SOCIAL COGNITION

SOCIAL COGNITION

Culture Differences and Impacts on Individuals Focus

The difference in cultures can be explained by the perceptions of individuals regarding the world and their observations. Cultural difference of individuals can be determined by a number of elements around the world as well as perception of individuals. The difference in cultures can be explained in terms of religion, ethnicity, profession and geographical location.  People from different religion will have different perception regarding beliefs of supernatural powers. Religions such as Christianity, Muslims and Hindus have different meanings towards the creation and existence of human beings and the world. They also have different beliefs on supernatural powers, ways of dressing, and living experience.

Ethnicity is also another major concept that explains the difference in culture among individuals. People from different religious groups have different beliefs, perceptions and understanding of everyday situations and happenings. Ethnicity is always attached to some cultural beliefs and perceptions that make them to be different from other ethnic groups. For example, different ethnic groups have divergent views on the mode of dressing, food, family values and tradition. It is normal to find that a certain ethnic group does not allow a particular mode of dressing due to their cultural perception. People from various professions also have different views regarding the occurrence of a phenomenon hence create cultural differences. For example, scientists believe that the world was not created by super natural powers but evolved over time while religious groups believe that the world was created by supernatural powers.

Culture also differs based on geographical regions around the world. People from various geographical regions may have specific beliefs and culture that enables them to be identical. For example, the cultural beliefs in countries such as United States and China are different in various ways. The perception of Chinese regarding Americans defines their culture. It also worth to note that countries like China and Brazil can be argued to be having a collectivism culture whereas countries like United Kingdom and United States are believed to be having individualistic culture.

Collectivist and Individualistic Cultures

Individuals often have different perceptions regarding how they view and perceive other people and the world. There are two main concepts that have been used in the explanation regarding how people view themselves. This include individualistic and collectivist cultural concepts. These concepts give an explanation of the cultural differences between individuals in the society. The concepts of individualistic and collectivist can be explained by the theories of social cognition and perception.

People from collectivist culture view themselves as part of the social environment around them. The actions of people from collectivist culture often tend to please the social environment around them.  They value the society more than they value themselves hence all of their actions consider the welfare of the society at large. Collectivist culture therefore promotes close relationship between different people in the society. All people in collectivist culture work and function as a family or a single community and disregard self interests.  The social perception of this group enables them to view the society as more important than individuals. The social cognition also allows them to interpret the society as important in supporting individuals and that without the society individuals may not be able to live and function effectively.

On the hand people from individualistic culture are more concerned with self interest. This group of people prefers to accomplish activities that are of personal gains and does not consider the welfare of the whole community. Their actions are aimed at meeting personal goals and objectives as opposed to meeting the goals of the entire community. The social perceptions of individualistic culture make them believe that accomplishing of self interest initiatives and goals are beneficial. These groups of people always tend to downplay the role played by the society towards the welfare of individuals. Their social cognition makes them believe that they are more important than other individuals hence act in a way that is of benefit to their personal goals and achievements.

Social Cognition and Schemas

Social cognition can be defined as the processes through which individuals store, processes and interprets information regarding people and the world. Social cognition enables individuals to have different perception about people and the world. Schema on the hand refers to cognitive concepts that facilitate the processing and interpretation of information. It is the schema that determines how fast an individual is able to process and interpret given information. Schemas can also focus on various aspects of a phenomenon and neglect others. It can also lead to stereotypes and discourages the acceptance of new information. For example a child who has grown in a culture that prohibits wearing of trousers by girls might develop a schema that trousers are only meant for men. When the same individual is introduced to a culture where girls are allowed to frequently wear trousers, the individual might change its schema regarding his or her perception on wearing of trousers by girls.

Fundamental Attribution

Fundamental attribution error is the tendency of individuals that may enable them to understate the impacts of social environments while emphasizing overstating on the impacts of personal contribution towards the occurrence of a certain positive phenomenon. The fundamental attribution error is most likely to be observed when people attempts to give explanations regarding the behavior of others. For example, if John encountered a person walking naked, he might perceive that the person is mad. But his perception can be wrong if the person was a robbed of his clothing when walking to his residence. The belief by John that the naked person was mad contributes to the fundamental error since in the real sense the person was only robbed of his clothing. Another example of a fundamental error can be a case where Christians believe that terrorists are mainly from Muslim community. This belief contributes to cultural fundamental error since all Muslims do not encourage terrorist activities and also that some Christians are involved in terrorist activities.

Self-Serving Biases

Self serving biases are the tendency of individuals to blame others for negative results while attributing positive results to their own contribution. It views other individuals to be responsible for the negative occurrence. Self serving biases can be observed among people from different cultures. This is the perceptions and beliefs in different cultures can sometimes be contradicting. This can make them blame each other for negative occurrence of events while attribute positive achievements to themselves. For example, a chief executive officer of a multinational company operating in countries with various cultural backgrounds can blame poor financial performance of the company on the perception of customers from a specific community towards their products.   On the hand when the performance of the company improves the chief executive officer may attribute the performance to his own contribution.

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