PSY321H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Niche Construction, Subculture, Adaptive Learning
Document Summary
Must understand: definition of cultural psychology, controversy between general and cultural psychologists, decision tree of universality. It is to describe behaviour and quantify it. It is the study of the nervous system. Culture has profound influences on psychology: why does the nervous system exist, because we need to be able to respond to the changes in the environment. Bronfenbrenner"s ecological system theory: looks and the different social networks and social influences in our lives, all these networks are influenced by overarching values, culture provides the overarching framework for experience and, therefore, profoundly influences our psychology. It suggests that culture is important in order to understand human psychology and our behaviours. It is not representative of the rest of humanity either: but weird countries only make up approximately 16% of the world"s population. Why is psychology weird: convenience of sampling from weird cultures.
