Being WEIRD: How Culture Shapes The Mind

Day 2: How does your culture contribute to the way that you interact with your social world? Culture is one of the primary reasons we act the way we do. There are many types of cultures like professional, national, religious, family, and educational. Your family culture is the number one type of culture that affects you in your adult life. It shapes the foods you enjoy, the activities you like to participate in, and specific belief systems you take part in. Additionally,

Your culture has a huge influence on how you perceive the world. Our culture gives us a sense of who we are and where we stand in society. In Chapter 3: The Trouble We’re In, by Allan Johnson, he explains that our experiences that we claim to be real are actually cultural creations and that we see it to be a norm even if we haven 't actually experienced them (p.21). An example that Johnson gave in the first reading was the idea of a black woman in Africa, she doesn’t consider herself black because she hasn’t experienced it, she identifies herself as African and a woman, but if she were to go to America, she would be identified as black because that’s what is practiced in American culture the example shows us that although we don’t really experience things first hand we 're taught to relate to it because of our culture. In the Chapter 9: Getting off the hook, Johnson talks about the idea of one race being better than the other and that is instilled into us through our culture. He explains this by talking about two guys, one black and one white and how they were both treated in social environments. This also shows the power we give others when we allow these cultural norms to influence us. These influences help shape who we become and play a huge part on our social interactions with one another.

For example in “An Indian father’s Plea”, Lake writes about how Wind-Wolf’s father can’t tolerate Wind-Wolf being a slow learner, “I can’t understand that you have already labeled him as a slow learner (Lake 95)”. The teacher already labeled Wind-Wolf as a slow learner because of his culture. Another example is when Wind-Wolf’s friend’s mom said, “It is OK if you have to play with him at school, but we don’t allow these kinds of people into our house (Lake 98)”. Culture affected Wind-Wolf because he was different that the white kid. His culture made him feel different than the rest of the kids at his school. Some people may say that culture doesn’t affect how one views another, but as shown in “An Indian Father’s Plea” culture does affect how one views

However, as Americans we are able to turn to what we have learned growing up. Once we are born our family, siblings, and our own culture influence us. We are bought up with certain beliefs and traditions. However, I do think that culture does influences how people are permitted to be expressed and how they are perceived. As for social experience people react to different experience in different ways. If someone has been in a certain situation I believe they learn from that experience.

Having a Christian mind is a very important part of following God and being a true Christian. Patterns of this world can be very contradicting to having a Christian mind, and can even damage a Christians mind if we are not careful. The Bible teaches us to renew our mind so we do not live a worldly life. These concepts are important when talking about a Christian mind and the renewing of the mind.

Is culture the reason behind why people perform their actions?In the short story “Everyday Use,” by alice walker, one of the daughters denies her culture. In the essay “An Indian Father’s Plea,” by Robert Lake, the other students and teacher makes fun of the son, Wind-Wolf. In the Novel excerpt “Two Kinds,” by Amy tan, Jing-mei’s mother expects her daughter to keep to her mother’s perspective of culture. Culture influences people’s views on life.

Sometimes I question if culture changes who you are. I try to pull up memories of the decisions I make, are they affected by my culture? Here is the response I came up with: Culture sporadically informs how an individual sees the world because, even being from completely different places and raised in contrasting households, people could still have similar views based on what they think of others and not how you are constructed with your culture, however, sometimes affects your perspective in certain occasions in circumstances where you wouldn’t face a community the same if you weren’t from the culture you were built in. This idea is supported by the personal essay by Bharati Mukherjee, Two Ways to Belong in America, the essay by Robert Lake, An Indians Father Plea, and also personal experience.

Another example of culture affecting one’s view appears in the essay “Where Worlds Collide” by Pico Iyer. In the story, Korean immigrants come to America for the first time, experiencing the hustle of the Los Angeles International Airport. The immigrants arrive at the airport “...in Dodgers caps and Rodeo Drive T-shirts, with the maps their cousins have drawn for them and the images they’ve brought over from Cops and Terminator 2…” Because they came from another country with a different culture, they do not know much about American cultures. Thus, they make assumptions based on what they have been told by their Korean peers and how they view Americans. The immigrants think that America is full of action. In addition, their Dodgers caps and

Cross cultural psychology and cultural psychology are two fields of psychology that are often confused. Cross-cultural psychology and cultural psychology have many similarities and they differ in a few areas. Cross-cultural psychology is a comparative field of psychology that studies the cultural effects on human psychology. A cross-cultural study draws its conclusions from at least two samples of at least two different cultures and compares them in order to examine underlying reasons for diversity between the cultures, as well as the universals that each culture shares with another. Cultural psychology seeks to find the meaningful links between a culture and the psychology of the individuals living within that culture. Cultural psychology's main message is that human behavior is only meaningful when you're studying the behavior of individuals within the particular sociocultural, or in the culture in which the behavior occurs. The comparisons that cross-cultural psychology makes about each culture must begin with cultural studies.

neuroscience, that reflects a growing realisation that the brain is not a wholly individual, biological and chemical product, but also one that incorporates elements of cultural and social formation. This social shaping and enculturation is explored in the next section of this paper.The effect of culture and society on the mind has long been widely accepted and has been studied by anthropologists and social scientists. It is, however, a different prospect entirely to posit that culture and society inform the make-up of the brain as well as the mind. It may be that this notion has elided academic consideration due to the incompatibilities of disciplinary focus points, objectives, philosophical starting-points, language and concepts of formation

Neanderthals were a species or subspecies of archaic human. The ancient humans lived in Europe and Asia about 350,000 to 40,000 years ago. It’s said that they disappeared after modern humans crossed into Europe from Africa. This paper will discuss Neanderthal’s culture and cognition showing similarities they have with both us and earlier Homo sapiens.

In today’s society, an individual who is a member of the dominant privileged societal assembly is not always discussed because the personal identity is taken as a guarantee due to the dominant culture. Nevertheless, culture affects the members of society because of the association with the dominant culture we become a different category consequently which leads to being treated and viewed differently (Tatum, 2000.) “Culture creates a person” (Vognar, 2012). In my opinion, culture influences how we represent ourselves; starting with how we communicate, behave, body gestures and postures. This can affect us psychologically. “Culture shapes us, but many events mold culture and we shape these just as much”. By virtue of unconsciously of us behaving in a way that we feel is culturally appropriate according to how we were raised from our early childhood years to our teenage

Culture is the most basic cause of a person’s wants and behaviour. Growing up, children learn basic values, perception and wants from the family and other important groups.

As a baby we aren’t born with culture. The people who are responsible for our socialization are our parents and others who we might associate with…teachers, friends, etc. As a very small child we learn about the culture we were born in as well as our gender roles. Depending on some cultures women for example are taught that they will be homemakers and do a large share of work. In my culture I learned my future role which would be a daughter, friend, sister, a wife in the future possibly, and then maybe a mother. This is also the time we learn what society expects of us; the norms per say. This is also the time in our lives that our personality forms. While our personality has much to do with our upbringing and genes it also is created by the culture we are in. “Research in geographical sciences has shown regional variation on a number of indicators—including public

It deprives us of the ability to move past patterns and broaden out ways of thinking. Culture can liberate us if we are willing to to refrain from the repetitive ways of thinking and challenging existing patterns. Thus, culture influences an individual’s decision to gamble.