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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.
“This book lays out a brilliant process model of culture. It shows how culturally shared knowledge is used to structure social transactions and it lays the groundwork for a new science of cultural processes. It's an outstanding contribution to psychology.”
– Carol Dweck, Stanford University
“This is an up-to-date statement of one of the most productive and innovative research groups in culture and psychology. Treating culture as process, they spell out the underlying metatheory of culture, describe their most recent research findings, theorize about cultural representations and functions, and apply this framework to pressing contemporary research questions, such as cultural differences in self-enhancement, subjective well-being, work teams, and conflict resolution, as well as intercultural processes of negation and communication. This volume is simultaneously a cogent argument for a dynamic perspective on culture, a searching analysis of cultural dynamics, and an invaluable foundation from which to launch further inquiries into cultural changes in the globalized world.”
– Yoshi Kashima, The University of Melbourne
“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
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