From description to explanation : a dynamic approach to understanding culture

Culture is elusive—pervasive yet often unnoticed. As Clyde Kluckhohn famously noted, "Culture is like the air we breathe." Its complexity is reflected in the existence of over 160 definitions (Steinmetz, 1999), prompting scholars to develop numerous approaches to study it. While these approaches have provided valuable insights into the development of diverse cultural traditions, they remain primarily descriptive and correlational. This limitation parallels the early phases of many scientific disciplines, which initially identified their subject matter as substances or structures—fire with phlogiston, heat with caloric, and life with vital fluid. Over time, these sciences evolved to understand their subjects as dynamic processes: combustion for fire, random thermal motion for heat, and complex systems far from thermodynamic equilibrium for life. Similarly, understanding culture demands a shift from static description to dynamic explanation. In response to this challenge, my collaborators and I proposed the dynamic constructivist approach, which examines the causal influence of culture on cognition, affect, and behavior. This framework enables new research directions for understanding how individuals navigate multiple cultural systems and their psychological effects. To illustrate these possibilities, I will present research from my lab on racial essentialism, cultural mixing, and cultural attachment. Taken together, these findings offer deeper insights into the complex processes underlying cultural conflicts worldwide.