Cultural Psychology PDF

Cultural Psychology CM III Prof. Ursula Hess 1. Introduction 2. Methods for Studying Culture and Psychology 3. Cultural Evolution 4. The Self 5. Development & Socialization 6. Cogniti...

Cultural Psychology CM III Prof. Ursula Hess 1. Introduction 2. Methods for Studying Culture and Psychology 3. Cultural Evolution 4. The Self 5. Development & Socialization 6. Cognition & Perception 7. Emotion I 8. Emotion & Wellbeing 9. Motivation 10. Mental and Physical Health 11. Interpersonal Attraction and Relationships 12. Work 13. Fairness and Morality  01 Introduction What is Culture? Culture is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” (Sir Edward Tailor, 1871) The Metaphor of Culture as a Tool Kit This ‘tool kit’ includes our skills, abilities, practices, scripts, and worldviews that help us navigate and make sense of our social worlds Two Perspectives Information acquired from other members of a species A group of people who have a shared context (geo, historical, linguistic, etc.) Challenges to defining Culture “Cultural” boundaries not distinct and often unclear (Culture/ethnicity/ nationality are not the same) “Cultures” are dynamic and change over time There are as many variations w/in cultures as between cultures WEIRD Psychology? Evidence for WEIRD thinking has been shown by contrasting: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic 68% of Psychology participants are Americans (USA) 96% of participants are from Western, industrialized countries 70% of participants are psychology undergraduates (even more problematic) Yet, WEIRD countries make up only 16% of world’s population Example: Mueller-Lyer illusion Degrees of Universality Determining Universality vs. Variability Level of Analysis Whether a process is universal or culturally variable often hinges on the level of definition Abstract definitions generally leads to evidence supporting universality E.g. marriage = two ppl deciding to spend their lives together Concrete definition generally leads to evidence supporting variability e.g. marriage = formal agreement between a man and a woman accompanied by mutual love and sexual exclusivity Degrees of Universality Nonuniversal (cultural invention) 2  Cognitive tool not found in all cultures(other criteria are, thus, irrelevant) E.g. abacus Existential universal Cognitive tool found in all cultures that serves different function(s) and is accessible, to a degree, in different cultures E.g. persistence in the face of failure Functional universal Cognitive tool found in all cultures that serves the same function(s) but is used to different degrees in different cultures E.g. fairness-based punishments Accessibly universal Cognitive tool found in all cultures that serves the same function(s) and is accessible to the same degree E.g. social facilitation 3  02 Methods for Studying Culture and Psychology Methodological Problems for Cultural Research Sampling Definition of Culture Whom to study? (Age, SES) Surveys Culture specific Answers Biases Language Backtranslation Sampling Whom to study? If the goal is to see if X (e.g. individualism) shapes Y (e.g. preference for uniqueness), then find two cultures that vary on X. BUT participants in western psych experiments are usually psych. Undergraduates -> are highly trained test takers, that can get the tasks right even when the instructions are bad and they do not question whether this task makes actually sense In other cultures the ppl might not be trained test takers, you have to give additional explanations AND motivate them, because they will question whether this is worth their lifetime You also have to evaluate whether the two cultures actually perceived the task as the same - might have to produce a task that is different for both so the assumed task is the same If the goal is to assess the universality of X (e.g. theory of mind), then find two cultures that are maximally different on many dimensions. How to select cultures? Alternative: Cultural values Convenience vs. theory-based selection More than two cultures Participants Students as Pbn (but: who forms that group in each country?; often also different bubble then rest of the country) Who is a Student? SES Age (students in some countries are on average older than in others) Language proficiency Cultural Values (Schwartz, 2006) Organisations if you want to do an employee survey in a car factory, it is actually a quite different industry/ working tasks when this is an organization in Germany vs. in Mexico Might even to do interviews if the employees are not fluent in reading Measuring/Comparing Methodological Problems when designing a study 4  How to conduct the study Experimenter training Familiarity with materials and tasks Whole testing environment should be extremely standardized, low contact to participants If you don’t talk (chitchat) to participants in some cultures, this is extremely rude à Would have to chitchat first, but this may influence the survey à chitchat in a neutral way Tasks 7-point scale Inequivalent labels Computers Response style Item bias Interpretation of the item Item difficulty Construct Inequivalence The construct does not have the same meaning Absolute position All psychological constructs are culturally determined Moderate position Psychological constructs have both general and culture specific meaning Taijin Kyofusho: culture specific syndrome which resembles social phobia Here however no the culture is the problem but me (body etc.) à differences in attribution Definition: Intelligence Western: essentially academic Eastern: also includes concepts such as obedience Varying appropriateness of behaviors associated with the construct (not all cultures exhibit the behavior, or perceive it to be relevant) Insufficient sampling of the relevant index behavior domains How to avoid: Interview cultural informants Bilingual subjects Cognitive protocols Pretest with free responses Response Bias in some cultures, people tend to always answer in extremes vs. in the middle à You can force answers with yes/no questions but that reduces power of test Solutions: 1. Can be controlled for by using forced-choice questions (e.g. Yes/No) 2: z-standardization Acquiescence Bias E.g. in some cultures, saying no is super impolite Reference Group Effect 5  e.g. how emotionally expressive you believe yourself to be depends on the references (unpunctuality in Germany ≠ unpunctuality in Colombia) à depends on who you compare yourself with Thus, provide relative questions à “can you give an anchor?” à Environment-dependence: might be outperformer in other pool Response Bias Deprivation effects – tendency for people (or cultures) to value what they would like, not what they have E.g. Americans value “humility” more than Chinese; Chinese value “Choosing ones own goals” more than Americans No clear solution for this bias, except interpret results with caution Maybe don’t ask what they want to have but what they want to do every day Translations Selbstbewusst Self-confident, self-assured, self-reliant, self-conscious, self-esteem Schadenfreude Amae Solutions: If a bilingual collaborator is available, they can decide whether translated materials are appropriate Back-translation Some common problems: Different grammatical structures Grammatical gender Prepositions Also: You or Sie or still other gradations of the salutation Unambiguous word is translated ambiguously (pulley – Flasche/Schere) Alternative Approaches Cultural Priming Prime the mind-set that goes with a cultural “trait” and examine its effect on the behavior of interest. E.g. prime a collectivist versus