scholarly journals Integrating Culture and Biology in Psychological Research: Conceptual Clarifications and Recommendations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moin Syed ◽  
Ummul-Kiram Kathawalla

The increased prevalence of psychological research that integrates cultural and biological perspectives requires that we take stock of how the field approaches important issues of conceptualization and measurement. The primary goal of this chapter is to raise some substantial conceptual and methodological issues of which researchers in the field should be aware. To this end, the chapter includes an in-depth discussion of the nature of cultural psychology, highlights the need to carefully conceptualize the nature of cultural groups, and addresses the ongoing debate about the biological basis of race. The second half of the chapter provides some specific recommendations for future researchers who wish to pursue a rigorous scientific approach to understanding the interplay of culture and biology.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ype H. Poortinga

An overview is given of cross-cultural psychology and cultural psychology, focusing on theory and methodology. In Section 1 historical developments in research are traced; it is found that initially extensive psychological differences tend to shrink when more carefully designed studies are conducted. Section 2 addresses the conceptualization of “culture” and of “a culture”. For psychological research the notion “culture” is considered too vague; more focal explanatory concepts are required. Section 3 describes methodological issues, taking the notion of the empirical cycle as a lead for both qualitative and quantitative research. Pitfalls in research design and data analysis of behavior-comparative studies, and the need for replication are discussed. Section 4 suggests to move beyond research on causal relationships and to incorporate additional questions, addressing the function and the development of behavior patterns in ontogenetic, phylogenetic and historical time. Section 5 emphasizes the need for applied research serving the global village.


Author(s):  
Anisur Rahman Khan ◽  
S. M. Anowarul Kayes Shimul

We are writing to you to allow us to enter into an ongoing debate concerning a write-up titled, “Young teenage suicides in Bangladesh – are mandatory Junior School Certificate exams to blame?”published in ‘International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction’by Mamun and Griffiths (2020a).Arafat (2020), are searcher from Bangladesh, initiated the debate through a letter to the editor of that journal raising several theoretical and procedural/methodological flaws of the original publication of Mamun and Griffiths (2020a).Arafat (2020) finds this publication as “potentially flawed” and “purely hypothetical” (p.1).Hereafter, Mamun, and Griffiths (2020b) categorically refuted each of the claims raised by Arafat (2020)to justify their stance and flows writing another letter to the editor. Space will not allow us to touch upon each of their arguments and counter-arguments rather we would shed light on the major issues of their dissonance cornering the methodological issues. At the same time, we would also highlight our opinions in this regard.


2016 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Vytautas Kardelis

This article is a continuation of ongoing debate on the development of Lithuanian dialectology, the issues of which were first addressed and published in 2015. One of the key ideas expressed by the specialists of dialectology was a proposal to start the development of an extensive model of interests of Lithuanian dialectology. The model could encompass a historical approach, i.e. issues of the development of Lithuanian dialects, essential features of that development as well as the most significant empirical and methodological transformations. The second approach would focus on the perspectives of Lithuanian dialectology which can be placed on the basis of the existing model of interests in Lithuanian dialectology and specific studies carried out in the field. This article proposes a perspective-based plan of research into dialectology and attempts to suggest a tool to implement that plan. The article begins with several introductory remarks about the author’s view towards the existing state of Lithuanian dialectology. It could be briefly described in the following way: traditional dialectology: neogrammarian atomism (exclusive of the theory of dialectology) → structural dialectology: →   phonology and natural morphology (inclusive of the theory of phonology and natural morphology but exclusive of the theory of structural dialectology) →  the new dialectology: (inclusive of the theory of dialectology: geolinguistics and sociolinguistics, the dynamic socio-cognitive view). The proposed perspective-based plan of research consists of seven stages, namely: typological, varieties (lects) and variants, dialectometry, sociolinguistics and language contacts, perceptive, salience, and empirical. The article does not seek to describe each of the stages in great detail or to review extensive research literature existing on the aspects discussed above. The main aim of this article is to identify and discuss some research trends which are relatively new in Western linguistics and to suggest their application in Lithuanian dialectology. Perhaps this could initiate a discussion among Lithuanian and, possibly, foreign dialectologists working with Lithuanian and Slavic languages with regard to theoretical and methodological issues pertaining to dialectology research. Arguably, the foundation of such a prospective discussion was laid in the work “Lithuanian Dialects of the Early 21st Century: A Geolinguistic and Sociolinguistic Study. Maps and their Commentaries”. Hopefully, this review article will also contribute to the prospective discussions and motivate young researchers of dialects to embark on dialectology research by applying new trends in Lithuanian dialectology.


