caused by the independent variable - example: let's imagine we're interested in exploring whether people are more persuaded by fast-talking salespeople or by slow-talking salespeople. In this case, each participant would be randomly assigned to listen to either a fast-talking salesperson or a slow-talking one, and we would measure their persuasion and compare these across conditions

what cultures should we study?

- do not pick random cultures to study ---> PICK CULTURES THAT CORRELATE WITH YOUR RESEARCH ONLY *example: when testing to see if theory of mind is accessibility universal, it is best to pick two different cultures (in this case Western culture and the hunter-gatherer Baku culture) and compare them ---> found that theory of mind is indeed accessibility universal in case anybody was wondering

within-groups manipulation

- each participant receives more than one level of the independent variable - no random assignment (because all participants receive more than once level of the independent variable) - each participant is assigned to all conditions - example: (taking from the same fast-talking/slow-talking salespeople example) ---> with within-groups manipulation we would have one group of participants hear the fast-talking salesperson before the slow-talking one ---> all participants are exposed to all conditions

education as a form of socialization

- education doesn't just teach us facts, it shapes how we think about the world - people lacking education tend to have troubles reasoning beyond the practical and into the abstract * example: consider this syllogism---> in the far north all bears are white Novaya Zemyla is in the far north what color are the bears in Novaya Zemyla ---. uneducated peasants from Uzbekistan would typically answer something like, "You should ask the people that have been there and seen them." - education leads to improved contextual memory, spatial memory, serial memory, visual analysis, and sequential analysis ---> TL;DR schooling leads children to process information in a more efficient manner

culture shapes the many norms that govern our behavior

- example: distance ---> within a culture there is usually and implicitly understood "appropriate" conversation distance that people unconsciously adopt. If someone starts off a conversation from either too great or too small a distance, people will usually adjust where they are standing until they have reestablished the appropriate distance. These appropriate distances vary across cultures ---> for example, in Venezuela the typical conversation distance is 32 inches, in the US it is 35 inches, in Japan it is 40 inches ---> compared with Americans, Venezuelans prefer closer conversational distance, and Japanese prefer wider conversational distances ---> why? ---> SOCIALIZATION ---> the people in these cultures (from their early experiences with their environments) lead Venezuelans to prefer closer interpersonal distances, Japanese to prefer greater interpersonal distances, and Americans to prefer intermediate interpersonal distances - ultimately, from this example, we can come to two conclusions: i. universal predispositions become shaped in culturally specific ways ii. people's experiences, particularly when they are infants and children, come to influence the ways they think

manners

- example: like taking your shoes off before walking into someone's house - they differ across cultures because people are socialized to different sets of norms and customs - they are subject to change over time *examples: spitting (how much and when), where to place your fork (left or right side), whether it is ok to blow your nose into a handkerchief/ tissue, et cetera ---> behaviors considered polite a few centuries ago would not necessarily be considered appropriate today ---> the changing of manners is indicative that CULTURAL NORMS CHANGE OVER TIME---> proof of cultural variation

culture can change brain anatomy

- example: veteran New York cab drivers have spent years learning the fastest ways to get to their destinations---> they have created detailed mental maps to help them in their endeavors *the result is the posterior (back) part of their Hippocampus in their brain has actually grown larger than your average person that isn't a veteran cab driver *this is direct evidence that brain anatomy changes in response to our experiences ---> and how culture itself can change brain anatomy

despite cultural fluidity, cultures have an enduring tendency to persist over time

- examples: *Swedish people score highest on subjective well-being tests ("are you happy" test) ---> Americans of Swedish descent are the highest scorers among Americans immigrants on subjective well-being tests ---> this is evidence that despite cultural fluidity, cultures have an enduring tendency to persist over time *both Americans and Japanese play baseball, however both cultures play it very differently ---> Americans will practice for a couple hours a day and will focus more on individual success; Japanese will practice for 7 hours a day, run 10 miles after practice, and sacrifice team players via far more sacrificial bunts ---> both cultures play baseball with the same rules, however both cultures apply their own flavors and values on how to play the game

early conditions have a disproportionate influence on cultural evolution

- examples: *New York city was founded as a Dutch trading company ---> and is now arguably the trading hub center of finance in the US *Utah was founded as the Mormon homeland, and to this day the Mormons control virtually all aspects of Utah government

