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Cultural Psychology

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Affirmative Action: Definition
⬢Voluntary and mandatory efforts undertaken by federal, state, and local governments; private employers, and schools to combat discrimination and to promote equal opportunity in education and employment for all.
⬢The goal of AA is to eliminate discrimination against women and ethnic minorities, and to redress the effects of past discrimination.
Affirmative Action vs.
Equal Opportunity
•Equal Opportunity:
–Equal opportunity policies seek to achieve a system where each individual is given the same treatment as any other individual.
–Federal law prohibits all forms of intentional discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion, and national origin.
–Assumes that when there is no overt discrimination, equal opportunity exists for members of all groups.
Problem with Equal Opportunity
⬢Equal opportunity is a passive policy: action is taken only when there is evidence of explicit discrimination.
Affirmative Action
⬢Structural impediments to true equality do not always take the form of overt discrimination.
⬢A proactive examination of whether equality of opportunity exists, and if not, a plan is implemented for taking concrete measures to eliminate barriers and establish true equality.
Misunderstandings about Affirmative Action
•Remember that in Affirmative Action:
–A number of different strategies are adopted:
•Recruitment of underrepresented groups
•Formalizing personnel practices so all groups are aware of job opportunities
•Job training to ensure qualification for hires or promotions
•Giving additional weight to gender and race when making employment decisions
Misunderstandings about Affirmative Action (cont.)
•Quotas are ILLEGAL
–Goals outlined in an affirmative action plan do not constitute quotas or unjustified preferential treatment.
•The opponents of affirmative action often portray the policy as a simple matter of preferential treatment. They tend to see the policy as a monolith.
Use of quotas
⬢One of the exceptional circumstances in which quotas may be used to redress past discrimination is if an organization has been found to have blatantly discriminated and the court ordered to set proportions or targets.
Argument for Affirmative Action
Diversity vs. Merit Argument
•Merit Argument
•Measuring the merit of individuals
•Current prejudice
•Institutional barriers
•Psychological barriers
–Stereotype threat
–Disengagement
Benefits of Diversity
in Higher Education
•1. Heterogeneous learning environments benefit students’ learning more than do homogenous environments.
•2. Diversity prepares students for future interactions in American society
•3. Students who are exposed to diversity are more motivated after graduation to seek out more integrated communities than they would have otherwise done.
•4. Brings social stability in larger American society (minority students become active civic leaders; Black and Latino graduates of medical school are more likely than their White counterparts to serve underserved populations)
Benefits of Merit in Higher Education
⬢Q. Should one not hire, retain, promote workers on the basis of their work, without consideration of their ethnicity or gender?
⬢A. Without affirmative action, most groups in the U.S. do not receive treatment equal to the preferential treatment currently afforded White men.
⬢All measures of merit include element of subjectivity and includes historical and current prejudice
⬢Standardized tests is no guarantee that fairness will be achieved
Unconscious Discrimination
⬢Dovidio and Gaertner (2000)
⬢Conducted racial attitudes study of White college students (1988) (1998)
⬢Black or White job candidates were rated for qualification for jobs
⬢Self-reported prejudice dropped
⬢But White participants consistently rated White targets more favorably than Black ones.
⬢Effects of In-group bias
⬢Stereotype Threat
⬢Disengagement from the domain the stereotype exists
Perceiving one’s own disadvantage
•Q. Why is affirmative action needed when victims have the right to protest violations of fairness?
•A. 1. Economic
•2. Psychological: victims fear retaliation
•3. Victims not aware they are wronged
–Social psychology studies. Women are victims of salary discrimination yet expressed no more dissatisfaction about their personal situation than did the men.
Benefit of Affirmative Action
⬢The major benefit of affirmative action is that it does not rely on those who are placed at a disadvantage to come forward on their own behalf.
⬢Where we look for evidence of discrimination and prejudice will have to move to the cumulative benefits of being White, rather than the (exclusive) tracking of blatant racism against, in this case, Blacks. Documenting racism against, as if separable from racism for, may be diversionary strategy by which our eyes have been averted from the real price. (Fine, 1997)
After Proposition 209
⬢After ban on affirmative action, Asian Americans went from 17.4% to 18.3% of UC Law School enrollments, a small increase that trailed national trends. In contrast, white enrollments at UC Law Schools jumped from 59.8% of the class to 71.7% after Prop. 209. African Americans went down from 13 to 1. Asian Americans remained same but Filipinos went from 13 to zero.
