Differences in Eastern and Western conceptions of person

Differences in Eastern and Western concepts of person

2007-10-28T04:35:00.000-07:00

This article will discuss the main differences in Western and Eastern conceptions of the person and self. This article will compare differences that exist between the East and West, which include spiritual, emotional, psychological and sociological perspectives and how these differences relate to the differences in the concepts of person.

I chose this particular question as it appeared interesting to me and relative to my own life situation. I am a Caucasian Australian raised in rural western NSW, about to marry my fiancé who was born in the Philippines. I hoped to learn about how eastern cultures are different to my own western culture aside from the obvious material things such as wealth, food and appearance and to delve into some of the more spiritual, emotional, psychological, sociological and political differences that exist between the East and West.

Introduction:

Over the last century, the world has seen a number of significant events which has changed many aspects of the world. The industrialisation of the world and the co-occurrence in the massive increase of the worlds population as well as increases in immigration, intercontinental tourism and business have all contributed to huge changes in the human races social and cultural structures and sub structures and contact between different cultures. Governments of today’s states and the type of politics practiced are different, business’s influence over the masses has changed and socio-economic classes have become less defined and less segregated in parts of the world. The question of the conceptions of person can be best investigated by looking at the concept of self, as these concepts reflect each other.

Concept of person:

The concept of person is one which is as individual for each person as each person is different. Self concept can be defined individually by answering the question “Who am I”? Affiliations with social, religious, sporting, political or other groups as well as our personal views on our selves such as being an individual, special, generous, charitable, helpful, mean, angry, short, beautiful and any other labels that we can assign to ourselves add up to our self-concept. Concept of self can vary from individualism to collectivism. Individualism is the concept of giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than identifications. Collectivism is giving priority to the goals of ones group and defining one’s identity according to their group. Across the world, populations can be generally placed into either individualistic populations or more collectivist populations. The population of the United States of America can be generally labelled as being more individualist, however sub populations such as those living in some of the southern states of the USA may be classed as more collectivists (Baumeister & Bushman, 2008), (Berkow & Page, 1991).

Western concept of person:

Westerners concept of self, especially those who are affluent, mobile, live in urban surroundings and have common contact with mass media is based around individualistic ideas and views (Marshall, 1997), (Berkow & Page, 1991). Western views of self can be seen in many instances of popular culture.

Advertising campaigns such as those selling popular western products in western cultures can often be seen to be targeting individuals on an individual basis. Positive personal outcomes from using these products often are the main reasons depicted for buying or consuming these products. Slogans which inspire consumers to be special, better, faster, stronger and to get an edge over other people or to be different and more individual are all common themes amongst western advertising themes. Coca-Cola’s recent advertisements featuring the “coke side of life” slogan feature individuals enjoying adventurous times with the consuming of their beverages to be seen as a personal reward for completing the task (www.coca-cola.com). Nike uses clever images along with it's slogan "Just do it", to capture the consumers attention and make them feel that they can achieve personal success if they use their products.

Popular music often describes themes of personal nature and being rebellious or different. Music is a common element of youth culture which young people identify with and are influenced by. American Rap Artist Marshal Mathers better known as “Eminem” sings songs of rebelling against authority such as in his 2002 single, “sing for the moment” where he describes rebelling against parents, law and authority figures (Young & Mathers, 2002).

Other art forms common to western popular culture such as written and visual form often contain themes of individuality, rebellion and other common western concepts. J.K Rowlings’ Harry Potter, one of the most popular modern series of written form includes its main heroes, Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore as being rebellious, different even outcast individuals. With many common themes to everyday children being depicted such as suffering from bullying, difficulty at home and difficulty with school work and teachers, readers are able to relate to the hero (Rowling, 2007).

Eastern concepts of person:

Collectivism is often seen as more dominant in many eastern cultures than individualism. Collectivists identify themselves in relation to those in their respective groups. In eastern cultures it can be seen that individuals see themselves as a member of a group and that priority goes toward the group rather than themselves. Differences in social structure right down to individual cognition can be observed(Berkow & Page, 1991),(Kitayama & Markus, 1995),

When shown a picture of a group of fish in an underwater environment, Easterners generally described a holistic picture, including the environment around the fish and the fish relative to each other. Americans generally concentrated on a single large fish (Nisbett & Masuda, 2003). This study identifies cultural differences in perspectives, with the westerners perspectives skewing toward individual observations whereas the Easterners observations were directed more to group and environmental perspectives.

When asked to select a pen out of five possible pens, four of which were one colour and one which was a different colour, Asians picked the like colour pen 69% of the time whereas Americans selected the differently coloured pen 77% of the time (Kim & Markus, 1999). This study highlights the Eastern cultures partiality to compliance and Western cultures toward uniqueness and non compliance.

