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HD 2800 – Cultural Psychology

Professor: Qi Wang Office: MVR 209 Telephone: 255-9376 E-mail: qw23@cornell.edu Office hours: By appointment

TAs: Koyuki Nakamura, Amelia Hritz E-mail: kn252@cornell.edu; ach254@cornell.edu Office hours: TBD

Class session: Tuesday & Thursday, 1:25-2:40 MVR 280

This course focuses on cutting-edge research from the exciting field of cultural psychology. We discuss major theories and findings that integrate cultural perspectives into psychology, and consider methodological issues unique for studying the role of culture in psychological processes and functioning. Drawing on recent work in social psychology, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and cultural anthropology, we consider a variety of topics (e.g., the self, motivation, morality, emotion, cognition, physical and mental health, interpersonal relationships) from cultural perspectives.

In this course, we will help each other achieve the following learning goals: • Demonstrate knowledge of the content and

theories in the areas of cultural psychology; • Critically evaluate theories and empirical

research in cultural psychology; • Show basic literacy in the research methods

of cultural psychology; • Apply principles of cultural psychology to

analyze everyday phenomena.

Accomplished by …

ü Lectures, readings, quizzes, exams

ü Lectures, readings, quizzes, exams, peer evaluation

ü Group project, peer evaluation

ü Reflection paper

© Qi Wang 2017

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Performance assessment overview:

ü Class participation: 20% ü Reflection paper: 10% ü Group research project: 15% ü 2 Prelim exams 30% (15% each) ü Final exam: 25%

REQUIREMENTS AND EVALUATION

ü Participation: 20% ATTENDANCE IS MANDATORY! Unless it's an emergency, you should not miss a class. Anyone who cannot attend a class must let the TAs know in advance. Additional work will be required to make up for a missing class. You are encouraged to DOWNLOAD THE LECTURE NOTES BEFORE CLASS and take notes on the printouts as you listen to the lecture. You can choose to finish the assigned readings before or after class. We have regular IN-CLASS QUIZZES that test your understanding of the course content and prepare you for the questions in our exams. The quizzes are graded on a (√), (√+), or (√-) basis.

ü Reflection paper on a movie: 10%

We will watch a movie on March 21. Use what you have learned up to the movie date to comment on the events, episodes, phenomena, and/or characters and their behaviors in the movie. Imagine yourself being a film critique who is particularly interested in cultural issues. The paper should be about 2-page long, double-spaced. It will be graded on the thoughtfulness of your cultural analysis. Due on March 23.

ü Group research project: 15% Students will work in small teams of 4 to design a study that tests a research question developed based on their literature research. Each team will design a poster to present their project and submit it to Blackboard before noon May 4. Each team will then evaluate other teams’ projects and assign grades following a Rubric. The final grade of a poster will be the averaged grade from across all teams (10%). Your peer evaluations will be graded on thoughtfulness and completion (5%; due on May 9).

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ü Exams: 55% We have two prelim exams (30%; 15 % each) and one final exam (25%) that are based on the readings and lectures, in the format of multiple-choice questions, definition questions, and short essays. The exams are given in class on specified dates (see Course Plan).

Academic Integrity: According to Cornell's Academic Integrity Code, work that you submit to the class should be (a) independently conceived and written, (b) reflective of your own original thinking and not a joint product of discussions with others, and (c) written for this class only. You can find more information about Cornell’s Academic Integrity Code at: http://cuinfo.cornell.edu/Academic.AIC.html A list of violations can also be found in the Human Ecology Study Guide and the Cornell Handbook. Buying and selling course materials is prohibited and constitutes academic misconduct.

How to earn extra points: You can choose to participate in a maximum of six research studies during the semester. For each study (of typically 30 minutes), you will earn half a point (0.5) that can be added to your final points. You can earn another additional 3 points by attending 3 lectures at the University (A list of lectures will be provided). This means that the maximum number of points you can gain in this course is 106.

Your final grades will be assigned by the following scale of points: A+ 100.5 or above A 95-100 A- 90-94.5 B+ 87-89.5 B 83-86.5 B- 80-82.5 C+ 77-79.5 C 73-76.5 C- 70-72.5 D+ 67-69.5 D 63-66.5 D- 60-62.5

TEXTBOOK Heine, S. J. (2016) (3rd ed). Cultural Psychology. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

Supplementary readings are available online at http://www.blackboard.cornell.edu/

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Date Focus Readings

Jan. 26 Overview: Why cultural psychology?

Jan. 31 What is culture and cultural psychology?

CP, ch. 1

Feb. 2 Culture and human nature

CP, ch. 2 Kitayama, S., King, A., Yoon, C., Tompson, S., Huff, S., & Liberzon, I. (2014). The dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) moderates cultural difference in independent versus interdependent social orientation. Psychological Science, 25(6), 1169-1177.

Feb. 7 Cultural evolution

CP, ch. 3

Feb. 9 Methods for studying culture and psychology

CP, ch. 4

Feb. 14

Movie time: “Babies”

How does the ecological environment influence childrearing?

Feb. 16 Socialization and development I

CP, ch. 5

Feb. 18 - 21

February Break

Feb. 23 Socialization and development II

Wang, Q. (2007). 'Remember when you got the big, big bulldozer?' Mother-child reminiscing over time and across cultures. Social Cognition, 25(4), 455-471.

Feb. 28 Self and personality I

CP, ch. 6

Mar. 2 Self and personality II

Savani, K., Markus, H.R., Naidu, N.V.R., Kumar, S., & Berlia, N. (2010). What counts as a choice? U.S. Americans are more likely than Indians to construe actions as choices. Psychological Science, 21, 3, 391-398.

Mar. 7 Review Q&A

Mar. 9 Prelim I

Mar. 14 Living in multicultural worlds

CP, ch. 7

COURSE PLAN

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Mar. 16 Motivation CP, ch. 8

Mar. 21 Movie time

“Lost in Translation”

Mar. 23 Guest lecture

TBD Reflection paper due.

Mar. 28 Cognition and perception

CP, ch. 9 Wu, S. & Keysar, B. (2007). The effect of culture on perspective taking. Psychological Science, 18 (7), 600-606. Form research groups (4 students in each group).

Mar. 30 Emotion

CP, ch. 10 Adam, H., Shirako, A., & Maddux, W. W. (2010). Cultural variance in the interpersonal effects of anger in negotiations. Psychological Science, 21(6), 882-889.

Apr. 1 - 9 Spring Break

Apr. 11 Interpersonal relations

CP, ch. 11

Apr. 13

Review Q&A

Finalize research groups.

Apr. 18 Prelim II

Apr. 20 Morality, religion, and justice

CP, ch. 12

Apr. 25 Guest lecture

TBD

Apr. 27 Physical heath

CP, ch. 13

May 2 Mental health

CP, ch. 14

May 4 Online poster session Peer evaluations

No class meeting. Individual research group meetings.

May 9

Review Q&A

Peer evaluations due.

Final: TBD.