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Assignment 1: Culture and Psychology Research Assignment

General Instructions

This assignment will be submitted in three parts. Read the instructions for all three parts of this assignment prior to beginning your work. It’s important that you complete all three parts when they are due since they will help you with successfully creating your final product.

For this assignment you must select:

A topic related to culture and psychology.

Topic Guidance:

Option 1: You can choose a topic related to culture and psychology that relates to more than one culture (e.g., cross-cultural comparisons). You can browse recent issues of
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology or
Cross-Cultural Research to get ideas. Based on your research and analysis, you can summarize and explain the current research on this topic, note any shortcomings in the research or any unanswered questions, and suggest some directions for future research.

Option 2: Select a general topic from the list below and a culture. Make sure that the culture you select fits with the definition of culture that we have adopted in this course. Based on your research and analysis, provide a psychological explanation of the topic (from the list) from the perspective of the culture you have selected. Once you have started researching your topic, you may wish to narrow down to a more specific topic within your general area. For example, a specific topic would be marriage customs within Arab cultures. You can browse recent issues of
Culture & Psychology to get ideas for your topic.

General Topics you may wish to choose from include:

· Development

· Cognition

· Gender

· Emotion

· Language

· Personality

· Mental Health

· Communication

· Organization

· Social Behaviour

For either option above, you will be required to convey the information from your research and analysis to the class in the form of a presentation that will be posted on D2L. Regardless of your topic, your presentation must
explicitly refer to at least two (2) themes or concepts from the course material.

If you would like feedback on the appropriateness your topic, please contact your course instructor.

Part 1: Presentation Outline

For this part of the assignment, you will write a two-page outline of your presentation. Your outline will be shared with a small group of classmates and will allow you to receive some initial feedback on your presentation and topic.

Your outline
must include

1. A description of your topic (as described in the initial instructions) and a descriptive title.

2. A brief outline (approximately one double-spaced page) of the method of presentation that you’ve chosen and some of the key ideas and/or technologies that you’re hoping to include in your presentation.

3. The APA references for three key readings you will be basing your information on and a brief paragraph below each reference explaining its relevance to your topic.

At least two (2) of the above references should be for
peer-reviewed journal articles from psychology or a related discipline.

Post your outline to D2L in your assigned group discussion area. When attaching your outline as a document, please ensure that you have included your name on the document.

Part 2: Feedback Phase

For Part 2, in your group discussion area on D2L, provide feedback to the outline postings of
each member of your group.

The feedback you provide
must:

1. Be constructive!

2. Ask for clarification. If you don’t find it clear, give specific examples of what needs to be clarified.

3. Recommend other resources. If you have recommendations for other readings that are relevant, provide the references (or better yet link to the reading).You may suggest people, organizations, etc., that may be relevant for your classmate’s presentation.

4. Give general feedback on the proposed method of presentation (e.g., Do you feel it would be effective? Do you have ideas on how it could be more effective?).

Part 3: Presentation

Your final presentation will be shared with the entire class. Ensure that you are using media that you are capable of sharing electronically. The maximum length of your presentation should be 10 min regardless of the type of media presentation you choose.

Presentation Structure

Your

presentation

could take on several forms, for instance:

· A video

· A PowerPoint presentation

· A combination of media

In your presentation, you are expected to include:

· Your chosen topic, approach, and culture, clearly identified with any required background information.

· Information about the relationships between your topic, approach, and culture.

· Approximately 5 – 7 references to support your presentation topics and ideas. These references should be identified within your presentation.
At least three of the references should be articles from peer-reviewed journals published in the last 6 years.

Upload your final presentation (or a link to

your presentation

) to the D2L Discussion Forum “Assignment 1, Part 3 (Final Presentation)”.

Presentation Evaluation

The assignment will be graded on:

· Content backed up by research

· Inclusion of your own analysis/commentary/recommendations based on your research findings

· Explicit and clear connections to course themes or concepts

· Sources, including peer-reviewed academic journal articles

· Presentation style and impact

· Proper use of APA 7th Edition for in-text citations and reference list at the end

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Culture and
Psychology

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Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Contents iii

David Matsumoto
San Francisco State University and Humintell

Linda Juang
University of Potsdam

Australia • Brazil • Mexico • Singapore • United Kingdom • United States

Culture and
Psychology
S I X T H E D I T I O N

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This is an electronic version of the print textbook. Due to electronic rights restrictions,
some third party content may be suppressed. Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed
content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. The publisher reserves the right
to remove content from this title at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. For
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materials in your areas of interest.

Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product
text may not be available in the eBook version.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015960088

ISBN: 978-1-305-64895-1

Cengage Learning
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Printed in the United States of America
Print Number: 01 Print Year: 2016

Culture and Psychology,
Sixth Edition
David Matsumoto, Linda Juang

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WCN: 02-200-202

To the memories of my mom and dad, for their wonderful teachings
and the great family they gave to me.

—David Matsumoto

To Tayo and Keanu, for being my everyday reminders of our
increasingly multicultural world.

—Linda Juang

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

DAVID MATSUMOTO received his B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1981 with

high honors in psychology and Japanese. He subsequently earned his M.A. (1983)

and Ph.D. (1986) in psychology from the University of California at Berkeley. He is

currently professor of psychology and director of the Culture and Emotion Research

Laboratory at San Francisco State University, where he has been working since 1989.

He is also director of Humintell, LLC, a company that provides research, consultation,

and training on nonverbal behavioral analysis and cross-cultural adaptation. He has

studied culture, emotion, social interaction, and communication for over 30 years. His

books include well-known titles such as Culture and Psychology, the APA Handbook of

Nonverbal Communication (ed.), Nonverbal Communication: Science and Applications (ed.),

the Cambridge Dictionary of Psychology (ed.), and Cross-Cultural Research Methods in

Psychology (ed.). He is the recipient of many awards and honors in the field of psychology,

and is the series editor for the Cambridge University Press series on Culture and

Psychology. He is also former editor-in-chief for the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.

LINDA JUANG is a professor of diversity and education at the University of Potsdam,

Germany. She earned her B.A. in child development from the University of Minnesota

and her M.A. and Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Michigan State University,

and was also a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Jena in Germany for three years.

Over the past 20 years, she has studied adolescent development in various family and

cultural contexts. She has published and presented studies on immigration-related

issues such as ethnic identity, acculturation, and adjustment of culturally diverse

adolescents and youth in the United States, Germany, and China.

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vii

BRIEF CONTENTS

PREFACE xxi

1 An Introduction to Culture and Psychology 1

2 Cross-Cultural Research Methods 32

3 Enculturation 57

4 Culture and Developmental Processes 82

5 Culture, Self, and Identity 105

6 Culture and Personality 125

7 Culture and Gender 147

8 Culture and Cognition 171

9 Culture and Emotion 202

10 Culture, Language, and Communication 226

11 Culture and Health 254

12 Culture and Psychological Disorders 278

13 Culture and Treatment for Psychological Disorders 310

14 Culture and Social Behavior 333

15 Culture and Organizations 371

GLOSSARY 402

REFERENCES 411

NAME INDEX 458

SUBJECT INDEX 474

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CONTENTS

PREFACE xxi

An Introduction to
Culture and Psychology 1
Psychology with a Cultural Perspective 3

The Goals of Psychology 3
Culture and Psychology 4
The Contribution of the Study of Culture on Psychological Truths 6
The Contribution of the Study of Culture in Our Own Lives 7
The Growth of Cultural Psychology and Cross-Cultural Research 7

What Is Culture? 7
Where Does Culture Come From? 8
Is Culture a Uniquely Human Product? 15
The Difference between “Society” and “Culture” 16
Groups That Have Cultures 17
Contrasting Culture, Race, Personality, and Popular Culture 19

The Contents of Culture 21
Objective Elements 21
Subjective Elements 21

How Does Culture Influence Human Behaviors
and Mental Processes? 27

Understanding Culture in Perspective:
Universals and Culture-Specifics 28
Etics and Emics 29

THE GOAL OF THIS BOOK 30

E XPLOR ATION AND DISCOVERY 31
Why Does This Matter to Me? 31
Suggestions for Further Exploration 31

Cross-Cultural Research Methods 32
Types of Cross-Cultural Research 33

Method Validation Studies 33
Indigenous Cultural Studies 34
Cross-Cultural Comparisons 35

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x Contents

Types of Cross-Cultural Comparisons 35
Exploratory versus Hypothesis Testing 35
Presence or Absence of Contextual Factors 36
Structure versus Level Oriented 36
Individual versus Ecological (Cultural) Level 36

Designing Cross-Cultural Comparative Research 38
Getting the Right Research Question 38
Designs That Establish Linkages between Culture
and Psychological Variables 39

Bias and Equivalence 44
Conceptual Bias 44
Method Bias 45
Measurement Bias 47
Response Bias 48
Interpretational Bias 51

CONCLUSION 53

E XPLOR ATION AND DISCOVERY 54
Why Does This Matter to Me? 54
Suggestions for Further Exploration 54

APPENDIX A 55

Enculturation 57
Humans Engage in Cultural Learning 58

Enculturation and Socialization 58

Culture, Parenting, and Families 61
Whiting and Whiting’s Six Cultures Study 61
Diversity in Parenting as a Function of Economics 62
Parenting Goals and Beliefs 63
Global Parenting Styles 64
Parenting Behaviors and Strategies 66
A Domain-Specific Approach to Parenting 68
Siblings 69
Extended and Multigenerational Families 71
Summary 72

Culture and Peers 72
Exposure to Peer Groups 73
Peers and Bullying 73
Summary 75

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Contents xi

Culture and the Educational System 76
School Systems 76
Parental and Familial Values 77
Attitudes and Appraisals of Students 78
Teaching Practices and School Environment 78
Summary 80

PUT TING IT ALL TOGETHER 8 0

E XPLOR ATION AND DISCOVERY 81
Why Does This Matter to Me? 81
Suggestions for Further Exploration 81

Culture and Developmental Processes 82
Culture and Temperament 84

What Is Temperament? 84
The Goodness of Fit between Temperament and Culture 84
Cross-Cultural Studies on Temperament 86
Temperament and Learning Culture 86
Dimensions of Temperament: A Focus on Behavioral Inhibition 87
Sources behind Temperamental Differences 88

Culture and Attachment 89
Traditional View of Attachment: Bowlby and Ainsworth 89
Cross-Cultural Studies and a Contemporary
View on Attachment 90

Temperament and Attachment: A Summary 93

Cognitive Development 93
Piaget’s Theory 93
Piaget’s Theory in Cross-Cultural Perspective 95
Piaget’s Theory: Summary and Discussion 97
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development 98

Moral Reasoning 99
What Is Moral? 99
Kohlberg’s Theory of Morality 100
Cross-Cultural Studies of Moral Reasoning 101
Three Ethics Approach to Moral Reasoning 102

CONCLUSION 103

E XPLOR ATION AND DISCOVERY 10 4
Why Does This Matter to Me? 104
Suggestions for Further Exploration 104

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xii Contents

Culture, Self, and Identity 105
Culture and Self 106

Defining Self 106
Where Does the Self-Concept Originate? 107
The Dynamic and Multifaceted Nature of the Concept of Self 108
Early Research on Cultural Differences in Self-Concepts:
The Independent versus Interdependent Self-Construal Theory 108
Recent Developments in Our Understanding
of Cultural Differences in Self-Concepts 111

Culture, Self-Esteem, and Self-Enhancement 116
What Is Self-Esteem, and Where Does It Come From? 116
Is Self-Enhancement Universal or Culture-Specific? 117

Culture and Identity 121
Types of Identities 121
Identity Is Fluid 121
Multicultural Identities 122

CONCLUSION 124

E XPLOR ATION AND DISCOVERY 124
Why Does This Matter to Me? 124
Suggestions for Further Exploration 124

Culture and Personality 125
Defining Personality 126

Definitions 126
Perspectives 127
Measuring Personality across Cultures 128

Cross-Cultural Studies on Personality Traits:
The Five-Factor Model and Five-Factor Theory 130

Evidence for the Five-Factor Model 130
Do Perceptions of National Character Correspond
to Aggregate Personality Traits? 132
Where Do These Traits Come From? The Five-Factor Theory 134
An Evolutionary Approach 136

Cross-Cultural Studies on Other Dimensions of Personality 137
Interpersonal Relatedness 138
Filipino Personality Structure 138
Dominance 139
Internal versus External Locus of Control 140

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Contents xiii

Direct, Indirect, Proxy, and Collective Control 141
Autonomy 142

Indigenous Personalities 142

Integrating Universal and Culture-Specific
Understandings of Personality 144
CONCLUSION 14 5

E XPLOR ATION AND DISCOVERY 14 6
Why Does This Matter to Me? 146
Suggestions for Further Exploration 146

Culture and Gender 147
Sex and Gender 149

Gender Differences across Cultures 150
Masculinity and Femininity 150
Cognitive Differences 152
Conformity and Obedience 153
Aggressiveness 153
Personality 154
Sex and Sexuality 155
Jealousy 156
Division of Labor 157
Summary 159

Culture, Gender Roles, and Gender Stereotypes 161
Culture and Gender Stereotypes 161
Culture, Gender Role Ideology, and Self-Concept 164
Ethnicity and Gender Roles 165

Changing Cultures, Changing Gender Roles 166
CONCLUSION 169

E XPLOR ATION AND DISCOVERY 170
Why Does This Matter to Me? 170
Suggestions for Further Exploration 170
InfoTrac College Edition 170

Culture and Cognition 171
Culture as Cognition 173

Culture and Attention 174

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xiv Contents

Culture and Perception 177
Perception and Physical Reality 177
Cultural Influences on Visual Perception 177

Culture and Thinking 182
Culture and Categorization 182
Culture and Memory 183
Culture and Math 185
Culture and Problem Solving 186
Culture and Creativity 188
Culture and Dialectical Thinking 189
Culture, Regrets, and Counterfactual Thinking 191
Summary 191

Culture and Consciousness 193
Culture and Dreams 193
Culture and Time 193
Culture and Pain 195

Culture and Intelligence 196
Traditional Definitions of Intelligence and Its Measurement 196
The Nature versus Nurture Controversy 197
Expanding the Concept of Intelligence across Cultures 198
The Impact of Cross-Cultural Research on the Concept
of Intelligence in Mainstream American Psychology 199

CONCLUSION 20 0

E XPLOR ATION AND DISCOVERY 20 0
Why Does This Matter to Me? 200
Suggestions for Further Exploration 201

Culture and Emotion 202
The Evolution of Human Emotion 203

Emotions as Evolved Information-Processing Systems 203
Different Categories of Emotion 204

The Biological Bases of Emotion—Basic Emotions 205
The Original Universality Studies 205
Subsequent Research after the Original Universality Studies 206
Other Sources of Evidence for the Universality of Basic
Emotions and Their Possible Biological Bases 209
Summary 212

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Contents xv

Cultural Influences on Emotion 212

Cultural Regulation of Basic Emotions 214
More about Cultural Display Rules 215
Cultural Calibration of How Emotional
Expressions Are Perceived 218

The Cultural Construction of Emotional Experience 219

The Cultural Construction of Concepts, Attitudes,
Values, and Beliefs about Emotion 219

Concepts of Emotion 219
Categories of Emotion 221
The Location of Emotion 222
Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs about Emotion 222
Summary 223

CONCLUSION 223

E XPLOR ATION AND DISCOVERY 224
Why Does This Matter to Me? 224
Suggestions for Further Exploration 225

Culture, Language,
and Communication 226
The Co-Evolution of Language and Human Culture 227

Cultural Influences on Verbal Language 227
The Structure of Language 227
Culture and Language Acquisition 228
Language Differences across Cultures 229
Language and Thought: The Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis 233

Cultural Influences on Nonverbal Communication 236
Culture and Gestures 237
Culture and Gaze 238
Culture and Voice 239
Culture, Interpersonal Space, and Touch 239

Intracultural and Intercultural Communication 240
Cultural Influences on Encoding and Decoding 241
The Process of Intracultural and Intercultural Communication 242
Improving Intercultural Communication 244

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xvi Contents

Bilingualism and Culture 247
Psychological Differences as a Function of Language 247
A Bilingual Advantage for Cognitive Performance? 249
Perceptions of Bilinguals 251
Monolingualism and Ethnocentrism 252

CONCLUSION 252

E XPLOR ATION AND DISCOVERY 253
Why Does This Matter to Me? 253
Suggestions for Further Exploration 253
InfoTrac College Edition 253

Culture and Health 254
Cultural Differences in the Definition of Health 255

Comparison across Cultures 255
Comparison within Cultures 257

Three Indicators of Health Worldwide 258
Life Expectancy 258
Infant Mortality 260
Subjective Well-Being 261

Genetic Influences on Physical Health and Disease 261

Psychosocial Influences on Physical Health
and Disease 263

Sociocultural Influences on Physical Health
and Disease 266

Cultural Dimensions and Diseases 266
Cultural Discrepancies and Physical Health 268
Culture, Body Shape, and Eating Disorders 269
Culture and Obesity 270
Culture and Suicide 271
Acculturation and the Immigrant Paradox 273
Summary 275

Differences in Health Care and Medical Delivery Systems 275

A Model of Cultural Influences on Health:
Putting It All Together 276
E XPLOR ATION AND DISCOVERY 277
Why Does This Matter to Me? 277
Suggestions for Further Exploration 277

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Contents xvii

Culture and Psychological Disorders 278
Defining Abnormality: Some Core Issues 279

Defining “Abnormal” 280

Culture and the Categorization and Assessment
of Psychological Disorders 281

Culture and Categorization of Psychological Disorders 282
Cross-Cultural Assessment of Psychological Disorders 286
Measurement of Personality to Assess Psychopathology 289

Cross-Cultural Research on Psychological Disorders 291
Schizophrenia 291
Depression 293
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder 296

Cultural Syndromes of Distress 297
Summary 300

Mental Health of Ethnic Minorities, Migrants,
and Refugees 301

African Americans 301
Latino Americans 302
Asian Americans 303
Native Americans 304
Immigrants 305
Refugees 307
Summary 308

CONCLUSION 30 8

E XPLOR ATION AND DISCOVERY 30 8
Why Does This Matter to Me? 308
Suggestions for Further Exploration 309

Culture and Treatment for
Psychological Disorders 310
Culture and Psychotherapy 311

Traditional Psychotherapy 311
Contemporary Psychotherapy 312
Cultural Limitations of Psychotherapy 312
Psychotherapy in Diverse Cultures 314

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xviii Contents

Psychotherapy in Diverse Cultures in the United States:
An Example of Within Culture Variation 315
Summary 316

Receiving Treatment and Barriers to Treatment 317
Disparities in Receiving Treatment 317
Barriers to Seeking Treatment 320
Removing Barriers to Treatment 322

Treatment Issues 323

Culturally Competent Services 324

Indigenous and Traditional Healing 326
An Example of Blending Indigenous Healing Practices
with Traditional Western-Based Treatment Approaches 328

A Community Approach to Treatment 330

Culture and Clinical Training 330
CONCLUSION 331

E XPLOR ATION AND DISCOVERY 332
Why Does This Matter to Me? 332
Suggestions for Further Exploration 332

Culture and Social Behavior 333
Cultural Influences on How We Perceive People 334

Person Perception and Impression Formation 334
Culture and Face Recognition 335
Culture and Attractiveness 336

Culture and Attributions 337
What Are Attributions, and Where Do They Come From? 337
Early Research on Cultural Differences in Attributional Styles 338
Contemporary Research: Universality and Culture-Specificity
of Attributional Styles 339

Mate Selection, Love, and Marriage Across Cultures 340
Culture and Mate Selection 340
Culture and Love 342
Culture and Marriage 342
Intercultural Marriages 343

Culture and Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience 344

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Contents xix

Culture and Cooperation 346

Culture and Intergroup Relations 348
Ingroups and Outgroups 348
Stereotypes 351
Ethnocentrism and Prejudice 361
Discrimination 364

Culture and Aggression 365

Acculturation 367
CONCLUSION 370

E XPLOR ATION AND DISCOVERY 370
Why Does This Matter to Me? 370
Suggestions for Further Exploration 370

Culture and Organizations 371
Cultural Differences in Work-Related Values:
Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions 372

Power Distance 373
Uncertainty Avoidance 373
Individualism-Collectivism 374
Masculinity–Femininity 374
Long- versus Short-Term Orientation 375

Organizational Culture and Organizational Climate 376
Cultural Differences in Organizational Culture 376
Culture and Person-Organization Fit 377

Culture and Attitudes about Work and Organizations 378

Culture, Motivation, and Productivity 381

Culture, Leadership, and Management Styles 383
Culture and the Meaning of Leadership 383
Culture and Leadership Behaviors 385

Culture and Decision-Making Processes 388
Organizational Decisions 388
Organizational Fairness 389
Consumer Decisions 391

Culture and Negotiation 391

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xx Contents

Intercultural Issues Regarding Business and Work 394
Overseas Assignments and Culture Shock 395
Working with an Increasingly Diverse Workforce Population 397

Culture and Sexual Harassment 399
CONCLUSION 4 0 0

E XPLOR ATION AND DISCOVERY 4 0 0
Why Does This Matter to Me? 400
Suggestions for Further Exploration 401

GLOSSARY 402

REFERENCES 411

NAME INDEX 458

SUBJECT INDEX 474

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xxi

PREFACE

WE WOULD LIKE TO BEGIN BY FIRST THANKING YOU—past, current, and prospective
future users of our book. We sincerely appreciate all of you for all the hard work and
efforts you make in the classroom every day in service of the education of future
generations of our world, and for the greater good that comes from those efforts.
We appreciate all the kind notes, comments, questions, and messages that many of
you have sent to us throughout the years. And we appreciate all of you who come to
introduce yourselves at meetings and conferences. It is especially a joy to meet you in
person, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the reception you always
give us.

We would also like to thank the reviewers of the previous edition of the book.
They provided us with many valuable comments, which guided us in the current re-
vision. We thank the reviewers especially for the many positive comments about so
many parts of the book. We can only hope that our revisions have improved the book
even more.

We also would like to thank the editors and production staff at Cengage. They
have been professional, competent, and courteous throughout the years, and have
kept us on track in the revision of this edition. We also thank Hyisung C. Hwang for
her review and edit of the entire book manuscript from start to finish. Her comments
and suggestions were invaluable and helped us to improve the readability and con-
tent of the material tremendously.

There are many changes that we have made that are applicable throughout the
book. With regard to content, you will see that we have reorganized the structure of the
book. We moved the chapter on self and identity (formerly Chapter 13) up to Chapter 5.
We follow this with chapters on personality (Chapter 6) and gender (Chapter 7), fol-
lowed by cognition (Chapter 8) and emotion (Chapter 9). We hope that this structural
change aids readers in moving through the material in a way that presents the larger
factors of influence (development, personality, gender) before discussing specific topics
(emotion, cognition, language, social behavior, etc.).

Also with regard to content, we have tightened the writing throughout, and in
many cases have deleted material that was superfluous to the main message of the
chapter. We did this because one of the concerns we had about the book was that we
were presenting too many “facts” without a coherent message in some places. This
situation was partly due to the burgeoning numbers of cross-cultural studies that
have been published in recent years, and our previous wish to be comprehensive and
inclusive of the literature. But sometimes this lost our focus on the important mes-
sages of the chapter. Thus we decided to reduce the number of facts by removing
material we deemed superfluous to the main message of each chapter so that readers
can stay focused on that main message.

We have also made a number of significant changes with regard to pedagogy. In
this edition, you’ll notice a larger trim size for the book, which should aid in reading.
We have also added text call-outs to important phrases, and now include glossary
definitions in the margins when the words first appear. We have added more figures
and tables in all chapters to break up the monotony of reading and to provide visual
examples of the text material. We have also added substantially more cross-referencing
to related topics in other chapters throughout the book.

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xxii Preface

In addition to these major changes described above, we list below the specific
changes we have made in each chapter:

Chapter 1—An Introduction to Culture and Psychology

■ Simplified the writing and the message throughout, deleting sections that were
not directly relevant to the main message of the chapter, and reordered some
material

■ Included more call-outs to other professions as end users are not always psychol-
ogy students

■ Clarified the concept of universal psychological toolkits
■ Included more call-outs to material that will be explored in the rest of the book,

cross-referencing other chapters
■ Updated figures and added a few more to aid understanding; dropped old

Figure 1.2, which was too complex
■ Updated the writing with two new citations

Chapter 2—Cross-Cultural Research Methods

■ Simplified the writing and the message throughout, especially concerning the
types of cross-cultural research and types of cross-cultural comparisons

■ Deleted sections that were not directly relevant to the main message of the
chapter

■ Reordered some material
■ Reincorporated brief discussion of the evolution of cross-cultural research
■ Included more figures and tables to organize and summarize the material,

including tables organizing types of cross-cultural research and types of cross-
cultural comparisons

■ Redrew Table 2.1 and split into two tables
■ Expanded on the “Exploration and Discovery” section
■ Added a new question in the “Suggestions for Further Exploration” that invites

students to find their culture and compare its scores with other scores and their
experiences

Chapter 3—Enculturation

■ Simplified the writing and the message throughout
■ Added more figures to aid understanding
■ Deleted Figure 3.2 (from the 5th edition) as it was unclear
■ Deleted overlapping material with former Chapter 5 on math achievement. The

education section now focuses on the education system as an important source of
enculturation.

■ Added content on “tiger mothering”
■ Updated the writing with 13 new citations

48951_fm_ptg01_i-xxvi.indd 22 1/7/16 7:05 PM

Preface xxiii

Chapter 4—Culture and Developmental Processes

■ Added a section on Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory on cognitive development
■ Updated, deleted, and rewrote sections on attachment to reflect the newest

research and theorizing about this topic
■ Included more figures and tables (such as Piaget’s and Kohlberg’s stages) to

organize and summarize the material
■ Deleted sections that were not directly relevant to the main message of the chap-

ter (such as section on “Other Cognitive Theories” and “Other Developmental
Processes”)

■ Updated the writing with four new citations

Chapter 5—Culture, Self, and Identity (formerly Chapter 13)

■ Moved the section on attributional styles to Chapter 14, as we considered it to
better fit the chapter there, especially with the decision to move this chapter up
in the book sequence

■ Paid attention to repositioning the theory of independent vs. interdependent
self-construals within a larger perspective of theoretical views of the self and the
evolution of thought concerning culture and self

■ Simplified the writing and the message throughout, reordering and restructuring
as necessary

■ Included more figures and tables to organize and summarize the material
■ Updated the writing with 12 new citations

Chapter 6—Culture and Personality (formerly Chapter 10)

■ Simplified the writing and the message throughout, reordering and restructuring
as necessary

■ Included one additional figure and one additional table to organize and summa-
rize the material

■ One figure included clarified the five-factor theory (FFT); also revised the writing
in this section to clarify the distinction between the five-factor model (FFM)
and FFT

■ Updated the writing with nine new citations

Chapter 7—Culture and Gender (formerly Chapter 6)

■ Included a new table as suggested comparing the differences between “sex” and
“gender” as described in the book

■ Moved the section on sex from Chapter 14 to this chapter
■ Consolidated the writing on jealousy that overlapped with that elsewhere
■ Updated the writing with three new citations

48951_fm_ptg01_i-xxvi.indd 23 1/7/16 7:05 PM

Chapter 8—Culture and Cognition (formerly Chapter 5)

■ Provided an overall structure for the chapter in a new figure early on, focusing
on attention, then sensation and perception, then higher order thinking in the
first half of the chapter, and consciousness and intelligence in the second half

■ Consequently, moved the section on attention up first before sensation and
perception

■ Consolidated and integrated info on math performance from Chapter 3; reduced
the amount of facts listed in the section on math and focused on the cross-
cultural elements

■ Figure 5.4 (now Figure 8.8) was made larger
■ Reduced the amount of coverage in the section on intelligence, focusing on cross-

cultural aspects
■ Updated the writing with nine new citations

Chapter 9—Culture and Emotion (formerly Chapter 8)

■ Moved the initial section on the cultural regulation of emotion to later, after the
presentation of basic emotions, and integrated with the section on the “Cultural
Calibration of Emotions”

■ Separated the discussion of cultural regulation of basic emotions, the cultural
construction of subjective experience, and cultural construction of concepts,
attitudes, etc. into three separate sections

■ Dropped the detailed discussion of front-end calibration, and cleaned up the
presentation of front- and back-end calibration throughout, simplifying the
description

■ Redrew original Figure 8.10 into new, simpler figure
■ Added a new reflection question at the end of the chapter
■ Updated the writing with 12 new citations

Chapter 10—Culture, Language, and Communication
(formerly Chapter 9)

■ Added two new figures and one new table to facilitate understanding, especially
to elaborate on cultural differences in nonverbal behaviors

■ Included new section concerning recent research on possible bilingual advan-
tages in cognitive processing

■ Updated the writing with 21 new citations

Chapter 11—Culture and Health (formerly Chapter 7)

■ Added more figures to illustrate chapter concepts
■ Added discussion on an emerging field of study—cultural neuroscience
■ Rearranged some sections for better flow
■ Deleted sections not relevant to main message of chapter
■ Former Figure 7.7 has been updated into a better graphic

xxiv Preface

48951_fm_ptg01_i-xxvi.indd 24 1/7/16 7:05 PM

■ Acculturation is discussed in this chapter and non-Western remedies are dis-
cussed in Chapter 13

■ Updated the writing with 12 new citations

Chapter 12—Culture and Psychological Disorders

■ Completely updated section to include the newest DSM V conceptualization of
“cultural syndromes of distress”

■ Added information on the upcoming revisions for the ICD-11
■ Added more figures and tables (such as table summarizing schizophrenia,

depression, and anxiety) to illustrate key chapter concepts
■ Rearranged some sections for better flow
■ Deleted sections not relevant to main message of chapter
■ Added more detail on the CBCL
■ Added links to the ICD and DSM websites where students can find more

detailed information on some of the issues discussed in the chapter
■ Updated the writing with six new citations

Chapter 13—Culture and Treatment for Psychological Disorders

■ Added more figures to illustrate chapter concepts
■ Rearranged some sections for better flow
■ Updated terminology to clarify indigenous healing, traditional medicine, and

complementary medicine
■ Updated the writing with eight new citations

Chapter 14—Culture and Social Behavior

■ Moved the material on attributions from Chapter 5 to this chapter
■ Moved the material on sex to Chapter 7
■ Added a brief description of the sanctions used in the Yamagishi (1986)

experiment
■ Tightened up and clarified the discussion of the origin of stereotypes
■ Dropped the discussion concerning “Need for Cognitive Closure” in the section

on acculturation
■ Included a new table on the content of stereotypes from 1933, 1951, and 1969
■ Also included a new table from Karlins et al.’s (1969) analysis of changes in the

favorableness of stereotype ratings across time
■ Also included a new table from Madon et al.’s (2001) study of stereotypes
■ Increased the overall number of tables and figures throughout to be commensu-

rate with other chapters
■ Tightened the writing throughout
■ Updated the references with 17 new citations

Preface xxv

48951_fm_ptg01_i-xxvi.indd 25 1/7/16 7:05 PM

Chapter 15—Culture and Organizations

■ Updated the data in Table 15.4
■ Changed the title and labels in Table 15.8 to be less offensive
■ Redrew Figure 15.2 to simplify its message and content
■ Included new writing on “Culture Shock and Reverse Culture Shock” in section

on “Overseas Assignments”
■ Tightened the writing throughout
■ Updated the references with 10 new citations

We are excited about the many changes and improvements that were made to
the book. We are also especially excited about the interest and growth in cultural
and cross-cultural psychology today around the world. We sincerely hope that this
book can help to facilitate that excitement even more in all readers, and to encourage
strong, critical thinking about culture and psychology in the future. As always, if you
have any comments or suggestions on how we can continually improve this work,
please don’t hesitate to let us know.

Finally, although we are indebted to so many people who have helped us along
the way in the writing of this book, any errors in the book are only ours.

David Matsumoto and Linda Juang
San Francisco, CA, and Potsdam, Germany

September, 2015

xxvi Preface

48951_fm_ptg01_i-xxvi.indd 26 1/7/16 7:05 PM

1An Introduction to
Culture and Psychology

CHAPTER CONTENTS

Psychology with a Cultural Perspective

The Goals of Psychology

Culture and Psychology

The Contribution of the Study of Culture on
Psychological Truths

The Contribution of the Study of Culture in Our
Own Lives

The Growth of Cultural Psychology and Cross-
Cultural Research

What Is Culture?

Where Does Culture Come From?

A Definition of Culture

Is Culture a Uniquely Human Product?

The Difference between “Society” and “Culture”

Groups That Have Cultures

Contrasting Culture, Race, Personality, and Popular
Culture

The Contents of Culture

Objective Elements

Subjective Elements

How Does Culture Influence Human
Behaviors and Mental Processes?

Understanding Culture in Perspective: Universals
and Culture-Specifics

Etics and Emics

THE GOAL OF THIS BOOK

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY
Why Does This Matter to Me?
Suggestions for Further Exploration

48951_ch01_ptg01_001-031.indd 1 1/6/16 6:32 PM

2 Chapter 1

Most of what we know about the human mind, psychological processes, and human
behavior comes from scientific research conducted in the United States involving
American university students enrolled in introductory psychology courses as study
participants. The information researchers get from those studies form the basis of
what we think we know about people, and the basis of mainstream psychology.
In this book we ask this simple question: Is what we know in mainstream
psychology applicable for most people of the world? Besides raising that question,
this book also looks to research involving participants from other cultures for those
answers.

Why is asking that question important? All we have to do is to see how rapidly
the world around us is changing, and how we live, work, play, and interact with peo-
ple from many different cultural backgrounds more today than ever before. Think
about this: Just over a century ago in 1904,

■ The average life expectancy in the United States was 47 years.
■ Only 14 percent of the homes in the United States had a bathtub.
■ Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
■ A 3-minute call from Denver to New York City cost $11.
■ There were only 8,000 cars in the United States, and only 144 miles of paved

roads.
■ The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
■ Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated

than California. With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the 21st
most-populous state in the union.

■ The average wage in the United States was 22 cents an hour; the average U.S.
worker made between $200 and $400 per year.

■ More than 95 percent of all births in the United States took place at home.
■ Ninety percent of all U.S. physicians had no college education; instead, they

attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by
the government as “substandard.”

■ Sugar cost 4 cents a pound; eggs were 14 cents a dozen; coffee cost 15 cents a
pound.

■ Most women washed their hair only once a month and used borax or egg yolks
for shampoo.

■ The five leading causes of death in the United States were pneumonia and influ-
enza, tuberculosis, diarrhea, heart disease, and stroke.

■ The population of Las Vegas was 30.
■ Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea had not yet been invented.
■ There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.
■ One in 10 U.S. adults could not read or write.
■ Only 6 percent of Americans had graduated high school.
■ Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner

drugstores. According to one pharmacist, “Heroin clears the complexion, gives
buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and the bowels, and is, in fact, a
perfect guardian of health.”

■ Eighteen percent of households in the United States had at least one full-time
servant or domestic help.

48951_ch01_ptg01_001-031.indd 2 1/6/16 6:32 PM

An Introduction to Culture and Psychology 3

■ There were only about 230 reported murders in the entire United States.
■ And we got this list from someone else whom we have never met, without typ-

ing it ourselves, on the Internet, which did not exist, on a computer, which did
not exist.

The world is changing at an amazingly rapid pace, and one of the most impor-
tant ways in which it is changing is in terms of cultural diversity. This increasingly
diversifying world has created a wonderful environment for personal challenge and
growth, but it also brings with it an increased potential for misunderstandings, con-
fusion, and conflict.

Cultural diversity and intercultural relations are some of our biggest challenges.
Those challenges are also our biggest opportunities. If we can meet those challenges
and leverage them, we can achieve a potential in diversity and intercultural relations
that will result in far more than the sum of the individual components that comprise
that diverse universe. This sum will result in tremendous personal growth for many
individuals, as well as in positive social evolution, bringing about mutual welfare and
benefit built on interpersonal and intercultural respect.

This book was written with this belief—to meet the challenge of cultural diver-
sity and turn that challenge into opportunity. Doing so is not easy. It requires each of
us to take an honest look at our own cultural background and heritage, and at their
merits and limitations. Fear, rigidity, and sometimes stubborn pride come with any
type of honest assessment. Yet without that assessment, we cannot meet this chal-
lenge and improve intercultural relations.

In academia, that assessment begs fundamental questions about what is taught in
our colleges and universities today. To ask how cultural diversity potentially changes
the nature of the truths and principles of human behavior delivered in the halls of
science is to question the pillars of much of our knowledge about the world and
about human behavior. From time to time, we need to shake those pillars to see just
how sturdy they are. This is especially true in the social sciences and particularly in
psychology—the science concerned with people’s mental processes and behaviors.

Psychology with a Cultural Perspective

The Goals of Psychology
Psychology as a discipline is well equipped to meet the challenge of cultural diver-
sity. One of the ways psychology has met this challenge is by recognizing the large
impact culture has on psychological processes and human behavior. In the past few
decades, a new and thriving subdiscipline within psychology known as cultural
psychology has emerged to capture this spirit. In order to get a better handle on what
cultural psychology is all about, it is important first to have a good grasp of the goals
of psychology.

As a discipline, the field of psychology essentially has two main goals. The first is
to build a body of knowledge about people. Psychologists seek to understand behav-
ior when it happens, explain why it happens, and even predict it before it happens.
Psychologists achieve this by conducting research and creating theories of behavior
based on the findings from that research.

The second goal of psychology involves allowing others to take that body of
knowledge and apply it to intervene in people’s lives to help improve those lives.
Psychologists achieve this in many ways: as therapists, counselors, trainers, and

cultural psychology
A subdiscipline within
psychology that examines
the cultural foundations of
psychological processes and
human behavior. It includes
theoretical and methodologi-
cal frameworks that posit an
important role for culture
and its influence on mental
processes behavior, and vice
versa.

48951_ch01_ptg01_001-031.indd 3 1/6/16 6:32 PM

4 Chapter 1

consultants. The field of psychology also achieves this goal by providing information
to students and professionals in many other fields, such as nursing and health care,
businesspersons, and teachers, to help them in their professions as well. Psychologists
and many others work on the front lines, dealing directly with people to affect their
lives in a positive fashion (Figure 1.1).

The two goals of psychology—creating a body of knowledge and applying that
knowledge—are closely related. Psychologists and other professionals who are
informed by psychology take what psychology as a field has collectively learned
about human behavior and use that knowledge as a basis for their applications and
interventions. This learning initially comes in the form of academic training in uni-
versities. But it continues well after formal education has ended, through continuing
education and individual scholarship—reviewing the literature, attending confer-
ences, and joining and participating in professional organizations. Psychologists and
professionals in many other fields engage in a lifelong learning process that helps
them intervene in people’s lives more effectively, all influenced by research and
knowledge generated in psychology. Researchers often understand the practical
implications of their work, and many are well aware that the value of psychologi-
cal theory and research is often judged by its practical usefulness in society (see, for
example, Gergen, Gulerce, Lock, & Misra, 1996). Theories are tested for their validity
not only in the halls of science but also on the streets, and they should be revised
because of what happens on those streets. Real life is ground truth for psychology.

Culture and Psychology
Because knowledge generation is an important part of psychology, we need to have a
good grasp of how that knowledge is generated in the first place, and that is through
scientific research. As we mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, most research
on human behavior reported in mainstream psychology comes from studies con-
ducted in the United States involving American university students enrolled in intro-
ductory psychology courses as study participants. Thus, most knowledge we have in
psychology is based on studies with American students.

Build a Body of
Knowledge about
People
• Through scientif ic
research

• Create theories of
behavior based on
f indings from that
research

Allow Others to
Take That Body of
Knowledge and
Apply It to Intervene
in People’s Lives

• Therapists
• Counselors
• Trainers
• Consultants
• Health care workers

Figure 1.1
The Goals of Psychology
as a Discipline

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An Introduction to Culture and Psychology 5

Considering that U.S. Americans comprise only a small fraction of the world pop-
ulation (around 5%), some scholars have questioned the applicability of findings to
all or most people around the world based so much on a single demographic (Arnett,
2008). Some have suggested that most research to date is based on WEIRDOS—
Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic cultures—and is severely
limited because WEIRDOS aren’t representative of everyone as a whole and that
psychologists routinely use them to make broad, and quite likely false, claims about
what drives human behavior (Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010).

We don’t take such an extreme view; we believe that there is nothing inherently
wrong with such research, and the findings obtained from American samples are
definitely true for those samples at the times the studies were conducted. Those find-
ings may be replicated across multiple samples using different methods, and many
findings weather tests for scientific rigor that would normally render them acceptable
as a truth or principle about human behavior. And, there are a number of universal
psychological processes that can certainly be tested on WEIRDOS and that are likely
applicable to non-WEIRDOS. Thus, rather than raising questions specifically about
WEIRDOS, we believe that psychology should question the characteristics of the peo-
ple in any study: Is what we know about human behavior true for all people, regard-
less of gender, race, ethnicity, culture, class, or lifestyle (see Figure 1.2)?

Cultural psychology asks this question by conducting research with people of
differing cultural backgrounds, and uses cross-cultural research as the primary
research method that tests the cultural parameters of psychological knowledge.
Cross-cultural research involves participants of differing cultural backgrounds and
allows for comparisons of findings across those cultures. Cross-cultural research is a
method that allows psychologists to examine how knowledge about people and their
behaviors from one culture may or may not hold for people from other cultures.

As a method, cross-cultural research can be understood as a matter of scientific
philosophy—that is, the logic underlying the methods used to conduct research and
generate knowledge. This idea is based on a few assumptions. First, the results of

Figure 1.2 The Role of Cultural Psychology in Relation to the Goals of Psychology

Cultural Psychology’s
Question: Is what we
know about people
from this research
applicable to all?

Build a Body of
Knowledge about
People
• Through scientif ic
research

• Create theories of
behavior based on
f indings from that
research

Allow Others to
Take That Body of
Knowledge and
Apply It to Intervene
in People’s Lives

• Therapists
• Counselors
• Trainers
• Consultants
• Health care workers

cross-cultural
research A research
methodology that tests the
cultural parameters of psy-
chological knowledge. Tradi-
tionally, it involves research
on human behavior that
compares psychological pro-
cesses between two or more
cultures. In this book, we
also incorporate knowledge
contrasting human cultures
versus nonhuman animal
cultures. This approach is
primarily concerned with
testing the possible limita-
tions of knowledge gleaned
from one culture by study-
ing people of different
cultures.

48951_ch01_ptg01_001-031.indd 5 1/6/16 6:32 PM

6 Chapter 1

any psychological research are bound by our methods, and the standards of care we
use when we evaluate the rigor and quality of research are also bound by the cul-
tural frameworks within which our science occurs (Pe-Pua, 1989). Theories depend on
research to confirm or disconfirm them; research involves methods designed to col-
lect data to test theories and their hypotheses. Methods involve many parameters, one
of which includes decisions about the nature of the participants in the study. Cross-
cultural research involves the inclusion of people of different cultural backgrounds—
a specific type of change in one of the parameters of research methods. Thus, in some
sense, cross-cultural research is relatively easy to understand conceptually because
it involves a change in the nature of the participant characteristics (i.e., their cultural
backgrounds).

But this basic change in research methods allows us to ask profound questions
about what we think we know in mainstream psychology. We need to examine
whether the information we have learned, or will learn in the future, is applicable
to all people of all cultures or only to some people of some cultures. Scientific phi-
losophy suggests that we have a duty and an obligation to ask these questions about
the scientific process and about the nature of the truths we have learned, or will
learn, about human behavior. The knowledge that is created in psychology should be
accurate and descriptive of all people, not only of people of a certain culture (or race,
ethnicity, nationality, gender, or sexual orientation). The field of psychology has an
obligation—to its teachers, students, practitioners, and especially all the people whose
lives are touched by its knowledge—to produce accurate knowledge that reflects and
applies to them. Cross-cultural research plays an important role in helping psycholo-
gists produce that accurate knowledge for all because it tests whether what is true for
some is also true for others.

This is not an easy challenge for the field to embrace. In almost any contempo-
rary resource in psychology, cultural diversity in findings and cultural differences in
research are widespread and commonplace. These differences are forcing psycholo-
gists to take a good, hard look at their theories and, in many cases, to call for revisions,
sometimes major, in the way we have conceptualized many aspects of behavior. As a
result, many psychologists see an evolution in psychology, with culture incorporated
as a necessary and important ingredient. Some authors have even argued that the
move toward a cultural psychology should really be a move toward a multicultural or
even polycultural psychology— one that incorporates the unique psychologies of the
multitude of cultures around the world that may not be assimilable into a single psy-
chology (Gergen et al., 1996; Morris, Chiu, & Liu, 2015). Whether or not that position is
accepted, current mainstream psychology is clearly moving in this direction, finding
ways to educate and be educated by other psychological approaches in other cultures.
This move involves basic changes in the way psychologists understand many aspects
of human behavior. We are in the midst of this evolution in knowledge right now,
making this time a very exciting one for psychology.

The Contribution of the Study of Culture on Psychological Truths
The contribution that cultural psychology and cross-cultural research makes to psy-
chology as a whole goes far beyond simple methodological changes in the studies. It
is a way of understanding principles about human behaviors within a global perspec-
tive. Cross-cultural research not only tests whether people of different cultures are
similar or different; it also tests possible limitations in our knowledge by examining
whether psychological theories and principles are universal (true for all people of all
cultures) or culture-specific (true for some people of some cultures).

universal A psychologi-
cal process that is found to
be true or applicable for all
people of all cultures.

culture-specific A
psychological process that
is considered to be true for
some people of some cul-
tures but not for others.

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An Introduction to Culture and Psychology 7

Because cross-cultural research is a method, it is not topic-specific. Thus, cul-
tural psychologists are interested in a broad range of phenomena related to human
behavior—from perception to language, child rearing to psychopathology. What dis-
tinguishes cultural psychology from mainstream psychology, therefore, is not the
topic of study but the interest in understanding cultural influences on behavior, and
the testing of limitations to knowledge using cross-cultural research methods. The
impact of the growth of cultural psychology and cross-cultural research on main-
stream psychology has been enormous, and we introduce you to the main cross-
cultural findings in various areas of psychology in the rest of this book.

The Contribution of the Study of Culture in Our Own Lives
Psychological theories are only as good as their applicability to people in their lives
(Amir & Sharon, 1988; Gergen et al., 1996), and one of the main contributions of cross-
cultural research to application is the process it fosters in asking questions. Practicing
psychology with a cultural perspective is an exercise in critical thinking. Is what we
know true for all people regardless of their cultural backgrounds? If not, under what
conditions do differences occur, and why? What is it about culture that produces such
differences? What factors other than culture, such as socioeconomic class, heredity,
or environment, may contribute to these differences? Asking these questions, being
skeptical yet inquisitive, together define the process underlying psychology from a
cultural perspective. This process is even more important than the content because it
can be applied to all areas of our lives, especially in this multicultural world.

The Growth of Cultural Psychology and Cross-Cultural Research
Although cross-cultural research has been conducted for over a century, cultural psy-
chology has truly made a substantial impact on psychology in the past two decades.
Much of this popularity is due to the increased awareness of the importance of culture
as an influential factor on behavior and, unfortunately, to increased awareness of the
frequency of intercultural conflicts within and between countries (e.g., see Christopher,
Wendt, Marecek, & Goodman, 2014). The flagship journal of the International Association
of Cross-Cultural Psychology, the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, has now passed its
40th year of publishing top-level cross-cultural research. Other specialty journals also
exist, such as Cross-Cultural Research and Culture and Psychology. The number of research
articles incorporating people of different cultures has increased tremendously in all top-
tier mainstream journals as well, such as the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
Developmental Psychology, and Psychological Science. Theoretical models are increasingly
incorporating culture, and the number of books involving culture has also increased.

Broadly speaking, an increased interest in cultural psychology is a normal and
healthy development. As psychology has matured, many scientists have come to rec-
ognize that much of the research and theories once thought to be universal for all
people is indeed culture-bound. The increasing importance and recognition of cul-
tural psychology are reactions to this realization.

What Is Culture?

Understanding psychology from a cultural perspective starts with a better appreci-
ation of what is culture. Many scholars and laypersons use the words culture, race,
nationality, and ethnicity interchangeably, as if they were all terms denoting the same

48951_ch01_ptg01_001-031.indd 7 1/6/16 6:32 PM

8 Chapter 1

concepts. They do not, and as we begin our study of culture and psychology, it is
important to define exactly what we mean by the term culture.

We use the word culture in many different ways in everyday language and dis-
course. We use the concept of culture to describe and explain a broad range of activi-
ties, behaviors, events, and structures in our lives. We use culture to describe rules,
norms, learning, or problem solving; refer to the origins of a group and its heritage or
traditions; and define the organization of a group (Berry, Poortinga, Segall, & Dasen,
1992; Kroeber & Kluckholn, 1952/1963). Culture can refer to general characteristics;
food and clothing; housing and technology; economy and transportation; individual
and family activities; community and government; welfare, religion, and science; and
sex and the life cycle (Murdock, Ford, & Hudson, 1971; Barry, 1980; Berry et al., 1992).
The concept of culture is used in many different ways because it touches on so many
aspects of life. Culture, in its truest and broadest sense, cannot simply be swallowed
in a single gulp—not in this book, not in a university course, not in any training pro-
gram. Although we will attempt to bring you closer to a better understanding of what
culture is and how it influences our lives, we must begin by recognizing and admit-
ting the breadth, scope, and enormity of culture.

We should also recognize that the concept of culture has different meanings in
other cultures. In Japan, culture may refer to flower arranging or tea ceremony. In
France, culture might refer to art, history, or food. In the United Arab Emirates, cul-
ture may refer to traditions and religious rituals. Thus the concept of culture itself is
culture-bound. Let’s begin our introduction to culture by discussing where culture
comes from.

Where Does Culture Come From?
Understanding the origins of any human culture helps us to appreciate cultures and
cultural differences (and similarities) when we engage with them. There are four
important sources of the origins of culture: group life, environment, resources, and
the evolved human mind (Table 1.1).

Group Life
Humans are social animals, and have always lived in groups. We learned many hun-
dreds of thousands of years ago that living in groups was better than living alone
(just as many other animal species have). A man or woman alone has trouble sur-
viving the attacks of animals, feeding themselves, taking care of their children, and
meeting all the other tasks of living. And we all want the companionship of others.

Groups increase our chances for survival because they increase efficiency
through division of labor. The division of labor allows groups to accomplish more

Table 1.1 Factors That Influence the Creation of Cultures

Group Life Environments Resources
The Evolved
Human Mind

■ Division of Labor
■ Efficiency
■ Increase Survival

Probability

■ Climate
■ Population Density
■ Arable Land
■ Diseases
■ Previous Cultures
■ Contact with Other Cultures

■ Food
■ Water
■ Money

■ Basic Human Needs and
Motives

■ Universal Psychological
Toolkit

culture A unique mean-
ing and information system,
shared by a group and trans-
mitted across generations,
that allows the group to
meet basic needs of survival,
pursue happiness and well-
being, and derive meaning
from life.

48951_ch01_ptg01_001-031.indd 8 1/6/16 6:32 PM

An Introduction to Culture and Psychology 9

than any one person can, which is functional and adaptive for all the members of the
group. Division of labor allows for accomplishing more tasks so that survival rates
increase. But there’s a downside to living in groups, which is that there is potential
for social conflict and chaos because people are different. Because of those differences,
groups can become inefficient, reducing the probability for survival. And if groups
are uncoordinated and individuals just do their own thing without consideration of
others, conflict and disorganization will occur, which lead to social chaos.

Environment
Groups live in specific environments, and the ecologies of those environments have
a major impact on how they live. One aspect of ecology that influences cultures is cli-
mate. Some areas of the world, like New York or Seoul, South Korea, have harsh win-
ters and miserably hot summers. Other areas of the world, like South and Southeast
Asia, have hot, humid weather all year long, while other areas (like the Middle East
or North Africa) have hot dry weather all year long. Some areas have relatively mild
climates all year long, like San Francisco or Seattle. These ecological differences influ-
ence ways of living. Groups that live near the equator, in hot, humid, tropical areas,
will exhibit a lifestyle that is very different from that of groups living in temperate or
arctic zones, with seasonal changes and extremely cold weather. Those groups will
have different dress styles, different ways of walking, different architecture, and dif-
ferent rituals and traditions, just because of the climate.

More important to culture than the absolute temperature of an area is the
deviation from temperate climate (van de Vliert, 2009). Humans need to regulate
their body temperatures and have an easier time doing so in temperate climates,
which happens to be around 22°C (about 72°F). Much colder or hotter climates make
life much more difficult and demanding, and these harsher climates require people
to do more to adjust and adapt. Harsher climates also create greater risks of food
shortage and food spoilage, stricter diets, and more health problems (infectious and
parasitic diseases tend to be more frequent in hotter climates). Demanding climates
require special clothing, housing, and working arrangements, special organizations
for the production, transportation, trade, storage of food, and special care and cure
facilities. People in hotter climates tend to organize their daily activities more around
shelter, shade, and temperature changes that occur during the day. For example, part
of Spanish culture is to shut down businesses in the midafternoon, during the hot-
test time of the day, and reopen later, pushing back the working hours. There, it is
not uncommon for people to be having dinner outside at 11:00 p.m. or even midnight.
People who live nearer the poles may organize their lives around available sunlight.
In psychological terms, more demanding cold or hot climates arouse a chain of needs
shared by all inhabitants of an area (van de Vliert, 2009).

Another ecological factor that influences culture is population density. This is
the ratio of the number of people that live in a specific area relative to the size of that
area. Some geographic areas have lots of people living in a very small space; that is,
they have large population density, like New York City, Tokyo, Hong Kong, or Mexico
City. Other areas have only few people in a very large area; they have low population
density, like Alaska or the northern island of Hokkaido in Japan.

What’s important about population density is the number of people in an area
in relation to the amount of arable land in that area—that is the amount of land on
which food can grow to sustain the people in that area. A huge number of people in a
small amount of space with scarce food will create a different way of living compared
to a small number of people in a huge amount of space with abundant food. More-
over, the type of food that can be produced can be linked to interesting psychological

deviation from
temperate climate
The degree to which the
average temperature of a
given region will differ from
what is considered to be the
relatively “easiest” tempera-
ture to live in, which is 22°C
(about 72°F).

population density
The number of people liv-
ing within a given unit of
space. In a place like a city
in which a large number of
people live in a relatively
small space, the popula-
tion density is higher than
in a rural area where fewer
people live in each similar
amount of space.

arable land The type
of land that can sustain life
by food production of some
sort.

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10 Chapter 1

and cultural differences. Within China, for example, people who live in regions with
a history of farming rice are generally more interdependent on others around them,
while people who live in regions with a history of farming wheat are generally more
independent of others around them (Talhelm, et al., 2014).

Other ecological factors also influence culture. For instance, global changes in
climate across history have affected the evolution of humans (Behrensmeyer, 2006),
as has the incidence and prevalence of infectious diseases in different regions of the
world (Murray & Schaller, 2010). Unless we talk about the very beginnings of human
life, most human groups live in a region with a previous culture; thus, their previ-
ous culture will have had an impact on the kind of culture they have now. This is
especially true for immigrants, who come to a land with an already existing culture
and must deal with the process of acculturation (which we will talk about later in
Chapter 14). Finally, environments differ in the amount of contact they allow with
other cultures through geographical proximity and accessibility. Is the environment
bounded by many other regions with many other cultures, as in Europe? Or is the
environment bounded by ocean, creating an island mentality, like Japan, the United
Kingdom. One could even argue that the United States has some aspects of an island
mentality. All these factors are likely to influence people’s attitudes, beliefs, and
behaviors, and hence their culture.

Resources
Another source for the origin of cultures is resources. Resources can be natural, such
as the presence or absence of water or land to farm to grow vegetables or raise ani-
mals. A land void of natural resources may encourage teamwork and community
spirit among its members and interrelationships with other groups that have abun-
dant resources in order to survive. These needs and relationships will foster certain
psychological characteristics and attributes that complement teamwork, community
spirit, and interdependence. In a land with abundant resources, however, a group
would have less need for such values and attitudes, and these attributes would be less
important in its culture.

Perhaps the major type of resource that influences cultures today is money.
Money is a human cultural product; it is not a natural resource part of the land or
environment. Affluence, which refers to the amount of money available to a person
or group, can have a major impact on culture (van de Vliert, 2009). Abundant money
can help to buffer the consequences of a lack of resources and harsh climates, which
in turn have interesting psychological consequences. People and groups with more
money can afford to be less in sync with others because cooperation is not as essential
for survival. People and groups with less money, however, need to cooperate in order
to survive.

Thus the combination of the environment (climate, population density, arable
land, etc.) and resources (food, water, and affluence) are some of the most important
factors that contribute to a culture. For example, in the United States, we have the
most sophisticated technology and the most money any country has ever had, so we
can live in a similar way almost anywhere in the country. Even then, each part of the
country has a local economy that comes from the geography, climate, and resources
available. It is hard to grow corn on the north slope of Alaska. There is no timber or
fishing industry in Death Valley. There aren’t many gold or coal mines in Florida. We
all still have to make a living from what we can find around us (unless huge amounts
of money are used to overcome the harsh environment, such as in Las Vegas). Harsh
climates and scarce resources tend to push people toward valuing the idea of hos-
pitality and helping one’s family and neighbors. In very dissimilar places like the

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An Introduction to Culture and Psychology 11

Middle East and northern Greenland, we find similar emphases on hospitality and
helping, which is not as much emphasized in many other places, and much of these
emphases result from geography and climate. People who live in places with high
population density and low resources need to cooperate in order to survive.

The Evolved Human Mind
Fortunately, people do not come to the world as complete blank slates in order to deal
with the problem of adapting to their environments and surviving. Survival depends
on the degree to which people can adapt to their environments and to the contexts
in which they live. To do so, they come to the world with specific needs and motives
and with what we call a psychological toolkit that provides them with the tools with
which to adapt and survive.

Needs and Motives Humans have basic needs that are ultimately related to repro-
ductive success (Boyer, 2000; Buss, 2001). These include physical needs—the need
to eat, drink, sleep, deal with waste, and reproduce if they are to survive. They
also include safety and security needs—the need for hygiene, shelter, and warmth
(remember the discussion above about climate). These needs are universal to all peo-
ple of all cultures.

These basic needs are associated with social motives (Hogan, 1982; Sheldon,
2004), which include the motive to achieve and the motive to affiliate with others.
Over history, people must have solved a host of distinct social problems in order to
adapt and thus achieve reproductive success. These social problems include negotiat-
ing complex status hierarchies, forming successful work and social groups, attracting
mates, fighting off potential rivals for food and sexual partners, giving birth and rais-
ing children, and battling nature (Buss, 1988, 1991, 2001). In fact, we need to do these
things in our everyday lives today as well. All individuals and groups have a univer-
sal problem of how to adapt to their environments in order to address these needs
and motives, and must create solutions to these universal problems. These solutions
can be very specific to each group because the contexts in which each group lives—
the physical environment, social factors, and types and sizes of their families and
communities—are different.

Universal Psychological Toolkits Another resource that humans bring with them
to the world is what we call the universal psychological toolkit (Table 1.2). The uni-
versal psychological toolkit is a term we use to refer to the many abilities and apti-
tudes that nature and evolution endowed humans with in order to help them to
address their basic needs and social motives, and ultimately to adapt and survive.
These tools emerged with the evolution of the human brain, and are important parts
of the human mind.

Table 1.2 Contents of the Universal Psychological Toolkit

Cognitive Abilities Emotions Personality Traits

■ Language
■ Complex Social Cognition
■ Memory
■ Hypothetical Reasoning
■ Problem Solving
■ Planning

■ Basic Emotions
■ Self-Conscious Emotions
■ Moral Emotions

■ Extraversion
■ Neuroticism
■ Openness
■ Agreeableness
■ Conscientiousness

universal psychologi-
cal toolkit A set of basic
psychological skills and
abilities that people can use
to meet their needs. These
include complex cognitive
skills, language, emotions,
and personality traits.

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12 Chapter 1

For example, language is one of the tools in our toolkit. Humans, unlike other
animals, have the unique ability to symbolize their physical and metaphysical world
(Premack, 2004), to create sounds representing those symbols (morphemes), to cre-
ate rules connecting those symbols to meaning (syntax and grammar), and to put all
these abilities together in sentences. Moreover, since the use of papyrus to develop
paper, humans developed writing systems so we can reduce those oral expressions to
words on paper. This book, in fact, is a uniquely human product.

Another tool in our toolkit involves a host of cognitive abilities that allow for
complex social cognition, memory, hypothetical reasoning, problem solving, and
planning. For instance, one of the most important thinking abilities that humans
have unlike other animals is the ability to believe that other people are intentional
agents—that is, that they have wishes, desires, and intentions to act and behave. We
know that we have our own intentions. But we also know that other people have their
own intentions. And we know that they know that we have intentions. That’s why
being in the “public eye” takes on special meaning for humans, because we know that
others can make judgments about us. And that’s also why the anonymity of a dark-
ened theater or an anonymous Internet chatroom or online cyberspace allows us to do
and say things we normally wouldn’t in person. Thus, we have causal beliefs (which
form the basis for the study of attributions, which we will discuss later in Chapter 14).
Morality, a uniquely human product, is probably rooted in this unique human cogni-
tive ability (and we will discuss this more in Chapter 4). This ability apparently turns
on in humans around nine months of age (Tomasello, 1999), which is a critical time
of development of many cognitive abilities (we will discuss these more in Chapter 4).
That is probably why we don’t just take off our clothes in the middle of the street,
have sex in the middle of the park in broad daylight, or just punch those with whom
we disagree. Other animals, however, seem to not care as much.

Other animals can and do view themselves as somewhat intentional agents. But
one thing that differentiates humans from other animals is the fact that we have the
cognitive ability to share our intentions with others. One of the major functions of
language, in fact, is to allow us to communicate a shared intentionality (Matsumoto
& Hwang, 2016; Tomasello & Herrmann, 2010). The fact that we can read each other’s
facial expressions of emotion, and that this is a universal ability (see Chapter 8), also
contributes to our ability to create shared intentions. Shared intentionality may be
at the heart of social coordination, which allows for the creation of human culture
(Fiske, 2000).

Another important ability that humans have that animals do not is the ability to
continually build upon improvements. When humans create something that is good,
it usually evolves to a next generation, in which it is even better. This is true for com-
puters, cars, audio music players, and unfortunately, weapons. Tomasello, Kruger,
and Ratner (1993) call this the ratchet effect. Like a ratchet, an improvement never
goes backward; it only goes forward and continues to improve on itself. The ratchet
effect does not occur in other animals. Monkeys may use twigs to catch insects, but
they don’t improve on that tool.

Our cognitive skills also include memory, and because we have memory, we can
create histories, and because we can create histories, we have traditions, customs, and
heritage (Balter, 2010; Liu et al., 2005; Liu et al., 2009; Paez et al., 2008; Wang, 2006; Wang
& Ross, 2007). Our cognitive skills also include the ability to think hypothetically and
about the future. This allows us to plan things and to worry about the uncertainty of
the future, both of which form the basis of important cultural practices.

People are also equipped with the ability to have emotions. As we will learn later
in Chapter 8, emotions are rapid, information processing systems that aid humans

shared intentionality
Knowledge about motiva-
tions concerning behaviors
that are common among
people in a group.

ratchet effect The
concept that humans con-
tinually improve on im-
provements, that they do not
go backward or revert to a
previous state. Progress oc-
curs because improvements
move themselves upward,
much like a ratchet.

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An Introduction to Culture and Psychology 13

in reacting to events that require immediate action and that have important con-
sequences to one’s welfare with minimal cognitive processing. They are part of an
archaic, biologically innate system that we share with some other animals. People can
have many different types of emotions, such as self-conscious emotions like pride,
shame, guilt, or embarrassment, and moral emotions such as outrage or indignation.

Finally, people come equipped with personality traits. As we will learn in
Chapter 6, humans around the world share a core set of traits that give them predis-
positions in order to adapt to their environments, solve social problems, and address
their basic needs. Many cultures of the world are associated with differences in mean
levels of several personality traits. Although it is possible that cultures shaped the
average personalities of its members, it is also possible that groups of individuals
with certain kinds of personalities and temperaments banded together in certain
geographic regions because it was beneficial for their adaptation to the environment,
and thus influenced culture. For example, cultures high on the dimension known as
uncertainty avoidance (more below) are associated with higher means on the person-
ality trait known as Neuroticism. It could be that uncertainty avoidant cultures pro-
duce more neurotic individuals; but it is also possible that more neurotic individuals
exist in these areas in the first place because these traits are more beneficial for sur-
vival in those environments, and they help to create cultural systems that are more
uncertainty avoidant.

Collectively, the universal psychological toolkits allow humans to adapt to their
environments in order to meet their needs. Individuals differ in how much of these
toolkits they have, or how they use them, but we all have pretty much the same tool-
kits. That’s why anyone born anywhere in the world could be taken at birth and
raised in a different culture, and they would have the basic toolkit to get along in that
new culture, and the new culture would seem normal to them. They would think and
act like other people in that culture. They would still have their own personal charac-
ter, but it would be expressed in ways appropriate to their new culture. Thus, people
come to the world pre-equipped with an evolved, naturally selected set of abilities
and aptitudes that allows them to adapt, survive, and create cultures.

A Definition of Culture
A Functional Understanding of Culture Putting the previous section all together,
we know that people have needs that must be met in order to survive, and come to
the world with a universal psychological toolkit to help address those needs. They
live in groups, and the groups exist in different ecologies, with different resources.
Thus, groups of people need to adapt their behaviors to their ecologies by maximiz-
ing the use of their available resources in order to meet their needs; the abilities and
aptitudes in their psychological toolkits give them the tools to adapt. These adapta-
tions produce behaviors, ways of living, ways of thinking, and ways of being. These
ways become the contents of a group’s culture. The concept of “culture,” in fact, is an
abstract metaphor for these ways. Culture helps explain and describe those ways.

Living in groups requires social coordination. If we are coordinated, then people
are efficient in doing their part for their group to survive. And shared intentionality
is at the root of social coordination. If we are not coordinated, there is social chaos,
which is one of the potential downsides of living in groups. Thus we need to keep
social order and be coordinated and minimize social chaos, so we can accomplish
tasks efficiently and survive.

To achieve social order, coordination, and group harmony, and avoid chaos, we cre-
ate rules of life, or systems of living, or ways of being. This is culture. Culture provides
guidelines or roadmaps on what to do, how to think, and what to feel. Those guidelines

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14 Chapter 1

are passed along from one generation to the next, so that future generations don’t have
to keep reinventing the wheel. That’s why cultural products are always improved; they
are always ratcheted up, never down. Have you ever noticed that computers and cell
phones always get better, not worse? Same for raising crops, making cars, and all other
cultural products. Those ways of living that groups create take advantage of our uni-
versal psychological toolkits to meet our basic human needs (Figure 1.3).

A Definition Over the years, many scholars have attempted to define culture.
Tylor (1865) defined culture as all capabilities and habits learned as members of a
society. Linton (1936) referred to culture as social heredity. Kroeber and Kluckholn
(1952/1963) defined culture as patterns of and for behavior acquired and transmit-
ted by symbols, constituting the distinct achievements of human groups, including
their embodiments in artifacts. Rohner (1984) defined culture as the totality of equiv-
alent and complementary learned meanings maintained by a human population, or
by identifiable segments of a population, and transmitted from one generation to the
next. Jahoda (1984) argued that culture is a descriptive term that captures not only
rules and meanings but also behaviors. Pelto and Pelto (1975) defined culture in terms
of personality, whereas Geertz (1975) defined it as shared symbol systems transcend-
ing individuals. Berry et al. (1992) defined culture simply as the shared way of life of
a group of people, and Baumeister (2005) defined culture as an information-based
system that allows people to live together and satisfy their needs.

There is no one perfect or accepted definition of culture that everyone can agree
upon. That’s OK because culture is all encompassing. What is important, however,
is that we have a working definition of culture for our use. In this book, we define

Group Life

Social
Complexity

Need for
Social

Coordination

Culture

Behaviors That
Increase Social

Coordination and
Reduce Social Chaos

Figure 1.3 A Functional Understanding of Culture

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An Introduction to Culture and Psychology 15

human culture as a unique meaning and information system, shared by a group and
transmitted across generations, that allows the group to meet basic needs of survival, pursue
happiness and well-being, and derive meaning from life.

Human cultures exist first to enable us to meet basic needs of survival. Human
cultures help us to meet others, to procreate and produce offspring, to put food on the
table, to provide shelter from the elements, and to care for our daily biological essen-
tial needs, all of which are necessary for survival.

But human culture is so much more than that. It allows for complex social net-
works and relationships. It allows us to enhance the meaning of normal, daily activi-
ties. It allows us to pursue happiness, and to be creative in music, art, and drama.
It allows us to seek recreation and to engage in sports and organize competition,
whether in the local community Little League or the Olympic Games. It allows us to
search the sea and space. It allows us to create mathematics, as well as an educational
system. It allows us to go to the moon, to create a research laboratory on Antarctica,
and send probes to Mars and Jupiter. Unfortunately, it also allows us to have wars,
create weapons of mass destruction, and recruit and train terrorists.

Human culture does all this by creating and maintaining complex social sys-
tems, institutionalizing and improving cultural practices, creating beliefs about the
world, and communicating a meaning system to other humans and subsequent gen-
erations. It is the product of the evolution of the human mind, increased brain size,
and complex cognitive abilities, in response to the specific ecologies in which groups
live and the resources available to them to live. Culture results from the interaction
among universal biological needs and functions, universal social problems created to
address those needs, and the context in which people live. Culture is a solution to the
problem of individuals’ adaptations to their contexts to address their social motives
and biological needs. As adaptational responses to the environment, cultures help
to select behaviors, attitudes, values, and opinions that may optimize the tapping
of resources to meet survival needs. Out of all the myriad behaviors possible in the
human repertoire, cultures help to focus people’s behaviors and attention on a few
limited alternatives in order to maximize their effectiveness, given their resources
and their environment (Poortinga, 1990).

Is Culture a Uniquely Human Product?
If we understand culture as a solution to the problem of adapting to our contexts
in order to meet basic biological and social needs, then one question that arises is
whether humans are the only beings that have culture. After all, all living beings need
to adapt to their life contexts so as to meet basic needs and survive. In fact, there are
many characteristics of human cultural life that are shared with other animals. For
example, consider:

■ Many animals are social; that is, they work and live in groups. Fish swim in
schools, wolves hunt in packs, and lions roam in prides.

■ In animal societies, there are clear social networks and hierarchies. The staring
game played by humans as children is used by animals to create dominance hier-
archies. And like the human game, the animal that smiles or averts its gaze loses
and becomes the subordinate.

■ Many animals invent and use tools (Whiten, Horner, & De Waal, 2005). Perhaps
the most famous initial example of this is monkeys who use twigs to get insects
to eat. Japanese monkeys at Koshima Island washed sweet potatoes and bathed
in the sea (Matsuzawa, 2001).

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16 Chapter 1

■ Many animals communicate with each other. Bees communicate via a complex
dance concerning the source of flowers. Ants leave trails to communicate their
paths to themselves and others. Relatives of monkeys who wash sweet potatoes
at Koshima Island themselves began to wash sweet potatoes.

The list goes on and on. Thus it is clear that animals have at least a rudimen-
tary form of culture consisting of social customs (McGrew, 2004) as we defined it
above (responses and solutions to the problem of adapting to context in order to meet
basic needs for survival) (Boesch, 2003). So the answer to the question—Is culture a
uniquely human product?—appears to be no (see also de Waal, 2013).

Yet human cultures are different from other animal cultures, and understanding
how we are different serves as an important basis to understanding how all humans
are universally similar in important ways. Addressing the uniqueness of human cul-
ture begs the question of what unique skills humans have that other animals don’t.

There are several characteristics of human social and cultural life that dif-
ferentiates human culture from those of animals. Human cultures are cumulative;
knowledge, tools, technology, and know-how accumulate over time and continue
to improve (recall our discussion above about ratcheting) (Dean, Kendal, Schapiro,
Thierry, & Laland, 2012). Recent research has demonstrated that humans have spe-
cialized socio-cognitive skills, which include teaching through verbal instructions,
imitation, and prosociality, that allow them to reach higher-level solutions when solv-
ing problems. Other animals do not possess these skills, which prevents them from
achieving a cumulative culture that rachets up (Dean, et al., 2012).

Cumulative culture allows human cultures to differ from animal cultures on
complexity, differentiation, and institutionalization. For example, not only do humans
make tools. We make tools to make tools. We automate the process of making tools
and mass distribute tools around the world for global consumption. Because humans
have complex social cognition, language, shared intentionality, and ratcheting,
human social and cultural life is much more complex than that of other animals. We
are members of multiple groups, each having its own purpose, hierarchy, and net-
working system. Much of human cumulative culture is based on uniquely human
cognitive skills, such as teaching and learning through verbal instruction, imitation,
and prosociality (Dean et al., 2012). Humans have evolved to have unique human cul-
tures, and human cultures ensure a great diversity in life. Increased diversity, in fact,
greatly aids in survival, and humans appear to be doing a good job at surviving.

The Difference between “Society” and “Culture”
Although these terms are often used interchangeably, we distinguish between “soci-
ety” and “culture.” Society is “a system of interrelationships among people.” It refers
to the structure of relationships that exist among individuals. In human societies,
individuals have multiple relationships with multiple groups, and the groups them-
selves have interrelationships with other groups. Thus human societies are complex.
Nonhuman animals are also social and have societies.

Culture, however, refers to the meanings and information that are associated
with those social networks. “Family,” for example, is a social group that exists in
both the human and nonhuman animal world. But human cultures give the con-
cept of family its own unique meaning, and individuals draw specific information
from these meanings. Moreover, different human cultures assign different meanings
to this social group. Thus, while many societies have a structural system of inter-
relationships, the meanings associated with those systems are cultural. For example,

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An Introduction to Culture and Psychology 17

“older brother” is a part of many families and thus of many societies. The meaning
of “older brother,” however, is different in different cultures. In some cultures there
is little difference between older or younger brothers or sisters. In other cultures, the
older brother is a relatively more exalted position within the family, associated with
certain duties and obligations that do not exist with other siblings.

Groups That Have Cultures
Given our definition of culture and what influences it, the next question that arises is,
which human groups have culture? Certainly there are many groups of individuals
that have culture, and here we discuss only a few (see Table 1.3).

