Methods for Studying Culture AND Psychology

1. Methods for Studying Culture AND Psychology

2. OBJECTIVES • Describe the methods used to study psychology across cultures

3. Who should we study? A. Theory predicted difference • Maximally same with 1 difference (ex. U.S. & Japan) • Maximally different (ex. U.S. & aboriginal tribe) B. Researcher needs cultural “expertise”

4. Some examples of current studies.. • “The Influence of Religiosity and Western Media Exposure on Attitudes toward Dating among Estonian and Moroccan Adolescents” by Neva Garner and Kendra Morgan • “Prototypical Descriptions of LOVE in Estonia, Morocco, and the United States” by Sarah Barnard and David Greenberg • “Examining the Physical Attractiveness Stereotype in Estonia and Morocco” by Nathaniel Patton

5. OBJECTIVES • Understand the challenges to obtaining valid results and useful interpretations including response biases • Identify cultural influences on research methods, including the influential biases researchers and research participants bring to the research process

6. Methodological Equivalence=having one’s methods perceived in identical ways across cultures. Problem: methods are often not perceived the same way across cultures • Ex: surveys of Zinacantecan girls Answer: comparisons in cultural psychology between “North Americans” and “East Asians” • Industrial societies • College students • Convenient

7. Generalizability Do the findings from a sample generalize to the entire population? • Rarely Are they conservative estimates of how culture may influence behavior? • Likely • Culture as the independent variable • Power of the research study • Ex. Fashion differences between women in AZ vs. CA or AZ vs. India

8. Cross-cultural research: Surveys Translation method • Meaningful back-translation

9. RESPONSE BIASES • Moderacy bias: middle of the scale • Extremity bias: extremes of a scale • Acquiescence bias: agreement • “I am a winner” “I am a loser” • Reference-group effect: comparing to own group • Height of Danish vs. Aborigines • Deprivation effect: value what you don’t have • “How much do you value pleasure?” Italians vs. East Germans

11. Cross-cultural research: Surveys Advantages: • Cheap (time, expense, convenience) Disadvantages: hard to compare means between two cultural groups • Translation method • Deprivation effect • Response biases

12. Cross-cultural research: Experiments Experiments: • Changes in DV are due to changes in IV • Role of culture as an IV Advantages: • Compare means between two conditions within each culture. • Various response biases and reference groups are held constant. Disadvantages: • Costly

13. OBJECTIVES • Demonstrate applied knowledge of external validity, situation sampling, cultural priming, culture-level measures, and unpacking

14. Cross-cultural research External validity=research conclusions would be the same for other people, places, times • Construct validity • Defined population • Random selection • Replication

15. CONSTRUCT VALIDITY • Ex.: Depression • Ex.: Individualism, collectivism How important (very important-not important on a 5-point scale) is it to you to: 1)Have challenging work to do -- work from which you can get a personal sense of accomplishment. 2)Have considerable freedom to adopt your own approach to the job. 3)Have a job which leaves you sufficient time for your personal or family life. 4)Fully use you skills and abilities on the job. 5)Have good physical working conditions. 6)  Have training opportunities to improve your skills or to learn new skills. 1-3 measure individualism and 4-6 measure collectivism – do they?

16. Demo 21:52-22:04, 22:10-22:25 PRIMING

17. Cross-cultural research Cultural Priming=activating or “priming” the participant to think about culture, making those ideas more meaningful for investigation. make ideas more accessible, by presenting them to participants. • Ex: independence and interdependence • Circle “me,” “mine, and “I,” versus “us,” “ours,” and “we” • Ex: frame-switching

18. Cross-cultural research Situation Sampling= taking cluster of daily “situations” experienced by a particular culture and comparing to a second culture group.

