The Role of Culture in Human Life (DP IB Psychology): Revision Note

The role of culture in human life

What is culture?

• Culture refers to the shared rules, norms, values, and customs of a group, society, or nation.

  • These are the products of socialisation — what people learn as members of a group

• Culture is active, not passive

  • People help shape the culture they live in, and that culture in turn shapes them — this is a two-way (bi-directional) process

• Culture is not fixed

  • It changes over time due to new technologies, social and political movements, and even geography

Deep and surface culture

• Deep culture includes the beliefs, values, and attitudes that underlie people’s daily lives

• It’s often invisible because it feels “normal” to those within that culture

• Examples of deep culture include:

  • belief in life after death

  • belief that cows are sacred

  • belief in freedom of speech

• Surface culture is how deep culture is expressed outwardly — in visible customs, rituals, and everyday behaviour

• Examples of surface culture include:

  • eating with chopsticks

  • performing traditional dances at festivals

  • living in houses built on stilts

What is enculturation?

• Enculturation is a type of socialisation — it’s how we learn and absorb the norms, traditions, and practices of the culture we grow up in

• It usually happens unconsciously: people rarely realise they’re being enculturated; it’s simply part of growing up

• As people get older, they may question or challenge some aspects of their enculturation, but most cultural influences become deeply embedded and hard to change

How enculturation is transmitted

• Vertically: from parents and caregivers (the most influential figures)

• Horizontally: from siblings and peers

• Obliquely: from other adults, teachers, celebrities, media, and institutions

• Enculturation is adaptive — it helps individuals survive and function effectively within their culture and ensures that traditions and practices are passed down through generations

Challenges of research in this area

Culture and psychological research

• Early psychology research mostly took place in Western, individualistic cultures (e.g., the USA, the UK, and Western Europe)

• Findings from these studies were often treated as universal truths, even though they only reflected Western experiences — this is known as an etic approach

• The etic approach can lead to ethnocentrism — judging other cultures by the standards of one’s own, which reduces the external validity of research

Etic vs emic approaches

• Imposed etic: when a researcher from one culture studies another using their own cultural standards (e.g., applying Western ideas to non-Western participants)

• Emic approach: studies behaviour from within the culture, using concepts that make sense to people in that setting.

  • This aligns with cultural relativism — the belief that behaviour can only be understood in its cultural context

Common research challenges

• Cultural unfamiliarity: researchers may misunderstand or misinterpret unfamiliar behaviours or norms

• Training and cost: developing cultural competence takes time and resources

• Unconscious bias: researchers may unknowingly allow their own cultural assumptions to influence data collection or interpretation — practising reflexivity can help reduce this

• Inappropriate methods: standard tools (e.g., written questionnaires) may not suit all cultures

  • Some participants may have lower literacy levels, making interviews or oral storytelling more effective

  • Language barriers can lead to mistranslation or loss of meaning