Psychology and Culture Exam IV
Voice and Paralinguistic Cues
Paralinguistic cues: tone, pitch, speed, important for negative emotional states Expressive cultures- loud tones, rapid speech Less Expressive cultures- soft tones, less rapid speech
Cultural Differences in depth perception
Africans don't perceive depth in pictures like Europeans (Elephant and gazelle ponzo)
Influences on visual illusion effects
Age Urban-rural Industrial vs Non-Industrial Level of Education
Math universals
All humans have the ability to do basic math, part of everyday cognition
Cognition
All mental processes we use to transform sensory input into knowledge
Perception
Process of gathering information through the senses
Consciousness
Awareness of the external world
Why do optical illusions occur?
Because our brain-not our eyes- is the final arbiter of truth
Gaze
Can denote: dominance, power, aggression, affiliation, nurturance, or attraction Contact cultures (encourage physical touch, middle east, latin cultures, greece, spain)- more gazing, less space, touching Noncontact cultures (discourage touch, US, Japan, Canada, England)- opposite pattern Can be a sign of respect or disrespect
Categorization
Processed by which objects are grouped or classified together based on their perceived similarities
Attention
Cognitive process, focusing of capabilities on a particular stimuli
Holistic perception
Context dependent perception that focuses on the relationship between objects and their context (Non-Western)
Analytic perception
Context-independent perception that focuses on salient object independently from the context in which it is embedded (Western, US)
Creativity Universals
Creativity dependent on divergent thinking Creative traits: high capacity for hard work, willingness to take risks, high tolerance for ambiguity and disorder
Culture Specifics of pain
Differences in what is considered painful Attributions of causality What is considered appropriate signs/symptoms Differences in what cures pain Chinese infants- more pain than Canadian infants Around world, boys socialized to tolerate higher pain
Five Major Features of language
Lexicon (vocabulary) Syntax/Grammar (stringing words together) Phonology (sound of words) Semantics (meaning given to words) Pragmatics (how to use words) Phonemes- basic unit of sound Morpheme- basic unit of meaning
Math Culture-Specifics
East-Asians outperform everyone else Due to their educational system, skills valued throughout culture, type of numbering system, and language form (use of symbols)
Body dissatisfaction can lead to?
Eating disorders High economic societies- thin bodies preferred Low economic societies- heavy bodies preferred
Three Indicators of Health
Life Expectancy- highest in Monaco and Japan, lowest in Angola and Zimbabwe Infant Mortality- Highest in Angola, lowest in Monaco Subjective Well-Being (person's perception of health and well-being)- highest in Denmark, Switzerland, Canada, and US, Low in Algeria, Bulgaria, Romania, and Zimbabwe
Types of nonverbal communication
Facial expressions of emotion Voice- tone, pitch, silence Gestures Body postures Interpersonal space Touch Gaze
Universals for categorization
Facial expressions, basic emotions Primary colors Stereotyping Perfect geometric shapes
Differences in pace of life (climate)
Fast- cold climates, vibrant economies, individualism, happiness Slow- opposite
Sensation
Feelings that result from excitation of the sensory receptors
Individualist cultures and health
Generally not good lifestyle, problems: heart disease/cancer
Important cultural influences on cultural health
Genetics lifestyles and behaviors attitudes and beliefs health care environment
Individualist-Collectivist
High cancer, high heart disease, low infection, low stroke
Uncertainty Avoidance and health
High heart disease, low stroke, respiratory disorders
Masculine-feminine
High rates of stroke
Culture specifics for Pragmatics
How to use words, context affects how to give apologies, compliments, criticism, and how to self-disclose.
Counterfactual thinking
Hypothetical beliefs about the past that could have occurred in order to avoid or change a negative outcome (if I had only....) Cross-culturally- greater regret for inaction
Greater stress can lead to?
Increased coping strategies
Creativity Culture Specifics
Individualist societies- encourages/presents few limitations for creativity Collectivist- prefer creative people to seek cross-functional support Countries higher on power distance- need authority's support High uncertainty avoidance cultures- must work through organizations rules and norms
Intelligence
Proficiency at intellectual/cognitive tasks involving verbal and analytic skills
Intercultural Communication Problems
Language differences, improper assumptions about people, nonverbal misunderstandings, over-reliance on stereotypes, creation of tension, uncertainty Improve: mindful of own habits, sensitive to others, regulate negative emotions
What is the relationship between culture and language?
Language is a human universal, Culture influences thoughts, feelings, and motives, culture influences language, the use of language reinforces culture
Disease
Malfunctioning of biological/psychophysiologic processes
Major Components of intra- and intercultural communication
Messages (meanings) Encoding Signals (words and behaviors sent) Channels (sensory modalities by which signals are sent and received) Decoding
What is the influence of genetics on physical health and disease?
