Understanding psychology and culture

What is culture ?

• Culture has traditionally been thought of as national identity

• However it has broadened to include many aspects of social difference including race, ethnicity, gender and social class

• Some aspects of culture may not necessarily be seen including socioeconomic status, religion and gender

Different emphasis of culture ?

• Social differences, race, ethnicity, gender, social class, religion and sexuality

• Beliefs and behaviours, communication style, thoughts, ways of interacting, views of roles/relationships, values

Berry’s aspects of culture ?

• (Berry et al 2011)

• Descriptive, emphasises different activities and behaviours of a culture

• Historical, refer to heritage and traditions associated with a particular cultural group

• Normative, signifies rules and norms of a culture

• Psychological, refers to behavioural aspects of culture like learning and problem solving

• Structural, depicts the social and organisational aspects of culture

• Genetic, describes origins of a culture

History and foundations of culture and psychology

• Volkerpsycholgie is largely responsible for European conception of culture, stems from Germany

• (folk psychology), argued that human behaviour is primarily due to cultural differences developed through social learning vs biological traits

What are the 4 functions of culture

• Evolutionary, need for collective support to survive and reproduce

• Buffer, ‘symbolic immortality, naming a baby so that your name lives on, religious beliefs in life after death

• Epistemic, validate our perceptions of the world around us, shared beliefs and expectations

• Resulting from interpersonal interactions, people mutually influence one another toward shared beliefs and behaviours

Complications with using the terminology “race”

• People argue race is more of a social construct as opposed to social categories (Banks, 2015)

• Eg black is considered a racial category that encompasses people of African origin

• Racial categories vary across cultures and are not defined by skin colour

Complications with using the terminology “ethnicity”

• Race and ethnicity are used interchangeably due to the use of the term rave in law and policy

• Ethnicity is used to identify individuals identities eg bone structure , skin, hair or eye colour

• Ethnicity groups people based on several factors including nationality and regional culture

What terms are supported

• BAME and BME

• BAME, black, asian and minority ethnic

• Widely used in reporting and using across many sectors including government, education and media

• Used to refer to all ethnic groups other than white

• BME, black minority ethnic

Limitations of BME and BAME

• Not proposed and is not universally accepted by those who are assumed to fall within it

• Many individuals from minority ethnic groups do not identify themselves as BAME

• Both single out specific ethnic groups which can be divisive

• Tends to be perceived as referring to non white people, does not consider white minority ethnic groups

Gender in culture ?

• Gender refers to norms and expectations that are culturally defined

• Feminists argue that gender identity is more significant for women than any other aspects of identity

• Scholars argue that gender is not a universal contrast and should be considered intersectional and fluid with other categorical distinctions of sexuality, race/ethnicity and nationality