Introduction to Cross-Cultural Psychology

The culture in which we were raised in has a big impact on who we are and how we behave. Our culture effects things such as how we dress, the way we interact with others, and our manners such as what we may or may not find funny or what we may find offensive or weird. In the Ethan Watters Article “Being WEIRD: How Culture Shapes the Mind” we see examples of how being raised in different cultures affects our decisions and the way we perceive things. For example, in the ultimatum game (which is played by giving the first player $100 dollars, he can then offer player 2 any amount of the $100 but if the second player rejects the money they both end up with nothing) we can see how differently Machiguengans and Americans were likely to play. We

Unfortunately, technology today is helping criminals commit money laundering off of their profits made from drug crimes and prostitution in cyberspace and the ease of transportation and smuggling operations. Drug trafficking is associated with organized crime and violence linked to human trafficking and money laundering schemes that can also support criminal activities in several countries including terrorist activities. The increase of technology is allowing people to shop online and is used for the purpose of exploiting pornographic images and the ease of purchasing and transporting illicit drugs and prostitutes from anywhere in the world. Transactions online cause difficulty in tracing criminal operation because they can be located in the

An attitude are the long lasting beliefs, feelings, and behavioral responses towards social objects such as other people or issues (Attitudes and Behavior, n.d.). Attitudes can either be positive or negative.

As stated earlier, cross-cultural psychology is the scientific comparison of two completely different cultures. In order to compare two or more things with one another, one must possess a certain set of critical thinking skills (Shiraev & Levy, 2010). Therefore, the ability to think critically is necessary in order to do any type of research in cross-cultural psychology. Many of the questions that research in cross-cultural psychology tries to answer include such things like how different cultures or people within that culture react to similar situations (Shiraev & Levy, 2010). An example would be when an earthquake has hit certain cultures. If we were to look at how people in California handle or react to earthquakes and then look at how the people of Haiti react to an earthquake, we would find out how differently these cultures react to the same devastation.

Within the purview of the understanding of the theory of the person, relativism holds sway. Several things are at play in forming an individual’s response to external stimuli. An individual’s understanding of his culture often informs these responses. Whereas individual’s understanding of culture(s) is limited, that is the point where relativism comes in. where a knowledge stops is where another start, hence opinions vary in relation to the individual experience of a subject matter. The dynamics of a culture is dependent on its environment. These variables also have deep rooted relations with biology (Sapolsky 2017: 3). Sapolsky infers that there is a

Culture is fundamental to understanding human experience. It makes the world inspiring, entertaining, enables effective communication, and influences most factors of modern life, so it’s no surprise that psychologists are interested in the impact it has. Sociocultural psychology and cross- cultural psychology are two different approaches that explore cultural experience. The two disciplines, though different in their definitions of cultural impact, share many of the same goals and ideas, and can arguably offer great insight to the other approach. The potential for collaboration between the two disciplines to garner a rich insight into personal and social cultural influence means that the two approaches are by no means incompatible, and their compatibility can offer a wealth of positive contribution to psychological research.

Understanding flaws in past research, acknowledging contrasting findings, and opening up to criticism are just some of the ways critical thinking can be utilized. By increasing the number of uses for critical thinking, researchers can become more creative while remaining systematic in producing hypotheses for future directions. Psychology is an ever-growing field with many questions still unanswered. Knowing what questions to ask based on critical thought will provide the basis for new research that will help answer such questions. With this ability research questions and studies can progressively become more solid and successful over

Cultural Diversity is the existence in which there is more than one specific cultural group within a society. Hiles (1996) argues that one cannot understand psychotherapy without understanding culture. He views cultural psychology as the main branch, with sub-branches below it. He states, “…Cultural Psychology is the study of the human mind through studying its cultural products. This emerging field of Cultural Psychology is concerned with the relationship between culture and mind” (1996), arguing that culture is truly the basis to human behavior. It is seen as the basis of human behavior because culture connects us to rituals, languages, beliefs, and social institutions. Essentially, culture impacts the way people view the world, such as a lens that one is looking through, no matter what culture is being

I live in Spokane Washington and had a little trouble finding a true cultural experience, there seems to be more opportunities for them in the summer months vs winter. I decided that I would like to try an ethnic restaurant for two reasons; 1) Date night with my husband, 2) get out of cooking dinner. Again, Spokane is not inundated with ethnic restaurants and there is only a handful, and some had bad reviews and the food looked downright scary. I ended up choosing Top of India which serves authentic Indian food, curry and all. I am not a very adventurous person when it comes to food and spiciness so I have never tried Indian food, the mentioned of curry has me turning up my nose. Maybe, in part to the horror stories

Since culture has a profound influence on each individual's experiences and perceived reality; it’s important to note the complex inter-play among cultural variables that can significantly impact a wide range of psychological processes including: perception, cognition, feelings, and self-concept (Comas-Díaz, Griffith, Pinderhughes, & Wyche, 1995). Taken together with the versatile experiences of multidisciplinary professionals; it’s import to know

Cultural psychology is an interdisciplinary program of research that explores the relationship between individual minds and the complex environments in which they are deployed. The approach focuses on the contribution that content-rich, complex environments – ranging from workplaces to cultural traditions to nation states – make in shaping basic cognitive processes. The comparative approach, or cross-cultural approach, uses experimental methods

Cross cultural psychology and cultural psychology are two fields of psychology that are often confused. Cross-cultural psychology and cultural psychology have many similarities and they differ in a few areas. Cross-cultural psychology is a comparative field of psychology that studies the cultural effects on human psychology. A cross-cultural study draws its conclusions from at least two samples of at least two different cultures and compares them in order to examine underlying reasons for diversity between the cultures, as well as the universals that each culture shares with another. Cultural psychology seeks to find the meaningful links between a culture and the psychology of the individuals living within that culture. Cultural psychology's main message is that human behavior is only meaningful when you're studying the behavior of individuals within the particular sociocultural, or in the culture in which the behavior occurs. The comparisons that cross-cultural psychology makes about each culture must begin with cultural studies.

Loosely defined, a group of people who share a group identity with the same values, beliefs, and norms belong to a particular culture. Therefore it would be incorrect to say that culture has no affect on us. In fact, culture, influences our most basic human behavior like the manner in which we learn, think, and behave. As a consequence of being influenced by our culture, many theorists believe that culture is an important determinant of our personality. Whether we are conscientious, independent, confident, or self-centered is dependent on the culture we grow up in. Through an abundance of research over the past decade, cultural psychologists and researchers are noting that some aspects of personality differ across different cultural groups. One piece of supporting evidence which has been proven time and time again asserting the effect of culture to personality is that people who are born in the same culture share common personality traits compared to people born in different cultures. Same cultures promote similar conceptions of the self and different cultures promote different conceptions of the self. For example, North Americans promote a view of the self where individuals would describe themselves in terms of personal attributes and achievements, and where they value their uniqueness. In contrast, East Asians promote quite the opposite view of the self. They do not value their uniqueness but rather their interconnectedness, describe themselves in external attributes, and

We know that culture intelligence is related to cross-culture competence. The understanding of an individual culture background. My key objective is that people fail to adjust to understand new cultures, behavioral, cognitive, and motivational aspect of other cultures.

As I read each of the articles and I stated briefly before, the first two articles I discussed were closely related to one another in their attempt to explain and develop conclusions around how personality and culture influence or compliment each other. This analysis is clear because both studies focused on cross-cultural analyses. Although the last article that I chose to use did not speak specifically to how culture (in the typical sense of the word) and personality are related, it discussed how personality can affect the subculture of parenting which I thought was interesting and ads more complexity to this already complex topic.