Psychology Commons^™

Recognizing Moral Identity As A Cultural Construct, Fanli Jia, Tobias Krettenauer

Fanli Jia

Semi-Wild Chimpanzees Open Hard-Shelled Fruits Differently Across Communities, Bruce Rawlings, Marina Davilla-Ross, Sarah T. Boysen

Sarah Boysen, PhD

Researchers investigating the evolutionary roots of human culture have turned to comparing behaviours across nonhuman primate communities, with tool-based foraging in particular receiving much attention. This study examined whether natural extractive foraging behaviours other than tool selection differed across nonhuman primate colonies that had the same foods available. Specifically, the behaviours applied to open the hard-shelled fruits of Strychnos spp. were examined in three socially separate, semi-wild colonies of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) that lived under shared ecological conditions at Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage, and were comparable in their genetic makeup. The chimpanzees (N = 56) consistently applied six techniques to open …

Playing With Knives: The Socialization Of Self-Initiated Learners, David F. Lancy

David Lancy

Since Margaret Mead’s field studies in the South Pacific a century ago, there has been the tacit understanding that as culture varies, so too must the socialization of children to become competent culture users and bearers. More recently, the work of anthropologists has been mined to find broader patterns that may be common to childhood across a range of societies. One improbable commonality has been the tolerance, even encouragement, of toddler behavior that is patently risky, such as playing with or attempting to use a sharp-edged tool. This laissez faire approach to socialization follows from a reliance on children as …

Teaching: Natural Or Cultural?, David F. Lancy

David Lancy

This chapter will argue that teaching, as we now understand the term, is historically and cross-culturally very rare. It appears to be unnecessary to transmit culture or to socialize children. Children are, on the other hand, primed by evolution to be avid observers, imitators, players and helpers—roles that reveal the profoundly autonomous and self-directed nature of culture acquisition (Lancy in press a). And yet, teaching is ubiquitous throughout the modern world—at least among the middle to upper class segment of the population. This ubiquity has led numerous scholars to argue for the universality and uniqueness of teaching as a characteristically …

Framing The Game: Assessing The Impact Of Cultural Representations On Consumer Perceptions Of Legitimacy, Ashlee Humphreys, Kathryn A. Latour

Kathryn A. LaTour

No abstract provided.

Innovating At Cultural Crossroads: How Multicultural Social Networks Promote Ideas Flow And Creativity, Roy Y. J. Chua

Roy CHUA

Diversity in social networks is often linked to enhanced creativity. Emerging research on exposure to diverse informational resources (e.g., ideas and knowledge) however has painted a more complex picture regarding its effect on individuals’ creative performance. This research examines the effects of culturally diverse networks on the flow of ideas and individuals’ creativity. Combining social network analysis with experimental methods, two studies using different samples found that a culturally diverse network increases the likelihood of receiving culture-related novel ideas (but not other types of novel ideas) from network contacts, whether or not these contacts share one’s own culture of origin. …

Personality And Individual Differences: Current Directions, Richard Hicks

Richard Hicks

Extract: Interest and research in personality and individual differences, in why people behave the way they do and the implications for life and living, remain unabated around the world. Human beings are fascinated by how they are similar to one another and how they are different. The similarities and differences underpin many implicit and espoused theories of behaviour and of personal and professional practice, informing the decisions that we all make on what we will do and when.

Politics Or Metaphysics? On Attributing Psychological Properties To Animals, Kristin Andrews

Kristin Andrews, PhD

Following recent arguments that there is no logical problem with attributing mental or agential states to animals, I address the epistemological problem of how to go about making accurate attributions. I suggest that there is a two-part general method for determining whether a psychological property can be accurately attributed to a member of another species: folk expert opinion and functionality. This method is based on well-known assessments used to attribute mental states to humans who are unable to self-ascribe due to an early stage of development or impairment, and can be used to describe social and emotional development as well …

Self-Talk As A Regulatory Mechanism: How You Do It Matters, Jiyoung Park

Jiyoung Park

Cultural Variation In Life Phases., David F. Lancy, M. Annette Grove

David Lancy

The knowledge base in the study of human development is built primarily from work with children from the modern, global, post-industrial population. This population is unrepresentative in many respects, not least in that childhood and adolescence is dominated by the experience of formal schooling—an experience missing from the lives of most of the world’s children until very recently. This entry will examine child development from the perspective of pre-modern societies as described in the ethnographic, archaeological and historic records. Specifically, we will review material indicative of cultural or indigenous models of development, phases and phase transitions, in particular.

