Advances in Social and Personality Psychology:
Cultural Psychology
PSYCH 547 (Winter 2007)
Professor Janxin Leu
Guthrie 217, 206-616-1371; E-mail address: janleu@u.washington.edu
Office Hours: by appointment only
Meeting Time: Monday, Wednesday 10:00-11:50 in CHL 025
Course Objectives:
 To make you familiar with the idea that psychological processes --thinking, feeling,
relating, acting-- are ‘contextualized’.
 To provide examples of research in North American and other cultural contexts which
show diversity in basic psychological processes.
 To help understand your own experiences and actions as contextualized by the cultural
meanings and practices in which you engage.
 To expose you to culturally sensitive research methods, and give you some experience
with the main challenges and possibilities of doing cultural psychological research.
 To introduce new direction in cultural psychology
Course website:
http://faculty.washington.edu/janleu/Courses/Cultural%20Psychology/547.shtml
Course e-mail: psych547a_wi07@u.washington.edu
Course requirements:
1. The assigned readings are to be completed by the date indicated. You will be asked
to post 2 discussion points by 6PM the day before the readings are due.
https://catalyst.washington.edu/webtools/epost/register.cgi?owner=janleu&id=17928
For instructions on how to post, please go to the following website:
http://catalyst.washington.edu/student/EPost.html
2. You will be expected to participate in all class discussions.
3. You will be asked to lead at least one class discussion, synthesizing the discussion
points that other students have contributed to the EPost.
4. You are expected to complete 1 short assignment and 1 research proposal.
Evaluation: Your grade will be the sum total, divided by 100.
Reading discussion points:
Short assignment:
Research proposal:
Total
180 points (12 points each set of readings)
20 points
200 points
400 points
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COURSE SCHEDULE
Below you will find a schedule for the lecture topics, readings and assignments/tests which should
give you an indication of what we will be doing this term. You are required to keep up with the
readings. Note, the schedule may change as the course progresses – I will try to give you plenty of
time when this happens, but you are responsible for knowing about any changes.
W 1/3: Introduction to the syllabus
M 1/8: Introduction to American Cultural Models
Hochschild, J. L. (1995). What is the American Dream? In Facing up to the American Dream (pp.
15-38). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Nisbett, R. E. (2003). Living together vs. going it alone. In The geography of thought. How Asians
and Westerners think differently...and why (chapter 3, pp.47-77). New York, NY: The Free
Press.
W 1/10: American Cultural Models: Regional Differences
Plaut. V. C., Markus, H. R., & Lachman, M. E. (2002). Place Matters: Consensual
features and regional variation in American well-being and self. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 83(1), 160-184.
Short Assignment Due
M 1/15: HOLIDAY (MLK DAY)
W 1/17: American Cultural Models: Generation Differences
Strauss, W. & Howe, N. (1991). The boom generation. In W. Strauss & N. Howe, Generations: The
history of America’s future, 1584 to 2069 (pp.299-316).New York: William Morrow.
Movie 1: The Echo Boomers
M 1/22: American Cultural Models: Gender Differences
Markus, H.R., Mullally, P.R., & Kitayama, S. (1997). Selfways: Diversity in modes of cultural
participation. In U. Neisser & D. Jopling (Eds.), The conceptual self in context (pp. 13-61).
New York: Cambridge University Press. (pp. 45-48).
Gardner, W. L. and Gabriel, S. (2004). Gender differences in relational and collective
interdependence: implications for self-views, social behavior, and subjective well-being. In A.
E. Beall, R. J. Sternberg, and A. H. Eagly (Eds.), The psychology of gender (pp.169-191).
New York: Guilford Press.
(Office hours by appointment only this week 1/22 or 1/23)
W 1/24: American Cultural Models: Race
Jones, J. (1996). Racism: what is it and how does it work? (Ch. 13). In J. M. Jones,
Prejudice and racism (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Tormala, T & Deaux, K. (2006). Black Immigrants to the United States: Confronting and
Constructing Ethnicity and Race. In Mahalingam, Ramaswami (Ed).Cultural
psychology of immigrants. (pp. 131-150). xvi, 374 pp. Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
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(Office hours by appointment only this week 1/22 or 1/23)
M 1/29: Cultural Models of Class
Kusserow, A. S. (1999). De-homogenizing American individualism: Socializing hard and soft
individualism in Manhattan and Queens. Ethos 27(2), 210-234.
Heath, S. B. (1982). What no bedtime story means: Narrative skills at home and school. Language
in Society, 11, 49-79.
Mahalingam, R. (2003). Essentialism, Culture, and Power: Representations of Social
Class. Journal of Social Issues, 59(4), 733-49.
