Publisher Summary This chapter addresses the universals in the content and structure of values, concentrating on the theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries, and its four basic issues: substantive contents of human values; identification of comprehensive set of values; extent to which the meaning of particular values was equivalent for different groups of people; and how the relations among different values was structured. Substantial progress has been made toward resolving each of these issues. Ten motivationally distinct value types that were likely to be recognized within and across cultures and used to form value priorities were identified. Set of value types that was relatively comprehensive, encompassing virtually all the types of values to which individuals attribute at least moderate importance as criteria of evaluation was demonstrated. The evidence from 20 countries was assembled, showing that the meaning of the value types and most of the single values that constitute them was reasonably equivalent across most groups. Two basic dimensions that organize value systems into an integrated motivational structure with consistent value conflicts and compatibilities were discovered. By identifying universal aspects of value content and structure, the chapter has laid the foundations for investigating culture-specific aspects in the future.

Universals in the Content and Structure of Values: Theoretical Advances and Empirical Tests in 20 Countries

Behavioral scientists routinely publish broad claims about human psychology and behavior in the world's top journals based on samples drawn entirely from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies. Researchers - often implicitly - assume that either there is little variation across human populations, or that these "standard subjects" are as representative of the species as any other population. Are these assumptions justified? Here, our review of the comparative database from across the behavioral sciences suggests both that there is substantial variability in experimental results across populations and that WEIRD subjects are particularly unusual compared with the rest of the species - frequent outliers. The domains reviewed include visual perception, fairness, cooperation, spatial reasoning, categorization and inferential induction, moral reasoning, reasoning styles, self-concepts and related motivations, and the heritability of IQ. The findings suggest that members of WEIRD societies, including young children, are among the least representative populations one could find for generalizing about humans. Many of these findings involve domains that are associated with fundamental aspects of psychology, motivation, and behavior - hence, there are no obvious a priori grounds for claiming that a particular behavioral phenomenon is universal based on sampling from a single subpopulation. Overall, these empirical patterns suggests that we need to be less cavalier in addressing questions of human nature on the basis of data drawn from this particularly thin, and rather unusual, slice of humanity. We close by proposing ways to structurally re-organize the behavioral sciences to best tackle these challenges.

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The WEIRDest People in the World

This review collates and examines critically a theoretically convergent but widely dispersed body of research on the influence of external environments on the functioning of families as contexts of human development. Investigations falling within this expanding domain include studies of the interaction of genetics and environment in family processes; transitions and linkages between the family and other major settings influencing development, such as hospitals, day care, peer groups, school, social networks, the world of work (both for parents and children), and neighborhoods and communities; and public policies affecting families and children. A second major focus is on the patterning of environmental events and transitions over the life course as these affect and are affected by intrafamilial processes. Special emphasis is given to critical research gaps in knowledge and priorities for future investigation. The purpose of this article is to document and delineate promising lines of research on external influences that affect the capacity of families to foster the healthy development of their children. The focus differs from that of most studies of the family as a context of human development, because the majority have concentrated on intrafamilial processes of parent-child interaction, a fact that is reflected in Maccoby and Martin's (1983) recent authoritative review of research on family influences on development. By contrast, the focus of the present analysis can be described as "once removed." The research question becomes: How are intrafamilial processes affected by extrafamilial conditions? Paradigm Parameters In tracing the evolution of research models in developmental science, Bronfenbrenner and Crouter (1983) distinguished a series of progressively more sophisticated scientific paradigms for investigating the impact of environment on development. These paradigms provide a useful framework for ordering and analyzing studies bearing on the topic of this review. At the most general level, the research models vary simultaneously along two dimensions. As applied to the subject at hand, the first pertains

http://rinaldipsych.synthasite.com/resources/Bronfenbrenner.pdf

Ecology of the family as a context for human development: research perspectives

The growing technical uncertainties and complexities of problems of global concern have made international policy coordination not only increasingly necessary but also increasingly difficult. If decision makers are unfamiliar with the technical aspects of a specific problem, how do they define state interests and develop viable solutions? What factors shape their behavior? Under conditions of uncertainty, what are the origins of international institutions? And how can we best study the processes through which international policy coordination and order emerge? While a variety of analytic approaches have been used to address the problems of international cooperation, the approaches have yielded only fragmentary insights. At its core, the study of policy coordination among states involves arguments about determinism versus free will and about the ways in which the international system is maintained and transformed. Among the overlapping topics of debate are whether national behavior is determined or broadly conditioned by system-level factors, unit-level factors, or some complex interplay between the two; whether state policymakers can identify national interests and behave independently of pressures from the social groups they nominally represent; and whether states respond consistently to opportunities to create, defend, or expand their own wealth and power, to enhance collective material benefits, or to promote nonmaterial values.' A related question of

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Introduction: epistemic communities and international policy coordination

Are Americans more individualistic and less collectivistic than members of other groups? The authors summarize plausible psychological implications of individualism-collectivism (IND-COL), meta-analyze cross-national and within-United States IND-COL differences, and review evidence for effects of IND-COL on self-concept, well-being, cognition, and relationality. European Americans were found to be both more individualistic-valuing personal independence more-and less collectivistic-feeling duty to in-groups less-than others. However, European Americans were not more individualistic than African Americans, or Latinos, and not less collectivistic than Japanese or Koreans. Among Asians, only Chinese showed large effects, being both less individualistic and more collectivistic. Moderate IND-COL effects were found on self-concept and relationality, and large effects were found on attribution and cognitive style.

