Psychology and Culture

Thinking, Feeling and Behaving in a Global Context

Lisa Vaughn

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351268868
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

The increasing globalization of society is causing shifts in social, linguistic, religious, and other cultural differences, which may increase the potential for misunderstandings in communication, the workplace, health care, and education. The new second edition of Psychology and Culture provides an up-to-date overview of the cultural dimensions of psychology and the application to everyday settings.

Vaughn presents a description of how thinking and behaviour are influenced by sociocultural context. Areas of focus include the basis of culture; research in psychology and culture; identity; human development; intercultural interactions; and basic psychological processes. The text explores a broader definition of culture which includes social dimensions, such as gender, religion, and socioeconomic status, and provides practical models to improve intercultural relations, intercultural communication, and cultural competency in education, organizations, relationships, and health. Written in a reader-friendly style, the text covers a broad range of topics with numerous examples across cultures to make the content come to life.

The book covers transdisciplinary content in psychology and culture that will be of interest not only to psychologists interested in cultural issues and to scholars in related disciplines, but also to a more general audience seeking information on questions of cultural humility, globalization, multiple identities, social ecological processes, immigration, acculturation, and related topics.

Chapter 1

_____________________________

Introductory Concepts

■ Introduction

■ What Is Culture?

■ History and Foundations of Culture and Psychology

■ Approaches to Culture and Psychology

■ Culture and Diversity

■ Cultural Concepts

■ ‘Doing’ Culture

■ And So Forth (Positive Psychology)

Introduction

PSYCHOLOGY AND CULTURE have a reciprocal relationship of influence. Individual thoughts, feelings, and behaviours influence cultural norms and practices and vice versa. Because the relationship between psychology and culture is multifaceted and dynamic, research and theory consequently take on a variety of forms. Each of these areas, however, contributes to the merging of psychology and culture within a global context.

What Is Culture?

Culture eludes most of us perhaps in part due to the complexity of the concept and the confusion with which it has been defined. There is lack of consensus about the meaning of culture, yet it seems to permeate many aspects of our lives including personal tastes to manners, beliefs, values, world views, and actions. Traditionally, culture has been thought of as national identity; however, the scope has broadened to include many aspects of social difference including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, social class, religion, and sexuality. Even though much of culture in terms of national identity is tangible and visual (e.g., food, clothing, housing, rituals, etc.), some aspects of culture may not necessarily be ‘seen’ – socioeconomic status, religion, and sexual orientation.

Figure 1.1 Different Emphases of ‘Culture’

Broadly, culture can be defined as integrated patterns of learned beliefs and behaviours that are shared among groups and include thoughts, communication styles, ways of interacting, views of roles and relationships, values, practices, and customs (Berry, Poortinga, Breugelmans, Chasiotis, & Sam, 2011) or more simply, ‘a total way of life of a people’ (Geertz, 1973). Culture can be expanded to include many factors which encompass aspects of daily life and social influences/factors. This means we are all ‘culturally different’ given different family backgrounds, religions, occupations, disability, gender, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, etc. Beyond race and ethnicity, we all are part of and influenced by multiple cultures. Each of us is a multicultural individual with many sets of cultures in different contexts that may or may not coincide. See Figure 1.1 for different emphases in the definitions of culture.

Culture is complex and multifaceted, pervasive and embedded in many aspects of life and living. Berry and colleagues (Berry et al., 2011; see Figure 1.2) outline six general aspects in which culture can be discussed:

1. Descriptive emphasizes the different activities and behaviours of a culture.

2. Historical aspects refer to the heritage and traditions associated with a particular cultural group.

Figure 1.2 Berry’s Six Aspects of Culture

3. Normative signifies the rules and norms of a culture.

4. Psychological refers to the behavioural aspects of culture like learning and problem solving.

5. Structural depicts the social and organizational aspects of culture.

6. Genetic describes the origins of a culture.

Figure 1.3 Nine Characteristics of Culture

Culture is used to reflect many different aspects of life. Another categorization of culture contains nine broad categories: general characteristics; food and clothing; housing and technology; economy and transportation; individual and family activities; community and government; welfare; religion and science; and sex and the life cycle (see Figure 1.3).

Taken as a whole,

culture gives people a sense of who they are, of belonging, of how they should behave, and of what they should be doing. Culture impacts behaviour, morale, and productivity at work and includes values and patterns that influence . . . attitudes and actions. Culture is dynamic.

(Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014, p. 6)

Ten categories of characteristics have been outlined to understand culture at both the micro and macro level: (1) sense of self and space; (2) communication and language; (3) dress and appearance; (4) food and feeding habits; (5) time and time consciousness; (6) relationships; (7) values and norms; (8) beliefs and attitudes; (9) mental process and learning; and (10) work habits and practices (Moran et al., 2014).

In defining culture, it is important to remember that ‘one size does not fit all’ which suggests that cultural behaviour is multi-determined and is likely a product of history, patterns of behaviour associated with economic activity and the influence of philosophical and religious views. Based on culture, people structure their worlds and determine their social interactions. We all have diverse ways of understanding the world and defining our cultural identities. The common characteristics of culture are that it comes from adaptive interactions between humans and environments, has shared elements, and is transmitted across time periods and generations. Culture can be conceptualized on multiple levels. For instance, Jandt (2018) describes subculture (groups within dominant cultures with which people identify; often based on geographic region, ethnicity, or social class), co-culture (similar to subculture but conveys the idea that no one cultural group is superior to other co-existing cultures), and subgroups (membership groups within cultures such as occupation that influence values and attitudes).