an individualist mind-set. Kühnen & Oyserman (2002) US undergraduates read a text about a trip to a city and were instructed to circle the 19 pronouns in the text Independence priming: the pronnouns represented the individual self (e.g. “I”, “me”, “mine”) Interdependence priming: the pronouns represented the relational self (“er”, “our”, “us”) Flanker task When ppl are primed independently, they look at the first person Interdependent prime: look at whole picture 6  Situation sampling (Kitayama, Markus, Matsumoto, & Norasakkunkit, 1997) Situation sampling: Two step process: Participants from at least two cultures are asked to describe a number of situations they have experienced in which something specific has happened (e.g., increase or decrease of self-esteem). A second set of participants see a list of the situations that have been generated, and they are asked to imagine how they would have felt if they had been in those situations themselves. Kitayama et al. (1997) Do Japanese have lower self- esteem than US Americans? Example of success situations (“describe a success-situation”) Japan: “When I feel nobody is watching me”; When I remember a difficult job in the past that I managed to carry through.” U.S. : “Getting a good grade on a test when I study hard”; “when people tell me I cheer them up whenever I’m around.” Example of failure situations Japan: “When I was the only one who was ignored in the presence of many people”; “When I was jilted by someone I was thinking of marrying.” U.S.: “When you are with some friends and they tell you to get lost because they don't want you around”; “When your employer tells you that you are not performing well on the job.” Then they asked another group of American and Japanese participants to rate these situations: à relative in-/ decreases in self esteem after situation-reading Japanese students evaluating stories of other Japanese report higher decreases of self-esteem than US Japanese tell more self-esteem decreasing stories Japanese more influenced by self-esteem reducing stories 7  03 Cultural Evolution Agenda I. Evolutionary theories Standard Social Sciences Model (Tooby and Cosmides) Dual inheritance theory/Gene-culture co-evolution (Boyd and Richerson) II. Why are humans good at learning culture? ToM Language III. The social brain I. Evolutionary Theories Standard Social Science Models (Toby & Cosmides, 1992) - Evoked Culture: Cultural practices as a result of environment-dependent mental modules - High-risk environment à Reproductive Strategies that favour current reproductive success - Low-risk environment à Reproductive Strategies that favour future reproductive success - Transmitted Culture: Learned through imitation, model learning, and active diffusion Dual Inheritance Theory (Boyd & Richerson, 1985) - Influences of genes on culture and vis-versa - Culture, cultural learning, and cultural evolution are genetically evolved adaptations that allow ideas, opinions, values, mental models, practices, and strategies to be acquired though observation and inference - Cultural learning allows for cultural evolution, a second adaptive system - Culture-gene co-evolution allows for selection of genes à Cultural choices lead to sth. à no separation between genes and culture Learning though Imitation à We imitative a lot, but not indiscriminately - What do we imitate? - Content bias: Ideas and behaviour about objects in which we have intrinsic interest - Whom do we imitate? - Respected or successful ppl - Chudek et al. (2012) - Told kids that person X is an artifact expert à kids imitated artifact experts handling artifacts but less so their handling of food Summary - Humans have the evolutionary capacity for social learning - The environment influences what is learned and how - Culture influences genetic development II. Why are humans good at learning culture/ imitating? Language: Facilitates social learning - Communication of ideas - Human language allows complex issues to be expressed - Allows successful and precise communication of ideas - Allows cumulative leaning - Precise transmission of complex ideas Theory of mind 8  ToM= ability to understand that other organisms have different mind (soul, sprit), intention, and perspectives from one’s own Tomasello (2003) - Subordinates go for the one the dominant does not see bc know that they would not win - If a chimpanzee is raised by humans it is good at this task, if not, its not - Advantage of ToM – Imitation vs. Emulation - Humans and Chimps learn though two different forms of learning - Cumulative learning: - we are able to replicate and do things w/out understanding them - build up on prior knowledge - Imitative vs. emulative learning: which one is better? - Imitative learning - Less efficient: leads one to copy irrelevant behavioursxf - Requires models to exist - But allows for faithful and high-fidelity reproduction of target behaviour - Allows for cumulative cultural learning - Emulative learning - More efficient: learner can directly figure out effective ways of using a tool - Does not allow for cumulative learning - Cumulative Culture? - Requires reliable and faithful social transmission - Requires imitative learning and sophisticated language - Individual learning through emulative learning does not allow for a ratchet effect across generations - E.g. machines are hard to learn how to build from scratch - Language facilitates cultural learning - Language allows humans to clearly communicate ideas, especially complicated ones - Human language is unique in having a complex grammar and syntax, as well as rich vocabulary - It is necessary for successful and precise transmission of cultural ideas - Allows for cumulative cultural learning 9 III. The Social Brain - The Human Brain - Human brain has large encephalization quotient (EQ) à ca. 4.6 - That is 4.6 large than to be expected given our size - Allows us to have the cognitive resources for the complex mental capabilities for cumulative cultural learning.. but at a cost - Lot of brain development after birth (bc. Too big for birth canal) à useless for abt. 2 yrs à big investment for the group à loads of calories for sth. that does not contribute to the group à for individual à brain resources take up a lot of attainable calories - Why so large? - Human EQ almost twice of chimps who are closest genetic relatives - Bodies needed to change to accommodate increased energetic demands of larger brains - Loss of muscle mass - Smaller digestive tract (aided by invention of cooking) - Must have been evolutionary advantageous for brains to be large - 3 Propositions: - Fruit consumption - Food extraction - Social Brain Hypothesis (Dunbar, 2003) - Hominids lived in a socially complex world - The ability to use knowledge about the behaviour of others to manipulate them gives adaptive advantage - Which is empirically supported? - Used neocortex ratio Dunbar (1992) examined merits of each proposition - Magic number 150 - Modern human: group size by neocortex index: 150 (anything bigger falls into sub-groups) - Approximately corresponds to the number of people with whom we can have a personal relationship (Hill & Dunbar, 2003) - Average size of a clan in hunter-gatherer cultures today - Average number of Facebook “friends” - Social Relationships - If humans would groom we’d spend half the day bc so many - Instead we use language to replace grooming - Very efficient - Gossip - Need chit-chat for group cohesion 10  - Humans have Social Skills (Herrmann et al., 2007) - Physical problem solving tasks Summary - Culture is not unique to humans, but cumulative cultural