Cultural Psychology

Does Lower Mobility Help Maintain/Stabilize Group-Hierarchy? Link Between Mobility & Hierarchy-Related Beliefs

by Laysee Ong

Co-authored with Angela Leung. Poster for 24th APS Annual Convention, 2012.

Question: Does mobility influence individual’s hierarchy-related beliefs?

Empirical Test: Two self-report... more Question: Does mobility influence individual’s hierarchy-related beliefs?

Empirical Test: Two self-report studies were conducted. 

Findings: The answer is YES.  Individuals with higher (vs. lower) mobility are less likely to endorse hierarchy, less collectivistic and more egalitarian.  It is the mobility of the self (vs. general environment) that plays a stronger role.

Living at the Crossroads of Cultural Worlds: The Experience of Normative Conflicts by Second Generation Immigrant Youth

by Evelina Lou

Making the Decision to Move Out: Bicultural Young Adults and the Negotiation of Cultural Demands and Family Relationships

by Evelina Lou

The present study examined the impact of culture and family on the issue of moving out among bicultural young adults... more The present study examined the impact of culture and family on the issue of moving out among bicultural young adults with European, South Asian, and East Asian backgrounds (N = 299). Consistent with cross-cultural differences in autonomy ideals, South and East Asians were less motivated than Europeans to leave the family home. Cultural differences in moving out motivation were explained by East and South Asians having less parental approval for moving out before marriage and, additionally for South Asians, having a self-concept that is largely defined by the family (i.e., family allocentrism). Furthermore, the mediating effects of parental approval and family allocentrism were moderated by level of conflict within the family. Implications for understanding cultural demands and family relations with respect to the decision to move out are discussed.

Ignorant, Stupid or Insane Revisited: A Cultural Psychological Study of Creationism

by Joseph Tennant

For personal interest only, unpublished findings.

Is Vygotsky relevant? Vygotsky's Marxist psychology

by Martin Packer

Packer, M. J. (2008). Is Vygotsky relevant? Vygotsky's Marxist psychology. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 15(1), 8-31. doi:10.1080/10749030701798607 10.1080/10749030701798607

Towards a social ontology of learning

by Martin Packer

Lave, J., & Packer, M. (2008). Towards a social ontology of learning. In K. Nielsen, S. Brinkmann, C. Elmholdt, L. Tanggaard, P. Musaeus, & G. Kraft (Eds.), A qualitative stance (pp. 17-46). Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.

Psicología interpretativa

by Martin Packer

Packer, M. (2007). Psicología interpretativa [Interpretive psychology]. In A. Reid & M. A. Aguilar (Eds.), Tratado de psicología social. Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana.

Cultural work on the kindergarten playground: Articulating the ground of play

by Martin Packer

Creativity and folk art: A study of creative action in traditional craft

by Vlad Glaveanu

Forthcoming in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts

The present article aims to explore creativity in craftwork using the case of Easter egg decoration, a folk art chosen... more The present article aims to explore creativity in craftwork using the case of Easter egg decoration, a folk art chosen for its traditional roots and diversity of artistic outcomes. The research presented here contributes to the literature at: a) a theoretical level, by conceptualising a pragmatist-inspired framework of creative activity, b) a methodological level, by using, beside observation and interview, subjective cameras to record activity, and c) at an empirical level, considering the fact that creativity in folk art has often been a neglected topic. The two studies included in the article employed the participation of 20 different egg decorators of various ages from the village of Ciocӑneşti in northern Romania. The first research was concerned with general stages of traditional egg decoration and their characteristics, while the second investigation took a closer look at variations associated with the activity path, the generalities and specificities of work and how they could be accounted for, particularly in terms of expert - novice differences. These studies revealed the many ways in which creativity is intrinsic to Easter egg decoration and the final discussion of the article summarises them with reference to processes of combination and change, copying and translation, personal style and creative identity. In the end, an understanding of “micro” moments of creativity in craft is achieved, one that can help us rethink the relation between tradition and creativity, between folk and fine art.

Keywords: folk art, Easter egg decoration, creative activity, pragmatism, subjective cameras

What can be done with an egg? Creativity, material objects and the theory of affordances

by Vlad Glaveanu

Forthcoming in Journal of Creative Behavior

The present article offers a reflection on the role of material objects in the creative process and explores the... more The present article offers a reflection on the role of material objects in the creative process and explores the potential links between creativity and the theory of affordances (Gibson, 1986), conceptualized from a socio-cultural perspective. From this standpoint creativity can be defined as a process of perceiving, exploiting and “generating” novel affordances during socially and materially situated activities. Illustrations are offered for each of the above from a research project investigating traditional Easter egg decoration activities in rural Romania. This brief case study exemplifies the discovery of existing action potentials, the generation of objects with novel affordances and the transgression of conventional procedures, all resulting in creative forms of expression. In the end some conclusions are drawn regarding the ways in which an affordance theory of creativity can enrich our understanding of the phenomenon and contribute to the development of a new program of research concerned with situated and distributed creative acts.

