Examtests with Cultural Psychology by Heine - 4th edition

What is cultural psychology exactly? - ExamTests 1

Questions with chapter 1

Question 1

According to Richard Schweder, general psychology should use the CPU perspective to demonstrate the universal nature of human thinking. What is the CPU perspective and what does cultural psychology say about this?

Question 2

Which four levels of universality in psychological processes are distinguishable? Give an explanation for each level?

Answer suggestions with chapter 1

Question 1

CPU stands for central processing unit and describes the analogy of the human mind as an abstract unit that operates independently of the content. According to the supporters of the CPU perspective, cultural variation in human thinking does not exist, because variations in context and content lie outside the CPU. The CPU is therefore universally the same. Cultural psychologists oppose this; they state that the mind cannot operate independently of what it thinks about. According to them, thoughts, actions and feelings of people are immersed in culture, so they think that there can never be an independent CPU that is the same for everyone.

Question 2

• Level 1: Nonuniversal: These psychological processes do not exist in all cultures and are therefore inventions of a certain culture.
• Level 2: Existential universal: These psychological processes exist in all cultures, but are not necessarily used to solve the same problem and are not equally accessible in different cultures.
• Level 3: Functional universal: These psychological processes exist in all cultures and are used to solve the same problem, but are accessible to varying degrees to people from different cultures.
• Level 4: Accessibility universal: These psychological processes exist in all cultures, are used in all cultures to solve the same problems and are accessible to the same extent in all cultures.

What is culture and what does cultural life mean? - ExamTests 2

Questions with chapter 2

Question 1a

What is the difference between imitative learning and emulative learning?

Question 1b

Name an advantage and a disadvantage of emulative learning compared to imitative learning.

Question 2

What is the social brain hypothesis about?

Answer suggestions with chapter 2

Question 1a

In imitative learning, the learner internalizes part of the goals and behavioral strategies of the model. In this way, what has been learned can be carried out in the same way as with the role model (the person performing the action). In emulative learning, the learner only pays attention to the events that happen around the role model rather than what the role model wants to achieve. The behavioral strategies that the role model uses are not included here. People who use emulative learning come up with a strategy themselves after having gained an idea through the model.

Question 1b

An advantage of emulative learning is that there is no over-imitation. The person himself thinks up the most effective way to put what he has learned into practice, while imitative learning also incorporates any ineffective or irrelevant behaviors if those are present. A disadvantage of emulative learning is that it does not allow an increase in cultural information. Because the method of learning is not the same, there is no reliable, solid transfer of information. In imitative learning, what has been learned is replicated very accurately, creating a basis from which new inventions can be made. Imitative learning, as opposed to emulative learning, offers the possibility to cumulative learning.

Question 2

The social brain hypothesis states that the evolution to the large size of the brain of primates arose from the fact that social life requires high cognitive skills. The primates who were most successful in moving through the complex, extensive social network had the greatest chance of finding partners and safe sources and of protecting themselves and their offspring.

How does culture arise and how is it maintained? - ExamTests 3

Questions with chapter 3

Question 1

Give an example of both a direct and an indirect way in which the geographical environment can influence a culture.

Question 2

In some cultures, for finding a partner, physical attractiveness is more important than in other cultures, where other traits (for example, having a sense of humor or a high intelligence) may be just as important or even more important. Is this variation in on the value of physical attractiveness an example of evoked or transmitted culture? Explain this.

Question 3

What is pluralistic ignorance? How does this phenomenon maintain culture?

Answer suggestions with chapter 3

Question 1

A direct way in which geography can influence a culture is, for example, through the type of food that is available. In places where many large mammals live, hunting is likely to be part of the culture and provide much of the food intake. In places where little or no large mammals live, people from the local culture will hardly or not hunt and will have to get their food in a different way. In an indirect way, the physical environment of a culture can also influence the structure and values ​​of a society. If the environment is rough, and the way of collecting food is dangerous (for example when hunting large animals), more emphasis will be placed on masculinity in culture. If the environment is less dangerous and food is collected more easily and safely, there will be less stereotypical gender roles.

Question 2

This is an example of evoked culture. The attachment of physical attractiveness to a partner is a psychological process that is present in all cultures, but is more important in cultures where people's health is generally more at risk. Physical attractiveness means good health, and in places where health is a major asset, more value is attached to this than in places where health is seen as more natural.

Question 3

Pluralistic ignorance is the tendency of people to collectively misinterpret the thoughts that explain the behavior of others. In many situations people do not say what they really think, but what they think is desirable. So, it may be that a group holds a certain opinion together because everyone thinks that the majority agrees with this, while in reality this is not always true. Pluralistic ignorance is relevant to the preservation of culture, because people are more influenced by what they believe what other people think than by what others actually think.

