459 Final exam

Five-factor versus two-factor structures for personality, and which is more universal

• five factor structure found in all cultures, as long as the measures were translatable

  • but, test based on English words

    • when tested with local language, results varied

    • cultures may have a unique way of thinking about/describing personality

• two dimensional model more similar

  • social self regulation- Restraint from misbehavior – from doing/expressing
    things that (by social norms) you shouldn’t; virtue

  • Dynamism- Diverse exploratory and/or status-seeking behaviors
    vs. restraint from doing/expressing such dynamism

  • everyone must balance between these

  • more universal

Whether personality differences between cultures tend to be large or small*

• traits do not differ much by cultural group, they are small

• reference group effects can hide differences

• culture is nonuniform, may not be the same within a culture

  • role of subcultures

• culture as personality, intersection of personalities/mindsets= culture

Differentiating assimilation, integration, and separation strategies as acculturation response

• Toynbee: (h) herodians, who embrace/largely adopt new culture (z)zealots, resist new culture, defend past tradition

• Wallace: revitalization, various forms of resisting new culture (z) with a mix of adoption

• Focus on this ↓↓↓↓↓↓↓

• Berry

  • assimilation- don’t maintain old cultural identity and
    characteristics, do maintain relations with other
    groups (herodians)

  • Separation- maintain old cultural identity and
    characteristics, don’t maintain relations with other
    groups (zealots)

  • Integration- maintaining identity while also maintaining relations with other groups

  • (Same model as used in 410 e identity)

Which acculturation responses tend to be the most or least associated with good functioning

• acculturation- process by which people migrate to/become engaged with and learn a culture that’s different from their heritage culture

  • little generalizable results

  • large variation in motivations, surroundings, distances, personalities, goals, etc

• role of prejudice, whether multiculturalism is encouraged

• not all cultural habits good

• integration: the best

  • individual attempts to fit in and fully participate in host culture, while also maintaining heritage culture

• marginalization: the worst

  • negative attitudes toward both host and heritage cultures; relatively rare

“Host culture” in contrast to “heritage culture”

• attitudes toward each seen as independent from each other

  • map onto four acculturation strategies

Culture shock, and typical patterns in adjustment to a new cultural context

• “w-shaped” curve

  • honeymoon phase → culture shock → adjustment

• more homogenous culture- adjustment not always experienced

  • L-shaped curve

• cultural distance- how two cultures vary in ways of life

  • larger→ worse adjustment

• cultural fit- the degree to which one’s self-concept or personality is similar to the
  dominant/normative cultural values in the host culture

  • ie: if you have an independent self concept and move to the US, you will likely adjust better

Nature of cross-cultural differences in self-enhancement and self-esteem

• Self-enhancement = motivation to view one self positively

  • leads people to have self-serving biases

  • more pronounced in the West

    • North Americans tend to discount the importance of a task after failure, Japanese tend to emphasize it

  • individualism more associated with self-enhancement

    • more individualism→ more self-enhancement

• different feelings about raising children with self-esteem (Eastern: may be detrimental)

• historically: self-esteem seen as a negative

Nature of cross-cultural differences in ‘face’, including relation to prevention or promotion orientation

• face- The amount of social value othersgive you if you live up to the standards associated with your position

  • more easily lost than gained

• individualistic: focus on feeling good about oneself

  • Promotion orientation: Focus on successes to strive for advancement

• collectivistic: focus on others feeling good about them

  • Prevention orientation: Focus on weaknesses to avoid future failure

Distinction between face, honor, and dignity, and the cultures associated with them*

• Face- the amount of social value others
  give you if you live up to the standards
  associated with your position

  • Something mainly external, shame/fear of losing it guarantees good behavior

  • hierarchy

• Honor- an estimation of one’s worth and claim
  to pride, the value of a person in own eyes and
  eyes of the society, that must be acknowledged
  by others (or it’s nonexistent)