Most disease are linked to multiple factors that include mutations in genes that interact with environmental factors Diseases due to genes: Cancer, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, obesity
Two explanations of cultural differences in IQ
Nature Hypothesis: genetic/thinking skills Problems: how intelligence is measured, use of faulty concept (race/ethnicity) to define groups, heritability only reflects Euro-Americans Nurture Hypothesis: Experimental factors more important Problems: Can't disentangle nature and nurture, culture defines intelligence
Problem solving Culture-Specifics
Non Westerners rely on context Schooling has benefits on theoretical/hypothetical problems
Emblems
Nonverbal gestures that carry verbal meaning without words, but are ties to words or phrases (peace sign) Cultural differences- amount, type, intensity, duration differences, emblems are culture specific, same emblem can have different meaning across cultures
Suicide and culture
Often brought on by sociocultural change and disconnection, and individualism Usually male, Rural china shows higher female suicidal rates Religion often important in stopping suicidal thinking
Culture specifics for human memory
Oral tradition leads to better memory of meaningful material People who went to school better at memorizing lists Westerners greater episodic memory Non-Westerners better at generic events
Why does language transform a person into an agent of the culture?
Over time, an individual embodies the essence of culture via language, and in using the language they reinforce the language's concept of culture
Carpenter World Theory
People (most Americans) are used to seeing things that are rectangular in shape, and thus unconsciously expect things to have square corners (Mueller-Lyer illusion: tend to see the figures as having square corners that project toward or away from us)
Symbolizing three dimensions in two theory
People in Western cultures focus more on representations on paper than people of other cultures and spend more time learning to interpret pictures.
Visual/Optical Illusions
Perceptions that involve an apparent discrepancy between how an object looks and what it actually is
Illness
Personal cultural reactions to disease or discomfort
Episodic memory
Recollection of specific events that took place at a particular time and place in the past
Positive Logical Determinism
See contradictions as mutually exclusive (only one right answer, opposite of dialectical thinking) US/Western Cultures use this
Culture Specifics of time
Short-term oriented cultures: focus on the present, US/Africa Long-term oriented cultures: delayed gratification, focus on future, Asia Neither long nor short term: many European cultures
Dreaming Universals and Culture Specifics
Sleeping and dreams are universal Culture specifics: dream content Emotions associated with content Acceptance/usage of content of dreaming
Foreign language processing difficulties
Slowness in responding in second language, cognitive difficulties while processing info in second language
Cross-Cultural Issues with intelligence
Some cultures have no word for intelligence, wide array of factors associated with intelligence. Thus, difficult to make cross cultural comparisons, and develop culture fair tests Recent developments: expanded definitions of intelligence, notion of collective intelligence Intelligence is a catch all concept used to summarize important skills and abilities important for success in one's culture
Proxemics
Spacing Intimate and personal- mid-eastern and latin culture Social/Public (less distance)- US, Germany, Japan
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Speakers of different languages think differently because of differences in their languages Evidence for: cultures have more words for what is important, bilinguals and thought expression Disconfirming evidence: color perception is universal, can think without words/language, deaf children can think, infants have decision making abilities, visual and non-verbal thinking Disconfirming evidence mostly deals with least complex aspects of hypothesis
Bilingualism
Speaking two languages, speakers possess two different mental meaning systems, manifest different personalities and behaviors, view facial expressions differently, code frame switching- switch between languages
Psychosocial Influences on Health
Stress, unemployment, negative life events, socioeconomic status, lifestyle factors, LONELINESS
Foreign language effect
Temporary decline in thinking ability when using second language
Hindsight bias
The process in which individuals adjust their memory for something after they find out the true outcome
Dialectical thinking
The tendency to accept what seem to be contradictions in though or beliefs (trying to find a middle ground) East Asian Cultures- use dialectical thinking US/Western Cultures- only one view is correct (positive logical determinism)
Cultural differences in attention
US tends to focus more on the foreground (analytic), while Japan focuses on the foreground and background (holistic)
Culture specifics for categorization
US- color, shape, function Africa- color, color, color China- Functional relationship across ages
Gesture
Use of hands/body parts to illustrate/expand on speech to convey verbal meaning
Universals for human memory
Wanes with age Hindsight bias Events related to self more than recent past/politics
Front-Horizontal Foreshortening Theory
We interpret vertical lines as horizontal lines extending into the distance. In the horizontal-vertical illusion, we interpret the vertical line as extending away from us, and see it as longer
Self-other referents
What we call ourselves and others Americans have few Japanese, Spanish and Koreans have many
The Ponzo Illusion
Which horizontal line is longer? (Westerners more likely to be fooled) When
The Horizontal-Vertical Illusion
Which line is longer? (Non-Westerners more likely to be fooled)
The Mueller-Lyer Illusion
Which line is longer? (Westerners more likely to be fooled)
Holistic approach
balance involving mind, body, spirit, and natural environment Seen in China, Native American cultures, Latin American cultures
Health
complete physical, mental, and social well-being
Immigration paradox
despite lower resources, new immigrants tend to experience better health on a number of measures, but further assimilation leads to worse health outcomes
Biomedical model
disease results from a specific, identifiable cause such as a pathogen, genetic abnormality, or physical insult
Biopsychosocial
disease results from biological, psychological, and social factors
Collectivist cultures and health
generally better lifestyle, provides social support, problem: infections/parasites
Obesity
high in US, factors: diet, lifestyle, lack of exercise
High Power distance and health
high infections, low cancer rates, low cardiovascular disease
High context cultures
promote communication in which many messages are conveyed indirectly in context rather than directly in verbal language
Low context cultures
promote direct communication, effects of context are minimized
Face
public appearance or image of a person
uncertainty reduction
reduce level of uncertainty and anxiety that one feels when attempting to decode intercultural messages
Honorific speech
speech styles in certain languages that denote status differences among interactants