Outline:

1. Introduction to the field & ideas.

America is the most culturally diverse country in the world.

Politically motivated to embrace cultural diversity - democratic principles.

Science - based on the principle that truth is fundamentally important.

If Psychology isn't accurately representing the totality of the human condition, it isn't being truthful, scientific.

Can we generalize findings from American research to other people in other cultures?

Would the findings be replicated elsewhere?

If not, the findings are only valid for Americans. It may be the case that truth is culturally relative and cultural bound; that we wouldn't find the same results in different cultures.

Cross-cultural research compares behaviors and characteristics between cultures.

Some truths will be universal, some will be culture-specific.

Gaining a Global Perspective

Not just valid if you are traveling.

America is the melting pot. We have to live with people from "other cultures" all the time.

Take time out now to find out about the cultural background of members of the class.

Dr. Bjornsen will go first:

Born 1960 to Jay Bjornsen and Ann Louise Heightchew

Jay Bjornsen, son of Ida and Kai Bjornsen, was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, where many of the Danes who immigrated to the U.S. settled.

Ida and Kai were born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and immigrated to the U.S. around the turn of the century

    Kai's neighborhood when he was a boy.

Danish culture: very friendly, fun-loving, peaceable culture. Family-oriented

    Students celebrate High School Graduation

    Safety of Denmark's major city, Copenhagen

Danes, like most Europeans, have strong roots in a long history (compare to the 222-year history of the United States).

Danes believe in Aristocracy and "mythological figures" such as Holger Danske

These roots awoke in Chris Bjornsen last year, when he travelled to Denmark and Norway. Going to where you came from awakens something in a person, like the Viking in me.

Karl Vigeland, Norway's greatest sculptor, depicted the basic value of the family in Norwegian culture with his statues in Oslo:

Mother and children        Couple and child

Mother, Father, Child

Ann Louise Heightchew. Born in Michigan to Mathilda Warner and Robert Heightchew. German descent, unknown immigration dates.

Hard-working, staunchly religious culture of Germans in the United States

Robert was a blue-collar, factory worker his whole life. Mathilda raised the children (two boys, two girls)

Ann Louise worked her whole life, and is just now allowing herself to enjoy life, in retirement.

Culture is not only what exists around you and how it affects you today - it is also part of why you are who you are, what you carry around inside of you, what you may not even know exists.

2. Understanding Culture

Race, nationality, ethnicity, music, art, food, clothing, rituals, traditions, heritage, physical and biological characteristics, behaviors, music, dance, literature, values

Categories of cultural information:

Descriptive - activities and behaviors
Historical - heritage and tradition
Normative - rules and norms
Psychological - attitudes, skills, traits
Structural - social, organizational elements
Genetic - origins of culture

Aspects of life influenced by culture:

general characteristics of people
food and clothing
housing and technology
economy and transportation
individual and family activities
community and government
welfare, religion, science
sex and the life cycle (development)

We see manifestations of culture, not culture itself.

Culture is an abstract concept.

Culture is never static - always changing, never adhered to by all inhabitants of the culture

Definition: Culture is the set of attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors shared by a group of people, but different for each individual, communicated from one generation to the next.

The contents of the MINDS of people within a culture defines the culture and are what is shared.

What distinquishes members of a culture is whether they share these psychological phenomena.

Culture is learned behavior.

Culture is an individual and a social construct.

If it exists between a group of people then it has to, in part, originate from individuals.

At least part of culture must be stable - or passed from one generation to the next.

The values, norms, rituals, beliefs, customs passed on give a community of people a structure with which they can live their lives - common ground for interpersonal understanding, pride, etc.

Etics - aspects of life that appear to be consistent across different cultures

Emics - aspects of life that appear to be different across cultures

One fundamental aspect of cross-cultural science is to discover what traits are emic and what traits are etic.

Likely more emics than etics.

But, when we look closely, there are more etics than we knew existed.

We can also ask if traits can be both emic and etic at the same time.

Two people can be talking and being polite but the way they are being polite looks different.