  • internal and external, only some have it

  • contexts with strong reciprocity norms, shame regulates behavior

• Dignity- an intrinsic value possessed at birth by
  each individual, that’s (at least theoretically) equal to that of other individuals...a durable ‘inalienable’ core to the person that is hard to take way

  • internal, everyone has it

  • internal guilt and external law
    regulate autonomous individuals in
    social contracts with one another

Nature of cross-cultural differences in: ‘primary and secondary control’, ‘fitting in versus sticking out’

• independent views (western, entity theory of self, but incremental theory of the world)

  • primary control = people strive to change circumstances to fit their desires

  • goal to highlight distinctiveness

• interdependent (non-western, incremental theory of self, but entity theory of the world)

  • secondary control” = people strive to adjust themselves to accept circumstances as they are

  • goal of achieving belongingness with others-→ fitting in

Six features of values according to Schwartz*

Values…

1. Refer to desirable goals that motivate action.

   1. Example: People for whom social order, justice, and helpfulness are
      important values are motivated to pursue these goals

2. are beliefs (about what is desireable) linked inextricably to affect

   1. When values are activated, they become infused with feeling

3. ..transcend specific actions and situations

4. serve as standards or criteria.

   1. Values guide the selection or
      evaluation of actions, policies, people, and events

5. .are ordered by importance (relative to one another)

   1. People’s values form an ordered system of priorities that characterize them as
      individuals.

6. t is their RELATIVE importance (in the context of
   multiple values) that guides action.

   1. Any attitude or behavior
      typically has implications for more than one value.

What is the pattern in how individuals universally rank values*

• 10 motivationally distinct types of values recognized in cultures around the world

  • Benevolence, Self-Direction, Universalism, Security, Conformity, Achievement, Hedonism, Stimulation, Tradition, Power

• human universal in value priorities, at least in terms of group tendencies – not every person has this pattern of course

Anthropocentrism and noun bias: Major cross-cultural differences? Universal in children?

• Anthropocentric = projecting qualities of people into animals, but not the other way around

  • indigenous populations LESS anthropocentric, among children

  • not universal in children

• Noun-bias = prevalence of nouns relative to verbs and other relational words

  • Americans use more nouns, Chinese use more verbs

  • nouns more necessary in English language

  • not universal in children

Analytic thinking and holistic thinking, and their relation to field independence and dependence

• Analytic

  • able to separate objects from each other

  • Breaking down objects into component parts

  • independent/Western cultural contexts- think of each other as fundamentally independent from each other

  • field independence- Tendency/ability to
    perceive items as discrete from organized ground when field is structured and to impose structure or perceive field as structured if it has little organization

  • detail-oriented, or see different aspects together

• Holistic

  • An orientation to the entire scene

  • Attending to the relations among objects

  • Predicting an object’s behavior on the basis of those relationships

  • field dependence- Tendency/ability to
    perceive object and field holistically, to see the whole as dominating its
    parts, to see items within field as fused with ground

  • interdependent non-Western cultural contexts- socialized to learn to attend to relations among people

  • difficulty in separating objects from each other

  • full picture

Dispositional attributions, situational attributions, and ‘fundamental attribution error’

• fundamental attrubition error- overestimate disposition (personality), underestimate situational factors

  • when given a scenario

    • children gave similar answers cross-culturally

    • American adults made more dispositional attributions→ fundamental attrubition error

    • Indian adults made more situational attribution→ reverse fundamental attrubition error

  • role of cultural socialization

Cross-cultural differences in color, spatial perception and organization, and number representation

• color terms differ around the world

  • exist on a continuum, terms discrete

  • color boundaries in culture, divide up continuum/grid differently

• spatial perception/organization

  • some use right,left, behind others use north, east

  • organize differently

  • space using absolute terms common in subsistence societies

• numbers

  • numeric cognition more common in non-subsistence cultures (see other flashcard)

