Cultural Psychology
SPSP Preconference
2012
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Gene-Culture Interaction: The Role of OXTR on Socio-Emotional Processes in Different Cultures
Research has identified a genetic basis for a wide range of social and emotional behaviors. Yet, there is a growing body of research showing the impact of the environment in moderating gene expression. In our research, we found that culture, as a form of environment that provides social context in which behaviors take place, plays a significant role in shaping how genes are expressed in behaviors and psychological tendencies. I will present studies in which we examined the gene-by-culture interaction in shaping emotion behaviors that are known to vary across cultures, such as emotional attention, emotion regulation and emotional support seeking. The present studies examined how culture moderates the link between oxytocin receptor polymorphism (OXTR) to produce culturally divergent psychological outcomes. These results support the idea that genes influence psychological predispositions, and that the behavioral manifestations of these predispositions are moderated by culture..
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Embodied brains, social minds: Neural and behavioral correlates of social emotion in Los Angeles and Beijing
Cultural differences in emotion norms, ideals and expectations, especially in social contexts, have been well documented in psychology and anthropology. However, a persistent question is whether there exist cultural differences in the underlying affective process, or whether these differences reflect only conventions for emotional expression and display, adopted in accordance with individuals' temperaments. Here we report the results of a cross-cultural social-emotion induction experiment carried out in Los Angeles and Beijing using neuroimaging, psychophysiological recording and naturalistic emotion-induction interviews with the same participants. We find cultural and individual differences in neural activation patterns during the strong feeling of admiration, elevation, empathy and compassion in brain regions involved in feeling and regulating the body. These differences are related to naturalistic emotion behaviors and subjective reports of experience. Results suggest that the affective process, and people's experience of this process, are shaped by an interplay between social factors attributable to culture and biological factors contributing to temperament.
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Ostracism in micro cultures: Evidence from farming and herding communities
It has been hypothesized that interdependent (versus independent) social orientations breed more holistic (versus analytic) cognitions. In line with this reasoning, in our past work, we showed that in the eastern Black sea region of Turkey members of farming and fishing communities, which rely on a greater degree of cooperation, exhibited stronger holistic tendencies than did members of herding communities. In current work, we focus on ostracism, specifically how members of farming and herding communities respond to being left out by close others and strangers. Using data from samples of adults and children, we examine what members of farming and herding communities think of ostracism, how they feel when ostracized, and how they relate to those who experience ostracism.
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What makes the self?: Sociocultural, sensory and biological influences on neural substrates of self-reflection
Self-reflection is a unique feature of human thoughts. It is critical to understand how the neural substrates of self-reflection are formulated in the human brain. It is now known that specific brain regions such as the medial prefrontal cortex are involved in self-reflection on personal attributes. However, recent cultural neuroscience studies have shown that the neural substrates underlying self-reflection are strongly shaped by sociocultural contexts, sensory inputs, and biological factors such as genes. I'll present our recent studies to illustrate the sociocultural, sensory and biological influences on the neural activity in association with self-reflection on personal attributes. These findings provide a neuroscience framework for understanding the nature of human self-concept.
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Religion and Culture: Clarifying their Interdependence and Independence
Religion and culture are constructs hard to define; and their inter-relations may be more than complex, partly depending on the definitions adopted. We will argue that scholars can legitimately consider six ways of thinking about how culture and religion relate to each other. Religion may be (a) part of culture, (b) constitute culture, (c) include and transcend culture, (d) be influenced by culture, (e) shape culture, or (f) interact with culture in influencing cognitions, emotions, and actions. For each of these six ways of inter-relations, we will provide theoretical considerations and empirical evidence through examples from recent studies in cultural and cross-cultural psychology. We will conclude by arguing in favor of a model where the two constructs should preferably be seen as partially independent.
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Emotional acculturation
People's emotional lives differ substantially across cultures. In each culture, emotional experiences and responses tend to be coordinated with the prevalent cultural models of relationships. Therefore, under normal circumstances emotions are functional to the relationships which they occur. But what happens when people change places? What happens when the culture for which emotions are socialized and the culture in which they are play out are discordant? Do their emotions acculturate? This is the topic of the current talk. We will present research suggesting that emotions do in fact acculturate, that emotional acculturation is a two-dimensional process, and that emotional fit with one's environment produces psychological wellbeing. Moreover, weI will suggest that emotional acculturation is orthogonal to the traditional acculturation scales: Immigrants' self-reports of acculturation are unrelated to their (implicit measures of) emotional acculturation. Implications for the concept of acculturation will be discussed.
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Love, hate and indifference: characterizing, measuring and ameliorating intergroup biases in members of 'distant' and conflict groups
Conflicts between neighbors (e.g. Bosnians and Serbs, Indians and Pakistanis, Israelis and Palestinians) endanger lives and livelihoods around the world. In addition to political and economic factors, these conflicts are perpetuated by psychological biases: distrust of the enemy's motives, rejection of the enemy's narratives and loss of empathy for the enemy's suffering (Bar-Tal, 2007). Conflict resolution programs aim to help participants 'un-learn' intergroup biases, but the effectiveness of these programs is rarely scientifically assessed (Paluck and Green, 2009). Perhaps more importantly, existing conflict resolution programs are only successful for some participants, some of the time (Tropp and Pettigrew, 2005). In this talk I will present ongoing work in two branches of my research program: (1) Neuroimaging studies, seeking neural markers of intergroup biases; and (2) Behavioural studies, both in the lab and in the field, examining how asymmetries in intergroup conflict can impact the effectiveness of interventions.
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