A high degree of mindfulness reduces uncertainty and anxiety, resulting in effective communication.

• Intangible core of the system from which all observable others stem (Nationality, race, ethnicity, gender, SES, etc.)
  
• Ambiguous and different across cultures
  
• Kind of a core belief, worldview, or a way of construing our worlds
  

Characteristics of culture

• Dynamic
• Multi-level
• System of rules
• Ensure survival
• Stable

• Flexible and continually evolving

individuals and groups, adherence varies across groups

Culture has a system of rules

dictates social order and how multi-levels can exist

the system of rules ensures survival 

The culture is stable and does not vary over time, not popular culture 

• Nationality
• Ethnicity
• Gender
• Disability
• Sexual orientation

• Culture gives race meaning
  
• Race is socially constructed, cognitive strategies, not biological
  

Hofstede: Four dimensions of culture:

• Individualism/collectivism
  
• Power distance
  
• Uncertainty avoidance
  
• Masculine/feminine

Individualism/collectivism

Focus on the individual or the group 

• How much does the dominant or powerful people in the culture force the less powerful members to accept this system
  
• E.g., caste system in India

• The degree of feeling threatened in unknown situations; put in places rituals, beliefs, or institutions to avoid this
  
• E.g., Australia they don’t care about avoiding uncertainty, not as many laws or regulations; Germany has many laws because the German culture is not as comfortable with uncertainty as the Australian culture is
  

• Distribution of roles between males and females
  
• E.g., roles are much different between men and women in the Middle East as compared to the United States
  

Schwartz: 7 universal values in cultures: 

• Embeddedness
  
• Hierarchy
  
• Mastery
  
• Intellectual autonomy
  
• Affective autonomy
  
• Egalitarianism
  
• Harmony

• Degree to which a culture emphasizes the status quo and tradition
  
• E.g., tradition is important in Japan, not so much in the United States
  

• Degree of emphasis on hierarchy and fixed roles and resources
  
• E.g., caste system in India
  

• Emphasis on getting a head, self-assertion, ambition, and success
  
• How important is individual success? High in individualistic cultures
  

• Degree of emphasis on protecting individual ideas and rights to pursue intellectual knowledge
  
• How important is education/knowledge to this culture?
  

• Degree of emphasis on the independent pursuit of pleasure and positive experiences
  
• Individualistic cultures are high in this

• Degree of emphasis on transcending selfish interests and focusing on the welfare of others
  
• Collectivistic cultures are high in this

• The degree of emphasis on fitting in and fostering a peaceful and harmonious environment
  
• Collectivistic cultures are high in this

Gradually shapes the person’s psychological characteristics, including how individuals perceive their worlds, think about other people’s actions and motives, and have and express emotions with others 

• Etic is universal
• Emic is specific to the particular culture you are looking a
  

Cross-cultural comparisons 

• Most common research method in multicultural psychology: Compares the different ethnic groups to see where the etic principles stand, and if there are emic differences (limitations to etic principles)
  
• Compare to the status-quo, e.g., Caucasian
  
• Must have equivalence with cross-cultural studies! If you don’t have it, don’t perform the study; the results will be meaningless!

Cross-cultural comparisons: Equivalence

• Linguistic equivalence
  
• Sampling and procedural equivalence
  

• Back-translating: have someone translate to another language, and then translate the translated material back into the original language using a separate individual
  
• Committee approach: several individuals work together and come up with a shared consensus of what the document should look like

• The process of learning and internalizing the rules, patterns, and behaviors of their culture
  
• Child must acquire adult competencies to survive in the culture; this is part of enculturation (slow and lifelong process)

Socialization verses enculturation

Socialization refers to the process by which we learn the rules of society, and enculturation is mastery of adult competences and the product of the socialization process 

Different levels of development of enculturation

• Microsystem
  
• Mesosystem
  
• Exosystem
  
• Macrosystem
  
• Chronosystem
  

Immediate surroundings (family, school, friends)

Parents and caregivers, instill morals and values in their children

Linked microsystems (family and school)

• Things that indirectly affect children
  
• The mother’s workplace
  

Culture, religion, and society 

• Time and how it influences the other systems
  
• E.g., 1920’s, The Great Gatsby time, is much different than today’s time

• Parenting behaviors vary as a function of cultures
  
• E.g., United States focuses on education and active engagement of the children; Gusii mothers spend most of their time soothing (agricultural and dangerous society) the baby and focusing on basic survival needs

Baumrind’s parenting styles

• Permissive
  
• Authoritarian
  
• Authoritative
  
• Uninvolved

Permissive parenting style

• Warm and nurturing, but no guidelines
  
• Child typically ends up with poor impulse control and self-regulation

Authoritarian parenting style

• Child must be controlled
  
• Low warmth
  
• Child becomes anxious and withdrawn, lack of spontaneity and intellectual curiosity

Authoritative parenting style

• Ideal parenting style
  
• Children tend to be more psychologically healthy

Uninvolved parenting style

• Parents are neglectful and more absorbed in their own lives, which is the worst of all parenting styles
  
• Child becomes non-compliant and demanding in adulthood

• More likely to have authoritarian parenting style
  
• Warmth and control vary across cultures, so this might be an issue of construct equivalence (are we measuring the right things?)

