Psychological Comparison Of North Americans And East Asians

The findings of E.E. Evans-Pritchard serve as an example of the importance of ethnographic fieldwork and cultural relativism. People have an inherent tendency to drift towards ethnocentrism if they do not keep an open mind about the legitimacy of foreign cultural ideas. Enculturalization occurs from the very beginning of one’s life. When one grows up in a culture that praises traits that are deemed as beneficial and discourages behaviors that are seen as harmful, one tends to develop similar beliefs on these traits and behaviors. Different cultures encourage different outlooks on society. This is the result of the environment a culture exists in. In many tribal societies, one of the primary influences on culture is the physical environment. However, in technologically-advanced societies that worry less about satisfying needs and more about fulfilling desires, social aspects are perhaps more significant. For example, note the difference between American and Japanese culture. American culture promotes individualism and free speech. Many Americans tote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights

“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.

The eastern world culture is often incompatible with that of the United States. Asian American values are family and group focused, unlike that of the individual-centered western value system. Loss of face is a key ethnic-cultural factor that describes the danger to, or loss of social standing, especially among the Asian American social group. Perceived loss of face can seriously impact the Asian American’s behavior within this group. Asian American children are reared to bring pride to their family through academic and financial efforts. A lack of ability to maintain such standards and the perception of failure can interfere with seeking professional mental help. Feelings of shame and fear of stigmatization inside their family and community often lead to depression, isolation, and other mental issues (Jacob, Gray, & Johnson, 2013). Customarily, the Asian principles hold self-control and adherence to the customs of the family and community in high regards. Mental illness in an individual is viewed as an expression of a failure to both the immediate and extended

In reading “Heterogeneity, Hybridity, Multiplicity: Asian American Difference,” Lowe uses poems and stories to support her argument which is to identify three descriptors of Asian Americans which are heterogeneity, hybridity, and multiplicity. She uses these three terms to conceptualize the “Asian American Differences” and differentiate “the hegemonic relationship between ‘minority’ and ‘dominant’”. (p. 67) In addition, she defines “heterogeneity” as the diversification of Asian American within the United States; “hybridity” as a mixture of cultural traditions due to “the histories of uneven and unsynthetic power” (p.67); “multiplicity” means different axes of power affect one subject within the social relations.

Considering the specific characteristics of Asian culture, the explanations can be drawn from two perspectives: what decreases the risk and what hides the risk. From general perspective to specific perspective, the following sections will compose the whole

the attitudes of non-Asian groups towards Asians who do not fit the stereotypical image of the cold, capable Asian. Her study shows that Asians described as warm experience more racial harassment than Asians described as cold, whereas employees of other backgrounds tended to experience less harassment if warm (147). The increased harassment warm Asians face is likely a response to a violation of the social norm rather than a more rational response to behavior, as colder Asians who conformed to societal impressions faced less harassment. These results reveal a scary unwillingness for non-Asian groups to accept behavior that differs from their constructed image of how an Asian should be. Even though warm behavior is favored, as seen through the

Asian and South American cultures tend to be a collectivistic culture because they put more value on group membership, group obligations and group goals than on the individual. Face saving plays an important role while managing the reputation of one's family or group organization

In addition, I assume there will be a significant difference/gap on negative feelings between Chinese icon primed students and American icon primed students, by considering the effect of pre-existing stereotypes on students’ implicit attitude towards the two cultures. In other words, American icon primed students may report a higher level of negative feeling about the inconsistent result than Chinese icon students. The rational is similar to the turban effect, in which people’s internal attitude may value Western/dominant culture in a greater extent than home culture, especially for those bilingual students, because they are still at a stage on absorbing novel cultural information from media or school whereas pay less attention on following certain family’s values which are only suitable for behaving in home. This hypothesized result would contribute to the understanding of how these bilingual students “dynamically” process and navigate the cultural transitions.

American and Chinese society are wide varieties and fascinating. Both Chinese and Americans have similarities and differences with food and etiquette. For example, both cultures dine with family. Americans and Chinese share dinner with family and friends. Another similarity is both cultures have large varieties of food to choose from at dinner. For instance they put food on the table and hope it's enough for everyone. Finally both societies have conversations during meals. In other words they talk about what happened to them during the day. Food and etiquette are two of many things that both cultures differ from.

I chose the United States and China as my two countries to study. I will start off the Psychological anthropology study of Chinese people. I will discuss their customs and beliefs from childhood to adulthood. I will then discuss the study of Americans and their customs and beliefs. I will discuss both Chinese and American traditions and the varies life cycles of both cultures. I will do this view from both the male and female aspects. I will then summarize in conclusion the differences and likes of the two groups.

Cultural psychology is an interdisciplinary program of research that explores the relationship between individual minds and the complex environments in which they are deployed. The approach focuses on the contribution that content-rich, complex environments – ranging from workplaces to cultural traditions to nation states – make in shaping basic cognitive processes. The comparative approach, or cross-cultural approach, uses experimental methods

Quantitative research often attempts to measure attributes of human interaction utilizing a comparative frame work. According to Shiraev & Levy (2010), “[a] solid cross-cultural study should address all basic requirements applied to an empirical study in general psychology” (p. 32). The major steps as identified by Shiraev and Levy (2010), include nine steps structured to lay the foundation for an exploratory study designed to examine the significance and meaning of cross-cultural variances and likenesses.

There is a wide variation in the way people live in different places, this variation may therefore dictate the human actions as well as mental sets both of which are viewed to be different from one group to another. It is these similarities and the differences that are portrayed by the various groups that are studied by cross-cultural psychology.

Cultural orientations can be view as lying on a continuum with high – context cultures on one

As globalization becomes a trend in today’s world, national and cultural stereotypes draw numerous attentions by people. There are two articles written by Yong and Piller, One called ‘East meets West’ and another