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The Nature of Culture
Nuts and Bolts
International Baccalaureate Mission
Statement
The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring,
knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create
a better and more peaceful world through intercultural
understanding and respect. To this end the IB works with
schools, governments and international organizations to
develop challenging programs of international education
and rigorous assessment. These programs encourage
students across the world to become active, compassionate
and lifelong learners who understand that other
people, with their differences, can also be right.
Why Culture?
Key Question: Is what we know in the field of
Psychology applicable to all peoples?
Traditionally Psychology has been a Euro American
product and is
Culturally-bound by the contexts from which they were
derived
Is the knowledge traditionally-acquired actually valid in
cross-cultural context?
Obligation to all of the people whose lives are touched
by its knowledge to produce accurate knowledge that
reflects and applies to them. Matsumoto, 2004
The Concept of Culture: History and
Definition
E. B. Tylor, (1865) capabilities and habits
learned as members of a society
Alfred Kroeber, (1952) patterns of
behavior acquired and transmitted by
symbols, constituting the distinct
achievement of human groups, including
their embodiment in artifacts
Definitions
Margaret Mead, 1954
The sum total of learned behavior characteristic of a
group, composed of material and non material traits,
persisting and accumulating over time and
transmitted by symbolic language
Difference between Society and Culture
Society refers to the system of interrelationships
among people; social networks; found among
humans and non-humans.
Culture refers to the meanings associated with social
networks; e.g., the meanings associated with family.
Characteristics of Culture
Culture is shared
Culture is learned
Culture is based on symbols
Culture is integrated
Cultural Continuity
Enculturation
Ethnocentrism
Cultural Relativism
Limitations of the Enculturation Concept
Replication of existing patterns
Influence of technological change and the
rate of innovation
Continuity vs. evolution of culture
Significant limitations: Globalization
Cultural Change: Diffusion
Definition
Patterns
Direct contact
Intermediate contact
Stimulus diffusion
Selective Nature of Diffusion
Utility
Psychological Need
Compatibility
Reinterpretation
Material culture and ideational culture
Mental and Behavioral Aspects of Culture
Contact, observation and communication
Levels of the ideational culture
Deep structure
Implicit patterns
Explicit culture
Norms, mores, taboos and sanctions
Behavioral Level
Births
Funerals
Hunting expeditions
Warfare
marriage
Influences on Culture: How Culture Alters
Behavior and Mental Processes
Ecological
Factors;
Subsistence
patterns
Social Factors;
acculturation;
international
media
Biological
Factors;
hormones,
size weight
Enculturation
via
Culture
Psychological
Processes
•Attitudes
•Family
•Cognitions
•Community
•Perceptual
•Institutions
Childrearing Role
assignment
Gender
stereotyping
Sex role ideology
•Conformity
•Achievement
motivation
•Values
•Beliefs
•Opinions
•Worldviews
•Norms
•Behaviors
Emics and Etics
Pan Cultural versus Culture Specific
Universal and Specifics
Etics
Kenneth L. Pike, 1954, phonetics and
phonemes
Pan cultural principles
Example: Rites of passage
Emics
Culturally-specific processes
cannibalism
Origins of the Terms
Kenneth Pike (1954); phonetics and
phonemes
John. W. Berry (1969) emics and etics
Marvin Harris
Etics
Define
Techniques and results of making generalizations
about cultural events
behavior patterns, artifacts, thoughts and ideology that
are independent of the distinctions and beliefs that are
significant and appropriate from the native actors’
point of view;
pan cultural or universal truths or principles;
Examples:
categories and rules for comparison allowing for the
generation of scientific theories;
kinship, marriage patterns, intelligence; time
reference; rites of passage; cultural dimensions
Emics
Define
Descriptions or judgments concerning behavior,
customs, beliefs, values held by the members of a
societal group as being culturally appropriate and
valid;
culturally-specific truths or principles
Example;
how to ask someone for a date; appropriate use of
kinship terms; cross-cousin marriage; cannibalism
polychronic time reference;
Cross Cultural Research
Types of Cross Cultural Studies
Cross Cultural Comparison Studies
Unpackaging studies
Ecological level studies
Cross cultural validation studies
Ethnographies
Special Issues Concerning Cross
Cultural Comparison
Equivalence
Theoretical Issues
Methodological issues
Data analysis issues
Interpretation issues
Transforming Cultural into a Measurable
Construct
Reducing culture from abstract to finite
elements
Identification of meaningful dimensions of
cultural variability
Theoretical work on individualism-collectivism
Empirical work on individualism-collectivism
Measuring IC