Cultural Psychology (in English)--Fall Semester Only

Course Description

This course has been designed to offer a comprehensive view of Cultural Psychology with its most important phenomena, theoretical dilemmas, research methodologies and applications. We will approach these issues through a continuous navigating between theoretical developments and specific cases or examples, including those from the everydayness of our daily lives. 

Course Goals and Methodology
This course addresses the following goals:
-Understand what cultural psychology consists of, and why it is useful.
-Understand the general dynamics characterizing the relationship between subjects and cultures.
-Understand how these influences take place during the process of development, and become aware of the risk of ethnocentrism.
-Be able to apply what you learn to your daily life, learning to reflect about what is “normal” in relation to your perception of reality, and of yourself.

The topics to work on include cognition, human development, emotions, the self, and cultural values. In the case of each of these topics, a principal focus of analysis will be whether the particular psychological processes and behaviors in question, at both individual and collective levels, can be explained more fully in culture-specific or universalistic terms, and how they are related to the salient characteristics of the cultural-historical context in which they are embedded. Specific research and intervention projects which run in different contexts (education, work-place, immigration policies) will also be presented and discussed. To give the class a relevant outlook, the bibliography studied will include both classic readings in the discipline as well as emergent new trends.

In order to achieve a meaningful understanding of the concepts involved in the subject, we will combine different materials such as teacher expositions, analysis of scientific articles, student´s project presentations, class debates and films. Student´s participation will be fostered and required.

Learning Objectives
After this course you will be able to:
-Understand the dynamic interaction between culture and individuals
-Understand how these dynamics permeate our psychological functions, but also ourselves, our daily lives, and our perception of “normality”.
-Use concrete terms to discuss these dynamics, appropriating theoretical concepts and using them in relation to real-life examples.
-Think critically about different possibilities concerning perceptions of what is normal in terms of development, and of psychological functioning.
-Summing up, the most important goal is to become able to bring the theory you learn to concrete use, understanding everyday phenomena from the perspective of cultural psychology.

Course Requirements and Grading
Students will be evaluated on their ability to articulate and critically apply the terms, concepts and theories from class and readings verbally, during class discussions, as well as in writing, on exams and in written assignments.

The final grade for the course is comprised of the following:
-Participation (20%)
-Activities (20%)
-Mid-term exam (20%)
-Final exam (20%)
-Research project (20%)

Course Contents
Unit 1. Theories of Cultural Psychology.
Unit 2. Cognition.
Unit 3. Emotion & Motivation.
Unit 4. Development and education.

Required Texts

A course pack is available from the ‘copistería’ (Building 18) including these 10 texts:  

1. Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010). Most people are not WEIRD. Nature, 466(7302), 29-29.

2. McLeod, S. A. (2007). Nature Nurture in Psychology. Retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/naturevsnurture.html

3. Oyserman, D. (2017). Culture Three Ways: Culture and Subcultures within countries. Annual Review of Psychology, 68(1), 435 - 463.

4. Barrett, H. C. (2020). Towards a cognitive science of the human: cross-cultural approaches and their urgency. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 24(8), 620-638.

5. Cole, M. (2009). The illusion of culture-free intelligence testing. Retrieved from http://communication.ucsd.edu/MCA/Paper/Cole/iq.html.

6. Matsumoto, D. (2001). Cross-cultural psychology in the 21st century. The many faces of psychological research in the 21st century: Society for the Teaching of Psychology, 98-115.

7. Meyer, E. (2017). Being the boss in Brussels, Boston, and Beijing. Harvard Business Review, 95(4), 70-77.

8. Rogoff, B. (2012). Learning without lessons: Opportunities to expand knowledge. Infancia y Aprendizaje, 35(2), 233 - 252.

9. Nielsen, M., & Haun, D. (2016). Why developmental psychology is incomplete without comparative and cross-cultural perspectives. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 371(1686), 20150071.

10. Bohannan, L. (1966). Shakespeare in the Bush. Language: Readings in language and culture, 27-36.