How can you capture cultural dynamics?

Evidence from 43 countries that disease leaves cultures unchanged in the short-term

Did cultures change shortly after, and in response to, the COVID-19 outbreak? If so, then in what way? We study these questions for a set of macro-cultural dimensions: collectivism/individualism, duty/joy, traditionalism/autonomy, and pro-fertility/individual-choice norms. We also study specific perceptions and norms like perceived threats to society (e.g. immigration) and hygiene norms. We draw on Evolutionary Modernization Theory, Parasite Stress Theory, and the Behavioural Immune System, and existing evidence, to make an overarching prediction: the COVID-19 pandemic should increase collectivism, duty, traditionalism, conformity (i.e. pro-fertility), and outgroup prejudice. We derive specific hypotheses from this prediction and use survey data from 29,761 respondents, in 55 cities and 43 countries, collected before (April-December 2019) and recently after the emergence of COVID-19 (April-June 2020) to test them. We exploit variation in disease intensity across regions to test potential mechanisms behind any changes. The macro-cultural dimensions remained stable. In contrast, specific perceptions and norms related to the pandemic changed: norms of hygiene substantially increased as did perceived threats related to disease. Taken together, our findings imply that macro-cultural dimensions are primarily stable while specific perceptions and norms, particularly those related to the pandemic, can change rapidly. Our findings provide new evidence for theories of cultural change and have implications for policy, public health, daily life, and future trajectories of our societies.

The Charnegroes: Black Africans and the Ontological Conflict in Catalonia

This paper frames an in depth reflection on the current social and political changes and the emerging phenomenon of body politics of migrant and racialized groups in Europe. The ongoing discussion aims to address the meaning of “being” Catalan for Black Africans in Catalonia. It is grounded on a criterion of ontological commitment and the epistemological aspect of ethnography. I dig into the debate about what makes a racial identity salient in the context of national identity rhetoric. I look thoroughly at the outcomes of the encounter between Black African migrants and the constant resignification of Catalan national identity. I aim to disentangle the racial premises and tackle what Black Africans share once the racial questions are removed. My approach stands within the growing field of postcolonial criticism to understand historical continuities and ontological conflicts. I focus on culture, race, and identity to analyze the cultural dynamics of Senegalese migrants and Equatoguinean communities within the national identity building process in Catalonia. I coined a new concept, Charnegroes, to propose a practical explanation of the emergence of body politics and the changing reality of the relationship between the “us” and the “other” under the recurrent transitions between old and new, colonial and postcolonial, the past and the future.

A Contextual Behavioral Account of Culture: Example Implementation of a Functional Behavioral Approach to the Study of Cultural Differences in Social Anxiety

The current article proposes integrating a functional behavior approach to the study of culture. After describing culture from a contextual behavioral science framework, we outline a three-step process to perform a functional behavior analysis of culture: (1) identifying potential contingencies, (2) determining functional relationships, and (3) gathering supporting evidence. As an example, we present each of the three steps through a re-analysis of data related to cultural differences in social anxiety between Japanese and European Americans as well as describe a hypothetical experiment. The results demonstrate how implementing an alternative framework that focuses on the relationship between behavioral function and environmental adaptability leads to different conclusions compared to implementing frameworks that emphasize the form or degree of a behavior or belief in one group compared to another. For this particular example, in contrast to viewing social anxiety in Japanese as something stemming from innate beliefs about themselves and others (e.g., self-construal), the current study suggests that displaying social anxiety in some situations within a Japanese context is more functionally adaptive (e.g., more likely leads to desirable outcomes) than within a European American context.

Self–Esteem among Chinese Cohorts: Its Temporal Trend and Its Relationships with Socioecological Factors, 1993–2016

Self–esteem affects individuals in a variety of psychological processes substantially and extensively. While an increase in self–esteem over time was observed in the USA, different patterns of temporal change in self–esteem were observed in other societies. We analysed the responses ( n = 305 229) collected between 1993 and 2016 from 609 articles to examine the patterns of temporal change in self–esteem in China and its relations with socioecological conditions. Additionally, we explored the patterns in different groups, including secondary school students (158 samples; n = 97 751), college students (427 samples; n = 153 474), and community participants (232 samples; n = 54 004). Some major findings were noted: (i) overall, the level of self–esteem increased over time. However, we also found a significant curvilinear trend in self–esteem with a decline followed by a recent increase; (ii) some evidence for the relationship between socioecological factors and self–esteem was obtained; and (iii) the patterns varied in different cohort groups. Specifically, secondary school students showed a different pattern, in which their self–esteem level did not show a significant linear trend and was not correlated with the examined socioecological factors. The implications on the theories for the relationship between personality characteristics and socioecological conditions were discussed.