Costs of Affirmative Action
⬢Necessarily draws attention to demographic markers such as ethnicity and gender
⬢May drive a wedge into ethnic minority communities, with opportunities going only to the well-educated.
Strategies for Increasing Acceptance
•Education as primary means of increasing acceptance
•People who knew that affirmative action is a monitoring system tended to support the policy whereas people who mistook it for a quota system did not.
•“Practice the psychology of the inevitable”
•Desegregation
•People are less likely to challenge if a policy is perceived as inevitable. (Affirmative action is still seen as a policy that can be revoked)
• Point out how affirmative action benefits Whites as well as people of color and men as well as women.
Remember
⬢Whenever an organization engages in unjustified preferential treatment and calls it affirmative action, the system works poorly.
⬢Members of dominant groups harmed by preferential treatment of minority group members.
⬢Minority group members are also harmed.
Model Minority Myth:
What is it?
The false generalization that Asian Americans have overcome all barriers of racial discrimination and are more successful even than whites.
U.S. News and World Report (1966)
Success Story of One Minority Group in U.S.
Praised Asian Americans as having:
‘Low Crime Rate’, ‘Strict Discipline’, ‘Past Handicaps’, ‘How Chinese Get Ahead’, ‘Shift to Suburbs’, ‘Streets are Safer’, ‘Efforts to Progress.’
-Implied Asian American characteristics:
Inherent goodness, intelligent, self-sufficient, excellent math and science students, quiet, studious, diligent, bookworm, obedient, polite, lack of verbal/linguistic skills, lack of personality, don’t make waves, invisibility.
Minority Myth Explained
-Historical Origin: Media image used to applaud Japanese American Community after World War II.
-History of Immigration: Immigration Act of 1924 and Immigration Act 1965 set quotas and restriction/requirements for Asian immigrants. As a result, large population of middle-class professionals immigrated into the US.
-Immigrant Dreams of Success. High expectation of recent immigrants fuel further incentive to place value on education.
-Shields against Racism: Math, Science, and Engineering. Since some Asian Americans don’t like to/choose not to see racism as part of their reality, they do not acknowledge its existence.
-“Asian Guilt”: Children raised under collectivist ideals tend to place wants of others (in this case, the parents/family) above their own.
Consequences of the Model Minority Myth
-Psychological Impact
-Emergence of Mental Health Problems: too much pressure to succeed. Unrealistic expectations come from parents, teachers, and students themselves due to the internalization of the Model Minority stereotype. (Example by Vivian Louie)
-Negative stigma to psychological therapy in Asian cultures further prevents Asian American students to seek help.
-High numbers of Asian American suicides in elite institutions such as Ivy League universities and MIT are not uncommon.
-Triggers deliberate rebellion against the Model Minority Myth.
-Psychological conflicts and Identity crises: Asian American children are raised with collectivist values in an individualistic society.
-Social Consequences
-Pitting of one minority group against another (example of the 1966 US News and World Report article)
-While Asian Americans face racism and discrimination, complaints about them are not taken seriously and easily dismissed by employers (etc.) as baseless.
-Racial Hate Crimes. [e.g. college campuses; Vincent Chin, Detroit, Michigan (1982).]
-Model Minority Myth is often mistaken for a complement.
-Asian Americans succeed only in certain fields and do not venture outside these fields.
-Asian American programs are not funded because of assumption that they do not need help.
Pitting Asians against Blacks
A. Legacy of slavery.
A. Claude Steele: “Blacks were excluded from defining images of American history and society. Whereas immigrants can tilt toward assimilation in pursuit of the opportunities for which they came, American Blacks may find it harder to assimilate. For them, the offer of acceptance in return for assimilation carries a primal insult: It asks them to join in something that has made them invisible.”
L.A. Riot (1992): Media depicted it as a Korean American vs. African American violence.
Statistics: Both highest and lowest per capita income by ethnicity fall under Asian American category: Indian Americans, Cambodian Americans (respectively).
