PSY 3126 Lecture 1: What is Cultural Psychology? Lecture + Textbook Notes
28 Apr 2018
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September 6, 2017
What is Cultural Psychology?
What is cultural psychology?
Subset of psychology looking at how culture affects human behaviour
Posits that psychological processes are shaped by experiences
-People in different cultures have many different experiences, so there should be differences in ways that they think
What is culture?
Information definition: any kind of information that is acquired from other members of one’s species through social
learning that is capable of affecting an individual’s behaviour
-Product of evolution, which allows for the social transmission of abstract ideas across a species and through
successive generations
-Information includes ideas, beliefs, technologies, habits, practices, etc. (all reflect ideas and values of a society)
-Ex. Architecture, cuisine, fashion, art, religion, customs, etc
Group definition: a group of individuals who exist within a shared context and who are therefore exposed to the same
cultural information
-Shared context can be geographic, historic, linguistic, etc.
-Ex. Present American culture vs. 1960s American culture, Canadian culture, Deaf culture, LGBTQ culture, Trekkie
culture, Mac culture (Mac vs. PC), high SES culture
-Ex. LGBTQ culture: “top” refers to sexual preference but people outside the culture would think it refers to clothing
Challenges to Defining Culture
Cultural boundaries aren’t always distinct
-Not everyone within a specific area is exposed to the same culture (ex. bicultural individuals, subcultures)
-Cultures don’t necessarily follow geographic borders (ex. Jewish culture)
Cultures are dynamic and change over time
There is as much (or more) variation within a culture than between cultures
-Differences between cultures are based on averages
•Ex. East Asians tend to be less extroverted than Americans
•NB: doesn’t mean there’s a clean separation and all East Asians are introverted, just means that the average
level of extraversion is lower
•There can still be lots of overlap between the two cultures
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September 6, 2017
Interrelation Between Culture and Mind
General psychology: assumes that the mind functions according to universal principles, independent of content and
context
-The human brain is like a computer and psychologists try to discover the laws that govern its functioning
-Universal behaviours include smiling when happy, disgust regarding parent-child incest, the use of language
Cultural psychology: assumes the mind does not function independently of content and context
-The environment in which an individual lives affects both what they think about and how
-The mind is shaped by its experiences and different cultures provide different experiences
•The mind can be shaped because it is continually changing, growing, and rewiring itself in response to its
experiences
•The mind will form an information network in response to an experience and this network can be chronically
activated after enough exposure
•Cultures differ in experiences and frequency of exposure, leading to the formation and activation of different
networks
-Culturally variable behaviours include tongue biting when embarrassed, disgust regarding cousin incest, verb
tenses/grammatical gender
Figure-Line Task
Task that shows how culture shapes the mind
-Absolute task: find the box (A or B) where the length of its middle line is the same
as the length of the middle line in the large square
-Relative task: find the box where the relationship between the length of the middle
line and the size of the box is the same as in the large box
Which task took more effort?
-Americans: absolute task took less effort
•Absolute task showed less activity in the left inferior parietal lobe and right inferior precentral gyrus (both
associated with attentional control) than for the relative task
-East Asians: relative task took less effort
•Relative task showed less activity in the same areas than for the absolute task
Shows that even at the brain level, people from different cultures process things differently
Determining Universality vs. Variability
Levels of analysis: depends on the level of definition
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Document Summary
Subset of psychology looking at how culture affects human behaviour. Posits that psychological processes are shaped by experiences. People in different cultures have many different experiences, so there should be differences in ways that they think. Information de nition: any kind of information that is acquired from other members of one"s species through social learning that is capable of affecting an individual"s behaviour. Product of evolution, which allows for the social transmission of abstract ideas across a species and through successive generations. Information includes ideas, beliefs, technologies, habits, practices, etc. (all re ect ideas and values of a society) Group de nition: a group of individuals who exist within a shared context and who are therefore exposed to the same cultural information. Shared context can be geographic, historic, linguistic, etc. Present american culture vs. 1960s american culture, canadian culture, deaf culture, lgbtq culture, trekkie culture, mac culture (mac vs. pc), high ses culture.
