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Apr 13, 2012
CCIS 1-160
3:30pm
Conference
Brian Harder Honors Day Conference and Psychoquium Lecture
Dr. William Bukowski, Concordia University
Website
The Brian Harder Honors Day Conference and Psychoquium lecture is Friday, April 13, 2011. The keynote speaker is Dr. William Bukowski, from the Department of Psychology at Concordia University. The presentation will be held in CCIS 1-160 at 3:30pm and is entitled "Sources of contextual and cultural variations in the functional significance of experiences with peers".
Mar 30, 2012
BS-P226
1:00pm
Sociocultural Group
Seeking help from close friends: The case of European Canadians and Japanese
Ken Ito
Past research on culture and emotion has shown cultural variations in the saliency of emotions. Emotions related to social harmony, such as indebtedness, are prevalent in Japanese culture; whereas, emotions related to achieving personal goals, such as self-liking, are prevalent in North American cultures. This current research builds on past research and examines whether European Canadian and Japanese young adults differ in their emotional reactions to seeking help from close same-sex friends. In particular, I expected and found that European Canadians’ self-liking and Japanese’ indebtedness toward friends were associated with their expected intimacy in the friendship. Furthermore, for both Japanese and European Canadians, the effect of emotional reactions was mediated by their perception of specific help-seeking behaviours to be common in a friendship. Implications for the intersubjective approach to culture and intercultural friendships are discussed.
Mar 28, 2012
DSLS Conference
Dr. Chi-Yue Chiu
Lecture 1
4:00 pm, Wednesday, 28 March 2012
2-003 Natural Resources Engineering Facility (NRE)
Socially Motivated Superstitions:
Mutual Constitution of Society and the Mind
Abstract: A company in Wuhan, China, openly states that it will not hire Scorpios and Virgos. Beating effigies of “petty little people” with shoes (打小人) to metaphorically dispel evil spirits or a certain nemesis for good luck is still widely practiced in Asia, and there are iPhone and Android applications for this ritual. These practices, among many others, seem to signal superstition or passivity. Upon deeper probing, they are related to the concept of bounded agency, which positions individuals as actors who use (a) their appraisals of the external constraints on personal goal pursuits and (b) their imagination of future possibilities to guide and shape current actions in the context of the structures the actors need to negotiate and the social currents they need to navigate. In this talk, I propose that many seemingly superstitious practices embody the idea that one can negotiate with Fate to achieve personal goals. In social systems where individuals face severe constraints on personal autonomy, the idea of negotiable fate supports active coping and (sometimes) risky behaviors. With the objective of inspiring interdisciplinary investigations into the mutual constitution of society and mind, I will present studies we have carried out to reveal the societal foundations of the belief in negotiable fate, as well as its consequences on individual thoughts and behaviors.
Lecture 2
4:00 pm, Thursday, 29 March 2012
2-003 Natural Resources Engineering Facility (NRE)
Culture as Intersubjective Consensus:
Basic Principles and Theoretical Implications
Abstract: Intersubjective perceptions refer to shared perceptions of the psychological characteristics that are widespread within a culture. In this lecture, I propose the intersubjective approach as a new approach to understanding the role that culture plays in human behaviors. In this approach, intersubjective perceptions, which are distinct from personal values and beliefs, mediate the effect of the ecology on individuals’ responses and adaptations. I review evidence that attests to the validity and utility of the intersubjective approach in explicating culture’s influence on human behaviors in the domains of judgment, group identification, cultural competence, and intercultural collaboration. I will also discuss the implications of this approach for understanding the interaction between the individual, ecology, and culture; cultural change; and measurement of culture
Lecture 3
4:00 pm, Friday, 30 March 2012
1-001 Natural Resources Engineering Facility (NRE)
Exclusionary and Integrative Psychological Reactions to Globalization:
A Social Psychological Perspective
Abstract: Despite the increased attention given to cultural phenomena in social psychology, the field has neglected issues related to the cultural impacts of globalization. Globalization has brought symbols of diverse cultures together and provided ample opportunities for the simultaneous activation of two or more cultural representations. Using my research on the social cognitive consequences of activating two cultural representations simultaneously as an example, I argue for constructing a social psychology of globalization that offers nuanced understandings of people's psychological responses to globalization. Although simultaneous activation of cultural representations does not determine an individual's cultural identity, it enlarges the felt distinctions between different identity options and magnifies the effects of identity choice. Furthermore, in situations that emphasize appropriating intellectual resources from diverse cultures to foster creativity, simultaneous activation of cultural representations may facilitate creative performance.
All are welcome.
