Psychology and Culture
Psychology and Culture
Psychology and Culture
729
Sue Frankland: Student #: 16220086
MASSEY UNIVERSITY
Students are required to select and answer THREE (3) QUESTIONS FROM THIS LIST
You will not be able to submit the final open-book open-web exam
past the due date.
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1. Identify and describe six types of cultural display rules. Discuss the importance of
understanding how and why these rules differ across cultures.
2. Define holistic thinking and analytic thinking. How might the concepts of
independence and interdependence relate to these cognitive processing styles?
5. Describe the concept of theoretical or construct equivalence. Why does this need
to be considered when conducting cross-cultural research?
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Q1 Identify and describe six types of cultural display rules. Discuss the
importance of understanding how and why these rules differ across
cultures.
In every culture, individuals grow up learning acceptable ways of how and when
to behave in a particular way, these are our cultural norms or display rules. We learn
these behaviours, mannerisms and gestures, early in life and they determine how we react
to specific stimuli or behave in specific situations (Matumo & Hwang, 2005). Research
suggests that the same six basic display rules are displayed by all cultures (Lindsay,
2020a). These are; deamplification, when someone minimises their emotions and
expresses less than what they feel (after an argument); amplification, when emotion is
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exaggerated and expressed as more than you feel (smiling when you feel like shouting);
qualification, showing emotion but following with another emotion (smiling then crying);
masking to hide emotion (flight steward with an unruly passenger); and simulation when
showing emotion that you don’t feel at all (being happy when depressed) (Lindsay,
2020a) . These six display rules depict six different emotions; disgust, anger, fear,
sadness, happiness and surprise (Lindsay, 2020a). But as the majority of research
originates from North American studies (Lindsay, 2020a) and a mono-cultural view, can
appraisal processes and expressions (Lindsay, 2020a), but there are equally important
caused it (Lim, 2016). It has been found that individualistic cultures tend to display more
amplified emotions, such as excitement as opposed to collective cultures, who may be less
expressive (Lindsay, 2020a). We reveal our innermost emotional state through facial
expression and the basis of social interaction is the ability to accurately interpret them
language (crossed arms); facial expressions (scowling) or hand gestures (waving) (Roter
et al., 2006), but emotions are complex and multi-faceted and sometimes it is difficult to
understand them (Lindsay, 2020a) as they could be used either for self protective or pro-
social reasons. Expressions of emotion can have different meanings for different cultures
and not everybody interprets them in the same way (Lim, 2016), which illustrates the
generally western cultures, tend to have higher expressivity of emotion and display it
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more often and to a higher degree than collective cultures, who favour less expressivity,
and favour neutral or masked expressions (Lindsay, 2020a). The reason for this could be
that collectivism puts the harmony of the group above the preservation of self (Lindsay,
2020a). If more cultural subjectivity was applied to individual behaviour there may be
less confusion and unhappiness in the world. Our personal display rules and
understanding of them are mostly ingrained and automatic (Stai, 2020), yet we often tend
not to consider this when confronted with a different response to our own, which usually
For example, my first husband was Italian, his parents had never learnt English. I without
thought would automatically display various facial and bodily expressions to various
emotions, whilst casually and calmly speaking with my husband. Initially I was quite
surprised when my husband informed me I was upsetting his mother, as she thought I
was being rude or angry purely from what she saw on my face, and how she interpreted it.
It made me very aware of displays of emotion to the point I found myself concertedly
Italian and once this happened she explained that my unconsidered expressions had a
totally different meaning to what she associated with the same expressions in Italian
culture. For example; when I placed my hand under my chin and then moved it away, it
was to express considered thought, to her it was quite a rude gesture, and meant that I was
saying I could care less about what was being said. Another example of the importance of
considering culture, was when I was dealing with African and non-African staff. There
was great tension between the marketing director and one of the safety auditors.
