PSYC 3350 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Reference Group, Clifford Geertz, Collectivism

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 3350
• Professor: Richard N Lalonde

Document Summary

Suicide in sri lanka (study by jeanne marecek) Had the world record for suicide deaths. Counternormative response to take away one"s own life (why it"s interesting to study) Found: no psychologist, no support for behavioural research, no studies about the epidemic. Cultural anthropologist clifford geertz if you want to understand another"s culture: deep hanging out to hang out with the people, not where tourists go. Sometimes there are unique meanings in language that is not translatable to. Understanding comes from using ethnographies, local collaborators, and immersion in culture of interest: combination of methods is ideal, i. e. : read books from culture you"re studying to gain insight. The weird are part of testing cultures: most cross-cultural studies have contrasted convenience samples: university students living in industrialized countries (weird) Have been introduced to western ways of thinking. No i. e. : data collected from toronto vs. small town alberta: such studies are assumed to represent conservative tests of cultural differences.