Psychology & Culture – Flashcards

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Concept of culture
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particular kind of information, 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 behaviors. Culture is a kind od idea, belief, technology, habit, or practice that is acquired through learning from others. Also particular group of individuals.
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what is cultural psychology?
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theory of mind
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people understand that others have minds that are different from their own, and thus that other people have perspectives and intentions that are different from their own.
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Emulative learning
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the learning is focused on the environmental events that are involved-how the use of one object could potentially effect changes in the state of the environment.
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imitative learning
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the learner internalizes something of the models goals ad behavioral strategies.
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Difference btw emulative and imitative learning
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emulative learning does not require imitating a model's behavioral strategies. An emulative learner is only focusing on what the model appears to be doing, rather that what the model intends to accomplish.
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ratchet effect
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after an initial idea is learned from others it can be modified and improved upon by other individuals. The cultural information grows in complexity, and often in utility, over time. Continues to accumulate without losing the earlier information.
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Social brain hypothesis
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those primates who were most successful at navigating the intricate and elaborate webs of social relationships would have been more likely to attract mates, secure resources, and protect themselves and their offspring from dangers than those who were left to fend for themselves.
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neocortex ratio
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used as a proxy measure of intelligence, as the most notable way that primates brains differ from those of other mammals is that their neocortexes are larger
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bias of language
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distinction btw description and evaluation "what is it" "what is good or what is bad" often descriptions are not neutral "to describe is to prescribe" Important when describe persons or groups. "the liquid is hot/cold" "the person is hot/cold" Keeping that in mind, becoming aware of personal values.
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Dichotomous vs. continuous variable
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Dichotomous variables: Division into two mutually exclusive categories One or the other Continuous variables: Infinite number of points lying between two polar opposites More or less / Degrees Often we confuse the two types of variables Think in dichotomic terms when in fact deal with continuous dimension Differentiate dichotomous vs. continuous variable
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Similarity-uniqueness paradox
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Most phenomena are both similar and different Explore both similarities and differences Compare, contrast, identify points of distinction Look for commonalities Ask yourself what is the purpose/goal of your analysis Don't be swayed by individuals who subscribe to one alternative (and not the other) "These events are exactly the same" "You can't compare these events because they have absolutely nothing in commo
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Barnum Effect "one size fits all"
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Barnum statement = personality description about a particular individual or group that is practically true of all human being Barnum effect = tendency to accept the overly inclusive or generic statement as true/valid "De-Barnumizing" statements by incorporating qualifiers, modifiers, or adverbs
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Assimilation Bias
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Categorization = cognitive tool to simplify the word Contrast: Increase perceived differences between groups/categories Assimilation: Increase perceive similarities within groups/categories Leads to application of schemas (simplified knowledge structures) Schemas are often reflections of our own perspective, beliefs, values, personal experiences Keeping that in mind Switching lenses (practicing perspective taking
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Differences btw general psychology & cultural psychology
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Goal of general psychology is to reveal the underlying and universal central processing unit (CPU) Isolate CPU from context and content Detect a clear signal Cultures increase the amount of noise "Real" mind is the CPU, which is universal No "real" cultural variation In contrast, cultural psychology maintains that the mind cannot be separated from content or context Mind and culture are mutually constituted Mind arises from participating in a culture Culture arises from the participation of the minds within it
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Limits with psychological data base
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Psychologists generalize from a very narrow sample Do the findings apply to other samples? Psychologists generalize from a "weird" sample Is the sample unusual in the context of the world's cultures
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psychological universals
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Accessibility universal (no variation): exists in all cultures, is used to solve the same problem across cultures, and is accessible to the same degree across cultures. Functional universalism (variation in accessibility): a cognitive tool exists in multiple cultures, it is used to solve the same problem across cultures, yet it is more accesible to people from some cultures than others Existential Universal (variation in function): to exist in multiple cultures, although the tool is not necessarily used to solve the same problem, nor is it equally accessible across cultures Nonuniversal (cultural invention) : cognitive tools thatare not universal do not exists in all cultures and can be said to be cultural inentions.
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proximal and distal causes of cultural variations
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proximal: are those that have direct and immediate relations with their effects. distal causes: are those initial differences that lead to effects over long periods of time, and often through indirect relations.
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evoked and transmitted culture
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evoked culture: is the notion that all people regardless of where they are from, have certain biologically encoded behavorial repertoires that are potentially accessible to them and these are engaged when the appropriate situational conditions are present transmitted: people come to learn about particular cultural practices through social learning or by modeling others who live near them.
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ideas as replicators
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biological evolution is possible because it involves replicators that are able to make copies of themselves. longevity; genes have remarkable longevity and typically last the lifetime of a cell. Fidelity: copying of genes as accurate (not always perfect) Fecundity: those replicators that are especiall fecund and produce many copies of themselves will become to be more common in future generations than those replicators that rarely reproduce MEmes: are the smallest units od cultural information that can be faithfully transmitted.