how ecology affects cultural variation

- examples: Hawaiians have no large animals around them, and so they developed no significant hunting traditions; whereas the !Kung of the Kalahari settled in an area surrounded by large animals, and so hunting became an important part of their day to day lives *examples: harsher environments with scarce resources tend to make cultures value masculinity more than others ---> on the South Pacific island of Truk their major source of food is found on dangerous deep-sea diving missions with high casualty rates, the people on Truk have become a warlike culture because they believe they need to be tough to survive; whereas the people living on Tahiti do not have to work hard for their food at all, and as a result the men there have adopted more androgynous gender roles and there is virtually no warfare/ feuding on Tahiti amongst the natives - ecology can affect variation through: i. proximal causes ii. distal causes

contemporary legends

- fictional stories that are told in modern societies as though they are true - most likely to spread when they evoke a shared emotional reaction among people ---> the more emotion stories elicit, the more likely people are to pass them on ---> is evidence more emotional ideas are likely to spread through culture than unemotional ones

noun bias

- first words young children learn are nouns - the preponderance of nouns relative to verbs and other relational words in young children's vocabulary - exists only in North American English ---> East Asians tend to have a verb bias....why is this? ---> when parents speak to their young children, East Asians will stress toys as a part of a social routine with actions, and the relationships between objects (example: "Here comes Daddy truck. He's saying hello to brother truck. Daddy truck loves older brother truck"); whereas Americans will stress objects as discrete and separate in such a way that they are directed to attend to only the objects themselves (example: "Look at this truck. It's a big, strong truck. It's a yellow truck. It has black wheels.")

symbolic coding

- having a set of signals, icons, and words that refer to something else that most members of that culture recognize - only Humans have this, no other animals have this

authoritarian parenting

- high demands on children - strict rules - little open dialogue between parent and child *if child protests, low levels of warmth or responsiveness is provided by the parent - extremely common in non-European cultures (Asia, Middle East, Latin America, et cetera) - considered to be "training" and increases family cohesion and success in non-European cultures, but is viewed as a toxic form of parenting in Western cultures - children universally hate this parenting style

cultural worlds

- humans are a cultural species that exist within worlds consisting of cultural information that has accumulated over history *example: our society with our government, our market economy, the Internet, memes ---> all the things we are constantly learning and being influenced by

unpackaging cultural findings

- identifying the underlying variable(s) that give rise to the cultural difference *example: Japanese scored higher than Americans on measures of embarrassability---> Why? ---> the key to advancing our understanding would be to discover which cultural experiences are relevant ---> after doing tons of hypothesizing, a theory is brought up ---> Japanese people have a more interdependent mindset than Americans ---> studies are done showing that interdependent mindsets in both Japanese and American cultures are correlated with having more embarrassability ---> bingo! embarrassability has been successfully unpackaged, the variable causing it is the interdependent mindset - helps us to identify the psychological phenomena that influences culture

autokinetic effect

- illusion, caused by very slight movements of the eye, that a stationary point of light in a dark room is moving - just know that cultures form all sorts of microcultures---> these microcultures change the way we see reality (whether for the right of the wrong)

cultural boundaries are not distinct

- individuals can be exposed to cultural ideas from distinct locations *examples: immigrant parents, experiences people have while traveling, advertisements from multicultural firms, ideas from foreign movies - many sub-cultures can exist within larger cultures * example: within American culture, there also exists Jewish culture, urban culture, LGBTQ+ culture, Gen Z culture, Leftist chad culture, right-wing incel culture, et cetera - what separates cultures? i. their members exist within a shared context ii. its members regularly communicate with each other iii. they have some norms that distinguish them from other groups - cultures change over time *cultural info can disappear over time as new habits replace the old ---> cultures are not static entities but are dynamic and forever changing - individuals inherit distinct temperaments (they are born with predispositions toward having certain personality traits, abilities, and attitudes) ---> these individual differences paired with their environment create unique experiences that lead some people to reflexively embrace certain cultural messages, staunchly react against other cultural messages, and largely ignore some other cultural messages

multicultural approach

- instead of pretending that ethnic differences do not exist, people that subscribe to this approach stress that we need to attend to and respect ethnic differences - the idea is that members really do identify strongly with their groups and that we should be inclusive to these minority groups rather than creating an environment where they feel as if they would need to abandon their beloved group identities in order to fit in - proven by science to be the better approach *most people (majority and minority groups) are happier with this approach *best approach in decreasing discrimination and prejudice

