Cross-cultural psychology: definitions, relationships, and cultural analysis

Cross-Cultural Psychology

Cultural psychology concerns itself with the significant links or connections that there are between the psychology of individuals within a culture and their psychology. Cultural psychology emphasizes on the relevance of human behavior to understanding the psychology of the individual if only the sociocultural setting and context in which the behavior occurs. One good instance of this is the way religious views about extramarital activities shapes the behavior and the attitudes of the married people in a given religion or country.

In a nutshell, the cultural psychology concentrates on the whether, when and how people growing up in given cultures tend to internalize the culture. It tends to emphasize on the fact that the mental processes are the product of the interaction between an individual and a culture.

There is a wide variation in the way people live in different places, this variation may therefore dictate the human actions as well as mental sets both of which are viewed to be different from one group to another. It is these similarities and the differences that are portrayed by the various groups that are studied by cross-cultural psychology.

Cross-cultural psychology is therefore defined by Shiraev and Levy (2010) as "is the critical and comparative study of cultural effects on human psychology." The definition emphasizes on two facts; critical and comparative. This means that the study goes beyond the surface observation of a culture and must involve at least two cultures that are used as samples for the comparison in the study. Conclusions cannot be said to be cross cultural if only one culture is used in the study. There is also a prerequisite of critical skills as well as critical thinking.

The primary purpose of cross-cultural psychology is to look into the psychological multiplicity among people from different places as well as look into the reasons behind these diversities that are noticeable. Of greater interest is the aspect of cross-cultural psychology delving into the links between the cultural behaviors and norms in a comparative manner, and how these behaviors and norms are most of the time influenced by different cultural and social forces. This will help explain why a given therapy cannot be used for disaster survivors in the U.S.A. As well as another culture in Africa for instance.

Cross-cultural psychology also delves into the interaction that is found between different cultures, for instances different cultures that interacted fro a long time through trade, colonization, migration and so on. It looks at the influences that each culture that is involved in the interaction had on the other cultures, and how it was also influenced.

Cross-cultural psychology does not just look at the differences that there is between cultures, but also highlights the universality of some cultures or behaviors, i.e. The norms that are common among many cultures and even to some extent all cultures. Some of the universal personalities that Cross-cultural psychology looks into are ideas like thinking, acting and feeling.

From the above definitions, it is apparent that the seeming similarities or differences between cultures or events within cultures are all dependent on the perspective that one chooses to take concerning the event. This will then enable one to view phenomena as both similar to each other as well as different from each other. It is therefore apparent that any two events, regardless of the seeming difference between them have a thing or two that they share, on the other hand, any two events, however similar they may seem have some differences, however mundane these differences may be, this is the whole purpose of critical thinking as far as cross-cultural psychology is concerned.

Critical thinking in this context will therefore enable one to avoid two major negative effects that usually blur the reasoning of many psychoanalysts particularly those dealing with sociocultural aspects; Barnum effect and schemata.

Barnum effect is the fallacy that many people make about cultures outside their own that one size fits all, that is, having a generalized idea about some culture and assuming that that sufficiently describes the culture and the behavior of the people of that group or of that place. This is the effect that makes one say that "Immigrants have self-esteem issues" and other generic statements as such.

A critical thinker will therefore be able to differentiate between the Barnum effect and the person as well as group-specific qualities. Critical thinking also enables one to take precaution on the limitedness of the Barnum conclusions since these statements may have some validity over a given people in general but they fall short of disclosing anything specific about a particular individual in a cultural setting.

A schema is the fact of having had prior experience, knowledge, prior belief or expectancies being able to influence the perception that one has on a given phenomenon. This is an attribute that a critical thinker will not underestimate or overlook. This is light of the fact that schemata can influence ones current experiences, perceptions as well as impressions. A critical thinker will be aware of the schemata that are significant to the cultural situation they are dealing with so as increase their ability to modify them.