Eventually I asked the director why this is so. He explained that this individual was
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extremely rude as every time he called him in, the guy sat down without permission and
then looked at the floor, not speaking, making it extremely difficult to deal with him. I
physically ‘lower’ than his elder, not make eye contact, and will only express his feelings
if given ‘permission’ by the ‘elder’, which was him, and that this cultural display was out
of respect not disrespect. I also recall how one Japanese client was visually shocked
when during a meeting, he offered his business card to an individual and the person
simply took it with one hand, didn’t not acknowledge it or offer any further response,
placing it in his pocket. Japanese culture dictates that respectfully, as part of the ritual, a
card is given with two hands and two hands should be used to receive the card, whilst face
to face, at the same time and once accepted should read the details and then display the
card on the meeting table. Placing it in a pocket is to say that you do not value the
Display rules dictate how we handle any situation that requires displays of
emotions, whether sad or happy. Emotion plays such an integral part in our lives, that
understanding cultural similarities and differences of display rules, might help prevent
similarities and differences in emotion may also help us better understand the different
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REFERENCES
Lim, N. (2016). Cultural differences in emotion: differences in emotional arousal level between
the East and the West. 5(2). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.imr.2016.03.004
Lindsay, N. (2020a). Emotional and Cultural Display Rules. Massey University, Auckland,
Lecture 15.
https://webcast.massey.ac.nz/Mediasite/Play/7b3481588a4c4d07aabb098d76607c591d
Roter, D., Frankel, R., Hall, J., & Sluyter, D. (2006). The Expression of Emotion Through
Nonverbal Behavior in Medical Visits.
PMC. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1484830/
Singelis, T. M., Bond, M. H., Sharkey, W. F., & Lai, C. S. Y. (1999, 1999/05/01). Unpackaging
Culture’s Influence on Self-Esteem and Embarrassability: The Role of Self-Construals.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 30(3), 315-341.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022199030003003
Stai, J. (2020). Culture and emotion. In R. Biswas-Diener & E. Diener (Eds). DEF publishers.
https://nobaproject.com/modules/culture-and-emotion
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voices and hallucinations and affecting men more than women (Torres, 2020). Sufferers
may also experience confusion, with disordered thought processes or bizarre behaviour
symptoms have been present for ≥ six months and after an examination by a psychiatrist
to rule out diseases which may mimic schizophrenia (Torres, 2020). It has been accepted
that genetics and environment are contributors to the aetiology of schizophrenia, with life
stressors also playing a role in symptom onset and disease course direction. In general,
with researchers hunting for bio-markers to indicate onset and progression (Woo, 2019).
improve and recurrence diminished, as there is no cure (Torres, 2020). This ‘no cure’
claim is causing researchers to seek out more innovative, safer treatments, but still
behaviour conditioning and advanced brain imaging (Torres, 2020). The known
neurobiological risk factors do not have sufficient predictive power for selecting
preventions in asymptomatic patients at risk, however; once the symptoms develop into
the five year prodome, the impending outbreak of the disease can be predicted with
It is a complex disorder with many misconceptions such as; schizophrenia means split or
multiple personalities and little consensus on the universality of the disease or how much
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factors (Canino & Alegria, 2008). This is probably due to a lack of definite biological
conditions (Canino & Alegria, 2008). Schizophrenia studies are predominantly based on
and functional neuroimaging advances have shown that aspects of psychiatric disorders
do have a biological basis, however; to fully understand psychiatry, the cultural context in
diagnose and manage schizophrenic patients. Clinicians are urged to consider culture and
individual views (Canino & Alegria, 2008). Sufficient evidence supports cultural
background influences on every facet of an individual’s illness, (Karno & Jenkins, 1993).
