Monocultural and cross-cultural indigenous approaches: The royal road to the development of a balanced global psychology

Comprehensive comparison and conceptual analysis of cross-cultural, cultural, and indigenous psychologies in terms of their aims and theoretical and methodological perspectives lead to the conclusion that the first two are special cases of the third. Two basic types of indigenous psychology are distinguished on the basis of conceptual analysis: monocultural indigenous psychologies (including monocultural cultural psychologies) and cross-cultural indigenous psychologies (including both cross-cultural psychology and cross-cultural cultural psychology). Corresponding to these two types of indigenous psychology are two basic ways to conduct indigenous research, namely, the monocultural indigenous approach and the cross-cultural indigenous approach. Both approaches require achievement of the condition of indigenous compatibility, which stresses the sufficient congruity of the researcher's theory, methods, and results with the studied psychological or behavioral phenomenon and/or its sociocultural context. Finally, several ways to integrate research findings obtained by the monocultural and cross-cultural indigenous approaches are delineated and discussed with respect to their function in creating an indigenously derived global psychology.     

Personality and Culture: Demarcating Between the Common and the Unique

Four traditions in research on personality and culture are distinguished: (i) the culture-and-personality school and recent relativistic perspectives, (ii) the trait approach, (iii) interactionistic orientations, and (iv) situationist approaches. Next, the first two of these traditions are evaluated to ascertain how much variance is explained by culture. Thereafter, it is argued that the (questionable) focus on explanations with a high level of inclusiveness or generality is a major reason for the near absence of situationist interpretation of cross-cultural differences. Finally, three possible strategies are discussed to bridge the gap between relativism (emphasizing differences) and universalism (assuming basic similarities). A suggestion is made as to how both approaches can be valuable when unexplainable, as well as explainable variances, in cross-cultural personality research are taken seriously.     

A DAY AT DEVELOPMENTAL DOWNS: SPORTSCAST FOR RACE #2 - NEO-PIAGETIAN THEORIES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

This article discusses the neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development proposed by Robbie Case, Andreas Demetriou and Anastasia Efklides, Kurt Fischer, Jeffrey Farrar, Graeme Halford, Juan Pascual-Leone, Michael Shayer, and Robert Siegler. Each theory is discussed in terms of its basic assumptions, and propositions regarding structure, process, novelty and automatization, context, and mechanisms of development. Then some general conclusions are drawn about the enterprise of neo-Piagetian theorizing as a whole.     

GENERALITY AND NECESSITY IN THREE TYPES OF THEORY ABOUT HUMAN COMMUNICATION,WITH SPECIAL ATTENTION TO RULES THEORY

An analysis is provided of the procedures involved in creating and certifying theories constructed within the laws, systems, and rules perspectives of human communication. A comparison of these methods of theory construction reveals two criteria for assessing the epistemological and metaphysical claims of all such theories. Each of these methods attempts to establish propositions which are general rather than particular and which are necessary rather than accidental. The manner in which each perspective establishes these claims is delimited with special attention being given to the procedures employed by rules theorists for establishing rigorous theories.     

性别发展的生物学取向研究述评

当前解释性别发展的理论主要有三种取向：生物学取向、社会化取向、认知取向。近年来,生物学取向日益受到关注并得到认可和接受。解释性别发展的生物学取向研究主要分为两种视角,即进化心理学和进化发展心理学、跨物种比较等远端进化解释,以及行为遗传学研究、染色体异常研究、荷尔蒙研究、大脑结构和功能研究等近端解释。本文总结阐述了这些生物学因素对性别发展的具体影响,并指出了进化心理学研究、行为遗传学研究、荷尔蒙研究、大脑结构和功能的脑成像研究在研究内容、研究方法与技术方面存在的问题,并据此展望未来研究的前景。     

EXPERIENTIAL STRUCTURALISM AND NEO-PIAGETIAN THEORIES: TOWARD AN INTEGRATED MODEL

Experiential structuralism is a new theory of cognitive organization and growth. It postulates that the cognitive system is organized into six autonomous capacity spheres: the quantitative-relational, the qualitative-analytic, the imaginal-spatial, the causal-experimental, the verbal-propositional, and the metacognitive-reflecting. These capacities were called experiential because they are experimentally documented, they reflect the organization of the persons' experience and the - subjective - experience the persons have about this organization. Thus it was proposed that a set of specific cognitive abilities may be integrated into a general capacity under the guidance of four principles. Namely, the principles of (1) domain specificity, (2) formal-procedural specificity, (3) symbolic bias, and (4) subjective distinctness of capacities. It was argued that this theory resolves some of the problems related to the competence-performance dispute better than the other neo-Piagetian theories. It seems to succeed in this regard because it postulates mechanisms directly linking performance variations with systematic variations in the organization of the cognitive system. However, the neo-Piagetian theories, though they did not define capacities, did propose notions able to causally explain the construction of autonomous capacities. These notions were integrated into a common model able to explain the generation of capacities. Overall, then, the present article attempts to integrate traditional differential and cognitive-developmental psychology into a common theory.     