Sleeping arrangements differ across cultures

• United States: Children sleep alone
  
• Within the United States, Latino culture allows children to sleep in the bed
  
• Japan: mother and child sleep separate from the father
  

• Slum-dwelling Brazilian mothers leave their children under age 5 locked in a bare room while working for food; trying to meet their basic needs for food and shelter
  
• United States mothers verses Argentinian mothers: High SES mothers in USA worked longer hours; same SES mothers in Argentina worked less hours and spent more time with their children

• Many roles, such as caregiving (especially in agricultural societies), tutor, playmate
  
• Help learn important skills like perspective-taking, social understanding, and conflict negotiation
  
• Learn more pro-social and antisocial behaviors from siblings, like empathy and aggression

• Buffer against stress, transmit cultural heritage from generation to generation
  
• Kinship networks
  
• Less prominent in European-Americans
  
• E.g., teen mothers: 3 generation household reduces risk associated with teenage pregnancy due to high levels of support for the mother and child

“It takes a village to raise a child,” e.g., godparents and padrinos are example of fictive kin 

• Postfigurative
  
• Configurative
  
• Prefigurative
  

• Slowly changing cultures
  
• More crystallized, older cultures
  
• Elders are the agents of culture, transfer knowledge to children
  
• Think, the culture has already been “post” figured out “figurative” and the elders just need to pass it on

• More rapidly changing
  
• Adults are the agents of culture
  
• Peers play a role in socialization

• Rapidly changing cultures
  
• Children are the agents of culture
  
• Non-English speaking parents are taught by English-speaking children
  
• Think, they have not yet “pre” figured “figurative” the culture out and still need to work on things

• Cultures differ on how much time children spend with peers; the less industrialized countries spend less time with peers
  
• E.g., USA children spend approximately 18 hours a week with peers and Japanese children spend around 12
  

• Should it be public or private?
  
• Some countries have amazing daycare due to cultural differences in the emphasis on daycare

One of the most important socializing agents; teaches and reinforces cultural values 

• Americans are not performing well compared to children in other countries, esp. Asian
  
• Includes sciences, but more research has been done on mathematics (e.g., researched reported that American 8th graders were ranked 11th in every math area, and 12th graders fared worse)
  
• USA the lowest among industrialized countries, in another study
  

Math Achievement: Primary and secondary

• Primary: natural abilities, inherited, biologically-based
  
• Secondary: how the society/culture teaches and learns, culturally-based
  
• Differences seen between the American and Asian cultures are likely due to secondary and not primary abilities

Reasons for discrepancy in math achievement part 1

• There are small IQ differences between Asians and Caucasians, but not enough to account for the large discrepancy in achievement
  
• Asians spent more time in school, and collectivistic culture dictates that when one child makes a mistake, everyone makes a mistake, and they focus on correcting mistakes as a group; American classrooms are more individualistic and praise for correct answers

Reasons for discrepancy in math achievement part 2

• Americans attribute poor achievement to less ability, whereas Asian cultures look at effort and treat all students as equally capable with hard work; Asian Americans get more pressure to perform, but have more social support
  
• Americans are concerned about self-esteem, Asians achievement; Americans more in-school activities and Asians more outside-school activities
  

• Infants posses a biological predisposition for learning cultural processes; an innate style of interacting with the world
  
• Japan: quieter infants with less emotional expression, less vocal, as this is considered desirable in their country
  
• USA: higher reactivity, more vocal, as emotional expression is acceptable

• Easy
  
• Difficult
  
• Slow to warm-up
  

Regular, positive, adaptive, responsive, mild intensity 

• Irregular, negative moods, withdrawn, intense activity
  
• Difficult children are more at risk in American culture, especially when combined with immature parents who exhibit poor parenting
  
• However, in Kenya during a drought, difficult temperaments were more likely to survive because they were likelier to have needs met (different cultures prefer different temperaments)
  

