Introduction to Cultural Psychology PDF

Week 5: Self & Motivation Caveats of culture: 1. Multicultural minds 2. Cultures are not monolithic a. Differences in group averages do not explain individual experience 3. Language matters, how you communicate cultural tendencies Part 1: self & personality Twenty statements te...

Week 5: Self & Motivation Caveats of culture: 1. Multicultural minds 2. Cultures are not monolithic a. Differences in group averages do not explain individual experience 3. Language matters, how you communicate cultural tendencies Part 1: self & personality Twenty statements test: measure of self concept When asked who am I … the independent self vs the interdependent self ○ American and Nairobi undergraduates are likely to describe personal characteristics in response to this question Independent self is experienced as distinct from others Self-defining aspects are within the individual Boundary between ingroup and outgroup are relatively permeable Bounded and stable ○ Masai and Samburu communities are more likely to respond to this question by stating their roles and memberships in their community Interdependent self Self fundamentally connected to others; defined through interdependent traits Key aspects of identity are grounded in relationships The self is fluid, situation dependent Ingroup and out-group is distinction solid  Self concept in the brain: biological ○ Activation patterns of interdependent self; same brain regions are activated when they think of themselves as when they think of their mothers ○ Independent self; more activation in the MPFC when thinking about themselves than when thinking about their mothers - Agricultural practices seen as a distal cause for independent vs interdependent cultures - Higher education is one of the best predictors of independence, proximal cause Carol Dweck; Mindset & Performance ○ Fixed or fluid mindset: children praised either for their effort in solving puzzle or for their intelligence Kids praised for intelligence are far more likely to want to stay on easier puzzles, where they received the most praise. Growth mindset; students praised for effort generally want harder puzzles  Individuals are sensitive to the cues they receive from their environment; what they are being judged on (either effort or innate skill) > Stable vs Fluid self concept; self-consistency Cognitive dissonance paradigm; ○ independent self is about self-consistency, interdependent self is about peer-consistency Self descriptions are generally more positive, and stable in the United states Self descriptions are positive when respondents were alone, but negative when a respondents manager was present suggesting a consistency of self but with situational demands. > Self-awareness Independent self has a subjective self-awareness (‘I’): attention outwards ○ Addition of a mirror, people become more self critical. Mirror makes no difference with japanese respondents Interdependent self has a Objective self-awareness (‘me’): attention inwards > Personality CPAI: chinese counter to personality ‘big 5’ ○ Reference-group effect Part 2: Motivation Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: self esteem, a universal need Independent self concept Interdependent self concept Entity self Incremental self 1. Connectedness motivation. > The way people realise connectedness differs Acting as individual agents, distinct from Acting as relational agents, consistently others. Secure their uniqueness with others. Secure group belonging Relationship: I choose you Relationship: I feel a deep sense of connection with you and so I remain with you 2. Self enhancement motivation High self esteem vs modesty tendency A theory: Going back to protestantism ○ Ultimate aim is to get into heaven; predestined but unknown ○ Tell yourself you are good, inflate self esteem = chance to make it to heaven - Self-serving bias - Self-criticism (effort vs skill) - Downward social comparison - Upward social comparison - Discounting negative information - No compensatory - External attribution of failure self-enhancement - Basking in reflected glory - Increase significance of domain - Internal attribution of failure - Self-esteem: You assign positive - Critical attitude towards one’s value to yourself (ultimately team inalienable) - Face: Others grant you positive value if you fulfill role expectations (easily lost) Focus on ones strengths and try to Seek out potential weaknesses and try advance them to improve on them → promotion orientation → prevention orientation → making sure good things happen >Persistence after success or failure: Prevention vs Promotion Participant from Japan or Canada told they were whether successful or a failure at a task ○ Canadian’s persist longer when told they were successful in the task, but people in Japan persist longer on the task they were told they failed. independence and self-enhancement are related. ○ Japanese and American college students were asked to list as many success or failure experiences they could remember having had in their lives (Endo 8cMcijer, 2004). The American students listed more success memories than failure memories (62% vs. 38%), whereas Japanese students listed slightly fewer success memories than failure ones (48% vs. 52%). East Asians do not have as strong a desire as Westerners to view themselves positively, and therefore have weaker self-enhancement motivations.  