In Bourdieu's terminology, a scientific approach to culture has to deal not only with culture as opus operatum, as product, but also with the modus operandi, the way culture operates. At this juncture, I would like to propose in my paper a psychologically informed approach to culture. I would like to highlight three distinct developments in psychology which make such an approach possible. Interdisciplinary psychological and anthropological theory and research into the affective system show the importance of the affect system in the production and monitoring of behavior. It is quite important for a cultural psychology to investigate the nexus of culture and the affective system in order to understand the way culture operates in constituting emotions and feelings and vice versa.
Affective structures are also important for the understanding of the way culture involves the body.
There is a growing concern in psychology with embodiment. Culture is embodied as well, which means that in understanding behavior, acquired and refined bodily skills and practices become as important in the monitoring of behavior as reflexive, that is to say, propositionally and argumentatively organized, cognitive processes. In social psychology there is an increasing emphasis on everyday automaticity in behavior. Priming experiments show the importance of the automatic activation of behavioral patterns. This makes it possible to approach culture social psychologically as a 'priming system'.