Incest Taboos And Kinship: A Biological Or A Cultural Story?, Dwight W. Read

Dwight W Read

Negative Emotions Predict Elevated Interleukin-6 In The United States But Not In Japan, Jiyoung Park, J. M. Boylan, C. L. Coe, K. Curhan, C. S. Levine, H R. Markus, Shinobu Kitayama, Kawakami N, Karasawa M, G. D. Love, Ryff Cd

Jiyoung Park

The Better-Than-Average Effect In Hong Kong And The United States: The Role Of Personal Trait Importance And Cultural Trait Importance, K-P. Tam, Ka Yee Angela Leung, Y-H. Kim, C-Y. Chiu, Yee-Man Ivy Lau, A. Au

Ka Yee Angela LEUNG

People tend to make self-aggrandizing social comparisons on traits that are important to the self. However, existing research on the better-than-average effect (BTAE) and trait importance does not distinguish between personal trait importance (participants’ ratings of the importance of certain traits to themselves) and cultural trait importance (participants’ perceptions of the importance of the traits to the cultural group to which they belong). We demonstrated the utility of this distinction by examining the joint effects of personal importance and cultural importance on the BTAE among Hong Kong Chinese and American participants. Results showed that the BTAE was more pronounced for …

Cultural Construction Of Success And Epistemic Motives Moderate American-Chinese Differences In Reward Allocation Biases, Angela K. Y. Leung, Young-Hoon Kim, Zhi-Xue Zhang, Kim-Pong Tam, Chi-Yue Chiu

Ka Yee Angela LEUNG

When the relative contribution of the self and the group to a group success is unclear, Americans tend to exhibit a self-serving bias (rewarding the self more than what the self deserves), whereas the Chinese tend to exhibit an other-serving bias (rewarding the group more than the group deserves). In a study comparing the reward allocation biases of Americans and Chinese in different group outcome conditions, the authors showed that the abovementioned cultural difference is found (a) only for culturally congruent success experience (attaining approach goals for Americans and avoidance goals for Chinese) and (b) among individuals who are motivated …

The Better-Than-Average Effect In Hong Kong And The United States: The Role Of Personal Trait Importance And Cultural Trait Importance, Kim-Pong Tam, Angela K.-Y. Leung, Young-Hoon Kim, Chi-Yue Chiu, Ivy Yee-Man Lau, Al K. C. Au

Ka Yee Angela LEUNG

People tend to make self-aggrandizing social comparisons on traits that are important to the self. However, existing research on the better-than-average effect (BTAE) and trait importance does not distinguish between personal trait importance (participants’ ratings of the importance of certain traits to themselves) and cultural trait importance (participants’ perceptions of the importance of the traits to the cultural group to which they belong). We demonstrated the utility of this distinction by examining the joint effects of personal importance and cultural importance on the BTAE among Hong Kong Chinese and American participants. Results showed that the BTAE was more pronounced for …

Error-Related Brain Activity Reveals Self-Centric Motivation: Culture Matters, Jiyoung Park, Shinobu Kitayama

Jiyoung Park

Idealization And Desire In The Hundred Acre Wood: A.A. Milne And Christopher (Robin), Laura Bright

Laura E Bright

Argues that A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner represent the conscious rejection, unconscious reproduction, and re-imaging of the author's traumatic Victorian childhood.

Virtue And Virility: Governing With Honor And The Association Or Dissociation Between Martial Honor And Moral Character Of U.S. Presidents, Legislators, And Justices, Dov Cohen, Angela K.-Y. Leung

Ka Yee Angela LEUNG

In many honor cultures, honor as martial honor and honor as character/integrity are often both subsumed under the banner of honor. In nonhonor cultures, these qualities are often separable. The present study examines political elites, revealing that Presidents, Congresspeople, and Supreme Court Justices from the Southern United States with a greater commitment to martial honor (as indexed by their military service) also show more integrity, character, and moral leadership. This relationship, however, does not hold for nonsoutherners. The present studies illustrate the need to examine both between culture differences in cultural logics (as these logics connect various behaviors under a …

Clarifying The Link Between Social Support And Health: Culture, Stress, And Neuroticism Matter, Jiyoung Park, Shinobu Kitayama, Karasawa M, K. Curhan, Kawakami N, Y. Miyamoto, G. D. Love, C. L. Coe, Ryff Cd

Jiyoung Park

Multicultural Experience Enhances Creativity: The When And How, Angela K. Y. Leung, William W. Maddux, Adam D. Galinsky, Chi-Yue Chiu

Ka Yee Angela LEUNG

Many practices aimed at cultivating multicultural competence in educational and organizational settings (e.g., exchange programs, diversity education in college, diversity management at work) assume that multicultural experience fosters creativity. In line with this assumption, the research reported in this article is the first to empirically demonstrate that exposure to multiple cultures in and of itself can enhance creativity. Overall, the authors found that extensiveness of multicultural experiences was positively related to both creative performance (insight learning, remote association, and idea generation) and creativity-supporting cognitive processes (retrieval of unconventional knowledge, recruitment of ideas from unfamiliar cultures for creative idea expansion). Furthermore, …