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epedemiology of ideas
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epidemology of ideas. A variant of the "ideas as replicators" approach to understanding cultural evolution. It is the branch of medicine that is concerned with the distribution of ideas in a particular population and explores the features of ideas that facilitate or inhibit the likelihood that an idea will be passed on. True replication of ideas is not occurring, each individual recreates his or her own reasonable facsimile of what was learned from the others.
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factors that cause ideas to spread
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communicable ideas spread; for ideas to spread they need to have some way of moving from one persons head to another. Through langauge; some ideas are more likely to be communicated than others.
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dynamic social impact
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posits that individuals come to influence each other, and they do so primarily in terms of how often the individuals interact, which ultimately leads to cluster of like-minded people that are separated by geography-cultures in other words.
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natural/ sexual selection
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natural selection is the evolutionary process that occurs when 3 conditions are present: 1) individual variability: among members of species on certain traits 2) those traits are associated with different survival rates 3) those traits have a hereditary basis. Sexual selection "the fecundity of the sexiest" those individuals who can best attract a mate or who can attract the healthiest trait. disadvantage that predators can easily spot them.
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individual/collectivism
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individualistic: include a variety of practices and customs that encourage individuals to prioritize their own personal goals ahead of those of the collective collectevists: include many cultural practices, institutions, and customs that encourage individuals to place relatively more emphasis on collective goals.
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tradition/non tradition culture
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Traditional culture Cultural construct rooted in traditions, rules, symbols, & principles established in past Non-traditional culture i.e., modern Based on new principles, ideas, and practice Social roles prescribed to individuals Evaluation of individual behavior based on custom/routine Clear distinction between good & evil in behavior Truth is not debatable Individual choices restricted to social prescriptions VS Social roles achieved by individuals Evaluation of individual behavior based on individual choice Good & evil is relative Truth is revealed through competition of ideas Individual choices aren't restricted to social prescription
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masculine & feminine culture
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Feminine Caring, consensusseeking, gentleness e.g., Netherlands, France Portugal, Costa Rica, & Thailand Masculine Assertive, decisive, lively, highly ambitious e.g., Japan, Germany, Britain, Mexico, Philippine
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horizontal/vertical cultures
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Vertical People refer to each other from power and achievement standpoints (very hierarchical; Emphasize freedom (vertical) but not equality Horizontal Benevolence and equality Emphasize equality (horizontal) but not freedo
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power distance
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Extent to which members of a society accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally High power distance cultures accept inequality between elite or leaders and subordinates, also between breadwinners and other family members (e.g., patriarchy
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uncertainty avoidance
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High uncertainty avoidance cultures support beliefs promising certainty and conformity Low uncertainty avoidance cultures maintain nonconforming attitudes, unpredictability, creativity, and new forms of thinking or behavior
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formation of global culture
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many large companies are now global entities that have outgrown their cultural boundaries. The internet is allowing cultural information to be shared across national boundaries without people ever having to leave their homes.
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cultural changes in the US
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Methodological equivalence
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having one's methods perceived in identical ways across different cultures.
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Conducting cross-cultural research with surveys
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ensure that you have a good translation of all materials -beware of response bias.
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Back-translation
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the process of translating a document that has already been translated into a foreign language back to the original language
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Moderacy and extremity biases
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moderacy and extremity biases: the tendency to use the middle or extremes of a scale.
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Acquiescence bias
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acquiescence bias: a category of response bias in which respondents to a survey have a tendency to agree with all the questions or to indicate all the positive connotation.
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Reference-group effects
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people come to understand themselves by comparing themselves to similar others. -in different cultures, the comparison others are different, resulting in divergent standards. -this can result in making comparisons between apples and oranges.
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Conducting cross-cultural research with experiments
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- experiments allow conclusions about cause-effect relationships - shift the comparison away from comparing means between two cultural groups, to comparing means between two conditions within each culture. - participants in experiments are not always representative of larger populations. - All of the culture's various response biases and reference groups are held constant. - Disadvatanges: costly
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cultural priming
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a technique to make ideas more accessible, by presenting them to participants. -the idea is that when people are exposed to these kinds of primes they should start thinking in ways that are more closely related to independence or interdependence.
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Evidence for a culture of honor
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the prevailing culture of the southern united states is said to be a "culture of honor", that is a culture where people avoid unintentional offense to others and maintain a reputation for not tolerating improper(dishonoring) conduct by others. Ex. Herders and culture of honor (threats to violence)
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Differences between US Northerners and US Southerners
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aSee also Critical thinking skills under lecture 2 south: -culture of honor norms persist most strongly.(they are closer to the traditional herding cultures) -homicide rate is over twice as large. -more violent -southerners were more likely to agree that a man has the right to kill a person to defend his house or family. North: -found the insult in experiment humorous. -northerners showed no significant difference in their behavior between the insult and control conditions,
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