Cultural psychological theory

• Main Authors: EOM, Kimin, KIM, Heejung S.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2014
• Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Social Psychology
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2562; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/3819/viewcontent/chap16proofs_corrections_2__1_.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Cultural psychology has revived the original intention of the cognitive revolution in which psychologists aimed to bring meaning to the study of the mind (Bruner, 1990). In contrast to much of psychological research that has been devoted to discovering “pure” context-free psychological mechanisms, the basic assumption of cultural psychology is that the human psyche cannot exist independently of its sociocultural contexts, and therefore, the study of human actions must consider the contexts in which these actions take place (Shweder, 1995). From the beginning, cultural psychology has aimed to understand the mutual influence between psyche and cultural contexts. According to the framework of mutual constitution (e.g., Fiske, Kitayama, Markus, & Nisbett, 1998), the human psyche is regarded as a product as well as a producer of culture; psychological tendencies are not only shaped by culture but also shape cultural realities. Using this general framework, cultural psychological research has flourished over the last couple of decades, providing ample empirical evidence for the idea that culture is an inseparableaspect of human experiences, and thus, a central element to consider inunderstanding human behaviors.