A further concern is for the variation in classification systems, for example, higher
Class of Disease and Related Health Problems, 10th edition (ICD-10), developed by the
World Health Organisation (Canino & Alegria, 2008). Both these systems require
operational definitions of what the term means within cultural context, are not provided
by either of the two (Canino & Alegria, 2008). The problem is, this leaves the assessment
and interpretation decision to the clinician, creating uncertainty and inconsistency across
different studies. Risk factors alone cannot be used for prediction and prevention without
considering the holistic make-up of the client. It is felt that the label ‘schizophrenia’ has
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been socially constructed through ideological systems, none of which are empirical and to
date, with no definite evidence of the disease’s aetiology (Sarbin, 1991). Walker (1991),
suggests that psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia are nothing but linguistic
abstractions and they exist only by consensus, and persist only by convention. An
individual suffering schizophrenia in the western world, is seen as ‘sick’ or ‘mad’ but not
in most developing cultures. Laing (1964) comments that ‘The mad things done and said
by a schizophrenic will remain essentially a closed book if one does not understand their
existential context’. Psychiatry has found ways of linguistically contorting and confusing
lived experiences with ‘essential truths’ of its own (Walker, 2006) and Bill O’Hanlon
(1989) likens a client’s experience to cookie dough, vague and malleable and shaped by
Since schizophrenia is a disease of the mind, cultural context is important and can
have a serious impact on how it manifests. This is evident in that developing countries
experience more visual and acoustical symptoms, such as the Xhosa’s of South Africa
witchcraft; and in South East Asia, similar symptoms are experienced with intense fear of
loss of fertility due to Koro (the perceived retraction of genitals into the body) (Lindsay,
2020). These conditions are real within their cultures and individuals experience pain and
physical symptoms which have no physiological basis (Hoschl, 2016). The West in
comparison, suffer more thought interruptions and removals. Interestingly, cultures who
value family more, have familial centred delusions and those cultures where religion is
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our identities are dependent on the culture we grow up in. Another finding, is that
diseases such as diabetes and lung cancer are the same in both individualistic and
collectivist cultures such as North America and China, but not schizophrenia, which can
take extreme and different forms depending where the individual is from (Phillips, 2001).
Developing countries, when ‘hearing voices’, tend to have nicer voices than the western
experience, with Ghanaians and Indians reporting ‘voices’ being playful or entertaining
and Americans reporting theirs to be violent and threatening (Luhrmann, 2014). These
Americans being more independent and individualistic and seeing their hallucinations as
invasions by strangers, whereas Ghanaian and Indian cultures with collectivistic values,
Romme, the founder and principal theorist of the ‘Hearing Voices Movement’, claiming
the term is unscientific, stigmatising, has ‘outlived’ its once claimed usefulness and is
mental illness than fact. There are important bodies of evidence to suggest that mental
illnesses have never been the same worldwide, either in form or prevalence but ignited
and shaped by the ethos of time and place, with western countries seeing it as a disease
existence. There is good evidence to suggest that while ‘teaching’ the world to think like
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the west, they have created a western symptom repertoire (Watters, 2010) with cultural
contextual factors ignored by the spreading of western knowledge of mental illness in the
REFERENCES
Canino, G., & Alegria, M. (2008). Psychiatric diagnosis – is it universal or relative to culture? J
Child Psychology Psychiatry. https://doi.org/doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01854.x
Karno, M., & Jenkins, J. H. (1993). Cross-Cultural Issues in the Course and Treatment of
Schizophrenia. Psychiatric Clinics, 16. https://doi.org/DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0193-
953X(18)30177-1
Klosterkotter, J., Schultze-Lutter, F., Bechdolf, A., & Ruhrmann, S. (2011). Prediction and
prevention of schizophrenia: what has been achieved and where to go next? World
Psychiatry. https://doi.org/doi: 10.1002/j.2051-5545.2011.tb00044.x
Sarbin, T. R. (1991). The Social Construction of Schizophrenia. In: Flack W.F., Wiener M.,
Miller D.R. (eds) What Is Schizophrenia?. Springer, New York, NY.
https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9157-9_13
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and its Implications for the Recovery Model. International Journal of Psychosocial
Rehabilitation. 10 (1), 71-87. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?
doi=10.1.1.689.5834&rep=rep1&type=pdf
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(Podsiadlowski & Fox, 2011); and collectivism occurs when the interdependent
2002). Collectivistic and Individualistic societies each have distinguishable and inherent
perspectives on life and the universe. This worldview is central to their cultural identity,
made up of shared assumptions, values and beliefs, learned from continuous interaction
and socialisation with other likeminded members of their ‘in-group’ (Lindsay, 2020).
