Kultur i sosialpsykologiPSY 2100 våren 2005

Individualpsykologi: – handle om enkeltindivider (”monader”) i samspill med omgivelsen– persepsjon, læring, beslutningsprosesser, m.m.– individuell motivasjon– “egoistisk” rasjonalitet

Sosialpsykologi:– handler om relasjoner mellom to (par, dyade) eller flere personer (triader, grupper)– sosiale bånd– kollektiv rasjonalitet

Sosialpsykologi:– handler også om relasjoner i og mellom grupper (gruppedynamikk, mellomgruppe relasjoner, konflikter og konfliktløsning)

Individer

Grupper

Samfunn/kultur

Miljø

Sosialpsykologi:– også ta hensyn til hvordan individer, grupper, samfunn/kultur og miljø påvirker hverandre

Hva menes med “Kultur”?

Kultur IKultur som”hele samfunnet” – økologi, økonomi, sosial struktur, politikk, religion m.m.

Kultur IIKultur som meninger, verdier, antakelser og tro – “subjektiv kuktur”, “livsverden”, m.m.

Kultur IIIKultur som kunst

Kultur IKultur som”hele samfunnet” – økologi, økonomi,

sosial struktur, politikk, religion m.m.

Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406)Ibn Khaldun… analysed the dynamics of group relationships

and showed how group-feelings, al-'Asabiyya, give rise to the

ascent of a new civilisation and political power … He identified

an almost rhythmic repetition of rise and fall in human

civilization, and analysed factors contributing to it. His

contribution to history is marked by the fact that, unlike most

earlier writers interpreting history largely in a political context,

he emphasised environmental, sociological, psychological and

economic factors governing the apparent events. This

revolutionised the science of history and also laid the

foundation of Umraniyat (Sociology).www.ummah.net/history/scholars/KHALDUN.html

Margaret Mead (1955)

”Culture” ... is an abstraction from the body of learned behavior which a group of people who share the same traditions transmit to their children, and in part, to adult immigrants … It covers not only the arts and sciences, religions and philosophies, to which the word “culture” has traditionally applied, but also the system of technology, the political practices, the small intimate habits of daily life, such as the way of preparing or eating food, or of hushing a child to sleep, as well as the method of electing a prime minister or changing the constitution.

Margaret Mead (1955). Cultural Patterns and Technical Change, pp. 12-13

Thomas Scheff (1990)With its exclusive focus on individuals, the discipline of psychology has shown little interest in, or even awareness of the existence of, communal bonds... Sociologists, although interested, have not been able to agree on an approach to the connection between community and society, the micro-macro link... The problem of the nature of communal bonds remains.

Thomas Scheff (1990). Microsociology, p.22

Cultural Materialism

Ideas, attitudes, beliefs, myths are a result of underlying ecological or economic relationships

Example 1: Cultural Ecology (Julian Steward, Marvin Harris)

Example 2: Marxist Theory (Karl Marx, Frederick Engels)

Julian Steward (1955)The interrelationships between the technology of production and the environment

The behaviour patterns involved in the exploitation of a particular area by means of a particular technology

The extent to which these behaviour patterns affect other aspects of culture.

The third procedure requires a genuinely holistic approach, for if such factors as demography, land use, and other key cultural features are considered separately, the interrelationships to one another and to the environment cannot be grasped.

Julian H. Steward, 1955, Theory of Culture Change: The Methodology of Multilinear Evolution, p. 42

Karl Marx (1818–1883)

The mode of production in material life determines the general character of the social, political and spiritual processes of life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but, on the contrary, their social existence determines their consciousness.