learning is - Cumulative cultural learning is facilitated, and allowed for, by theory of mind, language and imitative learning - The evolution of the human brain occurred in connection with social pressures - We are especially adept, compared to other primates, in reals such as social learning and cultural transmission (We are physically inapt, so we need larger groups) 11  04 The Self Main Points - There are aspects of the self-concept that are universal and others that are culturally variable - Such differences have important implications for our social interactions and perceptions of them - Something as basic as “how we view ourselves” differs greatly across cultures Agenda I. The Self – Western Self versus Eastern Self – Independence and Interdependence – Masculinity (a la Hofstade) – Priming self-construal II. Self-consistency III. Self-awareness IV. Gender roles I. The Self - Measuring the self-concept I.I. Western self vs. the Eastern Self 1. - Western self: Description by permanent attributes and personality characteristics - Formal education, youth and urban also more individualistic - Eastern Self: Descriptions through roles and relationships 2. - Participants indicate weather an adjective describes themselves/mother/stranger - Western: activation of MPFC only for self-judgement - Eastern: MPFC for self- and mother assessment I.II. Independence and Interdependence 12 - Individualism: a system of thoughts and values in which the individual is the focus of consideration. Identity is defined by one’s own attributes not by group membership. - Collectivism: a system of values and norms in which the welfare of collective takes is the highest priority. The interests of the individual are subordinated to those of the group. Identity is defines by group membership. à only can find it restrictive if you hold individualist beliefs/ values Kitayama, Duffy & Uchida (2007) - Cultural enticement to focus on self Markus & Kitayama, 1991 Regional patterns of collectivism in the USA I.III. Priming self-construal Culture as situated Cognition - Independence and interdependence are not dichotomous - Variability within a culture - Urban areas à more independent - Variability within a person - By domain: India – business context: independence, family context: interdependence - Situation dependent: Priming 13 Kühnen & Oysterman (2002) - U.S. undergraduates read a text about a trip to a city and were instructed to circle the 19 pronouns in the text - Independence priming: the pronouns represented the individual self (e.g. “I”, “me”, “mine”). - Interdependence priming: the pronouns represented the relational self (e.g. “we”, “our”, “us”). II. Self-Consistency Are we always the same? - Kanagawa et al. (2001): participants were asked to sit in different contexts (professor’s office, with another student, alone) and describe themselves using the 20 statements task. - Japanese participant’s self-descriptions varied depending on the context - American participants responded similarly across contexts. Implications of Self- (in)consistency - Consistency with past behaviour Why be consistent? - Suh (2002): cultures differ in the benefits derived - Heine & Lehman (1997) from self-consistency - Cognitive dissonance III. Self-Awareness - People can have subjective or objective self- awareness - Subjective self-awareness = taking on perspective of a subject – an “I” perspective - Attention focused on outside world, not with the self - Objective self-awareness = people experience themselves as an object – a “me” perspective - Attention directed inward, as though an audience were evaluating the person 14 Independent view of the self Interdependent view of the self - Less concerned with others’ assessment of them - More concerned with others’ assessments of them - Often have subjective self-awareness - Often have objective self-awareness Implicit Theories of the Self - Two implicit theories of the self - Incremental theories = belief that abilities are malleable and are capable of being changed, with efforts - Entity theories = belief that abilities are largely fixed, reflecting innate features of the self - In general, incremental theories of the self are characteristic of people with an interdependent view of the self - Entity theories of the self are characteristic of people with an independent view of the self - When encountering failure: - Those with incremental theories of self respond by redoubling efforts - Those with entity theories of self likely respond by blaming their own innate lack of ability Cultural dimensions IV. Gender Roles - Cultures around the world have widely different views on whether roles, obligations, and rights of men and women should be different. Men and women in a given culture share similar gender attitudes - High on gender egalitarianism are countries like Finland and Germany - Low on gender egalitarianism are countries like Pakistan and Nigeria - Men generally have more traditional gender views than women - Some predictors of higher gender egalitarianism include: - Religion - Greater individualism - Urbanization Why different gender roles? - Bosterup (1970) argued that culture differences in gender norms may result from type of agricultural method - In particular, cultures that rely primarily on ploughs are expected to be associated with more gender inequality. - Children often stay with women due to dangers of being around ploughs (and large animals that pull ploughs). - Strong division of labour is thus established - Problem: we collect random info to support such findings (“just-so”) Empirical Data - Alesina, Giuliano, and Nunn (2011) investigated cultures that primarily used ploughs during and before nineteenth century versus those that did not - Those that used to rely on ploughs were currently still low on gender egalitarianism and less female labour force participation - The same was found in the USA with immigrants’ culture of origin as a predictor - Careful: correlation ≠ causation!!! 16  05 Development and Socialization Definitions Human development: “Changes in physical, psychological and social behaviours as experienced by individuals across the lifespan from conception to death” (Gardiner et al., 1998) Cultural Human Development: “Cultural similarities and differences in developmental processes and their outcomes as expressed by behaviour in individuals and groups” (Gardiner et al., 1999) Plan - Socialization - Developmental niche: Super & Harkness (1997) - Sensitive phases - Language learning - Culture learning - Mother-Child interaction - Attachment - Parenting Styles - Formal Education Socialization The Developmental Niche (Super & Harkness, 1997) 1. Customs & Traditions - Normative practices in child rearing 2. Settings - Physical, economic and social conditions 3. Caretaker psychology - Implicit ethnotheories of child development and child needs - Incremental vs. entity theory of self - Difference in causal attribution to success and failiure à Chinese parents and teachers firmly believe in the power of effort and its relationship to success in performance Mother-Child interaction Interaction between Temperament and Culture - Behavioural Inhibition Paradigm - Child rearing attitudes Chen et al. (1992) Attachment - Secure Attachment: Good balance between autonomy and connectedness (Typically 2/3 children) - Insecure-avoidant attachment: high autonomy, low attachment - More common in Germany and Israel - Insecure-ambivalent attachment: low autonomy, high connectedness - More common in Japan - Fit with educational goals: - Germany: Emphasis on independence and obedience, interpersonal