ABSTRACT
If ever there were a “core business” for psychology, it is neither culture nor the brain. Yet it would be hard to imagine how the core business can be pursued for long without engaging both. James (1890/1950), Hebb (1949), Luria, (1974), Campbell (1975), Moscovici (1976), and Vygotsky (1978), among others, have drawn attention to both culture and the brain as essential for the study of a range of psychological phenomena. In his recent book Brain and Culture, Wexler (2006) summarizes research showing the dynamic relationship between culture and the brain. Culture, broadly defined to include environmental inputs, affects the nature and meaning of sensory stimulation that is fundamental for the brain to develop. By setting the cultural environment and transmitting it to the next generation, each generation fashions the brains of the next. As the brain matures, its neuroplasticity decreases. This, in turn, puts increasing pressure on adults to adjust the external environment to maintain its fit with the brain’s internal structure.
