Showing papers in "Culture and Psychology in 2000"
TL;DR: The theory of social representations and communication belongs to a broadly conceived family of approaches studying interdependencies between socially and individually shared knowledge as discussed by the authors, which are bifurcated as social representations or communication.
Abstract: The theory of social representations and communication belongs to a broadly conceived family of approaches studying interdependencies between socially and individually shared knowledge, which are b...
289 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that an activity theory, which regards emotions as interdependent and interpenetrating with other cultural phenomena, is central for the cultural psychology of emotions.
Abstract: I argue that an activity theory—which regards emotions as interdependent and interpenetrating with other cultural phenomena—is central for the cultural psychology of emotions. Activity theory maint...
175 citations
TL;DR: This article argued that the consecutive bilinguals dual cultural-linguistic self-representations act as filters for memory retrieval of events from the personal past, where the bilingual's languages are considered the operative states at encoding and retrieval.
Abstract: This paper argues that the consecutive bilingual’s dual cultural-linguistic self-representations act as filters for memory retrieval of events from the personal past. Examination of work in experimental psychology on bilingual autobiographical memory and clinical case reports from psychoanalytic therapy with bilinguals suggests that memory retrievals for events from childhood and youth (in the country of origin) are more numerous, more detailed and more emotionally marked when remembering is done in the first language (‘mother tongue’) rather than in the second language. The mechanism accounting for this phenomenon has been identified as encoding specificity and state-dependent learning, where the bilingual’s languages are considered the operative ‘states’ at encoding and retrieval. The paper suggests that this notion of ‘states’ be refined to include cultural-linguistic self-representations attending language socialization in first and second cultures. Such language-specific self-representations act as l...
164 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, Rank-and-file Euro-American adolescents are shown to be steeped in a standard cultural belief system, and they work to keep their identities in good repair.
Abstract: This account is all about how young persons of different cultural stripes work to keep their identities in good repair. Rank-and-file Euro-American adolescents are shown to be steeped in a standard...
92 citations
TL;DR: In this article, an analysis of activity theory in general and Ratner's approach in particular is presented, concluding that activity theory is deficient at three different levels of analysis: from a general theoretical approach to the study of mind to specific details of how particular mental phenomena and their development are studied.
Abstract: In this article, activity theory is analysed. Specific examples for the analysis are taken from Ratner’s (2000) article on emotions. It is concluded that activity theory in general and Ratner’s approach in particular are deficient at three different levels of analysis: from a general theoretical approach to the study of mind to specific details of how particular mental phenomena and their development are studied. Reasons are proposed for why activity theory in principle cannot solve those deficiencies. It is proposed that Vygotsky’s cultural-historical psychology may be more suitable for understanding the human mind and its genesis.
56 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a cultural theory of duty is proposed, in contrast to that of rights, in that while the former is owed to others, the latter is demanded of others.
Abstract: This article puts forward a number of propositions as a step toward a cultural theory of duties The concept of ‘duty’ is set up in contrast to that of ‘rights’, in that while the former is owed to others, the latter are demanded of others We believe that the psychology of duty has been neglected Duties are associated with important continuities in social life, and to elaborate this point we introduce the concept of carriers, symbolic devices on which people hang cultural elements they want to maintain Duties, we propose, have their origins in certain perennial social psychological features of social life, predating the origins of writing and formal law and government Thus unformalized (normative) duties pre-date black-letter law duties, the latter tending to be installed as the formal expression of the former The same conduct, in the sense of publicly observable actions, can often be described either as the implementation of a right, or as the fulfillment of a duty, depending on the cultural context
53 citations
TL;DR: The authors argued that the encultured self emerges in early to later childhood from the earlier experiential self that is differentiated from other persons and other objects in infancy and early childhood, which is derived largely from verbal exchanges with significant others, both narrative and explanatory, about shared and unshared experiences, and about the stories, histories and myths of the embedding culture.
