Culture and Psychology Culture and Psychology How People Shape and are Shaped by Culture L D WORTHY, TRISHA LAVIGNE, AND FERNANDO ROMERO MMOER PHOENIX, AZ Culture and Psychology by L D Worthy, Trisha Lavigne, and Fernando Romero is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Contents Part I. Culture and Psychology Introduction to Psychology 3 Cultural WEIRDos 6 Introduction to Cultural Psychology 8 Defining Culture 10 Two Views of Culture 14 Products of Culture 15 Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions 16 Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism 20 1. Summary 23 Vocabulary 24 Part II. Cultural Learning Animal Culture 29 Uniquely Human 31 Ecological and Geographic Cultural Variation 41 Cultural Transmission 45 Summary 47 Vocabulary 48 Part III. Research Methods and Culture Advantages and Disadvantages 53 Research Issues in Cultural Psychology 55 Sampling Bias 56 Procedural Bias 58 Instrument Bias 61 Interpretation Bias 63 Summary 64 Ethics in Cultural Psychological Research 65 Other Issues in Research 69 Vocabulary 70 Part IV. Culture and Development Defining Enculturation 75 Enculturation 2. Enculturation Agents 77 Temperament 79 Attachment 82 Parenting Styles 86 Cognitive Development 89 Other Enculturation Agents 94 Summary 98 Vocabulary 99 Part V. Culture and Cognition Sensation and Perception 103 Attention 106 Social Cognitions 108 Schema 109 Attributions 111 Memory 114 Thinking and Intelligence 117 Categories and Concepts 118 Intelligence 121 One or Many 124 Intelligence and Culture 126 Intelligence Tests 127 Summary 128 Vocabulary 129 Part VI. Culture and Sexuality Sex and Gender 137 Stereotypes and Gender Roles 140 Gender Enculturation Agents 143 Gender Differences 147 Gender Roles and Culture 149 Gender Identity 150 Sexuality and Sexual Orientation 152 Sexuality and Culture 154 Discrimination 159 Reducing Gender Bias and Inequality 160 Summary 162 Vocabulary 163 Part VII. Culture and Emotion Components of Emotions 167 Emotions and Culture 171 Motivation 175 Summary 177 Vocabulary 178 Part VIII. Culture of Self and Personality Introduction to Personality 181 Trait Theory 183 Five Factor Model and Cross-Cultural Research 185 Big Five as Universals 188 Cultural Considerations and Personality 191 Self and Culture 193 Characteristics of the Self-Concept 196 Self and Culture 199 Neural Basis for Self 202 Beyond East and West Differences 203 Self-Enhancement and Self-Effacement 205 Summary 208 Vocabulary 209 Part IX. Culture and Physical Health What Does it Mean to be Healthy? 213 Global Definition of Health 215 Life Expectancy 217 Health in American Culture 219 Diet 220 Sleep Hygiene 223 Socioeconomic Status (SES) 226 Race and Ethnicity 228 Global Health Cross-Cultural Comparisons 231 Summary 233 Infant Mortality 234 Subjective Well-Being 235 Vocabulary 238 Part X. Culture and Mental Health What is Mental Illness? 243 Summary 245 Making a Diagnosis (The 3 D’s) 246 History of Mental Illness 249 Culture-Bound Disorders 251 Universal Disorders 253 Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) 254 Anxiety Disorders 257 Eating Disorders 259 Psychosis 261 Barriers to Treatment 265 Reducing Stigma around Mental Illness 267 Summary 269 Vocabulary 270 Part XI. Culture and Social Behavior Group Interactions 273 Group Interactions and Culture 276 Cooperation 278 Stereotypes, Prejudice and Discrimination 282 Conformity 286 Obedience 288 Summary 290 Vocabulary 291 Part XII. Culture and Morality Universal Morality 295 Cultural Considerations of Kohlberg’s Theory 298 Cultural Alternatives to Moral Development 299 Social Fairness 301 Psychological Reactions to Unfair Behavior 304 Summary 306 Vocabulary 307 Part XIII. Living in a Multicultural World Acculturation 311 Culture Shock 312 Berry’s Model of Acculturation 315 Bilingualism and Culture 318 Switching 321 Cultural Frame Switching 322 Code Switching 324 Challenges to Living in a Multicultural World 326 Stereotype Threat 328 Contact hypothesis 331 Summary 334 Multicultural Identities 335 Vocabulary 339 References 341 PART I CULTURE AND PSYCHOLOGY Culture goes beyond the way people dress and the food they eat. It also stipulates morality, identity, and social roles. When you think about different cultures, you probably picture their most visible features, such as differences in the way people dress, or in the architectural styles of their buildings. Culture and Psychology | 1 You might consider different types of food, or how people in some cultures eat with chopsticks while people in others use forks. There are differences in body language, religious practices, and wedding rituals. While these are all obvious examples of cultural differences, many distinctions are harder to see because they are psychological in nature. 