Introduction to Culture and Psychology

Valery Chirkov is Professor in the Psychology and Health Studies department at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. His research interests include applied sociocultural psychology, cultural and cross-cultural research, immigration, and acculturation.

"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)

• 01. Culture and psychology: What is Culture, and why is it important for psychologists? 02. Attributes and Characteristics of Culture/s 03. Researching Culture and Psychology; Cross-cultural, Cultural, and Indigenous Psychologies 04. Evolution, Culture, and the Emergence of Modern Humans 05. A History of Ideas about the Sociocultural Regulation of Human Behaviour 06. Culture and human ontogenetic development 07. Socialization and Enculturation 08. Personhood, Selfhood, and Identity in and across Cultures 09. Culture, Language, and the Mind 10. Communication within and across cultural communities: Intra- and inter-cultural interactions 11. Migration and Acculturation