Cultural Differences Research Hypothesis Paper
Some topics researched in cross-cultural psychology that might interest you:
Cognition Language and bilingualism
Immigration
Personality
Moral development
Indigenous psychologies
Conformity
Parenting and attachment
Child development
Individual values
Gender and mate preferences
Perception and aesthetics
Intelligence and competence
Happiness/subjective well-being
Psychopathology and therapy
Attraction and love
Environmental psychology
Ethnic and racial identity
Locus of control
Mental health services
Political psychology
Organizations and leadership
Intergroup communication
Socioeconomic development
Time orientations
Multicultural training and education
Select one ethnic group that interests you (e.g., Germans, Ethiopians, Japanese, etc.) within the United States. Learn about the history, practices, customs, demographics, location, and the social structure, etc. of this group from scholarly sources and also from group members if possible. Based on what you learn, select two variables from the material covered in this course on which you think this group may differ from mainstream popular culture. The variables might have been covered already or be topics for future weeks. You are free to pick any that interest you. Examples of variables include, but are not limited to family, parenting, social perception, attribution patterns, self-conceptions, emotions, morality, aggression, acculturation attitudes, enculturation, and verbal/nonverbal language/communication. Most of the study on these variables can be found in the research literature categories listed above.
For example, if you picked the Hmong as your ethnic group and selected, as your first variable, parenting, you might then choose to look up relevant information/studies on parenting and attachment, using a topic from the list above (at the start of this assignment description).
For each variable, propose a hypothesis about how this group differs from mainstream popular culture. Explain the bases of your hypotheses by relating information from interviews with members of the group (if possible) and other knowledge you have about them to research and theory on the topic from the course. Explain to the reader why these differences are important or theoretically interesting.
To continue the example above, you would perhaps hypothesize that, given what you have learned about the Hmong people, who have a large population in Minnesota, their family structure and parenting, is that you predict that they have a higher rate of parents using the authoritarian parenting style than what we see in mainstream American parenting. You would explain your rationale according to what you know about the culture and discuss why your findings would be important or theoretically interesting.
Cite and reference the sources from that you are using in APA format. This project should be 2 to 4 pages. About one page should be devoted to describing the group itself and 1 to 3 pages to presenting and justifying your hypotheses and explaining why these differences are important or theoretically interesting. For this project, please focus on the quality of your sources. Your sources should be scholarly and peer reviewed and concentrate on accurately describing the ethnic group you have chosen and the variables you are interested in, both as they apply to mainstream American culture and also as they apply or might apply the targeted ethnic group.
This project should be 2 to 4 pages, not including your cover and reference pages. Use at least four scholarly, peer reviewed references, in addition to the text to respond. If you are able to interview a member of the ethnic group you chose, this will count in lieu of one of your peer reviewed sources.