Cultural Psychology by S.J. Heine (third edition) – Book summary
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The unpackaging of cultures refers to identifying the underlying variables that give rise to the cultural differences as identifying a cultural difference does not tell us which cultural experiences sustain this difference. It consists of identifying an underlying variable (1), demonstrating that this variable actually differs between cultures (2) and demonstrate that the observed cultural differences relate to the observed differences in the variable of interest. However, unpackaging does not mean that all variables behind a cultural difference have been identified.
One difficulty in studying different cultures is choosing which culture to study. Selecting random cultures might yield unexpected results although this is difficult to interpret without a theoretical framework. One method of choosing a culture is by choosing a culture based on a theoretical variable.
The COSI concerns in doing research in cultural psychology are Causation, Operationalization, Sampling and Interpretation. There are two possibilities with sampling, testing for universality of a cultural idea, value or invention or testing for cultural variance:
Testing for universality | ||
METHOD | PROS | CONS |
Randomly select as many countries as possible. | This is the ideal option. | This is not pragmatic. |
Select two maximally different cultures. | Finding no difference is strong evidence for universality. | Finding a difference will be difficult to interpret. |
Testing for cultural variation | ||
Randomly select as many countries as possible that span the entire range of a cultural value of interest. | This is the ideal option. | This is not pragmatic. |
Match two cultural groups in all non-cultural variables so that the only difference is in the cultural value of interest. | This can give initial evidence for cultural variation. | This evidence will not be definitive. |
There are three methods of operationalization:
METHOD | PROBLEMS | SOLUTIONS |
Construct equivalence: similarity of construct across cultures. | This might lead to pronounced differences that reflect a different cultural value. | Measure different aspects of the construct and consult experts from the culture of interest. |
Methodological equivalence: | The differences in interpretations of the material and differences in familiarity with the response procedure. | The solution is to adapt the material. |
Linguistic equivalence: equality in language in terms of meaning. | The untranslatable words and culture-specific words. | Back-translation, a bilingual investigator or collaborator, studying bilingual participants and the avoidance of abstract items. |
Back translation refers to translating items in one language and then translating it back to the original and compare the two versions. This might lead to unnatural or difficult to understand translations.
There are several biases which can affect the interpretation of the results:
BIAS | PREVALENCE | SOLUTION |
Moderacy bias; the tendency to select the middle-option. | This is most prevalent in East Asians. | The avoidance of scales with middle response options, using a yes or no format and standardizing scores. |
Extremity bias; the tendency to select cut-off points. | This is most prevalent in Hispanics and African-Americans. | |
Acquiescence bias; the tendency to agree with everything. | This is most prevalent in East Asians. | Using contraindicative items, standardizing scores and specifying the context. |
Reference group effect; the tendency to compare with one’s own group. | This occurs in all cultures. | Using concrete scenarios, using concrete response choices to a concrete scenario, avoid quantifiers or use behavioural or physiological measures (i.e. avoidance of self-report). |
Standardisation of scores alters the data and is only useful when the goal is to compare patterns. Using a yes-or-no response format will lead to reduced variance. Avoiding a middle response option does not address the extremity bias.
Causation is a problem in research in cultural psychology because culture cannot be manipulated. There are several methods which can be used to make causal claims up to a certain extent about cultures:
METHOD | PROS | CONS |
Survey | This is useful at the beginning of a project if combined with an experimental manipulation or if a large sample of cultures is included. | This is bias-prone as it employs self-report and causal claims are not possible without an experimental manipulation. |
Field experiment | This has high ecological validity. | There are extraneous variables that cannot be controlled. |
Cultural neuroscience | This includes high impact studies and allows conclusions about the biological bases of cultural variation. | This is expensive, mostly uses small samples and it is not always clear what a difference means. |
Cultural priming | This is usually applied to one culture to address equivalence issues and allows causal inference for the effect of a cultural mindset. | This investigates a temporary mindset whilst culture is chronic. |
Cultural products | The cultural products directly reflect the most prevalent cultural ideals and messages, it captures culture in the world rather than in the mind and it is already available data. | This requires trained coders and has a limited scope. It is ideally supplemented with evidence for the effect of exposure to cultural products. |
A research method unique to cultural psychology is situation sampling, studying situations that are encountered on a regular basis in a culture. This method looks at what response people give in common situations and allows researchers to learn what kind of experiences the culture provides the experiences with. It consists of participants from at least two cultures describing a number of situations they have experienced in which something specific happened and participants imagining the situations described by participants of both cultures.
The deprivation effect refers to people valuing values more when it is at risk or when it is scarce. This is difficult to control for in research. One method of attempting to control for it is investigating whether the results from self-report measures of values converge with the results from other sources of evidence regarding values.
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This bundle makes use of the book: "Cultural Psychology by S.J. Heine (third edition)" and several articles.
The following chapters of the book are used:
-1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14.
This bundle contains a summary for the course "Cultural Psychology" taught at the University of Amsterdam. This contains the book: "Cultural Psychology by S.J. Heine (third edition)" and several articles.
The following chapters of the book are used:
-1, 2, 3, 4
...This bundle contains a summary for the first interim exam of the course "Cultural Psychology" taught at the University of Amsterdam. This contains the book: "Cultural Psychology by S.J. Heine (third edition)".
The following chapters of the book are used:
1, 2,
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