Emotion in Cultural Dynamics

Emotion is critical for cultural dynamics, that is, for the formation, maintenance, and transformation of culture over time. We outline the component micro- and macro-level processes of cultural dynamics, and argue that emotion not only facilitates the transmission and retention of cultural information, but also is shaped and crafted by cultural dynamics. Central to this argument is our understanding of emotion as a complete information package that signals the adaptive significance of the information that the agent is processing. It captures an agent’s appraisal about the relationship between themself and the object of emotional focus, as well as action orientation and allostasis in context. We discuss implications of this perspective in the context of the changing natural and geopolitical environment, and future cultural dynamics into the 21st century.

The Psychology of Cultural Dynamics: What Is It, What Do We Know, and What Is Yet to Be Known?

The psychology of cultural dynamics is the psychological investigation of the formation, maintenance, and transformation of culture over time. This article maps out the terrain, reviews the existing literature, and points out potential future directions of this research. It is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on micro-cultural dynamics, which refers to the social and psychological processes that contribute to the dissemination and retention of cultural information. The second part, on micro-macro dynamics, investigates how micro-level processes give rise to macro-cultural dynamics. The third part focuses on macro-cultural dynamics, referring to the distribution and long-term trends involving cultural information in a population, which in turn enable and constrain the micro-level processes. We conclude the review with a consideration of future directions, suggesting behavior change research as translational research on cultural dynamics.

How figurative language may be related to formal care-givers’ person-centred approach toward their patients with dementia

Person-centred care that respects a patient's personhood is the gold standard in dementia care, which is often difficult to achieve given the complexity of caring for people with dementia. This article delves into the narration style of formal care-givers from a variety of ethno-cultural backgrounds in search of linguistic cues that may be related to their emphasis on a person-centred approach to care. A qualitative study, using a discourse analysis of semi-structured interviews with 20 formal care-givers in an institutional setting, was employed. The care-givers fell into three groups: Arabs, immigrants from the former Soviet Union (IFSU) and Jews born in Israel (JBI). Our results show 20 figurative language expressions (FLEs) in the narratives of the JBI care-givers and 11 among the IFSU care-givers. In contrast, the Arab care-givers conveyed 48 FLEs. Many of the Arab care-givers’ FLEs were not associated with the ‘regular’ domains articulated by other care-givers (family, children, militaristic language) and were primarily individual-focused, emphasising the personhood of the patient. These findings, together with relevant theoretical literature, suggest that the extensive use of figurative language by Arab care-givers may be a possible tool assisting these care-givers to employ a person-centred approach, manifested in their stress on the personhood of the patient. Such tools may be useful for better achieving person-centred care for these patients.

Diversity and Resistance to Change: Macro Conditions for Marginalization in Post-industrial Societies

We argue that two society-level properties—resistance to change and diversity within a culture—significantly affect agents' degrees of marginalization, which is here defined as access to cultural knowledge and institutional means for accomplishing cultural goals. We develop an agent-based model using findings from Norasakkunkit et al. (Norasakkunkit and Uchida, 2011, 2014; Norasakkunkit et al., 2012). We found that varying the degrees of resistance to change and diversity affected similarities between the mainstream subculture and other subcultures, changes in subcultures over time, and the relative population proportion of each subculture. In particular, we found that high diversity and low resistance to change created the greatest cultural changes within the marginalized subculture over time and allowed for maximal growth of rebellious subcultures. Also, low diversity and high resistance to change allowed for maximal growth of the marginalized subcultures and the greatest overlap between the marginalized and mainstream subcultures. These have important implications for understanding the emergence and maintenance of marginalization in post-industrial societies.

Cultural Change: The How and the Why

More than half a century of cross-cultural research has demonstrated group-level differences in psychological and behavioral phenomena, from values to attention to neural responses. However, cultures are not static, with several specific changes documented for cultural products, practices, and values. How and why do societies change? Here we juxtapose theory and insights from cultural evolution and social ecology. Evolutionary approaches enable an understanding of the how of cultural change, suggesting transmission mechanisms by which the contents of culture may change. Ecological approaches provide insights into the why of cultural change: They identify specific environmental pressures, which evoke shifts in psychology and thereby enable greater precision in predictions of specific cultural changes based on changes in ecological conditions. Complementary insights from the ecological and cultural evolutionary approaches can jointly clarify the process by which cultures change. We end by discussing the relevance of cultural change research for the contemporary societal shifts and by highlighting several critical challenges and future directions for the emerging field of cross-temporal research on culture and psychology.

