Gesellschaft für Kulturpsychologie e.V.

A non-profit organization for the advancement of cultural psychology and cross-cultural psychology in research and teaching.

The society's website contains the following information:

1. Board
2. Introduction
3. Scientific perspectives and goals
4. Activities
5. Regulations of the Society (in German)
6. Membership
7. Previous activities

German version

1. Board (since 2005)

Board   Summary   Objectives   Activities   Membership   Events/Publications

2. Summary

The Gesellschaft für Kulturpsychologie (Society for Cultural Psychology) was founded in Salzburg in 1986, where it still has its seat today. It is an association of psychologists who are active both in scientific research and teaching as well as in different fields of applied psychology. It is internationally oriented and interested in interdisciplinary co-operation. The society's objectives are the advancement of theoretical, empirical and applied cultural and cross-cultural psychology as well as the promotion of relevant ideas in these fields.

Board   Summary   Objectives   Activities   Membership   Events/Publications

3. The Society's Scientific Perspectives and Objectives

Cultural Psychology tries to describe, interpret and explain culture-specific contexts, conditions and purposes of human thinking, feeling, intending and acting. Culture is understood primarily as a symbol-, rule-, knowledge- and orientation-system that defines not only experience and behavior, but also sense and meaning structure of cultural objectivations. Cultural symbol-, rule-, knowledge- and orientation-systems are formed, perpetuated and altered by social practice.

Cultural psychology encompasses traditional cross-cultural psychology, though it is theoretically, methodologically, methodically and practically not limited to the latter's nomological and technological orientation. Culture comparisons need not necessarily aim at general, culture-invariant laws and regularities, and their empirical validation. In addition to nomological cross-cultural psychology (which owes its progress over the last three, four decades to a constantly growing number of contributions especially from North America), (comparative) cultural psychology is mainly interested in comprehensive description and interpretative analysis of specific cultural features of psycho-social reality.

Independent of their theoretical, methodological and methodic orientation, cultural psychology and cross-cultural psychology are concerned with all fields of human practice. This means they are not confined to subjects such as lan-guage, religion, morals and customs, art in its varied forms, or other specific fields.

In multi-cultural societies that offer many niches for cultural milieus cultural psychology can be comparative even within a single society. Life problems that members of specific cultures experience and articulate (more or less differenti-atedly) as their own, often serve as a starting point of cultural psychological research. With its theory building and terminology thus rooted in daily life experience, cultural psychology aims at practical relevance of its research. The results of its research can very often be made fertile in different other fields, as well. One of its higher practical goals is the analysis and cultivation of possibilities of intercultural understanding and co-operation within and between societies.

Board   Summary   Objectives   Activities   Membership   Events/Publications

4. The Society's Activities

The Gesellschaft für Kulturpsychologie pursues the above mentioned objectives through following activities:

• organization of conferences;
• publication of conference documentation and other scientific writings;
• advancement of the cultural psychology's standing at universities, colleges and research institutes;
• furthering of the co-operation between those active in cultural psychology as well as between psychology and its neighboring disciplines.

Board   Summary   Objectives   Activities   Membership   Events/Publications

5. Membership

Admission as a member requires proof of scientific or practical qualification in the field of cultural psychology and is granted by the board or general meeting respectively on the basis of a proposal of at least three of the society's members. Currently the membership fee is 35,-- Euro per year. If you are interested in further contact with the society we kindly ask you to inform us whether you are interested in

• a membership in the Gesellschaft für Kulturpsychologie. If this is the case we would like to ask you to provide us with an overview over your previous scientific or practical activities in the field of cultural psychology or cross-cultural psychology, including their different fields of applied research.
• periodic information on the Gesellschaft für Kulturpsychologie's current activities.

Board   Summary   Objectives   Activities   Membership   Events/Publications

6. The Society's previous Activities

The Gesellschaft für Kulturpsychologie has held seven conferences, so far (1989, 1991, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003 and 2005). The next conference will take place in Halle/Germany (October 2007) and will be dedicated to the topic “Material Culture and the Sense of Balance”.

Publications

Four of the above mentioned symposia are documented in anthologies:

Christian G. Allesch & Elfriede Billmann-Mahecha (Hrsg.): Perspektiven der Kulturpsychologie. Heidelberg: Asanger 1990. (For German language table of contents click here.)

Christian G. Allesch, Elfriede Billmann-Mahecha & Alfred Lang (Hrsg.): Psychologische Aspekte des kulturellen Wandels. Wien: VWGÖ 1992. (For German language table of contents click here.)

Herbert Fitzek & Michael Ley (Hrsg.): Alltag im Aufbruch. (Zwischenschritte 21) Gießen: psychosozial 2003. (For German language table of contents click here.)

Christian G. Allesch & Michaela Schwarzbauer (Hrsg.): Die Kultur und die Künste. Heidelberg: Winter 2007. (For German language information click here.)

Board   Summary   Objectives   Activities   Membership   Events/Publications

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