Karl Marx, 1859/1970, p. 181

Frederick Engels (1820–1895)

Political, juridical, religious, literary, artistic, etc.

development is based upon economic development. But

all these react upon one another and also upon the

economic basis, It is not that the economic situation is

cause, solely active, while everything else is only passive

effect. There is, rather, interaction on the basis of

economic necessity, which ultimately always asserts

itself. Engels

Harry Triandis (1994)

Culture is a set of human-made objective and subjective

elements that in the past have increased the probabiity of

survival and resulted in satisfactions for the participants in

an ecological niche, and thus become shared among

those who could communicate with each other because

they had a common language and they lived in the same

time and place.Harry C. Triandis (1994). Culture and Social Behaviour, p. 22

Harry Triandis (1994)

Ecology, culture and behavior

EcologyCulture

Socialization

Behavior

Personality

Seanglim Bit (1991)The Warrior Heritage: A Psychological Perspective of Cambodian Trauma

…the warrior image occupies a primary place in the Cambodian psyche

The legacy of Angkor… serves as an appropriate point of departure for understanding the psychological elements of a Cambodian sense of national identity.

The Hindu religion brought concepts of the all-powerful Hindu god to the animistic beliefs of the Cambodian, deifying the King’s authority…

… away from the peaceful capital, war was waged constantly to subjugate vassal states…

A public works system… resulted in the system of canals, wide moats and reservoirs which could increase rice production…

More conquests could provide the war slaves needed…

In this ancient history played out centuries ago lies the seeds of understanding the enduring themes of Cambodian cultural identity, largely unchanged at a deeper psychological level by the influence of events in the modern age. (pp. 4–7)

Mennesker Jorden

MilitærenGudene Herskere

Teknologi CapitalHandel

Mennesker og jorden

Eksempel på underliggende forhold i sosialpsykologi

Frustrasjons-aggresjons teori: hva er frustrert i gruppe sammenheng?

Konflikter: Er det grunnleggende menneskelige behov (mat, jord for å odle mat, et sted å bo, arbeidstilfelle, kontroll over sin livssituasjon, osv) eller (mindre grunnleggende?) sosiale behov (status, prestisje, osv) som gjør seg gjeldende?

Ervin Staubs teori om utviklingen av ”ondskap” (i den tidligere pensum boken The Roots of Evil), tar utgangspunkt i ”vanskelige livsforhold”, som siden sette igang en rekke sosialpsykologiske fenomener, f.eks syndebukk problematikken.

Kultur IIKultur som meninger, verdier, antakelser og tro –

“subjektiv kuktur”, “livsverden”, m.m.

Kenneth Pike (1912–2000)

The etic view is cross-cultural … derived by comparing many systems and by abstracting from them units which are synthesized into a single scheme which is then analytically applied as a single system.

The emic view is mono-cultural with its units derived from the internal functional relations of only one individual or culture at a time.

Kenneth Pike (1954/1996). With Heart & Mind, p. 32

Etic versus Emic

Etic = “How people actually behave in the judgement of … observers”

Emic = “How people think of themselves as behaving, their purpose… and their own explanation of their behavior”

From Marvin Harris (1971). Culture, Man, and Nature, p- 149

Etic versus Emic

“There is no way to ask a chimpanzee or a baboon how he and his fellows obtain their food supply…

“By communicating with the people … the anthropologist can learn about a vast inner world of thought and feeling that is inaccessible in all infrahuman cases.”

Marvin Harris (1971). Culture, Man, and Nature, p. 147

George Lakoff (1987)Thought is imaginative, in that those concepts which are

not directly grounded in experience employ metaphor,

metonymy, and mental imagery – all of which go beyond

the literal mirroring, or representation, of external reality.