Culture, Psyche, And Body Make Each Other Up, Dov Cohen, Angela K. Y. Leung, Hans Ijzerman

Ka Yee Angela LEUNG

The commentaries make important points, including ones about the purposeful uses of embodiment effects. Research examining such effects needs to look at how such effects play themselves out in people's everyday lives. Research might usefully integrate work on embodiment with work on attribution and work in other disciplines concerned with body–psyche connections (e.g., research on somaticizing versus “psychologizing” illnesses and hypercognizing versus hypocognizing emotions). Such work may help us understand the way positive and negative feedback loops operate as culture, psyche, and body make each other up.

Culture And The Structure Of Personal Experience: Insider And Outsider Phenomenologies Of The Self And Social World, D. Cohen, E. Hoshino-Browne, Angela K.-Y. Leung

Ka Yee Angela LEUNG

This chapter argues for the importance of understanding the role of culture in structuring people's personal phenomenological experience. Such an understanding is (1) important per se and (2) important for elucidating the feedback loops between culture and self, between macro‐level ideology and micro‐level experience. To illustrate, we contrast the “outsider” perspective on the self of Asian‐Americans with the “insider” perspective on the world for Euro‐Americans. We examine (1) the outsider versus insider perspective by looking at the phenomenology of memory imagery, online imagery, visualization and embodiment of narratives, and relational versus egocentric projection; (2) the implications for cultural differences in …

Cultural Processes: An Overview, Chi-Yue Chiu, Angela K.-Y. Leung, Ying-Yi Hong

Ka Yee Angela LEUNG

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Culture And Friendship On Rewarding Honesty And Punishing Deception, Cynthia S. Wang, Angela K.-Y. Leung, M. See, X. Gu

Ka Yee Angela LEUNG

The present research explores whether the type of relationship one holds with deceptive or honest actors influences cross-cultural differences in reward and punishment. Research suggests that Americans reward honest actors more than they punish deceptive perpetrators, whereas East Asians reward and punish equally (Wang & Leung, 2010). Our research suggests that the type of relationship with the actor matters for East Asians, but not for Americans. East Asians exhibit favoritism toward their friends by rewarding more than punishing them, but reward and punish equally when the actors are strangers (Experiment 1 and 2); Americans reward more than they punish regardless …

Language, Cognition, And Culture: The Whorfian Hypothesis And Beyond, Chi-Yue Chiu, Angela K.-Y. Leung, L. Kwan

Ka Yee Angela LEUNG

No abstract provided.

Workforce Diversity And Creativity: A Multilevel Analysis, J. Han, S-Q. Peng, Chi-Yue Chiu, Angela K.-Y. Leung

Ka Yee Angela LEUNG

No abstract provided.

Toward A More Complete Understanding Of The Link Between Multicultural Experience And Creativity, William W. Maddux, Angela K.-Y. Leung, Chi-Yue Chiu, Adam D. Galinsky

Ka Yee Angela LEUNG

Responds to G. J. Rich's comments on the current author's original article which presented evidence supporting the idea that multicultural experience can facilitate creativity. Rich has argued that our review, although timely and important, was somewhat limited in scope, focusing mostly on smaller forms of creativity ("little c": e.g., paper-and-pencil measures of creativity) as well as on larger forms of multicultural experience ("Big M": e.g., living in a foreign country). We agree with many aspects of Rich's assessment. The issue of whether different forms of multicultural experience can affect Big C creativity is of interest to both scholars and laypeople …

Multicultural Experiences And Intercultural Communication, Angela K.-Y. Leung, Chi-Yue Chiu

Ka Yee Angela LEUNG

No abstract provided.

Korean English Teacher's Disempowerment In English-Only Classes: A Case Study Focusing On Korea-Specific Cultural Aspects, Tae-Young Kim Dr., Sung-Sam Hwang Dr., Hyo-Sun Seo

Dr. Tae-Young Kim (김태영, 金兌英)

No abstract provided.

Smoking And Psychological Health In Relation To Country Of Origin, Michael Lyvers, Tessa Hall, Mark Bahr

Mike Lyvers

In English-speaking, Western-Anglo countries, where smoking has become stigmatized in recent decades as a result of widespread anti-smoking campaigns, smokers commonly report poorer psychological health on average than non-smokers do. This may be indirectly related to the strong pressures to quit in such countries, as poorer psychological health is associated with a reduced likelihood of quitting, thus leading to a selection bias for smokers with relatively poorer psychological health. In the present study, 147 smoker and non-smoker participants either came from Western-Anglo countries where smoking has become stigmatized (Australia, Canada, U.S.) or countries in regions where smoking remains relatively more …