Author(s):  
В.И. Казаренков ◽  
В. Бовэнь

В статье раскрыты целесообразность и прогностическая ценность изучения проблемы доверия в межкультурном взаимодействии. На основе анализа теоретических концепций обосновывается, что уровень выраженности доверия к представителям иных культурных групп выступает предиктором социально-перцептивных процессов в общении и опосредует выбор субъектом соответствующей стратегии межличностного взаимодействия в процессах межкультурной коммуникации. Представлены результаты эмпирического исследования, в котором выявляется содержание критериев доверия и недоверия студентов китайской, африканской и латиноамериканской общностей к сверстникам — представителям иных культурных групп. Эмпирически подтверждается предположение о существовании связей между доверием, недоверием и стратегиями взаимодействия иностранных студентов со сверстниками — представителями других культур. Анализируются обнаруженные корреляционные взаимосвязи между содержательными критериями доверия (недоверия) и манипулятивной, альтероцентрической, конформной, диалогической, индифферентной, авторитарной стратегиями интеракций во взаимоотношениях студентов с ровесниками — представителями других культурных групп. Полученные результаты косвенно свидетельствуют о том, что механизмы аттракции, выражающиеся в приязни, симпатии, дружелюбии, а также механизмы идентификации и рефлексии выступают в качестве предикторов отношений иностранных студентов к представителям иных культур, помогают преодолевать межгрупповые предубеждения и служат профилактикой манипулирования друг другом. Результаты исследования углубляют научные представления о проблеме доверия — недоверия в межэтнических отношениях, представляют практическую ценность для социальных психологов, специалистов в области кросс-культурной психологии при разработке профилактических и коррекционных мероприятий, направленных на повышение эффективности и коммуникативной культуры взаимодействия представителей разных социальных общностей. The article focuses on the feasibility and prognostic value of the investigation of interpersonal interaction. The analysis of theoretical concepts enables the authors to prove that the level of trust between people from different cultural groups can function as a predictor of social perception and can influence people’s choice of strategies of interpersonal interaction in situations of intercultural communication. The article presents the results of empirical research aimed at the investigation of criteria of trust and mistrust between students of Chinese, African and Latin-American communities and their peers belonging to other cultural groups. The empirical study proves that there is a correlation between trust, mistrust and the strategies of interaction foreign students use when communicating with their peers from different cultures. The article analyses the correlation between the criteria of trust (mistrust) and manipulative, alterocentric, conformal, dialogical, indifferent, and authoritarian interaction strategies employed by students for intercultural communication with their peers. The results indirectly demonstrate that the mechanisms of attraction expressed through friendliness, empathy and affection, as well as the mechanisms of identification and reflection serve as predictors of foreign students’ attitude to representatives of other cultures, help to overcome prejudices in intercultural communication, help to prevent interpersonal manipulation. The results of the research extend scholarly understanding of the issue of trust and mistrust in interethnic interaction and have a high practical value for social psychologists, specialists in the sphere of cross-cultural psychology, for specialists developing preventive and corrective measures aimed at the enhancement of the efficiency of interpersonal interaction between representatives of different social groups.


2021 ◽  
pp. 228-234
Author(s):  
V.A. Mazilov ◽  

The article is a review of the book "Sources of the meaning of life: a new method of personality psychodiagnostics" by the Belarusian psychologist K.V. Karpinskij. It is argued that the meaning of life became the subject of special psychological research only in the 20th century. In recent years, there have been many breakthroughs in this area, and undoubted progress is visible. There was a transition to the interpretation of the meaning of life as a systemic, that means, in other words, multicomponent and multilevel mental education. In his previous works K.V. Karpinskij subjected the problem of the psychology of the meaning of life to a comprehensive analysis. This book has no analogues among the observable thematic literature and contains new theoretical ideas, original methodological solutions and rich factual material, which together form a new look at the key methodological issues of the psychology of the meaning of life. First of all, this is a question about the subject and method of research. Despite the fact that the study of the psychology of the meaning of life is largely represented in foreign psychology, the author of the monograph consistently adheres to the methodology of Russian psychology. The book offers the author's methodology "Sources of the meaning of life", which was created with a full understanding of the advantages and disadvantages, opportunities and limitations of existing foreign analogues. Being a diagnostic complex in its composition, this technique has incorporated proven diagnostic techniques, as well as completely new techniques for studying the meaning of life. The methodology clearly surpasses the existing tools in its diagnostic (research) capabilities.


2000 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fons J. R. van de Vijver ◽  
Kwok Leung

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Suhay ◽  
Mark J. Brandt ◽  
Travis Proulx

Building on psychological research linking essentialist beliefs about human differences with prejudice, we test whether lay belief in the biological basis of political ideology is associated with political intolerance and social avoidance. In two studies of American adults (Study 1: N = 288, Study 2: N = 164), we find that belief in the biological basis of political views is associated with greater intolerance and social avoidance of ideologically dissimilar others. The association is substantively large and robust to demographic, religious, and political control variables. These findings stand in contrast to some theoretical expectations that biological attributions for political ideology are associated with tolerance. We conclude that biological lay theories are especially likely to be correlated with prejudice in the political arena, where social identities tend to be salient and linked to intergroup competition and animosity.


Author(s):  
Sergio Della Pergola

The scientific study of the Jewish population, also known as demography of the Jews or Jewish demography, does not actually claim the status of a distinct discipline. It is an area of specialization focusing on the changing size and composition of Jewish populations and on the determinants and consequences of such changes. This article outlines some of the main concepts, interpretative frameworks, and methodological issues in the field, followed by a short outline of substantive patterns and applied uses of available knowledge. The main scientific rationale for the study of Jewish populations rests with the growing interest in understanding the demography of religious, ethnic, and cultural groups and minorities. Demographic changes provide an important and occasionally indispensable background for an appraisal of Jewish history and cultural experience. Hence, the study of Jewish demography is organically tied to the development of Jewish studies.


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