scholarly journals Sorry, I Should Have Checked the Culture First

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Christine Kenny

Humans make mistakes, and as a result, apologies are an inescapable aspect of intercultural communication. This paper suggests that cultural pragmatics are the foundation for an effective apology. Through a content analysis of sources, the key contextual factors that impact an apology are individualism-collectivism orientations, rooted in the social values of different cultures. Some of the key findings proposed that these different orientations are exemplified in Japanese and American cultures, as they tend to focus on either the group or the individual in an apologetic situation. Apologies are not cross-culturally universal, but based on the pragmatics of cultural orientations, especially individualism-collectivism, they can be predicted. To examine this in the paper, apologies are defined in the context of universality, and Japan/the US are identified as cultures that present strong social contexts, requiring cultural context to create an apology. Then, the literature review establishes the importance of these socially based expectations through linguistics, social purpose, and saving face. The discussion section then argues that these concerns are more important than situational cues, that an individualistic orientation is less complicated to predict in regard to apologies, and that these pragmatic preparations prevent the escalation of the act being apologized for. In the conclusion, it is pointed out that even with these contextual clues, apologies are not entirely predictable, but these tools can help mitigate cultural misgivings.     

2021 ◽  
pp. 24-56
Author(s):  
Valentina Rizzoli ◽  
Arjuna Tuzzi ◽  
Alberta Contarello

In this chapter, the authors consider the theme both by browsing through seminal reference books and scholars’ contributions and by using digital methods, probing all the abstracts published in two key journals: the US Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and the European Journal of Social Psychology. The keyword change is explored in its frequency, concordances, and usage contexts and trends over time in the two journals. The results empirically support Marková’s claim that change has mostly been studied in social psychology as perturbation of patterns of stability and has focused on individuals as surrounded and affected by social contexts. To better understand and foster societal changes, a “more social” social psychology would be helpful, particularly adopting study designs and projects oriented by perspectives that can emphasize the mutual and constitutive relations between the individual and the social.


2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick A. R. Jones ◽  
Helen C. Spence-Jones ◽  
Mike Webster ◽  
Luke Rendell

Abstract Learning can enable rapid behavioural responses to changing conditions but can depend on the social context and behavioural phenotype of the individual. Learning rates have been linked to consistent individual differences in behavioural traits, especially in situations which require engaging with novelty, but the social environment can also play an important role. The presence of others can modulate the effects of individual behavioural traits and afford access to social information that can reduce the need for ‘risky’ asocial learning. Most studies of social effects on learning are focused on more social species; however, such factors can be important even for less-social animals, including non-grouping or facultatively social species which may still derive benefit from social conditions. Using archerfish, Toxotes chatareus, which exhibit high levels of intra-specific competition and do not show a strong preference for grouping, we explored the effect of social contexts on learning. Individually housed fish were assayed in an ‘open-field’ test and then trained to criterion in a task where fish learnt to shoot a novel cue for a food reward—with a conspecific neighbour visible either during training, outside of training or never (full, partial or no visible presence). Time to learn to shoot the novel cue differed across individuals but not across social context. This suggests that social context does not have a strong effect on learning in this non-obligatory social species; instead, it further highlights the importance that inter-individual variation in behavioural traits can have on learning. Significance statement Some individuals learn faster than others. Many factors can affect an animal’s learning rate—for example, its behavioural phenotype may make it more or less likely to engage with novel objects. The social environment can play a big role too—affecting learning directly and modifying the effects of an individual’s traits. Effects of social context on learning mostly come from highly social species, but recent research has focused on less-social animals. Archerfish display high intra-specific competition, and our study suggests that social context has no strong effect on their learning to shoot novel objects for rewards. Our results may have some relevance for social enrichment and welfare of this increasingly studied species, suggesting there are no negative effects of short- to medium-term isolation of this species—at least with regards to behavioural performance and learning tasks.


