The Psychological and Cultural Foundations of East Asian Cognition

Download or read book The Psychological and Cultural Foundations of East Asian Cognition written by Julie Spencer-Rodgers and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 665 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The unprecedented economic growth in many East Asian societies in the few past decades have placed the region center stage, and increasing globalization have made East-West cultural understanding of even greater importance today. This book is the most comprehensive on East Asian cognition and thinking styles to date, and is the first to bring together a large body of empirical research on "naïve dialecticism" (Peng & Nisbett, 1999; Peng, Spencer-Rodgers, & Nian, 2006) and "analytic/holistic thinking" (Nisbett, 2003), theories in cultural psychology that stem from Richard Nisbett's (2003) highly influential and successful book on The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently ... and Why. More specifically, the current book examines the psychological, philosophical, and cultural underpinnings and consequences of "dialectical thinking" (Peng & Nisbett, 1999) and cognitive holism (Nisbett, 2003) for human thought, emotion, and behaviour. Since the publication of Peng and Nisbett's (1999) seminal article, research on this topic has flourished, and East-West cultural differences have been documented in almost all aspects of the human condition and life, from the manner in which people reason and make decisions, conceptualize themselves and others, to how they cope with stress and mental illness, and interact with others, including romantic partners and social groups. Twenty-one chapters written by leading experts in psychology and related fields cover such diverse topics as cultural neuroscience and the brain, lifespan development, attitudes and group perception, romantic relationships, extracultural cognition (the adoption of foreign mind-sets and perspectives), creativity, emotion, the self-concept, racial/ethnic identity, psychopathology, and coping processes and wellbeing. This research has practical implications for business and organizational management, international relations and politics, education, and clinical and counselling psychology, and may be of particular interest to business professionals, managers in government and non-profit sectors, as well as educators and clinicians working with East Asians and Americans of East Asian descent.