Linguistic relativity (and the Whorfian hypothesis)

theory explaining the connection between cognition and language

• controversial

• strong version: language determines how we think

  • can’t think about a topic when words arent relevant to us

  • almost universally rejected

• weak version: language influences how we think

  • allows rather than obliges us to think about certain ideas

  • ie: nouns are gendered in some languages (Spanish, German)→ people who speak these languages may think about gender in a different way

• different classifications of color→ may describe the world in a different way→ could see the world in a different way

James-Lange theory vs. two-factor (and ‘dual-process’) theories of emotions

• James-Lange

  • emotions as physiological responses to stimuli

  • responses are products of autonimic nervous system

  • no physiological reactions= no emotions

  • stimulus→ response→ emotion

  • focus on physiology

    • emotions should be universal, physiological similarities

• two-factor theory

  • emotions are interpretations of physiological responses

  • interpretation not important, cause of physiological responses is usually clear

  • focus on interpretation

    • emotions should vary across cultures, different cultures→ different interpretations

Which emotions appear most universal? What are prime examples of culture-specific emotions?

• studying Fore (PNG)- 6 basic/universal emotions: happiness, fear, sadness, surprise, disgust, anger

• debated if these are universal: shame, contempt, interest, pride

• Emotional experience

  • Those with independent selves tend more to see
    situations more often as opportunities to
    distinguish oneself from others

    • positive interpersonally disengaged emotions
      are tied to positive feelings

  • Those with interdependent selves focus more on
    how events impact others and themselves

    • positive interpersonally engaged emotions are
      tied to positive feelings

Display rules (with regard to emotions)

• display rules dictate:

  • when an expression is appropriate

  • the intensity of expressions

  • “ritualized displays” (i.e. expressions not made universally)

• facial expressions better recognized by those in own culture

• those in collectivist cultures may mask emotions

• facial feedback hypothesis- proposes that we use our facial expression to infer our emotional state

• emotional experience- varies by culture

  • European-Candadians felt more anger than Asian-Canadians

What subjective well-being (happiness) is, and what kinds of cultural factors affect average levels of it

• subjective well-being can be affected by many factors- wealth, human rights, income inequality, definition of life satisfaction, how happy they think they should feel

• research: group-level happiness= enough wealth (40% of US GDP) + income equality+ emphasis on human rights

• more income inequality in USA since 1980→ less aggregated happiness

• pursuit of happiness not a universal endeavor

Cultural differences in the sources of life-satisfaction, and in what kind of happiness is preferred

• Americans believe they should be happy in general, likely to over-remember how happy they are

  • base life satisfaction on how many positive emotions they were
    experiencing

  • more likely to recall themselves having balanced emotional states

  • preferred fun

  • prefer high arousal positive states (e.g. enthusiastic, excited, elated)

• East Asians believe in having more balance in their emotions

  • based life satisfaction on how much they were being respected for living up to cultural norms

  • more likely to over-remember how happy they were

  • preferred usefulness

  • prefer low arousal positive states (e.g. calm, relaxed, peaceful)

Apparent cultural universals in attractiveness (e.g., facial symmetry, average features, complexio

• universals

  • Bilateral symmetry

    • developed under ideal conditions- symetrical face

    • Genetic mutations, pathogens, or stressors in the
      womb can lead to asymmetrical development

    • Asymmetrical faces viewed as less attractive

  • Average features

    • averagely proportioned features seen as more attractive

    • less likely to contain genetic
      abnormalities and are more symmetrical

    • can process stimulus closer to a prototype easier than one further from one

      • easy processing associated with pleasant feeling, may be interpreted as attraction

  • Clear complexion

    • people attracted to healthy mates

      • clear skin may signal attraction

    • cosmetics industry→ signals importance of this

    • strong reactions to skin conditions

The nature of cultural differences in attractiveness (e.g., value of weight, and of attractiveness)

• attractiveness of different body weights variable across culture

  • Western Africa- “fat” is complimentary

  • Western context- thinness emphasized/valued

• value of attractiveness

  • Western- physically attractive people receive benefits

    • more money, more votes, lighter prison sentence

    • more satisfaction with life

  • Ghanians- attractive: less satisfied with lives

    • attractiveness akin to poison, stinginess

Defining relational mobility: what it means for a cultural context to be high (or low) on it

