Framework for take-home assignment: intersectionality
Why this framework?
Culture is
A complex, multi-layered concept
Strongly linked to identity
But also strongly ‘contextualized’: culture ‘happens’ between people > dealing with diversity and power relations are important underlying
mechanisms
Intersectionality is a framework for understanding power, identity and inequality > basic layer for dealing with insights from crosscultural
psychology
Exists alongside other visions, frameworks or approaches
Often, one vision or approach is developed in response to another
Intersectionality is about diversity and inclusion
Diversity =
The realization that every individual is unique
There are differences between certain groups of people
How to deal with diversity
1. Exclusion: 'normal people' vs. 'non-normal people' → starts from the idea that people who don’t belong to our “normal” group, are
abnormal.
2. Segregation (separation): separating certain groups. For example; education in belgium is very segregated (disabled kids fe)
3. Assimilation: those who (can) adapt are considered to be part of society.
4. Integration: minorities (subgroups) take over characteristics of the majority culture (main/norm group) , to be part of the society while
preserving their identity
5. Inclusion: engagement – openness to differences, without a dominant voice / role that determines who does or does not belong
a. STARTING POINT: equality and equal rights (<>normality) ⇒ in all the other reactions the base is normality
Openness to differences: how to do that?
To be inclusive we need to be open to differences!
We can do this by putting on a different lens (developing awareness of one’s own stereotypes and prejudices)
Categorising (~ creating order in complexity) = ‘mental shortcuts’
A natural cognitive process
Also used in social interactions
However, categorising can lead to Stereotyping
Attributing a specific characteristic to an entire group
Assuming that all individuals within that group share the same trait
Overlooking individual variation and unique characteristics
Prejudices
A negative attitude towards someone without sufficient evidence
An evaluation based solely on group membership
Everyone engages in stereotypical thinking and holds prejudices at times
We are often unaware of our implicit biases
Prejudices can distort or obstruct rational and critical thinking
A father and his son are involved in a serious car accident. The father dies at the scene, and the son is unconscious and severely injured. He is
taken to the best hospital in the region, where a top surgeon is ready to operate on him. The surgeon enters the operating room, sees the boy,
and says:“I cannot operate on this boy.” “Why not?” asks the nurse. “Because he is my son!” the surgeon replies.
How do stereotypes and prejudices develop?
Through repeated exposure (books, media, education, socialisation, institutional practices)
Through cultural narratives that define what is considered “normal”
Through processes of categorisation that simplify social complexity
Stereotypes can strengthen in-group cohesion, but they also reinforce hierarchies between groups
The structural risk
When stereotypes and prejudices are treated as objective truth:
Framework for take-home assignment: intersectionality 1
, → discrimination
→ exclusion
→ racism and other forms of structural inequality
→ “us versus them” thinking (polarisation)
Importantly, these processes are not only individual — they can become embedded in institutions, policies and professional practices
What can we do about this?
1. Reflexive awareness
a. Identify blind spots
b. Recognise how your own position shapes perception
2. Structural consciousness
a. Question dominant norms
b. Ask: Who benefits? Who is disadvantaged?
3. Practice intersectional thinking
a. Move beyond single categories
b. Think in terms of intersecting partial identities
c. Analyse power relations, not just differences
Intersectionality: we all occupy social positions.
In every society, there are social ordering principles (“assen” / axes of meaning
They structure:
How society is organized
How we see ourselves
How others see us
Our access to opportunities
We are all positioned on these axes
⇒ these axes are also identity axes (part of our identity)
14 axes of identity
Axes are power-laden
HOW we look at each of these axes is therefore not neutral, but
context-dependent (changes across time, place, demographic composition, institutional setting,…)
(Inevitably) normative, i.e., linked to dominant norms (what is considered “normal,” “non-deviant,” or
“desirable”)
(Inevitably) – consequential, i.e. it structures advantage and disadvantage
Some positions are:
Privileged
Invisible: the norm often is invisible (implicit)
Structurally supported by institutions
The dominant position is also a position.
