1. Motivation Across Culture(s) adopted from Kaiping Peng, U.C. Berkely, Cultural Psychology Motivation –Defined: various physiological and psychological factors that cause people to behave in a specific way in a particular context –Extrinsic motivation involves engaging in certain activities or behaviors that either reduce biological needs or help us obtain incentives or external rewards, e.g., competition, evaluation, recognition, money, incentive –Intrinsic motivation involves engaging in certain activities or behaviors because the behaviors themselves are personally rewarding or because engaging in these activities fulfills our beliefs or expectations, e.g., competence, self-determination, curiosity, enjoyment, and interest. –More choice may not produce better results! “Mom’s choice” for East-Asian Children, or Asian American children

2. Promotion or Prevention Focus Hedonistic Principle –Promotion focus : pursuit of gains and aspiration toward ideals –Prevention focus : the avoidance of losses and the fulfillment of obligations Culture differs on emphasizing different aspects of promotion and prevention focus. –Individuals with independent self emphasize promotional goals. –Individuals with interdependent self emphasize preventional goals

3. The “Hungry Animal” (Eating) Hunger gene: –Body Weights of Twins (Identical twins are more similar in body weight than fraternal twins. Same whether raised together or apart) –Genetic factors play a large role in body weight Environmental factors related to weight gain –Increased abundance of low-cost, varied high fat meals. –The habit of eating high calorie food on the run instead of leisurely meals. –The rise in energy saving devices such as remote controls. –The speed and conveniences of driving rather than walking or biking. –The preference for watching television or videos instead of exercising. Cultural Attitudes on Overweight –In many cultures, where food is a rarer commodity, fat is viewed as a sign of health and affluence in men, sexual desirability in women. –While people of all ethnicity and social classes have been getting heavier, the cultural ideal for white women has been getting thinner. –The cultural ideal for men has also changed. Muscles used to mean a working class, now muscular bodies symbolize affluence.

4. Social Animal: Motives on Love In the U.S. love is valued by most males and females as a basis for marriage In many other cultures, marriages are arranged, romantic love is viewed as irrelevant or something that develops after marriage

5. Social Animal: Motives on Love Cross-cultural studies on mate selection found across 37 cultures both men and women prefer mates with the following attributes: –mutual attraction –kind and understanding –dependable character –intelligent –emotional stability –exciting –maturity –healthy

6. Social Animal: Motives on Love But, priorities change among cultures: –Men tend to prioritize more than women: Youth (37 cultures), Health (24 cultures) and Beauty (37 cultures) – Women tend to prioritize more than men: Earning capacity (36 cultures), Ambition (34 cultures), –Industriousness (29 cultures) –US Census Data show that men tend to marry younger women, and the age difference increases with man’s age, –Women tend to marry men who are slightly older, This changes little with age

7. The Erotic Animal: Motives on Sex Some Sex happens in all cultures –All cultures have taboos and rules regarding sex –Views of ourselves as sexual beings are culturally based U.S. when 6-8th grade girls asked about the “best” age to have sex for the first time, –Asian American girls responded on average that it was just less than 22 years old, –African American girls averaged 19+ years old The more a girl believed she could be successful at school & work, the less likely she would predict early sexual activity for herself –Cultures also vary widely in acceptance of sexual behavior – premarital sex, sex outside marriage, sex without love, etc. Certain societies have strong sexual taboos, even marriage at birth Others expect sexual contact as symbol of maturation US Japan Avg. age of 1st kiss: 14-15 20 Avg. age of 1st intercourse: 15-17 22

8. Competent Animal: Motives to Achieve No difference across cultures on nAch –A learned motive to meet personal standards of success and excellence in a chosen area –Yet, there are developmental gaps across cultures and ethnic groups, particularly on academic performance. Why? Asian teachers spent more time teaching math than did American teachers & Asian students were in school an average of 240 days a year, compared with 178 in U.S. American parents had much lower expectations for their children’s education & achievement than did Asian parents

9. Cultural Stereotypes Cultural stereotypes affect perceptions of members of the stereotyped group? –Stereotype threat (Claude Steele, 1997): “the predicament where one's actions can be interpreted, either by others or the self, in a way that confirms a negative cultural stereotype. " What is stereotype threat? –The event of a negative stereotype about a group to which one belongs becoming self-relevant usually as a plausible interpretation for something one is doing or experiencing (Steele, 1997, American Psychologists) –Consequences: Affects how women do well on math; Affects how African Americans on standardized tests Steele’s study (1997), participants were African American vs. White. They were required to do a 30 V-SAT items –Manipulation: some were told the test was an valid test of their academic ability and others were told the test was not valid test, invalid (laboratory exercise) –Black students performed worse when they were told the tests were diagnostic of their academic ability than they were told the tests were not valid test for academic abilities or for other kind of tests. –The same patterns were also observed among women taking math exams. –

10. Cultural Stereotypes Are Performance differences across cultural groups a “motivation” problem? –Eastern and Western views of intellectual development Socrates’ views of intellectual development –Tendency to questions –Tendency to evaluate –Esteem for self-generate knowledge –Motivation for love for truth Confucius’ views of intellectual development –Effortful learning –Respectful learning –Absorptive learning –Motivation for pragmatism –Affinity for dialectical thinking

11. Business Culture Negotiating across Cultures http://www.executiveplanet.com/