Culture, Development, and the Development of Culture

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Culture, Development, and the Development of
Culture

• David Matsumoto
• San Francisco State University
• www.davidmatsumoto.info

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Outline

• Defining Culture
• Differentiating between Culture and Other Stuff
• What does this All Mean for the Teaching of
  Psychology?

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Defining Culture

• A Common Perspective on Culture
• When psychologists think about culture vis-à-vis
  psychology, we generally think about cultural
  differences in psychological processes

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Defining Culture

• A Different Perspective on Culture
• While elucidating differences among human
  cultures is an important topic, perhaps a more
  important topic for psychologists is the
  difference between those who have cultures and
  those who do not

• This approach may give us greater insights about
  human behavior and mental processes, and a
  different perspective about cultural differences
  in psychological processes

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Defining Culture

• So who has culture and who doesnt?
• Answering this question depends on having a
  definition of culture

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Defining Culture

• Culture is an abstract concept that we invoke to
  explain within group similarities and between
  group differences
• Commonly shared definitions of culture
• Sharing
• Communicated from one generation to the next
• Uniquely human
• Previous definitions of culture

• A definition I have used in the past
• Culture is a shared system of socially
  transmitted behavior that describes, defines, and
  guides peoples ways of life, communicated from
  one generation to the next.

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Defining Culture
Where Does Culture Come From?
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An Example of How Culture is Produced to Address
Basic Needs
Defining Culture
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Defining Culture

• But is culture a uniquely human product?
• All living animals need to address their need in
  order to survive
• Many animals are social
• Many animals share many psychological
  characteristics
• Many animals communicate the contents of what is
  shared within and between generations
• Thus, culture is not a uniquely human product

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Defining Culture

• What is unique about human culture?
• If culture is not a uniquely human product, then
  the question really is what differentiates human
  cultures from the cultures of other animals?
• This question begs the question of what unique
  skills and abilities do humans have?

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Defining Culture
Unique Human Skills

• Complex cognition
• Knowledge about self, others, and that others
  know about oneself
• Time perception past, present, and future
• Causal beliefs
• Teaching
• Theory of mind
• Representational ability

• Language
• Speech, syntax, symbol use
• Increased forms of communication oral and
  written languages

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Defining Culture

• Unique characteristics of human culture?
• Complexity
• Differentiation
• Institutionalization
• ? all working to increase Adaptability. That is,
  we get better at living as we go along

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Defining Culture

• Uniquely Human Characteristics
• Complex social relationships
• Enhanced meaning of normal daily tasks
• Creative activities such as music, art, drama
• Recreational activities, sports hobbies
• Achievements such as space and sea exploration
• Aggression and war
• Worldviews, causal beliefs, theories of mind
• Educational system

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Defining Culture

• Two Aspects of Culture
• Cultural practices
• Cultural worldviews

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Defining Culture

• So what is human culture?
• Human culture is a unique meaning and information
  system that allows humans to meet basic needs of
  survival, pursue happiness and well-being, and
  derive meaning from life.
• It does so by creating and maintaining complex
  social systems, institutionalizing and improving
  cultural practices, creating beliefs about the
  world, and communicating the meaning system to
  other humans and subsequent generations

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Defining Culture

• Human culture is the product of the evolution of
  the human mind, increased brain size, capacity,
  capability, and language.
• Human cultures are unique in the use of language
  and complex cognition

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Defining Culture
Factors that Influence Culture Today

• Physical environment
• Geography, climate, natural resources
• Social factors
• Government, institutions, media, sociocultural
  history, socioeconomics, religion
• Family and community
• Child-rearing practices, role of community and
  extended families
• Biological factors
• E.g., temperament

Culture is a fluid, dynamic, entity
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Differentiating between Culture and Other Stuff

• Culture, Race, Nationality, and Ethnicity
• Does race exist?
• Nationality denotes geopolitical boundaries
• Ethnicity

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Differentiating between Culture and Other Stuff

• Culture and Personality
• Personality is a constellation of behavioral
  tendencies that people are born with they are
  genetically-based
• Cultures differ in the aggregated personalities
  of the individual members of those cultures
• Understanding individual behavior, therefore,
  requires an incorporation of personality

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Differentiating between Culture and Other Stuff

• Culture and Individuality
• Cultures provide basic guidelines and roadmaps
  for behaviors
• But each community, family and individual chooses
  exactly how to operationalization those
  guidelines for themselves
• In addition we cannot ignore the great diversity
  of individuality that exists in basic
  personality, which is probably genetically based
• We see this every day in data

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Differentiating between Culture and Other Stuff

• Ethnocentrism
• Stereotypes
• Prejudice
• Discrimination

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What does this All Mean for the Teaching of
Psychology?

• How can we all get along better?

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What does this All Mean for the Teaching of
Psychology?
Adaptation and Adjustment

• Adaptation the process of altering ones
  behavior to fit in with a changed environment or
  circumstances, or as a response to social
  pressure

• Adjustment the subjective experiences that are
  associated with, result from, or are consequences
  of, adaptation, and that motivate further
  adaptation

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What does this All Mean for the Teaching of
Psychology?
Life is a Process of Adaptation and Adjustment
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What does this All Mean for the Teaching of
Psychology?