Ethnocentrism - interpreting someone else's behavior from the perspective of our own culture

Stereotypes - believing that all people from a specific culture have the same characteristics of a small sample of people we have had contact with or learned about
 

Stereotypes are natural to create - provide a framework for understanding people - but often are incorrect for an individual we meet or learn about

Individualism-collectivism (IC)

degree to which a culture encourages, fosters, and facilitates the needs, wishes, desires, and values of an autonomous and unique self over those of a group

Individualistic - United States
Collectivist - old Soviet Union

Any others?

Power Distance - inequality of power (holding resources)

Status differentiation - (aristocracy vs democracy)

Uncertainty avoidance - developing rituals to deal with anxiety concerning uncertainty and ambiguity

Masculinity - promote or demote gender differences (U.S. vs Islamic cultures)

Tightness - loosely knit cultures, or tightly knit cultures (U.S. loose, Asian and Hispanic cultures tight)

Contextualization - behaviors are highly context-dependent, vs behaviors that are supposed to be similar in different contexts

IC - U.S. much more individualistic than Italy, France, and Switzerland

Countries find that becoming industrialized is associated with moving away from collectivistic and toward individualistic

Collectivistic cultures are more likely to pursue a dispute with a stranger - compare to the U.S. - we don't feel we are responsible for each other, so we turn away when we see someone doing something "wrong."

Ethnographies - in-depth examinations of the intricacies of a single culture - more commonly used in anthropology

3. Culture, Self, and Personality

How does culture affect our core sense of self, and how is it expressed in our thoughts and behaviors?

How are concepts of personality different in different cultures?

Culture and concepts of self.

Western cultures see the self as containing certain internal attributes - needs, abilities, motives, rights

very individualistic - Independent construal of self

(Is this an illusion we construct for ourselves?)

Other cultures view the self as inherently interdependent with others

fundamental connectedness of human beings

the person adjusts TO others - interdependent construal of self

roles and tasks selected and designed throughout history

self-esteem, self-worth depends on how well one fits in

People in collectivistic cultures generate many more social categories to which they belong - and how strongly do Americans feel they don't belong

Self-construals serve as a cognitive template for interpreting the behaviors of others

fundamental attribution error - not as powerful in interdependent cultures

Achievement motivation - may be more linked to broader social goals in interdependent cultures

Self-enhancement and effacement - Americans believe they are all above average - false uniqueness effect  -

    Lake Woebegone

Not true in, i.e., Japan - figure 3.2 on page 46

Social connotation of emotion

emotions encourage independence and interdependence

socially disengaged emotions - pride, superiority, anger, frustration - inner goals and desires have been affected - these emotions promote feelings of separateness from others

socially engaged emotions - feelings of friendship, respect, indebtedness, guilt - promote interdependence with others

all people experience both types

Emic emotions - indigenous emotions - Micronesia - fago  - mixture of compassion, love, and sadness - promotes interdependence - ker - mixture of happiness and excitement - dangerous, socially disruptive - highly socially disengaged emotion

    (bungee-jumping???)

Amae - Japan - desire or expectation for others' indulgence, benevolence, favor - mother and child - worker and boss - may come from ancient Japanese cultural customs between Master and servants

Happiness

relaxed, elated, calm - American students report generic positive emotions when experiencing disengaged emotions -  Japanese students report positive emotions when experiencing engaged emotions

Culture and Personality Traits

American and European psychology - personality is defined as a set of enduring characteristics

High-context cultures, though, view personality as highly changeable

Big Five Personality Inventory - McRae & Costa 1987

extroverson - introversion
agreeableness-antagonish
conscientiousness-unidirectedness
neuroticism-stability
openness to experience

A study of monolingual American students showed significant differences between independent and interdependent contexts

Locus of Control

internal vs external

Americans and Europeans tend to have internal LOC
Asians tend to have external LOC

Men and people in industrialized nations more internal

Whites more internal than blacks

Culture and indigenous personalities

personality constructs and concepts that pertain only to one specific (usually isolated) culture

African personality - three layers - first layer is core, includes spiritual; second layer is psychological vitality; third layer is physiological vitality. Body houses all layers. Family lineage and community affect different core aspects.

