On National Teacher Day, meet the 2024-25 Kenan Fellows
Cross Cultural Psy Intro
1. The Field of Cross-
Cultural Psychology
The study of the relationships between
cultural context and human behavior.
2. Human Behavior
Overt Behaviors: observable actions and
responses
Covert Behaviors: thoughts, beliefs, meanings.
Most researchers studying behavior across
cultures argue that differences in behavior
should be seen as culturally shaped
reflections of common psychological
processes.
3. Cross-Cultural Psychology
We use this term to describe the
overarching name of the field.
More specific terms distinguish
orientations within this broader
field.
4. Cultural Psychology
Researchers emphasize that
psychological functioning is
essentially different across cultural
regions of the world.
Different “modes of being” are
found in various cultures.
5. Indigenous Psychology
Research methods are more appropriate and relevant to
local populations than western approaches
Focus on the majority world within the context of
poverty and illiteracy
Strives to overcome western biases
India, Philippines, Central & West Africa, religiously
defined regions such as Muslim countries in the Middle
East.
6. Research should be
Culture Informed
Human behavior cannot exist in
a cultural vacuum and all
psychological research has to
take this principle into account.
7. Theoretical Debates: Culture as
Internal or External
To what extent should culture be
conceptualized as part of the
person and to what extent as a set
of conditions outside of the
person?
8. Culture as External
mode of subsistence (poverty versus
affluence), the political organization of
society, the ecological and social
context (institutions &
practices), climate, formal
education, economic practices, contact
with new new society such as migrants
10. Relativism–Universalism
To what extent are
psychological functions and
processes common to
humankind and to what extent
are they unique to specific
cultural groups?
11. Generalizations: Culture as a
System
Modal personality (national
character): the dominant
features of the typical person
belonging to a cultural group or
set of personality traits
frequently found in a society.
12. Cultural Dimensions
Organization of Cultural
Differences: Do cultural
differences form patterns that
allow for broad categorizations or
are the observed differences
unrelated?
13. Individualism–Collectivism
Interdependent versus Independent self
Broad cultural dimensions may lead to an
oversimplified picture.
High-level generalizations are difficult to
validate properly and virtually impossible to
falsify
14. Inferential Distance
Comprehensive and abstract concepts are attractive
because they explain a wider array of cross-cultural
differences. Less comprehensive explanations allow more
critical empirical scrutiny & stay closer to the data.
Behaviors, customs, practices and conventions are more
descriptive and less inferential than cognitive styles and
personality traits. They allow for direct observation of
daily life in a particular culture; the validity of inferences
is most open to unambiguous empirical examination.
15. Definitions
“Cross-cultural research in psychology is
the explicit, systematic comparison of
psychological variables under different
cultural conditions in order to specify the
antecedents and processes that mediate the
emergence of behavior differences.” -
Eckensberger, 1972
*cause and effect relationships between culture and behavior
(specifies the antecedents and processes that mediate)
16. Definition two
Cross-cultural psychology is the empirical
study of members of various culture groups
who have had different experiences that lead to
predictable and significant differences in
behavior. In the majority of such studies, the
groups speak different languages and are
governed by different political units.
*concerns the question of how far behavior should be seen as
culture-specific
17. Definition three
“Cross-cultural research is any type of
research on human behavior that
compares behavior of interest across
two or more cultures.” -
Matsumoto, 1996
*emphasizes that cross-cultural research is culture-
comparative research.
18. Culture-Comparative
Represented by the first three
definitions, this approach sees cultural
conditions as existing independently of
particular individuals. These conditions are
related to differences in behavior
patterns, without necessarily implying that
there are differences in underlying functions
and processes.
19. Definitions four & five
“Cultural psychology [is] the study of the
culture’s role in the mental life of human
beings.” -Cole, 1996
“Cultural psychology has a distinctive
subject matter that aims to reassess the
uniformitarian principle of psychic unity
and develop a credible theory of
psychological pluralism.” -Shweder, 2007
20. Cultural Approach
Represented by definitions four and five.
In the cultural approach to the field, there is
an emphasis on the mutual, interactive
relationship between cultural and
behavioral phenomena.
Does it makes sense to consider “culture”
and “behavior” as distinct entities?
21. Indigenous
In the last two definitions, behavior
differences across cultural groups are taken
also to imply differences in psychological
functions and processes.
The last definition postulates the existence
of different psychologies in different
cultures, challenging the concept of the
“psychic unity” of humankind.
22. Ethnocultural Groups
Not included in the five definitions
cited is the study of various
ethnocultural groups within a single
nation state who interact and change
as they adapt to living together.
23. Biological Variables
Should biological variables including
dietary habits, nutritional deficiencies
and the phylogenetic roots of the
human capacity to develop culture be
included in cross-cultural psychology?
24. Ecological Variables
(Berry, 1976)
Related to the evolutionary view as
culture as human adaptation to the
environment
Emphasizes factors such as economic
activity
(hunting, gathering, farming, etc.) and
population density
25. Best definition of Cross-Cultural
Psychology
Cross-cultural psychology is the study of
similarities and differences in the individual
psychological functioning of various
cultural and ethnocultural groups; of
ongoing changes in variables reflecting such
functioning; and of the relationships of
psychological variables with
sociocultural, ecological and biological
variables.