Culture and Nationality
Nationality refers to a person’s country of origin, and countries have their own cul-
tures. This is because countries are associated with each of the factors that influence
culture. For example, countries are defined by specific boundaries that describe their
ecology—geography, climate, and natural resources. Countries also have their own
unique sociocultural history, language, government, and economic base, all of which
affect culture. Countries also have differences in mean levels of aggregate personality
traits, which can affect culture.

Of course, this is a generalization, and although countries can certainly have a
dominant culture, they can also have many subcultures. The concept of “country”
is a geopolitical demarcation that may include many different cultures. There are
vast cultural differences, for instance, within countries in the Middle East and North
Africa. This is true within nearly all countries as well, including the United States,
with the differences between the East and West Coasts, the South, the Midwest,
Alaska, and Hawaii. Thus, we need to engage in a study of culture and psychology
by first acknowledging the multicultural reality that exists around the world, both
between and within countries.

Culture and Language
As we will discuss in Chapter 9, a cultural group defines meaningful things in its
world by encoding its world in words, and by incorporating unique aspects of lan-
guage (syntax, grammar, pragmatics). Thus different language groups typically have
different cultures. Even if the language is the same, different dialects of a language
often denote slightly different cultures. English, for example, is the primary language
of England, parts of Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. But there
are differences in the use of English in each of these countries, and they denote inter-
esting differences in their cultures. Even within each of these countries, there are

Table 1.3 Contrasting Groups That Have Cultures from Social Constructs That Are
Not Culture

Groups That Have Cultures Constructs That Are Not Culture

■ Countries/Nations
■ Language
■ Ethnicity
■ Gender
■ Disabilities
■ Sexual Orientations

■ Race
■ Personality
■ Popular Culture

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18 Chapter 1

different dialects and regional differences in the language that denote differences in
local and regional cultures. In the United States, for instance, English is vastly differ-
ent between the West Coast, Hawaii, the deep South, and the northeast.

Culture and Ethnicity
The word ethnicity is derived from the Greek ethnos, meaning people of a nation or
tribe, and is usually used to denote one’s racial, national, or cultural origins. In the
United States, ethnic groups include African Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders,
Hispanics and Latinos, and Native Americans. Ethnicity is generally used in reference
to groups characterized by a common nationality, geographic origin, culture, or lan-
guage (Betancourt & Lopez, 1993). Understanding the relationship between ethnicity
and culture can be tricky. To the extent that ethnicity refers to national origins, it may
denote aspects of culture. But psychologists and laypersons often equate ethnicity
with race, and as we will discuss below, this is problematic. Most importantly, ethnic-
ity as a label has no explanatory value; although information about ethnic differences
on a broad range of psychological phenomena can be useful, such information by
itself does not explain the nature of the relationship between ethnicity and psychol-
ogy. Exactly what variables related to ethnicity account for psychological differences
among groups of individuals? The use of ethnicity (or race) as a categorical descriptor
does little to address this important concern. Put simply, just knowing the ethnicity or
race of a person does little to explain psychological outcomes in cognition, emotion,
motivation, or health (Phinney, 1996). Given these limitations, psychologists need to
go beyond the use of ethnic labels to explain individual and group differences.

Phinney (1996) has outlined three key aspects of ethnicity that deserve further
attention: cultural norms and values; the strength, salience, and meaning of ethnic
identity; and attitudes associated with minority status. We agree with the emphasis
on culture as an underlying determinant of psychological functioning. Culture makes
ethnic group differences meaningful.

Culture and Gender
Sex refers to the biological differences between men and women, the most obvious
being the anatomical differences in their reproductive systems. Accordingly, the term
sex roles is used to describe the behaviors and patterns of activities men and women
engage in that are directly related to their biological differences and the process of
reproduction (such as breast-feeding). Gender refers to the behaviors or patterns of
activities that a society or culture deems appropriate for men and women. These
behavior patterns may or may not be related to sex and sex roles, although they often-
times are. Gender role refers to the degree to which a person adopts the gender- specific
and appropriate behaviors ascribed by his or her culture.

Describing and understanding psychological gender differences requires us to
go beyond the biological differences between men and women. Gender differences
arise because of differences in the psychological cultures transmitted to men and
women. Gender differences are thus cultural differences. Of course, men and women
also belong to a larger culture such as a national culture, and their gender cultures
may coexist within the larger culture. This is yet another example of how culture can
be understood on multiple levels of analysis, as the definition of culture presented
earlier in the chapter suggests.

Culture and Disability
Persons with disabilities share some type of physical impairment in their senses,
limbs, or other parts of their bodies. Although the lay public has generally viewed the

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An Introduction to Culture and Psychology 19

main distinction of persons with disabilities as the physical impairments they have,
a growing body of work has found important sociopsychological characteristics of
disability as well (e.g., De Clerck, 2010). Persons with disabilities share the same feel-
ings, ways of thinking, and motivations as everyone else. Beyond that, however, they
also share some unique ways of thinking and feeling that may be specific to their dis-
ability. To the extent that they share certain unique psychological attitudes, opinions,
beliefs, behaviors, norms, and values, they share a unique culture.

A number of authors have begun to describe the culture of disability (Conyers,
2003; Eddey & Robey, 2005). These works highlight the unique psychological and
sociocultural characteristics of disabled individuals, refocusing our attention on a
broader picture of the person in understanding the psychological characteristics of
persons with disabilities. Seen in this light, psychological studies involving partici-
pants with disabilities can be viewed as yet another example of cross-cultural studies,
as they involve comparisons not only of the presence or absence of impairment, but of
more important conditions of culture.

Culture and Sexual Orientation
People form different sexual relationships with others, and the persons with whom
they form such relationships constitute their sexual orientation. We often view these
relationships as the sole or major defining characteristic of a person’s sexual orien-
tation. Yet one of the most important aspects of any sexual orientation—whether
straight or gay, mono or bi—is the particular psychological outlook and characteris-
tics that are shared by and unique to each orientation.

These distinctive psychological characteristics may be cultural. Understanding
shared psychological attributes among people sharing the same sexual orientation as
cultural (e.g., gay culture) has become well accepted in the social sciences (Herdt &
Howe, 2007).

The common thread in this section is that people are often grouped on the basis
of shared characteristics that are visible or otherwise easily identifiable (race, ethnicity,
nationality, sex, disability, or sexual orientation). Although there may or may not be
objective bases underlying these classifications or groupings, we cannot forget that they
are important social constructs and categories. We use these groupings as mental cat-
egories, as Hirschfield (1996) has suggested with race. Problems occur, however, when
we consider these mental categories as endpoints in and of themselves, instead of as
gatekeepers to important sociopsychological—that is, cultural—differences (and simi-
larities) among the categories. Thus, it is crucial to recognize that one of the most impor-
tant features of each of these social categories is its underlying culture—that unique set
of shared attributes that influences its members’ mental processes and behaviors.

Contrasting Culture, Race, Personality, and Popular Culture
Culture and Race
Race is not culture, and the terms should not be used interchangeably. There is
considerable controversy surrounding what race is (Anderson & Nickerson, 2005).
Many contemporary scholars suggest that there are three major races—Caucasoid,
Mongoloid, and Negroid— but past studies of the origins of race have proposed
as many as 37 different races (Yee, Fairchild, Weizmann, & Wyatt, 1993). Although
laypersons typically use skin color, hair, and other physical characteristics to define
race, most physical anthropologists use population gene frequencies. Regardless of
which biological or physical characteristics one uses to define race, the very concept of
race is much less clear-cut than previously believed (Lewontin, Rose, & Kamin, 1984).

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20 Chapter 1

Some authors have suggested that the distinctions among races are arbitrary and
dubious at best (Zuckerman, 1990). Even studies of genetic systems, including blood
groups, serum proteins, and enzymes, have shown considerably more within-group
than between-group variation, suggesting that racially defined groups are actually
more similar than different.

There is also controversy about the origins of race. Prevalent theories posit a
common ancestor originating in Africa 200,000 years ago, whose descendants then
migrated to other parts of the world. Evidence for these theories comes from physi-
cal anthropology and archaeology. Other theories and apparently conflicting sets
of evidence, however, suggest that humans may have existed in multiple regions of
the world as far back as two million years ago and that intermixing among regions
occurred (Wolpoff & Caspari, 1997).

Many psychologists today agree that race is more of a social construction than a
biological essential. People have a natural propensity to create categories, especially
those dealing with human characteristics (Hirschfield, 1996). Because easily identifi-
able physical characteristics are often used in this category formation process, “race”
becomes central to these folk theories and thus gains cognitive and social meaning
and importance. And although race as a biological construct may be questionable,
race as a social construct is real (Smedley & Smedley, 2005).

Interesting issues arise when race is understood as a social construction. Cate-
gory boundaries among the socially constructed races are ambiguous and vary with
social context (Davis, 1991; Eberhardt & Randall, 1997; Omi & Winant, 1994). And
people of different cultures differ in their definitions of race. In some cultures, race
is a continuum along a dimensional scale, not a category (Davis, 1991). Many Brazil-
ians believe that race is not heritable and varies according to economic or geographic
mobility (Degler, 1971, reported in Eberhardt & Randall, 1997). In some countries,
socioeconomic mobility is associated with changes in perceptions of physical proper-
ties such as skin color and hair texture (Eberhardt & Randall, 1997).

Our view is that “racial” differences are of little scientific or practical use with-
out a clear understanding of the underlying causes of the similarities and differences
observed (Betancourt & Lopez, 1993; Helms, Jernigan, & Mascher, 2005; Zucker-
man, 1990). These causes will necessarily involve culture, as we defined in this book,
because culture is a functional concept that determines what is psychologically mean-
ingful and important for different races. Culture is what gives race its meaning.

Culture and Personality
Culture is not personality, and just because individuals exist in a culture and are rep-
resentatives of a culture, they should not be equated with the culture. Culture is a
macro, social, group-level construct; it is the social psychological frame within which
individuals reside, much like the structure of our houses and homes. Personality refers
to the unique constellation of traits, attributes, qualities, and characteristics of indi-
viduals within those frames; it refers to the individual differences that exist among
individuals within groups.

Individuals have their own mental representations of culture, and these differ-
ing representations may be an aspect of their personality. But individual-level mental
representations of culture are not culture on the macro-social level, a point we will
come back to in the next chapter on research methods. Culture, as we have defined
it, involves a meaning and information system that is shared among individuals and
transmitted across generations. Personality and individual differences are not neces-
sarily shared. Culture is relatively stable across individuals, whereas personality is
vastly different.

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An Introduction to Culture and Psychology 21

Culture versus Popular Culture
From time to time, it is fashionable to refer to fads that come and go as “culture.” This
is also referred to as “popular culture” by the mass media and in everyday conversa-
tion. Popular culture refers to trends in music, art, and other expressions that become
popular among a group of people.

Certainly popular culture and culture as we have defined it share some
similarities—perhaps most importantly, the sharing of an expression and its value by
a group of people. But there are also important differences. For one, popular culture
does not necessarily involve sharing a wide range of psychological attributes across
various psychological domains. Culture as defined here involves a system of rules
that cuts across attitudes, values, opinions, beliefs, norms, and behaviors. Popular cul-
ture does not involve a way of life.

A second important difference concerns cultural transmission across generations.
Popular culture refers to values or expressions that come and go as fads or trends
within a few years. Culture is relatively stable over time and even across generations
(despite its dynamic quality and potential for change).

Thus, although culture and popular culture have some similarities, there are
important differences. The cross-cultural literature in psychology and the culture
described in this book is the culture defined in this chapter, not popular culture
(although the psychology of popular culture is a topic well deserving of consideration).

The Contents of Culture

As culture is a meaning and information system, it is an abstraction that we use to
refer to many aspects of our ways of living. The contents of culture can be divided
roughly into two major categories—the objective elements of culture and the subjec-
tive elements of culture (Kroeber & Kluckholn, 1952/1963; Triandis, 1972).

Objective Elements
The objective elements of culture involve objective, explicit elements that are
physical. These would include architecture, clothes, foods, art, eating utensils, and
the like. In today’s world, advertising, texts, architecture, art, mass media, tele-
vision, music, the Internet, Facebook, and Twitter are all physical, tangible, and
important artifacts of culture (Lamoreaux & Morling, 2012; Morling & Lamoreaux,
2008). A recent study analyzed millions of digitized books—about 4% of all books
ever printed—to investigate cultural trends over time (Michel et al., 2011) and
demonstrated changes in vocabularies, grammar, collective memory, the adop-
tion of technology, the pursuit of fame, censorship, and historical epidemiology.
The objective elements of culture are much of the focus of archaeology or physical
anthropology.

Subjective Elements
The subjective elements of culture include all those parts of a culture that do not
survive people as physical artifacts. They include psychological processes such as
attitudes, values, beliefs, as well as behaviors. Cultural psychologists are generally
much more interested in the subjective elements of culture because they tap into
psychological processes and behaviors (see Figure 1.4).

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22 Chapter 1

Values
Values are guiding principles that refer to desirable goals that motivate behavior.
They define the moral, political, social, economic, esthetic, or spiritual ethics of a per-
son or group of people. Values can exist on two levels—personal values and cultural
values. Personal values represent transitional desirable goals that serve as guiding
principles in people’s lives. Cultural values are shared, abstract ideas about what a
social collectivity views as good, right, and desirable.

Scientists have suggested several ways in which cultures differ from one another
on their values. The most well-known approach to understanding cultural values
comes from work by Geert Hofstede. He studied work-related values around the
world, and to date has reported data from 72 countries involving the responses of
more than 117,000 employees of a multinational business organization, spanning over
20 different languages and seven occupational levels to his 63 work-related values
items (Hofstede, 2001). Hofstede suggests that there are five value dimensions that
differentiate cultures:

■ Individualism versus Collectivism. This dimension refers to the degree to
which cultures will encourage, on one hand, the tendency for people to look after
themselves and their immediate family only, or, on the other hand, for people to
belong to ingroups that are supposed to look after its members in exchange for
loyalty.

■ Power Distance. This dimension refers to the degree to which cultures will
encourage less powerful members of groups to accept that power is distributed
unequally.

■ Uncertainty Avoidance. This dimension refers to the degree to which people
feel threatened by the unknown or ambiguous situations, and have developed
beliefs, institutions, or rituals to avoid them.

■ Masculinity versus Femininity. This dimension is characterized on one pole
by success, money, and things, and on the other pole by caring for others and

Values
• Individualism vs. Collectivism
• Power Distance
• Sacred Values

Beliefs
• Dynamic Externality
• Societal Cynicism
• Religions

Norms
• Etiquette and Politeness
• Expressive Behavior
• Tightness vs. Looseness

Attitudes
• Opinions
• Stereotypes
• Prejudice

Worldviews
• Self-Concepts
• Cultural Worldviews
• Attributions

Figure 1.4
The Subjective Elements
of Culture

values A trans-situational
goals that serve as a guiding
principle in the life of a per-
son or group (e.g., kindness,
creativity). Values motivate
and justify behavior and
serve as standards for judg-
ing people, actions, and
events.

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An Introduction to Culture and Psychology 23

quality of life. It refers to the distribution of emotional roles between males and
females.

■ Long- versus Short-Term Orientation. This dimension refers to the degree to
which cultures encourage delayed gratification of material, social, and emotional
needs among its members.

Another approach to understanding cultural values comes from Shalom
Schwartz, who has identified seven cultural values that are universal (all descriptions
taken from Schwartz & Ros, 1995, pp. 96–97).

■ Embeddedness. The degree to which cultures will emphasize the maintenance
of the status quo, propriety, and restraint of actions or inclinations that might
disrupt the solidarity of the group or the traditional order. It fosters social order,
respect for tradition, family security, and self-discipline.

■ Hierarchy. The degree to which cultures emphasize the legitimacy of hierarchical
allocation of fixed roles and resources such as social power, authority, humility,
or wealth.

■ Mastery. The degree to which cultures emphasize getting ahead through active
self-assertion or by changing and mastering the natural and social environment.
It fosters ambition, success, daring, and competence.

■ Intellectual Autonomy. The degree to which cultures emphasize promoting and
protecting the independent ideas and rights of the individual to pursue his/her
own intellectual directions. It fosters curiosity, broadmindedness, and creativity.

■ Affective Autonomy. The degree to which cultures emphasize the promotion
and protection of people’s independent pursuit of positive experiences. It fosters
pleasure and an exciting or varied life.

■ Egalitarianism. The degree to which cultures emphasize transcending selfish
interests in favor of the voluntary promotion of the welfare of others. It fosters
equality, social justice, freedom, responsibility, and honesty.

■ Harmony. The degree to which cultures emphasize fitting in with the environ-
ment. It fosters unity with nature, protecting the environment, and a world of
beauty.

Of these approaches to values, individualism versus collectivism has by far
received the greatest attention in cross-cultural research. It has been used to both
predict and explain many differences across cultures, especially in many aspects of
thinking and emotions (Oyserman & Lee, 2008; Schimmack, Oishi, & Diener, 2005;
Triandis, 2001). Much of the work cited and described later in this book use this
dimension to understand cultural differences.

The Hofstede and Schwartz cultural values are not mutually exclusive of each
other, and they shouldn’t be because they are merely different ways of examining
cultural value systems. For example, Hofstede’s individualism is positively correlated
with Schwartz’s affective and intellectual autonomy and egalitarianism (Schwartz,
2004). Power distance is positively correlated with long-term orientation, embedded-
ness, and hierarchy (Schwartz, 2004). And individualism, affective and intellectual
autonomy, and egalitarianism tend to be negatively correlated with power distance,
long-term orientation, embeddedness, and hierarchy.

Some cultural values are non-negotiable. These are called sacred values (Atran
& Axelrod, 2007; Ginges, Atran, Medin, & Shikaki, 2007) and they differ from normal
values because they incorporate moral beliefs that drive action in ways dissociated

sacred values Values
considered to be nonnegotia-
ble. They differ from normal
values because they incorpo-
rate moral beliefs that drive
action in ways dissociated
from prospects for success.
Across the world, people
believe that devotion to core
values (such as the welfare
of their family and country
or their commitment to
religion, honor, and justice)
is, or ought to be, absolute
and inviolable. Such values
outweigh other values, par-
ticularly economic ones.

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24 Chapter 1

from prospects for success. Across the world, people believe that devotion to core val-
ues (such as the welfare of their family and country or their commitment to religion,
honor, and justice) is, or ought to be, absolute and inviolable. Such values outweigh
other values, particularly economic ones. We have all learned some things we regard
as moral values, some of which may be a part of religion. Most of us believe there is
something morally wrong with letting down your team members. Most Americans
believe you shouldn’t cheat on your wife or husband even if they don’t have particular
religious beliefs. Some cultures permit a man to have more than one wife or a woman
to have more than one husband. Some cultures believe that a family has honor that
depends on the chastity of the women of the family and it is more important than the
life of the woman.

Differences in values (and beliefs; see below) lead to different characterizations of
cultures. Over the years, many characterizations have been proposed such as shame
or guilt cultures (Piers & Singer, 1971), honor cultures (Cohen, Nisbett, Bowdle, &
Schwarz, 1996; Vandello, Cohen, Grandon, & Franiuk, 2009), face and dignity cultures
(Kim, Cohen, & Au, 2010; Ting-Toomey, 1994), high or low context cultures (Hall, 1966,
1973; Matsumoto et al., 2009), and power or hierarchical cultures (Matsumoto, 2007a;
Torelli & Shavitt, 2010).

Beliefs
A belief is a proposition that is regarded as true, and different cultures foster dif-
ferent belief systems. Cultural beliefs are known as social axioms (Bond et al., 2004;
Leung et al., 2002). These are general beliefs and premises about oneself, the social
and physical environment, and the spiritual world. They are assertions about the rela-
tionship between two or more entities or concepts; people endorse and use them to
guide their behavior in daily living, such as “belief in a religion helps one under-
stand the meaning of life.” Leung et al. (2002) demonstrated the universal existence
of five types of social axioms on the individual level in 41 cultural groups. Bond et al.
(2004) then conducted cultural-level analyses on these data, and demonstrated that
two social axiom dimensions existed on the cultural level:

■ Dynamic Externality. This dimension represents an outward-oriented, simplistic
grappling with external forces that are construed to include fate and a supreme
being. It is the culture-level reflection of the belief structures that form part of
a psychological constellation that aids citizens to mobilize psychologically to
confront environmental difficulties. “Belief in a religion helps one understand
the meaning of life” and “good deeds will be rewarded, and bad deeds will be
punished” are examples of beliefs that comprise this dimension. Cultures high
on this dimension tend to be more collectivistic, conservative, hierarchical; have
high unemployment levels, less freedom, and fewer human-rights activities;
and have aspirations for security, material resources, and a longer life. There is a
strong sense of spirituality in this dimension.

■ Societal Cynicism. This dimension represents a predominantly cognitive appre-
hension or pessimism of the world confronting people. “Caring about societal
affairs only brings trouble upon oneself” and “kind-hearted people usually suffer
losses” are examples of beliefs of this dimension. Cultures high on this dimen-
sion believe that the world produces malignant outcomes, that they are sur-
rounded by inevitable negative outcomes, and that individuals are suppressed
by powerful others and subjected to the depredations of willful and selfish indi-
viduals, groups, and institutions.

beliefs A proposition that
is regarded as true. People
of different cultures have
different beliefs.

social axioms General
beliefs and premises about
oneself, the social and physi-
cal environment, and the
spiritual world. They are
assertions about the relation-
ship between two or more
entities or concepts; people
endorse and use them to
guide their behavior in daily
living, such as “belief in a re-
ligion helps one understand
the meaning of life.”

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An Introduction to Culture and Psychology 25

Religions are organized systems of beliefs, and are important to many people
and cultures (Saroglou & Cohen, 2011). They tie together many attitudes, values,
beliefs, worldviews, and norms. They provide guidelines for living. Religions are all
similar in the sense that they serve a specific need—to help people manage them-
selves and their behaviors with others in order to avoid social chaos and provide
social coordination. But they all do so in different ways. In some cultures like in the
United States, religions can be considered somewhat separate from one’s daily life
practices. It’s compartmentalized, like going to church on Sunday. In other cultures,
religions are more infused with daily life, and it is impossible to think of daily prac-
tices without their religious meanings and connotations. In some cultures like the
United States, there is a clear separation between religions and government. In other
cultures, religions are so infused in the culture that it is impossible to think of cul-
ture, state, and religion separately. These differences are neither good nor bad; they
are just the way things have evolved in different regions of the world.

Norms
Norms are generally accepted standards of behavior for any cultural group. Norms
dictate the behavior that members of any culture have defined as the most appro-
priate in any given situation. All cultures give guidelines about how people are
expected to behave through norms. For instance, in some cultures, people wear lit-
tle or no clothing, while in others people normally cover almost all of their bodies.
Recent research has uncovered norms for describing the behaviors of people of other
cultures (Shteynberg, Gelfand, & Kim, 2009), as well as norms for controlling one’s
expressive behavior when emotional (Matsumoto et al., 2009; Matsumoto et al., 2008).

Norms and others kinds of social conventions are a normal aspect of our every-
day lives. They can arise as the unintended consequence of people’s efforts to coor-
dinate with each other locally on small scales, and even global norms can emerge
from these small-scale, local interactions even though people have no idea about the
larger population or that they are coordinating on a larger, global scale (Centola &
Baronchelli, 2015). Thus, large institutions or organizations are not necessary for the
development of norms.

Normal behavior is related to social rituals in different cultures. Rituals are cul-
turally prescribed conduct or any kind of established procedure or routine. These
might include religious rituals, a bride’s walking down the aisle with her father in
American weddings, and having a cup of coffee in the morning. Rituals are impor-
tant because they reinforce cultural meaning systems.

Some rituals are related to politeness, and many cultures reify norms of polite-
ness in shared behavioral patterns called “etiquette.” This is a code of behavior that
describes expectations for social behavior according to contemporary cultural and
conventional norms within a cultural group. Etiquette is a big part of many cultures,
although cultures often differ in what is polite, and what kinds of behaviors are
deemed polite, and thus appropriate and “good.” They are considered signs of matu-
rity and sanity within each culture. People who don’t follow social rules are consid-
ered strange in some way. Politeness is culture specific so that what is polite behavior
in one culture is often different in another. For example, in some cultures, it is consid-
ered good manners and a sign of respect to avoid looking directly at another person.
In the American culture, however, people are taught to “look others in the eye” as a
form a respect. In the Middle East and North Africa, showing the soles of one’s feet is
insulting; Americans who cross their legs in a meeting may be unwittingly communi-
cating this insult to their interacting partners.

religion Organized
systems of beliefs that tie
together many attitudes,
values, beliefs, worldviews,
and norms. They provide
guidelines for living.

norms A generally ac-
cepted standard of behavior
within a cultural or sub-
cultural group.

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26 Chapter 1

An important dimension of cultural variability with respect to norms involves a
concept known as tightness versus looseness (Pelto, 1968). Tightness–looseness has
two key components: The strength of social norms, or how clear and pervasive norms
are within societies, and the strength of sanctioning, or how much tolerance there is
for deviance from norms within societies. Pelto (1968) was the first to coin this term,
arguing that traditional societies varied in their expression of and adherence to social
norms. In his work, the Pueblo Indians, Hutterites, and the Japanese were examples
of tight societies, in which norms were expressed very clearly and unambiguously,
and in which severe sanctions were imposed on those who deviated from norms. By
contrast, he identified the Skolt Lapps of northern Finland and the Thais as loose soci-
eties, in which norms were expressed through a wide variety of alternative channels,
and in which there was a general lack of formality, order, and discipline and a high
tolerance for deviant behavior.

Recent research involving surveys of 6,823 people in 33 modern nation or cul-
tures has demonstrated the importance of tightness-looseness (Gelfand et al., 2011).
This dimension appears to be part of a loosely integrated system that incorporates
ecological and historical components, such as population density, resource availabil-
ity, history of conflict, and disease) with the strength of everyday recurring situations
in facilitating mental processes and behaviors. (Note that that ecological and histori-
cal components mentioned in this model and documented in this research are exactly
those environmental factors we discussed earlier in this chapter as part of the foun-
dational building blocks of culture.) The tightest cultures in this study—that is, cul-
tures with the strongest social norms and sanctions for social transgressions—were
Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea; the loosest cultures were Ukraine,
Estonia, Hungary, and Israel.

Attitudes
Attitudes are evaluations of things occurring in ongoing thoughts about those things,
or stored in memory. Cultures facilitate attitudes concerning actions and behaviors,
which produces cultural filters, which we will discuss in Chapter 14; these serve as
the basis of stereotypes and prejudice. Cultures also foster attitudes that are not tied
to specific kinds of actions, such as believing that democracy is the best form of gov-
ernment. In many other cultures, especially in the past, people believed that most
people aren’t capable of understanding government, and that countries are best ruled
by kings who are very religious or spiritually advanced.

Worldviews
Cultures also differ importantly in cultural worldviews. These are culturally specific
belief systems about the world; they contain attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and values
about the world. They are assumptions people have about their physical and social
realities (Koltko-Rivera, 2004). For example, American culture fosters a worldview
centering on personal control—that you are in control of your life, destiny, and hap-
piness. Many other cultures do not foster this worldview; instead, one’s life may be in
the hands of God, fate, or the supernatural.

An important aspect of our worldviews is how we think about our self—what we
know of as our self-concept (which we will discuss more in Chapter 5). In the United
States, we tend to think that we are responsible for our choices, and that we are inde-
pendent individuals. In other cultures, however, people see themselves as funda-
mentally connected with others, and do not consider themselves as unique, separate
individuals. In some cultures, it is assumed that fate makes choice inevitable, or that

tightness versus
looseness A dimension
of cultural variability that re-
fers to the variability within
a culture of its members to
norms. Tight cultures have
less variability and are more
homogeneous with respect
to norms; loose cultures
have more variability and
are more heterogeneous.

attitudes Evaluations of
objects occurring in ongoing
thoughts about the objects,
or stored in memory.

cultural worldviews
Culturally specific belief
systems about the world.
They contain attitudes, be-
liefs, opinions, and values
about the world. People
have worldviews because of
evolved, complex cognition;
thus, having a worldview
is a universal psychological
process. The specific content
of worldviews, however, is
specific to and different for
each culture.

self-concept The cogni-
tive representations of who
one is, that is, the ideas or
images that one has about
oneself, especially in relation
to others, and how and why
one behaves. The sum of
one’s idea about one’s self,
including physical, mental,
historical, and relational as-
pects, as well as capacities to
learn and perform. Self-con-
cept is usually considered
central to personal identity
and change over time. It is
usually considered partially
conscious and partially
unconscious or inferred in a
given situation.

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An Introduction to Culture and Psychology 27

everybody depends on everyone else. In these cultures, all choices are group choices
and everyone expects to share both the benefits and the failures of everyone’s choices.

People have worldviews because of evolved, complex cognition; thus, having a
worldview is a universal psychological process. The content of worldviews, however,
is specific and different to each culture. Also, it’s important to remember that behav-
iors and cultural worldviews are not necessarily related to each other; people of dif-
ferent cultures may have a belief about something that may not correspond with what
their actual behaviors are (Matsumoto, 2006b); what people say is not always what
they do. This distinction also needs to be taken into account when understanding the
relationship between culture and psychology: cultural differences in worldviews may
or may not be associated with cultural differences in behaviors.

How Does Culture Influence Human Behaviors
and Mental Processes?

How can we understand the relationship between culture and human behaviors
and mental processes? We believe that culture influences psychological processes—
behaviors and mental processes—through the process outlined in Figure 1.5. Cul-
tures exert their influences on individuals primarily through situational contexts
because cultures give social contexts important meanings, and it is these meanings
that drive behavior. (Recall the discussion of the cultural dimension of tightness vs.
looseness above, and the important of situational contexts there.) We learn cultural
meanings and information associated with specific situational contexts. Newborns
have no culture (although they may very well have biological and temperamental dis-
positions to learning certain cultural tendencies; see Chapters 3 and 4). Individuals
begin the process of learning about their culture, and more specifically, the rules and
norms of appropriate behavior in specific situations and contexts, through a process
known as enculturation, which we will discuss in Chapter 3. The enculturation pro-
cess gradually shapes and molds individuals’ psychological characteristics, including
how individuals perceive their worlds, think about the reasons underlying their and
other people’s action, have and express emotions, and interact with others in specific
contexts. As children grow older, they learn specific behaviors and patterns of activi-
ties appropriate and inappropriate for their culture in specific situational contexts.

Mental
Processes

and
Behaviors

Individual Factors

Situational
Contexts

Culture

Figure 1.5 How Culture Influences Behavior

enculturation The
process by which individu-
als learn and adopt the ways
and manners of their specific
culture.

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28 Chapter 1

Scientists agree that many psychological processes—attitudes, values, beliefs, per-
sonality, cognition—are inherently constructed by culture, that is, that they are so
intertwined and infused with cultural influences that it doesn’t make sense to under-
stand them outside of a cultural context. This makes sense, especially since attitudes,
values, and beliefs are all based in language, and language is culturally constructed.

At the same time, much of our behaviors and mental processes are influenced by
individual factors, which include personality, biological factors, and human nature.
No one can deny that people come to the world with an amazing degree of individual
differences in personality, temperament, reactivity, and sensitivity. These factors all
influence how one perceives and evaluates the world, and behaves in that world.

Thus mental processes and behaviors are the product of the interaction between
two major forces—one of which is culture, the other of which is the all the factors
individuals brings with them to the world. In some contexts, behavior may be mostly
influenced by individual factors; in other contexts, behaviors may be more highly
influenced by cultural factors.

Figure 1.5 provides a very simplistic view of how culture influences mental pro-
cesses and behaviors. Surely culture is associated with the individual factors, and the
individual factors also engage in a complex interplay with situational contexts. Men-
tal processes and behaviors feedback and affect culture, and all of these processes
exist within a larger environment with a specific ecology, climate, history, and orga-
nizations. Understanding the influence of culture, therefore, requires us to adopt a
relatively sophisticated way of understanding and explaining human behavior, one
that acknowledges and incorporates other great factors that push and pull behaviors.

Another important point to remember is that the system described above and in
Figure 1.5 is not static or unidirectional. It is dynamic and interrelated; it feeds back on
and reinforces itself. Cultures change over time as the behaviors of its members change,
and the environments within which groups exist change. Technological changes bring
about changes in ways of living that in turn change culture. Even changes in the ecol-
ogy, such as changes in climate, can bring about changes in ways of living, which will
bring about changes in culture. Changes in affluence of a region, culture, or even indi-
viduals bring about changes in ways of living, and thus changes in culture. Look at
countries and cultures such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, China, or Barbados for
major changes in culture because of affluence. Cultural changes produce changes in the
people, in terms of their attitudes, values, opinions, beliefs, and their behaviors (Allen
et al., 2007; Matsumoto, Kudoh, & Takeuchi, 1996). Communication technology (such as
cellular phones, the Internet, e-mail, social media), for instance, brings with it its own
brand of communication culture, in which rules regarding interactions and interper-
sonal engagement change rather rapidly. The widespread use of computers has brought
with it the ability to work independently, loosening the reliance on others to get work
accomplished and the need to interact with coworkers. These changes also affect the
factors that influence culture in the first place, just as how our lifestyles today affect
our ecologies and environment. Thus, the relationship between culture and behaviors
is definitely not a one-way street; it is a reciprocal, dynamic, and complex relationship.

Understanding Culture in Perspective: Universals
and Culture-Specifics
The evolution of human culture suggests that there are many psychological processes
in which all humans engage. For example, because humans have the unique ability to
recognize that others are intentional agents, we can draw inferences about the reasons

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An Introduction to Culture and Psychology 29

underlying other people’s behavior. These are called attributions, and the process of
making attributions may be something that is universal to all humans (we’ll discuss
this more in Chapter 14).

But because all human cultures exist in their own specific, unique environment,
there are differences among them. Thus, while making attributions may be some-
thing universal to all humans, people of different cultures may differ in the way they
make them. That is, there are cultural differences in attributional styles among differ-
ent human cultures.

This approach provides us with a relatively nuanced way of understanding the
relationship between culture and psychology. With this approach, we can understand
how, at one level comparing human cultures with nonhuman animal cultures, the
same psychological process may be universal to all humans. At another level, com-
paring human cultures among themselves, the same psychological process may be
done differently. This is true for attributions, emotions, cognition, and motivation.
One of the goals of this book is to highlight the universal and culture-specific aspects
of these psychological processes. (See Lonner, 1980; Norenzayan & Heine, 2005, for
more discussion on universal psychological processes.)

Etics and Emics
Cultural psychologists have a vocabulary for talking about universal and culture-
specific psychological processes. Etics refer to those processes that are consistent
across different cultures; that is, etics refer to universal psychological processes.
Emics refer to those processes that are different across cultures; emics, therefore, refer
to culture-specific processes. These terms originated in the study of language (Pike,
1954), with phonetics referring to aspects of language and verbal behaviors that are
common across cultures, and phonemes referring to aspects of language that are spe-
cific to a particular culture and language. Berry (1969) was one of the first to use these
linguistic concepts to describe universal versus culturally relative aspects of behavior.

Each culture has had a different combination of geography, climate, resources,
previous culture, and contact with other cultures. Although we’re all born with the
same toolkits, our cultures help us use those toolkits in different ways. So we can all
make sounds, but cultures teach us how to shape those sounds into words and how
to arrange those words into the different languages we humans speak. We all have
emotions, but cultures tell us what to become emotional about, and what to do about
it when we are emotional. We all have a sense of morality, but cultures differ on what
is right and wrong, good and bad. Thus culture influences how we communicate,
think, make decisions, plan for the future, and solve problems. It dictates about polite-
ness and etiquette. It defines religion and taboos. Because cultures exist in different
regions of the world, they all “do” these things differently. That’s why we see cultural
differences in these (emics).

But while people of different cultures are often different in what they do, they are
very similar in why they do them. All humans share the same basic needs and abili-
ties, and it’s important to understand the reasons why people of different cultures do
things the way they do them. If we just look at the surface, they may seem strange.
But if we get to know how and why they developed as a part of the culture, they will
make sense. We all have a need for respect and a need to belong. We all want to find
someone to share our life with, and we all are worried about our social image to oth-
ers, and about feeling good about ourselves. People all around the world in different
cultures are trying to accomplish many of the same things (etics); they are just going
about doing them in very different ways (emics).

attributions Beliefs
about the underlying causes
of behavior.

etics Aspects of life that
appear to be consistent
across different cultures;
universal or pancultural
truths or principles.

emics Aspects of life that
appear to differ across cul-
tures; truths or principles
that are culture-specific.

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30 Chapter 1

Basically, people around the world are very similar in their basic needs to get
along, find a mate, achieve goals, and carry out the basic functions of living. Cultures
find ways to allow people to address those needs. Because cultures exist in differ-
ent regions of the world, with different histories, they often find different ways to
address those same needs.

■ Sometimes culture is like a multiplier, enhancing certain behaviors.
■ Sometimes culture is like a creator, producing new behaviors not seen elsewhere.
■ Sometimes culture is an enabler, facilitating and encouraging behaviors, and

sometimes culture is a suppresser, discouraging behaviors.

Above that, different people in every culture find their own ways, producing
many individual differences within cultures.

An important thing to remember about all cultures is that they have all worked
until now. To support this, all one has to look at are world population statistics,
because the purpose of culture is to help people survive. If cultures hadn’t worked
people would not have survived. Cultures have long histories of having worked for
many generations in the past, and it is apparent that cultures are very successful in
doing what they are supposed to do: help people survive (Figure 1.6).

T H E G O A L O F T H I S B O O K

After all is said and done, what do we intend that you gain from this book? In chal-
lenging the traditional, we do not mean to disregard its importance or the impor-
tance of the work that produced that knowledge. Instead, we seek to raise questions

0
0 1750 1910 1950

Year
1990 2020 2100

POP (in billions)

Th
e

w
or

ld
p

op
ul

at
io

n
(in

b
ill

io
ns

)

Figure 1.6 Growth in the Human Population—Evidence for the Success
of Human Cultures

48951_ch01_ptg01_001-031.indd 30 1/6/16 6:32 PM

An Introduction to Culture and Psychology 31

about the traditional, mainstream knowledge of human behavior. We want to know
whether what we know of organizations, development, personality, emotion, com-
munication, and many other aspects of human behavior is applicable to people of all
cultural backgrounds. We want to challenge the traditional by seeking out answers
to these questions in the cross-cultural literature. And if the research suggests that
people are different from what is typically believed, we want to find better ways to
understand those differences than are available today. We want to impart the flavor
of the evolution in science and knowledge that is now occurring.

We offer this book to you as a way to understand, appreciate, respect, and feel
cultural diversity and its influence on human behavior. In this book, there is no right
and wrong, or good and bad. In learning about others—in meeting the challenge of
cultural diversity—our biggest challenge is always within ourselves.

Why Does This Matter to Me?
1. How does the definition of culture in this chapter

differ from the definition of culture you may have
had before reading it? What implications do you
think those differences may have in your life? In
psychology? In research? Did you equate culture
with race or ethnicity previously?

2. What are some of the values, beliefs, norms, and
worldviews that are important to you? Do you
have any sacred values? What about the values,
beliefs, norms, and worldviews of your friends?
Classmates? Acquaintances in the community?

3. How do you identify yourself in terms of race?
Ethnicity? Sexual orientation? What cultural
characteristics do these have for you?

4. What kinds of cultural differences have
you encountered in your daily life? At your
workplace?

5. From your experiences, how do you think people
of different cultures are similar?

Suggestions for Further Exploration
1. If you could design a study on anything about

human behavior to show how it is the same
across cultures, what would that be?

2. Likewise, if you could design a study on
anything about human behavior to show how it
is different across cultures, what would that be?

3. How would you design a study to show how
culture can be beneficial to people? Likewise,
how would you design a study to show how
culture can be hurtful to people?

E X P L O R A T I O N A N D D I S C O V E R Y

48951_ch01_ptg01_001-031.indd 31 1/6/16 6:32 PM

CHAPTER CONTENTS

Types of Cross-Cultural Research

Method Validation Studies

Indigenous Cultural Studies

Cross-Cultural Comparisons

Types of Cross-Cultural Comparisons

Exploratory versus Hypothesis Testing

Presence or Absence of Contextual Factors

Structure versus Level Oriented

Individual versus Ecological (Cultural) Level

Designing Cross-Cultural
Comparative Research

Getting the Right Research Question

Designs That Establish Linkages between Culture
and Psychological Variables

Bias and Equivalence

Conceptual Bias

Method Bias

Measurement Bias

Response Bias

Interpretational Bias

CONCLUSION

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY

Why Does This Matter to Me?

Suggestions for Further Exploration

Appendix A Listing of countries and regions and
their scores on the five Hofstede cultural dimensions
(from Hofstede, 2001; reproduced by permission of Geert
Hofstede)

2 Cross-Cultural
Research Methods

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Cross-Cultural Research Methods 33

One of the points we tried to make in Chapter 1 was that most findings in psychol-
ogy are limited to the parameters of the research that generated them, and that cul-
tural psychology examines the boundaries of that knowledge by altering one of those
methodological parameters—the cultural background of the participants in the stud-
ies. Including participants from different cultural backgrounds is conceptually pretty
easy—just add people from different cultures to an experiment. But doing so raises
many important questions that need to be dealt with in order for such studies to be
meaningful. This chapter introduces you to those special issues that are associated
with cross-cultural research. We do so not only because is it important to be able to
read cross-cultural research and understand its contributions to knowledge; you also
need to be able to evaluate it on its own merits. As active consumers of research in
your everyday and academic lives, you need to review cross-cultural research with a
critical but fair and open mind, accessing the literature directly and evaluating it with
established criteria for quality. And you should be able to evaluate the research that
we present in this book. We begin by discussing the different types of studies that
exist in cultural psychology.

Types of Cross-Cultural Research

Over the last century cross-cultural research has progressed through different stages,
with different types of studies prominent at different times (Bond, 2004b; Matsumoto
& Yoo, 2006). Very loosely, the first stage involved initial tests of cultural differences
and the discovery of fascinating cultural differences. A second stage involved the
search for meaningful dimensions of cultural variability that can possibly explain
those differences. The dimension known as individualism versus collectivism emerged
during this stage, as did others. A third stage of research involved the conceptual
application of those meaningful dimensions in cross-cultural studies. The fourth stage
of research, in which the field is currently in, involves empirically applying those
dimensions and other possible cultural explanations of behavior experimentally (i.e.,
not just conceptually) in order to scientifically document their effects.

Below we describe the three main types of studies in use today by cultural psy-
chologists: method validation studies, indigenous cultural studies, and cross-cultural
comparisons (Figure 2.1).

Method Validation Studies
All researchers are concerned with issues concerning validity and reliability of
measurement. Validity refers to whether or not a scale, test, or measure accurately
measures what it is supposed to measure. Reliability refers to whether the scale,
test, or measure does so consistently. These concepts are extremely important to all
researchers, cross-cultural or not.

When conducting a cross-cultural study, researchers cannot simply take a scale
or measure that was developed and validated in one culture and use it in another.
This is because even if that scale was validated in one culture, there is no reason to
assume that it is equally valid in any other culture. It would have to be equivalently
valid in all the cultures it was to be used; else, data derived from its measurement
would not be comparable across cultures. (We will have a lot more to say about the
concept of equivalence later.)

Cross-cultural researchers thus are concerned with equivalence in validity of
their measures, scales, and tests. And importantly, just translating a measure does not

validity The degree to
which a finding, measure-
ment, or statistic is accurate,
or represents what it is sup-
posed to.

reliability The degree
to which a finding, mea-
surement, or statistic is
consistent.

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34 Chapter 2

ensure measurement equivalence; there is a need to conduct studies to test the reli-
ability and validity of measures in different cultures in order to be sure they can be
used in the various cultures, thereby ensuring the cross-cultural measurement equiv-
alence of the measure used. Cross-cultural validation studies do so. They examine
whether a measure of a psychological construct that was originally generated in a sin-
gle culture is applicable, meaningful, and most importantly psychometrically equiva-
lent (that is, equally reliable and valid) in another culture. These studies do not test a
specific hypothesis about cultural differences; rather, they test the equivalence of psy-
chological measures and tests for use in other cross-cultural comparative research,
and they are important to conduct before cross-cultural comparisons.

Indigenous Cultural Studies
Another type of cross-cultural study conducted is indigenous cultural studies. These
are characterized by rich descriptions of complex theoretical models of a single cul-
ture that predict and explain cultural differences. A basic philosophy underlying this
approach is that psychological processes and behaviors can only be understood within
the cultural milieu within which it occurs. Thus understanding mental processes and
behaviors requires an in-depth analysis of the cultural systems that produce and sup-
port those processes and behaviors, linking them to each other. Mesquita (Mesquita,
2001; Mesquita & Karasawa, 2002), for instance, described how cultural systems pro-
duce different concepts of the self, which in turn produce different types of specific
concerns. According to her framework, individualistic cultures encourage the devel-
opment of independent senses of self that encourage a focus on personal concerns
and the view that the emotions signal internal, subjective feelings. Collectivistic

Cross-Cultural
Validation

Studies

• Studies that examine whether a scale, test, or
measure originally developed in a culture is valid in
another culture
• Purpose of these studies is to establish the equivalence
of the scale, test, or measure across cultures

• Rich descriptions of complex theoretical models
within a single culture
• Insights generated from these studies compared
across studies and cultures

• Studies that involve participants from two or more
cultures who are measured on some psychological
variable of interest
• The responses obtained from the different cultural
samples are compared against each other

Indigenous
Cultural Studies

Cross-Cultural
Comparisons

Figure 2.1 Types of Cross-Cultural Research

indigenous cultural
studies Studies that use
rich, complex, and in-depth
descriptions of cultures and
cultural differences to pre-
dict and test for differences
in a psychological variable.

cross-cultural
validation study A
study that examines whether
a measure of a psychological
construct that was originally
generated in a single culture
is applicable, meaningful,
and thus equivalent in an-
other culture.

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Cross-Cultural Research Methods 35

cultures, contrastingly, encourage the development of interdependent senses of self
that encourage a focus on one’s social worth and the worth of one’s ingroup and the
notion that emotions reflect something about interpersonal relationships.

Because indigenous cultural studies involve in-depth analyses of only a single
culture, they are not cross-cultural per se. But the insights generated from these
studies are compared to insights from similar studies in other cultures, allowing for
cross-cultural comparisons after the fact. This type of research has its roots in anthro-
pology, such as in the works of Margaret Mead or Ruth Benedict. Early cross-cultural
psychologists such as John Berry and Beatrice Whiting made use of such methods.
More recently, this methodology has been used to explain cultural differences in a
number of psychological processes including morality (Shweder, 1993), attributional
style (Nisbett, Peng, Choi, & Norenzayan, 2001), eye movements when viewing scenes
(Masuda & Nisbett, 2001), the nature of unspoken thoughts (Kim, 2002), the need for
high self-esteem (Heine, Lehman, Markus, & Kitayama, 1999), and many others. We
will be discussing much of this research throughout the book.

Cross-Cultural Comparisons
The third type of cross-cultural study is perhaps the most prevalent in psychol-
ogy, and these are known as cross-cultural comparisons. These are studies that
involve participants from two or more cultures and that measure those participants’
responses on a psychological variable of interest. The responses obtained from the
different cultural samples are compared against each other, allowing for a direct
cross-cultural comparison within that study. This comparison allows for conclusions
to be drawn about cross-cultural similarities or differences on the variable of interest.
Cross-cultural comparisons serve as the backbone of cross-cultural research.

Types of Cross-Cultural Comparisons

Exploratory versus Hypothesis Testing
There are four important ways to characterize cross-cultural comparisons (Table 2.1).
The first involves the distinction between exploratory versus hypothesis-testing
studies. Exploratory studies are designed to examine the existence of cross-cultural simi-
larities and differences. Researchers tend to stay “close to the data” in exploratory stud-
ies. Hypothesis-testing studies are designed to examine why cultural differences may
exist. Thus these studies make larger inferential jumps by testing theories of cross-
cultural similarities and differences.

The methodological strengths and weaknesses of exploratory and hypothesis-
testing studies mirror each other. The main strength of exploratory studies is their
broad scope for identifying cross-cultural similarities and differences, which is par-
ticularly important in under-researched domains of cross-cultural psychology. The
main weakness of such studies, however, is their limited capability to address the
causes of the observed differences. The focused search of similarities and differ-
ences in hypothesis-testing studies leads to more substantial contribution to theory
development and explicit attempts to deal with rival explanations, but is less likely to
discover interesting differences outside of the realm of the tested theory. Also, infer-
ences from hypothesis-testing studies are especially vulnerable to problems related to
cross-cultural biases and inequivalence (more below).

cross-cultural
comparisons A study
that compares two or more
cultures on some psycholog-
ical variable of interest, often
with the hypothesis that one
culture will have signifi-
cantly higher scores on the
variable than the other(s).

exploratory studies
Studies designed to examine
the existence of cross-cul-
tural similarities or differ-
ences. These are generally
simple, quasi-experimental
designs comparing two or
more cultures on a psycho-
logical variable.

hypothesis-testing
studies Studies designed
to test why cultural differ-
ences exist. They go beyond
simple quasi-experimental
designs by either including
context variables or by using
experiments.

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36 Chapter 2

Presence or Absence of Contextual Factors
A second way to differentiate cross-cultural studies from each other refers to the
presence or absence of contextual factors in the design. Contextual factors involve
any variable that can explain, partly or fully, cross-cultural differences when they are
observed in a study (Poortinga, van de Vijver, Joe, & van de Koppel, 1987). Includ-
ing such factors in a study and testing them will enhance the study’s validity and
help rule out the influence of biases and inequivalence because an evaluation of their
influence can help to confirm or disconfirm their role in accounting for the cultural
differences observed. Contextual factors may involve background characteristics of
the participants (such as socioeconomic status, education, personality, and age) or
their cultures (such as economic development and religious institutions). For example,
administering a measure of response styles can help to evaluate the extent to which
cross-cultural differences on extroversion are influenced by these styles. Hypothesis-
testing studies generally need to include contextual variables.

Structure versus Level Oriented
A third way to differentiate cross-cultural studies concerns the distinction between
structure- and level-oriented studies. Structure-oriented studies involve compari-
sons of constructs (e.g., is depression conceptualized in the same way across cul-
tures?), their structures (can depression be assessed in the same way in different
cultures?), or their relationships with other constructs (is depression and anxiety
positively related to each other in all cultures?). Level-oriented studies involve the
comparisons of mean levels of scores between cultures (do individuals from differ-
ent cultures show the same level of depression?). Structure-oriented studies focus on
relationships among variables and attempt to identify similarities and differences in
these relations across cultures. Level-oriented studies ask whether people of different
cultures have different amounts of different variables.

Individual versus Ecological (Cultural) Level
A fourth way to differentiate cross-cultural comparisons concerns individual versus
ecological (cultural) levels of analysis, which are differentiated by the unit of anal-
ysis. Individual-level studies are the typical type of study in psychology, in which
individual participants provide data and those individual participants’ data are the
unit of analysis. Ecological- or cultural-level studies use countries or cultures as

Table 2.1 Types of Cross-Cultural Comparisons

Exploratory vs.
Hypothesis Testing

Presence or Absence of
Contextual Factors

Structure vs.
Level Oriented

Individual vs. Ecological
(Cultural) Level

■ Exploratory studies examine
whether or not cultural
similarities or differences exist

■ Hypothesis-testing studies
examine why cultural
differences exist

■ Context factors are any
variables that can explain,
partly or fully, cross-cultural
differences when they are
observed in a study

■ Structure-oriented studies
compare constructs, their
measurements, or their
relationships with other
constructs across cultures

■ Level-oriented studies
compare mean levels of
scores between cultures

■ Individual-level studies
are those where data from
individuals are the unit of
analysis

■ Ecological-level studies
analyze data with country
or culture as the unit of
analysis

contextual factors
Any variable that can
explain, partly or fully,
observed cross-cultural dif-
ferences. These may involve
characteristics of the par-
ticipants (such as socioeco-
nomic status, education, and
age) or their cultures (such
as economic development
and religious institutions).

level-oriented studies
Studies that examine cul-
tural differences in mean
levels of variables.

structure-oriented
studies Studies that ex-
amine whether constructs
are conceptualized the same
way across cultures, the
relationship of a construct to
other constructs, or the mea-
surement of a construct.

ecological (cultural)
level studies A study in
which countries or cultures,
not individuals, are the unit
of analysis.

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Cross-Cultural Research Methods 37

the unit of analysis. Data may be obtained from individuals in different cultures, but
they are often summarized or averaged for each culture and those averages are used
as data points for each culture. Or country data are obtained from other sources (such
as population statistics, average temperature or rainfall).

Concretely, a data file with individual-level data will have individual data in rows,
and variables in columns, which are comprised of each individuals’ response to each
variable. A data file with ecological-level data will have data for cultures in rows, and
variables in columns. If the data in an ecological-level study originally came from
individuals, the data would be comprised of each culture’s mean score on the vari-
ables (i.e., individual participants’ data are averaged). Tables 2.2 and 2.3 give examples
of how data are set up in individual- and ecological-level studies. Note the differences
in what data are included and where they come from.

Ecological-level studies are an important type of cross-cultural comparison
because they allow researchers to examine relationships between psychological vari-
ables with ecological-level variables like climate, population density, or gross national
product. Thus researchers can begin to link psychological variables with ecological-
level variables.

The most-well-known ecological-level study of culture is Hofstede’s seminal
work. In his original work, Hofstede (1980) reported data from 40 countries, and
soon thereafter from an additional 13 (Hofstede, 1984). Most recently, he has
reported data from 72 countries involving the responses of more than 117,000
employees of a multinational business organization, spanning over 20 languages
and seven occupational levels to his 63 work-related values items (Hofstede, 2001).
Respondents completed a 160-item questionnaire; 63 were related to work values.
Hofstede conducted ecological-level analyses on the country means of the 63 items

Table 2.2 Example of Data from an Individual-Level Study

Level of Analysis Self-Esteem
Academic
Performance Personality Gender

Participant 1 Participant 1’s score on
Self-esteem

Participant 1’s score on
Academic Performance

Participant 1’s score on
Personality

Participant 1’s Gender

Participant 1 Participant 2’s score on
Self-esteem

Participant 2’s score on
Academic Performance

Participant 2’s score on
Personality

Participant 2’s Gender

Participant 3 Participant 3’s score on
Self-esteem

Participant 3’s score on
Academic Performance

Participant 3’s score on
Personality

Participant 3’s Gender

Table 2.3 Example of Data from an Ecological-Level Study

Level of Analysis Self-Esteem
Academic
Performance Climate Population Density

Country 1 Country 1’s mean on
Self-esteem

Country 1’s mean on
Academic Performance

Country 1’s score on
Climate

Country 1’s score on
Population Density

Country 2 Country 2’s mean on
Self-esteem

Country 2’s mean on
Academic Performance

Country 2’s score on
Climate

Country 2’s score on
Population Density

Country 3 Country 3’s mean on
Self-esteem

Country 3’s mean on
Academic Performance

Country 3’s score on
Climate

Country 3’s score on
Population Density

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38 Chapter 2

and generated three dimensions that he suggested could describe the cultures of
the countries sampled. Hofstede split one of the dimensions into two, based on
theoretical reasoning and the fact that controlling for country-level gross national
product produced a different set of scores. This resulted in his well-known set
of four dimensions, introduced in Chapter 1: individualism versus collectivism,
power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity versus femininity. Later
Hofstede incorporated a fifth dimension called “long versus short-term orientation”
(Hofstede, 2001; Hofstede & Bond, 1984), which was derived from Bond’s work on
Asian values (Connection, 1987).

To give you a flavor of the nature of ecological-level data, we reproduce for
you the scores of each of the countries and regions in Hofstede’s (2001) data set in
Appendix A. Other ecological sets of cultural data exist, such as Schwartz’s value
orientations (Schwartz, 2004), and Leung and Bond and colleagues’ social axioms
(Bond et al., 2004), both of which were introduced in Chapter 1. Ecological-level data
also have been published for many other psychological constructs, such as person-
ality traits (McCrae, Terracciano, Khoury, Nansubuga, Knezevic, Djunc Jocic et al.,
2005; discussed more fully in Chapter 10) and emotional display rules (Matsumoto
et al., 2008).

In recent years, individual- and cultural-level data have been combined in what
are known as multi-level studies. These are studies that use data from both indi-
vidual and ecological levels, and incorporate the use of sophisticated statistical
techniques that examine the relationship of data at one level to data at another. For
example, multi-level studies can examine how individual differences in performance
on a cognitive task (level 1) may be related to personality traits of those individuals
(level 2) and how those personality traits may be related to cultural values or other
ecological variables (level 3). Cross-cultural comparisons in the future will increas-
ingly involve this type of multi-level approach.

Designing Cross-Cultural Comparative Research

As we mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, cross-cultural comparisons raise
many important methodological issues that influence the meaningfulness of the
research. In the following sections, we discuss the issues most relevant to understand-
ing the complexity of valid and reliable cross-cultural comparative research today.

Getting the Right Research Question
By far the most important part of any study, cross-cultural or not, is knowing what
research questions to ask in the first place. Because cultural differences are relatively
easy to obtain, researchers should remember that the purpose of conducting research
is to contribute to a body of knowledge and not just to “find some cool differences.”
The “research literature” is the field’s institutional memory and repository of that
knowledge. Thus, any consideration of research designs starts first with a compre-
hensive and functional knowledge of that literature so that one understands what
gaps in knowledge exist and what research questions should be addressed in order to
contribute to that knowledge. Sometimes researchers focus on designing the method-
ology of a study or using new statistics without considering adequately what research
question should be addressed in the first place. Sophisticated statistical techniques
and elegant research designs cannot “salvage” studies that are neither novel nor
insightful.

multi-level studies
Studies that involve data
collection at multiple levels
of analysis, such as the indi-
vidual level, context, com-
munity, and national culture.

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Cross-Cultural Research Methods 39

Understanding why any study is to be conducted in the first place leads to ques-
tions about how to conduct it, which is a discussion about research methodology.
Questions related to the taxonomy described earlier apply here. Is the study explor-
atory or hypothesis testing? Should it include context variables? Is it structure ori-
ented or level oriented? What is the level of analysis? Of course, no one study can do
everything, and it’s usually better to do something of limited scope very well than to
try to conduct a study that addresses too much not so well at all.

With regard to cross-cultural studies, the field has gone much beyond the need
for exclusively exploratory studies—that is, studies designed to merely document
differences between two or more cultures on any psychological variable. Indeed, it
is fairly easy to document differences on something, provided the cultures being
compared are different enough. Instead, one of the major challenges that faces cross-
cultural researchers today concerns how to isolate the source of such differences, and
identify the active cultural (vs. noncultural) ingredients that produced those differ-
ences. It is in the empirical documentation of those active cultural ingredients that
cross-cultural research designs need to pay close attention to. In doing so, researchers
need to pay attention to a number of theoretical and empirical issues (see Matsumoto
& Yoo, 2006, for a more complete discussion).

For example, is the source of the differences to be explained cultural or not?
Examining this question forces researchers to have a definition of what culture is
and to find ways of objectively measuring it. Once the active cultural ingredients
that produce differences are identified, there is a level of analysis issue. Cultural
variables exist on the group and individual levels. And studies themselves can be
on the individual or cultural level, or involve a combination of the two in varying
degrees with multiple levels. Different variables at different levels of analysis bring
with them different theoretical and methodological implications, and require dif-
ferent interpretations of the research literature. When individual-level cultural vari-
ables are incorporated in a study, researchers need to distinguish between them and
noncultural variables such as personality. A variable is not “cultural” just because a
researcher says so; there needs to be a well-thought-out rationale based on theory and
data that supports the identification and distinction of such variables.

Another question that researchers must deal with in designing studies concerns
their theoretical model of how things work. A commonly held view that culture “pro-
duces” differences in a top-down fashion is a theoretical bias held by many. How
do we know that to be true, and more importantly, how does one demonstrate that
empirically? It may very well be that individual-level psychological processes and
behaviors produce culture in a bottom-up fashion. Or that both top-down and
bottom-up processes occur simultaneously. Regardless of how one believes things are
put together, it behooves researchers to adopt research design strategies that are com-
mensurate with their beliefs and models.

Designs That Establish Linkages between Culture
and Psychological Variables
As mentioned above, an exploratory study that merely documents differences between
cultures on some psychological variable cannot say anything about whether the source
of the differences is cultural or not. Thus most researchers realize that it’s important
to empirically establish linkages between the contents of culture and the psychological
variables of interest in hypothesis-testing studies. This has led to the emergence of a
class of studies called linkage studies that attempt to do just that. There are two types
of linkage studies conducted in the field today: unpackaging studies and experiments.

linkage studies Stud-
ies that attempt to measure
an aspect of culture theo-
retically hypothesized to
produce cultural differences
and then empirically link
that measured aspect of
culture with the dependent
variable of interest.

One of the major

challenges that faces

cross- cultural researchers

today concerns how to

isolate the source of

such differences, and

identify the active

cultural (vs. noncultural)

ingredients that produced

those differences.

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40 Chapter 2

Unpackaging Studies
Unpackaging studies are cross-cultural comparisons that include the measurement
of a variable (contextual factor) that assesses a cultural factor considered to produce
the differences on the target variable being compared across cultures. The underlying
thought to these studies is that cultures are like onions, for which layer after layer
needs to be peeled off until nothing is left. Poortinga, van de Vijver, Joe, and van de
Koppel (1987) expressed the view this way:

“In our approach culture is a summary label, a catchword for all kinds of behavior dif-
ferences between cultural groups, but within itself, of virtually no explanatory value.
Ascribing intergroup differences in behavior, e.g., in test performance, to culture does
not shed much light on the nature of these differences. It is one of the main tasks of
cross-cultural psychology to peel off cross-cultural differences, i.e., to explain these
differences in terms of specific antecedent variables, until in the end they have disap-
peared and with them the variable culture. In our approach culture is taken as a con-
cept without a core. From a methodological point of view, culture can be considered
as an immense set of often loosely interrelated independent variables.” (p. 22; see also
Segall, 1984; Strodtbeck, 1964)

In unpackaging studies, “culture” as an unspecified variable is replaced by more
specific variables in order to explain observed differences. These variables are called
context variables. (That is why whether or not studies involve context variables is one
of the major ways to differentiate cross-cultural comparisons; see Table 2.1.) When
measured, researchers then examine the degree to which they statistically account
for the differences in the comparison. If the context variables statistically account for
differences, then the researchers are empirically justified in claiming that that spe-
cific aspect of culture—that is, that context variable—was related to the differences
observed. If they do not, then researchers know that that specific context variable did
not produce the observed differences. In either case, researchers are empirically justi-
fied in making claims about specific variables that account for cultural differences in
the variables of interest.

Individual-Level Measures of Culture There are many different types of context
variables that can and have been used over the past few years. One of the more com-
mon types has been individual-level measures of culture. These are measures that
assess a variable on the individual level that is thought to be a product of culture. To
date, a number of different types of such measures have been used. By far, the most
common dimension of culture operationalized on the individual level is individual-
ism versus collectivism (IC).

As mentioned in Chapter 1 and above in this chapter, this dimension was first
coined by Hofstede (2001). Thereafter, Harry Triandis, a noted cross-cultural scientist,
championed the cause for this dimension and argued that the IC framework orga-
nizes and explains many different types of cultural differences (Triandis, 1994, 1995).
Triandis then took the lead in developing a number of ways to measure IC on the
individual level in order to use it as a context variable in hypothesis-testing research
(e.g., Hui, 1984, 1988; Triandis, Leung, Villareal, & Clack, 1985; Triandis et al., 1986,
1988; Triandis, McCusker, & Hui, 1990). These researchers viewed individual-level
IC as a syndrome that includes values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors (see also,
Triandis, 1996); they treated the various psychological domains of subjective culture as
an entire collective rather than as separate aspects of culture. Their multiple-method
approach included ratings of the social content of the self, perceptions of homogeneity

unpackaging studies
Studies that unpackage the
contents of the global, un-
specific concept of culture
into specific, measurable
psychological constructs and
examine their contribution
to cultural differences.

context variables
Variables that operational-
ize aspects of culture that
researchers believe produce
differences in psychological
variables. These variables
are actually measured in un-
packaging studies.

individual-level
measures of culture
Measures that assess psy-
chological dimensions
related to meaningful
dimensions of cultural
variability and that are
completed by individuals.
They are often used as con-
text variables to ensure that
samples in different cultures
actually harbor the cultural
characteristics thought to
differentiate them.

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Cross-Cultural Research Methods 41

of ingroups and outgroups, attitude and value ratings, and perceptions of social
behavior as a function of social distance. Participants were classified as either indi-
vidualist or collectivist on the basis of their scores on each method. On the individual
level, Triandis referred to individualism and collectivism as idiocentrism and
allocentrism, respectively (Triandis et al., 1986).

Triandis and colleagues (Singelis, Triandis, Bhawuk, & Gelfand, 1995) further
refined their measurement system by including items assessing a revised concept of
individualism and collectivism they called “horizontal and vertical individualism
and collectivism,” representing yet further advances in the conceptual understanding
of IC. In horizontal collectivism, individuals see themselves as members of ingroups
in which all members are equal. In vertical collectivism, individuals see themselves
as members of ingroups that are characterized by hierarchical or status relationships.
In horizontal individualism, individuals are autonomous and equal. In vertical indi-
vidualism, individuals are autonomous but unequal.

Matsumoto, Weissman, Preston, Brown, and Kupperbusch (1997) also developed
an individual-level measure of IC that assesses context-specific IC tendencies in inter-
personal situations—the IC Interpersonal Assessment Inventory (ICIAI). Matsumoto
et al. (2002) used it in an unpackaging study examining American and Japanese cul-
tural differences in judgments of emotion. They showed that Americans and Japanese
differed in how strongly they perceived facial expressions of emotion. More impor-
tantly, they also demonstrated that these differences were linked with differences in
individual-level IC, and that this linkage empirically accounted for the cultural differ-
ences in judgment of faces. Thus, the inclusion of the ICIAI and the empirical linkage
of it with the target variable (judgments of faces) provided empirical justification in
claiming that IC accounted for cultural differences in those judgments, exemplifying
the utility of an unpackaging study.

A meta-analysis of 83 studies examining group differences on individual-level
measures of IC reported that European Americans were more individualistic and less
collectivistic than others in general (Oyserman, Coon, & Kemmelmeier, 2002). But
contrary to common stereotypes, European Americans were not more individualistic
than African Americans or Latinos, nor were they less collectivistic than Japanese or
Koreans. These findings challenged researchers’ notions about how IC may be the
source of cultural differences and spurred the way to the search for other kinds of
context variables.

Self-Construal Scales
Spurred on by the IC framework, Markus and Kitayama (1991b) proposed that
individualistic and collectivistic cultures differed in the kinds of self-concepts
they fostered, with individualistic cultures encouraging the development of inde-
pendent self-construals, and collectivistic cultures encouraging the development
of interdependent self-construals (we will discuss these more fully in Chapter 5).
This theoretical advance led to the development of scales measuring independence
and interdependence on the individual level, most notably the Self-Construal Scale
(Singelis, 1994). Using this scale, cultural differences in self-esteem and embarass-
ability were empirically linked to individual differences on these types of self-
construals, again exemplifying the utility of unpackaging studies (Singelis, Bond,
Sharkey, & Lai, 1999).

Personality
Although personality is clearly not culture (remember our discussion in Chapter 1),
it has been used as a context variable in many cross-cultural studies because it is

idiocentrism Refers to
individualism on the indi-
vidual level. On the cultural
level, individualism refers
to a how a culture functions.
Idiocentrism refers to how
individuals may act in accor-
dance with individualistic
cultural frameworks.

allocentrism Refers
to collectivism on the
individual-level. On the
cultural level, collectivism
refers to a how a culture
functions. Allocentrism
refers to how individuals
may act in accordance
with collectivistic cultural
frameworks.

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42 Chapter 2

associated with many psychological processes, and because there are differences in
aggregate personality traits across cultures. The United States, Australia, and New
Zealand, for example, are noted for their relatively high degrees of extraversion, while
France, Italy, and the French Swiss are associated with high levels of neuroticism (we
will discuss this more in Chapter 6). Thus, cultural differences may be explained by
different levels of personality traits in each culture.

For instance, Matsumoto (2006a) measured emotion regulation—the ability that
individuals have to modify and channel their emotions—in the United States and
Japan, and demonstrated the existence of cultural differences in emotion regulation.
He also measured several personality traits and demonstrated that the personal-
ity traits known as extraversion, neuroticism, and conscientiousness were linked to
emotion regulation and accounted for the cultural differences in it. Thus, what were
apparent “cultural” differences on a variable could be explained by differences in
aggregate levels of personality between the two cultures studied.

Cultural Practices
Another important type of context variable that is important in linkage studies
is those that assess cultural practices such as child-rearing, the nature of interper-
sonal relationships, or cultural worldviews. Heine and Renshaw (2002), for instance,
showed that Americans and Japanese were different in their liking of others, and that
differences in liking were linked to different cultural practices. Americans liked oth-
ers they thought were similar to them or shared their own views. For Japanese, liking
was related to familiarity and interdependence with others.

Experiments
The second major type of linkage study is experiments, in which researchers create
conditions to establish cause–effect relationships. Participants are generally assigned
randomly to participate in the conditions, and researchers then compare results across
conditions. These studies are different from cross-cultural comparisons because in
cross-cultural comparisons, researchers cannot create the cultural groups, nor can
they randomly assign participants to those groups. (Cross-cultural comparisons are
examples of what are known as quasi-experimental designs.) Experiments differ
because researchers create the conditions and assign participants to those conditions.

There are different types of experiments conducted in cross-cultural research
today. Here we cover two types: priming studies and behavioral studies.

Priming Studies
Priming studies involve experimentally manipulating the mindsets of participants
and measuring the resulting changes in behavior. These are interesting because
researchers manipulate mindsets supposedly related to culture in order to see if par-
ticipants behave differently as a function of the primed mindset. If they do, research-
ers then infer that the primed cultural mindset caused the observed differences in
behavior, thereby providing a link between a cultural product (the mindset) and a
psychological process (the behavior).

One of the first studies that primed cultural contents of the mind was by
Trafimow, Triandis, and Goto (1991). In that study, American and Chinese participants
were primed to think in either a private or collective, group-oriented way. Participants
primed in the private way read instructions that stated:

For the next two minutes, you will not need to write anything. Please think of what
makes you different from your family and friends.

experiments Studies
in which researchers cre-
ate conditions to establish
cause–effect relationships.
Participants are generally as-
signed randomly to partici-
pate in the conditions, and
researchers then compare
results across conditions.

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Cross-Cultural Research Methods 43

Participants primed in the collective, group-oriented way were primed with
these instructions:

For the next two minutes, you will not need to write anything. Please think of what
you have in common with your family and friends. What do they expect you to do?

Then all participants were asked to complete a self-attitude instrument that
involved their completing a series of incomplete questions that started “I am _____.”
Their responses were then coded according to whether they were individually ori-
ented or group oriented. As expected, Americans as a whole produced more indi-
vidually oriented responses than the Chinese, while the Chinese produced more
group-oriented responses. But the results also showed that the priming worked.
Individuals who were primed privately—that is, to think about how they were
different from others—produced more individually oriented responses, regardless of
whether they were American or Chinese. Likewise, individuals who were primed
collectively—that is, to think about how they were similar to others—produced more
group-oriented responses, regardless of whether they were American or Chinese
(Figure 2.2).

Behavioral Studies Perhaps the most stringent experiments involve manipula-
tions of actual environments and the observation of changes in behaviors as a func-
tion of these environments. For example, it is commonly thought that members of
collectivistic cultures cooperate more with each other because cooperation is neces-
sary for groups to function effectively and because of the group-oriented nature of

Figure 2.2 Amount of Individually Oriented (IO) and Group-Oriented (GO)
Source: Responses for Americans and Chinese in Trafimow et al. (1991).

1.0

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0
American IO
Responses

Chinese IO
Responses

American GO
Responses

Chinese GO
Responses

Private prime

Collective prime

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44 Chapter 2

collectivism. Two classic studies on cooperative behavior elucidate the importance of
experiments in identifying what about cultures contributes to such differences. In the
first study, Yamagishi (1986) used a questionnaire to categorize Japanese participants
who were high trusters and low trusters; all of the participants then participated in
an experiment in which they could cooperate with others by giving money to them,
either with a sanctioning system that provided for punishments or without such a
system. The conditions, therefore, were the presence or absence of the sanctioning
system. High trusters did indeed cooperate more than low trusters without the sanc-
tioning system; when the sanctioning system was in effect, however, low trusters
cooperated more than did the high trusters.

Yamagishi (1988) then replicated this study in the United States and compared
American and Japanese responses. He found the same results for Americans as he
did for the Japanese; when there was no sanctioning system, high-trusting Americans
cooperated more than low-trusting Americans. When there was a sanctioning system,
the findings reversed. Moreover, there were no differences between the Americans
and the Japanese when the sanctioning system was in effect. This suggested,
therefore, that the greater cooperation observed in Japanese culture exists because of
the sanctioning system within which individuals exist; when Americans were placed
in that same type of system, they behaved in the same ways.

Bias and Equivalence

In conducting and evaluating cross-cultural research, no concepts are more
important than equivalence and bias. Bias refers to differences that do not have
exactly the same meaning within and across cultures. Equivalence is a state or
condition of similarity in conceptual meaning and empirical method between
cultures that allows comparisons to be meaningful. These constructs go hand in hand;
bias refers to a state of nonequivalence, and equivalence refers to a state of no bias.

In a strict sense, the greater the bias in any aspect of a cross-cultural study, the
less meaning the comparison has. Bias (or lack of equivalence), in a cross-cultural
study, is akin to comparing apples and oranges. Only if the theoretical framework
and hypotheses have equivalent meaning in the cultures being compared—and if the
methods of data collection, management, and analysis have equivalent meaning—
will the results from that comparison be meaningful. Apples in one culture should be
compared only to apples in another.

Thus it’s important for cross-cultural researchers to understand the many aspects
of their studies that may be culturally biased and work to establish equivalence in
them. Below we discuss five major areas of bias: conceptual bias, method bias, mea-
surement bias, response bias, and interpretational bias (Table 2.4).