• freedom in deciding with whom they will have relationships

• high: flexibility in deciding whether or
  not to associate with someone not in their
  ingroup

  • The social environment presents many
    opportunities for people to create new social ties

  • Western/individualistic

• low: less freedom to decide who they
  have relationships with

  • social environment does not provide very
    many opportunities to create new relationships

  • Eastern/collectivistic

What is associated with high versus low relational-mobility cultural contexts

• high

  • They have more flexibility in deciding whether or not to associate with someone not in their
    ingroup

  • can opt to avoid people who can be/will become enemies

• low

  • Significant relationships come from various in-
    groups, and such in-groups are not chosen —they exist by default

    • less able to choose ingroup→ enemies may emerge from within

    • Ghanians report having fewer friends, believe having enemies is natural and having many friends is foolish

Cross-cultural findings in emphasis on romantic love, in marriage arrangements vis-à-vis relationship satisfaction, and in views of in-groups versus out-groups

• romantic love may be universal, but marriages being based on it may not be

• arranged marriages more common in extended family system→ social pressures

  • arranged marriages are often sucessful, Westerners may believe that it goes against assumptions about love/marriage

  • interdependent self: see in-groups as important for self-identity

    • important to distingish between people whom they have obligations and people to whom they don’t

• love-marriages more common in nuclear family structures, less social pressure→ love as what builds a marriage

  • independent self: more likely to maintain larger networks of relationships, show more trust to strangers

  • relationship formation/dissolution don’t impact self-identity

Cultural biases in theory regarding moral development (stages of moral reasoning according to Kohlberg)(but also the revision of Gibbs*)

• Universalism = people from different cultures are
  largely the same, including their morality

• Relativism = cultural diversity is the result of different
  cultures influencing one’s psychology

• Evolutionism = a mixture of universalism and
  relativism

  • discredited/resisted

• Kohlberg’s stage theory of morality

  • evolutionist/evolutionary perspective

  • Level 1: Preconventional Moral Reasoning
    What is bad is determined by internal standards regarding
    physical or hedonistic consequences of the action

  • Level 2: Conventional Level
    Individual develops loyalty to a group
    Morality is now based on external standards (particularly
    maintaining the group’s social order)

  • Level 3 : Post-conventional Level

    Morality is based on internalized abstract principles of
    justice and individual rights

• level 3 not present in tribal societies, but present in urban Western societies

• no society with average adult at stage 1

• Gibbs (literally who even cares this is enough to have to know)

  • Oversimplifications like
    ‘might makes right’

  • Tit-for-tat ‘pragmatic’
    reciprocity: ‘scratch my
    back and I’ll scratch
    yours’, ‘you’ll get what’s
    coming to you’

  • Ideal-oriented reciprocity:
    Treat others (in your life)
    as you wish to be treated

Three ethics: autonomy, community, divinity – and how adherence to them varies across cultures

• universally evident, but emphasized differently in various populations

• Autonomy

  • Morality is that which protects justice and
    individual rights

  • Concerned with whether anyone was harmed,
    denied their rights, acted unfairly, tried to
    dominate someone else

  • emphasized by Kohlberg’s model

• Community

  • Morality is tied to an individual’s interpersonal
    obligations within social order

  • Concerned with whether someone showed a lack
    of loyalty, betrayed their group, or failed to fulfill
    the duties of their role

    • was a duty fulfilled/not fulfilled

• Divinity

  • Concerned about sanctity and perceived “natural
    order” of things

  • One is obligated to preserve the standards
    mandated by a transcendent authority

  • Usually involves a belief that God has created a sacred
    world, or sacred things in the world, which one must
    respect and preserve (against sin, pollution, etc

• Autonomy focused on by the West, Community/Divinity more focused on by rest of the world

