Cultural Psychology by S.J. Heine (third edition) – Summary chapter 9

Analytic thinking can be characterized by different things:

• It focusses on objects and attributes.
• It holds that objects exist independently of their context (i.e. context independence).
• It uses abstract rules to explain and predict the behaviour of objects.
• It employs taxonomic organization.
• It makes use of rule-based reasoning (e.g. universal abstract rules and laws).
• It emerges through formal schooling.

Holistic thinking can be characterized by different things:

• It focusses on the relations between objects.
• It holds that objects are perceived in terms of how they relate to the context (i.e. context-dependency).
• It uses experience to explain and predict the behaviour of objects.
• It employs thematic organization.
• It makes use of associative reasoning (e.g. considering the relationship between objects).
• It is a more natural way of thinking.

Taxonomic organization refers to grouping stimuli according to the perceived similarity of their attributes. Thematic organization refers to grouping stimuli based on causal, temporal or spatial relationships among them.

The differences in thinking style are caused by socialization and ongoing social experiences (i.e. proximal cause) and the differences in philosophical traditions (i.e. distal cause).

Holistic thinking allows for the ability to attend to a lot of information at once, which is reflected in how information-laden collectivistic cultural settings are (e.g. urban areas). This makes Japanese cities more complex than American cities, as it affords different thinking styles. Holistic thinking allows for better skills for finding details in a busy scene.

Analytic and holistic thinking influence several parts of cognition:

Attribution refers to the process by which individuals explain the causes of behaviour and events. The fundamental attribution error refers to the tendency to ignore situational information while focussing on dispositional information in explaining other people’s behaviour. One’s action is the product of the tension between environmental forces and personal force.

Analytic thinkers tend to engage in context-independent cognitive processes and holistic thinkers tend to engage in context-dependent cognitive processes. The cultural differences in attentional pattern might be afforded by the cultural differences in the physical environment. The cultural differences in the perceptual environment can lead to different patterns in attention

In a low-context culture, there is less involvement between speakers, less shared information and focus on the verbal content of the message. This type of culture is characterized by explicit, direct communication and is more prevalent in cultures with analytic thinkers. In a high-context culture, there is deep involvement between speakers, more shared information and focus on non-verbal communication. This type of culture is characterized by implicit, indirect communication and is more prevalent in cultures with holistic thinkers.

There are two versions of the linguistic relativity hypothesis:

1. Strong version (generally rejected)
   This version states that language determines thought and the available words in a language determine what can be thought.
2. Weak version (strongly debated)
   This version states that language influences thought and that the available words in a language influence what can be thought.

There is a systematic cultural variation in the number of colour labels in a language as the distinction between colour categories is similar if a language has more colour terms. In addition to this, people tend to remember different colours in similar ways despite speaking languages with differing colour terms, indicating that colour categories are universal and perception and memory of colour is independent of language.

However, this research has not been replicated a lot and there are differences in performance across the groups. In addition to this, colour perception might be influenced by language as the existing colour categories in a language influence colour perception.

Odour perception is influenced by language as odours are expressible in language as long as the language provides the terminology. Cultures differ in the language terms they use to describe the location of objects in space. The arrangement of the world is perceived differently depending on the orientation. In addition to this, time is grounded in space and thus influenced by language.

A relativistic orientation refers to indicating locations with words relative to the speaker (e.g. left) and is characterized by egocentric perception. An absolute orientation refers to indicating locations with words independent of the speaker (e.g. north) and is characterized by geocentric perception.

Ecological time reference refers to a circular perception of time. This means that the future is predicted to be very similar to the past and the future is not looked forward to, in particular, leading to a focus on the present. It is a circular system in which the same events are repeated according to some cyclical patterns and is based on natural cycles. This is more prevalent in Latin America and Africa.

People appear to have rough quantity estimation skills, regardless of language, meaning that people can distinguish between quantities that are not very similar. However, without the appropriate terminology, people cannot distinguish between similar quantities (e.g. 7 and 8).

Creative ideas are both novel and useful, meaning that creative ideas require both analytic and holistic thinking. People with an individualistic mindset focus on solutions which can show one’s uniqueness (1), tend to generate novel ideas (2) and have more breakthrough innovations (3). People with a collectivistic mindset focus on solutions that can fit with existing social concerns (1), tend to generate useful ideas (2) and have more incremental innovations (3).