PSY301 Chapter 14: People Are Different

If American research participants were asked to identify the emotion in a facial photograph and rate its intensity, the results might be hard to interpret because

Americans of different cultural backgrounds show similar responses to some emotions but different responses to others.

The virtually universal taboo against cannibalism would be regarded by researchers as

an etic.

The customs, values, and attitudes that can be used to characterize and identify a population refer to

culture.

The concept of race is controversial scientifically because

depending on the categorization process used, an individual could be placed in different racial categories.

The notion that a person identifies with a particular group of people based on ancestry, religion, or country of origin involves the concept of

ethnicity.

In the discussions of female-male differences in math ability, researchers

have reported that the differences between sexes is, on average, small and is getting smaller.

When researchers try to study potential differences across racial and ethnic groups, the categories they use

often rely on governmental rather than scientific criteria.

When a test is successfully back translated, it

retains the same meaning in the initial language and the language into which it is translated.

Iwamasa et al. (2000) studied differences in stereotypical female and male behaviors and found that

stereotypically female behaviors were associated with certain disorders and stereotypically male behaviors were associated with other disorders.

Matsumoto and Assar (1992) tested participants who spoke English and Hindi on their abilities to recognize emotions of people in photographs. They concluded that

the participants' thought processes were more conductive to thinking about emotions when they spoke English.

When researchers study differences between Hispanic and Anglo residents of the United States,

the research often ignores the differences among people within each group itself.

According to the Council of National Psychological Associations, investigators conducting cultural research should note that

understanding the degree of acculturation of participants is critical to interpreting results.

The concept that internal, psychological processes may be universal but that they are expressed differently across cultures is associated with

universalism.