Collectivistic groups are outwardly focussed in that they consider the good of others
before themselves, with an interdependent social construal (how a person primarily views
themselves); whereas Individualistic groups are inwardly focussed, with independent self
construal, and more concerned with what is good for the individual over the group
(Lindsay, 2020). Most western cultures are individualistic compared to Eastern and
African cultures who are more collectivistic. The concepts of individualism and
collectivism are generally seen as extreme dimensions on a continuum (Triandis & Suh,
2002), with distinct cultural patterns; however there are suggestions that individualism
and collectivism are neither extreme nor dichotomous but rather multi-dimensional, as
al., 1995).
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Zealand, but the general trend of opinion, is that it is an individualistic culture. According
to Oyserman et al., (2002), regardless of ethnic grouping, New Zealanders were higher in
individualism and lower in collectivism than other people in other regions of the world.
Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory analyses cultural values along four dimensions, and
society, scored 20 on the same scale. Apart from the results of these studies, New
Zealand’s dominant culture is predominantly one of western origin and generally follows
the principles of individualistic thinking, with 70.2% of the population identifying as New
culture tend to focus on the greater good of the whole team and less on the individual and
their skills or achievements (Rasmussen, 2005). The expectations of such companies are
that employees will form part of a united group with equal opportunities such as a family
and each person’s skills and talents, such as American companies. Due to a decline in
bargaining, together with various legislative reforms such as individual employee rights
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(Rasmussen, 2005), New Zealand’s business world has moved from collectivism to
individualism.
Zealand; however I am of the opinion that Aoteoroa New Zealand could be in the unique
position of being an individualistic society with horizontal and vertical cultural sub-
orientation. They suggested that there are two other dimensions, namely horizontal
(focuses on equality) and vertical individualism (focuses on hierarchy) and horizontal and
Individualism (VI) is the extent to which people strive to be different and want specials
but do not submit easily to authority and Vertical Collectivism (VC) evaluates the extent
(Singelis et al., 1995). Triandis (1995 contrasts the concept of one mindedness, claiming
that people develop their personal preferences and style from both individualistic and
collectivistic structures. With this in mind, I feel it should not be assumed that every
and collectivism, as seen in individuals who strive for success in the workplace
(individualistic) and adopt their cultural collectivism when at home or with their Iwi
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REFERENCES
Oyserman, D., Coon, H. M., & Kemmelmeier, M. (2002). Rethinking individualism and
collectivism: Evaluation of theoretical assumptions and meta-analysis. APA PsycNet.
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2002-00183-001
Podsiadlowski, A., & Fox, S. (2011). Collectivist Value Orientations among Four Ethnic Groups:
Collectivism in the New Zealand Context New Zealand Journal of Psychology, 40(1).
https://www.psychology.org.nz/journal-archive/Padsiadlowski.pdf
Singelis, T. M., Bond, M. H., Sharkey, W. F., & Lai, C. S. Y. (1999, 1999/05/01). Unpackaging
Culture’s Influence on Self-Esteem and Embarrassability: The Role of Self-Construals.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 30(3), 315-341.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022199030003003
Singelis, T. M., Triandis, H. C., Bhawuk, D. P. S., & Gelfand, M. J. (1995, 1995/08/01).
Horizontal and Vertical Dimensions of Individualism and Collectivism: A Theoretical and
Measurement Refinement. Cross-Cultural Research, 29(3), 240-275.
https://doi.org/10.1177/106939719502900302
Triandis, H. C., & Suh, E. M. (2002). Cultural Influences on Personality. Annual Review of
Psychology, 53(1), 133-160. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135200
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