PSC 140 Midterm: M2 study guide
Small Book, and topics in Parenting 1 & 2
●What is “culture” ? Why are cross - cultural studies important? Give a few examples of
developmental differences and similarities across cultures (ex: biological, cognitive,
motivational)
○Culture: a variable, open, & dynamic system of ideas, values, actions & practices
■Culture has a strong influence on our behavior & development
■No matter the topic, culture has influence
●Different definitions in different cultures
●Ex: menopause had different definitions
■Biological
●Health, morbidity rates
●Definitions of mental illness
■Cognitive
●Planning behaviors
●Mathematical reasoning
■motivation/ emotion
●Concepts of
○self - deprecation (E - eastern cultures) vs. self -
enhancement (W - western cultures)
○Interdependence (E) vs. independence (W)
●What defines an individualist (independent) (IND) culture? What defines a collectivist
(interdependent) (COL) culture? (Be familiar with the chart from lecture) Give some
examples of cultures that tend to be either IND or COL
○Individualist (IND) vs. collectivist (COL) cultures
■AKA - independent vs. interdependent
○
○Not categorical - A continuum
■Where do cultures lie on the IND - COL continuum?
●West higher on IND & lower on COL
●East opposite pattern
■Can be variability within the same country
●African - american: higher in IND, same on COL
●Asian - americans: lower in IND, higher on COL
○Pattern strongest in East Asians (Chinese)
●Latinos: same on IND, higher on COL
●Be able to describe several measurement and data collection issues that cross-cultural
researchers face and what strategies they use to resolve (fix) these problems.
Issues in Cross - Cultural Research
●Measurement issues
○Operational definitions
■Even for basic constructs can be difficult to define
●Does it mean the same thing across culture?
●Ex: shame, aggression
○Shame - seen as more positive in eastern cultures & more
negatively in US
○Translation of measures
■Literal (word for word)
■Back - translation
●2x translation
●Ex: English to Chinese & Chinese back to English
■Adapted (mostly word for word w/ some changes made to be more
culturally appropriate
■By committee
●Include local experts
●Helps w/ quality of translation
●Data Collection Issues
○Funding
○experimenter/ observer bias
■Minimize by trying to recruit & train local people to administer tests
●What is a “traditional” versus an “industrialized” society? Why are scientists so
interested in looking at “traditional” societies?
○Small’s anthropological data
■Traditional
●!Kung San
●Ache
●Gusii
■Industrialized
●Japanese
●American
○Why study traditional societies?
■May give hint to parenting & child development from our evolutionary
past
■Humans have been on earth for about 4 million yrs
●Industrial revolution only a few hundred yrs ago
Document Summary
Small book, and topics in parenting 1 & 2. Give a few examples of developmental differences and similarities across cultures (ex: biological, cognitive, motivational) Culture: a variable, open, & dynamic system of ideas, values, actions & practices. Culture has a strong influence on our behavior & development. No matter the topic, culture has influence. Self - deprecation (e - eastern cultures) vs. self - enhancement (w - western cultures) What defines a collectivist (interdependent) (col) culture? (be familiar with the chart from lecture) give some examples of cultures that tend to be either ind or col. West higher on ind & lower on col. Can be variability within the same country. African - american: higher in ind, same on col. Asian - americans: lower in ind, higher on col. Latinos: same on ind, higher on col. Be able to describe several measurement and data collection issues that cross-cultural researchers face and what strategies they use to resolve (fix) these problems.