W 1/31: Research Methods
Movie “Strange Beliefs”
M 2/5: Research Methods (cont’d)
Triandis, H. C. (1995). Individualism and collectivism. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. (Ch. 3 & 4:
pp. 43-106).
Heine, S. J., Lehman, D. R., Peng, K. & Greenholtz, J (2002). What's wrong with cross-cultural
comparisons of subjective Likert scales? The reference-group effect. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology 82(6), 903-918.
W 2/7: Research Methods (cont’d)
Lewis, C.C. (1995). Educating hearts and minds. New York: Cambridge University Press. (Ch. 5 &
6: pp. 101-148).
Movie 2: Preschools in three cultures
M 2/12: Rethinking “basic” social psychological processes: Social Attribution
Nisbett, R. E. (2003). The geography of thought. How Asians and Westerners think differently...and
why. New York, NY: The Free Press (Ch. 5, pp.111-135).
Chua, H., Leu, J., Nisbett, R.E. (2005). Culture and Diverging Views of
Social Events. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31(7), 925-934.
W 2/14: Rethinking “basic” social psychological processes: Interpersonal Relationships
Taylor, S. E., Sherman, D. K., Kim, H., Jarcho, J., Takagi, K., & Dunagan, M. S. (2004). Cultural
and social support: who seeks it and why? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
87(3), 354-362.
Adams, G., & Plaut, V. C. (2003). The cultural grounding of personal relationships: Friendship in
North American and West African worlds. Personal Relationships, 10, 333-347.
M 2/19: HOLIDAY (WASHINGTON’S BIRTHDAY)
W 2/21: Rethinking “basic” social psychological processes: Self-Esteem
Heine, S. J., Lehman, D.R., Markus, H.R., & Kitayama, S. (1999). Is there a universal need for
positive self-regard? Psychological Review, 106, 766-794.
Valdes, G. (1996). Con Respeto: bridging the distances between culturally diverse families and
schools: an ethnographic portrait. New York:Teachers College Press. (Ch. 2,3,4,6 : pp. 4193, 116-139).
Kagan, S., & Knight, G. P. (1979). Cooperation-competition and self-esteem. A case of cultural
relativism. Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology, 10(4), 457-467.
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M 2/26: Rethinking “basic” social psychological processes: Emotion
Masuda, T., Ellsworth, P. C., Mesquita, B., Leu, J., & Veerdonk, E. (2005). Putting the face in
context: Cultural differences in the perception of emotions from facial behavior. Under
review.
Tsai, J.L., Knutson, B., & Fung, H.H. (2006). Cultural variation in affect valuation. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 288-307.
W 2/28: Rethinking “basic” social psychological processes: Perception
Kitayama, S., Duffy, S., Kawamura, T., & Larson, J. T. (2003). Perceiving an object and its context
in different cultures: A cultural look at new look. Psychological Science 14(3) 201-206.
Nisbett, R. E. (2003). The geography of thought. How Asians and Westerners think differently...and
why. New York, NY: The Free Press (Ch. 4, pp.79-109).
M 3/5: New Perspectives: Multiculturalism
Hong, Y.Y., Morris, M., Chiu, C.Y., & Benet-Martinez, V (2000). Multicultural minds: A dynamic
constructivist approach to culture and cognition. American Psychologist, 55(7), 709-720.
Benet-Martinez, V., Leu, J., Lee, F., & Morris, M. (2002) Negotiating biculturalism: Cultural
frame switching in biculturals with oppositional versus compatible cultural identities.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology,33(5), 492-516.
W 3/7: New Perspectives: Immigration
Deaux, K. (2006). A Nation of Immigrants: Living out our legacy. Journal of Social Issues,
62(3), 633-51.
Bhatia, S. & Ram, A. (2001). Rethinking ‘acculturation.’ Human Development, 44(1), 1-18.
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PSYCHOLOGY 547 SHORT ASSIGNMENT: UNDERSTANDING SUBJECTVITY
In cultural psychology, an important concept is that as researchers, we bring knowledge to
the table that reflects our own cultural backgrounds. This may shape the topics we choose
to study, influence the methods we use, or contribute to our observations and
interpretation of the data. This assignment asks you to take seriously the task of
understanding your own subjective location in a cultural context as a necessary step in
becoming a researcher.
Reflect on and analyze experiences in your own life, and how it contributes to your own
theory of yourself. Think of all the cultural influences that may have impinged on you:
your parents, your parents’ background, your racial and ethnic group, your socioeconomic
class location, your religion, the areas/countries you lived in, your gender and sexuality, the
schools you went to and the school ideology, your peers and their backgrounds, etc.