Poverty rates of Asian Americans are significantly higher than that of Whites. Large concentrated Asian American populations such as Hmong and Cambodian communities have much lower incomes and suffer much higher rates of poverty than other Asian American subgroups.
Glass Ceiling. Asian Americans who are well educated gain relatively easy access to entry-level jobs, but continue to face inequalities in income and upward job mobility.
Asian Pacific American students, particularly those from underrepresented groups are underserved by institutional programs and are often in dire need of assistance.
Positive Stereotype Threat
Cheryan & Bodenhausen (2000)
Asian American women’s performance on quantitative skill
Conditions: (1) Ethnicity salience; (2) Gender salience
Results: Ethnicity salience impaired math performance
Implications of Positive Stereotype Threat
Although people commonly hold “positive” stereotypes about Asians’ mathematical skills, making these stereotypes salient prior to performance can create the potential for “choking” under the pressure of high expectations.
Stereotypes of Asian and Pacific American women
Exotic/Erotic
Passive/Demure
Neuter gender (for employed APA Women)
Dragon Lady (APA women almost equal to men, i.e. assertive, articulate, calculating, and effective)
Not fitting the passive/demure stereotype
“I know I was called the “Dragon Lady” by students because I was tough. But I won’t let students get by without doing the work.” (Japanese American faculty)
“I’ve had to fight back to get what I want for my program and what I believe my program needs to oeprate…I’ve been told I’m so outspoken for an Asian American woman. They would never have said that to another person!” (APA administrator)
Small Stature and
Youthful Appearance
“APA women look child-like [to tall men] and we become invisible.”
“It happens all the time. I’m a faculty member in my early forties with grey hair and I’ll be in the library or somewhere else on campus and be ignored. When I finally get their attention, they’ll say, “Oh, I thought you were a student!”
“If I don’t dress up, they [male faculty and administrators] will walk right by me in the corridor and not even see me.”
“We [APA female administrators] are not taken seriously, because we don’t look the role [since administrators are generally white men] and our authority is undermined.”
Acculturation
Psychosocial adaptation of the newcomer involves a “fundamental change which includes relearning the meaning of symbols, readjusting to a new system of values, and relinquishing some old customs, beliefs, and behaviors.” (Brunam, Hough, Telles, Karno, & Escobar, 1987).
Measuring Acculturation
How do we go about “measuring” acculturation?
What kind of questions should we ask individuals to assess their level of acculturation?
***see slide images
Earlier measures of acculturation
Western influence on “primitive” cultures:
‘Ownership index’ (Berry & Annis, 1974): Ownership of radio, snowmobile, washing machine, freezer, bank account, and life insurance to measure the extent to which an individual (in this case James Bay Crees of Canada) had “bought into” Euro-Canadian society.
Contact scale (Berry et al, 1986) measured acculturation based on eight variables including language, ownership of certain artifacts, employment and technology, religion, adoption of clothing and travel.
Acculturation:How is it measured today?
Generation (No. of generation removed from culture of origin)
Length of time in new culture
Language use (reading, writing)
Customs, habits
Idealized lifestyle
Preferences (e.g. for ethnic interaction)
Ethnic identification
Values and beliefs
Generational Distinctions
1st Generation: Came to US as an adult
1.2 Generation: Came during college?
1.5 Generation: Came to US before 14?
1.8 Generation: Came to US before 4?
2nd Generation: Born in the U.S.
3rd Generation: Parents also born in US
Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale (SL-ASIA, 1987)
Language spoken & preferred (reading/writing)
Identity (self, parents)
Ethnic composition of peers growing up
Music, movie, food, preference
Participate in traditional holidays
Contact with Asia
Generation
SL-ASIA items (example)
How do you (mother, father) identify yourself?
1. Oriental
2. Asian
3. Asian-American
4. Chinese-American, Japanese-American, Korean-American, etc.
5. American
SL-ASIA items
Do you participate in Asian occasions, holidays? Traditions, etc.?
1. Nearly all
2. Most of them
3. Some of them
4. A few of them
5. None at all
Asian Values Scale (AVS) Kim, Atkinson, & Yang (1999)
(1=Strongly disagree; 7=Strongly agree)
One should be humble and modest.
Educational failure does not bring shame to the family.
Children should not place their parents in retirement homes.
One should be able to question a person in an authority position
One should not deviate from familial and societal norms.