closeness and emotional communication less important à Insecure-avoidant attachment - Japan: Emphasis on social adjustment and amae (“bask in another’s indulgence”) à insecure-ambivalent 17 Cultural Influences - Basic statements of the theory tend to confirm - Secure base hypothesis: infants see mother as secure base from which they explore - Largely cross-culturally confirmed, but differences in the extend of exploration behaviour - USA: correlation between contact and exploration =.58 - Germany: correlation between visual referencing and exploration = -.52 - Secure attachment is normative - Yet, different consequences of secure attachment - USA: secure attachment à better social and emotional competence, emotional openness - Puerto Rico: secure attachment à respect, obedience and calmness - Japan: social competence à suppression of negative emotions, interdependence Parenting styles Parenting styles (Baumrind, 1971) - Authoritarian: - High demands, strict rules, little dialogue, parent-centred - Authoritative: - High expectations of maturity, dialogue, and consideration of child’s interests, (limited) autonomy in encouraged, parental demands are enforced - Permissive: - Much dialogue, few limits/controls, parents do not see themselves as actively responsible for parenting - Warmly protective - Neglectful Non-Western Styles - In Asian cultures rather authoritarian styles – but not as described by Baumrind - Different style depending on age, at first compliance, few demands, at school age strict style - Rather implicit mediation of parental warmth - Important additional aspects – in China much time and parental effort invested in training (jiao xun) Sensitive phases Learning Culture - Clifford Geertz (1973): we all begin with the natural equipment to life a thousand kinds of life but end having lived only one.” Dialectical Thinking - To shrink something - You need to expand it first - To weaken something, - You need to strengthen it first - To abolish something - You need to flourish it first - To take something - You need to give it first - The heavy is the root of the light - The unmoved is the source of all movement Cultural thinking increases with age 18 Sensitive Periods - Sensitive period: Span of organism’s life when it can gain a new skill relatively easily - Skill acquisition subsequent to this becomes much more difficult - Evident across many different species, across many domains - Not applicable to all domains of learning in humans but allies to language and culture acquisition Language Acquisition Early vs. late language acquisition Sensitive Periods: Culture (Cheung & Lee, 2000) - Self-reported identification with host country and age of immigration Tsai, Ying & Lee (2000) Formal Education Effects of Education - Evidence across a variety of Cultures show that formal education affects how ppl reason - Formal education allows ppl to think abstractly, and go beyond knowledge derived from direct experience - Also affects ppl’s ability to create taxonomic categories (categories based on some shared attribute, or some rule) 19 - Luria - Example Influence of culture on education - Possible reasons: - In the US fewer school days, less academic content in general, and less instruction in mathematics - Less info provided by the teacher - USA: 21% (6hrs/week); Japan: 33% (12); China: 58% (26) - Child has its own desk at home (5th) - USA: 63%; Japan 98%, China 95% - Attitudes towards home work: - USA L - Japan J :/ - China J - Mothers attitudes: Summary - Culture is learned through socialization - Culture and socialization practices interact - The same parental behavior does not have the same effect everywhere - Parenting styles and schooling have a strong influence on thinking values  06 Cognition and Perception Some Cultural Influences on Cognition - Schemas or Conventions: a regulated pattern of thought or behaviour - Script: a schema that describes how a person should behave in a particular context, what role he or she plays, what courses of action he or she performs - Cognitive styles: a person’s preferred way of processing information Analytic vs. Holistic Thinking - Analytic thinking involves: - Focus on objects and attributes - Objects perceived as independent from contexts - Taxonomic categorization - Holistic thinking involves: - Attending to the relations among objects - Predicting an object’s behaviour on the basis of those relationships - Thematic categorization - Cultural differences in Art - Eastern paintings have more sky in them than western paintings - Eastern Paintings focus less on individual faces - Eastern Children draw less horizon but more additional objects than western children - American photography focuses primary on the face when photographing a person, East Asian photography includes the face but also the environment - The Michigan Fish Test - Japanese ppl generally saw more of everything (also focal fish) - Americans only saw by far more focal fish than everything else - Cultural Explanation - In independent cultures, ppl learn that others are fundamentally independent of them (ego separation) à analytic thinking - In inter-dependent cultures, ppl are socialized to pay special attention to relationships between ppl (holistic thinking) - Origins of Analytic vs. Holistic Thinking: fishing vs. agriculture vs. herding Categorizing - Money-Panda-Banana - Chinese ppl: more monkey-Banana pairing - European Americans: more Monkey-Panda pairing - Flowers - European-Americans more rule-based grouping - Asian-Americans and East Asians more family resemblance - Analytic ppl more rule-based - Holistic ppl more family-resemblance based à Preferences! à not absolute! Perception: Field dependency - Chinese focus more on background of pictures - Masuda et al. (2008) - Initially, both Americans and Japanese focus similarly much on central figure in a picture - After a few msec, Americans focus on the central figure more than Japanese - Masuda & Nisbett (2006) - Japanese ppl detect contextual information better than USA - Japanese detect little less focal info than USA - Holistic Perception?? - Oysermann et al. (2009) - Ppl are faster in visual search task when they had independent prime - Ppl better at Memory task when Inter-dependence prime 21 - Summary ® Analytical thinking à focus on compartments of the object ® Holistic thinking à focus on context Correspondence Bias - The tendency for people to under-emphasize situational and environmental explanations for an individual's observed behavior, while over-emphasizing dispositional and personality-based explanations. à attribution error - Jones & Harris: - Miller (1984): US vs. India - India less dispositional attribution (esp. adults) - Situational: similar but as adults India far more than US ® Similar during childhood, as adults USA way more disposition, India way more Situation - New coverage of murder - USA: - If ingroup, then way more situational - Slightly more personal when outgroup - China: - Generally way more situational - Summary - Correspondence bias more typical for independent cultures - When it is found in interdependent cultures, it is smaller and participants are more willing to correct themselves Tolerance for Contradiction - Eastern Dialectical Thinking - The Principle of Change: reality is not static, but dynamic and changeable - The principle of contradiction: Contradiction is a constant part of life. - The principle of holism: nothing is isolated or independent, everything is connected to everything else - Western thinking (Aristotle) - Law of identity: A = A. Every thing is identical with itself - Law of