My project is about how different cultures' brains work differently. While I was researching I found that a big topic was the difference between Individualism and Collectivism countries. Geert Hofstede made a index about how Individualistic a country is, the top one has a score of 91 and it is the United states, and the lowest one is Guatemala with a score of 6, as it is more of a Collectivism country.
According to Hofstede, Individualism means one side vs. its opposite, and
Collectivism means the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups
In terms of individualism, (ties between individuals are loose, everyone just looks out for themselves) Germany scores a 67 out of 100 on the chart. In Germany people focus on personal achievements and individual rights. Also, group work is important to them, but everyone has the right to express their opinion about things and they are expected to share their opinion.
The United States scored a 91 out of 100. People in the United States are very independent people, they like to do things their own way. So group work isn't important. They like things done their way, so when people give them criticism about their work they feel it is a insult.
Collectivism- People from birth onward are integrated in groups, they have strong cohesive groups, often with extended family.
Good example of a collectivism country is Guatemala, which scored a 6, they are so low because they live with all of their extended family, they also have a lot of kids. Also they look out for each other. It isn't just one person looking out for themselves.
Collectivism means the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups
In terms of individualism, (ties between individuals are loose, everyone just looks out for themselves) Germany scores a 67 out of 100 on the chart. In Germany people focus on personal achievements and individual rights. Also, group work is important to them, but everyone has the right to express their opinion about things and they are expected to share their opinion.
The United States scored a 91 out of 100. People in the United States are very independent people, they like to do things their own way. So group work isn't important. They like things done their way, so when people give them criticism about their work they feel it is a insult.
Collectivism- People from birth onward are integrated in groups, they have strong cohesive groups, often with extended family.
Good example of a collectivism country is Guatemala, which scored a 6, they are so low because they live with all of their extended family, they also have a lot of kids. Also they look out for each other. It isn't just one person looking out for themselves.
This shows the comparison of Guatemala and the United States. It shows the major differences between the two countries. It shows the major difference of Individualism, which the United States has more of. But if you look at Power Distance Guatemala has more.
This shows the comparison between 3 countries and the amount they can trust people. The Philippines trust people the less, and Yemen trusts them the most. The United States has more people say that you need to be careful, than people that say that most people can be trusted.
This shows the comparison of Germany, Morocco, Nigeria, and the United States and how proud people are to live in their country (nationalism). Morocco and Nigeria have the highest "Very Proud" nationalism. While Germany's is not very high in "Very proud", but they are higher in Quite proud. While none of the 4 countries has a high "Not at all proud".
This shows how satisfied people are with their life. In Germany more people are satisfied with their life. While the most people are dissatisfied with their life in Morocco. In Morocco more people are in the middle of being dissatisfied and satisfied. While in Nigeria most people are leaning more towards being satisfied, they have higher percentages in that area. In Germany, people are mostly satisfied with their lives, this is the same in the United States
MIT did a study about how culture influences our brain functions. They stated that people from different cultures use their brains differently to solve the same visual perceptual tasks. The study compared The United States to East Asia. The American culture values the individual, and independence of objects. While East Asians are collective people, and the have interdependence from objects.
Studies had been done before about this topic and showed differences between the cultures, the study MIT did used easy tasks so did not show much difference between relative and absolute judgments. But while they were easy they still showed different patterns in the brain. For Americans making relative judgement was harder, but for East Asians it showed the opposite tendency, they showed more absolute judgement rather than relative judgement.
Studies had been done before about this topic and showed differences between the cultures, the study MIT did used easy tasks so did not show much difference between relative and absolute judgments. But while they were easy they still showed different patterns in the brain. For Americans making relative judgement was harder, but for East Asians it showed the opposite tendency, they showed more absolute judgement rather than relative judgement.
This topic has to go with chapter 4. It shows the differences between different cultures. It also goes along with material and non material culture. With the material, the way someones brain who is isolated with mountains around them, would be different then ours because we don't have any obstacles around our area that would make communication hard for us. With non material, it goes with how different, different cultures are. It shows that peoples judgments may be different in other cultures, whether it be from belief, or government, or other things like that.
I chose this topic because I was really interested in culture when we talked about it. I am also very interested in the brain. So I thought that it would be a very interesting topic to look up the differences in between the cultures. What I looked up was actually very interesting. The study MIT explained a lot. And the comparisons between countries really showed the difference between our cultures and other peoples cultures.
Citations: "Culture Influences Brain Function, Study Shows." MIT News Office. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 May 2014.
"Clearly Cultural." Clearly Cultural. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 May 2014
"WVS Database." WVS Database. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May 2014.
"Clearly Cultural." Clearly Cultural. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 May 2014
"WVS Database." WVS Database. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May 2014.