    Sounds like what the main character in Amistad said about facing the Supreme Court - "all my ancestors will be in there with me - at this moment I am the sole reason they have existed."

Amae may be a core construct of Japanese personality - the word means passive, childlike dependence of one person on another

5. Enculturation, Socialization, and Development

childhood and culture

children are socialized in the ecologies that promote the competencies necessary for adulthood in that culture

socialization into the rules of the culture

enculturation - learning and adopting the norms of the culture - the products of socialization

acculturation - adapting to a different culture

socialization agents - all individuals with whom a child has regular or significant contact

Piaget - cognitive development - stages

cross-cultural generalization?
stages do occur in fixed order
variations in ages of stages
variations within stages - depends on specific experiences in the culture - conservation

many cultures do not value abstract thinking as the highest level of thought
 

Levy-Bruhl - great divide - between Western and non-Western thinkers - non-W not bothered by logical contradictions

Lawrence Kohlberg - pre, conv, post

C-C studies - serious questions about the generalizability of LK's stages

Snarey (1985) review of moral reasoning in 27 different countries - MR is very culture-specific

    Emic or Etic ?
 

Erik Erikson's stages 1 through 8

studied many different cultures

resolution of stages is by degree, unlike other theories

cultural definitions of "successful" resolution

temp - in-born personality style
three categories, goodness of fit

Chinese-American babies are more placid than Euro or African-American babies

Japanese American and Navajo babies are different than Euro-American babies as well

connection with HBP of mother during pregnancy

Interaction between parenting and infant temperament

Asian and Native American babies - treated in a very calm manner by parents
 

contact comfort (Harlow)

German parents value early autonomy - avoidant attachment is the ideal

Israeli kibbutz children are typically ambivalent

Japanese - ambivalent - foster dependence
children sleep with mother through childhood

Efe infants raised by the community (It Takes a Village to Raise a Child)

Baumrind - 3 types
4th type - uninvolved

Parenting as a funtion of economics

Parents work to survive - may leave infants alone

Extended families

America - Euro focus on extended families - Ethnic minorities focus more on extended families

Sleeping arrangements - Rural Europeans, infants sleep with parents through year one - Mayan mothers through early childhood - and Japanese mothers

philosophy - what are children supposed to learn
how they learn it - strict vs loose

Focus on math - culture-specific

Japanese and Chinese abilities far exceed American

spend more time on math; focus on correcting mistakes; engage all students; all need to learn math; do not focus on praise; do not focus on innate ability; not satisfied with lower ability;

Person perception and impression formation

U.S. research

    Physical attractiveness
    Height
    Baby-face features

    Cognitive schemas
    Social schemas
    Stereotypes

Cross-cultural research

Beauty is still important, but the definition of beauty is different

Japanese ratings of smiling faces

Memory, selective attention, and appraisal

Semantic memory - long-term memory for rule

Selective attention - filter and choose specific info

Appraisal - evaluate meaning of info relevant to our lives

Attributions - inferring the causes of behavior

ethnocentrism - viewing the world through your own cultural filters

people with different cultural backgrounds have different filters

flexible vs inflexible ethnocentrism

Stereotypes - come from ethnocentrism, media, limited exposure

    limiting and potentially discriminatory

Going beyond stereotypes - three points

Characteristics we use to create stereotypes are not usually the defining characteristics of even one person in that group (skin color does not define character)

Generalizations about a group doesn't necessarily define individuals from the group (in fact, likely doesn't)

8. Culture and Social Behavior

Intergroup behavior

Ingroups and outgroups

ingroups - familiarity, trust
outgroup - neutral or hostile relations

enculturation involves learning the ingroups and outgroups

CB - we are genetically programmed to bond with a select few - competition, natural selection

different cultures enculturate different ingroups and outgroups

United States? Formation of ingroups and outgroups?
Class discussion here.

