Psychology 3350: Cultural Psychology
2018 - 2019, Fall term
General Description
Psychology 3350 addresses theoretical and applied aspects of the relationship between culture and psychology. The course offers a variety of perspectives on Psychology's relation to culture and on the methodological problems that psychologists face when studying this relationship. Emphasis is placed on the idea of culture as a shared set of beliefs, practices, and meanings. Cultural aspects of basic psychological processes (cognition, learning, emotion, perception) are considered. The mechanisms by which psychology and culture develop and intertwine, particularly language, are considered. Topics given special attention include multiculturalism, globalization, indigenous psychologies, and the culture of formal education.
Instructors
Ron Sheese, Course Director
S342 Ross Building
Raha Sheivari, Teaching Assistant
rahaa@yorku.ca
Tony Miller, Teaching Assistant
tony2017@yorku.ca
Evaluation
Students are expected to participate in small-group discussions and write responses weekly to the discussion questions. Students conduct library research to explore a topic, issue, or question relevant to cultural psychology, and they prepare an annotated bibliography on their work. The bibliography focus might be on a cultural aspect of a psychological phenomenon or on a psychological aspect of a cultural phenomenon. Students also write two examinations.
Class participation (10%), weekly
Online participation (10%), weekly
Midterm exam (20%), October 22
Bibliography project (25%), due December 10
Final exam (35%), December 19, 2:00 - 5:00, Aviva Tennis Centre
There is no textbook for the course, rather I assign several articles and book chapters dealing with various topics in cultural psychology. The reading assignments for each class are posted at least one week in advance. Students are expected to complete the reading before coming to the class for which it is assigned.
September 10
First class, no assigned reading
September 17
Read:
Greenfield, P. M. (2000). Three approaches to the psychology of culture: Where do they come from? Where can they go? Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 3(3), 223-240.
Heine, S. J., & Ruby, M. B. (2010). Cultural Psychology Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 1(2), 254-266.
Sinha, D. (2002). Culture and Psychology: Perspective of Cross-Cultural Psychology. Psychology and Developing Societies, 14(1), 11-25.
September 24
Read:
Psychology Research Guide. York Libraries
Arnett, J. J. (2008). The neglected 95%: Why American Psychology needs to become less American. American Psychologist, 63(7), 602-614.
Hanley, L. (2016). Respectable: The Experience of Class. London: Allen Lane. (Introduction and Chapter 1: You’re Not Supposed To) (link available on Moodle site)
Steinberg, M. (1992). Moral Communities: The Culture of Class Relations in the Russian Printing Industry, 1867-1907. Berkeley: University of California Press. (Chapter 3: Workers’ Community)
October 1
Read:
Perlstein, D. (2016). Class. In A. J. Angulo (ed), Miseducation: A History of Ignorance-Making in America and Abroad (pp. 123-139). Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. (link available on Moodle site)
Rogoff, B. (2003). The Cultural Nature of Human Development. New York: Oxford University Press. (Chapter 7: Thinking with the Tools and Institutions of Culture). (link available on Moodle site)
October 15
Read
Fivush, R., Habermas, T., Waters, T., & Zaman, W. (2011). The making of autobiographical memory: Intersections of culture, narratives and identity. International Journal of Psychology, 46(5), 321-334.
Gjerde, P. F. (2004). Culture, power, and experience: Toward a person-centered cultural psychology. Human Development, 47(3), 138–157.
October 22
A midterm examination based on the two items below as well as on all previously assigned reading will be held in this evening’s class. The exam will begin at 6:30pm following a one-hour small-group discussion period.
Read
Sundararajan, L. (2013). The Chinese notions of harmony, with special focus on implications for cross-cultural and global psychology. The Humanistic Psychologist, 41(1), 25-34.
Bhatia, S. (2016). Book review. Understanding emotion in Chinese culture: Thinking through Psychology, by Louise Sundararajan. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 36(4), 256-259.
Ron’s speaking notes and recording
October 29
Read
Adams, G., Salter, P. S. (2007). Health Psychology in African settings: A cultural-psychological analysis. Journal of Health Psychology, 12(3), 539-551.
Chen, X. F., & Cheung, F. M. (2011). Feminist Psychology in China. In A. Rutherford, R. Capdevila, V. Undurti, I. Palmary (eds), Handbook of International Feminisms: Perspectives on Psychology, Women, Culture, and Rights (pp. 269-292). New York: Springer. (link available on Moodle site)
Mayer, B., Trommsdorff, G., Kagitcibasi, C., & Mishra, R. C. (2012). Family models of independence/interdependence and their intergenerational similarity in Germany, Turkey, and India. Family Science, 3(1), 64–74.
November 5
Read
PsycINFO Guide. York Libraries
Ting, R. S. K. (2012). The worldviews of healing traditions in the East and West: Implications for Psychology of Religion. Pastoral Psychology, 61, 759-782.
Watters, E. (2010). Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche. New York: Free Press. (Chapter 2: The Wave that Brought PTSD to Sri Lanka) (link available on Moodle site)
November 12
Read
Bhatia, S., & Priya, K. (2018). Decolonizing culture: Euro-American psychology and the shaping of neoliberal India. Theory & Psychology, 28(5), 645-668.
Durkin, K. (2011). Adapting to Western norms of critical argumentation and debate. In L. Jin & M. Cortazzi (Eds.), Researching Chinese learners : skills, perceptions and intercultural adaptations, pp. 274-291. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
November 19
Read
Markus, H. R., & Conner, A. (2013). Clash! How to Thrive in a Multicultural World. New York: Hudson Street Press. (Chapter 2: A spin through the culture cycle) (link available on Moodle site)
Seligman, R., Choudhury, S., & Kirmayer, L. J. (2015). Locating culture in the brain and in the world: From social categories to the ecology of mind. In J. Y. Chiao, S. Li, R. Seligman, & R. Turner, The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Neuroscience (pp. 3–20). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. (link available on Moodle site)
November 26
Read
Tapp, J. (2015). Framing the curriculum for participation: A Bernsteinian perspective on academic literacies. Teaching in Higher Education, 20(7), 711-722.
Yang, C. F. (2006) The Chinese Conception of the self. In U. Kim, K. S. Yang, K. K. Hwang, (Eds.) Indigenous and Cultural Psychology. International and Cultural Psychology. Boston: Springer.
December 3
Read
Bruner, J. (1996). The Culture of Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Preface and Section III of Chapter 1: Culture, Mind, and Education) (link available on Moodle site)
Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African-American children. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. (Chapter 4: Culturally relevant teaching) (link available on Moodle site)