Psychology  The discipline concerned with behavior and mental processes and how they are affected by an organism’s physical state, mental state, and external environment.

Psychology’s Purpose  To understand, explain, predict, and control behavior.

If we could, at this time, shrink the Earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look like this: There would be--  14 from the Western Hemisphere (North and South), and  8 Africans.  70 would be non-white.  70 would be non- Christian.  50% of the world’s wealth would be in the hands of only 6 people  All 6 would be citizens of the United States.

 70 would be unable to read.  50 would suffer from malnutrition.  80 would live in sub-standard housing.  Only 1 would have a college education.

Culture  A program of shared rules, attitudes, values, and beliefs that govern the behavior of the majority of community members.

Cross-Cultural Psychology  A psychological approach that emphasizes cultural influences on behavior and compares those influences to those of other cultures.

History of Cross- Cultural Psychology  Dominated by sociologists & anthropologists  e.g., Franz Boas, Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, Edward Sapir  Psychologists’ contributions  Wundt’s Volkerpsychologie  Jung’s myths and rituals

Cultural Research Problems Albert (1988)  1-Focus on individual  2-Methodology  3-High cost  4- Unfamiliarity w/ other culture  5-Researcher ethnocentrism  6-Fear of stereotyping  7-Reductionistic approach to behavior

Why Psychology of Diversity? Triandis (1980)  Evaluate generalizability v. cultural specificity (etic v. emic)  Provides descriptive data  Allows for naturalistic quasi- experiments to investigate cultural variables.  Contributes to understanding of potential cultural cognitive differences.

Cultural Etiquette Three Rivers (1991)  Beyond Political Correctness  Intended for all people  Respect and acceptance of others as being just as important as oneself

American Polygeny Gould (1981)  Biological Relativism  The notion that people at the bottom are constructed of intrinsically, inferior material

Preevolutionary Scientific Racism  Monogenism  Originating from a single source  Polygenism  Human races were separate biological species from different Adams  Morton’s “Research” on skulls  Gender & Brain

Research Ethics  Ethics are critical to any field. Psychological research is no exception. Please note the Warwick (1980) handout for details & familiarize yourself with them. At the very least they will be part of your quiz/tests.