PSYC 307 - Cultural Psych

What is the self-concept?

The set of beliefs and perceptions a person has about who they are, including traits, roles, relationships, and identities.

Why is self-concept important for psychological functioning?

It shapes how we interpret experiences, behave in relationships, evaluate ourselves, and respond to social situations.

What is an independent self-construal?

Viewing oneself primarily as an autonomous individual defined by personal traits, preferences, abilities, and goals.

What is an interdependent self-construal?

Viewing oneself primarily as connected with others and defined partly by roles, relationships, and group memberships.

Independent vs interdependent self: what is emphasized?

Independent: internal personal attributes and uniqueness. Interdependent: social roles, obligations, relationships, and fitting in.

Independent vs interdependent self: communication?

Independent self tends toward direct expression; interdependent self tends toward indirect communication that preserves relationships and harmony.

What is the Twenty Statements Test ('Who am I?')?

People complete repeated 'I am…' statements; researchers code descriptions as personal characteristics versus social roles or memberships.

What did the American-versus-Kenyan self-description comparison find?

American undergraduates relied more on personal attributes; several Kenyan groups, especially Maasai and Samburu, relied more on roles and memberships.

What is individualism?

A cultural pattern that prioritizes autonomy, personal choice, and individual goals over obligations to the group.

What is collectivism?

A cultural pattern that prioritizes social connectedness, group goals, relationships, and obligations to others.

How are individualism and collectivism related to self-construal?

Individualistic contexts tend to encourage independent selves; collectivistic contexts tend to encourage interdependent selves, with variation within each culture.

How did Santos, Grossmann, and Varnum (2017) measure individualism at the societal level?

They used behavioral indicators such as smaller households, adults living alone, divorce rates, and distinctive baby names rather than relying on one person's survey answer.

What global trend in individualism is highlighted in the slides?

Individualism has increased in many parts of the world over time; countries still vary widely.

How is socioeconomic class related to independence and social relationships?

More affluent and educated environments tend to reinforce independence; less advantaged environments may rely more on interdependence and social relationships.

What is the cultural mismatch hypothesis for first-generation university students?

Universities often emphasize independence, which may conflict with students' more interdependent backgrounds and negatively affect belonging or academic outcomes.

What is self-consistency?

The extent to which someone describes or experiences themselves similarly across different social roles and situations.

Which self-construal tends to produce greater cross-situation self-consistency?

Independent, because stable personal traits are seen as central to identity.

How did Kanagawa et al. (2001) test self-consistency?

Japanese and American students completed self-descriptions in four situations: with a professor, with peers, in class, and alone.

What did Kanagawa et al. (2001) find in Japanese students?

Self-descriptions varied by context; they were most critical with a professor and more positive when alone.

What is an 'inside-out' view of the self?

Interpreting experiences primarily from one's own internal perspective, traits, and intentions.

What is an 'outside-in' view of the self?

Attending to how one appears to others and the social setting when understanding oneself.

How does self-construal help explain cultural differences in memory perspective?

An outside-in orientation can make observer or third-person representations of oneself more salient; an inside-out orientation emphasizes one's own viewpoint.

What is acculturation?

The psychological and behavioral adjustment that occurs through sustained contact with a new culture.

What is culture shock?

Stress, anxiety, or disorientation caused by unfamiliar cultural expectations, routines, language, or practices.

What are the three broad stages of the U-shaped acculturation curve?

Honeymoon (initial enthusiasm), crisis/culture shock (declining comfort), and adjustment (recovering comfort and functioning).

What is cultural distance?

The degree of difference between someone's heritage culture and a host culture; greater distance often makes adaptation harder.

What two attitudes define the four acculturation strategies?

Orientation toward maintaining the heritage culture and orientation toward participating in the host culture.

What is integration as an acculturation strategy?

Maintaining a positive connection to heritage culture AND participating in the host culture (heritage +, host +).

What is assimilation as an acculturation strategy?

Adopting the host culture while moving away from heritage culture (heritage −, host +).

What is separation as an acculturation strategy?

Maintaining heritage culture while avoiding significant involvement with the host culture (heritage +, host −).

What is marginalization as an acculturation strategy?

Having a weak connection to both heritage and host cultural communities (heritage −, host −).

Which acculturation strategy generally has the best adjustment outcomes in the slides?

Integration often fares best because a person can draw support from both cultural communities; some studies find assimilation similarly positive.

What is cultural blending?

Multicultural experience produces a self-concept or pattern of thinking that falls between the patterns of different cultural environments.

What is cultural frame-switching?

Different cultural cues activate different culturally learned ways of thinking or behaving within the same person.

How does blending differ from frame-switching?

Blending predicts a relatively intermediate pattern; frame-switching predicts shifts depending on the situation or cue, such as language.