ethnocentrism

- judging people from other cultures by the standards of one's own culture *example: Nazis viewed non "Aryan" cultures as inferior and barbaric

language facilitates cultural learning

- language is enormously important in conveying cultural information *through language people can question, clarify, persuade, describe, direct, and explain ---> Humans can manipulate the thoughts in other's minds - only Humans have language, some other species have features of language *examples: velvet monkeys will make verbal calls to other velvet monkeys to alert them of danger; gorillas and chimps have been taught sign language, but do not use it as us Humans do

sacred couple

- married couples should be given their own space for emotional intimacy and sexual privacy - is common in Western cultures, much more rare in collectivist cultures

EEG (electroencephalogram)

- measures brain activity at certain electrodes placed along the scalp - measures the electrical patterns that follow the presentation of specific events ---> identifies temporal patterns of activation to those events, and measures the divergences of people's reactions to those events across cultures - advantage: provides the most accurate assessment of the time course of brain activity when affected by the cognitive task

nonexperimental research

- no independent variable is manipulated - only a dependent variable is measured

biological evolution

- occurs when certain genes become more common in populations than they were in the past - occurs through natural selection

permissive parenting

- parents are very involved with their children - parents express parental warmth and responsiveness - place few limits on the children's behaviors - but can be viewed as the parent not caring enough about the child in Eastern cultures

authoritative parenting

- parents hold high expectations of the maturity of their children - try to understand their child's feelings *teaches their child how to regulate their feelings - encourages the child to be independent while maintaining limits and controls on their behavior - parents show warmth, responsiveness, and democratic reasoning to their children - considered to lead to the "most desirable outcomes" in parental warmth, acceptance, academic achievement, autonomy, and self-reliance in Western cultures, but can be viewed as the parent not caring enough about the child in Eastern cultures

Western Culture

- people participating in cultures from Northwestern/central Europe and the societies of British descent (France, UK, Germany, Netherlands, USA, Canada, Australia, et cetera)

social brain hypothesis

- primates live in complex social groups, the primates that could best navigate those social groups (as well as the conflicts, power struggles, and opportunities that come with them) were the most likely to survive, attract mates, secure resources for themselves and their offspring, and pass on their genes ---> proven true via neocortex ratio ---> living in large social groups is directly coordinated with having larger brains ---> this is a contribution to why Humans evolved to be so intelligent, Humans would average living among 150 members which is very large for animal populations

fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging)

- produces a high-resolution of the brain by tracking changes in the blood's oxygen levels throughout the brain. By comparing fMRI images across different cognitive tasks and across cultural groups, researchers are able to identify cultural differences in the particular regions of the brain that are most activated when people are engaged in a variety of cognitive tasks - advantage: provides the most accurate assessment of the specific localization of brain regions affected by the cognitive task

problems with translation (a challenge with using surveys when conducting cross-cultural survey research)

- research participants and researchers often speak different languages - collaborators that speak English may be too westernized ---> can corrupt the findings - bilingual respondents tend to change their mindsets to that of a Western culture when speaking English ---> when conducting surveys, SURVEY MUST BE TRANSLATED INTO RESPONDENTS NATIVE LANGUAGE - translating languages can be difficult ---> many languages have words that English doesn't have words for *example: there is no direct translation of the English word "self-esteem" into any Chinese dialect *solution: ALWAYS HAVE A BI-LINGUAL COLLABORATOR WHEN CONDUCTING CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH; IF NO BI-LINGUAL COLLABORATOR IS PRESENT USE THE BACK-TRANSLATION METHOD

acquiescence bias can be avoided by

- reverse scoring items *example: typically, half of the items in measures are designed to be reverse-scored---that is, they are written so that agreeing with them indicates an opinion opposite to that measured in the construct ---> e.g "I have many great talents strongly agree" = 7; "I feel like a failure" strongly agree = 1

conducting cross-cultural research with surveys (surveys are a nonexperimental method of research)

