1. Cultural Psychology Individualism / Collectivism
Egocentric vs. Sociocentric Selves
“Patriarchal Connectivity”

2. Cross-Cultural Psychology
1910s-1930s: “Culture and Personality”
Every culture a distinctive psychological configuration
1940s-1950s: “National Character” studies
Every culture has a “basic” or “modal” personality

3. Cross-Cultural Psychology
1960s-1970s: Critique and rejection
Sophisticated field & quantitative work
1980s-1990s: “Cultural Psychology”
Culture and emotion: universals + display patterns
Culture and self: egocentrism vs. sociocentrism, I vs C

4. Culture & Self: Background
Cross-cultural comparisons of traits and self-conceptions
Based on questionnaires and surveys – differences between averaged responses (1980 Hofstede survey of IBM)
Consensus: individualism (the West)
vs.
collectivism (“the rest”)

5. Individualism vs. Collectivism Egocentric vs. Sociocentric Self

6. I vs. C

7. I vs. C

8. Criticisms of I vs. C
Eurocentrism: Westerners individuals; non-Westerners submerged in social roles and relationships
Average scores obscure co-existence of ego-centrism and socio-centrism
Matsumoto’s & Oyserman’s meta-analysis: generalization doesn’t hold, even for U.S. vs. Japan

9. Japanese, Korean, Indian, & Chinese Researchers
Individuals: both “I” and “C” orientations
Cultures: domains valuing “I” and domains valuing “C”
Individuals and cultures differ not in “I” vs. “C” trait, but in configuration of “I” and “C” orientations

10. Gender: Chodorow-Gilligan Theory
Men develop by separating from mother & create autonomous selves
 “ethic of autonomy”
Women develop in relationship with mother, develop relational selves
 “ethic of care”

11. Suad Joseph Most scholars see MENA as collectivist
Families, clans, tribes, etc. – fragmented & often feuding
Prevents emergence of modern individualism
Minority see MENA as individualist
Society fragmented by individualism
Prevents cooperative social action

12. Suad Joseph: “relational matrices”
In Arab societies, persons are “embedded in relational matrices that shape their sense of self
“Children have been socialized to feel lifelong responsibility for their parents and siblings.
“Older children, often, have been given parental responsibility for younger ones.
“Men have been encouraged to control and be responsible for their female kin.

13. Suad Joseph: “relational matrices”
“Women have been called upon to serve and to regard male kin as their protectors.
“Non-kin relationships have been absorbed into the family or appropriated family idioms and morality to legitimate patriarchal connectivity outside kin groups.

14. Suad Joseph Patriarchical connectivity:
development of self enmeshed in family relationships of hierarchy and authority
But: individualism also develops
“persons in these Arab families have often resisted, constructed alternatives, or created networks that crossed the boundaries of family, neighborhood, class, religion, ethnicity,” etc.

15. Suad Joseph
“In patriarchal societies connectivity can become a psychodynamic instrument of domination…”
“Intertwined, connectivity and patriarchy have helped produce selves trained in the psychodynamics of domination, knowing how to control and be controlled.”