How does culture come into play in cross-cultural studies?

Culture comes into play for two reasons.

• Individuals may differ from each other to some extent because they belong to different cultural groups.

• members of some groups may differ from each other in distinctive way

what is culture and how do differences between them occur?

culture refers to psychological attributes of groups. these include “customs, habits, beliefs and values that shape emotions, behavior and life patterns

Differences between cultural groups are learned through either enculturation or acculturation

enculturation is picking up the culture into which she is born

acculturation  is when A person who moves from one country to another may gradually pick up the culture of her new home

For what reasons are psychologists interested in cross-cultural studies? What are the reasons for misunderstandings in this research?

interested in cross-cultural differences for three good reasons.

Understanding cultural differences

important for increasing international understanding,

assessing the degree to which psychology applies to people around the world,

appreciating the possible varieties of human experience

three drives for cross-cultural studies which frequently cause misunderstandings

Different cultural attitudes

Different cultural values,

behavioral styles

What two terms ae used in describing cultural characteristics? What assumption in cultural comparison is made?

Etics and emics are used in description

Etics are universal components of an idea

The particular aspects are called emics.

basic assumption is that any idea or concept has aspects that are the same across cultures and particular to a specific culture

All cultures have some conception of duty beyond this basic etic, different cultures impose their own ideas (emics) about what the duty actually is.

What is a tough Culture? What is an Easy culture?

In easy cultures, individuals can pursue many different goals and at least some of them are relatively simple to attain;

In tougher cultures, only a few goals are viewed as valuable and few ways are available to achieve them.

What is the tight-loose dimension of culture and who was it proposed by?

tightness-looseness dimension contrasts cultures that tolerate very little deviation from proper behavior (tight cultures) with those that allow fairly large deviations from cultural norms (loose cultures).

Proposed by Triandis

Define Individualism and Collectivism

in collectivist cultures, with Japan used as the typical example, the needs of the group (the “collective”) are more important than the rights of individuals

In individualist cultures, such as the United States, the single person is more important.

This difference in motivation can have advantages

. Because of their need to stand out, members of individualist cultures may self-enhance (describing themselves as better than they really are),

members of collectivist cultures, free of this need, may describe themselves more accurately

what is the difference between a vertically and horizontally organized society? (proposed by Triandis)

Vertical societies assume that individual people are importantly different from each other,

Horizontal societies tend to view all persons as essentially equal. T

a collectivist-vertical society might enforce strong authority on its members (e.g., China),

A collectivist-horizontal society might have weaker authority but a strong ethic that enforces equality and sharing (e.g., Israel).

 An individualist-vertical society would have strong authority but also the freedom (and the obligation) to support oneself in a market economy (e.g., France),

an individualist-horizontal society would value individual freedom but also assume that meeting everyone’s needs is a shared obligation

What three dimensions does Angela Leung say cultures differ on?

honor, face, and dignity.

Western cultures in general and the United States in particular, are said to be dignity cultures. The key idea of dignity cultures is that individuals are valuable in their own right and this value does not come from what other people think of them.

Cultures of honor emerge in environments where laws and police are weak or nonexistent and people must protect themselves Members of honor cultures are highly sensitive to threats to honor or reputation,

Cultures of face emerge in societies that have stable hierarchies based on cooperation, such as Japan or China.

People are motivated to protect each other’s social image by being careful not to insult, overtly criticize, or even disagree with each other in public.

How is the degree to which certain traits apply to different cultures. Addressed?

in two ways.

The first is to try to characterize cultural differences by assessing the degree to which average levels of specific traits vary between cultures.

The second is by assessing the degree to which the traits that characterize people in one culture can meaningfully characterize people in another.

How are personalities of different cultures compared? What problem occurs when comparing personalities across nations?

most common way to compare the personalities of different cultures is using the Big Five

in almost all cultures, women scored higher than men in neuroticism, agreeableness, warmth, and openness to feelings;

Men scored higher than women in assertiveness and openness to ideas.

some researchers have argued that only three of the Big Five—conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness— should be considered truly universal due to the difficulty in proper replicability

what paths does cross-cultural research on values follow?

two tracks. One track seeks values that are universal to all cultures. The  second seeks values strives to illuminate these  differences

Universal Values have two implications

First, we might infer that a value held in all cultures is in some sense a “real” value that goes beyond cultural judgment,

Second, if we could find a set of common values, we might be able to use these to settle disputes between cultures by developing compromises based on the areas of universal agreement

What models are proposed to account for the origins of cultural differences?

Triandis (1994) proposed a straightforward model that can be diagrammed as Ecology--àCulture--àSocialization--àPersonality--àBehavior

cological model was offered by Oishi and Graham

In this model, everything affects everything else. Most importantly, culture and the minds of the people who live in a culture change each other over time as well

---><---Culture--->ß---ecology---àß----Mind and behavior---àß-

small differences in ecology can lead to large cultural differences that help to shape personality

what four things should discussion of genetic differences between cultural groups should be sure to emphasize

The differences are small, at most. . 

Traits are likely to be even weaker predictors of behavior at the cultural level than they are at the individual level

 People within cultures are widely different from each other.

The data available so far can be explained in several different ways.

What some challenges of Cross-cultural study?

Any observation of another culture almost certainly will be colored by the observer’s cultural background,

research sometimes exaggerates differences by acting almost as if all members of a given culture are alike

what are the there reasons cultural differences are exaggerated?

One is that cross-cultural psychology has long been in the business of finding differences. 

second reason is statistical,  Many studies of cultural differences use significance tests rather than examining effect sizes

third reason is the out-group homogeneity bias. Members of groups to which one does not belong seem to be “all the same