Relations of above to ‘moral foundations’: harm/care, justice, in-group loyalty, authority, purity*

• cultures differ on “moral obligations”

• Autonomy

  • harm/care, fairness

• Community

  • loyalty/authority

• Divinity

  • purity

• cultural difference whether obligations to group, authority, God are considered a high moral concern

• Scenario: you’re in a city on business, but must leave to
  play key role in best friend’s wedding in PDX. Your wallet or purse is stolen at train station,with your ticket and all your money. You ask strangers for help/loan, they refuse. But you see a train ticket to PDX protruding from someone’s unattended coat (along with
  enough $ for them to buy another ticket). Should you take/steal the ticket?

  • Indians: steal the ticket because it is less morally bad than not upholding obligations (wedding)

  • Americans: don’t steal the ticket, see fairness and avoidance of harm as more morally important

• variation within a society

What aspects of ethical/moral codes depend more versus less on religion

• conservatives/progressives have different cultural models

• large cross-cultural differences: religious behavior/beleifs and moral codes connected to them

  • doctrines, sacred texts, (ie: Kosher/Halal rules)

• smaller cross-cultural differences: beliefs supported by ‘universal values’

  • do not kill, do not lie, do not cheat, obey the law

• Morality as relative or universal, dependent on what aspects we attend to

• belief in world religion associated with people playing anonymous games fairly

The impact of being orthodox vs. progressive (with regard to religious adherents)

• progressive sects

  • higher in autonomy, lower on divinity

  • more likely to adjust beliefs to current world

• orthodox/traditional

  • higher on divinity, lower on authority

  • less likely to shift beliefs to fit current world, often resistant to them

Differences between Protestants and Jews in ‘morality of thoughts’**

• Protestants

  • view adhering to morality as having positive thoughts

  • possibly related to New Testament

  • stronger focus on faith/belieif defining faith

  • believe thoughts lead to behaviors

• Jews

  • view adhering to morality in terms of behavior

  • possibly related to Old Testament

  • stronger focus on heritage defining faith

  • Kosher laws: don’t view desiring non-Kosher foods as wrong, more important that they don’t eat them

• Situation where someone considers an affair: Protestants viewed it as worse

Principles of need, equality, and equity, and cross-cultural differences in emphasis on them

• Principle of need = resources are directed toward
  those who need them the most

  • socialism, even communism

• Principle of equality = resources should be shared
  equally among members of a group

  • seniority systems (based on age, years of service)

• Principle of equity = resources are distributed
  based on an individual’s contributions (or ‘merit’)

  • meritocracy
    

Examples of cultural factors affecting variation in the genome (genes, gene frequencies)

• bodies are in part cultural products, but these differences mostly based on evolution/genes

• innate and aquired biological differences

• differing selection pressures, leading to different genone-tied traits, certain environments may favor certain traits

  • skin color: varies by rates of geographic solar radiation

    • dark skin: evolved to prevent solar radiation, burns, skin cancer, prevents excessive breakdown of vitamin D/folic acid

    • light skin: evolved to get vitamin D from uv rays when sunlight is scarce

  • lactose intolerance: levels stem from cow domestication

    • highest in areas where cows were domesticated

      • some areas (China) produce milk now, but did not historically

  • pathogen prevalence

    • lowest in warmer, wetter regions

      • why Westerners need vaccination when visiting areas near the equator

    • more spices in food in high pathogen (HP) areas→ possibly to counteract pathogens

      • favor in-group= being with outgroup can lead to more pathogen exposure

    • LP areas, more openness to experience→ could be able to do more without threat of serious illness

• Innate Biolocal Variability- little known about whether cultural differences based on genetic differences

• Aquired Biological Variability- Moken children can see better underwater due to swimming to retrieve seafood

  • Obesity- reliance on high-calorie foods, suburban lifestyle

Psychologization and somatization (as related to depression, and possibly schizophrenia)