Abstract: It is argued here that ‘the encultured self’ emerges in early to later childhood from the earlier experiential self that is differentiated from other persons and other objects in infancy and early childhood. The later sense of self is derived largely from verbal exchanges with significant others, both narrative and explanatory, about shared and unshared experiences, and about the stories, histories and myths of the embedding culture. These enable the child to achieve a continuing sense of self in time with relations to other times and places beyond personal experience.
52 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors comment on some of the points Ratner makes in his paper, "A Cultural-Psychological Analysis of Emotions" (Ratner, 2000), and suggest that, as Ratner implies, emotions are best unders...
Abstract: In this essay, I comment on some of the points Ratner makes in his paper, ‘A Cultural-Psychological Analysis of Emotions’ (Ratner, 2000). I suggest that, as Ratner implies, emotions are best unders...
38 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a kind of relationally responsive understanding, quite different from the referential-representational kind of understanding familiar to us in cognitive psychology, becomes directly available to us from within our dialogically structured involvements with other living things.
Abstract: We can study dead forms from a distance, seeking to understand the pattern of past events that caused them to come into existence. We can, however, enter into a relationship with living forms and, in making ourselves open to their movements, find ourselves spontaneously responding to them, and in so doing, we can gain a sense of their character. In other words, from within our dialogically structured involvements with other living things, a kind of relationally responsive understanding, quite different from the referential-representational kind of understanding familiar to us in cognitive psychology, becomes directly available to us. Thus, rather than seeking to explain a child’s present activities in terms of their causes in the past, from the standpoint of an external observer, we can turn to a quite different aim: that of perceiving in a present behavior the possibilities and opportunities it offers for further developments. Orientation toward this aim is what I think is so special about both Vygotsky’s and Goethe’s historical methods of inquiry into the development of living forms.
34 citations
TL;DR: The authors point to a new kind of group process, termed a Pan/Homoculture, and characterized by changes in the behavior of each species, where a common emic perspective has developed between members of different species as they have come to share a common culture, but not a common biology.
Abstract: When human cultures merge, each takes on characteristics of the other and a completely new culture may emerge. Can a similar kind of phenomenon occur when the ways of being, doing, thinking, speaking and acting meld between two closely related hominid species, like Panand Homo? We point to a new kind of group process, termed a Pan/ Homoculture, and characterized by changes in the behavior of each species. A common emic perspective has developed between members of different species as they have come to share a common culture, but not a common biology. Their long-term shared experiences lend the force of credibility and meaningfulness to the communications regarding goals, plans and intentions. These expressions, inherently functional and meaningful within the joint subjective experiences of the members of the culture, nonetheless fail to meet standards of basic science, which demand detachment and disembodiment of communication. Because of this failure, accurate emic accounts of experiences within the cult...
33 citations
TL;DR: Chandrasekaran and Shotter as discussed by the authors focus on the relationship between cultural vitality and the development of robust identities, and discuss the importance of cultural vitality in developing robust identities.
Abstract: Both papers, Chandler (2000) and Shotter (2000), are concerned with ‘worldmaking’. Chandler focuses on the relationship between cultural vitality and the development of robust identities; Shotter, ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors locate the social psychology of duty-and rights-based discourses with present-day India and suggest that both duty and rights based discourses need reexamination because they have implications for how we make meanings about issues of morality and selfhood across cultures.
Abstract: The conception of duty that is outlined by the Moghaddam, Slocum, Finkel, Mor and HarrE (2000) is primarily based on the language of rights. Arights-based code is put into service by many Americans to understand conceptions of duty. There is much to be gained by locating the ‘social psychology’ of duty- and rights-based discourses with present-day India. Currently in India, alongside the multiple duty-based traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, there also exists a discourse about western notions of liberal humanism and secular ideologies of human rights. The discussion suggests that both duty- and rights-based discourses need reexamination because they have implications for how we make meanings about issues of morality and selfhood across cultures.