How is psychological research done in the field of culture? - ExamTests 4

Questions with chapter 4

Question 1a

A lot of (cross-cultural) psychological research is performed by students. This sometimes leads to problems with the 'power' of the research.

What is meant by 'power' and how can a sample consisting mainly of students influence this power?

Question 1b

Why are results from cross-cultural research with students often useful?

Question 2

Different response biases can occur when conducting surveys with people from different cultures. For example, two people of equal length may answer the question "are you tall?" differently, because they compare themselves with the people around them. What is the name of the response bias that occurs in this case?

1. Liability bias
2. Deprivation effect
3. Reference group effect
4. Moderacy and extremity bias

Question 3

Which three steps are needed to understand a cultural difference? Give an example with each step.

Question 4a

What is the difference between within-group manipulation and between-group manipulation, and what ensures that you can draw well-founded conclusions from the results for both types?

Question 4b

What is the advantage of within-groups manipulation compared to between-groups manipulation?

Answer suggestions with chapter 4

Question 1a

Power refers to the ability of a study to observe an effect in the population that is actually present. Students from different cultures are more similar than non-students from different cultures. This increases the chance that an effect that does exist in the general population will not be found if the sample consists mainly of students, because they are not always representative of the general population.

Question 1b

In cross-cultural research, a sample consisting mainly of students is often used. If an effect is found between students from different cultures, this means that the effect in the overall population is likely to be even greater. After all, students are very similar, so if even a cultural variation is found among them, that variation will probably be even greater for non-students.

Question 2

3. Reference group effect - Giving an answer based on comparison with people in your immediate environment is the result of reference group effects.

Question 3

Firstly, an existing theory about possible mutual variables of the cultural difference must be researched and studied. Secondly, it must be proven that there is an underlying construct. Finally, the relationship between the cultural difference found and the underlying construct must be demonstrated. These steps are illustrated in the following example: a found difference between Americans and Japanese is that Japanese are ashamed faster. A leading theory states that the Japanese have a greater sense of interdependence than Americans (step 1). The scientists who investigated the difference in shame argued that interdependence led to a greater tendency toward shame. The second step was to prove that the Japanese indeed have a greater sense of interdependence. This turned out to be the case. Finally, it was demonstrated that there was a positive correlation between the degree of shame and the degree of interdependence among both the Japanese and the Americans.

Question 4a

In between-group manipulations, different, randomly assigned groups of test subjects receive different levels of the independent variable. Because the participants in all conditions are statistically equal at the start of the study (by means of random assignment), any difference in their responses or behaviors must be due to manipulations of the independent variable. After all, this is the only difference between the two conditions. With within-group manipulations, each subject receives more than one level of the independent variable. There is therefore no random assignment which means that all participants receive all the levels of the independent variable. Differences in responses can again only be attributed to the independent variable, because other factors are kept constant (controlled) and the independent variable is the only thing that changes.

Question 4b

Within group manipulation the advantage is that the different response bias no longer play a role. Every condition is applied to every test subject, and the test subject has the same possible response bias in each condition. With this form of manipulation, all factors (except the independent variable) are therefore guaranteed to be kept constant; the test subject is not only statistically similar in every condition, but also completely identical.

How does the environment influence a person's cultural view? - ExamTests 5

Questions with chapter 5

Question 1a

Research into agreements about children with regard to sleeping showed that most North Americans choose to let their children sleep separately from the parents from an early age on.

Which three principles guided them in this decision?

Question 1b

People from some other cultures often choose to let the children sleep with their parents. Name two principles that can lead to this choice.

Question 2a

What is the noun bias?

Question 2b

Is the noun bias a universal phenomenon? What does that mean?

Question 3

Which three parenting styles were distinguished by Baumrind? Name them and provide a description of each.

Answer suggestions with chapter 5

Question 1a

They were guided by the following principles: avoidance of incest, the sexual and emotional privacy of the parents (the sacred couple) and the ideal of autonomy (children must be independent from a young age on).

Question 1b

They are guided, among other things, by the following principles: protection of the vulnerable (young children are not left alone at night) and female chastity anxiety (girls must not be allowed to undertake sexual activities).

Question 2a

The noun bias means that young children use relatively more nouns than verbs.

Question 2b

The noun bias is not a universal phenomenon, it does not occur in all cultures. For example, Chinese children make more use of verbs than of nouns.

Question 3

1. Authoritarian parenting means that high demands are placed on the children, with strict rules and little open conversation between the child and the parent.
2. In authoritative parenting, the child stands central, the parents emphasize the maturity of the child and they try to understand the child and let them be free as possible.
3. Permissive parenting means that the parents are very involved with the child and show a lot of affection. There is little control over the behavior of the children.

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