Cultural Psychology (Slides Milena Juana Feldkamp)
Chapter 1: What is cultural psychology? & Chapter 4: Methods for
studying culture and psychology
Culture has many different definitions.
Heine’s definitions:
Culture
= Any kind of information that is acquired from other members of one’s species
through social learning that is capable of affecting an individual’s behaviours.
= A particular group of individuals who are existing within some kind of shared
context.
What is common in all these definitions?
- Culture is learned (not inherited)
- Culture is shared (is an attribute of groups – not individuals)
- Culture is symbolic (human cultural learning often relies on symbols, e.g.,
language)
How do these definitions differ?
- Culture is “out there” (e.g. manifested in tangible objects)
- Culture is “inside” (culture is subjective meaning, internalized, manifests itself in
cognition and psychological constructs)
- This switch in definition took place in the 70s
Think of culture as an iceberg with an overtly visible and implicit, hidden part.
Culture can manifest itself in:
- (Explicit/Overt) Observable actions, artifacts and objects and institutions.
Various disciplines that are interested in culture, such as paleontologists,
anthropologists, historians, and evolutionary biologists, focus on such observable
(or overt) phenomena.
- (Implicit/Covert) Less easy to observe thoughts, beliefs, meanings, rules, norms,
expectations which are often but not exclusively the topic of study of (cultural)
psychologists.
It is important to also reflect on what culture is not. Especially since many of the
constructs below are frequently but mistakenly used as synonyms of culture.
Culture isn’t:
- Race: Race refers to genetically transmitted physical characteristics. “Racial”
differences do not necessarily reflect cultural differences.
- Nation: Nation or countries refer to a certain geographic or politically organized
region. Inhabitants of countries sometimes but not necessarily share a common
Chapter 1: What is cultural psychology? & Chapter 4: Methods for
studying culture and psychology
Culture has many different definitions.
Heine’s definitions:
Culture
= Any kind of information that is acquired from other members of one’s species
through social learning that is capable of affecting an individual’s behaviours.
= A particular group of individuals who are existing within some kind of shared
context.
What is common in all these definitions?
- Culture is learned (not inherited)
- Culture is shared (is an attribute of groups – not individuals)
- Culture is symbolic (human cultural learning often relies on symbols, e.g.,
language)
How do these definitions differ?
- Culture is “out there” (e.g. manifested in tangible objects)
- Culture is “inside” (culture is subjective meaning, internalized, manifests itself in
cognition and psychological constructs)
- This switch in definition took place in the 70s
Think of culture as an iceberg with an overtly visible and implicit, hidden part.
Culture can manifest itself in:
- (Explicit/Overt) Observable actions, artifacts and objects and institutions.
Various disciplines that are interested in culture, such as paleontologists,
anthropologists, historians, and evolutionary biologists, focus on such observable
(or overt) phenomena.
- (Implicit/Covert) Less easy to observe thoughts, beliefs, meanings, rules, norms,
expectations which are often but not exclusively the topic of study of (cultural)
psychologists.
It is important to also reflect on what culture is not. Especially since many of the
constructs below are frequently but mistakenly used as synonyms of culture.
Culture isn’t:
- Race: Race refers to genetically transmitted physical characteristics. “Racial”
differences do not necessarily reflect cultural differences.
- Nation: Nation or countries refer to a certain geographic or politically organized
region. Inhabitants of countries sometimes but not necessarily share a common
