Culture and

the IndividualCulture, Anthropology and Psychology

Disciplines

• AnthropologyCulture and PersonalityPsychological Anthropology

• PsychologyCross-Cultural Psychology

• Education

• Interdisciplinary/MultidisciplinaryCultural Psychology

Key Terminology

• Culture• Personality• Society• Biology• Ecology• Diversity• Universal traits• Culture Specific Traits

Culture

• Abstract• Learned• Shared• Rules/Standards/Templates• Generating Behavior• Understanding experience

Culture

Culture is the abstract, learned, shared rules/standards/templates used to generate behavior and to interpret experience.

Personality

• Characteristics of individuals• Genetics• Socialization• Enculturation• Life experience• Ongoing interaction

Personality

• Personality is the characteristics of an individual arising from the ongoing interaction of genetics, socialization, enculturation and life experience.

Society

A group of people using a shared culture

Biology

• Anatomy• Physiology• Genetics

Epigenetics

• Epigenetics• Environmental on/off

switches • Regulatory Genes vs Structural Genes• Environmental learning• Imprinting

Ecology

• Environment• Subsistence strategy• Subsistence technology

Diversity Terminology

• Race• Ethnicity• Cross Cultural• Cross Ethnic (Multicultural)• Cross National• First, Second, Third World• Developed, Developing• Traditional, Modern• Peripheral, Core

Race

An arbitrary social category used for purposes of discrimination.

Ethnicity

A group with which one chooses to identify on the basis of shared ancestry or heritage.

Universal TraitsTraits that all humans have

Culture Specific Traits

Traits that only occur in a particular culture or particular type of culture

Key Terminology

• Absolutism• Relativism• Ethnocentrism• Cultural Relativism• Reductionist• Determinist

Absolutism Belief that things are what they are without

regard for their context/environment.

Relativism

Belief that things differ depending on the context/environment in which they are found/grow/develop.

Ethnocentrism Judging another culture using your own

culture’s rules and standards.

Cultural Relativism

Judging another culture using its own rules and standard’s.

Reductionist

Trying to explain complex phenomena using single, simple explanations.

Eg. Determinism

Determinism

•Environmental Determinism

•Economic Determinism

•Ecological Determinism

•Sociopolitical Determinism

•Biological Determinism

Levels of Analysis

• Population Level• Community• Family• Individual level

• Socialization• Enculturation• Acculturation

Socialization The process of learning when content is

consciously taught by others within the society.

Enculturation

The process of absorbing the culture(s) in which an individual is raised.

Acculturation

The process of acquiring a culture other than the one in which an individual was raised.

Processes in the Individual

• Ontogeny• Perception• Emotion• Cognition• Learning

Ontogeny The process of growth and development in

an individual organism

Perception

The process of detecting and interpreting stimuli from the outside world

Emotion The conscious experience of a feeling or

state which leads to both internal and external reactions

Cognition

Thought processes

Learning

The process of acquiring and storing information