- several challenges: i. problems with translation ii. various types of response biases iii. reference-group effects iv. deprivation effects

minimally counterintuitive ideas

- statements that are surprising and unusual in the sense that they violate our expectations but are not too outlandish example: Bible is mostly rather ordinary events, interspersed with occasional "counterintuitive" events, such as a talking bush, a virgin birth, or miracles such as water turned into wine ---> -mostly ordinary, intuitive events sprinkled with the occasional counterintuitive idea--> are the most likely to persist in our memories and survive many retellings *the secret to a good story that will get passed on thus appears to be one that, for the most part, is a tale of every day expected events, with the occasional unexpected element

back-translation method

- step 1: hire a translator to have your survey materials translated into the language of the culture you are researching - step 2: hire a different translator to have the survey materials translated back into English - step 3: compare the two different English versions of your survey material (the original one and the back-translated one) - step 4: discuss the problematic places of translation with the two different translators to fix any problems and to produce an accurately translated survey - is very time consuming and costly, but in the long run can produce good data

response biases (a challenge with using surveys when conducting cross-cultural survey research)

- surveys are conducted to create an accurate representation of how a person really feels ---> however, it often isn't this simple because in many ways, what people are thinking and how they answer a survey question might not be exactly the same because of the existence of response biases - response biases are factors that distort the accuracy of a person's response to surveys, and can ultimately ruin any sort of accuracy in data - different types of response biases: i. socially desirable responding ii. moderacy and extremity bias iii. acquiescence bias

moderacy and extremity biases can be avoided by

- taking out the middle option *example: instead of a 1-7 scale, use a Yes/No scale ----> however, using this strategy might not provide you with sensitive enough measure to detect nuanced differences in opinion across individuals - standardizing your data *each participant's scores are averaged (called "z scores") ---> however, using this strategy can alter the data set and corrupt any possible findings on the differences between cultures ---> only useful when wanting to compare the pattern of responses and not when we want to compare the average level of responses across cultures

case study: the culture of honor in the southern united states

- the South historically has had more violent tendencies than the Northern US *examples: more pro-war, more pro-gun, more support of capital punishment, more support in beating children, more support of slavery, higher rates of violence, et cetera ----> why is this? - an explanation offered is that the South is a "culture of honor" *the South being a herding culture fomented this increase in violence ---> why? ---> because livestock can be easily stolen, if a family's whole wealth and well-being is invested in their livestock, then by definition you would need to do whatever it takes to protect your livestock ---> generations of this struggle developed a culture that valued aggressiveness as a means of survival

cultural variation

- the differences between many cultures vary, often tremendously, in their practices, social structures, diets, economic systems, technologies, religious beliefs, and in their psychology - heavily influenced by: i. ecological variation ii. geographical variation

sleeping arrangements Indian culture

- the different sleeping arrangements that were preferred between the two cultures tell us much about the underlying values of the culture - guided by four moral principles in deciding which sleeping arrangements were appropriate (the most important principle for this culture is first, second most is second, third most important is third, and so on): 1. incest avoidance 2. protection of the vulnerable 3. female chastity anxiety 4. respect for hierarchy - Indians prefer to keep their young children and postpubescent daughters from being alone and try to offer older boys the deference of not having to sleep with their parents or younger siblings *example: in a three-bedroom house with 5 kids ---> Dad sleeps in room with youngest son, Mom sleeps in a room with daughters, two oldest boys get their own room

sleeping arrangements US American culture

- the different sleeping arrangements that were preferred between the two cultures tell us much about the underlying values of the culture - guided by three moral principles in deciding which sleeping arrangements were appropriate (the most important principle for this culture is first, second most is second, third most important is third, and so on): 1. incest avoidance 2. sacred couple 3. autonomy ideal - Americans strive to protect the privacy of the married couple and encourage the development of independence among their children *example: in a three-bedroom house with 5 kids ---> parents get their own room, girls get their room, boys get their own room

natural selection

- the evolutionary process that occurs over time when three conditions are present: 1. *individual variability exists among members of a species on certain traits* ---> example: some antelopes can run faster than other antelopes 2. *those traits are associated with different reproductive rates* ---> example: faster antelopes are better able to outrun predators than slower antelopes and are thus more likely to produce surviving offspring 3. *those traits have a hereditary basis* ---> example: the offspring of faster antelopes tend to be faster than the offspring of slower antelopes *with each new generation the proportion of faster antelopes in the population will increase, and ultimately the species will change over time

conducting cross-cultural research with experiments

- the experimental method is the most common method of experimentation in cross-cultural psychological research - there are two major types of experimental methods employed in cross-cultural research: i. between-groups manipulation ii. within-groups manipulation

factors that cause ideas to spread

- the factors that determines which ideas will be popular and which won't 1. communicable ideas spread *passed on through language *effective via dynamic social impact theory 2. useful ideas spread *people like to be useful, it makes them feel good and fosters better relationships with others 3. emotional ideas spread *can be spread through contemporary legends 4. minimally counterintuitive ideas