Mar 16, 2012
BS-P226
1:00pm
Cognition Seminar
A Comparison of Situated Communication Styles in Euro-Canadians and East-Asians
Yang Fang
Communication styles differ across cultures and situations. Not only do North Americans communicate more directly than East Asian in general, they also communicate less indirectly at work, compared to outside work. In the present study, communicative indirectness in its two distinct components—interpretation and conveyance—is examined in Euro-Canadians and East Asian undergraduates (Study 1) and in bicultural Canadians of East-Asian heritage with interlocutors from Canadian and their own ethnic backgrounds across different contexts (Study 2). Potential moderators such as epistemic motives and lay beliefs about communication are explored.
Mar 16, 2012
BS-P319N
3:00pm
Cognition Seminar
Understanding executive function in early childhood: Insights from confirmatory factor analysis
Sandra Wiebe
Mar 09, 2012
BS-P319N
3:00pm
Cognition Seminar
Rapid naming speed and reading in university students: What underlies their relationship?
George Georgiou
Mar 02, 2012
Royce Conference
The 26th Annual
Royce conference will be held on Friday, March 2, 2012.
Björn Brembs of Freie Universität Berlin will be the keynote speaker. The conference will also feature invited presentations by Marcia Spetch and Anthony Singhal. The
submission form is now available.
Mar 02, 2012
BS-P319N
1:00pm
Sociocultural Group
Exploring psychological and cognitive implications as a result of acculturation
Sawa Senzaki and Rui Zhang
Acculturation is the process of change in behaviour, values, and other psychological functions that occurs as a result of cultural contact. As one instance of such cultural crossing, immigrants and their offspring often face the challenges of adjusting to the mainstream Canadian culture while maintaining their heritage culture. Some immigrants experience mental switching between the two cultural identities, which may be adaptive to their unique challenges. In addition, we will discuss how acculturation may influence the basic cognitive processes, such as visual attention and perception, which influence how we see the world. Understanding this may help make the cultural transition easier. We will mainly focus on the immigrants from Asian cultures.
Feb 17, 2012
BS-P226
1:00pm
Sociocultural Group
If I was an animal, maybe then I would find you attractive: A terror management explanation for body hair preferences
David Webber
Past terror management research has investigated the need for humans to distinguish themselves from their animal counterparts, demonstrating specifically, that this need is driven by the existential motivation to deny death. I will be discussing research that builds upon these findings to address the prevalence of cultural standards of body hair removal and attraction preferences for opposite sex partners with relatively low levels of body hair. The first set of studies utilized the mortality salience hypothesis to demonstrate that reminding someone of their death decreases their attraction toward a hairy, opposite sex individual. The second set examined how the ability to use symbols (i.e., symbolic language) influences perceptions of hairy (as opposed to non-hairy) individuals. For instance, reminders of death increased perceptions that a hairy individual was the author of a poorly-written essay, and that a non-hairy individual was the author of a well-written essay. Implications will be discussed.
Feb 03, 2012
BS-P226
1:00pm
Sociocultural Group
Socially excluded, but feeling guilty: Evidence that social exclusion leads to greater pro social behavior when guilt is the emotion felt from being excluded
Erik Faucher
As human beings we are very social in nature and have a strong desire to belong or be accepted by others. Unfortunately however sometimes we are not accepted by others, and feel rejected or socially excluded. When this happens we may respond by trying to reconnect, but when reconnection is not an option we may act in ways that are antisocial or selfish. The literature has repeatedly shown that when individuals are socially excluded they respond with a variety of detrimental behaviors (e.g., less pro-social behavior). Although this effect is robust, we suspect that the way individuals are excluded is responsible for the negative behaviors documented. We therefore conducted a study to examine whether excluding someone for a specific reason, and in turn making that individual feel the emotion of guilt, would lead to more pro social behavior than excluding that individual for no reason. Results confirmed this hypothesis, such that participants donated more money to an organization when they were excluded with guilt or excluded for an external reason relative to if they were excluded for no reason. Discussion focuses on the relationship between guilt and exclusion from an evolutionary psychological perspective, and how these processes can lead to positive behavior.
Jan 25, 2012
CCIS 1-160
3:30pm
Department Seminar
The Search for Consciousness
Dr. Adrian Owen
How can we ever know, unequivocally, that another person is aware? Notwithstanding deeper philosophical considerations about the nature of consciousness itself, the only reliable method we have for detecting awareness in others is by eliciting a predicted response to an external prompt or command. Logically therefore, our ability to detect awareness in others is determined, not by whether they are aware or not, but by their ability to communicate that fact through a recognized behavioural response. This problem exposes a central conundrum in the study of awareness in general, and in particular, how it relates to the vegetative state and other so-called ‘disorders of consciousness’. From this perspective, I will discuss various solutions to this conundrum using functional neuroimaging. In particular, I will contrast those circumstances in which imaging data can be used to infer awareness in the absence of a reliable behavioural response, with those circumstances in which it cannot.
Jan 20, 2012
BS-P319N
3:00pm
Cognition Seminar
Relational diversity and ease of processing for opaque and transparent English compounds
Christina Gagné