LB - Cultural Psych

• Ontological invariance

  A psychological trait(s) or psychological phenomenon is 1. 'real' (ontological)- it exists as a 'thing' 2. that it doesn't change across times, places and contexts (invariant)
• Concept of ontological invariance drawn from natural sciences
• In psychology, ontological invariance suggests it's possible to find universal truths of mind and behaviour applying to all people irrespective of culture
• Mind and behaviour are both Individual, Social, and the two interact (as do the biological aspects of being human too- humans are 'Biopsychosocial' beings)
• Human beings are shaped by culture and shape culture - Internal external loop
• Culture


  An umbrella term which encompasses the social behaviour and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities and habits of the individuals in these groups
• Emic perspectives


  Exploring culture from within a culture and cultural similarities
• Etic perspectives


  Exploring culture from outside of a culture and cultural differences
• Humans have psychological capacities as a result of biology and inheritance, and culture 'fits into' these capacities with variation seen between human societies
• Cross-cultural psychology

  Explores how culture and psychology interact
• Cultural psychology


  Explores how the importance of culture is considered in psychology
• Individualistic cultures

  Emphasise the needs of the individual over the needs of the group, people are seen as independent and autonomous, social behaviour is dictated by individual attitudes and preferences
• Collectivistic cultures

  Emphasize the needs of the group over the individual, relationships and interconnectedness are central to identity, social behaviour is more conscious of the presence of others and collectivism
• Founding fathers of psychology were initially uninterested in culture due to their experimental and philosophical interest in the 'inside of mind'
• Behaviourism viewed culture as just a set of learned behaviours
• Anthropology, the contemporary discipline to psychology, was interested in mind and culture and how culture shapes what people think, with primary research through ethnographic studies of non-Western peoples
• Bartlett's (1932) "War of the Ghosts" study showed that the constructive nature of memory was influenced by the subject's own cultural schema
• WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) participants make up 80% of psychology research subjects but only 12% of the world's population, and have been found to be outliers on many psychological measures compared to the rest of the species
• The Big Five personality factors have shown relative cross-cultural stability, but research on small-scale indigenous populations suggests the structure may not be truly universal, with factors like extraversion and agreeableness mixing together and being better conceptualized as pro-sociality and industriousness
• Theories and measures in psychology are often informed through one's own cultural perspective, making them difficult to apply to other cultures (ethnocentrism)
• Culture is an important aspect of human beings that is often overlooked in psychology, which can lead to theories and findings that are culture-blind or culture-bound