Culture and Social Behavior: Cross-Cultural Social Psychology

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Culture and Social Behavior Cross-Cultural
Social Psychology
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Interpersonal Communication

• Context vs. Content Cultural Orientation
• Context of communication
• level and tone of voice
• looking or not looking into the eyes (contact)
• distance between bodies
• posture and body orientation
• extent of body touching, including what parts of
  the body are being touched.

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Culture and Communication

• Context cultures - societies that are
  homogeneous, relatively simple, and where people
  have to maintain good long-term relationships
  with others.
• Content culture everything is spelled out
  (said) clearly and explicitly. Nothing is left
  open to interpretation.

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Social Behavior Patterns

• Work by Fiske revealed four types of social
  behavior patterns across cultures.
• 1. Community Sharing
• People know each other well
• family life is the closet metaphor
• what is mine is yours, intimacy, oneness,
  cooperation and self-sacrifice are typical
  behaviors.

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Social Behavior Patterns (cont.)

• 2. Authority Ranking
• Obedience, admiration, and giving and following
  orders without questioning are typical behaviors.
• The relationship between a general and a soldier
  is the closest metaphor.

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Social Behavior Patterns (cont.)

• 3. Equality Matching
• Social interaction between totally equal friends
  is the best metaphor.
• Typical behaviors taking turns, dividing things
  evenly, one person, one vote, etc.

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Social Behavior Patterns (cont.)

• 4. Market Pricing
• Social relationships based on a cost-benefit
  analysis
• Ill be your friend if it pays to do so

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Collectivism vs. Individualism

• As we have said again and again in this class,
  this continuum provides a parsimonious yet highly
  predictive culturally relevant construct for
  understanding all sorts of behavior patterns
  across cultures.

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Perception and Attractiveness

• Attractiveness
• Cultural differences in the definition of
  attractiveness can influence the formation of
  impressions.
• i.e. in Japan, attractiveness was correlated with
  large eyes, small mouths, and small chins.
  However, in Korea-large eyes, small and high
  noses, and thin and small faces define
  attractiveness.

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Perception and Attractiveness (cont.)

• Person Perception
• Recognition of Faces
• People tend to recognize others of their own
  perceived race more accurately.

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Love and Intimacy

• What attracts people to selecting a mate?
• Early 1950 studies indicated proximity
• Recent studies indicate physical attractiveness
• Matching Hypothesis-people of equal physical
  characteristics are likely to select each other.
• Similarity Hypothesis-people similar in age,
  race, religion, social class, education,
  intelligence, attitudes, and physical
  attractiveness form intimate relationships.
• Reciprocity hypothesis-people tend to like others
  who like them.

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Love and Intimacy (cont.)

• Hatfield and Berscheids Theory of Love
• Passionate Love - absorption of another that
  includes sexual feelings and intense emotion.
• Companionate Love - warm, trusting, and tolerant
  affection for another whose life is intertwined
  with yours.
• Sternbergs Theory
• Seven different forms of love depending on the
  presence or absence of passionate love, intimacy,
  or commitment.

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Love and Intimacy (cont.)

• Differences Across Cultures
• Romantic love valued more in America and Germany
  than in Japan (Simmons et al., 1986)
• Europeans value love more than South Africans and
  Indians, the South Africans place higher value on
  equality and peace (Furnham, 1984)

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Cross Cultural Similarities Buss studies (1989
and 1994)

• - More than 10,000 respondents in 37 different
  cultures completed 2 questionnaires (factors in
  choosing a mate and preferences concerning
  potential mates)
• - In 36 of 37 cultures, females rated financial
  prospects as more important than did males.
• - In all 37, males preferred younger mates and
  females preferred older mates.
• - In 34, males rated good looks as more important
• - In 23, males rated chastity as more important

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Attributions for Social Behavior

• Casual Attributions are the inferences people
  make about the causes of events regarding and
  their own and others behaviors.
• Traditional American Attributions
• Kelleys Covariation Model - people attribute
  behavior to causes that are present when the
  behavior occurs and absent when the behavior does
  not.

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Attributions (cont.)

• People consider 3 types of information when
  making attributions
• Consistency is a persons behavior consistent
  across situation or is it situation specific?
• Distinctiveness is a persons behavior unique
  to the specific target?
• Consensus would other persons faced with the
  same situation behave is a similar manner?

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Attributions (cont.)

• Weiners Theory of Stability
• Describes four types of attributions for success
  and failure Stable and Unstable, internal and
  external
• I.e. if didnt get a job you could attribute it
  to
• 1) stable internal factors (lack of ability),
• 2) stable external factors (too much
  competition),
• 3) unstable internal factors (lack of effort),
  or
• 4) unstable external factors (bad luck).

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Attributions (cont.)

• Fundamental Attribution Error - a tendency to
  attribute negative behavior outcome in others to
  internal factors (lack of ability) and to
  attribute negative outcomes in ourselves to
  external factors (unfair test).
• Self Serving Bias - a tendency to attribute our
  own successes to personal factors and our
  failures to situational factors.
• Defensive Attributions a tendency to blame
  victims for their misfortune.

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Cross-Cultural Extensions of Causal Attribution
Theories and Research

• This is an area where the limitations of American
  and Western European Psychology have been
  extremely apparent.
• Cultural differences abound.
• In fact, most of these theories have failed the
  universalism test.

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Aggression

• Any act or behavior that hurts another person,
  either physically or psychologically.
• Cross-Cultural Differences
• Robbins et al (1972) - countries in hotter
  climates are associated with higher murder rates.
• Terav et al (1998) studied justifications for
  aggression
• Estonians chose instrumental justifications
  (means to an end)
• Finish reported that aggression was fun.

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Aggression (cont.)

• Bond et al (1985) studied aggressive insults and
  criticisms
• Aggressive behaviors was more acceptable in
  relationships where status and power were unequal
  for Chinese participants than for Americans.
• Cross Cultural Similarities
• Across cultures, overt physical and verbal
  aggression is more prevalent among boys than
  girls (Tomada et al.)
• Acceptance of various forms of aggression are
  similar across cultures from Spain, Finland,
  Poland, South Africa, US, Japan, and Iran
  (Ramirez et al, 2001)

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Conformity and Compliance

• Conformity - yielding to real or imagined social
  pressure.
• Compliance - yielding to social pressure in ones
  public behavior, even if ones private beliefs
  may not have changed.
• Obedience - when people follow direct commands.
• Cooperation - ability to work together toward a
  common goal.

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Conformity and Compliance (cont.)

• Cross-Cultural Research
• American bias-negative feelings (Asians value
  conformity)
• Research on child rearing-indicates that Asians
  and Puerto Ricans were found to value conformity
  and obedience
• Garza et. al. Studies