Critique of past acculturation scales
Scales were unidimensional (i.e., they forced individuals to choose a dominant cultural orientation, rather than allowing individuals to be oriented to multiple cultures to equal degrees).
Cortes, Rogler & Malgady (1994)
Assessment of Biculturality among Puerto Ricans
Items: Puerto Rican Culture Involvement
American Involvement

Challenged the assumption that the involvement in one culture
precludes involvement in the other culture-- argues for dual cultural
status. Possible variation by generation, age, gender, ses, etc.

***see slides for images
Minoura (1991,1992)
Studied Japanese children of businessmen stationed temporarily in Lost Angeles in late 1970s.
Has a model of acculturation that divides process into three segments: cognitive, behavioral, and affective.
Behavior, Cognition, Affect
Behavioral
Acting in a way that is consistent with cultural norms.
Cognitive
Thinking in a way that is consistent with cultural norms. (knowing the rules or cultural scripts of the culture)
Affective
Feeling in a way that is consistent with cultural norms.
Typology of Personality (Minoura, 1991)
Affect=A, Behavior=B, Cognition=C
Japanese=J, American=A

Type I (ABC=Japanese)
Type II (AB=Japanese, C=J/A)
Type III (A=Japanese, BC=J/A, A/J)
Type IV (A=?, B=American, C=A/J)
Type V (ABC=American)
Example of Type II (A,B=Japanese, C=Japanese/American)
Takako who came to the U.S. at age 15 interviewed after two years in the U.S. says “Americans don’t admit their faults even if they are responsible for them. They attack mercilessly when someone else makes a mistake. Really horrible! I don’t like that.” She is classified as cognitively bicultural, but Japanese in the behavioral and affective levels.
Type V (A,B,C=American)
Type V refers to those who tend to believe the American way is the only way to be. Children of this type are American at all three levels. They tend to say “I don’t remember much about Japan” or speak about Japan in a detached manner such as “I guess what Mom told me about Japan is probably true, because she is Japanese.” Type V children all came to the United States before age 9. Minoura writes “For them, Japan is a foreign country.”
Rie (Type II --> Type IV)
Rie (7yrs 11mo) was Type II 9 months after living in the U.S. Rie recognized the difference in greeting behavior between Japanese and Americans (“Americans say ‘hi’ even to a stranger. I don’t say that but will say hi if they say hi to me.”) This means she was cognitively aware of cultural differences, but lacking the behavioral aspect (i.e. she won’t initiate a ‘hi’ to strangers) putting her in Type II.
Three years after being in the U.S. Rie had incorporated the American way of self-presentation, shocking her mother. (Rie wrote in an essay collection in Japanese Saturday School that she was the best student in math among students from many schools and felt great!). Rie was classified as Type IV (Minoura found no affect-laden reaction to either the Japanese or the American way).
Sensitive Period (9-14 years)
Japanese children who returned to Japan before age 9 were able to adjust.
Japanese children who returned to Japan after age 14 had difficulty adjusting affectively.
Perhaps this is a period where children are becoming full-fledged cultural members.
Classism
*Definition
–The institutional, cultural, and individual set of practices and beliefs that assign differential value to people according to their socio-economic class; and an economic system which creates excessive inequality and causes basic human needs to go unmet.
Definitions of Class
*Ruling Class:
–The stratum of people who hold positions of power in major institutions of the society.
*Owning Class/Rich
–The stratum of families who own income-producing assets sufficient to make paid employment unnecessary.
*Middle Class
–The stratum of families for whom breadwinners’ higher education and/or specialized skills brings higher income and more security than those of working-class people.
*Upper-Middle Class:
–The portion of the middle class with higher incomes due to professional jobs and/or investment income.
*Lower-Middle Class
–The portion of the middle class with lower and less stable incomes due to lower-skilled or unstable employment.
*Working Class
–The stratum of families whose income depends on hourly wages for labor.
*Lower Class/Poor
–The stratum of familes with incomes insufficient to meet basic human needs.
Individual Classism
*Definition: Classism on a personal or individual level, either in behavior or attitudes, either conscious and intentional or unconscious and unintentional. Examples include the thought or belief that a certain type of work is beneath you, or the assumption that everyone has the financial resources to go out to an expensive restaurant.