History and Foundations of Culture and Psychology

Several classic theories in psychology and anthropology provide the foundation for understanding psychology and culture. Nineteenth century German Völkerpsychologie (or folk psychology) is largely responsible for our modern-day conception of culture and national identity (Kalmar, 1987). In Völkerpsychologie, behaviour and development were thought to occur at a supra-individual or social/community/cultural level in contrast to the inner individual level (Klautke, 2013).

Franz Boas, a German-American anthropologist, played an important role in the study of human cultures and societies using the scientific method, and his work became the foundation for the development of modern anthropology as a discipline in the United States (Franz Boas, 2017). Related to psychology and culture, Boas is remembered for ideas related to cultural variation and cultural relativism (Franz Boas, 1989). He argued that human behaviour is due primarily to cultural differences developed through social learning versus biological traits and that no one culture is more advanced or better than another. Boas (1966) asserted that the goal of research in anthropology is ‘to discover among all the varieties of human behavior those that are common to all humanity’ (p. 259) and by understanding ‘foreign cultures’ we will ‘see how many of our lines of behavior that we believe to be founded deep in human nature are actually expressions of our culture’ (p. 259).

Renowned psychologist, Lev Vygotsky is the founder of sociocultural theory which posits that human learning, intelligence, and cognition are social processes developed through interaction with parents, caregivers, peers, society, and culture:

Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals.

(1978, p. 57)

Vygotsky theorized that each culture provides ‘tools of intellectual adaptation’ so that children learn to adapt to the particular culture in which they live (1978).

Approaches to Culture and Psychology

In relation to psychology, culture serves four functions: evolutionary, buffer, epistemic, and resulting from interpersonal interactions. From an evolutionary perspective, culture makes sense because of our need for collective support in order to survive and reproduce and because culture provides an adaptive function via cultural norms, beliefs, and practices all of which contribute to efficient organization of societal groups. Another perspective on the function of culture is from terror management theory. According to this theory, culture serves as a protective factor/buffer against existential anxiety about our own mortality. Culture offers mechanisms of ‘symbolic immortality’ such as naming a baby after oneself so that the name lives on, religious beliefs in life after death, and feelings of being a valuable member of and contributor to culture. Culture may serve an epistemic need to validate our perceptions of the world around us. Shared beliefs, expectations, and rules that come from culture help fulfil this need. Another perspective on the emergence of culture is that it is an ‘unintended byproduct’ of interpersonal interaction. Through interaction that involves interpersonal communication, people mutually influence one another toward shared beliefs, behaviours, and norms within a population which results in culture (Hong, Gelfand, & Chiu, 2018) (see Figure 1.4).

The two primary approaches that combine culture and psychology are cultural psychology and cross-cultural psychology. Both of these approaches are interdisciplinary in nature and have considerable overlap (Matsumoto & Juang, 2017). The primary differences between these two perspectives have to do with emphasis. Cultural psychology focuses more on context and culture that is ‘inside’ the person while cross-cultural psychology emphasizes content and culture ‘outside’ of the person. Cultural psychology examines variations in human behaviour as it is influenced by sociocultural context and includes both describing the psychological diversity of human behaviour globally and the reasons for such diversity. The discipline of cultural psychology emphasizes cross-cultural interactions, human behaviour, and the influence of social and cultural forces, as well as differences across cultures (Valsiner, 2012). Cultural psychology, as compared with cross-cultural psychology, is more likely to examine in depth a few cultures and the psychology of individuals within a particular cultural group. In other words, human behaviour is meaningful when considering the sociocultural context of the individuals and how they have internalized that particular culture’s qualities. The premise of cultural psychology is that the interaction of culture and individuals influences behaviour and mental processes (Shiraev & Levy, 2017). A relatively recent field, cultural psychology comes from an intellectual tradition of scientific general psychology rooted mainly in Europe but has developed primarily in the United States. In addition to general psychology, cultural psychology has been influenced by many other disciplines including anthropology, physiology, sociology, history, and political science. Cultural psychology has been criticized for its simplicity and narrow conception of culture in attempting to predict individual psychologies. However more recent work has emphasized cultural complexity and macro cultural factors to explain individual psychological activities that deviate from cultural norms. In research, a cultural psychologist may investigate Haitian meanings and interpretations of a mindfulness-based stress reduction intervention (Hoffman, 2018) or conduct an ethnographic study of fish and fishing-related world views, beliefs, and practices of Hindu coastal fishers (Deb, 2018).

Figure 1.4 Functions of Culture

Cross-cultural psychology is more of a ‘macro’ level approach to culture and psychology. Cross-cultural psychology is more about variations in human behaviour influenced by cultural context with data typically collected across many cultures (Shiraev & Levy, 2017). Cross-cultural psychologists attempt to describe psychological diversity and the underlying reasons. They examine the relationships between cultural norms and behaviour and the ways that behaviour is affected by the differing social and cultural environment in which it occurs. Cross-cultural psychologists are also interested in psychologically common or universal thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. Shiraev and Levy (2017) define cross-cultural psychology as ‘the critical and comparative study of cultural effects on human psychology’ (p. 2). Major critiques of cross-cultural psychology include an overestimation of culture as a universal influence on behaviour due to confounding variables such as social class and poverty and an assumption of psychological difference across...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• 1 Introductory Concepts
• 2 Understanding and Researching Psychology and Culture
• 3 Self, Multiple Identities, and Culture
• 4 Human Development/Socialization and Culture
• 5 Basic Psychological Processes and Culture
• 6 Intercultural Interactions, Acculturation, and Living in a Global World
• 7 Relationships, Sexuality, and Culture
• 8 Health and Culture
• 9 Intercultural Communication and Education
• 10 Work/Organizations and Culture
• References
• Index