Indigenous, cultural, and cross-cultural psychology: A theoretical, conceptual, and epistemological analysis

This paper compares indigenous, cultural, and cross-cultural psychology by examining their theoretical, conceptual, and epistemological foundations. They have been influenced by the three research traditions in psychology: (1) universalist, (2) contextualist, and (3) integrationist approaches. The goal of the universalist approach is to test and verify universality of existing psychological theories. Cultural psychologists, in contrast, point out that presumed universals are actually Western impositions and not universals. They affirm the contextualist approach and argue that every culture possesses its own unique characteristics, and they should be understood from within the culture. Integrationists argue that search for universals should include the content and context of culture, and they reject absolute universalism and relativism. In cross-cultural psychology, two integrationist approaches can be identified: the derived etic approach (Berry, 1980) and the indigenous psychologies approach (Kim, Park, & Park, 1999). In the derived etic approach, researchers adapt and integrate existing theories to fit local knowledge. Indigenization as articulated by Sinha (1997) represents this approach. In the indigenous psychologies approach, the primary goal is to understand how people think, feel, and behave in a particular context. It advocates a bottom-up model-building paradigm that examines the generative capabilities of human beings. Detailed analysis of the indigenous psychologies approach is provided.     

CROSS-CULTURAL DIFFERENCES: INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL VS. CULTURE-LEVEL ANALYSIS

Two approaches to the interpretation of and theorizing about cross-cultural differences are identified. In the individual-level approach, cultural differences are assumed to be consistent with individual differences within each of the cultures included in the cross-cultural comparison. The use of antecedent variables to eliminate alternative explanations based on biases is reviewed and some problems noted. It is suggested that explicit theories be used to guide the selection of antecedent variables to minimize the impact of cultural biases. In the second approach, the culture-level approach, culture is the unit of analysis and there is no assumption regarding the correspondence between culture- and individual-level relationships. Two examples are given to illustrate the potential usefulness of this approach to developing concepts and theories that are very different from those derived from the individual-level approach. The problems of bias in this level of analysis are also discussed. Finally, it is argued that in cross-cultural psychology the individual-level approach dominates, but we should pay more attention to culture-level research. This approach may lead to the development of concepts and theories that are not likely to be produced by mono-cultural works.     

阴谋论信念的产生机制——社会认知视角的三种解释

社会心理学将阴谋论视作一种意识形态上的信念,并定义为人们将重大的政治或社会事件归因为有权力的群体或个人暗中预谋以达成其目的的解释倾向。社会认知视角为个体这种阴谋论信念的产生提供了三种解释。错觉模式感知导致人们认知上倾向于在不相关的事件之间建立联系;敏感性动因觉察影响人们过度感知并假定事件背后的动因、目的和意图等;投射是将自己愿意参与阴谋的意图归因于事件中的他人。     

The developmental progression of children's knowledge constructions for heating and cooling

We explored the cognitive development of physical knowledge for heating and cooling in a cross-cultural, mixed-gender sample of 270 children. Subjects were drawn from five age groups ranging in age from 4 to 13 years. Subjects were individually exposed to heating and cooling demonstrations, whereafter they were interviewed and assessed for their understanding of the phenomena in question. Results showed a clear developmental progression. The youngest children gave relatively unsophisticated explanations that focused on the source of heat but failed to explain the process itself. Slightly older children gave explanations that were characterized by a notion of movement (without a kinetic basis). The oldest children gave more sophisticated accounts of the process of heat transferral, which employed notions of convection, radiation, and conduction. This progression was unaffected by population group or gender, although a significant interaction between age and population was observed in the case of heating. The implications of these results for neo-Piagetian research are discussed. Some parallels between the developmental progression observed here and the historical development of scientific concepts of heat are noted.     

Semantics and the sacred

ABSTRACT

This article looks at four different scholarly perspectives on ‘sacred’ – the ineffable sacred, the experienced sacred, the polarized sacred and the contextualized sacred – in order to draw out their implicit presuppositions about meaning. The first two stances presuppose that meaning depends on what bits of language are about (referentialism), and the other two stances presuppose that meaning depends on relations between bits of language (holism). The article concludes three things: these prominent views of ‘sacred’ rest on usually implicit or unrecognized assumptions about the nature of meaning; some of those assumptions explain why certain theories are contentious and problematic and others ground more promising and productive approaches.     