How did Kemmelmeier and Cheng (2004) demonstrate frame-switching?

Hong Kong Chinese respondents reported more independence in an English-language questionnaire and more interdependence in a Chinese-language questionnaire.

Why might multicultural experience foster creativity?

Adapting to multiple cultural viewpoints encourages seeing familiar problems in new ways and finding novel connections.

What did Godart et al. (2015) examine in fashion designers?

Associations between creativity ratings and foreign-living breadth (number of countries), depth (time abroad), and cultural distance.

What did Godart et al. (2015) find?

Each dimension related to greater creativity, but breadth and cultural distance had curvilinear relationships: moderate exposure could be more beneficial than extreme exposure.

Why can culturally diverse groups outperform homogeneous groups?

Different backgrounds contribute nonredundant perspectives, broaden information, and challenge shared assumptions.

What is confirmation bias in group decisions?

Favoring evidence that supports existing beliefs; diverse viewpoints can help weaken this tendency.

What is 'wisdom of the crowd'?

When independent judgments are aggregated, the group's estimate can be more accurate than a typical individual's estimate.

What conditions help wisdom of the crowd work?

Diverse knowledge, sufficiently independent judgments rather than copying others, and a method for combining opinions.

What are practical ways to manage conflict in culturally diverse groups?

Establish shared goals and respectful discussion norms; encourage equal participation, clarify communication expectations, and address disagreements constructively. (Application of the lecture's conflict-management question.)

What is parasocial contact?

A one-sided sense of familiarity or connection with a person encountered through media, such as a public figure.

How can positive parasocial contact reduce prejudice?

Repeated positive exposure to a relatable member of an outgroup can challenge negative stereotypes and increase positive feelings about that group.

What was the 'Salah Effect' examined by Al'Alrababah and colleagues (2021)?

A study of prejudice-related outcomes after Egyptian Muslim footballer Mohamed Salah joined Liverpool FC.

What changes were reported in the Salah Effect slides?

About 16% fewer hate crimes in the Liverpool area and 50% fewer Islamophobic tweets among Liverpool fans after Salah joined; interpret as study findings, not a universal guarantee.

What are the three self-related motivations covered in Lecture 8?

Self-enhancement, self-improvement, and self-acceptance/self-compassion.

What is self-enhancement?

Motivation to see oneself favorably and maintain or boost positive self-evaluations.

What is self-improvement?

Motivation to identify shortcomings, learn from feedback, and become better.

What is self-acceptance?

Valuing oneself, including imperfections, without making self-worth contingent on success or praise.

What is the difference between self-enhancement and self-improvement?

Self-enhancement protects a positive view of oneself; self-improvement notices weaknesses in order to grow.

How did average U.S. college-student self-esteem change in the 1965–1995 graph?

Average Rosenberg self-esteem scores increased over this historical period in the slide's sample.

How did Heine and Renshaw (2002) compare self-evaluations in Japan and the U.S.?

University club members rated themselves, and their ratings were compared with evaluations from four clubmates.

What were Heine and Renshaw's (2002) key findings?

About 64% of U.S. respondents self-enhanced compared with 16% in Japan; about 84% of Japanese respondents were self-critical compared with 36% in the U.S.

What did the lecture compare about persistence after success and failure?

Motivation to persist can depend on whether a cultural setting emphasizes maintaining successful self-regard or improving after shortcomings.

What is 'face'?

Social value or standing others grant when a person fulfills expectations and behaves appropriately in a social hierarchy.

What is 'honor' as described in Lecture 8?

A publicly recognized reputation for strength and dignity that can be challenged and must be defended.

How do face and honor cultures differ in typical threats?

Face: humiliation, incompetence, social impropriety. Honor: insults, disrespect, or perceived threats to oneself or one's family.

How did Hamamura et al. (2009) study attention to positive versus negative information?

They coded positive and negative content in helpful Amazon book reviews in the U.S. and Japan.

What did the Amazon review study find?

Helpful U.S. reviews contained roughly balanced positive and negative information; helpful Japanese reviews contained more negative than positive information.

What are the three components of self-compassion in Neff's model?

Self-kindness, mindfulness/nonjudgmental awareness, and recognition of common humanity.

How is self-compassion different from self-enhancement?

Self-compassion responds kindly to flaws and failures without requiring a superior or highly positive self-evaluation.

What did the Neff (2023) review and veteran study suggest?

Self-acceptance/self-compassion is associated with better mental-health outcomes; in veterans with trauma, higher self-acceptance predicted lower PTSD symptoms later.

Why is personal choice especially valued in many individualistic cultural settings?

Choice expresses autonomy, independence, and control over one's life.

What is choice overload?