In contrast to western advertising campaigns for products like the campaigns described above, coca-cola used different advertising gimmicks to reach it’s target consumers in eastern cultures. During the Ramadan period of 1998, coca-cola featured a commercial in a number of Islamic countries showing a boy and his mother donating a basket of food and coca-cola to an orphanage. The boy plays with the orphans at the orphanage and at the end of the day the boy shares the coke together with his new friends when they’re allowed to finish their fast. The commercial ends with “Always in good spirit. Always Coca-Cola'' (American Library of Congress). This commercial demonstrates targeting of family, friendship and coexistence in eastern cultures, as opposed to the more western commercials demonstrating more competition, dramatization and individualist ideals.

Main differences in Eastern and Western concepts of person:

In considering the question "Are we ready for the entire field to move to the formal, experimental stage when we have yet to determine whether the 800 million Hindus in India or 125 million Japanese have the same sense of self that we do, the same social motives, or the same attributional biases that have found to be typical of American college students?", two important texts can be considered.

One of the foundations of Western Culture and also one of the most sold books in history, the bible, describes how the world was created. “And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night." (Holy Bible, Genesis, I, 4-5). The story of “good vs. evil” runs throughout the bible, with clear divisions between the two.

To compare to an Eastern philosophy, "When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely far apart. If you wish to see the truth then hold no opinions for or against anything. To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind." (Buddha, The Dhammapada).

Division can be seen to be an amazing act in western religion whereas division is likened to disease in Buddhism. Through observations from the studies discussed in the above sections, differences in how peoples cognitions function, where people fit into social structures and how those social structures operate can be seen when comparing people from eastern and western cultures. It can be seen then that indeed Americans sense of self is very different to Japanese and other Asian peoples. This would suggest that a movement to a single formal stage practised for people from such different cultures would not be a practical or productive measure to be taken.

References:

Baumeister, R. F., & Bushman, B. J. (2008). Social psychology and human nature (1st
ed.) Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.

Buddha, The Dhammapada.
ftp://coombs.anu.edu.au/coombspapers/otherarchives/electronic-buddhist-archives/buddhism-general/e-texts/sutras-translations/dhammapada-english-transl.txt

Highlights in the History of Coca-Cola Television Advertising, American Library of congress
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ccmphtml/colahist.html#intrn

Holy Bible, the new King James version (2000). The Gideons international in Australia

Kim, H., & Markus H. R. (1999). Deviance of uniqueness, harmony or conformity? A cultural analysis. Journal of Personality and social psychology, 77, 785-800.

Kitayama, S., & Markus, H. R., (1995). Culture and Self: Implications for internationalizing psychology. The culture and psychology reader. New York: New York University Press

Marshall, R. (1997). Variances in levels of individualism across to cultures and three social classes. Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology, 28, 490-495.

Nisbet, R. E., & Masuda, T. (2003). Culture and point of view. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100, 11163-11170

Page, R. C., & Berkow, D. N. (1991). Concepts of the self: Western and eastern perspectives. Journal of Multicultural Counselling and Development, 19, 2, 83-93

Rowling, J. K. (2007). Harry Potter Series. Bloomsbury

Young, A. R., (Producer) & Mathers, M. B. (Writer). (2002). The Eminem Show, United States: Aftermath Entertainment

Why I chose these four Experiments

2007-09-02T07:38:00.000-07:00

Rank 1
Zimbardo: The Stanford prison Experiment I thought was the most important Social Psychology experiment revealing important understandings about prejudice, stereotyping and aggression. Not only did it high light disturbing new information about the dynamics of humans in alien environments and the potential for aggression and conforming to stereotype behaviours, it also demonstrated the importance for ethical control of psychological studies. The researcher himself became involved in the stereotypical role of the prison superintendant and proceeded to practice his rolenot as a researcher but as what stereotypically is his role as a prison superintendant.

Rank 2
Milgram: The Milgram experiment was fantastic in demonstrating normal peoples capability of doing atrocious acts of aggression toward other people. Even if the participants weren't physically aggressive or angry toward the receivant of the so called electric shock, the experiment showed that actions can be performed by normal people causing aggressive injuries. This was a classic experiment

Rank 3
Asch: Asch's conformity experiment demonstrated the ability that groups have over individuals. I thought that this was an important experiment due to its' demonstration of the potential of people to suggest completely obviously wrong comments about subjects. I felt that this was an important experiment because it could be directly related to many of the atrocities which have occured throughout the world, influenced by the majorities prejudices, misconceptions through stereotyping and leading to aggressive behaviours.

