PSYC14H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Phoneme, Elevator, Kalahari Desert
Document Summary
Culture shapes many of the norms that govern our behaviour. For instance when we talk to someone there is always a certain distance between you and the person. Within a culture there is usually an implicitly understood. However these appropriate distances vary across cultures. 32 inches, usa is 35 inches and japan is 40 inches. Japanese prefer wider conversational distances compared with americans. There seems to be two distinct possibilities for the origins of these cultural differences. Firstly, there is a possibility that genes may be responsible for the inherited psychological traits. However there is no good evidence for such kinds of population difference in genes underlying the differences in the way we think. The second possitbility for such cultural difference is the different environments that we grow up in. According to this, it is the early experiences with environment that leads venzuelans to prefer closer interpersonal spaces, japanese to prefer further personal space and.