non-contradiction: A ≠ Not A. No statement can be true and false at the same time. - Tertium non datur ("There is no third thing"): Every statement is either true or false. - Peng & Nisbett - If US-Americans can choose, they will - If not forced to choose, Chinese wont choose - Other domains that are influenced by these attitudes: - Attitudes toward the self - East Asians likelier than Westeners to offer contradictory self-descriptions (Both shy and outgoing) - Predicting future trends - Westeners likelier to view the future as unfolding in a linear way from the past, while east Asians see the future in a more cyclical form Summary - Analytic vs. Holsitic Thinking has influences on many congnitive processes, such as - Categorization - Field dependence - Change blindness - Tolerance for inconsistency 22  07 Emotion I What are Emotions? - Short duration - Also have object - Physiological + expressive components - Modulate behaviour - ≠ feelings - Reactions to relevant events - Other Affects - Moods - Emotion episodes (e.g. grief) - Sentiments - Cognitive Sentiments - Feeling of familiarity - Affective sentiments - I love chocolate, I hate broccoli - Affective disorder - Temperament Emotion Expressions - Universals - Darwin: Similarities in expression: - Between humans and animals - Between cultures - Eibl-Eibsfeld (1973): Congenitally blind children show prototypical emotional facial expressions - Silent bared teeth display - Most emotional facial expressions are universally recognized across countries - Emotional facial expressions are similar across cultures - Emotional bodily expression also similar for blind and non-blind athletes - Cultural Dialects - However, in some countries (e.g. Sumatra) some emotions are less recognized (e.g. Freude; Japan: Furcht, Ekel) - Also cultural differences in Facial Expressions (e.g. Quebecois vs. Gabonese) - Duchenne - Usage of Duchenne-smile also different across cultures! - Respective ingroup-raters:: Intense Duchenne smiles are coded as most authentic by ingroup - Only French Canadians code medium non-Duchenne as less authentic than weak Duchenne - Chinese decoders rate French Canadians differently than they rate themselves (medium Duchenne as most authentic) à intense and weak same rating tho Emotion Processes - Appraisals - Theory: - Emotions differ in their appraisals - Different ppl can appraise an event differently - The different appraisals explain why there are different emotions - All events that leaf to the same appraisal pattern trigger the same emotion ® Situation (e.g. Bear) à Appraisal (Novelty, Relevance, Pleasantness, Goal conduciveness, Coping potential, Legitimacy) à Feelings, Body reactions, Expressions, Action tendencies à Emotional reaction - Cultural Influences on appraisals - There are culture-invariant appraisal patters across the different appraisals for every emotion - But: there are also still differences 23 - Emotion Regulation - Cultural Values and Emotion Regulation - Cultural Values and Emotion Regulation - Power distance, Hierarchy, Embeddedness and Long- vs. short-term orientation positively correlated w/ Suppression - Individualism/Collectivism ,Egalitarianism and Affective autonomy negatively related to Suppression - Butler et. Al (2007) - Unpleasant pictures - Asians more emotional aroused when they are suppressing unpleasant emotional reaction than if they are attending it - European Americans similar arousal-levels for these two conditions Normative Emotions - Correlation between positive (dis) engaged emotions and … ® Japanese feel more positive emotions when connected w/ other ppl/ also has positive engaged emotions ® Americans have own emotions when (positively) dis-engaged emotions ® Happiness-in-connection vs happiness-in-distance à difference in experiencing emotions with others or not - Sadness - Americans: - Key value: transformation of suffering into positive redemption and justification of one’s life - Frontier spirit: desire to Desire to escape one’s negative circumstances to achieve one’s dreams but also a willingness to tame and master the wilderness of the New World in order to do so. - Germany (Sturm und Drang) - Glorification of Melancholia and tragedy - “Trauerkarten” vs. “sympathy cards” - there are more negative and less positive words in German trauerkarten - But: also slightly more positive words in German Baby Cards 24  08 Emotion II – Wellbeing Health Objective health and life-satisfaction are not correlated but subjective heath and life-satisfaction are. Process is mediated by interpretation of own health. Cash flow Income is related to wellbeing but has a very low ceiling effect. Over time: income rises but wellbeing stays stable Job loss Job loss is related to low life satisfaction, especially repeated or longtime job loss. Income inequality Income inequality is no predictor of life satisfaction. But in countries with low income inequality income has less influence on well-being Other factors Religion: + Relationshipstatus: ++ Education: + Intelligence: o Personality Set-point theory -> well-being fluctuates but will return to a ‘normal’ level that differs between individuals. Neuroticism - - Extraversion ++ Self-esteem Not really a predictor. Implicit measures found differences, but it turns out people with high self-esteem like the things around them. Cultural Differences Gross national product Low GNP high Variance; High GNP low variance (of life satisfaction) Latinos are happier than ex-communists lol Freedom More freedom more happy (sense of freedom) Self-esteem Correlation of self-esteem and life-satisfaction are much higher in individualistic countries. Much more important for individualists. Relationship quality Relationship quality is a good predictor for all Recollection of emotions Rosarote Brille is an American thing. Asians recollect past satisfaction accurately. Americans exaggerate past satisfaction. 25  09 Motivation Motivation - Different Cultures tend to approach the same tasks with different goals and motivations and focus on different aspects of the task - There differences determine how individuals from different cultures respond to events in their environment Self-enhancement and self-esteem - Above-average-effect: Cognitive bias whereby a person overestimates their own qualities and abilities, in relation to the same qualities and abilities of other persons. - American students see themselves as above average in most categories esp. “Drive to achieve” - Effect increased since 1965 à increased pressure to be “above average”? - Self-enhancement: Motivation to describe oneself positively - Self-serving bias: tendencies to overstate one’s attributes - Strategies for positive self-perceptions: - Downward social comparison—comparing oneself to someone who is worse off than you - Compensatory self-enhancement—acknowledging negative feedback, but then focusing on the things that one is good at - Discounting—downplaying the importance or value of the attribute - External attributions—attributing failures to external factors (environment) rather than internal factors (ourselves) - Basking in reflected glory—emphasizing one’s connection with people who are performing successfully - Cultural Differences in Self-Enhancement - Euro-North Americans - More external attributions after failures - Discount importance of task after failure - East Asians/ Asian-Canadians - More external attributions after successes - Emphasize importance of task after failure ® Generally, self-enhancement is associated w/ independent view of self - Endowment Effect: An emotional bias that causes individuals to value an owned