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Shinobu Kitayama

Shinobu Kitayama

Originally from Japan, Shinobu Kitayama received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, where he is currently the Robert B. Zajonc Collegiate Professor of Psychology and the Director of the Center for Culture, Mind, and the Brain. He also directs the Culture and Cognition Program.

His research focuses on cultural variations in self, cognition, emotion, and motivation. His article with Hazel Markus on culture and the self, published in Psychological Review (1991), is one of the most widely cited in social and behavioral sciences. Over the last two decades he has used a variety of experimental methods to document a wide array of East-West differences in psychological processes. His more recent work has explored regional, social class, as well as age differences and similarities in psychological tendencies to understand their socio-cultural underpinnings. He has also pioneered the use of neuroscience measures such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalogram (EEG) in the investigation of the dynamic, recursive interaction between culture and the brain, thereby contributing to the emerging field of cultural neuroscience. His most recent work has focused on how certain dopamine-related genes might modulate cultural acquisition.

Before Michigan, he taught at the University of Oregon, Kyoto University, the University of Chicago, and Stanford University. He was a Fellow, twice, at the Center for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, CA (1995-1996, 2007-2008). A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2010, he has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2012). He served as Editor-in-chief of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin between 2007 and 2012.

Primary Interests:

  • Culture and Ethnicity
  • Emotion, Mood, Affect
  • Evolution and Genetics
  • Health Psychology
  • Life Satisfaction, Well-Being
  • Motivation, Goal Setting
  • Neuroscience, Psychophysiology
  • Person Perception
  • Self and Identity
  • Social Cognition

Research Group or Laboratory:

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Cultural Insights: Exploring Beyond East and West

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Keynote address at the 2024 Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (Bali, Indonesia)

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  • Cultural Insights: Exploring Beyond East and West

    Keynote address at the 2024 Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (Bali, Indonesia)


  • 2:07:46

    Cultural Neuroscience: Connecting Culture, Brain, and Genes

    A dialogue among scientists and contemplative scholars-practitioners, including the 14th Dalai Lama


  • 50:18

    Mutual Constitution of Culture and the Self: Insights From Cultural Neuroscience


  • 1:00:43

    America’s Fatal Failure: Why Have We Done So Poorly in Coping With COVID-19?


  • 30:54

    Culture and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Multiple Processes and Policy Implications

    2021 webinar keynote address, International Academy for Intercultural Research


  • 9:21

    Responding to Five Questions About the World After COVID-19


  • 2:15

    On the East/West Difference


  • 1:34:53

    Cultural Neuroscience: Linking Context and the Brain (Part 1)

    From the 2018 McGill Social and Cultural Neuroscience Workshop


  • 59:33

    Cultural Neuroscience: Linking Context and the Brain (Part 2)

    From the 2018 McGill Social and Cultural Neuroscience Workshop


  • 43:8

    Cultural Neuroscience of the Self: Understanding the Social Grounding of the Brain


  • 28:11

    Culture, Self, and Brain: Implications for Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation


Other Files


Books:

Journal Articles:

Other Publications:

  • Fiske, A. R., Kitayama, S., Markus, H. R., & Nisbett, R. E. (1998). The social matrix of social psychology. In D. Gilbert et al. (Eds.), Handbook of Social Psychology. NY: McGraw Hill. (pp. 915-981)
  • Kitayama, S., Duffy, S., & Uchida, Y. (2006). Self as mode of being. In S. Kitayama & D. Cohen (Eds.). Handbook of cultural psychology (pp. 136-174). New York: Guilford Press.
  • Kitayama, S., Varnum, M. E. W., & Sevincer, A. T. (in press). The frontier: Voluntary settlement and cultural change. In A. Cohen (Ed.), New directions in the psychology of culture. American Psychological Association.

Courses Taught:

  • Cultural Evolution
  • Cultural Neuroscience
  • Cultural Psychology
  • Culture and Health
  • Global Psychology
  • Social Psychology

Shinobu Kitayama
Research Center for Group Dynamics
University of Michigan
426 Thompson Street, 6114 ISR
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1248
United States of America

  • Phone: (734) 764-4112 (734)647-6786
  • Fax: (734) 647-3652

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