| Course | EDP 816 Cultural Perspectives in Psychology |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 1 |
| Paper type | Doctoral conceptual paper |
| Length | About 1,070 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | Doctor of Education |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for EDP 816 Module 1
Whose Psychology? Defining Culture for a Community Health Center
Student Name
Doctor of Education Program, Aspen University
EDP 816: Cultural Perspectives in Psychology
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Whose Psychology? Defining Culture for a Community Health Center
Grace is a psychologist at a composite community health center in south Seattle. Her patients include Vietnamese families who arrived in the 1980s and their American-born children, recent arrivals from Somalia, Mexican American families going back three generations and long-settled Black and white Seattle residents. The center's intake questionnaires, depression screening and parenting materials were developed and validated largely with American college students and middle-class clinic samples. Grace has started to wonder whose psychology those tools describe. Grace, her center and its patients are fictional. This paper defines culture for psychology and considers what it means for her clinic.
Defining Culture
Definitions of culture in psychology commonly describe shared meanings, practices, values and institutions that are learned, transmitted across generations and that shape how members of a group think, feel and act. Cohen (2009) argued that psychologists have focused too narrowly on nationality and ethnicity. Religion, socioeconomic status and region also function as cultures: they involve shared meanings and practices, are transmitted and shape psychological processes. A Somali Muslim patient and a Mexican American Catholic patient differ by religion as well as by national origin; a working-class white patient and a professional white patient may differ in ways a nationality-based definition would miss.
| Definition | What it captures | What it misses |
|---|---|---|
| Culture as nationality | Broad differences between countries | Variation within countries; immigrant and mixed identities |
| Culture as ethnicity | Shared heritage within a country | Religion, class, region and individual difference |
| Culture as many forms (Cohen, 2009) | Religion, class, region, generation | Requires attention to overlapping identities |
| Culture as shared meanings and practices | How culture works in daily life | Harder to measure; risks vagueness |
Unusual Samples
Henrich et al. (2010) reviewed evidence across domains, from visual perception and fairness in economic games to reasoning styles and self-concept, and found that the people most often studied, from societies the authors labeled WEIRD for being Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic, were frequently outliers rather than typical of humans. In some studies, for example, people from industrialized societies were more susceptible to certain visual illusions than people in small-scale societies, and they made more individualistic choices in economic games. Yet most published psychology draws on such samples, often American undergraduates. The authors argued that findings from these samples should not be assumed to generalize without evidence.
How Culture Shapes the Self
Markus and Kitayama (1991) proposed that cultures differ in how they construe the self. An independent self-construal, common in North American and Western European contexts, emphasizes a self that is separate and defined by internal attributes such as traits and preferences. An interdependent self-construal, common in many East Asian contexts and elsewhere, emphasizes a self defined through relationships, roles and belonging. These construals, they argued, shape cognition, emotion and motivation: what people notice, what feelings they experience and express and what goals they pursue. They describe cultural tendencies, and individuals in every society vary widely.
What It Means for the Clinic
The argument has practical implications. The depression screening asks about feelings and self-evaluations in terms that reflect an independent self, such as "I feel like a failure," which may not capture how distress is experienced or expressed by patients whose sense of self is more relational. Parenting materials emphasize encouraging children's independence and self-expression, which some families may value less than respect and family obligation. Intake forms ask patients to select one ethnicity, missing religion, generation and class.
Grace will propose three steps. First, review the center's tools for evidence of validity in the populations the center serves, starting with the depression screening. Second, add intake questions about religion, generation since immigration and family roles, allowing patients to describe their own identities. Third, use the tools alongside conversation, asking patients what their answers mean to them.
Cautions
Cultural research can be misused to stereotype. A Vietnamese American patient raised in Seattle may hold strongly independent views; a white patient from a close-knit religious community may be highly interdependent. Henrich and colleagues' argument is about the limits of narrow samples, not a license to predict individuals from group averages.
How Culture Is Learned and Changes
Culture is not inherited like eye color; it is learned through participation in families, schools, religious communities and workplaces, and it changes as people move and as societies change. A child of Vietnamese immigrants raised in Seattle learns from parents, grandparents, teachers and peers, and may move between cultural frames depending on the setting. Cohen (2009) emphasized that people belong to many cultures at once and that these combine in individual lives. This view matters for the clinic, because a patient's cultural identity cannot be read from a single category, and because second- and third-generation patients may differ greatly from recent arrivals from the same country.
