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Psychology 307: Cultural Psychology

January 21

Lecture 5

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Reminders

1. Please refrain from activities in class that will distract your classmates:

Playing music (!).Talking with classmates.Online activities unrelated to the course (sit in the back three rows of the classroom).

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2. The peer mentors (Crystal, Jonathan) will hold a tutorial today:

5:00-6:00, Kenny 2510

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1. What is cultural transmission?

Cultural Transmission

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3. distinguish between evoked and transmitted culture.

1. define the terms vertical transmission, horizontal transmission, and oblique transmission.

2. identify common agents of cultural transmission.

By the end of today’s class, you should be able to:

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4. define the term sensitive period.

5. review research findings regarding sensitive periods for language acquisition and cultural acquisition.

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What is cultural transmission?

● Berry’s ecocultural model identifies cultural transmission as a process variable through which population-level cultural adaptations are communicated to the individual:

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ECOLOGICAL CONTEXT

BIOLOGICAL ADAPTATION and CULTURAL ADAPTATION

SOCIOPOLITICAL CONTEXT

BEHAVIOURS

CHARACTERISTICS

PROCESS VARIABLES

PSYCHOLOGICAL VARIABLES

BACKGROUND VARIABLES

INDIVIDUAL LEVELPOPULATION LEVEL

GENETIC TRANSMISSION

CULTURALTRANSMISSION

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● Cultural transmission refers to the transfer of cultural information through social learning.

● Three distinct forms of cultural transmission have been identified: Vertical transmission, horizontal

transmission, and oblique transmission.

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● Cavalli-Sforza et al. (1981) identified the following as the primary agents of cultural transmission:

● The relative importance of these three forms of cultural transmission varies with the size and degree

of industrialization of a society.

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Biological, adoptive, and foster parents.

Siblings.

Teachers (where formal education is available).

Individuals who are unrelated peers of one’s parents.

Individuals who are unrelated, same-age peers.

Political organizations.

Telecommunications.

Extended family members who are of the same or more remote generations than one’s parents.

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● Transmitted culture is distinct from evoked culture:

Transmitted culture is learned.

Evoked culture emerges through interaction with ecological conditions; ecological conditions activate responses that are biologically encoded in all humans.

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E.g. of evoked culture: People in tropical rainforest environments wear relatively light clothing,

whereas people in arctic environments wear relatively heavy clothing.

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The responses that are “turned on” are those that are most effective in solving the adaptive problems

produced by the ecological conditions.

Consequently, evoked culture is restricted to particular geographic regions.

Thus, ecological conditions act as a “switch,” turning on and off alternative sets of responses that are universally available.

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ECOLOGICAL CONTEXT

BIOLOGICAL ADAPTATION and CULTURAL ADAPTATION

SOCIOPOLITICAL CONTEXT

BEHAVIOURS

CHARACTERISTICS

PROCESS VARIABLES

PSYCHOLOGICAL VARIABLES

BACKGROUND VARIABLES

INDIVIDUAL LEVELPOPULATION LEVEL

GENETIC TRANSMISSION

CULTURALTRANSMISSION

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● Cultural psychologists are largely interested in transmitted culture, as opposed to evoked culture.

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● Research suggests that there is a sensitive period for culture acquisition that parallels the sensitive period for language acquisition.

● Sensitive period: A period during which an organism is biologically predisposed to acquire information or develop skills; during this period, the organism is highly responsive to environmental influences.

● The sensitive period for language acquisition spans soon after birth through to puberty.

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Evidence:

(a) Phoneme discrimination: Werker et al. (1981)

Contrasted infants from English-speaking and Hindi-speaking parents.

Assessed whether infants could discriminate between two Hindi phonemes that are indistinguishable

to adult non-Hindi speakers.

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(b) Feral children: “Genie”

Rescued from extreme isolation at the age of 13. Was unable to acquire mastery over language (in particular, grammar and syntax).

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● Like the sensitive period for language acquisition, the sensitive period for culture acquisition appears to span soon after birth through to puberty.

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Evidence: Cheung, Chudek, & Heine (2011)

Examined immigrants from Hong Kong to the lower mainland.

Participants completed the Vancouver Index of Acculturation (VIA):

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Sample Items from the VIA

Years spent in Canada (Years)

Age 0 - 15 Age 16 - 30 Age 31 - 50

VIA

-Ma

inst

rea

m

Sco

re

Identification with mainstream (Canadian) culture:

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Years in Canada

Degre

e o

f Id

enti

fica

tion

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3. distinguish between evoked and transmitted culture.

1. define the terms vertical transmission, horizontal transmission, and oblique transmission.

2. identify common agents of cultural transmission.

By the end of today’s class, you should be able to:

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4. define the term sensitive period.

5. review research findings regarding sensitive periods for language acquisition and cultural acquisition.