This thought-provoking treatise explores the essential functions that culture fulfills in human life in response to core psychological, physiological, and existential needs. It synthesizes diverse strands of empirical and theoretical knowledge to trace the development of culture as a source of morality, self-esteem, identity, and meaning as well as a driver of domination and upheaval. Extended examples from past and ongoing hostilities also spotlight the resilience of culture in the aftermath of disruption and trauma, and the possibility of reconciliation between conflicting cultures. The stimulating insights included here have far-reaching implications for psychology, education, intergroup relations, politics, and social policy. Included in the coverage: · Culture as shared meanings and interpretations. · Culture as an ontological prescription of how to “be” and “how to live.” · Cultural worldviews as immortality ideologies. · Culture and the need for a “world of meaning in which to act.” · Cultural trauma and indigenous people. · Constructing situations that optimize the potential for positive intercultural interaction. · Anxiety and the Human Condition. · Anxiety and Self Esteem. · Culture and Human Needs. A Psychology of Culture takes an uncommon tour of the human condition of interest to clinicians, educators, and practitioners, students of culture and its role and effects in human life, and students in nursing, medicine, anthropology, social work, family studies, sociology, counseling, and psychology. It is especially suitable as a graduate text.

This book discusses the history and evolution of the field of psychology and its position as a global, integrated, hub science. It presents the nexus between science, the humanities and social sciences. It addresses the seminal work of Cambridge physicist C.P. Snow, who, more than five decades ago, wrote the book on The Two Cultures, outlining the intellectual schism between the academic disciplines—the humanities, arts, religion and the sciences. Today, the social sciences comprise the third culture; and Jerome Kagan, a Harvard developmental psychologist, published a book in 2009, The Three Cultures: Natural Sciences, Social Sciences and the Humanities in the 21st Century, responding to Snow’s earlier concerns that includes a look at the newest culture—the social sciences. Psychology and the Three Cultures—History, Perspectives and Portraits, examines early and current notions about the three cultures reflecting on C.P. Snow’s treatise on The Two Cultures, and Jerome Kagan’s treatise on The Three Cultures, as related to the field of psychology. The book illustrates how psychological science, historically, has blended all these cultures in order to understand human nature. It traces the history of psychology, highlighting pivotal places and people from around the world contributing to the evolution of the field. The book documents psychology as a global, integrated, hub science and a blend of the disciplines. The discussion here includes the emergence of psychology from the field of philosophy and the many subfields currently representing psychology today. Examples are provided of select subfields moving across disciplines, as well as portraits of three revolutionary scientists—Carl Jung, William James and Stanislav Grof—whose work intersects many disciplines as they study, understand and describe human nature. This book is a “must-read” for scholars, psychologists, social scientists, scientists, historians, and medical professionals, undergraduate and graduate students studying the history of psychological science and its evolution. The book is also written for lay persons interested in the field of psychology, dispelling the myth of psychology as a pseudoscience.

Jerome Kagan examines the basic goals, vocabulary, and assumptions of the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities, summarizing their unique contributions to our understanding of human nature.

The most contemporary and relevant introduction to the field, Cultural Psychology, Fourth Edition, is unmatched in both its presentation of current, global experimental research and its focus on helping students to think like cultural psychologists.

Third edition of leading textbook offering an advanced overview of all major perspectives of research in cross-cultural psychology.

What does Western science know about the relationship between individual well-being and cultural trends? What can learn from other cultural traditions? What do the recent advancements in positive psychology teach us on this issue, particularly the eudaimonic framework, which emphasizes the connections between personal well-being and social welfare? People grow and live in cultures that deeply influence their values, aspirations and behaviors. However, individuals in their turn play an active role in building their own goals, growth trajectories and social roles, at the same time influencing culture trends. This process, defined psychological selection, is related to the individual pursuit of well-being People preferentially select and cultivate in their lives activities, interests, and relationships associated with optimal experience, a state of deep engagement, concentration, and enjoyment. Several cross-cultural studies confirmed the positive and rewarding features of optimal experience. Based on these evidences, this book offers a new perspective in the study of human behavior. Highlighting the interplay between individual and cultural growth trajectories, it conveys a core message: educating people to enjoy engagement and involvement in activities that can be relevant and meaningful for social welfare is a premise to foster the harmonious development of human communities, and the peaceful cohabitation of cultures.

Cross-cultural studies require sound methodology and psychometrics. This book outlines advances in assessment from many expert perspectives.