Why Narrow Samples Matter in Practice
Henrich et al. (2010) wrote mainly about research, but their argument extends to practice. A screening tool validated on one population carries assumptions about how distress is described, which symptoms matter and what normal looks like. If those assumptions differ for the clinic's patients, the tool may miss people who need help or flag people who do not. The question is empirical: some tools work well across groups, others do not, and the clinic cannot know which without evidence.
A Working Definition for the Clinic
For the clinic's purposes, culture can be defined as the shared meanings and practices, learned in families and communities and carried across generations, that shape how people understand distress, family and help. This definition is broad enough to include religion, class, region and generation, and specific enough to guide practice: it directs clinicians to ask how a patient and family understand what is happening, rather than to infer it from a box on a form.
Starting With One Tool
Grace will begin with the depression screening, because it affects the most patients and has been studied in several of the clinic's populations. Checking its published validity in Vietnamese, Somali and Spanish versions is a manageable first task that will show whether the broader review is worth the effort.
Conclusion
Cohen showed that culture takes many forms beyond nationality, Henrich and colleagues showed that psychology's usual samples are unusual and Markus and Kitayama showed one way culture shapes the self. For Grace's clinic, defining culture broadly and testing tools against the people it serves is the starting point for a psychology that fits its patients.
References
Cohen, A. B. (2009). Many forms of culture. American Psychologist, 64(3), 194-204. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015308
Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010). The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(2-3), 61-83. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X0999152X
Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98(2), 224-253. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.98.2.224
Reading the EDP 816 Module 1 assignment instructions
The first module of EDP 816 usually asks for a paper on culture and psychology. Follow the Module 1 instructions in your Aspen course; the clinic is a composite. Offer a working definition of culture and defend it, including forms beyond nationality. Explain why culture matters for psychological research, with evidence about sampling. Introduce at least one way culture shapes psychological processes. Apply the argument to a real or realistic professional setting. Reference sources in APA 7, and avoid equating culture with nationality or ethnicity alone, since that misses much of the variation the field now studies. Where you apply the argument to a setting, name specific tools or practices that may rest on narrow samples and say how you would check them.
Inside the EDP 816 Module 1 example
Grace, a composite psychologist at a Seattle community health center, notices that intake tools rest on research with American undergraduates while her patients are far more varied. Cohen's American Psychologist article argues for many forms of culture, including religion, social class and region. Henrich, Heine and Norenzayan's Behavioral and Brain Sciences article shows that Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic samples are often outliers. Markus and Kitayama's Psychological Review article describes independent and interdependent self-construals and their consequences. A four-row table compares definitions of culture, and the paper argues for reviewing the clinic's tools with cultural variation in mind. A section explains how culture is learned and passed on, and another addresses the risk of stereotyping patients.
Reading the EDP 816 Module 1 grading rubric
A strong culture paper defines culture carefully, supports the claim that culture matters with evidence and applies the argument concretely. This example adopts a broad definition, using Cohen to include religion, class and region. Henrich and colleagues' evidence shows why findings from narrow samples may not generalize. Self-construal theory illustrates how culture shapes psychological processes, with the caution that it describes tendencies. The application to clinic tools is specific and leads to steps the clinic can take. It also explains how culture is transmitted and why it changes, which keeps the definition from treating culture as fixed. The cautions section addresses stereotyping directly, and the proposed steps are modest enough for a busy clinic to adopt, starting with one screening tool rather than every form at once.
EDP 816 Module 1 help from the desk
Culture papers often define culture as nationality and treat findings from American students as universal. Use a broad definition. Present evidence about sampling. Introduce a mechanism, such as self-construal, with care. Stress variation within groups. Apply the argument to a setting with specific steps. Avoid treating any patient as a representative of a culture. Explain how culture is learned and how it changes, since static definitions invite stereotypes. Name specific tools or practices in your setting that may not fit all groups. Propose a first step that is realistic, such as checking one measure's validity, and say how you would know whether it helped.
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EDP 816 Module 1 questions, answered
What does EDP 816 Module 1 usually ask for?
Aspen's EDP 816 begins with culture and psychology, so a paper defining culture and arguing why it matters for research and practice is typical. Read your Module 1 prompt for the details.
What does WEIRD mean in psychology?
Henrich, Heine and Norenzayan's term for Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic samples, which dominate psychology research but are often unusual compared with other populations.
Is culture the same as nationality?
No. Cohen argued that religion, social class and region are also cultures, each shaping how people think and behave.
Where can I find a free EDP 816 Module 1 sample paper?
This page has the complete paper: a broad definition of culture, evidence on unusual samples, self-construal theory and an application to a clinic.
What are independent and interdependent selves?
Markus and Kitayama's terms for self-construals emphasizing a separate, autonomous self versus a self defined through relationships and roles.