Culture in Psychology

Culture in Psychology breaks new ground by attempting to understand the complexity and specificity of cultural identities today. It rejects the idea that Western culture is a standard, or that any culture is homogenous and stable. Equally, it rejects the notion that culture is a mechanism that enhances reproductive fitness. Instead, it alerts psychologists to the many forms of 'foreignness' that research should address and to alliances psychology can make with other disciplines such as anthropology, feminism and psychoanalysis. Part one explores the origins of the new 'cultural psychology' in social change movements, in fields such as ethnography and cultural studies, and as a response to evolutionary psychology. Part two looks at how people create and sustain the meanings of social categories of 'class', gender, 'race' and ethnicity, while the third part examines the interaction between written and visual representations in popular culture and everyday lived culture. The final part examines the idiosyncratic significance cultural forms have for individuals and their unconscious meanings.

Section 1: Reconfiguring Psychology and Culture. C. Squire, Introduction. C. Griffin, More than Simply Talk and Text: Psychologists as Cultural Ethnographers. L. Segal, Gender, Genes and Genetics: From Darwin to the Human Genome. Section 2: Culture and Social Formations. Introduction. S. Frosh, A. Phoenix, R. Pattman, Cultural Contestations in Practice: White Boys and the Racialisation of Masculinities. M. Fine, A.J. Stewart, A.N. Zucker, White Girls and Women in the Contemporary United States: Supporting or Subverting Race and Gender Domination? B. Ahmed, Constructing Racism: Discourse, Culture and Subjectivity. Section 3: Culture and Representations. Introduction. J.M. Ussher, M. Hunter, S.J. Browne, Good, Bad or Dangerous to Know: Representations of Femininity in Narrative Accounts of PMS. R. Gill, K. Henwood, C. McLean, The Tyranny of the 'Six Pack'? Understanding Men's Responses to Representations of the Male Body in Popular Culture. H. Marshall, A. Woollett, Changing Youth: An Exploration of Visual and Textual Cultural Identifications. Section 4: Culture and Emotions. Introduction. C. Yates, S.D Sclater, Culture, Psychology and Transitional Space. R. Malik, Culture and Emotions: Depression Among Pakistanis. E. Apfelbaum, The Impact of Culture in the Face of Genocide: Struggling Between a Silenced Home Culture and a Foreign Host Culture. V. Walkerdine, Conclusion. Notes on Contributors.