The purpose of this course is to help you gain a better appreciation for the ways in which human culture and human psyche interact, and to enhance your ability to deal with and understand variations in human behavior across cultures and ethnic groups. In order to achieve these goals, we will review psychological research on culture, race, and ethnicity, examine theoretical and methodological foundations of cross-cultural research in psychology. We will focus on questions regarding the effects of culture-specific theories of mind, person, self, and social institutions on human cognition, motivation, emotion, and social interaction. Attendance and participation in discussion section are essential for success in the course, and I and my TAS will do our best to foster an environment where all students feel free to express their ideas which means you MUST talk from time to time. A once and future discipline.
Useful discussions follow only when everyone has completed the readings thoroughly and thoughtfully.
These papers will be read aloud, and they will serve as the basis for class discussion. Being realistic, I have assigned only one required reading each week so to give you more time to think and write critiques. However, you don't have to write critiques about them. They are worth having in your file cabinet or on your book shelves. Your grade will be determined by your participation of the class, a term paper, and your scores on the exam and quizzes.