Author(s):  
Evan W. Carr ◽  
Anne Kever ◽  
Piotr Winkielman

Social functioning requires emotion. We must be able to recognize, interpret, and generate emotions across a variety of social contexts. But how are emotions conceptually represented in the mind? Embodiment (or grounded cognition) theories propose that processing of emotional concepts is partly based in one’s own perceptual, motor, and somatosensory systems. We review evidence for this account across a variety of domains, including facial expression perception, interpretation of emotional language, somatic involvement in affective processing, and “mirroring” of others’ actions. We also contrast embodiment theories with more traditional “amodal” frameworks, which represent emotional information as abstract language-like symbols in cognitive networks. Overall, we argue that a comprehensive account of emotion concepts requires considering their embodiment. Simultaneously, we highlight that embodiment is flexible and dynamic, especially within the social environment. This means that when and how emotion concepts are embodied critically depends on situational cues and current representational needs.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-41
Author(s):  
Shivangi Nigam ◽  
Niranjana Soperna

Violence against women is linked to their disadvantaged position in the society. It is rooted in unequal power relationships between men and women in society and is a global problem which is not limited to a specific group of women in society. An adolescent girl’s life is often accustomed to the likelihood of violence, and acts of violence exert additional power over girls because the stigma of violence often attaches more to a girl than to the  perpetrator. The experience of violence is distressing at the individual emotional and physical level. The field of research and programmes for adolescent girls has traditionally focused on sexuality, reproductive health, and behaviour, neglecting the broader social issues that underpin adolescent girls’ human rights, overall development, health, and well-being. This paper is an endeavour to address the understated or disguised form of violence which the adolescent girls experience within the social contexts. The parameters exposed under this research had been ignored to a large extent when it comes to studying the dimension of violence under the social domain. Hence, the researchers attempted to explore this camouflaged form of violence and discovered some specific parameters such as: Diminished Self Worth and Esteem, Verbal Abuse, Menstruation Taboo and Social Rigidity, Negligence of Medical and Health Facilities and Complexion- A Prime Parameter for Judging Beauty. The study was conducted in the districts of Haryana (India) where personal interviews were taken from both urban and rural adolescent girls (aged 13 to 19 years) based on  a structured interview schedule. The results revealed that the adolescent girls, both in urban as well as rural areas were quite affected with the above mentioned issues. In urban areas, however, due to the higher literacy rate, which resulted in more rational thinking, the magnitude was comparatively smaller, but the difference was still negligible.  


لارك ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (20) ◽  
pp. 30-40
Author(s):  
Sanaa Lazim Hassan

Sam Shepard is one of the controversial modern American playwrights who wrote about issues that are concerned with the individual in America rather than the institution In his theatre, the audience expects to see everything that concerns itself with the western culture and ignores that which is global. He is very much interested in the inner landscape of America rather than its position as the leader of the world. Thus, in his drama he preaches such ideology urging the US Administration to focus the attention on the American welfare. The research attempts an analysis on his play The States of Shock using the New Historicism approach through studying the writer’s point of view concerning the craft of war. Modern politics has been very influential on both the social as well as the literary scene. Wars, whether launched or were only loomed at, has been considered the most controversial subject about which plays, poems, and books were written. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, writers


1997 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Brustad ◽  
Michelle Ritter-Taylor

Psychological processes in sport are inextricably linked to the social contexts within which they occur. However, research and practice in applied sport psychology have shown only marginal concern for the social dimensions of participation. As a consequence of stronger ties to clinical and counseling psychology than to social psychology, the prevailing model of intervention in applied sport psychology has been individually centered. Focus at the individual level has been further bolstered by cognitive emphases in modem psychology. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the need for a balanced consideration of social and personal influences. Four social psychological dimensions of interest will be explored, including athletic subculture membership; athletic identity concerns; social networks of influence; and leadership processes. The relevance of these forms of influence will be examined in relation to applied concerns in the areas of athlete academic performance, overtraining and burnout, and disordered eating patterns. At minimum, consultants need to address contextual and relational correlates of psychological and performance issues.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Azadeh Alipoor Heris ◽  
Abolghasem Dadvar

