Defining Cross Cultural Psychology

“Being WEIRD: How Culture Shapes the Mind,” by Ethan Watters, is a compelling article that challenges the reader’s perception on culture and cognition. Instead of cognition affecting culture, our culture affects our cognition. It’s interesting to conceptualize, and it makes one have to introspect their culture, beliefs, attitudes, and actions. Why do we do behave the way that we do? Are our thoughts our own? How much of us is influenced by our environment? This effect of culture can be rooted in our childhoods. We are taught societal norms and how to view, categorize, and perceive the world through the lens of the environment surrounding us. A prime example of this comes from the games we played growing up.

I like your example about the different acceptance between Haitian and American cultures. Not only Haiti but also many cultures believe that psychological disorders are from supernatural forces. Therefore, they want to seek spiritual and herbal treatment by their traditional healers whereas, people want to meet psychiatrists in Western culture. Cultures include custom, religion and patterns their ancestors made for a long time, so their belief or behaviors are various. As a result, symptoms of psychological disorders are similar, perception and treatment for the psychological disorders can be different in every culture.

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

Recent theoretical and empirical developments in psychology have brought the field to the point where researchers need to be mindful of the generalizability of Western findings to other cultural contexts (Heine & Norenzayan, 2006). Another shortcoming of psychological research is the majority of most influential research giving focus to comparisons of North Americans and East Asians. It is perhaps logical that North Americans specifically and Westerners more generally have usually served as the point of comparison in these studies, due to the majority of psychological theories did in fact arise from such samples. Nevertheless, this ought not to be the case. Heine and Norenzayan (2006) calls for cultural psychological research to go beyond only comparisons of East Asians nations with Western nations. At present, despite the growth of cross-cultural research, very little is known about the psychological processes of the majority of cultures of the world. Another shortcoming of psychological research is that it has largely been limited to explorations of the extent to which concepts and occurrences that have been developed and identified in the West generalize to non-Western cultures.

Do you ever know that every country has different cultural values and norms that may cause misunderstanding among cultures of around the globe? Of course, I didn’t know that unless I migrated from my country to the USA. Before long time ago, I believed that the world wide is homogenous societies which based upon one culture only and that culture must be my culture as ethnocentrism to all other nations. After I had experienced living in multi cultural communities and different continents around the globe, such as Africa and Asia, where getting involved in other people live are a very common. As result of my experience, I have realized that American cultural values have less involvement than other countries. I got real shock at the first

These contradictory mindsets between the two cultures can create cultural tension for

The culture of a people is basically their way of life. Therefore, there is much logic in the deduction that culture shapes the mind of the society. Ethan Watters’ presents this idea in a rather great manner in his piece ‘Being Weird. Through the text, Watters largely blames the culture of the society for most of the major issues that have to be faced. In essence, what is greatly concurred with in the author’s postulation is that Westernization, as a result of the Western culture has blinded individuals in the society to knowledge that already exists. So often, explains the author, the society finds much comfort in its own way of doing things rather than in the right way of doing things. Societal culture has

With the understanding the cultural imperatives and the effect that they have on a group, I will now show how cultural imperatives apply to psychologists.

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

As a baby we aren’t born with culture. The people who are responsible for our socialization are our parents and others who we might associate with…teachers, friends, etc. As a very small child we learn about the culture we were born in as well as our gender roles. Depending on some cultures women for example are taught that they will be homemakers and do a large share of work. In my culture I learned my future role which would be a daughter, friend, sister, a wife in the future possibly, and then maybe a mother. This is also the time we learn what society expects of us; the norms per say. This is also the time in our lives that our personality forms. While our personality has much to do with our upbringing and genes it also is created by the culture we are in. “Research in geographical sciences has shown regional variation on a number of indicators—including public

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.

“While cross-cultural psychology and anthropology often overlap, both tends to focus on different aspects of a culture. The areas of interest to psychologists are not addressed by anthropologists who have concerns with kinship, land distribution, and rituals” (Cross-Cultural Psychology). Even though anthropologists has a focus on rituals, psychology can be used to study ritual behaviors and become a benefit with anthropology. Knowing the differences between cultural and individual behaviors is a part of studying psychology which transforms into informative knowledge that is shared with everyone else to also understand the cultures. Not only can psychology benefit in understanding people and their cultures, but also in the workplace and several jobs.

If people think differently it makes sense that different illnesses may also manifest differently. By learning about culture, and being aware of its effects on psychopathology, we have much to gain.

Culture has an extensive and deep impact on people’s behavior as it changes the way they view the world, as well as their behavior and values. People in some certain countries have their insights about various items, which are determined by their culture. However, they rarely state the basic differences, an aspect that makes them exposed to changes in values, opinions, and behavior, without them noticing it. Apparently, all people are expected to undertake their activities within the confines of their cultural traits, which define their needs, beliefs, and values. So, while I agree that living in a new culture would change people’s behavior, values, and opinions, I believe that more often, people overlook how their culture could be different from others. Also, although their values may remain the same, people assume different ways and perspectives as they try new cultures.

Managers were concerned about knowing and understanding each and every perspective of their employee’s cultures. As they know that without studying or knowing the culture, coordination cannot be built between the employees. It is the existing perspective of managers dealing with cross-cultural management (Sultana, 2013).