Global Increases in Individualism

Individualism appears to have increased over the past several decades, yet most research documenting this shift has been limited to the study of a handful of highly developed countries. Is the world becoming more individualist as a whole? If so, why? To answer these questions, we examined 51 years of data on individualist practices and values across 78 countries. Our findings suggest that individualism is indeed rising in most of the societies we tested. Despite dramatic shifts toward greater individualism around the world, however, cultural differences remain sizable. Moreover, cultural differences are primarily linked to changes in socioeconomic development, and to a lesser extent to shifts in pathogen prevalence and disaster frequency.

Temporal Changes in Individualism and Their Ramification in Japan: Rising Individualism and Conflicts with Persisting Collectivism

Many studies have shown that American culture has become more individualistic over time. However, it was unclear whether other cultures, especially East Asian cultures, have also shifted toward greater individualism. Therefore, this article reviewed studies investigating temporal changes in individualism in Japan and their ramifications on psychology and behavior. Japan has experienced rapid and dramatic economic growth and urbanization and has adopted more social systems based on individualistic concepts in various contexts (e.g., workplace, school). Recent studies have suggested that, along with these socioeconomic changes, Japanese culture has become more individualistic over time. Specifically, the divorce rate increased and household size decreased. Moreover, people give more unique names to their children and dogs, and individualistic words such as "individual" and "uniqueness" appear more frequently in newspapers. Furthermore, social values became more individualistic. Yet, it has also been shown that some collectivistic values still remain. As a result, people have difficulty in adapting to this coexistence, which injures interpersonal relationships and well-being. This paper discussed how Japanese culture changed over time and how such changes affected Japanese psychology and behavior.

Culture and Self-Esteem Over Time

Self-esteem is increasing in the United States according to temporal meta-analyses of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. However, it remains unclear whether this trend reflects broad social ecological shifts toward urban, affluent, and technologically advanced or a unique cultural history. A temporal meta-analysis of self-esteem was conducted in Australia. Australia shares social ecological and cultural similarities with the United States. On the other hand, Australian culture is horizontally individualistic and places a stronger emphasis on self-other equality compared to American culture. For this reason, the strengthening norm of positive self-esteem found in the United States may not be evident in Australia. Consistent with this possibility, the findings indicated that self-esteem among Australian high school students, university students, and community participants did not change between 1978 and 2014.

A Growing Disconnection From Nature Is Evident in Cultural Products

Human connection with nature is widely believed to be in decline even though empirical evidence is scarce on the magnitude and historical pattern of the change. Studying works of popular culture in English throughout the 20th century and later, we have documented a cultural shift away from nature that begins in the 1950s. Since then, references to nature have been decreasing steadily in fiction books, song lyrics, and film storylines, whereas references to the human-made environment have not. The observed temporal pattern is consistent with the explanatory role of increased virtual and indoors recreation options (e.g., television, video games) in the disconnect from nature, and it is inconsistent with a pure urbanization account. These findings are cause for concern, not only because they imply foregone physical and psychological benefits from engagement with nature, but also because cultural products are agents of socialization that can evoke curiosity, respect, and concern for the natural world.

Culture and Psychology in the 21st Century

At the end of the 20th century, a survey of the metatheoretical landscape of culture and psychology noted an emerging consensus—physicalist ontology, gene–culture co-evolutionary phylogeny, gene–culture interactionist ontogeny, and a mutual constitutionist view of culture and mind. Revisiting the terrain now, the then emerging consensus seems well established, but new challenges appear on the horizon, prompting us to expand our metatheoretical scope. Extending beyond phylogeny, we need to consider a geological timescale, and further naturalizing the culture concept, we need to consider culture and human activity within the planetary system. According to some, we have left the Holocene, and entered into the Anthropocene, a geological epoch in which human activities have such a disproportionate impact that it deserves to be prefaced by humanity. Psychology with interests in culture can play a critical role in human efforts to investigate the psychological processes involved in the cultural change and to reconceptualize humans’ place in nature.