CBM Elements VI

The Psychology Of Culture

• Cultural beliefs & values

• Cultural experiences

• Cultural ideas

• Cultural identity

• Cultural interests

• Cultural misconceptions

• Cultural ways

This section, the psychology of culture, draws from cognitive anthropology and cultural psychology that focus on cognitive, psychological, and social realms. Culture affects the psychology of human existence (D’Andrade, 1995) in its ability to configure the mind of human beings. Human beings use their minds to negotiate and make sense of the world. Whether part of a society, culture, or group, human beings search for shared meanings with others and an understanding of self. These meanings are best understood in their cultural contexts; therefore, culture is at the core of creating, understanding, and being human (Bruner, 1996).

In psychology, models of culture focus on explaining processes of the mind (D’Andrade, 1990; Quinn, 1987; Schank & Abelson, 1977). Similarly, the psychology of culture examines what is going on in individuals’ mind that influences their actions (D’Andrade, 1995). Exploring the psychology and cognition of individuals assists in framing experiences, providing meaning to experiences, exploring the reasoning process, and understanding the outcomes of behavior (Quinn & Holland, 1987).

The psychology of culture also presupposes that the individual is a transporter of culture. (D’Andrade, 1990). This means that, among individuals, there is great variability in terms of how they function psychologically. In measuring these items, those with the most frequent consistency can be treated as representative of the group’s culture. Therefore, items can be determined to be shared by the group or unique to the individual or group (D’Andrade, 1990).

Schema is shared knowledge. Among groups, there are shared cognitive schemas or understandings. These shared cognitive schemas are obvious but only to members of the group. For example a television announcer yells, “Touchdown!” This means that a football team has scored, except this has little meaning to individuals who do not understand football. Information shared among a group is not made explicit because the knowledge is already known (D’Andrade, 1990, 1987). This means that target audiences will have shared knowledge and information that is understood only by members of their group.

D’Andrade’s (1990, 1995) folk model of the mind proposes that humans notice their mental states and processes; this, in turn, influences behavior. One of the characteristics of a mental state is the principle of cause; this means “certain events are thought to bring about other events” (D’Andrade, 1987, p. 117). This means that what a human sees, hears, tastes, smells, and feels is caused by events and things outside the mind. Inside the mind of a human what they believe, remember, or know is processed in the mind. Therefore, mental states and processes happen internally (inside) and/or externally (outside) of the mind. In looking at CBM Elements, several design factors could be categorized as having properties of a mental state or process. See Table 1.