Conceptual Bias
A major concern of cross-cultural research is the equivalence in meaning of the over-
all theoretical framework being tested and the specific hypotheses being addressed.
If these are not equivalent across the cultures participating in the study, then the data
obtained from them are not comparable because they mean different things in the
first place, and any comparisons may not be equivalent. If, however, the theoretical
framework and hypotheses are equivalent across the participating cultures, the study
may be meaningful and relevant.

bias Differences that
do not have exactly the
same meaning within and
across cultures; a lack of
equivalence.

equivalence A state or
condition of similarity in
conceptual meaning and
empirical method between
cultures that allows com-
parisons to be meaningful; a
lack of bias.

conceptual bias The
degree to which a theory
or set of hypotheses being
compared across cultures are
equivalent—that is, whether
they have the same meaning
and relevance in all the cul-
tures being compared.

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Cross-Cultural Research Methods 45

For example, people trained to do research in the United States or Europe may be
bound by a sense of “logical determinism” and “rationality” that is characteristic of their
educational systems. In addition, because we are so used to drawing two-dimensional
theories of behavior on paper, that medium affects the way we think about people and
psychology (more about this in Chapter 8). People of other cultures who have not been
exposed to such an educational system or who are not used to reducing their thoughts
about the world onto paper may not think in the same way. If this is the case, then a
question arises as to whether a theory created within a Western European or American
cultural framework is meaningful in the same way to people who do not share that cul-
ture. If the theory is not meaningful in the same way, then it is not equivalent.

Past debates concerning cross-cultural studies of intelligence also highlight
issues concerning conceptual equivalence. Intelligence typically is thought to consist
of verbal and analytical critical-thinking skills and tests such as the Wechsler Adult
Intelligence Scale (WAIS) have been widely used to assess IQ. Different cultures, how-
ever, may have a different conception of what constitutes intelligence. For example, a
culture may consider nobility of character and sincerity to be markers of intelligence.
Another culture may consider the ability to have smooth, conflict-free interpersonal
relationships a marker for intelligence. Comparisons of WAIS data from these cul-
tures may not be a meaningful cross-cultural comparison of intelligence.

Method Bias
Sampling Bias
There are two issues with regard to sampling bias, which refers to whether cross-
cultural samples can be compared. One concerns whether the samples are appro-
priate representatives of their culture. Most cross-cultural studies are, in fact, not
just cross-cultural; they are cross-city, and more specifically, cross-university stud-
ies. A “cross-cultural comparison” between Americans and Mexicans may, for
instance, involve data collected in Seattle and Mexico City. Are the participants in
Seattle representative of American culture? Would they provide the same responses
as participants from Beverly Hills, the Bronx, or Wichita? Would the participants
in Mexico City provide the same results as those in San Luis Portosi, Guadalajara,
or the Yucatan Peninsula? The answer is “we don’t know,” and it is important for
cross-cultural researchers, and consumers of that research (you) to recognize that

Table 2.4 Questions Raised by Five Types of Bias

Conceptual Bias Method Bias Measurement Bias Response Bias Interpretational Bias

■ Does the
theoretical
framework and
hypotheses being
tested mean the
same thing in the
cultures being
tested?

■ Sampling bias: are the samples
in the cultures tested appropriate
representatives of their culture
and equivalent to each other?

■ Linguistic bias: are the research
protocols semantically equivalent
across the languages used in the
study?

■ Procedural bias: do the procedures
by which data are collected mean
the same in all cultures tested?

■ Are the specific
measures, tests, or
instruments used
to collect data in
different cultures
equally valid and
reliable across
those cultures?

■ Do people of
the different
cultures tested
use scales
differently
or have a
bias when
responding?

■ Are statistically
significant findings
practically meaningful?

■ Are the interpretations
made about the
findings and
conclusions drawn
biased in some way?

■ Are interpretations
about cultural sources
of differences justified
by data?

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46 Chapter 2

sound cross- cultural comparisons would entail the collection of data from multiple
sites within the same cultural group, either in the same study or across studies, to
demonstrate the replicability of a finding across different samples within the same
culture.

A second question concerning sampling bias concerns whether the samples are
equivalent on noncultural demographic variables, such as age, sex, religion, socio-
economic status, work, and other characteristics. For example, imagine comparing
data from a sample of 50 Americans from Los Angeles with 50 individuals from
Bombay, India. Clearly, the Americans and the Indians come from entirely different
backgrounds—different socioeconomic classes, different educational levels, differ-
ent social experiences, different forms of technology, different religious backgrounds,
and so on. Are they really comparable to each other? To deal with this issue, research-
ers need to find ways of controlling these noncultural demographic factors when
comparing data across cultures. They do this in one of two ways: experimentally con-
trolling them by holding them constant in the selection of participants (e.g., conduct-
ing studies in which only females of a certain age can participate in the study in all
cultures) or statistically controlling them when analyzing data.

A problem arises in cross-cultural research in that some noncultural demo-
graphic characteristics are inextricably intertwined with culture such that researchers
cannot hold them constant across samples in a comparison. For example, there are
differences in the meaning and practice of religions across cultures that often make
them bound to culture. Holding religion constant across cultures does not address
the issue because being Catholic in the United States does not mean the same thing as
being Catholic in Japan or Malaysia. Randomly sampling without regard to religion
will result in samples that differ not only on culture but also on religion (to the extent
that one can separate the influences of the two). Thus presumed cultural differences
often reflect religious differences across samples as well. The same is often true for
socioeconomic status (SES), as there are vast differences in SES across cultural sam-
ples from around the world.

Linguistic Bias
One arena in which potential bias in cross-cultural research becomes quickly appar-
ent is in language. Cross-cultural research is unique because it often involves col-
lecting data in multiple languages, and researchers need to establish the linguistic
equivalence of the research protocols. Linguistic bias refers to whether the research
protocols—items on questionnaires, instructions, etc.—used in a cross-cultural study
are semantically equivalent across the various languages included in the study.

There are generally two procedures used to establish linguistic equivalence.
One is known as back translation (Brislin, 1970). Back translation involves taking the
research protocol in one language, translating it to the other language, and having
someone else translate it back to the original. If the back-translated version is the same
as the original, they are generally considered equivalent. If it is not, the procedure is
repeated until the back-translated version is the same as the original. The concept
underlying this procedure is that the end product should be a semantic equivalent
to the original language. The original language is decentered through this process
(Brislin, 1970, 1993), with any culture-specific concepts of the original language elimi-
nated or translated equivalently into the target language. That is, culture-specific
meanings and connotations are gradually eliminated from the research protocols so
that what remains is something that is the closest semantic equivalent in each lan-
guage. Because they are linguistic equivalents, successfully back-translated protocols
are comparable in a cross-cultural study.

linguistic bias The se-
mantic equivalence between
protocols (instruments,
instructions, questionnaires,
etc.) used in a cross-cultural
comparison study.

back translation A
technique of translating
research protocols that in-
volves taking the protocol
as it was developed in one
language, translating it into
the target language, and
having someone else trans-
late it back to the original. If
the back-translated version
is the same as the original,
they are generally consid-
ered equivalent. If it is not,
the procedure is repeated
until the back-translated
version is the same as the
original.

decenter The concept
underlying the procedure
of back translation that in-
volves eliminating any cul-
ture-specific concepts of the
original language or trans-
lating them equivalently
into the target language.

48951_ch02_ptg01_032-056.indd 46 1/6/16 6:32 PM

Cross-Cultural Research Methods 47

A second approach to establishing language equivalence is the committee
approach, in which several bilingual informants collectively translate a research proto-
col into a target language. They debate the various forms, words, and phrases that can
be used in the target language, comparing them with their understanding of the lan-
guage of the original protocol. The result of this process reflects a translation that is the
shared consensus of a linguistically equivalent protocol across languages and cultures.

Researchers may combine the two approaches. A protocol may be initially trans-
lated and back-translated. Then the translation and back-translation can be used as an
initial platform from which a translation committee works on the protocol, modify-
ing the translation in ways they deem most appropriate, using the back-translation as
a guideline.

Procedural Bias
The issue of bias and equivalence also applies to the procedures used to collect data
in different cultures. For instance, in many universities across the United States, stu-
dents enrolled in introductory psychology classes are strongly encouraged to par-
ticipate as research subjects in partial fulfillment of class requirements. American
students generally expect to participate in research as part of their academic experi-
ence, and many American students are “research-wise.”

Customs differ in other countries. In some countries, professors simply collect
data from their students or require them to participate at a research laboratory. In
some countries, students may consider it a privilege rather than a chore or course
requirement to participate in an international study. Thus, expectations about and
experience with research participation may differ.

All the decisions researchers make in any other type of study are made in cross-
cultural studies as well. But those decisions can mean different things in different
countries. Laboratory or field, day or night, questionnaire or observation—all these
decisions may have different meanings in different cultures. Cross-cultural research-
ers need to confront these differences in their work and establish procedures, envi-
ronments, and settings that are equivalent across the cultures being compared. By the
same token, consumers need to be aware of these possible differences when evaluat-
ing cross-cultural research.

Measurement Bias
Measurement bias refers to the degree to which measures used to collect data in dif-
ferent cultures are equally valid and reliable. As mentioned above, validity refers to
whether a measure accurately measures what it is supposed to measure; reliability
refers to how consistently a measure measures what it is supposed to measure.

One of the most important lessons to learn about cross-cultural research meth-
ods is that linguistic equivalence alone does not guarantee measurement equivalence.
This is because even if the words being used in the two languages are the same, there
is no guarantee that those words have exactly the same meanings, with the same
nuances, in the two cultures. A successful translation gives the researcher protocols
that are the closest linguistic equivalents in two or more languages; but, they still may
not be exactly the same. In translating the English word anger, for example, we might
indeed find an equivalent word in Cantonese or Spanish. But would it have the same
connotations, strength, and interpretation in those languages as it does in English?
It is very difficult to find exact translation equivalents of most words. Thus, cross-
cultural researchers need to be concerned with measurement equivalence in addition
to linguistic equivalence.

measurement bias
The degree to which mea-
sures used to collect data in
different cultures are equally
valid and reliable.

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48 Chapter 2

Measurement equivalence starts on the conceptual level. Different cultures
may conceptually define a construct differently and/or measure it differently. Just
because something has the same name in two or more cultures does not mean
that it has the same meaning (Wittgenstein, 1953, cited in Poortinga, 1989) or that it
can be measured in the same way. If a concept means different things to people of
different cultures, or if it is measured in different ways in different cultures, then
comparisons are less meaningful. Cross-cultural researchers need to be keenly aware
of the issue of equivalence with regard to their conceptual definitions and empirical
operationalization of the variables (the way researchers conceptually define a
variable and measure it) in their study. Another way to think about measurement
equivalence is on the statistical level—that is, in terms of psychometric equivalence.
Psychometric equivalence can be ascertained in several different ways. One of the
most important ways, especially when using questionnaires to collect data (which
is used in many cross-cultural studies), is to determine whether the questionnaires
in the different languages have the same structure. For example, researchers often
use a technique called factor analysis to examine the structure of a questionnaire.
Factor analysis creates groups of the items on a questionnaire based on how the
responses to them are related to each other. The groups, called factors, are thought
to represent different mental constructs in the minds of the participants respond-
ing to the items. Scores are then computed to represent each of these mental
constructs.

When using questionnaires across cultures, one concern that arises is whether
the same groups of items, or factors, would emerge in the different cultures. If so, then
the measure is said to have structural equivalence. If not, the measure is structurally
nonequivalent (biased), which suggests that people of different cultural groups have
different mental constructs operating when responding to the same questionnaire.
Thus, their responses may not be comparable to each other.

Another way in which psychometric equivalence can be ascertained is by exam-
ining the internal reliability of the measures across cultures. Internal reliability can
be assessed by examining whether the items on a questionnaire are all related to each
other. If they are measuring the same mental construct, then items should be related
to each other; that is, they should have high internal reliability. If the items are work-
ing in the same way across cultures, then they should have high internal reliability in
each of the cultures being tested.

Response Bias
Cross-cultural researchers also need to be aware of the fact that different cultures can
promote different types of response biases. A response bias is a systematic tendency
to respond in a certain way to items or scales. If response biases exist, then it is dif-
ficult to compare data between cultures because it is not clear whether differences
refer to “true” differences in what is being measured or are merely differences in how
people respond using scales.

There are several different types of response biases. Socially desirable responding,
for instance, is the tendency to give answers that make oneself look good (Paulhus,
1984), and it may be that people of certain cultures have greater concerns that lead
them to respond in socially desirable ways than people of other cultures. There are
two facets of socially desirable responding, which include self-deceptive enhancement—
seeing oneself in a positive light—and impression management. Lalwani, Shavitt, and
Johnson (2006) demonstrated that European American university students score
higher on self-deceptive enhancement than both Korean Americans and students

operationalization
The ways researchers con-
ceptually define a variable
and measure it.

psychometric equiva-
lence The degree to which
different measures used in
a cross-cultural compari-
son study are statistically
equivalent in the cultures
being compared—that is,
whether the measures are
equally valid and reliable in
all cultures studied.

factor analysis A sta-
tistical technique that allows
researchers to group items
on a questionnaire. The the-
oretical model underlying
factor analysis is that groups
of items on a questionnaire
are answered in similar
ways because they are as-
sessing the same, single
underlying psychological
construct (or trait). By inter-
preting the groupings un-
derlying the items, therefore,
researchers make inferences
about the underlying traits
that are being measured.

structural equiva-
lence The degree to which
a measure used in a cross-
cultural study produces the
same factor analysis results
in the different countries be-
ing compared.

internal reliability
The degree to which differ-
ent items in a questionnaire
are related to each other, and
give consistent responses.

response bias A sys-
tematic tendency to respond
in certain ways to items or
scales.

socially desirable
responding Tendencies
to give answers on question-
naires that make oneself
look good.

48951_ch02_ptg01_032-056.indd 48 1/6/16 6:32 PM

Cross-Cultural Research Methods 49

from Singapore, but the latter score higher on impression management than do
European Americans (Figure 2.3).

Lalwani et al. (2006) also demonstrated that individuals with more
individualistic cultural orientations engaged in more self-deceptive enhancement,

Figure 2.3 Socially Desirable Responding
(a) Comparison of European Americans and Singaporeans, (b) Comparison of European Americans
and Korean Americans. SDE = self-deceptive enhancement; IM = impression management.

Source: Adapted from Lalwani et al., 2006.

4.5

4.0

3.5

(a)

3.0
SDE IM

European Americans

Singaporeans

4.5

4.0

3.5

3.0

(b)
SDE IM

European Americans

Korean Americans

48951_ch02_ptg01_032-056.indd 49 1/6/16 6:32 PM

50 Chapter 2

while individuals with more collectivistic orientations engaged in more impression
management. Relatedly, Matsumoto (2006b) showed that differences between
Americans and Japanese university students’ individualistic versus collectivistic
cultural orientations disappeared once socially desirable responding was statistically
controlled.

Two other types of response bias are acquiescence bias, which is the tendency to
agree rather than disagree with items on questionnaires, and extreme response bias,
which is the tendency to use the ends of a scale regardless of item content. Van Herk,
Poortinga, and Verhallen (2004) examined responses on marketing surveys regarding
household behaviors (e.g., cooking, use of products, shaving, washing clothes) in six
European countries. They reported that countries near the Mediterranean (Greece,
Italy, and Spain) exhibited more of both acquiescence bias and extreme response bias
than countries in northwestern Europe (France, Germany, and the United Kingdom).
Interestingly, the degree of the two response biases were not correlated with national
differences in actual behaviors with regard to the issues raised. (If there were
differences in rates of actual behaviors, it could be argued that the response styles
were not biases, but were reflective of actual differences in behaviors, but this was not
the case.)

Another type of response bias is the reference group effect (Heine, Lehman,
Peng, & Greenholz, 2002). This idea is based on the notion that people make implicit
social comparisons with others when making ratings on scales, rather than relying
on direct inferences about a private, personal value system (Peng, Nisbett, & Wong,
1997). That is, when completing rating scales, people will implicitly compare them-
selves to others in their group. For example, Japanese individuals may appear to be
fairly individualistic on questionnaires, even more so than Americans. But Heine
et al. (2002) argue that this may be because the Japanese implicitly compare themselves
to their own groups, who are actually fairly collectivistic, when making such ratings,
and thus inflate their ratings of individualism. Likewise, Americans may inflate their
ratings of collectivism because they implicitly compare themselves to others, who are
actually fairly individualistic. Peng et al. (1997) examined four different value survey
methods: the traditional ranking, rating, attitude scaling procedures, and a behav-
ioral scenario rating method. The only method that yielded reasonable validity esti-
mates was what is known as a behavioral scenario rating method, which involves
rating of behaviors through observations or vignettes, and which is the most uncom-
mon of all the measures tested.

What aspects of culture account for response biases? Johnson, Kulesa, Cho, and
Shavitt (2004) examined these biases in 19 countries around the world and correlated
indices of the biases with each country’s score on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions.
(This study is an example of an ecological-level study.) On one hand, extreme response
bias occurred more in cultures that encourage masculinity, power, and status. They
suggested that this response style achieves clarity, precision, and decisiveness in one’s
explicit verbal statements, characteristics that are valued in these cultures. On the
other hand, respondents from individualistic cultures were less likely to engage in
acquiescence bias, probably because maintaining harmony and conveying agreeable-
ness and deference are less emphasized in these cultures.

In the past, response biases were viewed as methodological artifacts that needed
to be controlled in order to get to “true” responses. Today, however, there is a grow-
ing view of them as an important part of cultural influence on data. Regardless of
how researchers choose to view this issue, their effects should be acknowledged and
incorporated when analyzing data and interpreting findings.

acquiescence bias The
tendency to agree rather
than disagree with items on
questionnaires.

extreme response
bias The tendency to use
the ends of a scale regardless
of item content.

reference group
effect The idea that
people make implicit social
comparisons with others
when making ratings on
scales. That is, people’s
ratings will be influenced
by the implicit compari-
sons they make between
themselves and others, and
these influences may make
comparing responses across
cultures difficult.

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Cross-Cultural Research Methods 51

Interpretational Bias
Analyzing Data
In testing cultural differences on target variables of interest, researchers often use
inferential statistics such as chi-square or analysis of variance (ANOVA) and engage
in what is known as null hypothesis significance testing. These statistics compare
the differences observed between the groups to the differences one would normally
expect on the basis of chance alone and then compute the probability that the results
would have been obtained solely by chance. If the probability of obtaining the find-
ings they did is very low (less than five percent), then researchers infer that the
findings did not occur because of chance—that is, that the findings reflect actual
differences between the cultural groups from which their samples were drawn. This
“proof by negation of the opposite” is at the heart of the logic underlying hypothesis
testing and statistical inference.

In the past, researchers were quick to take “statistically significant” results and
interpret them as if they were “practically meaningful to all or most members of
the groups being compared.” That is, researchers (and consumers of research) often
assume that most people of those groups differ in ways corresponding to the mean
values. Thus, if a statistically significant difference is found between Americans and
Chinese, for instance, on emotional expressivity such that Americans had statistically
significantly higher scores than the Chinese, people often conclude that all Americans
are more expressive than all Chinese.

But the fact that the differences between group means are statistically signifi-
cant does not by itself give an indication of the degree of practical meaningfulness of
the difference between the groups. Group means may be statistically different even
though there is considerable overlap among the scores of individuals comprising the
two groups. The tendency to make glossy, broad-sweeping statements based on “sta-
tistically significant” results is a mistake in interpretation that is fueled by the field’s
fascination and concern with statistical significance and perhaps stereotypes.

Fortunately, statistical procedures are available that help to determine the degree
to which differences in mean values reflect meaningful differences among individ-
uals. The general class of statistics is called “effect size statistics”; when used in a
cross-cultural setting, they are known as “cultural effect size statistics” (Matsumoto,
Grissom, & Dinnel, 2001). There are a number of different types of such statistics that
can help researchers and readers get an idea of the degree to which the between-group
cultural differences actually reflect differences among the individuals tested, helping
to break the hold of stereotypic interpretations based on group difference findings.

Dealing with Nonequivalent Data
Despite the best attempts to establish equivalence in theory, hypothesis, method,
and data management, cross-cultural research is often inextricably, inherently, and
inevitably nonequivalent. It is nearly impossible to create any cross-cultural study
that means exactly the same thing to all participating cultures, both conceptually
and empirically. What cross-cultural researchers often end up with are best approxi-
mations of the closest equivalents in terms of theory and method in a study. Thus,
researchers are often faced with the question of how to deal with nonequivalent data.
Poortinga (1989) outlined four different ways in which the problem of nonequivalence
of cross-cultural data can be handled:

1. Preclude comparison. The most conservative thing a researcher could do is not
make the comparison in the first place, concluding that it would be meaningless.

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52 Chapter 2

2. Reduce the nonequivalence in the data. Many researchers take steps to identify
equivalent and nonequivalent parts of their methods and then refocus their
comparisons solely on the equivalent parts. For example, if a researcher used a
20-item scale to measure anxiety in two cultures and found evidence for non-
equivalence on the scale, he or she might then examine each of the 20 items for
equivalence and rescore the test using only the items that are shown to be equiv-
alent. Comparisons would then be based on the rescored items.

3. Interpret the nonequivalence. A third strategy is for the researcher to interpret
the nonequivalence as an important piece of information concerning cultural
differences.

4. Ignore the nonequivalence. Unfortunately, what many cross-cultural researchers
end up doing is simply ignoring the problem, clinging to beliefs concerning scale
invariance across cultures despite a lack of evidence to support those beliefs.

How researchers handle the interpretation of their data given nonequivalence
depends on their experience, biases and the nature of the data and the findings.
Because of the lack of equivalence in much cross-cultural research, researchers are
often faced with many gray areas in interpreting their findings. Culture itself is a
complex phenomenon, neither black nor white but replete with gray. It is the objective
and experienced researcher who can deal with these gray areas, creating sound, valid,
and reliable interpretations that are justified by the data. And it is the astute consumer
of that research who can sit back and evaluate those interpretations relative to the data
in their own minds and not be unduly swayed by the arguments of the researchers.

Interpreting Findings
Culture can bias the ways researchers interpret their findings. Most researchers
inevitably interpret the data they obtain through their own cultural filters, and these
biases can affect their interpretations to varying degrees. For example, for years
American–Japanese cultural differences in emotionality were interpreted by researchers
as indicative of Japanese suppression of emotion (Matsumoto & Ekman, 1989). Later
studies, however, provided evidence that it may not be so much that the Japanese
suppress, but that Americans exaggerate their emotional responses (Matsumoto, Kasri,
& Kooken, 1999). Thus, our own interpretations of the data were biased in implicitly
considering the American data as the “true” responses and non-American data as
somehow different.

In hypothesis-testing cross-cultural studies, cultural groups are often treated as
independent variables in research designs and data analysis, making these studies
a form of quasi-experiment. Data from such studies are basically correlational, and
inferences drawn from them can only be correlational inferences. For example, if a
researcher compared data from the United States and Hong Kong on social judgments
and found that Americans had significantly higher scores on a person perception
task, any interpretations of these data would be limited to the association between
cultural membership (American or Hong Kong Chinese) and the scores. Cause–effect
inferences (for example, being American causes one to have higher person-perception
scores) are unwarranted. For such causal statements to be justified, the researcher
would have had to: (1) create the conditions of the experiment (the cultural groups)
and (2) randomly assign people to each of the conditions. These experimental condi-
tions cannot apply in any study in which one of the main variables is cultural group.
It makes no more sense to assume a causal relationship between cultural membership
and a variable of interest than it does to assume such a relationship on the basis of
sex, hair color, or height.

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Cross-Cultural Research Methods 53

A related type of mistaken interpretation is to suggest specific reasons why cul-
tural differences occurred even though the specific reasons were never measured in
the study. Matsumoto and Yoo (2006) call these cultural attribution fallacies, which
occur when researchers claim that between-group differences are cultural when they
really have no empirical justification to do so. This can occur easily in exploratory
studies (with quasi-experimental designs) that only document differences between
cultures, because researchers often interpret the source of the differences to some cul-
tural factors even though those cultural factors were never measured in the study or
linked to the variables of interest. For instance, a researcher might take the signifi-
cant American–Hong Kong differences found in the previous example and suggest
that these differences occurred because of differences between individualism and
collectivism in the two cultures. Unless the researchers actually measured individu-
alism and collectivism in their study, found that the two cultures differed on this
dimension, and showed that it accounted for the cultural-group differences on social
judgments, the interpretation that this construct (IC) is responsible for the group dif-
ferences is unwarranted. Linkage studies address this problem.

C O N C L U S I O N

As we mentioned earlier, cross-cultural research is easy in concept—just test peo-
ple from different cultural backgrounds. But in reality cross-cultural research is dif-
ficult because going across cultures raises many important issues. There are many
threats to the validity of any cross-cultural study, including threats to theoretical
frameworks (construct bias), methods of data collection (method bias), measurement
(measurement bias), responses (response bias), and analyzing data and interpreting
findings (interpretational bias). Even when cultures are compared correctly, there is
the additional problem of how we can link the differences to meaningful aspects of
culture.

Despite all the inherent difficulties, cross-cultural research offers a number of
exciting and interesting opportunities not available with traditional research ap-
proaches. Through cross-cultural research, we can test the limits and boundaries of
our knowledge about human behavior. We can push the envelope of our understand-
ing of people in ways that are impossible with traditional research approaches. The
cross-cultural enterprise itself offers a process by which scientists and laypersons from
disparate cultures can come together and work toward common goals, thereby im-
proving human relations across what otherwise may seem a considerable chasm. The
findings from cross-cultural research offer scientists, scholars, and the public ways to
further our understanding of human diversity that can serve as the basis for renewed
personal and professional relationships, and can help to focus public and social policy.
Methodologically, cross-cultural studies offer researchers a way to deal with empirical
problems related to the conduct of research, such as confounding variables present in
traditional research approaches.

The process of evaluating the merits of studies and then accumulating informa-
tion across the studies you trust is integral to learning about a field. We have tried to
provide a solid basis for developing and practicing these skills. The material presented
in this chapter is just the tip of the iceberg. Many excellent resources, other than those
cited throughout this chapter, explain cross-cultural research issues in greater detail
for specialists (see Matsumoto & van de Vijver, 2011). And there are many things re-
searchers can do before and after collecting data to ensure their studies reduce bias
and establish equivalence.

cultural attribution
fallacies A mistaken
interpretation in cross-
cultural comparison studies.
Cultural attribution fallacies
occur when researchers infer
that something cultural pro-
duced the differences they
observed in their study, de-
spite the fact that they may
not be empirically justified
in doing so because they did
not actually measure those
cultural factors.

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54 Chapter 2

It is this cumulative process that we went through in selecting studies from the
various areas of cross-cultural research to present to you in this book. But do not take
our word for it; please evaluate that research for yourself. It is a skill that takes prac-
tice in order to do well, but like many skills, it can be honed. Hopefully the issues we
have discussed above can serve as a platform by which you can conduct your own
evaluations of cross-cultural research. As you read and evaluate the studies presented
in this book and elsewhere, we hope you will find that while cross-cultural research
has its own problems and limitations, it has advantages and potentialities that far out-
weigh the difficulties.

Why Does This Matter to Me?
1. When someone makes claims concerning the

nature of human behavior and mental processes,
how do you know to believe those claims? Adopt-
ing a scientific point of view requires a good deal
of healthy skepticism about the validity of those
claims. Evaluating the validity of such claims
requires asking about the data that informs such
claims. What kinds of questions would you ask?

2. Have you ever participated in a research study?
What was it like? How did your participation af-
fect how you thought scientific knowledge was
created?

3. And if you were in a cross-cultural study what
culture would you represent? Your national cul-
ture? The culture of students enrolled in psychol-
ogy courses? The culture of your ethnic origins?

Suggestions for Further Exploration
1. Find a cross-cultural study in your library or

through any reference source for primary re-
search articles. Try evaluating it using each of the
issues raised in this chapter. What differences and
similarities do you think exist between that cross-
cultural study and the same study conducted
within a single culture?

2. If you could design a cross-cultural study on any-
thing about human behavior, what would it be?
What hypotheses would you have?

3. In a study, how would you isolate the specific
aspect of culture that produces differences in a
cross-cultural study?

4. For those who speak more than one language—
have you ever considered whether the words spo-
ken in both languages actually mean exactly the
same thing or not? If not, what implications do
you think such differences have for cross-cultural
research in different languages?

5. Find your country in the Appendix and check out
its scores on the five cultural dimensions. How do
those scores compare to scores from other coun-
tries in the Appendix? How do those compari-
sons compare to your experiences with people
from other cultures?

E X P L O R A T I O N A N D D I S C O V E R Y

48951_ch02_ptg01_032-056.indd 54 1/6/16 6:32 PM

Cross-Cultural Research Methods 55

APPENDIX A Listing of Countries and Regions and Their Scores on the Five Hofstede Cultural
Dimensions (From Hofstede, 2001; Reproduced by Permission of Geert Hofstede)

Exhibit A2.1 Index Scores for Countries and Regions from the IBM Set

Index

Country
Power

Distance
Uncertainty
Avoidance

Individualism
Collectivism

Masculinity/
Feminity

Long-/Short-
Orientation

Argentina 49 86 46 56

Australia 36 51 90 61 31

Austria 11 70 55 79 31

Belgium 65 94 75 54 38

Brazil 69 76 38 49 65

Canada 39 48 80 52 23

Chile 63 86 23 28

Colombia 67 80 13 64

Costa Rica 35 86 15 21

Denmark 18 23 74 16 46

Ecuador 78 67 8 63

Finland 33 59 63 26 41

France 68 86 71 43 39

Germany 35 65 67 66 31

Great Britain 35 35 89 66 25

Greece 60 112 35 57

Guatemala 95 101 6 37

Hong Kong 68 29 25 57 96

India 77 40 48 56 61

Indonesia 78 48 14 46

Iran 58 59 41 43

Ireland 28 35 70 68 43

Israel 13 81 54 47

Italy 50 75 76 70 34

Jamaica 45 13 39 68

Japan 54 92 46 95 80

Korea (South) 60 85 18 39 75

Malaysia 104 36 26 50

Mexico 81 82 30 69

Netherlands 38 53 80 14 44

New Zealand 22 49 79 58 30

Norway 31 50 69 8 44

Pakistan 55 70 14 50 0

Panama 95 86 11 44

48951_ch02_ptg01_032-056.indd 55 1/6/16 6:32 PM

56 Chapter 2

Index

Country
Power

Distance
Uncertainty
Avoidance

Individualism
Collectivism

Masculinity/
Feminity

Long-/Short-
Orientation

Peru 64 87 16 42

Philippines 94 44 32 64 19

Portugal 63 104 27 31 30

Salvador 66 94 19 40

Singapore 74 8 20 48 48

South Africa 49 49 65 63

Spain 57 86 51 42 19

Sweden 31 29 71 5 33

Switzerland 34 58 68 70 40

Taiwan 58 69 17 45 87

Thailand 64 64 20 34 56

Turkey 66 85 37 45

United States 40 46 91 62 29

Uruguay 61 100 36 38

Venezuela 81 76 12 73

Yugoslavia 76 88 27 21

Regions:

Arab countries 80 68 38 53

East Africa 64 52 27 41 25

West Africa 77 54 20 46 16

Source: From Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations across Nations (2nd ed.) by
G. H. Hofstede, 2001. p. 500. Copyright © 2001 by Geert Hofstede. Reprinted with permission by Geert Hofstede B.V.

Exhibit A2.1 (Continued)

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3Enculturation

CHAPTER CONTENTS

Humans Engage in Cultural Learning

Enculturation and Socialization

Culture, Parenting, and Families

Whiting and Whiting’s Six Cultures Study

Diversity in Parenting as a Function of Economics

Parenting Goals and Beliefs

Global Parenting Styles

Parenting Behaviors and Strategies

A Domain-Specific Approach to Parenting

Siblings

Extended and Multigenerational Families

Summary

Culture and Peers

Exposure to Peer Groups

Peers and Bullying

Summary

Culture and the Education System

School Systems

Parental and Familial Values

Attitudes and Appraisals of Students

Teaching Practices and School Environment

Summary

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY
Why Does This Matter to Me?
Suggestions for Further Exploration

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58 Chapter 3

When the study of culture and psychology uncovers cultural differences among
people, some natural questions come to mind: How did these differences arise in
the first place? What happens during development that makes people of different
cultures different? What are the relative influences of parents, families, extended
families, schools, and other social institutions? Are people born with inherent,
biological predispositions to behavioral and cultural differences, or are such
differences due entirely to environment and upbringing? This chapter examines
how the process of enculturation works. That is, how do people come to acquire
their cultures? Research in this area has focused on parenting, peer groups, and
institutions such as the educational system, each of which will be discussed here.
First, we discuss how humans are different from other animals in their ability to
acquire culture. Then we define and compare two important terms in this area of
study: enculturation and socialization.

Humans Engage in Cultural Learning

In Chapter 1, we learned that one of the most important thinking abilities that
humans have that other animals do not is the ability to share intentions with one
another. In other words, humans can get into another person’s mind, see things from
that person’s point of view, understand the intentions of that person, and recognize
that the person understands our own intentions too. This unique ability of humans
to engage in shared intentionality allows us to engage in “cultural learning”—that is,
learning not only from others but through others (Tomasello, Kruger, & Ratner, 1993).

Tomasello at the Max Planck University in Leipzig, Germany, studied how
humans are unique from other animals in this aspect of cultural learning (Tomasello
& Herrmann, 2010). In one study, he compared two types of great apes (chimpanzees
and orangutans) to two-year old human children. In many ways, the great apes and
children looked very similar in terms of how they thought about space, quantities,
and causality. But there was one big difference. The children were much more sophis-
ticated than the great apes in the ways they thought about the social world. Chil-
dren understood intentionality, social learning, and social communication on a much
deeper and complex level than the great apes. Tomasello proposed that this facility
with social learning and communication provides the foundation for cooperation
with other humans; this fundamental ability to cooperate is the basis for participating
successfully in a cultural group. Because humans are intrinsically able to learn from
one another and collaborate together as a group on a much more complex and larger
scale than all other animals, only humans are capable of creating and transmitting a
culture that is more sophisticated and differentiated than any other animal. From the
moment they are born, children are ready to learn culture.

Enculturation and Socialization

Childhood in any society is a dynamic period of life. One aspect of childhood that is
constant across cultures is the expectation that people should hopefully emerge from
this period with a wish to become competent, productive adults later in life. Cultures
differ, however, in exactly what they mean by “competent” and “productive.” Despite
similarities in the overall goals of development, cultures exhibit a tremendous degree
of variability in its content.

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Enculturation 59

Each culture has an understanding of the adult competencies needed for ade-
quate functioning (Kagitcibasi, 1996b; Ogbu, 1981), but these competencies differ by
culture and environment. For example, children who need a formal education to
succeed in their culture are likely to be exposed to these values early in childhood.
These children are likely to receive books and instruction at a young age. Children
in another culture may be required to do spinning and weaving as part of their adult
livelihood. These children are likely to receive exposure to those crafts at an early age.

By the time we are adults, we have learned many cultural rules of behavior
and have practiced those rules so much that they are second nature to us. Much of
our behavior as adults is influenced by these learned patterns and rules, and we
are so well practiced at them that we engage in these behaviors automatically and
unconsciously.

Still, at some time in our lives, we must have learned those rules and patterns
of behavior. Culture, in its truest and broadest sense, involves so many different
aspects of life that it is impossible to simply sit somewhere and read a book and learn
about, let alone thoroughly master, a culture. Culture must be learned through a pro-
longed process, over a considerable period of time, with much practice. This learning
involves all aspects of the learning processes that psychologists have identified over
the years, including classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning.
As we grow from babies into adults and learn about culture, we make mistakes along
the way, but people, groups, and institutions are always around to help us, and in
some cases force us, to correct those mistakes.

Socialization is the process by which we learn and internalize the rules and pat-
terns of the society in which we live. This process, which occurs over a long time,
involves learning and mastering societal norms, attitudes, values, and belief systems.
The process of socialization starts early, from the very first day of life.

Closely related to the process of socialization is the process called enculturation.
This is the process by which youngsters learn and adopt the ways and manners of their
specific culture. There is very little difference, in fact, between the two terms. Socialization
generally refers to the actual process and mechanisms by which people learn the rules
of society—what is said to whom and in which contexts. Enculturation generally refers
to the products of the socialization process—the subjective, underlying, psychological
aspects of culture that become internalized through development (see Figure 3.1). The
similarities and differences between the terms socialization and enculturation are thus
related to the similarities and differences between the terms society and culture.

Socialization
(and Enculturation)

Agents

• The people, institutions,
and organizations that
exist to help ensure
that socialization (and
enculturation) occur.

Socialization

• The process by which
we learn and internalize
the rules and patterns
of the society in which
we live.

Enculturation

• The process by which
we learn and adopt the
ways and manners
of our specific culture.

Figure 3.1
We Learn Culture Through
Socialization and Enculturation

socialization The pro-
cess by which we learn and
internalize the rules and
patterns of behavior that
are affected by culture. This
process, which occurs over a
long time, involves learning
and mastering societal and
cultural norms, attitudes,
values, and belief systems.

enculturation The pro-
cess by which individuals
learn and adopt the ways
and manners of their specific
culture.

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60 Chapter 3

Socialization (and enculturation) agents are the people, institutions, and organi-
zations that exist to help ensure that socialization (or enculturation) occurs. One of
the most important of these agents is parents, who help instill cultural mores and
values in their children, reinforcing those mores and values when they are learned
and practiced well and correcting mistakes in that learning.

Parents, however, are not the only socialization agents. Siblings, extended fami-
lies, and peers are important socialization and enculturation agents for many people.
Organizations such as school, church, and social groups such as Boy or Girl Scouts
also become important agents of these processes. In fact, as you learn more about
the socialization process, you will find that culture is enforced and reinforced by so
many people and institutions that it is no wonder we all emerge from the process as
masters of our own culture.

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory provides a useful framework for orga-
nizing the many dimensions of enculturation (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Bronfenbrenner
& Morris, 1998). In Bronfenbrenner’s view, human development is a dynamic, interac-
tive process between individuals and various ecologies that range from the proximal,
immediate environment to the more distal. These environments include the microsystem
(the immediate surroundings, such as the family, school, peer group, with which
children directly interact), the mesosystem (the linkages between microsystems, such as
between school and family), the exosystem (the context that indirectly affects children,
such as parent’s workplace), the macrosystem (culture, religion, society), and the chrono-
system (the influence of time and history on the other systems). See Figure 3.2.

TIM
E

(sociohistorical cond
itions and

tim
e since life events)

School

Peers

Neighborhood
play area

Church
group

MESOSYSTEM

EXOSYSTEM

MACROSYSTEM

MICROSYSTEM

friends
of family

Neighbours

Mass media

Family

Social
welfare
services

The Individual

CHRONOSYSTEM
Patterning of environmental

events and transitions
over the life course;

sociohistorical
conditions

Health
services

Legal
services

Figure 3.2 Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory of Human Development
Source: Santrock, J. W. (2007). Child Development. Eleventh edition. NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Reprinted with permission.

socialization and
enculturation agents
The people, institutions,
and organizations that exist
to help ensure that social-
ization and enculturation
occurs.

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Enculturation 61

Bronfenbrenner argued that to understand how a child develops, we must
consider the experience of the child within each of these systems. In other words,
context matters. Who you are today is a result of interactions with the people in your
family, classmates in school, friends and neighbors in your community, policies and
institutions of the country (or countries) that you were raised in, and the particular
point in history in which you are living. In Bronfenbrenner’s view, studying children
in relation to their particular contexts, on multiple levels, is key to understanding
development.

An important tenet of ecological systems theory is that children are not simply
passive recipients of the enculturation and socialization processes. That is, children
do not simply absorb cultural information from their families, peer groups, and
educational institutions. Rather, children also contribute to their own development
by interacting with and influencing the people, groups, and institutions around
them. Thus, children are active producers and architects of their own culture and
development.

Another useful framework to understand enculturation is Super and Harkness’s
notion of a developmental niche (Super & Harkness, 1986, 1994, 2002). The developmen-
tal niche focuses on how the broader macrosystem structures the child’s immediate
microsystems. The developmental niche includes three major components: the physi-
cal and social setting, the customs of child care and child rearing, and the psychol-
ogy of the caregivers. The developing child is influenced by all three components, or
more precisely by their interaction. In their niche, children are influenced by the vari-
ous socialization agents and institutions around them, ensuring their enculturation.
At the same time, the child also brings his or her temperamental disposition, moti-
vations, and cognitions to the interaction. In the following sections, we will review
research that focuses on several important contexts of enculturation.

Culture, Parenting, and Families

The most important microsystem to a child’s development is the family
(Bronfenbrenner, 1979), and parents are one of the most important socialization agents
(Collins, Steinberg, Maccoby, Hetherington, & Bornstein, 2000). Margaret Mead, the
famous anthropologist, proposed that by observing parents, we are observing the
essence of a culture. By examining the way that parents interact with their children,
we can see how cultural rules and values are reinforced and passed on from gen-
eration to generation (Mead, 1975). As such, a study of parenting within a cultural
context gives us a good idea of what is important to that culture (Bornstein, 2012).

Whiting and Whiting’s Six Cultures Study
One of the most in-depth and well-known studies of parenting, children, and culture
was conducted by Beatrice and John Whiting in their Six Cultures Study (Whiting &
Whiting, 1975). In this ambitious cross-cultural project led by the Whitings, anthro-
pologists collected field data in Mexico, India, Kenya, the United States, Okinawa,
and the Philippines. The major focus of the project was to systematically examine
child rearing and children’s behavior in these varied cultural contexts. Based on in-
depth, naturalistic observations and interviews, the researchers documented how
the natural environment shaped how households were structured, which in turn
shaped how parents raised their children to fit into that particular society. A child
who grew up in a society of hunters and gatherers versus a society of urban dwellers

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62 Chapter 3

had very different experiences regarding whom the child spent time with, what
activities the child was exposed to, and what behaviors and personality traits were
valued, emphasized, and encouraged. Importantly, by observing parenting and child
development across different cultures, the Whitings could show how a child’s behav-
ior and personality is, in fact, intimately connected to characteristics of the broader
ecology.

Another major finding of the Six Cultures Study was that women’s work roles
contributed to children’s social behaviors. In cultures where women contributed
greatly to the subsistence base of the family—such as in sub-Saharan Africa where
women were the major food providers—the children learned to share in family
responsibilities and scored low on dependence (e.g., seeking comfort and support,
seeking help and information, seeking approval, praise or attention). In contrast, in
cultures in which women were not expected to substantially contribute to the sub-
sistence base of the family—such as for high-caste families in Khalapur, India—the
children scored high on dependence (Whiting & Edwards, 1988). The Six Cultures
Study clearly demonstrated that variations in the natural and cultural environment
were linked to variations in child-rearing patterns and this, in turn, was linked to
children’s behaviors and personalities.

Diversity in Parenting as a Function of Economics
The Six Cultures Study brought attention to how the broader ecological context is tied
to child rearing and, ultimately, to children’s development. Another important con-
text to consider is the economic conditions under which child rearing takes place.
Parenting and child rearing often occur in very different economic conditions in dif-
ferent countries and cultures, and even within one culture, such as the United States.
These diverse conditions produce socialization processes that vary widely from cul-
ture to culture.

If a society has a high rate of infant mortality, parenting efforts may concentrate
on meeting basic physical needs. Parents may have little choice but to disregard other
developmental demands. Sometimes the response to harsh and stressful conditions
is parenting behavior that we might consider positive. In the Sudan, for example, the
mother traditionally spends the first 40 days after delivery entirely with her baby.
She rests while her relatives tend to her, and she focuses all her energy on her baby
(Cederblad, 1988). In other cultures, the response to harsh and stressful conditions
is parenting behavior that some might consider negative. For example, the anthro-
pologist Scheper-Huges (1992) described an impoverished community in northeast
Brazil, where, if the infant is weak, mothers show little responsiveness and affec-
tion, and sometimes even neglect to the point of death, to the infant. Some of these
mothers think of their infants as temporary “visitors” to their home. Scheper-Huges
writes that in this community, “mother love grows slowly, tentatively, fearfully.”
These mothers are adapting to the harsh environment in which they must raise their
children.

LeVine (1977, 1997) has theorized that the caregiving environment reflects a set
of goals that are ordered in importance. First is physical health and survival. Next is
the promotion of behaviors that will lead to self-sufficiency. Last are behaviors that
promote other cultural values, such as prestige. Families with adequate resources are
fortunate in that they can turn their attention to meeting the second two goals. In
other families with fewer resources, the primary goal of survival is all-important and
often overrides the other goals in the amount of parental effort exerted.

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Enculturation 63

Parenting Goals and Beliefs
If the basic goals of physical health and survival are taken care of, parents can focus
on other goals, such as instilling cultural values important to that culture. Parenting
goals provide the motivation and framework for what parents think is the best way to
raise their children.

An example of how parenting goals may lead to variation in parenting behaviors
across cultures is seen by contrasting middle-class mothers in Berlin, Germany, with
middle-class mothers in New Delhi, India (Keller, Borke, Chaudjhary, Lamm, & Kleis,
2010). In Germany, an important goal of parenting is to raise children who are autono-
mous. During infancy, parents recognize and emphasize that their child is a separate
person with unique thoughts, wishes, desires, and needs. In India, an important goal
of parenting is to raise children who are autonomous, but also closely interdependent
with other people, especially the family. During infancy, parents emphasize physical
contact, emotional closeness, and indulgence. Keller et al.’s study found that these dif-
ferent parenting goals translated into differences in how Berlin and Delhi mothers
talked and played with their infants. When the mothers were videotaped engaging in
free-play with their three-month-olds, Berlin mothers emphasized autonomy by talk-
ing about the infant’s intentions, thoughts, emotions, and needs. They were also more
likely than Delhi mothers to focus their infants’ attention to objects and engage in
face-to-face interactions. In contrast, Delhi mothers emphasized relatedness by talking
to their infant about other people, the social context, social regulations, and how the
child was acting together with someone else (mostly the mother) more so than Berlin
mothers. Thus, differences in cultural values and goals concerning autonomy and
relatedness were evident in mothers’ conversational and play styles with their infants.

Parents’ beliefs concerning their roles as caregivers also influence their behaviors.
Many parents in the United States believe that they play a very active, goal-directed
role in the development of their children (Coll, 1990; Goodnow, 1988). Traditional
parents in Turkey, however, believe that their children “grow up” rather than are
“brought up” (Kagitcibasi, 1996b). This range of parenting beliefs is reflected in how
parents interact with their children, such as whether parents share cultural knowl-
edge primarily through verbalization and direct instruction or by expecting their
child to learn primarily through observation and imitation.

Current research has emphasized the importance of examining such parental
ethnotheories, or parental cultural belief systems (Harkness & Super, 2006). Harkness
and Super argue that parental ethnotheories serve as a basis for guiding parenting
practices that structure children’s daily lives. Harkness and Super identify ethno-
theories by conducting in-depth interviews with parents and asking them to keep a
daily diary of what they do with their children. One study using these methods com-
pared the ethnotheories of middle-class American and Dutch parents (Harkness &
Super, 2006). The researchers found that American parents hold an ethnotheory about
the importance of spending special time with their children, whereas Dutch parents
hold an ethnotheory of spending family time with their children. American parents
talked extensively about creating time alone with their child in an activity (usually
outside the home) that was focused primarily on attending to the needs of that par-
ticular child. Dutch parents talked extensively about the importance of spending time
together as a family, such as sitting down for dinner every night. In contrast to the
American parents, they did not believe it was necessary to create a special time for
each individual child. By studying parental ethnotheories we see how parents’ cul-
tural belief systems motivate and shape what parents think is the “right” way to par-
ent their children.

parental ethnotheo-
ries Parental cultural belief
systems.

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64 Chapter 3

Global Parenting Styles
Parenting styles are another important dimension of caregiving. Baumrind (1971)
identified three general patterns of parenting based on two key dimensions: warmth/
responsiveness and control. Authoritarian parents expect unquestioned obedience
and view the child as needing to be controlled. They have also been described as
being low on warmth and responsiveness toward their children. Permissive parents
are warm and responsive to their children; however, they allow their children to reg-
ulate their own lives and provide few firm guidelines (low control). Authoritative
parents are sensitive to the child’s maturity and are firm, fair, and reasonable. They
exhibit higher levels of control, providing clear guidelines for their children com-
bined with a high degree of warmth and affection.

Maccoby and Martin (1983) identified a fourth type of parenting style, called
uninvolved. Uninvolved parents are often too absorbed in their own lives to respond
appropriately to their children and may seem indifferent to them. They do not seem
committed to caregiving, beyond the minimum effort required to meet the physical
needs of their child. An extreme form of this type of parenting is neglect. Parenting
styles are important because they set the tone for the family context (see Figure 3.3).

Which of the four parenting styles is optimal for a child’s development? In
general, research on American and European children indicates that children ben-
efit from the authoritative parenting style. Compared to children of other parenting
styles, children of authoritative parents demonstrate better school performance, more
positive mood, self-reliance, self-confidence, higher emotional and social skills, and

Authoritarian Authoritative

High
Warmth/

Responsiveness

High
Control

Low
Control

Low
Warmth/

Responsiveness

Disengaged Permissive

Figure 3.3 Four Parenting Styles Based on Two Dimensions: Warmth/
Responsiveness and Control

authoritarian parent
A style of parenting in
which the parent expects
unquestioned obedience and
views the child as needing
to be controlled.

permissive parents A
style of parenting in which
parents allow children to
regulate their own lives and
provide few firm guidelines.

authoritative parent
A style of parenting that is
viewed as firm, fair, and rea-
sonable. This style is seen as
promoting psychologically
healthy, competent, inde-
pendent children who are
cooperative and at ease in
social situations.

uninvolved parents A
style of parenting in which
parents are often too ab-
sorbed in their own lives to
respond appropriately to
their children and may seem
indifferent to them.

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Enculturation 65

secure attachment to caregivers (Baumrind, 1967, 1971; Denham, Renwick, & Holt,
1997; Karavasilis, Doyle, & Markiewicz, 2003; Kerr, Stattin, & Özdemir, 2012). This
style appears to promote psychologically healthy, competent, independent children
who are cooperative and at ease in social situations. Children of authoritarian par-
ents, in contrast, are found to be more anxious and withdrawn, lacking spontane-
ity and intellectual curiosity. Children of permissive parents tend to be immature;
they have difficulty controlling their impulses and acting independently. Children of
uninvolved parents fare the worst, being noncompliant and demanding.

However, because Baumrind’s parenting styles were originally based on observa-
tions of a European American sample, others have argued that the benefits of authori-
tative parenting may depend on the particular ethnic or cultural group (Steinberg,
Lamborn, Dornbusch, & Darling, 1992). For example, a study comparing several
thousand U.S. adolescents from four ethnic groups (European American, African
American, Asian American, and Hispanic American) found that authoritative parent-
ing predicted higher school achievement for European American, African American,
and Hispanic American adolescents, but not for Asian Americans (Steinberg et al.,
1992). This finding led the researchers to argue that authoritative parenting may not
consistently predict positive outcomes for all ethnic groups.

In the last decade, findings have expanded to include studies in other countries
using the classifications of parenting derived from Baumrind’s original research. A
study of almost 3,000 Arab adolescents from eight Arab societies revealed that author-
itative parenting was associated with greater family connectedness and better ado-
lescent mental health (Dwairy, Achoui, Abouseire, & Farah, 2006). Studies in China,
Taiwan, and Hong Kong found that authoritative parenting was related positively,
and authoritarian parenting negatively, to children’s adjustment within the school
and family (Chen, 2014; Chen, Dong, & Zhou, 1997; Pong, Johnston, & Chen, 2010).
These findings are inconsistent with Steinberg et al.’s (1992) assertion that the positive
effects of authoritative parenting may be less pronounced for children of diverse cul-
tural backgrounds. Evidence is accumulating that the authoritative style is linked to
positive development for children of many different backgrounds.

Nonetheless, to address the critique that Baumrind’s parenting styles may not
adequately capture parenting in other cultures, researchers have focused on identify-
ing parenting styles indigent to a culture. Using Baumrind’s classifications, Chinese
parents have been often described as authoritarian. However, for Chinese parents,
the significance and meaning of this parenting style may originate from a set of cul-
tural beliefs that may differ greatly from the European American cultural belief sys-
tem (Chao, 1994, 2001). Based on Confucian philosophy, Chinese parenting may be
distinguished by the concept of chiao shun, or “training,” in child rearing. Training
emphasizes very close parental supervision in order to promote children’s obedi-
ence, discipline, and adherence to family obligation. To a European-American par-
ent, this type of parenting may look over-controlling and authoritarian. To a Chinese
parent, this type of parenting is culturally appropriate, reflecting love and concern
for their children. Chao argued that this training aspect, which is not considered
in Baumrind’s styles of parenting, may be more useful in understanding Chinese-
heritage children’s development.

Instigated in large part by Chao’s work on Chinese parenting, researchers
have hypothesized that authoritarian parenting may actually encourage positive
child adjustment in collectivistic cultures. However, a review of studies applying
Baumrind’s parenting styles typology in cross-cultural studies concluded that, in
general, authoritarian parenting is associated with negative psychological adjustment
in cultures as diverse as Egypt, China, India, and Turkey (Sorkhabi, 2005). In other

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66 Chapter 3

words, there is evidence that when children and adolescents of collectivistic as well
as individualistic cultures perceive parents as lacking warmth and exerting unilateral
control (aspects of authoritarian parenting), this is seen as undesirable and hostile.
This negative perception of authoritarian parents also predicts less family harmony
and more family conflict. Authoritative parenting, in contrast, is consistently associ-
ated with positive outcomes (e.g., getting good grades, regarded positively by peers,
being self-reliant) and has not been associated with negative outcomes across cultures
such as Hong Kong, China, and Pakistan.

More recently, discussions of parenting and culture have been hot topics in the
U.S. and Chinese popular media. The term “tiger mother” has emerged to describe
Asian parenting (Chua, 2011). According to Chua, tiger mothers are highly demand-
ing and drive their children to high levels of academic success while Western parents
are much less demanding and more concerned about their children’s social and emo-
tional development, such as fostering high self-esteem. This very public discussion
has sparked scholars to examine this notion of tiger mothering more closely. Some
studies appear to support aspects of tiger mothering. For instance, Fu and Markus
(2014) found that Asian American high-school students reported that their moth-
ers did indeed pressure them more than European American high-school students.
Importantly, however, while this pressure was related to lower perceived support for
European American students, for Asian American students this pressure was a source
of motivation that did not relate to more strained relationships with mothers. Other
scholars, however, have found that although tiger mothering (defined by research-
ers as harsh, highly demanding, and emotionally unsupportive) exists among Asian
heritage families, it is not common. Tiger mothering is also linked to poorer child
outcomes, both academically and socioemotionally. And finally, there is much more
variation in Asian-heritage parenting beyond the stereotypical depictions of being
strict, controlling, and demanding. Adolescents of Asian-heritage parents in the U.S.
and China also report that their mothers are supportive, loving, openly communica-
tive, and warm (Juang, Qin, Park, 2013; Kim, Wang, Orozco-Lapray, Shen, & Murtuza,
2013; Way et al., 2013). Discussions, debates, and studies of parenting across cultures
will persist as researchers continue to search for what style of parenting is optimal in
raising healthy and competent children in their particular cultural context.

Parenting Behaviors and Strategies
Over the past several decades, a considerable amount of cross-cultural research has
examined variations in parenting behaviors and how these variations contribute to
different aspects of child development. One of the most representative cultural dif-
ferences in parenting behaviors concerns sleeping arrangements. Americans are one
cultural group that holds beliefs about sleeping arrangements that differ from the
majority of the world. To begin, one of the single greatest concerns of American par-
ents is getting their baby to sleep through the night, and to do so in a room separate
from that of the parents. Traditionally, Americans shun co-sleeping arrangements,
with the underlying assumption that sleeping alone will help develop independence.
In the United States, prominent pediatricians and medical doctors have proposed that
co-sleeping fosters children’s unhealthy dependence on parents. They argued that,
developmentally, it is better for babies to sleep alone to promote independence and
autonomy (Ferber, 1985). To date, however, there is no evidence that sleeping alone
actually does so (McKenna & McDade, 2005). Some sleep experts have revised their
stance on co-sleeping by no longer explicitly opposing it (e.g., Ferber, 2006). Still, many
American parents do not co-sleep with their babies. To help babies learn to fall asleep

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Enculturation 67

alone, “security objects,” such as a special blanket or toy, and bedtime rituals, are
often used.

Most other cultures do not share this notion of promoting independence in chil-
dren by learning to sleep alone, and comfort objects or bedtime rituals are not com-
mon in other cultures. In Japanese families, infants and young children sleep next to
their parents on mattresses, or on futons on the floor, or all together in the adult bed
(Fukumizu, Kaga, Kohyama, & Hayes, 2005). In China, it is common for school-age
children to sleep in the same bed or room as their parents (Li, Jin, Yan, Wu, Jiang, &
Shen, 2009). Mayan mothers allow their children to sleep with them for several years
because of a commitment to forming a very close bond with their children. When a
new baby comes along, older children move to a bed in the same room or share a bed
with another member of the family (Morelli, Oppenheim, Rogoff, & Goldsmith, 1992).
Again, these practices foster behaviors and values that are consistent with the devel-
opmental goals of the culture.

Differences in infant sleeping arrangements can also be seen within cultures. A
national U.S. survey conducted from 1993 and 2000 revealed an overall increase in
parents reporting their infant “usually” slept in bed with them, from 5.5% to 12.8%.
But there was great variation across ethnic groups: African American caregivers
reported the highest percentage of co-sleeping (27.9%), followed by Asian Americans
(20.9%), and lastly, European American caregivers (7.2%) (Willinger, Hoffman, Kessler,
& Corwin, 2003). It is important to note, too, that differences in sleeping arrange-
ments are also based on economic as well as cultural reasons. In this national study,
households making less than $20,000 a year were more likely to report co-sleeping
(Willinger et al., 2003). And in eastern Kentucky, families who had large houses were
more likely to have their children sleep in another room (Abbott, 1992). Nonetheless,
even when economic status was controlled for in this study in eastern Kentucky,
locally born mothers were more likely to have their babies sleep with them compared
to mothers who were born in another state, suggesting that there were indeed cultural
(as well as economic) reasons that led to different sleeping arrangements. Overall, the
literature on sleeping arrangements across cultures illustrates how parental behav-
iors may vary depending on each culture’s developmental goals.

In addition to sleeping arrangements, cross-cultural research has also shown dif-
ferences in how parents structure the home environment for their children. One of the
most widely used measures of the home environment is the Home Observation and
Measurement of the Environment Inventory (HOME Inventory) (Bradley, Caldwell,
& Corwyn, 2003). To administer the HOME Inventory, a researcher visits a family in
their home for about one hour. During this hour, the researcher makes observations
of parent–child interactions and also asks the parents a number of questions concern-
ing how they interact with their child.

In a summary of cross-cultural studies that have used the HOME Inventory,
Bradley and Corwyn (2005) described three general areas in which cultures vary:
warmth and responsiveness, discipline, and stimulation/teaching. For instance,
warmth and responsiveness are conveyed differently across cultures. In the United
States, one way parents show responsiveness is through physical affection. The
Yoruba of Nigeria, however, show responsiveness not by physical affection primar-
ily, but through their tone of voice or praising their child. In many Western indus-
trialized societies, responsiveness is also measured by how often the parent engages
in spontaneous conversations with their child. In India, however, where children
are expected to respect their elders, it is considered disrespectful to speak without
permission. Thus, the type of home environment parents create will depend on the
broader cultural belief systems.

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68 Chapter 3

Cross-cultural research has not only demonstrated cultural differences in par-
enting behaviors; it has documented cultural similarities as well. As children grow
older, both European American and Chinese American mothers place more emphasis
on manners, school-related skills, and emotional adjustment when their children are
six to eight years old than when they were three to five (Kelley & Tseng, 1992). In
China, Mexico, India, and the United States, when parents allowed their adolescents
greater behavioral autonomy (such as choosing own clothes and friends), adolescents
reported greater perceptions of parental support and higher motivation to do well in
school (Supple, Ghazarian, Peterson, & Bush, 2009). Across 12 different nations or eth-
nic groups from Africa, Australia, Asia, the Balkans, Europe, the Middle East, North
America, and South America, there was one thing in common that parents did that
made their children feel loved: providing a valuable commodity (McNeely & Barber,
2010). What varied by culture was what was considered a valuable commodity. In
some cultures, it was emotional support and time, for others it was moral guidance
and advice, and for still others it was material resources.

In sum, research suggests both differences and similarities across cultures in par-
enting and child rearing. All of the studies have shown that parenting beliefs and
practices tend to be congruent with developmental goals dictated by culture; that is,
cultural differences in specific values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors necessary for
survival are associated with different developmental goals so that developing mem-
bers of a society can carry on culture-relevant work related to survival. It seems that
all people are similar in that their developmental processes are designed to meet
cultural goals; people differ, however, in the specific nature of those goals and how to
get there.

A Domain-Specific Approach to Parenting
One exciting development in the parenting literature is a proposal that outlines a
domain-specific approach to understanding parent socialization. This approach
counters the global parenting styles (Baumrind, 1971) reviewed earlier. One major
criticism of global parenting styles is that it ignores the fact that parents tend to act
and respond differently depending on the particular child, the situation, and the
context (Turiel, 1998). Thus, scholars have proposed a domain-specific approach that
focuses on parenting behaviors rather than general styles to better understand the
socialization process (Grusec & Davidov, 2010).

The domain approach emphasizes the complexity of the socialization process by
distinguishing between distinct types or domains of parent–child socialization. One
domain is protection. Especially in the first years of life, children depend on their par-
ents to protect them from harm. When children are distressed, an appropriate parent-
ing behavior is to respond sensitively and offer comfort. In doing so, children learn to
develop a sense of security and, eventually, learn how to regulate their own distress.
Another domain is control. In order to function in society, children must learn how
to live by culturally defined rules. This means that children must sometimes sup-
press their own personal desires that violate these rules. An appropriate parenting
behavior would be to modify children’s misbehavior using suitable levels of control
or discipline. In doing so, children eventually internalize cultural rules and no lon-
ger rely entirely on their parents’ control. So depending on the particular situation—
whether the child is distressed or whether the child is misbehaving—a different type
of parenting behavior will be required. From this perspective, appropriate parenting
behaviors should correspond to the relevant domain of socialization. If, for instance,
your child was pushed by another child and started crying, but you misinterpreted

All people are similar in

that their developmental

processes are designed

to meet cultural goals;

people differ, however, in

the specific nature of those

goals and how to get there.

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Enculturation 69

your child’s crying as fussiness and responded with discipline and control, your par-
enting response, according to Grusec and Davidov (2010), would probably not be very
effective.

In addition to protection and control, other domains are reciprocity (learning
how to cooperate), guided learning (learning specific skills), and group participation
(learning to participate in social groups and cultural practices). Grusec and Davidov
(2010, pg. 692) emphasized that these five domains of socialization are universal (e.g.,
in every culture, children need to be protected and disciplined), but that there are
cultural variations:

First, there can be variation in the degree to which a given domain of interaction is
frequently engaged in or emphasized in different cultures. For example, guided learn-
ing is more widespread in cultures that rely heavily on formal schooling, whereas
other cultures may utilize group participation processes to a greater extent (observa-
tional learning, intent community participation; Odden & Rochat, 2004; Rogoff et al.,
2007). Second, culture can influence the nature of successful rearing in a given domain
of interaction: Certain practices that are successful in one cultural context may appear
to be less so in another culture, probably because of different meanings attached to
those practices or different goals of socialization emphasized by each cultural group.
High levels of rigid control, for example, seem to be more detrimental in Western
cultures than in Asian cultures because, in the former, they tend to be associated with
parental rejection and lack of warmth, whereas in the latter, they reflect parental care
and a desire to instill the important values of hard work, self-discipline, and obedience.
(Chao & Tseng, 2002)

Despite cultural differences in what parents do, how often they do them, and what
specific behaviors mean, the important thing for parents in all cultures is that parent-
ing practices must be appropriate for the domain in which the child is functioning.
This domain-specific approach is a promising new framework that will help research-
ers pinpoint what specific parenting practices promote what specific child outcomes
in what specific context or culture.

Siblings
The longest relationship that many of us will have is with our siblings. Siblings play
an important role in the socialization of children (Dunn, 1988; Teti, 2002; Whiting &
Whiting, 1975). However, research on family socialization has focused predominantly
on parents and, for a long time, neglected the role of siblings (McHale, Crouter, &
Whiteman, 2003). This is unfortunate, as siblings are an integral part of the social con-
texts of children’s lives in almost every culture. In five of the cultures of Whiting and
Whiting’s Six Cultures Study (1975), other caretakers (which included mostly siblings)
were observed to be present an equal or greater amount of time with the young child
compared with the mother. In only one culture, the United States, were siblings less
likely to be present with the young child than the mother.

The definition of who is considered a sibling may differ across cultures (Eco-
nomic and Social Research Council, 2005). In many cultures, siblings refer to fam-
ily members who are biologically related. In other cultures, siblings refer to people
who are biologically and nonbiologically related. Changing family structures in many
countries are also redefining who is a sibling. Because of the high rates of divorce,
separation, remarriage, and creation of step-families in industrialized countries,
children can now have full siblings (sharing both biological parents), half siblings
(sharing one parent), and stepsiblings (sharing no biological parent).

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70 Chapter 3

Siblings can fulfill many roles; they can be tutors, buddies, playmates, or care-
takers (Parke, 2004). In many cultures, it is common practice for older siblings to act
as caretakers for younger siblings, and in some cultures, siblings are the primary
caretakers of young children (but not infants) (Weisner & Gallimore, 1977). An auto-
biographical account by Lijembe (1967), a Western Kenyan, described his role as a
caretaker for his younger sister:

Because there was no older sister in the family, and my mother had to go off to work
in the shamba [gardens] every day, it wasn’t long before I obliged, though still a very
young child myself, to become the day-to-day “nurse” for my baby sister. For my
mother to make me succeed in this function, she had to train me—to give me instruc-
tions and to see how well I carried them out . . . . As her shamba work increased, so did
my nursing duties . . . before moving off to the shamba, she would give me instructions:
Do not leave the home unguarded, she would tell me . . . . (as quoted in Weisner &
Gallimore, 1977, p. 171)

In his account, Lijembe tells of the many important caretaking duties he was respon-
sible for: he plays with his younger sister, bathes her, feeds her, and toilet trains
her. Clearly, studies of caretaking in different cultures would be incomplete if they
focused solely on the mother and father and ignored the role of siblings.

Another example of siblings as highly involved caregivers can be seen among the
Kwara’ae in the Solomon Islands. In this culture, the responsibilities involved in care-
giving are viewed as a training ground for siblings to become mutually dependent on
one another in adulthood. For example, one sibling may be designated to go to school
while the others combine their resources to support that sibling. In turn, this sibling
will support the family financially once he has finishing his schooling and found a
job (Watson-Gegeo, 1992). Thus, many of the culture’s values, such as family interde-
pendence, are transferred through siblings (Zukow-Goldring, 1995).

Through our interactions with our siblings we learn skills important to all cul-
tures, such as perspective-taking, social understanding, and conflict negotiation
(Parke, 2004; Whiting & Whiting, 1975). Our sibling relationships provide a context
to learn prosocial and antisocial behaviors such as empathy and aggression (Ostrov,
Crick, & Staffacher, 2006; Tucker, Updegraff, McHale, & Crouter, 1999). Importantly,
what children learn with siblings (the good and bad) can transfer into relationships
with other children (Parke, 2004; Stauffacher & DeHart, 2006; Teti, 2002).

One study of adolescents in the United States examined how older siblings influ-
enced younger siblings’ perspectives on gender (McHale, Updegraff, Helms-Erikson,
& Crouter, 2001). These researchers followed a group of sibling pairs over one year.
They found that younger siblings tended to model their older siblings in terms of
their gender-role attitudes, gendered personality traits, and gender-stereotyped
leisure activities. Gender-role attitudes referred to how traditional their attitudes
toward women were; gendered personality traits referred to stereotypical traits such
as “kind” and “active”; and gender-stereotyped activities referred to activities such as
sports and craftwork. Interestingly, the study showed that it was the older siblings’,
and not parents’, gendered attitudes, personality, and activities that were a better pre-
dictor of younger siblings’ attitudes, personality, and activities.

Another study of Dutch adolescents examined how older siblings’ delinquent
behaviors related to younger siblings’ delinquent behaviors including getting into
trouble with the law and using alcohol and cigarettes (Buist, 2010). The study showed
that if older siblings engaged in delinquent behaviors, their younger siblings were
also more likely to do so, and especially if they were of the same sex (brother-brother
or sister-sister sibling pairs). The researcher followed the siblings over a two-year

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Enculturation 71

period and could also show that changes in older siblings’ delinquency (e.g., engag-
ing in increasing rates of delinquency) were related to similar changes in younger
siblings’ delinquency. Because most siblings live in the same household throughout
childhood and adolescence, there are many opportunities for observing, model-
ing, and imitating one other. This repeated and prolonged exposure and interaction
means that older siblings can be influential role models— for both positive and nega-
tive behaviors—to their younger siblings. Taken together, these findings speak to the
important role that siblings play in children’s lives in areas such as gender identity
and delinquency. More research is needed to explore the ways in which siblings con-
tribute to other areas of children’s development across cultures.

Extended and Multigenerational Families
Extended families include members other than parents and children, such as aunts,
uncles, cousins, or grandparents. Multigenerational families include grandparents
in addition to both parents and children or just children (e.g., a grandmother rais-
ing her grandchild). In many cultures, such as in India (Chaudhary, 2004), extended-
and multigenerational-family child rearing is an integral and important part of the
enculturation process. The extended family is an important means of transmitting
cultural heritage from generation to generation. Extended family members can also
provide a buffer to stresses of everyday living. In these cultures, it is not only parents,
but a whole network of relatives, who provide the major context of enculturation for
children.

In the United States, multigenerational households have been steadily increas-
ing in the last decade (Pew Research Center, 2010). In 2008, 53 percent of African
American, 52 percent of Latino, and 44 percent of Asian and Pacific-Islander children
lived in multigenerational families, compared with 35 percent of European American
families (Pew Research Center, 2010). As such, ethnic minority families in the United
States are more likely to include a broader array of family members. Of course, not all
ethnic minority families are extended or multigenerational, and caregiving between
nuclear and extended families may differ. For instance, African American extended
families tend to emphasize cooperation and moral and religious values more than
African American nuclear families do (Tolson & Wilson, 1990).

Although extended and multigenerational families are important contexts of
socialization for children in the United States and other cultures, one major difference
is that living with extended and multigenerational families in the United States is
often seen as a consequence of poor economics rather than a desirable state of affairs.
Indeed, the steadily increasing percentage of multigenerational households in the
United States has been partly attributed to the financial crisis in 2008 (Pew Research
Center, 2010). Limited resources are a reality, with one out of five children (20%) living
in poverty (U.S. Census Bureau, 2013). Compounding this picture is the reality that
ethnicity also confounds social class: 16% of white, 10% of Asian, 33% of Latino, and
38% of black children live in poverty (U.S. Census Bureau, 2013).

A significant number of these children are born to single mothers, and here the
extended and multigenerational family plays an important role in the child-rearing
process, especially in the case of teenage parents. The presence of the maternal grand-
mother in these families has been found to cancel out some of the negative child out-
comes associated with teen mothering (Baydar & Brooks-Gunn, 1998; Garcia-Coll,
1990; Leadbeater & Way, 2001). The grandmother often serves as a valuable source
of information about child development. She also tends to be more responsive and
less punitive with the child than the teen mother is. The grandmother in these

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72 Chapter 3

three-generation households plays a very important role as teacher and role model to
her daughter and can provide favorable, positive social interaction for her grandchild.

Extended and multigenerational families differ in their composition from one
culture to another but have in common a sharing of resources, emotional support,
and caregiving (Crozier & Davies, 2006). The experiences of a child growing up in
these situations can be quite different from those of a child in a nuclear family. Future
research needs to focus on family members other than parents and siblings to more
accurately and comprehensively describe socialization in the family context.

Summary
In a child’s life, family is one of the most important and influential sources of encul-
turation, especially in the early years. Families, however, come in many forms. Much
of the research across cultures thus far has focused primarily on how parents’ goals,
beliefs, styles, and practices relate to their child’s development. Other family mem-
bers, such as siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and in-laws also play an
essential role in children’s lives. Moving forward, it will be important to consider
a more diverse family constellation than has been studied up until now. Moreover,
researchers will need to continue to study family constellations not in isolation, but
within the broader economic, social, and historical settings in which families and
children are embedded. Doing so will provide a better picture of how families con-
tribute to a child’s development, in a certain place and time.

Culture And Peers

Peers are another powerful source of enculturation. Humans, especially, are highly
attuned to learning from their peers. A fascinating study asked the question: Do chim-
panzees, orangutans, and two-year-old human children differ in how influential peers
are to solving a problem (Haun, Rekers, & Tomasello, 2014)? To test this, the research-
ers first gave all three groups a task to solve. The task was to drop a ball into a set of
boxes that had three different holes. Dropping the ball into only one of the holes would
release a highly desirable reward—peanuts for the great apes and chocolate chips for
the human children. Once the three groups figured out which hole released the food
by dropping the ball themselves, they then watched similar peers (either other chim-
panzees, orangutans, or human children) drop the ball into a different hole that also
released food. The three groups were then given the chance to go back to the set of
boxes and to drop balls in again. The results clearly showed that only human children
were likely to switch by dropping the ball into the hole their peers did. The great apes
stuck with their original solution. In other words, human children were more likely to
conform to their peers’ behavior compared to the great apes. Moreover, human chil-
dren were even more likely to conform if the peer was present in the same room. For
the great apes, the presence of a peer did not influence their behavior. Importantly,
it is the ability of humans to so easily conform and desire to conform to peers that
facilities the learning of norms and behaviors of specific social and cultural groups.

By comparing human children with great apes, Tomasello and others have
offered valuable insight to how humans are fine-tuned to respond to peers, more so
than other species. Across cultures, however, the extent to which peers contribute to
child development may differ. It may depend on how rapidly the culture is changing.
Mead (1978) described three types of cultures with differing levels of peer influence
on the socialization of its young people. In postfigurative cultures, in which cultural

postfigurative
culture A culture in
which change is slow and
socialization occurs primar-
ily by elders transferring
their knowledge to their
children. Elders hold the
knowledge necessary for
becoming a successful and
competent adult.