• Defining Successful Intercultural Adjustment
• (1) Having successful relationships with people
  from ones own and other cultures (feeling that
  interactions are warm, cordial, respectful, and
  cooperative)
• (2) Accomplishing tasks in an effective and
  efficient manner
• (3) Doing the above, while minimizing stress and
  maximizing happiness and well-being

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What does this All Mean for the Teaching of
Psychology?
Introduction to my Research Program on
Intercultural Adjustment

• They are a concern not only to those who are
  adjusting to new and different cultures, but also
  to teachers, administrators, businesspersons, and
  individuals who, in their everyday lives, live,
  work, and play with people from different
  cultures.

• The need
• Intercultural adjustment and culture shock are of
  paramount importance to millions of people
• These issues are relevant for students,
  immigrants, indigenous peoples, refugees, asylum
  seekers, and many others

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What does this All Mean for the Teaching of
Psychology?

• Variables Associated with Successful Adjustment
  in the Literature
• Language Proficiency
• Knowledge of host and own culture
• Attitudes and Ethnocentrism
• Previous experience

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What does this All Mean for the Teaching of
Psychology?

• A New Way of Understanding Intercultural
  Adjustment
• Cultural differences lead to inevitable
  intercultural conflict
• One of the keys to intercultural adjustment is
  the ability to manage conflict well, and
  especially to transform negative experiences into
  positive, constructive ones

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What does this All Mean for the Teaching of
Psychology?

• The Intercultural Adjustment Potential Scale
  (ICAPS)
• We identified the psychological skills
  theoretically related to intercultural conflict
  management
• We looked for measures of these skills that
  specifically predicted adjustment there was none
• Thus we created such a test, based on our
  knowledge of previous tests of these
  psychological constructs
• We call this test the ICAPS (Intercultural
  Adjustment Potential Scale)

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What does this All Mean for the Teaching of
Psychology?

• Research Using the ICAPS
• To date over 17 published studies, and many
  unpublished ones, have demonstrated the validity
  and reliability of the ICAPS to predict intra-
  and intercultural adjustment

• The ICAPS has been validated on individuals from
  many cultural backgrounds
• The validation studies have utilized many
  different types of measures of adjustment

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What does this All Mean for the Teaching of
Psychology?

• What are the Psychological Skills Tapped by the
  ICAPS?
• Normative data (N 11,000)
• Factor Analysis of Final ICAPS Items
• Skills
• Emotion Regulation
• Openness
• Flexibility
• Critical Thinking/Creativity/Autonomy
• Similar findings on other similar scales

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What does this All Mean for the Teaching of
Psychology?

• The Importance of Emotion Regulation
• Definition The ability to manage and modify
  ones emotions in order to achieve constructive,
  desired outcomes
• The ability to regulate ones own emotions allows
  one to deal with stresses that are inevitable in
  adjusting to life in a new culture
• ER is a gatekeeper skill
• Cognitive growth as assimilation and
  accommodation ER necessary for this growth

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What does this All Mean for the Teaching of
Psychology?

• Individuals with high ER are more communal, have
  a greater sense of psychological mindedness, make
  good impressions, and have high self-acceptance,
  flexibility, and independence

• ER is one of the most important psychological
  skills in our lives, and helps us adjust
  effectively wherever we are

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What does this All Mean for the Teaching of
Psychology?
Teaching Goals related to Culture

• The Development of Ethnorelativism and
  Intercultural Sensitivity
• The Development of Context-Appropriate
  Integration
• Voyagers v. vindicators

• Greater knowledge and awareness of cultural
  differences (and similarities) in behavior
• The development of respect and appreciation of
  those differences

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What does this All Mean for the Teaching of
Psychology?
Teaching Goals (contd)

• Psychological Outcomes of Critical Thinking and
  Creativity
• Emotion Regulation
• Openness
• Flexibility
• Creativity/Critical Thinking
• Autonomy

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A Process Model for Teaching and Evaluation
Training Outcomes
Needs Assessment
Teaching Methodology
Curriculum
Training Evaluation
Intervention
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What does this All Mean for the Teaching of
Psychology?

• Previously, there was no measure available that
  assesses the preferred psychological outcomes
  specifically in relation to intercultural
  adjustment

• The availability of the ICAPS, however, addresses
  this need

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Some Findings
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Some Findings
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Some Findings
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What does this All Mean for the Teaching of
Psychology?
Re-Evaluation of Teaching Goals Related to Culture

• Questions to consider
• Are knowledge increases alone enough for classes?
• Are there other educational outcomes that can be
  obtained in our current structure?
• Should we consider changing the current structure
  of classes?

• If you consider the previous slide depicting A
  Process Model for Teaching and Evaluation, these
  findings suggest that we take stock of what we
  are doing, or think we are doing, in classes

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Thanks!