Slow to warm-up temperament 

Initially difficult, later easier with time and support 

How well the child’s temperament matches the parental parenting style 

Temperamental factors involving the mother’s pregnancy

• Maternal condition during pregnancy
  
• Good health care

Environmental and cultural pressures’ effect on temperament

• Result in minor biological differences in temperament in infants through a functionally adaptive process
  
• Childhood temperament leads to temperamental differences as an adult
  
• E.g., babies with difficult temperaments get their needs met and survive more often in Kenya during drought season
  

• The experiment with Rhesus monkeys that demonstrated he natural need for physical closeness
  
• Engages primary caregiver to attach, and children are healthier and better taken care of when this happens

Ainsworth classification system

• Securely attached
  
• Insecurely attached: two types:
  
• Avoidant
• Ambivalent

• Mother is sensitive and warm, responsive to the needs of the child
  
• The mom leaves and the child is upset, but able to be comforted when she returns

Caregivers are intrusive and overbearing, which results in the child shunning the mother, not being distressed, and ignoring her when she returns

• Caregivers are insensitive and less involved, with no consistent responsiveness
  
• Children are distressed when mom leaves but sends mixed signals when she returns

Cultural viewpoint on attachment

• Although Americans prefer secure attachment, other cultures consider different behaviors to be indicative of secure attachment
  
• Chinese cultures see avoidant attachment as healthy, as they stress early independence and reliance on extended family members
  
• Germans also feel the same way as the Chinese, and view securely attached as spoiled; again, this is adaptive in their culture
  

There is an attachment bond formed between caregiver and infant 

Specific attachment styles exhibited by the infant indicate secure verses insecure attachment 

• Mothers raise children for 3 weeks as primary caregiver, with others caring for the child as well
  
• By 18 weeks, mother decreases her involvement and the extended family and additional caregivers take care of the child
  
• By one year, mother returns to being the primary caregiver
  
• Children are emotionally healthy, so this is adaptive for this culture

The biological and physiological differences between men and women

Describes the behaviors and patterns of activities men and women engage in that are related to their biological differences and reproductive process 

The degree of awareness and recognition of sex and sex roles an individual may have 

Refers to the behaviors or patterns of activities that a society or culture deems appropriate for men and women

The degree to which a person adopts the gender-specific behaviors ascribed by his or her culture

The degree to which a person has awareness or recognition that she/he adopts a particular gender role 

The term that describes the psychological or behavioral characteristics typically associated with men and women, which are quite stable and world wide. 

Culture based judgments on what males and females ought to be like 

Different gender roles depending on culture: 

• India, more traditional female roles
  
• Japan, mothers are more controlling than the father
  
• Germany, mothers less controlling than the father
  

Georgas, Berry, Van di Vijver, Kagitcibasi, and Poortinga (2006):

• Countries around the world (issues related to family functioning)
  
• 1: the division of labor concerned with housework
  
• All countries surveyed had a large gap between men and women, with women doing the majority of the housework.
  
• They identified 3 types of roles mothers and fathers played in families
  

Georgas, Berry, Van di Vijver, Kagitcibasi, and Poortinga (2006) kinds of roles identified:

• Expressive: focused on maintaining a pleasant environment and providing emotional support for one another
  
• Financial: including contributing to and managing finances
  
• Childcare
  

Georgas, Berry, Van di Vijver, Kagitcibasi, and Poortinga (2006) found differences between mother and father

• Fathers tend to be Finances first, then Expressive, then Childcare
  
• Mothers were most concerned with Childcare in less affluent cultures, and all three equally in affluent ones
  

Adjective Checklist (ACL), assign adjectives to males and females based on gender stereotypes of their culture 

Williams and Best study cross cultural agreements on gender role

• Masculine: Dominance, autonomy, aggression, achievement
  
• Feminine: passive, weak, adaptive, agreeable, neurotic
  
• These are etic, as all cultures tend to agree on them!
  

Williams and Best study (egalitarian vs. traditional)

• Egalitarian: Netherlands, Germany, Finland
  
• Traditional: Nigeria, Pakistan, and Indian
  

Williams and Best study findings on self-concept

• Men’s ideal and real self was more masculine than women’s
  
• Women’s ideal and real self was more feminine than Men’s
  
• Both Men’s and Women’s ideal self was more masculine than their real self

Williams and Best study findings on favorability

Some countries rated male characteristics better (Japan/ South Africa), and others rated female characteristics better (Italy/ Peru).