TL;DR: In this article, a journey in search of intercultural research in Hong Kong (China) has highlighted some fundamental differences between research conducted in Asia and previous projects in Europe with regard to the...
Abstract: A journey in search of intercultural research in Hong Kong (China) has highlighted some fundamental differences between research conducted in Asia and previous projects in Europe with regard to the...
TL;DR: This paper lays out an account of how a zoped may be created sui generisthrough the joint actions of equals, so as to provide an essential component in the bootstrapping of symbol systems.
Abstract: The data provided by the archaeological record currently lead to the conclusion that modern human anatomy was in place well before the modern species showed its species-typical, symbolically mediated behaviours. This temporal disjunction—between modern human biology and the modern behaviours it supports— poses the question as to how the elaboration of our symbolic behaviours may have occurred. The only field in which there is data as to how symbolically mediated activities are elaborated is ontogeny, both of humans and of languageimmersed apes (and possibly some parrots and cetaceans). Here current accounts tend increasingly to draw on Vygotsky’s concept of the ‘zone of proximal development’ (zoped), portraying the socially constructive nature of the process of mastering symbols. However, ontogeny is notoriously difficult to reconcile with phylogeny at the best of times, and it becomes much more so in this traditional Vygotskian context, for a zoped account requires that one member of the interaction ‘has...
TL;DR: Culture has a central role in explaining Nigeria's collapse into civil war, and Mary Douglas' cultural theory can facilitate cultural analysis as discussed by the authors, which explains preferences and can show why events or ideas may be acceptable to one way of life and unacceptable to another.
Abstract: Culture has a central role in explaining Nigeria’s collapse into civil war, and Mary Douglas’ cultural theory can facilitate cultural analysis. Culture theory posits a limited number of viable ways of life, consisting of patterns of social relations undergirded by value systems. It explains preferences and can show why events or ideas may be acceptable to one way of life and unacceptable to another. In Nigeria, fundamental, salient cultural differences existed between the dominant groups, reinforced by pervasive social cleavages, in terms of ethnicity, region, religion, class, and levels of access to power and wealth. Intense competition for resources led to continual cultural interpretation of ethnic antagonisms based on different values, ways of life and institutions. While these struggles involved many issues, they were defined in terms of cultural principles, and made cultural differences more important. Culturally focused rhetoric was developed by political leaders and was interpreted within highly c...
TL;DR: In this paper, the notion of development is questioned in order to explain change in child language acquisition and the fact that the native speaker's relation with her/his own language is synchronic does not imply any awareness of historical change.
Abstract: The paper aims at questioning the notion of development currently used to explain change in child language acquisition After a brief outline of the problems faced by students of child language acquisition in their attempts at identifying developmental stages, theoretical arguments are drawn in order to show that, given its specific structural properties, language cannot be parceled out, as presupposed by developmental theories. Following this line of argumentation, Saussure’s dichotomy languevs parole, is presented as a theoretical consequence of his efforts to understand linguistic change. The fact that the native speaker’s relation with her/his own language is synchronic, that is, does not imply any awareness of historical change, leads Saussure to recognize la langueas an internal systemic functioning which obliterates what is external to it: namely the linguistic individual sphere, that is, parole, where change starts, as well as the identification processes (social forces, in his terminology) respons...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus initially on the shared critical perspective of de Lemos and Nelson on developmental psychology's construction of the developing subject, and draw attention to the differences between their theoretical formulations, and suggest that both of them lack a certain level of analytic specificity, especially with respect to analysing language itsel.
Abstract: In this commentary I focus initially on the shared critical perspective of de Lemos (2000) and Nelson (2000) upon developmental psychology’s construction of the developing subject. I suggest that the plurality of temporalities which underpin the human self and human culture is reduced, in most theories of development, to a unitary and deterministic ‘chronotype’ of pure, universal sequence. As against the dominant approach in developmental psychology, which views the subject as a ‘Mind/Brain’ analysing ‘input data’ with respect to an innately constrained ‘hypothesis-space’, de Lemos and Nelson view the developing subject as an embodied and interested participant, in an intersubjectively and communicatively constituted arena of interpretation. While sharing this general perspective with de Lemos and Nelson, I draw attention to the differences between their theoretical formulations, and suggest that both of them lack a certain level of analytic specificity, especially with respect to analysing language itsel...
