PSYC1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 30: Terror Management Theory, Cultural Psychology, Race (Biology)
12 Jun 2018
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What is culture?
How does culture emerge?
Why does culture emerge?
How is culture measured?
WHAT IS CULTURE?
Shared values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours of a particular group
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Race (biology)
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Nationality (birth place or adopted birth place)
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Ethnicity (mix of race, nationality/region, religion, culture)
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Related terms
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Creation of which we view reality ('cultural trance')
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Learned consciously and unconsciously
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Rituals, history, cuisine, religion, clothing, government structures
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Developed and reinforced through
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Relatively stable but changes over time
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Distinguished one group from another
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"culture is a way of life, and being immersed in it may be like a fish being immersed in water - it's hard to imagine life
outside of your own environment" - cultural blindness
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HOW DOES CULTURE EMERGE?
There are three theories as to how culture emerged (by Lehman et al):
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Being alone is dangerous in the primitive, evolutionary world
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Being together means support and protection
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The culture then is created through the groups
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Valued behaviour = golden rule = do unto others… (morality, equity, fairness)
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Non valued behaviours = stealing, murder in the group
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Some values are more likely to emerge than others
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X is true because Y
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But often, this creates circular reasoning
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Predictions of the theory
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Evolutionary theory
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People desire to create truth and certainty/confidence
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e.g. conformity studies
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e.g. English people more likely to remember a 'canoe' from a Native American story, as a 'row-boat'
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People's biased memory for stories that contain unfamiliar cultural elements
Memory studies
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Common beliefs, expectations, rules
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Create a shared reality
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Psychological need for certainty
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We are all fearful of death
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Desire for immortality - culture gives us 'immortality'
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'literal' - religion
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Symbolic - art, music, film
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Language and memory - last name and family traditions
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Shared reality (structure, meaning)
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Standards to evaluate adherence to cultural norms
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Have to be worthy to be remembered
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Self-esteem - your life has counted for something (remembered after death)
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There are some consequences and trades
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Experiments:
Terror management theory
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11A - Cultural Psychology (Cranney)
Monday, May 14, 2018
10:00 AM
PSYCH 1001 Page 1
