Course description
What makes people in different countries 'different'? Do people fall in love in the same way in every country? What makes a good leader in Chinese (and other non-Western) societies?
This course provides you with an understanding of how basic psychological processes may vary across cultures, and gives you the skills necessary to conduct your own research with different ethnic groups. The programme is specifically aimed at those who intend to pursue their psychological work in a number of different cultural settings, whether within Britain or overseas. In particular, the course aims to draw on the complementary disciplines of Brunel's Social Sciences in order to offer a truly inter-disciplinary perspective.
Course Details
Most psychology programmes around the world teach a set of 'basic psychological findings'. Such findings are usually based on samples of students in the US and Northern Europe, and give us few clues as to how psychological processes vary across the world. Many societies have an increasingly multi-cultural nature, which is compounded by the increasing contact and interaction between societies with very different cultural traditions. These changes are raising profound sets of issues about how we, as individuals, understand each other, and how we act in relation to each other in different cultural settings. This course considers the way in which psychological findings may differ across societies, and explores some reasons for this variation. It also gives you the skills necessary to conduct your own research with different ethnic groups and in different cultures.
You will undertake a variety of modules focusing on cross-cultural psychology and research methods modules leading to a dissertation (15,000 words).
Core modules introduce you to the particular methods and skills employed by psychologists working in the cross-cultural area as well as providing you with an introduction to the major areas in which cross-cultural variations have been observed. They focus on cross-cultural psychology and aim to introduce you to the particular methods and skills employed by psychologists working in the cross-cultural area. In addition they provide you with an introduction to the major areas in which cross-cultural variations have been observed.
The research methods modules will equip you with the tools and concepts to undertake project work in an international setting, providing you with a firm basis both in advanced techniques for analysis of data (in the Research Methods for Psychology module) and the particular techniques required to conduct research across cultures (Methods for Cross-cultural Research module). A key feature of these modules is the poster presentation by the students, which is based on an analysis of key research papers in cross-cultural psychology and the student's own research proposals. Two further modules are concerned with understanding issues of universality and cultural variability in psychological findings. Here, the inclusion of the expertise of a number of members of our staff mean that a wide range of topics can be presented and discussed, ranging from issues in perception and bi-lingualism to psychoanalysis and inter-group relations.
Modules are subject to variation and students are advised to check with the School on whether a particular module of interest will be running in their year of entry.
Typical Modules
Core Modules
Cross-Cultural Variations in Psychological Finding 1
Main topics of study: controversies in defining culture; assessing culture; the development of cross-cultural dimensions (individualism/collectivism, the work of the Chinese Culture Connection, Trompenaars model, Inglehart's work, Schwartz's value circumplex) and a critique of cultural dimensions; the self across culture, emotion and appraisal across cultures.
Cross-cultural Variations in Psychological Findings 2
Main topics of study: cultural variations in inter-group relations; national stereotypes; perception; bi-lingualism; theory of mind; concept of self; well-being; personal relationships; acculturation; culture; health and social change.
Cross-Cultural Research Methods
Main topics of study: the development of appropriate research strategies; sampling techniques; questionnaire and interview design and construction; piloting;
content analytic techniques; diary methods; projective techniques; quantitative data analysis; data standardisation; ethical considerations; writing-up reports.
Dissertation
Some recent dissertation topics: mediation strategies amongst Jews and Arabs in Israel and the UK; cultural predictors of loneliness and life satisfaction in Canada: a comparison between Canadian and Chinese; partner preferences amongst Hindu Gujaritis in Britain.
Elective Modules
A provisional list of modules for 2008-9 is presented below. Students take one from the following 'longer' modules:
Themes in Psychological and Psychiatric Anthropology (30 credits)
Main topics of study: the development of psychological and psychiatric anthropology; theories of emotion (approaches to, and critiques of, the 'social construction of emotion'); selfhood and subjectivity in cross-cultural perspective; psychoanalytic approaches; folk psychologies; culture and personality; mental health and ethnic minorities; cultural perspectives on madness; narrative and illness; the construction of diagnostic categories.
Anthropological and Psychological Perspectives on Learning (30 credits)
Main topics of study: models of learning in anthropology and psychology; children as subjects and objects; learning as an embodied microhistorical process; space-time coordinates of learning; kinship and intersubjectivity; person and gender; language and consciousness; ritual and learning.
Anthropology of Childhood and Youth (30 credits)
Main topics of study: the concept of the child in society; children's participation in society; children's ways of coping with violence; child play; child labour; the history of youth as a political category; young people's resistance to marginalisation; the radicalisation of young people.
Foundations of Psychoanalytic Theory (30 credits)
Main topics of study: the origin and development of psychoanalysis; sexuality and the unconscious; neurosis, perversion, psychosis; the foundations of psychoanalytic technique; Freud's case-studies; the second topography; the work of Melanie Klein, Donald W. Winnicott, Jacques Lacan; psychoanalytic theories of psychosis; psychoanalytic views on addiction; the so-called ‘new symptoms' in contemporary society.
Evolutionary Psychology (30 credits, 15 per term)
Theories of Globalization ( 30 credits)
Main topics of study: political realism – From Weber to Kissinger; liberalism – From Smith to the Washington Consensus; Marxism – From Marx to 'Empire'; challenges to the Orthodoxy; world systems analysis; postmodernism; issues in global political culture; towards a global communication industry – A world wired up; culture and commodification – tourism, football, pornography and intellectual property rights; global Security and the war on terror – the security/development discourse; global moral consciousness – the media and public opinion in global political culture – failed states, genocide and democratisation – building a global political culture; the Anti-Globalization movement and civil society; global Cities in the world system; cinema, war and representing the global.
OR
they take the two shorter courses:
Clinically Applied Medical Anthropology (15 credits) + Applied Anthropology and International Health (15 credits)
Top of Page
All students taking anthropology options also take a reading module "Issues in Social Anthropology" in their first term of study as a support for their anthropological courses.
Please note: these module options are subject to change following internal review each year.
** Example programme **
Special Features
Professor Robin Goodwin (degree convenor) specialises in the study of relationships and culture, particularly in fast-changing cultures, such as the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe, and in China. Present projects include the production of videos for national Georgian television and a study of Chinese migration across Europe. He organised the major International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology conference in the UK in 2001.
Dr Patricia Rodriquez Mosquera is a specialist on culture and emotion, and works on this topic with collaborators from across the world.
Assessment
Assessment is a mixture of essays, poster presentations and seen examinations (where students are given a month to prepare an examination answer).
Teaching Methods
Teaching is by seminar and lecture, along with class exercises and audio-visual materials.
Careers
The degree will prove especially useful to those who wish to develop their psychological skills both nationally and internationally, as well as those wishing to deploy these skills in international government and non-governmental agencies. International companies, and commercial activities more generally, are increasingly relying on the findings of research in cross-cultural psychology to understand the very different cultural environments within which they work. In addition, other major issues, for example that of cross-cultural attitudes and behaviours in relation to health and health care, are considered increasingly important by both local and national governments and international agencies, in implementing desirable policies and practices. Thus students graduating from this degree will find that they have gained considerable knowledge and expertise in cross-cultural psychology which should enable them to enhance their career opportunities in a major way.
Previous students from the course are now working in major international organisations, such as the WHO. Others are continuing their studies, taking PhDs at leading international universities.
