Introduction to Computational Cultural Psychology

Human psychology is deeply rooted in the culture in which people live. Introduction to Computational Cultural Psychology introduces a revolutionary approach for studying cultural psychology. Drawing on novel computational tools and in-depth case studies, Professor Yair Neuman offers thought-provoking answers to questions such as: how are thought and language deeply related? How can computers help us to understand different cultures? How can computers assist military intelligence in identifying vengeful intentions? And how is our concept of 'love' rooted in our basic embodied experience? Written by a leading interdisciplinary researcher this book is a 'tour-de-force' which will be of interest to a variety of researchers, students and practitioners in psychology as well as an interdisciplinary audience with an interest in the intricate web weaved between the human psyche and its cultural context.

1. What is computational cultural psychology?; 2. The digital psychologist: information technology and cultural psychology; 3. Why don't primates have God? Language and the abstraction of thought; 4. Lost in translation: how to use automatic translation machines for understanding 'otherness'; 5. Spies and metaphors: automatic identification of metaphors for strategic intelligence; 6. Scent of a woman: the mediation of smell and automatic analysis of extended senses; 7. Dolly Parton's love lexicon: detection of motifs in cultural texts; 8. The relational matrix of the I; 9. Identifying themes: from the Wingfield family to Harry and Sally; 10. Eating and dining: studying the dynamics of dinner; 11. Getting even: the cultural psychology of revenge and what computers can do about it; Epilogue. On generals and mail coach drivers.

Yair Neuman is a professor in the Department of Education at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. Professor Neuman was the chief algorithm developer at IARPA Metaphor Project, where novel algorithms have been developed for the identification of metaphorical language. His work has been published extensively in leading journals for various disciplines including psychology, psychoanalysis, theoretical biology, mathematical modelling, semiotics and information sciences. His last book Reviving the Living: Meaning Making in Living Systems was published in 2008.