What is Cultural Psychology?

This facet of psychology is in charge of studying the way in which ethnic groups and collectives live.

Many aspects of how we behave and how we think have to do not with our personal life experiences or our genetics, but with the culture in which we are immersed.

In fact, although at present the predominant point of view is Western, we must not lose sight of the fact that, in some places, the cultural frontier means that tribes living in the same region do not understand each other in terms of language, customs and mentality.

Cultural psychology is the branch of psychology that tries to deal with this aspect of the human mind, based on the of the human mind, based on the diversity and cultural heritage we receive. Let's see exactly what it is and what it is for.

Cultural Psychology: a definition

Cultural psychology is a branch of psychology that studies how cultural elements influence behavior, customs and perception. the way in which cultural elements influence the behavior, customs and perceptions of groups of people. of groups of people. In other words, it examines the context in which people live in order to find the reasons why individuals tend to act in one way and not another.

For example, have you ever wondered why many people in India refuse to slaughter cows? The easy answer to this is to point out that for a large part of the population cows are sacred, but this doesn't really explain much. What makes the fact that cows are sacred sustainable?

Cultural psychologists are able to research the different ways in which society in this country takes advantage of these animals without having to kill them. In turn, they have the tools to know where the limits of the respect these people have for cows are.

The same is true for many other cultural phenomena. This type of psychologist is in charge of society for the causes of behavioral patterns and, by means of predictions and, by means of predictions, to know which new actions would clash with these customs and which would not.

Its relationship with sociology and anthropology.

Cultural psychology has a close relationship with two social sciences: sociology and, especially, anthropology.

With sociology

Sociology is concerned with the study of social phenomena in a broad sense. For example, ghetto formation and social stratification, or migration patterns in a country. As far as cultural psychology is concerned, it can provide data, especially quantitative data, to help understand the historical dynamics that have been shaping a specific culture.

With anthropology

Anthropology, unlike sociology, focuses rather on understanding cultures themselves, with all the characteristic symbols, customs, rituals and concepts. In other words, while sociology studies the forms of what goes on in society, anthropology studies the content of the cultural units involved in this process. cultural units involved in this dynamic of collective change..

The functions of cultural psychology

The main areas of application of cultural psychology are the following.

1. Helping to understand ethnicities

In an increasingly globalized world such as ours, it is very important to know the type of population in a region where foreign initiatives are to be deployed. Cultural psychologists can work as advisors to companies or any other type of organization so that what is done does not have so that what is done does not have a negative impact on the way of life of these people and, incidentally, so that a lot of time and money is not wasted on initiatives that simply do not work.

2. Allows you to intervene in conflicts

In mediation efforts it is always good to be aware that the opposing parties sometimes do not share the same vision of reality. Language and ideology differ between groups, and if you want to achieve a good fit, you must first know what the pieces you are trying to put together are like.

3. It serves to detect differential aspects

Something that characterizes the hegemony of a culture (in the case of the present times, the Western one) is that all those ethnic groups that are not part of the dominant one are so ignored that many of them are unknown, and it is simply assumed that they are like the others but with certain folkloric and aesthetic characteristics of their own. certain folkloric and aesthetic characteristics of their own..

Cultural psychology participates in the process of understanding the depth of these differences between communities and, in short, to shed light on something that before seemed to be a misunderstanding of cultures due to simple ignorance and Eurocentric bias.

4. It supports other disciplines

Of course, cultural psychology is not only nourished by sociology and anthropology: it also contributes to their progress. It does so by participating in the other functions we have seen and by adopting a perspective focused on the way in which the social and cultural, over time, influences people's actions, perceptions and thoughts.