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Enculturation 73

change is slow, socialization occurs primarily by elders transferring their knowledge
to their children. In this case, elders hold the knowledge necessary for becoming a
successful and competent adult. In cofigurative cultures, in which cultural change
occurs more rapidly, adults continue to socialize their children, but peers play a
greater role in socializing each other. Young people may have to turn to one another
for advice and information. In prefigurative cultures, the culture is changing so rap-
idly that young people may be the ones to teach adults. The knowledge that adults
hold may not be sufficient for the next generation, and adults may need to look to
younger people for advice and information (see Figure 3.4).

Exposure to Peer Groups
Cultures vary in the exposure that children have to their peer groups. In industrial-
ized countries, children spend a significant amount of time with same-aged peers.
For instance, American teenagers spend much more time per week (18 hours) with
their peers outside of school compared with Japanese (12) and Taiwanese (8) teenagers
(Fuligni & Stevenson, 1995). The nature and strength of peers as socializing agents in
these industrialized cultures will differ from other cultures. For instance, children
growing up in solitary farm settlements will have limited options to interact with a
wide range of potential playmates. Or, children growing up in a hunting and gather-
ing society may be socialized by multiple-age peers instead of the same-age groups
that are characteristic of countries with formal education, where age-stratified school-
ing is the norm (Krappmann, 1996). Thus, depending on the culture, the extent to
which children interact with their peers may be quite significant.

Peers and Bullying
Today, bullying by peers is recognized internationally as a serious public health and
safety issue. Olweus, a research professor of psychology in Norway, conducted the
first large-scale scientific study of bullying in the 1980s. His research has led an anti-
bullying movement in countries around the world to acknowledge peer bullying as a
serious problem in schools and develop interventions to combat bullying.

• Cultural change is
slow, socialization
occurs primarily by
elders transferring
their knowledge
to their children.
Elders hold the
knowledge
necessary for
becoming a
successful and
competent adult.

Postfigurative
Cultures

• Cultural change
occurs more rapidly,
adults continue to
socialize their
children, but peers
play a greater role
in socializing each
other. Young people
may have to turn to
one another for
advice and
information.

Cofigurative
Cultures

• Culture is changing
so rapidly that
young people may
be the ones to
teach adults. The
knowledge that
adults hold may
not be sufficient
for the next
generation, and
adults may need
to look to younger
people for advice
and information.

Prefigurative
Cultures

Low Peer Influence High

Figure 3.4
Differing Levels of Peer Influence
on Socialization

cofigurative culture
A culture in which change
occurs rapidly. Both adults
and peers socialize young
people. Young people may
have to turn to one another
for advice and information
in this type of culture.

prefigurative
culture A culture that
is changing so rapidly that
young people may be the
ones to teach adults cultural
knowledge.

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74 Chapter 3

Olweus (1993) outlined three criteria to define bullying: (1) intentional physical
or psychological harm, (2) that is based on a power imbalance between the bully and
victim, and (3) which is repeated over time. The imbalance of power can refer to dif-
ferences in age, physical size, having or not having a disability, or being of majority
versus minority status. Based on this definition, bullying can include hitting, name-
calling, spreading rumors, and social exclusion.

Using Olweus’s definition, researchers have found that the rate of bullying varies
across cultures. In one cross-national comparison, 41% of elementary school children
from Italy, 27% from England, 20% from Portugal, 18% from Spain, 11% from Japan,
and 9% from Norway reported being bullied (Smith et al., 1999). Before concluding
that children in Italy are much more likely to become bullies than children in Japan
or Norway, however, we have to recognize that cross-national comparisons may be
problematic if cultures define bullying in different ways.

To address this problem, Smith has explored how the definition and expres-
sion of bullying may differ across cultures. He and his colleagues studied children
(8-year-olds) and adolescents (14-year-olds) in 14 countries—Austria, China, England,
France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain,
and Thailand (Smith, Cowie, Olafsson, & Liefooghe, 2002). To identify what was con-
sidered bullying, 25 stick-figure pictures of different situations were shown to chil-
dren and adolescents in each country (see Figure 3.5). They then had to decide which
actions were considered bullying. Twenty-three pictures depicted various forms
of aggressive or exclusionary behavior that might be considered bullying (such as

Figure 3.5 Examples of Stick-Figure Cartoons in Smith et al.’s (2002) Cross-National
Study of Bullying in 14 Countries
Source: Smith, P.K., Cowie, H., Olafsson, R. F., Liefooghe, A. P. D., Almeida, A. Araki, H., del Barrio,
C., Costabile, A., Dekleva, B., Houndoumadi, A., Kim, K., Olaffson, R.P., Ortega, R., Pain, J., Pateraki,
L., Schafer, M., Singer, M., Smorti, A., Toda, Y., Tomasson, H., & Wenxin, Z. (2002). Definitions
of bullying: A comparison of terms used, and age and gender differences, in a fourteen-country
international comparison. Child Development, 73(4), 1119–1133.

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Enculturation 75

excluding a child from playing a game) and two pictures illustrated prosocial behav-
iors (such as offering a pencil to another child who forgot to bring one).

Across all countries, there were few gender differences in what was consid-
ered bullying. In other words, girls and boys defined bullying in very similar ways.
Another similarity across countries was a general age difference in what was consid-
ered bullying: at age 8, children distinguished between aggressive and nonaggressive
behaviors, but at 14, adolescents distinguished between different kinds of aggression:
physical aggression, verbal aggression, and social exclusion. There were also some
cultural differences. In England, bullying was commonly seen as occurring between
two individuals, happening usually on the playground. In contrast, in Japan bullying
was commonly seen as an entire class excluding an individual, happening usually
within the classroom. Other studies in Asian countries have also found that social
exclusion, rather than physical or verbal aggression, is the main form of bullying.
In Korea, for instance, a distinction is made between wang-ta, referring to exclusion
by classmates, and jun-ta, referring to exclusion by the entire school (Koo, Kwak, &
Smith, 2008). In contrast to countries such as England and the United States, in Korea,
girls are more likely to be bullies than boys, and physical aggression is a relatively
rare form of bullying (Koo, Kwak, & Smith, 2008).

Although some progress has been made in studying culturally specific ways
of bullying, future research will also need to focus on new ways of bullying. For
countries that have wide access to technologies such as cell phones, computers, and
the Internet, different forms of peer bullying are emerging such as cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying is defined as bullying through electronic means, for example, using
the Internet, social media, or through text messaging. In the past decade, studies on
cyberbullying around the world have increased sharply (Barlett, Gentile, Anderson,
Suzuki, Sakamoto, Yamaoka, & Katsura, 2014; Cassidy, Faucher, & Jackson, 2013;
Huang & Chou, 2010; Smith, Mahdavi, Carvalho, Fisher, Russell, & Tippett, 2008).
Some of these studies indicated that children who are cyberbullied are less likely to
tell someone about being bullied than children who are bullied in person. Further,
unlike traditional bullying, children report being more likely to experience cyberbul-
lying outside, not inside, of school. Thus, new technologies have created new contexts
for social interactions. Children now have greater opportunities to interact more fre-
quently with a larger, more diverse set of peers, and for a much longer period of time
throughout the day. Future research needs to keep up with rapidly changing tech-
nologies to better understand how new mediums of social interaction are changing
the way we are socialized by our peers.

Summary
From a very young age, we learn from our peers. We want to be like them and do what
they do. Our readiness to learn from our peers means that enculturation is driven to a
large extent also by the peer group, and not just family. What is important to remem-
ber, however, is that peer influence is not always one way. We select which peers to
spend time with, and over time, we influence each other. We learn our culture from
peers, but they also learn from us.

Peers are a large part of one important setting—the education system. Because
children in many parts of the world spend most of their time in school more so than
any other context (Eccles & Roeser, 2011), what happens in the school has been subject
of intense research focus. In the next section we look at various aspects of the educa-
tional system as a major agent of enculturation.

cyberbullying Bullying
through electronic means,
for example, using the Inter-
net, social media, or sending
text messages.

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76 Chapter 3

Culture and the Educational System

The single most important formalized mechanism of instruction in many societies
and cultures today is the educational system. Many of us think of a country’s educa-
tional system solely as an institution that teaches thinking skills and knowledge. But
a society’s educational system is probably the most important institution that teaches
and reinforces its cultural values. In this last part of the chapter, we review key encul-
turation agents within an educational context to show how education and culture are
tightly linked (see Figure 3.6).

School Systems
Educational systems in which children take part play an important role in imparting
cultural values. First of all, the content of what is taught in the schools reflects a priori
choices by that culture or society regarding what it believes is important to learn. Dif-
ferent cultures believe different topics to be important for later success in that society.
By teaching a certain type of content, the educational system reinforces a particular
view of cognition and intelligence.

Another important factor to consider is the environmental setting in which edu-
cation occurs. Many industrialized societies have a formal educational system, with
identifiable areas and structures (schools) and identifiable education agents (teachers)
to “do” education. In other cultures, formalized education may take place in small
groups led by elders of the community. In yet other cultures, formalized education
may be a family task (e.g., the mother tutoring her own children in cognitive and
other skills necessary for members of their community). Regardless of the environ-
mental setting, the vehicle by which education occurs reinforces certain types of
cultural values in its recipients.

The organization, planning, and implementation of lesson plans are other impor-
tant cultural socializers. Some cultures encourage a didactic model of teaching, in
which an expert teacher gives information to students, who are expected to listen and
learn. Other cultures view teachers as leaders through a lesson plan, providing the over-
all structure and framework by which students discover principles and concepts. Some
cultures view the imparting of praise as an important process. Other cultures focus on
mistakes made by students in the learning process. Some cultures have special classes
and mechanisms to deal with many different types of students—for example, students
with learning disabilities, physical handicaps, and special gifts or talents. Other cultures
tend to downplay such differences among their students, treating them all as equals.

Once in school, children spend the majority of their waking hours away from
their parents. The socialization process that began in the primary relationship with
the parents continues with teachers and peers in the classroom and school. School

Important Agents
of Enculturation
That Teach and

Reinforce Cultural Values

Education

School System
Parental and Familial Values

Attitutdes and Appraisals of Students
Teaching Practices

School Environment

Figure 3.6 An Example of Enculturation Within the Context of Education

48951_ch03_ptg01_057-081.indd 76 1/7/16 3:46 PM

Enculturation 77

institutionalizes cultural values and attitudes and is a significant contributor not only
to the intellectual development of the child but, just as important, to the child’s social
and emotional development.

To highlight the role of the educational system as an enculturation agent, one
need only recognize that not all cultures of the world rely solely on an institution-
alized school setting to teach math. For example, important math skills are taught
to Micronesian islanders in the Puluwat culture through navigation, and to coastal
Ghanaians by marketing fish (Acioly & Schliemann, 1986; Gladwin, 1970; Gladwin &
Gladwin, 1971; see also the discussion of everyday cognition in Chapter 4).

Regardless of the way education occurs, the choices a society and culture make
concerning its structure, organization, planning, and implementation all encourage and
reinforce a certain view of culture. We are not always cognizant of our own cultural
view because we are in the middle of it. To see our own biases and choices, we need to
observe education in other cultures and compare what is done elsewhere to what we
do. Through such comparisons, the differences and the similarities often become clear.

Parental and Familial Values
Cultural differences in parenting beliefs about education have an impact on children’s
educational experiences (Chao, 2000; Russell, Crockett, & Chao, 2010). For example,
Japanese and Chinese parents are more likely to consider all children as equal, with
no differences between them. American parents are more likely to recognize differ-
ences and find reasons to treat their children as unique. American parents are also
more likely to consider innate ability more important than effort; for Japanese and
Chinese parents, however, effort is far more important than ability (Stevenson &
Zusho, 2002). These cultural differences among the three countries have enormous
implications for education.

American parents tend to be more easily satisfied at lower levels of competence
than either Japanese or Chinese parents. Also, when problems arise, Americans are
more likely to attribute the cause of the problem to something they cannot do any-
thing about (such as ability). These cultural differences in attribution of causality are
directly related to cultural differences in self-construals, discussed in Chapter 5.

Believing that ability is more important than effort has yet another side to it—a
belief that each child is limited in his or her abilities. In a series of intriguing stud-
ies, Dweck (2008) has found that children who believe that ability, rather than effort,
determines intelligence tend to give up faster when faced with a difficult or challeng-
ing problem. They also prefer easier tasks to more difficult ones. Once this belief that
ability determines intelligence becomes a cultural institution, it dictates how the edu-
cational system should respond. The resulting emphasis in the case of the American
system is to seek unique, innate differences among the students, to generate separate
special classes for these unique groups of students, and generally to individualize the
process of education. As a result, more time is spent on individualized instruction
and less on whole-group instruction.

Research has documented other interesting effects of parental and familial val-
ues related to achievement and academic success. Chao’s (1996) cross-cultural study
examined maternal beliefs regarding school success between Chinese and European
American mothers of preschoolers. She found that Chinese mothers of preschoolers
placed a very high value on education, believed they needed to engage in much time,
effort, and sacrifice in order for their children to succeed, believed in the importance
of direct intervention approaches to their children’s schooling, and believed that they
play a major role in their children’s school success. European American mothers of

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78 Chapter 3

preschoolers in her study also valued education and emphasized reading in the home
as important to school success. However, European American mothers also believed
in a less directive approach in instruction, showed greater concern for building their
children’s social skills and self-esteem, and were concerned about “burnout” if they
pushed their child to excel academically. American parents’ early emphasis on self-
esteem, coupled with satisfaction at lower levels of academic performance (Stevenson
& Zusho, 2002), may partly explain why American adolescents report far higher beliefs
in their mathematical competencies than Hong Kong Chinese adolescents, and yet con-
sistently score lower on math achievement (Liu, 2009). Taken together, these findings
suggest the importance of parental cultural values in understanding academic success.

Attitudes and Appraisals of Students
A number of studies have examined cultural differences between Asian or Asian
American children and European Americans. Pang (1991), for example, studied the
relationships among test anxiety, self-concept, and student perceptions of parental
support in Asian American and European American middle-school students. This
study found that Asian American students exhibited a stronger desire to please par-
ents, greater parental pressure, but also higher levels of parental support, than did the
European American students. Yan and Gaier (1994) looked at causal attributions for
college success and failure in Asian and American college undergraduate and gradu-
ate students; they found that American students attributed academic achievement
more often to ability than did Asian international students. American students also
believed that effort was more important for success than lack of effort was for failure,
whereas Asian international students considered effort equally important for success
or failure. These results are consonant with similar tendencies in parental attitudes
described earlier, and with attributional biases discussed in Chapter 14.

Cross-national differences have been found in other samples as well. Studies
comparing American, German, Russian, and Japanese children’s beliefs about school
performance showed that American children had the highest levels of personal
agency and control expectancy, but the lowest belief-performance correlations (Little,
Oettingen, Stetsenko, & Baltes, 1995; Little et al., 2003). That is, American children
believed they had the most control over their academic outcomes, but this degree of
perceived control was actually unrelated to their actual performance.

Together, these findings suggest that students around the world approach their aca-
demic work with quite different worldviews, attitudes, and attributional styles; that these
differences are related to parental variations found in other research; that they relate to
how children do in school; and that the entire process is intimately related to culture.

Teaching Practices and School Environment
Researchers have found that what happens in the classroom can vary greatly across
cultures. Japanese and Chinese school children spend more days per year in school,
more hours per day in school, a greater proportion of time in school devoted to purely
academic subjects, and a greater proportion of time devoted to math (Takahashi &
Takeuchi, 2006). In addition, Japanese and Chinese teachers spend a greater proportion
of time working with the whole class than do American teachers. As a result, American
students spend less time working under the supervision and guidance of a teacher.

During class, American teachers tend to use praise to reward correct responses.
Teachers in Japan, however, tend to focus on incorrect answers, using them as exam-
ples to lead into discussion of the computational process and math concepts. Teachers

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Enculturation 79

in Taiwan tend to use a process more congruent with the Japanese approach. These
teaching differences speak to the cultural emphasis in the United States on rewarding
uniqueness and individualism and the emphasis in Japan and China on finding ways
to engage in group process and sharing responsibility for mistakes with members of
the group. Praise, while nice, often precludes such discussion.

Finally, cross-cultural differences in the school environment have also been
found. In Japan, principals of eighth-graders reported far fewer behaviors threatening
a safe and orderly learning environment (e.g., intimidation or verbal abuse occurring
between students and classroom disturbances) than in the United States (National
Center for Education Statistics, 2009; Trends in the International Mathematics and Sci-
ence Study, 2007) (see Figure 3.7).

Interestingly, although Japanese principals reported far fewer disturbances, they
were much more likely than U.S. principals to see these disturbances as serious prob-
lems (see Figure 3.8). Taken together, these studies highlight important differences in

Classroom disturbance

Cheating

Vandalism

Theft

Intimidation/verbal abuse of teachers/staff

Intimidation/verbal abuse of other students

Physical injury to other students

20 40 60
Percent

80 100

Japan
United States

Figure 3.7 Percentage of Eighth-Grade Students Whose Principals Reported That
Behavior Threatening a Safe and Orderly Environment Occurs at Least Weekly
Source: Trends in the International Mathematics and Science Study, 2007; National Center for
Education Statistics, 2009.

Classroom disturbance

Cheating

Vandalism

Theft

Intimidation/verbal abuse of teachers/staff

Intimidation/verbal abuse of other students

Physical injury to other students

20 40 60
Percent

80 100

Japan

United States

Figure 3.8 Percentage of Eighth-Grade Students Whose Principals Reported That
Behavior Threatening a Safe and Orderly Environment Is a Serious Problem
Source: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), Trends in
Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), 2007.

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80 Chapter 3

the classroom in terms of teaching style, expectations, and actual behaviors contrib-
ute to children’s academic achievement.

Summary
Research highlights the role of the educational system as an important enculturation
agent in any society. Parents’ and children’s attitudes, educational practices and cur-
ricula, teacher behaviors, and all other associated factors are important transmitters
of culture. They impart important cultural knowledge to the students as members
of a culture or society, and thus play a major role in the socialization and encultura-
tion of children in many societies of the world. Differences in these institutions not
only reflect but reinforce cultural differences in values, beliefs, attitudes, norms, and
behaviors and help transmit this important cultural information from one generation
to the next. The school-age period of life is indeed a critical time in any culture, when
culture is strongly reinforced in children by society as a whole.

P U T T I N G I T A L L T O G E T H E R

The information presented so far speaks to just a few of the many ways in which
enculturation occurs around the world. Differences in parenting styles and child rear-
ing provide learning platforms for children that allow them to achieve developmental
goals fostered by their particular cultures. Each culture’s way of raising children—
through parenting behaviors, sleeping arrangements, educational systems, and other
concrete mechanisms—represents that culture’s way of ensuring that its values and
norms are transmitted to those children. In all cultures, these practices are ritualized
so that this transmission of information can occur generation after generation. Learn-
ing cultural values is as much a part of the process of socialization as it is an outcome
of socialization.

Early cross-cultural work in development (e.g., Caudill & Frost, 1974; Caudill
& Weinstein, 1969) focused primarily on the role of culture in “driving” parenting
behaviors that resulted in changes in the infant and young child. This model suggests
that culture unidirectionally provides the structure and environment for parents,
particularly mothers, to affect their children in culturally appropriate ways: culture →
parent → infant. Others (e.g., Shand & Kosawa, 1985) have focused on biology, propos-
ing a developmental model that starts with the effects of genes, biology, and hered-
ity on infant temperament, which then affects a parent’s behaviors, which in turn
produce cultural differences: genes → infant → parent → culture.

Contemporary theories of child development incorporate elements of both, recog-
nizing that communities, caregivers, and children are dynamic, interactive partners—
all contributing to how children develop (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Grusec & Davidov,
2010; Lerner, 2006; Super & Harkness, 2002). This view suggests that children’s active
processing of information results in the reproduction of culture and the production of
new elements of culture. The interaction of language between parent and child pro-
vides the platform on which divergent points of view construct new realities. These
theories also attempt to discover cultural meanings held in common between parents
and children, rather than assuming a common understanding “imposed” by an out-
side culture.

Future research on the enculturation process will hopefully bridge the gaps
among all of these various components, assessing the interplay among children’s
characteristics (such as temperament, see Chapter 4), parenting styles, institutions,

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Enculturation 81

and psychological culture in the milieu. Although we have focused primarily on chil-
dren in this chapter, it is important to remember that enculturation occurs through-
out our entire lives. On an individual level, we are continually learning and being
socialized into new roles and contexts as we grow older. On a cultural level, cultures
are also changing, creating new contexts for enculturation. We must continually
adapt to ongoing technological innovations and social changes in norms, attitudes,
and behaviors in each culture. Enculturation, therefore, is a lifelong process. Ideally,
future research will include longitudinal studies that will enable researchers to
examine the interactions among various components of the enculturation process, in
the same individuals, in different contexts, across time.

Why Does This Matter to Me?
1. What are some life values that are important to

you (e.g., treat others with respect, work hard
to succeed in life)? How did you come to hold
those values? Who did you learn them from?

2. For those of you who grew up in a different
country than your parents/caregivers, in what
ways do you differ from them in terms of life
values, behaviors, and/or worldviews? In what
ways are you similar to them? How has their

cultural upbringing influenced the way they
have parented you?

3. You are now studying in a college/university.
Think about different experiences in your life
that made this possible. Why did you decide to
continue onto higher education? What role did
your parents, peers, and teachers play in your
decision to continue onto higher education?

Suggestions for Further Exploration
1. Interview your parents/caregivers and ask

them what lessons in life they thought were
important to teach you. Ask them what they
did to pass on these lessons to you. Afterward,
reflect on whether it easy or difficult for them
to describe how they taught you these life
lessons. You might find that it is difficult to
describe how socialization/enculturation occurs
because we are all so deeply immersed in the
process.

2. Find someone from a different culture and
ask about the sleeping arrangements for
babies in his or her culture. Are the sleeping
arrangements similar or different from what is

practiced in your culture? If they are different,
what are the reasons behind this difference?

3. Imagine you are an education researcher in-
terested in understanding why some children
do better in school than others. The theo-
retical framework you adopt for your study is
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems perspective.
According to this perspective, you must con-
sider children’s development on several levels—
the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and
macrosystem. Within each of these four systems,
what are key factors you would focus on to find
out why some children do better in school than
others?

E X P L O R A T I O N A N D D I S C O V E R Y

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CHAPTER CONTENTS

Culture and Temperament

What Is Temperament?

The Goodness of Fit between Temperament
and Culture

Cross-Cultural Studies on Temperament

Temperament and Learning Culture

Dimensions of Temperament: A Focus
on Behavioral Inhibition

Sources behind Temperamental Differences

Culture and Attachment

Traditional Views of Attachment: Bowlby
and Ainsworth

Cross-Cultural Studies and Contemporary
Views on Attachment

Temperament and Attachment:
A Summary

Cognitive Development

Piaget’s Theory

Piaget’s Theory in Cross-Cultural Perspective

Piaget’s Theory: Summary and Discussion

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive
Development

Moral Reasoning

What Is Moral?

Kohlberg’s Theory of Morality

Cross-Cultural Studies of Moral Reasoning

Three Ethics Approach to Moral Reasoning

CONCLUSION

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY
Why Does This Matter to Me?
Suggestions for Further Exploration

4 Culture and Developmental
Processes

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Culture and Developmental Processes 83

Are people born with inherent, biological predispositions to behavioral and cultural
differences, or are such differences due entirely to environment and upbringing?
What psychological differences are there in childhood and development when people
are raised in different cultures? This chapter examines the main question of what kind
of developmental differences exists across cultures during infancy and childhood,
and beyond. A considerable amount of cross-cultural research has been conducted
on topics such as temperament, attachment, and cognitive and moral development; in
this chapter, we review that literature. The information presented complements that
in the previous chapter (Chapter 3); together they provide an in-depth view of the role
of culture on developmental processes.

First, we define what “development” is. Human development is how people
change over time on many different levels—biological, physical, cognitive, emotional,
and social. Development, however, is more than just change. Development refers to
changes that show greater complexity, organization, and competencies. Dyeing your
hair from brown to purple is an example of change. Accruing greater perception, bal-
ance, and spatial skills as a young child that enable you to go from crawling to walk-
ing, is an example of development.

One important issue in understanding human development is whether develop-
mental pathways are universal or culture specific. Earlier theories of human devel-
opment, for example, assumed a “universal child.” In-depth observational studies
conducted by Arnold Gesell in the 1930s and 1940s established a normative timetable
for motor development milestones among infants (when do babies start grasping, roll-
ing over, sitting, crawling, walking). The timing of these milestones was assumed to
be the same for children all over the world. Cross-cultural studies have shown, how-
ever, that the timing also depends on culture (Cole, 2006). Contemporary theorists of
human development recognize there are universal developmental pathways (e.g., all
children undergo puberty) as well as culture-specific developmental pathways (e.g.,
the experience, meaning, and implications for undergoing puberty vary across cul-
tures). In this chapter, we will discuss what aspects of temperament, attachment, and
cognitive and moral development appear to be universal, and what aspects appear to
be culture specific.

Another important issue for understanding human development is to explain
what drives development. In other words, how do we become the people that we
are? Is it because of nature (our genetic and biological predispositions) or nurture
(the environment in which we grew up in)? Contemporary theorists of human devel-
opment agree that development is not primarily driven by nature or nurture, but of
nature’s close interaction with nurture—the two cannot be separated. Thus, develop-
ment is the result of the interaction between the characteristics that children are born
with (such as temperament), and children’s relations to their unique environment—
the people, settings, institutions, and culture in which they grow up (Bronfenbrenner,
1979; Lerner, 2006). This developmental contextualism perspective proposes that the
multiple levels of a developing child—ranging from the inner biological, psychologi-
cal, social relational, and sociocultural—are inextricably intertwined and function
as an integrated system. Developmental contextualism stresses that it is the relation
between these changing multiple levels that constitutes human development. This
contemporary view of development is complex, dynamic, and counters traditional
views of development where either nature or nurture was emphasized to a greater
degree than the other.

developmental con-
textualism A contempo-
rary theoretical perspective
that proposes that the mul-
tiple levels of a developing
child—ranging from the
inner biological, psychologi-
cal, social relational, and so-
ciocultural—are inextricably
intertwined and function as
an integrated system. De-
velopmental contextualism
stresses that it is the relation
between these changing
multiple levels that consti-
tutes human development.

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Andrea Mahe

84 Chapter 4

Culture and Temperament

As discussed in Chapter 3, the process of socialization starts early, from the very first
day of life. The biological temperament and predispositions we bring with us into
the world at birth are an integral part of the socialization process. In other words,
the characteristics we are born with determine, to some extent, how our caregivers
react and interact with us, initiating the lifelong process of socialization. We begin
this review by examining the possibility that children of different cultures are born
with different biological predispositions to learn certain cultural practices— that is,
the issue of temperament.

What Is Temperament?
Any parent can tell you that no two babies are alike. It is not simply that they look
different but that they differ from the very beginning in temperament. Each baby has
its own way of being in the world—easygoing or fussy, active or quiet. These quali-
ties of responsiveness to the environment evoke different reactions from people in the
baby’s world. Temperament is a biologically based style of interacting with the world
that exists from birth. Although it is biologically based, it does not mean that tem-
perament is fixed at birth or impervious to experience. Instead, temperament reflects
an interaction between a child’s predispositions and experiences in life. And, while
temperament is relatively stable, it can be modified over time (Fox, Henderson, Rubin,
Calkins, & Schmidt, 2001; Rothbart & Bates, 2006).

Thomas and Chess (1977), pioneers in the study of temperament, described three
major categories: easy, difficult, and slow-to-warm-up. Easy temperament is defined
by a very regular, adaptable, mildly intense style of behavior that is positive and
responsive. Difficult temperament is an intense, irregular, withdrawing style, gener-
ally marked by negative moods. Slow-to-warm-up children need time to make tran-
sitions in activity and experiences (see Figures 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3). Though they may
withdraw initially or respond negatively, given time and support they will adapt and
react positively. A child’s temperamental style is believed to provide a foundation for
later personality (see Chapter 6).

The Goodness of Fit between Temperament and Culture
Thomas and Chess (1977) developed an important concept in temperament research—
the notion of goodness of fit. Goodness of fit refers to how well the child’s tempera-
ment matches the expectations and values of the parent, environment, and culture. If
there is a mismatch, more negative child outcomes are expected. Conversely, if there
is a good match, better child outcomes are expected.

Research on Masai infants in Kenya has corroborated the importance of the
goodness of fit between an infant’s temperament and his or her environment. Based
on Thomas and Chess’s (1977) temperament classifications, DeVries (1984, 1989) iden-
tified difficult and easy Masai infants and followed them for several years. What was
considered a “difficult” temperament by Western standards actually became a protec-
tive factor against malnutrition during a time of drought. Those infants who were
classified as difficult had a greater chance of survival compared with their easy coun-
terparts. DeVries explained this surprising finding by suggesting that the difficult
infants, who were very active and fussy, demanded and consequently received more
feeding and caring from their mothers. Thus, a particular type of temperament may

temperament Quali-
ties of responsiveness to the
environment that exist from
birth and evoke different
reactions from people in the
baby’s world. Temperament
is generally considered to be
a biologically based style of
interacting with the world.

easy temperament A
type of temperament that is
defined by a very regular,
adaptable, mildly intense
style of behavior that is posi-
tive and responsive.

difficult
temperament A type
of temperament that is
characterized by an intense,
irregular, withdrawing style
that is generally marked by
negative moods.

slow-to-warm-up
A type of temperament in
which infants need time to
make transitions in activity
and experiences. Though
they may withdraw initially
or respond negatively, given
time and support they will
adapt and react positively.

goodness of fit How
well a child’s temperament
fits into the expectations and
values of the parents, envi-
ronment, and culture.

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Andrea Mahe

Culture and Developmental Processes 85

Figure 4.1
Easy Temperament Is Defined by a Very
Regular, Adaptable, Mildly Intense Style of
Behavior That Is Positive and Responsive
Source: Supri Suharjoto/Shutterstock.com

Figure 4.2
A Difficult Temperament Is an Intense,
Irregular, Withdrawing Style, Generally
Marked by Negative Moods
Source: Shanta Giddens/Shutterstock.com

Figure 4.3
Slow-to-Warm-Up Infants Need Time
to Make Transitions in Activity and
Experiences
Source: Steffen Foerster Photography/Shutter-
stock.com

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86 Chapter 4

be adaptive in one culture and maladaptive in another. His findings demonstrated
that the way we interpret an infant’s dispositions and behaviors must be considered
in relation to the specific culture; the same dispositions and behaviors may have dif-
ferent meanings when placed in a different cultural context.

Cross-Cultural Studies on Temperament
The implications of cross-cultural differences in temperament, if they exist, are large.
If children of other cultures have different temperaments at birth, they will respond
to the environment differently. Moreover, they will evoke different responses from
caregivers and their environment. These two fundamental differences—in tempera-
ment and environmental response—should produce a fundamental difference in the
learning and social experiences of those children, and consequently in their world-
view and culture as they grow older.

In general, most of the earlier literature on temperament has compared North
American or Western European infants to Asian infants, with the conclusion that
Asian infants seem to have a predisposition to be less irritable compared to North
American or Western European infants. Freedman (1974) found that Chinese
American babies were calmer and more placid than European American babies or
African American babies. When a cloth was placed on their faces covering their
noses, the Chinese American babies lay quietly and breathed through their mouths.
The other babies turned their heads or tried to pull the cloth off with their hands. In
other studies, Chinese, Japanese, and Hmong infants were significantly less active,
less irritable, and less vocal than European American infants (Caudill & Frost, 1974;
Kagan, Snidman, Arcus, & Reznick, 1994; Muret-Wagstaff & Moore, 1989). It is impor-
tant to note that there is variation among Asian countries as well. A study comparing
newborns from China and Japan demonstrated that Chinese newborns were more
irritable compared to Japanese newborns (Loo, Ohgi, Zhu, Akiyama, Howard, &
Chen, 2005). Taken together, studies of newborns show that very early on in life, tem-
peramental differences are evident across cultures.

Temperament and Learning Culture
The quiet temperament and placidity that are notable in infants from Asian back-
grounds may be further stabilized in later infancy and childhood by the response
of caregivers. For instance, Chinese parents value the harmony that is maintained
through emotional restraint and emphasize and reinforce quiet behaviors (Bond &
Wang, 1983; Chen, Wang, & Desouza, 2006). Differences in infant temperament may
make it easier for parents of different cultures to engage in parenting styles and
behaviors that teach and reinforce their particular cultural practices. Temperament,
therefore, may serve as a baseline biological predisposition of the infant that allows
this type of learning to occur.

The cultural differences that we find concerning temperament, evident very
early in life, give us a clue to what kinds of personalities and behaviors are val-
ued in a culture as an adult. For instance, in Japan, nonreactivity (which is related
to not expressing emotionality) is more valued than in Western cultures, where
higher levels of reactivity (expression of emotionality) are more acceptable. The dif-
ferences in temperament we see in the first few days of life may be a reflection of
what each culture values concerning appropriate ways of acting and being. A child’s
temperament and the environmental response to his or her temperamental style
will most likely result in differences in the learning and social experiences of those

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Andrea Mahe

Culture and Developmental Processes 87

children, and consequently in their behaviors, personalities, and worldviews as they
become adults.

Dimensions of Temperament: A Focus on Behavioral Inhibition
Current research on temperament has included a wider range of samples beyond
North American and Asian countries, including infants from Poland, Russia, Israel,
Spain (Gartstein Slobodskaya, Żylicz, Gosztyła, & Nakagawa, 2010), Australia, South
Korea, and Italy (Rubin et al., 2006). Current research has also focused on specific
temperamental dimensions (as opposed to general temperamental styles such as
Thomas and Chess’s approach). At least six temperament dimensions have been iden-
tified: activity level (gross motor activity such as moving arms and legs and squirm-
ing), smiling and laughter (being sociable), fear (showing distress in novel situations,
also known as behavioral inhibition), distress to limitations (levels of distress when
an infant’s goal is blocked), soothability (how easy it is to soothe an infant when dis-
tressed), and duration of orienting (how long an infant pays attention to an object
when no other stimulations are introduced) (Rothbart, 1981; Rothbart, Sheese, &
Conradt, 2009). Of these six dimensions, the one that has received the most attention
cross-culturally is behavioral inhibition.

Behavioral inhibition refers to when a child shows signs of wariness, discomfort,
or distress when confronted with novel, challenging, or unfamiliar situations (Kagan,
Snidman, Kahn, & Towsley, 2007). Kagan and colleagues have studied this aspect of
temperament longitudinally, by testing infants early in life, at 4 months of age, and
following them to young adulthood. To study behavioral inhibition, the infants sat in
a chair (like a car seat) and various stimuli were introduced—an interesting mobile,
a noise, or a scent. The researchers found that infants who reacted more negatively
to new stimuli by becoming very agitated—balling up their fists, squirming around,
crying—were more likely to become anxious and worrisome young adults compared
to those who remained calm and relaxed when exposed to the same stimuli. The
researchers were able to show that even as infants, children display variations in
temperamental characteristics such as behavioral inhibition, and these characteristics
may be early indicators of underlying personalities later in life.

A child who displays behavioral inhibition in novel social situations is consid-
ered “shy.” This temperamental aspect has received much attention because it has
been clearly linked to children’s adjustment and social competence. In some cultures,
such as in North America, shyness is not a desirable trait. Shy children are considered
socially immature and are less liked by their peers in North America than assertive
children (Chen, Rubin, & Sun, 1992). Shyness in North America has also been linked
to greater anxiety, loneliness, and a more negative and stressful family environ-
ment in childhood (Rubin, Chen, McDougall, Bower, & McKinnon, 1995; Volbrecht &
Goldsmith, 2010).

In other cultures, however, shyness is a highly desirable trait. Shy children in
China are considered mature, well behaved, and understanding (Chen et al., 1992).
They also tend to have high self-esteem and do well in school (Chen et al., 1992; Chen
et al., 2006; Chen, Rubin, Li, & Li, 1999). In fact, in sharp contrast to children in North
America, shy children in China are more socially accepted by their peers than asser-
tive children (Chen et al., 1992). Thus, the same temperamental disposition will be
discouraged and provoke negative responses from parents and peers in one culture,
while in another, it will be encouraged and positively reinforced. If a child’s tempera-
ment matches what is valued in that cultural context (an example of “goodness of fit”)
then more positive developmental outcomes are expected. If a child’s temperament

behavioral
inhibition An aspect
of temperament where a
child shows signs of wari-
ness, discomfort, or distress
when confronted with novel,
challenging, or unfamiliar
situations. Also known as
fearfulness or shyness.

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88 Chapter 4

does not match what is valued in that cultural context (a “poor fit”) then negative
developmental outcomes are expected (Rubin et al., 2006). Culture provides the mean-
ing and consequences related to particular temperamental traits.

Interestingly, cultures and communities may change in terms of which tempera-
mental traits are desirable. Chen and colleagues’ most recent study of urban and rural
Chinese children demonstrated how cultural ideals concerning shyness are changing
in the context of globalization (Chen, Wang, & Wang, 2009). In their study of almost
1,000 school-aged children, they found that shyness was associated with leadership,
social competence, and academic achievement—but only for children living in rural
areas in China. In urban areas, shyness was associated with more depression and
more social and school problems for children—similar to what has been found in
North American studies. The authors noted that China has undergone many signifi-
cant changes (social and economic) in the last several decades such that competition,
individual freedom, and self-expression are increasingly emphasized. Subsequently,
characteristics such as assertiveness are increasingly valued and deemed necessary to
be successful—at least in urban areas. This is a rather startling change in just 30 years.

Sources behind Temperamental Differences
The research reviewed thus far shows cross-cultural differences in which tempera-
mental styles may be more common in a culture and how temperamental styles are
related to children’s adjustment. Why does temperament differ across cultures? From
a developmental contextualism perspective, differences in temperament reflect differ-
ences in genetics and in reproductive histories as well as environmental and cultural
pressures over generations that may have helped to produce minor biological dif-
ferences in infants through a functionally adaptive process. Saco-Pollitt (1989), for
instance, investigated how altitude may relate to newborn behaviors. She compared
Peruvian infants who were raised in high-altitude (in the Andes) and low-altitude
(Lima) environments. She reported that in comparison with low-altitude infants, those
raised in the Andes were less attentive, less responsive, and less active, and had a more
difficult time quieting themselves. The harsh environment of living in the high Andes
may have contributed to these differences. Another study of Nepalese infants, who
by Western standards were undernourished, found that they were actually more alert
and had better motor performance compared with a sample of U.S. infants (Walsh
Escarce, 1989). The researcher hypothesized that these findings may reflect an adap-
tation on the part of the Nepalese infant to years of poverty. She also noted that the
cultural practice of daily massaging the infant, along with special rituals surrounding
the baby, may have contributed to their higher alertness and motor performance.

In addition to environmental pressures, the cultural experiences of the mother
during pregnancy, including diet and other culture-related practices, may contrib-
ute to a prenatal environment that modifies an infant’s biological composition. The
fetal environment is one context in which significant stimulation occurs. Chisholm
(1983) argued that cross-cultural differences between Navajo and European American
infants (Navajo infants were less irritable than European American infants) can partly
be attributed to the prenatal environment. Mothers with higher blood pressures dur-
ing the second and third trimesters had infants who were more irritable—and Navajo
mothers, on average, reported lower blood pressure than the European American
mothers. This connection between maternal blood pressure and infant irritability has
also been found in Malaysian, Chinese, and Aboriginal and white Australian infants
(Chisholm, 1981; Chisholm, Woodson, & da Costa Woodson, 1978). A more recent
study on the prenatal environment found that mothers who reported high anxiety

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Culture and Developmental Processes 89

during pregnancy were more likely to have newborns who spent less time in quiet
and active alert and showed poorer motor performance compared to newborns whose
mothers reported low anxiety (Field et al., 2003). Although the prenatal environment
has been linked to aspects of infant temperament, there are still very few studies
that examine this link and even fewer that examine this link cross-culturally. Subse-
quently, the nature and consequences of prenatal stimulation, and possible variations
across cultures, are still largely unknown (Talge, Neal, & Glover, 2007).

Whatever the causal mechanism, temperamental differences that are evident
from birth contribute to the personality differences we observe in adults of differ-
ent cultures (see Chapter 6). Therefore, it is important to understand the magnitude
of their contributions as building blocks in the development of adult members in
cultures around the world. Future research in this area should focus on the cultural
practices and actual behaviors of people of different cultural groups, and examine the
relationship between these practices and behaviors with infant temperament.

In sum, cross-cultural research suggests that there are group differences across
cultures in infants’ and children’s temperaments. These differences are the result of
the complex interplay between multiple factors such as what temperamental styles are
valued in each culture, specific environmental demands (such as living in poverty or
in a high-altitude environment), and physiological aspects of the mother (for example,
higher blood pressure). Some aspects of temperament appear to be universal. Stud-
ies of behavioral inhibition find infants from around the world who exhibit a higher
level of fear or discomfort when confronted with a novel stimulation. However, the
developmental consequences associated with this aspect of temperament vary by the
specific culture. Future research should continue to examine the interaction between
children’s temperament and the caregiving environment into which they are born to
better understand the process of how children eventually learn to internalize the val-
ues, attitudes, and behaviors appropriate to their culture.

Culture and Attachment

Traditional View of Attachment: Bowlby and Ainsworth
Attachment refers to the special bond that develops between the infant and his or her
primary caregivers and provides the infant with emotional security. Once attached,
babies are distressed by separation from their caregiver (separation distress or anxi-
ety). There is evidence that seven- to nine-month-old infants in many different cul-
tures show distress when they are separated from their primary caregiver (Grossman
& Grossman, 1990). Many psychologists believe that the quality of attachment with
caregivers during childhood has lifelong effects on our relationships with loved ones
later.

Bowlby’s (1969) evolutionary theory of attachment proposed that infants have
a preprogrammed, biological basis for becoming attached to their caregivers. This
innate behavioral repertoire includes smiling and cooing to elicit physical attachment
behaviors on the part of the caregiver. He argued that the attachment relationship
between caregiver and child functioned as a survival strategy: Infants had a greater
chance of survival if they remained close to the caregiver for comfort and protection.

Attachment as a survival strategy is illustrated in a study in Nigeria of Hausa
infants and their caregivers (Marvin, VanDevender, Iwanaga, LeVine, & LeVine, 1977).
The researchers reported that the attachment relationship protected infants from the
dangers of their environment, which included open fires, tools, and utensils that were

Temperamental

differences that are

evident from birth

contribute to the

personality differences

we observe in adults of

different cultures.

attachment The special
bond that develops between
the infant and his or her pri-
mary caregiver and provides
the infant with emotional
security. The quality of at-
tachment has lifelong effects
on our relationships with
loved ones.

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90 Chapter 4

easily accessible. Infants explored their environment, but only when they were in
close proximity to an attachment figure. Similarly, among the Dogon of Mali, infants
were always kept in close proximity with the mother (being held most of the time)
and infants did not roam freely, thus avoiding dangers such as open fires, snakes, and
animal droppings (True, Pisani, & Oumar, 2001).

Based on Bowlby’s attachment theory, Ainsworth’s (1967, 1977) study of mothers
and infants in Uganda led to the tripartite classification system of attachment rela-
tionships. Based on her careful observations of 26 mother–infant pairs over a span of
one year, she described three attachment styles: secure, ambivalent, and avoidant.
The latter two attachment styles she labeled as “insecurely attached.” The secure style
described infants who became distressed when their mother left but were easily com-
forted by her when she returned. The ambivalent style described infants who also
experienced distress when their mother left but when she returned they sent mixed
signals—they wanted to be comforted by her yet, at the same time, appeared to have
a difficult time letting her soothe them. The avoidant style described infants who did
not seem to be distressed when their mother left and when she returned these infants
actively avoided reuniting with their mother and instead focused their attention else-
where. Ainsworth later replicated her results in a sample of U.S. (from Baltimore,
Maryland) mothers and their infants. In her samples, she found that approximately
57% of mothers and infants were classified as securely attached, 25% as ambivalent,
and 18% as avoidant (Ainsworth, 1967; 1977).

Studies from other cultures have found a similar distribution of attachment clas-
sifications; others have found considerable differences. And some attachment styles
are not reported in certain cultures. For example, no avoidant infants were found in
True et al.’s (2001) study of the Dogon of Mali. Mali mothers kept their infants close
to them throughout the day and practiced constant, responsive nursing (nursing on
demand when the infant is hungry or distressed). This type of caregiving, True et al.
argued, “prevents” avoidant attachment to the mother. These findings highlight the
importance of understanding the attachment system in the context of parenting prac-
tices specific to each culture.

Cross-Cultural Studies and a Contemporary View on Attachment
Since Ainsworth’s early studies, hundreds of studies of attachment have been conducted
in cultures all over the world. To measure attachment, the Strange Situation, devel-
oped by Ainsworth, has been the most widely used. In the Strange Situation, infants
are brought into a research lab and separated from their mothers for a brief period
of time. During this brief separation a stranger comes into the room to interact with
the infant. The separation and interaction with the stranger is thought to trigger the
attachment system in the infant. The quality of attachment is derived partly from an
assessment of the infant’s reaction to the separation, to the stranger, and subsequent
reunion with the mother.

Although this method has been used extensively across cultures, the cross-
cultural validity of this method and the meaning of the attachment classifications
themselves have been questioned for some time. One main issue is that the meaning
of the separation may differ across cultures (Takahashi, 1990). Japanese infants are
rarely separated from their mothers, and the separation during the Strange Situation
may represent a highly unusual situation that may imply something different for
Japanese infants and their mothers than for U.S. infants and their mothers.

More recently, Otto and colleagues (2013) have argued that the attempt to stan-
dardize a test such as the Strange Situation cuts out key cultural features that are
necessary for interpreting attachment behaviors. Using modified Strange Situation

secure attachment A
style of attachment in which
infants are described as
warm and responsive to
their caregiver.

ambivalent
attachment A style of
attachment in which chil-
dren are uncertain in their
response to their mothers,
going back and forth be-
tween seeking and shunning
her attention. These mothers
have been characterized
as insensitive and less
involved.

avoidant
attachment A style of at-
tachment in which children
shun their mothers, who are
suspected of being intrusive
and overstimulating.

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Culture and Developmental Processes 91

procedures that are conducted not in a lab but in a natural environment such as the
home, these researchers showed that the interpretation of reactions and interactions
with strangers—one of the key ways to measure attachment—heavily depended on
the developmental goals of the culture. Studies of infants’ reactions to strangers in
Cameroon versus Germany, for instance, showed very different patterns of behavior.
In Cameroon, young children are cared for by multiple caregivers and children are
actively socialized to be comfortable with strangers. In the modified Strange Situa-
tion, when a stranger picks up the baby and the baby is uncomfortable, the mother
may not intervene but allow it some time to get used to the stranger. In contrast,
German children are usually primarily cared for by the mother, so strangers look to
the mother as an important point of reference on how to handle the baby, and wait for
cues from both the mother and infant on whether and how to approach (Otto, Potin-
ius, & Keller, 2013). Otto and colleagues argued that observing scripted parent–child
interactions in a research lab that is void of the cultural context gives an inaccurate
picture of the quality of attachment relationships.

In addition to criticisms leveled at the traditional measurement of attachment,
cross-cultural researchers have questioned how secure attachment is developed. In
other words, what must caregivers do to promote secure attachment? Mothers of
securely attached infants are described as sensitive, warm, and more positive in their
emotional expression. Mothers of avoidant children are suspected of being intrusive
and overstimulating. Mothers of ambivalent children have been characterized as
being insensitive and uninvolved. Thus, according to Ainsworth, a major determi-
nant of attachment security is having a caregiver who is sensitive and responsive to
the child’s needs. In a review of 65 studies of attachment, however, caregiver sensitiv-
ity was related only modestly to security of attachment (De Wolff & van IJzendoorn,
1997). And studies with other cultures found an even weaker connection between
parent sensitivity and security of attachment (van IJzendoorn & Sagi, 1999).

One possible reason for why maternal sensitivity has not been consistently linked
to secure attachment is that sensitivity may mean different things and be expressed
in different ways across cultures. One study contrasted U.S. caregivers’ with Japanese
caregivers’ sensitive responsiveness (Rothbaum, Weisz, Pott, Miyake, & Morelli, 2000).
In the United States, parents tend to wait for their child to express and communicate a
need and then respond to that need. In other words, sensitive parenting in the United
States allows the child to express his or her individual needs to the parent so that the
parent can appropriately address those needs. In contrast, in Japan, parents tend to
anticipate their child’s needs instead of waiting for their child to communicate a need.
This can be done by being aware of situations that may cause distress to a child and
anticipating ways to minimize the stress.

Rothbaum and colleagues argued that researchers need to pay more attention to
how different cultures conceptualize and demonstrate sensitive parenting to better
understand what type of parenting leads to secure attachment. Further, parenting
behaviors that, from a Western perspective, may seem to promote insecure attach-
ment, may, in fact, do the opposite in other cultures. For example, Ainsworth sug-
gested that parenting that is “intrusive,” namely, directive and controlling, leads to an
insecure attachment. However, this type of parenting may have an entirely different
meaning in non-Western cultures (Chao, 1996). What Westerners may see as inappro-
priate and “intrusive,” parents in other parts of the world may see as appropriate and
“guiding” (Keller, 2013; Otto et al., 2013).

Indeed, even the idea of maternal sensitivity that Ainsworth described as neces-
sary for secure attachment is based on the idea that infants are unique, separate, and
autonomous persons who participate in a somewhat equal interaction with their care-
giver, a cultural framework that is not shared by other cultures (Keller, 2013). Cultures

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92 Chapter 4

vary in conceptions of the self (see Chapter 5), which will shape how the self is per-
ceived in relation to others, and subsequently, of attachment relationships. Thus, chil-
dren in some cultures will have developed a different kind of “relational security”
that is not defined by a close, emotional bond with one or few specific caregivers, but
by a deep trust in a strong network of general, communal support (Keller 2013).

Contemporary scholars of attachment such as Keller are leading the call for a
radical new approach to theorizing about attachment, one that grounds attachment
in specific cultures, communities, and contexts. To demonstrate, Keller (2013) pro-
posed three cultural models that set the stage for different attachment relationships:
psychological autonomy, hierarchical relatedness, and hybrid (see Figure 4.4). The psy-
chological autonomy model is the foundation for Bowlby and Ainsworth’s theories of
attachment. In this cultural model, infants are conceptualized as autonomous, unique
individuals. Caregiving that promotes a strong emotional bond between infants and
one or few caregivers is adaptive. In the hierarchical relatedness cultural model,
infants are part of a network of attachment relationships that are hierarchical, where
caregivers use a more directive approach in raising their children. The primary rela-
tionship for infants is not with one or few caregivers, but with the entire social com-
munity. Infants in this cultural environment have a sense of security not based on a
specific caregiver or relationship, but security derived from being a part of a network
of community members. The network is reliable and available, not just the parent. In
the hybrid cultural model there is a blend of both, emphasizing autonomous related-
ness. This type of model may emphasize both unique attachment relationships with
one or few caregivers and, at the same time, view the social community as another
integral part of the network of attachment.

Keller argued that other adaptive attachment conceptualizations may be derived
from other cultural models. The task for the next generation of attachment research-
ers is to systematically study different cultural models and infant caregiver–commu-
nity relationships that are adaptive for that particular culture. It is increasingly clear
that the traditional view of attachment, as a primary relationship between mother
and child, is just one of several possible models of attachment that is adaptive for a
particular cultural context. The form and organization of attachment relationships
between infants and their caregivers may differ depending on cultural models such
as these three proposed by Keller (2013).

Three Cultural Models of Attachment

• There are strong
emotional bonds
between infants and
one or few caregivers.
Infants are
conceptualized as
autonomous, unique
individuals.

• Infants in this cultural
environment have a
sense of security not
based on a specific
caregiver or relationship,
but security within a
network of community
members.

• This cultural model
emphasizes unique
attachment relationships
with one or few
caregivers and at the
same time, view the
social community as
another integral part of
the network of
attachment.

Psychological
Autonomy

Hierarchical
Relatedness

Hybrid

Figure 4.4 The Form and Organization of Attachment Relationships between
Infants and Their Caregivers May Differ Depending on Cultural Models Such as These
Three Proposed by Keller (2013)

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Culture and Developmental Processes 93

In sum, the traditional view of attachment proposed by Bowlby and Ainsworth
privileged the mother–infant relationship as necessary, primary, and unique for positive
child development. The vast literature concerning attachment in different cultures has
shifted slowly away from the notion that attachment between infants and one primary
caregiver (usually the mother) is a universal phenomenon. The contemporary view
of attachment argues that relationship security in the form of a strong bond between
infants and a community of caregivers can also be developmentally adaptive. Further,
attachment scholars have moved away from using the evaluative terms “secure” and
“insecure,” replaced by terms such as “adaptive” and “maladaptive” (Crittenden, 2000;
Keller, 2013). “Adaptive” attachments, then, would refer to relationships or a network of
relationships that promote the maximum level of safety for the child within a specific
cultural context. Researchers could then define an “optimal” relationship between the
infant and the caregiver or community of caregivers as one that may be achieved in dif-
ferent ways, under different circumstances, in different cultures.

Temperament and Attachment: A Summary

Much still needs to be done to understand the attachment patterns in other cul-
tures and the relationship among cultural milieu, infant temperament, and infant–
caregiver relationships. Notions about what type of relationship in the early years
of life is necessary and optimal to ensure survival in different cultures and commu-
nities are still being discovered. The attachment literature is finally acknowledging
how the predominant theory of attachment laid down by Bowlby and Ainsworth is
very much culturally bound.

The information presented so far concerning temperament and attachment rela-
tionships reveals just a few of the many ways in which enculturation occurs around
the world. Children may be born with differences in biological predispositions or
temperament that may make it easier for them to engage in the cultural learning that
occurs throughout socialization and enculturation. Differences in attachment provide
learning platforms for children that allow them to achieve developmental goals fos-
tered by their particular cultures. Thus, the temperamental characteristics with which
you were born, your caregivers’ responses to your temperamental style, and the resul-
tant attachment relationship you develop with your caregiver or community together
play important roles in how you come to acquire your culture. There is a close inter-
action between a child’s temperament, attachment relationship with his or her care-
giver or community, and broader environment (e.g., cultural expectations of desirable
temperament and attachment relationships) that contribute to a child’s development.

We turn now to examine culture’s role in two major developmental processes:
cognitive and moral development. These topics are of great interest to developmental
psychologists, both mainstream and cross-cultural.

Cognitive Development

Piaget’s Theory
Cognitive development is a specialty in psychology that studies how thinking skills
and processes develop over time. In other words, psychologists interested in cogni-
tive development focus on how children perceive and come to understand the world
around them. Theories of cognitive development have traditionally focused on the

cognitive develop-
ment A specialty in
psychology that studies how
thinking skills develop over
time. The major theory of
cognitive development is
that of Piaget.

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period from infancy to adolescence. The theory that has dominated the field of cross-
cultural studies of cognition is Piaget’s stage theory of cognitive development.

Piaget based his theories on detailed, intensive observations of his own three
children as well as other children. He found that children tended to solve problems
quite differently at different ages. What was more interesting to Piaget was not why
children solved problems correctly, but why children of similar ages tended to make
the same mistake in solving problems incorrectly. To explain these differences, Piaget
(1952) proposed that children progress through four stages as they grow from infancy
into adolescence (see Figure 4.5).

Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development are as follows.

1. Sensorimotor stage. This stage typically lasts from birth to about two years of
age. In this stage, children understand the world through their sensory percep-
tions and motor behaviors. In other words, children understand by perceiving
and doing. The most important achievement of this stage is the capability to use
mental symbols to represent objects and events. The acquisition of object perma-
nence—that is, knowing that objects exist even when they cannot be seen—illus-
trates this achievement. Early in this stage, children appear to assume that when
a toy or other object is hidden (e.g., when a ball rolls under a sofa), it ceases to
exist. Later in this stage, children will search under the sofa for the lost ball, dem-
onstrating that they have come to understand that objects exist continuously.

Other cognitive developments that also depend on the development of men-
tal representation typical of this stage include deferred imitation and language
acquisition. These developments have important implications for later cognitive
development and enculturation. Imitation is an important cognitive component
of observational learning, and language skills are necessary to ensure proper
communication of verbal socialization processes.

2. Preoperational stage. This stage lasts from about two to six or seven years of age.
Piaget described children’s thinking at this stage in terms of five characteristics:
conservation, centration, irreversibility, egocentrism, and animism. Conservation
is the awareness (or in this stage, the lack of awareness) that physical quantities
remain the same even when they change shape or appearance. Centration is
the tendency to focus on a single aspect of a problem. Irreversibility is the
inability to imagine “undoing” a process. Egocentrism is the inability to step into
another’s shoes and understand the other person’s point of view. Animism is the
belief that all things, including inanimate objects, are alive. For example, children
in the preoperational stage may regard a book lying on its side as “tired” or
“needing a rest,” or they may think that the moon is following them. Children at
this stage do not yet think in a logical and systematic manner.

conservation An aware-
ness that physical quanti-
ties remain the same even
when they change shape or
appearance.

centration The tendency
to focus on a single aspect of
a problem.

irreversibility The in-
ability to imagine “undoing”
a process.

egocentrism The in-
ability to step into another’s
shoes and understand the
other person’s point of view.

animism The belief that
all things, including inani-
mate objects, are alive.

Figure 4.5 Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor
Stage

• Children
understand
the world
through their
sensory
perceptions
and motor
behaviors.

Preoperational
Stage

• Children use
symbols,
such as
language, to
understand
the world
around them.

Operational
Stage

• Children
develop the
ability
to think
logically
about
concrete
objects.

Formal
Operational
Stage • Individuals

develop the
ability to
think logically
about
abstract
concepts.

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Culture and Developmental Processes 95

3. Concrete operations stage. This stage lasts from about six or seven years until
about eleven years of age. During this stage, children acquire new thinking skills
to work with actual objects and events. They are able to imagine undoing an
action, and they can focus on more than one feature of a problem. Children also
begin to understand that there are points of view different from their own. This
new awareness helps children master the principle of conservation. A child in the
concrete operations stage will understand that six apples are always six apples,
regardless of how they are grouped or spaced and that the amount of clay does
not change as a lump is molded into different shapes. This ability is not present
in the preoperational stage. However, instead of thinking a problem through,
children in this stage tend to rely on trial-and-error strategies.

4. Formal operations stage. This stage extends from around 11 years of age through
adulthood. During this stage, individuals develop the ability to think logically
about abstract concepts, such as peace, freedom, and justice. Individuals also
become more systematic and thoughtful in their approach to problem solving.

The transition from one stage to another is often gradual, as children develop
new abilities alongside earlier ways of thinking. Thus, the behavior of some children
may represent a “blend” of two stages when they are in a period of transition from
one to the other. Piaget hypothesized that two primary mechanisms are respon-
sible for movement from one stage to the next: assimilation and accommodation.
Assimilation is the process of fitting new ideas into a preexisting understanding of
the world. Accommodation refers to the process of changing one’s understanding of
the world to accommodate ideas that conflict with existing concepts.

Piaget believed that the stages were universal, and that progression through
these stages was invariant in order. According to Piaget, knowledge is constructed
through the interactions between the biological maturation of the child and his or
her actions and experiences with the physical and social environment. Because there
are similarities across cultures in how individuals mature physically and in how they
act on the physical world (for example, in every culture individuals ask questions,
exchange information, and work together), the stages are thought to be universal. The
richness of Piaget’s theory has prompted a multitude of studies of cognitive develop-
ment in cultures all over the world.

Piaget’s Theory in Cross-Cultural Perspective
Cross-cultural research on Piaget’s theory has focused on four central questions. The
findings to date show an interesting blend of cultural similarities and differences in
various aspects of cognitive development that parallel Piaget’s stages.

■ Do Piaget’s stages occur in the same order in different cultures? Studies that
have addressed this question have demonstrated that Piaget’s stages occur in the
same fixed order in other cultures. For instance, a study of Zinacantec children
from Mexico and children from Los Angeles, California, in the United States,
showed similar movement from the preoperational to concrete operational stages
(Maynard & Greenfield, 2003). We do not find cultures in which four-year-olds
typically lack an awareness of object permanency or five-year-olds who under-
stand the principle of conservation. Thus, we know that children from very dif-
ferent cultures do indeed learn groups of Piagetian tasks in a similar order. One
thing that is less clear, however, is what defines a stage in Piaget’s cognitive the-
ory. Evidence accumulated across cultures suggest that children’s thinking does
not undergo abrupt, qualitative general shifts in thinking that is applied across

assimilation The pro-
cess of fitting new ideas into
a preexisting understanding
of the world.

accommodation The
process of changing one’s
understanding of the world
to accommodate ideas
that conflict with existing
concepts.

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all situations, but a rather gradual accumulation of many, many skills across
many situations, changing incrementally, over time (Mishra, 2014).

■ Are the ages that Piaget associated with each stage of development the same
in all cultures? Studies have found surprising cultural variations in the ages at
which children in different societies typically reach the third and fourth Piagetian
stages. In some cases, the difference may be as much as five or six years. However,
research also shows that children may have the potential to solve tasks sooner
than their answers would indicate. For example, a child in the concrete operations
stage will typically give the first answer that comes to mind during a test. If the
child comes from a culture in which he or she has had practice performing the task
in question, this answer is likely to be correct. However, a child who has never
thought about the concept before may well utter the wrong answer and only later
realize the mistake. When researchers checked for this possibility by repeating tests
a second time at the end of testing sessions, they found that many children cor-
rected their previous answers on the second attempt (Dasen, Lavallee, & Retsch-
itzki, 1979; Dasen, Ngini, & Lavallee, 1979). Thus, it is important to remember that
performance on a task may not reveal actual cognitive competence or ability.

■ Are there cultural variations within, rather than between, Piaget’s stages? There
is considerable cultural variation in the order in which children acquire specific
skills within Piaget’s stages. In a comparative study of tribal children (the Inuit
of Canada, the Baoul of Africa, and the Aranda of Australia), half of all Inuit
children tested solved a spatial task at the age of seven years, half of the Aranda
solved it at nine years, and the Baoul did not reach the halfway point until the
age of 12 (Dasen, 1975). On a test of the conservation of liquids, however, the
order changed dramatically: half of the Baoul children solved the problem when
they were eight years old, the Inuit at nine years, and the Aranda at 12 years.
Why did the ages at which these children could perform the same task vary so
much? The Inuit and Aranda children live in nomadic societies, in which children
need to learn spatial skills early because their families are constantly moving.
The Baoul children live in a settled society, where they seldom travel but often
fetch water and store grain. The skills these children used in their everyday lives
seem to have affected the order in which they were able to solve Piagetian tasks
within the concrete operations stage.

■ Do non-Western cultures regard scientific reasoning as the ultimate developmen-
tal end point? Piaget’s theory assumes that the scientific reasoning associated
with formal operations is the universal end point of cognitive development—that
the thinking most valued in Swiss and other Western societies (formal opera-
tions) is the yardstick by which all cultures should be judged. Because Piaget
considered scientific reasoning to be the ultimate human achievement, his stage
theory is designed to trace the steps by which people arrive at scientific thinking.
This perspective has been widely accepted within North American psychology,
and generally by the North American public, at least until recently.

Many cultures around the world do not share the conviction that abstract, hypo-
thetical thought processes are the ultimate or desired end point in the cognitive
development process. Many cultures, for example, consider cognitive development
to be more relational—involving the thinking skills and processes needed to engage
successfully in interpersonal contexts. What North Americans refer to as “common
sense,” rather than cognitive development per se, is considered a much more desired
outcome in many cultures.

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Culture and Developmental Processes 97

Piaget’s Theory: Summary and Discussion
Cross-cultural studies of Piaget’s stage of formal operations have found that in some
cultures, very few people are able to complete fourth-stage Piagetian tasks. Does this
mean that entire cultures are suspended at a lower stage of cognitive development?
To answer this question, we must first ask whether Piagetian tasks are a culturally
appropriate way of measuring an advanced stage of cognitive development. In fact,
those tasks may not be meaningful in other cultures. Besides the issue of cultural
appropriateness, there is also the issue of what is being tested. Tests of formal opera-
tions may tell us whether people can solve a narrow range of scientific problems, but
they do not tell us whether people in different cultures develop advanced cognitive
skills in areas other than those selected by Piaget.

We can say with certainty, however, that people who have not attended high
school or college in a Westernized school system perform very poorly on tests of for-
mal operations (Cole, 2006). These findings again raise the question of the degree to
which Piagetian tasks depend on previous knowledge and cultural values rather than
on cognitive skills. It is also important to remember the wide range of differences
in cognitive development within a given culture. These within-culture differences
make it extremely difficult to draw valid conclusions or inferences about differences
in cognitive development between cultures. For example, not only do members of
non-Western cultures have difficulty with tests of formal operations, but many adults
in North American society also have such difficulties. Scientific reasoning does not
appear to be as common in Western societies as Piaget thought, and it is frequently
limited to special activities. Individuals who apply scientific logic to a problem on the
job may reason quite differently in other situations.

Because large numbers of people are unable to complete Piagetian tasks of for-
mal operations, it has not been possible to demonstrate the universality of the fourth
stage of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Even Piaget himself (1972) came to
the conclusion that the fourth stage is highly dependent on whether one was raised
in a particular context, such as a culture that incorporates formal schooling. Alter-
natively, it is possible that most adults do possess the ability to complete Piagetian
tasks but lack either motivation or knowledge of how to demonstrate such ability. To
demonstrate success on a task purporting to measure some aspect of cognitive abil-
ity or intelligence, it is crucial that the test-taker and the test-maker agree on what
is being assessed. Cultural differences in the desired endpoint of cognitive devel-
opment, as well as in definitions of intelligence (see Chapter 8), contribute to this
dilemma.

Despite critiques of the universality of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development,
his theory is valuable in terms of several concepts that are still important for cross-
cultural work in cognitive development today (Maynard, 2008):

■ Cognitive development is an ongoing, adaptive process whereby children learn to
solve problems that allow them to adapt to their environment. When their envi-
ronment changes, children must also adapt and change.

■ Children actively participate in their development by testing, exploring, and interact-
ing with their environment.

■ Cognitive development occurs within the context of important socialization agents
such as parents and peers. Parents and peers contribute to children’s cognitive
development through discussions and interactions that support and challenge
children’s thinking.

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98 Chapter 4

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development
Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theory of cognitive development is an important
alternative to Piaget’s theory. Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist who proposed
a theory of cognitive development that contemporary cultural psychologists have
embraced. In contrast to earlier cross-cultural studies of cognition that compared
how people of different cultures completed standard Piagetian tasks, cultural psy-
chologists adopting Vygotsky’s theory attempt to uncover how children in different
cultures are socialized in “everyday cognition”—the knowledge, abilities, and skills
to carry out everyday tasks such as shopping for groceries, caring for sheep, weaving
a basket, or behaving in a classroom. In Vygotsky’s view, cognitive development is
inseparable from culture. A culture’s symbols and generational knowledge (e.g., lan-
guage and knowledge passed on from generation to generation) structure cognition.
Unlike Piaget he did not emphasize stages of development, but rather the close inter-
actions between a child and his or her social environment as well as cultural sym-
bols that stimulated development. Say you were asked to solve a math problem, such
as 100 – 33 = ?. If you successfully solved the problem, Vygotsky would say that your
success is not an individual accomplishment but rather an inherently social, cultural,
and historical one. In other words, in order to solve this math problem you relied on
the cultural and historical knowledge passed on from previous generations (such as
math rules and solutions that have been passed down in your culture), along with
the guidance of “more knowledgeable others” such as teachers. Cognition, then, is
not an individual task that occurs and develops inside a person’s head, but rather, is
an inherently social and cultural process that develops within a relationship.

Concepts such as scaffolding, and zone of proximal development are central to
Vygotsky’s ideas of cognitive development. The zone of proximal development refers
to the gap between the actual developmental level of a child versus the potential
developmental level that the child is capable of with some assistance by more knowl-
edgeable others (such as parent, teacher, or more experienced peers). In other words,
the actual developmental level is what the child can do individually, while the poten-
tial developmental level is what the child can do with a little help from others. This
help from others is the scaffolding that pushes the child to the next level of thinking
(see Figure 4.6). In Vygotsky’s view, understanding both of these processes is key to
understanding the development of cognition and how it unfolds.

Building on Vygotsky’s theory, Rogoff (2003) investigated everyday cognition,
or cognition in the context of daily activities within the cultural community. Some
examples of everyday cognition she has studied are how children learn to make

zone of proximal
development The
gap between the actual
developmental level of a
child versus the potential
developmental level that
the child is capable of, with
some assistance by more
knowledgeable others (such
as parent, teacher, or more
experienced peers)

What the child can
do with help from a

more knowledgeable other

ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT

What the child cannot do,
even with help

What the child can
do individually

Figure 4.6 In Vygotsky’s Sociocultural View, Cognitive Development Occurs
Through Our Close Interactions with Others

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Andrea Mahe

Culture and Developmental Processes 99

complicated weaving patterns, calculate change in the market, or narrate lengthy sto-
ries (Rogoff & Chavajay, 1995; Rogoff, Baker-Sennett, Lacasa, & Goldsmith, 1995). In
everyday cognition children become more sophisticated in their thinking by partici-
pating in tasks alongside more knowledgeable others. In line with Vygotsky’s view,
Rogoff studied the actual activities and institutions (such as the home or school) in
which children’s thinking takes place. Cognition, therefore, is understood within a
particular social, cultural, and historical context. The Vygotskyian perspective that
cognitive development is inherently a social process, and that it should be studied
as an integral part of a culture’s everyday activities (and not solely by testing people
with unfamiliar tasks), inspires contemporary psychologists interested in under-
standing cognitive development across many diverse cultures (Rogoff, 2003; see also
Chapter 8 for other discussion on everyday cognition).

Moral Reasoning

Another area of development crucial to our becoming functional adults in society and
culture concerns moral judgments and reasoning. As they grow, children develop
increasingly complex ways of understanding their world. These cognitive changes
also bring about changes in their understanding of moral judgments. Why something
is good or bad changes from the young child’s interpretation of reward and punish-
ment conditions to principles of right and wrong.

Morality and culture share a very close relationship. Moral principles and eth-
ics provide guidelines for people’s behaviors with regard to what is appropriate and
what is not. These guidelines are products of a specific culture and society, handed
down from one generation to the next. Morality is thus heavily influenced by the
underlying, subjective, and implicit culture in which it is embedded. Morality also
serves as the basis of laws, which are formalized guidelines for appropriate and inap-
propriate behavior. In this way, culture also affects the laws of a society. For these and
other reasons, morality occupies a special place in our understanding of culture and
cultural differences.

What Is Moral?
Before we begin our discussion on how moral reasoning develops, we first address a
more basic question—what is considered moral? What is considered right or wrong?
Do children distinguish between what is moral and what is not? To find out, Turiel
and his colleagues studied whether children distinguished between moral and non-
moral issues by presenting children with questions such as “Is it ok to wear pajamas to
school?,” “Is it ok to call someone’s grandfather by his first name?.” “Is it ok for some-
one to push his little brother off the swing?.” Based on children’s responses, Turiel
and his colleagues (Nucci & Turiel, 1978; Turiel, 1983; Turiel, Killen, & Helwig, 1987)
outlined three types of rules that children as young as three years old can differenti-
ate: moral, conventional, and personal. Moral rules are rules that apply to everyone,
cannot be changed, and are based on values such as the safety and well-being of all
humans. Conventional rules apply to certain groups, are changeable, and are based
on agreed-upon norms by a group of people. Personal rules apply to individuals, are
changeable, and are based on the preferences of a specific person. Cross-cultural stud-
ies show that children all over the world do indeed distinguish between moral and
nonmoral issues. There are similarities across cultures, such as deeming hitting an
innocent child or stealing from someone as immoral. But there are also differences.

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100 Chapter 4

Hindu children in India consider it immoral for a widow to eat fish or wear bright
jewelry after her husband’s death (Shweder, Mahapatra, & Miller, 1987) and Korean
children consider it immoral to not give up a seat for an elderly person on the bus
(Song, Smetana, & Kim, 1987). Children in the United States probably would not view
these as moral transgressions. As with virtually all aspects of development, there are
both similarities and differences across cultures concerning what is considered moral.

How do children’s views of morality develop? To answer this question we now
turn to the work of Kohlberg.

Kohlberg’s Theory of Morality
Our knowledge of the development of moral reasoning skills, at least in the United
States, has been heavily influenced by the work of a psychologist named Kohlberg. His
model of moral reasoning and judgment is based in large part on Piaget’s model of
cognitive development. Inspired by Piaget’s theory suggesting that cognitive develop-
ment proceeds in a predictable, invariant sequence, Kohlberg wondered if this was true
of moral development as well. To find out, he presented participants in his study with
hypothetical dilemmas and asked them to respond to the dilemma. He was interested
not only in the content of their response, but more importantly, the reasoning behind
their responses. The most famous of Kohlberg’s dilemmas is the story of Heinz:

A woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the
doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same
town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was
charging ten times what the drug cost him to produce. He paid $200 for the radium
and charged $2,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz,
went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about
$1,000, which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and
asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said: “No, I discov-
ered the drug and I’m going to make money from it.” So Heinz got desperate and
broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife.

Should Heinz have broken into the store to steal the drug for his wife? Why or why not?

Based on participant responses to dilemmas such as this one, Kohlberg proposed a
stage theory of moral development (see Figure 4.7).

Kohlberg’s theory of moral development (1976, 1984) proposes three general
stages of development of moral reasoning skills. (Kohlberg further divided each

Emphasizes compliance
with rules to avoid
punishment and gain
rewards. A person
operating at this level
of morality would
condemn stealing as
bad because the thief
might get caught and
be thrown in jail or
otherwise punished.

Pr
ec

o
n

ve
n

ti
o

n
al Emphasizes conformity

to rules that are defined
by others’ approval or
society’s rules. A person
operating at this level
of morality would judge
stealing as wrong
because it is against
the law and others in
society disapprove of it.

C
o

n
ve

n
ti

o
n

al Emphasizes moral
reasoning on the basis
of individual principles
and conscience. A
person operating at this
level of morality would
judge stealing within
the context either of
societal or community
needs or of his or her
own personal moral
beliefs and values,
which supersede
perceived societal and
community needs.

Po
st

co
n

ve
n

ti
o

in
al

Figure 4.7 Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

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Culture and Developmental Processes 101

of these three general stages into two stages, for a total of six substages of moral
development).

1. Preconventional morality involves compliance with rules to avoid punishment
and gain rewards. A person operating at this level of morality would condemn
stealing as bad because the thief might get caught and be thrown in jail or oth-
erwise punished. The focus of the justification is on the punishment (or reward)
associated with the action.