2 | Culture and Psychology Introduction to Psychology Before we begin talking about culture and psychology, it is important to have a basic understanding of the field of psychology. Broadly speaking, psychology is the science of behavior and mind, including conscious and unconscious phenomena, as well as feeling and thought. Psychologists, practitioners or researchers in the field, xplore e the role that cognitive processes (thinking) has on individual and social behavior. Psychologists also explore the physiological and biological processes (e.g., neurotransmitters, brain, and nervous system) that underlie the thinking and behavior of individuals. There are four main goals of psychology: Describe Psychologists describe the behavior of humans and other animals in order improve our understanding of the behavior and get a sense of what can be considered normal and abnormal. Psychological researchers use many different methods to help describe behavior including naturalistic observation, case studies, and surveys. After describing behavior, it is easier for psychologists to understand and explain the behavior. Explain This goal involves determining the causes of behavior. Introduction to Psychology | 3 Psychologists try to understand why a person acts or reacts in a certain way and then they try to identify if there are other factors that may produce the behavior (e.g., something that happens before or after a behavior). Using experimental designs, psychologists establish theories which will help explain the same behavior in different situations and contexts. Predict The third goal of psychology is to predict what behavior will come next, how a person will behave or when will the behavior happen in the future. Predicting behavior is hard, unless the behavior has already been studied which is why describing and explaining behavior must happen first. A psychologist may be able to predict a behavior by looking for a pattern using past instances or examples of that behavior. Predicting behaviors is essential for psychologists if they want to change or modify harmful or dysfunctional behaviors or to promote or encourage positive or prosocial behaviors among individuals. Control Finally, and perhaps most importantly, psychology strives to change, influence, or control behavior to make positive and lasting changes in people’s lives. It is important to note that if a psychologist tries to influence, shape, modify or control someone’s behavior without asking permission or getting consent it is considered unethical. As noted earlier, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit individuals and society but we do this by respecting the rights of others. Psychology has been described as a “hub science” which means that medicine tends to draw upon psychological research mainly through the fieldsof neurology and psychiatry. 4 | Introduction to Psychology Social sciences commonly draw directly from sub-disciplines within psychology like social psychology and developmental psychology. The field of psychology is about understanding and solving problems in several areas of human activity and as a discipline psychology ultimately aims to benefit society. Introduction to Psychology | 5 Cultural WEIRDos Despite its ultimate aim to benefit society, the psychological aspects of culture have historically been overlooked because many elements of culture cannot be observed. For example, the way that gender roles are learned is a cultural process, as is the way that people think about their own sense of duty toward their family members. Also, there has been an overrepresentation of research conducted using human subjects from Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic nations (WEIRD). Findings from psychology research utilizing primarily W.E.I.R.D. populations are often labeled as universal theories that explain psychological phenomena but are inaccurately, and inappropriately, applied to other cultures. Recent research findings revealing that cultures differ in many areas, such as logical reasoning and social values has become increasingly difficult to ignore. For example, many studies have shown that Americans, Canadians and western Europeans rely on analytical reasoning strategies, which separate objects from their contexts to explain and predict behavior. Social psychologists refer to the fundamental attribution error or the tendency to explain people’s behavior in terms of internal, inherent personality traits rather than external, situational considerations (e.g. attributing an instance of angry behavior to an angry personality). Outside W.E.I.R.D. cultures, however, this phenomenon is less prominent, as many non-W.E.I.R.D. populations tend to pay more attention to the context in which behavior occurs. Asians tend to reason