3. Mastery motivation; agency Capacity of individuals to exert control over the environment to achieve desired outcomes (top of maslow; self-actualization) ○ Takahashi vs Hyman: Olympic gold medalists diverge in how they conceptualise their win. How do people exert agency? - subway model design your own, vs japanese bakeries displaying ranks of popularity (disjoint vs conjoint agency) Conjoint agency Disjoint agency - Actions are responsive to - Actions should be freely chosen, obligations, expectations from contingent on own goals, others (role-fulfillment) preferences and intentions - preferences , goals and intentions - Decision are independent from are interpersonally anchored - Choice = freely acting to meet the others perceived requirement - Choice = free, autonomous choice; expression of individual preference Collective as agents Individuals as agents - Adjust some aspect of the self and accept circumstance as they are - Shape existing reality to fit one's - Adjustment own perceptions, goals and wishes - Secondary control, external locus (if you want to build a house, do of control you cut down the trees or do you build around them?) - Primary control, internal locus of control Ingroup outgroup relationships Boundaries between are fluid, relationships are not as significant for Boundaries between ingroup and individual self concept for independent outgroup are stable - self concept derived people  largely from relationships with ingroup members How universal is the Maslow hierarchy of needs? Phrased in western terms Realization of the underlying universal needs is contingent on the cultural context The hierarchy itself may not necessarily be universal Culture and Personality Guest lecture: Velichko Fetvadjiev What is personality? - ‘An individual's patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior, together with the psychological mechanisms - hidden or not - behind those patterns’ - Internal traits which could be used to predict behavior in response to external situations - Stable over time and across situations - Language helps to identify personality constructs, but languages differ, therefore concepts may also differ (if the way we speak about something differs then the way we experience something my also differ) Can we use the same constructs across cultures to compare personalities? - Yes. Some can be used consistently across cultures. But there is room for more variance (etic-emic approaches are complementary) 1. Etic approach: Transcultural, intercultural 2. Emic approach: Indigenous psychology Two approaches to understanding personality and culture ○ Cross cultural (etic) studies examine and compare personality across cultures Universalistic (Ie: Cattell Big 5) ○ Indigenous (emic) studies examine personality in specific cultural contexts Relative Potentials and pitfalls of the two approaches to studying culture 1. Five-factor model (Etic approach) + Heritability of personality, correlation between genetic differences and personality differences + 0.40% heritability rate, similar levels to IQ, high validity for a biological basis of personality + Cross cultural factor analysis; factor congruence There is overall generalisability of findings from instruments designed to measure the five factor model - However, there has been similar generalisability of other models: HEXACO, Eyseneck’s PEN - Instruments to some extent ‘impose’ structure - Interpersonal relatedness is a key personality dimension for Chinese cultural context, and openness to experience was omitted, demonstrating a divergence from 5 factor model which is generally considered universal in WEIRD academia ○ Etic: we can tackle big Qs in culture psychology ○ Model must be consistent across cultures Accuracy of national stereotypes? Does acculturation affect people’s personalities? Do bicultural people have two personalities? Do personality traits have different links to other psychological constructs in different cultures 2. Emic approach ○ Emic: representation of personality embedded in local context ○ Using different conceptualizations of culture appropriate to each culture (variables make sense locally), we can ask how do the levels of these variables differ across cultures Associations, predictions ○ Approach evolved from anthropological school of culture and personality( first half of 20th century) Margaret Mead, bottom up approach ○ Indigenous studies since 1970s focused on isolated concepts Examples: Amae (japan: sweet indulgence) Yuan (Taiwan: relational affinity) Cheong (korea: affection) Selfless self (india) Pakikipagkapwa (philippines) + Give a rich description of each individual culture  - Cannot assess to what extent these concepts are common/ distinct to universal model of big five Psycholexical approach Lexical hypothesis: Personality characteristics perceived as important become encoded in language as single terms (Goldberg, 1981) 3. Emic-Etic approach: South african personality inventory (SAPI) Culturally informed instrument for the countries main ethnocultural groups 1. Social relational positive 2. Social relational negative 3. Extraversion 4. Conscientiousness 5. Neuroticism 6. Openness Chapter 6, Personality & the Self Exploring the role of culture on our self-concept Trust & commitment Research shows that Americans tend to have higher levels of general trust toward strangers than Japanese do (Yamagishi 8c Yamagishi, 1994). Self concept & social class wealthier Icelandic children tend to describe themselves more in terms of inner psychological traits than poorer Icelandic children do middle-class American parents emphasize the importance of teaching their children self-direction, whereas working-class American parents place greater value on conforming to authority figures The belief that we can easily change, and are expected to change, is referred to as an incremental theory of self (interdependent) (e.g., Dweck 8c Leggett, 1988). This theory of self represents the belief that a person’s abilities and traits are malleable and can be improved. The attributes someone possesses are not seen as staying constant throughout the lifespan; they are perceived as reflecting how hard one has worked on them. In contrast to this view, one could instead embrace a theory that aspects of the self are resistant to change; this is known as an entity theory of self. People who endorse this theory view their abilities and traits as fixed,innate features of the self High entity theory of the world; low in ability to exert primary control Self evaluation: The effects of mirrors on self- evaluation: Study found that Americans are more self-critical when they're facing a mirror than when they are not, and Japanese self-evaluations are unaffected by the presence of a mirror ( Heine et al., 2008.) Inside-out and outside-in perspectives. In this study, while American self evaluations were largely unaffected by someone else's view of their performance, Chinese self-evaluations were more positive when someone else thought they had done well rather than poorly (Kim et al.,2010.) - Asian Americans have been shown to be better than European Americans at imagining what is being seen through the eyes of others (see Wu, Keysar, 2007). Article: Boston vs San Francisco, how these cities give rise to different independent cultures Culture Cycle: Reciprocal relationship between individuals and cultural products/practices. Boston: Tradition and community focus. ○ Tighter social norms, greater accountability, and stronger social contingency San Francisco: Innovation and freedom. ○ Looser social norms and lower social contingency. Boston's "old and established" identity stems from its Puritan roots, American Revolution history, and cultural emphasis on education and family ties. San Francisco's "new and free" identity is shaped by the Gold Rush, counterculture movements, and a focus on entrepreneurship and diversity. Research Methodology: Seven studies compared Boston and San Francisco through historical analysis, cultural products (e.g., newspaper headlines, websites), and individual self-perceptions and well-being.  Examples of examined products include venture capital and hospital websites, which reflect regional cultural themes. Findings: Boston: ○ Greater emphasis on conformity, social expectations, and hierarchical control. ○ Residents' self-evaluations are more contingent on social norms and achievements in domains like education, family, and finances. ○ Higher levels of stress linked to social constraints. San Francisco: ○ Emphasis on individuality, creativity, and egalitarian relationships. ○ Residents' well-being is more tied to positive individual experiences than external constraints. ○ Greater focus on self-expression and less stress from social expectations. Cognition & perception Article: how the environment shapes cognition The study investigates how the physical environments in different cultures (Japan vs. the U.S.) influence cognitive patterns, specifically holistic vs. analytic perception. Key findings: Westerners (e.g., Americans) tend to focus on salient, individual objects. East Asians (e.g., Japanese) are more attuned to the broader context and relationships between elements in a scene. 1. Study 1 (Environmental Complexity): ○ Methods: Photos were taken in urban and rural areas in both countries, and participants rated their complexity and ambiguity. ○ Results: Japanese scenes were consistently rated as more complex and ambiguous than American scenes, containing more objects and less distinction between foreground and background. 