Rank 4
Princeton Trilogy: I thought that these series of studieswere very relevant to todays society in demonstrating the increase in relationships between various cultures. I myself am involved in an interracial relationship and feel extremely comfortable about it and not so different at all. I am marrying my fiance next year, I myself am from rural Australia and My fiance is from the Philippines. My family is very conservative brittish and hers is very catholic Filipino. Our families get along very well and spend a considerable amount of time together including going on holidays over seas together.

Classic Experiments in Social Psychology Revealing Important Understanding About Prejeduce, Stereotyping and Aggression

2007-09-02T07:28:00.000-07:00

Introduction.

Social psychology is an important psychological science. Social psychology investigates how the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others, including individuals small and large groups. Social psychologists observe human behaviour and attempt to describe why certain behaviours are observed in reaction to certain events. Human behaviours include major physical behaviours such as jumping and punching but also include more subtle examples such as facial expressions, the selection of words we make to construct a sentence. Social psychology looks at explaining human behaviour in relation to processes in the human psyche. Social psychology looks at many aspects of human behaviour. Some of these aspects include prejudice, stereotyping and aggression. In todays world where contact between different cultures, religions and social groups is very common, research into prejudice, stereotyping and aggression is important.

Why experiment?

Experiments in social psychology have been performed since the dawn of man. Experimenting on how people react to situations is something which envelops large amounts of curiosity within all humans. Seeing how your mum will react when you walk out wearing her expensive lipstick and wedding shoes in the middle of her dinner party when you were five years old, experimenting how your dad will react when taking his brand new ute for a drive down the drive way when you were eleven, we’ve all performed our own experiments in social psychology. Results of research into social psychology bring about discoveries which can be used to help individuals, corporations and society in general increase personal satisfaction for individuals, production efficiency for business and gross domestic happiness for societies. Investigations which look at prejudice, stereotyping and aggression help individuals to get along better which can lead to building healthy relationships and various cultures and countries to increase relations which can lead to trade opportunities which can benefit all sides. Some of the most profound experiments in social psychology have produced some interesting findings, with results leading to successful implementing of social practice. Other experiments in social psychology have been interesting themselves, even if not being completed or finding anything particularly useful findings. World events which have had influences including prejudice, stereotyping and aggression have had huge impacts on the world we see today and in the past.
Classic social psychology experiments.

Philip G. Zimbardo’s 1971 Stanford prison experiment:

At Stanford University in 1971, one of the most confronting and famous social psychology experiments was performed. The experiments aims were to investigate what would happen to “normal” people when they were given roles not accorded to their nature. A group of 24 young male university students were assigned tasks of either playing a prisoner or the prisoners guard. The group was divided evenly into 12 prisoner and 12 guards chosen by the flip of a coin. 9 guards and 9 prisoners participated at any one time. The prisoners experienced a realistic mock arrest, made using real police, police cars, police stations and police procedures. Guards of the prison, were given complete control over the willing participants of the social psychology experiment. The experiment was performed in a realistic prison like environment, specially built in consultation with professional consultants who specialise in the industry and also in consultation with former prison inmates. Following their arrest, the prisoners were brought to the mock prison and degraded and humiliated by strip searching, delousing using pesticide spray and various other techniques aiming to make the participants feel de-individualised, humiliated and emasculated, punished and tortured. Prison guard participants became aggressive and wicked, conforming to their stereotypical roles. The experiment was to include observations being made of participants including the social dynamics of the guards and the prisoners over a fourteen day period. Zimbardo halted the entire experiment after six days. Participants became so over engrossed in their stereotypical roles that even the head researcher of the project admitted that even he became persuaded that his role was not as a social psychology researcher but rather as a prison superintendent. The findings and implications of the Stanford prison experiment have been compared to many modern day scenarios such as the human right atrocities which occurred at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the big brother like reality television shows and the 1971 Attica prison riots in New York where terrible decisions led to many deaths. The findings showed that normal people who are put into evil situations themselves can easily and quickly become evil, inflicting suffering on people who may even have done nothing wrong.

Milgrams studies of obedience to authority:

During the early 1960’s Stanley Milgram performed one of the most classic experiments in Social Psychology. Milgram placed participants of the study in to a situation whereby they would be able to administer an electric shock after an incorrect answer to a person whom they were to question. The experiment involved the controller of the electric shock believing that they were indeed shocking someone with electricity who was supposed to answer a question correctly but answered incorrectly. The person they were questioning was offcourse not wired to any electrical circuit but in fact acting to be shocked. The maximum voltage to be administered was 450 volts. A survey conducted prior to the experiment on the expected results of the experiment said that a very small number of people (less than 2%) would administer the callous maximum voltage. In a remarkable difference to the expected results, a much larger percentage of people administered the maximum amount of electricity. More than half of the participants administered what they wrongfully believed to be a full 450 volts of electricity to a screaming actor. The experiment was repeated and found to be repeatable with similar results. The findings and implication from the Milgram experiments have been profound. In showing that under authoritarian rule people can perform dreadful acts of aggression toward complete strangers. Results of the findings have pointed to events which led to many of the war atrocities that have occurred throughout history particularly those which occurred throughout world war two. Milgrams experiment demonstrated weakness in the human psyche in not overcoming authoritarian rule and performing acts including those of being aggressive outside of moral beliefs.

