Cultural Psych. Ch. 1

Question 0

Sambian beliefs about the origin of masculinity/ femininity

Answer 0

Sambian believe that femaleness is an innate natural essence whereas maleness is a tenuous essence that must be explicitly cultivated. Boys are viewed as existing in the female world, hanging out with their mothers and doing what are viewed as female tasks, such as babysitting and weeding. Boys are polluted from their mothers and are seen as dependent on them for protection and warmth. They wear the same grass aprons as females and men are hostile to them.

Question 1

Sambian beliefs about stages of sexual development

Answer 1

There is a crucial process for boys to become masculinized and it is a lengthy initiation process to transform into brave and fighting men. From around age 7 boys regularly ingest semen by perfecting daily oral sex on adolescent boys and men. At age 15 they stop ingesting semen and switch roles, they start providing semen to young boys who then perform on them. Age 17 they get married and after a few years have children and their sexual practices become exclusively heterosexual, although private homosexuality may occur. Sambian females do not have any ritualized homosexuality, they are expected to be exclusively heterosexual. Sambian belief proceeds males through these stages of homosexuality, bisexuality, and heterosexuality, they are universal and natural stages of life.

Question 2

Jerungdu

Answer 2

To give boys a sense of power. A physical strength that is viewed as the supreme essence of maleness. Boys are born w/o jerungdu and they get it through semen. They believe they are incapable of producing semen and that it must be acquired.

Question 3

Muller-Lyer Illusion

Answer 3

Picture of two vertical lines that has one arrow upward and one arrow downward (door corners, inward corner, outward corner). Angles at corners suggest that the line on one side is longer and farther away than the other. Those who are raised in cultures where they are not exposed to carpentered corners are not susceptible to this illusion.

Question 4

WEIRD samples

Answer 4

The vast majority of psychological studies that have been conducted thus far have largely been limited to explorations of the minds of people living in Western Educated Industrialized Rich and Democratic societies.

Question 5

Ethnocentrism

Answer 5

Judging people from other cultures by the standards of our own culture.

Question 6

Differences between cultural psych / cultural anthropology / and sociology

Answer 6

Cultural psych- the ways people think about behaviors are influenced by the ferry specific and particular ways that cultural knowledge shapes their understanding of those behaviors. Studies one variable across groups, uses the quantitative approach. Focuses on the individual.
Cultural anthro.- studies one group in depth, focuses on many dimension ( language, customs), uses the qualitative approach.
Sociology- focuses on the group (class, gender).

Question 7

Differences between cultural psych/ general psych

Answer 7

General psych focuses on universals, the brain being like a CPU, central processing unit. The goal is to understand how CPU works, and how natural laws govern human thought. Focuses on universals or how we are all the same.
Cultu. Psych focuses on differences among cultures. Thoughts are shaper by contexts, contexts shape the content of our thoughts. Minds and culture are intertwined and insuperable. Evidence for cultural differences, unable to replicate western laboratory findings in non- western settings. Cultural differences in basic cognition ( how people think of the physical world).