Keywords: material objects, affordance, intentionality, normativity, Easter egg decoration 

Aging and Wisdom: Culture Matters

by Igor Grossmann

Co-authored with Karasawa, M., Izumi, S., Na, J., Varnum, M. E. W., Kitayama, S., & Nisbett, R. E., published in 'Psychological Science', in press

Research indicates that cultures differ in the ways they approach social conflicts, with Japanese being more motivated... more Research indicates that cultures differ in the ways they approach social conflicts, with Japanese being more motivated to maintain interpersonal harmony and avoid conflicts than Americans. Such cultural differences have developmental consequences for reasoning about social conflict. We interviewed random samples of Americans from the Midwest in the U.S. and Japanese from the larger Tokyo area about the future developments of intergroup and interpersonal conflicts. Responses showed increased wisdom (e.g. recognition of multiple perspectives, compromise, and the limits of knowledge) with increasing age among Americans, but older age was not associated with wiser responses among Japanese. Younger and middle-aged Japanese showed greater use of wise reasoning strategies than younger and middle-aged Americans. This cultural difference was weaker for older participants for interpersonal conflicts and was actually reversed for intergroup conflicts. Implications of this research for the study of aging, cultural psychology, and wisdom are discussed.

From Dichotomous to Relational Thinking in the Psychology of Creativity: A Review of Great Debates

by Vlad Glaveanu

Lead article in the April 2013 edition of Creativity and Leisure: An Intercultural and Cross-disciplinary Journal

This article invites us to think about the role of dichotomies in the psychology of creativity and how they can... more This article invites us to think about the role of dichotomies in the psychology of creativity and how they can sometimes lead to a misrepresentation of the phenomenon. Especially when turned into oppositions, which is often the case with dichotomies, distinctions such as those between individual and society, Big C and little c, domain generality and domain specificity, evolutionary and revolutionary creation, product and process, can have detrimental effects on our understanding of the nature and characteristics of creative expression. In contrast, the article advocates for a relational type of logic that encourages us to observe the inter-dependence between categories and the ways in which they are embedded into each other. Examples are given from the five ‘debates’ mentioned above and some consequences of adopting a new way of thinking about creativity discussed towards the end.

Keywords: creativity, dichotomous logic, relational logic, categories, great debates.

The nature of creativity in craft: Insights from Easter egg decoration

by Vlad Glaveanu

Forthcoming in International Journal of Creativity & Human Development

The present article explores the nature of creativity in craft and does so with the help of a case study of... more The present article explores the nature of creativity in craft and does so with the help of a case study of traditional Easter egg decoration. It starts by positioning the domain of folk art in relation to fine art and within a larger category of everyday life forms of creative expression. Then a cultural psychology approach to creativity is introduced and its framework used to unpack the actors and processes involved in craftwork. Analysing what is characteristic for folk art uses these particular lenses and requires paying attention to externalisation, integration, internalisation, and social interaction aspects. Findings reveal fundamental features of craft such as its materiality, the presence of a strong traditional background, the importance of continuous learning, and the role of family and community relations. Towards the end connections are made with the existing literature and final reflections offered on whether the characteristics above say something about creativity more generally, beyond the context of craft.

Key words: folk art, Easter eggs, everyday life, cultural psychology.

Bartlett in the digital age

by Brady Wagoner

Thinking in action

by Stephen J. Cowley

The paper introduces our Special Issue of AI & Society on Distributed Cognition. It appears as:
Cowley, S. J. & Vallée-Tourangeau, F. (2010). Thinking in Action. AI & Society, 25/4: 469-475.

While computers can be used to model human competencies, formalization has its limits. Sensori-motor dynamics are... more While computers can be used to model human competencies, formalization has its limits. Sensori-motor dynamics are probably necessary to intelligence. Applied to language, verbal patterns become constraints or, in Elman’s (2004) terms, cues to meaning. Unlike symbol processors, humans act, mean and use the feeling of thinking (Harnad 2005). While language has an artificial (or formal) aspect, human intelligence is embodied. In spite of widespread belief to the contrary, brains do not need to generate sets of sentences. In challenging code views of language, we therefore find parallels with the complex systems we call cells. Given DNA code-makers, formal features constrain protein synthesis. Life, Barbieri (2007) argues, can be traced to natural artifacts.If this is so, we should not be so surprised that thinking too draws on artifacts -both machines and virtual patterns that play out through institutions and languages.

Culture in Crisis: The Visionary Theories of Pitirim Sorokin

by John Uebersax

Metaphrames and Interaction: This is "How it Goes"

by Joel Flynn

Presented at the OurMedia 6 Conference in Sydney Australia (April 2007)

Emerging from Travels in Intertextuality: the autopoetic identity of remix culture (2006), this paper explores the use... more Emerging from Travels in Intertextuality: the autopoetic identity of remix culture (2006), this paper explores the use of metaphors as framing devices for interactive environments. Working with the term “metaphrame”, the paper discusses a model for digital culture featuring tertiary (third-level) cultural obects and their relationship to arrangements of lower-order “building block” objects. Following Michael Cole’s work in Cultural Psychology (1996), the paper summarizes key theoretical elements while briefly providing a practical example of the cultural model in action, specifically, the use of metaphrames and building block objects in the creation of an “enhanced podcast”. This recently developed digital media object started out as a “rough mix” that was authored using an iPod media player, then eventually returned to the iPod as a finished work. The podcast is discussed in terms of “levels” of objects and the interactive processes taking place within such cultural dynamics.

Using resources: Conceptualizing the mediation and reflective use of tools and signs

by Alex Gillespie

Gillespie, A. & Zittoun, T. (2010). Using resources: Conceptualising the mediation and reflective use of tools and signs. Culture & Psychology, 16, 37-62.

Da Punição Física ao Abuso Fisico (From Punitive Practices to Abusive Behaviours)

by Ricardo Barroso

Published in "Portuguese Review of Criminal Sciences, 2010"

The Cultural Grounding of Personal Relationship: Enemyship in North American and West African Worlds.

by Glenn Adams