Multicultural Psychology Final Chapter 8-14

Masuda and Nisbett (2001)

Differences in attention between american and japanese. 1st task Had to identify as many objects as possible. American focused on focal points while japanese focused on background.

2nd task- recognize objects with same, different, or no background. Japanese recognition went down with no/ different background.

Masuda et al. (2008)

Faces version of fish study. Japanese looked at background faces more

Miyamoto et al 2006

Primed with japanese scenery. Japanese environments have more elements, so they attend to background more. After Americans were primed with jap background, they also recalled more background.

holistic perception

Context dependent, focus on relationships, collectivistic

Analytic perception

context independent, focuses on a salient object independently from the context, individualistic

Muller-Lyer Illusion

Carpentered world theory. Urbanized places used to seeing rectangles. industrialized communities "fooled" by ML illusion

horizontal-vertical illusion

The front-horizontal foreshortening theory

- People interpret vertical lines as horizontal lines extending into the distance

- More common among those living in rural/ non- industrialized area

Non industrialized "fooled" by horizontal vertical

Segall et al 1963, 1966

Industrialized groups more fooled by muller lyer

Non industrialized groups fooled by vertical horizontal

Hudson (1960)

A study in which compared the ability of a range of African tribe members to differentiate between 2D and 3D perception. Found that education and cultural assumptions influences the perception of images.

Categorization

Grouping based on perceived similarities

universal tendency of categorization

Emotions, primary colors, shapes, stereotypes

gender stratification hypothesis

the idea that gender differences are related to cultural variations in opportunity structures for girls and women.

Else-Quest et al. (2010)

- 69 nations

-Results: greater gender gaps in math best predicted by

- ↓ Gender equality in school enrollment ◦ ↓ Women's share of research jobs

- ↓ Women's parliamentary representation

dialectical thinking

The tendency to accept what seem to be contradictions in thought or beliefs. Common in Asia. good and evil, masculinity and femininity, yin and yang. Example: i feel too tired to work, and i can still do my work anyways

positive logical determinism

A tendency to see contradictions as mutually exclusive categories, as either-or, yes-no, one-or-the-other types of categories. Example: mother and daughter conflict. Mother raised the daughters in a specific way but they are now rejecting mothers values. one of the parties, either the mother or daughter are in the wrong. It would prescribe that perhaps the mother is being stubborn, or the daughter to wilful. Western thought

Peng and Nisbett (1999)

American responses more non-dialectical

- ex "mothers have to recognize daughters' rights to their own values

Chinese responses more dialectical

- ex"Both the mothers and the daughters have failed to understand

each other"

Naive Dialecticism

Ying Yang. Have to accept contradictions and change, world is made of opposites.

Doctrine of the mean- the truth is in the middle. Goldilocks

Bruner et al Western cultures vs Africa sorting

Africa: both children and adults sort by color.

Western: children sort by color. Adults sort by shape then function.

Chiu 1972 sorting American vs Chinese children

Cow, Chicken, Grass

American: cow and chicken go together bc shared features

Chinese: cow and grass go together bc of relationship

Memory: universal tendencies

- memory processes (encoding, storage, retrieval, etc.)

- memory decline with age

- hindsight bias

Effects of oral traditions on memory

Ghanaian students better at remembering verbal stories.

Math

Universal number line left - right, big - small

Many languages use base 10, English does 1-19 unique and additive starting at 20. Makes it more confusing

Time orientation: long term vs short term cultures (hofstede)

Long term: focus on past and future. Japan, china, India

Short term: focus on present. United States, New Zealand, Canada

Levine and Norenzayan 1999 time orientation

3 things reflective of pace of life:

- how fast people walk

- transaction at a post office

- accuracy of clocks

Results

Fastest- Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, Japan, Italy

Slowest- Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil, El Salvador

Colder cities faster

Bright economies faster

Individualistic faster

Basic emotions

Innate, evolutionary adaptive.

