Chapter 2 History of Cultural Psychology Chapter 2 Outline Central Themes and Types of Historical Approaches Ancient Greek Contributions Late 19th and Early 20th Century Thinkers Wilhelm Wundt ID: 919503
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Slide1
Cultural Psychology
Robyn M. Holmes
Chapter 2: History of Cultural Psychology
Slide2Chapter 2 Outline
Central Themes and Types of Historical Approaches
Ancient Greek Contributions
Late 19th and Early 20th Century Thinkers
Wilhelm Wundt
Sociology and Anthropology: Early Contributions
Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky
Slide3Chapter 2 Outline
Anthropology’s Contributions to Cultural Psychology
Franz Boas
D. Price-Williams
Cross-Cultural Psychology
Marshall
Segall
Geert Hofstede and Harris
Triandis
Slide4Chapter 2 Outline
Cultural Psychology
Richard
Shweder
Culture across Disciplines – Richard
Shweder
Jerome Bruner
Michael Cole
Indigenous Psychologies
Slide5Chapter 2 Learning Goals
Compare different approaches to study the history of a discipline
Explain how ancient Greek philosophers addressed central themes in the development of cultural psychology
Discuss Wilhelm Wundt’s major contributions and explain how they influenced the future subfield cultural psychology
Identify the contributions individuals from different disciplines made to the emergence of cultural psychology
Slide6Chapter 2 Learning Goals
Explain Franz Boas’ and Margaret Mead’s role in the development of cultural psychology
Compare and contrast the influence Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories had on the development of cultural psychology
Evaluate contributions from cross-cultural psychology including those of key figures
Discuss historical and contemporary empirical studies that contributed to the emergence of cultural psychology
Slide7Chapter 2 Learning Goals
Compare and contrast the major contributions Cole, Bruner, and
Shweder
made to cultural psychology
Discuss the contributions indigenous psychology has made to cultural psychology
Compare and contrast the differences between indigenous psychology and cultural psychology
Slide8Engaging with Culture
The Torres Strait Expedition (1901/1903)
Interdisciplinary collaboration between anthropology and psychology
What was the purpose of the Torres Strait Expedition?
To test cultural variability in intelligence and sensation and perception including visual acuity, visual illusions, and color vision
Slide9The Torres Strait Expedition (1901/1903)
The researchers hypothesized:
that ‘savages’ had lower mental abilities but better visual skills than Europeans
Why did they have this disparaging perception of non-Western peoples?
Ethnocentric attitudes
The notion of cultural evolution popular during this time
Slide10The Torres Strait Expedition (1901/1903)
How did the research team test their hypotheses?
Ethnography
Standardized psychological measures and stimuli
Triangulation
Tested participants outdoors and not in a laboratory
The Torres Strait Expedition (1901/1903)
Outcomes:
Europeans outperformed the Torres Islanders on several visual illusions including the Müller-
Lyer
illusion
A ground breaking cross-cultural study for its time
Inspired later 20
th
century cross-cultural psychologists
Introduced still photography use in research to capture everyday social interactions
Slide12The Ancient Greeks
What is the nature of knowledge?
Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
The empiricist
Deductive reasoning
Slide13The Ancient Greeks
What is the nature of knowledge?
Plato (428-347 BCE)
The rationalist
Inductive reasoning
Slide14Central themes and Types of Historical Approaches
The position of culture in the social sciences
Mainstream psychology's emphasis upon experimental methods, scientific rigor, and precision
Focus upon finding universal patterns and processing mechanisms that don’t acknowledge the role of culture in mind
Slide15Approaches to Documenting
the History of Cultural Psychology
“
Zeitgeist
” - when you focus upon environmental, political, economic, or other external forces
Can you think of an example of a world event that helped shaped psychological research?
Slide16Approaches to Documenting
the History of Cultural Psychology
"
Great-person approach
" - when you emphasize the contributions that particular individuals have made rather than concentrating on historical forces
Can you think of any individuals who helped shape the discipline of psychology?
