To start with, the chapter discusses how culture governs cognition and perception typically under the light of two factors: i) independent and interdependent cultures, and ii) analytic and holistic cognitive styles. However, as I mentioned earlier, other aspects must be studied as well to understand and interpret the interaction effects of culture, cognition, and perception.
While reading, I went through many concepts and examples but what really captured my attention was an interesting point stating that historic systems and ecological conditions cease to exist but cultural discourses persist within a culture. This implies that even when historical narratives fade, cultural discourses emphasize how deeply embedded they are in the collective psyche, often influencing a cultural sample unconsciously. For example, the ancient caste system in South Asia does not exist in the modern world, however, those patterns still affect the present generations. Endogamy (caste-based marriages) is still practiced in many areas of Pakistan, certain low-paying and labor-intensive jobs like fieldwork or sanitation work are filled by lower-caste groups or Christian communities.
An important point that I noticed in the chapter is that most Westerners researched these cultural psychology topics and at times, their research seems biased in the way that they study individuals in a group as individuals. This is evident in the research style where they study individual traits like self-esteem etc rather than focusing on group or familial relations. Another point to be noted is the framing of results – Western behavior is set as the standard and other cultures are compared to the ‘standard’ and then often termed as ‘different’ or ‘deviant’. We concluded that when studying culture, research should be focused more on a group as a group rather than the individuals within a group. This can be done by studying cultural products like tales, songs, newspapers, marriages, etc within a cultural context.
During the class discussion, we discussed the impact of globalization on our cognition and perception. We highlighted the major role of social media within this context—how social media connects the world and how digital exposure to different cultures affects our cognition even if we have never seen that culture in real life. An example would be K-pop, a global phenomenon, whereby people worldwide are inspired by Korean culture and follow certain Korean fashion trends, skincare, foods, etc. There are feminist movements that were initiated through digital platforms, for example #MeToo Movement went viral after Hollywood actresses started sharing their sexual harassment experiences on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and led to feminist trends and protests in countries like China, India, Pakistan etc.
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