Ch. 1: Understanding Cross-Cultural Psychology

Access to resources

The indicator of availability of material resources to a population

Activity

A process of the individual’s goal-directed interaction with the environment

Availability of resources

A measure indicating the presence of and access to resources essential for the individual’s well-being

Collectivism

Behavior and experience based on interdependence, collective responsibility, concerns for others, and care for collective traditions and group values

Cross-cultural psychology

The critical and comparative study of cultural effects on human psychology

Cultural psychology

The study that seeks to discover systematic relationships between culture and psychological variables

Culture

A set of attitudes, behaviors, and symbols shared by a group of people and usually communicated from one generation to the next

Ecological context

The natural setting in which human organisms and the environment interact

Ethnicity

A cultural heritage shared by a category of people who also shares a common ancestral origin, language, and religion

Ethnocentrism

The tendency (often unintentional) to view other ethnic or cultural groups according to the perconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one’s own culture

Ideological (value-based) knowledge

A stable set of beliefs about the world, the nature of good and evil, right and wrong, and the purpose of human life—all based on a certain organizing principal or cultural idea

Indigenous groups

People who identify as part of a district group or are descended from those originating in areas that were their traditional lands, which existed prior to the establishment of modern-day borders

Individualism

Complex behavior and experience based on person independence, self-reliance, and concern for oneself and one’s immediate family or primary group

Legal knowledge

A type of knowledge encapsulated in the law and detailed in official rules and principles related to psychological functioning of individuals

Multiculturalism

The view that encourages recognition of equality for all cultural groups and promotes the idea that the various cultural groups have the right to follow their own paths of development

Nation

A large group of people who constitute a legitimate, independent state and share a common geographic origin, history, and frequently, language

Nontraditional culture

The team used to describe cultures based largely on modern beliefs, rules, symbols, and principles, relatively open to other cultures, absorbing and dynamic, science based technology driven, and relatively tolerant to social innovations

Popular (or folk) knowledge

Everyday assumptions ranging from commonly held beliefs to individual opinions about psychological phenomena

Power distance

The extent to which the members of a society accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally

Scientific knowledge

A type of knowledge accumulated as a result of scientific research on a wide range of psychological phenomena

Sociopolitical context

The setting in which people participate in both global and local decisions; it includes various idelogical issues, political structures, and preserve or absence of political and social freedoms

Traditional culture

The term used to describe cultures based largely on beliefs, rules, symbols, and principles established predominantly in the past, confined in local or regional boundaries, restricting and mostly intolerant to social innovations

Uncertainty avoidance

The degree to which the members of a society feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity

Uncertainty orientation

Common ways in which people handle uncertaintiy in their daily situations and lives in general