object higher, often irrationally, than its market value - European Americans rate their own object higher when they sell it than when they buy an object - Japanese sample rated an object as less value if they sell it than when they but ® Endowment Effect is reversed - Independent-priming leads to higher seller-attitudes ® Endowment effect linked to independent self view - Everybody is better than their group effect - Potential Explanations - Asians do not enhance the self but the group - Asians are also more critical of their group than Western individuals - Asian participants are more humble (self-presentation) - Education - USA parents tell children abt past successes, Taiwanese parents about past failures - US: foster self-worth; Taiwan: too much self-worth is considered harmful - Individualism - Individuals see themselves as self-reliant and independent of others - Self-worth is important for this - Face and self-improvement - Rather than focusing on feeling good about oneself, people in collectivistic societies focus on others feeling good about them ® Focus on face = social value given by others if one fulfils obligations and expectations - Prevention orientation à aversion to failure (associated with face) - Promotion orientation à working toward success/improvement - Canadians focus more on task after success - Japanese focus more on task after failure 26 - Religion and achievement motivation - Protestantische Ethik Effekt - You have to work hard so god can bless you - Ppl are thought to be successful bc god blessed them - Hard work offers little guarantee for success - Not being successful is a choice - Negative stereotypes in US are in part predicted by this thinking - Empathy is negatively correlated with this haltung - Protestants are way more focused in wok context; Catholics less - Protestants mimic other a lot in leisure settings and almost not at all in work setting à clear differentiation between work and leisure - PWE is related to committing to commitment Agency and Control - Primary and Secondary Control - Independent Self (Incremental Theory of the World) - Self has fixed attributes, world is malleable - Primary control: Individuals strive to change circumstances in terms of their own desires - Interdependent Self (Entity Theory) - Self is malleable and can be changed, world is fixed and cannot be changed - Secondary control: Attempt to adapt to the situation ® For US-Americans its easier to recall situations in which they have changed their circumstances, for Japanese ppl easier to recall situations where they adjusted - Who has agency? - US newspapers emphasize the responsibility of individuals - Japanese newspaper emphasizes the responsibility of the organization àblame environment more than person - Dispositional- vs. situational attributions - US: - dispositional more toward individual than group - Situational more toward group - Hong Kong - Dispositional more toward group - Generally more situational (does not matter if individual or group) - Choosing alternatives - Freedom of choice - Choice increases (western): - Intrinsic motivation - Persistence - Performance - Satisfaction - Asian American: most invested when mom chose - Asian American prefer ingroup-choice over personal and outgroup choice - Anglo American: most invested when personal choice - Both least invested when experimenter chose - Education: More educated individuals like a pen less when they did not have free choice (less of an effect for ppl w/ only HS education)và used to choosing more aspects of life Motivation to conform and stand out Inter- vs Independent Cultures: - Independent cultures: - Individuals emphasise distinct characteristics - Uniqueness is positive - Inter-dependent Cultures: - Individuals try to fit in - Uniqueness is negative ® Europeans tend to choose the “really different” item more than East Asians 27  ® Ash: Persistent tendency for more individualistic collectivistic ppl to go along with the group; more individualistic ppl are more willing to stick out à less emphasis on conformity ® Advertisements also take this into consideration (theme: fit in vs. stand out) Summary - Self-enhancement is not a universal phenomenon and is contrasted with self-improvement. - Concerns about face in some cultures lead them to have a prevention orientation, which is contrasted with having a promotion orientation. - The importance and definition of “choice” differ across cultures—even in terms of who makes the decisions. - Such cultural differences can often be seen in various types of media outlets. 28  10 Mental and Physical Health Health: A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity Agenda I. Physical Health - Medical traditions - Influence of culture on health - Influence of culture on medical approaches II. Mental Health - Cultural Syndromes - Universal Syndromes I. Physical Health Medical Traditions Differences between Western Cultures - France: - Metaphor: body as terrain that needs balance - Doctors prescribe more rest and cures - Dirt and bacteria strengthen the terrain and belong to it - USA: - Metaphor: body as a machine - Doctors advise more surgery (to fix machine) - Bacteria are harmful à more antibiotics Naïve understanding of diseases - Originates from traditions, less from medical knowledge - Europe - If you are exposed to cold, you will get a cold - Chicken broth/ camomile tea etc. is good for sick ppl - Some parts of Africa - Diseases are caused by witches Influence of culture on health Medicine and culture (Leeman et al., 2011) - W/in country its kinda similar à culture > education? - Layppl from different countries most dissimilar 29 Cultural influences on health phenomena Biological variability - Innate variability - Selection mechanisms - Lactose intolerance - Resistance to pathogens (animal husbandry) - Starch food à more amylase in salvia - Europeans à higher alcohol resistance - Acquired variability - Cultural effects - E.g. influence of shoe wearing on foot shape - Examples: - Obesity - Some explanations include: - Greater reliance on high-calorie foods (e.g. fast foods, sodas) - Larger portion sizes More sedentary lifestyle - Suburban lifestyle: more driving, less exercise - Portion size - Attitudes towards food 30 - Hight - Mortality: Socioeconomic Status (SES) Whitehall study: Marmot et al. (1984) à probability of death higher the lower status??!! Possible explanations - Access to health care - Whitehall study – universal health care system - Unhealthier lifestyle - Control for smoking, alcohol consumption, little exercise à pattern remains intact - Psychosocial factors - Low SES: more hostility, less optimism - Stress - Unhealthier lifestyle - Weaker immune system 31  - NYC: 55% higher risk of IHD; tourists 34% - Higher sense of control à less stress Perceived SES - Less income inequality: longer life expectancy - Award winners (Oscar, Nobel Prize, Baseball Hall of Fame) live longer Protective factors - Social/ emotional support (Family, friends,..) - Positive affectivity - Sense of control Summary - Both geographic and cultural influences lead to biological variation - Acquired influences: Body size, weight, mortality II. Mental Health A mental disorder is “a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental processes underlying mental functioning. Mental disorders are usually associated with significant distress or disability in social, occupational, or other important activities” (DSM-5, p. 20). What makes something dysfunctional? Culture-bound Syndromes - Hikikomori - Patient drops out from the social world, barricading themselves in a room for years - Indicates the cause may be failure to succeed in a social world that has few options for those that do not fit in - Does not conform to criteria for any DSM-IV-R diagnoses - Approx. one child/ classroom in junior high and high school is affected 32  - Largely non-existent in pre-war Japan, and uncommon in other cultures - Bulimia Nervosa - Bulimia – uncontrollable binge eating; individual then takes inappropriate measures to prevent weight gain - Absent in most cultures of the world, making it a culture-bound syndrome (esp. in cultures where food is not abundant) - Anorexia Nervosa - Anorexia- an individual’s refusal to maintain normal body weight due to preoccupation with their body - Evidence of culture-bound status: Hugh increase rates of anorexia this century; primarily found in some cultures - Evidence of Universality: Reports of self-starvation in numerous cultural contexts but not due to body image Universal Syndromes - Depression and Bipolar Disorders - Generally everywhere - Prevalence varies (China 1/5 the rate of the USA (44%) - Symptoms vary (flat vs. intensified affect, somatization) - China: Low prevalence of depression, higher prevalence of neurasthenia (loss of appatite, headache, insomnia, no affective symptoms) à form of depression? - Social Anxiety Disorder - Differences in prevalence - Asian countries: more symptoms reported overall - But fewer individuals meet criteria for clinical diagnosis (.5%) - East Asians un North America (7%) - Other forms of symptoms - taijin kyoufushou (TKS) "fear of confronting others." - Concern about effect on others (e.g. body odor that might be unpleasant to others) - China, Japan, Korea - Schizophrenia - Genetic component - Similar Symptoms and similar incidence rates across cultures - However, there are variations: - Paranoid form - India 15% - UK 75% - Catatonic form - India 20% - UK 1-3% - Patients in less developed societies have greater rate of recovery than in more industrializes societies Treatments - Western therapies - Language oriented and biological model - Western patients seek more active social support - Other approaches - Family-centred - Families seen as key source of guidance and play an important role in treatment - Spiritualism and religion - Construing psychological disorders as a problem with one’s spirituality or a relationship with gos(s) that went awry Japan - Morita therapy: rest, light and heavy mutual work, meditation, etc. - Goal: not to change symptoms, but to accept them - Healing: productive life despite symptoms - Naikan therapy: guided introspection to reflect on the kindness they experience though others - Goal: Understand that the past cannot be changes, find new meaning around life 33 Summary - Some psychological disorders are concentrated in specific cultural groups, while others can be found worldwide - Even the same psychological disorder can manifest (and be experienced) in different ways in different cultures - Treatments for psychological disorders differ across cultures and often take on the traditions of a particular culture 34  11 Interpersonal Attraction and Relationships Friends and Enemies - Friendships.. - Increase happiness - Decrease odds of mortality - Enemies (26% in US; 71% in Ghana) - Independent Cultures: Chosen relationships, high relational mobility (“choosing friends”) - Interdependent Cultures: “given” relationships, low relational mobility - Differences - Level of friends: reported higher in USA - Caution: higher in Ghana - Pity (for person who reports no fiends): higher in USA Attractions - Proximity - Propinquity Effect: “the tendency of individuals to form close relationships with people they repeatedly encounter” ® Friends: - 41% immediate neighbour - 22% two doors down - 10% at the other end of the hall - Familiarity: Mere-exposure-Effect: we like the ppl we see more more - Wenn man Menschen in einer reihe antreten lässt, sind sie nachher eher mit denen befreundet, neben denen sie standen (Segal, 1974) - Similarity - Friends are often more similar than randomly chosen pair - E.g. antisocial behaviour is positively correlated (i.e. shared) in friendship dyads - Similarity in Japan and the USA - In a context of high relational mobility we encounter ppl and may detect similarities ® Country-effect on similarity score mediated by Relational Mobility ® US-friends are more similar than Japanese friends Physical Attractiveness - Universality and Differences - Universal Aspects (à indicators of health) - Clear Complexion - Bilateral Symmetry - Average features à individual faces are rated less attractive than average faces - Women: waist-to-hip ratio.7 - Choice of Marriage Partner ® Women w/.7 always rated as more attractive in both India and the USA ® Indian men more “tolerant” toward general overweight but only if.7 - “What is beautiful is good” - Texts by attractive students rated higher - Attractive politicians get more votes - Attractive children as smarter and better behaved - Higher starting salaries for more attractive MBA players - Attractive offenders face lighter sentences - Attractiveness and Life outcomes ® Waist-to-hip ratio makes big differences for wellbeing and connectedness in urban areas, less so in rural areas ® Value of attractiveness depends on cultural social mobility - Self- reports ® Ppl in the USA generally felt more positive about their social outcomes then in Ghana ® In US: more attractiveness à + social outcome ® In Ghana: more attractiveness à - social outcome ® Attractiveness may disrupt harmony and may cause malicious envy 35  - Expectations for others ® USA: estimate better life for attractive ppl regardless of inter- or independent self-prime ® Ghana: only better estimated life outcome for attractive ppl if independent-prime - Ascription of traits ® USA: attractive ppl always rated as better ppl but especially when Independent-prime ® Ghana: no real difference between primes and attractive/unattractive - Attractiveness and mate choice - Brains vs. Bodies ® Women report more attraction to brains ® Men report similar attraction, but slightly more to Bodies - Gender differences - Women men rate most traits similar in terms of their importance for long-term relationships, main difference: good looks more important to men! - “Mutual attraction love” has become most important for women and men since 1939 Marriage Systems - Typology of Love - Partner Selection - Women are given less chance to choose - Arranged marriages: Urban-Rural cleavage very dominant (more individualism, more formal education)! - Individualism: Love is most decisive factor for marriage - Collectivist: partner-traits are more decisive (18-50%) (India, Pakistan, Thailand) 36  12 Culture and Work “Onion Diagram” (Hofstede) Nardon & Steers (2009): The big five cultural dimensions Individualism Rankings (Hofstede, 2010) Individualism and Work 37 What is more harmful relationship- or task conflicts? - Relationship conflict: Involves disagreements based on personal social issues that are not related to the teams work. - Task conflict: involves disagreements about the work that is being done within the team and is not related to personal and social issues - Study: European American, Korean and Chinese business students - DV1: Agreement with items about the negative consequences of task and relationship conflicts - DV2: Agreement with items about the necessity to resolve relationship/task conflict. - In collectivist culture: “Employee of the moth” actually harms Achievement motivation & Individualism-Collectivism (Earley, 1989) - 96 China & US management trainees. Sit at individual desks in a classroom - DV: complete maximum number of tasks like writing a memo, filling out requisition forms, rating job applicants’ application forms,.. - IV1: Group or individual goal - IV2: Accountability (Whether it is obvious who contributed to the success) high or low. à Under high collectivism: high shared responsibility leads to more performance indep. Of accountability à low collectivism: shared responsibility and accountability interact Power distribution dimension Power distance (Hofstede, 2010) 38 Power distance and Work Relationship with the Environment dimension Universalism vs. Particularism - Relative importance of Rules vs. Relationships: - Extent to which rules, laws and formal procedures are uniformly applied to members of society. - Or, extend to which rules are tempered by personal relationships, values within a group, or unique circumstances Rule Orientation Dimension Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner (2011) - You are riding in a car driven by a close friend. He hits a pedestrian. You know he was going at least 35 miles per hour in an area of the city where the maximum allowed speed is 20 miles per hour. There are no witnesses. His lawyer says that if you testify under oath that he was only driving 20 miles per hour it may save him from serious consequences. What right has your friend to expect you to protect him? Reminder: Protestant Work Ethic - Max Weber: “Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus“ - Ppl have an individual relationship with God - Each person has a task intended by God à work as a moral obligation - Predestination - Anyone who is able and willing to work has a good chance of succeeding 39 - If one works hard enough, they are likely to achieve a good life for themselves - Hard work offers little guarantee of success (R) - Most people who don’t succeed in life are just plain lazy - I often feel I would be more successful if I sacrificed certain pleasures - People who fail at a job have usually not tried hard enough - A distaste for hard work usually reflects a weakness of character - Money acquired easily (e.g., through gambling or speculation) is usually spent unwisely - I feel uneasy when there is little work for me to do - There are few satisfaction equal to the realizations that one has done his/her best at a job Sanches-Burkes (2002) - Protestants are better able to defer emotional tone in work contexts - Also more task-focused than Catholics Simpatià vs. Protestant ideology (Sanchez-Burks, Nisbett, & Ybarra, 2000) - Mexicans and Americans rated videos depicting a tutoring session between two male college students. - Task focus manipulation: - Task focused: students focus on the reading material the entire time. - Task+interpersonal relationship: much more warmth expressed; small talk, recalling anecdotes irrelevant to the reading material. - DV: „overall success of how things went“; -4 =complete failure; 4 = complete success à both groups find that task-focused was better quality (but different) à for Anglo-Americans difference between two sessions was also much higher Time orientation dimension à how do you plan things? Do you switch and adapt? 40 - Monochronic: more work focused - Polychronic: more relationship/ ppl focused - Integration of work and personal crucial The pace of life (Levine & Norenzayan, 1999) How do cross cultural teams fare? (Earley & Mosakowsi, 2000) - Diverse groups can be super good/super problematic - Efficacy: - Homo. Are faster at time 1, BUT: at time 2 hetero groups are better; mixed less good than hetero (bc maybe development of two fronts) 41  13 Morality, Religion and Justice - Felicific Calculus: - Intensity – how strong - Duration – how long - Certainty – how likely - Propinquity – how soon - Fecundity – will the action bring along further happiness - Purity – will it entrain negative aspects as well - Extend – how many will be affected - Trolley Problem - Chinese less utilitarian à less likely to safe one for the many - British more consequentialist à kill one for the many Morality and Evolution - Is religiosity heritable? - Religion shows moderate results for heritability à inheriting the propensity to become religious - Gene-Culture Coevolution-long span - Gene pool à Psychological capacities for cultural learning à Culture - Why Religiosity? - Evolutionary Argument: religion was useful for a society - Cheater Problem: - Religion solves this problem by involving an all-knowing and punishing deity à ppl know and trust that defection from societal norms and interests will be punished à aids societal cohesion and cooperation Fairness - Inequity Avoidance - Negative feelings toward injustice also found in Kapuzienern - Want what the other gets - Share spoils of cooperation - What kind of fairness? - Equality - Resources are distributed equally to all - Need principle - Those who need resources should receive them - Used usually regarding resources not burdens - Equity - Resources are distributed according to performance à input-output rationale - Study: comparison of India and the USA - India generally more Need-ratio, then equality, then equity regarding both Bonuses and Pay cut - USA: - Bonus: least Need, then Equality, most Equity - Pay cut: most Need, then Equality, least Equity ® use same rationale regarding pay cut but USA less pronounced - What is fair? - Dictator game: 1 person decides who gets what - Ultimatum game: one person decides, other can accept or reject ® Market integration aligns with more equitable choice in Dictator game ® Both Secular and religious prime lead to fairer choices in Dictators game The Difference between Good and Evil - Can infants understand the difference between good and evil? ® Appears so, Babies choose helpful character over “bad” character Cross-Cultural Research - Moral Development (Kohlberg): Stufentheorie des moralischen Verhaltens 42  - 3 Levels: - Preconventional Level: Good and bad are determined according to internal standards based on the physical or hedonic consequences of an act - Conventional Level: The individual develops group loyalty; Morality is based on the external standards of the group (law and order) - Post-conventional Level: Morality is based on internalized abstract principles of justice and individual rights ® When more Urbanized, more post-conventional level (lvl 3 only found in Western, urbanized) ® Only but most Children lvl 1 - Morality is determined by Culture-specific codes à different things are morally relevant, but some violations are universal: - Ethic of Autonomy - Morality focuses on justice and individual rights - Central: Harm, injustice, unfairness, dominating others ® Avoiding harm, protecting fairness - Ethic of Community - Morality focuses on the interpersonal obligations within a social order - Central topics: Lack of loyalty, treason, abandonment of duties ® Loyalty to ingroups, Respect for hierarchy - Ethic of Divinity - Morality focuses on sanctity and the natural order of things - The individual is obliged to keep the order given by a transcendental being ® Achieving purity ® Community vs. Autonomy ?? ® Ethnics of Divinity (eat a dog?) - Low SES: more divinity concerns - High SES: more autonomy concerns - Brazil: more divinity overall - US: less divinity ® Both: progressives reason more in terms of autonomy, orthodox more divinity ® Ethic of community also more progressivists ® Religion > nationality - Chronic Illness Concerns and Xenophobia - Ppl who were primed w/ germs more Xenophobic answers ® Salience of disease increases purity and disgust concerns ® Divinity-based thinking might lead to more “boundary”-drawing?! 43