Cultural Psychology and Behavioral Variability

Psychological and Behavioral Variability

• Human responses to stimuli vary in intensity, presence, and direction
• WEIRD populations (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) represent a disproportionately small portion of global psychology studies (only 12% of the global population).
• 68% of participants in psychology studies are from the USA.
• WEIRD studies often fail to account for crucial cultural differences in psychology.
• Limitations of WEIRD studies include missing important cultural variations, focusing on uncommon behaviors.
• Findings may not apply to non-WEIRD populations.

Psychological and Behavioral Variability Across Cultures

• Non-industrialized societies often exhibit superior visual perception, detecting subtle differences in line length, and demonstrate risk-averse behavior by preferring immediate smaller rewards over waiting for larger future rewards.
• Industrialized societies tend to require more significant differences to perceive variances in lines, and are more risk-averse than non-industrialized societies.

Categories of Industrialized Societies

• The categories include: Non-Western Industrialized societies, and Western Industrialized societies (further subdivided into Non-USA Western and USA Western)

Differences in Cultural Psychologies

• Industrialized Non-Western Cultures exhibit holistic thinking, relationship-based moral reasoning, prioritizing interpersonal relationships, and a connection to spirituality.
• Industrialized Western Cultures favor analytical thinking, prioritizing justice and harm, individualism emphasizing personal choice and autonomy, and displaying more risk-averse financial decisions.
• USA Western Culture is characterized by individualism, preference for more choices, and self-focus.

Transgender, Non-binary, and Gender-Diverse Research

• Most studies use binary gender categories, erasing non-binary identities.
• This misclassification of participants as a result causes psychological distress and is problematic.
• The use of binary gender categories is harmful, with misclassification negatively impacting participants in terms of psychological distress and ethical concerns.

Indigenous Psychology

• Indigenous psychology is a culture-specific approach using methods and concepts pertinent to indigenous cultures.
• It prioritizes local cultural perspectives over importing frameworks from Western sources, fostering the creation of indigenous psychological theories based on sociocultural values.
• Two notable types are those focusing on all people within a country (e.g., Phillipines, Taiwan, India), and those particularly focused on first nations (e.g., Australia, New Zealand, Canada).
• Criteria for Indigenous peoples according to Martinez Cobo (1986) includes historical continuity with pre-colonial societies, distinct identity separate from dominant society, lower social standing in modern systems, preserving cultural traditions for future, ethnic ties to ancestral land, and distinct cultural patterns related to social structure and law.

Key Features of Indigenous Peoples (Martinez Cobo, 1995)

• Indigenous populations experience ongoing impacts of colonialism on their traditions and way of life, demonstrating the need for survival strategies within a colonized context.
• The importance of connection to land and cultural traditions as core components of Indigenous identity.

Indigenisation Process

• Recognizes the limitations of Western psychology.
• Indigenous psychology aims to decolonize psychology by reflecting indigenous ways of knowing.

Enriquez (1993) - Two Approaches to Indigenisation

• ETIC (Outside): Adapting Western theories to indigenous contexts or modifying existing theories to better apply to local realities.
• EMIC (Inside): Developing theories rooted within indigenous cultures, fostering indigenous-centered theories, and emphasizing local knowledge.

Cosmology in Indigenous Cultures

• Cosmology, encompassing beliefs about the universe's origin and humanity's place within it, differs significantly across diverse cultural contexts.
• Indigenous cosmologies often answer fundamental questions about identity, purpose, place, and future direction.
• Indigenous Australians' cosmology features spiritual interconnectedness, kinship, and connection to country (land, animals, and people). Each individual plays a significant role within a larger spiritual and social system.

The Self in Psychology

• Self-awareness and self-concept as central components of self-understanding.

Types of Self-Construal

• Independent Self-Construal: Emphasizes personal traits, autonomy, uniqueness, and reliance on oneself. More common in Western cultures.
• Interdependent Self-Construal: Centered on relationships with others, group harmony, family ties, and collective well-being (e.g., "I am a daughter"). More visible in non-Western cultures.

Self-Construal Studies

• Self-construals exist in diverse cultures, with contexts shaping how people define themselves.
• Independent self-construal is linked to riskier financial decisions, while interdependent self-construal prioritizes group well-being.
• Indigenous Australians demonstrate a holistic view of self, incorporating self, kin, family, community, traditional lands, and spiritual existence.

Summary

• Indigenous psychology seeks to decolonize psychology by creating culturally-relevant theories representing indigenous knowledge.
• Accurate measurement of gender diversity is needed to avoid misclassification and harm. Cultural differences are crucial during ethical and valid research.