Cultural Processes
A Social Psychological Perspective

This lays the theoretical foundation for the transition to a science of cultural processes by proposing an original process model.

Angela K.-y. Leung (Edited by), Chi-yue Chiu (Edited by), Ying-yi Hong (Edited by)

9780521765237, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 December 2010

336 pages, 4 b/w illus. 4 tables
23.5 x 15.9 x 2.1 cm, 0.56 kg

“An overview of the cutting edge. This wide-ranging and well-integrated volume makes a compelling case for a dynamic, processual approach. Anyone interested in cultural determinants of thoughts and behavior should turn to this book to learn of the exciting recent developments in cultural psychology.”
– Michael Morris, Columbia University

With the rapid growth of knowledge concerning ethnic and national group differences in human behaviors in the last two decades, researchers are increasingly curious as to why, how, and when such differences surface. The field is ready to leapfrog from a descriptive science of group differences to a science of cultural processes. The goal of this book is to lay the theoretical foundation for this exciting development by proposing an original process model of culture. This new perspective discusses and extends contemporary social psychological theories of social cognition and social motivation to explain why culture matters in human psychology. We view culture as a loose network of imperfectly shared knowledge representations for coordinating social transactions. As such, culture serves different adaptive functions important for individuals' goal pursuits. Furthermore, with the increasingly globalized and hyper-connected multicultural space, much can be revealed about how different cultural traditions come into contact.

Part I. Introduction: 1. Cultural processes: an overview Chi-yue Chiu, Angela K.-y. Leung and Ying-yi Hong
Part II. Representational Theories of Culture: 2. Culture as lay personal beliefs Karl Dach-Gruschow, Evelyn W. M. Au and Hsin-Ya Liao
3. Culture as intersubjective representations of values Ching Wan and Chi-yue Chiu
4. Culture as norm representations: the case of collective responsibility attribution Melody Manchi Chao and Chi-yue Chiu
Part III. Psychological Functions of Culture: 5. Epistemic functions of culture Melody Manchi Chao and Chi-yue Chiu
6. Existential functions of culture: the monumental immortality project Pelin Kesebir
7. Self-definitional functions of culture Ching Wan, Karl Dach-Gruschow, Sun No and Ying-yi Hong
Part IV. Manifestations of Cultural Processes: 8. Culture and self-enhancement Young-Hoon Kim
9. Cultural processes underlying subjective well-being Young-Hoon Kim and William Tov
10. Cultural processes in teams: the development of team mental models in heterogeneous work teams Jing Qiu, Zhi-Xue Zhang and Leigh Anne Liu
11. Harmony, illusory relationship costs, and conflict resolution in Chinese contexts Zhi-Xue Zhang, Yan Zhang and Min Wang
Part V. Transcultural Processes: 12. Bicultural identity negotiation Sun No, Ching Wan, Melody Manchi Chao, Jennifer L. Rosner and Ying-yi Hong
13. Multicultural experiences and intercultural communication Angela K.-y. Leung and Chi-yue Chiu
14. Multicultural experience fosters creative conceptual expansion Angela K.-y. Leung, Jing Chen and Chi-yue Chiu
15. Workforce diversity and creativity: a multilevel analysis Jian Han, Siqing Peng, Chi-yue Chiu and Angela K.-y. Leung.

Subject Areas: Social, group or collective psychology [JMH], Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Sociology [JHB]