The Psychology of Culture and Gender

Factors Influencing Culture

□Population density□Technology□Climate□resources

Factors Influencing Culture

□Climate□Climate influences your

lifestyle, including clothing and habitat.

□Resources□Abundance or lack of

resources has an influence on how the people of the culture behave.

Factors Influencing Culture

□Technology□Inventions influence how

people interact

□Population density□Societies with higher

population densities require more rules for maintaining social order.

Individualism and Collectivism

Individualism□ Giving priority to personal

goals over group goals and

defining identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identification

Collectivism□ Giving priority to the goals

of the group (often the extended family or work group) and defining personal identity accordingly.

Individualism vs Collectivism

Motivation and Culture

□Individualist cultures view motivation as an internal push and achievement as an individual triumph.

□Collectivist cultures view the desire to achieve as emerging from a sense of indebtedness or obligation to the group.

Culture and Personality

□Cross- Cultural research□Research that tests hypotheses on many groups of

people to understand whether principles apply across cultures.

□Culture Specific□Principles that are true only for people of a certain

culture.

Culture and personality

□Socialization□Learning to become a member of a culture

including behaviors the individual expects, and what is expected of the individual

□Ethnocentrism□The tendency to view the world through your own

cultural filters.

Culture and Gender

□Our definition of male and female, based on socially and culturally influenced characteristics, as well as biology.

Culture and Gender

□Gender Roles□A set of expected

behaviors for male and female.

□Gender Identity□Our sense of being male

or female.