Causal Cognition Analysis

The Fundamental Attribution Error becomes more culture specific when it comes to how specific, or which type, of explanation that particular person or culture decides to use. When it comes to describing a good or bad event that has occurred, the way each culture is developed to think, will affect which attribution that group will use. Besides the study by Morris and Peng, another psychologist, Joan Miller, showed the difference of which attribution is chosen between Americans and Hindu East Indians. It showed that the older a person gets within their particular culture, the more likely they will be to follow the norms of attributions; Americans referring to the dispositional attribution and the Hindu East Indians referring to the situational attribution. Overall, around the world many cultures may use a mix of these attributions from the fundamental attribution error when it comes to describing people’s actions, but based off the studies, it shows that the fundamental attribution error demonstrates to be more culture specific than it would

“Being WEIRD: How Culture Shapes the Mind,” by Ethan Watters, is a compelling article that challenges the reader’s perception on culture and cognition. Instead of cognition affecting culture, our culture affects our cognition. It’s interesting to conceptualize, and it makes one have to introspect their culture, beliefs, attitudes, and actions. Why do we do behave the way that we do? Are our thoughts our own? How much of us is influenced by our environment? This effect of culture can be rooted in our childhoods. We are taught societal norms and how to view, categorize, and perceive the world through the lens of the environment surrounding us. A prime example of this comes from the games we played growing up.

Does culture shape how we view the world and people? Well culture involves where people are from, how they are raised, and what they eat. Based on what culture is and text such as “By Any Other Name”, “Ethnic Hash”, and “Two Kinds”, it is shown that a person’s culture determines the impact on how a person views others and the world.

Language is one of the most recognizable tools but some tools are more subtle. For example, technology is a tool in western society that less industrialized societies aren’t exposed to. An individual that has grown up with complete access to all the latest technology is going to think differently than an individual that has never seen any form of technology. Overall, some behaviors and ways of thinking can only be caused by exposer to specific social and cultural contexts, as this perspective explains.

Culture is a strong determinant of people's views of the very nature and meaning of

Culture can be defined as manifestations of intellectual achievement which is not a facet of bias. How one sees the world actually comes from aspects such as emotional experiences and life events. One change could cause a butterfly effect that will forever change said person’s opinions. Culture is an aspect of art and customs throughout a community that remains in a sector of life whether the person intends it to be that way or not. It is human nature to desire different experiences outside of their cultural circle. One’s culture does not influence how they view the world due to autonomy, automatic assimilation, and operating behind the veil of ignorance.

People see different cultures in different perspectives when they have a culture that is contrasting it. In the novel excerpt Two Kinds written

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

the things that they see. Every culture has their own individual stereotypes and belief systems. The reason for this is that people place arbitrary meanings on life's occurrences based upon those of the individuals which preceded them. Thought patterns of an individual are all dependent upon the teachings of others.

“Because the world is constantly changing, oppositions, paradoxes, and anomalies are continuously being created. Old and new, good and bad, strong and weak exist in everything,” (Nisbett, 175). This quote from Richard E. Nisbett’s novel, The Geography of Though, is an explanation in Taoist, and thus the Chinese, belief that the “good” cannot exist with the bad and visa versa. This explanation is one of the main points Nisbett continues to concentrate on when explaining the main point of his novel- Westerners, descendants of the “Greeks”, and Easterners, descendants of the “Chinese”, have different world-views and while they are uniquely correct, they are also uniquely different from each other, having a larger impact than one would think. Over the course of the 229 page text, Nisbett continues to reiterate these points, that Westerners believe one concept and have to come to believe this throughout

In Samuel P. Huntington’s article “The West: Unique, Not Universal,” he addresses his audience with a very controversial question: Is Western Culture universal or unique? Huntington elaborately opens up this question with research and examples to explain and persuade readers that the West will never be a universal culture for all, but rather a unique culture that will be accepted by those who appreciate it. For decades now, historians and scholars have debated with one another to determine who is right and wrong. However, from a handful of articles from different scholars, Samuel Huntington’s statement that the West is unique rather than universal is supported and even further elaborated on by these particular sources. A common understanding between all the sources, that must be noted, is that a civilization’s culture is not comprised of material goods but rather their culmination of their religion(s), values, language(s) and traditions. While although there are scholars out their that negate the West is unique, a large amount of scholars still argue and strengthen Huntington’s argument that the West has unique and exclusive characteristics that make them distinctive and rare.

Westerns and East Asian mentality differ from an analytic and holistic standpoint. Westerns mentality is analytic; which focus on the attention of the object while categorizing it by its attributes. For East Asian mentality; it is viewed as holistic, where the focus is on the field in which the location of the object and its relationship is significant. In comparison with Hindu Indians and Americans, both outcomes presumed to be different. Hindus explained the ordinary life events in a much more presumed disposition.

We examine the individual in relation to their historical background, cultural environment, and social life world, or in other words, the context in which they exist. We can see that the individual is able to rise above their cultures through reflection, they are not stuck. We also see that there are more possibilities to understand philosophical subjects such as ethics, political philosophy, etc (Lebech, 221). However, he says that this could also be wrong, since we would expect one to be completely autonomous and free from cultural influences. Lebech thinks this example leads to some misunderstanding the concept of the subject and how it is related to its culture, history, and tradition (Lebech,

The perspective of this piece can also be seen in how they represent the cultures. Europeans tended to view the Americans as an uncivilized people and this is represented in the piece with how the American is seen standing up, wearing little clothing, and holding a bow as if he is getting ready to go hunting or go to war. On the other hand China and the Middle East, which are seen by Europeans as much older, civilized cultures are sitting down, and they look like they are ready to have a discussion.

As diverse characters of the planet, we entirely perceive our surroundings through our very own paradigm, which is shaped based on identity. When seeing the world through a paradigm one is effectively viewing and interpreting through a certain filter. For example, if a scientist is observing an art piece, he may not be able to perceive it through the artist’s paradigm and in order to be a critic of the art, he must understand what the illustrator is trying to portray. Because art can vary from a detailed painting in such dull colors to a bright coloured rectangle, and to look at it through a scientific paradigm he will not understand the story behind the art piece. This rectangle could represent someone’s entire life, as would the detailed painting. And for one to view it through an extremely different paradigm, they may not see past the ‘pretty picture’ or ‘plain rectangle’.