Several Versions of Cultural Psychology have recently emerged. . .
Against the background of Common Sense and Ordinary Language philosophy

Richard Shweder (1990): Cultural psychology
pertains to the dialectics of self-society; subject-object;
person-context; figure-ground. understanding the mind,
self, emotion as they emerge in "constituted" worlds.

-Human beings are intentional and actively construct and
re-construct the world into meaningful perspectives. Creating
concepts of self, emotion, values, knowledge, religion, spirits, . . .

-It involves "thinking through" others interpretations
of culture as expressed by and with others.

  Carl Ratner (1997):
Cultural Psychology and Qualitative Methodology

Critical of positivism and general / cross-cultural psychology. Including:
1) Fragmentation (atomism)-including stimuli & responses,
      
2) quantification -including qualitative invariance-reduction of qualitative difs to quantities (e.g., Muller-Lyer), stats-means misleading & sig. test unimportant,

3) operational definitions appear neutral but presume a lot, self-report questionnaires what meanings do they have?;

4) Positive validity (black crows).

 
Cultural Psychology should involve: recognition of complexity of phenomena that are expressed through extended activities and that mental phenomena have no specific behavioural correlates.
 
 

Methodological Principles:
-Verstehen -Understanding only against a historical context

-Interpret behaviour - description of action sequence-that leads to certain outcomes in given historical social contexts.

-Interpret verbal statements

-Identify situations in which phenomena do & do not occur (examine the stimuli, presenter & observer relationships ascertain the quality of phenomena through relationships with other phenomena).

- the dialectical relationship between activity and psychology is central to cultural psychology.

- social activity involves final causes - goals and ends to which we collectively move

- personal psychological experience common cultural activity subjective & objective
 

Verstehen involves the interpretation of personal psychological experience in common cultural terms
E.g., individual Buddhists' interpretations of misfortune understood against the context of Buddhist religious concepts
 

 Micheal Cole (1996) Cultural Psychology

 Three basic Principles of Cultural Psychology

    1. Mediation through Artifacts - the creation and use of material objects.

      2. E.g., the making and using of tools as part of a shared cultural world.
    2. Historical Development - becoming a cultural being & helping others to become cultural beings is the process of enculturation.

      3. This capacity for development (individually and collectively) is the distinctive characteristic of our species. Culture is the fundamental human activity.
    3. Practical Activity - the analysis of psychological functions must be grounded in human everyday activities.