This module introduces the field of psychological anthropology — at least from one person’s perspectie — including some of its key early practitioners. Specifically, the videos will discuss the historically close relations between psychology and anthropology, why the two fields became isolated from each other in the twentieth century and some of the most crucial effects. The isolation has had profound impact on both fields, but rectifying the situation will be quite difficult as the way each field seeks to investigate and describe the human condition is so divergent.

Video 1: WEIRD Psychology

Psychology research depends heavily on subjects drawn from introductory psychology classes. How does this affect what we know about human experiences, perceptions, and potential? This video discusses research that examines the effect of the way we investigate psychology, including how it might be influencing what we think of as ‘human nature.’

Additional resources:

FPR-UCLA CMB 2012: “Why Culture, Mind, and Brain?” Steve Heine, Marco Iacoboni, and Greg Downey present on this topic at the Foundation for Psychocultural Research (YouTube).

Suggested readings:

Henrich, J., Heine, S.J., and Norenzayan, A. 2010: The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, 61-135. (a pdf of the article is available here)

Downey, G. 2010. We agree it’s WEIRD, but is it WEIRD enough? Neuroanthropology.net (10 July). Accessible at: https://neuroanthropology.net/2010/07/10/we-agree-its-weird-but-is-it-weird-enough/

Hutson, M. 2010. WEIRD Science: We Are the Weirdest People in the World. Psyched! weblog. Psychology Today (29 December). Available at: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/psyched/201012/weird-science-we-are-the-weirdest-people-in-the-world

Watters, E. 2013. We Aren’t the World. Pacific Standard (25 February). Accessible at: http://www.psmag.com/magazines/magazine-feature-story-magazines/joe-henrich-weird-ultimatum-game-shaking-up-psychology-economics-53135/