Culture and Self Cultural Specifics

Culture and Self Cultural Specifics Psychological specifics of an individual depend on a variety of factors, starting with the peculiarities of the early parent-child relationships to the role that the specified individual is used to playing in the mini-society at home, at school or at work. However, by far the most influential element that shapes the process of psychological analysis and at the same time makes it more complicated is the cultural specifics.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Culture and Self: Cultural Specifics specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Ying Zhu and Shihui Han explore the ways in which the cultural differences in self shape the philosophical, psychological and scientific concept of self in their article â€Å"Cultural Differences in the Self: From Philosophy to Psychology and Neuroscience.† In their turn, Kwang-Kuo Hwang and Jeffrey Chang take the problem even further, exploring the problems related to self-cultivation in th e setting of a Confucian society in their research â€Å"Self-Cultivation Culturally Sensitive Psychotherapies in Confucian Societies.† Although both authors provide a fairly detailed account of the way in which cultural background and the development of self are intertwined, the latter research seems to focus on the application of the findings related to the sphere of culture and self, while the former research establishes the links between the two elements, making the case for creating a branch of psychology that studies the effects of culture on the changes in one’s identity. Like any other studies, the given researches both have their strong and weak aspects. To start with, it is necessary to admit that both studies offer a very detailed account of the background research that needed to be conducted to provide a theoretical basis for the papers. For example, it is rather impressive that the study by Zhu and Han offers not one, but several approaches towards philoso phical implications of self based on philosophical thinking, cognitive processing and neural basis of a human mind. In its turn, the study by Hwang and Chang consider self from three perspectives offered by Confucius, i.e., the relational self (the self and society), authentic self (the self considered as a separate phenomenon) and the nonself (i.e., the state of nirvana).Advertising Looking for essay on psychology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More By offering a full analysis that includes the consideration of every element in the existing nomenclature of the subject in question, the papers offer an objective evaluation of what self is and how self-cultivation can help one reach the state of enlightenment. It is necessary to mention, though, that each of the papers also has its weak points. In Hwang and Chang’s study, the weakest point comes when the authors come to describing the research methodology. Offering little to no information concerning the methods used in the study, they make their paper look weaker. Zhu and Han’s paper could also use some improvement, especially when it comes to discussing cultural differences – the researchers ought to have offered several examples from different cultures. Nevertheless, each of the researches comes as a strong, solid statement concerning the phenomenon of self. Therefore, it can be considered that both researches offer a very clear and thorough study of the way in which the concept of self is related to the cultural background. As it has been mentioned previously, the research conducted by Kwang-Kuo Hwang and Jeffrey Chang seems the continuation of Ying Zhu and Shihui Han’s study, since the latter prove that there is a link between the two, while the former introduce a new concept of self-cultivation and, which is even more important, analyze the effect of the given phenomenon on the Confucian society. Two interesting vie ws on the way in which cultural background shapes people’s self, these studies are of great significance to the development of psychology.