Richard Shweder

- the father of modern cultural psychology - argues that the field of psychology (what he calls "general psychology") inherently assumes that the mind operates under a set of natural and universal laws that are independent from context or content (that "people are the same wherever you go"/ that mind and culture are inseparable) * in many ways this is true---> examples: incest is universally seen as abhorrent, everyone smiles, we all use language * in many ways this is also false---> some cultures consider sexual relations with cousins incest whereas others do not, many cultures have different modes of emotional expression (like some ppl in some cultures will bite their tongue when they're embarrassed), and many languages are very different in structure (Chinese vs English) - he argues that general psychologists prefer human universality (we are all the same) and ignores cultural variability (there are differences in cultures)...and this is wrong because we cannot consider the mind separate from culture *example: when a woman goes to a coffee shop in Western culture she can be seen as she is waking up so she can study or that she is meeting someone she is attracted to; in some more non-Western cultures when a woman goes to a coffee shop she can be seen as sinful for going against her parents arranged marriage by choosing to meet a romantic partner of her own choice or a drug user because she is using stimulants (coffee)

Wilhelm Wundt

- the first cultural psychologist - the father of psychology *opened first psychological laboratory in 1879 *wrote "Volkerpsycholgie" or translated as "Elements of Folk Psychology" in 1921

distal causes

- the initial differences that lead to effects over LONG periods of time and often through indirect relations *example: 168 Spaniards were able to conquer the vast Incan Empire because Spanish civilization had access to unique species of plants (wheat, barley, peas, lentils) and livestock (sheep, goats, pigs, donkeys, cows) that allowed Spanish ancestors to settle down and focus on tools and technological advances (like steel, ships, and writing systems) rather than living nomadic lives like most Native American tribes constantly searching for food; all of this along with thousands of years of building immunity to diseases that originated in livestock (measles, tuberculosis, smallpox, influenza) from living in close proximity to those livestock and other Humans that contracted diseases from livestock is what gave the ability of 168 Spaniards (through guns, germs, and steel) to conquer a massive civilization within a single day ---> TL;DR small geographical differences gave Europeans the gift of thousands of years of technological and immunological advancements over the Inca

experimental method

- the manipulation of an independent variable and measurement of the influence that this manipulation has on the dependent variable *the independent variable causes change in the dependent variable - no response biases

neocortex ratio

- the ratio of the volume of the neocortex to the volume of the rest of the brain - is used as a proxy measure of intelligence and problem-solving abilities

dependent variable

- the variable that is measured in an experiment - can be measured after the manipulation of the independent variable

what is the evolutionary advantage of a large brain?

- theory 1: many primates eat fruit, fruit is difficult to find given that plant growth is seasonal ---> the primates that had the most complex brains to find the fruit and eat survived and passed on their genes ---> proven false via neocortex ratio - theory 2: many primates eat nuts, nuts can be difficult to open ---> the primates that had the most complex brains and that could find intricate ways to open nuts and eat survived and passed on their genes --- proven false via neocortex ratio - theory 3: social brain hypothesis ---> proven true via neocortex ratio

cultural acquisition

- there is a sensitive period for cultural acquisition that begins to close around the age of 15-years-old - if a second culture is attempted to be adopted over 15-years-old, there is always an echo of emotional repertoire for their host (first) culture - universal across cultures - example: Hong Kong residents that emigrated to Vancouver, Canada found that after 15 years of age, they had trouble identifying with their new Canadian culture

cultural differences in psychological processes emerge with age

- with age, people from different cultures diverge in their psychological experiences *example: in one study, Chinese and Canadian kids age 7, 9, and 11 were brought into a laboratory to study ---> the children read a number of scenarios a past state of affairs (e.g. a child who was always sad) and were asked to predict a future state of affairs (e.g. how the child would feel tomorrow) ---> results: the Chinese and Canadian 7-year-olds responded almost identically. However, in contrast, the Chinese 9-year-old children were more likely to expect a reversal of the trends, whereas the Canadian 9-year-olds expected (no matter what) that the child would feel better ---> furthermore, this cultural difference became even more pronounced in 11 year olds from both cultures ---> PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES CAUSED BY CULTURE INCREASE WITH AGE

is culture unique to humans?

