Cultural Psychology

by Steven J. Heine

Cultural psychology through a global lens

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Textbooks, School, Science, Cultural, Academic

800 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2007

Reviews

[Rikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

I disliked this book, at times intensely.

Heine is cavalier and apathetic at best and sexist at worst when discussing the ethics of topics such as the practices of Sambian men--practices that are not marooned on Papua New Guinea but are found to varying degrees of similarity throughout the globe.

Instead of even holding ground for a discussion on the patriarchal, sexual violence that occurs as a deeply ingrained aspect of Sambian culture according to Heine and his cited researchers, he glosses over the ritualistic oral rape of young boys and their forced ingestion of semen by the older men, the lashings as a result of protests, and the gendered slurs indicative of masculine (and thereby patriarchal) socialization thrown at mothers and their unwilling boys, calling them weak and effeminate when they aren't willing to swallow "masculinity" and thereby become men.

(Older men, by the way, maintain their manliness not by sucking each other off but by eating sap from a specific tree, which they identify as, essentially, a plant-based source of sperm. One can only ask why they don't give this sap to the boys as well, but then one remembers that men tend to enjoy oral sex, and patriarchy has a long and tiring history of adult male rape and molestation of children that occurs because it's condoned or encouraged and pleasurable for the party in power.)

Heine breezes by this, calling on cultural relativism and for an emic approach, and then goes on to utilize sexist or soft-sexist language throughout the book--what I read of it anyway, which was several chapters. This behavior would set off the alarm bells for any socially conscious person, particularly for those of us aware of patriarchy and its myriad manifestations. When brought to the attention of my male professor via an essay over email in which I made perfectly clear my awareness of the ubiquity of male violence against women and children and just how common this sort of disgusting occurrence is throughout the world, including the United States, he mocked me for being, in not so many words, naïve, saying the material can indeed be "shocking," and didn't make much more comment than that. What was shocking--and yet not--was finding that this irresponsible textbook is one of if not the most popular textbook for cultural psych classes.

And for being on and about cultural psychology, Heine is incredibly culture-blind.

This is evidenced by his glaring lack of feminist analysis in any of his own positions or in the research he cites, by his incredibly white and Western lens through which he makes any analyses, and by his method of glass-jarring, so to speak, the amalgam of non-Western cultures he covers. By this I mean he has a way of making it all feel like we're being led through a roadside circus freakshow but all while wearing rose-tinted glasses so the consensus is that "they" are not like "us" but they're also not "freaks" either. Hopefully that makes sense. It's a form of racist and xenophobic or otherwise bigoted otherizing that I see a lot of in the scientific and even progressive communities; a common adjacent is the decrying of any feminist critique of veiling practices as etic, culturally insensitive and islamophobic--even when it's MENA feminists doing the critique.

Overall, though the irony appears to be lost on him, Heine is short-sighted and a very typical white male author in a field still dominated by white men, and it shows in his textbook. He strikes me as a person who would call himself an "egalitarian" and say that he's "colorblind." Ethical quandaries aside, he also can't explain the universals to save his life--nor much of anything else. So, if you don't want yet another self-important, ignorant white guy with a white, Western education in psychology teaching the bulk of your cultural psych course--and teaching it ineffectively, don't use this as your source. And if you do want that, consider and act on no longer teaching.

(Two stars because I did manage to learn a few things and it wasn't all terrible.)

[Jacki Couture de Hernández · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel mixed about this (textbook). The topics are compelling and I truly learned a LOT of valuable information. However, it focuses so heavily on western vs east Asian views and grossly overlooks other cultures and entire continents like South America and Africa. There's also nothing about Eastern Europe. 4/5 because it's a winner as far as textbooks go, but it has a pretty narrow scope and I can't get past that.

[Mikayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Normally not a fan of assigned textbooks, but this one was very comprehensive and interesting!

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um livro maravilhoso. É impressionante que eu o tenha encontrado abandonado em uma das lavanderias do Fairview Crescent, minha antiga residência universitária, na UBC. Mais interessante ainda achei pelo fato de o autor ser um professor da própria UBC. Fiquei imaginando por tempos o anterior dono deste livro, um estudante de psicologia de intercâmbio, vindo de algum país europeu, que, ao precisar retornar, não tendo espaço em suas malas para um livro, decidiu deixá-lo para trás. Será? Não sei. Mas sobre o livro, é um textbook, certamente usado na mesma disciplina ministrada pelo prof. Heine. São quatorze capítulos que exploram os significados da cultura, sua evolução, métodos de estudo e suas variações e influências sobre o desenvolvimento, socialização, linguagem, personalidade, motivação, cognição, percepção, atração interpessoal, grupos, multiculturalismo, saúde física e mental, moralidade, religião, justiça e emoções. Um texto absolutamente bem escrito e embasado. São cinquenta! as páginas do livro dedicadas a referências. Gostei muito de ler as passagens que citam sociedades afastadas das culturas ocidentais e orientais predominantes, aquelas tribos isoladas do mundo moderno, indígenas, africanas, aborígenes. Fascinantes. Embora, devo informar, que a maior parte do livro é dedicada às variações culturais entre o ocidente e o oriente, as sociedades individualistas e as coletivistas, visto que há mais material bibliográfico disponível para essa comparação. Tenho muito interesse pela busca, pela diferenciação, daquilo que é universal e particular, o que é inerente à espécie e o que é uma particularidade cultural? Este livro responde a diversas dessas questões, mas também levanta muitas outras, ramos ainda inexplorados. Um livro que questiona se até o formato do seu pé é modelado pela sua cultura.

[Nick Kindleysticks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty comprehensive book of the cultural psychology field as I’m familiar with. Definitely has a restricted scope, mainly focused on the West vs. East Asia, but that’s likely both due to the author’s focus and due to the psych field’s lack of research in other areas.
Writing was rich with a lot of information while keeping it understandable, and is kept from being dull through Heine’s personal touch. Would recommend!

[QueenBlackMamba🐍 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I took a Cultural Psychology course with Dr. Carley Zanders at SUNY ESC. The textbook did not go with what she was teaching in the course. This textbook is Heine’s research point of view. It lacked information relative to minority Americans who will probably never get to visit other cultures outside of living in America.

[Dana van Vliet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Easy textbook to read, explains things clearly... but soooo clearly written by an old white man and it made me cringe often.

[Douar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although it combines studies of Cultural Psychology, it is a Quite poorly written book.

[Rae · Rating 2 out of 5]

i have a real gripe with the way u structure information heine

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent empirical introduction to the world of cultural psychology. There are so many possible directions to take with this topic and Heine does a wonderful job of keeping it as focused and simple as possible, while also explaining very complex, controversial issues with ease. Highly recommended as a text for a novice in the field.

[Haseeb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent for those who want to understand Asian psychology (as well as comparison to American).

[Annatakken · Rating 2 out of 5]

ethnocentristische trekjes "exotic cultures" en overall een vrij bassale "west" vs "east" vergelijking, heb t tot hoofdstuk 14 volgehouden

[Kaija · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting subject. Chapters are slightly long though.

[Kevin]

Textbook. Good class, lots of interesting case studies in here.