Conceptions of Culture and Person for Psychology

Abstract

This article argues that the current popularity of culture in psychology is likely to continue in the future if the conception of the person that psychologists adopt includes culture as an integral part of human nature. This thesis is illustrated in a brief historical account. Although the current discourse in psychology is marked by a metatheoretical tension between natural and cultural science approaches to mind, a consensus is emerging that assumes a materialist (or physicalist) ontology, a Darwinian evolutionism, and cultural-historical embeddedness of psychological processes and their development in social context. In this emerging consensus, culture is conceptualized as a species-specific property of Homo sapiens, which transmits information not only genetically across generations, but also symbolically between and within generations. Culture is thus integral to the ongoing process of tool use and symbol manipulation. Contemporary issues in the culture-mind relation are discussed against this common background.