The book offers an innovative introduction to culture and psychology, taking a sociocultural perspective to understand the complexities of culture-mind-behaviour interactions.
In this book, the author emphasizes the dynamic relationship of the culture and the mind, outlining how organized sociocultural models regulate actions and practices across different domains of people's lives, such as parenting, education, communication, and acculturation. Each chapter features chapter synopsis, boxed examples, a glossary of key terms, reflective questions, and recommended reading to help students engage further with the material. The book includes a range of cross-cultural case study examples and discussions which offer insights into the connections between culture, human psyche, and behaviour.
An Introduction to Culture and Psychology is essential reading for undergraduate students taking culture and psychology courses. It can also be of interest to students and young scholars of psychology, anthropology, sociology, communication, and other related disciplines.
In this book, the author emphasizes the dynamic relationship of the culture and the mind, outlining how organized sociocultural models regulate actions and practices across different domains of people's lives, such as parenting, education, communication, and acculturation. Each chapter features chapter synopsis, boxed examples, a glossary of key terms, reflective questions, and recommended reading to help students engage further with the material. The book includes a range of cross-cultural case study examples and discussions which offer insights into the connections between culture, human psyche, and behaviour.
An Introduction to Culture and Psychology is essential reading for undergraduate students taking culture and psychology courses. It can also be of interest to students and young scholars of psychology, anthropology, sociology, communication, and other related disciplines.
"Nearly thirty years ago, Michael Cole and James Wertsch declared that "society is the bearer of the cultural heritage without which the development of mind is impossible" (1996, p, 253). And yet, much cultural psychology has continued to this day to be more concerned with cross-cultural comparisons and differences than with the development of persons within historically established sociocultural contexts, practices, and ways of life. Thus, it is both refreshing and noteworthy to find a textbook on culture and psychology that insists that the "social" and the "cultural" cannot be separated if the aim of psychology is to understand the development of uniquely human aspects of personhood. But perhaps even more impressive is the combination of practical, theoretical, and multidisciplinary expertise and sophistication that author Valery Chirkov brings to his explication of the sociocultural constitution of persons as psychological beings.
Throughout this impressive work, Professor Chirkov offers wonderfully rich and precise elucidations of the thinking of influential contemporary researchers and thinkers like Michael Tomasello, Heidi Keller, and Salman Akhtar. He also draws insightfully from entire traditions of relevant European, American, and international thought and research in both more traditional cultural psychology and in sociocultural perspectives in psychological theory and research. Each chapter features detailed, emotionally and intellectually engaging case studies drawn from a diverse selection of sociocultural contexts, carefully prepared and informative figures, boxed definitions and explanations, a closing summary, a glossary of key terms, a set of reflective questions, and recommended sources to help readers engage further with the content."
Jack Martin, Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University and author of Studies of Life Positioning: A New Sociocultural Approach to Psychobiography (Routledge, 2024)
Throughout this impressive work, Professor Chirkov offers wonderfully rich and precise elucidations of the thinking of influential contemporary researchers and thinkers like Michael Tomasello, Heidi Keller, and Salman Akhtar. He also draws insightfully from entire traditions of relevant European, American, and international thought and research in both more traditional cultural psychology and in sociocultural perspectives in psychological theory and research. Each chapter features detailed, emotionally and intellectually engaging case studies drawn from a diverse selection of sociocultural contexts, carefully prepared and informative figures, boxed definitions and explanations, a closing summary, a glossary of key terms, a set of reflective questions, and recommended sources to help readers engage further with the content."
Jack Martin, Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University and author of Studies of Life Positioning: A New Sociocultural Approach to Psychobiography (Routledge, 2024)