• Psychologization

  • experiencing symptoms as impairing psychological functioning

• Somaticization

  • experiencing symptoms physically

• Depression rates higher in the West

  • rates in China 1/5

    • diagnosed with neurasthenia- poor appetite, headaches, insomnia, inability to concentrate

    • only 9% report feeling depressed

    • used to be common in USA until 1920

    • could be due to stigma around having a mental disorder, being less in touch with emotions

• Schizophrenia rates similar across cultures

  • paranoid subtype more prevalent in West (Psychologization)

  • catatonic subtype more prevalent in non_west (Somatization)

  • greater rate of recovery in less-industrialized society

Likely cultural sources of variation in height, rates of obesity, and stress

• obesity

  • reliance on bad food (processed, fast)

  • large portion sizes

  • sedentary (suburbs)

• height

  • better nutrition mostly

  • link between income/height

• stress

  • genetic variation in heat stress

  • individualism, more stress when one does not fulfil individual responsibilities

  • collectivism: more stress when one does not fulfill family/community responsibilities

Which syndromes of psychopathology appear most clearly to be universal, or to vary the most

Most universal

• Schizophrenia

  • BUT prevalence of subtypes vary (paranoid, catatonic)

• Bipolar disorders

  • variance, present across populations, but least present in east and south Asia

• Depression

  • found everywhere, but prevalence varies in a culture

• Social Anxiety

  • East Asians report more symptoms, but have less criteria to meet SAD

    • may be more normal tio have moderate levels of social anxiety

• Suicide

  • prevalence and motivations vary

Least Universal

• Substance use

  • unique cultural norms

    • Muslim cultures: alcohol use against religious guidelines

    • within cultures, Utah’s Mormon subculture→ more norms against alcohol consumption

• Antisocial Personality Disorder

  • rising in USA

  • changes in culture that are more supportive of antisocial behavior

  • collective standards erode

  • “anti-social leader”

What predicts cross-national (cross-cultural) differences in suicide, depression, social anxiety

• Depression

  • stigmatization of disorders

  • Westerners may be more attentive to emotions→ less somatisation

• Social Anxiety

  • East Asians report more symptoms, but have less criteria to meet SAD

    • may be more normal tio have moderate levels of social anxiety

• Suicide

  • rates vary, most common in Eastern Europe

  • motivations vary

  • beliefs around suicide: Arabs have more negative beliefs on it

  • West: usually include substance abuse or depression

  • Japan: often deal with one accepting responsibility and/or preserving honor

Culture-bound syndromes (e.g., amok, hikikomori, etc.)

• frigophobia- morbid fear of catching cold, leadingto dress year-round in
  scarves and heavy coats (China)

  • belief on health, possibly less medical care/treatments

• hikikomori- Patient drops out from the social word, barricading him- or
  herself up in a room for years (Japan)

  • Indicates the cause may be failure to succeed in a social world that has few options for those who don’t fit in

  • Does not conform to criteria for any DSM-IV-R diagnoses

  • new, not present in pre-war Japan

• Bulimia- bsent in most cultures of the world, making it
  potentially a culture-bound syndrome (especially in cultures where food is not abundant)

  • Anorexia more prevalent, but in many cultures self-starvation not due to body image issues

• Amok- Acute outburst of unrestrained violent and homicidal attacks, preceded by brooding, followed by exhaustion and amnesia

  • Most common in Southeast Asia

  • May result from having no acceptable means to
    express frustration

• Others (less important for exam)

  • taijin kyoufushou (TKS), or “fear of confronting
    others”

    • Similar to anxiety in that the fear is elicited by
      social situations

    • However, primary concerns are with one’s physical
      faults, many imaginary (e.g. body odor, sweating),
      making others feel uncomfortable

    • Limited to China, Japan, Korea

  • Voodoo death- person is convinced a curse
    has been placed on him/her, or s/he has broken
    a taboo

    • Results in severe fear reaction, which may lead to death

  • Koro

    • Morbid anxiety about one’s penis shrinking into
      one’s body; primarily found in South and East Asia