Slide17Approaches to Documenting
the History of Cultural Psychology
Historical development approach” -
you combine the features of both the Zeitgeist and the great-person approach
Acknowledges the contributions of individuals and historical forces to explain the history of cultural psychology
Slide18Ancient Greek contributions
Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
De Anima –
biological classification
Studied intelligence, perception, dreams, recall, and memory
Ancient Greek contributions
Herodotus (485-425 BCE)
Collected ethnographic material on the groups he visited
Explored issues such as intelligence, language, rituals, science, and history
Cultural relativism was present in Herodotus' writings
Late 19th and Early 20th Century Thinkers
Johan Herbart (1776-1841 CE)
Advocated for studying individuals from non-Western cultures
Focused upon the nature of mental activity
"Culture is individual psychology“ - a forerunner to cross-cultural psychology
Slide21Late 19th and Early 20th Century Thinkers
Adolf Bastian
Acknowledged both the similarities and differences among the different people he studied
Focused upon what Wundt termed the
higher mental processes (myth, customs, and religious systems)
Higher mental processes would eventually become the preview of anthropology; psychology would settle upon memory, consciousness, and perception
Slide22Late 19th and Early 20th Century Thinkers
Wilhelm Wundt
Studied topics from anthropology and contemporary cognitive psychology
Some researchers suggest the study of mind in culture began with Wundt
Founder of experimental psychology
Slide23Wilhelm Wundt
Believed higher mental processes (language, memory, and reasoning) should be studied using the techniques of anthropologists and folklorists
Believed higher mental functions were culturally meditated and only historical and developmental methods could reveal their true nature
Slide24Wilhelm Wundt’s
Volkerpsychologie
Ethnographic accounts of language, customs, and myth
Involved the relationship between culture and mind
The last volume exemplifies contemporary cultural
psychology’s goals
Culturally meditated experience should not be
conceived of as an independent variable
Culture guides the development of higher mental
processes
Late 19th and Early 20th Century Thinkers
Sociology and Anthropology's Early Contributions
Emile Durkheim (1897) focused upon the ill effects of society on individual behavior-
Le suicide
Bronislaw Malinowski challenged Sigmund Freud's notion of the oedipal complex in non-Western cultural settings
Edward Tylor introduced the first definition of culture
Slide26Late 19th and Early 20th Century Thinkers
Jean Piaget
Focused upon how children adapt to their environment
Focused upon qualitative changes or shifts between stages in children's cognitive development
Concluded that most Western children pass through a series of invariant stages in their cognitive development
Focused primarily upon biological maturation while acknowledging social experience and experience with the physical environment
Slide27Piaget's Cognitive Theory of Development
Provides opportunities for cross-cultural investigations
Acknowledged the role of culture in shaping developmental outcomes
Highlighted children's ability to adapt to their environments which would vary with those settings and social experience
Understood the importance of using culturally relevant methods
Drew attention to developmental differences that arise both within and between cultures
Slide28Piaget's Cognitive Theory of Development
Lancy
(1983) tested the applicability of Piagetian theory in non-Western cultural settings
Argued New Guinean children do not develop cognitively according to Western timetables and constructs
Their cognitive development is culturally mediated by their experiences and cultural practices
Piaget's Cognitive Theory of Development
Maynard and Greenfield (2003)
Explored how parental beliefs and cultural practices help shape children's cognitive abilities
Suggested formal abstract thought may not be the final cognitive outcome in other cultures
Connected how parental belief systems, cultural values, and cultural practices mediate cognitive outcomes
Slide30Piaget’s Contributions to Cultural Psychology
His work created an incredible cross-cultural literature base on children's cognitive development
Drew attention to cross-cultural differences in cognitive development
Was an inspiration for cultural psychology
Slide31Lev Vygotsky
In explaining cognitive development, emphasized the relationship between development and culture
Emphasized the role of social contexts in shaping how individuals acquire knowledge
Focused upon individual development but also acknowledged the role of culture in development
Slide32Lev Vygotsky
Highlighted how cultural tools and artifacts influence how individuals mentally construct their view of their world
Believed culture makes it possible for individuals to think in different ways
One of the first researchers to blend natural and cultural lines in development
Slide33Lev Vygotsky
Focused upon studying the higher mental processes through collaborative learning in social contexts
Children become skilled at using these cognitive tools through their social interactions with more knowledgeable members
Individual mentalities shape cultural processes as members collaborate in activities that involve modifying, expanding, or adapting the cultures cognitive tools
Slide34Lev
Vygotsky
Zone of proximal development
The distance between where a person can complete a task or solve a problem with and without assistance
Example: when a child is learning to tie his shoe with assistance and then is able to complete the task alone
Slide35Lev
Vygotsky
Guided participation
The process by children actively scaffold and model
adults or more knowledgeable partners to acquire
skills and abilities they will need to become
successful adults
Can you think of additional examples of the zone of proximal development and guided participation?
Slide36Lev Vygotsky
Culture mediates experience and every day social interactions
Distinguished between cross-cultural and cultural psychology
His emphasis upon cognitive tools would influence individuals such as Michael Cole
Slide37Anthropology's Contributions to Cultural Psychology
Franz Boas
Contributed to linguistics, ethnographic methodology,
folklore, and physical anthropology
Challenged many of the views psychologists held
at the time that were unconditionally accepted
Began a relationship between anthropology and
psychology that would inspire future anthropologists
to question the role of culture in psychological processes
Slide38Franz Boas
Promoted cultural relativism
Emphasized cultural relativism and ethnography and gave attention to historical forces in cultural development; critical to the development of cultural psychology
Surfaces in Coles’ view of cultural psychology
Slide39Boas’ Students
Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, and Edward Sapir investigated the relationship between culture and various psychological theories and concepts
Mead and Benedict are affiliated with the culture and personality school in anthropology
Mead's work would occupy a central position in integrating culture into developmental psychology
Slide40Boas’ Students
Mead was the first anthropologist to assess the applicability of Western theories of childhood in non-Western settings using qualitative approaches
Freud's view of adolescence was neither relevant nor applicable to Samoan adolescents
Questioned how culturally mediated experiences
guide a developmental outcomes
Slide41Boas’ Students
George Murdock was instrumental in promoting cross-cultural research the Institute of human relations at Yale University
The Human Relation Area Files (
HRAF
)
the world’s largest and most
comprehensive ethnographic database
Slide42Douglas Price-Williams
Concerned about the applicability of Western measures and norms in non-Western communities
Emphasized the importance of cultural context in explaining and interpreting human nature
His view of the role of culture in the human experience
Slide43Douglas Price-Williams
Advocated that psychology attend to cultural context and ecological variables such as cultural practices and social experience in explaining psychological phenomena
Considered culture a context that shapes psychological processing
Do you think Boas, Mead, and Price-Williams
are candidates for the great person approach?