2. Conventional morality involves conformity to rules that are defined by others’
approval or society’s rules. A person operating at this level of morality would
judge stealing as wrong because it is against the law and others in society gener-
ally disapprove of it.

3. Postconventional morality involves moral reasoning on the basis of individual
principles and conscience. A person operating at this level of morality would
judge stealing within the context either of societal or community needs or of his
or her own personal moral beliefs and values, which supersede perceived soci-
etal and community needs.

Gilligan (1982) challenged Kohlberg’s theory by suggesting that its stages are
biased toward the particular way in which males as opposed to females view rela-
tionships. She argued that male moral reasoning is based on abstract justice, whereas
female moral reasoning is based on obligations and responsibilities. These two types
of moral reasoning have been called “morality of justice” versus “morality of caring.”
Despite the fervor of the debate, however, reviews of the research seem to indicate few
gender differences in moral reasoning (Walker, 1984, 2006). It appears that variations
between males and females in moral reasoning can be explained by other variables,
such as education, occupation, or types of issues under consideration. Cross-cultural
research may shed more light on this issue.

Cross-Cultural Studies of Moral Reasoning
The universality or cultural specificity of moral principles and reasoning has been
an area of interest for anthropologists and psychologists alike. A number of anthro-
pological ethnographies have examined the moral principles and domains of differ-
ent cultures (see review by Shweder et al., 1987; Schweder, Goodnow, Hatano, LeVine,
Markus, & Miller, 2006). Many of these works have complemented and challenged tra-
ditional American views of morality, and for good reason.

The findings from a number of cross-cultural studies have suggested that some
aspects of Kohlberg’s theory of morality are universal. Snarey (1985), for exam-
ple, reviewed 45 studies involving participants in 27 countries and concluded that
Kohlberg’s first two stages could be regarded as universal. A more recent review
revisited this claim. Gibbs, Basinger, Grime, and Snarey (2007) extensively reviewed
75 cross-cultural studies involving participants in 23 countries. In line with Snarey’s
(1985) review, Gibbs et al. also concluded that there is evidence that Kohlberg’s first
two stages may be universal.

While there seems to be solid evidence for the first two stages of Kohlberg’s
theory, a number of cross-cultural studies on moral reasoning have raised questions
about the universal generalizability of Kohlberg’s highest stage (postconventional).
One of the underlying assumptions of Kohlberg’s theory is that moral reasoning
on the basis of individual principles and conscience, regardless of societal laws or
cultural customs, represents the highest level of moral reasoning. This assumption
is grounded in Western philosophical thought and in the cultural milieu in which

preconventional
morality The first stage
of Kohlberg’s theory of
moral development, empha-
sizing compliance with rules
to avoid punishment and
gain rewards.

conventional
morality The second
stage of Kohlberg’s theory of
moral development, empha-
sizing conformity to rules
that are defined by others’
approval or society’s rules.

postconventional
morality The third stage
of Kohlberg’s theory of
moral development, empha-
sizing moral reasoning on
the basis of individual prin-
ciples and conscience.

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102 Chapter 4

Kohlberg developed his theory, which had its roots in studies involving American
males in the Midwestern United States in the 1950s and 1960s. Although democratic
notions of individualism and unique, personal conscience may have been appropriate
to describe his samples at that time and place, those same notions may not represent
universal moral principles applicable to all people of all cultures.

In fact, researchers have criticized Kohlberg’s theory for harboring such cul-
tural biases. Cross-cultural studies have shown that people from different cultures
do reason differently about moral dilemmas. Miller and Bersoff (1992) compared the
responses to a moral judgment task by respondents in India and the United States.
The Indian participants, both children and adults, considered not helping someone
a moral transgression more than did the American participants, regardless of the
life-threatening nature of the situation or whether the person in need was related.
These researchers interpreted the cultural differences as having to do with values
of affiliation and justice, suggesting that Indians are taught a broader sense of social
responsibility—individual responsibility to help a needy person.

Another study suggested that Chinese and Icelandic children differ in a way
similar to the differences between Indians and Americans concerning moral judg-
ments (Keller, Edelstein, Schmid, Fang, & Fang, 1998). Chinese children emphasized
altruism and relationships when reasoning about moral dilemmas, whereas Icelandic
children emphasized contractual and self-interest considerations. The issue of inter-
personal responsiveness that Miller and Bersoff (1992) and Keller et al. (1998) raised
was related to Gilligan’s (1982) claims of gender bias in U.S. studies. It is entirely pos-
sible that Gilligan’s findings were influenced by cultural as well as gender differences.

In sum, Kohlberg’s theory, as well as the methods for scoring moral stages accord-
ing to verbal reasoning, may not recognize higher levels of morality as defined in
other cultures. Should different cultures define those higher levels of morality along
different dimensions, those differences would imply profound differences in people’s
judgments of moral and ethical appropriateness. Fundamental differences in the
bases underlying morality and ethics across cultures are not at all impossible, given
that they feed and are fed by subjective culture. Above all, those fundamental differ-
ences in morality as a function of culture form the basis for the possibility of major
intercultural conflicts.

Three Ethics Approach to Moral Reasoning
Since Kohlberg’s time, other scholars have proposed different models to describe
moral development for a broader range of cultures. Jensen (2008, 2011) has outlined
a different approach to moral development that synthesizes several theories. She
argues that several key concepts of morality are missing from Kohlberg’s theory—
concepts related to religion, spirituality, and divinity and an emphasis on community
and interdependence. These concepts are central to the moral belief systems in the
majority of cultures around the world. Based on Jensen’s own work (1991) and the
work by Shweder (1990; Shweder, Much, Mahapatra, & Park, 1997), the three ethics of
morality are: the ethics of autonomy, community, and divinity (see Figure 4.8).

The ethic of autonomy emphasizes individual rights and justice, in line with
the type of moral reasoning highlighted in Kohlberg’s theory. For someone primar-
ily operating from this viewpoint, individual choices and freedoms are important to
the extent that they do not harm others and others’ choices and freedoms. Notions of
equality and respect for all individuals are highlighted.

The ethic of community, in contrast, emphasizes interpersonal relationships
and community. What is right is not what is right for each individual necessarily, but
for important social groups such as the family, community, or nation. In this ethic,

ethic of
community Moral
reasoning that emphasizes
interpersonal relationships
and community. One’s
duties, obligations, and
roles within the group are
highlighted.

ethic of
autonomy Moral rea-
soning that emphasizes
individual rights and justice.
Individual choices and free-
doms are important to the
extent that they do not harm
others and others’ choices
and freedoms.

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Culture and Developmental Processes 103

moral understanding relies heavily on considering one’s duties, obligations, and roles
within the group. For instance, in China, the concept oijen, which connotes love and
filial piety, contributes to the way Chinese individuals view morality (Ma, 1997).
In response to Kohlberg’s moral dilemmas, Chinese individuals tend to emphasize
the importance of filial piety—respecting and honoring parents and fulfilling their
wishes—when judging what is right or wrong. Thus, in Chinese culture people may
be more likely to base their moral reasoning on the ethic of community rather than,
for instance, the ethic of autonomy.

Finally, the ethic of divinity emphasizes the centrality of religious beliefs and
spirituality in moral reasoning. For instance, Algerians’ responses to Kohlberg’s
moral dilemmas are based on the belief that God is the creator and supreme authority
of the universe (Bouhmama, 1984). In another example, fundamental Baptists in the
United States consider divorce morally wrong based on their beliefs concerning the
relationship between God, the church, and human relationships (Jensen, 1997).

Although the three ethics differ from one another in their understanding of why
something is wrong or right, one ethic is not considered more morally advanced than
the others. Jensen (2008, 2011) cites evidence that all three ethics show up in diverse
cultures around the world. The three ethics approach expands Western notions of
morality to encompass other, equally valid, worldviews on morality.

C O N C L U S I O N

There are two key issues concerning human development: whether developmental
pathways are universal or culture specific, and how development occurs. The studies
have shown that there are some universals in development: in all cultures children ex-
hibit several patterns of temperamental styles, form attachment relationships to their
caregivers and communities, think about the world differently as they get older, and
increasingly view morality based on obligations to significant others and the broader
community. Studies also have shown that there are many cultural variations in devel-
opment and, in some cases, have challenged researchers to reconsider what aspects
of development are universal versus culturally bound. Further, from a developmen-
tal contextualism perspective, cross-cultural studies on temperament and attachment
have demonstrated how the characteristics and dispositions that children are born
with interact with multiple levels of their environment—ranging from relationships

Ethic of
Autonomy

Ethic of
Community

Ethic of
Divinity

• Emphasizes individual rights and justice. Individual choices and
freedoms are important to the extent that they do not harm others
and others’ choices and freedoms.

• Emphasizes interpersonal relationships and community. Moral
understanding relies heavily on considering one’s duties, obligations,
and roles within the group.

• Emphasizes the centrality of religious beliefs and spirituality. Moral
understanding is based on self in relation to divine or natural law.

Figure 4.8 Three Ethics Approach to Morality (Jensen, 2011). Cultures Differ
on Which Ethics are Prioritized and Reinforced

ethic of
divinity Moral reasoning
that emphasizes the central-
ity of religious beliefs and
spirituality.

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Andrea Mahe

104 Chapter 4

with caregivers within the family to expectations of sociocultural systems—to influ-
ence children’s development and adjustment.

The developmental research presented in this chapter provides a view of how
culture influences a number of developmental psychological processes. Still, much
work remains to be done. In particular, cross-cultural developmental work has focused
largely on infants and children, but mainstream psychology has come to recognize
the importance of developmental processes throughout the entire life span, including
early, middle, and late adolescence; young, middle, and older adulthood; and old age.

The developmental differences discussed in this chapter all speak to how a sense
of culture develops in each of us. All people are born into their specific cultures with
their own unique set of characteristics and predispositions. In turn, each culture exerts
its influence in its own special and unique ways, and, in combination with each unique
cultural member, produces specific tendencies, trends, and differences in their mem-
bers when compared to others. When we are in the middle of a culture, as we all are,
we cannot easily see how culture itself develops in us. Only when we look outside our-
selves and examine the developmental and socialization processes of other cultures are
we able to see what we are ourselves. Only then can we come to appreciate that those
differences and similarities are our culture, or at least manifestations of our culture.
While cultures produce differences in development that we observe in our research,
these differences simultaneously contribute to the development of culture.

E X P L O R A T I O N A N D DI S C O V E R Y

Why Does This Matter to Me?
1. In your culture, is shyness (behavioral inhibition)

a positive or negative trait? If it is positive, why
is it considered positive? If it is negative, why is
it considered negative? As a child, were you shy?
If yes, how did your culture’s view of shyness
shape your experiences?

2. Would you wear your pajamas to school? Would
you cheat on your final exam for this course?
Would you steal your classmate’s computer?

If you grew up in a different culture, do you think
your answers to these questions would remain
the same? How did you develop your beliefs
about what is morally right or wrong versus what
is a social convention?

3. Think about the three ethics approach to moral
reasoning. Which of the three approaches do you
adopt when thinking about moral issues? Does it
depend on the particular issue?

Suggestions for Further Exploration
1. Piaget describes two ways that we learn: through

assimilation and accommodation. Give an
example of each process. For instance, think about
a new piece of information that you have learned.
Did you use assimilation or accommodation to
process this information? Or both?

2. Present Kohlberg’s Heinz dilemma to several
people. How did they respond to the dilemma?
In their responses, could you see evidence of
the three broad stages of Kohlberg’s moral
reasoning—preconventional, conventional, and
postconventional?

3. The research reviewed in this chapter shows
the difficulty of measuring such a complex
phenomenon as attachment. The Strange
Situation, the most widely used measure of
attachment, has been criticized as being too
“artificial.” Some researchers have advocated for
methods that may be more contextually valid,
such as observing preschoolers’ separation and
reunion behaviors toward their parents when they
are dropped off and picked up from preschool.
Can you think of other ways to observe
attachment behavior that may be more “natural”?

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105

5Culture, Self, and Identity

CHAPTER CONTENTS

Culture and Self

Defining Self

Where Does the Self-Concept Originate?

The Dynamic and Multifaceted Nature of the
Concept of Self

Early Research on Cultural Differences in Self-
Concepts: The Independent versus Interdependent
Self-Construal Theory

Recent Developments in Our Understanding of
Cultural Differences in Self-Concepts

Culture, Self-Esteem,
and Self-Enhancement

What Is Self-Esteem, and Where Does It Come
From?

Is Self-Enhancement Universal or
Culture-Specific?

Culture and Identity

Types of Identities

Identity Is Fluid

Multicultural Identities

CONCLUSION

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY
Why Does This Matter to Me?
Suggestions for Further Exploration

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106 Chapter 5

One important aspect of our psychological composition is our sense of self. As we
have seen in Chapters 3 and 4, culture plays a large role in our development and mat-
uration as individuals in any society. One of the major outcomes of this process of
enculturation is our sense of “self” and a related concept known as “identity.” Our
sense of self and identity frames much of the ways we perceive others and interact
with the world around us, and is intimately tied into many of the mental processes
and behaviors that we will discuss throughout the remainder of the book.

In this chapter, we begin our exploration of the relationship between culture, self,
and identity, first focusing on the notion of the self. Below we define the self, explore
where it comes from, and examine how the notion of the self may differ across cul-
tures. The concept of self is an important first step to exploring mental processes and
behaviors because it organizes information about oneself. As we will discuss more
fully below, the concept of self is intimately related to our concepts of others. In fact,
we cannot create a sense of self without being able to discriminate ourselves from
others. It is in recognizing that we are part of a social group, living with others, that
we first differentiate what our own sense of self is.

A topic related to self is that of identity. We will define and discuss identity, and
an increasingly important topic around the world today: multicultural identities. A
central topic in this area will be cultural code frame switching. We will also explore
how labels such “American” convey implicit assumptions about who is an American.

Related to the topic of self is the concept of self-esteem, and its relative, self-
enhancement. We will review the many cross-cultural studies on self-esteem that
have had important implications for our understanding of self. We will examine a
theoretical framework that suggests that self-enhancement is a universal process, but
that people of different cultures do it in different ways.

Culture and Self

Defining Self
One of the most powerful and pervasive concepts in psychology is the self- concept.
Other terms that denote this same concept are self-image, self-construal, self-
appraisal, or just self. We define self-concept as the cognitive representations of who one
is, that is, the ideas or images that one has about oneself, especially in relation to others, and
how and why one behaves. Self is a psychological construct that people create in order
to help themselves understand themselves and their world better. We may not con-
sciously think about our selves very much, yet how we understand our sense of self
is intimately tied to how we understand the world around us and our relationships
with others in that world. Whether conscious or not, our concept of self is an integral
part of our lives.

Think about some descriptions of yourself. You may believe you are an opti-
mist or a pessimist, extroverted or introverted. We use labels such as these as short-
hand descriptions to characterize ourselves. Suppose someone tells you he or she is
“sociable.” An array of underlying meanings is attached to this one-word description.
Descriptive labels such as this usually imply that (1) we have this attribute within
us, just as we possess other attributes such as abilities, attitudes, perceived rights, or
interests; (2) our past actions, feelings, or thoughts have close connections with this
attribute; and (3) our future actions, plans, feelings, or thoughts will be controlled or
guided by this attribute and can be predicted more or less accurately by it. In short,
if someone describes him or herself as “sociable,” we know that his or her concept

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Andrea Mahe

Culture, Self, and Identity 107

of self is rooted in rich and contextualized beliefs about actions, thoughts, feelings,
motives, and plans. The concept of self as “sociable” may be central to one’s self-
definition, enjoying a special status as a salient identity (Stryker, 1986) or self-schema
(Markus, 1977).

A sense of self is critically important to organizing, and in many cases determin-
ing, our thoughts, feelings, and actions, and how we view the world, ourselves, and
others in that world. This includes our relationships with other people, places, things,
and events. Our sense of self is at the core of our being, unconsciously and automati-
cally influencing our thoughts, actions, and feelings. Each individual carries and uses
these perceived internal attributes to guide his or her thoughts and actions in differ-
ent social situations.

Where Does the Self-Concept Originate?
Let’s consider where the concept of self originates and why humans have a sense
of self. The concept of self is an important product of human cultures. You might
remember that in Chapter 1, we made a distinction between cultural practices and
cultural worldviews. Cultural practices, on one hand, refer to the discrete, observable,
objective, and behavioral aspects of human activities in which people engage related
to culture. For example, parent–child sleeping arrangements are an example of a cul-
tural practice, as would be the specific ways in which people of a culture manage
their emotional expressions in a social context. Cultural practices refer to the doing of
culture.

Cultural worldviews, on the other hand, are belief systems about one’s self and
culture. They are cognitive generalizations about how oneself and one’s culture is or
should be, regardless of whether those generalized images are true or not (i.e., regard-
less of whether or not they are rooted in actual cultural practices or behaviors).

Cultural worldviews are products of several uniquely human abilities. As you
might recall from Chapter 1, humans are unique in that we have the cognitive abil-
ity to know that (1) the self exists and is an intentional agent, (2) that other selves
exist and they are also intentional agents, and (3) that others make judgments about
oneself as an intentional agent. While clearly other animals also have a sense of self
(perhaps a more rudimentary one), humans are unique in that we know that we have
intentions, that others know that we have intentions, and that others can judge our
intentions. Humans also have cognitive skills that allow for long-term memory and
hypothetical thinking about the future. Humans uniquely use symbolic and verbal
language and create narratives of their lives and cultures. These verbal descriptions
can be oral or written and are social constructions of reality expressed in consensual
ideologies about one’s culture. One of these descriptions is the self, which is a cogni-
tively constructed perception of reality. The concept of self is part of one’s cultural
worldviews because how one sees oneself in relation to the rest of the world is an inte-
gral part of one’s culture. Like cultural worldviews, the concept of self is also a cogni-
tive generalization about one’s nature or composition (whether that belief is grounded
in reality or behaviors or not).

The concept of self is functional and useful. Having a sense of self aids in address-
ing needs for affiliation and uniqueness, and explains the importance of understand-
ing values as guiding principles within a specific culture (Schwartz, 2004; Schwartz &
Bardi, 2001). Concepts of self are social constructions “that consist of viewing oneself
as living up to specific contingencies of value . . . that are derived from the culture
at large but are integrated into a unique individualized worldview by each person”
(Pyszczynski, Greenberg, Solomon, Arndt, & Schimel, 2004).

The concept of self is

part of one’s cultural

worldviews because how

one sees oneself in relation

to the rest of the world is

an integral part of one’s

culture.

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108 Chapter 5

The Dynamic and Multifaceted Nature of the Concept of Self
The topics of self and self-concept have been important areas of study in psychology
for years. Decades ago, psychologists recognized that the self-concept does not just
reflect on-going thoughts and behaviors at the moment. Instead it organizes those
thoughts and behaviors in the past and mediates and regulates those thoughts
and behaviors in the future (Markus & Wurf, 1987); thus self-concepts are dynamic,
not static.

Related to the dynamic nature of the concept of self is the fact that scientists have
recognized early on that people don’t have a unitary or single self-concept, but that
self-concepts are multifaceted and context-specific. That is, there are multiple aspects
to people’s self-concepts. For example, a widely used scale of self-concept in the past
was the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS). It produced different scores for the
physical, moral, personal, family, social, and academic aspects of one’s self. Higgins
(1987) distinguished between “ideal” selves (selves we want to be) and “ought” selves
(selves we should be). Thus self-concepts assume that people have and embrace mul-
tiple and different aspects of oneself that are context-dependent (Linville & Carlston,
1994; see Figure 5.1). These multiple domains of the self can be expressed in multiple,
different ways in different contexts (see Figure 5.2 for a hypothetical example of how
the self may be expressed for “Eva”).

Early Research on Cultural Differences in Self-Concepts:
The Independent versus Interdependent Self-Construal Theory
Cross-cultural research on self-concepts received a major boost over two decades
ago with a theory about cultural differences in self-construals—the theory of inde-
pendent and interdependent self-construals (Markus & Kitayama, 1991b). This the-
ory suggested that, given that self-concepts are rooted in cultural worldviews, and
given that cultural worldviews differ across cultures, it follows that the concept of
self also differs in different cultures. These differences in self-concepts occur because
different cultures are associated with different systems of rules of living and exist

Different Aspects of the Self

Different Contexts
of the Self
• At home with family
• At a restaurant with
friends
• In public with strangers

Different Domains
of the Self
• Physical
• Moral
• Personal
• Family
• Social
• Work
• Academic

Figure 5.1 Different Aspects of the Self

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Culture, Self, and Identity 109

within different social and economic environments and natural habitats. The varied
demands that cultures place on individual members mean that individuals integrate,
synthesize, and coordinate their worlds in a variety of ways, producing differences in
self-concepts.

Markus and Kitayama (1991b) used these ideas to describe two fundamentally
different senses of self, contrasting the Western or individualistic construal of self as
an independent, separate entity against a composite construal of self more common
in non-Western, collectivistic cultures, in which the individual is viewed as inher-
ently connected or interdependent with others and inseparable from a social context.
They argued that in the United States, standing out and asserting yourself is a virtue.
Successful people in the United States routinely credit their success to self-confidence,
trusting their instincts, and the ability to make decisions and stick by them. In many
individualistic cultures like the United States, there is a strong belief in the separate-
ness of individuals. The normative task in these cultures is to maintain the indepen-
dence of the individual as a separate, self-contained entity.

American culture, for example, encourages its members to be unique, expres-
sive, realize, and actualize the inner self, and promote our personal goals. These
are the tasks the culture provides for its members. These cultural tasks have been
designed and selected throughout history to encourage the independence of each
individual. With this set of cultural tasks, our sense of self-worth or self-esteem takes
on a particular form. When individuals successfully carry out these cultural tasks,
they feel satisfied with themselves, and self-esteem increases accordingly (which is
why we cover the topic of self-esteem in this chapter below). Under this independent
construal of self, individuals focus on personal, internal attributes—individual
ability, intelligence, personality traits, goals, or preferences—expressing them in
public and verifying and confirming them in private through social comparison.

This independent construal of self is illustrated graphically in Figure 5.3a. The
self is a bounded entity, clearly separated from relevant others. Note that there is no
overlap between the self and others. Furthermore, the most salient self-relevant infor-
mation (indicated by bold Xs) relates to attributes thought to be stable, constant, and
intrinsic to the self, such as abilities, goals, attitudes, and perceived rights.

In contrast to the independent self, Markus and Kitayama (1991b) suggested that
many non-Western, collectivistic cultures neither assume nor value overt separateness.

independent
construal of self A
sense of self that views the
self as a bounded entity,
clearly separated from
relevant others.

Example of Multiple Contexts and Multiple
Domains of the Self-Concept for “Eva”

At home with
my family

Sincere

Loving

Nurturing

With my boyfriend
on a date

Caring

Feminine

Beautiful

With my friends
at a party

Shy

Awkward

Quiet

At work with
my colleagues

Strong

Competitive

Achievement
Oriented

Figure 5.2 Example of Multiple Contexts and Multiple Domains of the
Self-Concept for “Eva”

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110 Chapter 5

Instead, these cultures emphasize what may be called the “fundamental connected-
ness of human beings.” The primary normative task is to fit in and maintain the inter-
dependence among individuals. Individuals in these cultures are socialized to adjust
themselves to an attendant relationship or a group to which they belong, to read one
another’s minds, to be sympathetic, to occupy and play their assigned roles, and to
engage in appropriate actions. These cultural tasks have been designed and selected
throughout history to encourage the interdependence of the self with others.

In the interdependent construal of the self, self-worth, satisfaction, and self-
esteem can have very different characteristics from those of the independent self. The
self-esteem of those with interdependent construals of the self may depend primarily
on whether they can fit in and be part of a relevant ongoing relationship. Under this
construal of self, individuals focus on their interdependent status with other people
and strive to meet or even create duties, obligations, and social responsibilities. The
most salient aspect of conscious experience is intersubjective, rooted in finely tuned
interpersonal relationships.

The interdependent construal of self is illustrated graphically in Figure 5.3b.
The self is unbounded, flexible, and contingent on context. Note the substantial over-
lap between the self and relevant others. The most salient aspects of the self (shown
by bold Xs) are defined in relationships—that is, those features of the self related to
and inseparable from specific social contexts. This does not mean that those with
interdependent selves do not have any knowledge of their internal attributes, such
as personality traits, abilities, and attitudes. They clearly do. However, these internal
attributes are relatively less salient in consciousness and thus are unlikely to be the
primary concerns in thinking, feeling, and acting.

Markus and Kitayama (1991b) suggested that two idioms summed up differences
in the nature of independence versus interdependence. An idiom in the United States,
“The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” highlights how sticking out and being indepen-
dent is valued and “good.” An idiom in Japan goes, “The nail that sticks up shall get
pounded down,” suggesting that independence will be met with strong opposition
from the cultural system.

The independent versus interdependent self-construal framework was used
to explain many cross-country differences in psychological processes, especially

interdependent con-
strual of self A sense
of self that views the self as
unbounded, flexible, and
contingent on context. This
sense of self is based on a
principle of the fundamen-
tal connectedness among
people.

(b)(a)

X X

X
X

X X
X

X
X X

X
X

X
XX

X
X

X X
X

X
X

X X X
X

Mother
Father

Sibling

Coworker

Friend

Self

Mother
Father

Sibling

Coworker

Friend

Self

Figure 5.3 (a) Independent Construal of Self (b) Interdependent Construal of Self
Source: Markus, H., and S. Kitayama (1991). Culture and the Self: Implications for Cognition, Emotion, and
Motivation, Psychological Review, 98, pp. 224–253. Copyright © 1991 by the American Psychological Association.
Reprinted by permission of the authors.

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Culture, Self, and Identity 111

between the United States and Asian countries, based on the assumption that Asian
countries were collectivistic (Markus & Kitayama, 1991b). One of these processes
was self-perception. For example, with an independent construal of self, one’s inter-
nal attributes such as abilities or personality traits are the most salient self-relevant
information. These internal attributes should be relatively less salient for those with
interdependent selves, who are more likely to think about the self in particular social
relationships (e.g., “me” with family members, “me” with my boyfriend) or in specific
contexts (“me” in school, “me” at work). In cultures that foster an interdependent self-
construal, therefore, internal attributes are not the most salient self-relevant informa-
tion; instead, information concerning one’s social roles and relationships with others
are more salient and important.

Several studies were cited to support these ideas (Bond & Tak-Sing, 1983; Shweder
& Bourne, 1984). In these studies, subjects wrote down as many of their own charac-
teristics as possible. Participants typically generated several types of responses. One
response type was the abstract, personality-trait description of the self, such as “I am
sociable.” Another response type was the situation-specific self- description, such as
“I am usually sociable with my close friends.” Consistent with the theory of inde-
pendent and interdependent selves, Americans tended to generate a greater number
of abstract traits than did Asians. These data were interpreted that people with an
independent construal of self view their own internal attributes, such as abilities or
personality traits, as the most salient self-relevant information. Internal attributes are
relatively less salient for those with interdependent selves, who are more likely to
think about the self in particular social relationships or contexts.

To demonstrate the power of cultural self-construals, Kim and Markus (1999)
devised a clever experiment in which airport travelers were offered a pen as a token
of appreciation for completing a survey. The pens were all identical except for their
color, and the ratio of unique to majority pens was either 1:4 or 2:3. East Asian partici-
pants chose more majority pens than European Americans. The authors argued that
Western culture values uniqueness, and thus people from the West have an internal-
ized preference for uniqueness and demonstrated this preference by choosing unique
pens. East Asian cultures, they argued, don’t value uniqueness, and thus East Asian
individuals do not have such an internalized preference.

Recent Developments in Our Understanding
of Cultural Differences in Self-Concepts
The theory of independent versus interdependent self-construals was very important
to an understanding of the relationship between culture and psychology for several
reasons. For one, it allowed scientists to organize and understand disparate and some-
times contradictory findings across different cultures in cross-cultural research, such
as the research on self-perception mentioned above. Also, the theory provided scien-
tists with a possible variable that might “explain” why those differences occurred,
that is, differences in the concept of self. For these important reasons the independent
versus interdependent self-construal theory stimulated much cross-cultural research,
which is an important function of any theory in any field. That new research has
led to important discoveries that allow us today to go beyond the notion of indepen-
dent vs. interdependent selves. Some of that new research involved direct tests of the
theory that challenged it and facilitated the field’s continuing evolution in knowledge
about cultural differences in self-concepts, which we describe below.

New research has led to

important discoveries

that allow us today to

go beyond the notion

of independent vs.

interdependent selves.

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112 Chapter 5

An Empirical Assessment of the Independent versus Interdependent
Self-Construal Theory
One assumption that the theory of independent versus interdependent self-constru-
als made was that American culture is individualistic and Asian cultures like Japan,
are collectivistic, or more specifically, that people in the United States are more indi-
vidualistic and less collectivistic than people in cultures such as Japan. As mentioned
in Chapters 1 and 2, the recent years have seen a large increase in the number of
instruments that have been developed to actually measure individualism and col-
lectivism. When these studies have actually compared scores between Americans
and Asians, including Japanese, however, they often did not find that Americans are
more individualistic and Japanese are more collectivistic. For instance, Matsumoto,
Kudoh, and Takeuchi (1996) administered an individualism–collectivism scale to
Japanese university students and, based on their scores classified the participants
as either individualists or collectivists. They reported that over 70% of the Japanese
respondents were actually classified as individualists (Figure 5.4). Kleinknecht and
colleagues (Kleinknecht, Dinnel, Kleinknecht, Hiruma, & Harada, 1997) assessed
American and Japanese students and found that there were no cultural differences
on independent self-construals. There were differences on interdependent self-con-
struals; but the Americans were more interdependent than the Japanese (Figure 5.5).
Similar large-scale studies of cultural dimensions have found similar results (House,
Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, & Gupta, 2003).

Oyserman and colleagues (2002) summarized this area of research convincingly
by conducting a meta-analysis involving 83 studies in which individualism and col-
lectivism were actually measured, and in which North Americans (Americans and
Canadians) were compared against people from other countries and other ethnic
groups within the U.S. European Americans were, in general, more individualis-
tic and less collectivistic than, for instance, Chinese, Taiwanese, Indians, and Asian
Americans. However, European Americans were not more individualistic than Afri-
can Americans or Latinos, and not less collectivistic than Japanese or Koreans. These
findings questioned assumptions about culture underlying many cross-cultural

Individualists

Collectivists

29.2

70.8

Figure 5.4
Percentage of Individualists and
Collectivists among Japanese University
Students
Source: Matsumoto, D., T. Kudoh, and S. Takeuchi
(1996). Changing patterns of individualism and
collectivism in the United States and Japan.
Culture and Psychology, 2, 77–107.

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Culture, Self, and Identity 113

comparisons in the literature, including the theory of independent versus interdepen-
dent self-construals.

Numerous reports after Oyserman and colleagues’ (2002) meta-analysis have
corroborated their findings. For example, Li (2003) utilized ethnographic, qualitative,
and quantitative methodologies to explore differences between Anglo-Canadians and
mainland Chinese in their self-construals and self-other boundaries, and reported
findings contrary to that predicted by the theory of independent versus interdepen-
dent self-construals. DeAndrea and colleagues (DeAndrea, Shaw, & Levine, 2010)
analyzed self-expressions in realistic, naturalistic communications on Facebook and
found no differences among African, Asian, and European Americans in their pro-
portion of independent and interdependent self-expressions. Levine and colleagues
(2003) conducted a meta-analysis of studies that measured self-construals in different
countries and concluded that “the evidence for predicted cultural differences is weak,
inconsistent, or non-existent” (p. 210).

Another issue to consider is the degree to which previous findings may have
been limited by the research methodologies used to test for those differences in the
first place. Take, for instance, the research on cultural differences on self-perception
described above. Those findings did not necessarily mean that Americans have
more knowledge about themselves than Asians do, or vice versa. Because the most
salient information about self in some cultures is context-specific, individuals in
such cultures may find it difficult or unnatural to state anything in abstract, non-
contextual terms. The studies described earlier suggested that Asians found it dif-
ficult to describe themselves in terms of abstract internal attributes; that is, they find
it artificial and unnatural to make abstract statements such as “I am sociable” with-
out specifying a relevant context. Whether a person is sociable or not depends on the
specific situation. If this interpretation is correct, then Asians should be comfortable

4.8 4.77 4.77

4.63

4.43

4.4

4.6

4.2
Independent Interdependent

U.S.

Japan

Figure 5.5
American and Japanese Students
Do Not Differ in Independent
Self-Construals but Differ in
Interdependent Self-Construals
Opposite to What Theory Might
Predict
Source: Kleinknecht, R. A., D. Dinnel,
E. E. Kleinknecht, N. Hiruma, and
N. Harada (1997). Cultural Factors in
Social Anxiety: A Comparison of Social
Phobia Symptoms and Taijin Kyofusho.
Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 11, 157–177.

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114 Chapter 5

describing themselves in terms of abstract internal attributes once a context has been
specified.

Cousins (1989) provided evidence to support this analysis. He used the Twenty
Statements Test to ask American and Japanese respondents to write down who
they were in various specific social situations (e.g., at home, in school, or at work).
This instruction supposedly helped respondents to picture a concrete social situa-
tion, including who was there and what was occurring. Once the context was speci-
fied, Japanese respondents actually generated a greater number of abstract internal
attributes (e.g., I am hardworking, I am trustworthy, I am lazy) than did the Ameri-
cans. American respondents tended to qualify their descriptions (I am more or
less sociable at work, I am sometimes optimistic at home), as if to say “This is how
I am at work, but don’t assume that this is the way I am everywhere.” With this
more contextualized task, the Americans may have felt awkward providing self-
descriptions because their self-definitions typically are not qualified by specific
situations. Thus, the previous differences were specific to the certain way in which
the data were collected in the first place (i.e., in a noncontextualized, general task).

Another experiment reexamining the pen choice study described earlier (Kim &
Markus, 1999) also challenged the independent versus interdependent self-construal
framework (Yamagishi, Hashimoto, & Schug, 2008). American and Japanese partici-
pants were asked to select a pen but under different instructions. The Default con-
dition mirrored the original Kim and Markus (1999) study. In the Initial Selection
condition, participants were told they were the first person to choose a pen; that is,
others would be choosing later. In the Final Selection condition, participants were
told they were the last to choose a pen; that is no one else would be choosing later.
The results from the Default condition replicated the Kim and Markus (1999) results,
with more Americans choosing a unique pen. In the Initial Selection condition, how-
ever, the American rates for choosing the unique pen dropped to the level of the Japa-
nese. In the Final Selection condition, the Japanese rates for choosing the unique pen
increased to the level of the Americans. The authors argued that strategies related
to incentive structures, rather than cultural self-construals, influenced unique pen
choice. That is, all participants had a preference to choose the unique pen, but did so
(or not) based on how people have learned to behave depending on the rewards and
incentives in a situation.

A further extension of the pen study demonstrated that within Japan, the choice
of a unique color pen was highest among people from metropolitan areas and lowest
from rural, nonurban areas (Yamagishi, Hashimoto, Li, & Schug, 2012). Once again
these authors argued that the “unique choice of pen” was not as much a product of a
cultural self-construal as it is product of a situational constraint. Other studies have
demonstrated that choice plays an important role as a form of agency in other pre-
sumably collectivistic cultures such as India (Miller & Das, 2011).

Revisiting Possible Cultural Differences in Self-Construals: A Multifaceted,
Contextualized, Dynamic View of Self
The concept of independent versus interdependent selves is similar to other dualities
of self and human nature proposed throughout the history of psychology, not only
in mainstream American psychology but also in other cultures (e.g., Doi, 1973; Hee-
las and Lock, 1981; Kim & Berry, 1993; Singelis, 2000). Sampson (1988), for instance,
referred to the sense of self in mainstream approaches as self-contained individualism,
contrasting it with what he termed ensembled individualism, in which the boundary
between self and others is less sharply drawn, and others are part of oneself.

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Culture, Self, and Identity 115

The recent work reviewed above, however, is consistent with the notion that inde-
pendent and interdependent self-construals are not mutually exclusive dichotomies,
but instead coexist simultaneously within individuals. Many have echoed this senti-
ment. Guisinger and Blatt (1994) suggested that mainstream American psychology has
traditionally emphasized self-development, stressing autonomy, independence, and
identity over the development of interpersonal relatedness. They suggested, however,
that evolutionary pressures of natural selection have fostered two basic developmen-
tal approaches—one involving self-definition as described in mainstream psychol-
ogy, the other focusing on the development of interpersonal relatedness. They cited
evidence from observational research as well as social biology to support their claims
that cooperation, altruism, and reciprocation are aspects of self-development equally
as important as autonomy and individual definition. Moreover, they suggested that
these dual developmental processes are not mutually exclusive. Rather, they are fun-
damentally and basically intertwined, with the development of a mature sense of self
in one aspect depending, in part, on the development of a mature self in the other.

Niedenthal and Beike (1997) carried these concepts a step further, proposing the
existence of both interrelated and isolated self-concepts. Whereas previous theories of
self distinguished different types of self on the level of personality, motivation, and
culture, their view focused on the level of cognitive representation. Specifically, they
suggested that “some concepts derive their meaning through mental links to concepts
of other people, whereas other concepts of self have an intrinsic or cognitively isolated
characterization” (p. 108). Like Guisinger and Blatt (1994), they suggested that these
concepts exist not as dichotomies but rather as interrelated dualities. Niedenthal and
Beike (1997) suggested that individuals represent the self with a variety of more or
less interrelated structures at the same time, and that one person can have separate
interrelated and isolated self-concepts in the same domain. Kagitcibasi (1996a, 1996b)
also proposed an integrative synthesis of the self that is both individuated and, at the
same time, relational.

Even prior to the theory of independent and interdependent self-construals, Tri-
andis (1989) proposed the existence of three types of selves—the private, public, and
collective self—that coexist in everyone. Triandis suggested that individuals sampled
different self-construals depending on the specific context in which they were. People
in individualistic settings may sample their private self more than their public or col-
lective self, whereas people in collectivistic settings may sample their collective self
more than their private or public self. This characterization is consistent with that
of other writers who have suggested the existence of other, multiple types of self-
construals, such as the independent, relational, and collective selves (Cross & Mor-
ris, 2003; Cross, Morris, & Gore, 2002; Greenwald & Pratkanis, 1984; Kosmitzki, 1996;
Oyserman, 1993; Oyserman, Gant, & Ager, 1995).

Recent cross-cultural research has shown that multiple self-construals exist in
people of different cultures (Kashima & Hardie, 2000; Y. Kashima, Yamaguchi, Kim,
& Choi, 1995; Uleman, Rhee, Bardoliwalla, Semin, & Toyama, 2000), and even to dif-
ferent degrees within cultures depending on area (Y. Kashima, Kokubo, Kashima,
Boxall, Yamaguchi, & Macrae, 2004). Moreover, the cultural values of people of dif-
ferent cultures vary depending on the specific context in which they live (Matsu-
moto, Weissman, Preston, Brown, & Kupperbusch, 1997; Rhee, Uleman, & Lee, 1996).
People switch from one mode to the other depending on context (Bhawuk & Brislin,
1992), and different behaviors can be elicited in the same individuals if different self-
construals are primed (Gardner, Gabriel, & Lee, 1999; Kemmelmeier & Cheng, 2004;
Trafimow, Silverman, Fan, & Law, 1997; Trafimow, Triandis, & Goto, 1991; Verkuyten
& Pouliasi, 2002; Ybarra & Trafimow, 1988). (Recall the priming experiment that was

Independent and

interdependent self-

construals are not

mutually exclusive

dichotomies, but instead

coexist simultaneously

within individuals.

48951_ch05_ptg01_105-124.indd 115 1/6/16 6:28 PM

116 Chapter 5

described in Chapter 2.) Individuals can clearly balance both the need to belong with
the need to be different (Brewer, 2004; Hornsey & Jetten, 2004).

Thus the notion that cultures are associated with a single sense of self, or even
primarily with one sense of self, is not commensurate with the literature and may be a
false dichotomy based on the erroneous assumption that cultures are homogeneous,
externally distinctive, and geographically located, all of which were not true in the
past and are increasingly less true in today’s world (Hermans & Kempen, 1998). It very
well may be that the theory of independent versus interdependent self- construals,
or any theory that suggests people fall into one of two supposedly mutually exclu-
sive categories, is itself culture-bound, that is, a product of Western education and
thinking.

To be sure, given that self-concepts are rooted in cultural worldviews and that
cultural worldviews differ across cultures, it is very likely that there be differences
in self-construals across cultures. But what exactly is the nature of this difference?
The evidence to date points to the notion that people around the world may have
multifaceted, contextualized, dynamic self-concepts, that the relative weighting of the
various facets differ across cultures, and that the meanings derived from those rela-
tive differences may be different. What may be those multiple facets? Harb and Smith
(2008) proposed a six-dimension view of self-construals, including the personal self,
relational horizontal and relational vertical selves, collective horizontal and collective
vertical selves, and humanity-bound self. Hardin and colleagues (Hardin, 2006; Har-
din, Leong, & Bhagwat, 2004) also proposed a six-dimension view of self-construals:
autonomy, individualism, behavioral consistency, primacy of self, esteem for group,
and relational interdependence. Other perspectives are sure to emerge in the future
as well. The field seems to have come full circle back to the notion of multiple selves
across cultures, and future research will hopefully shed more light on the multifac-
eted, contextualized, and dynamic nature of the self. Future research will also need to
examine more culture-specific self-construals. Recent research, for instance, has dem-
onstrated that a simpatico self-construal accounts for differences in social behaviors
between Latinos and non-Latinos (Holloway, Waldrip, & Ickes, 2009). Future research
will also need to uncover the fascinating question of how the brain parses different
senses of self neuropsychologically (see, e.g., Zhu, Zhang, Fan, & Han, 2007; Ng, Han,
Mao, & Lai, 2010).

Culture, Self-Esteem, and Self-Enhancement

What Is Self-Esteem, and Where Does It Come From?
Self-esteem refers to the cognitive and affective evaluations we make about our-
selves. For example, how would you rate yourself on the following questions?

1. I am pretty satisfied with myself.

2. I have a number of good qualities.

3. I am able to do things as well as anyone else.

The questions above are adapted from the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg,
1965), one of many widely used tests of self-esteem. These tests measure overall self-
worth by assessing both positive and negative feelings about oneself. People who
score higher on these scales are thought to have higher self-esteem than those who do
not. Higher scores refer to greater positive regard or feelings about oneself.

self-esteem The
cognitive and affective
evaluations we make about
ourselves.

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Culture, Self, and Identity 117

One way of understanding the origin of self-esteem is through cultural world-
views, which are ideological belief systems about the world. As we discussed earlier
in this chapter, the concept of self is a cognitive generalization about who one believes
one is and is an important part of one’s cultural worldviews. Self-esteem refers to how
we evaluate ourselves within our cultural worldview. Self-enhancement refers to the
ways by which we bolster our self-esteem.

One popular theory about the origin of self-esteem is terror management theory
(Becker, 1971, 1973). This theory suggests that because humans have unique cognitive
abilities, we are aware of the fact that we will die eventually and are terrified of that
inevitable death. Thus we create psychological phenomena as a buffer against the ter-
ror of dying (Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszcynski, 1997). We fabricate and give meaning
to our lives in order to raise our human existence above nature so that meaning can be
drawn from life (Becker, 1971). This meaning is not physical in nature nor does it actually
exist as an objective element (Triandis, 1972) of culture. Rather the meanings afforded in
cultural worldviews and the worth we place on ourselves arise because humans must
balance a propensity for life with an awareness of the inevitability of death.

From this perspective, then, each individual human’s name and identity, family and
social identifications, goals and aspirations, occupation and title, are humanly created
adornments draped over an animal that, in the cosmic scheme of things, may be no
more significant or enduring than any individual potato, pineapple, or porcupine. But
it is this elaborate drapery that provides us with the fortitude to carry on despite the
uniquely human awareness of our mortal fate. (Pyszczynski et al., 2004, p. 436)

Self-esteem, therefore, is “a culturally based construction that consists of viewing
oneself as living up to specific contingencies of value . . . that are derived from the
culture at large but are integrated into a unique individualized worldview by each
person” (Pyszcynski et al., 2004, p. 437). In this theory, cultural worldviews are fabri-
cated and given meaning by people’s minds (Becker, 1971). One of the goals of these
cultural worldviews is to raise human existence above nature so that meaning can be
drawn from life, resulting in self-esteem.

Despite popular myths about the importance of self-esteem, research has demon-
strated that self-esteem is not often correlated with objective standards of competence
or performance (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003; Pyszcynski et al., 2004;
Rodriguez, Wigfield, & Eccles, 2003). The lack of association between self-esteem
and actual competence probably occurs because people create feelings of unique-
ness about themselves regardless of objective reality. As a part of one’s self concept,
cultural worldviews are subject to the same need for uniqueness. That’s one reason
why people often report what their cultures are like with pride, saying that’s what
makes their cultures unique, even though in many instances people of different cul-
tures report the same content (e.g., “the emphasis in my culture is in the importance
of family”). And in all our travels around the world, we have never met a person who
proudly boasts that their culture is second rate! Ideological cultural worldviews and
self-esteem serve as a psychological defense against the anxieties of living and pro-
vide humans with the ability to achieve a sense of value (Salzman, 2001).

Is Self-Enhancement Universal or Culture-Specific?
A very active debate concerning the question of whether self-enhancement is universal
or culture-specific has been occurring for over a decade. Early cross-cultural research
on self-esteem reported that members of individualistic cultures, such as Americans
and Canadians, had higher self-esteem scores than members of collectivistic cultures,

self-enhancement A
collection of psychological
processes by which indi-
viduals maintain or enhance
their self-esteem.

terror management
theory The theory that
suggests that, because hu-
mans have unique cognitive
abilities, they are the only
animals that are aware of the
fact that we will die eventu-
ally, and we are afraid, terri-
fied in fact, of that inevitable
death. Because inevitable
death is terrifying to us, we
create psychological phe-
nomena as a buffer against
the terror of dying.

48951_ch05_ptg01_105-124.indd 117 1/6/16 6:28 PM

118 Chapter 5

such as Asians (Heine, Lehman, Markus, & Kitayama, 1999). In fact, early studies sug-
gested that not only did collectivistic Asians not self-enhance, but that they engaged
in more of the opposite tendency, that is to self-efface. Self-effacement refers to the
tendency to downplay one’s virtues. Some researchers have suggested that Asians
not only are more self-effacing; they are more critical about themselves and are more
attuned to negative than positive self-evaluations, in both private and public settings
(Kitayama, Matsumoto, Markus, & Norasakkunkit, 1997; Leung, 1996).

One reason why some have argued for cultural differences in self-enhancement is
the better than average effect (also known as the false uniqueness effect). American
adults typically consider themselves to be more intelligent and more attractive than
average (Wylie, 1979). This effect appears to be stronger for males than for females in
the United States (Joseph, Markus, & Tafarodi, 1992). In a national survey of Ameri-
can students, Myers (1987) found that 70% of the students thought they were above
average in leadership ability; with respect to the ability to get along with others, 0%
thought they were below average, while 60% thought they were in the top 10%.

These types of studies showed that there is a tendency to view oneself and one’s
abilities and traits more positively in comparison to others, at least in the United
States. Early studies of the false uniqueness effect in countries and cultures outside
the United States, however, did not find these biases. For example, when Japanese stu-
dents were asked to rate themselves in comparison to others on a number of abilities
and traits, they claimed that about 50% of students would be better than they are (see
Figure 5.6; Markus & Kitayama, 1991a; Markus, Mullally, & Kitayama, 1997). In other
words, the better than average effect was nonexistent in this sample.

self-effacement The
tendency to downplay one’s
virtues.

better than average
effect (also known as the
false uniqueness effect) The
tendency for individuals
to underestimate the com-
monality of desirable traits
and to overestimate their
uniqueness.

Japan United States

Culture

Abilities
Independence

Pe
rc

en
t

Es
tim

at
e

Interdependence

Expected
value
given
no bias

Figure 5.6 Estimates of the Percentage of People Who Are Better Than Oneself in
Three Categories of Behavior
Source: Markus, H. R., and S. Kitayama, (1991). Cultural Variation in Self-Concept. In G. R. Goethals
& J. Strauss (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Perspectives on the Self. (pp. 18–48). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Reprinted with kind permission from Springer Science BusinessMedia B.V.

48951_ch05_ptg01_105-124.indd 118 1/6/16 6:28 PM

Culture, Self, and Identity 119

Because of the contradictory findings on the false uniqueness effect in suppos-
edly collectivistic cultures, some scholars have argued that self-enhancement is a
product of individualistic cultures and does not exist in collectivistic cultures, or is
relatively lower, and that is why members of individualistic cultures score higher on
self-esteem tests (Falk, Heine, Yuki, & Takemura, 2009; Heine & Hamamura, 2007).
But a host of new research over the past two decades has challenged this position,
suggesting that people of all cultures self-enhance, but they just do so in different
ways. For example, it could be the case that individualism fosters a certain type of
self-esteem—one that is often measured in psychological research—whereas collec-
tivism fosters a different type of self-esteem. Tafarodi and Swann (1996) tested this
“cultural trade-off” hypothesis in a study of Chinese and American college students.
They hypothesized that highly collectivistic cultures promote the development of
global self-esteem, which is reflected in generalized self-liking, while at the same
time challenging the development of another dimension of self-esteem, reflected in
generalized self-competence. Individualistic cultures, they hypothesized, foster the
opposite tendencies. They found that the Chinese were lower in ratings of self-
competence but higher in self-liking than the Americans. These findings supported
the notion that self-esteem may have multiple facets, and that different cultural
milieus either support or challenge the development of different facets.

Although self-enhancement may not occur in other cultures when people are
asked to focus on their own individual traits and attributes, when people are asked
about relational and community-related traits, however, self-enhancement does
indeed take place (Kurman, 2001). Sedikides, Gaertner, and Toguchi (2003) showed
that Americans self-enhanced on individualistic attributes, while Japanese self-
enhanced on collectivistic attributes. A subsequent meta-analysis of cross-cultural
studies on self-esteem and self-enhancement conducted to date provided more evi-
dence that both Westerners and Easterners self-enhanced, but they did so in different
ways (Sedikides, Gaertner, & Vevea, 2005).

This notion also receives support from a number of studies examining the
question in different ways. For example, studies using the Implicit Attitudes Test,
where self-esteem is measured implicitly instead of explicitly using rating scales,
have shown that there are no differences between Americans’ and East Asians’ self-
esteem (Boucher, Peng, Shi, & Wang, 2009; Brown & Kobayashi, 2002; Kobayashi &
Brown, 2003; Kobayashi & Greenwald, 2003). Other studies have demonstrated that
self-esteem functions similarly across cultures—that is, it is correlated with the
same variables, such as perceived stress, depression, life satisfaction, and subjective
well-being—regardless of mean differences in absolute levels of self-esteem (Brown,
Cai, Oakes, & Deng, 2009; Gaertner, Sedikides, & Chang, 2008). And recent studies
have shown that in cultures thought to not self-enhance directly and explicitly, mem-
bers can enhance their selves through a process known as mutual self-enhancement,
in which self-enhancement is achieved through the giving and receiving of compli-
ments between partners in close relationships (Dalsky, Gohm, Noguchi, & Shiomura,
2008). For example, a host bringing out dinner may say that she’s not a good cook, or
the food is too salty, to which her close friends may reply that she’s an excellent cook
and her food is delicious. And, while people of some Asian cultures like to say that
they don’t boast, they often boast about the fact that they don’t boast.

Another related line of research is that on distinctiveness. Despite the notion that
the motive to maintain one’s identity as distinct is stronger in individualistic cultures,
a recent study involving data from 4,751 respondents in 21 cultures showed that the
motivation for distinctiveness was not weaker but in fact stronger in collectivistic cul-
tures than in individualistic cultures (Becker et al., 2012).

mutual self-
enhancement Self-
enhancement that is
achieved through the giving
and receiving of compli-
ments between partners in
close relationships.

48951_ch05_ptg01_105-124.indd 119 1/6/16 6:28 PM

120 Chapter 5

Another recent interesting study reported scores on the Number Series test from
participants from 33 countries and nine regions of the world (Stankov & Lee, 2014).
The Number Series test involves the presentation of a series a numbers in a sequence
where participants need to figure out the next number in the sequence. For example,
participants were given the following sequence of numbers and were asked to insert
the next number in the sequence:

4, 12, 8, 7, 12, 8, 10, 12, 8, 13, 12, _____

In this example the correct answer is 8. After doing five such items participants
also rated their confidence on this task on a scale from 0–100%. There were large dif-
ferences across the world regions on the actual accuracy rates on the task; but there
was relatively little difference across the world regions on the confidence ratings. The
bias to be overconfident, therefore, was relatively larger in world regions with less
accuracy (see Figure 5.7).

Thus self-enhancement appears to be a universal motive, but people of different
cultures find different ways to enhance their selves. Enhancement may occur on dif-
ferent traits, explicitly or implicitly, or in different contexts. This is known as tactical
self-enhancement (Sedikides, Gaertner, & Toguchi, 2003). In this view, cultures incen-
tivize different ways of motivating and expressing self-enhancement (Yamaguchi,
Lin, Morio, & Okumura, 2008). People around the world may access the same poten-
tial sources in determining their self-esteem, such as controlling one’s life, doing
one’s duty, benefiting others, and achieving social status, but different cultures
facilitate more or less importance to some factors over others (Becker, et al., 2014; see
also Hepper, Sedikides, & Cai, 2013). Cross-cultural findings on the applicability of
terror management theory (Heine, Harihara, & Niiya, 2002) also suggest that self-
enhancement is a universal psychological process, and that individuals will univer-
sally work to bolster their self-esteem.

tactical self-
enhancement The idea
that people of different
cultures all self-enhance, but
they choose to do it in differ-
ent ways (i.e., tactically).

70,00

M
ea

World Regions

60,00

50,00

40,00

30,00

Accuracy Total
Con�dence

So
ut

h
Ea

st
Asia

Su
b-

sa
ha

ra
n

Afri
ca

So
ut

h
Asia

La
tin

A
m

er
ica

M
idd

le
Ea

st/
Nor

th
A

fri
ca

W
es

te
rn

Eu
ro

Ea
ste

rn
Eu

ro
pe

Ang
lo

Ea
st

Asia

Figure 5.7 Average Accuracy and Confidence Scores on the Number Series Test in
Nine World Regions
Source: Stankov, L., & Lee, J. (2014). Overconfidence across World Regions. Journal of Cross-Cultural
Psychology, 45, 821–837.

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Culture, Self, and Identity 121

Culture and Identity

Types of Identities
Identity refers to the way individuals understand themselves and are recognized
by others. Psychologists generally differentiate three large types of identity. One is
personal identity, which refers to the qualities and attributes that distinguish oneself
from others. This type of identity is closely akin to the concept of the self described
above. Collective identities refer to our recognition that we belong to social catego-
ries, such as occupation, religion, or culture. Relational identities refer to our quali-
ties of ourselves in relation to others.

Identities are creations of the human mind and are important because they fulfill
a universal need to belong to social groups. Collective identities in particular occur
because humans have a universal need for affiliation (as we discussed in Chapter 1).
Creating a collective identity addresses our need for affiliation and helps us create
meaningful and lasting relationships. The fundamental need to affiliate with others
leads to the secondary need to belong to social groups. These relationships, in turn,
help us reproduce, ensuring survival; they also help us to live longer, healthier, and
happier lives. Multiple studies, in fact, have shown that individuals accepted into
social groups have better physical and psychological consequences; those rejected
by social groups have more negative consequences (Baumeister, Ciarocco, & Twenge,
2005). Ostracized and isolated individuals exhibit a wide range of distress (see also
Chapter 11).

We create many different types of collective identities, including gender identity
and occupational identity. Some identities that are most relevant to our discussion
here are cultural, ethnic, and racial identities, which refer to our recognizing that
we belong to specific cultures, ethnicities, and races. (Recall our discussion of the
difference between culture, ethnicity, and race in Chapter 1.) We also have national
identities, which refer to our recognition that we belong to a specific nation or coun-
try. Identity can also be distinguished by language group in a region; in Montreal,
for example, individuals are often identified as Anglophones, Francophones, or
Allophones.

Although the existence of identities is universal, the specific content of any indi-
vidual’s or group’s identity is culturally determined. How one identifies with a partic-
ular identity is influenced heavily by the meanings and associations attributed by his
or her culture to various groups. Identity is strongly shaped by narratives (Hammack,
2008), and narratives are stories that are infused with cultural meaning. U.S. Ameri-
cans, for instance, are accustomed to identifying themselves with ethnic or racial
categories (e.g., Hispanic/Latino, African American, Asian American). But these cat-
egories themselves are products of American culture’s history of immigration and
the meanings attributed to that history. Because this history and cultural meaning is
unique to the United States, individuals in many other countries and cultures don’t
identify themselves with these same social groups.

Identity Is Fluid
Identity is not fixed. It is fluid and changes in different contexts and cultures. Iden-
tity is always constructed in relation to whom you’re talking and where you are. If
you’re outside the United States and talking with someone from another country, for
example, you might identify yourself as an American. If you’re in New York, however,

personal identity
A form of identity character-
ized by the qualities and
attributes that distinguish
oneself from others.

collective identity
A form of identity that refers
to our recognition that we
belong to social categories,
such as occupation, religion,
or culture.

relational identity
A form of identity that refers
to our qualities of ourselves
in relation to others.

cultural identity This
refers to individuals’
psychological membership
in a distinct culture.

ethnic identity
Individuals’ psychological
membership in a distinct
ethnic group.

racial identity
Individuals’ psychological
membership in a distinct
racial group.

48951_ch05_ptg01_105-124.indd 121 1/6/16 6:28 PM

122 Chapter 5

and you’re originally from California, you might identify yourself as a Californian.
But if you’re talking with another American about ethnicity or race, you might iden-
tify yourself as Hispanic, African, or Asian American. If you were born and raised in
Hawaii, like one of us (D.M.) was, and you meet another person from Hawaii, one of
the first questions to be asked is what high school one graduated from, because one’s
high school affiliation has important cultural meaning there.

Many individuals of immigrant ethnic groups in the United States have a sur-
prising realization when visiting the country of their ethnic origins. While growing
up in the United States, individuals of many groups such as Korean Americans, Japa-
nese Americans, and Filipino Americans identify themselves as such. But when they
visit Korea, Japan, or the Philippines, they have the sometimes shocking revelation
that others view them as just “Americans.” Thus, how people of other cultures view
us is not necessarily the same as how we view ourselves.

In fact, what exactly is the category of “American,” and who identifies themselves
as being American? Of course, anyone born and raised in the United States is techni-
cally an American in nationality, as well as those who are naturalized citizens. Yet
research provides strong evidence for an implicit assumption that being “American”
equals being “white.” Devos and Banaji (2005) conducted six studies with African,
Asian, and white Americans in which they showed that, although all participants
expressed strong principles of egalitarianism—a founding value in American
culture—both African and Asian Americans were less associated with the category
“American” than were whites. This nonattribution of being American to non-whites
occurred for both white and Asian American participants but not for the African
Americans. In fact, African and Asian Americans were explicitly reported to be even
more American than white Americans, but implicitly the opposite pattern was found.

Having one’s ethnic identity acknowledged is meaningful, and sometimes one is
not recognized as a member of a group to which he or she identifies. This is known
as identity denial. Cheryan and Monin (2005) showed that Asian Americans experi-
ence identity denial more frequently than other ethnic groups in the United States,
and in reaction to this, they tend to demonstrate knowledge of American culture
and greater participation in American cultural practices (e.g., watching TV, listening
to music, having American friends). Two studies involving U.S. Asians and Latinos
demonstrated that individuals whose ethnic identities were not acknowledged by
others felt more negative emotions and evaluated their partners more negatively than
individuals whose ethnic identities were appropriately acknowledged (Flores & Huo,
2012). Almost all of the participants (91%) reported having some sort of ethnic identity
neglect in their every daily lives.

Multicultural Identities
As culture is a psychological construct—a shared system of rules—it is conceivable
that people have not just a single cultural identity, but in some circumstances, two
or more such identities. These multicultural identities are becoming increasingly
commonplace in today’s world, with borders between cultural groups becoming less
rigid, increased communication and interaction among people of different cultural
groups, and more intercultural marriages.

If culture is defined as a psychological construct, the existence of multicultural
identities suggests the existence of multiple psychocultural systems of representations
in the minds of multicultural individuals. In fact, there is a growing literature on this
important topic, all of which document the existence of such multiple psychological
systems in multicultural individuals. Oyserman (1993), for example, conducted four

identity denial When
an individual is not
recognized as a member of
a group to which he or she
identifies.

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Culture, Self, and Identity 123

studies testing Arab and Jewish Israeli students in Israel. Although social, collec-
tivistic types of identities had long been considered central to many cultures of that
region, Oyserman suggested that these cultures would include considerable individu-
alistic aspects as well, given the history of the region and the influence of the British.
In her studies, participants completed a battery of tests, including assessments of indi-
vidualism, collectivism, public and private self-focus, and intergroup conflicts. Across
all four studies, both Arab and Jewish Israelis used both individualistic and collectiv-
istic worldviews in organizing perceptions of self and others. Other studies have also
demonstrated the existence of multiple identities (Oyserman, Gant, & Ager, 1995).

The research we review in Chapter 10 is also relevant here. As we will learn there,
bicultural individuals have multiple cultural systems in their minds and access one
or the other depending on the context in which they are in. This is known as cultural
frame switching (see code frame switching in Glossary of Chapter 10; Benet- Martinez,
Leu, Lee, & Morris, 2002; Hong, Morris, Chiu, & Benet-Martinez, 2000). This refers to
the fact that people who speak multiple languages will switch between one cultural
meaning system and another when switching languages, because language is a cul-
ture’s symbolic representation of the world. Thus, when speaking languages, multi-
lingual people will be switching cultural frameworks in their minds.

Studies have documented a cultural reaffirmation effect among multicultural
individuals living in multicultural societies. For example, Kosmitzki (1996) examined
monocultural and bicultural Germans and Americans, who made trait attribute rat-
ings of themselves, their native cultural group, and their adoptive cultural group. The
bicultural individuals endorsed even more traditional values associated with their
native culture than did native monocultural individuals in those native cultures.

This curious finding is well supported in other studies. For example, Matsumoto,
Weissman, and colleagues (1997) compared ratings of collectivistic tendencies in
interpersonal interactions of Japanese Americans with those of Japanese nationals in
Japan. They found that the Japanese Americans were more collectivistic than the Jap-
anese nationals in the native culture. Sociological studies involving immigrants to the
United States, including China, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines, also suggest that
the immigrant groups in the United States from other Asia-Pacific countries appear
to be more traditional than the native cultures from which they came (for example,
Takaki, 1998). Anecdotally, strong cultural traditions, customs, heritage, and language
seem to continue among Chinese American immigrant populations throughout the
United States.

What may account for such findings? We speculate that when immigrant groups
arrive in the United States, they bring with them the culture of their native group at
that time. As they are immersed within a multicultural society, the stress of multi-
cultural life in a different world contributes to the cultural reaffirmation effect. The
immigrant group thus crystallizes its culture—the one they brought with them at the
time—and it is this culture that is communicated across generations of immigrant
groups. As time passes, the home culture itself may undergo change, but the immi-
grant group continues to transmit the original cultural system they brought with
them previously. After some time, if you compare the immigrant group with the
native cultural group, you will find that the immigrant group actually conforms more
to the original cultural stereotype than does the native group, because the immigrant
culture has crystallized while the native culture has changed. At the same time, the
immigrant group clings to the only culture it knows in order to deal with the uncer-
tainties of living in a new place and time. Thus, while individual members of immi-
grant groups often grow up with multicultural identities, the identity of their native
culture is often one of long-standing tradition and heritage.

cultural frame
switching The process
by which bicultural (or
multicultural) individuals
switch between one cultural
meaning system and another
depending on context.

cultural reaffirma-
tion effect The ampli-
fied endorsement of home
cultural values by bicultural
individuals.

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124 Chapter 5

C O N C L U S I O N

Self and identity are important psychological phenomena that organize how we un-
derstand ourselves and the world around us. They are universal products of our cul-
tures, and exist uniquely in humans because humans have unique cognitive skills and
abilities to create them in the first place. At the same time, different cultures facilitate
the creation of different senses of self and identity. Moreover, cultural identity, self-
concepts, and self-esteem are all related to each other. Individuals with clearer cultural
identities generally have clearer self-concepts, higher self-esteem, and higher well-
being (Usborne & Taylor, 2010). These culturally-based self-construals and identities
organize the various specific mental processes and behaviors we will learn about in
the remainder of the book.

E X P L O R A T I O N A N D D I S C O V E R Y

Why Does This Matter to Me?
1. How do you view yourself? Do you see yourself

as more independent or interdependent? Does
that self-view apply across different contexts,
or is it different in different contexts? And how
does that self-view influence your interactions
with others, especially with those from a different
culture?

2. What things do you do to enhance your sense of
self? Do you think that the ways in which you

enhance your self is similar or different to people
around you from different backgrounds? Why?

3. List the types of collective identities you may
have. Do you notice how you change how you
identify yourself depending on the context you’re
in and with whom you’re interacting?

Suggestions for Further Exploration
1. Conduct a simple replication of the better-than-

average effect by surveying your classmates
about how they rate themselves with regard to
others on some characteristic. If possible do the
same survey with professors. Can you manipulate
the instructions so that the effect occurs or not?

2. How many different identities does a person
have? Conduct a survey examining this question,
and investigate the roles and behaviors associated

with the various identities a person has. Then
have people rate which identities and roles are
most important and examine cultural differences
in the identities and their relative importance.

3. If you know of bilingual or bicultural individuals,
ask them to do the tasks described above twice,
once in each language and see what differences
occur, if any. If you see a difference, how can you
link those differences to code frame switching?

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125

6Culture and Personality

CHAPTER CONTENTS

Defining Personality

Definitions

Perspectives

Measuring Personality across Cultures

Cross-Cultural Studies on
Personality Traits: The Five-Factor
Model and Five-Factor Theory

Evidence for the Five-Factor Model (FFM)

Do Perceptions of National Character Correspond
to Aggregate Personality Traits?

Where Do These Traits Come From? The Five-
Factor Theory

An Evolutionary Approach

Cross-Cultural Studies on Other
Dimensions of Personality

Interpersonal Relatedness

Filipino Personality Structure

Dominance

Internal versus External Locus of Control

Direct, Indirect, Proxy, and Collective Control

Autonomy

Indigenous Personalities

Integrating Universal and Culture-
Specific Understandings of Personality

CONCLUSION

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY
Why Does This Matter to Me?
Suggestions for Further Exploration

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126 Chapter 6

A topic closely related to self and identity, which we covered in the last chapter, is
personality. Like the topics of self and identity, personality is also one of the most
important and widely studied areas in cultural psychology. Indeed, the search for the
underlying bases of individual differences, which serve as the backbone of under-
standing personality, shares a close conceptual and empirical connection with cul-
ture in any cultural milieu, and it’s important to get a good grasp of the difference
between culture and personality because, as we mentioned in Chapter 1, they are not
the same.

We begin this chapter by first defining personality, discussing briefly the major
perspectives that have been used to study it, and the measurement of personality
across cultures. Then we review cross-cultural research on a view of personality
known as the five-factor model (FFM), which suggests that five personality dimen-
sions are universal to all humans. We discuss two theories that account for that uni-
versality in personality structure and research that goes beyond the FFM. We also
discuss indigenous and culture-specific approaches to personality and some of the
research that has been conducted in this area. Although culture-specific aspects of
personality and universal notions of personality may seem contradictory, we present
a way of understanding their mutual coexistence and conceptualizing and studying
their duality.

Defining Personality

Definitions
Personality is a broad concept that refers to many aspects of an individual’s unique
characteristics, and is generally considered to be a set of relatively enduring behavioral
and cognitive characteristics, traits, or predispositions that people take with them to different
situations, contexts, and interactions with others, and that contribute to differences among
individuals. Personality consists of the qualities that make a person a distinctive indi-
vidual. It is the aggregate of behavioral and mental characteristics that are distinctive
of an individual. Personality is generally believed to be relatively stable across time
and consistent across contexts, situations, and interactions (Allport, 1936; Funder,
2001).

Over the years, scientists have identified and studied many specific aspects of
personality within this broad definition, and that it’s helpful to understand the broad
concept of personality along multiple levels of analysis. In this chapter, we broadly
define personality along two levels of analysis that allow us to understand poten-
tially disparate approaches to the study and understanding of personality across
cultures. One level includes what are known as dispositional traits, or just traits for
short. A trait is a characteristic or quality distinguishing a person. It refers to a con-
sistent pattern of behavior, feelings, and thoughts that a person would usually display
in relevant circumstances. For example, if we describe someone as “outgoing,” that
would generally refer to a specific pattern of behavior in which this person is likely
to engage when with others. A person who is outgoing will likely strike up conversa-
tions, meet comfortably with strangers, and be expressive with their thoughts and
emotions. A person who is “shy” would not. The trait approach in psychology has a
long and rich history, dating to the work of Allport (1936). Theories and research on
this area of personality are known as trait psychology.

Another level of personality can be broadly construed as identity, which includes
our perceived roles in life, aggregate role and life experiences, narratives, values, and

personality A set of rel-
atively enduring behavioral
and cognitive characteristics,
traits, or predispositions that
people take with them to
different situations, contexts,
and interactions with others,
and that contribute to differ-
ences among individuals.

trait A characteristic or
quality distinguishing a
person. It refers to a con-
sistent pattern of behavior
that a person would usu-
ally display in relevant
circumstances.

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Culture and Personality 127

motives (Markus & Kitayama, 1998; Wood & Roberts, 2006). This aspect of identity is
slightly different than the identity we discussed in the last chapter, which referred
more to the ways by which individuals identify themselves with the groups of which
they are members. The identity discussed in this chapter refers to that aspect of our
personalities that are created by performing repeated roles—thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors that occur in real life across single role experiences—producing a history
that comprises aggregate role experiences. These experiences, in turn, form the basis
of other important aspects of personality, including narratives, values, and general
motives (Roberts, 2006).

Perspectives
There are three major perspectives that inform our understanding of personality
across cultures (see Table 6.1). Some of the earliest contributions to our understanding
of the relationship between personality and culture came from anthropologists who
were interested in psychology in what is known as psychological anthropology. Through
mostly ethnographic fieldwork, anthropologists such as Margaret Mead, Edward
Sapir, Weston Labarre, Ruth Benedict, Ralph Linton, Cora DuBois, and Abraham
Kardiner developed theories about culture and personality that served as a basis for
cross-cultural comparisons of personalities (see review in Piker, 1998). Many of these
works formed the basis for the notion of “national character,” which is still popular
today. A national character refers to the perception that each culture has a modal per-
sonality type, and that most persons in that culture share aspects of it. Although many
cultural and psychological anthropologists recognize the important contributions of
biologically innate factors to personality and psychology, the main thrust of the psy-
chological anthropology is its view of personality as culturally specific, formed by the
unique forces each culture deals with in its milieu. The psychological anthropologi-
cal view of personality attributes more importance to the learning of psychological
mechanisms and personality in the environment through cultural practices than to
biological or evolutionary factors. In this view the foundations of personality devel-
opment are set in early childhood according to each culture’s unique cultural traits.

Whereas psychological anthropology made major contributions to the study of
culture and personality in the first half of the twentieth century, the second half was
dominated by cross-cultural perspectives, which focused on traits (see review by Church
& Lonner, 1998). This approach generally viewed personality as something discrete
and separate from culture, and as a dependent variable in research. Thus, two or
more cultures are treated as independent variables, and they are compared on some
personality traits or dimensions. In contrast to the psychological anthropological

national character
The perception that each
culture has a modal person-
ality type, and that most
persons in that culture share
aspects of it.

Table 6.1 Major Perspectives in the Study of Personality across Cultures

Psychological Anthropology Cross-Cultural Perspectives
Cultural Indigenous
Perspectives

■ Based mostly on ethnographic
fieldwork by anthropologists,
this perspective forms the basis
of the notion of a “national
character,” which refers to the
perception that each culture
has a modal personality type
and that most persons in that
culture share aspects of it.

■ This perspective views
personality as something
discrete and separate from
culture, and as an etic or
universal phenomenon that
is equivalently relevant
and meaningful across
cultures (which allows for
comparisons to be made).

■ This perspective views
personality as constellations
of traits and characteristics
found only in a specific
culture; personality and
culture are not separate
entities, but are mutually
constituted with each other.

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128 Chapter 6

approach, the cross-cultural approach tended to see personality as an etic or univer-
sal phenomenon that is equivalently relevant and meaningful in the cultures being
compared. The cross-cultural perspective also asked the question: To the extent that
personality does exhibit universal aspects, how did they originate?

The cross-cultural perspective to personality has also been concerned with the
discovery of culture-specific personality traits. Cross-cultural psychologists describe
culture-specific indigenous personalities as constellations of personality traits and
characteristics found only in a specific culture (for more information, see reviews by
Ho, 1998; Diaz-Loving, 1998). These types of studies, though psychological in nature,
are heavily influenced in approach and understanding by the anthropological view
of culture and personality.

Work on indigenous personalities has led to what is known as the cultural indig-
enous perspective to personality (e.g., Shweder, 1979a, 1979b, 1980, 1991; Markus & Kita-
yama, 1998). This approach sees culture and personality not as separate entities, but
as a mutually constituted system in which each creates and maintains the other.

The cultural perspective assumes that psychological processes, in this case the nature
of functioning of personality, are not just influenced by culture but are thoroughly
culturally constituted. In turn, the cultural perspective assumes that personalities
behaving in concert create the culture. Culture and personality are most productively
analyzed together as a dynamic of mutual constitution . . .; one cannot be reduced to
the other. . . A cultural psychological approach does not automatically assume that all
behavior can be explained with the same set of categories and dimensions and first
asks whether a given dimension, concept, or category is meaningful and how it is used
in a given cultural context. (Markus & Kitayama, 1998, p. 66)

The cultural indigenous perspective has been heavily influenced by the cultural
anthropologists, as well as by the cross-cultural work on indigenous psychologies
(see Kim, 2001) and personalities. On its face, it is somewhat antithetical to the cross-
cultural search for universals and rejects the possibility of biological and genetic
mechanisms underlying universality. Instead, it suggests that just as no two cultures
are alike, the personalities that comprise those cultures should be fundamentally dif-
ferent because of the mutual constitution of culture and personality within each cul-
tural milieu.

