psych 100 cross cultural psychology. current events write up.

Current Events Write-Up (10 points).You have the opportunity to write and submit two current events papers (500-600 words each) during the semester. This is an opportunity for you to apply cross-cultural concepts, theories, or findings covered in class to current events or issues in the domestic and international contexts. You will need to select an article about a current event or issue (post 01/01/22) and write about the article and its relationship to class material. I recommend that you read local and national newspapers such as the Sacramento Bee(sacbee.com), the San Francisco Chronicle(sfgate.com), or the New York Times(nytimes.com). You can receive up to 10 points for each write-up, with each comprising at minimum 500 words (title, name, and hyperlink do not count).

Case Study: Colombian Airliner Avianca
Flight 052: January 25th, 1990
Caviedes: The runway, where is it? I don’t see it. I
don’t see it. [10 seconds pass]
Caviedes: Tell them we are in an emergency. [17
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What is culture?
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seconds pass]
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What is the relationship between culture
and behavior?
Klotz [ATC]: That’s right to one-eight-zero on
the heading and, ah, we’ll try once again. We’re
running out of fuel.
ATC: …I’m gonna bring you about 15 miles
northeast and then turn you back onto the
approach. Is that okay with you and your fuel?
Klotz: I guess so. Thank you very much.
Caviedes: Show me the runway…
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Culture  Descriptive concept
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Shared way of life; types of activities, behaviors
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Culture  Historical concept
Culture  Psychological concept
The shared meaning system  symbols, beliefs,
language, experiences
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Culture  Information (Heine, 2020)
Born without culture
Learned from others through social learning 
mastery from those who excel
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Culture  Group of individuals
Social-cultural context – institutions,
cultural practices
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Heritage and tradition
Culture  Normative concept
The rules and norms
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Culture  Structural concept
Sociocultural context
Dynamic system of rules
Shared attitudes, beliefs, values, and
behaviors
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Operates on multiple levels
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Cultural transmission
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Cultural learning
Model after those with skills and those who are
respected – “prestige”  Pace, quality
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Perspective of Others: Theory of mind
The ability to understand that others have minds
different from self and that they have different
perspectives and intentions
Mentalizing
Interest in the mental states of others
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Cultural learning
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Imitative learning: one internalizes the goals and
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Emulative learning: one focuses on events in a
• How do 2-year-olds and chimps learn from a model?
behavioral strategies of another
setting or environment when learning occurs, not
the goals and behavioral strategies
Teeth-Down Position
Teeth-Up Position
Condition 1
Condition 2
Source: Nagel, Olguin, & Tomasello, 1993
• How do 2-year-olds and chimps learn from a model?
• Imitative learning
• Emulative learning
Cultural learning
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Imitative learning: one internalizes the goals and
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Emulative learning: one focuses on events in a
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Joint attentional scene: social interactions where
child and adult are jointly attending to third
object
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Scaffolding: Simplifying a task by directing a
learner’s attention to the relevant steps in the
process
behavioral strategies of another
setting or environment when learning occurs, not
the goals and behavioral strategies
Source: Nagel, Olguin, & Tomasello, 1993
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Cultural learning
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Learn faster vs. other primate species
Model after:
those with skills and those who are respected –
“prestige bias”
those who are similar to us – “similarity bias”
those who display common behaviors – “conformist
transmission”
Motivation
Share experiences and goals
Communication: Language
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Cumulative cultural evolution
Need imitative learning and language
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Ratchet effect
Information growing in complexity over time
while retaining earlier information
Artifacts: physical and conceptual
 Examples?
Complex grammar and syntax
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We have big brains!
Encephalization quotient
Ratio of brain weight of one animal compared to similar
animal of same body size
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Humans = 4.6
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16% of metabolism goes to our brain vs. 3% for average
mammal
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Gene-culture coevolution
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a) fruit, b) nutrient-rich food, c) social brain hypothesis
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Magic # =150
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Humans evolve in this average group size
Ex: Hutterite communities
Gore-Tex
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Ideas as replicators
Longevity – stable and long-lasting
Fidelity – highly accurate
Fecundity – power to produce
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Memes
Smallest units of cultural information transmitted
from person to person
Epidemiology of ideas
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Specific features of an idea get passed on
Mental representation of an idea gets passed on
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Cultures increasingly interconnected
Ecological and geographic variation
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Global cultural homogeneity
Local cultural heterogeneity
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Proximal causes
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Cultures increasingly more individualistic
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Do you bowl alone?
Top 50 baby names
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Flynn effect
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Increase in IQ with each generation
• 6 pts per decade
• 5-25 pts per generation
Causes that are direct and have immediate effects
EX: Technology
Distal causes
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Cultures more intelligent
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Inventor and imitator
Causes that are indirect and have long term effects
EX: Geography
Evoked culture
People have specific biologically encoded behavioral responses
that emerge under appropriate conditions
Transmitted culture
People learn specific cultural practices via social learning or
social modeling
Ecological and geographic variation
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Proximal causes
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Distal causes
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Causes that are direct and have immediate effects
EX: Technology
Causes that are indirect and have long term effects
EX: Geography
Evoked culture
People have specific biologically encoded behavioral responses
that emerge under appropriate conditions
Transmitted culture
People learn specific cultural practices via social learning or
social modeling
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Factors Related to Culture
Environment
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Few natural resources  teamwork, interdependence
Population density
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Social categories that describe people
Underlying these categories is culture
Affluence
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Race
 A social construction based on easily
identifiable physical characteristics
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Enculturation
 The process by which individuals learn and
adopt the ways and manners of their culture
Higher population density  hierarchy, in-groupness
Greater affluence  individualism
Technology
More widespread and sophisticated  independence
Climate
Organize activities according to temperature
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Is human behavior true for all people?
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If human behavior differs, what accounts for
these differences? Culture? Environment?
Genes?
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How might cultural background play a role in
the way people behave?
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Culture vs. Race, Ethnicity, Nationality, Sex,
Gender, Disability, and Sexual Orientation
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Identifying differences/similarities in the
global context
Understanding how culture shapes and
interacts with human behavior
Developing cultural competence (Sue, 1998)
◦ “the belief that people should not only appreciate and
recognize other cultural groups but also be able to
work effectively with them“
• Attitudes/Beliefs
• Knowledge
• Skills
How do we define culture?
A dynamic system of rules; shared attitudes, beliefs,
values, and behaviors; cultural transmission
What is the relationship between culture and
human behavior?
Culture can be passed in the form of ideas from people
to people and evolve over time
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