#421 Steven Heine: Cultural Psychology, and How Psychology Varies Across Cultures
RECORDED ON DECEMBER 4th 2020.
Dr. Steven J. Heine is Distinguished University Scholar and Professor of Social and Cultural Psychology at the University of British Columbia. Heine’s pioneering research has challenged key psychological assumptions in self-esteem, meaning, and the ways that people understand genetic constructs. He is the author of many acclaimed journal articles and books in the fields of social and cultural psychology including Cultural Psychology, the top-selling textbook in the field. In 2016, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
In this episode, we talk about Cultural Psychology. We start with some basic questions, regarding the field of cultural psychology, and what is culture. We then go through several topics like: where does cultural variation come from?; ways of classifying different cultures; differences in psychological mechanisms influenced by culture, and if these are permanent; a sensitive period for acculturation; and how cultures have changed over time. We talk about specific psychological mechanisms whose universality has recently been questioned, including: the endowment effect; the similarity-attraction effect; overconfidence; cognitive dissonance; the fundamental attribution error; and how people experience mental illness. Toward the end we also discuss how ideas spread in societies, and I ask Dr. Heine what are some of the most interesting questions that Cultural Psychology has yet to answer.
Time Links:
What is Cultural Psychology?
What is culture?
Where does cultural diversity come from?
Ways of classifying cultures
Are the differences in psychological mechanisms that people exhibit across cultures permanent?
Is there a sensitive period for acculturation?
How cultures have changed over time
The endowment effect
The similarity-attraction effect
Overconfidence
Cognitive dissonance
The fundamental attribution error
Do people experience mental illness in different ways across cultures?
How ideas spread among people
Questions in cultural psychology to answer in the future
Follow Dr. Heine’s work!
Follow Dr. Heine’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/3omsTGb
Culture and Self Lab: https://bit.ly/3mJyJkz
Research works on ResearchGate: https://bit.ly/33Gcc0o
Books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/36GIWc6
Cultural Psychology (4th edition): https://amzn.to/2JIVR4f
Twitter handle: @StevenHeine4