How gender stereotypes develop: 

• Albert and Porter (1986): gender stereotyping increases with age- more likely to stereotype same-sex
  
• Munroe, Shimmin and Munroe (1984): understanding of gender and sex roles related to cognitive development
  
• Fejes 1992: history of media depictions of women, similar to history of media depictions of people of color

Hofstede’s studies on masculinity verses femininity

The degree to which the culture fosters the difference between males and females

Hofstede’s “Masculine cultures”

• Moralistic attitudes about sex, more double-standards; encourage passive roles of women in society
  
• More traditional and religious
  

Hofstede’s “Feminine cultures”

• Matter-of-fact attitudes about sex, no double-standard; women are encouraged to be active members of society and government
  
• Less traditional and religion less important

“Tight” or “loose” cultures

• Strictly enforce laws, structure, and behavior, or loosely enforce them (deviation from norms not punished)
  
• E.g., Thai = loose, American = middle, Japanese = tight

Gender differences in intelligence

• No differences found, but females are better in verbal ability and males better in spatial
  
• HOWEVER, this is not always true depending on the culture! (True in USA, but not Inuit cultures in Canada. Also spatial ability discrepancy not found in Ecuador where women engage in traditional spatial tasks frequently, such as sewing)

Berry (1976) gave block design test to men & women

• Male superiority in cultures “tight” or homogenous, sedentary, agriculturally based
  
• Female superiority in cultures loose, nomadic, hunting/gathering
  
• Flexible gender roles, more members with variety of tasks

• Culture/environment encourage or discourage emergence of aggression
  
• Magnitude of aggressiveness between partners related to gender empowerment & individualism
  
• More empowered/individualistic = women less victimized, men more
  

• Sex differences in social behavior result from division of labor which produce expectancies that lead to patterns of behavior (male = aggression to problem solve; females = communal responses)
  
• Male aggression may be compensatory mechanism to offset conflict produced by young male’s identification with female provider and initiation into adulthood  gender making behavior
  

Gender roles different between cultures

Smaller degrees of difference between stereotypes for men & women when culture is more egalitarian, affluent, individualistic, Christian-based

Mexican American traditional gender role of males as unemotional, strong, authoritative, aggressive, masculine

Asian-Americans and gender roles

Traditional role, females are caretakers with decision making power, males are emotionally aloof and authoritative

Gender roles among African-American and Mexican Americans

• Females have decision-making power in private
  
• Gender identities of African Americans more androgynous (= propensity to endorse masculine and feminine traits) than European Americans

Gender roles among American Indians

Differentiation in American Indian families depends on patriarchal or matriarchal nature of the tribal culture

Female genital mutilation

Cultures with traditional, passive female role; associated with virtuousness, chastity, honor, fidelity, control women’s sex drives, and enhanced fertility 

• Males more jealous about sexual infidelity; females emotional infidelity
  
• Related to evolutionary theory
  

WHO (1948) definition of health

Defined health as “A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”

Views disease as resulting from a specific, identifiable cause originating inside the body. (US heavily influenced by this view)

Cause of diseases, can be viral, bacterial, or other. Seen as root of all physical and medical diseases. 

• Our bodies are made up of ying/yang = negative/positive energy, and an imbalance = poor health.
  
• Maintaining balance involves mind, body, spirit, and natural environment
  
• Concept of health encompasses surrounding relationships and environment, not just confined to the individual (Yip, 2005)
  

Cultural health-related locus of control

i.e. Osteoporosis (Matsumoto 1995) Japanese women attributed disease to fate, American to diet 

Freedman, Carter, Sbrocco, & Gray (2004)

African American male college students preferred heavier female body shapes while European American male college students preferred the inner female body shapes.

SES is consistently associated with health outcomes

Singh-Manoux, Marmot, & Adler (2006)

Subjective perception of SES appears to better predict health and change in health rather than an objective assessment of SES 

Brondolo, Rieppi, Kelly, & Gerin (2003)

Perceived racism and discrimination contribute to negative health outcomes (i.e., hypertension, cardiovascular disease)

African American women physiologically more stress when encountering perceived racism than EA women 

• Alameda study: More social contact is good for our health
  
• Americans are getting less social contact over the past two decades (technology, not as close to our neighbors due to culture)
  
• At risk for poorer overall health
  
• Individuals with fewest social ties suffered the highest mortality rate, people with the most social ties had the lowest rate.
  