- yes if we define culture by symbolic coding - no if we define culture by social transmission (also known as "cultural learning")

situation sampling

- this is the best way how researchers can see how people respond to situations that are regularly experienced by people in another culture - involves a two-step process: i. Step 01 *participants from at least two different cultures are asked to describe a number of situations they have experienced in which something specific has happened *example: in one study Japanese and American participants were asked to list situation in which their self-esteem had either increased or decreased ii. Step 02 *a different group of participants are asked to participate in the study ---> this second set of participants is provided with a list of the situations that have been created by the first set of participants ---> the second set of participants are then asked how they would have felt had they been in those situations themselves *example: in the Japanese/American study the second set of participants were asked to indicate how much they thought their self-esteem would have increased or decreased had they been in those specific situations *Important to note that in the second stage, participants are provided with situations created by BOTH of the comparison cultures ---> this type of research method is how researchers found out that situations that cause failure to increase self-esteem in Japanese people, and decrease self-esteem in Americans; and how success can increase self-esteem in Americans and decreased self-esteem in Japanese people

Theory of Mind (type of cultural learning)

- unique/ nearly unique to only Humans, and across all Human cultures - people understand that others have minds that are different from their own, and thus that other people have perspectives and intentions that are different from their own * example: a one-year-old child will point at a toy they want, indicating to their parent that that's the toy that they want ---> this also indicates that the one-year-old recognizes that their parent doesn't know what toy they want

why should be learn about cultural psychology?

- we live in a world with increasing globalization, and with that comes multi-ethnic societies - cultural psychology will be indispensable in creating a more fair, stable, and just society of tomorrow - also, an increased understanding and appreciation of cultural differences can lead people of different cultural backgrounds to get along better, to be more engaged in their work, and be able to detect discrimination where it exists

considerations for conducting research across cultures

- we must be careful when studying other cultures because they could have norms that we do not understand *example: surveying the Zinacantecan people was difficult because their culture saw it as rude to ask them the same question (slightly different than the one before) over and over again without giving a conversational response - the best way to avoid problems such as the one above is to do background research, different strategies include: i. reading existing texts/ ethnographies about the culture ii. finding local collaborators to assists you in the research study about the culture iii. immersing yourself in the culture to learn about it firsthand iv. all of the above combined *once all is considered, methodological equivalent research can be achieved

nonuniversal

- when a particular cognitive tool can be said to NOT EXIST IN ALL CULTURES - an absence of universality * example: some Middle Easterners use Abacus as a calculation tool ---> this is only used by their group and no others - it is purely a cultural invention - the cognitive tool: *variation in function across cultures *variation in accessibility across cultures

accessibility universal

- when a particular cognitive tool can be said to: *exists in all cultures *is used to solve the same problems across cultures *accessible to the same degree across cultures *example: social facilitation (the tendency for individuals to do better at well-learned tasks, and worse at poorly learned ones in the presence of others) exists in all cultures in the same way - the cognitive tool: *no variation in function across cultures *no variation in accessibility across cultures

transmitted culture

- when people come to learn about particular cultural practices through social learning or by modeling others who live near them * example: you notice your neighbor has a more efficient way of planting wheat seeds, and so you take on their way of doing it - can bring their ideas (culture) with them beyond their geographical area - can enshrine evoked culture even when it is not needed * example: cultures that were historically plagued by parasites and that evoked a culture where physical attractiveness is extremely important, may continue that practice even when parasites are no longer a threat to their community and continue to pass that practice on to their offspring and to other geographical areas - MORE IMPORTANT IN SHAPING CULTURE THAN EVOKED CULTURE ---> cultural learning (*the behavioral responses that have been transmitted from generations before us*) shape who we are more than our environment does ---> example: if you are marooned on an island, you will probably die because you would not know how to live on that island, however if your ancestors had been living on that island for generations that you would probably survive because their knowledge on how to survive has been transmitted to you

