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Cross-Cultural Psychology

Empirical study of how human behavior and mental processes vary-or remain consistent-across cultures. Focuses on comparing cultural groups to identify universalities (etic) and culture-specific elements (emic).

Cultural Psychology vs. Cross-Cultural Psychology

Cultural psychology emphasizes mutual construction of culture and mind, often qualitatively.

Cross-cultural psychology uses standardized measures to compare across groups.

Culture (Definition)

Shared, learned meanings, behaviors, and symbolic systems-both explicit (e.g., norms, customs) and implicit (e.g., assumptions, mindsets).

Levels of Analysis

Individual level: influence of culture on thoughts, emotions, behaviors.

Group level: intra-cultural and inter-cultural comparisons.

Etic vs. Emic

Etic: outsider, universal perspective using standard tools.

Emic: insider, culture-specific perspective.

Integration of both is ideal.

Design & Validity in Cross-Cultural Research

Requires measurement equivalence and conceptual validity across cultures

Quantitative Methods

Cross-national surveys, linguistic analysis, psychometrics (e.g., Hofstede's dimensions).

Qualitative Methods

Ethnography, narrative interviews, and observational studies.

Mixed-Methods

Combine depth of qualitative with breadth of quantitative approaches.

Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions

Power Distance, Individualism vs. Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance,

Masculinity vs. Femininity,

Long-Term Orientation, Indulgence vs. Restraint.

High-Context vs. Low-Context Cultures (Hall)

High-context: implicit, relational communication.

Low-context: direct, explicit communication.

Independent vs. Interdependent Self-Construal

Independent: autonomy and uniqueness (Western). Interdependent: relational, role-focused (Eastern).

Analytic vs. Holistic Cognition

Analytic (Western): object-centered logic.

Holistic (Eastern): relational, context-sensitive cognition

Emotion and Culture

Expression, recognition, and regulation vary culturally. Matsumoto & Hwang's biocultural model combines universal and culture-specific emotion elements.

Attribution Styles

Westerners show more dispositional bias (fundamental attribution error); Easterners favor situational explanations.

Boski's EARN vs. LEARN Model

EARN: economic gain-driven migration.

LEARN: cultural and personal development-driven acculturation.

Boski's Integration of Cultural Psychology & Acculturation

Proposes bridging cross-cultural psychology with bicultural competence, remote enculturation, and lived experience.

Bicultural Competence

Involves mastery of both cultural symbols, language, values, and behavior for functioning in two cultural systems.

Vicarious Acculturation

Occurs via media or remote exposure, not just direct cultural contact.

Boski: Acculturation as Process

Focuses on active, longitudinal integration into a second culture, beyond static outcomes.

Contemporary Acculturation Research

Emphasizes bicultural lived experience, intersectionality, digital/diaspora processes, and decolonial approaches.

The Identity Crisis of Psychology

Psychology sits between science (universal laws) and humanities (context and meaning). Often leans too hard toward universalism.

The Illusion of Universality

20th-century psychology over-relied on culture-free experiments and WEIRD populations, masking cultural variability.

WEIRD Bias in Psychology

Findings from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic populations are overgeneralized.

Culture and Perception

Cultural environment affects perceptual processes, such as responses to optical illusions.

Lab vs. World Critique

Lab-based stimuli strip cultural meaning, reducing ecological validity

Selective Universality

Some behaviors are universal in function but differ in cultural form (e.g., gift-giving norms).

Emic vs. Etic Error

Mistake: generalizing culture-specific (emic) results as universal (etic) findings.

Cultural Blindness of Western Theories

Many theories (e.g., Sternberg's love theory) fail to apply in non-Western contexts.

Global Cultural Data Patterns

Cultural values influence macro-level trends in health, education, happiness, and compliance (e.g., COVID).

Three Models of Culturally-Oriented Psychology

Cross-Cultural Psychology (comparative),

Intercultural Psychology (interactional),

Cultural Psychology (deep integration).

Spectrum of Human Nature

Every individual is: like all others (biology), like some others (culture), like no others (unique). Psychology must reflect all three.