Different factors were affecting the presence of women during the Pahlavi era. In new structures after the constitutional period and along with the absolute modernism of Pahlavi, discourses changes were made based on democracy, socialism, Shia resistance and autonomy, court to government and political figures to people. During this period the role of women was formed on the basis of their social position and in their gender approach it changed from a <class in itself> to a <class for self>. The consequences of social contexts led to witness more active presence of women during Pahlavi era compared with the past periods particularly in the visual arts arena; so that the history of the Tehran galleries from 1953-1978 which reflects their activities during that time confirms this fact. The purpose of the present essay is to analyze the social contexts which have attracted women from margin to the center and attending to them since no study has been done in this respect seems essential and it’s an attempt to answer the question that what social contexts have been influential in boosting up the presence of women especially women painters of Pahlavi era? In this research the data collect is library type and filed study and it has been compiled in a comparative descriptive-analytic method, the origin and social contexts of the women painters of the Pahlavi era whose works were displayed were studied and analyzed and it can be inferred that the presence of supportive men in families, education, social context, urban life, publicizing the culture thanks to the cultural foundations and media, the actual and legal presence of the queen, government support due to cultural policies, women social movements, and the transformation of the women role in twentieth century had decisive role on enhancing the social position of women particularly the role of the women painters of the second Pahlavi era.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 994-1013
Author(s):  
Gayane Rubenovna Vlasyan ◽  
Irina Vladimirovna Kozhukhova

Invitation is a speech act which is perceived differently across cultures. Understanding the pragmatics of invitation requires knowledge of the notion of politeness and politeness strategies which comprise culture specific elements. Politeness is realized in various discourses, social contexts and speech acts. The purpose of the study is to identify politeness strategies in Russian invitation in formal and informal contexts in three age groups and see how they correspond to the understanding of politeness in Russian communicative culture. The empirical data for the study were obtained through discourse completion tests with 101 participants (issuers of the invitation) of different age and social status as well as through ethnographic observation. The research is based on Discourse Analysis and Politeness Theory (Brown & Levinson 1987; Larina2009, 2015; Locher 2006, 2013; Leech 2014; Mills 2003, 2017; Sifianou 1992; Terkourafi &Kadar 2017; Watts 2003, among others). We used discourse analysis to analyze the impact of the social and cultural context on the performance of invitation, the descriptive method which was used to analyze the pragmatic functions of invitation, as well as contextual interpretation of this speech act and the method of quantitative data processing. The study revealed some differences between a formal and informal invitation concerning politeness strategies and linguistic means of its expression. It also showed that in Russian culture issuing an invitation is not perceived as a face threatening speech act; in the analysed social contexts the preference is given to direct invitation, and the inviter’s imposition, as a rule, is perceived positively. The results contribute to a better understanding of Russian politeness and communicative style and can be implemented in intercultural pragmatics, intercultural communication and SL teaching.


2003 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haim Weinberg

Culture and groups are intertwined. Culture is essential in crystallizing our social identity and provides the common understandings that allow the social world to have a meaning. Culture is constituted from many groups that have common values. The social unconscious of a certain culture is reflected in groups, especially in large groups. This paper explores different aspects of the social unconscious and describes how the individual and the group/society always coexist. The concept of the binocular vision is used to integrate between two approaches to the social unconscious. Groups from different cultures and their unique features are described and entering a group is analyzed as a kind of immigration to a new culture.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-329
Author(s):  
Simona Rodat

This paper addresses the stigmatization process, outlining the meaning of the social stigma and the different types of stigmata, focusing further on the ways in which stigmatized people cope with stigma and on the main intervention strategies that can be used for destigmatization. A social stigma is an undesirable characteristic or an unfavourable element, along with any generalization or attribution of further characteristics that can lower or humiliate the individual. Not the characteristic itself, but a negative meaning in the social and cultural context, make the person concerned a stigma bearer. Stigmatization describes how actual or potential negative characteristics are ascribed to a person, and thus this person is assigned to a certain socially disregarded group. At the same time, stigmatization involves associating the person concerned with the prejudices and stereotypes connected to the assigned devaluating characteristic and the experience of varied forms of discrimination. To avoid the consequences of their social stigma, the people concerned to develop in diverse social situations in different ways to cope with their stigmatization. Among these, correction, avoidance or defensive attitude, inner distance, compensation, alternative relationships, external assignment, and hostile bravado are highlighted and discussed in the paper. Destigmatization, as a reverse process to stigmatization, can be targeted through various intervention strategies. The paper addresses the most frequently used destigmatizing intervention strategies, namely protest, education, and contact, emphasizing their strengths, especially of the last two, and arguing that, depending on the type of stigma and the social context, a mixture of intervention strategies is more effective, and therefore desirable.


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