Culture

How do human-unique psychological capacities develop? #

Three methods to answering this question:

1. Comparative psychology: how do humans compare to our primate relatives?
2. Developmental psychology: how humans grow as we age from birth to 16 years
3. Cross-cultural psychology: how human behavior differs between cultures and groups around the world, not just WEIRD individuals

What makes humans unique? #

• General intelligence hypothesis: humans are simply smarter than all other animals, and are thus capable of creating technology and society.
  • Incorrect: other animals are more intelligent than us in specific areas: for instance, chimpanzees have superior short-term memory.
• Social intelligence hypothesis: humans may not be more intelligent in other domains, but our social abilities (language, communication, theory of mind) surpass those of other animals and enable complex societies to develop.
  • Supported by Herrmann et al (2007): humans, chimpanzees, and orangutans have very similar performance in the physical domain (ability to visualize space, quantity…), but humans have superior performance in the social domain.
  • Humans are very good at imitation (copying the process), whereas other animals are better at emulation (getting to the same end result).

Culture and Human Success #

One definition of success for species is how widespread the species is across the globe. By this metric, humans and ants are similarly successful (as both live in nearly every environment).

However, the primary difference between humans and ants/other successful species is that other species adapt genetically, evolving into thousands of different species each suited for a different environment. On the other hand, there is currently only one species of humans, and we adapt culturally instead. Humans evolve culturally, rather than genetically.

Culture is the large body of practices, techniques, heuristics, tools, motivations, values, and beliefs that we acquire from those around us while growing up.

• Culture allows us to pass on immaterial technologies, ideas, and solutions to problems through generations.

Cultural learning is enabled by the two engines of imitation and innovation (Legare & Nielsen 2015). While many other species are highly innovative, they are incapable of imitation. In other words, they have powerful individual problem-solving ability, but cannot learn from others.

Culture as a Biological Adaptation #

Dual Inheritance Theory: human offspring are influenced by their ancestors not only genetically, but also culturally. (Biology and culture are intertwined and influence one another.) We are biologically predisposed to culture and learning.

This leads to cumulative culture where human culture changes and improves over time. Tools, artifacts, and ideas from other species remain constant over thousands or even millions of years.

There are two important dimensions to consider:

• Synchronic Dimension: cultures have stability in the short term, allowing individuals to stay together as a group over a lifetime.
  • Cooperation, fairness, normativity, law, morality
• Diachronic Dimension: cultures have stability in the long term, perpetuating over generations.
  • Social learning

Culture and Development #

Humans have an unusually long period of immaturity and development, where we are dependent on our family, caretakers, and elders for survival.

• On first glance, this seems counterintuitive: other animals can already protect and feed themselves days or even minutes after being born. In addition, the amount of resources parents/caretakers give to their children is immense.
• However, this long developmental period is actually an evolutionary adaptation, which allows us to develop a deeper cultural lifestyle.

Culture and Psychopathology #

Cultural differences in the presentation of psychological disorders suggest that culture is implicated in the expression and experience of psychopathology.

Culture is important for DP research because:

• increasingly diverse population will create more multicultural experiences, affecting how we should address mental health
• it provides an example of gene-culture interaction
• the language we use to discuss mental health differs between cultures
• some disorders may be prevalent in some cultures and nonexistent in others

Two main approaches

• Categorical approach: culture is a group variable, compare between cultures
  • Example: comparing mental health problems between different ethnic backgrounds in immigrants
• Dimensional approach: culture is a continuous variable, exam associations within or between multiple groups
  • Example: examine association between acculturalization and depression in Latino youth