Культура и система мышления. Сравнение холистического и аналитического мышления

Психологический журнал. 2011. Т. 32. № 1. С. 55–86.

Нисбетт Р., Пенг К., Чой И., Норензаян А.

Translator: Жамкочьян М. С.

Editor of translation: Magun V.

Theoretical model disclosing the occurrence of different systems of thought due to different cultural practices and explaining essential distinctions between East Asians and Westerners is presented in the article. The authors find East Asians to be holistic. attending to the entire field and assigning causality to it. making relatively little use of categories and formal logic. and relying on "dialectical" reasoning. Westerners are more analytic. paying attention primarily to the object and the categories to which it belongs. They use rules. including formal logic. to understand object's behavior. Described types of cognitive processes are embedded in different naive metaphysical systems and tacit epistemologies which are typical for the representatives of the mentioned cultures. The hypotheses is put forward that the origin of these differences is traceable to markedly different social systems. Theoretical approach and evidence presented in the article call into question long-held assumptions about basic (and universal) cognitive processes and even about the appropriateness of the process-content distinction.

 

 

Keywords: cultural differences, культурные различия, мышление, картина мира, когнитивные процессы, picture of the world, analytical thinking, holistic thinking, socio-cognitive systems, mental process, аналитическое мышление, холистическое мышление, социально-когнитивные системы, психический процесс, социальные нормы и ценности, cognitive processes