A Cultural Ecology of Social Behavior1

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the cultural ecology of social behavior. There appears to be a growing interest in relationships between social behavior and its sociocultural context, and in the cross-cultural generality of these relationships. The chapter attempts to illustrate how such studies are done (a methodological emphasis), what does such study reveals (a substantive emphasis), and finally, how such knowledge can be returned to the people (an applied emphasis). The chapter discusses an ecological-cultural-behavioral model. The model views the development of individual behavior as a function of membership in a cultural group; and cultural characteristics are viewed as a function of both the ecological setting of the group and the acculturative influences, which impinge upon the group. The chapter also focuses on social behaviors, charted cross-culturally, and on their group and individual distributions. The chapter attempts to show that both cultural and cross-cultural dimensions of social behavior are investigated. The aim of science is to make general statements, but the aim of social psychology is to make culturally universal statements about human social behavior.

[1]  J. Berry.  Psychological Research in the North , 1971 .

[2]  H. A. Witkin,et al.  Field dependence and interpersonal behavior. , 1977 .

[3]  G. Murdock,et al.  Ethnographic Atlas: A Summary , 1967 .

[4]  B. Ryan.  Social and Cultural Change , 1970 .

[5]  R. Munroe,et al.  Relation of Subsistence Economy to Conformity in Three East African Societies , 1973 .

[6]  S. Asch.  Studies of independence and conformity: I. A minority of one against a unanimous majority. , 1956 .

[7]  R. Munroe,et al.  Levels of Obedience among U.S. and East African Children on an Experimental Task , 1975 .

[8]  J. Berry.  Temne and Eskimo perceptual skills. , 1966 .

[9]  A. Cohen,et al.  The Functional Prerequisites of a Society , 1950, Ethics.

[10]  M. Smith,et al.  Is experimental social psychology advancing , 1972 .

[11]  G. Murdock,et al.  Measurement of cultural complexity , 1973 .

[12]  P. Dasen.  Concrete Operational Development in Three Cultures , 1975 .

[13]  I L CHILD,et al.  A cross-cultural survey of some sex differences in socialization. , 1957, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[14]  W. Claeys.  CONFORMING BEHAVIOR AND PERSONALITY VARIABLES IN CONGOLESE STUDENTS. , 1967 .

[15]  Herman A. Witkin,et al.  FIELD DEPENDENCE REVISITED , 1976 .

[16]  H. Triandis.  Social Psychology and Cultural Analysis , 1975 .

[17]  H. Barry,et al.  Traits Inculcated in Childhood: Cross-Cultural Codes 5 , 1976 .

[18]  H. Barry,et al.  Relation of Child Training to Subsistence Economy , 1959 .

[19]  C. Faucheux.  Cross-cultural research in experimental social psychology. , 1976 .

[20]  Social Pressure in the Modification and Distortion of Judgment. A Cross-Cultural Study , 1967 .

[21]  J W Berry,et al.  Independance and conformity in subsistence-level societies. , 1967, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[22]  R. Díaz-Guerrero.  A Mexican psychology , 1977 .

[23]  H. Barry,et al.  Infancy and Early Childhood: Cross-Cultural Codes 2 , 1971 .

[24]  The Effects of Group Pressure in Perception: A Cross-Cultural Conformity Study in Fiji , 1973 .

[25]  Triandis Lm,et al.  Pancultural factor analysis of reported socialization practices. , 1961 .

[26]  J. Barkow.  Culture and sociobiology. , 1978, American anthropologist.

[27]  Robert D. Meade,et al.  Conformity and Anticonformity among Americans and Chinese , 1973 .

[28]  H. Triandis.  Some Universals of Social Behavior , 1978 .

[29]  R. Munroe,et al.  Obedience Among Children in an East African Society , 1972 .

[30]  J. Berry.  Social psychology: Comparative, societal and universal. , 1978 .

[31]  John W. Berry,et al.  Ecological and cultural factors in spatial perceptual development , 1971 .

[32]  Lily C. Huang,et al.  Conformity in Chinese and Americans , 1973 .

[33]  I. Altman.  Privacy Regulation: Culturally Universal or Culturally Specific? , 1977 .

[34]  John W. Berry,et al.  Acculturative Stress , 1974 .

[35]  E. D. Boldt.  Acquiescence and Conventionality in a Communal Society , 1976 .

[36]  K. Gergen.  Social Psychology as History , 1973 .

[37]  H. Triandis.  Cross-Cultural Social and Personality Psychology , 1977 .

[38]  Albert Pepitone,et al.  Toward a normative and comparative biocultural social psychology. , 1976 .

[39]  W. Mcguire.  The Yin and Yang of Progress in Social Psychology: Seven Koan. , 1973 .

[40]  S. Milgram.  Nationality and conformity. , 1961 .

[41]  J. Honigmann.  Interpersonal Relations in Atomistic Communities , 1968 .

[42]  H. A. Witkin,et al.  Psychological Differentiation in Cross-Cultural Perspective , 1975 .

[43]  A. C. Elms.  The crisis of confidence in social psychology. , 1975 .