The Psychological Foundations of Culture - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0805838406 ISBN 13: 9780805838404

Publisher: Psychology Press, 2003

Synopsis

How is it that cultures come into existence at all? How do cultures develop particular customs and characteristics rather than others? How do cultures persist and change over time? Most previous attempts to address these questions have been descriptive and historical. The purpose of this book is to provide answers that are explanatory, predictive, and relevant to the emergence and continuing evolution of cultures past, present, and future. Most other investigations into "cultural psychology" have focused on the impact that culture has on the psychology of the individual. The focus of this book is the reverse.
The authors show how questions about the origins and evolution of culture can be fruitfully answered through rigorous and creative examination of fundamental characteristics of human cognition, motivation, and social interaction. They review recent theory and research that, in many different ways, points to the influence of basic psychological processes on the collective structures that define cultures. These processes operate in all sorts of different populations, ranging from very small interacting groups to grand-scale masses of people occupying the same demographic or geographic category. The cultural effects--often unintended--of individuals' thoughts and actions are demonstrated in a wide variety of customs, ritualized practices, and shared mythologies: for example, religious beliefs, moral standards, rules for the allocation of resources, norms for the acceptable expression of aggression, gender stereotypes, and scientific values.

The Psychological Foundations of Culture reveals that the consequences of psychological processes resonate well beyond the disciplinary constraints of psychology. By taking a psychological approach to questions usually addressed by anthropologists, sociologists, and other social scientists, it suggests that psychological research into the foundations of culture is a useful--perhaps even necessary--complement to other forms of inquiry.

About this title

Review:

Why do beliefs spread? traditions persist? customs survive? This collection proposes clever and thoughtful answers and it should inspire lively discussion as sociologists, anthropologists, and organizational scholars welcome their psychologist colleagues to the ongoing debate about culture.
—Chip Heath, Ph.D.
Graduate School of Business, Stanford University

About this edition

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0805838406
• ISBN 13: 9780805838404
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 392
• Editor: Schaller Mark, Crandall Christian S.