Chapter 30: Cultural Psychology

Leslie Swartz & Poul Rohleder

Cultural psychology Social scientists have been interested in the concept of culture for a long time. The concept of culture – of what it is and where it is situated – is a complex one. For many years, culture was seen as explicit and observable in group and individual activities (Berry, 2000). More recently, culture is seen to include implicit, symbolic meanings underlying behaviour. Helman (1994) describes culture as a set of guidelines (both explicit and implicit) which individuals inherit as members of a particular society, and which tells them how to view the world, how to experience it emotionally, and how to behave in it in relation to other people, to supernatural forces or gods, and to the natural environment. It also provides them with a way of transmitting these guidelines to the next generation – by the use of symbols, language, art and ritual. We can therefore see ...

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