It is this imaginative capacity that allows for “abstract”

thought and takes the mind beyond what we can see and

feel. The imaginative capacity is also embodied –

indirectly – since the metaphors, metonymies, and images

are based on experience, often bodily experience. George Lakoff (1987). Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. What

Categories Reveal about the Mind, p.xiv

Berger & Luckmann (1966)The Social Construction of Reality

Human expressivity is capable of objectivation, that is it manifests itself in products of human activity that are available both to their producers and to other men as elements of a common world… (p. 50)

Berger & Luckmann (1966)The Social Construction of Reality

Language is capable of transcending the reality of everyday life altogether… Language now constructs immense edifices of symbolic representations that appear to tower over the reality of everyday life like gigantic presences from another world. Religion, philosophy, art and science are the historically most important symbols of this kind. (p. 55)

“Husbands tend to be more considerate of their wives and help around the house more than is true of men of other tribal groups. Once more the Lahu have a delightful story giving the ‘reason’ for this…”

Paul & Elaine Lewis 1984/1998). Peoples of the Golden Triangle, p. 188

Father and child: Lahu people, northern Thailand

Kultur IIIKultur som kunst

American Psychological AssociationDivision 10 – Society for the Psychology of

Æsthetics, Creativity and the Arts

Division 10 - Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the

Arts is committed to interdisciplinary scholarship, both theoretical and

empirical, encompassing the visual arts, poetry, literature, music, and

dance. Broadly conceived, we study three interrelated topics: creativity

(including developmental, motivational, affective, and cognitive

processes), the arts (including aesthetic content, form, and function), and

audience response to the arts (including preferences and judgments). To

this end, we apply personality, clinical, cognitive, perceptual, cultural,

and postmodern psychologies to diverse artists, styles, and epochs.

Lomax & Berkowitz (1972)The Evolutionary Taxonomy of Culture, Science, 21 July 1972

(Study of song and dance styles in pre-industrial societies)

... the explicitness, of information load, of song varies

with the level of economic productivity, ... cohesiveness

of performance is an indicator of the level of communal

solidarity, ... multipart singing occurs in societies where

the sexes have a complementary relationship, and ... the

degree of ornamentation increases with increased social

stratification (p.229)

Scheurich, Lopez & Lopez Study of lives of Mexican immigrants

Together they created a collage of artifacts, images, music and sound, and text. In addition they created a script requiring the participation of a cast along with members of the audience. In this manner they essentially extended the collaborative process to the audience. Efforts were made to keep the door open to the easy flow of perceptions and conversations abut the materials... In effect, the research provided the audience with possibilities for a rich engagement with the issues, but left them free to interpret in different ways. (From Gergen, 1997)

Culture and Social Psychology – Three versions

(after Kenneth J. Gergen (1997). Toward a Cultural Constructionist Psychology)

Cross-cultural Psychology

– establishing general principles of behaviour

Cultural Psychology

– the universal in psychology is replaced by the indigenous

Cultural Constructionist Psychology

– transform the very conceptual structure through which understanding occurs

Cross-cultural Psychology

Example 1: Universals of emotional expression (Ekman)

Example 2: Individualism / Collectivism (Triandis)

Example 3: Construal of the self across cultures (Kitayama & Markus)

Cultural Psychology

Scientific psychology… will achieve a more effective stance toward the culture at large when it comes to recognize that the folk psychology of ordinary people is not just a set of self-assuaging illusions, but the culture’s beliefs and working hypotheses about what makes it possible and fulfilling for people to live together… It is where psychology starts and where it is inseparable from anthropology.

Jerome Bruner (1990). Acts of Meaning.

Cultural Constructionist Psychology

There are no transcendentally privileged accounts of what we take to exist

Whatever account we give of world or self finds its origins within relationships

Language primarily functions as social action, constitutive of one or more traditions

Traditions are both essential and perilous

Communicative relations… can generate new orders of meaning from which new forms of action can emerge.

Kenneth J. Gergen (1997). Toward a Cultural Constructionist Psychology

What we may learn by studying other cultures are not merely possibilities of different ways of doing things, other techniques. More importantly, we may learn different possibilities of making sense of individual human life… We are confronted not just with different techniques but with new possibilities for good and evil, in relation to which men may come to terms with life.

Peter Winch (1986), from Nancy C. Much (1992), The Sword of Manjusri