Today, the cross-cultural and cultural indigenous perspectives are the dominant
perspectives with regard to understanding personality across cultures. The cross-
cultural perspective, rooted in the study of traits, suggests that personality organiza-
tion and dimensions are universal (and somewhat biologically innate, as we will see
below). The cultural indigenous perspective, rooted in culture-specific perspectives
of personality as identities, suggests that personalities are dependent on the cultures
in which they exist, and rejects notions of universality. How to make sense of this all
is perhaps the greatest challenge facing this area of cultural psychology today. Below
we review the major research evidence for both perspectives, and describe an inte-
grated perspective that suggests that the universal and indigenous approaches are
not necessarily mutually exclusive to each other. This later analysis will make use of
an understanding of different levels of personality.

Measuring Personality across Cultures
Before delving into what we know in this area, we need to contend with one of the
most serious issues in all cross-cultural research on personality: whether personality
can be measured reliably and validly across different cultures. If methods of assessing

indigenous
personalities Concep-
tualizations of personality
developed in a particular
culture that are specific and
relevant only to that culture.

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Culture and Personality 129

personality are not reliable or valid across cultures, then the results of research using
these methods cannot be trusted to give accurate portrayals of personality similari-
ties or differences across cultures.

This issue is directly related to the differences in perspectives discussed imme-
diately above. The etic, universal perspective to personality (which underlies cross-
cultural perspectives), assumes that there are aspects of personality that exist across
cultures, that they can be measured in similar ways across cultures, and that the
results of those measurements can be compared across cultures. The emic, indige-
nous perspective, however, suggests that because aspects of personality are likely to
be culture-specific, it is difficult if not impossible to create measures of personality
that have the same meaning (and validity) across cultures. Thus, when considering
the measurement of personality across cultures, we need to first consider the aspect
of personality that is being measured and the theoretical perspective of the researcher
measuring it.

If one assumes that there are aspects of personality that can be measured and
compared across cultures, then important questions arise concerning its measure-
ment. Most personality measures used in cross-cultural research were originally
developed in a single language and culture and validated in that language and cul-
ture. The psychometric evidence typically used to demonstrate a measure’s reliability
and validity in a single culture involves examination of internal, test–retest, and par-
allel forms reliabilities, convergent and predictive validities, and replicability of the
factor structures that comprise the various scales of the test. To obtain all these types
of psychometric evidence for the reliability and validity of a test, researchers typically
conduct multiple studies addressing each of these specific concerns. The best mea-
sures of personality—as well as all other psychological constructs—have this degree
of psychometric evidence backing them.

A common practice in many of the early cross-cultural studies on personality
was to take a personality scale that had been developed in one country or culture—
most often the United States—and simply translate it and use it in another culture.
In effect, the researchers merely assumed that the personality dimension measured
by that scale was equivalent between the two cultures, and that the method of mea-
suring that dimension was psychometrically valid and reliable. Thus, many studies
imposed an assumed etic construct upon the cultures studied (Church & Lonner,
1998). Realistically, however, one cannot safely conclude that the personality dimen-
sions represented by an imposed etic are equivalently and meaningfully represented
in all cultures included in a study.

As we discussed in Chapter 2, just the fact that personality scales have been trans-
lated and used in cross-cultural research is not sufficient evidence that the personal-
ity domains they measure are indeed equivalent in those cultures. In fact, when this
type of research is conducted, one of the researchers’ primary concerns is whether
the personality scales used in the study can validly and reliably measure meaningful
dimensions of personality in all the cultures studied. As discussed in Chapter 2, the
equivalence of a measure in terms of its meaning to all cultures concerned, as well as
its psychometric validity and reliability, is of prime concern in cross-cultural research
if the results are to be considered valid, meaningful, and useful.

The cross-cultural validation of personality measures requires psychometric evi-
dence from all cultures in which the test is to be used. In the strictest sense, therefore,
researchers interested in cross-cultural studies on personality should select instru-
ments that have been demonstrated to have acceptable psychometric properties in
cultures of interest. This is a far cry from merely selecting a test that seems to be inter-
esting and translating it for use in another culture. At the very least, equivalence of its

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130 Chapter 6

psychometric properties should be established empirically, not assumed or ignored
(Matsumoto & Van de Vijver, 2011).

Data addressing the psychometric evidence necessary to validate a test in a tar-
get culture would provide the safest avenue by which such equivalence can be dem-
onstrated. If such data exist, they can be used to support contentions concerning
psychometric equivalence. Even if those data do not offer a high degree of support
(reliability coefficients are lower, or factor structures are not exactly equivalent), that
does not necessarily mean that the test as a whole is not equivalent. There are multiple
alternative explanations of why such data may not be as strong in the target culture
as in the culture in which the test was originally developed. Paunonen and Ashton
(1998) described 10 such possible interpretations, ranging from poor test translation
and response style issues to different analytic methods. Thus, if a test is examined in
another culture for its psychometric properties and the data are not as strong as they
were in the original culture, each of these possibilities should be examined before
concluding that the test is not psychometrically valid or reliable. In some cases, the
problem may be minor and fixable; in others, not.

Fortunately, many recent studies in this area have been sensitive to this issue,
and researchers have taken steps to ensure some degree of psychometric equivalence
across cultures in their measures of personality. Tests assessing traits have a long
history in cross-cultural research, and researchers have addressed issues of cross-
cultural equivalence and validity of their measures for years. The NEO Personality
Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R), for example, and its subsequent NEO PI3, which was
used in many of the studies described below on traits, has undergone extensive cross-
cultural reliability, validity, and equivalence testing (Costa & McCrae, 1992; McCrae,
Costa, & Martin, 2005). Similar findings have been obtained using other tests of traits,
such as the California Psychological Inventory, the Comrey Personality Scales, the
16 Personality Factors Questionnaire, the Pavlovian Temperament Survey, the Per-
sonality Research Form, and the Nonverbal Personality Questionnaire (Paunonen &
Ashton, 1998). Studies demonstrating the relationship between traits and adjustment,
and the possible biological sources of traits (reviewed below), also lend support to the
cross-cultural validity of the measures. Thus, the research findings we report below
concerning traits and other personality dimensions have used measures that appear
to be equivalent and valid across cultures (although not without at least some contro-
versy; see Church, Alvarez, Mai, French, & Katigbak, 2011).

Cross-Cultural Studies on Personality Traits:
The Five-Factor Model and Five-Factor Theory

Evidence for the Five-Factor Model
In the past two decades, trait approaches to personality have become extremely
important in understanding the relationship between culture and personality, and
it is the dominant view today, especially within the cross-cultural perspective. That
work culminated in what is known today as the five-factor model (FFM) of personal-
ity, which we now describe.

The FFM is a conceptual model built around five distinct and basic personality
dimensions that appear to be universal for all humans. The five dimensions are neu-
roticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.
The FFM was conceived after researchers noticed the similarities in the personality

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Culture and Personality 131

dimensions that had emerged across many studies, both within and between cul-
tures. Most notably, support for the FFM arose out of factor analyses of trait adjec-
tives from the English lexicon that were descriptive of self and others (Juni, 1996). The
factors that emerged from these types of analyses were similar to dimensions found
in the analysis of questionnaire scales operationalizing personality. Further inquiry
across cultures, using both factor analysis of descriptive trait adjectives in different
languages and personality dimensions measured by different personality question-
naires, lent further credence to the FFM.

Many early (e.g., Eysenck’s, 1983) and contemporary studies have provided sup-
port for the cross-cultural validity of the FFM, spanning different countries and
cultures in Europe, East and South Asia, North America, Africa, and Australia.
One of the leading researchers on personality and culture in the tradition of the
FFM is Robert R. McCrae, who published self-report data for 26 countries in 2001
(McCrae, 2001). In 2002, the database was expanded to 36 cultures (Allik & McCrae,
2004; McCrae, 2002). In later studies in this line of work, McCrae and his colleagues
in 51 cultures of the world replicated the FFM in all cultures studied (McCrae,
Terracciano, Khoury et al., 2005; McCrae, Terracciano, Leibovich et al., 2005). These
studies provided convincing and substantial evidence to support the claim that the
FFM—consisting of neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and consci-
entiousness—represented a universal taxonomy of personality that is applicable to
all humans.

One of the most widely used measures of the FFM in previous research was
the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) (Costa & McCrae, 1992), which
evolved to the NEO PI-3 (McCrae, Costa, & Martin, 2005). It is a 240-item instrument
in which respondents rate the degree to which they agree or disagree that the item
is characteristic of them. These instruments have been used in many studies across
many different cultures. It produces scores on the five major personality traits, as well
as six subscores for each major trait (Table 6.2).

Two of the most important traits for describing behavioral differences are extra-
version and neuroticism. The former refers to the degree to which an individual
experiences positive emotions, and is outgoing, expressive, and sociable or shy, intro-
verted, and avoids contact; the latter refers to the degree of emotional stability in an
individual. McCrae, Terracciano, Khoury et al. (2005) graphed the cultural groups
they studied along these two dimensions in order to create a useful visual aid in dis-
tinguishing among the cultures in terms of their personality (Figure 6.1). This graph
provides some ideas about the mean levels of these two personality traits of indi-
viduals in these cultural groups. Americans, New Zealanders, and Australians, for
instance, tended to be high on extraversion and in the middle of the scale for neuroti-
cism. The French, Italians, and Maltese tended to be high on neuroticism and in the
middle of the scale for extraversion.

One of the concerns with findings generated with scales like the NEO PI-R is that
the findings may reflect bias on the part of the respondent to answer in a socially
desirable way (see Chapter 2 to review response biases). These concerns are especially
important to note in cross-cultural work. McCrae, Terracciano, Leibovich, and col-
leagues (2005), therefore, conducted a follow-up study in which they asked samples of
adults and college students in 50 cultural groups to rate someone they know well on
the NEO PI-R. The questionnaire was modified so that the ratings were done in the
third person. The same five-factor model emerged, indicating that the previous results
were not dependent on who made ratings of a target person. In another interesting
study, Allik and McCrae (2004) showed that the personality traits were not related
to geographic location (defined as distance from the equator or mean temperature);

These studies provided

convincing and substantial

evidence to support the

claim that the FFM—

consisting of neuroticism,

extraversion, openness,

agreeableness, and

conscientiousness—

represented a universal

taxonomy of personality

that is applicable to all

humans.

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132 Chapter 6

and, geographically or historically close cultures had more similar personality pro-
files. The results to date provide strong evidence that the FFM is a universal model of
personality structure.

Do Perceptions of National Character Correspond
to Aggregate Personality Traits?
The works described above have been important because they measured the actual
personality traits of large numbers of individuals in a wide range of cultures. Thus,
they are reliable data on what the actual personality structures of individuals in these
cultures are like. These data also allow us to compare those actual personality pro-
files with our perceptions of national character. As described above, national character
refers to perceptions of the average personality of people of different cultures. Per-
ceptions of national character are, in fact, stereotypes about average personalities of
people of different cultures.

Table 6.2 Traits Associated with the Five-Factor Model

Major Trait Subtrait

Neuroticism Anxiety
Angry hostility
Depression
Self-consciousness
Impulsiveness
Vulnerability

Extraversion Warmth
Gregariousness
Assertiveness
Activity
Excitement seeking
Positive emotions

Openness Fantasy
Aesthetics
Feelings
Actions
Ideas
Values

Agreeableness Trust
Straightforwardness
Altruism
Compliance
Modesty
Tender-mindedness

Conscientiousness Competence
Order
Dutifulness
Achievement striving
Self-discipline
Deliberation

48951_ch06_ptg01_125-146.indd 132 1/6/16 6:27 PM

Culture and Personality 133

But are they accurate? Terraciano et al. (2005) asked approximately 4,000 respon-
dents in 49 cultures to describe the “typical member” of a culture using 30 bipolar
scales with two or three trait adjectives on the poles of each scale. There was relatively
high agreement about the national character perceptions of the various cultures; that
is, most people within each of the cultures agreed on their perceptions. But, their per-
ceptions were not correlated with the actual personality trait levels of the individuals
of those very same cultures. In other words, perceptions of national character were
not associated with the actual, aggregate personality levels of individuals of those
cultures.

One of the limitations of that study, however, was that different measures were
used to assess personality and national character. Two subsequent studies corrected
for this limitation, and found some degree of similarity between the two ratings,
but with considerable dissimilarity as well (Allik, Mottus, & Realo, 2010; Realo et al.,
2009). These findings suggested that perceptions of national character may actually
be unfounded stereotypes of the personalities of members of those cultures to some
degree.

If perceptions of national character are inaccurate, why do we have them?
Terraciano and colleagues (2005) suggested that one of the functions of these
unfounded stereotypes is the maintenance of a national identity. That is, one of the

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0

20.5

21.0

21.5
21.5 20.5 0.5 1.0 1.50.021.0

French
Italians

PolesRussians

Moroccans
HK Chinese

Burkinabe

Indonesians
Ugandans

Iranians

Batswana
Japanese

Thais Lebanese

Malays

Chinese
Indians

S. Koreans

Filipinos
Mexicans

Peruvians
Kuwaitis

Slovenes

Puerto Ricans
Chileans

Austrians
German Swiss

Germans

Spaniards

Estonians
Icelanders

New Zealanders
Australians

English
N. Irish

Belgians
Danes

Argentines

French Swiss
Maltese

Slovaks
Czechs

Brazilians

Portuguese

Canadians

Americans

Turks

Croatians

Serbians

Nigerians
Ethiopians

Figure 6.1 Graphic Display of Cultures from McCrae et al. (2005)
The vertical axis refers to neuroticism, while the horizontal axis refers to extroversion.
HK Chinese = Hong Kong Chinese; N. Irish = Northern Irish; S. Koreans = South Koreans.
Source: McCrae, R. R., Terracciano, A., Leibovich, N. B., Schmidt, V., Shakespeare-Finch, J.,
Neubauer, A., et al., “Personality profiles of cultures: Aggregate personality traits,” Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 89, pp. 407–425, 2005, Copyright © American Psychological
Association. Reprinted by permission.

48951_ch06_ptg01_125-146.indd 133 1/6/16 6:27 PM

134 Chapter 6

functions of stereotypes about other groups is to affirm, or reaffirm, the perceptions,
and often the self-worth, of one’s own group. Sometimes, these functions are dan-
gerous; when perceptions of others are unfavorable, they often lead to prejudice,
discrimination, and violence (see also Chapter 14). Other sources of personality ste-
reotypes may be climate, national wealth, values, or social desirability (Allik et al.,
2010; McCrae, Terracciano, Realo, & Allik, 2007; Realo et al., 2009).

Not only are people’s perceptions of national character inaccurate, but studies
have also shown that how people see others is different from how people see them-
selves (Allik, Mottus, Borkenau, Kupens, & Hrebickova, 2010). This research involved a
reanalysis of the NEO Personality Inventory across 29 cultures. People see themselves
as more neurotic and open to experience compared to how they are perceived by oth-
ers; others have a generally higher opinion of one’s conscientiousness than people do
of themselves. There are also fairly consistent cross-cultural similarities in perceived
gender differences in traits (Lockenhoff et al., 2014); women are generally rated higher
on neuroticism, agreeableness, openness to experience, and conscientiousness.

Where Do These Traits Come From? The Five-Factor Theory
The five-factory theory (FFT) was developed to explain the source of the traits found
to be universal in the FFM, and it’s important to distinguish between FFT and the
FFM. The FFM of personality is a model of the number of traits that are universal
to all people in their personality structure. The FFT of personality is a theoretical
framework about the source of those traits. One is not entirely dependent on the other;
the model of the traits may be entirely correct, while the theory about where they
come from entirely wrong. Alternatively, research may show that there are more than
five universal traits, while the theory that explains them is correct. Here we discuss
the FFT, which attempts to account for where the universal personality traits come
from. The core components of the FFT are basic tendencies, characteristic adapta-
tions, and the self-concept, which is a subcomponent of characteristic adaptations
(McCrae & Costa, 1999).

The traits correspond to the Basic Tendencies; they refer to internal dispositions
to respond to the environment in certain, predictable ways. The FFT suggests that
personality traits that underlie basic tendencies are biologically based. Several sources
of evidence support this idea. As described earlier, the same personality traits have
been found in all cultures studied, and using different research methods (McCrae,
Terracciano, Khoury, Nansubuga, Knezevic, Djuric Jocic et al., 2005; McCrae et al.,
2005). Parent–child relationships have little lasting effect on personality traits (Rowe,
1994); and traits are generally stable across the adult life span (McCrae & Costa, 2003),
although there are some developmental changes (Roberts, Walton, & Viechtbauer,
2006). Studies of twins demonstrate that the personalities of identical twins reared
apart are much more similar than those of fraternal twins reared together (Bouchard
& Loehlin, 2001; Bouchard, Lykken, & McGue, 1994). The FFM can predict variations
in behavior among individuals in longitudinal studies (Borkenau & Ostendorf, 1998),
and some evidence suggests that the FFM may apply to nonhuman primates as well
(King & Figueredo, 1997). Recent studies have demonstrated culture-level associa-
tions between national levels of neuroticism and specific genes related to serotonin
transportation (Minkov, Blagoev, & Bond, 2015). Thus there is considerably strong evi-
dence for the idea that personality traits (like those measured in the FFM) are biologi-
cally based; these are referred to in FFT as basic tendencies (see Figure 6.2).

The FFT suggests that the universal personality traits representing basic
tendencies are expressed in characteristic ways; these characteristic ways can be

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Culture and Personality 135

largely influenced by the culture in which one exists, and here is where culture
has important influences on personality development and expression. Characteristic
adaptations include habits, attitudes, skills, roles, and relationships. They are charac-
teristic because they reflect the psychological core personality trait dispositions of
the individual; they are also adaptations because they help the individual fit into the
ever-changing social environment (McCrae & Costa, 1999). Culture can substantially
influence these characteristic adaptations through the resources, social structures,
and social systems available in a specific environment to help achieve goals. Culture
can influence values about the various personality traits. Culture defines context
and provides differential meaning to the components of context, including who is
involved, what is happening, where it is occurring, and the like. Culture, therefore,
plays a substantial role in producing the specific behavioral manifestations—the
specific actions—that individuals will engage in to achieve what may be universal
affective goals. Culture is “undeniably relevant in the development of characteristics
and adaptations that guide the expression of personality in thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors” (McCrae et al., 1998), and the characteristic adaptations vary greatly across
cultures. The basic tendencies representing the universal personality traits, however,
are not culturally variable, and a universal personality structure is the mechanism by
which such goals are achieved through a balance and interaction with culture.

The characteristic adaptations help to produce a self-concept, as well as specific
behaviors. For example, a person low in depression, a facet of neuroticism (basic ten-
dency), may develop a low self-esteem, irrational perfectionistic beliefs, and pessimis-
tic or cynical attitudes about the world (Characteristic Adaptations and Self-Concept).
He or she may thus feel guilty about work or dissatisfied with his or her life (behavior).
A person high on gregariousness, which is part of extraversion (basic tendency), may
be outgoing, friendly, and talkative (characteristic adaptations). This person is likely
to have numerous friendships and be a member of various social clubs (behaviors).

One of the most contentious parts of the FFT is its suggestion that the origin
of the personality traits is at least partially biologically determined. An alternative

Biological Bases Cultural Bases

• Neuroticism
• Extraversion
• Conscientiousness
• Agreeableness
• Openness to experience

Basic Tendencies

• Personal strivings
• Attitudes
• Skills
• Roles
• Relationships

Characteristic
Adaptations • Self-schemas

• Speci�c beliefs
• Speci�c behaviors

Self-Concept

Figure 6.2 Graphical Representation of the Five-Factor Theory (FFT)

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136 Chapter 6

perspective suggests a role of culture or environment in the shaping of the person-
ality traits underlying basic tendencies of behavior (Allik & McCrae, 2002; Roberts,
Caspi, & Moffitt, 2003; Roberts & Helson, 1997; Roberts, Helson, & Klohnen, 2002).
There is little debate that culture can influence the characteristic adaptations and
self-concepts associated with underlying personality traits (Heine & Buchtel, 2009).
Debate continues concerning the origins of the traits, and future research in this area
will undoubtedly need to explore many possibilities.

As mentioned above, we need to be clear about the difference between the FFM,
which is a model of the universal personality traits, and FFT, which is a theory about
the source of those traits. It is entirely possible that the FFM will be amended in the
future to allow for the possibility of other traits, but for the theory underlying them to
be the same. Or it could be that the FFM will turn out to be reliable but that the theory
accounting for the source is entirely wrong. The number of traits that are universal and
where they come from are two distinct issues we need to keep separate in our minds.

An Evolutionary Approach
Other theories exist to explain the universality of the FFM. One (MacDonald, 1998)
is based in an evolutionary approach and overlaps conceptually with the FFT. This
approach posits universality both of human interests and of the neurophysiological
mechanisms underlying trait variation. Personality structure is viewed as a universal
psychological mechanism, a product of natural selection that serves both social and
nonsocial functions in problem solving and environmental adaptation. Based on this
theory, one would expect to find similar systems in animals that serve similar adap-
tive functions, and one would expect personality systems to be organized within the
brain as discrete neurophysiological systems. One of the key questions about the FFM
that an evolutionary perspective brings, for example, concerns why socially undesir-
able traits like neuroticism have been preserved through evolution (Penke, Denissen,
& Miller, 2007).

In the evolutionary view, traits such as conscientiousness (which refers to the
degree of organization, persistence, control, and motivation in goal-directed behav-
ior), neuroticism (tendency to experience negative emotions, vulnerability to stress,
emotional stability), and the other components of the FFM are considered to reflect
stable variations in systems that serve critical adaptive functions. Conscientious-
ness, for example, may help individuals to monitor the environment for dangers and
impending punishments, and to persevere in tasks that are not intrinsically reward-
ing (MacDonald, 1998). Neuroticism may be adaptive because it helps mobilize behav-
ioral resources by moderating arousal in situations requiring approach or avoidance.
These ideas are somewhat akin to the notion of basic tendencies in FFT.

According to MacDonald (1991, 1998), an evolutionary approach suggests a hierar-
chical model in which “behavior related to personality occurs at several levels based
ultimately on the motivating aspects of evolved personality systems” (p. 130). In this
model, humans possess evolved motive dispositions—needs, if you will (for example,
intimacy, safety; recall our discussion of needs in Chapter 1). These needs are ser-
viced by a universal set of personality dispositions that help individuals achieve their
affective goals by managing personal and environmental resources. This resource
management leads to concerns, projects, and tasks, which in turn lead to specific
actions or behaviors through which the individual achieves the goals specified by the
evolved motive dispositions (see Figure 6.3).

Note that this model—and the assumptions about universality of the FFM made
by McCrae, Costa and others (e.g., McCrae & Costa, 1997)—does not minimize the

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Culture and Personality 137

importance of cultural and individual variability. Culture can substantially influence
personality through the resources, social structures, and social systems available in a
specific environment to help achieve goals. Culture can therefore influence mean lev-
els of personality and values about the various personality traits. As stated earlier, cul-
ture is “undeniably relevant in the development of characteristics and adaptations that
guide the expression of personality in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors” (McCrae et
al., 1998). Culture defines context and provides differential meaning to the components
of context, including who is involved, what is happening, where it is occurring, and
the like. Culture, therefore, plays a substantial role in producing the specific behav-
ioral manifestations—the specific actions—that individuals will engage in to achieve
what may be universal affective goals. An underlying, universal personality structure,
which is relatively culturally invariant, however, is considered to be the structure by
which such goals are achieved through a balance and interaction with culture.

Cross-Cultural Studies on Other Dimensions
of Personality

Research documenting the robustness of the FFM of personality traits around the
world has clearly made a major contribution to our understanding of personality
organization and culture. As mentioned above, the FFM does not necessarily imply
that the five universal traits—neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, agree-
ableness, and openness to experience—are the only traits that exist. Important new
lines of research have uncovered several other personality traits that also may be

Level 1 EVOLVED MOTIVE DISPOSITIONS
(Domain-Specific Mechanisms)
Level 2 PERSONAL STRIVINGS
(Direct Psychological Effects of Domain-Specific Mechanisms)
Level 3 CONCERNS, PROJECTS, TASKS
(Utilize Domain-General Mechanisms)
Level 4 SPECIFIC ACTION UNITS
(Utilize Domain-General Mechanisms)

EXAMPLE:

Evolved Motive Disposition INTIMACY

Personal Striving INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP WITH A PARTICULAR PERSON

Concern, Project, Task Arrange meeting Improve appearance Get promotion

Action Units Find phone number Begin dieting Work on weekends

Figure 6.3 Hierarchical Model of Motivation Showing Relationships between
Domain-Specific and Domain-General Mechanisms
Source: Republished with permission of Taylor & Francis Group LLC—Books, from Goal concepts
in personality and social psychology, Pervin, L (Ed.), 1989. Permission conveyed through Copyright
Clearance Center, Inc.

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138 Chapter 6

universal, which we review below. It’s important to note that several of these other
lines of research initiated with researchers outside the United States.

Interpersonal Relatedness
One important line of research has been led by Cheung and colleagues (2001). They
began their work with the idea that the FFM might be missing some important fea-
tures of personality in Asia. Specifically, they thought that none of the FFM traits dealt
well with relationships, which are central in China (as well as many cultures around
the world). Thus, they developed what they initially considered an indigenous scale
designed to measure personality in China that included the following traits:

■ Harmony, which refers to one’s inner peace of mind, contentment, interpersonal
harmony, avoidance of conflict, and maintenance of equilibrium;

■ Ren Qing (relationship orientation), which covers adherence to cultural norms of
interaction based on reciprocity, exchange of social favors, and exchange of affec-
tion according to implicit rules;

■ Modernization, which is reflected by personality change in response to societal
modernization and attitudes toward traditional Chinese beliefs;

■ Thrift versus extravagance, which highlights the traditional virtue of saving
rather than wasting and carefulness in spending, in contrast to the willingness to
spend money for hedonistic purposes;

■ Ah-Q mentality (defensiveness), which is based on a character in a popular
Chinese novel in which the defense mechanisms of the Chinese people, including
self-protective rationalization, externalization of blame, and belittling of others’
achievements, are satirized;

■ Face, which depicts the pattern of orientations in an international and hierarchi-
cal connection and social behaviors to enhance one’s face and to avoid losing
one’s face (Cheung, Leung, Zhang, Sun, Gan, Song et al., 2001) (p. 408).

Cheung and colleagues named these dimensions “interpersonal relatedness.”
Although they originally found support for the existence of this dimension in their
studies of mainland and Hong Kong Chinese, they have also documented the exis-
tence of the interpersonal relatedness dimension in samples from Singapore, Hawaii,
the Midwestern United States, and with Chinese and European Americans (Cheung,
Cheung, Leung, Ward, & Leong, 2003; Cheung et al., 2001; Lin & Church, 2004).

Filipino Personality Structure
Another major line of research comes from studies on the personality structures of
Filipinos headed by Church and colleagues. In early research, they identified as many
traits as they could that existed in the Filipino language and asked Filipino students
to rate them, just as they would on any personality test. Early studies using the same
statistical techniques that have been used to test the FFM demonstrated that seven,
not five, dimensions were necessary to describe the Filipino personality adequately
(Church, Katigbak, & Reyes, 1998; Church, Reyes, Katigbak, & Grimm, 1997). The
two additional traits were tempermentalness and self-assurance. Similar types of
findings were found previously with Spanish-speaking samples in Europe as well
(Benet-Martinez & Waller, 1995, 1997).

In one of their later studies, Church and colleagues (Katigbak, Church, Guanzon-
Lapena, Carlota, & del Pilar, 2002) used two Filipino indigenous personality scales

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Culture and Personality 139

encompassing a total of 463 trait adjectives, and a Filipino version of the NEO PI-R to
measure the FFM, and asked 511 college students in the Philippines to complete these
measures. Analyses indicated that there was considerable overlap in the personal-
ity dimensions that emerged from the Filipino scales and the FFM measured by the
NEO PI-R. Still, several indigenous factors emerged, including pagkamadaldal (social
curiosity), pagkamapagsapalaran (risk-taking), and religiosity. These latter traits were
especially important in predicting behaviors such as smoking, drinking, gambling,
praying, tolerance of homosexuality, and tolerance of premarital and extramarital
relations, above and beyond what could be predicted by the FFM.

Dominance
In the mid-twentieth century, European psychologists suggested the existence of an
“authoritarian personality,” and developed scales to measure it (Adorno, Frenkel-
Brunswik, & Levinson, 1950). This dimension is related to the concept of dominance,
and refers to the fact that people differ in their dependence on authority and hierar-
chical status differences among interactants. Hofstede, Bond, and Luk (1993) analyzed
data from 1,300 individuals in Denmark and the Netherlands, and found six person-
ality dimensions. Five of these were related to the FFM; the sixth, however, was not.
The researchers labeled this “authoritarianism,” which is related to dominance.

Dominance is a trait that emerges in studies of the personalities of animals. King
and Figueredo (1997), for instance, presented 43 trait adjectives with representative
items from the FFM to zoo trainers who work with chimpanzees in 12 zoos. The
trainers were asked to describe the chimpanzees in terms of the adjectives provided.
The results showed no differences between the zoos, and the interrater reliability was
high. Factor analysis of the ratings produced six factors, five of which corresponded
to the FFM; the sixth corresponded to dominance. The same findings have been
reported in studies of orangutans and chimpanzees (Pederson, King, & Landau, 2005;
Weiss, King, & Enns, 2002; Weiss, King, & Figueredo, 2000), and suggest that domi-
nance is an inherited trait among animals.

Recent work involving a theory known as social dominance theory has high-
lighted the potential importance of social dominance as a stable personality trait
across cultures (Pratto, Sidanius, Stallworth, & Malle, 1994). This theory concerns the
maintenance and stability of social hierarchies, and suggests that cultural ideologies,
values, attitudes, and worldviews provide the justification for intergroup behaviors
such as discrimination and prejudice. A scale used to measure individual-level ten-
dencies to endorse these ideologies is the social dominance orientation scale, which
has been widely used across cultures to assess this aspect of dominance (Pratto et al.,
2000; Sidanius, Henry, Pratto, & Levin, 2004).

To date, attempts to find other universal traits mostly do not contradict the FFM,
but instead add to it. A question that remains unresolved concerns exactly what other
dimensions, if any, reliably exist across cultures. The findings reported above are
promising in terms of an answer to this question, but certainly much more research
is necessary across a wider range of cultures to gauge its comparability with the FFM.
Other indigenous approaches to studying traits have also been developed in coun-
tries such as India, Korea, Russia, and Greece (Allik et al., 2009; Cheung, Cheung,
Wada, & Zhang, 2003; Saucier, Georgiades, Tsaousis, & Goldberg, 2005). At the same
time, there is some evidence involving respondents from illiterate, indigenous societ-
ies that suggests that the FFM may not be applicable in such societies (Gurven, von
Rueden, Massenkoff, & Kaplan, 2012). Certainly future research will hopefully shed
more light on this important topic in the future.

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140 Chapter 6

Internal versus External Locus of Control
Aside from cross-cultural research on traits, there has also been a considerable
amount of cross-cultural research examining other dimensions of personality that do
not fall cleanly within the trait perspective but are noteworthy in their own right. One
of these concerns the personality concept of locus of control. This concept was devel-
oped by Rotter (1954, 1966), who suggested that people differ in how much control
they believe they have over their behavior and their relationship with their environ-
ment and with others. According to this schema, locus of control can be perceived as
either internal or external to the individual. People with an internal locus of control
see their behavior and relationships with others as dependent on their own behavior.
Believing that your grades are mostly dependent on how much effort you put into
study is an example of internal locus of control. People with an external locus of con-
trol see their behavior and relationships with the environment and others as contin-
gent on forces outside themselves and beyond their control. If you believe your grades
are mostly dependent on luck, the teacher’s benevolence, or the ease of the tests, you
would be demonstrating an external locus of control.

Research examining locus of control has shown both similarities and differences
across cultures. In general, European Americans have higher internal locus of con-
trol scores than East Asians, Swedes, Zambians, Zimbabweans, African Americans,
Filipinos, and Brazilians (for example, Hamid, 1994; Lee and Dengerink, 1992; Munro,
1979; Dyal, 1984; Paguio, Robinson, Skeen, & Deal, 1987). These findings have often
been interpreted as reflecting the mainstream American culture’s focus on individu-
ality, separateness, and uniqueness, in contrast to a more balanced view of interde-
pendence among individuals and between individuals and natural and supernatural
forces found in many other cultures (recall Chapter 5, for a related discussion of self-
construals). People of non-mainstream American cultures may be more likely to see
the causes of events and behaviors in sources that are external to themselves, such
as fate, luck, supernatural forces, or relationships with others. Americans, however,
prefer to take more personal responsibility for events and situations, and view them-
selves as having more personal control over such events. These examples of internal
versus external locus of control are also related to cultural differences in attributional
styles, which we will discuss in Chapter 14.

Although cultural differences in internal versus external locus of control are inter-
esting and provocative, they still leave some gaps to be filled. For example, they do not
account for phenomena such as self-serving bias or defensive attributions, in which
Americans tend to place the responsibility for negative events on others, not themselves
(recall discussion in Chapter 5 on self-enhancement). Also, some researchers have sug-
gested that locus of control is really a multifaceted construct spanning many different
domains—academic achievement, work, interpersonal relationships, and so on—and
that separate assessments of each of these domains are necessary to make meaning-
ful comparisons on this construct. Smith, Dugan, and Trompenaars (1997) examined
locus of control across 14 countries, and found some cross-national differences in locus
of control, but larger differences by gender and status across countries. Moreover, the
meaning of internal versus external locus of control may be different across cultures. For
example, external locus of control is generally related to greater depression and anxiety;
these relationships, however, are stronger in individualistic cultures than in collectiv-
istic cultures (Cheng, Cheung, Chio, & Chan, 2013). Thus, the search for cross-cultural
differences in internal versus external locus of control may obscure more important
differences based on other social constructs. Future research needs to address all these
concerns to further elucidate the nature of cultural influences on locus of control.

locus of control
People’s attributions of
control over their behaviors
and relationships as internal
or external to themselves.
People with an internal
locus of control see their
behavior and relationships
with others as dependent on
their own behavior. People
with an external locus of
control see their behavior
and relationships as con-
tingent on forces outside
themselves and beyond
their control.

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Culture and Personality 141

Direct, Indirect, Proxy, and Collective Control
Yamaguchi (2001) has offered another interesting way of understanding control
across cultures. He distinguished between direct, indirect, proxy, and collective con-
trol. In direct control, the self acts as an agent, and individuals feel themselves to be
more self-efficacious when their agency is made explicit, leading to greater feelings of
autonomy and efficacy. Direct control may be the preferred mode of behavior in cul-
tural contexts that promote independence or autonomy, such as in the United States.

Other cultural contexts, however, may encourage different modes of control,
primarily because of their focus on interpersonal harmony. For instance, in indirect
control, one’s agency is hidden or downplayed; people pretend as if they are not act-
ing as an agent even though in reality they are doing so. Yamaguchi (2001) tells of an
example in which a Japanese rakugo (comic master) was annoyed at his disciple’s loud
singing. Instead of directly telling him to stop, he instead praised him with a loud
voice. Although at first it sounded as if the comic master was praising the disciple, in
reality he was telling him to be quiet; thus, the disciple stopped singing.

Proxy control refers to control by someone else for the benefit of oneself. This is a
form of control that can be used when personal control—either direct or indirect—is
not available or inappropriate. These are third-party interventions, when intermedi-
aries are called in to regulate or intervene in interpersonal relationships or conflicts
between parties with potential or actual conflicts of interest. This type of control is
essential for survival for those in weaker positions and thus unable to change their
environments by themselves.

Finally, in collective control, one attempts to control the environment as a mem-
ber of a group, and the group serves as the agent of control. In this situation, indi-
viduals need to worry about interpersonal harmony less because the group shares the
goal of control.

Yamaguchi (2001) suggested that direct, personal control may be the strategy of
choice in cultures that value autonomy and independence, such as the United States.
In cultures that value the maintenance of interpersonal harmony, however, indirect,
proxy, and collective control strategies may be more prevalent (Figure 6.4). Much like
the concept of tactical self-enhancement (recall the discussion in Chapter 5), all people

direct control A type
of control in which the
self acts as an agent, and
individuals feel themselves
to be more self-efficacious
when their agency is made
explicit, leading to greater
feelings of autonomy and
efficacy. Direct control may
be the preferred mode of
behavior in cultural contexts
that promote independence
or autonomy, such as in the
United States.

indirect control A type
of control in which one’s
agency is hidden or down-
played; people pretend as
if they are not acting as an
agent even though they are
doing so in reality.

proxy control Refers
to control by someone else
for the benefit of oneself.
This is a form of control that
can be used when personal
control—either direct or
indirect—is not available
or inappropriate. These are
third-party interventions.

collective control A
type of control in which one
attempts to control the en-
vironment as a member of a
group, and the group serves
as the agent of control.

Autonomy Direct personal

Maintenance
of harmony

Control of the
targetValue Control Strategies

Indirect personal
Proxy
Collective

Figure 6.4 The Relationships between Cultural Values and Preferred Control
Strategies
Source: Yamaguchi, S. (2001). Culture and Control Orientations. In D. Matsumoto (Ed.), The
handbook of culture and psychology (pp. 223–243). New York: Oxford University Press. (www.oup
.com). By permission of Oxford University Press.

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142 Chapter 6

around the world probably have similar needs in controlling their environment, but
do so differently depending on cultural norms for appropriateness about how to do so.

Autonomy
Another personality construct that has received considerable research attention is
that of autonomy, which has often been discussed within a theory known as self-
determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000). This theory states that
people from all cultures share basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence,
and relatedness, but that the specific ways in which these needs are met and expressed
differ according to context and culture. Meeting these needs, in whatever form or by
whatever means, should be related to greater well-being of people in all cultures.

Of these claims, the one concerning autonomy has been controversial. Concep-
tualizations of cultures that focus on individualism versus collectivism, and par-
ticularly those rooted in Markus and Kitayama’s (1991b) framework of independent
versus interdependent self-construals (Chapter 5), suggest that people of collectiv-
istic cultures are not autonomous. Deci and Ryan suggest, however, that there is a
large distinction among autonomy, individualism, independence, and separateness.
According to self-determination theory, people are autonomous when their behavior
is experienced as willingly enacted and when they fully endorse the actions in which they are
engaged or the values expressed by them (Chirkov, Ryan, Kim, & Kaplan, 2003). Thus,
people are autonomous whenever they act in accord with their interests, values, or
desires. The opposite of autonomy in this perspective is not dependence, but het-
eronomy, in which one’s actions are perceived as controlled by someone else or are
otherwise alien to oneself. Thus, one can be either autonomously independent or
dependent; they are separate constructs.

These ideas have received support in several studies involving participants from
South Korea, Turkey, Russia, Canada, Brazil, and the United States (Chirkov et al.,
2003; Chirkov, Ryan, & Willness, 2005). In all cultures tested to date, studies have
shown that individuals tend to internalize different cultural practices, whatever
those practices may be, and that despite those different practices, the relative auton-
omy of an individual’s motivations to engage in those practices predicts well-being.
Autonomy, therefore, appears to be a universal psychological need and phenomenon,
although the way in which it is practiced and expressed is different in different cul-
tures (Kagitcibasi, 1996). This idea is bolstered by findings demonstrating the uni-
versality of self-efficacy—an optimistic sense of personal competence—a construct
related to autonomy (Scholz, Hutierrez Dona, Sud, & Schwarzer, 2002).

Indigenous Personalities

As stated earlier in the chapter, indigenous personalities are conceptualizations of
personality developed in a particular culture that are specific and relevant only to
that culture. In general, not only are the concepts of personality rooted in and derived
from the particular cultural group under question, but the methods used to test and
examine those concepts are also particular to that culture. Thus, in contrast to much
of the research described so far on universal traits, in which standardized personality
measures are used to assess personality dimensions, studies of indigenous personali-
ties often use their own, nonstandardized methods.

Indigenous conceptions of personality are important because they give us a
glimpse of how each culture believes it is important to carve up their psychological

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Culture and Personality 143

world. By identifying indigenous concepts, each culture pays tribute to a specific way
of understanding their world, which is an important part of each cultural worldview.
By giving these concepts names, each culture is then allowed to talk about them,
thereby ensuring each indigenous concept’s special place in their culture.

Over the years, many scientists have been interested in indigenous conceptions of
personality, and have described many different personality constructs considered to
exist only in specific cultures. Early work in this area produced findings of many other
personality constructs thought to be culture-specific, including the personality of Arabs
(Beit-Hallahmi, 1972), North Alaskan Eskimos (Hippler, 1974), the Japanese (Sakamoto
& Miura, 1976), the Fulam of Nigeria (Lott & Hart, 1977), the Irulas of Palamalai
(Narayanan & Ganesan, 1978), Samoans (Holmes, Tallman, & Jantz, 1978), South African
Indians (Heaven & Rajab, 1983), and the Ibo of Nigeria (Akin-Ogundeji, 1988).

Indigenous perspectives have also allowed the field to uncover ways different
cultures conceptualize personality structure. Berry, Poortinga, Segall, and Dasen
(1992) examined three indigenous personality concepts, each of which was funda-
mentally different from American or Western concepts. The African model of person-
ality, for example, views personality as consisting of three layers, each representing
a different aspect of the person. The first layer, found at the core of the person and
personality, embodies a spiritual principle; the second layer involves a psychological
vitality principle; the third layer involves a physiological vitality principle. The body
forms the outer framework that houses all these layers of the person. In addition, fam-
ily lineage and community affect different core aspects of the African personality
(Sow, 1980; see also Vontress, 1991).

Doi (1973) postulated amae as a core concept of the Japanese personality. The
root of this word means “sweet,” and loosely translated, amae refers to the passive,
childlike dependence of one person on another, and is rooted in mother–child rela-
tionships. According to Doi, all Japanese relationships can be characterized by amae,
which serves as a fundamental building block of Japanese culture and personality.
This fundamental interrelationship between higher- and lower-status people in Japan
serves as a major component not only of individual psychology but of interpersonal
relationships, and it does so in ways that are difficult to grasp from a North American
individualistic point of view.

Along with different conceptualizations of personality, different cultures have
specific, important concepts that are crucial to understanding individuals in their
culture. These include the Korean concept of cheong (human affection; Choi, Kim, &
Choi, 1993); the Indian concept of hishkama karma (detachment; Sinha, 1993); the Chinese
concept ren qing (relationship orientation; Cheung, Leung, Fan, Song, Zhang, & Zhang,
1996); the Mexican concept simpatia (harmony, avoidance of conflict; Triandis, Marin,
Lisansky, & Betancourt, 1984; Holloway, Waldrip, & Ickes, 2009); and the Filipino
concepts of pagkikipagkapwa (shared identity), pakikiramdam (sensitivity, empathy), and
pakikisama (going along with others; Enriquez, 1992) (all cited in Church, 2000, p. 654).

Much of the work on indigenous personality has provided fuel for those who sub-
scribe to the view that culture and personality are mutually constituted. In this view,
it makes no sense to consider personality as a universal construct (like traits); instead,
it makes more sense to understand each culture’s personalities as they exist and have
developed within that culture. This viewpoint rejects the notion of a universal orga-
nization to personality that may have genetic, biological, and evolutionary compo-
nents. Its proponents (Markus & Kitayama, 1998; Shweder & Bourne, 1984) argue that
the research supporting universality and its possible biological substrates may be
contaminated by the methods used. These methods, the argument goes, have been
developed in American or European research laboratories by American or European

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144 Chapter 6

researchers; because of this cultural bias, the studies support findings such as the
FFM as a default by-product of the methods used to test it. Indigenous approaches,
it is claimed, are immune from such bias because their methods are centered around
concepts and practices that are local to the culture being studied (see, however, the
replication of the FFM using nontraditional methods of assessing taxonomies of trait
adjectives in multiple languages; De Raad, Perugini, Hrebickova, & Szarota, 1998).

Integrating Universal and Culture-Specific
Understandings of Personality

We believe there is a middle ground that integrates both universal and culture-
specific understandings and empirical findings on personality. This middle ground
starts with our understanding of personality as a multidimensional construct. If, as
we have done at the beginning of this chapter, we broadly conceptualize two differ-
ent aspects of personality, one involving traits and the other involving identities, then
we can consider that they come from different sources and are influenced differently
by biology and culture. On one hand, it appears that traits are more enduring aspects
of a person’s personality, referring to underlying dispositions for thoughts, feelings,
and actions. These appear to be at least somewhat rooted in biology and genetics;
thus individuals are born with a set of genetic predispositions for certain aspects of
their personalities. Because these are biologically based genetic predispositions, they
are relatively less impervious to cultural and environmental influences (although the
exact degree of potential influence is an interesting question if one considers the pos-
sible influence of culture on biological processes across evolution).

On the other hand, identities, which is a loose term that refers to perceived roles
in life, aggregate role and life experiences, narratives, values, motives, and the con-
ceptualization and understanding of oneself, should be less influenced by biology
and more influenced by culture because these are in large part cultural constructions
of the meaning and value of one’s thoughts, feelings, and actions. As such, they are
more likely to be “mutually constituted” in development, arising out of an interaction
between the individual and the environment. During these interactions, culturally
determined meanings of right and wrong, good and bad, appropriate and inappro-
priate help to guide the construction of meaning, and thus the creation of identities,
roles, and motives. It is no wonder, therefore, that this aspect of personality is less
influenced by biology and more heavily influenced by culture.

This integrative perspective allows us to move beyond questioning whether
personality is universal or culture-specific, as if they are mutually exclusive,
dichotomous categories. A better and more fruitful approach might be to consider
how some aspects of personality are influenced relatively more by biology and how
some other aspects are influenced relatively more by culture. It is entirely possible
that some aspects of personality (e.g., traits) may be organized in a universal fashion,
either because of biological or genetic factors or because of culture-constant learning
and responses to the environment.

The fact that some aspects of personality may be organized universally, however,
does not necessarily argue against the possibility that other aspects of personality
may be culturally unique. It may be these culturally unique aspects that give per-
sonality its own special flavor in each specific cultural milieu, and allow research-
ers the possibility of studying aspects of personality that they might not observe in
other cultures. This is, in fact, the major premise underlying FFT that we discussed

There is a middle ground

that integrates both

universal and culture-

specific understandings

and empirical findings on

personality.

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Culture and Personality 145

earlier. Thus, a more beneficial way of understanding the relationship between cul-
ture and personality may be to see indigenous and universal aspects of personality
as two sides of the same coin, rather than as mutually exclusive. If we come to under-
stand the relationship between culture and personality (and biology, for that matter)
in ways that allow for the coexistence of universality and indigenization, then we can
tackle the problem of exactly how to conceptualize and study this coexistence.

In terms of research findings, evidence for indigenous conceptions of personality
is not necessarily antithetical to the existence of universal personality traits such as
the FFM described earlier in this chapter. Both the FFM and indigenous personality
concepts are empirical findings based on scientifically valid research. As we suggest
here the validity of one set of data do not necessarily argue against the validity of the
other; the two may exist simultaneously. Trait approaches such as the FFM probably
refer more to the universal aspects of personality that are true of all people regardless
of culture (underlying dispositional traits and action tendencies), while indigenous
aspects of personality refer to those aspects of personality that are culture-specific,
especially concerning their understandings and conceptualizations of personality.
Both are likely accurate.

Recent research that directly examines competing hypotheses from a universal
trait perspective as opposed to a cultural, indigenous perspective of personality also
sheds light on how both types of personalities exist and are differentially influenced
by biology and culture. The universal trait view of personality suggests that traits
exist in all cultures, and influence behavior in multiple contexts, because traits are
inherent to people regardless of context. The indigenous view of personality, how-
ever, suggests that traits would not be endorsed or even existing in all cultures, and
that even if they did, they would not influence behaviors across different contexts.
Two studies, however, have shown that traits are endorsed even implicitly across cul-
tures, cross-context consistency in traits exist across cultures, and this consistency is
related to adjustment similarly across cultures, demonstrating support for the uni-
versal trait view of personality (Church et al., 2008; Church et al., 2006). At the same
time, cultural differences in self-perceptions of traitedness existed, which supported
indigenous, culture-specific perspectives. It makes sense that self-perceptions were
more culturally variable, because these are more influenced by cultural meaning and
construction. Perceptions of traits are different than the actual traits themselves.

The integrative perspective we suggest here proposes two separate but not mutu-
ally exclusive possibilities about the sources of personality: (1) the existence of bio-
logically innate and evolutionarily adaptive factors that create genetic predispositions
to certain types of personality traits and (2) the possibility of culture-constant learn-
ing principles and processes (MacDonald, 1998; McCrae, 2000). Dispositional traits
that humans bring with them into the world may be modified and adapted through-
out development and the life span via interactions with the environment. Over time,
dipping into this resource pool in order to adapt to various situational contexts may
serve as the impetus for changes to the pool itself, which may account for changes in
consistency and mean levels of the dispositional traits observed in previous studies
(Roberts & DelVecchio, 2000; Roberts, Walton, & Viechtbauer, 2006).

C O N C L U S I O N

In this chapter, we have discussed the major approaches to understanding and study-
ing the relationship between culture and personality, and have examined many dif-
ferent types of studies on this topic. We began by defining personality and briefly

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146 Chapter 6

describing major approaches to the topic. We described research on the FFM, which
suggests that there is universality in personality organization around a small set of
basic personality traits. Additional studies in this area have suggested that there may
be additional personality traits that are universal; future research is necessary to test
this idea more fully. We also discussed the FFT, a theory about where the universal
personality traits come from. FFT suggests that the underlying traits reflect biologi-
cally based, inherited dispositions for behavior. But, how these traits are expressed
may be culturally variable, as each person develops characteristic adaptations to
address each of the traits.

In addition, we discussed interesting cross-cultural research on control and auton-
omy. These studies are important because they inform us about personality organiza-
tion from a different perspective. The evidence to date suggests that autonomy is a
universal personality construct, and that all individuals of all cultures are autonomous.
How we exert control over the environment in managing that autonomy, however,
may differ in different contexts. That is, how we exert our personalities may be tactical.

Research on indigenous approaches to personality has demonstrated culturally
specific aspects of personality that cannot be accounted for by the FFM. These two
seemingly disparate sets of findings suggest a conflict in our understanding of the
relationship between culture and personality. We presented above, however, an inte-
grative theoretical perspective that suggests that these two seemingly opposing view-
points need not be seen as mutually exclusive; rather, it may be more beneficial to view
them as different, coexisting aspects of personality. The challenge for future research is
to capture this coexistence, examining the relative degree of contribution of biological
and cultural factors in the development and organization of personality. Future theo-
ries and studies will likely benefit from a blending of universal, etic approaches with
indigenous, emic approaches (Cheung, van de Vijver, & Leong, 2011).

E X P L O R A T I O N A N D D I S C O V E R Y

Why Does This Matter to Me?
1. Have you ever taken a personality test? Did you

think the results were applicable to you or not?
Why or why not? Do you think that such a test
would be applicable in another cultural context?

2. What makes you unique? And how important is
it to you to have that unique aspect of yourself?
Do you think people of other cultures consider
uniqueness and important aspect of themselves?

3. When there is an obstacle to your goal, how do
you prefer to deal with it? Head on? Go around
it? People of other cultures may prefer a different
way of dealing with such obstacles. How will you
manage when you have to work with others with
vastly different perspectives on how to deal with
problems?

Suggestions for Further Exploration
1. How predictive of actual behavior do you think

personality tests are? How would you conduct a
study that examines this question? How would
you do it across cultures?

2. Do you believe animals have personalities?
How would you study that and document those
personalities?

3. Are indigenous personalities really indigenous?
For example, the Japanese culture includes the
concept of amae described above. Do you think
that amae also exists in other cultures, at least in
terms of behaviors or mental processes? How
would you go about showing that?

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147

7Culture and Gender

CHAPTER CONTENTS

Sex and Gender

Gender Differences across Cultures

Masculinity and Femininity

Cognitive Differences

Conformity and Obedience

Aggressiveness

Personality

Sex and Sexuality

Jealousy

Division of Labor

Summary

Culture, Gender Roles, and
Gender Stereotypes

Culture and Gender Stereotypes

Culture, Gender Role Ideology, and Self-Concept

Ethnicity and Gender Roles

Changing Cultures, Changing
Gender Roles

CONCLUSION

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY
Why Does This Matter to Me?
Suggestions for Further Exploration
InfoTrac College Edition

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148 Chapter 7

Culture influences the behaviors associated with being male or female, and events
around the world have brought international attention to gender issues. From the role
of women in Muslim culture to global concern over female circumcision in Africa
and Asia—gender roles, ideals, and expectations are heated topics widely discussed
today. An example of a controversial cultural practice that is rooted in perceptions
of gender and gender roles is female circumcision. It has been described as part of
a female initiation ceremony and an important rite of passage marking the transi-
tion from childhood to adulthood (Lightfoot-Klein, 1989). Behind this practice lie
many strongly held beliefs about women and their roles. Those who defend the
practice argue that it is a requirement for marriage and emphasize the importance
of upholding tradition; those who condemn it emphasize the pain, suffering, and
health risks involved. To understand this controversy, recognizing how this practice
came to be in the cultures in which they originated may be beneficial, as is examin-
ing how our own cultural filters shape the way we view issues related to gender. If
you find this practice abhorrent, why? If not, why? How did you come to develop
those beliefs?

The parallels between the impact of gender and culture on psychology are
interesting. Beginning 40 or 50 years ago, what is commonly known as the women’s
movement in the United States led American academic communities to evaluate the
treatment and presentation of women in textbooks and research. They found that
most research was conducted using men as participants, and most information pre-
sented about “people” in academic textbooks and university courses was based on
information gathered from men. This gender bias also affected what scholars con-
sidered important to study, the relative status of different studies and topics, and the
probability and outlet for publication. Psychologists became increasingly aware of the
possibility that men and women may differ psychologically, calling into question pre-
vious research findings and the theories based on them. Scholars, researchers, teach-
ers, and students alike began to question whether knowledge based primarily on men
was accurate for people in general.

One consequence of this growing awareness among researchers and schol-
ars was a conscious effort to include women as research participants to ensure that
research findings would be applicable to women as well as men. At the same time,
an increasing number of women became researchers and scholars, bringing different
perspectives to the field, its theories, and its findings. Today, psychology enjoys more
balanced contributions by both men and women, and this combination of different
perspectives and concerns makes for a dynamism that is rich, interesting, and impor-
tant for the field.

As a result, we have come a long way toward improving our knowledge about all
people in the social sciences. Although questioning the imbalance of research on men
and women was difficult, many behavioral and social scientists have responded well
to this inequity in our knowledge and practice. Today, studies of gender differences
are commonplace in social science research and textbooks routinely incorporate sex
and gender differences when imparting knowledge about people.

We are witnessing the same type of questioning regarding culture. Just as knowl-
edge about women and women’s concerns was missing from research and scholarship
30 years ago, so too was knowledge about cultural similarities and differences and
cultural diversity. Much of this gap still exists today. Many of the same questions are
still being raised concerning whether what we are learning in classes and in our labo-
ratories is indeed true for people of all cultures and ethnicities. The answer so far has
been “not necessarily.” To address this gap, many researchers have made a conscious
effort to study behaviors across cultures to learn what is similar across cultures and

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Culture and Gender 149

what is different. Academic institutions have also made a conscious effort to recruit
and train people of diverse cultural backgrounds so that they too can contribute to
the research, teaching, and scholarship in psychology.

These changes are evidence of a continuing evolution in the field similar to what
has happened in relation to gender. As the United States and the entire world become
increasingly diverse, the need for mainstream psychology to incorporate, explain,
and describe that diversity increases. The field has become aware of this need only
in the past decade or two (although cross-cultural research has a much longer his-
tory). Theories, research, and teaching are becoming more culturally sensitive and
this increasing awareness is bound to bring with it another evolution in the face
and content of psychology. For this reason, it is an exciting time in both mainstream
and cultural psychology as the gap between them narrows.

In this chapter, we will examine how culture influences behavior related to sex
and gender. First, we will discuss some terminology and definitions concerning sex
and gender that will help us understand what we are talking about and how to focus
on cultural influences. Then we will discuss cross-cultural research on gender dif-
ferences on a broad range of psychological processes. Then we will discuss gender
stereotypes, gender roles, and self-concepts, all of which suggest the existence of
universality in stereotypes related to gender and its role around the world. We will
next discuss some theoretical notions of how psychologists believe gender differences
come to exist, and why cultures seem to differ in these differences. We will also dis-
cuss how changing cultures and clashes between cultures bring differences in gender
roles to the forefront in the daily lives of many people today. Throughout this discus-
sion, we will see that the issues surrounding gender and gender differences, both
pancultural and culture-specific, are complex as well as interesting.

Sex and Gender

Sex generally refers to the physical characteristics and differences between men and
women, and the term sex roles is used to describe the behaviors that men and women
may engage in that are directly related to their biological differences and the process
of reproduction. An example of a sex role for females is breastfeeding, a behavior that
only women can engage in (Brislin, 1993). The term sexual identity is used to describe
the degree of awareness and recognition of sex and sex roles an individual may
have. Male sexual identity typically includes “his awareness that he has the poten-
tial to impregnate women and knows the necessary behaviors. Female sexual iden-
tity includes the woman’s awareness of her reproductive potential and her knowledge
about behaviors that lead to pregnancy” (p. 287).

In contrast, gender refers to the behaviors that a culture deems appropriate for
men and women. These behaviors may or may not be related to sex and sex roles,
although they often are. Gender role refers to the degree to which a person adopts the
gender-specific behaviors ascribed by his or her culture. For example, traditional gen-
der roles suggest that males are aggressive and unemotional (with the exception of
anger) and that the male should leave the home every day to make a living and be the
principal wage earner. Traditional gender roles for females suggest that women are
nurturant, caring, and emotional and that they should stay at home and take care of
the children. Gender identity refers to the degree to which a person has awareness or
recognition that he or she adopts a particular gender role. Gender stereotypes refer
to the psychological or behavioral characteristics typically associated with men and
women (see Table 7.1 for summary of the differences between sex and gender).

sex The biological and
physiological differences be-
tween men and women, the
most obvious being the ana-
tomical differences in their
reproductive systems.

sex roles The behaviors
and patterns of activi-
ties men and women may
engage in that are directly
related to their biological
differences and the process
of reproduction.

sexual identity The
degree of awareness and rec-
ognition by an individual of
his or her sex and sex roles.

gender The behaviors or
patterns of activities a soci-
ety or culture deems appro-
priate for men and women.
These behavioral patterns
may or may not be related to
sex and sex roles, although
they often are.

gender role The degree
to which a person adopts the
gender-specific behaviors as-
cribed by his or her culture.

gender identity The
degree to which a person has
awareness of or recognition
that he or she has adopted a
particular gender role.

gender stereotype
The psychological or behav-
ioral characteristics typically
associated with men and
women.

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Andrea Mahe

150 Chapter 7

Not everyone can be pigeonholed into stereotypes according to sex or gender
roles, as there are considerable individual differences across people with regard to
these roles. In addition, gender role stereotypes interact with other forms of group
membership. Separating the biological facts of sex from the behavioral aspects of gen-
der is the first step in understanding the differences between males and females. Cul-
ture has a large influence on gender differences.

Gender Differences across Cultures

Research on sex and gender differences within the United States has demonstrated
how men and women are different, or not, on a variety of psychological and behav-
ioral outcomes. But do the same differences occur in other cultures? If so, to what
degree? In this section, we describe major findings in the field that have documented
how the nature and size of sex differences differ across cultures.

Masculinity and Femininity
In Chapter 1, we discussed research by Hofstede who studied work-related attitudes
across 50 countries. As you might remember, Hofstede (1980) conducted a large-scale
survey of work-related values in a major multinational corporation. Based on the data
obtained, he originally generated four dimensions of differentiation among the cul-
tures in his sample. One of these dimensions was called “Masculinity v. Femininity.”
This dimension referred to the degree to which a culture will foster, encourage, or
maintain differences between males and females. In Hofstede’s research, Japan,
Austria, Venezuela, and Italy had the highest masculinity versus femininity scores,
while Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden had the lowest scores.

Hofstede (2001) identified key differences between masculine and feminine
cultures in terms of sexuality (Table 7.2). For instance, cultures high on masculinity
tended to have moralistic attitudes about sex, double standards about sex (i.e., women
should be virgins at marriage but not men), and norms encouraging passive roles of
women. Cultures low on masculinity tended to have matter-of-fact attitudes about
sex, a single standard concerning sex for men and women, and norms that encour-
aged an active role for women in society.

Masculine and feminine cultures also differed in their attitudes about religion.
Masculine cultures tended to be more traditional, focusing on religion and God or

Table 7.1 Differences between “Sex” and “Gender”

Sex Gender

Definition Refers to physical characteristics and
differences between men and women

Refers to the behaviors that a culture
deems appropriate for men and women

Roles Refers to the behaviors that men and
women may engage in that are directly
related to their biological differences and
the process of reproduction

Refers to the degree to which a person
adopts the gender-specific behaviors
ascribed by his or her culture

Identity Degree of awareness and recognition of
sex and sex roles an individuals may have

Degree of awareness or recognition
that a person adopts a particular
gender role

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Andrea Mahe

Culture and Gender 151

Table 7.2 Key Differences between Low and High Masculinity Societies Concerning Sexuality and Religion

Low Masculinity High Masculinity

In Sexual Behavior

Matter-of-fact attitudes about sex. Moralistic attitudes about sex.

AIDS prevention campaigns very outspoken. AIDS prevention campaigns restricted by taboos.

Single standard for women and men. Double standard: Women should be chaste at marriage yet men needn’t.

Norm of active role of woman. Norm of passive role of woman.

Sexual attraction unrelated to career success. Men become more attractive by career success, women less.

In uncertainty-accepting cultures, few teenage
pregnancies.

In uncertainty-accepting cultures, frequent teenage pregnancies.

Young people more influenced by parents. Young people more influenced by peers.

Other-oriented sex. Ego-oriented sex.

Women enjoy first sex. Women feel exploited by first sex.

Unwanted intimacies not major issue. Sexual harassment major issue.

Homosexuality is a fact of life. Homosexuality is a taboo and a threat.

Weak distinction between sex and love. Sharp distinction between sex and love.

Sex and violence in media taboo. Sex and violence in media frequent.

Lovers should be educated, social. Lovers should be successful, attractive.

Happy lovers overbenefit from the other. Happy lovers get equitable mutual deal.

Interaction with other sex more intimate. Interaction with other sex less intimate.

Sex is a way of relating to someone. Sex is a way of performing.

In Religion

“Tender” religions and religious currents. “Tough” religions and religious currents.

Secularization in Christian countries. Maintenance of traditional Christianity.

Religion not so important in life. Religion most important in life.

Religion focuses on fellow human beings. Religion focuses on God or gods.

Children socialized toward responsibility and
politeness.

Children socialized toward religious faith.

Exemplarism and mysticism. Traditionalism, theism, and conversionism.

Dominant religions stress complementarity of the
sexes.

Dominant religions stress male prerogative.

Men and women can be priests. Only men can be priests.

Sex is for procreation and recreation. Sex is primarily for procreation.

Positive or neutral attitude toward sexual pleasure. Negative attitude toward sexual pleasure.

Sexuality as one area of human motivation. Sexuality as primordial area of human motivation.

Source: From G. H. Hofstede, Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations across Nations (2nd
ed.), 2001. p. 330. Copyright © 2001 by Geert Hofstede. Reprinted with permission by Geert Hofstede B. V.

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152 Chapter 7

gods. Feminine cultures tended to be less traditional, emphasized the importance of
religion in life less, and focused on fellow humans.

Hofstede’s study was important because his findings highlighted that cultures
will arrive at different ways of dealing with differences between men and women.
The behaviors men and women engage in produce different psychological outcomes
that have direct ramifications for actual life behaviors. Cultures vary in how they
act on these gender differences, with some cultures fostering and encouraging large
differences between the genders and other cultures minimizing those differences.
At the same time, close inspection of the contents of Table 6.2 and Hofstede’s (1980)
original data suggest that Masculinity in this dimension may also be interpreted as
“Materialism.”

Differences in masculinity and femininity are related to sexist ideologies. These
are doctrines, myths, or beliefs about differences between men and women, and in
particular about their sex or gender roles. They are pervasive in any society and cul-
ture, and have long been considered as myths that help to legitimatize the creation
and maintenance of gender inequality. One recent study involving 82,905 participants
from 57 societies provided the first evidence that sexist ideologies not only can create
gender inequality within societies, legitimatizing the status quo, but also enhances
its severity (Brandt, 2011). In this study, sexist ideologies were measured at one time
in the survey, and gender equality was measured at the same and a later time (two,
three, or five years later, depending on the country). Higher sexism predicted higher
gender equality at the later time, even when controlling for the amount of gender
equality at the first time. Sexism was more prevalent in countries that were less devel-
oped and had more gender inequality to begin with. Interestingly, there were no gen-
der differences, which indicated that both men and women endorsed the effects of
sexist ideologies across the countries.

Cognitive Differences
It is common folklore that males are better at mathematical and spatial reasoning
tasks, whereas females are better at verbal comprehension tasks. An analysis of the
scores for males and females on standardized tests in elementary school, college
entrance examinations, or graduate school entrance examinations shows some degree
of support for these notions, although the difference between males and females have
narrowed in recent years. Years ago, Maccoby and Jacklin (1974) concluded in their
review of the literature that males tend to do better on spatial tasks.

But early on, Berry (1966) pointed out that such differences do not appear to exist
among males and females of the Inuit culture in Canada. Berry suggested that the
gender difference did not exist because “spatial abilities are highly adaptive for both
males and females in Inuit society, and both boys and girls have ample training and
experience that promote the acquisition of spatial ability” (Berry et al., 1992, p. 65). Fol-
lowing up on the possibility of cultural differences on this gender difference, Berry
(1976) and his colleagues conducted a study in which a block design task was given to
males and females in 17 different cultures. A stimulus card depicting a geometric rep-
resentation of a set of blocks was presented and the task was to manipulate an actual
set of blocks to emulate the design provided. In a number of cultures, males indeed
did better than females on the task; however, in other cultures, females did better
than males. Berry et al. (1992) suggested that male superiority on the task were found
in cultures that were tight (that is, relatively homogeneous), sedentary, and agri-
culturally based but that female superiority was found in cultures that were loose,
nomadic, and based on hunting and gathering (recall our discussion in Chapter 1

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Culture and Gender 153

on the cultural dimension tightness versus looseness). In these latter cultures, the
roles ascribed to males and females are relatively flexible, with more members per-
forming a variety of tasks related to the survival of the group.

Thus, some cultures foster male superiority in these types of tasks, but others fos-
ter female superiority, and still others foster no differences. Although some sugges-
tions have been made as to the nature and causes of these various gender differences,
research has yet to pinpoint exactly what factors influence which types of differences,
and why.

Conformity and Obedience
One common stereotype is that females are more conforming and obedient than
males. In actuality, the degree to which this difference occurs varies from culture to
culture. In Berry’s (1976) study described above, the researchers obtained an index of
the degree to which each person conformed in the 17 cultures included in the sample.
Across all cultures, clear variations emerged; as with gender differences in spatial
reasoning, these variations appeared to be related to the cultural concept of tightness
versus looseness. Cultures that were tighter appeared to foster greater gender differ-
ences on conformity, with females more conformist than males. Tight cultures may
require a greater degree of conformity to traditional gender roles on the part of both
males and females. In contrast, cultures that were looser fostered less gender differ-
ences on conformity, and in some of these cultures, males were found to be more con-
forming than females. Thus cross-cultural differences exist in both the degree and
the direction of this difference.

Aggressiveness
Another common gender stereotype is that males are more aggressive than females.
There is support for this stereotype in all cultures for which documentation exists
(Block, 1983; Brislin, 1993). Males account for a disproportionate amount of violent
crime in both industrialized and nonindustrialized societies. The focus in research
on this topic has been adolescent males. Several researchers have searched for the
biological correlates of aggression. In particular, Berry and his colleagues (1992) have
questioned whether increased levels of the hormone testosterone during male adoles-
cence may account for or contribute to increased aggression in males. Increased tes-
tosterone levels have been associated with dominance hierarchies in some nonhuman
primates, but the human analog is less clear. On the basis of the evidence available,
it appears that hormones may contribute in some degree to aggressiveness, but cul-
ture and the environment can certainly act to encourage or discourage its emergence
(Berry et al., 1992).

A study examining physical aggression between partners shed some light on this
topic. In this study (Archer, 2006), male and female participants’ aggression toward
their partners was examined in 52 countries. Both males and females committed acts
of aggression toward their partners in developed, Westernized nations; but this did
not generalize to all nations. The magnitude of the sex difference in physical aggres-
sion was related to levels of gender empowerment and individualism in each of the
countries. Cultures that were more individualistic and that empowered women more
had less female victimization and more male victimization. Archer argued that these
findings are best explained by social role theory (Eagley, 1987), which states that sex
differences in social behavior result from the division of labor between men and
women with regard to homemaker or worker outside the home. These roles, it was

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154 Chapter 7

argued, produce expectancies that lead to different patterns of behavior in men and
women, and these expectancies are transmitted across generations as social norms
and traditions; that is, they are a part of culture. Expectancies associated with the
male role include the use of direct aggression to resolve problems; expectancies asso-
ciated with female roles include communal responses to resolve problems.

Studies of sex differences in development across cultures support these ideas.
Barry, Josephson, Lauer, and Marshall (1976), for instance, examined the degree to
which cultures foster aggressive tendencies in the socialization of children. They
found a sex difference in the average amount of teaching about aggressiveness across
150 different cultures. Inspection of their data, however, revealed that this average
difference was produced by a disproportionate number of high-scoring cultures in
which teaching aggression actually occurs. In fact, a large majority of societies did not
show a sex difference in teaching aggression.

Some cultures are known for their aggressive tendencies. Among these is the
Yanomami culture of Venezuela and Brazil (e.g., Sponsel, 1998), often referred to in
anthropological circles as the “fierce people.” Yet even with regard to these suppos-
edly aggressive groups, more recent research and discussion have begun to call into
question the potential bias in anthropological and comparative methods that may see
only part of the culture (Sponsel, 1998).

Another study (Glick et al., 2004) also shed interesting light on this topic. In this
study, 8,360 participants from 16 cultures responded to a questionnaire that assessed
hostile and benevolent attitudes toward men. When people harbor both types of
attitudes toward men at high degrees, they were labeled ambivalent. Ambivalent atti-
tudes toward men were related with the degree of gender inequality in a country;
that is, the more people in a country saw men as both hostile and benevolent, the
greater the degree of gender inequality in the country. These findings suggested that
gender inequality in a country may start with how the people view the role of men.
(Women were rated more positively than men in all cultures.)

Neither biology nor sex differences in teaching aggressive acts can account for
gender differences in aggression observed across cultures. Some researchers (Berry
et al., 1992; Segall, Dasen, Berry, & Poortinga, 1990) suggest that male aggression may be
a compensatory mechanism to offset the conflict produced by a young male’s identifi-
cation with a care provider and his initiation into adulthood as a male. In this model,
aggressiveness is viewed as “gender marking” behavior.

Personality
In Chapter 6, we discussed how recent cross-cultural studies have documented the
universal existence of a five-factor model of personality (McCrae & Costa, 1999). This
theory suggests that five personality traits—neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness,
openness to experience, and conscientiousness—exist universally and can describe
most human dispositions for behavior. In one study examining gender differences
in personality traits around the world, Costa and colleagues (Costa, Terracciano, &
McCrae, 2001) analyzed data obtained from 23,031 respondents in 26 cultures, and
tested for gender differences on the five universal personality traits and their subfac-
ets (each of the five personality traits are associated with six subfacets). Women uni-
versally reported higher scores on neuroticism, agreeableness, warmth, and openness
to feelings, while men scored higher on assertiveness and openness to ideas. Inter-
estingly, the differences between men and women were the largest in Europe and
the United States, which typically promote more individualistic and egalitarian val-
ues. Also as we mentioned in Chapter 6, there are also fairly consistent cross-cultural

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Culture and Gender 155

similarities in perceived gender differences in traits (Lockenhoff et al., 2014); women
are generally rated slightly higher on neuroticism, agreeableness, openness to experi-
ence, and conscientiousness.

Sex and Sexuality
Sex is necessary for human reproduction, and is a biological necessity for survival
of the species. Yet it is associated with much psychological and cultural meaning,
especially before marriage. Many cultures of the world share some degree of norma-
tive attitudes toward sex, including a taboo on incest and a condemnation of adultery
(Brown, 1991). Thus, there appears to be some degree of similarity in some types of
norms regarding sex around the world.

But there are cultural differences in the degree of importance placed on values
concerning chastity, especially for women. Many traditional, conservative cultures of
the world view chastity as a virtue among nonmarried women. Other cultures are
more open and explicit about sex, approving and even encouraging multiple sexual
partners before marriage. This is, in fact, one of the areas of contention between
capitalistic societies found in the United States and Western Europe with those of
predominantly Muslim countries in North Africa, the Middle East, and South and
Southeast Asia as changing values, attitudes, and behaviors concerning sex are often
attributed to the influence of countries like the United States (more in our discussion
below in the section on Changing Cultures, Changing Gender Roles).

Studies bear out many cultural differences in attitudes and values about sex,
especially regarding premarital sex and homosexuality. A 37-country study by Buss
(1989), for instance, reported that people from many non-Western countries, such as
China, India, Indonesia, Iran, and Taiwan, and Palestinian Arabs valued chastity very
highly in a potential mate, whereas people in Western European countries such as
Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, West Germany, and France attached little
importance to prior sexual experience. Homosexuality is generally more accepted in
cultures that are industrialized, capitalistic, and affluent (Inglehart, 1998). Cultures
also differ in how open they are about expressing sexuality in public, for example,
displaying advertising for condoms (Jones, Forrest, Goldman, Henshaw, Lincoln
et al., 1985).

Widmer, Treas, and Newcomb (1998) surveyed 33,590 respondents in 24 countries
on their attitudes toward premarital sex, teen sex, extramarital sex, and homosexual-
ity. They found a widespread acceptance of premarital sex across the samples. Teen
sex and extramarital sex, however, were not as accepted. Attitudes about homosexual-
ity varied greatly across cultures. Widmer and colleagues then grouped the countries
into those that had similar responses. One group was called the “Teen Permissives”;
it included East and West Germany, Austria, Sweden, and Slovenia. A second group
was called “Sexual Conservatives”; it included the United States, Ireland, Northern
Ireland, and Poland. A third group was called “Homosexual Permissives”; it included
the Netherlands, Norway, Czech Republic, Canada, and Spain. And the fourth group
was called “Moderates”; it included Australia, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Bulgaria,
Russia, New Zealand, and Israel. Japan and the Philippines did not merge with any of
the groups and had their own unique attitudes toward sex.