Other cultures. Identified ingroup members may become identified outgroup members, depending on the context.

Switching phenomenon. Happens in U.S. but to a lesser degree than other cultures.

Individualism-collectivism.

People in individualistic cultures tend to belong to many ingroups. (Self-serving needs.)
Collectivist cultures, fewer ingroups, but greater commitments to the groups. Important part of person's identity.

Individualistic cultures - people don't invest themselves as much in their ingroups.

Cooperation is valued more in collectivist cultures.

Asian cultures - inappropriate behavior by one individual shames the person's family and important ingroups. Losing face. Kamikazi pilots of WWII.

In collectivist cultures, relations with outgroups are not as important.

In individualistic cultures, people are more likely to view outgroups relations as important, and may even strive to connect to outgroups.

    e.g., U.S. approach to Human Rights issues in China. In China, they don't believe the U.S. has any business addressing China's human rights issues.

Emotions are expressed more freely in ingroups.

Collectivist cultures foster more positive ingroups emotions. Maintain harmony.

Individualistic cultures show more negative emotions toward the ingroup. More likely to show positive emotions toward the outgroup.
 

Consistency - is a person's behavior in a context the same over time

        Dennis Rodman vs George Brett

Distinctiveness - is the behavior unique to the target

Does Bill Clinton take advantage of everyone, or just women?

Consensus - do other people tend to respond in the same manner

        Hooligans at Soccer games

High consistency, low distinctiveness produce internal attributions

       That's just Dennis. That's the way he is.

        The cause of his behavior is internal.

High consistency, high distinctiveness, high consensus produce external attributions

        I always respond with disdain toward only abusive parents when they hit their kids and most people agree with me.

    The cause of my behavior is external.

Weiner - stability - internal vs external attributions for success and failure.

Fundamental Attribution Error

Self-serving bias - success, internal - failure, external

Defensive attributions - blame victims - why? - because if I believe that person was a victim of circumstance, then I could suffer the same fate - out of my control - if I believe that person is internally responsible, then I know I can control my fate because I control my internal traits and decisions

Self-serving bias not found to the same degree in other cultures

effort, interest, ability judged to be the causes of success or failure in Asian cultures, Indian

Self-effacing more important in other cultures - Asian

Europeans - see success as much more determined by family background

Australians see individual traits as more responsible
 

U.S.

Proximity, physical attractiveness, matching on physical characteristics, similarity on other traits, reciprocity

Passionate love, companionate love, consummate love

Intimacy and self-disclosure

Other cultures

"We love the person we marry."

Arranged marriages - Asia, India

France - more like U.S.

Japanese and Americans higher than French on conflict expression.

Romantic love valued in Germany, too.

Love, Marriage and Adultery in Nineteenth-Century France

In 36 of 37 cultures, females value financial prospects as more important than males; also ambition and industriousness

in all 37 cultures, males prefer younger mates and females prefer older

Males rate physical beauty as important

in 23 cultures, males rated chastity as more important than females

intercultural marriages - individuals may bring different values into the marriage - possible conflict

conformity - yield to social pressure

compliance - yield but hold same beliefs

obedience - comply with authority

Solomon Asch - conformity
Stanley Milgram - obedience

Other cultures view the above constructs in a more positive way than Americans

Italiens don't value obedience as highly as Japanese

But Italiens are more conforming than Anglo-Australians
(used to be prison colony for Great Britain)

Asians and Hispanics value conformity in child behavior

Italy - not an extremely unified country - short history - separate identity of north and south (north more affluent, south poor - Mafia - word came from resistance to French military control - country only unified in late 1800's)

Switzerland - strong loyalty to the country VS other countries - but strong loyalty to individual "cantons" (similar to our states) within the country

As it turns out, we will skip this chapter.

Instructions for Thursday and Friday:
We will cover 10, 12, 14, & 15 in outline form on Thursday. The last half hour of class Thursday will be a Q & A session with all of us and Maureen Walls. Friday will be a test day - chapters 8, 10, 12, 14, & 15.