Individualism and Cardiovascular Disease

Individuals with Type A personality are more at risk for cardiovascular disease and heart attacks

Triandis, Bontempo, Villareal, Asai, Lucca (1988)

• Individualistic cultures have higher rates of heart attacks vs. collectivistic cultures
  
• Social support or isolation likely factor explaining this relationship

Cultural Discrepancies and Physical Health 

• Matsumoto (1999)
  
• Greater discrepancy between self and societal cultural values may lead to greater psychological stress and greater degrees of anxiety and depression, which then lead to more physical health problems

• More prevalent in countries valuing thinness, such as USA
  
• Other cultures values heavier figures, especially those with lower mean, incomes; higher mean incomes associated with emphasis on thinner bodies

1996 (Cogan, Bhalla, Sefa-Dedeh, Rothblum)

• Study with American and Ghana students found that:
  
• Ghanaians favored larger body sizes
• American females more likely to diet
• Americans had more disordered eating habits

1996 (Crandall and Martinez) 

• Mexican students less concerned with own weight/ more accepting of overweight people
  
• Anti-overweight attitudes in US appeared to be part of a social ideology that holds individuals responsible for their life outcomes

1993 (Abrams, Allan and Gray)

White females demonstrated significantly greater disordered eating attitudes and behaviors than black females

1985 (Hamilton, Brooks-Gunn, Warren)

Eating disorders in dancers found that none of the black dancers reported anorexia/bulimia while 15-19% of white dancers did

Relationship between exposure to/identification with Anglo-American culture and eating disorders

• Level of exposure to/identification with Anglo-American culture significantly predicts disordered eating (Pakistani females Suhail, Nisa 2002; Mexican American Females Cachelin, Phinney, Schug & Striegal-Moore, 2006)
  
• This not solely an American issue, similarities found in other cultures (Japanese)

Different cultures have different models of health

• American: reduction of symptoms, as opposed to treating the whole person
  
• China
  
• Yin and yang
• Harmony between mind, body, spirit, and environment; holistic treatment approaches

Words contained in a language (ex: tree, eat, how, slowly)

System of rules governing word forms and how words are strung together (ex: small dog, not dog small)

Rules for how words should sound

How language is used and understood in social contexts

Smallest and most basic units of sound in a language

Smallest and most basic unit of meaning in a language

People who speak different languages think differently because of the differences in their languages (referred to as linguistic relativity)

• People may have different thought patterns when speaking in different languages
  
• Their thought processes, their associations, their ways of interpreting the world may be different because they speak a different language and this language helps shape their thought patterns.
  

Support for Sapir-Whorf hypothesis 

• Carroll and Casagrande (1958) Navajo children tended to categorize things by shape moreso than American children
  
• Hoosain (1986; 1991) Showed how unique aspects of the Chinese language influence the ease of processing information
  
• Garro (1986) Comparing American English and Mexican Spanish, demonstrated that languages influences memory for color
  

Evidence against Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

• Berlin and Kay 1969 color studies: no differences in cognitive tasks on color when looking at the Dani (2-color language) verses Americans (11-color language)
  
• Finker (1995) people who are deaf can think without language

Barriers to effective intercultural communication (Barna 1996)

• Assumptions of similarity: assume others are the same
  
• Language differences
  
• Nonverbal misinterpretations
  
• Preconceptions and stereotypes
  
• Tendency to evaluate
  
• High anxiety or tension

To improve barriers to effective intercultural communication: 

• Mindfulness and uncertainty reduction: knowledge & respect for other culture’s views
  
• A high degree of mindfulness offsets uncertainty and anxiety, resulting in effective communication
  
• Uncertainty reduction: it is impossible for interacts to begin processing the content of signals and interpreting messages properly, because uncertainty renders message inherently ambiguous

Ways to improve intercultural communication that include mindfulness:

• Motivational factors
  
• Knowledge factors
  
• Skill factors

Mindfulness motivational factors with intercultural communication

• Specific needs of the interactants
  
• Attraction between the interactants
  
• Social bonds
  
• Self-conception
  
• Openness to new information

Mindfulness knowledge factors with intercultural communication

• Expectations
  
• Shared networks of more than one perspective
  
• Knowledge of alternative interpretations
  
• Knowledge of similarities and differences

Mindfulness skill factors with intercultural communication

• Ability to empathize
  
• Tolerate ambiguity
  
• Adapt communication
  
• Create new categories
  
• Accommodate behavior
  
• Further appropriate information
  

Intercultural communication is like deciphering coded language

• Decipher the code (reduce uncertainty)
  
• Interpret and respond to the content, once deciphered

Universality of expressing 6 emotions through facial expressions

• Anger
  
• Disgust
  
• Fear
  
• Happiness
  
• Sadness
  
• Surprise

• Public image of a person
• More important in collectivistic cultures
  

What refers to the recollection of specific events that took place at a particular time and place in the past?

Which of the following is true of research conducted on cultural calibration of how emotional expressions are percieved by individuals?

Which of the following statements is an accurate description of back translation?

Which of the following is a difference between high context cultures and low context cultures quizlet?