Cultures also associated with attitudes concerning sex within marriage. Cul-
tures with fewer resources and higher stress—especially insensitive or inconsistent
parenting, physically harsh environments, or economic hardships—are associated
with more insecure romantic attachments and higher fertility rates (Schmitt, Alcalay,
Allensworth, Allik, Ault, & Austers, 2004). There may be an evolutionary explanation

There are cultural

differences in the degree

of importance placed on

values concerning chastity,

especially for women.

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156 Chapter 7

for these findings: stressful environments may cause insecure attachments, which
may be linked to short-term mating strategies—to reproduce early and often. This
link may be seen today; as cultures become more affluent, birth rates tend to decline.

Not surprisingly, cultural differences in attitudes related to sex are also related
to cultural differences in attitudes related to sexual orientation. Many traditional cul-
tures view homosexuality as a curse or worse. These kinds of attitudes exist in some
quarters of relatively egalitarian cultures like the United States as well. In some cul-
tures, open homosexuals may be beaten, publicly humiliated, and shamed, and even
persecuted by the state. Attitudes concerning sex and sexuality are often linked with
cultural values of honor and transgressions; that is, premarital sex or homosexuality
can be seen as an injury to one’s own or one’s family’s honor and as a disgrace, with
sometimes deadly consequences. Interestingly, people across cultures appear to be
able to categorize men in terms of their sexual orientation (as gay or straight) at better
than chance rates (Rule, Ishii, Ambady, Rosen, & Hallett, 2011).

Culture affects the practice of circumcision for males and female genital mutila-
tion (FGM) for females. The latter is a procedure that involves partial or complete
removal of female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for nonther-
apeutic reasons (World Health Organization, 1997). FGM is still practiced in some
African, Middle Eastern, Asian, South American, and Pacific cultures. It can be car-
ried out in settings as wide ranging as sterile, operating rooms in hospitals to home
with no anesthesia, antiseptics, antibiotics, or analgesics (Barstow, 1999). In many cul-
tures in which FGM is practiced, it has ties with attitudes concerning virtuousness,
chastity, and honor for women. It is also considered a way to promote marital fidelity,
control women’s sex drives, and even to enhance fertility among women (Whitehorn,
Ayonrinde, & Main-gay, 2002). These kinds of attitudes were used in part to justify
the enforcement of passive gender roles on women, much like the practice of foot
binding in China.

The practice of FGM is associated with many complex issues. On the one hand,
there appears to be no apparent health benefit to the practice, and studies have dem-
onstrated many health problems associated with it including death, infertility, or uri-
nary tract infection. As a result, many in affluent and more egalitarian cultures view
the practice as barbaric and outdated. On the other hand, the practice is tied with
honor and virtue and for many women in many cultures, not having FGM would pre-
vent a woman from finding a husband or to live life as a social outcast. For instance,
a study of Egyptian female student nurses found that approximately 60% favored cir-
cumcising their own daughters and thought it beneficial (Dandash, Refaat, & Eyada,
2001). The clash of cultures through immigration and improved communications
technology brings these issues to the forefront for many in the world today.

Jealousy
In Chapter 14, we will discuss universal differences between men and women in their
preferences for mates and in the process of mate poaching—attempting to steal oth-
er’s mates. These differences are typically explained using an evolutionary model that
suggests that males look for younger, chaste mates to bear offspring, while females
look for mates that can provide resources for offspring in the long term.

One important construct related to these concepts is fidelity of a mate. When extra-
marital sex occurs, do people of different cultures differ in their responses? Apparently
not; jealousy appears to be a universal reaction to the infidelity of one’s mate. There
are interesting gender differences in the sources of infidelity. Sexual infidelity occurs
when a partner has sex or engages in sex-related behaviors with others. Emotional

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Culture and Gender 157

infidelity refers to the formation of an emotional bond with other people. Men appear
to become jealous with sexual infidelity, that is, when they experience a loss of sex-
ual exclusivity in their mates. Women appear to become jealous when they experi-
ence emotional infidelity, that is, a loss of emotional involvement in their mates. This
pattern has been found in a wide variety of cultures (Buss, Shackelford, Kirkpatrick,
Choe, Lim, & Hasegawa, 1999; Fernandez, Sierra, Zubeidat, & Vera-Villarroel, 2006).
Buss and Schmitt (1993) suggest that these universal gender differences are predict-
able on the basis of biological sex differences and evolutionary needs. Violations of
emotional involvement for women threaten the care of offspring; violations of sexual
exclusivity for men threaten their ability to reproduce and produce offspring.

Division of Labor
While there are many similarities between men and women both physically and psy-
chologically, there are differences as well. These sex differences include the fact that
men are generally physically bigger and stronger than women, and women but not
men carry a child, give birth, and breastfeed. These types of sex differences lead to
some differences in sex roles. Men’s larger size, on one hand, probably enabled them
to take on the primary role of making and maintaining shelter, hunting for or produc-
ing food, and warding off enemies and rivals for food, mates, and other resources.
Women, on the other hand, took on the primary role of caring for infants and new-
borns. Biological differences between men and women, therefore, are probably the
platform by which decisions concerning a division of labor were made in our evolu-
tionary history. One of the biggest differences between men and women worldwide
concerns their division of labor in the house.

Georgas and colleagues’ (Georgas, Berry, van de Vijver, Kagitcibasi, & Poortinga,
2006) study of families highlighted this issue. They assessed families in 30 countries
around the world concerning a number of issues related to family functioning. One
issue they assessed concerned division of labor related to household chores (house-
work). In all countries surveyed, there was a very large gap between the amount of
work men and women did. Women took up the brunt of the housework in all societies
surveyed (Figure 7.1). This was true even among societies in which women made up
a large and increasing proportion of income earners. Hochschild and Machung (1989)
called this housework after coming home from work the “second shift” for women.
These differences were, in fact, some of the most robust and consistent findings in
Georgas and colleagues’ study. Thus the division of labor in the house and home
appears to be quite universal. What is also apparent from the data in Figure 7.1 is
that some cultures have larger differences in the division of labor between men and
women than others.

Or take another piece of data from Georgas et al.’s (2006) study. They identi-
fied three types of roles mothers and fathers played in families: expressive, focused
on maintaining a pleasant environment and providing emotional support for one
another; financial, including contributing to and managing finances; and childcare.
In near all cultures surveyed, fathers were primarily concerned with finances first,
then expressive issues next, and childcare last. The concerns of mothers, however, dif-
fered according to culture. Mothers were most concerned with childcare, but only in
less affluent cultures. In more affluent cultures, mothers appeared to be equally con-
cerned with all three family roles (Figure 7.2).

Similar findings were also reported by Wood and Eagly’s (2002) review of the
literature, who reported strong evidence of the universality of sex-typed division of
labor. Men were primarily concerned with the provision of resources, while women

In all countries surveyed,

there was a very large gap

between the amount of

work men and women did.

Women took up the brunt

of the housework in all

societies surveyed.

48951_ch07_ptg01_147-170.indd 157 1/6/16 6:24 PM

158 Chapter 7

JA
P

FR
A

UK
CAN

NET GER USA CYP
GRE GEO UKR

SP
A

BU
L
SA

U
PA

K
CLE IRA IN

D
KOR

IN
A

TU
R

GHA
M

EX ALG BR
A

NIG GHI

Father
Mother

Family Role: Housework
Means of 27 countries

Figure 7.1 Findings Regarding Division of Housework between Men and Women
across 27 Countries, Reported by Georgas et al. ( 2006)
Source: Reprinted by permission of James Georgas.

CAN
USA UK

SP
A

FR
A

KOR
GER JA

P
NET CHI

SA
U IRA CYP

TU
R

GRE
GEO UKR

CLE
BR

A
BU

L
M

EX NIG IN
D

PA
K

IN
A

GHA
ALG

Expressive

Family Roles of Mother and Affluence

Finances
Childcare

Figure 7.2 Findings Regarding Family Roles of Mothers across 27 Countries
The countries are listed on the bottom in three groups of affluence; the richest on the left, mod-
erate affluence in the middle, and least affluent on the right.

Source: Figure 8.3 from Georgas, J., Berry, J. W., van de Vijver, F., Kagitcibasi, C., & Poortinga, Y. H.
(2006). Families across Cultures: A 30 Nation Psychological Study ( New York: Cambridge University
Press). Reprinted with permission of Cambridge University Press.

48951_ch07_ptg01_147-170.indd 158 1/6/16 6:24 PM

Culture and Gender 159

were primarily focused on childcare. The relative difference in the division of labor
between men and women, however, differed depending on whether the society was
industrialized and the degree to which the society as a whole was dependent on gath-
ering for survival. Women contributed to the provision of resources more in societies
that were predominantly dependent on gathering or were more greatly industrial-
ized. Mothers predominated in the care of infants and substantially shared in the care
of young children with other family members and the community. Fathers contrib-
uted to childcare more than to infant care, but their contributions were almost univer-
sally less than those of mothers.

In Table 7.3, Wood and Eagly (2002) listed the average percentage of male partici-
pation in activities from 185 societies. As shown in the left half of table, the activities
that were performed exclusively or predominantly by men included hunting large
aquatic fauna, smelting ores, metalworking, lumbering, and clearing land. The far
right columns in table display the activities that were performed mainly by women,
and these included preparation of vegetal foods, cooking, and water fetching. “Swing
activities” were activities that were performed by men in some societies, by women in
others, and interchangeably by both in others. Swing activities included bodily muti-
lation, crop planting, harvesting, crop tending, and burden carrying. Although few
activities were assigned exclusively to one sex or the other when considered across
cultures, the division of labor is evident in that, within societies, most activities were
performed primarily by one sex. Wood and Eagly (2002) argued that physical dif-
ferences between the sexes interacted with the resources and characteristics of the
environment so that different societies produced different solutions to the needs
of survival. While sex differences existed in virtually all societies, the exact nature of
those differences varied across societies. They called this model a biosocial model
of sex differences.

Summary
While different sex roles exist in all societies of the world, cultures differ in the spe-
cific type and degree of differentiation they encourage between the sexes. Differences
in sex roles raise interesting questions about the gender stereotypes that arise because
of sex role differentiation. Gender, gender roles, gender role ideologies, and gender
stereotypes are culturally specific psychological constructs that differ across cultures.

How does culture influence gender? The process of learning gender roles begins
very early in life. The importance of gender in organizing our expectations and think-
ing is illustrated in the first question that we ask when a baby is born: “Is it a boy or
a girl?” In American culture, we tend to give boys and girls different types of toys to
play with and dress infants according to gender (although that trend may be chang-
ing in recent years). If you look back to your baby pictures, you may find that you
were often dressed in either blue or pink. About 30 years ago, one U.S. study reported
that 90% of the infants observed at a shopping mall were dressed in gendered colors
and/or styles (Shakin, Shakin, & Sternglanz, 1985). By the age of three, children begin
to accurately label people by sex (Fagot, Leinbach, & Hagen, 1986). Gender role social-
ization continues throughout life from various sources—expectations from parents,
modeling of gender roles by peers, and images of males and females in the social and
mass media, to name a few—that contribute to our ideas on what it means to be male
or female.

In terms of the definitions presented earlier, a newborn has sex but no gender.
Gender is a construct that exists in society and develops in children as they are social-
ized in their environments. As children grow older, they learn specific behaviors and

biosocial model A
model that suggests that bio-
logical differences between
the sexes interact with the
environment to produce
culture-specific sex roles
that are adaptations to the
environment.

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160 Chapter 7

Table 7.3 Average Percentage of Male Participation in Activities in Societies from the Standard
Cross-Cultural Sample

Predominantly
Masculine Activities

Index
(%)

Quasi-Masculine
Activities

Index
(%) Swing Activities

Index
(%)

Quasi-Feminine
Activities

Index
(%)

Hunting large aquatic
fauna

100 Butchering 92.3 Generation of fire 62.3 Fuel gathering 27.2

Smelting of ores 100 Collection of wild
honey

91.7 Bodily mutilation 60.8 Preparation of
drinks

22.2

Metalworking 99.8 Land clearance 90.5 Preparation of skins 54.6 Gathering of wild
vegetal foods

19.7

Lumbering 99.4 Fishing 86.7 Gathering small land
fauna

54.5 Dairy production 14.3

Hunting in large land
fauna

99.3 Tending large animals 82.4 Crop planting 54.4 Spinning 13.6

Work in wood 98.8 House building 77.4 Manufacture of
leather products

53.2 Laundering 13

Fowling 98.3 Soil preparation 73.1 Harvesting 45 Water fetching 8.6

Making musical
instruments

97.6 Netmaking 71.2 Crop tending 44.6 Cooking 8.3

Trapping 97.5 Making rope and
cordage

69.9 Milking 43.8 Preparation of
vegetal food

5.7

Boatbuilding 96.6 Basketmaking 42.5

Stoneworking 95.9 Burden carrying 39.3

Work in bone, horn, shell 94.6 Matmaking 37.6

Mining and quarrying 93.7 Care of small animals 35.9

Bonesetting 92.7 Preservation of meat
or fish

32.9

Loom weaving 32.5

Gathering small
aquatic fauna

31.1

Manufacture of
clothing

22.4

Potterymaking 21.1

Note: Reprinted with permission. Each index represents the average percentage of male participation in each activity, as calculated by
Murdock and Provost (1973) from 185 societies of the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (Murdock and White, 1969). Each index was cal-
culated for a given activity such that each society received a weight indicating whether the activity was exclusively male (1.0), predomi-
nantly male (0.8), equally performed by both sexes (0.5), predominantly female (0.2), or exclusively female (0). The weights were summed
across societies in which the activity was performed and then divided by the number of societies. Murdock and Provost identified the
four clusters of activities on the basis of this index and the variability in the index across geographic regions. The swing activities were
more variable than the quasi-masculine or quasi-feminine activities, which were more variable than the strictly masculine ones.

Source: Data are from Tables 1–5 of G. P. Murdock and C. Provost, “Factors in the Division of Labor by Sex: A Cross-Cultural Analysis,” 1973,
Ethnology, 12, pp. 207–210. Copyright 1973 by the University of Pittsburgh Press.

patterns of activities deemed appropriate and inappropriate for their sex, and they
either adopt or reject those gender roles. Sandra Bem (1981), a prominent theorist on
gender, argued that gender is one of the fundamental ways we organize information
and understand experiences about the world. For instance, we learn what behaviors,
attitudes, objects, and conventions are associated with being “male” and what are

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Culture and Gender 161

associated with being “female,” and apply these gender schemas to understand the
people around us as well as ourselves.

Ensuring that reproduction occurs fulfills men’s and women’s sex roles. But what
happens before and after that depends on a host of variables. One of these variables
is culture. The biological fact and necessity of reproduction, along with other biologi-
cal and physiological differences between men and women, lead to behavioral dif-
ferences between men and women. In earlier days, these behavioral differences were
reinforced by a necessary division of labor. Someone had to look after children while
someone else had to find food for the family; no one person could have done it all.
Thus, the existence of reproductive differences led to a division of labor advantageous
to the family as a unit. These differences, in turn, likely produced differences in a
variety of psychological traits and characteristics such as aggressiveness, nurturance,
and achievement.

Survival requires that societies balance a number of factors, including natural
resources, affluence, and population density. These external factors help to frame
and mold specific behaviors that may affect the division of labor between men and
women originally necessitated by biological differences. These differential behaviors
that occur because of differences in external, environmental factors lead to patterns
of behaviors across time that are associated with men and women. This pattern of
behaviors across time is culture. In turn, it feeds back reciprocally onto the pattern
of behaviors, reinforcing those behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, and values. Thus, as dif-
ferent cultures must deal with different external factors, it is only natural that gender
differences vary by culture. One culture may foster considerable equality between
women and men and relatively few differences in their cultural practices and psy-
chological characteristics. Another culture may foster considerable disparity between
the sexes, their cultural practices related to reproduction, and psychological charac-
teristics associated with sex roles. Some cultures may foster differences between the
sexes in one direction (e.g., males as primary decision makers, females compliant and
obedient); another culture may foster differences in the opposite direction. This type
of biosocial explanatory model may account for the range of differences obtained in
previous cross-cultural research on psychological constructs.

Culture, Gender Roles, and Gender Stereotypes

Culture and Gender Stereotypes
Universality in sex differences in the division of labor described above suggests that
gender roles and gender stereotypes may also be universal. We are all familiar with
“traditional” gender stereotypes—that males should be independent, self-reliant,
strong, and emotionally detached, while women should be dependent, reliant, weak,
nurturant, and emotional. To what degree is this an American or Western cultural
phenomenon? Several programs of research have examined this interesting question
over the years, and have shown that many gender-related stereotypes are, in fact, uni-
versally held across cultures.

The best-known study of gender stereotypes across cultures was conducted by
Williams and Best (1982), who sampled people in 30 countries, 52–120 respondents per
country, for a total of almost 3,000 individuals. The study used a questionnaire known
as the Adjective Check List (ACL), which is a list of 300 adjectives. Respondents in
each country were asked to decide whether each adjective was considered more
descriptive of a male or of a female. Whether the subjects agreed with the assignment

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162 Chapter 7

of an adjective to males or females was irrelevant; instead they were asked to report
the characteristics generally associated with males and females in their culture.
The researchers tallied the data from all individuals. Looking at responses within
each culture, Williams and Best (1982) established the criterion that if more than
two-thirds of a sample from a country agreed on a particular term for either males
or females, there was a consensus within that culture on that general characteristic.
Then looking at responses across the cultures, the researchers decided that if two-
thirds of the cultures reached a consensus on the characteristic, there was cross-
cultural consensus on that characteristic as describing males or females. The results
indicated a high degree of pancultural agreement across all the countries studied in
the characteristics associated with men and women. Table 7.4 lists the 100 items of the
pancultural adjective checklist reported by Williams and Best (1994).

The degree of consensus these adjectives received in describing males and
females is amazing. Berry and colleagues (1992) suggested “this degree of consen-
sus is so large that it may be appropriate to suggest that the researchers have found

Table 7.4 The 100 Items of the Pancultural Adjective Checklist

Male-Associated Female-Associated

Active Loud Affected Modest

Adventurous Obnoxious Affectionate Nervous

Aggressive Opinionated Appreciative Patient

Arrogant Opportunistic Cautious Pleasant

Autocratic Pleasure-seeking Changeable Prudish

Bossy Precise Charming Self-pitying

Capable Progressive Complaining Sensitive

Conceited Rational Confused Sexy

Confident Realistic Curious Shy

Courageous Reckless Dependent Softhearted

Cruel Resourceful Dreamy Sophisticated

Cynical Rigid Emotional Submissive

Determined Robust Excitable Suggestible

Disorderly Serious Fault-finding Superstitious

Enterprising Sharp-witted Fearful Talkative

Greedy Show-off Fickle Timid

Hardheaded Steady Foolish Touchy

Humorous Stern Forgiving Unambitious

Indifferent Stingy Frivolous Understanding

Individualistic Stolid Fussy Unintelligent

Initiative Tough Gentle Unstable

Varied interests Unfriendly Imaginative Warm

Inventive Unscrupulous Kind Weak

Lazy Witty Mild Worrying

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Andrea Mahe

Culture and Gender 163

a psychological universal when it comes to gender stereotypes” (p. 60). In addition,
the possibility of a universally accepted set of gender stereotypes may make sense
given the universality in division of labor independently demonstrated by other stud-
ies (described above).

Williams and Best (1982) conducted a second type of analysis on their data in
order to summarize their major findings. They scored the adjectives in each country
in terms of favorability, strength, and activity to examine how the adjectives were
distributed according to affective or emotional meaning. They found surprising con-
gruence in these analyses: the characteristics associated with men were stronger and
more active than those associated with women across all countries. On favorability,
however, cultural differences emerged: Some countries (such as Japan and South
Africa) rated male characteristics as more favorable than female, whereas other coun-
tries (e.g., Italy and Peru) rated female characteristics as more favorable.

How can we interpret these results? It could be that a division of labor for males
and females according to reproductive processes produced differences in behaviors
that, in turn, produced differences in psychological characteristics. These psycho-
logical characteristics may have had some evolutionary and adaptive advantages for
males and females to fulfill their roles as prescribed by the division of labor. Men and
women in most cultures may have become set in these ways, accounting for universal
consensus on these descriptors. At the same time, men and women may have adopted
particular mindsets about cultural differences because of perceived social inequal-
ity or social forces and indirect communication via mass media and the like. Some
researchers claimed that the persistence of gender stereotypes across culture cannot
be attributed to sociocultural factors and can only be explained by sociobiological
models (Lueptow, Garovich, & Lueptow, 1995). Or these findings could all be a func-
tion of the way the research was conducted, using university students as participants,
which would tend to make the entire sample more homogeneous than if people were
sampled randomly from each culture.

Although it is difficult to disentangle these factors, it is important to note that
Williams and Best also collected and analyzed data concerning gender stereotypes
from young children and found a considerable degree of agreement between the
findings for children and those for university students (Williams & Best, 1990). These
results argued against (but did not entirely eliminate) the notion that the original
findings were due to homogeneity among university students.

Williams and colleagues extended their earlier work on gender stereotypes in
important ways. Williams, Satterwhite, and Best (1999), for example, took the ACL data
from 25 countries in their previous work and rescored them in terms of five personal-
ity dimensions known as the big five, or five factor model of personality. As you may
remember from our discussion in Chapter 6, these terms refer to the five personal-
ity traits or dimensions that are considered universal or consistent around the world.
Males were perceived to have significantly higher scores than females on all traits
except agreeableness; females, however, were perceived to have significantly higher
scores than males on this personality dimension. They also correlated the sex differ-
ences with culture scores from two large value surveys (Hofstede, 1980; Schwartz,
1994), some demographic variables, and gender ideology scores from a previous study
(Williams & Best, 1990). Differences in gender stereotypes were larger in countries that
were conservative and hierarchical, with a lower level of socioeconomic development, a
relatively low degree of Christian affiliation, and a relatively low proportion of women
attending university. Countries that valued harmony and egalitarianism, had less tradi-
tional sex-role orientations, and viewed male stereotypes as less favorable than female
stereotypes were associated with less gender stereotype differences on the five factors.

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164 Chapter 7

In summary, this set of studies informs us that gender stereotypes around the
world are rather stable and are related to interesting and important psychological
characteristics. Men are generally viewed as active, strong, critical, and adult like,
with psychological needs such as dominance, autonomy, aggression, exhibition,
achievement, and endurance. Men are also associated more with the personality traits
of conscientiousness, extroversion, and openness. Women are generally viewed as
passive, weak, nurturing, and adaptive, with psychological needs such as abasement,
deference, succorance, nurturance, affiliation, and heterosexuality. They are also asso-
ciated with higher scores on the personality traits of agreeableness and neuroticism.
As described earlier, the degree of stability of these findings across a wide range of
countries and cultures provides a strong base of evidence for some pancultural uni-
versality in psychological attribution.

Still many questions remain unanswered in this important area of psychology.
How congruent are people’s behaviors with their stereotypes, and does this congru-
ence differ across cultures and countries? Are stereotypes related to important psycho-
logical constructs or behaviors that affect everyday lives? How do we come to develop
such stereotypes—what are the factors that produce them, and their boundaries?

Culture, Gender Role Ideology, and Self-Concept
Another important topic that has been studied across cultures is gender role
ideology—judgments about what males and females ought to be like or ought to do.
To examine this topic, Williams and Best (1990) asked participants in 14 countries to
complete the ACL (the list of adjectives they used in the previous research described
above) in relation to what they believe they are and what they would like to be. Par-
ticipants also completed a sex role ideology scale that generated scores between two
polar opposites labeled “traditional” and “egalitarian.” The traditional scores tended
to describe gender roles that were consistent with the traditional or universal norms
found in their earlier research; egalitarian scores reflected a tendency toward less
differentiation between males and females on the various psychological character-
istics. The most egalitarian scores were found in the Netherlands, Germany, and
Finland; the most traditional ideologies were found in Nigeria, Pakistan, and India.
Women tended to have more egalitarian views than men. Gender differences within
each country were relatively small compared to cross-country differences, which
were considerable. In particular, countries with relatively high socioeconomic devel-
opment, a high proportion of Protestant Christians, a low proportion of Muslims, a
high percentage of women employed outside the home, a high proportion of women
enrolled in universities, and a greater degree of individualism were associated with
more egalitarian scores. These findings make sense, as greater affluence and indi-
vidualistic tendencies tend to produce a culture that allows women increased access
to jobs and education, thus blending traditional gender roles.

Williams and Best (1990) also examined gender differences in self-concepts (recall
our discussion of this topic in Chapter 5). The same students in the same 14 countries
rated each of the 300 adjectives of the ACL according to whether it was descriptive
of themselves or their ideal self. Responses were scored according to masculinity/
femininity as well as in terms of favorability, strength, and activity. When scored
according to masculinity/femininity both self and ideal-self ratings for men were
more masculine than were the women’s ratings, and vice versa, across all countries.
However, both men and women in all countries rated their ideal self as more mascu-
line than their actual self. In effect, they were saying that they wanted to have more of
the traits traditionally associated with males.

gender role
ideology Judgments
about what gender roles in
a particular culture ought
to be.

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Culture and Gender 165

Gender role ideologies have also been studied in younger populations by
Gibbons and her colleagues (De Silva, Stiles, & Gibbons, 1992; Gibbons, Bradford, &
Stiles, 1989; Gibbons, Stiles, Schnellman, & Morales-Hidalgo, 1990; Stiles, Gibbons, &
Schnellman, 1990). These researchers conducted several cross-cultural studies involv-
ing almost 700 adolescents ranging in age from 11 to 17 years from Spain, Guatemala,
and Sri Lanka. In their surveys, adolescents were asked to draw and describe char-
acteristics of the ideal man or woman. Interestingly, the most important quality in
these countries for both boys and girls was being “kind and honest,” a characteristic
that was not gender-specific. Some gender differences emerged, however, with being
good-looking more often mentioned as an ideal for women and being employed in a
job as more of an ideal for men.

Gibbons conducted another study on adolescents’ attitudes toward gender roles
that involved 265 international students, ages 11 to 17, who attended school in the
Netherlands. Students completed an Attitude Towards Women Scale for Adolescents
(Galambos, Petersen, Richards, & Gitelson, 1985) that included 12 statements such as
“Boys are better than girls” and “Girls should have the same freedom as boys.” The
adolescents were asked to report their level of agreement with these statements. Girls
were less traditional than boys, and adolescents from wealthier and more individual-
istic countries were less traditional than adolescents from poorer and more collectiv-
ist countries (Gibbons, Stiles, & Shkodriani, 1991).

Gibbons’s study of Sri Lankan adolescents (De Silva et al., 1992) indicated that
gender role ideologies may be changing as societies undergo change. She found that
more than half the girls in her study depicted the ideal woman as being employed
outside the home even though the traditional role of a Sri Lankan woman was that of
a homemaker. Mule and Barthel (1992) described social change in Egypt, where there
was an increase in women’s participation in the workforce and, to some extent, politi-
cal life. Furthermore, globalization and exposure to Western culture have presented
this traditionally Islamic country with alternative gender ideologies. Subsequently,
gender role ideologies may undergo modification or redefinition in these countries as
Eastern and Western influences continue to combine.

Maintaining, not modifying, traditional gender roles in the face of moderniza-
tion is also likely. For instance, a study of Palestinian women and their families found
that one’s level of education, participation in political activities, and employment
were not major factors predicting more egalitarian family roles (Huntington, Fronk, &
Chadwick, 2001). The authors were surprised by this finding and argued that cultural
values defined by Islamic beliefs and practices are resisting the forces of modernity.
In other words, Islamic teachings on women, the family, and relationships between
men and women may be a powerful influence in maintaining traditional family func-
tioning, and especially traditional ideas of women’s roles in family and society. These
findings highlighted the important role of religion in understanding how gender role
ideologies are defined and preserved in different cultures.

Ethnicity and Gender Roles
Research within cultures also points to important differences in gender roles, espe-
cially among different ethnic groups. Some research, for instance, has suggested
that the gender identities of African Americans are more androgynous than those of
European Americans. Androgyny refers to a gender identity that involves endorse-
ment of both male and female characteristics. Harris (1996), for example, administered
the Bem Sex Role Inventory, a scale that is widely used to measure gender identity,
to African and European American males and females, and found that both African

androgyny A gender
identity that involves en-
dorsement of both male and
female characteristics.

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166 Chapter 7

American males and females were more androgynous than European American
males and females. In addition, he found that African American males and females
have an equal propensity to endorse typically masculine traits, whereas European
American males regard more masculine traits as self-descriptive than European
American females do. Other studies conducted in the United States (Frome & Eccles,
1996), Israel (Orr & Ben-Eliahu, 1993), and Hong Kong (Lau, 1989) have found that ado-
lescent girls who adopt an androgynous identity have higher levels of self-acceptance
than either feminine or masculine girls. For boys, however, a masculine, not androgy-
nous, identity is associated with the highest level of self-acceptance.

Many Asian American families have carried on traditional gender roles asso-
ciated with males and females from their original culture. Asian females are often
expected to bear the brunt of domestic duties, to raise children, and to be “good”
daughters-in-law. Asian American males are often raised to remain aloof, unemo-
tional, and authoritative, especially concerning familial issues (D. Sue, 1998). Some
studies, however, have suggested a loosening of these rigid, traditional gender roles
for Asian American males and females. Although Asian American males may still
appear as the figurative head of the family in public, in reality, much decision making
power within the family in private is held by the Asian American female head of the
household (Huang & Ying, 1989).

The traditional role of the Mexican American female was to provide for the children
and take care of the home (Comas-Diaz, 1992). Likewise, Mexican American males were
traditionally expected to fill the role of provider for the family. These differences are
related to the concept of machismo, which incorporates many traditional expectations
of the male gender role, such as being unemotional, strong, authoritative, and aggres-
sive. However, research has shown that these gender differences for Mexican American
males and females are also on the decrease. Mexican American women are increasingly
sharing in decision making in the family, as well as taking on a more direct role as
provider through work outside the home (Espin, 1993). Although adolescent Mexican
American males are generally still given more freedom outside the home than are
females, gender differences may be decreasing in the contemporary Mexican American
family. This is likely to continue as increasing numbers of Latina women are employed
and an emerging Latina feminist movement takes hold (Espin, 1997). It is important to
note, however, that this movement continues to place high value on the traditional role
of wife and mother, yet offers a wider interpretation of roles acceptable for Latinas.

Gender role differentiation for Native Americans seems to depend heavily on the
patriarchal or matriarchal nature of the tribal culture of origin. In patriarchal tribes,
women assume primary responsibility for the welfare of the children and extended
family members. But males of the Mescalero Apache tribe often take responsibility
for children when they are with their families (Glover, 2001). As with other ethnic
groups, the passage of time, increased interaction with people of other cultures and
with mainstream American culture, and the movement toward urban living seems
to have effected changes in these traditional values and expectations for Native
American males and females.

Changing Cultures, Changing Gender Roles

The 191 members of the United Nations have committed to creating sustainable
human development and to recognizing equal rights and opportunities for men
and women that are critical for social and economic progress. Tragically, one of the
obstacles to this progress concerns violence against women, which is a concrete

machismo A concept
related to Mexican American
gender role differentiation
that is characterized by
many traditional expecta-
tions of the male gender
role, such as being unemo-
tional, strong, authoritative,
and aggressive.

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Culture and Gender 167

manifestation of inequality between males and females. A few years ago, the World
Health Organization (WHO) reported the results of a study involving over 24,000
interviews with women from 15 sites in 10 countries (Garcia-Moreno, Heise, Jansen,
Ellsberg, & Watts, 2005). In 13 of the 15 sites, between 35% and 76% of the women had
reported being physically or sexually assaulted by someone else since the age of 15. In
all settings but one, the majority of the violence was perpetrated by a current or previ-
ous partner, not a stranger. Overall, 15% to 71% of the women who ever had a partner
had been physically or sexually assaulted. In most settings, almost half of the respon-
dents reported that the violence was currently ongoing (see Figure 7.3). There was
substantial variation both within and between countries, and findings indicated that
women in industrialized countries may find it easier to leave abusive relationships.

These kinds of findings make it strikingly clear that despite desires for equality,
inequality still persists quite strongly around the world, and with often negative conse-
quences. This, coupled with the fact that cultures are always in flux, and that cultures
clash because of increased contact of peoples of different worldviews, brings many of
the issues discussed in this chapter to the forefront of numerous people’s lives. In many
cases, they represent an interesting and complex interplay between culture, psychology,

Brazil city

Brazil province

Ethiopia province

Japan city

Namibia city

Peru city

Peru province

Samoa

Serbia and
Montenegro city

Thailand city

Thailand province

United Republic of
Tanzania city

United Republic of
Tanzania province

0 10 20 30 40
Percentage

Note: Bangladesh data not included.

50 60 70 80 90 100

Ever
Current (past 12 months)

Figure 7.3
Percentage of Ever-Partnered Women
Reporting Physical or Sexual Violence,
or Both, by an Intimate Partner, by Site
Source: Garcia-Moreno, C., Heise, L., Jansen,
H. A. F. M., Ellsberg, M., & Watts, C. (2005).
Violence against women. Science, 310, 1282–1283.

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168 Chapter 7

and law (Shweder, Minow, & Markus, 2002). In Europe, for instance, debates occur con-
cerning hymenoplasty, a surgical procedure that replaces a woman’s hymen. Because
the hymen usually breaks in the first act of intercourse, its restoration allows women
who have had sex to appear as if they are virgins. This is particularly important for some
women in some cultures, such as traditional Muslim culture, which values virginity in
marriage partners. Many young Muslim women (as are many women around the world)
are caught between the freedoms that American or European societies and cultures
offer and the deep-rooted traditions of their families for generations, and many seek
certificates of virginity to provide proof to family and prospective marriage partners.

In many cultures, the preference for one sex over the other is also very apparent
and strong. In many Muslim and Asian cultures, for example, boys are prized and
girls are not. Thus the differential treatment of boys and girls happens immediately
at birth. In Afghanistan, some families even go as far as to dress up their girls to mas-
querade as boys and send them off to school. The reasons for this include economic
need, social pressure to have sons, and in some cases a superstition that doing so can
lead to the birth of a real boy. This also occurs because of the pervading thought in
some cultures that girls should not receive an education, only boys.

These aspects of clashing cultures exist in the United States as well. For instance,
among the most pressing issues and concerns facing the United States today are gender
differences across different ethnicities and the continuing struggle for gender equity
across all cultural and ethnic groups. Just as people in different cultures in faraway
lands may have different gender roles and expectations, people of different ethnic
backgrounds in the United States can have different gender role expectations as well.
Many of these gender differences across ethnic lines are rooted in the cultures people
of these ethnicities brought with them when they came to the United States. Gender
differences in the United States today, along with this melting pot effect, produce a
uniquely “American” influence and reflect gender issues in a uniquely American way.

How is one to deal with the social isolation, physical beating, and even murder
of young women that would be justified in another culture because of perceived dis-
honor brought about by premarital sex? What should be the response of communi-
ties and societies toward female genital mutilation, especially when condoned by the
operators and recipients? How can democracies deal with acts that they condemn in
their laws while at the same time being open and embracing of cultural differences?
These are tough questions that all of us have to face in today’s pluralistic world. While
finding answers is difficult, at the very least we should be able to have meaningful,
objective discussions of these issues.

Clearly, as we have mentioned throughout this book, culture is not a static entity;
it is dynamic and ever changing. Cultural changes are brought about by many fac-
tors, especially economic. Witness the great cultural changes that are occurring in
many countries of the world since the end of World War II. Japan, for instance, was
decimated at the end of that war; yet, today it stands as one of the world’s economic
powers. Such changes bring with them a major shift in the culture of the society, and
we are witness to such shifts in Japan today (Matsumoto, 2002a). Similar changes are
occurring or have occurred in many other cultures as well, including South Korea,
China, or Singapore.

Much of the cultural changes that are brought by economics give rise to tensions
between tradition and progress, conservatism and liberalism. Images capture these
tensions: watching young women in Japan dressed in traditional Japanese kimono
as they observe a centuries-old tradition of coming-of-age (seijin-shiki), as they talk on
their cell phones and instant message with friends, as they ride the fastest trains in the
world, produce a stark contrast between tradition and progress. Similarly, young

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Culture and Gender 169

adults in the Middle East may, on one hand, condemn the United States yet, on the
other, be willing to obtain a visa and immigrate to the United States.

Changing and clashing cultures bring about many confrontations between gen-
der differences across culture. Changing culture around the world, for example, that
is associated with increased economic power, affluence, and individualism is asso-
ciated with changing gender roles. More women work outside the home, are more
economically independent, and have a greater say at home and at work. Yet there are
social consequences of such cultural changes; in such cultures, divorce rates increase
(Matsumoto, 2002a; Yodanis, 2005); the amount and type of health-related problems
for women increase, such as rising incidence of cardiovascular problems, alcoholism,
and rates of smoking (Allamani, Voller, Kubicka, & Bloomfield, 2000). Changes in cul-
ture, therefore, have both positive and negative consequences, and full consideration
should be given before weighing in on the pros and cons of such changes.

C O N C L U S I O N

Sex refers to the biological and physiological differences between males and females.
Sex roles are behaviors expected of males and females in relation to their biological
differences and reproduction. Gender refers to the psychological and behavioral traits
and characteristics cultures carve out using sex differences as a base. Gender roles refer
to the degree to which a person adopts the gender-specific behaviors ascribed by his
or her culture. Gender and its permutations—roles, identities, stereotypes, and the
like—share an important link with culture.

Gender roles are different for males and females in all cultures. Some stereotypic
notions about gender differences seem to be universal across cultures such as aggres-
siveness, strength, and lack of emotionality for males and weakness, submissiveness,
and emotionality for females. Other research, however, has shown that the degree,
and in some case the direction, of these differences varies across cultures. That is, not
every culture will necessarily harbor the same gender differences in the same way as
other cultures. Further research is needed to gain a better understanding of culture-
constant and culture-specific aspects of gender differences.

Examining gender differences in the United States is especially challenging
because of the cultural and ethnic diversity within this single country and the influ-
ence of interactions with mainstream American culture. Each ethnic group has its own
cultural preferences for gender differentiation, but some blending of the old with the
new, the traditional with the modern, appears to be taking place. Without evidence
to the contrary, it is probably best to consider this blending as an addition of cultural
repertoires concerning gender differences rather than a subtraction from the old ways.

As we meet people from different cultural backgrounds, we may encounter gen-
der roles that are different from our own. Often we feel strongly and negatively about
these differences. But despite our own personal outlook, we must exercise consider-
able care and caution in imposing our preferences on others. In most cases, people
of other cultures feel just as strongly about their own way of living. Many people of
many other cultures, men and women, still harbor many of the traditional values of
their ancestral culture, and conflicts arise because some—men and women alike—look
down on these traditional ways, criticize them, and attempt to force change. Many
women in many cultures want to marry early, stay home, and take care of the family;
many men want to adopt the traditional male roles as well. These tendencies are alive
in many different people within the most egalitarian cultures and societies. Respect-
ing these differences is different from attempting to change them because they are not

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170 Chapter 7

consonant with our own individual or cultural preferences. Nonetheless, this is a deli-
cate balancing act for all of us because there is a fine line between cultural relativity (a
desired state of comprehension) and the unacceptable justification of oppression.

Future research will need to tackle the important questions posed by our under-
standing of cultural and gender differences, elucidating on the mechanisms and
factors that help produce and maintain those differences in individual cultures,
and then across cultures. In addition, future research will need to explore the rela-
tionship between differences in actual behaviors and psychological constructs and
gender-related stereotypes, investigating whether these are two different psychologi-
cal systems of the mind or whether they are linked in ways that are not yet apparent.
Research to date is rather silent on the mechanisms that produce gender and cultural
differences, and the interrelationship among different psychological processes. The
important point to remember is that different cultures may arrive at different out-
comes through the same process. Men and women will have gender specific roles
in any society or culture. All cultures encourage particular behavioral differences
between the genders and help to define the roles, duties, and responsibilities deemed
appropriate for males and females.

E X P L O R A T I O N A N D D I S C O V E R Y

Why Does This Matter to Me?
1. Have you encountered a gender role or behavior

that was culturally different than yours? How did
you feel? What did you think? What were the ori-
gins of that gender role?

2. Do you think gender roles are produced by
gender stereotypes, or vice versa?

3. How do some of the findings from the studies
reviewed in this chapter relate to your precon-
ceived notions about gender roles?

4. How do you perceive your national culture with
respect to Hofstede’s masculinity versus femi-
ninity dimension?

5. As a parent, what kind of gender role and iden-
tity would you want your children to adopt?
Why?

Suggestions for Further Exploration
1. Consider a hypothetical research study that you

might like to conduct that would investigate
gender differences of a particular behavior or
psychological phenomenon. How would you
conduct the study cross-culturally?

2. What do you think are the origins of some of
the universal aspects of gender differences

described in the chapter? How would you study
them?

3. Consider the ways women have been portrayed
in recent television shows and movies that you
have watched. Do you think that portrayals of
women and men are changing in the media or
not? Design a study that would test your ideas.

InfoTrac College Edition
Use InfoTrac College Edition to search for additional
readings on topics of interest to you. For more infor-
mation on topics in this chapter, use the following as
search terms:

culture and sex roles
culture and gender identity
ethnicity and gender

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171

8Culture and Cognition

CHAPTER CONTENTS

Culture as Cognition

Culture and Attention

Culture and Perception

Perception and Physical Reality

Cultural Influences on Visual Perception

Culture and Thinking

Culture and Categorization

Culture and Memory

Culture and Math

Culture and Problem Solving

Culture and Creativity

Culture and Dialectical Thinking

Culture, Regrets, and Counterfactual Thinking

Summary

Culture and Consciousness

Culture and Dreams

Culture and Time

Culture and Pain

Culture and Intelligence

Traditional Definitions of Intelligence and Its
Measurement

The Nature versus Nurture Controversy

Expanding the Concept of Intelligence across
Cultures

The Impact of Cross-Cultural Research on the
Concept of Intelligence in Mainstream American
Psychology

CONCLUSION

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY
Why Does This Matter to Me?
Suggestions for Further Exploration

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172 Chapter 8

Just as atoms and molecules serve as the building blocks of matter, some psychologi-
cal processes serve as the building blocks of other psychological constructs. In this
chapter, we examine the nature of those psychological building blocks under the
name of cognition.

The term cognition denotes all the mental processes we use to transform sensory
input into knowledge. Some of the first cognitive processes to consider are attention,
sensation, and perception. Attention refers to the focusing of our limited capaci-
ties of consciousness on a particular set of stimuli, more of whose features are noted
and processed in more depth than is true of nonfocal stimuli. Sensation refers to the
feelings that result from excitation of the sensory receptors (touch, taste, smell, sight,
hearing). Perception refers to our initial interpretations of the sensations.

Once stimuli are perceived, individuals engage in higher-order mental processes
such as thinking and reasoning, language, memory, problem solving, and decision
making. Cross-cultural research on these basic cognitive processes highlights impor-
tant cultural similarities and differences in each of these ways people think. There
appears to be universality in cognitive processes such as hindsight bias and regrets
over inaction as opposed to action. At the same time, there are interesting cultural
differences in perception and attention, categorization, some memory tasks, math
performance, problem solving, and factors that enhance creativity. The universal
aspects of cognition point to important ways in which people are similar the world
over. The differences, however, are also fascinating. Where do these differences come
from? What is the source of these observed differences between countries?

In the first part of this chapter, we review cross-cultural research across a broad
spectrum of basic cognitive processes as outlined in Figure 8.1. We begin with atten-
tion, as it is important to understand possible cultural differences in what we attend
to in the first place. We then discuss culture and perception, discussing research that
has examined cultural similarities and differences in how we perceive stimuli. We
then move to culture and thinking processes such as categorization, memory, math,
problem solving, creativity, and counterfactual thinking. We will also introduce an
important concept known as dialectical thinking. In the second part of this chapter,
we continue our broad overview of culture and cognition by discussing the important

cognition A term denot-
ing all mental processes we
use to transform sensory
input into knowledge.

attention The focusing of
our limited capacities of con-
sciousness on a particular
set of stimuli, more of whose
features are noted and pro-
cessed in more depth than is
true of nonfocal stimuli.

sensation The feelings
that result from excitation of
the sensory receptors such
as touch, taste, smell, sight,
or hearing.

perception The process
of gathering information
about the world through our
senses; our initial interpreta-
tions of sensations.

Attention

• What kinds of
stimuli in our
environments,
or in our
minds, do we
focus our
attention to
in the first
place?

Perception

• How do we
perceive the
world around
us?
• Do people of
different
cultures
perceive the
same physical
realities?

Thinking

• How do we
think about
the world?
• How do we
categorize
objects?
• Do we
remember
things in the
same ways
across cultures
• Do we solve
problems in
the same ways
across cultures?

Figure 8.1 An Outline of Basic Cognitive Processes and the Issues Raised in Each

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Culture and Cognition 173

topics of consciousness and intelligence and what recent cross-cultural research has
to say about these topics. But first we discuss the relationship between culture and
cognition.

Culture as Cognition

It’s interesting to note that many psychologists view culture itself as cognition. That
is, culture is generally viewed as a set of mental representations about the world.
Hofstede (1980) called culture “mental programming.” He likened culture to computer
software; just as different software exists to do different things with the same hard-
ware (computer equipment), different cultural “programs” exist that enable individu-
als to engage in different behaviors, even given the same hardware (physical anatomy).

The view of culture as cognition has a long history in psychology. Many previous
definitions of culture, for instance, defined culture as the norms, opinions, beliefs,
values, and worldviews shared by a group of individuals and transmitted across
generations (Berry, Poortinga, Segall, & Dasen, 1992; recall also our review and dis-
cussion in Chapter 1). Norms, opinions, beliefs, values, and worldviews are all cogni-
tive products and as such, one can view the contents of culture as being essentially
cognitive.

More contemporary definitions of culture, like that adopted in this book, are also
cognitive. In Chapter 1, we defined human culture as a unique meaning and informa-
tion system, shared by a group and transmitted across generations, that allows the group to
meet basic needs of survival, pursue happiness and well-being, and derive meaning from life.
This definition of culture also views culture as a knowledge system—one from which
individuals create and derive knowledge about how to live. This knowledge system
is shared, imperfectly, by a group of individuals, and this knowledge is manifested in
concrete objects, behaviors, and other physical elements of culture. This knowledge
system—culture—was created by groups to solve complex problems of living and
social life, enabling them to survive more functionally and effectively.

This view of culture is cognitive because humans have certain mental skills that
other animals do not, and these skills allow humans to have the kinds of cultures
that we do. As we discussed in Chapter 1, humans reap the fruits of major cognitive
advances that allow the creation of human cultures. These cognitive advances include
the evolution of language and the ability to know that others can make judgments
about oneself as an intentional agent—that is, as a person who has motives, desires,
and intentions, and the ability to share intentions with each other. These skills do not
exist in other animals (or at least not to the same degree), and they allow for human
cultures to be created in the first place. Thus human cultures have a very strong cog-
nitive component. They are knowledge representations that include specific mean-
ings and information, translated into norms, opinions, attitudes, values, and beliefs.
These in turn are manifest in overt behaviors and the physical elements of culture.

Many psychologists also believe that culture is represented in the human mind,
that people’s mental models of culture influence their ways of thinking, feeling,
and behaving, and that those mental models can be accessed. This way of thinking
about culture underlies frameworks like that of cultural self-construals, which we
discussed in Chapter 5. This way of thinking also underlies research that involves a
technique known as priming, which is a method used to determine if one stimulus
affects another. Many studies, for example, have primed individuals on individual-
ism or collectivism and have found that different mental primes produce different
kinds of behaviors (Oyserman & Lee, 2008). These kinds of studies are often used as

priming A method used
to determine if one stimulus
affects another.

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174 Chapter 8

“proof” of the impact of culture on psychological processes (recall our discussion of
experiments that primed culture in Chapter 2).

But while the view that culture is cognition is pervasive and influential in psy-
chology, one must pause to consider how much of this view is rooted in the biases of
psychologists to view everything as existing in between people’s ears. Other scholars,
especially in disciplines such as sociology and anthropology, would not agree that
culture is cognition and can be located in the human mind. It is possible that cul-
ture itself is comprised of collective rules, norms, and institutions that are larger than
any one individual, and that individuals have mental representations of culture, but
those representations are not culture itself. Thus, it is important to examine one’s own
biases in approaching an understanding of culture and cognition.

Culture and Attention

Attention is an important topic to consider first because it helps us understand what
kind of stimuli in our environment we pay attention to. Recent research has demon-
strated how culture may influence attention. Much of this research comes from stud-
ies by Masuda and colleagues. In one of their first studies, Masuda and Nisbett (2001)
asked American and Japanese university students to view an animated version of the
scene in Figure 8.2 twice for 20 seconds each. Immediately after viewing the scene,
they were asked to recall as many objects in the scene as possible. The researchers cat-
egorized the responses into whether the object recalled was a focal, main object of the
picture, or a background object. There were no differences between the Americans
and Japanese in recalling the focal, main objects of the scene; the Japanese, however,
remembered more of the background objects.

In a second task, Masuda and Nisbett (2001) then showed respondents new stim-
uli and asked them if they had seen them before in the original fish scene. The new
stimuli were created so that some objects were in the original and some were not.
The researchers also varied the background so that some stimuli included the old

Figure 8.2 Shot of Animated Swimming Fish Scene
Source: Reprinted from Masuda and Nisbett (2001), with permission.

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Culture and Cognition 175

background, some the new, and some no background at all. The Japanese were much
more influenced by the changes in the background; when the Japanese saw new or no
backgrounds, their rates of recognition were significantly worse than when they saw
the original backgrounds. Background did not affect the Americans (Figure 8.3).

In a later study, Masuda and colleagues (Masuda, Ellsworth, Mesquita, Leu,
Tanida, & Van de Veerdonk, 2008) showed American and Japanese observers pictures
of groups of individuals in which a focal individual was expressing an emotion
that was either congruent or incongruent with the rest of the group (Figure 8.4). The
observers judged what emotion the focal individual was expressing. Americans often
reported the emotion that the focal individual was expressing while the Japanese
more often reported the emotion that the group was expressing, even if it was incon-
gruent with the emotion expressed by the focal individual. Masuda and colleagues
argued again that the Japanese were susceptible to the group’s expressions because
they paid more attention to them, while the Americans paid less attention to the
group and focused more on the individual.

Nisbett and colleagues have suggested that these differences may have occurred
because of differences in environment: Japanese environments may be more ambig-
uous and contain more elements than American scenes. To examine whether dif-
ferences in this characteristic of the environments may have played a part in the
perceptual differences observed above, Miyamoto, Nisbett, and Masuda (2006)
showed Americans pictures from a Japanese environment, and showed Japanese indi-
viduals pictures from an American environment. After being shown these scenes,

Figure 8.3 American and Japanese Recognition Rate Differences as a Function
of Background
Source: From “Attending holistically versus analytically: Comparing the context sensitivity of
Japanese and Americans,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, pp. 922–934, 2001,
Copyright © American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission.

60
Original Background No Background Novel Background

A
cc

ur
ac

y
%

Japanese

Americans

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176 Chapter 8

respondents were shown pairs of culturally neutral scenes in which they had to
note the differences between them. Both Americans and Japanese detected a larger
number of contextual changes in the scenes after they saw pictures from a Japanese
environment, suggesting that the environment facilitated the cultural differences in
perception and attention.

This line of research has led to the interesting idea that people of different cul-
tures differ on whether they facilitate holistic versus analytic perception (Nisbett
& Miyamoto, 2005). On one hand, people in Western cultures may tend to engage in
context-independent and analytic perceptual processes by focusing on a salient object
(or person) independently from the context in which it is embedded. On the other
hand, people in East Asian cultures may tend to engage in context-dependent and
holistic perceptual processes by attending to the relationship between the object and
the context in which the object is located.

The holistic versus analytic difference in cognition has become an important
distinction, one that we will return to again later in this chapter. Current research
is examining the boundaries of this framework. Hsiao and Cottrell (2009) exam-
ined whether holistic processing can also be observed in expert-level processing of
Chinese characters, which share many properties with faces. Non-Chinese readers
(novices) perceived these characters more holistically than Chinese readers (experts).

holistic perception
Context dependent percep-
tual processes that focus on
the relationships between
objects and their contexts.

analytic perception
Context-independent
perceptual processes that
focuses on a salient object
independently from the con-
text in which it is embedded.

Figure 8.4
An Example of the Cartoon Images
Used in Studies 1 and 2. A Cauca-
sian Figure (top panel) or an Asian
Figure (bottom panel) Was Used as
the Central Figure
Source: Masuda, T., Ellsworth, P. C.,
Mesquita, B., Leu, J., Tanida, S., & Van
de Veerdonk, E. (2008). Placing the
face in context: Cultural differences
in the perception of facial emotion.
Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 94(3), 365–381.

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Culture and Cognition 177

Chinese readers had a better awareness of the components of characters, which were
not clearly separable to novices. This finding suggested that holistic processing is not
a marker of general visual expertise; rather, it depends on the features of the stimuli
and the tasks typically performed on them. East Asians also tend to produce more
information rich cultural products (e.g., academic conference posters, web pages)
and are faster in dealing with the information than do North Americans, supposedly
highlighting differences between holistic and analytic processing tendencies (Wang,
Masuda, Ito, & Rashid, 2012).

Culture and Perception

Perception and Physical Reality
Once stimuli are attended to, they are perceived. It’s important to realize first that,
regardless of culture, our perceptions of the world do not necessarily match the phys-
ical realities of the world, or of our senses. For instance, all humans have a blind spot
in each eye—a spot with no sensory receptors, where the optic nerve goes through
the layer of receptor cells on its way back toward the brain. But if you close one eye,
you probably won’t experience a hole in the world. There is no blind spot in our con-
scious perception, even though we have no receptors receiving light from one area of
the eye. With the help of microeye movements called microsaccades, our brains fill it
in so it looks as if we see everything. It is only when something comes at us out of this
spot that we get some idea that something is wrong with our vision in this particular
location.

Or fill three bowls with water—one with hot water, one with ice water, and one
with lukewarm water. If you put your hand in the hot water for a few seconds and
then in the lukewarm water, the lukewarm water will feel cold. If you wait a few min-
utes, then put your hand in the ice water and then the lukewarm water, the lukewarm
water will feel warm. The lukewarm water will not have changed its temperature;
rather, it is our perception of the water that has changed (compare Segall, 1979).

Once we begin to question our own senses, we want to know their limits. Do our
experiences and beliefs about the world influence what we perceive? Do other people
perceive things the same as we do? If others do not see things as we do, what aspects
of their experiences and backgrounds might explain those differences? How does cul-
ture influence this process? These questions were addressed initially by research on
the cultural influences on perception.

Cultural Influences on Visual Perception
Optical Illusions
Much of what we know about cultural influences on perception comes from cross-
cultural research on visual perception. Much of this work began with studies on
optical illusions by Segall, Campbell, and Hersokovits (1963, 1966). Optical illusions
are perceptions that involve an apparent discrepancy between how an object looks
and what it actually is. They are often based on inappropriate assumptions about the
stimulus characteristics of the object being perceived.

One of the best-known optical illusions is the Mueller-Lyer illusion (see
Figure 8.5). Individuals viewing these two figures typically judge the line with the
arrowheads pointing in as longer than the other line—even though the lines are actu-
ally the same length. Another well-known illusion is the horizontal-vertical illusion

blind spot A spot in our
visual field where the optic
nerve goes through the
layer of receptor cells on its
way back toward the brain,
creating a lack of sensory
receptors in the eye at that
location.

microsaccades Micro
eye movements that help
our brains fill in scenes
so it looks as if we see
everything.

optical illusions Per-
ceptions that involve an ap-
parent discrepancy between
how an object looks and
what it actually is.

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178 Chapter 8

(see Figure 8.6). When participants are asked to judge which line is longer, they typi-
cally respond that the vertical line is longer—when, again, they are the same length.
A third well-known example is the Ponzo illusion (see Figure 8.7). When participants
view this image, they typically report that the horizontal line closer to the origin of
the diagonals is longer than the one away from the origin. Of course, they are the
same length.

Several important theories have been developed to explain why optical illusions
occur. One of these is the carpentered world theory, which suggests that people in
urbanized, industrialized societies are used to seeing things that are rectangular in
shape and unconsciously come to expect things to have squared corners (because
much of their world is carpentered, such as houses, buildings, etc.). If we see a house
from an angle and the light reflected off it does not form a right angle on the eye, we
still perceive it as a house with square corners. In the Mueller–Lyer illusion, we tend
to see the figures as having square corners that project toward or away from us. We
know that things that look the same size to our eyes but are at different distances are
actually different in size.

The front-horizontal foreshortening theory suggests that we interpret verti-
cal lines as horizontal lines extending into the distance. In the horizontal–vertical

carpentered world
theory A theory of per-
ception that suggests that
people (at least most Ameri-
cans) are used to seeing
things that are rectangular
in shape, and thus uncon-
sciously expect things to
have square corners.

front-horizontal fore-
shortening theory A
theory of perception that
suggests that we interpret
vertical lines as horizontal
lines extending into the dis-
tance. Because we interpret
the vertical line in the hori-
zontal–vertical illusion as
extending away from us, we
see it as longer.

Figure 8.5
The Mueller–Lyer Illusion
Which line is longer? To most people, the top line
appears longer than the bottom line. The lines are
actually identical in length.

Figure 8.6
The Horizontal–Vertical Illusion
Which line is longer? To most people, the vertical line
appears longer than the horizontal line, although both lines
are the same length.

Figure 8.7
The Ponzo Illusion
Which horizontal line is longer? To most people, the upper line
appears longer, although both lines are the same length.

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Culture and Cognition 179

illusion, we interpret the vertical line as extending away from us, and we know that a
line of set length that is farther away from us must be longer.

These two theories share some common characteristics. Both assume that the
way we see the world is developed over time through our experiences. What we
see is a combination of the way the object reflects light to our eyes and our learning
about how to see things in general. Although learning helps us see well most of the
time, it is the very thing that causes us to misjudge optical illusions. The second idea
these theories share is that we live in a three-dimensional world that is projected onto
our eyes in two dimensions. Our eyes are nearly flat, and light striking the eye in
two places right next to each other may be coming from very different distances.
Thus, we need to interpret distance and depth from cues other than where the light
falls on the eye.

A number of cross-cultural studies challenge our traditional notions about opti-
cal illusions, as would be expected if experience contributes to our perceptions.
As early as 1905, W. H. R. Rivers compared the responses to the Mueller–Lyer and
horizontal–vertical illusions using groups in England, rural India, and New Guinea.
He found that the English saw the lines in the Mueller–Lyer illusion as being more
different in length than did the two other groups. He also reported that the Indians
and New Guineans were more fooled by the horizontal–vertical illusion than were
the English. These results surprised Rivers and many others from Europe and
the United States. They believed that the people of India and New Guinea were
more primitive and would therefore be more readily fooled by the illusions than
the more educated and “civilized” people of England. The results showed that the
effect of the illusion differed by culture, but that something other than education was
involved. The researchers concluded that culture must have some effect on the way
the world is “seen.” How this difference in perception comes about has been a source
of curiosity ever since.

Both the carpentered world theory and the front-horizontal foreshortening the-
ory can explain Rivers’s results. Whereas the English people in Rivers’s study were
used to seeing rectangular shapes, people in India and New Guinea were more
accustomed to rounded and irregular environments. In the Mueller–Lyer illusion,
therefore, English people would tend to see the figures as squared corners projecting
toward or away from them, but Indians and New Guineans would have less tendency
to make the same perceptual mistake. The front-horizontal foreshortening theory
can also account for the cultural differences obtained in Rivers’s study. With fewer
buildings to block long-distance vistas in India or New Guinea, the Indians and New
Guineans had learned to rely more on depth cues than did the English. As a result,
they were more likely to see the horizontal–vertical figure as three-dimensional and
therefore to misjudge the line lengths.

A third theory has been offered to explain cultural differences in visual per-
ception. The symbolizing three dimensions in two theory suggests that people in
Western cultures focus more on representations on paper than do people in other
cultures and spend more time learning to interpret pictures. Thus, people in New
Guinea and India are less likely to be fooled by the Mueller–Lyer illusion because it
is more “foreign” to them. They are more fooled by the horizontal–vertical illusion,
however, because it is more representative of their lifestyle (although in this example
it is unclear whether the differentiation between the cultures is Western versus non-
Western or industrialized versus nonindustrialized).

To ensure that Rivers’s findings held for cultures in general, Segall and colleagues
(1963, 1966) compared people from three industrialized groups to people from 14
nonindustrialized groups on the Mueller–Lyer and the horizontal–vertical illusions.

symbolizing three
dimensions in two
A theory of perception that
suggests that people in
Western cultures focus more
on representations on paper
than do people in other
cultures, and in particular
spend more time learning to
interpret pictures.

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180 Chapter 8

The Mueller–Lyer illusion was stronger for the industrialized groups, whereas the
effect of the vertical–horizontal illusion was stronger for the nonindustrialized
groups. Rivers’s findings were supported.

Segall and colleagues (1963, 1966), however, reported some evidence that did not
fit with any of the three theories—namely, that the effects of the illusions declined
and nearly disappeared with older participants. Based on the theories, we might
expect the effects of the illusions to increase with age because older people have had
more time to learn about their environments than younger people.

Wagner (1977) used different versions of the Ponzo illusion and compared the
performance of people in both rural and urban environments, some of whom had
continued their education and some of whom had not. One version of the Ponzo illu-
sion looked like Figure 8.7; another showed the same configuration of lines embedded
in a complete picture. Wagner found that with the simple line drawing, the effect of
the illusion declined with age for all groups. With the illusion embedded in a picture,
however, he found that the effect of the illusion increased with age, but only for urban
people and people who continued their schooling. This study provided more direct
evidence of the effects of urban environments and schooling on the Ponzo illusion.

There is also a physical theory that must be considered. Pollack and Silvar (1967)
showed that the effects of the Mueller–Lyer illusion are related to the ability to detect
contours, and this ability declines with age. They also noted that as people age and
are more exposed to sunlight, less light enters the eye, and this may affect people’s
ability to perceive the lines in the illusion. In addition, they showed that retinal pig-
mentation is related to contour-detecting ability. Non-European people have more
retinal pigmentation, and so are less able to detect contours. Thus, Pollack and Silvar
(1967) suggested that the cultural differences could be explained by racial differences
in retinal pigmentation (but recall our discussion of the difficulties of defining race
in Chapter 1).

To test whether the racial or the environmental learning theory was more correct,
Stewart (1973) noted that both race and environment need to be compared without
being mixed together, as was done in the study by Segall and his colleagues. Stewart
first tested the effects of the Mueller–Lyer illusion on black and white children living
in one American town (Evanston, Illinois). There were no differences between the two
racial groups. She then compared groups of elementary school children in Zambia
in environments that ranged from very urban and carpentered to very rural and
uncarpentered, and indicated that the effects of the illusion depended on the degree
to which the children lived in a carpentered environment. She also reported that the
effect declined with age, suggesting that both learning and physiology played roles in
the observed cultural differences.

Hudson (1960) conducted an interesting study that highlighted cultural differ-
ences in perception. He had an artist draw pictures, similar to those in the Thematic
Apperception Test (TAT), that psychologists thought would evoke deep emotions in
Bantu tribe members. They were surprised to find that the Bantu often saw the pic-
tures in a very different way than anticipated; in particular, they often did not use
relative size as a cue to depth. In Figure 8.8, for example, most Americans would see
the hunter preparing to throw his spear at the gazelle in the foreground, while an
elephant stands on a hill in the background. Many of the Bantu, however, thought
the hunter in a similar picture was preparing to stab the baby elephant. In another
picture, an orator, who we would see as waving his arms dramatically with a factory
in the background, was seen as warming his hands over the tiny chimneys of the fac-
tory. Hudson (1960) concluded that these differences in depth perception were related
to both education and exposure to European cultures. Bantu people who had been

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Culture and Cognition 181

educated in European schools, or who had more experience with European culture,
saw things as Europeans did. Bantu people who had no education and little exposure
to Western culture saw the pictures differently.

Later work by McGurk and Jahoda (1975) documented that children of different
cultures, ranging in age from 4 to 10 years old, also saw things differently. For exam-
ple, they found that Scottish children were more accurate than Ghanaian children in
depicting spatial relationships in pictures in which a woman and child stood in dif-
ferent positions relative to one another.

A more recent study, however, argued against these types of cultural influences
on perception. This study compared the reactions of the Himba, a seminomadic
people who live in a remote region of northwestern Namibia and have little contact
with the manufactured products that are so prevalent in daily life in developed soci-
eties, with those of Americans (Biederman, Yue, & Davidoff, 2009). The researchers
used a match-to-sample task, in which various shapes were presented and the par-
ticipants had to match the presented shape to one of two alternatives provided. The
shapes used included those that were common to urban environments and those that
occurred in nature. There were no differences between the Himba and the Americans,
and the authors argued that humans might have a genetic predisposition for perceiv-
ing irregular, artifactual shapes, independent of culture.

Important questions exist about the generalizability of these findings above
and beyond the sorts of tasks used in the previous studies. For example, in most
research on visual perception and optical illusions, the stimuli are presented in two
dimensions—either on a piece of paper or projected on a screen. Cultural differences
in depth perception may certainly exist using these types of stimuli (as shown in the
studies described here, as well as in drawing and other artwork). But to what extent
do such effects actually exist in the three-dimensional world? Would Bantu tribes-
people see the hunter ready to stab the elephant, and not the gazelle, if the same scene
were portrayed out in the open space of their actual environment?

Motivation may be a factor as well. That is, people of different cultures may be
differently motivated to perceive certain types of objects, or to perceive them in cer-
tain ways. In one study that demonstrated this effect (Broota & Ganguli, 1975), Hindu,
Muslim, and American children in India perceived faces associated with either a
reward or a punishment in a pretraining session. In the testing session, the participants

Figure 8.8 Hudson’s (1960) Picture of Depth Perception
What is the hunter’s target? Americans and Europeans would say it is the gazelle in the
foreground. The Bantu in Hudson’s research, however, said it was the elephant.

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182 Chapter 8

viewed these and other faces, and judged their characteristics. Significant differ-
ences were found between the groups: The Hindu and Muslim children perceived
more of the faces associated with punishment than reward, whereas the American
children perceived more faces associated with reward rather than punishment.

Culture and Thinking

Culture and Categorization
One of the most basic mental processes is known as categorization. This refers to the
manner in which people group things together. This is important because it helps
people keep track of what they are perceiving and thinking about. We perceive so
many different stimuli, and it is too difficult to track each and every one. By creating
categories and placing stimuli in those categories, we can process information more
efficiently. Creating mental categories helps us sort out all the complex stimuli that
we are exposed to every day. It helps us create rules and guidelines for behavior and
to make decisions. Verbal language is based on categorization and concept formation;
words are symbols for objects in our physical environment.

People categorize on the basis of similarities and attach labels (words) to groups
of objects perceived so that they have something in common. In so doing, people cre-
ate categories of objects that share certain characteristics. People often decide whether
something belongs in a certain group by comparing it to the most common or repre-
sentative member of that category. For instance, a beanbag chair, a straight-backed
dining room chair, and a seat in a theater differ in appearance from one another, but
all belong to the basic category chair. All these things can be grouped together under
the label chair because all share a common function. When we say “That thing is a
chair,” we mean that the item can and should be used as something for people to sit
on (Rosch, 1978).

The process of categorization is universal to all humans, and some categories
appear to be universal across cultures. Facial expressions that signal basic emotions—
happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust—are placed in the same catego-
ries across cultures (see Chapter 9). Likewise, there is widespread agreement across
cultures about which colors are primary and which are secondary (Lindsey & Brown,
2009; see also Chapter 10). The way people select and remember colors appears to
be largely independent of both culture and language. Regardless of whether people
speak a language that has dozens of words for colors or one that distinguishes colors
only in terms of whether they are bright or dark, individuals universally group col-
ors around the same primary hues. They also remember primary colors with greater
ease when asked to compare and recall colors in an experimental setting. Stereotypes
are a type of category, and stereotyping is probably a universal psychological pro-
cess (Chapter 14). And there is universality in how people across cultures categorize
shapes in terms of the best examples of basic forms (perfect circles, equilateral tri-
angles, and squares) rather than forming categories for irregular geometrical shapes.
These cross-cultural parallels suggest that physiological factors influence the way
humans categorize certain basic stimuli. That is, humans seem to be predisposed to
prefer certain shapes, colors, and facial expressions.

There are also interesting cultural differences. For example, although all cultures
may have a category for furniture, the prototype or “best model” of a chair is likely to
differ across cultures because the materials used to construct furniture differ across
cultures. One common way to study cultural differences in categorization involves

categorization The
process by which objects
are grouped or classified
together based on their
perceived similarities.

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Culture and Cognition 183

the use of sorting tasks. When presented with pictures that could be grouped in
terms of function, shape, or color, young children in Western cultures tend to group
by color. As they grow older, however, they group by shape and then by function
(Bruner, Oliver, & Greenfield, 1966). Western adults were inclined to put all the tools
in one group and all the animals in another, rather than grouping all the red things
or all the round things together. It had been assumed that this trend was a function
of basic human maturation. But given similar sorting tasks, adult Africans showed a
strong tendency to group objects by color rather than function (Greenfield, Reich, &
Oliver, 1966; Suchman, 1966), suggesting that something other than simple matura-
tion must be responsible for the category shifts.

East Asians may categorize differently altogether. In an early study by Chiu (1972),
Chinese and American children were presented with sets of three objects and were
asked to select two of the objects that should go together. The American children
grouped objects according to shared features, whereas the Chinese children grouped
objects according to shared contextual or functional relationships. For instance, when
presented with a man, woman, and child, the Americans grouped the man and woman
together because they were both adults, while the Chinese grouped the woman and
child together because of their perceived relationship. Ji, Zhang, and Nisbett (2004)
conducted similar tests with Americans and bilingual Chinese (mainland and Taiwan)
participants, having them group sets of three words in either English or Chinese. The
bilingual Chinese categorized objects in more relational ways than did Americans,
regardless of whether they were tested in English or Chinese, suggesting that the
cultural differences in categorization styles were not affected by language.

Culture and Memory
There may be some constants about memory across cultures that suggest some uni-
versal aspects to it. For example, memory abilities tend to decrease as people get older
(or at least people become more selective about what they remember!), and one study
showed that such memory decreases with age were consistent across cultures (Crook,
Youngjohn, Larrabee, & Salama, 1992). Another aspect of memory that studies have
found to be universal is in the effect known as hindsight bias, which refers to the
process in which individuals adjust their memory for something after they find out
the true outcome. For example, when someone is asked to guess the number of beads
in a jar, they may say 350. When they find out later that the actual number is 647, peo-
ple will often remember their original estimate to be 450, or some number closer to the
true outcome. Choi and Nisbett (2000) found that Koreans exhibited more hindsight
bias than Americans, but Heine and Lehman (1996) reported no differences between
Japanese and Canadians. A more recent study involving participants from Asia,
Australia, Europe, and North America also found no cultural differences in hindsight
bias (Pohl, Bender, & Lachmann, 2002), providing evidence for its similarity across
cultures.

But there are also interesting cultural differences. Some have claimed that indi-
viduals from nonliterate societies develop better memory skills because they do not
have the ability to write things down to remember them (Bartlett, 1932). Is it true that
our memories are not as good when we habitually use lists as aids in remember-
ing? Ross and Millson (1970) suspected that reliance on an oral tradition might make
people better at remembering. They compared the ability of American and Ghanaian
college students to remember stories that were read aloud. In general the Ghanaian
students were better than the Americans at remembering the stories. But Cole, Gay,
Glick, and Sharp (1971) reported that nonliterate African participants did not perform

hindsight bias The
process in which individu-
als adjust their memory for
something after they find
out the true outcome.

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184 Chapter 8

better when they were tested with lists of words instead of with stories. These find-
ings suggest that cultural differences in memory as a function of oral tradition may
be limited to meaningful material.

One of the best-known aspects of memory is the serial position effect. This effect
suggests that we remember things better if they are either the first (primacy effect) or
last (recency effect) item in a list of things to remember. Early cross-cultural compari-
sons challenged the universality of this effect. Cole and Scribner (1974), for instance,
found no relation between serial position and the likelihood of being remembered
in studying the memory of Kpelle tribespeople in Liberia. Wagner (1980) hypoth-
esized that the primacy effect depends on rehearsal—the silent repetition of things
you are trying to remember—and that this memory strategy is related to schooling.
Wagner compared groups of Moroccan children who had and had not gone to school
and found that the primacy effect was much stronger in the children who had been
to school. This makes sense; in a classroom setting, children are expected to memo-
rize letters, multiplication tables, and other basic facts. Participants who have been to
school have had more practice in memorizing than have unschooled individuals. They
are also able to apply these skills in test situations that resemble their school experi-
ence. A study by Scribner (1974) with educated and uneducated Africans supported
this idea. Educated Africans were able to recall lists of words to a degree similar to that
of American participants, whereas uneducated Africans remembered fewer words. It
is not clear whether culture or schooling or both contribute to the observed differences.

The studies reviewed above, however, tested memory for self-unrelated materi-
als. What about memory for things that are relevant to oneself? Liu and colleagues
(Liu, Goldstein-Hawes, Hilton, Huang, Gastardo- Conaco, Dresler-Hawke et al., 2005;
Liu, Paez, Slawuta Cabecinhas, Technio, Kokdemir et al., 2009) asked respondents in
24 cultures about the “most important events in world history” and the “most influ-
ential person in world history in the last 1,000 years.” There was large cross-cultural
consensus, with events focused on the recent past, centered around politics and dom-
inated by world wars, with the most influential person being Hitler. Recency effects
were pervasive, with events and figures from the past 100 years accounting for 72%
of nominated events and 78% of nominated individuals. The results indicated that
collective remembering of the past is dynamically interlinked to political issues of the
present for all cultures surveyed.

