Culture and cognition

Cognition is one of the most important topics in cultural psychology, because humans are thinking beings, and the way we think can come from the culture we grew up in. As it was mentioned in the Neuroscience chapter, cultures are like habits – certain behaviors get reinforced by repetitive feedbacks from environment.

Many research studies mentioned in the chapter were already familiar from previous chapter, but I liked how there was an emphasis on Cultural Learning. Although there is a debate on when exactly culture-specific thinking styles emerge in children, it most certainly starts at birth. The study with American and Japanese moms confirm this prediction – Americans emphasize specific details of toys, while Japanese mothers discuss relationships between toys, the mother, and the child. It can be concluded that parent-child relationships can reinforce certain cultural thinking style.

I would also discuss the concept of cultural discourses – it is interesting how they might originate from subsistence systems or political environment of certain time, but still can stay without precedents they originated from. It explains why there are many traditions and superstitions, the meanings of which cannot be elaborated. In most of the cases grandparents say “it is just the way it is” without questioning the functionality and origin of the tradition.

Another interesting point was how Easterners and Westerners think about time and past events. It was claimed that Chinese people place more importance on past events, and tend to be sensitive to person’s past behavior, memorize past events and perceive the distance from the present to the past to be shorter. It came to me as a contradiction, that while attributing value to person’s past behavior, Chinese people more likely to expect change in relationships. It made me wonder, if paying more attention to past events can cause more rumination among Chinese people. It would also be interesting to explore the differences in how Eastern and Western people process grief differently, since it is also something which is closely related to time and how people view time.

In conclusion, it is interesting to observe how people’s thinking style can vary on different levels. I believe that such a research should be given an importance but not to separate people on good and bad thinkers, but rather encourage inclusion in education and more understanding among people of different cultures.