Introduction to Psychology
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Cultural psychology

Cultural psychology studies how cultural traditions and social practices shape the human psyche. Its own authors distinguish it from cross-cultural psychology, though other sources place it inside that field.

Interdisciplinary fieldSocial and culture

Type of entry
Interdisciplinary fieldAn area that draws on psychology together with other disciplines. Types are editorial labels, not an official classification.
Cluster
Social life and culturePeople in groups, cultures, communities and politics.
Sources opened
3 of 30 read as a full page, 3 as selected text or an abstract, 0 not verified.
Independent review
Admitted after correctionsClaude Code reviewer agent, separate from the writer, 2026-10-21. 8 claims checked against 3 sources opened by the reviewer.

What it studies

Cultural psychology studies how cultural traditions and social practices shape the human psyche. Richard Shweder states that it is not cross-cultural psychology. Michael Cole's account, as reviewed by Vlad-Petre Glăveanu, treats culture as the species-specific medium for humans, with artifacts mediating relations between people and their world.

History and people

Shweder's chapter on what cultural psychology is appeared in a 1990 volume on comparative human development. Cole's work began with cross-cultural cognitive research in Liberia and the Yucatan in the 1960s and 1970s, and its theoretical and methodological weaknesses led him to a cultural psychology. Glăveanu describes Cole's book as a return to Wundt's second psychology that draws on the Russian cultural-historical school, American pragmatism and related social sciences.

People and documented roles

  • Richard A. Shweder. Author of the 1990 chapter 'Cultural psychology: what is it?'
    • Defined cultural psychology as the study of how cultural traditions and social practices shape the human psyche and distinguished it from cross-cultural psychology. [1]
  • Michael Cole. Author of a book on cultural psychology reviewed by Glăveanu
    • Moved from cross-cultural cognitive research in Liberia and the Yucatan to a cultural psychology because of the theoretical and methodological weaknesses of that approach, per the review. [3]

Only Shweder and Cole are documented, and Cole's role comes from a secondary review. The sources do not document women, scholars outside the United States and Europe, or other contributors, so none are listed.

Dated milestones

  • 1990Publication. Year.Shweder's chapter 'Cultural psychology: what is it?' in a Cambridge University Press volume on comparative human development. [1]

Methods

The sources opened here describe cultural psychology mainly through theory and comparative human development rather than a list of methods. Cole's route began with cross-cultural cognitive research that he found theoretically and methodologically weak. The sources do not document current research methods, so this guide does not list them.

Training and applications

Glăveanu quotes Cole's stated goal as describing one principled way to create and use a culture-inclusive psychology. The sources opened here do not document training programs, university units or practice settings specific to cultural psychology. It is a research area, and where practice titles or licenses exist, regulators in each jurisdiction set them, not this guide.

Boundaries and limits

Sources disagree on how cultural and cross-cultural psychology relate. Shweder separates them, while Berry and colleagues use cross-cultural psychology as the overarching name and describe cultural psychology as a school within it. They add that Shweder's definition appears to postulate different psychologies in different cultures, a position they compare to indigenous psychology. The sources opened here do not document the field's earlier history, journals or societies, and no society, founding date or single origin was documented.

Evidence behind the claims

  • In his chapter 'Cultural psychology: what is it?', printed in 1990, Richard Shweder defines cultural psychology as the study of how cultural traditions and social practices regulate, express, transform and permute the human psyche, and states that it is not cross-cultural psychology.

    What it studiesDocumented in the sourceSource: [1]Where: Chapter byline, summary, and Information block (print publication year 1990; online publication June 5, 2012)

  • Shweder's chapter 'Cultural psychology: what is it?' appeared in the 1990 Cambridge University Press volume Cultural Psychology: Essays on Comparative Human Development, edited by Stigler, Shweder and Herdt.

    History and peopleDocumented in the sourceSource: [1]Where: Page metadata and citation line

  • Berry and colleagues use cross-cultural psychology as the overarching name for the field and describe researchers 'often belonging to a school referred to as cultural psychology' who emphasize that psychological functioning is essentially different across cultural regions.

    Boundaries and limitsDocumented in the sourceSource: [2]Where: Passage on cultural psychology in the definitions section

  • Vlad-Petre Glăveanu's review describes Michael Cole's book as a return to Wundt's second psychology understood as a cultural psychology, drawing on the Russian cultural-historical school, American pragmatism and related social sciences.

    History and peopleDocumented in the sourceSource: [3]Where: Review text on Cole's approach

  • According to the review, Cole's work began with cross-cultural research on cognitive development in Liberia and the Yucatan in the 1960s and 1970s, and the theoretical and methodological weaknesses of that approach led to a cultural psychology.

    History and peopleDocumented in the sourceSource: [3]Where: Review paragraph on the origins of Cole's project

  • The review reports Cole's core claims that culture is the species-specific medium for humans and that artifacts mediate relations between people and their world.

    What it studiesDocumented in the sourceSource: [3]Where: Review summary of core claims

  • Berry and colleagues say Shweder's definition appears to postulate different psychologies in different cultures, a position they describe as similar to the indigenous psychology approach.

    Boundaries and limitsDocumented in the sourceSource: [2]Where: Passage on indigenous psychology

  • The review quotes Cole's stated goal as describing one principled way to create and use a culture-inclusive psychology.

    Training and applicationsDocumented in the sourceSource: [3]Where: Review passage on Cole's aims

Where it appears

University examples

Examples show documented structures. They are not a ranking, a census, or a statement about admission or licensing.

In the Psy101 course

This is course relevance only. It is not evidence for the historical or practice claims on this page.See the full course map.

Sources and inspection

3 of 3 sources were opened and read at the level shown. A source marked as not verified supports no claim on this page by itself.

  1. [1]
    Cultural psychology - what is it?Cambridge University Press (chapter by Richard A. Shweder in Cultural Psychology: Essays on Comparative Human Development, ed. Stigler, Shweder and Herdt), 1990. Original publication. Supports the definition of the area.Abstract onlyRead the landing-page summary and metadata only; the chapter text is behind access control and was not read.
  2. [2]
    Definitions: What is cross-cultural psychology?Cambridge University Press (Chapter 1 excerpt, Berry, Poortinga, Breugelmans, Chasiotis and Sam, Cross-Cultural Psychology: Research and Applications, 3rd ed.), undated. Textbook. Supports the definition of the area.Selected text readRead the chapter excerpt on definitions and the passages on cultural and indigenous psychology; the excerpt shows no publication year and the rest of the book was not read.
  3. [3]
    Cultural Psychology: A Once and Future Discipline (book review)Europe's Journal of Psychology, vol. 3, no. 4 (review by Vlad-Petre Glăveanu of Michael Cole, Cultural Psychology: A Once and Future Discipline, Harvard University Press), 2007. Review article. Supports the history.Abstract onlyRead the journal landing page and abstract; the review text itself was read through the journal's HTML link or a third-party mirror (distantreader.org). The book dates on the mirror look inconsistent, so no book date is used.

Independent source review: Claude Code reviewer agent, separate from the writer, 2026-10-21. Verdict: Admitted after corrections. Of 8 claims checked, 5 were supported as written, 3 were reworded and 0 were removed.