Introduction to Cross-Cultural Psychology
Senior 6 · Psychology (Languages)
Introduction to Cross-Cultural Psychology
Lesson 4 of 4
25 min
This Kinyarwanda proverb means “Nothing defeats those who come together.” It is spoken at weddings and community meetings, quoted in speeches and taught in schools. A proverb like this is a small window into a culture: it states, in a memorable form, what a community values and expects of its members.
Cross-cultural psychology studies values scientifically: what they are, how they differ between and within cultures, and how they guide behaviour. In this lesson you will use those tools to analyse values that are central to Rwandan life, and the national programmes built on them.
Definition
Value: a lasting belief about what is desirable, which acts as a guiding principle in a person’s life across many situations (Shalom Schwartz, 1992). Example: honesty.
Norm: a specific expectation about how to behave in a particular situation. Values are general; norms put them into practice.
Home-grown solutions: Rwandan programmes, many drawing on older community practices, that are used to address national challenges (Rwanda Governance Board).
Shalom Schwartz surveyed teachers and students in dozens of countries and found that people everywhere recognise about ten basic values, arranged in a circle. Values next to each other can be pursued together; values on opposite sides pull against each other. Cultures differ in how they rank the values, not in whether the values exist.
Figure 1. Schwartz’s circle of values (simplified).
| Value (Kinyarwanda) | Meaning | Closest Schwartz values |
|---|---|---|
| Ubumwe | Unity: seeing all Rwandans as one people with a shared future | Universalism, benevolence |
| Ubupfura | Nobility of character: dignity, good manners, self-respect and respect for others | Benevolence, conformity |
| Ubunyangamugayo | Integrity: honesty and being beyond reproach, especially in public duties | Benevolence, conformity |
| Agaciro | Dignity and self-worth, personal and national | Achievement, self-direction |
| Kwigira | Self-reliance: solving one’s own problems with one’s own means | Self-direction, achievement |
| Gukunda igihugu | Love of country and willingness to serve it | Security, tradition, benevolence |
| Ubumuntu | Humanity: compassion and care for every human being | Universalism, benevolence |
Note that the table places most of these values on the self-transcendence and conservation sides of the circle, which fits a broadly collectivist culture, while agaciro and kwigira sit on the achievement and self-direction side. A culture’s values are not all on one side; they are balanced, and sometimes in tension.
The Rwanda Governance Board describes several national programmes as home-grown solutions. Each can be analysed with psychological concepts from this course.
| Programme | What it is | Psychological principle at work |
|---|---|---|
| Umuganda | Monthly community work on the last Saturday of the month, followed by a community meeting | Social norms; contact and cooperation among neighbours |
| Imihigo | Performance contracts: leaders publicly commit to targets and are evaluated on them | Public commitment and consistency: people try to act in line with what they have promised in public |
| Girinka | “One cow per poor family”, launched in 2006; the first female calf is passed on to a neighbour | Reciprocity and social bonds |
| Abunzi | Community mediation committees (Unit 3) | Mediation; positions and interests |
| Itorero | Civic education that teaches values and leadership | Social learning and identity |
| Ndi Umunyarwanda | A programme, launched in 2013 after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, that promotes a shared Rwandan identity | Superordinate identity (Unit 2) |
Rwandapedia: “Umuganda Community work in Rwanda”. Watch for who takes part, what kind of work is done, and what happens at the meeting after the work.
Values are learned, so they shift as societies change. Many young Rwandans grow up with growing cities, mobile phones and global media, and take part in global youth culture as well as their own. Research elsewhere shows that rising education and urban life tend to increase emphasis on self-direction, while community values remain strong where people depend on each other. One question for cross-cultural psychology in Rwanda is how young people combine ubupfura and community duty with individual ambition: not by choosing one side of Schwartz’s circle, but by balancing them.
Important
Discussion and evaluation. Analysing national values psychologically has limits. Values stated in programmes and speeches are ideals; surveys are needed to know how far individuals actually hold them, and individuals differ widely. Translating a value such as ubupfura into an English word, or into a Schwartz category, always loses some meaning, which is why the emic approach (understanding a value in its own terms) must accompany the etic one. Finally, a programme can draw on a psychological principle without that principle alone explaining its results; careful evaluation needs evidence on outcomes.
Warning
Be accurate and respectful. Use exactly “the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi”. When writing about national values, describe them and analyse them with evidence; avoid both uncritical praise and dismissive generalisations about “Rwandans”.
Tip
Exam technique: to analyse any value or programme, (1) define it in its own terms, (2) link it to a psychological concept (norm, identity, reciprocity, commitment), (3) give an example, and (4) state one limitation of the analysis.
Practice
Further reading
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the text, the tables, Figure 1 and the exercises.