Institutional Classism
*Refers to the ways in which conscious or unconscious classism is manifest in the various institutions of our society.
–Hospitals keeping a Medicaid patient for fewer days than a privately insured patient with the same condition, because the amount paid to the hospital is less, or schools in poor neighborhoods having fewer resources and larger student-teacher ratios than more affluent neighborhoods.
Cultural Classism
*Refers to the ways in which classism is manifest through our cultural norms and practices.
–A newspaper running pictures on a “high-society” wedding while not listing or highlighting a working-class couples’ wedding.
–Grey Poupon mustard is higher class than French’s mustard.
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America
⬢Barbara Ehrenreich (2002)
⬢Q. Can one actually get by in America on $5.50 or $6.50-an-hour jobs?
⬢Went undercover
⬢Started with $2,000.00 cash
⬢Had a car
⬢Worked in Florida, Maine, and Minneapolis
⬢Portrait of a world that to most professional class Americans is absolutely invisible.
For Richer, by Paul Krugman
NYT Magazine, Oct 20, 2002
•The Disappearing Middle
•Over past 30 years:
•Average annual salary rose from $32,522 in 1970 to $35,864 in 1999. (expressed in 1998 dollars)
•10 percent increase over 29 years.
•Top 100 CEOs sent from $1.3 million (39 times the pay of an average worker – to $37.5 million, more than 1,000 times the pay of ordinary workers.
Evidence for growing inequality
•1930: small number of very rich people controlled a large share of the nation’s wealth
•New Deal (1933-1937) FDR and WWII we became a middle class society
•Incomes fairly equally distributed until the 1970s
•Gap widening after the 1970s.
•We are back to the 1920s.
What undid the New Deal?
Many hypotheses
•Globalization hypothesis: cheap overseas labor, we no longer can’t compete
•Skill-based technological change: blamed domestic innovation
•Superstar hypothesis: competition is a tournament. Winner is richly rewarded, runners-up get far less. (e.g. TV comedians)
•Change in corporate culture: Greed is good. Greed works. Norms of equality replaced by “anything goes”
Emotions Research “What is an emotion?”
Four camps
Facial expression (Darwinian)
Physiology (Jamesian)
Cognitive (Cannon)
Role of culture (Social constructivists)
***See slide images
Darwin 1872
Why is it that we smile when we are happy?
Frightened: Hair stands up (happens to humans and animals) Frogs swell up, Birds ruffle feathers
Angry--> Growl, appear bigger
Submissive-->Lower, squeak
Emotions are universal, hard-wired in humans and animals.
***see slide images
Ekman’s ideas
Emotions are divided between basic emotions and secondary emotions.
There are 7 basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise, & contempt)
Each basic emotion has evolved muscular displays=distinct facial expression
Each basic emotion has a distinct physiological mechanism
***see slide image
Ekman and Friesen (1968, 1972)
went to five countries: the U.S., Japan, Brazil, Chile, Argentina.
Showed photographs of facial expressions of six emotions: Fear, Surprise, Anger, Disgust, Happy, and Sad.
High agreement
Criticism: All literate cultures—exposed to media. Perhaps emotions are not really universal
Study in Borneo and New Guinea
Pre-literate culture
Study 1
Methods: Show photographs of facial expressions and provide a list of emotion words from which they must pick one
Didn’t work well
Wasn’t even sure if language of emotion was accurate translation
Agreement among subjects was low on most emotions and totally absent on some.
Returned one year later with different methodology
Study 2 (only New Guinea)
People called the Fore: never seen movies, didn’t understand English, and had not lived in any Western settlement or government towns, never worked for a Caucasian
Method: Tell an emotion story and provide three photographs of different facial expression (with children provide two photographs)
Study 3
Asked Fore participants to show how their own faces would look if they were the person in an emotion story.
Unedited videotapes of nine of the Fore were shown to a group of college students in the U.S.
High accurate judgment in anger, disgust, happiness, and sadness. The fear and surprise was often confused.
Spontaneous Expression
Posed vs. spontaneous expression
Method: See if study can elicit spontaneous emotion and record it

Show films that elicit certain emotions. Neutral film (nature scenes)
Stressful film (bodily mutilation)
***See slide image
Critique of Ekman (Fridland 1995)
Emotion is irrelevant to facial expressions
It is never in our evolutionary interest to express emotions outwardly.