Framework for take-home assignment: intersectionality 2
, From diversity thinking to intersectionality
“Flat diversity thinking” assumes:
Categories are dichotomous (man/woman)
Categories are power-neutral
Categories are independent
Differences are purely descriptive
Intersectionality challenges this. It asks:
Who benefits?
Who is disadvantaged?
In which context?
The core of intersectionality
People are not defined by one axis (~ partial identity).
Axes intersect!
Your gender
× your class
× your ethnicity
× your migration status
× your health
× your age…
Together shape your social position.
This intersection determines:
Exposure to privilege
Exposure to discrimination
Lived experience
Privilege and discrimination: two sides of the same coin
If someone is structurally disadvantaged, someone else is structurally advantaged. Privilege often remains invisible.
Intersectionality makes:
Norms visible
Power visible
Structural inequality visible
Reflexive positioning
Before analysing others, you must analyse your own position.
Ask yourself:
Where am I positioned on key axes?
Which positions are normative?
Which institutions work in my favour?
Where might I have blind spots? This is not confession or self-disclosure. This is structural positioning.
Framework for take-home assignment: intersectionality 3
, Foundations: what is cross-cultural psychology (CCP)?
Scope, key terms
What is cross cultural psychology?
CCP = the critical and comparative study of cultural effects on psychology (Shiraev & Levy, 2021)
Two major elements of this definition:
“Comparative”: comparison requires ≥ 2 cultural groups
“Critical” = challenges hidden assumptions in mainstream psychology. CCP insists on careful interpretation of cultural or group differences.
it’s kind of a method for testing the generality for psychological knowledge. The general knowledge is tested.
The critical view is important for applied ccp !
CCP also studies universals
Not only for documenting differences
Also identifying universals and boundary conditions (how do boundaries differ in other cultures)
Strengthens general psychology by testing robustness across contexts
A broad definition:
Examines psychological diversity and the underlying reasons for such diversity across cultural / ethnocultural group
How are particular human activities influenced by different, sometimes dissimilar, social and cultural forces?
Links psychology with sociocultural, ecological, and biological variables
Includes the changes over time !
The culture-behavior relationship
It’s important that we don’t see culture as an internal trait or only as something that people believe. Culture is always between people.
Core object: behavior >< cultural context
What are links between cultural norms and behavior?
→ includes ongoing change in psychological functioning
Culture is not only “inside the person”
Meanings, practices, institutions, and histories matter (=between people)
Distress and recovery are influenced by not only individual symptoms but also meanings, stigma, social support and acces to care. So the
relational framing is relevant for mental health. We have to think of culture as something relational.
Three perspectives within the ccp umbrella:
Culture-comparative approaches ⇒ systematic comparison across groups
Cultural psychology ⇒ emphasizes meaning systems and how psychological processes are constituted within specific sociocultural
contexts.
Indigenous psychologies ⇒ locally grounded concepts and methods
Complementary lenses rather than competing camps
What ccp is not:
Not national stereotypes or “country personalities” → not about comparing ethnic groups.
Not “culture explains everything” (‘culturalizing’) → we also shouldnt use ccp to explain everything.
Not “one label fits all members”
→ Avoid essentialism; attend to within-group diversity
Cross-cultural, cultural, and indigenous psychologies
Cross cultural vs. cultural psychology
1. Cross-cultural: comparison across cultures (A vs. B). Cross group comparisons to test generality and variation
2. Cultural psychology: meaning systems within a context. They often prioritise understanding the meanings/practices through which
psychological life is organised within a particular context.
Often complementary in theory-building
Indigenous psychologies:
culturally specific, and aim to describe, explain, or predict psychological phenomena from within a given culture's worldview
Start from local histories, languages, and practices
Foundations: what is cross-cultural psychology (CCP)? Scope, key terms 1
Why this framework?