Cultural differences in memories of the recent past also affect responses to cur-
rent day events. Despite the fact that the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami gen-
erally elicited worldwide empathy, Yang and colleagues (Yang, Liu, Fang, & Hong,
2014) reported that Chinese participants consistently showed less empathy toward
that disaster than did Americans. Moreover, those cultural differences in empathy
were attributed to Chinese participants’ tendencies to consider the event as retribu-
tion for Japan’s acts in World War II.

There are also interesting cultural differences in episodic memory, which refers
to the recollection of specific events that took place at a particular time and place
in the past. Across several studies, European and European American adults and
children often exhibited greater episodic memories in the recollection of autobio-
graphic events than Asian and Asian Americans (Wang, 2001, 2004; Wang & Ross,
2005). In one study, for example, European Canadian and Chinese 8-, 11-, and 14-year-
old children recalled early childhood memories of events that occurred before they
went to school. Across all age groups, Canadian children produced more episodic
memories than those cultural differences were not accounted for by general cognitive
or memory capacity differences between the groups, language artifacts or narrative
style, different norms of expression, different life experiences, or influences of the test

serial position
effect The finding that
people tend to remember
something better if it is
either the first or the last
item in a list.

episodic memory The
recollection of specific
events that took place at a
particular time and place in
the past.

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Culture and Cognition 185

context. Instead, the differences may have occurred because of differences in cultural
differences in self-construals, emotion knowledge, and interpersonal processes. For
example, memories of specific episodes are often distinct personal experiences that
help individuals distinguish themselves from others, and individuals with an inde-
pendent self-construal may be more motivated to attend to or encode such memories.
Memories of generic activities (e.g., going to church every Sunday) often imply social
conventions and interactions with others, and individuals with interdependent self-
construals may be more motivated to attend to and remember such events. Consistent
with this framework, when Chinese individuals are primed independently, they per-
formed more poorly in a memory recognition test related to the concept of “mothers”
(Sui, Zhu, & Chiu, 2007).

Culture and Math
Math, like other symbolic languages, is unique to human cultures, and the ability to
do math is a universal human psychological process. The representation of numbers
along a mental number line appears to universally go from smaller to larger, left to
right in both humans and even animals with very little experiences with numbers
as symbols (Rugani, Vallortigara, Priftis, & Regolin, 2015). Math and culture have
a very special relationship because, as Stigler and Baranes (1988) put it, math skills
“are not logically constructed on the basis of abstract cognitive structures, but rather
are forged out of a combination of previously acquired (or inherited) knowledge and
skills, and new cultural input” (p. 258). Culture is not only a stimulator of math, but is
itself represented in math, and how a society teaches and learns it.

There are cross-national differences in overall math abilities and achievements.
The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement con-
ducts worldwide testing in mathematics and science. Beginning in 1995, they have
surveyed 4th and 8th graders every four years. In every survey there has been a sub-
stantial range in performance between the highest and lowest performing countries.
In their survey in 2011, the highest performing countries in math were Singapore,
Korea, and Hong Kong in 4th grade, and Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan at 8th grade.
In science the highest performing countries in 4th grade were Korea and Singapore;
in 8th grade it was Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan.

Although differences across countries exist in math and science performance, the
source of these differences is not clear. The mapping of numbers onto space may be
a universal intuition, and the initial intuition of numbers is logarithmic (Dehaene,
Izard, Spelke, & Pica, 2008), but there are interesting cultural differences in number-
ing systems, which may contribute to national differences in math abilities. In many
languages, for example, the number system is a base 10 system, with unique words
for the numbers 1 through 10. Eleven is often counted 10-1, twelve is 10-2, twenty is
2-10, etc. In English, however, numbers 1 through 19 are unique, and an additive sys-
tem similar to other languages starts at 20. Historically Western math was influenced
by Roman numerals, which has no zero, and modern math systems were acquired
by acculturation with the Middle East. Other languages have different base systems
(see our related discussion in Chapter 10 on the relationship between language and
thought). Research has shown that students from cultures that use a base 10 system
make fewer errors than others in counting and understand some basic math concepts
related to counting and numbers better (Miller, Kelly, & Zhou, 2005; Miura, Okamoto,
Vladovic-Stetic, Kim, & Han, 1999).

One study took these ideas further and tested whether American children could
more accurately recognize fractions if the language to represent fractions was made

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186 Chapter 8

more transparent—to mirror the way fractions are represented in the Korean lan-
guage (Paik & Mix, 2003). In one experiment, American first- and second-graders
were tested on how well they recognized pictures of fractions (e.g., a circle divided
into four equal parts with one part shaded to represent one-fourth). The researchers
reported that children were much more likely to correctly identify the fraction when
transparent language was used, for instance, by using the terms “of four, one part”
(as in the Korean language) or “one of four parts,” rather than when less transparent
language was used (e.g., “one-fourth”). Paik and Mix (2003) argued that using more
transparent language when children are beginning to learn fractions could facilitate
children’s math learning in this area. Nonetheless, they also concluded that language
differences in numerical systems could not fully explain why there are wide cross-
national differences in math achievement.

One interesting cross-cultural phenomenon concerns the gender gap in math-
ematics achievement. This gap exists in some cultures but not others. Else-Quest,
Hyde, and Linn (2010) provided evidence for a gender stratification hypothesis that
suggests that gender differences are related to cultural variations in opportunity
structures for girls and women. They meta-analyzed two major data sets represent-
ing 493,495 students in 69 nations, and found that gender equity in school enrollment,
women’s share of research jobs, and women’s parliamentary representation were the
most powerful predictors of cross-national variability in gender gaps in math.

Studies of an area known as everyday cognition indicate that, even without for-
mal educational systems, members of all cultures learn math skills (Schliemann &
Carraher, 2001). Kpelle rice farmers, for instance, estimate amounts of rice as part of
their work, and are better than Americans at volume estimation. Farmers in some
areas of Brazil use a nonstandard system of measures and formulas to calculate areas
of land. Illiterate individuals in India can use the movements of sun, moon, and stars
to tell time accurately. Knotted string devices known as khipu were used for bureau-
cratic counting devices in the Inke Empire in ancient Peru, and were used to keep
census and tribe data (Urton & Brezine, 2005). Geometry, a topic we typically associ-
ate with middle- or high-school math classes, may in fact be a core intuition found
in all humans. Even isolated indigenous groups of individuals living in the Amazon
use geometric concepts to locate hidden objects (Dehaene, Izard, Pica, & Spelke, 2006).
Findings from studies on everyday cognition have provided fairly clear evidence that
math abilities are universal to all humans.

Culture and Problem Solving
Problem solving refers to the process by which we attempt to discover ways of
achieving goals that do not seem readily attainable. Psychologists have tried to iso-
late the process of problem solving by asking people from different cultures to
solve unfamiliar problems in artificial settings. One such experiment (Cole et al.,
1971) presented American and Liberian participants with an apparatus containing
various buttons, panels, and slots. After basic instruction in how to work the appa-
ratus, participants were to figure out how to open the device and obtain a prize.
The solution involved combining two different procedures—first pressing the cor-
rect button to release a marble, and then inserting the marble into the appropri-
ate slot to open a panel. Americans under the age of 10 were generally unable to
obtain the prize, but older Americans combined the two steps with ease. Unlike
older the Americans, Liberians of all ages and educational backgrounds experi-
enced great difficulty solving the problem; less than a third of the adults were
successful.

gender stratification
hypothesis The idea
that gender differences are
related to cultural variations
in opportunity structures for
girls and women.

everyday cognition
An area of study that ex-
amines cognitive skills and
abilities that are used in
everyday functioning that
appear to develop without
formal education, but from
performing daily tasks of
living and working.

problem solving The
process by which we at-
tempt to discover ways of
achieving goals that do not
seem readily attainable.

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Culture and Cognition 187

This experiment, however, may have been biased in favor of the Americans.
Remember the first time you ever worked on a computer, or looked under the hood of a
car? Cole and his colleagues repeated their experiment with materials familiar to peo-
ple in Liberia, using a locked box and keys instead of the mechanical contraption. In the
new version of the two-step problem, the Liberian participants had to remember which
key opened the lock on the box and which matchbox container housed the correct key.
Under these conditions, a great majority of Liberians solved the problem easily.

The success of the Liberians in solving a two-step problem with a familiar set of
materials raises the question of whether the experiment tested their ability to think
logically or tested their previous knowledge and experience with locks and keys. In
an attempt to clarify this issue, the researchers designed a third experiment, com-
bining elements from both the first and second tests. Liberian and American partici-
pants were again presented with a locked box, but the key that opened the box had
to be obtained from the apparatus used in the first experiment. To the surprise of
the researchers, the third test produced results similar to the first experiment. While
Americans solved the problem with ease, most Liberians were not able to retrieve the
key to open the box.

Cole and his colleagues concluded that the Liberians’ ability to reason logi-
cally to solve problems depended on context. When presented with problems using
materials and concepts already familiar to them, Liberians drew logical conclusions
effortlessly. When the test situation was alien to them, however, they had difficulty
knowing where to begin. In some cases, the problem went beyond confusion; unedu-
cated Liberians appeared visibly frightened by the tests involving the strange appa-
ratus and were reluctant to manipulate it. Although adult Americans did very well
in these experiments in comparison to the Liberians, how might average Americans
react if placed in a similar experimental situation that required the Americans to
use wholly unfamiliar concepts and technology—for example, tracking animals by
means of footprints and smells?

Another type of problem that has been studied cross-culturally involves syllo-
gisms (for example: All children like candy. Mary is a child. Does Mary like candy?).
As with other cultural differences in cognition and thought, the ability to provide
the correct answer to verbal problems was found to be closely associated with school
attendance. Individuals from traditional societies who were illiterate were generally
unable to provide answers to syllogisms containing unfamiliar information. Individ-
uals from the same culture and even from the same village who had received a single
year of schooling could respond correctly.

Various explanations have been proposed to account for the difficulty of unedu-
cated people to complete word problems. It may be that illiterate people think differ-
ently from those who are educated. According to this hypothesis, logical reasoning is
essentially artificial; it is a skill that must be learned in a Westernized school setting.
Some studies lend support to this interpretation. Tulviste (1978) asked schoolchildren
in Estonia ages 8 to 15 to solve verbal problems and explain their answers. Although
the children were able to solve most of the problems correctly, they explained their
answers by citing the logical premises of the problem only in areas in which they did
not have firsthand knowledge. Elsewhere, their answers were justified with appeals
to common sense or statements about their personal observations.

Scribner (1979) questioned whether illiterate participants were truly incapable of
thinking logically and looked more closely into the reasons uneducated people failed
to give correct responses to verbal problems. When uneducated peasants were asked
to explain illogical answers to syllogism problems, they consistently cited evidence
that was known to them personally or stated that they did not know anything about

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188 Chapter 8

the subject, ignoring the premises given to them. For example, in response to the
word problem “All children like candy; Mary is a child; does Mary like candy?” par-
ticipants might have shrugged their shoulders and commented, “How would I know
whether Mary likes candy? I don’t even know the child!” or “Maybe she doesn’t like
candy; I’ve known children who didn’t.” These individuals appeared to have been
unable or unwilling to apply concepts of scientific thinking to verbal problems. But
this was not because they lack the capacity to reason logically; rather, they did not
understand the hypothetical nature of verbal problems or view them with the same
degree of importance. People who have been to school have had the experience of
answering questions posed by an authority figure who already knows the correct
answers. Uneducated people, however, may have difficulty understanding the notion
that questions need not be requests for information.

Culture and Creativity
Another aspect of cognition that has received attention in the literature is creativ-
ity. Creativity is an interesting area of study because it highlights a universal and
unique human process. Creativity is what enables humans and only humans to create
art and symphonies, explore space and the sea, and design machines to improve life.
Unfortunately creativity also is what enables humans and only humans to create and
improve on weapons of mass destruction and other terrible deeds.

Research on creativity in the United States suggests that it depends on divergent
thinking rather than on the convergent thinking that is typically assessed in mea-
sures of intelligence. Creative individuals have been shown to have a high capacity
for hard work, a willingness to take risks, and a high tolerance for ambiguity and
disorder (Sternberg & Lubart, 1995, 1999). These same characteristics appear to be true
of creative individuals in other cultures as well. For example, Khaleefa, Erdos, and
Ashria (1996) highlighted these characteristics in their study of creativity in a con-
formist culture (Sudan); Simonton (1996) documented them in his study of creative
individuals in Japanese history; and Satoh (1996) described their implementation in
kindergarten programs in Japan to foster the development of creativity in children in
that culture. All of these examples are consistent with Sternberg and Lubart’s (1995,
1999) studies of the processes that creative individuals go through, particularly in
overcoming obstacles presented to them by conformist-centered organizations.

Some important differences have been noted, however, in the specific ways in
which creativity can be fostered in different cultures. Shane, Venkataraman, and
MacMillan (1995), for example, studied innovative strategies among a sample of 1,228
individuals from 30 countries who were employees of four different work organi-
zations. The authors characterized the countries in terms of Hofstede’s dimensions
of individualism, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance (see Chapter 1 for a
review). They found that countries high on uncertainty avoidance preferred creative
individuals to work through organizational norms, rules, and procedures. Countries
higher on power distance preferred creative individuals to gain support from those in
authority before action is taken, or to build a broad base of support among members
for new ideas. Collectivistic countries preferred creative people to seek cross-
functional support for their efforts.

Thus, although creative individuals may share some common core characteristics
across cultures, they need to adapt their abilities to the specific cultural milieu within
which they function, particularly in the implementation and adoption of their cre-
ative ideas (Csikszentmihalyi, 1999). Creativity requires people to “get outside of their
own box” or framework; another area of cultural difference would be the degree to

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Culture and Cognition 189

which this ability is fostered. These effects also exist on the group level. Individualis-
tic groups have been shown to be more creative than collectivistic groups (Goncalo &
Staw, 2006), and cultures that have histories of greater prevalence of disease-causing
pathogens are also associated with less creativity, as assessed by different measures
of innovation (Murray, 2014).

Intercultural experiences may promote growth and creativity. Maddux and
Galinsky (2009) showed that time spent living abroad (but not time spent traveling
abroad) was positively related with creativity, that priming foreign living experiences
temporarily enhanced creative tendencies for participants who had previously lived
abroad, and that the degree to which individuals had adapted to different cultures
while living abroad mediated the link between foreign living experience and creativ-
ity. Subsequent research demonstrated that it was the specific multicultural learning
experiences—learning how and why people of different cultures do what they do—
that facilitated improvements in creativity (Maddux, Adam, & Galinsky, 2010).

Culture and Dialectical Thinking
Dialectical thinking can be broadly defined as the tendency to accept what seem to be
contradictions in thought or beliefs. This is in contrast to positive logical determinism
that characterizes much of American and Western European thinking. Dialectical
thinking tries to find the way in which both sides of an apparent contradiction are
correct, tolerates the contradiction, and tries to find mutual middle ground. Logical
deterministic thinking tends to see contradictions as mutually exclusive categories, as
either-or, yes-no, one-or-the-other types of categories.

Cross-cultural research of the past decade has produced interesting cultural
differences in dialectical thinking, demonstrating that East Asians tend to prefer
dialectical thinking, whereas Americans tend to prefer logical deterministic thinking.
Peng and Nisbett (1999), for instance, conducted an interesting series of studies to
demonstrate these differences. In one, American and Chinese graduate students were
presented with the following two vignettes:

Mother–Daughter Conflict:

Mary, Phoebe, and Julie all have daughters. Each mother has held a set of values that
has guided her efforts to raise her daughter. Now the daughters have grown up, and
each of them is rejecting many of her mother’s values. How did it happen, and what
should they do?

School–Fun Conflict:

Kent, James, and Matt are college juniors. They are feeling very frustrated about their
three years of routine tests, paper assignments, and grades. They complain that going
through this process has taken its toll, undermining the fun of learning. How did it
happen, and what should they do?

The participants were asked to write what they thought about both conflicts,
including what they thought were the sources of the differences and what the per-
sons in the vignettes should do. The researchers then categorized the participants’
responses as either dialectical or not. A dialectical response was defined as one that
“(a) addressed the issues from both sides and (b) attempted to reconcile the contradic-
tions,” for example, a response such as “both the mothers and the daughters have
failed to understand each other” (p. 746). Nondialectical responses generally found
exclusive fault with one side or the other, such as “mothers have to recognize daugh-
ters’ rights to their own values” (p. 746). There were strong cultural differences in the

dialectical thinking
The tendency to accept what
seem to be contradictions in
thought or beliefs.

positive logical
determinism A ten-
dency to see contradictions
as mutually exclusive cat-
egories, as either-or, yes-no,
one-or-the-other types of
categories.

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190 Chapter 8

responses (Figure 8.9), with the Americans responses being much more nondialecti-
cal, and the Chinese responses as more dialectical.

Recent research in many areas of psychology, typically comparing East Asians
with U.S. Americans, have shown that dialectical thinkers show greater expectation
of change when trying to explain or predict events and greater tolerance of contradic-
tion. These effects have been demonstrated in studies on self, emotional experience,
psychological well-being, attitudes and evaluations, social categorization and percep-
tion, and judgment and decision making (Spencer-Rodgers, Williams, & Peng, 2010).
For example, while it is typical to find that positive and negative feelings are negatively
correlated in Western cultures, research on East Asian cultures has shown that they
are either not correlated or even positively correlated with each other (Bagozzi, Wong,
& Yi, 1999). These kinds of findings in many different domains of psychology have
allowed researchers to expand on the concept of dialectical thinking to the construct
of naïve dialectivism (Peng, Spencer-Rodgers, & Zhong, 2006), which is a constella-
tion of lay beliefs about the nature of the world (rather than a cognitive style as sug-
gested by dialectical thinking). Naïve dialecticism is characterized by the doctrine
of the mean, or the belief that the truth is always somewhere in the middle. Contrarily,
Western lay theories are dominated by the idea that something cannot be both truth
and false at the same time, and the belief that all propositions must be either true or
false (Peng & Nisbett, 1999).

Dialectical thinking is not a concept that is exclusive to East Asians. It was a cen-
tral aspect of the work of the German philosopher Hegel, as well as prominent in the
work of writers influential to modern psychology such as Freud and Piaget. Perhaps
the zeitgeist of cognitive styles and lay theories may evolve over time, as do many
other aspects of culture.

naïve dialectivism A
constellation of lay beliefs
about the nature of the
world (rather than a cogni-
tive style as suggested by
dialectical thinking). Naïve
dialecticism is characterized
by the doctrine of the mean,
or the belief that the truth
is always somewhere in the
middle.

Pe
rc

en
ta

ge
o

f
Pa

rt
ic

ip
an

ts
P

re
fe

rr
in

g
D

ia
le

ct
ic

al
R

es
ol

ut
io

Mother–Daughter School–Fun

American

Chinese

Figure 8.9 Comparison of American and Chinese Responses to the Conflicting
Situations in Peng and Nisbett (1999)
Source: From K. Peng and R. Nisbett. “Culture, dialectics, and reasoning about contradiction,”
American Psychologist, 54, pp. 741–754, 1999, Copyright © American Psychological Association.
Reprinted with permission.

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Culture and Cognition 191

Culture, Regrets, and Counterfactual Thinking
Counterfactual thinking can be defined as hypothetical beliefs about the past that
could have occurred in order to avoid or change a negative outcome. For example, if
you got a bad grade on a test, an example of counterfactual thinking would be “If I
had only studied harder.” These types of counterfactual thoughts often are related to
feelings of regret (Gilovich, Medvec, & Kahneman, 1998).

Counterfactual thinking can be broadly classified into two types: actions and
inactions. On one hand, “If I had only studied harder,” “If I had only been a better
parent,” and “If I had only trained harder,” are examples of counterfactual thinking
related to inaction. On the other hand, “If I hadn’t said what I said,” “If I didn’t eat
that last piece of cake,” and “If I weren’t driving so fast,” are examples of counterfac-
tual thinking of actions.

Research in the United States has shown that regrets related to thoughts of inac-
tion are more prevalent than regrets related to action (Gilovich & Medvec, 1995).
Interestingly, this same trend has been found in other cultures as well. In a study of
Americans, Chinese, Japanese, and Russians, all participants in all cultures experi-
enced more regret over inaction than action (Gilovich, Wang, Regan, & Nishina, 2003).
Moreover, the degree to which they experienced regret over inaction than over action
was comparable across all cultures and to previous data involving just Americans.
Another study also demonstrated cultural similarity in the nature of counterfactual
thinking, although cultural differences did emerge in specific domains (schoolwork,
family) (Chen, Chiu, Roese, Tam, & Lau, 2006). Thus, the emotion of regret, and the
potential causes of it, appears to be universal.

Summary
How can we understand why cultural differences in basic cognitive processes occur?
Some researchers believe that the source of those differences can be found in systemic
cultural differences in individualism versus collectivism and rooted in differences in
ancient philosophies in Greece and China, the former promoting autonomy and inde-
pendence, the latter promoting relations and interdependent collectivism ( Nisbett,
2003; Nisbett, Peng, Choi, & Norenzayan, 2001). According to this framework, these
ancient cultural systems produce differences in ways of perceiving and thinking
about the world, with the Westerners characterized by analytic ways of thinking,
whereas the East Asians are characterized by holistic thinking. These differences in
holistic versus analytic thinking, in turn, influence a variety of cognitive processes,
including attention, categorization, attributions, and reasoning (Table 8.1).

Nisbett and colleagues have suggested that the various differences in cognition
that have been documented can be organized and explained by a social orienta-
tion hypothesis (Varnum, Grossman, Kitayama, & Nisbett, 2010). According to this
hypothesis, cultures differ in independent versus interdependent social orientation
patterns (according to their independent versus interdependent self-construals; see
Chapter 5). These social orientations, in turn, influence and affect the ways mem-
bers of those cultures attend to and think about their worlds. On one hand, inde-
pendent social orientations emphasize self-direction, autonomy, and self-expression,
which fosters a tendency to focus on a single dimension or aspect when categorizing
objects or evaluating arguments. On the other hand, interdependent social orienta-
tions emphasize harmony, relatedness, and connection, which in turn fosters a broad
attention to context and relationships in visual attention, categorization, and explain-
ing social behavior.

counterfactual think-
ing Hypothetical beliefs
about the past that could
have occurred in order to
avoid or change a negative
outcome.

social orientation
hypothesis The hypoth-
esis that cultural differences
in individualism versus
collectivism are associated
with differences in social
orientation patterns that
affect the ways individuals
attend to and think about
their worlds.

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192 Chapter 8

This theoretical hypothesis is interesting. Yet there are still many other potential
factors for the cultural differences uncovered to date that have not been examined,
including differences in educational systems and practices, linguistic, and genetic
differences. In the educational systems of many East Asian countries today that do
well on math and science tests, for example, there is much more emphasis on rote
memorization and passive learning in a didactic environment. In a nutshell, the
teachers lecture, and the students listen and memorize everything. This is in con-
trast to the typical European or American educational style, in which students are
much more active learners, and discussion is promoted. It may very well be that, after
12 or 16 years of such educational practices, East Asian students, who are generally
the participants in cross-cultural research, remember more things and think differ-
ently about things than do their American counterparts.

Another way to think about cultural differences in cognition is through the per-
spective of culture as cognition, as discussed earlier in this chapter. This perspective
suggests that one’s performance on cognitive tasks depends on the type of cultural
“mind set” that one is in at the time of engagement with the task. Across eight stud-
ies examining attention involving Koreans, Korean Americans, Hong Kong Chinese,
European-, Hispanic- and Asian-heritage Americans, and Norwegians, Oyserman
and colleagues (2009) demonstrated that performance on cognitive tasks were depen-
dent on the cues in the moment for all groups studied. When contrast and separa-
tion was made salient in the minds of the participants through priming, participants
attended to single targets or main points. When assimilation and connection were
primed, participants focused on multiple points and integration.

Thus, the differences observed in research may be attributed to educational
practices or contextual factors and not necessarily to cultural ideologies rooted in
ancient philosophies. The differences may be rooted in other sources as well, such
as the amount and type of technology used in the countries today, or the type of
animated video games played. Future research will need to explore exactly what
are the sources of the observed differences. Some of the sources may be cultural,
others not.

Table 8.1 Analytic versus Holistic Cognitive Patterns

Domain Analytic Cognition Holistic Cognition

Attention Field independent Field dependent

Narrow Broad

Focus on salient objects with intent to
manipulate them

Focus on relationship of elements,
background

Categorization Taxonomic, focus on a single
dimension or shared property

Thematic, focus on functional
relationship or overall similarity

Attribution Dispositional Situational

Traits and attributes of individuals
determine events

External forces, context, and situations
determine events

Reasoning Analytic Dialectical

Use of formal logic Trends continue Middle Way philosophy Trend reversals
are likely

Source: Varnum, M., Grossman, I., Kitayama, S., & Nisbett, R. E. “The origin of cultural differences in
cognition: The social orientation hypothesis.” Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19(1), pp. 9–13,
Copyright © 2010 by Sage Publications. Reprinted by Permission of SAGE Publications.

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Culture and Cognition 193

Culture and Consciousness

Culture and Dreams
There are considerable cultural differences in the content of dreams. Punamaeki and
Joustie (1998), for example, examined how culture, violence, and personal factors
affected dream content among Palestinian children living in a violent environment
(Gaza), Palestinian children living in a peaceful area, and Finnish children living in
a peaceful area. Participants recorded the dreams they recalled every morning for
seven days, and researchers coded their contents. The dreams of the Palestinian chil-
dren from Gaza incorporated more external scenes of anxiety, whereas the Finnish
children’s dreams had more “inner” anxiety scenes. Themes present in these chil-
dren’s everyday lives affected the dreams considerably as well. Cultural differences
in dream content were also reported by Levine (1991) in her study of Irish, Israeli,
and Bedouin children, and by Kane (1994) in her study of Anglo American, Mexican
American, and African American women.

There are also differences in the role of dreams in different cultures. In many cul-
tures, dreams are an important part of the cultural system, involving an organized,
conventional set of signs. Tedlock (1992) reported that dream sharing and interpreta-
tion was a common practice among Mayan Indians in Central America, regardless of
the role or position of the person in the culture, and was important in the teaching
of cultural folk wisdom. Desjarlais (1991) examined dream usage among the Yolmo
Sherpa of Nepal. Here, too, dreams constituted a local system of knowledge that
helped in the assessment and communication of personal and social distress and con-
flict, and hence were an important vehicle for social understanding.

Culture and Time
People of different cultures perceive and experience time differently, even though
time should be objectively the same for everyone. Differences in time orientation and
perspective are often a source of confusion and irritation for visitors to a new culture.
Many visitors from cultures in which time is respected and punctuality is cherished
have difficulty adjusting to U.S. public transportation systems, which may not always
be on time as scheduled. Visitors from other cultures, however, in which time is not
so much of the essence and queuing is commonplace, seem less affected by such devi-
ations from schedule, viewing them as trivial and to be expected.

Hall (1973) was one of the first to suggest that cultures differ in their time perspec-
tive and orientation. He analyzed differences among people of different cultures in
their use of time and how these differences manifested themselves in actual behav-
ioral practices within such contexts as business. Cultural differences in time orienta-
tion can be especially agonizing in intercultural negotiation situations (see Chapter 15).

Perhaps the largest-scale cross-cultural study on time perception is that of
Hofstede (2001). As we discussed in Chapters 1 and 2, Hofstede suggested that long-
versus short-term orientation was a cultural dimension that differentiates among
cultures. People in long-term cultures delay gratification of material, social, and emo-
tional needs, and think more about the future. Members of short-term cultures think
and act more in the immediate present and the bottom line. Hofstede surveyed long-
versus short-term orientation across 36 countries of the world by asking their mem-
bers to respond to a survey about their perceptions of time. He then characterized
each of the countries in terms of their time orientations (Table 8.2).

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194 Chapter 8

Cultural differences in time orientation may be related to interesting and impor-
tant aspects of our behaviors. Levine and colleagues have conducted an interesting
set of studies on this topic (Levine & Bartlett, 1984; Levine, Lynch, Miyake, & Lucia,
1989; Levine & Norenzayan, 1999). In one of them (Levine & Norenzayan, 1999),
experimenters measured how fast people walked a 60-foot distance in downtown
areas of major cities, the speed of a transaction at the post office, and the accuracy
of clocks in 31 countries. Pace of life was fastest in Switzerland, Ireland, Germany,
Japan, and Italy, and slowest in Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil, El Salvador, and Syria. Pace
of life was correlated with several ecological and cultural variables. Hotter cities were
slower than cooler ones, cultures with vibrant and active economies were faster, and
people in individualistic cultures were faster. People in faster places tended to have
worse health but greater happiness.

In recent years, a number of other studies have reported cultural differences in the
use and understanding of time (Boroditsky, Fuhrman, & McCormick, 2011; Boroditsky
& Gaby, 2010; Fuhrman & Boroditsky, 2010). For instance, most cultures of the world
represent time spatially from left to right or right to left, or from front to back or back
to front, with respect to the body. Boroditsky and Gaby (2010) demonstrated that indi-
viduals in Pormpuraaw, a remote Australian Aboriginal community, represented time
from east to west regardless of one’s body orientation. That is, time flows from left
to right when one is facing south, from right to left when one is facing north, toward
the body when one is facing east, and away from the body when one is facing west.
Arabic speakers tend conceptualize the future as behind and the past as ahead despite
the fact that the future is ahead and the past is behind in the Arabic language (as it is
in many languages) (De la Fuente, Santiago, Roman, Dumitrache, & Casasanto, 2014).
European Canadians attach more monetary value to an event in the future than to
identical events in the past, whereas Chinese and Chinese Canadians place more mon-
etary value to a past event (Guo, Ji, Spina, & Zhang, 2012). Thus conceptions of even
such fundamental domains as time can differ dramatically across cultures.

Table 8.2 Results from Hofstede’s (2001) Study on Time Orientation
across Cultures

Short-Term Oriented In the Middle Long-Term Oriented

Ghana Portugal Norway

Nigeria Australia Denmark

Sierra Leone Austria Hungary

Philippines Germany Thailand

Spain Poland Czech Republic

Canada Sweden India

Botswana Italy Brazil

Malawi Belgium South Korea

Zambia France Japan

Zimbabwe Switzerland Taiwan

United States Finland Hong Kong

New Zealand Netherlands China

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Culture and Cognition 195

Culture and Pain
Cross-cultural psychologists and anthropologists alike have long been interested
in the relationship between culture and pain, mainly because of anecdotal reports
and observations of considerable differences in pain management and tolerance
in different cultures. Almost 40 years ago, scientists began to formally recognize
the influence of culture and attitudinal factors on the response to pain (Wolff &
Langley, 1968). Today, we know that culture influences the experience and percep-
tion of pain in several ways, including: (1) the cultural construction of pain sensa-
tion, (2) the language associated with pain expression, and (3) the structure of
pain’s causes and cures (Pugh, 1991). There is also a growing literature docu-
menting the important implications and ramifications of cultural differences in
the perception and management of pain, such as in doctor-patient interactions
(Streltzer, 1997).

Although most cross-cultural research on pain has involved older children and
adults, researchers are now recognizing that cultural differences in pain experiences,
such as pain response, may occur quite early in life. For example, in a comparison of
Chinese and non-Chinese Canadian two-month-old infants, Chinese babies showed
greater (more intense) response to pain as measured by facial expression and crying
(Rosmus, Halifax, Johnston, Chan-Yip, & Yang, 2000).

One hypothesis concerning cultural differences in pain experience has to do
with the effect of language on perception and cognition. The Sapir–Whorf hypoth-
esis (discussed in Chapter 10) suggests that the structure of language, which is highly
dependent on culture, affects our perceptions and cognitions of the world around
us—including our pain experiences. Because the structure, content, and process of
language differ across cultures, so does the experience of pain (Fabrega, 1989).

Another related topic is that of cultural display rules (discussed in Chapter 9).
Just as people of different cultures have different rules for the appropriate expres-
sion of emotion, they may have similar rules governing the expression, percep-
tion, and feeling of pain. As the strength of people’s emotional expressions are
correlated with the intensity of their emotional experiences, the rules govern-
ing the expression of pain will ultimately affect people’s subjective experiences of
pain. For example, a study of Indian and American college students showed that
Indians were less accepting of overt pain expression and also had a higher level
of pain tolerance than Americans (Nayak, Shiflett, Eshun, & Levine, 2000). Fur-
thermore, level of pain tolerance and acceptance of overt pain expression were
linked: The less acceptable overt pain expression was, the greater was the tolerance
of pain.

The tolerance of pain may also be rooted in cultural values. Sargent (1984) inter-
viewed females of reproductive age and 18 indigenous midwives in the Bariba cul-
ture of Benin, West Africa. In this culture, stoicism in the face of pain was idealized,
and the “appropriate” response to pain was considered intrinsic to Bariban identity.
Features such as the tolerance of pain through circumcision or clitoridectomy sig-
naled courage and honor and were considered crucial values within the culture. In a
qualitative study of Finnish women and their experiences of childbirth, participants
described labor pain as something natural that they should accept. One mother said,
“It is God’s will for women to feel pain when giving birth” (as reported in Callister,
Vehvilainen-Julkunen, & Lauri, 2001, p. 30). Asians appear to be less sensitive to inter-
nal physiological cues compared to European Americans (Ma-Kellums, Blascovich, &
McCall, 2012).

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196 Chapter 8

Culture and Intelligence

Traditional Definitions of Intelligence and Its Measurement
The English word intelligence is derived from the Latin word intelligentia, coined 2,000
years ago by the Roman orator Cicero. In contemporary American psychology, intel-
ligence has generally been considered a conglomeration of numerous intellectual
abilities centering around verbal and analytic tasks. Piaget (described in Chapter 4)
viewed intelligence as a reflection of cognitive development through a series of
stages, with the highest stage corresponding to abstract reasoning and principles.
Spearman (1927) and Thurstone (1938) developed factor theories of intelligence, view-
ing it as a general concept comprised of many subcomponents, or factors, including
verbal or spatial comprehension, word fluency, perceptual speed, and others. Guilford
(1985) built on factor theories to describe intelligence using three dimensions—
operation, content, and product—each of which had separate components. Through
various combinations of these three dimensions, Guilford suggested that intelligence
is composed of more than 150 separate factors.

Spearman (1927) also proposed, along with the multiple factors of intelligence,
a “general” intelligence representing overall mental ability. This factor, called g, is
typically measured through a process of combining and summarizing the vari-
ous scores of a multiple-factor intelligence test. Aside from pure knowledge, the
ability to reason logically and deductively about hypothetical and abstract issues
and events is generally considered a part of intelligence. This definition of intel-
ligence has dominated its measurement and, consequently, the research in
this area.

Modern intelligence tests were first developed in the early 1900s when they pro-
vided a way to distinguish children in need of special education from those whose
schoolwork suffered for other reasons. In the years that followed, intelligence tests
came into widespread use in public schools and other government programs. But
not everyone benefited from the new tests of intelligence. Because such tests relied
at least in part on verbal performance and cultural knowledge, immigrants who
spoke English poorly and came from different cultural backgrounds were at a dis-
advantage. For example, when tests of intelligence were administered to immi-
grants at Ellis Island beginning in 1913, more than three-quarters of the Italian,
Hungarian, and Jewish immigrants tested as mentally defective. Such low scores for
certain immigrant groups provoked a storm of controversy. Some people defended
the scientific nature of the new tests, charging that southern European immigrants
were not fit to enter the country. Others responded that intelligence tests were
biased and did not accurately measure the mental ability of people from different
cultures.

Today, numerous studies have documented differences in intelligence across a
wide range of cultural and ethnic groups within the United States and around the
world. For example, the average scores of some minority groups in the United States
are 12 to 15 percentage points lower than the average for European Americans. This
does not mean that all the individuals in these groups test poorly—high-scoring
individuals can also be found in all ethnic groups—it simply means that larger per-
centages of some ethnic groups score relatively lower than others. These types of dif-
ferences have raised large debates about the source of those differences, and a nature
versus nurture controversy.

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Culture and Cognition 197

The Nature versus Nurture Controversy
The nature side of the debate argues that differences in IQ scores between different
societies and ethnic groups are mainly hereditary or innate. Much of the evidence for
this position originated with the studies of Arthur Jensen (1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1977,
1980, 1981, 1983, 1984), who found that African Americans typically scored lower on IQ
tests than European Americans. Twin studies also provided evidence for the nature
hypothesis. The most important of these studies compared identical twins who grew
up in separate homes to fraternal twins raised together (Bouchard & McGue, 1981). If
test scores are determined by heredity, identical twins raised apart should have very
similar scores. But if environment is primary, the scores of the fraternal twins raised
together should be more similar. These twin studies revealed that the scores of identi-
cal twins raised in different environments were significantly more alike than those of
fraternal twins raised together. Jensen (1971) concluded that the correlation between
twins on IQ was .824, which he interpreted as constituting an upper limit on the heri-
tability of IQ. Environmental factors, however, were normally distributed and IQ was
not correlated with those factors. Jensen concluded that environmental factors could
not have been systematically related to the intelligence levels of twin pairs.

The nurture (and thus cultural) side of the debate argues that ethnic and societal
differences in IQ occur because of nonbiological factors such as environment, history,
and learning. For example, some scholars have suggested that members of certain
ethnic groups in the United States score lower because most subcultures in this coun-
try are economically deprived (Blau, 1981; Wolf, 1965). Advocates of this position have
turned to studies showing that IQ scores are strongly related to social class. The aver-
age IQ score of poor whites, for instance, is 10 to 20 percentage points lower than the
average score of members of the middle class. The effect of environment over race can
be seen most clearly in studies showing that poor whites tested in Southern states
scored lower than blacks who lived in Northern states.

Scarr and Weinberg (1976) also offered evidence for an environmental basis of
intelligence. They showed that black and interracial children adopted by white fami-
lies scored above the IQ and school achievement means for whites. Such a finding
argued against biological predetermination and in favor of cultural and environmen-
tal factors. Greenfield (1997) argued that intelligence tests can be understood in terms
of symbolic culture and therefore have little translatability (reliability or validity)
when used with people of different cultural backgrounds— whether ethnic minori-
ties within one country or across countries. Such arguments have been proffered
for decades now, and have led to the development of a number of “culture-free” or
“culture-fair” tests of intelligence, such as the Cattell Culture Fair Intelligence Test.

One theory that has received considerable research attention recently concerns
the construct known as stereotype threat—“the threat that others’ judgments or
their own actions will negatively stereotype them in the domain” (Steele, 1998, p. 613).
Steele posited that societal stereotypes about a group—for instance, concerning
academic or intellectual performance—can influence the performance of individuals
from that group. In an interesting set of experiments with black and white college
students at Stanford University, Steele and Aronson (1995) reported that when black
students were asked to record their race on a demographic questionnaire before tak-
ing a standardized test, they performed significantly worse as compared with black
students who were not primed to think about their race before taking the test. Fur-
thermore, they also found that when the exam was presented as a measure of intel-
lectual ability, black students performed worse than white students. However, when

stereotype threat The
threat that others’ judgments
or one’s own actions will
negatively stereotype one in
a domain (such as academic
achievement).

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198 Chapter 8

the same test was presented as unrelated to intellectual ability, the detrimental effects
of the stereotype threat disappeared.

Today there is widespread agreement that at least 40 percent of intelligence can be
attributed to heredity (Henderson, 1982; Jencks, Smith, Acland, Bane, Cohen, Gintis,
Heyns, & Michaelson, 1972; Plomin, 1990). At the same time, there appears to be
an equally large and strong literature base suggesting that IQ is at least malleable to
cultural and environmental factors, and that previous findings indicating racial or
ethnic differences in IQ are equivocal because of problems of validity in the tests used
to measure intelligence in different cultural groups. What we do know is that intel-
ligence tests are a good predictor of the verbal skills necessary for success in a culture
associated with the formalized educational systems of modern industrial societies
and increasingly adopted as a model throughout the world. However, such tests may
not measure motivation, creativity, talent, or social skills, all of which are important
factors in achievement.

It is also possible that group differences in intelligence are the result of differ-
ent measures of intelligence. That is, if intelligence is at least partially a cultural con-
struct, then it would be impossible to construct a test that is indeed “culture-fair”
or “culture-free” because any such test would, by definition, have to include specific
items that are generated within a specific cultural milieu; that is, intelligence cannot
be understood outside a cultural framework (Sternberg, 2004). Even culture-free tests
and items would have the underlying bias of culture—a “culture of no culture.” In
fact, some studies have shown that such tests do suffer from the very biases they were
designed to address. Nenty (1986), for example, administering the Cattell Culture
Fair Intelligence Test to Americans, Indians, and Nigerians in order to test the valid-
ity of the scale, found that 27 of the 46 items administered were culturally biased,
thus rendering scores for the three cultures incomparable to one another. Recent data
from twin studies have indicated counterintuitively that the contribution of genetic
heritability is larger in studies with culturally “loaded” tests compared to culturally
“reduced” tests, suggesting that general intelligence reflects more societal than cogni-
tive demands (Kan, Wicherts, Dolan, & van der Maas, 2013).

Expanding the Concept of Intelligence across Cultures
It is possible that group differences in intelligence occurs because of cultural dif-
ferences in beliefs about what intelligence is (recall our discussion in Chapter 2 on
conceptual equivalence). For example, many languages have no word that corre-
sponds to our idea of intelligence. The closest Mandarin equivalent, for instance, is a
Chinese character that means “good brain and talented.” Chinese often associate this
concept with traits such as imitation, effort, and social responsibility (Keats, 1982).
The Baganda of East Africa use the word obugezi to refer to a combination of men-
tal and social skills that make a person steady, cautious, and friendly (Wober, 1974).
The Djerma-Songhai in West Africa use the term akkal, which has an even broader
meaning—a combination of intelligence, know-how, and social skills (Bissilat, Laya,
Pierre, & Pidoux, 1967). The Baoule, uses the term n’glouele, which describes children
who are not only mentally alert but also willing to volunteer their services without
being asked (Dasen, Dembele, Ettien, Kabran, Kamagate, Koffi, & N’Guessean, 1985).

Because of the enormous differences in the ways cultures define intelligence, it
may be difficult to make valid comparisons from one society to another. That is, dif-
ferent cultures value different traits and have divergent views concerning which traits
are useful in predicting future important behaviors (also culturally defined). People
in different cultures not only disagree about what constitutes intelligence but also

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Culture and Cognition 199

about the proper way to demonstrate those abilities. In mainstream North American
society, individuals are typically rewarded for displaying knowledge and skills. This
same behavior may be considered improper, arrogant, or rude in societies that stress
personal relationships, cooperation, and modesty.

These differences are important to cross-cultural studies of intelligence because
successful performance on a task of intelligence may require behavior that is
considered immodest and arrogant in Culture A (and therefore only reluctantly dis-
played by members of Culture A) but desirable in Culture B (and therefore readily
displayed by members of Culture B). Clearly, such different attitudes toward the same
behavior could lead researchers to draw inaccurate conclusions about differences in
intelligence between Culture A and Culture B.

Another reason it is difficult to compare intelligence cross-culturally is that tests
of intelligence often rely on knowledge that is specific to a particular culture; investi-
gators based in that culture may not even know what to test for in a different culture.
For example, one U.S. intelligence test contains the following question: “How does a
violin resemble a piano?” Clearly, this question assumes prior knowledge about vio-
lins and pianos—quite a reasonable expectation for middle-class Americans, but not
for people from cultures that use different musical instruments.

The Impact of Cross-Cultural Research on the Concept
of Intelligence in Mainstream American Psychology
One of the most important contributions of cross-cultural psychology has been in
expanding our theoretical understanding of intelligence in mainstream American
psychology. Until very recently, for example, creativity was not considered a part of
intelligence; now, however, psychologists are increasingly considering this important
human ability as a type of intelligence. Other aspects of intelligence are also com-
ing to the forefront. Gardner (1983) has suggested that there are seven different types
of intelligence: logical mathematical, linguistic, musical, spatial, bodily kinesthetic,
interpersonal, and intrapersonal. According to this scheme, not only do the core com-
ponents of each of these seven types of intelligence differ, but so do some sample
end states (such as mathematician versus dancer). His theory of multiple intelligences
has broadened our understanding of intelligence to include areas other than “book
smarts.”

Sternberg (1986) has proposed a theory of intelligence based on three separate
“subtheories”: contextual, experiential, and componential intelligence. Contextual
intelligence refers to an individual’s ability to adapt to the environment, solving prob-
lems in specific situations. Experiential intelligence refers to the ability to formulate
new ideas and combine unrelated facts. Componential intelligence refers to the ability
to think abstractly, process information, and determine what needs to be done. Stern-
berg’s theory focuses more on the processes that underlie thought than on specific
thought outcomes. Because this definition of intelligence focuses on process rather
than outcome, it has the potential for application across cultures.

While most views of intelligence focus on individuals, recent work has sug-
gested the existence of collective intelligence of groups of people (Woolley, Chabris,
Pentland, Hashmi, & Malone, 2010). Interestingly, collective intelligence was not
strongly correlated with the average or maximum intelligence of the group members,
but with the average social sensitivity of group members, the equality in distribution
of conversational turn-taking, and the proportion of females in the group.

Perhaps the field is coming to realize that intelligence in its broadest sense may
be more aptly defined as “the skills and abilities necessary to effectively accomplish

collective intelligence
The general ability of a
group to perform a wide
variety of tasks.

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200 Chapter 8

cultural goals.” If one’s culture’s goals involve successfully pursuing a professional
occupation with a good salary in order to support yourself and your family, that cul-
ture will foster a view of intelligence that incorporates cognitive and emotional skills
and abilities that allow for pursuing such an occupation. If one’s culture’s goals, how-
ever, focus more on the development and maintenance of successful interpersonal
relationships, working with nature, or hunting and gathering, intelligence will more
aptly be viewed as the skills and abilities related to such activities. On one level, there-
fore, people of all cultures share a similar view of intelligence—a catchall concept that
summarizes the skills and abilities necessary to live effectively in one’s culture. At the
same time, however, cultural differences naturally exist because of differences in how
cultures define goals and the skills and abilities needed to achieve those goals. Future
research will need to delve into these dual processes, searching for commonalities
as well as differences across cultures and exploring what contextual variables affect
intelligence-related behaviors, and why.

C O N C L U S I O N

In this chapter, we have broadly reviewed how culture influences the basic cognitive
processes of attention, perception, thinking, consciousness, and intelligence. We have
seen how there are many universals as well as culture-specific aspects of cognition.
These findings have important implications for our understanding of the relation-
ship between culture and psychological processes. The issues discussed in this chap-
ter serve as the basis for understanding findings from many cross-cultural studies to
be discussed in subsequent chapters. Perception, cognition, and consciousness are at
the core of many psychological constructs and cultural differences in these processes
exemplify the various levels of psychology that culture influences. As consciousness
reflects our subjective experience of the world, we take for granted that our conscious-
ness is shared by others. Research in this area, however, has shown that there may be
large cultural, as well as individual, differences in consciousness.

These differences are also important for intercultural interactions and applied set-
tings. If people from different cultural backgrounds can view such things as optical
illusions differently, it is no wonder they perceive so much of the rest of the world dif-
ferently as well. When this information is coupled with information concerning other
basic psychological processes such as attribution, emotion, and personality, the effect
of culture on mental processes and behaviors is amazing.

E X P L O R A T I O N A N D D I S C O V E R Y

Why Does This Matter to Me?
1. What do you think about intelligence? Is it

influenced by one’s genes, environment, or both?
If environment plays some role, what kind of
environmental conditions facilitate intelligence,
and what kinds hinder it?

2. Different cultures encourage vastly different ways
of thinking about time and punctuality. Have you
ever experienced a time conflict with someone

from a different culture? What did you do
about it?

3. Different cultures produce different ways of
expressing pain. How do you express pain? How
do you think people of other cultures do so? Can
you think of some instances where your way of
expressing and thinking about pain may be a
disadvantage?

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Culture and Cognition 201

Suggestions for Further Exploration
1. Take the figure of the fish (Figure 5.5) and show it

to people from different cultures for ten seconds,
and then ask them to recall as many things in the
picture as possible. Would you replicate the find-
ings of the studies described in the text?

2. What kinds of things or events in your life do
you remember? How do those memories differ
from those around you? Of people from different
cultures? How do you think those differences in
memories affect your daily lives and interactions?
Construct a simple experiment testing memory
differences across cultures. Why do these differ-
ences exist?

3. Ever notice how people see the world differently?
How do people come to have their views of the
world? Their perceptions? Take any of the figures
in the section on optical illusions and conduct
your own cross-cultural experiment. Or better
yet, design your own illusions or find others not
discussed in this book and try them.

4. How would you respond to the mother–daughter
conflict, or school-fun conflict described in the
section on dialectical thinking above? Try writing
out your responses to these vignettes and discuss
them with your classmates. How much dialectical
thinking did you exhibit? Why?

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202

9 Culture and Emotion

CHAPTER CONTENTS

The Evolution of Human Emotion

Emotions as Evolved Information-Processing
Systems

Different Categories of Emotion

The Biological Bases
of Emotion—Basic Emotions

The Original Universality Studies

Subsequent Research after the Original
Universality Studies

Other Sources of Evidence for the Universality
of Basic Emotions and Their Possible Biological
Bases

Summary

Cultural Influences on Emotion

Cultural Regulation of Basic Emotions

More about Cultural Display Rules

Cultural Calibration of How Emotional Expressions
Are Perceived

The Cultural Construction
of Emotional Experience

The Cultural Construction
of Concepts, Attitudes, Values,
and Beliefs about Emotion

Concepts of Emotion

Categories of Emotion

The Location of Emotion

Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs about Emotion

Summary

CONCLUSION

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY
Why Does This Matter to Me?
Suggestions for Further Exploration

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Culture and Emotion 203

The Evolution of Human Emotion

Emotions as Evolved Information-Processing Systems
Life without emotion is impossible to imagine. We treasure our feelings—the joy we
feel at a ball game, the pleasure of the touch of a loved one, the fun we have with our
friends on a night out, seeing a movie, or visiting a nightclub. Even our negative emo-
tions are important: the sadness when away from our loved ones, the death of a family
member, the anger when violated, the fear that overcomes us in a scary or unknown
situation, and the guilt or shame toward others when our sins are made public. Emo-
tions color our life experiences. They inform us of who we are, what our relationships
with others are like, and how to behave. Emotions give meaning to events. Without
emotions, those events would be mere facts.

But what are emotions? Most people don’t distinguish between emotions and
feelings, but many researchers do. Feelings (also known as subjective experience,
or affect) are a part of emotion, but not emotion itself. Emotion involves much more
than feelings. Emotions are transient, biopsychosocial reactions to events that have
consequences for our welfare, and that potentially require an immediate behavioral
response. Emotions include feelings, but also physiological reactions, expressive
behaviors, behavioral intentions, and cognitive changes.

Emotions are rapid information processing systems that evolved to help us act with
minimal conscious thinking or deliberation (Tooby & Cosmides, 2008). For instance,
think about the last time you drank spoiled milk or ate something rotten. Doing so has
some pretty negative consequences for our welfare. The emotion of disgust helps us
immediately take action by vomiting to get them out of our system, and to not to eat or
drink them in the first place in the future. This response is incredibly adaptive because it
aids in our survival and allows us to take action immediately and quickly without think-
ing too much. This aspect of emotion helped us in our evolutionary history, as there
were many instances in which immediate action without much thought was necessary
to survive, such as encountering wild animals or hostile neighbors. In these instances,
taking the time to think deliberately about what to do might have cost one one’s life; thus
emotions evolved to help us make rapid decisions with minimal cognition.

Emotions are elicited as we scan our environments. We evaluate the events that
we perceive to see if they have consequences to our welfare and requires immediate
response. If such an event does not occur, we continue to scan our environments, con-
stantly searching for and evaluating such events. If and when such an event is per-
ceived, it triggers an emotion so that we can react and adapt quickly and efficiently
(Figure 9.1). When emotions are triggered, they recruit a coordinated system of com-
ponents; they inform us about our relationship to the triggering event, and prepare us
to deal with it in some way. The system of components includes subjective experience
(feelings); expressive behavior such as facial expressions or verbal utterances; physi-
ological reactions such as increased heart rate or faster breathing; action tendencies
such as moving toward or away from an object; and cognition—specific patterns of
thinking. “Emotion” is a metaphor for these reactions.

Emotions are quick; they last only a few seconds or minutes. They are different
from moods, which last longer—for hours or days. Emotions are functional; when
they occur, they tell us something important about our relationship to the event that
elicited it, they help prepare our bodies for action, and they communicate our states
and intentions to others (e.g., watch out when the boss is angry). All humans in all
cultures have emotions, and for the most part we all have mainly the same types of
emotions. Thus emotion is a human universal.

affect Feelings, or subjec-
tive experience.

emotions Transient,
neurophysiological reactions
to events that have conse-
quences for our welfare,
and require an immediate
behavioral response. They
include feelings, but also
physiological reactions,
expressive behaviors, behav-
ioral intentions, and cogni-
tive changes.

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204 Chapter 9

Different Categories of Emotion
Not all emotions are the same. As we will learn below, humans share a small set of
emotions, known as basic emotions (Ekman, 1999; Izard, 2007), with other nonhuman
primates. Basic emotions are triggered by a biologically innate system in our brains.
They evolved originally to help us adapt to our natural and social environments in
order to live. From an evolutionary standpoint, it’s very difficult to consider how
survival could have occurred without basic emotions helping us adapt our behaviors
quickly and reliably.

Humans have many shades of the basic emotions. As we discussed in Chapter 1,
the evolution of the human brain brought with it improvements in many cognitive
capacities, including memory, language, and problem solving skills. These cognitive
enhancements allowed for the evolution of human culture and facilitated the emer-
gence of uniquely human emotions that go beyond the basic emotions that we share
with other animals. These cognitive abilities allow us to make many fine distinctions
among the basic emotions in terms of intensity and complexity. For example, anger is
a basic emotion. But humans don’t just get angry; we are sometimes irritated, aggra-
vated, agitated, annoyed, grouchy, grumpy, frustrated, hostile, exasperated, mad,
enraged, or furious. Not only do humans have fear, as do animals, but humans also
become anxious, nervous, tense, uneasy, worried, alarmed, shocked, frightened, hor-
rified, terrorized, or mortified. Humans also can feign emotion—expressing it when
they do not feel it, or expressing an emotion different from the one they are feeling.
Thus the universe of human emotions is invariably much more complex than the set
of basic emotions we share with animals.

Humans clearly have many other emotions beyond the basic emotions as well.
For instance, because humans uniquely have cognitive representations of self and
others as intentional agents, humans have emotions that are associated with these
self-reflective processes. These are called self-conscious emotions, and include emo-
tions such as shame, guilt, pride, and embarrassment. Because humans uniquely have
cognitive representations of self and others as intentional agents, humans exclusively
have the construct of morality, in which moral emotions such as contempt and dis-
gust play a particularly important role (Haidt, 2001; Rozin, Lowery, Imada, & Haidt,
1999). Disgust is especially interesting; while nonhuman primates share with humans
a biologically based version of disgust that helps them to avoid or expel nasty objects

basic emotions A small
set of emotion categories, or
families of emotions, that are
considered to be universal
to all humans, biologically
based and genetically coded,
and evolutionarily based.
Humans come into the
world with programs for
these basic emotions; social
and cultural learning then
influences how they are
used in life.

self-conscious
emotions Emotions that
focus on the self, such as
shame, guilt, pride, or em-
barrassment. They are im-
portant in studies of culture
because humans universally
have a unique knowledge
of self that is different from
that of other animals, thus
giving rise to self-conscious
emotions.

Possible
Event

Triggers
Scanning

Perception

Schema
Production

Appraisal

Schema
Evaluation

No Match

Match

Emotional
Responding

Cognitions

Physiology

Subjective
Experience

Expressive
Behavior

Behavior

Emotion

Figure 9.1 A Model of Emotion Elicitation

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Culture and Emotion 205

(e.g., through vomiting), probably only humans have the interpersonal version of
disgust, in which we can be disgusted at others as people (i.e., a moral version of
disgust). No wonder that contempt and disgust have been shown to be particularly
explosive and devastating emotions when seen in marital interactions (Gottman,
1994; Gottman & Levenson, 2002), and even in terrorist acts (Matsumoto, Frank, &
Hwang, 2015; Matsumoto, Hwang, & Frank, 2013, 2014). Shame, pride, guilt, jealousy,
regret, nostalgia, loneliness, and many others are all universal emotions (e.g., see
Breugelmans, Zeelenberg, Gilovich, Huang, & Shani, 2014; Hepper et al., 2014; Lykes
& Kemmelmeier, 2013).

Below we first describe in more detail the category of emotions known as basic
emotions. These emotions are biologically based; thus it is important to know what
base of emotions exist biologically so that we can understand how cultures influence
and regulate these biologically based emotions.

The Biological Bases of Emotion—Basic Emotions

The Original Universality Studies
The concept of basic emotions is rooted in research examining the universality of
emotional expressions. Although philosophers argued for centuries about whether or
not facial expressions of emotion are universal, contemporary cross-cultural research
on facial expressions of emotion stems from the writing of Charles Darwin. Many
people are familiar with Darwin’s theory of evolution, outlined in The Origin of Species
(1859). Darwin proposed that humans had evolved from other, more primitive ani-
mals, such as apes and chimpanzees, and that our behaviors exist today because they
were naturally selected through a process of evolutionary adaptation. In a subsequent
volume, The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals (1872), Darwin suggested that
facial expressions of emotion, like other expressive behaviors, are biologically innate
and evolutionarily adaptive. Humans, Darwin argued, express emotions in their faces
in exactly the same ways around the world, regardless of race or culture. Moreover,
those facial expressions can also be seen across species, such as in nonhuman pri-
mates. According to Darwin, facial expressions of emotion have both communicative
and adaptive value. They ensure the survival of the species by providing both inter-
nal information to the individual about well-being and person–environment relation-
ships, and social information for others in the community.

During the first half of the twentieth century, several studies were conducted to
test Darwin’s ideas (e.g., Triandis & Lambert, 1958; Vinacke, 1949; Vinacke & Fong,
1955). Unfortunately, many of them had methodological problems that made draw-
ing conclusions based on them difficult (see Ekman, Friesen, & Ellsworth, 1972, for
a review). At the same time, prominent anthropologists such as Margaret Mead
and Ray Birdwhistell argued that facial expressions of emotion were not universal;
instead, they suggested that facial expressions of emotion had to be learned, much
like a language (Ekman, Friesen, & Ellsworth, 1972), and that just as different cultures
had different languages, they also had different facial expressions of emotion.

It was not until the 1960s, when psychologists Sylvan Tomkins (Tomkins &
McCarter, 1964), Paul Ekman, and Wallace Friesen (Ekman, 1972) and Carroll Izard
(1971) independently conducted the first set of methodologically sound studies that
this debate was laid to rest. Spurred by the earlier work of Tomkins (1962, 1963), these
researchers conducted a series of studies now called the universality studies. Four

universality studies
A series of studies that dem-
onstrated the pancultural
universality of facial expres-
sions of emotion.

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206 Chapter 9

different types of studies were originally included in the series. In the first, photo-
graphs of facial expressions of emotion thought to portray universally recogniz-
able emotions were shown to observers in different countries, who had to label each
expression. If the expressions were universal, judges in all cultures would agree on
what emotion was being portrayed; if the expressions were culturally specific, the
observers from different cultures should disagree. There was high level of agreement
across all observers in all cultures in the interpretation of six emotions: anger, dis-
gust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise.

One problem with these studies was that all the cultures included in the research
were literate, industrialized, and relatively modern. It was possible, therefore, that
the observers in those cultures could have learned how to interpret the facial expres-
sions in the photographs. The fact that these cultures shared mass media—television,
movies, magazines—reinforced this possibility. The research was limited, therefore,
because of shared visual input across the cultures studied.

Two studies involving two preliterate tribes of New Guinea addressed these con-
cerns (Ekman, Sorenson, & Friesen, 1969). Participants were asked to select a story
that best described a facial expression. The data were very similar to those obtained
in literate, industrialized societies. These judgments of posed expressions by preliter-
ate cultures constituted a second source of evidence in support of universality.

Then different tribe members were asked to show on their faces what they would
look like if they experienced the different emotions. Photographs of these expressions
were brought back to the United States and shown to American observers, none of
whom had ever seen the tribe members from New Guinea. When asked to label the
emotions shown on the tribe members’ faces, the data were again similar to those
found in previous studies. Judgments of expressions posed by preliterate tribes thus
constituted a third source of evidence for universality (Figure 9.2).

Nevertheless, a question remained as to whether people actually spontaneously
display those expressions on their faces when they experience emotion. To address
this question, in a fourth study (Friesen, 1972), Americans and Japanese participants
were asked to view highly stressful stimuli as their facial reactions were videotaped
without their awareness. Analysis of the video records indicated that Americans and
Japanese did indeed show exactly the same types of facial expressions at the same
points in time, and these expressions corresponded to the same expressions that were
considered universal in the judgment research. Data from spontaneous facial expres-
sions of emotion, therefore, constituted the fourth line of evidence in the original set
of universality studies (Figure 9.3). Collectively, these studies comprised what is com-
monly known in the field as the original universality studies that provided the initial
evidence for the universality of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise.

Subsequent Research after the Original Universality Studies
Since the original universality research above, there have been almost 200 studies that
have documented the universal perception or production of the same facial expres-
sions of emotion (Matsumoto, Keltner, Shiota, Frank, & O’Sullivan, 2008; Hwang
& Matsumoto, 2016). These studies have demonstrated that the facial expressions
postulated by Darwin and later by Tomkins are produced when emotion is aroused
and there is no reason to modify the expression because of social circumstances.
Moreover, the range of cultures across those studies is impressive. Matsumoto and
Willingham’s (2006) study of Olympic athletes, for instance, involved 84 athletes from
35 countries. Collectively these studies demonstrate that the facial expressions actu-
ally do occur when emotion is aroused in people of different cultures.

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Culture and Emotion 207

Enjoyment

Anger Disgust

Sadness

Figure 9.2
Examples of Emotional Expressions of Members
of a Preliterate Culture
Source: Paul Ekman.

Figure 9.3
Example of American and
Japanese Faces from Ekman
(1972)
Source: Paul Ekman.

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208 Chapter 9

Other evidence for universality comes from the developmental literature. The
same facial musculature that exists in adult humans exists in newborn infants, and
is fully functional at birth (Ekman & Oster, 1979). Infants have a rich and varied rep-
ertoire of facial expressions, including those that signal not only emotional states, but
also interest and attention (Oster, 2005). There is widespread consensus that distaste,
the infant precursor of adult disgust, and crying, the universal signal of sadness or
distress, occur in neonates (Oster, 2005). Other than these, infants in the first year
of life display relatively undifferentiated facial expressions of negative emotions,
which later transform into more differentiated, discrete expressions (Camras, Oster,
Campos, & Bakeman, 2003; Oster, 2005). Discrete expressions of anger and sadness
have been reported in the early part of the second year of life (Hyson & Izard, 1985;
Shiller, Izard, & Hembree, 1986). By the time they reach preschool age, children dis-
play discrete expressions of the other emotions as well (Casey, 1993).

One compelling line of evidence that suggests that facial expressions of emo-
tion are genetically encoded and not socially learned are studies of congenially
blind individuals (Charlesworth & Kreutzer, 1973; Dumas, 1932; Eibl-Eibesfeldt,
1973; Freedman, 1964; Fulcher, 1942; Galati, Scherer, & Ricci-Bitti, 1997; Goodenough,
1932; Ortega, Iglesias, Fernandez, & Corraliza, 1983; Thompson, 1941). In one of our
experiments, we compared the spontaneously produced facial expressions of emo-
tion between blind and sighted athletes competing at the 2004 Athens Olympic and
Paralympic Games, immediately at the end of a match for a medal (Matsumoto &
Willingham, 2009) (Figure 9.4). There was an almost perfect correspondence between
the facial behaviors produced between the blind and sighted athletes. As many of the
blind athletes were congenitally blind—blind from birth— they could not have possi-
bly learned to produce them by watching others do so. They had to come to the world
with an inborn ability to produce those expressions.

Another line of evidence for universality and the genetic encoding of facial
expressions of emotion comes from studies of nonhuman primates. For years, etholo-
gists (Chevalier-Skolnikoff, 1973; Geen, 1992; Hauser, 1993; Snowdon, 2003; Van Hoof,
1972) have noted the morphological similarities between human expressions of emo-
tion and nonhuman primate expressions displayed in similar contexts. The evolution

Blind athlete Sighted athlete

Figure 9.4 Comparison of Blind and Sighted Athletes Who Just Lost a Match
for a Medal. Photos Copyright © Bob Willingham (Reprinted with Permission)
Source: Bob Willingham.

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Culture and Emotion 209

of the smile and laugh, for instance, occurs along two different evolutionary tracts
across early mammals, monkeys, apes, chimpanzees, and humans (Van Hoof, 1972).
Among nonhuman primates, facial displays described as grimaces are akin to the
human emotions of fear and surprise, while the tense-mouth display was similar to
anger (Redican, 1982); these two combined to form the often-identified threat display.
Nonhuman primates also show a play face that is similar to the happy face of humans,
and a pout similar to that of the human sad face. Both infant rhesus macaques and
infant chimpanzees show different facial expressions in reaction to sweet and bitter
tastes, but chimps’ facial expressions are more similar to human facial expressions
than to that of the macaques (Ueno, Ueno, & Tomonaga, 2004). However, even some of
the smaller apes, such as siamangs (Symphalangus syndactylus), noted for their limited
facial expression repertoire, have distinguishable facial expressions accompanying
sexuality, agonistic behavior, grooming, and play (Liebal, Pika, & Tomasello, 2004).
For some emotional states, a species less closely related to humans than chimpanzees,
bonobos, may have more emotions in common with humans (de Waal, 2002).

Other Sources of Evidence for the Universality of Basic Emotions
and Their Possible Biological Bases
Universality in Emotion Recognition
One important aspect of basic emotions is that not only are they universally
expressed, but that they are also universally recognized. Some of the original uni-
versality studies of emotion were judgment studies, in which observers of different
cultures viewed facial stimuli and judged the emotions portrayed in them. The earli-
est studies by Tomkins, Ekman, and Izard demonstrated the existence of six universal
expressions—anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise—in literate and
preliterate cultures (Ekman, 1972, 1973; Ekman & Friesen, 1971; Ekman, Sorenson, &
Friesen, 1969; Izard, 1971; Tomkins & McCarter, 1964).

Since the original studies, at least 27 studies examining judgments of facial
expressions have replicated the finding of universal recognition of basic emotion in
the face (Matsumoto, 2001). In addition, a meta-analysis of 168 datasets examining
judgments of emotion in the face and other nonverbal stimuli indicated universal
emotion recognition well above chance levels (Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002). It would
be very difficult to obtain such robust and consistent findings if expressions were
not universally recognized. Even when low-intensity expressions are judged across
cultures (Ekman, Friesen, O’Sullivan, Chan, Diacoyanni-Tarlatzis, I., Heider, K. et al.,
1987; Matsumoto, Consolacion, Yamada, Suzuki, Franklin, Paul, S. et al., 2002), there is
strong agreement across cultures as to the emotion in the expression.

Research from the past two decades has also demonstrated the universal recogni-
tion of a seventh basic emotion—contempt (Ekman & Friesen, 1986; Ekman & Heider,
1988; Matsumoto, 1992; Matsumoto & Ekman, 2004). Figure 9.5 shows examples of the
seven facial expressions of emotion for which research has provided solid evidence
for universal recognition.

Universality in Physiological Responses to Emotion
Another part of the emotion response package is physiological reactions. For years
there has been debate concerning whether different emotions are associated with dif-
ferent, specific, and unique physiological profiles of responding. Early research in
this area was inconclusive. The first definitive evidence for this came from a study
that used the universal facial expressions as markers to signal when to examine

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210 Chapter 9

physiological reactions. In this study, Ekman, Levenson, and Friesen (1983) demon-
strated that each of the universal emotions, when signaled by the universal expres-
sions, had a distinct and discrete physiological signature in the autonomic nervous
system. Subsequent research has replicated these findings, and has shown how
there are specific patterns in central nervous system activity (the brain) as well
( Davidson, 2003; Ekman, Davidson, & Friesen, 1990; Levenson, Carstensen, Friesen,
& Ekman, 1991; Levenson & Ekman, 2002; Levenson, Ekman, & Friesen, 1990; Mauss,
Levenson, McCarter, Wilhelm, & Gross, 2005). These findings have also been repli-
cated in cross-cultural samples, including Chinese and European Americans (Tsai
and Levenson, 1997), and the Minangkabau of West Sumatra, Indonesia (Levenson,
Ekman, Heider, & Friesen, 1992). The data indicate that emotions help individuals
to respond to emotional stimuli by preparing the body to engage in activity. Fear
prepares us to flee, while anger prepares us to fight.

Universality in Subjective Emotional Experience
Another component of the emotion package is subjective experience. The most
prominent study to examine subjective experiences across cultures is the work by
Scherer and his colleagues (Scherer & Wallbott, 1994). They asked respondents to rate
their subjective feelings, physiological sensations, motor behaviors, and expressions
when they felt anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, shame, and guilt. For all response
domains, the seven emotions differed significantly and strongly among each other.
Geographical and sociocultural factors were much smaller than the differences
among the emotions. Thus, the researchers concluded that there are strong and con-
sistent differences between the reaction patterns for the seven emotions, and that
these are independent of the country studied. In other words, there were many more
similarities in the responses across the cultures than there were differences, pro-
viding evidence for universal, psychobiological emotional patterning in subjective
response.

Joy

Contempt Disgust

Sadness Fear

AngerSurprise

Figure 9.5 The Seven Basic Emotions and Their Universal Expressions
Source: David Matsumoto, Ph.D.

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Culture and Emotion 211

Universality in the Coherence among Emotion Response Systems
Not only has the evidence shown that there is universality in the various responses of
emotion—antecedent events, appraisals, expressive behavior, subjective experience,
and physiology—but that there is also coherence among them. Emotion response
system coherence refers to the idea that the various response components—face,
voice, physiology—are related to each other in a meaningful way.

There are many studies that demonstrate coherence among emotion response sys-
tems (reviewed in Matsumoto et al., 2007). Matsumoto et al. (2007), for example, reana-
lyzed the data from the Scherer studies described above, and examined the relationships
among the self-reported expressive behaviors, emotional experiences, and physiological
sensations. There were moderately sized correlations between these three systems of
responses across the respondents in all 27 countries analyzed. There were also consis-
tent correlations between verbal and nonverbal expressions, as well as between emotion
intensity and physiological sensations, all of which suggest coherence in an underlying
neurophysiological reality. Moreover, this coherence was true cross-culturally.

Universality in Emotion Antecedents
A central aspect of emotion is the events that trigger them in the first place. Emotion
antecedents are the events or situations that trigger or elicit an emotion. For example,
losing a loved one may be an antecedent of sadness; getting an “A” in a class in which
you wanted to do well may elicit happiness or joy. In the scientific literature, emotion
antecedents are also known as emotion elicitors or triggers.

A considerable number of studies has supported the universality of emotion ante-
cedents (Boucher & Brandt, 1981; Brandt & Boucher, 1985). The most prominent work
to study emotion antecedents across a wide range of cultures has been that of Scherer
and his colleagues, who conducted studies using questionnaires designed to assess
the quality and nature of emotional experiences in many different cultures. Their
largest study involved approximately 3,000 participants in 37 countries on five conti-
nents (Scherer, 1997a, 1997b; Scherer & Wallbott, 1994). Respondents wrote about the
situations that brought about the last time they felt anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness,
shame, and guilt. Trained coders then systematically sorted the situations described
by participants into general categories such as good news and bad news, temporary
and permanent separation, and success and failure in achievement situations. No cul-
ture-specific antecedent category was necessary to code the data, indicating that all
categories of events generally occurred in all cultures to produce each of the seven
emotions studied. In addition, there were many similarities across cultures in the
relative frequency with which each of the antecedent events elicited emotions. For
example, the most frequent elicitors of happiness across cultures were “relationships
with friends,” “temporary meetings with friends,” and “achievement situations.” The
most frequent elicitors of anger were “relationships” and “injustice.” The most fre-
quent elicitors of sadness were “relationships” and “death.” These findings supported
the view that emotion antecedents are universal across cultures.

Universality in Emotion Appraisal Processes
Just as central as the event that triggers an emotion are the cognitive processes that
occur to evaluate it in order to know whether to trigger an emotion in the first place.
This process is known as appraisal, which can be loosely defined as the process by
which people evaluate the events, situations, or occurrences that lead to their having
emotions. The largest cross-cultural study on emotion appraisal processes is Scherer
and colleagues’ study described above. There, respondents not only described the
events that brought about their emotions (the antecedents described above); they were

emotion response
system coherence The
idea that the various re-
sponse components of an
emotion—facial expressions,
voice, physiological reac-
tions, movements, etc.—are
related to each other in a
coordinated fashion that
prepares individuals to do
something vis-à-vis the emo-
tion aroused.

emotion antecedents
The events or situations that
elicit or trigger an emotion.

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212 Chapter 9

also asked about how they appraised or evaluated those events. For example, the
respondents were asked to rate whether the antecedent helped them achieve their goals
or blocked their goals; were expected or not; or were fair or unfair. The findings indi-
cated that emotion appraisal processes were more similar than different across cultures.

Moreover, there was a very high degree of cross-cultural similarity in emotion
appraisal processes, and this cross-cultural agreement in appraisal has been replicated
by other researchers as well (Mauro, Sato, & Tucker, 1992; Roseman, Dhawan, Rettek,
Nadidu, & Thapa, 1995). These findings support the idea that the basic emotions
appear to be appraised in the same way universally. Table 9.1 summarizes the uni-
versal psychological content of emotion appraisals for each of the universal emotions.

Summary
Research on basic emotions has indicated that these emotions are universal psycho-
logical phenomena that are based in the evolution of the species. Humans are born
with a core set of basic emotions that are biologically innate and genetically encoded.
They allow us to appraise events and situations in reliable and predictable ways, thus
revealing the same types of underlying psychological elicitors across cultures: loss
brings about sadness in all cultures; threat brings about fear. When emotions are elic-
ited, they trigger a host of responses, and these responses are part of a universal emo-
tion package. They are associated with unique physiological signatures in both the
central and autonomic nervous systems, which are part of a coordinated response
system that prepares individuals to fight, flee, or jump for joy. They are expressed
universally in all humans via facial expressions, regardless of race, culture, sex, eth-
nicity, or national origin. As such, humans can also universally recognize emotions
in others, and this has important social meaning. Overall, these universal