TL;DR: Chandrasekaran and Shotter as mentioned in this paper argue that the notion of self is a cultural construction and lacks any substantive or real referent. And they offer challenges to this postmodern destruct...
Abstract: Postmodernism proposes that the notion of self is a cultural construction and lacks any substantive or real referent. Chandler (2000) and Shotter (2000) offer challenges to this postmodern destruct...
Abstract: If one has read Gergen’s 1994 Realities and Relationships: Soundings in Social Construction, then one will find his latest book, An Invitation to Social Construction, to be very much the same. Although written with his characteristic erudition and literary volubility, Gergen’s most recent work does not really step beyond the shadow left from his last book. Even the format is eerily familiar, beginning as before by opening the space for the emergence of social constructionism by capitalizing on what he refers to as a ‘crisis of representation’, which is purportedly a failure of the traditional (mimetic, mirroring) responsibility of language, as well as on the epistemological problems of dualism, introspection, objectivity and rationality (Chapter 1). With broad stokes, Gergen genuflects to the Wittgensteinian idea of language as a game, casting acts of description and explanation away from their putatively truth-telling status to something more like Austin’s (1962) performative criteria of felicity and infelicity within particular linguistic conventions, or forms of life. As such, constructionism emerges as a metatheoretical vanguard aimed at emancipating discourse—said differently, constructionism as
TL;DR: In a follow-up article as mentioned in this paper, the same authors discuss the requirements that must be fulfilled by a cultural theory of duties (or any other topic), and the consequences of not complying with these duties are shown.
Abstract: Moghaddam, Slocum, Finkel, Mor and HarrE’s (2000) article suggests an interesting and important topic for cultural psychology: duties. Behind this topic, another, more basic issue appears: the requirements that must be fulfilled by a cultural theory of duties (or any other topic). This implicit issue is the focus of the comment. Reading between the lines, we find some questions that seem to lie at the core of present-day efforts to develop a cultural psychology: (a) the kind of links with other social sciences that can support our own conceptual construction; (b) the need for an explicit conception of society and culture as part of our theorizing; and (c) the effort to locate our contributions as part of ongoing common concerns within our scientific field. Consequences of not complying with these duties are shown.
TL;DR: The Handbook of Cross-cultural Psychology as discussed by the authors was first published, in six volumes, in 1975, under the general editorship of Harry C. Triandis, and the second edition came out in 1996/7, presenting a reorganization of topics under a different distribution, keeping, nonetheless, a basic continuity and wide coverage of issues in relation to the first edition.
Abstract: Handbooks are usually designed to give students, professionals or other interested readers an overview of a field of study, by selecting and presenting classical, relevant and updated research and information. This is the case for the Handbook of Cross-cultural Psychology. The Handbook was first published, in six volumes, in 1975, under the general editorship of Harry C. Triandis. The second edition, which came out in 1996/7, presents a reorganization of topics under a different distribution, keeping, nonetheless, a basic continuity and wide coverage of issues in relation to the first edition. The six volumes appear now in three big volumes. The editors emphasized that there
TL;DR: Jahoda as mentioned in this paper provides a rich historical review of how Europeans have presented the images of the others to themselves over the last three centuries, in various forms such as monstrous body images, child-like descriptions of the character, or presumptions of the habits of eating other humans.