Integration of social identities in the self: toward a cognitive-developmental model.

This article presents a model of social identity development and integration in the self. Classic intergroup theories (e.g., social identity theory, self-categorization theory) address the situational, short-term changes in social identities. Although these theories identify the contextual and environmental factors that explain situational changes in social identification, the intraindividual processes underlying developmental changes in social identities and their integration within the self remain to be identified. Relying on recent intergroup models as well as on developmental (i.e., neo-Piagetian) and social cognitive frameworks, this article proposes a four-stage model that explains the specific processes by which multiple social identities develop intraindividually and become integrated within the self over time. The factors that facilitate versus impede these identity change processes and the consequences associated with social identity integration are also presented.     

Children's understanding of physical illnesses and psychological states

Abstract

The present study set out to compare 5.7, and 9-year-old children's understanding of a physical illness (chicken pox) with their understanding of a psychological state (depression). In addition, information about personal experience of the illnesses and external sources of information was elicited, in order to assess the effects of both age and experience. Children at all ages showed a basic intact knowledge of both chicken pox and depression, although older children had a more sophisticated understanding of depression, and had acquired this knowledge from a greater number of sources. The clinical implications of the findings, and their relationship to both neo-Piagetian and more recent theories of conceptual development in childhood are discussed.     

Stereotypes in social psychology: The “West-East“ differentiation as a reflection of western traditions of thought

Notwithstanding the fact that stereotypes and ethnocentrism constitute central topics of social psychology a cultural psychological question has almost been completely neglected in the discipline’s reflections on its own scientific endeavors: How has Western psychology’s construction of the “Indian“ and the “Eastern psyche“ been influenced by stereotypes that are embedded in culture-specific traditions of European scholarly and non-scholarly thinking? The problems tackled in this article are related to current social and cross-cultural psychological perspectives on the Indian context. In addition, they are related to social and cross-cultural psychological contributions to the well-established differentiation between the “West“ and the “East,“ which many psychologists have become used to and which are the foundation of current psychological theories about so-called “West-East differences.“     

The sentence-verification paradigm: A case study of two conflicting aproaches to individual differences

The contrasting approaches of differential psychology and cognitive psychology to the same individual differences data are outlined. Using illustrative data from the Clark and Chase (1972) sentence-picture verification task, four loci of conflict between these two disciplines are identified. These areas of conflict center around issues of (1) theory versus measurement, (2) meaningfulness versus reliability, (3) linearity of relationships, and (4) discontinuities in performance. We conclude on the basis of observed incompatibilities that a simple derivation of differential psychology from cognitive psychology is not likely, but separate development of complementary theories may be possible.     

Personality Measurement in Cross-Cultural Perspective

I first provide an overview of general issues in personality measurement across cultures (e.g., measurement bias and equivalence, levels of test adaptation or indigenization). Then, in keeping with the organization of this special issue, I discuss personality measurement from alternative theoretical perspectives that have addressed, in varying degrees, personality and its measurement in cross-cultural perspective (i.e., trait perspectives, projective techniques, cultural psychology and constructivist perspectives, evolutionary perspectives). An integrated measurement approach is advocated, incorporating diverse aspects or levels of personality, while drawing on the complementary strengths of alternative approaches.     

Formal Operational Reasoning in African University Students

Few studies have investigated formal operational concepts among Africans. The present study examined formal operational reasoning among African university students. Both Piagetian and neo-Piagetian criteria of 75% and 50% success rate were used for determining the presence of formal operational concepts. Three formal operational concepts—propositional, proportional, and combinatorial reasoning—were assessed among African university students.     

The primal scene in cross-species and cross-cultural perspectives

A review of cross-species and cross-cultural research suggests that, throughout most of human behavioral evolution, children may have been enlightened as to the facts of life by observing parental intercourse and then imitating it in sexual rehearsal play in the context of a continuously rising curve of sexual desire and sexual knowledge throughout childhood. Concealment of the primal scene and prohibition of cross-generational, bisexual, and 'polymorphously perverse' childhood sex play may be of relatively recent origin in human cultural evolution, buttressed by the instillation of culturally acquired sexual disgust in sexually conservative cultures. Looking at the primal scene in cross-species and cross-cultural perspectives utilizing the adaptationist framework of contemporary evolutionary biology can challenge normative assumptions that may still be embedded in psychoanalytic theories of species-wide psychosexual development.