    • Koro-like symptoms have been found in some individuals in West African cultures, as well as in individuals in American culture who have
      had negative marijuana-induced experiences

Which kinds of variables show large-effect cultural differences in questionnaire responses

• Religious practice and belief

• Ethnonationalism

• Family roles (father-dominance, patri-centered,
  ‘patriarchal’)

• Regularity norms, mostly involving either

  • living arrangements (might be called ‘family
    collectivism’), or

  • belief in ancestor spirits, spirit possession, trance

• Nationality is “born into”

  • Emphasizes

    • Group defined by common
      ancestry, religion, language

    • Ethnic homogeneity

    • Uniting the group in its
      desired homeland

    • these can be harmful if majority endorses them

How do values vary most across cultures? (saq)

• vary by religion

  • Protestant vs Jewish views on moral thoughts

• Relationships

  • individualism vs collectivism

  • collectivism: more adherence to in-group

    • Ghana: don’t trust even in-group

  • individualism: more relationships with out-group

• tight vs loose culture

  • tight culture: traditions not able to vary, lower tolerance for deviation

  • loose culture: more flexible, more individual differences

• Overall:

  • many values that vary are due to collectivism/individualism

    • socialization: connections to outgroups or separation from them

    • cultural: culture allows deviation/does not strictly enforce tradition or the opposite

    • BUT- variation with culture for these

How do motivations vary most across cultures? (saq)

• Westerners motivated to feel good about selves (self-enhancement), discount importance of task after failure

  • external attributions about failures

  • value self-esteem more

• non-Westerners less motivated to feel good about selves, emphasize importance of task after failure

  • internal attributions about failures

• people approach same tasks with different goals

  • Westerners: look good as a person, feel good about ONESELF

    • sticking out

  • non-Westerners: bring honor to self/family, focus on OTHERS feeling good about them

    • fitting in

What is (apparently) true of values in all cultures? (saq)

• some values are found worldwide

  • Benevolence, Self-Direction, Universalism, Security, Conformity, Achievement, Hedonism, Stimulation, Tradition, Power

• all humans are motivated by the same set of value-driven goals, but cultures influence how important each goal is

• values that are essential for social cohesion and survival??

• i dont really know could not find a straightforward answer UGHHHJHH

• People value things that are good for them. In USA, conformity is not valued, so highly valuing it is not important. In Asia/coll culture, conformity is highly valued, so valuing it is important to cultural context/good for them

What is (apparently) true of human motivation in all cultures? (saq)

• all motivated to follow cultural norms and do what is best for self/in-group.

• we have similar values, BUT how much we value each and how we express them differs

  • value of tradition

    • Asians may be motivated to value this by conforming to traditional views (eg, traditional wear/customs)

    • Amers may be motivated to value this by their own individual practices (eg, prayer, own personal values)

With regard to cognition and perception – what are the most important differences between Eastern and Western cultures? (saq)

• Eastern

  • holistic thinking, big-picture

  • field dependence

• Western

  • analytical thinking, focus on seperate objects

  • field independence

• (see flashcards on each for expansion of this)

With regard to cognition and perception – what are the most important differences between cultures found in indigenous and small-scale societies, and those found in large-scale societies? (saq)

• indigenous societies

  • less numeric cognition- ability to understand, represent, and process numbers

    • less necessary in these environments

  • more directional spatial representations (e.g., to my north or south)

  • view humans as superior to animals BUT ALSO animals as superior to humans

• large-scale societies

  • more numeric cognition

  • More egocentric spatial representations (e.g., to my right or left)

  • anthropocentric, view humans as superior to animals

What are the most important cultural differences in those aspects of culture that most impact the nature of social relationships and family relations? (saq)

• non-west sees in-group as important for self-identity

  • motivated to have stronger relations with family

  • marriage: want to keep family in-ingroup

  • children have stronger view that family knows whats good for them

  • interdependent sc, see selves as connected to others

• west does not see ingroup as important

  • love marriages, in/out group status of partner less important

  • larger network of friends, family support not as important

  • independent sc: see self, then others

What are the most important cultural differences in those aspects of culture that most impact relations between in-groups and out-groups? (saq)