Having so many options that deciding becomes difficult or produces less satisfying or less effective behavior.

What did Iyengar and Lepper (2000) find in the jam study?

Although a larger assortment attracted attention, shoppers were more likely to buy jam when offered six varieties than 24.

What is conformity?

Changing one's judgment or behavior to match a group or social norm.

What happens in Asch's classic line-judgment conformity studies?

Confederates intentionally give wrong answers on an easy perceptual task, and many participants conform at least once.

How does collectivism relate to conformity in cross-national replications of Asch?

Conformity occurs across cultures but is generally greater in more collectivistic national samples.

What did the pen-choice study find?

East Asian participants tended to select a majority-colored pen; Western participants tended to select a rarer, minority-colored pen.

What is analytic thinking?

Focusing on focal objects and their attributes, separating objects from context, and applying abstract rules or categories.

What is holistic thinking?

Attending to context, relationships, interactions, and the broader system when interpreting events.

What did the painting comparison show?

East Asian scenery more often had higher horizons and portraits featured smaller faces relative to the frame, consistent with greater context emphasis.

What is the absolute length task?

Reproduce a line's actual length independent of the surrounding frame; it emphasizes context-free attention.

What did Hedden et al. (2008) find in U.S. versus East Asian participants?

East Asians showed more attentional-control brain activation on the absolute task; Americans showed more on the relative task.

What is a dispositional attribution?

Explaining behavior through internal characteristics such as personality, motives, or attitudes.

What is the fundamental attribution error?

Overemphasizing personal dispositions and underemphasizing situational influences when explaining other people's behavior.

How did attributions change with age in Miller (1984)?

American participants increasingly emphasized dispositions; Indian participants increasingly emphasized situations.

What is Nisbett's founder-effect explanation of analytic/holistic thought?

The idea that historically influential Greek versus Chinese intellectual traditions helped establish enduring differences in reasoning styles.

What is the social-orientation explanation for cultural thinking styles?

Experience with autonomous versus interdependent relationships shapes attention to isolated objects versus relations and context.

Why might rice-growing communities develop more interdependent orientations than wheat-growing communities?

Paddy rice cultivation often requires shared water management and coordinated labor, whereas wheat farming can require less daily coordination among neighbors.

What did the rice–wheat findings support?

More rice cultivation was associated with more relational thinking and interdependence, consistent with a social-orientation account.

Why does the rice–wheat study not prove rice farming alone causes holism?

Regional differences can involve other historical or economic factors; the association supports a theory without ruling out all alternatives.

What is the category coverage principle?

An inference to an entire category is stronger when its examples are more diverse and therefore cover more of the category.

What is the ecological principle in reasoning about nature?

Judge how likely a property is to generalize using real ecological relationships such as shared habitats, transmission pathways, and interactions rather than category diversity alone.

What is the difference between category coverage and ecological reasoning?

Coverage uses abstract diversity of examples; ecological reasoning uses concrete biological knowledge about how a property might spread.

Which groups favored ecological reasoning in the tree disease task?

Itzaj Maya adults and U.S. tree experts, despite differing cultural backgrounds.

What is the main takeaway from the tree disease triangulation?

Ecological expertise and experience can shape reasoning; a difference initially appearing cultural may reflect knowledge rather than nationality alone.

What is the strong linguistic relativity hypothesis?

Language determines what people can think; without relevant linguistic forms, certain thoughts would be impossible.

What is the weak linguistic relativity hypothesis?

Language influences or biases what people notice, remember, categorize, or judge without strictly determining possible thought.

What is categorical color perception?

Color differences may be perceived or judged more strongly when they cross a named color-category boundary.

What did the color-chip research find?

Participants' similarity judgments were especially affected by boundaries in their own language rather than another language's categories.

What conclusion follows from the color-boundary findings?

Color vocabulary can influence perceptual grouping, consistent with weak linguistic relativity.

How do English and Jahai differ in describing smells?

English has relatively limited everyday abstract odor vocabulary; Jahai speakers have a richer odor-naming vocabulary.

What did Majid and Burenhult (2014) report about English and Jahai speakers?

English speakers agreed strongly on color naming but poorly on odor naming; Jahai speakers showed strong agreement for odors as well as colors.

What distinction is made between egocentric and absolute spatial language?

Egocentric uses body-based left/right; absolute uses cardinal directions such as north/south/east/west.

What happened in the Dutch versus Guugu Yimithirr spatial reconstruction task?

Participants recreated an object arrangement while facing a different direction; Dutch speakers followed left/right while Guugu Yimithirr speakers preserved cardinal-direction relationships.

Why is the spatial-language study evidence for linguistic relativity?

Different habitual spatial vocabularies corresponded to different nonlinguistic strategies for remembering and reconstructing space.