Solomon Asch 1951 conformity experiments:

Solomon Asch’s conformity experiments were classic in revealing important understandings of peoples psyche which can be related to stereotyping, prejudice and aggression. The experiment involved placing a number of participants in a room and asking the participants as a group questions relating to the length of lines shown in a picture. The lines were varying in length and the participants were asked to tell which line was longer than the other. All but one and in a few trials two or three of the participants were directed before the experiment to answer the same incorrect answer. The incorrect answer was a blatantly obvious mistake and though most of the unknowing participants answered correctly at first, many of them changed their minds in order to conform with the group. The conformity displayed to the group demonstrated the power of peer pressure and large groups actions on the actions of individuals. Although the individuals indeed knew the correct answer many changed their responses to suit the order of the group. This changing of response to a response they don’t genuinely believe to be the truth also reveals the human psyches action of doing something they genuinely don’t believe in. Some of the worst historical instances of people conforming to the majorities ideals have led people to perform terrible inhumane acts against other people. Many of the accused war criminals from wars such as the Balkans war in Yugoslavia and the genocide which occurred in Somalia argued that they were simply acting under orders. The events which led to these human atrocities included individuals performing acts in order to accord with the group.

Princeton Trilogy experiments on stereotyping:

In 1933 an experiment was performed by Katz and Braly at Princeton University asking participants to describe stereotypes of various ethnic groups including , Turks, Japanese, Jews, African Americans, and other ethnic group from around the world. Participants responded generally agreeing on most of the stereotypes of all of the various ethic groups. The interesting results from this study occurred when the study was repeated in 1951 and again in 1969 and all three studies compared. The 1933 study was found to be noticeably more negative than the 1951 study and the 1969 study revealed noticeably less negative views of the various ethnic groups again. The important findings of the experiment reveal that as our last century proceeded, stereotypical views of various foreign ethnic groups have become less negative. Contact with these ethnic groups has also increased. Through education and experience, various myths can be excluded from popular belief. Sidney Poitiers 1967 movie “Guess who’s coming to dinner” demonstrates some of the popular opinions of that day. Jane Elliots 1968 classroom “blue eye brown eye” experiment demonstrated some of the contact levels with various ethnic groups that children had in that era. Today interracial relationships are not only common, they’re entirely acceptable and not discouraged.

Bibliography:

Alexander, M. (2001). Thirty years later, Stanford Prison Experiment lives on http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2001/august22/prison2-822.html

Asch, S. E., (1951). Effects of Group Pressure Upon the Modification and Distortion of Judgements http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/soc_psych/asch_conform.html

Constable, S., Shuler, Z., Klaber, L., & Rakauskas, M. (2002) Conformity, Complaince and Obedience http://www.units.muohio.edu/psybersite/cults/cco.shtml

Devine, G., Patricia, G. Are Racial Stereotypes Really Fading? The Princeton Trilogy Revisited, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin Vol. 21 (II), November 1995, 1139-1150.

Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience to Authority, Harper and Row.

Miller, H. (1997). Stanley Milgram http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/milgram.htm

Sanders, J., Pazol, N., Dooley, A.(2001). We Know What You’re Thinking; a Modified Revisitation of the Princeton Trilogy http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/humannature01/FinalArticles/WeKnowWhatYoureThinkingaM.html

University of Missouri (2000). Social Influence - Conformity, Compliance, Obedience http://web.umr.edu/~pfyc212b/social.htm

University of Pennsylvania (2000). Solomon E. Asch http://www.psych.upenn.edu/sacsec/about/solomon.htm

Vaughan, G. M., & Hogg, M. A. (1999). Introduction to Social Psychology Sydney. Prentice Hall.

Zimbardo P. G. (2007) Stanford Prison Experiment http://www.prisonexp.org/slide-1.htm

Prison Experiment

2007-09-02T03:44:00.000-07:00

Very concise, interesting and informative reading all in a nicely presented slide show.

http://www.prisonexp.org/slide-1.htm

Classic Experiments

2007-09-02T00:29:00.000-07:00

I have chosen the classic experiments in social psychology which have revealed important understandings about prejudice, stereotyping and aggression

Robins Social Psychology Blog

2007-09-01T23:59:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone I'm Robin I hope you are all enjoying Social Psychology.