Cultural theories and their applications

Cross Cultural Psychology

Cultural Theories

Comparing cross-cultural approaches to psychology:

An ecocultural vs. An integrated approach

The need to take into account different cultural perspectives when treating patients has become increasingly recognized within the profession of psychology. Cross-cultural psychology, in contrast to other branches of psychology, allows that the definition of what is psychologically 'normal' is often highly dependent upon one's cultural context. Two similar, but slightly different approaches to cross-cultural psychology include the ecocultural model and the integrative model.

The ecocultural model, posits "that the individual cannot be separated from his or her environmental context. People constantly exchange messages with the environment, thus transforming it and themselves" (Chapter 1 summary, n.d). Someone acculturated in a nation other than the U.S. will show different developmental features than someone acculturated in America. The United States' culture supports a particularly long adolescence, and leaving home and beginning a family is no longer the normative break between childhood and adulthood, in contrast to more traditional cultures (Trommsdorff 2002: 3).

These environmental developments affect such issues as the age of expected maturity, a person's conception of what it means to live a good life, and the degree to which close relationships with family members are prioritized over autonomy. Other cultures give less weight to individualism as a value than United States and give more weight to communitarian concerns. In Japan and many East Asian countries, honoring personal obligations to family members rather than establishing an autonomous self is given priority regarding the journey of the adult to maturity. Cross-cultural studies "on ethno-theories of German, Brazilian, and Korean caretakers have shown that caretaker's child-rearing goals depends less on their personal characteristics but rather on the norms and values of the society the caretakers are living" (Trommsdorff 2002: 10). The parent's degree of efficacy may be rooted in personal factors, but the norms are culturally-constructed.

According to integrated approaches to cross-cultural theory, access to resources are the primarily determinants in governing human decision-making. Motivations are "determined by individual, socioeconomic, environmental, political, and cultural conditions," and are not simply a matter of individual 'trait-based' behaviors. "An 'integrative' approach to cross-cultural psychology emphasizes human activity, a process of the individual's goal-directed interaction with the environment. Human motivation, emotion, thought, and reactions cannot be separated from human activity" (Chapter 1 summary, n.d). Like the eco-cultural mode, integrated theories also stress the environmentally, contextually-bound nature of human behavior. However, integrative psychology focuses more upon their material effects and the dialogue between environment and actions (Chapter 1 summary, n.d).