Deception is part of nature. You tell what you want to tell.
Smile: Ekman-->because happy
Fridland-->because signal for positive interaction
Critique of Ekman (Lazarus)
How the film was explained made a difference in what subjects felt.
Condition 1. Natural reaction.
2. Anthropologist or “intellectual” reaction.
3. Think about the poor boy in film.
4. The boy doesn’t really feel any pain.
James Theory of Emotion
William James (1842-1910)

1884 Published “What is an Emotion?”
1890 “The Principles of Psychology”
1894 “The Physical Basis of Emotion”
William James is the brother of Henry James the novelist.
He writes in 19th century prose. Has a literary quality.
There is no ONE ‘James Theory’
James was considered the founder of psychology in the U.S.
The same year as Wundt. Wrote the first American psychology textbook.
First lab in psych --a roome with a stop watch and microscope.
He has a medical degree and was interested in neuroscience--the brain.
How mind and brain related.
He moved from psychology to pure sphilosophy. Suffered ill health and died at age 68 in 1910

His text What is an Emotion? After 112 years is still being read today.

He basically said that emotion was a conscious experience.
***See slide images
What is an Emotion?
James
Well, it’s a perception
We perceive sound, taste,
We can perceive our own internal world
***See slide images
Q. Is there an emotion center?
Underlying assumption: YES, everything has a center
James’ answer: NO
***See slide images
Walter Cannon (1871-1945)
1. Critique of James
2. Alternative theory: “A Centralist Theory”
3. Introduced Concept of Arousal
Cannon’s Critique of James-Lange
1. Total separation of the viscera from the central nervous systems does not alter emotional behavior.
Sherrington: dog
Harvard group: cat

2. The same visceral changes occur in very different emotional states and in non-emotional states.
***See slide images
Canon’s Theory of Emotion
Emotional expression results from action of subcortical centers
Thalamic processes are a source of affective experience
***See slide images
Arousal
Arousal is undifferentiated
Comes in degrees
Varies in intensity
***See slide images
U.S. Currency
U.S. government needed gold to back up its currency
Money has to be backed up by something real
U.S. went off the gold standard 120 years ago
Economist argued that money is a social contract, and U.S. economy was strong, and so everyone’s belief in strong economy was enough.
What about emotions?
One view you will hear is that emotion is nothing but brain processes.
“Emotions depend on appraisal or culture but we won’t know unless we can PROVE IT in the brain.”
Analogous to:
We can’t prove it’s a quarter until proven by a physicist.”
***See images
Anthropologists
The emotional life of the Utkus seemed quite different.
Briggs asked, “Why are they different? What are the same?”
Situatons in which the Utku get angry are different
Their reactions are different: Reaction of anger -- to be polite and to smile
Could we even call it anger?
Antrhopologists
Important book because anthropologists opened the door to think of emotions more seriously.
Levy-->looked at emotional life of Tahitians
People give a lot of attention on anger--they worry about it, try to govern it (hyper-cognized)
Sadness--not a word--don’t think of themselves as being sad
Shweder: (cultural anthropologist)
argued that biology provides us with a bunch (HUGE number) of emotions.
Like a piano keyboard
Some tunes/notes get played a lot.
Some cultures play all the notes
Some cultures focus on the key of F
What gets played up depends on culture.
Certain emotions may never occur for some.
Rosaldo (1970s)
Illongits
Sure biology is there but emotions are culturally constructed.
One needs to know the social system
Emotions is a culturally determined expression, action ,and experience
Emotions are much more like money--depend upon the system of social contract and agreed upon.
Emotions are culturally built.
Rosaldo: Uses the word “artifact” to indicate emotions
What is an artifact?
Nature is an artifact
Table and chairs are artifacts
Emotions are artifacts built by human beings
***See slide images
Shaping the Ways of Feeling Good
American children: experience happiness and good feelings when they believe they have some qualities that distinguish them from others. Standing out is positive.
American children receive a great deal of positive reinforcement that is not particularly contingent on actual performance.
How does one come to shape the ways of feeling so differently between cultures?
Well, according to M&K, American children are encouraged to identify positive traits and to distinguish themselves from others in a positive way.