Abstract: Gustav Jahoda’s new book provides a rich historical review of how Europeans have presented the images of the others to themselves over the last three centuries. These presentations come in various forms— monstrous body images, childor animal-like descriptions of the character, or presumptions of the habits of eating other humans. Yet all of these varied presentations can be seen as meaningful regulators of the distance between Europeans and the others. The other persons— savages—are real for the presenters, yet the relationship of the different Europeans to those savages varied immensely. How it varied was surely built upon existing ideologies. Thus, Jahoda describes the ways in which the inhabitants of the Canary Islands were depicted in the 14th century. The savages found there
TL;DR: In this paper, a discussion of some theoretical and methodological issues that traverse Nancy Spalding's account of civil war in Nigeria (Spalding, 2000), providing an opportunity to reflect on the way in which military conflict is approached by social scientists.
Abstract: This article takes as a starting point a discussion of some theoretical and methodological issues that traverse Nancy Spalding’s account of civil war in Nigeria (Spalding, 2000), providing an opportunity to reflect on the way in which military conflict is approached by social scientists. I take issue with the ways of understanding ‘culture’ and ‘social order’ in the interpretation of military conflicts. If we engage in cultural description (rather than imposing a cultural theory) and we keep our eyes open for all the ways in which members produce social order (rather than taking social order as an ideal state that might fall apart), then the historical institutions involved in war become visible as cultural phenomena. The resulting analysis of war is grounded in the evidence available, and enhances the reflexive and critical responsibilities of the social sciences. I illustrate these points with a brief analysis of the public discourse that preceded the NATO bombings of Yugoslavia in 1999.
TL;DR: Among human and non-human primates sociocognitive decentration and inter-individual communication serve as primary adaptive strategies assuring collective survival and providing continuity as well as evolution of cultural systems.
Abstract: Speculation concerning the biological underpinnings of human culture requires serious consideration of both the similarities and differences in psychological processes that characterize the course of human and primate development. Unfortunately, the comparative analysis of specific adaptive functions that may serve as prerequisites for the emergence and propagation of human culture are met with entrenched scepticism grounded in an ahistorical conception of biological evolution and an anthropocentric constructivist view of human culture. Appropriation of higher cognitive functions and acquisition of language is essential for normal human development as well as the maintenance of contemporary culture systems. However, such psychological development must be understood in relation to immediate social and historical contexts. Among human and non-human primates sociocognitive decentration and inter-individual communication serve as primary adaptive strategies assuring collective survival and providing continuit...
TL;DR: This article argued that evolutionary progress appears continuous on the level of the individual, but discontinuous on a whole population, which is not biologically determined animal nature that prevents primates from using human language.
Abstract: Causal effects are different from evolutionary discontinuities. As far as Lock (2000) and Savage-Rumbaugh and Fields (2000) deal with the relation of animal behavior and human activity, they have in common that they argue against an implicit misinterpretation of evolutionary discontinuities as causal effects. As a consequence, it is argued in both papers that it is not the biologically determined animal nature that prevents primates from using human language. The two papers disagree, however, on Bickerton’s distinction of protolanguage and language proper and, therefore, on the nature of ‘ape language’. It is argued in the present commentary that this different judgment results from the fact that evolutionary progress appears continuous on the level of the individual, but discontinuous on the level of a whole population.
TL;DR: In this article, a breath of fresh air is brought to the otherwise overly unimaginative social discourse on "social identity" that reigns in contemporary anthropology and psychology, and it is taken for granted that people "have identities" and that such possessions (or "good identities" of their gender, their nation or their workplace) are of positive value.
Abstract: This book brings a breath of fresh air into the otherwise overly unimaginative social discourse on ‘social identity’ that reigns in contemporary anthropology and psychology. In that area of scientific discourse, everyday ideological talk seems to hinder researchers’ imagination. Somehow it is taken for granted that people ‘have identities’ and that such possessions (or ‘good identities’—of their gender, their nation or their workplace) are of positive value. Surely, this is important for the social institutions that use persons’ identities as bases for bonding persons to their social goals, and thus proliferate the myth of the need (for persons) to have their identities. Yet these valuable possessions seem ephemeral—the ‘identities’ that are discussed cannot easily be specified. Hence the need to transcend the all too usual—and seemingly ‘correct’—ways of looking at the