moderacy and extremity bias

- when using scales, for example --> scales that run from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree), there is a tendency for people in different cultures to: *express agreement in MODERATE fashions (choosing an item close to the midpoint of the scale e.g. a 4 or a 5 on the 1-7 scale) *express agreement in EXTREME fashions (choosing an item close to the very beginning/end of the scale e.g. a 1 or a 7 on the 1-7 scale) *example: Hispanics and Black Americans tend to pick more extreme responses than White Americans who tend to pick more moderate responses---> an impulsive Hispanic American might circle a 6/7 whereas a White American of the same impulsivity might circle a 4/5

most research studies vastly over-sample college students

- why? *college students the world over are easier to sample because they tend to be familiar with many of the kinds of procedures used in psychological studies *college students are easily accessible to university research studies - however, there are HUGE problems with over-sampling college students: *it's not always clear how well findings that emerge from college students generalize to nonstudent populations ---> we are less able to confidently generalize our results if we do not have much evidence from a diverse range of samples *problems with power

functional universal

-a cognitive tool that is found in all cultures that SERVES THE SAME FUNCTION but is NONACCESSIBLE to the same degrees in different cultures *example: punishment ---> all societies equally agree that punishment serves as a function to dealing with people partaking in unfair practices, however the level as to how much punishment varies (Bolivians average spending 28% of their earning to punish the unfair, whereas the Gusii of Kenya spend 90% of their earnings) - the cognitive tool: *NO variation in function across cultures *variation in accessibility across cultures

there are two major conflicting perspectives about the best way for people from different cultures to deal with each other

1. color blind approach (also known as culture blind approach) 2. multicultural approach

how have cultures been changing in recent decades?

1. cultures are becoming increasingly interconnected *technology (like the Internet and cheaper travel) are facilitating interconnection, globalization, and cultural evolution 2. many cultures are becoming more individualistic *younger people around the world are trending to be more individualistic than their parents ---> this can be seen by young people giving their offspring more unique names than their parents generations *this appears to be occurring because of a combination of economic depression, increasing suburbanization of society, the increasing prevalence of electronics in households, and the lack of community 3. people in many cultures are becoming more intelligent *the youth have higher IQs than their parents ---> dubbed "the Flynn Effect" (IQ is increasing 5-25 points per generation!) *SAT scores testing for vocabulary are decreasing because younger people are reading less *IQs are rising because more people are needing an education in order to get better-paying jobs; and also the world is becoming a more complex place to live and so people are needing to become smarter in order to more effectively navigate and survive our increasingly complex societies ---> example: our tv shows and video games are more complex then they were in the past, forcing participants to problem-solve in order to continue to enjoy them

neuroscientific methods of research

1. fMRI 2. EEG 3. molecular genetic technologies

methods that are particularly employed when studying culture

1. situation sampling 2. cultural priming

Chapter 01 start

Chapter 01 start What is Cultural Psychology

Chapter 02 start

Chapter 02 start Culture and Human Nature

Chapter 03 start

Chapter 03 start Cultural Evolution

Chapter 04 start (gear up, this one is the most brutal chapter)

Chapter 04 start Methods for Studying Culture and Psychology

Chapter 5 start

Chapter 5 start Development and Socialization

(WEIRD) societies

Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic societies - very little is known about the extent to which many psychological processes are universal because most psychological studies have been conducted in WEIRD societies - furthermore, most 70% of psychological study participants are undergraduate college students - is problematic because the small sample size hinders cultural psychology and furthers the findings of general psychologists

autonomy ideal

a belief that young children who are needy and vulnerable should learn to be self-reliant and take care of themselves

culture of honor

a culture were people (especially men) strive to protect their reputation through aggression

socially desirable responding can be avoided by

designing studies that assess the construct of interest (example: leadership) without asking people rather or not they have those abilities

how geography affects cultural variation

example: rice and wheat are two major crops grown in China ---> rice is tough to grow and requires a lot of support and cooperation from nearby farmers; wheat is easy to grow and can be grown by yourself ---> the results: Chinese people from rice growing families are more interdependent thinkers, view themselves in more of a network, and are more tolerant of nepotism, and engaged in more holistic reasoning than people from wheat-growing families - geography can affect cultural variation through: i. evoked culture ii. transmitted culture

power

the capability of your study to detect an effect (a cross-cultural difference)

neocortex

the outermost layer of the brain that is concerned with higher functions, such as sensory perception, motor control, and conscious thought

female chastity anxiety (underlying value of Indian culture)

unmarried post-pubescent women should always be chaperoned to protect them from engaging in any sexual activity that would be viewed as shameful