2. Study 2 (Priming Effects on Attention): ○ Methods: Participants were shown images from Japanese or American environments as primes, then tested on attention to contextual vs. focal changes in neutral scenes. ○ Results: Both Japanese and American participants primed with Japanese scenes detected more contextual changes than those primed with American scenes, supporting the idea that environment influences attention. Cultural Construction of Perception: The findings suggest a dynamic interplay between cognition and the physical environment, where cultural preferences shape and are shaped by environmental affordances. Variation Within Cultures: Even within a culture, environmental complexity (e.g., urban vs. rural) affects attention patterns. The study demonstrates that cultural environments play a significant role in shaping attentional patterns, highlighting a reciprocal relationship between cognition and culture-specific physical settings. For East Asians, as holistic thinkers, it's harder to focus on a silent cognitive task and talk at the same time. Westerners, as analytic thinkers, find it relatively easy to think and speak simultaneously. Rabbit, carrot, dog. Which is the odd one out? - Taxonomic categorization, analytic thinking Carrot is the odd one out, as it is not an animal. Reasoning typical within independent cultures. - Relational, thematic, holistic think Dog is the odd one, as the rabbit and carrot have a relationship. Holistic reasoning is typical within interdependent cultures Where does Analytic and Holistic thinking come from ? → proximal: socialization, childhood experience - Children learn to use verbs sooner in japan - American mothers do more ‘I’ ruminating with their children - Analytic thinking appears in the Greek development of an elaborate formal logic system that searched for the truth according to abstract rules and syllogisms existing independently of observations. → distal: philosophical traditions - Law of noncontradiction vs Dialecticism - Agricultural traditions of rice or wheat Talking and thinking > Raven’s progressive matrices depending on cognition and culture Asian americans implore more thinking out loud tactics, while european americans used more articulatory suppression when solving the pattern puzzles Explicit / implicit communication Low context cultures tend to be looser, social scripts are loose High context cultures tend to be tighter, social scripts are defined and interactions tend to be uniform across the cultural context Linguistic Relativity (Whorfian hypothesis) - Language influences thought - The words that are available to people influence how they think - For emotional appraisal, some languages do not contain the vocabulary necessary to express the emotions (schadenfreude, amae) Berlin & Kay 1996 - color perception Cultural variation in number of color labels, could be an indication in a variation of color perception Robertson et al 2005 ○ Studied English speakers with native Papua New Guinea (Berinmo) ○ Showed a color chip, asked participants to match the color closest ○ Showed that color categorization influenced how people would determine similarity of colors (Nol in Berinomo describes colors that in english would be distinguished between green and blue) Odor perception - English has very limited terms to describe odor  - ‘It smells like a rose, it smells dull..’ borrow terms to describe odor Odor are expressible in language, as long as the language provides you with terminology (linguistic relativity) Spatial perception Relativistic (egocentric) vs absolute orientation (geocentric based on cardinal positioning) ○ Paying attention to directions relative to one’s own egocentric position is a relatively recent development, and one that you don’t see in many non-industrialized cultures. Understanding of time is grounded in y0ur understanding of space ○ The way time is conceptualised: in English, imagine birth from left and death to right, perceiving time the same way that English language is written. Arabic speakers show time progressing from right to left, same as their language. Numerical cognition Evidence that numerical cognition is largely cultural (ie abacus): If language does not make a distinction between numbers participants won’t either. Numerical terms are necessary for calculations and many other aspects of mathematical thinking (Gordon 2014) Emotion and interpersonal relations James -lange theory of emotions: Each emotion word is the description of a different bodily state or process. Embarrassment is the sensation of blood rushing to the face Schachter and Singer (1962): Two factor theory of emotion Alternative to james-lange theory. Examined the relationship between appraisal and physical arousal. Disagreements in western culture are important, they function to allow partners to express boundaries and own opinions ○ Autonomy-promoting Autonomous, self-focused, self-assertive First person perspective through Anger, pride Disagreements in Japan are opportunities to listen and adjust to each other ○ Relatedness-promoting Related, self-critical other person perspective taking through Shame Having culturally typical attractors is beneficial for relationship satisfaction Couples who show high validation show mutual empathy Criticism predicts mutual annoyance ○ During disagreements, couples gravitate towards emotional states culturally typical to them and toward own dominant cultural ideals Attraction > The similarity-attraction effect Canadians had a preference for a stranger they considered closely similar to themselves, whereas japanese participants did not show this preference > Propinquity Collectivistic cultures show bigger propinquity effects. (Become friends with others whom they frequently interact > mere exposure