Redefining Culture from a Psychological Perspective
Redefining Culture from a Psychological Perspective

Summary/Abstract: The main purpose of this conceptual paper is to introduce a personal perspective to complement the ongoing quest for defining culture within the cultural and cross‑cultural psychology. Based on the short history of the discipline it is shown that the present moment is most favorable for overcoming past skepticism and achieving a widely shared definition of culture. It is proposed that, for easing the task, it is important to state and approach culture in a truly and deeply psychological way. Also it is advocated that the definition must reflect the leading dynamic and mostly automatic nature of the human cognition and also be useful for germinating new research ideas. After analyzing the past definitions through the lenses of the proposed criteria a definition proposed by Chiu and Hong (2006) is selected and further refined. Finally, from a subjective psychological standpoint, culture is defined as a dynamic network of specific and cognitively represented shared knowledge and meanings that while activated, in an implicit or explicit manner, shape and influence individuals’ cognitions, emotions, motivations and behaviors. It is shown that this definition originates and has support within the newly emergent social psychological perspective on culture; it is also consonant with the unifying cognitive perspective within psychology, and the knowledge‑meaning approach toward culture that is rapidly growing within modern anthropology, cultural and cross‑cultural psychology.

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