19. Cross-cultural research Culture Level Measures = look at one topic in a culture’s: magazines, newspapers, sports coverage, laws, personal ads, fairy tales, children’s stories, etc. -compare to another culture to get generalizations

20. Cross-cultural research Unpacking=finding the underlying variables that lead to a cultural difference ex. Interdependent sense of self & embarassability Moderators= direction or strength (when/how much) ex. sun  sunburn ex. sunblock  sun  sunburn Mediators= accounts for effect (how/why) ex. sun  sunburn sun  UVA rays  reaction in skin  sunburn

21. Case Study: UNPACKINGCulture of Honor in the US South Since 18th century, many observations of greater violence in the US South than the North. • Higher frequency of feuds, duels, homicides, lynchings, sniper attacks • Greater support for corporal punishment, gun ownership, and war. Why?

22. Why? Common Accounts US South had a longer history of slavery. US South is hotter than the North. US South is poorer than the North. Settled by herders (South) vs. farmers (North) (Nisbett & Cohen, 1996)

23. Herders and a Culture of Honor Herders wealth is portable Herding land is difficult to police A reputation as someone who would respond to threats with violence protects your wealth

25. The South doesn’t differ from the North in just any kind of violence. The difference is most pronounced for argument-related murders, where one’s honor is at stake. The regional differences are more pronounced in less urban areas. In urban areas there is less influence from traditional herding cultures. This data challenges a temperature account of the regional differences, as both the urban and rural areas should have similar climates.

26. The murder rate is higher in the areas where herding is more commonly practiced than it is in the areas where farming is practiced.

27. People in the farming areas make slightly more than those in the herding areas. This difference in wealth is much smaller than the difference in violence rates between the two areas, so this argues against the poverty account.

28. Farming areas are hotter (and considerably more humid) than the herding areas, yet the violence rates are higher in the herding areas. This goes against the temperature account of these differences.

29. Slaves had been far more common in farming regions than in herding regions, yet the violence rate is higher in the herding regions. This goes against the slavery account.

30. Survey data • Participants in various regions of the US were asked about how they would respond in certain situations. • They ranged in severity from imagining that someone had insulted a man named Fred, to imagining that someone had raped Fred’s daughter.

31. The Southerners were more likely than Northerners to view violence as an appropriate solution to the threats to Fred’s honor. Most extreme difference for the scenario where Fred’s daughter was raped. 47% of Southerners but only 28% of Northerners felt that Fred would be extremely justified to shoot the man who had raped his daughter.

32. Experimental Data • These studies contrasted white male students at the University of Michigan who had either grown up in the North or in the South. • Half of them were assigned to an “insult” condition where a confederate insulted them. • The other half were in the control condition (no insult).

33. In one study, following the insult, the experimenters assessed changes in the participants’ cortisol and testosterone levels, as these increase when people are feeling aggressive.

34. Northern subjects showed little physiological arousal to the insult. Southern subjects showed a strong physiological response. They were quite angry.

35. Playing “Chicken” • In a second study, after participants had been insulted they were instructed to go to another lab room. On the way, they encountered another confederate who was in a direct collision course with them. The dependent measure was the point at which participants yielded to the oncoming confederate.

36. Northerners: • Control = Insult • Southerners: • Control > Insult • Honor was “primed” and influenced interaction with a new person

37. Field Study Data • Researchers sent letters requesting job applications to large national companies with branches in the US North and South. • “honor letter” condition • Key dependent measure was the tone of the letter that was received in response from the potential employer.

39. Tone of Letter from Potential Employer • Control letter: No regional differences in response warmth • Honor letter: Southern employers were significantly warmer in their response compared with Northern employers.

40. Sample Responses • Northern Employer • “We don’t hire felons.” • Southern Employer • “As for your problem of the past, anyone could probably be in the situation you were in. It was just an unfortunate incident that shouldn’t be held against you. Your honesty shows that you are sincere. I wish you the best of luck for your future. Once you get settled, if you are near here, please stop in and see us.”

41. Cross-cultural research: Wrapping it all up • “Culture of Honor” studies use multiple methods to study an unusual cultural hypothesis • Rather than stopping at finding a difference between two cultures, it attempts to explain why there is a difference (unpacking) • Generalizability?