10. Culture and gender

Sex, sex roles, sexual identity, gender, gender role, gender identity

High levels of agreement on the characteristics different cultures ascribe to males and females - p. 209

    reflects consensus in gender role ideology

Most egalitarian roles found in Netherlands, Germany, Finland. Most traditional roles found in Nigeria, Pakistan, and India.

Men and women cross-culturally rate the ideal self as more masculine than their self

American difference on spatial reasoning between males and females does not apply in all cultures. Not the Inuit culture of Canada.

Male superiority is found in tight, sedentary, agriculturally based, while females are superior in cultures that are loose, nomadic, and hunter-gathering based

Conformity - US females are more conforming to others than are males.

Males are more aggressive in all cultures for which data exists.

Related to but not solely determined by age or hormones.

Male aggression may be a "gender marking" issue - breaking away from the instruction of the mother during adolescence.

Asian-American females adhere to traditional gender roles.
Males are aloof, unemotional, authoritative.
Inside the family, women have high control of decisions.

Hispanic Americans. Males inhabit machismo. Acculturation is creeping into these families, however.

Native American Indians - gender roles depend on cultural history of the tribe.

12. The Diversity of Human Feeling

Importance of emotion in our lives.

William James and C. Lange argued we feel emotions as a result of behavioral responses to stimuli.

Cannon & Bard argued emotions are stimulated in the brain separate from stimulation to act.

Schachter & Singer argued that emotions result from our interpretations of experiences. Emotions are how we label arousal.

Emotions and emotional expression are evolutionarily adaptive.

Americans place primary importance on emotions - how we FEEL.

Cross-cultural perspectives.

Not all cultures have a WORD for "emotion".

Most cultures do, however, including Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and Spain.

Cultures have labels for "emotions" that Americans do not have.
We label experiences differently.

Americans define emotions as inner experiences. We feel with our hearts.

Japanese label feelings in their gut or abdomen. Malaysian in their liver. Tahitians in their intestines.

Emotional Expression

Charles Darwin - 1872 - The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals. Evolutionarily adaptive. Research by others supports the view that many emotional expressions are universal cross-culturally.

Display rules - expressions.

Cultures differ in the rules they have for the display of emotions.
Circumstances are different.

Japanese students display differently when an authority figure is in the room, so as not to offend the authority figure.

Expression of emotions is therefore controlled not only by innate mechanisms, but also contexts and the cultural norms that have been learned.

Display differences: para 3, p. 257: Matsumoto study

Perceiving emotions

Universal percepions of some emotions.

Differences in how strongly emotions are perceived.

Asian cultures rate expressions less strongly than other cultures.

Blacks rate anger and fear more intensely than others.

People are more accurate when judging others of their own race

Experiencing emotions

Japanese report feeling emotions more than Americans or Europeans

Americans report feeling joy an danger more than Europeans

Americans report feeling emotions longer than Europeans or Japanese

Cultural events and achievement-related events trigger emotions in Europeans and Americans more than Japanese.

Deaths and separations trigger emotions in Europeans and Americans more than Japanese.

Relationships problems, however, show the reverse trend.

14. Culture and Communication

Nonverbal behaviors.

Illustrators - highlight what we are saying - hand gestures, eyebrows
adaptors/manipulators - help our bodies adapt to the environment; scratching, rubbing eyes
emblems - convey messages by themselves - head nodding, shaking, pouting lips, sticking out tongue
regulators - regulate flow of speech in conversatin - facial expressions,

Each culture has its own rules for nonverbal behavior

Dress, posture

Gaze: means power in humans and animals; also affection

Arabs stare longer than Americans

Contact cultures stare longer

African Americans gaze less than European Americans

Interpersonal Space - Proxemics

intimate space, personal space, social space, public space

Arabs, Latin Americans have smaller zones than Americans

Italians interact more closely than Germans or Americans

Gestures

15.  Conclusion

How is culture a psychological construct?

How can individuals in one culture be different?

How do we filter, use ethnocentrism?

How can conflicts be caused by culture?

How can cultural differences be legitimate?