Books in the Elements in Psychology and Culture series

Describes noteworthy developments in cross-cultural psychology of the past half century. Presents events in a decade-by-decade format, allowing brief discussion of high points in each decade. Covers key aspects of culture-centered methodology in psychology and the teaching of culture-oriented psychology.

This Element discusses cross-cultural differences in subjective wellbeing, proposing that the major barrier to creating such comparability of measurement is a pervasive response bias that differs between cultures. Cummins concludes that current instruments are inadequate to provide valid cross-cultural measures of subjective wellbeing.

The nature and challenges of the indigenous psychologies (IPs) are discussed from the perspectives of science studies and anthropology of knowledge. The Element describes general social conditions for the development of science and the IPs globally, and their development and form in some specific countries.

In this Element, Heewon Kwon and Joni Y. Sasaki review key findings and theories in gene-culture interaction research. Next, they discuss current issues and future directions in gene-culture research that may illuminate the path toward an explanatory framework.

This Element compares the nature of childhood in four representative societies differing in their subsistence activities: bands of Australian hunter-gatherers, Tibetan nomadic pastoralists, peasants and farmers residing in Maya villages and towns, and South Korean students growing up in a digital information society.

The author proposes an epistemological strategy to resolve controversial issues in the indigenous psychology (IP) movement. These include the nature of IPs, scientific standards, cultural concepts, philosophy of science, mainstream psychology, generalization of findings, and the isolation and independence of IPs.

Acculturation is the process of group and individual changes in culture and behaviour that result from intercultural contact. This Element presents variations in the meanings of the concept and a survey of empirical work with indigenous, immigrant and ethnocultural peoples around the globe that employed both qualitative and quantitative methods.

Adolescents use technology for education, to further their identity and socio-emotional development, to access health information, engage in civic activities, and for entertainment. This comes with challenges. Researchers, parents, and policy makers must consider the role of culture in the complex interactions of teenagers with technology.

This Element examines the development of child helpers in varied cultural contexts, reviewing evidence for supportive environments in the ethnographic record versus an environment which extinguishes the drive to be helpful in WEIRD children. In the last section, the benefits of the helper stage are discussed.

Psychologies of women and gender have developed - both institutionally and intellectually - within distinct social, cultural, historical, and political contexts. The intersections of gender, feminism, history, and culture are explored with reference to psychology, first in the United States, and then across three other national contexts.

The Process of Wellbeing develops an anthropological perspective on wellbeing as an intersubjective process that can be approached through the prism of three complementary conceptual framings: conviviality; care; and creativity.