Culture and Cognition

• Culture influences our thoughts and social world.

Objectives

• Examine the self in relation to culture.
• Outline theories on Western and Eastern cultures in relation to cognition.
• Provide findings on how culture impacts cognition.

Introduction

• Cultural differences exist in how we understand ourselves and in relation to others.
• Cultural comparisons in social cognition involve comparing Eastern and Western cultures.

The Self

• In psychology, the self is a single, unitary, autonomous being separate from others.
• The self is experienced with continuity through time and place.
• The experience of the self includes consciousness of physicality, inner character, and emotional life.

Self-Construal

• Construal is the interpretation or understanding of something in a specific context or way.
• It's how a person perceives and makes sense of their world, experiences, and the actions of others.
• The origin of "construal" comes from the Latin word "construere," meaning "to build" or "to pile up."

What is Self-Construal?

• It involves the perceptions that individuals have about their thoughts, feelings, and actions in relation to others.
• Western cultures predominantly have independent self-construals.
• Eastern cultures predominantly have interdependent self-construals.

Independent Self-Construals

• The self is viewed as independent and autonomous.
• The self is defined by a unique collection of attributes, abilities, thoughts, and feelings.
• This collection organizes and gives meaning to our sense of self.
• Knowledge about the self in relation to others is not as important to core identity as knowledge of global attributes.

Interdependent Self-Construals

• The self is viewed as interdependent with others and experienced as part of a social web.
• The sense of self is grounded in social relationships.
• The self may be experienced as fluid, taking on different colorations depending on the social setting.
• Self acts in accordance with anticipated expectations of others and not in accordance with one's own wishes.

Western World

• Defined as a historical and cultural entity dispersed across Europe, as opposed to the East, Asia and Africa.
• The term was used by scholars through the late medieval period.
• It was sometimes expanded to include the Americas, due to the impact of colonialism and the transmission of cultures.

Eastern World

• Refers to nations in Asia and the Middle East.
• Middle Eastern countries include Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Iran & Iraq.

The Global and Contextual Self

• Global Self: Stable across time/situations, influenced by core beliefs/personality, provides identity and continuity.
• Contextual Self: Varies in context, influenced by environment/social roles/immediate goals, enables adaptation in different scenarios.
• Example of Global Self: "I'm a kind and honest person."
• Example of Contextual Self: "I'm a leader when I'm with my team at work."

Culture & Self-Descriptions: How We Think About The Self

• In Western culture, people are more likely to use traits to describe their global rather than contextualized self.
• Self is thought of as independent of social environment and comprised of global attributes.
• In Eastern culture, people are more likely to use traits to describe their contextualized rather than global self.
• The self is thought of as dependent on social settings and comprised of context-specific attributes.

Culture and Causal Attributions

• Westerners tend to view social behavior as driven by internal, stable dispositions (make dispositional attributions).
• Easterners tend to view social behavior as determined by interpersonal roles, relationships, and setting (make situational attributions).

Culture and Dissonance: How We Feel About The Self

• Westerners are more distressed when they act inconsistently with beliefs or in a foolish way.
• Westerners tend to believe that foolish choices threaten self-worth because behavior reflects underlying global attributes
• Easterners do not base identity on global attributes, so making a foolish choice does not threaten self-worth.

Culture & Self-Esteem: How We Feel About The Self

• Japanese report lower levels of self-esteem than North Americans.
• There is a greater association between self-esteem and life satisfaction in Western culture.
• Western culture values and goes to great lengths to enhance the self.
• North Americans see self-enhancement opportunities as more relevant and downplay deflating situations.
• Japanese see self-criticism opportunities as more relevant and downplay self-enhancing situations.