Cross-Cultural Psychology PS 560 A1 Spring 2009

Lecture Time: Monday 4-7pm, Location: PSY 123

Instructor: Professor Catherine Caldwell-Harris, PSY 123, 353-2956 office hrs: MW 1-2

Course website: blackboard.bu.edu (Journal articles, lecture ppts, information about final project)

Course Description. Cross-cultural research in psychology is the systematic comparison of psychological variables under different cultural conditions in order to identify universal aspects of human behavior, and to identify the causes of behavior differences. This course will examine socio-cultural variation in social behavior, personality, psychopathology, child development, emotion and cognition. Multiple theoretical perspectives and applications to health care and international relations will be considered.

Prerequisites. Six courses in psychology, a course in experimental psychology, and a course in statistics at the level of MA 116 or higher. Requirements waived for students with graduate standing.

Course Requirements

Students will complete all reading, homework assignments, participate in class discussion, and will take one mid-term short test (40 short answer or multiple-choice questions). Students will conduct library research for a final project (original research encouraged, see below) and will post their project proposals to the course discussion board and provide feedback on classmates' work. The final project can be either a 10-page paper or a 10-12 minute PowerPoint presentation to the class (collaboration with another student encouraged). Course grades will be based on the sum of points given for the following:

  • Class participation, 20%
  • Take-home assignments for small-group discussion, 10%
  • Discussion board commenting, 10%
  • Mid-term test, 20%
  • Final project, 40%

Graduate students will sign-up to lead class discussion for 30 minutes during one class meeting, and do not need to do take-home assignments for small-group discussion. Instead, grad students will meet with professor to discuss articles they have selected.

Sources for your cross-cultural data

Because you are encouraged to conduct original research, here are some possible sources of data:

  • Immigrants and bicultural individuals who are residents of Boston
  • Americans who have returned from sojourn overseas
  • Ask a friend who is living overseas to collect data following a procedure (or survey) that you designed
  • Post internet surveys (using, e.g., surveymonkey.com)
  • Consult archival sources such as HRAF, Human Relations Area Files,
  • Analyze artifacts of a different culture. Advertisements, internet sites, written materials (books,

speeches, oral histories, movies).

  • Investigate Boston residents' views of members of another culture.
  • Use Boston residents as participants and compare to published work using non-Americans.

Refine your ideas and obtain feedback from class members by posting your project proposal to the Blackboard site. You can begin posting your proposals at anytime, but do so at least 2 weeks before your presentations date.

Your job as proposal commentators and audience members for the presentations

(1) Provide feedback on classmates' project proposals. When commenting, be attentive to: Does the project serve as a vehicle to explore themes in cross-cultural psychology? Does the project go beyond class material and common knowledge? Will sources other than websites be consulted? Could the project lead to original work, synthesis and conclusions? Please comment on at least three of your classmates’ proposals. When choosing a proposal on which to comment, choose one that has fewer than three comments. (2) When attending the presentations, take notes on what themes in cross-cultural psychology were addressed; whether the presenter challenged him/herself; pursued an original questions, etc. You can provide feedback on the papers and websites by responding to their announcement of their final project.

Books

Goldstein, S. (2007). Cross-Cultural Explorations: Activities in Culture and Psychology. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Nisbett, R. (2003). The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Shiraev, E., & Levy, D. (2007). Cross-Cultural Psychology: Critical Thinking and Contemporary Applications. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. (To be assigned as class activities or take-home assignments; purchasing this book is optional for grad students. )

Typical events in a class day:

  • Lecture/discussion with PowerPoint (40-70 min)
  • Small group discussion of assigned activities and journal article (30-40 min)
  • Whole class discussion of textbook chapters and any assigned articles

Schedule of Readings and Topics

Note: Textbook chapters and articles are to be read before class, including Jan 26.

Jan 26. Ch. 1 Views of culture in psychology.Also: Ch 2, p. 45-46.

Feb 2. Ch. 2 Methods. The view from psychological anthropology: Comparing placebo effects in western medicine and ritual healing in Ghana.

Article: Boesch, E.E. (1996). The seven flaws of cross-cultural psychology. The story of a conversion. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 3(1), 2-10.

Feb 9. Ch. 3 Critical thinking. The view from biology: Are cultures adaptive? Concept of race; Gene-cultural evolution.

Article: Triandis, H.C.(1989). The self and social behavior in differing cultural contexts. Psychological Review, 96(3), 506-520.

Feb 17. [Tues] Ch. 4 Cognition, sensation, perception, Linguistic relativity. Bilingualism and emotion.

Article: Ross, M., & Wilson, A.E. (2002). Language and the bicultural self. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(8), 1040-1050.

Feb 23. Ch. 5 Intelligence.

Article: Daley, T.C., Whaley, S.E., Sigman, M.D., Espinosa, M.P., & Neuman, C. (2003). IQ on the rise: the Flynn Effect in rural Kenyan children. American Psychological Society, 14(3), 215-219.

Mar 2. Ch. 6 Emotion.

Article: Potter, S.H. (1988). The cultural construction of emotion in rural Chinese social life. Ethos, 16(2), 181-208.

Mar 16. Ch 7. Motivation and behavior. Class activity: Ultimatum game.

Article: Henrich, J., Ensminger, J., Boyd, R., et al. (2005). Economic man in cross-cultural perspective: behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28, 795-855.

Mar 23. Ch 7, p. 210-215. Gender and sexuality; Gender economics across cultures. Midterm.

Article: Hannagan, R.J. (2008). Gendered political behavior: a Darwinian feminist approach. Springer Science.

Mar 30. Chap 8 Human development and socialization.

Article: Quinn, N. (2005).Universals of child-rearing. Anthropological Theory, 5(4), 475-514.

Apr 6. Film: Court system in China, plus guest lecturer on disorders.

Apr 13. Chap 9. Disorders. Cross-cultural mental health, eating disorders, cultural-bound syndromes, psychotherapy across cultures, bilingual/bicultural issues in therapist-client match.

Article: Cooke, D.J. Understanding cultural variation in psychopathic personality disorder: conceptual and measurement issues.

Apr 23 [Thurs] Chap 10 and 11, Social perception, cognition and interaction. Friendship across cultures. Discuss Nesbett's book, The geography of thought: how Asians and Westerners think differently...and why.

April 27 Chap 12 Applied topics. Chinese organization. Modernization (see also Ch1, pages 19, 25). Article: Lynton, N., & HØgh ThØgersen. (2006). How China transforms an executive’s mind. Organizational Dynamics, 35(2), 170-181.

No final exam in this class. Instead, choose to attend 1 of 2 presentations.

Mon May 4: Presentation session 1, 4-7pm (Choose 2 hours to attend)

Mon May 11: Presentation session 2, 4-7pm (Choose 2 hours to attend) We can change these dates (discuss).