Psychology Chapter on WEIRD Populations

Psychological and Behavioral Variability

• Considerable variability exists among humans in how intensely they respond to stimuli, whether they respond, and the direction of their response.

WEIRD Population

• 1980s: Research started including diverse participants and cultures.
• 2010: Henrich, Heine, and Norenzayan introduced the WEIRD construct.
  • WEIRD: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic.
  • 68% of psychology participants from the USA.
  • 96% of psychology participants were WEIRD.
  • Participants represent only 12% of the world's population.
  • 73% of authors were from USA universities.
  • 99% of authors were at universities in Western countries.
• Research on this construct lacking diversity.

WEIRD Problems

• Missing important dimensions of variation: Failing to consider the complete spectrum of human behavior and responses.
• Undue attention to unusual global behavior tendencies: Focusing too heavily on behaviors uncommon in most of the world.
• Uneven and incomplete understanding: Resulting in inaccurate or incomplete conclusions.

Non-industrial vs Industrial Societies

• Studies comparing perceptions in visual illusions between industrial and non-industrial societies found differences.
• Non-industrial societies more easily determine equal lines.
• Industrial societies required larger differences to be perceived as equal.

Industrial vs Non-Western Categories

• Industrial-Non-Western: Holistic viewpoint, relationships between objects, moral reasoning (with wider principles), interpersonal relationships, divinity, and beliefs about food, sex, and relationships.
• Industrial-Western: Analytical viewpoint, detached from object/context, focusing on object attributes.

Industrial Westernised USA

• More individualistic.
• Prefer more choices.
• Analytic reasoning skills.
• 4000 times more likely to participate in research.

Gender Diverse Research

• Studies have failed to account for the 6800 people (Gender, Sex, and Gender Identity) within the research. Research doesn't consider these differences in sex or gender. Research erases gender identity.

Indigenous Psychology

• Key features:
  • Primacy of indigenous or culturally defined perspectives.
  • Relevance to native cultures, peoples, and their sociocultural values..
  • Indigenous culture as the source of concepts and theories. Researcher concepts, theories, methods, tools, and results adequately represent the phenomenon being studied in the proper context.

Two Types of Indigenous Psychology

• Contrasting imported Western theories and methods;
• Type 1 (Philippines, Taiwan, India): Encompasses people residing in the country, with a long history of psychology beginning in the 1970s.
• Type 2 (Australia, NZ, Canada): Focuses on first inhabitants of the land and short/non-existent indigenous psychology histories.

3 Common features of Indigenous People

• Historical continuity with pre-colonial societies.
• Distinct from other sectors of society.
• Aim to preserve, develop, and transmit culture for future generations.
  • Ethnic identity and ancestral territories.
  • Live with their own cultural patterns, social institutions, and legal systems.

Colonization

• Invasion, subjugation, and displacement of existing peoples.

Indigenization

• The process of developing indigenous psychology. Local cultural and regional developments of their own knowledge and practices.

Stages of Indigenization

• Acknowledgement of the limitation of Western theories.
• Correcting and adapting Western theories to local realities and discovering indigenous concepts/methods.
• Self-perpetuating discipline independent of Western psychology.

Two Types of Indigenization (Enriquez 1993)

• ETIC (Without): Create indigenous adaptations of existing imported materials by incorporating the local context using cultural language.
• EMIC (Within): Indigenous concepts and cultural knowledge are the basis of new theories and knowledge, recognizing what foreigners miss.

Indigenous Cosmologies

• Filipinos: Developed from Ethnic Psychology.
• Taiwanese: Rooted in Chinese historical, cultural, and social traditions, sometimes including Buddhist traditions.
• Indian: Entwined with Hinduism and folklore practices.

Indigenous Australians Facts

• 3.3% of the population.
• Average age of 22.
• Live in 35% cities; 20% regional; 22% outer regional; 22% remote areas.
• 260 distinct languages before colonization.

Indigenous Australians Cosmology

• Understanding the world (waters, earth, flora, fauna, and other people) as interconnected.
• Seminomadic lifestyle.
• Focus on social, religious, and spiritual activities related to belonging to the land.

Colonization (Indigenous Australians)

• Intentional destruction of indigenous culture.
• Control by the government from 1883-1967
• Citizenship granted in 1967.

The Self

• Self-awareness, Introspection.
• Self-concept: Knowledge about oneself (gender, sex, location, occupation, personality, likes, dislikes, physical attributes).

Self-Construal

• Chronicity: Defining oneself based on differences from others.
• Two types of self-construal:
  • Independent: Defining self in terms of stable personality traits, valuing uniqueness compared to others, and prominent in Western cultures
  • Interdependent: Defining self in terms of relationships with others, valuing harmony, and prominent in non-Western cultures (two types)

Self-Construal Studies:

• Singelis 1994, Hawaii uni students, Self-construal Scale, Results support the self-construal theory.
• Hamilton & Biehal 2005 - Advertising study. Independent participants make riskier financial choices; Interdependent participants are more risk-averse to protect others.
• Mandel 2003, Priming for independence/interdependence by reading the Sumerian Warrior Story, and making financial and social choices. Riskier financial decisions are made by people primed as interdependent, because they expect family support; and the opposite for independent people.
• Han & Humphreys 2016 Diagram explaining the cognitive, affective, and motivational consequences of independent and interdependent self-consturals.
• Cross et al. (2011)- Diagrams explaining cognitive and affective consequences of relational and collective interdependence self-consturals.

The Self-Concept of Indigenous Australians

• Holistic definition of Aboriginal health and wellbeing.
• Acknowledging the interconnectedness of self, family, community, traditional lands, ancestors, and spiritual existence
• Challenging Western ideas of self-concept.

Culture

• Culture encompassing all of what humans have and do, in order to create, relate, and adapt to the physical environment, with their agreed upon principles of human existence, techniques of survival (technology), and beliefs/ attitudes, often to produce harmony and shared understanding.

This quiz explores the concept of WEIRD populations in psychological research, highlighting the significant variability in human responses to stimuli. It discusses the implications of relying heavily on a population that constitutes only a minor fraction of the global demographic. Test your understanding of how this affects the study of psychology and behavioral variability.