Cultural Psychology
1. What are individualistic and collectivistic cultures? Please explain how people from
each culture differ in terms of cognition, affect, and behavior? Which countries represent
individualism and collectivism?
2. What are the goals of cross-cultural research? Provide an example (or examples) of
cross-cultural research.
3. What do the diagrams of the Independent View of Self and the Interdependent View of
Self represent? How do these diagrams relate to the American culture and other cultures?
4. What are the implications of an incremental theory and an entity theory on education?
What, how, and why cultures demonstrate these theories?
5. How might we expect people of upper-middle-class backgrounds to differ in their
perceptions of control from those of working-class backgrounds? Provide an example.
Sample Solution
Cultural Psychology
Culture is one factor that can have an influence on how people think and behave. One factor that cross-cultural psychologists often study involves the differences and similarities between individualistic cultures and collectivist cultures. Individualistic cultures are those that stress the needs of the individual over the needs of the group as a whole. In this type of culture, people are seen as independent and autonomous. Social behavior tends to be dictated by the attitudes and preferences of individual. Cultures in North America and Western Europe tend to be individualistic. The collectivist is motivated by group goals. Long-term relationships are very important. Collectivist persons easily sacrifice individual benefit or praise to recognize and honor the team`s success. In fact, being singled out an honored as an individual from the rest of the team may be embarrassing to the collectivistic person.
