A Contextual Behavioral Account of Culture: Example Implementation of a Functional Behavioral Approach to the Study of Cultural Differences in Social Anxiety

Abstract

The current article proposes integrating a functional behavior approach to the study of culture. After describing culture from a contextual behavioral science framework, we outline a three-step process to perform a functional behavior analysis of culture: (1) identifying potential contingencies, (2) determining functional relationships, and (3) gathering supporting evidence. As an example, we present each of the three steps through a re-analysis of data related to cultural differences in social anxiety between Japanese and European Americans as well as describe a hypothetical experiment. The results demonstrate how implementing an alternative framework that focuses on the relationship between behavioral function and environmental adaptability leads to different conclusions compared to implementing frameworks that emphasize the form or degree of a behavior or belief in one group compared to another. For this particular example, in contrast to viewing social anxiety in Japanese as something stemming from innate beliefs about themselves and others (e.g., self-construal), the current study suggests that displaying social anxiety in some situations within a Japanese context is more functionally adaptive (e.g., more likely leads to desirable outcomes) than within a European American context.

“Unpacking” cultural differences in social anxiety between Japanese and European Americans: the roles of threat appraisal and attentional bias

“…Supporting this speculation, prior research has found that “neutral faces” are not always perceived by all participants as neutral ( Lee et al, 2008 ) and that this perception is influenced by contextual information ( Suess et al, 2013 ) and learning history ( Albohn and Adams, 2021 ). Krieg (2020) recommended a contextual-behavioral model for understanding cultural differences in social anxiety, specifically focused on antecedent conditions and social rewards and consequences for socially anxious behavior. Perhaps this model can be extended to include group differences in learning history to better account for differences in automatic associations between specific facial expressions and social threat for groups of Japanese and European Americans.…”

Cognitive-Cultural Looping Mechanism of Urban Space Conceptualization

“…This concern is also likely activated in the mirror effect-the fact that individuals often regulate various aspects of their behavior when they imagine themselves as others see them (Mor & Winquist, 2002). Other examples address more locally constrained contextual differences in signaling behavior between national groups (e.g., Krieg, 2020;Hanel et al, 2018).…”

The role of the environment: how mask wearing varies across different activities

“…There is evidence in the health behavior literature supporting the idea that behavior is flexible and context dependent [ 14 – 16 ]. The actions of individuals might be influenced by a range of factors that vary across activities including: whether the activity takes place indoors or outdoors, whether other people are wearing masks and if those people are known to them or are strangers, how risky the person believes the activity to be for contracting an infectious disease, and whether the need for the person to do the activity outweighs other concerns such as getting sick.…”