“Sarah, you did such a great job on that painting. I am so proud of you” regardless of what Sarah has actually done.

Increasingly in elementary schools, students receive no grades, and activities that foster competition and thus provide information about one’s standing relative to others (even sports activities) are discouraged. These educational practices set up a situation in which students’ beliefs about themselves and their abilities are relatively unconstrained.
In early grades at least, situations are constructed so that children can hold a set of positive beliefs about themselves. Obviously, it does not work in all cases. Many American children still feel negatively about themselves; but, in general, such practices are likely to lead to beliefs in one’s relative uniqueness.
***See slide images
The theory of the self
independent vs interdependent self) is useful in understanding how the self affects emotion.
Japanese Emotions Definition of Amae 　甘え
Michael Balint, wrote in “Primary love and psychoanalytici technique” (1965) that “all the European languages fail to distinguish between active love and passive love.”
Amae and Human Relationships
Levels of human relationships determined by the degree of enryo (restraint, holding back due to thoughtful consideration).
Absence of enryo: Ideal --> seen in parent-child relationships. Parent nor child feels enryo towards each other. Shinyu (best friends).
Some enryo: Friends (socially constructed interdependence) ,
No enryo: With tanin (those unconnected to the person)
What is amae?
Amae is first and foremost, an emotion.
It can also be expressed as a verb amaeru (to self-indulge onto others with expectation that it will be met).
It also describes an observed behavior, an overfamiliar attitude such as a way of speaking designed to attract attention.
Connotes a mutually close relationship. One does not express amae towards tanin (an unconnected person).
Amae and the Japanese Language
Assumed attitudes of superiority or contempt in dealing with other person may appear as confident on the surface, but inside the person is alone and helpless. The person has not really transcended amae, but behaves this way to cover up a lack of amae.
The notion of freedom & privacy
Western notion of freedom was slow to take root in Japan because privacy has a positive connotation for enryo (restraint, holding back due to thoughtful consideration), whereas, in Japan, an ideal relationship would be not to hold back.
Traditionally in Japan, freedom meant the freedom to amaeru. Never was it freedom FROM amae.
Concrete examples of Amae
A Japanese preschooler’s misbehavior in the classroom is attributed to his having not developed how to express and receive amae properly.
A relationship in which both intuits the other’s feelings (non-verbal communication: ishin-denshin)
Amae in Japanese Society
Prototype of amae: Infant’s desire to be close to its mother.
Amae psychology fosters a sense of oneness between mother and child.
Even after adulthood, amae works in forming new relationships.
Amae plays an indispensible role in a healthy, spiritual life.
Rosenberger (1989)
Dialectical model of the Japanese self
Folk model of self
American Anthropologist
Articulated a model for the Japanese self that went beyond the interdependent, independent dichotomies.
***See slide images
Implications
Universal relevance since the “drive to dependence” is common to humankind.
***See slide images
Organizational Culture
Dynamic system of rules that are shared among members of an organization.
Rules involve attitudes, values, beliefs, norms, and behaviors.
Organizational culture refers to deep-seated values and beliefs held to be important not only individual employees, but by the organization itself.
Organizational Climate
A shared perception of “the way things are around here” or a shared perception of organizational policies, practices, and procedures.
Deeper, less consciously held set of values, attitudes, and meanings.
Hofstede: Study on Work-Related Values
Geert Hofstede1960s & 1970s studied work-related values across countries.
Data collected: 116,000 questionnaires distributed to employees in 40 different countries (IBM)
The questions had 160 items, 63 on work-related values.
Resulted in four dimensions.
Hofstede’s Four Dimensions
1. Power Distance (PD)
2. Uncertainty Avoidance (UA)
3. Individualism (IN)
4. Masculinity

Each of these dimensions is related to concrete differences in attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors in work organizations
Power Distance
Countries that scored highest in PD: the Philippines, Mexico, Venezuela, and India.
Countries that scored lowest in PD: New Zealand, Denmark, Israel, and Austria.
Right in the middle: Spain, Pakistan, Japan, and Italy.
U.S.—slightly lower than middle.
Uncertainty Avoidance
Low UA cultures: less concerned with rules and rituals to deal with stress and anxiety of uncertainty. Relaxed attitude concerning uncertainty and mandate fewer rules and rituals for employees.
