Analysis of Relevant Literature: The Relationship Between Culture & Cognitive Outcomes
One of the most important issues surrounding cultural anthropology is the effect of culture on individual and collectively, social cognition. The hypothesis that culture shapes the individual's way of thinking or thought processes is reflected more explicitly with the use of language, language being the most manifest form of culture through a specific code system specifically unique to the culture. However, apart from language, there are also other precursors that develop an individual's cognitive processes. Ultimately, cognitive outcomes include differences in thought processes among individuals, create a solid or collective thought process that becomes the dominant ideology in that specific culture, or it can also translate into more concrete terms by influencing the individual's worldview and physical well-being.These cases of cognitive outcomes are discussed thoroughly in understanding the role that culture plays in each of these cases. This paper presents three positions, based on cases presented in studies found to be relevant in discussing the issue of culture and its role in influencing cognitive outcomes. The first case presented demonstrates culture as a contributor to different cognitive processes among individua
Responses from individuals belonging to different age groups and generations yielded different responses when asked about the meaning the word fu. Berger's insights help explain not only how an ideology becomes dominant in a culture, but also on how cultural changes occur through the years, which also signal changes in cognitive outcomes in its people or members, as was illustrated in the case of Hatano's analysis of the different meanings attributed to the word fu. However, in choosing these ideas that will dominate the culture, the members themselves have chosen the idea mainly because they deemed it appropriate or relevant to the existing culture they have and have been exposed to through the years (218). " From this definition of culture itself, Berger found out that in her analysis of cultures and diffusion and prevalence of ideas in these cultures, members actually choose idea from a culture- or habitat-based perspective. Among the elderly, fu was identified in its original meaning, which is "a complete group" or "plenty of things. The effect of gender and cultural change, as illustrated in this case, led to the development of negative thought processes that, when remained unchanged, results to serious physical and psychological health problems. The second case looks into the role that culture plays in affecting collective decisions on what ideology to choose, maintain, and dominate in a particular society/culture. These findings from Hatano's study demonstrated the role that culture-specifically the cultural transitions occurring from generation to generation-played in illustrating the differences in the prevalent meanings of the word fu throughout the years. Fusing both Berger's and Hatano's studies, it can be posited that cultural changes lead to different cognitive outcomes, and that the prevalence of a particular idea or ideology, or even the conception of a new culture, at a specific point in time, is largely influenced by the extant culture from which the idea or soon-to-be-dominant culture sprang from or was created and eventually developed. As a result of primarily social isolation, the individual's worldview radically changes, and highly influenced by the stressors the individual experiences, projects these stressors outwardly, through sickness (i.
Common topics in this essay:
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Berger's Hatano's,
cognitive outcomes,
word fu,
role culture,
cultural changes,
unhealthy physical disposition,
role culture plays,
physical well-being,
cognitive processes,
processes individuals,
individual's worldview,
dominant ideology,
unorganized collections,
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