Slide44Cross-Cultural Psychology
Cross-Cultural studies emerged in the late 1960’s due to:
Demographic changes in the United States
Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act
Attention to diversity led academic departments to
offer courses in cross-cultural psychology
Cross-Cultural Psychology
Cross-Cultural studies emerged in the late 1960’s due to:
Funding from cross- cultural projects became available
The cognitive revolution was gaining momentum –
this perspective compared the human mind to a
computer and the information processing
perspective emerged
Cross-Cultural Studies -
Segall
et al. (1966)
Their cross-cultural investigation of perceptual processing:
Focused upon visual illusions and revisited testing performed by the Torres Strait Expedition
Tested the
carpentered world hypothesis -
how environment influences the way people perceive visual stimuli
Concluded European and American participants succumbed to the Müller-
Lyer
and the Sander parallelogram illusions
Cross-Cultural Studies -
Segall
et al. (1966)
Their cross-cultural investigation of perceptual processing:
Produced findings that paralleled the Torres Strait Expedition findings
Concluded experience shapes our perceptions
Suggested cultural variability reflected different perceptual habits
Geert Hofstede
While working for IBM accumulated a wealth of information on employee morale worldwide
Averaged participant responses from a country and treated a nation as a single unit termed this a nation-level study
Devised dimensions to compare values across nations:
1. Power distance 2. Uncertainty avoidance
3. Individualism-collectivism 4. Masculinity-femininity
Slide49Hofstede’s Comparative Dimensions
Power distance
- the difference between a boss’ and subordinate’s ability to predict each other’s behavior
Uncertainty avoidance
– relates to the unknown and a society’s ability to deal with novel and unfamiliar situations and future events
Slide50Hofstede’s Comparative dimensions
Individualism-collectivism
relates to an individual’s
place in society
The independent self (associated with individualism) is separate, bounded, and unique
The interdependent self (associated with collectivism) is fluid, unbounded, and situationally defined
Masculinity-femininity
- the extent to which a nation
values nurturing and care
Slide51Harry
Triandis
Cross-cultural social psychologist
Interested in the study of attitudes, roles, and norms and how these varied by culture
Applied the individualism-collectivism construct that assists cross-cultural researchers in comparing
construals
of self and cultural ideology
Slide52Cultural Psychology
Attends to contextual factors and the fact that culture is lived and performed
A more interpretive, substantive understanding of mind in culture
Raises the visibility of mind in culture and culture and mental life
Slide53Cultural Psychology
An interdisciplinary field
Movement away from culture as an independent variable that could be manipulated in a scientific study; necessary for cultural psychology's emergence
Slide54Richard
Shweder
One of the founders of cultural psychology
"A discipline is emerging called "cultural psychology.” It is not general psychology.
It is not cross-cultural psychology... It is cultural
psychology. And its time may have arrived, once
again.”
Slide55Richard
Shweder
Emphasized how culture shapes psychological processes
Emphasized the bidirectional nature of culture and symbolic meaning
Moved for an approach to study culture in mind
Slide56Richard
Shweder
The person (mind) and cultural (context) are independent and not distinct, separate entities
Cultural pluralism; cultural collisions
Do you think cultural psychology would exist without the contributions of Richard
Shweder
?
Jerome Bruner
Suggested cultural psychology focus upon how people organize meaning-making processes in their everyday experiences and local contexts
Believed culturally mediated experiences shape psychological processes
Focused upon the narratives or scripts that guide peoples meaning-making processes in their everyday experiences
Slide58Michael Cole
Emphasized a developmental approach to
understanding culture in mind
Focused upon studying activities in everyday life
Viewed humans as active agents in their own life experiences in which mind and culture are co-constructed
Slide59Michael Cole
Culture and mind are not interdependent; rather they are mutually embedded or co-created
Both interpretative and objective methods were important to understand how behavior is culturally mediated and culturally mediated behavior influences experience
Slide60Michael Cole
Context is the focal concept in cultural psychology
Draws upon Vygotsky's use of tools to explain cognitive development
Focused upon how tools shape culturally mediated experiences as they surface in everyday activities
Slide61Indigenous Psychologies
Arose in response to difficulties in using
Western thinking, concepts, measures, and
norms in non-Western cultural settings
Culturally relevant concepts and constructs became the focal point of research
Emphasizes cultural relativism
Slide62Indigenous Psychologies
Shares common ground with cultural psychology but they are not interchangeable
Links to research conducted by native researchers who employ local cultural concepts to benefit the people they study