E.g. Sweden, Denmark, and Singapore
***See slide image
Individualism-Collectivism
High Individualism: U.S. Australia, Great Britain, and Canada (interesting historical link to Great Britain)
Low Individualism: Peru, Pakistan, Colombia, and Venezuela.
Masculinity (MA)
Refers to the degree to which cultures foster or maintain differences between the sexes in work-related values.
High-MA: Japan, Austria, Venezuela, and Italy
Low-MA: Denmark Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden
Monochronic and Polychronic Cultures
Monochronic Culture
Work/personal time separability: Work time is clearly separable from personal time

Polychronic Cultures
Work time is not clearly separable from personal time
***See slide images
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
(Linguistic Relativity)
*Speakers of different languages think differently, and they do so because of the differences in their languages.
*Language *Cognition
*Language differences
*Differences in thought
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
(Linguistic Relativity)
EXAMPLE
Example
*Grammar: Placement of the verb
*English: Early in the sentence
*Japanese: At the end
*Implications?
*Use of the word “I”
*English—if subject is first person
*Japanese—Often “I” is not said. Implicit.
*Implication?
Bilingualism and Culture
*What about people who are fluent in more than on language?
*Many bilinguals report that they think, feel, and act differently depending on the language they are using at the time.
Monolingualism and Ethnocentrism
*U.S. has remained largely monolingual.
*Why?
*On a global level, most people speak more than one language
*Monolinguals, including most Americans, are in the minority.
*Americans are notoriously ignorant of languages other than English.
*This ignorance is accompanied by an ethnocentric view rejecting the need to learn, understand , and appreciate other languages, customs, and cultures.
*Americans are the most monolingual of all peoples of the world=Americans the most ethnocentric??
Nonverbal Communication
*Facial Expressions
*Movement and gestures of the hands, arms, and legs
*Poster, lean, and body orientation
*Tone of voice and other vocal characteristics (pitch, rate, intonation, silence)
*Interpersonal space
*Touching behaviors
*Gaze and visual attention
Video
 A World of Difference: Communicating across Cultures
Barriers to
Effective Communication
*Assumption of similarities
*Language differences
*Nonverbal misinterpretations
*Preconceptions and stereotypes
*Tendency to evaluate (we tend to place negative or positive nuances to events)
*High anxiety or tension
American Privilege
*Take 5 minutes. Think about⬦.
*What are some of the unearned advantage or privileges that we as Americans have in the world?
*Write down as many privileges you can think of.
'Nuestro Himno' (Our Anthem)
*A Spanish language version of the national anthem was released Friday by a British music producer, Adam Kidron, who said he wanted to honor America's immigrants
*Producer says song not meant to discourage learning English
Bush: Sing 'Star-Spangled Banner' in English
*"One of the things that's very important is, when we debate this issue, that we not lose our national soul," the president exclaimed. "One of the great things about America is that we've been able to take people from all walks of life bound as one nation under God. And that's the challenge ahead of us."
Today: May 1, 2006
National Boycott by
Latino Immigrants
*Pro-immigration activists say a national boycott and marches planned for May 1 will flood America's streets with millions of Latinos to demand amnesty for illegal immigrants and shake the ground under Congress as it debates reform.
*Such a massive turnout could make for the largest protests since the civil rights era of the 1960s.
*Some Latinos were not comfortable with such militancy, fearing a backlash in Middle America.
Immigration debate:
*Immigration has split Congress, the Republican Party and public opinion.
*Conservatives want the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants returned to Mexico and a fence built along the border.
*Others, including President George W. Bush, want a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship.
*Most agree some reform is needed to stem the flow of poor to the world's biggest economy.
Immigration debate
*Organizers have timed the action for May Day, a date when workers around the world often march for improved conditions, and have strong support from big labor and the Roman Catholic church. They vow that America's major cities will grind to a halt and its economy will stagger as Latinos walk off their jobs and skip school.
*In California on Thursday, the state senate passed a resolution recognizing "The Great American Boycott of 2006," saying it would educate the United States about the contributions made by immigrants. The measure passed 24-13 along party lines with dissenting Republicans arguing that it sanctioned lawbreaking and encouraged children to skip school.
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