Anger, joy

Universal

Self conscious emotions

Embarrassment, pride

Ekman 1969 facial expressions

Tribes of New Guinea

Showed facial expressions universally recognized

Universality in spontaneous expression of emotion

Sighted Olympic athletes vs congenitally blind Paralympic athletes

spontaneous facial expressions of emotion is not dependent on observational learning but simultaneously demonstrates a learned component to the social management of expressions, even among blind individuals.

Universality in emotion response system coherence

Various response components (e.g., face, voice, physiology) are

related to each other in a meaningful way

Universal correlations in

-verbal & nonverbal expressions

- emotion intensity and physiological sensations

Universality in emotion antecedents

Emotional antecedents- events or situations that elicit an emotion

Results: no culture-specific category of antecedents needed

o Happiness: relationships with friends, achievements

o Anger: relationships, injustice

o Sadness: relationships, death

Front end calibration vs back end calibration

Front end: culture regulates what people become emotional about in the first place

Back end: culture regulates how people express emotion (cultural display rules)

Cultural display rules

Deamplifications, amplification, neutralization, qualification, masking, simulation

Collectivist show deamplification of emotion when older person around

Individualist show more encouragement for emotional expression

Models of emotion: internal vs relational

Internal: rage room. Inside out. Individualistic

Relational: lack of stress when deamplifying emotions. Collectivistic

Hypercognized vs. hypocognized emotions

Hypergognized: thought about a lot example: love in the US and shame in china

Hypocognized: little attention/ knowledge about an emotion, no words to describe it. Example: Tahitians have no words for grief, instead they say their sick

Socially engaging vs socially disengaging emotions

Socially engaging- collectivistic, social interdependence. Happy, sad, respect, sympathy, guilt

Socially disengaging- independence, autonomy, individualistic, pride, anger

Emotional dialecticism

Co occurrence of pleasant and unpleasant emotions

lexicon

Vocabulary

Phonology

study of speech sounds

Semantics

Meaning of words and sentences

Morphology

Formation of words over time p

Pragmatics

the appropriate use of language in different contexts

Reciprocity between culture and language

Learning culture helps language acquisition

culture and pragmatics

Low context cultures- interpret messages independent from context. Individualist

High context cultures- interpret messages considering context. Collectivist

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Linguistic relativity.

The idea that different languages create different ways of thinking.

*hypothesis not true-Lexical differences do not influence cognition, babies with no language think. The same

Different forms of nonverbal behaviors

Speech illustrators: gestures

Emblems: peace sign, ok sign

Gaze: in us eye contact is respectful, but not for Asia

Paralinguistic cues: tone, intonation, pitch

Proxemics: how close you are to someone

Haptics: touch. High moderate and low contact cultures

code frame switching

the process by which bilinguals switch between one cultural meaning system and another when switching languages

Hong et al code frame switching

When Primed with American images: internal attributions

o The big fish leading the others

When Primed with Chinese images: external attributions

o The big fish being chased by the others

Biomedical model of health

Focuses on the physical or biological aspects of disease and illness. It is a medical model of care practised by doctors and health professionals and is associated with the diagnosis, cure and treatment of disease.

biopsychosocial model of health

The integration of biological, psychological, and social factors in dealing with health related behaviors

Holistic approach to health

Emphasizes the integration and balance of mind, body, and spirit. Considers needs of the person as a whole. Goal of homeostasis. Ying yang

complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)

Acupuncture, homeopathy. No scientific backing, but usually works

pluralistic culture

A modern society composed of groups who see the world from different perspectives, value different activities, hold disparate religious beliefs, and aspire to different goals

Three indicators of health worldwide

-life expectancy

-infant mortality

-subjective well-being

cultural neuroscience

studies the ways that cultural variables affect the brain, the mind, genes, and behavior.

Neuroscience+ cultural psychology+ population genetics

People living in countries with a high prevalence of pathogens are more likely to be more collectivistic.

Example: 5-HTTLPR short allele= increased risk of depression in face of stressful events

Link between prevalence of 5- HTTLPR short allele and collectivism "culture- gene coevolution"

Health practices and prevalence of pathogens/ genes across cultures

People living in collectivistic places likely to have high number of pathogens, also likely to wear masks for the safety of others.

Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions

power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation

Social isolation/ support health

Fewer social ties= higher mortality rate, unemployment, stress, pessimistic attribution styles

Perceived support may be more important than actual support

International body project

26 countries from 10 world regions, Participants all females, Ask participants to pick the picture that resembles their body shape and the picture that shows the ideal body shape

Results:

America- highest levels of dissatisfaction

Asia- lowest

Acculturation and the immigrant paradox

Immigrants have better mental and physical health among immigrants compared to non immigrants despite challenges

Further acculturation= worse health outcomes

What explains it?

Healthy behaviors

Social support

Immigrant selectivity

Abnormality: traditional view vs cultural realism

Traditional view- there's cultural similarities even universality on psychological mechanisms

Cultural relativism- psych disorders can only be understood in cultures where they occur

diathesis-stress model

suggests that a person may be predisposed for a psychological disorder that remains unexpressed until triggered by stress

Reliability

Getting the same diagnosis each time

Validity

Diagnosis accurately portrays clinical symptoms

Etic

Focus on similarities and universality. Outsider perspective (reliability and validity easy to achieve)

cultural concepts of distress (CCD)

Syndromes- patterns of symptoms that cluster together for individuals in specific groups

Idioms- how groups communicate their distressing thoughts and emotions

Explainations- causes of the distress

Emic

Focusing on differences. Insider perspective

Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI)

a set of questions that assess the impact of culture on key aspects of the client's health, help diagnose properly

Underpathologizing

indiscriminately seeing behavior as cultural when in fact, behavior may reflect abnormal psychological response. Saying they're fine when they may not be

Overpathologizing

misinterpreting culturally sanctioned behavior as expressions of abnormal symptoms

Schizophrenia

Positive symptoms- delusions and hallucinations

Negative symptoms- lack of speech, social withdrawal, no motivation

International pilot study of schizophrenia

Similarities between cultures: hallucinations and delusions

Differences: developing countries have faster recovery rates, hallucinations more accepted in Nigeria

Depression

Physical, emotional, motivational changes, women more vulnerable, vegetative symptoms, must deviate from the cultural norm

Culture specific symptoms of depression

Chinese:

Embodied emotional experience more than physical

Impaired social relations

Insomnia is a cause not a symptom

ADHD

Must have inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity.

2 veins on etiology (causes):

"ADHD is biologically based" - both chinese and us agree

"ADHD kids are just bored and need more to do"- chinese agree 71%

evolutionary attractiveness

Must signal reproductive success

Low waist to hip ratio

Average face= attractive

Desireable personality traits- sensitive, kind, sociable, pleasant, likable, interesting, competent, intelligent, sexual interest

Attribution

explaining one's own behavior and the behavior of others

internal (dispositional) attribution

attributing one's behavior to his or her personality; for example, attributing a child's hostility to their aggressive personality

external (situational) attribution

inference that a person's behavior is caused by something about the situation

fundamental attribution error

Attribution error made about someone else's behavior

- good behavior= external attribution

- bad behavior= internal attribution

fundamental attribution error- cultural differences

Miller 1984

Americans: internal/ dispositional attributions "that's just the type of person she is"

Hindu: external/ situational attributions " he is unemployed so he's having a hard time"

Peng 1994

American: internal/ dispositional - he's psychologically disturbed

Chinese: external/ situational - he was isolated

social identity theory

the idea that ingroups consist of individuals who perceive themselves to be members of the same social category and experience pride through their group membership.

Cultural differences in in group/ out group relationships

Individualistic

- more in groups

- weaker attachment

- individual success> sacrificing for ingroup

- less distinction between groups, more inclusive

collectivistic

- fewer ingroups

- stronger attachment

- group success important, more willing to sacrifice for group

- more distinction and discrimination against groups

contact hypothesis

The idea that stereotypes and prejudice toward a group will diminish as contact with the group increases.

To work it needs:

Equal status

Common goals

Cooperation