Social
Psychology 210
Relationships
Across Cultures - Research Project
Due
not before November 8 and not after December 7
(choose your own
due date and submit by September 13)
Social
Psychology 210 -- Dordt College
-- Dr. Sherri Lantinga
Purpose
Social psychologists use a variety of methods
to study situational and personal factors that affect behavior.
In this project, you will read others' observations of different
cultures, interview people in your own culture, and write a paper examining
your findings. The specific focus of this project is on courtship,
love, and marriage. The purpose of this assignment is to familiarize
you with interviewing as a methodology and to make you more conscious of
how cultural and situational factors shape everyday social behavior.
Reading
about Other Cultures
You will read a book
or some portion of a book that describes relationships in other cultures.
Choose
one of the following books, which are located in the Dordt
Library unless otherwise indicated; you may choose another book with
prior approval from the instructor, but you need to get such approval
by November 13. Waiting to choose your book may mean that someone
else has already checked it out....
-
Guests
of the Sheik (Fernea, 1989). First-person American account
of women's lives in a rural village in Iraq; includes friendship and marriage
-
An Uncommon
Correspondence: An East-West conversation on freiendship, intimacy, and
love (George & Masson, 1998). An exchange of letters
between two women reveals very different cultural expectations about friendship,
courtship, marriage, and the role of love. (See Dr. Lantinga for this book)
-
Birth,
marriage, and death: Ritual, religion, and the life-cycle in Tudor and
Stuart England (Cressy, 1997). Description of customs in 16th &
17th century England
-
The
family, marriage, and sex in England, 1500-1800 (Stone, 1977).
-
The
inner quarters: Marriage and the lives of Chinese women in the Sung period
(Ebrey, 1999). an E-book; 10th-17th centuries
-
Marriage
and family among Negroes (Bernard, 1966). African-American marriage
customs to 1960s
-
Marriage
and the family in France since the Revolution (Camp, 1961).
-
Marriage:
East & West (Mace & Mace, 1960).
-
Marriage
in changing Japan: Community and society (Hendry, 1981).
-
Wordly
saints: The Puritans as they really were (Ryken, 1990). Marriage,
sex, and family among the Puritans
-
Life,
marriage, and death in a medieval parish: Economy, society, and demograpy
in Halesowen, 1270-1400 (Razi, 1980)
-
Families
in ancient Israel (Perdue, 1997).
-
Marriage
and family in the Middle Ages (Gies & Gies, 1989).
-
Medieval
family roles: A book of essays (Itnyre, 1996).
-
When
fathers ruled: Family life in Reformation Europe (Ozment, 1983).
-
Parallel
lives: Five Victorian marriages (Rose, 1983). 19th century
England
-
Classifiction
of kin, age structure, and marriage amongst the Groote Eylandt aborigines:
A study in method and a theory of Australian kinship (Rose, 1960).
Need I say more?
-
Women
in the Middle Ages: Religion, marriage, and letters (Lucas, 1983).
-
Inheritance
and family life in Colonial New York City (Narrett, 1992).
-
Chinese
families in the post-Mao era (Davis & Harrell; E-book)
-
Getting
married in Korea (Kendall, E-book)
-
The
Joys of Motherhood (Emecheta, 1979). A novel about the struggles
of a woman, her family, and her tribe in colonial Nigeria during the first
half of the 20th century
-
Things
fall apart (Achebe, 1965). A novel about the life of a warrior/farmer,
his family, and his tribe in pre-colonial Nigeria.
-
other possible
readings will be announced later in the semester...
Interviewing
in Your Own Culture
For
each interview, try to be objective in your questions and responses,
and detailed in your notes. The purpose of the interview is to get as much
information as possible about that person's experience with courtship/dating
and marriage rituals. It is strongly recommended that you
read your book before interviewing so that you have a "bigger picture"
in mind about marital customs.
-
Develop a
list of questions for your interview (mostly open-ended). You will
want to understand things like:
-
the nature
of the first meeting
-
the extent
to which economic status, religion, education, race, age, physical beauty,
family background, etc. played a role in initial attraction, parental approval,
etc.
-
the extent
to which others (e.g., parents, teachers, pastors) influenced the courtship
and marriage
-
the extent
to which love or physical attraction were important in courtship and marriage
-
at what point
in the relationship touching of the other person was allowed and what parts
of the body may/not be touched at different stages
-
what kinds
of courtship interactions were allowed (supervised? when and where
was private time allowed?) and what a typical "date" was like
-
how the marriage
decision was made, by whom, and after what length of courtship
-
etc....
-
Choose a person/couple
to interview; older siblings, profs, people you know at church, etc.
Try to find someone who has been married for a few years but no more than
20 or so (to keep the "rituals" current). Explain that you'll want
to spend about 45 minutes asking them a series of questions about courtship
and marriage so that you can better understand cultural factors (NOT in
an attempt to get "juicy details"!). You may want to get their permission
to tape-record the interview for your reference in writing the paper.
Assure them of confidentiality (see ethical issues in Chapter 1 of your
text), which means that their names will not be included in your paper
and the details of what they say remain in the interview room. You
may wish to offer them a copy of your paper.
-
When developing
and asking questions, be aware of your own biases and assumptions (e.g.,
your belief that sex before marriage is wrong). Try not to allow
those biases to influence your questions; ask lots of follow-up questions
even if you could "guess" what the answer would be.
You may discuss the readings and conduct interviews
with a classmate, but you must take separate notes and hand in separate
papers.
Writing
Your Paper
In about 5-6 double-spaced typed pages, do each of the following:
-
Carefully compare and contrast the courtship and marriage
rituals/customs in the culture you read about and in the interview you
did; this will include some summary of the culture that you read about
(historical time period, etc.) and summary of the demographics of the interviewees
(age, length of marriage, etc.).
-
Relate your findings to course materials (text, class discussions)
-
Reflections:
-
what were some of your biases/assumptions about marriage,
love, courtship, etc. that you realized when reading the book or interviewing?
-
what surprised you about the customs and rituals either in
the reading or in the interview?
-
how was the interview similar to and different from a regular
conversation on this topic?
-
any other thoughts on the process or content of this project?
Evaluation
Criteria
Papers
are worth 100 points. The best papers will:
-
Include careful
comparisons and contrasts between the cultures which reveals a good
understanding of the relationships in both cultures
-
Show clear
links between the findings of the project and course material
-
Include insightful
reflections on how information gained through interviews is similar to
and different from "regular" conversations
-
Include self-insights
that reveal a personal connection with the material
-
Abide by the
format requirements and be written at a college level (e.g., paper is double-spaced,
contains few mechanical or grammatical errors)
-
Attach
interview notes
Graded papers may be revised and returned to Dr. Lantinga
for an opportunity to earn up to half of the missed points. Revised
papers must be turned in within 1 week and the original paper with my comments
must
be attached.
As an example, if your paper is returned on December 6 and you received
80 points, you can turn in a revised paper by December 13; depending on
the quality of your revisions, you could earn up to 10 additional points
for a final grade of 90 points. There is no penalty for revising
(so you could never lose points), although there is a small chance that
you would not earn any additional points.
page last revised August,
2001
Social Psych Syllabus