Culture is
A complex, multi-layered concept
Strongly linked to identity
But also strongly ‘contextualized’: culture ‘happens’ between people > dealing with diversity and power relations are important underlying
mechanisms
Intersectionality is a framework for understanding power, identity and inequality > basic layer for dealing with insights from crosscultural
psychology
Exists alongside other visions, frameworks or approaches
Often, one vision or approach is developed in response to another
Intersectionality is about diversity and inclusion
Diversity =
The realization that every individual is unique
There are differences between certain groups of people
How to deal with diversity
1. Exclusion: 'normal people' vs. 'non-normal people' → starts from the idea that people who don’t belong to our “normal” group, are
abnormal.
2. Segregation (separation): separating certain groups. For example; education in belgium is very segregated (disabled kids fe)
3. Assimilation: those who (can) adapt are considered to be part of society.
4. Integration: minorities (subgroups) take over characteristics of the majority culture (main/norm group) , to be part of the society while
preserving their identity
5. Inclusion: engagement – openness to differences, without a dominant voice / role that determines who does or does not belong
a. STARTING POINT: equality and equal rights (<>normality) ⇒ in all the other reactions the base is normality
Openness to differences: how to do that?
To be inclusive we need to be open to differences!
We can do this by putting on a different lens (developing awareness of one’s own stereotypes and prejudices)
Categorising (~ creating order in complexity) = ‘mental shortcuts’
A natural cognitive process
Also used in social interactions
However, categorising can lead to Stereotyping
Attributing a specific characteristic to an entire group
Assuming that all individuals within that group share the same trait
Overlooking individual variation and unique characteristics
Prejudices
A negative attitude towards someone without sufficient evidence
An evaluation based solely on group membership
Everyone engages in stereotypical thinking and holds prejudices at times
We are often unaware of our implicit biases
Prejudices can distort or obstruct rational and critical thinking
A father and his son are involved in a serious car accident. The father dies at the scene, and the son is unconscious and severely injured. He is
taken to the best hospital in the region, where a top surgeon is ready to operate on him. The surgeon enters the operating room, sees the boy,
and says:“I cannot operate on this boy.” “Why not?” asks the nurse. “Because he is my son!” the surgeon replies.
How do stereotypes and prejudices develop?
Through repeated exposure (books, media, education, socialisation, institutional practices)
Through cultural narratives that define what is considered “normal”
Through processes of categorisation that simplify social complexity
Stereotypes can strengthen in-group cohesion, but they also reinforce hierarchies between groups
The structural risk
When stereotypes and prejudices are treated as objective truth:
Framework for take-home assignment: intersectionality 1
, → discrimination
→ exclusion
→ racism and other forms of structural inequality
→ “us versus them” thinking (polarisation)
Importantly, these processes are not only individual — they can become embedded in institutions, policies and professional practices
What can we do about this?
1. Reflexive awareness
a. Identify blind spots
b. Recognise how your own position shapes perception
2. Structural consciousness
a. Question dominant norms
b. Ask: Who benefits? Who is disadvantaged?
3. Practice intersectional thinking
a. Move beyond single categories
b. Think in terms of intersecting partial identities
c. Analyse power relations, not just differences
Intersectionality: we all occupy social positions.
In every society, there are social ordering principles (“assen” / axes of meaning
They structure:
How society is organized
How we see ourselves
How others see us
Our access to opportunities
We are all positioned on these axes
⇒ these axes are also identity axes (part of our identity)
14 axes of identity
Axes are power-laden
HOW we look at each of these axes is therefore not neutral, but
context-dependent (changes across time, place, demographic composition, institutional setting,…)
(Inevitably) normative, i.e., linked to dominant norms (what is considered “normal,” “non-deviant,” or
“desirable”)
(Inevitably) – consequential, i.e. it structures advantage and disadvantage
Some positions are:
Privileged
Invisible: the norm often is invisible (implicit)
Structurally supported by institutions
The dominant position is also a position.