• inter/inde pendent self concepts

• inter- value in-group and conformity more-→ less likely to have out-froup connectins

  • collectivism= cohesion of my in-group

• inde- do not value ingroup→ have more outgroup connections, more motivated to differentiate selves

  • may purposely deviate from in-group or connect self to out-group

With respect to emotions: What are the most important cross-cultural differences? (saq)

• Americans/Westerners are more in-tune

  • less somatisation

• display rules- Europeans felt more anger than Asians

  • anger is more stigmatized in Asia

  • collectivists tend to mask emotions→ emphasis on conformity

Which emotion-related phenomena are most universal across cultures? (saq)

• everyone experiences: happiness, fear, sadness, surprise, disgust, anger

  • But, may be shown differently

  • facial expressions for these emotions similar as well

With respect to mental health: What are the most important cross-cultural differences? (saq)

• somatisation/psycholization

  • non-Westerners: tend to feel emotions/disorders more physically

    • neurasthenia- poor appetite, headaches, insomnia, inability to concentrate,→ physical manifestation of depression

    • variation in Schizophrenia sub-types by population

• norms governing behavior

  • ASPD, anti-soc behavior more accepted

  • substance use, norms around consumption

Which mental-health phenomena are relatively universal across cultures? (saq)

• depression

• bipolar

• schizophrenia

• social anziety

• suicide

Where does one observe the most cross-cultural variability (and in what way) with respect to matters of morality or justice? (saq)

• individualism vs collectivism

• ind

  • value personal rights, individual freedom

  • if someone cuts you in line, this may be seen as immoral

• coll

  • value social harmony, dusties to group

  • if someone does something taboo according to group, may be seen as immoral

• additionally progressive/orthodox differences

How is justice conceived differently according to which culture one is in? (saq)

• relation to interpersonal relationships, connection to collectivism

  • Indians (coll) more likely to steal to value interpersonal relationships

  • focus on group justice, what is best for in-group

  • Americans value personal justice, would see taking ticket as injustice to owner as an individual person

How is morality conceived differently according to which culture one is in? (saq)

• progressives vs othodox

• Protestants: thoughts are moral

• Jews: actions are moral

• autonomy, community, divinity

  • west- autonomy

  • others- community/divinity

In regard to morality and justice, which phenomena are relatively universal – found similarly across cultures? (saq)

• Do not kill

• Do not cause pain

• Do not disable

• Do not deprive of freedom

• Do not deprive of pleasure

• Do not deceive

• Keep your promises

• Do not cheat

• Obey the law

• Do your duty

What are the best examples of how human culture has an effect on human biology (genetics, physiology, brain)? (saq)

• attraction: prefer clearer skin (health)→ cosmetic industry seeking to help acheive this

• skin: migration patterns led people to places with less vit d→ developed lighter skin

• best example: Moken children dive underwater to get seafood

  • have better underwater visibility than most

What evidence most impressively indicates how culture has an impact on health? (saq)

• syndromes like :

  • hikikomori- Patient drops out from the social word, barricading him- or herself up in a room for years (Japan)

    • unable to meet societal expectations

  • Amok- Acute outburst of unrestrained violent and homicidal attacks, preceded by brooding, followed by exhaustion and amnesia

    • unable to release emotions in a healthy, non-stigmatized way

An integrative question:) What does the body of knowledge gained so far in cultural psychology tell us about human nature, that is, about what humans are basically like from a psychological perspective? (saq)

• we are almost blank slates at birth (John Locke would be proud)

  • cultural differences INCREASE with age

• we adapt to the cultural context we are in

  • however, not everyone adapts/adheres the same (differences within cultures)

• use culture/sub-cuture as a reference for many things: behavior, thought, morals, psychological disorders, etc