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Rethinking individualism and collectivism: evaluation of theoretical assumptions and meta-analyses.

Cross-Cultural Psychology is a leading textbook offering senior undergraduate and graduate students a thorough and balanced overview of the whole field of cross-cultural psychology The team of internationally acclaimed authors present the latest empirical research, theory, methodology and applications from around the world They discuss all domains of behavior (including development, social behavior, personality, cognition, psycholinguistics, emotion and perception), and present the three main approaches in cross-cultural psychology (cultural, culture-comparative, and indigenous traditions) as well as applications to a number of domains (including acculturation, intercultural relations and communication, work and health) With new additions to the writing team, the third edition benefits from an even broader range of cross-cultural perspectives Now in 2-colour, the format is even more reader-friendly and the features include chapter outlines, chapter summaries, further reading and an updated glossary of key terms This edition also offers an accompanying website containing additional material and weblinks

Cross-Cultural Psychology: Research and Applications

The Influence of Culture on Visual Perception.

The selections in Part 111 of our collection trace dilferences in social perception to environmental forces that shape the minds of perceivers. The first selection establishes the impact of visual experience on object perception. It summarizes a large-scale study which demonstrated that gross characteristics of a person’s physical environment (such as dense jungles as opposed to flat land) affect the dimensions of the person’s perceived space in ways that are measurable with standard laboratory illusions. This fact implies that the assumption of universality in perception is always a risky one.

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The influence of culture on visual perception

Preface 1The Socio-Cultural Nature of Human Beings How to Comprehend Behavior and Culture The Centrality of Learning The Essence of Being Human Anthropological Perspectives on Culture Culture and Biology Race: Can This Tenacious Concept Be Supplanted? The Point of View of This Book The Scope of This Book 2Cross-Cultural Research: Scope and Methods A Conceptual Framework for Cross-Cultural Psychology The Social and Cultural Context: Basic Concepts Cross-Cultural Psychology's Paradigm: A Balanced Approach An Antecedent of the Eco-Cultural Framework: The Culture and Personality School Methodology in Cross-Cultural Research: Some Problems and Some Solutions Conclusion 3Human Development and Informal Education Why Study Developmental Psychology Cross-Culturally? The Developmental Niche Informal Education Adolescence, Life Span, and Old Age Conclusion 4Perceptual and Cognitive Processes Perception and Visual Illusions Categorization Memory Problem Solving The Cognitive Consequences of Literacy and Schooling Experimental Anthropology Conclusion 5Alternative Views on Human Competence: General Intelligence and Genetic Epistemology The Historical Legacy General Intelligence Deficiency versus Difference Interpretations of Cognitive achievement Genetic Epistemology Conclusion 6Everyday Cognition and Cognitive Anthropology The Sociohistorical Approach: Piaget versus Vygotsky Ethnography of Daily Life Cognitive Anthropology or Ethnoscience Everyday Knowledge of Arithmetic Everyday Space and Geometry Transfer and Generalization Learning and Teaching Processes The Sociocultural Paradigm Conclusion 7Motives, Beliefs, and Values Why Study Values Cross-Culturally? Culturally-Influenced Beliefs about Illness Measurement of Values Problems Involved in Assessing Cultural Values Other Value Domains Some Concluding Observations 8Males and Females and the Relations between Them Why Study Sex and Gender Cross-Culturally? Psychological Differences between the Sexes Differing Socialization for Boys and Girls: Why and with What Consequences Gender Identity: Self-Perceptions of Men and Women across Cultures Sex Role Ideology: Culture and Male-Female Relationships A Sociocultural Theory of Human Sexuality Conclusion 9Culture and Aggression How Is Aggression Related to Crime? A Conceptual Framework for Aggression Research Cross-Cultural Studies of Gender Differences in Aggression Conclusion 10Intercultural Relations in a Shrinking World From Parochialism toward Global Consciousness? Implications of Various Kinds of Ethnocentrism Ethnic Conflict Some Conclusions and Tentative Prescriptions 11Acculturation Culture Change Acculturation Psychological Acculturation An Acculturation Framework Some Possible Applications 12Conclusions On the Importance of the Sociocultural Context Cross-Cultural Psychology vis-a-vis General Psychology Practical Implications of Cross-Cultural Research Summary and Future Directions Bibliography Name Index Subject Index

Human Behavior in Global Perspective: An Introduction to Cross Cultural Psychology

A history of cross-cultural psychology shows it to be an increasingly important part of modern psychology. Despite widespread agreement that culture is an indispensable component in the understanding of human behavior, there are noteworthy conceptual differences regarding the ways in which culture and behavior interrelate. Perspectives include absolutism and relativism, each with methodological consequences for such contemporary research concerns as values (including individualism-collectivism), gender differences, cognition, aggression, intergroup relations, and psychological acculturation. Societal concerns relating to these topics are briefly described. When all of psychology finally takes into account the effects of culture on human behavior (and vice versa), terms like cross-cultural and cultural psychology will become unnecessary.

Marshall H. Segall

Papers

Cross-Cultural Psychology: Research and Applications

The Influence of Culture on Visual Perception.

The influence of culture on visual perception

Human Behavior in Global Perspective: An Introduction to Cross Cultural Psychology

Cross-cultural psychology as a scholarly discipline: On the flowering of culture in behavioral research.