effect) > Average face Produced in experiment, collect many participant faces. The average face is a constructed average ( size, shape, location of eyebrows etc ) of all the participants in the sample. The average face is considered as more attractive, evolutionarily signal diversity > Symmetry of facial features and clear skin are considered functionally universally attractive Unsolicited advice is more common in collectivistic cultures, especially Russia and Turkey Contribution to their well-being by offer advice regardless if it is asked for Emotions across cultures Appraisal = the ‘making sense’ process > Culture can influence different appraisal of the same stimulus situation > action readiness - sense of urgency > linguistic relativity, how does language influence how emotion can be explained → Samoans use one word, alofa, to express both love and pity. → The six basic facial expressions of emotion, (a) Happiness, (b) surprise, (c) sadness, (d) anger, (e) disgust, and (f) fear. → Some languages do not have words to describe the basic emotions Two approaches to consider: what is emotion? 1. Evolutionary approach a. Physiological responses to stimuli in the word b. Emotions as invariant, in-born, biological reactions c. Assumes universality of emotional experience 2. Social constructionist approach a. Emotions are the interpretations of physiological responses b. Emotions are highly variable, contextualized responses c. Focus on cultural variability in emotional experience i. Appraisal of the autonomic arousal before the conscious feeling ii. Schachter and Singer (1962) Research on emotions: are facial expressions universal? > Evolutionary assumption: disgust facial reaction is protective against inhaling potentially harmful fumes - Work from Paul Ekmen demonstrates that cross cultures (industrial), individuals can recognize emotional state based on facial expression (above chance level) - In japan however, anger expression is different, blank face rather than stern - Replication of the study with Fore people in Papua new guinea found that surprise and sadness was recognised 0% of the time. Happiness was the most cross culturally recognisable facial expression Limitation for Ekmen’s universality claims: When tasks are designed to be less constrained, allowing participants more freedom in their responses, empirical support for the universality thesis from small-scale societies weakens considerably. > Behavioral-ecology view: an account of facial movements as context-dependent tools for social influence. Action identifications emphasize the functions of behaviors rather than unobservable mental causes of movements - Himba, Hadza, and Trobriander participants all routinely described facial movements as behaviors rather than as expressions of internal, mental events > Emotion perception is as much a product of meaning making by a perceiver as it is driven by the physical movements of a face Display rules: Culturally specific rules that govern which facial expressions are appropriate in a given situation and how intensely they should be exhibited. Emotional “smoothness” in Bali, avoid strong displays of emotion Expressions of anger are condemned all together in Inuit communities Intense expression of anger in defense of honor or in respond to an insult in certain Arab contexts > Ingroup advantage in identifying emotion: more accurate recognition within the same culture Facial feedback hypothesis: facial expressions are one source of information we use when we infer our emotional experiences Replicability of the study supporting this is questionable, but still some support for the thesis Emotional experience Independent Interdependent Personal differentiation, autonomy Interpersonal harmony, relatedness promoting promoting Concerned about how events might Concerned about how events affect close distinguish one from others others as well as oneself - Emotions are considered - Emotions are considered intrapersonal events, internal and interpersonal states that connect individual people to each other - Interpersonally disengaged emotions - Interpersonally engaged emotions are are more common: Proud, Anger more common: respect, shame - Interpersonally disengaging emotion, - Interpersonally engaging emotions, If you feel anger or pride, it takes you concerning the relationship out of the relationship and highlights what you need and is not as much concerned with what others want. - Low relational mobility - Higher standard for who is considered - High relational mobility a friend - Lower standard for who is considered - Less halo effect friend - More halo effect observed Heine 2015: blood pressure after anger induction remains higher for longer in European Canadians than Chinese canadians, suggesting that Chinese canadians experience of anger is briefer. Disneyland in Japan vs United states: High arousal positive emotions (excitement, joy) are more valued in the American theme park, whereas low arousal positive emotions (calm, content) are valued in the Japanese theme park, demonstrating culturally subjective well-being. Relational model typology 1. Communal sharing 2. Authority ranking 3. Equality matching 4. Market pricing