Describe the most important aspects of these environments with the detail necessary to
understand how they had an impact on you, giving as many concrete details as possible.
As in ethnography, sift through your daily habits and practices to observe yourself in
interaction with others, in addition to thinking about global perspectives you have on the
world.
Do not merely write a chronological history of yourself. Instead, focus on the forces in
your life that made you the way you are now so that you develop an analytic narrative
about yourself. You may want to also consider the following questions: What would have
been different about you without certain cultural influences (e.g., who have you decided
not to be and what have you decided not to do)? Try to emphasize cultural influences,
rather than merely individual influences.
Maximum length: Two pages, double-spaced
Due: 1/10 in class
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PSYCHOLOGY 547 FINAL PROJECT: GRANT PROPOSAL
This assignment involves preparing a grant proposal requesting support for a 12-month
research project (beginning Fall 2008 and running through the end of Summer 2009). You
will draw on any theoretical perspective in cultural psychology to develop a novel research
hypothesis. You will then propose 1-3 studies testing your hypothesis. Though your
dependent measures/outcomes may stem from any area of psychology, your theoretical and
methodological approach must be cultural psychological in nature, including experiments,
in-depth interviews, and surveys. Sections 1 –4 of your proposal (see below) should be
roughly 12-15 pages (double-spaced, 12 pt. font, APA Style). I have posted a funded social
psychological grant proposal as an example of this process. The proposal currently is in
force, so please do not circulate or discuss the proposal outside of this class. Your grant
proposal is due on Monday, March 12 at 10:00 am. The major components of your
proposal are outlined below.
Major Components of a Grant Proposal
1. Specific Aims: The goal of this section is to provide a brief overview of your proposal
as well as specify the specific research questions you will address.
2. Background: The goal of this section is to provide a well-developed literature review
that leads to your research question. In most respects, this section is precisely what you do
when you write the introduction section to a research paper. In this section, you will draw
on cultural psychological literature to develop a cultural psychological theoretical model
addressing your research topic. When describing your model, be sure to carefully define all
your terms. This is especially important, as these definitions will be critical in
operationalizing your empirical constructs. You are encouraged to present a figure
displaying your model. At the end of this section, you should clearly specify your research
hypotheses.
Because of length restrictions in actual grant proposals, this section needs to be particularly
tightly written. However, for our purposes in this class, you have the liberty to elaborate
and present this section in more detail.
3. Proposed Studies: This section will very much resemble a typical methods section like
the one you would write in an empirical paper (except that the data have not yet been
collected). You should describe between 1-3 studies that test your hypotheses. At least one
of your proposed studies must be experimental in nature (i.e., involving at a minimum one
manipulated variable). Creativity is encouraged in both research design and measurement
strategies.
4. Data Analytic Strategy: In this section you should briefly describe how you will
analytically test your hypotheses.
5. References
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6. Budget: A typical grant proposal has a very detailed budget. For our purposes here, you
should include an appendix with a rough outline of what a budget might look like. The
budget may be written in outline format. The goal of this exercise is for you to spend time
thinking about the costs of conducting research. Here are some examples of expenses you
could include:
1. Direct Costs:
A. Personnel:
-20-hour/week graduate research assistant for 12 months is roughly $25,000
(this covers salary, tuition, and fringe benefits)
-Principal Investigator Summer Salary (make-up your 9-month salary (be
realistic!) and divide it by 9, then multiple this number by the number
of months of salary you wish to pay yourself (this can range from 1-3
months; 2-months salary (assuming 100% effort on your grant) is
typical.
B. Equipment:
-List major purchases that will be necessary to complete your project (e.g.,
computers, video equipment, physiological measures, expensive software,
etc.) and roughly estimate these costs. Also, provide a couple sentences
justifying these purchases.
C. Other Expenses:
-Participant Payment (if necessary)
-Conference Travel
-Miscellaneous Expenses (e.g., postage, phone bills, photocopying, etc.)
2. Indirect Costs:
-Multiple your total direct costs budget by .49. This amount represents the indirect costs of
your grant application. This money goes to the university towards operating costs,
overhead, etc.
3. Total Costs: Sum up your direct and indirect costs. Did the total amount surprise
you?
Evaluation: Your grant proposals will be evaluated on the following criteria:
1. Clarity, originality, and significance of the goals of the proposed research plan
2. Adequacy of knowledge and presentation of relevant literature and current methods in
the proposed research area
3. Soundness and feasibility of the experimental approach, methodology, and analytic
plan.
4. General organization, compliance with instructions, etc.
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