What is culture?

The Psychology of Culture

In this course, Dr Sam Parker (University of the West of England) explores cultural influences on attitudes, identity and behaviour. In the first lecture, we think about what culture is and why it is relevant in psychology. In the second lecture, we think about methods for studying culture. Next, we think about the acculturation curve. In the fourth and final lecture, we think about methods and challenges for studying acculturation. Photo by Sonika Agarwal on Unsplash

What is culture?

In this lecture, we think about what culture is and why it is relevant in psychology, focusing in particular on: (i) understanding culture to be the shared knowledge of any given group; (ii) the universalist perspective, which posits that the human brain remains undifferentiated by culture or any other kind of societal division; (iii) the relativist position, which posits the expectation that the brain differs in certain ways, based on factors like culture; (iv) humour and motivation as examples of cross-cultural differences which can impact attitudes, identity and behaviour; (v) Sussman and Rosenfeld’s 1982 research, exploring how culture, language and sex affected preferred physical distance when in conversation; (vi) findings from Sussman and Rosenfeld’s research, which suggested that people are socialised by their culture to prefer different amounts of personal space during conversations; (vii) understanding the acquisition of culture in the context of a sensitive period; (viii) the case of Genie (pseudonym) who, due to abuse and neglect, acquired no language as a child; (ix) genie’s inability to learn English as a teenager acting to support the sensitive period theory in the context of language; (x) work by cultural psychologists like Steven Heine on assessing the applicability of the sensitive period theory to culture; (xi) the process of enculturation, which refers to the acquisition of culture by an individual through the surrounding of that individual by the culture; (xii) contrasting this to socialisation, which refers to the deliberate teaching of the developing individual; (xiii) children’s parents being a key source of their cultural development; (xiv) Keller and colleagues’ 2004 research on culturally formed parenting styles; (xv) sleeping arrangements between children and their parents as another key cultural difference which may impact attitudes and behaviours later in life.