Framework for take-home assignment: intersectionality 2
, From diversity thinking to intersectionality
“Flat diversity thinking” assumes:
Categories are dichotomous (man/woman)
Categories are power-neutral
Categories are independent
Differences are purely descriptive
Intersectionality challenges this. It asks:
Who benefits?
Who is disadvantaged?
In which context?
The core of intersectionality
People are not defined by one axis (~ partial identity).
Axes intersect!
Your gender
× your class
× your ethnicity
× your migration status
× your health
× your age…
Together shape your social position.
This intersection determines:
Exposure to privilege
Exposure to discrimination
Lived experience
Privilege and discrimination: two sides of the same coin
If someone is structurally disadvantaged, someone else is structurally advantaged. Privilege often remains invisible.
Intersectionality makes:
Norms visible
Power visible
Structural inequality visible
Reflexive positioning
Before analysing others, you must analyse your own position.
Ask yourself:
Where am I positioned on key axes?
Which positions are normative?
Which institutions work in my favour?
Where might I have blind spots? This is not confession or self-disclosure. This is structural positioning.
Framework for take-home assignment: intersectionality 3
, Foundations: what is cross-cultural psychology (CCP)?
Scope, key terms
What is cross cultural psychology?
CCP = the critical and comparative study of cultural effects on psychology (Shiraev & Levy, 2021)
Two major elements of this definition:
“Comparative”: comparison requires ≥ 2 cultural groups
“Critical” = challenges hidden assumptions in mainstream psychology. CCP insists on careful interpretation of cultural or group differences.
it’s kind of a method for testing the generality for psychological knowledge. The general knowledge is tested.
The critical view is important for applied ccp !
CCP also studies universals
Not only for documenting differences
Also identifying universals and boundary conditions (how do boundaries differ in other cultures)
Strengthens general psychology by testing robustness across contexts
A broad definition:
Examines psychological diversity and the underlying reasons for such diversity across cultural / ethnocultural group
How are particular human activities influenced by different, sometimes dissimilar, social and cultural forces?
Links psychology with sociocultural, ecological, and biological variables
Includes the changes over time !
The culture-behavior relationship
It’s important that we don’t see culture as an internal trait or only as something that people believe. Culture is always between people.
Core object: behavior >< cultural context
What are links between cultural norms and behavior?
→ includes ongoing change in psychological functioning
Culture is not only “inside the person”
Meanings, practices, institutions, and histories matter (=between people)
Distress and recovery are influenced by not only individual symptoms but also meanings, stigma, social support and acces to care. So the
relational framing is relevant for mental health. We have to think of culture as something relational.
Three perspectives within the ccp umbrella:
Culture-comparative approaches ⇒ systematic comparison across groups
Cultural psychology ⇒ emphasizes meaning systems and how psychological processes are constituted within specific sociocultural
contexts.
Indigenous psychologies ⇒ locally grounded concepts and methods
Complementary lenses rather than competing camps
What ccp is not:
Not national stereotypes or “country personalities” → not about comparing ethnic groups.
Not “culture explains everything” (‘culturalizing’) → we also shouldnt use ccp to explain everything.
Not “one label fits all members”
→ Avoid essentialism; attend to within-group diversity
Cross-cultural, cultural, and indigenous psychologies
Cross cultural vs. cultural psychology
1. Cross-cultural: comparison across cultures (A vs. B). Cross group comparisons to test generality and variation
2. Cultural psychology: meaning systems within a context. They often prioritise understanding the meanings/practices through which
psychological life is organised within a particular context.
Often complementary in theory-building
Indigenous psychologies:
culturally specific, and aim to describe, explain, or predict psychological phenomena from within a given culture's worldview
Start from local histories, languages, and practices
Foundations: what is cross-cultural psychology (CCP)? Scope, key terms 1
